The Vent and Rant Thread

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

Too bad it won't fit my car

Everstart makes several different size batteries. I think most if not all have vents.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Hitch

OMG, and this--the "clear connection"--too. I have lost track of the number of ppl who will call me, on some staticky, dropping-out line, rejoicing over how they've "cut the cord" (yer, right...) and now they only have a cellphone, not a landline. My sister's cheap husband did that--migrated their landline to a cellphone--and I haven't had a decent conversation with her since. Two years, and every time we speak I hear noise, rasping, dropouts, you-name-it. It's bloody distracting, and it makes me want to get OFF the phone, not make the call. I swear, I know it sounds daft, but it's affected our sister-time.

No, thanks. I'd rather be fiscally stupid and not plagued by absurdly-bad phone reception and the like. And it's not as though spam-callers don't have a throughway to cellphones now, either.

Not to mention, as 4691 says, any type of common courtesy during normal human interaction--dinners, family get-togethers--seems to have gone utterly out the window. Who the hell wants to eat dinner with someone who spends the entire meal on their smartphone, texting, doing social media, etc.? It's...deranged, to me. I guess I just don't have enough friends where I have to madly keep up with a few hundred folks all around the planet, 99% of whom I've never met, all of whom have to give me blow-by-blow details of what they had for lunch, or what cute thing their dog did today. I have like, two places that I "hang," MR being one of them, and that's it.

My comment on social media:

Spoiler:

I think that Facebook, et al, are just massive time-wasting, time-sucking hellholes that seem to thrive on the vapidity of self-involvement--or,
like Tw*tter, on the seemingly endless fascination of people with self-promoting, absurd "celebrities" like the godawful Kardashians and other Reality-TV personalities. (I refuse to use the word "stars.")

Hitch

On landlines: at least if the power gets knocked out we can call the power company. Depending on the size of the outage it might have got the cell tower.

I wouldn't even want to look at Facebook on a phone.

The spoiler is lunch and everything the dog did this morning.

Spoiler:

I am having coffee for breakfast and lunch. The dog got off the bed and went outside to do his morning routine. He came in and had pork roast for lunch. He then laid in front of the heater to warm up. Then he sat beside me on the floor while I shredded some mail. Now he is on the couch snoring.

I look at Facebook about once a month.
This (Mobileread) is where I tend to get lost.

[Katsunami]

@Social Media: I have none. The only account I _might_ make is one on LinkedIn. All the rest is useless to me. It just costs a lot of time.

@Phone Usage: I don't use my phone a lot. I'm flabbergasted when I see phone tests where sites are complaining/explaining that a phone (such as my Moto G5) can "only" have a screen-on time of around 7.5 hours when browsing the internet, and 9h15m when watching movies. Well... isn't that long enough? Who's going to browse the internet for 7.5 hours a day on a phone, or watch movies for 9+ hours? I don't.

I understand: longer screen-on time means a longer stand-by time. More is better, but good enough is good enough.

With my usage, the "mediocre" Moto G5 battery will run for more than two days with many hours to spare. Current stats:

- 77% battery left since I unplugged it at 2am last night when I got to bed. (18 hours ago.)
- 1h 48m screen-on time (I'm still running through all the 5 million settings, and installing and setting up the apps I use).
- With current usage, the phone predicts a run-time of another 48 hours at least, for a total of 66. I used 23% of battery in 18 hours, so my prediction is 18/23*100 = +- 78 hours.
- 23% fits into 100% 4.35 times. This means I will be able to get 7.6 hours screen-on time.

78 hours on one charge (3.25 days) in which I'll be awake for about 48 hours. In that waking time, I can spend 7.6 hours on the phone, or 15.8%.

IMHO, that is -a lot-, and after I finish jacking around with this thing checking every possible setting in the phone and every app I use, my screen-on time will drop like a stone... probably to some off-hand/on-the-road use (like a normal phone), and a 1-1.5 hour Whatsapp chat with my GF about our day. (It's useless trying to call her. Her reception is _very_ poor where she is. Maybe I should try a Whatsapp call through internet.)

I've seen one reviewer complaining that the battery wasn't good enough for 'average use.' Dude. I'm installing and configuring apps having the screen on and burning the CPU, and still my phone can go for 78 hours. What do you _DO_ with that device if you can't make it through a 16 hour day?!

Fortunately my GF is the same as me. The only difference is she does have a Facebook account, but her usage is (extremely) limited because she's very aware of privacy (as I am as well).

Her mom on the other hand... well... I don't even want to get started

[DMcCunney]

My cell phone is the smallest, cheapest, least powerful feature phone Samsung makes, used with a prepaid plan. All it does is calls and SMS, and that's all I want it to do. The rest is something else's job. (And a reason for that is that the rest tends to want a bigger display than a practical smartphone can have.)

The landline is VOIP. My ISP offered a triple play of TV, Internet and VOIP, but I held off on the latter because it was a net save if you made LD calls, but for practical purposes, I didn't. I finally switched when Verizon's basic local loop charge crept above the cost of VOIP. I immediately found myself in a project that required living on the phone long distance for a month, so the switch did pay off.

I had been a telecom admin, dealing with what turned into Verizon, and was delighted to be shut of them.
______
Dennis

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

My cell phone is the smallest, cheapest, least powerful feature phone Samsung makes, used with a prepaid plan. All it does is calls and SMS, and that's all I want it to do. The rest is something else's job. (And a reason for that is that the rest tends to want a bigger display than a practical smartphone can have.)

We both (Mr. H and I) had flip-phones until just a few years ago. The only reason we ended up with smartphones is that one of them finally died, PLUS, Mr. H wanted to be able to use online maps, for directions. Thus, now, we have smartphones--which are woefully wasted on us. Truly. Mr. H finally learned how to text, b/c he had friends that simply could not learn that we didn't text or use our cellphones at all. (For that matter, his family PERSISTS in calling his cellphone, which just boggles us. I don't know how many times we've explained, repeatedly, that the phones NO WORKEE where we live, d*mmit.)

The landline is VOIP. My ISP offered a triple play of TV, Internet and VOIP, but I held off on the latter because it was a net save if you made LD calls, but for practical purposes, I didn't. I finally switched when Verizon's basic local loop charge crept above the cost of VOIP. I immediately found myself in a project that required living on the phone long distance for a month, so the switch did pay off. :-p

I do use VOIP for my biz, and the entire biz runs on it. My incoming biz # is VOIP, etc.

I had been a telecom admin, dealing with what turned into Verizon, and was delighted to be shut of them.
______
Dennis

At the moment, we're stuck with Verizon--they're the only provider (cell phone) that has service that REMOTELY works near where we are. None of the others have a tower anywhere near us. So....not much choice at the moment. Someday, maybe. Providers aren't in a mad swivet to put up towers in rural mountain areas that won't grow in density. Of course, as I said--given how little we use them, it's a bit moot.

Hitch

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

My cell phone is the smallest, cheapest, least powerful feature phone Samsung makes, used with a prepaid plan. All it does is calls and SMS, and that's all I want it to do. The rest is something else's job. (And a reason for that is that the rest tends to want a bigger display than a practical smartphone can have.)

The landline is VOIP. My ISP offered a triple play of TV, Internet and VOIP, but I held off on the latter because it was a net save if you made LD calls, but for practical purposes, I didn't. I finally switched when Verizon's basic local loop charge crept above the cost of VOIP. I immediately found myself in a project that required living on the phone long distance for a month, so the switch did pay off. :-p

I had been a telecom admin, dealing with what turned into Verizon, and was delighted to be shut of them.
______
Dennis

I had a Samsung fliphone until less than a year ago, when I finally broke down and got a smartphone. My main reason for getting it was to have email away from home. It is also handy for looking up directions or for taking snapshots when I don't want to bring my camera, but I managed fine for many years without those phone functions. I do sometimes miss having a cell phone that could go weeks on a charge!

I hope since I have both landline and cell that in the event of a bad storm or other disaster both the phone line and cell towers won't go down or be overloaded at the same time. I did lose landline service for a while during a big snowstorm several years ago. I'm in an older neighborhood where utility lines are still on poles, not underground, so I expect a tree fell on a line or maybe a car crashed into a pole.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

@Social Media: I have none. The only account I _might_ make is one on LinkedIn. All the rest is useless to me. It just costs a lot of time.

@Phone Usage: I don't use my phone a lot. I'm flabbergasted when I see phone tests where sites are complaining/explaining that a phone (such as my Moto G5) can "only" have a screen-on time of around 7.5 hours when browsing the internet, and 9h15m when watching movies. Well... isn't that long enough? Who's going to browse the internet for 7.5 hours a day on a phone, or watch movies for 9+ hours? I don't.

I understand: longer screen-on time means a longer stand-by time. More is better, but good enough is good enough.

With my usage, the "mediocre" Moto G5 battery will run for more than two days with many hours to spare. Current stats:

- 77% battery left since I unplugged it at 2am last night when I got to bed. (18 hours ago.)
- 1h 48m screen-on time (I'm still running through all the 5 million settings, and installing and setting up the apps I use).
- With current usage, the phone predicts a run-time of another 48 hours at least, for a total of 66. I used 23% of battery in 18 hours, so my prediction is 18/23*100 = +- 78 hours.
- 23% fits into 100% 4.35 times. This means I will be able to get 7.6 hours screen-on time.

78 hours on one charge (3.25 days) in which I'll be awake for about 48 hours. In that waking time, I can spend 7.6 hours on the phone, or 15.8%.

IMHO, that is -a lot-, and after I finish jacking around with this thing checking every possible setting in the phone and every app I use, my screen-on time will drop like a stone... probably to some off-hand/on-the-road use (like a normal phone), and a 1-1.5 hour Whatsapp chat with my GF about our day. (It's useless trying to call her. Her reception is _very_ poor where she is. Maybe I should try a Whatsapp call through internet.)

I've seen one reviewer complaining that the battery wasn't good enough for 'average use.' Dude. I'm installing and configuring apps having the screen on and burning the CPU, and still my phone can go for 78 hours. What do you _DO_ with that device if you can't make it through a 16 hour day?!

Fortunately my GF is the same as me. The only difference is she does have a Facebook account, but her usage is (extremely) limited because she's very aware of privacy (as I am as well).

Her mom on the other hand... well... I don't even want to get started

As to your movie question: On Christmas, we watched TV and movies from about noon to midnight.
As per internet, I will check in here throughout the day and evening, + do other stuff on the tablet: it typically adds up to 8 plus hours a day.

My darling Katsunami, when are you going to realize you are the exception not the rule?
You have actual hobbies and other things to keep you busy. The majority have their phones and a TV.
Not counting the exceptional people here: what do other people you know do in their off time?
Nearly everyone I know personally is either watching TV or at a club and/or posting on FB.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by Hitch

We both (Mr. H and I) had flip-phones until just a few years ago. The only reason we ended up with smartphones is that one of them finally died, PLUS, Mr. H wanted to be able to use online maps, for directions. Thus, now, we have smartphones--which are woefully wasted on us. Truly. Mr. H finally learned how to text, b/c he had friends that simply could not learn that we didn't text or use our cellphones at all. (For that matter, his family PERSISTS in calling his cellphone, which just boggles us. I don't know how many times we've explained, repeatedly, that the phones NO WORKEE where we live, d*mmit.)



I do use VOIP for my biz, and the entire biz runs on it. My incoming biz # is VOIP, etc.



At the moment, we're stuck with Verizon--they're the only provider (cell phone) that has service that REMOTELY works near where we are. None of the others have a tower anywhere near us. So....not much choice at the moment. Someday, maybe. Providers aren't in a mad swivet to put up towers in rural mountain areas that won't grow in density. Of course, as I said--given how little we use them, it's a bit moot.

Hitch

I have a couple of younger relatives who rarely check email so I have learned to text them if I need a response anytime soon.

I could probably use any of the major cell providers at home or work but Verizon is the only one that has decent coverage in more rural surrounding areas, so if I want to rely on the phone in case of a car breakdown or something I have to stick with the Verizon network. I have a cheap prepaid plan from a Verizon MVNO with minimal data.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

I had a Samsung fliphone until less than a year ago, when I finally broke down and got a smartphone. My main reason for getting it was to have email away from home. It is also handy for looking up directions or for taking snapshots when I don't want to bring my camera, but I managed fine for many years without those phone functions. I do sometimes miss having a cell phone that could go weeks on a charge!

I hope since I have both landline and cell that in the event of a bad storm or other disaster both the phone line and cell towers won't go down or be overloaded at the same time. I did lose landline service for a while during a big snowstorm several years ago. I'm in an older neighborhood where utility lines are still on poles, not underground, so I expect a tree fell on a line or maybe a car crashed into a pole.

We lost our phone service during the last rain storm. The cause was a wore out 40 year old phone line. We just had the repair man disconnect those jacks. We had a new jack in the living room.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

My darling Katsunami, when are you going to realize you are the exception not the rule?
You have actual hobbies and other things to keep you busy. The majority have their phones and a TV.
Not counting the exceptional people here: what do other people you know do in their off time?
Nearly everyone I know personally is either watching TV or at a club and/or posting on FB.

Indeed; most people I know don't do fracking _anything_ but posting on Facebook (using their phone) and watching TV when at home.

With most people I know, their phones are their **** brains. If you smash their phone, you could just as well have smashed their head because they'll be clinically dead. Without their phone, they don't know _anything_ and don't even seem to know how to function without their phone in hand.

Smartphones are a convenience for me these days; I don't have to plan train or bus trips using time table books and a map of the country, I don't have to bring a map when I go to an unfamiliar place, and I can quickly get into contact with people or send an off-hand message or picture if I want to. Even so, I still have time table books, a map, and a paper agenda as a backup.

Without a smartphone, I can lead an actual life. (And my TV is connected to cable, but that's not working... next year I'll have to make a call, if I remember. The reason why I even _HAVE_ cable TV is because it comes with the internet subscription; the only subscription with a decent speed around here.)

[Hemmi]

My phone's a prepaid one. Don't need any more minutes so I get 13 months of service for around $70.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Hitch

At the moment, we're stuck with Verizon--they're the only provider (cell phone) that has service that REMOTELY works near where we are. None of the others have a tower anywhere near us. So....not much choice at the moment. Someday, maybe. Providers aren't in a mad swivet to put up towers in rural mountain areas that won't grow in density. Of course, as I said--given how little we use them, it's a bit moot.

I've had conversations with folks about that, where they are looking at phone plans. If you travel to odd places, or live in a remote area, and you absolutely must get a cellphone signal wherever you go, Verizon is your only realistic choice.

I was in upstate NY a few years ago, about 17 miles from the Canadian border, and discovered a place where I didn't have coverage. It wasn't a problem because the only people I might have had reason to call were along on the same trip, and we could just talk face to face.

I live in NYC, VOIP works, power is reliable, and I could say goodbye and good riddance to VZ at the time.

I'm afraid I'll be rejoining their fold, however. My cable company got acquired by Charter Communications, now does business under the Spectrum brand, and my rates have essentially doubled. FIOS is finally available in my neighborhood (though not yet to my building), and I can get the same TV lineup, Internet, and VIOP from VZ for about half what Spectrum charges. That price will rise down the road, but meanwhile...) And VZ is offering gigabit connectivity that will be almost 10 times faster than the 100mbit connection I have now.

My old cable co was trying to fend of VZ and FIOS, which kept my rates low. The new corporate parent is trying to keep the shareholders happy by boosting rates to increase revenue and profit. Given the rate at which existing customers are reported to be jumping ship to VZ due to rate rises, they may have to rethink their assumptions.
______
Dennis

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I've had conversations with folks about that, where they are looking at phone plans. If you travel to odd places, or live in a remote area, and you absolutely must get a cellphone signal wherever you go, Verizon is your only realistic choice.

I was in upstate NY a few years ago, about 17 miles from the Canadian border, and discovered a place where I didn't have coverage. It wasn't a problem because the only people I might have had reason to call were along on the same trip, and we could just talk face to face.

I live in NYC, VOIP works, power is reliable, and I could say goodbye and good riddance to VZ at the time.

I'm afraid I'll be rejoining their fold, however. My cable company got acquired by Charter Communications, now does business under the Spectrum brand, and my rates have essentially doubled. FIOS is finally available in my neighborhood (though not yet to my building), and I can get the same TV lineup, Internet, and VIOP from VZ for about half what Spectrum charges. That price will rise down the road, but meanwhile...) And VZ is offering gigabit connectivity that will be almost 10 times faster than the 100mbit connection I have now.

My old cable co was trying to fend of VZ and FIOS, which kept my rates low. The new corporate parent is trying to keep the shareholders happy by boosting rates to increase revenue and profit. Given the rate at which existing customers are reported to be jumping ship to VZ due to rate rises, they may have to rethink their assumptions.
______
Dennis

Actually Dennis, in some areas of Texas, Verizon is non-existent.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Indeed; most people I know don't do fracking _anything_ but posting on Facebook (using their phone) and watching TV when at home.

With most people I know, their phones are their **** brains. If you smash their phone, you could just as well have smashed their head because they'll be clinically dead. Without their phone, they don't know _anything_ and don't even seem to know how to function without their phone in hand.

Smartphones are a convenience for me these days; I don't have to plan train or bus trips using time table books and a map of the country, I don't have to bring a map when I go to an unfamiliar place, and I can quickly get into contact with people or send an off-hand message or picture if I want to. Even so, I still have time table books, a map, and a paper agenda as a backup.

Without a smartphone, I can lead an actual life. (And my TV is connected to cable, but that's not working... next year I'll have to make a call, if I remember. The reason why I even _HAVE_ cable TV is because it comes with the internet subscription; the only subscription with a decent speed around here.)

Hmmm. Your post makes me want to ask "do you think there is something wrong with people that watch TV?"

As to your brain comment, I could have been easily offended because I use my tablet to keep track of our movie and cookbook collections.

As to your actual life: what exactly does that mean?
Are you doing what you want to do with your free time? Are the tv watchers doing what they want? Did my father have an actual life since he spent nearly every night on a barstool?
Do I have an actual life since I am playing slots, yakking on a tablet and watching TV at night?

Oh and I would imagine some people find you a bit odd. I know people find me a bit odd because I do more than just watch tv.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Indeed; most people I know don't do fracking _anything_ but posting on Facebook (using their phone) and watching TV when at home.

With most people I know, their phones are their **** brains. If you smash their phone, you could just as well have smashed their head because they'll be clinically dead. Without their phone, they don't know _anything_ and don't even seem to know how to function without their phone in hand.

Smartphones are a convenience for me these days; I don't have to plan train or bus trips using time table books and a map of the country, I don't have to bring a map when I go to an unfamiliar place, and I can quickly get into contact with people or send an off-hand message or picture if I want to. Even so, I still have time table books, a map, and a paper agenda as a backup.

Without a smartphone, I can lead an actual life. (And my TV is connected to cable, but that's not working... next year I'll have to make a call, if I remember. The reason why I even _HAVE_ cable TV is because it comes with the internet subscription; the only subscription with a decent speed around here.)

I still have a paper road atlas in my car just in case!