I have a friend…

Can you elaborate on why, please?

No, not really, sorry…

Lol!

Not much empathy for the Uyghurs then? Tough crowd

Good point.

The world will be entering a very dark place over the next few years and China is much of the reason why

That’s a gross oversimplification of things, and totally ignores the West’s part in all of it. It’s a very blinkered and partizan view. And not really helpful in trying to understand and explain reality.

Right now the West is fighting an existential threat

That’s been the case since well before China became a major player on the world stage. Much of the West’s problems are self inflicted. Blaming ‘others’ just taps into xenophobia, which then helps feeds divide and rule, etc…

kind of discourse that we saw between Sadie Khan and the former head of the Met – which resulted in her receiving substantial (£600k) compensation for what was effectively constructive dismissal by a politician.

It’s ‘Sadiq’, and Dick did not get ‘compensation for what was effectively constructive dismissal by a politician’. All I can find online is something about ‘she could receive over £500,000 as well as her pension’ as part of a ‘severance package’, but nothing on how much she actually did get, or indeed if she got anything at all above her pension to which she was entitled. Let’s try and stick to facts. And remind me why she lost her job?

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/seven-scandals-on-cressida-dick-s-watch

Who said I worked for Shell?

Whatevs. I’m really not that interested. I think you’ve misunderstood what I was saying anyway.

And these weren’t “lower end” jobs you talk about, whatever they are.

How many senior executives lost their jobs and had to sign on? Oh…

We are not talking about loss here, just a reduction in profit… For share holders.

Yep.

Go back to your tinfoil hat weaving.

Keep your head firmly in the sand.

Unfortunately for me my experience of actually getting made redundant somewhat trump’s your anti-capitalist tubthumping.

You were made redundant why? Because Shell went bust? So Shell don’t exist any more? Oh…

Probs not cos I’ve sold my soul to Apple. I expect Joe Biden is masturbating furiously to my humorous WhatsApp messages as we speak.

Coronation Sausage then?

I survived 2008 until 2016, because fundamentally this isn’t correct.

No it fundamentally is correct. Thanks for the attempt at mansplaining, but I have a decent understanding of how economics works, thanks.

Shell, and many other powerful global corporations, continued to make profits throughout 2008. They were just lower than previously. And there was another slump in 2015, but they were still making profit. Such companies don’t lay staff off and close offices etc because they’re losing money, they do it because they’re less profitable. That’s all it is. Workers, particularly at the ‘lower’ end of the scale, are expendable. Shell continues to make profit today, indeed their profits are currently their highest ever. Yet fuel prices are still relatively high to the consumer. Our energy companies are now taking the piss not because global events are causing a shortage of energy in our market, but because they are taking the **** piss. Because they want to maximise profits now, whilst peoples fears are at their highest. Because doing so now will offset any dip in profits once the UK recession bites hard. And they are allowed to do so because our government fails to regulate them sufficiently. Oh look; France has imposed a 4% cap in energy price increases. So; EDF etc are looking elsewhere to maximise profits. UK energy customers are now effectively helping to fund the French price cap. Same as how public money is used to ensure Tesco etc can continue to make profit.

Here’s how it really works: Nobody on Earth starves because of a lack of food. They starve because some **** somewhere wants to make profit.

I’m getting the train down from Preston with my Brompton and riding from Euston to Lee Valley on the Saturday.

Don’t bother with the canal towpath, as it’ll be packed on a Saturday.

trains every 8 ins or so

That’s a very short train! Or is it the gap between trains? 🤔 either way, it seems problematic…

Yes, very easy. You just need to remember – personally I’d have a separate phone, then you can just switch it off and there’s no doubt the weekend’s started.

Brilliant.

That security recommendation sounds a load of baloney to me

It’s an app that accesses a database. It was developed only for Android as far as I know, and the developers say Samsung ‘phones are preferable. That’s all I know.

50 shades of shite.

God help us.

I’d be interested in this. On a Mac, you can record the entire screen in Quicktime Player> Screen Recording, but for the sound, you can only choose the computer’s external mic, so it’s only recording sound from the computer’s speakers, which is sub-optimal. It would be good to be able to record internal sound, say from a movie clip or a webinar/Zoom call, as well as the screen.

Well, I must be thicker than I thought.

It’s ok; most people believe themselves to be more intelligent than they actually are.

Forget the illusion of ‘economics’ as presented to you by the media etc. Look at the reality of our economy; a series of troughs and peaks on a graph. During the troughs, the majority suffer, yet a very small percentage gain considerably. Some of the biggest profits are to be made during recessions; from massive interests on payday loans etc, to price increases of things like fuel, energy, food etc. Disaster Capitalism is very lucrative for those who have power. Private health care benefits from people being sick. So; if you want to make money from healthcare, it’s in your vested interest for many people to be sick, right? That’s at the core of what we’re seeing now. And have a think about this; if you get into financial trouble because you can’t afford to pay your mortgage/loans etc, what legal support is there for you, that doesn’t cost you money? There isn’t any. This is why you pay for things like mortgage protection insurance and that. You’re already paying in case a disaster happens. Only problem is, if you ever actually need such help, you’ll invariably find it’s inadequate anyway. But by that point, it’s too late. You’re on your own.

Are you wearing a tinfoil hat, or are you being serious?

It’s obvious, unless you’ve been wearing tinfoil specs. An economy reliant on service industries is never going to survive when other foreign markets get more competitive and cheaper. Those with true economic power saw this coming decades ago, it’s really not rocket science, it’s basic maths.

Love this. Very much like the original MTBs of the late 80s. Brazings for racks, mudguards etc, the option to use narrow tyres for road riding, a true hybrid. Why can’t there be more bikes like this?

One of the most alarming aspects of this economic collapse, is that the institution of Law is now so undermined it is in many ways not fit for purpose. Cuts to legal aid have meant massive backlogs of cases through courts, meaning Justice cannot be served. Many people held on remand and in detention centres*, because of this, which only costs the taxpayers even more anyway. The tories will attempt to erode our legal rights even further. I’m sure their plan is to privatise courts, which will undermine Justice even further.

*Run by private security firms you’l find many Tories have links to.

This recession isn’t an accident; it has been planned for decades. Democracy on sale to the highest bidder.

Episode 8 was very boring right up until the scene in the great hall. Fantastic decapitation, followed by that GoT humour; ‘He can keep his tongue’. 🤣😜 The king consolidates Targeryan power, the Hightowers suddenly realise their little play for power has now collapsed, and it’s set up for conflict between the king’s sons and their strong nephews. Damon showing that ‘if you **** with us, you’ll come a cropper’. So glad he offed that Valarian bloke; he was so irritating. It’s taken 8 episodes to get to where 2 max could have done. I’m so glad I’m not paying to watch it.

Nice anatomical detail on the slice-up, though. 🙂

And the facial make-up/CGI on Paddy was where the production money went!

I loved the tongue still intact in the neck of the torso. And the eye socket! 😱 Fantastic. Scared the babbies!

Gimp is ok, it’s free, Affinity Photo a little better, but relatively cheap, but tbh neither come anywhere near Adobe stuff imo. But if you don’t need all the functionality of an integrated graphics suite, then Gimp is the best bet. Because it’s free.

Can I no longer trust a spirit level then? 🤔🧪

am I going to hear a discernable difference if it was a wired connection to rather than Bluetooth?

No. I had similar concerns with a pair of BT headphones, but tests revealed no difference at all. If you’re listening to audio output from a ‘phone, then it doesn’t really matter between wired and BT ime. Because the output, whilst decent, still isn’t up to the same quality you’ll get with a proper decent amplifier with a good headphone output, or a dedicated headphone adapter, from a high quality source. But that’s about spending quite a lot of money. And not exactly portable. A portable DAC you can use with a ‘phone might make a difference, but even then, you’ll probably need to be pretty young to actually hear it. Middle aged ears are no longer sensitive enough to hear such subtle differences in sound. The output from a ‘phone is still plenty good enough to be able to enjoy listening in to music at a decent level of quality. Modern BT codecs are much better than they used to be, so as long as your BT headphones support the newer APT/X or AAC type codecs, then you’ll be fine.

As it’s going to be used for work purposes, it needs to be a fairly ‘current’ ‘phone. Refurb deals are ok, but it might be at least part-funded by her work*. It needs to come from a reputable supplier, so Samsung UK, John Lewis, Carphone Warehouse etc. The A13 has a dual SIM feature, which would negate the use of a separate ‘phone. Can you turn one SIM ‘off’ if you’re not working, say at weekends/holidays etc? Is it easy to switch between SIMs?

*There are also security/GDPR issues which mean a Samsung ‘phone is apparently better than some other brands (the IT service the organisation uses recommends Samsung over other brands). I know bugger all about all that kind of stuff though.

Kanye needs help. He was such a talented and smart guy, it’s depressing to see how much of a mess he’s becoming

The ‘talented and smart’ things are surely pretty subjective. What he is, is a person with some pretty abhorrent views. Whilst he may indeed suffer from mental health issues, this does not excuse such views imo. Plenty of people suffering with Bipolar disorder and other conditions, who aren’t anti-Semitic misogynists. He’s rich enough to get help. Maybe he doesn’t feel he needs it. But ultimately, the power to change is in his hands, and he’s not doing anything to change. ‘Silencing’ him on social media is a good step. Starve him of the oxygen of publicity.

*I notice Adidas seem to have amended their Yeezy product pages both here and in the USA; page now limited to simply displaying a range of trainers. There is now no mention of Kayne West at all. Yesterday, the USA Adidas site had more promotional content. The UK site was limited to one page of a small range of trainers.

Why are you limited to 20W from the USB? you can buy USB chargers that go to 140w:

https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/MLYU3B/A/140w-usb-c-power-adapter?fnode=b355a4b640c0a3b0aaa8f5a415e2f9d325c24b7170753e64e4e0c4f8a4ff14ae6687dcdfa0d89b8006bf2d7a31dfc0406663aeb05ed15de6f35ba944348ca81f341fbe526bf1a864aca7c6120478d402d6b54f86732fe9386ec0dd6223bc0517940eb08118c84eced88fff08b08187df&fs=f%3Dcharger%26fh%3D459d%252B45d4

Or am I missing something?

USB charging (we only have 12v sockets, no 230v)

Do you live in a caravan? Can you not get an electrical hook up at all?

Oh, and I want to learn CAD and have been recommended Autocad 2020 by a mate.

3D stuff can be pretty resource hungry, so a MacBook Pro would be a better bet; more powerful and more RAM. Starts getting very expensive, very quickly. Then you’re heading towards £4k+ laptop territory. An MBA could still do 3D, but not as quickly, if you’re wanting to view models with full rendering etc.

After 38 years of following F1 pretty closely I’ve boycotted watching the 2022 season after the 2021 season ending farce. What have I missed?

You don’t need to know, because you’ve boycotted it, right?

For me thats x 2 Red Bull world championships that are tainted

Lol! 🤣 Some people…

With regard to the W series I firmly belief that Chadwick should have had a FP1 session in the Williams. They didn’t have anything to lose by replacing Lattiffi.

What level is the W series though, in terms of car performance? Because if it’s lower than other classes, then shouldn’t the route be through those? I’m all for women being encouraged into motorsport more, but if the W series cars are nowhere near F1 performance, then there’s the risk of women drivers being out of their depth if they do get to drive an F1 car, and this would only fuel the naysayers and misogynists. An F1 car is nearly twice the weight of a W-S car, and has nearly 4x the power. That’s a massive step up.

If you want something to run Adobe Creative Suite then just buy a Mac. It’s literally what they were built for. I’d go for a MacBook Pro

You can run it on a PC, in theory, but in practice they don’t tend to like each other very much.

This is nonsense. As is this:

A video editing laptop is £4k+

I can edit video on my iPhone. ‘Video Editing’ isn’t one thing; there’s myriad levels of complexity and quality. Simple stuff can be done on a ‘phone, as I’ve said. A lot of Blockbuster Hollywood stuff is done on suites of often highly specialised equipment costing a tad more than £4k. What limits things is processing power; if you want to be combining several ‘layers’ of footage, then adding SFX, complex audio etc, then yes, you’ll benefit from having a faster, more expensive machine. For simple GoPro editing, even 4k video, then something like a MacBook Air is going to be fine. Saying you need a £4k+ laptop is like saying you need a £4k+ bike just for going down the shops on.

As for the Mac v PC thing; that may have been true 20+ years ago, as Adobe software was originally developed on and for Macs, but that’s not been relevant for a long time now. Adobe stuff is identical on either platform. I much prefer Macs to PCs, because of the OS, but that’s a personal preference so entirely subjective. If you can navigate Windows, you can use Mac OS easily. More easily if anything, if you’re not all that computer nerdy.

I recommended a M1 Mac because the new models are so good; the stripped down ‘unified’ circuit board design may not allow future ‘upgrades’, but then who actually does that anyway, other than nerds? What it does do, is make the whole system faster and more efficient. The MBA doesn’t even have any fans, such is its efficiency, it doesn’t need any extra cooling. It can easily handle video, Adobe software etc. Get the RAM upgrade though, you can never have too much RAM. I’m using an M1 iMac, and its way more powerful than I’ll ever need really. A Mac Studio with the 5k display would be lovely, but it would be pearls before swine.

I may be opening myself up to abuse here but how on God’s Green Earth is a monitor stand worth £949?

It’s not. I’ve had a play with one in a shop, and it definitely felt very smooth in operation, perfectly counterweighted with the XDR display. No way I’d buy one though, but then I wouldn’t be buying that display either, as it’s total overkill for my needs. Gorgeous though, no question.

Get this screen to go with it. With the stand and ‘nano texture glass’, obvs…

https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/buy-mac/pro-display-xdr/nano-glass

Idiot. Mind, I’ve done similar with mine, I’m sure, and I’ve seen worse done on others, with no issues.

Apple M1 MacBook Air. Perfect.

I have, although it was a No.2 so 3” rather than 4.
It was in a college workshop and being seriously abused by a very heavy handed caretaker for an entirely unsuitable job. To say I was annoyed would be an understatement, especially as he hadn’t asked if he could use the workshop beforehand.

WTF was he doing with it???

I liked the scanner thing the young lad had; it’s an old Polaroid SX70 camera! 🤣

“The ideal choice would be a second hand old Record or similar”

I should explain; ‘Irwin Record’ is not the same thing as the original old Record vices. The old ones were made in Britain, the new ones are made in the Far East using inferior quality metal and machining. I’ve seen new vices; Irwin Record, Clarkes etc, snapped. The metal inside is like Aero chocolate, full of tiny bubble holes. It’s nowhere near as strong as the old ones, which I think were cast and forged. I’ve never seen the body of one of those broken.

That’ll be ok, but don’t be trying to welly big stuff off of it. Mount it on something more substantial than just 18mm MDF; that really won’t stand up to anything. Mine is mounted to a worktop with 18mm MDF, but with a thick piece of oak or something to reinforce it. Long coach bolts and big nuts to hold it in place. Make sure everything’s tight and doesn’t wobble about.

The ideal choice would be a second hand old Record or similar. They come in different numbers, depending on size and type, which can get confusing. I’m sure someone one here can explain. Far better quality metal and castings. Those old things will outlast all of us. Prices have gone up a lot in recent years though; I paid £30 each for an engineers vice and a woodworking vice. I think you’ll be paying over £100 for one now. Well worth the investment though; you can hand it down to your kids and so-on.

Meanwhile, the W Series has had to end its season early, due to ‘financial difficulties’:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/motorsport/63206887

But why would you allow yourself to get so worked up?

Fining them the amount they overspent by, would be an apt punishment. Or lower their limit for spending by that amount for next season. A deduction of constructors points is quite meaningless unless you’re going to strip all of them as happened to McLaren in 2007. Even them, it’s still quite meaningless really. And impose a suspended sentence for any further breach; fine doubles the overspend amount for next offence. Repeated offences to carry expulsion from competing for 1 year etc.

Of course, now it only remains for armchair experts to argue over exactly how much extra that overspend gave the cars on the track…

And no; we don’t want recommendations for Motorola, Sony, Nokia etc.

A13 5G seems ok.

Checked the charging port for fluff?

Yep. Wasn’t that. Tried a number of different leads, all fine with another ‘phone.

I have A52s as a work phone.

Too expensive. Preferrably as cheap as poss really. She’s not very techy, so doesn’t want anything too fancy.