The grumpy thread

[captain_70s]

Tried to put my removable fur lining back in my leather jacket today. My house is so cold and damp the zipper has corroded and it just fell apart in my hands, I'll have to get mum to sew the lining back in or might be able to replace the zip as the bit on the jacket itself seems to be fine.

 

Either that or its zinc pest of some sort, typical that it'd survive 40 odd years and fall to bits within 12 months of my buying the bloody thing.

[DeeJay]

TBH videoing people like me trying to completely redo a kitchen from the bricks up while making do with whatever tool I had at hand to save driving back to my mums garage 20 miles away to get the proper one, after spending half the morning hungover, drinking 2l bottles of aldi cola from the grotty fridge in the middle of the room while walking round just looking at everything wondering why I even bloody started wouldn't really make such inspirational telly.

 

 

I'd make the wife watch it so she could see that I'm not just me.

[xtriple]

I have spent most of the day fucking around with laptops, just trying to get them to do what they were designed to do. Then, once working, spellchhhheck had gone walkies, adblock likewise and a near endless round of arsing around was needed to get these items working... sometimes.

 

How the fuck do people do this shit for a living? I would be more insane than I already am within 15 minutes of my first cuppa Nescafe and burning the building to the ground by official teabreak!

 

I must 'look' like I know what I'm doing with two laptops side by side, using one to repair the other (using Google once I got that bastard to work again!)Slightly frustrated now so a mug of cappuccino and several choccy biscuits is in order.

[darkfour]

My weekend plans for car work have been wrecked by Hurricane Matthew. My office is closing Thursday and Friday, schools are closed as well and they've just issued an evacuation order. I can't fit the Dodge convertible in the garage so I I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that it survives outside.

[Lacquer Peel]

I do keep trying, feeling like I should get into it, but I just can't.

 

It's too much like hard work, and I work with computers and network switches all day, so when I get home I want to stop. In kind of the same way loads of mechanics drive absolute heaps.

 

OSs like Ubuntu and Mint are just as easy to use as Windows, easier in some respects. I only sacked off Lubuntu because it made the laptop HDMI output all screwy on my oddly sized TV. No amount of command lines would fix it, Windows still clips it a little but it's fine.

[chaseracer]

My weekend plans for car work have been wrecked by Hurricane Matthew. My office is closing Thursday and Friday, schools are closed as well and they've just issued an evacuation order. I can't fit the Dodge convertible in the garage so I I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that it survives outside.

 

Errrm... leave the Expedition outside instead?

 

Hope all's well.

[320touring]

Been a shite day at work on top of a shite week on a shite month/year/decade etc.

 

I come home and plonk myself down at the PC and check the Triumph Dolly forum. There is a well known, tax free 1850 with a year's ticket for sale for £100 so long as the money goes to charity as the owner needs it gone and the car is in Caithness and nobody wants to travel that far to get it as there are sod all Dolly folk in the arse end of Scotchland. Only condition is that it's first come first serve and that the new owner is a TDC member.

 

Well, I let my membership lapse last year didn't I, to save £27. Clever boy... It'll be down south and on eBay for £2k in the next couple of months, betcha.

 

 

In all honesty I don't think I can be arsed giving much of a shit about this, I'm not sure if I can even be arsed with cars at all right now... I think we'll clock this one up as a classic Cpt.70s "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory" moment and move onto the next disaster post-haste.

Linky?I'd be intersted to join up n save

[strangeangel]

I only sacked off Lubuntu because it made the laptop HDMI output all screwy on my oddly sized TV.

 

I thought Lubuntu (& XFCE) was only for landfill like the 10 year old HP ZD8000 I'm on now? Wouldn't Ubuntu itself be better?

[Timewaster]

We have had bloody shit internet for the last 2 weeks.

 

What the hell have i missed with trigger, timewaster and others?

I haven't had a spat with or blocked Trigger! He remains a top geezer in my book.

 

The non motoring section has seen more than its fair share of shit in the last couple of weeks and I will be giving it a swerve from now on.

[Lacquer Peel]

I thought Lubuntu (& XFCE) was only for landfill like the 10 year old HP ZD8000 I'm on now? Wouldn't Ubuntu itself be better?

Sorry I think it was Kubuntu.

[DVee8]

Timewaster I didn't think you had had a spat with trigger.

[3VOM]

Well, the last 24-48 hours, trashed 4 month old tyre, broke the cafetiere and the Golf has failed its MOT on a whole list of things including steering lock not working. I'll be having words about that if it goes back to the same place for the retest. (MOT fail 2.1.4b applies to post Sept 2001 cars, not 20 yo Golfs)

[Guest Hooli]

I have spent most of the day fucking around with laptops, just trying to get them to do what they were designed to do. Then, once working, spellchhhheck had gone walkies, adblock likewise and a near endless round of arsing around was needed to get these items working... sometimes.

 

How the fuck do people do this shit for a living? I would be more insane than I already am within 15 minutes of my first cuppa Nescafe and burning the building to the ground by official teabreak!

 

I must 'look' like I know what I'm doing with two laptops side by side, using one to repair the other (using Google once I got that bastard to work again!)Slightly frustrated now so a mug of cappuccino and several choccy biscuits is in order.

 

 

I do it for a living. Well fucking around with switches n servers all day, no way will I waste my time fucking with IT at home if I can avoid it. Much more interesting things to do such as digging a trench for drains like I did till it got dark.

[richardmorris]

Anyone know what corporate credit ratings mean?

For the first time in 27 years my company has had to resort to a debt collector - first response from the debtor was to deny asking us for the work to be done, a month later, yesterday ( after I spent a while scanning in their paperwork and photographing their samples ), the agency elicited a further response asking for time to propose a course of action.

Debt agency suggested we comply as the next option is legal action and their credit score is only 28/100. We have suggested we would accept £1000 per month until the debt is paid - over £15000 and rising due to interest added by debt agency. I had a quick search and their accounts are overdue and current liabilities are about £490k. Not good eh!

 

Much as I thought it nice to send the large rugby players with bats around I think they'd just wind up the business. The debt agency is recommended by the federation of small businesses so unfortunates aren't in the baseball bat league.

 

Grump is that we're soft - invoice monthly in arrears and rarely bother chasing up bad debts until they're taking the piss( we ask for 30 days but it's rarely less than 60 before anyone pays up).

[Sloth in a bowl]

Non car related grump so pass by now if you wish.

 

Bastard getting a new job. I've been looking for a new job for about 6 months. My current commute is a pain in the arse and south Birmingham and the M40 are getting worse each year.

 

So there has been the odd CV excepted and a few interviews with odd reasons for rejection then everything went nuts a few weeks ago and I had 3 interviews in 2 weeks all with good potential.

 

Job 1: They have just gone silent, I suspect because I have mortgage sales knowledge, not mortgage opening knowledge. I know they are still looking. I see that an agency is still advertising the position.

 

Job 2: They turned me down (after 2 interviews) as I 'didn't want the job enough', not because I couldn't do it, in fact I was more experienced than they needed. I see that an agency is still advertising the position.

 

Job 3: Had a really good interview with the IT team in London and two days ago they were trying to sort out when to hold the final HR paper ticking interview. Today, sorry HR have decided to not employ any BA's that don't have direct insurance experience. FUCKERS, my agency bloke was very cheesed at the about turn as well. I see that the agency is re-advertising the position.

 

For fucks sake people, just employ me and I'll get the required industry knowledge really quickly, that's the fecking point of my role. To learn and document the shit that some people know in a language suitable for those that don't.

 

anyway, rant over, back to square 1, as you were.

[chaseracer]

Time to go freelance, Julian...?

[320touring]

#JuliansAukshungaemz has a certain ring to it

[Keymaster]

Anyone know what corporate credit ratings mean?

For the first time in 27 years my company has had to resort to a debt collector - first response from the debtor was to deny asking us for the work to be done, a month later, yesterday ( after I spent a while scanning in their paperwork and photographing their samples ), the agency elicited a further response asking for time to propose a course of action.

Debt agency suggested we comply as the next option is legal action and their credit score is only 28/100. We have suggested we would accept £1000 per month until the debt is paid - over £15000 and rising due to interest added by debt agency. I had a quick search and their accounts are overdue and current liabilities are about £490k. Not good eh!

 

Much as I thought it nice to send the large rugby players with bats around I think they'd just wind up the business. The debt agency is recommended by the federation of small businesses so unfortunates aren't in the baseball bat league.

 

Grump is that we're soft - invoice monthly in arrears and rarely bother chasing up bad debts until they're taking the piss( we ask for 30 days but it's rarely less than 60 before anyone pays up).

Yes! I am lucky* to have to monitor the credit ratings of all major suppliers for a large food company.

 

Basically:

 

0-25= Very high risk of business failure

26-50= Above average risk for country

51-75= Below average risk for country

76-100=Very low risk

 

Although not quite bottom quartile a score of 28 isn't great, but it could be low for many reasons. Ordering a full credit report will give you a better idea of their recent financial trends & will state exactly why the credit agency has issued that score.

 

If their submission to companies house was overdue, they would be automatically rated a zero score. So its not necessarily the case that their accounts are officially late yet - they will have a grace period & then it can take time for the data to reach the public domain. Usually it's around 6 months between due date and publication.

[cros]

Octane magazine has some spunk-bubbles writing in it. I just read a piece about some American 30's replica with 6 litres of modern V8 and a quarter million dollar price tag. The description gushed about how it's no slouch and has exceeded 80- indeed the owner collected a speeding ticket for doing 72 mph. I've been nicked for that much in a 600 quid Morris Traveller.

[beko1987]

well the aux belt has just shredded itself, that would be what the squealing noise was...

 

anyone know what aux belt this thing takes without the air con pulley in play?

[mercedade]

On a more posative note the brake pad wear warning light was on and it is just a buggered sensor rather than the rather expensive Brembo pads.

 

Ha! Maybe the first time I've seen "fuck, I hope this brake warning light is the sensor buggering around rather than something normal like boring service items".

 

Porscheworld.

[beko1987]

nope, it's a bit dead. the aux belt has shredded itself a bit, but is still whole, so I took it off and re positioned it. now, it's a bastard to start, and won't run without lots of revs, and billows out white smoke, then dies if I let go of the throttle pedal...

 

when it went, it was driving fine, then I heard a whine, then the engine died. so I ditched it into a massive lay by. without the aux belt fitted it fires up ok, but with all the ancilleries belted up it won't. any ideas?

[beko1987]

just tried again, and it surges like a fucked, almost like the zx did when it was too cold on veg, but it's got derv in it, the fuel needle is low but not empty, and I can't see any air bubbles in the clear fuel line

[DodgeRover]

OSs like Ubuntu and Mint are just as easy to use as Windows, easier in some respects. I only sacked off Lubuntu because it made the laptop HDMI output all screwy on my oddly sized TV. No amount of command lines would fix it, Windows still clips it a little but it's fine.

We use Ubuntu and it's pretty easy to get the hang off, much simpler than win10

[Mr A Lawrence]

Is it on correctly?

[beko1987]

Is it on correctly?

me? the aux belt? yea, I wrote a little picture quickly, all routed fine. could it have picked shit up again? I know Chompy had this issue, but could it have happened again? but the way it died was different, and the zx didn't have thick white smoke when it went funny on fuel

[beko1987]

how far could I drive with no aux belt? is it worth it 8 miles on busy b roads? the aa are on their way but not for another hour

[Mr A Lawrence]

If the water pump isn't driven by it then 8 miles would be OK.

[beko1987]

I dunno, don't think so. currently I'm sat outside amys sisters house on a dead end road in the sun, so I'm not in the worst of places, and the aa guy may be able to give me some pointers, but it's worrying

[M'coli]

Is this the Xantia, with a XUD? Water pump is cambelt driven, so should be ok.