halfercode

Preamble: there's no promotion here, not even a subtle one, and no request to test stuff. No AI was used to write this text.

My question is mostly to folks who run a web property, particularly for a B2C audience. That said, it might apply to mobile apps, and perhaps it applies to B2B in some cases. I don't know: you tell me.

I've been thinking of how cautious users can best "kick the tyres" in a web app, especially in examples of SaaS products often discussed here. Mostly it's screenshots or social media videos + voiceover illustrating a typical workflow. Alright, it is well understood that users have a complex psychological journey to put their payment card on record, even if they trust a

Preamble: there's no promotion here, not even a subtle one, and no request to test stuff. No AI was used to write this text.

My question is mostly to folks who run a web property, particularly for a B2C audience. That said, it might apply to mobile apps, and perhaps it applies to B2B in some cases. I don't know: you tell me.

I've been thinking of how cautious users can best "kick the tyres" in a web app, especially in examples of SaaS products often discussed here. Mostly it's screenshots or social media videos + voiceover illustrating a typical workflow. Alright, it is well understood that users have a complex psychological journey to put their payment card on record, even if they trust a

I might be popping into the rabbit-hole! 🐰

I recently got a good deal on a second-hand pair of Focal Utopias, adding to a small collection consisting of Elegias and LCD-Xs. Since the Utopias are new, and very good, I've been trying a large number of albums in my collection, and I find modern LPs (mostly folk and pop) tend to have the exceptional mixing that make these headphones sound exceptional.

I'm driving these cans from the unbalanced out on my RME ADI-2 DAC FS. My headphone cables are a mix of stock and custom. My audio source is just various laptops, via USB. I have a USB optical isolator, which I could put in the chain.

I've already been helpfully advised that I should not spend f

https://goodlawproject.org/win-indentured-labour-is-unlawful-rules-court-of-appeal/

This article is well worth a read - some good news. It is written by campaign group GLP, who use private prosecutions to achieve justice in the UK.

In this case, they were trying to legally establish that companies like Geeks Limited should not be allowed to require a training cost payback period for grad tech staff. The article goes on to show that this situation may have incentivised the company to keep wages low, even though the worker could have received a higher wage elsewhere.

Capita and FDM were of a similar practice, but they both stopped a number of years ago.

At the end of the article, GLP say t

The RAMpocolypse is upon us. The gap between a Desktop 64GB and 128GB is a shocking £1,500. I am pondering buying a FW mobo even at the inflated price, on the basis that I don't think I can assess local LLMs without getting my hands dirty with some experimentation.

So, in a way, the price isn't necessarily a barrier. The price of the total build (mobo and custom case) is probably still in line with what someone would spend on a decent-spec games PC.

However, I am currently placing an invisible bet that RAM prices will remain high for the next couple of years. I don't know how much the Big AI bubble can hold off, and I wonder if there will be more IPOs before there is a market crash, but ev

Here's a question that I've been pondering over the last month. I'll set out a bit of context first - I'm a senior software engineer on the backend, I'm using Claude Code both inside and outside of work, and I'm developing my personal engineering style after 25 years of manual coding.

I quite like AI coding, especially where I have to delve into CSS and other areas where I am not strong. However I don't like the AI companies, I don't like some of the cartoon super-villains running them, and I don't like the IPO madness. I am not keen that we might head into a big financial bubble and then have to deal with the mess when it bursts. In short, there is plenty of reasons for folks to get local

I've seen some posts and external links that suggest the forthcoming National Security Bill will be a typically authoritarian piece of legislation from the Starmer front bench. It looks like it will include the proscription of the IRGC in Iran, presumably in order to stop left-wingers arguing for pragmatic political support of the Iranian government in order that Palestine may enjoy some military protection, however inadequate.

These posts suggest that Ellie is planning to vote for the legislation, but I can't find any public threads here or elsewhere about why she would do that. It seems inimical to the principles of the GP as I understand them.

Links below, apologies for the hate-rag. (I

I just picked up an M5Stack Dial, and it is brilliant. I've uploaded some demos, I've bricked it, and I've un-bricked it.

I have a project that I'd like to do, but there seems to be a fairly disorganised plethora of languages and frameworks. I think the Expressif IDE is the "default" as this is the system punted by the chip manufacturer. These are in C.

But the M5Stack GitHub has some examples that are in C++ (and they are a mess too - the authors don't mind chucking 1,700 lines in the same file!).

One can also use the Arduino IDE with an M5Stack plugin. This is like C++, and it supports object orientation, but it is not actually C++.

It looks like M5Stack devices [can be used with Micro

I received this letter from TPR to my registered business address:

Re-enrolment and re-declaration: your legal duties as an employer

Every three years you have a legal duty as an employer to put certain staff back into your pension scheme. You must then submit a re-declaration of compliance to tell us what you've done, even if you have no staff to put back into your pension scheme. We are writing to you now, so you can prepare what you need to do in advance.

Depending on your circumstances, re-enrolment and re-declaration may be a two-stage process.

Re-enrolment
What you'll need to do will depend on the circumstances of your staff. Use our re-enrolment duties t

I am newly on a contract hunt, and - well, this isn't surprising - it's bumpy out there. My area is software engineering. Skills-wise I think I punch pretty well above my weight - if some of the contractors I have had to work with are any guide!

Currently I am finding recruiters are being extremely elusive. They won't return calls, they won't accept LinkedIn requests, they won't respond to LinkedIn instant messages. One recruiter recently said to me she didn't know the direct number of a colleague. I had to chase one recruiter twice to find out my interview for the following working day was canned. It feels like there's a "circle the wagons" mentality in tech recruitment at present, possibl

About a month ago there was a small police operation in the pedestrianised area of New Street. They seemed to be targetting food delivery folks, who nearly all seem to be using cheap-and-cheerful retro-fit bike motor kits. The bikes were being loaded into a police van, and I suspect they were going to the crusher.

Unfortunately most of these are not road legal. They are over-powered (you can often tell because the hub motor is as big as a dinner plate - 1000W instead of 250W) and they have a throttle control (the regulations say that the power needs to assist pedalling, and if it can be independently controlled then the vehicle has become a moped). You can have a bike any power you like,

I am shortly to take delivery of four M93p mini PCs, each coming with their own power supply. I expect the power supplies will be 65W each, with the slim-tip yellow plug.

I can run the devices off their respective devices, but cooling and cable management will be easier if I can just use one supply. There are a few options I have found for this:

• A USB C to slim-tip adaptor - not cheap at £20 each, so that's £80 even before the cost of the supply, and they are limited to 45W, not 65W. But that might be OK given that I don't imagine these devices will be taking the maximum from the supplied adaptors (no Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, no USB usage)
• The above could be powered by [this 200W PD adapte

I want to set up a mini docking station or two around my house. Mostly this would just be power delivery (45W) and gigabit Ethernet - although I have Wi-Fi, the latency is poor due to my thick (ancient) walls. I have found mini docking stations on eBay for around £30 - cheap enough to get a couple of them. I expect I would just plug my Dell USB C power adaptor in one end, plus an Ethernet cable, and get a multi-function USB C cable coming out the other end.

But I have noticed that on all docking stations, the cable is just for desktop usage - around 30cm or so. I'd like a USB C extension cable just like a power cable, say 2m or so, and eBay UK seems to do them. Can I expect this to deliver

I am putting a headphone system together. Currently I have a RME ADI-2 DAC FS, which is a DAC and headphone amp combined. I have obtained some Audeze LCD-X cans and plugged them in directly, and already my sound is glorious! (Both were ex-demo, so I've made some nice savings already).

Now, I am curious to see what difference a separate amplifier stage would make (though to my neophyte ears, the sound is stunningly good already). The ADI-2 can send out balanced or RCA outputs, and I am minded to try feeding this into a relatively inexpensive amplifier separate, just for curiosity purposes. I am reading up on the Schiit Magni and the Topping L30, both of which sit under the £150 price point.