smart phones

[Bob Eager]

Depends on the council. And you have no choice over provider.

Look and learn:

[Bev]

Ringo are a real pain for suspending accounts and then you having to go through a tiresome exercise to get it re-instated. They seem to expect you to use their system 2 or 3 times a day to pay to park otherwise its off.

Why they need to set you up an account defeats me, why not do as others do and just let you enter then number on your card when you seek to make a payment. I forget who ran it at the time but I once had occasion to park in the centre of Leeds and there I just set up the details, didn't have to specify how long I wanted to park for and rang again on return to car to end the session. I was charged for the actual amount of time I parked and not the period I thought I might need. If you failed to 'logoff' then the charge was until midnight.

[The Natural Philosopher]

They always used to be.

The ones in my neatest town are, and they are passably clean

[The Natural Philosopher]

Indeed.

However there are three things I cant do on a dumb one.

- use the Wifi to send and receive calls and texts

- run whatsapp

- run a satnav system.

Sadly these have become fairly necessary.

[Robin]

I'd thought you were old enough to recall "spend a penny"

[charles]

It's the 'nearly' that is the problem/ More & more is getting into that category.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Indeed yes, but that really vanished by the 60s as I recall. Some very busy toilets still needed it. Kings cross station I think has paid toilets, but my three nearest towns all have free public toilets.

Out of town of course, the world is a public toilet

[Theo]

I recently found a killer app for even a glovebox smartphone. If you break down, you can use the RAC (or whoever) app to request assistance, and that app sends your location as part of the call. No more faffing about with 'I'm on the B1234 about 20 minutes past Somewheresby" or need to go hunting for nearby signs.

Nothing massively novel there, but does suggest the dumbphone kept in the glovebox for emergencies could benefit from an upgrade.

Theo

[alan_m]

That's not the main problem. If you turn up somewhere and you have never used the system before it can be a PITA. If you use the system on a daily basis then perhaps its not too bad.

[Max Demian]

There's the same thing with people tapping their Oyster/credit/debit cards on railway ticket gates. At Paddington today there was a huge queue of people waiting to tap in, so I waved my ticket at a railway employee who waved me through an open gate. It must have confused the system, though, as at Moorgate my ticket refused to allow me through the gate and I had to bust through the barrier. Since I had One Day Travelcard it should have been all right as that allows you unlimited travel between Zones 1-6.

[Max Demian]

Only wimmin needed to spend a penny if all you want is a piss.

[JNugent]

Just the very sort of thing you'd want your hands in contact with, eh?

And then to shovel its output into a pocket.

[Jim Stewart ...]

until they switch off 1 &2 G

[Jim Stewart ...]

totly

[Jim Stewart ...]

totly

[Jim Stewart ...]

you mean cottaging ?>..

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

Can you not just use the kerbside, rear wheel of a hackney carriage for the purpose and for free?

[Rod Speed]

So is covid and the use of medical services. That's life.

[farter]

In the uncivilised world they are. You are free to piss and shit wherever you like.

[Rod Speed]

Just piss on their sign. That'll teach them.