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Anyone remember Stressed Eric? How that vein would pulsate in the side of his head? That’s how I feel right now trying to deal with utility companies who have made it nearly impossible to speak to anyone, or at least anyone I can understand once I get through to them with their strong accents and terrible quality phone lines. Can anyone actually tell me how to operate this weird electric meter that has nothing on the screen so I know if the credit I apparently put on it at the shop has actually gone through and didn’t just disappear into the ether? “We’ll send all the information to your email address”. Two days later... nothing. “We are currently experiencing a high volume of calls, please anticipate wait times of 40 minutes” which is enough to eat my phone battery in this weird signal black spot I’ve moved to, and I can’t use the online help because I haven’t been given an account number. What’s this? There’s debt been left on my gas meter? “That’s all sorted, you should be able to top it up now.” I top up £20. “£14 taken for debt. You have £6 credit”.
 
Sounds like you are having a rubbish time with the energy companies :(.

Can't believe tomorrow is 10 years since the large earthquake/tsunami in Japan (the one which overran the nuclear power station causing it to break)
 
I just wish I could talk to someone who would actually address the problems I’m having. The guy from the gas company was really nice and helpful but the issue remains... The electric company however can s*d right off, I’m switching as soon as I’m able. Terrible, terrible service.
 
PS3 disc drive is being completely and refusing to read certain games, at first i thought it was probably dying but it's reading discs i know that are BD25 BD50 perfectly fine too, seems to be just choosing randomly specific titles to refuse to read, it'll read my vanilla copy of MGS4 but the copy in the legacy collection that includes the patch on disc it refuses, all of the tales games i have on PS3 read perfectly fine too
 
Oldmario said:
PS3 disc drive is being completely and refusing to read certain games, at first i thought it was probably dying but it's reading discs i know that are BD25 BD50 perfectly fine too, seems to be just choosing randomly specific titles to refuse to read, it'll read my vanilla copy of MGS4 but the copy in the legacy collection that includes the patch on disc it refuses, all of the tales games i have on PS3 read perfectly fine too
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From what I rememeber that sounds like the starting signs of the laser or track begining to go/last legs (but it could just be something else, like software).
But I replaced a PS3 laser before christmas, and my memory is not great (and also I had a differnt problem of would not read discs at all and just did some attempts and then spat the disc back out after a min or 2).
 
SkwigglesWorth said:
From what I rememeber that sounds like the starting signs of the laser or track begining to go/last legs (but it could just be something else, like software).
But I replaced a PS3 laser before christmas, and my memory is not great (and also I had a differnt problem of would not read discs at all and just did some attempts and then spat the disc back out after a min or 2).
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when it comes to replacing the laser is it a pretty simple job? i've seen that the PS3 disc drive is a pita because of pairing related stuff

also tried another 15 or so games and like 2-3 didn't read so ¯\(ツ)/¯ i have no clue
 
10 years ago today, roughly around this time, a magnitude 9.0–9.1 undersea earthquake occurred with an epicenter east of the Oshika Peninsula of Tōhoku. It triggered powerful tsunami waves that may have reached heights of up to 40.5 meters in Miyako in Tōhoku's Iwate Prefecture, and which, in the Sendai area, traveled at 435 mph and up to 6 miles inland. Residents of Sendai had only eight to ten minutes of warning, and more than a hundred evacuation sites were washed away. The tsunami swept the Japanese mainland and killed 15,899 people (also 2 people elsewhere on the Pacific Coast), injured 6,157, and caused $360 billion of damage! It also caused explosions and release of radioactive material at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant leading to thousands of people being evacuated and further deaths.
RIP 🙏

There have been a few anime projects. Some collaborations with big artists and animators to make music videos for charity:
Music from David Byrne and Ryuichi Sakamoto

And my favourite
With music from Sigur Rós

Also there's:
Based on the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize-winning comic book Mitsuami no Kami-sama by Machiko Kyo, the film metaphorically depicts the conflicting and unspeakable feelings that engulfed the author in the aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster of 2011.
Randomly I was going to watch this, this week and found out it was related to the earthquake when checking on it on MAL.
 
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Oldmario said:
when it comes to replacing the laser is it a pretty simple job? i've seen that the PS3 disc drive is a pita because of pairing related stuff

also tried another 15 or so games and like 2-3 didn't read so ¯\(ツ)/¯ i have no clue
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Its not too bad to do, but it is more compliacated than a hard drive switch. and depends what route you want to take also I did it on a PS3 slim (to open up you will need a star shaped security screw driver).
But that require opening up and then disconnecting some things a few cables and the PSU. Then I think the laser deck. So you can choose the more exspensive option and replace the entier Drive or you can go intothe drive further and replace the "Track and Laser" or you can replace just the "Laser" just the laser gets a bit fiddly (and this is what I did but more because that's just what I bought)

NOTE: make sure you buy the correct Drive / Track & Laser / Laser that corrosponds to the model number as the PS3 seem to use alot of differnt part with in them (so even 2 slim version can have differnt parts)
But I would do a search you video of opening up a PS3 or even opening up a PS3 xxxxx and replacing the laser, that might give you an idea of whether you feel it is doable for yourself or not.

But before going ahead make sure you really think that is the problem, may want to check some Blu ray disc's (you can try DVD's but its a seprate laser from the game/Blu ray so shouldn't be that). Then there could be firmware updates that might help. There is even mention of tilting your PS3 backwards slightly on load up that helps.
 
ayase said:
I just wish I could talk to someone who would actually address the problems I’m having. The guy from the gas company was really nice and helpful but the issue remains... The electric company however can s*d right off, I’m switching as soon as I’m able. Terrible, terrible service.
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We had a lot of problems when we moved in a similar vein; constant insistence that we had been using energy before we physically moved in even though we had proof to the contrary. It didn't end until I started passive-aggressively copying half of the electricity company's management on every email I sent, which seems to be how most disputes end (the saga of Amazon Germany sending bailiffs after me for an order I'd already paid until I filed a formal dispute with the European Commission was particularly unfun). Prepaid electricity meters are a nightmare. Do they have any social media or review site presence? Sometimes their marketing teams escalate customer concerns far better than their actual customer care teams. I've always had swift resolution to issues by DMing a company with the implied unspoken threat that I'll be a good customer if they treat me like a person and kick off if they don't, which invariably gets me fast-tracked to their most competent support staff and spares me the phone lottery. It shouldn't be that way, but it is. They care far more about avoiding public humiliation than helping their own customers.

R
 
Thanks @Rui, all good advice I’m sure. No-one here will believe me but I think I’m probably a bit too polite for my own good in these situations, like if people are being nice and respectful to me I can’t bring myself to get annoyed at them even if they’re not actually helping me. Yes, I’ll hold. Is is racist to ask to speak to someone I can hear clearly? This poor guy probably takes crap from people all day for a pitiful wage. I’ll try again tomorrow and be a bit more forthright.

Oh the plus side, at least I now have functioning internet, woohoo. Virgin fibre so I don’t have to pay line rental and they installed a port for nothing. Suck on that BT, that’s what you get for charging me to flip a switch in a box to reconnect me 11 years ago, I haven’t forgotten.
 
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I'm so glad you have (good) internet again, ayase! :) I am eating cashew nuts that mum bought me ages ago for "dinner" (I use the term loosely lol) because I don't really want to go food shopping 😅 It expands so much of my chronically ill energy sometimes... but if I do it I'll have more food and therefore more energy 🤔 I think I will drag my butt out of the house and do it, hopefully I can get a slice of pizza as well as a reward. Also Amazon are claiming they received an empty box with no drawing tablet in it after I definitely sent it back to them, pretty sure someone from Hermes (who were one of Amazon's official return options, would have gone with Royal Mail but wasn't sure if they had a label printing service at my local branch)) stole or broke it and have no idea what to do about that, I'm reluctant to make big waves about it in case Amazon refuse to serve me anymore afterwards, but that tablet cost £399 it's hardly small potatoes for me :(
 
SkwigglesWorth said:
But before going ahead make sure you really think that is the problem, may want to check some Blu ray disc's (you can try DVD's but its a seprate laser from the game/Blu ray so shouldn't be that). Then there could be firmware updates that might help. There is even mention of tilting your PS3 backwards slightly on load up that helps.
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tried a bunch of blu-rays movies/tv shows and everyone of them read fine, playing the AOT S2 soundtrack in it at the minute on CD and it's playing perfectly fine

will have to root out my futurama dvds if i can remember where i stored them out of the way otherwise i don't think i have any to test with

there is one thing i don't know if it still exists on PS3 but with the disc drive on PS2 a screw had to be in a certain rotation to allow multiple voltages for CD and DVD otherwise i don't think it read correctly so i'm starting to wonder if it could be something on that level if other stuff is reading perfectly fine
 
RadFemHedonist said:
I'm so glad you have (good) internet again, ayase!
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So am I, believe me. Even just a few days with only the world’s most erratic 4G signal to connect with the outside world in these times of Covid was enough to drive me a bit crazy.

I can tell getting this place up and running is going to be a bit of a process, no sooner was I celebrating my internet victory than I find my cooker has decided to trip the fuse box every time I turn it on. Pizza sounds good right now, albeit of the delivered, remain seated on my a*se kind.

Definitely chase up that lost return, as long as you have proof of postage you should be able to get your money back from Hermes, if not Amazon. I’m not sure how they work with regards to declaring value (perhaps someone else can help you out there) but I’ve had something disappear in transit with RM/Parcelforce before and since I had a receipt for sending it with the value declared, I could claim it back from them.
 
In the end, I got a very large bucket of KFC... just couldn't face going out :/ I don't get takeout very often but this was the exception. Yeah Hermes are actually terrible if they lose something that was an Amazon return - Amazon keep saying take it up with Hermes and Hermes keep saying take it up with Amazon :( Oooh I hate when appliances trip the fuse box! So annoying! I hope you can get something decent to eat :)
 
I think this house might actually be cursed, today my graphics card decided that despite both monitors, both cables and both DisplayPorts working fine when tested, it only wanted to support one monitor and the only one it will support is my ancient second monitor. New 4k and old 1080? UNACCEPTABLE! New 4k on its own, with either cable in either DisplayPort? UNACCEPTABLE! Old 1080 on its own, with either cable in either DisplayPort? Mm, acceptable.

Anyone know how much the Catholics charge for an exorcism these days?

p.s. Anyone know anything interesting I can do with the two satellite dishes I’ve inherited? Pick up obscure Russian tv? Crash Starlink?
 
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Oldmario said:
tried a bunch of blu-rays movies/tv shows and everyone of them read fine, playing the AOT S2 soundtrack in it at the minute on CD and it's playing perfectly fine

will have to root out my futurama dvds if i can remember where i stored them out of the way otherwise i don't think i have any to test with

there is one thing i don't know if it still exists on PS3 but with the disc drive on PS2 a screw had to be in a certain rotation to allow multiple voltages for CD and DVD otherwise i don't think it read correctly so i'm starting to wonder if it could be something on that level if other stuff is reading perfectly fine
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I wouldn't worry about the DVD as I mentioned it a differnt laser and I'm not sure how much infomation it will give you in regards to the problem. CD may actually be enough to tell you its a working laser DVD part of the laser anyway.

I don't remember seeing/ aware anything in regards to a screw that could adjust the voltage.
 
ayase said:
I think this house might actually be cursed, today my graphics card decided that despite both monitors, both cables and both DisplayPorts working fine when tested, it only wanted to support one monitor and the only one it will support is my ancient second monitor. New 4k and old 1080? UNACCEPTABLE! New 4k on its own, with either cable in either DisplayPort? UNACCEPTABLE! Old 1080 on its own, with either cable in either DisplayPort? Mm, acceptable.

Anyone know how much the Catholics charge for an exorcism these days?

p.s. Anyone know anything interesting I can do with the two satellite dishes I’ve inherited? Pick up obscure Russian tv? Crash Starlink?
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Displayport is a bit finicky at the best of times. If you have a HDMI cable to test it with it might be worth giving it a try
 
Vincentdante said:
Displayport is a bit finicky at the best of times. If you have a HDMI cable to test it with it might be worth giving it a try
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I’m sure there was a reason I opted to use DisplayPort over HDMI but I can’t for the life of me remember what that reason was. Is there any good reason to use DisplayPort?

On the plus side, using the 1080p monitor my frame rates have shot through the roof.
 
Well I've finally calmed down after the trauma of dealing with DHL today. Their customer service really is a tale of 2 halves.

I was in all day waiting for Marvel United to arrive and then I get a text saying sorry we missed you, we'll deliver on the next working day. Well that no good no one will be in on Monday. So I'm annoyed as I was in. I go online to try and sort it but can find a way to rearrange delivery and end up on the live chat. The live chat robot is so god awful. It was actively unhelpful. Now I'm more annoyed.

It eventually spits out a phone number which is 7p a minute to call. Rage increasing. It then has pre recorded messages which arnt that helpful and they keep skipping, fast forwarding, cutting in and out. Rage is really in full force now. Eventually I shout "I just want to speak to a real person!" Obviously this happens a fair bit as it then puts me on hold.

The poor woman who answered the call. I must've come across so badly. But here it all gets better. She contacts the driver and he agrees to come back on his way back to the depot. So full marks to their employees who got me my game today. But my God their automated customer services are terrible.
 
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