The Off Topic Topic

[mongers]

As a kid all you had to do was go to the post office, queue, buy a postal order, write a letter, buy a stamp to put on it, go post it, wait for it to arrive, wait for it to be process, wait for the parcel to arrive. Then take it out of the packageing, link a tape drive to your computer and wait 10 minutes for the game to load.   

Pftt, today kid's and streaming games, how is it any better than what we did?

[Duque de Bragança]

As a kid all you had to do was go to the post office, queue, buy a postal order, write a letter, buy a stamp to put on it, go post it, wait for it to arrive, wait for it to be process, wait for the parcel to arrive. Then take it out of the packageing, link a tape drive to your computer and wait 10 minutes for the game to load.   

Pftt, today kid's and streaming games, how is it any better than what we did?

I had an Amstrad CPC, so I missed this game. Tape drive or even disk drive already included in the computer! 
10 minutes to load? Come on, even cassette games took only 5 minutes or so. 
Not to mention lots of games could be found on stores, though not weird imports like this one.

Seriously, some years ago at work, some guy would not believe me when I told him there was once games on cassettes. What a nerd.

[mongers]

As a kid all you had to do was go to the post office, queue, buy a postal order, write a letter, buy a stamp to put on it, go post it, wait for it to arrive, wait for it to be process, wait for the parcel to arrive. Then take it out of the packageing, link a tape drive to your computer and wait 10 minutes for the game to load.   

Pftt, today kid's and streaming games, how is it any better than what we did?

I had an Amstrad CPC, so I missed this game. Tape drive or even disk drive already included in the computer! 
10 minutes to load? Come on, even cassette games took only 5 minutes or so. 
Not to mention lots of games could be found on stores, though not weird imports like this one.

Seriously, some years ago at work, some guy would not believe me when I told him there was once games on cassettes. What a nerd.

Disk drive. 

Yeah, I guess it's an analogue component that people in this digital age would find unbelievable; maybe you could try and persuade him game data was streamed over distance by semaphore. 

[garbon]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/dec/13/londoners-troll-new-york-times-petty-crimes

Londoners troll New York Times with deluge of 'petty crimes'

Have you experienced a petty crime in London?" chirped the New York Times enthusiastically on Twitter, which prompted a deluge of sarcastic responses from Londoners keen to let everyone know just how petty they could be. The US newspaper was attempting to report on the rising level of crime in the capital – a problem the Metropolitan police commissioner recently said was being turned around – but instead it learned a lot more about what was getting on Londoners' nerves.

Naturally, public transport etiquette featured heavily:

A stranger tried to talk to me on the tube, so I reported him to the police because talking to strangers on the tube is illegal.

Someone yesterday stood on the left hand side of the escalator at the tube station

In an act of willful criminal rapscallionry, somebody did not Mind The Doors on the Piccadilly line resulting in A Stern Announcement being made at 0853 this morning. Relevant passenger files have been updated.

someone clipped me with their trolley in Waitrose the other day and only apologised once

Two people in backpacks kept turning around and bumping into me on my commute. I sighed and tutted, but was concerned the tension could escalate.

Once I accidentally queue-barged a man in a supermarket. I apologised profusely for not realising they were in a queue. They then apologised for making a big deal about nothing. I then apologised for their apology. Then someone behind us apologised for asking us to move up.

£6 for a pint. Daylight robbery!

£40 cinema tickets at the Odeon in Leicester Square.

Ordered a tea and they put the milk in first

During the Olympic Games, people would smile and talk to strangers on the tube. I still have nightmares.

I asked someone how they were and they actually told me.

Someone held the door open for me when I was still ten feet away and then I had to run and pretend I was grateful. I was sweaty and fuming

I was unable to enter Camden for at least a decade because I didn't look enough like a member of Blur.

I diligently watched a beefeater for eight hours while he was on duty, and he didn't eat beef once during that period. I'm starting to suspect the Queen may be fraudulently employing vegetarians.

Someone threw a ham sandwich at my head once out of a car window.

My children were abducted by their nanny and discovered cavorting with a troupe of dancing chimney sweeps.

Some guy keeps making a terrible racket on my roof. I think he's stuffing people into chimneys. "Step in time", he keeps shouting <whispers: I don't even think his accent is *really* British>

A Peruvian immigrant carrying a suitcase full of marmalade sandwiches was recently kidnapped by a rogue taxidermist. It was all caught on film, but the authorities did nothing.

I fell out with a friend who then unliked all of my instagram pictures, that was next-level petty. I live in London, happy to share more.

How petty do you want them? I deleted More4 from the Freeview box to stop my husband watching 'Come Dine With Me'.

[Valmy]

My children were abducted by their nanny and discovered cavorting with a troupe of dancing chimney sweeps.

It is good that Londoners are aware of much of the world's only exposure to their city.

[mongers]

Went past the aftermath of this day, vehicle now removed:



Ironic given the company name.

15th century thatched cottage partially demolished.

[Duque de Bragança]

Disk drive. 

Yeah, I guess it's an analogue component that people in this digital age would find unbelievable; maybe you could try and persuade him game data was streamed over distance by semaphore. 

I tried to tell him there were games downloaded before the Internet, via some telephone landline-based system called Minitel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel 
Britain had something close to it, but it never was as popular as Minitel was till the '90s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prestel

[Syt]

A German computer show on TV in the 80s experimented with programs broadcast during the end credits - you could record the audio off TV onto tape and then have the program.

[mongers]

Disk drive. 

Yeah, I guess it's an analogue component that people in this digital age would find unbelievable; maybe you could try and persuade him game data was streamed over distance by semaphore. 

I tried to tell him there were games downloaded before the Internet, via some telephone landline-based system called Minitel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel 
Britain had something close to it, but it never was as popular as Minitel was till the '90s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prestel

Yes, Mintel was a pretty cool thing back then. And in comparison the British one didn't really take off outside niche areas like enthusiasts, some industry and areas of education.

Mintel was impressive because all sorts of ordinary people incorporated it into their daily lives.

[mongers]

A German computer show on TV in the 80s experimented with programs broadcast during the end credits - you could record the audio off TV onto tape and then have the program.

Yes we had that too with programmes supporting the BBC computers, also I vaguely recall recording some off telly for the Spectrum computer.

[Syt]

Disk drive. 

Yeah, I guess it's an analogue component that people in this digital age would find unbelievable; maybe you could try and persuade him game data was streamed over distance by semaphore. 

I tried to tell him there were games downloaded before the Internet, via some telephone landline-based system called Minitel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel 
Britain had something close to it, but it never was as popular as Minitel was till the '90s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prestel

Yes, Mintel was a pretty cool thing back then. And in comparison the British one didn't really take off outside niche areas like enthusiasts, some industry and areas of education.

Mintel was impressive because all sorts of ordinary people incorporated it into their daily lives.

Germany had BTX or Bildschirmtext, but it never really became widely spread https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bildschirmtext

They expected 0.5 million users by 1986, but ended up with 60,000 till then. German Wiki says they only hit the 1,000,000 user mark in '95 when they added T-Online's fax/email services to the package. At that point, though, the internet was right around the corner.

[Liep]

Money laundering (hvidvask) is word of the year in Denmark. Thanks, Danske Bank.

Contenders: Plantekød (plant based meat), habitbandit (thief in a suit), samtykke (consent), identitetspolitik (identity politics), krænkelseskultur (culture of being offended), løvfaldssommer (indian summer), fupnyt (fake news).

[Savonarola]

habitbandit (thief in a suit).

I think this is the one we English speakers should steal.      It's certainly much more useful in most of the contemporary English speaking countries than hygge.

[Josephus]

Disk drive. 

Yeah, I guess it's an analogue component that people in this digital age would find unbelievable; maybe you could try and persuade him game data was streamed over distance by semaphore. 

I tried to tell him there were games downloaded before the Internet, via some telephone landline-based system called Minitel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel 
Britain had something close to it, but it never was as popular as Minitel was till the '90s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prestel

I had a roommate back in the early 90s who used to do that...He called it a "message board" and used to use our phone over night to download games. We used to end up with really costly phone bills for some mostly unplayable games.

[celedhring]

Just learnt that usage as Christmas decoration has driven the holly tree to near extinction in Spain and picking up the berries is forbidden.