BS: If Fakebook (sic) is so clever..........

Subject: BS: If Fakebook (sic) is so clever..........
From: Mr Red
Date: 14 Aug 17 - 06:38 AM

How come I get incessant news feeds about bloody football (soccer)?

The algorithms can, depending on the words you use, predict probabilities about your: religion - past & present, politics, food, interests, dislikes and a host of ephemera. And it still tells me bloody football.

On the plus side, Farcebook is so stupidly busy with football it doesn't tell me the result (by inference) of the latest MotoGP event. The BBC does, but then I have learned to switch off the radio when the news comes on, just in case. Both start with a name - fer gawd's sake!

But when the algorithms get smarter - maybe I will have to size the browser to exclude the news feeds. Not that I normally bother with Fake's news, but familiar names leap out at you & are impossible to ignore. And results are obvious.
BT have a monopoly in the UK on a couple of my interests, and their policy is even more reprehensible. They show pictures of the result for you to click the "catch-up". To make you buy a service that can't be provided in all areas! Mine.

Subject: RE: BS: If Fakebook (sic) is so clever..........
From: Mr Red
Date: 16 Aug 17 - 06:00 AM

Interesting - I have since watched a TED.com video who's mmessage is "Boredom leads to creativity" and one way to achieve it is to stop using Fakebook et al incessantly.

Fakebook is an addictive drug, which removes the boredom that generates daydreaming which can lead to creativity (if you want that).

Which is what I found when Fakebook deemed Mist Er-Red was not a person, but an idea (as if). The account is not now visible AFAIK.
So I happened on a way to make the account invisible, take that Fakebook.

Subject: RE: BS: If Fakebook (sic) is so clever..........
From: JHW
Date: 17 Aug 17 - 04:18 PM

By observation I reckon mobile phones themselves are a drug; people seem unable to leave them alone.
In the old days (ie when I wasn't) at any moment of pause we'd all get the fags out - now it's the mobile phone

Subject: RE: BS: If Fakebook (sic) is so clever..........
From: Newport Boy
Date: 18 Aug 17 - 04:33 AM

@JHW - It's not the mobile phone, it's the "smartphone", designed to make idiots of everyone. I have a mobile phone - it rings when someone calls me and pings when I have a text. It does nothing else, so I'm not tempted to sit and regard it all day.

Phil

Subject: RE: BS: If Fakebook (sic) is so clever..........
From: Mr Red
Date: 18 Aug 17 - 01:04 PM

I have 2 smart phones, one on an OS called Symbian (remember that?) - no-one is writing snoopware for it. It plays music when I get a call, it pings for text and better still the provider texts me back to tell me how much my credit is now. I call & text on it, & at a push I could surf, but don't.
The other is used purely to control my cameras.

Some of us do "smart" and would do smarter if the apps would do useful things like run macros in the spreadsheet.

Subject: RE: BS: If Fakebook (sic) is so clever..........
From: Stanron
Date: 21 Aug 17 - 08:18 AM

They are showing a video on the news today of a deep sink hole opening in a road and a man on a moped, while watching his smart phone, drives right into it.

Subject: RE: BS: If Fakebook (sic) is so clever..........
From: JHW
Date: 21 Aug 17 - 02:24 PM

Perhaps while watching the video of the hole opening up in the road...

Subject: RE: BS: If Fakebook (sic) is so clever..........
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 22 Aug 17 - 01:38 AM

rather than carry a backpack, I pull a trolley & it's amazing how a colourfull trolley is invisible, tho it has only been once that a phone watcher has tripped over it & he managed not to fall, disappointing his friends & me. Or maybe they were just grinning at his crazy dance moves to avoid falling.

I've learnt to drag my trolley behind my side so it is more visible, tho some folks swerve when they are very close.