Minor things that bother you

[US 89]

I mean, they're supposed to know that sort of thing, since your chart is supposed to be shared between your GP and any specialists they refer you to. But doctors are just like any other profession; some don't give enough of a shit to do things the right way.

I've seen receptionists at doctors' offices ask patients to fill out a complete medical history on each visit, even when the answers have not changed since the last visit.  I suspect it's a CYA measure.

I swear I have to do this every time I go to the dentist. And it asks for family history too - I can never remember what random heart condition my great-uncle I never knew died of 30 years ago, but because he was under a certain age when it happened, the dentist for some reason needs to know...

[LilianaUwU]

A very minor thing: when the bus is late, but not horribly late (5 to 10 min). It happens, but it still sucks, especially when it's cold outside. It being late for more than 10 minutes usually means something exceptional (at least where I live), so I'm not as bothered then.

[allniter89]

I watch Dish Network. Most of the time certain channels show the same 4-6 commercials for every commercial break during an entire 2 hr program! Drives me knutz!

[1995hoo]

I watch Dish Network. Most of the time certain channels show the same 4-6 commercials for every commercial break during an entire 2 hr program! Drives me knutz!

That's not unique to Dish Network. I wish it were, as we don't have Dish!

[ZLoth]

Hotel fees.

It's bad enough that the hotel taxes are much higher than the sales taxes, probably to help fund some entertainment venue. However, on top of advertised hotel fee is the so-called "resort fee" for items that I'm probably not going to be using if I'm staying overnight. Does that include Internet access? No.

I stayed at the Horseshoe in Bossier City, LA last December. There was no charge for the "basic" internet access, but there was a limit of two devices, and the transfer speed was limited to 1.5 Megabits. After that, if you wanted higher speed or additional devices, there is a per-device daily fee. Now, please understand what devices I carry with me when traveling:

• My own personal mobile phone
• My mother's personal mobile phone
• A personal tablet
• My work laptop which I have to take with me even on vacation in case of an work emergency

I don't know about you, but 1.5 Megabit would have been considered high-speed access almost 20 years ago. In this age of streaming media, that is tortoise slow. I also dislike watching hotel TV, and prefer to listen to music or watch programming from my personal Plex server. At least I had pre-downloaded several movies prior to taking the trip, and, in a pinch, I would use my phone as a WiFi hotspot.

Last week, I stayed at a local Marriott while my mother had some surgery, partially because I didn't want to drive in DFW morning rush hour traffic. There, they had "basic" internet for fee, but if you wanted streaming, it was $4.95 per device. I was able to VPN to work though.

[ZLoth]

I watch Dish Network. Most of the time certain channels show the same 4-6 commercials for every commercial break during an entire 2 hr program! Drives me knutz!

Not unique to Dish network. It also occurs with the ad-supported streaming platforms as well. By the end, either you are dying to get that product, or swear never to touch that product. 

[allniter89]

I watch Dish Network. Most of the time certain channels show the same 4-6 commercials for every commercial break during an entire 2 hr program! Drives me knutz!

That's not unique to Dish Network. I wish it were, as we don't have Dish!

Yeah, I enjoy Dish. I have the 250 channel option. A huge variety of programing! I'm going to miss it when I move into a senior apt bldg in my beloved Dover, DE.

[Scott5114]

Hotel fees.

It's bad enough that the hotel taxes are much higher than the sales taxes, probably to help fund some entertainment venue.

Well, yeah, it's a political ploy. If you tax hotels, the voters never have to pay the taxes, so the politicians don't have to worry about the "taxes are too high, throw the bums out" crowd. A little bit of misdirection with "these facilities will periodically be used by someone from another city, therefore hotel fees are a good way to pay for them" is enough to placate people.

However, on top of advertised hotel fee is the so-called "resort fee" for items that I'm probably not going to be using if I'm staying overnight. Does that include Internet access? No.

I stayed at the Horseshoe in Bossier City, LA last December. There was no charge for the "basic" internet access, but there was a limit of two devices, and the transfer speed was limited to 1.5 Megabits. [...]

Well, did you go back to the front desk to turn your key in and kill the transaction when you found that out? If not, they have no incentive to change such ridiculous policies. The only way to get the attention of the sort of lunkhead that would make that sort of policy is by giving them a nice swift kick in the revenue.

[SSOWorld]

I watch Dish Network. Most of the time certain channels show the same 4-6 commercials for every commercial break during an entire 2 hr program! Drives me knutz!

That's not unique to Dish Network. I wish it were, as we don't have Dish!

Yeah, I enjoy Dish. I have the 250 channel option. A huge variety of programing! I'm going to miss it when I move into a senior apt bldg in my beloved Dover, DE.

What bothers the shit out of me is when broadcast channels throw a long banner up about their contract disputes with providers (cable, sattelite or streaming) telling you to make contact with the provider to petition them.  It's up there and distracting to me especially when the dispute doesn't involve me.  I don't know what's worse, that or the persistent graphics for weather advisories in the market area. (many times blocking more vital information on the screen)

[MATraveler128]

Does anyone else hate that feature from Google where you visit a page and it says "You've visited this page on date"  ? For some reason, this is really annoying, at least for me. Are they trying to judge users for viewing pages?

[wanderer2575]

I watch Dish Network. Most of the time certain channels show the same 4-6 commercials for every commercial break during an entire 2 hr program! Drives me knutz!

At least I can DVR the programs and fast-forward through the commercials.  What really irritates me is the promos that pop up onscreen DURING the program I'm watching, often blocking relevant information.

[jeffandnicole]

Does anyone else hate that feature from Google where you visit a page and it says "You've visited this page on date"  ? For some reason, this is really annoying, at least for me. Are they trying to judge users for viewing pages?

If I'm trying to find a source of info, it's convenient in that maybe I found that info within a website I've visited.  Alternatively, if I'm searching for something that I haven't found the answer to yet, it's convenient as it's telling me I've already been to this site, so don't waste my time.

I actually find it more annoying on Google Maps.  I may be clicking around looking for something, and accidently click on a business in the area.  When I continue searching, I can't get that business to disappear because it keeps telling me I visited (clicked on) that business.

[ZLoth]

However, on top of advertised hotel fee is the so-called "resort fee" for items that I'm probably not going to be using if I'm staying overnight. Does that include Internet access? No.

I stayed at the Horseshoe in Bossier City, LA last December. There was no charge for the "basic" Internet access, but there was a limit of two devices, and the transfer speed was limited to 1.5 Megabits. [...]

Well, did you go back to the front desk to turn your key in and kill the transaction when you found that out? If not, they have no incentive to change such ridiculous policies. The only way to get the attention of the sort of lunkhead that would make that sort of policy is by giving them a nice swift kick in the revenue.

I never made it that far. I just stuck with the limited Internet.

What bothers the shit out of me is when broadcast channels throw a long banner up about their contract disputes with providers (cable, satellite or streaming) telling you to make contact with the provider to petition them.  It's up there and distracting to me especially when the dispute doesn't involve me.  I don't know what's worse, that or the persistent graphics for weather advisories in the market area. (many times blocking more vital information on the screen)

It's called a "carriage dispute", SSOWorld, and it's a pressure technique. You might as well call it "In an effort to increase your cable and satellite bills beyond the point of affordability and to further pad the pockets of our executives..." . The multichannel providers are under pressure to keep the subscription lows, especially now with people utilizing streaming services, while the programming providers are trying to increase the per-subscriber carriage fee to carry the channel even when you don't watch the channel. Many subscribers think that the multichannel provider want to "take away my favorite channel"... they don't. It just costs too much. And, notice how the contractual expiration takes place right around a big major event.

For what it's worth, E$PN and the Regional $ports Networks (R$Ns) are the most expensive non-premium channels, often costing at least $6 per subscriber. E$PN carriage is tied with the carriage of Disney-owned national and local ABC affiliates, thus everyone gets E$PN. But, R$Ns have been on the chopping block with the multichannel providers citing high costs and low ratings, and Dish Network dropped their last R$N, NESN, on December 21st, 2021. When we have the Covid-related shutdown in 2020 and there were no live sports programming for months, the R$Ns still insisted on their monthly payment.

Carriage disputes has become so commonplace that I just sigh and ask where the carriage dispute bingo cards are, as I see the same tactics and phrases trotted out each time. When I moved in early 2019, I used it as an opportunity to drop DirecTV and go with streaming services.

[formulanone]

Now, please understand what devices I carry with me when traveling:

• My own personal mobile phone
• My mother's personal mobile phone
• A personal tablet
• My work laptop which I have to take with me even on vacation in case of an work emergency

I don't know about you, but 1.5 Megabit would have been considered high-speed access almost 20 years ago. In this age of streaming media, that is tortoise slow.

Because I have nearly unlimited data plans - I haven't knowingly run into an slow-down yet - I just tether the phone to the PC, or decide which device is most intensive for the login; though usually it's 3 devices. Unless I'm in some armpit 3G zone, it's usually enough to get work done, though at a reduced pace. Then again, I don't use too many streaming services on the road (usually the F1 Pro app and YouTube, and that's it) but also rarely watch hotel's TV...it could be two months at a time before I turn on that monolith in in my room. I'd say most of the hotels I'm at run at 3-10 Mb/s, but I've had some that were slow or even unusable...that's where I try to have some back-up activities.

The hotel isn't under any obligation for you to allow you stream to and from your server; if 100-200 other patrons were doing the same during the typical evening crunch of 8-11pm*, there wouldn't be enough bandwidth for the hotel to justify the expense. Maybe the bigger-name hotel chains are just better at this than the smaller lines and one-offs.

* typically, uploading or transferring dozens of photos from the hotel is a lot faster at 5am than at 8-9pm.

[J N Winkler]

I don't stream, but I would still hate to depend on hotel/motel wifi for real connectivity, just because the latency characteristics are so unpredictable.

[kurumi]

There's a reality show called Amazing Race, where frequently everyone's progress gets reset (there's one daily flight to the next destination, etc.)

The background music for that show is always so histrionic, as if the hero had exactly 22 seconds to prevent Satan from killing everyone in the world. It's just so relentlessly THRILLING

[ZLoth]

There's a reality show called Amazing Race, where frequently everyone's progress gets reset (there's one daily flight to the next destination, etc.)

The Amazing Race is absolutely one of my favorite reality competition programs (along with the original Ryôri no tetsujin aka Iron Chef). There have been so many destinations that I have wanted to visit (along with a few on my avoid list). But yeah, they can be overly dramatic at times.

[ZLoth]

AndroidOS vs microSD cards.

So, let me give you some background on this... despite how much storage is on your device, it is never enough. I know we live in the age of "the cloud", but there are times where you want to rely on your media rather than try and stream it through a bad Internet connection or weak carrier signal. In some cases, you have NO usable internet and/or you don't want to pay through the nose for access, such as flying on a plane or vacationing on a cruise ship. This is where storing some audiobooks, music, movies, or TV shows comes in very handy.... along with a noise cancelling headset.

My previous phone was a Pixel 3, and it had two choices for storage: 64GB or 128GB. I took the 128GB storage. Last fall, when I ordered it's replacement, I had a choice between 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB.... except that the 512GB version was simply not available, and the 256GB version had a two month waiting period. I took the two month waiting period as my Pixel 3 battery gave my phone less than 2 hours battery power. Neither phone has a microSD slot, as Google believes in the Cloud storage solution.

Now comes my Android Tablet. It isa Samsung tablet that I purchased on sale last fall from Costco, and great for watching streaming media in bed. At the moment, 16GB of the available 24GB is being used. At least it has a microSD slot, so I added a 256GB card. It is working out pretty well, except that some of the apps won't allow themselves to be transferred to the microSD card. OK, that's understandable, the app size isn't that big. However, some of the media streaming services that I have a subscription to, in the name of "security" and "digital rights management", won't allow you to save a offline copy of the movie/show to the microSD card. That means my tablet can only have two movies from applications such as HBOMax.

Grrrrr......

[Scott5114]

DRM should be banned. It is simply not something that benefits anyone except people who have way too much money, trying to set themselves up for a situation where they have way, way too much money.

Fortunately the open-source software I tend to use usually simply disregards DRM restrictions. I think there's some program I have where "Follow DRM restrictions" is even a check box on in the config menu. Who would ever turn that on?

[zachary_amaryllis]

more of a 'moderate' thing...

I have several linux machines, one windows machine, an android phone and an ipad.

why can't i, say, download a windows app and transfer it to the windows machine? sometimes i can, most of the time i get 'this isn't compatible with your device'. OK, i know this. just download the file, and i'll take it from there.

sometimes I'm in town with the ipad, same problem. i just want the file, and i'll work out the installation details on whatever device it's intended for.

like, don't worry about what i'm doing. just give me the file. this happens with pretty much any permutation of the above devices.

[Scott5114]

Yeah, I've run into that problem before, especially when I'm trying to use my Linux computer to look up how to help out a friend who uses Windows. It's neat that you do or do not have a Linux version, but this information isn't for me!

[1995hoo]

Posting this comment while watching soccer. They just had a substitution and the on-screen graphic came up to say who was coming on and who was being replaced. Yet despite that graphic, the broadcaster still felt the need to cut to the fourth official holding up the sign with the red and green numbers. What for? Why do we need to be shown that sign when the on-screen graphic is giving us the same, and actually more, information (the graphic includes the players' names)?

Same thing applies to showing the fourth official holding up the stoppage time sign. It reminds me of the old days when you'd watch an NFK broadcast and after a team converted a PAT, the broadcaster would immediately cut to showing the referee turning around and giving the signal that the try was good (even though you just saw it was good). I note they don't do that anymore.

[kkt]

DRM should be banned. It is simply not something that benefits anyone except people who have way too much money, trying to set themselves up for a situation where they have way, way too much money.

Fortunately the open-source software I tend to use usually simply disregards DRM restrictions. I think there's some program I have where "Follow DRM restrictions" is even a check box on in the config menu. Who would ever turn that on?

[bm7]

Does anyone else hate that feature from Google where you visit a page and it says "You've visited this page on date"  ? For some reason, this is really annoying, at least for me. Are they trying to judge users for viewing pages?

If I'm trying to find a source of info, it's convenient in that maybe I found that info within a website I've visited.  Alternatively, if I'm searching for something that I haven't found the answer to yet, it's convenient as it's telling me I've already been to this site, so don't waste my time.

I actually find it more annoying on Google Maps.  I may be clicking around looking for something, and accidently click on a business in the area.  When I continue searching, I can't get that business to disappear because it keeps telling me I visited (clicked on) that business.

I turned off my history for places on Google Maps for that reason. It was also annoying that if you clicked on a business, it would think you're interested in that type of business and show them more prominently. So I would click on somewhere, sometimes by accident, and it would keep showing me where similar businesses are. No, Google, just because I clicked on a lawn care store once doesn't mean I care about every business that sells anything related to lawns.

[Tom958]

Misuse of the word "wonky" to mean crooked or out of kilter. A wonk is someone with extensive knowledge about an often-obscure-or-arcane but important topic. No one disputes that. A wonky book, article, or discussion is one that laypeople might find hard to follow, but which is elucidating and worthwhile for those who can. Wonky, then, is an important word that should not be casually debased. Because it has been, ignorant people might hear or read a reference to "a wonky debate" and completely, diametrically misinterpret the nature of the exchange. Not good.

The obvious alternative is "wanky," which has the same satisfying crunch but no other meaning to confuse the issue. One friend objected that "wanky" seems to allude to a colloquial British term for male masturbation, which... is that really a problem? I think not.