Ian Turton

I'm a Java programmer and geocomputationalist, after a period in industry I am again an academic being employed at the University of Glasgow as a research software engineer. I'm a member of the PSC of GeoTools and GeoServer open source mapping tools and am a founding member of the OSGEO. I live near Glasgow, Scotland,
(he/him/dr)

#glasgow #rse #academic #osgeo #geotools #geoserver

website: https://ianturton.com
blog: https://blog.ianturton.com
hire me: http://ianturton.com/hire-me
github: https://github.com/ianturton

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npub18mn84pzyxgf2q6z43fvuqkmwd468v70whkehtwlljc8edxv37j2qpugm2j

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[email protected]

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nprofile1qqsraen6s3zryy4qdp2c5kwqtdhx6ark08htmvm4h0levruknxglf9qpzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhgpggezw

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relay.primal.net

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npub18mn84pzyxgf2q6z43fvuqkmwd468v70whkehtwlljc8edxv37j2qpugm2j

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Last Notes

2026-07-25 16:32:23 UTC

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someone once asked me about the strange emojis I had put in a word doc, turns out every so often I automatically type :w in documents

2026-07-25 15:39:37 UTC

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the spray foam insulation can be cut as a block and lifted out to give access to the joist, then a bit of glue and slot it back in.

2026-07-23 17:50:30 UTC

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I throw in Lindsay Davis Falco series a Roman PI and Natalie Haynes Greek classics retold from the women's point of view.

2026-07-23 17:47:10 UTC

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the reason that Spartan women had to cut their hair short and dress like men was because the men had been brought up in homosexual relationships from puberty. They had to pretend to be men to attract their gay husbands.
I think of this every time I hear tech bros going on about being Spartan

2026-07-18 12:07:06 UTC

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now I'm trying to remember a book where Earth's great contribution to the galaxy was coffee.

2026-07-05 07:04:55 UTC

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interesting, can you do routing on the vector tiles?

2026-07-01 17:31:28 UTC

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and that's why your senior devs have dead man's handles built into their projects 🙂

2026-06-30 08:48:51 UTC

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and yet they are the ones wearing balaclavas when they march to make this point.

2026-06-20 20:29:49 UTC

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didn't Reform Ltd only win seats on the list in Scotland?

2026-06-14 18:29:27 UTC

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to be fair in America salads and nuts can give you e coli and or salmonella too.
I used to drink raw milk on my grandparents farm and they did every day. But then he cared about the care of his cows and was careful in the milk parlour.

2026-06-06 12:37:40 UTC

I went to the inaugural Whiteinch repair cafe, they were going for a soft start so it was pretty quiet but met lots of new people.
I also have tool storage envy now, apparently he can pick them up off his workshop wall and transport them.
#repairCafe #Glasgow
https://mapstodata.s3.eu-west-par.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/116/703/184/584/764/452/original/4cad508fff6941f2.jpg

2026-05-24 18:50:37 UTC

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mine just bloomed, I mostly ignore it other than to snip bits off as required for cooking.
https://mapstodata.s3.eu-west-par.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/116/631/049/058/675/895/original/947cfa7359caa932.jpg

2026-05-19 19:14:08 UTC

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I used to know how to tie one too. I'm going to have to buy some string now 🙂

2026-05-07 16:56:27 UTC

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that's really bad practice, you and him could have been electrocuted. Much safer to test the switch with a multi meter and probably quicker too.
#repairCafe #healthAndSafety

2026-04-12 19:32:03 UTC

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don't forget that neither Iran or USA have signed the convention so technically they can do what they want

2026-03-22 23:12:06 UTC

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I think you only meet the TSA on the way out. The scary (and incompetent) ones are CBP customs and border protection.

2026-03-08 17:38:31 UTC

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interestingly I wanted to buy some wildflower seeds for the woods behind my garden, very surprised to see seed bombs readily available from several seed sellers

2026-02-10 19:26:34 UTC

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are Labour still refusing to work with the SNP?

2026-01-07 08:15:02 UTC

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from my experience I'm surprised it's that low. Last workshop on encouraging ECR staff descended into a long discussion about the ethics of sucking people into the university research sector, with most of us deciding that we wouldn't recommend it to our friends and family or their children.

2025-12-29 19:18:49 UTC

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and yet we're still seeing councils and other employers being fined and forced to pay billions in back pay to female workers.

2025-11-17 20:16:05 UTC

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two possible solutions 1) don't walk about 2) take more pain killers (or both would be my preferred option)

2025-11-14 11:59:39 UTC

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I wonder what these figures look like for the other (devolved) parts of the UK

2025-10-04 09:42:40 UTC

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is that why big bags of crisps went from £2 bogof to £1 each this week?

2025-09-19 10:01:56 UTC

Maybe now the BBC's obsession with Reform ltd will start to work against them
https://share.google/tnNsX68lSVUSvrUlf
#ukPol #localGov

2025-09-18 08:07:47 UTC

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shouldn't your phone work out which language you're using and work from that.

2025-08-31 09:23:27 UTC

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seems like a good time to remind people about Weapons of Maths Destruction by Cathy O'Neill which discussed why this was a bad Idea a decade ago (before the algorithm was rebadged as #AI).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapons_of_Math_Destruction

2025-08-24 13:07:33 UTC

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does USS still own a large chunk of Thames Water? Maybe I should retire sooner rather than later

2025-08-17 16:50:44 UTC

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thank you for sharing this, I have to say that my stress levels are much better now I'm back in the UK and no one looks at me as an addict when I renew my pain meds each month, as opposed to my US pain clinic which made me pee in a cup to prove I was taking them and billed me $200 for the privilege!

2025-08-15 13:13:57 UTC

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and learning not to microwave your sneakers

2025-08-12 16:58:44 UTC

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as a contract researcher I got to move office on a regular basis, the number of times my grant was changed to put up selves and power sockets (as a computational researcher I needed to plug several computers in) was ridiculous despite paying a 40% overhead that never seemed to cover this

2025-06-22 10:48:35 UTC

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as in most these things poor(er) people are much more likely to spend their money often in the local community while the wealthy will invest it where ever gives the best return.

2025-06-03 12:00:18 UTC

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I had a colleague who admitted to spending 5 minutes when drunk trying to plug the USB C cable into the wrong end of his phone.

2025-05-19 11:47:00 UTC

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pursued by a bear?

2025-05-14 08:42:15 UTC

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when my wife worked for the DWP in Leeds they spent an inordinate amount of time on trains going down to London because that's where the minister and grade 7s were

2025-05-12 11:07:45 UTC

As some of you know my current fixed term contract as a research software engineer at the University of #Glasgow is coming to an end. So, I am looking for a new job either in or out of academia where I would get to do more programming than admin.
I have written open source geospatial software in academia and industry for the last 30 years. I'm good at debugging, teaching, mentoring but not meetings.
more details at https://www.ianturton.com/hire-me/index.html
#fediHire #gisChat #osgeo #academicChatter #rse

2025-04-28 11:10:52 UTC

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There's an old show on Discovery called Barnwood Builders where they disassemble and reassemble barns and log cabins. And watching them rebuild barns like this using cranes and cherry pickers makes you wonder how medieval monks managed it.

2025-04-28 10:28:28 UTC

Here's an introduction for my new instance:
So here's a quick #introduction - I'm a python and java developer who used to work mainly on open source #geospatial software such as #geoserver.
Currently, I am a research software engineer at Glasgow University. My contract ends in October 2025 so I am looking for work. #fediHire
In my spare time I help out at a #repairCafe fixing broken electrical items. I
'm also a full time #carer and struggle with #depression and #chronicPain.