The Room 101 thread - for things you hate or just having a bloody good moan

[Stormbringer]

I've known a couple of acquaintances of late whose landlords have decided to sell their properties and they've been forced to move.

In one case, the renters were able to find accommodation in another rented flat which is, arguably, better than their previous arrangement. In another case, the renters were forced to move many, many miles away into a massively inferior and generally unsatisfactory location. I feel very sorry for them.

[Sly Boots]

I've known a couple of acquaintances of late whose landlords have decided to sell their properties and they've been forced to move.

In one case, the renters were able to find accommodation in another rented flat which is, arguably, better than their previous arrangement. In another case, the renters were forced to move many, many miles away into a massively inferior and generally unsatisfactory location. I feel very sorry for them.

You can add +1 to that, we had to move out of somewhere for that reason at one time. We ended up having to move back in with my mum for a few months

[Animalmother]

It's a bit of all the above. The rents have gone crazy in the past few years and everyone is cashing in on it. I also live in most of the most expensive cities to rent in Europe. I'll find something but the whole process is very draining and soul crushing at times.

[Stormbringer]

The way that AI art and the internet-driven disinformation plague have gone hand in hand to create an entire multiverse of false narratives, and how these have been roped into crap click-bait advertisements pasted all over YouTube.

One of the latest themes I've seen doing the rounds is that Steven Bartlett has been arrested, owing to the number of pictures I've seen of him posted all over my browser being physically seized by the UK equivalent of a S.W.A.T. team, and all framed in what looks like a fake BBC web-page. Also, I don't even know if only I am seeing these (are they being tailored to me?)...or is everyone else seeing the same thing? I feel like, looking at the world through the lens of the internet, the fabric of reality is being unwoven before my eyes.

[Hatredsheart]

The way that AI art and the internet-driven disinformation plague have gone hand in hand to create an entire multiverse of false narratives, and how these have been roped into crap click-bait advertisements pasted all over YouTube.

One of the latest themes I've seen doing the rounds is that Steven Bartlett has been arrested, owing to the number of pictures I've seen of him posted all over my browser being physically seized by the UK equivalent of a S.W.A.T. team, and all framed in what looks like a fake BBC web-page. Also, I don't even know if only I am seeing these (are they being tailored to me?)...or is everyone else seeing the same thing? I feel like, looking at the world through the lens of the internet, the fabric of reality is being unwoven before my eyes.

I was getting a lot of that fake headline clickbait too, ESPECIALLY on X. I'm much happier on bluesky tbh.

[Stormbringer]

I am happier on bluesky too, but I think it's YouTube that's the worst offender these days (at least in my experience); that's where I'm seeing the bulk of AI-generated fake news clickbait ads.

[Hatredsheart]

I am happier on bluesky too, but I think it's YouTube that's the worst offender these days (at least in my experience); that's where I'm seeing the bulk of AI-generated fake news clickbait ads.

I use smarttube on my tv luckily, haven't seen an ad there in years.

[Can't think of one]

Bloody Amazon.

For the last 10 years roughly, I've had my dad's account in my Amazon Household so that he can receive my Prime delivery benefits, and then I've signed my account into his devices so he can use my Prime Video. It's worked pretty well that way. Amazon are now putting an end to this by changing Amazon Household into Amazon Family, which on paper sounds even better: I add him to my Family group and he gets ALL my Prime benefits, not just delivery.

Except we also get all each other's notifications, along with sharing of all Alexa devices, payment methods and activity.

This shouldn't be a big deal - it's not like we have any especially private activity we want to hide (that I know about ¬_¬) and while he has loads of Alexa devices, I have none. But as someone who is stringent (militant, even) about privacy when it comes to technology, this feels fucking awful. I hate not knowing how, when or why my data is being flung about Amazon willy-nilly, and especially the payment methods being 'shared' in some unspecified manner, which is a nightmare from a security perspective. I like my accounts to be barebones and isolated, under my control, and this is the exact opposite.

I've just been hit my this, My sister has prime but according to her you can only add one adult to the group, which is a pain in the arse as there four adults in our household and yeah I don't like the whole other people can see my orders thing either...I have to get my Viagra tablets from somewhere else now ¬_¬

[Wrathbone]

Room thermometers.

For several years I've had a digital thermometer in my bedroom to monitor temps in hot weather and inform when I should open or close windows, etc. Until now I've just trusted that the figure it gives me is reasonably accurate - LIKE A CHUMP, it turns out. I've just bought a second digital thermometer (different make and model) for another room, so that during this latest of many heatwaves I can quantify my misery. The two thermometers do not agree, fluctuating anywhere from 1 to 4 degrees difference.

At first I thought the new one just needed acclimatising, so I left them next to each other overnight, but they were still off by 2c this morning. So as a control, I've put them both in the fridge which is set to 3.5c, but after two hours one says 8.9c and the other says 10c, and now I'm doubting the fridge as well.

What exactly is the point in a thermometer with a variance of up to 6+ degrees? Also, how the fuck am I supposed to know which thermometer to buy to get results that are remotely accurate?

[Stormbringer]

"Your parcel has been delivered" says a notification on my phone's screen, which I noticed at 11 pm.

The carrier is Evri though, so I had a bad feeling about it. And, of course, my bad feeling was not unfounded.

At 7pm (the supposed time of delivery) the doorbell was never rung, nor the door knocked. I was milling about the ground floor of the house at the time and, due to the layout of the house, it's unlikely I would have missed anyone shuffling about with a large parcel (it's a new three-wheeled scooter for my 4-year-old's birthday next month).

I went outside, after seeing the notification, to see if the parcel was left outside the door. No sign of it. I check the message on my phone in more detail, just to see if there's any strange delivery note like "Your parcel was left in the tree outside your house" or "your parcel was stuffed underneath your car" (it is Evri, after all, you never know) and sure enough "the parcel was left on your doorstep".

Well it's not there now. So either it's been stolen or they're lying. Knowing Evri, I'm actually leaning towards the latter.

[Hatredsheart]

My recent experiences with Evri have been that I'll get a notification that it's been delivered 2 days after it has, which is bloody confusing if you're expecting multiple parcels.

[Wrathbone]

I must have the only decent Evri delivery guy in the country. Very friendly and always turns up in his specified time slot.

Back to ranting, boiling weather and an abscess on my leg means I've hardly slept in three days and am feeling stabby. The temp's dropped but there's about as much wind as a fart from a weasel, so the heat is refusing to leave the house.

[Animalmother]

It pissed rain here for about 15 minutes so its now turned tropical.

[Raid]

The heat made the weekend absolutely wretched for me. I took part in the weekly Darktide session with the Discord group on saturday, and given it was warmer outside than in when I started, I didn't open the windows. My PC runs pretty warm (though apparently not warm enough to melt my motherboard, unlike another member of the group), and the room was like a blast furnace by the end. I didn't manage to get the house cooled down to a comfortable temperature until after 11pm. I then slept in a bit on sunday, so didn't get chance to open all of the windows while it was still cool outside to correctly prepare the house for the rest of the day, and even though I skipped the gaming that afternoon, it was somehow even warmer.

And irritatingly, I had both mornings scheduled to get some major airbrushing work in on my latest Gunpla project done, and my sodding airbrush finally bit the dust after 11 years on friday evening. By the time the replacement arrived on sunday afternoon, there wasn't a chance I was going to don a silicone respirator for multiple hours when I was already sweating just sitting there doing absolutely nothing.

The weekend was a completely write-off and I'm £130 down for the airbrush.

I must have the only decent Evri delivery guy in the country. Very friendly and always turns up in his specified time slot.

It's entirely possible we have the same Evri delivery person, but I can't say I ever have a problem with them either. Granted, "not having a problem with" equates to "not having to use pitons and a good strong rope to retrieve the package following delivery" with couriers, but still.

[Wrathbone]

The heat made the weekend absolutely wretched for me. I took part in the weekly Darktide session with the Discord group on saturday, and given it was warmer outside than in when I started, I didn't open the windows. My PC runs pretty warm (though apparently not warm enough to melt my motherboard, unlike another member of the group), and the room was like a blast furnace by the end. I didn't manage to get the house cooled down to a comfortable temperature until after 11pm. I then slept in a bit on sunday, so didn't get chance to open all of the windows while it was still cool outside to correctly prepare the house for the rest of the day, and even though I skipped the gaming that afternoon, it was somehow even warmer.

I swear I could pass an intermediate course on fluid dynamics at this point, what with all the air currents I've had to try and create to keep the house remotely endurable. And using my gaming PC is entirely out of the question when the weather gets above 25c, so I spent most of the weekend on my Switch 2, slowly baking alive.

The wind is picking up now finally, I've got a tower fan blasting hot air out the window and the room I'm working in has dropped 3c in the last couple of hours, so there is some hope of sleep tonight.