Notices by Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK (vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de)

RE: https://mstdn.social/@990000/115993630141888644

what I don't understand, is if you are *already* going to the effort of writing a cron job and know how to do that in the first place, its surely easy enough to use it to trigger a console message or other notification to buy the milk (I'm sure there are even Linux apps which do reminders, I'm sure I've seen @gemlog with various ones on his terminal)

@gemlog this is another source of scraped wheels, roads are narrow and kerbs high here and I also had to avoid a van coming the other way on a tight turning due a diversion caused by roadworks (luckily it was the same wheel)

For all the faults of the current government, they do seem to have loosened the purse strings on road repair. Which added to the gas pipes being replaced and fibre optic cable means *all* the work is happening at once, you cannot drive more than 2km without encountering some sort of roadworks/diversion..

@gemlog where I live there's quite a lot of car enthusiasts (this area is physically large by the standards of England, sparsely populated and very car-dependent).

One of the local mechanics and used car dealers just built a sports car with colour coded anodised titanium bolts (which he is unsuprisingly going to mostly keep in his showroom and use occasionally rather than drive on the poor road surfaces here in Winter!)

The potholes and other surface defects are horrendous in England - I had to touch up the paint on one of my alloys due to clouting a kerb when dodging a particularly bad pothole (I didn't want to knacker the wheel bearing I only replaced last October, that is *not* a fun job on just axle stands and in winter!)

@gemlog that reminded me not to mislay a seal top plastic bag containing M5 x 12 coarse thread 7075 aluminium socket cap head red anodised bolts (which usually stays in the glove box of my car along with 4mm hex key, they are used to keep the centre caps of my alloy wheels), as I had taken it out earlier to show a work colleague what an anodised bolt looks like

I think I actually used that exact site when measuring the original (black steel) bolts to make sure I was ordering the right thing from up North..

@elithebearded @julf @thomasfuchs

You would have to download it in a suitable format and store it on your own SD-cards or other storage media, and keep an eye on these over the years. So not so different from the cassette, but with no generation loss and physically smaller (be careful not to mislay some smaller storage media!)

I have to do this anyway to listen to music in the car, as every streaming app and the navi sound announcements fight (the transition between the two is jarring to the point of being a distraction when driving), and the music apps randomly blare out the music from the phone loudspeaker at full volume when I leave the car (often late at night), but SD card playback works well (can't use USB as the socket is occupied by an Android Auto wifi converter)

@elithebearded @julf @thomasfuchs

you have to do the same with magnetic tape, which can degrade in various ways, although cassettes can hold up quite well if kept in good condition. vinyl records seem to be the most resilient media, but aren't that portable (I was a DJ during the 90s, and hauled around many boxes of them!)

@onepict @fasterandworse

I've never trusted Mozilla since they made the open statement a few years ago "the modern web is funded by advertising" without any apologies, which made it clear they weren't prepared to consider any alternatives to this (and were obviously going to facilitate adtech, as static ads on a site were rarely as much of an issue in previous decades)

@gemlog I've heard of people pay for groceries for others here, often for overwhelmed young mums who have forgot their bank card, or are struggling with kids, or seniors, in a supermarket its more difficult to do that "covertly" (in the way that seems more common in North America) due to the small size of checkouts here.

It can be done in drive-thru queues (as this lad in Northen England managed it) but these aren't as popular in UK (although they do exist, we even have Tim Hortons at the industrial estate near my work)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-54902008

@gemlog its been going on since late 1960s, as one of my motoring books, linked to a BBC Radio series from around 1967 also mentions interviews where the "average motorist" complains about government restrictions (around that time breathalysers and a 70mph speed limit were introduced).

The main cause is culturally many British folk simply don't see committing a traffic offence, even if it could cause harm to themselves and others, as "real crime" (compared to stealing stuff, starting a fight in the street, or taking hard drugs), and whenever a government starts introducing more road safety laws they feel persecuted (especially if it means they have to stop something they previously got away with)

@gemlog there isn't any - Sadiq was still a lawyer around the time the Blair government first started holding drivers to account more (as the UK roads were quite frankly lawless and in some cases actively dangerous), but since then Labour have been blamed for "targeting the motorist" for simply daring to enforce laws that were already on the statute books - and in doing so making UK roads over time some of the safest in the World..

The reality was that Blair staked his future on an ill-advised grab for oil in the Middle East which all went pear-shaped, hence why he's so determined to "rebuild" Gaza/Middle East these days, it seems like personal revenge for his defeat in the 2000s..

@gemlog it worked in Britain and Germany until the 1980s, and days of "greed is good".

I still remember in early 1990s London how there was no guarantee a driver would actually stop for a pedestrian even if you had a green man aspect - this only ceased in late 1990s when the signal heads gained IR detectors. Not because they made the traffic light timings that much different, but drivers thought these things were miniature CCTV cameras!

This is also why Sadiq Khan has to go around guarded by plainclothes MetPol officers (some of whom are armed) every time he is out in public in London, the drivers are *still* angry that their "freedom" has been "limited"

@gemlog I guess everyone is also more prepared to wait around for such things as lights to change? If we had kept those constant timer systems where I lived there would have been collisions as someone would have realised they could "get away" with running the lights in the evenings as the Police presence is near zero (although I checked the junction in question and its since gained a CCTV camera around 2015)

@gemlog we had systems like this in my old town (especially the outer suburban areas) until mid to late 1990s.

It may be the Japanese tolerate or actively encourage a slower pace or life in outer suburbs, whilst big cities and towns are much more high tech and faster moving (whereas here in Britain it seems pace of life everywhere has been accelerated, even in the rural areas )

@gemlog the tactile bits are also intended for people with limited eyesight.

These are similar to pedestrian crossings in London and other big towns/cities since 1980s - Japan has left hand traffic like UK and there has been some co-working on urban planning and traffic infrastructure over the decades.

Although both UK and JP have added demand buttons to crossings in busier areas.

It may be the case induction loops are better hidden, or the Japanese use IR detectors and discreet cameras to monitor traffic flows (which is also happening over here and across the North Sea in the Netherlands)

https://www.kyosan.co.jp/english/product/traffic_control.html

This is bad - its not even that the #Police have been sitting on their arses in #Sheffield but they have lost a local officer who kept an eye on the streets, and there seems to be a repeating problem with angry men across this part of #Yorkshire deliberately intimidating female owners of "woke" businesses (I suspect either they daren't target the shops run by Desi lads who will fight their corner, or these shops have already been priced out of the market in that street?)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdx4rk5zy37o

Snagged one (1) #Filofax from 1987, less common Wellington which as name suggests is made from a rubber type material rather than #vinyl / #leather - when I saw it was red and black I had to get it as it matches the colour of my car - and I wanted it to store my car maintenance log / petrol diary (I'm keeping my Winchester for other day to day notes and plans as its been with me since 1992 when I got it at a reduced price from some random shop in Reading)

It came with 2004/2005 diaries, old Tube/Underground map (still showing Surrey Quays as Surrey Docks and missing the DLR!) and a ratty set of dividers, and needed a bit of cleaning

#1980s #vintage #reuse

@Lazarou sometimes its worse than that and they *do* sacrifice their own children (I noticed this when studying military history of WW2 and its linked to the "full quiver" thing the Christian theocrats do where they force their wives to have as many kids as possible as they know they are going to lose a few fighting their "holy wars" (although reality in USA is its just due to lack of healthcare, too many guns and poor attitudes to road safety)

There is a risk that govts are more devious and don't directly introduce conscription (the Council of Europe discourages it) but create economic situations where its more attractive for lower income youths to sign up as all the entry level jobs they would othewise get are gone..

@gemlog thats exactly all I've ever had from psilocybin mushrooms (which grew everywhere in England but are rarer now in the wild due to overharvesting, once teenagers heard about them via the Internet nearly every field got picked bare and in popular places it wrecked the mycelium)

The situations way more complex than just a "debate". Psilocybin clearly has benefits for mental health treatment - but taking it off class A schedule 1 creates obvious #security risks of #diversion - especially with the #NHS being on the ropes and a lot of disgruntled staff with low morale.

There have also already been quite a few private #pharmacists nicked and struck off for diversion and/or loose prescription of other #ControlledDrugs

This needs to be addressed before any change to #drugs laws (or even if they do happen, healthcare professionals are going to be too wary of prescribing the stuff anyway for fear of making a career-limiting move or even getting in legal trouble), this is already affecting #ADHD patients who could benefit from #amfetamines

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg936l88e7o

@gemlog @sb

it was only popular in some countries which were early adopters of analogue cable networks - elsewhere by the time cable arrived, broadband over DOCSIS also followed fairly soon after, making it pointless going to this effort when by 2001 onwards DIY streaming radio and video was already possible and 100% legal (although it wasn't officially permitted to run a server on a cable network, it was a civil condition rather than criminal law and never seemed to get enforced anyway)