Tag: Rants

One of the problems of a kiosk display using a browser is having things on the far end of the connection go sideways:

A closer look:

The base URL seems gone from consensus reality, although they might be using a private DNS to resolve in-house servers. In any event, a casual search suggests Osborn VS is an ad-tech company recently Borged by (or into) something else.

Sometimes the connection itself goes sideways:

Just like the sign-in kiosks in the lobby, I soooo wanted to tap that big button, but this was not a touch-screen display.

Yes, that’s the same display. Apparently Lifeshare is another part of the same Borganism.

I read these reassuring instructions in the elevator of a different building:

I’d be mildly unsurprised to discover the elevator controls also handle the interior lighting, invariably putting me in the dark while the thing reboots. At least the paper would remain readable, because phones can become flashlights under duress.

At least we were not riding a rocket …

You know how we’re constantly reminded not to click on links in emails from “people we don’t know” and never provide personal information?

I’m certain this email came from a physician I’m about to see, but, with a concealed URL like that, somehow I just can’t bring myself to Get started like this:

Remember, I’m in the US and *.co links are typically “foreign”, so they are going out of their way to look sketchy. I replaced several characters in the URL to make it invalid, but it closely resembles the original.

Of course, everything is outsourced these days, so the physician and her staff have nothing to do with the scheduling and patient information group, so they will have no idea what’s going on or be able to do anything about it.

I walked up to a sign-in kiosk with an interesting difference:

If they ask a question on a public-facing device, they must expect a response. Right?

This interesting assembly sprouted from an upstairs wall:

The brass fitting seems intended for a braided hose leading to a nozzle, but there was no corresponding floor drain in the room. I’m sure the shutoff valve in the bottom elbow was turned off.

Back in the motel, I attempted to plug in my charger:

The currently trendy black-on-black design scheme doesn’t work well in the low-light environment of a motel room. The white plastic tabs in those USB sockets were the only visible parts of that whole assembly.

As the saying goes, “Without temptation, there can be no virtue.”

Sometimes I am sooo tempted …

Sometimes fake stones fall off on their own accord, but this is impact damage:

Judging from the displaced stones near the top of the picture, that pillar got hit rather firmly by something heavy.

One wonders what the front of the pickup (it’s gotta be a hulking pickup) looked like and how much that repair cost.

I’d bet substantial money on the culprit driving away without offering to pick up the pillar repair bill.