Grumble Thread

[Pulcinella]

Why does my kitchen pedal-bin rotate slowly anti-clockwise during the course of the week between emptyings?

Pressing the pedal presumably triggers some mechanism to open the lid, and you'll probably find that (good old action and reaction law) the bin moves slightly as a consequence to counter the force put on the lid.

[oddoneout]

Why does my kitchen pedal-bin rotate slowly anti-clockwise during the course of the week between emptyings?

Mine rotates clockwise but that I think is to do with the angle at which I press the pedal; lack of space means I can't address it front ways on as it is tucked into a corner. That does sometimes lead to not being able to get the lid up at all if the rod mechanism at the back of the bin has got itself hooked over the metal strip round the mat well.

[kernelbogey]

Pressing the pedal presumably triggers some mechanism to open the lid, and you'll probably find that (good old action and reaction law) the bin moves slightly as a consequence to counter the force put on the lid.

I had realised that the pedal action must be behind its rotation, but the up-down motion of the pedal, connecting rod behind and that of the lid doesn't seem to compute with rotation of the whole. Perhaps these mechanisms are slightly off-centre. Just one of those mysteries....

[Dave2002]

More on emails.

If you use Gmail - and clearly I do sometimes - then you might find that it has "used" AI techniques behind the scenes - probably without asking your permission.

Try asking this question to any of the common AI systems - Grok, Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity etc., and see what comes back:

"In my gmail interface there is a category - Forums, which seems to be non empty. How did gmail decide to put email copies there - what criteria did it use?"

I'll bet the response indicates some non consensual AI use.

[Old Grumpy]

I find that facility quite useful.

Gmail filters out promotional emails into a file named "Promotions". Sometimes these appear first in the "Primary" inbox and then are moved to Promotions when I close the Gmail.

I see I also have a box labelled "Social"...

...this contains one message from HSBC - I don't even have an account with them!

[french frank]

I had realised that the pedal action must be behind its rotation, but the up-down motion of the pedal, connecting rod behind and that of the lid doesn't seem to compute with rotation of the whole. Perhaps these mechanisms are slightly off-centre. Just one of those mysteries....

I feel deprived. I've been pressing the pedal on my bin up and down, uo and down, up and down, and the inner bin doesn't move at all. Does this mean that I have a cheap bin or an expensive one?

Or is it the whole bin which moves? Mine doesn't do that either.

[kernelbogey]

I feel deprived. I've been pressing the pedal on my bin up and down, uo and down, up and down, and the inner bin doesn't move at all. Does this mean that I have a cheap bin or an expensive one?

I was writing about the whole bin rotating. You may have to wait until you need to empty it to observe the phenomenon....

[french frank]

I was writing about the whole bin rotating. You may have to wait until you need to empty it to observe the phenomenon....

Yes, I realised. Hence my edit a few seconds ago I'll report back, but as the bin is set at an angle in a corner to avoid the top banging against the wall it may be wedged so that it doesn't move.

[vinteuil]

I had realised that the pedal action must be behind its rotation, but the up-down motion of the pedal, connecting rod behind and that of the lid doesn't seem to compute with rotation of the whole. Perhaps these mechanisms are slightly off-centre. Just one of those mysteries....

... and of course in the Southern Hemisphere it will probably rotate the other way

[Pulcinella]

... and of course in the Southern Hemisphere it will probably rotate the other way

Nice one, but I suspect it's more to do with the side of the bin (if you think of the pedal as the front) the actual release mechanism is.
Posh bins probably have a Y-shaped mechanism to distribute the force equally on both sides!

[Petrushka]

Yes, I realised. Hence my edit a few seconds ago I'll report back, but as the bin is set at an angle in a corner to avoid the top banging against the wall it may be wedged so that it doesn't move.

My bin is wedged into a corner and you wouldn't expect it to move but it does, in my case anti-clockwise.

[vinteuil]

... sadly we seem to have given up our rather handsome brabantia pedal bin in a big shake-up ten years ago, so cannot report on current rotations in the Shepherd's Bush area ( we now have a tiny bin with a lid that lifts off).

.

[Serial_Apologist]

Yes, I realised. Hence my edit a few seconds ago I'll report back, but as the bin is set at an angle in a corner to avoid the top banging against the wall it may be wedged so that it doesn't move.

Or, as they used to say to me in Bristol: "Where's thee bin?"

[french frank]

Or, as they used to say to me in Bristol: "Where's thee bin?"

That was then. We say "Where's you bin?" now

PS I've tried everything to make my bin rotate but it won't.

[cloughie]

No - by regularly I'm guessing you mean on a daily basis. I'm not interesting in deleting just a few unwanted emails every day - although it's a pain doing it my way, Right now I can remove large numbers in a relatively short time. It's much more effective to be able to delete 50 or more in one fell swoop, even though that does take a few seconds.

No - I probably don't get 10,000 every day, but almost certainly around a hundred per day. The annoying thing is that most of them are of little value, but a small proportion are of interest.

I have changed the way I deal with email deletion, though it's hard to figure out the best way - as different tools may be needed.

Sometime just reducing the number is helpful, though what is often a big concern is identifying the emails which actually do take up a lot of backup memory space. If those are of interest or value it's worthwhile backing them off to a separate hard drive or SSD.

If many of the 100 are of no value blocking or unsubscribing sender might be a good idea.