[Annoy] What's something small that really annoys you?

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#3092625 20-Jun-2023 15:33

neb: Watching, on TV at a neighbours place, a large group of cyclists pedalling aimlessly through the countryside. This has been going on for days now, they don't seem to have any idea where they're going apart from "Furthur". Can't they get some satnav to help them get to wherever they want to go? Or send one of their number ahead to figure out the route while they stop off for a beer somewhere? Or load all the bikes onto a bike carrier and get them there that way, since they all seem to be going to the same place even if they can't find it? Seems like a huge waste of effort and energy the way they're doing it at the moment.

I concur.

Some "Tour of France" that turned out to be...all we did was pedal around aimlessly in the bloody countryside.

Handsome Dan Has Spoken.
Handsome Dan needs to stop adding three dots to every sentence...

Handsome Dan does not currently have a side hustle as the mascot for Yale

*Gladly accepting donations...

Handle9

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#3092628 20-Jun-2023 15:37

Behodar: Mind you, this is the same country that uses "license" with an S when we would use a C... but meanwhile spells "practice" with a C when we would use an S, so consistency isn't a strong suit...

It’s still English. If you’re looking for consistency you’ll be sadly disappointed.

neb

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#3092629 20-Jun-2023 15:39

Handsomedan:
Some "Tour of France" that turned out to be...all we did was pedal around aimlessly in the bloody countryside.

Well that's kinda silly, everyone knows the traditional route for the Tour of France starts with a stroll through the Ardennes forest and ends with a swim on the beach at Dunkirk.

msukiwi

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#3092630 20-Jun-2023 15:39

neb: Watching, on TV at a neighbours place, a large group of cyclists pedalling aimlessly through the countryside. This has been going on for days now, they don't seem to have any idea where they're going apart from "Furthur". Can't they get some satnav to help them get to wherever they want to go? Or send one of their number ahead to figure out the route while they stop off for a beer somewhere? Or load all the bikes onto a bike carrier and get them there that way, since they all seem to be going to the same place even if they can't find it? Seems like a huge waste of effort and energy the way they're doing it at the moment.

...and so many "Media" personnel and resources following their aimless wandering of follow the leader! (Somehow it reminds me of sheep!)

Gurezaemon

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#3092636 20-Jun-2023 15:59

Behodar:

Does anyone know why Americans say it that way in the first place? They don't say "calcum" or "sodum" or "magnesum" so why does aluminium lose the I?

Mind you, this is the same country that uses "license" with an S when we would use a C... but meanwhile spells "practice" with a C when we would use an S, so consistency isn't a strong suit...

The short version, as far as I know it, was that the Brits chose to add an 'i' to make aluminium because it sounded more 'chemically' along with barium, sodium, titanium, etc. IIRC, it was actually originally alumium.

The license/practice thing is for the most part less complicated in US English without having to wonder whether its licence (noun) or license (verb) in UK/NZ, etc.

Then you get Canadian spelling, which is a weird mix between EN-US and EN-UK.

FWIW, I tend to prefer US spelling, and I feel it tends to make more sense most (not all) of the time, but that may be because my job involves writing, and 95% of my clients want EN-US, so I'm just more used to it.

Get your business seen overseas - Nexus Translations

Lizard1977

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#3092637 20-Jun-2023 16:03

Behodar:

Mind you, this is the same country that uses "license" with an S when we would use a C... but meanwhile spells "practice" with a C when we would use an S, so consistency isn't a strong suit...

Yeah, consistency is always going to be a sticking point where english is concerned. But on the "c" vs "s" in words like that, I've always understood it as the difference between nouns and verbs. So "licence" is the thing in your wallet, whereas "license" is the process of giving you permission to drive. It does get a little more tricky with "practice", as it can mean both the doctor's business and to repeatedly do something in the aim of getting better, whereas "practise" can mean what a doctor does in their business.

Then there's "meter" and "metre" - one is a device for measuring something (like a water meter or a parking meter), whereas "metre" is a measure of distance. "Centre" is the middle of something, whereas "center" is the place you go to.

But yeah, english is notorious for not being consistent with how words are spelled, and I have to accept that in general usage, if your meaning is clear, then it doesn't really matter.

But I still think it should be "aluminium!"

Behodar

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#3092638 20-Jun-2023 16:06

Lizard1977: Yeah, consistency is always going to be a sticking point where english is concerned. But on the "c" vs "s" in words like that, I've always understood it as the difference between nouns and verbs.

Yep, I understand when to use which. My comment was around the US "condensing" one of the words down to always using C, and the other to always using S.

Lizard1977: "Centre" is the middle of something, whereas "center" is the place you go to.

"Center" is not a word at all (in UK English).

Rikkitic

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#3092662 20-Jun-2023 16:38

neb:
Behodar:

Does anyone know why Americans say it that way in the first place? They don't say "calcum" or "sodum" or "magnesum" so why does aluminium lose the I?

Historical reasons, it's had different names over time. Both are correct, it's not just Americans being Americans. OTOH with their use of imperial measurements, well here's an explainer for that one.

This from the people who smashed a billion dollar probe into Mars because they got confused about imperial and metric.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

cshwone

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#3092664 20-Jun-2023 16:46

Handsomedan:

neb: Watching, on TV at a neighbours place, a large group of cyclists pedalling aimlessly through the countryside. This has been going on for days now, they don't seem to have any idea where they're going apart from "Furthur". Can't they get some satnav to help them get to wherever they want to go? Or send one of their number ahead to figure out the route while they stop off for a beer somewhere? Or load all the bikes onto a bike carrier and get them there that way, since they all seem to be going to the same place even if they can't find it? Seems like a huge waste of effort and energy the way they're doing it at the moment.

I concur.

Some "Tour of France" that turned out to be...all we did was pedal around aimlessly in the bloody countryside.

Definitely wandering aimlessly then as that was the Tour de Suisse 😀

frankv

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#3092719 20-Jun-2023 16:59

1. The insanity of router manufacturers (looking at TP-Link here...)

To install TP-Link's Deco router, you must use an app on your phone... why it couldn't be a web front end???

To use the app, you must login to (I assume) their Cloud system. Why do I need to login to their system???

The app helpfully has links to Web pages as to what you should do if the your router is not routing.

The app also walks you through the process of installing and connecting your router. That is actually quite good...

1. Turn on the router.

2. Connect your phone to the new Wifi, whence it will find the router, and take you on to the next step. Helpfully, again there are links to get help.

I hope that you, my gentle reader, have spotted the teensy-weensy logic flaw that was completely beyond the ken of the 12-y-o wunderkind who designed this.

2. The hopelessness of Slingshot's BYO router help

So, the reason I was installing new router was because I'd switched to Slingshot, who advertise that you can bring your own router, so I splashed out and bought the TP-Link Deco mesh thing.

When you sign up to Slingshot, they have the recorded Ts&Cs that you have to listen to, which goes out of its way to say that, basically, you're on your own if you bring your own router.

And, indeed, it turns out that you are... the help you get from Slingshot (after a 2 hours on hold... why can't I at least select my own actual music instead of that crap? Or you call me back?) is a one-page PDF that says, more or less, try the standard Dynamic IP (DHCP) thing, and if that doesn't work, call us (another 2 hours of bad music). And of course it didn't work. My old FritzBox did work in that configuration though. W.T.F???

3. Bad coincidence

4 hours to the minute after finally getting connected (thanks GZ, see the Smile thread), we lost connection to Slingshot. :(

After reconfiguring routers and all kinds of faffing about, turns out it was Slingshot that crashed. So more faffing to get it back.

And why can't Slingshot add a 5 second "Yes, we do have network issues" to the front of their "Press 1 for whatever" thing. I bet that would reduce the load on their phone system hugely.

4. That you can't say W.T.F without dots

neb

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#3092723 20-Jun-2023 17:17

frankv:
And of course it didn't work. My old FritzBox did work in that configuration though. W.T.F???

MAC address locking? Can you change your new router's MAC address to the one the FritzBox used?

neb

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#3092726 20-Jun-2023 17:22

frankv:
I hope that you, my gentle reader, have spotted the teensy-weensy logic flaw that was completely beyond the ken of the 12-y-o wunderkind who designed this.

Sounds like the instructions in old Apple Laserwriter manuals, which... well, I'll let them speak for themselves:

Remove the accessory box, trays, and paper cassette from the top of the packing material and check to see that you have the following:

- Two trays

- A letter-size paper cassette

- An accessory kit containing, besides this owner's guide, [...]

Geektastic

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#3092791 20-Jun-2023 21:05

The number of things we’ve inadvertently purchased from supermarkets that are way out of date.

I appreciate mistakes happen but lately we’ve had 8 items or so in about 2 months, one of which turned out to be almost 6 weeks out of date!

I can’t work out why it’s happening so much. We now scrutinise dates for everything before putting it in the trolley.

MadEngineer

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#3092815 20-Jun-2023 22:41

That’s an offence

https://www.mpi.govt.nz/contact-us/make-a-food-complaint/report-food-being-sold-past-its-date-marking/

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

neb

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#3092817 20-Jun-2023 22:55

MadEngineer: That’s an offence

https://www.mpi.govt.nz/contact-us/make-a-food-complaint/report-food-being-sold-past-its-date-marking/

But note the different markings which the linked article also points out, there's a difference between "best before" and "use by", as well as other vague labeling like "sell by". Also, a lot of food isn't required to have any date marking on it, like the tins of buffalo meat marked "US Cavalry" that we have stored under the sink. Conversely, where there's a legal requirement to put on a date marking the date may be well short of the actual lifetime of the food, Twinkies come immediately to mind.

For the OP, what food was it and what exact date marking was on the food?

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