Technology frustrations
#1
Something that's been bugging me for a long time, the computer age is great, keep in contact with the world, get thousands of answers for any question within seconds, find your way around instantly, but there's a cost to all this. Does anyone feel like venting their frustrations, irritations or general grips about today's technology that could raise your stress levels into the danger zone?

Why am I asking, well, I just turned on my laptop that's been off for a week or so, and when I tried to log onto Big Blue, I was interrupted with a message, "your subscription has expired", (to what, I haven't a clue), followed by "your virus definitions are out of date", then, "your virus app needs to be updated". Ten minutes later, I'm still not logged on, and, "Avast needs to restart your computer". There are times when I've tried to say, read my email, and I get these pop-up windows advising me that their updates are far more important than what I want to do. "We are going to restart your computer in 3-2-1...bingo and I have to wait while yet another app and Windows does it updating. Icon_redface Icon_redface
And yes, my laptop is still updating Windows 10 now so I'm back on my desktop.

That's my current grip with computers, what's yours????
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
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#2
Excellent topic idea, Don

My gripe is a little different. Walmart is pushing technology hard to get us to check ourselves out. Example - this morning there was one checkout open and 6 people - myself included - waiting for our turn. Walmart is trying to push everyone to the self checkout because it's cheaper for them. Interestingly enough the people in line were mostly older people who either expect a bare minimum level of service or don't or don't want to understand how the self checkout works. My solution - left the cart sitting there in the aisle and went to a grocery store. I will have to go back for a couple of items that the grocery store didn't carry. My theory is that Walmart's next cost saving move is to let us stock the shelves ourselves! End of rant.

Tom
Life is simple - Eat, Drink, Play with trains

Occupation: Professional Old Guy (The government pays me to be old.)
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#3
I have been using computers for years. The computers are swell, it is the programmers that write programs that are designed to make you think they are needed. 
I used to use Avast and AVG free but was offered free Norton by comcast for all my computers. Never could get it to work on this lap top.  I just got a notice that the free Norton was going away so now they want me to buy it.  I did a lot of research and what I have found is the windows defender is rated the best and it is free.  
My real gripe is search engines that won't search on my terms.  I was just searching for an old OB for a woman named Wilda. There must not be a word Wilda in the computers vocabulary because all I got was results for "Wanda" 
Searching for things in a store inventory is even worse. Search for a 3/4" black pipe elbow and you might get 2,000 listings starting with 3 " black PVC pipe 10 foot and ending with 4 foot awning, black and somewhere in the results are your item, so I just go to ebay because at least they really want you to buy something and try to keep the merchandise related somewhat to your search.

As for self check out I just tell the helper that is there that I don't get a paycheck from the store so please check me out.  No helper, I would leave, but I have never ran into that situation. I use the new curbside pickups as much as possible. Home Depot and Tractor supply are really fast at filling the order and getting the order ready fast. Walmart needs to go back to the days when Sam was living and demanded the customer was treated like they should be.

The phrase for ineptness is now "Due to Covid we  xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx "  and the real text instead of the gibberish should read Due to Covid we really don't have to care about customer service. I feel rudeness is running rampant using the virus as an excuse. 

Hopefully things will improve 
Charlie
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#4
Certainly on topic Tom and Charlie. And regarding stores, just about anything I buy now days, they want an Internet survey or rating of the product.  By the time I get home, I have an email from Harbor Freight waiting, that not only asks me to rate the item, but to send them photos of how I'm using it. I haven't even got the @#$!%& item out of the box yet, and I'm asked to send them photos. "I love the new hammer I bought, especially since the color of the handle matches my drum sander. Here's a photo of me striking my thumb with that very same hammer. I give it five stars for functionality, one star for ease of use". Eek
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
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#5
(12-17-2020, 10:31 AM)ezdays Wrote: Certainly on topic Tom and Charlie. And regarding stores, just about anything I buy now days, they want an Internet survey or rating of the product.  By the time I get home, I have an email from Harbor Freight waiting, that not only asks me to rate the item, but to send them photos of how I'm using it. I haven't even got the @#$!%& item out of the box yet, and I'm asked to send them photos. "I love the new hammer I bought, especially since the color of the handle matches my drum sander. Here's a photo of me striking my thumb with that very same hammer. I give it five stars for functionality, one star for ease of use". Eek

That post got me chuckling very hard.  I used to fill out those surveys and I do rely on the results to a point but usually the one star rants you can easily tell instructions were not followed.  Same with ebay. try to give a bad seller an honest bad rating and they expect you the buyer to suck up to him so he will make it right.  When buying model railroad locomotives the key thing to watch for is: I have no way to test this. that means there is no way in hell it will run. 
I bought a really nice looking Mantua PRR E6 last year. said it had dcc and lights lit but would not run. I never saw a more botched job installing a decoder, but the price was right and with a new motor and decoder it makes a nice little locomotive.  I have got some real buys from honest people that did not know how to do a reset. 

My son for the most part still goes face to face with the drive through bank teller. he has no internet, he has dad. He used my email address on his bank account and now and again they send him a survey and ask how his experience was. for a while I gave them a good rating because they are good folks, but it just got monotonous especially when they want you to write an essay telling them why you gave them that rating.  I don't write essays anymore. I even thought about answering the one question "Why did you visit us today" with "to commit a robbery. 

That reminds me of an off topic here but it is short. Many years ago my wife worked in a convenience store and if they opened the register for a no sale they had to write on the slip why.  She started to write "robbery" on the back.  Several months later the store manager discovered one of these slips and was alarmed. It took that long for her to pay attention, and the head office that got them never did catch on.  
Charlie
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#6
Charlie!!  You win "Best Post" of the day Smile  Smile

Lots of the same things going on here day-to-day.
I'm not employed by (whomever) so I don't care to check myself out.
Windows Defender is the same, if not better than Norton, so Comcast led us on saying we were getting a quality product for free.  I think they wanted us "to think" we were getting something more for our "Too High" bills?

I receive materials most every day and now more than ever "Quality Control" doesn't exist!  We actually had 3 refrigerators delivered weeks apart (over the Summer) brand new from the factory.....with NO Freon in them!  I called and said, "I'm guessing these were Not tested.....   They never admitted fair or foul, but they did replace all 3 at no charge and took away the bad ones....

So, yes, i agree with you  Smile  Smile Big Grin  Big Grin  Smile  Smile
~~ Mikey KB3VBR (Admin)
~~ NARA Member # 75    
~~ Baldwin Eddystone Unofficial Website

~~ I wonder what that would look like in 1:20.3???
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#7
My biggest gripe is with Windows 10. They have automated everything to "Plug N Play".. (Plug-N-Pray).
While doing this they took away or hid really well the manual settings. So if you have trouble connecting a printer to the computer's programs or Apps as they are now called, you really have to go out of your way to find the correct setting to turn off or on.

MS is hiding behind the so called general knowledge that YouTube has a video for almost everything Sad Sad Sad

Sigh........
~~ Mikey KB3VBR (Admin)
~~ NARA Member # 75    
~~ Baldwin Eddystone Unofficial Website

~~ I wonder what that would look like in 1:20.3???
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#8
Speaking of relying on the star rating for anything, kind of do so at your own risk, five stars or one star. I was looking at the star rating of a truck stop restaurant where we get off the freeway to go shooting. Most were good ratings, "food is good", "service is great", "place is clean", but a one star rating caught my eye. This yoho was complaining because, "Jack didn't come out quick enough to  look at my oil leak".....What the heck does that have to do with anything at the restaurant? Who knows, maybe Jack was also cooking that day/ Icon_lol Icon_lol 

One more word about surveys. Just about every doctor or medical group now asks for one with basically the same questions. I had a CAT scan a few weeks ago and filled out their survey. One question was, "would you recommend our facility to anyone? I checked, "not likely". I got a call asking me if I had a problem during my visit being the reason I would not recommend them. I told her that everything was fine, it just  wasn't my place to refer anyone for medical services, that's always been a doctor's job. I can see it now, "hey Charlie, are you in the market for a CAT scan or an ultrasound? I know the neatest place, they have real comfy chairs in their waiting room, a TV tuned to the DIY channel, and magazines that are less than three years old... Come on folks, get real, you have my email address to remind me of appointments, not to harass me with your stupid surveys. At least I know now that someone reads the answers.
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
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#9
When I get a survey that asks about referring someone, I fill in "I can't recommend any place that asks me to fill in a survey."

My wife insists on self-checkout if available due to CoVid concerns.

I have some $20 bills in my wallet since March.

And I hate when I shut down the computer and all the options have "Update" in them. I have to do it all as my wife would not cope in the moring.
David
Moderato ma non troppo
Perth & Exeter Railway Company
Esquesing & Chinguacousy Radial Railway
In model railroading, there are between six and two hundred ways of performing a given task.
Most modellers can get two of them to work.
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#10
My biggest gripe with windows 10 is the networking. It doesn't work 99% of the time. All I had to do was an an XP computer to my network and it was there. MS says its because they made it more secure. 

Charlie
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#11
"Jack didn't come out quick enough to look at my oil leak".....What the heck does that have to do with anything at the restaurant? Who knows, maybe Jack was also cooking that day"

And now you know what Jack uses in place of real cooking oil! Big Grin
Mike

Sent from my pocket calculator using two tin cans and a string
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#12
(12-18-2020, 07:30 AM)Tyson Rayles Wrote: "Jack didn't come out quick enough to  look at my oil leak".....What the heck does that have to do with anything at the restaurant? Who knows, maybe Jack was also cooking that day"

And now you know what Jack uses in place of real cooking oil!  Big Grin

Remember that old nursery rhyme, "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jumped over the candlestick"? 2285_ This Jack didn't seem to know about that "quick" thing, and that truck driver did notice....
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
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#13
For me it is cell phones. You stop at an intersection and you have a car in front of you. You are going to make a left turn and are waiting for the green arrow- light changes-car in front of you does not move, the person driving is texting, looking at some thing, if you don’t sound your horn you will miss the light-sound the horn and the driver flips you off and gives you a dirty look. I say park it if you want to talk-text. Other wise DRIVE.
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#14
(12-19-2020, 12:17 PM)woodone Wrote: For me it is cell phones. You stop at an intersection and you have a car in front of you. You are going to make a left turn and are waiting for the green arrow- light changes-car in front of you does not move, the person driving is texting, looking at some thing, if you don’t sound your horn you will miss the light-sound the horn and the driver flips you off and gives you a dirty look. I say park it if you want to talk-text. Other wise DRIVE.

How about when they shift over to the fast lane and still don't pay attention, going about half the speed limit and drifting side to side. In less than two weeks, it will be illegal to use a hand-held phone while driving anywhere in Arizona, but that won't stop these folks. Nope

While we're talking cell phones, my grip is that by the time I actually do what is required to answer a call, they've hung up, or it's gone to vice mail. BUT, my biggest grip for any phone, cell or landline, is with the phone companies that they still allow scammers and spammers to spoof a number in hopes that you'll pick up. I'm sure they have the technology to force the caller's actual number to show, but I think they're waiting to get sued for mega-millions before they do something.
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
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#15
I never activated Voice mail just to tick off the spammers! The phone will show the number of any calls I missed and that way I can return those that I want without having to clear out a zillion voice mails.
Mike

Sent from my pocket calculator using two tin cans and a string
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