David Smith

42 Followers
72 Following
129 Posts
Creative techie gay in Cambridge UK. Solution Architect/Technical Product Designer/Writer/Leader (looking for work). avaragado everywhere. Writes fiction as Anthony Camber 🏳️‍🌈

ANNUAL POST: It’s now 53 years since any human has left low Earth orbit. Of the 24 who have, 5 are still alive (ages 95, 92, 93, 90, 90).

In the last year, Jim Lovell (Apollo 8 and Apollo 13, aged 97) died.

4 of 12 moonwalkers are still alive (Aldrin, Scott, Duke, Schmitt).
https://mastodon.online/@avaragado/113701752323553462

David Smith (@[email protected])

ANNUAL POST: It’s now 52 years since any human has left low Earth orbit. Of the 24 who have, 6 are still alive (ages 96, 94, 91, 92, 89, 89). In the last year, Bill Anders (Apollo 8, aged 90) and Tom Stafford (Apollo 10, aged 93) died. 4 of 12 moonwalkers are still alive (Aldrin, Scott, Duke, Schmitt). https://mastodon.online/@avaragado/111623712575955307

Mastodon

My new Anthony Camber book releases tomorrow: Unstable Orbits is a queer, geeky, heartfelt, hilarious tale of love, friendship and second chances, as Nate navigates A-levels, his spiralling emotions and the gravitational pull of new and old relationships.

It's a YA coming-of-age comedy drama. You can preorder on Amazon, Kobo and Apple for delivery tomorrow.

Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Today is the 40th anniversary of the ARM1 first running code: “samples, working first time, were
obtained on 26th April 1985”. Designed by Steve Furber and Sophie Wilson, ARM chips now run much of the world’s tech (including the iPad I am tapping this post out on).

me: i’ve single-handedly written software used by tens of millions of people, you can see it right over at github.com/april

prospective employers: sorry, but unfortunately you did poorly in a high-stress 40-minute coding exercise, writing code with no time to think about how to solve a problem you’ve never seen before, in a terrible dev environment, while someone stares at you the whole time

I read 104 books in 2024: find out all the details in a blog post under my pen name, Anthony Camber.

https://anthonycamber.com/2025/01/02/book-reviews-2024/

Book reviews 2024

And I thought 2023’s total of 48 books was going to be hard to beat. In 2024 I read 104 books – almost all queer, and most YA. Meanwhile I completed the first drafts of two new novels, …

Anthony Camber

ANNUAL POST: It’s now 52 years since any human has left low Earth orbit. Of the 24 who have, 6 are still alive (ages 96, 94, 91, 92, 89, 89).

In the last year, Bill Anders (Apollo 8, aged 90) and Tom Stafford (Apollo 10, aged 93) died.

4 of 12 moonwalkers are still alive (Aldrin, Scott, Duke, Schmitt).
https://mastodon.online/@avaragado/111623712575955307

David Smith (@[email protected])

ANNUAL POST: It’s now 51 years since any human has left low Earth orbit. Of the 24 who have, 8 are still alive (ages 95, 90, 93, 93, 90, 91, 88, 88). In the last year, Frank Borman (Apollo 8, aged 95) and Ken Mattingly (Apollo 16, aged 87) died. 4 of 12 moonwalkers are still alive (Aldrin, Scott, Duke, Schmitt).

Mastodon
Counterpoint: no it hasn’t

AAARRRGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Channel 4 News, in talking about today's #Microsoft #CrowdStrike fuckup, stated that the expected Y2K effect was imaginary.

No! No! NO!

We* did a massive amount of work to update and ensure systems would keep on working. And more importantly WE TESTED EVERYTHING FULLY BEFORE GOING LIVE.

(* As in everyone responsable for operating computer systems around the world!)
(added note: Channel 4 is a UK national television station, not local)

There's a really odd-looking plant in the garden this morning.
Professor Ross Anderson, FRS, FREng Our dear friend and treasured long term campaigner for privacy and security, Professor of Security Engineering at Cambridge University and Edinburgh University, Lovelace Medal winner, died suddenly at the family home in Cambridge overnight. His wife, Shireen is with their children and grandchildren. He was 67. His loss leaves a void for his family and for us all who care about digital privacy and security, as an inspiration and a doughty fighter, over many decades. Goodbye, my friend