The Vent and Rant Thread

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I confess. I don't understand why anyone leases, (excluding companies/tax reasons therefor) but...horses, courses, and all that.)

If the car is a business vehicle used for business purposes, leasing is sensible. You get a new car every few years, you are still under warranty, and you get factory service. If I did something like drive for Uber, lease would be the way to go.

For cars used for personal transport, it's more complicated. If people prefer to lease, can afford the costs, and don't mind not owning the asset, it can make various things easier, the same way it does for the business user.

(Re Amex)
Yeah...I remember when that was the end-all, be-all. I recall the Gold card, the black card, the platinum card, the Optima, the...it never ends. I mean..snob appeal around a credit card. Mother of heaven.

A friend in the UK had the black Centillium card. To qualify for one, you must run up something like $50,000 in charges per month, and pay the balance in full on each statement.

At the time, he was a high level program manager for Arthur Andersen, had primary responsibility in his area for 26 countries, and lived on airplanes. (He was an early adopter of eBooks to give him something to do while traveling across oceans, and a mobile device with an assortment loaded was a lot easier to carry round.)

Then Arthur Andersen imploded in the wake of the Enron scandal, and the black card went away. Things were dicey for him because positions like the one he'd had are few and far between. He did eventually secure a similar position with another Big 8 firm, but life was scary for a while.

(n.b.: full disclosure: at one point I was contracted to Amex, back in the "day," when they were REALLY rolling in it. When the daily float off of Traveler's Cheques was 8 Billion--yes, billion with a "b"--dollars. I mean. yowza.)

Amex went through their own issues. They almost got into big trouble by diversifying but neglecting their core business. The CEO got the chop, and the new CEO, who was a "back to basics" type came in, said "WTF are you doing?", and started undoing his predecessor's moves.

The Veyron is indeed special. So are many others. And, yeah...speed. Lovely. And Rollers, of course--made by hand. Yes, there are some cars--few--that have specialty aspects that make the price tag go up. But the cars that most average folks--even those with bigger incomes--can afford? Nah.

Agreed. For that matter, I saw a piece on Toyota. They have a cadre of master mechanics that hand assemble and sign engines for some higher end Toyota models. They are known in their industry, and having their work in your car is a status marker.

I admire Bugatti, Ferrari, Lamborghini and the like, but wouldn't be interested in actually owning one if I could afford it.

But ultimately, I think the fact that a market for such things exists, with buyers who can afford them, is a good thing.

I remember the GT. Ah, the good old days, when you could make them as fast as you wanted, pretty much depending only on your budget. :-) I'm still a sentimental sucker for that paint job.

You still can make them that fast, witness the Veyron. The problem is where you can drive them. .

Yes--both go without saying. If you buy the modern-day equivalent of the Pinto or the Gremlin...well, I wouldn't expect those to last very long. I keep seeing those mooshed cars--the new small Fiats--zooming around up here in the desert, and I wonder how long those suckers will last. Of course, by and large, that car, and the MiniCooper, tend to appeal to young people who mayn't have the same love of NOT buying new cars as some of we old farts.

The smooshed cars I see in NYC are Smart cars. It makes sense: They will only be used for stop and go in city driving, carry two passengers and a bag or two, have stellar gas mileage, and can fit in parking spaces most cars can't touch.

I was bemused when I saw one with commercial plates, a contractor's logo on the side, and a mini roof rack with a small ladder fastened to it.

I'll bet that you are in high demand for cocktail parties, particularly in your location...an environment always ripe with the Illumi-NOT-eh and that sort of social event. Not to mention, the Dread Trivia King of Kings County, I should think?

:-)

Nope.

The folks I hang out with prefer their spirits top shelf and straight, not mixed. And cocktail party chatter isn't my thing. When I get together with the folks I hang out with, they are generally as smart as I am, and know various things I don't know. I spend most of my time at such things listening, and the magpie mind means I know enough to understand what they're talking about.

(A long ago girlfriend snarkily described the women's college she went to. There was a companion men's college stuffed with aspiring upwardly mobile professional wannabes, and the implicit purpose of her school was to position girls where they could snag a desirable future husband from the other school. The curriculum was mostly aimed at preparing them to make appropriate cocktail party chatter when they and their husbands entertained. She managed to acquire a rather better education than her school nominally offered, because she wasn't interested in playing the game it wanted to prepare her for.)

And there are various areas where I know better and can prove it, but I'm circumspect about demonstrating it. They tend to be in areas programmers call "Religious Arguments (tm)", where the underlying beliefs live on an emotional level not amenable to reason. I try not to deliberately whack hornet's nests...
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Xenophon

In 1978, I learned to drive in a 1957 VW Beetle, with all flat glass, running boards, and the split rear window.

VW Beetles were interesting cars. They were originally Hitler's idea for a people's car, that any German worker could afford to own and drive. They were designed by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche (who also designed the high-end Porsche sports cars.)

I heard about a chap who replaced the engine in his with a Porsche engine, which was apparently a drop in conversion.

He got stopped doing 90 on a GA turnpike. The GA State Trooper didn't bust him or write a ticket. It was "Hey, boy! Pop that hood! I wanna see how you make that Beetle go that fast!"

Along those lines, an outfit in CA called Turbonique sold a turbine assisted rear axle with a separate fuel supply and dashboard mounted on switch that could add up to 1,024 horsepower in a short burst. Beetles with the 1,024 HP model Turbonique were popular items on drag strips for a while.

A woman I heard about back when was going to Germany for an extended period, and had her US built Beetle shipped over for use there. The US models had a higher top speed than German built versions. She'd be on the autobahn, with all the Beetles in one lane with the accelerator floored. The other Beetle drivers were nonplussed when she pulled out and started passing them...
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Dennis

[Hitch]

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MOTHERLOVING GOD-D**N SONUVABITCH BASTARD WINDOWS10!!!!

</rant>

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by Hitch

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MOTHERLOVING GOD-D**N SONUVABITCH BASTARD WINDOWS10!!!!

</rant>

So...my decision not to do the upgrade was correct?

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Hitch

<expletives omitted>
WINDOWS10!!!!
</rant>

What's your gripe?

I have three Windows10 machines here. My SO's laptop, a travel laptop, and my desktop.

The two laptops behave fine. The desktop has been "Windows 10 BSODs - collect the whole set", and I have been.

The most recent issue was the machine popping up a BSOD window talking about REGISTRY_ERROR if left unused for 4+ minutes. This is apparently a Known Problem related to background maintenance, but suggested fixes found online didn't cure the problem here.

It currently has a new quirk. A Windows svchost.exe processing is pegging one core of the CPU. That svchost instance handles Windows Update and a few other things. I have no idea what it's doing, save that it doesn't appear to be doing harm, It's simply consuming resources.

The backhanded good part is that at least the machine doesn't BSOD with REGISTRY_ERROR, because it's not sitting idle, but I'm not sure I'd call that a "fix."

The real fix is likely doing a Windows Refresh, which will restore Win10 to default status while preserving user files, and will place a list of what it removed on the desktop. Most stuff I care about keeping is on a different drive and wouldn't be touched in any case, so it would mostly be an investment of time to do it and then restore my desired setup.

Meanwhile, the desktop dual-boots Win10 and Ubuntu Linux, and I can boot into Linux and do most stuff from it.

But the process of migrating to Win10 has been "Oh, no! Not another learning experience!"

<edit>And while was was posting the above and continuing on, I got another BSOD: BAD_POOL_HEADER. I am so thrilled.</edit>
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Dennis

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

What's your gripe?

I have three Windows10 machines here. My SO's laptop, a travel laptop, and my desktop.

The two laptops behave fine. The desktop has been "Windows 10 BSODs - collect the whole set", and I have been.

Ditto the Win8->now Win10 Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga. Went fine. Noooo problem, not really. Nothing worth talking about.

We decided to do the laptops first, because I use them as ancillary devices. The vast bulk of the work, etc. is done on my desktop. My desktop system is actually the main core, no pun intended, of my business. Data, storage, all the cloud bases, etc. Did that...I don't know, a month or so back? Decided to leave Win10 for a long time--let other idiots iron out the bumps, right?

The most recent issue was the machine popping up a BSOD window talking about REGISTRY_ERROR if left unused for 4+ minutes. This is apparently a Known Problem related to background maintenance, but suggested fixes found online didn't cure the problem here.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

The real fix is likely doing a Windows Refresh, which will restore Win10 to default status while preserving user files, and will place a list of what it removed on the desktop. Most stuff I care about keeping is on a different drive and wouldn't be touched in any case, so it would mostly be an investment of time to do it and then restore my desired setup.

At least you can actually get to a boot. LUCKY you.

Meanwhile, the desktop dual-boots Win10 and Ubuntu Linux, and I can boot into Linux and do most stuff from it.

But the process of migrating to Win10 has been "Oh, no! Not another learning experience!"

<edit>And while was was posting the above and continuing on, I got another BSOD: BAD_POOL_HEADER. I am so thrilled.</edit>
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Dennis

I got nuttin'. We tried, 3x, to install it. Fortunately, of course, not being dead stupid, we backed up the big 'puter, and THEN some. Created a boot disk for Win10--all the usual precautions.

But brother, we cannot get there from here. We can't even get to any type of Win10 anything. Can't boot. Can't boot into. Got squat.

At one point, last week, we thought it was the video card. Fine, Picked up a new one. NOT it.

As near as we can tell, there is no Win10 driver for the ASUS motherboard that I have. IOW, we are SOL. Unless/until I want to completely redo the existing box, which I don't want to. The desktop is solid like a rock. Runs great. HAS to. It's not an entertainment center, or a social-media toy. ALL, repeat, all the business goes through it, one way or the other, whether it's synching the Dropbox hub (the way I have it set up), the accounting, invoicing, customer service...

So, three times into the breach; 3 times back to the restore point. Mr. Hitch has dedicated most of his waking hours to keeping the Starship Hitch up and running.

{sigh}. I'm just pissed.

Hitch

[cromag]

I upgraded my desktop computer from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 last night, in time for the "Free" offer. I haven't had major problems, but there is a learning curve. My Lenovo USB Enhanced Performance Keyboard is mostly working, but I lost my onscreen display of programmable function key selection -- I found what purports to be a Windows 10 driver for it, but the installation procedure outlined on the site doesn't match the options I have on my screen. And some applications have had their display options changed to the point that I really have to study the screen to distinguish between descriptions, option choices, headings, and my input.

And Microsoft really wants me to use Groove for my WAV and MP3 files -- I've had to tell them "No!" several times.

[Blossom]

The lack of drivers for older models is a real problem. It's why I didn't try to do my Desktop. I imagine BIOS and chipset drivers would be needed which Gateway does not have for Windows 10. Laptop was Windows 8.1 so update went smooth and no problems since I upgraded last year.

Sent from my Nexus 7

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

What's your gripe?

I'm not Hitch, but... where do you want me to start?

The fact that Windows 10 resets the font size when I pick up the notebook out of the dock? The fact that Microsoft thinks it's funny to use 4 different font sizes, ranging from huge to tiny in the same dialog? That Windows 10 STILL sends data to Microsoft after everything that can be officially disabled is disabled? That the user interface is as inconsistent as a badly made pudding? That it has white space bigger than the empty space in outer space? That is takes up 40 GB on my SSD, of which 22 GB are in C:\Windows\Installer\ (on my computer at work; at home C:\Windows\Installer\ thankfully is only 1.2 GB)? The riboon, with its tiny fonts, icons of different sizes, and always changing layout depending on the window size?

If OS X ran on a non-Apple computer (without hacks), or Linux would allow me to use it without the fear of breaking or chain-upgrading the entire distribution any time an upgrade is rolled out, I would have switched to either one a long time ago, and degraded Windows to a gaming platform.

[Freeshadow]

Linux would allow me to use it without the fear of breaking or chain-upgrading the entire distribution any time an upgrade is rolled out

have a look at aptosid.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I'm not Hitch, but... where do you want me to start?

The fact that Windows 10 resets the font size when I pick up the notebook out of the dock? The fact that Microsoft thinks it's funny to use 4 different font sizes, ranging from huge to tiny in the same dialog? That Windows 10 STILL sends data to Microsoft after everything that can be officially disabled is disabled? That the user interface is as inconsistent as a badly made pudding? That it has white space bigger than the empty space in outer space? That is takes up 40 GB on my SSD, of which 22 GB are in C:\Windows\Installer\ (on my computer at work; at home C:\Windows\Installer\ thankfully is only 1.2 GB)? The riboon, with its tiny fonts, icons of different sizes, and always changing layout depending on the window size?

That hasn't been my experience, but I'm not trying to run it on a notebook that docks, and I've been able to pretty well get things looking as desired.

One aid to that is an open source application called Classic Shell. Classic Shell returns the Win Start Menu to the system, defaulting to duplicating the Start Menu in Win7. It's arguably a necessity for Win8, which removed the Strt Menu in favor of the Metro interface. Win10 brought back the Start Menu, but in a case of fixing what wasn't broken, changed things around and forced users to relearn the Windows interface, again.

I don't care about Windows phoning home. Privacy advocates were up in arms. But MS documents what it phones home, with four possible levels of information sent, and which level it sends is user selectable. There are potential concerns at the highest level, where Win10 will send memory dumps that may contain sensitive information, but you must specifically choose to have it do that, and you are only likely to do so if you are a corporate admin under a support contract trying to resolve a very difficult issue. The default base level is strictly data about the state of the current Windows installation, with nothing personally identifying or sensitive in the mix. I could block it outside of Windows itself, but see no reason to bother.

The amount of space it takes isn't a huge concern either. My machine came with Win7 Pro on the HD. I added a 240GB SSD, migrated Win7 to it with a disk clone utility, then set it as boot drive. I retained the original HD as a data drive. After the PC was booting from it, I used Windows Disk Manager to carve out a 20GB raw slice on the drive, then installed Ubuntu from a USB thumb drive. Ubuntu saw the 20GB raw slice, formatted it ext4, and installed to it. The end result was a triple boot system offering Ubuntu, Win10, and the original Win7 install on the HD.

The SSD that Windows and Ubuntu boot from is about half full. The space Win10 takes is not a concern.

If OS X ran on a non-Apple computer (without hacks), or Linux would allow me to use it without the fear of breaking or chain-upgrading the entire distribution any time an upgrade is rolled out, I would have switched to either one a long time ago, and degraded Windows to a gaming platform.

There are reasons I dual boot Ubuntu Linux alongside Windows. My current issues are one of them. Most of what I do can be done from Ubuntu. I spent most of my time in Firefox, which is available for Linux as well as Windows, and I run it under Linux using the same profile I use in Windows, so it looks and behaves nearly identical. Calibre is up under Linux too, and if I need to deal with Office files, I have Libre Office up under Windows and Linux. (I have MS Office 2007, but the only part of it I use is Publisher for occasional DTP projects.) I'm not a gamer.

I currently run Ubuntu 16.04 LTS release, specifically to avoid breaking things when a new version comes out. I still get security and app updates, but the base version will stay at that level till a new LTS release comes out.

I learned the hard way with Ubuntu on an ancient notebook. A new release of Ubuntu arrived and I tried to upgrade. But the new release required PAE support, and the ancient hardware didn't have it. This made the installation of the new kernel which was the last step fail, and that caused a cascade failure. I rebooted into an unusable system. What I wound up doing was wiping the Ubuntu slice and redoing from scratch, carefully stopping before the problem version. It was another multi-boot system, so still technically usable without Ubuntu in the mix.

(The ancient notebook was strictly a test bed to see what performance I could wring out of ancient hardware without throwing money at it. Actual work was done elsewhere, so it wasn't a concern if it didn't work. Ubuntu would actually run more or less acceptably on a device with a 787mhz CPU, IDE4 HD, and a whopping 256MB RAM, though getting it to do so required installing for the Minimal CD to get a CLI installation and picking and choosing what apps to run with apt-get.) It also booted Win2K Pro SP4, Puppy Linux, and FreeDOS.)

Ubuntu got a nastygram from me stating that testing whether required things like PAE were present should be the first thing it did in an upgrade, and it should decline to install if they weren't. I don't think the Ubuntu devs ever dreamed that someone might try to install it on hardware that lacked PAE support...

If I had to, I could drop Windows entirely on the desktop and just use Linux, but I'm not quite at that point. All the new and different BSODs are pushing me in that direction...
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Blossom

The lack of drivers for older models is a real problem. It's why I didn't try to do my Desktop. I imagine BIOS and chipset drivers would be needed which Gateway does not have for Windows 10.

I don't think that will be an issue. There aren't actually BIOS drivers. The BIOS is active on boot, surveys the system, and writes data on what your hardware is to a place Windows can read. Windows reads the hardware list and sets itself up accordingly.

Chipset drivers will be provided by the people who make the motherboard chipsets. They may be available from the mobo manufacturer outside of Gateway. I have previously done things like get the current chipset drivers from Intel, but haven't had to do so in years. (And the systems I did it on ran fine with the supplied drivers. Getting updates was strictly a matter of preferring to stay current on such things.)

Laptop was Windows 8.1 so update went smooth and no problems since I upgraded last year.

If your machine successfully installed and ran Win8.1, it ought to run Win10.
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Dennis

[Blossom]

BIOS firmware then whatever you want to call it. I've never updated my desktop BIOS because it's too tedious. Laptop is easy it can be done inside of Windows. Samsung keeps everything easy and up to date.

You can't download any chipset driver for my motherboard they must be modified by Gateway to work on their computers. It's a pita and they stop updating drivers way back in 2010. The fan controller bug was never fixed. I finally bought a three speed fan and have it set to medium.

It's an old desktop but was top of the line in its day.

Sent from my XT1528

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Blossom

BIOS firmware then whatever you want to call it. I've never updated my desktop BIOS because it's too tedious. Laptop is easy it can be done inside of Windows. Samsung keeps everything easy and up to date.

The question is whether you need to update your BIOS firmware. In general, you don't.

(There is a minor version update to the BIOS in my Dell desktop. It adds nothing critical I must have, and I haven't applied it.)

You can't download any chipset driver for my motherboard they must be modified by Gateway to work on their computers. It's a pita and they stop updating drivers way back in 2010. The fan controller bug was never fixed. I finally bought a three speed fan and have it set to medium.

<shrug>

When you install Windows, the installer inspects your machine, determines the hardware environment it's installing on, sets itself up, and adds Microsoft certified drivers. The usual reason for updating the drivers installed by Windows is to add features the Windows drivers don't support, and the usual update you are likely to make is a driver for your video card. This is especially likely if you're a gamer concerned with the best possible 3D performance.

The MS certified drivers are known to work. If Windows installs and runs as expected they do.

Like I said, if Win8.1 installed and runs on your Gateway, Win10 is likely to run as well. There are various good reasons you might not wish to upgrade, but BIOS and mobo chipset drivers aren't among them.

It's an old desktop but was top of the line in its day.

Which model? (And things like the fan controller bug would bite regardless of Windows version.)

I note that Gateway was acquired by Acer in 2007. No surprise, given the steady consolidation in the PC market.
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Dennis

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

The question is whether you need to update your BIOS firmware. In general, you don't.

(There is a minor version update to the BIOS in my Dell desktop. It adds nothing critical I must have, and I haven't applied it.)


<shrug>

When you install Windows, the installer inspects your machine, determines the hardware environment it's installing on, sets itself up, and adds Microsoft certified drivers. The usual reason for updating the drivers installed by Windows is to add features the Windows drivers don't support, and the usual update you are likely to make is a driver for your video card. This is especially likely if you're a gamer concerned with the best possible 3D performance.

The MS certified drivers are known to work. If Windows installs and runs as expected they do.

Like I said, if Win8.1 installed and runs on your Gateway, Win10 is likely to run as well. There are various good reasons you might not wish to upgrade, but BIOS and mobo chipset drivers aren't among them.


Which model? (And things like the fan controller bug would bite regardless of Windows version.)

I note that Gateway was acquired by Acer in 2007. No surprise, given the steady consolidation in the PC market.
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Dennis

It a DX4710-5 it was brought many years ago. The BIOS has never been updated. It has Vista I never got around to installing Windows 7 because it's use to eat hard drives till I took the graphics card out. Motherboard voltage issues but it works okay as long as I use on board graphics. I let hubby use it for Facebook games. I replaced the PSU with an Antec Earthwatt 500 and a Antec 3 speed 80mm fan on the back vent.

Sent from my Nexus 7