Author | Lightnews

Dan Tootill

Dan Tootill

@dantootill.bsky.social

700 followers 190 following 2.5K posts

Linux guy, retro-computing and electronics enthusiast, hobbyist graphic designer and 3D artist (Commodore). Occasional writer / artist / designer / musician. Also that kid with the weird eyes off of GamesMaster.

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Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 2h

How pathetic can you get? An elected MP moaning about this as if it somehow ruins the experience of [checks notes] watching ads.

I give you one of the funniest and most memorable ads in living memory, from 1998.

Batchelor's Super Noodles - Wasted Away (1998, UK)

YouTube video by The Hall of Advertising

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 13h

Yep. Sad thing is a lot of stuff that was on TV 40 years ago would probably get labelled "woke nonsense" today, because these nutters are constantly looking for it.

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 18h

Ad agencies perhaps have gone 'a bit far' with their inclusivity in some cases, but it's hardly unfair after decades of practically no inclusivity at all. If this "drives you mad", give your head a wobble

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 18h

Facebook is awash with dickheads defending her overtly racist comments "because it's true".

These are the same people who feel the need to leave an 'angry' reaction on every ad that features a same sex or mixed race couple. Just wind your f@!#ing neck in.

Reform MP Sarah Pochin's comments about adverts were 'racist', Wes Streeting says

Sarah Pochin apologises for saying

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 19h

Reform MPs saying the quiet part out loud again.

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 22h

Article doesn't mention that a year or so ago, they put QR codes on tables so they wouldn't have to talk to you. That's what made us stop going. If we're paying 60 quid for lunch (family of four) we'll go somewhere they don't mind taking our order.

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 3d

Playing Toejam & Earl with my daughter. #lifegoals

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 3d

Currently playing World of Illusion (Mega Drive). Looks great on the big TV.

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 3d

Got the kids to agree to a family retro gaming day. We ha e four Bluetooth controllers, all of them work wirh MiSTer FPGA when attached on their own. Trying to use them all together has been a disaster.

Only three would pair at once, and only two of those registered any input. Then one detached.

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 3d

Damn good price, but would using it give you the feels like an original one? I'm not so sure.

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 4d

On an almost daily basis, I have a battle with Outlook just trying to get it to do the job it did just fine in 1997.

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 4d

Exactly. In those days, with our 50p-sized CPUs and 260 MB clockwork hard drives, we expected a bit of a wait before we could bang out a letter or two. We go to do the same thing today, and the exprience is, at best, the same. Sometimes worse. 🤪

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 4d

I hadn't though of that, just put it down to the mass of safeguards and middleware my company baked into their W11 template. Thank you!

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 4d

Commodore should have got you on the phone before they launched it Jaz. At that point in time, you would have known better than anyone on the planet how badly it was going to bomb.

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 4d

I live and breathe Linux. Microsoft have sucked all the joy out of using a computer for us nerds, but as long as we have Debian (or Arch Linux if you hate yourself) we're grand. 🙂👍

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 4d

I'll check that, thanks. Would be nice if Windows kept its own use of temporary files in check though wouldn't it? 😉

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 7d

Watching the system tray applets loading one at a time gives off Windows 95 vibes, only slower. Many of them are management / security agents deployed by our company, but then there's Copilot, and all the other stuff nobody asked for. 🤬

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 7d

My work laptop (Core i7-12800H with 32 GB RAM) takes 7 minutes to become usable after I enter my password.

This is Wirth's law in full effect. Windows did everything we needed 25 years ago, yet here we are living with a worse user experience on 10 times the power of the underlying hardware.

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 8d

Yikes, AI is so frustrating. This entire answer is horse shit. The episode is called "Inner Dark" and nothing like that happens. But it presents it as fact, and when you call it out, it goes "You're right, none of that happened." 🤦‍♂️

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 8d

This is the same McVities that changed a pack of 12 jaffa cakes to 10 in way that says f@!# you for buying branded stuff? Aldi makes better versions of most of their products than they do. Everyone just needs to stop buying them.

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 9d

Sadly, that episode has nothing like that in it. AI always seems so sure about everything, doesn't it? 😆

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 9d

Holy sh*t! I think it might have been Droids! It was one I thought of, but wrote off thinking it was too cute. Must have been thinking of Ewoks.

I'm off to hunt that episode down. Thank you!

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 9d

Funny, Copilot told me it was "Spartakus And The Sun Beneath The Sea" and describes the exact scene in at least four different episodes, none of which are anything like that. It also cites some episode titles that don't exist in either English or the original French.

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 9d

I swear this was on TV one Saturday morning. I would have been in my mid teens and remember thinking "f@!#, that's dark for kids' TV".

For years, I thought it was an episode of Ulysses 31 (similar art style), but it's not. ChatGPT cites multiple series as the exact source, all wrong. 🤔

Dan Tootill @dantootill.bsky.social · 9d

I'm trying to identify a creepy scene from a cartoon from the 80/90s.

A space crew finds an abandoned ship or bunker, splitting up to explore it. A child finds the sleeping quarters, and the beds are full of skeletons. Shaken, she fetches the crew. When they arrive, the beds are all empty.