The "Things that annoy me" thread

Ticket machines - I rarely take the tube and I don't use an app so I have to buy a physical ticket when that happens. Today I tried to buy a ticket and the machine happily took my debit card, but told me it couldn't print the damn ticket. I wasn't able to get the phone out in time so I wasn't able to take a picture of the message (I would have shown that and my banking app to the ticket inspector if there would be one). Fortunately I still have some cash with me so I was able to buy a ticket at the machine next to it which doesn't take cards.
Their hotline is available Monday through Friday 9:00 through 18:00 though...
 
This is something I worry about with all the digitization of everything. Having one fancy mobility app that you can book EVERYTHING in is all nice and dandy, but I feel quite a few people, mostly those who would need help the most, are being left by the roadside. Or kicked into the ditch, because the alternatives are being dismantled.
 
Since the turn of the millennium or so, banks have been slowly closing their small branch offices. Every time it happens people get angry and bring out the pitchforks. "What about the elderly, they can't use online banking" etc etc.

"The elderly" were in their early sixties and still working when you started seeing the writing on the wall. They've had two decades to get with it but they chose not to, and now this is everyone else's fault but their own when they need to spend an entire day taking the bus (if there even is one) into town and back to get basic bank stuff done that takes ten seconds to do on your phone.
 
My parents moved their current accounts because their bank closed our local branch. They already used the online service. Both early sixties. It's beyond understanding, especially since I use the same online service and it's very good.
 
Too many things.
 
CraigB said:
Turn. Your. Headlights. On. When. It's. Snowing.
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This is one reason why I like my father’s decision to buy a re-imported car*. The headlights are always on and all the switch to “on” does is turn on the dashboard lights and some other basic “night mode” things. During what little driving he still does at 85, he can never forget the headlights.

*Edit: from Denmark. I forgot to add that last night.
 
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Dash lights are always on, DRL’s are too bright, and headlight switches have an off option for idiotic reasons. It’s been proven the general public cannot be held liable to control their own fucking headlights.

Don’t get me started on the high beam drivers…
 
High beam discipline is very good here. The discipline for your fucking lights on so the taillights come on at night is not, however.
 
I agree that lights should be on at all times, DRLs should include the rear lights too. I don't think cars should be plastered with marker lights like they did/do in the US but we can do a lot better than driving around with no lights on or blinding people at night with front DRLs and no rear lights.
 
Matt2000 said:
I agree that lights should be on at all times, DRLs should include the rear lights too. I don't think cars should be plastered with marker lights like they did/do in the US but we can do a lot better than driving around with no lights on or blinding people at night with front DRLs and no rear lights.
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Some people here have figured out to turn the light switch one notch to make the rears come on. They don't realize that this makes the front DRLs turn into dim parking lights, which aren't supposed to be used when a vehicle is moving.

I asked the VW dealer if they could program the rears on the Passat to be on at all times. They said they can't do it because it's illegal. The car is approved with the rear lights off, and turning them on in daytime messes with emissions.... It's perfectly possible to reconfigure with VCDS and I will do so as soon as I get my hands on the VCDS hardware.
 
Perc said:
Some people here have figured out to turn the light switch one notch to make the rears come on. They don't realize that this makes the front DRLs turn into dim parking lights, which aren't supposed to be used when a vehicle is moving.

I asked the VW dealer if they could program the rears on the Passat to be on at all times. They said they can't do it because it's illegal. The car is approved with the rear lights off, and turning them on in daytime messes with emissions.... It's perfectly possible to reconfigure with VCDS and I will do so as soon as I get my hands on the VCDS hardware.
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When I last checked on MK7 OBD2 with my OBDEleven device, they called this function “Scandinavian mode.”
 
Emissions issues related to having the tail lights on is such a VW thing. Screw safety, think about the numbers!
 
"Apple invented wireless headphones, and everyone that came after used their technology" - my algebra teacher, thinking he's helping us understand a concept with this metaphor.
 
NecroJoe said:
"Apple invented wireless headphones, and everyone that came after used their technology" - my algebra teacher, thinking he's helping us understand a concept with this metaphor.
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Is that a kind of mangled version of the Kodak and Xerox thing where it becomes the common name for the device/technology?

Anyway I remembered something from Sunday. I found myself waiting behind a car at a fuel station. Not unusual. People dump their cars at the pump and go to pay inside the shop, despite having parking spaces they can move into. Some people do their fucking weekly shop in there.

It took me a few minutes to notice the sign that said 'pay at pump only' on the pump I was waiting to use. Fine for me as that's all I ever do but where had the driver of this car gone? Just left it at the pump while they did their shopping?! Then she came out, without any shopping! What the fuck was going on there?

It took me all of 90 seconds to chuck twenty quid (and a penny) worth of petrol in the Mazda and bugger off.
 
Matt2000 said:
Is that a kind of mangled version of the Kodak and Xerox thing where it becomes the common name for the device/technology?
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Isn't it pretty much what happened to cellphones and tablets?
 
Email notifications can go straight to hell.

We use a system called Sprout at work to schedule out social media posts, and ughhh. In Sprout's app, I do not allow push notifications for Instagram posts on my phone. The multi-photo Instagram posts won't post directly from the web interface (thanks, garbage Instagram API!), so they have to be sent through Sprout's app in a weird kind of workaround. Since it's easier to type out text on a computer, this is useful for getting everything in the text just how I'd want it before publishing, and while it's clunky, it works about as well as anything else. Whatever.

But I do not—and will not—have notifications on to tell me I've sent a post. Multi-photo Instagram posts have to be pushed manually into Instagram regardless of whether they're scheduled or not, so it's pointless to schedule them. If I post a multi-photo Instagram post, I am going directly to the app to transfer it over. I do not need a notification to tell me this. I also share this Sprout account with other users and other websites under our parent company, and I do not need notifications when they go to post things, either. Getting interrupted by notifications all day isn't productive, either, and frankly, extraneous dings, banners and pop-ups only get in the way of me focusing on what I need to do and the notifications I actually need to see. I keep most of mine off for this reason.

Sprout decided recently that sending "Push notification failed" emails EVERY TIME I SEND A POST TO THE APP would be "helpful." It is not. Worse yet, this is an admin-level setting that I can't turn off on my own. Who the hell decided this was a good idea? Go to hell. Go straight to hell. The email I actually WANT and CARE ABOUT is getting buried under notifications telling me I have notifications off—again, a deliberate choice I made. Why can't I also determine that all notifications need to stay off on my own? Again, extra email is only a hindrance to EVERYTHING I NEED TO DO.

Explaining this to customer service was bizarre, but to the customer service rep's credit, she was patient and finally figured out that I would have to contact the admin over our account to fix this. Hopefully he's as annoyed with the useless email as I am.
 
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