Luxembourg Gardens, Paris (2004)
Also in the Jardin:
Latest Posts
Dept. Of Righteous Shootings
So this alleged goblin throws an LP gas cylinder through a window, climbs into the house and starts ripping off his clothes.
And is probably surprised when the homeowner ends his impromptu little striptease with an alleged bullet (or two, details are sketchy as always).
No Surprises There
It appears that the Mighty A.I. is falling somewhat below expectations:
95 percent of organizations see no measurable return on their investment in these technologies, even as the number of companies with fully AI-led processes nearly doubled last year and AI use has likewise doubled at work since 2023.
Specifically:
Today’s generative AI models are very good at identifying patterns and stitching together bits and pieces of existing content into new compositions. But they struggle with analysis, imagination, and the ability to reason about entirely novel concepts. The result is often content that is factually accurate and grammatically correct but conceptually unoriginal.
“Workslop”, indeed.
Not The Same
From SOTI:
“A recent report from a United Nations Fact-Finding Mission paints a grim picture of Maduro’s Venezuela, especially after stealing the election in 2024, asserting violence, torture, arbitrary detentions, deaths in custody, deaths of protesters, sexual violence, forced disappearances, foreigners as hostages, etc.”
Ummmm lemme see: an actual Communist dictator is doing all these terrible things, right?
Our own Commies just wish that Trump, who to them typifies all the above Bad Things, actually behaved like Maduro so they’d have something to really complain about. But of course he doesn’t do any of that, despite the many calls from people like myself to start the one-way helicopter service already.
A “forced disappearances” thing sounds pretty damn good from where I’m standing — but no doubt someone’s going to have a problem with this.
All I can say is that if I owned a chopper and had a pilot’s license…
Random Totty
Perrie Edwards was more-or-less named after Steve Perry from Journey, and started off her singing career as a member of an all-girl band named Little Mix (no, I couldn’t hum one of their songs either, even at gunpoint).
She has, to my eyes, a kind of old-fashioned beauty, hence her appearance on these pages.
Techno-Woes, Part 17
One would think that the Gods Of Technology, having bricked my new laptop (bought in January 2025) and caused me to have to buy a new one, would have done fucking with me.
One would be wrong.
Last week, I picked up my phone, to feel and see this:
Yup. The old case, she splody like an IRA bomb or Al-Qa’eda IED.
“Oh,” said the T-Mobile tech person when I brought it in to the store, “that’s the battery. They do that. How long have you owned the phone? That long? Wow, and the battery only went phut now? You’ve been lucky. Anyway, you’re going to need a new one. No, not just a new battery — a new phone, because they stopped making this model about four years ago.”
Fortunately, I long ago made the command decision to pay a little extra on my monthly bill for a replacement phone deal, should Bad Things Happen.
So I picked up the New Phone yesterday. Why only yesterday? Because these phone stores no longer carry any actual stock, you see — unless you’re a New Customer, in which case they’ll whip one out and empty your bank account in a flash. But a replacement phone for existing customers? Oh no, we’ll have to order that one, and it’ll take a week or so, sorry about that. At least I got an upgraded model, for no extra cost.
Blessedly, the transfer of all my stuff from Old & Broken to New & Shiny only took about 5 minutes, mostly because I didn’t bother transferring any photos (having already backed them up).
I guess that 5+ years usage out of one of these “smart” phones isn’t that bad — although considering that I barely use the fucking thing (compared to everyone else in the universe), I would have thought it would last much longer.
But back to my store visit… I wanted to have a clear screen protector installed. Sorry, we don’t keep those in stock — but we can order one for you. One of those rubber-like protective cases? Nope, sorry, but if we order those for you, they’ll get here in a week or so.
For fuck’s sake: what happened to the concept of one-stop shopping and customer service?
(I should add that the staff at said store were helpful and knowledgeable in the extreme — even for Southern Nice People, they were exceptional. They’re not to be blamed for policy decisions like in-stock items.)
Anyway, I have the new thing, and it seems to be working okay. Let’s just hope it lasts longer than that godawful ASUS piece of shit laptop.
And the next time I go to a mall (2026, if my existing shopping trend continues), I’ll just swing by one of those little kiosks and get the screen protector and safety casing there. Life is too short to worry about shit like that.