I got the (cheapest) speakers.
I did not get the frickking screw. Apparently no one has them. In fact in one computer shop the guy stated that people often ask about those screws...
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You know when you get stuck going to a party you really don't want to go to, so you psych yourself up in the car for a good ten minutes before you go in, and once you get inside it's a total train wreck and you're wishing you could just bail and go out for ice cream instead?
Some days that's me coming home after work.
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So... a party?
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I got the (cheapest) speakers.
I did not get the frickking screw. Apparently no one has them. In fact in one computer shop the guy stated that people often ask about those screws...
Solving problems with cunning and necromancy!
Because repurposing the bones of your loved ones never gets old!
The first challenge was finding it - I might had threw it away nine years ago with a lot of other electronic trash during The Great Purge (cleaning the house before my friends moved in). Thankfully, I hadn't, and it was on a cabinet together with two other long dead computers and some other trash that I should probably throw away). Opening it was easier than I expected, because I left it with the bottom already unscrewed.
And there were small, black, ASUS-manufactured screws.
I have to admit it's here where I started getting a bit nervous (thanks anxiety!), because it meant that I should open the computer and finally install the second, larger SSD...
I haven't physically installed a hard disk in approximately 11 years, not counting pulling out a laptop's HD and putting it in an external USB box to connect it top another laptop. USB is very safe in comparison of anything done inside the desktop.
I was never the most dexterous person in the world, and my eyesight is getting worse (on very close distances, it was always crap on longer ranges anyway).
And then I discovered that the designer of the box wasn't the brightest engineer in the world (or it was a deliberate screw you to users, who knows). The empty SSD slot was placed under one of the support struts and next to large fan. Putting the SSD in the slot was not a big issue, but affixing it with a screw was problematic because I could not put hand directly over the screw (a shorter screwdriver would help with that). I also dropped the screw once or twice.
Finally, I managed to attach the SSD, screw the screw tight enough so it wouldn't wobble. Close the lid, connect all the cables (I also forgot how many cables a desktop can grow over two days), connected the power, and heard a sudden buzz!
The USB-powered speaker came to life when I connected the computer to power.
I turned on the monitor and the computer...
And the startup lasted longer than usual, because windows decided to install some kind of update. Thankfully, it was a small update, not one of those that take hours to load and install, and reset the system a few tomes in the process.
Next step - disc manager. I got a prompt asking me to select type of the disc initialization, and there it was. 976 GBs of additional disc space! Quick-formatting into two partitions was a formality, and now the things are looking more like they should.
The next planned stress will be in a few months, when I will save a bit for a graphics card or extra memory...
Don't get me started on installing extra memory, the slots are underneath (unused) hard drive shelf... It might be the an exercise in manual finesse and precision.
Also, today just before waking up, I had a dream about the new computer.
First, I tried to turn on the laptop who for some reason was still laying on the desk, caught myself that I have a new computer that I should turn on instead and noted that screen looked larger yesterday. Once I turned it on, it showed me something that looked like a cross between a trailer for a Japanese horror, and a K-pop music video.
And in the waking world, after returning from futile quest in search of screws (but before solving it through the generous application of dark arts and anxiety), I tried to turn on the new computer in the same way the old computer was turned on (power button on the lower right) instead of the new way (screen power button on the bottom right of the screen, the computer itself by a power button in the top right of the tower standing slightly behind the desk).
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You know when you get stuck going to a party you really don't want to go to, so you psych yourself up in the car for a good ten minutes before you go in, and once you get inside it's a total train wreck and you're wishing you could just bail and go out for ice cream instead?
Some days that's me coming home after work.
Huh. I have found an old 320 GB ssd disk in a portable pocket that turns it into an external USB disc.
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Well, after Former Coworker Jeremy'd (silent quitting in construction) and then finally quit last week I get his guy who he was supposed to be training to be a foreman, so now I get to train him the right way. It is going very well, as I knew it would because I've known him since he was 7) the best part is he has his own 15 year old daughter working with him, so while I'm showing him how to do things Crookshanks is showing his daughter how to do the basics. It's a pretty cool system.
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Me (10 years ago working at Toys R Us): I sure am glad I'm not in upper management, those guys do all the work!
Me (now): Alright! I'm in upper management! I can do all the work!
Quiet day.
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Bad day at work - troubleshooting session with 4 other techs enters the second hour...
Me: Ok, I've got to step away a sec. I'm going to go pour some whisky.
Coworker: Oh. Yes. I'll take four fingers please.
Me: Ok...would you also like some whisky?
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Bad day at work - troubleshooting session with 4 other techs enters the second hour...
Me: Ok, I've got to step away a sec. I'm going to go pour some whisky.
Coworker: Oh. Yes. I'll take four fingers please.
Me: Ok...would you also like some whisky?
Raises hand)
Yes, please!(I got a referral from Hermione's dentist for orthodontia today.)
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One of my favorite things about pre-written APS is when the players decide to do something fundamentally stupid and ridiculous, much to the GM's chagrin, only for it to turn out that it was the right thing to do.
We were stuck.
Until in a moment of brilliance, our archaeologist wizard turned to our lizard man fighter and said, "Let me carry you!'
The 120-pound eladrin proceeded to succeed on an astonishing series of rolls to carry the 300-pound lizard man through the gauntlet, while those of us who weren't involved howled with laughter and waited for them to die in a hilarious way. (We were only second level, so death is pretty much the expected outcome of all such endeavors.)
And yes. The AP was specifically written so that if one PC carries another, the traps don't go off. It didn't have to be the wizard carrying the ranger, but it made it oh-so-much-more hilarious.
So yet another, "I'm going to do something stupid but hilarious," "You win!" moment.
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TJ (standing in the rain): You still want me to get the dirt?!
Me: Not unless you want to have a f$&%ing epic mud fight
TJ: I'll get the dirt!
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It's hot today.
It's hot today.
I was in a sharing mood. Figured I'd send y'all some of my weather. Now I feel less alone.
I agree, it has felt like Texas this week.
It's hot today.I was in a sharing mood. Figured I'd send y'all some of my weather. Now I feel less alone.
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I agree, it has felt like Texas this week.
I don't see it.
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Oh...sorry...I was looking at the oppressively s*%$ty feeling of everything going wrong with the week. My mistake.
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Oh...sorry...I was looking at the oppressively s!@@ty feeling of everything going wrong with the week. My mistake.
Oh, THAT Texas. My apologies.
Rebemner the Amalo.
Rebemner the Amalo.
The who?
The Doors.
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It came up in conversation today at work just how astoundingly over-educated our landscaping division is, and how little of said education is related to our actual jobs, and I can't stop thinking about it:
Owner/manager: 6-year bachelor's in agricultural engineering
Crew 1 (senior) foreman: 2-year trades degree in automotive maintenance, plus 3 years of a 4-year bachelor's in mechanical engineering
Crew 1 (senior) technician (me): 4-year bachelor's in illustration, plus a 6-month trades certificate in electrical maintenance and 3 years of a 5-year bachelor's in pulp & paper engineering
Crew 1 helper: 1 year of a 4-year bachelor's in veterinary science (current student)
Crew 2 (trainee) foreman: 4-year bachelor's in TV & radio broadcasting
Crew 2 (trainee) technician: 3 years of a 4-year bachelor's in economics
Crew 2 helper: 1-year trades certificate in carpentry
Rebemner the Amalo.
One small mankind, and I'm gonna leap the heck outta this moon rocket
LibreOffice or WPS Office?
Another free office suite I looked at certainly was Chinese one. Not sure about WPS. Will check.
I haven't been using Libre Office much in the last few years, with Google Docs being more convenient to use most of the time, but I need to open some doc files on the computer and started to wonder what are the alternatives.
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A flamboyant wizard wanted a new attire every day so he made a cloth-sewing swarm of needles.
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When did you get two dogs and a kitten?!
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When did you get two dogs and a kitten?!
I was up near Seattle visiting Younger Brother and his menagerie. Not shown are the chickens nor the two feral cats living in one of the outbuildings.
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Yeah, Amazon really has become the early 2000s eBay. Anything that doesn't come directly from them is likely a scam.
I got conned by a classic bait-and-switch that was so well done that I didn't even think to check until after the call. I ordered a new projector for the table.
Red Flag #1: "There's a problem with your order. Please call us."
If they can't tell you the problem via the messaging system, it means they're trying to hide something from Amazon. Had I been wise, I would've canceled the order right there.
I called up. The conversation was very natural. "The X17 is no longer being made by Epson." This was believable because when I ordered it it had warned me that there were only 2 left in inventory. "The X49 is its successor." Once again, believable because of the higher number. I really get fed up with manufacturers using a seemingly random numbering system to label their products. Can you please just call it V1, V2, V3, or for different product lines go with V1001, V10001, etc?
NobodysHome's Goof: I didn't ask about the price difference, I simply OK'ed the replacement. It wasn't until AFTER the call that I learned that the X49 is $110 cheaper than the X17.
So yeah, it's a classic bait-and-switch, so I get to file a fraud claim with Amazon and the U.S. Postal Service (pretty darned stupid of them to use the postal service to commit fraud, 'cause the USPS LOVES to go after that stuff).
I should get most (if not all) of my money back, and I'm certainly going to make the seller's life as miserable as possible, but I'm still mad at myself for falling for it in the first place.
(internet order woes)
That's sort of why I was stressed earlier this week over trying to get a single damn screw for the M.2 PCIe SSD... All the results that google showed me were from Amazon (at best), eBay, or Polish internet shopping portals that were either outrightly wrong or suspicious.
I am happy that I managed to salvage a fitting screw from my old ASUS laptop...
So yeah, it's a classic bait-and-switch, so I get to file a fraud claim with Amazon and the U.S. Postal Service (pretty darned stupid of them to use the postal service to commit fraud, 'cause the USPS LOVES to go after that stuff).
I should get most (if not all) of my money back, and I'm certainly going to make the seller's life as miserable as possible, but I'm still mad at myself for falling for it in the first place.
Doesn't involving the (US) Post in the process makes it a federal issue?
Huh. I have found an old 320 GB ssd disk in a portable pocket that turns it into an external USB disc.
It's not an SSD, sadly, merely an old laptop HDD in an external sleeve, but it still works.
When did you get two dogs and a kitten?!I was up near Seattle visiting Younger Brother and his menagerie. Not shown are the chickens nor the two feral cats living in one of the outbuildings.
Before I watched it, I expected it to be a night-time/morning video of raccoon babies frolicking across your lawn...
Doesn't involving the (US) Post in the process makes it a federal issue?
Oh, my, yes.
Normally a $121 crime isn't going to attract the attention of anyone in law enforcement; I'd have to do the legwork myself to prove an ongoing pattern of fraud.
The moment you use the U.S. Postal Service to do it you're an idiot because they are ridiculously over-the-top in their enforcement of mail fraud laws. They have a reputation to uphold, and d**ned if they don't.
My guess is that I'm going take the legal first step ("Hi, where's my discount?") and the response will be, "Oh, sorry! Forgot to enter it! Here it is," and there will be nothing more I can do because I'll have paid the correct price and the vendor can claim "honest mistake".
We'll know tomorrow when I call.
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It's pretty funny being in a design organization with a cadre of overenthusiastic designers who can be, shall we say, unclear on the concept?
Today's example: "The international accessibility symbol is really boring and looks bad on our pages. Let's brainstorm on how to spruce it up!"
Ah, yes, unilaterally modifying internationally-recognized symbols. What a great idea! What could possibly go wrong? Unless, of course, every company decided to do it, and they all did it in different ways, until the internationally-recognized symbol became utterly unrecognizable.
And yep. Called the projector place. It was "a mistake" and I had the refund within 5 minutes. So I can't burn 'em. Ah, well, at least the issue is closed and I can move on with getting this thing installed.
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Grumpy Old NobodysHome's Tirades Of The Day™:
Unfortunately, then came the scammers. GothBard's mother had her email compromised. Turns out all her recovery information was her deceased husband's email and cell phone. I wanted to set up two-factor authentication for her on her cell phone and she out-and-out refused; she did not want to have to learn how to do text messaging on a phone. I showed her it took a single button to check for messages. She said, "No." It was staggering. "I would rather let my email remain compromised than learn to use text messaging."
But there it was, and there it stands. First time I personally encountered this phenomenon. She has a cell phone that she pays for. Text messaging is free for her. But she just doesn't want to learn how to do it. Period. I think it's especially hard for me because I'm the exact opposite: I was once asked, "How can you stand to teach low-level math classes when you have a Ph.D.?", and I responded, "When you believe you have nothing left to learn from your students, it's time for you to retire."
Learning is a lifelong process, and deciding that you don't want to learn any more is totally alien to me.
EDIT: And to address the argument, "Maybe her cell phone is inconvenient for her," she's just like me; she dumps it in one spot and never pays attention to it. And that one spot for her is... right next to the computer...
There are a multitude you can find if you start paying attention, and they hurt my brain.
"free reign" makes perfect sense.
On the other hand, the Polish idiom is, well, "to give a free hand".
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Re: homonyms, given the messageboards we're on, one thing that I feel I've seen often enough in gaming contexts to find vexing is hoard vs. horde.
I mean, sure, sometimes one's in a hurry and attention, typing errors, and autocorrect combine in an orthographically disastrous storm, but really.
[/Elf_pedant] ;)
I'm OK with people "caring less" because my family runs on an alarming amount of irony and sarcasm, probably.
Grumpy Old NobodysHome's Tirades Of The Day™:
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **...
'I could care less' is a US thing (I had it in mind that it was a translation of a Yiddish phrase, but maybe not) - we say 'I couldn't care less'.
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Grumpy Old NobodysHome's Tirades Of The Day™:
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **...'I could care less' is a US thing (I had it in mind that it was a translation of a Yiddish phrase, but maybe not) - we say 'I couldn't care less'.
"I could care less" is NOT a U.S. thing! It's people saying it WRONG! Or sarcastically, as the case may be.
And... we just got pulled off our hardscape project due to unavailability of materials, and got sent off to another giant clusterf#%& of a commercial site, just in time for triple-digit temperatures (with no shade).
*Starts into a loud, but off-key rendition of the Tommy James & The Shondells song: Draggin’ The Line.*
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Grumpy Old NobodysHome's Tirades Of The Day™:
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **...'I could care less' is a US thing (I had it in mind that it was a translation of a Yiddish phrase, but maybe not) - we say 'I couldn't care less'.
"I could care less" is NOT a U.S. thing! It's people saying it WRONG! Or sarcastically, as the case may be.
On the other hand, being confidently and loudly wrong is a time-honored American tradition...