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Off-Topic Boards => General Discussion => Topic started by: mobius on June 15, 2017, 09:21:47 PM

Title: You know whats BS? [RANT]
Post by: mobius on June 15, 2017, 09:21:47 PM
We all get annoyed by things and get angry from time to time. Use this thread to blow off some steam when you need to.

I fricking got home today to realize my brother updated my PC to Windows 10, without asking me at all. I'm so pissed now, I'd like to kill him.

I don't want this bullshit. I liked windows 7. After 5~10 years I finally got used to it and came to like it quite a bit. Sure it had flaws, many of which I found ways around, but overall it wasn't too bad. The main point is adjusting to something. You can adjust to anything it just takes time. Time Which I DON'T FREAKING HAVE RIGHT NOW! This is pure bullshit and I'd like to start nuclear wars with many countries.

I don't like windows 10, it's very different, it's not suited to my needs. This is bullshit, it's not fair. Maybe this is really only just one in a long list of signs that was telling me what I should be doing.
Title: Re: random pointless rant thread
Post by: Colorful Arty on June 16, 2017, 12:01:53 AM
I am so sorry.

I've heard Windows 10 is an improvement on 8 which is what I have, but going from 7 to 10 must be a nightmare. :(

I still wish I had XP. That was pretty much unequivocally the best.
Title: Re: random pointless rant thread
Post by: ccexplore on June 16, 2017, 04:09:00 AM
I'm kinda surprised you can still even do that, I thought the free upgrades to Windows 10 ended over a year ago already.

If I recall, you have like 3-10 days to roll back the upgrade (in your case back to Windows 7), I don't remember the exact steps but I'm sure you can find them on Google.  Of course, I suppose there could be a small risk that the roll back may not work smoothly and then you could wind up with a brick (though I haven't heard any such stories on that, most stories were about unwanted upgrades).
Title: Re: random pointless rant thread
Post by: 607 on June 16, 2017, 04:17:36 PM
I'd suggest trying to adapt anyway. It's not a bad environment.
Title: Re: !RANT! >_<
Post by: mobius on July 13, 2017, 09:16:48 PM
today's topic: PASSWORDS.

in particular: WEBSITES THAT FORCE YOU TO USE MORE COMPLEX PASSWORDS

First of: I understand the reason behind using a complex password; and I generally agree with this concept. For websites like your bank, or anything containing personal information that has a danger of being corrupted; you should use a difficult to guess password and you should change it often.

Here's the problem: These suggestions keep coming up on websites where this is not an issue at all. I don't freaking care if someone hacks my AnimeList account. What are they gonna find out? What shows I've been watching; I don't give a horse's A$$!. What's so annoying is they force you to have a really extra long password with lots of numbers and capital letter/non-capital letters. These are really hard to remember. I spend time making a good password for important s---. When it comes to sites like these; I want to spend as little time on the password screen as possible. I don't feel like having to remember 50 thousand difficult passwords for all the stupid websites I visit. And the funny thing is: you don't get these reminders on sites like google; email, my bank's website. Ya know the few places where it's actually important, where someone might benefit from this advice. No, on these sites you can just use your dogs name so your neighbor can hack your account. But heaven help us if they hack into my anime list account; my life will be over. F------ horse----.
Title: Re: !RANT! >_<
Post by: Proxima on July 13, 2017, 09:23:17 PM
https://xkcd.com/936/

Clearly a popular strip -- I typed "xkcd" into google and "password" was the first offered choice for completion.
Title: Re: !RANT! >_<
Post by: grams88 on July 13, 2017, 09:53:34 PM
I tried clicking your bronco451 internet thing on another website and I just remember oh I've already added an internet, you have 104 internets now. :) (All my life I want chicken, you might remember that one)

Oh passwords can get annoying at times, I think I sometimes struggle with my short term memory and certain passwords I end up forgetting. I don't like it when I forget a password because it means you have to request a new one which can take a bit of time.

Actually something that has scared me would be if you were to have left your facebook or twitter account on and you were logged in on the computer someone else could go on that computer and post a very rude message, those type of messages that get you into trouble such as threatening to kill someone or other messages that can get you into trouble.

I know in the UK they are getting stricter when it comes to social media.
Title: Re: !RANT! >_<
Post by: mobius on July 13, 2017, 10:44:23 PM
Another new topic; already! from the same website too:

Websites with those stupid annoying bars that follow you around.

You've probably seen this: They often appear at the top, side or bottom of a webpage and they move when you scroll down the page. They usually move in a dramatic way too, to grab your attention. Well they're a$$. They're a distraction, not to mention the fact that they block a portion of the page you're trying to read! Who invented these things? Someone who wanted to irritate visitors to their webpage?
Having buttons quickly acessible is nice; but this is best handeled like other sites have: a bar that remains at the top or bottom of the page and doesn't cover up existing text/images. These bars don't move and never get in the way. That's how it should be done.


Actually something that has scared me would be if you were to have left your facebook or twitter account on and you were logged in on the computer someone else could go on that computer and post a very rude message, those type of messages that get you into trouble such as threatening to kill someone or other messages that can get you into trouble.

All my life I've been hungry :D

grams88; you just gave me an idea for a story! :D
Title: Re: !RANT! >_<
Post by: Nessy on July 13, 2017, 11:20:57 PM
Being a web developer they always warned us to not use those bars that follow you around, or at least practice extreme caution with them. Not only can it be annoying to a user but it can block a lot of content especially when viewing said website on a phone. Even those bars that remain on top can be problematic if done incorrectly. The code used to keep them up there can sometimes be very buggy on mobile devices, like when it seems to jump when you scroll up or down, or when the entire webpage seems to jump upwards when the bar starts sticking to the top (although that's caused by not "filling" in the space the bar left behind when it changes it's position from relative to absolute).
Title: You know whats BS?
Post by: mobius on September 15, 2017, 09:50:55 PM
the goverment's mandate that makes all websites warn you that "they use cookies"

WHY exactly was this law passed? What possible reason could they have? They didn't change the way cookies worked did they? Who does this benefit?

They way I see it: People who are computer literate already know this; and don't need to be warned.
People who aren't don't understand what it means anyway!



another topic which I don't really like bringing up but I feel like it now cause it really pisses me off:

sites that piss on you for using addblock. I understand why blocking adds adversely effects some and I consider removing it on sites that use non-intrusive adds. The biggest problem here is that in my case, ALWAYS the sites that really bother you for this are sites that use the MOST HORRIBLY ANNOYING ADS!

Kiss anime does this; the site actually gets blocked if you have ad block enabled. So I disabled to find the videos, when they worked; which they often don't as a side note; get interrupted by ads, and ads pop up over top of the videos constantly. While some other anime websites which don't bother you about ads at all; have far less annoying ads!

I'm noticing a trend here; a lot of this recent BS is happening with anime related paraphernalia. Why? I have a theory, anime often features a lot of "fan service". Fan service is liked a lot by often less then intelligent people. People more susceptible to adds.... what BS.
Title: Re: You know whats BS? [RANT]
Post by: ccexplore on September 16, 2017, 01:19:47 AM
Yeah, I think you're basically seeing one of many symptoms pointing to the online advertising business model slowly falling apart.  If the website doesn't guilt the ad-blockers (or even if they do), you'll still likely see other tactics employed like sponsored content, various clickbait strategies, paywalls, etc. to stem the continual loss of dollars earned from ad views and clickthroughs.  In that vein it is unlikely that the website can afford to dial back down on the aggressiveness of their ads, at least not without ramping up on one of the many other ways listed to compensate.  You pretty much see one or more of these changes I mentioned here across all websites nowadays, especially those in the online content publishing industry.
Title: Re: You know whats BS?
Post by: mobius on September 17, 2017, 04:27:11 PM
Companies/organizations removing good/useful things from their roster

This seems to be happening more and more frequently now and it's getting quite frustrating. And it makes little sense to me.

Companies from restaurants to stores to websites and services have features which you love; sometimes for years, then for dumb reasons, sometimes despite customer's pleas to the opposite, sometimes for no reason at all; they get rid of them.
-Drop box removed the "public folder" option. The only reason I ever used the program. An amazing feature that made it incredibly easy to share files over the web.
-Firefox removed support for Java runtime (at least in some form). Why on earth?
-Simon told me on IRC once Firefox removed support for Linux sound or something of that nature.
-I can't count the number of restaurants that removed dishes I loved over the years. Wawa and Subway are seem to love to do this. They have a sandwich or something they everybody raves about. Then it's gone, forever.
-A Hardware store near my house used to repair small appliances and engines. First they would give you a new appliance for free or discount if you turned in an old one, they stopped doing that. Now they don't even repair anything anymore.
-A grocery store in my area used to have these amazing wrap sandwhiches. I would literally get a couple of them every single week. Now they're gone.
-All of the banks in my town used to offer free coin exchange, first they started charging for this, then they only allow it if you have an account with the bank. Now some don't do it at all.

This is some grade A, honky *******.
Title: Re: You know whats BS?
Post by: Colorful Arty on September 17, 2017, 04:56:29 PM
-I can't count the number of restaurants that removed dishes I loved over the years. Wawa and Subway are seem to love to do this. They have a sandwich or something they everybody raves about. Then it's gone, forever.

This. This is the reason I no longer eat at McDonalds. I loved their Chicken Selects (think breaded chicken fingers, WAY better than those terrible things they try to pass off as nuggets), but when they removed them, there was nothing on the menu I wanted to eat as a meal. I still love their fries and hash browns, but there's nothing there I can eat as a full meal anymore. I'm sticking with Chick Fil-A, Arby's, and Wendy's for my fast food fill.
Title: Re: You know whats BS?
Post by: Simon on September 17, 2017, 09:52:20 PM
-Simon told me on IRC once Firefox removed support for Linux sound or something of that nature.
This is some grade A, honky *******.

Two common methods on Linux to have audio:
Hardware <- ALSA <- App
Hardware <- ALSA <- Pulseaudio <- App

ALSA works, but can be nasty to configure manually. Pulseaudio is allegedly simpler to program against, but, depending on hardware, might introduce lag or stutter. Many Linux distributions ship with Pulseaudio by default, and if it works, it's fine. It has some benefits too, like per-app volume control.

Firefox dropped the raw ALSA support, and works only with Pulseaudio. Now I have no sound in Firefox. I can adjust, I'll download videos or watch twitch streams in VLC. Nice side effect is that twitch can't serve me ads because I don't use their web player. :lix-evil:

Lix calls Allegro 5, which then calls Pulseaudio or ALSA as available. I'm okay with the extra abstraction here because I want easy platform-independence.

It's always a tradeoff: Too little abstraction slows your app development. Too much abstraction brings more bugs in the layers. It's far simpler on Windows, where everybody can call DirectX and things will work.

-- Simon
Title: Re: You know whats BS? [RANT]
Post by: mobius on March 16, 2018, 08:24:43 PM
today's BS:
Constant annoying pop ups asking you if you want to allow 'x' website to send you notifications.

Isn't this why I got ad-block? To remove useless irritations from my life? They just keep on coming; no matter how far you run. It's never-ending BS with the internet isn't it?

Righteously; I found a solution; 8-):lix-cool::thumbsup:

https://www.howtogeek.com/288946/how-to-stop-websites-from-asking-to-show-notifications/

I found more useful ways of preventing similar irritations too like your browser asking you to remember passwords or something like that if it bothers you. Unfortunately I lost the link.
Title: Re: You know whats BS? [RANT]
Post by: mobius on January 03, 2019, 11:18:03 PM
Updating to Windows 10 turned out to be not as harrowing as I expected. At risk of jinxing myself; I so far only encountered two major (and not really that major actually) obstacles.

1) the start menu
Of which I personally think sucks eggs. It's radically different from the start menu we were all used to; which imo was great and pretty all around efficient, user friendly etc. This new menu is ugly, stupid, not useful for me. Why change it? I don't know or care all I care is I found a solution:

http://classicshell.net/

this program or 'skin' essentially turns your ugly win10 start menu into the good old classic type! such windows 7 or XP. It can do other things too but I only use it for this.

2) audio problems
Sound didn't play correctly and 'stereo mix' as a recording device was missing from my audio drivers. Meaning I'd be unable to record audio from my PC; meaning I'd be unable to stream or record videos.
Again why I really don't know or care but here's the solution; download a common audio driver like realtek.

https://ftp.station-drivers.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=353&func=startdown&id=3572&lang=en
Title: Re: You know whats BS? [RANT]
Post by: namida on January 03, 2019, 11:57:51 PM
I advise caution with Classic Shell. I've seen a few cases where Windows updates have broken it, resulting in the user not being able to get any kind of start menu at all (classic or new).
Title: Re: You know whats BS? [RANT]
Post by: ccexplore on January 04, 2019, 12:15:29 AM
Well, at least it wasn't like Windows 8 where the fine folks at Microsoft somehow had the brilliant idea to remove (!) the Start Menu and even the Start button (!!) altogether, replacing it with a full-screen (!) "menu" of tiles (which looked almost exactly like the right side of the Windows 10 Start Menu) in an ill-conceived bid to make the UI look and work more like mobile ("because it's the future!" :XD: wait...most PCs don't even support touch input, hmm......:XD:).

Truth be told I don't think I even use the Start Menu all that much then and now, 7 or 10 or otherwise.  Most 3rd-party programs offer an option during installation to add a desktop shortcut to the program.  Plus you can also right-click on the icon of any running program on the taskbar (at the bottom of the screen) and select "pin this program to taskbar" to keep the icon available even when the program isn't running, thus turning the taskbar into a quick-launch area for the (usually relatively few) programs you run a lot.  And in lieu of manual digging deep into the menu for the occasional need of a less frequently used program, you can just use search (in both 7 and 10) in the Start menu to more quickly find the program you want by name.  Ironically it is quite possibly more frequent that I'd use the Start Menu to shut down or restart the computer vs actually launching another program from it.

The Windows 10 Start menu replaced the right column of stuff that were in the Windows 7 menu with a rather wide area containing a bunch of tiles for other stuff that I agree are mostly not very useful.  There are ways to remove all that stuff on the right and then shrink the menu down width-wise, and you end up with something not too unlikely the Win7 menu (or at least the left half that just has all your programs), but it is a bit of a pain compared to just using something like classicshell.
Title: Re: You know whats BS? [RANT]
Post by: mobius on January 05, 2019, 03:36:44 AM
I advise caution with Classic Shell. I've seen a few cases where Windows updates have broken it, resulting in the user not being able to get any kind of start menu at all (classic or new).

thanks for the warning. Maybe every time there's an update I'll temporarily disable it; maybe this will work??

At least; as ccexplore pointed out the menu isn't strictly necessary but it is really nice to have; for one the button on the keyboard is very useful for not only bringing it up but getting you out of any other window (especially for example if you're in some full screen mode app).
There's also other ways of accessing, well, everything, but again it's nice to have your most commonly used files and settings right there.
Title: Re: You know whats BS? [RANT]
Post by: mobius on January 22, 2019, 02:31:57 AM
seriously disappointed in myself right now.

Upgrading my new PC so far has been a dismal failure.

My first mistake was buying the wrong power supply (too low max WAT for my graphics card). So while I can play some games, it fails other times. But at the very least I was able to USE my PC and play some games for a month or so. And I upgraded to Windows 10 on an SSD drive. Experimenting with all these things was fun and went smoother than expected. (Actually getting the graphics card to work properly inital was a bit of a mess but I got it).

But now after deciding to go further I;
-purchased RAM that isn't good (got ripped off)
-broke a cable to the graphics card so I cannot use that now and can't play certain games anymore.
-did something to damage my SSD card somehow, still not sure what's wrong with it
-dropped the CPU to my one older spare PC rendering that useless atm.

Due to either the RAM issue, the SSD or likely both and another problem with the new motherboard and case I bought I cannot get the new PC to work at all and cannot load anything on my SSD. I completely lost access to a couple new musical albums I bought and some games I worked on recently.

I'm so freaking frustrated at this point I need to take a long break from this. I don't know what to do next.
Title: Re: You know whats BS? [RANT]
Post by: mobius on February 06, 2019, 02:54:59 AM
:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: :party:

success!!! finally!!!!!!!

Finally, after all that hassle (and some wasted money, but not too much) I got it working!

MY now brand new PC specs: :)

Asus motherboard
AMD FX Processor, 8 core, 4 Ghz
16 GB RAM (using only 2 slots currently so I have the option to go up to a whopping 32 Gs in the future if I need to, at present this seems like enough)
Nvidia 970 grahpic card with 4G
an 240 G SSD and a Terabyte HDD
Liquid cooler with a total of 7 fans in the case :o :laugh:

The case is a Rosewell case; was rather cheap but seems very sturdy and well built. It is larger than my old PC with plenty of room inside. I'm pretty happy with it.
Title: Re: You know whats BS? [RANT]
Post by: Colorful Arty on February 06, 2019, 07:52:27 PM
Nice! I'm glad this story eventually had a happy ending for you mobius; you deserve one! :thumbsup:
Title: Re: You know whats BS? [RANT]
Post by: namida on February 06, 2019, 10:36:38 PM
Quote
16 GB RAM (using only 2 slots currently so I have the option to go up to a whopping 32 Gs in the future if I need to, at present this seems like enough)

Yeah, 16GB is plenty for now. Even 8GB is still acceptable for general-use or gaming PCs, though 16 is better.
Title: Re: You know whats BS? [RANT]
Post by: mobius on October 11, 2019, 11:00:28 PM
Cell Phones: [ey! nobody says "cell" phone anymore do they? :D]

First there's updates, I could rant about updates alone. But my phone updates all the time, not just the phone but each app individually updates at different times; meaning essentially something's almost always updating.

Recently my battery started draining faster and losing charge even when I'm not using it. So I purchased a new battery from ebay... and it's freaking exactly the same as my old one! No improvement what-so-ever

But the worst is notifications. Now for some reason every time I plug my phone in I get a notification: "weak charging detected" even though as far as I can tell it's working just fine as before. I'm using the same cord and And my phone charges just as fast... it's the battery that's the problem, at least I thought....
And then since my SD card is almost full I keep getting a notification that my storage space is almost full. I know it's full, I don't care; it doesn't matter. I don't need this notification every single time I look at my damn phone.
Title: Re: You know whats BS? [RANT]
Post by: ccexplore on October 12, 2019, 08:18:13 AM
I turned off app auto-updates on my phone.  But it was more out of necessity as I have a cr*p phone that is not able to use the SD card for storing apps for some reason, and the internal storage is pretty small, and of course there are many preloaded apps that can't be uninstalled, many of which I never used anyway (but because they are preloaded, taking an update would mean you're storing both the uninstallable preloaded version as well as the update).  Basically if I don't manage the app updates myself my phone would run out of storage long ago, on app updates for many apps that I never use but can't uninstall either.  I do manually update a few apps that I do use all the time.

Maybe it's different for iOS, but many Android phones, especially cheap ones outside of those made by Samsung and Google, tend to rarely ever get OS updates if at all.  It's just app updates.  OS updates tend to require the phone to reboot afterwards, so are you sure it's not just app updates?

As for the battery--how sure are you that the battery you purchased from eBay is in fact "new"?  "Weak charging detected" does sound like the battery is old.  I'm unfamiliar with the technical details of batteries, but it's quite possible that when the phone reports battery is charged 100%, it just means it detected it's not taking on more charges anymore, it doesn't necessarily mean the 100% is same amount of charge as the 100% 2-3 years ago when battery was still new.  So an old battery wouldn't mean you can't get it to 100%, but that the 100% you get is less actual amount of charge than on a new battery, so it'd run down to 0% faster.

When you said it's losing charge "even when I'm not using it", do you really mean the phone is off-off?  A quick press of the power button just turns off the screen, the phone will still consume power from the Wi-Fi radio, the cellular radio, plus any background tasks your apps and system may be running (such as, yep, those app auto-updates).

Depend on your usage pattern, perhaps it's feasible to leave Wi-Fi off most of the time except when you need it.  This could even get side benefits such as the apps no longer auto-updating (generally you have to opt into a setting to let app auto-updates occur over cellular; make sure it's off lest you waste cellular data over those unwanted app updates).
Title: Re: You know whats BS? [RANT]
Post by: grams88 on October 12, 2019, 02:35:53 PM
That can be quite annoying the battery draining very quickly mobius. There is also the risk of getting a new battery to find out it is the exact same. I wonder if the term cell phones is an american term. Updating all the time, my actual computer had problems with the automatic updates and this something I've turned off, otherwise it kept going round in a circle.

I noticed in society we kind of need a mobile phone now as a lot more things are geared towards that type of thing. I had to have a mobile phone for (Internet banking) they are getting more secure. I'm not really a mobile phone type of person, I only use it when I have to and one thing do really use it for is phoning up and leaving a voicemail for the (phone losers of america, voicemail) a prank calling community where I'm regular on the voicemails.  Apart from that I don't really use my phone for anything else except only if you have like for the internet banking. (I would rather you didn't have to use the mobile for that but there we go)
Title: Re: You know whats BS? [RANT]
Post by: mobius on October 18, 2019, 11:01:01 PM
I'm betting that the battery I purchased was indeed crap as I just put my old battery back in and it's working better than the new one :XD: . So I'll just deal with it (it's not really that big of a deal right now to be honest.
It was from China. In short: when buying on ebay never buy anything from China. This was the second time I got ripped off from buying something from China on ebay. It can be difficult as there is a lot of sellers from there and sometimes it isn't obvious it's China either. They have stores in America (or are at least labeled so) which have American names, but you can see they must be operated by Chinese immigrants who've shipped them from some cheap knock-off company in China.
Title: Re: You know whats BS? [RANT]
Post by: Minim on October 19, 2019, 11:16:21 AM
I remember buying something imported from China as well and feeling ripped off. I bought a wireless mouse from a charity shop (Which fortunately, I had a discount due to the fact I volunteer in one of them) which came in from the same country. When I got it to work, the signal wasn't great and I had to lay it on a flat surface such as a hardback book. A few months later the batteries were dead, and the mouse was thrown away.

Going further into computer mice: I prefer the wired ones, but they suddenly become a problem if you're trying to move them around the house (Especially with a laptop). The wire is so thin that when it catches a door knob, it breaks and the mouse becomes completely useless. I stopped buying them and gone for wireless ones instead.
Title: Re: You know whats BS? [RANT]
Post by: namida on October 19, 2019, 06:21:28 PM
Quote
They have stores in America (or are at least labeled so) which have American names, but you can see they must be operated by Chinese immigrants who've shipped them from some cheap knock-off company in China.

At least here, there are a lot of local companies that specialize in importing cheap Chinese goods and reselling them. They aren't always run by Chinese people - I've encountered such shops run by just about any ethnicity you can name, but they all source their goods from China.

In general, I agree that you should mostly avoid generic Chinese brands for electronics. However, some well-known Chinese brands can be just as good - or even better than - the common big names; the problem is specifically with generic (or obscure) Chinese brands. I can even think of at least one Chinese brand I very highly recommend - Xiaomi (most famous for their smartphones, but they make a lot of smart devices). It's also usually fine in my experience to go for cheap Chinese stuff for accessories, such as phone cases, where you're not relying on the electronics being reliable.

Quote
Going further into computer mice: I prefer the wired ones, but they suddenly become a problem if you're trying to move them around the house (Especially with a laptop). The wire is so thin that when it catches a door knob, it breaks and the mouse becomes completely useless. I stopped buying them and gone for wireless ones instead.

My recommendation here is to go with Logitech. Extremely reliable and pretty good on battery life in my experience, and while you'll pay a tad more than generic brands, they're not too expensive - over here, you'd probably pay about NZ$25 for a generic brand wireless keyboard+mouse combo; you might pay about NZ$40 for the same thing from Logitech. My only criticism - if you get a device with programmable buttons, their software seems to erase the setttings for these every time it updates. I've reported this bug, but their response was simply "Yes, that's what happens when there's an update". There's probably an open-source replacement out there that doesn't have this bug, I just haven't looked into it yet.