Insanely stupid products

Ever wondered what it would be like if all pavements had travellators so you could walk twice as quickly??

https://shiftrobotics.io/

There are no streetlights here, plus my house is about 150m down a gravel track and is black – if I didn’t have lights on the outside, we’d never find it in the dark 🤣

We have some LED floodlights for taking the dog into the garden at night or making sure you don’t step outside into a herd of deer. Maybe we need to fit some hi-viz vests and torches to the deer?

I struggle with this due to my own experience of living miles from anywhere. I find using car or bicycle lights on the approach helps with property location, and a head torch each hanging by the door sorts everything else. I definitely stand in the lighting is pollution camp. Lovely stars and northern lights where I am, plus deer (unfortunately, tree killers due to a population out of control).

I struggle with this due to my own experience of living miles from anywhere.

Unfortunately, its a walk and a set of steps from the dirt track outside my place to the front door, and the garage/parking is also a walk. (more steps).

So i have approach lights on a smart sensor (and some that are on a timer/smart functionality). So 95% of the time they are off, or barely ticking over. And i can do a global switch off too. Reminds me, need to update the flood light on the garage, have an extra switch for it…

The water in UK toilets is of a drinking standard so unless you’re in the third world I think essential is pushing it a bit.

Doesn’t taste very nice though does it

steve_b77

Doesn’t taste very nice though does it

Depends what flavour of bloo we’re using- the citrus one is not bad, I don’t rate the blueberry though

@waderider As per the other thread, the solution to too many deer is to eat them?

Not after you’ve tasted it it won’t

If you heat it up and whisk in some butter, salt, and black pepper, it’ll taste like butter, salt, and black pepper, just like regular mashed potatoes. If you fry up some bacon and garlic and mix that in too, it’ll taste like bacon and garlic.

I bought a deep fat fryer a few years back. It may be less healthy, but makes significantly better (and cheaper*) chips than the oven.

Blanching(part cooking, then after they’ve cooled down, cooking a second time) first is apparently the best way to get a quality chip.

@waderider As per the other thread, the solution to too many deer is to eat them?

Agreed, I do! I actively facilitate the humane death of deer by keeping accesses open for stalkers. It helps me sleep at night. The damage they do at their current population density……

I sometimes buy the mashed potatoes, they’re more expensive than standard potatoes but they’re still cheap, and they help turn what would otherwise be “meal that requires a little preparation” into “meal that you just throw in the oven” which doesn’t sound like much but it’s the difference between “eat this meal, or eat a readymeal” when you just really can’t be arsed. And I’m probably more likely to throw together some salad as it heats/cooks since I’m not doing any pre-prep. If it’s not for you, fine, but it’s not stupid

csb
Full Member

Funny thing about water in liquid state is that it spills out of imbalanced containers. A level ice cube tray is essential!

Mine has a lid. Disruptive technology!

Got one! MIL bought all five of us matching Christmas pyjamas.

They’re a fleece type material, which doesn’t breathe and is as sweaty as hell.

I had the worst night’s sleep in a long time, washed them and shoved them in the clothes recycling. All three kids complained about theirs within 3 days and the wifes are in her floordrobe, unworn.

The kids will have grown enough by next year to mean they’re pointless.

So it’s five sets of clothes for a total of about 10 nights sleep, before they are lobbed.

And for what? An insta moment? No wonder the planet is ****.

Got one! MIL bought all five of us matching Christmas pyjamas.

They’re a fleece type material, which doesn’t breathe and is as sweaty as hell.

Oh god, i had those as well, 4-5 years ago now.
Only thing we found them useful for was camping, as sets of “mooching round the campsite” clothes.

I have to admit I am astonished that folk have admitted buying pre mashed potatoes.  That has really baffled me.  Two unlikely folk as well.

*walks off muttering about the youth of today*

Mashed potatoes without added black pepper, parsnip, celeriac and cream is just a waste of carbs.

Sauteed spring onion and seasoning.  Nowt else for most things

Well celeriac mash goes well with fish

Are people actually admitting to not being able to find their own house without outside lighting? You live there! Do you not get used to where it’s located?

We’re **** as a species aren’t we?

Even worse they buy pre mashed potatoes!

Are people actually admitting to not being able to find their own house without outside lighting?

Yeah, it’s dark out here. Pretty much zero light pollution. Switch the lights off and you literally can’t see your hand on front of your face unless the moon is out.

Visitors have it even worse, because they don’t even know how many steps…

Eat more carrots. Not pre grated ones though. Still think down and up lights are utterly ridiculous.

The pre made-carrot and suede mashed potato is pretty good. Mix a bit of frozen mixed veg into it aswell and nuke it.
Dump some caramelised onions on top and a few bangers on the side!

Bish bash bosh, lovely! 😀

Yes, I’m contemptible having a few LED lights on sensors when I should be demanding the council install at least a dozen halogen streetlights burning from dawn to dusk! Original post may contain irony.

Yorkshire pudding mix.

It’s a powder, to which you need to add an egg and a liquid (water)

As opposed to using flour to which you need to add an egg and a liquid (milk)

But three times the price.

I’ve racked my brains trying to think of a scenario where you have no access to milk, but still have an oven..

Yorkshire pudding mix.

It’s a powder, to which you need to add an egg and a liquid (water)

Do you have to add egg?

The US is the king of this. It’s bleeding over here slowly now but I boggled the first time I saw pancake mix as a product. Its USP is that it’s in a shaky bottle; add [water|milk]?, shake, pour. US recipes routinely include ingredients like “1 box of [brand] fudge brownie cake mix” which I find deeply weird, your published recipe is basically “follow the instructions on the packet and then pour sauce over the top.” But then this is a country where “flour” and “sifted flour” are two different measurements so I can’t say as I’m wholly surprised that baking from scratch is challenging.

The pre made-carrot and suede mashed potato is pretty good. Mix a bit of

Where’s the gravy?

But then this is a country where “flour” and “sifted flour” are two different measurements

Well as they use volume as a measure, they are.

Long, narrow, dark drive (3 street lights for the entire cup de sac and I’m at the end) and I have to weave the wheelie bins up and back every week, without hitting the Mrs’s car. Downligters are essential to the longevity of my marriage.

What you need there is a head torch.

What you need there is a head torch.

Or I just press a handily placed switch, walk the bins down to the road without blinding anyone coming the other way and switch the lights off when I lock the door. Seems perfectly sensible to me.

Do you walk about inside your house at night with the lights off and a head torch, or do you just switch room lights on and off as you need them? FFS

Also, randomly generated passwords aren’t exactly the best choice for passwords. Computers are great at tumbling through letters and numbers. You’re better off with a pass phrase.

Hmm, clearly you’ve never heard of a dictionary attack. That’s actually the quickest way to crack a password, random non sequential passwords with a wide range of character types are massively more secure (but come with their own baggage).

I actually have head torches, several of them.

Useful for when I get away from the house and the lights.

Funnily enough, random visitors to the house quite often don’t.

I also don’t use them while in the house, unless the power goes out, again. Or I’ve got my head stuffed into a hole somewhere.

Surely the most secure passwords are the ones that you can remember don’t have to write down?

As we computerised in the NHS we ended up with 3 different logins al with different rules as to how they could be done and different timescales which they needed to be changed and different user name formats.  As a result almost everyone had their passwords written down often on post it note stuffed inside the desk drawer

A classic case IMO of trying to make things more secure but failing on the interface between the computer and the people

Or I just press a handily placed switch, walk the bins down to the road without blinding anyone coming the other way and switch the lights off when I lock the door. Seems perfectly sensible to me.

That’s exactly how head torches work.

Do you walk about inside your house at night with the lights off and a head torch, or do you just switch room lights on and off as you need them? FFS

A pocket torch but, if everyone else is in bed and I don’t want to wake them then yes.

As we computerised in the NHS we ended up with 3 different logins al with different rules as to how they could be done and different timescales which they needed to be changed and different user name formats

I was – briefly – involved in trying to get SSO (single sign on) implemented in a chunk of the NHS. It was truly broken from beginning to end, anything that could have been wrong was. It was never, ever going to work in the manner it had been sold. In the end either we walked away or the trust pulled the plug, I don’t remember now, but it was shitcanned and cost hundreds of thousands.

Do you have to add egg?

Surprisingly, yes. Looking at the ingredients, it’s flour, skimmed milk powder and salt

We’ve had one for years, work great as a set of tongues for turning bacon in the pan, fishing poppadoms out of the fat etc. Don’t use it for tea bags though.

The pre made-carrot and suede mashed potato is pretty good.

Don’t you find it a bit leathery?

I do. Made me feel particularly blue that day.

Re passwords. My passwords are just random strings of letters and characters. Actually they aren’t, they’re the first letters of lines from songs, films or phrases, etc where I’ve replaced some letters with numbers or characters and also I have some capitalisation strategies. Against brute force attacks I think they look like just 10+ character passwords and if three word combos like smalltattoomonkey are not recognised as words then I’m pretty sure mine won’t be

I do need a list of them though but that is just the minimum which reminds me of the phrase. The capitalisation and characters you come to remember relatively easily

Example (not a live one, I’m not that confident)

w@1W4igaS? and reminder human

How crackable w/o the clue (usually it’s longer) and does the clue help a computer?

Surprisingly, yes. Looking at the ingredients, it’s flour, skimmed milk powder and salt

That’s lunacy.

Don’t you find it a bit leathery?

Well played. 👏

In the end either we walked away or the trust pulled the plug, I don’t remember now, but it was shitcanned and cost hundreds of thousands

‘We’ did a PACS job just like that with the same experience/results but £M’s. Life in Consultancy… <sigh>

So it’s five sets of clothes for a total of about 10 nights sleep, before they are lobbed.

Put them on vinted