Kieron Quinn

Entrance to a Royal Mail sorting office, with a fence topped in razor wire

Spotted while visiting the world's most approachable Royal Mail sorting office

Graffiti on an underpass reading "your a furry" [sic]

Salford graffiti hits different

Hate this shit so much, I've done all the ID crap for Bluesky, Discord and Reddit and yet I'm still having to VPN to France more and more because I can't even scroll Reddit without being blocked.

Imgur isn't even the Online Safety Act, they just got fined and decided to block the entire country.

I hope the same for the apple.news links, though at least that was limited to news sites

Seems the CPU in question does have the required instructions since it supports SSE4.2: www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Xeon/In...

So either could be bypassed in software or potentially a TPM added to the board might be enough

When MPs can't look at "tractors" in parliament they'll suddenly care.

There do seem to be better alternatives nowadays, eg. store-beta.rebble.io/app/67a8c311..., so it won't get updates beyond station list changes if/when I remember, but it's nice to know someone is still finding it useful.

GitHub - KieronQuinn/pebble-train-times-gb: Source code for Pebble JS app displaying train times in Britain Source code for Pebble JS app displaying train times in Britain - KieronQuinn/pebble-train-times-gb

Yes, that was mine - 8 years ago! Somehow I still had the source knocking around, so I've updated the list and published a release, as well as dropping the source at github.com/KieronQuinn/...

I reckon Microsoft. Google tried and failed to make a social network already, probably won't want it. Meta would get hit by every single anti-competition suit under the sun.

There were also Salesforce and Oracle bidding when *he* took it over, both of those options sound god awful.

🔥🥵

cartoon for the guardian by Stephen Collins - script as follows: [Scene is a darkened LOFT. Amongst the boxes and junk are FOUR KNACKERED OLD FANS - three tower fans and one circular, with cracked grey plastic and buttons missing. One fan, TOWER FAN 1, is a bit taller than the others, and is addressing them] 1 TOWER FAN 1: Right lads, get ready. 2 TOWER FAN 1: This is our time. 3 TOWER FAN 1: The time when we remember who we are, and why we’re here. 4 TOWER FAN 1: We are the four crap fans in a British person’s loft, and we are here to make absolutely no difference whatsoever. 5 TOWER FAN 1: I know what you’re thinking, lads: 6 TOWER FAN 1: Surely this will be the year they finally replace us? 7 TOWER FAN 1: Our plastic’s gone all brown... I haven’t oscillated since 2018... 8 TOWER FAN 1: Dave here sounds like a spitfire and blows like a sad cat’s sigh… TOWER FAN 2: Cheers mate 9 TOWER FAN 1: But no. These people are British, and every year, they forget the sun exists. By the time they remember, new fans will cost *four million pounds* on Amazon. 10 TOWER FAN 1: So we’ll be back down there... shovelling thick air across the moaning faces of a species that cannot comprehend the concept of air conditioning, or even just closing the curtains when it’s hot out... 11 TOWER FAN 1: ...while they incessantly bang on about normally hot countries which this country is now temporarily a bit hotter than. 12 [The loft hatch opens and a person comes up the ladder] PERSON: APPARENTLY IT’S HOTTER THAN GREECE, LISA

british fan chat

Rishi Sunak failing to use contactless payments by holding his payment card up to a barcode scanner

Still, could be worse

At least you didn't find a path

bsky.app/profile/booz...

🐝

Screenshot of two tracking tags in the same bag but in two different positions at the same time

Mine was doing this before I boarded too, it's amazing the variation you can get on the same bag with two tags

Photo displaying a departure board at Lancaster station displaying HEYMST rather than Heysham Port for the destination for the service

Would you prefer HEYMST

no windows restart will kill patient

GitHub - KieronQuinn/uTag: Use Samsung Galaxy SmartTags on any Android device Use Samsung Galaxy SmartTags on any Android device - KieronQuinn/uTag

Or you can download the app and check the source out on GitHub here: github.com/KieronQuinn/...

uTag: Use Samsung SmartTags on any Android device Samsung, like Apple, made their tags only compatible with their own devices, but uTag makes them work with any Android device

You can read more about uTag's features, development, and what it allows in depth in a Medium article here: medium.com/@KieronQuinn...

Precise finding in action, showing various stages of locating a Tag. When a Tag is close by, an arrow appears to guide the user to the Tag, and when very close it turns into an animation showing that it's very near.

uTag replicates *almost* all of the features that Samsung devices can use with SmartTags, and adds a few more too. It includes support for precise tracking (UWB), which I believe is a first for non-Samsung devices because Google still haven't implemented it on the Find Device app.

Android Item Tracking: A Tale of Two Networks It’s been nearly 10 months since Google started the roll out of the Find my Device network, but is it actually any good?

uTag was conceived due to the state of Google's Find my Device (FMD) network. While it has improved in recent months, it is still, in my opinion, pretty useless in rural areas. I've done a deep dive into Samsung's network vs Google's in a Medium article here: medium.com/@KieronQuinn...

Screenshots of uTag, showing tracking Tags, location history and precise finding using ultra-wideband

After months of development and testing, tonight I've released uTag, an Android app and mod for Samsung SmartThings which allows the use of Galaxy SmartTags on non-Samsung Android devices. No root, no Shizuku needed.

GitHub - KieronQuinn/Smartspacer: Smartspacer is a customisable widget for Android, but with a difference: It can upgrade the built in At a Glance on Pixels - without root! Smartspacer is a customisable widget for Android, but with a difference: It can upgrade the built in At a Glance on Pixels - without root! - KieronQuinn/Smartspacer

You can use the new widget Target in Smartspacer in version 1.9, which is out now on GitHub: github.com/KieronQuinn/..., but note the above limitations on where it works (install the QPR2 beta if you have a Pixel for best results)

Android 16 could let apps show Dynamic Island-like notifications Android 16 could add a new API that lets apps create Rich Ongoing Notifications, reminiscent of the iPhone's Dynamic Island.

Since Android System Intelligence sources most of its data from notifications, it *might* also be coupled with the ongoing activities API (androidauthority.com/android-16-r...), but I doubt it. Native AAG isn't used by any OEMs except Google, so adoption would be very low.

It's more likely Google will use this to improve how At a Glance looks, with more flexible layouts and customisation. The At a Glance widget changed design just over a year ago, but couldn't be applied to native AAG on Pixels because of this inflexibility, so it may be used for that

I'm not sure what this will be used for in At a Glance without Smartspacer, there are signs of it being used in Android System Intelligence, but unless significant changes are made to how widgets are bound, I don't think native widget support is coming to AAG in Android soon.

Allowing custom content like this is also open to plugin developers, so it doesn't have to come from a widget. The same restrictions as RemoteViews apply, which are primarily used in widgets (no custom Views), but this is still far more flexible than what was previously possible.

Since Smartspacer already has support for loading content from widgets, it's already able to effectively "forward" widgets into Smartspace. This means that in the 1.9 update, you can now add 4x1 widgets to At a Glance,as well as everywhere else in Smartspacer (except OEM Smartspace)

Screenshot of Android's lock screen, showing Smartspacer displaying a BBC Weather widget of Edinburgh

Screenshot of the Pixel Launcher, showing Smartspacer displaying a BBC Weather widget of Edinburgh

Screenshot of Android's lock screen, showing Smartspacer displaying the Battery Widget

Screenshot of the Pixel Launcher, showing Smartspacer displaying the Battery Widget

In Android 15 QPR2 and Android 16, Google quietly *finally* added support for RemoteViews in Smartspace. This has been a long time coming, and allows truly custom content in At a Glance. Well, now since it's there, it's also in Smartspacer - except, it's even better!

A silly infographic titled “GDPR Wrapped 2024 — Data about your Data”, listing: - 899 cookies placed - Data shared with 17,203 partners - Top purposes: #1: Store and/or access information on a device, #2: Measure content performance, #3: Develop and improve products - You clicked “Accept all” once. In a real hurry, huh? - 37% of sites say they value your privacy. - You read 391 articles through the gap above the banner. That puts you in the top 7% of users worldwide. What a commitment! - Most ads seen: 460 from Temu, 195 from Amazon, 63 from Unilever

just got my GDPR Wrapped 👀 learning so much about my browsing habits