Randomness XVIII: Ex-Vee-Triple-Eye

[Thoramel]

So we just had our privacy fence replaced. We couldn't hold off on it any longer because it was falling over in places. The job was done well and the guy we hired had the most competitive labor prices of the folks we got quotes from. I'm actually quite happy with it.

 

But I tell you what, it is my sincerest hope that nobody here has any reason to buy lumber in the near future. Cause damn, that hurt the old pocketbook.

[Green Eyed Monsty]

15 minutes ago, Thoramel said:

So we just had our privacy fence replaced. We couldn't hold off on it any longer because it was falling over in places. The job was done well and the guy we hired had the most competitive labor prices of the folks we got quotes from. I'm actually quite happy with it.

 

But I tell you what, it is my sincerest hope that nobody here has any reason to buy lumber in the near future. Cause damn, that hurt the old pocketbook.

I feel your pain.

Fuel costs are obscenely high so any machinery required to get timber out of the woods, to the mill, and then to the lumberyard is way expensive to run.

Labor costs keep going up.  The Inflation Spiral is going to make the situation even worse in the near future.

There will come a time when you look back and consider the replacement cost a bargain.

Reaper is dealing with the same and similar issues for their products so it's affecting everybody in every business.

GEM

[kristof65]

19 hours ago, Green Eyed Monsty said:

The stupid smart* people who are in charge of these systems need to be dinged [as in a Gibbs style upside the head whack] each time their system fails to understand a human voice input.  When they are diagnosed as having been concussed they  get to submit their plan on how the system needs to be fixed.

Lather - Rinse - Repeat  until they actually get it right.

GEM

 

*Stupid Smart is when they have been educated beyond their ability to actually think rationally and reasonably.

This includes any person working in the computer field who places their faith in hardware and software not screwing up at some point, and doing so in a manner unforeseen by the designers/programmers until stress tested to it's ultimate limits.

Those who work with computerized systems such as @kristof65 can attest to the validity of my assertion.

While I can attest to that and I also detest computerized "help" systems, I completely understand why many companies adopt them.  The issue is about minimizing wasting valuable employee time with stupid crap like "did you try turning it off and back on?" The bigger the company, the truer this is. 

For example, on Friday, I got an email from an office employee about a problem at one of their sites.  I was able to remote in to their site, diagnose the problem, and I replied back with an explanation of the problem, a video link on how to fix it, and a service bulletin on why this particular setting is so important and can cause problems.  That should have been the end of it. 

But nope.  Yesterday I get a call from a different office employee about the same problem.  I explain the issue to her, and tell her that I've sent the repair instructions to the other employee, and that it needs to be forwarded to their maintenance guy.   Again, should have been the end of it. 

 

TODAY I get yet another phone call, this time from their maintenance guy. No one forwarded him the info I sent to the office employees, so fortunately for me, his call was just asking me to send it again or where he could find it on the website. Now I have his email, so that won't happen again. 

Anyway, an automated system would have likely stopped the call yesterday, and told the maintenance guy where to look today.   Car Wash equipment manufacturers are relatively small companies, so automated systems aren't really cost effective, but for a big corporation selling to and supporting millions of customers, I can definitely see where automated systems and "script monkeys" can be far more cost effective than routing people straight to an expert every single time. 

Notice, too, that online chat help systems are now being automated as well.   The ones that annoy me the most are the ones that make it difficult to escalate out of their scripted troubleshooting tree. They're almost worse than a system that won't recognize my voice. 
 

[Green Eyed Monsty]

5 minutes ago, kristof65 said:

While I can attest to that and I also detest computerized "help" systems, I completely understand why many companies adopt them.  The issue is about minimizing wasting valuable employee time with stupid crap like "did you try turning it off and back on?" The bigger the company, the truer this is. 

For example, on Friday, I got an email from an office employee about a problem at one of their sites.  I was able to remote in to their site, diagnose the problem, and I replied back with an explanation of the problem, a video link on how to fix it, and a service bulletin on why this particular setting is so important and can cause problems.  That should have been the end of it. 

But nope.  Yesterday I get a call from a different office employee about the same problem.  I explain the issue to her, and tell her that I've sent the repair instructions to the other employee, and that it needs to be forwarded to their maintenance guy.   Again, should have been the end of it. 

 

TODAY I get yet another phone call, this time from their maintenance guy. No one forwarded him the info I sent to the office employees, so fortunately for me, his call was just asking me to send it again or where he could find it on the website. Now I have his email, so that won't happen again. 

Anyway, an automated system would have likely stopped the call yesterday, and told the maintenance guy where to look today.   Car Wash equipment manufacturers are relatively small companies, so automated systems aren't really cost effective, but for a big corporation selling to and supporting millions of customers, I can definitely see where automated systems and "script monkeys" can be far more cost effective than routing people straight to an expert every single time. 

Notice, too, that online chat help systems are now being automated as well.   The ones that annoy me the most are the ones that make it difficult to escalate out of their scripted troubleshooting tree. They're almost worse than a system that won't recognize my voice. 
 

Which is why I advocate for mandatory live operator access with stiff fines for any system out of compliance.

I recognize that there will be abuses if such a system is required, but it will be minimal compared to the public abuse that is being inflicted on a daily basis.

Companies want to "save money" on these systems, meanwhile most of the savings goes to top management in the form of bonuses for having "saved money".  What's wrong with this picture?

GEM

Who has lived through the entire era of the institution of hierarchical trees, notebook driven live operators, the transition to computer prompted live operators and now cutting the live human able to [hopefully] "think outside the box"out of the system.

[haldir]

https://youtu.be/zWHhiyNA0ZU

 

"Fly away, LA woman".... .

[TGP]

We appear to be Crow's Nest-less…. @Serenity ??

 

Jimmy and Evalinna were there for a hot second

[Serenity]

And a short time later:

 

Crow's Nest! #071.  Start screen up at 5:08 PM.  Ron Hawkins and Joseph Wolf talk about Dungeon Dwellers Roleplaying Game.

 

https://www.twitch.tv/reaperminiatures

 

Edited May 17, 2022 by Serenity

[Guindyloo]

1 hour ago, TGP said:

We appear to be Crow's Nest-less…. @Serenity ??

 

Jimmy and Evalinna were there for a hot second

TGP, you show up to so many of the streams, how are you still surprised that every show starts late?? 😆 We run on Reaper Time! 🙃

 

You were seeing Jimmy the Brush before the Crow's Nest stream went live because the Reaper twitch channel automatically hosts twitch channels that Reaper sponsors if there's nothing else playing, if any of them are live. Hosting a twitch channel just means that their stream is mirrored on ours. It also hosts whoever we raid into for as long as they're live and we can set it to host a specific channel. It's never an indication that a show is not going to be on, it's just a way of promoting other channels in the community.

 

I know you use the twitch app (which is notoriously terrible - but I know it's the only option for some people) so I'm not certain what the indication for that is on the channel from the app, but I'll check it on my phone after this stream when we're hosting someone so I can tell you what to look for so you can more easily tell that we're just hosting somebody while we're waiting for a show to start. 🙂

 

ETA: I'm not sure if it looks different on your twitch app, but on mine there is actually a banner across the chat that says "ReaperMiniatures is hosting cnotbusch"

Edited May 17, 2022 by Guindyloo

[Chaoswolf]

5 hours ago, Serenity said:

Sometimes I'll hang on to things a lot longer than that.  Almost any day can be pack rat day around here. 

Listen to the voice of experience, kids!!

[Inarah]

Cat is home. Dental surgery went well. She should have no more problems there. We also got the confirmation that our sweet little girl has cancer, the inoperable kind. We will know more next week, like if there is a treatment, but either way her remaining time with us will be short.  Forgive me if I'm a little more cynical than usual in the coming weeks. 

 

 

[Chaoswolf]

I'm very sorry, Inarah.

[SparrowMarie]

@Inarah I'm so sorry.

 

 

Finished the commission. Got paid. Now have to wait 1-3 days for PayPal to put it in the bank. It's already burning a hole in my pocket. I have a small list of things I want to get. If I sat and thought about it more I'd easily go through all of it. Going to put some towards the vow renewal this summer and then going to put some in savings. So at least I'm spending it on some stuff that needs paying for and not just stuff I want.

[Chaoswolf]

[Kangaroorex]

⁸You mean one of these 

 

And one of these?

 

 

I'm not sure how they Would involved...

 

Edited May 18, 2022 by Kangaroorex

[Chaoswolf]