Aspman

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

Our Countryman has on a few occasion thrown a total wobbler in town thinking we were about to hit a stationary car (can't remember the name of the feature). I'm not sure if it hit the brakes or me coz of the flashing red light and loud alarm but there was nothing, absolutely nothing in front of the car. Auto wipers are universally crap, I've never had a car that could do it well. the best was my hated 2003 Renault Clio. It had full manual options for wipers as well as auto. And tbh the auto was probably the best of any car I've had. autolight have always worked ok, but the principle falls down in rain and fog and people are lazy idiots. You need to swicth to manual then. I had to explain this to my SO who is not daft at all, but she still trusted that "auto lights " meant auto lights , in all circumstances. The RR auto lights are probably the best and clverest I've ever seen. They do partial full beam and you can see the bean tracking around cars in front of you. It's interesting to hear how well you are getting on with it.

Make sure you have a stiff drink and a seat to hand when they mention the price of the fix.

Cat theft etc is probably more likely on a Skoda right now. Scrotes aren't daft, they run the risk Vs reward maths through their minds first. Even if they are looking at your car as a target you only need to do enough to make them think it's not worth it, so big obvious lock round the steering wheel and some stickers with 'tracker' written on it. If they are hitting you in the street they want to do it quick and quiet. If they can'y they'll move on. If you getting hit at home, give em the keys and step back.

I suppose nice cars are normally in nice areas. If you're a scrote you're going to go where the stuff is you want.

I think winter diesel gets sold from October onwards. If your fuel is getting that old you'll need to think about a fuel stabliser anyway or it'll go off in the tank.

Pay your insurance and move to a nice area. If some scrote wants your car they're going to get it. Not so long ago cars like Subaru Impretza's were very desirable for get away cars. They would break into your house to get the keys, and if they couldn't find them they'd hold a knife at your kid/wife's throat or start breaking your fingers. In that case you're going to hand over your keys, codes everything. Tracker won't do much for you.

I've got to the point now where not only do I not know who half of those people are, I don't even know the program they've come from. I know there are various "made in" programs but I can say (not without some smugness) I have never watched an episode of any of them, nor Love Isaland nor any celebrity version of them either. TBH I've not had a working TV signal for 5yr and I don't really miss it. channel 4 is probably the only streaming service I tolerate ads on. I suspect VBH has a mortgage to pay and kids to put through school. If the TV jobs have dried up then I don't doubt she'd lend her voice to a pile ointment ad if there was a bill to cover.

MS still make an ergonomic keyboard - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-LXM-00004-Ergonomic-Keyboard-dp-B07YGNN6N1/dp/B07YGNN6N1/ref=dp_ob_title_ce Or - https://kinesis-ergo.com/shop/advantage2/ And I thought the steelseries was expensive

I'm quite cynical about 'smart' solutions, often they're just covering up cracks in the short term until the consultant has moved on when the 'smart' goes dumb and everything falls down. Luckily I think most people are swithching to more energy efficient tech for basic tasks like lighting which has probably done more to lift the load. Current battery tech isn't great. Musc is leveraging his own tech to build battery farms which is not really about using the best possible solution but using the best available solution. George pointed out pumped hydro, that actually works really well, the potential energy in a couple of million tons of water is quite significant but pumped storage only works in a few areas, and flooding massive areas of land to act as pumped storage isn;t very eco or popular, just ask the people affected by the Three Gorges Dam in China. As understand it there are a lot of novel solutions to energy storage for renewables coming along soon, molten salt, high speed flywheels and others

We'll need oil and gas for a long time yet. For plastics, pharmaceuticals, roadbuilding as well as generating all that 'leccy for cars. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53238512 Reasonable little article. H2 for heavy vehicles and batteries for cars

Is Boris investing in more power generation and transmission lines? I've not seen those announcements. Without those two things this isn;t going to happen. Oil is energy dug out of the ground and moved in liquid form. 'leccy needs made on demand and moved by wire to the battery. We've no effective way (right now) to store energy other than as fossile fuels. Hydrogen gas is a bit of a red herring, it's easy to make and actually getting easier but it's an absolute ****er to store. H2 to give the same energy density as petrol needs to be stored at gigantic pressures, potentially making H2 tanks very dangerous in an accident. H2 also 'corrodes' metal - hydrogen embrittlement. Fuel cells are probably the way of the future as well as battery but I think we'll still be seeing loopholes to allow fossil fueled vehicles for a while yet

Fuel might be expensive but after the taxes there isn't much profit in it for independent retailers. Usually there is more money made in the shops. Supermarket station probably run close to / or at a loss.

She was a big name back when we had 5 tv channels and 'Old Style' Top Gear was still on the telly. She's have been top Gear 'totty' then but got put out to channel 5 when TG was first refreshed with Jezza et al. It'll have been hard for her tbh, she lost her USP of being a female car 'reviewer' to the YouTube crowd a long time ago and she wasn't (as far as I know) a motoring journo, car racer proper or love island model as something to fall back on. Being a 'telly person' I guess doesn;t leave you with much choices other than to front daytime tv ads if everything else has dried up. Unless you're going to retrain as a plumber. Ray Quinn (x factor runner up) is apaprently working as a delivery driver inbetween singing jobs. Couldn't stand the boy on the telly but he's doign what he's got to do so that's due a bit of respect.

I'm not a fan of wireless, I'm sure I can pick up a delay in their action or the batteries flake out just as I need them to, or ther eis a disagreement between keyboard bluetooth an some other bluetooth in the area. Nope I like me cables, they work. I was looking at various cherry options dn theri switches in other keyboards, I think the problem was I fell squarely between being a heavy typist (blue switch user) and wanting things a bit quieter (red/brown switches). But the brown and red can make a lot of noise if you bottom out the switches, and I'm quite a hard typist, I'm not a touch typist, I'd say I'm a 75% touch typer but apparently I 'type angry' and it reverberates through the house and that's on my current work issued 10yr old (might be older I've hung onto it) keyboard. I hate 'new' style chiclet keyboards as well.

Those old 80s IBM Model M buckling spring keyboard are sought after items. But they don't half make a racket. I've put my money where my mouth is and got a steel Series Aprex pro. It's one of the more expensive keybaords around but it has individually adjustable key pressures and is apparently very quiet. It's got magnetic dampers like a TT. I'd probably have taken my time a bit more but it was in a black friday sale with £40 off it. I appreciate that discount is probably more than most people spend on 3 keyboards but just as mechanics happily pay for snap-on tools, a keyboard is my tool and it'll get used all day 5 days a week..

Yeah been reading that, I'm a bit of a key thumper as well especially when stressed or ****ed off.

I could do with a new keyboard. The one I'm working with is old, shiny key old and frankly the internals are probably a health hazard with 5yr+ of lunches dropped between the keys. I use a keyboard for ~8hr a day so I need a good tool. I've been looking into mechanical keyboards etc but most information is directed at either gamers or touch typists. I'll use it predominantly for typing (95%). Must be full sized Ideally wired Not noisy. I don't need a silent keyboard but neither do I want a famously loud IBM clacky keyboard. Happy to pay a relatively large amount for a keyboard since this will get hammered for long periods for years. Any recommendations? Been looking at various options but there is a lot of keyboard switch geekery and none of the opinions align. Cherry Red Vs Brown, Vs Blue Vs Black Vs Viper Green etc etc. Don't need customisations or RGB lighting although backlighting can be nice.