Farcebook

Author: james

  • DofE 2024

    DofE 2024

    Where I probably walked more miles than the children, and everyone got very very muddy.

    Last weekend was the annual Duke of Edinburgh silver expedition, and once again I was herding children around the Yorkshire Dales. There wasn’t any snow this year, but it was raining and there was plenty of boot-sucking mud.

    Normally I spend the weekend bored, sat in a car watching kids roam the countryside using a Spot tracker in each groups’ bags.

    This year, they decided they wanted to go off-piste and discover the wilderness by themselves. And I got to do my steps stomping about trying to find them.

    Some of these miles were earned simply walking around the campsites, or trekking off from a convenient carpark to find a path junction where I’d planned to meet the kids. You can do a lot of steps if your toilet is a five minute walk away. It kind of shows how sitting still at your desk really isn’t a healthy lifestyle. You don’t need to stride off across the countryside to get some exercise, just put things out of arms reach so you have to get up and move a bit more.

    You also see some quite amusing things on your wanderings. I wonder what the story behind this road sign is…

    These lot probably know… They know everything. They’re probably reading this blog post right now.

  • Tech bubbles are so annoying

    To a man with a hammer, every problem is a nail. I remember when next door’s kid was learning to talk and form his own opinions, everything coming out of his mouth started with “daddy”.

    The tech world is just as bad. AI is the new hotness, we’re actively encouraged to use it at work, and it’s creeping into everything from summaries of Amazon reviews to spam comments on my blogs. Can we get over it, figure out it’s crap for writing thoughtful content, but very good for writing summaries of existing text and move on?

    I was looking for a plugin for WordPress and everything now seems to have AI shoved into it, even if it’s not a sensible idea.

    I’m not saying AI is bad, going to murder us in our sleep or turn into Skynet, but I wish the tech world would stop latching onto the new shiny thing and jamming it in every orifice regardless of whether it fits or not.

  • Machine Translation is better than Chinglish.

    Machine Translation is better than Chinglish.

    I don’t think Google is very good at translating Thai. I mean, it’s infinitely better than me at it, but even I can tell this is probably wrong…

    It had another go and was somewhat better.

    I’m fairly sure this isn’t some sort of game, but it containing berries is likely…

  • Hi, I’m a spammer, I notice you are avoiding my emails

    Hi, I’m a spammer, I notice you are avoiding my emails

    To be blunt, Claire I didn’t ask you to email me in the first place so I don’t quite understand the passive aggressive tone here.

    Also that amazing article you found was a two sentence Mastodon post about the battery level in my car. If that’s what you consider amazing… yeah maybe hire some decent writers.

    And if this is supposedly a personal email to entice me into doing something with you, why’s it got an unsubscribe link? 🤔

  • I guess I need a cover for my webcam…

    I guess I need a cover for my webcam…

    Uh oh, looks like I need to cover up my webcam better… Someone on the Internet infected my PC with some remote access software and recorded me watching non-advertiser friendly video.

    Scams today are so tedious and unimaginative…

    Hello there!

    Unfortunately, there are some bad news for you. Some time ago your device was infected with my private trojan, R.A.T (Remote Administration Tool), if you want to find out more about it simply use Google.

    My trojan allows me to access your accounts, your camera and microphone. Check the sender of this email, I have sent it from your email account.

    You truly enjoy checking out porn websites and watching dirty videos, while having a lot of kinky fun. I RECORDED YOU (through your camera) SATISFYING YOURSELF!

    If you still doubt my serious intentions, it only takes couple mouse clicks to share the video of you with your friends, relatives, all email contacts and on social networks.

    All you need is $1200 USD in Bitcoin (BTC) transfer to my account (Bitcoin equivalent based on exchange rate during your transfer). After the transaction is successful, I will proceed to delete everything without delay.

    Afterwards, we can pretend that we have never met before. In addition, I assure you that all the harmful software will be deleted from your device.

    Be sure, I keep my promises!

    If you are unaware how to buy and send Bitcoin (BTC) – Google: Where to buy Bitcoin (BTC), to send and receive Bitcoin (BTC), you can register your wallet for example here: www.blockchain.com

    My Bitcoin (BTC) address is: 1EH41rY38ZwshtqCF3hKzjaFQhVaZ7zrNH Yes, that’s how the address looks like, copy and paste my address, it’s (cAsE-sEnSEtiVE).

    You are given not more than 48 hours after you have opened this email (2 days to be precise).

    As I got access to this email account, I will know if this email has already been read. Everything will be carried out based on fairness! An advice from me – regularly change all your passwords to your accounts and update your device with newest security patches.

    Like where do we even begin? If you’re going to scam money out of me I’ll need a bit more proof than some words in an email. The Russian ladies on Snapchat at least send photos.

    I miss the Nigerian scams, they had a story behind them instead of “send money please or I release your dick pix, thanks”. You could also reply and sometimes they’d reply back to you. I can’t even reply to this boring thing.

    It’s like the boring “Microsoft Support” phone calls.