Really not loving the current US trend of requiring ID for alcohol purchases across the board.
I have grey hair and bifocals and two children. I am standing here coming home from work and wearing a suit and buying pork tenderloin, a pound of french-cut green beans, a dozen diapers, some cat food, and a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. I just want to get home and cook dinner and fall asleep in the middle of a Law & Order episode that I've already seen.
I am really obviously not a high-schooler trying to get some beers illegally. And yet someone needs to scan my driver's license and enter the date (which, for those keeping track, ends in 197ntyfucking1).
As a former retail cashier myself, I understand that they are beholden to their management and their employers and they don't make the rules. They don't need the hassle of making judgment calls.
But giving them the ability to exercise some little bits of uncontroverisal judgment would be welcome. It would save everyone time.
― ooh I wanna take ya to Topeka (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 19 November 2022 20:16 (one year ago) link
I think it sometimes depends on how the store has their point of sale systems configured tbh. I went through this a while back w/Walgreens and cigarettes. For many years they just had to type in the date of birth in order for the computer to allow them to charge me for cigarettes. This was better because they would often just type in whatever birthday that satisfied the age requirement. Sometimes they'd ask and I'd have to say xxxxx xxxx 197ntyfuckingxxx. In the past couple years, some of the stores switched to having to scan or swipe the ID.
― sarahell, Saturday, 19 November 2022 20:42 (one year ago) link
whenever I hear about pointless rigmarole around a retail transaction I assume it’s related to metadata/purchase habit tracking
― assert (matttkkkk), Saturday, 19 November 2022 20:59 (one year ago) link
i tend to think fraud or theft prevention -- but you are probably right
― sarahell, Saturday, 19 November 2022 21:09 (one year ago) link
funny how a law intended to identify adults has ended up infantilising everyone
― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 19 November 2022 21:38 (one year ago) link
I feel insulted when there’s a sign that says “we id anyone under the age of X” where X is usually 35 or 40you better id me!! why didn’t you?
― mh, Saturday, 19 November 2022 22:42 (one year ago) link
Along those lines when I'm asked to enter my ZIP code at the gas station down the street... From the name on the card, this would be the easiest thing to figure out.
Even without the name, a pretty good guess would probably work too.
― pplains, Sunday, 20 November 2022 00:21 (one year ago) link
Nobody cards me cos I look like I died already
― Fash Gordon (Neanderthal), Sunday, 20 November 2022 02:37 (one year ago) link
― pplains, Saturday, November 19, 2022 4:21 PM (two days ago)
the likelihood that it's the same ZIP as that of the gas station is fairly high
― sarahell, Monday, 21 November 2022 19:30 (one year ago) link
though I always feel absurdly "safe" because my go-to gas station is in an adjacent ZIP code ... sad lol
― sarahell, Monday, 21 November 2022 19:31 (one year ago) link
I stopped being carded around 45-46. (I'm 52 now.)
― Christine Green Leafy Dragon Indigo, Monday, 21 November 2022 19:33 (one year ago) link
Same, no one cards the undead
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 21 November 2022 19:40 (one year ago) link
8 years in Quebec and have never once been carded for alcohol—I'm not sure how other provinces are.
Sort of like YMP's post but fancier, the funniest thing in the US is getting carded buying a single nice bottle of port for my dad or splurging on a pricey bottle of scotch or whatever
― rob, Monday, 21 November 2022 20:22 (one year ago) link
Catherine Irwin (of Freakwater) had some great between-song banter about getting carded in middle-age; she was like "If I look like this and I'm under 21, then you should just GIVE me the alcohol".I was hosting two British musicians once (in their 60s/70s) in the U.S. and they got carded during dinner, and one said that was the first time he had been carded IN HIS ENTIRE LIFE.
― ernestp, Monday, 21 November 2022 20:30 (one year ago) link
I've worked the door at a friend's bar as backup, and generally card everyone that comes in. Once in awhile, I'll get the exasperated 50-something: "Really? Really? You really want to see my ID?" And in the back of my mind, I'm like "Don't flatter yourself, pops - just show me the ID."
It's really just a legal thing - should the bar get raided (unlikely), they get fined for anybody without one.
― Andy the Grasshopper, Monday, 21 November 2022 20:31 (one year ago) link
not carding everyone is communist iirc
― ꙮ (map), Monday, 21 November 2022 20:34 (one year ago) link
"Is this your only I.D.?"
https://www.kcet.org/sites/kl/files/atoms/article_atoms/www.kcet.org/socal/departures/landofsunshine/assets_c/2013/03/RalphsLebowskiClubCard-thumb-600x365-47571.jpg
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 21 November 2022 20:35 (one year ago) link
drinking age should be 8 IMO
― Fash Gordon (Neanderthal), Monday, 21 November 2022 20:39 (one year ago) link
UK drinking age is 5. at 16 you can drink with a meal and an adult, and 18 you can buy your own but actually drinking it is 5.
https://www.gov.uk/alcohol-young-people-law
― koogs, Monday, 21 November 2022 20:45 (one year ago) link
I learned about the age 16 part from the In-Betweeners
― Fash Gordon (Neanderthal), Monday, 21 November 2022 20:46 (one year ago) link
Yes, this is why I did Jaeger shots with my 5-year-old son. Gotta get him acclimated before kindergarten.
― ooh I wanna take ya to Topeka (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, 21 November 2022 20:52 (one year ago) link
at least give him Jamesson
― Fash Gordon (Neanderthal), Monday, 21 November 2022 20:52 (one year ago) link
US drinking age is for possession, not consumption.
― Christine Green Leafy Dragon Indigo, Monday, 21 November 2022 20:57 (one year ago) link
Germany has children's low alcohol beers I believe
― Andy the Grasshopper, Monday, 21 November 2022 21:12 (one year ago) link
we're really get off topic here btw
*getting*
ok then. supermarkets have stopped putting use-by dates on tomatoes. "to reduce waste". but what has happened is that *i* am throwing them away as unusable rather than the supermarkets (and they are a lot more expensive to me than to them)
― koogs, Monday, 21 November 2022 21:19 (one year ago) link
(not sure that counts as technological but...)
― koogs, Monday, 21 November 2022 21:20 (one year ago) link
fresh tomatoes?
― rob, Monday, 21 November 2022 21:38 (one year ago) link
Why are you buying tomatoes and then not eating them?
― lord of the rongs (anagram), Monday, 21 November 2022 22:17 (one year ago) link
yeah. cherry tomatoes. takes me 5 days to eat them. and I've no idea how long they've been on the shelf now.
― koogs, Monday, 21 November 2022 22:17 (one year ago) link
I'm not eating them because they are sometimes mush by the time i get to them
― koogs, Monday, 21 November 2022 22:18 (one year ago) link
xps Samsung Sound Assistant, and I'm guessing similar, has an option for allowing any apps to play sounds at the same time (and control the volume for each, like you would on a computer pretty much). Might be sort of a backwards step mess on its own, but I prefer it to interruptions.― maf you one two (maffew12), Wednesday, 2 November 2022 16:17 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink
― maf you one two (maffew12), Wednesday, 2 November 2022 16:17 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink
Except it doesn't work on newer Samsungs? Would love an app that could do this again. Truly a backwards step on a backwards step.
― Bellend Sebastian (S-), Tuesday, 22 November 2022 07:42 (one year ago) link
A common failing of the newer Sanyos
― Hans Holbein (Chinchilla Volapük), Tuesday, 22 November 2022 08:04 (one year ago) link
I moved into a new place with an LG-brand Internet of Things washer dryer combo with (*chortle*) "AI". It does decently with clothers and bedding, but it does not know how to wash a bathmat. Apprently I can't turn off the AI and just force a cycle with certain settings, instead it has to choose for you based on weight, etc.? I can't get the app to work with it, either, apparently there are more "options" throught the app
― Alicia Silver Stone (Boring, Maryland), Sunday, 26 February 2023 16:47 (one year ago) link
bit like the difference between my sisters microwave and mine.mine - a manual dial for the timer, and a dial for choosing the power setting.and that's it.her's you need a bloody degree in computing to figure out how to heat a bowl of soup.
― mark e, Sunday, 26 February 2023 17:24 (one year ago) link
Every time we get service on our 20-year-old appliances, the repair guys say we should absolutely keep them, because the new appliances are computerized and locked as fuck, and cannot be repaired without
Granted, they have a vested interest, but based on my parents' experiences with computerized washer/dryer type stuff I am inclined to believe the guys
― nat king cole slaw (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 26 February 2023 17:51 (one year ago) link
...repaired without programming and software and internet connectivity and shit, I guess is what I meant
Also there's like some potentially pretty dire security/privacy consequences for internet-of-things devices.
I have seen at least three movies/tv shows where the plot revolves around an IoT thermostat or toaster or something.
Generally I am not paranoid but I am still a little leery of having my refrigerator talking to my toothbrush, and my car knowing what music I like.
― nat king cole slaw (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 26 February 2023 17:55 (one year ago) link
iot things do get hacked a lot because there are a lot of them and they tend to be no so secure but i think generally the hackers are using them more as botnets ie computers from which attacks are launched rather than end targets cause theres prob not much of value on your fridge
― lag∞n, Sunday, 26 February 2023 18:49 (one year ago) link
you could play some funny pranks tho
― lag∞n, Sunday, 26 February 2023 18:50 (one year ago) link
washing machine begins playing All American Rejects tunes
― waiting for a czar to fall (Neanderthal), Sunday, 26 February 2023 18:51 (one year ago) link
xp - they did that in season 3 or 4 of Silicon Valley i think?
― sarahell, Tuesday, 28 February 2023 04:09 (one year ago) link
You all just reminded me that I still can't turn on the radio in my 28-year-old car.
The battery died this winter. After recharging, turning on the radio just displays the word C•O•D•E because it still thinks it's worth being stolen. I can't even listen to the 6-CD changer I've got next to the spare tire in the trunk!
The Internet says to call the dealership. Great, I'll just look them up in the Yellow Pages, I guess.
― pplains, Tuesday, 28 February 2023 14:42 (one year ago) link
Send them a fax
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 28 February 2023 14:48 (one year ago) link
I found a couple useful tips when I searched, but I hope the one that said "hold the radio power button down for 40 to 50 minutes" meant seconds
― mh, Tuesday, 28 February 2023 14:54 (one year ago) link
"alright, 39 minutes and 30 seconds, almost there....shit, FIDO, who let you out!"
*flings door open, finger comes off of button*
"ahh SHIT! let's try again"
― waiting for a czar to fall (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 28 February 2023 15:00 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BB6wj6RyKo
― Number None, Tuesday, 28 February 2023 15:04 (one year ago) link
"hold the radio power button down for 40 to 50 minutes"
It's a Mercedes, so this may actually be the process.
― pplains, Tuesday, 28 February 2023 15:41 (one year ago) link
I can't even listen to the 6-CD changer I've got next to the spare tire in the trunk!
Would love a 6-CD changer, preferable to trying to listen to Spotify in the car. would also love a spare tire in my trunk, tbh.
― fetter, Tuesday, 28 February 2023 18:01 (one year ago) link
new cars with overly busy taillights! i don't need to see a fucking biryani crawl for a blinker signal on the freeway.
― ꙮ (map), Tuesday, 28 February 2023 18:08 (one year ago) link