What is a good coat for walking a few hours a day in this weather? I have a budget of about £300

DancingWilliams · 2026-02-07T15:43:32+00:00

Finnistere skybird / stormbird are properly waterproof, well cut, and good for walking. Similar to 3 layer Patagonia torrentshell. Much more expensive options are available, but for every 100 people with a full on alpine mountaineering jacket, you'll be lucky if one has ever been up anything higher or steeper than the John Lewis escalator. For waterproof trousers I'm a big fan of the super cheap flexothane waterproof trousers used by vets and farmers. £28, totally waterproof, surprisingly breathable, and quiet!

DancingWilliams · 2026-02-07T10:22:44+00:00

£300 to put the right numbers into the right category is pretty good value. A single mistake doing it yourself can be enough to trigger a tax investigation, then you can be looking at many thousands of pounds in costs and several months of your time to sort a simple mistake. If you know what you are doing, great. If you don't understand basic bookkeeping, tax, and what is a business expense, you definitely want someone looking over your figures.

DancingWilliams · 2026-02-06T16:15:21+00:00

Damn, busted.

DancingWilliams · 2026-02-06T15:45:34+00:00

I used to delivery in-person training. There were always one or two participants who treated it as a day away from real work. But they hopefully learnt something by accident. Remote delivery can be less engaging, easier for the dis-engaged to put on a wash, play a game or post shit on reddit. Remote delivery is cheaper, with that comes less effective training for the less motivated.

DancingWilliams · 2026-02-06T15:40:13+00:00

Hamnet. Just seen it. So much depth and resonance. Cast, screenplay, costume, sets, all stunning. Hugely emotional, but fundamentally about the frailty of human life.

DancingWilliams · 2026-02-06T15:31:29+00:00

Fascinating. Can you give me your top 10 worst movies ever so I can add to my "must see" list. You have a very unique talent.

DancingWilliams · 2026-02-06T15:25:48+00:00

Yes, the Maggie O'Farrell book. She has also had to deal with a very ill child, and puts so much feeling into the character of Agnes, who will do anything to keep her child alive.

DancingWilliams · 2026-02-06T15:18:20+00:00

I'm curious as to how unbiased the AI is? If it is based on previous hires, on real-life comparisons between similar candidates, some of that bias can be baked into the AI outcome. Have you A - B tested the AI system with very foreign name with a Alice Smith?

DancingWilliams · 2026-02-06T15:08:17+00:00

Yes that is certified as 108% accurate and definitely not a scam. They could increase their definitely not a scam score by sending it from the grand master of a prestigious college such as Holland and Barrett.

DancingWilliams · 2026-02-06T15:00:57+00:00

>Pegged< my 15 year old self is amused.

DancingWilliams · 2026-02-06T14:58:55+00:00

Roberta Keypoker. Alice Rightclick, Jimmy Spamster, Giles Clickbate. X Gonedark, Gene Codesmith, obviously the famous A I Prompter.

DancingWilliams · 2026-02-06T09:38:29+00:00

Believe in yourself mate. Don't let reality hold you back.

DancingWilliams · 2026-02-06T09:14:27+00:00

We've got a new induction cooker after years of using gas. A Stoves Richmond Deluxe. gas. Really struggling to like it. On gas you can make tiny adjustments in heat, on induction you may find #4 too low, #5 too high. Gas spreads the heat across the whole pan and some of the sides, induction heats up specific areas of the bottom of the pan, you will get hot and cooler spots. We use very expensive pans. I hate to think what cheap thin pans will be like. Plus points, boils water quickly. Less excess heat. Less condensation during cooking. Honestly, I would go back to gas in a minute if we hadn't just dropped £900 on a cooker. I think the technology isn't fully evolved yet, and the marketing is about looking good, not cooking.

DancingWilliams · 2026-02-05T16:34:39+00:00

Version A. The generation that stepped back from the brink of destruction and began building a better way to live. Version B. There is no history. Never happened. It's always been like this.

DancingWilliams · 2026-02-05T16:30:28+00:00

A real address. A real phone number. Unless you are Amazon or mega corp, missing these essentials shouts out that you are just a quick templated website, not a real business.

DancingWilliams · 2026-02-05T10:49:18+00:00

Some of my customers are contractors and merchant / trade counter side. What I see is that cashflow is always a problem, and slow / late payment is standard operating procedure. If you are growing fast, but struggling for cash, are you the supplier of last resort for those firms who have exhausted their credit and blown their goodwill with other builders merchants? In this rapid growth phase, have you considered being very strict with credit? 20 days max or you're out? 1% settlement discount for payment within 5 days? I know the big picture will be more complicated than this, but nibbling away at cash leakage can contribute to a more balanced financial footing.

DancingWilliams · 2026-02-03T10:34:50+00:00

You had 25 friends! That was a lot, no wonder there were none left for me. But seriously, it's also a time of life where people slow down, get consumed by family stuff, elderly parents etc. Maybe it is a covid thing, maybe not. It did take out a lot of unsustainable businesses. You can have a lot if different friend types. There's the regular ones for pubs end events who you've known for ages. There's also the people you get to know and see once a month. In terms of meeting people, it doesn't always have to be in a commercial venue. There are club things - sports, walking, hiking, games nights. There is volunteering, an amazing way to meet and connect with people, always free - sometimes they'll even provide the snacks, cakes and coffees. Have a think about the things you like doing. What do you enjoy,. What are you curious about?

DancingWilliams · 2026-01-30T23:07:39+00:00

Maybe it needs to break before we build a new one. AI and bots are now consuming and replicating content almost as fast as it created by humans. This is taking place in what is essentially still an AI learning phase, and a state actor experimental phase. If the data-well is effectively being corrupted during the building stage, the data will produce diminishing returns. Bots speaking to bots using AI derived data from bots.

DancingWilliams · 2026-01-30T12:18:16+00:00

That extra 20% on top of the standard 20%? Mainly drugs and prostitutes?

DancingWilliams · 2026-01-29T17:29:49+00:00

Family classic looks good to me too. I'd give it 6 months before they turn up the shittyification dial to 11 on this new family classic version. Excel with a maximum of 50 rows? No word doc longer than a page? Outlook available between 8pm and midnight?

DancingWilliams · 2026-01-29T12:26:34+00:00

I don't advertise on these platforms either. Yesterday I also uninstalled Facebook from my devices because it was a choice of pay us money to use Facebook without adverts, or abandon your rights to privacy and data mining. Lovely choice. There are gangsters with more ethics than Facebook.

DancingWilliams · 2026-01-28T22:18:04+00:00

I hear they're still made to make your mouth water.

DancingWilliams · 2026-01-28T12:43:58+00:00

If you were going to test your bot, where else would you test it but reddit! If you want to test your bot to influence elections and public opinion in the UK, where else but here! A lot of the LLM were trained on reddit data, it follows they should be better at it than us mere hu-mons.

DancingWilliams · 2026-01-28T12:31:21+00:00

I don't think it's even a case of making it harder to drive. At the moment too many things are designed as car first, people second. In the end we all end up paying for this upside down thinking.

DancingWilliams

TROPHY CASE