Sign in

iiinova is part of the Atmosphere — an open, public network where you own your identity.

Jack Scott

@jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy
3 followers 0 following 52 posts

Hi everyone! I'm a software engineer running my own IT consulting firm, trying to make technology a little bit better for everyone. When I'm not doing that, I dabble […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ aus.social/@jackscottau, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

PostsRepliesMedia
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026
The main problem with working for yourself from home is that there is nobody around to stop you from nerd-sniping yourself into planning (dreaming) stupid things, like building a power station.
000 0
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2026
Tech has gone from "I run Windows instead of Linux because I value my time" to "I run Linux instead of Windows because I value my time" in an awfully short period.
0420 20
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2026
LaTeX would be at least 5x more popular if the default font wasn't Computer Modern.
000 0
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/08/2026
@chrisjrn I know this one! It's inside a wall.
110 1
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/08/2026
Shopkeeper: Has anybody ever told you that you look a little bit like Andy Burnham? Me: ... Shopkeeper: Don't worry, it's a good thing. I could have said you look like Margaret Thatcher. Me: Yeah, fair.
000 0
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/07/2026
Spent three weeks waiting for it and it still scared the shit out of me.
000 0
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/07/2026
@chrisjrn and not like this
List of businesses with "42" in the name, because that was one of the numbers in my search
000 0
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/07/2026
@chrisjrn Something like this
Dropped pin on Google maps
100 1
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/07/2026
Is it just me, or did we used to be able to input latitude and longitude into the search bar on Google Maps and get a result, and now it doesn't?
100 1
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/07/2026
Turns out there is a wrong way to coil a USB cable.
A vacuum cleaner head with a USB charging cable wrapped around the rotating brush.
023 3
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/07/2026
I'm a moderator on that forum, and I'm supposed to authorise their first post. But I just can't bring myself to do it. I can't click the button. It just makes me so physically angry.
000 0
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/07/2026
Random programmer in their first post on forum.osdev.org: "I hand wrote an operating system kernel, GUI, browser rendering engine, several video card drivers, and it runs Windows 64bit executables as well. Oh, and it's published in a single commit in a monolithic GitHub repo that was pushed […]
aus.social
Original post on aus.social
100 1
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/07/2026
Bought a new floor mop online. It comes with a free sample of "universal eco cleaner". The touted benefits: - No bleach. - No chemical nasties. - Eco certified. (???) I look for the ingredients. Right on the bottom, in tiny letters, next to the "please email us for a MSDS.' It's 0.2% […]
aus.social
Original post on aus.social
001 1
Reposted by Jack Scott
nytpu the wyvern @fedi.nytpu.com · 10/06/2026
All Modern Digital Infrastructure #AI #LLM #LLMs #FOSS
The XKCD "All Modern Digital Infrastructure" meme, of a bunch of rectangular blocks precariously balanced, representing modern software stacks. The title has been edited to add the parenthetical "(Post-AI)", and many of the blocks have been replaced with the meme of someone riding a bicycle sticking a pole into the spokes of their own front wheel, about to make themselves fall down.
0735 35
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/05/2026
Of the many, many things I love about tennis, by far my favourite is its wild approach to measurement units for racquets: 98in²: absolutely fine measurement, nothing wrong with that. 650cm²: nobody measures in centimetres, even the French! Madness! Meanwhile... 11oz: WTF is wrong with you? […]
aus.social
Original post on aus.social
000 0
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/05/2026
So I've tried a few: - KMail just didn't work with Exchange at all. - Mailspring's Exchange support is actually IMAP in a trenchcoat. The UI was nice though. Also missing calendar functionality, which is essential. - Evolution worked fine and the UX is ok, but the UI made me sad inside. - […]
aus.social
Original post on aus.social
000 0
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/05/2026
Every time I boot into Debian Linux I breathe a sigh of relief at how much better it is than Windows 11. Every time I open Thunderbird I despair at how much worse it is to use than Outlook. Outlook! The bar was on the floor. Please recommend me a better email client for Debian. I don't mind […]
aus.social
Original post on aus.social
321 3
Reposted by Jack Scott
Amethyst 🌸 @toots.amethyst.cat · 20/05/2026
I really enjoy seeing the number of people who smile and wave to the #train as it passes by. People love trains. We should have more of them.
222 2
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/05/2026
Accidentally played in my first tennis pennant match last night. I had so much fun, and didn't do quite as badly as I was worried I would. But holy hell am I sore this morning! #tennis
000 0
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/05/2026
@chrisjrn "too much"? Is that even a thing?
100 1
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/05/2026
#Xero continues to be money well spent... God forbid I'd like to process payroll.
Xero dashboard error message saying the page can't be loaded, and linking to the status page.Xero status page. Headline is "Xero is now stable". The detail underneath says they are investigating issues.
000 0
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/05/2026
Xero's "Ultimate 10" plan actually means 10% annual price inflation. #Xero #SmallBusiness #Enshittification
An email warning of an upcoming price hike for Xero.
130 3
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/05/2026
If Microsoft doesn't want us to develop software for Windows, they can just say so... (the screenshot was taken in Edge) #Microsoft #VisualStudio
A screenshot of a warning message in Edge: "VisualStudioSetup.exe isn't commonly downloaded. Make sure you trust VisualStudioSetup.exe before you
open it."
102 2
Reposted by Jack Scott
Glyph @glyph.im · 28/04/2026
like the fact that LLMs "really can" do some parts of programming reads to me not as a demonstration of their economic utility but as a brutal indictment of our tools *for* programming. it feels productive to have these things emit mountains of boilerplate because *we constantly need mountains […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
5626 26
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/04/2026
Also, I hate cage nuts.
000 0
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/04/2026
Couldn't find a powerboard that would securely screw to the underside of my desk. So I bought a small audio engineering style rack and screwed that to the underside of my desk and got a rackmount PDU instead. I'm sure this is every logical person's solution to this problem...
100 1
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/04/2026
@chrisjrn Wait you're not implying that we're supposed to be professionals, are you? Speaking as a software engineer, I can 100% understand why real engineers want nothing to do with software engineering.
110 1
Reposted by Jack Scott
Matt Cengia @mattcen.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/04/2026
Stop 👏🏻 emailing 👏🏻 OTP 👏🏻 codes 👏🏻 instead 👏🏻 of 👏🏻 prompting 👏🏻 for 👏🏻 passwords! Latest culprit is Netflix. I have a password. It's in my password manager. Ask for it *before* sending me an unsolicited email and making me dig for the "just use a password" option! 🤬
1011 11
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/04/2026
@dbdean The roadworks will be done in a week (according to the signs, anyway...) and I'd probably forget to undo the closure. Also I didn't know you could.
100 1
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/04/2026
In fairness to Google, the tennis court is where I want to go. I just don't think I can park there.
010 1
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/04/2026
Open Street Maps: directs me through a road closed due to roadworks. Google Maps: directs me to drive down a pedestrian walkway and through a tennis court. I think I'll just read the road signs. #Google #OpenStreetMap
100 1
Reposted by Jack Scott
tante @tante.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 08/04/2026
"On the acceptance of GenAI" smallsheds.garden/blog/2026/on-the-…
By using GenAI:
I accept the models were trained on stolen data.
I accept that the data was labeled by exploited workers.
I accept the environmental costs of the data centers running these models.
I accept that I am outsourcing some of my skills to a company.
I accept these companies don’t have a viable business model.
I accept that I am granting more power to big tech and their vision for the world.
I accept that I am granting more power to the United States.
I accept that all this effort could have been spent elsewhere.

If any of these facts are new to you, you haven’t been doing your due diligence.
48136 136
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/04/2026
Setup really did complete in approximately 39 minutes. #retrocomputing
000 0
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 31/03/2026
It really annoys me how HTML has <head> for putting CSS in but no <foot> for putting JS in. And yes I know it would serve zero practical purpose, but the asymmetry is bleurgh.
001 1
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/01/2026
@robin I'm getting a HTTP 502 error on your website 😞
000 0
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/01/2026
@chrisjrn Good ideas. Fried chicken is never a bad recommendation!
100 1
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/01/2026
Helping my mum clean out her pantry. The tin of white pepper powder from 1994 is apparently staying. Please send help.
100 1
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/01/2026
@chrisjrn Funny how that works.
100 1
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/01/2026
Caught up with some friends I haven't seen in ages today. Feels good. That is all.
100 1
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/01/2026
Just got presented with an advertisement *inside* the #Azure portal. What the actual are #Microsoft thinking?
A view of an SQL database management page inside the Azure portal, with an ad reading "Join us at SQLCON Atlanta..."
001 1
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/01/2026
My prediction for the next few days: everybody will suddenly learn how to spell Venezuela.
020 2
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/12/2025
The Australian Taxation Office: We've updated an API with a breaking change. By law, you will be required to submit testing results against the new API to prove you are compliant with the new requirements of the API. Also the Australian Taxation Office: But don't worry, we didn't bump the […]
aus.social
Original post on aus.social
001 1
Reposted by Jack Scott
George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
1. Some good news at last. This week’s column is about the amazing thing a couple of us stumbled into three years ago, which we’ve now developed into a global research programme. It doesn’t change everything, of course, but it could help change quite a lot. + 🧵 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Over a pint in Oxford, we may have stumbled upon the holy grail of agriculture | George Monbiot
I knew that a revolution in our understanding of soil could change the world. Then came a eureka moment – and the birth of the Earth Rover Program, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
841654617 1.7K
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/12/2025
Imagine having the confidence of the person who designed the new Outlook desktop app and thought they did a good job.
010 1
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/12/2025
If I had a dollar for every time I've seen "closing as stale" on a GitHub issue, I could afford to pay for the new Hobart stadium all by myself.
000 0
Reposted by Jack Scott
Jude @sisterratched.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 27/11/2025
"Putting respect for country above colonial mythology"... what a great way to describe the brumpy shitshow in Kosciuszko. Sucko Barilaro! www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-28/nsw-…
abc.net.au
Controversial 'Brumby Bill' recognising horses' heritage value dumped
A widely criticised bill recognising the heritage value of wild horses in Kosciuszko National Park will be scrapped in a move celebrated by the Invasive Species Council.
002 2
Reposted by Jack Scott
`Da Elf @elfin.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/11/2025
Fuck your half hour video, this could have been three paragraphs, five bullet points, a code block, and a screen shot if you wanted to get Fancy. Half hour of my life and I could have just skimmed.
113 3
Jack Scott @jackscottau.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 17/11/2025
@JessTheUnstill I swear by the fifteen minute rule: You *must* try to solve this problem on your own for fifteen minutes. After fifteen minutes, you *must* ask for help. I've found this rule incredibly helpful both as the asker and the answerer. The asker gets to try on their own and not feel […]
aus.social
Original post on aus.social
101 1