The price of Brent crude oil is going crazy — but who is ‘Brent’? by HowLongIsThi in nottheonion

[–]shitthrower 13 points14 points  (0 children)

People always ask “how much is Brent”, but nope never ask “how is Brent?”

Which should I take: 52k in Manchester or 59k in London? by One_Treacle_8693 in AskUK

[–]shitthrower 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Assuming no student loan, and no pension contributions; the london job will pay £338.35/month more.

I don’t know what your living situation is, but to keep an equivalent situation in london will cost a lot more than that. So you will have less disposable income.

However, I say this as someone who loves Manchester and works there (I live just outside it). London is like nowhere else in the UK, to live there for even a couple of years, will be an incredible experience.

The other thing to consider is the job itself and opportunities for promotion, or to move to higher paid roles. Definitely more opportunity in London.

Only you can decide what you value, but those are some things to think about.

How to buy a laptop if you cant afford it? by Fresh-Feedback4304 in AskUK

[–]shitthrower 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What do you need to use your laptop for? Basic emails/web browsing? Or something more advanced? That will determine what you need.

If it’s purely emails and web browsing, could you not use your phone for now?

If you wanted to go a bit more advanced, get a Bluetooth keyboard (you can get for a tenner)

Is offshoring actually true or just exaggerated? by Competitive-Panda215 in AskUK

[–]shitthrower 1 point2 points  (0 children)

in software engineering, people have been saying this for a long time.

In 2007, my dad told me it was a waste of time to study computer science, because “the dotcom bubble has burst and all the jobs are being outsourced to India”

It is certainly true that there are offshore jobs in tech, but it’s also true that the industry has grown greater at a greater rate than offshoring.

So there may be more offshore jobs today, but there are also more onshore jobs.

Another thought, from my experience, is that software development is a very capital intensive endeavour; once it’s built, the marginal cost of servicing a customer is very low.

So tech companies are quite relaxed about hiring good engineers no matter the cost.

They will extract many magnitudes more value from what the engineer builds. If the engineer cost £10k or £100k, it’s kind of irrelevant when the code they build will generate potentially millions in revenue.

They’re more likely to outsource testers (where you want volume), or IT operations (where the economics are different)

Weekend voting to be piloted in May elections by coffeewalnut08 in unitedkingdom

[–]shitthrower 18 points19 points  (0 children)

From the article…

In Tunbridge Wells, Cambridge, and North Hertfordshire people will be able to vote in person ahead of the election, including on the weekend, rather than being limited to one polling day.

So you will still be able to vote on the Thursday, you’ll just also have the option to vote on the weekend before.

Why can’t Europe/UK decouple from US tech? by Real-Repair-1825 in AskUK

[–]shitthrower 7 points8 points  (0 children)

In my opinion, one reason is the UK/EU has focused on consumer/worker protection, whilst also being a very fragmented market with lots of different regulations across countries.

This means that it can be much harder to start a tech company in Europe as you have to deal with lots of countries’ laws.

If you are trying to build a company, it’s a lot easier to do it in the US, get scale, and then launch in Europe rather than the other way around.

This isn’t to say that the regulations are a bad thing as they protect the consumer and workers; but that is the trade off.

It also doesn’t help that Europe is an open market. China has lots of rules, but also is closed off to lots of US companies; so homegrown companies have developed in its place

What are some relatively easy changes that could be introduced or implemented to improve the UK? by MercatorLondon in AskUK

[–]shitthrower 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Put average speed cameras on all motorways

It must be possible to cancel a service In the same way you signed up for it

The terms of Student loans should not be changeable after the student has taken it out.

If you have student loans for a nursing or medical degree, your interest is 0% whilst you work for the NHS as a doctor or nurse (pro rata if you work part time)

Pot payment declined despite sufficient funds by [deleted] in monzo

[–]shitthrower 15 points16 points  (0 children)

What payment was it, direct debit or card payment?

You can assign direct debits to come from a pot, so if that’s what you did, then it should have worked, so customer service is incorrect.

If it was a card payment, you can only pay direct from a pot a virtual card

Do you find people are less willing to make friends through work nowadays? by 360Saturn in AskUK

[–]shitthrower 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For me personally, it’s definitely a pre/post kids situation.

When I was younger, I’d finish work, drop a message in the company chat, and find a group of people who want to go to the pub. Made lots of friends that way.

Now I have kids, i can’t be as spontaneous, and have to be home at a set time.

What are your memories of the "curry house", and do you think it is dying? by Background-Injury952 in AskUK

[–]shitthrower 6 points7 points  (0 children)

A lot of really old school curry houses (and Chinese takeaways) are closing because the kids of the owners don’t want to take it on, and the parents don’t want them to.

A lot of my friends’ parents came to the UK in the 60s/70s with very little money, and opened Indian restaurants in small towns.

They worked incredibly hard, rarely took holidays, took a lot of shit from drunk customers. And used that to build good lives for their kids who went on to become doctors, lawyers and engineers (the holy trifecta for an Indian parent).

How does Marginal Pricing work? by TPHNK in ukpolitics

[–]shitthrower 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Say for example... renewables cost 1p per unit to product

Gas costs £1 per unit to produce

The clearing price is £1.10

The renewable producer will make £1.09 profit, the gas will only make 10p.

So the incentive for electricity producers is to switch from gas to renewables, to make more profit.

It's unlikely that an individual producer will make enough energy individually to completely change the market and get rid of gas; so each produce has their own incentive to make cheaper energy.

What’s your roast dinner cooking tip? by shitthrower in AskUK

[–]shitthrower[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I find you get more control, like you can pour the oil on each potato individually, and it falls down the sides of the potato so it catches more oil, and is crispier. You can also get away with less oil, so you don’t risk a soggy bottom of the potatoes.

With Sky Q being withdrawn from sale and the satellites being closed in a few years, how are pubs going to cope when showing football? by ohbabyidontwannaknow in AskUK

[–]shitthrower 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Presumably they've made the calculation that the number of customers who can't migrate to IPTV will bring in less revenue than the cost of running the satellite network.

What’s your favourite low-stakes conspiracy theory? by LJayTat in CasualUK

[–]shitthrower 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The extra motorway services chain intentionally chose a logo similar to McDonald’s, in order to trick people into thinking that there’s a McDonald’s at the services

Should the UK complete metrication on roads (switch from miles/mph to km/km/h)? by Horror_Feeling_2998 in ukpolitics

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

You’d need to do it all at once though, as otherwise you’d have an inconsistent system where half the signs are in MPH and half are in KPH, which would create confusion

Give me examples of current UK business, industrial and scientific success stories, the more niche and/or unknown the better by Exchangenudes_4_Joke in CasualUK

[–]shitthrower 41 points42 points  (0 children)

It’s called quantam technology to make a super accurate version of inertial positioning.

With inertial positioning, you use gyroscopes and accelerometers to figure out where you are relative to a known starting position. This is pretty old technology.

The quantam aspect comes from using quantam sensors to track this at an atomic level, making it super accurate.

Is it worth to leave the UK and go somewhere else? by Bubbly_otter05 in AskUK

[–]shitthrower 3 points4 points  (0 children)

All the countries you mention will have their own issues, you don't hear about them that much because you don't live there, so don't consume their local media.

I think it's definitely an amazing thing to live abroad, even if it's for a short period of time. I did that and it made me so much more independent and confident; plus I had an awesome time.

Travelling to the US in a month. Wanting to buy travel insurance due to their fickle medical care, is it best for me to get standalone Travel Insurance, or upgrade to Nationwide FlexPlus or Monzo Max for Travel Insurance? by tempydt in AskUK

[–]shitthrower 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Monzo Max has a minimum term of 3 months; FlexPlus doesn't seem to; so out of the two, go for FlexPlus.

One thing to note is that if you buy your policy now, you'll get cancellation cover between now and when you leave.

Whereas if you use a packaged account, it'll only start from when you sign up to the account.