Little things that irk you.. (no swearing please)

[fuse]

People letting themselves into my flat and then leaving the door open & unlocked.

[Dogg Thang]

We call those 'burglars'.

[abigsmurf]

People who stamp on the brake on the motorway without looking in their mirror, or at least the first person to stamp on the brakes in a chain of people. Not sure if it was just the car in front of me who decided he had to do from 75 to 20mph in about 5 seconds or one in front of that (couldn't see).

Either way, I got to within about 2" of him (thank god I didn't hit him). I'd left the proper amount of space but when someone in front slams on the brakes to that extent and their brakes are better than yours, it's a case of put your foot through the floor and pray.

[merf]

in general the standard of driving on motorways is utterly retarded (probably something to do with the public in general being utterly retarded)

people who sit too far over and camp in the fast lane at 65mph, the opposite when you get the extreme lane swerver who never stays in one for more than 5s, the tailgater, people who change lane without looking, texters, those who dive in the slightest gap you leave, undertakers (not the WWE wrestler or burial service).

I can see why the wealthy when they've made it get something roomy and let a pleb do the driving.

[Darwock]

The fact that BOTH the PCs in my house have suffered fatal crashes on the same day. Seems to be an overheating problem, one of them can launch windows but then shuts down instantly whenever I try to do anything. The other gets to the point of showing the desktop and then fails with a blue screen saying something about a memory dump.

I have to make and print out worksheets for lessons on Friday and now I can't, why the hell did both of them have to break at the same time???

[abigsmurf]

Check all the fans are working and properly secured in place on the one shutting itself down.

[speedlolita]

Yeah, might just be a build up of dust on the overheating one. Most likely the CPU cooler.

[booth83]

my sky+ appears to be dead, got home tonight and the box was in standby, when i tried to switch it on it took about 20 minutes, this was hours ago, just went to go watch a recording and got "a sky+ error has occured, press select to restart or back up to continue without sky+ plus functionality" so i press select and same thing again, 20 minutes or so to start up and still no sky+, same message, no anytime either, i assume that's related to hdd/second tuner.

now i've gotta decide wether to upgrade to HD for a cheaper box (if that's even an option open to me) with a higher sub, or buy a new box off em, however much that's going to cost i don't know. mine's well out of warranty

[gunrock]

We had this a short while ago. Cost 80 quid IIRC for a reconditioned box installed by an engineer.

[booth83]

their website is irking me now, got into my account and it seemingly won't let me upgrade to a HD box (just thought i'd go upto the checkout stage to get an idea of cost), it's funny how it has a list of my current channels and tick boxes next those i don't have so i can upgrade channels instantly, yet i'm unable to remove any of those i do have that cost extra, call me cynical but i hate that kind of customer treatment, they want me to phone the premium rate line to cancel if i decide to remove a single channel yet will happily let me add one on the site instantly no probs, not that i want to, it's the principle of it. also, i currently pay ?51 pound a month, if i add a ?4 sports channel my sub jumps to ?72, i don't get it!!!!! looks like i'm gonna have to phone them anyway about boxes! i'm extremely irritable now cos i know i've lost a load of recordings i've yet to watch!

[vanpeebles]

You gotta love that Amstrad crap!

[charlesr]

Sky is complete poop. The HD box is an unreliable heap of rubbish and the lastest firmware update has a quirk whereby if you turn it off while watching a daytime only channle like cbeebies, when you turn it on again, it says something like "technical fault with this channel" and then takes 15 seconds or so to notice each button press. Once you finally get it to switch to another channel, it's fine (or if you start on a 24 hour channel).

The interface is total dross. No idea why people rave about it. It's totally broken, with choosing favourites being on a totally different list from the TV listings. And the list of things viewable on any one menu is tiny even with the miniTV turned off.

No ability to filter to just channels you have - I understand that they want you see channels you don't have so that you can upgrade, but it drives me nuts. The fact that they can't reprogram the boxes to have HD and SD on the same channels, selectable by the boxes.

The daft search on mysky tv listings that only finds the first one that meets criteria - if there's a way then I'm totally not clever enough to spot it.

The need to pay for channels I have no interest in to get the ones I want. Channels that no one wants should die.

The way the hdmi port does not send DD5.1 (you need to use the toslink), thus defeating the whole purpose of hdmi as a single lead solution.

The way the networking abilities of the box only work with Sky BB (surely monopolies commission should be jumping on this?).

The ridiculous quantity of adverts and small TV program gaps between the ads.

The way the record/live pause abilities of the box are cunningly part of the subscription, so when I cancel my account today (yes I'm going to), the box loses all it's PVR functionality.

The way that they specify 31 days notice of cancellation, but if you call them 40 days beforehand, they will not accept it. But if you give them 30 days notice, they charge you for the extra day, so you have to call them on the EXACT day. And if you cancel your DD before they take that extra day charge, they charge an extra £90 admin charge.

The way the box randomly freezes for virtually everyone I know. The lucky few that don't get this should be counting their lucky stars. The HD box is just as bad as the Xbox 360 in reliability terms, but for some reason, you don't see it on watchdog.

I only tried Sky out because it was so cheap (I only paid £10 a month for the whole year with install and box free), but now even that seems to expensive for such a lame service.

In the time I save by not watching TV I'm going to make lots of money to invest in an alternative satellite service that functions properly. See you in 3000 years time for that one.

[teddymeow]

I've misplaced my headphones so I'm having to listen to the coughing, spluttering & gossiping of the plebion masses on my way to work. I had a horrible dream last night so didn't get much sleep which has put me in a foul mood too.

[monel]

I cancelled Sky last year (standard Sky+), and they keep sending me letters with a reduced price every month or so.

I can't believe the PVR functions are subscription only, that is just a con.

About dreams-I had a horrifying one the other day, I mean for me it was truly disturbing. I think I need a team of analysts in Vienna studying my subconcious like Jerry suggested George needed in Seinfeld.

[booth83]

luckily i was talking to a guy at work today about this and he happens to have a spare standard + box that he doesn't use anymore since he cancelled and he's giving it to me tomorrow, so really happy about that. And from you're list of faults charles i'm pretty sure i don't want to pay extra for all that especially when things like "programme sypnosis not available" get me wound up enough!