I have firstname.lastname@gmail.com and get various emails not intended for me from around the world.
I have applied to the court in Florida to have my convictions removed from the record, received invitations to sewage works in Warrington and am apparently also working in Sydney.
I have some short email addresses on very popular domains (like gmail, icloud, outlook) and I get some crazy stuff at times. Funeral arrangements, flight bookings, restaurant bookings, quotes for work, numerous bills, meeting arrangements, documents of all sorts, photos etc. Probably the best recent example was a copy of the Power of Attorney forms for some idiot in the US who seems to think my email address is his email address. I didn't even look at the documents, and got back to the lawyer to let them know they had sent them to someone unrelated, but could I have taken over this man's life?
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I accidentally smashed my phone last year, got home and dug a spare old phone out of a drawer and once I updated all apps got my cards transferred across to the new (old) phone. When I got a new phone, it was easy to transfer them all over again. Its good as well for loyalty cards etc, got a load of loyalty cards loaded on my phone now too.
Actually bought a new watch (smart) last year when I started my new job. Its convenient to have a watch where I'm now working but before then I hadn't regularly worn one for a few years but now always have it on again. Not bothered loading my cards onto the watch, since I always have my phone anyway.
I'm probably still using the spare old phone.
At a party at Christmas my relations counted how many versions of Android, and how many version of phone I was out of date - so I need a newer one.
What is this concept of spare old phone? I replace mine only when it's sufficiently broken to be unusable. So as far as I'm concerned - does it still work? (Yes). Then I don't need a newer one.
I am quite good at breaking them though.
Phones are like haircuts - you don't realise you needed one until you've had (a new) one.
I don't know and maybe it's just me, but I don't see any significant advantage between my current phone and the one before last. The main difference is that each one has got slightly larger and my current one is now just a bit too big, but despite that the screen is still too small for me to do anything useful on it easily.
I quite like the screen creep, as my eyesight gets worse it seems to keep pace.
Is the screen bigger? Or is it just closer to your eyes?
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
Yes, what is this bizarre thing called 'wallet' or which you speak?
Utterly pointless nowadays.
Wallets - where assassins keep the loose money left over from the briefcases of cash they get paid all the time.
That, and the thing that you put in the breast pocket of your jacket so that assassins can't shoot you.
Now that hardly anyone smokes and nobody carries round a prayer book any more. Even ordinands use an app on their mobile phone these days.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I wear an automatic wristwatch. I don't carry a phone, wear a smartwatch, or use the cloud.
The only reason I have a smartphone is because I haven't got enough influence over all of my friends to insist successfully that when textchatting with me they should use a service that doesn't require a phone, such as Skype, rather than Whatsapp, which does.
I take it that most PBers are familiar with Karl Marx's definition of commodity fetishism as when social relations among people take the form of social relations among things.
Hilarious to see the GOP in Arizona now in total panic after an almost total ban on abortions is two weeks away from coming back into law .
The nutjob GOP Lake now opposing a ban after supporting it during the 2022 mid terms .
As long as the basics of abortion in the USA was decided by courts and not legislators the extremists could enjoy the luxury of mouthing off about how conservative they were without taking any consequences for the outcome of their (pseudo) opinions, which were mostly about how the law should be for other people's daughters.
As in the UK this is a matter for legislators and voters, and it is good (though much pain will have been and will be caused) that the SC has seen this.
All of a sudden the ultra extremes are faced with reality - which is sometimes horrible - and with the voters. Good.
If the SC did the same with guns this would be just as good.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I still wear a Swiss watch, at least when at home and not in Kiev or London, have my card on Apple Pay on the phone (way more secure and better for privacy than using the actual card) as well as in the wallet for when the technology fails. Usually keep a reasonable amount of cash in the wallet too, in case the tech really fails and I need a tank full or to pay for dinner
I haven't worn a watch for years as I rarely need one. If I do I set an alarm on my phone. I do get quite surprised by the time sometimes. This means I have no jewellery whatsoever as I also don't wear a wedding ring which I think are daft.
As I worked from home for years before it became a thing I also used to get surprised by bank holidays, wondering why the family hadn't all left that day. I also usually have no idea what day it is either.
I do still use cards and so carry a wallet, but I don't carry cash, except for the 2 occasions I need it (haircut and dog grooming). Otherwise cash is a thing of the past for me.
I got back into wearing a watch for gym/rowing - the newer wrist heart rate monitors are nearly equal to a chest band for accuracy. One less thing to carry around.
The feature that it can be used for paying (like a phone) wasn’t something I thought about. But useful on the beach.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I have this watch, which sometimes I wear most of the time, though I haven't worn it for a couple of weeks now.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I still wear a Swiss watch, at least when at home and not in Kiev or London, have my card on Apple Pay on the phone (way more secure and better for privacy than using the actual card) as well as in the wallet for when the technology fails. Usually keep a reasonable amount of cash in the wallet too, in case the tech really fails and I need a tank full or to pay for dinner
I haven't worn a watch for years as I rarely need one. If I do I set an alarm on my phone. I do get quite surprised by the time sometimes. This means I have no jewellery whatsoever as I also don't wear a wedding ring which I think are daft.
As I worked from home for years before it became a thing I also used to get surprised by bank holidays, wondering why the family hadn't all left that day. I also usually have no idea what day it is either.
I do still use cards and so carry a wallet, but I don't carry cash, except for the 2 occasions I need it (haircut and dog grooming). Otherwise cash is a thing of the past for me.
I used to think wedding rings were daft. Then a married friend pointed out you could use it to make a noise against the glass you're holding. Chink, chink, chink. Years of fun.
Other than that - well, I quite like it. A reminder of matrimony every time I look at it. But OTOH it is easily the most expensive thing I have on my person at any one time and losing it is a minor worry.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I do - never occurred to me not to, as it's easier to glance at than fishing out my phone. I do notice that friends who don't wear one quite often ask me what the time is.
That said, it's common not to wear them. Here's a ridiculously detailed analysis of why people do and don't:
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I still wear a Swiss watch, at least when at home and not in Kiev or London, have my card on Apple Pay on the phone (way more secure and better for privacy than using the actual card) as well as in the wallet for when the technology fails. Usually keep a reasonable amount of cash in the wallet too, in case the tech really fails and I need a tank full or to pay for dinner
I haven't worn a watch for years as I rarely need one. If I do I set an alarm on my phone. I do get quite surprised by the time sometimes. This means I have no jewellery whatsoever as I also don't wear a wedding ring which I think are daft.
As I worked from home for years before it became a thing I also used to get surprised by bank holidays, wondering why the family hadn't all left that day. I also usually have no idea what day it is either.
I do still use cards and so carry a wallet, but I don't carry cash, except for the 2 occasions I need it (haircut and dog grooming). Otherwise cash is a thing of the past for me.
I used to think wedding rings were daft. Then a married friend pointed out you could use it to make a noise against the glass you're holding. Chink, chink, chink. Years of fun.
Other than that - well, I quite like it. A reminder of matrimony every time I look at it. But OTOH it is easily the most expensive thing I have on my person at any one time and losing it is a minor worry.
When you have been married as long as I have it is impossible to lose your wedding ring without also having your finger chopped off. So losing it is a fairly minor worry.
Hilarious to see the GOP in Arizona now in total panic after an almost total ban on abortions is two weeks away from coming back into law .
The nutjob GOP Lake now opposing a ban after supporting it during the 2022 mid terms .
As long as the basics of abortion in the USA was decided by courts and not legislators the extremists could enjoy the luxury of mouthing off about how conservative they were without taking any consequences for the outcome of their (pseudo) opinions, which were mostly about how the law should be for other people's daughters.
As in the UK this is a matter for legislators and voters, and it is good (though much pain will have been and will be caused) that the SC has seen this.
All of a sudden the ultra extremes are faced with reality - which is sometimes horrible - and with the voters. Good.
If the SC did the same with guns this would be just as good.
The only way the SC gets to rule that way is if some gun nut-job took out 5 members of the current SC...
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
Yes, what is this bizarre thing called 'wallet' or which you speak?
Utterly pointless nowadays.
Wallets - where assassins keep the loose money left over from the briefcases of cash they get paid all the time.
That, and the thing that you put in the breast pocket of your jacket so that assassins can't shoot you.
Now that hardly anyone smokes and nobody carries round a prayer book any more. Even ordinands use an app on their mobile phone these days.
A hip-flask might just stop somebody trying to pop a cap in your ass...
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I wear an automatic wristwatch. I don't carry a phone, wear a smartwatch, or use the cloud.
The only reason I have a smartphone is because I haven't got enough influence over all of my friends to insist successfully that when textchatting with me they should use a service that doesn't require a phone, such as Skype, rather than Whatsapp, which does.
I take it that most PBers are familiar with Karl Marx's definition of commodity fetishism as when social relations among people take the form of social relations among things.
Good man.
I have been pestering my wife for years to get her photos off her phone. She has 9000 photos on there and I worry that they will be lost if they don't go somewhere else before her phone dies. I tried to plug her iphone into my computer and export her photos through that onto my external hard drive which is my backup, but being an Apple product it seemed to dislike dealing with non-Apple products and you couldn't just delve inside it with explorer to do a mass drag/drop. She's uploading them a few at a time to the cloud in the hope of then later downloading them again at a later date but it is not a quick process!
I quite liked digital photography when it came along. The problem of where to store physical photos was not one I ever felt I adequately solved: doing so digitally seemed to make sense. But since we started carrying cameras around by default, the number of photos we have has gone through the roof, and I have far more of them than I have time to look at. I have a vague idea that it will be a retirement project to go through them all and catalogue them all and remove the duplicates. But possibly the technology will have moved on by then and they will all be lost forever.
On the subject of names. Found this, long ago, on the inter webs...
ROMAN SOLDIER: halt, strange person! where are you from? TIME TRAVELER: i come from the future. what are your names? ROMAN SOLDIER: my name is QUINTUS, as i am the fifth child in my family. my comrade is SEXTUS, for he was the sixth child in his family. what is your name? TIME TRAVELER: my name's LIV ROMAN SOLDIER: [starts counting on his fingers as his eyes open in fear]
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I still wear a Swiss watch, at least when at home and not in Kiev or London, have my card on Apple Pay on the phone (way more secure and better for privacy than using the actual card) as well as in the wallet for when the technology fails. Usually keep a reasonable amount of cash in the wallet too, in case the tech really fails and I need a tank full or to pay for dinner
I haven't worn a watch for years as I rarely need one. If I do I set an alarm on my phone. I do get quite surprised by the time sometimes. This means I have no jewellery whatsoever as I also don't wear a wedding ring which I think are daft.
As I worked from home for years before it became a thing I also used to get surprised by bank holidays, wondering why the family hadn't all left that day. I also usually have no idea what day it is either.
I do still use cards and so carry a wallet, but I don't carry cash, except for the 2 occasions I need it (haircut and dog grooming). Otherwise cash is a thing of the past for me.
I used to think wedding rings were daft. Then a married friend pointed out you could use it to make a noise against the glass you're holding. Chink, chink, chink. Years of fun.
Other than that - well, I quite like it. A reminder of matrimony every time I look at it. But OTOH it is easily the most expensive thing I have on my person at any one time and losing it is a minor worry.
When you have been married as long as I have it is impossible to lose your wedding ring without also having your finger chopped off. So losing it is a fairly minor worry.
Really? That makes me feel faintly queasy. I had some sort of swelling on my knuckle a year or so back and it was a real struggle to get it on and off, and I felt vaguely panicked - with some difficulty, I took it off until I was sure that next time it went on, it would come off again. This isn't in any way a metaphor for my attitude to marriage!
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I still wear a Swiss watch, at least when at home and not in Kiev or London, have my card on Apple Pay on the phone (way more secure and better for privacy than using the actual card) as well as in the wallet for when the technology fails. Usually keep a reasonable amount of cash in the wallet too, in case the tech really fails and I need a tank full or to pay for dinner
I haven't worn a watch for years as I rarely need one. If I do I set an alarm on my phone. I do get quite surprised by the time sometimes. This means I have no jewellery whatsoever as I also don't wear a wedding ring which I think are daft.
As I worked from home for years before it became a thing I also used to get surprised by bank holidays, wondering why the family hadn't all left that day. I also usually have no idea what day it is either.
I do still use cards and so carry a wallet, but I don't carry cash, except for the 2 occasions I need it (haircut and dog grooming). Otherwise cash is a thing of the past for me.
I got back into wearing a watch for gym/rowing - the newer wrist heart rate monitors are nearly equal to a chest band for accuracy. One less thing to carry around.
The feature that it can be used for paying (like a phone) wasn’t something I thought about. But useful on the beach.
I don't use an electronic monitor when running. I looked at a couple of apps for tracking sleep bouts - each bout lasts about 1.5 hours, so most people get five per night - but something seriously bugs me about the idea of keeping a microwave phone switched on at night near my body and monitoring my movements allowing Google or whoever to know when I'm in REM sleep or some other sleep state. With the only benefit being that I could say e.g. last night my second bout lasted 83 minutes and I was in N4 sleep for 17.
It’s a shame this site gets dragged down by men like you being snarky. There’s really no need for it just because someone happens not to agree with your right-wing view of the world. You could learn to be a lot more polite.
NB I didn’t say the person was a friend. I said ‘close to me’. And it’s a long time since I did any lecturing / teaching. I’ve never written a single note of music. Did you misread when I mentioned going to the opera?
I don’t think it’s all that unusual for relatively younger people to have multiple portfolios these days. It’s quite a common phenomenon.
I think the most interesting of these remarks, stripping out the snarkiness, is the one about the tory friend(s). The fact that you dismiss it with such sarcasm is a neat illustration of why the Conservatives are heading for such a crushing defeat: failure to take the pulse of the nation. You will have a long, long, time in the political wilderness to reflect on these words.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I still wear a Swiss watch, at least when at home and not in Kiev or London, have my card on Apple Pay on the phone (way more secure and better for privacy than using the actual card) as well as in the wallet for when the technology fails. Usually keep a reasonable amount of cash in the wallet too, in case the tech really fails and I need a tank full or to pay for dinner
I haven't worn a watch for years as I rarely need one. If I do I set an alarm on my phone. I do get quite surprised by the time sometimes. This means I have no jewellery whatsoever as I also don't wear a wedding ring which I think are daft.
As I worked from home for years before it became a thing I also used to get surprised by bank holidays, wondering why the family hadn't all left that day. I also usually have no idea what day it is either.
I do still use cards and so carry a wallet, but I don't carry cash, except for the 2 occasions I need it (haircut and dog grooming). Otherwise cash is a thing of the past for me.
I used to think wedding rings were daft. Then a married friend pointed out you could use it to make a noise against the glass you're holding. Chink, chink, chink. Years of fun.
Other than that - well, I quite like it. A reminder of matrimony every time I look at it. But OTOH it is easily the most expensive thing I have on my person at any one time and losing it is a minor worry.
When you have been married as long as I have it is impossible to lose your wedding ring without also having your finger chopped off. So losing it is a fairly minor worry.
I could just about lose my wedding ring in very cold weather. As long as I'm somewhere hot, no chance. Anyway, I've never lost it! I don't have a watch.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I wear an automatic wristwatch. I don't carry a phone, wear a smartwatch, or use the cloud.
The only reason I have a smartphone is because I haven't got enough influence over all of my friends to insist successfully that when textchatting with me they should use a service that doesn't require a phone, such as Skype, rather than Whatsapp, which does.
I take it that most PBers are familiar with Karl Marx's definition of commodity fetishism as when social relations among people take the form of social relations among things.
Good man.
I have been pestering my wife for years to get her photos off her phone. She has 9000 photos on there and I worry that they will be lost if they don't go somewhere else before her phone dies. I tried to plug her iphone into my computer and export her photos through that onto my external hard drive which is my backup, but being an Apple product it seemed to dislike dealing with non-Apple products and you couldn't just delve inside it with explorer to do a mass drag/drop. She's uploading them a few at a time to the cloud in the hope of then later downloading them again at a later date but it is not a quick process!
I quite liked digital photography when it came along. The problem of where to store physical photos was not one I ever felt I adequately solved: doing so digitally seemed to make sense. But since we started carrying cameras around by default, the number of photos we have has gone through the roof, and I have far more of them than I have time to look at. I have a vague idea that it will be a retirement project to go through them all and catalogue them all and remove the duplicates. But possibly the technology will have moved on by then and they will all be lost forever.
Why can’t she just use iCloud? Might have to stump up £2.49 a month for the space, but it will sync automatically, and over wifi 9000 is nothing.
Many photo programs do automatic or semi-automatic de-duplication,
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I wear an automatic wristwatch. I don't carry a phone, wear a smartwatch, or use the cloud.
The only reason I have a smartphone is because I haven't got enough influence over all of my friends to insist successfully that when textchatting with me they should use a service that doesn't require a phone, such as Skype, rather than Whatsapp, which does.
I take it that most PBers are familiar with Karl Marx's definition of commodity fetishism as when social relations among people take the form of social relations among things.
Good man.
I have been pestering my wife for years to get her photos off her phone. She has 9000 photos on there and I worry that they will be lost if they don't go somewhere else before her phone dies. I tried to plug her iphone into my computer and export her photos through that onto my external hard drive which is my backup, but being an Apple product it seemed to dislike dealing with non-Apple products and you couldn't just delve inside it with explorer to do a mass drag/drop. She's uploading them a few at a time to the cloud in the hope of then later downloading them again at a later date but it is not a quick process!
I quite liked digital photography when it came along. The problem of where to store physical photos was not one I ever felt I adequately solved: doing so digitally seemed to make sense. But since we started carrying cameras around by default, the number of photos we have has gone through the roof, and I have far more of them than I have time to look at. I have a vague idea that it will be a retirement project to go through them all and catalogue them all and remove the duplicates. But possibly the technology will have moved on by then and they will all be lost forever.
Importing photos from iPhone to Windows is trivial.
The difficult bit is the archiving and labelling of the photos. I used to have loads of people ask me how to easily categorise tens of thousands of photos from a single folder into events and junk. Hopefully that’s actually a good use for AI automation in the short future.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I still wear a Swiss watch, at least when at home and not in Kiev or London, have my card on Apple Pay on the phone (way more secure and better for privacy than using the actual card) as well as in the wallet for when the technology fails. Usually keep a reasonable amount of cash in the wallet too, in case the tech really fails and I need a tank full or to pay for dinner
I haven't worn a watch for years as I rarely need one. If I do I set an alarm on my phone. I do get quite surprised by the time sometimes. This means I have no jewellery whatsoever as I also don't wear a wedding ring which I think are daft.
As I worked from home for years before it became a thing I also used to get surprised by bank holidays, wondering why the family hadn't all left that day. I also usually have no idea what day it is either.
I do still use cards and so carry a wallet, but I don't carry cash, except for the 2 occasions I need it (haircut and dog grooming). Otherwise cash is a thing of the past for me.
I got back into wearing a watch for gym/rowing - the newer wrist heart rate monitors are nearly equal to a chest band for accuracy. One less thing to carry around.
The feature that it can be used for paying (like a phone) wasn’t something I thought about. But useful on the beach.
Can it go in the sea unharmed? That's a major benefit. The question of what to do with one's valuabvles on the beach has rarely been adequately solved.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
Yes, what is this bizarre thing called 'wallet' or which you speak?
Utterly pointless nowadays.
Wallets - where assassins keep the loose money left over from the briefcases of cash they get paid all the time.
That, and the thing that you put in the breast pocket of your jacket so that assassins can't shoot you.
Now that hardly anyone smokes and nobody carries round a prayer book any more. Even ordinands use an app on their mobile phone these days.
Not a few WW1 survivors put their survival down to the deflecting powers of a copy of The Shropshire Lad in bullseye position, though no doubt even more found a copy of 1662 and/or a small AV Bible just as useful.
Speaking of which the cherry now is hung with bloom along the bough.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I still wear a Swiss watch, at least when at home and not in Kiev or London, have my card on Apple Pay on the phone (way more secure and better for privacy than using the actual card) as well as in the wallet for when the technology fails. Usually keep a reasonable amount of cash in the wallet too, in case the tech really fails and I need a tank full or to pay for dinner
I haven't worn a watch for years as I rarely need one. If I do I set an alarm on my phone. I do get quite surprised by the time sometimes. This means I have no jewellery whatsoever as I also don't wear a wedding ring which I think are daft.
As I worked from home for years before it became a thing I also used to get surprised by bank holidays, wondering why the family hadn't all left that day. I also usually have no idea what day it is either.
I do still use cards and so carry a wallet, but I don't carry cash, except for the 2 occasions I need it (haircut and dog grooming). Otherwise cash is a thing of the past for me.
I used to think wedding rings were daft. Then a married friend pointed out you could use it to make a noise against the glass you're holding. Chink, chink, chink. Years of fun.
Other than that - well, I quite like it. A reminder of matrimony every time I look at it. But OTOH it is easily the most expensive thing I have on my person at any one time and losing it is a minor worry.
When you have been married as long as I have it is impossible to lose your wedding ring without also having your finger chopped off. So losing it is a fairly minor worry.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I wear an automatic wristwatch. I don't carry a phone, wear a smartwatch, or use the cloud.
The only reason I have a smartphone is because I haven't got enough influence over all of my friends to insist successfully that when textchatting with me they should use a service that doesn't require a phone, such as Skype, rather than Whatsapp, which does.
I take it that most PBers are familiar with Karl Marx's definition of commodity fetishism as when social relations among people take the form of social relations among things.
Good man.
I have been pestering my wife for years to get her photos off her phone. She has 9000 photos on there and I worry that they will be lost if they don't go somewhere else before her phone dies. I tried to plug her iphone into my computer and export her photos through that onto my external hard drive which is my backup, but being an Apple product it seemed to dislike dealing with non-Apple products and you couldn't just delve inside it with explorer to do a mass drag/drop. She's uploading them a few at a time to the cloud in the hope of then later downloading them again at a later date but it is not a quick process!
I quite liked digital photography when it came along. The problem of where to store physical photos was not one I ever felt I adequately solved: doing so digitally seemed to make sense. But since we started carrying cameras around by default, the number of photos we have has gone through the roof, and I have far more of them than I have time to look at. I have a vague idea that it will be a retirement project to go through them all and catalogue them all and remove the duplicates. But possibly the technology will have moved on by then and they will all be lost forever.
Importing photos from iPhone to Windows is trivial.
The difficult bit is the archiving and labelling of the photos. I used to have loads of people ask me how to easily categorise tens of thousands of photos from a single folder into events and junk. Hopefully that’s actually a good use for AI automation in the short future.
That was what I tried - but first it stopped working after 300 photos, and thereafter, when I tried, it kept claiming to have sent a permission request notification to the phone which I needed to approve - but no sign of it on the phone. Reboots etc solved nothing. A mystery which we had neither the time nor energy to resolve, given everything else that was going on. But thanks.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I still wear a Swiss watch, at least when at home and not in Kiev or London, have my card on Apple Pay on the phone (way more secure and better for privacy than using the actual card) as well as in the wallet for when the technology fails. Usually keep a reasonable amount of cash in the wallet too, in case the tech really fails and I need a tank full or to pay for dinner
I haven't worn a watch for years as I rarely need one. If I do I set an alarm on my phone. I do get quite surprised by the time sometimes. This means I have no jewellery whatsoever as I also don't wear a wedding ring which I think are daft.
As I worked from home for years before it became a thing I also used to get surprised by bank holidays, wondering why the family hadn't all left that day. I also usually have no idea what day it is either.
I do still use cards and so carry a wallet, but I don't carry cash, except for the 2 occasions I need it (haircut and dog grooming). Otherwise cash is a thing of the past for me.
I got back into wearing a watch for gym/rowing - the newer wrist heart rate monitors are nearly equal to a chest band for accuracy. One less thing to carry around.
The feature that it can be used for paying (like a phone) wasn’t something I thought about. But useful on the beach.
I call my Garmin wristwatch my second wife, as it tells me what I need to do each day. I have training programs set up, and my watch 'tells' me what I need to do that day according to the plan.
Mind you, according to Garmin my current fitness age is 20. I don't feel 30 years younger, so that's probably very wrong...
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
Yes, what is this bizarre thing called 'wallet' or which you speak?
Utterly pointless nowadays.
Wallets - where assassins keep the loose money left over from the briefcases of cash they get paid all the time.
That, and the thing that you put in the breast pocket of your jacket so that assassins can't shoot you.
Now that hardly anyone smokes and nobody carries round a prayer book any more. Even ordinands use an app on their mobile phone these days.
Not a few WW1 survivors put their survival down to the deflecting powers of a copy of The Shropshire Lad in bullseye position, though no doubt even more found a copy of 1662 and/or a small AV Bible just as useful.
Speaking of which the cherry now is hung with bloom along the bough.
The Butterworth setting of that is the loveliest...
On the subject of names. Found this, long ago, on the inter webs...
ROMAN SOLDIER: halt, strange person! where are you from? TIME TRAVELER: i come from the future. what are your names? ROMAN SOLDIER: my name is QUINTUS, as i am the fifth child in my family. my comrade is SEXTUS, for he was the sixth child in his family. what is your name? TIME TRAVELER: my name's LIV ROMAN SOLDIER: [starts counting on his fingers as his eyes open in fear]
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I still wear a Swiss watch, at least when at home and not in Kiev or London, have my card on Apple Pay on the phone (way more secure and better for privacy than using the actual card) as well as in the wallet for when the technology fails. Usually keep a reasonable amount of cash in the wallet too, in case the tech really fails and I need a tank full or to pay for dinner
I haven't worn a watch for years as I rarely need one. If I do I set an alarm on my phone. I do get quite surprised by the time sometimes. This means I have no jewellery whatsoever as I also don't wear a wedding ring which I think are daft.
As I worked from home for years before it became a thing I also used to get surprised by bank holidays, wondering why the family hadn't all left that day. I also usually have no idea what day it is either.
I do still use cards and so carry a wallet, but I don't carry cash, except for the 2 occasions I need it (haircut and dog grooming). Otherwise cash is a thing of the past for me.
I got back into wearing a watch for gym/rowing - the newer wrist heart rate monitors are nearly equal to a chest band for accuracy. One less thing to carry around.
The feature that it can be used for paying (like a phone) wasn’t something I thought about. But useful on the beach.
Can it go in the sea unharmed? That's a major benefit. The question of what to do with one's valuabvles on the beach has rarely been adequately solved.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I still wear a Swiss watch, at least when at home and not in Kiev or London, have my card on Apple Pay on the phone (way more secure and better for privacy than using the actual card) as well as in the wallet for when the technology fails. Usually keep a reasonable amount of cash in the wallet too, in case the tech really fails and I need a tank full or to pay for dinner
I haven't worn a watch for years as I rarely need one. If I do I set an alarm on my phone. I do get quite surprised by the time sometimes. This means I have no jewellery whatsoever as I also don't wear a wedding ring which I think are daft.
As I worked from home for years before it became a thing I also used to get surprised by bank holidays, wondering why the family hadn't all left that day. I also usually have no idea what day it is either.
I do still use cards and so carry a wallet, but I don't carry cash, except for the 2 occasions I need it (haircut and dog grooming). Otherwise cash is a thing of the past for me.
I used to think wedding rings were daft. Then a married friend pointed out you could use it to make a noise against the glass you're holding. Chink, chink, chink. Years of fun.
Other than that - well, I quite like it. A reminder of matrimony every time I look at it. But OTOH it is easily the most expensive thing I have on my person at any one time and losing it is a minor worry.
A former work colleague of mine once got divorced. It was not an "amicable" divorce. He came back in to work after lunch one day and announced that he had got 8 quid for his wedding ring at the pawn shop, and he wasn't go to reclaim it.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I wear an automatic wristwatch. I don't carry a phone, wear a smartwatch, or use the cloud.
The only reason I have a smartphone is because I haven't got enough influence over all of my friends to insist successfully that when textchatting with me they should use a service that doesn't require a phone, such as Skype, rather than Whatsapp, which does.
I take it that most PBers are familiar with Karl Marx's definition of commodity fetishism as when social relations among people take the form of social relations among things.
Good man.
I have been pestering my wife for years to get her photos off her phone. She has 9000 photos on there and I worry that they will be lost if they don't go somewhere else before her phone dies. I tried to plug her iphone into my computer and export her photos through that onto my external hard drive which is my backup, but being an Apple product it seemed to dislike dealing with non-Apple products and you couldn't just delve inside it with explorer to do a mass drag/drop. She's uploading them a few at a time to the cloud in the hope of then later downloading them again at a later date but it is not a quick process!
I quite liked digital photography when it came along. The problem of where to store physical photos was not one I ever felt I adequately solved: doing so digitally seemed to make sense. But since we started carrying cameras around by default, the number of photos we have has gone through the roof, and I have far more of them than I have time to look at. I have a vague idea that it will be a retirement project to go through them all and catalogue them all and remove the duplicates. But possibly the technology will have moved on by then and they will all be lost forever.
Importing photos from iPhone to Windows is trivial.
The difficult bit is the archiving and labelling of the photos. I used to have loads of people ask me how to easily categorise tens of thousands of photos from a single folder into events and junk. Hopefully that’s actually a good use for AI automation in the short future.
That was what I tried - but first it stopped working after 300 photos, and thereafter, when I tried, it kept claiming to have sent a permission request notification to the phone which I needed to approve - but no sign of it on the phone. Reboots etc solved nothing. A mystery which we had neither the time nor energy to resolve, given everything else that was going on. But thanks.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I wear an automatic wristwatch. I don't carry a phone, wear a smartwatch, or use the cloud.
The only reason I have a smartphone is because I haven't got enough influence over all of my friends to insist successfully that when textchatting with me they should use a service that doesn't require a phone, such as Skype, rather than Whatsapp, which does.
I take it that most PBers are familiar with Karl Marx's definition of commodity fetishism as when social relations among people take the form of social relations among things.
Good man.
I have been pestering my wife for years to get her photos off her phone. She has 9000 photos on there and I worry that they will be lost if they don't go somewhere else before her phone dies. I tried to plug her iphone into my computer and export her photos through that onto my external hard drive which is my backup, but being an Apple product it seemed to dislike dealing with non-Apple products and you couldn't just delve inside it with explorer to do a mass drag/drop. She's uploading them a few at a time to the cloud in the hope of then later downloading them again at a later date but it is not a quick process!
I quite liked digital photography when it came along. The problem of where to store physical photos was not one I ever felt I adequately solved: doing so digitally seemed to make sense. But since we started carrying cameras around by default, the number of photos we have has gone through the roof, and I have far more of them than I have time to look at. I have a vague idea that it will be a retirement project to go through them all and catalogue them all and remove the duplicates. But possibly the technology will have moved on by then and they will all be lost forever.
Why can’t she just use iCloud? Might have to stump up £2.49 a month for the space, but it will sync automatically, and over wifi 9000 is nothing.
Many photo programs do automatic or semi-automatic de-duplication,
That's what she's trying - but we're reluctant to be stumping up £2.49 indefinitely. Photos were loading at a rate of about 500/hour, so some way to go yet! Hopefully we can then get them off the cloud onto an external drive and thereby stop having to pay £2.49 a month. It's not a lot, but subscriptions of this sort add up.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I wear an automatic wristwatch. I don't carry a phone, wear a smartwatch, or use the cloud.
The only reason I have a smartphone is because I haven't got enough influence over all of my friends to insist successfully that when textchatting with me they should use a service that doesn't require a phone, such as Skype, rather than Whatsapp, which does.
I take it that most PBers are familiar with Karl Marx's definition of commodity fetishism as when social relations among people take the form of social relations among things.
Good man.
I have been pestering my wife for years to get her photos off her phone. She has 9000 photos on there and I worry that they will be lost if they don't go somewhere else before her phone dies. I tried to plug her iphone into my computer and export her photos through that onto my external hard drive which is my backup, but being an Apple product it seemed to dislike dealing with non-Apple products and you couldn't just delve inside it with explorer to do a mass drag/drop. She's uploading them a few at a time to the cloud in the hope of then later downloading them again at a later date but it is not a quick process!
I quite liked digital photography when it came along. The problem of where to store physical photos was not one I ever felt I adequately solved: doing so digitally seemed to make sense. But since we started carrying cameras around by default, the number of photos we have has gone through the roof, and I have far more of them than I have time to look at. I have a vague idea that it will be a retirement project to go through them all and catalogue them all and remove the duplicates. But possibly the technology will have moved on by then and they will all be lost forever.
Importing photos from iPhone to Windows is trivial.
The difficult bit is the archiving and labelling of the photos. I used to have loads of people ask me how to easily categorise tens of thousands of photos from a single folder into events and junk. Hopefully that’s actually a good use for AI automation in the short future.
That was what I tried - but first it stopped working after 300 photos, and thereafter, when I tried, it kept claiming to have sent a permission request notification to the phone which I needed to approve - but no sign of it on the phone. Reboots etc solved nothing. A mystery which we had neither the time nor energy to resolve, given everything else that was going on. But thanks.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I still wear a Swiss watch, at least when at home and not in Kiev or London, have my card on Apple Pay on the phone (way more secure and better for privacy than using the actual card) as well as in the wallet for when the technology fails. Usually keep a reasonable amount of cash in the wallet too, in case the tech really fails and I need a tank full or to pay for dinner
I haven't worn a watch for years as I rarely need one. If I do I set an alarm on my phone. I do get quite surprised by the time sometimes. This means I have no jewellery whatsoever as I also don't wear a wedding ring which I think are daft.
As I worked from home for years before it became a thing I also used to get surprised by bank holidays, wondering why the family hadn't all left that day. I also usually have no idea what day it is either.
I do still use cards and so carry a wallet, but I don't carry cash, except for the 2 occasions I need it (haircut and dog grooming). Otherwise cash is a thing of the past for me.
I got back into wearing a watch for gym/rowing - the newer wrist heart rate monitors are nearly equal to a chest band for accuracy. One less thing to carry around.
The feature that it can be used for paying (like a phone) wasn’t something I thought about. But useful on the beach.
Can it go in the sea unharmed? That's a major benefit. The question of what to do with one's valuabvles on the beach has rarely been adequately solved.
Most guys keep them in their swimming costume.
Since I want to try doing some sea swimming this year, I've bought a swimming buoy to play with. It's basically an inflatable plastic buoy that floats behind you. Inside, there's also a waterproof compartment, and a separate waterproof phone case.
Incidentally, many moons ago a friend was a very keen diver. He bought a camera to take photos underwater (I think an Olympus C5050), along with a waterproof case for it that cost about as much as the camera itself. To test the case, he took it on a dive with him, sans camera. Only to see the plastic case crush as he went down, rendering it useless.
The case required the camera in it to provide its strength from crushing...
(Even brilliant engineers can make dumb mistakes...)
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I still wear a Swiss watch, at least when at home and not in Kiev or London, have my card on Apple Pay on the phone (way more secure and better for privacy than using the actual card) as well as in the wallet for when the technology fails. Usually keep a reasonable amount of cash in the wallet too, in case the tech really fails and I need a tank full or to pay for dinner
I haven't worn a watch for years as I rarely need one. If I do I set an alarm on my phone. I do get quite surprised by the time sometimes. This means I have no jewellery whatsoever as I also don't wear a wedding ring which I think are daft.
As I worked from home for years before it became a thing I also used to get surprised by bank holidays, wondering why the family hadn't all left that day. I also usually have no idea what day it is either.
I do still use cards and so carry a wallet, but I don't carry cash, except for the 2 occasions I need it (haircut and dog grooming). Otherwise cash is a thing of the past for me.
I got back into wearing a watch for gym/rowing - the newer wrist heart rate monitors are nearly equal to a chest band for accuracy. One less thing to carry around.
The feature that it can be used for paying (like a phone) wasn’t something I thought about. But useful on the beach.
Can it go in the sea unharmed? That's a major benefit. The question of what to do with one's valuabvles on the beach has rarely been adequately solved.
Yes it can. You can, if you pair it with waterproof bluetooth headphones, listen to music etc while swimming - it can store and playback music.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I wear an automatic wristwatch. I don't carry a phone, wear a smartwatch, or use the cloud.
The only reason I have a smartphone is because I haven't got enough influence over all of my friends to insist successfully that when textchatting with me they should use a service that doesn't require a phone, such as Skype, rather than Whatsapp, which does.
I take it that most PBers are familiar with Karl Marx's definition of commodity fetishism as when social relations among people take the form of social relations among things.
Good man.
I have been pestering my wife for years to get her photos off her phone. She has 9000 photos on there and I worry that they will be lost if they don't go somewhere else before her phone dies. I tried to plug her iphone into my computer and export her photos through that onto my external hard drive which is my backup, but being an Apple product it seemed to dislike dealing with non-Apple products and you couldn't just delve inside it with explorer to do a mass drag/drop. She's uploading them a few at a time to the cloud in the hope of then later downloading them again at a later date but it is not a quick process!
I quite liked digital photography when it came along. The problem of where to store physical photos was not one I ever felt I adequately solved: doing so digitally seemed to make sense. But since we started carrying cameras around by default, the number of photos we have has gone through the roof, and I have far more of them than I have time to look at. I have a vague idea that it will be a retirement project to go through them all and catalogue them all and remove the duplicates. But possibly the technology will have moved on by then and they will all be lost forever.
Importing photos from iPhone to Windows is trivial.
Another way after connecting the iPhone to the Windows PC with a USB cable is to open the iPhone as a drive and then open "Internal Storage". That is a directory on the iPhone that Apple allows you access to, containing a folder with photos for each month.
There are some nice physical albums available that take 300 photos of size 6" x 4". I have about seven.
Former @SpeakerMcCarthy : "I'll give you the truth why I'm not speaker. It's because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old ... Did he do it or not? I don't know." https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1778047586366087220
NYT - Trump’s Ex-Finance Chief Is Sentenced to 5 Months in Rikers [Island Prison] for Perjury
Allen Weisselberg admitted that he had lied about helping Donald Trump inflate his net worth. The sentence caps a legal saga that has now landed him behind bars twice.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I wear an automatic wristwatch. I don't carry a phone, wear a smartwatch, or use the cloud.
The only reason I have a smartphone is because I haven't got enough influence over all of my friends to insist successfully that when textchatting with me they should use a service that doesn't require a phone, such as Skype, rather than Whatsapp, which does.
I take it that most PBers are familiar with Karl Marx's definition of commodity fetishism as when social relations among people take the form of social relations among things.
Good man.
I have been pestering my wife for years to get her photos off her phone. She has 9000 photos on there and I worry that they will be lost if they don't go somewhere else before her phone dies. I tried to plug her iphone into my computer and export her photos through that onto my external hard drive which is my backup, but being an Apple product it seemed to dislike dealing with non-Apple products and you couldn't just delve inside it with explorer to do a mass drag/drop. She's uploading them a few at a time to the cloud in the hope of then later downloading them again at a later date but it is not a quick process!
I quite liked digital photography when it came along. The problem of where to store physical photos was not one I ever felt I adequately solved: doing so digitally seemed to make sense. But since we started carrying cameras around by default, the number of photos we have has gone through the roof, and I have far more of them than I have time to look at. I have a vague idea that it will be a retirement project to go through them all and catalogue them all and remove the duplicates. But possibly the technology will have moved on by then and they will all be lost forever.
Importing photos from iPhone to Windows is trivial.
The difficult bit is the archiving and labelling of the photos. I used to have loads of people ask me how to easily categorise tens of thousands of photos from a single folder into events and junk. Hopefully that’s actually a good use for AI automation in the short future.
That was what I tried - but first it stopped working after 300 photos, and thereafter, when I tried, it kept claiming to have sent a permission request notification to the phone which I needed to approve - but no sign of it on the phone. Reboots etc solved nothing. A mystery which we had neither the time nor energy to resolve, given everything else that was going on. But thanks.
Yet another way to transfer photos from iPhone to Windows PC is to use a flash drive that has a lightning connector one side and a USB connector the other. Sandisk make one called the iXpand drive.
Former @SpeakerMcCarthy : "I'll give you the truth why I'm not speaker. It's because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old ... Did he do it or not? I don't know." https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1778047586366087220
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I wear an automatic wristwatch. I don't carry a phone, wear a smartwatch, or use the cloud.
The only reason I have a smartphone is because I haven't got enough influence over all of my friends to insist successfully that when textchatting with me they should use a service that doesn't require a phone, such as Skype, rather than Whatsapp, which does.
I take it that most PBers are familiar with Karl Marx's definition of commodity fetishism as when social relations among people take the form of social relations among things.
Good man.
I have been pestering my wife for years to get her photos off her phone. She has 9000 photos on there and I worry that they will be lost if they don't go somewhere else before her phone dies. I tried to plug her iphone into my computer and export her photos through that onto my external hard drive which is my backup, but being an Apple product it seemed to dislike dealing with non-Apple products and you couldn't just delve inside it with explorer to do a mass drag/drop. She's uploading them a few at a time to the cloud in the hope of then later downloading them again at a later date but it is not a quick process!
I quite liked digital photography when it came along. The problem of where to store physical photos was not one I ever felt I adequately solved: doing so digitally seemed to make sense. But since we started carrying cameras around by default, the number of photos we have has gone through the roof, and I have far more of them than I have time to look at. I have a vague idea that it will be a retirement project to go through them all and catalogue them all and remove the duplicates. But possibly the technology will have moved on by then and they will all be lost forever.
Why can’t she just use iCloud? Might have to stump up £2.49 a month for the space, but it will sync automatically, and over wifi 9000 is nothing.
Many photo programs do automatic or semi-automatic de-duplication,
That's what she's trying - but we're reluctant to be stumping up £2.49 indefinitely. Photos were loading at a rate of about 500/hour, so some way to go yet! Hopefully we can then get them off the cloud onto an external drive and thereby stop having to pay £2.49 a month. It's not a lot, but subscriptions of this sort add up.
Suppose it all depends on the value you place on the photos.
Its certainly possible for the phone to die and the external HD too. House fires are a big un for data loss. I would want a cloud back up somewhere. Of course the convenience of directly syncing to Apple through the iphone is hard to beat.
JosiasJessop wrote: "The Russians threaten grain exports that could cause millions to starve. --> US reaction: oh well. Ukrainians strike Russian oil refineries. --> US reaction: stop immediately, it's WRONG!!!!!"
I was briefly in clacton last year after a camping trip in Essex. What a deplorably run down place it was. Drug dealers on the streets. People in dirty worn down clothes. People had hard lives etched in their faces.
When I listen to people like in this video, it hammers home to me that there are several kinds of poverty: lack of money, lack of network, lack of information and knowledge, lack of opportunities, lack of power and voice. They seem decoupled from any participation in the collective project that is our country.
And behind that are locations that have no overall economic function or connection with the broader national and global economy - they don't participate in the structural circulation of money, goods, people, ideas that is necessary for them to be viable. These locations are literal dead ends.
The citizens talk about being a holiday town. They were killed off by easy jet and Ryan Air and being a holiday town won't ever properly recover. Those times are gone. Why would you go to blackpool or clacton if you can be in Malaga for £80 return?
They talk about fixing the buildings.... to what end? The buildings need a role to play in the town, which itself needs a role in a broader economy. There needs to be a total rethink about the purpose of these towns... because it isn't tourism. Not till these seaside towns are integrated into the broader economic circulation of the nation will we begin to address these issues. Saying it is an issue of individual tax cuts or individual moral fortitude totally misses the point of what is going on in my mind.
Blackpool is reasonably well connected to large population centres and airports, so it shouldn’t be beyond help and I don’t think tourism need be completely out of the question. But it would probably require huge corporate investment, Las Vegas style.
Creating a special economic area for places like this, slashing corporate taxes (and possibly personal taxes) and removing all planning restrictions beyond the protection of a handful of existing buildings and the usual building regs might get it somewhere.
Brighton was very run down and very seedy back in the 1970s and early 1980s. It may not be everyone's cup of tea now but it has clearly bounced back. There are similar things beginning to happen in Margate and other towns on the south coast. What Blackpool needs is a thriving hinterland. Its fate is tied to Liverpool's and Manchester's, just as Brighton's is to London.
Neither Liverpool nor Manchester are doing horribly badly. Blackpool is more a victim of the bucket shop holiday. It needs an exciting tourism offering that you can't see (as @TimS suggests) outside of Las Vegas.
I deleted your comment because this site is hosted in the UK, and while one can be suspicious, naming people can easily cross the line into libel. And I have no desire to be sued.
JosiasJessop wrote: "The Russians threaten grain exports that could cause millions to starve. --> US reaction: oh well. Ukrainians strike Russian oil refineries. --> US reaction: stop immediately, it's WRONG!!!!!"
Grain prices are down quite a lot from their highs, aren't they? (I was with a man who sells animal feed yesterday for lunch, and their product is priced off of corn, so he was a little sad )
I deleted your comment because this site is hosted in the UK, and while one can be suspicious, naming people can easily cross the line into libel. And I have no desire to be sued.
This subpoena has been widely reported as a matter of fact. The allegation remains no more than an allegation, of course.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I wear an automatic wristwatch. I don't carry a phone, wear a smartwatch, or use the cloud.
The only reason I have a smartphone is because I haven't got enough influence over all of my friends to insist successfully that when textchatting with me they should use a service that doesn't require a phone, such as Skype, rather than Whatsapp, which does.
I take it that most PBers are familiar with Karl Marx's definition of commodity fetishism as when social relations among people take the form of social relations among things.
Good man.
I have been pestering my wife for years to get her photos off her phone. She has 9000 photos on there and I worry that they will be lost if they don't go somewhere else before her phone dies. I tried to plug her iphone into my computer and export her photos through that onto my external hard drive which is my backup, but being an Apple product it seemed to dislike dealing with non-Apple products and you couldn't just delve inside it with explorer to do a mass drag/drop. She's uploading them a few at a time to the cloud in the hope of then later downloading them again at a later date but it is not a quick process!
I quite liked digital photography when it came along. The problem of where to store physical photos was not one I ever felt I adequately solved: doing so digitally seemed to make sense. But since we started carrying cameras around by default, the number of photos we have has gone through the roof, and I have far more of them than I have time to look at. I have a vague idea that it will be a retirement project to go through them all and catalogue them all and remove the duplicates. But possibly the technology will have moved on by then and they will all be lost forever.
Why can’t she just use iCloud?
A question I find myself asking of many PB Luddites, inwardly, or outwardly, almost every day.
The answer is, I think: "Because then I wouldn't be able to moan about modern technology and fetishise pointless nostalgia."
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I wear an automatic wristwatch. I don't carry a phone, wear a smartwatch, or use the cloud.
The only reason I have a smartphone is because I haven't got enough influence over all of my friends to insist successfully that when textchatting with me they should use a service that doesn't require a phone, such as Skype, rather than Whatsapp, which does.
I take it that most PBers are familiar with Karl Marx's definition of commodity fetishism as when social relations among people take the form of social relations among things.
Good man.
I have been pestering my wife for years to get her photos off her phone. She has 9000 photos on there and I worry that they will be lost if they don't go somewhere else before her phone dies. I tried to plug her iphone into my computer and export her photos through that onto my external hard drive which is my backup, but being an Apple product it seemed to dislike dealing with non-Apple products and you couldn't just delve inside it with explorer to do a mass drag/drop. She's uploading them a few at a time to the cloud in the hope of then later downloading them again at a later date but it is not a quick process!
I quite liked digital photography when it came along. The problem of where to store physical photos was not one I ever felt I adequately solved: doing so digitally seemed to make sense. But since we started carrying cameras around by default, the number of photos we have has gone through the roof, and I have far more of them than I have time to look at. I have a vague idea that it will be a retirement project to go through them all and catalogue them all and remove the duplicates. But possibly the technology will have moved on by then and they will all be lost forever.
Why can’t she just use iCloud? Might have to stump up £2.49 a month for the space, but it will sync automatically, and over wifi 9000 is nothing.
Many photo programs do automatic or semi-automatic de-duplication,
That's what she's trying - but we're reluctant to be stumping up £2.49 indefinitely. Photos were loading at a rate of about 500/hour, so some way to go yet! Hopefully we can then get them off the cloud onto an external drive and thereby stop having to pay £2.49 a month. It's not a lot, but subscriptions of this sort add up.
It's exceptional value for the quality and volume of storage you get for it. Paying for cloud storage is something you just need to get over.
They worked and paid taxes for decades in the UK but say they have had the “door slammed in our faces” and have been told they must pay £11,000 if they want to return.
Stephen Kaye, 60, an IT specialist, spent his entire working career paying tax in the UK, and his French wife, Carmen Delaunay, 64, made substantial contributions working as an analyst and client retention specialist for multinationals, most recently Deloitte, over 25 years in Britain.
They decided to move to France to look after Delaunay’s elderly father in 2015, and all of her tax years in the UK were wiped away with new immigration rules that came in after 2021.
The new rules prohibited EU citizens from entering freely into the UK unless they had an unbroken five-year residency in Britain before the divorce from the EU...
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I wear an automatic wristwatch. I don't carry a phone, wear a smartwatch, or use the cloud.
The only reason I have a smartphone is because I haven't got enough influence over all of my friends to insist successfully that when textchatting with me they should use a service that doesn't require a phone, such as Skype, rather than Whatsapp, which does.
I take it that most PBers are familiar with Karl Marx's definition of commodity fetishism as when social relations among people take the form of social relations among things.
Good man.
I have been pestering my wife for years to get her photos off her phone. She has 9000 photos on there and I worry that they will be lost if they don't go somewhere else before her phone dies. I tried to plug her iphone into my computer and export her photos through that onto my external hard drive which is my backup, but being an Apple product it seemed to dislike dealing with non-Apple products and you couldn't just delve inside it with explorer to do a mass drag/drop. She's uploading them a few at a time to the cloud in the hope of then later downloading them again at a later date but it is not a quick process!
I quite liked digital photography when it came along. The problem of where to store physical photos was not one I ever felt I adequately solved: doing so digitally seemed to make sense. But since we started carrying cameras around by default, the number of photos we have has gone through the roof, and I have far more of them than I have time to look at. I have a vague idea that it will be a retirement project to go through them all and catalogue them all and remove the duplicates. But possibly the technology will have moved on by then and they will all be lost forever.
Why can’t she just use iCloud? Might have to stump up £2.49 a month for the space, but it will sync automatically, and over wifi 9000 is nothing.
Many photo programs do automatic or semi-automatic de-duplication,
That's what she's trying - but we're reluctant to be stumping up £2.49 indefinitely. Photos were loading at a rate of about 500/hour, so some way to go yet! Hopefully we can then get them off the cloud onto an external drive and thereby stop having to pay £2.49 a month. It's not a lot, but subscriptions of this sort add up.
It's exceptional value for the quality and volume of storage you get for it. Paying for cloud storage is something you just need to get over.
It's a lot cheaper - and less hassle - than trying to manage your own hardware backup. Though external portable SSD drives have made storing stuff offline that's really important to you much easier and secure.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I still wear a Swiss watch, at least when at home and not in Kiev or London, have my card on Apple Pay on the phone (way more secure and better for privacy than using the actual card) as well as in the wallet for when the technology fails. Usually keep a reasonable amount of cash in the wallet too, in case the tech really fails and I need a tank full or to pay for dinner
I haven't worn a watch for years as I rarely need one. If I do I set an alarm on my phone. I do get quite surprised by the time sometimes. This means I have no jewellery whatsoever as I also don't wear a wedding ring which I think are daft.
As I worked from home for years before it became a thing I also used to get surprised by bank holidays, wondering why the family hadn't all left that day. I also usually have no idea what day it is either.
I do still use cards and so carry a wallet, but I don't carry cash, except for the 2 occasions I need it (haircut and dog grooming). Otherwise cash is a thing of the past for me.
I got back into wearing a watch for gym/rowing - the newer wrist heart rate monitors are nearly equal to a chest band for accuracy. One less thing to carry around.
The feature that it can be used for paying (like a phone) wasn’t something I thought about. But useful on the beach.
Can it go in the sea unharmed? That's a major benefit. The question of what to do with one's valuabvles on the beach has rarely been adequately solved.
Are you for real? I sometimes read your posts and think I'm being spoofed.
Yes, amazingly, many smartwatches are completely waterproof. Some, like the Apple Ultra, are also DIVING WATCHES. And you can PAY WITH THEM!! Would you Adam and Eve it!!!
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I still wear a Swiss watch, at least when at home and not in Kiev or London, have my card on Apple Pay on the phone (way more secure and better for privacy than using the actual card) as well as in the wallet for when the technology fails. Usually keep a reasonable amount of cash in the wallet too, in case the tech really fails and I need a tank full or to pay for dinner
I haven't worn a watch for years as I rarely need one. If I do I set an alarm on my phone. I do get quite surprised by the time sometimes. This means I have no jewellery whatsoever as I also don't wear a wedding ring which I think are daft.
As I worked from home for years before it became a thing I also used to get surprised by bank holidays, wondering why the family hadn't all left that day. I also usually have no idea what day it is either.
I do still use cards and so carry a wallet, but I don't carry cash, except for the 2 occasions I need it (haircut and dog grooming). Otherwise cash is a thing of the past for me.
I got back into wearing a watch for gym/rowing - the newer wrist heart rate monitors are nearly equal to a chest band for accuracy. One less thing to carry around.
The feature that it can be used for paying (like a phone) wasn’t something I thought about. But useful on the beach.
Can it go in the sea unharmed? That's a major benefit. The question of what to do with one's valuabvles on the beach has rarely been adequately solved.
Yes it can. You can, if you pair it with waterproof bluetooth headphones, listen to music etc while swimming - it can store and playback music.
I was briefly in clacton last year after a camping trip in Essex. What a deplorably run down place it was. Drug dealers on the streets. People in dirty worn down clothes. People had hard lives etched in their faces.
When I listen to people like in this video, it hammers home to me that there are several kinds of poverty: lack of money, lack of network, lack of information and knowledge, lack of opportunities, lack of power and voice. They seem decoupled from any participation in the collective project that is our country.
And behind that are locations that have no overall economic function or connection with the broader national and global economy - they don't participate in the structural circulation of money, goods, people, ideas that is necessary for them to be viable. These locations are literal dead ends.
The citizens talk about being a holiday town. They were killed off by easy jet and Ryan Air and being a holiday town won't ever properly recover. Those times are gone. Why would you go to blackpool or clacton if you can be in Malaga for £80 return?
They talk about fixing the buildings.... to what end? The buildings need a role to play in the town, which itself needs a role in a broader economy. There needs to be a total rethink about the purpose of these towns... because it isn't tourism. Not till these seaside towns are integrated into the broader economic circulation of the nation will we begin to address these issues. Saying it is an issue of individual tax cuts or individual moral fortitude totally misses the point of what is going on in my mind.
Blackpool is reasonably well connected to large population centres and airports, so it shouldn’t be beyond help and I don’t think tourism need be completely out of the question. But it would probably require huge corporate investment, Las Vegas style.
Creating a special economic area for places like this, slashing corporate taxes (and possibly personal taxes) and removing all planning restrictions beyond the protection of a handful of existing buildings and the usual building regs might get it somewhere.
Brighton was very run down and very seedy back in the 1970s and early 1980s. It may not be everyone's cup of tea now but it has clearly bounced back. There are similar things beginning to happen in Margate and other towns on the south coast. What Blackpool needs is a thriving hinterland. Its fate is tied to Liverpool's and Manchester's, just as Brighton's is to London.
Neither Liverpool nor Manchester are doing horribly badly. Blackpool is more a victim of the bucket shop holiday. It needs an exciting tourism offering that you can't see (as @TimS suggests) outside of Las Vegas.
Manchester failed to get its super casino because the House of Lords voted against the secondary statutory instrument (partially because Blackpool did not get it).
Consequently the whole approach was dropped I believe.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I still wear a Swiss watch, at least when at home and not in Kiev or London, have my card on Apple Pay on the phone (way more secure and better for privacy than using the actual card) as well as in the wallet for when the technology fails. Usually keep a reasonable amount of cash in the wallet too, in case the tech really fails and I need a tank full or to pay for dinner
I haven't worn a watch for years as I rarely need one. If I do I set an alarm on my phone. I do get quite surprised by the time sometimes. This means I have no jewellery whatsoever as I also don't wear a wedding ring which I think are daft.
As I worked from home for years before it became a thing I also used to get surprised by bank holidays, wondering why the family hadn't all left that day. I also usually have no idea what day it is either.
I do still use cards and so carry a wallet, but I don't carry cash, except for the 2 occasions I need it (haircut and dog grooming). Otherwise cash is a thing of the past for me.
I got back into wearing a watch for gym/rowing - the newer wrist heart rate monitors are nearly equal to a chest band for accuracy. One less thing to carry around.
The feature that it can be used for paying (like a phone) wasn’t something I thought about. But useful on the beach.
Can it go in the sea unharmed? That's a major benefit. The question of what to do with one's valuabvles on the beach has rarely been adequately solved.
Are you for real? I sometimes read your posts and think I'm being spoofed.
Yes, amazingly, many smartwatches are completely waterproof. Some, like the Apple Ultra, are also DIVING WATCHES. And you can PAY WITH THEM!! Would you Adam and Eve it!!!
If you are not completely bought into the Apple ecosystem (or want a device with three weeks battery life rather than 36 hours), then the Garmin Epix is absolutely fantastic.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I wear an automatic wristwatch. I don't carry a phone, wear a smartwatch, or use the cloud.
The only reason I have a smartphone is because I haven't got enough influence over all of my friends to insist successfully that when textchatting with me they should use a service that doesn't require a phone, such as Skype, rather than Whatsapp, which does.
I take it that most PBers are familiar with Karl Marx's definition of commodity fetishism as when social relations among people take the form of social relations among things.
Good man.
I have been pestering my wife for years to get her photos off her phone. She has 9000 photos on there and I worry that they will be lost if they don't go somewhere else before her phone dies. I tried to plug her iphone into my computer and export her photos through that onto my external hard drive which is my backup, but being an Apple product it seemed to dislike dealing with non-Apple products and you couldn't just delve inside it with explorer to do a mass drag/drop. She's uploading them a few at a time to the cloud in the hope of then later downloading them again at a later date but it is not a quick process!
I quite liked digital photography when it came along. The problem of where to store physical photos was not one I ever felt I adequately solved: doing so digitally seemed to make sense. But since we started carrying cameras around by default, the number of photos we have has gone through the roof, and I have far more of them than I have time to look at. I have a vague idea that it will be a retirement project to go through them all and catalogue them all and remove the duplicates. But possibly the technology will have moved on by then and they will all be lost forever.
Why can’t she just use iCloud? Might have to stump up £2.49 a month for the space, but it will sync automatically, and over wifi 9000 is nothing.
Many photo programs do automatic or semi-automatic de-duplication,
That's what she's trying - but we're reluctant to be stumping up £2.49 indefinitely. Photos were loading at a rate of about 500/hour, so some way to go yet! Hopefully we can then get them off the cloud onto an external drive and thereby stop having to pay £2.49 a month. It's not a lot, but subscriptions of this sort add up.
We use syncthing for Android -> local hard drive sync (you also can make it one way so it's backup only). There's apparently a third party client for iOS - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/möbius-sync/id1539203216 - but I haven't tried that, not having an iPhone.
(Our setup is more due to preferring to keep our files completely under our control - sync only occurs over wifi when we're at home to a pi that runs syncthing along with a file server; that then backs up once a day, by other means to another pi at our in-laws' house a few miles away. The syncthing setup on the phone was via the app; on the pi via a web browser pointed at it - there's also a syncthing client for Windows that I assume works just the same)
I was briefly in clacton last year after a camping trip in Essex. What a deplorably run down place it was. Drug dealers on the streets. People in dirty worn down clothes. People had hard lives etched in their faces.
When I listen to people like in this video, it hammers home to me that there are several kinds of poverty: lack of money, lack of network, lack of information and knowledge, lack of opportunities, lack of power and voice. They seem decoupled from any participation in the collective project that is our country.
And behind that are locations that have no overall economic function or connection with the broader national and global economy - they don't participate in the structural circulation of money, goods, people, ideas that is necessary for them to be viable. These locations are literal dead ends.
The citizens talk about being a holiday town. They were killed off by easy jet and Ryan Air and being a holiday town won't ever properly recover. Those times are gone. Why would you go to blackpool or clacton if you can be in Malaga for £80 return?
They talk about fixing the buildings.... to what end? The buildings need a role to play in the town, which itself needs a role in a broader economy. There needs to be a total rethink about the purpose of these towns... because it isn't tourism. Not till these seaside towns are integrated into the broader economic circulation of the nation will we begin to address these issues. Saying it is an issue of individual tax cuts or individual moral fortitude totally misses the point of what is going on in my mind.
Blackpool is reasonably well connected to large population centres and airports, so it shouldn’t be beyond help and I don’t think tourism need be completely out of the question. But it would probably require huge corporate investment, Las Vegas style.
Creating a special economic area for places like this, slashing corporate taxes (and possibly personal taxes) and removing all planning restrictions beyond the protection of a handful of existing buildings and the usual building regs might get it somewhere.
Brighton was very run down and very seedy back in the 1970s and early 1980s. It may not be everyone's cup of tea now but it has clearly bounced back. There are similar things beginning to happen in Margate and other towns on the south coast. What Blackpool needs is a thriving hinterland. Its fate is tied to Liverpool's and Manchester's, just as Brighton's is to London.
Neither Liverpool nor Manchester are doing horribly badly. Blackpool is more a victim of the bucket shop holiday. It needs an exciting tourism offering that you can't see (as @TimS suggests) outside of Las Vegas.
Manchester failed to get its super casino because the House of Lords voted against the secondary statutory instrument (partially because Blackpool did not get it).
Consequently the whole approach was dropped I believe.
Think Gordon Brown had something to do with it getting stopped too. He has his puritanical streak, like cancelling weed being made class C.
Starmer leads by 27 points on pub chat! What on Earth has happened!
Who wants to go to the pub with a teetotaller?
Pubs do sell non-alcoholic drinks too, you know!
Yes, personally it seems a good call to me. If you're doing rounds then the non-alcoholic drinks are likely cheaper and you can also get the teetotaller to give you a lift home
Not sure that I'd jump at the chance for a pint with Sunak or Starmer though!
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I still wear a Swiss watch, at least when at home and not in Kiev or London, have my card on Apple Pay on the phone (way more secure and better for privacy than using the actual card) as well as in the wallet for when the technology fails. Usually keep a reasonable amount of cash in the wallet too, in case the tech really fails and I need a tank full or to pay for dinner
I haven't worn a watch for years as I rarely need one. If I do I set an alarm on my phone. I do get quite surprised by the time sometimes. This means I have no jewellery whatsoever as I also don't wear a wedding ring which I think are daft.
As I worked from home for years before it became a thing I also used to get surprised by bank holidays, wondering why the family hadn't all left that day. I also usually have no idea what day it is either.
I do still use cards and so carry a wallet, but I don't carry cash, except for the 2 occasions I need it (haircut and dog grooming). Otherwise cash is a thing of the past for me.
I got back into wearing a watch for gym/rowing - the newer wrist heart rate monitors are nearly equal to a chest band for accuracy. One less thing to carry around.
The feature that it can be used for paying (like a phone) wasn’t something I thought about. But useful on the beach.
Can it go in the sea unharmed? That's a major benefit. The question of what to do with one's valuabvles on the beach has rarely been adequately solved.
Are you for real? I sometimes read your posts and think I'm being spoofed.
Yes, amazingly, many smartwatches are completely waterproof. Some, like the Apple Ultra, are also DIVING WATCHES. And you can PAY WITH THEM!! Would you Adam and Eve it!!!
Well yes, there was a bit of the rhetorical about that question - it was an 'I hadn't thought of that' concession of an advantage of an Apple product. So be grateful! For me, the disadvantages still outweigh the advantages. This is an advantage I had not hitherto thought of - but I swim in the sea, what, six times a year, and have managed the inconvenience of dealing with my valuables ok so far.
But no, I'm not spoofing you. I just see no particular pressing need to move on from what was the perfectly adequate technology of about ten years ago.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I still wear a Swiss watch, at least when at home and not in Kiev or London, have my card on Apple Pay on the phone (way more secure and better for privacy than using the actual card) as well as in the wallet for when the technology fails. Usually keep a reasonable amount of cash in the wallet too, in case the tech really fails and I need a tank full or to pay for dinner
I haven't worn a watch for years as I rarely need one. If I do I set an alarm on my phone. I do get quite surprised by the time sometimes. This means I have no jewellery whatsoever as I also don't wear a wedding ring which I think are daft.
As I worked from home for years before it became a thing I also used to get surprised by bank holidays, wondering why the family hadn't all left that day. I also usually have no idea what day it is either.
I do still use cards and so carry a wallet, but I don't carry cash, except for the 2 occasions I need it (haircut and dog grooming). Otherwise cash is a thing of the past for me.
I got back into wearing a watch for gym/rowing - the newer wrist heart rate monitors are nearly equal to a chest band for accuracy. One less thing to carry around.
The feature that it can be used for paying (like a phone) wasn’t something I thought about. But useful on the beach.
Can it go in the sea unharmed? That's a major benefit. The question of what to do with one's valuabvles on the beach has rarely been adequately solved.
Are you for real? I sometimes read your posts and think I'm being spoofed.
Yes, amazingly, many smartwatches are completely waterproof. Some, like the Apple Ultra, are also DIVING WATCHES. And you can PAY WITH THEM!! Would you Adam and Eve it!!!
If you are not completely bought into the Apple ecosystem (or want a device with three weeks battery life rather than 36 hours), then the Garmin Epix is absolutely fantastic.
The Ultra does 60 easily on low power mode and (under normal use) more than 36 in normal mode, which is plenty as it you are long-hiking wild you will need to take a battery pack anyway. It's the only product I have ever bought that has a battery life that is actually better than that advertised.
But yes, I have heard super things about the Epix.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I wear an automatic wristwatch. I don't carry a phone, wear a smartwatch, or use the cloud.
The only reason I have a smartphone is because I haven't got enough influence over all of my friends to insist successfully that when textchatting with me they should use a service that doesn't require a phone, such as Skype, rather than Whatsapp, which does.
I take it that most PBers are familiar with Karl Marx's definition of commodity fetishism as when social relations among people take the form of social relations among things.
Good man.
I have been pestering my wife for years to get her photos off her phone. She has 9000 photos on there and I worry that they will be lost if they don't go somewhere else before her phone dies. I tried to plug her iphone into my computer and export her photos through that onto my external hard drive which is my backup, but being an Apple product it seemed to dislike dealing with non-Apple products and you couldn't just delve inside it with explorer to do a mass drag/drop. She's uploading them a few at a time to the cloud in the hope of then later downloading them again at a later date but it is not a quick process!
I quite liked digital photography when it came along. The problem of where to store physical photos was not one I ever felt I adequately solved: doing so digitally seemed to make sense. But since we started carrying cameras around by default, the number of photos we have has gone through the roof, and I have far more of them than I have time to look at. I have a vague idea that it will be a retirement project to go through them all and catalogue them all and remove the duplicates. But possibly the technology will have moved on by then and they will all be lost forever.
Completely off topic, but possibly of interest: "A Seattle pastor may be pursuing legal action after a leading newspaper abruptly canceled their contract agreement with the pastor to advertise his church's Easter services.
I was wondering why our local monopoly newspaper had no stories, or even ads, this last Easter Sunday. (The comics section -- which has content the newspaper does not control -- had 8 strips mentioning secular Easter celebrations and one ("The Family Circus") religious strip.)
In the past, the newspaper regularly carried a variety of religious columns on Sunday. I don't know why they decided to stop doing that. Although practicing Christian are a minority here, they are a large enough minority so I would think the newspaper would want to appeal to them, if only for commercial reasons.
And the newspaper is missing out on some interesting stories. For example, there are a number of Russian Baptist churches in this area. As I understand it, they were persecuted by the Czars, Stalin, and now Putin. Interviews with some of their older members might produce some interesting stories.)
JosiasJessop wrote: "The Russians threaten grain exports that could cause millions to starve. --> US reaction: oh well. Ukrainians strike Russian oil refineries. --> US reaction: stop immediately, it's WRONG!!!!!"
Firstly, the US may export a lot of grain. That's great. But the point is: Ukraine (particularly western Ukraine) exports a heck of a lot as well; and the threatened (and attempted) blockade of Ukrainian grain by Russia would have stopped that. That would have massively reduced the amount of grain on the world market, increasing costs, and preventing many poor from getting enough. Ukrainian production is about a half of the US's; not a trivial amount for the world market.
Fortunately, Ukrainian perseverance has meant that the Russian blockade has failed, and they exported d 25.2 million metric tons as of Feb (1). This is *without* the grain deal that was arranged by Turkey, and later abandoned by Russia. Not the US. In this case, Turkey behaved better than the US. And it's not often I say that...
Secondly, "Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned that Ukraine’s recent attacks on Russian oil refineries risk impacting global energy markets and urged the country to focus on military targets instead." (2) Or (3)
It gives the impression (wrongly, I think) that the US (and Biden by extension) cares little for people in the third world starving, but woe betide anyone who threatens to put one cent on the price of oil back home.
Many of you will connect your laptops or iPads to the Internet via tethering. Have you ever noticed that that the Internet is slow this way?
That's because basically all mobile networks deliberately throttle tethering speeds. It means that while your phone might well have a 200 or 300 mb/s 5G connection, you are pulling 0.5mb/s or less through your laptop.
Which is absolutely infuriating and is done so Vodafone and EE can sell additional data connections.
If you are on Android, you can circumvent this, and get the full speed of your cellular connection for your iPad/laptop. Download an app called Every Proxy (and turn HTTP proxying on). You then need to toggle proxying on in Network Settings. And - tada - you now get 300mb/s on your laptop/tablet.
Sadly, I don't think this works on iPhones. (Although it works with my Macbook connected to my Android phone, obviously.)
JosiasJessop wrote: "The Russians threaten grain exports that could cause millions to starve. --> US reaction: oh well. Ukrainians strike Russian oil refineries. --> US reaction: stop immediately, it's WRONG!!!!!"
Grain prices are down quite a lot from their highs, aren't they? (I was with a man who sells animal feed yesterday for lunch, and their product is priced off of corn, so he was a little sad )
Perhaps grain prices are down because Ukraine beat Russia over the latter's threat to stop Ukraine exporting grain?
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I wear an automatic wristwatch. I don't carry a phone, wear a smartwatch, or use the cloud.
The only reason I have a smartphone is because I haven't got enough influence over all of my friends to insist successfully that when textchatting with me they should use a service that doesn't require a phone, such as Skype, rather than Whatsapp, which does.
I take it that most PBers are familiar with Karl Marx's definition of commodity fetishism as when social relations among people take the form of social relations among things.
Good man.
I have been pestering my wife for years to get her photos off her phone. She has 9000 photos on there and I worry that they will be lost if they don't go somewhere else before her phone dies. I tried to plug her iphone into my computer and export her photos through that onto my external hard drive which is my backup, but being an Apple product it seemed to dislike dealing with non-Apple products and you couldn't just delve inside it with explorer to do a mass drag/drop. She's uploading them a few at a time to the cloud in the hope of then later downloading them again at a later date but it is not a quick process!
I quite liked digital photography when it came along. The problem of where to store physical photos was not one I ever felt I adequately solved: doing so digitally seemed to make sense. But since we started carrying cameras around by default, the number of photos we have has gone through the roof, and I have far more of them than I have time to look at. I have a vague idea that it will be a retirement project to go through them all and catalogue them all and remove the duplicates. But possibly the technology will have moved on by then and they will all be lost forever.
Why can’t she just use iCloud? Might have to stump up £2.49 a month for the space, but it will sync automatically, and over wifi 9000 is nothing.
Many photo programs do automatic or semi-automatic de-duplication,
That's what she's trying - but we're reluctant to be stumping up £2.49 indefinitely. Photos were loading at a rate of about 500/hour, so some way to go yet! Hopefully we can then get them off the cloud onto an external drive and thereby stop having to pay £2.49 a month. It's not a lot, but subscriptions of this sort add up.
It's exceptional value for the quality and volume of storage you get for it. Paying for cloud storage is something you just need to get over.
OK, I accept that, but 1) I'm reliant on other people's computers for the continued existence of my photos. I'm uncomfortable enough relying on the continued currency of my own tech in order to have access to my photos. Companies don't exist indefinitely. 2) £2.49 is good value, but this model of capitalism is highly irritating. I want to own the stuff I own, not to have to pay out a series of subscriptions to have access to my own stuff. At the other end of the scale, cars are going the same way.
This is the Davos argument from about ten years ago: "You will own nothing. And you will be happy." Well, I'm not. I want to own the stuff I own. I don't want to rent everything.
I was briefly in clacton last year after a camping trip in Essex. What a deplorably run down place it was. Drug dealers on the streets. People in dirty worn down clothes. People had hard lives etched in their faces.
When I listen to people like in this video, it hammers home to me that there are several kinds of poverty: lack of money, lack of network, lack of information and knowledge, lack of opportunities, lack of power and voice. They seem decoupled from any participation in the collective project that is our country.
And behind that are locations that have no overall economic function or connection with the broader national and global economy - they don't participate in the structural circulation of money, goods, people, ideas that is necessary for them to be viable. These locations are literal dead ends.
The citizens talk about being a holiday town. They were killed off by easy jet and Ryan Air and being a holiday town won't ever properly recover. Those times are gone. Why would you go to blackpool or clacton if you can be in Malaga for £80 return?
They talk about fixing the buildings.... to what end? The buildings need a role to play in the town, which itself needs a role in a broader economy. There needs to be a total rethink about the purpose of these towns... because it isn't tourism. Not till these seaside towns are integrated into the broader economic circulation of the nation will we begin to address these issues. Saying it is an issue of individual tax cuts or individual moral fortitude totally misses the point of what is going on in my mind.
Blackpool is reasonably well connected to large population centres and airports, so it shouldn’t be beyond help and I don’t think tourism need be completely out of the question. But it would probably require huge corporate investment, Las Vegas style.
Creating a special economic area for places like this, slashing corporate taxes (and possibly personal taxes) and removing all planning restrictions beyond the protection of a handful of existing buildings and the usual building regs might get it somewhere.
Brighton was very run down and very seedy back in the 1970s and early 1980s. It may not be everyone's cup of tea now but it has clearly bounced back. There are similar things beginning to happen in Margate and other towns on the south coast. What Blackpool needs is a thriving hinterland. Its fate is tied to Liverpool's and Manchester's, just as Brighton's is to London.
Neither Liverpool nor Manchester are doing horribly badly. Blackpool is more a victim of the bucket shop holiday. It needs an exciting tourism offering that you can't see (as @TimS suggests) outside of Las Vegas.
I'd argue that Manchester is doing rather better than at any time since the 19th century.
But the same is not necessarily true of the small towns of the North West.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I wear an automatic wristwatch. I don't carry a phone, wear a smartwatch, or use the cloud.
The only reason I have a smartphone is because I haven't got enough influence over all of my friends to insist successfully that when textchatting with me they should use a service that doesn't require a phone, such as Skype, rather than Whatsapp, which does.
I take it that most PBers are familiar with Karl Marx's definition of commodity fetishism as when social relations among people take the form of social relations among things.
Good man.
I have been pestering my wife for years to get her photos off her phone. She has 9000 photos on there and I worry that they will be lost if they don't go somewhere else before her phone dies. I tried to plug her iphone into my computer and export her photos through that onto my external hard drive which is my backup, but being an Apple product it seemed to dislike dealing with non-Apple products and you couldn't just delve inside it with explorer to do a mass drag/drop. She's uploading them a few at a time to the cloud in the hope of then later downloading them again at a later date but it is not a quick process!
I quite liked digital photography when it came along. The problem of where to store physical photos was not one I ever felt I adequately solved: doing so digitally seemed to make sense. But since we started carrying cameras around by default, the number of photos we have has gone through the roof, and I have far more of them than I have time to look at. I have a vague idea that it will be a retirement project to go through them all and catalogue them all and remove the duplicates. But possibly the technology will have moved on by then and they will all be lost forever.
Importing photos from iPhone to Windows is trivial.
The difficult bit is the archiving and labelling of the photos. I used to have loads of people ask me how to easily categorise tens of thousands of photos from a single folder into events and junk. Hopefully that’s actually a good use for AI automation in the short future.
That was what I tried - but first it stopped working after 300 photos, and thereafter, when I tried, it kept claiming to have sent a permission request notification to the phone which I needed to approve - but no sign of it on the phone. Reboots etc solved nothing. A mystery which we had neither the time nor energy to resolve, given everything else that was going on. But thanks.
Yet another way to transfer photos from iPhone to Windows PC is to use a flash drive that has a lightning connector one side and a USB connector the other. Sandisk make one called the iXpand drive.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I still wear a Swiss watch, at least when at home and not in Kiev or London, have my card on Apple Pay on the phone (way more secure and better for privacy than using the actual card) as well as in the wallet for when the technology fails. Usually keep a reasonable amount of cash in the wallet too, in case the tech really fails and I need a tank full or to pay for dinner
I haven't worn a watch for years as I rarely need one. If I do I set an alarm on my phone. I do get quite surprised by the time sometimes. This means I have no jewellery whatsoever as I also don't wear a wedding ring which I think are daft.
As I worked from home for years before it became a thing I also used to get surprised by bank holidays, wondering why the family hadn't all left that day. I also usually have no idea what day it is either.
I do still use cards and so carry a wallet, but I don't carry cash, except for the 2 occasions I need it (haircut and dog grooming). Otherwise cash is a thing of the past for me.
I used to think wedding rings were daft. Then a married friend pointed out you could use it to make a noise against the glass you're holding. Chink, chink, chink. Years of fun.
Other than that - well, I quite like it. A reminder of matrimony every time I look at it. But OTOH it is easily the most expensive thing I have on my person at any one time and losing it is a minor worry.
When you have been married as long as I have it is impossible to lose your wedding ring without also having your finger chopped off. So losing it is a fairly minor worry.
I could just about lose my wedding ring in very cold weather. As long as I'm somewhere hot, no chance. Anyway, I've never lost it! I don't have a watch.
i lost my wedding ring a month or so after i ran the London marathon as it was the thinnest I'd ever been. Just dropped straight off and didn't notice till later.
Former @SpeakerMcCarthy : "I'll give you the truth why I'm not speaker. It's because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old ... Did he do it or not? I don't know." https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1778047586366087220
The other change in names is that whereas previously, a double-barrelled name might indicate membership of a particular social class, now it as likely indicates membership of another.
Nowadays it's more a sign of progressivism.
Lots of elite females now want to combine their maiden names with their partners surname as a statement of equality.
I think that's been around for some time: Ronald Wilson Reagan's mother had a maiden name of "Wilson". Happy to be corrected if wrong.
Back from hospital with a hole-in-the-back. Uncomfortable but manageable; interestingly they made me wait for 20 minutes afterwards to be sure I was fine, with a cup of tea and custard creams.
Accessing the hospital was total chaos with ASBO drivers causing havoc everywhere driving in circles and parking all over the pavements; I parked in Morrisons and did a mini-shop afterwards. The last time I was there one who "had to get my wife to an appointment" had totally blocked the main pedestrian access by parking across the drop-kerb rather than use a free parking space 20m further away, so everyone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter would have to go back 100m and wheel up the carriageway of the main driveway.
There is no easy / secure cycle or mobility aid storage either, which I would have used 12-14 times in the last 12 months. Time to write a letter, I think.
An interesting cashless experience on the way home.
My post-pain treat was to be a Domino's pizza-with-everything, but they don't take cash for some weird reason. The assistant knew it was a problem, as he offered to pay on his card if I had the exact amount.
I didn't have the exact amount, so went to the excellent chip shop down the road instead.
Glad the procedure went well and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cashless businesses are commonplace nowadays – it's much cheaper and less risky for them. Why didn't you just pay by card?
Because I had left my phone at home by mistake, did not take a wallet when I was going to be in a hospital semi-surgical procedure, so only had my back pocket £20 note.
I would generally not take cards (unless maybe just one or two, certainly not all of them) on a night out in a city. Security reasons.
I haven't carried my wallet with me as a general rule since the pandemic, I don't take cash or cards, but always have my phone on me which has my cards on it.
Only place I need to take my wallet to generally is if I plan to fuel up at Tesco's, since annoyingly their petrol pumps don't take contactless and rely upon inserting the card. Asda recently upgraded theirs to be contactless, so that made things easier there.
I try to avoid cards in phones, as I don't want to lose everything if I lose the phone or eg drop it in water.
Ways and means !
I wonder how many PBers still wear a wristwatch?
I accidentally smashed my phone last year, got home and dug a spare old phone out of a drawer and once I updated all apps got my cards transferred across to the new (old) phone. When I got a new phone, it was easy to transfer them all over again. Its good as well for loyalty cards etc, got a load of loyalty cards loaded on my phone now too.
Actually bought a new watch (smart) last year when I started my new job. Its convenient to have a watch where I'm now working but before then I hadn't regularly worn one for a few years but now always have it on again. Not bothered loading my cards onto the watch, since I always have my phone anyway.
I'm probably still using the spare old phone.
At a party at Christmas my relations counted how many versions of Android, and how many version of phone I was out of date - so I need a newer one.
What is this concept of spare old phone? I replace mine only when it's sufficiently broken to be unusable. So as far as I'm concerned - does it still work? (Yes). Then I don't need a newer one.
I am quite good at breaking them though.
A friend apologised that because his was out of action, he had borrowed his 9-year-old daughter's *spare* phone.
Mine is from 2014 but sadly has just had its last Android 11 update (via LineageOS).
Unfortunately Google has stopped Android 11 suppport after only 3 years and later versions are hard to backport on to old phones as various bits of hardware support have been removed.
All very annoying as the phone is perfectly functional for everything I do with it.
I hate this trend of making stuff obsolete before its time. Coming to a car near you soon...
Comments
Now that hardly anyone smokes and nobody carries round a prayer book any more. Even ordinands use an app on their mobile phone these days.
The only reason I have a smartphone is because I haven't got enough influence over all of my friends to insist successfully that when textchatting with me they should use a service that doesn't require a phone, such as Skype, rather than Whatsapp, which does.
I take it that most PBers are familiar with Karl Marx's definition of commodity fetishism as when social relations among people take the form of social relations among things.
As in the UK this is a matter for legislators and voters, and it is good (though much pain will have been and will be caused) that the SC has seen this.
All of a sudden the ultra extremes are faced with reality - which is sometimes horrible - and with the voters. Good.
If the SC did the same with guns this would be just as good.
The feature that it can be used for paying (like a phone) wasn’t something I thought about. But useful on the beach.
https://mrjoneswatches.com/products/colour-venn
It is pleasingly imprecise and pretty.
Other than that - well, I quite like it. A reminder of matrimony every time I look at it. But OTOH it is easily the most expensive thing I have on my person at any one time and losing it is a minor worry.
I have been pestering my wife for years to get her photos off her phone. She has 9000 photos on there and I worry that they will be lost if they don't go somewhere else before her phone dies. I tried to plug her iphone into my computer and export her photos through that onto my external hard drive which is my backup, but being an Apple product it seemed to dislike dealing with non-Apple products and you couldn't just delve inside it with explorer to do a mass drag/drop. She's uploading them a few at a time to the cloud in the hope of then later downloading them again at a later date but it is not a quick process!
I quite liked digital photography when it came along. The problem of where to store physical photos was not one I ever felt I adequately solved: doing so digitally seemed to make sense. But since we started carrying cameras around by default, the number of photos we have has gone through the roof, and I have far more of them than I have time to look at. I have a vague idea that it will be a retirement project to go through them all and catalogue them all and remove the duplicates. But possibly the technology will have moved on by then and they will all be lost forever.
ROMAN SOLDIER: halt, strange person! where are you from?
TIME TRAVELER: i come from the future. what are your names?
ROMAN SOLDIER: my name is QUINTUS, as i am the fifth child in my family. my comrade is SEXTUS, for he was the sixth child in his family. what is your name?
TIME TRAVELER: my name's LIV
ROMAN SOLDIER: [starts counting on his fingers as his eyes open in fear]
This isn't in any way a metaphor for my attitude to marriage!
Many photo programs do automatic or semi-automatic de-duplication,
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/import-photos-and-videos-from-an-iphone-to-pc-2e4e4db4-4c3d-041c-b88f-3ee4358dd95e
The difficult bit is the archiving and labelling of the photos. I used to have loads of people ask me how to easily categorise tens of thousands of photos from a single folder into events and junk. Hopefully that’s actually a good use for AI automation in the short future.
Speaking of which the cherry now is hung with bloom along the bough.
But thanks.
Mind you, according to Garmin my current fitness age is 20. I don't feel 30 years younger, so that's probably very wrong...
https://getsupport.apple.com/topics
Incidentally, many moons ago a friend was a very keen diver. He bought a camera to take photos underwater (I think an Olympus C5050), along with a waterproof case for it that cost about as much as the camera itself. To test the case, he took it on a dive with him, sans camera. Only to see the plastic case crush as he went down, rendering it useless.
The case required the camera in it to provide its strength from crushing...
(Even brilliant engineers can make dumb mistakes...)
There are some nice physical albums available that take 300 photos of size 6" x 4". I have about seven.
https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1778047586366087220
He's not talking about a Democrat.
Allen Weisselberg admitted that he had lied about helping Donald Trump inflate his net worth. The sentence caps a legal saga that has now landed him behind bars twice.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rikers_Island
Its certainly possible for the phone to die and the external HD too. House fires are a big un for data loss. I would want a cloud back up somewhere. Of course the convenience of directly syncing to Apple through the iphone is hard to beat.
--> US reaction: oh well.
Ukrainians strike Russian oil refineries.
--> US reaction: stop immediately, it's WRONG!!!!!"
Do you have some evidence for either of those two US reactions? I believe the second was in the Financial Times, but was refuted soon after. As for grain exports, the US has a good long-term record. (And may have a little grain to spare: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/why-is-china-canceling-us-wheat-shipments/ar-BB1ljQgE?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=722db18eab8f472083fa8b175f3a6f24&ei=139 )
I deleted your comment because this site is hosted in the UK, and while one can be suspicious, naming people can easily cross the line into libel. And I have no desire to be sued.
The allegation remains no more than an allegation, of course.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/rep-matt-gaetz-subpoenaed-defamation-suit-woman-allegedly/story?id=108098265
(I hope that's legally bulletproof - delete otherwise.)
The answer is, I think: "Because then I wouldn't be able to moan about modern technology and fetishise pointless nostalgia."
Briton and French wife face £11,000 Brexit visa bill to return home to UK
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/10/briton-and-french-wife-face-brexit-visa-bill-to-return-home-to-uk
A British man with Parkinson’s disease and his wife living in France say they have been left stranded on the continent because of “insulting” post-Brexit immigration rules.
They worked and paid taxes for decades in the UK but say they have had the “door slammed in our faces” and have been told they must pay £11,000 if they want to return.
Stephen Kaye, 60, an IT specialist, spent his entire working career paying tax in the UK, and his French wife, Carmen Delaunay, 64, made substantial contributions working as an analyst and client retention specialist for multinationals, most recently Deloitte, over 25 years in Britain.
They decided to move to France to look after Delaunay’s elderly father in 2015, and all of her tax years in the UK were wiped away with new immigration rules that came in after 2021.
The new rules prohibited EU citizens from entering freely into the UK unless they had an unbroken five-year residency in Britain before the divorce from the EU...
Though external portable SSD drives have made storing stuff offline that's really important to you much easier and secure.
Yes, amazingly, many smartwatches are completely waterproof. Some, like the Apple Ultra, are also DIVING WATCHES. And you can PAY WITH THEM!! Would you Adam and Eve it!!!
Manchester failed to get its super casino because the House of Lords voted against the secondary statutory instrument (partially because Blackpool did not get it).
Consequently the whole approach was dropped I believe.
(Our setup is more due to preferring to keep our files completely under our control - sync only occurs over wifi when we're at home to a pi that runs syncthing along with a file server; that then backs up once a day, by other means to another pi at our in-laws' house a few miles away. The syncthing setup on the phone was via the app; on the pi via a web browser pointed at it - there's also a syncthing client for Windows that I assume works just the same)
Not sure that I'd jump at the chance for a pint with Sunak or Starmer though!
For me, the disadvantages still outweigh the advantages. This is an advantage I had not hitherto thought of - but I swim in the sea, what, six times a year, and have managed the inconvenience of dealing with my valuables ok so far.
But no, I'm not spoofing you. I just see no particular pressing need to move on from what was the perfectly adequate technology of about ten years ago.
NEW THREAD
But yes, I have heard super things about the Epix.
"A Seattle pastor may be pursuing legal action after a leading newspaper abruptly canceled their contract agreement with the pastor to advertise his church's Easter services.
Pastor Russell Johnson of The Pursuit NW church told Seattle-based conservative talk show host Jason Rantz that he reached out to The Seattle Times on February 9 in order to pursue a prominent ad placement advertising his church for Passion Week."
source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/seattle-pastor-claims-newspaper-canceled-church-s-easter-service-ads-last-minute-after-ceo-objected/ar-BB1lmcRC?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=722db18eab8f472083fa8b175f3a6f24&ei=260
I was wondering why our local monopoly newspaper had no stories, or even ads, this last Easter Sunday. (The comics section -- which has content the newspaper does not control -- had 8 strips mentioning secular Easter celebrations and one ("The Family Circus") religious strip.)
In the past, the newspaper regularly carried a variety of religious columns on Sunday. I don't know why they decided to stop doing that. Although practicing Christian are a minority here, they are a large enough minority so I would think the newspaper would want to appeal to them, if only for commercial reasons.
And the newspaper is missing out on some interesting stories. For example, there are a number of Russian Baptist churches in this area. As I understand it, they were persecuted by the Czars, Stalin, and now Putin. Interviews with some of their older members might produce some interesting stories.)
Firstly, the US may export a lot of grain. That's great. But the point is: Ukraine (particularly western Ukraine) exports a heck of a lot as well; and the threatened (and attempted) blockade of Ukrainian grain by Russia would have stopped that. That would have massively reduced the amount of grain on the world market, increasing costs, and preventing many poor from getting enough. Ukrainian production is about a half of the US's; not a trivial amount for the world market.
Fortunately, Ukrainian perseverance has meant that the Russian blockade has failed, and they exported d 25.2 million metric tons as of Feb (1). This is *without* the grain deal that was arranged by Turkey, and later abandoned by Russia. Not the US. In this case, Turkey behaved better than the US. And it's not often I say that...
Secondly,
"Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned that Ukraine’s recent attacks on Russian oil refineries risk impacting global energy markets and urged the country to focus on military targets instead." (2) Or (3)
It gives the impression (wrongly, I think) that the US (and Biden by extension) cares little for people in the third world starving, but woe betide anyone who threatens to put one cent on the price of oil back home.
(1): https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/ukraine-track-export-all-2023-grain-says-britain-2024-02-13/
(2): https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-09/us-slams-strikes-on-russia-oil-refineries-as-risk-to-oil-markets?embedded-checkout=true
(3): https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-ukraine-oil-refineries-strikes-biden-administration-vladimir-putin-b0ef679c
Many of you will connect your laptops or iPads to the Internet via tethering. Have you ever noticed that that the Internet is slow this way?
That's because basically all mobile networks deliberately throttle tethering speeds. It means that while your phone might well have a 200 or 300 mb/s 5G connection, you are pulling 0.5mb/s or less through your laptop.
Which is absolutely infuriating and is done so Vodafone and EE can sell additional data connections.
If you are on Android, you can circumvent this, and get the full speed of your cellular connection for your iPad/laptop. Download an app called Every Proxy (and turn HTTP proxying on). You then need to toggle proxying on in Network Settings. And - tada - you now get 300mb/s on your laptop/tablet.
Sadly, I don't think this works on iPhones. (Although it works with my Macbook connected to my Android phone, obviously.)
1) I'm reliant on other people's computers for the continued existence of my photos. I'm uncomfortable enough relying on the continued currency of my own tech in order to have access to my photos. Companies don't exist indefinitely.
2) £2.49 is good value, but this model of capitalism is highly irritating. I want to own the stuff I own, not to have to pay out a series of subscriptions to have access to my own stuff. At the other end of the scale, cars are going the same way.
This is the Davos argument from about ten years ago: "You will own nothing. And you will be happy." Well, I'm not. I want to own the stuff I own. I don't want to rent everything.
New Thread
But the same is not necessarily true of the small towns of the North West.
Unfortunately Google has stopped Android 11 suppport after only 3 years and later versions are hard to backport on to old phones as various bits of hardware support have been removed.
All very annoying as the phone is perfectly functional for everything I do with it.
I hate this trend of making stuff obsolete before its time. Coming to a car near you soon...