Useless Conversation

[RhyssaFireheart]

Prior to this the max story length I'd written was just over 12K words.  I didn't even go into this intending the story to be this long, but it's grown as I've worked through it.

I have another story that's partially written out in longhand (which is how I usually start my stories at least) that could end up even longer if I ever decided to start typing it in.  A friend said I should try doing that for NaNoWriMo this year.  I'd feel weird doing that with a fanfic though, but I honestly can't be bothered to come up with my own world.  I'd much rather play around in someone else's.

[Chimpy]

Fuck Comcast. I call them because I have been getting extreme (50-80%) packet loss since last night. The guy tells me "your modem is end of life" (which it isn't according to their support matrix online) and that I need to be given options on how to replace it. When I tell him "that is bullshit, there is no way that my modem would suddenly stop working properly in prime time on a Tuesday evening because it is EOL" I ask to speak to a manager and suddenly "oh there is an outage reported in your area at 7pm" (this is at 7:01pm that he tells me this)

I hung up and proceeded to purchase a new modem that is listed on all of their speed tiers as compatible just because I need to make my annual "what plan will you give me to stay" call soon and I might as well get a better modem anyway.

So annoyed that the fiber rollout in town stalled and I am stuck with Comcast. Can't even get DSL at my address from AT&T

[HaemishM]

I kept getting that packet loss bullshit from them constantly for months, usually right in the goddamn middle of a ranked League of Legends game. It wasn't even worth bothering to call them because I knew I'd never hear an actual honest answer, nor be able to resolve the problem. There is no problem that they can resolve without talking to at least 3-6 different people in 3 different departments, none of whom have any ability or authority to fix your problem whatsoever, and that's after the 6 different voice-activated shitgoblin computer menus they force you to go through before you can even hear a human being ask you for the information you spent five minutes feeding to the half-deaf computer answering machine and call forwarding torture device.

FUCK COMCAST SO HARD.

I am so overjoyed and satisifed with the Cspire fiber to the home I got this month. It's just lights years faster and better service to boot. The installers were ON TIME TO THE MINUTE. Like actual professionals.

[MahrinSkel]

If you're suffering huge packet loss at prime residential hours on cable, the cause is virtually always that they have oversold the local loop and don't want to install more routing hardware to handle it. Full stop.

--Dave

[Chimpy]

If you're suffering huge packet loss at prime residential hours on cable, the cause is virtually always that they have oversold the local loop and don't want to install more routing hardware to handle it. Full stop.

--Dave

This is not an oversold condition issue. I used to work for an ISP (which had cable as well as other techs). This has all the signs of a CMTS failure.

[Hawkbit]

Pax doesn't even start until tomorrow and already the convention center is a shitshow. My wife's law office moved into this building last year and it's fun people watching. But holy crap it's crazy.

[Hawkbit]

So she's all piss and vinegar because she can't get anywhere in the general pax area without something nerdesque getting in her way. So for lunch I told her to go get a salad. Sure enough, no lines there.

[Merusk]

Pax and Dragon*Con are the same weekend? That makes two cities full of angry "normies."

[Bunk]

So she's all piss and vinegar because she can't get anywhere in the general pax area without something nerdesque getting in her way. So for lunch I told her to go get a salad. Sure enough, no lines there.

Awesome. I often wondered about all those poor businesses on that weekend. Lol.

I won't be there nerding the place up until tomorrow. (9th in a row)

[Yegolev]

Pax and Dragon*Con are the same weekend? That makes two cities full of angry "normies."

I'm not sure how many normies still live inside the Perimeter, but they should be used to weird by now.

[Morat20]

So annoyed that the fiber rollout in town stalled and I am stuck with Comcast. Can't even get DSL at my address from AT&T

I've got U-verse, whose only selling point is "We're not Comcast". (It'a s surprisingly solid point).

[Yegolev]

Yeah, that's a big one.  Overall, AT+T is kinda crap.  A lot of it seems to be due to cable provider anti-piracy provisions, which should surprise no one.  I converted from coaxial receivers to wireless ones, which sounded great until you get to the part where there is a separate WAP which connects to the gateway via Ethernet and is only useable by the receivers, and of course the receivers will only talk to the proprietary WAP.  So, extending the signal is not really possible.  Also the DVR occasionally shits the bed and takes all of our recordings with it.

I'm not really sure why we have to have the cable-TV part of the package, other than the obvious answer: the wife wants it.

[HaemishM]

"It's not Comcast" is a good selling point for the clap. For a TV Package? It's a no-brainer.

[WayAbvPar]

I would go down on Google's board of directors if I could get new fiber optic to my house so I could tell Comcast to get fucked forever. And then brush my teeth vigorously.

[01101010]

I would go down on Google's board of directors if I could get new fiber optic to my house so I could tell Comcast to get fucked forever. And then brush my teeth vigorously.

[Hawkbit]

I've had iPhones for the past three generations, maybe 7+ years? I can't imagine buying one without a headphone jack. I mean, sure, you can have "courage" to move forward, but leaving behind a major standard with no backwards compatibility seems a bit silly.

I'm thinking I'll be posting in the Android thread next summer when it's time to switch up to new phone. All of the sudden I can appreciate my dad's stance on not having a smartphone.

[Merusk]

Yep. Fuck Apple, I hate wireless devices with an old codgers hate. My mouse and KB always work and I can always listen to my music. Never mind the assortment of $9 headphones I have when I can't find on pair or another.  

Also something I just thought of: Bluetooth headphones with a 5 hour charge? Good thing air travel doesn't do something like, oh, ban Bluetooth during portions of the flight. Also great that I've never spent more than 4.5 hours in an airport including flight time.

 

[Viin]

They include a 35mm adapter with the phone.

[Hawkbit]

That's helpful at least. Does it have two lightning ports? I typically charge my phone while listening to music through headphones at my work desk.

[Merusk]

Which can't be used at the same time as the charger. Which is an additional problem since when flying my phone winds-up tethered to a USB charger or my Mofi brick quite often.

[Rasix]

That iffy charger port doesn't need more crap rammed in it all the time.

[Sky]

Our Think Different dude that has always had an apple sticker on his vehicles was looking at android phones today.

He may have only been comparing features, but he did like my 7 edge...

+1 for 'where's the damned fiber?' Seriously, they'd pay off the 3 blocks of fiber run just on me alone :)

[Nebu]

Thank you for making me appreciate my flip phone.   

[Rasix]

Thank you for making me appreciate my flip phone.   

Heh, the only billionaire (Sarver) I've ever met had one. Watching him text rapidly on the phone I had in college made me laugh.

I'm just going to use this 6 until it dies. May be sooner rather than later. The charger port is going and the wifi likes to stop working for no reason.

[Sky]

Thank you for making me appreciate my flip phone.   

I was perfectly happy with mine up until 2 years ago.

Now I love the convenience of the wee computer + Internet at all times. Since I so rarely ever use it as a phone (I had a bajillion minutes on my tracfone because I was only refreshing the time every year).

[apocrypha]

I'm still using my 2013 Nexus 4. I've had to replace the battery once and it's outlived 2 bumpers for it. In fact it seems to survive knocks and drops so much better than the bumpers that I've not bothered replacing the last one that broke.

Edit: Wait, they're not even bundling the wireless ear buds with the new phones? So the iPhone 7 is £600 and another £160 for the ear buds?

 

[Merusk]

Thank you for making me appreciate my flip phone.   

Heh, the only billionaire (Sarver) I've ever met had one. Watching him text rapidly on the phone I had in college made me laugh.

I'm just going to use this 6 until it dies. May be sooner rather than later. The charger port is going and the wifi likes to stop working for no reason.

I've got a 6s and the charger port is also dying. Apple cables need to be wiggled to make contact and any slight nudge fucks them up. Awesome, isn't it.

[MahrinSkel]

And of course, constantly plugging and unplugging a Lightning earbuds connector won't accelerate the breakage of the port at all.

Just your regular reminder that Apple wants to "manage your experience". Frankly, the only reason this would make any sense is if they have a plan for "closing the analog loophole". IOW, making it impossible to transfer your iTunes music out of the Apple ecosystem by running DRM right up to your ears.

--Dave

[01101010]

Can't wait for all the posts on how people broke off the lightning adapter in the port because they sat down.

That said, I do like my bluetooth headset for working out, riding the crowded buses, and chatting with my mother on the weekends while I work around the apt. Got tired of getting the cords snagged and ripped out of my ear/phone. But they are niche and I do prefer wired for longer incursions like train and plane.

I do like the look of the new iPhone, but never had one and never will. My Note4 is shitting the bed so I am moving over to a Nexus 6P. Probably relegate the Note4 to a digital note pad and internet device around the house.

[Chimpy]

Thank you for making me appreciate my flip phone.  

Heh, the only billionaire (Sarver) I've ever met had one. Watching him text rapidly on the phone I had in college made me laugh.

I'm just going to use this 6 until it dies. May be sooner rather than later. The charger port is going and the wifi likes to stop working for no reason.

I've got a 6s and the charger port is also dying. Apple cables need to be wiggled to make contact and any slight nudge fucks them up. Awesome, isn't it.

Take a stick pin, stick it into the port all the way and dig around. I bet it is lint stuck at the end of the port making the contacts just barely mis-align. Don't worry, the back end of that port is solid metal.

I had the same issue and once I did that, no more problems.

[Merusk]

I'll give that a shot, thanks.

I think the most infuriating part is the Apple fanboy defense of, "The future is wireless. geet over it."

Yeah? Then how about we do wireless recharging first, asshat. I'm totally ready to give up the lightning port so I can use my wireless charging station without a fucking adapter. Oh, but then Apple doesn't have a patent on that interface, and the need to buy another shittily-built $9 cable every 3 months goes away.

[Selby]

Part of me got angry about the lack of jack... then I remembered I've never actually used the jack on my iPhone in 3+ years.  I have an MP3 player (iPod) that I use for music.

[Chimpy]

I am not replacing my phone this cycle anyway. My 6 does perfectly fine for everything I need it to do and will need to do for the foreseeable future. I am, however, getting my screen replaced tomorrow because my phone slipped out of my hand as I was putting it in my pocket on my way back to lunch and landed face down on a rough patch of sidewalk...crunch went the glass. Ironically, I had an appointment to get it replaced on Saturday anyway as my AppleCare runs out in a month and I had a small chip on the edge of the glass that was purely cosmetic but I wanted to get replaced while the replacement is cheap.

The lack of headphone jack is stupid because one of the reasons they gave was to make the phones "thinner". Fuck that, make my iphone thicker so that it doesn't have the camera lens stick out the back and give me that added 1mm of volume in more battery capacity. In the short term, it will piss a lot of people off like getting rid of ADB/localtalk ports and the floppy drive did on the iMac (it was almost impossible to get USB peripherals of any kind for PC or Mac until the iMac started selling a ton) but in the medium to long term it won't do much to move Apple's sales numbers downward. The wireless headphone thing is whatever, I have a pair of bluetooth headphones I use at the gym/riding anyway now. The thing that is most annoying is that their adapter won't have a female lightning port on it to attach the power cable so you can use both headphones and charge.

[Cyrrex]

The idea of the bluetooth earbuds is fine, except they seem to have accidentally added a zero on the end of the price.  160?  Apple earbuds are utterly terrible, why for the love of God would anyone pay that much for a wireless version? 

The brave, courageous and bold leap to use the charge port as the headphone jack would would be all well and fine, except maybe a more courageous step would be for them to, I don't know, adopt a standard USB interface instead of being a bunch of shitty dickwads.

And the screen.  Is still.  1080.  P.  WTF.

[Chimpy]

Upping the pixel density on a screen that small gives no noticeable difference for 99.999% of people/uses. All it does is increase price, battery drain, and tech stats e-peen.