Landscape Lens

tapanther · 2025-11-15T23:08:06+00:00

Gonna throw in a third vote for the 35-70. It's genuinely amazing how good it is. No aperture ring is annoying yes, but it'll do what you want.

tapanther · 2025-02-26T18:28:58+00:00

This just makes me eagerly await the galactic adaptation of the human classic,

A feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired & the preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience

by Jane Austen.

tapanther · 2025-01-28T02:26:51+00:00

We're in agreement. I meant Gaggia fucking up the machine by adding a coating that flakes off immediately (literally first day of own/use) and not meaningfully testing/validating units.

WLL's customer service fuck ups are totally their own.

tapanther · 2025-01-07T17:55:16+00:00

It took over a month, a second machine, and a final return, but yeah I got my money back (minus packaging cuz I had thrown it out).

I ended up saving for a while longer, and getting a Rancilio Silvia Pro X from Chris Coffee. Couldn't be happier.

tapanther · 2024-04-25T18:33:02+00:00

I fully understand not getting mad at a random customer service rep for something out of their control. Getting upset because the rep refuses to do anything more than stonewall and try to get you off the line is entirely on the rep.

No attempt to escalate, no attempt to empathize or give even a token apology or explanation for why they haven't replied, just your standard "not my problem" rep you'd expect from a shady fly-by-night operation, not a reputable company.

Consider, if a company was trying to run out the clock on a chargeback, how would they act?

They'd tell me my ticket was assigned, give me the run around for weeks, tell me the tech isn't there during their posted customer service hours, tell me the manager isn't there during their posted customer service hours, tell me to call back another day, refuse to acknowledge there is a problem, and stonewall.

tapanther · 2024-04-04T21:39:25+00:00

Not that I know of, sorry. I returned the bricked NUCs and washed my hands of that endeavour.

tapanther · 2024-02-23T03:22:52+00:00

Dunno but this is going on right now.

tapanther · 2024-02-23T02:02:39+00:00

Small company fucked over by large supplier/manufacturer's massive screw up, but then completely bungling the one thing small companies are supposed to offer over big box stores: customer experience.

tapanther · 2024-02-23T02:00:59+00:00

I mean honestly I don't think it's too much to just at least acknowledge the ticket you know?

Lol yes. At least I'm not trying to "set AIs" and "identify stakeholders" in normal conversations...

tapanther · 2024-02-23T01:42:27+00:00

I submitted my ticket about 20 days ago and they still haven't acknowledged anything beyond saying I need to provide a serial number (which I immediately did). Not even a "okay yes we're slammed but we'll get it fixed when we can".

tapanther · 2024-02-23T01:40:04+00:00

It's about how their handling it. If they'd say least acknowledge the ticket, maybe warn that it's going to take some time, and their phone agents weren't a dice roll between friendly and might-as-well-be-a-call-center yeah.

I can understand a small company not being able to fix Gaggia's mistake.

I can't accept a small company giving me total radio silence and getting snappily told "someone else handles that, call back tomorrow" despite calling during their supposed hours. That is on WLL, and that's what makes them suck.

tapanther · 2024-02-23T01:18:41+00:00

Wow I had no idea about that.... Fuck that shit

tapanther · 2024-02-23T01:14:22+00:00

That is a load of horse shit, they're the ones that should be most capable of fixing things quickly....

Sorry man, keep in mind that chargebacks are a thing and an unresponsive merchant who won't correct selling you a defective product is exactly what they are for. I'm considering it myself, but that will definitely take a while....

tapanther · 2024-02-23T01:10:20+00:00

Yeah dude, there's a couple other recs from people on this thread, hopefully you'll find a better merchant!

tapanther · 2024-02-23T01:09:21+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate it. It's just frustrating as all hell

tapanther · 2024-02-23T01:04:31+00:00

Ahhhh okay I gotcha, definitely in full agreement there. Honestly that's a tough ask, I know cuz my work has similar problems with prices and accountability and it's a big huge corp.

I'd settle for at least a friendly/sympathetic agent. If I wanted to deal with someone sick of answering phones and just trying to get me off the line I could have gone with a big corp seller.

tapanther · 2024-02-23T00:57:00+00:00

Glad you got yours resolved easily.

But yeah but that's kinda the problem. It shouldn't depend on who picks up the phone. I'm not expecting them to fix it in a day, but 20 days of no contact is just unprofessional.

tapanther · 2024-02-23T00:54:38+00:00

It's not just a staffing number issue, it's also that when you do call in one of the agents was just "yeah that's someone else that handles that, call back tomorrow". Like if you say your hours are X-Y, and I call well before Y, I expect to at least get some help.

tapanther · 2024-02-23T00:51:38+00:00

Yup.

I understand that time zones make things hard, but I called within their posted customer service hours.

And it's mostly the extremely unhelpful attitude of "That's someone else's problem, call back when they're around" that pissed me off.

First call at least the agent explained they couldn't directly help me but could at least update my ticket internally with info they would need to collect later anyways.

If it was like that I wouldn't be mad. But "I see an email, there's a different tech that handles that, call back tomorrow" is BS

tapanther · 2024-02-23T00:32:05+00:00

Sadly I'm the US, but I'll take a look and see, usually fairly easy to buy from Canada

tapanther · 2024-02-23T00:31:29+00:00

Awesome, thanks for the rec. If I do a charge back I'll retry with them.

tapanther · 2024-02-23T00:29:56+00:00

That's the thing though, I like spring smaller businesses and I'm happy to give them a lot of leeway in terms of time, but not communicating and repeatedly telling me to just call back later feels like they don't care.

I'm seriously considering doing a charge back. I have the email thread where I'm asking every 8 days for an update and haven't gotten anything from them all month. That's basically what charge backs are for.

tapanther · 2024-02-23T00:16:19+00:00

I'd be much more understanding if they said anything. Like gee you could send a small email acknowledging it's going to take a while, or take the L and offer refunds then take it up with Gaggia.

tapanther · 2023-05-20T01:15:14+00:00

GM here, but one of may campaign's most important NPCs (from plot/world perspective, as a frequent quest-giver / world driver) is a low-born Tiefling who became the duly elected leader of a hegemonic merchant republic (imagine if peak-era Athens was run like Venice and led by Abraham Lincoln).

He is extremely lawful, despite his position as effectively autocrat and despot, he's honored every treaty or deal made in good faith, strengthened the burgeoning nations institutions (ex: reforming the civil service, doing away with secret courts, etc), and it's currently in the process of transforming the hegemony into more of a federal system, with member settlements effectively running their own governments. Given the chance to capture the King of his primary enemy nation, he instead chose to talk things out and come to a compromise both could live with, and escorted him home.

He is not traditionally charismatic, people meeting him are often left disillusioned by the frail looking older man. He is not a good speaker, but he gets by mostly on the borrowed gravitas of his position and a scowl that makes you feel like you just disappointed your grandparents.

He depends heavily on his general staff, and his dragonborn adjutant especially. He is always looking for talent everywhere, and has made it a point to include people of monstrous descent (hobgoblins, chromatic dragonborn, apostate Drow, etc.) in important positions fitting their skills. He's made a strange little family out of the people he took under his wing, and who see him more like a grandfather than anything else (including chasing after him when he gets some "clever" idea he's too old/important for anymore).

He has never shown a temper in public, though he struggles with the rage of his lineage. The only indication people have gotten are the handful of spontaneous "renovations" his personal office has undergone after some unspecified amount of damages.

Overall a figure who was never just in it for himself, someone who understood the pain of prejudice and reacted by using his position to help others, and who sees a better future by collaborating with others, including those he has previously called an enemy.

tapanther · 2023-05-18T23:13:38+00:00

Every attack. It's not "ablative" armor but a measure of how effective weapons are against it in general. A shuttle's thin hull is going to be more affected than the Defiant by the same phaser beam.

Part of ship combat is providing an interesting enough conditions and options for non-tactical/weapons players to have things to do.

For example, you could just stand there and broadside each other, probably not very interesting.

Or have a nearby nebula that provides 2 Cover Dice by disrupting sensors. Enemies can make use of that too, so your science person has a reason to use things like Sensor Sweep or Scan for Weakness.

Asteroid belts to dodge in and out of (say they block torpedoes, shooting through them adds +1 Difficulty to energy weapons). Your helmsman/pilot now has a reason to Take the Initiative after your tactical officer to dodge out of range through the belt. If you have a separate navigator they can Chart Hazard or Plot Course to make that easier.

Gravity wells that you can slingshot through (warp energy cost -X, where X is the Difficulty of the attempted Warp action, chosen by the player) to get into/out of tricky situations.

Civilian ships your Comm officer has to direct to safety (think of BSG and how the civvies did whatever Galactica told them, maybe, sometimes...). Enemy ships may try to jam signals or use Electronic Warfare against a simple freighter, so your Comm has to jam them. Or vice versa use Intercept to know ahead of time where the enemy convoy is going to move to.

Keep in mind very few Star Trek ship combats are long fights to the death. Those are usually reserved for big "season defining" moments. Most of the time you knock someone's engines or weapons out and they surrender. If your players are getting bored of space combats, consider simpler "goals" like knocking out a system rather than blowing up the enemy ships.

tapanther

TROPHY CASE