The Very-Many-Questions-Not-Worth-Their-Own-Thread Thread XLII

[Samson]

How do they know what kind of TV people have - do the TV police conduct raids? What if you don't own a TV but watch everything online? Do you also need a computer license and a phone license?

Oh, I forgot other licenses we have here - hunting and fishing. Fishing licenses can actually be used as valid ID for voting.

The rule is if you watch something that is on TV in the UK at the same time then you need a licence. So you are OK watching recorded stuff on youtube. You could watch cbc.ca live as they do not broadcast in the UK. You could not watch CNN.com live as they do broadcast in the UK.

As far as them knowing, they have had this story about detector vans driving around and working out who is watching TV from the emissions from the antenna. We do not really know if that is true. What we do know if that they get lists of people who do not have a TV and pay people on commision to hassass them, including going round to their houses and pretending they have the right to come in and look around your house (which, in the absence of a warrant and the police, they do not).

 

[Valka D'Ur]

The rule is if you watch something that is on TV in the UK at the same time then you need a licence. So you are OK watching recorded stuff on youtube. You could watch cbc.ca live as they do not broadcast in the UK. You could not watch CNN.com live as they do broadcast in the UK.

As far as them knowing, they have had this story about detector vans driving around and working out who is watching TV from the emissions from the antenna. We do not really know if that is true. What we do know if that they get lists of people who do not have a TV and pay people on commision to hassass them, including going round to their houses and pretending they have the right to come in and look around your house (which, in the absence of a warrant and the police, they do not).

As I said, that's crazy. Seriously NUTS.

Licenses... I'm reminded that City Hall wants to license cats. I won't pay it, since Maddy isn't allowed outside, and her attempts to sneak out never get her very far.

Many years ago, City Hall decided to Do Something about the professional trade show crafters who would come in for a weekend craft fair and not be licensed... so they levied a license requirement on everyone selling at one such Christmas craft fair, basically at the last minute. This was on top of the table rental (which already wasn't cheap), and when the people operating the fair protested that this was catching a lot of non-professional local crafters who sold only once or twice a year to make a bit of extra for Christmas and couldn't afford $100+ for a license, City Hall said "too bad."

So the sellers either pulled out or jacked up their prices, and the craft cooperative I was part of at that time did very good business that weekend. Our store was in the same building, and we weren't affected by this licensing fiasco. That was one of my most profitable weekends ever, since the public went to the craft fair, looked at the jacked-up prices, decided "not at that price" and meandered over to our store... and bought lots of stuff. I sold out of some things and had to quickly make more overnight.

 

[tjs282]

they have had this story about detector vans driving around and working out who is watching TV from the emissions from the antenna

Not sure how a receiving antenna could emit anything, but seems like an active CRT-emitter might have been detectable by the patterned fluctuations from its magnetic field?

(Not that that's been relevant for the last decade or so, now that pretty much everyone uses flatscreens)

And of course, anyone watching a (non-licensed) TV in a front room after dark would also be pretty obvious — unless they hung blackout-curtains over their windows (which might in itself be potentially suspicious, if one was inclined to suspect license evasion).

I did like the suggestion that the Doctor Who props department pimped out the detector-vans, though!

A similar fee/tax applies in Germany, for an ostensibly similar reason (i.e. funding the German national broadcaster, NDR). But here it gets levied on (nearly) everyone, on the (justifiable?) assumption that (nearly) everyone now has some kind of screen/monitor in their house (smartphones included), and could thus access NDR's content — if they chose to.

 

[Samez]

CRTs can be checked by Van Eck phreaking. So yes you can measure the electromagnetic radiation by the CRTs.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

You need a TV license to watch BBC iPlayer, but it's only check is a message box saying "Do you have a TV license?" that appears only once before watching anything.

 

[Samson]

I found a completely accurate portrayal of a tv licence inspector visit.

 

[Kyriakos]

With my new monitor everything is now tiny due to full HD resolution (1920x1080). How can I make text appear larger? (also on CFC)

 

[Samson]

With my new monitor everything is now tiny due to full HD resolution (1920x1080). How can I make text appear larger? (also on CFC)

In a browser you change the zoom level, Ctl-mouse wheel for me, as well as in the menu. In Civ I set the resolution in game. CFC + Civ = everything?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

With my new monitor everything is now tiny due to full HD resolution (1920x1080). How can I make text appear larger? (also on CFC)

CTRL + + (press CTRL and the + at the same time, as many times as necessary until the text is a comfortable size).

That's the only way I manage to read anything.

 

[Synobun]

The display settings in Windows has element size sliders. Also in the browser appearance settings.

 

[Synobun]

I need a better way of learning language.

My ability to pick up new words and grammar is very, very good.

My ability to retain that information and recall it in the future is horrific. Truly awful. My information retaining has never been good; when I was young, I forgot Flemish and French in a year's time when I tried to forget them (yeah, yeah, I know). But since becoming disabled, it's much worse, and traditional studying does not seem to really improve it. I can remember so long as I constantly use the information on a daily basis without a break. This is obviously not sustainable.

Duolingo is not good for this. Clearly. I'm very (very) slowly gaining in skill in French and Swedish, but not at a speed I enjoy and I would like to better learn the fundamentals in a way that I can realistically maintain.

Are there others here with language-learning issues, either because they've always had issues with it or due to a disability? What helped you work around it?

 

[Birdjaguar]

Move to Sweden.

Bozo Erectus moved to Finland for love and he is still there.

 

[Synobun]

Move to Sweden.

Bozo Erectus moved to Finland for love and he is still there.

There is no realistic path for legal immigration, unfortunately.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

If you want to relearn French, there should be lots of immersion opportunities. After all, you're in one of the largest, most multicultural cities in the country.

As for Swedish, I have no idea. All I know is what my grandfather taught me decades ago, and that wasn't much. He did say that to be fluent in a language, you have to be able to think in that language.

The disability angle... it's frustrating. One thing that hypothyroidism did to me is that not only is my body affected, but my mind is as well. I don't think as dexterously as I did before. I can tell from re-reading some of my posts here from a decade ago that some of my language skills have slipped somewhat, and that's in my first language.

How to deal with it is something I'm still trying to figure out. Sheer stubbornness is part of it. Just like when I was in the situation where I couldn't even pick up a pencil without a great deal of pain and had to teach myself to print and write all over again, I just told myself, "There is NO WAY I will allow myself to be only partially literate."

Things aren't great right now, as writing is once again a challenge and typing is as well. It's a good thing I'm in the habit of proofreading, or my posts would turn out like alphabet soup.

I have no solutions to offer on this aspect of your questions, but I do wish you luck in figuring it out.

 

[sophie]

Have you considered reading plus a flash card app? Personally I use duo as a fun relatively unobtrusive way to make sure I’m getting regular speaking practice in. I pretty much only use the mic and try to avoid composing as much as possible. But I don’t think I would recommend it to anybody as a primary learning or practice tool past the first 2 months or so of early acquisition.

Generally I get my vocab from books and then make them into flash cards that I practice every day. 45 mins reading plus 15 running flashcards improved my vocab and comprehension significantly more than an hour of Duolingo has ever done.

 

[Synobun]

If you want to relearn French, there should be lots of immersion opportunities. After all, you're in one of the largest, most multicultural cities in the country.

As for Swedish, I have no idea. All I know is what my grandfather taught me decades ago, and that wasn't much. He did say that to be fluent in a language, you have to be able to think in that language.

The disability angle... it's frustrating. One thing that hypothyroidism did to me is that not only is my body affected, but my mind is as well. I don't think as dexterously as I did before. I can tell from re-reading some of my posts here from a decade ago that some of my language skills have slipped somewhat, and that's in my first language.

How to deal with it is something I'm still trying to figure out. Sheer stubbornness is part of it. Just like when I was in the situation where I couldn't even pick up a pencil without a great deal of pain and had to teach myself to print and write all over again, I just told myself, "There is NO WAY I will allow myself to be only partially literate."

Things aren't great right now, as writing is once again a challenge and typing is as well. It's a good thing I'm in the habit of proofreading, or my posts would turn out like alphabet soup.

I have no solutions to offer on this aspect of your questions, but I do wish you luck in figuring it out.

You would think, but Vancouver has startlingly poor French immersion. You would have a point if I were wanting to learn Hindi or Chinese, though.

(Though to be honest, immersion training is something I find exceptionally stressful.)

Have you considered reading plus a flash card app? Personally I use duo as a fun relatively unobtrusive way to make sure I’m getting regular speaking practice in. I pretty much only use the mic and try to avoid composing as much as possible. But I don’t think I would recommend it to anybody as a primary learning or practice tool past the first 2 months or so of early acquisition.

Generally I get my vocab from books and then make them into flash cards that I practice every day. 45 mins reading plus 15 running flashcards improved my vocab and comprehension significantly more than an hour of Duolingo has ever done.

Whenever I edit for math/coding people, they always mention Anki flash cards. The idea has floated a little in the back of my mind but I've never pulled the trigger on it, as I'm not sure entirely what would be the best way to do it. Just the words? Sentences? Questions that require me to think? Etc.

I find myself frustrated with Duolingo often. It does not explain when to use different tenses/pronouns. It just throws them at me and I guess until I get them right, and then I just have to remember that I use that tense in that context, and hopefully then remember to apply that to similar contexts later. Horribly inefficient. And the lessons they use are of little to no utility as well. I can say that the turtles aren't eating fish in Swedish, which is maybe useful if I lived near a turtle reservoir.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

You would think, but Vancouver has startlingly poor French immersion. You would have a point if I were wanting to learn Hindi or Chinese, though.

(Though to be honest, immersion training is something I find exceptionally stressful.)



Whenever I edit for math/coding people, they always mention Anki flash cards. The idea has floated a little in the back of my mind but I've never pulled the trigger on it, as I'm not sure entirely what would be the best way to do it. Just the words? Sentences? Questions that require me to think? Etc.

I find myself frustrated with Duolingo often. It does not explain when to use different tenses/pronouns. It just throws them at me and I guess until I get them right, and then I just have to remember that I use that tense in that context, and hopefully then remember to apply that to similar contexts later. Horribly inefficient. And the lessons they use are of little to no utility as well. I can say that the turtles aren't eating fish in Swedish, which is maybe useful if I lived near a turtle reservoir.

Well, I guess that sentence makes about as much sense as some of those I had to learn in my elementary-grade French classes. Language lessons should be about relevant stuff that makes sense, not artificial situations that sound stupid. I really don't care if my aunt's pen is on the dresser. Let her keep track of her pen herself.

 

[Aiken_Drumn]

Bozo Erectus

Now there's a name I've not heard in an age.

 

[Kyriakos]

In a browser you change the zoom level, Ctl-mouse wheel for me, as well as in the menu. In Civ I set the resolution in game. CFC + Civ = everything?

You can use the wheel? Why, computer pretending it actually works as an analog machine?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Now there's a name I've not heard in an age.

Did you ever see his Microsoft Paint art? The thread is down in the early pages in A&E. It's really gorgeous stuff.