Abject Stupidity

[starrymarkb]

That'll probably be standard procedure in a few years' time, people will look at you as if to say "You still use paper!?"

Indeed, some airlines already allow it, the phone/tablet displays a barcode which is scanned at security. Easyjet's app doesn't yet support it. I suspect I'd still use paper as it seems easier then getting the device out, navigating to the correct screen and then watching it fail to scan (the BA Mobile check in is notorious for this). Expect Ryanair to charge for mobile check in too
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Fresh one I've just had at work
"The Postcode is XX99 6 'U' for Yellow 'H' for House"

 

[jon0844]

Many mobile displays are too bright or reflective for barcode scanning to work, as I've discovered with trying to be clever in Tesco with the Clubcard app.

If the new iPhone uses a 'transflective' screen then BA and others will have real problems!

 

[wensley]

Someones in my A2 tutor group...

"Where is Oxbridge?"

 

[NSEFAN]

Today at London Marylebone, a group of rowdy teenagers were blocking the doors after arrival from High Wycombe. They didn't get off initially, claiming they were waiting for the next stop!

 

[LE Greys]

Someones in my A2 tutor group...

"Where is Oxbridge?"

Just along the river from Camford, everyone knows that.

 

[Eagle]

"Where is Oxbridge?"

About midway between Bridport and Beaminster, on the river Brit. Down here.

 

[VTPreston_Tez]

About midway between Bridport and Beaminster, on the river Brit. Down here.

I used to live in Bridport and I've never heard of Oxbridge, never heard it mentioned or in the Dorset Echo I have read a fair few times. No buses have mentioned it on their blinds, so this case is not exactly 'abject stupidity' as such.
(The 45 now runs West Bay-Beaminster and that doesn't serve Oxbridge either. This could actually be a bit more serious than just a case of ignorance as such.)

 

[IanXC]

I used to live in Bridport and I've never heard of Oxbridge, never heard it mentioned or in the Dorset Echo I have read a fair few times. No buses have mentioned it on their blinds, so this case is not exactly 'abject stupidity' as such.
(The 45 now runs West Bay-Beaminster and that doesn't serve Oxbridge either. This could actually be a bit more serious than just a case of ignorance as such.)

Erm... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxbridge

 

[ATW Alex 101]

when at liverpool street about to years ago we were by the ticket barriers for the intercity trains and some one asked us which platform the central line leaves from pointing at so we told her to go down the steps where the tube station is and she produced an oyster card she had claimed to have brought a few hours earlier and then tried to feed it through the ticket reader and snapped it clean in half! me and my dad were trying to hold our pee in laughing but we gave her a national rail ticket holder to put her card remains in and showed her the proper way to use it and she was astonished by the fact that all you do is touch it. suppose you have to go a little out of your way to help confused tourists even as a 12 year old at the time

 

[Cruithne3753]

Saw some guy at Bristol Temple Meads get his huge mountain bike stuck in the ticket gate, it took two members of staff to help him get it out.

Of course, just next to this scene was the wide gate he could have just trundled it through.

 

[Ivo]

Saw some guy at Bristol Temple Meads get his huge mountain bike stuck in the ticket gate, it took two members of staff to help him get it out.

Of course, just next to this scene was the wide gate he could have just trundled it through.

A scene like that would usually be found in The Simpsons.

 

[causton]

A scene like that would usually be found in The Simpsons.

You don't have to go all the way to America to see that - Clapham Junction has one of those idiots (bicycles, suitcases, giant boxes) almost every time I'm there! :P

 

[HowMuch?]

Working on the information line in the internet age means the average customer intelligence has plummeted.

"How do I cross the road if there are tram lines in it?"
"I don't know what this town is called" - You live there!

Plus the lady with an iPad who held up the bag drop at Bristol airport because she hadn't printed a boarding pass and thought the iPad would be a substitute and would not go to the check in line!

That's not all that dim. Coaches do (or did) "m" tickets where you download (and show to the driver's scanner) a bar code picture on your mobile.
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Part of the patter of the cavern guides at Castleton is how people (they usually say "Americans") ask things like "What's on the other side of this wall?". I suspect it's us who are having our leg pulled.

But I can't resist the almost certainly fictional .... "Gee, why did they build Windsor Castle so close to the airport?"

 

[starrymarkb]

That's not all that dim. Coaches do (or did) "m" tickets where you download (and show to the driver's scanner) a bar code picture on your mobile.

I know some do, but Easyjet don't support mobile check in yet. There is no option to check in using their app... BA do but it's apparently pretty temperamental. Generally you'd check the airline's policy before you set off for the airport...

 

[jon0844]

NFC will hopefully solve check-in issues, as while there's nothing wrong with barcodes (QR Codes are very good), they work best when printed on a non-reflective surface. Many smartphones have reflective (transflective) screens to reflect back light and make them easier to see in sunlight - and this often means barcode scanners will not work with the traditional laser barcode readers.

A reader that uses a CCD/CMOS camera might well work (how smartphones can be set to scan barcodes) but they're not widely used on anything but smartphones because you have to aim them so precisely.

 

[Ascot]

Credit where due, with so many airlines with different policies and procedures it's easy for the non-interested to get confused.

Also the BA iPhone app works fine every time here, as does the Tesco card app for that matter. My brightness is pretty low and i have a screen protector. I don't know what you lot are doing wrong?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jon0844]

It's the type of screen, not just the brightness! My screen is reflective to make it clearer in bright light, then there are LCD and OLED screens and so on.

My phone doesn't work well showing my Tesco Clubcard but I haven't turned down the brightness to try, as it's too much hassle when I need it brighter the rest of the time. Easier to hand over the tag on my keys and scan that. Old school!!

 

[Ascot]

It's the type of screen, not just the brightness! My screen is reflective to make it clearer in bright light, then there are LCD and OLED screens and so on.

My phone doesn't work well showing my Tesco Clubcard but I haven't turned down the brightness to try, as it's too much hassle when I need it brighter the rest of the time. Easier to hand over the tag on my keys and scan that. Old school!!

It's an LED backlit TFT LCD with IPS if that makes any difference.

 

[WatcherZero]

Stephen Maxwell who owns a IT Consultancy hailed as a hero for helping to evacuate 2009 Cumbria train accident jailed for 5 years for £635,000 tax evasion on £2m income, he claimed in his defence that he had lost the income because of the crash but investigation found he hadnt been paying tax for 9 years before the crash using offshore bank accounts!

 

[causton]

It's the type of screen, not just the brightness! My screen is reflective to make it clearer in bright light, then there are LCD and OLED screens and so on.

My phone doesn't work well showing my Tesco Clubcard but I haven't turned down the brightness to try, as it's too much hassle when I need it brighter the rest of the time. Easier to hand over the tag on my keys and scan that. Old school!!

Just as Uno introduce barcode readers on their buses...

 

[Smudger105e]

Some jade Gooy-isms...

Goody thought that the English city of Cambridge was in London.

On being told that Cambridge is in East Anglia, she assumed that to be abroad, and referred to it as "East Angular".

Her other misconceptions included that Rio de Janeiro is a person and not a city that Portugal is part of Spain, that the St George's Cross is not the Flag of England but only the flag of London, and lack of awareness that Aberdeen is in Scotland and that the United States is an English-speaking country.

 

[trentside]

that the United States is an English-speaking country.

There's quite a common story about Americans complimenting people from the UK on how well they speak English, firm in the belief that we speak something else over here. How true it is, I don't know!

 

[HowMuch?]

Portugal/Spain isn't ALL that dim. They were one country once.

And ask any USA citizen about UK/England/Britain/Scotland/Wales/Ulster/N Ireland/Great Britain. Or most English people, frankly. How many English people think there is a country called "Southern Ireland?" And it's not that long since the English used to go to England football matches waving Union Jacks (pedantry on "Jack" not wanted here!).

And, dear reader, before you think only other people are a bit vague on this : What's the nearest non-UK territory to Lancashire (and I've made the question rather easier than I could have) ?

 

[ainsworth74]

What's the nearest non-UK territory to Lancashire?

Isle of Man.

 

[HowMuch?]

Well I didn't think NO-ONE would know it. But I did think those in the know would have enjoyed seeing some other answers first....

1 minus 0.99999999999 (recurring) ?

OK. Offtopic I'll start another one.

 

[gnolife]

I saw someone yesterday sitting down waitin for a train. The only problem was that he was at Reddish South.

 

[HowMuch?]

I know someone who works for a large organisation. The organisation will not allow him to travel on a £30 first class advance. But he IS allowed to travel on a £150 standard open single.

This is to save money on First Class travel.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Along similar lines, virtually every day I am asked for an Anytime ticket by a passenger who makes a journey that could be covered on an Off-Peak ticket because their company won't do expenses for an individual item valued at less than £14.

 

[Eagle]

Portugal/Spain isn't ALL that dim. They were one country once.

Not since the days of the Roman Empire... I doubt anyone has that long a memory.

 

[LE Greys]

Not since the days of the Roman Empire... I doubt anyone has that long a memory.

IIRC, the two crowns united briefly at the beginning of the 17th Century, but it might be best not to mention that in Portugal.