WBMT.....What baffled me today

BBC2 & Ch5 have just disappeared from Sky.
 
BBC 1 and 2 disappeared from our TV recently and I had to retune all our TV's and recorders.

I do wonder how older people and people who have issues dealing with technology manage these days as there's just so much tech that isn't stable and needs periodic fettling in one way or another. The unstable and unreliable nature of not just the internet and on line things but wider things too worries and annoys me and I do wonder how people who are more vulnerable to all this cope and I do think that more consideration should be given to the effect issuing changes has especially when there's no notice or announcement and something that worked yesterday, like BBC1, doesn't the following day.
 
woof woof said:
BBC 1 and 2 disappeared from our TV recently and I had to retune all our TV's and recorders.

I do wonder how older people and people who have issues dealing with technology manage these days as there's just so much tech that isn't stable and needs periodic fettling in one way or another. The unstable and unreliable nature of not just the internet and on line things but wider things too worries and annoys me and I do wonder how people who are more vulnerable to all this cope and I do think that more consideration should be given to the effect issuing changes has especially when there's no notice or announcement and something that worked yesterday, like BBC1, doesn't the following day.
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Being an ex toolmaker, 1st rule if something doesn't work, beat it into submission with a 2lb copper mallet. ;)
 
woof woof said:
Actually, one last parking story. My neighbours sister used to always park in front of our house which was annoying as next door to them there's a field and she could park anywhere along the boundary fence as no one parks there as everyone parks outside their houses on the other side of the road. If she parked there she'd leave the front of our house clear and make it much easier for me to pull out, turn and drive off.

Anyway, one day we were in the car just belting up and getting ready to drive off when she arrived and as she couldn't park in her usual spot right in front of our house she drove straight past ignoring the 100m or so of clear road she could have park anywhere on, turned and stopped at the end of the road and waited for us to go and she then came back and parked in her usual space. Such is life.
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You could have done......'drat we forgot something' and parked in the 'space' in front of your house rushed back inside for 10 minutes ;)
 
srichards said:
Foot operated parking brake. What lunatic thinks these are a good idea?
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Have to admit that I quite like it in the Leaf. Not so sure about it in a manual vehicle though.
 
Nod said:
Have to admit that I quite like it in the Leaf. Not so sure about it in a manual vehicle though.
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It was in a 2019 Leaf. I thought they'd dropped it by then. Had one while the Zoe was in for service. Massive compared to the Zoe!
 
srichards said:
Foot operated parking brake. What lunatic thinks these are a good idea?
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I don't know about these days but Mercs used to have them and they seemed so awkward to me with the ratchet sound when putting it on and the clunk/bang taking it off and I always wondered how it worked with a manual box on slopes as you'd need your left foot free to work the clutch.

If anyone has one with a manual box how do you manage?
 
woof woof said:
I don't know about these days but Mercs used to have them and they seemed so awkward to me with the ratchet sound when putting it on and the clunk/bang taking it off and I always wondered how it worked with a manual box on slopes as you'd need your left foot free to work the clutch.

If anyone has one with a manual box how do you manage?
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right foot on brake, into neutral, left foot on parking brake.
When driving off, it releases automatically.
 
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There are only two possible way's up, to put a usb plug into a usb socket.

So why does it take three attempts to get it right :thinking:
 
Are you sure that grey's not really blonde, Chris? ;) :p
 
Nod said:
Are you sure that grey's not really blonde, Chris? ;) :p
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That's an idea, Nod, I think I'd look really cute as a blonde (y)
 
Yesterday we were stopped in a quiet lane while we were walking near Skelwith Bridge not far from Ambleside in the Lake District. Two lads in a BMW Z4 were hopelessly lost, they had been navigating by smart phone and had lost their signal. They said they were looking for Wast Water..... for those that know the Lakes you will appreciate they were way off course...... it seems their phone was trying to navigate them to a holiday lodge called Wastwater near Loughrigg. It turns out 'someone' had told them Wast Water was a good place to go to to see the view & off they had set on a day trip out......

My lifelong navigator (wife) explained which way they should go but without any maps who knows if they made it.

It baffles me why anyone would set off on a road journey to an unfamiliar area without even a basic road atlas or any idea where exactly they were heading.....
 
All things are relative - compared to you some members, I'm relatively a young'un and can actually read a map...
 
Nod said:
All things are relative - compared to you some members, I'm relatively a young'un and can actually read a map...
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But you are of a generation that doesn't rely on smart phones for everything
 
Seriously considering going back to my old Nokia 3310. Very rarely use the smart bits of my phone and am too tight to pay for data out of wifi!
 
Cobra said:
I wonder how many yung'uns could actually read a map these days though?
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My dad taught me to read a road map when I was 7 or 8. I think it may have started as a way of coping with my car sickness. Whatever his motives I learned the basic rules of choosing faster roads or more direct routes as apropriate. My wife is map challenged so for years the rule was that if we went anywhere new my wife drove and I navigated. Now we rely on the built in navigator which works fine until they give us an update that screws the system! :runaway:
 
Navigation is Mrs Nod's weakness - she's been known to go from Tiverton to Exeter via the A30 having exited the motorway junction back onto the M5 and heading into Exeter through Marsh Barton... Both her cars have satnav now and she is quite good at programming them!
 
Nod said:
Very rarely use the smart bits of my phone and am too tight to pay for data out of wifi!
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Unlimited calls Unlimited Text 2Gb data 8 quid.. ( sim only) Outrageous I know :(
 
Annual spend on EE PAYG ~ £30. Mainly texts arranging spoiled walks...
 
We have Satnav in all of our 'fleet', but there's always a Road Atlas or road maps stowed in the seat backrest pocket too. If we are going anywhere unfamiliar we go over the route on a map first to have an understanding of which roads we will be using and build a picture of where we are heading. My wife was a Girl Guide and has highly developed map reading skills, her biggest problem is confusing left & right when giving verbal instructions while I am driving so the Satnav is a good backup for when she is giving directions.

I do however remember while driving in Haarlem in the Netherlands a few years ago when my 'navigator' said left, the Satnav said left too but displayed a right turn. I followed the display & turned right...... fortunately for me I chose correctly
 
If I am going anywhere unfamiliar, I just look on Google maps, I then look at any junctions on Google earth so I know what they will look like when I reach them. I also follow the directions on road signs .
I fail to see how anyone can't follow directions on a map.
 
A recent costly Error...
https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/snooker-champ-neil-robertsons-sat-3396870


nilagin said:
If I am going anywhere unfamiliar, I just look on Google maps, I then look at any junctions on Google earth so I know what they will look like when I reach them. I also follow the directions on road signs .
I fail to see how anyone can't follow directions on a map.
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Absolutely agree. I do exactly the same with Google Earth before an unfamiliar journey which often happens when I travel to rural locations ..’out in the sticks’ as they say to photograph steam locos especially. Even the Somerset Levels area re birds/wildfowl. I click the minus (reduce size ) button to get an overal view of a small area and when I see a junction I double click down to street view prior to it to see what road signs are there and what else that might be useful..like a cottage ,a pub,a restaurant.etc. I’ll even go past a turn that should have been taken and see what landmark is there in case we do miss the turn for whatever reason then I know we’ve gone past it.Any unfamialr journey we make is well planned. The Google Earth is a fantastic app. I’ve found ‘Street view’ particularly useful for approaching complex motorway junctions when I/we need to exit . There are a couple down our way on the M5 near Bristol and another I came across on the M5 > M42 (M6 too, I think ) running west-east south of Birmingham en-route to Rutland Water to see the ospreys. Before Sat Nav you needed an O - Level or GCSE in geography to get around Birmingham..lol

My sense of humour can a bit off the wall. One day I was at home on Google Earth and click,click,clicking the mouse so was it just like driving along the road. I shouted,”Oh, no “my wife came to me, concerned and asked what was the matter. ‘Just been stopped for speeding”..I said..:)
 
As someone who grew up using maps ~ OS maps walking and climbing in North Wales.....road atlases when driving, I have always thought and said that using sat nav 'you need to know where you are going to use it well....'

FWIW when I had CoPilot on my old Loox PDA it was great as I could load 6 destinations and it would order them for shortest route (especially usefull for visiting my London clients at that time) The cars (Seat and Ford) that I have had since with built in sat nav are limited to one destination and one waypoint stop :(
 
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