The Trouble With Automated Response Systems

Just had 8 missed Fedex calls on my phone. I tapped "Call back" and listened to the IVR options. This was a clever system - it asked me to tell it what I want. So I said "Operator". The IVR told me that she understood I wanted to talk to an operator but I had to give her the reason why I called. So I said "I received a call and am trying to find out why Fedex called me". To which she responded with the same question.

Clearly AI is not there yet - a simple "I do not know why I am calling you because you called ME - I am just returning your call" is not understood because clearly someone did not think to program that in. Until the day AI can figure things out on their own we are stuck in this weird broken world.

What Is This?

Mystery Item
Mystery Item

Answer The new heart rate + oxygen sensor on the underside of an Apple Watch 6 under fluorescence micrography.

Fake Reviews

Be careful what you assume when reading reviews online. If you ignorantly google "Best benchtop DMM's" for example, you get this site showing up:

5 Best Benchtop Digital Multimeters

Read through it and it seems a bit lacking but whatever. Now jump to this spot:

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1 Day FedEx Delivery... From UK

I am mightily impressed. It takes UPS 1 month to deliver a package from just across the border - NYC. It takes FedEx 1 day to get something from the UK to me. I placed the order 02:30 London time on the 17th. It arrived just now. That includes processing / billing / logistical time.

Yes I know with time zones it is more like 1.5 but still.

Stupid C# Language Decision

In C#, many years ago, some stupid person decided it would be a good idea to allow the use of the keyword var to define a variable without explicitly identifying its type, as type can many times be inferred from the RHS of the assignment.

So instead of defining code as in the old olden days below:

foreach (string mask in someList) {
  // Do something
}
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