edent

In the UK we use https://www.currentaccountswitch.co.uk/

It automatically moves all of your Direct Debits, recurring payments, balance etc. It even redirects incoming payments to your old account to your new one.

It other countries it is a lot less trivial.

In my experience with UK banks & financial institutions, GrapheneOS support can be roughly divided into four types.

None. Explicitly banned. And, though I feel bad for saying it, I can't blame them. If some idiot roots their phone and downloads malware, the bank may be responsible for refunding them. I can see why they don't want that headache.

Some. App works, but some functionality is unavailable. I've got a credit card app which works, but refuses to set up virtual cards or use "remember me". That's good enough for my use. Similarly, I had a merchant account which let me see my balance, but I couldn't use my phone as a credit card reader.

Works, but only in main profile. I'd rather keep financial things in a locked profile. But lots of banks disallow that.

Full. Everything works (although you may need to toggle some exploit protection off).

Some banks are reasonably good at letting you pass on technical queries to their developers - mostly the smaller ones. The nice thing about the UK banking sector is that it is trivial to move banks. So I switched accounts to providers which worked with my phone and let the old ones know why I was moving.

I'm not so sure. If you wanted to be deliberate, you'd choose a plausible value that you could control.

No one is going to suspect `98761316832165974216498789746` is anything other than random. But `000000000000000123` looks suspicious.

You've never seen example.co.uk? Many countries use them because the top level domains for gov, edu, etc are restricted to one country.

Google aren't pushing WebP. Google Docs / Slides still don't support it.

I appreciate Google isn't a monolith, but that lack of consistency makes it really hard to shake the impression certain tribes within it are at war with each other.

You have pressed the "Drunk Mode" button on the theme switcher - probably on a previous visit.

Change the theme at the top and normality will be restored.

Thanks for getting the joke :-)

I did wonder about not having an Agents file because, just like you, I consider it a sign of poor quality. But I needed a way to discourage AI use and, in the end, none of my user research subjects mentioned it.

I've made my AI policy very clear at https://gitlab.com/edent/activity-bot/#what-is-your-ai-polic...

None of the code or documentation was written by or assisted by AI.

They are - https://gitlab.com/edent/activity-bot/-/blob/main/README.md?...

It's a tricky problem. How far back in the stack do you go? The README assumes that you know how to use git to check out the files - or that you can easily save them from the repository. Should it include that as a step in the tutorial?

As I say in the linked article, it depends on what sort of user you have. For a "getting started with Raspberry Pi" document, you might well want to include how to insert an SD card etc.

I'll have a think about the best way to help people figure out if they're running PHP. Thanks for the feedback!

That's interesting. In my testing, about half the participants liked them, one didn't, and the rest didn't express a strong preference.

I kept them because they make me smile.

That's a concept car only with no intention if being in sale.

I just want a two-seater EV. The Smart ForTwo hasn't been updated in ages and the only other ones are either quadracycles of vapourware.

Where are the runarounds for people who don't need to lug around kids or baggage?

What's the worst that can happen if you were to text a friend "Heya mate, bit of a long shot - do you know anyone who can help repair a 1983 Reliant Robin?"

Best case, they know someone or can dig through their contact and help you solve your problem.

Medium case, they text back "No - has your shitbox died again? Can't believe you still have that thing :-)" and you can have a pleasant back and forth.

Worse case, you get a "no". Oh well, at least texts don't cost 12p each any more.

I just think it is nice to chat with your pals. But, sure, stick to scans of old manuals on Archive.org if you just want pure information.

The primary purpose of going out with your friends to the pub is social interaction. If the purpose was just to get drunk most efficiently, you'd sit at home alone and pour vodka down your gaping maw.

The purpose of talking to your friends is social interaction. If the purpose of being friends was to extract information in the most efficient manner possible, you'd replace them with Wikipedia.

But, like, you only see the people who are out and about, right?

You don't see the people trapped inside. Stuck in hospitals. Sat staring at a phone that never rings.

You never talk to people who don't feel comfortable talking to a stranger.

I asked Google and it told me I was absolutely correct. So… ;-)

Loneliness rates vary by country, age, socio-economic status, health, etc. The UN has some reasonable statistics.

https://www.who.int/teams/social-determinants-of-health/demo...

There's also some detailed stats for the UK.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-life-surv...

Was my use of "most" careless? Probably. Let's natter about it over a pint.

Most people in the world are profoundly lonely. They'll take whatever parasocial relationships they can get - reaction videos, podcasts of people chatting, Eliza simulating concern.

Google wants to relentlessly monetise your sadness.

The only way out is to try and make connections with real people.

Case in point, why didn't you text your friends to ask them if they remembered those old memes? Why was your first thought to ask a computer rather than a person?

It's like when you're in the pub and and someone asks "who was that guy who was in the movie where…?" you can either chat with your friends and have a good time or be a buzzkill who opens up IMDB and says "Humphrey Bogart".

OK. If you interview the President and he repeatedly lies - is it OK to just publish that interview? Or should you push back on those lies? Do you owe it to your audience to let them know the king is mad?

The risk, of course, is that you don't get invited back. That's "The Test" in the post.

Why are you pushing back at me in a private conversation then?

Why wouldn't you do the same if I said something outrageously offensive in public?

If a leading politician says something deranged like "all crime is caused by gay people" - should the newspaper simply report that verbatim? Or should they say "the President lied today, and here are the facts that shows he is wrong"?

Sometimes it helps for institutions to point out the the emperor has no clothes. The social reinforcement of norms is hugely influential.

If you publish a podcast where your guest encourages heinous behaviour without you challenging - that's a you problem.

Saying "Well, our listeners can decide for themselves" is a cowardly cop-out.

You might not be able to change the interviewee's mind but you can sure as hell send social signals to your audience that you condemn their views or think they're ludicrous.

Case in point - why are you trying to change my mind here? You're pushing back because you want to signal to others that my point of view is incorrect. That sort of basic interrogation seems completely missing in (especially American) media.

That's not an interview, that's at best stenography and at worse sycophancy.

If, for example, an interviewee said in all seriousness "I want to shoot all dogs and make the poor eat their babies" would you expect the interviewer to go go "Hmmm very interesting. Why do you think that?"

No.

It is vital that interviewers challenge the subject. Especially when they say something profoundly ludicrous or disturbing. Otherwise they might has well just be in PR.

I watched the Hulu documentary about WeWork. A podcaster was interviewing Rebekah Neumann while she spewed absolute word-salad about "elevating the public WeConsciousness".

The podcaster had a glassy look in his eyes and a rigid smile. No pushback, no interrogation, no polite challenging.

He passed the test.

People need to get a lot more comfortable about providing negative feedback - especially to batshit ideas. It is such an important social signal to know that people disagree with you. Otherwise your worst instincts run rampant.

No one is being "replaced" - that's just a racist talking point. You can look at the ethnicity statistics at https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-popula...

But, of course, ethnicity doesn't really matter in this context. There have been black people in the UK since at least Tudor times. Read Miranda Kaufmann's excellent book on the subject.

How long does someone have to live here to count, in your expert opinion? The UK invited thousands of people from all over the Empire to fight for us during WW2. They and their descendants are now as British as anyone else here.

What about the descendants of the Huguenots? Do they count as "replacing" or do you think it's OK because of their skin colour?

Symbian and LiMo were both available at the time. It is hard to say they were good alternatives though. Windows 7 - even with the weight of Microsoft behind it - wasn't able to attract enough hardware manufacturers.

Contactless payments do work on Graphene - but only with the Curve app. It also requires the card-holder to be from the UK or EU.

I'm in London right now.

May I politely invite you to fuck off with your racism.

Indigenous? What the fuck are you talking about? Seriously? Why are you so happy to be racist in public?

Stop getting your news from social media. Come over to London, have a pint in a Desi pub and try telling us that we're living in hell. See how that works out for you.

I am one of the dozens of people who don't live in the USA.

Here's my blog post about how I cooked them. https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/05/lets-eat-banana-peel/