Month: October 2023

Self Checkout

On By JohnIn human condition, politics, scienceLeave a comment

Second verse. Same as the first… also, this was a draft and was an unexpected post a few hours ago. So, we’ll do it again:

The question (rant?) posed elsewhere was as follows:

Self checkout nightmare
At the grocery store today the cashier just closed the register without warning right as it was my turn after I’d waited in line for a while. They were also the only staffed register option open.
The only other option was self checkout so I went there with a full cart which I always hate. In the end a few items wouldn’t scan, and I needed an employee to come and manually enter them into the system which took ages!
So not only was it made significantly more difficult for me than just keeping the register open, but they still needed someone to walk back and forth to me doing it which probably took just as much of their time as scanning them at the checkout would’ve to start with!
Why do they do this??

–rhymes with Fetid

The response I was going to provide there, but realized that the audience there wouldn’t appreciate my particular perspective, was;

Because, at scale, it’s more sustainable to have people — who have some semblance of personal responsibility — take a few moments to scan and bag their own groceries rather than have a single clerk with human physiology step away for 15 minutes every two hours or go to the bathroom… or lunch… or get sick… or go on vacation… or die without seeking the approval of the exceedingly small number of, although rather vocal, patrons who want to complain.
Or, and just hear me out here: scan your stuff, swipe your card, go about your day.

The Jumbled Card Catalog

On By JohnIn life, tbiLeave a comment

While exercising my brain during a lull in the music of Flannel-Fest, I happened across an older, black and white photo of someone thumbing through an old-school card catalog.

Oddly, the photo hit home for me, but I couldn’t say exactly why.

I thought it was interesting and showed it to my wife. I thought it would invoke some memories for her as well.

She nodded knowingly and said, “sometimes, when I describe your brain injury to people, I’d say that it was a bit like somebody had dumped out a couple of the drawers from your card catalog… then hastily threw the jumbled cards back into the drawers.”

And, while I’ve tried to overcome the PTSD and anxiety and neurological and associated psychological limitations, her description hit me… hard.

Hold My Beer…

On By JohnIn aircraft, scienceLeave a comment

Ural Airlines appears to have confirmed that they are going to attempt to fly the currently-stranded A320 out of the field near Omsk.

Clearly, they’re going to lighten the aircraft as much as possible and ensure it has minimal fuel load. They’re also awaiting landing gear testing results to ensure it’s at least possible without ripping the struts off of the airframe.

But if you think about it, this is a 50/50 risk scenario. You either succeed spectacularly. Or you fail spectacularly.

Spectacular success means that Ural Airlines, the pilots in command, and even Putin will go down as those who took off from a muddy, Siberian field and, in a way, proved that runways are somewhat optional where aircraft are concerned.

But…

Spectacular failure means that the risk was too high and the struts fail, or other parts of the airframe fail, or family of medium-sized moose saunter casually across the field in front of it while on the takeoff-roll, and all of the flight crew dies in a small fireball in the field.

The risk is expected because Russia has a dwindling number of aircraft and no reliable spare parts to ensure the aircraft remain airworthy.

But somewhere there’s a Russian pilot casually (or drunkenly) saying, “Подержи мою водку.”