Colombia Forum

JustSomeGuy
Joined 2018
Posts: 1071

4 years ago

Google

4 years ago

My friend here has an apartment that she rents on AirBnB. Lately she has been unable to rent it because the toilet leaks into the bowl, it had been losing about a gallon every 15 minutes. So she hired a plumber who put silicone caulk everywhere, took her money and left her with the same problem. I watched a few YouTube videos to makes sure I was not missing anything, then I cleaned out the caulk and replaced the flush valve. Of course she told me nothing about this problem before I came down so I brought no tools or parts. As a result I used the DuckDuckGo app to look for tools and parts then GoogleMaps to find the stores. I’m pretty disappointed with the quality of the replacement parts. The flush valve came with a flapper in the same box. The flapper is clear and I could see an air bubble under the flapper moving in the current of the water escaping under the flapper. So the parts meant to work together don’t. I tried two other flappers and got pretty close with the second. My guess is I’m losing a liter every 4 hours right now, the overnight test showed zero water loss in 16 hours. So there seems to be a stochastic component in the system, perhaps there are particulates in the water or it depends on how the flapper lands. Anyway, I asked my amiga where I can find quality tools and replacement parts and a good shutoff valve to put in line with the toilet water inlet tube. She told me to check Almacén Paris, a construction supply store here in Manizales.

So I typed “alm” into GoogleMaps and a list of suggestions came up, the top of the list was “Almacén París S.A.”

Ok, that is very convenient, I don’t have to type the whole name but it appears that Google knows what I am thinking. I don’t use Google to search the web but they have code on many websites to track what I look at and of course they know where I physically am and where I go. They know where all my family and friends live and what they do, so with clever code they can accurately guess many things about me. They also are wealthy and powerful. Wealth and power are often misused, if history is a good guide, it is just a matter of time before that power is misused.

YouTube is a useful repository of information, GoogleMaps is a very good map program but there are several good search apps so I don’t know why people so often recommend folks here use Google to find information on the web. My personal take on it is that it is better to spread the wealth and reduce the tracking and information gathering. I would rather have 1000 rich people than 10 very rich people. So I use the tools that are very good and avoid the one that has good alternatives.

I’m curious, if you are one of the people who recommended Google would you tell me why? I might learn something useful.

William Russell

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William Russell

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William Russell

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