The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.

[T42]

Saturday: found great recipe for hoisin sauce substitute, uses i.a. peanut butter. Haven't seen the stuff in shops for years (Alsace, whaddaya want?), make trial sample, bloody good.

Monday: MrsT says peanut butter gives her the shits.

[hellymedic]

Hoisin or satay?

[Paul]

Saturday: found great recipe for hoisin sauce substitute, uses i.a. peanut butter. Haven't seen the stuff in shops for years (Alsace, whaddaya want?), make trial sample, bloody good.

Monday: MrsT says peanut butter gives her the shits.

Hoisin or satay?

Anally, I suspect.

[hellymedic]

Sainsbury's have just cancelled my delivery scheduled for 16.30 - 17.30 today.

Apparently, the roads are closed/blocked.

[Pickled Onion]

Sainsbury's have just cancelled my delivery scheduled for 16.30 - 17.30 today.

Apparently, the roads are closed/blocked.

What, all of them? 

I nearly missed a vital delivery recently when a couple of roads were closed for a festival. Luckily the guy had the wit to phone me and I guided him in. What he didn't have the wit for were (a) reading a map; and (ii) following the big yellow DIVERSION signs.

[Kim]

Related grumble: There's currently a big yellow DIVERSION sign on the pavement outside our house, for the benefit of drivers with the ability to see through parked cars avoiding the roadjbex on $adjacent_road.

As this might constitute a trip hazard to pedestrians, they've placed a cone beside it.  This leaves a gap approximately one wheeliebin wide.  Tomorrow is bin day...

[Mr Larrington]

Also, the bloody underpass was flooded again today, though not as badly as it was the other week.  So I was at least on dry land when my crank fell off.

Note to TfL: clear ur drains

[hellymedic]

My Daddy said Silver Street is always flooded…

Back to my Sainsbury's non-delivery.
I don't know which roads were closed,
Driver arranged redelivery for same time tomorrow.
Said I'd get an email.
No email so far.
Unable to speak to human on Helldesk. Press various buttons, wait, line disconnects.

Hope I do get comestibles...

[T42]

Hoisin or satay?

Hoisin.  Substituted extra dark miso & toasted pine-nuts, bunged in a couple of semi-dried apricots to sweeten it.

[T42]

We have a Mondial Relay parcel service point about 200 metres down the road.  The other day I ordered coffee with free delivery via MR for >= 2 kg, then found out that to "improve" service, MR were just doing bulk deliveries to their service point 18 km away. 

[Beardy]

Bloody UK banking service. I transferred some moneys from my building society account to the bank account of Ms Beardy the elder. I did this electronically before midday yesterday and it still hasn’t shown up in Ms Beardy’s account. It has obviously been removed from my account.

I checked on the BS (how apposit) webby science to see what they say about delays. They say that under normal conditions, their ‘Faster payment’ service should, SHOULD, deliver the moneys to an external account by the end of the next working day.

It’s nice to know that there’s still employment for w legged donkeys in the banking systems pony express!

[Canardly]

Trying to log on to Bank banking logon which has been amended recently. The site thinks about things for quite some time, doesn't accept log on credentials and then reports a fault. The status page of the same bank states all is working normally.

[hellymedic]

Sainsbury's have just cancelled my delivery scheduled for 16.30 - 17.30 today.
Apparently, the roads are closed/blocked.

Delivery was then rescheduled for the same time today. Driver said I'd get an email.
I didn't.
Wanted to confirm foods were coming but several attempts to call Helldesk, with Much Waiting failed.
No delivery by 6pm

Resorted to Twiitter.

Eventually got a reply stating good would be delivered between  8 & 9pm

Groceries arrived 19.45.

[fimm]

Grumble, either at myself for using unnecessarily ornate language, or at the person selling a <thing> on Gumtree who didn't understand that "6:30pm tomorrow (Thursday)" means "6:30pm on Thursday".
Next time I'll try to remember to say what I mean.

[rafletcher]

Wasps. Ok, they're Goog Guys, and the nest behind our (terraced) neighbours sofit hasn't bothered us this summer. But now the mornings are dark (I'm eating my breakfast at 6:40) and I have the light on in the lounge, we're getting dozens of them clustering around the windows, and also coming in through the Velux vent in the bathroom window, as they go for the lights. And they leave some kind of excretion all down the windows, which is unsightly.  I suppose one benefit of the clocks going back will be to stop that behaviour for a couple of weeks.

[Jurek]

What is the point, OK, what is the fucking point of washing machine programmes which require you to prod the machine a several of times in order for it to continue its cycle.
I mean, what happened to automation?

[Pingu]

This is how the machines start to take over...

[Kim]

What is the point, OK, what is the fucking point of washing machine programmes which require you to prod the machine a several of times in order for it to continue its cycle.

It's so you can add raisins at the appropriate point in the cycle.

Either that or it was developed by the Windows Update people.

(Something to do with creases, I think.)

[Cudzoziemiec]

The raisins are added automatically if you already have a rabbit or a hamster.

[Mrs Pingu]

What is the point, OK, what is the fucking point of washing machine programmes which require you to prod the machine a several of times in order for it to continue its cycle.
I mean, what happened to automation?

Lol. Everytime I put our washer on I get the rage while I press it multiple times until it decides I've pressed the start button for the exact number of milliseconds it deems is a start press as opposed to an accidental bum nudge.

[Beardy]

Ah, the never actually taken seriously by product managers art of UI design. I beleive you can actually take a degree in the subject, but no product development team has ever knowing employed a UI designer or ergonomicist. They very idea…

[Kim]

I've been struggling with the UI of the new washing machine.  It's a load of capacitive touch buttons, with one rotational encoder knob for selecting programs.  For some reason my brain insists on ignoring the big flashing '⏯' button to start the program, and wants to either push the non-button manufacturer's logo at the centre of the Big Knob, or the '⏻' button on the far right.  More than once I've switched it off and had to start again.

[barakta]

My uni runs a rapidly expanding MSc in User Experience Design and they like to brag about former students' achievements in the daily staff newsletter. Often actually interesting stuff.

We need more people designing things more ergonomically.

Also not just all touchscreens which are awful accessibility wise for anyone with even slightly impaired vision. A partially blind friend had to pay £400+ extra for an induction hob that was accessible to her and had to do a lot of careful research to choose the right model.

At work we have printers for students, all touchscreen, so our blind or partially sighted students can't use them without help which some do want to do sometimes e.g printing a letter or something in larger print.

[hellymedic]

Touchscreens are also dreadful for those with dexterity issues. My vision is basically fine, so long as images keep still.

I can push the 'Start' on my washing machine and the other bits, which only need to be touched, as needed. Program selection is a rotating clicky knob. which is fine.

I can't reliably or usefully do the 'gestures' on D's iPads or phone though.

[Kim]

Touchscreens are terrible for everyone, except when:

a) You want to pretend you're in Star Trek: TNG
2) A frustrated hardware engineer who would otherwise be using physical buttons is given vague specifications or trying to keep costs down
iii) The user interface needs to be wipe-clean for infection-control reasons