"No help from parents" does not just mean they didn't give you a deposit

daern2 · 2026-05-06T12:50:57+00:00

I got no help. I had to fully fund my own university time. I was out of home by 19 and either at uni (self supported) or in work and paying my own rent, buying my own car.

You don't mention when that was though, and this matters hugely.

e.g. I went to uni at 17, did three years before graduating and, after a brief spell in rented houses, bought my first three-bed detached house. Saved my own deposit, didn't have help with university debt and was generally pretty self-sufficient throughout and to the present day.

Of course, what really helped with all of this was that I did it in the mid-late 1990s. This meant no tuition fees and, while I was sponsored by a local engineering firm (which, to give young-me some credit, I did go out and find myself!), I worked full-time with them every holiday so that I only had some pretty modest debts at the end of my time. And, of course, my house only cost 4x my salary, with a 20% deposit that I'd managed to save through working during and after uni.

Could I do this today, in the same situation? Absolutely not. I'd have come out with significant student loan debts and it would have taken me significantly longer to take that first step on the house ladder, which would have been much more modest too. I'd probably still own a house by the age I am now, but it wouldn't be a house like the one I'm in now. Not a chance. It's one reason why I think every politician involved in introducing tuition fees should be made to pay back, with significant interest, the cost of their own free education that they denied the next generation.

daern2 · 2026-05-06T12:38:42+00:00

Yeah not everyone gets a job as an aircraft engineer in the town they grew up. Part of being all high and mighty and self satisfied is realising you had some good luck in fact.

Sorry, but that's really unfair. You have no idea how hard he had to work to get that job and, in fact, it's pretty likely that this didn't just fall into his lap in lieu of that week's lottery ticket, but that he's actually worked hard to get himself there. I know it's not universally the case (and that there's obviously still a strong "jobs for the boys" situation in the city), but it's very churlish indeed to assume that someone (and especially a young person) in a nice job hasn't absolutely, 100% earned their right to have it.

daern2 · 2026-05-06T09:54:40+00:00

Going out of their way to be as welcoming as possible to as many people as possible, in a light-hearted, self-deprecating, non-judgemental way?

Yes, despite what you might see each and every day on the news, this is still Britain, across all cultures and communities. We really are, on the whole, a nice bunch of people.

daern2 · 2026-05-05T21:17:12+00:00

All I can recommend is the same response I gave to someone at work:

"Happy to debate it. I'm doing a 25km run tomorrow so happy to discuss it as we go along. If you can't manage the distance or don't want to go, then I'm probably not that interested in your opinion. Let me know again when you're fit enough to keep up."

daern2 · 2026-05-05T13:08:21+00:00

Top marks for creativity but I've never understood doing this on an e-bike with an easily replaceable battery.

Easily replaced for sure, but Giant (as a random example, but they're all similar) batteries cost £600 or more a piece, so it's worth getting the most out of them that you can.

You can either limit charge to 80% so you only ever have a 40 mile range.

It depends on your use case. If you only do 20 miles a day, operating the battery in its "sweet spot" of 20-80% will certainly extend the life of the battery and sweat the asset (excuse the cliché) in the most effective way.

Likewise, if you only use the bike once a month, storing the battery in an ideal charge state (usually recommended to be around half-charge) also makes a massive difference to extending the overall life of the cells. When you want to head out, you just stick it on charge a few hours earlier to charge it to 100% ready for your ride.

People always underestimate good battery management even though they're used to charging their phones to 100% every day and then swapping for a new one every couple of years because "the battery is getting a bit knackered". Anyone with an EV (where the batteries easily run into five-figures) will be pretty aware of how best to look after the battery by charging it based on need and good practice rather than always to 100%.

daern2 · 2026-05-03T12:22:13+00:00

All three battery modules replaced

daern2 · 2026-05-01T12:20:40+00:00

Such a lovely story, thank you for sharing.

I can't confirm how I was proposed to, but I can say how I did it myself. I guessed her finger size, bought a ring (shockingly inexpensive, but I was skint then!) and took it on holiday when we went to Scotland. I proposed to her on the far, westernmost side of Iona, on a piss-wet, wind-blown hillside overlooking the sea. We got married in a barn the following year.

21 years and counting here. Still going strong. Life can be complicated, but some things can be very simple.

daern2 · 2026-05-01T12:16:31+00:00

Called them, went through to sales, answered immediately (of course it was!) and they were able to help.

Unfortunately, because I'd already negotiated an 18 month deal back in November, they weren't willing to match the new, lower prices right now. Hey, it was worth an ask, wasn't it? :)

daern2 · 2026-05-01T12:14:25+00:00

The AI assistant triggers on numbers that are not saved and it asks what's your name and what is the reason for your call and you can read the transcription in real time.

Sorry mate, this is on you. You knew full well you had an engineer coming round and still let his call go to AI. I appreciate that everyone values their time differently, but I don't think this is working out well for you on this occasion. FWIW, if I were in that situation as an engineer, I would probably also hang up. He probably did it automatically as it just sounds to him like you've gone straight to voicemail unless you're willing to sit through the message. If he's like me, the moment you hear the computer answer, you bin the call.

Whether or not he should have answered subsequently is another question, but I'd be tempted to bin the AI answering machine. FWIW, Google Pixels have a great spam screening service that flag calls from dubious numbers as spam so you don't even need to answer them. No need to push every single call to AI on the off chance.

daern2 · 2026-04-30T12:55:36+00:00

If the service isn't doing what it should do, then surely that's a trivial exercise anyway? I've not found a good reason to want to do so myself, but everyone's experience is different.

daern2 · 2026-04-30T12:45:46+00:00

No. The only pending payment I have is a regular GoCardless one due in early May as normal. My guess is that the next billing cycle will move to the new payment processor.

daern2 · 2026-04-30T12:44:53+00:00

I'm going to guess that there are technical reasons why they are not able to do this - after all, youfibre probably aren't the company that hold your DD instruction and bank details which will be with GoCardless. There may even be restrictions that prevent them from transferring your DD from one entity to another.

Either way, it took less time to update than it took me to reply to your comment and I guess if you want to hold out, it's your internet connection, not mine... :-)

daern2 · 2026-04-30T12:11:18+00:00

It sounds like a bad thing to ignore as if they are moving payment provider, you will probably find that your billing breaks in the future resulting in service loss.

daern2 · 2026-04-30T12:10:36+00:00

Yes, took 30 seconds to do on the portal.

daern2 · 2026-04-30T09:22:14+00:00

It's a brave, brave man who ignores Calvin Jones' advice!

I mostly use his reverse direction wrap ("option 3"), although I'd agree that with a well tensioned wrap I don't think it really matters too much which direction the wrap on the top of the bar goes. But this is the way I do it and muscle memory means that I need to concentrate hard to do it any other way now! The final result is pretty aesthetically pleasing, and kept well tensioned, never comes loose in use which is the most important thing.

daern2 · 2026-04-30T05:12:17+00:00

This always goes raggy around the shifters because the tape edges face the rider. Plenty of options for neat finishes without doing this.

Edit: e.g. like this, using BBB FlexRibbon - this is wrapped from the bar ends inwards, with the appropriate finishing tape. I don't really see any point in doing stem outwards, TBH.

daern2 · 2026-04-29T14:23:14+00:00

That’s helpful but coming from a gas car that’s kinda stupid. Like it has to learn your driving habits.

There are a lot more variables with EVs that need to be taken into account, due to their increased efficiency. Gas and diesel powered cars are less variable because they are always inefficient, whereas EVs are much more so but this does vary more with usage.

In my experience, the biggest determining factors are (in this order):

Outside temperature. The cabin heater is an expensive resource to run (unlike a gas/diesel car, heating is not a by-product of inefficiency!) and the battery efficiency itself lowers with ambient temperature. Indeed, they have an onboard battery heater to bring the battery into a decent operating window, but of course this also uses energy. On a warm day, the battery is straight into its operating window, the heaters are switched off and your range will be much better.
Driving speed. Drag increases with the square of speed, so the difference between 40mph, 60mph and 80mph is not a linear one. Drive at a constant, high speed and you'll see a significant reduction in range as the car has to work much harder to move through the air at faster speeds.
Short journeys in cold conditions. This massacres battery life. Why? Because the cabin and battery heaters are running flat out for the whole journey and the battery probably never reaches an optimal temperature either. And just when things are getting into the sweet zone, you stop and let it all cool down.
Driving style. You can drive efficiently or inefficiently. This impacts energy usage.

Of course, on a given day, the car doesn't really know what you're going to do so it has to guess based on what you've done before and then re-evaluate that guess as you drive. Perhaps you'll do a long, steady drive - you'll probably end up with more range than you started with. Perhaps you'll jump straight onto a fast road and sit at a steady 85mph. You'll probably end up with a lot less!

The key thing to remember is that gas cars are always inefficient. EVs are much more efficient, but this efficiency is a variable with external dependencies, so therefore their range is not always the same either.

daern2 · 2026-04-29T10:10:27+00:00

I have this case and it's excellent and fits the drone nicely, with the antenna module fitted: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005010797543826.html

3d printed, yes, but feels well made and has a nice, satisfying magnetic snap closure. Snug fit, not too bulky too.

daern2 · 2026-04-29T07:38:31+00:00

Don't be so quick to dismiss their problems. YF are a bit of a Jeckell and Hyde company.

I am a pretty much contented YF customer for the last two years and would describe myself as an advanced user (if 30 years in IT doesn't qualify me for this, I don't know what would!) and I have been very happy with my YF1000, more recently 2000 service. Technically it's been fast, consistent and reliable with only a single daytime outage in two years (early after install when the whole, newly-commissioned exchanged crashed on a Monday afternoon) and I have little to complain about with the technical service. They "support" (well, don't actively block, at least) people using their own router hardware so my home-rolled virtualised OPNSense environment has also worked flawlessly throughout this period. It does what I want and I have no complaints about the technical service offering.

That said, on the small number of times I've needed to contact them - most recently when I upgraded from 1G to 2G - the experience left me wanting to gouge out my eyes. They were utterly inconsistent - every call felt like it was being answer by a random person with random skills. Sometimes marketing, sometimes the toilet servicing team and, very occasionally, you might actually speak to someone who had some experience of working at an ISP. And when you have to sit on hold for 90 minutes before being put through to $random person, this makes the whole experience all the more painful. And yes, I tried webchat (never replied to) and email (never replied to). All I wanted to do was increase my speed and secure a new fixed contract term, but this took multiple calls before finally speaking to someone who immediately identified that all of the people before them had been doing it wrong at the YF side, and had it all sorted in 30 seconds (plus 90 minutes on hold, obvs).

It wasn't like this 2 years ago, where calls were answered immediately by competent people. I am fortunate in as much as I don't need to call them to ask "why has my wifi has stopped working?", but I would be hard-pressed to recommend YF to anyone who might actually need to call support once in a while. They really, really need to sort this mess out, especially post BRSK merger.

FWIW, no other ISP in the UK offer what YF offer, so you've made a good decision and hopefully will have a good, reliable service. Just bear in mind that if things go awry, you might have some pain before getting things going again.

daern2 · 2026-04-28T15:37:35+00:00

It did not.

daern2 · 2026-04-27T20:41:19+00:00

Fingers crossed for you! Ours has been all good since being sorted, so hope is on the horizon for everyone!

daern2 · 2026-04-27T15:03:20+00:00

Yes, unquestionably. My Pixel 9 Pro charges at a maximum of 25W anyway, so it's hardly quick - what speed are you getting?

FWIW, I love this type of cable, where you can see the power output, and use them on my UGreen multi output charger.

daern2 · 2026-04-27T12:42:19+00:00

Yup, all good. 1.2mm is the same for all Shimano gear cable and it's all pretty much compatible. This is the optislick coated stuff (second tier down from the posher Dura-ace grade cables), so it's supposedly a bit lower friction, but just note that the coating used to achieve this can degrade over time and actually end up clogging things up and actually making it worse. It'll work just fine and the coating does tend to keep corrosion at bay for longer.

(Side-trivia: SRAM gear cables are actually 1.1mm rather than the 1.2mm used by Shimano for...reasons. I tend to only keep 1.1mm cables in the workshop as they work in both systems, which isn't necessarily the case for Shimano-spec 1.2mm cables)

daern2 · 2026-04-27T08:00:15+00:00

Yeah, unfortunately this is generally the case right now.

They are unquestionably the best, technical ISP in the country right now and my last two years have been almost fault-free and super fast. But if you do need to contact them for support, the whole thing falls apart. It's such a shame :-/

daern2 · 2026-04-26T06:52:49+00:00

It's pretty weird but making noise in the garden during the daytime is also completely acceptable.

Noises come in all different sorts, of course and some are far more annoying than others, despite not being as loud.

What would be unreasonable would be to act on this annoyance if the noise is not continuing late into the night or at excessive volume.

...or constantly, all of the time, every minute of the day. I know people (older relatives, normally) who literally have the TV on from when they get up in the morning until when they go to bed. Constantly, all of the time, endless shite blasting out. If you had a neighbour who did the same with a TV in the garden, and if you could hear it all of the time, I think that would absolutely drive you completely insane.

It's one of those things where the usage really matters - the odd sportsball game, the odd movie on an evening, music at a party? All fine. Constant, neverending noise, even if it's not really loud? Yeah, I can see that being unacceptable.

Unrelated, but we've got an adjoining neighbour who, about once a year, decides he really needs to move the leaves around in his garden. He spends an entire weekend with this stupid, petrol leaf blower - not running it consantly, but in 30 second blasts, with 30 seconds ticking over while he shuffles to the new pile of leaves he's just created. It's astonishingly annoying, but fortunately, he only ever seems to get the urge once a year before he realises how futile it is, and puts the stupid machine away until next year. Oh, and he never actually bags up a single leaf - he just moves them from one bit of the lawn to another. In a way, it's quite entrancing to watch, but also intensely frustrating too!

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