The minor rants thread.
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You're okay @HardwareGeek, we know you're an actual geek!
I looked but Discosearch wouldn't show me the posts of him biting the heads of chickens.
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I have a laptop that I log on via a smart card. It's running Windows 7. I'll close it and just leave the card in while I'm sitting here. Then when I want to get back in, it's locked (that's good). So after a three finger salute I should just have to enter my PIN and be good to go. Instead I'm instructed to insert a smart card. IT'S IN THE FUCKING READER.
So I have to take it out and then put it back in or Windows won't see it.
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A family member recently bought the full Apple kit: a MacBook Pro, an iPhone, and an iPad (and she's unemployed, go figure). Sometimes she asks me how to do simple tasks because she can't figure it out. By which I mean tasks that would often be literally one drag and drop in a normal Windows or Linux system, like copying a bunch of photos to the phone.
But on the Apple ecosystem, oh boy. There's generally no such thing as a file, you can only interact through whichever application Apple has deemed worthy (which will generally go unsupported in 3 or 4 years breaking everything). And you can only do the tasks they want you to do, no more, no less. You want to "copy" a file to the phone? FOOL! There is no copy, only sync. You have to figure out their iCloud and iTunes sync rules before you do anything or risk that your actions here cause data loss somewhere else. You want to delete photos from iCloud but not from the synced iPhone? Good luck figuring that out!
So in short, Apple software works very well as long as you do exactly what you're supposed to do and nothing else.
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So I have to take it out and then put it back in or Windows won't see it.
The reader must be edge-triggered, not level-triggered. I've seen that kind of thing with other hardware.
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Apple software works very well as long as you do exactly what you're supposed to do and nothing else.
At least with the MacBook Pro you can open a terminal and start to do stuff for real. (It's not Linux, but it is Unix.) But iOS is just not designed for people who like to do things their own way.
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"You girls are pretty enough to be on a mudflap."
-- Buck Strickland
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But iOS is just not designed for people who like to do things their own way.
I'm not sure what's going on with iOS. It was a nice phone and tablet OS but the usability has been declining in the last few revisions.
I still like OS X but that might be because I want to do things the way they've designed them. There's little point of buying the Mac if I want it to work like Windows.
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There's little point of buying the Mac if I want it to work like Windows.
I know professors who do exactly that.
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all bets are off with professors
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So, just went through an ordeal you might call a bit kafkaesk.
What happened? Well, a minor thing, really. Something that happens to my pupils often enough, first time for me, though.
My mobile fell out of my pocket while standing up and hit the ground with the backplate. This shock due to about 40 cm of falling sufficed to break the actual display inside the glass. The (Gorilla) glass itself was just fine. That was new to me as well, I mean, I had seen the other way around often enough - but intact glass and cracked display?
Of course it also killed the whole display, none of this "Well, 25% of the display look funky and don't respond to touch but the rest works" for me either.
So I set out to repair the mobile - because a) it's new and expensive enough not to warrant an outright replacement and b) it should save some money.
Since a cracked display definitely falls under "not covered by warranty" I then looked for one of the multitude of shops who purport that they can repair mobiles in 30 minutes (if they have the parts, of course).
Turns out that a Lumia 950 XL doesn't have parts on the market thus no shops in the vicinity would be able to repair it.
Next stop: Microsoft itself. And that's where the psychedelic drugs set in - or at least: Someone must have smoked some really bad stuff to create this kind of user experience.
First of all: Did you ever try to find an actual support subsite at Microsoft for this stuff? Doubling back to the beginning by accident is a frequent occurence - simply clicking on "warranty and repair" is not actually guaranteed to take you to a point where you get the info you want.
But that's nothing new - this rabbit warren of Microsoft which purports to be a website is such a tangled mess that only sheer stubbornness will save the day.
Then I found it: An actual site where I could create a repair order. Entered the IMEI only to be greeted with a "broken link" icon instead of an actual depiction of my phone but everything else worked.
Then came the return adress - which is where I hit a snag in the form of:"Something went wrong. Please try again later."
Well, let's just say: No, trying again later did not help much.
Thus I set out to find a phone number. I did find one. Only that it was either one for the US or for Indonesia because it began with a "62". Telephone numbers in Germany begin with a zero(0) when not calling locally.
Next stop: The Microsoft store. The guy I spoke with actually provided me with a phone number for the Lumia support line which actually worked!
Up to a point, that is, namely: "Please enter the IMEI of your phone after the beep. Or press # if you need help."
After entering the IMEI or pressing #: "This phone is not egligible for free support. Please call 0900... which costs 1.90€ per minute..." which is where I hung up.
Okay, Microsoft store again - I was a bit annoyed but the poor guy did promise me to forward to an actual technician. Which he did, only the wrong one. Stumped again.
So I tried the Lumia support line again (yes, I know, only mad people expect different results from trying the same stuff again). And this time I stayed on the line after the robot voice gave me the "non-egligible" spiel.
Lo, and behold! A different robot voice asked if I wanted to be connected to said 0900 line - or if I wanted to press one(1) to try to enter the IMEI again. And this time it worked! I found myself in line for a support call.
And after only 30 minutes I spoke to an actual person.
Who steered me onto the website I had tried at the beginning of this ordeal.
When I pointed out that this did not work she told me: "Well, some Microsoft accounts do have problems with this. Simply create a new account, register your mobile with that one and try again." So, with her still on the line (sorry other guys on hold, but I didn't dare let her off the hook that easily) I tried this route and what do you know?
It worked. Next steps (choose the kind of problem and delivery method) worked as well, so I told her that I'd be able to complete the rest, thanked her and hung up.Which is, of course, where Murphy reared his head. Because the last step demanded a means of payment - and as this was a new account, none such was registered. So I clicked on the link "add a means of payment", entered the needed details, clicked on submit and... nothing. The window closed but I still got the message about "no means of payment".
So I clicked on the link again, entered the details again - only to get an error message that the site couldn't add this method. Maybe it had already been added, it suggested? Ya think?!?
Okay, close everything and begin again. No dice. No listed means of payment but it had already been added according to step two.
Stomped off to my profile, browsed to billing details and, yes, my credit card was indeed listed. So I tried to remove it and after only three tries of logging out, using different browsers and sacrificing a goat it removed the credit card.
Then I entered the credit card again, only this time on the billing details page!Back to the service request page and there it appeared! My credit card! Twice even, with a radio button letting me chose between them.
I'll give you a hint: The first entry did not work ("Something went wrong!"). The second did.
And it only took me another search to find out where to get the UPS sticker I was to affix to my package...
And of course it's now too late in the evening to get the package underway.
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You're talking Microsoft. What did you expect?
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I'm really not quite sure.
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yes, I know, only mad people expect different results from trying the same stuff again
Mad people or people with experience in dealing with Microsoft or its products.
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Interesting contrast, by the way: When I contacted UPS about my package, the robot voice wanted my tracking number.
Which was alphanumeric and 20 digits long. I thought to myself: "No way in hell this will work."
I was wrong - the computer captured the tracking number perfectly on the first try. Contrast this with Microsoft which required using touch tones which frequently did not register.
Of course, when I gave the UPS computer my tracking number and it then connected me to an human operator, it did not forward the number as well, making it a bit pointless...
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Of course, when I gave the UPS computer my tracking number and it then connected me to an human operator, it did not forward the number as well, making it a bit pointless...
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Contrast this with Microsoft which required using touch tones which frequently did not register.
Which is hilarious because the phone robot you have to use sometimes with Win7+ to register is quite good at understanding spoken numbers. They even have some little touches like saying something different after each group of numbers to indicate that it understood them.
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quite good at understanding spoken numbers
Horrifying thought just occurred: They're using Windows XP's SAPI for the Windows XP automated activation, and Windows 7's SAPI for Windows 7 automated activation!
Filed under: Now I want a copy of their voice files for some reason.
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So today, I happened to see the restart instructions in someone else's job.
If this job abends with an S04E...
Okay, S04E means that the program had a CPU exception in DB2 while processing user variables. Invalid address for the variable, invalid numeric value, something like that. Something that wouldn't be expected to go away...
If this happens, recompile the program and restart...
Okay, whatever works for you.
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Windows Fast boot, it seems to stop me from entering the bios to boot off off USB as I want to dual boot Ubuntu.
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Now that's a word I haven't heard in a while...
Thank god. Multiple Abends on processor 0. System Halted. Up yours NetWare.
I liked it really. Did have a habit of exploding at the worst possible time though
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I've never once been able to get a Bluetooth mouse or keyboard to connect to any laptop. Ever. Fuck bluetooth.
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Windows Fast boot, it seems to stop me from entering the bios to boot off off USB as I want to dual boot Ubuntu.
Yes, because instead of actually shutting down, it merely hibernates after logging you off.
As you may know, hibernation (in relatively modern systems) causes the BIOS (or UEFI system) to skip most normal "lets load up the boot record yada yada" boot steps and skips right back to Windows.@Lorne_Kates said:
I've never once been able to get a Bluetooth mouse or keyboard to connect to any laptop. Ever.
Though it would only work after I bought a separate dongle and physically separated it from the laptop itself (defeating the point of built-in BT, non?).
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@Lorne_Kates said:
I've never once been able to get a Bluetooth mouse or keyboard to connect to any laptop. Ever.
Though it would only work after I bought a separate dongle and physically separated it from the laptop itself (defeating the point of built-in BT, non?).It's the opposite for me. I generally haven't had any trouble connecting bluetooth devices to laptops with built-in bluetooth, but when trying to use a USB dongle, I've never been able to connect more than one thing at once. Of course, this is probably because the dongle was a super-cheap one from DealExtreme.
On a slight tangent, are there any bluetooth-enabled desktop motherboards, or any way to use a BT keyboard without loading into an OS? When I used my old keyboard (with aforementioned cheap USB dongle), I had to keep a regular USB keyboard around for whenever I needed to get into the bios.
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or any way to use a BT keyboard without loading into an OS
I think Mac does it somehow (probably something in the UEFI).
I suppose if someone were to make a multi-function USB dongle to automatically pair keyboards/mice at power on (that had previously paired) and identify as a generic HID and BT dongle, that could work.Not sure anyone would spend the time do make such a thing though...
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if someone were to make a multi-function USB dongle to automatically pair keyboards/mice at power on (that had previously paired) and identify as a generic HID and BT dongle, that could work.
Not sure anyone would spend the time do make such a thing though...
That was more or less what I determined last time I looked for it, but I couldn't find any definitive information or a product that would support it.
It's
now anyway, as I've stopped using my bluetooth keyboard in favour of a wired mechanical one.
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@Lorne_Kates said:
Fuck bluetooth.
Arrrr!
More like høhøhø!
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What? Should I let facts come in the way of silly jokes?
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It's funnier when irrelevent facts got poured in the mix.
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It's funnier when irrelevent facts got poured in the mix.
What's even funnier is that it's not irrelevant. The Bluetooth protocol was named after that guy for raisins…
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What's even funnier is that it's not irrelevant.
For a given value of relevant.
Interestingly, it's pretty debatable whether good old Harald was called Bluetooth at all. The 'blue' bit is likely to have meant black or dark, and the 'tooth' bit could mean that or could be a mistranslation of the word for chieftain or lord. So he may have been Bluetooth, or maybe he was Blacktooth, or maybe he was the Blue Chieftain - it's theorised he may have liked to dress in blue - or he may have been the Dark Lord.
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it's pretty debatable whether good old Harald was called Bluetooth at all. The 'blue' bit is likely to have meant black or dark, and the 'tooth' bit could mean that or could be a mistranslation of the word for chieftain or lord. So he may have been Bluetooth, or maybe he was Blacktooth, or maybe he was the Blue Chieftain - it's theorised he may have liked to dress in blue - or he may have been the Dark Lord.
Maybe he's like the Blue Rajah in "Mystery Men", whose crime-fighting costume contained every color except blue.
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Maybe he's like the Blue Rajah in "Mystery Men", whose crime-fighting costume contained every color except blue.
Maybe, but apparently blue was the most expensive dye that would have been available to him, so wearing it a lot might have been a status symbol.
I prefer to think he was Harald the Dark Lord, and imagine how he would feel if he knew that his name had been passed down the ages as something ridiculous about blue teeth.
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Though it would only work after I bought a separate dongle and physically separated it from the laptop itself (defeating the point of built-in BT, non?).Fuck, this mouse did come with a dongle. Let's see what happens if...
I plug in the dongle, it shows up in Device Manager as not working. Reinstall, no. Update driver, no. Update driver from local machine, no.
The Device Cannot Start (Code 10)
Microsoft has shit to little shit information on that. It just warns me that Windows XP is ended. I'm on 7, who cares? Lots of useless info about reinstalling the driver.
Or download this Fix It util from Microsoft to diagnose it. Click. Silverlight crashes, takes down Internet Explorer. Restart IE, download the offline version, run it and...
http://i.imgur.com/TIcUC1h.png
Fuck you. Fuck you fuck you fuck you. Fucking done, Bluetooth sucks .
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Well so long as the troubleshooter for the troubleshooter doesn't fail...
Wait, I've actually experienced this situation before?
F.M.L.
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You're all using the wrong kind of troubleshooter.
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@Lorne_Kates said:
Fuck you. Fuck you fuck you fuck you.
That does seem to be the usual response to a Microsoft troubleshooter. I don't know if I've ever seen one fix any situation where I've been dealing with something that's gone wrong. Is my experience atypical?
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That does seem to be the usual response to a Microsoft troubleshooter. I don't know if I've ever seen one fix any situation
I haven't had one really fix a problem, but I did once have one fix enough of a problem that I was then able to see an error message which I used to fix the rest of the problem.I think every other time they've been completely useless though.
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So, today was the last day before my physics class' exam about oscillations (that's plain, mechanical, fixed-in-space oscillations).
Due to my experiences with this class, I thought it best to once again do some exercises.
This is now month 2 of plain, mechanical, fixed-in-space oscillations.
Thus I'm not expecting questions like:
What is this 'm' you're talking about?
How do I get from the frequency to the cycle duration?
If the properties I'm given are "2 seconds" and "20 Newtons per meter", do I need to convert from "grams" to "kilograms"?
Plus, they absolutely insist on calling the angular frequency (short: ω) with the letter "w". They're still confused about how the sine and cosine work. Trying to teach them the conversion from angular degrees to radian measure was like pulling teeth. Giving them exercises which involve more than one step will lead to disaster.
I mean, I tried to get them to at least learn the basic formulas and terms by rote (you know: amplitude, elongation, frequency, oscillator and such terms). I even let them write a simple test where I had told them explicitly what to learn.
A fuckin' disaster.
And then I told them, that they would write the same test once more. Same questions, same answers, same everything.
It was an even worse disaster.
At least, from talking to the other teachers (math, especially) I now know that this particular grade is ... special. Like, back of the special bus special.
In comparison, the grades above and below them are effin' geniuses.
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questions like:
this particular grade is ... special.
What happened that year, I wonder?
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What happened that year, I wonder?
I'm really not sure. Another example to show how ... weird this grade is:
They did a skiing trip a month ago. The pupils were allowed to drink small amounts of beer (after all, several of them are allowed to vote) but no hard stuff.
Some of them promptly did drink hard stuff, were caught and agreed to a complete ban on alcohol.
Three days later a teacher caught the guys drinking hard stuff again.One of them tried to flee, ran into his room he shared with 2 other pupils and locked the door. The teacher then entered the room through the big window-door-combination from the balcony (other door still locked), with the other two residents swearing on their grave that they hadn't seen the first guy.
Yes. A pupil approaching 1.90 m with very broad shoulders is easily overlooked, especially in a 12 m² room. He was found in the lavatory, by the way.
It's an example of the stupidity rampant in this grade: Moronic lies even when having already been caught. It's something you'd expect from a five-year old.
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It's something you'd expect from a five-year old
I was going to guess 11, but when you mention "drinking age"...
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@Rhywden said:
It's something you'd expect from a five-year old
I was going to guess 11, but when you mention "drinking age"...
Where I come from, five is the drinking age.
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And then I told them, that they would write the same test once more. Same questions, same answers, same everything.
It was an even worse disaster.
How does that even happen?
I think at this point your only hope is to arrange for the final exam to be multiple choice and have "C" be the correct answer for every question.
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I think at this point your only hope is to arrange for the final exam to be multiple choice and have "C" be the correct answer for every question.
With the last question being "A" just to fuck with them.
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With the last question being "A" just to fuck with them.
Like this? :::
25 . What grade do you want on this test?
A. A
B. C
C. E
D. D
F. F
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Sadly enough, we use numeric grading. And I dare say that even they would be smart enough to recognize this trick.
They wrote the exam today, by the way.
One of the questions was:
"Which is the relationship between cycle duration and the frequency?"
What do you mean by "relationship"?
Another question was:
"Describe two of the possible attributes you'd use in physics to describe an oscillation, using either the simple or the spring pendulum as an example."
What do you mean by "attributes"?
As a result, I'm not quite sure anymore of their command of the German language. I intended those questions as a means for them to gain some easy points, for chrissakes!
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What do you mean by "attributes"?
Which is the way in which the two concepts of "cycle duration" and "frequency" are connected?
@Rhywden said:What do you mean by "attributes"?
Describe two of the possible qualities or features regarded as a characteristic or inherent part of that which you'd use in physics to describe an oscillation, using either the simple or the spring pendulum as an example.;P
Let them choke on that!
Edit: Is "Which" the correct word to use in that first sentence? It feels weird for some reason...
Harald Bluetooth - Wikipedia
