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

[T42]

I was having a lovely sleep...

Sympathies.  Our New Year was ruined by the neighbours' megaton-level fireworks* and then I was awakened at around 04:30 this morning by the damned bin-men, then as I was dozing off again the folk who work in Germany started out and woke me up again. 

* powerful fireworks are illegal in France but the locals nip over into Germany and bring back Vergeltungswaffen that rattle the bloody windows.

[The Family Cyclist]

Thanks

On the drive to work as too windy to cycle my engine management light came on after putting in some diesel, suspect may be related to running very low in tank

Got home and my fence has blown over so need to fix once the wind drops below 50mph

[Tim Hall]

3.15A fuse protecting a 13A desktop outlet. What's all that about, eh?

Enquiring minds ect ect.

[mrcharly-YHT]

I've just done my 22/23 tax return.

Oh my life the gov.uk self assessment website is sh!te.

Owed gov money, tried to pay online; they can't take payments from the cooperative bank. FFS.

[barakta]

HMRC is particularly useless. Everyone else uses GOV.UK which is pretty good. HMRC uses some weird shite that isn't accessible and has a horrible UI.

Sometimes other depts like DWP are made to use HMRC's verify engine which is a steaming pile of shite.

[MattH]

3.15A fuse protecting a 13A desktop outlet. What's all that about, eh?

At a guess, the wiring leading up to the outlet isn't rated higher than that. It's not unusual to have fairly small fuses on that kind of thing; they are only really intended for running a computer, monitor or lamp, not a 3kW heater.

[ian]

I've just done my 22/23 tax return.

Oh my life the gov.uk self assessment website is sh!te.

Owed gov money, tried to pay online; they can't take payments from the cooperative bank. FFS.

Reminds me that I found a cheque for £92 from them for a previous year, I'd assumed they'd just put the money in my bank, but there backside of the perforated letter was an actual cheque that I had missed (and, of course, given the delay, the cheque bounced when I attempted to sneak it into my account). Their weird combination of doing shit like this, randomly giving me money or adjusting my tax code to account for over-and-under-payments is driving me mental.


But yes, the form is also a bit mental, and the instructions seem to have been written by someone whose eighth language is English. But hey, here's a YouTube video that will explain this question in just 25 minutes. If it existed.


On the plus side, they seem to have accepted that I overpaid to the tune of a lot and have deposited the cash into my account. Which probably means they'll declare I underpaid by the same amount.

[Feanor]

3.15A fuse protecting a 13A desktop outlet. What's all that about, eh?

Enquiring minds ect ect.

That's common in offices, where there's sockets on every desk.
The sockets are for PCs and phones, not fan heaters.

The wiring is not designed for high loads at each desk.

<ETA> What MattH said.

[Socks]

I've just done my 22/23 tax return.

Oh my life the gov.uk self assessment website is sh!te.

Owed gov money, tried to pay online; they can't take payments from the cooperative bank. FFS.

Reminds me that I found a cheque for £92 from them for a previous year, I'd assumed they'd just put the money in my bank, but there backside of the perforated letter


 was an actual cheque that I had missed (and, of course, given the delay, the cheque bounced when I attempted to sneak it into my account). Their weird combination of doing shit like this, randomly giving me money or adjusting my tax code to account for over-and-under-payments is driving me mental.


But yes, the form is also a bit mental, and the instructions seem to have been written by someone whose eighth language is English. But hey, here's a YouTube video that will explain this question in just 25 minutes. If it existed.


On the plus side, they seem to have accepted that I overpaid to the tune of a lot and have deposited the cash into my account. Which probably means they'll declare I underpaid by the same amount.

You shouldn't assume that the purpose of HMRC is to collect taxes, the government ensures that they only aim for the PAYE and self assessment plebs,  Once you become rich enough taxes are optional.

[Tim Hall]

3.15A fuse protecting a 13A desktop outlet. What's all that about, eh?

Enquiring minds ect ect.

That's common in offices, where there's sockets on every desk.
The sockets are for PCs and phones, not fan heaters.

The wiring is not designed for high loads at each desk.

<ETA> What MattH said.

I guessed as much. Having a label in large friendly letters saying so would be handy, as it would have saved me $FAR_TOO_LONG wrestling spaghetti under my desk and in the tray suspended beneath it just to get my headset working. I suspect someone plugged a heater of some sort into it.  Mind you, the click-together wiring running between the desks is Quite Hefty Indeed.

[Kim]

3.15A seems like an oddly-specific fuse rating.  What am I missing?  Is it horse-related?

[Tim Hall]

3.15A seems like an oddly-specific fuse rating.  What am I missing?  Is it horse-related?

No idea. It's a 20mm fuse. Then I googled "why do 3.15A fuses exist?" and found a fascinating rabbit hole. Laters!

[Mr Larrington]

Professor Larrington spent a fair chunk of this morning trying to figure out whether the four-figure sum that made up the Swedish equivalent of the mrs joyful prize for rafia work* was taxable but finally discovered that it ent.  Hurrah!  Trebles all round!

* actually something academic and Old Norse-related

[robgul]

I've just done my 22/23 tax return.

Oh my life the gov.uk self assessment website is sh!te.

Owed gov money, tried to pay online; they can't take payments from the cooperative bank. FFS.

I, being a good boy, started my return in September - online system was hopeless (property income section made no sense) - so printed the form, completed by hand and mailed it before the October deadline - sometimes old skool is simplest.  Good news is that they owe me £400 but I've no idea why or how.

[T42]

I've just done my 22/23 tax return.

Oh my life the gov.uk self assessment website is sh!te.

Owed gov money, tried to pay online; they can't take payments from the cooperative bank. FFS.

I, being a good boy, started my return in September - online system was hopeless (property income section made no sense) - so printed the form, completed by hand and mailed it before the October deadline - sometimes old skool is simplest.  Good news is that they owe me £400 but I've no idea why or how.

Timeo Danaos etc.  My dad was once delighted to get a small tax refund, then three weeks later my mum got a demand for £600.

[Beardy]

It’s over an hour since I dragged myself out of bed to sit here and wait for the GP to call. It’s not as if I can shower or anything while I wait is it?

Pah

[Mr Larrington]

I could swear I got a txt msg while cat-sitting at Schloß von Brandenburg telling me it was time to get an appointment with the eye screening lot.  Can I now find it?

Why, no!  No, I cannot

Edit: Not such a feckin' div after all; it was buried five fathoms down in the NHS app

[Diver300]

3.15A fuse protecting a 13A desktop outlet. What's all that about, eh?

Enquiring minds ect ect.

That's common in offices, where there's sockets on every desk.
The sockets are for PCs and phones, not fan heaters.

The wiring is not designed for high loads at each desk.

<ETA> What MattH said.

There's a slightly obscure British Standard about sockets in furniture. BS6396 https://www.cmd-ltd.com/advice-centre/usb-chargers-and-power-modules/bs6396/

[Kim]

"In furniture" seems to be doing the heavy lifting there.  Presumably it doesn't apply to the daisy chain of 4-ways ratsnested with assorted data cables under my desk.  But might to the ones screwed to the underside of barakta's...  I'll continue to ignore it while not plugging any kettles or EVSEs into them.

[jsabine]

Hmm. Fairly sure it'll apply to the fact that my desk has a cable with a plug on the end, feeding a switched FCU that in turn feeds a 4-way and a 6-way in a cable tray, a socket inset into the desktop, and a further socket at the bottom of one of the legs.

Best ignored, I fancy, even if I do sometimes plug Henry into the desktop socket or the leg-bottom one.

[T42]

"In furniture" seems to be doing the heavy lifting there.  Presumably it doesn't apply to the daisy chain of 4-ways ratsnested with assorted data cables under my desk.  But might to the ones screwed to the underside of barakta's...  I'll continue to ignore it while not plugging any kettles or EVSEs into them.

(Looks under desk) 1 off 8x strip, 2 off 5x strips, 1 off 4x.  Our circuits are 16A but the supply cable doesn't get above room temperature. Detectably.

[Kim]

Yeah, all our desktop computer stuff daisy-chains back to a single socket from which is currently being drawn a smidgen more than 1A.  Which is fine.  The only thing in here that draws real power is the fan heater, and that's plugged straight into the wall.  Or the hoover, which the fan heater gets unplugged for.

I see that standard used to refer to "office and educational furniture", which is clearly the spirit in which it's intended.  The idea being to ensure that nothing gets overloaded in an environment where you can't assume people will be electrically sensible with hoovers and tea-urns.

Presumably it's not furniture if it's permanently installed work surfaces in a kitchen/laboratory/workshop.

[Diver300]

Presumably it's not furniture if it's permanently installed work surfaces in a kitchen/laboratory/workshop.

Permanently installed sockets won't be in turn plugged into a 13 A socket somewhere.

[Kim]

Presumably it's not furniture if it's permanently installed work surfaces in a kitchen/laboratory/workshop.

Permanently installed sockets won't be in turn plugged into a 13 A socket somewhere.

GPWM.

[Mr Larrington]

Electric planer: very good at separating wanted and unwanted wood.

Electric planer: also very good at dispersing unwanted wood all over the kitchen even with the unwanted wood bag fitted