Topic: What annoys you this very minute?

[Cools!]

My laptop's annoying humming. When I'm in a room that is very quiet (like right now) it drives me crazy because it's very faint and I'm wondering if I'm just hearing things or if it's another device in the room.

[sirean_syan]

The fact that this "lab" has no temperature control. It's like 25 C in here when it was a nice 20 C last week. Considering this is a chemistry lab where people are often studying rates of reactions you'd think they'd be more concerned.

Have any external hard drives? Those things ended up being louder than I thought when I got one in a quiet place.

[Cools!]

So how is the temperature controlled? Just some master building system?

No, no external hard drive. I haven't had a laptop in a while and this is the first computer I've owned with an SSD so overall it's much quieter than anything I've owned. I guess I'm so used to the regular noises that desktops and old laptops make that I find the faint hum of this model a bit unnerving when I "tune into it" so to speak.

[Quemaqua]

The fact that I have tons of shit to do and don't feel like doing any of it. I think I'm just going to play Don't Starve all day and pretend I'm an irresponsible person.

[Cools!]

I've barely done anything this week. I got so pissed at myself last night that I said I'll do nothing but work today... well, it's sort of going... Hope you don't get behind on your work too much Que!

[Quemaqua]

Since I set all my own deadlines, technically I can never get behind. But by the same token, I can never actually do enough to "get ahead", so no matter how much I do, I'm always behind. haha

Right now I'm sitting here trying to convince myself to work instead of wasting time. It's not working.

[Cools!]

What do you need to do?

[Quemaqua]

Making the push to start sending stories to magazines paying professional rates. Which means lots and lots of research, lots and lots of reading, lots of editing, writing cover letters, and then doing more research. It's especially rough at these places as they tend to have staff who can actually get to your stories in a reasonable timeframe. Which is great, since you can turn around and send the story out to other places, but it sucks, because that means you need to have other places in mind, which means more research. It's one thing if you've been doing it for 5 years, it's another if you've been doing it for a couple and mostly focusing on indie markets. This is a whole new ballgame for me.

I'm also reading for a magazine now, offering editorial opinions to help decide what gets published. It's amazing how much reading I'm doing that I don't actually have any desire to actually do. The books I want to read? Yeah, don't have time for those.

[K-man]

The Duck Dynasty fallout on Facebook.

[W7RE]

I have no batteries for my Xbox One controller, and no cord, so I have to use my phone's charging cord. I play Xbox enough that my phone dies, then when charging my phone I can't play Xbox.

[Cools!]

Haha. I was trying to play SC2 the other night but couldn't because my iPod Touch was drained and that's where I have the B.net authenticator installed.

[Cobra951]

The lousy weather is what's bothering most right this minute.  I'm at Sandy's, and will spend Christmas with her, but in the interim I have to drive to my mother's tomorrow, then drive back on Monday.  We're supposed to get 4" of rain tomorrow, along with flooding and all the general suckage.  I despise the weather in this area in general, and this season so far has been particularly bad.  We're like a foot of snow above normal already (and Winter still hasn't even started).

At my mother's, there's a supremely annoying dog just 2 houses down.  (Thank God it's not next door, because that would turn into warfare.)  The damn thing barks the entire time they let it be outside.  We used to have a dog like that when I was married.  Barked at everything that moved.  But I had some control over that.  There's not much I can do about the current nuisance.  While not loud, it's a threatening, insistent and continuous peace-of-mind robber.

Batteries suck intensely.  I avoid them whenever possible.  Are wired controllers even possible with the new gen?

[Cools!]

One of my neighbours had a dog like that at the old place (I moved over the summer). They would let it out on their deck instead of walking it and it would just bark non-stop. All of us neighbours finally complained a few years back and they started letting it out only for 5 minutes or so at a time because that's the law around here for the amount of time a dog can bark before you can call it in. I really felt bad for the dog because the owners were complete assholes (there were plenty of other issues I could mention).

[Cobra951]

. . . they started letting it out only for 5 minutes or so at a time because that's the law around here for the amount of time a dog can bark before you can call it in.

That's an awesome law.  I don't think we have anything like that here, but now that you've made me aware of it, I'm going to be looking into it.  All I know of is a noise ordinance between 11 PM and 7 AM.

The way I see it is a dog is like a telephone.  Telephones ring, and everyone expects that.  But if one rings incessantly without getting answered, it becomes an ever-increasing nuisance.  30 seconds should be the grace period.  Make it a minute to be extremely generous.  No more.

[Cools!]

What I always wondered was if it annoyed the owners as much or if they just did it to be annoying?

[K-man]

Dogs gonna be dogs.

I have dogs that bark and carry on all around us.  I don't even notice now.

[Quemaqua]

Ours are pretty good, and generally quiet, but the German shepherd was abused (he's a rescue, of course), so he's got some major anxiety issues. He was normally just afraid of everything when he was with Heather, but now that he's living with me and Mitzi too, he's got a pack behind him. He'll bark like crazy at anything that comes near the house or yard, having channeled his former nervousness into misplaced bravado. He's normally not too bad, actually, but sometimes he just won't let it go. We won't leave him out there to make noise, though. If he goes on for a few minutes, I go out and tell him to quiet down. Usually he does. If not, I drag his ass inside.

To be fair, he barks more at the annoying yappy neighbor dogs than anything else. God I hate those little fuckers.

[Cools!]

Yeah, but at least you guys care. A happy dog isn't going to bark for 30 minutes non-stop.

[Quemaqua]

Depends on the dog, but generally, no. And definitely a dog with a decent owner isn't going to bark for 30 minutes. It's not good for them to bark like that. Letting a dog do that isn't helping the dog.

[W7RE]

Batteries suck intensely.  I avoid them whenever possible.  Are wired controllers even possible with the new gen?

Yes. For both systems, you can plug the controller in and it becomes wired, and transmits data across the cable. (Xbox 360 wireless controllers only sent power across the cable when plugged in. Usage of the controls were still sent wirelessly.)

I made a more in-depth post in the Xbox One vs PS4 thread.




My family uses Amazon wish lists to shop for eachother, and I've got a pack of 4 rechargeable batteries and charger at the top of my list set to a priority of high. I'll probably get some for Christmas, so I'm holding off. Until then, it's the phone's cord.

[MysterD]

Missing Out On Price-Glitches
Missing out on damn Steam and GMG price-flipping glitches - which seem to happen when I'm at work!

I missed-out on Bioshock: Infinite - Season Pass hitting $5, even though someone who was nice did hook me up and gift me it. So, I lucked-out there.
But, I missed-out on GMG having AC: Liberations HD for $4 on GMG, as well.

Oh, I forgot GamerGate glitches, too - those seem to happen at 3AM (Witching Hour), sometimes [i.e. when they flip pricing].
Front Mission Evolved a week back or so flipped at 85 cents - and I was sleeping!


Music Selling Schemes
Nothing to me is more annoying than trying to buy music - and here's why...

When it comes to digital stores like Google Play + Amazon MP3, they sometimes don't always offer up version w/ the PDF booklet. I can understand say if the album doesn't have any (sometimes, they don't) or really have much of anything - but I do like looking through the liner notes, credits, artwork & booklets, dammit.

And, it gets worse - let's talk about the way they package and sell music (artists, labels, and distributors). Sometimes, certain albums get exclusive extras, goodies, & bonus tracks in each version sold by different distributors. Example - Sean Price's "Mic Tyson" album. Amazon has their very own exclusive bonus track ("Let Me Tell You"); while ITunes has a few extra different bonus tracks for their version ("Haraam", "Remember" Ft. Freddie Gibbs, and "I See"). You'd literally have to go through each service and buy the tracks you're missing, if you want to really complete the album, more or less. Talk about hoop-jumping.

Sometimes, some songs are wicked long, so instead of them being priced higher than a normal length song - they just are flat-out NOT for sale individually! You'd have to actually BUY the entire album for a certain song! Or sometimes, a certain song isn't just allowed by the artist, label, or distributor to actually be sold individually, for some reason or whatever reason.

Also, re-releases can be annoying. Let's talk Ellie Goulding's album "Halcyon;" prime example of this crap. There's a bunch of different versions of this thing. So, let's make it simple - on Amazon MP3, there's three versions of "Halcyon" - Amazon's own Regular Version (16 songs); their Deluxe Edition (20 tracks); and then way later there was a re-release "Halycon Days - Deluxe Edition." Now, Halycon Days Deluxe actually includes Halcyon: Deluxe Edition + even more new tracks (8 in total). Here's the problem - why couldn't Ellie and her label just sell the new 8 extra tracks as also their own "EP" for those who bought Halcyon Original or Deluxe? If you're going to buy the missing 8 tracks a piece - that's likely $1.29 x 8, which is running into LP pricing; and EP's usually ain't priced at full-length albums!

I like what Lorde has going on w/ her new stuff, in terms of how her albums are being sold. So, she has The Love Club EP + Pure Heroine LP out. Now, if you already bought both - you're all set. You don't have to worry, now there's a re-release version of Pure Heroine: Extended Edition that just popped-out. There's now a re-released Pure Heroine: Extended Edition - which basically includes Pure Heroine LP + The Love Club EP (The Love Club EP basically got appended to the end of the album). Currently - there's no new tracks & nothing's missing in the Extended Edition - it's ALL there in one package. Nobody gets screwed here, has to go to different services for different songs, has to buy missing tracks as singles, or any other nonsense.

[Cobra951]

Yes. For both systems, you can plug the controller in and it becomes wired, and transmits data across the cable. (Xbox 360 wireless controllers only sent power across the cable when plugged in. Usage of the controls were still sent wirelessly.)

I made a more in-depth post in the Xbox One vs PS4 thread.

Awesomeness!  That's like a 100% solution, if it works well.  You can unplug the thing to sit across the room with it, or you can leave it plugged in if you game close quarters like I do, and get all the wired benefits.  Thanks for that.

The dog we had that barked so much was a rescue.  She was a lab beagle/hound mix that was about to be put down because (as I fuzzily recall) her blood vessels were too messed up to be of any more use.  Sickening, really.  So yeah--abuse leading to anxiety and general brainlessness.  But still, whenever I came up to her, tail wagging and licking all over the place.  Very affectionate.  That pro-human instinct was still intact after what it suffered.  The definition of loyalty.

And I'm not even much of an animal lover.  But I'm not heartless.

[idolminds]

Music Selling Schemes
Nothing to me is more annoying than trying to buy music - and here's why...

Yeah, this shit is really annoying. And whats funny is it just makes piracy look even better since its pretty easy to find someone that has put all the songs together in one archive. Retailer specific bonus tracks are total bullshit.

As for me, my current annoyance is the weather. Freezing rain all over, which really puts a damper on my birthday plans. Probably just staying in today.

[Cools!]

I was without power last night for 8 hours due to an ice storm. Last time I checked there were still over 250,000 people without power. Some will have to wait till Wednesday to get it back. What annoys me about living here is just how badly prepared the Toronto area is for any disaster. Rain? Prepare for flooding and power outages. Snow or ice? Prepare for power outages. Oh and no matter what, the transit system will collapse. Mind you it doesn't take a lot to bring down the subway in the first place: delays and service issues are a daily thing here.

Now if I had no other place to compare to I wouldn't bitch about this in the first place and accept it as a way of life, but having lived in other cities and countries I can't help but point out how bad it is here. For example, Russia has crazy and ice storms, temperatures much lower than here in Toronto, talking -30 degrees Celsius and below, yet, for example, the Moscow subway system keeps on going and the power rarely goes out. I remember visiting my aunt I was a kid. She lived in a city about an hour by plane from Moscow, not the biggest of cities so can't say only Moscow had it well off. There was around 5 feet of snow when I arrived (huge storm a few days earlier). Nope, no power outages during the whole thing.

Sigh...

[ren]

My power was out from Saturday night to Monday morning. It was actually kind of fun. I live in an old neighbourhood with huge trees and above ground power lines so outages were expected.

Most downtown neighbours have buried lines and don't have to worry about it. It'd be nice if we had a gradual shift to that everywhere but that seems doubtful.

[Cobra951]

I don't understand why they weren't buried all over in the first place.  It can't be much more expensive than stringing them up on poles everywhere, and the maintenance has to be a lot more expensive on zillions of wooden wire trees.  Losing power is what I fear most whenever the weather turns nasty.  It's a far more likely annoyance than anything truly destructive.

[ren]

I'm not sure either. Every now and then the streets need to be torn up to replace sewers and storm drains; the city could take advantage of that opportunity to bury lines but it doesn't seem to happen.

It's been almost a week now and there's about ~50k people without power. My facebook was filled with pictures of people having their Christmas dinner by the fireplace bundled up in parkas and toques.

[Cobra951]

Consider yourself lucky.  Back in '08, hurricane Ike made it to Cincinnati with the eyewall intact (which is like impossible, except it happened--I saw the animated weather radar image).  The trees looked like something out of the Wizard of Oz.  ("She was hungry!")  Branches flailing all over like arms.  We were out of power for over 3 days.  Many in this area were in the dark for over a week, some as much as 2 weeks.  Crazy.

[gpw11]

I don't understand why they weren't buried all over in the first place.  It can't be much more expensive than stringing them up on poles everywhere, and the maintenance has to be a lot more expensive on zillions of wooden wire trees.  Losing power is what I fear most whenever the weather turns nasty.  It's a far more likely annoyance than anything truly destructive.

It's quite a bit more expensive.  If you're looking at running lines to a new subdivision it'll cost at least four times as much to bury a main line when compared to running overhead wires.  That said, you're 100% right in that it's ultimately cheaper in the long run and it's far more preferable. Power companies will generally opt to bury lines to new developments because it's in their best interest to do so...and the developers generally foot the bill. A lot of times (at least where I am), when you're building a new house or renovation and you end up needing more than a 200a service, thus needing a new connection, they'll require you to run a new, buried line..again, on your dime.

When it comes to moving the entire system underground, it's actually more expensive than just putting in new lines (obviously), and that's generally where the problem comes from.  Most people indeed do want buried lines throughout their city for a multitude of reasons, but sticker shock sets in.  Power company usually isn't in it to eat the cost of the upgrade, and most studies into a complete overhaul are customer/government driven...the desire usually goes away once council or whoever is presented with the price or customers are presented with the option in exchange for a rate hike.

Customers hate overhead lines, most cities don't want to pay for buried lines, and power companies generally don't care as long as the money is there.

[Cobra951]

Thanks for the complete picture.  I'm reminded of a story I heard from a coworker, many years ago.  His father had a construction company.  He said that they had 2 kinds of asphalt, the cheaper, projected to last 5 years, and the better stuff, twice as expensive, projected to last 15 years.  Governments always went for the cheaper stuff, even though the longterm cost was much higher.  I guess short term wins out every time in this kind of scenario.

[gpw11]

It totally depends on the buyer or the scenario. Private homeowners will often go the more expensive route because the payback is there in the long run and they're planning on living at their place for 20 years or so. As will corporations. Governments, however, tend to be all over the place because they'd generally like to see the most visible results for their dollars in order to win voters over/justify costs. So, while a ton of voters may mildly want underground wires, if there's likewise a large portion of voters who REALLY want bike lanes, a new pier, bridge, or whatever, governments will tend to go with whatever makes the most impact.  These obviously often fall under different jurisdiction, but the point stands: dollars go to where they think they'll be re-elected, so usually aimed at short term results.

I know San Diego has a massive program to remove all overhead communication and utility wires and they've been doing a good job of it, but they also make it a very visible program.  It's used as an example of a massive city-wide initiative and I went to a seminar about it years ago.  I'm not going to look up the numbers but it's actually pretty amazing - completion date of something like 2060, a $2-4 surcharge added to all power bills in the city, and the overall estimated cost was mind blowing. I believe it's purely for aesthetic purposes in San Diego, but I think it's something that's off-putting to other cities who are considering the same:  Most opt to only bury lines on busy commercial streets and avoid large initiatives in the residential areas (opting for the commercial streets to widen/add lanes, etc).  I'm guessing that there was a lot of public pressure behind this in San Diego as well.

Your mentioning asphalt brought something to mind about the nature of city construction: Vancouver is in a temperate rain forest. Concrete highways and roadways are a very viable and desirable option here:  The cold weather problems don't apply (there are also ways around these), concrete is far more durable, concrete highways provide better traction in the rain if grooved, concrete highways can be resurfaced very easily. Yet, it's never even considered.  Why? Asphalt companies have been in bed with the government for years: they fill all the large contracts (90% of asphalt work would be civil), and they cut prices based on volumes.  It's pretty much unspoken that any new road will be asphalt. The average person really doesn't give a shit and the initial price tag is lower, but it's pretty insane that it's never even brought up.

[Cools!]

Latest annoyance: Rewards cards. It seems like every store now has some sort of membership program they offer. Don't get me wrong, I love discounts (who doesn't?), but it's getting really annoying to constantly have to hear about it at every place, and if you agree to get one, manage all the details.

Yesterday I visited the nearby EB Games (yes, the name is still around here) and they have this Edge card. I got one a few months back because I was lame, and there was a promotion at the time that gave a descent discount. I figured I wasn't going to get bothered about it yesterday, but oh look, turns out my card was already "old" and they are upgrading everyone to a new one. Oh shit a "Platinum Card"! "Here you, it's just like extending your old card, only BETTER!". Oh, but I still had at least a year to go on the old one? Nope, doesn't matter. Oh and they couldn't just copy over my old account information or upgrade it, nope, had to do it all over again, name, phone, address, email, ID. Wait if it's a new account wouldn't you lose all the so called points you get? Umm... right...

Now, don't get me wrong. I have nothing against the employees. They are told to talk about this, or maybe they are so bored that they just want to keep people in the store longer (it's a store in the sub-urbs, so not that much traffic on most days). Just man, so annoying having to deal with this at every damn place!

[Cobra951]

My brother worked for an electronics place named Steinberg's, many years ago.  He was there a long time.  But then they started up with the extended-warranty nonsense.  And eventually, salespeople were coerced to sell them, meaning they had a minimum quota to keep their jobs.  That's when he quit.  He said he could mention the ripoff plans to customers, but he could never lie about them being the greatest thing ever.

I'd bet a lot of those people you deal with are similarly coerced.  It's become part of their job description.  If they don't do it well, they lose their jobs.  I feel for them, but I never fall for any extras like cards or extended plans.  I know from by brother that it's pure profit for them, and nothing but a cost to you.  That's the warranties anyway.  The cards I'm not so sure; but I still don't want them, and I will not have them pushed on me.

[Cools!]

Yeah, they are definitely coerced into this. It's sad when they ask you and you can just tell they don't want to bother you. The employes that are on commission are a different case though. I get that you got to do what you got to do to feed your family, but man they can be really pushy and just plain ... bad, like no clue about the actual product they are trying to sell you. I generally don't fall for the warranties. As far as the rewards card, I have this stupid EB Games card and one for the local bookstore chain (which has been a much better experience).