Useless Conversation

[Merusk]

You haven't even made it to 30-button land yet!   The story kept me going to the end but I quickly realized the mechanics were just fucked.  Lots here tried using it as a "See DIKU sucks" example, but no. It's really that bad mechanic design sucks.

When the best bits of your game are everything you can see on YouTube, you've failed at game design.  Whatever paradigm you're using.  Action RPG, Strategy game or DIKU.

[Ironwood]

Yup.

[Lantyssa]

And the good news is I got it to work.  The bad news is that it's... Bad.  Really, really bad and tedious.

Shame.  I was going to make a quip about how not getting it to work was the most enjoyable bit of your evening, and save you the trouble.  I wasn't in time.  Sorry.

[Morat20]

I returned to work. Wherein I was accosted by a user -- a very, very IMPORTANT user who basically gets to dictate tons of our work -- that boiled down to "I don't want to learn how to use excel. Change your entire GUI and output format because what you've got isn't right for what I'm doing".

I mean stuff like "Change the font of the legend" and "Change the scale" and "Move the title". Stuff he could do STRAIGHT from the gnuscript scriptfile! Or, you know, import the data we provide in .csv format to excel and plot it. Or have one of his interns do it. he's okay with excel -- if we build him a template to automatically import it and graph it. Which we'd have to change for his next paper.

UGH. I now see why my coworker's first words to me were "Thank god I don't have to deal with him anymore. have fun!". (I really can't get too mad. The man is like 80. Like REALLY 80. How he wasn't forcibly retired 20 years ago is beyond me, except for apparently being a huge name in the field and a pivotal player in the original development of our software. He just..hasn't realized that it stopped being his personal software written exclusively for him ten years ago. And doesn't want to learn to use excel).

[Ingmar]

I guess it wasn't my power supply after all. 

I really don't feel like fucking around with the mainboard, maybe I'll take it to a repair place.

[Signe]

I've found that when I fuck around with something that I really don't want to fuck around with, it always ends in frustration, anger and, eventually, tears and you can't even blame someone else for your misery.  Taking it to a repair place might not alleviate the anger, frustration and tears, but at least you'll be able to blame someone who isn't you.   

[HaemishM]

Shifting the blame is the reason repair shops exist in the first place.

[ghost]

Probably be cheaper to just buy a new mother board/processor instead of taking it to the shop and them telling you that's what you need. 

[Sky]

That's my theory. Even if you diagnosed wrong, you get upgraded hardware out of it, instead of a shrug and blank stare.

[Draegan]

God damn New Year.  Fucking Best Buy and Newegg's slow ass delivery!

Yeah I'm spoiled since Newegg/Amazon usually get stuff to me inside 30 hours of order.

[Furiously]

Computer was doing random wonkiness. Ran every virus scan I could. Combofix found stuff. I decided nuking from orbit was the only way to be safe. Not sure I want to nuke my steam drive as well.

[Ingmar]

Probably be cheaper to just buy a new mother board/processor instead of taking it to the shop and them telling you that's what you need.  

Cheaper in dollars, certainly, but not in my time. It's worth the extra 30-60 bucks or whatever for me to not have to do it myself. Doing that sort of stuff as part of my job every day makes me want to deal with it less on my home machine, it isn't anything like an enjoyable hobby for me to muck around with hardware anymore. 

[sickrubik]

Yeah. I think I may have built my last computer. It's just.. annoying anymore.

[Merusk]

Welcome to my side of 30, good to have you.

[Viin]

So this is what it's like to get old.

[Sky]

Really? My latest PC went together like a breeze. GUI BIOS and one-button 4GHz OC for Dummies, Win 7 was a fast and easy install. And I'm on the far side of 40, you snot-nosed bastards.

[Paelos]

You chop your own wood. Your idea of time-value is wildly different, I believe.

[ghost]

I built my last 2 computers.  They took me about an hour each.  I'm pushing 40 soon and have almost no computer educational background.  It's not rocket science.

[Sky]

You chop your own wood. Your idea of time-value is wildly different, I believe.

Chopping wood is not just about heating the house. It is one of the prime zen components to a full life, keeping one in touch with our ancestors and nature. Bringing something that lived and flourished an collected the sunlight for decades and utilizing our body's energy to deliver the stored power of the sun into a combustion chamber to keep the family cozy during frigid months. Letting go of all the racing thoughts of the world of technology and just enjoying a cool spring morning or crisp fall afternoon in the woods.

Given that, I want to spend as little time as possible building a PC. It's just a chore to do quickly. Point is, it's quick and easy to do. I've been building them since 1993 and each one has been quicker and easier. If you drove to Best Buy to buy a console and ipad, this latest PC would be built and running by the time you got back,

[Paelos]

Chopping wood is not just about heating the house. It is one of the prime zen components to a full life, keeping one in touch with our ancestors and nature. Bringing something that lived and flourished an collected the sunlight for decades and utilizing our body's energy to deliver the stored power of the sun into a combustion chamber to keep the family cozy during frigid months. Letting go of all the racing thoughts of the world of technology and just enjoying a cool spring morning or crisp fall afternoon in the woods.

I read a book once by Larry McMurtry called "Duane's Depressed." It was how a 62 year old rancher rethinks his life after spending years in a pickup, and starts walking everywhere, mostly to a shack he likes where he can get back to nature. You'd like it.

[MisterNoisy]

I built my last 2 computers.  They took me about an hour each.  I'm pushing 40 soon and have almost no computer educational background.  It's not rocket science.

I've built my last few in addition to building them up for friends/coworkers and each one took longer than the last, largely because I started to do things like semi-custom PSU cables and the like and dremeling up the case doors for windows.  :P  If you can avoid that sort of nonsense, it's basically really expensive LEGO, though - even really clean cable management is ridiculously easy in newer cases.

[sickrubik]

It's not about the difficulty. I've built all of my computers since the mid 90s.

[Numtini]

I've found building PCs easier, but I think that's because they have gotten a lot easier over time and because I know what to do when to minimize my frustration. If they could just come up with a combined power/audio/etc plug instead of all of these teeny tiny little bitty plugs all in one block, my life would be complete.

It still results in bloody knuckles and broken nails though.

And there's no enthusiasm though. I bought an SSD caching drive (great buy fwiw) and it sat for two weeks before I got around to installing it. A few years ago I'd have had trouble cooking and eating dinner before diving in.

[MisterNoisy]

If they could just come up with a combined power/audio/etc plug instead of all of these teeny tiny little bitty plugs all in one block, my life would be complete.

The higher end MSI and ASUS motherboards come with a nifty little dongle that lets you attach all of the switch/LED cables to it before sticking it on to the motherboard - makes that a whole lot easier.

[Xanthippe]

Chopping wood is not just about heating the house. It is one of the prime zen components to a full life, keeping one in touch with our ancestors and nature. Bringing something that lived and flourished an collected the sunlight for decades and utilizing our body's energy to deliver the stored power of the sun into a combustion chamber to keep the family cozy during frigid months. Letting go of all the racing thoughts of the world of technology and just enjoying a cool spring morning or crisp fall afternoon in the woods.

I read a book once by Larry McMurtry called "Duane's Depressed." It was how a 62 year old rancher rethinks his life after spending years in a pickup, and starts walking everywhere, mostly to a shack he likes where he can get back to nature. You'd like it.

I suspect Sky would like any of Larry McMurtry's books. (Thanks for mentioning this one; I haven't read it but now will).

And Sky, that is probably the best description of chopping wood I've ever seen. You're a poet and don't know it.

[Rasix]

I want to kill all of you right now.  

If they could just come up with a combined power/audio/etc plug instead of all of these teeny tiny little bitty plugs all in one block, my life would be complete.

The higher end MSI and ASUS motherboards come with a nifty little dongle that lets you attach all of the switch/LED cables to it before sticking it on to the motherboard - makes that a whole lot easier.

Ooh, I want one of those.   

My builds always inevitably go to shit in some weird way a couple years later.  At least right now it's doing it in an only mildly inconvenient way.  It's just hard freezing every few days with no warning and no error messages to work off (even in the event viewer, nothing).  I'm guessing I jacked up something on the motherboard dealing with my video card issues.

[Paelos]

I want to kill all of you right now. 

You need more zen. Might I suggest chopping wood?

[Rasix]

I want to kill all of you right now. 

You need more zen. Might I suggest chopping wood?

[Engels]

If they could just come up with a combined power/audio/etc plug instead of all of these teeny tiny little bitty plugs all in one block, my life would be complete.

The higher end MSI and ASUS motherboards come with a nifty little dongle that lets you attach all of the switch/LED cables to it before sticking it on to the motherboard - makes that a whole lot easier.

Ooh, I know what motherboard I'm getting next now. Thanks MrNoisy!

I still pretty much have to do it before dinner, tho. But that's more of a compulsion rather than a pleasure. I can't leave tech sitting around unfixed. Zombies will come, or something.

[Nebu]

I want to kill all of you right now. 

You need more zen. Might I suggest chopping wood?

That just made my day.  Thank you!

[ghost]

Awesome.  My office manager just put in her 2 weeks notice.   

[Signe]

I should get back to nature, too.  You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer.  Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached.  Buy a car with only two cup holders or something.

[Viin]

Awesome.  My office manager just put in her 2 weeks notice.  

Bummer. I like my dentist but the office manager and the receptionist suck. Find a good one!

[Signe]

Maybe she's going back to nature.  Or you don't pay her enough.

[rattran]

Those front panel blocks are great, it makes things much easier. That said, computers go together fast if you do enough of them, and it's like any other hobby. You dig it, or it's a chore. I find it fun, and I often miss when I was putting a machine a week together for people. I only stopped because I got sick of being tech support for people who could not resist clicking every spam link and virus.