[subego]

I feel like I’ve complained about this before, but it bears repeating.

My fair state has decided Chicago is not a good place to put a vehicle emissions test site.

[Thorzdad]

At least you have emissions testing. Here in Indiana, emissions testing apparently violates mahfreedumz, so we haven’t had any since the late 70s or so.

[ghporter]

Ummmmm. Isn’t that like saying Los Angeles is not a good site for emissions testing? Just curious.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

At least you have emissions testing. Here in Indiana, emissions testing apparently violates mahfreedumz, so we haven’t had any since the late 70s or so.

I used to be more thankful for it when it only took me 10 minutes to get there instead of 45.

Secondary minor irritation being Waze doesn’t know what streets don’t allow trucks, and a bunch of ideal routes to the testing station use those streets.

That’s another minor irritation from my fair state I’m sure I’ve complained about. My tiny van is considered a “truck” because it primarily carries cargo.

More related irritation. I used to need a permit from the city to park it on the street overnight, but we “my freedumzed” that one.

[subego]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Ummmmm. Isn’t that like saying Los Angeles is not a good site for emissions testing? Just curious.

Thankfully, we’re not Los Angeles bad. I’d imagine the higher density here is the big factor.

They used to have only one site in the city, so it’s not like the city ever had good coverage.

I was right near that site, but the city’s big enough there were plenty of people who would have had to drive further to get to it than my drive to the suburbs today. I think the state’s idea was to leave Chicago itself as a hole, and then let the city use edge suburbs with facilities.

[Thorzdad]

Apparently, here in Indiana, there is a shortage of truck drivers certified to deliver gasoline to stations. Cert requires both a CDL and a hazardous materials certification. Several stations in my area have shut-down their pumps because they have no gas and have no clue when they might get more.

[Laminar]

That's what was happening on the east coast as well. It seems a lot of truck drivers took the pandemic as a good time to retire. And with autonomous driving looming in the near-ish future, I'd wager that people aren't lining up down the block just to have robots take their jobs in 5 or 10 years.

[Thorzdad]

According to the local news, many drivers were laid-off during quarantine and either found other jobs or just retired. They say getting the hazmat cert takes awhile, so getting new drivers in trucks is not gonna happen overnight.

[subego]

iOS on my phone has started to interpret typing as trying to switch apps.

[Laminar]

Are you typing "Siri, switch apps please"?

[subego]

“Here’s a site I found on the web about ‘switch apps please’.”

[subego]

Going back to an Apple Magic Keyboard after getting used to Cherry MX switches.

Ew.

[ghporter]

Is it the “click” you miss, or the travel, or something else?

My last Cherry keyboard was decades ago, but when you hit that key you KNEW you’d hit it. Lots of multi sensory feedback with every keystroke.

[subego]

The clicky is very satisfying, but it’s the long travel I really miss.

I may have to search for a permanent replacement. The one I have is ugly.

[Thorzdad]

Here in the midwest US, we have a hardware/big-box chain called Menards. Menards’ big selling point is they say everything in the store is always 11% off. But, when you read the fine print, this is what you find...

* Nothing in the store is actually priced 11% off
* The “11% off” is actually a mail-in rebate.
* The mail-in rebate comes in the form of in-store credit only, not cash back.

So, in the end, you will pay full price up-front. Then you have to mail-in the rebate form, which is kind of a pita. I mean, how many people actually have envelopes and stamps on hand these days? If you actually do bother to apply for the rebate, you can only spend it at Menards. The “rebate” goes right back into Menards’ pockets. Nice little grift, really.

Also, Menards has the absolute stupidest check-out lanes anywhere.

[Laminar]

I have over $100 in Menards rebates I need to use, and I probably have $10-20 in rebates I still need to apply for. At least now they let you send in a whole envelope full of receipts with only one application form.

I've read that you can take the Menards 11% offer to Lowes or Home Depot and they'll give you the discount on the spot, but I've never tried, as either one of those is at least twice as far from me as Menards, so I rarely visit.

[subego]

I have a fondness for Menard’s. I like that they tend to be bright and open. Deepos feel like I’m in a bunker.

That said, I’m near one of the biggest Deepos in the country, so that’s where I usually go.

Used to be open 24 hours, too. I really miss that.

[Laminar]

I'm imagining the shenanigans at a Chicagoland Home Depot at 3AM. Sounds like a good time.

[subego]

Before it was there, the area was a notorious streetwalker haunt, but they got pushed out a few decades ago. Now, there’s almost no foot traffic whatsoever.

I never saw any shenanigans inside. It was always people who were super-serious. I imagine facing some kind of emergency. I’m sure some shit happened, though.

[ghporter]

I think Home Depot's business strategy is to use the absolute minimum amount of light to encourage people to buy stuff they couldn't actually examine/read labels on/etc. Compared to Lowe's, every HD I've been in has been dungeon-like.

Lowe's isn't perfect by any means, but at least they don't try to hide stuff with insufficient lighting.

[andi*pandi]

We had a ceiling fixture break. Just the glass dome. Home depot and lowes were like, replacement glass? hahaha, enjoy paying an electrician to wire a whole new light instead of a $10 replacement dome!

Menards had it, and shipped it.

[reader50]

Home Depot and Lowes do stock replacement glass shades / globes / tulips. Though only the more common ones, in my observation. Anything uncommon sends me to eBay.

[Brien]

Minor, maybe major irritant, rant incoming.

- I'm getting really annoyed by everything requiring an account. It seems like nearly ALL software has either moved to requiring an account and/or an application/update manager. What happened to just, y'know, downloading and installing it and USING it?
- Almost all smart things(TM) require an account. My new TV came with Google TV, they buried the 'no account, no wifi' options so far down most people probably think they're mandatory (and sadly will be soon I'm sure). My oven, my OVEN wanted me to make an account and download an app to set it up. WTF?
- My CAR wanted me to make an account. I get emails about it monthly 'reminding' me that I still have not done so.

I get hacked enough as it is. I don't want any more accounts 'out there'. Give me offline all the things. All of this in an age where we seem to be moving away from massive telemetry and passing privacy laws. It makes no sense, and it's driving me nuts.

[ghporter]

I have a specific, not for anything else, email account for all those “you gotta sign up for accounts.” It’s Gmail so I can dump it whenever I want. Often, after set up or whatever digital rights crap is needed to get the thing working, that account gets closed anyway.

My car didn’t need an account, but the maker has both an app and an online presence that are actually useful, so that account isn’t a hassle.

My “smart” TV is elderly enough that I don’t really have an account for that, but my Fire TV Stick uses my existing Amazon account. And all my Amazon stuff has a separate email too.

Keeping them straight? I have different email apps too. Kind of a small hassle, but if I get “your account” messages on the wrong email app, I know they’re crap.

There’s too much Internet of Things going on anyway, and every “convenience” has a hole or 50 in its software, so I keep these “log in to set up” things to a minimum.

The difference between a tech enthusiast and a tech realist? The enthusiast has “smart” everything, all networked together and accessible from anywhere in the world. The realist has a printer from 2005, and just in case, they have a .44 revolver next to it, “just in case it gets ideas.”

[subego]

I use Apple solutions to cut down on some of this.

Most of my smart TV annoyance is cut down by using a Mac Mini as my HTPC. All my smart functions are just Mac functions.

Since my van is “no frills”, I use an iPad Mini (which I already had) for my smart functions, and it blows the doors off of every built-in system I’ve used.

[Laminar]

I use the "guest" wifi on my phone at work so that personal browsing doesn't go through "official" channels and avoids the work content filter. It's the kind of wifi that does those obnoxious redirects for you to agree to some terms and then join. The issue is that when I'm not joined, I have to wait for the redirect window to pop up. Sometimes when it doesn't, I go to the wifi settings and connect manually. Except that for some reason, very often I go to swipe up to switch apps, in the gap of time between my brain deciding to swipe up and my thumb making it to the screen, the redirect window pops up and so my swipe closes the redirect window. This accomplishes two things - closes the redirect so I can't get online, and it turn off "auto-join" on the wifi network so I have to go in and manually reenable auto-join. Super good times.

Not to be outdone, Microsoft's Office security settings really get me. I open up a document I've downloaded and go to edit it. YOU CAN'T EDIT THIS DOCUMENT! IT'S PROTECTED! Oh, unless you just click a button that says "Enable editing." I can't even print until I've taken it out of protected mode! Is it so easy to lace an Office doc with malware that these stupid button clicks are 1. necessary and 2. effective at all?

[ghporter]

It irks me when my phone grabs a WiFi network* but it’s secured. And this only happens when I’m sitting in the car and using the phone to see “what was the address of that place?” or just to look up random trivia. It doesn’t matter. Since WiFi is connected, EVEN IF IT ISN’T REALLY CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET, I can’t get jack. I can’t use LTE because it looks at WiFi first.

I have to turn off WiFi to connect, and then I have to (hopefully) remember to turn it back on later. Not something I like doing.

*Without telling me, of course. It’s supposed to ask to join networks, but often that prompt is eclipsed by my opening an app, so the banner disappears so quickly I can’t even see it at all.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

in the gap of time between my brain deciding to swipe up and my thumb making it to the screen, the redirect window pops up and so my swipe closes the redirect window.

Still relevant after all these years.

[Laminar]

Every. Time.

[Thorzdad]

I've been running into a similarly evil thing in one particular game on my iPad. When an ad comes up between levels, there's usually a "close ad" button in one of the upper corners. A big X. However, in some ads in this game, when you tap the X, instead of closing the ad, you're redirected the website for whatever the ad is selling. So, you curse, tap the link back to the game (top left corner of Safari), tap the "close ad" X again, and...get redirected to the website again. Curse more, tap the back to game link, then tap the "close ad" X again and...finally go back to the game.

This doesn't happen with all ads in this game, but when it happens, it's always two redirects to the website before you can get back to the game.

[subego]

I get this on my phone with lower rent news outfits. They’ll have a video that hogs the top-third, and trying to close it becomes a click-through.

Of course, the only reason I want to free up the viewing space is because the bottom-third is their goddamn cookie shit.

[Spheric Harlot]

AdGuard Pro FTW.

[ghporter]

I’ve had the “close this #%$^ ad” button take me to the App Store page for whatever the ad was for. So I’m darn skippy NEVER going to buy from that company. Ever.

[Thorzdad]

Joe Buck is an even more annoying Jeopardy host, than he is a baseball announcer.

[ghporter]

I never had “high hopes” for Joe, but Mayim Bialik is both smart enough, and personally interesting enough that the prime-time show might just be worth watching.

[Thorzdad]

I liked her hosting okay. But she was just too damned chipper and “game show”ish.
Of all the hosts I managed to catch, I actually liked Aaron Rodgers. Laid back and unassuming. Good voice, too.

[ghporter]

I missed Levar Burton’s hosting. He struck me as a great choice, but I don’t know how well his tenure went.

[Thorzdad]

From what I’ve heard, Burton’s stint was kind of uneven.

[subego]

Gosling’s Diet Ginger Beer has a matte finish on the can which is slightly more slippery than a standard issue glossy can. I keep dropping them.

[Thorzdad]

TIL there’s a type of wasp called the Cicada Killer. It’s friggin’ enormous. Like up to two inches long and really bulky. I saw one today out on my patio. Only thing, I didn’t know Cicada Killers existed. I saw this big, fat crazy-evil-looking thing that has no business living on Earth, and I shat my pants and immediately thought “Murder Hornet!!!! GAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

We looked it up and that’s when I discovered the seriously-not-a-problem-to-people Cicada Killer.

[Laminar]

The latest Office/Outlook/Windows update has made Outlook pop up notifications twice as tall and offers options - Delete, Flag, or Dismiss. Those seem like the three least useful options. If you actually want to be useful, give me the option to "mark as read," otherwise I'll always have to go back into Outlook and view the message again so that it doesn't show up as unread.

[subego]

The Blue Angels.

[Thorzdad]

Originally Posted by subego 

The Blue Angels.

Whaaaa?
They buzzing Chicago today?

I have nothing but big props to anyone who can land a jet on a moving carrier out in the middle of rough seas.
Now, those wuss USAF Thunderbirds are a different matter

[subego]

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

Whaaaa?
They buzzing Chicago today?

Yup. Air show tomorrow.

I do actually think they’re cool, and you are correct Blue Angels > Thunderbirds, but Christ they’re loud.

At least it’s gotten better. Back in the day they used to practice for five days straight. They’ve cut it to one.

[Thorzdad]

My parents used to have a small cabin on a lake in southern Indiana. The lake butted up against Camp Atterbury. The Air National Guard would use the finger of the lake the cabin was on as alignment for their approach to wherever in the camp they were dropping ordnance or shooting shit up. They would start right at about 8am and run almost all day. Loud as hell, especially when the A-10s were involved. The cool thing about those, though, was when their targets in Atterbury were close enough, you could hear the 30mm cannons firing. BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. That was kinda cool.

[ghporter]

My home is on the approach to Kelly Field (no longer Kelly AFB, now the field for Lackland AFB). One thing they do at Kelly is essentially "depot level" maintenance on a bunch of airplanes, including C5s and C17s. And KC135s as well, so they flight test the planes after that "take it all the way apart and rebuild it" maintenance. Plus there's the Air Force Reserve units and Air Guard units who fly F16s just about every day. So it's kind of loud here sometimes.

Oh, and there's a good-sized hospital about 3 miles from here, and they have a helipad. Life Flight gets folks to this hospital on a not terribly infrequent basis.

So I can attest to the fact that "you get used to it." Not fast, but you do.

Historically I've learned to identify different aircraft by their sound. You do NOT hear an A10 coming - unless it's firing that canon. But various other airplanes and helicopters, I have a good handle on, up until the C17. It sounds like a C5 at a distance, but I can visually pick them out by their winglets. Just how nerdy is that?

[subego]

I remember reading somewhere they can make jet fighters quieter, but they don’t because loud planes demoralize the enemy.

[ghporter]

Quieter fighters are a design trade off. Thrust makes noise, bottom line. The A10 is quiet except from behind because the high-bypass turbofan engines are directed over the tail surfaces. It also decreases the thermal signature of the jet. But A10s top out at about 400kts (460 MPH), and doesn’t need the raw power an F16 does.

So when I hear the F16s flying overhead, I shrug and just note that they’re flying.

[Face Ache]

After four years of listening to the fan in my iMac make clacking noises at ever increasing decibels, I finally snapped and had a new fan put in, along with a 500GB SSD to replace the shitty Fusion Drive.

AU$430 (US$306).

Four years of loud clacking.

$430.

FFS. Shoulda bit that bullet years ago.

[Waragainstsleep]

I've done a bunch of upgrades on these thin iMacs because they shipped with atrociously slow disks and I have had zero luck with the adhesive used to glue the screen back in place. By which I mean I've had 3 of them where a a few months use and some hot weather resulted in the screens falling out and the glass being damaged. I tried various kinds of double-sided tape and some stuff cut to the same shapes Apple uses and sold as the OEM stuff and none of it was as good. If I were you, I'd consider putting a piece of tape over the top edge, just in case. Those screens are expensive.