iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I approve of this method of proving humanity. Much better than asking me to tick all the boxes containing buses or whatever. (Seen at a UK National Archives survey)

A question asking the user to prove that they are a human by answering the question, "Which of the following best describes your involvement in creating the Domesday Book in the year 1086? I was ..."

There are several options, including "William the conqueror and commissioned the Domesday book"

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I now have a foreword for my upcoming book by Peter Caddick-Adams, and I have someone working on maps. www.kickstarter.com/projects/russel… [1/3]

Two maps, one of the area around the Tragino aqueduct, and one of Malta, Sicily, and south-west Italy

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I gave a talk about Lidice today. This little beauty was in the audience. gts.phillipsuk.org/tags/dogstodon gts.phillipsuk.org/tags/lidice

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

RPG Trader has a new multi-author bundle: System Neutral Kit. It includes system-neutral settings, adventures, NPCs, items, bestiaries, art assets, tools, and more. There are 75 products included, for just $15 (you can pay more if you wish). [1/2]

A mosaic of images, made up of the covers from the products included in the bundle.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Another reason to love libraries. Local library is having a book sale. This cost me £2 😲

Photo of Jane's Fighting Ships 1993-94. It's a plain blue cover with gold text.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Some of the houses around here have interesting house number signs.

A blue aircraft bomb partially embedded in the ground, with "75" painted on it.

A classic naval mine (large sphere with prongs sticking out at various angles). It is black, with "73" painted on it.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

The family uses Signal for messaging, so nobody can read our messages. I do sometimes wonder what random hackers would make of them if they could read them.

Signal text message: "check otway for tetrarchs"

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

I went to my first repair cafe today. I took this, thinking that they'd probably be unable to repair it, but in that case I'd be no worse off. Happily, they were able to repair it, and I am now the proud owner of a working 26-year-old PDA 🙂 [1/2]

A slightly battered Palm m100 PDA. It is switched on, and icons for various programs are visible on the screen.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I finished my book this afternoon. Fortunately, my pre-order of Murder on Donut Station arrived this morning 🙂 gts.phillipsuk.org/tags/bookstodon gts.phillipsuk.org/tags/scifi gts.phillipsuk.org/tags/sciencefict…

Book cover: Murder on Donut Station by Si Clarke.

The cover has a silhouette of a person falling and a view of a space station with a central ring and a concentric outer ring, a bit like a ring doughnut.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I'll admit that I feel a little bad about how hard I laughed at this.

Photo of Malaysian and US flags. Underneath is a key showing the meanings of the colours:
Red: Hardiness and valour
White: Purity and innocence
Blue: Unity (Malaysia), Vigilance and justice (USA)
Yellow: (Malaysia only): Not losing against Vietnamese farmers in a war

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

I'm staying at a flat in Chester for a few days. Yesterday I saw two Roman soldiers. This morning I looked out of my window to see a trans flag flying from a window opposite. gts.phillipsuk.org/tags/trans gts.phillipsuk.org/tags/pride

A block of houses. A trans flag is flying from a third-floor window.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Is there anyone on fedi that repairs or is interested in old TVs? I have an old Ferguson fault diagnosis pocket book for the TX90 & TX100 chassis. I'm happy to post it to anyone that could get use out of it. Boosts appreciated. [1/2]

Ferguson Fault Diagnosis Pocket Book. Blue booklet with pictures of TX90 and TX100 chassis.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

I was pleasantly surprised to see this notice on my local council's website.

Screenshot from Stoke-on-Trent council bin day calendar web page.

At the top is the following notice:

Due to the extreme heat, there may be some delays to waste collections.

Our crews’ welfare is a priority, so they’ll adapt to the heat with regular breaks, hydration and sunscreen. Please leave bins out by 6am. We’ll collect them as soon as we can.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

It's International Museum Day, so I've written a post about a key that I recently saw at our local museum. russellphillips.uk/international-mu… [1/2]

The key to Lidice. A slightly ornate, old-fashioned looking key.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

My latest eBay purchase. It's complete apart from the 3.5" software disks (it does have the 5.25" software disks). I don't have any way of reading 3.5" or 5.25" disks, so the missing disks don't bother me. [1/2]

Psion Series 3 serial link box. The box art shows a Psion Series 3 PDA with a cable running from it to an old PC.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

I see Games Workshop are taking inspiration from Cold War British AFVs again. At first glance, I thought the Hippogriff was a Saracen armoured car. And the Centaur looks an awful lot like a half-track version of the Humber Pig. [1/3]

Games Workshop "Centaur RSV". It looks a lot like a Humber Pig APC with the rear wheels replaced with tracks.

Two Games Workshop Hippogriff AFVs. They look a lot like Alvis Saracen armoured cars with sci-fi guns in the turrets.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

I've just added the audiobook of Operation Nimrod to my direct sales store, which is currently the only place you can buy the audiobook. It's discounted until 5th May, the anniversary of Operation Nimrod, when the SAS stormed the Iranian embassy, dramatically ending a six-day siege. [1/2]

Operation Nimrod audio book cover. Background is a photo of the Iranian embassy in London. On a green band at the top, "Operation Nimrod The Iranian Embassy Siege". Above that is the text, "Read by Phillip J Mather". On a red-brown band at the bottom, "Russell Phillips"

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Went to a steampunk event at Middleport Pottery. The tea duelling was surprisingly good fun 🙂 gts.phillipsuk.org/tags/steampunk

Two people engaged in a tea duel. They are sat opposite each other, wearing steampunk costumes. Each has a cup of tea in front of them, and they are each holding a biscuit.

My son wearing a black cloak with hood up and a black plague doctor mask.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

I sometimes see retro computing posts on here. I have no interest in old Commodore 64s or game consoles, but a while ago I bought a second hand Palm m105 and reminded myself how much I loved mine. [1/3]

Psion 3a palmtop computer, like a mini laptop. The greyscale screen is showing a line of application icons.

Psion 3 palmtop computer, like a mini laptop. The greyscale screen is showing a line of application icons.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

A friend sent me this earlier. I can't argue with the logic 🙂

Photo of a Queen Elizabeth II class aircraft carrier. Text says "The Royal Navy. Kind of like Uber, but for Royal Marines"

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

I gave blood today. It was my 50th donation, so I got a thank you card.

NHS blood and transplant branded thank you card. It has "Thank you so much" written in red. "Thanks" and "Thank you" are written in grey all over the card.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

I just discovered that the iPhone pocket is a thing. I honestly had to double-check that a) I was really on the Apple website, and b) it wasn't an April fools article. It appears that yes, Apple is genuinely intending to sell a cloth pouch for £140-200 [1/2]

A white iPhone in a purple cloth pouch. The iPhone is on its side so that the cameras look like eyes, kind of like it's reclining on a sofa or something. Honestly, it's really weird.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

I bought a set of polyhedral dice at a comic con recently. Today was my first chance to use them when my eldest ran a D&D one-shot. First roll was a natural 20 😀 gts.phillipsuk.org/tags/ttrpg gts.phillipsuk.org/tags/dnd

A d20 in a wooden dice tower. It has landed on the 20

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

I was listening to the War Movie Theatre podcast talking about Who Dares Wins this morning. They reminded me of this excellent protest banner. gts.phillipsuk.org/tags/movies gts.phillipsuk.org/tags/sas

Still from the film Who Dares Wins, showing a bunch of people marching at a protest. There is a big sign being held above their heads which reads "Drop trousers not bombs"

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

Apparently I'm an old enough geek that I still have BNC connectors and terminators in my tool box. Just in case.

Several old BNC ethernet connectors and terminators joined together.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

I've been playing RPGs on and off since the late 1980s. I have lots of dice, but until today, I'd never bought a set. Today my youngest and I went to the local Comic Con, and I bought a random set of dice. gts.phillipsuk.org/tags/ttrpg gts.phillipsuk.org/tags/ttrpgcommun…

A bag labelled "Lightgun Retro Gaming Mystery RPG Dice. Contains 1 full set of RPG gaming dice (7 dice)". To the right of the bag are seven dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, percentage). The dice are translucent and slightly sparkly, with light blue numbers.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

I have a small RedBubble shop. I've just added a new couple of designs. They're probably even more niche than my previous ones, but they might interest some people here. www.redbubble.com/people/rpbook/sho… [1/3]

A Tetrarch tank in the colours of the trans flag (horizontal stripes of light blue, light pink, white, light pink, light blue) and the text "Protect trans kids"

A Tetrarch tank in the colours of the pride flag (horizontal stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet) and the text "Tanks are for everyone"

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

At a friend's house, and getting called out.

Photo of a black bag labeled "Bag of useless cables I will never use"

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

Won a "paint your own unicorn" kit at Pride today 😀

A white unicorn in a box with a clear window. The box is labelled "Paint your own unicorn". Also just visible in the box window is a paintbrush and yellow and pink pots of paint.

The box around the clear window is decorated in rainbow colours, with a unicorn, paintbrush, stars and moon.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

New blog post about the Second World War pencils that helped Allied airmen escape. russellphillips.uk/the-pencils-that… @histodons @militaryhistory @worldwarshistory [1/2]

Modern replica of an escape pencil in a green presentation case. There is a complete green pencil, and the component parts - green pencil barrel, rolled up map, tiny compass, ferrule, and rubber.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

This morning we met a giant five-headed monkey. Luckily, it was friendly.

A mechanical five-headed monkey costume. A person has the torso and legs strapped to her, the arms are operated by two other people.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

Also yesterday, we saw Barriere. As they say, "life is great while you wait". More fun than it had any right to be 😀

Three women on a pole at about 45 degrees, playing instruments, with a man at the bottom singing.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

Yesterday we saw I am D(d)eaf, Destroyer of Words.

A man in grey doing an act. He is holding his grey hat out to his front. Sorry, I really don't know how better to describe this 🫤

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

We watched Leverage: Redemption tonight, and I noticed that gts.phillipsuk.org/tags/openstreetm… got a mention in the credits 😀

A TV screen showing credits: Video/images supplied by iStock. Stock media provided by Pond5. Maps courtesy of OpenStreetMap contributors.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

I'm now the happy owner of an gts.phillipsuk.org/tags/ebike . I took it out today to map some new streets for gts.phillipsuk.org/tags/openstreetm… .

An orange Compass ebike, seen from front right.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Had a very good day at gts.phillipsuk.org/tags/cadburyworld today. Can recommend it for a day out. Was particularly pleased to see a variety of gts.phillipsuk.org/tags/pride flags on display in the entrance, and that their disabled toilets are explicitly inclusive.

Bunting with triangular rainbow pride flags, and a trans pride flag

Disabled toilet sign, with an "inclusive" label. Shows female, male, and mixed icons.

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Russell Phillips @rpbook.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Our dog is staying with friends for a couple of days. So I took the opportunity to change the laces on my trainers. Happy gts.phillipsuk.org/tags/pride month 🙂

A pair of black trainers. The laces are coloured yellow, white, purple, black - the colours of the #NonBinary flag.

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