@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

samueljohnson

@samueljohnson@mstdn.social

Scientist, MBA, ex IT professional, Irish & European
Lived 30+ years on 4 continents, now back in Ireland.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

Stunning trip. And Mostar has a brutalist station. Needs a bit of upkeep, but quite a building!

River in the valley
Running beside the river
Mostar station

samueljohnson, (edited )
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@jon In India "preponing" flights was a thing, as I discovered to my cost (despite arriving in plenty of time, ie a couple of hours). Maybe it's better now.

The nonchalance with which this was communicated, as if it was routine enough that one should have anticipated it, was quite Alice in Wonderland.

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

The endless tedium of Brexiters wanting not just cake, but a discount

https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-weighs-value-for-money-of-returning-to-eu-science-after-brexit-hiatus/

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

Sammy Wilson, the man who publicly advocated ethnic cleansing of Irish people from NI, is having a fit of the vapours because Joe Biden said he visited NI to make sure "the Brits didn't screw around" (ie, to ensure they upheld their commitments, which they had already repeatedly broken, and have been breaking in Ireland since the Treaty of Limerick in 1691).

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/may/12/unionists-angry-as-joe-biden-says-he-visited-northern-ireland-to-make-sure-the-brits-didnt-screw-around

Show some respect he demands, red faced (fury is his default setting).

It's a two-way street Sam. Always was.

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

Donald Trump verdict: guilty on all 34 counts. 👌👏

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

A new Brexit disbenefit: more Scabies

https://www.wired.com/story/scabies-outbreak-uk-europe-treatment-shortages-drug-resistance-permethrin-ivermectin

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

Started watching thinking @ottocrat should see this, he's got a got a Doppelganger who even sounds a bit like him

https://youtu.be/1VxzZha2h1M

Then realised it was a slightly greyer original 😂👏

We're a step behind. One EV and no batteries yet, but on the same journey. 💪

If we don't who will?

Good to see those responsible for 🇪🇺 social policy 👣👣 the 🗣️, helping save 🌍. Contrast with the "Common Sense" Tories or climate change denying 🤡🤡 in the Reform limited company.🤦‍♂️

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

Brexit: More irreparable damage - to the London stock market, and with it to the economy & tax revenues. 🤦

https://bylinetimes.com/2024/04/17/brexit-ruined-the-stock-market-and-not-even-rejoining-the-eu-will-fix-it/

Note: Many Americans who worked in the City of London did so on Irish passports. Quite a few have gone to Frankfurt, Paris & Dublin, cities in which employers can recruit from the entire EU (and in Ireland's case the UK as well).

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

Excellent Observer editorial on the creek the UK has found itself in with no hope of a paddle this side of an election

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/13/the-observer-view-on-brexit-tories-are-paying-the-price-for-their-dishonesty

Meanwhile, the Conservatives continue to implode

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/may/13/tory-anarchy-breaks-out-as-revolt-looms-on-brexit-laws

The centre will not hold.

fatsam, to random
@fatsam@mstdn.social avatar

After 2000, lots of people sneered that the Y2K bug had been a big nothing, massively overhyped.

They were idiots. If the vast amount of Y2K remediation that took place hadn't, planes might well have fallen from the sky, nuclear power plants might well have melted down. I worked on two projects myself to fix bad 2 digit dates.

We get to the other side of the current Nazi infestation, the same idiots are going to say, "See, you were just hysterical."

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@fatsam If you need detailed evidence that the Y2K bug was real and had real consequences. 👇

Most potentially adverse consequences were averted by the expenditure of trillions of $ over many years in advance of the year 2000, and in some cases in the nick of time.

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what-really-happened-in-y2k

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

https://terikanefield.com/sex-lies-and-falsified-documents/

An American counterpart, of sorts, to David Allen Green, albeit with a very different style. Worth reading every week.

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

Puzzled by the Guardian/Observer headline asserting that Trump "soundly defeated" Nikki Haley in South Carolina. A 60/40 win is not a sound defeat. Biden's margin in the last Democrat primary in SC was about 90%. THAT is a sound defeat for the losers.

Trump's inability to do better with registered Republicans suggests he doesn't really have much of a hope with the electorate as a whole.

White supremacy is on the way out with Donald Trump and America and the world will be better for it.

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/04/plans-to-redefine-extremism-would-include-undermining-uk-values

Dear oh dear. Anyone favouring Irish reunification is now an extremist.

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

How to alienate neighbours

The right wing London "think tank" Policy Exchange has published a paper "Closing the Back Door" accusing Ireland of being a threat to the UK's security*, bc weak on defence, allegedly. And of suffering from Anglophobia.**

GB closed the "back door" of the open British border in Ireland w passport controls during WW2 and they persisted until 1953. Pending the obvious solution this option remains available.

*https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARVO

**ie, a dislike of imperialism

sjvn, to random
@sjvn@mastodon.social avatar

In my early computing days, when computers were big and programs were small, I used the TI Silent 700 Terminal, which used thermal paper instead of a CRT for its display. Yes, it was a pain.

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@sjvn But it purred beautifully. We had one in a house I shared w two CS undergrads in 1978 who had "borrowed" it to WFH. Found a printed chat in the kitchen one morning with someone using a terminal on campus, including the lines

YOU'RE AT HOME?!
I'M IN BED.

Had to use punch cards years later in grad school the US.

As William Gibson might have said, Dennis Jennings was already there, just not evenly distributed.

brianklaas, to random
@brianklaas@journa.host avatar

One of the great things about independent bookshops is that when you give a talk at them they might put out a special sign where someone perfectly draws the cover of your book in chalk, like this:

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@brianklaas Nice but pity they couldn't get your name right. Your podcast would have reached more people. I still miss it, and George's great production (esp the music, which was terrific).

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

Michael Lewis @mwl is only $633 short of his next reward level ($50,000) on his Kickstarter funded project offering a book (or for $15 an e-book) on how to run your own mail server, that is, to take back control of your data, now likely being used for training AI.

It's not for everyone, of course. There are some non oligopoly options (I use Fastmail, an ethical employee-owned business, and have done since early 2001) that are preferable to risks of DIY failures. 1/2

https://io.mwl.io/@mwl/112563980034953743

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

But, if you have even a modest technical aptitude and willingness to swim against the tide (preferring the Fediverse to Twitter eg) this could be a good investment.

I'll do it with one of my low-volume secondary email addresses. There are pitfalls but this book is intended to make them avoidable.

If not for you: it could make a good gift for someone you know.

(It's now $15 for 5 books)

Now $583 to go, and 4 days left.

2/2

samueljohnson, (edited ) to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

As the Tories conduct an auction among themselves for how many EU derived regulations will be gone by year end*, spare a thought for the people of NI listening to plans for further divergence from GB & a bigger sea border.

Clearly, as has always been the case, the union has never been anything but camouflage for the tyranny of an entitled English establishment.

*One wonders which ones adversely affected their lives:

https://twitter.com/mac_puck/status/1087360379691380736?t=Zo0ALFHW-yj3P2RuHSAnsw&s=19

samueljohnson, (edited ) to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2023/10/23/the-future-of-ghosts/

@lisagrimm CO poisoning 👻

Edit: Your future as a ghost

https://spectrum.ieee.org/datafication-and-digital-reanimation

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

#SamBankmanFried I'm looking forward to Michael Lewis' book on this lunacy. It should be funny.

Meanwhile, the swindler's sidekick Ms Ellison seems to have been (is?) quite a piece of work (a racist bigot among other things)

https://www.businessinsider.com/caroline-ellison-alameda-ftx-sbf-controversial-online-quotes-2022-11

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

This is a superb article by a disillusioned British unionist whose journey exactly matches that of Scottish friends of mine in Ireland, all of whom voted No to independence in 2014, and every one of whom is now strongly in favour of ending the union. Most, and most of their children, now have Irish citizenship.

https://bylines.scot/democracy/the-challenge-for-labour-in-scotland/

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

👇
https://macaw.social/@yoyoel/110969824773409796

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

Have now seen several more ads from Hermann Kelly, one of Ireland's foremost nativist bigots.

"Ireland is full" he claims.

Fact: our population, uniquely in Europe, is lower than it was in the 1840s.

"A million non-native born" he bleats.

Fact:

Most Irish people favour reunification and peaceful assimilation of c. 1m non-Irish (British). Many, possibly most, EU migrants in NI support reunification.

ALL are welcome in our diaspora-friendly society.

HK can FRO

https://mstdn.social/@samueljohnson/112543472693569055

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

Shifting baseline syndrome: unexpected catastrophic change that sneaks up on us slowly.

Coined by a former colleague with respect to fish stocks and relevant to so much else. Here, to privacy.

https://burn.capital/

Some want to break the only organisation capable of taking back control. 🇪🇺

They'll get no vote from me today.

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

Upton Sinclair got it long ago:

When man's income* depends on his not understanding something you can count on his not understanding it.

*ego for some is a form of income

https://mastodon.social/@AnnemarieBridy/112561341119811638

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