One change of perspective that retirement brings ...
A bank holiday is no longer a day on which you can do *more* things because you don't have to work.
It becomes a day on which you can do *fewer* things, because nobody else is working.
Hey, here's something positive that Starmer could do: appoint a health secretary who actually supports the NHS.
Spam phone call.
I interrupt the script with my usual "do you feel happy when you wake up in the morning knowing you're going to have to spend all day scamming people?"
Today's reply wasn't one I've heard before (usually they just drop the call):
"Yes, absolutely, no problem at all."
(I don't *think* it was an AI robocall, but these days who knows?)
I still reckon that rail engineering works should be done during the working week.
Because during the working week, most passengers are commuters, who know the system backwards, and can navigate round system failures without even bothering to wake up.
Whereas weekends and holidays are for occasional travellers, who've spent months planning their journey, and haven't the remotest clue what to do if they turn up at the station to find their train is cancelled.
RE: https://wandering.shop/@vapaad/115975141052792861
Yes. This is how politics is done.
So I get that modern cars have a "lane assist" feature whose job is to wrench the steering wheel out of your hands when you cross a white line to avoid a flood or (certainly in Cornwall at the moment) the remains of a fallen tree.
But when there's no white line in sight? As far as I can guess it's reacting to low sunlight reflected off a wet road.
FFS! If a system hasn't the remotest clue WTF is going on it should switch itself off, no? In preference to trying to kill people?
Here's a solar array ground mounted on Cornish Rocker, pointing the right way, and properly adjusted for the season (weather unknown - it's hundreds of miles away - but assume full sunshine). Followed by a similar number of panels on a roof, in full sunshine, pointing in various different fixed directions 'cos that's how the roof is.
Still, the alternative, going to the bank branch, would have been even more hoop-jumping. IME that involves sitting for an hour watching someone type numbers I've given them into a computer, they then say "OK, all done".
Here, I've worked out what's going on: If you've actually stuck it out for the whole hour, and haven't chickened out and run away before the police have time to turn up, then they assume you're not a scammer.
Security theatre episode 917:
Can I make a payment of more than £20k? Nope, over the limit ...
... unless ...
... confirmed by biometrics.
So, I register biometrics by getting my phone to take a picture of me. Then I verify the transaction by getting my phone to take another picture of me, two minutes later, and decide that the two pictures are of the same person.
Approved. Money transferred. Job done. But WTF was all the hoop-jumping supposed to achieve?
And today I discovered that after updating their software they only retained *most* of their settings, leaving me wondering why I was getting cold.
Three of my radiator valves are saying that they want to update their software. What a bonkers world we now live in.
So he arrived at his destination twenty hours late.
With no luggage. And the airline don't have a clue where it is. And it contains all the walking and camping gear without which the holiday is a complete waste.
Kid's just got bounced off a flight due to "overbooking".
I get how that was a thing back in the day when everyone had open tickets and the airline never knew who was going to turn up for which flight, and didn't want to fly empty seats they weren't being paid for. But today? When the ticket is valid for just a single flight, and the airline gets paid whether or not the punter turns up and occupies the seat, so there's no need to overbook? WTF?
"He cited how members had been instructed to oppose all renewable energy projects when they came before planning committees - whatever their merit."
Um ... that's not exactly what you might call "legal"??
And yes, to save others the trouble of pointing it out, I *am* reminded of Adora Belle being told by the wizards "that's the wrong sort of question".
So I asked some AI how to do something (I'm being very strongly encouraged to use it) and wasted a day because it kept given wrong answers (I eventually discovered that the answer was something completely different).
This is apparently my fault for asking it the wrong question. I should only ask it the sort of question it can give right answers to.
Why would anyone vote for Reform-lite and fuck up just 750,000 families when they could vote for the real thing and fuck up the lives of millions? Not a vote-winning strategy. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c708g5x2yqzo
@paco Just doin' the thing it found often enough in the code bases it scanned, obvs following established good practice.
Perhaps they failed to blacklist https://thedailywtf.com/ in their list of sites to train from?
Is there a way to block or mute posts that contain a tiktok link?
If I wanted to see what's on tiktok I would, er, go and look at tiktok?
How the world has changed.
Once Upon A Time there was only the black bin, which was put out weekly, almost full.
Then recycling, waste reduction, etc, got invented.
Today I've decided not to put out the black bin for the fortnightly collection because it's got so little in it that it's not worth my getting rained on.