thehatfox

thehatfox , 8 days ago

The military part of the proposed new national service is going to be optional however, those “conscripted” can choose a civilian volunteering path instead. So I’m not sure how this scheme would help with the threat of future conflict when nobody chooses the military option.

It’s a ridiculous gimmick to distract from the Tories failures in areas people do care about.

thehatfox , 10 days ago

Surprised to see Gove go, like him or loathe him he’s always seemed a survivor.

At this rate there’s going to be a real vacuum of senior figures to take the reins once Sunak goes.

thehatfox , 10 days ago

Generally you want to the reference material used to improve that first version to be correct though. Otherwise it’s just swapping one problem for another.

I wouldn’t use a textbook that was 52% incorrect, the same should apply to a chatbot.

thehatfox , 10 days ago

As an aside, can we get back into desktop cubes again? With all the upheaval in Windows land it’s the sort of eye candy that can win over new Linux users.

thehatfox , 10 days ago

Seems a hard sell to go subscription on such a niche platform. I wish anyone luck that could challenge the Apple/Android duopoly though.

thehatfox , 10 days ago

I’d say it’s more that parents (companies) should be more responsible about what they tell their kids (customers).

Because right now the companies have a new toy (AI) that they keep telling their customers can make thunder from clapping. But in reality the claps sometimes make thunder but are also likely to make farts. Occasionally some incredibly noxious ones too.

The toy might one day make earth-rumbling thunder reliably, but right now it can’t get close and saying otherwise is what’s irresponsible.

thehatfox , 10 days ago

Any distro should be fairly stable and supported on an older Thinkpad.

I’m currently using Debian stable on my X220 and it’s rock solid.

thehatfox , 11 days ago

I wonder why he’s not standing this time. Maybe he doesn’t want the embarrassment of losing a 9th parliamentary election. Or perhaps he wants to ensure he has to ties for an eventual return to the Conservative Party.

thehatfox , 11 days ago

Hopefully that’s the end of the Rwanda policy for good then. I’m a bit surprised he didn’t try to ram it through before calling the election, he seemed to be staking so much on it.

But now they can use it a campaign point for ”stopping the boats” instead - safe in the knowledge they’ll now not have to see it through to the end.

thehatfox , 12 days ago

Disappointing the non-terminal route was rejected, but a step in the right direction nonetheless.

Starmer has made previous pledges to bring forward a vote in the UK parliament, with an election now confirmed hopefully we can make similar progress.

thehatfox , 12 days ago

Britain faces a simple and inescapable choice – stability and strong Government with me, or chaos with Ed Miliband

David Cameron, May 2015

Oh how I wish we chose chaos with Ed Miliband.

thehatfox OP , 12 days ago

My worst fear is not a Tory comeback but a lurch in more radical and populist direction if Labour fail to start visibly turning things around after the first term. It's unrelated to expect many if any first term miracles considering the state the country is in, but people are going to need to feel some sort of progress to stop the frustration boiling over.

thehatfox OP , 12 days ago

I was starting to think they would dither their way into defaulting to January at the rate they had been going.

thehatfox OP , 12 days ago

Parliament will be dissolved on 30th May. When the Commons is dissolved all business is ended and MPs stop being MPs. When the Lords dissolves business ends but Lords still remain Lords.

The government still remains and ministers keep their positions, but is effectively only a caretaker for the pre-election period, and cannot enact new polices except in exceptional circumstances.

The campaign period proper starts once Parliament is dissolved. Parties will publish manifestos shortly after, TV debates may be organised etc.

thehatfox , 12 days ago

About bloody time.

It’s been raining hard nearly all day today, only just stopped. But I guess it’s true that every cloud has a silver lining.

thehatfox , 12 days ago

We've been here before, haven't we?

While he is taking a break from YouTube, perhaps Tom Scott can put together a sequel.

thehatfox , 13 days ago

Everything GB News has done so far, and only now are Ofcom stating to consider taking action? O suppose whatever action they take will be equally as limp. A strongly worded letter maybe.

thehatfox , 11 days ago

Might be worth looking into LoRa for longer range, it’s got quite cheap to play with now.

thehatfox , 20 days ago

Rental auctions are an idea worth trying, but rates on high street locations are only part of the puzzle of dying high streets. There need to be people willing and able to set up viable businesses, and the locations need to be both affordable and desirable.

Confidence in the economy is not exactly at a high at the moment, and the £500,000 bung is drop in the ocean considering the decade plus of local underfunding and inefficient spending practices of local government (my local council recently somehow burned through nearly 100 grand putting up a couple of benches and a flower bed 🙄).

That’s all before thinking about the broader cultural changes we’ve seen recently, from the shift to e-commerce to effect of COVID.

thehatfox , 20 days ago

Firing EMPs in urban areas does not sound a great idea at all. That's a lot of potential collator damage on top of an already potential dangerous police action.

There are already methods police can use to stop moving vehicles, which would work on electric vehicles as well as existing ICE vehicles. These are still bikes, not magic carpets or something. Stopping a moving vehicle is also dangerous in itself, and it doesn't sound a great idea to add to that the chances of frying everything from police equipment to vital medical devices that happens to be in the blast area.

thehatfox , 21 days ago

There’s poo in the rivers and it’s now going to be illegal to be homeless, did I wake up in the past?

I think it’s time the Conservative Party had a rebrand because they really don’t seem to be conserving much these days. Except for established wealth that is.

thehatfox OP , 21 days ago

Sadly I think all we’ve got coming for us is the return of cholera and typhoid.

thehatfox OP , 21 days ago

I lived near a small artificial lake that was that was a popular unofficial outdoor swimming location. But the local authorities were always trying to keep people out. It eventually became a bit of a party spot and there was a couple of drownings, which lead to big fences and security patrols going up. Last thing I heard the place had been redeveloped into an expensive private leisure resort.

I gets there's always a balance between access and safety, but there's a real lack of free and open places in the country these days.

thehatfox , 24 days ago

I’m currently using O2 and their coverage is definitely patchy. Great in some areas, not in others.

The only reliable way to choose the “best” network is to get PAYG SIMs for each and try them all in the places you will most often be. The online coverage maps are not always that accurate and up to date, and can’t account for factors like the construction of individual buildings.

thehatfox , 24 days ago

Smart meters were never going to be a real benefit for energy users, only a method to extract more revenue and impose more control over them. Being co-opted as another method of government surveillance is yet another problem they have caused.

following the highly-politicised appointment of the new Information Commissioner, the ICO adopted a new strategy for public sector enforcement that relies on public shaming and “very angry letters” rather than legally binding enforcement actions and penalty fines

Oh look, it’s another regulator being kneecapped. I really hope Starmer will consider giving these groups some teeth again.