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the "we don't have change" scam: Oxford Tube (Stagecoach)

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You can use cash, as long as we can keep the change, seems to be the new push for the cashless society. Case in point: Oxford Tube, cost 25.50, gave 30 GBP, "we don't have change, have this scrip instead, see at end of coach ride". At end of coach ride, no they didn't have change. On return journey later that day: no change, "check at end".  At end: no change. So, due to Stagecoach policy, they got to keep the 4.50 GBP, and I ended up with a useless ticket saying "4.50" on it. What would happen if a customer tried paying for a coach ride with their own scrip?
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vodafone 500 internal server error on password change

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Signed up to Vodafone UK contract. Got email with username and tmp password, saying I had to log in with it to complete. Did that. Got asked to set new password. Got 500 Internal Server Error: This must be a "user journey" that happens millions of times every year.
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vodafone data SIM: APN and user / password required

I've just set up a Fritzbox 5G router (the 6850) with a Vodafone UK pay monthly data SIM. It would be nice if you could insert the SIM, connect to the wifi, and you are on the internet.  That didn't happen.  The "power / mobile" LED did go solid green, indicating the router thought it had mobile data, but it didn't.  And why are those two things sharing an LED? So I connected to the management interface, and went through the setup wizard.  I had bought the router in Switzerland.  I selected UK.  It didn't have networks listed, so just chose "other" or something.  Didn't set APN or network username / password.  Some reboots and more config wizard until it was finished. Got no internet, so looked up vodafone info, found that APN should be wap.vodafone.co.uk, username "wap" and password "wap".  Set these.  Then I had internet.  In 2025. This is config that shouldn't exist.  There is no point to any of these settings.  It shou...
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USB C PD outlet used to power monitor

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The Samsung U32J590QR, and quite a few other monitors, take a 19V DC power supply, and come with a power brick.  This is annoying, until one notices that 19V is the same as laptops, and that one can easily get USB C PD to laptop DC barrel connector power adapters, probably 20V which is close enough, and that one's favourite mains sockets with USB C PD outlets can deliver power that will run the monitor. Nice.
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stopping Smeg cooker clock flashing

A Smeg cooker came with a house.  It doesn't have a model number visible.  After a power cut, the clock flashes. I tried pressing the 5 buttons on the front, which are labelled with hieroglyphs.  Singly, then mashing them.  Still flashing. You have to press the second-from-left and third-from-left buttons together to stop it flashing.  Apparently, these buttons are called "timer cook" (hieroglyph: bucket with wibbles) and "end" (hieroglyph:  bucket with the wibbles crossed out).  Then you can use + and - to set the time, if you want.
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cd burning: use "wodim"

Note to self: burn to optical media with wodim, like so:     # wodim -eject $ISO Background: it was originally called cdrecord, but this was forked and the name changed with it.  At some point it was called cdrkit. Support for new media, DVDs and then Bluray BDs was only made available in the newly-named programs.
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git: listing directories to include

In its normal behaviour, git is for a whole directory, apart from exclusions via .gitignore, and any special git files. What if we want to whitelist what to include?  There isn't a .gitfoo file for this.  But it can probably be achieved via a double negative for files, and a double negative twice for directories: .gitignore: * !included_file !included_dir/ !included_dir/* This is especially useful for picking out parts of a home directory to replicate.
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