u/Delicious_Volume3306

1. After I passed my test, my driving instructor drove me home. I asked if there was any final bit of advice. He said, witheringly, "You don't look ahead." Honestly, I think the dude knew exactly what he was doing because, from that moment, I started to focus on looking as far ahead as I can. Even now this can cause me to laugh a little when I start slowing because of something happening two or three cars ahead, while the car in front of me reacts late and only because the car directly in front is slowing (and of course, I'm anticipating both cars slowing). So, tip one: Look more than one car ahead. Be aware of what's happening two or three cars ahead, at least. This is especially useful on the motorway. Keep an eye on those brake lights.
2. My brother in law is a cyclist and one day while chatting we realised we both do the same thing: When approaching a junction, as one example, we're trying to predict what the driver waiting there is going to do. We know what they're going to do before they do. Get into this mindset. KNOW what they might do, and the consequences: if you're in the way when they decide to YOLO and pull out anyway, it's an accident. My significant other gets annoyed the amount of times I say out loud, while driving, "What's that person trying to do?" Second guessing, trying to predict—it's always on while I'm behind the wheel.
3. Similar to #2 is: Never assume anybody is aware of you. Never assume anything. This is, I'm sure, the #1 cause of accidents. Imagine the picture. The person at the side of the road, alongside their smashed-up car, telling the police person: "I just didn't expect them to do that." Expect them to do it. Never assume a situation is safe, or contained. Sometimes I will even blip my horn if I believe the driver hasn't seen me. That isn't in The Highway Code but I don't care. Sometimes the person is visibly shocked, like I've just burst a balloon behind them. Sometimes they're pissed off. But at least they aren't driving into me.
4. Driving is incredibly unsafe and dangerous. It is an insane thing to do. I truly believe this. Every time I get in the car, my palms are slightly sweaty. And to me, this is a good sign. If you feel comfortable and secure when driving then there's something very wrong. It's one of the least safe things humans do on a regular basis (and to make it even better, we use it to transport our offspring!). At literally any moment, through no fault of your own, you and your passengers might suffer a life-changing accident, or even death. Literally at any second. Could be a wide open road and you don't see a pothole that sends you into a tree.
5. If you're approaching a car waiting at a junction, look the driver in the eye. Make sure they've seen you. This is again related to #2 and also applies to cycling equally well. Never, ever assume they've seen you. Blip the horn if you think they're blind to your existence. It could save you at least an insurance claim, and possibly a serious injury.
6. People are idiots. Every one of them. Expect this. Expect the absolute worst of everybody, no matter what kind of car it is. Expensive cars, cheap old bangers—expect the very worst from whoever is behind the wheel. And when I say expect, I really mean it—how you drive should anticipate it. If your foot isn't on the accelerator, it should be hovering over the brake, anticipating that you'll have to come to a sharp stop.
7. Drive at the speed limit. Don't speed. For fuck's sake, speed limits are actually generous. 30MPH is fast for any urban environment, and those clever blokes in the Ministry of Transport back in the early 20th century really did push the limits in terms of what was safe when they set the rules. It's the stopping distances that matter, and humans are totally unable to contemplate these. When you see clips of something driving at 180MPH in a police chase, it always strikes me that it'll take them the FIVE TIMES the length of a football pitch to stop. And that's assuming good brakes and tyres, and it's not wet.
8. Assuming it's safe to do so, move to the middle lane on a motorway when approaching a broken down car on the hard shoulder, or a slip road. Again, it's about expecting the worst. The car might try to rejoin the motorway without building up speed first, for example. There might be passengers like kids who don't realise they're alongside a road where cars are travelling (at least) 70MPH, so wander out, or just decide to stand on the white line (because that's safe—they not actually on the road, right?).
9. Good tyres, mechanics: You're expecting me to suggest this, right? Get the best tyres? Make sure your car is mechanically sound? Great idea. But honestly, if you're driving where having a certain brand of tyre with maybe 1mm more tread than an average tyre can make a difference, on a regular basis, then you're driving dangerously. I've known people who declare they like to "drive fast", and who tend to bang on about tyres and suspension. And honestly, they're always fucking idiots. I'm always seeing photos on social of their "latest" accident. In my student days, I drove old bangers with retread tyres that had notifications on the MOT report for soon needing replacing... And because I've followed the rules above, it wasn't an issue. I'm not saying it's wise or advisable to have a car like that (at the time I had no choice). But I am saying that you need to ensure your driving style should mean you're not in a situation where you regularly need to be relying on having £200 tyres on each of your wheels to avoid accidents.
10. Just to make it up to 10 in total, here's one more. Back off when driving behind any kind of HGV like a skip lorry. They're never, ever fully tied down, and will spew their load as they drive along. This will easy put a crack in our windscreen, or chip the car's paint.
11. Actually, one more. Do I ever speed? Yes! On fast roads like motorways, if there's a driver acting erratically, I will speed to get some distance between me and them. Examples include cars that speed up and slow down, making overtaking impossible (e.g. they take offence to the fact you even try). Or just somebody who's weaving left and right in the lane. Warning signs! If it's safe to do so, I put my foot down and ensure they're far behind me. I'm unsure if I recommend this, though.
12. One last one to do with speed limits. Never assume a speed limit is sensible. There are many dual carriageways up and down the country with openings or junctions along their length, and where the speed limit is 70MPH. These are insanely unsafe. To be clear, they'd be relatively safe if there were no openings or junctions. But because of these, it's an accident waiting to happen. Ditto single track roads where the speed limit is 60MPH. Some of these are just insane. To be honest, I would just avoid them if I can, and take a different route. Very often these roads will have signs up pointing out they're accident black spots. You don't say?

I'm looking forward to the comments, where people will debate #4 and #9, in particular. OP is an anxious driver! Driving is perfectly safe!

Nope. It really isn't. It's insane we're even allowed to do it, and I suspect that, in around 100 years, we'll consider it to be one more crazy thing about the 20th/21st century, just like smoking tobacco.

Am I a safe driver? No. Nobody is. It's not possible.

OP hates driving! No, I don't. I enjoy driving. I enjoy it even more when there are few if any other drivers around, though.

OK sorry for the clickbait.

But honestly, I realised there's so much that (IMHO) is better than modern Macs (like the 16in M1 Max that's my daily driver).

I had to pull-out my mid-2015 MBP to look-up some very old emails. This has a 2.8GHz i7, 16GB of RAM, and a 1Tb SSD.

The things that just felt better:

• Keyboard. It has an actual laptop keyboard, with keys that have travel. Modern MacBook models basically use calculator keys, with very little travel. It just felt like a luxury typing on a "proper" keyboard again. The trackpad is smaller but actually, this is better. The trackpads on modern MacBook Pros are needlessly large.
• macOS Monterey. I almost wept when I saw System Preferences. It's just a few rows of icons. You click on the one you need. No having to search each and every time to find the feature you need. Nothing hidden away. So, so much simpler. And the look and feel of the entire OS... It just feels more robust. More business like. No stupid rounded edges. Just genuine, inspired UI/UX design. Tahoe did so much damage to the macOS look and feel.
• USB A ports. It's the port that won't die. I just don't understand why Apple (and other tech companies) believe it has to be either USB A OR USB C. Just one USB A port on modern Macs would be a life saver for all those old connectors and gadgets. People still pass around files on USB A sticks. My car's dashcam uses a USB A stick, even though the car is only two years old and all the actual charging ports it offers are USB C.
• Performance. No issues. It's speedy. No, you're not going to run an LLM. I doubt video editing beyond 1080p is feasible. But for everyday stuff, it mirrors the performance of my M1 Max. The only one area where I realised its age was when running GrandPerspective to find large files. It's noticeably slower than my M1 Max doing the same task. But that probably says more about how fast the storage of an M1 Max is, than the slowness of the old MBP.
• Screen. No notch, but wide bezels that seem almost funny nowadays. But the screen is bright and colourful.

OK, so there are certainly issues. I can no longer sign into my Apple account because Monterey is incompatible with iCloud end-to-end encryption. But there are ways around this, and I'm currently using OpenCore Legacy Patcher to force Ventura onto it. And the fans do spin up quite a lot, and often seemingly at random (e.g. when uninstalling AppStore apps). It does run hotter than Apple Silicon. But that's not a huge issue and mostly it's quiet and cool.

In my opinion, I do think Apple has slightly overengineered Apple Silicon MacBook Pros. I wouldn't for one second say that Apple Silicon Macs are not superb computers, or even the best computers Apple has ever made. They are. But it's a bit like I've jumped into an old luxury car and thought, "Now, this is NICE!". Maybe we've sacrificed a few too many of the nice things in the name of progress. And I'm unsure that was absolutely necessary. The keyboard in particular just isn't good enough, and Apple could do better.

I'm considering contracting. I work in marketing for corporates. I did some contracting briefly a few years ago, but that was with a view of converting to permanent, which I subsequently did.

I'd be switching to contracting solely because of a need to WFH for various reasons. Occasional visits to the office are OK but not on a weekly/monthly calendar. I don't want to describe my personal life online but please rest assured this isn't really a choice, and my life and family require it.

Is there more chance of WFH with contracting, compared to permanent? Looking at the jobs market for permanent positions, employers are either (a) minimum days in the office per week (usually two/three), or (b) "Hey we're totally flexible, work how you like"—but they're some risky startup.

We've all had friends or family change because they've learned something untrue on the internet. Sometimes it's a dramatic change affecting their entire personality.

I think the internet has made possible mind viruses. The way the internet sharpens any "fact", and then delivers it via a social network, somehow tricks people's brains into not just accepting a concept or idea, but accepting and acting on it. It consumes them.

It's a virus in their thoughts. It takes over their mind. And they're often oblivious to the infection.

I genuinely mind viruses are something that will be identified medically/psychiatrically in the coming decade. I know you may say this is essentially what a meme is, but a meme is more comparable to a bacteria, compared to the virus we have here. A bacteria is sometimes dangerous but is ultimately a simple organism. A virus is designed to replicate in its host, and to take over the entire host organism. It's a different level.

We're selling our house and have never experienced a survey before. I was somewhat surprised that it lasts up to 90 minutes. What's the dude going to be doing? Do I need to guide him around? What prep work do I need to do?

I've been looking at the crime map for an area we're thinking of moving to. Wow. There are at least one "Violence and sexual offences" within a street or two of the location EVERY WEEK. Yet when we go there it seems peaceful.

Then when I do a search for our own area, where I hear police cars with blues and twos going past maybe once or twice a week, apparently there's zero crime.

The area we're moving to is near a beach, and a tourist area. I wonder if that's pushing up the crime rate figures?

This is a quintessential 80s advert for a bank about a middle-class chap resigning because he wants to start his own business.

He arrives home to his posh house, his kid is practicising violin, he finds his wife and he says something like, "Geoff is with me, blah blah is with me, the bank is with me...".

Actually, maybe he's saying on the phone, or even a car phone. I can't remember! But it's played straight, not for laughs or anything. Totally earnest.

This has been a bug for quite a while. Any fixes or hacks?

Pretty much every delivery now involves several emails, app notifications from the delivery company, app notifications from the retailer. Literally, if a product is dispatched then my phone pings multiple times. Same when it's delivered except this time I get Ring doorbell cam updates, too. Ping ping ping ping ping.

I'm pretty sure if I had a fax machine I'd get a fax about it, too. I haven't checked AOL Instant Messenger in 20 years, but I suspect there will be a queue of messages there, just crashing the system.

Kelly Ryan truly was a visionary.

Outside of starter homes for families (e.g. cheap terraces), it's clear the market is in trouble

Do you think Andy Burnham as PM might pick things up a little? Interest rates are still moderate, not great, not terrible.

Is there a way to have a pop-up menu appear when the search/URL bar is clicked?

This is how Safari does it. If the user clicks in the URL/search bar, their favourites appear in a pop-out window below.

Its something I really miss from Safari because it lets me reuse a tab, rather than having to create a new one to view the New Tab page and the favourites/bookmarks icons.

I can find some extensions that offer something similar if you hit a keyboard combo. But that's not what I need, unless there's some way to make the same functionality work whenever the search/URL bar is clicked.

https://preview.redd.it/hlg27ykt391h1.png?width=2438&format=png&auto=webp&s=591fe05fd3f9132489741a2cf335ec7c79062f58

I see from Googling that it should be right there, but unfortunately I don't get offered Apple Pay anywhere when using Firefox on macOS. I'm on the latest main release -- 150.0.1 (aarch64).

I'm in the UK. Is there a regional limitation?