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

[Bledlow]

Mine is nice too, but the problem (I realise now from your links) is that it is upside down. Well, not exactly, but the bottom piece is almost flat, while the lid is box-shaped to go over the butter. Which I guess is the problem, because if you don't put it on carefully it catches the butter and you get a mess. Only a small mess, admittedly (which is why this is in 'grumbles', not 'rants').

The linked design solves that problem. I'll think about it...

Ah, what you mean is that you have a butter dish and not a butter box.  The distinction is, apparently, very important.  I got a right proper telling off when I tried to buy a replacement lid for what I believed to be a butter 'dish' from the pottery in Lewes - not because they don't sell spare lids (which they don't) but because I was referring to their wares completely incorrectly.  She was most offended

My grandmother had a butter dish, & it was like the thing I bought many years ago & still use - a rectangular container the right size to contain a half pound/250 gram/or so block of butter, with a fairly flat lid. That was labelled as a butter dish when I bought it, just like my grandmother's - which she always referred to as a butter dish.

John Lewis calls both styles butter dishes, just as I remember them always being called. I'd never heard of one (whatever the style) being called a butter box until I read your post. I think it's a recent affectation by pretentious people.

[David Martin]

I have contemplated dropping it off the balcony but it'll just make a hole in my driveway. Or bounce along and flatten the car, cat, and cause the garage to collapse when it finally hits it.

Would it work well as a butter dish?

[fuzzy]

I have contemplated dropping it off the balcony but it'll just make a hole in my driveway. Or bounce along and flatten the car, cat, and cause the garage to collapse when it finally hits it.

Would it work well as a butter dish?

Prolly not. bet it'd make a fecking ace chopping board though.

[Paul]

I have contemplated dropping it off the balcony but it'll just make a hole in my driveway. Or bounce along and flatten the car, cat, and cause the garage to collapse when it finally hits it.

Would it work well as a butter dish?

Nice post.

[mrcharly-YHT]

shite electrical installation instructions.

I'm putting in a bathroom ceiling fan. Working in a tiny loft space cramped up in the eaves, surrounded by old dusty rockwool

The fan is 12V with a transformer. So why the fuck does it have 3 terminals labelled L N T? Two terminals on the transformer, neither of them labelled + or -. One has a T next to it.

Oh and the instructions say it needs a 3 core supply. That would be to the 2 terminals . . . No, there isn't a separate earth post and the product info says it is double insulated so doesn't require earthing.

I guess nobody checks this shite before shipping.

[T42]

Went out intending to do 100+ km, got utterly fed up after 20.  Got home to a lousy thrown-together lunch, missus is in full house-cleaning mode and everything is noisy and uncomfortable. Decide to have a snooze only to find she's on the point of tackling the bedroom. Fucked-up Sunday. 

[Dibdib]

Lost my driving licence and debit card at some point during today's ride. Bugger.

Bank already phoned because it's contactless (credit where it's due, very painless to sort with First Direct) and if the driving licence doesn't show up tomorrow when I phone the cafe, I'll order a new one. Thankfully I didn't have all my other cards with me, so I can cope a few days without.

[neilrj]

shite electrical installation instructions.

I'm putting in a bathroom ceiling fan. Working in a tiny loft space cramped up in the eaves, surrounded by old dusty rockwool

The fan is 12V with a transformer. So why the fuck does it have 3 terminals labelled L N T? Two terminals on the transformer, neither of them labelled + or -. One has a T next to it.

Oh and the instructions say it needs a 3 core supply. That would be to the 2 terminals . . . No, there isn't a separate earth post and the product info says it is double insulated so doesn't require earthing.

I guess nobody checks this shite before shipping.

3 wires is just Live Neutral and Timed, if you want it to go just on/off with switch then it only needs two feeds as you have, however if you want delay for air quality reasons then the timer needs sorting with regard to lighting operation.

[Pickled Onion]

Went out intending to do 100+ km, got utterly fed up after 20.  Got home to a lousy thrown-together lunch, missus is in full house-cleaning mode and everything is noisy and uncomfortable. Decide to have a snooze only to find she's on the point of tackling the bedroom. Fucked-up Sunday. 

It sounds like someone doesn't know which side his bread is buttered   

[mrcharly-YHT]

shite electrical installation instructions.

I'm putting in a bathroom ceiling fan. Working in a tiny loft space cramped up in the eaves, surrounded by old dusty rockwool

The fan is 12V with a transformer. So why the fuck does it have 3 terminals labelled L N T? Two terminals on the transformer, neither of them labelled + or -. One has a T next to it.

Oh and the instructions say it needs a 3 core supply. That would be to the 2 terminals . . . No, there isn't a separate earth post and the product info says it is double insulated so doesn't require earthing.

I guess nobody checks this shite before shipping.

3 wires is just Live Neutral and Timed, if you want it to go just on/off with switch then it only needs two feeds as you have, however if you want delay for air quality reasons then the timer needs sorting with regard to lighting operation.

Aye, that sounds likely. That matches the spec of the fan.

The 12V fan with power feed from the transformer - which has just two outputs.

The timer and humidity sensor is on the PCB. The wiring instructions say to take the mains power from the lighting circuit, so the fan is switched on when the light is on - and then only comes on if the humidity is rising beyond a set rate. It is then supposed to stay on  for a timed period.

Trouble is, it can't possibly do that when the power is via the light to the transformer.  I think it has the wrong transformer - there should be a switched output from the transformer and a permanent output - so when the light comes on, voltage goes up on one feed to the fan, but there is also a permanent 12V power supply.

[T42]

Went out intending to do 100+ km, got utterly fed up after 20.  Got home to a lousy thrown-together lunch, missus is in full house-cleaning mode and everything is noisy and uncomfortable. Decide to have a snooze only to find she's on the point of tackling the bedroom. Fucked-up Sunday. 

It sounds like someone doesn't know which side his bread is buttered   

It was SUNDAY, FFS.  You don't do shit like house-cleaning on a Sunday.

[tiermat]

Possibly a "First World Problem", but...

I have just been downstairs, across the road, to get my morning fix of grease.

The damned cafe is shut!  What am I going to do?

[Torslanda]

Room service . . . ?

[ian]

They finally finished painting the exterior of the Asbestos Palace on Friday. It looked glorious, like big cream cake in the sunshine, so of course, it triggered a downpour that splashed dirt up the sides. Then a snail decided to climb up through the not-quite-dry black membrane paint at the base of the wall round the back and proceeded to do a mollusc Banksy on the nice creamy white wall.

[Karla]

My mother has just bought a Mac, on the recommendation of a friend who used to run a computer company.  Urgh.

She's spent years on Windows, learning how to use it at the pace of a lobotomised snail - a pace that has been greatly slowed, mind you, by her prioritising of her desire to get her sons' attention with cringeing "Wahwahmycomputersbrokencanyoufixit" requests, rather than her desire to either a) use her computer or b) think for herself.  Now she's got a different system and is going to start learning all over again.  Dad - a formerly competent user (also formerly married to my mum), got a Mac on the same friend's recommendation and the pathetically needy requests for help with simple things have quadrupled since he did. 

Friend: what were you thinking?  Not everyone is a computing whizz, some people need to stick with what they know. 

Parents: I'm not a Mac user, you now both are.  That makes you the experts.  If you think you're getting any help with your stupid new toys you don't know how to use, you can fuck right off. 

[tiermat]

Pharti, BTDTGTTS, my mum and dad now both have PCs, running Windows.

[T42]

BTDT "because Laurence** has one and says they're great and she's a mathematician".  We now have a Mac under a dust sheet in one corner of the bedroom.

** Woman's name in France, like Jean in the UK.

[Kim]

Friend: what were you thinking?

"Macs are easy to use and reliable", I expect.  Fair enough in isolation.

Not everyone is a computing whizz, some people need to stick with what they know. 

Quite.  Of course, it's not like Microsoft was going to let them stick with what they know either...

Parents: I'm not a Mac user, you now both are.  That makes you the experts.  If you think you're getting any help with your stupid new toys you don't know how to use, you can fuck right off.

This logic works well, at least to a point.


The best approach to tech support of parents is to swap with someone else in the same boat.  That way both sets of parents will actually listen, the person providing support will find it easier to stay polite, and computers won't become a proxy for family politics.

[Tim Hall]

My mother has just bought a Mac, on the recommendation of a friend who used to run a computer company.  Urgh.

She's spent years on Windows, learning how to use it at the pace of a lobotomised snail - a pace that has been greatly slowed, mind you, by her prioritising of her desire to get her sons' attention with cringeing "Wahwahmycomputersbrokencanyoufixit" requests, rather than her desire to either a) use her computer or b) think for herself.  Now she's got a different system and is going to start learning all over again.  Dad - a formerly competent user (also formerly married to my mum), got a Mac on the same friend's recommendation and the pathetically needy requests for help with simple things have quadrupled since he did. 

Friend: what were you thinking?  Not everyone is a computing whizz, some people need to stick with what they know. 

Parents: I'm not a Mac user, you now both are.  That makes you the experts.  If you think you're getting any help with your stupid new toys you don't know how to use, you can fuck right off.

Send them a useful fault finding flowchart. My Dad (88), has this, that my son sent him:

[Mrs Pingu]

Presumably your friend that was so keen to recommend will be equally happy to provide free tech support....

[Kim]

Send them a useful fault finding flowchart. My Dad (88), has this, that my son sent him:

I note that barakta has this pinned to her cublet^[1] wall.


_{[1] She used to have an office; they downgraded.  See rants passim.}

[mcshroom]

Work Internet connection has been broken all day. 3G signal is also flaky. I may actually have to do some work this afternoon 

[Basil]

I spent most of yesterday logging.  (I'm starting next years pile.). 
After I stopped in the evening I found that the thumb and first finger of my left (dominant) hand were quite painful and I was unable to bend them. 
I had a poor nights sleep due to the pain and then today they are swollen, painful and extremely sensitive.
Bugger.  I have a week off work and I can't go out on the bike.  I can't do any gardening and I don't feel much like doing anything at all.  All I can do is sit here and make the occasional right handed coffee.

*feels very sorry for self*

 

[Cudzoziemiec]

My mother has just bought a Mac, on the recommendation of a friend who used to run a computer company.  Urgh.

She's spent years on Windows, learning how to use it at the pace of a lobotomised snail - a pace that has been greatly slowed, mind you, by her prioritising of her desire to get her sons' attention with cringeing "Wahwahmycomputersbrokencanyoufixit" requests, rather than her desire to either a) use her computer or b) think for herself.  Now she's got a different system and is going to start learning all over again.  Dad - a formerly competent user (also formerly married to my mum), got a Mac on the same friend's recommendation and the pathetically needy requests for help with simple things have quadrupled since he did. 

Friend: what were you thinking?  Not everyone is a computing whizz, some people need to stick with what they know. 

Parents: I'm not a Mac user, you now both are.  That makes you the experts.  If you think you're getting any help with your stupid new toys you don't know how to use, you can fuck right off.

Send them a useful fault finding flowchart. My Dad (88), has this, that my son sent him:

Yeah. Of course "google the name of the program" assumes you know what the program is and "a few words related to what you want to do" assumes you know how to express that, while "ask someone for help" leads right back to...

[ian]

I use a Mac and PC back-to-back, tbh, if you can use one you can use the other, there's not a huge difference in everyday operation, and most issues can be solved this new thing called Google. The Mac is vastly more reliable and you don't have worry about the malware (I'm never buying my parents another Windows PC, I've lost too many evenings clearing through the sludge). The again we're talking about my parents then no form of computer is suitable. I dunno, it's seems obligatory to click an option immediately or dither and refuse to click anything. It's binary. They press everything they're not supposed to press and nothing they're supposed to press. On the plus side, they mostly seem to have given up with computers. To be honest, they never entirely got the hang of telephones.