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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

We have a discrepancy in the reversing car sound situation. @IbisNibs - is that the actual sound you hear from the car reversing [max's post 8017]?

Or is it a faked up version as Naughty Felid says?
The sound I hear does sound like the video posted by Maximus Otter. I don't know what the faked up version of No Mans Sky would sound like. I do surmise tho' that if Naughty Felid calls himself Naughty Felid he might actually be . . . naughty! (Mischievous that is.)
 
Odd and not very polite to dig up someone else's peony, that is, and this opinion emphasized with what I assumed was a referee calling foul play.
I mean, really, if someone goes wandering up a cul-de-sac in the middle of the night, and subtracts a peony with a trowel from someone else's garden, how could it be polite fair play?
 
Odd and not very polite to dig up someone else's peony, that is, and this opinion emphasized with what I assumed was a referee calling foul play.
I mean, really, if someone goes wandering up a cul-de-sac in the middle of the night, and subtracts a peony with a trowel from someone else's garden, how could it be polite fair play?
Quite so. The only proper punishment would be peonal servitude.
 
Our neighbour asked if we had seen anyone hanging around the night before, we live in a quiet cul-de-sac in a village and get no 'passing traffic', you have to be down here for a reason so anybody out of place is very conspicuous.

During the night, somebody has wandered half way up their drive, carefully dug out a single peony, and nicked it.

My first thought was to blame an animal of some sort, but the hole is perfectly square and looks like it was done with a trowel.
This reminds me of an incident a couple of years ago. Knock on the door from immediate neighbour. A very large plastic planter full of soil (but nothing else) had been stolen from her back garden and the witness marks on the ground showed that it had clearly been dragged through the party hedge (which is very thick) onto my driveway. I wasn't sure whether I was being accused, although what neighbour thought I would want with an old plastic thing full of soil, I don't know. The weird thing is of course that the this would have been worthless and must have taken two people to drag it. My first thought was that it might have been taken to smash through a patio door to gain entry, but I don't have one. Weird what scumbags will nick.
 
I was just watching something on Netflix. For a split second I thought about pausing it but then decided against it. At that moment the funny spinning red circle thing appeared on the screen and it paused by itself. I definitely hadn’t touched the remote and I had to click on resume to continue watching!

I do know it was just a coincidental glitch - but for a split second it felt like I was telepathic.
 
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I was just watching something on Netflix. For a split second I thought about pausing it but then decided against it. At that moment the funny spinning red circle thing appeared on the screen and it paused by itself. I definitely hadn’t touched the remote and I had to click on resume to continue watching!

That's the new Netflix Psychic app.
 
I was just watching something on Netflix. For a split second I thought about pausing it but then decided against it. At that moment the funny spinning red circle thing appeared on the screen and it paused by itself. I definitely hadn’t touched the remote and I had to click on resume to continue watching!

in the last year or so, the internet and radio have begun to seemingly read my mind to the point where it's almost absurd. If I were typing things in or even speaking things aloud, I could see where this was coming from, but as it is, it's just puzzling.

Just for example, I had bought a corset from a street vendor (with cash, no credit cards card or anything like that) and one night while I was alone and bored, decided I ought to practice wearing it. After strapping myself in (no easy task, I might add) I went back to business as usual. Suddenly, I began to see ads for corsets popping up online, which freaked me out a bit.

i hadn't done a search for corsets, or looked at them online. My webcam is covered up and the mic shut off, so even if I'd cursed the corset out loud (which I hadn't, even if I'd been tempted) it shouldn't have heard me. And yet now, for the first time ever, I was being inundated with corset ads.

I was left with the impression that somehow the internet knew all about my undergarments and frankly, I didn't appreciate it one bit.
 
Suddenly, I began to see ads for corsets popping up online...

I was left with the impression that somehow the internet knew all about my undergarments and frankly, I didn't appreciate it one bit.

Do any male persons have access to the same computer? Perhaps someone else’s search history may be influencing the selection of ads you are seeing...

:sneaky2:

maximus otter
 
in the last year or so, the internet and radio have begun to seemingly read my mind to the point where it's almost absurd. If I were typing things in or even speaking things aloud, I could see where this was coming from, but as it is, it's just puzzling.

Just for example, I had bought a corset from a street vendor (with cash, no credit cards card or anything like that) and one night while I was alone and bored, decided I ought to practice wearing it. After strapping myself in (no easy task, I might add) I went back to business as usual. Suddenly, I began to see ads for corsets popping up online, which freaked me out a bit.

i hadn't done a search for corsets, or looked at them online. My webcam is covered up and the mic shut off, so even if I'd cursed the corset out loud (which I hadn't, even if I'd been tempted) it shouldn't have heard me. And yet now, for the first time ever, I was being inundated with corset ads.

I was left with the impression that somehow the internet knew all about my undergarments and frankly, I didn't appreciate it one bit.
You've not been telling Alexa and her siblings about your undergarments have you?
Seriously it is disconcerting isn't it? Normally I wouldn't have anything to do with FaceTwitGram, but recently saw the name of an old friend on a public hobby facebook page and wanted to contact him, so signed up pro tem under an assumed name (naughty). First on the list of proposed "friends" was a close friend of mine- I do share a hobby with him but not the one the facebook page is about , and I have never contacted him on the interweb. Don't like it at all.
 
Yes, it's enough to make you feel like paranoia is a sign of sanity, which is a dangerous place to go.

That's a good way of putting it.

Too often, I find myself wondering what I've done that allowed the algorithms to predict my behavior and too often can't figure it out. Used to be, these things were fairly crude - I look up diets online and the next thing I know twitter is throwing random posts with the word "fat" at me - but over the last year they appear to have become more subtle (or dare I say, insidious?)
 
This world needs more corset wearers....and fishnets. Or is it just me that thinks this way?
 
I thought it was just me getting this internet reading your mind thing. I'm well used to the targeted ads/articles popping up based on my searches and hobby interests etc. But it is so very disconcerting when something you've only been thinking about pops up!

Maybe some of the time I'm only thinking about it a I'd unconsciously noticed it already? Then I'm thinking 'bloody hell have I no personal thoughts in my head? .... I'm being subliminally controlled!'

I decided to imagine a statistician coming up with the arguement that it was, after all, not that much of a coincidence. You know, along the lines of it not being that surprising that in a relatively small gathering of people there will be someone sharing your birthday. Not entirely convinced myself on that one but nevertheless I use it to keep at bay my nascent paranoia!

Of course now I'm writing this I can't recall a specific example as it's rarely about anything that's terribly important!

Sollywos x
 
I like to play online freecell solitaire and I've noticed lately that the ads that come with it are from the same companies that send me emails because I've bought something from them at some time ( not online).
 
I play them at their own game. I deliberately do searches for things I have absolutely no interest in buying, randomly, almost daily, just to mess with their algorithms, and it works. Double Decker buses, Motorboats, Chain Mail replicas, surfboard wax, microlights, a job lot of 1000 rucksacks, handbrake cable for a Ford Cortina.....anything that comes to mind....it soon makes the targeted advertising go all out of whack, I can tell ya.
 
I thought it was just me getting this internet reading your mind thing. I'm well used to the targeted ads/articles popping up based on my searches and hobby interests etc. But it is so very disconcerting when something you've only been thinking about pops up!

Maybe some of the time I'm only thinking about it a I'd unconsciously noticed it already? Then I'm thinking 'bloody hell have I no personal thoughts in my head? .... I'm being subliminally controlled!'

I decided to imagine a statistician coming up with the arguement that it was, after all, not that much of a coincidence. You know, along the lines of it not being that surprising that in a relatively small gathering of people there will be someone sharing your birthday. Not entirely convinced myself on that one but nevertheless I use it to keep at bay my nascent paranoia!

Of course now I'm writing this I can't recall a specific example as it's rarely about anything that's terribly important!

Sollywos x
I tried talking enthusiastically about tripe around our phones and mentioning it frequently on Facebook in the hope of invoking some interesting offal-themed advertising. Failed dismally.
 
Maybe there isn't any offal-themed advertising?
'Waffly' themed, now that's a different matter.
Birds Eye Potato Waffles....they're waffly versatile.
(other brands are available)
 
I play them at their own game. I deliberately do searches for things I have absolutely no interest in buying, randomly, almost daily, just to mess with their algorithms, and it works. Double Decker buses, Motorboats, Chain Mail replicas, surfboard wax, microlights, a job lot of 1000 rucksacks, handbrake cable for a Ford Cortina.....anything that comes to mind....it soon makes the targeted advertising go all out of whack, I can tell ya.
That'll teach 'em to be smart.
 
in the last year or so, the internet and radio have begun to seemingly read my mind to the point where it's almost absurd. If I were typing things in or even speaking things aloud, I could see where this was coming from, but as it is, it's just puzzling.

Just for example, I had bought a corset from a street vendor (with cash, no credit cards card or anything like that) and one night while I was alone and bored, decided I ought to practice wearing it. After strapping myself in (no easy task, I might add) I went back to business as usual. Suddenly, I began to see ads for corsets popping up online, which freaked me out a bit.

i hadn't done a search for corsets, or looked at them online. My webcam is covered up and the mic shut off, so even if I'd cursed the corset out loud (which I hadn't, even if I'd been tempted) it shouldn't have heard me. And yet now, for the first time ever, I was being inundated with corset ads.

I was left with the impression that somehow the internet knew all about my undergarments and frankly, I didn't appreciate it one bit.

I've been getting this too, well, I have for a long while to an extent, but during the lockdown it's been getting a bit ridiculous. Not for online ads, but mentions of stuff I've been thinking about cropping up soon after in articles (no, not on women's underwear). Seems I just have to be reminded of some bit of trivia or "whatever happened to?" and it will have been mentioned on the TV, radio or 'net.

I'm thinking you start to get attuned to these things, and find patterns, so your mind begins to expect it and when they do appear, you chalk it up to those weird coincidences.
 
I am but a mere keen observer of such items of clothing rather than a purchaser!
 
I've been getting this too, well, I have for a long while to an extent, but during the lockdown it's been getting a bit ridiculous. Not for online ads, but mentions of stuff I've been thinking about cropping up soon after in articles (no, not on women's underwear). Seems I just have to be reminded of some bit of trivia or "whatever happened to?" and it will have been mentioned on the TV, radio or 'net.

I'm thinking you start to get attuned to these things, and find patterns, so your mind begins to expect it and when they do appear, you chalk it up to those weird coincidences.
One very easy measure to get rid of ads is to install AD Block plus. It's free, instant, and takes a few seconds. I've used this laptop for about 12 months and it has blocked 330,000 ads. Some sites eg online newspapers try to install 50 ads per page, which takes forever. Blocks YouTube ads as well.
 
One very easy measure to get rid of ads is to install AD Block plus. It's free, instant, and takes a few seconds. I've used this laptop for about 12 months and it has blocked 330,000 ads. Some sites eg online newspapers try to install 50 ads per page, which takes forever. Blocks YouTube ads as well.

The trouble with this some sites restrict your ability to see the page if you have ADBLOCK enabled.
 
Yeah I use Adblock Pro on my computers and phones, works a treat. It's easy to whitelist a site if you need to.

I have adblockers and would like to whitelist sites but can't seem to do it. Too complicated! Or am I going about it wrong?
 
I have adblockers and would like to whitelist sites but can't seem to do it. Too complicated! Or am I going about it wrong?

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