Wifey bought underwear for son only to find a security tag still
attached when he tried to wear the pants. Shop is miles away, and
receipt long gone.

Brute force? How do these things work? A couple of wide screwdriver
blades to lever one off the other?
--
Graeme

News wrote:

Wifey bought underwear for son only to find a security tag still
attached when he tried to wear the pants. Shop is miles away, and
receipt long gone.

Brute force?

Worked for me (colleague found a long-stashed pair of jeans had a tag)

How do these things work?

The one I had to remove was effectively like an oversize drawing pin,
with three flutes along the pin and ball bearings that jammed the flutes
to the body, presumably the "remover" at the shop counter uses magnets
to pull the ball bearings away?

A couple of wide screwdriver
blades to lever one off the other?

I just crushed it in a vice, beware some of them have ink vials

On Wed, 15 Jul 2015 08:07:57 +0100, Andy Burns wrote:

Wifey bought underwear for son only to find a security tag still
attached when he tried to wear the pants. Shop is miles away, and
receipt long gone.

Brute force?

Possibly not a good idea some tags have indelible ink inside.

The one I had to remove was effectively like an oversize drawing pin,
with three flutes along the pin and ball bearings that jammed the flutes
to the body, presumably the "remover" at the shop counter uses magnets
to pull the ball bearings away?

Is the correct answer.

I just crushed it in a vice, beware some of them have ink vials

Must read to end of message...

--
Cheers
Dave.

In message , Andy
Burns writes
News wrote:

How do these things work?

The one I had to remove was effectively like an oversize drawing pin,
with three flutes along the pin and ball bearings that jammed the
flutes to the body, presumably the "remover" at the shop counter uses
magnets to pull the ball bearings away?

Ah. May be worth playing with some 'rare earth' magnets, which I have
at home.

I just crushed it in a vice, beware some of them have ink vials

Funnily enough, although I'm 500 miles from home at the moment, I do
happen to have a fairly substantial vice in the boot of the car. Given
the ink vials warning, perhaps I should wait until I get home, and try
magnets first.
--
Graeme

On Wed, 15 Jul 2015 08:45:49 +0000 (UTC)
Jethro_uk wrote:

On Wed, 15 Jul 2015 07:58:47 +0100, News wrote:

Wifey bought underwear for son only to find a security tag still
attached when he tried to wear the pants. Shop is miles away, and
receipt long gone.

Brute force? How do these things work? A couple of wide
screwdriver blades to lever one off the other?

Once bought a bottle of Scotch from a supermarket as a present. It
was only when it was unwrapped we discovered the security tag still
on the bottle.

It was a presentation bottle, in a foil cylinder, so obviously the
security tags were useless ...

We once bought a case of wine at Tesco. They brought a new unopened
case from out back, opened it, put a security collar on each bottle,
and then carried the case to the checkout for us. The checkout girl
then took each bottle out, removed the collar, scanned the bottle, put
it back in the box, and moved to the next one.
What a waste of time and energy. "Procedures", of course.

--
Davey.

On 17/07/15 11:41, Davey wrote:

We once bought a case of wine at Tesco. They brought a new unopened
case from out back, opened it, put a security collar on each bottle,
and then carried the case to the checkout for us. The checkout girl
then took each bottle out, removed the collar, scanned the bottle, put
it back in the box, and moved to the next one.
What a waste of time and energy. "Procedures", of course.


FFS...

Morrisons are really ****ing me off with this.

If you go through the self checkouts (have to, usually zero to 1 till
operator on), and noting the self checkouts are ****e at Morrisons
anyway (nearly as bad as B&Q):

Scan booze.

Wait for the assistant (who is running around like a BA fly as the
checkouts are ****e and need constant intervention) to come over as say
"yes he looks 25+".

Do they remove the security cap there? No. They refuse and say "only
when you've paid".

Pay. Wait for assistant again. They wander off with bottle and come back.


And yet when you are at the one till that is open they decap it
immediately and give it to you while you are packing.

I supposed it's too much to ask for which cocksucking waste of space
manager who is suffering from advanced cretinism to work out the obvious
logical symmetries between the two processes!

You don't get this nonsense in Waitrose or M&S.

On Fri, 17 Jul 2015 12:04:55 +0100
Tim Watts wrote:

You don't get this nonsense in Waitrose or M&S.

Nor in our local Morrison's. You have a bad one, clearly.

--
Davey.

On 17/07/15 12:11, Davey wrote:
On Fri, 17 Jul 2015 12:04:55 +0100
Tim Watts wrote:

You don't get this nonsense in Waitrose or M&S.

Nor in our local Morrison's. You have a bad one, clearly.


Ah - so it is local management stupidity then? Thank you - I shall
address a complaint appropriately.

I assumes that sort of thing was policy.

My nearest one (T Wells, handy as it is next to the station) used to be
a great place to stop off to get a bag of nice products.

Over the last year or so the place has gone for a nosedive. Crappy
vegetables that are knackered on display, rubbish under staffing at the
tills, SS checkouts grinding to a halt.

On 17/07/2015 12:04, Tim Watts wrote:
On 17/07/15 11:41, Davey wrote:


You don't get this nonsense in Waitrose or M&S.

What was the great Stephen Fry line? He loves Sainsburys, because it
keeps the riff-raff out of Waitrose.

"Tim Watts" wrote in message
...
On 17/07/15 12:11, Davey wrote:
On Fri, 17 Jul 2015 12:04:55 +0100
Tim Watts wrote:

You don't get this nonsense in Waitrose or M&S.

Nor in our local Morrison's. You have a bad one, clearly.


Ah - so it is local management stupidity then? Thank you - I shall address a complaint
appropriately.

So it's

Dear Sir,
I'd like to complain about your cocksucking waste of space
local manager who is suffering from advanced cretinism to work
out the obvious logical symmetries between the two processes!

rather than

Dear Sir,
I'd like to complain about your cocksucking waste of space
manager in Head Office who is suffering from advanced cretinism to work
out the obvious logical symmetries between the two processes!


I assumes that sort of thing was policy.

Although it most definitely is some cocksucking waste of space
manager in Head Office who is suffering from advanced cretinism,
who is responsible for the ****e software in their tills.
As only a complete dribbler would have taken five years
to realise that its not actually necessary to tell every
single customer to "please put the item in the bag" for every
single item they scan. On the offchance they've suffered from a
complete mental breakdown of some sort, between items
presumably. For five f*cking years !


michael adams

....

On 17/07/15 16:53, michael adams wrote:
"Tim Watts" wrote in message
...
On 17/07/15 12:11, Davey wrote:
On Fri, 17 Jul 2015 12:04:55 +0100
Tim Watts wrote:

You don't get this nonsense in Waitrose or M&S.

Nor in our local Morrison's. You have a bad one, clearly.


Ah - so it is local management stupidity then? Thank you - I shall address a complaint
appropriately.

So it's

Dear Sir,
I'd like to complain about your cocksucking waste of space
local manager who is suffering from advanced cretinism to work
out the obvious logical symmetries between the two processes!

rather than

Dear Sir,
I'd like to complain about your cocksucking waste of space
manager in Head Office who is suffering from advanced cretinism to work
out the obvious logical symmetries between the two processes!


I assumes that sort of thing was policy.

Although it most definitely is some cocksucking waste of space
manager in Head Office who is suffering from advanced cretinism,
who is responsible for the ****e software in their tills.
As only a complete dribbler would have taken five years
to realise that its not actually necessary to tell every
single customer to "please put the item in the bag" for every
single item they scan. On the offchance they've suffered from a
complete mental breakdown of some sort, between items
presumably. For five f*cking years !

With you all the way!

Yes - the Morrisons ones yap my ruddy ears off.

I do not know why it is so hard - the M&S ones are "about right" in many
respects - the scan fast, do not yabber too much and seem to not break
too often. So reasonable checkouts do exist.

"News" wrote in message
...

Wifey bought underwear for son only to find a security tag still attached
when he tried to wear the pants. Shop is miles away, and receipt long
gone.

Brute force? How do these things work? A couple of wide screwdriver
blades to lever one off the other?

For stuff like this I would search YouTube - it is pretty good for that sort
of stuff.



--
Adam

On 17/07/2015 12:04, Tim Watts wrote:

Do they remove the security cap there? No. They refuse and say "only
when you've paid".

Once you have paid the security tag is yours!


--
mailto: news {at} admac {dot] myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 17/07/2015 12:04, Tim Watts wrote:
Pay. Wait for assistant again. They wander off with bottle and come back.

I suspect if you walked out with the still-tagged bottle they'd attend
rather faster.

Andy

On 17/07/15 16:37, newshound wrote:
On 17/07/2015 12:04, Tim Watts wrote:
On 17/07/15 11:41, Davey wrote:


You don't get this nonsense in Waitrose or M&S.

What was the great Stephen Fry line? He loves Sainsburys, because it
keeps the riff-raff out of Waitrose.

Not Steven Fry, Allen Coren.
"What's the point of Sainsbury's, other than to keep the riff-raff out
of Waitrose."

On Fri, 17 Jul 2015 23:02:10 +0100, DJC wrote:

On 17/07/15 16:37, newshound wrote:
On 17/07/2015 12:04, Tim Watts wrote:
On 17/07/15 11:41, Davey wrote:


You don't get this nonsense in Waitrose or M&S.

What was the great Stephen Fry line? He loves Sainsburys, because it
keeps the riff-raff out of Waitrose.

Not Steven Fry, Allen Coren.
"What's the point of Sainsbury's, other than to keep the riff-raff out
of Waitrose."

Or even Alan Coren. Nice to see that his daughter has inherited his wry
sense of humour.

On Fri, 17 Jul 2015 23:02:10 +0100, DJC wrote:

On 17/07/15 16:37, newshound wrote:
On 17/07/2015 12:04, Tim Watts wrote:
On 17/07/15 11:41, Davey wrote:


You don't get this nonsense in Waitrose or M&S.

What was the great Stephen Fry line? He loves Sainsburys, because it
keeps the riff-raff out of Waitrose.

Not Steven Fry, Allen Coren.
"What's the point of Sainsbury's, other than to keep the riff-raff out
of Waitrose."


Steven Fry did say it, on QI. Doesn't mean he originated it though.

On Fri, 17 Jul 2015 16:53:39 +0100, michael adams wrote:

As only a complete dribbler would have taken five years to realise that
its not actually necessary to tell every single customer to "please put
the item in the bag" for every single item they scan. On the offchance
they've suffered from a complete mental breakdown of some sort, between
items presumably. For five f*cking years !

But look at the cliental of Morrisons basic state pension only
pensioners, 50% gaa gaa and still working in £SD. They will have
forgotten what to do between items.

The software "feature" that really bugs me are the chip 'n pin
machines that say "Please Insert Card" but if you do before the
checkout operator has touched the "card payment" button you have to
take it out and start again. Yes, Tesco looking at you been like that
since chip 'm pin came in.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Sat, 18 Jul 2015 16:59:48 +0100 (BST)
"Dave Liquorice" wrote:

The software "feature" that really bugs me are the chip 'n pin
machines that say "Please Insert Card" but if you do before the
checkout operator has touched the "card payment" button you have to
take it out and start again. Yes, Tesco looking at you been like that
since chip 'm pin came in.

Just about all of them, not only Tesco. While we are told to not remove
our card until the transaction is complete, the checkout person can
remove and reinsert it at will.

--
Davey.

In message , ARW
writes
"News" wrote in message
...

Brute force? How do these things work? A couple of wide screwdriver
blades to lever one off the other?

For stuff like this I would search YouTube - it is pretty good for that
sort of stuff.

Excellent, thanks. There is a lovely video of some bird setting fire to
the tag, which looks 'interesting'. I'm back home now, so will try
playing with magnets first. Just got to find the magnets ...
--
Graeme

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.co.uk...
On Fri, 17 Jul 2015 16:53:39 +0100, michael adams wrote:

As only a complete dribbler would have taken five years to realise that
its not actually necessary to tell every single customer to "please put
the item in the bag" for every single item they scan. On the offchance
they've suffered from a complete mental breakdown of some sort, between
items presumably. For five f*cking years !

- But look at the cliental of Morrisons basic state pension only
- pensioners, 50% gaa gaa and still working in £SD. They will have
- forgotten what to do between items.

But most of those, never go near the self-service checkouts
in the first place.

They prefer manned checkouts where they can have a chat with
the assistant, or at least try to. Possibly the only person
they'll talk to all day.


- The software "feature" that really bugs me are the chip 'n pin
- machines that say "Please Insert Card" but if you do before the
- checkout operator has touched the "card payment" button you have to
- take it out and start again. Yes, Tesco looking at you been like that
- since chip 'm pin came in.

But that only applies to manned checkouts. (See above)

The only place I ever have trouble with cards is when buying
books in charity bookshops. Many have two card readers connected
in tandem, and poorly trained volunteer staff, and card readers
which follow different protocols and display different messages,
if at all.
Basically, with some, if you put the card in too early the
whole system breaks down and the only person who knows what
to do is out to lunch, off sick, etc. However if you hold
back and wait for the message, they may take you for a dribbler,
grab the reader and card and slam it in themselves, bending
it in the process, which can be quite painful


michael adams

....

On Wednesday, July 15, 2015 at 7:59:08 AM UTC+1, News wrote:
Wifey bought underwear for son only to find a security tag still
attached when he tried to wear the pants. Shop is miles away, and
receipt long gone.

Brute force? How do these things work? A couple of wide screwdriver
blades to lever one off the other?
--
Graeme

Last time that happened to me I just cut through the wire with some sidecutters.

Philip

On Sun, 19 Jul 2015 09:04:56 +0100, michael adams wrote:

- But look at the cliental of Morrisons basic state pension only
- pensioners, 50% gaa gaa and still working in £SD. They will have
- forgotten what to do between items.

But most of those, never go near the self-service checkouts
in the first place.

With only a conventional checkout in operation they have to battle
the self-service ones.

They prefer manned checkouts where they can have a chat with
the assistant, or at least try to. Possibly the only person
they'll talk to all day.

Single pensioners aren't too bad for chatting, it's the couples,
"Doris & Fred" ...

- The software "feature" that really bugs me are the chip 'n pin
- machines that say "Please Insert Card" but if you do before the
- checkout operator has touched the "card payment" button you have to
- take it out and start again. Yes, Tesco looking at you been like that
- since chip 'm pin came in.

But that only applies to manned checkouts. (See above)

No it applies to the self service ones as well but normally you will
have selected the payment method (as the checkout operator does)
before trying to insert your card. I've not noticed any chip 'n pin
machine, in any Tesco store, self service or operated checkou, having
anything other than "Please insert card" as the standby message.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Sun, 19 Jul 2015 10:18:03 +0100 (BST)
"Dave Liquorice" wrote:

On Sun, 19 Jul 2015 09:04:56 +0100, michael adams wrote:

snip

- The software "feature" that really bugs me are the chip 'n pin
- machines that say "Please Insert Card" but if you do before the
- checkout operator has touched the "card payment" button you have
to
- take it out and start again. Yes, Tesco looking at you been like
that
- since chip 'm pin came in.

But that only applies to manned checkouts. (See above)

No it applies to the self service ones as well but normally you will
have selected the payment method (as the checkout operator does)
before trying to insert your card. I've not noticed any chip 'n pin
machine, in any Tesco store, self service or operated checkou, having
anything other than "Please insert card" as the standby message.


When we lived in the US, it was possible to insert the card while the
items were still being rung up. When that was complete, the cashier
just pressed whatever key was needed to continue the process. The only difference was that
the US cards were not chip 'n pin, they were just plain credit cards.
Does the chip instantly lock the system in to that card, before anybody
has selected the payment method?

--
Davey.

On 19/07/2015 11:53, Davey wrote:
On Sun, 19 Jul 2015 10:18:03 +0100 (BST)
"Dave Liquorice" wrote:

On Sun, 19 Jul 2015 09:04:56 +0100, michael adams wrote:

snip

- The software "feature" that really bugs me are the chip 'n pin
- machines that say "Please Insert Card" but if you do before the
- checkout operator has touched the "card payment" button you have
to
- take it out and start again. Yes, Tesco looking at you been like
that
- since chip 'm pin came in.

But that only applies to manned checkouts. (See above)

No it applies to the self service ones as well but normally you will
have selected the payment method (as the checkout operator does)
before trying to insert your card. I've not noticed any chip 'n pin
machine, in any Tesco store, self service or operated checkou, having
anything other than "Please insert card" as the standby message.


When we lived in the US, it was possible to insert the card while the
items were still being rung up. When that was complete, the cashier
just pressed whatever key was needed to continue the process. The only difference was that
the US cards were not chip 'n pin, they were just plain credit cards.
Does the chip instantly lock the system in to that card, before anybody
has selected the payment method?

No problem with inserting card while scanning in our local Booths
supermarkets ( NW regional group), however Sainsbury's tills do not like
this early insertion ! Just down to the tills and software.

On Sun, 19 Jul 2015 12:59:32 +0100
Robert wrote:

On 19/07/2015 11:53, Davey wrote:
On Sun, 19 Jul 2015 10:18:03 +0100 (BST)
"Dave Liquorice" wrote:

On Sun, 19 Jul 2015 09:04:56 +0100, michael adams wrote:

snip

- The software "feature" that really bugs me are the chip 'n pin
- machines that say "Please Insert Card" but if you do before the
- checkout operator has touched the "card payment" button you have
to
- take it out and start again. Yes, Tesco looking at you been like
that
- since chip 'm pin came in.

But that only applies to manned checkouts. (See above)

No it applies to the self service ones as well but normally you
will have selected the payment method (as the checkout operator
does) before trying to insert your card. I've not noticed any chip
'n pin machine, in any Tesco store, self service or operated
checkou, having anything other than "Please insert card" as the
standby message.


When we lived in the US, it was possible to insert the card while
the items were still being rung up. When that was complete, the
cashier just pressed whatever key was needed to continue the
process. The only difference was that the US cards were not chip 'n
pin, they were just plain credit cards. Does the chip instantly
lock the system in to that card, before anybody has selected the
payment method?

No problem with inserting card while scanning in our local Booths
supermarkets ( NW regional group), however Sainsbury's tills do not
like this early insertion ! Just down to the tills and software.

Yep, that makes sense. The usual "There is a much more sensible way to
do this, so we'll stick with the old problematic way anyway" syndrome.

--
Davey.

Robert wrote:

No problem with inserting card while scanning in our local Booths
supermarkets ( NW regional group), however Sainsbury's tills do not like
this early insertion ! Just down to the tills and software.

The Sainsburys ones used to take early insertion of a payment card as a
shortcut for pressing the "pay by card" icon on screen, now they make
you take it out and press "go back", then "pay by card" then re-insert
.... I can only assume that none of the designers of these self-service
tills actually use them.

On Sun, 19 Jul 2015 13:39:01 +0100
Andy Burns wrote:

Robert wrote:

No problem with inserting card while scanning in our local Booths
supermarkets ( NW regional group), however Sainsbury's tills do not
like this early insertion ! Just down to the tills and software.

The Sainsburys ones used to take early insertion of a payment card as
a shortcut for pressing the "pay by card" icon on screen, now they
make you take it out and press "go back", then "pay by card" then
re-insert ... I can only assume that none of the designers of these
self-service tills actually use them.


I once had a car like that in the US. It had the then new "European"
interior design, with column stalks for lights and wipers instead of the
usual knobs on the dashboard, which everyone knew. This Ford had a short
stalk for the wipers located way behind the long column-mounted gear
selector, so that turning the wipers on and off meant a huge stretch to
get beyond the gearshift, every time. There was no possibility of a
quick response to water thrown up onto the windscreen. The designer
should have been forced to drive the car for several years.
I could never understand how things like that ever got approved for
production.

--
Davey.

"Andy Burns" wrote in message
o.uk...
Robert wrote:

No problem with inserting card while scanning in our local Booths
supermarkets ( NW regional group), however Sainsbury's tills do not like
this early insertion ! Just down to the tills and software.

The Sainsburys ones used to take early insertion of a payment card as a shortcut for
pressing the "pay by card" icon on screen, now they make you take it out and press "go
back", then "pay by card" then re-insert ... I can only assume that none of the
designers of these self-service tills actually use them.

Its not just designers of self service tills either.
The BFI - British Film Institute use to be a good source
of short documentary films which could be downloaded.
And faulty aspect ratios resulting from dodgy transfers,
corrected if necessary

They replaced this with their own "BFIviewer" or whatever
its called.

All the other viewers I've ever come across - Youtube, IPlayer etc
etc have a progress bar at the bottom of the screen, with
play and pause buttons on the left. Normally if you move the mouse
over the actual film the progress bar disappears. But if you keep it
over the progress bar then it stays on screen allowing you to immediately
pause the action. But not on the BFI abortion. The progress bar
disappears after one or two seconds wherever the mouse its positioned,
if it's not moved. A totally gratuitous "feature" which makes it
impossible to pause the film unless the mouse is constantly jiggled
about.
Ironically the only time the progress bar remains on screen is when
the film is paused, thus making it necessary to edit it out from any
screen captures.


michael adams

....

On 19/07/2015 08:48, News wrote:
In message , ARW
writes
"News" wrote in message
...

Brute force? How do these things work? A couple of wide screwdriver
blades to lever one off the other?

For stuff like this I would search YouTube - it is pretty good for
that sort of stuff.

Excellent, thanks. There is a lovely video of some bird setting fire to
the tag, which looks 'interesting'. I'm back home now, so will try
playing with magnets first. Just got to find the magnets ...
Find an old hard disk drive, take it to pieces and you will have 2 very
strong small magnets.
Magnetic tag removers are available on eBAY for around £6; just ordered
one for my local charity shop ......

On 19/07/2015 13:39, Andy Burns wrote:


The Sainsburys ones used to take early insertion of a payment card as a
shortcut for pressing the "pay by card" icon on screen, now they make
you take it out and press "go back", then "pay by card" then re-insert
.... I can only assume that none of the designers of these self-service
tills actually use them.


My bank and credit card company have recently decided to improve their
customers on-line experience by redesigning their web pages.

For me all they have done is to make their existing on-line services
more convoluted. Why stick with the old one page of menus when they can
be split over three or four pages, all with different page formats and
each with no easy way of backtracking to previous viewed pages. Add to
this the use of corporate colours for text that make the page(s) more
difficult to read unless you have perfect vision.

--
mailto: news {at} admac {dot] myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On Sun, 19 Jul 2015 22:05:11 +0100
alan_m wrote:

On 19/07/2015 13:39, Andy Burns wrote:


The Sainsburys ones used to take early insertion of a payment card
as a shortcut for pressing the "pay by card" icon on screen, now
they make you take it out and press "go back", then "pay by card"
then re-insert .... I can only assume that none of the designers of
these self-service tills actually use them.


My bank and credit card company have recently decided to improve
their customers on-line experience by redesigning their web pages.

For me all they have done is to make their existing on-line services
more convoluted. Why stick with the old one page of menus when they
can be split over three or four pages, all with different page
formats and each with no easy way of backtracking to previous viewed
pages. Add to this the use of corporate colours for text that make
the page(s) more difficult to read unless you have perfect vision.


Many, many years ago there was a TV series called 'The Organisation',
starring Donald Sinden. Its purpose was to make everybody's life as hard
as possible. It worked to make packaging un-openable, and
its crowning glory was the little old lady in a blue Mini, driving round
and round a major roundabout, with the left indicator flashing.
This is just the modern version.

--
Davey.

"alan_m" wrote in message
...
On 19/07/2015 13:39, Andy Burns wrote:


The Sainsburys ones used to take early insertion of a payment card as a
shortcut for pressing the "pay by card" icon on screen, now they make
you take it out and press "go back", then "pay by card" then re-insert
.... I can only assume that none of the designers of these self-service
tills actually use them.


My bank and credit card company have recently decided to improve their customers
on-line experience by redesigning their web pages.

For me all they have done is to make their existing on-line services more convoluted.
Why stick with the old one page of menus when they can be split over three or four
pages, all with different page formats and each with no easy way of backtracking to
previous viewed pages. Add to this the use of corporate colours for text that make the
page(s) more difficult to read unless you have perfect vision.

Basically because they "can" do something at little additional
cost, which looks or sounds "impressive" to your average four
year old, then they "will" do it. Regardless of whether it's
actually useful, or not.

Like having a running commentary on all buses and trains
in London, giving the destination of the bus or train every
couple of minutes. Often at full volume, depending on where you're
seated . Presumably for the benefit of any dribblers who've already
forgotten what it is, since they got on.

And it goes without saying the latest incarnation of the
Barclaycard site has been successfuly transformed into an
abortion.



michael adams

....

On Mon, 20 Jul 2015 10:36:35 +0100
"michael adams" wrote:

And it goes without saying the latest incarnation of the
Barclaycard site has been successfuly transformed into an
abortion.


That makes me glad that the only time I have had a Barclays account was
when I worked in South Africa back in 1982. Long before the internet
made it there, they still had one TV station, which spoke English on
Monday/Wednesday/Friday, Afrikaans on Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday, and
alternated Sundays.

The hotel bar did a good trade instead.

--
Davey.

On Mon, 20 Jul 2015 10:36:35 +0100, michael adams wrote:

Why stick with the old one page of menus when they can be split
over
three or four pages,

Web "designer" who hasn't had any useabilty training and is unaware
of the "three click" rule. ie if some one can't get to where they
want to be in three clicks it's click too many. Well constructed
crumb trails

all with different page formats and each with no easy way of
backtracking to previous viewed pages.

Another rule, don't break the back buttton.

Add to this the use of corporate colours for text that make the
page(s) more difficult to read unless you have perfect vision.

There does seem to be a grwoing trend to have light grey text on
white. Awful, hard to read. That and the use of tiddly

Basically because they "can" do something at little additional cost,
which looks or sounds "impressive" to your average four year old, then
they "will" do it. Regardless of whether it's actually useful, or not.

Aye, some sites are almost unuseable as they shuffle things about the
screen as 2 M Bytes of javascript is loaded and run. "8 second rule",
any page should be fully rendered and stable in less than 8 seconds.
Any longer and people get impatient. "Stable" once an object has
appeared on screen don't fing move it.

Another growing trend presumably rooted in touch screens (tablets,
even large ones) and mobile phone use of the web is to have huge
coloured blocks for each link/action but only 4 viewable at a time.
PITA on a desktop all you have is a dozen words and acres of blank
space.

Like having a running commentary on all buses and trains in London,
giving the destination of the bus or train every couple of minutes.

I can see that being irritating for locals but for a visitor it's
damn useful to know that you have got on the right train/bus.

And it goes without saying the latest incarnation of the Barclaycard
site has been successfuly transformed into an abortion.

I bet it's not as bad as:

http://www.nissanusedcars.co.uk/en.GB/homepage.htm

Entirely javascript, once you've refined a search a bit hitting the
back button takes you right back to the begining with any refinements
removed. Don't break the back button!

Every time you alter a search criteria it goes straight off to relist
the matches. OK if it did it quickly, less than the "8 second rule"
but it takes a couple of minutes *each time*.

The various lists of equipment/features have duplicate entries across
the lists and often multiple variations on the same thing: "Air
conditioning" "Air Conditioning" "Automatic Air Conditioning". Not
only that they are very long, so trying to find say "Heated front
screen" or is that "Heated Windscreen" or "Windscreen - Heated".. is
nigh on impossible.

I just hope the same people don't write the firmware for the many
microprocessor based control systems that modern cars have...

--
Cheers
Dave.

On 20/07/2015 11:18, Dave Liquorice wrote:

Aye, some sites are almost unuseable as they shuffle things about the
screen as 2 M Bytes of javascript is loaded and run. "8 second rule",
any page should be fully rendered and stable in less than 8 seconds.
Any longer and people get impatient. "Stable" once an object has
appeared on screen don't fing move it.

You must have the patience of a saint. If it takes 8 seconds I will have
googled elsewhere if there is an alternative.