Rant Thread - What really grinds your gears?

[kct1975]

Motion Activated Water Faucets

They are appearing in more and more public bathrooms, and they never seem to work right.

 

[no one]

What you can't wash your hands with the 3.5 millisecond burst of water?

 

[Deleted User]

^^^ On a similar subject, I've noticed the use of motion activated flushers on public toilets. Presumably all this for reasons of hygiene? But isn't it pointless, when the cubicle door lock still remains to be touched, and is obviously coated with harmful bacteria?
And the motion detector taps (faucet) pointless too, when I see people walking straight out of a cubicle without washing hands. Ugghhh!

 

[AZgl1500]

oh you bet, the handles on toilet doors are to be avoided like the plague.

I never touch them bare handed. always grab some paper to cover the handle and toss the paper right away, wash hands vigorously, and again, never touch any surface, just pull more paper..... to dry hands or open doors with, if the doors push outwards, I use my boots to open them, never my hands.

I'm paranoid like the plague, mom was a RN, wife is a RN, and currently she is in hospital and every one that comes in gowns up and wears gloves while in her room.....

I grab the super bug killer towelettes and wipe down the roll around tray that I put my laptop on, and the laptop itself gets a daily dose of disinfectant....

 

[basic 101 user]

^^^^^^^
The (mildly warm) air blower / hand driers have certainly been a fount of comedy for years; I have always disliked them. Paper towels are the one thing that allow me to fool myself into believing I might remain clean after a visit to the facilities.

Spoiler: The blah, blah.

The one UI almost guaranteed to have been used by all visitors prior to you is the door knob. If possible, I prefer to wash my hands, use the spent paper towels to open the door, then prop it open with my toe, as I lob the towels into the bin behind me. Generally, the last thought I have is "What must the soles of my shoes be like now? If only they were so disposable."
And don't get me started about the "toilet tested" tires on your rolling luggage, as you shove it into the overhead bin incubator next to my bag.
As frustrating as those faucets are, I guess one fewer surface to touch is a step in the right direction, and if they save water....So much the better, every gallon counts. (Our region in general is several years into a very significant drought cycle; My community in particular is served by a single above ground reservoir which is at it's lowest level in history, and nearing the point where what little remains is considered the "unusable dregs".) This season will be absolutely critical. With the right connections, however, one can still get new construction permits. (This begins to sound like a familiar rant, ongoing with good reason.)

Also: I was always lead to believe that brass / bronze were inherently antimicrobial.....Just no longer "fashionable".

 

[Dngrsone]

Actually, silver is antimicrobial.

I am from the opposite camp, myself: played in ditches as a kid, and never got sick. I wash my hands, but otherwise take no precautions... The human immune system works better (in my opinion) if it has something to do.

Then again, I'm immune to such common infections as strep throat, so YMMV.

 

[basic 101 user]

Silver certainly is; But chrome, nickel, and stainless steel not so much?
Besides, Silver fittings are so gauche. I settle for no less than solid gold.

"Disirregardlessly", @Dngrsone, we don't disagree.
The washroom is perhaps the only arena where I behave and think like that, my habits elsewhere (kitchen, workshop, etc.)might make others cringe. You remind me of a Gallagher routine from years ago, where he opined: (Paraphrasing like crazy) "You have to build up your resistance to germs....Otherwise the first one that finds you, is 'gonna lay yer' ass out dead."

 

[bjacks12]

So 3 days before the September 15 filing deadline, one of our managers gets himself fired for sexual harrasment. Now I'm doing all of his unfinished work + MY unfinished work and it all has to be done by Thursday evening.

Kill me now please.

 

[AZgl1500]

uh huh, and just when are you going to get some sleep?

 

[no one]

Sleep is for the weak.

 

[bjacks12]

Plenty of time to sleep when you're dead.

 

[Bg260]

So, I bought a used desktop from an auction on E-Bay. I did ok because the processor is worth more than I paid. However, there is a 2009 1Tb hard drive. Funny because this machine wasn't made until 2012. I thought refurbished meant improve. Also I did my homework. It was advertised with 8gb of RAM. The machine is equipped with 4 channels. Seemed obvious that it would come with 2 x 4Gb. Nope. 4 x 2. So to upgrade I'll have to remove perfectly good RAM. No biggie, just doesn't seem very intuitive.
You see I have 8. If I want to double it I have to buy 16.

 

[Dngrsone]

That is typical of a lower-end build. Four 2Gb sticks is cheaper than two 4Gb sticks. It is entirely possible someone swapped parts out of a cheaper, but higher-powered machine and put the less-desirable components into the one to be sold.

 

[Bg260]

Yeah, I'm sure that's what happened. Still. I'm not sure what to say in the review. Like I said, I got a good deal with or without the RAM. Just seems shifty is all, underhanded.
It is as advertised though.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

Traffic Jams caused by accidents.
I was on the bus yesterday going home from work and a fire truck hit a trolley around the corner from the next stop. Waited 30 minutes while the Boston Fire Department Special Operations Conmand argued with the MBTA Police until 15 minutes later the Boston Police showed up, sorted out the mess and got traffic moving again. How a Fire Truck can hit something that runs on tracks on a straight road is beyond me.

 

[AZgl1500]

Traffic Jams caused by accidents.
I was on the bus yesterday going home from work and a fire truck hit a trolley around the corner from the next stop. Waited 30 minutes while the Boston Fire Department Special Operations Command argued with the MBTA Police until 15 minutes later the Boston Police showed up, sorted out the mess and got traffic moving again. How a Fire Truck can hit something that runs on tracks on a straight road is beyond me.

Oh, it is very easy to understand....

Phoenix, Arizona where I used to live/work.....

We had/they have very wide center medians, and fast 2 and 3 lanes of traffic each way.... been that way for a couple of decades...

then, some one got a Brilliant Idea!!!
let's install a metro train for folks who don't own a car, they can go across the whole entire county, thru 5 metro areas, and never need a city bus.... wow! what a concept.....

right up until you realize that the tracks took up one full lane on one side, but not the other side.....
or, in some places, it runs down the Center Median..... and here comes Mr. Always Late For Work running 55 in the 45 mph zone and the lightS up ahead have the neatest little warning flashers you ever saw..... they flash 13 times before the lights go RED.... All of the lights in the county do that........ 13 flashes to warn you it is going red.

Yep, here we are, the intersection is as clear as the ocean on a Blue Sky Day, and Mr. Always Late For Work sees that he has 5 flashes left so he can make a Left Turn at the intersection and keep going on his merry way.................

PROBLEM!!! the train heading into town is about 50 feet behind him, also slated to run at exactly the speed limit.............
now our guy who is late for work can't see anyone in the rear view mirrors, no one is in the opposing lanes, so.... he turns left and gets T-Boned by the Metro Train............. oh yeah, I saw 2 or 3 of those every week until the trains were required to stop at every intersection after that...........

BRILLIANCE AT WORK..........

 

[no one]

Traffic Jams caused by accidents.
I was on the bus yesterday going home from work and a fire truck hit a trolley around the corner from the next stop. Waited 30 minutes while the Boston Fire Department Special Operations Conmand argued with the MBTA Police until 15 minutes later the Boston Police showed up, sorted out the mess and got traffic moving again. How a Fire Truck can hit something that runs on tracks on a straight road is beyond me.

People just can't drive. I watch cops rolling through stop signs.

 

[Deleted User]

My current rant is about car park operators, who try to extort money out of people. I really don't know how these cowboys aren't prosecuted for fraud.

 

[Dngrsone]

Imagine that my department were an American Football league, each station being a team on that league, each team having, offense, defense, special teams etc...

...and the station where I work is a rugby team.

 

[olbriar]

Rain.... I'm sick of it! Another inch and a half this morning and it's still raining cats and dogs. Fourteen inches so far this month. Almost fifty inches this year. That's too much for a place that normally averages around thirty inches a year.

 

[Dngrsone]

I'll trade you some triple-digits for a few inches of that...

 

[olbriar]

Take what you will my friend... I have plenty!

 

[AZgl1500]

Here in Oologah, Indian Territory, the rains for the most part seem to go around us.
we are getting just enough to keep the fields growing, I ran the lawn tractor last night for about 3 hours trying to get in front of the grass.....

I really hate it if I am forced to wait too long, and then run the hydrostatic transmission in low range.... when that stuff gets up to six inches high, and really thick the 3 blades on the mower deck can't eject the grass if I run it at full ground speed of 7 mph..... I have to crawl at about 1 mph on my Sad Mowing days.... even at that, I have to backup and go over the grass to get the stuff that just lays down flat on the ground forwards.

We have a Snapper 36" single blade Zero Turn mower that can go thru that thick stuff at full speed, and it will eject all of it.......... it has the same size engine as my triple blade Husqvarna 48" lawn tractor....
but IMO, 3 smaller blades are NOT a pancea to smooth cuts on a lawn. push them too hard, and they leave ridges of uncut grass in between those blades.

 

[mikedt]

Four Loko why I don't like to frequent expat bars these days. Redbull with vodka chasers was bad enough!

 

[PattiCakeUS]

There's a big Prince tribute concert coming up in town, & tickets sold out in something like 8 minutes. The part that ticks me off is that apparently sites like Stubhub now have tickets & are selling them for 3 times the original box office price.

I hate it that it's OK for people or companies to purposely buy up tickets just to make a huge profit like that.