iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

A certain insurance company website seems to have cookie indigestion. When I try logging in, it fails with a cryptic one-line message. It works via a private-browsing window. I realize I could just purge my cookies for that site, but they shouldn’t let it happen anyway.

000

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

New Zealand’s own rabid right-wing religious nut MAGA-wannabe strikes again. He has tried twice to launch a political party, but nobody -- not even his own followers -- seems to want to vote for him. bsky.app/profile/rnzr...

010

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

The meaning of life is about never feeling satisfied with any explanation of what the meaning of life might be about. Does that leave you feeling dissatisfied? I rest my case.

000

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

There was a little squeezebulb horn hanging on the door of the Egyptology Institute. The sign underneath said: TOOT AND COME IN

130

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

Are there such people as “digital natives”? As in those who have a basic understanding of how computer technology works in everyday life? Seems the writer of this article doesn’t appreciate that computer files are independent of the media they’re stored on. www.bbc.com/future/artic...

bbc.com

Why your early 2000s photos are probably lost forever

If you used a digital camera in the early 2000s, there's a good chance whole chapters of your life have been erased.

130

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

I was looking up Timothy Leary, which led me to something Abbie Hoffman said: “Don’t do needle drugs. The only dope worth shooting is Richard Nixon.” Seems adaptable to the present day, somehow ...

040

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Came across this old SF story which views society as being divided into those who want to rule others, those who want to rebel against order, and the normals, who just want to get on with life. So the normals worked out a system to keep the other two factions in check. www.baen.com/Chapters/143...

baen.com

- Volume Paa-Pyx

041

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

“My Incredible Achievements” by Billy Vitornot #BookTitles

020

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

“The Joy Of Tunnels” by Warren “Rabbit-Hole” Burrowes #BookTitles

020

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

“Learn To Fly The Easy Way” by Kara Shand-Byrne #BookTitles

000

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

“Our Invincible Military” by Isa Render #BookTitles

000

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

In a black hole, gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. For something to escape, it would have to travel faster than light, which is impossible. Gravitational-wave detectors work because gravity propagates at the speed of light. So how does gravity come out of a black hole?

100

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

One US corp that has been making a killing (literally) from the Israel-Palestine conflict is Caterpillar. They supply the bulldozers that the Israeli forces use to destroy Palestinian homes, roads etc. And I see a bunch of them being sent to Gaza to help with the reconstruction there. “Win-win”?!?

342

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

My candidate for Peak 1980s: Pointer Sisters, “Jump”. What’s yours? Just today heard the 12” mix, and wouldn’t you know it actually ends without fading out? Ah, those days when FM stereo was new, and 12” mixes sounded so good ...

130

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

Is there some mini-two-step revival going on in 🇳🇿? Yahyah — Run — www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo85... Lee Stuart — Clover — www.youtube.com/watch?v=s86m...

youtube.com

YAHYAH - RUN

YouTube video by YAHYAHmusic

010

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

“Iditarod.” “Did you, indeed? And all by yourself, too!”

000

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

Spammer currently trying to appeal to my sense of “honor” to push their product: message titles “experience strength and honor”, “the power of honor on wheels”, “power and honor in every pedal”, “the power of honor and strength” ... .. stay tuned for more variations, if/when they appear.

010

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

Are there any other countries (besides 🇯🇲, obvs) that love reggae as much as 🇳🇿?

010

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

I like to put butter on poppadoms. Am I a heathen, or merely acknowledging my own cross-cultural origins? (Could be both...)

040

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

Just idly wondering the other day how you could inject additional filesystem mounts into the namespace of an already-running container. Discovered that Linux has a whole additional mount API that can do this and other things. So I did the linuxmount module here. gitlab.com/ldo/python_l...

gitlab.com

Lawrence D’Oliveiro / python_linuxfs · GitLab

Some useful Linux-specific filesystem functions not (yet) in Python standard library

020

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

I remember, as a child, seeing the partially-painted-out letters “DUCATI” above a group of shops, and being proud of myself at figuring out that there was a previous sign saying “EDUCATION”. On the other hand, looking back, maybe it had been a motorcycle dealership ...

020

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

My mother picked up some Chinese New Year tradition (lots of Chinese friends), and applied it on the Gregorian New Year as well: no sweeping the house on New Year’s Day, because then you sweep away the luck for the New Year.

010

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

Ode to a sign left behind after unfinished roadworks: “You picked a fine time to leave me ... ‘Loose Seal’.”

020

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

Without rancour, the canker on the anchor of the tanker just sank ’er. Yes, I will have another of those oddly intriguing cookies, thank you.

000

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

Might I inquire as to how to acquire a quire for the choir? What was that I just ate?

030

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

“The Princess Bride” is on 🇳🇿 TV this evening. Just thought I’d point that out to anybody who hasn’t seen it. Or if you have, spread the word. Happy Carisma Sieve.

030

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Just got blocked by somebody offended because I pointed out the ridiculousness of the non-Open-Source licence on their software. So, if somebody uses it to murder children, the developers are going to sue them for copyright infringement?

000

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Why is the French President named after a diacritic mark that doesn’t even occur in his name? His name should be “Mācrōn”. Who’s with me?

020

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

This is what satire looks like now. Caution! Rampant and unremitting AI ahead! www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM2V...

youtube.com

This Changes Everything – Watch Before It’s Taken Down!

YouTube video by AI Spectrum

030

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

A lot of the Porter-Duff #graphics drawing modes don’t actually make any sense. I think it’s down to this: the ones that are useful are the ones that don’t actually assume that pixels are little squares.

010

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Just discovered Samuel Goldwyn quotes. E.g. “Give me a smart idiot over a stupid genius any day!” People couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not.

000

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

If that’s Shai Hulud, I shudder to think what Bold Hulud is like. #Dune

130

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Spotted in my dentist’s office. When one door closes, another door opens. Or you could, you know, just open the door. That’s how doors work.

020

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

To make more efficient use of global warming, don’t forget to set your calendars one month forward for Summer Saving Time. #TooSoon?

130

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

If you are having trouble getting your head around how async/await works with the rest of Python at the lowest level, I came up with this diagram a while ago I call “Van Rossum’s Triangle”. It explains how the flow of control goes. www.deviantart.com/default-cube... #python #programming

deviantart.com

Van Rossum's Triangle

Deviantart.com image by default-cube

140

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Blender 4.3.1 is out. I normally do my own builds from source. Somewhere along the line my FFmpeg build got out of sync, so I had to build Blender without it; maybe about time to try getting some kind of reconciliation between the two ... #blender3d #blender

100

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Nathan Haines/Arjuna Oakes track playing on Juice TV. Last time I heard from Haines, local TV had actual programs that played music videos.

110

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Dear Syrians, I share your joy and appreciate your need to make loud noises to celebrate. May I recommend not using live ammunition to do so? (What goes up, must come down.) May I suggest borrowing an idea from the Chinese, and let off lots of firecrackers instead? Much better noise-to-harm ratio.

121

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Making a conscious effort to get up from this screen and walk about every few days.

021

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Several flyers from various Christian groups in my mailbox lately. And today, one from Hell Pizza. Balance is restored.

010

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Ate that last banana before it got any more overripe. My mother preferred them black. Go on, take that last sentence out of context, why don’t you.

000

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

I get email notifications of postings on the Asterisk support forum. Emojis come through as text codes, e.g. “:slight_smile:”. Only “slight”? So, the lack of amusement/gratification is revealed ...

000

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

In #NZ, we have a consumer watchdog authority with real teeth. Shops showing inaccurate pricing and misleading “specials” are breaking the law, and this is not the first time prosecutions have been launched over this. www.nzherald.co.nz/business/sup...

nzherald.co.nz

Supermarkets face criminal charges over alleged inaccurate pricing, misleading specials

Charges should be a wake-up call about pricing accuracy, watchdog says.

130

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

What’s going on here? input: s1 = "naïve" s2 = "naïve" print(len(s1), len(s2), s1 == s2) output: 5 6 False #python #programming

010

Lawrence D’Oliveiro @ldo17.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Never got used to that rule that it’s “an” and not “a” before a word beginning with “h” if the first syllable is unaccented: I just instinctively say and write “a historical event”, not “an historical event”. Say I have a Hitachi appliance: is that “a Hitachi” or “an Hitachi”?

020