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Nick Telford-Reed

@mountainhippo.bsky.social
104 followers 464 following 170 posts

Alpine herbivore. Work in payments for which I apologise. I like mountains, films, music, a fairer world, cool technology, the open web, football. Co-chair, Web Payments Working Group, W3C.

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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Short Empire for me. Twin brother of the ugly beautiful and preposterous but utterly magnificent Sunderland. When WW2 ended, at least one still being manufactured on Lake Windermere and so they scuttled it. www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/474369....
thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk
Sunderland may have been found
ONE of Windermere's most enduring mysteries could finally be solved this summer following reports that a salvage team knows the exact location of a long-lost "sunken aircraft".
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I agree with you. My only caveat would be that the public movement of large groups still has to start somewhere. Folk in the large public groups had private conversations in smaller groups first. tl;dr - as long as they're safe (to your first point), more and wider conversations are good
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Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I have an announcement.
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
This gave me pangs for old Reddit. I miss the old internet. You know, the nice one that was fun and everyone could build stuff. Now I just feel old and grumpy
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
New want unlocked www.theregister.com/personal-tec...
theregister.com
Dell's 52-inch enormo-monitor is a tsunami of impractical fun
You probably don't need it, but as an example of the possible it impresses
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I would watch this
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Favourite story of the day so far. Google lost a chunk of Google Cloud because Google engineer unplugged it. www.theregister.com/off-prem/202...
theregister.com
Google engineer unplugged every fiber they could see and – surprise! – took down a chunk of the G-Cloud
This sounds like a RTFM error at hyperscale
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I was just googling yesterday about whether this had been renewed. Hooray that it now has.
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
*apart from nominating JK Rowling as her ideal fantasy PM. That certainly had a whiff of the GC about it
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
A lovely article about a building that I adore. I love the optimism of this brutalist megastructure - the sheer joy and faith in humans that said "let's build something that integrates art and culture and living". All those corridors and bridges and staircases leading people on unexpected journeys.
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I read your piece this morning and had a little cry. You wrote beautifully. Thank you
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Seems the difference between ‘protestors’ and ‘terrorists’ is that protestors wear balaclavas while terrorists hold placards.
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Actual footage from the House of Commons youtu.be/EleqqMevesw
youtu.be
Reform UK MP On Future Plans - Larry & Paul
YouTube video by Larry & Paul
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Enjoyed it a great deal. Flew through SW corner. Steady NW and SE progress. Completely missed the theme. Struggled with 6 down but got there in the end. A two cafetiere puzzle for Mrs Mountainhippo and me! COTD: 14ac. Thanks v much, @guineverecryptic.bsky.social
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
In other news, still searching for a 0% red wine that doesn't taste like sadness and despair
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
PSA: if like me you no longer drink alcohol but you really miss a good G&T, I have fabulous news. This stuff (Tanqueray Fior de Sevilla) makes an astonishingly good, genuinely almost indistinguishable from the real thing, (no)gin and tonic.
A bottle of Tanqueray Fior de Sevilla Alcohol Free gin
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
There's a huge bubble here. Everyone knows but no one wants to be the first to do anything about it. Markets are neither perfect nor rational. Once someone does move, the correction will be massive, but the bankers will have made their money and pension fund holders will carry the losses.
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Natalie Bennett @nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Powerful and important letter about artificial so-called intelligence from Sheila Hayman from Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, University of Cambridge, in the FT today
Margaret McGirr’s letter (“AI can lend a hand, but it will struggle to replace one”, July 21) and Chine McDonald’s guest column (“This retro revival is more than a longing for the past”, Opinion, August 7) both touch (sic) on something that should be obvious, but is carefully ignored by almost everyone in the tech world. Namely that our intelligence is embodied, evolved and biological, and inseparable from our bodies.
The brain’s job is to control the body in the world; it is the last organ to develop.
Every square centimetre of our hands (and of the rest of our skin) contains about a 170 touch sensors or nerve endings, sensitive to different kinds of touch: a slap, a burn, a caress, a hug — each of which travels to different parts of the midbrain, prompting the appropriate response. Quickly to the autonomic nervous system for something dangerous; more slowly via a different channel for something carrying meaning.
In addition to the hand’s limitless versatility, it is self-repairing, regulates its own temperature, knows without being programmed how much pressure to exert on an egg, a tennis ball or a day-old chick, and can fuse neurologically to whatever it holds.
So when we put a glass down on the table or slide a knife through an apple, we feel the table, or the apple, not the glass or handle in our hand (try it!).
Finally, and most urgently, the entire human body — including the hands — does everything on 25 or so watts of completely renewable energy: a tiny fraction of what a humanoid robot, even one of the current primitive iteration of robots, needs.
The “retro revival” is thus not cultural nostalgia.
It’s millions of years of evolution crying out to be heard, before we suppress it totally in the service of an automated — and dead — planet.
Sheila Hayman
Member of the Advisory Board, Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, University of Cambridge, London NW1, UK
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Cory Doctorow has been fighting the good fight against the enshittifying evil megacorps for as long as I can remember, but earlier this year, he laid out a credible path for world to fight back. It's an excellent read and worth 10 minutes of your time, IMO. pluralistic.net/2026/01/29/p...
pluralistic.net
Pluralistic: Disenshittification Nation (29 Jan 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
TIL that English has both a term for 'the day after tomorrow' which is *overmorrow* and a term for 'the day before yesterday ' which is the admittedly almost completely extinct *ereyesterday* (h/t to this excellent Reddit thread - www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/... )
reddit.com
thereallemmy's comment on "What is favorite foreign word that doesn’t have a word in English?"
Explore this conversation and more from the AskReddit community
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
He's pretty interesting. I don't watch him regularly but normally enjoy when I do
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
I love this story and it made me cry a little bit. Hope you enjoy it too www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
They became best friends - then discovered they were brother and sister
Andrea Urmston knew she had a brother who had been adopted by another family, only to discover he was already her closest friend.
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aidThompsin (live, fridays @ 19:30) @aidthompsin.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Oooop, Byline just published another scoop. Farage’s boy, George Cottrell, had a fake Swiss passport and operates in the same company block, shares staff with a guy whose Montenegro wealth simply cannot be explained. So much MURKY Russia adjacent shit coming out. When’s the smoking gun?
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
This is a fantastic new thing that you have introduced me. I have a fascination for these wistful echoes of utility in the human landscape. Thank you for giving them a name
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
This reminds me of the mysterious magical portal doorway that lives beside the travelator out to the 'C' gates at Heathrow Terminal 5
A mysterious bricked-up doorway lurks beside a travelator deep in the bowels of Heathrow Terminal 5. It is bathed in mystical purple light
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Huge congratulations, Adam.
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Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
'Patriot News' reporter Chris Atkins (scatatkins.bsky.social) was just kicked out of Liz Truss' CPAC conference for asking the wrong questions. So much for free speech.
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Now this is a use of open data that I can get behind.
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
I am enjoying the Wirral being in the Midlands as it deserves
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
The Doug Scott of butterflies. Rugged and determined britainsfavouritebutterfly.co.uk/butterfly/mo... Mountain Ringlet
britainsfavouritebutterfly.co.uk
Mountain Ringlet - Britain’s Favourite Butterfly
The Mountain Ringlet is one of the 60 beautiful butterflies found across the UK. Will it be Britain's Favourite Butterfly?
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Mr and Mrs Trellis @thenorfolkcoast.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Vote for Britain’s Favourite Butterfly. The UK has 60 beautiful butterflies, each with their own story. Explore what makes them unique, pick your favourite, and help your winner take flight.... britainsfavouritebutterfly.co.uk
britainsfavouritebutterfly.co.uk
Home - Britain’s Favourite Butterfly
Flashy, adventurous or fantastically freaky. Britain has 60 native butterflies, each with their own story. Explore what makes them unique.
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Today's long read in the Guardian is an absolute doozy www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
theguardian.com
The man who blew up a nuclear power station and disappeared
The long read: In December 1982, South African Rodney Wilkinson walked four bombs into Koeberg power station – the crown jewel of the apartheid state – pulled the pins and then left on his bicycle. Ho...
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
I thought this was a beautifully written, moving article, which reminded me that not everything or everyone in the world is bad. You might enjoy it too (gift article) www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/u...
nytimes.com
Will Sister Mary Kay Turn Out the Lights?
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Well. That article is a wild ride. I think it's fair to say that female dusky sweeps have the crappiest life
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
I find the spelling bee "allow" list infuriatingly subjective. I swear they just pick and choose words to wind me up
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
...it becomes something everyone has the option to do at mainstream school. But that would require teachers that could teach it and an education system that values learning over process and box-ticking. 2/2. </mild rant ends>
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
My kid goes to a local state school and is doing a GCSE in Ancient Greek with the Classics For All folk. It's a fantastic and laudable initiative. Even so, he and his classmates are all from pretty boujee (sp?) backgrounds. It's really tough to make classics genuinely accessible for all unless 1/2
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
Thank you for your brave support, Robin. I despair of the capture of the BBC by the forces of intolerance and it makes me sad to think you've had to make this decision. I hope that you're ok and are with people that love you right now
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
Disappointing that Linda Snell didn't show up as an Imperial ISD officer who turned out to be working for the rebellion all along
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
I enjoyed The Oatmeal's impassioned take on AI. I think I feel the same way about coding and other aspects of life that are being gobbled up in a giant cloud of soot, CO2 and techbro snake oil theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_art
theoatmeal.com
A cartoonist's review of AI art - The Oatmeal
This is a comic about AI art.
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
The drone-interception tech is still required but you will have fewer false-positives, reducing the detection workload
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
I agree that it doesn't stop it - though if the broadcast ID is bound to both the hardware (like a secure element on a bank card) and a person (through a strongly authenticated registration like a passport), it means bad actors have much more to subvert.
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
It doesn't solve the problem (you still have to be able to detect the unlicensed drones and you have to build the infrastructure to register, bind and transmit the licensed drone identifiers) but it at least gives you a place to start
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
It seems to me that drones need to be as tightly (or perhaps more?) licensed and regulated as other aircraft, such that any drone detected not broadcasting something similar to an ADS-B identifier, but with a hardware binding between ID and chassis, should be assumed to be hostile
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
Have also moved to DDG with the AI slop switched off. Recommend.
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
I hit like but only because there wasn't a "curse your incredible kiboshing skills"
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Yay! Parlabane is the devious anti-hero our post-truth society deserves
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Ooh. Exciting. Might we get another cheeky Parlabane?
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Very much enjoyed the Archers connection in Andor/Rogue One, with David Archer turning up as an Imperial doctor before Emma Carter comes on the scene to steal the Death Star plans #theArchers #Andor
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Nick Telford-Reed @mountainhippo.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
The "Maggie Thatcher, Milk Snatcher" de nos jours
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