Agreed.

However for many years now, I've had a vacuum flask by the kettle and any excess is put in there. When it's time to fill the kettle, use the water from the Thermos first.

It's not rocket science, not inconvenient, quicker and easy to do - yet I haven't seen it mentioned in any alert messaging etc. (though, as I don't use social media, I may be missing out on this "amazing new lifehack"; I#m sure people here will point out my failings!)

Actually it's the typical Slashdot response - half read a summary, misinterpret it and go off in full outrage based on your misperceptions.

The coroner didn't say that Facebook was THE cause. he said it was A contributing factor (not the only one, but one of several).

It's easy to draw parallels. For example:

  Yes, obese people could control their intake and exercise more, but some physically/emotionall cannot.

Saying that having a diet full of foods swimming in growth hormones, sugar and corn syrup is a contributory factor does not negate this.

Living in a society*** where profits go before quality and a 'free market' which amplifies this by making such foods widespread and undercutting healthier choices will lead to a cycle where the less well off get trapped with such a diet.

Replace poor quality food with poor quality media and the same scenario applies.

Having social media driven by profit for a near monopoly; having that media geared up with algorithms to reinforce 'engagement', knowing that it can lead to unhealthy outcomes, yet pressing on with such practices and targetting the young, impressionable and vulnerable is,in my view, definitely a contributory factor.

Now, if Facebook were smart (asking them to be moral is a stretch), they could send a blend of "depressed? here are some support/help lines" and "I was in your situation but I'm much improved now, here's my uplifiting story" messages. It may even help them improve their image and thus their bottom line.

***Thankfully the UK does have some good food standards - but I'm sure that Jacob Rees Mogg and his cronies are working hard to undermine them.

I recall working for a manager who did that (initially indirectly and then explicitly).

In his first week we had a meeting scheduled 15:30 - 16:00. The office windbag was in full flow. When the clock reached 16:00 the manager closed the meeting. Cries of "we haven't finished... we didn't discuss X,Y &Z" arose from some present, to which the reply of "You knew the meeting's time and purpose, you should work to it -- if you can't run a meeting on time, there's no chance of running a project on time!" and he left.

In a later meeting, some senior managers and directors arrived late. They asked for a recap and he said, "No. There are 12 people here who did have the courtesy to arrive on time; spending 5 minutes on a recap is a whole man hour wasted!" and then carried on with the meeting, finishing on time.

His point of (attendees * time * hourly rate) was made clearly when some less than essential meetings were called.

Although he annoyed some people (those that like the sound of their own voice) he became very greatly admired and appreciated by many / most of those working for / with him.

I just wish that there were more with the courage & skills to do likewise.

Not that it bothers me now... One of the joys of being retired is that I'll never have to sit in a meeting or endure a PowerPoint session again - unless I choose to do so. It's an aspect of work I joyfully miss !!

Is it the government?

NO

It's been privatised because that makes it so much more efficient (not).

Instead of investing in growth for the benefit of all, profits (from a monopoly supply of an essential service) have been skimmed off to investors (who were / are mainly Tory party donors & chums), directors etc.

The same outcome as the privatisation of the generation capacity [now mostly in foreign hands] and the middlemen selling electricity to the end users with virtually no competition as the 'big six' energy suppliers control everything [but we can't say 'cartel'].

Still, all this must be an illusion, as Slashdot contributors keep telling me that public ownership is bad; private enterprise is good.

Doesn't surprise me.

Most people appear to read reviews to confirm their pre-existing views; those who genuinely look for unbiased data to make a rational decision are relatively rare (even amongst such superior beings as Slashdot readers).

Change can be scary and the familiar comforting.

Given that, the reviews will naturally gravitate to target markets, and as Windows users are the more populous they will get the focus (and the advertising revenue). The masses will read Wintel reviews, the Apple fans will read the Mac reviews -- and the rest of us pick a Linux flavour and tend to stick with that.

can they close down the "This is Microsoft here, there's a problem with your PC" call centre. :-)

Although it can be entertaining to wind them up, I wish they'd tire of this scam.

Retired now - and you cannot imagine the sheer joy of not having to attend another meeting or sit through a PowerPoint session (unless it's an occasion where I want to!).

I got used to counting the attendees and multiplying by the duration to get the 'employee equivalent' of each meeting. Very few meetings were worth the value of lost productivity. Also worth costing up the effects of "windbags" who loved the sound of their own voice and took AGES to make a point that could have been discussed in under a minute.

it always struck me as perverse that, buying a piece of software or arranging job related travel was subjected to (n+1) levels of cost-benefit justification and bureaucracy; yet the value appraisal of meetings which many attendees resented was never considered.

This was true in many organisations, not just one. It's commonplace not exceptional (sadly).

  On the flip side, undoing and re-doing wasted work which arose through lack of communication was also expensive - yet this could more easily be fixed through disciplined used of e-mails, specification documents, change control, wikis etc. (but these are less glamourous, "techy" and "non managerial" so less likely to get senior support).

It's less likely to happen than my winning the lottery**

The ratio of ministerial ambitions to deliveries is always very small.

These days it's even smaller as the government are keen to announce anything to distract from: partygate, investigations into PPE procurement from "chums" with no experience in the field, soaring inflation, highest death rates for Covid in Europe, the Rwanda fiasco, the Northern Ireland Brexit meltdown, Brexit in general, Boris's latest gaffe ...

So, let's make an announcement, preferably one that sounds "cool and trendy" so that the right wing papers can laud it and the Guardian can criticise it -- much better public impact than actually doing anything constructive. It's quite a safe strategy because if it fails it can be blamed on: pesky judges wanting to uphold laws, the BBC, Channel 4, the Russians, the EU, the ECHR, muslims, single mothers, LGBT people, the BBC (again), ... i.e. "anyone but us guv!"

** and I don't buy a ticket as I'm numerate!!

Try Gimp and "Heal Selection" -- works well and performs the same function.

I've used (an albeit old) Photoshop and use Gimp. I know this will start a 'religious war', but for my use cases they are equivalent - there's noting in PS that Gimp can't do that matters to me.

An excellent TV series (though sadly many of the episodes are lost as their recordings were wiped in the name of cost saving).

One episode was expanded into a book (Mutant 59 - The Plastic Eater -- by Kit Peddler). I read it [too many] years ago -- I must re-read it sometime.

https://www.fantasticfiction.c...

There's a rather good novel by Robert Heinlein where this is the central feature:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Some years ago, the company I worked at had an internal "social network". Amongst other things it had a 'naughty words' filter - but it was a bit aggressive and gave rise to problems like this.

For example, the instructions to remove a cover may well have been:

"Turn the main screw anticlockwise and press down hard on the blue tab"

which would end up as
"Turn the main **** anticlockwise and press down **** the blue tab **
Language --Your post has been reported to the administrators**"

Apparently the banned word list wasn't editable !! So there were several messages with longer and longer 'humourous' circumlocutions like "Tapered, inclined helical connection unit with a non curved slot in the upper part".

The really funny part was that adding a space (eg scr ew) defeated the checker. That, and the almost complete absence of obscene messages before the checker anyway.

Nothing new under the sun.

Reminds me of Mandy Rice Davies famous riposte

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

It's called the earth in English -- but the ground in American

brings to mind the classic Dad's Army episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...