iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Maybe Brent and Jonathan would have you on the podcast to help get the wheels turning? Also: Westlake needs to figure out how to get volume 2 released

Spotify showing Star Trek Lower Decks Vol 1 original soundtrack by Chris Westlake, playing the the track “Agimus Reigns”

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Del Grant in “Countdown”. A one shot episode but containing an interesting element to Avon’s backstory

Kerr Avon (left) standing with Del Grant, with Roj Blake in the background watching the conversation

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

The user interface (such as during chats when the user points out the AI screwed up) pretends to more servility though. Orac would not approve of burning tokens for trivial matters (which it considered almost anything it was asked)

“Slave”, the computer controlling the spaceship “Scorpio” from season four of “Blake’s 7”

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

This bad air quality goes to 11 Thanks to our big C conservative premier and small c conservative prime minister for pushing pro-carbon policies while failing to sufficiently resource large area firefighting

5:34巴
SoS =
12
Air Quality Health Index Current location
Orange Warning - Air Quality

Calculated at
Toronto Downtown
5:00 am EDT Thursday 16 July 2026
10
+
Very High Risk
(10+) |
At Risk Population
Avoid strenuous activities outdoors. Children and the elderly should also avoid outdoor physical exertion.
General Population
Reduce or reschedule strenuous activities outdoors, especially if you experience symptoms such as coughing and throat irritation.

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

You have people stuck in commutes during an air quality warning this morning because of your support of so-called “return to the office” policies, while you dismiss your party’s climate policies as yesterday’s news, swallowing whole what Alberta conservatives are selling.

9:54
5G
55
Alerts
2
• Orange Warning - Air Quality
From
Now
To
8:00 AM EDT
翻
Friday 17 Jul 2026
Issued at: 8:21 AM EDT Wednesday 15 Jul 2026
Impact level: High
Forecast confidence: High
Smoke from wildfires in northwestern Ontario is causing very poor air quality and reduced visibility.
Conditions may improve Friday morning.
During heavy smoke conditions, everyone's health is at risk regardless of their age or health status.

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

(For the sporting season that’s in it) eth eth eth eth eth Chris Waddle

Newsreader Xolothos Apollonia with a picture of Chris Waddle at top right (“The Fast Show”)

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Disrespect of the State, comrade

Colonel Lyudmila Raskova, a woman in a green KGB uniform, in “Star City” (Apple TV)

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Good luck seeing this in The City Owned By Rogers

The “Jesus I see what you have done for other people” meme but with “Toronto” substituted for “‘me”

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

I mean, any opportunity to have a dig at the NYP is a good one. I was literally thinking “NY Post editorial meeting gotta be screaming ‘he can’t keep getting away with this’” just before I got to this part

‘Mamdani’s speech has drawn plaudits, except among the New York Post, the Rupert Murdoch-backed newspaper, which bemoaned the mayor for soaking up the “spotlight with droning, nearly 10-minute speech” at the ceremony.’

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

I must admit that when considering whether to get into “Star City”, I wondered if the Welsh roommate from “Notting Hill” would be up to it. Having watched the first two episodes, he is definitely Up To It. If the show carries on like this it will be tremendous. #appletv

Rhys Ifans, in glasses and a suit, standing in front of a plaque with a hammer and sickle

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Mallow to Fermoy continued on to Dungarvan through the Blackwater Valley and into Waterford (there is a little tourism railway on part of it). It was a mainline route continuing to Rosslare. Mitchelstown Fermoy was just a spur off that.

Screenshot of 1906 Viceregal Map showing Mallow-Fermoy-Lismore with a spur northward from Fermoy to Mitchelstown

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

The Pope may not have as many divisions but the last guy who checked the number didn’t last past 1953 and a later Pope was a significant part of the downfall of the USSR

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

If only ORK could do an extension of 07/25 to the west instead of fighting crosswinds all the time… maybe one day when there’s a Cork Taoiseach.

Madeira Airport with the nearer end held up by concrete supports

Map showing topographic levels at the west end of Cork runway 07/24 across a dip in land to the ground opposite, showing elevations of 130-145 meters

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

I haven’t started it yet. I will but it’s definitely feeling like running out of road. First of all with the number of rads he’s taken the main lad should just be one big tumour at this stage, and if I wanted a Free Mars narrative I’d probably just crack open these again

The three books of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy laid out side by side

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Literally the first president of the Republic of Ireland had all but one of the national Cabinet stand outside his funeral. But at least that nation could stomach a Protestant president decades before America could a Catholic one

Wikipedia excerpt: “As a former President of Ireland, Hyde was accorded a state funeral. As he was a member of the Church of Ireland, his funeral service took place in Dublin's Church of Ireland St. Patrick's Cathedral. However, contemporary rules of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland prohibited its members from attending services in non-Catholic churches. As a result, all but one member of the Catholic cabinet, Noël Browne, remained outside the cathedral grounds while the funeral service took place.”

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

“Outlook is on a spaceship. YOU PUT OUTLOOK ON A SPACESHIP”

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

I actually like the breaded shrimp

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh, Toronto.

Text from my wife at 8.00am saying “OK, so I think it could be either -11 or there could be 3 to 4 inches of snow on the car. Both feels very unfair given that it is already St. Patrick's Day.” to which I have replied with a shamrock bubble

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Skenes is 23 - would likely be an attractive visitor at his local recruitment office

Man in short hair and fatigues points his hands towards an office chair branded ‘ARMY’ in an ushering fashion

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Imagine being the guy in the Department of Defence who nominally has the job of checking where military overflights go, having the Secretary General show up at his desk

The Wire - Stringer Bell, standing, grabs and tears up the minutes (aka “notes of a criminal fucking conspiracy”) taken by Shaun "Shamrock" McGinty, seated

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

you trying to throw AI bots off the scent or?

Bluesky post dialog reads: "The post you're replying to was marked as being written in Portuguese by its author. Would you like to reply in Portuguese?" and offers a Yes button

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Open source gets there… in the very very end (I got a notification because I voted for this bug 20 years ago)

Bugzilla notification that 26 years after opening, the bug/feature request about exporting address book entries to vCards in Thunderbird has been closed

Mark Dowling, comment 25, 20 years ago

I needed to import LDIF and export multi-address vCard. Mozilla/TB, Palm Desktop, OL/OE and a bunch of other stuff I tried couldn't do it. I didn't want to get a website to parse it as the addresses are not mine to post to a website I don't run.

KAddressBook (discovered while building a new print server from Fedora) performed superbly. Any chance someone could look at the code and whether something similar could be implemented in Moz/TB Address Book? Pretty please?

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

I guess good for him that his gob has sufficiently recovered for him to go back to talking nonsense

Jake Paul sitting on his ass in a boxing ring after Anthony Joshua punched him in his dumb face

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

A judge who already had an appellate court reverse her is gonna ask that, unfortunately. It’s in the State’s interest that whatever order comes down, sticks

Post by Adam Klasfeld noting the 8th circuit paused this judge’s modest previous order blocking Feds violation of protester rights and that this proposed relief is MUCH more sweeping

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

One episode was enough to make the C a legend, get it in there

USS Enterprise NCC-1701-C exiting a blue cloudy area, passing from left to right of image, nacelles partially obscured

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Always comes to mind when she comes in swinging

@naomirwolf tweeting on 5 Jul 19 “It was amazing to go to Belfast, which does not yet have 5G, and feel the earth, sky, air, human experience, feel the way it did in the 1970s. Calm, still, peaceful, restful, natural.”

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Me, living in Canada, looking south at the nonsense

The Simpsons “Good Lord, What is Happening in There” meme but “Canadians” are pointing at a door marked “USA”

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Posting on the porn generator and a (dated) placeholder here

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Turned out the best Irish rail ad was Iranian m.independent.ie/irish-news/i...

Electoral advertisement for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with his face top left, the Iranian flag bottom left, and a 1960s built Irish Rail GM locomotive to the right, with in Farsi above “The country is advancing as rapidly as a train.”

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

behold the AI revolution (derogatory) - the explosion in size of Adobe Acrobat product patches (which were already ridiculously large) just in the last 15 months.

Listing of Adobe Acrobat MSP (patch) files between 26 Sept 2024 and 11 Dec 2025, growing from 690Mb to 1003 Mb in that time.

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

Not North American but Leap was a pretty good one as these things go

Green transit card saying TFI Leap with a leaping frog beside it, and an Alstom Citadis tram in the background

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Is this the Obico MSF? That one was never going to be cheap - half the cost or more is going to be the connecting track from Kipling tunnelling under the CP 4 track mainline while making a ~75 degree southward turn

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Introduce yourself with four spaceships

The battlestar “Galactica” from “Battlestar Galactica” (1978)

The starship “Liberator” from “Blake’s 7” (1978-1981)

“Thunder Fighter” starfighter from “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century” (1979-1981)

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

TTC having a normal one - two buses which were supposed to arrive already disappear, leaving this

TTC bus prediction showing next two buses >30mins away

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Mark Dowling @markdowling.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Yeah those foreign born US citizens do be tricky, eh “Ted”

Wikipedia screenshot noting that Rafael Edward Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and held Canadian citizenship until 2014

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