iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 13h

But not incessantly and as the only thing you post. Please. <Grovels> Not directed at you KBS, you do it right. Point intended for potential overenthusists. Seen it done. Blocked, unfollowed and reported as appropriate. Even for people I admire. [Huge deletion of further exposition]

000

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

See Britain First as an example. Plenty of good people got pulled in by their 'support our troops' type material.

020

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

There ought to be a law against it. 'Misrepresntaion of the Legal System' or something. Yes, that Blunt Instrument is inappropriate if it is intended to represent an English Judge. IMHO.

010

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I don't. Because they often mean people literally getting away with Murder. And sometimes people being locked up for things they didn't do. Or wrongly executed. And people getting away with Murder sometimes means that the true culprit(s) go on to kill more people.

110

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

In the UK we have just had a Forensics Undergrad convicted of murder. Seems he was a fan of 'Dexter' and was emulating him by trying to do the forensically perfect murder. Prepared rented room covered in plastic sheeting etc.

030

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I'm always just the navigator, being a non-driver. In my fantasies I get to do things Rally style. "Bridge. 500. 5 left, tightens. Crossroads, straight across. 200. Third right, square, don’t cut. 50, Bus Stop. 150, Church. 2 left. Road widens, two lanes each way..."

000

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

If you were/are really keen you might mark the map up with your route. Or expand the itinerary with a hand drawn map. These days I might print a marked up map edited down from online stuff. And/or get an itinerary from an online route planner.

100

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

And said itinerary not necessarily being the shortest or fastest route. Ease of navigation was an important consideration. Also people at your destination would often give you an itinerary and/or other guidance for your 'Final Approach'

100

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Paper maps, road signs, and, hopefully a navigator to do the work and say stuff like 'in half a mile there will be a roundabout, you want the third exit, probably signed A666 to Someplace' Also planning ahead of time, to produce an itinerary.

100

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Yet to watch, but if you recommend it I know it will be good. By way of a thankyou, here is how to do the set for a History Pic PROPERLY. Shame about the costumes etc. and the film flopping, but as for the set, well. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LIo...

youtube.com

How This Movie Erased Rome for 36 Years

YouTube video by wolfcrow

000

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Ah. Lovely 'Everything in the past was dull and used a Blue Filter' there. Along with 'Everything was paved with dung'. <sarcasm> You see, there was no colour or street cleaning before the 1970s.

010

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Lovely bit of 'it's old, therefore everything must have a Blue Filter' there.

010

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Maybe the Software Engineers and related disciplines at the FIA did a top job they probably will get no credit for. Because that's the way the software world works. Even more so today when 'everyone knows' you can 'just throw it at an AI' Says a Software Engineer unrelated to Motorsport.

000

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

One of the key rules of Software Engineering is that you don't deploy to production last thing on a Friday. This was a major achievement. People may gripe 'why was the bug there in the first place' That can be argued about but as bug fixes go, Impressive.

010

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Due credit to the unseen and unsung IT people behind yesterdays race. That ECU fix was out in record time. It may have been 'simple' but nothing is simple under that type of scrutiny and time pressure. A Formula1 performance on the par of a successful sub-2.0 second pit stop.

100

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

010

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Seriously Public Information Films left scars across entire generations of the UK population.

010

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Don't remember the order but one of: 1. 'The Spirit Of Dark And Lonely Water' a 1973 UK Public Information Film (they were all scary) www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNPM... 2. Dr Who. In general. I hid behind the sofa for various bit's of TV but Dr Who was the only one I left the room for.

100

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Best description anyone could come up with.

010

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

What is this 'reach' of which you speak? :)

000

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It is a truism in the British Army that things are really serious, in any one of several ways, when the troops 'stop ticking'. Complaining all the way is The Way. The enemy are just another thing to complain about.

041

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The last mast from the Richard Montgomery was just lifted.

000

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Memory jog for those who don't catch the double meaning. 'Magic Markers' were an early brand of Felt Tipped pen (1953) and likely the brand that popularised them. There are still various fibre tip pens labelled some variant of 'Magic Marker' on sale.

130

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

'Best Practice' is to have a separate, minimal, emergency site anyway. Something like 'mycomicname-emergancy.com' that just has 'what has exploded today' information and, if the downtime is going to be a while, new comics to keep your audience engaged whilst you resurrect the dead.

030

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I have a website, its a 'nothing' cos I'm not a creator, but if I change where I host it it's only a few clicks and users would end up at the new location with the same URL. Some disruption expected but they don't have to remember or find a new URL.

130

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I will also add - make sure you own your own DNS name. Its cheap and you can change where it points to if/when you change where you are hosted, commercial or otherwise.

170

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Game design can take you down strange avenues - for example this morning I was reading up on Late Roman Peasant Revolts and their many forms. A good place to start for academics interested in this area might be professionalwargaming.co.uk, the annual conference for professional wargamers.

professionalwargaming.co.uk

Connections UK - Wargaming Professionals

000

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

On top of the obvious it involves trying to understand the details of portable wealth and small value transactions during the journey as the players pass through multiple polities. And concrete decisions on representation rather than vague discussions regarding options are required.

100

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

For example one of my future retirement projects will be a personal Role Playing campaign. One of the key scenarios requires deep understanding of the exact process of long distance travel in seventh century Britain, since the 'game' is the travel experience and adventures involved.

110

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Extending that last thought, game design may need to consider solid answers in areas that are skipped over in academic work, which may lead to that independent research or to insights that an academic might find beneficial.

210

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Also ask, yourself and/or the designer, if the designer has done their own research, perhaps into areas you haven't been able to approach so far. The best game designers are also researchers in their own right.

100

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Teaching games are out there, would your students benefit from 'involvement' in the thinking that real world participants had to go though at the time? Would a day in the position of Fidel Castro confront with the risks and decisions involved to a level that dry reading or essay writing would not?

100

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Taking your Cuban Missile Crisis example, ask yourself if the finished game would be of use in your teaching or research. Could the game, perhaps with a few tweaks, be used to explore how people would have reacted if the reality had played out differently?

100

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Good information there. <Warning long thread> As someone from an organisation that uses games for deadly serious purposes and a long time recreational gamer I offer the following thoughts for academics. Check such approaches for possible benefit from your end.

220

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

PS. How to pass on to Jimmy / Welsh Viking?

000

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

For @fakehistoryhunter.net Navigation tutor explains why 'Viking Sun Compasses', much seen on the Internet, aren't. He actually went and looked for the roots of the myth. It all began with a broken bit of wood... www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3EG...

youtube.com

Viking Sun Compass Do Not Exist

YouTube video by The Map Reading Company

100

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Yes, much has been forgotten but memorials and remnants are everywhere reminding people.

000

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

My Maternal Grandfather was a riveter that worked on the first Allied Jet, the E.28/39, whilst my Grandmother plotted incoming raids in the factory Control Room. My Secondary School (read 'High School') was originally in buildings from which men went off to Juno Beach.

100

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I grew up playing in Pillboxes that were most definitely intended for use. But all my Paternal Grandfather would say of his service was that one time in North Africa he, as a Signaller, was up a pole fixing telephone wire as a German patrol passed below him.

100

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

In those same years I regularly walked in a huge park which had been, in 1939, densely packed housing. The open land opposite our house still potentially harbours unexploded ordnance from WWII training. Whilst I was in school a child lost a hand to a grenade found on the same land.

100

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

My father watched the Battle of Britain overhead. One of my most read books is 'Published in complete conformity with the authorised economy standards'. In 1948 paper was till rationed. I went to University where one of the buildings was constructed in the husk of a bombed out warehouse.

100

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I have to say it looks good but I quickly switched to paragraph hopping. It is very much about the American experience of war. It's very clear that the UK experience was different. My mother was never bombed but as a young girl she watched the concentrated devastation of Coventry on the horizon.

100

Reposted by Rick Ansell

Hassinator @hassinator.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

a great letter in the times today. perhaps worth sharing in these troubled times. #RNLI #heroes

4059872392

Reposted by Rick Ansell

Edain @d20yfx.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I'm trying to book tickets to go on the Postal Museums underground railway. I won't let me, as my post code isn't in their database. The irony is killing me.

1173

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

We are 'old', therefore we must be ignorant of 'modern things'. So the Idiotsplainers come out to play.

130

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

The exchange chap had been involved with the setting up of ARPANET. I get people trying to explain the concept of Social Media to me. Even my brother. I was on Usenet in 1996. They also try and explain AI (badly). I once wrote an Evolutionary Programming system from the ground up. Alone.

100

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Way back when in the late 90s I worked with a US Exchange Scientist. From RAND. Occasionally people would try and explain this new thing, TCP/IP and Packet Switching to him. He was formerly on the team of Paul Baran, the US side of the simultaneous invention of Packet Switching.

120

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

RNLI Blackpool put up, with permission, a message they received in the last few days. I will share, as someone the RNLI once rescued, just one part of that message. "You don't rescue passports. You don't rescue religions. You don't rescue nationalities. You rescue human beings."

010

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Also known as the Battle of South Street (1934)

010

Rick Ansell @rickansell.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Context: THIS Welsh Viking, resident of York, and occasionally Scary Person. No doubt he has some spare kit you could borrow. youtu.be/LOV7utQK1N0?...

youtu.be

000