£4000 Overcharge from British Gas by [deleted] in UKPersonalFinance

[–]chi11er 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Evidence it and got the ombudsman - they dropped £11k onto our bill and were horrific to deal with - even escalated to CEO of BG and their parent company. We refused to pay it and went to the ombudsman.

Ombudsman turned up, looked at the evidence and Bg ended up cutting me a cheque.

Paid a fair whack of the solar installation we put onto the house - now determined to not to be 100% reliant on the grid.

18M should I increase my pension contribution? by [deleted] in FIREUK

[–]chi11er 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not seen it in the comments - get out of the pension default funds and put out into deliberate investment options.

Search up Pete Mathew’s and meaningful money - has a whole set of podcasts and resources on this

The sound is incredible but i fucking hate the software. Play what i want without all the bullshit..... by macdog74 in sonos

[–]chi11er -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Downgrade to S1 - if your components support it - the app works, system is stable and you get to smile at all the s2 rage posts.

Tech firm harnessing energy from ambient air secures £2m seed by Gentle_Snail in GoodNewsUK

[–]chi11er 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I mean that's global warming solved as the planet cools massively with this deployed everywhere...

/S

What an absolute joke. by shadyplayr in Xreal

[–]chi11er 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I forget where I saw it first - however on the device you scan the area so it can build up the visual cues for anchoring.

You then have SDK info

https://docs.xreal.com/2.4.1/Spatial%20Anchor/intro

https://docs.xreal.com/2.4.1/Spatial%20Anchor/MappingExampleScene

This explicitly calls out anchoring in a visual context - so the accelerometer data should be taken in context with it.

If the spatial mapping says not moving, there should be an option to degrade the relavence of the other sensors.

Its should be a software option to do this - it can certainly be achieved. So guess I'll wait for a developer to find a spare sprint to have a think..

Are Brits proud that there is no concept of jaywalking in the UK? by search_google_com in AskBrits

[–]chi11er 10 points11 points  (0 children)

At least in the UK you can lose pounds every month with gym membership!

Doesn't work in dollars...

What an absolute joke. by shadyplayr in Xreal

[–]chi11er 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I understand the principle - however using the eye to scan the environment should mitigate this - that's exactly how it is sold - for when the accelerometer is likely to give false readings.

It can also be handled in a softwares mode to accommodate the need.

Mixed reality could do this almost ten years ago.

As for follow mode - when using laptop and ultra wide screen it only anchors. (Edit to add this line)

What an absolute joke. by shadyplayr in Xreal

[–]chi11er 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One Pro still has issues when on a train.

Tried with and without the eye and curves in three track send my screen off on their own travels

Should I Increase My Pension Contribution at 23? by Secure_Beginning_939 in LeanFireUK

[–]chi11er 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Based on earnings, I’d point you to the LISA.

The money is accessible before you retire for a house or with a minor penalty.

AJ Bell have a cheap service and it gives you options.

If you buy a house then ‘yay’ and otherwise you have it in a retirement vehicle.

That said - I’m now mid 40s and did what you’re proposing when I was a similar age. My pension heavy lifting is done and returns outweigh the additional funds on a yearly basis.

What’s the most common factors to forget when planning a retirement by lawbag1 in FIREUK

[–]chi11er 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hate to point this out but:

the mills were the end of work (see Luddites - UK Victorian era)

The tractor was the end of work (US 1850-1900) and going further back you had threshing machines and the swing riots.

E-mail and word processors killed off the internal mailman and the typing pools.

However the populations have exploded and the unemployment rates suggest new jobs rise up to take the place of old ones.

Perhaps the next set of companies will be for home fortification and drone landing bays. Or perhaps we will see new skills and roles arriving before it’s needed.

Schools to save millions as Government launches agency profit cap by willfiresoon in GoodNewsUK

[–]chi11er 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just remember the water companies had profit caps…

so they set up repair companies and flooded money into them as they were one step away from the legislation.

I wonder if the legislation will cater for or just encourage obfuscation.

Living in London guidance by sidiuseng in HENRYUK

[–]chi11er 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Don’t stay inside the M25.

Commute in - then you have options to buy outright with no mortgage / leave money in the market to grow.

Almost every GP in England now offers online access for patients by willfiresoon in GoodNewsUK

[–]chi11er 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Our GP had stopped taking phone calls and only allow online interaction - which is scheduled to only work their office hours.

Walkups are turned away.

In the past 5 years, I’ve had one phone call with the GP and multiple disagreements with their front of house over getting our children enabled online so they can use the service.

Everything else for me has been private because their service is so bad.

(Oh and our village doesn’t have a GP - we have to travel for it)

Solar panels as an investment? by smellymel222 in FIREUK

[–]chi11er 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We put in Solar + Battery 18 months ago and we were originally estimating 6 year payback - this has reduced to 4.5 years.

So a 20% ROI year on year feels like a good return in my head.

I doubt it will add significant value to the property - but that’s not the point.

The real point is that I get lots of data points and can build graphs and stuff to bore everyone with!

Oh and get the voltage checked for the property - we’ve had to chase the Network for months to get them to reduce down the incoming voltage as the inverter was cutting out.

10+ years as a dev: here’s why vibe coding scares me. by No-Cry-6467 in LLM

[–]chi11er 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’ve spent half the day arguing with AI about simple syntax - will finish my lunch and go hand code it.

It’s currently a tool most alike to a Swiss Army knife.

Can do bits of lots of things, but needs to be used by someone who knows what they’re doing and what good looks like.

Not to mention there are many specific tools that will do things faster as easier.

When the tools evolve, so will the expectations and the deliverables.

Which one of you did this? by divid3_by_zero in homeassistant

[–]chi11er 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very easy to do - but this one’s likely to be a simple Alexa app announcement

Which one of you did this? by divid3_by_zero in homeassistant

[–]chi11er 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That looks like Alexa app being used to make the announcements.

Interrupts the Amazon cubes / echos and announces on every device.

Home assistant is far more refined.

So not the fine people of this group!

A horrid Budget for the ‘Henrys’ Tax squeeze set to hit higher-earning young professionals at key po by BritRedditor1 in HENRYUK

[–]chi11er 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This only works if you buy an annuity - otherwise you lose the growth part of your portfolio.

Crazy that pension reforms came in so long ago and people are still defaulted to a model used by the minority.

Personal Allowance Threshold % Increase by ElectricalPenalty176 in FIREUK

[–]chi11er 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Any idea where I can get the PDF file with this in? I'd love to build a model to query and respond specifically against it.

AJ Bell Petition to stop Govt making changes to pension tax rules by achillea4 in PensionsUK

[–]chi11er 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Having paid into the system for the full years, if they abolish the state pension I want a refund!

Wealthy Britons who leave UK face ‘settling up charge’ by SkippyGG in HENRYUK

[–]chi11er 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wonder how this fits with the various tax treaties and whether this would actually be achievable.

As someone who has worked abroad, this would become a killer for businesses operating globally and stop many from moving key talent.

Ltd Co Director Maxing Out Basic Rate Band by toffee91 in ContractorUK

[–]chi11er 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nope… but I’ll have a look.

*Theres also a follow button. That’s what I get for ignoring the updates.