The Rant Thread!

[wraith808]

I don't see any images on that page.  I'm running Adblock Plus in Chrome.

https://chrome.googl...lbpkdaibdccddilifddb

[TaoPhoenix]

Hmm.

Heh well first I got my first BlueScreen in months/years! But I assume that's just a fluke caused by other things.

But more to the point, not only is the image still there, but now the color scheme is inverted! (In Chrome).

The Rant Thread!


So who knows. It's not a big deal, just kinda interesting.

But I will leave Ghostery on in PaleMoon and/or Firefox, because this is another time it seems to pick up a few things that AbBlock isn't. (I think one of those other ones was the whole "ping.chartbeat.net" thread.)

[Deozaan]

Where are you reading it?  On Tor.com?

-wraith808 (July 11, 2014, 03:49 PM)

Yeah.

I have ignored most of the pics, only occasionally nuking a couple that really seemed annoying.

-TaoPhoenix (July 11, 2014, 10:33 PM)

Not sure... I have adblock plus and ghostery running... and didnt see any of what you were talking about.

-wraith808 (July 12, 2014, 02:23 PM)

Adblock certainly doesn't do anything, and it's fair to say they're same site ads, so arguably among the legit ads possible. My rant was just about them being big pictures which always beat out text. I just put back Ghostery, and it didn't seem to do anything.

Try this page:

http://www.tor.com/b...t-generation-qq-whoq

Then see if you see this image in the post:
http://www.tor.com/i...t-many-splendors.jpg

If you do, that's my point. If you don't, then we have a new topic because if we're both running Adblock (which one? I'm running edge) and Ghostery and I see it and you don't, that's a technical thing to discuss.
Keith D has written a lot of books, and I'm sure some of them are pretty good. It was just a bit much of selling as I clanged through his entire series. Title dropping in text would have been fine, maybe ten years ago I might have bought a couple of them. It was just the pic thing that annoyed me a little.

-TaoPhoenix (July 12, 2014, 03:15 PM)

The text of the article is talking about the book (series) where that image is shown. It seems to be a part of the article (along with all the other images) and not an ad.

The Rant Thread!

Though that section of the article could very well be "product placement" or whatever. The point is that it's not an ad network or ad banner. It's an image that corresponds to the text. I don't see anything wrong with that.

[TaoPhoenix]

"Show Teaser"
I'm about to do a rant on my cable connection to Time Warner. But I'm going to try to do a little homework first. Basically, I've been getting network speeds that would make Renny froth at the mouth and be mistaken for having rabies!


Update: The old adage of "when in doubt, reboot" apparently applies to modems as well as Windows Computers! So, I just have to randomly remember to unplug it whenever I feel like I have re-entered 1994's dialup land!

Funny exhibits:

[Renegade]

Basically, I've been getting network speeds that would make Renny froth at the mouth and be mistaken for having rabies!

-TaoPhoenix (November 06, 2014, 03:27 PM)

Who said I don't have rabies!

[TaoPhoenix]

Blecch!

I was watching a chess lecture this morning, and because of server side tech problems, they kept saying to increase the volume. Then Dad called, and by some unholy devil's-miracle of somethings-pressed while trying to minimize it, I think I maxed out my audio output (after *eight years on this comp*!), and I think I blew out my sound card!

   

It still is "just a sound card" and I have a backup laptop to still watch stuff on, so I didn't just become electronically-deaf, but COME ON! Ridiculously impossible Murphy's Law stuff like that shouldn't happen!

Chances are I'll end up waiting on the sound card until my big test/overhaul this summer with Win10, but still, that's among the more unbelievable pieces of bad luck!

Update:

So you can have your main volume "is what it is", but somehow the separate Wave ended up at zero and you can't see it on the simple master volume interface.

[barney]

Speaking of sound ...

Bought a Samsung sound bar w/woofer (separate piece) and attached to a ~55-60 inch LG TV via fiber optic cable.  Worked for a while, nice sound, but started cutting out - run ~twenty (20) minutes, cut off for a couple minutes, repeat cycle.

Then I bought a Samsung sound bar, woofer built in, and attached it to a Samsung 46 inch TV - never worked.  Samsung to Samsung, right?  You would expect compatibility, right?  Apparently not    .

Samsung has great video, but audio - in my experience, at least - is less than stellar if not totally non-functional  .

[Renegade]

Got to Korea. 27 hours by air. Laptop is hosed. Worked at home. Tablet has errors now. Can't install anything now. Google Play Services errors. Smartphone stopped booting. Had to rent a phone. Disaster. I'm a bit pissed off.

[barney]

I'm a bit pissed off.

-Renegade (January 24, 2015, 08:37 PM)

Speaking of which, how's the hand ... that oughta be worth at least a mini-rant.

[Renegade]

I'm a bit pissed off.

-Renegade (January 24, 2015, 08:37 PM)

Speaking of which, how's the hand ... that oughta be worth at least a mini-rant.

-barney (January 25, 2015, 02:28 AM)

Heh! You remembered!

I write messier now than before, which means nearly illegible. And I have much less endurance -- e.g. when shaving my thumb tires out and I need to "shake it out" a bit to continue. My first knuckle is still a bit numb. All in all, relatively minor conveniences. About the only real problem is the endurance, which isn't much of an issue right now, but will be when I need to do more manual tasks later on when we move. (Looking forward to getting off the grid there.) I should do the DMSO thing though. I haven't done that yet. What I find bizarre is that I've had much larger cuts with zero problems. I guess I just drew the short straw there and it hit some nerves/tendons/something. I really have nobody to blame but myself -- I smashed the window and I guess I was a bit careless when I pulled and smashed the remaining glass. Not much of a rant.

In other news, I had to buy a new laptop today, so I picked up an el cheapo HP laptop. It's capable for what I need. But jeez... 3 devices screwed up on me in how long? (Less than that many days...) What are the bloody odds?

[IainB]

Got to Korea. 27 hours by air. Laptop is hosed. Worked at home. Tablet has errors now. Can't install anything now. Google Play Services errors. Smartphone stopped booting. Had to rent a phone. Disaster. I'm a bit pissed off.
______________________________

-Renegade (January 24, 2015, 08:37 PM)

Just as problem analysis: Why do you say your laptop was "hosed"? What exactly were the symptoms?
What do you suppose the cause was?

[Renegade]

Got to Korea. 27 hours by air. Laptop is hosed. Worked at home. Tablet has errors now. Can't install anything now. Google Play Services errors. Smartphone stopped booting. Had to rent a phone. Disaster. I'm a bit pissed off.
______________________________

-Renegade (January 24, 2015, 08:37 PM)

Just as problem analysis: Why do you say your laptop was "hosed"? What exactly were the symptoms?
What do you suppose the cause was?

-IainB (January 25, 2015, 07:00 AM)

I had a NETAPI32.dll error. I couldn't use Windows Update or make OS configuration changes, which are critical to my ability to do what I need to do while I'm here in Korea.

Specifically, I need to set the underlying OS language to Korean in order to use some software while I'm here. I flew here specifically for this. And one f***ing error and I need to buy a new laptop because I can't risk screwing around -- this MUST get done. Reliably. And I need to do it tomorrow morning.

Most things on the old laptop still work... just not what I need to work.

I simply can't risk "letting it slide" otherwise I may need to fly back. And I hate flying.

In other news... related...

The flights killed me. Uncomfortable seats for hours and hours are just murder. My back was in severe pain, so I asked a friend if he knew of any decent massage places to iron out the kinks. Well... He blathers on and on and never answers. The closest he gets to answering is saying, "So do you want a dirty massage or a regular one." I tell me just a regular one, and he blathers on more with no actual information (he's good at this - he's in sales). So, I just wander into the first place I see.

Half way through the massage she starts to strip down at which point I tell her that all I need is a simple, normal massage with no extras. Um... uncomfortable.

In any event, the massage was good and the pain levels were drastically reduced. Airplane seats are like "unmassages". I'm not looking forward to the flight back, but on the good side, maybe I can get my wife to help me out with a massage, and then the "extras" are all good~!

[Renegade]

In a word...


AAARRRGGGHHH!!!


Just how friggin' stupid are people???

http://www.theglobea...est/article24429608/

A security test by the Canada Revenue Agency found thousands of its employees could not resist the lure of a phony e-mail phishing scam, a discovery that suggests vulnerabilities remain at the agency more than a year after it was rocked by a major online security breach.

The Globe and Mail has learned that over the first three months of this year, the agency’s security and internal-affairs division sent 16,000 employees an e-mail designed to replicate the potentially dangerous messages that are common to anyone with an e-mail account.

A phishing scam usually involves an e-mail that encourages a user to click on a link, which could then expose the user’s computer to malicious software.

The result of the CRA’s test was that 78 per cent of employees did not click on the link contained in phishing attempts. However, that means roughly 3,500 employees did fall for the scam, even though they were informed ahead of time that the test would take place.

I think we've resolved the question as to whether or not bureaucrats are at the bottom of the IQ barrel.

And, just to make it perfectly clear just how moronic these douchknobs are:

Philippe Brideau, a spokesperson for the CRA, said, "...The CRA’s systems are safe and secure.”

Yeah. Right.