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  • A "Computers Don't Argue" Moment

    From Robert Woodward@3:633/10 to All on Monday, October 12, 2026 21:47:45
    I was doing a search on Google for a business and the Google server had
    me living in a town 10 miles from where I live and I couldn't change it.
    I thought I found a popup menu that had the right town, but when I chose
    it, my location was unchanged and the popup no longer had the right town
    in its list. For that matter, the top of the results was dominated by "Sponsored" businesses.

    --
    "We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
    Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_. ?-----------------------------------------------------
    Robert Woodward robertaw@drizzle.com

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From James Nicoll@3:633/10 to All on Tuesday, October 13, 2026 12:57:42
    In article <robertaw-E0D7B0.21474512102026@news.individual.net>,
    Robert Woodward <robertaw@drizzle.com> wrote:
    I was doing a search on Google for a business and the Google server had
    me living in a town 10 miles from where I live and I couldn't change it.
    I thought I found a popup menu that had the right town, but when I chose
    it, my location was unchanged and the popup no longer had the right town
    in its list. For that matter, the top of the results was dominated by >"Sponsored" businesses.

    I had an amusing encounter in which google maps tried to get me to provide information on various locations, to which I responded "fuck you, I don't
    do free work for tech companies." Mentally, which probably limited its
    impact on Google.

    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)