COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Tizer]

Yes, be careful what words you put into Google now - you might get something you didn't expect!

[Stanley]

That was always true Peter. My education has been advanced quite often by misspelling a search term......

[Tripps]

I got my water bill yesterday. The computer had obviously had what Stanley calls a "brain fart", as it said payment was due on May 4th 2024, and the date the direct debit was to be collected was blank.

I telephoned (a local phone number) and was connected immediately to an 'english as a first language' (male) advisor who agreed it wasn't right, and said he would correct it, and send out a fresh bill.

The corrected bill arived by Royal Mail this morning. So - about 20 hours to admit and fully correct their error. I'm claiming this as a record for a public body. Well done Cambridge Water, and Royal Mail.

[Stanley]

And any reasonable person would agree with you David. The most significant item in the affair for me is the fact that you got a non-Asian responder. My biggest problem during my recent kerfuffle with Talk Talk was the fact that when I did get to talk to someone I couldn't understand what they were saying.....
To those who immediately say that this is a matter of defective hearing I respond if that is so, how come I have no problem with the Shipping Forecast or the majority of voices on the radio?

[Tizer]

To those who immediately say that this is a matter of defective hearing I respond if that is so, how come I have no problem with the Shipping Forecast or the majority of voices on the radio?

Perhaps because you have the volume set very high? My father wouldn't admit to hearing loss and drove my mother almost mad by having the radio and TV set very loud. When he eventually got aids fitted and he drove home he thought his windscreen wipers were malfunctioning because he wasn't used to being able to hear them (and he complained that the heavy rain made too much noise on the car!). Of course, the best way to prove to people that you don't have defective hearing is to have a free NHS hearing assessment.
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An example of what the MI5 chief has been warning about...

[Big Kev]

To those who immediately say that this is a matter of defective hearing I respond if that is so, how come I have no problem with the Shipping Forecast or the majority of voices on the radio?

Perhaps because you have the volume set very high? My father wouldn't admit to hearing loss and drove my mother almost mad by having the radio and TV set very loud. When he eventually got aids fitted and he drove home he thought his windscreen wipers were malfunctioning because he wasn't used to being able to hear them (and he complained that the heavy rain made too much noise on the car!). Of course, the best way to prove to people that you don't have defective hearing is to have a free NHS hearing assessment.

Highly recommended, it involves an appointment with the nurse who will look in your ears to make sure they're not blocked. If not you get referred for a hearing test. I went to Specsavers, in Colne Sainsbury's.
The test involves putting on a pair of headphones, in a soundproof booth, and they will assess your requirements. The aids are configured to amplify the frequencies you can't hear.
I have a pair of these that tuck neatly behind my ears. Before these I insisted there was nothing wrong with my hearing

IMG_20241012_175638~2.jpg

[Stanley]

I don't have the volume set high.....
I'll give another example that doesn't depend on me setting a high volume/ I have phase converters in the shed to enable me to run 3 phase equipment. When switched on these emit a very low hum. I can hear them if I start to leave the shed with one switched on......
I'm not saying my hearing is perfect, it definitely isn't but I have no problem understanding a native English speaker on the phone and I can't set the volume of that.
I am not budging from the point I made that these Asian voices are not easy to understand because their inflexion, speed and pitch is alien to a crumblie like me. Are you going to tell me that's wrong as well?
(I apologise if I am being difficult...... )

[Tizer]

Logging into the BBC News web site...
I mention this because it might anyone who gets the problem I encountered recently. As you all know, I read the BBC News online daily and have done so for decades. I always start by opening its Home page by keying in `bbc' which is my Firefox shortcut for the page. I don't have to enter any login details because I'm permanently logged into BBC Sounds. Recently it ceased to work and the News site wanted me to Log In or Register. I registered using the Sounds login details and it seemed OK until I found that certain News pages, such as Technology, still blocked me and demanded that I login or register. Then I found that the BBC uses BBC.co.uk in the URL for almost all of the News pages but some were BBC.com. So I registered into that with the same name and password as for the .co.uk login. Now all seems OK. But I don't understand why they use two different parent URLs. Why should Technology, Culture and Education news pages have a different parent URL from all the other news?

[Tripps]

Here's a handy tip -

When your desktop computer cuts out completely and then comes back later without intervention - and it happens several times in a day - consider the possibility that you've kicked the power cable under the desk and loosened the 13A plug in the socket so that 'power on' becomes intermittent. If it hadn't happened to me I wouldn't have believed it possible.

[Tizer]

At least neither of us have got caught out this way...
`Woman wedged upside down between rocks for 7 hours after trying to retrieve her phone' CNN

[Stanley]

David, you have reminded me of one of my problems in the very early days of home computing when I bought my first IBM clone off an obscure little dealer. God knows how I found him.
I had a system delivered, (I think it cost nearly £1,000!) and couldn't get the screen to show anything. It took me a couple of hours to realise that the screen had controls for brightness and contrast and they were both adjusted to their lowest value......

[Tizer]

When we started our publishing business in the 1990s we forked out £3000 to buy two high spec PCs from DAN Technology on the advice of my IT colleagues. We carried on with PCs from them until they went out of business around the turn of the millennium. By then the small UK business couldn't compete with the big US tech firms

[Tizer]

More pro-Russian cyber interference...
`Portsmouth among councils hit by cyber attack' BBC

[Stanley]

That sounds suspiciously like the attack we had that slowed the site down Peter.

[Tripps]

Let it be noted that somethng important has happened to the Interwebthingy in the last few days. Despite using two ad blockers - adverts (previously not seen ) are appearing where they did not used to do. Katy Hopkins daily rant was preceded by a full ad for Moretti beer !

I have done the routine things such as deleting all history and cookies, and doing a restart, but the final straw came durng the commentary on the World Chess Championsip game 13 (active now) where the commentators paused and then said "let's ask Google Gemini what is important here in the end game". Followed by a brief intrusive video from Google. I had checked out Gemini recently, and decided it was not for me. I don't want it forced upon me. Such a thing has never happened before - they are obviously acting on instructions, and being paid by Google I'd guess.

I note that the addition of AI to existing software is being promoted as a benefit. I don't think I agree. Any attempt to steer me in a particular direction will be resisted. If this is a permanent change - I may not be playing as much.

[Big Kev]

Google Gemini is lurking in the background, it pops up on my smartphone every now and then but I just 'swipe' it away. Despite my job being tech heavy I am resisting so far (another 3 years to retirement).

[Stanley]

I am resisting the same steer from Google David and my attitude is exactly the same as yours. They tell me that Gemini will help me to write better which is an insult! Note that an AI explanation of cotton spinning I tripped over in Google had a fundamental mistake.....
Imagine a world where everyone used AI..... The end result would be no more interaction between humans because they would lose the ability to do so. A horrible prospect!

[Tizer]

I'd never heard of Google Gemini until I saw it mentioned here on OG. Because of my hobbies as well as everyday things I use Google a lot and it's never shown anything about `Gemini'. I've never `signed in' to Google so maybe they're not interested in me - that's fine as far as I'm concerned!

[Stanley]

That's the way I like it as well Peter!

[Tizer]

`BBC complains to Apple over misleading shooting headline' BBC
The BBC has complained to Apple after the tech giant's new iPhone feature generated a false headline about a high-profile murder in the United States. Apple Intelligence, launched in the UK earlier this week, external, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to summarise and group together notifications. This week, the AI-powered summary falsely made it appear BBC News had published an article claiming Luigi Mangione, the man arrested following the murder of healthcare insurance CEO Brian Thompson in New York, had shot himself. He has not. A spokesperson from the BBC said the corporation had contacted Apple "to raise this concern and fix the problem". Apple declined to comment.

[Stanley]

A timely warning Peter. I believe that too many people, blinded by technology, believe that AI is infallible and do not edit the results before publishing.
I gave an example of that when I saw a technical explanation of textile spinning the other day in which AI had got one crucial detail wrong. A human being with specialised knowledge could correct AI. That covers the dispute over the NY shooting. The BBC editors know more about what they have published than AI does.
The lesson is that AI is not infallible and it is a mistake to disregard this in crucial matters like editing news or running a self driving car!

[Tizer]

I notice that in my last post about Apple copied above, direct from the BBC News site, the word `external' appears in an irrelevant position in the middle of the second line. I've seen this odd behaviour previously, always with the word `external'. I've just clicked on the BBC link now and the word external is no longer there. Spooky!

[Stanley]

I edited an 'external' out only yesterday when posting a news item. I think it's another example of bad or non existent editing. They haven't got the staff to do it after all the cuts to save money.
AI generated this answer to a question about BBC staff cuts.....
The BBC is planning to cut 500 jobs by March 2026 as part of a plan to save £500 million. The BBC's public service headcount has already decreased by almost 10% in the last five years. Some of the areas that have been affected by cuts include: Newsnight: 34 jobs were cut as the show became an interview and discussion show. Hard Talk: The global interview program was axed. Asian Network News: The bespoke service was closed and will take its bulletins from Radio 1's Newsbeat. BBC News story teams: The teams covering areas like technology, climate, and science were restructured.
Is it any wonder there are glitches?

[Tizer]

I think it's another example of bad or non existent editing.

It can't be a simple typo. Somebody or something must be inserting it at random positions in the text. And a spellchecker wouldn't flag it up.

[Stanley]

I think it is just a marker used inside a system like a BBC newsroom to signify that the basis of the item has not been generated by BBC staff (i.e.. internal) but by outside sources and was meant to be edited out before transmission but was missed because of sloppy editing.