What's made you not grumpy but not smile either today?

[The Panda Nut]

I've only just realised (and confirmed) that google.co.uk no longer exists (and redirects to google.com)

( https://flamingltd.com/google-phases-out-co-uk-and-other-country-domains )

You can't pretend to be in a different location or force it to search in a different location easily (unless you know different)

If I wanted to search for stuff specifically in germany or france for instance I used to be able to type google.de or google.fr

Now it all defaults to google.com and it picks up where you are from IP address and other stuff

More internet enshittification

That, as they say, is progress, improvement and proof that electronic age is always better. I wonder if you can access ebay.it etc. any more.
It seems to me to be backwards movement but Im sure I am wrong as Im told I know nothing about such things.
Last week I was again proved to be wrong when I was caught in a massive traffic jam, faced with a 30 miles plus diversion and no paper map. My sat nav adamantly refused to zoom out to enable me to choose a sensible route, but of course sat nav is better than a map.... The journey took at least 90 minutes more than necessary, wound up my stress and wasted my money on fuel I didnt need to use. All it seems signs of progress.

 

[ZaphodB]

I wonder if you can accessebay .it any more.

It would seem so.... for now at least

It seemsto me to be backwards movement but Im sure I am wrong

Not for google it won't be , I'm sure it'll slim down the google infrastructure/processing power behind providing it.

 

[The Panda Nut]

It would seem so.... for now at least



Not for google it won't be , I'm sure it'll slim down the google infrastructure/processing power behind providing it.

it reduces power consumption I think it has redeeming features. Surely these super brains behind the internet can get around this, it is after all just a matter of smart programming to get back some local linkage.

 

[porta]

I've only just realised (and confirmed) that google.co.uk no longer exists (and redirects to google.com)

( https://flamingltd.com/google-phases-out-co-uk-and-other-country-domains )

You can't pretend to be in a different location or force it to search in a different location easily (unless you know different)

If I wanted to search for stuff specifically in germany or france for instance I used to be able to type google.de or google.fr

Now it all defaults to google.com and it picks up where you are from IP address and other stuff

More internet enshittification

I’ve ditched google and now use Ecosia

 

[ZaphodB]

I’ve ditched google and now use Ecosia

Does it let you choose where to search?

 

[porta]

Does it let you choose where to search?

I can get eBay it/de/fr/etc etc

 

[ZaphodB]

I can get eBay it/de/fr/etc etc

Well we can still do that , it was google.it/.de/.fr etc that we couldn't

What search engine is behind Ecosia?


Ecosia delivers a combination of search results from Yahoo!, Google, Bing and Wikipedia. Advertisements are delivered by Yahoo! and Microsoft Advertising as part of a revenue sharing agreement with the company.

 

[porta]

Just checked
Based in Berlin as an .org
Has a drop box for search areas

 

[The Panda Nut]

I am fed up with Google interfering with everything messing with stuff in ways I did not want. Clever yes. needed no and wanted? Not one tiny bit.

 

[portland_bill]

That, as they say, is progress, improvement and proof that electronic age is always better. I wonder if you can access ebay.it etc. any more.
It seems to me to be backwards movement but Im sure I am wrong as Im told I know nothing about such things.
Last week I was again proved to be wrong when I was caught in a massive traffic jam, faced with a 30 miles plus diversion and no paper map. My sat nav adamantly refused to zoom out to enable me to choose a sensible route, but of course sat nav is better than a map.... The journey took at least 90 minutes more than necessary, wound up my stress and wasted my money on fuel I didnt need to use. All it seems signs of progress.

Paper maps are difficult to find. The cheap road atlas, which used to be available at every petrol station is now mostly only found on motorways.

When I was still teaching learners, I used to present them with an atlas, and ask them to find and navigate to a place. It was generally like asking them to fly to the moon. "I'll use a satnav" was the usual reply. Look at the index, scan the columns, see the multiples. Choose the wrong on in the satnav, it will take you there faithfully. Sit in the car, point in the direction of another town. Few can do it. My own partner is poor at understanding locations. From home, near Swindon, to see friends in Milton Keynes, "can we stop off at friends in Bristol on the way?".
Satnavs are stubborn. Go off route, and it will fiercely try to get you back on its original route. B-roads are quiet and often fast.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Paper maps are difficult to find. The cheap road atlas, which used to be available at every petrol station is now mostly only found on motorways.

When I was still teaching learners, I used to present them with an atlas, and ask them to find and navigate to a place. It was generally like asking them to fly to the moon. "I'll use a satnav" was the usual reply. Look at the index, scan the columns, see the multiples. Choose the wrong on in the satnav, it will take you there faithfully. Sit in the car, point in the direction of another town. Few can do it. My own partner is poor at understanding locations. From home, near Swindon, to see friends in Milton Keynes, "can we stop off at friends in Bristol on the way?".
Satnavs are stubborn. Go off route, and it will fiercely try to get you back on its original route. B-roads are quiet and often fast.

The Scala is the first car we've owned which has built in sat nav. A bit over 18 months into owning it we still can't work it properly and resort to our AA road atlas often. We've become quite good at setting it up before starting out on a journey, but if something interferes with the route, like the horrendous day we spent going round and round Swindon, we don't seem to be able to properly program it to find a way out. On that occasion it didn't seem to understand that the road it wanted us to go down was closed so kept sending us round in a circle 'till we ended up right back where we'd started! In the end I just followed signs for the M5 until we were well clear of the town and it all started working again.

Back in the day, On our trips down to Devon, I used to get off the M6 onto the A449 and follow that both when going south or north. It was much better than the heavy traffic on the motorway in the midlands. Now a days though there's a lot more traffic on it so we tend to just tough it out on the motorway.

 

[portland_bill]

The Scala is the first car we've owned which has built in sat nav. A bit over 18 months into owning it we still can't work it properly and resort to our AA road atlas often. We've become quite good at setting it up before starting out on a journey, but if something interferes with the route, like the horrendous day we spent going round and round Swindon, we don't seem to be able to properly program it to find a way out. On that occasion it didn't seem to understand that the road it wanted us to go down was closed so kept sending us round in a circle 'till we ended up right back where we'd started! In the end I just followed signs for the M5 until we were well clear of the town and it all started working again.

Back in the day, On our trips down to Devon, I used to get off the M6 onto the A449 and follow that both when going south or north. It was much better than the heavy traffic on the motorway in the midlands. Now a days though there's a lot more traffic on it so we tend to just tough it out on the motorway.

If you're ever going near Swindon again, let me know, I can give you a guided tour, although little to see here, or at least meet for a coffee. (Other beverages are available)
I could give you a guided tour of all the 'body' sites. Saturday evening seems to be the time to dump a body, as frequently when teaching learners early on Sundays, we'd be diverted due to a road or area being cordoned off.
The tourist information office will tell you about the Railway Museum, and the outlet centre next door. Apart from that, all info is about Wiltshire, as there's nothing else to see here. The outlet centre is housed in old railway buildings, so the building itself is interesting, to some, and contains some old machinery to ponder over.
Travel 12 miles out, to Faringdon, to see the newest folly tower to be built in Britain. Open to visitors, first and third Sundays, Easter to September. If memory serves, 146 stairs to the roof, where you can, on a clear day, gain a panoramic view of south Oxfordshire, acres of flat featureless landscape, and a vague view of Brize Norton airbase. Also visible is the oldest white horse in the country, Uffington White Horse. Not spectacular. Even its hill is a bit shallow, compared to the ones where I grew up in Dorset. Anyone sold on it yet?

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

If you're ever going near Swindon again, let me know, I can give you a guided tour, although little to see here, or at least meet for a coffee. (Other beverages are available)
I could give you a guided tour of all the 'body' sites. Saturday evening seems to be the time to dump a body, as frequently when teaching learners early on Sundays, we'd be diverted due to a road or area being cordoned off.
The tourist information office will tell you about the Railway Museum, and the outlet centre next door. Apart from that, all info is about Wiltshire, as there's nothing else to see here. The outlet centre is housed in old railway buildings, so the building itself is interesting, to some, and contains some old machinery to ponder over.
Travel 12 miles out, to Faringdon, to see the newest folly tower to be built in Britain. Open to visitors, first and third Sundays, Easter to September. If memory serves, 146 stairs to the roof, where you can, on a clear day, gain a panoramic view of south Oxfordshire, acres of flat featureless landscape, and a vague view of Brize Norton airbase. Also visible is the oldest white horse in the country, Uffington White Horse. Not spectacular. Even its hill is a bit shallow, compared to the ones where I grew up in Dorset. Anyone sold on it yet?

Thanks for the kind offer PB but we're only ever passing through to or from Salisbury - Where daughter lives - and the M5 on the A419/A346. They had a flyover/bridge on the 419 closed that time with a diversion which took you into the town but the diversion was not at all well signposted and we went round the town twice before giving up and heading south to the M4 and then east to the M5 and so northwards again. Took a bit of extra time but was the easy option.

 

[porta]

Brize Norton where my dad was officially stationed whilst in Aden

 

[The Panda Nut]

If you're ever going near Swindon again, let me know, I can give you a guided tour, although little to see here, or at least meet for a coffee. (Other beverages are available)
I could give you a guided tour of all the 'body' sites. Saturday evening seems to be the time to dump a body, as frequently when teaching learners early on Sundays, we'd be diverted due to a road or area being cordoned off.
The tourist information office will tell you about the Railway Museum, and the outlet centre next door. Apart from that, all info is about Wiltshire, as there's nothing else to see here. The outlet centre is housed in old railway buildings, so the building itself is interesting, to some, and contains some old machinery to ponder over.
Travel 12 miles out, to Faringdon, to see the newest folly tower to be built in Britain. Open to visitors, first and third Sundays, Easter to September. If memory serves, 146 stairs to the roof, where you can, on a clear day, gain a panoramic view of south Oxfordshire, acres of flat featureless landscape, and a vague view of Brize Norton airbase. Also visible is the oldest white horse in the country, Uffington White Horse. Not spectacular. Even its hill is a bit shallow, compared to the ones where I grew up in Dorset. Anyone sold on it yet?

I kind of like Swindon though its reassuringly normal if as you say unexciting

 

[The Panda Nut]

Paper maps are difficult to find. The cheap road atlas, which used to be available at every petrol station is now mostly only found on motorways.

When I was still teaching learners, I used to present them with an atlas, and ask them to find and navigate to a place. It was generally like asking them to fly to the moon. "I'll use a satnav" was the usual reply. Look at the index, scan the columns, see the multiples. Choose the wrong on in the satnav, it will take you there faithfully. Sit in the car, point in the direction of another town. Few can do it. My own partner is poor at understanding locations. From home, near Swindon, to see friends in Milton Keynes, "can we stop off at friends in Bristol on the way?".
Satnavs are stubborn. Go off route, and it will fiercely try to get you back on its original route. B-roads are quiet and often fast.

Morrisons used to be the place. Im going to seek out a new version of their map as soon as possible. (I hope) Apart from sound back up much better for route planning. Sat navs seem ok ish to good for local stuff but are untrustworthy for long journies or, as you say, if there are hold ups and diversions that need checking.

 

[StevenRB45]

The Scala is the first car we've owned which has built in sat nav. A bit over 18 months into owning it we still can't work it properly and resort to our AA road atlas often. We've become quite good at setting it up before starting out on a journey, but if something interferes with the route, like the horrendous day we spent going round and round Swindon, we don't seem to be able to properly program it to find a way out. On that occasion it didn't seem to understand that the road it wanted us to go down was closed so kept sending us round in a circle 'till we ended up right back where we'd started! In the end I just followed signs for the M5 until we were well clear of the town and it all started working again.

Usually the best way if it gets confused, pick a compass point and eventually you'll be so far off it's chosen course it'll recalculate.

Handily one of the options in the Toyota just displays a compass between the dials so you can aim west or whatever if you know there's a parallel road.

Last time we had this was Scottish borders somewhere in the C3 ended up pulling over and using the satnav as a map (you can zoom in and out etc so no reason you can't if stationary) and planning a general direction that would take me parallel to the closed road then back in the correct direction.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Usually the best way if it gets confused, pick a compass point and eventually you'll be so far off it's chosen course it'll recalculate.

Handily one of the options in the Toyota just displays a compass between the dials so you can aim west or whatever if you know there's a parallel road.

Last time we had this was Scottish borders somewhere in the C3 ended up pulling over and using the satnav as a map (you can zoom in and out etc so no reason you can't if stationary) and planning a general direction that would take me parallel to the closed road then back in the correct direction.

All very true untilnit drops the signal... I tend to tell it to go somewhere specific on my route. Its amusing how often it picks a different road to the original route.. Lat week mine refused to zoom forno obvious reason. Hence a map would have saved the day. Mine was in the bot and there was to much traffic to allow a stop. SAT NAV is great a lot of the time but a king sized pain when it goes on a bender.

 

[StevenRB45]

All very true untilnit drops the signal... I tend to tell it to go somewhere specific on my route. Its amusing how often it picks a different road to the original route.. Lat week mine refused to zoom forno obvious reason. Hence a map would have saved the day. Mine was in the bot and there was to much traffic to allow a stop. SAT NAV is great a lot of the time but a king sized pain when it goes on a bender.

Got my first satnav in 2008...a Garmin unit had many many flavours since and covered i don't know how many miles in that time.

Don't think I've ever had one drop signal.

To be fair we do occasionally do a "phone tie breaker" if I'm not entirely confident in where the satnav is taking me. At present I'm still in the "hmm" stage with the built in nav on the Toyota. Anyway yesterday we were 5 miles from a large theme park according to it and I'd not seen a single sign. Normally when we go elsewhere I see signs for it from about 20 miles out.

The phone agreed with the route.. because the road signs are set out for coaches and take traffic away from smaller roads so they add about 15 miles. Eventually 2 miles out signs appeared.

Prior to 2008 I used to use an idiot board of road and junction numbers stuck to the dash looked up in a road atlas the night before. This is fine... except if you aren't going to theme park and are going to say a house in a suburb it's useless. I suppose you can stop at a newsagents and buy an a to z for the destination town...but in general it's just a pain.

If you're a fan of driving round slowly staring at street signs and meeting locals would recommend. Otherwise no one drives well while lost, no one it's the universal truth. Too busy stressing about missing the junction you should have taken, can't find somewhere to pull over to get your map out, arriving at roundabouts in the wrong lane, should I have taken furnival street? Oh god this is one way/pedestrian zone, buses only the map didn't have that on etc etc.

So yes, it's not perfect, but it's also not terrible unless you're an absolute moron and disobey the evidence of your own eyes to follow the nav. This then allows you to drive the road as it appears and not be slowing down to 20 miles an hour at every junction to see if you should have taken this one.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Paper maps are difficult to find. The cheap road atlas, which used to be available at every petrol station is now mostly only found on motorways.

When I was still teaching learners, I used to present them with an atlas, and ask them to find and navigate to a place. It was generally like asking them to fly to the moon. "I'll use a satnav" was the usual reply. Look at the index, scan the columns, see the multiples. Choose the wrong on in the satnav, it will take you there faithfully. Sit in the car, point in the direction of another town. Few can do it. My own partner is poor at understanding locations. From home, near Swindon, to see friends in Milton Keynes, "can we stop off at friends in Bristol on the way?".
Satnavs are stubborn. Go off route, and it will fiercely try to get you back on its original route. B-roads are quiet and often fast.

Back when I learned to drive at the end of the 90s we were probably the last generation of drivers to use maps.

Pick up a map, work out which roads you want to drive down. Follow road signs, arrive at destination.

generally if you know some geography ie what towns and cities you want to drive in the direction of, you can then usually find what you want following the road signs to smaller places when you get there.

I drove all over the UK, going up to Scotland and over to Europe relying on nothing but a quick look at a map before setting off.

Now while I appreciate that people don't use paper maps anymore, we now have the map of the whole world in our pocket at all times on smart phones, not to mention that even if you are "offline" you can have areas downloaded and saved to your phone to still access when you don't have a signal. worst case you pull over, check the map on your phone and carry on. Its not really difficult.

we were taught map reading in school back in the 80s and 90s, I wonder if that's a skill they teach anymore? That being said they also taught how to read a clock and apparently that's a lost skill with kids now, who are wholly reliant on digital clocks.