[–] 14 points 2 days ago*

You can only install Graphene on a Google phone and there's two big issues with that:

  1. you are rewarding Google by buying their hardware.
  2. it doesn't matter how secure the os claims to be if the hardware is compromised and there is nothing you can do to convince me that a pixel doesn't have a backdoor into your data at a hardware level. If I was a conspiracy minded type I might say that Graphene is a Trojan Horse.
  • source
  • parent
  • context
  • [–] 10 points 6 days ago

    Well... The buses I get in the morning and evening are packed with nurses porters and cleaners from the local hospital. They will each save £450/year with this initiative so it really depends if you think giving people £450 extra to spend or save is worthwhile.

  • source
  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago

    Did you know that the same people eligible for free insulation are also eligible for free heat pumps, and that scheme is still running?

    I agree we need to insulate more however: The insulation scheme is ending because despite a lot of work trying to get people to insulate their homes less than half of eligible homes actually did it and new applications dried up. In the end they were spending more on publicity than insulation.

    Or in other words; without forcing people to do it against their will everything that can be done with that particular scheme has been done.

    A bigger issue now is people in rented accommodation, particularly pre-war housing stock where landlords haven't insulated the property properly and that wasn't captured in the insulation scheme anyway. There is in theory minimum EPC standards for rented accommodation but the reality is a lot of properties don't meet that standard.

  • source
  • parent
  • context
  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago (2 children)

    I fully understand that there is no "UK reserve" it's basically my job to understand this. I have to simplify things for a shorter post, though.

    Here's a lesson for anyone interested: there are only a few areas in the world that produce natural gas that can be used in our gas supply system with domestic refineries and distribution. There are sources further afield but without connection to a pipeline they are cost prohibitive. A commodity is only as valuable as your ability to deliver it.

    Areas of natural gas readily accessible in Europe are the north sea, Baltic states and Russia. So whilst it is a "global market" in theory, the reality is price of natural gas for UK is effectively dominated by European continental availability.

    Europe as a whole doesn't have enough gas without buying it from Russia, which is currently not sensible because Russia is using that money to fund a war against Europe. That is why the price is high.

    If Europe, including UK are able to release more natural gas it will reduce the overall cost of gas a little bit (maybe a lot depending on other countries contribution and effectiveness of reducing gas usage) and also reduce the amount of money that goes to Russia.

  • source
  • parent
  • context
  • [–] -2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (6 children)

    The poorest people in our country are disproportionately affected by the natural gas supply crisis, the cause of which sits in the Kremlin.

    Here's a lesson for anyone interested: there are only a few areas in the world that produce natural gas that can be used in our gas supply system with domestic refineries and distribution. There are sources further afield but without connection to a pipeline they are cost prohibitive. A commodity is only as valuable as your ability to deliver it.

    Areas of natural gas readily accessible in Europe are the north sea, Baltic states and Russia. So whilst it is a "global market" in theory, the reality is price of natural gas for UK is effectively dominated by European continental availability.

    Europe as a whole doesn't have enough gas without buying it from Russia, which is currently not sensible because Russia is using that money to fund a war against Europe. That is why the price is high.

    Increasing UK supply of natural gas will offset energy costs ultimately reducing the cost for poorest people in the country.

    Even the most optimistic estimates for creating a fully carbon neutral energy grid are 20 years away, that's best case scenario but the green party are working with reform to object to the infrastructure that is needed to make that happen.

    Explain to me how helping poor people is bad?

  • source
  • parent
  • context
  • [–] 3 points 2 weeks ago*

    True. In fairness I don't play them so I wasn't aware how widespread anti cheat is. I occasionally play Apex legends which forces cross play on console and the pc gamers have kernel level anti cheat but it's very obvious they are cheating. It would be a fun console game if it wasn't for that.

    Edit to say that like me you can simply choose not to play those games.

  • source
  • parent
  • context
  • [–] 4 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

    Counterpoint: cheating is now so widespread on multiplayer pc games that they are basically unplayable.

    It's the main reason I still play console for multiplayer.

  • source
  • view more: next ›