social media | Steve Woods

German state to move to ODF

29/04/2025 Steve WoodsOpen Source, Open Standards, Politics, Tech

Germany’s IT Planning Council, whose duties include IT co-ordination, standards, administrative digitisation and e-government projects, published its decision on open formats for document exchange a couple of days ago. In particular, it specifically mentions the Open Document Format (ODF) as an example of the open formats being used to a greater extent.

The decision itself consists of three sections, as follows:

1. The IT Planning Council recognises that open exchange formats are necessary for nationwide collaboration and welcomes the resolution of the Digital Ministers’ Conference. Open formats and open interfaces are an important building block for the necessary process of setting the German public sector on the road to greater digital sovereignty and innovation.

2. The IT Planning Council is committed to ensuring that open formats such as the Open Document Format (ODF) are increasingly used in the public sector and become the standard for document exchange by 2027. It has commissioned the Standardisation Board to implement this.

3. The IT Planning Council further recognises that the exchange of documents via email is no longer appropriate for cross-border collaboration, especially for the preparation and follow-up of ministerial conferences, and advocates – in line with the approach of the First Ministers Conference (MPK) – the use of open collaboration solutions in inter-state cooperation. It instructs the Federal IT Co-ordination organisation (FITKO) to present a plan for providing a collaboration solution by its 48th meeting.

The decision is sure to receive widespread support from the opensource community, as has already happened with The Document Foundation, curators of the LibreOffice suite.
Another Bristol Live exclusive

21/04/2025 Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media, Politics, Social Media

Another day, other news.

Your ‘umble scribe awoke this morning to hear that Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic church, had died aged 88 years.

In a situation eerily reminiscent of the demise of Mrs Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Mountbatten-Windsor in September 2022, when she had been visited just two days beforehand by a certain Mary Elizabeth Truss, the pontiff’s death comes very shortly after an audience with a certain James David Vance, who has been appointed to preside over vice by the disgraced former 45th president and current disgraceful 47th president of the United States of America, insurrectionist, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual predator, business fraudster, congenital liar and golf cheat commonly known as Donald John Trump.

Social media has been awash this morning with posts about the similarities between the two deaths

However, all this speculation is pointless, as is any explanation that the pope was a very ill man.

For the real reason for the passing of the pontiff, one has to consult Bristol ‘Live’, the West Country’s newspaper of (warped) record.

Under the Bristol News header, this Reach plc title seems to have an exclusive scoop at to what or who was actually liable for Francis’ demise – West Country folk reacting.

Now look what you’ve done, Bristolians and neighbours!

Unless, of course, it’s yet another example of bad English usage and even worse journalism of the putting the cart before the horse variety.
God? No!

20/04/2025 Steve WoodsOddities, Politics, Social Media

My social media feed on the federated Mastodon network is a source of news, conversation, merriment and occasional consternation. In particular, consternation nowadays concerns mostly information emanating from the authoritarian regime of the disgraced former 45th president and current disgraceful 47th president of the United States of America, insurrectionist, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual predator, business fraudster, congenital liar and golf cheat commonly known as Donald John Trump, who is on a mission to Make America Grate Again (or something like that. Ed.).

The latest barminess to cross over from the eastern shores of the Atlantic and land in my timeline is shown below.

On seeing the image, your ‘umble scribe’s immediate reaction was along the lines of Brian’s mum in Monty Python’s Life of Brian.

I was then reminded how the god of the Semitic religions has allegedly never liked to share the limelight with any other deities and/or beings, as exemplified in the words of Exodus 20:7.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

There are going to be some awkward questions asked of the MAGA louts above when they turn up at the pearly gates… 😉

Tip of the hat: SufferForMe.
The Felon’s thought police

11/04/2025 Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics, Social Media

In 1948 an old Etonian then living of the Scottish island of Jura wrote a novel about future authoritarian dystopia.

The novel was written as a warning, although in recent decades even allegedly democratic governments seem to have used it more as a manual to control what their citizens not only do, but also think.
The novel is, of course, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and the main method of mind control was via the so-called thought police.
Nothing is efficient in Oceania except the Thought Police.

Along with the Thought Police, Orwell also developed the idea of thoughtcrime, i.e. the offence of thinking in ways not approved by the ruling regime.

Moving forward from 1948 to 2025 and the presence of the state’s thought police is very apparent, particularly at present in the United States of America under the regime of the disgraced former 45th president and current disgraceful 47th president of the United States of America, insurrectionist, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual predator, business fraudster, congenital liar and golf cheat commonly known as Donald John Trump, who has a mission to Make America Grate Again (or something similar. Ed.).

The Felon’s thought police have been particularly active, expunging DEI policies.

However, the thought police have also been active in the far-flung reaches of Uncle Sam’s domain, where the job of policing thoughts and ideas critical of or hostile to The Donald, his rule and his cronies falls to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement service,, commonly abbreviated to ICE.

In a social media post which has since been deleted, ICE included ideas in a list of of targets from which it was keeping Trump’s Grate America safe, according to the Huffington Post.

Ideas thought illegal include any objections and/or criticism of US support for the continuing Israeli genocide in and annexation of the Palestinian territories of the Gaza strip and West Bank.

But returning to the far-flung reaches of Uncle Sam’s domain referred to above, these also include the confines of the grandly titled Pituffik Space Base, recently the venue for an insult our allies session by the deeply unpleasant JD Vance (posts passim).

The alleged vice-president’s remarks during his brief three-hour visit did not go down too well with the base commander, Col. Susan Meyers, according to Military.com. In the aftermath of Vance’s brief stopover, Col. Meyers sent a message to all personnel at Pituffik seemingly aimed at generating unity among the airmen and Guardians, as well as the Canadians, Danes and Greenlanders who work there, following Vance’s appearance.

It is not clear whether Meyers is still serving as commander of the 821st Space Base Group following her email, but the email itself will have come to the attention of the thought police.
A tidier Barton Hill

06/04/2025 Steve WoodsBristol, Politics, Social Media

The monthly Barton Hill community litter pick took place yesterday. Eric, Alex and your ‘umble scribe spent just over an hour methodically removing litter from around Ducie, Strawbridge and Avonvale Roads, along with sections of the Urban Park.

After picking we all retired to the Wellspring Settlement for a brew and biscuits, as well as to discuss what we were going to do about the group’s award of the Lord Mayor’s Medal. According to the council, the medal “recognises outstanding and innovative unpaid service and support provided to others, especially selfless service to a voluntary body or to our community, or which brings distinction and quality to Bristol life.”

We were nominated for the award by local ward councillor Yassin Mohamud (we’ll see you at the Mansion House, Yassin!) and are deeply honoured, but at the same time vaguely ambivalent about it as an hour or so a month* is not a great deal of time to give up for our fellow citizens, although we have been turning out to tidy the area every month for either 7 or 8 years.

* = As organisers, Eric and myself have a bit more work to do, but it’s not really onerous to send out monthly reminders and then contact Bristol Waste’s community engagement team to arrange collection of our full bags, order fresh supplies of rubbish sacks and the like.

Advance notice: May’s pick will take place on Saturday 3rd May.
Mermaids, volcanism and… Google Translate!

18/03/2025 Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Oddities, Social Media, Tech

Google Translate, the Mountain View behemoth’s translation service is noted for not being very good on technical terminology, even of the most basic kind. Furthermore, it also struggles with a little thin called context, i.e. the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea and in terms of which it can be fully understood.

When Google Translate gets the context wrong and confuses protecting the public with ancient Greek mythological figures, the result is at the very least amusing and at must alarming and downright dangerous, as revealed by the following social media post by Prof. Jenni Barclay of the University of Bristol.

Prof. Barclay’s research is the reduction of risk and prevention of disaster in volcanic settings, with a particular focus both on volcanic processes and the social processes that amplify volcanic risk.

My question for Prof. Barclay is are mermaids a social process? 😉

Mis-translations definitely are!
New street art in Brick Lane E1

16/03/2025 Steve WoodsOddities, Politics, Social Media

A new piece of artwork – a sort of fascist Who’s Who for 2025 – has turned on a wall in Brick Lane in London’s East End according to my social media feed.

Spot the genuine human being – if any.

With the characters all wearing German military uniforms from the Nazi era, the artwork features (from left to right) millionaire, public school-educated man of the people Nigel Paul Farage, South African-born naturalised American businessman (usually shorthand for crook. Ed.) Elon Reeve Musk, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, president of the gangster regime in Russia, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, purveyor of genocide in Gaza and corruption at home and, last but not least, the disgraced former 45th president and current disgraceful 47th president of the United States of America, insurrectionist, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual predator, business fraudster, congenital liar and golf cheat commonly known as Donald John Trump, who is now trying to turn the United States economy into his 7th business bankruptcy from the comfort of the Oval Office.
All of them are a waste of food and oxygen and could not form a single decent human even if their best parts were used.
No further comment is necessary.
All day?

06/03/2025 Steve WoodsLanguage, Oddities, Social Media

A crime against the English language appeared in my social media feed today. It loomed out of a photograph of part of the menu from an unidentified McDonald’s drive through somewhere in the United States.

Dies irae* if you roll up at 1.01 pm?

It centres on the use of the word day whose meaning for this context is provided by Merriam-Webster:

“the time of light between one night and the next”.

When combined with the words all and breakfast one would expect the fare proffered to be provided throughout the hours of daylight between sunrise and sunset; or at the very least to be available between the business’ opening and closing times.
Not “ONLY UNTIL 1PM” as the menu shouts loudly.

The picture seems to have been taken some while ago, as the price of eggs in the USA has rocketed due to avian influenza and Walmart is rationing egg purchases. The egg shortage has not gone unnoticed under the golden arches either: Newsweek reports a customer of a McDonald’s in Fairfield, Connecticut was charged $7.29 per Egg McMuffin and complained about it on social media.

* = Day of wrath (usually divine. Ed.).
A put-down from Linus

17/02/2025 Steve WoodsLanguage, Linux, Open Source, Politics, Social Media, Tech

Linux was once famously described as Communism by former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.

The non-corporate, contributive and sharing nature of free and open source software and operating systems is one aspect that has always made it attractive to your ‘umble scribe, who comes from a family where both branches have been left-leaning for three generations and possibly longer.

Linus Torvalds, the creator and chief developer of the Linux kernel, the heart of the operating system, has a reputation for plain speaking, to put matters politely.

Linus has responded forthrightly – but mostly politely to someone who aimed the phrase “woke Communist propaganda” in his direction via social media recently and set out his political views plainly for all to see, as shown in the following screenshot.

Thank you, Linus, for your humanity, never mind the kernel. 😀
Daleks preferable to Musk

06/02/2025 Steve WoodsMedia, Oddities, Politics, Social Media

As part of the background to TV science fiction series Dr Who, which has graced TV screens since 1963, one learns that the planet Skaro, home of the Daleks, suffered a thousand-year war between two societies: the Kaleds and the Thals. During this period, many natives of Skaro became badly mutated by fallout from nuclear weapons and chemical warfare. The Kaled government believed in genetic purity and swore to “exterminate the Thals” for being inferior. Believing his own society was becoming weak and that it was his duty to create a new master race from the ashes of his people, a Kaled scientist named Davros genetically modified several Kaleds into squid-like life-forms he called Daleks, removing such “weaknesses” as mercy and sympathy whilst enhancing other behaviours such as aggression and the survival instinct.

The Daleks are just about the nastiest characters ever to appear on Doctor Who: they are portrayed as violent, merciless and pitiless cyborg aliens, completely absent of any emotion other than hate, who demand total conformity to the will of the Dalek with the highest authority. Your ‘umble scribe well remembers cowering behind the settee fifty-two years ago.

However, there are worse creatures in the universe according to your correspondent’s social media timeline.

Goose-step forward fascist man-baby Elon Musk, a man with a now undisputed reputation for gesture politics.

In a poll by British science fiction writer Charlie Stross, the South African-born man-baby and best buddy of the disgraced 47th and 45th president of the United States, insurrectionist, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual predator, business fraudster, congenital liar and golf cheat, one Donald John Trump, is beating the Skaro aliens hands-down over the most evil incarnation of government.

You will obey or you will be exterminated!

Where’s a Tardis when one’s needed?
.

Posts navigation