The Room 101 thread - for things you hate or just having a bloody good moan

[Raid]

Thankfully I have windows in the front and rear of the house I can open to get a good through-draught going, but that only works when there's actual air movement outside, which didn't really pick up until half ten on saturday for me.

Has anyone ever actually investigated proper air conditioners? I think this situation's the new normal in terms of the UK climate, and given how badly I cope with the heat maybe it's time I actually buy myself one. I just don't want to have to drill a whopping great exhaust hole in the side of my house.

[Wrathbone]

My parents have got a portable one, but only use it as a last resort (like this weekend) because it's a faff to set up the window screen. I'm not sure it'd work great in my house as the insulation is less than ideal.

As for built-in aircon, I think you're looking at £1500+ per room for a basic setup. Honestly, I'd stump the cost if I was certain it'd be effective and the noise of the external unit wasn't noticeable from inside, which is a concern given how small my house is. I'll probably just make do and grouse about it a few days per year.

[Sly Boots]

Years ago my dad installed a ceiling fan in his bedroom as a cheaper cost solution, and he swears by it in the summer.

[Raid]

Fans don't really work for me, my eyes dry out really quickly if there's much in the way of air movement and that's almost as bad as the heat. The eye drops the optician recommended don't even take the edge off.

[Wrathbone]

In the latest adventure of my Dilbertesque existence, the software company that I work for has introduced (with no consultation or warning) an approved applications list, meaning only apps on the list can be installed and used. While on the surface this might seem sensible at best and a mild inconvenience at worst, about half of the company are developers who do things like produce and run code, which can no longer run, or use various tools alongside Visual Studio which are now causing things to fail left, right and centre. I'm sure our IT department will be shocked - SHOCKED - to discover that there's software being developed in this software house.

I'm not sure I can adequately express just how dumb this is. It's like an author trying to write a book for a publisher that only accepts submissions from an approved list of existing books.

[Alan]

[Animalmother]

Is the head of IT someone with no actual technical knowledge but just got moved to that position? Is he mentally deficient perhaps?

[Wrathbone]

Fuck knows. I'm all for strong security practises, but not at the expense of being able to actually function as a business!

[Stormbringer]

This should hopefully correct itself in time when your company profits start falling, I assume?

[Wrathbone]

I’d hope it will correct itself when every development manager in the company verbally (and possibly physically) assaults them.

[Alan]

File sharing between my two Windows 11 PCs isn't working.

"Diagnose networking problems"

*click*

"AI-generated content
To resolve network share issues on Windows XP, follow these steps:"


Fuck off MS.


It used to at least pretend to diagnose the problem before telling you no problem was detected!

[Animalmother]

Youtube forcing an age check on you just to watch a video. On what plane of reality do they think people should have to provide an ID or credit card in order to watch a fucking video on Youtube? Its so obviously open to fraud and data mining.

[Wrathbone]

Don't worry, these unvetted, third-party age verification tools that have rapidly been implemented by various sites (many with a vested interest in the failure of the Online Safety Act) are ironclad and immediately delete user information after -

- oh wait, no, there was a massive leak from a vetting tool on day one.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7vl57n74pqo

Nevermind, though, most people will go for a VPN. Not a robust, security-conscious one, of course. Just the first free one they can find that has none of the security features it claims to provide, thereby opening users to all sorts of online peril.

[Mantis]

I refuse to engage with any of it, I will never upload an image of my face or a copy of any official government ID just to access content that may be "upsetting" for children. When you dig into some of the stuff that is being banned and the sites implementing verification essentially just to cover blanket usage of their entire service it is horrific how quickly we seem to be descending into a full on censor/surveillance state. And that doesn't even get into the huge risks involved for blackmail, identity theft and fraud when these databases are inevitably breached; or the fact that the OSA is functionally useless at actually stopping children from being able to access adult content online, rendering the whole thing pointless outside of being able to exercise another level of control over people.

I'm going to start paying for Proton services and implementing a full self hosting setup for all my media before the year is out. I was okay with the monopolised corporate internet when it was convenient, but it is quickly becoming a better choice to just unplug from all of that.

[Stormbringer]

Common Ridings.

What the hell are common ridings?

This is a common riding.

An annual event in a select number of Scottish border towns where the locals all wear rosettes, wave flags and walk through the bunting-draped streets, following after others riding on horses, in a hollow and cringe-worthy display of local pageantry, celebrating antiquated parochialism and insular bumpkin culture.

I absolutely despise this sort of thing.