Es Toot Mir Lewd

I'm D; white British cis bi guy he/him.

I like information security, systems administration, DevOps. I've been around the IT industry for decades in various roles; now I'm not sufficiently specialist to do anything other than be a manager.

I used to do politics but got better. Still a liberal. I enjoy video gaming, and quite a lot of Marvel stuff but I hope I'm not too boring about either.

I live in Manchester, UK with my partners E and V, and near my partner P.

I mostly post puns and selfies.

Also https://scrim.social/sassquatch when I'm helping run that instance.

Public Key

npub13uv4vkydaphtvudr8sq625467yj2jffaudltqup43u6s462anxdqk26dwg

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsg7x2ktzx7sm4kwx3ncqd922a0zf9fy577xl4swq6c7dg2a9wenxspz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds4cy0yz

Publishing to

relay.snort.social

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub13uv4vkydaphtvudr8sq625467yj2jffaudltqup43u6s462anxdqk26dwg

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Last Notes

2026-11-08 11:49:28 GMT

This #RemembranceSunday I am contemplating the phrase "Lest We Forget". It is repeated every year. But what are we supposed to remember?
For most British people, the history of WW1 and WW2 is told through a military lens and is a story of victory. The Holocaust is mentioned to make it clear that the Nazis were evil.
But Brits can't remember how the Nazis took power, how they coopted and destroyed civil institutions, now they stripped people of rights. Because we were never taught it. We can't see parallels between the rise of Nazism and current events.
Recently I visited the Düsseldorf Memorial and Education Centre. It was harrowing. Not just the horrors of the Holocaust, but particularly the stories of kids growing up in pre-war Nazi Germany.
We need museums like this in the UK. We need people to understand where prejudice and discrimination lead. What happens when you are led into anger and hatred by people with ulterior motives. What fascism feels like.

2026-08-18 08:49:15 GMT

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@nprofile…3yjc The other thing that's come out recently is how #LongCovid damages dopamine receptors in the brain, effectively mimicking the biological symptoms of #ADHD. So the Government policy of pandemic denial may be a contributing factor to rising demand for ADHD diagnosis, six years in.

2026-08-06 16:08:47 GMT

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@nprofile…r9vg Somebody didn't test the backup generators?

2026-07-26 14:19:11 GMT

It is both hilarious and inevitable that the AI bros are kicking off about the #Codeberg membership voting by supermajority against #LLM contributions and vibe coding.
The social context of the modern "AI" movement is based around a fascist idea that "might means right", and that we plebs can't stand up to the force of the TESCREAL billionaire class. And some people really get on board with that, perhaps thinking that they can curry favour with the billionaires who don't even know they exist. So even as small and insignificant a resistance as a tiny German non-profit saying "no" is unconscionable to them.
This is why my inbox has been filled with screeds and rants and bad-faith arguments for the last few days and I've been laughing at them and deleting them.

2026-07-24 08:59:30 GMT

If you agree with @nprofile…mvm4 's decision over banning LLM-generated code, why not support them financially with a membership?
https://join.codeberg.org/
For €2/month you can support an important organisation taking a stand against AI, providing a #FOSS alternative to big corporate GitHub. Many nerds here can afford that.
As an active member of the Codeberg e.V. nonprofit, you also get a voice and a vote in how Codeberg is run. It was the members who voted to support the resolution against slopcode.
#Codeberg #git #NoAI #FuckAI

2026-07-22 19:50:44 GMT

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@nprofile…r9vg @nprofile…79eq I believe this has been done and it's not bad. Can't find a link right now though, because so many other LLMs claim to be "open" so it fucks up the search results.
ETA: I think it might be Common Corpus. "Every document is in the public domain or under an explicitly permissive license, including Creative Commons CC-BY and CC0, MIT, Apache 2.0, BSD, and the Open Data Commons family." There's also attempts to curate it to reduce Western linguistic bias

2026-07-18 10:01:54 GMT

Some people at #EMFCamp have been admiring the Pride brick sticker on my laptop. Good news: you can have your own, courtesy of @nprofile…qaa8 !
https://ko-fi.com/s/4591aa4cd4

2026-07-10 13:23:12 GMT

Happy to report that a longstanding @nprofile…mvm4 feature request has been resolved - codeberg.org now provides #SSHFP records over #DNSSEC, giving an automated level of trust to first time connections.
https://codeberg.org/Codeberg/Community/issues/89#issuecomment-18936449

2026-07-03 22:56:36 GMT

I'm a little bit disappointed in my #GMMayor leaflet from the #GreenParty and my recently-elected MP #HannahSpencer. It's a straight up tactical voting message - "Vote Green to beat Reform".
Except this election, as I've mentioned previously, is conducted under Supplementary Vote. That means that you don't need to vote tactically - you give your first preference to who you want to win, your second to who you think best placed to keep the baddies out.
This was the perfect opportunity for the Greens to make a positive case for their platform, and say "If you want these things, vote Greens #1". Instead, they concentrate on scare-mongering, giving more attention to the opponents than their own policies.
#ElectoralReform #Manchester #UKPol #UKPolitics

2026-06-25 22:10:31 GMT

Walking through my house with my phone in one hand and a cookie in the other, I absent mindedly bite my phone.

2026-05-22 10:22:30 GMT

Manchester Trans Liberation Assembly are calling a protest against the newly published #EHRC guidance in St Peter's Square, #Manchester on Sat 23rd May at noon.
There is also an online meeting at 7-9pm to coordinate writing to your #MP to reject the guidance.
#LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #UKPol #UKpolitics #trans #TransRights
https://media.tech.lgbt/media_attachments/files/116/617/714/816/313/851/original/640406e9d79c55b7.png
https://media.tech.lgbt/media_attachments/files/116/618/228/884/062/194/original/06959aa9aea3de0a.jpg

2026-05-07 17:15:58 GMT

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@nprofile…zn4a and I passed a second polling station while walking Teddy, and debated the morality of taking #DogsAtPollingStations photos if nobody went in to vote.
https://media.tech.lgbt/media_attachments/files/116/534/417/558/165/447/original/b83b88f84cc043ac.jpg

2026-05-07 16:48:50 GMT

@nprofile…zn4a and Teddy accompanied me to vote in #Burnage #Manchester, even though one had already voted and the other isn't allowed!
#DogsAtPollingStations
https://media.tech.lgbt/media_attachments/files/116/534/287/286/803/135/original/1c124643f1b72e6f.jpg

2026-03-29 11:26:54 GMT

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@nprofile…la7y Third biggest story on The Guardian currently: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/mar/28/london-far-right-march-biggest-ever-multicultural-protest
Harder to find on the BBC site but still covered: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2rn03ryz8o
Covered by the Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/london-protest-today-far-right-b2947672.html
Sky News: https://news.sky.com/story/half-a-million-join-london-rally-against-the-far-right-claim-organisers-13525518

2026-03-06 21:34:07 GMT

I'm genuinely surprised that I haven't seen more on Fedi about #TransmissionLive. This is a huge fundraiser for #NotAPhase and #GoodLawProject, two excellent charities doing very different important things in the #trans space in the UK, with an all-star lineup.
It's on Wednesday 11th March in #London. If you can go, do. If you can't, consider making a donation through the website. Either way, tell more people about it. The fact that this can even be a thing in TERF Island 2026 is a big deal. :boosts_ok_gay:
https://www.transmissionlive.uk/
#LiveMusic #Gig #Festival
https://media.tech.lgbt/media_attachments/files/116/184/258/149/383/643/original/74714012a16a1540.jpg

2026-02-27 09:17:11 GMT

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@nprofile…la7y @nprofile…jnnp This is not a profound point. This is how you fight elections under First Past The Post. The Green leaflets spent more time attacking Labour than Reform too.

2026-02-21 08:14:24 GMT

Heads up that Britain First are holding a fascist rally in #Manchester city centre today. I'd avoid Piccadilly Gardens from noon.
If you want to actively oppose the fascists, counter protesters are rallying in Sackville Gardens at 11:15 - wear boring clothes, wear a mask, don't travel alone. https://imginn.com/p/DULZJCIjHV0
#antifa #antifascism #NoPasaran

2025-11-06 00:06:30 GMT

I love the little green 6's in my #Firefox browser window from the #IPvFoo extension, which tells me my web browsing is using #IPv6. Feels like I'm living in the future.
(yes, the future of... 1998)

2025-10-19 22:57:29 GMT

So @nprofile…xgsj shared this image of a fake #Lego #StarWars kit titled "George Lucas with 4.05 Billion Dollars" which elicited a sensible chuckle. Then I realised there was no way this meme image was accurate.
Assuming the kit uses a standard 2x1 Lego tile (no studs) to represent a $100 bill (the largest denomination available), you would need 40.5 million green 2x1 tiles to represent that amount of money. The tiles, stacked neatly, would take up 16.6m³ and weigh just under 11 tonnes.
(By comparison, that much money in real $100 bills would weigh 40.5 tonnes [they weigh 1g each!] and occupy 45.73m³. Which tells us that Lego bricks are more efficient as legal tender)
The real Lego kit 75187 is a buildable BB8
#FuckBillionaires
https://media.tech.lgbt/media_attachments/files/115/403/248/518/184/373/original/50fb3153f163f5ab.png

2025-10-10 14:29:27 GMT

I drove my disabled partner to a nearby shopping centre so they could use a mobility aid to visit a charity shop.
Sadly it's next to local schools, so now the car park is over filled with drivers picking their kids up and acting like dickheads in the process.
People are revving their engines, beeping, pulling in front of each other in total disregard for stop lines / signs, driving through pedestrian crossings without looking etc.
The catchment area for these schools is highly walkable - there's been a lot of investment recently in controlled crossings and other safety mechanisms for pedestrians.
Carbrain culture is antisocial and dangerous.

2025-10-08 14:21:54 GMT

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@nprofile…kndv It's like how Holstein Friesian cows (the black and white ones) are called Friesians in the UK and Holsteins in America.

2025-08-28 12:20:51 GMT

I tried disabling IPv4 on my laptop just to see what would happen. Kind of fun to see which bits of the Internet still work on pure #IPv6 and which don't.
In terms of my usual activity: Fedi, #Signal, #WhatsApp, #Codeberg and #Facebook are fine on an IPv6-only connection.
I suspect #Discord wouldn't work, except I have a workaround for the #OnlineSafetyAct so I'm not connecting directly to it, but via an IPv6-enabled proxy.
#Dreamwidth, #Reddit and #BBCNews don't work on IPv6. The last of these does surprise me.

2025-06-09 09:00:33 GMT

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@nprofile…60lz We've known about false economies for a long time. When PFI hit, and the Government agreed to keep paying companies for buildings after the buildings' useable lifespan. Now they're all falling down and we're still paying the companies who loaned the money to build them.

2025-04-04 09:04:11 GMT

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@nprofile…0m6f
https://media.tech.lgbt/media_attachments/files/114/278/887/648/437/027/original/33bb5c095dbecd4b.png

2025-04-02 21:36:43 GMT

One of my favourite bits of my #queer familect is replacing pretty much all the words for "kind" "sort" "type" etc. with #gender.
"What gender of chocolate do you want?"
"What gender of music is this?"

2025-03-27 23:20:09 GMT

Speaking as somebody who's held Government / military security clearance, #SignalGate isn't about whether #Signal is "secure enough" for secret Government communications.
The scandal is that officials were discussing secrets on an unapproved platform, possibly with personal devices, definitely with uncleared people, and illegally attempting to violate laws around record keeping and transparency. Keep the focus on that.

2025-03-27 20:14:32 GMT

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@nprofile…u8sc @nprofile…6mg3 Yep. Can't watch Twins vs Cardinals, it is making me sad.

2025-03-14 00:23:42 GMT

Here's the 20" #CorsiRosenthalBox I'm working on. Fans in rectangular housings basically don't exist in the UK, so I made a cardboard shim out of the box for this circular one.
This build was a proof of concept (hence the green masking tape rather than duct tape, and the plastic sheeting still on the #MERV13 filter boards). I was testing whether the shim and the boards would support the weight of the fan. Despite being a mock up it's surprisingly rigid!
Next stage involves building it properly (including sealing those gaps at the corners; the 20" fan is actually more like 21.5" across and the boards are 19.5"), then using my anemometer to measure the flow rate of the finished box, so I can work out what size room it can filter. I'm intending this one for a local community centre where a Queer Club meets, to make their meetings safer.
#CovidIsNotOver #CleanAir #CorsiRosenthal
https://media.tech.lgbt/media_attachments/files/114/157/881/709/984/176/original/d6ce839ca7ba32b4.jpg

2025-02-27 12:10:25 GMT

Reading an article about "how to overcome #AI resistance and embrace change". It talks about overcoming "AI anxieties" such as "distrust [...] around data privacy and risks of bias".
I don't have anxieties around this. I have well founded, evidence-based concerns.
None of the article's "five steps for overcoming AI resistance" address privacy or bias concerns.

2025-02-26 23:58:03 GMT

I won a photography contest with a picture of rotting fruit.
The judges said they liked decomposition.

2025-02-10 19:35:57 GMT

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@nprofile…x759 Yeah, I was considering GDPR etc. along with the TOS, sorry I wasn't clear.
For security, I've made sure I'm not exposing #PixelFed backend services like Redis and MariaDB to the Internet. The Pixelfed containers are on an internal Docker network so they can't see any other containers. It's behind #Traefik as a reverse proxy but that's not a WAF. My co-admin was talking about putting it behind Cloudflare which might offer some of that.

2025-02-10 16:58:50 GMT

OK gang, what do I need to do before bringing a new #PixelFed instance into the #Fediverse? I've got "curated onboarding" (aka account approval) turned on rather than open registration. I'm importing a blocklist to keep Nazis away.
So far my TODO list is:
Review TOS for users
Test backups and restores
Test moderation tools
Uptime monitoring and alerting
What am I missing?

2025-01-26 11:46:19 GMT

Last night @nprofile…7epl agreed that, since #NASA and the #ESA are both Space Agencies, people who work for them are Space Agents.

2025-01-22 10:16:20 GMT

So for those of us who haven't been following the #WordPress drama, what's the best way to run a simple WordPress site these days? Ideally in a container I can stick behind my SSL-terminating #Traefik proxy.
I explicitly don't want any stalky plugins that phone home, but the ActivityPub plugin would be cool so blog posts go straight onto Fedi.
(also do I know any #trans people who are any good at creating WordPress themes?)

2025-01-16 18:45:03 GMT

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@nprofile…3rvj Now I'm sad I'm boycotting #FOSDEM over their lack of public health policy, so I can't boycott them over this bullshit.

2025-01-07 10:54:45 GMT

Back at work, so I'm using #AppBlock for Android to block Discord and Facebook on my phone during workdays. The endless dopamine scrolling is not good for me or my productivity.
But Fedi is chill so Tusky stays off the blocklist.

2025-01-02 15:18:53 GMT

Is there a good way to serve an entire ripped #DVD over a network, with their built in navigation etc.?
At the moment I'm ripping the main features with #Handbrake and serving them over DLNA to a #VLC client. But that means missing out on the extras etc.

2024-12-31 16:24:45 GMT

Hearing about the #Minnesota camp for kids with HIV/AIDS closing due to a lack of custom, I wondered if it could be repurposed as a #trans respite camp in that sanctuary state.
So I looked up the property listing - anybody know someone with $3million to invest?

2024-12-30 15:24:39 GMT

Time for some Reverse Resolutions: what do you think I should aim to do in 2025?

2024-12-22 20:41:02 GMT

Our best boy Gary had a seizure tonight. I took him to the hospital with @nprofile…7epl where they told us he had severe brain damage, and we decided with @[email protected] that it was time to say goodbye to him.
We are all devastated obviously but so glad that he left us peacefully, surrounded by his family, after a good day full of treats and zoomy walks. I am glad me and E got back from my family Christmas to spend some normal time with him before the seizure.
Going so quickly is a blessing and a curse for his humans, but it was definitely the best thing for him.
#TeamGary
https://media.tech.lgbt/media_attachments/files/113/698/388/919/696/841/original/281e0b30193ca5e6.jpg

2024-11-22 13:27:20 GMT

Just got scoffed at in a meeting for suggesting that a new #LLM technology being rolled out by a large corporation might have racist #bias. "They wouldn't have racist AI! They're a big corporation!" This is how ignorant the average person is when buying into AI (literally, there's a big budget for this).
It is my job to do due diligence on this product, and that includes analysing the well documented risk of racial bias in a tool which is going to make business recommendations. That's not just good practice, it's what the ICO says is required under UK law.
My boss on the same call asked what would happen if we did find a show stopper. The people commissioning this tool didn't have an answer for that.

2024-08-24 12:58:21 GMT

#London people! "Trans Kids Deserve Better" are occupying the Department for Education in Great Smith Street, Westminster, and they're asking for #trans allies to come along and show support!
https://transkidsdeservebetter.org/teenage-trans-activists-occupy-dfe-hq-in-for-trans-rights
#LGBT+ #Activism #Trans #TransKidsDeserveBetter :boosts_ok_gay:

2024-05-07 11:35:23 GMT

Today I have repeatedly failed to log in to my work laptop using my personal password, and into my personal laptop using my work password. My brain isn't functioning today.

2024-04-30 09:50:53 GMT

Today marks 25 years since the nail bomb at the #AdmiralDuncan gay pub in Soho, London which killed 3 and injured 79.
This was part of a neo Nazi campaign of bombings which also targeted Black and Bengali communities.
It's a reminder that far right violence has always been with us, and that #queer and #POC communities have a common enemy who want us all dead.

2024-04-22 19:32:30 GMT

Urgh, lurking on the #EMFCamp IRC channel and other group chats with attendees, and I'm increasingly convinced I'm not cool / hacker enough to go.
I have no reference point to tell whether this is #ImposterSyndrome or whether I'm giving up a weekend and spending a lot of money to sit in a field and be miserable.