The Technology Vent and Rant Thread - Page 61

John F · 07-10-2021, 06:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John F

I had an interesting one the other day. Someone called saying they were from All State insurance, they started a pitch, and I had trouble understanding them. We had a couple of iterations with me saying "I can't understand you", and he would repeat the same thing. I gave up and said I was on the do not call list. He says: than why are you wasting my time. I say you called me, you are wasting my time. He says go back to my town. I ask him what that means. He tells me to go F* myself. I hung up.

I had another one today. This one said he was from some solar company. The caller ID said he was from my state (CT). I asked him where he was calling from, and he said CA. I asked him why my caller ID said CT and he ignored me. I asked him again, he got very upset, told me to stop wasting his time, and said he going to f* my wife daughter and mother.

cromag · 07-10-2021, 08:11 PM

That's a heck of a sales pitch.

DNSB · 07-10-2021, 10:39 PM

"This is Visa Fraud and Security department. Your card has been used to make $400 charge to eBay and $1300 to international gift cards. If you did not make this purchase press 1 to accept otherwise press 2"

Being a curious person I pressed 1 despite not having a Visa credit card. The person who came on line had a very heavy accent reminding me of the Indian subcontinent. He repeated the "I'm from Visa Fraud and Security" and asked to verify my full name as it appeared on the card, my Visa card number, expiry date and CVC. I would have thought the bank already had all that information...

After 15 minutes on line while I attempted to find my non-existent Visa card and read the numbers to him doing my best impersonation of someone suffering from diminished capacity, I was threatened with the police arriving at my door shortly to arrest me for fraudulent use of my Visa card if I did not co-operate. Shortly after that, he hung up on me.

Hmmm... reminds me to re-watch the Youtube video of a CRA scammer who called the Port Moody police.

ownedbycats · 07-12-2021, 06:08 PM

My neighbour's microwave oven keeps killing my wifi network. (Oddly enough, my own microwave doesn't affect it.) Fortunately most of my stuff is hardwired. Unfortunately, the ones that aren't don't support 5ghz and it isn't worth the cost to upgrade when I can just wait a few minutes and then re-connect.

pdurrant · 07-13-2021, 06:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

My neighbour's microwave oven keeps killing my wifi network. (Oddly enough, my own microwave doesn't affect it.) Fortunately most of my stuff is hardwired. Unfortunately, the ones that aren't don't support 5ghz and it isn't worth the cost to upgrade when I can just wait a few minutes and then re-connect.

How about buying your neighbour a new microwave oven?

Or try a different channel number - I'm told that lower numbers might be better when considering interference from microwave ovens.

ownedbycats · 07-13-2021, 03:05 PM

Unfortunately, so many neighbours have their wifi networks on the lower channels (which is the default on the modem the ISP provides) that the interference is pretty bad. 11's the least congested.

I suppose this whole thing can be summed up as "wifi in apartments is awful."

DNSB · 07-13-2021, 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Unfortunately, so many neighbours have their wifi networks on the lower channels (which is the default on the modem the ISP provides) that the interference is pretty bad. 11's the least congested.

I suppose this whole thing can be summed up as "wifi in apartments is awful."

You could try living next door to one of my neighbours. He has a 5 mesh access points setup in his townhouse. The only consolation is that he seems to be limited to the lower end of the 5GHz spectrum but he stomps all over the 2.4GHz spectrum.

gmw · 07-13-2021, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Unfortunately, so many neighbours have their wifi networks on the lower channels (which is the default on the modem the ISP provides) that the interference is pretty bad. 11's the least congested.

I suppose this whole thing can be summed up as "wifi in apartments is awful."

Well my nearest neighbour is about 1km away, as the crow flies, but I have a wifi connection that still seems to fade in and out at times and I've never been able to work out why. When it starts to muck up too much I push the channel down the other end and everything's good again ... for a while.

So maybe the whole thing can be summed up as "wifi is awful"

ownedbycats · 07-13-2021, 09:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DNSB

You could try living next door to one of my neighbours. He has a 5 mesh access points setup in his townhouse. The only consolation is that he seems to be limited to the lower end of the 5GHz spectrum but he stomps all over the 2.4GHz spectrum.

Makes me wonder if your neighbour had interference and thought it was a coverage issue.

DNSB · 07-14-2021, 02:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Makes me wonder if your neighbour had interference and thought it was a coverage issue.

They're an older couple and downsized from a 6,000 square foot detached home to a 1600 square foot attached townhome. The mesh setup was likely overkill for their old home and an extreme level of overkill for their new place.

He has been grumbling about his wifi the last couple of months. Okay in the evenings and weekends but crap all day. Perhaps one of his next door neighbours who is an electrical engineer might know more about why that is happening (something about an RF noise generator feeding into an RF amp

).

ownedbycats · 07-14-2021, 04:02 AM

On my old computer the front headphone jack was unshielded and occasionally picked up radio signals. A bit creepy when I had my headphones on but not playing anything and it picked up very faint music or talking.

timebug · 07-17-2021, 01:48 PM

A chap on TV years ago, claimed he had several metal fillings in his teeth,and under the right circumstances, he faintly heard 'ghost radio' in his head! He was generally considered a crank, but sometimes he 'heard a tune' turned on his radio, and it was playing that actual tune. Weird!

John F · 07-17-2021, 07:18 PM

Stupid app. I had a biking app I liked. I had 6 years of bike rides on it. Apparently, the app is no longer supported, which happened some time ago and I was unaware of. The other day, I wanted to check my email, so I went to settings->account settings and it asked me to login. Since they shutdown their server, I cannot login, and there doesn't appear to be a work around.

DNSB · 07-17-2021, 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John F

The other day, I wanted to check my email, so I went to settings->account settings and it asked me to login. Since they shutdown their server, I cannot login, and there doesn't appear to be a work around.

Welcome to the world of abandonware.

ownedbycats · 07-17-2021, 08:57 PM

I have a mid-00s game that's rendered unusable because the installer phones home during installation to check the CD key and the website no longer exists. Couldn't extract the game files and pointing hosts to 127 didn't work. Just a nice coaster.

07-12-2021, 06:08 PM	#904
ownedbycats Custom User Title Posts: 11,014 Karma: 75555555 Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Libra H2O, formerly Aura HD	My neighbour's microwave oven keeps killing my wifi network. (Oddly enough, my own microwave doesn't affect it.) Fortunately most of my stuff is hardwired. Unfortunately, the ones that aren't don't support 5ghz and it isn't worth the cost to upgrade when I can just wait a few minutes and then re-connect. Last edited by ownedbycats; 07-12-2021 at 06:23 PM.

07-13-2021, 03:05 PM	#906
ownedbycats Custom User Title Posts: 11,014 Karma: 75555555 Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Libra H2O, formerly Aura HD	Unfortunately, so many neighbours have their wifi networks on the lower channels (which is the default on the modem the ISP provides) that the interference is pretty bad. 11's the least congested. I suppose this whole thing can be summed up as "wifi in apartments is awful." Last edited by ownedbycats; 07-13-2021 at 03:08 PM.

07-17-2021, 08:57 PM	#915
ownedbycats Custom User Title Posts: 11,014 Karma: 75555555 Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Libra H2O, formerly Aura HD	I have a mid-00s game that's rendered unusable because the installer phones home during installation to check the CD key and the website no longer exists. Couldn't extract the game files and pointing hosts to 127 didn't work. Just a nice coaster. Last edited by ownedbycats; 07-18-2021 at 03:23 AM.

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07-14-2021, 04:02 AM	#911
ownedbycats Custom User Title Posts: 11,014 Karma: 75555555 Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Libra H2O, formerly Aura HD	On my old computer the front headphone jack was unshielded and occasionally picked up radio signals. A bit creepy when I had my headphones on but not playing anything and it picked up very faint music or talking.

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John F Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,951 Karma: 70880793 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Kobo Clara 2E	Stupid app. I had a biking app I liked. I had 6 years of bike rides on it. Apparently, the app is no longer supported, which happened some time ago and I was unaware of. The other day, I wanted to check my email, so I went to settings->account settings and it asked me to login. Since they shutdown their server, I cannot login, and there doesn't appear to be a work around.