@simonwood@mastodon.social
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

simonwood

@simonwood@mastodon.social

Lecturer in Medical Education at Cardiff University, lapsed mathematician, garden railway builder & Doctor Who appreciator.

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simonwood, (edited ) to random
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

Important that the PM takes a day off. He needs to recharge his batteries if he is to sustain this level of disasterousness. Look what he’s achieved in 3 days:

“He began by announcing the election in the pouring rain to the booming sounds of the 1997 Labour anthem Things Can Only Get Better, played by a nearby protester. (1/2)

simonwood, (edited )
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

“He then attended a public question-and-answer session at a factory at which it was revealed that two of the questioners were Tory councillors, before asking workers in Wales whether they were looking forward to the Euro 2024 football tournament, for which Wales has not qualified.

“On Friday the prime minister travelled to Belfast where he visited the Titanic Quarter and was asked by a journalist whether he was captaining a sinking ship.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/may/24/sunak-to-take-a-day-at-home-after-hapless-election-campaign-start (2/2)

david_oxtaby, to ilaughed
@david_oxtaby@cupoftea.social avatar

This is going to be my last post on Mastodon now. I don't have time for it anymore and there's never much interraction anyway so rather just call it a day. Thanks all for your support over the time I've been on here and wish you all the very best for the future. I will still be on X of course if you want to catch up.
Goodnight all and very best wishes

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@david_oxtaby I’ve enjoyed seeing your pictures.

Floppy, to DuckDuckGo
@Floppy@mastodon.me.uk avatar

going down again ( to everyone there) has really reminded my how much my unconscious workflow depends on a search engine these days.

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@Floppy Me: [searching for something on DDG] Oh, DuckDuckGo is down.

Me: [30 seconds later, doing another search on DDG] Doh.

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@Floppy Yes. I wouldn’t feel so daft if I’d done it only once - I’ve been doing it all morning!

Apparently it’s all Bing powered search https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/23/bing-is-down-bringing-duckduckgo-and-ecosia-down-too/

LoneLocust, to random
@LoneLocust@mastodon.social avatar

My experiences with Waymo so far have been most satisfactory.

Far less scary than riding in a car with an unknown, untrusted human.
https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/112484401923377732

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@LoneLocust So I’m not sure how accurate this article is - e.g. it says that “Tesla’s FSD works on all road types” and also that Tesla’s FSD doesn’t work.

But is it the case that with Waymo you have (probably, at some point) been riding in a car with an unknown, untrusted human controlling it remotely?

Would you ride in a Tesla Robotaxi? Not driven by an unknown, untrusted human. But built* by a known, untrusted human.

  • obviously not personally, but as CEO.
simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@LoneLocust I don’t think I’m splitting a hair. There’s a world of difference between “Tesla’s FSD works on all road types” and “Tesla’s FSD is intended to work on all road types”.

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@LoneLocust Yes - I’d seen that before I made the comment. What impressed me about that guy was his Tesla FSD tried to drive him into a train already… and then he gave it another go! 🤣

jonathanreed, to random
@jonathanreed@techhub.social avatar

I’ve been a user of tado°’s smart heating products for years now and I’m intrigued to try their new range which now supports Matter over Thread.

https://www.macstories.net/news/tadoo-announces-new-range-of-smart-heating-products-supporting-matter-over-thread/

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@jonathanreed @viticci These look very interesting! I’m on Hive but there are a number of things I don’t like. I really like the look of Eve’s TRVs but they don’t have a smart thermostat to turn my boiler off when none of the radiators are on…

I do appreciate the fact that Eve do all their scheduling on device though, and seem to do it all over Homekit/Matter too.

simonwood, to random
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

Sticky trick: new glue spray kills plant pests without chemicals | Pesticides | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/18/sticky-trick-new-glue-spray-kills-plant-pests-without-chemicals

simonwood, to random
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

I may not agree with every artistic choice he makes, but I do love RTD: ‘you’ve got to be the best to be aboard the Enterprise. You are the elite…Star Trek always feels very demotic and down to earth, but if I was alive in the 24th century, they wouldn’t let me on the ship. They’d say, “No, you’re banned. You’re a fire hazard. Get out.”’
https://www.theverge.com/24154028/doctor-who-russell-t-davies-interview

simonwood, to random
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

(So-called) AI is “being foisted upon us with the expectation that we celebrate the incredible mediocrity of the services these AIs provide.” https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/15/24154808/ai-chatgpt-google-gemini-microsoft-copilot-hallucination-wrong

forkevinssake, to random

“There is undeniably an impression out there that [COVID-19] is no longer a major threat to human health. I think it’s largely driven by opinion and an emotional itch to move beyond the pandemic, to put it all behind us. We want to believe that it’s like the flu, and we did — until we saw the data.”

https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2024-05-15/covid-19-remains-deadlier-than-the-flu

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@LoneLocust @forkevinssake “Hold my milk” https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/05/anti-pasteurization-crowd-reaffirms-love-of-raw-milk-despite-bird-flu-outbreak/

simonwood, to random
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

Goals for tomorrow

  • watch a brand new Doctor Who
  • cuddle a hen
simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

Achieved on both counts.

Hen 👇

My discussion with @Eugene about on @fusionpatrol 👉 https://fusionpatrol.com/2024/05/12/683-doctor-who-space-babies/

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@fusionpatrol The next day I watched another brand new which @Eugene and I discuss here: https://fusionpatrol.com/2024/05/13/684-doctor-who-the-devils-chord/

But I did not cuddle another hen. ☹️

simonwood, to Cardiff
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

The Vulcan’s back! https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/10/beloved-cardiff-pub-demolished-in-2012-reopens-after-brick-by-brick-rebuild-on-new-site

simonwood, to random
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

“Stewart’s natural magnetism is somewhat muted behind a whey powder pallor, an air of defeated weariness and hair that looks as if it’s been deep-fried rather than washed.” 🤣🤣🤣 https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/may/05/love-lies-bleeding-review-rose-glass-kristen-stewart-katy-obrian-deliciously-lurid-outlaw-romance

mrpjevans, to random
@mrpjevans@mastodon.social avatar

One for fellow software devs out there.

I thought 'Oh, a silly grammar cock-up that makes for a fun local news story'. Then I read the first line. I won't spoil the surprise but maybe make sure there's no-one close when you yell 'OH FOR FU...'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-68942321

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@mrpjevans @Edent I’m a bit disappointed North Yorkshire didn’t change the sign to St Mary\’s Street.

simonwood, to random
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

Amazon “building this new tool – which makes cancelling union membership much, much, easier than cancelling Amazon Prime – is a breach of this law” https://www.foxglove.org.uk/2024/05/02/legal-challenge-to-amazon-uks-new-one-click-to-quit-the-union-tool/

simonwood, to DoctorWho
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

This list was obviously going to be very very wrong (starting with the title) so I won’t say anything.

…Except David Warner (not placed) deserved to rank highly. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/article/2024/may/03/the-greatest-doctor-who-ranked

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@LoneLocust Martin Belam is great. And some of these are broadly in the right place. But certainly some odd choices too.

Edent, to random
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

Mastodon is wild.

You can write something like "Imagine you had a cat - and one day it started speaking to you in Spanish. What would you do?"

And fully 75% of the replies will be "I'm allergic to cats so it would never happen."

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@Edent I’m allergic to cats. They make me sneeze. (But at least my cat always says “te bendiga”)

Edent, (edited ) to random
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

You receive a call on your phone.
The caller says they're from your bank and they're calling about a suspected fraud.

"Oh yeah," you think. Obvious scam, right?

The caller says "I'll send you an in-app notification to prove I'm calling from your bank."

Your phone buzzes. You tap the notification This is what you see.

Still think it is a scam?
1/3

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@CaptainJanegay @Edent Very true.

Asking for verification is ok, but it amazes me they don’t work on customer expectations - what you will be asked for when the bank calls - and also customers’ fraud literacy - how we can and should verify them!

simonwood,
@simonwood@mastodon.social avatar

@dolmen @flabberghaster @Edent I left it to them to prove who they were. Surprisingly it took the guy a while to come up with the answer - it obviously wasn’t a procedure he was familiar with! But it was simple enough - we switched over to secure messaging via the online bank.

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