THEY ARE supposed to make our lives easier, but end up trying to book us in to see a film at a cinema miles away.
Now scientists at Edinburgh University are hoping they can improve automatic phone booking lines after pinpointing the most common errors made by the computers.
Companies use the systems to cut out a call centre – using computers that can understand what customers are saying to book cinema tickets and taxis.
But it doesn’t always work, and can lead to a frustrating conversation with a computer.
Elaine McGonigle (left) with Jack McConnell and George Foulkes at a New Pyjama event at the Parliament last November
By Cara Sulieman
THE director of a fundraising campaign has been suspended while the chairman has resigned amid concerns about how much money the initiative has raised.
Chairman Graeme Millar has also stepped down from his position.
NHS Lothian Chairman, Dr Charles Winstanley, said the health board called an emergency summit after expressing their “deep concern” when brought up to date on how much had been raised.
HOSPITALS in Scotland have thrown away a £6 million mountain of food in the last two years.
Averaging £3 million a year; NHS Boards in Scotland are literally throwing money down the drain as they waste hundreds of thousands of meals a year.
The 14 health boards throw out over 400,000 meals between them annually.
But the figure could be much more – with only five boards able to provide accurate numbers to FOI investigators.
The Taxpayer’s Alliance have branded the amounts “disturbing” and said that whilst some waste is expected, hospitals should do everything they can to reduce the amounts or recycle food that isn’t used.
A DOCTOR and his wife have been fined £5,000 for what a Sheriff described as “the most outrageous breach of the peace I have ever experienced” in his 20-year career.
Dr John McCallum and his wife Michele “ambushed” their neighbour Roslyn Kinder after hearing that she had tried to run over their kids in her SUV.
The Edinburgh doctor – who earns £100,000 a year – blocked Mrs Kinder from parking her car while his wife hounded her for an explanation.
But when CCTV of the incident was shown during a trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, Sheriff Graeme Warner was left in no doubt.
He told the couple today (Friday): “In more than 20 years of being a Sheriff, I thought it was positively chilling to see on the CCTV.
“Had I been Mrs Kinder, I would have been scared out of my wits.” Continue reading →
A SCOTS company has harnessed infra-red technology to fix potholes without the usual noise and disruption of traditional road-works.
And they have now been given a six month contract from Fife Council to repair the roads in the Kingdom quicker and greener than other methods.
But it’s not the first successful contract for Nu-Phalt, who now supply their unique machines to countries around the world including America, India and Hungary.
The technology is a world first and uses LEDs to heat up the pothole before adding fresh tarmac to the mix.
CHILD CARE expert Dr Penelope Leach has slammed politicians for making decisions about family issues they don’t fully understand.
Speaking to a packed tent at the Edinburgh Book Festival today (Tues), she said that the problem with the options available to parents today was that the policy makers have never experienced the problem themselves.
She said: “Hardly any politicians, academics or policy makers find it necessary to leave their own infants in the first few months in less than high quality child care.
“Quite a lot of them have no idea what it would be like to have no other choice.”
A MASSIVE hike in the number of drugs related deaths across Scotland is being blamed on the nation’s Trainspotting generation – addicts who began shooting up in the 80’s.
Shock new figures showed a rise of people in their late 30s to early 40s – mostly men – dying from the effects of years of drug use and a lack of support services for their age group.
In all drug deaths rose 26 per cent to 576.
As with previous years, the vast majority of drug users dying are men – an overwhelming 80 per cent.
SCOTS actress Karen Gillan has been unveiled as Dr Who’s next companion.
The stunning 21-year-old from Inverness will star alongside the next Timelord – former Party Animals actor Matt Smith – in the hit BBC adventure series.
But fans of the show may already remember Karen, a former student at Edinburgh’s Telford College, from when she starred as Soothsayer in a 2008 episode: The Fires of Pompeii.
She said: “I’m absolutely over the moon to have been chosen.
Massive
“The show is such a massive phenomenon that I can’t quite believe that I’m going to be a part of it.”
Beautiful Karen was cast by Steven Moffat, the show’s new lead writer and executive producer, who replaces the outgoing Russell T Davies. And she says she can’t wait to team-up with the new Doctor in Matt Smith. Continue reading →
Deadline Press & Picture Agency 