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FYI! Last read at 04:45 on 2025/04/10.

Even fewer brambles

With it predicted to be hot today (they said 29-30°C, it reached a tenth of a degree off 33!) and hotter tomorrow, I decided to do one final big morning push to get the fence part sorted out.

And sort it out I did! ☺

I made this video and commented on it supposedly being 30 today. What I didn't realise at the time (13h30) was that it was already thirty. I guess that's why I felt too hot and bothered to finish removing the bits of fence.

At least it's cool in my bedroom. The night temperature dropped to 11°C so I left the shutters and window open (with a fly screen) to let the cold air in. Was a bit chilly this morning, but I sure appreciate it now!

The video - and it's made entirely on my phone (a Samsung S9) with the built in Movie Maker app, and Buftaku Subtitle Utility to create the subtitles.

 

I don't think I'm going to be able to use the water point. It looks as if the handle of the valve rusted away ages ago. Plus, it's a long way to reach down given the snakes and stuff that lurk.
Oh well. I think the hose ought to reach up from the tap out front, should I need water.

Water pipe valve

Speaking of snakes, saw this guy the other day. He's (she's?) probably one of the offspring of the two that were getting it on in the springtime. Looks to me like a basic grass snake. It's a little one, as you can tell from the size of the surrounding weeds. Even so... snakes are creepy things.

Lurking snake

As I came in, on the verge of melting into a puddle of goo, I noticed a female sparrow trying to drink from the bottom of a plant pot. In vain, it had dried up in the heat. So I put out a plant pot base filled with water. It was in the shade for most of the afternoon, but even now as it is in the sun it is still popular.
The picture is rubbish because I'm hiding in the living room using a zoomed up version of a digitally zoomed picture. Anything else and they'd spot me and fly away.

Bird bowl

 

Connecting to Jelora with a Minitel 2

I made a video, ages ago, about connecting to Jelora using my Minitel 1B over VoIP. I realised that I hadn't done one for the Minitel 2.
The difference is two-fold. The first thing is that the Minitel 2 has an itty-bitty phonebook so can remember phone numbers. The second thing is that it is capable of seizing the line, dialling, and handling connection/disconnection by itself. There's a video on YouTube of a guy using a Minitel to connect to Jelora over VoIP and there's a lot of screen corruption (you can see many control codes). It turns out, if you watch the end of the video, that he leaves his phone off hook while the Minitel is connected. So that puts a lot of noise into the line (everything the phone can hear) as well as having extra loading (the phone). With the Minitel doing the entire connection for itself, this is no longer a problem, so reception is much more reliable.
Jelora is still as unfriendly as ever - you can't chat without an ID and there's no obvious way to get an ID; and if you go to "Apropos" to get information on the server, there's obvious way back to the menu, it tells you to press ConnFin which is the hang up key. That said, it does work as a live demonstration of Minitel in use on a real phone line. And this time, it seemed pretty reliable, if slow, even on VoIP!

Sorry... that's a minute and a half of your life you're not getting back.

 

GDPR fail!

The other day (third August) I received an email from what I think is an on-line animal food supplier called Zooplus. It was sent to somebody called Vanessa (judging by the email address) and it was concerning an order by a Mme Bernard who lives in Lot (down south of the country). It announced that her order (handled by GLS group) had been dispatched on the 10th of July. I had her name, her address, the tracking number, and know that she has a pampered cat with eye trouble (Gourmet Gold, Thai/Asia food in jelly form, and some sort of eye cleaning stuff). It came to €64,47.

i checked the parcel tracking (it arrived on the 15th of July) just in case this was some weird sort of spam, but Zooplus checked out, as did the tracking. I probably would have been able to get a copy of her signature (or her husband?) but nobody does that right now because Covid.

So, I replied to the message, sending a copy of my reply to both Zooplus and this Vanessa person, saying:

Bonjour Zooplus/Vanessa/Mme Bernard,
 
Je suis un homme anglais qui habite en Bretagne avec l'adresse mél xxxxxxxx@orange.fr.
 
Est-ce que vous expliquer, peut-être, pourquoi j'ai reçu le notification d'expédition d'un colis pour Mme Bernard avec son adresse et tout l'information de cet commande?
 
En plus, si vous n'est pas un filiale de le magasin Maxi Zoo, pourquoi vous avez mon adresse mél?
 
J'espère que vous bien connaissez le règlement RGPD? Sinon, un petit lien: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A8glement_g%C3%A9n%C3%A9ral_sur_la_protection_des_donn%C3%A9es
 
J'attendrai votre réponse.

In English this time:

Hello Zooplus/Vanessa/Mrs Bernard,
 
I'm an English man that lives in Brittany with the email address xxxxxxxx@orange.fr.
 
Can you explain, maybe, why I received the notification of Mrs Bernard's parcel being sent, with her address and all of the information of her order?
 
In addition, if you are not related to the shop called Maxi Zoo, how is it that you have my email address?
 
I hope that you understand well the rules of the GDPR. If not, a little link: [link to info on Wikipedia, in French]
 
I await your reply.

I decided that what I had said was sufficient (especially the mention of GDPR) that I didn't want to confuse the issue by asking how the hell an order placed on the 10th of July, and probably send either that day or the following, ended up in my mailbox something like 23 days later. Something somewhere is... weird.

I'll let you know if they bother to reply. I got an automatic acknowledgement, so they received it, at least.

If you can read French this document on ServicePublic.fr confirms my impression that it's the basic moral responsibility of a company to treat information of a personal nature (such as name and address) with respect, and not, you know, email it to somebody who will write six paragraphs about in on their blog... ☺

 

 

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As of February 2025, commenting is no longer available to UK residents, following the implementation of the vague and overly broad Online Safety Act. You must tick the box below to verify that you are not a UK resident, and you expressly agree if you are in fact a UK resident that you will indemnify me (Richard Murray), as well as the person maintaining my site (Rob O'Donnell), the hosting providers, and so on. It's a shitty law, complain to your MP.
It's not that I don't want to hear from my British friends, it's because your country makes stupid laws.
 
Rick, 6th August 2020, 19:43
We're on yellow alert for heatwave, and the next département over is on orange alert. 
AccuWeather reckons 38°C tomorrow, then a week of low to mid 30s... 😰🌡️ 
(at quarter to eight as I write this, it's still just a touch below 32°C)
Jelora, 8th July 2022, 10:48
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