Things that make you :-(

[pH]

11 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

Just store the original somewhere safe (remembering to remove the batteries!) for the next time your wife loses the replacement.....

 

Then all you have to do is to remember where the safe location is!

[Hroth]

6 hours ago, pH said:

Then all you have to do is to remember where the safe location is!

 

I was trying not to complicate things...

 

[Ian Smeeton]

Things that make me :) / :(

 

An extension to the bus service so that we can go to Stamford on the Bus!  :)

 

Just turning 60 a couple of weeks back :(

 

Paying just £2.00 each way on the bus :)

 

Checking the local council's website to get my bus pass, I discover that I can't get one until I get my state pension.

 

Another 7 years :(

 

Regards,

 

Ian

[Hroth]

 

I suppose I feel :-( because I've been using my bus pass to get around York this week instead of paying £2 a day...

 

[PeterStiles]

I'll tell you what makes me :(

..

People who can't tell the difference between :) and :(

[jcm@gwr]

6 minutes ago, PeterStiles said:

I'll tell you what makes me :(

..

People who can't tell the difference between :) and :(

 

It's worse than that though, it's the difference between :) and :-( 

so even less of an excuse!

[J. S. Bach]

Maybe :) should be :-) to match :-(   just a thought.

[franciswilliamwebb]

44 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Maybe :) should be :-) to match :-(   just a thought.

I’m sure someone will be along soon to suggest the latter pair might be considered anti-Semitic😉

[AyJay]

“Right! Here goes” he said, putting his grumpy old man face on.

 

1. When I was at primary school, the teachers were strict on manners and we were taught to step aside for an older person and let them proceed; same for giving up a seat. Now we have a generation of ‘entitled ****** that seem to think the opposite. I have been shoulder butted by them. If I make eye contact, they look another way and just plough on.

2. There’s a place near me where youngsters gather, rubbish strewn everywhere! I thought youngsters were switched on about environmental issues? This world will be all theirs when we are no longer around cleaning up after them. Perhaps they want to turn this Earth into one giant rubbish dump.

3. Facebook. Why does it constantltly give suggestions for ‘people I may know’ when clearly I have nothing in common with them. Complete stranger, in a country I have never been to, different demographic, no common interests. I might know them!!!   Likewise for those links that may interest me (as if) and ‘influencers’ that want me to follow them. It’s like switching on the TV and getting half hour of adverts for every minute of program.

4. Lee Mack! I like putting myself against the 1% program. But I have concluded that the host just takes cheap shots at people.

 

I could go on, but it’s nearly my bedtime. Grumble grumble.

[J. S. Bach]

4 hours ago, AyJay said:

“ ...snip... 3. Facebook. Why does it constantltly give suggestions for ‘people I may know’ when clearly I have nothing in common with them. Complete stranger, in a country I have never been to, different demographic, no common interests. I might know them!!!   ...snip...

Same here with the names in some kind of Arabic(?) characters. Over 75% are that way,

[Ozexpatriate]

9 hours ago, franciswilliamwebb said:

I’m sure someone will be along soon to suggest the latter pair might be considered anti-Semitic😉

That would be :-׀

[MJI]

13 hours ago, AyJay said:

“Right! Here goes” he said, putting his grumpy old man face on.

 

1. When I was at primary school, the teachers were strict on manners and we were taught to step aside for an older person and let them proceed; same for giving up a seat. Now we have a generation of ‘entitled ****** that seem to think the opposite. I have been shoulder butted by them. If I make eye contact, they look another way and just plough on.

2. There’s a place near me where youngsters gather, rubbish strewn everywhere! I thought youngsters were switched on about environmental issues? This world will be all theirs when we are no longer around cleaning up after them. Perhaps they want to turn this Earth into one giant rubbish dump.

3. Facebook. Why does it constantltly give suggestions for ‘people I may know’ when clearly I have nothing in common with them. Complete stranger, in a country I have never been to, different demographic, no common interests. I might know them!!!   Likewise for those links that may interest me (as if) and ‘influencers’ that want me to follow them. It’s like switching on the TV and getting half hour of adverts for every minute of program.

4. Lee Mack! I like putting myself against the 1% program. But I have concluded that the host just takes cheap shots at people.

 

I could go on, but it’s nearly my bedtime. Grumble grumble.

 

 

I think that Lee Mack is actually a very good host.

 

Kids, some good, some bad

[kevinlms]

TV remote wasn't on top of the TV (not much will stay on top of modern TV's!), nor was it in the blood sugar monitor bag. But in another room 10 metres away from the TV!

[Ian Smeeton]

Did it still work from that distance?

 

Regards

 

Ian

[carlosantoniolopez]

Going into a pub with ten handpumps on the bar, only to find that nine of them offer grapefruit-flavoured pale ales and the other is a ridiculously-strong dark beer.

[kevinlms]

19 hours ago, Ian Smeeton said:

Did it still work from that distance?

 

Regards

 

Ian

No idea. It was around a corner, so when I pressed the button, I had no clue whether or not it did anything!

[Dagworth]

Something that made me :-( today

 

EONnext phoning me and then expecting me to tell them my address for security

No. you phoned me, I should be the one asking you to prove you are who you say you are, not the other way around.

When I refused to give her my address she said I'd have to call them back myself, then sent me a text message inviting me to call them on a phone number in the text message. 

 

With number cloning and so many scams out there now it should be that they then ask you to phone them back at the number on their website.

[eastglosmog]

Gripe today: Websites saying that your telephone number is incorrect because you have left a gap between the STD code and the rest of the number (and not telling you what they are objecting to).

When I were a young lad I was taught that the correct way to write a telephone number was with a gap between the STD code and the rest of it.

[Gareth Collier]

3 hours ago, Dagworth said:

Something that made me :-( today

 

EONnext phoning me and then expecting me to tell them my address for security

No. you phoned me, I should be the one asking you to prove you are who you say you are, not the other way around.

When I refused to give her my address she said I'd have to call them back myself, then sent me a text message inviting me to call them on a phone number in the text message. 

 

With number cloning and so many scams out there now it should be that they then ask you to phone them back at the number on their website.

Sky are prolific at this. I get a call from them every couple of months as I'm a valued customer and they want to see if they can save me money or offer me new products but before they can help they need to ask me ID questions. Why? You've rung me on the phone number you know is mine, I've no idea who you are, tell me the answers and I'll let you know if you're correct or, on occasion, I ask them for their mothers maiden name.

It gets them in a right tizz and we've never got past the ID bit. I've checked the number they're ringing from and it is Sky but it's the principle and, let's face it, they aren't calling me to actually save me money are they.

[Nick C]

17 hours ago, eastglosmog said:

Gripe today: Websites saying that your telephone number is incorrect because you have left a gap between the STD code and the rest of the number (and not telling you what they are objecting to).

When I were a young lad I was taught that the correct way to write a telephone number was with a gap between the STD code and the rest of it.

 

A properly designed website should be able to cope with a phone number regardless of the formatting used. +44 1234 56 78 90 is a perfectly valid UK phone number...

It makes you wonder what other validation they're not doing, or are doing incorrectly...

 

20 hours ago, Dagworth said:

Something that made me :-( today

 

EONnext phoning me and then expecting me to tell them my address for security

No. you phoned me, I should be the one asking you to prove you are who you say you are, not the other way around.

When I refused to give her my address she said I'd have to call them back myself, then sent me a text message inviting me to call them on a phone number in the text message. 

 

With number cloning and so many scams out there now it should be that they then ask you to phone them back at the number on their website.

I've had the same with South East Water - though at least they did say "phone back on the number on the website"

[Reorte]

23 hours ago, Nick C said:

 

A properly designed website should be able to cope with a phone number regardless of the formatting used. +44 1234 56 78 90 is a perfectly valid UK phone number...

It makes you wonder what other validation they're not doing, or are doing incorrectly...

Attention to detail is a dying art (cue grumpy old man mode, as if I'm ever in anything else). The easiest thing is to just only accept a list of numbers without spaces or anything (don't even need to convert it from a string to a number). And there are a lot of things that might be obvious in hindsight that simply won't occur to the programmer at the time. The space should, but the internationally-formatted number may not. Add in it being one aspect of some software amongst many and stuff like that can get missed.

 

Avoiding those mistakes needs reviews by others, proper testing and so on. Which is very much part of the job, but it costs money... And the more that people thing "well, it's good enough" is perfectly acceptable the worse it gets.

[Nick C]

10 minutes ago, Reorte said:

Attention to detail is a dying art (cue grumpy old man mode, as if I'm ever in anything else). The easiest thing is to just only accept a list of numbers without spaces or anything (don't even need to convert it from a string to a number). And there are a lot of things that might be obvious in hindsight that simply won't occur to the programmer at the time. The space should, but the internationally-formatted number may not. Add in it being one aspect of some software amongst many and stuff like that can get missed.

 

Avoiding those mistakes needs reviews by others, proper testing and so on. Which is very much part of the job, but it costs money... And the more that people thing "well, it's good enough" is perfectly acceptable the worse it gets.

Especially when it comes to internationalisation, or even just dealing with slightly unusual cases - the number of websites I've seen that have a three line address field for example [number/road, town, county] and so can't cope with a four or five line address [house name, road, village, post town, county]...

[John Isherwood]

29 minutes ago, Nick C said:

Especially when it comes to internationalisation, or even just dealing with slightly unusual cases - the number of websites I've seen that have a three line address field for example [number/road, town, county] and so can't cope with a four or five line address [house name, road, village, post town, county]...

 

Within the UK, all you need - at most - is house name or number (not both), road, town and postcode.

 

In extremis, the house number and postcode will, in most cases, suffice.

 

The county is totally irrelevant; and, after all, postcodes were invented so as to do away with all that rigmarole!

 

CJI.

Edited August 7 by John Isherwood

[GrumpyPenguin]

40 minutes ago, John Isherwood said:

 

Within the UK, all you need - at most - is house name or number (not both), road, town and postcode.

 

In extremis, the house number and postcode will, in most cases, suffice.

 

The county is totally irrelevant; and, after all, postcodes were invented so as to do away with all that rigmarole!

 

CJI.

Fortunatly we have (currently) a good Postie & a pretty good local sorting office. However, in the past it has been quite clear that RM have required as much information as possible to stand a chance of main being delivered correctly.

 

Unfortunatly, when Royal Mail devised postcodes they did away with localities - an example being like ;

Hornby Hobbies

Westwood

Nr. Margate

 

In Kent there are two Lydden's - one is Near Ramsgate, one is Near Dover - both have CT** *** postcodes, so doing away with localities was not such a good thing really.

 

Counties are more than relevant - after all, there are many towns with the same names in different counties.

 

A postal address is often different from an actual address.

 

Oh, & why do so many websites insist on zipcodes we are not (thank goodness) part of the USA.

 

[John Isherwood]

1 minute ago, GrumpyPenguin said:

Fortunatly we have (currently) a good Postie & a pretty good local sorting office. However, in the past it has been quite clear that RM have required as much information as possible to stand a chance of main being delivered correctly.

 

Unfortunatly, when Royal Mail devised postcodes they did away with localities - an example being like ;

Hornby Hobbies

Westwood

Nr. Margate

 

In Kent there are two Lydden's - one is Near Ramsgate, one is Near Dover - both have CT** *** postcodes, so doing away with localities was not such a good thing really.

 

Counties are more than relevant - after all, there are many towns with the same names in different counties.

 

A postal address is often different from an actual address.

 

Oh, & why do so many websites insist on zipcodes we are not (thank goodness) part of the USA.

 

 

You miss the point entirely.

 

It doesn't matter if every town in Kent is called Lydden - they would all have unique postcodes. If the correct postcode is clearly written on the item, the sorting procedure will send it to the correct Lydden.

 

The same applies to counties - write the correct postcode clearly and the county is irrelevant; no matter how many towns of the same name there are in how many counties.

 

The postal address is linked to the unique postcode - the 'actual' address is irrelevant.

 

I repeat - UK postcodes are unique, and convey EVERYTHING in the postal address except the individual property within that unique postcode.

 

CJI.