Due mainly to Coronavirus I haven't been back to the UK in four years. This time I have three profound changes to report.
The first is that almost every single tourist attraction is selling tickets in 15 minute increments. I'm sure this is pandemic related and maybe it will eventually go away. I'm also used to buying in advance to save some money (sound marketing so I don't get distracted and do something else). I'm also used to everything being part of a network of that place and 100 other places you're not going to visit, so you're constantly being seduced by an English Heritage membership but the next place you go will be British Legacy and then Angligan Birthright and so on until you have no more money.
The problem with 15 minutes is that it's a hard window to hit and so you end up arriving an hour early and then being bored waiting for your slot. And then if you have the temerity to try and do two things in one day, when do you book the next one for? You're either not doing justice to the first one or you're early again and bored waiting twice in one day. And it's not like your 15 minute window isn't shared with 1,000,000 other people who are coughing and not wearing a mask. This made everything 10% less pleasant.
Second up, and maybe also a pandemic thing, all payments are now contactless. Buskers have contactless terminals. Random statues do. Ice cream vans invite you to tap and pay and hope it's configured for £2 and not £2000. Usually one of the first things I need to do in the UK is hunt down a cash machine. This trip I think I only needed cash once. I love it.
Finally, people can't drive any more. Actually my theory is that they never could but a simple change has revealed something profound about motorway (freeway) behavior. I've always had a smug sense that British people drive better than Americans because when working properly a British motorway is a ballet of people overtaking and then moving over whereas an American Freeway is usually people picking a random lane and speed and sticking with it. However, motorways are usually 3 lanes and freeways usually somewhere between 4 and 500. Something magical happens between 3 and 4. With 3 lanes you're always going to have someone overtaking a truck, and then someone else overtaking that truck overtaker and the whole system is going to break down without some consideration. With 4 lanes this no longer holds true and people stop caring about each other. The UK has now widely installed 4 lane 'smart' motorways and chaos has ensued. They should go back to 3 lanes and the US should follow suit.
In case you have never encountered a smart motorway it's a regular one with the shoulder/breakdown lane converted into a traffic lane and a series of signs that say 'slow down', 'seriously slow down something has happened', 'you're going to die a horrible death if you ignore this' and then finally 'never mind, sorry'. What you actually need is 3 lanes, some attention to other people and Google Maps to show you when and where there is an actual problem with traffic.
This is a longer than usual installment of my culture shock on occasionally visiting the UK after having lived in San Francisco for over twenty years. See sweeteners and the Marks & Spencer crisis for more.
(Published to the Fediverse as:
15 minutes of terror, or how the UK has changed in four years #etc#uk#coronavirus#motorway Contactless payments, 15 minute admission windows, and worse driving - how the UK has changed in the last four years (2022 edition).)
The new settings interface is beautiful but untouched by any thought for how you might use it.
Like many people I have some bluetooth headphones that have an affinity for the last device they were connected to. Sometimes my laptop and sometimes my phone. I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm not unique in needing to switch the connection when needed.
On Android this involves a swipe, a long press and a short press. Not my favorite chore but not the end of the word.
With Windows 11 it's an adventure. I need to click the little up arrow to expand my collection of notification icons (yes, I could change that, but even that has got more tedious) and then double click the bluetooth icon. And then there is my device, with a pretty little icon and the last known (almost certainly wrong) battery level. Other than a random historical battery level there doesn't seem to be much to do. It turns out that you can click the tiny three dots at the far right of the device card and then finally there is a context menu that allows you to connect. The context menu has two items. This panel could have been 5% less attractive and 500% more usable with a couple of buttons. Also, would it be possible maybe to have this on the context menu for the taskbar icon?
(Published to the Fediverse as:
Windows 11 Bluetooth Usability Crime Report #etc#microsoft#bluetooth It takes far too many clicks to connect a bluetooth device to Windows 11, and the context menu to get there is nearly invisible.)
Super slow motion video of the One O'clock Gun firing at Edinburgh Castle. This is a 105mm field gun fired startlingly over Edinburgh every day except Sundays, Good Friday and Christmas Day.
(Published to the Fediverse as:
One O'clock Gun #etc#video#gun The One O'clock Gun firing in super slow motion at Edinburgh Castle. A 105mm field gun fired almost every day over Edinburgh.)
By Robert Ellison. Updated on Wednesday, November 8, 2023.
I could build this in about the same amount of time it's going to take to describe it (love you Google Apps Script) but I'm not quite evil enough.
A good chunk of my work day is deleting endless B2B spam from aggressive salespeople who are certain that I should check out their SAAS whatever and pay $25/user/month for something I could do with a wiki page. Outlook for some reason doesn't recognize this stuff as spam even if you block it. LinkedIn is built to distribute this. It would be great to make it more expensive, painful and humiliating for these people to spray and pray.
My idea: it's Calendly only evil.
You reply saying how excited you are and provide a link to schedule an appointment. This allows them to book a slot and sends them a meeting request and a Zoom link. When they join they're just connected to some number of other salespeople who booked that slot.
Extra credit: record the meetings and auto-post to YouTube and use the ad revenue to pay for hosting costs.
As usual any of my billionaire readers who want to back this should get in touch.
Updated 2023-11-08 00:28:
It's like someone at Google read this post because they're rolling out a Meet API that would solve for the extra credit part of this idea. I'm having a hard time not rolling up my sleeves and building it.
(Published to the Fediverse as:
Stamp out B2B spam with an evil calendar #etc#lazyweb#calendar A modest proposal for a service to randomly connect salespeople together on useless video calls to raise the cost of spraying us with endless spam.)
It used to be the case that this was safely subscribed in my podcast app (I use Podkicker Pro) and so each new episode would download to my feed when released.
The BBC has decided to fix the problem of me getting the program I want to listen to automatically and conveniently. If I want my comedy I have to install My Sounds. When Spotify tried this with Science Vs I just stopped listening. I have plenty of other science podcasts but The Now Show and the News Quiz are irreplaceable. So maybe I could cope with one walled garden.
My Sounds says it will notify you when new episodes are available. It does not.
My Sounds has a My Sounds tab which lists Latest programs. I'm writing this on April 2 and the most recent episode of Friday Night Comedy is from March 25.
Only if I go into Subscribed, and then the program page for Friday Night Comedy does it finally admit that there is an episode from April 1.
So I'm forced to install an app that not only fails to notify me of new episodes of subscribed programs but actively hides them in the basement behind a beware of the leopard sign. BBC, maybe get the app working before forcing me into it? I would rather pay to subscribe to an RSS feed than deal with My Sounds.
I'd take the time to leave a one star review, but in its infinite wisdom Google doesn't allow paying customers to leave app reviews.
Updated 2022-05-06 11:32:
Having been forced into the excreable BBC My Sounds at least it supports downloading an episode to listen to on the plane right?
Updated 2022-05-06 11:33:
Does it fuck. BBC, please fix this and then try asking nicely?
(Published to the Fediverse as:
BBC My Sounds, hiding podcasts behind a 'Beware of the Leopard' sign. #etc#bbc#radio4#google#podcast BBC My Sounds fails to send notifications, fails to have new episodes on the Latest My Sounds Page and is therefore the worst podcasting app ever. Thanks for forcing us to use it BBC.)
