Quicky

Almost all business applications have horizontal menus and ribbons that take up a decent percentage of a landscape monitor instead of utilising the "spare" screen space on the left or right, and a taskbar usually sits at the bottom or top of the screen eating up even more space (yes I know this can be changed but it's not the default).

Documents are traditionally printed/read in portrait which is reflected on digital documents.

Programmers often rotate their screens to be portrait in order to see more of the code.

Most web pages rarely seem to make use of horizontal real estate, and scrolling is almost universally vertical. Even phones are utilised in portrait for the vast majority of time, and many web pages are designed for mobile first.

Beyond media consumption and production, it feels like the most commonly used workplace productivity apps are less useful in landscape mode. So why aren't more office-based computer screens giant squares instead of horizontal rectangles?

Obligatory not today, but a long time ago when I was at university, I was making my way to a lecture one afternoon. The road I was walking alongside was incredibly busy, with constant traffic and hundreds of buses daily.

At a certain point, a van that was unloading was parked on the pavement, blocking pedestrians from using it. It meant that anyone heading up the street on foot had to walk in the road around it. 

I started making my way into the road around the van at the same time as a female student coming in the other direction. This happened just as a bus was barrelling towards me behind the girl, in the same direction she was walking.

I knew the bus would be extremely close to us because of all the traffic, and the girl had walked further into the road so she could walk around both me and the van. Then I noticed she was wearing headphones and wouldn't have any idea that the bus behind her was bearing down. In a split second I realised I had to do something or this girl was going to die. Just as we were passing each other, I swung my arm behind me to push her towards the van, out of the path of the bus. I thought I was saving her life.

Except I misjudged it. I must have left it a fraction of a second too late. The bus driver on the other hand had read the situation and had steered quickly enough to avoid her. My reactions had been worse. Instead of shoving her out of the way via her shoulder, my arm swung around and although I managed to make contact with her, that contact was on her arse. I literally ended up doing nothing but slapping her ass.

Mortified, I stopped in my tracks and turned around to apologise. But she didn't react. She kept on walking. Then I realised - with her headphones in, and the bus missing her, she had no idea of the danger she was in, and in her mind, all that's happened is some random man has just sexually assaulted her on the way home, and she was too shocked or scared to turn round and ask what the fuck.

This happened nearly three decades ago and I still think about this poor girl. There is a 100% chance that I am this woman's #metoo story, when in reality I was just some idiot trying to be a hero.

I feel like more consideration could have gone into the eventual positioning of the charging cable on this phone stand.

I’ve just bought a new fridge and it comes with a section to hold eggs. I’ve never stored them in the fridge since salmonella isn’t really a problem here because our chickens are vaccinated. Does anybody in the UK actually refrigerate their eggs?

As an aside, I tend to decide what goes into the fridge based on where it was in the supermarket. If they don’t refrigerate it, neither do I. So for eggs, I don’t.

Secondary question - what am I gonna use the egg holder in the fridge for now, other than maybe briefly cooling my balls?

Is there a way to configure the watch to more accurately record treadmill running?

I’ve used the watch a couple of times while on the treadmill at the gym, and the distance the watch thinks I’ve run is way off what the treadmills think. I’m inclined to believe the treadmill output based on all it having to do is measure the speed it’s spinning, and not best-guessing it like the watch would have to. However I need to run 5.5k on the treadmill for the watch to think I’ve run 5k, which is a huge variance for a 5k. I’ve tested this on different treadmills with the same resulting variance.

I’m sure the Fitbit I had years ago allowed me to configure stride length to get a more accurate measurement, but I can’t find anything like that on the watch. Can anything be done to improve it?

I’ve been looking for ages for a mount for an Xbox controller big enough to hold an 11” iPad Pro, since I’m old and a phone screen isn’t big enough for me to play games on these days. There doesn’t seem to be anything that supports a screen that big, so inspired by a Reddit post from a couple of years ago, I bought two separate mounts and combined them.

The key is to find a controller mount and iPad holder that both each have a ball socket connection so you can combine the two.

It’s clearly heavier than a phone would be, but works really well.

These are the two parts of the mount:

Gamer Gear Xbox Series X Controller Mobile Gaming 4 point Clamp, Xbox Controller Phone Mount Adjustable Phone Holder Clamp Compatible with Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Black

3Data Gooseneck Tablet Holder, Universal Tablet Stand : 360 Flexible Lazy Arm Holder Clamp Mount Bracket Bed for 4.7~10.5" Pad Air Pro mini,Tablet, Phone, more Devices (White)

Genuine question because I can’t work it out - if the satellite services are used when the user has no network service, how can “carrier fees may still apply” work? Surely the absence of a carrier network signal and the use of satellite services means that you’re not using the carrier’s network, so how can they apply a charge?