Patch

@Patch@feddit.uk

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Patch,

I wonder what sort of services these are going to be running? If it’s essentially metro then that’s not the worst, but if its intercity/long distance (which you’d think it was, considering the train sets we’re talking about) that’s horendous.

Patch,

The barristers the CPS employs to bring prosecutions are the same barristers used by the Post Office, using the same courts and the same judges.

That’s actually not entirely true. Although the CPS does engage “free” barristers via chambers for some cases, most CPS prosecutions are handled “in house” by salaried barristers working directly for the CPS.

CPS’s in-house barristers are (as a rough rule) extremely experienced at prosecuting common-or-garden cases, but lack the specialist experience of barristers available to hire via chambers, who they will usually bring in for the more complex prosecutions (or ones involving a specialist area of expertise).

All barristers are only as good as the evidence given to them, though, and one of the real strengths of the CPS barristers is experience in working with the police- both in terms of knowing how to get the best evidence out of them, and knowing a police wild goose chase when they see one. This is the part that really breaks down in cases like the Post Office, where it’s private corporate investigators throwing complex technical evidence over the fence at random barristers who have mostly not worked with them before.

Patch,

Argh, Microsoft Store? One of the very few stores which remains doggedly impossible to get games running on Linux. Boo to you, Prime Gaming.

Patch,

If a machine is going to have multiple users (all my computers have multiple profiles for family members) all those users have to be called something, and I’ve not got the energy or the creativity to come up with fun and funky usernames for every system when my actual name is more than good enough.

Patch,

once

There are parents who are allowed to use a toilet without being watched literally every time?

Patch,

You know, I don’t think I’ve ever heard an American say “Gen Z” before, and it literally never occured to me that they were pronouncing it “Gen Zee”. Obvious now you mention it, but I’ve just been assuming that every time I see it written down it’s “Gen Zed” by default.

Patch, (edited )

What I hate about “eggplant” is that none of the varieties that anybody actually eats look even remotely like an egg. It’s a massive purple banana-shape. They also don’t taste like eggs, smell like eggs, or get used like eggs.

It’d be like calling cucumbers “cheesefruit” or something. It’s just destined to baffle.

Patch,

You can say rapeseed on the internet, friend.

Patch,

Scotch is whisky from Scotland (shockingly).

That’s not an Americanism really; people call it Scotch in British English too. It’s just that because 99% of the whisky in the UK is Scotch anyway you don’t really need to specify. Whereas because most whisky consumed in the US is bourbon, they tend to specify when they mean Scotch.

The same is presumably true in reverse, i.e. Brits using “bourbon” more than Americans because of the need to specify.

Personally I’m not bothered by the whisky/whiskey distinction. Whisky was traditionally Scottish and whiskey Irish, with the Americans going the Irish way and other countries (like Japan) going the Scottish way. But it’s a bit of a meme to nitpick at this point; they’re indisputably just two spellings of the same thing.

Patch,

Sure. But it’s a normal word, and censoring a few letters makes it look ruder than it is. Like writing “cockerel” as “c***erel”. Just draws attention to the offensive bit.

Patch,

Once you’ve got your eye in, scotch and bourbon are quite different. Many (although not all) scotch whiskies have peat in their flavour profile (a kind of smoky, salty, earthy flavour which is very distinctive), while bourbons never do. Bourbon is almost always quite a lot sweeter than scotch.

They’re also made quite differently. Bourbon is mostly corn, and often has lots of rye and wheat in the mix, whereas scotch is mostly made of barley. Bourbon is always aged in new oak barrels, whereas scotch is mostly aged in second-fill barrels (which might previously have been used for bourbon, wine, sherry, port, cider etc.).

Mushrooms swapped for tampons among bizarre UK supermarket substitutions (www.theguardian.com)

Mushrooms in place of tampons, a frozen pizza substituted for tinned peaches, and cream crackers instead of Christmas crackers. These are among the “bizarre” supermarket substitutions reported by online shoppers in a new poll....

Patch,

Nothing too absurd, but with regularity I’ll put in plant-based dairy free products (because there’s a dairy allergy in the house), but be given the substitute of the dairy version of the same. Cow’s milk intead of oat milk, regular yoghurt instead of soy yoghurt, regular ice cream instead of vegan ice cream, etc.

Patch,

I’m not aware of any UK brands that use plastic for their teabags. That sounds like a really stupid idea.

A few companies (Teapigs comes to mind) use bags that feel plasticy, but those aren’t actually plastic. In Teapigs case, it’s made of cornstarch.

Patch,

Really interesting arcticle breaking down which groups have moved and where, and providing a bit of depth to the discussion around changing demographics.

An interesting take-away is the fact that the electorate is much “swingier” than it ever has been in the past, with a far greater number of people willing to consider switching their vote compared to historic elections. That makes things a lot more volatile than previously, and explains some of the break-neck changes we’ve seen in recent years (Labour gains in 2017, Tory majority in 2019, potential Labour landslide in 2024).

Patch,

It probably isn’t legal most places. EULAs are already considered fairly flimsy in terms of enforcement, but changing an EULA after you’ve already bought a device, in such a way as to reduce your statutory rights, is almost certainly a complete non-starter.

Patch,

If a company takes you to court, you can’t just decide to ignore them. Either you/your representative turns up on the designated court dates and presents a case, or you’ll most likely lose by default.

If it was possible to make a court case go away just by ignoring it then everyone would just do that.

Patch, (edited )

An EULA is nominally a binding contract, in the sense that it is presented as such. No court has ever ruled and given precedent to the effect that EULAs are universally non-binding (because companies have always settled out of court for cases where it looks like they’re going to lose).

It is well understood that the arguments against EULAs being binding are solid ones, and that the reason why so many cases settle is because companies are not confident of winning cases on the strength of EULA terms, but you still need to go through the rigmarole of attending court and presenting your defence case. That’s how court cases work.

Edit: And perhaps more to the point of the OP, if you want to sue a company over some defect or service failure, it’ll be them who introduce the EULA as a defence, and it’ll be for you/your lawyers to argue against it. Which adds complexity and time to what might otherwise have been a straightforward claim, even if you win.

Patch,

Britain and Australia are two distant cousins separated by a planet but united in their love of that bitter black goop.

Patch,

Everyone loves Brother for good reason.

I’ve had a decent experience with my Xerox too.

Patch, (edited )

Different countries and states obviously have different electricity source mixes.

Here in the UK, coal accounts for around 1% of electricity. Natural gas is about 35%, biomass about 5%, and the rest is various clean renewables (wind, solar, hydro) or nuclear.

So although charging an EV is by no means fossil-fuel-free, it’s considerably less fossil-fuel than an ICE car.

Patch, (edited )

It’s also loud.

I don’t need or want everyone sat in the same room as me to know every little thing I do on my phone. Leaving aside things that are actually private, that’s just a level of inane garbage that we all don’t need to know about each other.

Sometimes I just want to glance at the football scores without announcing to everyone: “OK Google, what is the current score for the football match between Swindon Town and Harrogate?”.

Edit: It’s currently nil-nil, if you’re wondering.

Patch,

That reads oddly like the Dr Evil’s Childhood monologue.

Patch,

Having data means nothing if you can’t monetize it.

As you say, AI can already access it all completely for free with nothing more complicated than a web crawler. Long term, charging AI firms for access is not a viable strategy unless the law changes.

And they’ve been trying for years to monetize visitors through advertising and other schemes, and so far come up consistently short.

Patch,

What a bizarre coincidence; that’s exactly what I came on to post!

Finished Red Mars a few weeks ago, started Green Mars a couple of days ago. I’d never read any Kim Stanley Robinson before, and I’m enjoying it so far.

Any other recommendations from your award-winners reading list?

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