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1st world problems
https://www.beexcellenttoeachother.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8629
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Author:  Sir Taxalot [ Mon Jul 26, 2021 1:30 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

We have a kettle with similar functions but the blue lights do eventually turn off HOWEVER sometimes after a while of inactivity it goes into 'deep sleep' and won't wake up with any button presses so we have to flick the switch at the socket off, and then back on. It's quite irritating.

Author:  krazywookie [ Mon Jul 26, 2021 7:27 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Y'all have silly kettles

Author:  Kern [ Mon Jul 26, 2021 8:02 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

It doesn't even have an app!

Author:  Warhead [ Tue Jul 27, 2021 12:30 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Doesn't it email or text the user when it's boiled?

Author:  MaliA [ Mon Aug 02, 2021 16:24 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Signal is nowhere near as good as WhatsApp, is it?

Author:  Goddess Jasmine [ Mon Aug 02, 2021 16:38 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

MaliA wrote:
Signal is nowhere near as good as WhatsApp, is it?

I don't really like it. But so many people don't use WhatsApp anymore.

Author:  Jem [ Mon Aug 02, 2021 17:05 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

I like the Signal desktop client

Author:  Dr Zoidberg [ Mon Aug 02, 2021 17:41 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

I can now get ultrafast FTTP broadband and claim £35 a month from work on Expenses, but I'd have to have the router in the hall or run an ethernet cable up the stairs and into the lounge which will look a mess :(

Author:  DavPaz [ Mon Aug 02, 2021 18:30 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Dr Zoidberg wrote:
I can now get ultrafast FTTP broadband and claim £35 a month from work on Expenses, but I'd have to have the router in the hall or run an ethernet cable up the stairs and into the lounge which will look a mess :(

Doesn't have to look bad. You can get trunking that runs along skirting boards and it blends in nicely

Author:  DBSnappa [ Fri Aug 06, 2021 16:36 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

DavPaz wrote:
Dr Zoidberg wrote:
I can now get ultrafast FTTP broadband and claim £35 a month from work on Expenses, but I'd have to have the router in the hall or run an ethernet cable up the stairs and into the lounge which will look a mess :(

Doesn't have to look bad. You can get trunking that runs along skirting boards and it blends in nicely

Or take the skirting off, rout a channel in the back and put it back with the cable behind it. HTH

Author:  Dr Zoidberg [ Fri Aug 06, 2021 18:14 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

DBSnappa wrote:
DavPaz wrote:
Dr Zoidberg wrote:
I can now get ultrafast FTTP broadband and claim £35 a month from work on Expenses, but I'd have to have the router in the hall or run an ethernet cable up the stairs and into the lounge which will look a mess :(

Doesn't have to look bad. You can get trunking that runs along skirting boards and it blends in nicely

Or take the skirting off, rout a channel in the back and put it back with the cable behind it. HTH


Or buy more powerline kit, I suppose.

Author:  krazywookie [ Fri Aug 06, 2021 22:48 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

DBSnappa wrote:
DavPaz wrote:
Dr Zoidberg wrote:
I can now get ultrafast FTTP broadband and claim £35 a month from work on Expenses, but I'd have to have the router in the hall or run an ethernet cable up the stairs and into the lounge which will look a mess :(

Doesn't have to look bad. You can get trunking that runs along skirting boards and it blends in nicely

Or take the skirting off, rout a channel in the back and put it back with the cable behind it. HTH

You might be the only person here that
a) owns a router and
b) has the sheer balls to use one

Those things are terrifying

Author:  BikNorton [ Fri Aug 06, 2021 23:52 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

What's much easier is tplink deco mesh WiFi.

When I first ordered Fttp I signed up for £54/mo for 150mbps. More than a year later repeated fuckups meant that got cancelled and restarted at £47.99/mo for 300mbps.

By the time it was actually connected and just the final beaurocratic stuff needed sorting out they offered me 500mbps for just £2/mo more - mid pandemic the extra upload made that an easy decision for 2 people on calls all day.

Last week they offered 900mbps for an extra £4/mo.

Why the brag? Because while I took that latest offer it's mostly useless in the download aspect; my phone or my work laptop WiFi connected to the main node still don't beat 470mbps on a speedtest. And it falls off quickly as the number of mesh hops increases; at the far end of the house the download still doesn't go above 120mbps. However there's more scope for multiple devices downloading at once, and everywhere in the house there's 110mbps upload.

It's mostly the fault of the electrics - before I dumped the previous mesh (Linksys velop, which I needed to reboot in specific order every few hours) I tried powerline and it literally didn't work, the plugs can't talk to each other.

Something is bad, and it's causing electromagnetic radiation, but mesh WiFi works better; flawlessly, since I switched to Deco. It's just brilliant, and often on offer.

Author:  DBSnappa [ Sun Aug 08, 2021 10:39 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

krazywookie wrote:
DBSnappa wrote:
DavPaz wrote:
Dr Zoidberg wrote:
I can now get ultrafast FTTP broadband and claim £35 a month from work on Expenses, but I'd have to have the router in the hall or run an ethernet cable up the stairs and into the lounge which will look a mess :(

Doesn't have to look bad. You can get trunking that runs along skirting boards and it blends in nicely

Or take the skirting off, rout a channel in the back and put it back with the cable behind it. HTH

You might be the only person here that
a) owns a router and
b) has the sheer balls to use one

Those things are terrifying


I own 3 ;)
Personally, I think table saws are infinitely more worrying, even if mine has SawStop built in

Author:  Sir Taxalot [ Mon Aug 09, 2021 4:07 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Table saws, band saws, chain saws, all of those are things I am pretty uneasy with, tbh.

That sawstop tech does look clever. None of my cheapo tools have that.

Author:  DBSnappa [ Mon Aug 09, 2021 10:52 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

None of those bother me either. But I am careful and run a work policy of downing tools if I start making minor mistakes. Which does happen from time to time.

Author:  DavPaz [ Mon Aug 09, 2021 11:08 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

My school woodworking teacher was missing 3 fingers to the 2nd knuckle. That image is enough to keep my careful with my tools. Although my Dad said to me a few weeks ago that I "probably couldn't handle the router" as it is "very powerful". Which goes to show that that Dads never stop seeing their kids as children.

Author:  Warhead [ Mon Aug 09, 2021 12:45 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

For reasons that I won't go into, I needed another hire van on Saturday as my company van is off the road. The van was ordered on Friday night and arrived at about 11:45 on Saturday morning. The geezer dropping it off mentioned the damage report on which it showed two punctures, front left and rear left tyres. I assumed this meant that there had been punctures but that they had been repaired.

When I went out to transfer all my stock across from my van to the hire, I noticed that the front left tyre was almost completely deflated and the spare wheel was in the cargo bay, rather than stowed underneath. I tried to call the hire company but you could only speak to their Customer Services department, not the local depot. Customer services said they would put me through to someone who could help me, but this turned out to be Kwik Fit. I explained the problem to them they said they would put me in touch with someone who could help me straight away, and gave me the number. That number turned out to be the RAC who said they would attend within 4 hours just swap over to the spare tyre. Clearly there was no point in having a go at Kwik Fit or the RAC, they're just doing what they're told.

In the event it was only about half an hour before the RAC came out. When they had a look at the spare they found there was no insert in the valve, but he could take the one out of the deflated tyre to see if it would inflate. It seems to be OK, so he swapped the spare are for the punctured tyre. He also put the spare are under the vehicle where it should have been in first place.

I had a similar experience when I had a hire car while I was on holiday a couple of weeks ago, when I discovered that the parcel shelf was missing and the height adjustment lever on the driver seat had broken off. I could only get through to their help line, not the local depot. It seems the all large organisation work in a similar way, preventing you contacting your local branch.

Author:  Warhead [ Mon Aug 09, 2021 12:47 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Warhead wrote:
For reasons that I won't go into, I needed another hire van on Saturday as my company van is off the road. The van was ordered on Friday night and arrived at about 11:45 on Saturday morning. The geezer dropping it off mentioned the damage report on which it showed two punctures, front left and rear left tyres. I assumed this meant that there had been punctures but that they had been repaired.

When I went out to transfer all my stock across from my van to the hire, I noticed that the front left tyre was almost completely deflated and the spare wheel was in the cargo bay, rather than stowed underneath. I tried to call the hire company but you could only speak to their Customer Services department, not the local depot. Customer services said they would put me through to someone who could help me, but this turned out to be Kwik Fit. I explained the problem to them they said they would put me in touch with someone who could help me straight away, and gave me the number. That number turned out to be the RAC who said they would attend within 4 hours just swap over to the spare tyre. Clearly there was no point in having a go at Kwik Fit or the RAC, they're just doing what they're told.

In the event it was only about half an hour before the RAC came out. When they had a look at the spare they found there was no insert in the valve, but he could take the one out of the deflated tyre to see if it would inflate. It seems to be OK, so he swapped the spare are for the punctured tyre. He also put the spare are under the vehicle where it should have been in first place.

I had a similar experience when I had a hire car while I was on holiday a couple of weeks ago, when I discovered that the parcel shelf was missing and the height adjustment lever on the driver seat had broken off. I could only get through to their help line, not the local depot. It seems the all large organisation work in a similar way, preventing you contacting your local branch.


TL:DR. No one's interested in this crap.

Author:  JBR [ Mon Aug 09, 2021 12:52 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

I think that's amazing - here's your van! Doesn't work in a crucial way, but you can probably get it fixed. Bye!

Author:  Warhead [ Mon Aug 09, 2021 12:53 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

BUT THE WORST THING IS THAT THE "ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM" DOESN'T RECOGNISE MY IPOD, SO I CAN ONLY LISTEN TO THE RADIO. >:(

Author:  Warhead [ Mon Aug 09, 2021 12:53 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

JBR wrote:
I think that's amazing - here's your van! Doesn't work in a crucial way, but you can probably get it fixed. Bye!

Exactly :this:

Author:  Grim... [ Mon Aug 09, 2021 12:57 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

DBSnappa wrote:
Personally, I think table saws are infinitely more worrying, even if mine has SawStop built in

100% this, table saws are merely waiting for one moment of distraction before they munch your fingers off.

That said, a mandolin slicer scares me more than any power tool.

Author:  Warhead [ Mon Aug 09, 2021 13:00 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Grim... wrote:
DBSnappa wrote:
Personally, I think table saws are infinitely more worrying, even if mine has SawStop built in

100% this, table saws are merely waiting for one moment of distraction before they munch your fingers off.

That said, a mandolin slicer scares me more than any power tool.

Indeed. Mrs. W can't look when anyone on a TV cooking show uses one and refuses to buy one.

Author:  Warhead [ Mon Aug 09, 2021 13:17 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

My heart sinks whenever I see see a call on my tablet for M62 Birch services, East or West. The briefing always so it's something simple like 'pin entry device not reading cards' or 'printer not working' but it will always turn out to be something much more complicated and time consuming. I've just spent 3 hours there trying to sort out a cash drawer, but it turned out to be a faulty till PC.

Author:  JBR [ Mon Aug 09, 2021 13:31 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Warhead wrote:
My heart sinks whenever I see see a call on my tablet for M62 Birch services, East or West. The briefing always so it's something simple like 'pin entry device not reading cards' or 'printer not working' but it will always turn out to be something much more complicated and time consuming. I've just spent 3 hours there trying to sort out a cash drawer, but it turned out to be a faulty till PC.

Hang on. Are - are you saying... it's PC gone mad!!?

(Apologies to everyone working in technology who has had this joke made to them a million times. I've been away from the workplace for a long time.)

Author:  markg [ Mon Aug 09, 2021 13:35 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Grim... wrote:
DBSnappa wrote:
Personally, I think table saws are infinitely more worrying, even if mine has SawStop built in

100% this, table saws are merely waiting for one moment of distraction before they munch your fingers off.

That said, a mandolin slicer scares me more than any power tool.

I've never seen or heard of a mandolin slicer but they must be pretty formidable to get through all that wood and those metal strings.

Author:  DavPaz [ Mon Aug 09, 2021 13:38 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

The hire company supplied a van with two flats and they knew about it before hand??

Author:  BikNorton [ Mon Aug 09, 2021 13:44 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

That does seem like an astounding liability they've opened themselves to.

Author:  Warhead [ Mon Aug 09, 2021 23:33 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

JBR wrote:
Warhead wrote:
My heart sinks whenever I see see a call on my tablet for M62 Birch services, East or West. The briefing always so it's something simple like 'pin entry device not reading cards' or 'printer not working' but it will always turn out to be something much more complicated and time consuming. I've just spent 3 hours there trying to sort out a cash drawer, but it turned out to be a faulty till PC.

Hang on. Are - are you saying... it's PC gone mad!!?

(Apologies to everyone working in technology who has had this joke made to them a million times. I've been away from the workplace for a long time.)

You are excused.

To bore you with detail, these cash drawers aren't connected directly to the till base unit (which is a Windows XP PC) but to an RJ11 port on the receipt printer. This means that if a cash drawer won't open, there are several points where the fault may occur.

1. The cash drawer itself may be faulty. It may attempt to open, because it receives a signal to do so, but the lifting arms that are attached to metal springs, can break. They are only made of plastic and are easy to replace if they break. If one or both of the arms break, the operator can manually lift the lid when they hear the lock click. Or, it may not attempt to open, and you can tell if this is a case because you would't hear the click of the lock disengaging. This could be caused by a knackered solenoid or damage to the cable. We usually just swap the drawer if this is the case as it's quicker than replacing the fiddly latch or solenoid. In 5 years I've never seen this as the fault on a drawer. Even swapping the drawer can be problematic as the drawers are bolted to the counter, but you have to open the drawer to get access to the bolts, and sometimes the bolts, which have cross heads, may be stripped so badly that you need an extractor and electric drill to remove them, and this has to be done when the shop is closed.

2. The interface cable that attached to a 9 pin female plug on the short cable from the drawer, and plugs in to the RJ11 on the receipt printer. Easy to replace .... if you happen to have one available.

3. The receipt printer may be faulty. We can perform a soft or hard reset on the printer to see if that fixes the problem, or swap test it with another "known good" printer.

4. The printer interface cable that attaches it to the base unit may be faulty. These do tend to fray at the powered USB plug that goes into the base unit and are easy to replace .... if you have one.

5. The powered USB socket on the base unit may be faulty. I've never seen this to be the problem.

6. A software glitch on the base unit. If we suspect this is the cause we can either do a full software rebuild, or replace the base unit. A rebuild cakes about 2 hours after we set it running, meaning the till will be out of action for up to two hours.

We can swap test each component in the chain BUT on everything except the cash drawer itself, we have to turn off the till, swap the part and reboot the till, as all other peripherals are not hot swappable. A till reboot can take between 5 and 10 minutes. And there's always the possibility that more than one component is faulty.

So when we get a call for a drawer not opening, it could take anything from about 20 minutes to maybe 3 hours to fix if we keep swapping parts and rebooting the till until the drawer starts to work. Another problem for the engineer is that they don't have an engineer's account so they can't log on to the till, they have to ask a member of staff to log on so they can test the cash drawer and the account logs off after a couple of minutes of inactivity, so we're often having to interrupt store staff to log on for us. And on some counters you can only access the base unit from the customer side, by lifting off a metal cover, and the and the cable runs from the printer and drawer to the base unit can be very fiddly to feed the cable through.

Any questions?

Author:  Malc [ Mon Aug 09, 2021 23:37 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Do you use opos to manage the peripherals?

Author:  Grim... [ Mon Aug 09, 2021 23:48 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

How do you still out bolts if it's a 24 hour store?

Author:  Warhead [ Mon Aug 09, 2021 23:50 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Malc wrote:
Do you use opos to manage the peripherals?

I don't know. We have no access to the software build components.

Once we kick off a build, it downloads an image and runs it, rebooting several times during the process and requires no further operator intervention. When the build is complete, it boots up to an operator login screen. We only wait for the first reboot, after 5 to 10 minutes, to ensure that it continues the build process by booting from the HDD, and then we can leave the store. If it fails to boot from the HDD we have to check the boot order in the BIOS and correct it if required, and also check the date and time settings, as it fails to run if the server and till times aren't within a couple of minutes of each other. This only happens occasionally, if someone at the repair centre has changed the boot order for some reason.

Author:  Warhead [ Mon Aug 09, 2021 23:51 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Grim... wrote:
How do you still out bolts if it's a 24 hour store?

There are no 24 hours stores on this customer's estate. What actually happens is that the facilities management sub contractor will drill and exract the bolts for us as we don't have drills and are not insured to use them.

Author:  Sir Taxalot [ Tue Aug 10, 2021 1:55 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Grim... wrote:
DBSnappa wrote:
Personally, I think table saws are infinitely more worrying, even if mine has SawStop built in

100% this, table saws are merely waiting for one moment of distraction before they munch your fingers off.

That said, a mandolin slicer scares me more than any power tool.


It still pains me to think of the time I was talking to Lady T about how sharp those blades are while I was using one, and in the very next movement made a massive slice into my finger :'(

Author:  DBSnappa [ Tue Aug 10, 2021 18:14 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Flashback to a month ago when I was helping a very attractive redhead (put in for @grim... and Cras) lift an old carpet. Handing her a carpet cutting knife I said, “be careful with this!” She laughed, and said, “ every man when handing a sharp tool to a woman, says that.”
I cut myself not 2 minutes later!

Author:  Kern [ Wed Aug 11, 2021 18:56 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Part of the new energy contract I moved to earlier in the year required me to get a smart meter installed. I finally agreed to love Big Brother because it was a pretty decent plan and I always forget to take meter readings every month. An engineer came round today to swap out the old meters and hook me up to the grid. After a couple of hours and various power outages, he reinstalled the old gas meter and put in a more modern but still not smart electricity meter. None of the various boxes he installed were connecting to the great power god in the sky. So, I guess I have to wait until I change to a different company or my current sort outs its act before I can finally rid myself of the inconvenience of taking my own meter readings.

Author:  Warhead [ Sun Aug 15, 2021 12:32 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Mrs W and I went out for lunch yesterday, with some friends of ours that we hadn't seen since late 2019.

We went into Manchester on the tram, but my free pass was rejected when I scanned it, so used my debit card instead. I renewed my travel card in June so had no idea why it was rejected.

We had a couple of drinks at Sinclairs (sic) Oyster Bar in Exchange Square, which was 'cash only.' We thought a bit odd, but luckily we'd taken some cash with us.

Then we went to Zizzi for lunch, only to find that you had to scan a QR code on the menu, which took us to a website where we could order and pay. None of us had a QR app on our phones, and the waitress said she could take our order, but we could only pay via the website. I downloaded a QR reader and by the time I'd scanned the menu code, our order was visible on the website and we noticed that it was possible to split the bill if need be.

When I got home I checked my travel card account and it had been suspended because I hadn't scanned the card within 14 days of renewing it, which was fixed quickly by a phone call to customer services and I now have another 14 days in which to scan the card to authorise it.

Author:  Mr Russell [ Sun Aug 15, 2021 12:54 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Warhead wrote:
None of us had a QR app on our phones

Depending on the phone you might just be able to point your regular camera at it and it will after a second or two 'realise' it's a QR code and then offer to let you navigate to the URL or copy the text or what have you.

Author:  Warhead [ Sun Aug 15, 2021 14:14 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Mr Russell wrote:
Warhead wrote:
None of us had a QR app on our phones

Depending on the phone you might just be able to point your regular camera at it and it will after a second or two 'realise' it's a QR code and then offer to let you navigate to the URL or copy the text or what have you.

It's a Galaxy A3 that I've had since about 2018.

I think the '1st world problem' was that, suddenly faced with a situation where we initially thought we couldn't even order anything without being pushed into using Zizzi's system, we were all uncertain whether we could manage it or would just leave. Once I'd scanned the code and the site opened, I realised it was just like ordering and paying for a take away delivery on-line at home, which we've done many times. I'm sure the pandemic has pushed a lot of eateries to adopt this, or something similar, to reduce the amount of physical or near physical contact with customers and also reduce the number of staff they need to employ. This is understandable considering many of them have been losing money while they've been forced to shut during the lockdown and need to keep costs down now they're open again.

Author:  MaliA [ Mon Aug 23, 2021 18:29 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Broke my dolly.

Author:  Warhead [ Mon Oct 11, 2021 10:13 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Have you replaced it? For what do you need a dolly?

Author:  MaliA [ Mon Oct 11, 2021 10:26 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

No. It went rip.

I was using it to transport the camping stuff from the festival camp site to the car

Author:  Sir Taxalot [ Tue Oct 12, 2021 23:35 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

I replaced our broken 55" telly with a little 32" that I bought off someone from facebook for 50 bucks, while I save up for something even bigger than before (I reckon 65" will be the sweet spot for us).

I had to set up all the streaming subscriptions (netflix, disney, stan, amazon and the domestic TV stations) on the PS4 and enter the passwords with the joypad :(

We can now watch whatever we want again, thanks to the array of gadgets and devices connected, but it's ever so slightly clunky compared to the built in apps on the fancier (but broken) telly. I feel this is very 'first-world'.

Author:  Grim... [ Wed Oct 13, 2021 0:51 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Most apps nowadays seem to work the other way: they display you a code to type in on netflix.com, for example.

Maybe the PS4 apps don't do that.

Author:  Sir Taxalot [ Wed Oct 13, 2021 1:22 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Grim... wrote:
Most apps nowadays seem to work the other way: they display you a code to type in on netflix.com, for example.

Maybe the PS4 apps don't do that.


Some did, some didn't. It also didn't help that Lady T gave me the wrong password for a few of the accounts >:(

Author:  Zardoz [ Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:38 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Still waiting on work to send me my £750 Amazon voucher for my years of service so I can spend it on a PS5 that's not in stock.

Author:  MaliA [ Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:43 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Zardoz wrote:
Still waiting on work to send me my £750 Amazon voucher for my years of service so I can spend it on a PS5 that's not in stock.


Cor, that's a big slice of wedge.

Author:  Findus Fop [ Wed Oct 13, 2021 11:01 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

Great that it's a voucher too. If I got a lump of cash like that I think i'd feel obliged to stick it in the savings account.

Author:  Zardoz [ Wed Oct 13, 2021 11:51 ]
Post subject:  Re: 1st world problems

MaliA wrote:
Cor, that's a big slice of wedge.

£37.50 per year

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