GRIPES

[Marty_d]

Used to be that you only got advertising on free products. Like the majority of apps which are free, make their money through ads.

However recently even the paid services show ads. Netflix and Prime especially. If you don't want ads, you pay more.

Basically it's because billionaires are arseholes.

[facthunter]

Pretty much correct.. Corner the Market and there's no competition. If you can't compete. Put tariffs on.  Whinge about everyone one ripping you off on trade DEALS you signed and not under duress either. Nev

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

I can't get a code anymore for my online banking changes. The bank will only send a code via mobile phone now, not landline, the way I used to receive it. I don't have a mobile, and even if I did have one, there is no reception here. I'm up the creek without a paddle.

 

In this respect, online banking doesn't exist for me any longer, I'll have to drive all the way to town, at their whim, and do my banking at the counter. The only other way is to buy a mobile phone, travel 10ks or more to higher ground, download the code, rush back home, enter it, hoping I haven't been automatically logged out due to inactivity. 

 

Everyone around here will be similarly affected. 

 

There's no consideration for bushies anymore, if there ever was.

[willedoo]

It amazes me some of the places that don't have mobile phone coverage. Ten years ago I went for a visit to Tasmania and visited people in the Upper Esk Valley. They had no coverage and had to drive to town to get a signal. As far as I know it's still like that. I would have thought with the number of people it would service, it would be a fairly simple matter to put a tower on one of the hills there.

[nomadpete]

16 minutes ago, willedoo said:

. I would have thought with the number of people it would service, it would be a fairly simple matter to put a tower on one of the hills there.

You can thank privatisation for that.

 

User pays. A base station isn't cheap. If it doesn't make a profit over and above the install cost there, it doesn't get installed. A handful of customers will never be profitable.

If you want capital city services, move to a capital city.

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

Nothing but power outages today, they're back! Started 8:30 this morning, and the third and last one (I hope), finished just now. The first one was a notified outage, the other two weren't.

 

Since I had no electricity, I took the opportunity to drive all the way to town to inquire at my bank about not being able to get a code for online banking. The guy I spoke to, probably a supervisor, had no idea there are areas out here without mobile coverage, I had to fill him in on what it's like out here. He busied himself working out what I could do. After a while, he came back and said "Ring this branch when you need a code, and a female (her name was provided) will give you one".

 

 Quite a step backwards if you ask me. 

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

I take a day off on Friday and the software release on Thursday eve - a normal regular one - went pear shaped due to simple effing mistakes that I pay professionals not to make. So most of my day was stealthily directing the team and I have to face the music with a cackle of senior management on Monday. 

 

Nice day off!

 

[nomadpete]

Just now, Jerry_Atrick said:

I take a day off on Friday and the software release on Thursday eve - a normal regular one - went pear shaped due to simple effing mistakes that I pay professionals not to make. So most of my day was stealthily directing the team and I have to face the music with a cackle of senior management on Monday. 

 

Nice day off!

 

And that's why you get the big bucks.

 

 

Good luck!  (seriously)

[Jerry_Atrick]

20 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

And that's why you get the big bucks.

Actually, I am the lowest paid director in my department. There are people working for me that get paid more. 

 

But that is the story of another gripe - of my own doing.. 

 

 

Edited September 5 by Jerry_Atrick

[willedoo]

This is not really a gripe, just some observations for want of a better thread to post in.

 

In some ways things are advancing and in other ways we're going backwards. I've noticed for a while now a lot of companies and organisations are becoming increasingly disfunctional. A lot are getting a fortress mentality where it's becoming increasingly difficult for customers and others to contact them. Too many working groups, team leaders, teams, team meetings, overseas outsourced support and the list goes on. It gives me the impression that a lot of people making the decisions these days wouldn't know if their arse was on fire. They think if you have enough blah, blah, blah, and keep kicking the ball around in circles, everything will work out. It's in government and regulation as well, or should I say over regulation. A good example I heard on the ABC radio today was that some operators of coffee outlets in Victoria are required to have up to thirty four different licences to pour and sell coffee.

 

Another example of a disfunctional system is our banana quarantine system here in S.E. Queensland. I haven't grown any since the 1990's but am thinking of putting a few in again. The last time I grew them, the government took it very seriously. Non commercial household growers were only allowed to grow Lady Fingers and the suckers had to be sourced from a grower approved by the Department of Primary Industries. Transportation of banana material was restricted to certain zones (still is) and a strict planting window was in place with about a two month period that they were allowed to be planted. I got quite a shock last year when I made some enquiries into planting, as I wanted to do the right thing regarding disease control.

 

Here's a comparison of how it was planting bananas in the 1990's compared to now. Back then I went to the local DPI research station for advice. They gave me a contact list of approved growers, and that was it. All I had to do was ring a nearby approved grower, buy the suckers and plant them. All legal and biosecurity compliant.

 

Fast forward to now. Some time ago the DPI research stations stopped dealing with the public. Now they have no public phone numbers or any other way to contact them, and the stations are blocked to public access so you can't go and see them. Wanting to do the right thing, I rang the department headquarters in Brisbane and they didn't have a clue what to do. I then asked them if they had a list of approved growers and they said they weren't allowed to give out that information and suggested I contact the banana growers association. I rang them several times over a few days and nobody would answer the phone. They had a very loud recorded tune playing for waiting; it was the lyrics banana-nana, banana-nana excised from that kid's song and looped endlessly at irritatingly high volume. It was as if they were purposely trying to get you to hang up and go away. Nobody is going to sit there and listen to that for an indeterminate period of time. I think my record in all the calls was about 20 minutes of banana-nana, banana-nana and that was it for me.

 

It's odd because the quarantine signs are still everywhere, and the relevant authorities' websites still bang on about how strict they are with banana biosecurity but government and the growers association are total fu*kwits about it. The problem with that is that people wanting to plant bananas are now just buying them illegally on FB Marketplace from backyarders. It's not legal to sell if you're not an approved grower and not legal to buy from non approved growers. The government and the growers association are talking the talk and not walking the walk. It's gone from a very efficient system to one that's completely disfunctional.