ttj - Tom Jones

 Someone told me that Geneva and Guernsey have strong links historically.  I think I just came across an example: The boarding tube at geneva airport has that much-loved and universal feature of guernsey construction: water ingess. I would add my video of it, under a minute, but “maximum file size exceeded”. Google, the world’s premier information company, does not deign to tell us what the limit is. There is only one video selected, so if I “deselect one or more” videos, then the number remaining is zero. Typical geektard error message: bossy in tone, and almost useless.

I stay in both expensive and cheap hotels, and though I like neither, the cheap ones are less bad overall.  Here are some advantages of cheap hotels over expensive ones:  * you are more likely to be able to unplug the power from the TV, to get rid of the annoying red standby light that lights up the room at night in all hotel rooms  * they are less likely to overcharge you  * there is around equal likelihood of a noise problem (suites in expensive hotels will often be connected to adjacent suites by internal doors.  This makes spaces more configurable for large groups, but if the person in the one next door is having a party, or just yammering on in a loud voice, then bad luck. On the other hand, cheap hotels are more likely to have noise issues arising from high-density riff-raff)  * the Wifi will probably be easier to connect to, being simple wifi password at the time you connect (layer 2 WPA/PSK) rather than "open" network followed by a rubbish captive p...

I've bought quite a bit of Apple stuff from IQ in Guernsey before without having a problem, including the apple 6k display, a macbook air, a mac mini, and the other display. When you order a custom laptop, in my case it has to have ANSI (or English (EU)) keyboard layout, they make you put 10% down.  In this case, it was 174 GBP.  Having requested and received the prepayment, they are now obliged to follow thru.  They can't just keep the money. I a Macbook pro with them in December.  I think I wanted something with the M3 pro chips to be able to drive an 8k TV over hdmi. I did create a record in Trello, as I tend to do for such things. Last month, I was on the high street, and had a feeling I had a pending order with IQ, but couldn't remember what.  I walked in and asked.  They looked me up, and said no, there is no pending order. Last Friday, April 19, I came across the Trello record, and thought yes, there was an order pending.  Looking thru the Trell...

When you check in online with BA, you can accept your seat allocation and click next, or choose to change your seats.  If you choose to change your seats, you are taken to a diagram of the cabin, indicating your seat, available seats, and unavailable seats.  So far so good. Remember, on the step before, you already said you wanted to change your seat. Now, I am not a UX expert, but my naive expectation here was that clicking on the seat might select that seat.  Nothing.  Try again, several times, on different seats.  Nothing.  I've been here before.  What was it?  Eventually, I figure out that I have to click on the "Change" button under "Passengers".  Then I can click on the seat. How many people go through this every day?  All it would take is one manager at BA to actually use the service, and notice, and go "no, we're going to do that properly". The way it seems to have come about is that the interface is designed for a more general c...

 This one is going to Geneva. The windows, instead of being dangerously transparent, have dust and spots.

  Can you tell from this that the all-in-one can print two-sided, but can only scan one-sided? It lists its functions as including and scanning (and copying). Later, it elaborates on print functions, saying double-sided. It does not elaborate on scan functions (or copy functions). Technically, it has not claimed it can do two-sided scanning (or copying). The guy in shop thought it could do two-sided copying. I asked if we could try, and he kindly set it up with power cable and paper. The only sidedness options under copy were “1 to 2” and “2 to 1”. We tried anyway, with a sheet in the ADF that had things printed on both sides. One of the sides were copied.  WTF, HP? Why alienate customers like this?

Recently, the first comprehensive review of Guernsey's monopolies, duopolies, quasi-monopolies and state-owned enterprises was undertaken.  Condor Ferries was classified as "pretty ropey". Condor Ferries says that checkin closes for vehicles one hour before departure.  This means that vehicle passengers get to sit in a vehicle queue for around 55 minutes, inhaling the diesel fumes from whoever's left their engine running.  Today it's a Preston Roofing van with reg YC21 NHK, for example.  Ferry staff do not supervise this, so it's up to passengers to ask each other to turn engines off, if they care enough. That's just a warmup for the main fumes-breathing sessions, which are in the enclosed car decks on the ferry, at boarding and unboarding.  The exact profile depends on your position in the deck, which you have no control over.  Although there are premium lounges onboard, there is no premium option to roll on first and roll off first, thus avoiding all the...

quick summary of monopolies, quasi-monopolies, duopolies, state-owned enterprises, etc on Guernsey. There are three categories so far: "seems fine", "pretty ropey", and "malign entity". Guernsey Post: seems fine Aurigny / Blue Island (airlines): pretty ropey Guernsey Water: pretty ropey Guernsey Electricity: seems fine Guernsey Energy (gas): pretty ropey Condor Ferries: pretty ropey Sure (telecoms): malign entity JT (telecoms): pretty ropey Not included are some natural or assumed monopolies like for waste collection (Guernsey Waste, pretty ropey) etc. For Guernsey Water, the admin side has been fine, but the product tastes chemically.

When people cross to and from Guernsey on the ferry, their phones can latch on to  a marine network, which gets charged at ludicrous per-MB rates.  How can this situation persist? As far as I can tell, the rogue network(s) are transceiving from elsewhere on the sea, not from onboard the ferry.  Condor Ferries warn about it as part of their standard announcement.  I have received warning messages about it from the home network of the phone I was taking, I think Sure, but it could have been JT.  The implication from this was that the home network was not "in on it".  This does seem dubious, as they have got to be in control of their own roaming agreements. If we accept that the home network is not in on it, then we have a strange situation, where a roaming scam is happening, but none of (i) the customer, (ii) the home network, nor (iii) the ferry operator want it to be happening.  What gives?  I suspect the home network is in on it, but I could be w...

There is a tendancy to make web sites much, much worse than doing things in real life. In this case, Guernsey Post made a form that's otherwise fine, but has the "recaptcha" antipattern.  Nothing says "we hate our customers" like making them spend their labor, which as Seneca points out is limited, on training an AI, for free. After "making an exception" to my rule that I don't do these things, I was taken through an ordeal that involved identifying fire hydrants, steps, motorcycles, traffic lights, and several other categories.  I eventually concluded it was never going to end, and called Guernsey Post, who kindly did the thing. The web is a total disaster.