Nick P
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npilon.bsky.social
Nick P
@npilon.bsky.social
1.3K followers 490 following 12K posts
Dartmouth, NS dad; software engineer; fan of giant robots in many contexts, board games, RPGs. Queer rights are not negotiable. (He/Him)
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npilon.bsky.social
He’s talking about (paywalled) reporting about efforts to make the federal gov’t less dependent on AWS but seems to think the aim is far more ambitious than the actual goals - which are, as far as I can tell, to reduce the single vendor risk and seed domestic infrastructure.
Posts from a guy; text reads: For critical digital infrastructure, does it make sense to rely on a private sector that's beholden to the US market and thus vulnerable to US government pressure? What about the privacy risks that come with outsourcing your data to any private sector entity? If building out digital capacity is so important, why rely on inducements and hope for the best (while paying a premium in the form of private firms' profit margins) instead of just building it yourself? If it will take three years to replace Amazon Web Services, why not use to budget to GET ON WITH IT? You think that young, patriotic techies wouldn't jump at the chance to secure Canada against the US? We needed moonshots. Instead, we got tax incentives.
November 11, 2025 at 9:09 PM
npilon.bsky.social
Nope don’t like this. Don’t like this at all. 🤢
A screenshot of the Apple App Store. The user has searched for “NS Alert”, the official provincial alert app for Nova Scotia, and the sponsored ad result is for the Epoch Times, a conspiratorial right-wing tabloid run by an actual cult.
November 9, 2025 at 7:47 PM
npilon.bsky.social
It’s time for Char!
A screenshot from Zeta Gundam showing a blonde white man wearing sunglasses in front of a futuristic city-scape, which is half obscured by a curtain. A subtitle indicates he’s saying “Isn’t there any way to send all politicians to outer space?”
November 6, 2025 at 5:29 PM
npilon.bsky.social
Ah there we go it was hiding in the legislative action section!
Two columns from the legislative action section of budget 2025 - left column: “building high speed rail faster” / right column: “in budget 2025 the government proposes to introduce legislation to accelerate the development of Alto high speed rail”
November 5, 2025 at 1:36 AM
npilon.bsky.social
Apparently?!?
A screenshot of two columns from the federal budget; the first reads: “Adjusting Medical Cannabis Benefits to Reflect Market Price: The government is aligning more closely with the current market prices for medical cannabis while providing the same benefits.” The second shows $4.4B savings
November 4, 2025 at 11:14 PM
npilon.bsky.social
"Mashiro had to throw down with a Kei truck"
A screenshot from the anime "Detectives These Days Are Crazy!" showing Mashiro, a young girl with blue hair, grappling with a Kei truck. The Kei truck is losing.
October 29, 2025 at 7:20 PM
npilon.bsky.social
@sschwinghamer.bsky.social @terriclarke.bsky.social I’m not trying to get into a fight with him but this was just 🤯
Dr. Mike P. Moffatt @mikepmoffatt.bsk... • 1h Canada has all these tech and biz groups who want to bring in more talent. The political barrier is a lack of housing. Yet, as far as I can tell, they're spending zero resources trying to fix the housing crisis. I really don't get it.
October 27, 2025 at 1:16 PM
npilon.bsky.social
Good news or bad news? 🤔
A two frame screenshot from one of the bubblegum crisis or AD police series. A white man in heavy armor stands in front of a futuristic cityscape, apparently being interviewed. Subtitles read: “Boomers are artificial humans made up of proteins, artificial intelligence, and artificial organs. In the past few years there have [been] more than a few cases of boomers going crazy.”
October 20, 2025 at 8:17 PM
npilon.bsky.social
A mock screen like an old time civil alert system with a red background and white block type text. The text reads: “Emergency Alert System Tariff Grandpa Has Awoken Tariffs to 10,000% Civil danger alert”
October 11, 2025 at 1:04 PM
npilon.bsky.social
A screencap from zeta Gundam; a blonde haired man with white skin wearing sunglasses (he’s like seven aliases deep at this point) is standing in front of a futuristic cityscape. A curtain half obscures it. The subtitles show him saying “isn’t there any way to send all politicians to outer space?” This is both funny and a cutting insight into his character and the themes of zeta Gundam
October 8, 2025 at 8:26 PM
npilon.bsky.social
A lot of modern phones are reasonably smart about managing their batteries. For example here’s my iPhone reporting on its charge last night.

Unfortunately safety depends on the device, the cable, AND the charger brick.
A screenshot of a segment of an iPhone charging graph - showing charging paused from ~11 PM to ~3:30 AM, then trickle charging between then and 6:30 AM
October 8, 2025 at 12:44 PM
npilon.bsky.social
A screen capture of a documentary with an interview with both Hayao Miyazaki and Hideaki Anno. Both men are sitting on a wooden bench in a fancy courtyard. Miyazaki is speaking and is subtitled “I’m perfectly fine without that.”
October 6, 2025 at 5:29 PM
npilon.bsky.social
A cartoony picture of a garbage truck. Stick figure men, like those from a washroom sign, are being fed into the back. The side of the truck reads “Whole Man Disposal Services”. The caption at the bottom reads: “Yes, the entire man”
September 24, 2025 at 10:47 PM
npilon.bsky.social
With alt
A photograph by Suzanne Rent of a monitor in the HRM council chambers showing the results of a vote on Sam Austin's Dartmouth cove motion. The motion is carried 14-3, with Fillmore, Gillis, and Hendsbee voting against.
September 23, 2025 at 2:51 PM
npilon.bsky.social
Cavendish is calling youuuuuuuuu
A photo of the back of the Green Gables heritage place house in cavendish, PEI. The house is a large, old-fashioned farmhouse with white siding and green roofing. Overhead the sky is mostly clear with a scattering of clouds; some flowers are growing beside a boardwalk with railings that leads away from the house
August 25, 2025 at 5:07 PM
npilon.bsky.social
Damn look at all this congestion going in to Burnside off the 118. Fucking bike lanes amirite? 🤪

(This back up is caused by an intersection rebuild, just like Brunswick and Sackville. It would not be nearly as bad if people had other convenient options for getting around HRM)
A photo through the windshield of a car going southbound on NS highway 118, showing the enormous lineup of cars waiting to take the exit into Burnside.
August 15, 2025 at 5:05 PM
npilon.bsky.social
Oh no now he’s after the Pier 21 Museum of Immigration! His reign of terror is unstoppable!
A Lego kit of Gus the 103 year old gopher tortoise perched on top of a Lego kit of the Pier 21 museum of immigration. Because of the wildly disparate scales it looks like a gigantic Gus is demolishing a building.
August 10, 2025 at 6:02 PM
npilon.bsky.social
Wow this absolutely convinced me that “Agentic AI” is a real thing and not just more bullshit

(No it didn’t this is sarcasm)
Screenshot of the headline of a marketing email from GCP. The text reads: “Agentic Al: The Next Evolution of Microservices”
August 7, 2025 at 4:28 PM
npilon.bsky.social
Purdy replied to my email and I love how you can see where she cuts from her own writing (first paragraph) to PC talking points (second on). Though she can’t even be arsed to manipulate the shifting justifications into shape. “It’s transit … or the … port? Etc!”
A screenshot of an email from Trish “don’t bother planting small trees people only like big trees” Purdy. Email text reads: “I voted in favor of the recission because I truly believe it is a horrible decision. I have never supported this plan and will not support it now. There were concerns flagged by transit which is my main concern, not to mention increased traffic congestion by making a main corridor in the downtown core one-way, and the cost, and the port traffic, etc...there were just too many negative points to this plan for me to be in favor. I have also been contacted by avid cyclists who do not think Morris Street needs a AAA bike lane at all. I hope this is helpful to understand my vote. Thanks again for reaching out. Sincerely, Trish”
August 5, 2025 at 10:32 PM
npilon.bsky.social
A thoughtful accessibility feature on HRM’s new electric bus fleet - a dedicated service animal seat!
A picture of two bus seats, side by side. Both have blue plastic padding. The window-side seat is flipped up showing a label indicating that it’s reserved for service animals.
August 3, 2025 at 8:37 PM
npilon.bsky.social
MacDonald bridge walk time!
A green “cows” shirt with a caption reading “Cownada, Eh?” The cow features a variety of stereotypical symbols such as a Mountie hat, beaver tail, and tartan
August 3, 2025 at 5:42 PM
npilon.bsky.social
“The Internet showed up”
A screenshot from the 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam. A white boy with short brown hair, wearing a military uniform, is standing in front of a forested hill, with a nominally scornful expression on his face. A subtitle reads “Ok, oldtype.”
July 29, 2025 at 9:23 PM
npilon.bsky.social
Spider-man peering around a large yellow sign that reads “SICKOS” in vertical type. A word balloon shows Spidey saying “Yes… Ha ha ha… Yes!”
July 26, 2025 at 8:02 PM
npilon.bsky.social
Fermentation WIP - mead from about 2kg of Nova Scotia honey. The recipes we’ve found generally said that head room wasn’t a problem for it. ABV is up to ~13% and taste is rounded and full.
A modest amount of mead, very clear, in the bottom of a very large carboy after racking to remove sediment.
July 20, 2025 at 5:43 PM
npilon.bsky.social
The dunes around Cavendish are impressive these days! And we saw a pretty decent number of people biking on the Gulfshore Parkway trail.
A picture from the top of the boardwalk stairs leading down to the Cavendish beach. Reddish sand stretches away towards a curve of sandstone cliffs, with a large dune on the right and blue seawater on the left. A picture of the same dune from the back from further down the boardwalk. The back is covered with vegetation anchored by dune grass. The sky here is cloudy.
July 18, 2025 at 9:24 PM