Dear human population units,
When I started this newsletter off, back in November 2018, it went out to a massive 10 people - among whom were Ed, my friend from school, and… me! So, ok, 9 people! This week, it will be going out to 250 people for the first time (not including me - although I do get a proof copy, I’m not counting me!).
Thank you to everyone who has shared this newsletter with your friends - it has made a huge difference and you can now tell everyone that you were in the first 250 subscribers to what will, ultimately, be a 1,000,000 subscriber newsletter. :) However, that’s going to need some work - so, here’s a sharing button for your pleasure…
Right, so this week, we will be exploring…
Trains
Wifi
Weird Marketing
…and much, much more!
So, buckle up, my 250 little funsters and prepare yourself for the time of your life*.
James x
* Terms and conditions apply. The time of your life may not be available in your region.
WiFi Names
When I started this, I was in the Salon Grand Voyageur at Gare Montparnasse. Look, here’s the view outside the window!
These lounges are dotted about the main stations in France and are mainly for people who either buy first class tickets or spend too much of their lives on trains.
They can vary from station to station in their quality & services - the one at Montparnasse is lovely, has nice drinks but the wifi is… well… it’s not awful. But the only reason that it’s not awful is that it doesn’t function at all. I think it’d have to function to be able to be awful. It’s not reached that level yet.
This isn’t a new thing - it hasn’t been working for years now.
So, when I’m here in Montparnasse, I have to use my mobile to create a hotspot and use that instead… which brings me on to wifi names - or SSIDs for my fellow geeks.
Mainly because, as I was connecting, I found this…
I looked around but I couldn’t see Jacques Chirac anywhere.
Which brings me to the subject of funny Wifi names.
Have you ever seen any good ones?
Also, for some reason, Country Life magazine has an article on this very topic! And, when I say ‘for some reason’, I obviously mean ‘clickbait’!
And, yes, obviously, I’ve just done this for my own amusement…
(Since doing this, I saw someone on the train who just took a screengrab of the wifi networks on her phone - let me know if you see someone post it on the socials!)
"Should”
I don’t want to make the destruction of the planet all about me but, if it hits, that’s going to right mess up my newsletter subscriber numbers.
If you have been killed by an asteroid strike, let me know and I’ll give you a shout in the next newsletter.
BREAKING: Asteroid Hits Twitter
Sorry to disappoint but it hasn’t. I just did that to get your attention!
However, the exodus from the hellsite continues - as does the growth of Bluesky, which now has over 10 million users. If you haven’t found me yet, I have changed my username and I am now @james.barisic.fr
For those who don’t know, Bluesky is basically Twitter with:
no ‘comic baddie’ ownership
very effective filtering and blocking
no algorithm choosing what you see - you choose what you see
fewer idiots (but, even if there were, you’d not see them because you see what you want and can just not follow them - no algorithm, remember?)
no adverts
You will find that there are a lot of people who you know on Bluesky - because a lot of the nice people have left Twitter and gone to Bluesky.
There a lot of interesting technical stuff behind Bluesky but I’m not going to go into that because, in my opinion, the over-complexity is what is calling Mastodon and stopping adoption. No such issues with Bluesky.
Come and find me on there and say hi - and feel free to leave your @ username in the comments to help other people find you!
Got a 3D Printer?
Did you know that the National Archives at Kew has made available some tactile versions of maps and other artifacts for you to print at home?
These STL files, which you can download for free here, include an absolutely amazing 3D map of the Great Fire of London.
Get ‘em while they’re hot (apologies for the pun!).
Random Trains
As I headed to my train, I suddenly realised that, due to the fleeting nature of my first visit to Paris, I hadn’t taken any photos.
So here’s a photo of some trains that I took on the platform at Montparnasse. Don’t ask me what the numbers are all about. I was on 888 though. Just so you know.
…which leads me to the next lot of trains that I saw!
Well, not the next lot of trains but a few after! The traditional pre-Christmas trip to Germany! I was very pleased to get a DB train for at least one of the journeys. Not that there is anything wrong with the SNCF but it’s nice to have a change!
This was my chariot to Germany and it was packed - but, before any German readers say anything, it was very much on time!! :)
That said, there was no hot food or drinks available. Nor any snacks. And by the time they gave us the list of things that were not available, I think it would have been easier to tell us what was available… but I will never know!
One thing that always impresses me on DB ICE trains is the amount of legroom. I am something like 178cm tall and I still have loads of space in front of me. Also, I am 178cm wide but the table doesn’t cut me in half when I use it - that’s also welcome!
That’s Saarbrucken station with some more trains. I know some people are really into trains and know a lot about them but I have no idea what sort of trains they are but they were there, they were red at the front and that’s as much information as I can give you! This is not my area of expertise!
Teenagers
This is your occasional reminder that teenagers are teenagers in any language.
Marketing
I’ve been meaning to post this for years now. Years.
There’s a bed shop near to where I sometimes stay in Paris and, in the window display, they have the most aggressive looking wolf snarling at passers-by.
Here it is…
Now, they could have done that in the hope that someone with a little newsletter would take a photo and do some free marketing for them but I am not sure that it is. It is genuinely the most unwelcoming thing that I remember seeing in any shop window!
I know a few marketers read this newsletter, so if you have any ideas what the idea of it is, please let me know!!
German Word of The Week
Verschlimmbessern
It is a verb and means to make something worse in an honest but failed attempt to improve it.
The green warning sign has appeared telling me that I am near the email length limit - it’s for your protection as much as my information!
I’m currently on the train home but will be back in Paris next week - and hopefully I’ll have time to take some more pics! Who knows?! But it’s going to be busy! I know that much!
Have a good one, y’all! Stay dry!
J x
I' m at saaremartha.bsky.social AND @Island_Martha@epicure.social (Mastodon) - different types of people and interests. As a polymath it works for me