iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 23/09/2026

Tinkering with #Minecraft mod ideas… here's a proof-of-concept for "chalk", a colour-absorbent block, just for fun. This is at 10x speed. It might be too much calc and data for actual large-scale use though.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 02/07/2026

Apparently, the Twin Prime Conjecture is not only false but _trivially_ false. Google's AI once again so confidently incompetent, and utterly oblivious. I don't seem to get this kind of crap from other AIs nowadays. Claude seems to have some humility, but Gemini's hubris is off the charts.

Screenshot of Google's AI Overview. First it claims: "An integer n can only make both n-1 and n+1 prime in two specific cases: when n = 4 (giving primes 3 and 5) and when n = 6 (giving primes 5 and 7). For all integers where n > 6, it is impossible for both n-1 and n+1 to be prime." Below this, under the heading "The Twin Prime Rule," it defines twin primes as prime pairs differing by two, with n sitting between them — a definition that implies twin primes exist beyond n=6, contradicting the first claim.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 25/06/2026

Hmm. Never noticed this before. Custom colour palettes for Terminal․app profiles in macOS are spelled with "Colour" rather than "Color". Must be a subversive developer at Apple.

A dump of colour settings in macOS's Terminal.app configuration, showing a mix of settings called "____Color" and others called "____Colour"

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 25/06/2026

Still playing with this idea of teaching stuff to Minecraft villagers.

Minecraft screen with an enchanted book on the ground in front of a librarian villager. Console message says "The villager refuses to study copyrighted material!"

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 23/06/2026

Thought of a clever little Minecraft hack this morning to make it possible to disappear beacon beams using tinted glass (while still keeping the effects) solely on the server; no client-side mods needed. Honestly I was surprised it worked. github.com/tomgidden/mi...

A screenshot of Minecraft, showing a beacon made of iron blocks capped with tinted glass. No beam appears, but the beacon is still active and valid.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 27/05/2026

I just realised who Elijah Wood now looks like: Rachel Dratch in the unaired pilot of 30 Rock.

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Reposted by Tom Gidden

qntm @qntm.org · 02/02/2026

quantum quantum quantum

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 27/01/2026

I've fallen back into the dot-space-space habit again. So, fifteen years on, I've updated "Space Honker" to v0.2, a little macOS menu-bar app that honks when you type dot-space-space. github.com/tomgidden/sp...

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 25/12/2025

Made my first non-trivial Minecraft mod… a proof-of-concept alternative to "Villager Trade Rebalance", where rather than that biome-based mess, now Librarians (and other professions) don't produce enchantments by default, but when an enchanted item is picked up, they "learn" how to make it…

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 28/10/2025

"Physician, fuck thyself." -- Luke 4:23 (New Chronic Pain Edition)

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 10/10/2025

Quality creator merch makes me happy. Coffee makes me happier. #hermitcraft

Two beautiful new Hermitcraft mugs; one of which is being filled by a Krups Dolce Gusto coffee pod machine. Yeah, poorly-recycleable plastic pods, so sue me.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 10/10/2025

Prediction: "Why does Norway get to decide? From today the United States of America will be awarding the Trump Prize, which is beautiful -- so beautiful -- bigger and more prestigious than any leftist woke Scandanavian awards. The 2025 winner is me, President Donald J. Trump."

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 10/10/2025

Remember, the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize was won by Henry Fucking Kissinger. It means _NOTHING_. Only Trump is stupid enough not to comprehend that.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 27/09/2025

I'm firmly on the bandwagon of macOS Tahoe corner-haters, but it makes even less sense in Preview.app. I'm proofing the print-ready PDF for @dingbats.net and while the real cards will have trimmed corners, I don't want them arbitrarily trimmed by Apple. Make radius configurable! >:(

Redacted image of a Dingbats game card shown in macOS Tahoe's Preview.app, where the app has trimmed off the corners for questionable aesthetic reasons, while earlier versions of macOS Preview.app would show the whole page unaltered.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 26/09/2025

Watched the new Ep. 155 of @lateralcast.com and for the first time, I knew almost all the answers immediately! :D Skulls was a guess. I got the elephant one late, but only after wondering if it had something to do with a bungee jump and a big catcher's mitt. :/

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 15/09/2025

Quietly reading in bed in the dark, and a spider almost the size of my car dropped down onto my chest and crawled quickly up my chin to my bottom lip. After calmly collecting it in a glass and yeeting it out the window, I’m now obliged to surgically remove my own face and go cry in the shower.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 05/09/2025

@pedrostephano.bsky.social the big problem with Farage getting all this attention is the social feeds and news sites' unavoidable shots of his grotesque visage. Farage has a face I'd never get sick of punching.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 04/09/2025

"A trail of diesel running down Allington Street has caused police to ban smoking in the area over fears of a fire." -- www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Hmm… I think they need to learn the difference between diesel and petrol.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 01/09/2025

Snooping @raspberrypi.com FCC IDs for fun, and I notice this mystery product: fcc.report/FCC-ID/2ABCB... My chlorine tablet floater isn't Pi-powered, unfortunately. I want an upgrade. Possibly a @jeffgeerling.com -esque cluster of chlorine tablet floaters.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 23/08/2025

ARGH. Two tonnes of soil not delivered as needed because Ring doorbell/chime just decided to Not Work Today. Ring's never worked _well_, usually lagging so far behind the visitor's already left by the time it rings. This is the last straw. Buying a Reolink PoE doorbell with local storage instead.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 18/07/2025

@thepihut.bsky.social 3 minutes between order and dispatch on a summer Friday afternoon. You're making everyone else look bad.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 10/06/2025

@alexhorne.bsky.social Nerdy little question here, but any reason the copyright on the current series is MMXXIV rather than MMXXV ? As far as I can tell, usually programmes seem to use the year of first broadcast for copyright, even if filming dates are earlier.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 01/06/2025

Inspired by @retrobytes.bsky.social's video on Palm Pilots to dig out my old Palm games and bludgeon them into an emulator: gidden.net/ggpalm

Screenshot of "Gid's Games" app for PalmOS, circa 2001, showing three games, Flipper, Sol and Logic Board.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 17/05/2025

Home after an RF lesioning (denervation) procedure yesterday. Who'd've guessed that having probes stabbed into one's lumbar region eight times, zapped and burned to kill off medial branch nerves would be this uncomfortable? Fucking Oww. (And IMHO, as an experienced patient, fentanyl is overrated.)

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 07/05/2025

So, when do they slam the doors in the face of a guy with a big stick? Or maybe I'm confusing that with Parliament. #PopeIdol

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 02/05/2025

Well, thanks BBC. There goes breakfast. *boik*

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 28/04/2025

@pimoroni BTW, if you were to add the ability to amend an order once placed (before it's fulfilled, obv.) I think it might be well worth it. The number of times I forget to add something to my order... *sigh*

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 27/04/2025

Just spent 3 hours debugging and wrecking my Pi NTP server setup, failing to get serial to the GPS board to work, before realising I'd plugged the GPIO header backwards. Somehow didn't fry it OR the Pi, even accidentally supplied it with +5V and GND. Now to undo all the desperate tweaks I made :(

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 21/04/2025

It's good to see BBC News has as ready supply of "experts" to stream-of-consciousness self-congratulatory bollocks for Popes as they do for the Royal Family.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 11/04/2025

So, Grant Shapps gets a knighthood. Also apparently Shapps's close friends Michael Green, Corinne Stockheath and Sebastian Fox will be getting an OBE, a damehood and a bishopric respectively.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 08/04/2025

Just got an email from a tech thing inviting me to join the waitlist for a "vaporwave-inspired dreamscape, where the lighting’s brighter, the drinks are stronger, and the music’s louder." Oh, okay, a waitlist to visit Hell, then. I'll pass.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 03/04/2025

Had the overpriced McDonalds Minecraft movie meal. We bought two of them but we only got one toy, and it was crap. Looks like the toys in the US version are MUCH better. Apple Cake McFlurry is nice though. STILL not going to see the movie even if I was paid to though, on account of Jack Black.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 01/04/2025

Another banger from the incredible Evil Anvil. I thought of the joke years ago and hummed bits of it at times, but there's that and there's absolutely knocking it out of the park like this. #hermitcraft @thatmumbojumbo.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSQf...

youtube.com

Mumbo (Jumbo) No. 5

YouTube video by Evil Anvil

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 01/04/2025

Ah, the one modern-day tradition of April Fools Day that's actually worth it.

youtube.com

[1625] Beating My One-Eyed Monster!

YouTube video by LockPickingLawyer

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 27/03/2025

Well, SHIT. Tell people how much they matter to you before they're gone forever, so suddenly. Goodbye, Ben. :(

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 25/03/2025

Marmite and marmalade on buttered toast. Don't knock it until you've tried it. The marmalade takes the edge off the Marmite, allowing for more Marmite, and the marmalade's sweetness is brought in a notch, and making a richer, darker orange taste.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 25/03/2025

Betteridge's law: “Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word ‘No.’”

Euronews headline: "Could a metro system link the whole of Europe by 2040?"

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Reposted by Tom Gidden

renerpho.bsky.social @renerpho.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

YouTuber asteroids All the asteroids that have been named after YouTubers, as of 17 March 2025 (including newly named Diannacowern, Tibees, and Timdodd). Image credit: Thumbnail: K. Ly Orbit animation created with CSSView (CSS, D. Rankin @asteroiddave.bsky.social ) www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIxE...

youtube.com

YouTuber asteroids

YouTube video by Daniel Bamberger

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Reposted by Tom Gidden

Medlife Crisis (Rohin) @medcrisis.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

For clarity, immigrants not only account for an enormous proportion of NHS staff, especially clinical, but immigrants (who are generally of working age) as a whole are net contributors by a long stretch. They pay a lot more tax in, than they extract out via usage of the NHS

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Reposted by Tom Gidden

Dave Wiskus @dwisk.us · 12/03/2025

Imagine making a sitting US president do an ad read

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 01/03/2025

Ah, up nice and early on a Saturday morning. Fancy some waffles, so get out the waffle-maker and wash of 4 years of dust/grease. Waffles made. Migraine aura. Within a minute I can't see a bloody thing. Well, GFY, Saturday. Stupid bloody mornings. Don't like 'em. Don't trust 'em.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 28/02/2025

I wouldn't consider myself a particularly negative person, but I hate every single solitary thing about this.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 25/02/2025

A mild form of cancellation, or now-teenaged kid is just running out of room. I don’t want to charity shop the #Hermitcraft Hermits; they wouldn’t be properly appreciated. So, into storage with the Christmas decorations. Bag 1/5. *sigh*

Vacuum packing bag containing Hermitcraft plushies.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 15/02/2025

Lay in and woke up wanting to play "Bird", a hypothetical game where you're a bird and you have to do bird things in an open world. The better you bird, the better bird you can be. The tech tree would be an actual tree. Aggressive? Gull. Serene? Albatross or Eagle. Puzzle solver? Crow.

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Tom Gidden @gid.cx · 14/02/2025

I don't go out much but just had the pleasure of Pay & Display parking. RingGo pay-by-phone: £1.20. Had an issue with Apple Pay, so went to the machine: £0.80. No Blue Badge discount on either. Turns out yes, it's "Convenience fees", allowing for RingGo to "innovate new features". Fuck that.

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Reposted by Tom Gidden