Other What's ruining your life right now?

Urgh, people who think they know better but don't.

We have exactly three types of guy working in the Field:

1: Savvy and clued up, call to ask for advice.

2: Absolutely clueless, call up and do exactly as you tell them.

3: Dunning Kruger, call up and ignore you, go off-piste, change things without telling you and don't take your advice.

Mate, if you didn't want my advice don't call me. To top it all off I've done a week of testing with a fully configured router that a customer sent me, and today I've found out one of the other engineers factory defaulted it last week because they couldn't log into it. When questioned "why did you need to log into it" I've been met with radio silence over Teams, like when I ask my four year old "why is there slime on the carpet?".

Dear lord, a week of testing gone. They could've at least told me?

 

Right there with you on the frustrations that can be corporate IT. We have onsite IT, a couple of lovely guys, but they will not do anything at all unless the offsite IT helpdesk has been contacted and issued them a ticket to do so, even something simple such as a like for like mouse swap. When things do get done, the results are always excellent, it's just the frustrations of getting things started in the first place.

However, this week has been another nightmare entirely, nothing to do with our local guys at, they are still fine, but we have some software that we publish, nothing spectacular, just a piece of software for calculating risks, it really is little more than a fancy(ish) front end on a calculator linked to a small database, but when it starts it automatically checks our servers for any updates, all well and good, allows us to push out little tweaks or new standards and so on, all cool and funky.

However, the software was written over 12 years ago before a buyout and complete IT restructure and whilst the update path is still the same, being coded into the installation files, the server location that it points to has been monkeyed around with so secure/non secure, redirects and so on. This week the update checking process has died completely meaning the that software goes to look, doesn't find what it expects and goes "nope, do not want", throws up an error and refuses to start... And this is a global issue... for everyone, including us.

The only work around is to disconnect the internet connection to the PC, start the software, it then skips the update process as it sees no 'net connection and starts up, then you connect to the network again and all is shiny. But you have to do this each time you start it up.

And all this is because someone in the US changed stuff on our servers and how the redirects work without letting anyone here know so that things could be checked for issues, we had to work out this "fix" for ourselves. So I have been spending far too much time this week sorting out emails and calls from all over the world trying to get people back up and running. And I am still waiting on a time for a proper fix...

 

No reverse gear today on my trusty BMW 325Ti Compact (2001).
Had it for over five years but the repair for this issue with this particular transmission is either replacement gearbox or very expensive repair.

Just passed the MOT but two weeks ago as well.
Gutted.

 

The E46 came with two autoboxes, either a GM unit that used to lose reverse gear because of a solenoid fault, or a ZF unit that used to lose reverse because the selector drum would fracture. Bizarre that two completely different boxes would get completely different faults, but the same failure.

When they were more commonly found people would advertise swap out services on eBay for £650 all in. Getting the right mechanic to find a second hand box and fit it is likely worthwhile?

 

Really not worth the cost to be honest.
It's a ZF box sadly as I could have had a pop at the solenoid fix myself. (Done all the other jobs so far)
Time for Webuyanycar I think

 

Just cracked this radiator putting a bush in

 

If that paranoid piece of **** fire alarm goes off once ****ing more when I’m in the kitchen, the ****ing thing is going in the ****ing bin, private rental legislation be damned.

Put the toaster on: REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Open the oven during cooking: REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Cook steak: REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Boil a pan of water: REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Heat up a frying pan: REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Put the air fryer on: REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Open the slow cooker lid: REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

The irony is that on the odd occasion when there has actually been smoke because I burned something… the little ******* didn’t even go off!

It’s got to be picking up on radiant heat as well as actual smoke, because I swear it’s been worse the last couple of months.

I’m not supposed to do anything with it because this is a rented property and it’s a mains-wired alarm. But if the ****ing thing keeps ****ing shrieking at me for making ****ing toast then it’s ****ing coming down, I’ll put a battery powered one in a more sensible ****ing location that isn’t right outside the ****ing kitchen ****ing door.

 

Had a similar issue last Sunday. I wasn't doing anything at all, apart from hoovering and cleaning. Alarm started going off... This is now so normal I just ignored it figuring it was a test.

That night just before my shopping arrived my entry buzzer went off. It was the housing attendant from nextdoor. "Are you OK?". I say "Well I'm speaking to you so....". He says the fire brigade did tests around my front door to detect smoke. There wasn't any. I said "To be honest mate if there had been smoke or fire I would have bailed out onto the roof like I am supposed to, but the alarm going off is so common that I just ignore it now and thus, would probably burn to death".

 

Currently standing in ankle deep mud on a freezing cold crime scene guarding a corpse until forensics comes in the morning.

Living the dream.

 

If you are cold, they are cold. Bring them inside.

 

Same. I work from home as close to full time as you could get (office once every 2-4 weeks average) and it's just nice to see someone other than your wife/child/supermarket-checkout-person.

 

Sounds like the start to a good book.

 

Pretty sure I just watched that episode of The Rookie.

 

tbh I'm glad our team took the night shift, I hate dealing with the press and the constant silly **** they pull to try get into scenes.

"yeah the officer on the road said we could get some close up photos of the tent"

oh I'll bet he didn't, get out.

 

I remember reading a recipe for something [Chinese Cumin Lamb iirc] that stated 'if your smoke alarm doesn't go off whilst cooking this, you've done it wrong...'

 

Just learnt we're managing the crime scene until next week.

/Groan

 

• Found out a bit-tech biker died (we'd been talking about his next bike upgrade and meeting up)
• Computer died this morning after removing GPU - CPU has IGPU so shouldn't be a issue.
• Went to purchase a Mac Mini, selected delivery instead of collection, support said just cancel and order it again and it'll be a instant refund (bank says 7-30 day wait)

Down from 24 cores to 4 cores.


Did the trouble shooting no dice

• Removed the battery, pressed the power button a couple times, reinserted... nothing
• Removed the ram and put one stick in.... nothing
• Changed the power cables plug fuse and tried on sons pc, confirmed to be working
• Can hear power going through the motherboard... but still nothing
• Checked all the cables are slotted correctly
• Made sure the CPU was seated correctly

bah

 

Kitty off to the vet again. Glad we got her booked in as she's not eaten a thing really since yesterday.

I'd rather hope it's not something seriously serious as she still goes to the bowl but won't eat anything we try. She also still wants company rather than hiding away and drinks water

Hoping it's just dental work that needs doing as the vet mentioned it last week, also hoping they keep her in because she won't last not eating.

Stress bunny.

 

Had a virus last week (probably caught off the little one) and throat's still not properly recovered.

I'm in a vicious cycle of sore, swollen throat causing snoring; snoring causing sore, swollen throat.

Off to the GP today and think it might be time to finally address my snoring. My wife has previously said she thought I may have sleep apnoea and my occasional sleep paralysis might support this, but either way we all need better sleep in the house now.

 

Beautiful weather for the motorcycle, go out charge the bike, just the car blocking it in, won’t start, go to charge the car but wait! The bonnet won’t open… keys stuck in the car and won’t release, oh because it’s a Porsche instead of just pulling a leaver like any other car you have to open the fuse box connect jump leads to another car battery to the electric bonnet switch then you can access the battery in the trunk for the car!

If the van wouldn’t start? Open the door connect the cables and wait a bit for it to charge, but not this damn car.

These vehicles are simply used for pleasure hence the dead batteries all the time from not being used, I should just probably damn sorn the bloody lot and be done with it.