Notices by Velocipede Rider (ruari@velocipederider.com)

@keithwilson A reason to use WhatsApp, Telegram, no OFC not. There never was.

But yes there is a reason to use things like Signal and Threema because I do not trust end-to-end-encryption for RCS messaging with Google and Apple behind the wheel.

@piprrr ah Brian, I chatted with him a few times back when I was on Twitter. In fact he even starting following me (ok, yes I followed him first).

@piprrr https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unipiper

I'm up next to #Holmenkollen ski jump. The view is amazing.

Sorry that was a bit off to the side, here is a nice front on view.

I found an old picture from roughly the location of the first picture from this thread.

From now on this is my greeting when meeting new people,

"Hi my name is Ruari, you might have heard of me. I'm a pretty big deal! Have you ever been to unicycle.co.uk?"

I tried to explain to my children how famous I am but feel like they did not get it, which is wierd.

@tk That picture is from an international competition with riders from all over the world. I was representing Ireland… though, I was also part of "Team Norway" 🤣

@joel

This means I'm famous right? Like properly famous!!! 🤣

@joel I mean, I guess I am an international penny farthing racer. 🤔

I mean it says it right in my bio here in the fedi.

If the image looks familiar to my regular followers it's because I have posted it before here myself. Let's zoom up a bit on the rider at the back of that group of racers. Yep, that's me! 😂

The biggest unicycle supplier is unicycle.com (they also sell penny farthings). In Europe, their biggest store is unicycle.co.uk. I often buy parts from this one.

Today I head over to by a new tyre from one of my 36 inch wheeled unicycles and what do I see? Well right on the homepage near the top is an image of penny farthings being raced.

Just a picture of an ordinary wheel.

Went out for a spring 🌱🌼 #Unicycle ride with some friends.

#UnicycleLife

One of my own numberless† cards, for those that have not seen such things before. Other companies that offer them include Chase (UK) and also the Apple card.

And yes this is a real, usable card and no I did not remove anything. This is how it is issued.

† It has a number obviously, just not printed on the card. I can access it though the app and website associated with my account and I also store it in my password manager for convenience.

Here is an old image of more of my cards. I switched some of them since this picture but still none have any card account number on the front, unlike my cards further in the past.

The obvious advantage of stripping the numbers off the front (or entirety) of the card is for security/privacy. If they are seen† it is not possible for a nefarious person to memorise or quickly photograph the number.

Indeed I cannot think of any good reason for modern cards to continue to print the number across the front. If your bank does, maybe tell them to stop it.

† Just a few years back I could not have posted a picture like this on social media without compromising my account details.

Having an embossed card seems particularly stupid in 2025. Those old "Knuckle Busters" cannot be used anywhere, anymore. So there is no advantage to them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card_imprinter

Just to clarify one point, card imprinters might now be pointless but I do personally think they were a brilliant solution at the time. They are so much quicker (and more accurate) at recording the account details than someone handwritting them out. So while their time has come and gone, hats off to whichever individual(s) that came up with this idea in the first place. It was a brilliant little hack.

[And yes I am using "hack" in it's more traditional sense]