Aspman

It's not something car manufacturers are very good at tbh. I'd imagine it's not hard to recode these systems

Just some general pieces of advice... If you've only one copy you have no backup. It doesn't matter where it is. Don't trust things just because they are in "the cloud" or provided by a big compnay like Google or MS. "The Cloud" = Someone else's computer. Always think if you are happy for your stuff to only be stored on "someone else's computer". The big players all have history of deleting/losing peoples stuff, suddenly discontinuing services or changing terms; all of which can mess up your files. If you're not paying for storage on the cloud then you can have no expectation of service i.e. they can lose your stuff and you have no comeback.

If you plug your phone into a computer can you see the photos?

^ good points. Personally if you've got space I like a full sized case. Also I like to fit the largest fans I possibly can. A 140mm fan can move the same volume of air as an 80mm but rotating much slower, it keeps the noise down a lot (anyone old enough to remember the old 80mm Deltas screaming away in a case?). Ducted fans are also great if you can get them.

Have a dig around for leaves in there too. That used to happen a lot in our minis. You had to pull out the pollen filter then get your hand in and pull the bugger out. Used to confuse the hell out of SO when she would find me upside down in the oassenger seat of the cars

Last PC I built I put in a Ryzen 7 first gen I'm not sure I needed it but I was intending to build a rig that could last. I was happy with the CPU it gave me no problems (it's been in storage for a year). I've a laptop with an intel core i7 as well and it's plenty fast too. TBH you looking at bang for your buck and tbh that's the only way to go. The Ryzen 5 is probably the sweet spot for that. Better to spend money on a decent SSD and more RAM

In general yes you should always apply updates promptly. BIOS updates have often given people the fear since in the old days a bad update could brick the device. It's been a long time since I've heard of that happening.

@e-RoottootCan't say it's unfortunate that the Fisken family are getting a kick, they're not really the nicest bunch of people. It's a shame for the sales guys, some of them were ok.

Yeah it is expensive and tbh it probably isn't £180 good. My Ruark was £500 (down from £800 as a Grade A used) but it utterly blows my socks off and feels worth every penny.. The Roberts is good. it does everything you need but the sound is good, not amazing. It is easy to use but there is a knack to it. We like the internet radio stations, we regularly listen to some stuff we'd never have even heard of before (Radio Nula (funk and soul), Boot Boy Radio (Ska) and quite a few foreign stations too. you can search by genre as well as name. It also lets you play BBC Podcasts directly as well which is good. It does have a good reception for a low signal area (it's really bad here). If you've spotify you can use that with it (we do but we don't if that makes sense) and the bluetooth works well and I often play my phone through it. It's pretty repliable as well for a 'smartish' thingy. It has crashed but only a handful of times in a year and that's probably down to our poor connectivity as well. So I'd suggested the functionality might get you £180 of value from it if it does everything you want but you'd get a better sounding speaker for £180. But as said we're quite anti smart speaker in our house.

I use Proton Mail as a spare. Sometimes you need additional accounts and it's nearly impossible to use GMail etc without associating with a phone number these days. A very security aware friend uses MrMail to provide him with a secure mail service. One thing to remember is that is you want something that is genuinely not tracking you then you will need to pay for it. If you don't pay then the service must be paid for either by mining your data and/or advertising to you. A pretty decent rule of thumb is - If the service is free you are the product. although increasingly you can pay for stuff and they will mine you for profit anyway - https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?id=1583755244&subaction=showfull

Honestly, avoid "Smart" if you can. Smart deviuces rely on the manufacturer to keep supporting them or they will just stop working and manufacturers have a habit of dropping support a long time before the devices are worn out. Sonos has tried some really dirty tricks over the years to try to force customers to buy new kit (https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/5/21166777/sonos-ending-recycle-mode-trade-up-program-sustainability) Amazon stuff has so far been quite well supported but the damn things listen to you all day every day. Unless you are comfortable with Amazon monitoring your every move "for quality purposes" I'd not touch em, https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidphelan/2019/04/12/amazon-confirms-staff-listen-to-alexa-conversations-heres-all-you-need-to-know/https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidphelan/2019/04/12/amazon-confirms-staff-listen-to-alexa-conversations-heres-all-you-need-to-know/ We got a Roberts internet capable DAB radio from Argos - https://www.robertsradio.com/en-gb/smart-radios/stream-94i#STREAM94I We're in a low signal area and this one had reviewd that it could cope. It does do better than my expensive Ruark R4 but not as well as the £30 Tesco DAB radio my son uses. However the internet Radio on it is good, if a little fiddly to choose stations. It's in their "Smart" range but it's not smart. It doesn't talk to Alexa or Google. But the sound is good as well.

Bit late to the party.... I've had a Samsung fridge and it was fine. Also had a Daewoo American style fridge and it was totally fine too. Only thing with the Yank type fridges it that they weigh so feckin much. In my last house I didn't pay for "fitting" as it's a fridge, I can plug it in. Turns out that without "Fitting" they wont lift a 200Kg fridge into your house. I was lucky the pair that delivered mind were a couple of Glasgow lads who appreciated a bit banter and some biscuit bribary and they lifted it up for me. When I sold the house I made sure the fridge was sold with it, there was no chance it was getting lifdted out again. I got mind from Appliances Online. The prices are good but they like to try some sneaky sales on extended warranties after a year. I don't see the point in guarantees or warranties on fridges or washing machines unless they guarantee next day fixing who is going to last two weeks waiting on them to come out?

I've not had a skoda for nearly 7yr and I'm still here. 500 miles in a year I was doing about 12-17k for the last 5yr which was about as low as I've ever been. I've driven about 1000 miles in the last 3 months since getting the RaRo. which is a real shock to me. But probably just as well with how much it drinks in winter

I'm not sure bhp has a lot to do with it. I really don't feel safe in cars or bikes with low hp. If you consider the safety cross when driving, low power or in this case auto speed restriction, removes one direction of travel from me to esacape danger. I have absolutely accelerated out of danger and having a more powerful car has enabled me to do that. However, power is nothing without control, I'd support a motorcycle like license. i.e. you must be qualified to drive a car of a certain power (or power to weight to be pendantic). I'm sure many people can drive in a hideously unsafe way with 60hp and tbh I think the vast majority of stupid driving I've seen has been done in cars/vans of low to average performance.

It might well be a future classic but it'll tank in value for the first 10yr like any other mainstream model. £40k for a Yaris! Unless you desperately want to be the one and only owner in the book wait 18 months and pick it up for £25k if not lower.

P400 is an £80k car. I've not been in a P400 but I have driven a First edition D250 which is quite high spec. I can't see many people getting into a P400 and thinking they've got good value for £80k. And I like the new Defender. I see a few dealers have them specced up and priced over £100k. Good luck with that, they aren't going to hold the money the old ones do. If you're gpoing to drop £100k on a 4x4 you're either going to get a G-Wagon, a full fat Range Rover Autograph or wait on a used Lambo Auris. Or you might be mad and drop £100 and defender that'll be worth £30k in 3yr.

My actual 10yr old installs the "Fart Skill" in every unlocked Alexa device he finds

Some tech is magical when it works. The rear view mirror in the new defender is brilliant. It replaces the real view with a camera view so that the spare wheel doesn't obstruct your vision. But too much tech is there for the sake of it, not integrated well and more hassle than its worth. Touch screens for drivers should be banned imho.

this is a well known issue (flash wearing out that is). Sounds like someone took a pilot project bodge through to production. Or a developer spotted some free memory and started to use it without asking what it was for. This sort of thing will be commonplace in cars going forward.

You might wan to gve some forward though to Boris' comments about doing away with gas boilers. It might be worth considering your options with other forms of heating water etc.

If it's Google you are probably already in breach of the DPA2018 since Google transfers information outwith the EEA. Also Google relies upon the Privacy Shield EU agreement to provide adequacy for the storage of personal information and that agreement was nullified under the successful Shrems II challenge last year. Also putting personal information online needs to comply with Article 32 of the GDPR relating to the security of storage and processing of personal information inculding the requirrment to "consider the state of the art" with regard to technical security measures. i.e. passwords protecting a file generally isn't considered good enough on it's own. ^ this stuff if 80% of my working day usually arguing with very large businesses who are doing their utmost to avoid speding a penny to act lawfully

I think a lot of the forum joined with a Skoda in mind but might not own one now. I thnk it's been 7yr and 5 cars since I've had one. i still think fondly of my Mk2 Octy VRS. I'm with Ttaskmaster, if money was no object why would you only choose one car. I'd aslo agree that a 60/70s muscle car would have to be on the menu, ideally a big block running 7l+ that sounds like it runs on granite cobbles. And an Aston Martin Vantage 600 And a Lotus Exige V6 and an MV Augusta F4 And.....and...

You'd be putting forward an argument that the goods are not fit for purpose but you can expect teh dealer to reisst since the car wil have depreciated substantially from when they have sold it to you.

Feature count sells cars. Just because you're sensible and think it's all rubbish (it is) doesn't mean there aren't 10 people behind you who desperately want their car hooked up to their instagram and twitter feeds. To get the Range Rover working properly I've had to set up at least 3 seperate inline accound for different parts of the ICE. One for the sat nav, one for the car itself and anotehr for I've no idea really. And after that I still have to manually download and transfer the map updates using a USB stick. My BMW was a 2015 and could do it over the airwaves.

I think it might be worse than that