The Vent and Rant Thread

[WT Sharpe]

Are there any good classical stations on Pandora? I've been checking out various ones and it seems like they are are the same station under different names. They all play the pops. It's like Clear Station Hell. You get Moonlight Sonata (first movement only), Swan Lake (opening only), the first movement of a well known work by an overplayed artist . . . you get the picture. And now here comes Bach's Air on a G String. Don't get me wrong, I love these works, but not as a steady diet, and not sliced off the rest of the works to which they belong. And God forbid they should get adventurous and try something modern or off the Top 100 all-time classical hits. Oh, now here's Handel's Water Music. Pandora's like one big elevator for "crowd pleasing" classical hits.

Perhaps I'm spoiled by living in Tidewater Virginia where we have what may well be the best classical FM musical station in the country; Public Radio WHRO. Yes, they play all the familiar greats, but they play all the movements when they do, and the appearance of these masterpieces on the airwaves is rare enough to made the listener savor those times when they are played. In the meantime they play a very wide selection of music from their massive library which is the envy of classical music lovers everywhere. You'll hear music here you hear nowhere else, presented by disk jockeys who know the music and have a love of imparting information about the selections they play that is always entertaining and enlightening.

So, back to my original question before the rant: Is there even one halfway decent classical station on Pandora?

[PeterT]

I'm annoyed at my own stupidity. Decided to finally buy the bits for a new PC for the wife. Decided on a Ryzen based build and thought maybe this time a smaller case. This meant going microATX as opposed to ATX.

Built up a mental list which I then turned to a wishlist at a local retailer. I planned on a Gigabyte GA-AB350M-Gaming 3 along with a CoolerMaster N200 case.

Went to one outlet of the store, gave them the list, got all but the case which they did not have in stock, but another location in the city did have, so headed over and got the case.

Get home and start the build. Power supply in the case, no issues. Standoffs for the motherboard, no trouble. Could I get the motherboard to fit? No way. Took power supply out, still no go.

Sat there scratching my head, double checking the specs on line; it should work.

Decided to double check what size a microATX board is; 9.6" square. Looked at my board, it's NOT square; in fact it looks to be ATX size.

Looked carefully at board... Oh no! It's a Gigabyte GA-AB350-Gaming 3; notice the missing M!

Checked the wishlist... Drat... My fault, I'd listed the wrong board.

Back to store, got a new, larger case. Boy... things sure fit better!

Now need to decide whether to keep the extra case for another build, or return it and eat the restocking fee

Tomorrow just finish the build.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[PeterT]

Today's been a lot smoother. Only real issue was not installing the memory correctly. Currently just letting w10 do its updatea

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[Bilbo1967]

I was up at 5am and drove for over two hours to get to the client's site in plenty of time prepare for a training course I'm giving. After 8 hours on my feet delivering the training, I get to the hotel I had pre-booked looking forward to a drink, a meal and bed.

Unfortunately, it took an hour and 50 minutes to book me in because of a "system failure" (and, of course, nobody can do anything manually nowadays) and I've now been in the hotel restaurant for 20 minutes after ordering my food waiting - I am ravenous!

I think I'll be stopping in the town I'm in for 2-3 nights a week for the next 3 months. But it certainly won't be in this hotel again!

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

I was up at 5am and drove for over two hours to get to the client's site in plenty of time prepare for a training course I'm giving. After 8 hours on my feet delivering the training, I get to the hotel I had pre-booked looking forward to a drink, a meal and bed.

Unfortunately, it took an hour and 50 minutes to book me in because of a "system failure" (and, of course, nobody can do anything manually nowadays) and I've now been in the hotel restaurant for 20 minutes after ordering my food waiting - I am ravenous!

I think I'll be stopping in the town I'm in for 2-3 nights a week for the next 3 months. But it certainly won't be in this hotel again!

That's insane! If you'd pre-booked it, they should have had your room and key waiting for you. Then it doesn't matter if there's a system failure, you're already in your room and calling room service!

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by CRussel

That's insane! If you'd pre-booked it, they should have had your room and key waiting for you. Then it doesn't matter if there's a system failure, you're already in your room and calling room service!

Yep, you'd have thought so.

And now, I'm in the restaurant and ordered my meal 45 minutes ago - no sign of any food yet. I'll give it five minutes and then I'm out of here.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

I was up at 5am and drove for over two hours to get to the client's site in plenty of time prepare for a training course I'm giving. After 8 hours on my feet delivering the training, I get to the hotel I had pre-booked looking forward to a drink, a meal and bed.

Unfortunately, it took an hour and 50 minutes to book me in because of a "system failure" (and, of course, nobody can do anything manually nowadays) and I've now been in the hotel restaurant for 20 minutes after ordering my food waiting - I am ravenous!

I think I'll be stopping in the town I'm in for 2-3 nights a week for the next 3 months. But it certainly won't be in this hotel again!

You should have gone to the no-tell motel across the way and the restaurant next door.
They would have accepted cash.
If this is a chain, be sure and call corporate, though it might not do any good right now if corporate is in Houston, in which case wait until they dry out to call.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by CRussel

That's insane! If you'd pre-booked it, they should have had your room and key waiting for you. Then it doesn't matter if there's a system failure, you're already in your room and calling room service!

It's actually not insane, depending upon the hotel and the technology.

Those I deal with have doors with electronic locks, and key cards that are generated at the front desk when the patron checks in. The reservation system must be up and running for the hotel to be able to check in the guest, assign a room, and provide a key. (And except in special cases, rooms are not preassigned. The guest gets one that happens to be empty and meets the specifications made when the reservation was booked. Precisely which room that is is luck of the draw.)

A while back, I had fun at a hotel I deal with. I'm the chap who deals with the hotel on behalf of an event held there. The event takes place over a weekend. I come down to the venue on Thursday, and leave Monday.

I was in the lobby on Thursday afternoon, talking to the Meetings Director, who had paperwork for me to sign. As we were talking, the lights went out. They came back on again in a few moments. While he was in his office trying to print out the papers for me to sign, the lights went out again, and didn't come back on. The local electric utility had a failure that took out a couple of thousand customers in the area, including the hotel.

The front desk could not access their system to check in customers, and that was only the tip of the iceberg. The elevators weren't running, and people already checked in on upper floors had problems. The phone system was disrupted, varying between "You can't call into or out of the hotel at all" and "You can only call the main hotel number. Direct dialing of specific extensions doesn't work."

And the failure knocked out the feed from the hotel's ISP, so Wifi and Internet access were out.

Power was back by Friday, but all of the other problems that occurred in the wake of the power failure weren't finally fixed until Saturday evening.

I spent a lot of time explaining what happened to folks attending my event, with emphasis on "The event and the hotel are doing the best they can. Complain to the local utility who had the outage. But stand in line - we are only one of many sites affected."

Once folks understood it was a cascade failure caused by a utility power outage, they were sympathetic, but was the opposite of fun while it lasted.

I told folks after the fact I spent the weekend dealing with giant economy sized helpings of stupid. The only saving grace was that it wasn't my event's or the hotel's stupid.
______
Dennis

[CRussel]

If you pre-booked the keys should have been generated and waiting. I stay primarily at Fairmont and I get my keys from the doorman. It's all handled ahead of time. They know my preferences, and I'm never dependent on the computer system being up.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by CRussel

If you pre-booked the keys should have been generated and waiting. I stay primarily at Fairmont and I get my keys from the doorman. It's all handled ahead of time. They know my preferences, and I'm never dependent on the computer system being up.

Thanks for the recommendation.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by CRussel

If you pre-booked the keys should have been generated and waiting. I stay primarily at Fairmont and I get my keys from the doorman. It's all handled ahead of time. They know my preferences, and I'm never dependent on the computer system being up.

Charlie:

Having built a Fairmont or two in my day (Scottsdale being the foremost), yes, they do all that the night before, because typically, they're about as booked as they're going to get. At their rates, it's not like they're getting Trivago, etc., customers, or walk ins, and yes, frequently fliers, so to speak, get the keys, etc., ready in advance.

HOWEVER, if a power failure occurred, etc., those keys wouldn't do you bupkus. They have to get the "system" back up and running, so that the lock "knows" that your keycard has authorized entry. Otherwise, you wouldn't get in.

They're as automated as the next. The difference is that a high-4 star will go this extra step, to have the key and the card ready, etc., but your typical 3-star won't. Too many cancellations, delays, early and late-checkouts, etc.

FWIW.

Hitch

[CRussel]

True.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by CRussel

True.

One word? Charlie, you must be unwell.

Hitch

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Hitch

One word? Charlie, you must be unwell.

Hitch

Yup. Too hot. And didn't feel like expounding on the obvious. If there's a total power outage, rooms get locked. Yup. And no one can get in, unless, of course, they actually have backup power. Which the good ones do, for critical systems. And this was NOT described as a power issue, but a 'systems' issue. And sometimes it's worth being a loyal customer of one of the better chains. (I'm actually Platinum this year, but that's fairly unusual. And not likely to repeat. )

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Yup. Too hot. And didn't feel like expounding on the obvious. If there's a total power outage, rooms get locked. Yup. And no one can get in, unless, of course, they actually have backup power. Which the good ones do, for critical systems. And this was NOT described as a power issue, but a 'systems' issue. And sometimes it's worth being a loyal customer of one of the better chains. (I'm actually Platinum this year, but that's fairly unusual. And not likely to repeat. )

It is my understanding on the key cards that the locks must be connected to the system to read the key card. No system, no way for the lock to read the card.