Experiences with non-techies

[Extingquish]

Cutting ram? While we're at it let's stick some magnets to hard drives!!

Perfect for mounting them to the edge of cases

[Guest andyysplash]

I can remember having this HP Pavilion desktop with a PIII 933MHz. Windows Me wasn't very stable on it (then again, that's just the Mistake Edition doing its thing) but when we upgraded it to Windows XP... it lasted us until 2006. Yeah, imagine using a 933MHz PIII with 128MB RAM in 2006.

 

We had a second-hand PIII from Compaq with Windows ME on it - that thing took minutes to open the file manager.

 

We've still got a P4 system though. My computer's the most recent since I needed a new one and built it (sadly it's all 2012 tech but the GTX 7xx and i5 4xxx stuff was too much for my budget), and my sister has my old one (Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 3GB mismatched RAM, GT440), but the P4's the 'family' one. That thing's about to be 9 years old as of this Christmas and is still unbelievably going. It had a whopping 256MB RAM when we bought it and got routinely upgraded through 512MB, 1GB, 1.5GB and 2.5 or 3GB (not sure which). I think it's got an Nvidia FX 5500LE 256MB for all those juicy graphics.

 

In all seriousness it's been used pretty regularly for schoolwork, parents checking emails, light OpenGL games and (more recently) Minecraft at a whopping 25-30fps on low settings @ 1280x1024. Yup. The P4 was a HT edition and clocked at 3GHz, but I think one of the HDDs and the motherboard (well southbridge, really) are starting to fail. It's hardly been used in the last year.

[Robi_g]

When you do a comprehensive step by step guide (every single click, new window, highlighted thing) to do a simple task and the person you're helping still gets it wrong.

[Guest]

We had a second-hand PIII from Compaq with Windows ME on it - that thing took minutes to open the file manager.

 

We've still got a P4 system though. My computer's the most recent since I needed a new one and built it (sadly it's all 2012 tech but the GTX 7xx and i5 4xxx stuff was too much for my budget), and my sister has my old one (Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 3GB mismatched RAM, GT440), but the P4's the 'family' one. That thing's about to be 9 years old as of this Christmas and is still unbelievably going. It had a whopping 256MB RAM when we bought it and got routinely upgraded through 512MB, 1GB, 1.5GB and 2.5 or 3GB (not sure which). I think it's got an Nvidia FX 5500LE 256MB for all those juicy graphics.

 

In all seriousness it's been used pretty regularly for schoolwork, parents checking emails, light OpenGL games and (more recently) Minecraft at a whopping 25-30fps on low settings @ 1280x1024. Yup. The P4 was a HT edition and clocked at 3GHz, but I think one of the HDDs and the motherboard (well southbridge, really) are starting to fail. It's hardly been used in the last year.

My parents use a P4 HT or a PD and some small firepro that isn't bad (minecraft, 128x128 texture pack, med settings 30 fps) also keeps going. Dusted it a couple of times (our house isn't dusty) but I think the HDD might be on the way put.

[FloRolf]

I am looking into the T90 Headphones by Beyerdynamic right now. They are an completely open design and cost around $600.

Just now i read an amazon review of someone saying he send them back because "you could hear everything that was going on the room and they weren't isolating in any way".

R U RETARDED? Why do you buy $600 headphones and don't even know what "open design" means? >.<

[Boink]

You know those moments when you look back and realize that you used to be stupid? Yeah, I used to think to uninstall a program you needed to find all its files in system 32 and delete them manually. It technically is correct, that is one way, but it sure isn't the easiest.

Also I used to be an Apple fanboy. Yeah I used to be a non-techie.

[WinNut]

I was watching the news before and they were talking about the Sony hack, when they said the word "hack" they played a screen capture video of three blank command prompts being opened and resized to fill up the entire screen, and called that "hacking". Me= :rolleyes:

[Sauron]

How... just how?  I've barely scraped 150... waiting for that 500 post title change.

 

Trust me, post count goes up pretty quickly ^^

[Pugs501]

Trust me, post count goes up pretty quickly ^^

Just look at me

[WinNut]

Just look at me

-badass_dance.gif-

lel and you joined way after me

[Pugs501]

lel and you joined way after me

But I have more post than you

[WinNut]

But I have more post than you

that's the point

 

I need to shitpost actively contribute to the forum more.

[Pugs501]

I need to shitpost actively contribute to the forum more.

[Darkman]

What I actually am.

 

OHMYGERDDD! I WANT A GTX 980 FOR CHRISTMAS SANTA!

Sorry, I had to.

[Ginge620]

So I was buying a Notebook to use when I travelled. This was the second PC world/currys I went to after returning my first Asus n56vz due to a build issue and they only had a replacement at the other shop. I arrive at the other shop and started to browse around, I knew what I wanted before getting there, the n56vz, this was a bigger shop and was just interested at the other stuff. One of the sales reps find me a start talking to me. Usually I say I'm fine thank you then they leave me alone but this time I thought let's see what you know. I point out to him that I had to return my first n56vz and just came to buy another but instead of agreeing he tried to sell me alternative. He shows me this other notebook and says things like the screen is bigger it has an i5 processor and it's a lower price. Note the n56vz has an 3610QM. I ask him what's the resolution of the screen and he goes blank. I do a quick check on the notebook and find it's only 1600x900 compared to 1920x1080 so the pixel density is lower, he was lost, didn't understand what I was talking about. He then tries again and says it has a Intel HD4000 GPU, but the n56vz has a dedicated Nvidia GT650M which is far better. I point out the screen was glossy not Matt and it was all plastic compared to the aluminium on the one I wanted. At this point he just gives up and goes to fetch the Asus notebook from stock.

So this just shows that some of these 'tech savy' sales reps really don't know what there talking about and can only read off stickers.

[Thenatdude]

How is that even legal? Where do you live? And WHAT THE HELL WAS THE SCHOOL'S REASONING BEHIND THAT?

I live in Australia, and their reasoning behind that is that the principal never followed the rules. Before making an executive decision such as expelling a student, "reassigning" *wink wink* the budget, etc, the principal must get confirmation from two deputy prinicpals and one person from the Education Queensland district office. Before then, the principal should not be allowed to go though with any decision. My school's prinicpal found a loophole, that if she simply submits the form to district office as though it had already been approved, they just file it without checking, so she basically just did whatever she wanted. What she wanted was making your life hell if you're smart enough to be actively anti-conformist. Her policy on uniforms (I went to a public school by the way, where strict laws like this are not generally allowed to exist) is that if you deviate from the uniform at all (which could be anything from having piercings, unnaturally coloured hair, socks that aren't plain white, shoes that aren't plain black, wearing any pants other than the school ones, wearing wristbands, necklaces or certain types of watches) you immediately get detention for all of both lunchtimes that day, no warnings, no excuses. If you do it a second time, you get detention for all of both lunchtimes again. Third time is a 2 day suspension. If you are seen with a phone on you (even before school and during lunchtimes) you have to take it to the office and they hold on to it until the end of the day (the office staff would transfer credit out of people's phones, too) if you got caught with a phone four times in one year you got a 3 day suspension, and the fifth time is immediate expulsion. If you so much as hug another student in view of a teacher, you both have to go to the office to explain why, I don't think I need to tell you what happens if you kiss someone. And finally they treated anything related to computers with a drumhead trial kind of system. If you are even suspected of having done anything that violates their IT policy, you will get a 4 week suspension, and likey be expelled during said suspension. I had them once plant evidence on someone's drive, and he got expelled straight away. I still have the evidence of it. So yeah, draconian school, evil cackling witch of a principal, so glad I'm gone.

[Fgtfv567]

I live in Australia, and their reasoning behind that is that the principal never followed the rules. Before making an executive decision such as expelling a student, "reassigning" *wink wink* the budget, etc, the principal must get confirmation from two deputy prinicpals and one person from the Education Queensland district office. Before then, the principal should not be allowed to go though with any decision. My school's prinicpal found a loophole, that if she simply submits the form to district office as though it had already been approved, they just file it without checking, so she basically just did whatever she wanted. What she wanted was making your life hell if you're smart enough to be actively anti-conformist. Her policy on uniforms (I went to a public school by the way, where strict laws like this are not generally allowed to exist) is that if you deviate from the uniform at all (which could be anything from having piercings, unnaturally coloured hair, socks that aren't plain white, shoes that aren't plain black, wearing any pants other than the school ones, wearing wristbands, necklaces or certain types of watches) you immediately get detention for all of both lunchtimes that day, no warnings, no excuses. If you do it a second time, you get detention for all of both lunchtimes again. Third time is a 2 day suspension. If you are seen with a phone on you (even before school and during lunchtimes) you have to take it to the office and they hold on to it until the end of the day (the office staff would transfer credit out of people's phones, too) if you got caught with a phone four times in one year you got a 3 day suspension, and the fifth time is immediate expulsion. If you so much as hug another student in view of a teacher, you both have to go to the office to explain why, I don't think I need to tell you what happens if you kiss someone. And finally they treated anything related to computers with a drumhead trial kind of system. If you are even suspected of having done anything that violates their IT policy, you will get a 4 week suspension, and likey be expelled during said suspension. I had them once plant evidence on someone's drive, and he got expelled straight away. I still have the evidence of it. So yeah, draconian school, evil cackling witch of a principal, so glad I'm gone.

Talk to your school board or someone else about that. All of that is horseshit

[Thenatdude]

Talk to your school board or someone else about that. All of that is horseshit

I have. Several times. They just kind of fill out a report and file it in the section that always "inexplicably gets lost during sorting" I was done dealing with them, that's why I left school.

[Fgtfv567]

"inexplicably gets lost during sorting" Several times.  

Sounds very suspicious.......

[Sauron]

I live in Australia, and their reasoning behind that is that the principal never followed the rules. Before making an executive decision such as expelling a student, "reassigning" *wink wink* the budget, etc, the principal must get confirmation from two deputy prinicpals and one person from the Education Queensland district office. Before then, the principal should not be allowed to go though with any decision. My school's prinicpal found a loophole, that if she simply submits the form to district office as though it had already been approved, they just file it without checking, so she basically just did whatever she wanted. What she wanted was making your life hell if you're smart enough to be actively anti-conformist. Her policy on uniforms (I went to a public school by the way, where strict laws like this are not generally allowed to exist) is that if you deviate from the uniform at all (which could be anything from having piercings, unnaturally coloured hair, socks that aren't plain white, shoes that aren't plain black, wearing any pants other than the school ones, wearing wristbands, necklaces or certain types of watches) you immediately get detention for all of both lunchtimes that day, no warnings, no excuses. If you do it a second time, you get detention for all of both lunchtimes again. Third time is a 2 day suspension. If you are seen with a phone on you (even before school and during lunchtimes) you have to take it to the office and they hold on to it until the end of the day (the office staff would transfer credit out of people's phones, too) if you got caught with a phone four times in one year you got a 3 day suspension, and the fifth time is immediate expulsion. If you so much as hug another student in view of a teacher, you both have to go to the office to explain why, I don't think I need to tell you what happens if you kiss someone. And finally they treated anything related to computers with a drumhead trial kind of system. If you are even suspected of having done anything that violates their IT policy, you will get a 4 week suspension, and likey be expelled during said suspension. I had them once plant evidence on someone's drive, and he got expelled straight away. I still have the evidence of it. So yeah, draconian school, evil cackling witch of a principal, so glad I'm gone.

 

Fuck that, I'd have left on day one. Is there no other public school that you can reach?

[soup]

some of these 'tech savy' sales reps really don't know what there talking about and can only read off stickers.

...and you are just realising this now?

[Thenatdude]

Fuck that, I'd have left on day one. Is there no other public school that you can reach?

As a result of some of those rules, it is now on my permanent record that I am not to be let near computers, which is a deal breaker for me considering my career path. That applies to every public school in the district, plus I wanted to go to TAFE anyway (our version of a community college of sorts), which only requires that you complete year 10.

[Sauron]

As a result of some of those rules, it is now on my permanent record that I am not to be let near computers, which is a deal breaker for me considering my career path. That applies to every public school in the district, plus I wanted to go to TAFE anyway (our version of a community college of sorts), which only requires that you complete year 10.

 

That's bullshit. I'd have sued them.

[cesrai]

I was watching the news before and they were talking about the Sony hack, when they said the word "hack" they played a screen capture video of three blank command prompts being opened and resized to fill up the entire screen, and called that "hacking". Me= :rolleyes:

Open CMD, color 0a, tree or ping *insert ip*.

[cesrai]

As a result of some of those rules, it is now on my permanent record that I am not to be let near computers, which is a deal breaker for me considering my career path. That applies to every public school in the district, plus I wanted to go to TAFE anyway (our version of a community college of sorts), which only requires that you complete year 10.

So just because of some stupid people you can't go your own path, can't you do something go to court or something.