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RFJ1611

RFJ1611

@rfj1611.bsky.social

240 followers 140 following 690 posts

Genealogist & family historian, studying with the IHGS | 17th century & British/English Civil Wars researcher | Biographer of ECW painter William Dobson | currently cataloguing 1640s British portraits | Loves Jack Russells, tea and peanut butter

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RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 1h

Today showed how vulnerable we are, only a small slip away from chaos should those running our online lives accidently (or deliberately) lose control of it.

Not letting a handful of tech giants own so much would be a start, as would being more discerning over the orgs we CAN choose.

#AWS #Amazon

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 1h

A LOT of people realising today just how (over)dependent they are on tech just to get through 24 hrs. Rideshare apps, doorbell cameras, banks, voice apps (Alexa etc), games, shopping.

Not all are essential to life, ofc. Curious how many folks will reevaluate & make changes from this? (cont)

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 3h

It is a gamechanger! But also veeery expensive when you find you're arguing with yourself that they're only a few quid, and you can afford a couple (dozen) more! 😄

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 4h

Yeesh. 😵‍💫 good luck! 😆

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 7h

Nope. But given how humans are trying to make them extinct in the wild, Blackpool is better than having Mum shot dead by a gun-happy Texan poacher on a paid killing holiday, & baby stolen and trafficked.

Here at least they're safe & together, helping keep the species going. Crap choices, I know. 😟

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 9h

Bit of a backhanded compliment there... 😐

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 9h

Spanish...

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 9h

It should be restoring soon. Affected systems have started coming back on in the last hour or so. 🤞

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 12h

Amazon/AWS crash is another salutary warning against one behemoth company being allowed to either buy up or platform so many others.

One fail and they all go down. I don't give a crap about Snapchat but I needed Smartsheet for work today. 🙄

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 1d

Yup. I'm crying over a stranded plastacine alien, fgs.

#Farmageddon #BBC1

Reposted by RFJ1611

Meidas Paul Wigton 🫘 🇺🇳🇺🇦 @rvroomie.bsky.social · 2d

I would join in the celebration!

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 3d

That's some side-eye! 😄🦅

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 3d

That's great to hear. 😊

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 3d

I hope its good news!🤞

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 3d

It's not just this room, either. Queen's House has this all over. The picture at bottom left is my favourite, but on a past visit he was high up on a wall in another room, impossible to see thanks to the lights.

I find it odd such an internationally renowned venue hasn't addressed this before?

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 3d

I always enjoy visiting National Maritime Museum Greenwich, but there's one thing that always bugs the crap out of me. The lighting.

Specifically, the ceiling spotlights that make it almost impossible to see paintings on upper walls.

I could only see 2 of the 4 "Flagmen" properly this time. 😒

A gallery view at the National Maritime Museum Queen's House in Greenwich. There is a polished wooden floor and a doorway to the right. On the far wall is dark wallpaper, with a tall white window panel in the middle, surrounded by four portraits. The bottom two paintings are easy to view but the top two are partly obscured by badly placed ceiling spotlights that cover most of the canvas with bright focussed light. The faces of the sitters are hard to see.

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 3d

They should bring back trams to Broad Street. There's little else worth visiting soulless Reading for now. 🙄

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 3d

That's heartbreaking. 💔 Thanks for sharing.

Has any work been done (if possible) to copy down the inscriptions and keep a record of who at least some of these belonged to?

Even if the stones are unrecoverable, the ancestors deserve better than to be discarded and forgotten like this. 😪

Reposted by RFJ1611

Royston Museum @roystonmuseum.bsky.social · 4d

🌿 Thank you to everyone who has already supported our fundraising campaign! 🌿

Our aim: to replace our ageing boiler with air source heat pumps and more efficient heating. But we need your help!

✨ Every donation counts, and with match funding, your impact is doubled!
💻 Donate now: buff.ly/8wOCXSH

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 4d

Honestly, my eyesight. I saw one of those Waitrose free recipe cards today. It was for curried squash.

I read it as curried sasquatch. 🤐

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 4d

It might have felt bigger because I was little and sliding all over the back seat! It did only just make it between narrow 1980s gateposts, though. Got into their drive with milimetres to spare. 😄

Just checked with family who say it was the Isabella. Light blue, iirc.

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 4d

My world-travelling grandparents had a Borgward! Can't remember what type, but it was huge and very spacious. They drove it all over Europe for years. Looked a bit odd parked in a South Oxfordshire driveway when they retired but it never failed them.

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 5d

Wow. I've never seen them do that before. I've had several 'we're sorry, please reload page' errors, but not this. I wonder if there's something else going on? 🤔

It doesn't say good things about the reliability of the site if they suddenly can't handle traffic.

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 5d

I have the same problem. Previously Ancestry just shuffled around what I already had, and we could at least follow it given what we know of our ancestry.

But now I have entire new countries popping up out of nowhere, places that just aren't believable. Every update makes less sense than the last.

RFJ1611 @rfj1611.bsky.social · 6d

I knew all my family & friends' numbers, it wasn't a feat, only the way things were. If you phoned someone a lot you just ended up learning the number. We were the generations before tech came along and stopped people having to use such skills as memory.

I always knew/know my mobile numbers too. 🤷‍♀️