Posts by paduan 9 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Jun 2020
I'm not even remotely a socialist (never voted left of centre in my life) but it's strange how a lot of what was instituted by said socialists in the 5 years after WW2 stuck, not least the concept of free healthcare regardless of income or status. How's that working out in the good ol' US of A?
I consider myself relatively immune to advertising - it's vanishingly rare that I'll actually click on an advert - but that's because I'm a stubborn as a mule old(ish) fart these days and I already know what I like and what I don't like, so advertising has little impact on me. Nonetheless, I'm as happy as happy can be that Apple wants to stymie the incessant vacuuming up of personal data by organisations such as Facebook. Cambridge Analytica showed just how, in unscrupulous hands, this sort of data can be used to manipulate people when you know exactly who it is that you’re manipulating. Apple, while very (VERY!) good at making money, does so the old fashioned way: by making products and linked services that are good enough to promote brand loyalty (or at least tie-in). They don’t need to manipulate people into buying stuff. You might say they’re actually a very old fashioned sort of company at least as far as ethical behaviour is concerned. I suspect Facebook's ad may turn out to be more of a Facepalm.
This reminds me about the 'we're conducting a survey' calls my late father used to get. When he moved in next door to me I rigged his house up to my second line (a hangover from when I used to need a fax machine that I'd never got round to cancelling) and for several years he blundered around the internet giving away the phone number to all and sundry. I only discovered this after he died when I put a receiver on the socket so I could field calls from suppliers and suchlike. After a while the scammers called asking for him by name... so I politely informed them that he had expired two weeks previously... whereupon they rather insensitively continued their spiel rather than apologise and ring off. This made me see red. Infra red. Volcanically infra red. I'm not sure that I've ever used more swear words in such a short space of time... and most amazingly, after insulting the parentage of one such caller and slamming the phone down, he rang back to insult me. My dander being somewhat elevated, I took it as a challenge. He rang back three times before giving up. I let off so much steam that day.
I love these scam calls. I consider it my civic duty to waste as much of their time as possible. I've had the 'We're from Microsoft' call more than a few times and kept them on the line for upwards of half an hour (I do a really good 'old man' voice, which is getting more and more genuine, sadly) and then when I get bored or they get dangerously close to doing something, well, dangerous, I drop the 30 years in IT hammer on them and exhort them to procreate with the nearest goat.
Then there's the 'accident that wasn't your fault' calls. You have to con the voice recognition system first before you get a human to abuse. Civic duty again there too...
And only the other day I had 'Carphone Warehouse' calling me. On a number that Carphone Warehouse definitely don't have. Transctipt:
Him. Hi. I'm calling you from Carphone Warehouse.
Me. [after a bit of spiel] Do you know my name?
Him. I don't need to know your name. The government has given me your number.
Me. [slightly surprised at the brazenness] The government hasn't given me your number. That would be illegal.
Him. [getting flustered] Yes they did. They gave me your number.
Me. I *work* for the government.
Him. *crickets*
Bastards.
The architect of the Milan station was apparently somewhat enamoured of a certain Italian dictator who had a penchant for statement architecture that sang the praises of his political opinions.
The station's architect is by no means as infamous as Albert Speer (obviously, in that his name escaped me only moments after it was mentioned on the documentary), but clearly there were similarities in style and purpose.
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