Oh man, I feel this. Made me chuckle on an otherwise supremely bad day, thanks.

Back in the dialup days when brands were first coming online I used to have quite a thing for a Toffee Crisp. When I got a bar that was noticeably smaller than the last, I emailed them expecting a reply about market forces or cost of ingredients, but maybe they’d also send a voucher for a free bar or something.

Instead they tried to gaslight me, telling me they’d always been that size and that I must be imagining it. I was so put out by it that, other than a very occasional multi-pack for picnics, I haven’t bought a single-serve Toffee Crisp, Mars Bar, Snickers etc since.

When shrinkflation became a recognised term I felt so vindicated! I wish I still had that email so that I could shove it in their faces.

Yeah exactly this. A lot of the humour feels very dated today, even occasionally crossing the line into offensive, but at the time it was essential viewing. There’s a reason they were the most highly paid actors in TV comedy for a while (or TV in general?), later to be pipped by the cast of Frasier IIRC.

Speaking of Frasier, unlike its star, that has aged pretty well IMO, and I would still recommend it.

O rly? I will look into this, thanks!

Maybe somebody’s asked this already but how come, in this day and age, there isn’t a way to snapshot your entire phone into some sort of encrypted blob for storage in a location of your choice? You could wipe your phone and setup a throwaway profile with some basic apps before traveling, and then restore the snapshot once safely through customs.

Border issues aside, it would be very handy to be able to snapshot a phone like that anyway…

Mythbusters did this, taking enough cars for one lane each in rush hour traffic, plus one car that was allowed to weave.

The weaving car was quicker by a not inconsiderable margin, so they kind of stumbled over the conclusion saying that yes, weaving is faster, but you probably shouldn’t.

I feel bad for laughing so hard at this. Bravo.

Yup, that’s one of the other things I wish I’d had the foresight to do.

My entire card details got stolen recently, including my name, address and phone number. The first I knew of it was when an email came in with a verification code for a multi-thousand £ purchase for a hotel reservation. I was just thinking it’s an odd looking phish when my phone rang. I ignored it as I always do and then it immediately rang again, so I answered it:

Them: Hello, is this Mr Zanzibar?

Me: Yes

Them: This is Amex fraud dept. We’ve noticed some odd activity on your card, did you make a purchase at x for y in the last few minutes?

Me: No.

Them: OK, great. It’s been flagged and declined on our end so your money’s safe. Just so that I can get this closed off, can you confirm the code that was sent to you?

Me: …Nnnnnooooooooo?

Them: immediately hangs up

Obviously then had to then call the real fraud dept and cancel my card, but I was annoyed by how little of a shit they seemed to give. No curiosity of where they could’ve got every detail of my card, no advice of what to do next, just cancelled the card and issued a new one. Thank you, next caller please.

Spent the rest of the day both relieved that I didn’t fall for it but also furious at myself because the best response I could come up with in the moment was “no”. I could’ve at least told them to get fucked!

Just to confirm: I tried this, it works.

Same. It’s incredibly bare bones and you have to supply your own domain, but the pricing structure makes a lot of sense and they offer some cool stuff that no other provider does, like wildcard subdomain support.

I tried Jellyfin once about a year ago and it was… OK I guess? Certainly nowhere near as polished as the rabid fan base would have me believe, and there was something in my library that it flat out refused to play.

If I didn’t already have a lifetime Plex Pass, and it was just me hosting my own media for a user count of one, then sure, I’d use it. But none of those things are true. I need something that “just works” and Plex fits that bill.

Like most people here, I bought a lifetime pass when it was $75 and it’s paid for itself over and over again in the time since. I honestly think I’ve had more than $750 worth of value from my purchase. Sure they’ve made some odd decisions recently, but until they start actively taking away functionality or rescind existing lifetime subs then I will continue to use it.

Meanwhile, not to belittle you personally, but the fact that every thread that mentions Plex in any way, good or bad, is guaranteed to be dominated by people circle-jerking over their beloved Jellyfin has put me completely off the project, to the point that I’ve had to add the word to my blocklist. Obviously that’s not working too well or I wouldn’t have seen this post!

Not a boss per se, but the first Marauder fight in Doom Eternal made me rage quit for a good 6 months.

Let me get my daily fail headline translator out real quick:

“Came under fire” == “somebody tweeted”

“Fury” == “a bot tweeted”

“Outrage” == “one of our staff tweeted”

“Slammed” == “somebody liked our tweet”

Probably not what you’re after but I buy cheap CDs from Music Magpie and similar sites, rip them as FLAC to my home storage, and then host them for family and friends on Plex with a lifetime pass. The Plexamp app is really good, and I especially like the “released on this day” feature for reliving some old classics.

Costs pennies a month in upkeep, with the only major downside being the lack of a discovery feature for new music. But I’m old so I mostly just listen to the stuff from my youth anyway.

Lots of people talking about beheadings, but the video that I can never unwatch was of a woman in a blank walled room facing the camera and getting unceremoniously shot in the head with a revolver. I’ve no idea if it was real or not, but the lack of, for want of a better word, “spectacle” makes me think it was.

I don’t want to look it up again to find out but if anyone knows for sure…

Plus passive smoking. While drinking is bad for the drinker’s health, it’s possible to be around people who are drinking without drinking yourself. The same can’t be said for smoking.

August 1999. The last total solar eclipse visible from the UK was 72 years ago, and the next one would be 91 years later. Young Ted woke up to a gloriously sunny day. This would be it!

An hour before the event we drove out to a nice remote viewing spot with minimal obstructions for miles around. 30 minutes to go, the clouds rolled in. Thick, blanket cloud from horizon to horizon. The eclipse happened. From under the cloud it got a bit darker and the birds had a bit of a freak out but it was otherwise a non-event. We drove back home, disappointed.

30 minutes later the clouds cleared and the rest of the day was as glorious as the morning had been. 27 years later I’m still bitter about it. Seattle’s got nothing on us!

“2”

Holy shit this has been a long time coming and it’s about bloody time!

I’ve been getting proper fed up of seeing new builds with a token one or two panels, presumably a requirement for getting an A rating, only for them to be put slap-bang in the middle of the roof so that the owner is unable to add capacity without ripping the whole thing out and starting again. It reeks of malicious compliance and they’ve been allowed to get away with it for far too long.