Hacker News: bmsleight_

New comment by bmsleight_ in "Python on My Wrist"

bmsleight_ — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 09:30:06 +0000

I moved from PineTime to https://banglejs.com/ Price about the same but the tools IMHO was easier.

New comment by bmsleight_ in "Count Binface receives over a quarter of votes in Clacton by-election"

bmsleight_ — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 18:44:03 +0000

>It's Clacton, farage chose it for a reason. It's full of retirees and Brexit voters

I used to live in that constituency. The 'great' thing about the first past the post system is you get a MP representative of that constituency. I dont like it, but Farage increased the votes he received.

However, it can be a shrinking island. People laughing at him and Count Binface, may put some of the floating voters across the country off him.

#Hope

New comment by bmsleight_ in "Count Binface receives over a quarter of votes in Clacton by-election"

bmsleight_ — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 18:37:05 +0000

>The UK has no constitutional method to remove a PM. I not sure this is correct, a vote of confidence in Parliament. Will bring down the government. Hence the PM.

New comment by bmsleight_ in "50k Boat Names"

bmsleight_ — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 17:08:05 +0000

Only one Boaty Boat, lacking the McBoatyFace.

New comment by bmsleight_ in "Britain's prime minister to step down, Burnham puts himself forward as successor"

bmsleight_ — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 11:49:34 +0000

The power of having a parliamentary system. Combined with the power of 77,462 residents of Makerfield.

Love the UK - we can be brutal if MPs want a leader .

New comment by bmsleight_ in "Self Driving Car Insurance"

bmsleight_ — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 23:07:09 +0000

Yep - the way to get adoption, whilst the bar is too high for self-driving cars, the bar should be safer than the average person. An old greying socialist - saying that capitalism drive the right outcomes. Same with low-carbon, insurance will help with climate change mitigation.

New comment by bmsleight_ in "Using e-ink tablet as monitor for Linux"

bmsleight_ — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 09:30:16 +0000

I hacked together a HDMI e-ink monitor https://barwap.com/projects/okmonitor/

I wanted an e-ink screen I could just plug-in. Versatile, big and cheap. Connection is via a VGA or HDMI. Works like an appliance. All automated. Wireless.

Specifications: 1024x768, 6fps, lag: ~1.2s, Connection: VGA or HDMI Specifications Single Screen: 1024x768, 5fps, lag: ~1.2s, Connection: VGA or HDMI

New comment by bmsleight_ in "I bought a £16 smartwatch just because it used USB-C"

bmsleight_ — Sat, 09 Aug 2025 10:27:25 +0000

Got a link to a it ? I love to replace my under power USB soldering iron

New comment by bmsleight_ in "VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in"

bmsleight_ — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 17:30:42 +0000

>privilege of having pre-school aged children, that's my opinion,

Look at salary sacrifice. This give you the option of buying childcare vouchers before tax. So taking you below the 100,000. Otherwise pay more into pension and drop below the 100,000 threshold.

Not tax advice, not financial advice...

New comment by bmsleight_ in "Meta torrented & seeded 81.7 TB dataset containing copyrighted data"

bmsleight_ — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 11:47:27 +0000

So if I torrented and seeded, I would be doing it for my own entertainment, not commercially. I expect big copy-write holders to come after myself. If Meta does it - I guess they have better lawyers ?

Could make interesting case law.

New comment by bmsleight_ in "UK lawmakers vote in support of assisted dying"

bmsleight_ — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 19:39:04 +0000

First reading, there are lots of stage before the bill is passed.

It look like Parliament, via private members bill working at its best.

Lots of debate, lots of people listening to the debate and then voting.

New comment by bmsleight_ in "WiFi suspended at big UK train stations after 'cybersecurity incident'"

bmsleight_ — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 10:56:31 +0000

Any facts to back up this assumption ?

"TfL said the amount refunded equated to less than 0.001% of annual fare £3bn revenue collected via pay as you go with contactless."

New comment by bmsleight_ in "Jailbroke my Kindle to use it as an e-ink monitor"

bmsleight_ — Sun, 04 Aug 2024 19:29:34 +0000

I did a similar project HDMI in

https://hackaday.com/2021/01/08/old-kindle-shows-hdmi-video-...

to make an OK Monitor - https://barwap.com/projects/okmonitor/

New comment by bmsleight_ in "Convert an existing wired doorbell into a smart doorbell using ESPHome"

bmsleight_ — Mon, 24 Jun 2024 11:21:42 +0000

https://web.archive.org/web/20240319182434/https://frenck.de...

New comment by bmsleight_ in "Mornington Crescent"

bmsleight_ — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 22:49:51 +0000

Morden

New comment by bmsleight_ in "BBC BASIC raytracer in 432 characters"

bmsleight_ — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 18:49:49 +0000

Wow - I never thought of using ChatGPT for analysing code. It reads well - but does the author agree ?

New comment by bmsleight_ in "Post Office lied and threatened BBC over Fujitsu dev whistleblower"

bmsleight_ — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 20:52:29 +0000

Stephen Lawrence parents took the option of a private prosecution. Everyone must have access to justice.

New comment by bmsleight_ in "Lobsters"

bmsleight_ — Sun, 03 Dec 2023 17:09:17 +0000

I quite like Lobste.rs - yes it is is a ghost town. I dont have a login as know no one on it. But it less reddit that maybe modern day Hacker news can be.

New comment by bmsleight_ in "Call to shut down Bristol schools’ use of app to ‘monitor’ pupils and families"

bmsleight_ — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 18:30:58 +0000

>There is no denying though that if it helps teachers in safeguarding children that is a good thing.

The problem is the variability of quality of teachers. I seen and been involved, both as a parent and governor with Safeguarding leads. There has been wonderful, caring and talented teachers. I am not convinced the excellent teachers need more data - they know the kids and the families very well and can draw on years of experience and support.

There has been also teachers, which have out-dated views and prejudices. This tool in the wrong hand makes matters far worse. This feels like a tool put together with people with outdated views. Like teenage parents are an indicator of a need for safe-guarding or being out of work is a correlation for safe-guiding. This clear prejudices being born-out.

New comment by bmsleight_ in "Call to shut down Bristol schools’ use of app to ‘monitor’ pupils and families"

bmsleight_ — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 18:25:03 +0000

Bloody hell - until I looked at the digram, I did no realise - this is pure profiling. What has benefit data got to do with a child at risk. As per Housing - this is profile of people because they live on the 'wrong' estate.

"Accessing Out of Work benefits" is saying the child may be at risk. "Teenage Parent" is used as an indicator.