Ian McDowall

@imcdowall
267 Followers
1,047 Following
691 Posts
Retired software engineer & cynical Brit. Interested in history and some art and games.

I'm a software developer and sysadmin who could really use being #fedihired.

What I'd really like to do is Rust, but once you ignore the dubious crypto and AI stuff, there seems to be nothing out there. Prove me wrong with a counterexample!

I've spent decades fixing Enterprise mudballs mostly written in #Perl. If you've got a crufty legacy system that everybody else is too scared to touch, I'm your man. I love fixing stuff like that.

I've also done commercial #Scala, #Python, #C/#C++, and although I don't usually admit it on my CV but these are now Trying Times when everything is on the table, even #PHP (the longest six months of my life).

Perl naturally leads into Unix system administration and infrastructure. I've built and maintained mail clusters, VoIP systems, network monitoring, DNS management platforms, that sort of thing. If it's non-sexy but something which needs to be done, I'm there.

Available immediately, for contract or permie, onsite in Amsterdam/Randstad or remote to anywhere.

Drop me a private mention or mail [email protected] if you have or know of something.

Restraining and sedating dementia patients ‘routine’ in hospitals in England, study finds

Patients experiencing raised bedside rails, doors and pathways blocked by furniture and physical interventions

The Guardian
Distributed Systems Design by Example: https://third-bit.com/2026/03/15/dsdx/ and https://third-bit.com/dsdx/. As the post says, I don't know if I'll ever finish this, but I hope what's there is useful.
The Third Bit: Distributed Systems Design by Example

We’ve been saying this for years now, and we’re going to keep saying it until the message finally sinks in:

mandatory age verification creates massive, centralized honeypots of sensitive biometric data that will inevitably be breached.

Every single time.

And every single time it happens,
the politicians who mandated these systems and the companies that built them act shocked—shocked!

—that collecting enormous databases of government IDs, facial scans, and biometric data from millions of people turns out to be a security nightmare

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/02/25/hackers-expose-the-massive-surveillance-stack-hiding-inside-your-age-verification-check/

Hackers Expose The Massive Surveillance Stack Hiding Inside Your “Age Verification” Check

We’ve been saying this for years now, and we’re going to keep saying it until the message finally sinks in: mandatory age verification creates massive, centralized honeypots of sensitiv…

Techdirt

[EDIT: now sorted thank you SO MUCH!]

Heads up my dudes, my son needs to do work experience this summer and he's a programmer. Nearly 15, can do 3 decent languages, main in Java, been programming since 4. All he wants to do is be a developer. Anyone offer work experience these days? Two weeks in July. London or Dartford way or anywhere in between. Ta! Retoots appreciated!

#workexperience #help

🚨 Wide ranging powers to restrict Internet access in the UK have been voted through 🚨

Ministers will be able to impose digital ID checks, curfews and VPN restrictions without Parliamentary scrutiny.

This can be used on websites, social media, apps and games with no need to show there's any harm to children.

Find out more ⬇️

https://www.openrightsgroup.org/press-releases/mps-give-ministers-powers-to-restrict-entire-internet/

#onlinesafety #digitalid #id #privacy #ageverification #freedomofexpression #ukpolitics #ukpol

MPs give ministers powers to restrict entire Internet

MPs have rejected a Lords amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that would allow a social media ban for under 16s.

Open Rights Group

Big Tech is at it again.

Some of you might have seen this already. Google has announced a new policy for Android app developers, which would require them to seek Google’s permission if they want to distribute their apps outside of the Google Play Store (on their own website or on alternative app stores). This would entail:

1) agreeing to their terms and conditions
2) paying a fee
3) uploading a government ID

Which is wrong on so many levels. Nobody should be forced to register with Google if they don’t want to use their services.

In doing so they would be extending their gatekeeping (tentacles) into distribution channels where they’re just not a legitimate authority.

At Vivaldi, we believe you have the right to run whatever software you want on a device you own. That’s why we’ve co-signed this open letter, together with other 53 organisations, requesting Google to back off on the proposed policy before it enters into force.

(Plus, they have have a pretty cool logo 😄)

https://keepandroidopen.org/open-letter/

An Open Letter to Google regarding Mandatory Developer Registration for Android App Distribution

Open Letter to Google Regarding Mandatory Developer Registration for Third-Party App Distribution

Grammarly is using our identities without permission

An AI feature in Grammarly called “expert review” has been using the names of staff members at The Verge in AI-generated comments without their knowledge or permission.

The Verge
Artist introduction post:
I have been doing traditional arts and crafts and playing music since I was very young. Mostly drawing, origami, wood and stone sculpture, and playing tuba with concert bands up until college, when I started doing code-based art with POV-Ray, digital photography, and playing clarinet then recorder. Since 2020 I have focused more on making procedural art with p5.js and Blender/python and electronic music using the Deluge groovebox, other hardware synths, and KeyStep.
Hi. Please play this amazing JND color game my friend Keith made and see how good you/your displays are at differentiating between similar colors. https://www.keithcirkel.co.uk/whats-my-jnd/?r=filmgirl
What's My JND?

Find your Just Noticeable Difference in colour perception. How small a colour difference can you actually see?