Hacker News: mikelward

New comment by mikelward in "Brave Origin"

mikelward — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 11:30:32 +0000

Yep, that's a dealbreaker for me.

New comment by mikelward in "Gemini 3.1 Pro"

mikelward — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 19:59:37 +0000

I don't love the verbosity of any of the chatbots when I'm using my phone, but at least it put the answer/tl;dr in the first paragraph.

New comment by mikelward in "How London cracked mobile phone coverage on the Underground"

mikelward — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 10:45:52 +0000

I don't think that's correct.

With the old WiFi networks (Virgin, Vodafone WiFi, etc.), yes.

With the new 4G+5G coverage, you can access that the same as you access above ground coverage.

New comment by mikelward in "Green card interviews end in handcuffs for spouses of U.S. citizens"

mikelward — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 10:06:29 +0000

The article says "temporary visas", not visa waivers. It also says "They had already been granted employment authorization". But I agree more details would be helpful.

New comment by mikelward in "UK intends to scrap jury trials for majority of court cases"

mikelward — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 08:10:34 +0000

In the US about 94% of cases don't go to a trial. Defendants are strongly incentivised to accept a plea deal even if they are not guilty, because the cost of a trial and the risk of a guilty verdict are too high.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plea_bargaining_in_the_United_...

New comment by mikelward in "California DMV approves map increase in Waymo driverless operations"

mikelward — Sat, 22 Nov 2025 10:15:19 +0000

I always assumed it was because San Francisco is "North", and East Palo Alto is on the "East" side of highway 101.

New comment by mikelward in "The Swift SDK for Android"

mikelward — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 08:13:38 +0000

The three buttons dialog (ContentView.swift Showcase) in particular looks like iOS rather than Android.

New comment by mikelward in "Kagi News"

mikelward — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 06:30:47 +0000

It still has the US government shutdown hasn't happened yet. It's really hard to call this news.

New comment by mikelward in "Kagi News"

mikelward — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 06:04:13 +0000

Looks great for general content. Love that it offers translation.

But the Sports section is bad. The game finished 10 hours ago and it's still showing a match preview.

New comment by mikelward in "Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers"

mikelward — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 07:15:54 +0000

Glory to Arstotzka.

New comment by mikelward in "Rights groups urge UK PM Starmer to abandon plans for mandatory digital ID"

mikelward — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 15:54:52 +0000

I think it's probably this:

https://www.mitid.dk/en-gb/about-mitid/news/soon-you-can-no-...

They removed support for Android 9. Affected devices would not be getting security updates either.

New comment by mikelward in "I have two Amazon Echos that I never use, but they apparently burn GBs a day"

mikelward — Sat, 06 Sep 2025 07:59:38 +0000

I set up a Google Home to show family photos for my grandma.

Got a call soon after that it'd used her monthly home internet allowance.

I guess it didn't cache the wallpaper images.

New comment by mikelward in "Continuous glucose monitors reveal variable glucose responses to the same meals"

mikelward — Mon, 12 May 2025 16:28:55 +0000

*ISF (Insulin Sensitivity Factor)

New comment by mikelward in "All four major web browsers are about to lose 80% of their funding"

mikelward — Thu, 01 May 2025 05:54:40 +0000

I think Apple also forced the world to move on from Flash. The iPhone didn't have Flash.

New comment by mikelward in "Cake is watching you: I built a camera cake"

mikelward — Sat, 22 Mar 2025 15:38:13 +0000

The cake is a spy

New comment by mikelward in "Apple pulls encryption feature from UK"

mikelward — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:06:56 +0000

Apple pulls encryption feature from UK

mikelward — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:06:02 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theverge.com/news/617273/apple-removes-encryption-advanced-data-protection-adp-uk-spying-backdoor

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43129104

Points: 43

# Comments: 2

New comment by mikelward in "More than 130 Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland branches to close"

mikelward — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 09:08:56 +0000

Having a Lloyds and a Halifax next door never made sense. Glad you'll now be able to go to either.

Too bad they're closing both in a lot of places, but at least their online services are the best of any traditional bank. [1]

It looks like they also had the most branches, followed by NatWest, Barclays, and Santander. [2]

1. https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/en-uk/personal-banking-service-q...

2. https://www.statista.com/statistics/987092/leading-uk-britis...

New comment by mikelward in "Live London Underground / bus maps taken down by TfL trademark complaint"

mikelward — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 13:54:46 +0000

I would complain to TfL, but their complaints form is broken

> Sorry, something's gone wrong We have a technical problem right now. One of the following options might help you:

New comment by mikelward in "I algorithmically donated $5000 to Open Source"

mikelward — Sat, 07 Dec 2024 17:58:20 +0000

Yeah, it's not much. But the publicity and the methodology and the possibility of others doing the same is more impactful than just the financial resources the author had.