@[email protected] ​(context for any readers who aren't aware: even private health insurance in the UK is enormously cheaper than US health insurance, even before you get to the NHS part)

@[email protected] ​The first time I worked remotely for a US company and had a conversation with my colleagues about why all the job ads focused on health insurance so much was quite a eye opener...

@[email protected] (UK perspective) ​I think there's a couple of things in play there. In the short term, the NHS is going through a historically rough patch at the moment and has been for a while, so that tends to get more focus internally than comparing it to external systems.

The other is that most Brits don't really have a good handle on how the US system works - you can find some videos of people asking Brits on the street about, for example, the cost of giving birth in the US and they have no idea.

I suspect that it will soon become a marker of my age that I have a feeling of great satisfaction and immense relief every time I center something with CSS correctly.

@[email protected] ​I did too until a blond friend of mind took objection, which... with hindsight I get actually.

I now tend to have moments of being away with the fairies instead, on the basis that I haven't yet met any fairies to offend with the saying and I'm not sure they'd find being distracting offensive anyway!

@[email protected] Oh, right; from the direction of the conversation I'd thought you wanted something to automate​ that process rather than requiring a manual action on either end.

So... yeah. Reading fail 😁 . That said, I still think it might be a snazzy extra feature, especially in those situations where you're not sure at point of contact reception what an appropriate nickname might be!

@[email protected] ​Or, you know, maybe I've just failed at basic reading comprehension in which case I'll leave you to it! It's been known to happen...

@[email protected] ​I think I'm trying to solve the same issue? If José and José are both in your contacts, and neither have assigned a picture or surname, at the moment you're a bit stuffed telling who is who. But your contact list knows they're different, so there must be some unique identifier under the hood.

I was wondering if in the absence of a user chosen picture you could generate an image from that unique identifier to allow you to see which José is which.

​

@[email protected] @[email protected] ​I was more thinking something like the console library that generates an ascii art for an ssh host when it asks you if you trust it, given it's much easier to see if the image is the same than eyeballing 20+ character hash.

Let me see if I can track one down to link to, my mind is blanking on names at the moment.

@[email protected] @[email protected] ​There's a few ways of generating abstract patterns from hashes; would that give a way of adding something visually distinctive without requiring user effort or giving away any identifiable info?

Many are the people I have confused over the years by proclaiming "red warrior needs food badly" as I grab something to eat. None of them displayed the classical education and fine tradition you have instilled in your family @[email protected] ​

@[email protected] ​to be fair, I suspect with a sufficiently loose interpretation of 'translation' nearly every good mentor who's ever lived including many parents have said that.

@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] the Welsh have a good few centuries on that ​en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisted... (depending if we assume competitive implies adverserial)

@[email protected] I'm genuinely curious: what would be the rationale for it not being OK?

Also, my mum doesn't bother reverse engineering; if it's a small restaurant she just asks how things are made! Most chefs seem to enjoy talking about it. (Large or chain restaurants are obviously a bit different)​

@[email protected] I find them horrific on quite a number of levels, I have to admit.

Me, looking at student's screen: that's great, but we'll need to replace the character image with one that's yours before we punish your game

Ten year old: But that is my image!

Me: It... has a watermark logo from a well know YouTuber?

Tyo, proudly: I took the screenshot myself!

Me: ...pass the pain killers, I'm going to be here some time...

@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] ​this stuff really isn't obvious any more! My son is dysgraphic and uses a keyboard at school, and had to have a long discussion with a teacher explaining why he couldn't turn off his Internet connection while completing an assessment in Google Classroom. The teacher hadn't realised that he wasn't writing on his own device, and you know what? I don't blame them! How are you supposed to tell where things are anymore from within the 'user experience'?

By popular demand (also known as "at least one person asked") you can now try out VisualInk scripts without creating an account.

Just head to the example script from the demo, tweak things as you'd like and hit run at the bottom.

@[email protected] @[email protected] Of course, you do have to ignore the bizarrely pretentious cult around them in some groups online, but that's easy given they're other people online, and ignoring other people online is a required life skill these days anyway. Especially when they're being pretentious about a (checks notes) simple plastic plunger?

@[email protected] @[email protected] see also aeropress. Even easier to clean, and only needs a kettle not even a stove. I mean, I live in Italy and regularly get compliments on my coffee, so it can't be too bad. I suspect because I spend the money on decent Fairtrade beans rather than 'capsules'...