iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Catalin Cimpanu @campuscodi.risky.biz · 30/09/2026

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

In an interview, Firefox's head says it like it is—Google deprecated its old extension system just to sabotage ad blockers arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026...

Text that reads: "So some examples—Chrome went through with their deprecation of Manifest V2. Manifest V2 is basically a much more powerful extension system. And people were like, well, why did this decrease? Why didn’t they just fix the security vulnerabilities in Manifest V2? And it’s very clearly because of ad blockers. That was the reason to deprecate it. Whereas, Mozilla, we’re not maximizing for profits, we’re maximizing for user experience and browser experience, and we want people to have powerful extensions. So we noticed when that shutoff moment happened, there was a moment where people said, do you want the power of an engine to be able to dictate how I control my experience? Because once Chromium shut it off, Edge shut it off, all the Chromium browsers then shut off Manifest V2 support. We still support it, and so we saw a big surge of actual users who started using us."

06321

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

spider ::::) @publicsexforest.golf · 26/09/2026

if you do not schedule maintenance the equipment will schedule it for you

121349

Dr. David McBride (dwm) @dwm.me.uk · 26/09/2026

(Yes, this does make me literally "Doctor Doom".)

040

Dr. David McBride (dwm) @dwm.me.uk · 26/09/2026

Given the existence of Büms, and the fact that my nickname / radio callsign is "Doom" (based on my initials 'dwm'), how could I not?

151

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

In Otter News @in-otter-news.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

After a long day at the aquarium, the otters help tidy their toys away. Payment is made promptly and entirely in ice cubes.

331189163971

Dr. David McBride (dwm) @dwm.me.uk · 25/09/2026

I have never managed to make an Eastercon. I think next year I should try harder…

120

Dr. David McBride (dwm) @dwm.me.uk · 25/09/2026

And I think @franceshardinge.bsky.social is the only (now *very* well-known) author who knew who I was from a certain PD-shaped field before I'd even come across her works… (Our respective hats are now good friends.)

Dr. David McBride (dwm) @dwm.me.uk · 25/09/2026

Imperial's Picocon has always had a steady stream of really lovely scifi/fantasy authors to come and hang out for a day. (I think that's how I first came across @emmanewman.bsky.social, which was super. @cstross.bsky.social was wonderfully kind gentle company, @doctorow.pluralistic.net was great…)

230

Dr. David McBride (dwm) @dwm.me.uk · 24/09/2026

I really enjoyed listening to this.

Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

A wave of cyberattacks on British academic blogs has raised concerns over efforts by authoritarian regimes to shut down research into human rights abuses www.timeshighereducation.com/news/f…

061

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

one of my proudest moments was being told by a former Gove staffer that he once angrily proclaimed: "I am NOT an eldritch horror!" in a team meeting, because of me.

2462297

Dr. David McBride (dwm) @dwm.me.uk · 19/09/2026

But only consensually, obviously.

Dr. David McBride (dwm) @dwm.me.uk · 19/09/2026

Oh goodness, I really am Sophie. I need to hug a cat.

272

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

Jason Kint @kint.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Eye popping. Court just unsealed Summary Judgment motions in New York Times v OpenAI / Microsoft. Easy to see why the AI companies had so many redactions (pink). Their own people wrote the lede for NYT, the "largest theft of labor in human history"... "more and more substitutive..." /1

4253582336

Dr. David McBride (dwm) @dwm.me.uk · 17/09/2026

Ah, good, more AI nonsense.

000

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

Tim Harford @timharford.ft.com · 13/09/2026

I've been checking the source of quotes for my forthcoming book, and the performance of Gemini is extraordinary. I paste the quote into Google, and Gemini will barge in with the wrong answer over and over again. It's not an occasional thing - it's reliably wrong. Very odd.

41498161

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

Matt Bors @mattbors.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

It was exactly ten years ago today, on my 33rd birthday, that I posted this comic online.

485297707667

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

Nanoraptor @nanoraptor.danamania.com · 12/09/2026

A sticker to place anywhere. Like hand dryers, toilet bowls, soap dispensers, alarm keypads, coffee machines, thermostats, pedestrian crossing buttons, BBQs, park benches, parking meters... As well as staplers, pens, potatoes, bricks, brooms, lunch, potplants and speed humps.

A piece of colourful corporate nonsense looking sticker stating NOW AI POWERED! Talk to me. Ask me to do things! with a happy little speech bubble computer-looking character, with shiny little AI stars and a space looking background in the middle. To be placed on things that look like maybe they could be AI powered, BUT ARE NOT.

1922968

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

Charles Fourier @charlesfourier.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Bill Bryson’s words seem appropriate to post right now

5145121509

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch.ft.com · 08/09/2026

Two extraordinary charts from today’s PISA test results: 1) School test scores continue to collapse internationally, underscoring how this is no longer a Covid effect but sustained decline. Those falls in reading and maths are equivalent to about two years of lost schooling.

41856344

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

90 years ago, Parliament responded to the rise of Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts by passing the Public Order Act, which banned political uniforms, private militias and the threat of force for political objects. The debates make very resonant reading today. Here's the Liberal Robert Bernays. (Short 🧵)

You cannot conduct a fair match when one side is playing with a ball and the other with bombs and, if democracy is to survive, it must be conducted according to definite and recognised rule. One of them is that no political party should resort to any weapon other than reason and argument. The introduction of private armies, as I see it, strikes at the root of democracy. I know it is contended that the Blackshirts are not armed and, therefore, are not an army, but I do not think that argument can be upheld. … Uniformed men in military formation suggest, and are meant to suggest, the idea of force. It is no argument to reply that at this or that demonstration no force is intended. It is an inescapable fact that a uniform in politics symbolises force, to be used either now or in the future.

4123731266

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

Uncle Duke @uncleduke1969.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

The cats graciously put on a magic show for us last night. I figured out how they did most of the tricks, but I didn’t say anything, because that would have been rude.

Two cats on a platformed tower. One is on the lower level, head hidden behind the middle section. The second is on the top tier with only their head showing.

4048811044

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

Dr Anke Marsh @ankemarsh.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Just so we are clear: The 83yo priest on the left is a terrorist. The balaclava-clad men on the right are protestors with legitimate concerns

A photo from the BBC of an older woman, with grey hair, being led away by police.

A photograph of a line of men in black clothes and balaclavas blocking the port at Dover.

522037941

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Me, just before I’m not about to get away with it:

428535

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

Brian Wernham C.Eng. @brianwernham.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I can't think of anything which is going to incentivise the Electoral Commission staff more 👇 "The Electoral Commission are useless, dumb and ineffective" - James Orr, senior aide to Farage

2137

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch.ft.com · 03/09/2026

I hereby declare the "learn to code" era officially dead: Big declines in the number of people studying computer science in the last year or two 📉 Chart from this week’s edition of our newsletter on AI and the labour market www.ft.com/content/9183...

68946236

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

Andrew Walsh @playbrarian.uk · 01/09/2026

On the off chance any neurodivergent students follow me (or their lecturers do which is more likely?), this seems like a brilliant thing to get involved with! A Little Book of Neurodiverse Hope - app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/mmu/little...

app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk

Little Book of Neurodiverse Hope - Online Surveys | Online surveys

Online surveys is a powerful, easy to use tool for creating online surveys. Run by Jisc, Online surveys is used by over 300 different organisations in the UK...

074

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Can't get a moment's peace on this bloody planet.

1426891889

Dr. David McBride (dwm) @dwm.me.uk · 31/08/2026

Oh, as in, "you have company staying over, they can use one of the appropriately designated towels" — and not "This is a towel from my workplace." Eh, I just have a rotation of towels, and visitors get a fresh one.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

One key to British politics is that one quarter of the public are distinctly more likely than others to think most people agree with them (while often/mostly being a vocal minority)

1111533

Dr. David McBride (dwm) @dwm.me.uk · 26/08/2026

"But Tom, setting up all the DKIM stuff is hard, and the SPF record is full, so we can't add the new shiny cloud app to it."

Dr. David McBride (dwm) @dwm.me.uk · 26/08/2026

Oh, good! I've long thought that I — and people richer than me — should be taxed harder. No, this is not sarcasm. There are things we all need that need paying for. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Andy Burnham refuses to rule out tax rises in autumn Budget

Experts have warned that he and Chancellor John Healey will have little room to manoeuvre in their first Budget.

Sophie E. Hill @sophieehill.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

The most predictable consequence of the Online Safety Act is UK government ministers promoting technology that claims to keep your kids safe online, but actually broadcasts their live GPS location to any moderately competent hacker. Great job everyone!

1179

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 23/08/2026

here is the thing. if you tell me that you believe that race is a biological category and that it is a guide to the objective superiority and inferiority of groups of people, i am not calling you a racist to *insult* you, i am calling you a racist because it best describes your beliefs.

171146173124

Dr. David McBride (dwm) @dwm.me.uk · 20/08/2026

Fortunately, we have a foolproof way of being sure that it's really you I'm talking to: our hats converse, and confirm the other's identity on our behalf.

Dr. David McBride (dwm) @dwm.me.uk · 19/08/2026

This is a case of the University not renewing their contract. If it was over the concern cited, they'd drop it immediately. From this I infer that there is something about the successor contract terms which are unacceptable.

000

Reposted by Dr. David McBride (dwm)

David Lewis @davidclewis.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

18 August 2026 at 16:44
Threads is used by people who think they run the country; Bluesky is used by people who think they ought to run the country; X is used by the people who actually do run the country; Instagram is used by the wives of the people who run the country; Linkedln is used by people who own the country; TikTok is used by people who think the country ought to be run by another country; and Facebook is used by people who think it is.

925696

Dr. David McBride (dwm) @dwm.me.uk · 18/08/2026

Oh, I definitely watched it in secondary school, around that time, too. I remember it didn't fit into the regular class schedule and ran over onto the next lesson or lunch or similar. I would have been about 15. I don't remember hearing that it was edited for schools.

Dr. David McBride (dwm) @dwm.me.uk · 16/08/2026

But the article starts with a lament that people with anxiety are "beyond work", while work can help people with anxiety! Does he think people choose to be sick? People don't generally get signed off work if they are coping. And that money goes towards making sure they and their kids can eat.

Dr. David McBride (dwm) @dwm.me.uk · 16/08/2026

Cuts: £50bn Affects: 6m people. So, Reform's plan to improve the economy is to deprive everyone in the UK who is receiving support for a disability an average of £16666 per person? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... (Not that you can see the actual details of the plan, because it's behind a paywall.)

bbc.co.uk

Reform UK plans to overhaul welfare system to save £50bn and replace Pip

The party's proposed changes were they to come to power include a replacement for the disability payments system Pip.

Dr. David McBride (dwm) @dwm.me.uk · 13/08/2026

On the contrary, I would say that you were very good at your IT job!

Dr. David McBride (dwm) @dwm.me.uk · 13/08/2026

Good luck to all the supporting IT and other supporting folk today…

040

Dr. David McBride (dwm) @dwm.me.uk · 09/08/2026

Ah, I'm not! However, don't be surprised if you recognise the voice of some of the pre-prepared announcements…