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Nick Pollard

@nickpollard.bsky.social
117 followers 246 following 69 posts

Software, Graphics, Programming languages and Type systems. I like Good coffee and Heavy Metal. London, UK. He/Him. DMs open.

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Reposted by Nick Pollard
Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Having grown up in Wales, I can testify that if you are actually worried about your culture and history being under threat, the thing to do is write poetry and songs, perform plays, tell stories and organise festivals, not just sit around whining.
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
As someone who lived in SF for three years, I much appreciate BART, but you should try coming to London instead and then you can dream a little bigger
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
It's absurd - the bar is so low and yet she still manages to fit under it. Even if the treasury won't let her have any money (but they should), she can still be campaigning, raising visibility, advertising us to the world.
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The lack of anyone in the government - or indeed any political party - standing up to campaign on behalf of our absolutely world-leading arts and culture sectors is just truly stupefying. These are industries where the UK actually _is_ a superpower, and yet we have silence...
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Jim Rossignol @rossignol.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
This gets said constantly, but it worth reiterating: Games Workshop being bigger than fishing is important to shout about because you wouldn't know it from government talking points, which are rarely about anything creative or artistic. Growth won't involve fish or steel, it will involve goblins.
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David Anderson @bricksilk.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Letter printed in The Times today
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
During my time in SF I actually made clotted cream at home (using Trader Joe's heavy whipping cream as input) and it was actually pretty damn good. Definitely a bit of a faff though.
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Guy Gavriel Kay @guygavrielkay.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Yes. We do not study the past with a view to feelgood vibes. Sometimes we encounter events and people that do that, but it is not the *purpose* of serious or just basically honest study.
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Aftermath @aftermath.site · 04/08/2026
Christopher Nolan, cinema's manic street preacher aftermath.site/christopher-no...
The Odyssey
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
My (least) favourite of this genre: when a group 3 or 4 abreast is walking at me down the pavement, and they somehow expect me to move aside. Sir, even if I wanted to there is physically no place I can go that is not on your way! This is a matter of physics, not politics.
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Oh fuck yes. This is the hill I will die on (but, you know, in an open spot just off to the side, so I'm not blocking the path up the hill...)
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
I don't think it's 100% mandatory, in the UK the legal reaponsibility is (I believe) on the restaurant to inform the diners of allergens, so to be safe pretty much 100% of restaurants will ask you when they take your order. As I don't have allergies, I just say "no thank you" but I'm glad they ask.
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Very much this
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Jim Rossignol @rossignol.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Cowardice or corruption. Either way shameful.
theguardian.com
Most UK media reports on June heatwave failed to mention climate crisis
Exclusive: Analysis of nearly 2,500 articles finds almost three-quarters made no reference to global heating
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
What are you up to? Hopefully Shrewsbury is cooler than London at least.
london.at
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Aka Ice Wine is an Ice Lolly?
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Did you just fly in? Wow you sure picked a week.
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Butlerian Jihadist of House Dornick @shimminykricket.blacksky.app · 18/06/2026
Engineering ethics needs to have an renaissance in Silicon Valley.
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elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
We the anti-fascists outnumber the fascists by a mile. We are surrounding them. Brighton is anti fascist
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Andrew Sissons @acjsissons.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
It’s at risk of being drowned out by other news, but great to see the CCC’s latest warning on climate adaptation on the front page of the Guardian. An issue that needs far more attention. Great to see @samalvis.bsky.social quoted on the case for more air con too…
theguardian.com
UK ‘built for climate that no longer exists’ and needs urgent changes to survive global heating, report warns
Landmark report calls for widespread air conditioning and says UK temperatures forecast to exceed 40C by 2050
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KJ Charles @kjcharleswriter.com · 18/05/2026
I am once again begging, praying, weeping for lists of written instructions rather than videos. I do not want to watch your two minute video in the hope of catching the two seconds where you whizz past what goddamn menu the thing is under. Write. It. Down.
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
I was waiting for someone to post this
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Sam Dumitriu @samdumitriu.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Failed legal challenges have delayed major infrastructure projects like new roads and power stations by a collective 32 years. Labour recently changed the law to cut the time it takes to throw out anti-infrastructure lawsuits. And it's working. www.samdumitriu.com/p/the-planni...
samdumitriu.com
The Planning and Infrastructure Act is working.
It just got harder to delay infrastructure with bogus lawsuits
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Helen Mirren is famously sad that Kurt Cobain didn't live to experience GPS, but personally I'm sad Sir Christopher Lee didn't live to star in Celebrity Traitors. Time is a cruel thing.
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
This reminds me of a comment on TikTok about a dad picking his daughter up from nursery, where she announced in earshot of everyone "Daddy please don't beat me tonight" and the dad had to hurriedly reply "...AT THE BOARDGAME"
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
In that case its actually quite considerate of him to allocate that much space specifically for dancing on his grave
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Rami Ismail (رامي) @ramiismail.com · 08/04/2026
And this beautiful game on grief is out now! If you want to support Arab-made work about the Arab world, history, arts, and culture -especially in a time of destruction and erasure towards our people- I cannot recommend this game more. store.steampowered.com/app/3451680/...
store.steampowered.com
Save 10% on The House of Hikmah on Steam
The House of Hikmah is a fully voice-acted, narrative-driven 3D adventure game exploring grief, legacy and the search for answers after profound loss. Solve puzzles, encounter historical scholars of t...
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
These are all incredible, no notes
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
I honestly think this is part of trump's appeal to his base; he's awful but he's honestly awful, you get what you see. You know there's no filter, whereas many other politicians open their mouths and all you hear is the focus groups.
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
These issues can result in gaps, light leaks etc in games especially when dealing with values far from 0, where the rounding becomes more significant.
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Because floats can't represent every possible number, doing floating point maths inevitably results in rounding. This means that two formulas that are mathematical equivalent may not produce exactly the same answer in floating point.
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Iso floating point gives accuracy to a certain number of significant figures, as your floats get bigger the gap between adjacent representable numbers gets bigger. So if you have X and you want the smallest Y > X, the gap between X and Y increases as X gets larger.
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
I'm not sure what you're referring to - floats as commonly used in games are fixed size. Unless the game was using infinite precision BigNums, but that would be awfully slow and I've never seen a game or engine do that. Are you talking about the range of representable numbers in floating point?
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
What were you explaining? I'm curious now!
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
You know what helps with tiredness? Iced coffee.
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Did you truly expect any better from the man who brought us covfefe?
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
When I write technical documentation, my mantra is: Assume intelligence, but not context. So many people do the reverse - they assume their reader is an idiot, but also somehow knows the entire 6 month history of the project and all related areas.
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
This seems like very good advice. I had an opposite problem when my daughter was in hospital with breathing problems, where one DR was averse to using any words longer than one syllable. They were trying to be calming and reassuring but it was frustrating to not be communicated with as an adult.
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Ian McQue @ianmcque.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
World Book Day, is it? Here’s one the mighty @rossignol.bsky.social and me made earlier
Mileships book by Ian McQue and Jim Rossignol
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
The NYT style guide
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Because I am unreasonable, I accept this is true, while being annoyed at anyone who says it. Only I, London’s uncrowned king, may publicly express any view other than “greatest city in the world, No. 1 at everything”.
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Anyway, I'd strongly recommend it! We also went driving looking for black bears and found one after not too long looking. Alaska is a great place to see bears.
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
He's the photo I got of the young bear (I don't think they technically counted as a cub anymore)
Image of a young bear standing upright on a beach
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
My wife and I did a bear tour in Alaska some years ago, it was well worth it. Took a boat from Homer over to the Katmai peninsula where we saw a fairly large number of bears on the beach and foothills, including a 1 year old. Awe inspiring animals.
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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
the European mission to Greenland was fourth in the BBC news running order this morning, which feels a bit like doing a light "and finally..." item about the archduke's motorcade taking a wrong turn in Sarajevo
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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 12/01/2026
The Ellison/Weiss CBS News of today would insist they couldn't platform Eisenhower without also platforming Göring and if anyone pointed out how ridiculous it was they'd talk about the importance of "open debate" and if you complained loudly enough they'd say "come debate that on my podcast"
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Adam Farrer @adamjfarrer.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Think I’ve just found the most English thing.
The singer of Iron Maiden registering delight at a thatched cottage.
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Nick Pollard @nickpollard.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
Aka rewrite a song into a NYTimes headline. "All things possible for love, bar refusal for item in question"
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Scottish Trans @scottishtrans.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Today is Trans Day of Remembrance (TDoR), a day where we pause to remember those who we have lost around the world this year to transphobic violence.
A black graphic with five candles on it. The candles are in the trans flag colours - blue then pink then white then pink then blue. White text above the candles reads "Trans Day of Remembrance 2025" and the Scottish Trans logo is in the top right hand corner.
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