There are two new blog posts:
- Why we won’t respond to climate change
- Criticism of Elizabeth Warren for revealing her DNA test confuses the potential for the actual
Twitter isn’t really the place for lengthy ranting. The post-length limitation and the fact that posts can’t be edited both make it dubious. So I don’t do it often. I did it Wednesday.
Stop right here. I swear the idiocy, ranging from the mundane to the spectacular, I have encountered over the last 24 hours is more than a person should have to bear with in a lifetime. 1/7
— David Benfell, Ph.D. (@n4rky) October 17, 2018
We can start at the top of course although this goes back decades. I just love how @theDemocrats and their believers are trying to get out the vote saying they’ll reverse @realDonaldTrump‘s repugnant policies when you know that if they ever get back into power, 2/7
— David Benfell, Ph.D. (@n4rky) October 17, 2018
they’ll just do what @BarackObama did with his predecessor: embrace and extend his policies, effectively enshrining them with, yes, *bipartisan* support. Because that, to @theDemocrats, is a “middle way.” But oh yeah, let’s all put them in power. 3/7
— David Benfell, Ph.D. (@n4rky) October 17, 2018
Then there’s @AAA insurance who can’t seem to process a payment with things predictably going down the toilet from there. And Uber (whom I’ve contacted separately so won’t tag here) whose driver app completely mishandles the Pixel 2 XL camera for the selfies they require. 4/
— David Benfell, Ph.D. (@n4rky) October 17, 2018
And $EMPLOYER (still not a real job) whose training program is broken, whose support is perpetually backlogged, difficult to get ahold of, and simply seems clueless. 5/7
— David Benfell, Ph.D. (@n4rky) October 17, 2018
But yes, I’m supposed to be impressed when the @chronicle of Higher Education carries an article like this (see image) when the reason people want to get rid of disciplines is that the boundaries between them are arbitrary and serve as blinders, yielding yet more stupidity. 6/7 pic.twitter.com/KO3FJUK5lJ
— David Benfell, Ph.D. (@n4rky) October 17, 2018
And actually, no, I’m not impressed when I see this (see another image) at https://t.co/5YhqZJzqeC . Because it’s obviously par for the course. And no, I can’t have a real job because STUPID. 7/7 pic.twitter.com/6w1W69NQ0b
— David Benfell, Ph.D. (@n4rky) October 17, 2018
There are a few updates here:
- AAA took its own failures as a reason to shut off recurring payments. Which is simply a non sequitur, but to them, this is logic. My guess—I don’t know because they haven’t actually mentioned the expiration date like anybody else does in this situation—is that the card information is out of date. It’s my debit card; a little, but not very long before the expiration, they send me a new one. When I activate it, the old one immediately becomes invalid. If they’d simply include the expiration date with the notice of failure, it would help a lot. Instead, they offer a generic message: Their site is currently unable to process payments.
- Uber requires its “partners” (the euphemism for employees whom they’re trying not to acknowledge are employees[1]) to occasionally submit a selfie when they try to go on line or even while driving for verification. This supposedly happens at random and there is no alternative procedure. So now I’m supposed to drive 70 miles out of my way to the nearest “Greenlight” location on the slim hope that they’ll be able to sort out their malfunctioning app there. (Lyft does not do this.)
- Meanwhile, Lyft sends me a note informing me that someone gave me a low rating on cleanliness. Which is absurd. The car is spotless. I have it washed nearly every day and the interior cleaned about twice a week on monthly plans I have with not one, but two, car wash places.
- And when I composed the twitter rant, I forgot to mention $EX-EMPLOYER, who keeps wanting to know if I’ll come to work today, when I have repeatedly informed them that I can’t plug the piece of shit GPS tracker that they require into my OBD2 port because it wipes critical safety related settings on my car. We’re only talking about minor things here like braking and traction control. As the rainy season approaches. My mechanic and dealer have both informed me that plugging things into OBD2 ports is unsafe. The relevant regulation only requires GPS tracking, owned by the company, not the driver, that can promptly locate the vehicle and must be attached to the vehicle. It says nothing about the OBD2 port, but $EX-EMPLOYER insists this is the only solution.
Understand the people who make these decisions are pulling down six and seven figures, if not more. But I have to be poor.
My fury knows no limits.
- [1]City Attorney of San Francisco, “Herrera investigates Uber, Lyft over driver pay and benefits,” PR Newswire, May 29, 2018, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/herrera-investigates-uber-lyft-over-driver-pay-and-benefits-300655892.html; Lydia DePillis, “California ruling puts pressure on Uber, Lyft and other gig economy employers,” CNN, May 1, 2018,http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/01/news/economy/california-gig-employer-ruling/index.html; Bryan Menegus, “San Francisco Subpoenas Uber and Lyft for Proof Drivers Aren’t Employees,” Gizmodo, May 29, 2018, https://gizmodo.com/san-francisco-subpoenas-uber-and-lyft-for-proof-drivers-1826398148; Sam Schechner, “Uber Suffers Setback as U.K. Court Rules Its Drivers Should Have Workers’ Rights,” Wall Street Journal, November 10, 2017, https://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-loses-appeal-against-u-k-ruling-on-drivers-rights-1510313218; Heather Somerville, “San Francisco subpoenas Uber, Lyft on driver classification,” Reuters, May 29, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ridehailing-sanfrancisco/san-francisco-subpoenas-uber-lyft-on-driver-classification-idUSKCN1IU2IX↩