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

[Kim]

TeX is still around...

Indeed, but people who aren't neck deep in mathematics tend to look at you like you're some kind of 1337 h4xx0r if you suggest it.

Markdown, for all its limitations, works quite well for documentation that's going to be processed electronically, and the trivial learning curve makes it relatively popular.

It doesn't help that Windows doesn't come with a decent text editor.  (And a lot of text editors are very programming-oriented, to the point of lacking basic features like a spillchucker.)

[Maverick]

TeX is still around...

Indeed, but people who aren't neck deep in mathematics tend to look at you like you're some kind of 1337 h4xx0r if you suggest it.

Markdown, for all its limitations, works quite well for documentation that's going to be processed electronically, and the trivial learning curve makes it relatively popular.

It doesn't help that Windows doesn't come with a decent text editor.  (And a lot of text editors are very programming-oriented, to the point of lacking basic features like a spillchucker.)

BBEdit is my choice for all text related tasks.

[T42]

It doesn't help that Windows doesn't come with a decent text editor.  (And a lot of text editors are very programming-oriented, to the point of lacking basic features like a spillchucker.)

Just realized that I've been using TextPad for <gasp> 30 years, though a while back I got the 2009 update.  And it does have a spellchecker, though I never bothered downloading the dictionaries.

[Mr Larrington]

“Drat and, moreover, fiddlesticks!” exclaimed Mr Larrington, on discovering that his hand drill will not accommodate a 10mm bit.  Now I have to dig out the anbaric one and the extension lead and I hate everybody.

[Jurek]

“Drat and, moreover, fiddlesticks!” exclaimed Mr Larrington, on discovering that his hand drill will not accommodate a 10mm bit.  Now I have to dig out the anbaric one and the extension lead and I hate everybody.

My bold.
A bit (Did you see what I did there?) optimistic IMHO.

[Mr Larrington]

It does fit in the 'ole but is too big for the grippy things to, er, grip.

[Feanor]

Get thyself a late crimbo present: an anbaric hole-maker which works on voles stored inna can, un-tethering yourself from the extension-lead of doom.

[rafletcher]

It does fit in the 'ole but is too big for the grippy things to, er, grip.

Where’s the brace and, um, bit when you need it.

[Jurek]

You're gonna need a  bigger boat drill

[Diver300]

Get thyself a late crimbo present: an anbaric hole-maker which works on voles stored inna can, un-tethering yourself from the extension-lead of doom.

I endorse this product or sentiment.
About a year ago I moved from my totally worn out 10 mm battery drill to a 13 mm one with a brushless motor, which is smaller and lighter and takes the same batteries.

[Mr Larrington]

Get thyself a late crimbo present: an anbaric hole-maker which works on voles stored inna can, un-tethering yourself from the extension-lead of doom.

I've got one.  Somewhere.  My recollection is that it was A Bit Shit when last it was used and doubt the ensuing twenty-plus year gap will have done the flattery much good.  Even if I can find the charger.

[grams]

It's (often) fairly easy to change chucks between drills if the 'ole is the only concern.

(there'll be a left hand thread screw in the bottom of the chuck)

[cygnet]

Today's list of Rather Annoying People:

1.  People who merge cells in Excel
2.  People who use Excel because the document they want is in landscape not portrait.
3.  People in general

People who "use" excel and "sort" incomplete sheets of data

Filter, people. Don't bloody sort unless you are 100% certain you aren't going to fuck up the entire logic..

[Kim]

Wibbly anbarism meant I was woken repeatedly by lights rebooting / lemmings / fire panel / every fucking burglar alarm in Silly Oak from 7-9am this morning.  Which meant barakta was woken repeatedly by me flinching, getting up to investigate and bury my head under a pillow.  I now feel like death, and she appears to have resorted to Decaf.

[Polar Bear]

It's (often) fairly easy to change chucks between drills if the 'ole is the only concern.

(there'll be a left hand thread screw in the bottom of the chuck)

Indeed it is and it's a wheeze which I executed a year or two back.  Why supply an electric drill with a hefty motor and only a 3/8ths inch chuck?

[robgul]

It's (often) fairly easy to change chucks between drills if the 'ole is the only concern.

(there'll be a left hand thread screw in the bottom of the chuck)

Indeed it is and it's a wheeze which I executed a year or two back.  Why supply an electric drill with a hefty motor and only a 3/8ths inch chuck?

It helps them to sell larger drill bits with a reduced sized shank to fit the chuck.   

So I'm told the size of the "jaws" in the chuck need to cover a wide range of drill bit sizes and a chuck that takes, say 12mm, safely will probably not close down far enough to grip a 2mm drill.

[Giraffe]

I've a wheel brace that takes ½" bits. It has the usual 1:4 ratio but the drive wheel can be slid out and repositioned to give 1:1- I've used it for hole saws when I didn't have stringless drill and there was no voles piped in.
A wheel brace is very useful for starting a bit on a slippery surface such as tiles. If the whell is just rocked slightly (I hold the wheel directly) the bit doesn't 'walk'.

[Mrs Pingu]

Carpet 'shopping' online is even more dull than tile shopping.

[TheLurker]

SharePoint is the IT version of Marmite...

Beg to differ.  Some people like Marmite.

[ian]

Does anyone know what Sharepoint is actually supposed to do or how it works? It's sort of like a shared drive, but then in different views, it's like some kind of intranet, and in other views, some weird kind of document management system. What the fuck is it?

[cygnet]

It's definitely a document manglement tool.

[Pingu]

According to the colleagues who set things up in Sharepoint after The Event it's canine cojones, according to those who actually have to use it it's a pile of stinking ordure.

[Mrs Pingu]

I don't mind using SharePoint if I can sync the drive to my folders in explorer. If I can only use it through a browser I hate it.

[ian]

I just don't understand it. Or why it appears to have fucked Onedrive and birthed some kind of bastard software stepchildren.

[Beardy]

The problem is that most of its functionality lies hidden in the developers options and most corporations don’t allow most none Sharepoint specific developers access to the developers options. I know this because I bought books to try and learn how to become a power user, only to find out that unless you are a fully certified Sharepoint developer you can’t do anything beyond share files and change the way you view those files.

How someone high up in IT procurement decided that it was a project management tool with functionality that replaces MS Project I really don’t know. But it doesn’t.