I'm a heavy user of mosh on both iOS and Android using Termius (or JuiceSSH) as the client.
It's terrific for making high latency connections feel like a normal one, roaming between WiFi, cellular, and different VPNs without skipping a beat. Even in 2025 it is very useful.
Graphene is right if you're afraid someone is trying to hack your phone with an RCE in some form of drive-by exploit to hijack your browser.
While RCE attacks and Firefox 0days do exist, I think the privacy improvements outweighs the anti-exploit benefits provided extra layers of sandboxing.
That said, Firefox does seem to be rolling out Fission on Android, which brings hope that site isolation may come soon so that we can have both benefits at the same time.
Not only can you complete a UK Passport Application completely online (save for mailing any required documentations to HMPO), you can apply for a brand new passport as a "new" citizen (by adoption, naturalisation, or descent), online, from outside the UK, with just a mobile device without downloading some special app, including taking the photos.
Sure, you can play it on "hard mode " and do it with paper and pen for the lulz, but my experience was extremely efficient, fast, and straight-forward.
I went through the UK online passport renewal system last year, and it is the best website I have used in a very very long time. A real breath of fresh air. It worked perfectly on my old computer and 'ancient' browser. Everything very simple / accessible / clear, colours, text, buttons, fields, requirements. A simple step-by-step navigation and actually friendly.
It is a shame that more businesses dont care about their customers enough to invest in such a well designed website. Well done HMPO.
You can easily tell the difference between services built under GDS, where the work favoured local contractors and agencies and otherwise smaller outfits, and those farmed out to the usual huge consultancy firms that are typically mired in controversy.
I would have much, much lower expectations for a body shop like Infosys or Accenture or Thoughtworks. They probably wouldn’t implement the design system right without billing extra for attention to detail.
I agree, I also renewed my passport recently and the website and process is quite smooth. It's the more complex cases, first requests from abroad, etc., that lack automation.
Seconded! In my experience, Gov.UK does pretty well in general and am happy to say that as one who privately fumes about various aspects of Britain in recent years.
Renewed recently which was my first time using the online system. The entire process was exceptionally fast. I got the passport back in less than 2 weeks from California.
In comparison my Canadian passport renewal (damaged after 3 years) from California took 4 months. Was entirely paper based and had ridiculous requirements such as requiring a reference and a photograph stamped by photographer.
I know there's a digital pilot that's ongoing. That should be rolled out ASAP.
Just being able to do it via mail sounds like luxury, to renew a Swedish passport you need to visit an embassy in person. And then in 2 weeks go back in person to pick it up. Really fun when the embassy is on the other side of the country and it means expensive plane trips. This was even more of a problem during
COVID when borders were closed, since Sweden doesn't have embassies in every single country.
And they expire in 5 years, not 10 like many other countries.
I need to renew my Belgian passport soon, and I live in the United States.
Even though the consulate has my biometric data, I need to visit them in person.
My only saving grace is that they sometimes visit my city., and I can register there. But that registration is only valid for 1 year, and they don't visit every year...
And that is still 2h+ one way of travel for me, for something they already have.
You make it seem much simpler than it is in reality. I accept the process for renewals has been streamlined with considerable success but, as someone who recently helped a friend apply for his first passport a couple of years ago, I can attest the process is drawn out and tedious. An in-person interview is required, as is a signature from a 'responsible person' that many people do not have access to (Doctors are not accepted, for instance).
There's another word for "educating" people until they reach the decision you want them to.
Brainwashing.
You know it's completely possible that people have a different outlook or opinion or perspective on things and that is why they disagree with you, not necessarily a lack of education?
Some people think these are good ideas and they vote or welcome them. Some people think they are bad ideas and they vote or oppose them.
No, education is not brainwashing. These terms have different definitions. One is by definition good, one bad. Words matter, definitions of words matter.
I’d love an education system that only teaches scientific consensus, and leaves moral conclusions to parents and households. However I’m sure you’d appreciate that’s not what we have.
For example: What’s the right way to live? How to relate to others? On what basis do we cooperate? What are/are not the overall goals of society? What’s the meaning of life? What is it to be a good person?
I would disagree. Many ideological worldviews are taught in the curriculums of the public education system. For instance, the idea that homosexuality is wrong (not a view I personally hold) is not tolerated. Students are taught that homosexuality is a valid, normal, way to live (and I happen to agree).
However, whether it is right or wrong, valid or invalid, is an ideological argument. Schools should simply teach that it occurs in humans, and leave the question of whether to accept or reject it to parents (there are plenty of other natural behaviours many of us reject on ideological grounds, polygamy for instance). There are countless other examples where ideology is taught as curriculum.
Fortunately our system is setup such that passionate folks like you can work to effect change. Go do it - volunteer for your local PTA, run for school board positions, show up to public hearings. Be the change you want to see in the world. God Speed my friend.
Having the ideology of the majority taught in schools is the outcome of a strictly democratic process like the one you’re describing. I’m suggesting that the separation between church and state be extended to any ideological teaching.
Maybe when churches start obeying the "no pushing any political candidate" laws and stop pushing things like "all scientists are evil", it would be a more acceptable position for those outside the church? Seriously - I've seen (not joking) statements like: all scientists know god exists, but deny it because they don't want to follow the laws of the bible. This was before I deconverted.
I’m directly responding to your point. Ideological education is brainwashing. In fact “brainwashing” is usually just another way of saying “an ideological education I disagree with”, also known as “indoctrination”.
Any conclusion that cannot be arrived at cannot be arrived at by a scientific process is inherently ideological. You’re saying flowers smell good. I say they smell bad. Neither of us is any more right than the other, since these are entirely subjective takes. The closest you could get is that flowers might smell good to x% of the population, which is what schools should teach. Not that they smell good or bad.
The distinction is small but important, since the latter conclusion doesn’t make any judgements about people with a legitimate minority opinion.
What about art,Mozart, the Dead shakespeare, south park and everything in-between? Those aren't science, but are some of the most vital components of education.
Education describing what cultural artifacts exist and how to produce them isn’t ideology. These are objective areas of study. Though lots of cultural education is ethnocentric, where minority cultures are less represented, making the education less well rounded.
Education is not about what cultural artifacts exist, but why and how. Music appreciation and art appreciation, music history and art history are a small part of a music or art Education for someone who is hoping to practice it.
This worked well for me, until I couldn't work for 3 years. Then, it was an automatic rejection even for companies I got refered to. Go without paper at your own peril.
Which one of those replaces a Denon AV receiver to accept a bunch of inputs in various formats (HDMI, phono, optical, etc) including Dolby Atmos and ARC support to drive a multi-room 15.4 speaker system?
You could perhaps consider looking at some of the class D amps coming out of CN. Remarkable stuff considering the price and power output.
SMSL has some good, well reviewed products; as do WiiM and quite a few other brands.
The Audio Science Review forum (1) has objective measurement based reviews of many of the newer amps, standalone and integrated.
I’m using the SMSL AO300 to drive Boston Acoustics VR3 floor standing speakers in a study, and they’re sound as good as they did when they were on an older Yamaha amp, or a Denon integrated amp.
Edited to add: most (none?) of the class D integrated amps can’t do Dolby -(licensing, I suspect, is the main issue here), so you’ll need to get a receiver in the middle for HTS though.
Edited post edit (sorry!): turns out Wiim streamers can now do 5.1, so some options are slowly emerging. (2)
I think the point is with Samsung acquiring these other brands there are now fewer options. Denon AVRs have been solid options for home theaters, particularly if you have many different inputs. People buy them because they want a Denon/Marantz. If they wanted to buy Samsung that option is already available. The concern is Samsung will mar the brands, removing semi-affordable, quality options and forcing people that don't want Samsung bloat into potentially even more expensive alternatives. You'd run into the same issue if Samsung acquired your audio equipment manufacturer of choice.
Yes, exactly. There are a couple of companies making home AV hardware. But not a lot of them. And across a lot of industries the different players are all getting gobbled up and turned shitty much faster than new competitors can replace them.
It's terrific for making high latency connections feel like a normal one, roaming between WiFi, cellular, and different VPNs without skipping a beat. Even in 2025 it is very useful.
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