iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Ho, Sid James, my biggest influence. I mean, with the benefit of digital audio and better speakers, it's obviously not Sid James. But don't spoil it for me. Vinyl and medium wave. Happy days.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I hate seeing AI-generated pictures of footballers wearing the jersey of teams they haven't joined yet. You're killing the thrill of that first photo in the new colours. We can wait.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Track cycling: where your hopes of keeping up with the national championships depends on someone posting a photo on social media of a results printout stuck on a wall at track centre.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

I've spent the last couple of days at London's historic Herne Hill velodrome, watching international class racing. But the most notable sportsperson I've seen on a bike today was... Gary Lineker, pootling through Putney on a hire bike.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Advert breaks during the athlete entrances. Seriously. 🤦‍♂️

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Any other game but the World Cup Final, I'd have turned it off long ago.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

No minority parties, no Loonies, and no fringe candidates, no matter how important your cause. Give Binface a free run at him.

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Reposted by Simon Dickson

Arsenal FC @arsenalfc.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

2025/2026 Premier League Champions!

arsenal.com

This belong to all of us

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍 🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️ ♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍 🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️ ♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍 🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️ ♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍 🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️ ♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍 🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️ ♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍♥️🤍

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Aaaaand... breathe. 🇧🇬

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

It's great that the NHS app sends you a reminder one week before your GP appointment. It's not great that you have to wait more than a week for an appointment. Or that the system has been programmed on the assumption that appointments will be more than a week away.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Every clip I see of Mandelson standing next to Keir Starmer makes me think of Morecambe & Wise.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Ah, the bitter sweetness of New Bike Day. The thrill of adventures to come. The frustration of setting up a new and unfamiliar toy. The knowledge that it will never look quite so clean and pretty ever again.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

Watching this France-England game has been a very weird experience. 🇮🇪

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Yeah, the drone footage of the downhill skiing is spectacular. Gonna be amazing for the ski and board cross races!

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Reposted by Simon Dickson

Simon Willison @simonwillison.net · 05/02/2026

The CIA just stopped publishing their World Factbook and took every page, including the archived copies of previous versions! This sucks. It was public domain, so I recovered the 2020 edition (the last one published as a zip file) and shared it to GitHub simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/5/t...

simonwillison.net

Spotlighting The World Factbook as We Bid a Fond Farewell

Somewhat devastating news today from the CIA: One of CIA’s oldest and most recognizable intelligence publications, The World Factbook, has sunset. There's not even a hint as to why they …

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Woke up to find this in my YouTube feed this morning: a beautiful present-day tribute to a historic moment in cycling. It's been making me smile all day. @greenedgecycling.bsky.social 👏👏👏 www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAK2...

youtube.com

Call Me Maybe? Liv AlUla Jayco's Version (GreenEDGE remake)

YouTube video by Ella Wyllie

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Nine months in, I realise that the extra-wide 21:9 monitor I bought last year no longer feels ridiculously wide. Honestly, it was a gamechanger. The more time I spend coding with AI assistance, often using multiple platforms at once, the more windows you need in front of you at the same time.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

Switching on the last 5 minutes of the #Afcon final was the right decision

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

'If there is one thing worth highlighting this year, it is how AI has impacted the #WordPress plugin ecosystem.' Repository is getting 2x as many plugin submissions as a year ago. make.wordpress.org/plugins/2026...

make.wordpress.org

A Year in the Plugins Team – 2025

If there is one thing worth highlighting this year, it is how AI has impacted the WordPress plugin ecosystem. This impact is evident both in the number of submissions sent for review to be publishe…

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Probably time I switched my attention over here, instead of that other place. It hasn't been a profitable use of my attention for quite some time. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6liD...

youtube.com

The Specials - Enjoy Yourself It's Later Than You Think (2015 Remaster)

YouTube video by The Specials

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Reposted by Simon Dickson

Mike Little @mikelittle.com · 10/06/2025

I installed the Fair Package Manager (@fairpm) on my personal site last night. I'm excited to say it worked flawlessly. A couple of plugins were updated from Fastly's servers, & a paid plugin updated from its servers as normal. I'm excited to see what else comes from this interesting development.

fair.pm

FAIR Package Manager Project

FAIR Package Manager Project has 8 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

Got my new Xiaomi Android phone working exactly how I want it, by: installing the Microsoft launcher instead of the Xiaomi default one, then turning off all the Microsoft stuff. 🪄

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

I ordered an extra-wide monitor. The more I do with JS, and the more I do with AI, the more I'm finding a need to have multiple windows open (wide) in front of me at once. Found a great deal on Samsung 34" 21:9 with USB-C. Productivity gains await! amzn.to/4cJANnE

amzn.to

Samsung LS34C652UAUXXU WQHD Viewfinity S6 34" Monitor - 3440x1440, 1000R Curved, Speakers, USB-C, LAN, Height Adjust

Ultra-WQHD in 1000R curvature Immerse yourself in games, movies or design projects. A 34" 1000R curved display surrounds you with a 21:9 aspect ratio. The curve closely matches the human field of sigh...

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

'We now have to start acting as if we live in East Germany. And Instagram is the Stasi.' This is a tough watch, but an essential one. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZOo...

youtube.com

This Is What a Digital Coup Looks Like | Carole Cadwalladr | TED

YouTube video by TED

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

To mark #stpatricksday ☘️, my three favourite renditions of Danny Boy, starting with this brand new belter. You know, there isn't enough Irish trad punk in the world. www.youtube.com/watch?v=K18u...

youtube.com

The Rumjacks - Danny Boy [Official Music Video]

YouTube video by The Rumjacks

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

I built a thing today using AI - well, several different AIs actually - that I don't fully understand, but it all works. Yes this revolution is happening.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

"Lloyds Track Super League" 🤨

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

The BBC News app really has stretched the definition of 'breaking news' this week. Not good.

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Reposted by Simon Dickson

Waldo Jaquith @waldo.net · 01/03/2025

18F, the federal government’s technology shop, was demolished by Musk’s team shortly after midnight. It was a cost-recoverable org, charging agencies for their expertise, using a consulting model. Its cost to government was negligible, its benefits huge. My team there once saved DoD $500 billion.

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Reposted by Simon Dickson

John Skiles Skinner @skiles.blue · 01/03/2025

I got laid off today, with the rest of 18F. 18F was an elite federal software shop. We made gov't websites work better, more efficiently for the American people. We saved taxpayers from getting screwed over by contractors. And were fired for it. We made this website to tell our story: 18f.org

18f.org

We're not done yet | 18F

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

Netflix cutting both its Six Nations and Tour de France series? It didn't help either one that they decided to release it the week before the next real-time edition. I'm a fan of both and I didn't watch either in full.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

The best way to follow the British track cycling national champs today is via PDFs in a Dropbox folder. 🤦‍♂️

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

The digitally added ad boards on the NHL's TV ice hockey coverage are remarkable. If you didn't know, you wouldn't know.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Love this stat from last night: There were 120 Merseyside derbies at Goodison Park in total in all competitions. The record has seen both sides win exactly 41 games each and share the points on 38 occasions. (Google/NYT)

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

I didn't expect to see media coverage of cycling included in Ars Technica's rundown of the continued en💩ification of modern online life; but its place is fully deserved. That's not good company to find yourself in, TNT Sports. arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025...

arstechnica.com

As Internet enshittification marches on, here are some of the worst offenders

Ars staffers take aim at some of the web’s worst predatory practices.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Running out of reasons to keep opening X now.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

I tried DeepSeek (running locally) on a coding job today. It explained eloquently how it would do the thing I asked. It did not actually do the thing I asked. Gemma did it almost immediately.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Eurosport / Discovery / WBD / whoever was getting the most money out of me, net, when it was £40 a year for GCN+. Since GCN+ shut I have chosen which months to pay for D+ at £4-7/m, total £30-ish over the past year. I don't see myself paying for more than a single month per year at £31/m.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

FYI: If you're prepared to swallow a 2.3x price rise switching from Discovery+ to TNT Sports Premium - they offered me a 6-month 50% discount as the final step of the D+ online cancellation process. I still cancelled.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

I just cancelled my subscription to Discovery+ as a direct result of their announcement of a 4.4x price hike, closing down Eurosport in the UK, and forcing everything into a TNT Sports premium sub. Here's what I'll miss? You know what, I think I'll cope.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

I resented having to pay £6.99/m for Discovery+, and funding its flood of reality TV trash, purely to watch (Eurosport) cycling. If they think I'm going to start paying more than 4x more for trash TV I don't want, and a lot of TNT sport I don't want, they are out of their minds.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Honestly it has lifted my heart each morning for the last month or so, turning on Times Radio at 6am-ish and hearing @aasmahmir.bsky.social still with us.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

It's still WordPress. www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/t...

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Huuuge respect to @southstreetarts.bsky.social in Reading for the hyper-local beer selection at the bar. Double Barrelled, Delphic and Phantom on tap last night, with Renegade and Siren in cans. 🍻

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

New Years Eve in central London is a once in a lifetime experience. We did it once, and vowed never to do it again.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Hang on, you can get RSS feeds off Bluesky profiles? 😍 Just stick /rss on the end of the /profile address.

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Simon Dickson @s1m0nd.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

@robhatch.bsky.social Very much enjoying the track centric Gruppetto show. Your accent got noticeably more Northern than normal, talking to Jo! 😂

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