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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: July 21st, 2023

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  • I see this every week when I drive to the office. Most of the route is 20mph and single lane. I go at the speed limit and every 2/3 weeks one will overtake me. I’ll then see them at the next light, then there next one, then the roundabout, etc for the next 30 minutes. I’ll usually then go past them as theres one junction with 2 lanes and they always seem to go in the “fast” lane so they end up behind me when it goes down to one. Makes me so happy everytime!

    Sometimes you see it when walking even in a black traffic spot - you’ll get to the lights before the cars you’ve passed sitting there.

    Im doing to build my fitness up to cycle the route and think it’ll take roughly the same time.

    Unfortunately the route is really difficult and long on public transport - it’s easy to get into central and back but trying to go across the edge to the other side was never designed for






  • I definitely have this but it falls apart when working on my computer unless theres one really urgent task or a work call. The fact I’m sitting or the waiting for something to load or something gets in the way stops my motion. Do you have any solutions for computer work?



  • Three days ago was in a shop at about 10.30am buying something with my headphones on. Went past the two guys queuing behind and one spotted me, pointed down and said “you dropped your gay card” and started laughing. I naturally looked down when he was pointing before I realised what he said. I was so stunned I just looked back at him, gave a half chuckle then turned and left. Wish I said something or did something differently but was just so surprised and perplexed!


  • Curious how your workplace is handling this as laws here are very different to the US (depending on State). Are you still going to be on payroll as an employee or some type of contractor?

    If an employee they need to operate payroll in the UK (called PAYE), and they need to consider if you create a permanent establishment for them. There’s also legal and HR requirements on them under UK laws (right to work checks, redundancy laws, can’t just fire you, pension auto-enrollment, minimum wage checks, health and wellbeing, safety, minimum holiday pay, sick leave, just to name a few, theres lots more and even more coming in a new law that’s just passed).

    If you create your own limited company and operate as a contractor, you will likely be “inside ir35” but the workplace needs to assess this themselves. This means your own company will have to operate payroll and keep in line with employment obligations. If this is the direction you’re probably better off using an umbrella company but make sure you pick a reputable one with good reviews rather than the cheapest. This could also cause the workplace to have a UK permanent establishment depending on your role but less of a risk. If you DM your job title I could tell you the rough risk.

    You could be a self-employed contractor which means you have to submit tax returns yourself and the workplace has no UK presence but it technically risky from a tax / legal point of view.

    Once you move, you’ll likely become tax resident in the UK so should inform/register with HMRC. You’ll need to start paying national insurance after 12 months. You still have to do US returns forever. It’s one of the very few countries who do this by the way.

    Check out moneysavingexpert.com for everything it tells you about - anything to do with banks, savings, credit cards, insurance, electricity, mobile contracts, broadband etc). It’s a life saver to explain different products to decide what you actually need, and then where is the cheapest or best value.

    Buy anything above £100 on a UK credit card but pay it off on the statement day (if a normal one, look for 0% spending cards or balance transfers for essentially a free or cheap loan but might need credit history). This gives you extra putrefaction (called section 75)

    Getting a bank account is the hardest bit so hopefully the HSBC account makes it easier but worth getting a UK based one too once you have an address (it’s free here so you can easily have more). I think HSBC sucks to be honest.

    Getting a place to live can also be tricky. Renting can take some time to find and accept a place (one to three months depending on local availability). Buying can be a long ass process. Start looking on rightmove to get an idea (for renting or buying). I would rent for a while to get to know the places or ask someone locally where to live. You could rent an airbnb for a month (or another form of holiday rental) to make your life easier.

    Check if you need a car where you live and if buying, look at autotrader.co.uk for an idea of prices but also look at car insurance as can be expensive but and varies enormously by car model. Look at how long your driving licence will last, if you can transfer or need to take a test after a while (DVLA is our licencing agency).

    Once established in a place, register with a GP and dentist asap.

    Theres a new rule about traveling to the UK if you have dual citizenship - you have to use your UK passport for the flight to the UK.


  • 79% of smart dash cams we tested had security issues Out of 28, only six didn’t have any concerns. Find out what problems we uncovered and how to keep your dash cam secure Callum Pears Researcher & writer

    Callum pushes tech to its limits and has spent nearly three years bombarding antivirus with malware, taxing routers and inspecting computer monitors

    Which? dash cam tests found security flaws and concerns in the majority of smart models we tested, and in some cases they were breaking the law.

    Smart dash cams have wireless connectivity and features that use the internet. This could be tracking technologies, motion detection, voice assistant controls and voice alerts, as well as more advanced features such as automatic cloud backup, real-time alerts and remote viewing.

    You’re also able to transfer footage wirelessly to the companion app on your smartphone, which is much quicker and more straightforward than traditional dash cams, where you’d need to remove the SD or micro-SD card and copy the files over to your computer.

    Although these features make a dash cam a more useful tool for drivers, they also expose you to potential security risks.

    Our testing found numerous dash cams with multiple security vulnerabilities. In fact, of the 28 smart dash cams we tested, only six lacked security concerns.

    Find out what problems we encountered, which manufacturers took action to fix the problems we uncovered, and what you can do to keep your dash cam secure.

    Best dash cams: compare dash cams from Garmin, Nextbase, Road Angel and more What were the issues we found? A person watching dash cam footage on their smartphone

    Of all the issues we found, weak default wi-fi passwords were the most concerning security vulnerability because they mean that nearby hackers could connect to the devices and access data such as journey information, saved recordings and other personal information.

    Since 2024, manufacturers have been obliged to ensure that default passwords aren’t easily guessable. This can be resolved by enforcing a mandatory password change or by assigning unique default passwords.

    We contacted each manufacturer to share our findings and gave them an opportunity to comment and resolve our concerns.

    Road Angel successfully addressed the issue with its dash cams, which now require changing the default password.

    Miofive initially responded and released a firmware patch that fixed some of our other concerns, but didn’t resolve the default password issue. Miofive didn’t respond to our follow-up messages, and we received no response from Kitvison and Orskey.

    In addition to weak passwords, we also found mediocre encryption on some dash cams. There were several exploitable security weaknesses that made it possible to intercept data, access, and potentially modify stored video files.

    To do this would be difficult for hackers. In most cases, they would need to be very close to the dash cam to exploit it – but it’s not impossible. Many of these issues are also exacerbated by the poor default wi-fi passwords.

    Nextbase resolved our concerns with firmware patches. Miofive and Road Angel fixed some issues but not others, and we’re continuing to work with Road Angel to get remaining concerns resolved.

    Garmin reviewed our findings but stated that it believes that numerous factors 'limit the exploitability of any purported vulnerabilities such that there is no practical risk to our customers’. Kitvision and Orskey did not respond.

    In an age of growing cyberattacks and sophistication among hackers, dash cam manufacturers should be placing the greatest emphasis on their devices’ security, even if they think it’s difficult to exploit or a niche weakness.
    Why is PSTI important? Dash cam showing the road ahead

    The Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI) Act came into effect in April 2024. It mandates that manufacturers, importers and distributors (such as retailers) have a duty to protect devices that can connect to the internet or other networks.

    It states ‘UK consumers should be able to trust that these products are designed and built with security in mind’.

    The PSTI Act specifies the publication of information on how to report security issues, details on how long manufacturers will ensure security patches are released and the banning of universal default and easily guessable passwords.

    These factors are important for strengthening security defences and ensuring that manufacturers release updates to keep products safe from new threats.

    Although the Act gives manufacturers time to bring their products in line with its standards, they’re now duty bound to investigate compliance failures and take action if required.

    If manufacturers fail to act, then the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) will intervene. The OPSS is an enforcement authority responsible for ensuring compliance.

    Strong legal protections and vigilant enforcement mean UK consumers can use smart devices – including dash cams – with confidence, knowing that non-compliance by manufacturers will have consequences.

    Which? takes this seriously too, and we’ve already informed the OPSS about our findings, the responses we received from manufacturers and the concerns we still have.

    3 steps to keep your dash cam safe and secure A person installing a dash cam in a car

    There are some simple steps you can take to boost your dash cam’s security, regardless of what manufacturers do or don’t do.

    1. Update wi-fi passwords

    The most important thing we would encourage every smart dash cam owner to do right now is to update the wi-fi password.

    This is used to connect to paired smartphones and transfer footage wirelessly to them. A weak or easily guessable password could, under the right circumstances, allow others access to your dash cam and its library of footage.

    As our testing has found many manufacturers still fail to either enforce a mandatory change, or provide a unique default password – it’s highly recommended that users update them independently to a strong, but memorable, alternative. Check out our guide to creating secure passwords for help with this. 2. Install firmware updates

    In addition to resolving software bugs and performance issues, firmware updates also provide important security updates.

    It’s important to update both the dash cam itself and any companion app. These updates ensure both are equipped to deal with newly discovered or recently resolved security vulnerabilities. 3. Keep footage backed up elsewhere

    It’s good practice to ensure that captured video footage – particularly important footage (such as that showing an incident, accident, or crash) – is backed up securely and separately from internal storage and any subscription-based cloud storage you may be using.

    The risk to footage located exclusively on the internal SD or micro-SD card is that it could become corrupted, damaged, lost or stolen.

    Cloud-based storage is typically part of a subscription service (either from the dash cam manufacturer or a third party). The risk here is ending the subscription and losing access to the stored footage, which the provider may later delete after you’ve unsubscribed.

    Back up footage on your computer or smartphone to keep it safe. Alternatively, for additional peace of mind, consider investing in a USB storage device or external hard drive to store your backed-up dash cam footage. Make sure to pick a model with a healthy amount of storage, as video files tend to be large.

    The latest dash cams we’ve tested BlackVue DR970X-2CH Plus BlackVue DR970X-2CH Plus dash cam BlackVue DR970X-2CH Plus Amazon Marketplace UK £529.95 Amazon UK £529.95

    The DR970X-2CH Plus is a forward-facing and rear-facing dash cam with a 4K camera for the front windscreen and a Full HD camera for the back.

    It has a range of smart features and functionality, and you can review footage using the companion BlackVue app or the BlackVue Viewer web software.

    You can also follow footage on a virtual map using the collected GPS data, helping you identify where key events occurred.

    Through the BlackVue Cloud service you can access more advanced features such as push notifications to your smartphone, live view and cloud storage. Some of these features require a subscription at an additional cost.

    Read our BlackVue DR970X-2CH Plus review to find out how it fared in our tough tests. Garmin Dash Cam X210 Garmin Dash Cam X210

    Available from Garmin (£260)

    The X210’s 2K camera is an upgrade of the earlier X110. It’s comparatively small, making its footprint on the windscreen minimal, especially compared with some models.

    Motion detection, GPS tracking and voice controls are all notable smart features.

    The Vault Subscription Plan Advance grants you access to Garmin’s secure cloud-based storage feature. This is accessed through the Garmin Drive app.

    Take a look at our Garmin Dash Cam X210 review to see how it compares to others we’ve tested. Nextbase Piqo 1K Nextbase Piqo 1K dash cam

    Available from Halfords (£99), Nextbase (£99)

    The Piqo 1K is one of the more affordable dash cams we’ve tested, but it doesn’t come with a supplied SD card, which can easily catch you out.

    It has a solid array of additional smart features, including GPS tracking, motion detection and the ability to access footage via the companion Nextbase app.

    Footage is listed with thumbnails in the app, making it a doddle to cycle through them.

    Check out the Nextbase Piqo 1K review to see if it’s the right dash cam for you.



  • Depending on your download speed, you can manually download a TV show episode in seconds to minutes. By the time you watch that episode, at least the next one will be ready. It is quite rare to have to do this though, me and my family mostly add shows on Seer when we find them (recommendations, adverts, etc) and by the time we’ve sat down to watch it’ll be ready.

    I did the whole lists thing others have mentioned but to be honest, we found there was too much choice, lots of crap and quickly ran out of space. Taking an active role in choosing shows and films works better for us and I’ll have a short list at any time to watch.


  • How about

    • reinventing trains but worse
    • rocketing amount of space launches filling up junk
    • we deliver everything but once we take over it’ll all be crap rip off products (for slave wages)
    • we deliver any food by people who can’t drive (for slave wages)
    • we’ll create algorithms to enforce society divisions and hurt mental health of children
    • we’ll take over a popular platform and make it even more disgusting and fascist



  • That is interesting and shows they need to go further based on this so hopefully highlighting this issue will lead there. Any car without a clear licence plate should be immediately pulled over by police and fined on the spot plus checked for insurance, licence, etc. If they don’t have insurance here in the UK, the car is impounded until someone with a driving licence and appropriate insurance collects it. If you don’t have a driving licence, im not too clear if they impound it or just leave the car there and arrest the driver. Either way, they’re not able to drive off.

    Any vehicle owner should either identify the driver at the time or take the points by default. Cameras should be changed to ones that take pictures of the drivers from the front. The technology exists!

    If a car isn’t taxed, the police can fine or more usually, the driving authority roams around randomly and if the car is on any public road, puts a boot on the car and a massive yellow sticker on the windscreen. It doesn’t happen often but enough to make people pay taxes or get called out to your neighbours. Eventually those cars are impounded too.

    The flip side to all this though is the need for infrastructure to actually slow cars down instead of just a speed limit. Only a combination of a lot of things will do anything



  • I’m an accountant and tax professional but have always been into computers. I had a social media account breached although it was no issue as hadn’t used it did years. I used a terrible password as thought it did not matter but made me realise I needed to be better generally so started using a password manager.

    Then Netflix stopped account sharing. I had just got a 4k TV and only their top level with 4 screens supported it so was pissed off. The fragmentation across services had started so was getting annoyed anyway. This led me to the arr’s.

    I decided I could no longer trust Microsoft and hated their pricing structure so was interested in Nextcloud. By then I found the self hosted community (on reddit), bought a desktop PC and after getting the hang of it plus many mistakes I loved my services so will never look back.

    Joined the migration to Lemmy. Am based in the UK and joined the anti-US feelings so am setting up more storage, better redundancy and more services for my family. A few family members are interested in helping so can share backups.