@realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 3mo ago

UK Tax returns have gone digital, which is fine in principle. What is not fine is that pretty much only paid solutions are acceptable for submitting a return. If electronic tax returns are mandatory, the government should be providing a cost-free means. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/769610#action (Hats off to a couple of people I follow that first raised this.)

Petitions - UK Parliament and UK Government

Petition: Create a government-owned, free software for Making Tax Digital (MTD)

With the roll-out of Making Tax Digital going ahead, HMRC must provide an in-house, government-developed, fully-functional software that allows easy and confident compliance with MTD. Self-employed people should not be obliged to hand data to private companies.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@NudelnAlDente I would have been more direct, still: "Thanks, but I'll go somewhere else." Thing is, it probably *doesn't* hurt their trade to any appreciable degree. The younger generations as a whole seem to have been normalised to everything needing an online account and 24/7 access to their life. If that's the target demographic, or the demographic that most sustains their business, the bar is not going to care one iota about outliers. THAT is the root of the problem.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@arstechnica@mastodon.social Physical media. Always physical media. Never buy a download - unless there's a mechanism for transfer to physical media IN A USABLE FORM. Dowload-only games are a con. Online media libraries are a con. Tech bros have been slowly leading us down an "own nothing" path for two decades. It's time people woke up.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 2mo ago

Oh, dear god, no...! I just had another idea for a @phones@social.emfcamp.org service. The ideal number for it - 1969 - is not available, and besides I don't have the time to build it. I'm struggling to get another project working. 14:32 UK time,Thursday 16th marks the 57th anniversary of the Apollo XI launch. Wouldn't it be fun if you could dial 1969, and listen to the archived radio traffic in real time from 57 years ago...

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@ZachWeinersmith The problem is the publishing model, not the researchers or the research, per se. Too many grifters making a mint off knowledge they did not create (or even fund the creation of) as if modern publishing is an expensive affair. It is, but only because that's always been the framework.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@jonty@chaos.social It's your fault they've already withdrawn it, isn't it?

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Lana What's that, they sailed in a hurry without due preparation for a long sustained international tour of duty, because some numbnut megalomaniac instigated a crisis? Surely not.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@lproven@social.vivaldi.net 😞

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk We've already reached "age verification in the operating system" suggestions. Next step is "age verification to turn on the device".

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@Natasha_Jay@tech.lgbt So who's going to fund the study?

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@eff@mastodon.social By sharing across different networks, you are potentially inadvertently sharing material that other people chose to not have on those networks. Case in point. I don't have a Threads account because I don't want to interact with, or have my material in the clutches of, Meta but anyone else can choose to respond with a federated post that incorporates my material or links to it, thereby exposing me to Meta whether I consent or not.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@rbreich Neither the economy, nor society.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@MarkHoltom I never really liked Lily Savage as an act. The humour just didn't click, but then I have an inkling I probably wasn't in the target audience. When Paul started pursuing a career as his own self it took me a while to warm to him, but there was an openness, sincerity and compassion that just reeled you in. In any guise he stood for what he stood for, and even in the unlikely event you disagreed with him, you couldn't take issue with his resolutely principled stance.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@Edent@mastodon.social I have.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk Device licencing is not so far-fetched. In the old Soviet, owning a typewriter was a rarity to begin with, but each had to be licenced and sampled in order to be able to hold the owner responsible of it was used to spread sedition. "Age verification" at its core is not about age but identity. In order to know users' ages usage must be tightly bound to users' identities. Whatever the justification this is user tracking, and history demonstrates the oppression that can lead to.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@MicroSFF@mastodon.art Oh, I love this!

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk Next step will be licence and annual registration fee to *own* the device.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@oylenshpeegul@mastodon.social @climagic@mastodon.social Well at least I have been reminded - as obvious as it is - what the short notation for epoch time is for the date command. 😆

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@dalias@hachyderm.io @stux@mstdn.social As I have repeatedly described it: industrial-scale mechanised plagiarism.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@nicolas17@social.treehouse.systems @climagic@mastodon.social Yes. That has already been mentioned.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

Replying to

The downside of Meshcore is that it will need someone altruistic to bring dedicated relays. @emf@social.emfcamp.org

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

Replying to

...and as I just discovered, Meshcore uses a paid licence model; Meshtastic is free.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 7mo ago

Replying to on mastodon.social

@zackwhittaker@mastodon.social That's not a bug, it's a feature. 😆

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@Edent@mastodon.social Seems to be a lot horse/stable door. They will already have had their mitts all over our data. Irrespective of any contractual obligations or assurances, Palantir uses the data in their control for unsavoury purposes, and support/are under the thumb of the current US regime.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@evacide About damned time.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

I'm already double busy, but this might be of interest to some: https://www.europeanmovement.co.uk/emwandsworthmerton/living_with_brexit_divide

europeanmovement.co.uk

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

For some reason - I presume current stats - Which are highlighting this scam again...
https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/scam-alert-new-parking-fine-scam-text-aj5wx1j3trT1

which.co.uk

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@fdroidorg@floss.social That doesn't seem to answer my question...

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 3mo ago

Replying to

32C and 49% humidity. Indoors, in the shade. That's pretty tropical.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@arstechnica@mastodon.social Of course he does.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

Hmmm - posting on #LinkedIn from Linux seems to have been borked. And it is so cumbersome and sluggish to render. When you think they can't get any worse, they managed to confound you.

mastodon.me.uk

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@joenash @emf Should be an octagonal tent, marquee, whatever. 8 legs and all that. IYKYK...

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

bbc.co.uk

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@aaisp@social.aa.net.uk Understandable, but something of a shame, I feel. Not all "progress" is good progress. Maybe I'm just showing my age.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 7mo ago

[edit] February's [/edit] DC4420, Tuesday next week.

See https://dc4420.org/

The Greene Man
383 Euston Road
London NW1 3AU

Nearest Tube: Great Portland Street. (Regents Park and Warren Street both short walks away; Euston Square and Euston a brisk 10 minutes.)

dc4420.org

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@slashdot@mastodon.cloud And given this is the same person who started Facebook to rate people by their looks, and took money from Peter Thiel to establish the business foundation, this would surprise anyone why?

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

RE: @LillyHerself@mastodon.social

It has been obvious for upward of 2 years, but here, very visually is why Xitter (as in "down the") should be abandoned by anyone with a scrap of decency.

mastodon.social

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

Over 700 quid for a one day hire of a Range Rover. 😆😆😆

(No I was not looking for a Range Rover.)

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@climagic@mastodon.social It's wrong. Sunday, not tomorrow: date -d "$((1777777777 - $(date +%s))) seconds"

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

"Golden Rule, motherfucker."

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

Do you use #Google #Chrome? Something you need to know, that's likely chewing up your disk space and hammering your bandwidth: https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/05/07/chrome-silently-installs-a-4-gb-local-llm-on-your-computer/5230893

From @lproven@social.vivaldi.net on #TheRegister (who don't appear to have an official Masto presence).

mastodon.me.uk

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@fdroidorg@floss.social "Test" how? Got any official test support, or do you just mean bumble around and report any anomalies?

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 1mo ago

Replying to

@robinince@mastodon.social I am disappointed in Brian Cox. The BBC are a shell of what they used to be - once stoic and moral leaders, they are now blown wherever the dominant pressure pushes them. But Brian Cox? Very disappointing.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@cstross@wandering.shop Not at all well thought through, as a policy.

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Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸) @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@fdroidorg@floss.social Fair, I suppose, but since the call was put out here it's not unreasonable to also expect a direct answer to a direct question here. I was asking about the mechanism of testing rather than expecting to have to dig through lists and ask a second and maybe third time.

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