News story of the day

[chrisp65]

My last car had reactive cruise control that would speed up and slow down to maintain distance. It had auto wipers and auto lights. Lane keep steering adjustment and auto braking.

If the weather conditions got tricky, i.e. really heavy rain or snow, it would all switch off.

I always thought it odd that all the driver safety aids would switch off in the most extreme of conditions when you could argue you need them most. But a bit of snow and it was ‘nope, over to you’.

 

[Genie]

2 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

My last car had reactive cruise control that would speed up and slow down to maintain distance. It had auto wipers and auto lights. Lane keep steering adjustment and auto braking.

If the weather conditions got tricky, i.e. really heavy rain or snow, it would all switch off.

I always thought it odd that all the driver safety aids would switch off in the most extreme of conditions when you could argue you need them most. But a bit of snow and it was ‘nope, over to you’.

 

It’s because the rain or snow interferes with the camera/radar (depending on which system it has) and reduce its ability to work perfectly.

I agree though, it would be nice to have these enabled in the most extreme weather.

[Xela]

Probably one for the boring thread but I only used cruise control last year for the first time! All my cars since '06 have had it, I just never used it before. 

Nothing fancy like adaptive cruise control but still. 

[mjmooney]

13 minutes ago, Xela said:

Probably one for the boring thread but I only used cruise control last year for the first time! All my cars since '06 have had it, I just never used it before. 

Nothing fancy like adaptive cruise control but still. 

Still never used it on mine. Too scared. 

[bickster]

16 minutes ago, Xela said:

Probably one for the boring thread but I only used cruise control last year for the first time! All my cars since '06 have had it, I just never used it before. 

Nothing fancy like adaptive cruise control but still. 

I hate it

[Genie]

I never use cruise control. 
My car also has the fancy self parking feature and I’ve never used it. 

[BOF]

Amazing.

Italian hospital employee accused of skipping work for 15 years

Quote

Italian hospital employee accused of skipping work for 15 years

A hospital employee in Italy has been accused of skipping work on full pay for 15 years, local media report.

The man is alleged to have stopped turning up to work at the Ciaccio hospital in the southern city of Catanzaro in 2005.

He is now being investigated for fraud, extortion and abuse of office, Italian news agency Ansa reports.

He was reportedly paid €538,000 (£464,000) in total over the years he is thought not to have been working.

Six managers at the hospital are also being investigated in connection with the alleged absenteeism.

The arrests are the result of a lengthy police investigation into absenteeism and suspected fraud in the Italian public sector.

 

More in link...

 

[bannedfromHandV]

I use my cruise control regularly now, any time I’m on the motorway it’s set to 72mph and then I just rest my legs, it’s great!

Had a VW courtesy car a few years back which had adaptive cruise control which was even better again.

[blandy]

On 20/04/2021 at 20:39, chrisp65 said:

My last car had reactive cruise control that would speed up and slow down to maintain distance. It had auto wipers and auto lights. Lane keep steering adjustment and auto braking.

If the weather conditions got tricky, i.e. really heavy rain or snow, it would all switch off.

I always thought it odd that all the driver safety aids would switch off in the most extreme of conditions when you could argue you need them most. But a bit of snow and it was ‘nope, over to you’.

Like @Geniesays, there's issues with rain/snowfall interfering with the sensors, but the other thing is the safety distances need to be much larger is rough driving conditions, so the pre-programmed distances etc. are insufficient, or might be, particularly if people get in the mindset of thinking the safe driving machine will keep them safe.

[bannedfromHandV]

Just now, blandy said:

Liek @Geniesays, there's issues with rain/snowfall interfering with the sensors, but the other thing is the safety distances need to be much larger is rough driving conditions, so the pre-programmed distances etc. are insufficient, or might be, particularly if people get in the mindset of thinking the machine will keep them safe.

Yeah we tested that a couple of times and had to slam on the brakes because the ACC was blatantly going to let us run into the car in front.

 

Still pretty amazing tech tho.

[bannedfromHandV]

The Post Office accounting scandal is in the news again today, with people now seeking to overturn wrongful criminal convictions.

Its damning of our ‘judicial’ system that these people are even having to go through a process to achieve this, any convictions should have been immediately wiped clear once the ineptitude of the Post Office became clear.

The impact on these peoples lives are beyond compensation in some instances, many of the Post Offices they ran were small, local village type setups. These people have become pariahs in their own community’s, unable to find work and in some cases with criminal convictions. Thanks to the way our wonderful CPS work too, some had to plead guilty to lesser charges to avoid a trial and potential prison sentence for more severe charges - this whole thing stinks to high heaven and should be far bigger news than it is.

I’d like to pinpoint one or two Senior people within the post office and pin all the prison sentences dished out to the post masters on them instead, heads should be rolling for this mess, but of course, they won’t. 

[mjmooney]

2 hours ago, bannedfromHandV said:

The Post Office accounting scandal is in the news again today, with people now seeking to overturn wrongful criminal convictions.

Its damning of our ‘judicial’ system that these people are even having to go through a process to achieve this, any convictions should have been immediately wiped clear once the ineptitude of the Post Office became clear.

The impact on these peoples lives are beyond compensation in some instances, many of the Post Offices they ran were small, local village type setups. These people have become pariahs in their own community’s, unable to find work and in some cases with criminal convictions. Thanks to the way our wonderful CPS work too, some had to plead guilty to lesser charges to avoid a trial and potential prison sentence for more severe charges - this whole thing stinks to high heaven and should be far bigger news than it is.

I’d like to pinpoint one or two Senior people within the post office and pin all the prison sentences dished out to the post masters on them instead, heads should be rolling for this mess, but of course, they won’t. 

This. As soon as this story started, I thought "Obvious I.T. error". One or two of them might have been on the fiddle, but not 39. Should never have got to court. 

[bannedfromHandV]

8 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

This. As soon as this story started, I thought "Obvious I.T. error". One or two of them might have been on the fiddle, but not 39. Should never have got to court. 

Exactly, some of these folks were flagging up concerns long before they were then accused of being thieves, how these people were found guilty in a court of law is beyond me, there can’t have been any proof of them taking the funds other than the funds being missing so how on earth has it got so far.

[bickster]

Has @tonyh29been having a more than his usual half a shandy now lockdown has ended and going on a lemonade fuelled anti-environmental rampage?

Quote

Man arrested after dozens of trees cut down in middle of night in Surrey village

Police found ‘several chainsaws and wood chippings,’ at man’s home [...]

Indie

[Xela]

On 23/04/2021 at 09:41, bannedfromHandV said:

The Post Office accounting scandal is in the news again today, with people now seeking to overturn wrongful criminal convictions.

Its damning of our ‘judicial’ system that these people are even having to go through a process to achieve this, any convictions should have been immediately wiped clear once the ineptitude of the Post Office became clear.

The impact on these peoples lives are beyond compensation in some instances, many of the Post Offices they ran were small, local village type setups. These people have become pariahs in their own community’s, unable to find work and in some cases with criminal convictions. Thanks to the way our wonderful CPS work too, some had to plead guilty to lesser charges to avoid a trial and potential prison sentence for more severe charges - this whole thing stinks to high heaven and should be far bigger news than it is.

I’d like to pinpoint one or two Senior people within the post office and pin all the prison sentences dished out to the post masters on them instead, heads should be rolling for this mess, but of course, they won’t. 

Some people have had to pay huge amounts out of their own pockets to the Post Office because of IT errors. All they got from from the Post Office was an apology. Disgraceful. 

Hopefully they'll all get a load of compensation. Won't right the wrongs but they deserve something nice from it. 

Another scandal is the current fire safety bill the Government is trying to force through the Commons. Basically making it the responsibility of the leaseholder to pay for repairs on poorly built new build flats, some of which need up to £100k of remedial work each to make safe. Some of the flats weren't even built to the laws/regulations at the time. You'd think the builders/developers would be on the hook? Nah, they're donors to the tory party. They'd rather bankrupt the leaseholder, who purchased the properties in good faith after they'd been signed off as 'safe'. 

Sorry, it makes me really angry. 

[tonyh29]

1 hour ago, bickster said:

Has @tonyh29been having a more than his usual half a shandy now lockdown has ended and going on a lemonade fuelled anti-environmental rampage?

Indie

Was just up the road from me in Weybridge ... must be something in the water up there ... few months back some young woman stripped off naked and stood on the roundabout preaching about sin 

Mad as a box of frogs ... but you still would 

[chrisp65]

5 minutes ago, Xela said:

Some people have had to pay huge amounts out of their own pockets to the Post Office because of IT errors. All they got from from the Post Office was an apology. Disgraceful. 

Hopefully they'll all get a load of compensation. Won't right the wrongs but they deserve something nice from it. 

Another scandal is the current fire safety bill the Government is trying to force through the Commons. Basically making it the responsibility of the leaseholder to pay for repairs on poorly built new build flats, some of which need up to £100k of remedial work each to make safe. Some of the flats weren't even built to the laws/regulations at the time. You'd think the builders/developers would be on the hook? Nah, they're donors to the tory party. They'd rather bankrupt the leaseholder, who purchased the properties in good faith after they'd been signed off as 'safe'. 

Sorry, it makes me really angry. 

 

Cast your mind back one week to a government and a Prime Minister that leapt in to action unprompted within 48 hours to promise to move heaven and earth to pass retrospective legislation and to alter the tax system to stop the football format being changed.

Cast your mind back one week to a billionaire texting the Prime Minister for immediate action so they didn’t have to pay tax, and getting a text response that it was sorted.

 

 

 

 

 

[sidcow]

On 21/04/2021 at 18:12, Xela said:

Probably one for the boring thread but I only used cruise control last year for the first time! All my cars since '06 have had it, I just never used it before. 

Nothing fancy like adaptive cruise control but still. 

It's not really great for our crowded UK roads.

Much more useful for American and Australian and some European roads where there are miles and miles of roads with not much traffic on them.

[Tegis]

Rascally beavers took down internet service

Quote

“Beavers have chewed through our fibre cable at multiple points, causing extensive damage,” said Telus spokesperson Liz Sauvé in an email to Gizmodo. “Our team located a nearby dam, and it appears the beavers dug underground alongside the creek to reach our cable, which is buried about three feet underground and protected by a 4.5-inch thick conduit. The beavers first chewed through the conduit before chewing through the cable in multiple locations.”

Telus said it was “very sorry for this interruption,”  “a very unusual and uniquely Canadian turn of events.”

 

[mjmooney]

5 minutes ago, Tegis said:

Rascally beavers took down internet service

 

Damn it.