OP uploaded a modified image. I erred on the side of caution.

This is missing some of the text.

Original has this at the end - “…solo starts shooting like a d*ckhead”

This is just one product/service that PwC has provided to the UK Government, there have been countless more. It’s a drop in the ocean of wasted money.

But the Government isn’t being hoodwinked. It’s by design. Ministers need big departments and big budgets to boost their profile. PwC massively overcharge, so ministers can have their big budgets.

It’s win win. Only people that lose, are the tax payers.

PwC almost always subcontract, who then subcontract again. The people who actually did this work probably got 45k.

Subcontractors like companies like PwC, because they have access to Governments and multinationals and win contracts that boost the subcontracters’ profile.

How do I know? I worked at a subcontracting consultancy.

It’s not just PwC. It’s all the big Accounting Firms. It’s Capita etc.

This chain does “medium rare” cookies.

https://www.benscookies.com/stores/

They normally bake them fresh. Difficult to beat warm gooey cookies.

Agree with It Takes Two.

The platforming can be frustrating in parts, but as she’s played Mario and donkey kong, then it should be fine.

I mean the other obvious option are the various Lego games.

Lego Harry Potter etc.

Or as others have said: Overcooked

I’m sure everyone knows, but just incase. The Delta Flyers podcast with Garrett Wang and Robert Duncan McNeil is great.

Some talk of pants. Garrett has a big long moan about the shoes he was given for the role.

They are meant to taking about every Voyager episode, but Wang keeps going off on long fun tangents.

Later on they move to talk about every DS9 episode with Terry Farrell and Armin Shimerman.

I’m using Waterfox (based on Firefox but without the bloat), both desktop and mobile versions. Have nothing but good things to say about it.

Count the fingers

I switched to Waterfox recently. I really like it. It actually seems to work more consistently than Firefox did.

Cat, I’m a kitty cat.

Gi Joe parody

The talking boat

I totally agree. I still have a large mp3 and flac collection.

When Spotify came a long I used both for a while. But my Spotify playlists became so full of completely random tracks, it was never financially viable to even buy 10%, and its become more difficult to do so legally.

For the bands/artists I really like, I’ve bought CDs or if that’s not possible, bought digital versions.

I am attempting to transition away from streaming completely, but I have playlists which are 100+ hours long; which I’ve curated myself. I have a dozen others which are 8-20.

You could accuse me of having too much music. That i can’t possibly listen to most of it. Perhaps there is some truth in that. When you’ve had access to an unlimited buffet, it’s difficult to go back to a set menu.

Yes, ultimately I want to own all my most listened to music, but for now it would be nice to do both and have a player with physical buttons.

I miss physical buttons for when I’m listening to music.

Having to unlock my phone to skip a track or advance a podcast is really annoying.

I used to be able to click a button in my pocket. I could even slide a bit to skip forward and back 30 seconds.

I also like to listen to music in bed in the dark. The bright screen, the messing around with the unlock, really breaks the flow.

Yes I have earphones that are touch sensitive, but poking it messes with any good isolated fit I’ve achieved, the touch doesn’t always register and after a while, one ear starts to hurt. Especially when you need to tap three times to restart a track.

I’ve now got this stupid setup with a BT dongle in a usb a-c converter; which plugs into my phone and controls a tiny physical keyboard.

There are lots of mp3 players, but they don’t support streaming platforms. The ones that do, also went mainly touch screen only and cost a fortune. There is one physical Spotify player with buttons but it’s just a dumb cube with very basic functionality.

This video seems very low effort. If your going to waste vaste amounts of vital resources, at least generate something unusual. And clearly tag it as Gen AI.

“Video by Tom Furse” - Don’t know why this annoys me the most. At best he edited the output of a selection of prompts to fit the music.

The only AI music video I’ve actually enjoyed watching is this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGIvO4eh190

In the description they clearly state the reason for using AI (plus they also used some 3D tools.)

Gen Ai is good for generating horrible nightmarish visuals.

I think I hate Gen AI so much because by default it generates dream-like/nightmare imagery, hallucinations. We try and force it to produce real-life representations.

It’s an uncanny valley generator, used incorrectly.

It’s a lab-grown meat, that no matter how it’s manipulated, just doesn’t taste right. But companies try and pass it off as it’s from an animal.

For Christ-sake, if people want to use this abomination of a tool, use it to generate abominations.

Yeah they are sneaky. You are forced to download everything.

Do a “manual search” on the Nvidia driver page.

Once the “Game Ready” drivers are downloaded. Uninstall the nvidia app (if it’s installed already.)

Now to install.

Basically for any windows software, always choose “Custom (Advanced)” installation, instead of “Express (Recommended)”.

For nvidia, the next page will show you 3-4 options. Untick everything accept “Graphics driver”.

Definitely ignore “HD audio”. It tends to mess up your sound (at least that’s my experience.)

and “PhysX System Software” unless this out of date or missing. Then you can tick this.

Then just your graphics drivers will be installed.

Obviously you will miss out on the various additional features the nvidia app provides, like auto tweaking game settings. But it’s always a tradeoff.

As I said above. Always do “Custom” installs on ANY software. 75% of the time you end up automatically opting into to various forms of telemetry, and at worst find your browers have new plugins, your search engine changed, and antivirus installed. It can be time-consuming to uninstall.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have more questions. I tried to add screenshots but the Lemmy app wasn’t having it.

I use this - https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil

But obviously get opinions from other sources first.

It claims to disable most Windows telemetry. Some Adobe. But I haven’t actually done any testing to prove it’s the case. It’s a pretty useful tool. Just use the restore point option first.

Last time I tried this method of disabling Adobe telemetry, photoshop stopped opening after a few days.

For nvidia/amd, just install the drivers, not their tool suite.

As the other posters mention, try to find alternatives.

Other than that, you can try and block at a firewall level. But few companies make it obvious like: http://nerferoustelemetry.pleasedontblockthis.adobe.com/

I literally got recommended this AI band as well. Normally I can search: “X band AI” and I get results whether or not they are real.

All I had were 50 pages about the original band leaving Spotify.

I blocked this suspicious sounding band in-case it was AI. Looks like I was right.

Just as a note: earlier this year I stated I’d keep subscribing to Spotify because the recommendations were worth the cost. I was wrong, and I’m slowly starting my transition away.

Obviously I’m not you, so will never fully understand your situation, but from my own experience, I can see why your in a very tough spot.

Even with all the work that me and my wife have done, there are still days that we get to each other. That one of us is at their most hyper or the other at a real low/overwhelmed state, unwilling to do anything but curl up in bed. Each ignoring our own bodies, either because we are too focused on something or don’t want to/can’t move.

Medication is a temporary fix for some or perhaps one symptom of ADHD.

Other people really won’t understand unless they’ve lived in our heads for a short while.

I would be very annoyed as well that my problems were being dismissed and discounted.

Thanks, I do spend a lot of time overthinking.

Now and again I come up with something that works. I still from time to time just want to run away from everything.

I wouldn’t say I figured a lot out, but what has really helped is having a partner who understands my triggers, and what triggers her.

For example, perhaps one of us is in a heated conversation and our voice is starting to raise. The other will make a visual signal, or gently touch a shoulder or hand. To bring awareness that things are heading in the wrong direction.

Often we will simply avoid certain situations altogether. Or find other mitigations. Like wearing Loops (ear things that block out some sounds). Take fidget toys, sweets etc.

Really, we just spend a lot of time talking to each other about what makes us each individually angry, uncomfortable, anxious. Then try to change our behaviour. At the very least attempt to make very small steps to soften this that grate each other.

We were both in several really bad relationships. The main takeaway was, don’t let things stew. It is really hard, but talk about things asap. Perhaps the hardest thing is finding someone who is willing to listen and share as well, and not react badly.

In many ways this sort of relationship stuff is far more logic than emotion.

Often just talking and the other person listening (and not giving any solutions, just sympathy) is enough.

With that all being said, take this with a huge bucket of salt. This is advice from a compete stranger. Search around for other opinions. Just don’t ask Chatgpt.

In typical ADHD style I wrote out a whole essay and decided instead, just to post this:

There is a point where you have to decide if it really matters.

Is the goal just to make them understand or do you need them to provide you with other support that only they can provide?

I also had a lot of trouble with both sets of parents.

I tried using examples of their own past behaviours and experiences. Things that had happened to their friends.

This worked somewhat. I don’t think I’ll ever make them fully understand.

Btw, I suspect my parents, my wife’s parents and extended family all have ADHD.

On another note:

There is a chance your wife has ADHD as well, just different behaviours. It might be that there are things you do, that really trigger her.

I thought I was the normal person with the adhd wife. There was a strong hidden reason we got together and stayed together. It didn’t become clear until later.