iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026

That even in a movie cut for TV, Peter Finch could make an entire college dorm open their windows and scream "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" Yes I was in that dorm. #70sMoviesTaughtMe #HashTagGames

Picture of a scene from the movie Network (1976).

Faye Dunaway is sitting on the edge of a desk. She is holding a copy of the Daily News. On the front page in very large letters is the headline "BEALE FIRED". Below that is the text "Obscenities Provoke Record Calls".

Taking up the remaining two-thirds of the front page is a picture of Peter Finch, who plays Howard Beale in the movie.

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 09/07/2026

@zachweinersmith.bsky.social Screenshot for those who don't connect to Bluesky. The post is from bonabooks.bsky.social.

AI fraud nearly derailed our next anthology.

Today we’re talking about what went down, the things we missed, and publishing the report we wish we’d had when it happened.

Read all about it on our new blog, and download the full report:

https://www.bona-books.com/news/we-bought-an-ai-story

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 01/05/2026

@niedermeyer.online I was in the area a few months ago. It was great. There's a good restaurant a little East of this spot.

Picture of the right-hand side of a wide shop that (spoiler alert) sells all sorts of gems, incense, how-to books, and loads of other information on your spiritual, astral, or extraterrestrial journey. It is two stories, the first floor is made of yellow brick, while the second floor is wood painted purple.

Above and to the right of a red door is a yellow framed window. Beneath the window is the helpful sign "Vortex Information". Because there are vortexes. In Arizona.

Left side of the shop described in the previous picture. There is another red door. It is flanked by a green alien pointing upward. Someone has put sunglasses on it. On the other side is another green alien in a more traditional pose, looking forward. To the left of it is a carved wood alien, unpainted.

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 27/04/2026

[Spoiler, of sorts since this is a personal result, of the ismy.blue test.] Apparently I have a strict definition for what passes as green.

Screenshot of a color gradient the starts as a pretty clear green on the left and gradually turns less green/more blue until we have a definite blue on the right.

There is a graph whose purpose I am unaware of (it is a step graph that has an extended, slanted S shape, but there weren't as many questions as there are steps, so I don't know what they represent), and a single vertical bar that represents my cutoff point between green and blue.

Below that are the words "Your boundary is at hue 166, greener than 90% of the population. For you, turquoise is blue." There is a square of color, presumably turquoise, next to the word "turquoise".

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 01/04/2026

[Solution to today's 6-letter Wordle (wordleplay.com/6-letter-words) hidden.] Okay, that was just rude. #WordGame #Wordle

Dialogue box that pops up after solving the 6-letter version of Wordle (https://wordleplay.com/6-letter-words). The box has the congratulatory "You WON" text at the top. The next line reads "You guessed the word".

Below that is a shaded box with the word "SUCKER" in it.

Of course, with no punctuation, that can be read either as "You guessed the word, comma, 'SUCKER'" or, more rudely, "You guessed the word SUCKER."

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 27/01/2026

There was an image of the music for Mysterioso Pizzicato, by Lampe, attached to the post. #Music #SilentMovieMusic #MusicID

The first published appearance of the famous theme, mysterioso pizzicato, by Lampe, in a book of music for silent movie pianists.

The theme is in c minor. The first four notes, separated from one another, are the c minor triad, then goes to la before resolving with a four note downward scale back to C.

I have heard it a million times. You, probably younger, may have heard it a hundred thousand. Old cartoons and silent movies would be a ripe source.

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 24/12/2025

But I also picked two more, because I was in a store and browsing is hazardous. Thanks to @alicemcalicepants for the Things in Rings recommendation. I picked up Loop because it looks like Mille Bourne on the L. #BoardGames #BoardGame

Picture of two games. One is the size of a deck of cards and has emblazoned on it "LOOP. THE ELEVATED CARD GAME" It is the "Renovated Edition" and boasts "All New Event Cards."

The other is about twice the size of Loop, and is called Things In Rings. It has the basic three-ring representation of a Venn Diagram, colored red, green, blue, yellow, purple and orange. Outside the boundaries of the circles are things meant to represent types of things: ambulance, rocket, pretzel, yoyo, crab, all sorts of things.

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 24/12/2025

Thank you to everyone who offered suggestions, or who seconded other posters suggestions. I've got games to check out still. The game I landed on was... #BoardGame #BoardGames

Picture of the boardgame Dorf Romantik. Its cover has a stylized landscape separated into hex tiles. Prominently, a windmill occupies a hex that has nearly landed on the white hexagonal space in that landscape. Nearby is a winding river that runs by the tile edges. Looking at the windmill are a childlike figure and what may be a turkey.

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 08/12/2025

Well, just cancelled my Patreon subscription to Calibre. #AI #Calibre #Patreon

Partial screenshot of the Calibre What's New page, taken 2025 December 8.

Under the "Release: 8.16.2 [04 Dec, 2024]" banner are two bullet points that read:

• Allow asking AI questions about any book in your calibre library. Right click the "View" button and choose "Discuss selected book(s) with AI" [8.16.2]
• E-book viewer: Add an "Ask AI" tab to the dictionary lookup panel. Allows you to query AI about the currently selected text. [8.11.1]

This is followed by a paragraph that states:

"Supports hundreds of AI models via Providers such as Google, OpenRouter, GitHub and locally running models via Ollama. Many of them can be used free of charge. Note that this feature is completely optional and no AI related code is even loaded until you configure an AI provider."

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 05/12/2025

The multicolored Ball of Whacks toy is made up of six colors, and the color combination is kind of ugly. But if you buy three of them, you can make three bicolored solids.

Advertising picture for the Ball of Whacks, a toy rhombic triacontahedron made up of thirty pyramids with a diamond base. There are six distinct colors, red, green, yellow, white, blue, and black.

Three rhombic triacontahedron, one with red and green faces, one with blue and white faces, and one with black and yellow faces.

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 01/12/2025

Huh, I didn't notice I'd gotten a Bingo. Probably because I wasn't expecting Ceremony to get filled. #Monsterdon

A 5x5 Bingo card with Movie Tropes instead of numbers. The center column, from top to bottom, reads "A Plan to Defeat the Monster", "Ceremony", the free cell with a Godzilla picture, "Actor Hamming It Up", and "Irony".

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 28/08/2025

It turns out that this is a common oversight. Allegedly it doesn't affect the copyright status, since the words "copyright by" appears in the book itself, but as we've discovered here in the U.S. recently, a lot of settled law isn't settled anymore. #AnthropicLawsuit #Copyright

Screenshot of a post by "Amy Jo (AJ) Cousins" @ajcousins.bsky.social August 27 2025 7:45 PM. It is quote-posting the post that was pictured in the previous message.

"Today is the day authors are learning how many of their publishers straight up blew off registering copyright and I feel like that deserves a class action suit of its own if it costs everyone their settlement money from the Anthropic suit... 😒🤬

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 28/08/2025

Well *here's* a plot twist I'm disappointed to see happened. #AnthropicLawsuit #Copyright

Screenshot of a post by "Cranky Bitch Sedai" @totallydonna.kitrocha.com on Bluesky August 27th 2025 5:11 PM. It is quote-posting a post by author Courtney Milan asking authors to remember to file a claim in the Anthropic plagiarism case.

"Tor just straight up didn't register the copyright for two of our books, even though they were contractually obligated to do so.

One day I will FULLY describe that shit show. But not today."

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 20/08/2025

Really, Jewel grocery store? You had the correct name last year. #produce #pluots

Shot of the produce section of a Jewel grocery store in Chicago. Amidst the piles of peaches, plums, starfruit, and nectarines, are a pile of yummy mottled pluots.

The sign above them says "California Red Or Mottled Plumcots", possibly the dumbest marketing strategy to sell pluots ever. Seriously, who thought that was a name that would draw customers in?

Okay, it worked with Kiwi fruit, but that's because "Chinese gooseberry" was so spectacularly stupid that a whole new circle of Hell was built just for the person who came up with that name.

But we're not talking about then, we're talking about now. C'mon, why would anyone do that?

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 31/07/2025

I had my combination ceiling fan and lights replaced a while back. One feature that I never knew it had was a string of four candelabra or Christmas lights, I guess for mood lighting. Can it be repurposed? I don't recognize the plug, and I'm wondering if it […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

The plug at the end of the light string. It is white plastic, divided into two squares, with a thin metal spike recessed in each.

The width of the interior of each square is approximately 5mm. The unit itself is about 12mm by 7mm.

The short string of lights, about 66cm in length. It's ends terminate with a white plug on one end, and the fourth socket on the other.

A close-up of a label on the fan housing that reads "Relamp with 15 Watts max." Presumably this is for the string of lights.

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 05/06/2025

[The Bad Car Guy, and the Bad President Guy.] Well, this screenshot just scrolled in front of my eye. Elsewhere, some months ago, I had joked about this administration's eventual Night of 2 3/4 inch Long Knives*, and here it comes. _____ * The knives was the […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

A screenshot of Truth Social posting by the guy who knocked George W. Bush to second place in the Worst 21st Century President listings. It reads:

"The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised Biden didn't do it!"

It is dated 6/5/25 at 2:37 PM, presumably EDT as it's not yet 2:20 PM here in Chicago.

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 27/05/2025

So... Tillandsia Tuesday? (Neofinetia Falcata orchid in the background.) #terrariums #AirPlants #orchids

An Arepk Plant Bottle (a version that's like a truncated tear drop) that has a Neofinetia Falcata orchid planted. In the foreground of the bottle is a Headsville Roll ceramic container (shot glass size). Slightly inserted into it is an air plant, Tillandsia Ionantha Rubra, a small plant that's shaped like a bristle of small, pointed leaves.

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 20/05/2025

@christianp Were the two versions both in three dot js? I'm curious if there had also been a coordinate or rotation mismatch due to different tools. Grid by Freya Holmër, @acegikmo

A four by four grid of software (rendering programs, graphics libraries, CAD programs). The top row's label is "Y up", the bottom row's label is "Z up". The left column's label is "Left Handed", the right column's label is "Right Handed".

All the labels have illustrations demonstrating the difference. The labels and text are in a hand-drawn style making it look like drawing in fluorescent marker on black glass.

Starting with Left/Y Up in the upper left corner (we'll be going clockwise) we have Unity, Lightwave, ZBrush, and Cinema 4D. The upper right corner contains Maya, Modo, Substance Painter, Houdini, Godot, and Minecraft. Lower right contains 3DS Max, Blender, Sketchup, Source, and AutoCAD, while the lower left contains only Unreal.

The drawing is by Freya Holmër. Under her signature is a comment "poor ltl unreal :-:"

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 30/03/2025

File under life's little victories: I found some barley to purchase. December or January, barley vanished from grocery store shelves. Nothing to do with bad administration policies as far as I could tell. Just a lower demand for it due to beer's recent decline […] [Original post on fosstodon.org]

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 15/03/2025

It looks like the "Nicole" bot is still active, but not using the well-known instances like mastodon dot social. Reported, but if this is their own instance it won't matter. #NicoleBot

Text of a "please join me" message from a well-known bot. I'm not going into the details of the text, except to write that in this case "Nicole's" account is nicole72@formu1a.social.

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 19/12/2024

Instead, it's this. I don't mean to be a critic, but that's two uses of Beware and Counterfeit in two sentences. I get that they feel strongly about this, but that level of dramatic urgency is usually reserved for when one enters the Mines of Moira.

Screenshot of what look like very durable bottles, possibly made for liquids that aren't suitable for standard twist-on lids.

The caps smoothly come to a point, where liquid will apparently flow from.

But at the top of the screen is a big, very yellow pop-up with the message:

"Beware of counterfeits & infringing Chubby Gorilla (r) products! Beware of unauthorized distributors look-alike, counterfeit, and or non-compliant Chubby Gorilla (r) products."

There's a "Learn More" button below that.

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John M. Gamble @jgamble.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 09/11/2024

I didn't follow the It's The Weekend account. I didn't need to; someone always reposted it into my timeline. But with this change, it deserved at least one more follower. Thanks for the message.

Screenshot of the lone post in the "It's The Weekend" account. Above a GIF thumbnail of Daniel Craig before he announces "It's the weekend" from the stage of Saturday Night Live, is the text "Ladies and gentlemen... the weekend."

That is the usual text. But added to that this time are the words "also: you are important and not alone" followed by a red heart emoji.

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