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Simon Watts

@simonwatts17.bsky.social

created October 18, 2024

213 followers 50 following 1,009 posts

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Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Was this why your wife divorced you?

2/9/2025, 11:49:02 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

If the fate of every generation to look at the next and think: They really haven't a clue.

2/9/2025, 12:57:52 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

I'd they don't pay tax then they are a burden to the economy - so their leaving will still be beneficial.

2/9/2025, 12:50:43 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

X is a bastion of scared little snowflakes.

1/9/2025, 11:35:31 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

If there are any jobs that would be better replaced by AI, it's the managerial ones.

1/9/2025, 11:28:13 AM | 24 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

There's a YT video that dissects the contemporary symbology in this painting, and it's a lot worse than "irritating".

1/9/2025, 11:13:24 AM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Didn't he say he would be?

1/9/2025, 11:07:45 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

"There were lots of people and books everywhere, but i was the only one dancing!"

28/8/2025, 2:27:22 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

There's an AI with your job spec.

27/8/2025, 6:01:04 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Judging by the parachute-in MBA managers I've experienced, pretty easily. It's far better suited to replacing those roles than the "lower" echelons of engineers, designers, and other positions that require insight and creativity.

27/8/2025, 1:12:23 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Very inconsiderate to the other gym goers.

27/8/2025, 2:58:47 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Full circle.

27/8/2025, 2:57:05 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

* does not apply to ICE.

26/8/2025, 6:59:09 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

"Are 'they' in the room with you now?"

26/8/2025, 12:11:09 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Oh no ... not concessions to Ukraine. He means concessions to Trump.

26/8/2025, 12:06:03 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

I think I threw away two cups of your coffee this morning. (Office coffee - no wallet was harmed)

25/8/2025, 10:47:02 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social)

Dear #NYC Drivers, I'm sure that eternally holding down the car horn will make the gridlock magically go away. I look forward to seeing you proven right. Thoughts and prayers, Chap now in noise cancelling headphones.

25/8/2025, 9:44:00 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

* may play or run. You need the game before either.

24/8/2025, 12:44:47 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

The machines only have to wait. People are getting stupider.

24/8/2025, 2:37:13 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Now? They've been training humans since the Sahara was green.

23/8/2025, 12:07:10 PM | 1 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Are they still hawking their #BorisBoats?

23/8/2025, 11:41:49 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Look down, not up. Kick down, not up.

23/8/2025, 12:10:06 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

You're welcome son.

23/8/2025, 12:05:41 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

If Schrodinger had known anything about cats, then he'd have realised that the cat was both inside and outside the box already.

22/8/2025, 12:26:10 PM | 7 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Yep. The name "AI" is just marketing for suckers. It doesn't _add_ anything to the data - only finds and blindly copies patterns. At best, slightly worse than what went in. Worse, if that data is the output of AI, then it's a shit-eating feedback loop. It has its use, but it's not intelligence.

22/8/2025, 1:39:20 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

She's a trans porn star.

21/8/2025, 12:15:36 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

I'd have to pay Disney+ more money to get this in the US; or wait till I come home and binge it for a week. Or get finally that VPN, which seems like something that's become a necessity in the UK now, anyway.

21/8/2025, 12:14:04 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Don't forget survey foot and standard foot are different as well. The former is what most of the US maps are measured in, while standard foot is used for aircraft altitude. So you have to convert between feet and feet when calc flight plans.

21/8/2025, 12:08:27 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

"4th of July"?

21/8/2025, 12:06:03 PM | 4 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Portfolios will snap them up. Why waste a good investment on people who just want to live there?

20/8/2025, 3:47:36 PM | 8 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Fibber. You don't need to book at McDs.

20/8/2025, 3:45:18 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

But not giving all your hard earned money to billionaires would be socialism, which is bad, according to billionaires.

20/8/2025, 3:26:39 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

That's a Domesticatrix.

19/8/2025, 12:11:33 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Don't worry, rich peeps using offshore companies to buy their properties won't have to pay it - like they skip past stamp duty already. Wouldn't want to tax your donors, would you?

18/8/2025, 7:55:05 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Or pantomime.

18/8/2025, 11:22:09 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social)

What happens when a sheep in wolf's clothing meets a wolf's in sheep's clothing?

16/8/2025, 1:14:11 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

So: "you shouldn't be voting for him, because he's one of you. You should ne voting for us, your betters."

16/8/2025, 1:12:20 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Why do none of the attempts to solve the homeless "problem" actually involve providing homes? Oh wait, Finland did, and it fixed it.

16/8/2025, 1:06:59 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

If this were still a free market economy, the competition in supply/demand would keep the prices down. This is a corporate economy now. It's something governments were supposed to protect their citizens from. We see the same on a lot of other sectors besides food supply.

16/8/2025, 1:01:30 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with subs and sarnies." - Albert Einstein, approximately.

15/8/2025, 5:20:14 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Since the Russians just hacked the NYC court records and copied unspecified sealed records, that'll be Putin doing the show and tell this weekend.

15/8/2025, 4:49:32 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

The mini-series hadn't even finished before someone turned up at games night with a "V" #ttrpg.

15/8/2025, 4:37:19 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

As long as you suspend your disbelief of how just about everything works - technology, people, doors - then it's a forgettable 90min run around. It misses the point of the original story by so far that I'm surprised it wasn't titled "H.G.Well's War of the World".

14/8/2025, 2:10:32 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Except not in the US.

13/8/2025, 7:55:58 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

This is bad for an economy. Their increased wealth is money that has been taken out of the economy and no longer flows through it. When this was paid in wages, it was taxed and spent multiple times (×4-10) as it circulates. Society is being starved because of this.

13/8/2025, 12:25:11 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Oh no, I was looking forward to reading a fish related flame war. Let loose the chip buns! Or is it chip baps? Chip barns? Butties? ...

13/8/2025, 12:04:36 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

You may enjoy pottage.

13/8/2025, 11:57:30 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

This is the coolest year in the rest of your life.

13/8/2025, 11:55:49 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Is that even AI or just text-to-speech?

13/8/2025, 11:54:05 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Disney+

13/8/2025, 11:50:55 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

I'm going to KIT and getting a snack from FRG, but first, I need to use BOG.

13/8/2025, 9:28:02 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

The Future was better in the Past.

13/8/2025, 9:19:56 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Expect Trump and Putin to sign a peace deal in which Putin gets Ukraine, and Trump gets Canada.

13/8/2025, 2:23:55 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Just pretend no one else sees them.

13/8/2025, 2:20:36 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

I only know when new eps arrive when I see these posts. I could remember which day, but that would be more effort.

13/8/2025, 2:18:55 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

They'll be in the CIA World Factbook. The USA is the only country that isn't covered there.

13/8/2025, 2:16:43 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Ford is (has been) a major car brand globally, but the vehicles it sells to the world are made outside of the US and are completely different models to the domestic ones. However, I am sceptical when any legacy automaker claims something fantastic just around the corner...

12/8/2025, 10:50:12 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Just get any 13 yr old to show him. MPs and Lords seem completely computer illiterate. "VPN" was only mentioned twice(?) in Parliament in the last few years? And inaccurately. This law just means kids become more unsafe online, and harms UK online businesses whose customers route via VPNs.

12/8/2025, 10:20:18 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

The Maplin catalogues were collectors' items. Itinerant MBAs came in, didn't understand its USP, tried to compete with high street electronics stores, and failed. Same with a number of other lost household names.

12/8/2025, 9:57:24 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

I wonder how they'd cope with the travel time equations in classic Traveller. I mean, they're just Newtonian, and we learned them pre teen. But if subtraction is a problem...

image
11/8/2025, 9:21:20 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

I have never understood why peeps think that THAC0 was hard. It was a breeze compared to the tables. Perhaps we did it differently? I can only assume that it requires subtraction - but that can be expressed as addition to the other sides of the equation. (We used it well before AD&D e2)

11/8/2025, 5:16:37 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

There are a lot of rituals in IT, lost to time. To shut down our Sun machines we recanted: > sync > sync > halt Why sync twice? No one knew, but i wasn't going to be the one who found out.

11/8/2025, 12:20:56 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

That's why the crack monsters haven't got you.

11/8/2025, 12:17:02 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Even MechaH!tler can't stoop as low as Farage.

11/8/2025, 11:51:16 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Someone shot a Health Insurance Exec in NYC, and we know the inside leg measurement of his first diaper.

11/8/2025, 12:20:32 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Meidas_SocietysChild (@societyschild.bsky.social) reposted

Not only will we continue to demand the release of the unredacted (other than that of the victims), Epstein files, we demand the victims be heard! We don't care what a convicted sex trafficker has to say. The only voices that matter are those of the victims. 1/2

image
10/8/2025, 10:38:57 PM | 18459 5478 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

She sounds different without the mic filter.

10/8/2025, 6:02:22 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

* hot key

9/8/2025, 11:39:07 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

There were some DOS games with a work hockey, which put up a mock spreadsheet. On the flip side, early versions of MS Excel (?) had a hidden flight sim.

9/8/2025, 11:38:51 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

So a victory for Putin. That seals WWIII in the next year.

8/8/2025, 6:19:32 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Does the P in GOP stand for Pedophiles?

8/8/2025, 2:55:34 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

I often wonder whether the participants know about Trump's peace deals.

8/8/2025, 2:54:34 AM | 15 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Our "new" office (past job) replaced the filter coffee with a vending machine that was supposed to grind beans and everything. It certainly ground something, and produced lots of waste from it's backside. But that seemed unrelated to the muck that came out of the front.

7/8/2025, 11:59:02 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

I don't like big butts and I never have.

7/8/2025, 11:54:21 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Why spoil good clickbait with actual facts?

7/8/2025, 11:49:54 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Your colleagues don't give a sh!t.

7/8/2025, 10:46:10 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

I was impressed by how cheaply they could have made it.

6/8/2025, 7:20:22 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Always knew Wigan was the next stop on the train when the arome from Uncle Joe's wafted in through the windows.

6/8/2025, 4:13:01 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

The value you put on your teachers and education is the same value you place on the future.

6/8/2025, 4:08:25 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Be careful what you order.

6/8/2025, 12:31:23 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

According to the methodology used by the CIA to classify foreign governments, the USA is an Anocracy.

6/8/2025, 12:30:33 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

The problem with income tax is that the richer you are, the better lawers and accountants you can hire to prove you have no taxable income. The more complex the tax system, the better, and easier, it is for them.

6/8/2025, 12:21:04 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

😿 That's a scary experience, but remember you have more experience than before, so you'll find a better job. I've been thru this twice and came out with significant pay increases each time.

6/8/2025, 12:10:28 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Bagpuss Grognard (@davepaters.bsky.social) reposted

Quote from Lady Harvey (1687) which I shall use for all the idiots voting for Brexit and Trump "You have made a turd pie, seasoned it with passive obedience, and now you must eat it yourselves."

5/8/2025, 3:25:01 PM | 15 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Higher Therefore Superior.

6/8/2025, 11:52:31 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Small boat crossings were a trickle until Boris' regime. In many senses, it was a deliberate policy, as it gave them more victims to blame: Keep the people kicking down, lest they start to kick up.

6/8/2025, 11:50:02 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

We had this discussion in the 80s - production has access to better FX. In world reason? Different subspecies. Pedantic? Why do we have three different Kirks and Spocks now?

6/8/2025, 11:35:26 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

And it looks like China isn't going to be buying those bonds.

5/8/2025, 9:48:28 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

According to "RH: Prince of Thieves"; a son has nothing to fear from their father's sword. So it doesn't inflict any damage on the dad's offspring. However, that film also claimed Hadrians Wall is between Dover and Nottingham, and that Picts can drag siege engines thru a forest undetected. So...

5/8/2025, 9:22:55 PM | 4 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Chickened out there. (What? No one used that yet - I checked the whole thread)

5/8/2025, 12:04:50 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

The logo in the bottom left should tell you that this is a fictional satire of a dystopic world.

5/8/2025, 12:00:37 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

This has been known for literally thousands of years. Growing plants absorb sunlight and convert it into sugars. Inorganic material absorbs sunlight and re-radiate it as heat. Tree lined avenues were not just for aesthetics. Moroccan gardens didn't just look pretty. Even just real grass!

5/8/2025, 11:53:10 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Somewhere today, diaries like that are still being written.

5/8/2025, 11:41:25 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

The only surprise here is that Trump couldn't find a flat-earther to appoint as head of NASA.

5/8/2025, 11:33:37 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Reality doesn't care what "alternate facts" you choose to believe.

4/8/2025, 8:05:30 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

*dies

4/8/2025, 11:50:45 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Hey, are you alright?

4/8/2025, 11:35:51 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

All greedy businesses do act like this already. This is why prices go up in a crisis, but come down slowly afterwards, if at all. In a free market system, supply and demand should optimise prices down. We're not there anymore.

4/8/2025, 10:55:34 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

As kids, we were completely unphased by the flight mechanics in Traveller. Now people complain if a game expects them to do subtraction.

image image
3/8/2025, 8:04:13 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Simon Watts (@simonwatts17.bsky.social) reply parent

Missing text between "is" and "AI": " to kill everybody and replace them with ".

3/8/2025, 8:00:00 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view