Spell Cheque
Posted: Fri 2 May, 2008 Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Thoughts 1 Comment »I’ve just had an email from an agency (that will remain nameless) describing…
This highly sort-after role
Of course, you know what they mean is sought-after , but that’s the joy of spell-checkers.
Maybe when someone writes a spell-checker that can work semantically from the words around it, and understands phonemes and the like, we might get somewhere closer. Thing is, that’d involve lots of AI, fuzzy logic, and nightmarish rule structures.
Or just, you know, education.
Taste vs. Sense
Posted: Thu 1 May, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic 2 Comments »In the morning, I usually have a glass of orange juice. (Exciting, huh?) It’s just one of the things The other day, while shopping, I saw a ‘new’ fruit juice variety. Orange and Banana.
Now, my brain went “Oh god, that sounds revolting” and my taste buds responded “Yeah, probably. But I still want to try it. It sounds foul, but they wouldn’t be selling it if it were that bad, so maybe it works”. And so I bought it.
And Oh My God, it really is fucking revolting. I’m all for new experiences and new tastes, but this one is just utterly abysmal. It takes the sharpness of the oranges and that cloying overarching taste of banana. And even worse is the texture – it’s like a smoothie drink, almost velvety in texture, like drinking crushed velvet.
Never, ever again will I buy this muck. But at least I now know for sure that it’s fucking disgusting, rather than just expecting it to be.
Offensive
Posted: Wed 30 April, 2008 Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Thoughts Leave a comment »The BBC has a piece today about 2007’s most offensive adverts (in this case ‘most offensive’ equals ‘most complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority’).
What I find interesting is that out of the ten cases, in only three and a half (one ad had ‘some complaints upheld’) cases did the complaints actually come to anything. Which is only something like a 37.5% of complaints are upheld.
Mind you, I didn’t think most of the adverts were offensive, so I can understand that, too.
Ah well.
On Off On Off
Posted: Wed 30 April, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Driving, Weirdness 6 Comments »Out of interest, has there been a law change that I’m unaware of? Is it now illegal to use indicators while driving?
I only ask because today in my forty mile drive to work (at least 75% of which is on dual carriageways) not one driver indicated before:
- Pulling out in front of me
- Pulling back in to the inside lane
- Leaving the dual carriageway
- Getting on to the dual carriageway
or - Going round a roundabout
So it’s become illegal, right?
147
Posted: Tue 29 April, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Thoughts Leave a comment »I managed to see Ronnie O’Sullivan’s latest 147 break (on TV, obviously, rather than ‘live’) last night, and I do think it’s a joy to watch when someone is that on form. The entire frame was just about perfect.
But it also annoys me – because O’Sullivan really is a stunning player when he’s on form, but when he’s not on form he’s a spoilt brat who storms off in temper tantrums, ‘retires’ on a regular basis, and really is just a pain in the arse.
I know there’s all the clichés about ‘fine line between genius and madness’ and so on, but still, I just wish he’d be more stable when he’s on a bad streak, and use that amazing talent to come back from bad streaks rather than succumbing to them.
Still, it was a fantastic frame, and a pretty stunning way to end a match, too. (I would think that the £157,000 prize for a 147 break came through as a pretty good motivator as well, of course.) I think O’Sullivan’s a fantastic player – I’d just prefer it if he also wasn’t quite such a complete cock.
Slow Mover
Posted: Wed 23 April, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Driving 3 Comments »Ok, if you’re in a car on a dual-carriageway or motorway, and you keep on being overtaken by trucks and coaches, wouldn’t you think that just maybe it’s time to speed up a bit?
Water Shortage
Posted: Tue 22 April, 2008 Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Health 7 Comments »Since last Thursday, we’ve been unable to use our mains water.
About a year ago (apparently) one of the people on our road had an oil delivery, and some amount of oil spilled/leaked into the ground. Since then, Anglian Water have occasionally been testing the water supply there, and the diesel has now leaked into the pipes. (Apparently, in a fit of genius, the blue plastic pipes used for the supply of clean mains water are permeable to diesel oil. Which fucking Mensa member came up with that one, particularly for an area where every house has oil central heating?) Therefore, it’s now contaminated for everyone on our road – which admittedly only runs to about eight houses. We can use it for washing and so on, but we can’t use it for drinking, cooking, giving to animals, etc. etc. In short, it’s unfit for consumption.
So since Thursday, Anglian Water have been keeping on checking the contamination levels, and supplying all the houses on our road with bottled water.
Yesterday (Monday) they confirmed that the entire of the water main for our road is going to need to be replaced, which might happen next week. And even then we can’t go back to using the mains water until it’s been repeatedly tested. And I bet they replace the pipe with another blue-plastic one that the diesel oil will eventually seep into as well.
So with luck, we’ll be back on mains water in a couple of weeks time. And until then, Anglian Water will keep on supplying us with bottled water.
Surely it would’ve made far more sense (financially, practically, and from the perspective of customer services) to replace the pipe with a non-permeable version a year ago when the leak/spillage originally occurred, spend a day or two doing it, and have no further issues, rather than the farce of sending someone out to check it every so often for a year, then have to supply eight houses with bottled water for a fortnight while they finally get round to repairing/replacing it?