Justin Cormack
@justincormack.bsky.social
Tech and pictures of nature. Suffolk, UK
All my attention has been on the six spot burnet moths that hatched out this week in the front garden wildflower lawn, happily flying around and handing out mainly on the dead flowers, as they are goth moths #wildflowerhour
So it turned out that many of the orchids survived the mowing and are happily flowering #wildflowerhour
Justin Cormack@justincormack.bsky.social · 2mo agoThe first of the pyramidal orchids is out in the churchyard for #orchidchallenge in #wildflowerhour but sadly a farmer mowed down the largest orchid patch in the village before they even flowered so I remain sad despite this.
The front lawn today, lots of oxeye daisies are out, the field scabious is a bee magnet, the birds foot trefoil is also popular with bees and moths, lots of butterflies around #lawnflowers #wildflowerhour
The first of the pyramidal orchids is out in the churchyard for #orchidchallenge in #wildflowerhour but sadly a farmer mowed down the largest orchid patch in the village before they even flowered so I remain sad despite this.
A GitHub for maintainers - Giving dependencies the same treatment the fork got nesbitt.io/2026/05/02/a...
A GitHub for maintainers
Giving dependencies the same treatment the fork got
nesbitt.io
I cannot recommend this week's cover story by @christopherjm.ft.com highly enough. It's the frankly astonishing story of the fortitude of one Ukrainian drone commander on the eastern front... don't miss it... as.ft.com/r/ddae74ad-4...
‘I’m fighting two wars. One against the Russians. And one inside myself.’
A drone pilot and her all-women unit are waging a new kind of warfare on Ukraine’s eastern front
as.ft.com
New blog post: NHS Goes To War Against Open Source https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/nhs-goes-to-war-against-open-source/ The NHS is preparing to close nearly all of its Open Source repositories. Throughout my time working for the UK Government - in GDS, NHSX, i.AI, and others - I championed …
NHS Goes To War Against Open Source
The NHS is preparing to close nearly all of its Open Source repositories. Throughout my time working for the UK Government - in GDS, NHSX, i.AI, and others - I championed Open Source. I spoke to dozens of departments about it, wrote guidance still in use today, and briefed Ministers on why it was so important. That's why I'm beyond disappointed at recent moves from NHS England to backtrack on…
shkspr.mobi
📣State of Open Con 26 is On The Road 🚘 and Early Bird Tickets for Edinburgh, on 5 June, are available at a discounted £99 until 6 May, focusing on the AI stack, working up from Compute through Models and Agents to user experiences and ROI with an openness slant. stateofopencon.com/edinburgh-so...
Welcoming some impressive open tech contributors to the OpenUK team with our Ambassador refresh! 😇 We will be launching our Apprentice Ambassador and OpenHQ international Ambassador programmes in the next few weeks. openuk.uk/ambassadors/ #openuk #openukambassadors #opensourcecommunity
NEW: The Green Party is STILL bad at being green (FREE TO READ) takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/the-green-...
The Green Party is STILL bad at being green
We need 'industrial-scale' solar if we want to reach Net Zero.
takes.jamesomalley.co.uk
pretty in pink, purple and white - green winged orchids, wood anemone and early purple orchid because thats the time of year around here in Suffolk #wildflowerhour
IT Support to Major Tom You're Outlook's dead, there's something wrong Can you ping me, Major Tom? Can you ping me, Major Tom?
Part n of the FT Alphaville occasional series on tax hearings for various foodstuffs is one of the finest www.ft.com/content/eb37...
Much ado about marshmallows
Good news, it’s s’more VAT nonsense
ft.com
One of the most remarkable objects in #Pompeii is a marble table support with P. Casca Longus inscribed on it. Longus was the 1st assassin to stab Julius Caesar on #IdesOfMarch (today in 44 BC). On his death Longus’ possessions were auctioned & this table was bought by a Pompeian
If you ask someone today to name the builder of Hadrian's Wall, they would give you a funny look. But historical memory is odd, and right up to the 1800s we forgot who built it. Until in 1840 John Hodgson, an obscure Northumbrian clergyman, published the LONGEST footnote in history... 1/22
Made the cover of @acm.org with "A Decade of Docker Containers", recapping much systems work! Docker grew so fast in those early days that we never got a chance to write an academic paper about it, so this has been a long time coming cacm.acm.org/research/a-d... w/ @justincormack.bsky.social djs55
Hard to overstate the excellence of this long-read from @shaunwalker7.bsky.social on the Western and Ukrainian intelligence run-up to Russia's full-scale invasion: the Iraq War's legacy, Zelensky v Zaluzhny, the geopolitical forces that shaped what followed. Awesome work, wonderful writing.
A war foretold: how the CIA and MI6 got hold of Putin’s Ukraine plans and why nobody believed them
Drawing on more than 100 interviews with senior intelligence officials and other insiders in multiple countries, this exclusive account details how the US and Britain uncovered Vladimir Putin’s plans ...
theguardian.com
One of the highlights of the IndiaAI Impact Summit, this phenomenal panel hosted by OpenUK brought people who really understand open source together to dig deep into resilience and sovereignty. With Amanda Brock, @anastasiastasenko.bsky.social, Jimmy Wales, Dr Laura Gilbert, and @mishi.bsky.social
My first London primary school, Highbury Quadrant, closed last year www.islingtontribune.co.uk/article/its-... - although my memories of the school dinners were not those of the people quoted in the article! The teachers were great though.
It's a last look around the old school before primary closes forever
Islington Council said Highbury Quadrant had to shut due to a shortage of pupils
islingtontribune.co.uk