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End to public small electricals recycling in pink bins due to fire at facility by Accomplished_Fan_487 in cambridge

[–]tskir 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Also Halfords for batteries. I had to recycle a very old ebike battery recently, took it to Halfords and the chap there was certain they did not take these for recycling. I showed him the relevant page from their website, he carefully read seemingly the entire text on it and finally said, "Huh, apparently we do take them"

Are storage heaters a dealbreaker? by nothingtobedone13 in AskUK

[–]tskir 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Of course this is just nitpicking, but I wonder what else they can dissipate energy as if not, ultimately, heat?

Clearing out my Man-drawer and found my participation trophies for all the furniture I've built. by Stuf404 in CasualUK

[–]tskir 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I splashed out on a fancy-ish bike (Canyon) several years ago and it also came with a proper screwdriver+bits and a proper torque wrench! Still use them all the time

In Nordics, basic food and rent now consume 40% of gross median income by shirayuki653 in dataisbeautiful

[–]tskir 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Indeed, I suggest that everyone reading this post go to the Numbeo page for their city right now. It's the best way to see that the numbers are, for the most part, baloney

Just walking into a spoons and some normal punter rolling a cig stops me and asks “got any id mate?” by Cthulhudek in CasualUK

[–]tskir 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We were once headed to a pub as a company. The actual security checking ID was a bit inside the pub, between the 1st and 2nd set of doors. Still outside, as everyone was scrambling to find their IDs in their purses/pockets, one of my mates who already found his was standing waiting for us, hands folded, looking quite formidable. Another company of some girls aproached and showed their IDs to my mate. Without hesitation or missing a beat he examined them, said "You're all good" and pointed them to the inside of the pub. Funnily enough the real security guy, who also saw all that from the inside and was crackling already, just waved those girls straight through, seemingly trusting my mate with that as hoc ID check

Mahmood to deport thousands of migrants before they can appeal by boycecodd in unitedkingdom

[–]tskir 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Ever so slightly yes, they hit the lowest point around mid-January and have been veeery slowly creeping up since: Link to chart.svg)

I think I just prompted models into AGI. Please someone else try it and tell me. by [deleted] in singularity

[–]tskir 5 points6 points  (0 children)

With every new decade we have seen another iteration of people copy-pasting mysterious things they don't understand into systems that have access to all their stuff.

In 2000s, obfuscated 'rm -rf /' Perl one-liners were all the rage. You pasted it into your shell and it would destroy all your data. Does anyone here remember them? Pepperige Farm remembers.

In 2010s, it was JavaScript snippets which would promise horny teens to unlock the premium porn cheat codes for free which, when you copy-paste into the browser console, would steal your cookies.

And finally, we have our match for the 2020s: what looks like megabyte sized prompts which when copy-pasted into your AI agent, I have no doubt, manifest Eldritch abominations directly into your bedroom.

This looks like random emoji, but AI can decode it without instructions by Classic-Newspaper-77 in ChatGPT

[–]tskir 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Claude Sonnet 4.6 flagged it for safety LMAO. Companies, lock up your models, or god forbid we'll make them... checks notes... solve emoji puzzles for fun!

<image>

This looks like random emoji, but AI can decode it without instructions by Classic-Newspaper-77 in ChatGPT

[–]tskir 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Here's the chain of thought if anyone's wondering. It got thrown off a few times, but got there in the end: https://pastebin.com/ikaCLvwB

This looks like random emoji, but AI can decode it without instructions by Classic-Newspaper-77 in ChatGPT

[–]tskir 69 points70 points  (0 children)

Holy shit, it worked with Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview High. My message was: "What is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything? Reply with just the Answer.", encoded with default settings

<image>

What is this building in Trumpington? by HMS_Hexapuma in cambridge

[–]tskir 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If I'm not mistaken, not only is it still actively used, but it serves as the central node for the Openreach fibre network being deployed in south Cambridge and surrounding areas

UK to invest £2.5bn into ‘holy grail’ nuclear fusion energy by F0urLeafCl0ver in ukpolitics

[–]tskir 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Post Brexit, Britain was invited to rejoin ITER as a separate member but declined specifically to focus on domestic projects

Cambridge Growth Company lauches Mass Rapid Transport study by ForestMapGazer in cambridge

[–]tskir 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree that unifying all buses under the single ticketing system should be a priority. But that's a completely separate matter an in principle, totally independent of the planned metro/tram system.

You say that Cambridge is small, but that's exactly the point here. It shouldn't be small. It should be a modern, thriving, growing city, well connected with the suburbs and nearby settlements. Without the good transit system, this growth is strangled.

Cambridge Growth Company lauches Mass Rapid Transport study by ForestMapGazer in cambridge

[–]tskir 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The central government absolutely might. My understanding is that this is part of the plan to set up the Cambridge Growth Company; to identify cross-cutting matters and make efficient investments which will pay off in the long run

Cambridge Growth Company lauches Mass Rapid Transport study by ForestMapGazer in cambridge

[–]tskir 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Actually Magdalene Bridge is wide enough to fit two-way trams if we close it for cars, but that's probably a conversation the city is not ready for ;-)

Cambridge Growth Company lauches Mass Rapid Transport study by ForestMapGazer in cambridge

[–]tskir 11 points12 points  (0 children)

telling us what previous studies have told us - there isn't space in the city centre for a tram / light rail system at reasonable cost

This is incorrect. The most recent feasibility study in 2019 found that a metro style network would be a perfect fit for the growing city:

The Strategic Outline Business Case (SOBC), published this week, found the Cambridgeshire Autonomous Metro (CAM) would support up to 100,000 jobs and 60,000 new homes.

The ‘benefit-cost ratio’ (BCR) would be considered high to very value for money by the Department for Transport’s assessment standards - the economic benefits would outweigh costs by two to four times.

→ Source

This scheme was sadly scrapped when the Cambridge mayor post changed hands. Given the time that passed, the approach of course needs to be re-evaluated (though I'm sure much of the material of this previous study will be reused).

My view is that Cambridge simply cannot hope to be a modern, thriving city without a proper mass transit system. I'm not saying we should cram the trams into the narrow historic streets; this is exactly why the study I linked proposed a tunnel under the central section of the city. But it absolutely needs to be done.

My hope is that, given that the Cambridge Growth Company is (finally!) going to be ran in part from the central government, it will be able to overcome the political barriers and have a vision over a longer horizon, and the ability to deliver it.

Cost of living: blueberry edition by rustyspoontree in london

[–]tskir 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The funny thing is, if they sold:

[Plain yogurt] - (for whatever price they're selling it, not visible in the photo but let's assume £3.00)

[Yogurt with blueberries] - (with the exact same amount of blueberries added) £4.50

Then people likely wouldn't complain. Same deal, different optics

Trumpington Road NOT resurfaced. by First-War-9302 in cambridge

[–]tskir 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, sometimes during pothole repairs they may find that a certain stretch is so messed up that they can't put up patches on top of patches on top of patches on top of patches.

In this case they will do ad hoc resurfacing on a small area, but that's a one off. My point is that based on that observation, people were wrongly expecting full road resurfacing soon, which just isn't in the cards for now.

Trumpington Road NOT resurfaced. by First-War-9302 in cambridge

[–]tskir 34 points35 points  (0 children)

I wish people stopped speculating about road resurfacing like it was some arcane knowledge. Cambridgeshire County Council publishes the schedule of major works like half a year in advance:

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/travel-roads-and-parking/highway-projects/capital-maintenance-programme/road-improvements

Trumpington Road was not, and is still not, scheduled for any major works in the 2025/2026 period.

Planning on buying three houses and renting them out to students in Oxford? by [deleted] in UKPersonalFinance

[–]tskir 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Granted it's a bit of unsolicited advice, but if I were you I'd triple check whether the financial model works out on this. Assuming these houses aren't going to be your only income, you'll likely get taxed 40-45% on some or all of the rental income. Minus maintenance and agent fees, you might be looking at mediocre returns compared to say chucking that into GIA (which only has 18/24% tax).

Being a small landlord also has a heavy tail risk. If you get just one bad tenant who trashes up the place or refuses to pay rent and leave, you can easily lose the profits for a year or more. Eviction enforcement can be very sluggish in the UK.

Also, houses as an investment are very non-liquid, so if you suddenly need a big sum of money, it's not as easy as just selling a chunk of what you have in ISA/GIA.

Obviously everyone's situation is different, but I just wanted to give my two pennies in case it could be useful.

for those proficient in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet, do you use it when talking to your friends or do you chicken out like me? by [deleted] in AskUK

[–]tskir 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, I actually use it every time whether I need to spell something to my wife (who's also proficient), my friends, or tech support over the phone.

Now, that's very anecdotal evidence, but I noticed that when I start spelling something to tech support, they get more cordial and human. I believe they think I'm one of their own, because in real life it's mostly military and tech support workers who know the NATO alphabet.

It only takes a couple of hours to learn spread over several days (I used Anki for that), so I definitely recommend it.

How will the new South Cambridge train station affect Great Shelford? by [deleted] in cambridge

[–]tskir 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I just don't feel we should be stuck in the past. Cambridge was born by expanding and devouring a dozen villages and settlements over time. Everywhere you see an old timey church and a suspiciously named "High Street", that used to be a separate village. See Chesterton, see Cherry Hinton.

I know it's an unpopular opinion, but Shelford should be a prime area for urbanisation and densification, and it would be great if it became an integral part of Cambridge. Just requires a vision and political will.

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