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

[Mr Larrington]

Look, you stupid machine!  I heard you doing your "fifteen minutes to go" systems check yesterday afternoon, so what the smeg have you done with "The Infinite Monkey Cage".  Do that again and you'll be going swimming with andrewc's TV.

[jsabine]

But the oven in my old place had a marvellous timer that would time for hours if you wanted to.  It also turned the oven on and off when you told it to.

I worked out how to use this about two weeks before I moved out.  It was brilliant.

 

Neff/Bosch/Siemens will do up to six hours, with a finishing time up to 24 hours away.

At least, our current one does, and my last one did, so I assume they all do ...

[Euan Uzami]

Tell you what, CityLink, here's a great idea how you could save loads of money and effort... instead of taking an order, turning up, failing to follow the explicit instructions to ring the provided number in order to obtain the item, failing to realise that the business address is a frigging TRAVELODGE and thus the parcel is likely to be from a resident rather than the travelodge itself, then driving off again and reporting a failed collection, why don't you just simply admit that you can't be bothered in the first place?

Oh yeah - I know why, sorry - yes, because that would require possession and correct operation of a brain cell, wouldn't it. 

What was the actual point in making that journey at all? 

[CAMRAMan]

Halfrauds: your Carrera Kraken bike is very nice, thank you. The brake and gear levers were put on at a funnily jaunty angle, but that can be forgiven. The operation of the bell where it was fitted would need 8"-long thumbs, but never mind. What fazed me was that I made it very clear that I would not be taking up your service options right at the start of the payment process, but your drone still went through a long spiel, and, when I declined, looked bemused. You can't even fit levers properly, so I'm not going to risk you knackering anything else up, am I?

And, when I signed the delivery form as "unchecked", don't be surprised. Had you told me you were going to check it in front of me, I would have waited until after and happily signed. Communication is key here.

[Andrij]

Trying to buy a Drunk Cyclist jersey but can't progress beyond payment options. 

Oh well, I'll try again tomorrow...

[interzen]

Trying to buy a Drunk Cyclist jersey but can't progress beyond payment options. 

Oh well, I'll try again tomorrow...

You realise they don't ship overseas, right? See http://www.voler.com/help/#HelpShippingRates

(assuming you're talking about http://drunkcyclist.com/ and you're not attempting delivery to a USAnian/Canadian/Mexican address)

[Mr Larrington]

Trying to buy a Drunk Cyclist jersey but can't progress beyond payment options. 

Oh well, I'll try again tomorrow...

Tangentially apropos which, the BRITONS' Broadcasting Corporation, there is no such thing as a "former alcoholic".  Ask any recovering alcoholic and they'll tell you the same thing.

Buffoons.

[Bledlow]

Ah yes. The people who know when their last drink was, however many years ago. Like the stone-cold sober taxi driver who took me to work on the morning of 1st January 2000, & remembered his last drink, several years earlier.

[Mr Larrington]

Mine was six months ago today.

[CrinklyLion]

Well done.  Have a little something to mark the occasion....

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

"SWIFT" (it isn't) won't run a casenote report because "Credentials timestamp is in the future."
Huh.

[CrinklyLion]

Check what time your 'pooter thinks it is? 

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

It's a server issue. SWIFT runs on 4 servers. The helldesk advice was to keep restarting the computer and trying again until it connects to a server that knows what time it is. It took 4 goes.

[Kim]

You'd hope that means the message has been propagated up the chain so that the relevant sysadmin knows to give ntpd a kicking when they get a break from fighting fires.  Keeping clocks synchronised isn't rocket science (except when it is, obviously).

[Tim Hall]

Mine was six months ago today.

Keep it up young Larrington.

[clarion]

Good work, that man!

[T42]

I just carefully filled out a form from the Social Security in which they wanted all our French bank coordinates, plus the IBAN and the Swift code.  At the bottom it said "you must attach an RIB", this being a document from the bank which contains all the damned codes I had just copied out.

The Law may be an ass but it's got nothing on the Social Security.

[Vince]

I used to have a rubbish bin, by my desk. It wasn't exciting, but it was reliable and got emptied on most days.
Now we have a communal bin with separate compartments for vegetable matter, plastic cups and other waste. It also gets emptied every day and looks smart.
My grumble? Not that I have to make a 10 metre return trip to use it, but that I keep turning to the now vacant space that previously contained my bin when i want to throw stuff away. Grrr!

[T42]

When I was working in Stuttgart we had old continuous stationery boxes beside every workstation for programmers to dump their old listings into.

One evening an outside contractor who was building a BASIC system for us turned up with his entire system - mag tape, listings, notes, the lot - in a CS box and set it beside his seat.  He then nipped into the cludge for a while, and when he emerged the cleaners had been round.  He then spent a long time in a skip with a torch.

[Mr Larrington]

No, Book Crawler!  That book is "The Story Of March" by Mike Lawrence.  It is not "Music Therapy" by Juliette Alvin.  It's got a picture of a racing car on the dust jacket, not a woman playing the violin.

You are a silly.

At least you were vaguely in the target area with "Lotus: The Early Years" by Peter Ross¹.  You got the title and author wrong but at least it was about a Lotus sports car.

1 - Yes, that Peter Ross...

[Ruth]

I did an eleven hour shift today, and my feet really hurt, and I've had my tea and am having a lovely cuppa.  And I know an hour on the bike would do me the world of good, but I bet I spend this evening on my arse on the sofa instead.

When I've done a 0600-1800 shift all I'm able to do is shower,eat & sleep irrespective of what I may wish to do.
A 0600-1400 shift allows some play time as does a 1400-2200 shift.

I also don't work Friday's 'cause that is tandem&blindstoker day

Miss you.

[rafletcher]

My stepson teaches at QMU, and cycles there from Walthamstow. On a £200 BSO.  On Friday he went to the cycle rack to collect it for the ride home. To find some scrotes had removed the front wheel. Along with the front fork.    B*stards.

[matthew]

There is one train in the morning that arrives in Waterloo before the cycle restrictions kick in. Therefore I was on that train this morning.

On boarding one bike already aboard being held up by rider in adjacent seat in the wide access by the disable bays, unfortunately both disabled bays are occupied by able bodied people, he refused to move when politely asked.  So I can't park the bike with minimal impact on seating and have to lean it across the three folding seats.

Cue getting nasty looks and comments from later boarders that I am obstructing too many seats (Feltham) told by the owner of the Brompton that I am being antisocial etc.

Fortunately at the next stop the gent who had refused to move previously disembarked and I could then get the bike into a less obstructive position.

[ian]

Thought we'd finally got dust-related work out of the way, so much that I even cleaned my office of the offending stuff. Then I noticed the damn repaired wall in my office has re-cracked. And no, Mr Contractor, the house didn't move in the space of a week, this is Surrey, not San Francisco. So that'll have to come out again and be done properly. I suspect they didn't seal underneath it properly, because some of the whatever-filling-they-used is clearly blown (I don't think they re-plastered, it was a modest area of blown plaster that they patched and repainted). Much as I mostly don't mind the final results of the company we're using, I swear we've had everything done twice, which might have something to do with why a six week project is now past week twelve, and my good humour and willingness to make real coffee has been replaced with a scowl and a cup of out-of-date Nescafe . If they spent a little extra time on the initial job they'd save a lot of time redoing and patching up.

[Chris S]

Mutter... mutter... mutter... 

I appear to have collected myself a speeding ticket (35 in a 30 zone). How annoying.