iso1631

I nat all my dns traffic to the pihole, but looking at the logs my lg tv is using the dhcp provided ones.

Of course DOH would break that but I don't get the feeling it's bypassing it.

Consumers will happily sell their data for a $100 discount. Hell they'll waste 20 minutes watching adverts to save $1.

most of my machines use unnatended-upgrades

Increasingly software is distributed by "curl dodgysite.com/get.sh|sudo bash -", no different to running "install.exe" on windows

Surely Windows Update is a vetted repo as much as arch or debian

Only reason LG doesn't have adverts is by forcing it to use a pihole, but even that needs updating -- recently they've managed to push things through and I need to do another investigation to see what needs blocking. Trouble is I only see them when I'm not in the mood to be working, and then forget about them

LG's own code is quasi-malware

Shocking suggests something unexpected

You need to account for carbin import/exports in manufactured goods and services

If the UK imported all its electricity from Poland, it would reduce on a per-capita basis but would increase global

This is shocking

Is it really? Have you been asleep for the last decade?

Oh don't be silly

Private companies take whatever information they want and sell it to any bidder they want and you get no say

It's freedom. It's not like its the government that is doing the collection, so that's ok.

A neverending land tax to a private company because the state can't keep a record of who owns what

The US system is more the oddity, its the legacy England system from pre-19th century. England and Wales adopted and modified an Australian system, and its adopted a fair bit across the commonwealth. In other developed countries a lot are very much registry-is-correct. I think France is the main one which is "deeds based"

The advantages are you can see who owns the land, there's no argument in 20 years time when someone puts a competing claim.

There's an entire industry in the US dedicated to working around the problems that buyers have https://www.alta.org/

If you buy land, then build a house, then someone comes along from 1932 saying "actually that land is mine", you are screwed.

majority of countries don't need an airside transit, from Bhutan to Kazakhstan, Indonesia to Venezuela, hell even North Korea.

A US citizen flying New York to London to Egypt does not need to pay £20 for an ETA "visa waiver" to transfer in London. A UK citizen flying London to New York to Lima does need to pay for an ESTA

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg15ev0347o

Sods law would be the only bank not affected would be those I owe money to

No, you land at Heathrow you don't go pass passport control if you change onto another international flight. You go through security and then into the departure lounge.

Obviously if you land at Heathrow and fly out of Manchester then sure you have to immigrate, but not at the same airport.

Same at Dubai and Qatar, Helsinki and Frankfurt, Singapore. and Seoul.

Indeed last time I transited Seoul I stayed in a hotel airside for 12 hours before my next flight.

For any US visa you do, and you can't take electronic items or bags with you. Costs a lot more too.

A reason I refused to go to Syria a couple of years ago. A colleague who did go said "oh I have a US (i) visa so I'm fine". I asked "how about in 20 years time when you've left a company which will pay for you to have a US visa. He hadn't considered that.

A friend of mine went to Libya on behalf of the US military about a decade ago. He is no longer eligible for a US esta and thus has to get a visa if he goes on holiday.

Last time I went to India I had to get a real visa which involved travelling to an office in London and waiting around for a couple of hours.

It's quite normal for people of "lesser powered" countries who don't have the power of passport that the US and Western European citizens do. Even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, you would have to fly for hours to a major Russian city a couple of weeks in advance to apply for a visa to visit the UK.

When I went to Pakistan in 2010 it was even worse. Well until I gave up and then used a visa agency which just handled it all for me.

Last time I tried to go to India I went for an electronic visa, and after 7 days of "waiting" they updated it to say "declined". No explanation.

So it's a "lightweight" visa.

The information you need to provide as an Iranian after a P1 visa is not remotely comparable to a British citizen after a B1 visa either.

ESTAs used to be instant for me, but last time I got one (2023) it took 2 days

The US is particularly bad as you need an ESTA to transit. I had a friend nearly caught out by that on a flight from London to Lima which involved changing in Miami. When changing plane from an international to international flight in most countries you get off a plane, maybe go through security, and then get on another plane. In the US this isn't a thing. You have to immigrate into the country for 20 minutes.

Its changed in the last year or so. Officially it started in October 2025, it's been a bit of a disaster in terms of implementation. It's called the Entry/Exit System (EES)

I've had my fingerprints taken every time I've been to the US, although not always all the fingers every time, presumably on subsequent visits if you have passport + right hand matches, they don't bother scanning left hand or thumbs.

I've certainly had the full scan on multiple occasions though.

You're making an assumption that

1) spending more time handcrafting the code makes it less likely to crash

2) That the cost of the crash is more than the cost of the artisinal crafting

There was also the pattern of "closing as already answered" with an answer from 6 years earlier which wasn't actually answering the question when you dig into it. Certainly in the code stacks.

If you fly between European countries there’s no border check _at all_. (Your airline may check but that’s different).

On the flip side I was asked for a passport on a train from Denmark to Germany last year, Schengen allows them to demand passports. Previous time I went to Denmark (2011) I went to Malmo for the evening and again was asked for a passport on the train.

Anecdotally I don’t think I’ve ever been stopped for a passport check in 15 years of flying between the Uk and Belfast.

I haven't been asked for a passport on a Belfast-London flight, but I have been asked for ID by the police on a Belfast-Liverpool ferry

Legally you do not have to have a passport or identity card to travel from GB to Ireland as a British/Irish citizen, although it will make things easier to prove your citizenship. This is the same as when you take a train from Denmark to Germany.

And it is true for a lot of people. It's also true for the people paying my salary.

If you're making a plane, crashing 1 in 1000 times is terrible, if you're making some administrative thing which if it crashes costs 5 minutes work then it's likely fine

But you're still implying that the fancy software crafted by hand is better.

I have handmade crafted products and I have assembly line products. Not only are the latter cheaper and more consistent, they're often better. I don't want my beer to come in a handcrafted artisan glass while I'm watching the football, I want it in a pint glass of a known size and quality.

I wrote some software nearly 20 years ago, haven't touched it for over a decade.

The code was terrible, but I don't care, it did the job, and people still use it despite a whole team of people who have tried to replace it with "elegant" code in frameworks which have come and gone.

The reason people still use it is that it solves their needs, not the programmer's needs.

The goal was to make the user's life better, not to make a work of art

"a similar agreement could be done with Gibraltat belonging to Spain, which I would consider fairer"

Take your colonial desires and stuff them back in the 18th century where they belong

After 500 days? No

After 500 years? Yes

Somewhere between is reasonable to debate, but many people won't even agree on the principal of self determination, at least not consistently. Personally I wouldn't put the threshold longer than a human lifetime

Time and time again the Gibraltar people tell Spain they don't want to be part of Spain

Time and time again Spain complains

Time and time again hypocrites

I don't mind if you believe that "land makes right" or if you believe that "people have rights", but be consistent

Of course there aren't passport checks on planes or boats between Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland, but that only applies to Irish and British citizens.

On planes/boats between Northern Ireland and Great Britain there aren't passport checks, but they can and do check your passport.

And places like London, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, York, Warwick voted 60% to remain but still got taken out. Places like Oxford and Cambridge were over 70% remain.

What should have happened was the ability for any person to retain their European citizenship, or if under 18 choose on their 18th birthday. Then the remainers would not have had their rights stripped away.

The catch being if more than 50% of adults took this up, then the UK would not leave.

I assume you're also in favour of Ceuta and Melilla being given to Morocco over the wishes of the people whos ancestors have lived there for centuries?