Gusts and damp air

oday the weekly plan has definitely changed. It’ll be a rather different Sunday. We might not even manage to go feed the birds at the park.

This awful wind, which makes a lot of noise, makes walking and driving unpleasant and dangerous.

Umbrellas in this wind? No way.

I managed to sunbathe a lot this month, but this past week the weather was rather bad and next week it’s Halloween already.

Like 20 and 40

ODAY we are two weeks away from 20 years of Techrights and above is my birthday cake for 40.

For nearly half my life I’ve written for Techrights. That says less about my age and more about how important Techrights has been to me.

I sometimes say that the Web won’t last for much longer (several reasons for this, not the subject of this blog post), but Techrights can outlive the Web and I hope to do it for another 20 years.

I will try again next month

BBC Media City Bridge – Salford (Greater Manchester)

his is the final (for now) part of a short series (see first part, second part, and third part). My intention today is to summarise my findings. A follow-up series may or may not follow.

Based on my written notes (handwritten), upon coming to Manchester City Council Customer Service I discovered that one was unable to pay with cash except via the Post Office, one cannot update one’s details without going through some online portal (which only works with few browsers and naively assumes one has an Internet connection), the phoneline ‘fallback’ was understaffed and thus altogether out of service (at the time; definitely not rush hour), the people at the Manchester City Council Customer Service could not explain anything about the site and would not receive any constructive feedback on how to improve it. On top of all this, no assurances could be made regarding basic services; they seem to lack access to any system of relevance despite 3 or 4 of them being at the desk, unoccupied and yet sedentary (they mostly chatted to one another to pass time).

There seems to be a staff misallocation problem.

When I attempted to make a polite complaint via Manchester City Council Customer Service they pushed back and tried to escalate (or intimidate). I wrote down the first names of two members of staff; I said I would not publicise these, they were not hesitant to give their names; this was not a personal issue whatsoever, but that seems to have motivated them to approach me and try to become more helpful. They didn’t want bad publicity or a word to their superior/supervisor to raise “awkward” question.

I credit one of two of them at the desk for ‘de-escalating’ and ameliorating a hostile (from them) situation. I left in good terms.

I was there around 1PM for over half an hour on October 22. I was told 5-10 working days may be needed for my input to be handled and taken into account.

Part of my input was of a technical nature, so if it’s relayed to some technical team some time by the end of this month, then maybe I should allow them a month or more to take action.

Manchester City Council Customer Service, in my opinion, can be better trained to handle opinionated people whose intent is benign.

I did not go there to argue.

My guess if that they attract some very difficult people, so they have a short fuse and presume malice.

It’s also what has happened to many cops. They handle hard situations with “rough people” – a term they might use on occasions; that makes them more impatient and suspecting (of anybody).

I tried several times

his is the third part of a short series (see first and second parts). Later today or tomorrow I plan to write a summary based on paper notes I had taken and then summarised.

One issue that in hindsight (not upon arrival) I came to discover was that some services were only offered over the phone. Worse yet, despite them having phones at the Manchester City Council Customer Service (across the pathway, opposite from the “customer” desk), those would go to nobody. Upon dialing 102 they would just say we’re too “busy”, then get off the line now or “try later”. Why no queue? Why no in-person contingency?

I tried this several times, minutes apart. I could replicate this.

Imagine what elderly people would need to go through.

I explained to the staff at the desk they are clearly understaffed (over the telephone). There were far too many people (all women) at the desk, not busy at all, and despite it being anything but rush hour (Thursday afternoon) there was nobody to take the call.

I informed them I’d raise the issue or asked if I could escalate locally (when you use a word like “escalate” you immediately get painted as an enemy; asking to speak to a “boss” or “higher up” is equally ‘rude’).

It sort of saddens me to see how much service at Manchester City Council Customer Service has deteriorated since I last visited (years ago).

I’ll try to revisit next month to check if anything has improved following my written feedback.

The other side had to hire an expensive counsel

HE fight against British racism and corruption (fought by Daniel Pocock in his capacity as a political candidate) is not over. He’s still pursuing a case in the United States, having lodged an appeal there.

In the UK, when lodging an appeal, the process can be slow and cumbersome. That’s partly by design.

Leba Hotel

oday it’ll be another cold, rainy day. That’s fine, we could use some more water and the fish are OK now (heated up water, just in time for winter).

I don’t suppose we’ll go to the park today (to feed the birds). With umbrella and coats it won’t be the same.

I guess it’s really winter already, except in Japan.

In the Techrights site we have progressed further with a long series that might interest Linux users. This series will last until next month, maybe even December.

I wonder what RMS thinks of it

ix years ago, in October 2020, I worked on making a text-only (bulletin) version of Techrights. The sister site would have the same thing 3 years later.

In the same month I experimented with putting these bulletins in IPFS, then I looked into more protocols (like Gemini Protocol, which I had already explored before but did not adopt).

So there’s a sort of anniversary in late October. It coincided with the COVID-19 stay-home directives.

Free software (like IPFS) has since then stagnated somewhat. Like blockchains, we barely hear about it anymore.

It still exists, but how many people use it?

I don’t think RMS knows much (or anything) about IPFS. He’s not a fan of fake-coins, so he would probably find IPFS off-putting.