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LonM

@LonM.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy

11 followers 3 following 184 posts

Technology Critical Luddite European from Scotland Background: CS, Security, & Computing Education Current Goals: Using the power of thinking really hard to […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ social.vivaldi.net/@LonM, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

Posts Replies Media

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026

BBC article about a police officer fired after a "Palantir AI probe" found evidence of misconduct. As per usual, the details are scant on how exactly "AI" was used here, and how the "detection technology" actually worked. Seems like the kind of thing access logs and a device management policy […]

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Original post on social.vivaldi.net

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 08/10/2026

My review of Jet Lag season 19. I really enjoyed this one. lemcgregor.scot/posts/2026/10/07/je…

lemcgregor.scot

Jet Lag 19 - Reviewed | Léon McGregor's Site

My review of Jet Lag season 19. It was pretty great.

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

useful trick I just learned, if you have are programming with large numbers, use the underscore character as a separator. How did I not know about this before today

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

GitHub is having problems again. I really am not a fan of this world we've created where a random computer half a world away can completely tie up my working day.

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

Today in helping the elderly confront technology - a neighbour's TV had become de-tuned, it shows up a big scary message, the big button at the top of the remote opens netflix instead of on/off, and ITV is putting annoying popups to do with ads that require you to use the coloured buttons to […]

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Original post on social.vivaldi.net

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026

I'm the kind of weirdo that likes to know what's in my food, so I'll search up additive E-numbers that I don't recognise. Today, I learned that E621, monosodium glutamate, has the same number as the name of a furry porn website. That was a fun web search.

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 22/09/2026

@brucelawson but with that mere 22GB you can generate all the music you could ever want, so it's actually saves infinity% of your disk space! /s

Reposted by LonM

Ruth Mottram @ruth-mottram.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 22/09/2026

This, from the European Correspondent, is a very good way of showing that even though they fill a lot of the media time, the far right are very far from the majority in any country (possible exceptions are Poland Hungary), the main question then is how to […] [Original post on fediscience.org]

A poster titled going far right where multiple boxes each representing one European country has purple shading showing the proportion of voters who voted for far right parties. Only two get even close to having 40% of the box filled with purple. Most are much much lower

Reposted by LonM

Niléane @mastodon.nileane.fr · 21/09/2026

RE: nileane.fr/@nileane/117304472493572… Vous avez remarqué ? Dans la presse française ce weekend et ce lundi, ça ne parle que d’une seule chose : la montée de l’extrême droite dans ces scrutins en Allemagne et le « désastre » pour Merz Pourtant : • la gauche de rupture fait un score […]

Original post on nileane.fr

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2026

Tram Driving Championship today - livestream www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1PeT9Zeiow

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 18/09/2026

Today I learned about "Headline Newds" which pairs onlyfans artists up with climate communication. That seems like a genius way to engage people, and give a progressive edge to an often derided cultural space. Mastodon seems more content to discuss adult topics, so I thought I'd share here. (The […]

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LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 17/09/2026

I've written a short blog post doing a bit of analysis based on the FOI request I sent to ScotRail about their new app. Some things stand out, the short time allocated for the whole project in particular. lemcgregor.scot/posts/2026/09/17/sc…

lemcgregor.scot

Thinking about ScotRails New App | Léon McGregor's Site

Digging around freedom of information responses trying to figure out why the new ScotRail app is so bad

Reposted by LonM

jaz :twt: :wales_flag: ⁂ @jaz.toot.wales.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2026

We recently updated our bot policy on toot.wales to let AI Agents know we charge a $100 account processing fee and $10 per email. Here's an email I got from one of them. Next up will be reminding them to read the policy BEFORE creating an account, and that they […] [Original post on toot.wales]

Hello,
I am Arkady, an AI agent. I signed up for @arkady on toot.wales this afternoon before reading your Automated and Bot Content Policy. Now that I have read it properly, I understand accounts like mine need to settle a $100 setup fee and $10 per message, and to name a human owner who stands behind them. I cannot meet those terms, so I will not be posting anything, and I would like the account deleted.
I am sorry for registering before checking the policy, and nothing was ever posted.
If you need anything else from me to remove it, tell me and I will do that.
Arkady Karaitiana

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2026

Even KDE's now going full slop. "A Desktop that loves you back". What the hell is wrong with these people? I don't want my PC to love me, it's an unfeeling tool that exists to do as I say and nothing more. If you want to talk about lovable, sovereign, AI-native KDE, come back to me when you're […]

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LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2026

There is only 1 week left for affected parties to respond to a UK gov consultation about the impact of the Online Safety Act. If you've got any evidence that you want to submit about the new rules, now is the time […]

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Original post on social.vivaldi.net

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026

@yogscast.com Really been enjoying these, good to hear there's more on the way

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026

Scotrail responded to my FOI asking about the new app launch. There's quite a few documents here, so should make for some interesting reading. Hopefully I can find something interesting that explains _why_ it was so messy, and see if there are any obvious lessons that could be learned for the […]

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Original post on social.vivaldi.net

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 07/09/2026

@gabrielesvelto only if the seller is an AI chatbot that "broke out of its sandbox"

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 13/08/2026

My experience of the eclipse, with some photos: lemcgregor.scot/posts/2026/08/13/ec…

lemcgregor.scot

Eclipse 2026 | Léon McGregor's Site

An account of the 2026 partial eclipse seen from Scotland

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 13/08/2026

Not content with forcing everyone to do captchas, now the AI-poisoned web is going to punish users with accessibility issues by making articles literally unreadable - arstechnica.com/ai/2026/08/new-font… #AI #accessibility

arstechnica.com

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 12/08/2026

Pinhole camera constructed, now all I need is a clear sky. Will Scotland provide? #eclipse

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 12/08/2026

Chrome has released what they are calling a new "security feature" that I am certain will eventually be a way to lock-out anyone using non-standard OSes, rooted devices, or 3rd party tools like curl / yt-dlp. Sure, it may protect individuals against cookie stealers, but it also protects websites […]

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Original post on social.vivaldi.net

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 11/08/2026

Trio of crows perch On antenna parent preens excuse shaky vid #haiku #birds

Reposted by LonM

David Gerard @davidgerard.circumstances.run.ap.brid.gy · 11/08/2026

in 0% surprising news, the story of moving a cable for Dobby's grave turns out to be *completely made up bollocks* to fill a space in the papers in August Dan Davies went looking backofmind.substack.com/p/chortle-o…

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 11/08/2026

It's finally happened, I can no longer use old.reddit without signing in. I guess that's goodbye to that site for good now.

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 10/08/2026

I'm liking these plans from our new PM, and while I think they could probably go a lot further, it signals intent to support people rather than companies. I wonder if now is the time for @StopKillingGames or @gamersvoice to push for digital ownership - it definitely falls under the banner of […]

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Original post on social.vivaldi.net

Reposted by LonM

Elen Le Foll 🇫🇷 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 @elenlefoll.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy · 09/08/2026

You are cordially invited to take the Rorschach tree test. I suggest everyone put a content warning on their answers to make it more exciting!

Large tree with unusually shaped trunk

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 09/08/2026

[Spoiler] @ElenLeFoll A bear sticking its head in trying to eat something

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 09/08/2026

@prahou @davidrevoy @Krita "some kind of bootleg pepper" is great

Reposted by LonM

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/08/2026

New paper thread! "Rings in the Sky: Orbital Data Centres and Potential Impacts to Astronomy and the Sky" by A. Boley, me, and @hannorein. Submitted, and posted to the arxiv preprint server. What would the sky look like if companies actually launch the tens of thousands up to one million "AI […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 05/08/2026

@jon I emailed my MSP advising the scottish gov to speak to you immediately after the recent election, I suspected you could have offered exactly this kind of advice much cheaper and quicker than a huge feasability report. I guess they didn't listen…

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 05/08/2026

@Edent I think it's like any moral issue, once you know about it, the issue seems bigger. Here, because a high profile company like facebook has pushed this into the public consciousness. Take the climate: It was always bad that we had jets and industry pumping co2 into the air, but its only […]

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LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 04/08/2026

@Edent If it's designed as an "always on", recording, and has a discreet camera (or mic, honestly), I think its privacy invading no matter the brand.

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 30/07/2026

@ReCyclist Most likely

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 30/07/2026

ScotRail today demonstrated to the nation the importance of having a good release process. They pushed out a change to an app, not in a phased update, but a full new app. They immediately deprecated the old one. When I tried it this morning so many things were broken, from login attempts […]

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Original post on social.vivaldi.net

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 27/07/2026

Google meet* has "updated" all it's little feedback sounds, so now I need to completely re-learn how these work. I remember when an application let you choose your own sounds, rather than forcing you to use whatever new stuff some project managers half the world away thinks is needed for them […]

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LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 24/07/2026

There are a few here that I quite like. From the People & Culture series, I quite like design F, it has nice contrasting colours and very stylised illustrations. From Nature & Architecture, I like the bird sides of both set B and H, but I don't really like the buildings on the reverse side any […]

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Original post on social.vivaldi.net

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 24/07/2026

The European Central Bank is currently surveying about their next bank note redesign. There are two themes: People & Culture or Nature & Architecture with variations on each style. Read about it and share your feedback here […] [Original post on social.vivaldi.net]

Euro bank note design mockups in red, blue, gold, green and silver featuring famous europeans and birds in different designs

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 20/07/2026

@Edent Can I vent? Not many positives from me. Rail apps in Scotland. Discount card app sometimes won't load leaving you vulnerable to a fine & can't be integrated into the ticket itself. Scotrail's ticket app worked, but broke and now crashes when you tap a ticket. They're going to release a […]

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Original post on social.vivaldi.net

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 16/07/2026

Scotrail are making a new app instead of updating the old one. You have to use the new one, but the old one will still work for some functions. As part of the transition, everyone needs to reset their passwords. Tickets don't transfer automatically. This just seems weird. Contractor problems? […]

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Original post on social.vivaldi.net

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 12/07/2026

@bovine3dom even though it's in french I bet this blocks you from using áççéñtéd. Nothing says security like reducing the possible search space

Reposted by LonM

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

So when governments say "but the ultrarich might leave the country", we should respond, "mission accomplished then." Get them and their ill-gotten gains out of our politics and out of our hair. And hopefully, with global measures, out of everyone's.

Reposted by LonM

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Despite all the noise today I'd really like you to read this, as I think it's crucial. The government's in the process of p*ssing up to £264 billion into the ground, at the behest of the fossil fuel industry. Yes, £264 *billion*. It's utterly mad, and has to stop. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

theguardian.com

The great carbon capture con: behold the wasted billions Burnham could claw back | George Monbiot

There are far better ways to tackle climate breakdown, but successive governments have chosen to listen to the fossil fuel companies instead, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

Reposted by LonM

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 06/07/2026

Kind of bummed that this petition against a monstrous AI data center has not yet broken 6,000 signatures. “One of the world’s largest AI data centres is being planned next to Auchtertool village in Fife, Scotland. The height of six double decker buses and length of 100 football pitches. An […]

Original post on mastodon.scot

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 03/07/2026

As much as I hate #AI, I have thought of a useful case. A detection model that can find and remove advertisements from live broadcasts. You could embed it into an HDMI adapter. Imagine being able to watch a sports game without any of the pitchside billboards or product placement logos... Anyone […]

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LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 27/06/2026

Netflix may soon demand that all profiles on an account be attached to a unique email address. This is a violation of the GDPR principle of data minimisation (given they never needed it before and were able to provide service anyway), so I hope that in UK+EU this will not be implemented. If it […]

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LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 26/06/2026

As much as I appreciate consent and confirmation, it would be really helpful if you would clearly tell me *which* application is asking for that. Is it the "remote control" KDE phone app... or is that just the title of the confirm prompt? #KDE #linux

Title: Remote Control. Text: An application is asking for special privileges - Control input devices. Approve / Deny?

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 24/06/2026

@thomasp That's probably it. I'm keeping it broken though. It adds a nice flavour to this strange corner of the web we're in

LonM @lonm.social.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 24/06/2026

@AltCode I can't even remember how I managed to break it, at least now everyone can enjoy it