Notices by iona 🐝 (iona@social.coop), page 24

@hollyamory Public Service Broadcasting were there? I love them! What are they like live?

@artsyhonker I Will Always Gove You

@artsyhonker I Want Your Brex

@Graham_Mitchell I see your point, but in most places in the world, even developing countries, you can get at least a few radio stations playing American pop on FM. No one in those places is going to tune to the same music on crackly old short wave!

Countries where you can't already get pop music - North Korea for instance - already block VOA on short wave. Baffling why they'd spend so much money playing pop on expensive high power transmissions.

7:30am on day #1 of the school summer holidays, and the - er - "family" next door are screaming, banging and fighting already.

It's going to be a loooong six weeks and as most years, I deliberately took my holiday (to 🇮🇪) before the kids broke up.

Does anyone have any ideas of places I can go when the noise gets too much? I would like at least one lie in over the summer.

Same for China Radio International, which at the time of writing is playing 24K Magic by Bruno Mars

Keep the red flag flying guys

Why does the Voice of America seem to consist mostly of non-stop pop music nowadays? What is the public service benefit of playing out chart pop on short wave radio? Surely no one is listening.

It used to be news and politics (if a bit heavy on the US propaganda at times). Not sure when it turned into a pop channel.

@andybroomfield It said they would send a plague of locusts to my house if I didn't fill in the form, so I did it online.

(Actually, it said that they would have to keep spending money sending postal reminders and then guys around to remind you, which would be a waste of scarce council cash.)

@pinguino Perhaps I got lucky, but for me installing Debian just works without a great deal of hassle.

Any messing around I do after installation tends to be to customise the installation, rather than to fix broken wi-fi or drivers.

I'd be super interested to know what problems people have with Debian!

@pinguino Just curious - what does Linux Mint offer that Debian doesn't? I've never tried it.

@vfrmedia Ours is in four languages, perhaps that's why. I recognise three of them - English, Urdu and Bengali - but I can't place the fourth.

@artsyhonker @vfrmedia I have been told by a good source that the Conservatives are quietly planning for an October election, preparing campaign materials and a manifesto.

@vfrmedia None of the people pictured on the pamphlet live round here, they're all smiling

I've got a letter here - make sure you don't lose your right to vote, keep yourself on the electoral roll.

But there is no election coming up. Oh no. No plans for an election at all...

@hollyamory I grew up in sight of Jodrell Bank, it's an amazing place :) 📡

@bobstechsite Virgin are not saints, they do have some sharp practices.

If you move from a Virgin to a non-Virgin area and you are still under contract, they want the rest of the contract from you. Some people I know got stung by it when their landlord sold up a few months into their Virgin contract. Totally not their fault but cost them £200+.

@bobstechsite If I ever move from here to a non-Virgin area (which is probable, because I want to move somewhere more rural) the first thing I'll look for is a local wireless ISP rather than an Openreach reseller. I want to stay away from BT's network as much as I can.

@bobstechsite Mine went from £27 to £32 when the promotional period ended, but it's still an okay deal because all competitors look slightly cheaper but actually have landline "line rental" to add on.

It's also the only part-fibre option where I live - the standard broadband is just ADSL to a tired, regularly vandalised cabinet nearly a mile away.

For anyone guessing where I was, I was indeed on Ilkley Moor in West Yorkshire. :)

@bobstechsite I think I am the only person on VM who literally just has broadband. I only signed up because my BT line died and wasn't fixable, and all I wanted was the cheapest broadband package.

I don't even have phone, I just have a VoIP "line" with a local area code number. Who can even tell?