totm nov 2023 Thread to discuss negative things in a very general way, just see where it goes y'know?

[richfiles]

Finally made some real progress again with my Kerbal Instrument Panel...
Parts shortage has left me with only a handful of hours of work a month.

If I work less, there's more time for projects, but also the looming threat of running out of money, period!

If I work more, I can afford to buy all the project goodies I like, so they can sit and collect dust while I sleep off the day's efforts, after a long hard day working.

Can never win...

[tater]

My biggest issue right now is not knowing how many people are coming to my house next weekend. Could be 30, could be 150+, lol.

[Selective Genius]

On 12/12/2021 at 11:10 AM, tater said:

My biggest issue right now is not knowing how many people are coming to my house next weekend. Could be 30, could be 150+, lol.

Woah you have that many friends!? I have like 5 friends...

Also since I am here: Why in the seven hells are girls/women so to-the-point one second, and absolutely impractical the next? Like GOD bro why???

[tater]

30 minutes ago, Selective Genius said:

Also since I am here: Why in the seven hells are girls/women so to-the-point one second, and absolutely impractical the next? Like GOD bro why???

I'm sorry to say none of us here can answer that question for you, even after many decades of wondering in some cases.

 

[kerbiloid]

3 hours ago, Selective Genius said:

Why in the seven hells are girls/women so to-the-point one second, and absolutely impractical the next?

Because a compass at the magnetic pole also can coincidentally show the direction you wish.

[GearsNSuch]

On 12/13/2021 at 8:14 AM, Selective Genius said:

Also since I am here: Why in the seven hells are girls/women so to-the-point one second, and absolutely impractical the next? Like GOD bro why???

I have it on good authority that women think the same about men. 

Edited December 16, 2021 by GearsNSuch

[Lisias]

The Western Civilization is on the verge of a collapse. Or at least the part of such Civilization I live in.

On the last 7 days, we have two Catastrophic Incidents on Production. FULL STOP, we were dead in the water.

The reason? Partners updating their servers without doing QAS first- or even a freaking early notice! On both incidents.

Sooner or later someone will be sued due this crap. We just can't halt Mission Critical systems like this.

(I'm missing the times I could sleep two or three days in  row)

Edited December 19, 2021 by Lisias
I'm also missing some grammars lessons...

[richfiles]

Unbelievable... The guy that helped be out with this circuit board design, he specifically designed the circuit using components that were IN STOCK at the time of the design...

I have been so tied up in doing projects for one particular friend who is so freakin' nitpicky about every little thing... combined with a short fuse... has meant that a 2 day project has been turned into a 2 week project... and he's got me on half a dozen different tangents, all with freakin' deadlines! One project, in particular should have been 2-3 days work... Instead, it's been over 2 weeks, nearly 3 now, because he keeps having a fit over the cost of the hardware to build the dumb thing! What should have been two visits to two stores, has become FIVE visits to those two stores, with returns included... We'd go into a store, and get something we needed, then leave before we had everything, because he'd get all huffy and riled up cause "this store's too expensive... I'll go shop somewhere else", and walk out before we finish getting all the parts. Oh Lord help me... He's the one hounding me about when he needs this done by, and yet I went three days without a response on supplies, and ended up going myself... I got supplies that I would have selected, had it been my own project... Apparently my choices were too rich for him. He actually whined about eye bolts that were 50 cents more expensive than the ones he so quickly found, once there was a dollar sign attached to the project, and of course he had to prove my choices too expensive...

GAHAHDSJUUJHSSHAHDAH!!! 

Now I'm up at 7am, with far too little time, trying to finish off this one project... But NOT BEFORE I VENT!!!

His stupid delays and wasting my time has cost me the window of opportunity to buy all the parts for my Navball reference amplifier power supply. The first major part is now on backorder at multiple suppliers, and if I'm lucky, I might get it by February, and worse, after March, if I order now, which I just do not have the time to sit down and do till at the best, this afternoon or probably tomorrow! His screwing around has cost me SO much time! I haven't touched my PC case build or the computer within it since the end of November! There's this parts shortage situation! AHHHRGHHGHH!!! I am SO angry about ALL of this right now! 

[StrandedonEarth]

Ouch. I’d be tempted to tell this “friend” that if he wants this project done, then quit grousing and let you get what you need, but it sounds like you’re done now. I suppose you were doing it for free, but I bet his tune would change if you charged hourly, including these supply runs. It costs more in gas and especially time to go return something to save a couple bucks. 
 

Time is money, after all, so I understand when one has more time than money to spend. But driving around back and forth  isn’t free either. 

[Shpaget]

On 12/22/2021 at 2:27 PM, richfiles said:

He actually whined about eye bolts that were 50 cents more expensive than the ones he so quickly found, once there was a dollar sign attached to the project, and of course he had to prove my choices too expensive...

He sounds like the type of person that is best dealt with a bill of materials. You give him the BOM and tell him to take care of procurement. Wasting time and energy on arguing about pennies is counterproductive, annoying, and ultimately more expensive than just getting the marginally more expensive thing in the first place. If he thinks otherwise, offload that on him, you'll both be happier; well, you will be at least.

On 12/22/2021 at 8:25 PM, StrandedonEarth said:

I suppose you were doing it for free, but I bet his tune would change if you charged hourly, including these supply runs. It costs more in gas and especially time to go return something to save a couple bucks. 

Time is money, after all, so I understand when one has more time than money to spend. But driving around back and forth  isn’t free either. 

This 100%.

A guy I know, when he needs four generic screws to mount a shelf, he'll drive to a hardware store 5 km away (despite having one 300 m away), spend two hours there and buy exactly four screws. A whole box of those screws would set him back something like $15 and he'd never have to buy them again. He is shocked when I buy more than I need, so that I have them at hand later when I happen to need them. I tell him that my time is much more valuable than those few bucks of unused screws.

I have this conversation with him much more often than I'd like to, he's my father.

[StrandedonEarth]

Our hardwire telecom service died around noon today. Our Shaw TV and ‘net on one modem, and the landline on another, neither work. But our townhouse neighborhood on the other side of the wall has service, go figure. Maybe something froze, but there’s no other outage in the area.

To make matters  worse, . Shaw can’t seem to get anyone out here until Friday, 3 days away.  That’s ridiculous. So now we’re getting the ball rolling towards switching to their main competitor Telus, the former phone company. But they won’t be here until the tenth to set it up. 

it’s a nice savings too.  And we’ll finally ditch the landline. But the biggest headache will be switching essential stuff off the Shaw.ca email addresses, and the odd person that calls the landline. Never make that mistake again; outlook.com should be safe for a long time. 

[TheSaint]

1 hour ago, StrandedonEarth said:

outlook.com should be safe for a long time. 

I have a Yahoo address that I've been using for over 25 years. Continuity is the best.

[tater]

I've not had too many email addresses honestly—all my first name @. At some point while I had a home email, I got an apple email address. I guess that must have been ~2000, since I think that is when it started, and I grabbed one early enough that my mac.com (me.com/icloud.com) address is actually my first name. Just my first name. Guess that makes 21 years.

Edited December 29, 2021 by tater

[StrandedonEarth]

On 12/28/2021 at 7:27 PM, StrandedonEarth said:

Our hardwire telecom service died around noon today.

So back in the day, when we had 3 TVs plus the "box", and the phone modem, and the cable modem, Shaw needed to add an amp to our feed for everything to work happily. This consists of a coax cable going to a block plugged into the AC outlet behind Thing 3's desk.

You see where this is going, don't you...

The mistake was telling the Things to clean their rooms. In the process, this brick got bumped just enough to hang there unpowered but not completely unplugged. It wasn't until while I was driving home today that I suddenly realized Hey wait a minute, we never checked...

A quick hands-free call for a kid to check this and our home is connected to the world again after being off for two days. Doh!

OTOH, it was good for the kids to get (mostly) unplugged for a couple of days. aside from what cell data was grudgingly allowed.

So yeah, this is sort of a ID10T error. OTOH, I would hope/expect tech support to have that "Is their an amp in the house?" question in their toolbox, to jog our memories. But not one of us in the house thought about that stupid thing that we don't even need anymore, now that our two TVs run wirelessly off the cable modem.

 

Edited December 31, 2021 by StrandedonEarth

[StrandedonEarth]

And in other electromechanical news, our garage door opener got the door halfway down and then it stopped moving. The motor was still running loudly, but no movement. It was able to finish closing the door when I gave it a shove down, but trying to raise it again produced the sound  of something being not quite engaged, if not stripped. So yeah, time to investigate if I can fix it or just replace it with something that’s not twenty years old 

Edit: Confirmed the main plastic gear has been stripped by the plastic worm gear. Nice drift of plastic dust inside the housing 

Edited January 19, 2022 by StrandedonEarth

[Shpaget]

So, the other day I went to Ikea, and they have that "As is" section with damaged stuff. Most of the various cabinets had "ASIS" written on their backs, which gave me an idea. Ikea sells all sorts of lamps but I couldn't find one.

I really wanted an ASIS light.

[kerbiloid]

Spoiler

"You called Aziz, mortal, and touched the lamp. Here I am. Why did you summon me?"

 

[TheSaint]

21 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:

And in other electromechanical news, our garage door opener got the door halfway down and then it stopped moving. The motor was still running loudly, but no movement. It was able to finish closing the door when I gave it a shove down, but trying to raise it again produced the sound  of something being not quite engaged, if not stripped. So yeah, time to investigate if I can fix it or just replace it with something that’s not twenty years old 

Edit: Confirmed the main plastic gear has been stripped by the plastic worm gear. Nice drift of plastic dust inside the housing 

Check your springs too. Many times the opener fails because a spring breaks and the increased load on the opener causes it to fail.

[richfiles]

3 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

Check your springs too.

Always be careful around garage door springs... If it's still under tension, and anything looks even remotely off, I'd bail and get a professional who actually knows garage doors. Those springs are normally under enough tension to potentially end a person's free ride on spaceship Earth... Do not take them lightly! They're wound with enough force to basically lift a small wall up and over your head, and they take so much of the brunt of the force, that a teeny little motor and a plastic gear can handle lifting and lowering this "small wall" for however many decades your opener lasted.

Another thing to be weary of, is that a disturbing number of modern openers are appearing with "smart" features that are merely ways to lock you into a subscription model, just to operate the dumb thing. Always read the fine print. Corporations in recent years have been getting very greedy over IoT style subscription plans, and are tacking them wherever they can for those added revenue streams.

[TheSaint]

6 minutes ago, richfiles said:

Always be careful around garage door springs... If it's still under tension, and anything looks even remotely off, I'd bail and get a professional who actually knows garage doors. Those springs are normally under enough tension to potentially end a person's free ride on spaceship Earth... Do not take them lightly! They're wound with enough force to basically lift a small wall up and over your head, and they take so much of the brunt of the force, that a teeny little motor and a plastic gear can handle lifting and lowering this "small wall" for however many decades your opener lasted.

This. I have replaced garage door springs myself in the past, but it is not for the faint of heart, or for people who are unable to follow instructions verbatim. I wouldn't want to do it for a living.

6 minutes ago, richfiles said:

Another thing to be weary of, is that a disturbing number of modern openers are appearing with "smart" features that are merely ways to lock you into a subscription model, just to operate the dumb thing. Always read the fine print. Corporations in recent years have been getting very greedy over IoT style subscription plans, and are tacking them wherever they can for those added revenue streams.

I don't like "smart" anything, to be honest. We were just shopping for a new stove last week. (Our stove isn't quite dead yet, but it's not healthy, and we don't want to wait for it to pass on before we get a new one since new appliances are taking forever to show up these days.) Kept looking at the high-end, Wi-Fi enabled stoves, and asking ourselves, "Why? What is this going to do for me besides add something else to my stove that can break?" Went with a mid-range "dumb" stove, and it will be here...in the middle of February. SMH

[StrandedonEarth]

1 hour ago, TheSaint said:

Check your springs too. Many times the opener fails because a spring breaks and the increased load on the opener causes it to fail.

Good advice. The springs went and were replaced about 4 years ago. I called in the pros to replace this 20yo unit rather than figure it out myself. 
 

IoT subs? Are they mad? I’m opting for a chain drive unit, so hopefully it’ll be dumb but not too dumb

[kerbiloid]

8 hours ago, TheSaint said:

don't like "smart" anything, to be honest.
<...>
Went with a mid-range "dumb" stove.

 

 

Quote

"The really Smart House connects to the neighbors' wi-fi, and nightly mines the crypto on the sly, to pay the mortgage itself.
Instead of all of that."

[AtomicTech]

[REDACTED]

Edited January 25, 2022 by AtomicTech
[REDACTED]

[Shpaget]

For the first time in my life I had to file taxes. Usually, our local version of IRS does all that number crunching for us, but apparently if I sell stock, they can't handle that too. They also want money, but that's not what I'm complaining about, or at least not the only thing I'm complaining about.

How the hell do people do this? I had exactly one item I had to file and have spent three hours on it, went to the tax building, went to the office the nice Gentleman 1 at the entrance directed me to, only to find a note on the door saying I should go to another room. Went there, where another nice, albeit not very helpful Gentleman 2 informed me that the lady that usually works that position is on sick leave and he's substituting, but that he's not really good at it. Of course, he gave me wrong info (which I knew because I checked that particular thing beforehand). Anyway he gave me a phone number, so I went out, made the phone call and a nice Lady 1 confirmed my version of the process and sent me along to another office, so I went back inside, found the office, but it's for foreign income stuff and I need domestic. A nice Lady 2 there helped me out regardless, so I went home, logged onto the gov portal, filled out the form with all the arcane codes and scriptures that the lady gave me which are at core of tax law and the system promptly gave me errors that only the tax people can decipher. The nice Lady 2 in the foreign office also gave me another phone number, so I called that. Another nice Lady3 walked me through all the errors that kept popping up and finally confirmed that she received the filing at her end.

Cool. Now I only need to figure out all the payment details. I spent an hour digging for it and then finally filling out all the codes and numbers they need to generate the payment info. Honestly, after all that work I did for them, they should be paying me. Perhaps if I send them an invoice?

Nice folk, though.

[kerbiloid]

When the procedure is complicated, there is probably a little company next to the tax office, filling the docs for you for small price, and the tax office likes when things are done this way.

Of course, they are neighboring just accidentally and the people working there have no relation to each other...