It is the same in the UK.

But because we have a smart meter, our energy price can change every 30 minutes. So if our provider predicts that tomorrow lunchtime will be expensive for electricity, it could charge us more. Or it could tell the battery to take over.

FireStick is somewhat hackable. You can sideload Android apps onto it. For example, I got Apple Music running on it https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/06/yes-you-can-run-apple-music-natively-on-your-android-firestick/

You don’t have to subscribe to Amazon Prime to use the other TV services. You can also install Kodi if you want to play back local media.

The FireStick will use USB power - so you can use your TV’s USB ports rather than a separate plug. It also has an Ethernet adapter - I think only the more expensive Apple devices use Ethernet.

“Kill It With Fire” which is a great look at dealing with legacy computer systems.

“Lessons In Chemistry” which is a delightfully draft novel about fifties feminism.

Spent the weekend watching my wife grind through all the TOTK side quests.

Meanwhile I plowed through two ebooks.

Win for both of us!

Just got a new solar battery installed, so I’m going to spend some time poking it and making sure it’s working. COME ON SUNSHINE!

The drive itself will work with any processor. If all you have is data on there, it will work.

Or do you mean you want to swap the drive which has the operating system on it?

That’s what the law says.

The MP might not be selected by their party to stand in the next election. But there’s no law about MPs behaving in a way contrary to the wishes of their electorate.

Indeed, how could an MP do their job properly if there was? If they’ve got a slim majority there would be almost endless recall petitions from opposition parties.

If they voted against their party, they could be fired by the party against the wishes of the voters.

What bar so you want to set for voters’ votes to be invalidated? At the moment we have criminal acts and suspension. What other thresholds would you add - and how would you stop people from abusing them?

A recall petition is only available under very limited circumstances.

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn05089/

Nadine has neither been suspended nor convicted of a crime. So there’s no petition.

Even if there were, the threshold for the petition succeeding is only 10% of registered voters. And you can bet that opposition parties would easily he able to drum up that level of support.

Yes, there are magnetic USB cables which do data. Here’s my review of one https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/10/gadget-review-subbytech-magnetic-charge-sync-cables/

Six years ago today we launched https://openbenches.org/ - it is a crowdsourced map of memorial benches from around the world.

Uses OSM for displaying the maps and letting uploaders pick the exact right spot.

There’s an API and data-dump so it can be incorporated into OSM - but our data isn’t always as precise as needed. I’m still trying to work out a way to map an OSM bench ID to our ID.

If you’re out mapping and spot a memorial bench, please do submit a geotagged photo to our site :-)

Magnets. (How do they work?)

I replaced all my USB-C and Micro-USB connectors with magnetic ones. No more orientation worries, no more fumbling in the dark, no more not-inserting-it-hard-enough. Just bring the two into proximity and them magically snap together.

Bliss.

Discord is where information goes to die.

Please just stick things on a website. I’m happy to help you set one up.

The campaign website belongs to the person - or political party - running it. They aren’t official government websites, so they aren’t eligible to be automatically archived at https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/webarchive/

OMG! I still have my DataLink watch somewhere. I remember thinking it was amazing and showing off all the phone numbers I’d programmed into it.

Will your code work with any flashing LED? Or does it need special hardware?

I like it. As others have said, it is a rebadged Mulvad. When I got it, Mozilla was slightly cheaper. The apps for Linux work well and the speed seems decent.

What news? Give us a link.

If you’re thirsty, drink water.

I think you’ve answered your own question - be less meticulous. Oh, and memorise less.

A good programmer knows where their knowledge boundaries are. For example, if you’re working in JavaScript, you probably don’t need to know bit-shifting.

A good programmer doesn’t know every feature; they know where to go to find that information. They know how to read the manual of an unfamiliar feature.

The most important thing you can do is do practical work. Build a website. Try new things. Look up how to implement something and then do it yourself. Find a project that interests you - like building your own website - that’ll stave off the fatigue.

You don’t need to memorise how to implement a linked-list - you need experience in building.

Good luck.

Not everyone has the same level of mobility that you do.

Incidentally, do you get off your arse to change the volume on your TV?

In the UK, you can use Curve. That gives you a physical or virtual card which proxies your existing Visa / MasterCards (not Amex).

But it doesn’t have an NFC app you can use on Android. As far as I can tell, there are no other virtual NFC payment apps.

And, of course, it doesn’t really improve your privacy posture. Your bank still knows who you spent with - as does Curve.

If you want a free fiver, you can use my Curve referral link - http://curve.app/join#D4MK9ZKN

I loved teaching Scratch. And I’ve written about DRAKON - https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/04/why-arent-there-more-visual-programming-languages-an-ode-to-drakon/

I think they’re useful for building algorithms. But the tools themselves aren’t powerful enough for anything too complicated. I hope that changes though!