[subego]

Originally Posted by subego 

It’s taking 12 minutes for the Google server I’m renting to write 100MB worth of PNGs to my Google drive.

Got this back down to two minutes at least. Folder had too many files in it.

[subego]

Bea Arthur was only three or four years older than me when she did the Star Wars Holiday Special.

Minor irritant: when I tried to share the implications of this with my therapist he says “who?”

[ghporter]

Not the most sensitive thing for a therapist to say…

My minor irritant today: my programmable thermostat does a great job of keeping things between the temperature bounds I have set. Except there’s no way for the thing to understand “it feels a LOT cooler than 68F in here”, so I had to adjust a bit today.

Note that it is NOT “cold” here. It’s 55F on my porch right now, and this Midwest-bred boy has (recently) done 45+ minute workouts outside in shorts in such temperatures. And unlike Tuesday, it’s not raining, not even humid.

But dang it, it feels cold. Indoors, even. Quite irritating.

[reader50]

Low humidity makes things feel cooler. Just like high humidity makes everything worse on a hot day.

Try boiling a pot of water on the stove. Might work better than dialing up the thermostat.

[Laminar]

Someone else try this to see if it's just me - go to Amazon and search "Nanoleaf A19" and INCLUDE THE QUOTES.

What I see is 2 rows (10 items) of sponsored results that aren't the Nanoleaf A19. Then an ad for Philips Hue bulbs. And that's it. No other results.

If you search without the quotes, the first result is the Nanoleaf A19 bulb. And then two total pages of competing products and unrelated Nanoleaf items. Nowhere in any of the search results does the Nanoleaf A19 three pack show up. If I search "Nanoleaf A19 3 pack" without the quotes, it shows me the 3 pack.

1. Why does using quotes show only competitor products? It very very clearly knows what I'm looking for, because it shows me exact match products, just from competitors.
2. Why does not using quotes not show me all results for that search? If I'm looking for the A19, why not show me all options or varieties of A19?

Is this just Amazon optimizing search results to maximize profit, and the A19 is less profitable or part of their ecosystem, so they do everything they can to get me to buy something different?

[subego]

I get the same results.

My guess with the first is “nanoleaf” and “A19” don’t exist next to each other on Amazon. That’s what’s searched for if they’re both in the same quote block. If I try “nanoleaf” “A19” I get the three-pack as the first hit after the two sponsored hits.

[Laminar]

The part that makes me grumpy is when it's in quotes, it very obviously knows what a Nanoleaf A19 bulb is, because it shows me all sorts of other RGB A19 bulbs, but specifically no Nanoleafs.

I yearn for the time when a search engine would show me 0 results.

[reader50]

A19 is the bulb shape & size - most standard bulbs will have A19 somewhere in the specs. As it's not a product model number, subego is right. It's highly unlikely the phrase "Nanoleaf A19" matches anything, so Amazon is presenting soft matches. With a priority to sponsored products.

As both versions of the search term resolve to soft matches, I agree they should yield the same results.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by reader50 

With a priority to sponsored products.

Not priority, exclusivity. If I search for "A19," I get primarily white/clear bulbs. If I search "Nanoleaf A19" I get primarily RGB bulbs, so they know what I want, but they refuse to show it to me. They didn't just show me sponsored products first, they didn't show me what I wanted at all.

While I'm being crotchety and complainy, I'm trying to find pictures of F-150 beds with the tie-down cleats ripped out. I tried a few different phrases, but the one that finally got me a result was an image search for "f150 rip tiedown anchor broken." Among the 50-60 results that were just products I could buy, there was a single picture of a tiedown with a busted bolt. I scrolled a bit and then Google told me there were more results but they were hidden because they probably weren't helpful. I told them to show me more anyway, and up popped A SECOND INSTANCE OF A TIEDOWN BEING RIPPED OUT. Like...my actual desired results were out there but you had to show me 60 different kinds of tiedowns that I could buy.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

I yearn for the time when a search engine would show me 0 results.

That’s what all sponsored results is. If Nanoleaf wants in there they gotta pay for it.

[reader50]

When I'm ready to buy something on Amazon (not just window-shopping), if it's Sponsored, I often scroll past the sponsored listing to the regular listing of the same item. The idea being to demonetize the sponsorship practice. If stores stop paying because it stops working, Amazon will eventually give it up. Or play enough dirty tricks to draw regulator attention.

In practice, I don't always remember to do this. So my personal messaging is mixed, and I expect most people don't even think of this. Or would see the point.

[subego]

I do the same thing with the same reasoning. Likewise with Google.

[Thorzdad]

I got a couple of flannel shirts for xmas. I like them, but they’re cut really oddly. There’s a ton of extra fabric under the arms that, when I lift my arms, kind of make me look like a flying squirrel. It’s like the shirts were made for the three or four dudes who live at the gym and have arms the size of most peoples’ thighs. Alas, they will be returned.

Also, the shirts were the same brand as a few that I already have and wear constantly. But, the quality is so different. The fabric of the old shirts are nice and semi-substantial, while these new shirts are made of a noticeably thinner material. Also, the new shirts shrank a lot more in one wash than the old shirts have over a couple of years of washes. Unfortunately, the shrinking was entirely in length, making the “flying squirrel” effect even boxier.

[ghporter]

While we’re talking about Amazon and searching for things thereon, looking for hardware, such as specialty fasteners, is super frustrating.

I recently went looking for shoulder bolts. Here’s a picture of what I’m talking about:


When you look for this sort of thing on Amazon, it usually sends you to the “Industrial Scientific” section, and there’s even a search tool for fasteners that lets you specify type, size, and so on. That tool is either stupid of evil. WHY does it change what bolt head style it looks for just because you change thread sizes? Sure, it could be that they don’t have listings for that thread size with the head style you want, but instead of just showing “nothing”, it decides suddenly the thread size is your priority…. grr.

[Brien]

For anything screw-ish, McMaster-Carr.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Agreed. McMaster has been great for me.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

Amazon

Oh! I forgot to mention. It’s an imperfect solution, but I’ve been making more and more use of brand stores on Amazon to get around the sponsored bullshit.

[Brien]

Is it me or is the upselling in Amazon getting worse? I had to click past multiple “wait, there’s more!” pages to place an order today.

[Laminar]

It got worse for me after I ditched Prime. Every purchase requires laser focus on NOT accidentally subscribing to Prime, but also NOT leaving the default paid shipping option selected and going to the free (but NOT Prime trial) shipping.

I managed only 25 Amazon orders this year, and probably only 2-3 of them are things I could have found locally (books) but chose not to. Shooting for even fewer this year!

My bulbs showed up this weekend, we're officially an Alexa-free house. I'm working on getting my automations set back up. First irritant - Siri likes to verbally confirm things, and that's maybe not something that can be turned off.

[OAW]

Amazon search is plain horrible at this point. I refuse to click on any Sponsored Ad on general principle. Even if it's what I'm looking for. And the listings are just .... bad. Even when it comes to tech and electronics Amazon is essentially a giant online flea market at this stage in the game.

OAW

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Brien 

For anything screw-ish, McMaster-Carr.

Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton 

Agreed. McMaster has been great for me.

Absolutely. Except that I have an Amazon Prime account and that quick, free shipping has an appeal. I usually wait to order from McM until I have several things I need from them to spread out the shipping cost.

[reader50]

Using my VPN on the Miami server is getting me Dutch ads again. Last time I got Dutch was the Chicago server.

Anyway, you know how you sometimes pick out a "valid" word in a foreign language steam? I had that happen yesterday.

New word: Underscum. Neighborhood lowlifes who are even lower than average. I need to work it into conversations somehow - it's too cool to let it slip away.

[ghporter]

Somehow “underscum” feels like the scum that “better” scum looks down on. Not underdogs, more like “you can’t join our scum club because you can’t even be scummy right.”

[subego]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

I managed only 25 Amazon orders this year, and probably only 2-3 of them are things I could have found locally (books) but chose not to.

For me, 368 orders in 2023.

[reader50]

52 Amazon orders in 2023. However I also place orders for elderly friends who don't trust online ordering and/or credit cards. My real total is around 40 orders. I've been pushing more orders to eBay.

And yes, I've also noticed the Amazon games with the shipping selectors, trying to push Prime. They even got me once - but you have to confirm the choice. With no obvious option to back out, I closed the page/session. Reopen Amazon, go to Cart, proceed more carefully.

[subego]

I order enough it obviously makes sense for me to have Prime, so at least I don’t get dicked around with shipping.

[andi*pandi]

I have prime. But I don't always need the items asap, so I use it to farm movie and audio credits I forget to use. Amazon: Congrats you have credits! (hides them someplace in my account)

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

My bulbs showed up this weekend, we're officially an Alexa-free house. I'm working on getting my automations set back up. First irritant - Siri likes to verbally confirm things, and that's maybe not something that can be turned off.

Siri will confirm a Scene change with just a "boop," but if you ask her to turn off a room she'll confirm verbally.

Also two of the Homepods seems to be stuck together. I have a scene in the morning that plays music through both of them when it's time to leave for the school bus. But apparently the next time I try to play music downstairs it plays upstairs as well even though they're not supposed to be paired still. And last night around 9:30pm they both randomly resumed playing what I had been listening to while making dinner.

[ghporter]

I had about 130 Amazon orders - I don’t know how many my wife did. Which brings up a real irritant for me related to Amazon.

We have an older “smart” TV but don’t use any of its “smart” features. Instead we have a Fire TV Stick 4k Max. The irritant is that Sirius XM updated their app for Fire TV in December. Aesthetically it doesn’t suck, but for some reason it also “goes to sleep” after 20 minutes of play. I haven’t tried running other stuff while listening to Sirius XM, because that’s not how we listen. Since Fire TV runs an Amazon flavor of Android, and an earlier version of their app for Android phones did the same thing, I kinda think there are some guilty coders out there. I pay for the privilege of streaming their music, and I pay for Internet service, so I’d think they could at least not shut me down on some kind of schedule…

[Doc HM]

Minor? maybe.
Boxing Day was in London to see the family. Aware of the recent enlargement of the ULEZ zone I googled to see it it applied to Boxing Day (car is not ULEZ compliant).
First result back from google...

"As well as ULEZ and LEZ charges, you may also need to pay the Congestion Charge. The Congestion Charge operates 07:00-18:00 Mon-Fri, 12:00-18:00 Sat-Sun and bank holidays. No charge between Christmas Day and New Year's Day bank holiday (inclusive)."

Mistakenly I did not read further as the actual pages clearly states that the charge IS payable on Boxing Day.

One £90 fine later for not paying the £12.50 in time. Grrrr

[subego]

That’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone.

[ghporter]

Thanks for translating, subego. One not always minor irritant for me is sprinkling one’s speech with jargon that isn’t explained or easily looked up. To be clear, Doc’s was not this kind of jargon.

Through numerous professions I have collected a slew of acronyms, initialisms, and jargon, much of which can have different meanings in different contexts. For example, LOA might mean Letter of Agreement, Leave of Absence or Level of Acuity. This one can be pretty easy; if I’m in a clinical setting it’s gotta be the last one. Like AKA, which does not mean “Also Known As” in rehab, it means “Above the Knee Amputation”.

But when someone starts chattering with jargon and more than a few initialisms without the context being obvious, it feels like they’re trying to seem more elite or learned or whatever. For the record, I have not yielded to the temptation to overwhelm such individuals with my own jargon and code phrases. Not that I haven’t thunk it…

[subego]

In film lighting, “hang the Baby, kill the Midget, and have two blondes on standby for the martini” is the standard jargon joke.

A “Baby” is a 1000W light with a fresnel lens, a “Midget” is a 300W fresnel, and a “blonde” is a 2000W light with no lens. The 1000W no-lens model is a “redhead”. “Baby” and “Midget” are the model names from a big brand, while “blonde” (yellow) and “redhead” (red) denote the colors those type of lights are traditionally painted.

The “martini” is the last shot of the day.

The “Abby Singer” is the second-to-last shot, because that particular Assistant Director had a reputation for adding a shot after declaring the martini. I’ve had this happen many times. It’s really obnoxious.

[ghporter]

That’s both interesting and decidedly IN context. If you know who the grip is, jargon for those lights is just something he or she tosses around for the light crew, like gobos, snoots and barn doors. (My original “wanna be” career was in cinematography.)

[subego]

If we want to dive deeper into jargon, what I mentioned above is all officially “Electric”, while “Grip” is external light control and rigging. The poetic job descriptions are Electric is light, Grip is shadow.

Even though they’re for light control, snoots and barn-doors would be Electric, because they attach directly to a light fixture. A gobo would be grip because it’s not attached.

That said, people on smaller projects almost always pull double-duty, and it gets galled “Grip-Electric”.

I’m a good Electric but only a so-so Grip.

[Laminar]

There must have been some kind of coordinated attack, because I've seen at least 9 of these posts today from a bunch of different friends. A friend of theirs will do the "I can't believe he's gone" and tag a bunch of people. I haven't clicked the link but I don't really care where it goes.

These are so stupid and it's so easy to tell it's fake and facebook shows me so few actual things, why are these specific posts what I see nine times in a day?

[Laminar]

I scrolled for another minute and found four more.

[andi*pandi]

I'm seeing a lot of this too. I think it starts when someone is hacked or their page is cloned then all the friends are tagged. :/ I report it but fat lot of good that does.

[subego]

I’m curious what the angle is.

[subego]

@Lam,

How are the Nanoleafs? I have a friend who needs smart lighting and I’m only familiar with Hue.

[andi*pandi]

Originally Posted by subego 

I’m curious what the angle is.

I'm sure if someone clicked the link there'd be a happy bot there to harvest all kinds of info or sell you an amazing house for only $500 per month.

[subego]

Bot makes more sense to me. I figure using this as an opening gambit for a sales pitch would even put-off morons.

[Laminar]

Apparently it takes you to a real-looking news site and asks you to log in, so it's probably a basic phishing scheme.

https://www.verifythis.com/article/n...3-c797f99f3e05

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by subego 

If we want to dive deeper into jargon, what I mentioned above is all officially “Electric”, while “Grip” is external light control and rigging. The poetic job descriptions are Electric is light, Grip is shadow.

Even though they’re for light control, snoots and barn-doors would be Electric, because they attach directly to a light fixture. A gobo would be grip because it’s not attached.

That said, people on smaller projects almost always pull double-duty, and it gets galled “Grip-Electric”.

I’m a good Electric but only a so-so Grip.

In high school theater (and little theater in general) there is little difference and enough overlap that "the light folks" are just "the light folks."

In the Minor Pleasure thread, discussion included how the Magic Mouse was wonderful, etc. This brings up how "not-wonderful" switching between different computers can be.

Lately I've been using: two Linux machines, two MBPs (an i3 and my new M2), and my Dell Windows 10 laptop. It's bad enough that I have to shift mental gears between "Command" and "Control" keys when shifting between Mac and "not Mac", but the Windows laptop's trackpad likes touch-taps and not serious clicks, while my MBPs need a firmer tap, and feature force sensing... So doing one thing I need to tap-then-drag with the Windows machine, but "light-drag" with the MBPs. Annoying to say the least.

[Thorzdad]

So, today, Gmail required Thunderbird to re-send (not re-set) my password to one of my accounts, which included clicking a box and giving Thunderbird permission to access my Gmail account once again. Now, every time Thunderbird hits Gmail for any new mail (and, I assume, to send mail) Gmail generates a security alert about a "new login" and send it to both that account and the designated recovery account.

Jesus fuck Google.

[subego]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Magic Mouse

Oh gawd. I hate these things. I always get mistaken inputs on the top and they don’t work with MouseRugs.

Also, something, something, charging port.

The hockey puck was better.

[ghporter]

Thorz, I’ve had a different issue with Gmail. Mail seems to “forget” the login for one of my (several) accounts. Just one specific one. Most of the time I just enter the password and go forward, but recently it happened three times within as many days, so I changed the password from a “fair strength” password to a real b!tch. Long, complex, lots of entropy, and generated by (and thus remembered by) my password manager. Suddenly the issues with Mail needing me to supply my password went away, so I wonder whether this was Mail, Google, or someone messing with MY email.

And every time I have gone through the “provide your password” bit, Google tells me about a “new login from a Mac in Texas!!111!! OMGG!”. OK, I exaggerated the exclamation points and the OMG part, but I’ve been connecting the same Mac to Gmail for this account for a long time. Really?

Related: some bloke in the UK has been using a different one of MY email addresses to sign up for “chat with girls” sites. I get the “confirm your email” messages, so I go to the site, change the password then change the email address too. It makes me wish I could see his face when he can’t log in, and can’t reset the password. Especially since these sites seem to cost money.

subego, my Magic Mouse takes two AA batteries, and I bought Apple’s charger with multiple batteries just for that. The battery door likes to not-quite lock in sometimes, but otherwise it’s great. And I have always used neoprene mousepads so I don’t know about rugs. But honestly, I prefer my new-ish Logi Pebl mouse to my Magic Mouse (and not just because its battery cover doesn’t fall off. It fits my hand better, among other things.

[reader50]

Glenn, it sounds like one or more of your email boxes was compromised. Someone signing up to a girls site with your email pretty much says they had access to your emails. And a site repeatedly asking for your password can happen if they see logins alternating between Texas and Nigeria. So updating your pass on the email box locked out the imposter. No more logins alternating between countries, so no more password demands.

You can check if your email addresses have been sold online at Have I Been Pwned?, and you can sign up for free notification should one of your email addresses be pwned in the future.

[Thorzdad]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

And every time I have gone through the “provide your password” bit, Google tells me about a “new login from a Mac in Texas!!111!! OMGG!”. OK, I exaggerated the exclamation points and the OMG part, but I’ve been connecting the same Mac to Gmail for this account for a long time. Really?

Every so often, I have need to go to the actual Gmail website (usually to mark some mail that slipped through as spam) and doing that always generates security warnings about a login from an unknown Mac in Indiana. Then, clicking “yes, that was me” gets me a Welcome to Gmail on your new Apple device (or some such wording) mail. It’s maddening. It’s as if Google has never heard of cookies or something.

[subego]

Want to watch The World at War with my dad. 20+ hour WWII documentary from the 70s. Supposedly one of the best.

Here are the options:





The second is restored, 1080, and has subtitles, which my dad likes.

The second is clearly the way to go, but what on God’s green earth compelled them to crop it?