Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Category: Organizations

  • Memo to Bari Weiss…

    …Learn what the Streisand Effect is before you censor something to appease Trump…

  • The BBC Bends The Knee

    The Reith Lectures is a series of lectures given each year by leading figures of the day. They are commissioned by the BBC and broadcast on BBC Radio. Named after the founder of the BBC, Lord Reith, they began in 1948 with lectures given by Bertrand Russell.

    This year’s lectures are being given by the Dutch popular historian and author Rutger Bregman, and he’s run into a spot of bother in his opening lecture.

    Bregman’s claim in the lecture that Trump was “the most openly corrupt president in American history” was removed from the lecture’s broadcast, after the BBC sought legal advice.

    As he says, it’s a clear case of self-censorship driven by fear of legal action from Trump:

    “The truth is that the sentence wasn’t inaccurate – it was removed because of legal fears. And that’s exactly the concern my lecture raises: when institutions start censoring themselves out of fear of those in power.”

    Trump’s tantrums and tactics are having a chilling effect on free speech in many areas. The BBC is just the latest organisation to bend the knee.

    Lord Reith will be spinning in his grave.

    Addendum: This episode of The News Agents covers this story, and also has Bregman giving his view on the situation:

  • A Supply Chain Story

    I’ve just purchased a Microsoft Surface Pro 12 and keyboard to replace my aging Surface Go 2.

    The experience of buying the Surface tablet has been illuminating of just how complex, and data-driven, supply chains have become.

    The Surface comes in three available colours: platinum, violet and ocean-blue. The online Dutch Microsoft store only offers the platinum version, with a black keyboard with the US International layout. Naturally, I wanted a violet Surface and keyboard… So I went looking for other online sources for that combination. All the alternative online stores in the Netherlands were only offering the same combination as the Microsoft store. The online German Microsoft store did have both items in violet – but the keyboard was the German QWERTZ version – not what I wanted at all.

    I returned to the Dutch store and explained what I wanted to a Dutch support person via Chat and after some research he confirmed to me in an email that we could source the Surface from the German store (because it was 50 euros cheaper – special offer) and the keyboard from the Irish Microsoft store. The only snag was that the keyboard would be the UK layout, rather than US international, but at least it would be better than the German QWERTZ layout. I replied to his email confirming that I wanted to place the order.

    I attempted to reach him again via Chat, but that was not working, so after I sent him my phone number, he phoned me. After verification checks, he proceeded to place the order via the German and Irish online stores on my behalf. I got email order confirmations for the tablet (in German) and the keyboard (in English).

    Because we had placed the orders in two different EU countries from where I actually live (the Netherlands), I was expecting shipment and delivery to take at least a week. However, the following day I got emails from both Microsoft and the courier that the goods were on the way and would be delivered the same day.

    Bizarrely, although the orders were placed in the online stores of different countries, they both turned out to be fulfilled by the Irish operation. Even more bizarre, there’s apparently a warehouse in Venlo (in the Netherlands just 80 km from here) that bears the title Microsoft Ireland Operations Ltd. That had the items in stock and so they were shipped locally to me…

    And a coda to this story is that before I had even set up and signed in to the Surface with its keyboard, Microsoft knew that I had bought them and had included them in the list of my devices in my Microsoft account. I think they must immediately track their serial numbers from the moment of placing the orders.

  • Microsoft’s ICC Blockade

    Techzine reports that Microsoft has blocked the email account of the International Criminal Court’s Chief Prosecutor.

    This is an extremely worrying development and shows up the risks of European governments relying on Microsoft’s infrastructure services. Trump’s baleful influence comes in many forms.

    Carole Cadwalladr’s prediction of a digital coup would seem to be spot on.

    Addendum: John Naughton’s article on the whole affair is worth reading – he may well be the canary in the coalmine of what is to come.

  • A Force For Good

    The death of Pope Francis is a loss to the world. He was a radically different Pope to the authoritarian Pope Benedict and brought compassion to the papacy.

    He was not afraid to speak truth to political power and clearly viewed Trump as a force for evil, decrying Trump’s deportations of migrants. He wrote, in an open letter to American bishops, that he had “followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations,” adding that any policy built on force “begins badly and will end badly.”

    So now the process of choosing his successor begins. As an atheist, I obviously have no skin in this game, but I would hope that his successor will carry the torch of Pope Francis’s moral authority forward and not be a Pope that returns to the attitudes of Benedict.

  • Barbecook Cock-up

    Barbecook is a Belgian manufacturer of barbecues. About ten years ago we bought a barbecue from them: the Puuur model. One of the reasons we chose it was because it has a ceramic bowl that holds the charcoal.

    It’s given us good service, but this season I noticed that the bowl had developed a large crack, and another crack is developing. It will only be a matter of time before the bowl starts falling apart.

    I went to the Barbecook website to look for a replacement bowl. While the Puuur model is apparently no longer available, there were still spare parts for it listed, including the bowl, so I ordered it, at a cost of €146.88.

    A few days later a large box was delivered, which rattled alarmingly. I opened it, and sure enough, the bowl had been smashed in transit

    Very comprehensively:

    Naturally, I emailed Barbecook’s Customer Support, and got a reply back apologising and saying “I will send you a new ceramic bowl and ask our warehouse staff to pack it extra securely”.

    Great, thought I, good customer service. At least I did until the second bowl arrived:

    Sigh – broken in transit again; just in two halves this time. So much for the “extra secure packing” – which was exactly the same as for the first time. The issue is that the packing material they use (air bags) gets punctured in transit and the heavy bowl then rattles around in the large box and suffers damage.

    I emailed Customer Support with this observation and photos on the 7th August. It’s now two weeks later and I’ve not had any reply. It looks as though I’m €146.88 out of pocket on this particular learning experience. I’m not best pleased, and if I do need to replace our barbecue, you can sure it will not be with a model from Barbecook’s range.

    Addendum 24 August 2024: Perhaps it is pure coincidence, but a day after I posted this, I got an email from Barbecook Customer Service apologising for the delay in replying to my last email and offering to either attempt sending a third replacement or to refund my money. I’ve replied that I don’t want to run the risk of a third disappointment, so I would accept the refund…

  • The UK Home Office Strikes Again

    A woman is facing deportation, and being separated from her husband and 10-year-old son, despite a court ruling that the family has the right to live together in the UK. Full story here in The Guardian.

    A Home Office spokesperson said: “All visa applications are carefully considered on their individual merits, on the basis of the evidence provided and in accordance with the immigration rules. It is longstanding government policy that we do not routinely comment on individual cases.”

    Because if you did comment on individual cases you would be demonstrating here that you haven’t a fucking leg to stand on you heartless bastard.

    Shameful and they are deaf dumb and blind to rationality. They clearly have no empathy with the people who are in anguish because of being cast into limbo.

  • Rubbing Salt Into The Wound

    I recently blogged about the fact that Google was pulling the plug on the Premium Lite membership tier in YouTube.

    Today I had the following email from YouTube:

    Which translates as:

    Your Premium Lite membership has been canceled. Too bad you’re leaving. From November 24, 2023, you can no longer use the benefits of your Premium Lite membership.

    “Too bad you’re leaving“? WTF is this? You lot pulled the plug. I’m not leaving of my own accord, you’ve whipped the rug out from under me…

    Bastards.

  • Pop Goes the Weasel…

    A little local matter that’s vexing our village…

    Our village Heelweg is split into two halves – East Heelweg and West Heelweg – separated by 1.5 kilometers.

    There are two connecting routes: the Molenweg, which loops between the two centres and is 2.2 kilometers in length and the Bosboombroekerweg, which is the most direct route being 1.6 kilometers in length. The problem being that the Bosboombroekerweg is a track for parts of the route, and unsuitable for vehicular traffic other than farm machinery for large parts of the year. This also goes for cyclists who must then use the Molenweg. The issue there is that the road is narrow, and can be dangerous for cyclists as a result.

    The village School is in West Heelweg, so schoolchildren living in East Heelweg are subjected to dangerous situations on schooldays.

    In 2017, our village community council (Heelwegs Belang) wrote to our local authority (Oude IJsselstreek) proposing that a cycle path be laid along the Bosboombroekerweg tracks so that schoolchildren – and other cyclists – could travel safely and more directly between the two parts of the village.

    The local authority did initiate a project to make a plan for the construction of a cycle path. However, it took several years and discussions with landowners before a final design was ready:

    As part of the work, an ecological study was carried out, and a camera placed along the proposed route captured a photo of a weasel going about its business.

    Stock image of a weasel; CC0 public domain license

    Unfortunately, the weasel has thrown a spanner into the works.

    As a result of the proof of the presence of a weasel, the local authority was obliged to seek a permit from the provincial authority for the work to be carried out. We were told that a decision on the granting of the permit would take a maximum of 26 weeks.

    We’ve been waiting to hear the result of the decision for almost a year now.

    The upshot is that work on the last section of the cycle path has been halted by the local authority until the provincial authority pulls its finger out and deigns to give them a decision on the permit.

    It is five years and counting since we first proposed the cycle path… We’re still waiting…

    As the old English Nursery Rhyme has it:

    Half a pound of tuppenny rice,
    Half a pound of treacle.
    That’s the way the money goes,
    Pop! Goes the weasel

    Addendum 21 February 2024: the provincial authority has finally announced its decision and allowed the construction of the last section of the cycle path to begin. That won’t be until mid 2024 now, but at least the final hurdle has been overcome.

    Addendum 2 September 2024: well, it wasn’t “mid 2024”, but work will finally begin on the 9th of September. The end is finally in sight…

  • Pulling The Plug on Premium Lite

    Back in June, I blogged about the intrusive adverts that are infesting YouTube videos these days. While YouTube Premium offers ad-free viewing, it also includes the ability to watch content offline and stream music ad-free. However, it also comes at a hefty (in my view) price: €11.99 per month. I’m not prepared to pay that price.

    Back in June, YouTube introduced a Premium Lite membership tier that made viewing YouTube content Ad-free. At €6.99 per month this was a proposition that was somewhat more attractive.

    I decided that I would sign up for the trial, and after a month of blissfully watching content Ad-free, the experience was so pleasant that I decided that I would carry on paying for Premium Lite.

    Alas, it was too good to last.

    Last week I got the following email from Google:

    Your Premium Lite membership will be discontinued
    Hi Geoff, ‌ Thank you for being one of our first Premium Lite members. ‌

    We’re writing to let you know that after 25 October 2023, we will no longer be offering your version of Premium Lite. While we understand that this may be disappointing news, we continue to work on different versions of Premium Lite as we incorporate feedback from our users, creators and partners. ‌

    We will cancel your membership on 25 October 2023. Your Premium Lite benefits will expire at the end of your billing cycle and you will not be billed further. ‌

    To show our appreciation, we’re offering a one-month trial of YouTube Premium (even if you’ve had a trial before). With YouTube Premium, you can watch videos ad-free, offline and in the background. Plus, stream music ad-free in the YouTube Music app. ‌ If you’d like to redeem this offer, you’ll need to cancel your Premium Lite membership or wait for it to be cancelled for you. ‌
    You can find more information in the YouTube Help Centre. ‌

    Kind regards,
    The YouTube Premium team

    Sorry, Google, but €11.99 per month is not an amount I’m prepared to pay for simply wanting to watch content without your damn adverts.

    I’ll go back to cursing you and your adverts as from the 25th of October.

  • Surface Duo – It’s Dead, Jim…

    I predicted back in July that the end was nigh for the Surface Duo line of devices made by Microsoft. I think we can now categorically state that the plug has been pulled and it is well and truly dead.

    The reason being that Panos Panay has announced that he is leaving Microsoft after 19 years at the company. Panay was the power behind the Surface line of products, and the Surface Duo was his baby.

    The timing of the announcement is also interesting – coming as it does just three days before Microsoft’s annual Surface event where new products are announced. It seems almost inevitable that a Surface Duo 3 will not be in that lineup.

    Panay himself will also not be at the event. Perhaps he didn’t want the embarrassment. I remember the strained performance of Steven Sinofsky, the champion of Windows 8, at its introduction event. He left the company very soon afterwards which led to the question of did he fall or was he pushed…

  • YouTube and Adverts

    I don’t think it’s just me, but I feel sure that adverts on YouTube have become a lot more intrusive than they used to be. These days, I rarely manage to complete watching a YouTube post without adverts, both long and short formats, frequently interrupting the flow.

    YouTube also keep trying to push me to subscribe to their YouTube Premium service, but since this costs €11.99 per month – well, I’m damned if I’m going to pay that much. I’ll just continue to curse YouTube and their adverts.

    Today, however, I noticed something interesting: they’ve introduced a “YouTube Premium Lite” tier for €6.99 per month. This does not include the YouTube Music service or the ability to download content for offline viewing, so it seems to be aimed specifically at providing an Ad-free experience.

    Apparently, Google are testing the waters here; Premium Lite is only available in a handful of European countries.

    Well, it is certainly cheaper than Premium, and I am primarily interested in an Ad-free experience, so is it worth it to me?

    I pay WordPress €30 per annum to keep my blog Ad-free for my readers. That, I think is acceptable, and all my readers experience this for free. To ask every consumer almost three times that amount to experience an Ad-free YouTube does seem to be pushing things a bit far. I suspect I’ll just continue cursing Google, YouTube and their intrusive adverts.

  • Brexit & a Clueless PostNL

    We received a letter from the Dutch Post Office (PostNL) last week. It told us that they had received a packet addressed to us from abroad and that they were legally obliged to make a Customs Declaration on it. The letter further stated that there were no details on the contents of the package and that we needed to give these details online.

    I went to the website (post.nl/track-en-trace) and filled in the reference code given in the letter. I found myself faced with a series of questions:

    • Was this a purchase or a gift?
    • What was the nature of the contents?
    • How many items were in the package?
    • What was the value of the items?

    Since we hadn’t purchased anything from outside of the EU recently, it had to be a gift, but since it was a gift, how the devil would we know what the package contained, how many items there would be, and what the value would be?

    I said as much in my reply, and gambled that if it was a gift, the value would be no more than €20.

    That seems to have satisfied PostNL, because the package landed in the letterbox today. It turns out to be chocolates sent as a Christmas present by my niece in Scotland. She posted it two months ago, and as evidence of the utter cluelessness of PostNL, she had a signed and dated Customs Declaration label on it stating that the contents were chocolates, and of a value that did not attract import duty. Furthermore, she had her return address on the package – why couldn’t PostNL tell us this, so we could have put two and two together?

    By way of contrast, there was a second package in the letterbox for me today. This was a second-hand book that I ordered just last week. It also came from abroad, but since it came from Ireland (in the EU), it just tootled across to the Netherlands without generating paperwork and delays.

    Brexit is a disaster, both great and small.

  • The Brexit Effect – the Facts

    I see that the Financial Times has at last weighed in with a film on the effects (mostly malign) of Brexit on the UK Economy. Well worth watching – but depressing as hell as an example of seeing a country indulging in an act of self-harm…

  • Is That A Threat Or A Promise?

    I see that Meta (the company formerly known as Facebook) is saying that it may have to abandon the European Union.

    “If a new transatlantic data transfer framework is not adopted… we will likely be unable to offer a number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe,” Meta said in its 10-K filing.

    Stand not upon the order of your going, but go at once…

    And good riddance.

  • Facebookland

    An excellent, and chilling, article in The Atlantic by Adrienne LaFrance about the power and dangers of Facebook. Worth reading.

    I left Facebook, with absolutely no regrets, over six years ago. One user down, only another 2.9 billion to go…

  • Another Day, Another Microsoft Rant…

    As I predicted a year ago, Microsoft is dropping Skype, and trying to persuade people to move to a version of Microsoft Teams intended for home users. It will come as standard in Windows 11, but it is already available for Window 10 as a download. Actually, it’s been available for some time for iOS and Android devices, with support for Windows having been added in the past few weeks.

    I’ve been using the business version of Microsoft Teams for some time, but I thought I would check the personal version out in view of the likely demise of Skype in the not too distant future (if Microsoft has its way).

    For years, I’ve had two Microsoft Accounts, each associated with its own separate email address, and for years, both accounts have had the same mobile number associated with them because I have a single mobile phone.

    I’ve just tried to set up the personal Microsoft Teams application with the second Microsoft Account.

    I get to the stage where it asks for a phone number to be added to the Microsoft Account. But, hang on I think, that account already has my number – why is Teams asking for it again? Oh well, no harm in giving it again I think.

    Wrong.

    I get a message saying: “That number is already taken”, followed by a message from the Authenticator app on my phone telling me that my phone number has been removed from my account. Er, what?

    Could it be that the developers of Microsoft Teams cannot conceive of a use case where someone can have multiple email addresses, but only has one mobile? Please say it isn’t so.

    Gah!

  • Microsoft: Opens Mouth to Change Feet Yet Again…

    I see that Microsoft is demonstrating its endless capability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory yet again.

    Last week they proudly unveiled Windows 11.

    Their web page for Windows 11 includes an App to check whether your Windows PCs are ready for Windows 11. Naturally, I downloaded it and ran it on all my PCs and tablets.

    I had expected that my old desktop PC would not meet the requirements, but I was somewhat flabbergasted to see that my 1 year-old Surface Go 2 also failed to pass the tests:

    The Surface Go 2 has an Intel Core m3-8100Y CPU, which is actually on the list of supported Intel CPUs for Windows 11.

    It turns out that the PC Health Check app is a load of dingos’ kidneys. And that Microsoft don’t seem to be able to agree amongst themselves what, precisely, the actual requirements are.

    Oh, and I see that while Microsoft says Windows 11 “will be coming later this year”, the fine print later on the same page qualifies that to “The upgrade rollout plan is still being finalized but is scheduled to begin late in 2021 and continue into 2022. Specific timing will vary by device”.

    ‘Twas ever thus for Microsoft. Plus ça change…

  • The Fox in the Henhouse?

    According to a news story in the Guardian, none other than Nigel Farage has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the Dutch Green Business Group.

    This does seem to be a rather ill-thought out decision for a company supposedly proud of its “green” credentials.

    Farage has a long history of climate warming denialism. I doubt that this particular leopard has suddenly changed his spots. And now he is to act as a “spokesman” for the company? The mind positively boggles.

    Addendum: It just goes from bad to worse.

  • Don’t Let The Door Hit You On The Way Out

    The news that Facebook is saying that they may have to quit Europe brings a smile to my face. It can’t happen soon enough as far as I’m concerned. Good Riddance.