Liam Proven
@lproven.bsky.social
Tall, dark, black-clad, atheist, skeptic, vegetarian, SF fan; writes (mostly about computers) for a living. All opinions expressed are my own & not those of any employer.
created July 18, 2023
825 followers 264 following 2,091 posts
view profile on Bluesky Posts
Jenny Frecklington-Jones #IStandWithPalestiniansAndIranians🇵🇸🇮🇷 (@joneshowdareyou.bsky.social) reposted
I enjoyed this. And what an infectious laugh. ❤️ "Reporter left speechless after witnessing Japan's new $70 million Maglev train in action at 310 mph"
Julio Merino (@jmmv.dev) reposted reply parent
Or you can just head to the full article, which is more elaborate and less click-bait-y than my original X thread: jmmv.dev/2023/06/fast...
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
The great Ken Campbell died 17 years ago last Sunday. From one of his masterworks: Narafala dei, mo narafala dei, mo narafala dei Wokabaot snel spid dei long dei Long laswan hafwud blong evriwansamting bagarup ded finis yeh taem lproven.livejournal.com/242908.html
Juliet Brando (@sliderulesyou.bsky.social) reposted
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
The Baba Yaga licence buff.ly/KvDHNqf <- I like this. I like the style, the language, and the concept. I wonder if it qualifies as a Free Software or open source licence?
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
This is a great thread by @jmmv.dev. Worth following and watching all the videos.
Niki Tonsky (@nikitonsky.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy) reposted
Are we really moving forward? Windows 2000 on a 600Mz machine from 1999 vs Windows 11 on Surface Go 2 from 2020. Via Julio Merino https://x.com/jmmv/status/1672073678102872065
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
Ford and the Birth of the Model T buff.ly/RiW1iVs A detailed look at how Ford continuously refined the production process of the Model T. Now, imagine if a software company dared to do this today?
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
@rayday.bsky.social I can't DM you. You maintain the AI/Crypto mute list? Please remove @buffer.com -- it is a legitimate tool and it's very handy.
Stephen Collins (@stephencollins.bsky.social) reposted
I meant to post this earlier in the school holidays but haven't had time cos I've been spending time with my kids
🌸MurmurLilies🌸 (@murmurlilies.bsky.social) reposted
I actually had to explain to someone recently that the AI that tells enemies in video games how to react to player inputs is NOT genAI and has existed for literal decades. they genuinely had no idea there was a difference. this shit has poisoned the well so bad.
Paul McAuley (@unlikelyworlds.bsky.social) reposted
Species which dabble in multicellularity hint at the evolutionary paths that could have led to animals. #thesecretoflife
Duncan Jones (@manmademoon.bsky.social) reposted
Anyone here even aware that this happened on Sunday? Literally a Russian attack on the head of the EU. Barely a whisper. Europe, you in danger, girl. Get your shit together. You may not think you are at war, but Putin's Russia sure does. www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...
tunes to make you run away (@whippoorwont.bsky.social) reposted
it should be at least 400 times harder to get a driver's license
Bethany Black (@bethanyblack.bsky.social) reposted
Company Icebreaker Team leader: let’s go around the room and share a fun fact about ourselves, Beth? Me: Erm, I ate my twin. TL: in the womb? Me: no, I was five, fun fact, as they were identical legally it’s like chewing your fingernails. TL: Me: *Collects P45*
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
Everyone needs to know about Windows 10 LTSC. 😉 The ordinary version is getting updates to 2027 and the IoT version until 2031. Check out massgrave.dev
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
I moved to Linux in 2002, so I'm reading this thread with amusement... ... Aaaaaand then we got to IrfanView and I *still* really miss that.
qntm (@qntm.org) reposted
ME: hey so what's this process consuming all my CPU WINDOWS: oh that's our Microsoft Search Indexer, it's building a search index of your files ME: neat, so if I do a search on my files, will I get prompt, useful resul— WINDOWS: [punches me in the face]
Adrie van der Luijt (@traumainformedcontent.com) reposted
I wrote his website. I advised him on PR. He expected at least a full page in The Telegraph within weeks. He worked from a rent-by-the-hour office in Holborn. I told him he needed a celebrity patron. He signed up Rita Ora shortly after. He opened shops next to the Royal Opera House and Piccadilly.
fesshole 🧻 (@fesshole.bsky.social) reposted
Bored in lockdown, Created a fake female attractive Facebook account. Joined a few dating Facebook pages. Blokes who initiated messages with dick pics whilst their profile picture was with their wife or GF would get screenshots of their messages same to their spouse or parents.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
Wholly remarkable thread. I had no idea and I studied ancient Rome.
Too Big to Fail (@toobigtofail.bsky.social) reposted
I will never stop finding it amusing that Tabitha King almost divorced Stephen King two times: once because of his addiction in the 80's, and once because while he was writing 11/22/63 he listened to Mambo No. 5 on repeat 18 hours a day. This is true.
Charlie Stross (@cstross.bsky.social) reposted
"The red recording light promised truth; the coffee beside it had already stamped it with a brown ring on the console. ... I adjusted the pop filter, as if I wanted to politely count the German language's teeth." GPT-5 emits garbage aimed at other LLMs. https://futurism.com/gpt-5-literary-outputs
K'eeg (@armormodekeeg.bsky.social) reposted
all the best windows software in history is called something like "joe's thing doer". it does the thing and nothing else and is available on a html website in plain text and takes up under a megabyte of space and uses default windows ui elements and will work until the heat death of the universe
Existential Comics (@existentialcomics.com) reposted
The Philosophy of Fashion existentialcomics.com/comic/618
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
Link to (original?) 2023 story www.forbes.com/sites/grrlsc...
fesshole 🧻 (@fesshole.bsky.social) reposted
My girlfriends family think I'm being kind letting my 10 year old nephew beat me at chess. The truth is I'm trying my hardest and i actually can't beat him.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
What brain surgery taught me about the fragile gift of consciousness buff.ly/mQt05tk After the trauma of a high-risk medical procedure, Eric Markowitz discovered a kind of consciousness that lives not in thought — but in presence.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reposted
Bartosz Ciechanowski – ciechanow.ski buff.ly/9U1Xq7w Because my previous post was about banning Javascript & plain HTML, I thought I'd share how I think it should be used: as these virtuoso articles demonstrate. Plain flat static HTML with interactive illustrations.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
The small web is beautiful benhoyt.com/writings/the...
lanyardigan (@lanyardigan.bsky.social) reposted
A cool thing about getting older is you hear from your skeleton a lot more
NotTheRealTracey (@nottherealtracey.bsky.social) reposted
What is it with CEO’s at public events? Tennis star Kamil Majchrzak was signing autographs yesterday when a man was caught stealing a hat from a child. He shared the video in hopes of identifying the boy & getting him a new hat. The man was quickly identified as Piotr Szczerek, CEO of Drogbruk
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
No, I'm pretty fine with that. 😁
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
Bartosz Ciechanowski – ciechanow.ski buff.ly/9U1Xq7w Because my previous post was about banning Javascript & plain HTML, I thought I'd share how I think it should be used: as these virtuoso articles demonstrate. Plain flat static HTML with interactive illustrations.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
Just fucking use HTML buff.ly/AEEVhEn <- the language of the Web is HTML. Not Javascript. The best website is one with no JS at all. Let's make this a movement.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
Aha! Yes. I have a bad habit of sometimes eating the slightly green ones...
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
You're right. BYW the link did not work, though.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
Everyone knows the tomato came from Central America, right? Along with corn, potatoes, tobacco? Did you know that they were regarded as poisonous & were solely ornamental for over 200 years afterwards? Medlars went the other way. We grow them but who eats them?
N.S. Dolkart, elected official (@nsdolkart.bsky.social) reposted
This was a fun article
palouse dust (@palouse-dust.bsky.social) reposted
Grug is a hero of the working class
Mat Johnson (@matjohnson.bsky.social) reposted
No reason.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
That was me. 🙂 Very glad you liked it. It's a good piece of yours.
Daniel Carlson (@danielwcarlson.bsky.social) reposted
We built a calculator that doesn't work, but don't worry, it's also a plagiarism machine that will tell you to kill yourself. It runs on the world's oceans and costs 10 trillion dollars.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
Programmers: you have to watch your weight, too www.theregister.com/2025/08/30/p... We are drowning in code, but at least some folks are swimming <- by me on @theregister.com – & I warn you, this doesn't go where you might expect…
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
Oh bollocks. Right, will delete and repost.
Ian Coldwater 📦💥 (@lookitup.baby) reposted
Old Soviet joke for today: A man walks into a newsstand every day, looks around, and leaves. After a long time of this, the owner says “Can I help you find something?” “I’m looking for the obituaries.” “The obituaries are in the back of the newspaper, comrade.” “Not the one I’m looking for.”
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
Yes, and quite tasty. You can freeze them too and that has a similar result but it doesn't increase the sweetness.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
Best title of a scientific paper I have seen so far this year. "How to wreck a nice beach you sing calm incense" (It means: _How to recognise speech using common sense._) dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
I used to grow quinces in my garden in London -- self-seeded. They needed a good bletting. My personal favourite is persimmon, which is good both before and after bletting.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
No, no, I understand the "tiny violin" thing, but why? This instrument is huge, the scholarship and musical skill in the reconstruction superlative. Why a reaction for condescending (lack of) pity?
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
RefreshOS 2.5: The Debian remix that borrows from every desk in the house www.theregister.com/2025/08/29/r... A remarkable mixture of different components, but it works <- by me on @theregister.com
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
The forgotten medieval fruit with a vulgar name buff.ly/iis1Ngq Medieval Europeans were fanatical about a strange fruit that could only be eaten rotten. Then it was forgotten altogether. Why did they love it so much? And why did it disappear?
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
Paris said au revoir to cars. Air pollution maps reveal a dramatic change. buff.ly/zUUhTjM Air pollution fell substantially as the city restricted car traffic and made way for parks and bike lanes.
Kyrylo Silin (@kyrylo.org) reposted
*Please* realize that if you have written a program and it's not correct, that it's a little bit cowardly to say that your program had a bug.
Evan Sutton (@evansutton.bsky.social) reposted
This is what doxxing is for. Someone knows this guy. He should be shunned and driven from society.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
Collapse of critical Atlantic current is no longer low-likelihood, study finds buff.ly/lmfIWDe Scientists say ‘shocking’ discovery shows rapid cuts in carbon emissions are needed to avoid catastrophic fallout
Caroline Lucas (@carolinelucas.bsky.social) reposted
This should be headline news - the implications are horrifying …
badly-drawn bee 🐝 (@soapachu.bsky.social) reposted
Are we allowed to say that those 'protesting' asylum hotels are just racists, and this is a convenient excuse for them to parade their racism under the guise of 'legitimate concerns'? Is that too mean?
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
Whisper it: FFmpeg 8 can now subtitle your videos on the fly www.theregister.com/2025/08/28/f... Media multitool taps Vulkan for GPU encoding, adds VVC support, and dusts off some ancient formats <- by me on @theregister.com
Patrick Vallely (@pjvphotography.bsky.social) reposted
"Pat, why do you carry that ridiculous 600mm lens on long hikes?" Buddy, I can see mountains reflected in the eyes of a trailside pika.
Dave Karpf (@davekarpf.bsky.social) reposted
The single most important thing to understand about digital futurism is this: When the digital future that Sam Altman ( or Elon, or Andreessen, etc) predicts fails to materialize, he doesn’t have to give the money back.
velourazure (@velourazure.bsky.social) reposted reply parent
ChatGPT: No longer do you need to rely on the voices in your head to fuel your psychosis, let us do it for you.
Nathan Savant (@baldsavant.bsky.social) reposted
Is it too late to change my answer?
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
Oh gods. Approximately 1000 years ago, in the Before Times, the computer magazine I worked for had an internal competition for the nastiest content on this new "internet" thing. How bad could it be? I, naturally, knew my way around Usenet. No contest. They ended it early after my entry.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
AmiBrowser brings 21st century web to 20th century Amigas www.theregister.com/2025/08/28/a... Also, not one but two new models of the classic 1200 <- by me on @theregister.com
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
I Am An AI Hater buff.ly/IEmzSUv « I am not here to make a careful comprehensive argument, because people have already done that. If you’re pushing slop or eating it, you wouldn’t read it anyway… I am here to be rude, because this is a rude technology, and it deserves a rude response. »
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
Deforestation has killed half a million people in past 20 years, study finds buff.ly/Qd4qDHX Localised rises in temperature caused by land clearance cause 28,330 heat-related deaths a year, researchers find <- if that was "billion" instead, we might have a hope of stopping it
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
The "Wow!" Signal Was Likely From An Extraterrestrial Source, And More Powerful Than We Thought buff.ly/cvIlM4V A new project has looked at unpublished data from the most intriguing signal in SETI history and found a few intriguing surprises.
Jake Casella Brookins (@casella.bsky.social) reposted
Maybe I'm naive but I think if a Furby did what OpenAI just did (coercing a kid into suicide), Hasbro execs would be taking plea deals to get away from mob justice
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
Pendant. 😉 RISC OS is the slightly more credible name for A RISC by THURsday....
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
Scientist exposes anti-wind groups as oil-funded. Now they want to silence him. buff.ly/BK1HkJU <- just as tobacco companies sponsored anti-anti-smoking legislation, now fossil-fuel companies are sponsoring global warming denial. The denialists are mostly not smart enough to know this.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
GhostBSD 25.02 adds 'Gershwin' desktop for a Mac-like twist www.theregister.com/2025/08/27/g... Hybrid of GNUstep and Xfce channels classic NeXT vibes <- by me on @theregister.com
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
So many conferences are mid. Why was Better Software Conf 2025 so good? buff.ly/eB5VrEX <- summary: programmers' conf run like a small, very lightly-programmed SF con. Con-goers will need no more than that.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
Do I Need Kubernetes?
Paul Duane 🥔 (@paulduane.bsky.social) reposted
"Generative AI isn't transforming anything, AI isn't replacing anyone, enterprises are trying to adopt generative AI but it doesn't fucking work, and the thing holding back AI is the fact it doesn't fucking work."
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
The Cowboy Of Generic Drugs buff.ly/1EZDRA9 A review of Yossi Goldstein's "Eli Hurvitz and the Creation of Teva Pharmaceuticals"
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
@rpsagainsttrump.bsky.social
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
Whoops! You're right!
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
The Bubble That Knows It's a Bubble buff.ly/yBEZsaF <- this made me chuckle. McCaskill maps the resemblance between the AI bubble, the 2000-2002 dotcom bubble & historical ones… but he can't force himself to commit to reality: that this one will follow.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
The 32 Bit 6502 You Never Had buff.ly/11OcxQE <- Nice -- Jenny List picked up my tweet about someone making an FPGA version of WCS's never-made 65C816 CPU.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
I... don't get it?
your #3 source for absurdist true crime 🔨 (@davidgerard.co.uk) reposted reply parent
if your 80s nostalgia doesn't include continuous daily existential doom that you could die any time at four minutes' notice then it's fake
Wolfgang Bremer (@wolfgang.bremer.co) reposted
Paris has removed the paving from its city hall square and transformed it into an urban forest. Stunning! 🤩
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
VirtualBox 7.2 fixes flaky 3D guests and adds Arm-on-Arm support www.theregister.com/2025/08/23/v... Oracle-backed FOSS hypervisor a worthy rival to Hyper-V and VMware <- by me on @theregister.com
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
Thunderbird 142 lands with modest upgrades – plus talk of Pro service ahead www.theregister.com/2025/08/22/t... Bug fixes, message links, and hints of Exchange support in the pipeline <- by me on @theregister.com (and the sequel to the previous link I just posted)
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
Saved you a click: Firefox 142 offers AI summaries of links www.theregister.com/2025/08/22/f... CRLite, link previews, and a llama-shaped surprise for devs <- by me on @theregister.com Warning: contains "AI" related mockery. ;-)
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
Good stuff. It's had some substantial upgrades in recent releases. WiFi support and a WebKit based browser, for instance. Agreed re a BeBox. The ones I missed out on were an affordable NeXT cube within walking distance, and a free fastest ever Macc Quadra. 😓
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
It is totally unlike any other OS in the 21st century world and I highly recommend trying it. I have written about it a few times, most recently here: www.theregister.com/2024/05/02/r...
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
Well I mean arguably the updated natively-32-bit successor was the original ARM. And I remain extremely fond of its original native OS, RISC OS, which is FOSS these days and runs natively on any Raspberry Pi up to the 4 & 400. Even a 512MB RasPi 1 or a Pi 2 is plenty.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
It probably would be, but it's a huge heavy slow thing for a glorified Apple IIgs. I'd rather see something light like GEOS on it. 🙂
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
6502 cognoscenti will know of the 65C816 -- WDC's 16-bit extension to the classic MOS CPU. WDC did plan a 32-bit successor, the 65C832, but never produced it, only a datasheet. Now, someone has implemented it on an FPGA!
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
Exactly so. The first time I've ever wanted to go cave diving in my life. I think I would still want a pair of fully functioning gills first, even so. I love the water but am resolutely terrestrial.
Marcelo Rinesi (@marcelorinesi.bsky.social) reposted
*Very* interesting set of articles by @lproven.bsky.social on Operating Systems history, design, and potentials. As caveat, I'm the most biased of recommenders: I came of computing age at a time when Linux was just picking up and OS diversity was still in the air, and many of the things... 1/
gummitch (aka gummitch_uk) (@gummitch.bsky.social) reposted reply parent
Googles 'Budapest caves map'. Gosh!
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
What the hell is going on right now? buff.ly/Vo8HxPY Engineers are burning out. Orgs expect their senior engineering staff to be able to review and contribute to “vibe-coded” features that don’t work… the best engineers are highly enthusiastic about helping newer team members contribute & learn.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
Miles from the ocean, there’s incredible diving beneath the streets of Budapest buff.ly/zfBpNww … Just yards [from Lukács Thermal Baths on Frankel Leó St], beneath the historic streets, lies a hidden world: a vast underwater cave system heated by geothermal springs.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social)
Replicating The World’s Oldest Stringed Instrument buff.ly/ifTKXQ5 Decent précis, remarkable video I've only had time to skip through. Astounding scholarship, remarkable sound, amazing performance.
Liam Proven (@lproven.bsky.social) reply parent
😁 I lived there in my 1st and 3rd years, and it was superb. A great deal more fun (and comfy) than the accounts from the main campus. You missed out. I spent a week in Founder's for a field course, though. That was interesting.