Journal Entries
Anomie, bonhomie and ergonomics.
Posted Mar 6, 2008
I went to my local Tesco Metro last night to buy a few essentials. They have a couple of people on checkout, plus some of those godawful 'Unidentified item in the bagging area' robots. I refuse to use them.
But last night, I was queuing, and the manager grabbed me.
'Come and use one of these,' he said.
'No.' I replied. 'I hate them.'
'Why?', he asked.
'Because they dimish human contact and engender anomie, plus their sole function is to generate profits for shareholders at the expense of jobs for workers.' I said. No, really - I did! I was in that kind of mood.
'Och, come along!' he insisted. 'I'll do it for you' and he grabbed my basket and started scanning and bagging things. I figured that at least he wasn't saving his employers any labour.
Then at the end, I gave him my card, and he put it in the chip and pin machine.
'There you go!' he said, and walked away.
I stood looking at the machine and waited for it to tell me to enter my PIN. And waited. And waited. Eventually I looked around. The robot's screen, some two feet away, was telling me to press a button to tell it that I'd put a card in it.
I could have lectured the manager on machine paced vs human paced work, or on Alphonse Chapanis's famous work on control/display relationships...but by then I was pissing myself laughing.
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Latest reply: Mar 6, 2008
Noooooooo!!!!!!!
Posted Feb 17, 2008
My iPod went through a wash cycle.
I've taken it apart and blow dried it. The consensus seems to be that if I leave it dry out thoroughly for a week, it *might* work. Maybe. Or maybe not.
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Latest reply: Feb 17, 2008
Out
Posted Feb 9, 2008
I had a rare night out with my Teuchter pal, Sparky Iain, last night.
Beforehand, I took in a movie:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0477348/
My first choice would have been '....Blood', but I certainly wasn't disappointed by this. Superb! The Grauniad reckons that this is the best week ever for films. I'd be more than happy to start a discussion, if anyone else has seen it...?
Then we met and did the beer/chat thing for a few hours.
And we ended up at http://www.kingtuts.co.uk/ - widely reckoned to be the best venue in the UK - to see www.deadstringbrothers.com/ - who were pretty damned good. They finished with one of my favourite Band songs...favourite The Band songs...favourite songs by the band called The Band.
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Latest reply: Feb 9, 2008
Chacago Cicada Haikus
Posted Dec 29, 2007
Ooh! They never told me I'd made the official winners' booklet. (see p4)
http://chicagocicadahaiku.com/
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Latest reply: Dec 29, 2007
My Big Red Button
Posted Dec 14, 2007
Yesterday I discovered that I have a Big Red Button. Or, at least, my car does.
I was driving 'the other car'. I know, I know...some readers will already be askance at the idea of a multi-car family. What can I say? while I'd love to be on a smallholding...er...holding my smalls, my commute is the result of the structural problems of capitalism. Anyhow, I was driving the other car - not from choice - and as per bloody usual, *someone* had let the tank run down right to the last drips. So I pulled off the motorway to go to a filling station - and that's when someone crashed into me. Or I into him, depending on whose version of events one believes. (OK - it was mainly my fault - but he was going too fast).
No injuries and no obvious damage apart from a couple of scrapes and a broken light (his) - but my car wouldn't start. So I called the RAC - and got the same guy who came out when I broke down the other week (£1700 )
And that's how i discovered my Big Red Button. A lot of cars have them, apparently. It's an inertial trip that shuts the engine down after any significant knock. All you have to do is click it back in and the engine will start again. Useful to know. If you have one, it will be somewhere fairly obvious towards the back of the engine.
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Latest reply: Dec 14, 2007
Edward the Bonobo - Gone.
Researcher U803114
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