Author Topic: First-World Problems.  (Read 333590 times)

Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2150 on: 04 February, 2020, 04:28:25 pm »
My cards are shielded against scanning - might be problems with shielding a 'phone.

The "card" on the phone id only active when you call it up, so for the very short period you're actually using it. Once the app is closed it's safe again, and that assumes the same vulnerability of a card to scanning, which may not be correct.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2151 on: 04 February, 2020, 05:48:21 pm »
My cards are shielded against scanning - might be problems with shielding a 'phone.

BTW, I still have a C&A carrier bag - C&A closed in the UK in 2001.

A member of yacf visited me yesterday, wearing a C&A jacket...

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2152 on: 04 February, 2020, 11:44:18 pm »
I've yet to see one of these watches used by anyone under about 65.

I have, but they're either  a) app developer types  or b) disabled people using them as assistive technology.

TBH, I suspect it's mostly a younger-people-don't-wear-watches thing.  When they do it's nearly always Fitbit type things.

Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2153 on: 05 February, 2020, 09:08:54 am »
I've yet to see one of these watches used by anyone under about 65.

I have, but they're either  a) app developer types  or b) disabled people using them as assistive technology.

TBH, I suspect it's mostly a younger-people-don't-wear-watches thing.  When they do it's nearly always Fitbit type things.

Or Tidy Haired Thought LeadersTM
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2154 on: 05 February, 2020, 09:13:05 am »
My cards are shielded against scanning - might be problems with shielding a 'phone.

BTW, I still have a C&A carrier bag - C&A closed in the UK in 2001.

A member of yacf visited me yesterday, wearing a C&A jacket...

I wrote the production control for their Glasgow factory, back around 1971.  They used to cut umpteen pieces of cloth at a time, on band knives. Looked hairy.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2155 on: 05 February, 2020, 10:08:25 am »
Over many years I've got used to labels in clothes being sewn in at the back or in the right hand side seam.
I recently bought some underpants that have the label sewn inot the left side.

What's the world coming to?t
Have you got them on back-to-front?

I came close to it...

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2156 on: 13 February, 2020, 09:19:17 am »
I've yet to see one of these watches used by anyone under about 65.

I have, but they're either  a) app developer types  or b) disabled people using them as assistive technology.

TBH, I suspect it's mostly a younger-people-don't-wear-watches thing.  When they do it's nearly always Fitbit type things.
Good point, yeah. I'm firmly of the watch-wearing generation. I like to have something to remind myself of the time easily without having to pull a phone out of my pocket.

But as you've mentioned disabled people and assistive technology, and this was in the context of teh bookeshoppe, here's a little grumble passim: It's a late Victorian building with one, fairly shallow, step to get in. There's a bell for anyone in a wheelchair to ring to get our attention. So I asked the manager, what do we do if someone rings the bell? I can't see a ramp, looking around the full to the ceiling, small stockroom. Is it at the corner shop (2 doors up, they have two steps)? No. There is no ramp. It would be a case of manhandling the chair up the step (probably not too difficult but... ). Head office provide a bell, not a ramp, there is no fund for a ramp or place to store it. Manager says "It is absurd" and they could get in trouble. If Barakta wants to send one of her wheelchair activist friends round... !!!
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Regulator

  • That's Councillor Regulator to you...
Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2157 on: 13 February, 2020, 12:35:16 pm »
The microchip in my debit card no longer talks to contactless payment machines, so I have to push the card into the slot and press buttons.

How ever am I going to cope?
Still using a card in 2020? How delightfully retro! Charming as this olde worlde technology is, it's not the most reliable. Unless you're ready to go the full Boomer retiree with an Apple watch, you should download a banking app and pay by phone. We have heard of people using a technique known to initiates as "cash", but this is only to be recommended for experts.

Some things refuse payment by mobile - Santander hire bikes in London for example. If you don't have their app you need to use a physical card, payment by contactless from a mobile is specifically refused.

(For this example I know you can use their app to avoid having to use a card, my point was that using a card from Apple Wallet or the like is refused, it says "Mobile payments not permitted" or similar.)
The machines in Bristol libraries only take cash (to pay for printing, overdue fines, etc). They have card machines built in but these are all 'disabled' or 'not functioning'. I presume this is due to transaction fees but I've never asked. One morning a week I do a volunteer shift in a charity bookshop and about a third of people pay cash, for the others there is some generational difference: almost nobody uses chip and pin, contactless is ageless but young people (lots of students in the area) often use phones and occasionally an old person pays by smartwatch (not sure whether Apple, Google or what). I've yet to see one of these watches used by anyone under about 65.

Using phones and watches is passe... anyone who is anyone will be using their ring or a flesh embedded chip.
Quote from: clarion
I completely agree with Reg.

Green Party Councillor

ian

Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2158 on: 13 February, 2020, 01:27:06 pm »
I'm definitely still significantly under sixty-five and I use a smartwatch to pay for stuff. That said, at lunch the other day, I did this and my colleague, an owner of such a watch exclaimed "oh, I didn't know you could do that." Quite possibly people are just using them to tell the time. Anyone under the age of 25 do tend to just use their phones on the basis they never actually leave their hands anyway. Some of them wear chunky watches as accessories. They probably aren't using them to tell the time. They may be surprised to know this is a function of a wristwatch. No one tell them that actual cameras are available.

It won't be the first time someone is amazed when I pay by watch that I have a 'chip' because the watch is hidden under my jumper. Anyway, it's more practical than faffing around for cards or my phone. I also use it to tell the time (it's generally handy, when it's buried away under jackets and stuff, especially when cycling home, to demand that Siri tell me the time, which she duly does).

Guy

  • Retired
Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2159 on: 13 February, 2020, 02:23:35 pm »
I love YACF! I merely left one little grumble about a melfunctioning debit card and whoooosh! Pages and pages of discussion about hi-tech payment devices  :D

 :thumbsup:

PS  I still prefer cash. Should I go back to the Lower Cretaceous and stay there?
"The Opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject"  Marcus Aurelius

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2160 on: 13 February, 2020, 02:36:34 pm »
I'm definitely still significantly under sixty-five and I use a smartwatch to pay for stuff.
Yeahbut you are a geek!

PS  I still prefer cash. Should I go back to the Lower Cretaceous and stay there?
At a bakery/cafe today where they proffer you a little white ApplePay device (which, disconcertingly, and unlike other types of card payment terminals, doesn't display the amount – they have to swivel their til screen to show you), I paid by cash, for a change. They were genuinely glad to get the change. Or so they said. Electronic payments make the cashing up* easier though!

*But not the washing up.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2161 on: 13 February, 2020, 02:46:02 pm »
I had to click my Apple Watch three times to get out the tube barriers today.

There we are, back to First World Problems  ;)
It is simpler than it looks.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2162 on: 13 February, 2020, 03:06:51 pm »
Meanwhile, I spent rather longer than I should have last night trying to find a dumbphone with a camera good enough to take not-shit pictures at gigs.  I don't want to watch television on it, or call the Gammonariat rude names on Farcebok, or navigate to Novosibirsk.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Regulator

  • That's Councillor Regulator to you...
Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2163 on: 13 February, 2020, 03:21:27 pm »
I had to click my Apple Watch three times to get out the tube barriers today.

There we are, back to First World Problems  ;)

Pah!  Call that a First World Problem...


... I couldn't find the tofu press earlier.   :o
Quote from: clarion
I completely agree with Reg.

Green Party Councillor

Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2164 on: 13 February, 2020, 04:17:52 pm »
Why does 'Peel Here' on packaging never ever ever work, resulting in either an impatient attack with a sharp object or a torn packaging cover diametrically opposed to the 'Peel here' point?
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2165 on: 13 February, 2020, 04:25:20 pm »
I stopped using my smartwatch to pay for things. While a nice idea, I found that with Samsung, I needed to use my other hand to activate it. As I spent most of my time holding a toddler, it was easier to use one arm to hold the baby and the other hand to get a regular contactless card out of my back pocket and tap in and out, rather than fiddle about to activate the watch and risk dropping a toddler.

Regulator

  • That's Councillor Regulator to you...
Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2166 on: 13 February, 2020, 04:31:53 pm »
I stopped using my smartwatch to pay for things. While a nice idea, I found that with Samsung, I needed to use my other hand to activate it. As I spent most of my time holding a toddler, it was easier to use one arm to hold the baby and the other hand to get a regular contactless card out of my back pocket and tap in and out, rather than fiddle about to activate the watch and risk dropping a toddler.

Put the watch on the toddler.  Added benefit is that toddler is amused by getting to pay.  Simples!   :thumbsup:

Quote from: clarion
I completely agree with Reg.

Green Party Councillor

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2167 on: 13 February, 2020, 04:58:40 pm »
Why does 'Peel Here' on packaging never ever ever work, resulting in either an impatient attack with a sharp object or a torn packaging cover diametrically opposed to the 'Peel here' point?

Yeah. "Easy Open" is right up there with £350 million on the side of a bus.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2168 on: 13 February, 2020, 05:39:02 pm »

Pah!  Call that a First World Problem...
... I couldn't find the tofu press earlier.   :o
I have never heard of a tofu press!  Now I need one!

Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2169 on: 13 February, 2020, 05:40:27 pm »
It would be interesting to know how many A&E attendances are due to injury whilst trying to open packaging. Especially those wretched plastic bubble packs. Packaging is the main reason I carry a penknife.

ian

Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2170 on: 13 February, 2020, 07:49:07 pm »
I stopped using my smartwatch to pay for things. While a nice idea, I found that with Samsung, I needed to use my other hand to activate it. As I spent most of my time holding a toddler, it was easier to use one arm to hold the baby and the other hand to get a regular contactless card out of my back pocket and tap in and out, rather than fiddle about to activate the watch and risk dropping a toddler.

Throw toddler in the air. Use smartwatch. Catch toddler.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2171 on: 13 February, 2020, 08:03:50 pm »
Why does 'Peel Here' on packaging never ever ever work, resulting in either an impatient attack with a sharp object or a torn packaging cover diametrically opposed to the 'Peel here' point?

I reckon it's the Ministry Of Crap Design.

Regulator

  • That's Councillor Regulator to you...
Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2172 on: 14 February, 2020, 07:26:56 am »

Pah!  Call that a First World Problem...
... I couldn't find the tofu press earlier.   :o
I have never heard of a tofu press!  Now I need one!

I hate to say it... but it does make the tofu much easier to cook with.  Press it, marinate it, press it again and - bingo - edible tofu.
Quote from: clarion
I completely agree with Reg.

Green Party Councillor

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2173 on: 14 February, 2020, 08:10:46 am »
...thought the Tofu Press was an organ of the vegan underground until I discovered...
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Salvatore

  • Джон Спунър
    • Pics
Re: First-World Problems.
« Reply #2174 on: 14 February, 2020, 10:16:17 am »
It would be interesting to know how many A&E attendances are due to injury whilst trying to open packaging. Especially those wretched plastic bubble packs. Packaging is the main reason I carry a penknife.

60,000

Also;

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrap_rage
Quote
et avec John, excellent lecteur de road-book, on s'en est sortis sans erreur