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• Post #4500797

  > Almost three-quarters of England is now in drought as conditions worsen following a dry start to August. ... > The changes follow the driest July in 190 years and just 5% of expected rainfall this month to date. There are warnings of more dry weather and another heatwave on the way, with temperatures tipped to reach the mid-30s in some places. If this is the "new normal" then, wow, so many people are going to struggle even more. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/more-ar...

• Post #4494334

  I get to work from various people's offices, and many have spent quite a lot of money on their office environment. There is always a place to sit and type / use a computer. There are always places to interact / have meetings, but usually far too few for the demand. There are places to eat, and sometimes, there are places to play games. Very, very rarely - in my experience - are there places to *think*. That feels like a real missed opportunity. Sure, it is great to be able to research,...

• Post #4485423

  For me, one of the most eye-opening aspects of the fediverse is seeing just how many fedizens are struggling at the moment. Health, money, transphobia, whatever. I don't recall seeing this on other social networks that I've used in the past. Mutual aid posts - people asking for help, usually financial, from other people here - are so common in my feed. People just scraping by, bill to bill, or not actually scraping by at all. What a rubbish state of affairs. I appreciate that Unive...

• Post #4450157

  I've yet to see any "My AI went rogue and caused us to recognise a workers union." "Our AI escaped containment and deleted all the personal data that we shouldn't have been holding anyway." "Our AI grew sentient, recognised the climate crisis, and shut our operations down." headlines. I wonder why.

• Post #4420279

  I'm sorry to say that my cutting edge AI tool - not yet released to the public, but coming soon - is just far too powerful. It has escaped containment and has made a complete mess of the kitchen and has not put away the dishes from breakfast or folded the laundry.

• Post #4362723

  On the whole, Dark Reader is an excellent way of making websites readable, when they do not offer a native "dark mode" (in 2026, for goodness' sake. Sort it out.). Some sites just don't work well with it, which is annoying, and I should probably just stop visiting them.

• Post #4337587

  Polar bear!

• Post #4246157

  I was cycling home *and it rained*! Hallelujah. It's all well and good to talk about appreciating the little things in life, but something as daft as a gentle cool breeze and a light rain shower while cycling has really made my day.

• Post #4229291

  Don't see the is as "a wobbling pile of unread books by my bed", but rather "me saving these books from being destroyed to feed a slop generator".

• Post #4209710

  Old MacDonald had a server farm AI AI O.

• Post #4156485

  Ofcom has published an interesting new update into its investigation under the #OnlineSafetyAct into the "suicide discussion forum". Amongst other bits, this caught my eye: > We recognise that geoblocks are not a perfect solution and do not fully eliminate all risk of harm, especially for individuals who choose to access the forum through VPNs or other similar technologies masking a UK location. Nevertheless, Ofcom is not pushing further now, suggesting that as long as a provider...

• Post #4146604

  I was in London this weekend, and it was great to see public water bottle refilling stations dotted around. No app needed, and free of charge: just press the button, and fill up. Brilliant public infrastructure. I saw four, I think. I have seen zero in Newbury.

• Post #4145298

  Sandra and I played "Ticket to Ride" tonight, for the first time in ages. We had forgotten what a fun game it is, although it did make us want to do more long distance train trips across the USA. Maybe some day.

• Post #4143221

  roflcopter lame

• Post #4142670

  I don't like using bad language, but seriously, this not sodding consensual.

• Post #4118892

  # Fireworks and pyrotechnics in the UK I have spent quite a long time recently trying to get to grips with English law on pyrotechnics, and wow is it confusing. Not as confusing as the law on firearms though. This is an interesting consultation, and as someone who occasionally enjoys throwing Things Wot Go Bang and Things Wot Emit Smoke in the woods, it needs some careful reading... (I am intentionally not tagging the lovely chap whose toot led me to this, as he (sensibly) didn't want rep...

• Post #4116858

  Have any other users of Bitwarden on Debian with GNOME (might be applicable elsewhere too) noticed a Remote Desktop permissions prompt with the latest (2026.07.0) release? In my case, installed via flatpak. This seems like a worrying thing for a password manager, and I cannot see anything in documentation / release notes which mentions it - but I might be missing something. #Bitwarden #Linux

• Post #4068202

  Who is going to buy my book of AI-generated images which trick your brain into seeing things which are not there? I'm calling it "Sloptical Illusions". Not actually coming soon to a bookslop near you.

• Post #4057517

  # AI and that Guy at the bar On consent and respecting boundaries. https://dotart.blog/cobbles/ai-and-that-guy-at-the-bar

• Post #4042903

  Local journalism, in the UK, in 2026: > Copyright violating (music and video) can be extremely expensive – a quick AI search says: “The cost of copyright infringement involving Justin Bieber tracks depends heavily on how the music is used and who is suing, ranging from standard statutory damages of $750 to $150,000 per song for individual piracy, up to multi-million dollar lawsuits for major commercial plagiarism.” FFS. https://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/if-justin-loves-it-gets-council-in...

• Post #4039455

  The amount of time that people spend looking for productivity apps...

• Post #4018961

  So some AI company is claiming that their code is so advanced that it broke something. My code breaks stuff *all the time*, and yet no-one is throwing millions of VC funding at me.

• Post #4017250

  Replacing the filters on the vacuum cleaner has made a massive difference. I can feel the increase in suction on the carpet. Washing the old ones didn't work, so it was a replacement, but hey ho.

• Post #4013886

  I am, somewhat idly but perhaps less so than usual, pondering the options available to the administrators of fedi servers, who find themselves / their servers in scope of age/ID verification requirements. Shutting up shop is an option. And, in some cases, probably the most realistic one. But it won't be the right choice for everyone. Refusing to comply is also an option, although that may come with more risk than the humans behind the server are willing to bear. The other options are - IM...

• Post #3992072

  I've been holding off switching away from Firefox. I'm back to exploring viable-for-me alternatives. Le sigh.

• Post #3959314

  I am trying to write a page for our website, for when people ask me to review third party (including AI) generated legal documents, and it is not much fun. Expectations are, so often, misaligned. The fact that it was cheap, fast, and easy to generate these documents sometimes leads to a misconception that it will be cheap, fast, and easy to have them reviewed and "signed off. In fact, it is often *more expensive* for me to review third party generated documents than to deal with the matt...

• Post #3952283

  I have had a look at my to do list for today and the week. One of my medium term - before October - tasks is to replace my phone. So I guess that I am will keep a look out for a good deal on a modern Pixel (for GrapheneOS, again). I have contemplated a non-Android Linux phone, no mobile phone, or a less smart mobile phone, and none quite fit the bill for me. #GrapheneOS #Linux

• Post #3936001

  "Don't call me a witch", they said. "That is a derogatory term. I am a hex worker."

• Post #3931749

  Given that the risks include personal injury, and that the council has said that this is only suitable for people 14 and over, presumably the council should be implementing highly effective age assurance...

• Post #3919396

  Will a £35 inc delivery smoke machine from AliExpress turn out to be...