Here’s a little snippet:
…and here’s a pic of the slag herself:
Ugh.
Let me tell you, the only way I’d be tempted into spending money on something like this is if the offer was for this model:
And I’d pay a premium for the “Sexy Contralto Italian Accent” option.
As the totalitarians / utilitarians / technology-worshipers in our midst try to push us evermore towards a cashless society, we see situations like this occur, this time in Britishland:
The IT meltdowns suffered by Sainsbury’s and Tesco highlight the dangers of relying on cashless payments which puts our society ‘at risk’, experts have warned.
On Saturday morning, Sainsbury’s experienced a ‘technical issue’ which created chaos for thousands of people on one of the busiest shopping days of the week.
The supermarket chain cancelled online orders and couldn’t accept contactless payments – so shoppers either had to pay in cash, or scramble to try and remember their PIN.
While people desperately queued to use nearby ATMs, the dramatic uptick in cash withdrawal meant many of the machines ran out.
Many loyal shoppers turned to rival chain Tesco – it also experienced issues with online orders, with a small proportion being cancelled.
By the way, you don’t have to be an “expert” to see the inherent dangers of over-reliance on technology; you just have to be aware of the old maxim that to err is human, but to really fuck things up you need a computer. And we’ve all been there.
Nor am I a conspiracy theorist, but at the same time the odds of a “technology meltdown” occurring in the UK’s two largest supermarket chains at the same time are, wouldn’t you say, rather alarming.
In another context, if the flight guidance systems malfunctioned simultaneously in both United Airlines and Air France — two unrelated corporations — there’d be all sorts of alarm and governmental enquiry commissions, not to mention screaming panic in the headlines.
Nor would the scenario of malignant agency be simply dismissed as paranoia — but here we are, where people can’t buy food for their families because of a “meltdown”.
You’d think that we’d have learned this little lesson during the previous lockdown, where all sorts of nonsense happened because “everyday life” was dislocated.
But we haven’t.
Just wait till Ford and Mercedes together experience “system failure” in their driverless car fleets…
Technology can be our friend, and often is. But over-reliance on technology means it often isn’t. Remember, the acronym MTBF (mean time between failures) is often used for reassurance, but it also presupposes the existence of failure.
Like what happened at Sainsbury and Tesco — simultaneously.
Update: And now Greggs, too.
In commenting on Florida’s proposed ban on social media for under-16s, Robert Shibley says this:
It would be wise for the big platforms to make it much easier for parents to regulate this stuff, because that’s far preferable to the law stepping in.
That’s a laudable suggestion, but unfortunately it doesn’t take into account the fact that getting kids hooked on their programs is the actual goal of the “big platforms”, simply to get eyeballs for their advertisers. That any harm might occur to the owners of those eyeballs is to be ignored because First Amendment, dude.
I myself think that lowering the age of consent to 12 and the drinking age to 13 would probably do less harm to kids than does exposure to FaecesBook and the like. What the hell: if we’re going to trust kids not to do stuff that might harm them, let’s go all the way. [/Big Platforms]
What’s that you hear, Lassie?
Yeah, I can hear them too.
Next up: AI-generated eyeballs (to defeat retinal scanners) and fingers, complete with your fingerprints. You heard it here first.
So much for ID security.
My fucking email server has gone to shit. Now I can’t even use MS Mail or my MSN account.
Please don’t bother emailing me until Tech Support and I get it fixed — assuming we can — because I can’t respond.
What goes: “Fuck. Double fuck. Double-doublety-double fuck”?
That would be me.
When my Logitech mouse starts randomly double-clicking when I tap the key once.
Yesterday I tried to see whether it was a software or hardware issue, so I tried going to Logitech’s “Customer Support” site (okay, you can stop laughing now).
So I shot bit the bullet — not literally, ammo is spendy — and ordered another one. From Amazon.
“Your order may be delayed as the product is on back order.”
[several lines of cursing omitted]