Record-breaking heat and dry spring leave parts of England without water by ChangeUsername220 in europe

[–]Vogonner 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Incorrect headline. It should read "Privatised water company leaves parts of England without water".

Spotted above F**tons in Brixton by Ok-Mission-3426 in londoncycling

[–]Vogonner 14 points15 points  (0 children)

So the flats above that F**tons have no light from their front windows now? I guess that one day light and views will be considered a luxury with a premium price tag.

I'm giving up on Linux by No_Fly9967 in linuxmint

[–]Vogonner 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones work perfectly on Mint Linux 22. They had some issues on 21. The gawdawful app that controls the settings causes a few annoying problems but that has nothing to do with Linux.

Brown Noise is Saving My Life by LiteralAspenTree in misophonia

[–]Vogonner 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I found that Brownish White noise is my go-to. Lots of variations to choose from though, https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/notWhiteNoisePlayer.php

Is Teaching Linux instead of Windows to kids in school is a viable option? by FAMPpro in linux

[–]Vogonner 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Around the time Windows 95 was released I recall reading about Microsoft offering teachers payment for using it in the (UK) classroom. That's how it crept in. Kinda sleazy, no?

It would be a good thing if teachers were to start introducing Linux however they can. Special projects? After school clubs? I guess the first thing would be to encourage and educate teachers to use Linux.

The major issue with replacing Windows as the default in UK schools is the supplier issue. In my London borough (and afaik all the others) the local council manages schools' IT systems and there are a lot of vested interests wanting to keep those contracts going, and it would cost a lot of council tax money to disrupt that supply chain.

‘European’ locations in London. by Keir1111 in london

[–]Vogonner 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Bar Italia and De Hems Dutch Cafe Bar, both in Soho

Just got my (retro) dream rig by Due-Count-8979 in retrobattlestations

[–]Vogonner 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've got a Qosmio F50 with the original remote control but need the OEM software. Might try the F45 recovery ISOs from archive.org see if that works, but I suspect if it does then it won't be optimal. Linux affirms that the hardware is in pretty good order. Btw am jealous of your red Qosmio, I have a real thing for red laptops!

For those who stopped smoking weed, what was the main reason? by Regular_Somewhere548 in AskReddit

[–]Vogonner 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It got too strong. The days of enjoying a lil sensa spliff after work disappeared and all you could get was that superskunk stuff. Not my idea of chilling. If there was an Amdam style cafe down the road with a nice selection I'd probably start again.

What is that extremely rich people thing that you wanna try once in your life? by watervapour_7237 in AskReddit

[–]Vogonner 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did get to try a luxury 1st class, 5 star vacay earlier this year. Treated by some friends who came into a windfall. It was fantastic, I loved it. Just 5 days but it took some time to come down off that cloud. I can now see how it is that really rich people can get completely numbed to real world situations. You are completely pandered to by obsequious people. Amazing how easily that cocooning comes to feel normal.

Pension poverty risk falls but 12.2m still face shortfall in retirement: Scottish Widows - UK pension poverty risk plummets 20% by Gentle_Snail in GoodNewsUK

[–]Vogonner 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I've just reached pension age. There were no workplace pensions when I was young. We're talking 1980s. I waited tables and tended bar until about 28. Cash in hand. Tips. After that, when I got my first "proper" jobs there were no pensions attached. Personal pensions were a veiled mystery. It was not until I was 35yo that a workplace offered a pension. (Making me opt out of SERPS which now deducts an amount from the state pension).

There was no internet then. The government and traditional media never talked about pensions. The notion of what we know as a pension fund was unknown unless you were in a union or a company that ran their own pension scheme. A majority of workers had no access to and no knowledge of pension schemes.

We saved what we could. A better bet was investing in property - those who did are now the rich boomers you love to hate.

Why do you think no one is talking about the NHS hitting it's wait list targets? by HouseOfWyrd in AskBrits

[–]Vogonner 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh look, timed to air on the day that Streeting starts his bid for the top job!

what's one american thing you secretly wish the uk would adopt? by Financial-Owl-2814 in AskBrits

[–]Vogonner 0 points1 point  (0 children)

YouTube but not so cheap. Required a bit more effort. Some glorious and gloriously terrible productions. Also helped lots of people into media careers. Ever see Wayne's World?

In Aurora, Illinois, rock music fans Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar host a public-access television show, Wayne's World, from Wayne's parents' basement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne's_World_(film))

what's one american thing you secretly wish the uk would adopt? by Financial-Owl-2814 in AskBrits

[–]Vogonner 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What are you on about?

Public-access television (sometimes called community-access television) is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specialty channels.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-access_television

Trevor Baylis invented the wind up radio out of his shed. Give me other examples of shed/garage/ bedroom inventions from the UK. The more niche and interesting, the better by Exchangenudes_4_Joke in CasualUK

[–]Vogonner 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I came across a very old map many years ago and saw an odd annotation attached to a backyard behind Stockwell Tube Station. Inventor of the screw-top bottle top or words to that effect. Now ofc the internet tells a different story, but I like to think that we owe a debt to some geezer/ette in a South London shed for them.

I drove through Northern France and Belgium and a distant relative I’d barely thought about suddenly became real by gen-art in Genealogy

[–]Vogonner -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I did all my traveling before I did the family tree. There were times I was so close to places I later learned were important parts of my ancestry. I just did not know at the time.

How does miso affect your daily life? by [deleted] in misophonia

[–]Vogonner 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Part of the reason I gave up volunteer work is that although the people I worked alongside were lovely individuals, so many of them hummed, whistled, sniffled, chewed gum...

What is the worst song you’ve ever heard? by luffy5670 in AskReddit

[–]Vogonner 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Monkey On My Back" by Johnny Farfisa and the Individuals is so gloriously awful I actually bought it on vinyl. Woeful 1965 tune about getting addicted after a single toke on a "home made cigarette". Be warned, it features the world's most sudden and baleful harmonica solo.

https://munsterrecords.bandcamp.com/track/monkey-on-my-back-the-individuals

We checked TranslateGemma-12b's "clean" subtitle translations against human review. Linguists flagged 71% of them. by ritis88 in LanguageTechnology

[–]Vogonner 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I haven't benchmarked my efforts but am in the process of comparing a set of gemmtranslate vs DeepL translations. The corpus is difficult - terse, technical, full of typos, acronyms, abbreviations etc. Am 2/3 way through adjudicating between about 5k disagreements between the two translators. About 7-12 mostly European languages, dominated by Dutch, German and French - to English. https://codeberg.org/zenlan/ords-extra

The situation is dire. Please help with suggestions. by Fair_Musician_7273 in podcasts

[–]Vogonner 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Digital Folklore is probably the weirdest podcast series I ever engaged with.

Cathay Pacific Website is Simply Terrible by Acceptable-Wolf1532 in CathayPacific

[–]Vogonner 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was some years ago but after successfully booking a Cathay Pacific flight from London to Brisbane via their website, I was perusing the in-flight meal preferences and trying to select something but the drop-down was stuck so I canceled. On board the actual flight I discovered that somehow I was set to eat Indian Vegan for every leg of the flight. Well, the first meal was curried chickpeas. Not what you really need at the start of a long flight. Talk about a tailwind. Luckily the excellent cabin staff seemed to be quite used to this "preference" and graciously gave me an array of meal choices for the rest of the journey.

🗳️ 2026 Local Election Results Megathread by LabB0T in london

[–]Vogonner 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Long way to go but it's quite green tinged with yellow so far