The Good News / Bad News Thread

[CAMRAMan]

GN: Virgin Media have put my broadband speed 'up to 200mbps'.

BN: Can't see any difference.

BN: Their letter will almost certainly herald a follow up in a short while telling me the price is going up.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Bad news: when I got off the bus I realised my sunglasses case had fallen out of my bag somewhere and was lost.

Good news: when I got off the other bus after coming back the other way, not only was my sunglasses case lying in the gutter, but it had blown across the road so that it was on the right side of the road for me to pick it up.

[Bledlow]

GN: Virgin Media have put my broadband speed 'up to 200mbps'.

BN: Can't see any difference.

Last time they put my speed up I didn't notice it, but the speed testers all agreed that it had gone up to what they said.

[Kim]

Obviously a connection that's faster than your LAN speed won't make a difference.  Lots of people are still running 100Mb Ethernet at home, and while some of the newer forms of WiFi can exceed that, it's very much a fair day with a following wind type thing (and if you care about performance you won't be using wireless anyway).

And of course even when that's not an issue you end up hitting the limit with which the server can send you data, or that your computer can process it.  Typical browsing isn't going to be affected much.  Big downloads getting faster is the main thing people will notice.  The associated lower latency is good news for the gamers.  And having enough headroom that multiple people can do bandwidth-intensive things simultaneously over the same connection is good news for students in shared houses or those breeding teenagers.

But what it mostly comes down to is that the industry competes on  a) speed  and  b) price.  Mainly because it's an uphill struggle to explain anything else to non-technical consumers (see also: megapixels).  Bigger numbers == moar betterer.

[andrewc]

BN pay group have made a mistake with my pension arrangements dating back to 2014

GN They are giving me  a one off payment of ££££  next month to sort it out.
 
BN parents are having a new central heating boiler installed, so I think I'll be making a larger payment for that than I'd planned 

[Canardly]

Can you buy added years? If so go for it. Hugely tax efficient.

[andrewc]

No, not in my situation. I've looked into it in the past.    I'm just sticking a load into AVC's each month.    Unfortunately we think they are now looking at closing the decent final salary / career average scheme & forcing us onto the one for new staff which is not as good 

[Quisling]

GN: I now have underfloor heating
BN: I don't have underfloor heating - I have a domestic hot water leak under the floor of the kitchen which was only re-fitted in March 

[Guy]

Hello all. Anybody miss me? - Thought not 

GN: After a month off following a nervous breakdown in the office, I am now deemed well enough to come back to work (afternoons only for now)
BN: I have been deemed well enough to come back to the same bloody nonsense that ground me down in the first place..
GN: At least I'll *have* to get on my bike every day now.
BN: The destination each day isn't really one I'd have chosen if I had my druthers.

Well, I'm back (sort of). Wish me luck.

[Basil]

Welcome back, Guy.  Sorry to hear you weren't feeling so good.  GWS.

[Guy]

Thanks Basil. The worst bit about coming back is having to do work stuff when I'm trying to catch up with a months worth of YACF

[Canardly]

GWS.

[Cudzoziemiec]

WelcOmE bAcK GuY!

GN: I have "fat juicy veins" good for taking blood from.
BN: The nurse is a vampire.

[andrewc]

BN pay group have made a mistake with my pension arrangements dating back to 2014

GN They are giving me  a one off payment of ££££  next month to sort it out.
 
BN parents are having a new central heating boiler installed, so I think I'll be making a larger payment for that than I'd planned 

GN , the extra payment is in my account
BN, I appear to have been taxed at 40% on it           Query has been sent to the appropriate people.

[menthel]

BN: It takes Openreach 2 weeks to set up a phone and internet for a house that had them before we moved in.
GN: Finally phone activated a day late.
BN: No internet anywhere to be seen.
MBN: Sky's phone system is terrible but get through to people and promised it will be sorted.
EMBN: It wasn't. Phoned again and the case had been closed with no action.
EEMBN: Still wasn't sorted when chased- would be 24 hours before update, not even a fix. Apparently Sky are beholden to the shower of bastards at Openreach who don't care one jot.
GN: Surprisingly, 15 minutes after the last call the broadband came online. Sky were slightly surprised by this.

I won't bore you with the saga that ended up with the dullards at Sky sending me 4 ADSL router thingies...

[MalRees]

GN: Littlewheel and I went cycling in the Orkneys last weekend. We didn't pedal too far, but we did leave the car on the mainland and put all the camping gear on the bikes. We had a great time.
BN: Oxyliplatin side effects kicking in. Warm long fingered gloves and chemical hand warmers must always be in the bag.
GN: We are cyclists once more!!!!!! 

[Andrij]

BN: Still can't find my British Library Reader Pass, so have to get a replacement.

GN: My lost Pass was close enough to expiring that I have been able to renew (£0) rather than replace (£10). 

[CAMRAMan]

BN: My team lost in the League Cup last night.
BN: When I got back I had to wade through a lot of water because the front outside tap piping had come loose from its feed. Loadsa water.
GN: I'm insured for (nearly) all the repairs, and the leak was fixed this afternoon, I can use the bogs and shower.
BN: The laminate flooring downstairs will need replacing
GN: I was going to replace some of it anyway

[woollypigs]

BN : Letter from the tax man

gulp!

GN : they owe me money

\o/

Side note: their site couldn't handle the rush as it took me about 6 attempts to get past the login page and it was not because I forgot the magic words.

[perpetual dan]

It's nice when that happens!

BN: Laptop cooked its graphics chip a little while back.
GN: I've found magic incantations to disable graphics and use the internal to CPU chipset one.
BN: Though I can log in, the graphics are slow, colour crap and brightness control broken.
More BN: Laptop is old and repair seems unlikely. I've got better things to spend my money on than a whole new one.
GN: Found old non-laptop and got it set up. The stuff I use all the time is mostly there again (though I need a "remember the password" session in email).
More GN: Tapatalk is all very well, but it's nice to be back here in a browser

[CAMRAMan]

BN: We had a water pipe leak on 22/8
BN: They allegedly found asbestos in the flooring - this caused much delay
GN: The blowers and dehumidifiers are now in-situ
GN: They are creating a lot of heat, so we don't need the heating on & the insurance company is paying
GN: We'll get a new floor out of it with a nice separate part for the kitchen & utility area
GN: The stair carpet I've never liked might also get replaced
BN: No doubt the insurance company will get its pound of flesh on renewal

[CAMRAMan]

More BN: the blowers, now supplemented, have to stay at least another week.

[gibbo]

BN - friend is ill enough to be put on the kidney transplant list
BN - said friend is also diabetic, has been from birth (I think)
GN - friend has had double transplant - kidney and pancreas
MGN - friend is no longer diabetic and came home from hospital yesterday

[CAMRAMan]

More BN: the blowers, now supplemented, have to stay at least another week.

GN: Blowers & humidifiers have now gone.
BN: The flooring won't be reinstated until 20/11.

[PaulF]

BN The dog rolled in fox 🦊 poo 💩 this morning.

GN She was booked into the groomer today anyway