[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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Networkn
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#2712773 25-May-2021 10:11

freitasm:

When you have a perfectly configured SPF/DKIM/DMARC set that works everywhere - except at the Commerce Commission which uses a third party spam filter that then forwards the email to their final recipients, at which point SPF fails and the message bounces because the sender IP is no longer one of the IPs I have in the SPF record but the IP for their (badly configured) anti-spam service.

And you can't even email them to let them know.

We have had this issue a number of times with clients recently. Pretty much anytime you create a auto-forward to an email. Very annoying.

Fred99

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#2712775 25-May-2021 10:18

This intersection in Chch does my head in:

There's a stop sign when turning left from the side road onto the main road. The angle that your car is facing when stopped to turn left means that you've got to swivel your head like that girl in the exorcist movie to see if the way is clear. What you're looking for is cyclists in the cycle lane painted green. You can't see them until you're close to the intersection, there are trees in the way. You don't need to give give way to cars coming from the right, they're in the inside lane. The main road is very busy in the morning and weekends. 50km/h zone, average speed seems to be about 65 though. The wide "footpath" on the other side of the road is a combined footpath/cycleway - it's where I'd want to be on a bicycle - I've seen many near misses.

DonH

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#2712821 25-May-2021 12:07

Reprising the issue of onramp merging and "traffic waves" on the motorway, you may find this interesting - contains suggestions for amusing yourself while making things better or worse.

http://trafficwaves.org/

People hear what they see. - Doris Day

Fred99

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#2712823 25-May-2021 12:09

Pop-up sink/basin waste fitting from Mitre 10.

The brand they display ("Plumb-It") are hopeless. The pop up plug doesn't rise far enough - so they drain painfully slowly at the best of times - and block far too easily. Then if a kitchen sink is quite full, when you empty it the plug will start "hammering" and the pop-up mechanism will eventually fall to pieces - at least that happened to me with two over a period of couple of years. (I think the spring is too weak - and that's a second design fault).

I'd basically given up, went to M10 to get a normal waste and plug, ended up back at their prominent "Plumb It" display. The standard wastes come with a nasty cheap plastic plug. But right next to them are Plumb It branded shiny nice chrome plated brass plugs. All the stuff is sealed in plastic blister packs. Just in case, I thought it was worth checking that the plugs fit the waste, even though for example the plug said "for 40mm wastes" and the wastes themselves said "40mm" in identical colours and font. So I fight my way through the plastic. Result was no - they don't fit at all - in fact after prying apart many blister packs, none of the chrome plugs of any size fit any of the same brand wastes on the same display rack.

Next annoyance was that the logical (to me) option was to look on my phone for alternatives on the Bunnings website. The delights of trying to navigate the Bunnings website are discussed elsewhere in these forums. That proved to be a waste of time.

Seeing me standing - with a frustrated look on my face while trying to get the bits back in the right blister packs finally caught the attention of a worker. She was "surprised" (probably not) at the shambles I'd uncovered and apparent lack of being able to help with something so simple as finding a matching sink waste and plug of reasonable quality in a store that sells several acres of home hardware. Something tweaked, and she "remembered" that they stocked another brand of pop-up waste. On the bottom shelf in a different part of the store were cartons of different brand wastes. (aaahh - but good grief - even this waste was in a blister pack inside the cardboard carton) We find one the right size and open it all up. They look similar, but the pop-up part rises about 5mm higher than the "Plumb It" brand, and the spring seems to be much stronger. My thought was this kind of quality - of actually being designed correctly and truly "fit for purpose" - was going to be very expensive. But nope, the "Plumb It" brand cost was $35, the well made brand was $27. (Brand is "aquatica" - if anybody else has the same problem with crappy quality pop-up waste slow draining and failing mechanisms - these seem to be very much better, at least the sink drains quickly. I've kept the receipt and box with "two year warranty" marked on it in case the mechanism fails). They are actually on the M10 website, I'd have possibly saved myself some hassle by checking the site before going, but I annoy myself frequently by having higher expectations than met by reality, even if I'm learning slowly.

Fred99

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#2712831 25-May-2021 12:34

A brand new Chinese-made set-"square". The lines didn't meet up by more than 5mm by the time I'd marked around some timber I was going to cut by hand. (not my set square - I was giving someone else a hand using their tools).

Bung

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#2712850 25-May-2021 13:35

Is Plumb-it a real brand or just a range cobbled together by Mitre10?

elpenguino

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#2712856 25-May-2021 13:52

Fred99:

A brand new Chinese-made set-"square". The lines didn't meet up by more than 5mm by the time I'd marked around some timber I was going to cut by hand. (not my set square - I was giving someone else a hand using their tools).

LOL. Reminds me that I had this problem with a Fullers or Stanley square I bought years ago so it's not a new problem. Bottom line: before buying any square, go to the timber department with a pencil and try it out.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

geoffwnz

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#2712861 25-May-2021 14:11

Fred99:

Pop-up sink/basin waste fitting from Mitre 10.

<snip>

After a similar fail, I replaced the pop up one with a "normal" waste and plug. I think I popped over to Plumbing World instead as the ceramic basin has an in built overflow so I needed something to capture that. One piece unit that has the top plate/plug receiver, a long screw down the middle to the pipe fitting bottom end. Sorted. Though that reminds me that I do want to replace the laundry tub hard plastic plug that flips at the slightest touch with one made of something more pliable that might stick.

MotorDrive Rallying

Fred99

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#2712879 25-May-2021 15:12

Bung: Is Plumb-it a real brand or just a range cobbled together by Mitre10?

I'm not sure. My guess would be it's a "house" brand labelled by the supplier for Mitre 10. Being their "house brand" may be why they're on prominent display - better margins than the good ones that were stuck away on a bottom shelf. Could also be a local importer who buys FCL lots and sells them with different house brands to different hardware chains,

There's a plumbing company in Hamilton called Plumb It Ltd, probably not related.

I suspect the problem is typical, the items are "commodities" probably made by any of thousands of factories in China, they'd copy someone else's design, probably unaware that any minor tweaks (shortening the pop-up length and weakening the spring) have serious negative consequences. "Looks the same - pops up and down well - doesn't leak" isn't the same as actual testing.

Handle9

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#2712886 25-May-2021 15:29

Fred99:

Gurezaemon:

I know there are plenty of very smart people who just happened to be not that great at English at school.

One of my mates is so dyslexic he's close to being functionally illiterate. He managed ok by employing people to do stuff he couldn't, by being doubly careful with recording detail, floated his company on the NZSE, sold most of his shares and is very comfortably retired in his 40s.

What really p*ssed me off about the comment about "laziness" is that our prisons are full of technically illiterate people, many of whom probably wouldn't be there if they'd received appropriate help - rather than probably being told that they were dumb and destined to fail in whatever they wanted to do from an early age - unless it was something meaningless and menial. Or sport.

Kids don't generally need to be told they are "dumb," they figure it out on their own.

My dyslexic daughter was a chameleon at school in NZ - she learnt if she stayed quiet she could fade into the background and the teachers wouldn't bother her as they had 30 other kids to deal with. To be honest I'm not sure how she would have gone if we'd stayed in NZ, she gets a huge amount of support at the outrageously expensive private school she is attends now, which NZ public schools just aren't resourced for.

Fred99

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#2712888 25-May-2021 15:33

geoffwnz:

Though that reminds me that I do want to replace the laundry tub hard plastic plug that flips at the slightest touch with one made of something more pliable that might stick.

You just reminded me that the plug from our Robinhood tub has vanished. I just took a quick look, thinking that maybe a pop-up type would solve the problem you mention, but the waste doesn't look like a standard fitting, it's plastic, overflow plumbed in above the washing machine hose, and diameter of the holes seems to be about 60mm. It looks like replacing it with a pop-up might be a mission.

Plughole is 52mm at the top or the hole, tapers to 49mm at the grate. Mitre 10 have a .... "Plumb It" brand 51mm rubber plug in stock. I'm going to chuck my micrometer in the car so when I next go past Mitre 10 I can check before I waste too much more time.

networkn

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#2712890 25-May-2021 15:41

$35 + GST to replace a small plastic cover on a shower extractor fan after the flimsy clips snapped trying to remove it for cleaning.

Fred99

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#2712892 25-May-2021 15:50

Handle9:

My dyslexic daughter was a chameleon at school in NZ - she learnt if she stayed quiet she could fade into the background and the teachers wouldn't bother her as they had 30 other kids to deal with. To be honest I'm not sure how she would have gone if we'd stayed in NZ, she gets a huge amount of support at the outrageously expensive private school she is attends now, which NZ public schools just aren't resourced for.

Yep. Our son was deaf in one ear from birth. That's not very uncommon, but affected speech development a bit, poor sound location makes it hard to pick up speech in a classroom, so it affected learning too. So every start of the year, every meet the teacher meeting, we'd remind them that he'd be better sitting toward the front of the class, and if on the side, then with his good hearing facing centre. He wouldn't make a fuss, teachers would forget, so he'd end up seated at the back and on the wrong side doodling or reading a book, somewhat isolated from what was going on. And you mention it to teachers, and ask again and again and again and you end up feeling like screaming at them. Incredibly, some of the teachers who'd been told several times about his hearing impairment commented in the meet the teacher catch-ups that he sometimes seemed distracted and not interested in partaking in some class activities. On reflection maybe I should have screamed. I still do feel like screaming about it. Sorry.

msukiwi

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#2713165 26-May-2021 13:08

The Power Company in my area must be doing something today? Multiple UPS's giving sporadic beeps and changeover to battery momentarily!

Sporadic beeps are making me to want to break something! (Has happened 5 times while typing this message!)

Ge0rge

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#2713174 26-May-2021 13:38

msukiwi:
The Power Company in my area must be doing something today? Multiple UPS's giving sporadic beeps and changeover to battery momentarily!

Sporadic beeps are making me to want to break something! (Has happened 5 times while typing this message!)

I received an email from my power company that there would be a power cut today, 0930-1300.

Power went off at 0705, and is still not back on.

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