I went down a rabbit hole on the mid-race course changes and wondered how they moved the buoys:

The cheapest ones go for 5k per mark, but they are quite shitty, they have a single propeller and not very powerful. In 25% of cases, they will make a mess

The first decent ones go for 8k/pop, they have 4 propellers and are more powerful and they have inertial guidance for when GPS fails/they lose contact. They might make a mess in 5% of cases, but usually in really bad weather that is also covered.

The AC ones are probably in the 25k/ mark. Huge numbers for sailing clubs, chump change for the AC.

Brabus looks a beast but with no upgraded suspension over the base model I’m not sure I could trust myself.  Hopefully test driving one on Thursday @roverpig and on Friday Genesis are bringing over a GV60 to the house for me to test.

Didn’t see the fight and only became aware of Beterbiev a couple of weeks ago when I saw a montage of his fights. Absolute beast and as you say always comes forward.

Crazy discounts on pre-registered i-Pace down from ~£75k to ~£43k

The EX30 just has an option to enable/disbale OPD.  It does stop the car and engage auto hold but if you disable OPD it enables ‘auto creeping’.

I’m awaiting delivery of an EV6 after having had a Genesis GV60 which was excellent.

I’ve put in a request in for a test drive of the GV60. Also going to look at the Smart #1 but it has the same base as the EV30 so the ride may be similar.

Yes it does PP.

Yes, that’s the one.  As soon as you take your foot off the accelerator the car slows significantly compared to an ICE and it becomes a really nice way to drive once you get used to it.  In theory you should hardly need to use the brakes.

I’m doing the rounds of testing various EVs with a view to making a private purchase before the end of the year and have driven two this week.  The first was a Lexus UX 300e which was more ICE like than I expected, apart from the 0-40 pickup and was pleasant enough to drive.  I then drove a Volvo EX30 today which had one pedal driving and a revelation to me, but the ride was hugely fidgety on poor country roads which is a deal breaker for me.  I’ll definitely be revising my list to only one pedal driving.

I see that the next generation Samsung solid state batteries have some impressive stats – 600 mile range, 9 minute charging to 80% and a 20 year lifespan. That could make on-street charging irrelevant as long as you can get a decent rate at charging stations which the average person would only need to use once or twice a month.

Really enjoyed that, especially The Inside T(r)ack Analysis Show on the Ineos Britannia YouTube channel.  For a layman like me it put a lot more colour into the racing.

As I said, layman!

Really enjoyed that, especially The Inside Track Analysis Show on the Ineos Britannia YouTube channel.  For a layman like me it put a lot more colour into the racing.

Quelle suprise, Tommy Robinson jumping on the bandwagon – Oi @Keir_Starmer I’m going to out every detail of your dirty secret at my next event. Here’s the crowd at our last one . Nothing can stop what’s coming . F*** your injunctions

But that was then.  Today, cloud computing enables entities to spin servers up and down based on demand.  It’s perfectly plausible to have multiple servers automatically power up to react to load and then shut down again to save money.  With Ticketbastard it’s either incompetence or wilful obstinance.

I agree in principle that Cloud gives you the ability to auto-scale on demand but when 14 million people are trying to get tickets that load must even stretch things to breaking point.  However, TM know the tickets will sell come what may so why spend money spinning up expensive resources so obstinance is my bet.

We got the Corsa ultimate down to £275 pm.

Yes some great deals on the Corsa-e Ultimate, leaseloco £193/month for 3 years and 10k miles with 12 months up front.

I get my Wrexham AFC tickets via Ticketmaster without paying any fees.  I assume the club covers the costs but it must only be a nominal amount so it can be done e.g.  £5 for Wrexham AFC Women tickets.

I’m using an eSIM for the first time at the moment out in Canada and it works well. Nord vpn own Saily so as a user I got a 3GB free package which I’ve nearly used up so topped up another 5GB for about £11. As mentioned above you only get data and not voice but that’s not an issue as you can use WhatsApp etc for voice. Setup is very easy and on iOS you setup voice on original sim so you can still receive texts FOC and data on eSIM.

Fortunately I was out of reception up in the Canadian rockies ?.

My thinking is the movement to bonds as you approach retirement only applies if you are thinking of buying an annuity. I’m in drawdown and still have a significant proportion of my pot in equities but keep around 5 years drawdown in bonds and cash to cover any significant market correction. Your attitude to risk may vary.

Or you may think differently https://www.wired.com/story/beware-roboadvisors-wealthfront-betterment/

American article relating to an American investment company.  Are nutmeg planning to pivot away from low fees?

@theotherjonv you may wish to take a look at a robo investing platform such as nutmeg which essentially does the same job as an IFA for investors who aren’t confident in investing AND they keep the fees low.

One question to ask your IFA is what are the OCF charges for the funds they invest in?

Wrexham top of the league (sorry @Doris5000) and 4 clean sheets on the bounce.  Phil Parkinson getting pelters from opposition fans for his ‘anti-football’ with wxm 24th in possession stats and 23rd in touches in the opposition box but boy is it effective and I’m fed up with teams in the lower leagues trying to emulate Pep.  Happy to give up possession and work incredibly hard to close down the opposition before putting in some strong tackles (remember them?) to set up the counter.  Birmingham away next Monday should be a cracker.

Bad Monkey with Vince Vaughn doing what VV does best.  He plays a washed up detective and the setting in the Florida Keys makes it an easy watch.

In fairness, there is some research that say that people who use financial planners are, on average, 3% a year better off than those who do not (because of panicking and selling off when the market falls, buying in when it rises, etc). It’s perhaps possible that this is where the 3% improvement quoted by your adviser is coming from.

Interesting stat, do you have a source for that?

All stuff that relatively speaking I have no time or expertise to deal with, and “it may crash hard at some point” scares me rigid.

You’ve just written the perfect elevator pitch for an IFA.  @nickjb above nails it.

Yes, I know SJPP have a dreadful reputation – life just got in the way of me sorting my shit out.

1. Yes, anyone still with SJPP needs to give their head a wobble.
2. Your second point is so true and probably applies to the vast majority of us.

It’s a bit like my discs and pads thread from a couple of days ago, I probably could do it myself. And i might bugger it up and regret it.

Except it’s not.  Investing has never been simpler with access to ‘lifestyle’ type funds based on a couple of simple questions  around age and risk.  Yes, you have some degree of complexity in your situation but if I did use an IFA I would be paying them a fixed hourly fee in the same way you do with a solicitor which should cost ~£150/hour.

There’s also a ton of good advice on YouTube to get your knowledge up.

Give it a few weeks, and he will magickly become Graham Potter.

More like Brian Potter from Phoenix Nights

Give it a few weeks, and he will magickly become Graham Potter.

More like Brian Potter from Phoenix Nights

Just dipping my toe into the HA space having bought a Beelink N100 mini PC as opposed to a Pi.  Pretty easy to setup by creating an Ubuntu image which I booted from then installed HAOS.  The biggest issue I had was trying to get access to the dashboard until I finally realised that HAOS is designed to run headless – doh!  Anyway, the Reolink security camera is up and running and it automatically found my Sonos stuff.  Any recommendations for a smart immersion heater?

lol at doris5000.  Playing you guys in 8 days and managed to snag a ticket and it’s nice to renew the rivalry I remember from a good many years ago when you were at the old ground in town next to the river.

My team Wrexham are spending pretty big in EFL1 terms but Birmingham are taking it to another level.  They’ve just bid £10m for Fulham’s Jay Stanfield on top of the £16m already spent although they did get £5m for Jordan James this summer.  The whole of the EFL seems to be morphing into a bunch of extremely rich owners but at the moment  you are either with the haves or the have nots, I guess a bit like the UK in general.

What UK bookmakers say is inaccurate at best.  They want people to put money on an even chance Trump as they’ll make their money there

I’m not sure I follow your logic, the odds on Trump will reflect the odds on Harris so the book will have an overall margin of around 10% in the bookies favour.  Most of the bookies seem to think that it’s currently a coin toss with each candidate 10/11.

Depressingly normal service has been resumed, tonked by Deadpool

Had to sell my ticket as mrs S has brought me into Liverpool for my birthday. Very happy with 7 points out of 9, especially with Mullin out through injury for all 3 games. Hopefully he’ll be back before Birmingham away.

edit – Mullin came on after 74 minutes

We’ve used Helle Hollis a few times at Malaga Airport and they have been excellent.  Danish company and  seem to do things the right way which is a nice change after using the likes of Gold Car.

Mrs S got to see a 2024 Olympic Gold medal in the flesh today at an equestrian event in Lancashire where one of the eventing team was making an appearance.  I guess they all can’t go on the lash for the rest of the olympics after their event has finished although I would if I won gold.

I went to watch Wrexham v Wycombe yesterday which was entertaining. Next 2 away games are Bolton and Birmingham which will be tough.

@GolfChick at full charge the 5 lit bars are all blue but at 90% the first bar turns white then at 80% turns off so you end up getting 10% granularity which I’m finding ok.

some of the pensions die with you as well – your spouse gets nothing

If you are unfortunate to have significant health problems meaning you are not looking at a big number beyond retirement you may be able to transfer out of your final salary scheme into a SIPP before you start taking your pension which can then be passed tax free to your dependants if the worst happens.

I’ve got the Bosch SX on my gravel bike and super impressed so far.  The phone app allows a choice of 4 power settings from a list of 8 and each one can be tweaked for Assistance, Dynamic pedalling and Max torque.  I ride most of the time on Eco with Assistance and Dynamic pedalling  on -3 (range between -5 and +5) and I’m getting a theoretical range of ~100 miles for a 400 wh battery.

Many company schemes allow 1 transfer a year out to a SIPP so if you are not happy with your company scheme this an option to consider