edent

The problem is your Raspberry Pi powered agent is going to be no match for Amazon's gigacluster of GPUs.

Your puny local AI assistant will easily be outwitted by malicious agents with a million times the power.

I wrote a bit more about it at https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/asymmetric-agents/

Oh, some good spots there. Thanks!

In the UK we use https://www.currentaccountswitch.co.uk/

It automatically moves all of your Direct Debits, recurring payments, balance etc. It even redirects incoming payments to your old account to your new one.

It other countries it is a lot less trivial.

In my experience with UK banks & financial institutions, GrapheneOS support can be roughly divided into four types.

None. Explicitly banned. And, though I feel bad for saying it, I can't blame them. If some idiot roots their phone and downloads malware, the bank may be responsible for refunding them. I can see why they don't want that headache.

Some. App works, but some functionality is unavailable. I've got a credit card app which works, but refuses to set up virtual cards or use "remember me". That's good enough for my use. Similarly, I had a merchant account which let me see my balance, but I couldn't use my phone as a credit card reader.

Works, but only in main profile. I'd rather keep financial things in a locked profile. But lots of banks disallow that.

Full. Everything works (although you may need to toggle some exploit protection off).

Some banks are reasonably good at letting you pass on technical queries to their developers - mostly the smaller ones. The nice thing about the UK banking sector is that it is trivial to move banks. So I switched accounts to providers which worked with my phone and let the old ones know why I was moving.

I'm not so sure. If you wanted to be deliberate, you'd choose a plausible value that you could control.

No one is going to suspect `98761316832165974216498789746` is anything other than random. But `000000000000000123` looks suspicious.

You've never seen example.co.uk? Many countries use them because the top level domains for gov, edu, etc are restricted to one country.

Google aren't pushing WebP. Google Docs / Slides still don't support it.

I appreciate Google isn't a monolith, but that lack of consistency makes it really hard to shake the impression certain tribes within it are at war with each other.

You have pressed the "Drunk Mode" button on the theme switcher - probably on a previous visit.

Change the theme at the top and normality will be restored.

Thanks for getting the joke :-)

I did wonder about not having an Agents file because, just like you, I consider it a sign of poor quality. But I needed a way to discourage AI use and, in the end, none of my user research subjects mentioned it.

I've made my AI policy very clear at https://gitlab.com/edent/activity-bot/#what-is-your-ai-polic...

None of the code or documentation was written by or assisted by AI.

They are - https://gitlab.com/edent/activity-bot/-/blob/main/README.md?...

It's a tricky problem. How far back in the stack do you go? The README assumes that you know how to use git to check out the files - or that you can easily save them from the repository. Should it include that as a step in the tutorial?

As I say in the linked article, it depends on what sort of user you have. For a "getting started with Raspberry Pi" document, you might well want to include how to insert an SD card etc.

I'll have a think about the best way to help people figure out if they're running PHP. Thanks for the feedback!

That's interesting. In my testing, about half the participants liked them, one didn't, and the rest didn't express a strong preference.

I kept them because they make me smile.

That's a concept car only with no intention if being in sale.

I just want a two-seater EV. The Smart ForTwo hasn't been updated in ages and the only other ones are either quadracycles of vapourware.

Where are the runarounds for people who don't need to lug around kids or baggage?

What's the worst that can happen if you were to text a friend "Heya mate, bit of a long shot - do you know anyone who can help repair a 1983 Reliant Robin?"

Best case, they know someone or can dig through their contact and help you solve your problem.

Medium case, they text back "No - has your shitbox died again? Can't believe you still have that thing :-)" and you can have a pleasant back and forth.

Worse case, you get a "no". Oh well, at least texts don't cost 12p each any more.

I just think it is nice to chat with your pals. But, sure, stick to scans of old manuals on Archive.org if you just want pure information.

The primary purpose of going out with your friends to the pub is social interaction. If the purpose was just to get drunk most efficiently, you'd sit at home alone and pour vodka down your gaping maw.

The purpose of talking to your friends is social interaction. If the purpose of being friends was to extract information in the most efficient manner possible, you'd replace them with Wikipedia.

But, like, you only see the people who are out and about, right?

You don't see the people trapped inside. Stuck in hospitals. Sat staring at a phone that never rings.

You never talk to people who don't feel comfortable talking to a stranger.

I asked Google and it told me I was absolutely correct. So… ;-)

Loneliness rates vary by country, age, socio-economic status, health, etc. The UN has some reasonable statistics.

https://www.who.int/teams/social-determinants-of-health/demo...

There's also some detailed stats for the UK.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-life-surv...

Was my use of "most" careless? Probably. Let's natter about it over a pint.