iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Today’s learning: all but about two of my first-year computer science students draw a blank when asked what this is:

Apollo 11 Lunar Module, seen on lunar orbit from the command module just prior to descent.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Hey Siri, what’s the EV equivalent of ‘field to fork’? Siri:

A wind turbine, with a blue Enyaq apparently plugged directly
into it.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

This week, I shall mostly be thinking about this bruschetta I just cooked. Home-grown tomatoes roasted in the air fryer, Alex Gooch sourdough from his Monmouth shop. One of the best things I’ve ever cooked.

A slice of toasted sourdough bread with roasted cherry tomatoes and fresh basil.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

I wonder precisely how much of an average lifetime is invested in the packing and unpacking of boxes and bags? Related: back from @deershed.bsky.social 2026. Awesome time. I made a butter knife!

A Swedish-style (so I’m told) butter knife, carved by myself at a wonderful workshop in the Wilderwild, Deer Shed Festival, 2026.

In the background: a pile of camping clobber, not yet unpacked.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

"Hmm… I wonder what a node-based audio engine would feel like if it was driven by sensor outputs from a loose network of Micro:Bits?" [an hour passes, during which I bake a cake] "Thanks, Claude." (wasn't quite that simple, but… almost)

Screenshot of a prototype web application which takes inputs as data sources into a node-based graph, applying transformations, and feeding audio generators. It looks pretty stylish. Not evident from the image: it's also functional.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

“How’s the autocategorisation working out?” “Close enough.”

Apple Notes app: category “Snacks and Sweets” showing an entry: “Antihistamines.”

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Lovely @robives.bsky.social dragon linkage mechanism. Next step: recreate with my acrylic linkage kit and add servo control. 😀🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 www.robives.com/project/drag...

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

Oh. Chances of this working? Verrrrrry close to zero. Besides, if I can even find my Jaz drive… it clicked. Sigh.

A 1Gb Iomega Jaz cartridge, labelled ‘Softwindows95’ and ‘BeOS PR2’.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Collected this with @nustem.bsky.social colleagues last night, at the @iop.org awards dinner. Woop Woop! Very proud to add my name to the list of recipients, several of whom I worked with back in my formative days or have known since. Inspirations all. Blog post & links: nustem.uk/blog/news/20...

The 2025 Institute of Physics Kelvin Gold Medal, in a presentation box, in my hand.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Ghost biscuits! Made with my kids, just now. Thanks @robives.bsky.social for the cookie cutter download. 👻👍

Overhead view of a cooling rack covered in spooky ghost biscuits. The biscuits are slightly singed around the edges. All ghosts look like that, right? Prove me wrong.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

This shelving unit isn’t how I’d intended to spend my Saturday, but it’s quite satisfying and will solve several problems I hadn’t quite realised I had. Tomorrow I hope to fit wall mounts for bicycles, off the right of this shot.

A freshly-assembled IKEA Ivar shelving unit in my garage, with assorted not-yet-unpacked boxes and some bicycles visible.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Every maker’s least favourite part of the process.

A heap of unsorted, tangled, physical computing bits. There are a lot of USB cables and jumper wires; a possibly-broken thermal printer; some modified badges from Maker Faire UK; a tuned copper pipe; the shattered remnants of assorted failed dreams.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

Oh, you have to be kidding me. Moving house. Shifted a table that’s not been moved in 7 years, and this little git is revealed. If you know, you know.

A small red laser cut rabbit, in the palm of my hand. It has somehow hidden for seven years.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

My first surface mount soldering. Woop Woop! @prosquared.org

A microbit game pad powered up and working in an electronics lab.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

You know what doesn’t get sticky over time? Paper.

A book: Newton MessagePad Handbook, 1996.

(The Newton interface is wild and wonderful, and quite alien for those who’ve only seen post-95 Windowsalike OSs. I wish more people had experienced it.)

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

You know that 90s soft-touch plastic that eventually goes all sticky? Ew. Eeeeewwwwww!

A Tivoli PAL radio/speaker that, sadly, has gone all sticky. Great audio quality, terrible surface finish.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

Why does my pizza box have a terrible AI image of a seaplane on the back?

A pizza box. So far so good. This is a Crosta Mollica Regina. It was quite nice.

The back of the pizza box, showing a terrible AI image of a seaplane near a lovely beach. The seaplane is clearly not airworthy, slightly spoiling the idyll.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Day 2 of riding the new tyres. Figures.

Close-up of a cross-head screw buried deep in the casing of a bicycle tyre. The tyre is a Schwalbe Marathon Efficiency, if anyone cares.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Today’s plan: try to recapture that ‘early pandemic online meeting’ atmosphere by communicating only via cheap walkie-talkie.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

My first thought on this was “Can ChatGPT draw maps?” So I checked. Yes, it can.

A ChatGPT-generated map of the UK, which may not have got Wales in the right place. Where by ‘may’ I mean ‘that’s not even the right side of the Irish Sea’.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

Almost certainly the best photo I’ve ever take of a duck.

A child programs animations for a mechatronic duck puppet they’ve made.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

I bought these juggling clubs circa. 1991. They (and I) have seen better days. However, I did just manage a run of 24 catches. Not stylish, but I’ll take it.

Three tatty juggling clubs. Spotlight European Shorts, if you really want to know. They have gold handles, red tips, a central white stripe, and the taper is a fetching blue-green.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Rather nice to have a Spitfire stooging around up and down the coast this afternoon. Somebody up there is having fun, and lovely Merlin sounds for me.

FlightRadar24 track for Spitfire G-CLXB, flying today out of Newcastle airport and traveling up and down the coast over Tynemouth and Whitley Bay.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

I never post on Facebook, which seems to play merry havok with their algorithms. Tonight, for example, I was offered this.

Facebook message: “Snooze Ed Sheeran for 30 days”

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

[large helicopter overhead] Huh. Wonder what that is? [checks @flightradar24.com] _what?!_

Screenshot of FlightRadar24 app, showing a Sikorsky S-92A of the Turkmenistan government on approach to Newcastle airport, UK.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

There’s something right about a paper aeroplane stuck above a planetarium door.

Dramatic lighting on a planetarium sphere, with a paper aeroplane stuck above the door.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Pushing plain JPEGs to the device also means I can tinker with layouts with confidence, even though the physical device is now 300 miles away from me. The main observations screen now looks like this:

A weather dashboard display, showing a range of data.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

This is on its way to my in-laws today: a custom weather display, using a @pimoroni.com Inky Frame eink screen. Pulls updates hourly, including level of the slightly floody river at the foot of their garden. Was a fun project. Most of the work is server-side; the frame grabs pre-rendered JPEGs.

A Pimoroni Inky Frame 4 serving as a custom weather dashboard, here showing current observations from Open Weather Map and river level from Natural Resources Wales’ API.

A Pimoroni Inky Frame 4 serving as a custom weather dashboard, here showing a five-day forecast from Open Weather Map.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

Predictable. Cool, though. Followed by an Amstrad CPC464, then… er… a Convex C210. 😳 I didn’t own the Convex.

A Sinclair ZX81 microcomputer, in all its wedged black loveliness.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

We didn’t win at #BETT25 last night, but shared a table with lovely people. And today I skipped across town to #toyfair25, where I met Bluey. So that’s a good day right there.

A giant Bluey character waves while standing on a red carpet.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Also _loved_ this music interactive by musiconclub.com, up for an Award tonight #BETT25. Tremendous thought and care, real belief in the product, thoroughly delightful.

A mechanical music box interactive exhibit for early years settings, consisting of a rotating drum with spring-release pegs which engage with instruments positioned on an upper bar.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

I had many expectations of today. Woodturning wasn’t on my list. And yet… #BETT25

Ben Maker’s excellent miniature lathe, part of a set of woodworking tools for primary settings.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Right, I’m in London for the first time in a couple of years. Remind me how this works - near King’s Cross, on an underground train… traditionally, this is where I wonder if the guy next to me is @billt.bsky.social, and I later find out it once again was. Yes? Huh. Can’t see him. Unusual.

A London Underground train arriving at King’s across St. Pancras.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

Now 1-all. The secret is to convert everything to seconds-since-epoch as soon as you can; mktime() mostly fails. Meh. Anyway, I now have a clock which shows next train times for my local light rail. @pimoroni.com Plasma Stick 2040W and neato edge-diffused NeoPixels shop.pimoroni.com/products/neo...

A clock face with glowing lights around the edge. Sections near 3, 7, 8 and 10 are lit red.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

That’s a mighty large bivalve. At least it opened while steaming. Tell you what, though: I’ve been peeling garlic since last year.

An opened car roof box in our hallway. It’s black, and if you squint somewhat might look a little like an empty mussel shell.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

Continuing the saga of the weather display frame: cleaned up the font display, and got the code running on the hour rather than an hour after the last run (whoops!). Beginnings of a menu system I’m not sure I’ll use. Client-side work next!

A weather data display system, showing nearly-presented observation data.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

Well, the server code has been running overnight as a systemd service (hurray!), though I can only see the server via my mobile network and not Virgin. Because obvs. Also: Chrome on Linux, what are you doing with fonts?! Sigh. Close, close.

Weather station output image. The text spacing is a bit wonky, so some lines don’t look right.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

Weather station Inky Frame update: now looks not-shit. Need to solve crash-on-sleep (and hence refreshes), and, er, deploy the server code. Close to a v1, though. Woot! @pimoroni.com

Pimoroni’s Inky Frame e-ink display showing weather report. Now with added weather icons and some text formatting. It looks fairly smart.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

This looks almost unformatted for now, buuuut… first light of a weather display for my in-laws. Python web app (Open Weather, Natural Resources Wales API, scrapes pollen forecast from Met Office), outputs a web page, saves a correct-size JPEG. Pico W retrieves JPEG & displays it. Lots still to do.

A Pimoroni Inky Frame e-ink display showing weather report text.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Cake: the end-game. Had intended to add arcs of silver spray, but… you can’t see it against the buttercream. It’ll do.

A cake. Buttercream layer, and a large letter ‘E’ picked out in freeze-dried strawberry pieces. The letter is italics and heavily serifed. It might be Baskerville, though John would be horrified at the misuse of his type.

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Jonathan Sanderson @jjsanderson.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Cake progress: layering underway. With giggles. Mostly because I just licked jam off my daughters’s elbow.

Two children spreading goo on cake layers.

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