Speedy's Cafe - General Chat about anything you like!

[Van Buren Supernova]

On 12/27/2024 at 4:47 AM, Carol the Dabbler said:

 But how was he able to get his toys piled up so high, considering that the stack is way taller than he is?  

 

I think you meant the ones stuck on our skinny Christmas tree? 

I was the one who put it on the tree, he provided tremendous help by making a few-minutes work into an hour, continously picking the toys from them and playing with it. They only perched there. I had the same tree with same decorations with the same dog posing for years (with same santa hat and scarf, I think I had posted it here before) so this (last) year I used his toys and I love it.

On 12/29/2024 at 1:38 PM, Carol the Dabbler said:

I now have some specific details on that, plus an update.

Back in 2014, California voters passed a referendum turning shoplifting from a felony (serious crime) to a misdemeanor (less serious crime).  This meant that not only was the penalty far less, but -- perhaps more relevantly -- the California police cannot arrest someone for a misdemeanor unless it occurs in their presence -- which hardly ever happens, of course.  So, for all intents and purposes, shoplifting became legal in California.

Until the election last month.  There was another referendum on the ballot, to repeal the prior one, and it passed overwhelmingly (something like 70 to 30%), even though the governor had spoken against it and activists were calling it "racist."  As I understand it, the most severe penalties apply only to repeat offenders (as was also the case before 2014), but shoplifting is once again illegal in California.

I believe I saw a video of cops going around and following two shoplifters to catch them on the third act because they could only do so. I could be wrong, but I think that is in line with what you describe there.

However, isn't it still a joke? I don't get the logic. Why would I work hard if I could just go in and 'get' my grocery for free? 950 dollar is a lot of money.

 

You see, I was baptized as Christian, I have a skinny Christmas tree decorated with saliva-ridden dog toys just because I love the feeling of Christmas, nothing religious, but you will see me pray hard when the cashier rings my grocery nowadays, hoping the dollars don't add up that fast, and it's a fraction and bloody far from $950.

[Carol the Dabbler]

On 1/3/2025 at 7:59 PM, Van Buren Supernova said:

I think you meant the [dog toys] stuck on our skinny Christmas tree? 

Apparently -- I can't actually see the tree for all the toys!

On 1/3/2025 at 7:59 PM, Van Buren Supernova said:

I believe I saw a video of cops going around and following two shoplifters to catch them on the third act because they could only do so. I could be wrong, but I think that is in line with what you describe there.

However, isn't it still a joke? I don't get the logic. Why would I work hard if I could just go in and 'get' my grocery for free? 950 dollar is a lot of money.

That would have been about the only way to do it, yes.  But you probably understand why the cops didn't do it on a regular basis -- just too many shoplifters and not enough cops.  Thank goodness the voters of California finally decided that enough was enough!

But it wasn't generally groceries, near as I understand.  They'd typically go for electronics and other high-price items.  And walk out of restaurants (especially the expensive ones, I would guess) without paying.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Recently, when I log into various internet sites, they put up a screen that says "Verifying that you're human," which goes away all by itself after a short time.  If this is a replacement for the "click on all photos that show a bus" puzzles, I am vastly relieved (I mean, is that one corner of a bus or not?).

But now I'm wondering how they're deciding what species I am (or more likely, whether I'm any sort of life form or not).  At first I thought, oh, they just look at the image from my camera.  But then I realized that my monitor doesn't have a camera.  Maybe they're looking at the image from the camera on my laptop (which is behind the monitor), in which case they'd probably see my left elbow.  Maybe that's enough.

Does anyone actually know how that new test works?

 

[J.P.]

It's solely to prove what you are NOT - a bot trying to interact with the website. Sometimes it's pictures (their bad quality ensures that only humans will recognize the elements), some simple mathematical calculations, or re-typing very distorted letters/numbers.

However, with the development of AI, this method might become useless very soon.

[Carol the Dabbler]

56 minutes ago, J.P. said:

Sometimes it's pictures (their bad quality ensures that only humans will recognize the elements), some simple mathematical calculations, or re-typing very distorted letters/numbers.

However, with the development of AI, this method might become useless very soon.

Apparently it already has, because my basic point was that I am no longer seeing those methods used.  Lately there's just a screen telling me to wait a few moments while they decide whether I'm kosher or not.

I looked online, and some people say the decision is now based on my pattern of use -- for example, have I been entering data far more quickly than an actual human could?  Or saying -- in rapid succession -- that I am numerous different people?  If so, they'll decide I'm a bot.  Dunno exactly what they'd do then.  So far, they've always decided I'm human.

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

On 1/5/2025 at 5:05 AM, Carol the Dabbler said:

But it wasn't generally groceries, near as I understand.  They'd typically go for electronics and other high-price items.  And walk out of restaurants (especially the expensive ones, I would guess) without paying.

The ones I had seen were shelves of daily necessity being locked up or marked above 950 (with note to get the reductions on the cashier). 

[Van Buren Supernova]

On 1/5/2025 at 11:31 PM, J.P. said:

It's solely to prove what you are NOT - a bot trying to interact with the website. Sometimes it's pictures (their bad quality ensures that only humans will recognize the elements), some simple mathematical calculations, or re-typing very distorted letters/numbers.

Humans with below 40ish eyes, maybe?

Some images are so blur and unclear there were more than two times when I had to do ten tests. Once I gave up because it was never-ending.

On 1/6/2025 at 12:04 AM, Carol the Dabbler said:

But now I'm wondering how they're deciding what species I am (or more likely, whether I'm any sort of life form or not).  At first I thought, oh, they just look at the image from my camera.  But then I realized that my monitor doesn't have a camera.  Maybe they're looking at the image from the camera on my laptop (which is behind the monitor), in which case they'd probably see my left elbow.  Maybe that's enough.

I don't think they look at the camera (I hope not!). I am that kind of people who always have tape over the cameras. 

Judging by the amounts of bots frequenting almost every social media nowadays, I think they are not doing good jobs at separating humans and bots, although I strongly suspect bots are intentional. Just recently FB mentioned they are introducing bots to interact with humans. Not sure why, because they are already out there everywhere, posting propaganda, chatting users up, etc.

I am 'quite new' to Twitter, in terms of knowing how it works. There are countless of sexy bots thinking I am sexy, sending dms, following in batch. At first I thought they were genuine 'followers' (hate that term) After a while, I am getting slightly smarter now and know I can't be that sexy.

[J.P.]

I may sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I think the underlying purpose of bots is to train the AI behind them. I'm almost sure about the ones on FB. But they are taking them back AFAIK.

[Carol the Dabbler]

12 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

Humans with below 40ish eyes, maybe?

Some images are so blur and unclear there were more than two times when I had to do ten tests. Once I gave up because it was never-ending.

Now I don't feel quite so bad -- at least I have company!

7 hours ago, J.P. said:

I may sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I think the underlying purpose of bots is to train the AI behind them.

That doesn't sound the least bit off-base to me, and I suspect you're right about quite a few of them.  Others may be maintaining databases for search engines or doing other reasonable chores.  There's a lot of non-member activity on this forum, some of which I suspect is by bots.

 

[Fantasy Lover]

Speaking of Facebook, I'm considering deleting my account because of this: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/07/tech/meta-hateful-conduct-policy-update-fact-check/index.html

[Carol the Dabbler]

Thanks for that link.  I had heard that Facebook was changing its rules, and now I'm trying to understand what that article says about the new policy.

Please let me know if I'm misinterpreting the article, but apparently what Facebook did was remove a bunch of very specific former rules, and instead will create "community notes" from members' reactions to posts.  That may actually turn out to be more adaptable to specific situations that arise.  (And I assume they've still got the basic politeness rules that every forum has.)  The new system may take a while to evolve fully, but hopefully it'll be able to detect and deal with a wider range of rudeness than the old rules could.

 

[Fantasy Lover]

I doubt it. Woman can now be declared property, trans and non binary people are going to referred to as it an LGBT people as mentally ill, so no good news at all

[Carol the Dabbler]

4 hours ago, Fantasy Lover said:

I doubt it. Woman can now be declared property, trans and non binary people are going to referred to as it an LGBT people as mentally ill, so no good news at all

Let me point out that this forum (for example) has no specific rules against referring to women as property, etc. -- yet that sort of thing hardly ever happens here, simply because most people don't consider it to be polite, and I assume that Facebook still has a rule that one should be polite.

In short, just because those very specific rules no longer exist, I doubt that most people will start breaking the former rules -- except, of course, for those (mercifully) few who seem to feel obliged to offend.  At which point a lot of other folks will object, and Community Notes will be posted.

In short, I encourage you to give the new system a try.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

For the past few months, my browser has been missing its Reload / Halt button.  I've been doing workarounds, in the assumption that the button would return with the next update -- but there have been several updates and so far it has not.

Anyone else having this problem?  Or know what to do about it?

I've got Firefox (specifically 137.0.2 64-bit) running on Windows 10 (2025-04 Cumulative Update Preview for Windows 10 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems KB5055612).

ADDED July 30th:  Apparently I had accidentally deleted that button at some point.  Just discovered that it's all too easy to delete/move buttons, and have restored a couple of "missing" ones.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Sunday May 4 (AKA tomorrow) is the 50th anniversary of the original release of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and a number of theatres/theatrers in the UK/US (and likely also elsewhere) are showing it -- most of them for just the one day.  (Would have posted that sooner, but just found out.)

Now we're trying to decide whether to A} plan on seeing it in a theater or B} stay home and watch our DVD.  Haven't seen it on a theater screen for 50 years, though, so may go with that option.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

My cousin just sent me a recent obituary for Tom Lehrer, the satirical songster from the 60s.  He was 97, which may show that a sense of humor is good for one's health.

https://www.abcactionnews.com/obituaries/tom-lehrer-song-satirist-and-mathematician-dies-at-97

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

A friend just sent me links to AI-assisted Redneck Star Trek and Redneck TNG, which I find hilarious.  (All starship captains should be required to wear their hair down to their shoulders!)

(I meant to put this in the Star Trek Miscellany thread, but couldn't find it, which presumably means it's high time I got into bed.)

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

The other day I saw a gif of Moriarty in the court room and gasp... I mistook it for a scene in The Great Game!

What happened? I used to know every single scene and quote! To think it came from The Reichenbach Fall, the episode that broke me and sent me here in pieces (I thought he was really dead). 

Is it because I have moved on? No, it's not possible! 

Carol is still having problem with Photobucket. It must only have been half a year since the series, right?

Anyway, I miss you all and I miss the forum where there are more of us bantering. I don't miss the weird time when the series was airing though, it was too scary for me with all the strangers and everyone was posting but no one was reading.

Hope you are all well!

[Carol the Dabbler]

7 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

I used to know every single scene and quote!

Yeah, me too.  (And years earlier, same with Star Trek.)

7 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

To think it came from The Reichenbach Fall, the episode that broke me and sent me here in pieces (I thought he was really dead). 

At first, I thought you meant Moriarty, and was trying to figure out a gentle way to tell you....

TRF sent a lot of us here.  In fact, the forum didn't even exist before that, so I guess it had that effect on Tim and Banshee first.

8 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

Is it because I have moved on? No, it's not possible! 

Well, let's just say we're not currently holding our breath till the next episode airs.  (Could be hazardous to our health.)

8 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

Hope you are all well!

I'm doing quite well, thank you!  And how about you?

Since your last visit (was it really 8 months ago?), we've also heard from Caya (AKA Martina), Fantasy Lover, Fio (Fiona, a new member), J.P., Fox (new member), besleybean, MainlyFreeMan (new member), Lee walsom (new member), Wenjie Liu (new member), SherlockianExpert303 (new member), CunninghamHeritage (new member), Arcadia, Brontodon, tp1983 (new member), moschino_high (new member), chongjasmine, YoungSherlockHolmesFan (formerly CSIBakerStreet), Alastair (new member), and Agne1940 (new member).

As you can see, we've had a lot of new members.  I suspect that most of them wandered off when they didn't see a lot of new activity.  But darn it, if they'd all just stick around and keep posting now and then, we'd *have* a lot of new activity!  A lot of them may have been bitten by other forums that scold you for posting in old threads, so they're afraid to do that here (and having been likewise bitten myself on other forums, can't say as I blame them).  I do sometimes mention our tolerant attitude to newbies, but apparently old habits die hard.  Or perhaps they're here mostly to be entertained, rather than to participate.  *sigh*

 

[Fantasy Lover]

Yeah, I migrated to a star trek forum which celebrated it's 25 year anniversary and people still post stuff on the TOS subforum. Wild man

[Van Buren Supernova]

Thank you so much for holding the fort, Carol!

Does anyone know about Arcadia? I miss her! 

And Toby, SherlockedCamper, Sfmco (if I spell it correctly), Pseudonym were those during my time.  

[Carol the Dabbler]

19 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

Does anyone know about Arcadia?

She's still around now and then, but when she does show up, she sometimes posts in a mods-only private message rather than out in the open.  Apparently her art-teaching career is keeping her pretty busy.  Good heavens, just checked and she hasn't posted in any regular threads for over two years.

19 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

And Toby, SherlockedCamper, Sfmco (if I spell it correctly), Pseudonym were those during my time.

Wow, it's been almost three years for T.o.b.y, seven for SherlockedCAMPer, eight for sfmpco, and six for Pseudonym.  Those links will take you to their profile pages, if you (or anyone else!) would like to send a message encouraging them to come and visit -- and here's a link to Arcadia's profile page too.

 

[Fantasy Lover]

I used to have Inge l-w as a Facebook friend, until she revealed her self to be an anti vaxxer when covid happened. I immediately blocked her, as someone with autism I can't be friends with an anti vaxxer. I hate those people, you have no idea how mad I am on RFK and the scientist who came up with the vaccines = autism

[Carol the Dabbler]

11 hours ago, Fantasy Lover said:

you have no idea how mad I am on RFK and the scientist who came up with the vaccines = autism

I was a bit surprised by that myself, but apparently several studies over many years have shown a high correlation, however were never published, presumably because that might have interfered with drug-company profits.

A number of chronic conditions (not just autism) weren't merely somewhat higher, they were several times higher in kids who had been vaccinated as tiny babies.  It seems the crucial factor is age -- individuals who were vaccinated when slightly older did not show that correlation, apparently because their immune systems had been more mature, and therefore better able to work with the vaccine.

 

[J.P.]

The term Autism is relatively new. Children weren't autistic before, they were strange, difficult, retarded etc, etc. Many didn't have any diagnosis at all.