gvurrdon

The term covers a variety of styles, with old ones hanging around as new ground is broken. Perhaps it is a "meta-genre". There are various articles around explaining its history which might be worth looking at, if you're interested. I'd expect to hear some degree of improvisation in jazz, but not in easy listening.

May I ask what distro you're using, and when there's any good documentation around for the installation procedure?

It's becoming more common for journals to have policies which require that raw data be made available. Here's some background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAIR_data

One of the purposes of a site on which I work (https://fairsharing.org) is to assist researchers in finding places where they might upload their data (usually to comply with publishers' requirements).

This would indeed be the best way around.The code reviews might even be better - currently, there's little time for them and we often have only one person in the team with much knowledge in the relevant language/framework/application, so reviews are often just "looks OK to me".

It's not quite the same, but I'm reminded of seeing a documentary decades ago which (IIRC) mentioned that a factor in air accidents had been the autopilot flying the plane and human pilots monitoring it. Having humans fly and the computer warn them of potential issues was apparently safer.

I've tried for weeks and it's never got any more pleasant.

You beat me to it. I can never get a pleasant shave from a DE blade, even using high quality soap and a brush.

Using the old style of double-edged razors would be great. But, I have never managed to use them successfully - there's always a degree of nicks and razor burn. Fans of this style of razor would claim that this will be poor technique and they may even be right, but not everyone can be good at it, apparently. If someone were to invent a razor which can use cheap double-edged blades and not be unpleasant to use I'd certainly buy it. BTW, the old Rolls Razor turns out to give a very good shave and a blade can last a lifetime. Its only disadvantage as far as I can tell is that it takes much longer to shave with (presumably not a problem for those who actually enjoy shaving).

A manager who behaves like this character: https://dilbert.fandom.com/wiki/Pointy-Haired_Boss

Despite also having no desire to have an "AI" phone, this feature is incredibly useful; however hard I try to avoid it, there are organisations who will insist that they contact me by telephone. Luckily it's available on older devices so I can keep my 6a going for another year.

I don't know, but I would guess that Microsoft Office is what retains people; personal anectodal experience suggests that anything else (Apple's offerings, Google Docs, LibreOffice &c.) is not acceptable to the average user. My suspicion is that Microsoft would be very unhappy to have MS Office running successfully on Linux systems.

I know what you mean. What I found very helpful in getting music out of my head via an instrument was a lot of very tedious scale practice, and similar exercises. This appears to get my fingers habituated such that I may often hear a (simple) line on the radio then immediately pick up an instrument and play it.

That test was indeed interesting. But, one thing it didn't mention was audiation. Various people I know (including me) can hear music in their heads, almost like a recording. This is very useful when performing as I can pretty much play along to this internal track. Some people appear not to be able to do this at all.

Here's the Mastodon thread: https://ioc.exchange/@matthew_d_green/112597849837858606

The river Nene apparently rhymes with "been" in Peterborough but "Ben" in Northampton.

> Colin still thinks Windows XP was the best thing ever and goes a funny shade of red when anyone mentions Linux (or anything else he doesn't understand)

Circa 2000 I worked in a place with such a head of IT. After some effort I managed to get my work done by bringing in my own Linux laptop. But, connecting it to the network was strictly prohibited ("everyone knows that Linux is insecure"), and data had to be transferred by floppy disk to/from the rather unreliable networked Windows PC shared by me and two other scientists in the same office. This PC used to crash after each user logged out and required a reboot pretty much every time.

Same here. But, I'd like to wait until iOS 18 so that text messages from various contacts are less painful.

I never saw one of those when buying my most recent car (Toyota). But, after creating an account on their website I was able to find this section:

  Consent Centre
  E-privacy: Your car data

  Help us improve our products by sharing car data and diagnostic info.

  We don’t currently have your consent to use this data. This may be for the following reasons:

    Your car doesn’t have Connected Services. Contact your dealer to check if they can be added.

    No (connected) car has been added to your account. Go to My Vehicle, add a car if needed, then connect your car via the Connected Services card.

    You have a connected car but have yet to consent. Go to My Vehicle, and open the chosen car. You will be requested to give your consent.

 
  Toyota thanks you for helping us to improve our products.

FWIW, their smartphone app contains a "consent" section with various toggles for the usual reasons (e.g. "sharing data to improve products") and these are all turned off.

> It's filled with gatekeepers and judgemental jerks.

That's not been my experience playing jazz around my local area. I've never played jazz in New York but I have heard that all manner of ungentlemanly behaviour goes on in jams there and I suspect I'd be on the receiving end of it if I dared to try. Presumably acceptance of the newcomer is determined by the size of the existing pool of talent. Rural England is not well supplied with jazz musicians of any skill level (or discerning audiences) so we can't really afford to treat them rudely. I'm not really a guitarist, but the last time I played one at a jam it was one of these: https://www.andertons.co.uk/brands/gl-guitars/asat-guitars/g...

A good point. Going into a supermarket I know I'll be filmed, but will avoid self-checkouts where I'm shown a live video of my exciting checkout experience as it does make it feel a lot creepier.

For me, what has been a "killer" feature is the ability to use voice commands to:

- Send and respond to messages.

- Set timers.

- Set reminders.

This is far easier than getting out a phone and trying to type on a horrid touchscreen keyboard.

Paying for things and timing runs are also useful. The Apple Watch does all these things adequately, though I don't like using an iPhone.

I've found that all I ever use it for is to look at chord charts at jam sessions as it's easier to see than my phone.

I recall one of those; right in the centre, as you describe. It was open by the mid 1980s, IIRC. It had a cafe and various pleasant seating areas within, such as this: https://www.peterboroughimages.co.uk/currys-store-queensgate... Last time I looked these had all been removed, and the main "flagship" store closed down; certainly no longer the exciting day out I remember from when it was new. Perhaps this is due to the increasing number of retail parks which have appeared in the area this century.

When it's time to replace the current car I'll look into that again, but not yet.

I am actually getting 65 mpg on occasions when I'm not in an hour-long traffic jam in freezing weather (then it's 50-55), but I'd forgotten about the difference between Imperial and US gallons, so 65 would be 54 for Americans.

I've met a few but would normally not bother them as I'm sure they're not at all interested in anything other than the job at hand. One exception was when I was a specialist extra for a documentary and the star presenter asked me for some background info. on my specialist area; in that case I was happy to chat to them for a while about it.

I missed out on the codes, of course, but bought it anyway. Interesting so far; not fast yet, but more accurate as the larger keys are easier to hit - I struggle with most phone keyboards. Can't find the brackets though...

Is there any chance of a Welsh language pack, please?

A (non-plug-in) hybrid has been good for me; quiet on electric power on city streets, and can do over 400 miles without refuelling. It claims to be in EV mode over half the time when commuting. Fuel consumption is 65 mpg compared with 45 mpg in a similar petrol-only car I had 10 years ago. Electric only would be nice, if I could afford one which could manage 300 miles minimum, accounting for cold weather, battery wear and manufacturers' lies/exaggerations.

I'm in a similar situation. Would you be happy interacting with Meta-product users via a non-Meta-product if it involved your data being stored (e.g. in a "shadow profile") and used to target ads against you? I'm not sure I would, but it hasn't cropped up yet.

> I'd argue it's doing exactly what it's supposed to.

What were creative writing lessons at school supposed to do? If the answer was to enable me to write adequate fiction, and to gain enjoyment from doing so, then such classes were a complete failure.

> There's nothing creative about being given an assignment and jumping straight to topics you're familiar with.

I am not necessarily familiar with all the topics mentioned... ;-) Nevetheless, the reasoning given at the time was not yours, but simply that these topics don't constitute proper literature and are therefore not valid topics for creative writing assignments. I have no memory of ever hearing anything along the lines of what you have said above.

Come to think of it, the music and art lessons weren't very good either. Any success I have had along those lines (music) has been since leaving school and not involving anything I learned there.

My memory of "creative writing" in school is that it was very effective at killing any desire to write. The usual scenario was to be given a title (e.g. "The Yellow Door"), a word count and a deadline, and told to produce something interesting. Should that be a story that might in any way be considered "pulp" (involving war, horror, fantasy or science fiction themes, for example) it would be judged a failure. It would probably be judged a failure anyway, without explanation other than "badly written, I didn't enjoy having to read that." Perhaps I was simply a bad writer as a child, but "that was bad, try again" without guidance as to how to make it better, and some form of public humiliation each time (e.g. reading out grades or even extracts of stories as examples of what not to do), did not improve my skills.

Same here; I found the swiping very difficult. I have also had a small number of people ask me how to switch to buttons.