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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱

@instantiator.bsky.social
812 followers 1.2K following 369 posts

Senior tech lead and developer, fellow at Newspeak House, keen escape room and puzzle gamer. (he/him) instantiator.dev #CivicTech #Volunteerism #OSS #RetroComputing #Tzedakah #Vegan #BLM #CollectiveIntelligence #CI #ProDemocracyTech #PDT 🌱

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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I am once again reminded of the joy in Case 163: Vacation, from the Codeless Code: Fables and Kōans for the Software Engineer... thecodelesscode.com/case/163 💖
thecodelesscode.com
The Codeless Code: Case 163 Vacation
An illustrated collection of (sometimes violent) fables, concerning the Art and Philosophy of software development
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Absolute childhood nightmare fuel.
It's the witch from Granny's Garden in her full Teletext pixelated glory. She's got a cyan face with a hook nose and a hook chin coming up to meet it and her teeth showing. Her hair is green and she's wearing a magenta hat. Although she's in profile, the one yellow eye you can see is looking right at you. Below is the caption "ha! Now I've got you!"
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
You made your own horse's mouth and now you can lie in it.
A screenshot from a Google Search (in AI mode) answering the question "are youtube adverts getting worse?"

The summary answer: "Yes. YouTube advertisements are noticeably worsening in frequency, length, and intrusiveness."
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Reposted by Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱
OpenAlternative @openalternative.co · 03/09/2026
90,000 stars for LocalSend. The pitch never changed: drop a file, pick a nearby device, it's there. No sign-up, no cloud, no cables. Turns out that's exactly what people wanted. openalternative.co/localsend
openalternative.co
LocalSend: Open Source Apple AirDrop Alternative
Free, open-source file sharing tool for nearby devices. Cross-platform support with end-to-end encryption, no registration required, automatic device discovery.
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Can't believe it's been 2 years. Always in our hearts, baby bell 🫶
Photo of a historical database screen showing Gabriel Bell (Benjamin Sisko). Born April 1987 and died September 2024.
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Anti-competitive nonsense. (I'm aware that's the German version on libro.fm. I know Audible get a lot of exclusive deals. It's just sad.)
Screenshot from Amazon's Audible app showing The Will of the Many audiobook, priced at £7.49.Screenshot from the Libro FM app showing The Will of the Many audiobook, priced at £32.33. Libro FM support local bookshops. It is sad that they are unable to sell this book at a reasonable price.
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Reposted by Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱
Asa Dotzler @asadotzler.com · 15/08/2026
If you want your files to live on your machine that you own and not in Microsoft's cloud that you don't: - OneDrive folder: select all -> right-click -> Always keep on this device. Wait for the sync. - OneDrive Settings -> Account -> Unlink this PC. - Settings -> Apps -> OneDrive- > Uninstall.
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Apex. Predator.
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Momo, a little black cat, is peering between tree trunks and under some foliage at something out of shot. What if it's the little robot from Matt Dixon's drawing?
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
He thinks he's supposed to act cool.
Momo, a beautiful little black cat, sits on a patio. He is looking towards a wall where sunlight that would ordinarily be dappled, because of gaps in the trees behind us, is now showing the eclipse effect - slim crescents of sunlight.Momo is looking away from the wall now. It looks like he's trying to act unimpressed like an anxious teenager in the 90s who doesn't want to be called a geek.
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
There are too many abandoned creatures in the world. We brought them to life and we let them down. If you'd like a companion animal, adopt.
This is Momo. Adopted as a pair with his sister, Suki. A year later, they are still friends. She was fearless from the start, and Momo has come out of his shell now that he knows he's safe.
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 11/08/2026
Happy book birthday to the trade paperback edition of The Shattering Peace, now available wherever you buy your books (in North America; the trade paperback UK edition comes out Thursday). If you've not caught up on the latest installment of the Old Man's War series, here it is -- enjoy!
The Trade Paperback cover is geometrical forms in front of an orange to pink gradient. It looks smashing.
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
My wife, who is a leading criminologist, went to another town for a conference in June. I came along for the ride, and took myself to an exhibition about The Moon and touched a Moon Rock. I am 44 years old. It was a brilliant day out. My one regret is that we couldn't both go.
Photo from an exhibition about the moon at The Hold, in Ipswich. A case shows two pieces of moon rock - one light coloured and one darker coloured.

Two further displays are below that, with a label saying "touch real moon rock". Each has a small dome with a piece of "touchable moon rock" in it. An instruction says "Feel the shape of the moon rock from underneath."

Light coloured rock label: "This rock is from one of the pale areas of the Moon. Its white colour comes from its minerals which are rich in calcium, like bones and teeth."

Dark coloured rock label: "This rock is from a dark area of the Moon. It's solidifed lunar lava, called basalt. It erupted from a volcano on the Moon billions of years ago as lava, flower downhill into a large crater or depression, and then solidified into rock."

Further moon facts!

"When the Moon formed, its molten surface cooled to form this white rock  called anorthosite. Its pale colour is due to minerals rich in calcium and magnesium. This white rock makes up much of the topograph (high areas) on the moon such as the mountains."

"The young moon was volcanically active and billions of years ago, laval erupted from large volcanic fissures. This molten lunar lava flower downhill and collected in large craters and depressions. It cooled to form the large, flat volcanic areas made of dark basalt rock. These are the dark areas you see when you look up at the moon."
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Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
In Clacton right now. (Real, not AI!) #VoteBinface
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
🤯 Bicycle tyres and car tyres have the same air valve, but bicycle tyres* need much higher air pressure. *Except for mountain biking, it seems. YMMV.
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
TIL that Claude Opus is not insane (in this particular case) and that a "happy-eyeballs dialler" is a real pattern. (Request an IPv4 and IPv6 connection at the same time, prefer the IPv6 response if available.) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_E...
en.wikipedia.org
Happy Eyeballs - Wikipedia
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robert j bennett, ceo, results omega @robertjbennett.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
hey! that’s today!!
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
The ancient magic is still alive. I found an affordable pair of sunglasses that I like. Now the heat wave is broken, clouds have filled the sky, and we may never see the sun again. Sadly, as we have also recently installed water butts, it will be forever cloudy but never actually rain.
A snowy forest background with text overlaid: 
"Always winter and never Christmas; think of that!"
"How awful!" said Lucy.
- C. S. Lewis
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
The next grown-up, serious read... Not quite as many airlocks, beam weapons and alien races as my usual fare - but lots of character development!
A screenshot of the libro.fm audio book reader app, showing that it is playing the Lean Tech Manifesto.
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
He's an apex predator.
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Workarounds for a bug that prevents you from changing the configuration of your Sky Hub. It'd be nice to move away from Sky sometime or, at least, replace the router with something a bit more open... instantiator.dev/post/sky-hub...
instantiator.dev
Sky hub blues
There’s a bug in the Sky Hub that stops you from changing a whole bunch of settings. It’s a genuine mistake that Sky won’t fix. Here are some workarounds to help you control your home network…
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
I've been enjoying the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I recently read a review by someone I respectfully disagree with, so here's a more positive perspective... I appreciate it may not be for everyone, but I've found it a surprisingly good read. instantiator.dev/post/dcc/ #DCC #DungeonCrawlerCarl
An XKCD comic with dialog: "Are you coming to bed?" / "I can't. This is important." / "What?" / "Someone is wrong on the internet."An image of Dungeon Crawler Carl. First book of a series by Matt Dinniman. It's brightly coloured, and the cover is largely text, but there's an image of Carl running through what looks like a spikey cave, clutching a stick of dynamite, with his cat Donut in tow.
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Can't quite believe this 20 year old piece of kit from the bottom of my cables box saved the day! USB-C to USB-A to Belkin gigabit USB 2.0 ethernet adapter (released in 2006), to ethernet to shonky Sky Hub. Magic! ✨
Photo shows a Belkin F5D5055 gigabit USB 2.0 ethernet adapter connected to a USB-C / USB-A adapter and an ethernet cable. It was released in 2006.
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Carolyn Petit @carolynmichelle.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
From pages 38-45 of this remarkable book is a section on journalism that is so urgent, so compelling, so precise in identifying some of the major flaws and failures of mainstream journalism as an industry at this moment in time, that I wish I could make all American journalists read it.
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad, as held by me on an NYC subway car.
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
TIL that Terry Bisson, author of Thinking Meat, passed away in 2024. I read it in the 90s. I loved it then and I love it now. Rest in peace. #ThinkingMeat
web.mit.edu
They're Made out of Meat
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Work hard enough to defeat the Level 1 bot, and get through to a human, slightly less helpful than a Google search. Their special moves: 💥 conflicting advice! 💥 ask you to disconnect and tell them when you have done it! 💥 unnecessary upsell! 💥 escalate to a team who will tell you nothing is wrong!
The "sky" logo. It's the word "sky" coloured with a combination of sunset colours - oranges, reds, purples, and a deep sky blue.
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Neal Curtis @nihilcurtis.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Just a reminder for those not familiar with UK media, please don't circulate posts or articles by the Daily Mail, the paper has been aligned with the far-right since the 1930s and continues to promote the forces of modern fascism.
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Humble @humblebundle.com · 04/07/2026
Immerse yourself in the rich sci-worlds of multiple Hugo Award–winning author John Scalzi with books short stories like: - Old Man’s War - Starter Villain - Redshirts - and more! Supports @wck.org | bit.ly/448EYpA
The John Scalzi Collection: Old Man's War & More | Humble Book Bundle
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Reposted by Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱
Bylines Network @bylinesnetwork.co.uk · 29/06/2026
Why are attacks on Muslims not labelled as terrorism? An attack on worshippers outside an Edinburgh mosque prompts a wider question about how Britain defines terrorism westenglandbylines.co.uk/politics/hum...
westenglandbylines.co.uk
Why are attacks on Muslims not labelled as terrorism?
An attack on worshippers outside an Edinburgh mosque prompts a wider question about how Britain defines terrorism
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
🦇
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
HTTP response code 418 "I'm a teapot" is proposed in RFC 2324 as a suitable response for teapots that have been asked to brew coffee. www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2324/ What's missing is response code 218 "tea's up!" for teapots being polled for tea that have steeped for long enough.
rfc-editor.org
RFC 2324: Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol (HTCPCP/1.0) | RFC Editor
This document describes HTCPCP, a protocol for controlling, monitoring, and diagnosing coffee pots. This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standar...
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
They're doing their best. It's hot!
Two cats lie on a gravel path in the heat reaching out to each other, paw to paw. They look like they're posing for The Creation of Adam. It's a collage and below is the famous painting. God reaches out to touch Adam with his forefinger.
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
That video was created with number-jam - a new tool to help obscure number plates in videos. instantiator.dev/post/number-...
instantiator.dev
Experimental development with number-jam: a number plate obscurer
number-jam detects, tracks, and obscures vehicle number plates in video clips - and was an experiment in AI-assisted development.
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
London is getting hotter and its definitely a trend. #ShowYourStripes 2026 is 20th June. showyourstripes.info
Vertical stripes running from left to right show London temperatures over the years. Decades ago they were pretty blue, now they're hot red and it's definitely a trend.
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Momo, who has never done anything wrong in his entire life, would like to share this PSA that he created for you. Check your wheel hubs for perfect little angels every time, folks. (Cannot believe I caught this on camera. He's ridiculous!)
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
TIL there's a free LLM distributed with MacOS Tahoe (provided you enable Apple Intelligence). #wat #ridiculous #ymmv Installing apfel enables a server and command line interface for it ➡️ apfel.franzai.com ✅ OpenAI compatible server ✅ CLI and chat interfaces ✅ MCP support ✅ On-device and free
apfel.franzai.com
apfel - Your Mac Already Has AI
Your Mac already has AI. Apple ships a language model with macOS -apfel unlocks it with one brew install. No downloads, no API keys, no config. The fastest path to local AI.
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
This cat is assembled incorrectly.
Momo, a cute little black cat, has curled up except for one paw which is pointed backwards. He seems perfectly happy about this.
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Reposted by Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱
Anti-Reform @antireform.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
"Farage paid £83k from events linked to US anti-abortion supporters" 'Reform says it has no plans to change abortion laws' (but all its other policies - like tax cuts for the rich, and anti-women's rights - have been bought by billionaires) inews.co.uk/news/farage-...
inews.co.uk
Farage paid £83k from events linked to US anti-abortion supporters
Reform says it has no plans to change abortion laws but payments raise concerns about American anti-abortion groups’ access to a party with rising influence over British politics
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Inbox zero! Let's see how I do this time...
A view of the Thunderbird email client with no messages in the inbox. It's got a lovely rainbow theme. Folders include: Jobs, Newsletters, Offers, Orders, Receipts, Research, Updates
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
We all saw reams of text scrolling by on sci-fi computer screens from the 80s... Little did we know how weirdly accurate that was - or just how much of it was self-critical. Mind you, I'm pretty sure I do this all day every day for work...
Text from an AI model's reasoning process is used as the base image for a meme.

The text shows that it is largely trying to grasp the intent from a user's prompt (my prompt). The user asked it to review 2 comparison documents, but it found 2 filenames and only one of them says comparison in it. It seems to be having a little panic because it can't find an obvious second comparison document. It's debating the issue with itself.

Text on top of the image says "You took a perfectly good statistical model, and gave it anxiety. That's what you did."
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
Project weekend! Home Assistant, hass-eink-dashboard, and a screen from Invisible Computers.
A black and white e-ink display shows weather, inside and outside temperature, upcoming calendar events, the bins schedule and the current electricity rate.
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
How do they rise up?
A sprig of lilac flowers with text printed in front of it: "Truth, justice, freedom, reasonably priced love, and a hard boiled egg"
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
#Interesting2026
A screen shows the word "Hello" at the front of a busy hall full of people sat, waiting for Interesting 2026 to start.
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
The Samsung Frame TV is sold as a display optimised for art (when it's not being a television with a very awkward user interface). Imagine buying one and discovering they want to sell you a subscription for freely available art! 😡 Get it for free 👉 github.com/instantiator...
github.com
GitHub - instantiator/frame-55-art: Art retrieval and resize for digital displays
Art retrieval and resize for digital displays. Contribute to instantiator/frame-55-art development by creating an account on GitHub.
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Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 30/04/2026
We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve been recognized by TIME as one of 10 most influential social good companies of 2026! Check out the full list here: time.com/article/2026...
time.com
The 10 Most Influential Social Good Companies of 2026
Presenting the inaugural TIME100 Companies: Industry Leaders list of the world's most influential social good businesses of the year
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
good chair = good posture #MomosTopTips
Momo, a little black cat who is a perfect little angel, sits on a towel on an office chair. He looks like a little person. It's adorable and you love him.
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
I strongly suspect that 99% of vibe-coded projects coming out right now won't be maintained. They scratch an itch and stagnate. Software engineering is the discipline of safely designing, building and maintaining projects that people depend on. Explain why people should trust your product.
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Ed Balls.
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Referrals for products I think are alright. £20 off some Huel, €50 off a Fairphone... Help me help you! instantiator.dev/discount-cod...
instantiator.dev
Discounts
Referral codes from products I don't dislike
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Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Managing rich video experiences on the web is hard. Here are some advanced techniques, and solutions to problems we developed at the Centre for Collective Intelligence... instantiator.dev/post/video-p... #CCI #HTML5 #video #CollectiveIntelligence #CI #Zeitgeist #Zg #tutorial #coding
instantiator.dev
Manage rich video experiences in your webapp like a pro
Browsers rule with an iron fist when it comes to the things your web app is allowed to do, and video playback is a complex topic. This post breaks down some advanced solutions for developers implement...
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