posted
Driving in heavy snow is tricky. I went through a whole winter of stop-and-skid before being [forcibly] relocated to Florida. There were times when my car would climb part-way up a hill and then slide back to the bottom.
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Robert Nowall: Driving in heavy snow is tricky. I went through a whole winter of stop-and-skid before being [forcibly] relocated to Florida. There were times when my car would climb part-way up a hill and then slide back to the bottom.
Sounds almost fun If it wasn't frustrating, potentially dangerous and making you late. Posts: 5289 | Registered: Jun 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
The last couple of days I've had trouble with my wireless mouse---thing kept freezing up on me. I'd forgotten, or it hadn't ever occurred to me, that (1) a wireless mouse would have to have its own power source in the form of batteries, and (2) those batteries would eventually run down.
But I was able to track down how to change them, which, once I did it, wasn't a big deal. And they were just double-A batteries, 'cause if they'd been something like one of those coin-shaped things, I'd've been out of luck for a few days till I could get to the store and match it.
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yeah Robert, I know the feeling. I work with an older pen tablet. And it started to go on the fritz much tp my dismay. I even went out and started to price new ones which only encouraged my resolve to see if I could fix the old one. I realized that the pen had a battery in it and replaced it with a feeling of Ahhhhhh, but it didn't fix the problem UUUGGGGGGG. I replaced the driver. Still nothing but a lot of time wasted. Thank the heavens for you tube. I actually ended up doing a very specific search for my type pen tablet and the problem it was showing and one in a million chance came across someone extremely smart that had a video that showed how to clean the leads. Now it works perfectly. Ahhhhhhhh. But it was a long head pounding two months of searching for a solution only because I didn't want to pay the absorbent prices a pen tablet cost these days and they are obsolete in six months.
Posts: 634 | Registered: Jun 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
YouTube saved me a service call for my dryer the other day---found a video for fixing the fan, which wasn't what I wanted to do, but it told me how to open up the front of the machine, which I wanted to do. (Why? Dead rat inside.)
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm frustrated right now with Ebay. Ordered an electronic device that was supposedly from a multiple-star seller (in Hong Kong--my first red flag?), and signed for the delivery today.
Opened the box and it was something else entirely. Still an electronic device, but absolutely not what I ordered - wrong manufacturer, wrong type of device, etc, etc, etc.
Contacted Ebay and jumped through their hoops and now have to wait until next week so that the seller can respond (and tell me how to return the item). Once they receive it (I'm thankful that they will have to sign for it, so we'll have proof they actually got it back), I will get a refund from Ebay.
But even after all of that, I still won't have the electronic device that I wanted - that the seller agreed to send to me.
At least it wasn't a Christmas present.
Posts: 8826 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
| IP: Logged |
posted
Sometimes I wonder about the wisdom of ordering sight unseen. I mean, I do it, but it's fraught with problems like that.
A while back, I saw a Jeff Gordon pocket-tee that I liked, and I ordered (and paid for) three of them from the Jeff Gordon Fan Club site. They sent me just one shirt. After some correspondence, and a month passing, they sent me...another shirt. Still short one. After another month, and more correspondence...I got the third one. Seemed as if they couldn't conceive of someone wanting more than one shirt.
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Communication is frustrating sometimes even when you speak the same language. In this case, we're not even sure they understand exactly which kind of electronic device we originally ordered.
They just told us something is on its way to us, but we have no idea if it's the correct something this time or not. (And no information about how to return the wrong item.)
Posts: 8826 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
| IP: Logged |
posted
A recently discovered to me irony of communication is it intends clearer understanding and is interpretable as misunderstood or incompletely understood in many circumstances.
Posts: 6037 | Registered: Jun 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
Then there's the other plague of online ordering---junk e-mail. I've bought one thing on Ebay---that eccentric salt-and-pepper shaker Kathleen tipped me off about---but since then I've been getting (and deleting) their e-mails. Same with Time-Life---one set of CDs about ten years ago, and long series of promotions for things I really don't want.
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
There should be, hidden somewhere deep within the junk e-mails, an unsubscribe link. My junk folder went from perpetually filling to constantly empty within a week.
quote:Originally posted by extrinsic: A recently discovered to me irony of communication is it intends clearer understanding and is interpretable as misunderstood or incompletely understood in many circumstances.
And it happens more often, I think, through internet communication than through in-person communication, though it happens in all kinds of communication.
Posts: 8826 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm claiming [again] the first sighting of 2016 of one of the dancing Statues of Liberty---this one wasn't dancing much, but it *was* raining...
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
None today, but I did pass by where they usually are while a fifty-m.p.h. rainstorm was blowing.
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I don't know how wide spread this other one is but there are a few black birds hanging around on street corners too, around here. They have Uncle Sam top hats and a white and red striped cape.
During the year they advertise for a car insurance place but now it's taxes.
Posts: 5289 | Registered: Jun 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
Found it funny while watching Spartacus:Vengence on late night SciFi channel that it still contained all the blood and gore but the nudity was cut out. Even at 2am in the morning. I mean what kind of backwards philosophy is that? They'll show a man get a sword shoved through his face and all the blood that goes with it, or another person get beat to death, but if you see a naked person that's going to corrupt you? We got some serious warped puritan values in the USA for TV. You can see decaying rotting corpses bite the throat of living people and see the flesh ripping from the body, but if you saw someone naked that would be bad. Well except for the quick glimpse of their backside. Feeewwww good thing we have these guys to teach us values.
posted
And you trust the judgement of these people to tell the difference between reality and imaginary? Generous, aren't you? Personally, I think they're just a bunch of prudish toss-pots.
Phil.
PS: I remember that on an episode of Castle (the TV show) they had to special effects out all of the bum-cracks on a bunch of nude store mannequins. Sheesh! Talk about prudish nonsense.
Posts: 1937 | Registered: Sep 2012
| IP: Logged |
posted
Hardly the only thing censored. And things change, too. Compare versions of "Blazing Saddles," the one that was in theaters way back, the first network run, and the current broadcast version---what gets censored gets changed.
I gather, way back on "Gilligan's Island," the censors were upset about how much cleavage Ginger was showing, so they hiked up her dress some---then they got upset about how much cleavage she was showing on her backside...
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I feel the vague need to brag, er, announce, the purchase and use of my first laptop / tablet. Relatively cheap cost...got it because I found I really couldn't read my own handwriting and want to use it mainly for diary writing...but I'm working through a few things to see how things go. Hope for the best...
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I downloaded the free upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 about six months back. It was great for the first few months, but has since started having problems. Namely, the start menu and sound stop working at random. Also, sometimes when I turn my computer on it doesn't even boot up the file explorer properly (I can't get it to open the start menu OR file folders in that case). Windows' solution for all of this, last I checked, is "restart your computer". None of their subsequent updates has fixed this problem for me.
(The worst part is if I downgrade back to Windows 7 I'll get prompts for the free upgrade to Windows 10 every time I turn my computer on again.)
Posts: 745 | Registered: May 2015
| IP: Logged |
posted
The main reason I migrated to Linux. Happily runs LibreOffice, Inkscape, Audacity, and TeX (a high-end typesetting program) so what do I need windows for? Also has the added advantage of no one writing a lot of viruses targeting the OS.
The only drawback I see is that it is probably up to 12 months behind in supporting new hardware devices and drivers.
posted
I downloaded Windows 10 for my main [tower] computer---the laptop had it and that gave me a taste for it---and, so far, no problems to report...
Unless...in my websurfing on AOL I like to load ten or so comics pages at a time, then read and dismiss them one by one. A couple of times it's blinked out with an error-in-loading message, and returns with a few less pages than before, sometimes only one. I can't say this has *anything* to do with Windows 10 for sure...
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Although...in Windows 8, my AOL did not say "Welcome," or "You've got mail!" On my laptop, and in this uploaded version, it does. I thought they'd done away with it in the version I've been using...I guess something was "off" in Windows 8 that got turned back "on" in Windows 10...I did look for it way back when, but couldn't figure it out, and eventually forgot all about it...
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
I noticed that so far no guitar playing statues like last year. In fact as I thought on that earlier I think one statue is missing. Maybe they closed that office?
Some statues know how to flip signs but no dancers either.
Posts: 5289 | Registered: Jun 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
Oh No comments on the censoring because I don't watch that many movies over the air waves to notice. And I don't iike to watch a bunch of blood and guts movies anyway,
And as to Windows I don't know how Ten works since I don't do Windows.
posted
My husband and I both have to work on Valentines Day, so we're celebrating two days early. How, you probably didn't ask? By seeing the Deadpool movie and going out for chimichangas.
Believe it or not, this was my idea. XD
Posts: 745 | Registered: May 2015
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Grumpy old guy: Valentines Day: Hallmark is still making a mint of it. Damn it, where's my Tommy-gun?
Phil.
My husband and I have never actually done the cards/flowers thing for Valentines Day. We usually give each other tabletop roleplaying books or some similar manner of gaming accessory, maybe go out to eat and that's about it. Then again, we're both a wee bit abnormal and we understand each others' particular brands of crazy.
Posts: 745 | Registered: May 2015
| IP: Logged |
posted
I have to work on Valentine's Day, and President's Day the next day. One I would'a anyway, but the other's supposed to be a paid holiday off...
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Had a major epic fail on my main [tower] computer yesterday. I'm sure it's connected with upgrading to Windows 10...but now (as of the last time I checked) I can't even get it past start.
It's been on-and-off since that upgrade---but before it cut me off in the middle of something, calling it "DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION"---and now it's putting up "WDF_VIOLATION."
If I hadn't'a bought this laptop, I'd be severely limited in my Internet access---my Nook Color is good for taking a couple quick looks at a few sites---but for writing I'll have to try to get my main one working right again.
I'm almost fully backed up---I did it before the upgrading---so all I'll lose are some parody song lyrics, and some practice writing and notetaking I'm not overly fond of anyway.
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
Here's a link to the official Microsoft article on how to potentially fix that.
On a semi-related note, I've been doing more and more note-taking/brainstorming on my phone, simply because Google Docs automatically backs it up which means I can access it easily on my phone or computer. I don't like doing heavy writing that way, but for writing done in short bursts I've found it personally empowering.
Posts: 745 | Registered: May 2015
| IP: Logged |
posted
I tried, on advice, removing all the peripherals and rebooting, then left it unplugged for eight hours or so. It came back up, and I got as far as a couple of websites---then it froze up on the old Watchdog Violation thing. I'm starting to think updating to Windows 10 was more trouble than it was worth.
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Seems to be working relatively fine this morning. Froze up once (which might be associated with the AOL program), cut out once (might be associated with the WiFi), but I've been able to get through to here on my list of favorite places.
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Computer problems redux: computer problems again. This morning the screen and mouse kept freezing (happened before)...tried the unplugging thing, which got me going till it froze up again...and, just now, restarting, the hard drive sounded like it was going to come apart.
Windows 10 updating was so not worth it.
Ah, well. I can't use this relatively-new laptop for much, the keyboard isn't adequate, though at least I can communicate...I guess I'll see if I can pick up a tower...then try to figure out how to get my files. (Not that there's any real loss of the info on files, just a little writing I wasn't overly fond of, plus some song parodies I've already posted---I copied them onto one of them stick thingys beforehand, which should take care of the important stuff.)
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Robert, if you have a spare keyboard with a USB connector you may be able to plug that into the laptop and set it as the default input device. You might also want to consider upgrading to Linux--although you'll need to tweak the CMOS so you can actually install a non Windows OS.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Mad]](mad.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
