Grumble Thread

[Jonathan]

Ouch! Really glad I cancelled it earlier in the year. I hardly ever used it anyway. I tested out Presto's steaming service and quite liked that.

[oddoneout]

Ouch! Really glad I cancelled it earlier in the year. I hardly ever used it anyway. I tested out Presto's steaming service and quite liked that.

Food or fabrics?

[LMcD]

It's not that they don't think, feel or imagine in the same way as us, it's that they don't do any of those things at all. If you type in a prompt, it will give you a probabilistic response based on the enormous amount of data it has to work with, nothing it does involves 'thought' as we understand it. Sometimes what you ask falls down the cracks of what they are able to deal with so you get something that sounds authoritative but is either wholly false or (most annoyingly) a mixture of fact and what it believes to be true. It's a bit like weather data: it is often remarkably accurate, but it's dealing with probabilities not certainties so you can sometimes find it pouring with rain when it's supposed to be sunny.

It's just a highly sophisticated algorithm responding to your input, it's not 'intelligence' in the way we understand it.

'AI' certainly doesn't have a sense of humour. I asked whether bananas grown in Yellowknife would be particularly tasty and received a three-paragraph reply which explained why they almost certainly wouldn't but ended with a suggested set of conditions under which I could try to grow them there while warning me of the likelihood of failure.

[Jonathan]

Food or fabrics?

- (mutters....) "autocorrect" (grumble...)

[Serial_Apologist]

I have the flu. At least that seems to be what it is, as opposed to a heavy cold. You don't - well I've never experienced non-stop tears flooding down my cheeks from a cold, almost making it impossible for me to see what I'm doing, nor a temperature of 102 degs,

It's a damn nuisance - I had lots of activities lined up for this weekend. And these things always spring up from nowhere, usually at weekends when chemists are closed. I'm taking some way past sell-by date lemsips for now, which fortunately do seem to be having some positive effect.

What is so ridiculous is that on Friday it was reported that some 34% of adults are fully protected by the flue and covid jabs.

[Old Grumpy]

Commiserations S_A, sounds bad...


...put some good music on the stereogram and sit back with your favourite tipple.

Get well soon.

OG

[smittims]

Yes indeed, look after yourself SA.

We had what was said tobe Covid two years ago but it felt more like flu to me, amd last year a long-lasting respiratory virus , all of which prompted me to make sure I got my flu jab this aurtumn.

I believe there are many different , if superficiallly similar respiratory viruses which we call 'cold' or 'flu' for convenience. I've no doubt they have lng latin names, but I hope the medical world won't imitate the met office by giving them boy's names, like 'virus charlie'.

[Sir Velo]

In that case my sub is worth a scream - from £19.99 to £21.99 per month. Why so much more than yours?

Definitely the Family subscription for up to 6 members. We have the individual and just have everyone signed in on the same account. Saves a tenner a month.

[Jonathan]

Another major grumble - the absolutely obscene cost of a pair of glasses these days. My prescription changes often and I have several incurable eye conditions so I am heartily and thoroughly sick of paying hundreds of pounds every year just so I can see.

I've decided to try out one of these cheap places on the Internet in the new year and compare them with the expensive ones I've just had to fork out for.

[oddoneout]

Another major grumble - the absolutely obscene cost of a pair of glasses these days. My prescription changes often and I have several incurable eye conditions so I am heartily and thoroughly sick of paying hundreds of pounds every year just so I can see.

I've decided to try out one of these cheap places on the Internet in the new year and compare them with the expensive ones I've just had to fork out for.

Do you get new frames as well as lenses or just the new lenses? I get my existing frames re-lensed until such time as either the optician says it can't be done(a change in prescription sometimes means new lenses won't fit into the frame, or the frame is no longer considered robust enough ) or I decide I'd like a change(rarely!). It was a financial necessity when I first started doing it, and later when that wasn't quite so critical there were times when fashion trends meant that the frames available were either totally not to my taste or unsuitable for the lenses, so I stuck with what I had. Another reason has been that wearing in a new groove behind my ears that the earpieces on new frames cause is uncomfortable or sometimes painful so I don't want to incur it unnecessarily.

[french frank]

Do you get new frames as well as lenses or just the new lenses? I get my existing frames re-lensed until such time as either the optician says it can't be done(a change in prescription sometimes means new lenses won't fit into the frame, or the frame is no longer considered robust enough ) or I decide I'd like a change(rarely!). It was a financial necessity when I first started doing it, and later when that wasn't quite so critical there were times when fashion trends meant that the frames available were either totally not to my taste or unsuitable for the lenses, so I stuck with what I had.

I haven't bought any new frames for years, but the Nikon lenses still run into a couple of hundred pounds. I have two frames and alternate them, and always have a best/newest pair and a second-best pair.

[Petrushka]

Another major grumble - the absolutely obscene cost of a pair of glasses these days. My prescription changes often and I have several incurable eye conditions so I am heartily and thoroughly sick of paying hundreds of pounds every year just so I can see.

I've decided to try out one of these cheap places on the Internet in the new year and compare them with the expensive ones I've just had to fork out for.

I sympathise. I've worn glasses since I was three in 1957 (remember those salmon pink NHS frames with wire earpieces?)

The cost of the frames is neglible compared to the cost of the lens but, like you, I have an incurable, but manageable, eye condition and my optician is really very, very good so there is no chance that I would desert him for any Internet merchant, no matter what the cost.

Due to my eye condition, I have difficulty in seeing against sunlight (photophobia) so at the next appointment in March I will have to give serious consideration to having prescription sunglasses or reactolite lens, something my optician strongly recommends.

I already have very complex lens so the cost will probably be somewhere in the stratosphere.

[Pulcinella]

Another major grumble - the absolutely obscene cost of a pair of glasses these days. My prescription changes often and I have several incurable eye conditions so I am heartily and thoroughly sick of paying hundreds of pounds every year just so I can see.

I've decided to try out one of these cheap places on the Internet in the new year and compare them with the expensive ones I've just had to fork out for.

Presumably contact lenses are not an option.
A Specsavers monthly direct debit subscription (you get lenses for three months at a time, but you choose how many, say 60 or 90 pairs) would allow you to switch/change strengths at hardly any cost apart from unused lenses (if in complete boxes I think they can be returned and refunded).

[cloughie]

I sympathise. I've worn glasses since I was three in 1957 (remember those salmon pink NHS frames with wire earpieces?)

The cost of the frames is neglible compared to the cost of the lens but, like you, I have an incurable, but manageable, eye condition and my optician is really very, very good so there is no chance that I would desert him for any Internet merchant, no matter what the cost.

Due to my eye condition, I have difficulty in seeing against sunlight (photophobia) so at the next appointment in March I will have to give serious consideration to having prescription sunglasses or reactolite lens, something my optician strongly recommends.

I already have very complex lens so the cost will probably be somewhere in the stratosphere.

I’ve worn reactolite varifocals for many years now - the low sun this time of year is really testing!

[Petrushka]

I’ve worn reactolite varifocals for many years now - the low sun this time of year is really testing!

I find it so bad I'd rather have it grey and raining! I can't have varifocals due to the thickness of the lens for my left eye (think those Shostakovich lens!) but I think I'm going to have to reluctantly go with the reactolites.