Things That Are Just Annoying

[mlooney 3,417]

I seem to be rather annoyed today. Here is my current list of computer related issues.

Spell check

getting one to work in any native mode Android web browser is, a far as I can tell, impossible. Opening a text editor that does spell check first isn't as automatic as it should be for me.

Edit mode

Do I really have to explain that one?

View source

The only way I have been able to find how to do this with any of the native mode browsers I have (Firefox, Opera,Chrome and "web browser" (the one that comes built in, Chrome really) is to save the page to read later, then open the page with a text editor, after you find it. None of them put the saved page in the same place.

Not an annoying thing, at least on Android

Firefox has a "save page as PDF" option which works well. I'm not sure if this is an option on desktop versions (with out getting tricky with printer things) and I can't check it for at least one more month or so.

Not having a real computer

I thought I would have enough saved up at the end of the month, but checking the specs on the one I do have the money for, it will not run any thing past OS X 10.7.x, which isn't really an option, as more and more software no longer support that version, brew and MacPorts being high on that list. You can force them to work, but the results are, at best, weird.

Native mode Android image editors

I want to edit an image, not put a cute border around it. I also want to save it where you found it, not some place weird. There is one that I have found that does that¹, but it makes opening a file a bigger hassel than it should be

Mouse support in Android

Most apps on Android not dealing with right button push, or middle button push "right". I know it can be done, the Linux emulator I run does it right.

Linux on Android

Other than "Debian Notoot" by pelya (and it's near clone "Gimp/Inkscape") they, in general, don't work, or have major issues. And this is on a rooted device being done by some one with tech clue. Even the pelya versions have issues, like several programs will install, but not run, normally due to video issues.

Not an annoying thing, at least right now

The current editor for this forum let's you add what seems to be any HTML you want, including iframe which, I suspect, is going to bite them in the butt region soon, but we do seem to have a well behaved bunch here and The Old Hack keeps an eye out for stuff. This will be come annoying if and when they turn it off. I like to embed youtube vids (iframe based) and I really like dictionary lists (how this post is laid out) and few on line editors support them by default

¹"Image Editor" by Byte Mobile, spend the few bucks and get the ad free version.

[mlooney 3,417]

Yes, it's time for J. Michael Looney's grump of the day. I've decided that I'm going to use this format instead a dozen or so posts over the day as I get grumpier.
Today's computer and other issues

---

Linux Noroot

For no reason I can find, it does very strange thing to the case of what you are typing after you use the right shift key. Fix? Hardware map RSHIFT to LSHIFT. I'd like those 3 hours back.

Also Linux Noroot

Don't go ape crazy adding dict files for dictd to deal with. Actually don't use dictd

Also Linux Noroot

Getting the c compiler, either clang or gcc working is more hassle than I feel like dealing with. Termux has a functional c compiler, so I'll use that for C programming. And it has root privileges so I can stick the applications where ever (or more accurately put their out put where ever)

Both Linux Noroot and Termux

Broken perl installation. Running cpan is really weird. Might try running cpan after going root on Termux and see if that helps.

Door painted shut

When I went out side to day to check my mail, I found that the door and the door frame were not the same color, so the F72.0 workers had Zero reason to paint it shut.

Rent

Got my monthly rent bill and water bill (they come together). Due to last months computer SNAFU, they tagged every one as having a late fee, so I had a $75.00 pervious balance. On a $450 rent this is sort of major. Called the pointy haired office people¹ and was told to subtract the $75 from the bill and pay that. I see nothing good coming out of this. This is going to be a pain right over the seat pillow, I can tell.

Cox Cable

The idea that some one might want to watch TV other than the local channels on a mobile device, but not have a TV in the house is alien to their thought process. The best they could do was send me a converter box, not hook it up to any thing, but get charged monthly rent for it. I don't think so.

¹See Pointy Haired Boss in Dilbert for more details.

[PSadlon 88]

On 9/16/2016 at 1:31 PM, The Old Hack said:

"Cock's Cable"?

Most cable tv & internet providers here in the US are horrible regional non competing monopolies. One of them is Cox (and according to most of their customers, Cock's is probably a more accurate spelling of their name). Another is Comcast (NSFW due to language and as a former customer right on the money). Another is Spectrum (formerly Charter, Time Warner & Brighthose)

[ijuin 572]

Comcast has also been put on the "Ten Most Hated Companies in the USA" list for several years running. Beyond the simple ripoff pricing, lack of customer service, and intentional throttling of third-party content, they add dishonest charges to customers' bills (i.e. charge them for repairs and upgrades never requested), and fail to cancel services when a customer desires it (i.e. continuing to bill you even after your service has been disconnected, or failing to downgrade you to a lower service tier if you ask to be moved to it).

[PSadlon 88]

Windows updates. We are in the fourth part of the update and my phone is charging almost as fast as the working on updates is going.

[mlooney 3,417]

Bolt out of the blue non migraine headache.  That would be a headache that the pain in not just on one side of the head and has few other side effects.  Seems to be responding to analgesics, but I get migraines often enough I don't need "normal" headaches as well.

[Zorua 124]

5 hours ago, PSadlon said:

Windows updates. We are in the fourth part of the update and my phone is charging almost as fast as the working on updates is going.

THIS!

A Windows Update made it so my laptop takes a million years to load a single webpage, if it decides to load anything at all. And forget about videos or text fields.

Also, YouTube eats up my phone's data like Grace at a pancake place. Forget to switch to Wi-Fi Only and bam! 25% of my data just gone.

Not that DeviantArt is any better. I think data usage is per page loaded now. With DA's revised layout, every time you scroll down is a new page. Not quite as horrible, but still annoying.

What's that? Stick with Wi-Fi full time, you say? Then we run into the persistent issue of the Wi-Fi in my house being total crap. Anywhere except the room with the router and right next to the walls of said room have horrible signals.

First world problems, am I right?

[mlooney 3,417]

2 hours ago, Zorua said:

THIS!

A Windows Update made it so my laptop takes a million years to load a single webpage, if it decides to load anything at all. And forget about videos or text fields.

Also, YouTube eats up my phone's data like Grace at a pancake place. Forget to switch to Wi-Fi Only and bam! 25% of my data just gone.

Not that DeviantArt is any better. I think data usage is per page loaded now. With DA's revised layout, every time you scroll down is a new page. Not quite as horrible, but still annoying.

What's that? Stick with Wi-Fi full time, you say? Then we run into the persistent issue of the Wi-Fi in my house being total crap. Anywhere except the room with the router and right next to the walls of said room have horrible signals.

First world problems, am I right?

Actually, no, not a first world problem.  Good chunks of the developing world skipped "good" wired telecom, if at all, and went straight to wireless, both for voice and data.  I know that there are people in the middle of nowhere, 3rd world, that have exactly your issue.  With less income to deal with it.

[ijuin 572]

For wi-fi range issues within your house, you might want to look into getting a wi-fi extender (it's basically a signal repeater that plugs into your wall electrical socket). Decent ones can be had for $US30-40.

[Tom Sewell 268]

CORTANA! My laptop got infected with this crappy app with the latest Windows update. Gee, Microsoft must have put in a lot of work to make a "feature" that's even more annoying than Clippy.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

3 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

CORTANA! My laptop got infected with this crappy app with the latest Windows update. Gee, Microsoft must have put in a lot of work to make a "feature" that's even more annoying than Clippy.

I remember when I was put in charge of getting the small office I worked at back then new computers. I was also given the job of installing the OS, which was Windows 98. I inspected the setup with great care and found a small obscure option that allowed for omitting Clippy entirely from the install. I without hesitation did so. Next, after my boss had worked with his new machine for a couple of hours, he commented, "That's odd. It hasn't thrown that stupid paperclip at me yet." I responded, rather smugly, "And it won't. I removed it from the installation process."

One of the things that made him such a joy to work for was that he always told you when he thought you'd done a good job. That time he praised me to the skies.

[mlooney 3,417]

On 09/22/2016 at 1:33 PM, mlooney said:

Bolt out of the blue non migraine headache.  That would be a headache that the pain in not just on one side of the head and has few other side effects.  Seems to be responding to analgesics, but I get migraines often enough I don't need "normal" headaches as well

Two days in a row.  Starting to think there might be an environmental cause. 

[Scotty 1,061]

2 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

I remember when I was put in charge of getting the small office I worked at back then new computers. I was also given the job of installing the OS, which was Windows 98. I inspected the setup with great care and found a small obscure option that allowed for omitting Clippy entirely from the install. I without hesitation did so. Next, after my boss had worked with his new machine for a couple of hours, he commented, "That's odd. It hasn't thrown that stupid paperclip at me yet." I responded, rather smugly, "And it won't. I removed it from the installation process."

One of the things that made him such a joy to work for was that he always told you when he thought you'd done a good job. That time he praised me to the skies.

This image comes to mind, you were Tedd and your boss was Susan.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

3 hours ago, mlooney said:

Two days in a row.  Starting to think there might be an environmental cause. 

We've had "unhealthy" air warnings here in the D/FW Metroplex for the past several days. Think it might have extended into your area, due to the high pressure ridge over us now?

[mlooney 3,417]

48 minutes ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

We've had "unhealthy" air warnings here in the D/FW Metroplex for the past several days. Think it might have extended into your area, due to the high pressure ridge over us now?

Possibly.  I'm thinking out gassing from the paint, but it could just be bad luck.

[mlooney 3,417]

Firefox and Firefox Beta on Android don't treat mouse clicks the same.  On Beta click and hold on a link triggers the open on other tab etc menu.  Normal Firefox only does that on long touch, never on mouse.  Normal FF does text select the way you would expect i.e like a desktop version would.  Beta requires a click and hold, followed by adjusting the end points.  This makes text selection of a link way tricker than it should.  At least you can run both of them at the same time, unlike under OS X.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

45 minutes ago, mlooney said:

Possibly.  I'm thinking out gassing from the paint, but it could just be bad luck.

Right, the door-sealing paint. I'd forgotten about that.

[mlooney 3,417]

Low flying private jets on approach for landing at the local small airfield.  Right over the apartment.  Must be something going on with rich people today, had five or six buzz the place in the last hour.  Could be someone doing flying lessons and it's the same jet, either way I want it to stop.

[mlooney 3,417]

The jet or jets are back.  There are at least three flight schools that use that air field, so I am assuming someone doing touch and go practice is my problem.

Back in the day, in Germany, we used a local flight school as a target generator for the Redeye/Stinger teams, and a few about 50 km away as targets for the tracking radars.  I should have known what I was getting.  One the other hand, cheapest apartment not in what passes for a bad neighborhood in Tulsa metropolitan area. 

[Scotty 1,061]

Just now, mlooney said:

The jet or jets are back.  There are at least three flight schools that use that air field, so I am assuming someone doing touch and go practice is my problem.

Back in the day, in Germany, we used a local flight school as a target generator for the Redeye/Stinger teams, and a few about 50 km away as targets for the tracking radars.  I should have known what I was getting.  One the other hand, cheapest apartment not in what passes for a bad neighborhood in Tulsa metropolitan area. 

Could be worse, I live on a street that has grain elevators and a concrete operation at the one end, so there's either large mixer trucks or tractors/transports pulling trailers back and forth all day and even into the night, especially this time of year with soybeans and soon corn coming off. My apartment is pretty much on the corner of this street and main street so I hear all the stop and go noises. Plus during the summer and weekends when the weather is good, I can hear all the kids running around and drunks yelling, and the neighbouring apartment has their living room on the other side of the wall from my bedroom so I hear the parties, kids screaming, dogs barking, etc...

[mlooney 3,417]

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

Could be worse, I live on a street that has grain elevators and a concrete operation at the one end, so there's either large mixer trucks or tractors/transports pulling trailers back and forth all day and even into the night, especially this time of year with soybeans and soon corn coming off. My apartment is pretty much on the corner of this street and main street so I hear all the stop and go noises. Plus during the summer and weekends when the weather is good, I can hear all the kids running around and drunks yelling, and the neighbouring apartment has their living room on the other side of the wall from my bedroom so I hear the parties, kids screaming, dogs barking, etc...

If you look in the "What are you listening to" tread, you will find quite a few entries that are about what I'm hearing in apartment complex.   Today it was, in addition to small jets, jack hammers and related power tools.  Thank all things Lawful Good that there wasn't any Mexican Rap Music as part of the workers doing strange things to the out side of the complex.

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

(Please note that there is no Politics thread; this post is specifically about how the debates are being run, please refrain from *any* specifics about individuals, and only address the format of the debate itself in any replies to this post.  ;-)

Next time there's a debate, they really need to give the moderator a kill switch for each candidate's microphone.  Any time a candidate starts dodging a question or talking off-topic the moderator can hit their kill switch and instruct them to contain their remarks to the topic at hand.  Any time a candidate interrupts their opponent and tries to talk over them, their mic will be turned off and their opponent will get at minimum of twice the time they were interrupted added to their time to speak unopposed before their offender's microphone is turned back on.

I'd really like to see how many times being cut off it would take before people started to respect the rules of the debate and stop being rude.

[Scotty 1,061]

19 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

(Please note that there is no Politics thread; this post is specifically about how the debates are being run, please refrain from *any* specifics about individuals, and only address the format of the debate itself in any replies to this post.  ;-)

Next time there's a debate, they really need to give the moderator a kill switch for each candidate's microphone.  Any time a candidate starts dodging a question or talking off-topic the moderator can hit their kill switch and instruct them to contain their remarks to the topic at hand.  Any time a candidate interrupts their opponent and tries to talk over them, their mic will be turned off and their opponent will get at minimum of twice the time they were interrupted added to their time to speak unopposed before their offender's microphone is turned back on.

I'd really like to see how many times being cut off it would take before people started to respect the rules of the debate and stop being rude.

They need someone like Hack moderating the debates, I say someone like Hack and not Hack himself because I like Hack and wouldn't want him suffering through that.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

3 hours ago, Scotty said:

They need someone like Hack moderating the debates, I say someone like Hack and not Hack himself because I like Hack and wouldn't want him suffering through that.

Thank you. Both for the kind compliment and for being considerate of my all too limited reserve of patience and of my well-being as a whole.

[mlooney 3,417]

Less than happy about being up before 11

Low flying aircraft

Today we have both prop and jet. Happy happy

Construction

Right now they are putting down bricks. Thump, Thump, Thump, Power tool, stomp stomp, repeat. Right out side my bed room window

Mexican Rap Music

It's back and they are singing along. It's going to be a looooong day