Posts by Intractable Potsherd

Re: SpaceX

Aren't all rockets "possibly-expodey"? The only difference is the probability of rapid unplanned disassembly.

Re: Job quitting agent - great idea!

You may just have pointed out my new career!

For some of us, yes. I've changed screens and batteries for other people's iPhone, but I won't do glued-in batteries. I'd be happy if manufacturers just went back to needing spudgers and/or a screwdriver to open the case, and then screws and/or a bit of tape for the innards.

Re: OK Boomer

Do you feel better after getting that off your chest?

Re: Meh

I understand and sympathise with your struggle. From what I see on search results, Reddit is Twitter with no character limit, full of nasty corners you wouldn't want to enter without a warrant and very big can of bleach. I'm sure some people gain something from it, though.

Re: Lucky you.

And the Atari St would have had an ENIAC user going "You what?!" I don't understand your point - fast yesterday is slow today.

Re: Nope! Just... NOPE!

"Sign-off" has a tendency to rapidly become "rubber stamp", and the more accurate the transcriber (whether human or computer) becomes, the less likely the transcript is to be read properly.*

Also, the only way the doctor is going to know if the notes are correct is to keep contemporaneous notes her/himself to refer back to...

*Especially if it gets more [paying] patients through the door.

Re: Ball lightning photos and videos

I came home from work one day to find all the electronics on the side of my house closest to the driveway fried. 2-3 metres away from the furthest fried piece of kit, in the same rooms, everything worked. My neighbours on the other side of the shared driveway (approx 3.5 metres wide) had the same. One of them had been at home and saww a growing ball float between the houses during a thunderstorm, and then dissipate once past the passageway. Fortunately, a) the insurance company paid for the TV, video, and telephone/answering machine, and b) my Atari ST was on the safe side of the house.

Re: Twitter

I genuinely do not understand the hatred for Twitter. Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are at least as bad, if not worse.

Re: UAPs, previously known as UFOs

Well, WAP" sounds better than "Oofoe/Youfoe", I suppose.

Re: re. Why not go back to oral exams for the Finals?

So make it a random sample of papers submitted, with perhaps some facility for obviously questionable papers, as we do with moderation. It isn't an insurmountable problem.

Re: Only once

I saw then for sale a bit further north than you the summer before Covid - in Dunkeld (another touristy place).

That entire rant was based on the entirely unevidenced assertion in the first paragraph. Where are the data to back up "everybody else's experience"?

One of the (very few) reasons I'm glad not to live on Scotland any longer. The requirement is totally disproportionate to the risk.

Re: @AC capitalism

<Insert standard comment about countries with "Democratic" in the name>

Re: Why all the cheering before the 10 second countdown?

I hope next time they do the broadcast from a room without all the screaming, clapping monkeys. It was a relief when it started to wrong and the idiots shut up.

Re: If you feed the trolls ...

Being aware of objective reality is not being "anti-trans".

Re: Legal or Not

It should, but (at least in the UK) it can be used. I wish the courts here would bring in something like the American "fruit of the poisoned tree" doctrine, though there is no sign of that happening.

Re: not much of a "who me" but marriage was involved

The AC comment was a joke.

Re: nothing to see here, move along

I loved Blueyonder, was quite happy with Telewest, and tolerated VM until we moved house to an area not served by them. That broke the chain, and now we're back in an area "served" by VM, there's no chance I'm going back based on my mum's experiences and what I read here.

Re: Somebody did not get the memo

Good.

Re: Lenses ?

If your thinking of the same thing I am, I don't think it was anything more complex than injecting water between two membranes to create an easily variable focal length. They were being heralded as a cheap and easy way to provide spectacles to people who needed them in e.g. poorer areas of Africa, but I don't know what happened to the idea.

There are plenty of... ummm... independent contractors who will happily attend to this sort of problem

Re: Well that was unfortunate.

But there was a Boy Named Sue: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WOHPuY88Ry4

Re: People move around shocker !

That's interesting - I don't regard trade as the simplest explanation by a long chalk. Local production seems much more likely (subject to the right materials being available).

For balance, this is an account of what the Department of Energy is claiming: https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/27/the-case-for-the-lab-leak-theory-grows-stronger-by-the-day/

Re: Ah.

I've had a couple of Ford's, one acquired for nowt, the other with malice aforethought. The first one, a Mk2 Fiesta 1100, was meant to be a stopgap, but, as we all know, there's nothing so permanent as a temporary fix - I had it as my only car for years. To be fair, I knew the car (my ex-girlfriend's) and had fixed most of the electrical problems before it passed to me. The bodywork was a different matter - it ended up with two different-coloured front doors and a wing held on with pop-rivets wherever there was enough metal to hold them. However, mechanically it was really sweet - I did thousands of miles, including forest rally stages, with nary a glitch. I'm quite nostalgic for that car, really.

The second - a 2.0 Sierra - for reasons I can't recall became something I felt I must have. It was okay, but the ergonomics left a deal to be desired (the radio could only be safely used on the move if there was a passenger), and boy, was it gutless. One day it started to make an odd pinging noise, and lapsed on to three cylinders. Compression testing showed good on all four pots, but examining the plugs discovered one didn't have an electrode! Head off, number 3 piston had a lump and several pits it shouldn't have. Not Ford's fault, and really a testament to good engine-building. Several months later, the car just failed to start, I was in a position to let it go, so got it towed without any remorse at all.

Tl:dr - I've been quite lucky with Fords.

Re: Excellent opinion piece

Which facts are those?

Re: Using emojis now comes with legal warnings

Context is everything.

Indeed. "Don't give the money to them, give it to meeee!"

Re: Another device only one manufacturer has

I've wondered that myself, but the patent must be well and truly expired by now. Whatever the reason, I wish other manufacturers would fit them - they are the only reason I'd even consider a Ford.

Re: Unpopular opinion…..

What relevance does "family owner" have if they have done wrong?