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Simon Harris

@simondo65.bsky.social
385 followers 313 following 3.1K posts

Software engineer at @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social, doing research in orthopaedics. Loves model trains, science fiction and vintage microprocessors, doesn't own an anorak. Also likes to cook and take photographs, not necessarily of my cooking.

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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
A 16 bit version needs only 2 bytes for SRC and 3 bytes for DST and X2 while an 8 bit version needs only 1 byte for SRC and 2 bytes each for DST and X2. I haven't particularly optimised this, so there are probably a few bytes that could be shaved off - e.g. using Y instead of one byte of DST.
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Written on the BBC micro to make it compact enough to fit onto one screen image with multi-instruction lines. This version takes a 32 bit (4 byte) pure binary number in SRC and returns a 10 digit BCD (5 byte) version of it in DST that can be easily printed...
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
And on the BBC Micro
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Track changes may want to have a word.
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
First Hardle with my new phone. I was expecting it to reset my streak, but no, Apple’s phone transfer procedure copied all the cookies over too, so on we go! Hardle 🟦🟪 #1633 3/8 🟩⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 hardle.herokuapp.com
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
The matter was settled over 100 years in Parliament. This is Hansard from 1908 "I think it may fairly be stated ... that the Union Jack should be regarded as the National flag, and it undoubtedly may be flown on land by all His Majesty's subjects." api.parliament.uk/historic-han...
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
I promised myself a new phone to replace my dying 6 year old iPhone when I reached 600 on Hardle. Better not bugger it up tomorrow!
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
"I need to take 3 prescription medicines together. Two round pills and one capsule. I'm 60 and it still never fails to make me laugh when they arrange themselves in my palm as a cock and two balls."
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
You can?
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
That’s all very well, but every time I fire up the NHS app to see if I can book an appointment I get
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Firstly, grossly understating the length of World War II - it should be 313 weeks Secondly, completely neglecting the war in Ukraine (currently at 220 weeks from the full invasion, much longer if you include annexing Crimea) Thirdly WW1 at 220 weeks is missing. Fourthly 6 weeks? Ahem: 10 perhaps?
Bar chart of lengths of wars.
Afghanistan: 543 weeks
Iraq: 457 weeks
Vietnam: 439 weeks
US civil war: 209 weeks
World War II: 196 weeks (wrong, it was 313 weeks)
Korean War: 161 weeks
War of 1812: 139 weeks
Iran ‘Excursion’ 6 weeks - really? Seems more like 10 weeks.


Seems to be ignoring a war Trump promised to end on his first day, currently at 220 weeks.
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
There is one at Aalborg Station too (at least there was in September 2024 when I was there)
Model railway at Aalborg Station in Denmark.
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Hardle 🟦🟪 #1517 5/8 ⬜🟩🟨⬜⬜ 🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟨🟩⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 hardle.herokuapp.com Hit a bit of a Hardle milestone today!
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
When you search for Melania on Netflix instead of Amazon
Search for Melania on Netflix and it suggests documentaries on Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell instead (Amazon bought Melania)
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Could there possibly be a worse estate agency? (picture from @theguardian.com).
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
I use Resize It on my iPhone when I want to reduce the size (number of pixels) of a photo. Resize It looks like this in the App Store
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
Still three days left to bugger things up.
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
This was supposedly cranberry and apple sparkling water. The till receipt had other ideas about its taste.
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
While on holiday in Portugal a few years ago, I looked up at the hotel ceiling lights and thought 'mmmmm... cupcakes!'
Hotel lights look like cupcakes.
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Not a duck, but I remember a penguin in a gas mask was one of the symbols of the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul in 2013.
Penguin in gas mask image from 2013 Istanbul protests.
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
From Wikipedia the manufacturers are: Aerojet Rocketdyne Boeing Northrop Grumman United Launch Alliance (ULA are Boeing Defense, Space and Security, and Lockheed Martin Space)
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Just got myself one too
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Errr … has Trump looked at a map recently? Remind me what that big country is that starts about 50 miles west of Alaska.
Trump: We’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbour. Okay?
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
The main reason for not upgrading my slowly dying iPhone is not losing my perfect Hardle record!
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
And one of the information displays at the Paris Eurostar terminal 3 weeks ago.
Info display at Gare de Nord showing Windows MyComputer and Trash icons
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
It was a 4 for me… Hardle 🟦🟪 #1382 4/8 🟩⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨 🟩🟨⬜🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 And my Hardle first anniversary!
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
for a Z80, if you can make HL point to a byte of scratchpad I think you can use RLD. If I understand it right, if you start with your 4 bit number in A, you’d do LD (HL),A RLD LD A,(HL)
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
Note to self: don’t cock it up tomorrow!
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Nor in my local shopping centre. No shopping allowed for ICE in England!
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
This was happening 10 years ago when I was in Vienna. Why can’t we be more like Vienn?
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
A bit flummoxed by the timing and the London skyline, so didn’t get to see it in its full blood-moon totality, but at least we got to see some of it.
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
They can lip-read, you know!
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
That reminds me, need to buy more Port.
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
Sign I saw waiting for my hospital appointment this afternoon. I didn’t check the medical credentials of the pigeons.
Open window next to a sign saying *Urgent* Please make sure the window is closed. The pigeons are getting in.
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
On the workbench at the moment. A brass kit for a Midland Railway D418 milk van in 4mm scale EM gauge. The kit is from 51L.
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
… and these are the photos and drawings it was based on.
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
Thanks - yes, it started out as a sheet of art mounting card. Even the window frames were scratch built from brass sheet and wire! The brickwork was embossed card overlaid onto the structure. This is how it all started!
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
The wagon on the left is from a Slater’s kit. The one on the right breaks my ‘everything is something I made’ philosophy - it’s a Wrenn wagon I had since I was a child. Allowed for obvious reasons!
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
Here’s a lockdown project - a mill that used to exist near Blunham, Bedfordshire, built based on Victorian sketches, a couple of blurry photos and some imagination.
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
You may want to give them a good clean.
Dribbling piss at festivals.
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
Screenshot from today's guardian. Left: Gaza, Right: Kyiv. Basically the same picture yet we only have an arms embargo against Russia.
Screenshot from today's guardian.
Left: Gaza, Right: Kyiv. Basically the same picture yet we only have an arms embargo against Russia.
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Would that be this Byline Festival?
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Thundery showers and light winds from mid-day.
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
Scientists say mini black holes could be hiding in objects around you
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Mix this with lemonade and you’ve got yourself a glass of Hand shandy.
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
And some background information from the press release about Sinclair Research.
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
Three more pages from the press release giving some technical information on the ZX80...
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Simon Harris @simondo65.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
Here are a few pages from the press pack...
Photo Caption:
Clive Sinclair with the new ZX80 personal computer from Sinclair Research Ltd.

Priced at £99.95 inc VAT (£79.95 inc in kit form), this new, highly portable, full-facility personal computer is made in Britain and is the first product to be launched by Sinclair Research Ltd. after its formation in September 1979.

29.1.80
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