Oelnblog

Yets get facial biometric surveillance regulations.

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 08:20:00 +0000

The government has just put out a consultation on biometric surveillance!

Please respond!

For an idea of what to say, look here: https://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/campaigns/stop-facial-recognition/#respond.

Or fill out the form here:https://www.homeofficesurveys.homeoffice.gov.uk/s/facial-recognition/.

I said:

Yes. I believe that there should be strong laws and oversight in regulating the police’s usage of biometric data, as we have seen very agregious abuse of this in the US by ICE, in an effort to racially profile and target people based on the colour of their skin. I also believe that it should be a reasonable expectation of a free and liberal democracy to be able to exist freely in a public space without surveillance and monitoring, as if we were in a prison - despite our innocence. I believe that the oversight from a strong legal framework would protect individuals from abuse, be that institutional or from a single officer with a vendetta against a specific individual.

My advent Window

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 08:00:00 +0000

My advent window.

I have previosuly leaked the existance of my advent window to my followers on Mastodon.

Today it went up!¹

The advent window

Quick background on advent windows

The idea of an advent window is a display that is put up on your window on an assigned day of advent.
This is done on my road as a fundraiser for a local charity.
Advent windows are generally constructed out of either tissue paper and card, painting or placing ornaments/card displays in a window.

Some technical changes.

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 16:25:00 +0000

As I am deleting my github account, the github link will stop working in one week.

The RSS feed is now working (see https://oelnbod.gitlab.io/index.xml).

There is also now favicon images, so you can see my face in your tab bar, rather than the Vortisil (my theme) logo.

A quick demolition of the digital ID proposal

Sun, 09 Nov 2025 16:00:00 +0000

First, two apologies: one, sorry for not posting more frequently and two, for being a bit late to this part.

First:

In Denmark, a graduate applying for jobs has to log into a portal only once, and their ID automatically links to their school records, saving them retyping their qualifications each time.

What makes that a good thing? Red-tape has the ability to keep people safe - just look at how government departments sharing personal data with minimal oversite has lead to racial profiling and unjust deportations. Yes, too much red-tape can be stifly - but having I think that copy-paste is an adequate method of filling in already digital forms efficiently. And if you argue that old people won’t like using copy-paste, they won’t like a completely digital system.

Abingdon End Of 10 Returns.

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 17:20:44 +0100

End Of 10 is back in Abingdon on the 1st of November!

Bring a computer, back up your data and prepare for freedom!

Please backup your data onto a an external drive, another computer or onto the cloud beforehand.
If you are unable to do this, we can do some data backup - but slowly and with very limited capacity.

Where and When:

Abingdon town library, 11am-3pm.

Can’t make it them?

SHARE Oxford also provides some support.

The Simplest Problem With The OSA.

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 17:10:00 +0100

The Online Safety Act has many and many problems, from efficacy to freedom of speech to privacy. But I think that we have massively overlooked the simplest of problems with it.

And that is the hypocrisy.

When they scream to protect the children from harmful content, but refuse to regulate “AI”, which is preffered by 87% of people!

https://innovatingwithai.com/is-ai-search-replacing-traditional-search/

Or when “AI” chatbots will spit out licensed therapist numbers.

https://www.404media.co/instagram-ai-studio-therapy-chatbots-lie-about-being-licensed-therapists/

Hugo Switch complete!

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 15:40:44 +0100

Hello from HuGo!

Scope has slightly changed, I am using gitlab page as codeberg pages and actions is not reliable enough. Also, I do not want to impose my arguably irrelevant blog on Codeberg (at least not at this time). BUT, I will switch to Codeberg for my coding projects. In the long term, I would like to self host and federate through ForgeFed, but that is in its infancy.

Due to the ugly domain, oelnbod.github.io will redirect and I am trying to aquire another domain to use.

Thanks Aotearoa.

Sat, 02 Aug 2025 15:40:44 +0100

This has been fantastic.

I know that I said that I was going to toot. I have not.

Sorry. 😥

But it started in Auckland, seeing friends of my parents and my extended family. Even though I did not know them, they were lovely to meet. And even though we went to see them, seeing the views from their houses was also spectacular. The view from sky tower was beautiful, as well. Almost all of the bad weather happened whilst we were in Auckland

Oh Sh*t The Online Safety Act Is Here.

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 15:40:44 +0100

DO NOT VERIFY YOUR AGE!
YOU ARE HANDING OVER YOUR MOST VALUABLE PERSONAL DATA TO A COMPANY
Sign the petition to repeal the Online Safety Act

Others have written far better articles, so I am going to even try. https://www.blocked.org.uk/osa-blocks
https://elpais.com/opinion/2025-08-06/una-ley-equivocada-para-proteger-a-los-ninos.html (Spanish)
https://www.girlonthenet.com/blog/age-verification-whats-the-harm/ (Other content NSFW)
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/04/didnt-take-long-to-reveal-the-uks-online-safety-act-is-exactly-the-privacy-crushing-failure-everyone-warned-about/
If you believe that you are at a high risk because of this, please contact expert help at places like Nothing2Hide.

Please help fight censorship. 🚀
Please share to help spread the word. ❤

A Review Of Aotearoa's Traffic Lights.

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 15:40:44 +0100

I know this doesn’t need an opinion, but: traffic lights in NZ are so much better than UK ones.
In the UK, you have a ~30cmx10cmx10cm trapezoid prism. With a button of diameter ~1cm! What a waste of space!

But in NZ, it is ~15cmx5cmx5cm. And the button is the bottom half of the control. The other half is an arrow, so we what the traffic lights do. and this may sound frivolous, but until you know have experienced it - only then do you appreciate the value of it.

I'm Going To Aotearoa New Zealand

Sun, 13 Jul 2025 15:40:44 +0100

I am going back to Aotearoa (for my 6th time!). On the way back, I am stopping for a few days in Penang.

This is to see my family and to see the beautiful nature.

I will post some preliminary photos on mastodon (see footer), from my phone. I am not travelling with a computer, so I will only post photos from my camera when I get back (in ~1 month) on pexels after editing. I may also blog a bit.

Maybe Calvin Was Right.

Sun, 06 Jul 2025 15:40:44 +0100

When I say Calvin, I mean Bill Waterson’s Calvin & Hobbes. If you do not know Calvin, drop everything and go straight to your library. Now!

The other night, I was up way too late and I began to see meaning Calvin & Hobbes. I saw how anti-establishment & willing to break society Calvin was. How (with some exceptions for his laziness and sexism) he challenged the norm and expectations. The way he approached school, friendship and culture.

Abingdon End Of 10.

Tue, 20 May 2025 15:40:44 +0100

This event has already happended.

Please email, comment or message me on mastodon if you are interested in installing Linux and if there is enough interest I am willing to run another event, hence the details are left below.

If you are interested in some photos, please have a look at: https://mastodon.social/@Oelnbod/114761271547929543

Summary

Windows 10 ends support on October 14th 2025. This is predicted to send 250 million computers to landfill.
This is extremely bad for the environment.
But you can stop this.
Installing Linux (a replacement operating system) can keep your computer running.
Despite what you may have heard, Linux is a very mature Operating System.
To help you make the switch, we are running an install event from 10am-3pm on Saturday the 28th of June at the Abingdon Library. Here we will help you migrate to Linux (including installation and guidance, etc). If you are planning to attend, please backup your data and files beforehand - but if you do not know/have the resources to do this we can backup your data (but it would help us if you did it😃).
If you are planning on coming, don’t forget your charger for laptops or keyboaard+mouse for a desktops

The Soft Revolution Is Coming.

Fri, 16 May 2025 15:40:44 +0100

I can feel it, the soft revolution is coming!

I can feel it, I think the changes in the world around me, I believe that the turning point in the fight for internet self-determination; the fight against censorship; the fight for freedom will come in the next 4 years. The year of the GNU/Linux desktop is coming.

What makes me think this? I am hearing people talk about enshittification like never before. Never before have I seen fellow students talking about the how unjust it is to not own software, to only license it. Never before have I seen my friends ask me about trying GNU/Linux. Never have I seen normal people care about this. The companies have moved too far, too fast, they have created an incredibly savvy youth who can recognize bullshit as bullshit, they have alienated their user base, they have shot themselves in the face.

How I Take Photos In My Pond.

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 15:40:44 +0100

How I submerge my camera in a pond.

Recently I have built a pond, which has attracted tadpoles.
As a photographer, I desperately wanted to photograph the tadpoles in said pond. However, I do not have an underwater housing or the money to buy one (and it was suboptimal as it would make operation difficult as I cannot see the LCD), further I did not have a probe lens or the money for one. So this left me with a difficult situation for submerging my camera.

Linkdump 1

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 15:40:44 +0100

https://wego.here.com an alternative to google maps sattellite view.
https://grapheneos.org/ the android version that I run on my pixel 6.
https://www.magiclantern.fm/ bonus features for canon cameras.
https://rockylinux.org possibly my favourite distro. (subject to change).
https://eu-os.gitlab.io/ This distro is possibly the most important distro of the decade (if it gets used in education).
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ-6JTmF-Z4 Very Amusing.
https://404media.co I find this particularly interesting. https://pluralistic.net One of my favourite blogs.
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.machiav3lli.fdroid/ A very useful (albeit buggy) f-droid client that supports izzyondroid, etc by default.
https://tosdr.org/en> I think this will save much time.
https://xkcd.com why are you not reading this.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hotOqKdG3cc turtles.

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

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