A number of banks here used to use a system like this a couple of decades ago. You’d get a card reader-calculator thing like in the pictures and there was a similar challenge-response flow. I’ve got no idea if they are even supported any more; I’ve definitely not seen one in a long time.

I remember “I’ll transfer you back when I can get my reader at home” and similar was not uncommon to hear

Background white noise from a fan seems to be the main thing that helps

They just spent £1.3bn on building that office

Even the most egregious caricature of a union buster is gonna baulk at throwing that investment away

Late stage capitalism.

When it is already hard to save up and buy a house before it’s too late for you and your partner to be capable of conceiving, is it any surprise?

I know plenty of people who would have a kid but don’t because they simply can’t afford to

We all know what happened to Napster, but I wonder what happened to the KaZaA and Morpheus and the other non-FOSS P2P networks

Y’know what? My brain replaced Chrome with Android and I went to the 2GB of AI model that they bundle with the OS now (maybe just pixel devices)

(Also before anyone fancies getting sanctimonious, Apple bundles a 3GB model with all their shit too)

Remember when the pretty universal convention was that an OS let you pick the components you wanted to install?

It’s his hundredth birthday in 2 days!

Honestly vinyl records, and I say this as a collector with joy

I think it’s kinda surprising when you think that most people who enjoy music in 2026 have access to a good percentage of all music ever recorded as part of their music streaming subscription.

It warms my heart that there’s enough people out there who don’t give a shit about the level of convenience provided by streaming that ultimately erodes the work of an artist, and they choose to buy an expensive plastic circle instead

Tracks on an album are intended to be listened to in the context of that album. To normalise pulling pieces out and ignoring the rest is kinda destructive to the artists’ intent.

Vinyl records are kinda the antithesis to that mindset. You’re kinda forced to engage with the album as an atomic piece of art

So for me it’s not just surprising, but a thing of beauty

We’re in a bit of a renaissance!

Kodak just put out brand new Kodacolor 200 and Ektachrome 100 film

I’ve not even got one developed yet!

The lengths people will go to, to not visit their local library smh

Polling has been getting increasingly worse for decades now.

Their accuracy died with the monoculture and no amount of multilevel regression and post-stratification seems to compensate for that

Have these bans really been in place long enough to actually see an impact?

I would imagine you need a cohort to go through the whole span of secondary education with the ban in order to reasonably measure impact.

I’m suspicious of this study and its stakeholders

People who choose Notion are either ignorant of or don’t care enough about the lock-in to set up and use something like Obsidian instead.

Honestly a big part of it is marketing: Notion advertises on the local metro in many cities, Obsidian gets recommended by people on techy online discussion forums.

Another part is initial friction: with obsidian you need to figure a few more things out before you can get going (e.g. do I want to sync/backup this? Where should that go?). With Notion you just make an account, validate your email and then get started (which is an onboarding process everyone is familiar with)

But essentially

how would you ever migrate that to new software?

You’re not supposed to ask yourself this question until it’s too late

Honestly even with half of the flavours there that justify that (the walnuts go a long way towards justifying the fruit and mayo combo): the preparation is very important here

Or a COVID test if you’ve still got one knocking about

No one with taste buds over the age of 8 does this

If that’s the case, I don’t know what the current landscape is like with them, but I remember reading ages ago about extensions that would click all ads (in the background) for you so that you cost the advertisers money and muddy up their profile on you.

No idea if those still exist or are any good

Fair play, things being networked is a pretty classic “smart” feature, and I struggle to see a need for a networked toilet.

I kinda take “smart” to mean the bit broader definition of: something with extra features that introduce additional processing, sensors and (usually) programmability, that otherwise typically would be relatively dumb. Maybe that’s a bit of an older take on the term now though

I would have agreed with you a few years ago, but after a visit to Japan I’ve gotta say we’re living in the stone age everywhere else

It’s the name of a famous talk show host in the UK