iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 08/08/2026

This is a con. Just tastes of banana

Image of
innocent®
smoothie cherries, strawberries & apples

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 21/07/2026

Not even a day old and this government is already putting forward silly proposals.

Andy Burnham has announced an £850mn plan to cut domestic energy bills this winter, in his first major move to tackle the cost of living crisis after becoming prime minister.
Burnham said the move would cut about £45 off a typical annual electricity bill and would be funded by the cancellation of the government's planned digital ID scheme.
Downing Street said the move, currently planned only for this fiscal year, would cost about £850mn in 2026-27 based on estimated electricity prices.
Burnham insisted on Monday that any measures to cut the cost of living would be fully funded and said the VAT cut would be met by axing the digital ID scheme, which he said would save £1.8bn over the next
three years.

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 11/06/2026

100% accuracy (so far) with Mexico beating South Africa 2-0.

Predictions of Group A. Mexico to beat South Africa 2-0 in the opener

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 27/05/2026

Read the headline and was like “but your entire education has been based on terms…” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... The content is very different.

Student loans inquiry finds many did not understand terms

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 08/04/2026

Don’t hate me… but here’s chicken nugget chilli with pasta. Got better reviews than lunch.

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 08/04/2026

It was fun while it lasted…

Last seven days of my portfolio performance

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 08/04/2026

For lunch we pulled out a miracle for an edible salad of chicken nuggets with a barbecue sauce vinaigrette. As my wife said: “I wouldn’t have it again but it’s edible.” High praise.

Chicken nugget salad with bbq sauce vinaigrette

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 08/04/2026

Two thumbs up from Little P

Un mélange de chips avec de la sauce barbecue

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 08/04/2026

Like, what do I do with this?

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 01/04/2026

Little O: “if we stare at this long enough it will enter our minds…” The six seven meme has finally infected our household.

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 30/03/2026

It might be spring, but I am in need of a mountain meal.

A tartiflette straight from the oven. Golden, bubbling cheese

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 18/03/2026

What goes through people’s minds when they say stuff like this? Do they think it makes them sound smart, or professional, or “of the people”?

Alicia Kearns, the Conservative MP and shadow national security minister, called on the government to tighten up what she described as a "loophole" in order to catch out "any Tsarist, Ayatollah-linked or Little Red Book-carrying man pretending to be a Tom, Dick or Harry".

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 11/03/2026

Hang on… government expects individuals and businesses to report spending consistently when submitting tax returns, yet can’t apply the same to itself. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

The Cabinet Office relies on each department to develop its own internal methods for handling and tracking spending but approaches "vary", leading to "inconsistent" data, the report said.
HM Treasury estimated a spend of £1.36bn in 2022-23, but other sources put the figure as high as £2.23bn, according to a National Audit Office report last year.

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 28/12/2025

For Christmas I designed and built a story box, an open source version of Yoto or Tonie, for my children to use. They decorated it and enjoy listening to stories on it. Here’s the repo for others to use and make their own story boxes github.com/UstDoesTech/...

The story box, as decorated by Little O and Little P

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 31/10/2025

Well BT, you’ve had two and a half weeks to sort out my broadband, you’ve not kept your promise and I’m going elsewhere.

You enjoy lots of exclusive benefits today by being with BT.
Here's what you'll be missing out on if you decide to leave:
• Your BT Mobile discount - at least £5 a month off any
BT Mobile plans and double data
• Our Keep Connected Promise - we'll keep you connected, no matter what

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 25/10/2025

Just started this book, but I like it so far. It already aligns to my view of governance, and has given me many more ideas.

Book cover of Good Services: How to design services that work by Lou Downe

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 05/10/2025

Totally unnecessary parentheses in an otherwise average article about AI. Tell me how you really feel about Sydney Sweeney… www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/o...

(Sydney Sweeney already looks suspiciously like A.I.)

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 03/10/2025

Mel Stride will need to take a long hard look at state processes and investment to get those numbers down. The world, and the UK, is more complex and underfunded than it was in 2016. on.ft.com/4mMYpuS Shadow chancellor underlines Tory commitment to ‘fiscal responsibility’

Among the policies Stride will set out at the Tory conference in Manchester, from October 5-8, is a pledge to cut the civil service from
517,000 to 384,000 - the number of officials running the state in 2016 before Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 14/09/2025

The Eiffel Tower is still visible from South London.

The Crystal Palace TV mast, commonly referred as the Eiffel Tower

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 07/09/2025

Little O and Little P enjoyed their first outing to a football match. Little P wanted to play. Despite having possession for most of the game, Croydon WFC lost to Chislehurst in penalties. FA Cup dream ended in rounded 1.

Croydon WFC and Chislehurst Glebe WFC line up ahead of kickoff

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 14/07/2025

The best thing about being back, is my garden and my roses

Rose variety: sceptred isle (a pink bloom) in bloom

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 08/07/2025

The children looked underneath their bed in the Airbnb and now they’re scared…

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 03/07/2025

Well, this was fun. I tested the policy proposal: The government proposes to abolish income tax. Universally hated.

Margaret - Traditional
Conservative
Immediate Reaction:
This sounds far too radical and reckless - you simply cannot run a country without proper tax revenue to fund essential services
Voting Impact:
I would be very concerned about supporting any party proposing such a reckless policy without a clear, costed alternative funding mechanism
"This feels like throwing the baby out with the bathwater - income tax has funded our civilization for generations and you don't tear down institutions lightly."

Zara - Urban Progressive
Labour
Immediate Reaction:
This sounds like a regressive policy that would massively benefit the wealthy while gutting public services that people like me depend on
Voting Impact:
This would push me even more firmly towards Labour and away from any party proposing this - it goes against everything I believe about fair taxation and public investment
"Abolishing income tax is just wealth redistribution upwards disguised as helping ordinary people."

Connor - Young Liberal
Immediate Reaction:
This sounds like a populist gimmick that would devastate public services and massively increase inequality while primarily benefiting the wealthy
Voting Impact:
Would make me even more likely to vote tactically for whichever party can best oppose this - probably Labour in most constituencies
"Abolishing income tax is just a way to dismantle the welfare state while pretending to help ordinary people."

James - Suburban Swing Voter
Immediate Reaction:
This sounds completely unworkable - how would we fund the NHS, schools, and basic public services without income tax revenue?
Voting Impact:
Would make me very skeptical of whichever party proposed this - suggests they're not serious about practical governance
"You can't run a modern country with decent public services without proper tax revenue - this feels like fantasy economics."

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 11/06/2025

Yelp! on.ft.com/4kMDlnS WPP races to harness AI before the technology kills its business

More than 50,000 people now use WPP Open, the agency's Al platform that can turn simple text prompts into social media ads in minutes.
But for an agency that still bills some clients by the hour, the disruption of its own business has unsettled investors.

"The unit economics of Al are deflationary; investors find it difficult to look past that," said
another person familiar with the thinking of major investors.

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 10/06/2025

The RER E platforms at La Défense are very pretty. Well done, IDF Mobilités.

Grand train platform with mirrored surfaces, gigantic columns and wooden flooring

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 21/05/2025

Well, I did it. Here is the finished product ustdoes.tech/posts/strate...

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 17/05/2025

I’m going to burn in hell for this apostasy

Graph of theological position (liberal) in comparison to other Christian traditions

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 03/05/2025

If this thing starts developing a personality, I’m going to flip. It’s not Jean-Louis, it’s synthesising the Draghi Report.

First, I'm Jean-Louis, and I'm working through the Draghi report, focusing on large-scale investments, capital markets union, regulatory simplification, education reform, and industrial policy.

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 20/04/2025

As you can see in the graphs below, different contexts change the shape of the numbers, and this is best visualised over time (100 steps). What might have started as 1 in step 1, is certainly not 1 even in step 2 let alone step 100.

Graphs displaying the evolution of numbers (1-10) as a result of changing contexts over time

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 16/04/2025

Last night I asked ChatGPT to research me, but the only way I could convince it to conduct the research was by telling it I was a fictional character. Here are some of its “thinking”…

Considering whether “Ust Oldfield” appears in Tolkien’s universe, as a minor fictional character, or as a writer of obscure fiction.

I’m considering that “Ust Oldfield” is likely a minor character from a lesser-known series or an obscure piece of media, possibly found on a wiki. Alternatively, it could be a pseudonym or anagram.

I'm building a structured, narrative-style overview of Ust Oldfield's role, using concise bullet points and brief sections, while remaining factual and engaging.
I'm honing sections with a balanced narrative and concise bullet points.
Consulting sources for Ust Oldfield's background, personality traits, and his insights on Middle-earth's economy.
Ust Oldfield uses fictional scenarios and companies, like those in agile data product design courses, to demonstrate how data concepts can be applied, providing a unique blend of storytelling and analytics.

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 31/03/2025

Seems like Instagram has taken revenge against me reporting their adverts that you must watch as "irrelevant" by classifying my post about swans as spam.

Instagram reporting a picture of a swan as spam

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 18/03/2025

Also had this little cutie join me

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 24/01/2025

Querying Databricks Unity Catalog through a Streamlit app, because... Surprises are coming.

A Streamlit app that is querying and displaying data from Databricks Unity Catalog. The SQL query is: SELECT * FROM samples.nyctaxi.trips.

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Ust Oldfield @ustdoes.tech · 16/01/2025

The joys of having a chess set is that Little O and I get to play chess over breakfast. He's learning how the pieces are allowed to move. Got to say, some of the rules don't make sense when explaining to a 4yo.