The RANT thread (often contains fruity language)

[Andrij]

Don't bother trying to ring the Chinese embassy in London, at least the general line - they won't answer.  That was my experience, and confirmed by the armed Met officer on the door when I stopped by.  For added fun, the number given for the Consular section on the English page is not in service; a different - functioning - number is given on the Chinese page.  The menu you get (in English) is muffled.  If none of the options listed are what you need, and you press 0 to try to get to a real person, can you guess what happens?  See my first sentence for the answer.

[TheLurker]

...If people don't buy then they have to rent. To rent, someone with capital has to invest and make a profit.

Not if you have an adequate supply of council housing.  All that has to be achieved is break even on maintenance, although I would allow that a small profit for reinvestment, rather than Rachman like gouging, would be sensible.  Panacea?  Not by any means, but it would go a long, long way to taking the misery out of the current situation for very many people.

[barakta]

That would have been 2007, cos it was the London house. I wasn't using the mac by then, I had a desktop box. The mac was performing it's function of storing crap on...

Vintage CRTs tho! We have no CRTs left.

I believe that call was trying to find out from Bastard Telecom why my text relay calls weren't being itemised properly, cos HMRC who were refusing me access to my WTC claimed they needed proof of calls. I never did get a straight answer from BT.

And yes, why tell me use your fucking website shitheads when I would have done that. I'm in round 2 with PayPal who claim I didn't even make the call I'm claiming they refused. They have about 10 days left to reply before I serve legal papers on them as well.

[L CC]

...If people don't buy then they have to rent. To rent, someone with capital has to invest and make a profit.

Not if you have an adequate supply of council housing.  All that has to be achieved is break even on maintenance, although I would allow that a small profit for reinvestment, rather than Rachman like gouging, would be sensible.  Panacea?  Not by any means, but it would go a long, long way to taking the misery out of the current situation for very many people.

I blame Thatcher

(today's winner Chris )

[Kim]

Vintage CRTs tho! We have no CRTs left.

Unless you count the analogue 'scope or the Macintosh SE30...

[Jaded]

Ooh. I lusted after an SE30. Didn’t get one as they cost about half a salary.

[rogerzilla]

Google, Wiggle and Amazon.  All three of you.  Your search results are fricking useless.  Top result for any bike product is usually Amazon or Wiggle.  But follow the link and the item is permanently unavailable 75% of the time.

Google - would it kill you to train your spiders to ignore pages where "discontinued" or "we don't know if or when" appear?  And the other two - stop paying Google money for dead links.  It just makes me hate you all.  More.

[Kim]

^ They do this deliberately with comfort-critical items like shorts and saddles, I reckon.   

[Cudzoziemiec]

Evans too. Every Evans link from a google search in the whole history of the universe is "item discontinued".

[Jaded]

It’s part of the way that the internet suppliers grab trade. By hooking you in and by the time you find out they cant do what you want its too late you are already slavering over their website. No spotty youth to shout at, so you carry on. It’s really good value too, apart from the delivery charges, or £79 per year, and <wisper>the next day delivery is very often a lie </wisper>

[rogerzilla]

Evans too. Every Evans link from a google search in the whole history of the universe is "item discontinued".

Evans suck a really, really large one anyway.  I never even follow results for them.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Evans too. Every Evans link from a google search in the whole history of the universe is "item discontinued".

Evans suck a really, really large one anyway.  I never even follow results for them.

They have the advantage over a pure internet retailer that you can order things to be collected from the nearest store if they're not in stock. This is worthwhile because sometimes the item they deliver is not what you actually ordered...

[Legs]

We grinked to the CEO of Post Office, who are our ISP, over our lack of broadband for the past nearly-5 weeks.  Copied our MP, who's got a bit more time on his hands now that he's not Minister for Small Business and is no longer sexting his constituents.

                                                                          (Address redacted)
                        
                        Customer Reference no. : (redacted)
                        
13 August 2018
      
      
Dear Ms Vennells,

I am writing to you regarding an unacceptable level of service I am currently receiving from the Post Office and hope that you may be able to intervene to resolve the situation.

We have used the Post Office as our telephone and broadband supplier since we moved into our home in 2011.  In March this year the Post Office upgraded us to a fibre connection which we had been using with no issues until last month.

On Thursday 12 July we lost our internet connection. Having seen a BT Openreach van near the new nearby distribution cabinet, we assumed work was being carried out and that the connection would be restored shortly.  By 18 July we still had not had our connection restored so we logged the fault with the Post Office.  We have now been without internet connection for more than four weeks and do not have a confirmed resolution date.

I am led to believe by your staff that the issue relates to the migration of customers to a new distribution cabinet by Openreach.  Although the Post Office has been unable to confirm how many households are affected, we know there are others affected in the village.  A customer of BT has told us that they were told sixty houses were suffering similar issues.   Your staff inform me that it is not possible to roll back to our old connection.

In this day and age, this kind of interruption to internet connection is completely unacceptable.  I have been at home with a young child over the summer holidays, unable to plan simple days out, pay bills or communicate by e-mail.

I am sure that during your time at Whitbread plc you will have had customer service at the top of your priority list.  Unfortunately, it would appear that between the Post Office and Openreach this approach to customer service is somewhat lacking.

I would be grateful if you could look into this matter and ensure that our connection is restored as soon as possible and that we are adequately compensated for our inconvenience.

Yours sincerely,



J------ M-------

copy Mr Andrew Griffiths, M.P.

[Andrij]

Did I miss a memo?  Was I supposed to remove my brain before taking to the roads this evening?  Apparently that's what everyone else did.

Draw up a list of standard commute rants - you can put a tick next to each one.  This includes classics such as "Lady, pushing your pram into the road while you remain on the pavement is not a sensible way to indicate your intention of crossing the street." (But I may have misunderstood, she may just not like her child that much.)  The list also includes one which should not appear so early in the year: "Cyclists: it is still August, before 20:00, and we are not cycling through a storm, so you can take your over-powered, poorly-positioned front lights and shove them  [ connection lost ]

[citoyen]

Fuck you, Fucking Words With Fucking Friends. There's me feeling all smug because I've played DADAISM for 103pts and you're trying to tell me it's not a real word?

Here's a real word for you: CUNTS

[hellymedic]

I think it's a proper noun and therefore disallowed under The Rules.

[citoyen]

I think it's a proper noun and therefore disallowed under The Rules.

Good point!

And luckily, I was able to play FADDISM for the same score instead. 

[spesh]

Did I miss a memo?  Was I supposed to remove my brain before taking to the roads this evening?  Apparently that's what everyone else did.

Draw up a list of standard commute rants - you an put a tick next to each one.  This includes classics such as "Lady, pushing your pram into the road while you remain on the pavement is not a sensible way to indicate your intention of crossing the street." (But I may have misunderstood, she may just not like her child that much.)  The list also includes one which should not appear so early in the year: "Cyclists: it is still August, before 20:00, and we are not cycling through a storm, so you can take your over-powered, poorly-positioned front lights and shove them  [ connection lost ]

"Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius." ~ Arnaud Amalric (attributed) 

[Kim]

I think it's a proper noun and therefore disallowed under The Rules.

Our house scrabble rules allow any illegal word as long as it's agreed to be sufficiently cool or entertaining.  The problem with having a computer adjudicating is that they've got no sense of humour.

[Cudzoziemiec]

DADAISM? My Grandma was the Queen of Scrabble. She knew words that no one else ever dreamt of and when challenged, they were always in the dictionary. She once played DA. What's that? we cried. Da is Dada, she replied. And it was in the dictionary. The irony was that English was not her native language and even after 40 or more years in England, her spoken English... fluent but full of oddities.

I don't think she ever played my other grandmother, although they were really the only people who were keen on Scrabble, but I expect that if she had, dictionary knowledge would have beaten native English.

[Jaded]

Words with Friends won’t let you do some swears either. I’ve needed a quim on occasions and not been allowed one. I could have a wank instead, though, from memory.

[citoyen]

Words with Friends won’t let you do some swears either. I’ve needed a quim on occasions and not been allowed one. I could have a wank instead, though, from memory.

 

Yes, it is very prudish, isn't it.

[ElyDave]

I once had ZEOLYTES on a triple word score, plus 50 points bonus for using all 7 tiles disallowed. 

Only becasue I'd have won by LOADS.

[Andrij]

Did I miss a memo?  Was I supposed to remove my brain before taking to the roads this evening?  Apparently that's what everyone else did.

Draw up a list of standard commute rants - you an put a tick next to each one.  This includes classics such as "Lady, pushing your pram into the road while you remain on the pavement is not a sensible way to indicate your intention of crossing the street." (But I may have misunderstood, she may just not like her child that much.)  The list also includes one which should not appear so early in the year: "Cyclists: it is still August, before 20:00, and we are not cycling through a storm, so you can take your over-powered, poorly-positioned front lights and shove them  [ connection lost ]

"Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius." ~ Arnaud Amalric (attributed) 

A lovely sentiment, which I can support, but there aren't nearly enough hours in the day to implement it.  Perhaps we could start off with decimation, pour encourager les autres and see if things improve.

[hellymedic]

I once had ZEOLYTES on a triple word score, plus 50 points bonus for using all 7 tiles disallowed. 

Only becasue I'd have won by LOADS.

Is that because zeolItes was misspelt?