Meeting your 2 direct debit quota for bank accounts

If you are signing up for certain bank accounts they require you to be paying at least 2 direct debits every month. Here are some ideas of what you can use:

1. Bills. Often, services like electric, gas, council tax, internet, mobile and TV licence will all permit direct debit. In some cases like Santander 123, you can get cashback on these as well.
2. Magazine subscriptions. Some websites will connect via direct debit.
3. Paypal counts a direct debit as long as the payments come out.
4. Plum is an auto savings app that works on direct debit.
5. Charities. Some of them will allow the minimum of £1/month on a dedicated day of your choice. Just don't accept to share information or receive any promotional material / spam. Maybe even try entering their own address as direct debit doesn't require an address.
1. Minimum of £1/month donation:
1. Oxfam
2. Unicef
3. RSPCA
4. Stroke Association
5. Alzheimer's Society
6. Great Ormond Street Hospital
7. Roald Dahl Charity
8. Salvation Army
9. Royal National Institute of Blind People
10. Royal National Lifeboat Institute
11. Dogs Trust
12. ActionAid
13. Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group
2. £2 minimum:
1. WaterAid
2. Cancer Research
3. MS Society
4. Red Cross
5. NSPCC
6. Save The Children
7. Macmillan Cancer Support
8. British Heart Foundation
9. Age UK
10. Battersea Dogs Home
11. Asthma UK
12. Terrence Higgins Trust
13. Mind
14. Prostate Cancer
3. More:
1. Action for Children - £3
2. More here and here

How to vote

How to vote:

1. Register to vote
https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote
2. Inform yourself by reading party policies on their websites
http://www.parliament.uk/about/mps-and-lords/members/parties/
3. Inform yourself by getting to know all your MPs and their local activities and policies
https://www.yourvotematters.co.uk/register-to-vote/find-your-local-authority
4. Use a website to help you decide
https://voteforpolicies.org.uk
https://uk.isidewith.com
5. If you are not happy with any of the choices available, vote no confidence/none of the above.
http://www.votenone.org.uk/how-to-vote-or-vote-none.html
6. Cast your vote
https://www.yourvotematters.co.uk/how-do-i-vote

Do not do any of these:

- Believe everything in the news
- Go with what your friend, family, colleague or random person says
- Choose randomly or based on colour
- Vote the same as you have before, for the sake of it or out of laziness

You can also get involved by:

- Becoming a paying member of parties
- Helping your areas and understanding their issues
- Emailing/contacting your MP in your ward: http://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-your-mp/
- Attending and watching debates, PMQs and protests to ensure your opinions are heard

Optimise Windows for gaming

Bender - Overclockwise - Futurama

Here's some tips for getting Windows into best performance mode for gaming or other demanding tasks.

• Install all updates - see Windows Update
• Windows 10 Creators Update includes Game Mode
• Get all your drivers up to date and not in error states - see Windows Defender Security Center and Device Manager
• Update all apps on the Windows Store
• Update all your programs and games (e.g. via Steam or SUMo)
• Disable DVR
• Set Power Options to High performance mode
• If there is no mode then edit the following settings:
• Highest brightness
• High performance for wireless and CPU
• Windows animations - System > System Properties > Advanced system settings > Advanced > Performance [Settings] > Adjust for best performance
• Set a reasonably large page file
• Graphics card settings
• Turbo boost on some CPUs (usually edited via BIOS or a program provided by your OEM)
• Game boosters
• Game mode on your antivirus/internet security suite, if available, so that scans and notifications are disabled during. If not on the internet, possibly temporarily disable all protection.
• Close all apps/programs not in use, and uninstall ones not in use
• Use C-Cleaner to free up space, remove temporary files
• If using a HDD, defragment. If SSD, trim/optimise the drive.
• Disable explorer extensions and not-needed startup items - use Autoruns
• Stop or disable any unnecessary services like iTunes, iPod, Bonjour, Dropbox and Google Updaters, telemetry, etc.
• Disable or replace your Antivirus. Some Antiviruses or Internet Security suites can  severely impact performance.
• See more suggestions from Microsoft

Response to not upgrading your computer's operating system

Desk evolution - Fossbytes

What do upgrades provide?

Security updates

You need security updates. By not ever installing updates, you're leaving known vulnerabilities open. The best form of protection is prevention, by safeguarding. Leaving a system unpatched is like eating raw chicken or having unsafe sex. Even machines not connected to the internet need patches, because some viruses attack vectors like USB drives.

Features

The features being added are usually improvements to make your experience better and introduce new functionality. In the same way that you wouldn't keep using a Nokia 1110 if you can get an iPhone.

Overall

If you don't ever update your systems, you're just holding back on being more efficient, having a less stable operating system, potentially having more vulnerabilities, and you're losing out on the latest technologies available. I think more generally, if you stay on older systems, you are rejecting the entire concept of change and progress.

There is an interesting aspect to opinions before and after change: we only know and appreciate the value of something new, truly, once we have it, so we can compare to what it used to be like. Without knowing the difference, we can be stubborn and intolerant of change.

And if it's Windows, Apple, or Android - operating system upgrades are also free.

We must evolve

If we stay the same human species forever, we may survive, but we can be so much more efficient. Life isn't just about the survival of the fittest, it's about being adaptable.

Some examples:

• Honey badger - one of the least endangered species: it is highly intelligent, resilient to snake venom, and has vicious power.
• Chameleons - it is well known that they can regrow tails, but if this could be applied to us, then prosthetics may become a thing of the past. It probably won't ever be as good as Wolverine or Extremis in Iron Man 3, but it's a hope.
• Trees - As per here, trees share DNA with other species in a symbiotic relationship.
• How life evolved. From a scientific standpoint of history in general, DNA, eyes, brains, and language have been the biggest drivers in successful life. This TED video transcript explains how life began and cells specialised. 
• GMOs. We have genetically modified food for hundreds of years - it's artificial selection. We did the same with dogs, but this is failing us because of pedigree species that breed within the same family, emphasising poor characteristics.
• Cybernetics - there are many films and games (Ghost in the Shell, Matrix, Deus Ex, Blade Runner, Doctor Who, Futurama) which all have varying degrees of cybernetic implants. In some ways, some people are already cybernetic - those with pacemakers, hearing aids, brain stimulation, mind-reading prostheses, iron lungs, respirators, and artificial kidneys are all hints of a future where having a microchip in your hand could become common.

Uber Star Ratings

Nosedive - Black Mirror - Charlie Brooker

Article in question: https://www.buzzfeed.com/carolineodonovan/the-fault-in-five-stars?bffbmain&ref=bffbmain&utm_term=.euD11bDkb#.km8ddRKgR

Here's my thoughts on Uber's star rating system.

This is Black Mirror all over again.

The problem is that we already use a 5 star rating for films, restaurants, and schools.
That's because we have a choice at the end of the day. We can choose which movie to watch, which restaurant to eat at, which school to send our kids to. It's a competition.

Giving a 5 star rating means, out of other ones you've compared against that are available to you, this one is the best.

On Uber, you don't get that choice, you're just given the nearest driver who accepts. With Uber, it's not a competition, you have nothing to compare to; all you can compare to is other trips and other modes of transport.

This ties into the other aspect that is different - the rewards system.

For movies, restaurants and schools, getting a 5 star rating means this is an excellent choice and everyone should pick this one. The rewards are Oscars, recommendations, and grants.
With Uber, rewards are purely monetary tips, on a one-off, personal basis, that aren't publicly known or become shared information.

So how could a 5 rating system ever work for a company like Uber, where there is no choice, no competition, and no reward scheme.

What Uber could do is explain what each level means as someone votes. Or, it asks a series of yes/no questions, rather than asking for a star rating that people are confusing based on a choice/competition/rewards basis.

Changing the attitude on the silence of mental issues

- God, Godfellas, Futurama

Remember to not ever feel like you're burdening someone with your problems.

Mental illness and depression are just as important as heart attacks, and getting urgent medical help is required. We need to tell each other that it's okay to have a mental breakdown in public, if it avoids suicide.

There is too much of an attitude of being schtum and not wanting to help strangers, and not putting a burden on them. At least in the UK.

However, when we have personal issues, but it can be just as much of a crisis as a physical wound and bloodletting. I believe GPs should be extended to deal with matters more openly, it shouldn't ever feel like an inconvenience to others when your life is at risk. Help from others is the only way some people can recover from depression. Crying in public is seen as unacceptable and annoying, but it shouldn't be when someone's life is in danger.

People need to know that anyone should be able to put everything aside to do whatever it takes to be there for those in need. Anyone should want to stand up and listen to them anytime, no matter how big nor small a problem, if it will save a life.