The New Rant Thread

[Alan Phipps]

We haven't had any takers on the old Rant Thread here for several years now, and it's always good to let off some steam harmlessly.

Here's my starter:

Today I had an email from my energy supplier with a banner headline of 'Good news - Energy prices are going down!'. It went on to tell me that with the coming lowering of the UK energy price cap, electricity unit prices would be going down.

Then this little killer sentence - "As your electricity usage is low you may see a slight increase in your electricity annual costs, due to a small change to your daily standing charge." (I have solar panels and so low grid usage, and the 'small change' in daily standing charge was actually a 27% rise.)

So my 'Good news' is that my estimated electricity bills will actually go up by about £17 per year - and I'll probably get less for the surplus solar electricity that I sell back to them too.

[fiksal]

ah yes, the old good news bad news switcharoo


I will add a rant then.

one more year of changing clock, because we live in pretend WW1 time

[alt3rn1ty]

C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\DDDriver64DCSa.sys

This is a bit of a success story, but also a rant at Dell

For about a year now I have been unable to turn on Win 11 Core Isolations Memory Integrity.
Windows would report I had an out of date driver which needed updating, but did not list any drivers which were the cause ???.

Found out yesterday Microsoft have a Memory integrity system readiness scan tool you can download from here ..
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downloa ... ?id=105437
.. hvciscan_amd64.exe
Run it via an elevated Command line, and you will get actual results for any problem drivers/files.

In my case it was one file, which was left behind by Dell when they decided to pull a part of their support software. Idiots.
DDDriver64DCSa.sys - Dell Data Vault Control Device Driver

Code: Select all

VbsGetIssues: 0x00000000 

VbsIsRecommended: 1 

HVCI incompatible driver scan start... 

HVCI: Error 1168 querying "C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\dddriver64Dcsa.sys" in the SDB 

HVCI: Driver scanning complete 

HVCI: scan get result failed.

I had to right click on the file and choose Properties, Security tab, and then go through the process of giving myself rights to delete it.
Once deleted, I could now select Windows Core Isolation Memory Integrity .. Peace of mind at last.

Historically Dell do things like this occasionally, little foobars with their support software not managing itself 100% correctly, overlays of old update extensions to support software for example which dont get uninstalled when the base update software is updated negating the need for the update extension which is still run after the base update and is incompatible .. causing knock on effects for windows and turn into a nightmare of trying to figure out what the hell is going wrong.

Dell, sort your shit out!.

Its pointless me going onto a Dell support site as Dell don't seem to listen, its just other users listening and helping, so Dell Tech guys never get to see any issues they need to solve .. So I may aswell shout out from here as anywhere else.

[Chips]

Ha, the increase in the standing charge. The cost increase that also covers clawing back money from taking over failed energy companies...

The same energy companies that failed because as the energy prices rose, the price cap prevented them passing on the cost to consumers, leading to wide scale bankruptcies.

So now the few surviving companies can pay off that debt via standing charges, and once done, be making wayyyy bigger profits* that aren't dependent upon actual usage \o/


*maybe they'll lower them, but with much less competition in the market place I wouldn't bet on it

[jlehtone]

So my 'Good news' is that my estimated electricity bills will actually go up by about £17 per year

That is clearly good news ... for them.

a rant at Dell

Recent years the Dell monitors available to us were S-series. Latest purchase was a S2721DS.
It includes a HDMI cable. The standard desktops are Dell Optiplex. They have only DP-ports ...
(Now there seems to be P-series and they are supposed to include a DP-cable. Perhaps my rants did go somewhere.)

[Oldman]

We haven't had any takers on the old Rant Thread here for several years now, and it's always good to let off some steam harmlessly.

Here's my starter:

(Abbreviated).....

So my 'Good news' is that my estimated electricity bills will actually go up by about £17 per year - and I'll probably get less for the surplus solar electricity that I sell back to them too.

Now why doesn't that surprise me. It's a trend (as we all I think know) that seems to have been more noticeable since the start of the covid epidemic. I personally think it's various company's and organisations still trying to claw back revenue they lost over that period.
Thanks btw. for creating the new 'rant thread' !
I've a feeling I might be contributing frequently to this topic in the near future .

On the positive side, @ linolafett...Thanks for sorting out my login problems, it's very much appreciated!

Oldman

[Alan Phipps]

New rant - car hire using a 3rd party verification tool.

Wanted to hire a bigger car to take family in comfort up to Scotland for a family wedding. All pre-requested and but went into the hire place to confirm and show licence. Was told, in front of others waiting, that I had failed the 3rd party verification test. Are the details on the licence and shown on the computer screen all correct? - yes. How long had I lived at my address? - 25 years and I am the owner. Was my date of birth correct? - yes. Could you pay by credit card rather than a debit card? - I don't have a credit card and there's plenty of money for this available on the debit card.

I was left with - well we'll have to talk to our risk-assessment people - we'll phone you when we have. Days later and nothing heard, so I phoned their central Customer Support desk. Ah yes, that will be because you have no credit history with no loans, mortgage or credit card. I said 'Yes, but that's good isn't it?' Not for hiring a car it isn't .... You'll have to get another named driver to hire the car and pay on their credit card, you can always pay them back. We don't control the verification test and we don't take other proof such as bank statements, utility bills, etc.

This is the first time that I have ever been accused of being suspicious because I don't owe anyone any money!

[Dukman]

New rant - car hire using a 3rd party verification tool.

Wanted to hire a bigger car to take family in comfort up to Scotland for a family wedding. All pre-requested and but went into the hire place to confirm and show licence. Was told, in front of others waiting, that I had failed the 3rd party verification test. Are the details on the licence and shown on the computer screen all correct? - yes. How long had I lived at my address? - 25 years and I am the owner. Was my date of birth correct? - yes. Could you pay by credit card rather than a debit card? - I don't have a credit card and there's plenty of money for this available on the debit card.

I was left with - well we'll have to talk to our risk-assessment people - we'll phone you when we have. Days later and nothing heard, so I phoned their central Customer Support desk. Ah yes, that will be because you have no credit history with no loans, mortgage or credit card. I said 'Yes, but that's good isn't it?' Not for hiring a car it isn't .... You'll have to get another named driver to hire the car and pay on their credit card, you can always pay them back. We don't control the verification test and we don't take other proof such as bank statements, utility bills, etc.

This is the first time that I have ever been accused of being suspicious because I don't owe anyone any money!

How dare you be debt free!

[Terre]

New rant - car hire using a 3rd party verification tool.
...
This is the first time that I have ever been accused of being suspicious because I don't owe anyone any money!

That is absolutely ridiculous.

[fiksal]

I had a similar chat to this when I was looking for a mortgage, to buy my own place.

With no credit history it's a tough thing to do, need to have a bunch of loans.

So loans and credit cards I did

[mr.WHO]

I heard about those situation many times, but I never experienced them myself.

Still, I bought a laptop on a loan like 10+ years ago for that reason, to not have zero loan/credit history.
I wonder if it still exist in those registries, or am back to be credit ghost.


Fortunately, debit cards are wastly more popular here than credit cards, to the point I wonder why would anybody even need a credit card.

[fiksal]

I personally use credit cards for security.

I had money stolen from my debit card before, and while I got it back eventually, it wasn't a sure thing that I would.

I had theft/ unknown charge on my credit card and that was much easier and faster to solve.

Since then I don't carry debit / bank cards at all, only if I need to access my bank.

There's also a cash flow issue, a bit easier to handle with the credit card charges

[Oldman]

Hi Folks

Not so much a rant, more of an 'observation!...

Just had a scam call (Again ), a 'Gentleman' with a foreign accent asked me to go and check my router (claiming to be from my internet provider)
I said oh yes, what seems to be the problem?...He said you are not getting the proper service you are paying for. After some more brief conversation I said my computer was broken and not working either. "No" he said (I could tell from his voice he was getting a trifle tetchy at this point as he must have realised I might be deliberately keeping him talking) "I just want you to go and check on your router etc etc."
After some minutes I put it to him that if he was representing my internet provider, he must know who my name was...so I said what is it!.
He said and I quote, "You are a bitch and the son of a M"^&*%* F*&^%$*", to which I replied (laughing out loud before he could put the phone down)..."I know mate, I've been told that before!".
The best laugh I've had for a long time.

Oldman

[chew-ie]

Had to bring my new gravel bike in for repairs yesterday ( ) and got the message today to collect it ( ). Now we have heavy rain and a storm.

[fiksal]

what's a gravel bike?

[Alan Phipps]

@ fiksal: https://www.mountainbikeexpert.com/grav ... ain-bikes/

@ chew-ie: I'm assuming that the repairs were needed after the new bike had been ridden and somehow affected, rather than on delivery? The latter indeed would make me rant!

[chew-ie]

@ fiksal: https://www.mountainbikeexpert.com/grav ... ain-bikes/

@ chew-ie: I'm assuming that the repairs were needed after the new bike had been ridden and somehow affected, rather than on delivery? The latter indeed would make me rant!

It was bought, ridden and needed some bad-luck repairs 2 weeks later. I'm mostly ranting about me not being able to use it (we had pretty good weather while it was gone for the repairs).

[Fus]

Here is a rant , WHY do forums posts have a date with no year ?
I'm trying to find help re Linux and there are 41 pages so most posts will be useless . It would be nice to know if I'm reading something recent rather than 2 years old.

[matthewfarmery]

You mean

by Fus » Thu Dec 05, 2024 4:26 pm?

I see a year in all forum posts, you might want to check your account settings if you don't see something similar, but even the first thread of a post on the main forum has a year in it. For example

Wordle, a Daily Frustration.
by Gavrushka » Sun Feb 20, 2022 9:45 am

Maybe you could provide a screenshot on what you are seeing instead?

Edit, look in board preferences / date format, and see if any setting there fixes your problem.

[chew-ie]

Indeed - I've years as well. We need more information on what the Fus is about..