Minor things that bother you

[GaryV]

My dad, for instance, takes a tornado warning as a cue to go out back and look at the clouds, and only takes shelter when he sees a funnel.

That was the company policy when I worked for Chrysler. They'd send a security guard to the roof, and he'd announce when a funnel cloud was headed our way. Assuming he didn't get blown off the 15th floor first.

[Scott5114]

My dad, for instance, takes a tornado warning as a cue to go out back and look at the clouds, and only takes shelter when he sees a funnel.

That was the company policy when I worked for Chrysler. They'd send a security guard to the roof, and he'd announce when a funnel cloud was headed our way. Assuming he didn't get blown off the 15th floor first.

This explains a lot about the Chrysler I drove . . .

[zachary_amaryllis]

When you poop, but then afterward you're only about 60% sure there isn't more to come out.

Wipe, or wait?  Waste TP and run the risk of a clog, or just waste time sitting there for no reason?

This has been escalated to a major thing that bothers me.

[vdeane]

The fact that location services are wonky on hotel internet.  Google gets it right, but for some reason the weather applet on my taskbar always has some faraway place.  The most recent has Philadelphia instead of Pittsburgh, which isn't too bad, but it's more often something like Kentucky instead of Syracuse.  I end up having to manually set the location every time, negating (most - it works correctly at home and when visiting my parents) the advantage of having it automatically get the location.

[ZLoth]

Even this is seen as overdoing it by some fellow Plains residents. My dad, for instance, takes a tornado warning as a cue to go out back and look at the clouds, and only takes shelter when he sees a funnel. (This approach is definitely not recommended.)

Shrug. This coward has obstructed views from his backyard, and really doesn't know what to look for and where. That's what the YouTube storm spotters are for. I also really can't hear the severe weather sirens inside my home unless I know what I'm paying attention for. I'd rather cower in my bathroom and respect the tornado rather than be impacted by wind-driven debris.

[Scott5114]

Even this is seen as overdoing it by some fellow Plains residents. My dad, for instance, takes a tornado warning as a cue to go out back and look at the clouds, and only takes shelter when he sees a funnel. (This approach is definitely not recommended.)

Shrug. This coward has obstructed views from his backyard, and really doesn't know what to look for and where. That's what the YouTube storm spotters are for. I also really can't hear the severe weather sirens inside my home unless I know what I'm paying attention for. I'd rather cower in my bathroom and respect the tornado rather than be impacted by wind-driven debris.

Which is probably smarter than what my dad does, especially if you don't mind the opportunity cost of sheltering when it's not truly necessary.

Given that you're going to be in Texas for the long term and your background in technology, I think you might find taking the time to learn how to spot a likely tornado on Doppler radar (at least on reflectivity and velocity) to be well spent. YouTube has many videos of Oklahoma City meteorologists covering tornado outbreaks that can be very instructive. I know Gary England's coverage of the May 20, 2013 Moore tornado is available, for instance.

[JayhawkCO]

Hook echo for the win.

[hbelkins]

Re: Open primaries. I hate them. I'm glad Kentucky does not have them. I don't want members of the other party attempting to choose my party's nominee. If  you want to participate in a primary, you should be a member of that party.

Re: Warning on cell phones. Mine are turned off. All of them. A couple of weeks ago, an Amber Alert was issued for south-central Kentucky. It went out statewide. People in my area were complaining and not happy that they'd been woken up at 2:30 a.m. for something that happened three hours away.

[ZLoth]

Given that you're going to be in Texas for the long term and your background in technology, I think you might find taking the time to learn how to spot a likely tornado on Doppler radar (at least on reflectivity and velocity) to be well spent. YouTube has many videos of Oklahoma City meteorologists covering tornado outbreaks that can be very instructive. I know Gary England's coverage of the May 20, 2013 Moore tornado is available, for instance.

That, and attending the annual Skywarn classes offered by the NWS at the beginning of the year. The pre-Covid January 18, 2020 class that I attended had a very detailed "what happened" on October 20th, 2019 tornado that hit the DFW area. Of special concern was the fact that the Dallas Cowboys were hosting the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday Night Football. The local NBC affiliate received a ton of heat for not broadcasting a warning until a Commercial break.

[thspfc]

Given that you're going to be in Texas for the long term and your background in technology, I think you might find taking the time to learn how to spot a likely tornado on Doppler radar (at least on reflectivity and velocity) to be well spent. YouTube has many videos of Oklahoma City meteorologists covering tornado outbreaks that can be very instructive. I know Gary England's coverage of the May 20, 2013 Moore tornado is available, for instance.

That, and attending the annual Skywarn classes offered by the NWS at the beginning of the year. The pre-Covid January 18, 2020 class that I attended had a very detailed "what happened" on October 20th, 2019 tornado that hit the DFW area. Of special concern was the fact that the Dallas Cowboys were hosting the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday Night Football. The local NBC affiliate received a ton of heat for not broadcasting a warning until a Commercial break.

Fond memories of that game. Unfortunately the rest of the season was a trainwreck.

[hotdogPi]

I know of at least five businesses within 5 miles of my apartment that include the word D'[name], where [name] begins with a consonant (and not an H). That's not how those languages work.

[mgk920]

I'm kind of bothered by the fact that common USA coins now are worth so little that they're essentially useless.  Today, the most that I can buy with one quarter is 15 minutes of time from a downtown Appleton, WI parking meter or 7 minutes of time from a dryer and a nearby laundry that I often use.  That laundry also now charges $3 and more to run an average load of laundry in their medium sized washers.  C'mon guys, give us some coins (ie, 50¢, $1, $2, $5, etc) that we can actually USE in our everyday lives (and get rid of the even more useless pennies, nickels and dimes)!



Mike

I fully agree. Other currencies that are roughly equivalent to our dollar (or cents for the case of yen):
Canada: rounds to nearest 5¢, largest coin $2
Australia: rounds to nearest 5¢, largest coin $2
New Zealand: rounds to nearest 10¢, largest coin $2 (although their dollar is only about 2/3 of ours)
Euro: rounding depends on country (was 0,10€ in Paris, but some places don't round at all), largest coin 2€
UK: no rounding, largest coin £2
Switzerland: rounds to nearest 0.05 Fr., largest coin 5 Fr.
Japan: no rounding that I know of, largest coin ¥500

That said, there are some countries (India and Russia among them) where their highest coin is less than our quarter.

There's a bunch of idiots who are forcing Americans to keep small coins. The penny should been phased out a couple decades ago (the copper within costs more than 1¢). The nickel should probably go too though I'd prefer if they got rid of dimes instead because they're so tiny which I find annoying. That way we could have $1 and $2 coins in regular circulation because cash registers wouldn't need those bins for pennies and nickels (or dimes).

According to the latest figures in https://www.usacoinbook.com/ (sub-link is near the top of the menu list on the left), USA Nickels (5¢ coins) have a 'melt (metal)' value of of over 5¢ each (5.85¢ each).  Pennies (1¢ coins) have a 'melt' value of 0.62¢ each (post late 1982 'Zincolns') and 2.58¢ each (pre late 1982 bronze composition).  They are clearly uneconomical to make and handle.  Production costs are not included and include such things as labor, energy, transportation, depreciation on the equipment, etc, for the USA's Treasury department. IMHO, changes (no pun intended) here are badly needed.

Mike

[kphoger]

The Mexican 10¢, 20¢, and 50¢ coins are now made from the punched-out holes of the $1, $2, and $5 coins respectively–which helps offset the cost of production.

[CtrlAltDel]

I know of at least five businesses within 5 miles of my apartment that include the word D'[name], where [name] begins with a consonant (and not an H). That's not how those languages work.

There was a place near me, since closed down, called Le Petite Café. Drove me nuts.

[CtrlAltDel]

According to the latest figures in https://www.usacoinbook.com/ (sub-link is near the top of the menu list on the left), USA Nickels (5¢ coins) have a 'melt (metal)' value of of over 5¢ each (5.85¢ each).  Pennies (1¢ coins) have a 'melt' value of 0.62¢ each (post late 1982 'Zincolns') and 2.58¢ each (pre late 1982 bronze composition).  They are clearly uneconomical to make and handle.  Production costs are not included and include such things as labor, energy, transportation, depreciation on the equipment, etc, for the USA's Treasury department. IMHO, changes (no pun intended) here are badly needed.

When the half-cent coin was withdrawn in 1857, it had a value in 2023 money of somewhere in the range of 18 cents. That seems to me a good baseline. So, from that perspective, we should get rid of the penny, the nickel, and the dime, and perhaps maybe the quarter. Although if hat happened, it'd probably be wise for the half dollar to become more common.

[algorerhythms]

If I were dictator of "˜Merica:

1) Get rid of the penny and the nickel
2) Prices would be listed to the tenth of a dollar, not hundredth
3) Replace the quarter with a revived half dollar
4) Replace the dollar bill with the dollar coin, introduce a $2 coin
5) Screw it, let's go metric.

[CtrlAltDel]

If I were dictator of "˜Merica:

2) Prices would be listed to the tenth of a dollar, not hundredth

Except for gas, which would go to the nearest penny instead of tenth of a penny. 

5) Screw it, let's go metric.

Dem's fightin' words, but in this case, I'd be fightin' on your side.

[Scott5114]

Of special concern was the fact that the Dallas Cowboys were hosting the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday Night Football. The local NBC affiliate received a ton of heat for not broadcasting a warning until a Commercial break.

That strikes me as very unusual. Here, it seems to be the case that the chief meteorologist has the authority to commandeer the entire station if they deem the weather to be bad enough (which is normally only tornadic storms, although I have seen particularly bad hailstorms used as justification). You can often see them making orders that a television director would normally be making (things like telling the control room to put so-and-so's video feed up on the screen, or switch to showing Doppler graphics, or bossing the anchors around). They are not shy about preempting an entire evening of prime time television in favor of wall-to-wall weather coverage, if warranted. The preempted programming is then usually run at 1am instead, so that if anyone wants to watch it they can program something to record it for later viewing.

If the weather is bad enough that a notification is needed, but not bad enough to justify programming interruptions (this is usually the case for severe T-storms), then a map of the state is superimposed over a corner of the screen with counties shaded according to warning levels, and a ticker periodically runs giving updates. My parents have a decent number of VHS tapes where they recorded some movie or other program, and weather warnings are present during most of the recording. If needed, the meteorologist will do a brief update during the commercial break.

Oklahoma may not be good at very many things, but our media's weather coverage is gold standard. I've read horror stories from Oklahomans caught in severe weather when traveling who were aghast at how shoddy tornado coverage is elsewhere by comparison. The expectation here is that a meteorologist should be to be able to pinpoint the location of a tornado down to the exact street intersection and provide a timetable to the minute for when it is likely to arrive at specific towns or neighborhoods. That capability seems to be lacking anywhere else. (One meteorologist in particular here, David Payne, will even go out on a limb and do things like declare his own tornado warnings before NWS does and estimate EF ratings on still-active storms. I think that's probably a bit much and he's gonna get himself in trouble some day doing that, but that's how confident he is in the tools at his disposal.)

[mgk920]

According to the latest figures in https://www.usacoinbook.com/ (sub-link is near the top of the menu list on the left), USA Nickels (5¢ coins) have a 'melt (metal)' value of of over 5¢ each (5.85¢ each).  Pennies (1¢ coins) have a 'melt' value of 0.62¢ each (post late 1982 'Zincolns') and 2.58¢ each (pre late 1982 bronze composition).  They are clearly uneconomical to make and handle.  Production costs are not included and include such things as labor, energy, transportation, depreciation on the equipment, etc, for the USA's Treasury department. IMHO, changes (no pun intended) here are badly needed.

When the half-cent coin was withdrawn in 1857, it had a value in 2023 money of somewhere in the range of 18 cents. That seems to me a good baseline. So, from that perspective, we should get rid of the penny, the nickel, and the dime, and perhaps maybe the quarter. Although if hat happened, it'd probably be wise for the half dollar to become more common.

Waaaay ore than that, IMHO, the government's 'official' figures on inflation are absurdly low.  The best that I can tell, from deeply looking things over, since the end of the gold standard in March of 1933 (the 'bank holiday' that was declared nearly the first thing right after FDR took office), the USA has had an overall inflation of about 100:1.  Yes, the $1 of today has the equivalent buying power of the 1¢ of 1933 (90 years ago) and before.

Mike

[ZLoth]

Of special concern was the fact that the Dallas Cowboys were hosting the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday Night Football. The local NBC affiliate received a ton of heat for not broadcasting a warning until a Commercial break.

That strikes me as very unusual. Here, it seems to be the case that the chief meteorologist has the authority to commandeer the entire station if they deem the weather to be bad enough (which is normally only tornadic storms, although I have seen particularly bad hailstorms used as justification). You can often see them making orders that a television director would normally be making (things like telling the control room to put so-and-so's video feed up on the screen, or switch to showing Doppler graphics, or bossing the anchors around). They are not shy about preempting an entire evening of prime time television in favor of wall-to-wall weather coverage, if warranted. The preempted programming is then usually run at 1am instead, so that if anyone wants to watch it they can program something to record it for later viewing.

Here is the NBC 5 Statement:

NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth/KXAS Statement Regarding Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019 Weather Coverage

During Sunday night's Dallas Cowboys game, we made a mistake by not immediately interrupting the football game with a Tornado Warning.

Although our meteorologists were tracking thunderstorms across the area when the National Weather Service issued a Tornado Warning for Dallas County, we delayed breaking into programming for six minutes.

Our meteorologists were also streaming live weather coverage throughout the evening on our site, NBCDFW.com. We also alerted the football audience to our weather livestream throughout the game.

When it comes to dealing with severe weather, we know that seconds matter. We should have broken into football programming sooner. We apologize and want you to know that we're doing everything in our power to make sure this does not happen again.

We look forward to regaining the trust of anyone we may have disappointed.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

[abefroman329]

I'm sure it's been discussed in this forum and others, but on the topic of customer surveys...

I recently brought our 2021 Tucson into the dealership for a recall.  The letter I got in the mail said that it would only take 20 minutes, yet I ended up having to wait at the dealership for 2.5 hours (who knows how much time was eaten up by their "courtesy inspection," where they tried to sell me on expensive maintenance packages, but I digress).  I didn't mention this at all, or express any dissatisfaction, but then the service tech calls me a day or two later to tell me how I'm going to get a survey, but anything less than a 10 out of 10 is a failure for him, so if we can work anything out before I take the survey...

So now I really have no way of expressing my dissatisfaction that won't get this poor bastard fired, when he's not even the one who decided to send me a letter saying the recall repair would only take 20 minutes.

[thspfc]

I'm sure it's been discussed in this forum and others, but on the topic of customer surveys...

I recently brought our 2021 Tucson into the dealership for a recall.  The letter I got in the mail said that it would only take 20 minutes, yet I ended up having to wait at the dealership for 2.5 hours (who knows how much time was eaten up by their "courtesy inspection," where they tried to sell me on expensive maintenance packages, but I digress).  I didn't mention this at all, or express any dissatisfaction, but then the service tech calls me a day or two later to tell me how I'm going to get a survey, but anything less than a 10 out of 10 is a failure for him, so if we can work anything out before I take the survey...

So now I really have no way of expressing my dissatisfaction that won't get this poor bastard fired, when he's not even the one who decided to send me a letter saying the recall repair would only take 20 minutes.

This is absolutely ridiculous on the part of the dealership. Anything less than 10/10 is a fireable offense? Who in their right mind thinks that getting their car recalled and having to go get it fixed could ever be a 10/10 experience?

And if 10/10 is the norm - on any rating scale - you're just being dishonest with yourself. Even companies such as restaurants or landscapers would be delusional to expect a 10/10 from every customer. So in turn, the dealership's survey is completely useless because if customers have to give a 10 then they're not receiving any real feedback.

If it was me I wouldn't even fill it out. I wouldn't go back to that dealership either.

Relating to that, there's a certain popular convenience store chain in the Midwest whose goal is to "exceed the expectations of every customer, every time."  Huh? If I go there to get a gallon of milk, I expect the place to be clean, milk to be stocked, and the employees to be nice. That's exactly what happens. My expectations were met, not exceeded. Was my visit a failure on their part? Apparently yes.

[wanderer2575]

I'm sure it's been discussed in this forum and others, but on the topic of customer surveys...

I recently brought our 2021 Tucson into the dealership for a recall.  The letter I got in the mail said that it would only take 20 minutes, yet I ended up having to wait at the dealership for 2.5 hours (who knows how much time was eaten up by their "courtesy inspection," where they tried to sell me on expensive maintenance packages, but I digress).  I didn't mention this at all, or express any dissatisfaction, but then the service tech calls me a day or two later to tell me how I'm going to get a survey, but anything less than a 10 out of 10 is a failure for him, so if we can work anything out before I take the survey...

So now I really have no way of expressing my dissatisfaction that won't get this poor bastard fired, when he's not even the one who decided to send me a letter saying the recall repair would only take 20 minutes.

Putting more effort into figuring out how to game the surveys than in making better cars seriously hurt the Big Three.  Dave Power (founder of J.D. Power and Associates) pleaded with them to not use the surveys that way, but they didn't listen.

[abefroman329]

This is absolutely ridiculous on the part of the dealership. Anything less than 10/10 is a fireable offense?

"If I get less than 10/10, I've failed" were the words of the service tech.  I don't know if one less-than-10 would get him fired, but having served time in similar positions in the past, I wouldn't trust the management of the service department or the dealership not to punish front-line employees, since they're usually unwilling to put their own rear ends on the line.

[ZLoth]

I'm sure it's been discussed in this forum and others, but on the topic of customer surveys...

I recently brought our 2021 Tucson into the dealership for a recall.  The letter I got in the mail said that it would only take 20 minutes, yet I ended up having to wait at the dealership for 2.5 hours (who knows how much time was eaten up by their "courtesy inspection," where they tried to sell me on expensive maintenance packages, but I digress).  I didn't mention this at all, or express any dissatisfaction, but then the service tech calls me a day or two later to tell me how I'm going to get a survey, but anything less than a 10 out of 10 is a failure for him, so if we can work anything out before I take the survey...

So now I really have no way of expressing my dissatisfaction that won't get this poor bastard fired, when he's not even the one who decided to send me a letter saying the recall repair would only take 20 minutes.

This is absolutely ridiculous on the part of the dealership. Anything less than 10/10 is a fireable offense? Who in their right mind thinks that getting their car recalled and having to go get it fixed could ever be a 10/10 experience?

And if 10/10 is the norm - on any rating scale - you're just being dishonest with yourself. Even companies such as restaurants or landscapers would be delusional to expect a 10/10 from every customer. So in turn, the dealership's survey is completely useless because if customers have to give a 10 then they're not receiving any real feedback.

If it was me I wouldn't even fill it out. I wouldn't go back to that dealership either.

Relating to that, there's a certain popular convenience store chain in the Midwest whose goal is to "exceed the expectations of every customer, every time."  Huh? If I go there to get a gallon of milk, I expect the place to be clean, milk to be stocked, and the employees to be nice. That's exactly what happens. My expectations were met, not exceeded. Was my visit a failure on their part? Apparently yes.

You forget that part that customer satisfaction surveys are extremely subjective, and what one person's perspective of "9" service may be another person's "7" service. Considering that every company wants to send you a survey for every visit, and you end of ignoring them unless it hits the extremes.... extremely well or extremely bad. Sometimes, these "bad experiences" are completely outside the control of the technician. Since I manage a team that does "mission critical" cloud-based support that works specifically with a specialized market, I see "bad surveys" all the time where the root cause was either a technical issue or software defect at the backend servers and/or the client software, or a feature/functionality that was disabled by the company admistrator. All I can do is see if my team member did their due diligence in the handling of the support case and let my manager know what happened. Heaven help you if a "Karen" fills out a survey. I'm more concerned about trends. Every member of my team gets a bad survey once in a while.

I have heard stories where the sales person at the dealership intentionally omits the mention of the email survey... because it's being send to a disposable one-use email account of that salesperson who puts in all tens. It's called "gaming the system".

As for a convenience store survey, what are you expecting as a "10" or "exceed the expectations of every customer"? I'm there to get fuel, a 2fer deal for soda, or a snack. Although it would be nice if the employee smiles or greets you, the fact is that you get all sorts of customers who will chew you out because their debit card has that infamous "insufficient funds" message or they would not allow the sale of a age-restricted product because you forgot your identification.