INN OF LOST SOULS: general chit-chat thread

[Gambit37]

True, yes, those are dirty tricks and it's shameful to see Google going down that route, since they were originally a lot more open and transparent, and much less aggressive about such things.
I don't have a sm,artphone, I'm still using a crappy old Nokia from years ago. I do need a decent new phone, but everytime I think I've decided on one, I get cold feet about what kind of walled garden I'm buying into. So I decide against it. I can't put it off any more though, I really need one (especially for testing mobile websites) -- I'll probbaly get something Android based, but your story has put me off a bit (although I do have a google account already, so that part isn't really an issue).

[raixel]

Like owingn a new iPod and being forced to use itunes. Bleh to them. Anywya, my point was that it essentially tried to trick you in to keeping a google account on there, lying that the phone needed that account as a primary account so you couldn't delete it. It's not 'play by my rules' it's 'I'm lying to you to get you to use all our apps now, since it;s a hassle to stop us.' Just like it's a little pathetic to have chrome - a full web browswer - try to trick you in to installing it, then hoping it';s too much effort to delete it, or you go 'well, since I have it.'

It's not the same as being locked down by a manufacturer, it's the being tricked to use something you didn't want to that rubs me the wrong way. And if that's their behaviour now, then what is acceptable in the future?

Yes. Exactly my point. A program should downloaded/purchased on its merits, not secretly trying to slip into your system. Honestly, this last wipe-and-reinstall I might have tried Chrome, once I saw the monster that is Firefox 12. (I'm looking at it in my processes right now, its currently taking 130,908K of memory. With one tab open, no downloads, not loading a page. I have 8g of ram, so ts not a big deal, but yeeesh! Even the Witcher 2, a monster-hog of memory and GPU/CPU power only is around 200k) But after having to pull it off my system once and click repeatedly on a bunch of "Don't install chrome" buttons, which thn lead to a "Are you sure? Youre missing out!" popups, where I have to click "Yes I really dont want it get the "F" off of my system" button, ive had enough.

The worst thing is Chrome is a good browser, at least from what Ive heard, mostly from Gambit . So these slimy tricks seem beneath it, like something a scareware or fake AV program would try.

And I too wonder about the "slippery slope" of "if this is what they do now, what about the future"? Google used to be a company I respected, but after all the lawsuits, Im kinda turned off by using any of their products/services beyond the ones Ive had for years.

"Dont be evil", my pale white heiney...

And I dont have a smartphone. I really dont like em. Mine is a 20$ Bartell Drugs special by some unknown brand (The only logo on it is AT&T and the battery has a Chinese word in English on it like Huangxi or something) with my AT&T sim card in it. Its great cuz if I break it, who cares, but the traditional 9-keys are getting harder to find. I went to the AT&T store when my last 20$ phone died, and they wouldnt *let* me have a cheap one cuz I was eligible for an upgrade. I kept on telling them "No I dont want to pay 100$ and get some touchpad iPhone or Android. I want a 9-key non-flip cheap phone." "But this is normally a 290$ phone. You get it for 99.99$(or whatever)" "I dont want it! Can I just buy this phone right here that says its 25$, free with a 2 year contract? I have a 2 year contract." "No, you are eligible for an upgrade. And thats an introductory phone for new contracts, I cant sell you that." "What? Are you serious? Screw you, Im going next door to the drugstore."

And they had the exact same AT&T phone, for 20$. I just put my sim card in, and away I go, its no longer a pay as you go phone. And it doesnt have a bunch of stupid features either. Just text and call. And calculator, calandar, and all those little things I like.

[beowuuf]

I've been using non-smart phones for years, but my last one suffered a blow, and the second last one that I kept as a back up was on its last legs, so I had to get a new phone, and really the smart phones were just better than the small range of non-smart that 3 offered, at the same price. It's still only a phone/texter to me, I once in a blue moon check a website out in the wilds, and sadly two ipods failing (my old one fair enough if poorly times, and my new one after four months) means its currently an mp3 player too.

The app I had wanted was a notepad emulator just to write stuff on if I was out and wanted to, but it was far too much hassle to get one in the end!

[oh_brother]

I'm the type of person where if you try and force me/sneak me into doing something, I will get beyond-all-reason obstinate and stubborn about it. I'm a Taurus, after all

That kind of stuff is guaranteed to p*** me off (I'm also Taurus...coincidence?! Yeah, probably). The worst one that almost drove me crazy was when I lived in the UK and had an orange phone (orange the company, not the colour). I rarely bother to set up a message on my voice mail, I just cannot be bothered. My choice, I would have thought. But after a while every time I tried to access my voicemail messages, before I could listen to anything I would get this big long spiel "We see you have not set up a message on your voicemail. Doing so has many advantages, as it allows the caller to....blah, blah, blah." And you could not skip it. And it happened every time. So they were bullying me into putting a welcome message, basically saying "Until you put a greeting, we are going to delay your access to your messages". It felt so frustrating...even if putting a welcome greeting would make my life immeasurably better they have no right to force me to do it, it is my choice. I ended up changing phone companies. When they asked me why I was leaving I told them, I think they thought I was crazy. I am not an angry person, but that attitude really pushed all my buttons.

Anyway, rant over. Back on topic, you were all talking about smartphones. I have an Android. I like it.

[raixel]

Check this out:

On he way to an appointment this morn a semi (dont know if the word's the same everywhere. Its a *HUGE* shipping truck. Like three cars long and the cab is 7 feet off the ground) hit my tiny car at a light going 2 mph and smashed the ever living crap outta my left rear quarterpanel and pushed me 20 ft down the road. No one was hurt and it didnt do any real damage besides I have to reconnect the outer door handle to the bar inside and my qp looks like well... a semi hit it. Hazards of living in the industrial zone I guess. The ironic thing is that it was so slow it was more of a shove, and if it had been a regular car or trck it woulda hit a lot lower and actually done more than crunch up the quarterpanel, like damage the wheel, axle, or frame.

Now I can say Ive actually been in a wreck with a semi! And drove away from it!

[beowuuf]

Awwwww That is both sad and cool in equal measure, and demands a new word. Sool? That's so sool. (

[ian_scho]

Wow. Glad you came out of that okay. And I complain about Spanish drivers....

You really need to treat yourself now!

[raixel]

Yeah. Fortunately the guy that hit me was nice, the cop was nice. Still got cited though cuz in the SMC(seattle municipal code) if cops come to an accident they *have* to cite someone. And since I was the last person to move, I got cited. Basically what happened, I was trying to merge left at a red light, while the lane I was in didnt have a light at all so traffic kept moving. There were no spaces, so I kept going, getting pushed farther towards the right-curve onto a road I didnt want to be on. There was a (my car) 2 car length in front of a semi, I pulled into it and stopped. When the light turned green, the semi went before me and nailed me cuz he couldnt see me cuz my car was too small. Basically we were both at fault, but I got the ticket. The cop was cool though, he didnt report it as an accident ticket, just a regular "improper lane change", meaning that its only 124$ instead of 288$. And the cop told me to take it to court. So its not going on my insurance as a wreck, and if I can get it thrown out, it wont be on there at all. I have a perfect driving record. Well, I did.
I'm just glad that the driver was coolWe were actually just laughing and saying "$h!t happens", while waiting for the police, and I was going "hey, you coulda pushed me all the way to where I was going and saved me on gas!" So it coulda been way worse. I just took my car out on the freeway and got it up to 70 and let go of the wheel. Didnt even screw up the alignment! So I guess, in the world of "getting hit by a double-length semi" I got pretty good.

[Gambit37]

Your story is made even more amusing in context of the English slang version of "semi"..., especially the "getting hit by a double-length semi"

Excuse the smut, it's late and I've had a couple of drinkies...

[raixel]

LOL! I know the reference. Isn't used here cuz AFAIK there isnt any other thing to call the giant truck, so if you say "semi" around here, people think you are talking about the truck, instead of a...semi.

But still, I'm now in a much better mood. Thanks.

[Jan]

Oh, I'm so glad you're alright! I guess it could have led to something more serious.

But... isn't a "double-length semi" actually a "normal length" (like 2*X/2)?

[beowuuf]

*Snort* well actually, the 'semi' is short dshort semi-articulated' *pushes glasses*

Maybe I've listened to too much american stuff that I didn't blink about it, I just knew what a semi was. Of course, mentionming nailing someone elsewhere was a different matter :p

[Jan]

*Snort* well actually, the 'semi' is short dshort semi-articulated' *pushes glasses*

*thwackthwackthwackthwackthwackthwackthwackthwackthwack*

[beowuuf]

and 'sdhort' is a nordic word meaning 'for'

And stop hitting me!

[raixel]

Wait. Thats what it stands for? (Well as much as I could gather in your garbled typo-speak ) I never understood that. I was always like "why is it a semi truck? Its not a semi-truck, its a F.CKING HUGE TRUCK!"

Hm. Funny day when an English dude starts explaining American words to an American.
And dont make fun of us glasses wearing nerds, its not nice! *pushes glasses*

[beowuuf]

Yup, semi-articulated, because it can still pivot around the link, but it is also a solid link between the trailer and cabin. at least, that's always been my understanding

[Jan]

And dont make fun of us glasses wearing nerds, its not nice! *pushes glasses*

Hey, I'm also one of them - I mean one of you - or one of us to be precise. *pushes glasses*

(personally I find it hard enough to believe that one of us was one of them, but if two of us were one of them... I mean two of them, all of us could be... all of them!)

[beowuuf]

Lol, I was just quoting the gardening leave bit to someone the other day

[raixel]

Fly attack of disgusting doom!

Ok, so directly across the street from my apartment, there is a gigantic brewery, with the big fermenting tanks outside and everything. It has been in this warehouse for about 6 months. This is the first summer its been there. About every 2 weeks, they dump the fermented crap that makes the beer, a process that stinks up the whole neighborhood like this weird disgusting smell of boiling rotten oatmeal or something. It sits there in a dump truck until its full which can take 24 hours, then they cart it off. It reeks and is gross. So, last night I accidentally left my unscreened window wide open in my bedroom and fell asleep. They started dumping the crap yesterday, and it stunk up my apartment. But I didnt think much of it and my window wasnt opened that wide at the time, I opened it at night to get cool air in.

About 10 am I got woken up to "zzzzz" in my bedroom I went wtf and opened my eyes. Sitting on the blinds around/on/near the opened window was easily *40*(!) full grown flies. I freaked the hell out, and called the super who lives next door as I had no idea what on god's green earth caused this. I thought maybe an animal had died in the crawlspace or something. He came over and looked at it and said it wasnt a dead animal cuz the flies were grown and he made the mistake of leaving his window open last time when they dumped the stuff and had a similar experience. I demanded screens.

So, I shut the door to my bedroom, opened both windows wide and made good with a newspaper and a bottle of bug spray. *Finally* I am down to 1. At least I hope so. A few had gotten into my main room too, and I had to chase them around. Ive been chasing flies all day and am pretty pissed. Grr. I can hear it *zzz*ing somewhere nearby! So gross.

[Jan]

Slightly OT, but the breweries really can stink awfully. A few years ago I led an excursion of students into one (Tatran Poprad in Slovakia) and it almost made me puke. On the other hand, they sometimes smell nicely - close to the place where I work there's one large Prague brewery (Staropramen) - a few hundred metres across the river - and sometimes when the wind and air pressure are "right" you can smell the distinctive sweet smell from it that's kind of very strong but pleasant, inviting you to have a beer or two. But I can't imagine myself living next to a brewery.

Oh, and I hope you'll solve your problems as soon as possible and not become a Lord of the Flies.

[Gambit37]

I'm taking the plunge and shoving a SSD in my computer as the primary drive. Currently backing everything up just in case.
If you don't see me for a while, it probably means I messed it all up!
Laters potaters...

[beowuuf]

SSD?

[Gambit37]

Solid State Drive, a hard-disk that's just flash memory with no moving parts. Should finally take my Windows Experience Index to the max of 7.9 as my current HDD is dragging it down to 5.3!

[beowuuf]

Ahhhh, cool! Good luck! See you on the flip side

[Jan]

I wonder: will we ever hear from Gambit again?

[Gambit37]

Still backing up....!

[Gambit37]

New drive installed, Win 7 re-installed, now to spend several weeks putting everything back on and slowing it all down again!
Windows Experience Index only jumped to 6.5 overall (older CPU), although my primary HD (the SSD) is now rated as 7.6, against the 5.3 I got previously. Much better!

[Jan]

Congratulations. Although I've got absolutely no idea what the hell are you talking about. What on Earth is this "Windows Experience Index"? Is this some kind of a joke I don't understand or is that a real thing? I'm confused.

[raixel]

My Windows experience Index is 5.9. Cuz of my @#$% 2 year old 1 terabyte HD that is pretty slow(but got it super cheap) at 5.9. Personally Id rather have the space than speed, but thats just me. The next lowest thing is my processor at 7.2, the highest my RAM at 7.5 and everything else is 7.4.

So congrats on getting it up there, ive never been able to get it above 6.1!

My last comp everything across the board was 6.1-6.8(overall rating 6.1), and this one has a faster processor, way better gfx card, twice as much ram, and 250g more disk space, but the end result is lower (even though everything else is in the mid 7s) due to the HD speed.

So I'm not quit sure how accurate those numbers are or how the actually represent the capabilities of your computer.

[Ameena]

Don't worry, Jan, you're not the only clueless one . Just do what I do when people start talking technical - skim over it until the conversation reverts to normal English and then join in again .