Replying to
@SteveRudolfi
I wholly disagree with the conclusion at the end of this article. This is something that should be vigorously avoided.
Remote
Dave Robinson
@dave@europhiles.uk
I'm a recently retired software engineer, still in rehab. I'm originally from Birmingham, and I'm an alumnus of the University of Birmingham, Mathematics & Computer Science (1983-1986). I've lived in the English Midlands all my life.
I enjoy messing around with computers, networks, and technology in general. This corner of the Fediverse lives behind my sofa, and it's not Mastodon… I'm a #GoToSocial ist!
I'm left of centre, interested in UK/EU/US politics and the #Green agenda. I'm an enthusiastic #EV owner. Pro-Europe, pro-PR, and in favour of a fully federal UK. I'll follow back if you have an interesting bio.
I love a great landscape photograph and I love thin places, wild nature and especially the Celtic fringe.
🇪🇺 🇺🇦 🇪🇭 🇬🇱
520 Followers
612 Following
33 Posts
Joined January 23, 2023
Location:
Malvern, Worcestershire, UK
About:
Male: He/Him/His
Born: 320ppm
Born: 320ppm
Employment History (1986-2026):
Systems Designers / SD-Scicon / SISL (1986-1990)
Admiral Computing (1990-1994)
RSRE / DRA / DERA (1994-1997)
Lanner Group (1997-1998)
Camtek (1998-2000)
DERA / QinetiQ (2000-2010)
TBi Connect (2010-2011)
Deep-Secure / Forcepoint / Everfox (2011-2026)
Admiral Computing (1990-1994)
RSRE / DRA / DERA (1994-1997)
Lanner Group (1997-1998)
Camtek (1998-2000)
DERA / QinetiQ (2000-2010)
TBi Connect (2010-2011)
Deep-Secure / Forcepoint / Everfox (2011-2026)
Contact Details:
XMPP: dave@europhiles.uk
Signal: dcrobinson.65
Email: dave@europhiles.uk
Web: https://web.europhiles.uk/
Signal: dcrobinson.65
Email: dave@europhiles.uk
Web: https://web.europhiles.uk/
Replying to
@Wen@mastodon.scot
There's much more chance of a dog being left in a grossly oversized Rangerover, or a Bentley, or some other kind of penis extension, honest. I'd focus on those if I were you.
Replying to
@Captain_Jack_Sparrow@mastodon.world
I applaud your highly accurate description of the USA's glorious leader 👏
Replying to
@ChrisMayLA6 @tomgauld.bsky.social
That reminded me of a scene from the excellent and greatly underrated comedy sci-fi series Hyperdrive (Nick Frost, Miranda Hart, Kevin Eldon). There is a pressing need to shoot an alien, and the guns have all been factory reset to remove a virus, and require a set of questions to be answered prior to first use.
Replying to
@majorlinux @caiocgo
You're not alone. My recently ex-employer has started measuring employee performance using AI usage as one of the criteria. Fortunately, I've been able to take early retirement, but I fear the "good old days" are long gone, and I'm glad I'm not starting a software development career right now.
Replying to
@randahl@mastodon.social
It's an excellent video. I've sent the link to lots of friends. Thank you for making it and sharing. I sincerely hope your analysis for 2026 is correct.
Replying to
@Wen great idea. I thought for a moment you'd captured a flash of lightning, but then I realised it was one of those chemtrail things 🙂
Replying to
@ravensrod @statsguy
I'm afraid I'm with @statsguy on this one. YP have no policies as yet, and their ideology is unclear. Even the founding "top team" can't seem to agree the direction the party should take. Allowing the members to decide the policies is in some respects laudable, but is wide open to infiltration and/or conflicting ideals. I actually like Jeremy Corbyn and voted for his Labour Party back in the day, but I think the biggest winner in the foreseeable future is the #FrogFacedFascist.
Replying to
@MiriShuli @jschwa1
Although I guess Google could remove your banner in its "improved" version of your site.
Replying to
@helge @Paul_Taylor
I agree it's still possible to run your own mail server. It's got harder over the 25 years I've been doing it for... I now have SPF, DKIM, DMARC, DNSSEC and full IPv6 support with rDNS, and I'm just an enthusiastic #HomeLab user with a domestic IP address. As far as I'm aware, my emails are getting delivered to people's inboxes.
Rumours are that the half-time interval at the #FIFAWorldCup2026 final will be up to 25 minutes long, and will be a "show" (and probably stuffed with commercials).
So much for the beautiful game. The brash Americanisation is almost complete. The hydration breaks (commercial breaks) are bad enough, but this is just plain awful. FIFA are no longer fit for purpose.
Replying to
@DJDarren@mendeddrum.org sorry, I already booked him for a four part drama where he heads up Surfers Against Sewage.
Thank you Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Slovenia and Iceland, for doing what the UK and many other countries were too cowardly to do. I hope viewers across the world refuse to watch #Eurovision too. There is no place in international society, events or sport for countries that commit genocide.
Replying to on mastodon.social
@Sheril@mastodon.social
Excuse my language, but all I can say is fucking morons
Replying to
@menelion
I agree with you completely. In some cases "big brother" knows best, but in many cases it doesn't. Also, of course, politicians tend to be those who win popularity contests, rather than those best qualified to decide what's right for the majority whilst taking into account the needs of the minority.
If you live in the #GortonAndDenton constituency and are thinking of voting #Labour (or #LibDem), please consider voting for the #GreenParty instead. It is very unlikely that Labour will win, and either way #KeirStarmer will be deemed to have failed.
The big risk, as always, is that the progressive parties (in which I generously include Labour) will split their vote, allowing the right-wing parties to win with a minority. Any centrist or left-winger shouldn't want #ReformUK to win with their parachuted-in proto-fascist.
Even if you don't care that much about politics, please use your vote and vote for the local #Green candidate #HannahSpencer, a plumber and an experienced councillor, who will properly represent the people of your constituency. It's safe to say she's not the kind of person who will be heading off to the Chagos Islands for a publicity stunt.
#UKPol #UKPolitics #GortonAndDentonByElection
Donald J Trump.
Just fuck off.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
#DumpTrump
#TrumpWarCriminal
Replying to
@menelion
Because we have a (mostly) publicly funded health system, the consequences of individual choices are paid for by the whole nation. The costs of treating smoking (and for that matter, alcohol and obesity) -related diseases are borne by everyone regardless of their personal habits.
Arguably, the costs could be covered by increased taxation on tobacco (or the more Draconian refusal to treat "self-inflicted" diseases). The former has been tried along with advertising bans, and smoking rates have come down. In this case, public opinion has swung towards an outright ban.
The ban on smoking in public places, especially food outlets, was widely welcomed. As a lifelong non-smoker whose father died an unpleasant death from a smoking-related cancer, I can't find much to argue against. The curse of tobacco will hopefully be forgotten in a couple of generations, like laudanum and snuff.
I'm a software developer with 40 years' professional experience, lucky enough to be considering early retirement. I love writing code and don't want to stop. I'm keen to give something back and contribute to one or more open source projects.
The questions are, to what shall I contribute, and how do I get started?
My skills are mainly C++, having spent much of the past decade programmatically dismantling and reassembling Microsoft Office files. I'm quite happy to learn Rust or Go, but don't really like webby front-endy ux stuff.
Any suggestions for a worthy project to which I could contribute? Please boost if you can.
#SoftwareEngineering #SoftwareDevelopment #SoftwareDev #OpenSource #FreeSoftware
I now have functional Matrix and XMPP servers running on my own home server. That's the easy part. The hard part is persuading everybody I know to dump WhatsApp and Messenger.
#HomeLab #SelfHosting
Replying to
@d1 @helge @Paul_Taylor
Well, that's always been the case. The last stage is the client's inbox, and they can write their own rules for that. If they want to route all emails from people named Dave into spam folders, there's nothing that can be done about it.
In other respects, I don't agree with the use of the term non-deterministic though. That suggests (to me) randomness. You're right in that any email server in a chain can impose its own arbitrary policies, but that's been the case for years. It depends on lots of things such as the training of Bayesian filters, which online block lists are consulted, policies about bulk mailers and so on. Over the years the restrictions that servers apply have become more rigorous, but if your server plays by the rules as a good citizen in my experience it has got more reliable rather than less.
Replying to
@jeffowski
Then of course you have to worry about the high risk of smiting if you engage in onanism.
This sarcastic take on an AI manifesto (for want of a better description) is so close to being the kind of stuff you regularly read online these days, it could almost be genuine. Hats off to @brucelawson@vivaldi.net.
Brilliant.
#SoftwareEngineering #AI #Sarcasm #Humour
https://brucelawson.co.uk/2026/brucelab-act-2-1-accelerating-human-centric-agentic-synergy-at-machine-velocity/
In 1919 someone famous said this:
“I cannot understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes”
He was the government minister for war, and he was talking about the Middle East (Kurds and Afghans).
It was Winston Churchill. Not much has changed. The disregard for human life continues.
#IranWar
Replying to
@JackTheCat@mastodon.scot sadly I'm a tech head. However, I'm also a low-rent polymath (despite half a proper university maths degree), and can converse on a wide range of topics, even with rebellious Scots 😁
Replying to
@DJDarren @TheBreadmonkey
It could simply be that their supporters in your area can't read?
The solution to the #IranWar conflict is clearly regime change. The question is, how on earth can we get rid of the Mango Mussolini and his cabal of MAGA morons?