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

[Drarok]

I would like to build an app that tracks when a phone app is in active use and then restrict you from using it for a set time. Like only being able to use Facebook every hour.

If you're on iOS, that's built-in since iOS 12 and called "Screen Time".

If you're on Android, it's available as of Android 9 and called "Digital Wellbeing". You can download it on the Play Store.

Edit: Got my versions wrong.

[Rossell]

Superstar, thank you I think I need to look into them.

[Wrathbone]

Products where measurements are important and the unit of measurement is not specified. I'm looking at some art prints and several shops list things like 20x16, which gives no clue as to whether that's centimetres or inches.

Maybe I should offer to pay 20, and not specify that I meant Iranian Rials.

[arqueturus]

Products where measurements are important and the unit of measurement is not specified. I'm looking at some art prints and several shops list things like 20x16, which gives no clue as to whether that's centimetres or inches.

Maybe I should offer to pay 20, and not specify that I meant Iranian Rials.

[Alan]

Chromebook adverts.

[Raid]

Yes.

[Drarok]

God damn, yes.

They're obnoxious at best, and misleading at worst. Some poor fucks are going to buy one and then find out how utterly shite and unfit for most people's purposes they are.

[Sly Boots]

I like my Chromebook. But then all I use it for is browsing the internet from the sofa, so it suits my purposes just fine

It was good in lockdown too as it's the only device I have a webcam for, so we were using it for family Zoom calls. I wouldn't use it for word processing or the like, but my wife does and seems to get on with it fine.

I've not actually seen the ads in question, however.

[Drarok]

They meet a number of requirements. Just fucking around on the web, for example.

One of their ads is "Gaming interrupted by updates? It's time to switch… to Chromebook!"

Like fuck is it. There's a very specific set of software that can be run on those bastards. If it's not on the list, you're shit out of luck.

[Raid]

I don't actually have anything against Chromebooks (although I find them too limited to be something I'd actually buy), they just happen to be everywhere at the moment. I usually stick something on YouTube via Chromecast on the living room TV while I use the exercise bike, and those Chromebook ads have started playing not only during videos, but before you've even selected something to watch (which Chromecasts have never done before to my knowledge).

[Sly Boots]

They meet a number of requirements. Just fucking around on the web, for example.

One of their ads is "Gaming interrupted by updates? It's time to switch… to Chromebook!"

Like fuck is it. There's a very specific set of software that can be run on those bastards. If it's not on the list, you're shit out of luck.

Oh, yeah. You definitely can't game on them. Bit of a weird selling point, that.

[Alan]

If you can’t game it’ll never be interrupted. Duuuuhhh!

[Snowy]

The ever increasing ad frequency on YouTube.

Now let it be known that even were I a complete illiterate, Grammarly can eat shit, having had endless twattering yanks twanging on about it on YouTube means I would never ever buy the fucking thing. Great product? Fuck you, could be the best product ever but you have forced yourself on me and so will never get my money.

Plus now there seems to be a new seam of adverts whose sole aim is "make Snowy puke". I really have zero fucking interest in seeing a set of tweezers pull a crusty earthworm of earwax out of a pensioners skull thanks. There can't be a lot of money in waxworms so why am I fucking seeing it.

[Wrathbone]

Great product? Fuck you, could be the best product ever but you have forced yourself on me and so will never get my money.

I'm very much of this mindset when it comes to ads.

Youtube is terrible for ads now. I seem to keep getting ones for Trading 212, whatever the fuck that is, and something with the Duracell bunny daring me not to press the skip button. Won't be buying Duracell ever again.

I'd pay a modest monthly subscription to have it ad-free. A fiver, maybe. But their sub is ludicrous - about £12 a month last time I checked. And yeah, I know you get other gubbins included with that, but I tried the free month and never used any of it.

[Drarok]

Agreed, they've really ramped up the aggression, number, and unskippableness of ads in the last few months. Also agree that their pricing is laughable. I know that technically they have more content than Netflix, but the quality is so much lower, and they're not paying to produce much of anything comparatively. The set their price higher than Netflix just seems insane to me.