All posts tagged: Ditch

Civil servants ditch maths tests for jobs at Treasury | UK | News

Civil servants ditch maths tests for jobs at Treasury | UK | News

Published by Sam Flores

The Treasury scrapped a numerical exam from its graduate scheme in a bid to improve diversity, it has emerged. In 2020, shortly after the death of George Floyd, the government department, now headed by Rachel Reeves, quietly removed the numeracy test from its application process due to suggestions it had an “adverse impact” on candidate diversity. Whitehall also complained about “extremely high benchmarks”, which led the Treasury to drop verbal reasoning exams. The “Civil Service Strengths Test” was then implemented by bosses. It asked candidates whether they “prefer not to have to concentrate on one thing for too long”. Fury has erupted after The Spectator obtained the documents, which have been described as “insane”. In Freedom of Information requests obtained by the magazine, The Spectator reported that the Treasury had concluded that its policy adviser graduate programme was not diverse enough, after a review of its 2019 scheme. The review recommended removing the numeracy test. Since the measure in 2020, the diversity of candidates who passed the application process has subsequently increased. It has been …

Ditch The Roaming Charges: Why Brits Are Switching To Nomad eSIM For Europe Travel

Ditch The Roaming Charges: Why Brits Are Switching To Nomad eSIM For Europe Travel

Published by Sam Flores

Once upon a time, travelling abroad meant willingly accepting a few inconveniences. Paper maps, printed boarding passes and an expectation that getting mildly lost would simply be “part of the experience.” Nowadays, most holidays rely on mobile data far more than people realise. From accessing train tickets and restaurant bookings to using Google Maps in unfamiliar cities, staying connected abroad has become an essential part of travelling smoothly. In response to this change, increasingly numbers of travellers are rethinking one of the holiday costs that still catches many unawares: mobile roaming. And, in particular, many of them are turning to eSIMs like Nomad eSIM as a more reliable alternative to daily charges and delayed bills. Keep reading to find out how you can enjoy a smarter way to travel and get more value with every trip. The appeal isn’t just saving money, it’s avoiding friction, too For years, managing your mobile data allowance abroad felt unnecessarily complicated. You either accepted expensive roaming charges, relied on unreliable public WiFi or tried navigating airport SIM card kiosks …

I tried AnduinOS 2.0, and it may be the easiest way to ditch Windows for Linux

I tried AnduinOS 2.0, and it may be the easiest way to ditch Windows for Linux

Published by skeptic

Jack Wallen/ZDNET ZDNET’s key takeaways AnduinOS 2.0 beta is available, and it’s something special. This desktop distribution is fast, clean, and private. You can download and test the latest release now. “Today, AIURSOFT Limited is thrilled to announce the beta release of AnduinOS 2.0.0. This is not just another system update; it is a fundamental, ground-up architectural rewrite of our entire operating system.” That’s the opening to the announcement about AnduinOS 2.0. It continues to say, “Listening closely to community feedback regarding maintainability and package management, we have completely reimagined how AnduinOS is built, distributed, and maintained.” Also: Windows Subsystem for Linux gives developers a compelling reason to stick with Microsoft – here’s why Essentially, AIURSOFT Limited is leaving behind the era of ‘remastering’ and moving into the era of true distro engineering. What does that even mean? Well, to begin, AnduinOS is now assembled within a pristine, sandboxed debootstrap and chroot pipeline. Again, what does that mean? AnduinOS now uses a proprietary, XML-based declarative domain-specific language and an automated compilation toolchain that makes the AnduinOS …

My USB drive does 4 things cloud backup can’t — here’s why I’ll never ditch it

My USB drive does 4 things cloud backup can’t — here’s why I’ll never ditch it

Published by skeptic

As much as I love the convenience of keeping my important data safe in the cloud, there’s still a lingering fear in my head — what if the cloud or my internet connection fails me? It has happened to me at least a few times, which is why I am always adamant about keeping a fail-safe that is actually reliable. In this regard, good old physical media will never fail me; that is why I keep a cohort of USB drives as a safety net in case anything goes wrong. Now this backup plan doesn’t just involve keeping my personal data safe; I also use these drives as security tools or as bootable drives for when I want to switch to another OS. Related 10 Practical Uses for a USB Flash Drive You Didn’t Know About You’ve used USB sticks to transport files between computers and back up files, but there is much more you can do with a USB stick. Some of my files are too sensitive to back up in the cloud No …

This ancient stone fruit is exploding in popularity as people ditch ultra-processed snacks

This ancient stone fruit is exploding in popularity as people ditch ultra-processed snacks

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the Well Enough newsletter with Harry Bullmore for tips on living a healthier, happier and longer life Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Americans are ditching ultra-processed snacks and reaching for one of history’s oldest foods instead, according to recent sales data. Shoppers bought 33 percent more Medjool dates in the U.S. in 2025, California date company Joolies California Superfruit told Food52. The number is expected to rise even more as the fruit explodes in popularity, whether due to trendy packaging or viral recipes. The market size for dates is projected to reach $1.6 billion in America by 2034, according to Fortune Business Insights. Although dates are having their day in the sun now, the sweet fruit has been cultivated since ancient times in the Middle East, with Egyptians using it to make wine. Fossils show that date palm plants were flourishing 50 million years ago, according to the Smithsonian magazine. Now, because of their caramel flavor, recipes have more recently used dates as …

Why it’s OK to ditch your friends at the beginning of a new relationship

Why it’s OK to ditch your friends at the beginning of a new relationship

Published by Daniella Wilson

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more It’s become the fashion these days to put the words “unpopular opinion” in front of such benign “takes” as enjoying pineapple on a pizza or preferring prosecco to champagne. But I’ve begun to suspect that I secretly harbour a genuinely unpopular opinion: I reckon it’s totally fine to ditch your mates at the beginning of a new relationship. #Sorrynotsorry. I’m painfully aware this makes me sound mildly sociopathic and goes against accepted “wisdom” drummed into us since childhood – certainly in terms of heterosexual romance. “Bros before hoes”; “boys come and go, but your friends are for life”. The wording may be different depending on gender, but the message is always the same: romantic love is fickle, fleeting and transient while platonic love is …

Should we ditch the idea of three meals a day? | Books

Should we ditch the idea of three meals a day? | Books

Published by Sam Flores

‘One of the stupidest things in an earnest but stupid school of culinary thought is that each of the three daily meals should be ‘balanced’.” So argues American food writer MFK Fisher in her 1942 book How to Cook a Wolf. She goes on: “In the first place not all people need or want three meals each day. Many of them feel better with two or one and one-half, or five.” Fisher wrote her book ostensibly as a guide on how to feed yourself pleasurably and nourishingly during a period of food shortages caused by war, but there is much in her insightful advice to inspire and provoke us today. More than 80 years later, threats to the sacred breakfast-lunch-dinner mode of eating can still make the news: “A nation of snackers: Britons no longer eat three meals a day”, gasped one recent headline in the Times. Deviations from the “standard” model are the subject of research by academics and health professionals, and food retailers commission studies in an attempt to understand (and shape?) when …

Ditch the niceties in AI prompts to save energy use, say researchers

Ditch the niceties in AI prompts to save energy use, say researchers

Published by skeptic

ChatGPT now processes around 2.5 billion queries every day Alina Vytiuk / Alamy Stock Photo UN researchers are urging people to be less polite to artificial intelligences after a report found that cutting words from prompts could reduce ChatGPT’s energy consumption by up to 25 per cent. Removing “please”, “thank you” and other unnecessary words from AI prompts could save 87 to 98 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year, the report from the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) found. That is the equivalent of the annual residential electricity use of up to 760,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa. To reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint, people should write concise prompts, avoid getting sucked into conversation loops and refrain from starting relationships with AI, the researchers said. “We are not saying be rude to your AI. But don’t fall into the interaction trap and don’t go falling in love with it either,” says Kaveh Madani at UNU-INWEH. The large language models behind AI chatbots process text in small units known as tokens. Madani …

Dell’s XPS 13 is so thin and light, it might finally make me ditch my MacBook

Dell’s XPS 13 is so thin and light, it might finally make me ditch my MacBook

Published by skeptic

Summary Thinnest, lightest XPS yet – 12.7mm, 2.2 lbs; a real shoulder-saver for on-the-go use. Long battery (up to 17 hrs streaming) and solid everyday performance: Intel Core 5/Core Ultra, up to 32GB/1TB. Bright 13.4″ 2.5K InfinityEdge touchscreen (30-120Hz VRR, Eyesafe) plus eco build with recycled plastics/aluminum. Dell has just announced its latest model in its popular XPS laptop series — the XPS 13 DX13260. This new casual laptop is the thinnest and lightest model in the XPS lineup yet, making it super portable for on-the-go work. This brand-new model has a more refined aluminum body and adds upgraded internals and battery life over earlier XPS laptops. It’s made for busy professionals and students on the go, and for anyone who, like me, has carried around a chunky MacBook for years, the XPS 13 could be a life (or at least a shoulder) saver. Related Why I Don’t Trust Thin, Light Laptops Anymore Sometimes, a little bulk is the best option. Everything you need to know about XPS 13 Measuring just 12.7mm thin and weighing …