Manos Nikolaidis

Photo of two people lying in grass on the side of a road, kissing. There's a sign next to them that says "Cyclists are advised to dismount." Two bicycles are leaning against the sign.

Don't forget to dismount, folks

#ValentinesDay

Prime has recommended to me Poor Things (2023) as "romance". An excellent prank if intentional.

Byte magazine cover featuring a desktop with a screen showing a green landscape, next to a window showing the real-life version, which is ugly, industrialized, and smoky.

The original Star Trek crew are at a holographic museum of "ancient technology," watching a guy scratch his head while reading a retro computer manual.

A painting, a window, and a desktop computer are all lined up to complete the same view, a scene of a blue mountain range.

A white-bearded Robert Tinney stands near an easel with a famous Tinney illustration of a smartwatch that runs on a micro-floppy disk.

RIP Robert Tinney (November 22, 1947 – February 1, 2026), the artist famous for his playful covers for Byte magazine, a hobbist magazine that ushered in the microcomputing age from the mid-70s through the 90s. I'm honored to have included his work in my own art collection.

Hot foreign spies in your area.

Post Conversation Army Counterintelligence Command (ACIC) @Real_ArmyCI It doesn't take a mathematician to figure out "10 + 5 = honeytrap." Report suspicious behavior. (Graphic made with AI) Image 8:40 AM · Feb 13, 2026 · 281.1K Views https://x.com/Real_ArmyCI/status/2022304856719983097

incredible

Someone told me lately "Bluesky is just like Twitter." I argued that was untrue on the basis that last time I had a Twitter account most times I got a new follower their bio said "single & looking for fun" & here when I get a new follower it tends to say something like "professor of rare moths".

I do think that the whole generational demographic labelling thing is a pile of shite and that it baffles me that people really believe in it.

If anything, recent events have taught us that a lot of this stuff is to keep us all bickering with one another and distracted over nothing.

"Can we drop your ego for a moment? This is important." "If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now."

A screenshot from an internet banking website saying that it will be down for maintenance on Valentine's day.

Damn, I was planning to do some admin at that time.

If I win the lottery I wouldn’t tell anyone, but there would be signs

Java itself doesn't require that you use every design pattern in the book in every application. At some point design patterns became fashionable and standard questions in interviews and everyone felt compelled to use all of them. Same with micro services and distributed patterns today.

Man who left the UK to avoid paying taxes, has opinions on people who came to the UK and pay taxes.

We use the right hand rule in physics and engineering. Anti-clockwise being positive rotation, so the left hand would indicate clockwise. Not sure it can replace the term (anti)clockwise, but it can help a kid remember directions without analog clocks.

Another terrible outcome of this problematic attitude towards people bad at maths, is it triggered a dislike for science and experts in a large section of the public. And now parents don't vaccinate their kids or dispute climate change.

You're probably joking, but in expensive cities like London, buying a working second hand fridge is likely cheaper than having one fixed.

I carefully re-read the announcement to be sure I got it right. It definitely seems like Farage or a far right politician wrote it I have to say. And I am very much a middle aged man that dislikes anti social behaviour.

I am a big fan of no begging allowed, assuming none really needs to. Similarly with "gatherings". Kids may "gather" at a park to have fun because it's the only space available for free for this purpose.

Phone thieves for e.g. tend to ride unequivocally illegal electric motorbikes. Start with them before you go to "face coverings" that have legitimate uses.

I am a big fan of no begging allowed, assuming none really needs to. Similarly with "gatherings". Kids may "gather" at a park to have fun because it's the only space available for free for this purpose.

Phone thieves for e.g. tend to ride unequivocally illegal electric motorbikes. Start with them before you go to "face coverings" that have legitimate uses.

Interesting announcement from my local council. None of this could be abused of course nothing to worry about.

TBF, there is some benefit in each site enforcing its own silly password rules, in that it limits password reuse.

Cyber security in 2026. Your password needs "special characters" but only ones from a pre-approved list of special characters. Because only these are truly *special*.

Spanish people wondering: "Didn't these idiots Brexit? Why do we have to deal with this?"

Wait till you see fresh vegetable prices.

Perhaps there are jobs that AI could do better, just saying.

TFW you can't access the pension scheme from a previous job, because they ask for your birth date as a fixed security question, and HR typed it wrong. I am at least hoping they made me look younger.

why universal translators use american accents

I am not an astrophysicist so I offer to explain databases or oauth2 instead.

I think I see a cyclist far back in the left photo, so I am guessing there's no enforcement.