A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own

[Cudzoziemiec]

Here's what my son says about ultrapurple: it's either a punk rock band, a hardcore feminist movement, an antifascist movement or a neofascist move in Greece during the 1980s. And he insists the last two are not contradictory because one is antifascist and the other is fascist but "hidden".

Ultralilac: a women's liberation movement, a pet lovers' movement, a character in a wrestling anime or an eye disease.

[Kim]

Ultramauve?

[Cudzoziemiec]

Ultramauve is an Irish writer who made her name in short fiction but has moved on to graphic novels and screenplays.

[rogerzilla]

Facebook and some of its other ventures, like WhatsApp, are down.  Lols.

[Beardy]

Everything Facebook is down apparent;y, because someone broke BGP (their internal DNS) and because they’re an advanced tech firm, all there door access is network connected and has stopped working. Ie they can’t get into server halls to mend things!

https://youtu.be/KLqH8p1QVpY

[rogerzilla]

Mr Potato Head! Mr Potato Head! Back doors are not secrets!

https://youtu.be/GfJJk7i0NTk

[citoyen]

Ultramauve?

Saw them supporting M-People at Wembley Arena in 1994.

[TheLurker]

... why is it called violet in the rainbow?

So that the mnemonic, "Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain" works.

[citoyen]

... why is it called violet in the rainbow?

So that the mnemonic, "Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain" works.

If it were purple, you could have "Richard Of York Gave Battle In Pantaloons" instead.

[Jurek]

The company I work for has two sites.
The 6 acre one on which I currently work, and the 25 acre one where I was briefly stationed before the start of lockdown.
Sometime in 2012 someone, who is no longer with the company, hired in some houseplants. These are mature houseplants of the exotic variety, mostly in excess of 5 feet in height.
Between the two sites, we have 20 plants.
Once a week someone from the hire company comes in to water and tend to these plants.
To date, this has cost £67k, in a contract we cannot absolve ourselves of until next year.
Taking it to £70k.
Two of the plants are in my office 

[Mrs Pingu]

Holy shit, someone signed a houseplant hire contract for 10 years?

[Mrs Pingu]

Technology is great.
Because Pumpkin is a)obsessed with food and b) has a delicate digestive system we have never wanted to get a cat flap as we figured that training her to use one would just open up a whole smorgasbord of other cats' food that she currently can't get at. So at the previous Pingu Towers we used to leave the entrance door open and the cats would leap at the vestibule door when they wanted in.
At the new Pingu Towers the door to the moggy domain is straight onto the kitchen so I've been wondering what to do as c) I don't really want to leave the kitchen open to the elephants in the middle of Furrybootoon winter and d) the wee madam keeps leaping up on the worktops in search of food if she's in the kitchen unsupervised.

Enter the Byron Touch-free door bell. The bell push is a proximity sensor (ostensibly being sold as Covid safe). Shove it on the door frame at moggy height and hey presto, they have their own doorbell.
 

[Kim]

Danger!

I've never known a cat with a doorbell, but my aunt had one that would use the door knocker.  And answer the phone^[1].  Randomly, whenever she felt like it.

I taught ours to work the bathroom light switch (pull cord type) when I was young and mischievous.  Same sort of problem.

And I believe that while it's possible to train a cat to use the toilet, it's important not to teach them to flush, for broadly similar reasons.


_{[1] This was back in the 80s, when an unknowingly-answered phone would render you incommunicato (TBAGO) until someone attempted to make an outgoing call and found the phone off the hook^[2].
[2] Teenagers: Ask your parents.}

[Mrs Pingu]

They never learned to open the vestibule door themselves, unlike one of my brothers previous cats, whereupon they turned all the door handles upside down.

[Jurek]

Holy shit, someone signed a houseplant hire contract for 10 years?

More like indefinitely.....

[Tim Hall]

Holy shit, someone signed a houseplant hire contract for 10 years?

More like indefinitely.....

Correlation or causation?

someone, who is no longer with the company

[Jurek]

Holy shit, someone signed a houseplant hire contract for 10 years?

More like indefinitely.....

Correlation or causation?

someone, who is no longer with the company

What pisses me off ever so slightly is that up until 2016  I annually received a pay rise. Since which time and the Brexit vote, nada, nothing, zilch.
Nice plants thobut - however, they do not pay my bills.
I'm not sure that there was a correlation between the plant hirer and the staff member's departure.

[phantasmagoriana]

Enter the Byron Touch-free door bell. The bell push is a proximity sensor (ostensibly being sold as Covid safe). Shove it on the door frame at moggy height and hey presto, they have their own doorbell.
 

But presumably, so do all the other cats (+ whatever other miscellaneous creatures roam the streets) in the neighbourhood...

[Tim Hall]

Enter the Byron Touch-free door bell. The bell push is a proximity sensor (ostensibly being sold as Covid safe). Shove it on the door frame at moggy height and hey presto, they have their own doorbell.
 

But presumably, so do all the other cats (+ whatever other miscellaneous creatures roam the streets) in the neighbourhood...

If you have such a feline operated doorbell and need to hook it up to your home automation system, presumably the wiring will be Cat 5 cable.

[Ham]

Enter the Byron Touch-free door bell. The bell push is a proximity sensor (ostensibly being sold as Covid safe). Shove it on the door frame at moggy height and hey presto, they have their own doorbell.
 

But presumably, so do all the other cats (+ whatever other miscellaneous creatures roam the streets) in the neighbourhood...

If you have such a feline operated doorbell and need to hook it up to your home automation system, presumably the wiring will be Cat 5 cable.

If they're not neutered, it'll be Cat 6

[Beardy]

Surely they’ll need Cat 9

[L CC]

In other news

<snip>The machine is running with the absence of a spanker due to a fault with a hydraulic cylinder, thus the crew are manually adjusting </snip>

No one wants to run without a spanker.

[hatler]

Working a spanker hard is essential if you're trying to change direction quickly. (Obscure sailing reference.)

[mrcharly-YHT]

Working a spanker hard is essential if you're trying to change direction quickly. (Obscure sailing reference.)

The ability to pull it in then get it up again rapidly is crucial.

[hatler]

For us it was important to get the spanker on the wrong side for it to work effectively.