The Vent and Rant Thread

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

2.2? Isn't that about what you get when old man Woodham down the street knocks the pickle jar off the counter?

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Hope things get better.

Absolutely! And tell old man Woodham he should be more careful. He set off a 4.0 near here last year when the jar fell on the cat and all hell broke loose. What's he doing raiding the pickle jar anyway?

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Hope things get better.

Thanks! It always does, but just takes a couple of weeks. At this point, with surgeries 12 and 14, my eye goo has been washed away and replaced with saline, so it clears pretty quickly. I hopefully will get back to my regular legally blind level soon. At that point, I can't see well enough to drive, but can see well enough to get around and fake having normal vision. There is nothing unusual about my eyes to look at me, and I can stare at your face region when we are talking. So people are constantly surprised when I tell them that I can't look at their kids pics on their phones. I can see that there is something with a glowing area in their hand that they call a phone. My dark glasses are a pair of Foster Grant shades, white with flowers painted on. No reason the blind glasses have to look like blind glasses.

It sort of hurts when people here slam iPads. That infinite zoom and bright backlighting is the only reason I am able to read and socialize. I charged up my 505 yesterday, and can barely see the tone-on-tone letters of e-ink. I couldn't make out a single word, just gray smudge on gray background.

Tim is a wonderful seeing eye dog! Without him, I would be using a white walking stick.

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

Absolutely! And tell old man Woodham he should be more careful. He set off a 4.0 near here last year when the jar fell on the cat and all hell broke loose. What's he doing raiding the pickle jar anyway?

He's a pickle-eating cat-hating sourpuss.

[DixieGal]

And he won't let us play on his lawn!

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Of course, your gain in computer life span is completely consumed by the amount of electricity you've wasted.

Define "waste".

My desktop is on 24/7. It gets rebooted when required by software installations, like new Windows Critical Updates, or if I want to boot into a different OS. It gets powered off when I need to fiddle with hardware. Other than that, it's up and running. An assortment of things are scheduled to take place while I sleep, and the convenience of having it up and ready when I need it more than justifies the extra costs.
______
Dennis

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

It sort of hurts when people here slam iPads. That infinite zoom and bright backlighting is the only reason I am able to read and socialize.

You know, I hadn't thought of that. I'll bet that works really well. I'm amazed how fast and easy it is to resize anything and it really is bright if you want it to be. And what do those dang little kids around here know about life as an adult anyway?! Dang kids. GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

Doggie (a.k.a. Old Man Woodham)

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Define "waste".

My desktop is on 24/7. It gets rebooted when required by software installations, like new Windows Critical Updates, or if I want to boot into a different OS. It gets powered off when I need to fiddle with hardware. Other than that, it's up and running. An assortment of things are scheduled to take place while I sleep, and the convenience of having it up and ready when I need it more than justifies the extra costs.
______
Dennis

We keep the old desktop running but switch off the old monitor. I am convinced that it is the electric wasting component.

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

You know, I hadn't thought of that. I'll bet that works really well. I'm amazed how fast and easy it is to resize anything and it really is bright if you want it to be. And what do those dang little kids around here know about life as an adult anyway?! Dang kids. GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

Doggie (a.k.a. Old Man Woodham)

I'm sorry, Mr. Woodham, but may I please Just scoot over there and get my shuttlecock? (Big toothy grin that highlight my dimples and assures successful neighbor manipulation.)

[Mortis]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Define "waste".

My desktop is on 24/7. It gets rebooted when required by software installations, like new Windows Critical Updates, or if I want to boot into a different OS. It gets powered off when I need to fiddle with hardware. Other than that, it's up and running. An assortment of things are scheduled to take place while I sleep, and the convenience of having it up and ready when I need it more than justifies the extra costs.
______
Dennis

I would also suspect that it's not costing as much as you think, a fridge thats on all the time consumes between 200-700 watts a computer in sleep mode with a 17" CRT uses 1-20 watts, when awake 150-350 watts. So if you don't mind warm beer and a reboot every time you want to use your computer, turn them off and save a few dollars a month.

How much it costs to run your computer

To calculate your costs use this formula:
(Watts x Hours Used / 1000) x Cost per kilowatt-hour = Total Cost

For example, let's say you have a big high-end computer with a gaming-level graphics card and an old CRT monitor, and you leave them on 24/7. That's about 200 watts x 24 hours x 365 days = 1,752,000 watt-hours, or 1752 kilowatt-hours. If you're paying $0.20 per kWh, you're paying $350 a year to run your computer.

Let's try a different example: You have a computer that's less of an energy hog, like in iMac G5 20", which uses about 105 watts, and you're smart enough to turn it off or sleep it when you're not using it. You use it for two hours a day, five days a week. That's 105 watts x 10 hours x 52 weeks = 54,600 watt-hours, or 54.6 kWh. If you're paying 20¢ per kilowatt-hour, then you're paying about $11.00 a year to run your computer.

These examples were found Here

I find that most people don't understand how much power their computers, TV's or any electrical equipment they use actually uses. A good rule of thumb is that if you can turn it off, then turn it off, but personally I leave my computers on, and my electricity bill went up about $10/month (moved from an office to home office), I can afford that considering I earn my living with my computers.

[desertblues]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

A couple of years ago my car was broken into twice in my driveway, and the stereo stolen. Last year the whole CAR was stolen, and when it was recovered, there were several CD's that didn't belong to me in the floorboard. HA HA HA -- they thought they would joyride and listen to some tunes but THEY HAD ALREADY TAKEN THE RADIO!

But how awful for you that he stole the radio in the first place.
Did you like their CD's or did you throw them right away?

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by desertblues

But how awful for you that he stole the radio in the first place.
Did you like their CD's or did you throw them right away?

I didn't know the language! They also left me some of those little tree shaped car deoderizers. I actually didn't want to touch any of the stuff so yes, I threw it out. I even threw out some of my own stuff they left in there, and washed the heck out of everything else. Then I sold that car to my nephew and bought a new one. With a car alarm.

(The car that was repeatedly broken into and then stolen was a 93 Honda Civic, which is very high on the list of "easy to steal" cars.)

[Mortis]

When I was in high school and living at home with my folks, I owned an MG Midget that was stolen by a couple of kids who lived just down the block. They managed to smash it up pretty good and when it was returned there was a Kangaroo Jacket in behind the seats, it wasn't mine and I was about to throw it away when a bus pass fell out. I returned it with the aid of a police officer, the kid wasn't as happy to get his bus pass back as I thought he would be. Because of his age he was given a suspended sentence, he later went on to be a very good auto mechanic. He still lives just down the street from my folks, he maintains my dads truck free, guess he feels obligated. Hes actually a pretty nice guy now, I'm not sure how he would have turned out if he wasn't caught or was and went to prison, I'll never know.

[desertblues]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

I didn't know the language! They also left me some of those little tree shaped car deoderizers. I actually didn't want to touch any of the stuff so yes, I threw it out. I even threw out some of my own stuff they left in there, and washed the heck out of everything else. Then I sold that car to my nephew and bought a new one. With a car alarm.

(The car that was repeatedly broken into and then stolen was a 93 Honda Civic, which is very high on the list of "easy to steal" cars.)

That is very funny; those car deodorizers! Didn't realize that thieves would want a stolen car to smell good.

[Rumpelteazer]

Is it me or does it seem like companies aren't very nice to their customers anymore, only to those they are trying to lure in?

About 7 years ago I spend €200 on a dictionary Dutch-English/English-Dutch on cd-rom. Because I was installing Windows 7 on my notebook and I regularly use the dictionary I checked on the website if it would work. According to the publisher it doesn't, but they offer a 25% discount to upgrade to the latest. I don't think a dictionary changes that much to warrant the €150.

After Googling I found out that the dictionary should install if you copy the files from the cd-rom to the harddrive. I expect the publiisher to know this, so why don't they just put it on their website!

Yesterday I had a customer who sought a plug for a power outlet he wanted to put something in front. We have flat plugs but I know that the electronics store has an even flatter plug, ideal for his situation. He was completely astounded I send him to another store, losing business. But I know I might lose €1.70 now, but because I gave good advice he will probably become a returning customer. Why can't big companies see that their current customer are just as important as their future customers?!

Edit:
Seems even if I copy the files it still doesn't want to install. Probably because I've got the 64bit W7 installed. Now I have to decide if I want to get an upgrade, especially since I am going to install W7 in my PC within a couple of months.

[astrangerhere]

Less a rant and more a relief. The rant part comes in the form of my sattellite TV bill which is outrageous. I have to pay up to a premium teir just to get the 2 sports channels I actually watch (soccer channels). I watch virtually nothing else on TV anymore. Most of what i watch is foreign and is streamed online. So my partner and I are biting the bullet. We are getting rid of the satellite. No more cable bills for us. Just the internet, which we get FAR more use out of anyway. Both our TVs hook up to our PCs, so all our streaming will run to the TV and the rest is history. It was a little odd to get up this morning and not flip on the TV to ESPN to wake up with, but more than $1000 a year more than makes up for it.