Little Things That Irk You IX

[Anpanman]

And even if you're one of those weirdos who're pro-AI (which, so far in my experience, either means you (1) have invested in it or (2) you post online in a manner that suggests an artist was mean to you once) it's so clearly far from the prime-time that it's comical.

Google is pushing "gemini" results for every search, you can't turn them off and they are frequently wrong! Like literally every other search they're demonstrably wrong, and even if they're right, I still have to check a source anyway because I obviously can't trust the AI because no-one can!

God I can't wait for this bubble to burst.

You can turn it off - at least on a PC, I've done it.
tenbluelinks.org/

Just tried google for the first time in months (I use duck duck go) and I’m not seeing ai answers. Wonder if my adblocker blocks it (Ad Guard).

I used DDG for a few years, nice to get away from Google but I came back as I kept getting too many US search results even though I set everything to UK.

[QualityChimp]

I prefer it when people are posting in the smile thread, but that whole thing about Katy Perry going into space is doing my nut in.

• It was an 11 minute flight that needed as much prep for her as listening to the flight attendant blow on the lifebelt whistle.
• Everyone was talking about Kay Perry, but she wasn't the only one in the flight, there were actual astronauts.
• Then even that is undermined because Bezos put his fiancé on the flight too.
• Bezos. He probably paid for the while flippin' rocket into space with money he saved on paying his taxes.
• I'm busy washing my yoghurt pots to save the planet. I wonder how many yoghurt pots I'd have to recycle to offset the carbon footprint of sending a rocket on a jolly?
• Perry was all like “it’s an important moment for the future of commercial space travel, for humanity in general, and for women” - how? HOW?
• It cost an approximate $167 MILLION dollars. What good could that have achieved, or bare minimum, paid Amazon staff properly?
• Bezos will spend millions to send his missus into space and donate to the Trump campaign.
• The whole feminism angle stinks when Bezos donates to Trump and his clampdown on abortion rights.
• Katy Perry singing "It's a Wonderful World" in front of Amanda Nguyen, a sexual assault victim and campaigner against unfair police practices to assault.
• Bezos sends some women "tourists" into space, meanwhile over at NASA, the website had been scrubbed and changed to remove references to inclusion, diversity, gender and minorities, among other terms.
• NASA completely deleted one article about geologist, Dr. Wendy Bohon.

->Open Spoiler<-

[Neon Ignition]

Bezos has no idea what he's doing and his whole space programme is headed to the scrap yard. This was apparently his 31st flight compared to SpaceX which is now somewhere in the 400+ flights and has Trump nuzzled into its chest. The laugh is, it's a lot of PR for ultimately nothing, it's not like the public can start buying seats on it. Essentially, having had Trump burn millions off Amazons value, Bezos just cost himself another bunch of cash for nothing.

[wakka]

How pathetic we are as a society that we allow these parasites to control our resources.

Make Billionaires Illegal

[QualityChimp]

Heavy Red Dwarf vibes from their pointless space war:

"For anyone living on Earth the result would be mindfizzlingly spectacular. One hundred and twenty-eight stars would appear to go supernova simultaneously, burning with such ferocity they would be visible even in daylight.

And the hundred and twenty-eight supernovae would spell out a message.

And this would be the message:

‘COKE ADDS LIFE!’

For five whole weeks, wherever you were on Earth, the huge tattoo would be branded across the day and night skies. Honeymooners in Hawaii would stand on the peak of Mauna Koa, gazing at sunsets stamped with the slogan. Commuters in London, stuck in traffic jams, would peer through the grey drizzle and gape at the Cola constellation. The few primitive tribes still untouched by civilization in the jungles of South America would look up at the heavens, and certainly not think about drinking Pepsi.

The cost of this single, three-word ad in star writing across the universe would amount to the entire military budget of the USA for the whole of history.

So, ridiculous though it was, it was still a marginally more sensible way of blowing trillions of Dollarpounds.

And, the Coke executives were assured by the advertising executives at Saachi, Saachi, Saachi, Saachi, Saachi and Saachi, it would put an end to the Cola war forever. Guaranteed.

Pepsi would be buried."

[Dogg Thang]

It's this...

[fishbowlhead]

It's this...

It’s unbelievably sad & true this.

I worry about the world I’ve brought my daughter into every day, the state of everything, just so a few can rape the planet dry for a bit of shareholder value, it’s just sad.

[Neon Ignition]

Weed
A couple of days ago, for the first time in a long time, someone walked right by me blowing cigarette smoke out of their lungs and it hit me that it wasn't the worst anymore. The stench of weed has become increasingly common when out and about and it is easily the worst of the two odours.

[egparadigm]

Listening to consumer program about Debenhams, apparently it works like an online marketplace now but customers don’t realise it’s not all Debenhams. They’re an “iconic brand” the experts says. Come off it! Is everything iconic these days?

[fishbowlhead]

Openreach have just installed full fibre to the pole right outside my house, and I’m guessing the rest of the street as well, just last week, Horray.

I signed a new contract 6 months ago and I’m stuck at 40mb sec when 500mb sec is now possible, and its literally 1ft from my back fence, laughing at me every day as I walk past it to get in the car.

First world problems.

[Asura]

How things are just **** these days.

I wanted to ask CEX a question that wasn't covered on their website FAQ. They list no contact email, and the webform only has categories which require an order number etc. and that's not part of my query. So I call the phone number, which, obviously, isn't for a branch. It just plays an automated message which just says "please contact us via our website" then HANGS UP.

This is after last week, when I happened to want to buy some more parking permits from the council, and upon going to the offices, was routed to the library for the helpdesk, only to be told you can only do this online. This is after finding out my local branch of Halifax is closing in October after the local Barclays closed in 2022, while the Barclays one town over, which, incidentally, is a major branch in the centre of one of the UK's largest cities, has no actual banking staff on Saturday and just has an unskilled attendee who assists you in using the automated tellers.

Honestly, we're sleepwalking into a society where sure, all the normal processes are fine, fast, even. But if you need anything even a bit awkward then you're screwed. And the issue is there's no alternative; like, it doesn't seem like any of the banks near me have said "we commit to having local branches" as a business differentiator.

[QualityChimp]

If a bank said "We're aiming to keep local branches open AND we'll help you move from your current bank that isn't" I think they'd have a really good take-up.
Granted it's going to be appealing mainly to older members of society, but I can imagine that being of interest to a lot of people.

[egparadigm]

customerservice AT webuy DOT com is an address I’ve used with success in the past Asura.

[fishbowlhead]

How things are just **** these days.

I wanted to ask CEX a question that wasn't covered on their website FAQ. They list no contact email, and the webform only has categories which require an order number etc. and that's not part of my query. So I call the phone number, which, obviously, isn't for a branch. It just plays an automated message which just says "please contact us via our website" then HANGS UP.

This is after last week, when I happened to want to buy some more parking permits from the council, and upon going to the offices, was routed to the library for the helpdesk, only to be told you can only do this online. This is after finding out my local branch of Halifax is closing in October after the local Barclays closed in 2022, while the Barclays one town over, which, incidentally, is a major branch in the centre of one of the UK's largest cities, has no actual banking staff on Saturday and just has an unskilled attendee who assists you in using the automated tellers.

Honestly, we're sleepwalking into a society where sure, all the normal processes are fine, fast, even. But if you need anything even a bit awkward then you're screwed. And the issue is there's no alternative; like, it doesn't seem like any of the banks near me have said "we commit to having local branches" as a business differentiator.

Had a similar issue recently, had a credit card for years I could never cancel as HSBC kept closing branches and I work 6 days a week. It was going to my mums address so no big deal, I’ll get round too it. 8 years goes by and she got kicked out as the owners died and the daughter wanted her inheritance money, crap, gotta cancel it still, and you can’t call the branches to find out, obviously because that would require common sense.

Turns out there was account linked they never closed despite instructions to do so, and I had to go to 4 different branches before finally being told were the actual specialists are to do this (specialists, to close a bank account, at a bank, ridiculous). In the end a cashier had to use her personal mobile to call her friend and the branch she “thought” was the correct one, as they don’t have internal phones anymore to call their own branches, you can’t make it up.

I eventually got to the correct branch with the correct people who could do it, it took the very polite staff member all of 40mins to sort out in full, and 2 weeks for the letters to come through confirming it’s all closed and done.

I had a good half hour conversation with the manager of the branch though after he walked past and heard what I’d had to do just to close some accounts, and he was sincere in wanting to improve things in the future and recognised all the failings they currently have, so I gave him the time.

[briareos_kerensky]

Oh god the department leader has contracted the bug of remote virtual clusters.