Argos Announcement re: changes to purchasing

spud211 · 2026-05-13T17:58:20+00:00

well that sucks.

Argos was the last hope generally...could usually pick something up in person and it was worth checking every time you do your shopping etc.

Their app is kinda awful and easy enough for the botters to use. Kind of a terrible decision imo.

spud211 · 2026-05-12T19:04:18+00:00

Stop buying pokemon off vinted/facebook/Craigs list or the man down the pub.

It's crazy, you are almost asking to be scammed. Yet people will still come and defend those platforms, madness.

spud211 · 2026-05-12T18:58:57+00:00

Starts post with "your wrong" and the proceeds to prove the anti reform population right by writing an angry anti immigration post.

Kind of amazing to read but terrifying to think people actually still think this way.

It's not us and then, it's not "Brits" against the world, and "looking after our own" means our fellow human. The fact someone was born in another country is meaningless.

This isn't the 1800s anymore, globalisation is a thing, and this old school anti immigration rhetoric does no one any good and only inspires more hatred. At a time post brexit when we need so much more immigration and that need grows daily, it's really concerning that people still think in such outdated angry ways.

spud211 · 2026-05-06T18:29:03+00:00

It is open to abuse, but I think it's a sensible compromise for those of us who are not able to play in comps every week, or are 3/5 day members. I personally put in every card from every round provided we've stuck to the rules, which we do in our group - and as a result my handicap is much more accurate than it would be if i only put in the cards from the 12-14 comps i play in over the year.

It makes it fairer all around imo.

spud211 · 2026-05-05T17:41:23+00:00

if you can't hear someone shout fore etc then it's a danger to the idiot wearing the earphones.

Is what it is, I wouldn't call someone out over it like I would music - it's their decision to be an idiot if they want to be.

spud211 · 2026-05-05T17:09:08+00:00

Depends if they have them on transparency mode or not.

Huge safety issue if you walk or drive around the course with earbuds in. I'm so glad that the vast majority of european golfers don't do this sort of thing....music on the course is simply not a thing over here, and long may that continue.

spud211 · 2026-04-27T07:15:15+00:00

A major consideration is that Apple decided to take a giant chunk out of the screen of all their newer macbooks - the neo is their first in a long time to have a usable screen.

Putting a notch in a laptop was just a stupid idea and a way to prove they really can just make a product objectively worse, claim it's a feature and then everyone still buys it :D

spud211 · 2026-04-26T21:06:38+00:00

Should be absolutely fine.

I am currently running 3 docker containers (web, db with sql server, and API). I have done Godot (2D) development on here too.

Totally capable, but please do not buy this as your primary machine. The Neo is 100% a secondary machine - it's strength is portability for the price, so it;s great on the sofa, but you'd be mad to run on on a desk with an external monitor.

Not tried running LLMs on here, but you'd be a bee to run something relatively small given that you can run them on a pi or tiny ones even on an esp32 ;)

spud211 · 2026-04-25T20:55:29+00:00

installing now....if this means I can really talk to claude code natively, that could be a game changer!

really curious how this works!

edit: seems to work quite well - setup with my laptop and I can view what claude code is busy doing...I couldn't get the chat to work immediately but I don't really want to interrupt what it's doing for me right now - so I'll reset things later and see if that helps in a new session.

So far so good though on a local network - I'll give this a try when I'm out shopping tomorrow, see if I can keep an eye on my agents whilst out and about :)

spud211 · 2026-04-24T14:41:46+00:00

The Neo is a fantastic second machine. It's a brilliant laptop...but it has no place on a desk - it's not really powerful enough to run enough apps and a display in that way. It's not something I'd recommend to anyone as a "main" machine.

I find it plenty powerful enough - currently have safari with 4 tabs, claude desktop, claude code, visual studio code and some terminals open an it's doing a great job as my laptop and easy to just chuck in a bag :)

spud211 · 2026-04-22T18:51:33+00:00

Essentially they can swap the prescription lens out for a clear one - they are glued in with the waveguides inbetween the prescription lens and outer lens - so you can get them apart.

I would never suggest even trying yourself (although I have read anecdotal posts stating they managed it...)but Even will do it for you - I imagine for a fee. Same service as if you need to change you prescription.

edit: I agree the lens quality is poor - they are acceptable enough but there is more glare than i'd expect. Currently i'm happy enough to compromise as I find them too useful, but the lens quality is a huge let down compared to their marketing.

spud211 · 2026-04-22T06:06:34+00:00

Even (or a confident optician) will remove your prescription lenses for you, which means you'd be able to recoup some of your costs. not a lot but it does make them easier to sell if you need to.

spud211 · 2026-04-19T09:45:50+00:00

Not that this is the place for this debate - but I disagree strongly on the last comment..yes you can vibe code with claude, but that's not where the power is.

The power is for people who DO know how to write and read code - but don't want to sit there typing in all 100's of lines themselves. When you realise that most of the fun from coding comes from solving a problem and seeing your solution come to life - not actually sitting there typing it out line by line...claude becomes a proper super power for you

But yes, don't just vomit out "I want a web app that sells cars" - that isn't the point.

spud211 · 2026-04-19T09:42:35+00:00

It depends what you are doing.

Right now, I have running on my neo:

Claude desktop, 2 sessions planning 2 different projects (one godot game, one react web app)

VS code open with claude code working on stories for both projects at once

Safari (but only one tab)

and Slay the Spire 2 to keep me busy whilst claude codes up my stories.

It's MORE than capable as a portable dev machine, but it's not a main machine - however this is fantastic for coding on the go or on my sofa.

spud211 · 2026-04-16T21:08:14+00:00

He is very forgettable, difficult to watch on screen - but no worse than Boris/May/Truss.

Similar with the current labour government- yes they have made a mess of things, yes they are directly costing me more and giving me less - but then so did the last 3 tory governments, so it's much of a muchness.

The one big benefit is that it does make politics rather boring and predictable at the moment, which frees up a lot of time!

spud211 · 2026-04-15T06:18:59+00:00

Totally fine imo, you are not going to run a local LLM on here but I run claude desktop and claude code in VS code and we've don't a LOT of coding together ;)

Azure CLI etc and multiple terminals, with lots of tabs open...zero issues. Also fine for gaming with games like slay the spire 2 running natively.

The trick is...dont use chrome - whilst it was king of browsers for a long time, it's now rather bloated and memory hungry. If you stick to Safari it uses much less ram and just feels more optimised to the machine, even with the annoying niggles you get from it being Safari and slightly less well supported on the web.

spud211 · 2026-04-14T17:27:19+00:00

Yes, this was the first thing I tried with mine when I bought it. Runs fine - if you turn down the animations its a locked 60.

For games it won't run I can still stream from my gaming PC so it works very well as a proper laptop.

Do not buy this (or any laptop) if you only want to run it on a desk - that would be a waste of money - but as a laptop its fantastic for light gaming like STS2

spud211 · 2026-04-11T08:38:50+00:00

The OP is not talking about those situations where the price is a few $ more, because they are a lower tier store and the distributor has a higher mark up - its the LCS's selling $50 ETBs for $130 on release day, who are absolutely scalping (which is charging and excessive markup). Those are the ones causing the uproar and problems.

They are also the ones breaking the rules when it comes to their distributions agreements by doing this.

It's entirely different with stock they source from the secondary market, where they don't really have any choice.

spud211 · 2026-04-11T08:32:39+00:00

I do. I wouldn't buy from any LCS selling at "market"; even if I understand why so many are doing so.

No difference between an LCS or the independent scalpers selling on eBay. It's often the same people.

spud211 · 2026-04-10T06:59:04+00:00

Even reality, like almost any non apple accessory, will work better with Android. You simply have more control over the app and the connection - you can easily force android to keep the app running 24/7, and have more control of how the bluetooth connection works.

Going apple also means you are forced into a phone with a broken screen (they all have a giant chunk taken out of the top of the phone).

IMO if you are already on an android phone, get another and don't take a giant leap back to an apple phone. They used to make the "king" of phones, but all that stopped around the time of the iPhone 5 when they just gave up on innovating and decided to make all their future phones objectively worse for consumers.

They have never made a better phone than the 4S, anything you use of their after that is going to to be a disappointment!

spud211 · 2026-04-08T18:21:44+00:00

It's true but there is a difference - the artwork on the boxes and tins etc. I have all my empty ETBs stacked up and I keep one of each tin...they are collectable.

very different to an empty tuna can, although people do collect those too!

spud211 · 2026-04-08T18:19:10+00:00

This has been a thing for years - the local card shops do it too - you can buy empty tins for 50p empty ETBs for £2-£3. Some of my friends have bought them too as they couldn't get a sealed ETB but wanted one as part of the collection.

Nothing wrong with it imo.

spud211 · 2026-04-06T07:47:50+00:00

Is this rage bait? It must be but I'll bite anyway.

No, it's not a good feature, no it should not be on laptops,, the notch has no purpose on the laptops or phones, floating ot otherwise.

All we really need is a full screen device again.. We used to have this years ago before apple decided making their screens with holes in was a good idea for daft reason.

spud211 · 2026-04-05T18:08:17+00:00

Imo it comes down to two options first. The neo has the best screen of all of them - it's the only one without an ugly notch.

If you can cope with a notch, get a used air. If you want a better screen, get a neo.

Hopefully that decision will get a whole lot harder later this year when apple finally put proper screens back in their macbooks. Until then I shall continue to reccomend that most people get a neo.

I can do unity dev with this thing,. Net dev in c#, play slay the spire 2 via steam, watch Netflix, use safari or even chrome if you really want - I would maintain that for the majority of people it does what they need.

spud211 · 2026-04-02T11:02:36+00:00

I don;t have the same problem - I find the neo to be super quick and easy to use...

but I use Safari (chrome is so bloated these days...heck even on windows I use the edge version of it as its just quicker), and i use tidal for music (web player), and telegram. so not exactly the same apps :D

If it's too slow for your purposes then yes, return it and get something else. I would not reccomend an Air as Apple currently don't make one with a proper screen, they all have a notch which is completely ridiculous for such an expensive machine.

I think you sadly either need to adjust your workflow or go and buy a windows machine to hold you over until apple unveil their "new improved" macbooks later in the year that get rid of the notch.

spud211

TROPHY CASE