Vimeous

Cars and games with a bit of IT on the side | Founder of @BattleCattleUK | Twitch Affiliate #BCUK

[Lawrence Whittaker @ListerLawrence]

I feel sorry for Shami as he keeps getting idiots winning his Pagoda and then saying they can’t afford it. So maybe someone from Twitter can buy it? I’ve already got one so someone else please buy it! Perfect for summer - ends in 2 hrs, here is the link https://t.co/KFb9kZrafC

[Vimeous @vimeous]

You know that meme about the the ultimate car-nerd house with one bedroom and a massive garage ... do it Cotswold-style

https://t.co/ZvOEVEwpaa

[Vimeous @vimeous]

@hjwakerley Our Cayenne S would fit that lovely.
Comfy, fast enough, feels special and can carry a fridge.
A wagon for giraffes and back pain if you will.

[Vimeous @vimeous]

@skribnhoj @ListerLawrence @gmp Optics can't catch a crim, transport patients or put out fires.

If the scope was UK-inside there's a much more suitable fleet to hand.

Sadly "Blinded by Optics" is a suitable metaphor for our times.

[Vimeous @vimeous]

@ListerLawrence @skribnhoj @gmp Built in Slovakia.

I strongly suspect the Venn diagram of built wholly in the UK, and meets requirement is vanishingly small.

[Royal International Air Tattoo @airtattoo]

We’re very sorry to let you know RIAT will not be taking place this year.

Ticketholders will be contacted by the end of May via email about their RIAT26 tickets. In the meantime, you can find further information and updates on our website and FAQs page.

We appreciate your loyal support for RIAT and look forward to welcoming you to the show in 2027. More information can be found here: https://t.co/0Xel9WhWkU

[Jonathan Pie @JonathanPieNews]

Of course they will. Hardly anyone wants this mandatory Orwellian intrusion into their everyday lives, but it's been agressively fisted into our law anyway. Isn't modern democracy a wonderful thing?

[Pirat_Nation 🔴 @Pirat_Nation]

The UK NHS is giving Palantir and other companies special high-level access to patients’ personal medical records

This access is for a secure storage area that holds raw patient information which is then made private before it goes into a new NHS data system.

This £330 million project wants to connect patient records from hospitals, GP clinics and other services so doctors and nurses can see a clearer view of each patient’s health, make daily work easier and use artificial intelligence for better care.

NHS England says this access is needed to build and maintain the system, so outside staff must pass government security checks and get approval from senior NHS managers.

Every time they look at data it is recorded and checked, and they can only use the data as the NHS tells them. The information stays in the UK, belongs to the NHS and cannot be taken away or sold.

This is getting backlash from privacy groups, who say giving such access to a US tech firm puts patient privacy at risk, without even asking patients first.

Palantir says it has no interest in the patient data itself and its software simply helps the NHS organise information it already holds

[Vimeous @vimeous]

@ListerLawrence So many appear to have rear axles inherited from a Triumph Spitfire what with the ridiculous negative camber.

[GrapheneOS @GrapheneOS]

Apple and Google are gradually expanding their use of hardware-based attestation. They're convincing a growing number of services to adopt it. Google's Play Integrity API and Apple's App Attest API are very similar. Apple brought it to the web via Privacy Pass, which Google intends on doing too.

Google's Play Integrity API requires hardware attestation for the strong integrity level and is gradually phasing in requiring it for the more commonly used device integrity level. Apple already has it as a requirement. Over the long term, this will increasingly lock out hardware and OS competition.

The purpose of these systems is disallowing people from using hardware and software not approved by Apple or Google. This is wrongly presented as being a security feature. Banks and government services are the main ones adopting it but Apple and Google are encouraging every service to use it.

Apple's Privacy Pass brought hardware attestation to the web to help with passing captchas on their own hardware. Many people saw that as harmless since few sites would be willing to lock out non-Apple-hardware users. Apple and Google are both likely to bring broader hardware attestation to the web.

Google's reCAPTCHA is planning an approach where they use Privacy Pass on Apple hardware, their own approach on Google Mobile Services Android devices and a QR code scanning system to require an iOS or Google certified Android device for Windows and other systems:

https://t.co/7rQnioRa8A

Banking and government services increasingly require using a mobile app where they can use attestation to force using an Apple or Google approved device and OS. Apple's privacy pass, Google's 'cancelled' Web Environment Integrity and now reCAPTCHA Mobile Verification are bringing this to the web.

Current media coverage for reCAPTCHA Mobile Verification misunderstands it and the impact of it. They're bringing a hardware attestation requirement to Windows, desktop Linux, OpenBSD, etc. by requiring a QR scan from a certified smartphone to pass reCAPTCHA in some cases. They could expand it more.

Control over reCAPTCHA puts Google in a position where they can require having either iOS or a certified Android device to use an enormous amount of the web. Google defines certification requirements for Android which includes forcing bundling Google Chrome, etc. It's enormously anti-competitive.

Google's Play Integrity API bans using GrapheneOS despite it being far more secure than anything they permit. It also bans using any other alternative. This isn't somehow specific to an AOSP-based OS. You can't avoid this by using a mobile OS based on FreeBSD instead. You'll just be more locked out.

Google's Play Integrity API permits devices with no security patches for 10 years. The device integrity level can be bypassed via spoofing but they can detect it quite well and block it once it starts being done at scale. The strong integrity level requires leaked keys from TEEs/SEs to bypass it.

It doesn't provide a useful security feature, but it does lock out competition very well. Services requiring Apple App Attest or Google Play Integrity are primarily helping to lock in Apple and Google having a duopoly for mobile devices. Play Integrity is more relevant due to AOSP being open source.

Governments are increasingly mandating using Apple's App Attest and Google's Play Integrity for not only their own services but also commercial services. The EU is leading the charge of making these requirements for digital payments, ID, age verification, etc. Many EU government apps require them.

Instead of governments stopping Apple and Google from engaging in egregiously anti-competitive behavior, they're directly participating in locking out competition via their own services. Requiring people to have an Apple device or Google-certified Android device is anti-competition, not security.

reCAPTCHA Mobile Verification will currently work with sandboxed Google Play on GrapheneOS but it clearly exists to provide a way for them to start using hardware attestation on systems without it. People without an iOS or Android device will be locked out when this is required even without that.

This isn't about security or any missing functionality. GrapheneOS can be verified via hardware attestation. Google bans using GrapheneOS for Play Integrity because we don't license Google Mobile Services and conform to anti-competitive rules already found to be illegal in South Korea and elsewhere.

Services shouldn't ban people from using arbitrary hardware and operating systems in the first place. Google's security excuse is clearly bogus when they permit devices with no patches for 10 years but not a much more secure OS. It's for enforcing their monopolies via GMS licensing, that's all.

[Chip Ganassi @GanassiChip]

Chip Ganassi Racing and the whole racing community has lost more than a legend — the world has lost one of its most extraordinary human beings.

Alex Zanardi was the definition of resilience, courage, and grace. He was integral in shaping Chip Ganassi Racing into what it has become. From the highest levels of motorsport to his incredible achievements beyond it, he showed us all what it truly means to fight, to adapt, and to live with purpose. His strength inspired millions, but it was his humility, kindness, and unwavering positivity that made him unforgettable.

He didn’t just overcome adversity — he redefined what was possible.

Rest in peace, Alex. Your legacy will continue to push us forward, on and off the track.

[Shami Kalra ⏱️ @ShamiKalra]

Matt Bishop just text me this screenshot. Please IGNORE all his Twitter posts for now.

[Vimeous @vimeous]

@AutoInfatuation Yuasa/Bosch in the Cayenne, Banner/Bosch in the Celica. All good but make sure the amperage is right. Don't buy AGM for non stop-start.

[Vimeous @vimeous]

Discord's mix of dedicated forum and live chat have made it utterly invaluable to communities of all sizes. It was not an overt user data farm for corps or gov. Yet now those entities 'win' as they either own the alternates or have fingers in this one.
Fresh blood is needed.

[Solva 💮🩷【GAY PRIDE ARC 🏳️‍🌈】 @SolvaVT]

I gave Discord 10 years of my life. Now, we all need to start leaving.

I've been using Discord since I was 16 — it'll be 10 years this year. I've never cancelled my Discord Nitro since June 2017, and I've paid €5, then €10 every single month until today.

I became a member of the Discord HypeSquad Online as early as August 2017, then, when the program closed and was replaced by the 3-House HypeSquad test — which has now completely disappeared since summer 2025 — I joined Discord HypeSquad Events in 2019. Back then, you had to film a video to introduce yourself, explain your projects, what Discord had brought to your life. I did it with so much enthusiasm — I was proud to represent this software that had given me a social life for the very first time!

In 2022, I became a Discord Partner. I was one of the last Discord Partners to be accepted before the program was permanently shut down. I remember the joy I felt that day. It was the ultimate achievement! My first application dated back to December 2017, and at the time, Aspekt — I have no idea what became of him — told me that the Partnership was reserved for gaming communities. After yet another rejection, I was so sad that he gave me a t-shirt to comfort me (see the screenshot!).

Everything changed with COVID. Discord wanted to become a platform for everyone, not just gamers. I was really excited about this shift — at the time, I was running a community about autism! In November 2022, I happily attended a meetup for French-speaking Discord Partners on the sidelines of Paris Games Week! That's where I met Discord staff for the first time: Mindy & Eva. I had nowhere to sleep that night, I'd come from far away, I didn't want to miss the event for anything in the world, so they paid for a night in a luxury hotel for me. It was insane — I cried tears of joy.

That's the last good memory I have with Discord.
After that, everything slowly but surely started to fall apart.

The programs closed one after another.
HypeSquad Events, Partner, then Verified. The hiatus remained indefinite, then the servers were deleted or archived. Every time, they promised us it was temporary, yet we could clearly see that one by one, all the Discord staff in charge of community projects were being laid off. It started with Mallory's departure. Discord lost one of its most popular staff members, and it ended with Quikblend's layoff.
Names you all know if you were even slightly involved in the scene between 2017 and 2024.

As you've probably gathered, I had a genuine autistic obsession with Discord. I still regularly wear my Partner hoodie, I proudly display the figurine given to all Partners — the last gift Discord ever gave its community program at Christmas 2023. Discord was THE PLACE TO BE. The team truly listened to us, there was a real sense of equality between the community and its representatives. I've lost count of how many community projects brought us all together. Never had a social platform managed to be so much on the side of its users.

And now, everything has changed. None of this happened overnight. Over the years, Discord was taken over. By whom, why, I don't know. I didn't look into it.
They started force-feeding us Nitro ads, moderation became opaque, with no contact whatsoever possible with the Trust & Safety team anymore. Discord's 10th anniversary was, and I'm not joking, one of the most anticlimactic events in History. I have better memories of the 7th anniversary than the 10th!
And then advertising arrived in the form of Quests. And then the cosmetics shop, name plates, avatar decoration. And as if that wasn't enough, to really milk us like cash cows, gradient colors and server guilds require additional boosts to be used. And there I am, like an idiot, still buying.

I'm sorry to put it this way, but everything has turned to shit.

The nail in the coffin for me was the announcement of mandatory age verification for everyone. Even though, in theory, I wouldn't be affected — having recently received a message from Discord saying I'd been placed in the adults group — I am disgusted by this ultimate betrayal, this umpteenth spit in the face of a community whose staff was once closer than ever.

Discord holds a monopoly on instant messaging.
After climbing the ranks, overcoming adversity, burying its competitors, Discord did what every company in its position has done: enshittification.

I don't blame them for everything. I understand that the internet bubble born from COVID burst, that spending cuts had to be drastic, but in the meantime, something changed at Discord. A Reddit user was already warning in 2024 about deteriorating working conditions, and you can find plenty of testimonies on Glassdoor.

They haven't been on our side for a long time, and if I needed one last piece of proof to convince myself, here it is. Palantir, Peter Thiel, the Epstein Files. This post is already long enough without me adding more — do your own research, it's vomit-inducing.

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm now actively looking for an alternative to Discord.
The transition won't happen overnight, and since my social life is still essentially on this platform, it'll take me months, maybe 1 to 2 years, but I'm going to leave this app, and I fully intend to take my entire community with me.

Discord has had its time, and from now on, I'm calling for the emergence of an alternative with its own identity, one capable of going back to the roots of what made Discord successful in the first place. The fact is that Discord is now incapable, in every regard, of embodying that.I am so, so disappointed. These memories only live in my head now.

Now, we all need to start leaving.
They really ruined everything.

[Vimeous @vimeous]

@Daniel_Rubino Surely this is a return of long demanded legacy features. It had been possible for decades until the macOS fixation kicked in.
A side located task bar, rather than top, would be the small victory I am looking for.

[Vimeous @vimeous]

@AutoInfatuation Another vote for Forest Holidays with 2 provisos. They've got a little pricey and I suspect more suited to 5yrs+ that can carry themselves.
Otherwise lovely lodges. More isolated than CParcs with a central cafe/shop that has any extras you might need.
Great hub to strike out from

[Vimeous @vimeous]

@DiecastHype A time capsule.
The only question is would you open it?

[Vimeous @vimeous]

@AutoPap Nice spread.
I've managed a 1982 CL and 1991 GT.
Fam has also had 1979, 1983 CL and 1985 C.
So many Polo's so really hoping the next iteration is a winner.

Only mildly envious of your Up!

[Vimeous @vimeous]

@ListerLawrence @harrym_vids @TheRAC_UK As I posted last week, RAC home start took 28hrs for fine gent in a van and a total of 45hrs to recover with a flat bed.
Their people are great, there's just not enough of them.

[Vimeous @vimeous]

@Tankslider Took them 45hrs to perform a home start and recovery for us this week.
All the staff were great but the system is clearly broken and the number of patrol's severely lacking.