12.08.2024 Google killed the Internet.

 ~o~

  Monday 12th 49F/9C [6.00] Supposedly a long sunny day with light winds. Possible early cloud. 

 Up at 4.45. Which was rather silly. It was still dark but I was lying there wide awake. I am worryingly breathless.

Spindle tree with berries I think. Rowan at top right.

 I shall be recycled today in town. First I shall ride there. Ride an exercise bike for an hour. Under the watchful eye of the physiotherapists. Then cycle another 14km home again. They do say exercise is good for you.

 My long days on the computer have changed slightly. I was working my way through the free AI chatbots. After getting sick of Google's monopolistic hard sell. Totally regardless of my search terms. Perplexity is a refreshing change. Ask a direct question about a commercial product and it answers it as helpfully as possible. Without Google's dozens of damned sales websites filling the first four pages. Firefox has been my browser of choice for years but Google's hard sell makes it completely worthless. 

 Take a simple example: You ask Firefox for the weight of a product. The weight is vitally important to me. I am an old fart and must avoid lifting very heavy weights. I certainly must avoid carrying 30kg around the garden! 

 What if the delivery lorry driver is psychopathically lazy and just dumps the product on the verge? As they usually do. How will I get 30kg the 200 yards/meters home if it is too large for a wheelbarrow or even my sack truck? Dunno. Ask Dansk Fragtmand! One of theirs just dumped a pallet full of bags of fuel pellets for my neighbour. Blocking the entrance to the shared drive. Nice work if you can get it!

The Firefox/Google answer to my product weight question is two pages of sales websites. It's a niche product and not a big seller worldwide. A whole series of out of context sales websites are pushing crap right across the top of the page. Nothing else! It is all complete and utter time wasting. Like the Google-YT algorithm. Which demands ten minutes of worthless padding. Or they don't pay the creator. Is Google run by aliens?

NONE of the sales websites mention the weight. Because the "manufacturer" doesn't mention the weight in their standard, rubber stamped, photocopied literature. Repeated ad nauseam by every single sales website, without variation, right across the globe. Whether "sponsored" or not. Is this what an online search requesting specific details is really all about? Who is this helping apart from Google Global Dictatorship Monopoly Money Printer Inc.?

 Ask Perplexity the weight of the product and is trawls the web. To find and give the correct [?] answer. Usually with some helpful detail. Why can't I have a browser just like that? A free chatbot is currently a specific and very limited service. Not a browser. 

 So I asked ChatGPT. It's answer was specific but stated half the weight mentioned by Perplexity. This weight seems rather unlikely given the sheer scale of the item.  Now what? I'll just have to email the company and get another answer. Why doesn't the "manufacturer" list their product weights? They sell a whole range of similar items in very different sizes. Each and every one has to be manually handled except for the largest. 

 10.50 64F/18C. And home again. 32km. The first half at the rehabilitation clinic was riding an exercise bike. We were supposed to increase the braking to represent hill climbing. There were intervals with increased cadence. Then spinning freely to rest. Then three of us were taken to a large room to carry out exercises. Walking on toes, heels, skipping, backwards, arms rotating, etc. I felt incredibly clumsy! A clown practicing ballet!

 Then we moved onto exercises involving a chair. With 1.5kg weights wrapped around each of our ankles. Again I felt clumsy, inflexible and horribly uncoordinated. I really was working much harder than usual. Getting hot and breathless. Which was the idea of course. I felt slightly dizzy with a headache. So was told to rest while I had a cup of water. Fortunately I rapidly recovered and could continue the following routines.

 This really was a wake-up call. I am not remotely as fit as I had foolishly imagined. Not to mention I am very inflexible. I am even struggling to throw my leg over the saddle of my bike. Even worse getting off! I must exercise more seriously to raise my effort level more often. 

 I was smugly praising my own skills at changing gear and Mode. So effortlessly that I avoided getting any more exercise than simply turning the pedals. I very deliberately avoided getting breathless or hot. By choice of gear and mode. That has to change. More Tour Mode to put some resistance into pedaling will help. No more Turbo Mode on every incline.  

 I remained breathless all day. From first getting up to going to bed. Dinner was sardines on toast. I left in the mini oven for too long and it was nearly overdone!

 

  ~o~