Randomness: the 18th sequel

[kristof65]

6 minutes ago, Green Eyed Monsty said:

Any fix needs to include the stipulation that no updates get done between Friday  and Monday Morning and anyone implementing an update after 10: 00 PM Thursday Night will be suspended for up to two weeks without pay, OR have to reimburse all the customers and other hardware/software providers out of their own pocket who have to work OT to fix what they just screwed up.

GEM

I wish we had the power to do that. 

There are literally 10s of thousands, if not 100s of thousands of merchants using the same platform.  We have just under a hundred here in the US that are being affected.   I don't know how many sites in other industries are impacted - the credit card module we use is pretty common, so I'm sure there are at least a few hundred other affected merchants outside of our industry - but with no way to identify them, and band together, we're sort of at the mercy of the platform. 

So I'm sure the timing of their updates is based on discussions with big retailers & franchisees using the platform, with no regard for the little guys in the niche industries. 

If we could at least get them to send us a timely notice, we have a workaround of putting the system in an offline mode.  Engineer is even willing to implement some new software to make it easy for sites to temporarily put their site in an offline mode, and auto restore. 

Hopefully making some noise will get their attention.  One thing we have going for us is that we've had this partnership with their company for over 24 years and it's the major partnership in Canada.  Losing a hundred US sites in the US may be nothing to them, losing a few thousand in Canada is a bigger deal, even though the two agreements are separate. 

[Green Eyed Monsty]

1 hour ago, kristof65 said:

So is that filed under C for Cat or F for Feline? 
 

I was thinking that sounds like a frogcident incoming. 

So I set off a brocolli storm on Saturday. 

Once again, one of our credit card service providers did an update on Friday night that knocked a bunch of our sites offline.  I wound up working 2 hours on Saturday to get sites back online because it would have taken 10-16 hours if I had waited until today to get started (due to the number of transactions I would have to fix). 

Sent an email to our reps with that company informing them of our intention to sever our relationship with them. 

Got a call from one of the reps (who is absolutely my favorite vendor rep of all that I work with) this morning to discuss the situation.  My notice got the attention of their senior management to look into the problem, so he both begged me to give him some time and acknowledged that I have to do what I have to do for our customers. Hopefully the notice I sent gives him the ammunition he needs to get people to pay attention and come up with some sort of fix. 

Idoknow.

Could also be C for comfy or H for Hiding.

GEM

[Green Eyed Monsty]

44 minutes ago, kristof65 said:

I wish we had the power to do that. 

There are literally 10s of thousands, if not 100s of thousands of merchants using the same platform.  We have just under a hundred here in the US that are being affected.   I don't know how many sites in other industries are impacted - the credit card module we use is pretty common, so I'm sure there are at least a few hundred other affected merchants outside of our industry - but with no way to identify them, and band together, we're sort of at the mercy of the platform. 

So I'm sure the timing of their updates is based on discussions with big retailers & franchisees using the platform, with no regard for the little guys in the niche industries. 

If we could at least get them to send us a timely notice, we have a workaround of putting the system in an offline mode.  Engineer is even willing to implement some new software to make it easy for sites to temporarily put their site in an offline mode, and auto restore. 

Hopefully making some noise will get their attention.  One thing we have going for us is that we've had this partnership with their company for over 24 years and it's the major partnership in Canada.  Losing a hundred US sites in the US may be nothing to them, losing a few thousand in Canada is a bigger deal, even though the two agreements are separate. 

Companies with 24/7/365 IT Staffing no doubt.

So the situation doesn't change unless it impacts some big government agency with the clout to force change from outside the "comfy bubble" the people causing grief for everyone else are operating in.

Commentary on Life:  The more I learn about the direction computerized systems are taking us the more in favor of old fashioned paper based transaction systems I become.

GEM

[Serenity]

Beyond the Kit with Rhonda Bender! #079.  Start screen up at 1:47 PM.

 

https://www.twitch.tv/reaperminiatures

[kristof65]

36 minutes ago, Green Eyed Monsty said:

Companies with 24/7/365 IT Staffing no doubt.

So the situation doesn't change unless it impacts some big government agency with the clout to force change from outside the "comfy bubble" the people causing grief for everyone else are operating in.

Commentary on Life:  The more I learn about the direction computerized systems are taking us the more in favor of old fashioned paper based transaction systems I become.

GEM

Pretty much.  And I'm in agreement. 

[kristof65]

LOL.  Just had a customer ask if the system in a self serve bay could be set up to charge a muddy truck more than a "normal" dirty car.  

I get why he's asking that, because those sorts of vehicles tend to leave a lot of mud in the bay that require extra cleaning. 

But how exactly does he think a simple serve pay station is going to know the difference? 

[Green Eyed Monsty]

3 minutes ago, kristof65 said:

LOL.  Just had a customer ask if the system in a self serve bay could be set up to charge a muddy truck more than a "normal" dirty car.  

I get why he's asking that, because those sorts of vehicles tend to leave a lot of mud in the bay that require extra cleaning. 

But how exactly does he think a simple serve pay station is going to know the difference? 

Seems to me, they want to implement the Skynet Option.

GEM

[haldir]

4 hours ago, kristof65 said:

So those of you who are Gundam aficionados.  I bought a 1/144th scale Bandai figure set to use as ground crew for my T-Trak Module with the CAVs, Most of the figures will work in some fashion, but I can't for the life of me figure out the intention of these two figures:


Are they supposed to be flying or something? 

 

Rocketeer pose? Hanging from a cable off a Gundam?

34 minutes ago, kristof65 said:

LOL.  Just had a customer ask if the system in a self serve bay could be set up to charge a muddy truck more than a "normal" dirty car.  

I get why he's asking that, because those sorts of vehicles tend to leave a lot of mud in the bay that require extra cleaning. 

But how exactly does he think a simple serve pay station is going to know the difference? 

 

Water usage meter?

[Green Eyed Monsty]

From the "Be Careful What You Wish For" file:

 

 

GEM

[haldir]

6 hours ago, Inarah said:

It ought to be illegal to operate a leaf blower before the sun reaches zenith.  🥺

 

 

Heard over the weekend, some one was operating a mower. Ok np, but it was cold (aka early spring day) wind was blowing like it does here all the time & later in the day it actually snowed, thou more of a sleet storm then anything. I think the next day the house behind ours had their paid crew mow their yard. Which tbh, is not even worth paying someone else as it's small & the people that live there aren't really that old.

[buglips*the*goblin]

On 3/26/2023 at 2:54 AM, Green Eyed Monsty said:

Very good Chinese, with leftovers for tomorrow, for dinner and The Glenn Miller Orchestra for the show.

 

I once had a copy of Miller's 'Song of the Volga Boatmen" off a random compilation CD that came my way that was an absolutely perfect recording.  I cannot find it again, and it haunts me*.  But I do like me some GMO, though if I'm honest I'm much more of a Benny Goodman goblin.  

 

*I have a similar problem finding quality copies of Brahm's Hungarian Dances.  I have been through at least 50 different collections and every time some of it is good but then the tempo will be off or somebody is very slightly out of tune or something else is wrong with it.  My quest continues, and every time I find a new recording I haven't tried yet I get all excited, only to be disappointed.  

 

And while I'm on about this particular audio bugbear, remastering needs to stop ruining music.  If you want to clean it up, fine.  If you want to make minor adjustments and corrections, fine.  But they don't.  They just muddy it up, mess up the range and levels, and turn it awful.  If I ever become Dictator of Earth I'm making that kind of remastering a capital offense - punishable via a slow death being cut to pieces with broken shards of vinyl.  

 

Also I'll have @TaleSpinner imprisoned in my Tower Of Doom to subsist only on rat cakes and crow pee because it's been 6 years plus and I still can't get Leonard Nimoy's Ballad of Bilbo Baggins out of my head.  

[kristof65]

18 minutes ago, haldir said:

Water usage meter?

That's the thing - a self serve meter box is basically billing the customer per minute they're in the bay and running the wash. The guy with the dirtier car is going to take longer to get his clean and thus pay more.   If your price per minute charge isn't enough to cover your expenses, then you need to raise your price per minute. 

Did find out a little bit more about the situation.   Site has two larger truck bays that are intended for the larger, and usually dirtier farm trucks and are set to charge more, but some of their customers have been squeezing themselves into the car bays because the price per minute is cheaper there. 

Also found out that the majority of their offending customers have site fleet cards.   Our system DOES have a way to deal with that - fleet accounts can be restricted to only work in specific bays. 

Boom, problem solved, though not in the way the site wanted to solve it. 

[Green Eyed Monsty]

1 hour ago, kristof65 said:

LOL.  Just had a customer ask if the system in a self serve bay could be set up to charge a muddy truck more than a "normal" dirty car.  

I get why he's asking that, because those sorts of vehicles tend to leave a lot of mud in the bay that require extra cleaning. 

But how exactly does he think a simple serve pay station is going to know the difference? 

Vehicles that have been "playing in the mud" can be a real problem, both for systems using recycled water and those who have a waste line going into a local sewage system.

All that extra mud ends up falling out of suspension and becomes trapped, either in a sump that has to be manually emptied, or at the first "slow spot" in the municipal storm drain/septic system.

So I have sympathy for your customer wanting to know about an upcharge for these vehicles.  They are responsible for a lot of extra man hours downstream from the wash bay.

GEM

[buglips*the*goblin]

Also, I love Edith Piaf:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXqLj7X1WDU

 

And not related, but I really dig this sound:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJfhFZ684SU

[kristof65]

5 minutes ago, Green Eyed Monsty said:

Vehicles that have been "playing in the mud" can be a real problem, both for systems using recycled water and those who have a waste line going into a local sewage system.

All that extra mud ends up falling out of suspension and becomes trapped, either in a sump that has to be manually emptied, or at the first "slow spot" in the municipal storm drain/septic system.

So I have sympathy for your customer wanting to know about an upcharge for these vehicles.  They are responsible for a lot of extra man hours downstream from the wash bay.

GEM

Car wash bays typically have "mud pits" specifically to keep as much mud from going down stream as they can.  Even in a city that doesn't see a lot of super dirty cars, these pits eventually fill up and have to be cleaned out.  It's worse in rural areas - I know a lot my rural customers have to have their pits emptied 2-3 times a year vs once every year or two for a suburban site.  There are a lot of cities across the US that ban driveway car washing citing mud in the storm drain system as one of the reasons (the other two being water usage and chemicals). 

The more immediate issue is that most car wash users just wash the mud off their vehicle, and leave a dirty, muddy bay for the next person to walk around in.   If you have to wash a really muddy vehicle, please be polite and wash at least some of the mud that falls to the ground under your car so the next guy doesn't have to traipse through it.