@Voltan It's the same here and I even had the option to use the photo they had on record from my passport to renew my drivers licence when that expired. Now I look really miserable on both 😆
@sorteddan@render I get that a "neutral" expression probably makes it easier to ID a person but they're literally telling you it's not natural to smile and that always cracked me up, lol
@lolwhatno It's interesting to think though that we have that technology built into our mobile phones these days e.g. with Apple Face ID and yet that can cope with our faces in various different expressions, with or without glasses, with or without facial hair etc. In a technical sense I don't know enough about it to know how the two systems compare so it might be that the airport scanners are so much more accurate but interesting all the same.
@render the biometric features in phones (both Face ID and fingerprint readers) aren't actually very accurate and operate on a "good enough for the required level of security" premise - it's usually not a huge deal if they give you a false positive sometimes.
In a similar way, my dad has an Apple HomePod set up at his home and I have one too - during the setup it asks you to say a few phrases so then it can recognize your voice and not react to anyone else. However, his HomePod does still react to my voice, because there's apparently some similar quality in it.
That's not nearly good enough for actual security like passports.
@Voltan That's to be expected due to the difference in the cost of the equipment but I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't too long before the mobile version improves by quite a leap. The fact that we've got a lot more onboard processing on mobile chips now and that the cameras are ever getting ever better will really speed things along. I am glad the airport scanners are better though as that's the one that's probably more important.
I thought it’d be interesting to ask who here smokes cigarettes! (Not the other stuff, even if it’s legal where you live - don’t want to get into that here).
I have occasionally smoked since I was 17, although more regularly between 17-21 than I do now. These days I can go months without smoking, but I go through phases where I might smoke a few in a week. The fact you can only buy packs of 20 in the UK now is a problem for me as I might buy some on a night out and then have them left over when if I had only 10 they’d have all been gone that night.
I’d prefer to knock it on the head entirely but since it’s never truly been a habit for me I am not sure I will cut them out completely.
@kyleforrester87
Gave up 5 years ago next week. Prior to that was on 10-20 a day for many years. Decided to stop one day and haven't had one since - I finished the rest of the pack first!
“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
I read up what to expect with withdrawal symptoms and the like so was prepared and expecting hell. It did kind of suck but wasn't as bad as I had heard. As for social events /drinking etc. it wasn't really an issue, I can be a stubborn so and so and pretty much knew I'd given up when I made the decision to. Looking back part of me wishes I'd done so earlier but realistically I probably wouldn't have been able to..because at those points I didn't want to.
It is pretty bad though when you have to choose between going to stand with a bunch of mates smoking outside pub or remaining inside alone!
@kyleforrester87 Tried them once, don’t really get it. Not even the whole kills you part, my gran is like a million years old and spends over £100 a week on cigarettes so clearly some people are just invincible. They just taste bad. And the actual smoking bit isn’t a nice feeling, I’m the same with stuff that isn’t tobacco.
@nessisonett Same, the sensation of inhaling smoke was always super unpleasant to me so I was never interested in smoking anything, tobacco or otherwise.
Smoking can be really pleasurable, but to me it’s like 1 in 100.. or 1000 that are actually enjoyable. I nearly always regret it afterwards. But it does sometimes really, really hit the spot.
@kyleforrester87 gave up smoking every day almost 14 yrs ago! Moved halfway across the UK and after redirecting my mail at the post office, had one, trashed the rest of the packet and never looked back. HOWEVER, I'm still a fan of one if I'm out and had a good few beers (lucky if that's once every couple of months these days to be properly out and on it). I agree, there is the odd one that is a thing of beauty. It might sound weird to non-smokers but also it's an oddly sociable habit if your on a night out and have one, I always end up having a chat with some randoms!
@kyleforrester87 Never touched them. @JudgeDredd congrats on the 11 months. In my younger years I would have been classed as a binge drinker, Purely social of course but these days I can go weeks even months without alcohol.
@kyleforrester87 I used to smoke, from about age 14 until age 27. I had a year or so off when I was 15/16 I believe. It's been five years since I smoked regularly. I stopped with the help of vaping and it is much better. Obviously the data isn't there to say that vaping is definitively healthier than smoking but I have felt much healthier in my lungs over the last 5 years. Smokers cough has completely gone and the occasional chest infection hurts way less than it did when I used to smoke.
In the first few years of quitting, I might buy a pack either when I felt like it on a summer's day or if I was in a bad mood. The 20 cigarette thing actually worked in my favour though. I might enjoy the ones I smoked when I bought the pack but finishing the dregs over the next few days really put me off going back to them and I wouldn't until the random pack I bought in the following year. I don't think I've smoked at all since before the pandemic to be honest.
Vaping did really help, I started off with one of those pen starter kits and eventually moved onto one of those mod things, more because you can replace parts when they break as opposed to buying a whole unit again. I'm not really into the whole vaping scene, it's just a means to an end. Delivers the nicotine with I assume less of the cancer.
I vape flavourless too so I don't emit any obnoxious smells when I am vaping. To be honest it's the closest thing to actually smoking too, I've always found all the tobacco flavours to be a bit rubbish. I just buy the 10ml bottles for a pound each off a website.
I started off at 18mgs for a few years, then I was mixing 18mg and 12mg bottles to make 15mgs and was using that for a few years. Over the last 6 months or so I steadily made the mixture weaker and now I vape 12mgs. It'll probably be some time before I do that process again and go down to 6mg though but I imagine I will do it eventually.
I've always found it disgusting. Like most here I imagine, I was going out in the days when smoking in pubs and clubs was legal and looking back it was pretty disgusting really sitting there in clouds of other peoples' smoke. Coming back from nights out and having to hang clothes outside to try and air out overnight!
By the time I started work, I knew barely anyone who still smoked and don't know a single person who does now.
I used to smoke from about 17 to probably 25, something like that. I smoked a lot on nights out and it was actually working in pubs that got me into it. I used to hate myself for it as well as sometimes when I'd got a cold with a really bad sore throat I would still smoke. It was a proper addiction.
Then well one day I decided that I wanted to give that all up and did just that. I got into running and a more healthy lifestyle and have never looked back. I don't really miss it either but I think that's because pretty much everyone I socialise with these days doesn't smoke either. It makes it a lot easier as there was always that additional pressure before of others doing the same. This was all before the smoking ban which I bet has changed things significantly with now having to step outside if you do want one.
Smoking inside was so rife years ago that I didn't even notice it but now it seems really weird when I go to other countries and they still allow smoking in restaurants etc. My kids also find it very strange when they see anyone that smokes and I kind of get a little uncomfortable now if anyone around them does light up, even though my dad used to smoke cigars and cigarettes around us when we were kids.
I've got nothing against anyone that enjoys it though as that is totally their choice but for me I'm glad I gave up when I did.
@RogerRoger I don't know how serious you are being but you've just described my usual nights, but they never get as far as me actually going out 😅
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