what I have learned today.

[robgul]

That the clock icon for the er clock/stopwatch/timer app on my phone actually tells the time. Just thought it was a picture of a clock

That's the sort of attention to detail that I find unreasonably pleasing.

Be better if it chimed the hour though 

[Pingu]

Steven Wilson's bass player also did the gig for Kajagoogoo.

[Kim]

That white goods equipped with little-tune-playing beepers can use it to beep diagnostic data down the phone to customer support.

That's pretty clever.  Wish I'd thought of it.

[Cudzoziemiec]

That white goods equipped with little-tune-playing beepers can use it to beep diagnostic data down the phone to customer support.

That's pretty clever.  Wish I'd thought of it.

Is it your fridge, freezer or washing machine that's broken down? 

[Jurek]

That white goods equipped with little-tune-playing beepers can use it to beep diagnostic data down the phone to customer support.

That's pretty clever.  Wish I'd thought of it.

No way.
That's a step too far.
I've said it before.
Do not allow machines to talk to one another.

[Mr Larrington]

(Sings)
When I press a special key
It plays a little melody!

[Kim]

That white goods equipped with little-tune-playing beepers can use it to beep diagnostic data down the phone to customer support.

That's pretty clever.  Wish I'd thought of it.

Is it your fridge, freezer or washing machine that's broken down? 

Someone else's washing machine, in this instance.

The fridge is purely mechanical and continues to chug along adequately, though I have electronic BRANES to retrofit as a work in progress.

Our boiler's broken, but fortunately not in a way that causes it to know that it's broken...

[Kim]

No way.
That's a step too far.
I've said it before.
Do not allow machines to talk to one another.

I'm all for a bit of judicious air-gapping, but if you take that line of thinking too far you end up printing everything out on octagonal paper.

[spesh]

(Sings)
When I press a special key
It plays a little melody!

You are Ralf Hütter AICMFP. 

[Feanor]

Air-gapping's been breached if we allow the machines to squawk at each other.
They will develop their own language soon.

A reversal of VoIP: IPoV; V90 re-invented!

[Canardly]

Couple of things. That 'pills' containing micro cameras that take a picture every 2 seconds can now be swallowed to investigate gastric conditions. And ..
The reason we clash drinking vessels of good cheer dates back to the middle ages, when the  tankard was expected to spill over into the others demonstrating that the drink was not poisoned.

[Mr Larrington]

(Sings)
When I press a special key
It plays a little melody!

You are Ralf Hütter AICMFP. 

I had to record the Japanese version onto cassette for Professor “No Turntable” Larrington when she came back from Nippon with the 7” single in her luggage 

[rafletcher]

The word "debouched" - "emerge from a confined space into a wide, open area"

[ScumOfTheRoad]

Regarding machines beeping to call back to base, McLaren F1s came equipped with modems.
I have no idea if a bank of modems is still maintained in the depths of MTC so the poor things can talk to the mothership.

I did hear tales of the heritage racing department having to source outdated laptops on eBay in order to start certain cars though.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The good news is that we're in charge. The bad news is that we are the machines, we're just programmed to think we're human.

[Mr Larrington]

Regarding machines beeping to call back to base, McLaren F1s came equipped with modems.
I have no idea if a bank of modems is still maintained in the depths of MTC so the poor things can talk to the mothership.

I did hear tales of the heritage racing department having to source outdated laptops on eBay in order to start certain cars though.

$RICH_COLLECTOR found himself unable to start a Ferrari F1/86 wot he had acquired.  Exasperated, he asked former Ferrari driver Stefan Johansson if he'd ever had trouble starting it.  “Oh no,” said the affable Swede, “I just did this [raises right hand with index finger pointing upwards; moves hand in vaguely circular motion] and it started every time!”

[MikeFromLFE]

Our washing machine has got a unscrewable thingy that let's you check if the pump is full of sock.
It's behind a hard to remove panel at floor height.
Instructions : "A small amount of water may be released" - I've washed the kitchen floor again.

[ScumOfTheRoad]

$RICH_COLLECTOR found himself unable to start a Ferrari F1/86 wot he had acquired.  Exasperated, he asked former Ferrari driver Stefan Johansson if he'd ever had trouble starting it.  “Oh no,” said the affable Swede, “I just did this [raises right hand with index finger pointing upwards; moves hand in vaguely circular motion] and it started every time!”

For anyone interested, F1 cars do not have their own starters. A muckle big battery is brought up on  trolley which has what looks like an oversized hand blender which is shoved up the car's jacksy.

[Paul]

Our washing machine has got a unscrewable thingy that let's you check if the pump is full of sock.
It's behind a hard to remove panel at floor height.
Instructions : "A small amount of water may be released" - I've washed the kitchen floor again.

Oh yes. This is one of the reasons I keep old towels. And a large rusty baking tray.

[Pingu]

For searching in YACF

'Print' (up there, top right) and ctrl-F works fine fine for me, if what I'm interested in is in a single thread.

 

[Mr Larrington]

$RICH_COLLECTOR found himself unable to start a Ferrari F1/86 wot he had acquired.  Exasperated, he asked former Ferrari driver Stefan Johansson if he'd ever had trouble starting it.  “Oh no,” said the affable Swede, “I just did this [raises right hand with index finger pointing upwards; moves hand in vaguely circular motion] and it started every time!”

For anyone interested, F1 cars do not have their own starters. A muckle big battery is brought up on  trolley which has what looks like an oversized hand blender which is shoved up the car's jacksy.

Teh Roolz used to require starters, at least back in the Cosworth Era; McLaren's Alistair “Bloke” Caldwell developed a compressed air driven one for the M23 which apparently saved a fair bit of weight over the anbaric alternative.  I imagine the increasingly complex electronics put a halt to this.

Dan Gurney did once win a major sports car race by coaxing his crippled car over the finish line on the starter, which has absolutely 0 to do with anything but is apparently the only time an electric car has won an FIA-sanctioned event until the advent of electric-only racing series

[T42]

Moo is Thai for pork.

[rogerzilla]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64252259

The word we always used to describe girls who managed to infiltrate Cowboys and Indians Native Americans games is as bad as The N-Word.  I never knew.  "Brave" for male Indian warriors doesn't seem to cause the same offence but is considered archaic and European.

[Auntie Helen]

As far as I can see that article doesn't actually tell you the word so I am none the wiser.

EDIT - found it by googling Loybas Hill, one of the new names. Like Roger I had no idea it was so derogatory!

[rogerzilla]

As far as I can see that article doesn't actually tell you the word so I am none the wiser.

EDIT - found it by googling Loybas Hill, one of the new names. Like Roger I had no idea it was so derogatory!

I had to do exactly the same googling