Now that’s a phone case I could get behind.

And before posting, I got curious and of course someone has actually done it… https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1510193079/ziggy-handlink-quantum-leap-phone-case?show_sold_out_detail=1&ref=nla_listing_details

I did wonder if that might prove to be the answer, glad it wasn’t! 😁

Me too. I enjoyed it but reached a point where I just couldn’t figure out how to proceed. Must go have and have another go sometime.

Funnily enough, I would refer to a department as “it” rather than “they” 😁

Aw man, I remember my kid having the Biff Chip and Kipper books, but we never got to the end of them as far as I know. That magic key bit was a real twist in what had thusfar been a pretty reality-grounded series. I need to go look up how that story progressed.

Ah ok, didn’t know that. And yeah, the numbers just don’t make sense at all! 😁

No, VAT is 20% (except maybe on a few very specific products)

Can’t speak for this specific instance of course, but in the UK you occasionally get people flying messages over football ⚽ grounds or whatever, and I have read more than once that the company doing the flying don’t actually know what message they are pulling - they just get the packaged up message and fly it where the customer asks them to.

Don’t know if that’s true, though and it’s arguable whether that absolves them completely of responsibility for the message being shown.

EDIT - that being said, the first example I found contradicts me - here, the message was known by everyone, including the pilot!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/26783751

EDIT 2 - a particularly nasty example here, where someone mentions banners not being checked. They definitely should have been.

https://news.sky.com/story/outraged-airport-bans-banner-flights-after-white-lives-matter-burnley-stunt-12013293

“Due to the nature of the activity, banners are not checked before take-off and the content is at the operator’s discretion.”

And then if someone finds it, it’ll be a UFO… oh wait…

Test image - uploaded in Sync:

Visible immediately in Sync, and on mobile browser (FF Nightly for Android).

Anyone having any issues with this pic?

That ad thing is weird, I’ve not seen anything like that at all. In fact I don’t even see video ads. Where is this, in your feed? Or when you open a thread?

I wonder if it’s to do with how the feed is set up? I use Small Cards view, don’t know if that’s maybe preventing me seeing the ads in the first place? I do sometimes see small static ads at the top of a thread, but that’s all.

I still use Sync every day, and I can’t think of any issues I’ve had with it. What sort of bugs do you mean?

I’m still using Sync (for Lemmy) but I’ll need to check Voyager out, since it seems Sync is now abandoned.

First - try not to worry (easy for me to say that, I know). This sort of stuff can seem overwhelming, especially if you’ve never done it before. Many (most/all?) people will have felt the same at some point, and possibly even still do after going through it plenty of times. Perfectly normal to feel overwhelmed. But you can get through it.

Second - try not to catastrophise about what *might *happen, what *might *go wrong, because that’s just an endless loop of worry and it’ll make it harder to get on and do the stuff (which leads to more worrying, etc). Most of it won’t happen, so don’t waste energy thinking about how you’ll cope with situations that you’ll probably not ever encounter.

Third - Don’t fear gatekeepers. I find that most people, most of the time, are genuinely trying to be helpful and pleasant, and if you say to them that , “I’ve not done this before, how do I…?” they’ll help you out as best they can. Don’t be overly apologetic, don’t go in with the assumption that you’re a bother to them or are wasting their time - it’s their job to help get you from one position to another, and it’s usually in their interest to get you there with the minimum of fuss. Just be polite and clear and they’ll probably do the same.

Not everyone will be like that of course, but most will (in my experience anyway), especially if you keep things simple and focus on the task you want to accomplish rather than giving off “I’m panicking, help!” vibes, as that makes emotional demands on them, and they are usually there for functional reasons, not emotional support. So just be like, “Hi, I’ve not done this before, can you help me?” and take it from there. Let their experience guide you.

Fourth - do one thing at a time, and even then break tasks down into smaller chunks. So the passport thing - read what you can online (or speak to someone official), and note down specific documents/photos that you will need to gather. Then take each of those as its own individual task and break those tasks down into the steps to achieve each one. Each individual task probably isn’t all that complicated on its own, and you don’t have to do them all at once. Spread it out as much as you want, unless you’re in a hurry. But have a plan and stick to it, eg:

Day 1 - I need a photo - What kind of photo is acceptable? Where can I get one? Can I get it today? If so, go get it (if not, decide when you will do so, and stick to that), put it somewhere safe (a folder, and envelope, whatever) - and then stop. You’ve done the first task, well done.

Day 2 - I need proof of my address - What kind of proof is acceptable? Do I already have it? If so, get it (if not, decide when you will do so, and stick to that). Put it aside in your folder - and then stop. You’ve done the second task, well done.

Etc…

If something proves easy/quick enough, then maybe start on the next day’s task, but don’t try to do everything at once - you’re learning this stuff, you will make mistakes, but you’ll also cope with them and learn better for next time.

Adulting is complicated - but you learn it bit by bit, and in the end you’ll be ok. Good luck!

This is sadly also one of the primary damages that AI is currently doing to the internet field, because not only is it decreasing web traffic for web hosts due to AI summaries and searches, but it’s also forcing web hosts to have to block or restrict indexers

Not to mention the damage it’s doing to content quality, as websites become increasingly written in a way that’s meant to optimise for AI placement, and are increasingly being populated with content written by an AI in the first place. Information, written by machines, for machines. It’s depressing as hell (and hard to see how it ultimately helps engage real actual people, who seem to be an afterthought sometimes).

Can I fly in and then fly home again immediately? If so, sure. Otherwise, no.

Always enjoy those videos from Japan of 100 (or more) school kids playing football ⚽ against a handful of professionals.

Eg: https://youtu.be/MYFcTWKcuQM

Another one, this time from Germany: https://youtu.be/iEOKI2jeETM

You have the option to take either just the first box, or both boxes. In the first it always puts $1,000. In the second it will put either $1 million if it thinks you’ll take just the first box; or $0 if it thinks you’ll take both.

I think that’s slightly wrong. IIRC, the machine will put the million in box 2 if it thinks you’ll only choose box 2.

There has to be a way to get the million for this to work, and the way you laid it out would make it impossible to get the million.

Also, I’m not sure that we, as the chooser, know for sure exactly how accurate the machine is - if we did, and it was 99.99% accurate then it’d be a pretty easy choice to only pick box 2 and thus get the million 99.99% of the time.

I think there has to be some doubt about the machine’s predictive accuracy to make the choice of box 2 only, a risky one.

However I’ve only watched the MinutePhysics video, and I was getting quite confused tbh! 😁

Already commented on this, but thought of some more:

Isley Brothers: Ohio/Machine Gun - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC6qOvfgDJI (this is a cover of 2 tunes, the first by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, the second by Jimi Hendrix)

And just released today (like, 2 hours ago) - Massive Attack, Tom Waits - Boots on the Ground: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-57FrioeuE

I’ve not used it for this purpose, but the (excellent) Photo Editor has a batch edit function and removing metadata appears to be an option: