Off-Topic / Dumping Thread

[Reciprocating Bill]

Seen at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in May:

 

 

 

[+mizapf]

There seems to be a weird trend on Youtube, or maybe it's just its suggestion algorithm: "Deck ads". Google did not tell me anything about that, but there are several videos where people seem to laugh their ass off when watching another video about deck sealants and caulks...

 

... until I noticed that the original videos they reacted on were from New Zealand, where they tend to pronounce the short "e" as a short "i". New Zealanders say "bitter" instead of "better", or "bit" instead of "bet", well, and "dick" instead of "deck". All about your deck sealed off and shiny like on the first day. And the caulks sound like "cocks".

 

I mean, seriously? Lots of videos about people laughing about "dick"? This feels like back in school, when we were 12 or 13 years old.

 

In a similar case, someone once asked in a video how we could choose a brand name like "Dickmanns" for the chocolate marshmellow treats sold in Germany (we call them also "chocolate kisses"). The point is that "dick" in German simply means "thick" or "fat", so nothing to blush about.

 

People are too much into writings nowadays, and tabooing. Meaning is secondary.

[+OLD CS1]

2 hours ago, mizapf said:

People are too much into writings nowadays, and tabooing. Meaning is secondary.

Wait wait wait wait wait.  You want substance on the Internet?  I have shocking news for you...

[GDMike]

Facebook is doing something new as well, I  pulled up some BS screen and it will tell you in a script, something like, 105,000 people said this was really on topic and very useful what do you think? 

I look for the block I can't find it, but there is a spot that says give us your thoughts on our AI, so I reach deep way deep where the sun doesn't shine, deep, and I pulled something out for them.

Edited August 23 by GDMike

[jrhodes]

We need some music around here. Something different. 🎶🤘

 

[+dhe]

Man... Look what I discovered in my neck of the woods!

 

https://braggingrights.com/

 

 

[+OLD CS1]

1 hour ago, dhe said:

Man... Look what I discovered in my neck of the woods!

 

https://braggingrights.com/

...just put that on my list, here...

[Gary from OPA]

🔥🚨BREAKING:

 

A company that is selling sunlight at night that can be purchased from your phone is going viral across the internet for this impressive and futuristic concept.

 

Reflect Orbital has developed an app where you can order sunlight, reflected from a satellite direct to your location from a cell phone so that you can have personal access to the sun’s light at night.

 

This is a simulated video that displays the concept and how it will work. They are still working on the launch for public use.

[+MarkB]

American college football in Ireland?  I never knew this was a thing https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/0824/1466508-college-football/

[+mizapf]

6 hours ago, Gary from OPA said:

🔥🚨BREAKING:

 

A company that is selling sunlight at night that can be purchased from your phone is going viral across the internet for this impressive and futuristic concept.

 

Reflect Orbital has developed an app where you can order sunlight, reflected from a satellite direct to your location from a cell phone so that you can have personal access to the sun’s light at night.

 

This is a simulated video that displays the concept and how it will work. They are still working on the launch for public use.

 

This is obviously not a scam. If there is a way to enroll in a petition for declaring this illegal, let me know.

We should do everything to not let this happen.

 

What a nightmare.

[HOME AUTOMATION]

🛰️

[+OLD CS1]

7 hours ago, MarkB said:

American college football in Ireland?  I never knew this was a thing https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/0824/1466508-college-football/

Frankly, I have no idea why it is a thing.

11 hours ago, Gary from OPA said:

Reflect Orbital has developed an app where you can order sunlight, reflected from a satellite direct to your location from a cell phone so that you can have personal access to the sun’s light at night.

No, thanks.

 

 

[GDMike]

The Chinese have screwed up the LED hole 

 

[+OLD CS1]

1 hour ago, GDMike said:

The Chinese have screwed up the LED hole 

Forward voltage?

[HOME AUTOMATION]

Frontal contraception:

[RickyDean]

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/usps-could-slow-service-certain-areas-seeks-cut-costs?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawE5-T1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHe3rKIgZkyGHKidk9cyPBSgBHA_d3G-e5hXYkmC5nOOv6n0c-jEZRIpbyw_aem_YAx5r9M4CMrPxZeGcHm5_g

Edited August 27 by RickyDean
added content

[+OLD CS1]

12 minutes ago, RickyDean said:

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/usps-could-slow-service-certain-areas-seeks-cut-costs?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawE5-T1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHe3rKIgZkyGHKidk9cyPBSgBHA_d3G-e5hXYkmC5nOOv6n0c-jEZRIpbyw_aem_YAx5r9M4CMrPxZeGcHm5_g

USPS had already slowed its services.  In-town in Tallahassee can now take a week as we lost our sorting facility -- the capital of the state, which houses the legislature and five colleges, does not have a sorting facility -- and everything goes through Jacksonville.  USPS has added a day or more to its Priority Mail delivery promises to some areas.  This is crazy.

 

(I had a Christmas card I sent to a customer show up in March.)

 

And let me tell you about my Post Office.  On some days I show up and it is closed due to staffing shortage, computer programs, whatever.  There are not enough people working to handle even the small load it has.  WTF is going on?!

[RickyDean]

18 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

USPS had already slowed its services.  In-town in Tallahassee can now take a week as we lost our sorting facility -- the capital of the state, which houses the legislature and five colleges, does not have a sorting facility -- and everything goes through Jacksonville.  USPS has added a day or more to its Priority Mail delivery promises to some areas.  This is crazy.

 

(I had a Christmas card I sent to a customer show up in March.)

 

And let me tell you about my Post Office.  On some days I show up and it is closed due to staffing shortage, computer programs, whatever.  There are not enough people working to handle even the small load it has.  WTF is going on?!

As well as they just raised postage rates, someone is squandering the money.

[GDMike]

2 hours ago, RickyDean said:

As well as they just raised postage rates, someone is squandering the money.

My mother was just telling me about her local town has told her that they won't be getting mail on certain days and she noticed that the postal carrier was driving there own vehicle with a sticker on it that said US mail instead of a mail carrier vehicle.

 

I need to get my drone set up where I could drop mail in a vertical mailbox... I too can work for the post office

Edited August 27 by GDMike

[+OLD CS1]

On 8/26/2024 at 11:03 PM, GDMike said:

I need to get my drone set up where I could drop mail in a vertical mailbox... I too can work for the post office

I remember watching a show a looooong time ago which talked about a private post office in New York that did so well it attracted the attention, and the legal ire, of the USPS which eventually shut them down.  The court ruling was the USPS has a guaranteed monopoly on First Class mail.

 

For once, CoPilot (the only AI I can access without giving over personal information) found something for me after a little minor prodding:

Quote

City Mail was a private postal service that operated in New York City during the 1970s. It was notable for challenging the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) monopoly on delivering First Class Mail. The USPS has a government-mandated monopoly on First Class Mail, meaning no other entity is legally allowed to deliver this type of mail.

City Mail attempted to provide an alternative service, which led to a lawsuit from the USPS. The legal battle highlighted the strict regulations surrounding mail delivery in the United States and reinforced the USPS’s exclusive rights to deliver First Class Mail.

This case is an interesting example of how private companies have occasionally tried to compete with the USPS, only to be met with legal challenges due to the USPS’s protected status.

 

 

Now, the problem is I cannot find any reference to "City Mail" anywhere, and CoPilot cannot provide any references or citations other than "common knowledge," living up to its habit of making shit up.  So I did more and more poking and finally found a paper (Policy Analysis #47) from the Cato Institute from 1985, complaining about the same things we complain about now, but also has this reference:

 

Quote

In 1978, the P.H. Brennan Hand Delivery Service offered same-day delivery of mail in Rochester, New York, for 10› apiece; the Postal Service could not guarantee overnight delivery even for 15›. The Brennan Service operated during snowstorms (when the Postal Service did not even try to deliver), never lost a letter, and never had a complaint. When U.S.P.S. attorneys closed in on the Brennans, Rochester lawyers provided them with a free legal defense. But the Postal Service persuaded a judge to issue a "cease and desist" order on account of the "threat to postal revenues."

(PDF File)

 

This information leads to the case United States Postal Service v. Patricia H. Brennan and J. Paul Brennan, d/b/a P. H. Brennan Hand Delivery, as well as a contemporary write-up, fantastic as they always are, in Reason Magazine from September, 1979.

 

The short, the Constitution gives Congress license to create and operate a postal service, run as it sees fit.  Thus, essentially a Constitutionally-mandated service.  Congress then decided that its creation of the United States Post Office Department, which became a cabinet of the Executive about 80 years after its establishment, has the sole authority over First Class Mail.

 

Justia also has a well-detailed history of the Postal Service as it relates to the Constitution and following laws.  Interestingly, while the Constitution gives Congress the power to establish and run a postal system, it is not mandated to do so -- Congress can dissolve the USPS any time it chooses.

Edited August 29 by OLD CS1
Updated to include link to Cato Institute page, not just the PDF.

[RickyDean]

Well I sent a package with a non-working P-code card to a person in Atlanta. The postal system says they delivered it, but the person said they never received it. I went to the local post office from where I sent it and they came back with a google image of a shop with big doors, like a mechanic shop. But when I ggole the address and get a street view I'm seeing an entire different building and the person says this is the right building, it is a business. I've file a lost mail search and then after 15 days a claim and I've not heard back from them. i was giving him the pcode card to fix and have, but it was my property till he receives it.

This is just one of more than a few things I've seen happen to my mail over the last few years.

[Switch1995]

23 minutes ago, RickyDean said:

Well I sent a package with a non-working P-code card to a person in Atlanta. The postal system says they delivered it, but the person said they never received it. I went to the local post office from where I sent it and they came back with a google image of a shop with big doors, like a mechanic shop. But when I ggole the address and get a street view I'm seeing an entire different building and the person says this is the right building, it is a business. I've file a lost mail search and then after 15 days a claim and I've not heard back from them. i was giving him the pcode card to fix and have, but it was my property till he receives it.

This is just one of more than a few things I've seen happen to my mail over the last few years.

That stinks.  Seems like there are far more non-working P-code cards than working ones.  I wonder if our hardware gurus will ever take a stab at a recreation board for the PEB?

[HOME AUTOMATION]

Quote

.FI
.RM 72
.IN +0
I got the following letter from Tenex
on May 15, 1987. It was postmarked May
7, 1987. Can anyone tell me why a
letter mailed from South Bend Indiana
to Rosebud Texas would take 8 days?
This letter contains info on the Myarc
9640. If you are like me you will not
like what this letter says because I
have been waiting and waiting to get my
hands on this computer. Enough talking,
here is the letter..
.IN +40
                                  .
                         Kenneth Finto.
     .
     .
     .
.BP
.IN +40
                         May 6, 1987.
    .
    .
.IN +0
Dear Myarc Computer Customer:.
    .
.IN +5
Thank you for your order for the Myarc
Geneve Computer. We are writing this
leter to advise you of the current
status of the product and your order..
As of today, May 6, 1987, we have
received no working computers from
Myarc. We have received three (3) of
the 9640 computers in, but these units
did not have a functioning Disk
Operating System (DOS) or other
software. Needless to say, we did not
wish to ship these non-functional
computers to our customers..
We are clarifying our actual situation
because of rumors or untruthful
statements made by others which have
led our customers to believe that we
are sitting on a large inventory of
working machines. We have had callers
tell us that they were told by Myarc
that we were "on our third shipment",
"dozens had been shipped", etc. The
press has reported that Myarc was
producing a hundred per day and that we
were receiving the first 500..
We continue to assume that all of these
statements represent good-faith
misunderstandings; nevertheless, we
feel obliged to tell you, our valued
customer, exactly what the status
really is. Although we have heard of
people who have received early
machines, such as magazine reviewers
and key user group officers, all of
these machines were lacking the final
DOS needed for full operation..
We have been advised by Myarc that the
DOS is to be completed in early May,
and that shipments will commence at
that time. Based on our experience to
date, our large order will be filled
slowly due to Myarc's limited capacity,
which means shipment of your order
could be delayed until June or July..
Be assured that we are doing everything
possible to expedite our shipments of
the new computer. We thought that by
waiting until early this year to take
orders we could avoid this sort of
delay situation.  Unfortunately, our
delivery promises have been broken time
and time again.  On the positive side,
we are confident that Myarc will,
indeed, begin shipping the computer; in
other cases where a product was
severely delayed, they have always come
through in the end..
We apologize for the inconvenience and
anxiety this delay causes you. We also
are sorry if you have been given
incorrect information by others, or
even by us when we have estimated
delivery based on information provided
to us by Myarc. Naturally, if you wish
to cancel your order you may do so. We
appreciate your patience, and look
forward to serving you in the future..
   .
Sincerely,.
   .
   .
   .
   .
Sue Yeryar, Customer Service.
 

🐌✉️

[Gary from OPA]

[Gary from OPA]

Goodbye USA, after Canada invades from the north and Mexico from the south...