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James O'Neill

@james-oneill.bsky.social
437 followers 94 following 246 posts

Exasperated curmudgeon Ex Scuba instructor, Ex Formula team employee, Ex Microsoftie. Still doing Photography with Pentax and coding with PowerShell. Occasional drone pilot, but more prone to droning on.

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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Having spent this year working on a book I can confirm all but step 10
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
"Bill your Visa or Mastercard via us, instead of using it at the charger." shows how twisted & broken public EV-charging is. Another sign is "increase confidence". Ionity (shown) charge non-subscribers 75% more, good luck find out which card will give the best cut of that.
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Evan Sutton @evansutton.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Prominent folks: Millions stay on Twitter because that's where they hear from you. That includes reporters. YOU are giving Twitter viability and credibility. If YOU leave, the people who want to hear from you will go where you are. YOU are making the choice to keep others on Twitter.
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Viz Comic @vizcomic.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
subscriptions >>> shop.viz.co.uk/viz345bs
Magazine letter: The suggestion that athletes taking drugs can enhance their performance by doing so is utter nonsense. I entered the Great North Run last year and just before the start I had a couple of skunk spliffs. Two days later I woke up in a park in Berwick covered in a kebab salad and missing a shoe, having ran in completely the opposite direction to the finishing line. Graham Flintift, Gateshead
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Reuters @reuters.com · 29/08/2025
Exclusive: Meta has appropriated the names and likenesses of celebrities — including Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway and Selena Gomez — to create dozens of flirty social-media chatbots without their permission, Reuters has found reut.rs/3JWb00R
reut.rs
Exclusive: Meta created flirty chatbots of Taylor Swift, other celebrities without permission
Meta has appropriated the names and likenesses of celebrities – including Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway and Selena Gomez – to create dozens of flirty social-media chatbots without their permission, Reuters has found.
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Brett "Solidarity 2026" Banditelli @banditelli.org · 30/08/2025
Alright, fuck it, enough of the shenanigans. We're spending an hour to edit a series of a pelican diving into the ocean that took 3 seconds to shoot. jking please continue with the shenanigans. we deserve it! #birds
a scene in front of an island with palm trees about 10 minutes before sunset, the ocean is light blue and the sky is yellow, a pelican flys and then dives into the ocean with 15 individual frames plus the splash frame.
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
I hope it's been a particularly happy day for you & a shitty one for those who have given you grief for being open about your life.
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Ellin Stein @ellinst.bsky.social · 24/08/2025
Yet again, this Michael Rosen poem hits the bullseye.
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 13/08/2025
Where Babies Come From xkcd.com/3127/
Comic. Various Experts Answer the Question “Where do babies come from?” Geneticist: Recent admixture event, roughly 0.001 kya. Astronomer: Low-impulse ejection from a parent body. Software engineer: Off-by-one error in the population calculations. Geologist: The area was originally a uniform plane, but the non-baby parts eroded at higher rates. Meteorologist: Moist ground-level turbulent mixing.
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
One of my all time favourites. I keep saying I must write something about perception of risk, and get permission to use this to illustrate it. It's on my to do list for 2027 or 2028 :-)
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PSConfEU @psconf.eu · 04/08/2025
😴 A Lazy Coder's Guide to Exploiting Class Features – @james-oneill.bsky.social (#PSConfEU 2025) 💡 Extend objects without writing full classes 💡 Improve IntelliSense & output formatting 💡 Smarter code, less boilerplate #PowerShell #Automation #CodingTips
youtu.be
- YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Similar in the UK: ad hoc pricing screws drivers , eMSPs add to the problem.
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
Weirdly I remember being in France, on holiday with my parents and seeing "Depailler est mort" on a news stand, and hearing it on BBC Long wave. The Shah of Iran and Peter Sellers also died during that holiday.
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
That gives me a goal: get the Office for Product Safety and Standards to serve Instavolt with a notice preventing the opening of this site until they comply with section 10 of the public charge point regulations
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
RIP Tom Lehrer. {2} A man who can make a rhyme for cyanide is clever. The man who made it "the birdies all try and hide", was a kind of a genius. If you don't know "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNA9... give yourself two minutes
youtube.com
Tom Lehrer - Poisoning Pigeons in the Park - with intro
YouTube video by The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
RIP Tom Lehrer. {1} It must about 1970 that dad told me about farmers in some places painting C O W on livestock in large letters and idiots still shooting them, and each other which was I first met this www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQyo...
youtube.com
Tom Lehrer - The Hunting Song - LIVE FILM From Copenhagen in 1967
YouTube video by The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel
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Quite Interesting @qi.com · 28/07/2025
It's people like that who make you realise how little you've accomplished. It is a sobering thought, for example, that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years. TOM LEHRER (1928 - 2025)
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
Tom Lehrer's Lobachevsky taught me to use "research" with air quotes for plagiarism: Let no one else's work evade your eyes. Remember why the good Lord made your eyes, So don't shade your eyes, But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize -- Only be sure always to call it please "research".
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
That be the 19 minutes of today I put to best use. If you can only spare 15 minutes it will be OK 1.25x speed, but find the time.
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
I have nostalgia for Commodore, but for the PET not the 64. My school had PETs, I learned Microsoft basic on PETs, I got my first paid computing job doing Microsoft Basic on Apple ][s and lot of my last 45 years is the result. C64, never used, never liked.
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snoodoodle 🌵🔞 @snoodoodle.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
For other UK folks who see this, there is indeed a petition on fighting this! (Has 700+ signatures at the current time of posting.) If you can't sign it, please pass it on. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/72...
petition.parliament.uk
Petition: Repeal the Online Safety Act
We want the Government to repeal the Online Safety act.
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
Relieved of his duties, but not dismissed from the company it seems. Exactly what he will be doing now is even more of a mystery (standing for President of the FIA :-) ? )
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
The Daily Tarts proving the art of headline writing isn't dead. (Sorry for the accidental inclusion of the Daily Hate)
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
So getting ready to present the next day & the organizer calls and says "One of our presenters can't do his session in 3 hours. Could you pull together that one you talked about doing 7 months ago?". Still not sure I how made this work. I need to watch to check *IF* I did!
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Don't believe anything until it's officially denied. I wonder if it is Max saying "he goes or I go" (not good when the talent dictates who the management should be in any business)
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Didn't see that coming. Can't say I like Horner but I'm too shocked to gloat.
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 04/07/2025
Global Ranking xkcd.com/3110/
4-panel comic. (1) [Person 2 with white hat stands behind Person 1 who is seated at desk with laptop] PERSON 1: I’m ranked 7,145,000th globally on this chess platform. It’s hard to be ranked that low in *any* activity. (2) PERSON 1: Few pastimes even *have* 7 million rated players. Until the internet, it wasn’t really possible. You could be this bad, but only unofficially. (3) PERSON 1: So in a sense, I’m worse at chess than anyone was at *anything* for most of human history. PERSON 2: Why are you still doing it? (4) PERSON 1: Well, no human has ever had this many friends to play with. PERSON 2: That person is calling you some very obscene names. PERSON 1: Our friendship is complicated.
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Ellis Rosen @ellisjrosen.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
My cartoon in this weeks @newyorker.com
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DocAtCDI @docatcdi.com · 21/06/2025
The guy who stole my diary has died. My thoughts are with his family.
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MꙬse Allain @mooseallain.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
Venn diagram
Venn diagram with Bono in the left circle, an oboe in the right, and a bonobo in the centre.
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
Lordy I hope that is not true.
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
"pay-as-you-go charging via contactless payment can mean missing out on discount rates... Roaming providers often give discounts... including Zapmap Premium" Or "CPOs & middle men work together to overcharge drivers, although some middle men share some of excess with some drivers"
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
It looks to me that given a choice between popularity and integrity you chose integrity.
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
I assume you've worked out you might lose people who would like to live in a happy bubble - not only people of the opposite view. So you'll have worked out how much integrity you'd need to trade for extra popularity.
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Not sure who underrates this. Kinda-sorta source control, without source control. "WTF did I do..." compare todays code with last months. "Oh crap..." just restore it. Frequently helpful and occasionally life saving. Especially in places where source control culture is a bit lacking.
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
news.oxfordshire.gov.uk/oxford-tempo... Temporary until they can impose bus gates that no one seems to want. I'm puzzled how @oxfordshirecc.bsky.social is home of Mini yet so anti-car. Central #Oxford (away from the Westgate) is shrivelling & here's another reason to do business elsewhere.
news.oxfordshire.gov.uk
Oxford temporary congestion charge among traffic options
Proposed options to manage congestion in and around Oxford will be discussed by Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet on 17 June. Options will include a temporary congestion charge for the city.The cou...
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 09/06/2025
Neighbor-Source Heat Pump xkcd.com/3099/
Comic. [Two houses next to each other. Piping runs from one underground, connecting it to the other.] [caption] A covertly-installed *Neighbor-Source Heat Pump* takes advantage of the fact that your neighbor keeps their house cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Watching news from the US last night I started to wonder "What happens if a President starts to believe there is a plot to get rid of him, and install his VP" Being English, my knowledge amounts to "In 'The West Wing'...", but calling for that simply to feed paranoia :-)
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Micah @rincewind.run · 05/06/2025
the enemy of my enemy is not my friend but watching them smack each other in the nuts is still very funny
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
I had to remind myself who Scarmucci is/was (can he do the fandango ?) In searching, I found this from a week ago www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
independent.co.uk
Anthony Scaramucci claims Elon Musk thinks ‘Trump is an idiot’
Anthony Scaramucci, who spent 11 days as Trump’s White House communications director in 2017 before he was fired, made the claims at the U.K.’s Hay Festival
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
Indeed. However one cancelling contracts which benefit the other, slashing his crazy [paper] net worth, and retaliation for that in the form of funding competing congressional candidates, and using X as attack platform... Might be worth watching. 🍿
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
It was that or something very like it. That may have been "inspired by" yours; or that lifted from someone else. I saw yours at least a year ago (maybe 2 or 3?). It's possible for a 2nd person to "re-invent" something, not knowing it's been done. Disinclined to give *him* benefit of the doubt
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
TBH I **think** that has being doing the rounds for years & wouldn't assume anything about who originality... I first saw a "7 deadly sins" joke from you, but else someone had filled in "Lesbian Gluttony" "Bisexual sloth" or similar. Don't know if they copied or re-invented it without seeing yours
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
I should do more to plug getsql . MYSql, SQLite, ODBC and SQLServer native :-) I mostly use SQLite with the ODBC driver to talk to adobe lightroom.
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
Sounds like a pop group from my youth. Or was that what we called the one Bowie was in :-)
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
At least you can turn it off in notepad. In PowerPoint (unlike Word and Excel) it's impossibly to make copi lot go away. What a stupid addition to our carbon footprints "You've written some simple text, I can bullshitify it for you." "Make sense of this AI padded mail?"
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James O'Neill @james-oneill.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
It's a while since I used the "Start-Demo" that @jsnover.com wrote, but I'd expect it to still work :-)
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Meg Syv @megsyv.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
just another day in the office
A simple black and white drawing of the artist seated at her desk. She sips tiredly from a mug of... something... while gesturing to a sign hanging on the wall behind her. The sign reads, "This artist blocks anyone who endorses an industry directly trying to undercut the value of their labor by posting A.I. generated content."
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