News from Microsoft

When I turn my laptop on the morning and fire up Edge - the Microsoft browser I use to make a change from Chrome on the desktop - I get plugged into all sorts of mainly rubbishy news, collected up for me by Microsoft. Organised in the form of a dozen or more small windows, each advertising this or that news item. Or advertisement, as the case may be. And, if one is bored, one can scroll down for lots more of the same.

I imagine that, for a consideration, you can get Microsoft to put your item in a larger window, nearer the top.

This morning, one of these small windows contained a picture of a rather silly yacht, dressed up as a tropical island. Conspicuous consumption - gross consumption even - which is not quite the thing in our climate change conscious world at all. Curious, I click on it to learn all about how a celebrity cook is abandoning cooking to go in for digital money instead, seemingly in partnership with one Richard Branson. No connection with silly yachts that I could see at all. Try again, and I get to what appears to be something from the Daily Mirror. Still no connection.

So I snip out the silly yacht and ask Google Image about it. He turns up lots of stuff, including that included above, with the image in question being that top left in both left hand and right hand panels. Maybe the yacht is really a fantasised come-on for cruise liner operators? But I am still not really sure as top left left also gets me to reference 1. Not sure what this is about at all, apart from featuring young ladies in skimpy bikinis.

All this digital stuff clearly far too complicated for the older brain and I think I had better get back to Simenon.

PS: do not be confused by reference 2. News about Microsoft itself, nothing to do with what they offer me in the morning. And at first glance, rather more interesting.

Reference 1: https://www.keepcalmandtravel.com/.

Reference 2: https://news.microsoft.com/.

Reference 3: Chez les Flamands - Simenon - 1932. Volume IV of the collected works.