Survey posted 2003-07-25 23:43 by Henrik.

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Well, so far its been work for about 6 days a week totaling to a rough minimum of 32 hours a week at Wendy's of all places. Working my ass off for no apparent reason, whilst everyone else around me is hiding half the time and sitting back watching me do the majority of the work. I do not get paid enough for the crap that I have to put up with, I'll leave that at that. The "free" time I have had has ended up turning into practically slave labor for my parents, sleeping, eating and the very little chances i get to use my computer to do an essay for SUNY Stonybrook. 72 hours alloted to do it in, worked 21 of those hours, slept thru 27 of them, getting aggravated at parents because I'm being constantly interrupted while writing it for I'd say 9 hours, then submitting the paper after i get off work (they wanted me to work an extra 6 hours on the last day, would have left me with less than 2 hours to go over the essay and submit it). Hey, I needed to go on a rant somewhere that my mom isnt going to look, and its completely on topic too.

<see comment to Joe B above>

As I said before, I agree that we shouldn't use inapproperiate language on here, but then again, are primary school kids really going to be viewing this site?

POOR you. :( :( :( :( :( I could never live like that.

I've been trying to PROGRAM video games, so the closest one there was playing video games (I don't like that "other" choice).

on a totally unrelated note: no_one, I noticed you're in the top 25 busiest authors! (number 25 in fact :P) just thought I'd let you know in case you hadn't noticed

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. I just chose Other, for that. But, I have noticed, that over the summer, I haven't programmed as much as I did during the school year. I'd like to program more than I do right now. It's fun.

Wow... Busiest Author list? Some of the programs really aren't worth downloading, though. I made a lot of them when I was more of a n00b. :)

Well I have a 8:30 - 5 job on week days.
So I suppose I work about 10 hours a week....

...walking to the station is such hard work.

"Milking Goats" was not mentioned! I spend 40 minuets a day milking goats!
I do find it interesting that, so far at least, just as many people have been catching cancer rays as have been playing sports... Is it a shameful thing to play sports around here?

This is a calculator forum. Unfortunately too few people here appreciate the value of sports and fresh air. I would do more but I have to suffer work - still 6 mile round walk to get there and back.

why don't you just drive a car, or ride a bike, or hitch a ride with a friend? Or if you like walking, why do you complain about suffering from work and walking the six miles?

Drive a car - you going to send me the money?
Ride a bike, well I missed out the minor detail, work is much further than three miles away, but for the most I am on the train. It is about 1.5 mile to the station and same from station to work.
Unfortunately I am one of the few people who live in the city and commute OUT each day. there isn't any one where I live who works near to me. Also, most of my friends have dissappeared to the 12 corners of Britain - student, summer work...

I enjoy walking, no complaints about that what so ever. Like I say, it is the only exercise I get at the moment.
My problem with work is that I can't get any exercise done whilst I am there, apart from mental. Also, leaving for work at 7:00 and getting in from work at 19:00, really doesn't leave much time for anything else. Bar maybe playing bridge on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the pub.

I've been doing sports like crazy. Gym three times a week, and beach volley almost every day. And also some badminton and tennis in between. I worked for six week at Mirka (www.mirka.com) as marketing assistant. After that, it was all sports. I've actually written a few lines of code this summer also =).

Other activity being, siting in my house all summer.

-W-

where i live (northern ohio) we have been rowing down the streets. thats what my summer has been like.

How much rain have you gotten?

What about PROGRAMMING? :)

That's why I voted "other activity" :)

Actually, does "camping" refer to outdoor camping with a tent in the middle of nowhere, or does it include a school-related camp?

I would be programming, but my mom deleted CRULE, and tigcc. after all the time I put into CRUEL, I am too saddened to code anytime soon.

-W-

Not fun. Most of us know what it's like to lose their work. Fortunately, MY mom doesn't have a clue when it comes to computers. If Windows decides to screw up, my mom always calls ME.

That's one good thing about programming... there's a lot of privacy. Most parents don't have a clue. :) (Or, at least, mine don't)

Well it's a good thing she doesn't call Windows ME, that creates more problems than anyone can solve.

i was thinking the same thing..

So was I... I was going to make a cheap joke about it, but I decided not to.

yeah same here, and just in case my parents do decide to touch my stuff they can't because I know I little trick (windows bug) to hide stuff. This only works with win95 - winME.

In MS-DOS or MS-DOS prompt rename a file or folder with the character alt-255 (by holding alt and typing 255 and let go of alt) in it (usually at the end for convience). This character is reconized in DOS as a space while in Windows it's a underscore or visa-versa *whatever. Anyways that makes windows unable to touch the file or folder. And when you need it again just rename it back without the alt-255 character. Great for encrypting files or folders, unless the person you're hiding stuff from know this little secret.

or you can right click on the file(s)/folder(s) and click the "hidden" check box. Just make sure that under "folder options" (in tools or view in the file menu of the current folder) that the box is not checked to show hidden files or folders. Simpler and easier.

My computer still shows hidden files- oh... duh. Had to read your message twice :)

I still like being able to see hidden files/folders. But for the sake of hiding something, that's a great idea.

Alt 255 in DOS is a space, Alt 255 in Windows is a y with two dots over it- I think. I'm gonna check... oh wait, that's alt 0255. Never mind :)

It really make the file untouchable? Like, you can't open it? I HAVE to try this.

VERY cool.

Or, just call the file \ . Oops. I forgot my OS is more fun than yours. Names can be any printable character. And, also made so only you can see them. (Lets ignore root for now, as only you know root....)


touch C\:\\\>
will create the groovy file C:\> just to confuse people.

Same with me about my parents. My mom wouldn't know how to find my folder, and my dad wouldn't know where I keep all my programs (My personal folder is >1.5 GB-you can go down ~5 levels of folders without getting to anything. All my calculator programs are buried in its depths.)

Same here. When my mom needs computer help, she comes to me.

Also, I save my calc projects and downloaded programs on floppy disks, which I know my mom doesn't touch.

I've had too many floppy disks go bad on me to do that. I've tried the alt-255 trick and it works REALLY well.

I hate floppy disks, I also have nothing to hide. All my data is extremely organized in a logical format of highly nested folders.

Highly nested folders? That sounds like my personal folder! See the comment a few rows above by me.

I know what you mean. I have close to a 100 or more folders to organize just the pictures I've taken with my new camera, which is just over a year old.

LOL... I have highly nested folders. I think the highest string of folders that I have is about 10. I have a LOT of random stuff on my harddrive. (No, I don't d/l p0rn)

The same thing happened to me when I lost my TI-89. Suddenly, I stopped programming. (For a very long time, too)

I'm trying to get back into a habit of programming a couple hours each day, like I used to.

Ahh, here comes the painful lesson of backing up any valuable work.

Spent all easter once doing my chemistry coursework. at the end I saved it to the disk (using an Atari STE).
Unfortunately there was a little know bug with some of the chips in that they wrote random FATs to the disks - wiping them.

Needless to say, I was not ammused - in the slightest. There is no quater with coursework - it is done on time or you don't get the marks.

Lesson one - back up regularly.
Lesson two - Check that your back-ups work
Lesson three - don't trust a computer. They are rather stupid things.

My computer isn't stupid! *cry*
LOL

I should have backed my stuff up. I kept putting it off until it was too late.

Don't take this as an insult, its a non-personal comment. A computer is only as stupid as the person using it. The only exceptions are those people who have 95, ME, and XP (which I hate with a passion), and except if you choose to continue using these OSs if you can afford to get a new one. A computer is told to do stuff initiated via human imput (most cases), so if the computer is [acting] stupid, then the user is stupid.

What I meant was based on the age old belief that computers can think! Which we all know here that they can't. All they do is compare numbers and add them (well modern chips actually do much more, but still...).

But if you remember a computer is stupid, and you very carefully patronise it, it generally won't go wrong. Normally.

I or we as in comp geeks/nerds (whats the differentce?), also used to believe that computers thought when we were younger. I knew what you were saying but sometimes I just have to poke at peoples, sometimes voluntary, ignorance. BTW since when does a Windows computer ever work "normally," thats what invented tech support :)

Watch it Mr. O'Brien, the "what's the difference" statement will get you yelled at for quite sometime.

-W-

Thanks for the warning. I was actually asking the question, not saying that they are the same thing. Honestly I have never herd a definition of both so I have no way to distinguish them. Can someone NICELY inform me of the difference?

The only thing that I have heard is that supposidly (sp) geek is one higher than nerd is.
Though one time I heard a prep and a geek arguing about it and the geek said nerd was the insult because it was the dorkier of the two. While the prep said it was geek because dork and geek both end in dork.

-Though, I really don't know what the difference is, I am W-

Anyone else? I've also had mixed definitions. IDEA! here is what one of my dictionaries says,

"geek: 1. a person who is socially inept or tediously conventional 2. a carnival preformer who bites the heads off live chickens in preformance"

"nerd: 1. a foolish, feeble, or uninteresting person. 2. a person academically or intellectually talented but socially unskilled."

If you don't believe me check your own dictionaries, they have similar definitions.

LOL- I had always heard it as
Nerd- Person w/ no social skills
Geek- Somebody who is obsessively good at something (usually computers)

*checks dictionary.com*
http://dictionary. reference.com/search?q=geek
http://dictionary. reference.com/search?q=nerd
(remove spaces)
Wow- the definitions are very similar... hey, you can see the history of the words by going to the above links (or searching yourself). That's interesting.

I've used the words interchangeably for the most part.

With the more modern deffinition they can be used interchangably. I was laughing my head off when I found out what a geek used to be.

In that case, I'm both. :)

When I read that, I laughed so hard that my mom asked what I had seen that was funny.

Finally someone actually read the "bitting heads" part! I couldn't believe it when I first read it either.

That's not a geek. That's a Ozzy Ozbourne wannbe......
Disturbed!

LOL! Hopefully we're not that disturbed to bite off the heads of chickens!

BTW since when does a Windows computer ever work "normally," thats what invented tech support :)

When it is not turned on...

And that is why I use Linux.


I used to believe the computer cheated at games.
I have grown much older and wiser now after many years of being shouted at by my mum for being a bad loser.
We have now learnt it is the software that cheats - not the computer. Serious!

Nice one. I always hated when the computer AI kicked my butt, especially when I'm not that far from kicking its. Have you ever seen the TV show called ReBoot. It was awsome. It was a personified computer and most of the time games were played against the comp and the people of the comp (the AI) had to win or they would be deleted, IIRC. What made the show better was that is was completly CG and very good for its day.

Isn't that the show where everytime a new game came in, a voice said "Incoming program", or something like that? I remember that show!

Yes it is my friend. The programs were always represented as giant black cubes with a morphing lightning texture on it. If someone was under the cube when it landed, they got deleted. It was like Windows attacking the hardware of your computer...I can actually believe that statement ;)

LOL-the only good versions of Windows are 98 and 2000.

Your forgetting 3.1 and 3.11. They were kind of primative but they worked perfectly.

2k and the 3.X series were stable, Yes. But, they all have an awful UI.

I've never used 2000 before but I hear it is a heck of a lot more secure than XP.

That isn't hard. XP is greatly over-rated.

You're right about Win 95 and ME-they're VERY unstable. At least Windows 2000 is good.

You're also right about the "the computer is as stupid as the person using it". Various family members of mine (except my dad) have had problems with a computer just because they did something incorrectly.

I OBJECT.
Windows 95 would crash about once per day. On the other hand, Windows ME crashes up to 36 times per day. (I have both)

ME does crash more frequently than 95 but they both crash wayy too often. I get a 4:1 ratio of crashes (ME vs 95)

Once, to test memory usage or something like that in the system monitor, (this is with Windows ME) I was quickly left-clicking and right-clicking on the desktop and it FROZE!!!! I had to cut the power manually!!!!

Also, my computer running WinME has a "sleep" mode. About a third of the time that I try to "put it to sleep", it'll go into standby and then immediately "wake up" again!!! Sometimes I have to press the button multiple times, or sometimes it just refuses to "sleep". It will also "wake up" at random times and drive me crazy with the sound of the hard drive and cooling fan.

I HATE WINDOWS ME!!!!!! IT FREEZES AT BOOT, IT FREEZES AT SHUTDOWN, IT FREEZES WHEN IT DARN FEELS LIKE IT!!!!!! IF COMPATIBILITY WASN'T AN ISSUE, I'D GET A MAC. At least I have a computer with Windows 2000 Professional-the a good and stable version of windows.

An operating system should NEVER crash.

The only excuse for an OS to crash is that a bad driver has been given run of the system (should only take out what it is driving though).
A critical config file has been badly edited - nearly all systems tell you if this file is the dangerous one.
Hardware failure. - Nothing can avoid these rare little gems.
Running code for a diferent platform - ie 80686 code on a 80586. Needless to say, that is entirely the users fault for running it. Ooops. Well it was worth a try, some of it works.

So once a day is about 7 times a week too often.

Welcome to Windows! I had too many problems with XP untill I put 512MB more RAM into it with 128MB already in their. I hardly have any problems now. I just prefer the non-Fisher Price look, aka 98 style and I have all but two or three of those visuall effects turned off for better preformance. I laughed my head off went I went to go turn the stuff off and I say the option "Let Windows decide whats best for my system," or whatever it says. I clicked it and it turned it all on. Its insane! Windows/MS prefers to keep its users flat out ignorant while Appple encourages knowledge. THats one more reason why I am getting a Mac BTW. Oh, did I mention the security holes they never fix...kind of reminds me why someone here said TI made the Calcs FLASH compatible - to fix thier own mistakes. Have I ranted enough? If not I'll continue tomorrow. C'mon I want to join in on an Apple vs. Microsoft (Mac vs. PC) battle.

Yeah, winXP is really ugly.

Thats why it has been nick-named to Fisher Price for Windows. I highly prefer the 98/2000 look, it also gets in the way less.

Please, I am not having a go. It is a modern misunderstanding.
A Mac, if you have it at home IS a PC. Even an Atari is. A PC is any computer for personal use.

The only reason people forget that difference, is from a few years ago where the only Macs out there were used in industry, and therefore M$ on the x86 adopted the name a bit more.
Incidently Linux on any machine, if for own use is also a PC - something else I noticed some one get wrong recently.

And, we all know a Mac running Linux, is way better than an IBM compatible running Linux.
And, an IBM compatible running Linux is infinitely more preferable than anything running Windwoes.

- Why am I still calling them IBM compatibles? Have only just noticed that's what I typed. Oh well.

I know your point, but the definition of a PC has changed over the years. Yes, any notebook or desktop that is primarily has a personal use is a PC (Personal Computer). I've usually prefered that Windows specific computers be called PC because it make the difinition a whole lot less vauge. Its a generalization that, I think, is getting narrowed.

If you want to talk about Macs vs. PCs, I can tell you that if the PC had Windows 2000 or Windows 98 as its OS, both sides would have good chances-the winner would be a matter of personal preference. If the PC was running Windows 95 or ME, it would crash before there was any time for a contest, and if it was running XP, any kind of judge would have fainted on the floor from its HORRIBLY UGLY GUI, and the Mac would win.

Have you ever tried to really use 2K. I mean really get into it. The UI is terrible. Macs would still win (based on OS X), also you never said what OS was on the Mac, shove Linux on it and you can have what you want to work with.
98 Has serious security issues as well, and dislikes mixes of old and new hardware - it gets confused.

And it's funny... my Win98 OS doesn't crash, unless I do something stupid. And as stupid as I am, I don't like the bsod, so I try to avoid doing things that could cause that (I will NOT mess with my digital camera through the USB port anymore). It only crashes about once every one or two months, which, I think is very good. I hear so many people complaining about how unstable their 98 machine is... none of that stuff ever happens to me.

Win98 USB Me. Three things that have never worked together. Ever.

Also, a computer is stupid as the person who invented the stupid windows software it runs (ie Bill Gates...)

You say back up, but I had no reason to think that my mom would go and delete it. There was no way for me to know.

-W-

That REALLY 5uxx0rz. I'd be programming-depressed too.

Not the point.
Always back up your work.