The grumpy thread

[MikeR]

3 minutes ago, uk_senator said:

DVD rot was pushed as a thing, but in reality I`ve not seen that happen (that said, I`ve not checked all the DVD`s I recorded 10-20 years ago, I should really), thing is, these are new, & are seemingly pickling the surface of the disc during recording, I assume from the heat of the process? The problem as, that when digital media goes wrong, it goes completely wrong & becomes unusable, whereas with analogue, like VHS etc, it tends to slowly deteriorate, so although the quality drops off, its still usable/recoverable to some degree.

About 5 years ago, I got a 5tb external hard drive, cost a fortune at the time, & I got it to merge all my old hard drives data (dozens of drives dating back to the late 90`s) onto one unit.. It took a lot of time, dragging & dropping, but I was getting on with it slowly, then, one day I was hoovering, tapped that 5tb drive with the pipe, which was mid transfer, which immediately started graunching.. & sure enough, it had f*ked the drive.. I opened it up, to find grooves round the platters from the pickup arm. Totally f*ked basically.. Thing is, I`d been formatting the old drives as I went.. Brilliant.. Yes, I know I can recover some of it, but I just gave up at that point, & still have piles of drives that need archiving & recovering. I could do a server setup, but its the same tech at the end of the day, & is fallible. I could put it all on a cloud server, which would cost a fair bit to keep, but should be safe, in theory. 

Another problem I`ve noticed recently, is that random photo`s on my computer are inexplicably destroying themselves, as in slicing themselves in half or compressing themselves, like this:

 

Can't say I have seen anything like that picture happening , I tend to use 3.5 inch drives for back up in the servers  , a bit more robust imho, but anything else is 2.5 inch hdd in a caddy , with a set of drives for each slice of data , IE , films , photos , docs , so if one drive flips ,I still have 3 more to fall back on .

[hairnet]

the tensile strength of malted milk is garbage

[Heidel_Kakao]

34 minutes ago, hairnet said:

the tensile strength of malted milk is garbage

Yeah they are not very dunkable.

[MikeR]

mate gets his disco back soon after it being off the road again , just one more bit of reaming out plus vat for a job on the exhaust , the two sensors needed replacing as well as the metel bits of the exhaust dpf ...

jeez !!  off the road for 5 months out of seven ..

[barefoot]

Masters of Reinvention, on the telly last night. What a pile of utter shite. A folding caravan that reduced in height by only  50cm and still had a pitched fucking roof made of tarpaulin. Condensation and rain noise anyone?

[MikeR]

come August , we are to become a town with no bank ......  nearest will be 7 miles away 

nothing off our local councillers about it ..  usual head in the sand antics ..

no doubt the micky mouse community bank which opens between silly o clock and daft o clock over a midweek day dinner break will be considered fair service !!

 

[New POD]

18 hours ago, MikeR said:

mate gets his disco back soon after it being off the road again , just one more bit of reaming out plus vat for a job on the exhaust , the two sensors needed replacing as well as the metel bits of the exhaust dpf ...

jeez !!  off the road for 5 months out of seven ..

Is that the same mate that sold me a gasless mig welder that he'd only "used once" 

Some might say Karma is in force if it is.....🙃🤣

[New POD]

4 minutes ago, MikeR said:

come August , we are to become a town with no bank ......  nearest will be 7 miles away 

nothing off our local councillers about it ..  usual head in the sand antics ..

no doubt the micky mouse community bank which opens between silly o clock and daft o clock over a midweek day dinner break will be considered fair service !!

 

Bank of MikeR ? Lend me a pony. 

[High Jetter]

Toothpaste. When I were a lad there were multi-coloured pastes, mainloy aimed at kids I think - Aquafresh, Colgate 123, Signal et al. When I became a grown up my teeth became sensitive and I switched to Sensodyne Gentle Whitening, a grown-up toothpaste in a proper grown-up solid-white colour.

Just opened a new tube of it to find a translucent blue gel inside.

[beko1987]

On 18/03/2025 at 11:16, uk_senator said:

DVD rot was pushed as a thing, but in reality I`ve not seen that happen (that said, I`ve not checked all the DVD`s I recorded 10-20 years ago, I should really), thing is, these are new discs, & are seemingly pickling the surface of the disc during recording, I assume from the heat of the process? The problem as, that when digital media goes wrong, it goes completely wrong & becomes unusable, whereas with analogue, like VHS etc, it tends to slowly deteriorate, so although the quality drops off, its still usable/recoverable to some degree.

About 5 years ago, I got a 5tb external hard drive, cost a fortune at the time, & I got it to merge all my old hard drives data (dozens of drives dating back to the late 90`s) onto one unit.. It took a lot of time, dragging & dropping, but I was getting on with it slowly, then, one day I was hoovering, tapped that 5tb drive with the pipe, which was mid transfer, which immediately started graunching.. & sure enough, it had f*ked the drive.. I opened it up, to find grooves round the platters from the pickup arm. Totally f*ked basically.. Thing is, I`d been formatting the old drives as I went.. Brilliant.. Yes, I know I can recover some of it, but I just gave up at that point, & still have piles of drives that need archiving & recovering. I could do a server setup, but its the same tech at the end of the day, & is fallible. I could put it all on a cloud server, which would cost a fair bit to keep, but should be safe, in theory. 

Another problem I`ve noticed recently, is that random photo`s on my computer are inexplicably destroying themselves, as in slicing themselves in half or compressing themselves, like this (that isnt the door glass there, the computer has sliced the picture in half & lightened the bottom half, & moved it a few pixels across like that):

 

I had a HTC m8 that started taking photos like that towards the end of it life 😢

The image corrupting like that just on a hard drive is worrying though... You got enough coin for a 4tb data hdd and usb adapter? Can get everything backed up onto a hopefully known good drive incase your about to suffer some random horrific hardware failure? Then keep a good copy on it that you rarely access. And don't drop the drive 👌

I've got my unraid server for my data hoarding habits, and 96% isn't backed up anywhere else but I keep a 4tb hdd in a padded hard drive box that they get shipped with and once a year do a copy/add new of all the photos of the kids and such I've taken

[myglaren]

28 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Toothpaste. When I were a lad there were multi-coloured pastes, mainloy aimed at kids I think - Aquafresh, Colgate 123, Signal et al. When I became a grown up my teeth became sensitive and I switched to Sensodyne Gentle Whitening, a grown-up toothpaste in a proper grown-up solid-white colour.

Just opened a new tube of it to find a translucent blue gel inside.

I usually just pick the nearest tubes up and I found myself using blue stuff a couple of weeks ago.

Seems to work alright.

[DavieW]

15 hours ago, barefoot said:

Masters of Reinvention, on the telly last night. What a pile of utter shite. A folding caravan that reduced in height by only  50cm and still had a pitched fucking roof made of tarpaulin. Condensation and rain noise anyone?

Professor what's her name looked easy on the eye in the trailer. 

[barefoot]

37 minutes ago, DavieW said:

Professor what's her name looked easy on the eye in the trailer. 

I'm sure she'd look absolutely enchanting with my cock in her mouth, but she knew fuck all about caravans which was sort of the point.

[wuvvum]

2 hours ago, MikeR said:

come August , we are to become a town with no bank ......  nearest will be 7 miles away 

nothing off our local councillers about it ..  usual head in the sand antics ..

no doubt the micky mouse community bank which opens between silly o clock and daft o clock over a midweek day dinner break will be considered fair service !!

 

We've been bank free here for years now, other than the NatWest mobile branch which visits for a couple of hours on a Friday morning.  We do still have a post office though, and basic banking stuff can be done there.

[cobblers]

I don't think I have visited a physical bank in about ten years?

[chadders]

5 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

We've been bank free here for years now, other than the NatWest mobile branch which visits for a couple of hours on a Friday morning.  We do still have a post office though, and basic banking stuff can be done there.

We've just got a post office which means the cash machine can run out in the tourist season. The pubs and shop take cards so I don't think it's a big impact apart from the ice cream van, which might even take cards now.

[Datsuncog]

The last time I visited a physical bank was about a year ago, because I wanted to withdraw some of my cash in coin bags to use as a float for a car boot sale.

They informed me that they didn't do withdrawals in coinage or anything like that anymore. Ok, a bit niche I suppose, but really?

Another time I wanted to withdraw a somewhat larger sum from my account, because I was going to look at a car with a good chance of buying it (£1,500, so not exactly an absolute fortune).

No, I would have needed to have given them three working days' notice that I was going to withdraw such a large sum. All they would give me over the counter was the same amount as the ATM limit outside.

So, I suppose I find myself wondering what use is a bank branch if they've stopped offering any services beyond what an ATM can do?

But then, when they shut the branches they take the ATMs as well... 

[cobblers]

5 minutes ago, chadders said:

We've just got a post office which means the cash machine can run out in the tourist season. The pubs and shop take cards so I don't think it's a big impact apart from the ice cream van, which might even take cards now.

It's cheaper and easier to take cards than it is to handle cash nowadays (2% flat fee, no monthly costs, the machine costs £150 and you get paid every day). The only genuine reason a business won't take cards is that they don't want to pay tax. 

 

[chadders]

Quite a few people around here retired to be by the sea and much prefer using cash, they've always been used to it and can see exactly how much they have left. A fair few don't bank online so that there'd always be an element of doubt.

[myglaren]

39 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

The last time I visited a physical bank was about a year ago, because I wanted to withdraw some of my cash in coin bags to use as a float for a car boot sale.

They informed me that they didn't do withdrawals in coinage or anything like that anymore. Ok, a bit niche I suppose, but really?

Another time I wanted to withdraw a somewhat larger sum from my account, because I was going to look at a car with a good chance of buying it (£1,500, so not exactly an absolute fortune).

No, I would have needed to have given them three working days' notice that I was going to withdraw such a large sum. All they would give me over the counter was the same amount as the ATM limit outside.

So, I suppose I find myself wondering what use is a bank branch if they've stopped offering any services beyond what an ATM can do?

But then, when they shut the branches they take the ATMs as well... 

I called the bank when I was going to buy my Mazda 6 to be sure that the sale would go through and the amount that I could pay with my card was far in excess of the cost of the car (£3.5k)

[DavieW]

A small bungalow across from me is council owned. The tenant used to be a lovely, if slightly garden ornament obsessed, older lady. She went into care and now it seems to have been allocated to a junkie couple. 

This morning he's having a shouting match with someone on his phone. This goes on for about 5 minutes. Conversation ends with "give me your address you fuckin' moron"  

A bit later him and his girlfriend are having an almighty row while a boy about 12 is kicking a football against the house. 

I wonder how long before there's a protest to get rid of scum boy?

[nev_jr]

28 minutes ago, myglaren said:

I called the bank when I was going to buy my Mazda 6 to be sure that the sale would go through and the amount that I could pay with my card was far in excess of the cost of the car (£3.5k)

When I bought my Mercedes there was no kind of check or hiccup provided from the bank just to double check it was me... fuck

Thinking about it I can't remember the last time a transaction was queried, double fuck.

[comfortablynumb]

Took a couple of thou out of my building society over the counter about a month ago, just the usual 'why do you want it?' and 'is anyone forcing you to do this?'

Otherwise, here's your cash, sod off 

[wuvvum]

1 hour ago, Datsuncog said:

Another time I wanted to withdraw a somewhat larger sum from my account, because I was going to look at a car with a good chance of buying it (£1,500, so not exactly an absolute fortune).

No, I would have needed to have given them three working days' notice that I was going to withdraw such a large sum. All they would give me over the counter was the same amount as the ATM limit outside.

That's interesting.  I went into the bank a few weeks back to draw out £1,800 to buy the i-Miev and they gave it to me over the counter no questions asked - they did ask to see photo ID though.

[High Jetter]

5 hours ago, cobblers said:

It's cheaper and easier to take cards than it is to handle cash nowadays (2% flat fee, no monthly costs, the machine costs £150 and you get paid every day). The only genuine reason a business won't take cards is that they don't want to pay tax. 

 

Um...daily payments in mean 7 bank charges a week, I get mine once. Customers pay cash, staff get cash wages, all above board, but no bank charges.

[cobblers]

23 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Um...daily payments in mean 7 bank charges a week, I get mine once. Customers pay cash, staff get cash wages, all above board, but no bank charges.

Bank charges? It's a percentage. I could have them pay once a month, but the fees are a percentage of the amount, so frequency makes no difference. 

If we take £500 in a day on card, the following day at 4pm we get £490 in the bank. Bills and staff and everything are paid by bacs, I've not had to take time and go to pay cash in to a bank. Our business bank costs nothing to use. 

Customers sometimes want to pay cash, and if they do it's a nuisance - I just spend it on diesel to get rid of it 

[High Jetter]

9 hours ago, cobblers said:

Bank charges? It's a percentage.

Yours might be, but Natwest charge me 35p for automated transfers in or out. Cash is 70p per £100 plus 70p manual handling charge.

[cobblers]

10 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Yours might be, but Natwest charge me 35p for automated transfers in or out. Cash is 70p per £100 plus 70p manual handling charge.

Jesus! Might be worth looking at another bank? We use Starling for our everyday stuff, there are no charges for anything. No monthly fees, no transaction fees. I've never tried paying cash in though, it can be done through the post office but it's easier for us to just spend it on diesel and petty cash - in 6 years we've only taken about £8k in cash, if that. They don't pay interest though, so I only keep a working float in there and the rest goes into an instant access business savings account that pays about 4%.

[High Jetter]

42 minutes ago, cobblers said:

Jesus! Might be worth looking at another bank? We use Starling for our everyday stuff, there are no charges for anything. No monthly fees, no transaction fees. I've never tried paying cash in though, it can be done through the post office but it's easier for us to just spend it on diesel and petty cash - in 6 years we've only taken about £8k in cash, if that. They don't pay interest though, so I only keep a working float in there and the rest goes into an instant access business savings account that pays about 4%.

Hmm, thanks, you might be right. 

[uk_senator]

On 19/03/2025 at 13:50, beko1987 said:

I had a HTC m8 that started taking photos like that towards the end of it life 😢

The image corrupting like that just on a hard drive is worrying though... You got enough coin for a 4tb data hdd and usb adapter? Can get everything backed up onto a hopefully known good drive incase your about to suffer some random horrific hardware failure? Then keep a good copy on it that you rarely access. And don't drop the drive 👌

I've got my unraid server for my data hoarding habits, and 96% isn't backed up anywhere else but I keep a 4tb hdd in a padded hard drive box that they get shipped with and once a year do a copy/add new of all the photos of the kids and such I've taken

Thing is, this isnt happening on just one of the drives, the example I gave was from my external 4tb drive, just now, when going through pics for the ad I just put up, I found more examples, on my PC`s main drive (a 1.5tb SSD):