Random Daily Banter

[briantrumpet]

I'd have thought it would have been more useful expressed in percentage terms.

Both, to cover all bases.

 

[Pross]

Needs a graph really

 

[briantrumpet]

Needs a graph really

At least it'd have a zero on it somewhere.

 

[briantrumpet]

I don't do soccerball, but this is worth a watch, if you want a giggle. I think the one who appears to have received an imaginary fatal stab wound in the abdomen is the best.

https://bsky.app/profile/nowarsenal.bsky.social/post/3m7g4alu5322r

 

[AndyRM]

Lol @ David Rana...

 

[briantrumpet]

I see that the Muppets are doing underwater stuff now.

 

[Ian H]

I see that the Muppets are doing underwater stuff now.

View attachment 11524

Wiki disambiguation: For the fictional place, see Lake Wobegon

 

[briantrumpet]

Not 'banter', but an interesting post, especially for those of you who live in London and like to eat out. Someone didn't quite trust Google Maps to supply the best answers, so built a different model, scraping data from Google Maps, but processiing it differently.

https://laurenleek.substack.com/p/how-google-maps-quietly-allocates

I needed a restaurant recommendation, so I did what every normal person would do: I scraped every single restaurant in Greater London and built a machine-learning model.

It started as a very reasonable problem. I was tired of doom-scrolling Google Maps, trying to disentangle genuinely good food from whatever the algorithm had decided to push at me that day. Somewhere along the way, the project stopped being about dinner and became about something slightly more unhinged: how digital platforms quietly redistribute economic survival across cities.

Because once you start looking at London’s restaurant scene through data, you stop seeing all those cute independents and hot new openings. You start seeing an algorithmic market - one where visibility compounds, demand snowballs, and who gets to survive is increasingly decided by code.

 

[Pblakeney]

Not 'banter', but an interesting post, especially for those of you who live in London and like to eat out. Someone didn't quite trust Google Maps to supply the best answers, so built a different model, scraping data from Google Maps, but processiing it differently.

https://laurenleek.substack.com/p/how-google-maps-quietly-allocates

This was highlighted to me in a recent visit to the city. One Insta'd cafe at one end of the street had a queue of 30 waiting to get in.
There was no queue at all at the other end of the street in its sister cafe. Sheeples.

 

[matticus]

Not 'banter', but an interesting post, especially for those of you who live in London and like to eat out. Someone didn't quite trust Google Maps to supply the best answers, so built a different model, scraping data from Google Maps, but processiing it differently.

https://laurenleek.substack.com/p/how-google-maps-quietly-allocates

OMG. She even cycles - I need to have a sit-down ...

 

[First Aspect]

I can take comfort in knowing that if the Insta generation like something, it is probably not my thing anyway.

 

[AuroraSaab]

If Instagram and TikTok shut tomorrow the world would be a better place.

 

[Pblakeney]

I can take comfort in knowing that if the Insta generation like something, it is probably not my thing anyway.

Tbh, the sister cafe was quite good.

 

[matticus]

If Instagram and TikTok shut tomorrow the world would be a better place.

I was just saying that on my Telegram post this morning!

 

[PurplePenguin]

Not 'banter', but an interesting post, especially for those of you who live in London and like to eat out. Someone didn't quite trust Google Maps to supply the best answers, so built a different model, scraping data from Google Maps, but processiing it differently.

https://laurenleek.substack.com/p/how-google-maps-quietly-allocates

Not particularly great results for me, but then I wouldn't use google maps to start with.

Tangentially related to this is the London Reddit Angus Steakhouse story. A bunch of people complained that all their favourite places to eat would be put on instagram, and then be ruined as a result. They concluded that the only solution was to try to promote Angus Steakhouse and hope that this would be picked up by visitors leaving their favourite places untarnished. They then went on a relentless campaign of always posting how great Angus Steakhouse is. Comically, Angus Steakhouse picked up on it and started using it in their marketing "Best steak sandwich as voted by Londoners".

For those unfamiliar with Angus Steakhouse - it is not somewhere you would choose to eat.