Grumble Thread

[smittims]

If it's bad for sceptics like us., how much worse are the many gullible people being deluded who believe everything they see on the screen?

I heard a discussion on Radio 4 with an entrepreneur who had developled and marketed a new product. After initial success they found that unauthorised sites were hi-jacking their product, claiming to offer it cheaper,etc.

I know the internet is very useful. I've come to use it quite a lot. But I still believe it's a mixed blessing and eventually sowthing drastic will have to be done about it , after, of course, TV documentaries asking 'how did we allow it to happen?' .

[Old Grumpy]

If it's bad for sceptics like us., how much worse are the many gullible people being deluded who believe everything they see on the screen?

I heard a discussion on Radio 4 with an entrepreneur who had developled and marketed a new product. After initial success they found that unauthorised sites were hi-jacking their product, claiming to offer it cheaper,etc.

I know the internet is very useful. I've come to use it quite a lot. But I still believe it's a mixed blessing and eventually sowthing drastic will have to be done about it , after, of course, TV documentaries asking 'how did we allow it to happen?' .

Ah, but we've got to keep documentary makers (and for that matter PhD students) in business, haven't we?

[teamsaint]

If it's bad for sceptics like us., how much worse are the many gullible people being deluded who believe everything they see on the screen?

I heard a discussion on Radio 4 with an entrepreneur who had developled and marketed a new product. After initial success they found that unauthorised sites were hi-jacking their product, claiming to offer it cheaper,etc.

I know the internet is very useful. I've come to use it quite a lot. But I still believe it's a mixed blessing and eventually sowthing drastic will have to be done about it , after, of course, TV documentaries asking 'how did we allow it to happen?' .

Interesting. Governments are already “ doing something”. They may not, in the end be things we are happy with.
it is a jungle to be sure, as local ransomware attacks demonstrate all too well.

[smittims]

Having heard about 'deep-fakes' today, where someone can (for instance) attach a picture of your face onto a video to make it look as if you're committting some disgusting crime, I'm thinking technology has created a monster. The difficulty is that one doesn't know where in the world the perpetrators are, nor how to tackle them.

[Old Grumpy]

Very worrying indeed, though I presume the police have access to technology to determine whether digital images have been tampered with.

[LMcD]

If it's bad for sceptics like us., how much worse are the many gullible people being deluded who believe everything they see on the screen?

I heard a discussion on Radio 4 with an entrepreneur who had developled and marketed a new product. After initial success they found that unauthorised sites were hi-jacking their product, claiming to offer it cheaper,etc.

I know the internet is very useful. I've come to use it quite a lot. But I still believe it's a mixed blessing and eventually sowthing drastic will have to be done about it , after, of course, TV documentaries asking 'how did we allow it to happen?' .

I've long considered the internet to be the ultimate two-edged sword.

[french frank]

I've long considered the internet to be the ultimate two-edged sword.

It's like junk food. The fact that people get addicted to anything is bad for health, mental health, social behaviour, social attitudes. These factors outweigh any possible benefits.

[Serial_Apologist]

It's like junk food. The fact that people get addicted to anything is bad for health, mental health, social behaviour, social attitudes. These factors outweigh any possible benefits.

I think that what I call "user nobbling" has more to do with the government not being particularly concerned about the technology's inability to distinguish harmful from helpful, because a lot of it will be companies using advertising to forage for new customers.

[smittims]

I agree with ff. This is why the ancient Athenians believed in a balanced life, a variety of activities. I'm reminded that Sir John Reith said it was as important to switch the wireless off as to switch it on. I imagne many today will be unable to understand that.

[smittims]

I was aghast (well, surprised) to see that the Citizens' Advice Bureau has rated Scottish Power the best of the larger companies for Customer Service. At least, that is what Scottish Power tell me ; but no-one cries 'stinking fish'.

After my recent experiences with them I wonder how bad the worst companies must be.


And another thing...


not so much a grumble as it didn't affect me personaly, but I think it rather shabby.

Buying oneof ALDI's delicious Melton Mowbray pies yesterday I found at least two lacking the bar-code sticker , wihthout which the pie will not be sold. It occurs to me that some malefactor, some ne'er-do-well, is removing these stickers and applying them to more expensive items to cheat the self-service till.

Is this a a consequence of the 'cost-of-living crisis'? Should we be tolerant, like a 19th-century landowner catching hungry poor children poaching his rabbits?

[Pulcinella]

Royal Mail is to be allowed to scrap deliveries for second-class letters on Saturdays and reduce the service to alternate weekdays under plans being put forward by the regulator Ofcom.

It strikes me as a very typical British disease to have devised a costly and complicated system in the first place, based on anticipated delivery (to say nothing of the size element).
So these letters have to be sorted in the office and deliberately delayed?
Where's the sense in that?

[Petrushka]

Royal Mail is to be allowed to scrap deliveries for second-class letters on Saturdays and reduce the service to alternate weekdays under plans being put forward by the regulator Ofcom.

It strikes me as a very typical British disease to have devised a costly and complicated system in the first place, based on anticipated delivery (to say nothing of the size element).
So these letters have to be sorted in the office and deliberately delayed?
Where's the sense in that?

But what letters are we talking about? I rarely get any these days, just the odd communication from officialdom, the inevitable bank statement, birthday and Christmas cards and that's it. The rest is junk which goes straight in bin. I suspect it's the same for nearly everyone.

So what are these millions of letters that Royal Mail can't deliver?

[oddoneout]

I was aghast (well, surprised) to see that the Citizens' Advice Bureau has rated Scottish Power the best of the larger companies for Customer Service. At least, that is what Scottish Power tell me ; but no-one cries 'stinking fish'.

After my recent experiences with them I wonder how bad the worst companies must be.


And another thing...


not so much a grumble as it didn't affect me personaly, but I think it rather shabby.

Buying oneof ALDI's delicious Melton Mowbray pies yesterday I found at least two lacking the bar-code sticker , wihthout which the pie will not be sold. It occurs to me that some malefactor, some ne'er-do-well, is removing these stickers and applying them to more expensive items to cheat the self-service till.

Is this a a consequence of the 'cost-of-living crisis'? Should we be tolerant, like a 19th-century landowner catching hungry poor children poaching his rabbits?

Re the Aldi pies, yes it might be a bit of bent activity. I came across something similar in Sainsbury's clothing dept a few years ago, where a reduced sticker from a genuine reduction had been put on another item. I hadn't encountered such behaviour before and so wasn't best pleased that the staff member I asked about it( I didn't think it was meant to be in the reductions section, but was interested in buying it) very evidently suspected me of label switching.
However another explanation in the Aldi case is production line fault - given how many millions of such items go through a production line at speed, labels running out, getting stuck to something else, or just not coming out of the applicator mechanism, can result in items going out missing them. My daughter worked on the logistics side for a soft drinks manufacturer many years ago and had tales to tell of when labelling didn't go as it was meant to.

[LMcD]

But what letters are we talking about? I rarely get any these days, just the odd communication from officialdom, the inevitable bank statement, birthday and Christmas cards and that's it. The rest is junk which goes straight in bin. I suspect it's the same for nearly everyone.

So what are these millions of letters that Royal Mail can't deliver?

Might 'alternate days' turn out to mean 'Tuesdays and Thursdays only' ?

[oddoneout]

But what letters are we talking about? I rarely get any these days, just the odd communication from officialdom, the inevitable bank statement, birthday and Christmas cards and that's it. The rest is junk which goes straight in bin. I suspect it's the same for nearly everyone.

So what are these millions of letters that Royal Mail can't deliver?

Perhaps not so much being snowed under with letters that they can't cope with as wanting to reduce costs as much as possible, ie cut staff to the minimum - makes the business more attractive to the prospective new owner. Much of their activity now is delivering packets and parcels and the letters get in the way of that( some of us might put that the other way round...) so as a diminishing part of the business are expendable. If it weren't for the junk mail business income that point might have been reached sooner?
My neighbour is a postie and her frustration at the chaotic working conditions and inadequate(to put it politely) management often gets her down, more so as a lot of it is unnecessary and preventable. The uncertainty about jobs doesn't help.