iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 21/09/2026

I saw this this morning and I'm still not over it.

$Screenshot of a Windows PowerShell terminal that reads: C:\Windows\System32> claude$

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 15/08/2026

You can get rid of — but the stench of AI prevails and it's exhausting.

The pile-on had names. The same ones, again and again.

A pile-on is not produced by an institution; it is produced by people filing, day after day, on the same man. Eight of the Independent's pieces

One honest finding up front: this was not a red- top phenomenon. The Mirror ran two pieces and the Daily Star one; the BBC and Sky covered it as news, at news volume. The pile-

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 21/06/2026

@coreybutler.com Just wondering if you know that nvm-windows ships with a hardcoded run.cmd path

$run.cmd 2026-06-17 2026-06-19 Start-Process : This command cannot be run due to the error: The system cannot find the file specified. At line:1 char:1 + Start-Process -Filepath 'C:\Users\corey\OneDrive\Documents\workspace\ + CategoryInfo + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidOperation: (:) [Start-Process], InvalidOperationException : InvalidoperationException, Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands. StartProcessCommand$

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 05/05/2026

For all the talk of UX, the Internet is truly becoming unbearable to use.

A substack post, with two layers of gatekeeping:
A pop up for "Give us your email to read this article"
hidden by a subsequent pop-up about installing the app to read the post.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 17/04/2026

Hard choice but this one always tickles me. I miss my doofus.

A black and white cat suggestively licking his toes

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 16/03/2026

Oh ffs. keepandroidopen.org

Screenshot of a website banner from keepandroidopen.org with a large red background and bold white text reading: "ANDROID WILL BECOME A LOCKED-DOWN PLATFORM IN 168D 4H 6M 22S." Below it, smaller text says: "Read our open letter opposing the Android Developer Verification program."

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 14/03/2026

Why is not wooorking mama? Turn it ooon mamaaa. On Friday I need to go to work. On Friday. Friday. Hello, Mr Gruber, yes, and my favourite sandwich. What do you want for tuba, tuba tuba? Watchoo want for tuuuba?

Overhead photo of a toddler sitting on the floor in front of a white macbook connected to an external keyboard, and mouse, appearing to mimic a computer workstation. The child is holding an analogue landline telephone. The child's face is obscured by a yellow smiley sticker.
To the side of the image, the edge of a standing desk can be seen, with papers and a mousepad. A foot is visible to the bottom of the picture, making it clear it's a standing desk.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 26/02/2026

Why do these bastard ticket machines default to tickets that would, were I to buy one and board the train with it, result in me being fined for paying an inappropriate fare?

South Western Railway ticket machine
Screen reads:
Top left:
"Ticket base data info:
Return ticket valid for date shown,
outward and return time restrictions apply Mon - Sat, including bank holidays"

Center: "Please select your fare"
Yellow 'attention' bar reads: "Any permitted" with an ℹ️ information button.

Two buttons occupy the rest of the screen:
Green top button: Off-peak day return £16.40 (selected)
Blue bottom button: Anytime Day Return £19.10

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 13/02/2026

Make DACPACs make sense! Give us a pre-deployment script that runs pre-pre-deployment script and before the deployment plan that is calculated on a outdated state. And stop people committing atrocities to bypass the absence of this feature. 👇 Thanks @drewsk.bsky.social

Quote: "A pre-deployment script is executed before the deployment plan is executed but the deployment plan is calculated before the script executes"

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 18/01/2026

É verdade. Enorme desilusão.

Imagem mostra voto do estrangeiro nas Presidenciais Portuguesas 2026, mostrando Andre Ventura com 39.4% do voto, com 78% do voto apurado.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 09/01/2026

Anyone else using an MMO gaming mouse programmed with coding shortcuts?

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 10/12/2025

Cool, cool, but how do we make them stop?

Guardian headline reads:
Topic in smaller, red lettering: Anthropology

Headline in larger, white lettering: Humans made fire 350,000 years earlier than previously thought, discovery in Suffolk suggests

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 07/12/2025

This is really messing with my head so much right now. I'm in denial that @hkt3030.neocities.org is gone.

Cropped "send via direct message" screenshot showing two bluesky users: the second one is redacted, the first is the display picture and name of my friend who passed away at age 38 on Monday: Nick Thorpe, image is a red/white/yellow close-up photo of an eye.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 04/12/2025

I'm on wet sticky packed Northern line train at rush hour, heading to the City on a Thursday morning. I'm already questioning all the choices that led me here. Then I look up and see this and question my fundamental understanding of the English language.

An 'ad' on a Northern Line train for Poems on the Underground.
'William at Four Days Old'
Jack Underwood
Reprinted by permission of Faber from the book Happiness (2015)

When the lock chucks familiar,
or a cat follows its name from a room,
when silence is strung, or rain
holds back the trees, I thought
I had the lever of these.
But weighing your fine melon head,
your innocent daring to be,
and mouth-first searching,
your tiny fist is allowed absolutely and I am uncooked
-I can feel my socks being on -
utter, precious apple,
churchyards flatten in my heart,
I've never been brilliant so scared.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 04/12/2025

If you lose your job to AI, is every pint an after-work pint?

Ad for Tommy Taylor's Landlord (beer?) in a tube station.
Cartoon-style pub scene. Two men in shirts and ties stand at a high table with pints, saying
“They say A.I. is going to take our jobs” and
“It’ll never take our after-work pint…”.
Next to them is a robot dressed the same way, a pint with foam spilling out, looking awkward.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 19/11/2025

How do we stop this plague?

Facebook comment reads:
Wow. I use chatgpt constantly but really only to fact check things I read online and to meal plan. Using it for this is... Really something

3h ago
2 laugh reacts

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 12/11/2025

Most relatable conference talk silde ever, courtesy of @html5test.com at #HalfStack

A speaker stands on stage at a tech event, lit by warm red and purple lights, in front of a projected slide filled with text listing their many niche interests. The audience watches attentively in a small, dark venue. A "HalfStack" banner is visible on the side of the stage. Slide reads:

I get obsessed about user agent strings, northern lights, lego, clocks, astrophotography, osollloscopes, receipt printers, reverse engineering bluetooth devices, video's about watch repair, evolution of germanio languages, DMX controlled stago lIghts and pyrotechnios, browser compatibility before 2000, the space shuttle, publio transport in London - but less than Leo, how the browser parses HTML, history of writing. watohing reaction videos to the musio of Ren, typography, making perfeot sorambled eggs.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 04/11/2025

It was drunken Ernest Hemmingway in the garden path with the moose gun. #Cthulhu #DeathMayDie

A photo of the board game Cthulhu Death May Die, depicting 8 red cultist figures, a badly painted Yog-Sothoth, a drunken Ernest Hemmingway figure, some board pieces, dice, and other game pieces.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 28/09/2025

Whilst I'd like to blame the fragility and ineptitude of USB micro ports for this BlackBerry 8900 Curve not turning on, I have remembered what actually happened. I tried to install the Yammer app on it circa 2010 (pre-Microsoft ownership) and it became instantly, permanently bricked. 🪦

A person is holding a BlackBerry 8900 Curve in their hand. The device has a black screen above a full QWERTY keyboard with small rounded keys, red numbers, and white letters. In the center above the keyboard is a trackball navigation button, flanked by call, menu, back, and power buttons. The phone’s screen is turned off.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 28/09/2025

Bought at Cash Converters for £20 in the late 2000s, this phone is "For Engineering Use Only" so in retrospect, it's probably a stolen BlackBerry 8820. Judging by the date, it thinks it's 2007. And I've no idea what the password might be.

Close-up of a BlackBerry 8820 phone showing an error message box that reads "Incorrect password!" with an "OK" button. The phone displays a home screen with a cloudy sky and road wallpaper, and the classic physical QWERTY keyboard is visible, backlit. The device shows the date as Monday.

August 13, with the time 09:32.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 28/09/2025

The back, for those who may be interested. I should probably send them off to be recycled. I enjoyed taking the BlackBerry 8320 apart (not pictured), but there's probably not a lot I can do with the more modern phones.

A collection of 12 old and modern mobile phones laid out on a wooden floor roughly, faced down, in order of when I owned them.
The top row shows early models including a blue and white Siemens C65 candybar phone, a silver/grey Samsung slider SHG-G600, a silver/grey HTC Desire-Z, and two black BlackBerry phones including a Bold 8900, and the first in the lineup without a hardware keyboard: a black sparkly LG Nexus 4.
The bottom row shows more recent touchscreen smartphones of varying sizes, getting progressively larger but thinner, starting with two Alcatel devices (Pop 4 and another) which were auxiliary "don't want to get mugged" devices.
Then, from left to right: a white Motorola Nexus 6, a purple Samsung Galaxy S21+, an orange Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, and a black iPhone 4.
Missing from the photo are:
Index 0: Alcatel One Touch Easy, blue
Index 4: Blackberry Curve 8230, silver
Index 8: Samsung Galaxy 8

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 28/09/2025

I pulled out my history of mobile phones last night. None of those using USB micro charging show signs of life. However, these older phones will turn on: - USB mini-B charging (BlackBerry) - Proprietary Samsung charger (SGH G600) I still miss a good integrated hardware keyboard.

A collection of 12 old and modern mobile phones laid out on a wooden floor roughly in order of when I owned them.
The top row shows early models including a Siemens C65 candybar phone, a Samsung slider SHG-G600, an HTC Desire-Z, and two BlackBerry phones including a Bold 8900, and the first in the lineup without a hardware keyboard: LG Nexus 4.
The bottom row shows more recent touchscreen smartphones of varying sizes and designs starting with two Alcatel devices (Pop 4 and another) which were auxiliary "don't want to get mugged" devices.
Then, from left to right: a Motorola Nexus 6, a Samsung Galaxy S21+, a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, and an iPhone 4.
Missing from the photo are:
Index 0: Alcatel One Touch Easy, blue
Index 4: Blackberry Curve 8230, silver
Index 8: Samsung Galaxy 8
The more recent devices are nearly bezel-less, showing the progression of mobile phone design over the past two decades.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 20/08/2025

.scroll-text { text-wrap: nowrap font-size: 0.8rem; min-width: fit-content; }

Stained glass window depicting the Virgin Mary holding a lily, framed by ornate patterns and a scroll across her chest. The scroll text, meant to read “MARIA VIRGO,” is awkwardly broken across lines with uneven spacing, giving the words a jumbled, misaligned appearance.

East window St Martin's Church, Brampton, Cumbria.
Photo credit CJ Brown.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 18/08/2025

If a Hotel website caps my password length at 15 characters and politely requests that I do not use special characters, should I just avoid them on principle?

A password input field on a website shows an error. The field is filled with hidden characters (dots) and highlighted in pink. A message below says: "Please do not use any special characters, e.g., #, ', %, §, etc." and another error in red text reads: "Max character limit reached (15)."

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 09/08/2025

These were my most recent gateway back into it... Desperately lacking in range, and black keys. And whilst I enjoy Garage Band on my 12" iPad, I too suffer from fat fingers. Plus, it loses something with the absence of the physical response to touch of the keys!

Two colorful children's musical toys.

The toy in the background is a Fisher-Price DJ Table, an interactive learning toy and activity center for babies and toddlers. It is a turquoise activity center with various buttons, knobs, a toy microphone, a turntable with alphabet letters around the edge, a small piano keyboard with white keys labeled by shapes and colors, and a small screen showing a smiling cartoon face with headphones.

The toy in the foreground, held by a hand, is a white Fisher-Price keyboard with five large colored keys numbered 1 to 5. Each key has an illustration of an animal: a monkey (1, red), a toucan (2, orange), a frog playing guitar (3, yellow), an elephant playing trumpet (4, green), and a lion playing a drum (5, blue).

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 09/08/2025

I'm... I'm so sorry to have bothered you.

"Page not found!!!

The page you requested was not found in this site."

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 07/08/2025

Build-time compiler errors for Blazor would make my life 12% better.

Chrome dev console window reading:

Blazor.server.js:1
[2025-08-07T15:36:43.234Z] Error: System. InvalidOperationException: The type [redacted] declares a parameter matching the name 'EndpointDetails' that is not public. Parameters must be public. at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components. Reflection.ComponentProperties.WritersForType..ctor (Type
targetType)

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 06/08/2025

I get my kicks where I get my kicks.

Two screenshots from a C# development environment showing code suggestions, on a black background.

The top screenshot displays the code line:

`if (args is not EventArgs`

"EventArgs" has a blue squiggly line. The screenshot shows a tooltip with a lightbulb icon and the suggestion "Use null check pattern".

The second screenshot below shows the result of applying the suggestion:

`if (args is not not null`

which contains a humorous and redundant double negative null check.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 04/08/2025

Anyone else get Push It stuck in their head from time to time?

Screenshot of syntax-highlighted C# code reading:
(static x =>

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 29/07/2025

My apologies to FluentUI for Blazor. Part of my frustration at them is actually a fundamental frustration with the underlying HTML date input. Behold, values using '/' are not appropriately parsed. Values using "-" are parsed and displayed with "/". 🤡

Screenshot of an HTML input demo showing a date picker field, the code on the left and the output on the right.

On the left, there's HTML code specifying an input of type "date" with a value of "2019/07/01", and minimum and maximum dates set to "2018-01-01" and "2018-12-31" respectively.

On the right, the rendered output displays a date input field labeled "Start date:" with the data displaying as "dd/mm/2018", indicating that the value has not been appropriately parsed due to the use of "/" in the value parameter instead of "-".

The slashes and dashes in both the HTML value and the visible date field are highlighted in yellow, drawing attention to a mismatch in date format expectations.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 28/07/2025

Far more usable on mobile, even if the layout is lacking. Basic interactions like escaping out of the calendar and navigation by keyboard probably come under the "not fully compatible with accessibility" disclaimer. I see no reason to use this over a standard html input at the moment.

A screenshot from the FluentUI Blazor documentation site, showing the "Conversion examples" section.
Multiple instances of a date and time picker are displayed, each showing the same date, "28/07/2025", and time, "21:18".
To the right of each, the date and time are output as Date: 2025-07-28 Time: 21:18. The rows are slightly on top of each other, the mobile layout hasn't been kind to it.

The page uses a dark theme, and the browser is in mobile view

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 28/07/2025

DateTime pickers are beastly. Temporality as a whole is a nightmare. FluentUI for Blazor docs go further: when you type a / into the picker, naturally what you want is to enter a search command. It displays as dd/mm/yyyy but certain cases expect dd-mm-yyyy input. Others expect nothing. Naturally.

A screenshot of the FluentUI for Blazor documentation showing an example of DateOnly and TimeOnly bindings in a date picker component.

A crudely drawn orange arrow points from the date input field containing "01/01/0001" to the docs' own search bar in the top right, that reads "/2", showing that the user's input has triggered the search commands.

The annotation indicates that typing a slash into the date field is misinterpreted as a docs search command. The example demonstrates the picker rendering dates in "dd/mm/yyyy" format but behaving inconsistently with user input expectations.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 25/07/2025

Thanks, that's helpful. I'm going a bit mad trying to style my datagrids. I'd greatly appreciate more direct control of width and element styling. As an example, PropCols as buttons have a different styling to TemplateCols, including different font sizes, weights, and event typeface.

Screenshot of annotated section of FluentUI Blazor data grid.

It shows with pagination controls and a dropdown labeled "Results Per Page" set to 10.

The grid includes column headers "Originator," "Created," and "Details."

An arrow indicates sorting is applied to the "Created" column. Labels point out that "Created" is a PropertyColumn with different size, weight, and typeface to "Details", which is a TemplateColumn. The design inconsistency between these column types is highlighted.

The "results per page" seelctor has a box around it and an arrow pointing to the preferred position, which is unattainable currently.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 24/07/2025

Squashies for reference.

A packet of Swizzels Squashies Drumstick sweets. The packaging is red and yellow striped with a clear window showing pink and white chewy sweets inside. The label reads 'Squashies' in large white letters with 'Drumstick' written below on a green banner. At the bottom, it says 'Original Raspberry & Milk Flavour'

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 24/07/2025

Does everyone figure out their layouts by setting background-color to Squashies packet colours?

Various UI components in jarring clashing colours, overlapping each other.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 23/07/2025

Yeah, fair. I find troubleshooting excruciating amidst vague console errors, no step-into debugging, no compiler errors, and skeletal documentation. Can't put it all on FUIB! While I've got you, I can't find info on the interactions of @ref, Data, and Items props on grids. Any guidance? Thank you.

[2025-07-23T08:30:48.233Z] Error:

System. InvalidOperationException: Unable to evaluate index expressions of type 'PropertyExpression'

Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components. Forms. ExpressionFormatter. FormatIndexArgumen t(Expression indexExpression, ReverseStringBuilder& builder)

at

Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Forms.ExpressionFormatter. FormatIndexArgumen t(Expression indexExpression)

at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components. Forms.FieldIdentifier. ParseAccessor [T]

(Expression'1 accessor, Object& model, String& fieldName)

at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components. Forms.FieldIdentifier.Create [TField] (Expression'1 accessor)

Microsoft.FluentUI.AspNetCore.Components.FluentInputBase 1.SetParametersAsyn c(ParameterView parameters) in /_/src/Core/Components/Base/FluentInputBase.cs:line 317

at

Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components. Rendering.ComponentState. SupplyCombinedParam eters (ParameterView directAndCascadingParameters)

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 22/07/2025

Here's an example, and the dev tools console is empty. It might have something to do with binding to a dictionary but I'll have to look in the morning as I can't quite remember how I left it.

Hot Reload - Changes not supported

Your changes cannot be applied as they are not supported by Hot Reload:

Generator 'RazorSourceGenerator' failed to generate source. It will not contribute to the output and compilation errors may occur as a result. Exception was of type 'ArgumentException' with message The hintName 'Comp 'Components_LoadingCentered_razor.g.cs' of the added source file must be unique within a generator. (Parameter 'hintName")'. System.ArgumentException: The hintName 'Components_LoadingCentered_razor.g.cs' of the added source file must be unique within a generator. (Parameter 'hintName') at Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.AdditionalSourcesCollection.Add(String hintName,

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 14/07/2025

"The current password may only contain letters and numbers." Bit awkward because, well, it doesn't. 🙃

Change your login password

Field label: "Current password"
[text input box]
Error message: "The current password may only contain letters and numbers. "

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 11/07/2025

"Anonymous function can be made 'static'" "Can". But is there a reason it shouldn't be?

Visual studio intellisense pop-up reads:

"lambda expression
Anonymous function can be made 'static'"

The word "static" is highlighted in blue.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 01/07/2025

On the topic of Glastonbury and the BBC, let's not forget this. Y'know, for context.

Screenshot from The Guardian app:

Small words in bold at the top: Have I Got News for You
Yellow warning banner: This article is more than 4 years old

Headline: BBC defends comic's 'bomb Glastonbury joke about Corbyn fans
Byline:Fin Tavlor said on Have I Got News For You that he hated politician because of 'fanatics'
Author: Jim Waterson - Media editor

Date: Thu 26 Nov 2020 11.58 GMT
Article excerpt: The BBC has defended a comedian's comments about e Jeremy Corbyn on Have I Got News For You, in the latest instance of the broadcaster having to deal with complaints from the public about jokes mocking politicians.
On last week's episode of the satirical current affairs programme, Fin Taylor compared the former Labour leader to Bob Dylan, "in that I only hate him so much because of his fans".

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 28/06/2025

The best parenting advice I ever received was to get a pram with off-road suspension. Check this baby out.

A pram wheel with a big thick spring providing kickass suspension.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 27/06/2025

I spent some days in the Children's Ward with my baby, this week. There, I learnt about Sophie. This 10 year-old's story really moved me; she endured a nightmare and had the heart to think of others. She was let down by an unfit system. It's bitterly unfair. www.sophieslegacy.co.uk/sophiesstory

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 11/06/2025

As ruas do Porto hoje foram uma vergonha profunda. Fascistas dos mais repugnantes (como se houvesse outro tipo), sem oposição, celebraram alegremente a sua ignorância, repugnância, arrogância. Asco.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 10/06/2025

Porto, Portugal - 10 June 2025. Portuguese fascists. No sense. No shame. "Their faces are all different, ours are all the same." Inbreeding since 1143 isn't the flex you think it is, plankton-brain scum.

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 05/06/2025

Automatic fire shutter in operation Or Automatic fire-shutter in operation?

A warning sign consisting of: ⚠️
White background
Yellow triangle, black boarder
The yellow triangle has a black exclamation mark

A yellow box with the following text:
"Warning"
"automatic fire"
"shutter in operation"

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mapgie @mapgie.co.uk · 03/06/2025

My solution won't build in Visual Studio. It will build in Rider... I desperately want to be able to use Rider but I feel like my brain cannot handle the switch under pressure. My self-sabotaging flavour of neurodivergence...

MSB4018

Description

The "DiscoverPrecompressedAssets" task failed unexpectedly.

System.ArgumentException: An item with the same key has already been added. at System.ThrowHelper.ThrowArgumentException (ExceptionResource resource) at System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary 2.Insert(TKey key, TValue value, Boolean add)

at System.Linq.Enumerable. ToDictionary[TSource, TKey, TElement] (IEnumerable 1 source, Func'2 keySelector, Func 2 elementSelector, lEqualityComparer'1 comparer) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.StaticWebAssets.Tasks.DiscoverPrecompressedAssets.Execute() at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.TaskExecutionHost.Execute()

at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.TaskBuilder.<Executelnstantiated Task>d 26.MoveNext()

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