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

Forums › Off topic › [Annoy] What's something small that really annoys you?

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#3103312 12-Jul-2023 16:22

Being notified by Contact that the current plan is about to end and whether I'd like to switch to an alternate plan, since the existing one is changing. Absolutely nowhere on Contact's site that I can find do they tell you either what the new charges on the current plan will be or what the charges on other plans are, just "free power 9-12", "cheaper power 11-7am", and some other stuff. Normally I'd subscribe to the "never attribute to malice what is adequately explained by stupidity" argument, but this one is so systematic that it has to be deliberate. Power-compare sites also don't have the updated plans yet, so there's no help there.

So thanks, Contact, I get to choose between pig-in-a-poke #1, pig-in-a-poke #2, and pig-in-a-poke #3.

(For our European readers, that's cat-in-a-sack #1, cat-in-a-sack #2, and cat-in-a-sack #3).

Handsomedan

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#3103313 12-Jul-2023 16:25

Rikkitic:

Handsomedan:

This annoyed me today:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300925731/high-profile-radio-host-caught-drinkdriving-keeps-name-secret

"A high profile radio host has admitted drink-driving and being almost four times over the legal breath alcohol limit.

The woman was convicted and granted permanent name suppression when she appeared in front of Judge Simon Maude at the North Shore District Court on Tuesday.

The woman returned a reading of 976 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath while driving in Auckland on December 30, 2022.

That is almost four times the legal limit of 250mcg of alcohol per litre of breath."

Basically, the granting of name suppression prevents extreme hardship for the celebrity. Not sure whether that would also apply to everyone else who has a job and gets caught drink-driving.

FOUR TIMES THE LEGAL LIMIT!!!

The thing about name suppression here is that it doesn't work and just invites contempt for the law. I used to try to figure out who these losers (mostly paedophiles) were as a hobby. I didn't publisise the names; I just got satisfaction from discovering them.

Whenever the name of any kind of public figure is hidden, everyone who has anything to do with the person knows who it is in a day, and anyone else who wants to can find out with a little searching.

There are tools to help with this kind of thing, but I don't really need them. For example, I decided to identify this individual just for the hell of it. People with name suppression for the wrong reasons shouldn't be allowed to think they got away with it.

A simple Google search on the headline took me to Reddit and a couple other discussion sites where there was plenty of speculation. No-one actually said the name, of course, but the speculation indicated lines of pursuit. I eliminated a few names then settled on one that had some interesting background. Mainly, there were dates that seemed to match up the arrest, court appearances and facts having to do with the person's employment. At first these seemed fairly flimsy, but when I dug a little deeper, they all lined up. This took me a little over an hour altogether.

When I used to do this, I would continue until I had cross-reference verification of the details and could say to myself with 100% certainty who it was. This time I couldn't be bothered, but I can say I'm at least 80% sure.

Why not more? One thing I have discovered from doing this is that it is not unusual for more than one person to fit the data initially. This is why cross-referencing is important. I'm pretty confident I have it right, but how devastating for someone if I don't.

And this is why name suppression is even more stupidly unjust than it already seems. By hiding the perp, innocent people can easily be besmirched, especially with child abuse issues. In this case there will be people looking askance at their friends and work colleagues who are known to overindulge on occasion, and wondering if that person they respect really would do something so irresponsible. Name suppression is corrosive and should not be allowed except in very specific situations involving the protection of children.

And therein lies the rub. People speculate and therefore start bandying names around. I have seen some of that speculation online and there are two names in particular that keep coming up. One of them is being unfairly named (albeit not directly).
If the general public are not given the same protection, do not give it to the public figures either. One law for all, please.

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...

Rikkitic

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#3103366 12-Jul-2023 16:58

Yes one law for all. Consistency is the most important. I actually agree with @networkn's stance here that everyone should have permanent name suppression, as is done in Europe. Our system is just stupid, as well as cruel and unfair.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

tdgeek

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#3103401 12-Jul-2023 18:02

Order an item, call them, plenty in stock. Cool, pop one aside in my name, done. Wife goes in today, the next day, and lo and behold only 2 left, both are returns "changed mind". I declined, I want new, I dont want "its crap" or "I wanted a $2000 performance" or "its got faults"

That annoys me. They had many in stock (its just a $600 Soundbar) then its only 2, both returns.

Declined, paid for it, a week for a new one (ok with that)

Please tell the trooth...

EDIT still annoyed lol

Tell me there isnt much stock, we have some returns. No thanks. Cool, I will put your name on new stock and email/call you, sorry for the delay.

If it was like that I'm happy. 7 days 14 days doesnt matter as I got customer service (not offloading opened, returned stock)

shrub

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#3103416 12-Jul-2023 18:46

What gets me going are call centre staff that refuse to listen. They work off a script and if the issue is not on the script then it's immediately user error.
Orcon connection is currently 200/200 when I pay for gigabit and they are suggesting I'm testing over wifi...

Senecio

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#3103766 13-Jul-2023 18:37

Going to leave work this afternoon to find that someone had turned my battery charger off at the wall so my Vespa battery only had 75% charge which wouldn't be enough for me to get home. So here I am, still in the office on a long weekend Thursday evening waiting for my battery to finish charging.

Behodar

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#3103767 13-Jul-2023 18:45

Running into an extremely niche software issue, and finding a grand total of one reference to the problem on the entire Internet: a 21-year-old forum post where someone else details the same issue and concludes that there's probably no fix for it.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry!

neb

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#3103770 13-Jul-2023 18:49

Behodar:
Running into an extremely niche software issue, and finding a grand total of one reference to the problem on the entire Internet: a 21-year-old forum post where someone else details the same issue and concludes that there's probably no fix for it.

The more generic form of this is having a problem with almost any Google or Microsoft web-based product (where "problem" also includes "doing something pretty simple but there's no obvious way to do it no matter how many mystery-meat frobs and buttons you go through"), searching for a solution, and finding a 1/3 each mix of:

1. Instructions that purport to work but the UI is no longer anything like what they describe.

2. Instructions that don't work.

3. People with the same problem asking for help with no answers.

Behodar

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#3103771 13-Jul-2023 18:51

https://xkcd.com/979/

Tinkerisk

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#3103772 13-Jul-2023 18:58

Senecio:

Going to leave work this afternoon to find that someone had turned my battery charger off at the wall so my Vespa battery only had 75% charge which wouldn't be enough for me to get home. So here I am, still in the office on a long weekend Thursday evening waiting for my battery to finish charging.

Here (GER) it is forbidden to charge private batteries at company expense, even if it is only the private mobile phone. This can lead to dismissal.

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allan

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#3103802 13-Jul-2023 22:35

Tinkerisk:

Senecio:

Going to leave work this afternoon to find that someone had turned my battery charger off at the wall so my Vespa battery only had 75% charge which wouldn't be enough for me to get home. So here I am, still in the office on a long weekend Thursday evening waiting for my battery to finish charging.

Here (GER) it is forbidden to charge private batteries at company expense, even if it is only the private mobile phone. This can lead to dismissal.

What about charging the company phone/car battery at home? I assume I'm able to charge them for the electricity used then? 😀

neb

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#3103814 14-Jul-2023 00:07

Tinkerisk:
Here (GER) it is forbidden to charge private batteries at company expense, even if it is only the private mobile phone. This can lead to dismissal.

Does anyone enforce this crazy law, or is it one of the famous Gummiparagraphen [*]? Next door en Autriche there's no problem with doing this, in fact if you asked your boss if it was OK to charge your phone at work they'd look at you as if they expected a small cuckoo to pop out of your forehead on a spring.

[*] Literally "rubber paragraphs", very vaguely worded bits of law that aren't enforced the way they're written. To borrow a Russian saying, "Severity of Russian law is compensated for by its non-mandatoryness".

eracode

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#3103815 14-Jul-2023 01:26

Tinkerisk:

Here (GER) it is forbidden to charge private batteries at company expense, even if it is only the private mobile phone. This can lead to dismissal.

Guilty as charged?

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

Senecio

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#3103820 14-Jul-2023 07:00

Tinkerisk:

Senecio:

Going to leave work this afternoon to find that someone had turned my battery charger off at the wall so my Vespa battery only had 75% charge which wouldn't be enough for me to get home. So here I am, still in the office on a long weekend Thursday evening waiting for my battery to finish charging.

Here (GER) it is forbidden to charge private batteries at company expense, even if it is only the private mobile phone. This can lead to dismissal.

Glad I live and work where I do then.

We have 6 charge spaces at work for people to charge their EVs free of charge. Another 6 will be installed next year. We also have 12 indoor bike storage racks with power points for people to charge their e-bikes. This is where I was charging my Vespa battery, I'll give the benefit of the doubt and say that someone accidentally switched off my battery when unplugging their own.

We're encouraged to bring our dirty laundry to work, especially the bed sheets. The guys in R&D need them to keep the stress tests going on the washers and dryers in the lab. We also sign up to beta test new products on long term lone in our homes. Right now I have a 144 bottle, $6000 wine fridge in the garage for the next 12mths. I had to supply the wine myself unfortunately.

Tinkerisk

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#3103823 14-Jul-2023 07:50

allan:

Tinkerisk:

Here (GER) it is forbidden to charge private batteries at company expense, even if it is only the private mobile phone. This can lead to dismissal.

What about charging the company phone/car battery at home? I assume I'm able to charge them for the electricity used then? 😀

That is indeed the case. During Covid, everyone in the home office has been reimbursed an annual lump sum that covers, for example, the office costs and heating costs saved by the company by working from home. :-)

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