Minor Annoyances (Vol 2)

[gmoney]

Truly you can see the power of algorithms when Amazon sends you a notification that you might like to buy some salt and pepper pots - the same ones you bought three weeks ago. Scary how efficient it is. 

[Carbomb]

Hell of a cynical outlook that they consider that you need new pots so soon after buying those. Capitalism of obsolescence taken to an extreme.

[BomberPat]

36 minutes ago, gmoney said:

Truly you can see the power of algorithms when Amazon sends you a notification that you might like to buy some salt and pepper pots - the same ones you bought three weeks ago. Scary how efficient it is. 

I've often found stuff like this reassuring - when people say that big tech knows everything about you, they don't, they know what you spend money on, and then they're not very good at using that data anyway. Buying salt and pepper shakers doesn't mean you're in the market to buy more salt and pepper shakers, it means you want to buy fewer salt and pepper shakers than you did three weeks ago. Amazon is always recommending me stuff I just bought, and my Facebook feed is full of memes from TV shows I've never watched. 

[air_raid]

24 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I've often found stuff like this reassuring - when people say that big tech knows everything about you, they don't, they know what you spend money on, and then they're not very good at using that data anyway. Buying salt and pepper shakers doesn't mean you're in the market to buy more salt and pepper shakers, it means you want to buy fewer salt and pepper shakers than you did three weeks ago. Amazon is always recommending me stuff I just bought, and my Facebook feed is full of memes from TV shows I've never watched. 

I like when I spend a decent amount in Sainsbury's (I know, I know) and the self-checkout spits out a discount voucher that I can use within the next 7 days if I spend £60... the absolute 7 days I'm least inclined to spend another £60 in Sainsbury's.

[lanky316]

That's the lucky Nectar voucher. The times when you pick up travel money to prepare for your holiday - usually just a bit for taxis fares from airports and so on - do a bit of shopping, then get your discount voucher for travel money. I'm not sure anyone has gone in, picked up 50 Euros, got their dinner for the evening and then gone "oh okay, I'll go and get another £300 worth to get my discount" now.

[Lorne Malvo]

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

and my Facebook feed is full of memes from TV shows I've never watched. 

I just logged onto Facebook for the first time in a few weeks and the first thing that came up on my feed was one friend I never interact with wishing another friend happy birthday... from the 31st March.

Their algorithm/feed/whatever you want to call it has been broken for a long time.

[FLips]

I have a Facebook account I only use to browse the marketplace for retro stuff, maybe once a week or two.

It’s fascinating for me to see what Facebook’s algorithm is like as default. I don’t browse it, doomscroll it, have no friends and don’t use it for really anything. My feed when I do open it is filled to the brim with “meme” pages pushing anti-trans rhetoric, AI images, and random wikipedia copy and paste celebrity biographies. No matter how many times I block the pages and remove them from my feed, more show up in their place.

It’s a horrific shithole.

[air_raid]

"Normalcy" I keep hearing on't tellybox. The word is "normality." Are you thick?

[gmoney]

It's more of an Americanism I think, so possibly not incorrect. 

[air_raid]

15 minutes ago, gmoney said:

It's more of an Americanism I think, so possibly not incorrect. 

That makes it worse. We need to keep the Colonists in check, now more than ever!

[gmoney]

2 minutes ago, air_raid said:

That makes it worse. We need to keep the Colonists in check, now more than ever!

You're darn tootin', buddy. 

[SpiritOfTheForest]

Aye normalcy is technically correct - exactly the same meaning as normality, just from American English.

As a pointless aside, I once heard the expression "a return to normalcy" and for some reason imagined a book about a recently retired detective moving back to his childhood home, a small coastal village called Normalsea, at which point strange events start to happen. Why? I've no fucking idea, but I immediately think about it every time someone uses the word normalcy. Could be my Magnum Opus. 

[air_raid]

32 minutes ago, SpiritOfTheForest said:

Aye normalcy is technically correct - exactly the same meaning as normality, just from American English.

So, if my previous reply didn't make it clear - incorrect.

I place no value on the mangling of the language by a people for whom a "bathroom" doesn't have to contain a bath or shower, or who visit the "restroom" when they're having a piss, not a rest. "Parking garage" for multi-storey car park is another load of bollocks - all fucking garages are intended for parking.

[gmoney]

5 minutes ago, air_raid said:

"Parking garage" for multi-storey car park is another load of bollocks - all fucking garages are intended for parking.

Not correct. Garage can also refer to a car mechanic.

What's this "fucking garage" you mention, is this a variant? 

[SuperBacon]

What do you call it? Garage? What do you call it? Urban? What do you call it? 2 step?