Notices by iona 🐝 (iona@social.coop), page 45

@andybroomfield You joke, I went into Morrisons and paid for my tea with exposure the other day*

*this did not happen

@Sloppy Bienvenue! Merci de me suivre. :)

@devurandom All the episodes where they spend time on a shaky bridge shouting I'VE LOST AUXILIARY POWER! and MAIN DEFLECTORS OFFLINE! while someone sets off flares behind the consoles are boring. You know they're going to get out of the shit.

We used to have the same where I worked - Right Here by SWV meant there was some kind of problem at the station and management should come rushing in. Even now when I hear the first few bars I have a jump!

I've heard The Riddle by Nik Kershaw four or five times in the past few days. It's terrible. Why are you playing it?

Perhaps it's some sort of coded message - if we're under attack, play The Riddle on all radio stations

Are we really meant to believe that in the 24th century they haven't come up with a more efficient way of transferring basic information across a short distance than yelling "SHIELDS DOWN TO 24% CAPTAIN!"?

Even the most tinpot call centre in Wakefield or somewhere has a dashboard of operational stats on the wall.

Are we really meant to believe that in the 23rd century they haven't come up with a more efficient way of transferring basic information across a short distance than yelling "SHIELDS DOWN TO 24% CAPTAIN!"?

Even the most tinpot call centre has a dashboard of operational stats on the wall.

@bobstechsite Microsoft have a history of supporting things for a long, long time. If you signed up for a Hotmail account in the 90s, you can still use that account today. If you find a Word document from 1995 you can open it in today's latest Office.

Google have a record of shuttering things when they aren't the new shiny any more - look at Reader, and even Code itself.

@andybroomfield You'll get your National Freelancer Day card in the post in a couple of weeks when I've sorted out my cashflow issues and oh by the way can you design me a National Freelancer Day card for no extra money?

@ghost_bird Is that a guest publication from Have I Got News For You circa 1994?

@bobstechsite England is too big. Anything that lumps together Barnsley, Cambridge and Penzance is doomed. It has to be regional in nature - the North West or Yorkshire alone have the population of Scotland.

@SpacePrincessHolly What's bubble tea? 🍵

@bobstechsite They could help a lot by getting rid of some of the layers. The CCGs are pointless, they're a money grab by GPs, many of whom are doing very nicely thank you out of the arrangement by being both commissioners and providers.

@bobstechsite From the point of view of the internals of the English NHS, little distinction is now made between NHS and private providers. The CCGs are the ones with the budget, and they 'commission' services from whoever. NHS Trusts are in competition with private outfits for contracts.

It's a deliberate mess, designed to confuse people, extract public money and put it into the pockets of private companies.

@bobstechsite My sister's a midwife - she works in the same rooms in the same hospital using the same equipment, but some days she's working for the NHS and other days she's working for a private provider.

@ghost_bird Where's he going, Blackpool?

@priryo @bobstechsite We're English, we prefer to spend our healthcare budget on the things that matter, like private profits.

@bobstechsite I once stayed in the US with a friend and I was surprised to note that when she went to Walmart to pick up her prescription, it cost less than the UK prescription charge at the time.

I wonder if it's simply the case that we pay the same for everything while Americans pay cost price?

It also shouldn't be £29.10 in England when the rest of the UK gets such things for free, but we're used to that bullshit in England nowadays.

@ghost_bird If they are going to treat university as a transaction - pay £nnnn, get X in return - then I am shocked when I talk to current and recent students about what they actually get for their money.

Really long holidays and "study breaks", infrequent lectures that are regularly cancelled for no good reason, hardly any contact time with lecturers. If it was anything else - a mobile contract or a holiday - and it was this poor you'd cancel and ask for your money back.

@ghost_bird I've been to a couple of universities over the past year for non-academic-related things (mostly events that happen to be taking place on the campus).

They don't have much of a 'university' feel about them these days. If I was to liken them to anything, it'd be a business park or office development.

Perhaps that's intentional - "preparing people for the World Of Work" rather than giving them experiences to round them as people.