MGSpiller

I write technical stuff about pop & squash for a living
I'm now posting more at @[email protected]

[Ankor Inclán @ankorinclan]

Una niña pelirroja con vaqueros, una construcción de LEGO en las manos y una sonrisa que no está posando para nadie. Esa imagen lleva más de cuarenta años siendo uno de los anuncios más citados de la historia de la publicidad.

Se llamaba Rachel Giordano. Tenía unos siete años cuando la fotografiaron para la campaña de 1981. El titular decía simplemente: What it is is beautiful. Lo que es, es hermoso. Sin mencionar si era niña o niño. Sin color rosa. Sin instrucciones sobre qué debía construir.

Lo que muchos recuerdan como un gesto revolucionario de LEGO en realidad era la continuación de algo que la empresa danesa llevaba haciendo desde los años 50: vender sus piezas como un juguete universal. Los sets se llamaban Universal Building Sets. La creatividad era el producto, no el género del comprador.

Lo interesante llegó después.

En los años siguientes, LEGO fue derivando hacia una segmentación por géneros cada vez más marcada. En 2012 lanzó LEGO Friends, una línea diseñada específicamente para niñas, con colores pastel, figuras femeninas estilizadas y sets de cafeterías, salones de belleza y boutiques. Las críticas fueron inmediatas.

Fue entonces cuando alguien rastreó a Rachel Giordano, la niña del anuncio de 1981. La encontraron: tenía 37 años y era médico. En una entrevista con Adweek en 2014 fue directa: en 1981 los LEGO eran universales y la creatividad del niño producía el mensaje. En 2014, era el juguete el que le decía al niño quién debía ser.

LEGO escuchó, al menos en parte. En 2021, en el 40 aniversario del anuncio original, la empresa lo recreó para el Día Internacional de la Mujer bajo el nombre Future Builders y se comprometió públicamente a eliminar los estereotipos de género de sus productos y campañas.

El anuncio de 1981 no era radical para su época. Se volvió radical cuando la industria fue en dirección contraria.

[Rhianna Pratchett 🧙🏻‍♀️ @rhipratchett]

Eleven years since you crossed the black sands. I wish I could say that the world is better than you left it (although it will always be better for having had you in it) but at least there is a new Young Sam to help carry on the Pratchett name and ethos. Love you always ❤️

[Make Votes Matter @MakeVotesMatter]

Wrapped 2025 has dropped 👀👀

How has Britain's democracy performed this year? Let's check...

[Zephyr @zephyr_z9]

> be me, Intel
> world domination status: achieved
> have a license to print money with x86
> life is good
> be 2007, some fruit company named Apple shows up
> "hey can you make a chip for our new phone?"
> my CFO brain activates
> look at their offer... pathetic
> my margins! my beautiful margins!
> "lmao no," I tell them, "get that low volume, low margin peasant shit out of my office"
> tell them to go bother some Korean foundry
> they call it the "iPhone"
> it only sells, like, a bazillion units
> oops.mp4
> should have listened to my gut, but my gut was too busy counting shareholder dividends
> speaking of shareholders
> CEO is now a finance bro
> innovation is for nerds, stock buybacks are for chads
> spend $36 billion to make line go up
> R&D? how about R&Buyback
> TSMC and Samsung are building fabs? cute.
> we're building value for our shareholders
> meanwhile, in the basement...
> be AMD, literally on life support
> selling their HQ to pay the rent
> "hey guys what if we made a good CPU for once?"
> entire Intel leadership room dies of laughter
> we're still milking 14nm++++ for the fifth year in a row
> what are they gonna do, beat us with... checks notes... core count and efficiency?
> HQ focused on PPT presentations and buybacks
> R&D team: "hey we have this 10nm design but it's kinda... impossible to manufacture?"
> me: "JUST MAKE IT WORK, I HAVE A DIVIDEND TO ANNOUNCE"
> requirement: quadruple the transistor density, tooling: from the stone age, yield: literally negative
> "10nm is fine, everything is fine" for five years
> entire company is stuck on 14nm++++++++
> watching AMD just call TSMC and get a shiny new 7nm node like it's nothing
> suddenly, AMD's "Zen" thing is actually good
> gamers and redditors are calling me a "dead company walking"
> my stock is in freefall
> panic.jpg
> hire back Based Pat Gelsinger to save us
> Pat comes in: "what in the goddamn..."
> find out we're now outsourcing our own chips to TSMC
> mfw we missed mobile, lost the process lead, got rekt by AMD, and our grand plan is to ask the government for money
> mfw we're now a fabless fab with an identity crisis
> mfw the once-proud "Intel Inside" is now "TSMC Inside"
> at least the shareholders had some good quarters
> company_cope.jpg

[Emma 💛💙🇩🇰🇬🇧🇪🇺 @MonkEmma]

Right, so I was asked to take a look at this headline and as you can imagine, there is a lot wrong with it! 🙄

This was initially published in @thetimes and then picked up by the usual GB News, DM, Telegraph etc

Let’s take a look….👀

🧵

1/26

[MGSpiller @MGSpiller]

@Jofurn_ @paullewismoney @TorstenBell But a means test *is* being implemented anyway so the argument about the means test being too expensive to implement is irrelevant. The question now is whether Labour have set it too generous & once you look at it like that it seems obvious to me that they have...

[Terje Helland @terjehelland]

🇬🇪A country once seen as the democratic bright spot of the post-Soviet space is now undergoing the fastest authoritarian regression in modern European history.
🧵Here’s a thread to keep you updated on what’s happening - and why it matters.
1/23

[Gabrielius Landsbergis🇱🇹 @GLandsbergis]

🧵1/4
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister recently stated that, in order to achieve peace, NATO must “withdraw” from the Baltic states. Many found this shocking—but the demand is not new.
As early as the 1990s, when it became clear that newly independent states from the former Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union might join NATO, the Alliance sought to assuage Russian concerns by signing the NATO-Russia Founding Act in 1997. The document aimed to mitigate Russian objections to NATO’s enlargement.
One of its key political commitments was that NATO would refrain from deploying “substantial” permanent combat forces in the territory of new member states. In return, the Act reaffirmed core international principles, including respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the UN Charter.
Russia has since repeatedly violated these very principles - most notably with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

[RodriGezzy @gez131]

@LeftBrexit @JamieDaltry @EricIdle Compliance with European Directives. Hazardous areas, pressure equipment etc. Highly technical industries in which we were world leading. UK compliance companies can't certify to European standards post Brexit but European companies can certify to UK standards.

[MGSpiller @MGSpiller]

@LeftBrexit @ralphnewput @JamieDaltry @EricIdle Well my personal experience of the NTBs is that they are a PITA.

[Jeremy Keeshin @jkeesh]

In 1945, six women pulled off a computing miracle.

They programmed the world’s first computer—with no manuals, no training.

Then, a SINGLE assumption erased them from tech history for decades.

The story of how ONE photo nearly deleted computing’s female founders: 🧵

[MGSpiller @MGSpiller]

Indeed it would be a terrible mistake to repost this wouldn't it "Sir Micky Take"!
🧐🤣😁

[Sir Michael Take CBE @MichaelTakeMP]

To insult two highly respected and free thinking politicians like this is disgraceful.
It just shows how far standards in society have fallen.
Anyone reposting this insulting photograph should feel utterly ashamed.
😡

[James Lucas @JamesLucasIT]

Cherry blossoms in Japan 🧵

1. A tunnel of sakura-shaped bulbs in Mie

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Amol Rajan, "Britain today is stuck, isn't it?"

Alan Sugar, "It's stagnant"

Amol Rajan, "Declining?"

Alan Sugar, "It's got a lot to do with Brexit"

"Brexit is the biggest disaster I have experienced in my whole lifetime, business career"

"Brexit was a total absolute disaster, and anybody who says it's not is deluded"

Amol Rajan, "What do you think it would take to get this country growing again?"

Alan Sugar, "Go back into the European Union"

"I've never met Starmer but if I ever did I'd ask if it's possible? What mechanism would it take to effectively get down on our bended knees and beg to be allowed back in again"

"That's what I would do. If I was in charge, I'd beg to get back in again"

Amol Rajan, "I've never really associated you with begging"

Alan Sugar, "Exactly. That's how bad it is"

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

Right now, in many regions, you can literally hear what Russia truly needs. Around 40 "Shahed" drones are in our skies, and air defense is active.

Unfortunately, there have been hits, specifically on civilian infrastructure. A direct hit by a "Shahed" drone on a hospital in Sumy, strikes on cities in the Donetsk region, and attack drones currently in the skies over the Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Chernihiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, and Cherkasy regions.

It is these types of nighttime attacks by Russia that destroy our energy sector, our infrastructure, and the normal life of Ukrainians. And the fact that this night is no exception shows that the pressure on Russia must continue for the sake of peace.

Today, Putin effectively rejected the proposal for a full ceasefire. It would be right for the world to respond by rejecting any attempts by Putin to prolong the war.

Sanctions against Russia. Assistance to Ukraine. Strengthening allies in the free world and working toward security guarantees. And only a real cessation of strikes on civilian infrastructure by Russia, as proof of its willingness to end this war, can bring peace closer.

[MGSpiller @MGSpiller]

On BlueSky I mention our weekly trip to the quiz...

https://t.co/2bDo2rcQ4b

[Gryn ✌ @gryn_a]

OK, here's a fresh entertaining story from Lithuania, because we all need a good laugh for the sake of sanity.
An anonymous troll tricked a member of Parliament to believe that he was going to dine with Musk 😂
I swear, this plan is on par with the exploding pagers.
Read on...🧵

[Rory Stewart @RoryStewartUK]

1/ Trump has been conned by Putin. Russia isn’t a global superpower—its GDP (~$2 trillion) is smaller than Italy’s and about 1/15 the size of the US. 🧵

[Daractenus @Daractenus]

For the sake of making myself as unlikable as possible with the MAGA community, to whatever extent MAGA is still a thing or a community right now, I've decided to do a short thread tackling the most common misconceptions they seem to have about Europe.🧵

[MGSpiller @MGSpiller]

@KathrynPorter26 @squaddster @Ed_Miliband I've had to look that up, it sounds even more expensive to install, you're installing two sorts of heating rather than one & switching between depending on price + still using fossil fuels?

[MGSpiller @MGSpiller]

@KathrynPorter26 @squaddster @Ed_Miliband Yes there is a regressive element but 65% ish are owner occupied and can be changed presuming £ is available & the owner is willing. How many are willing if the running costs are maybe marginally worse for a heat pump?