Be Excellent To Each Other

Also known as 'Facebook codes messenger app badly so that people stop messaging and instead have their interactions out in public for extra interaction, dramas and ad potentials.'

Hmmm, the app wasn't running as I hadn't used it since the last reboot of my phone so I launched and then minimised it and it's grabbed 3% of overall battery usage since my last post. That's not great really.

wow, that is bad. I have refused to load it on my phone, as I don't get many messages, and don't want another always on app running (esp if this bad at battery life).

I was put off for a while by the horrendous list of permissions but a few of my mates kept using it to arrange nights out so I'd only know what was happening whenever I went and refreshed the website. Now I've switched onto the Facebook app (which is a shitload more usable than the website on my phone) I'm completely screwed if anyone messages me and I don't have the Messenger app installed (as I understand it).

So, in summary: bollocks.

But it's cool, because Zio's going to fix all this of course.

yes it was the permissions that seem a bit OTT.

Yeah, but you've only read the permissions because of the scaremongering stories. Go look at a sample of other apps, like WhatsApp. Same permissions. Because Android doesn't have granularity of permissions between 'obviously needs this to allow you to take a photo and send it' and ZOMG IT CAN USE MY CAMERA WHENEVER IT WANTS. The wording off the permissions is a bit terrifying, but yeah. It asks for what it needs to be able to do the job it does.

No, it's just because I'm a bit iffy in general of Facebook plundering my phone contact data. The website's fine because it doesn't have access to anything in my Google account but I was always a bit worried about the Facebook app which meant I was looking at the permissions for the Messenger app with the same suspicion. Although I can't remember why I was suspicious of the main Facebook app now. I think I read something years ago about it not being very clear that it was going to harvest your Google contacts and make connections based on that data, or something, which they've probably fixed now anyway.

There is a great system in teh PO near us. You pick up a deli-style ticket by visiting a little electronic terminal which issues you a deli-style ticket according to the service9s) you require. You then take a seat and a screen system filters you into one of a number of queues depending on the sevices most under demand and those that require various amounts of time/expertise to deal with.

I haven't noticed anything awful aboutthe messanger app, and it hasn't affected my battery life. My only complaint is it seems to have increased the number of people sending me messages, and half of them i have no interest in chatting to.

Actually, you aren't, just log into the website from a web browser and you can see them all.

Yeah, that's what I do now. You don't get notifications though if you do that.

Well, yeah, but the context of my comment there was with me having moved to use the app almost exclusively to access Facebook, and that won't tell you about messages as it assumes you've installed the separate Messenger app. To reliably get messages you need to either (a) use the Facebook website for general access or (b) install both the main Facebook app and separate Messenger app.

I have notifications turned off, but the widget lets you know there is a notification, and then you load the app and if it is a message you log into the website. Not ideal, but if the messenger is as bad as people say, then ...

Ooh yeah, I went into one like that in Central London. Expected sending a parcel to take ten minutes or so, actually I was in and out within two minutes.

The Reading one like that does a great second hand ticket trade, as people give up waiting after half an hour and walk out. They have a person on the door to collect their ticket from them and hand it out to a new person who arrives

Scotland! I am in yies!

Where exactly are you?

So we know where to send the gunmen obviously.

He's just come in to get voting rights.

Bloody foreigners.

Vote YES for a prosperous rUK!

Luckily, I remembered it is my wedding anniversary on Monday. First year is cotton, so I nipped to Tesco and bought MrsA a tea towel.

I'm going to vote Yes for the peace of mind that a formal border control separates you from me.

Maybe that'll succeed where the restraining order has failed so woefully.

I've got three letters for you: CTA.

Blimey, so it is. I thought it was paper.

Hmmm...

It's paper if you're American, those two are switched around.

Aviemore ish.

But why?

Nowhere near me then really. Oh well, enjoy!

Cos he'd walk five hundred miles.

I always thought that 500 miles was justified as a concept.

Its the missing song afterwards when he has to walk 500 miles back having got his end away and being bloody shattered that I don't think should be disregarded.

Somehow, and I believe more by chance than by skill, I have avoided a full-blown mental breakdown today.

Through, frankly, other peoples' incompetance, I have experienced what has been probably the worst handling of a situation that I have ever encountered. Without boring you, someone has probably made about every mistake possible between monday and Wednesday, gone on holiday and the result of all those problems hit us yesterday and today.

I did snap a little when someone tried to bare-faced lie to me, though only by telling them that no, that wasn't tre, but how I have not stormed around the office with a chainsaw and lopped off heads I do not know.

And I have just found out that, somehow, I have fixed all those problems. Problems so big that nobody thought we could find a solution without massive costs costing thousands. And, somehow, I've done it without us losing a penny.

And who is here to congratulate or than me? Nobody. Just me.

Well, well done me.

I actually want to go and have a little cry, but I refuse to give anyone the enjoyment of that sight. I'll do it when I get home.

He's not walking to see her, he's walking just to be the man who would perform teh crazy act of walking 1000 miles to her door. He clearly lives next door to her, walks 500 miles away then 500 miles back. It's a round trip.

I'm sure if she was sensible she'd turn him away as he'd clearly mental.

I want to hear the song about helmet chaffing, damnit.

Ohhhh... ALS is Motor Neurone Disease. Why the rebranding?

I think that's like saying, why have taps been rebranded faucets, why have pavements been rebranded sidewalks and why have they rebranded lifts to elevators.

What I am saying is that in America they call Motor Neurone Disease ALS.

Malc

It's all Disney's fault.

You've gone to see where they filmed Brave?

Sometimes it's very hard not to laugh at your children.

I popped out to the shops earlier, and on the way out starting doing the "manamana" thing from the Muppets. The kids asked what it was, and I explained it was a song from a TV show when I was a kid, and that it had stuck in my head since then. they asked to see it, so whilst I was out Ruth showed them the video on Youtube, which they hugely enjoyed. Fast forward a few hours, and Second Born can't sleep and is in fits of tears because "that song's a brainworm and it will be there forever and I can't sleep and I wish I'd never watched it".

Tomorrow I'll leekspin him.

Make them watch Watership Down, that'll learn 'em.

That still gives me nightmares.

My wife and I were driving back from from lunch yesterday when we saw a rather plump girl strolling along the pavement in an inappropriately short and tight pair of denim shorts, with black tights beneath. I resisted the temptation to make a comment, but my wife didn't.

"Would you?" she said.

What went through my head was, "she's not my type," but I knew what she really meant was, "would you wear those shorts if you were built like that?"

Maybe you had to be there.

you should have said, "yes".

I am at a wedding. It is full of geeks. It's making me miss you guys.

That is technically called cheating, seeing other geeks.

I need to buy an HDMI cable and I know there are a few versions of the HDMI standard these days but is it safe to assume all the cables are compatible? So, like, I don't need to look for a cable that specifically supports HDMI v2 or anything do I?