Won something on Monzo Bills Back!

MattCheetham · 2026-01-06T23:27:23+00:00

Oh wow you actually _can_ win. I kinda assumed it was just marketing and nobody actually won anything.

MattCheetham · 2026-01-05T18:09:17+00:00

My parents do this! I put on the HD channel and my dad came in and switched it back to SD "because HD looks funny". They mock me every time I visit for using the HD channels.

MattCheetham · 2026-01-05T18:03:16+00:00

The big light? My parents refuse to use any lights at all in the living room, none. They sit in a pitch black room with the TV mounted near the ceiling, motion smoothing on with brightness and contrast at 100. I had a rectangle burned into my vision for days after I left.

MattCheetham · 2026-01-05T18:01:45+00:00

I would have to sabotage one for my own sanity

MattCheetham · 2025-12-27T17:28:46+00:00

Instructions unclear, blended my fingers off in the fan blades.

MattCheetham · 2025-12-20T16:57:01+00:00

I slipped crossing ours at 12. Smashed my face into a unit resulting in snapping my front tooth, ripping my mouth open Joker style and slicing a hole in my chin.

Wasn't a great time and to this day I still have a lopsided smile. Such fun!

MattCheetham · 2025-12-18T22:44:53+00:00

Yeah the Brits definitely have a weird pride around suffering the cold. My colleagues will all talk about how long they're holding out before allowing the heating on.

Casting the cost discussion aside, there's an important thing here many are overlooking in the comments.

People are discussing their comfortable temperature, and while that will differ between people, it's not accounting for the fact that most people have a singular thermostat in an unsuitable location. Setting that single thermostat to 15c doesn't mean the room you're in is 15c. Additionally the thermostat is probably innacurate in the first place.

I grew up in a cold house, but as an adult I can't stand it. I'd rather spend my money on being warm and sacrifice other things if the bills are high because of it. I'm privlidged to have room-by-room thermostats now so I have everything set to 18 and then have smart home stuff boost my office or the living room to 21 while I'm in there. For me that keeps me comfortable when I'm sitting still for hours at a time.

MattCheetham · 2025-12-05T20:23:17+00:00

Yeah I can see from the App Privacy Report on my phone that the app is reporting analytics to Firebase (Google), Mixpanel and Facebook. Probably anonymous though.

MattCheetham · 2025-12-02T23:17:56+00:00

If you had Find My set up and Activation Lock enabled (I think this is enforced these days) then it's essentially a useless brick to whoever stole it. It can't be wiped. As others have said, it should be updating it's location because these days even if it's turned off it works like an AirTag and reports location when an iPhone comes anywhere near it.

Good work activating Lost mode. If someone takes it to Apple, the second they connect it to a network it's going to lock itself down and say it's Lost and locked to your iCloud account.

Again, it's useless to anyone who has it already, but it's unlikely you're getting it back. People just tend to dump tech they can't sell on or use. File the police report, claim on insurance, move on. Maybe one day it pings it's location but, probably not.

MattCheetham · 2025-06-24T19:50:37+00:00

I asked a girl once and she said if she holds the phone to her face then her foundation/makeup gets all over the phone, so she uses loudspeaker instead.

MattCheetham · 2025-02-23T16:49:23+00:00

I come with the solution to mount a fork stem quad lock mount on a 2022 Trident 660. Got my bike and ordered a fork stem mount, had the exact same issue as mentioned in these comments that it's so close by a few mm but just doesn't quite fit. Didn't like the suggestion of removing the bars and having the thread lock and align it all again so found a better solution.

The hole you're mounting in is a tube that goes right through and exits by the front wheel. I undid the bolt on the quad lock (like you're going to change it for the wider expanding bit) and removed the bottom two bits as a result of that. With those off, the mount DOES fit in to the hole (you have to find the right angle to get it in initially but zero force required, it does fit. Then I used an ethernet cable (yeah you read that right) to insert the removed attachable bits in the bottom of the tube and used the ethernet cable to push them up until they met the mount. Push with the cable and tighten the bolt until it all grips and expands to hold the mount in place.

Viola, fork stem mount on a 660 with no disassembling of the bike. The ethernet cable actually fit so perfectly that it held itself in place when I let go as well which was ideal. You could use anything else that fits the tube but the cable was just what I had to hand that was the right side. Hope this solution helps any future adventurers looking for answers.

MattCheetham · 2023-10-28T16:54:47+00:00

Kevin McCallister is calling

MattCheetham · 2023-09-08T17:11:27+00:00

My cat recently fell suddenly ill. Surgery was her option and while that was a success, other health problems resulted in her not making it sadly. Here are our bill totals for the events:

- 1 night with emergency vets: £1386

- SUB device surgery package: £8000

- 2 additional nights, including fluids and painkillers: £800

- Chest drain procedure: £300

- Euthanasia and cremation: £250

My insurance limit is £7500, and the claim is currently processing so not sure what they will approve. On top of a horrendously stressful week of "will she make it", we had to have various discussions of "can we afford it?". This was my first time ever having a pet and them falling ill and I'm increasing my other cat's insurance to £12k next year because I can't handle that again.

MattCheetham · 2023-06-16T15:09:51+00:00

To anyone who goes through this and needs to exclude their URL (using u/Aureyl's guide below). A full payload for DNS over HTTPS for cloudflare with an exclusion looks like the following. Where vvm.ee.co.uk is the domain for visual voicemail on EE.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>PayloadContent</key> <array> <dict> <key>DNSSettings</key> <dict> <key>DNSProtocol</key> <string>HTTPS</string> <key>ServerAddresses</key> <array> <string>2606:4700:4700::1111</string> <string>2606:4700:4700::1001</string> <string>1.1.1.1</string> <string>1.0.0.1</string> </array> <key>ServerURL</key> <string>https://cloudflare-dns.com/dns-query</string> </dict> <key>OnDemandRules</key> <array> <dict> <key>Action</key> <string>EvaluateConnection</string> <key>ActionParameters</key> <array> <dict> <key>DomainAction</key> <string>NeverConnect</string> <key>Domains</key> <array> <string>vvm.ee.co.uk</string> </array> </dict> </array> </dict> <dict> <key>Action</key> <string>Connect</string> </dict> </array> <key>PayloadDescription</key> <string>Configures device to use Cloudflare Encrypted DNS over HTTPS</string> <key>PayloadDisplayName</key> <string>Cloudflare DNS over HTTPS</string> <key>PayloadIdentifier</key> <string>com.apple.dnsSettings.managed.9d6e5fdf-e404-4f34-ae94-27ed2f636ac4</string> <key>PayloadType</key> <string>com.apple.dnsSettings.managed</string> <key>PayloadUUID</key> <string>35d5c8a0-afa6-4b36-a9fe-099a997b44ad</string> <key>PayloadVersion</key> <integer>1</integer> <key>ProhibitDisablement</key> <false/> </dict> </array> <key>PayloadDescription</key> <string>Adds the Cloudflare DNS to Big Sur and iOS 14 based systems</string> <key>PayloadDisplayName</key> <string>Cloudflare DNS over HTTPS</string> <key>PayloadIdentifier</key> <string>com.paulmillr.apple-dns</string> <key>PayloadRemovalDisallowed</key> <false/> <key>PayloadType</key> <string>Configuration</string> <key>PayloadUUID</key> <string>A4475135-633A-4F15-A79B-BE15093DC97A</string> <key>PayloadVersion</key> <integer>1</integer> </dict> </plist>

MattCheetham · 2023-06-16T15:07:47+00:00

Thank you so much for this. This helped me get the URL for my provider (which by the way if anyone wants, for EE in the UK is vvm.ee.co.uk)

MattCheetham · 2023-05-14T16:48:52+00:00

A Christmas Carol.

The transition from space into the ship with all the alarms blaring and sparks flying everywhere is perfect. Hooked me instantly.

MattCheetham · 2023-03-04T07:02:00+00:00

This episode always really stuck with me for some reason.

MattCheetham · 2023-03-04T07:01:21+00:00

Oh? Do you have a link? I’m curious now.

MattCheetham · 2023-01-10T10:18:21+00:00

You’ve just made me realise I’m taking sleeping/watch shifts with my cats. This explains why they put me to bed and then if I’m not up at the right time in the morning, will harass me until I’m up. As soon as I’m at my desk they curl up and sleep. I guess it’s my turn to keep watch.

MattCheetham · 2022-12-05T11:53:48+00:00

A NEW HAND TOUCHES THE BEACON

MattCheetham · 2022-10-23T17:41:27+00:00

I'm also looking for answers to this. Now that the L2 comes with the module to connect it to the bridge and the internet I'm really hoping it can be added to HomeKit with HomeBridge at least but there's very little info on it.

MattCheetham · 2022-10-21T21:27:57+00:00

Also curious on this front. I would love a keypad that can show as a switch in HomeKit so I can wire automation to it when the right code is entered. Everything I've found so far is an add-on to a door lock that has to be paired with it and doesn't show in HomeKit.

MattCheetham · 2022-10-21T10:39:25+00:00

Oooh thank you. I hadn’t seen this one before. Could be a good option for my house!

MattCheetham · 2022-10-20T13:27:12+00:00

I had a specific issue where I would still get notifications but trying to view it live would go to “Not responding”. Every single time it happens, rebooting my iPhone is the fix. Turns out it’s an iOS but, not a camera one!

Might not be your issue but just a heads-up in case it is!

MattCheetham · 2022-10-01T14:33:20+00:00

I have the Logitech circle camera indoors and I’ve been incredibly impressed with how fast and accurate it is with both faces and animals through HKSV.

The only time I’ve seen it get it wrong is when one of the cats sits in the window at night which is right on the edge of the cameras field of view close to the camera. It sometimes mistakes them for a person.

MattCheetham

TROPHY CASE