The little things that piss you off

[zero]

Sigh. I'm so tired.

Quote truncated, that was a long read! Allow me to offer some suggestions based upon how I deal with the annoyances you mention.

Best way to use pre-paid card is at gas station. Pay inside for exact dollar amount before pumping. I get those cards a few times a year for rebates and other nonsense. Usually easy enough to use them for gas.

Verizon is busy building out a new 5G network. This is extremely expensive. They have always had and will continue to have policies which separate you from as much of you dollars as possible. And make it seem like they are doing you a favor by automatically keeping your connection pristine. At your expense! There are other options of course, yet most people choose to accept the downfalls of top tier providers.

Amazon always ships to the address indicated when the order was placed. If you move, and forget to update the address for that particular order, contact them and say the order never arrived. Which is actually true. Google "call amazon" for current contact number as they don't list it on their website anywhere obvious. If phone support is down Google "amazon live chat" which should direct you to the appropriate resource.

eBay used to be a great place to sell almost anything. But that was years ago. I sold over 250K on eBay back when it was seller friendly. It is no longer seller friendly for a whole host of reasons. Sellers who gamed the system are a big part of why things have changed so dramatically. Corporate greed is obviously another big player.

Avoid anything Apple related, including Apple Music, and your annoyance with corporate greed will diminish. They are the worst thing that capitalism has to offer. But they have very high social acceptance so most sheeple simply put up with their crap. And things will not likely change until people start giving a shit again.

Note: it is not necessarily capitalism which is to blame here. It's quite simply GREED. Which will affect any socioeconomic structure thusly invented by mankind. There are no safe havens. Greed merely manifests differently with different structures.

[zero]

I'm actually a massive Mac fan, for a number of reasons, not least of which is my abject hatred of Windows (and Android, where phones are concerned) and the difficulty in doing anything I've ever had to do with these systems (which is most of my professional life). I find all my Apple equipment to be frankly a relief; and the long-life and low maintenance more than justifies the price tag. I also find their customer-facing policies to be a lot less "corporate greed"-reeking than Microsoft's—though they've certainly never been shy about "If you want to give us more money for a new model every year, we'll certainly take it. Did you also have disposable income for a gold phone?"

Very typical Apple fanperson sentiment, but I do not intend that to be an insult or disparaging comment. I crave technology which simply works as advertised. Without a bunch of fiddling and nonsense. But at the same time, I insist upon at least a modicum of transparency regarding exactly how and what this system is doing for me. Apple fails 100% in this regard. Microsoft only fails 98%. Thankfully other options exist, however they currently still fail to deliver when it comes to "without a bunch of fiddling and nonsense." There is currently no perfect solution, and no viable economic reality to create one. A few billion sheeple are content to suffer with the current state of technology which creates more than sufficient profit. Why change when you know you can't?

[allegro]

I use Apple products for many reasons but for these main reasons: Operating System and software compatibility. And I use Linux, I can bang a shell and use vi editor when I want, etc.

I am checking out Apple Music subscriber-based services because I already use other services. I’ve been using XM/Sirius in two cars, a boat, computers and streaming for several years. I use Apple iTunes Match, and I like it.

[edited my history of with computers because yawn]

On the other hand, I use Office for both Mac and PC. Apple’s version sucks. Office rules.

I have friends who build their own Linux systems. I grok that. But ragging on a company that builds hardware and comparing it to software makes no sense. Apple has always been this way. Always. It’s always aimed toward specific markets; especially education, professional markets, etc. Apple products are user-friendly right out of the box. I’ve set up entire networks with Apple products INSTANTLY, whereas I had to fuck with non-Apple products far too much. Apple had “Apple Talk” networks in the 80s before LAN networks even existed. Totally plug-and-play. Apple pretty much invented the concept of GUI and WYSIWYG.

[allegro]

I still pay for Word and Excel on all of my Macs.

Justifiably, because Pages and Numbers blow in comparison.

I suspect that your high school used Macs NOT because they were cheaper (they were / are ALWAYS way more expensive than PCs) but because Apple always offers an education volume discount. And because Apple products are more reliable with students using them (viruses, etc., students are idiots). It would be way cheaper for a school district to hire a company to build a bunch of generic PCs with Windows (or DOS pre-Win 95).

This all depends on the situation. Law offices buy laptops, now, and all Windows because they all focus on software. My 82-year-old Mom’s Win7 PC is dragging and she needs a new machine. Will I get her a Mac? No. I’ll get her a Dell desktop.

With Office.

[Magnetic]

Will I get her a Mac? No. I’ll get her a Dell desktop.

With Office.

I had decided that my next laptop would be very light and heavier on the process end. In the end, I spent just as much money on my Dell as it would have cost me for a Mac, and I'm ok with that. I left science, which is predominately Mac oriented - if you're higher up in the food chain people ONLY seem to have Macs. Thankfully my current industry (proj. mgmt) everyone seems to be PC users.

I remember laughing my ass off (privately) when one of my friends showed off their new Apple desktop in 2010 which they paid a ridiculous amount for. They didn't need that kind of processing power - it was a status symbol. That thing was a glorified email checking device.

Hmm? Oh what pisses me off? - the elitist snobbery that surrounds apple.

[allegro]

glorified email checking device.

Well, yeah, exactly. It depends on what you use it for.

My Mom uses her computer for email, reading the newspapers (via enews format, which is pretty graphics-heavy), Excel spreadsheets, some Word docs and labels, some PowerPoint, and some web-surfing. She doesn’t need the RAM of a friggin’ gaming machine; if it has expansion slots, I can install more RAM for dirt cheap. She doesn’t need a laptop, she has a HUGE monitor because she has glaucoma. I can get a Dell desktop for $349.00.

I WOULD prefer to put her on an Apple machine. Why? She’s a friggin’ walking virus nightmare. All elderly people on computers are virus nightmares. (Actually, studies show that a lot of younger people are, too.) I had to turn off the ability to download or install any programs via Windows because of the crazy dangerous shit she “found on the Internet” that even anti-virus programs didn’t totally block. UNIX / Linux has more built-in damage control. But, she’s old and she’s hard to convince about learning something new. She’s already bitching about having to learn Win10.

I gave her my old iPad mini, and she LOVES that.

I remember the days when my law office went from all DOS machines to LAN networked Win95 machines.

All of the attorneys and secretaries had NEVER used a mouse, before. The secretaries had all been using Word Perfect (driven by all those function keys) and we switched to Office.

It was CHAOS. TOTAL CHAOS. Lol.

One big reason why people buy that “stupid expensive Mac” is because they have an iPhone and an iPad; Apple products use a shared environment. People like that. And they pay good money for it. My husband and I have Macs and we share files via a built-in Apple network. But, mostly because of the OS and shared environment.

The biggest things that piss me off about Apple: They hide money and don’t pay enough taxes, and they really need to shift all manufacturing back to the United States and stop using slave labor. I have not bought any new physical Apple products because of this issue.

[zero]

Well, yeah, exactly. It depends on what you use it for.

My Mom uses her computer for email, reading the newspapers (via enews format, which is pretty graphics-heavy), Excel spreadsheets, some Word docs and labels, some PowerPoint, and some web-surfing. She doesnÂ’t need the RAM of a frigginÂ’ gaming machine; if it has expansion slots, I can install more RAM for dirt cheap. She doesnÂ’t need a laptop, she has a HUGE monitor because she has glaucoma. I can get a Dell desktop for $349.00.

I WOULD prefer to put her on an Apple machine. Why? She’s a friggin’ walking virus nightmare. All elderly people on computers are virus nightmares. (Actually, studies show that a lot of younger people are, too.) I had to turn off the ability to download or install any programs via Windows because of the crazy dangerous shit she “found on the Internet” that even anti-virus programs didn’t totally block. UNIX / Linux has more built-in damage control. But, she’s old and she’s hard to convince about learning something new. She’s already bitching about having to learn Win10.

I gave her my old iPad mini, and she LOVES that.

Some older folks and computer illiterate persons are cases where I actually recommend Apple products. Even though their products are a poor match for me, they are the current best option is some circumstances.

My dad is elderly (heck I am almost elderly!) and he has always been drawn to "freeware" despite my constant warnings regarding risk. Back when Win 95 was current, with IE whatever, he had so many toolbars installed in IE that about two thirds of the screen was devoted to over a dozen toolbars!

I really tried to help steer him in a good direction, but he was opposed to anything Apple for personal reasons, so my best advice was to 1) have the laptop checked by someone competent and malware removed on a regular basis, or 2) replace the laptop annually. He chose #2.

Your comment regarding slave labor and tax evasion practiced by Apple (not included in truncated quote sorry) is a huge deal for me. But there is really no way around it. I really wish and pray that there was! ALL large corporations use similar tactics to maximize profit at the expense of human individuals. That's what is being taught to current students majoring in anything related to business. But the truth is obfuscated behind lies such as: we pay workers over twice the wage they used to earn, which translates to the workers get 75 cents a day instead of 35 cents a day. Oh joy.

It all boils down to this: consumers (in general) want maximum perks for minimum cost. Business wants maximum hourly profits with minimum investment. It's a formula which guarantees that workers get the short stick.

The solution is not political, and not governmental. When government exercises excessive control over the economy bad things happen (refer to history of mankind). Positive change will come when society finally gets sick of the bullshit and stops supporting anti-moral companies which only exist to be profitable.

In other words, we are doomed.

[allegro]

@zero - in Apple’s and Amazon’s and Google’s case, they are literally enslaved Muslims.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/a...d-labor-china/

https://www.businessinsider.com/appl...factory-2020-3

Positive change will come when society finally gets sick of the bullshit and stops supporting anti-moral companies which only exist to be profitable. In other words, we are doomed.

Sadly, yeah, I think you're right in this individualistic country.

[eversonpoe]

when you unsubscribe from an e-mail list multiple times but you still get the e-mails

when you find a job through google job search and it gives you multiple options for places to apply, all of which are weird, and after you sign up for one, you realize that you could have just applied directly through the company's website (why didn't google link to that???) and even though you deleted your account and unsubscribed from e-mails from that weird site, you're still getting e-mails from them and other things that are slightly adjacent to them whose unsubscribe links DON'T EVEN WORK

people who say "irregardless"

[eversonpoe]

when you hit play on a netflix show you've never watched before and it starts you on season 3 instead of season 1. what the fuck? WHY would it do that? and why is season 3 ABOVE seasons 2 and 1 when you navigate into the episode listings, but the episodes go DOWN from 1 to 8 within each season??? who the fuck designed this UI and why was it approved?

it should be

season 1
• • episode 1
•••
• • episode 8
season 2
• • episode 1
•••
• • episode 8
(etc.)

it's not that hard to do things right for stuff like this.

[allegate]

when you unsubscribe from an e-mail list multiple times but you still get the e-mails

when you find a job through google job search and it gives you multiple options for places to apply, all of which are weird, and after you sign up for one, you realize that you could have just applied directly through the company's website (why didn't google link to that???) and even though you deleted your account and unsubscribed from e-mails from that weird site, you're still getting e-mails from them and other things that are slightly adjacent to them whose unsubscribe links DON'T EVEN WORK

people who say "irregardless"

I signed up for something and part of that something was a mailing list. I tried and tried to unsubscribe and got the "you've been unsubscribed!" messages but also continued to get the actual email as well. I even 'reported' them as phishing but Outlook doesn't do fuck all with that. So I just created a rule finally that would automatically delete anything from the domain. I figured that I didn't need anything bad enough to deal with these people.

[allegro]

Often, the unsubscribe function is actually like the "responder" function in direct mail: It tells them you're there, a real person, and you're a VALUABLE CUSTOMER!! So they're now going to bomb the fuck out of you with even MORE mail!

I just use the "spam" function in my mail program, so it gets the shit out of my In Box.

[zero]

when you hit play on a netflix show you've never watched before and it starts you on season 3 instead of season 1. what the fuck? WHY would it do that? and why is season 3 ABOVE seasons 2 and 1 when you navigate into the episode listings, but the episodes go DOWN from 1 to 8 within each season??? who the fuck designed this UI and why was it approved?

it should be

season 1
• • episode 1
•••
• • episode 8
season 2
• • episode 1
•••
• • episode 8
(etc.)

it's not that hard to do things right for stuff like this.

Oh goody, I may have a explanation for this nonsense which is actually true! Although I can't prove it readily, it's really difficult to disprove.

There is an algorithm which decides what you should watch, and the correct order to watch it. It is not based upon common sense or anything remotely similar; it is based upon marketing and profit. Simple as that. It's never supposed to make sense to us humans. The only thing which matters is maximum profit.

Perhaps the algorithm is presenting you with the episode which it "thinks" is most likely to keep you watching, and therefore keep you as a paying customer?

[eversonpoe]

Oh goody, I may have a explanation for this nonsense which is actually true! Although I can't prove it readily, it's really difficult to disprove.

There is an algorithm which decides what you should watch, and the correct order to watch it. It is not based upon common sense or anything remotely similar; it is based upon marketing and profit. Simple as that. It's never supposed to make sense to us humans. The only thing which matters is maximum profit.

Perhaps the algorithm is presenting you with the episode which it "thinks" is most likely to keep you watching, and therefore keep you as a paying customer?

that's so fucking stupid. the fact that companies think that way ("it'll make us more money if we do this!") is so exhausting to me. how long did it take before netflix gave us an option to turn off the auto-preview function when browsing? that shit was HORRIBLE.

[allegro]

I think it’s not that sophisticated, actually. The Netflix app assumes everyone has already watched the first two seasons, so they are trying to be convenient and provide you with a link to the current season. If they did the opposite, and linked you to the first season, the OTHER people (who’d seen the first 2 seasons) would be pissed.

The reality is that these apps have to “learn” your individual viewing habits. It offers current seasons of all shows, but if you start from the beginning in a show it will remember where you were and asks if you want to continue. Some are better at this than others (Hulu is better than Netflix, IMO).

The menus are right there for you to control and utilize, and nobody is forcing anyone to watch anything in any order. But, yes, the current season is going to be promoted and it’s going to assume you have watched the prior seasons by default because there’s likely no good way to override that to please everyone.

[M1ke]

Late-night plumbing issues.....grr....

[MrLobster]

Low-key forum trolls...

[Sarah_Munn]

Arseholes, arseholes everywhere. (Sorry, grim and twitchy mood today and utterly sick of everybody's shit)

[Sarah_Munn]

Same problem on phone, trying to select a thread, hit name of thread starter. Also accidental facepalming/reporting when trying to hit like on old phone. The panic the first time I did it. Fortunately no harm done.

[allegate]

explains a lot of the "you have notifications" but then there isn't anything there.

Also +1 for the interrobang.

[Jon]

On my third recommendation trying to get an ENT to call me back. It took 31 years for someone to tell me my left eardrum is still perforated (I had 8 sets of tubes by age 4; apparently the "hole never closed"). Explains a lot.

Who's getting a hearing aid at 35? This guy!

[Jinsai]

That sucks...

Guess whose hair is falling out, turning spiderweb thin, and turning gray? I look like Grandpa Munster with these gray streaks in my hair.

This year has really taken it out of me.

[eversonpoe]

i have literally never visited this forum on my phone, i can't even imagine how frustrating that would be.
i wish my compulsive nature didn't require me to read every new post in every thread that i've ever posted in which has been updated since my previous visit (along with any new threads that pique my interest).

[allegate]

i have literally never visited this forum on my phone, i can't even imagine how frustrating that would be.
i wish my compulsive nature didn't require me to read every new post in every thread that i've ever posted in which has been updated since my previous visit (along with any new threads that pique my interest).

yes, because maybe - just maybe - the new post is regarding what you posted so you have to check.

[allegate]

seriously? only 20?

[Magnetic]

I've had my new laptop for 7 months and the internal camera is broken. AND....that warranty from Dell? I have to send it in for repairs. WTF? I use this for WORK. I can't be without my laptop (and I need the processing power) for my job. I either have to commute into work 2.5 hrs each day...oh wait, I don't have a car because some asshole pulled a left turn in front of me. And I'm not recouping 100% of that monetary loss either.

Or I have to pony up $93 for ONE YEAR of at-home repairs. It's fucking bullshit, because my mother has a lesser spec dell and it came with at-home repairs. Mine was a black Friday deal, so I finally figured how I was getting fucked over.

I bit the bullet and just bought a webcam and a port extender for $55. I needed the port extender anyway.
I am half tempted to buy a second computer (desktop) before my warranty is up and send this POS in.

[fillow]

Violent protests throughout my city and the whole country in general after massive falcifications at the president elections last night. The last dictator in Europe does not want to go out peacefully. Wish us luck.

[allegro]

Violent protests throughout my city and the whole country in general after massive falcifications at the president elections last night. The last dictator in Europe does not want to go out peacefully. Wish us luck.

Yeah that looks NUTS! Omg!

[thelastdisciple]

I swear there's some malevolent entity fucking with me lately.

Do you ever search high and low for something, search in a specific place multiple times with a fine toothed comb and not find what you're looking for, so then you go out and spend money to replace the thing that was lost only to find the thing you lost the very next day IN THE EXACT PLACE YOU HAD ALREADY SEARCHED FOR IT? and it's just like sitting there out in the open completely fucking obvious and all nonchalant like that's where it always was.

GOD DAMN IT.

[Magnetic]

Violent protests throughout my city and the whole country in general after massive falcifications at the president elections last night. The last dictator in Europe does not want to go out peacefully. Wish us luck.

I just caught up on my news. That's crazy....and yet I feel we may not be so far away from that.