Venting thread that still excludes eddy (2)

[Matrix]

So my graphics card (GeForce 660 Ti) has randomly decided to die on me. Last night, I took a nap for a couple of hours or so, and then when I woke up, the resolution on my monitor was too small, making everything stretched out and blurry. Thinking my cat must have mindlessly pressed keys and/or mouse buttons while moving around my computer, I went to set the resolution to its proper value for my monitor of 1920x1080. There were only three options available, and they were all smaller than that. I currently have it set to the highest available, 1280x1024. Everything was fine before the nap. I had played Warframe and Fallout 4 without any trouble. Now it just refuses to work. In the device manager, the icon for my card has a little warning exclamation-mark-in-a-triangle icon on it. When I open the properties for it, it says 'device not migrated'. I tried reinstalling the drivers, both from the GeForce Experience manager program and manually - I even fiddled around in Safe Mode some. The manager just didn't install anything properly. After I restarted my computer after the installation, when I booted up the program, it acted like it had never installed the latest drivers at all, prompting me to install them. Trying to install them manually got me a message like 'no compatible hardware detected', as if I had no graphics card at all! Even cleaned out some dust from inside the machine, and that still did nothing.

Now I'm gonna have to buy a new graphics card, and those things are damn expensive. I'm looking at $200-300 for something that's at least a bit of an upgrade - if I'm gonna have to get a new one, might as well be a better one. But I'm not gonna have the money for that for a week or two. No video games for that time. And I only just bought Fallout 4 two days ago! Not even Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup works properly. Suppose I could get the ASCII version, but then I'd have to learn what a bunch of stupid coloured letters mean. Fuck that.

At least I still have online tabletop gaming.

[Imralu]

[...] Everything was fine before the nap. [...]

You didn't wake up. This is the nap.

[Viktor77]

I've heard this "cross cultural misunderstanding" thing many times, but having never studied in China... is that real? I can't imagine a Chinese professor worth a damn accepting plagiarised work from a student. What is the student supposed to be learning? Sounds to me like less of a cultural misunderstanding and just a lower likelihood of getting caught for whatever reason.

It also seems hard for me to believe. My department was never lighter on Chinese students either for plagiarism (though we did go lighter on all students than the university policy in that we gave a warning first and the university policy is that even just one instance of plagiarism is instantly recorded against you). Nonetheless we kept hearing about this so called "cross cultural misunderstanding" with our Chinese students.

[Nortaneous]

USPS lost an important package, as happens whenever I plan for a government service not fucking up in the stupidest way possible.

I liked living in Germany. In Germany, the public transit comes on time. Here, you go to the bus stop / metro station as soon as you can and wait for something to show up. I bet the postal service there doesn't routinely lose shit.

[Imralu]

I liked living in Germany. In Germany, the public transit comes on time. Here, you go to the bus stop / metro station as soon as you can and wait for something to show up. I bet the postal service there doesn't routinely lose shit.

No, the postal service seems to work, but couriers are fucking rubbish, as they are pretty much everywhere in my experience.

[Viktor77]

I liked living in Germany. In Germany, the public transit comes on time. Here, you go to the bus stop / metro station as soon as you can and wait for something to show up. I bet the postal service there doesn't routinely lose shit.

Don't come to Belgium. We have so many strikes here that I've lost count.

For me I am getting really fed up with what I'm hearing refugees and asylum seekers are doing here in Europe. The news tonight started with 3 consecutive stories of refuges and asylum seekers having either 1) planned some attack (this time in Berlin) or 2) having raped or sexually abused someone, this time in Ostende, Belgium. And then the third story was that now Cologne is under heightened security, having to hand out sexual abuse phone numbers and websites to people going in Carnival. And this stuff comes up on the news all the time.

Either the media is reporting on this more and it's a case of media bias or this is happening more. If the latter is true, something needs to be done because this is getting ridiculous. I'm not even European and I have no reason to care about this but for some reason I do. Also I'm someone who tries to avoid being xenophobic or judgmental but since the attacks in Paris and then everything that we lived through in Belgium (there are still soldiers everywhere) I'm beginning to think Europe really needs to either stop all these refuges and send them back, or at least implement massive assimilation programs. I don't know, it's just becoming nuts.

[jmcd]

France is already really big on assimilation.

France and Belgium are much more affected by attacks and attempted attacks than other European countries and Daesh is more popular in France than other European countries. The French institutions are unpopular with significant proportion of the population that can not be said of most European countries, including countries with larger refugee populations, such as Sweden and Germany.

And then they go and put in the state of emergency which is in practise more an excuse for the police to be more violent and get away with it and put protesters on house arrest.

[Viktor77]

France is already really big on assimilation.

France and Belgium are much more affected by attacks and attempted attacks than other European countries and Daesh is more popular in France than other European countries. The French institutions are unpopular with significant proportion of the population that can not be said of most European countries, including countries with larger refugee populations, such as Sweden and Germany.

And then they go and put in the state of emergency which is in practise more an excuse for the police to be more violent and get away with it and put protesters on house arrest.

Well it's true that we are a lot more affected by this sort of news here in Belgium and France. In Belgium especially. We're constantly told about police raids. I think I hear the words "le parquet fédéral" about 20 times a day. But now it's even touching Germany and Germany was always supposed to stand out as Europe's shining star. They found a plan to attack Berlin in Berlin. They found a plan of attack in Munich too I think and of course we all remember Cologne on New Years Eve.

And yes you are quite right that the French police can be brutal, especially towards minorities. And of course Hollande's 3 month state of emergency was something of a police-state move, but I suppose he wanted to make a very bold statement.

Plans for assimilation have come under fire in Belgium, BTW. I believe the Scandinavian countries also have pretty strong assimilation programs in addition to France, so I don't really understand why it's controversial here. Of course it's always the Nieuwe Vlaamse Alliance who propose these things and so they become immediately politically charged in Wallonia. But they are in theory, in my opinion, good ideas. They've recently proposed mandatory classes for refuges on women's rights and in some country (maybe the Netherlands?) they are providing them on LGBT rights too. I don't personally believe these refugees are made up of cruel people (though certainly there are always some bad eggs among them), but I do suspect that a large amount of the sexual abuse that is being reported is the result of major cultural and religious differences. A little education here is necessary to adapt to a Western country.

The radicalization on the other hands, well that's a completely different issue...I wouldn't even know where to start with that one. When I was in Denmark I stayed with an older couple who were very xenophobic, to the extent that they built a school to preserve Danish traditions because their local school was too "islamicized." What's funny is that these people welcomed me to Denmark with open arms. They told me I, an American, would be very welcome to immigrate there. But it wouldn't be the same story if I weren't white with European ancestry. But after hearing that couple go on, I don't want to, as the French say, tomber dans l'amalgame but I am concerned nonetheless.

[jmcd]

I would call the women's rights programmes integration rather than assimilation put maybe that's being pernickety with the words.

I suppose France is not nearly as bad on assimilation as, say, Turkey.

To be honest, Americans are more likely to influence the country; change the traditions if they move to Denmark (and even if they don't move). It's just that seem less foreign.

[Vijay]

Ugh. So I'm actually kind of a refugee from another forum where I was recently banned for two weeks. Then my ban ended. Now, you'd think it would end there until I made another infraction of the rules or something, right? But no, instead I just got a PM from one of the...quasi-admins because I'm also a moderator on that forum, and now, if I do anything even slightly wrong, they'll de-mod me.

I have half a mind to request being de-moded myself because otherwise, I fear they will do it. How else will I avoid it? I'll just have to stop posting there, I guess. (Well, sort of. Posting songs there shouldn't be a big deal. God, I hope they don't make a big deal out of posting songs there now, but with admins like that, it's almost like you never know).

[Viktor77]

Ugh. So I'm actually kind of a refugee from another forum where I was recently banned for two weeks. Then my ban ended. Now, you'd think it would end there until I made another infraction of the rules or something, right? But no, instead I just got a PM from one of the...quasi-admins because I'm also a moderator on that forum, and now, if I do anything even slightly wrong, they'll de-mod me.

I have half a mind to request being de-moded myself because otherwise, I fear they will do it. How else will I avoid it? I'll just have to stop posting there, I guess. (Well, sort of. Posting songs there shouldn't be a big deal. God, I hope they don't make a big deal out of posting songs there now, but with admins like that, it's almost like you never know).

Been there done that. I was a moderator on a very large game forum many years ago. It was a pretty big responsibility really. But then they pissed me off and so I outed secrets of theirs to get back at them, and of course I was banned. But no matter how much I waited, or even made new accounts, they always found me and re-banned me. Even after apologizing. I eventually left that forum. If you can detach yourself I recommend you do the same. Or you can make a big to do about it. Whichever you feel more comfortable with. Some people need to say their peace, some can just leave in silence.

[Vijay]

Yeah, I'm trying to detach myself from it. I needed to vent about it a little, though. Ever since I was unbanned (so...for the past three days), I've been trying to just...not post there as much as I used to (which was a lot before I was suddenly banned out of nowhere with no warning). Apparently, no one even reported me or got offended by something I said or anything. The admins are just rule nazis who ironically don't even check what's going on on the forum that often (and clearly have a poor understanding of what is. Also, I think one of them may have personal issues with me, because her partner used to be an admin, and I think I might have reported him for breaking the rules himself, I don't even remember, and then he was removed from his position lol. And I kind of called her out in a discussion once not so long ago, too).

[jmcd]

Wtf Windows 10?! Can I not change the display language without changing the keyboard language? But then you decide to change me to the last language on the list along with changing the keyboard (but not changing the display language). OK. But can't I at the very least put everything back the way it was? NO, you decide I still want my keyboard to change to the last language in my old preferences every now and then without warning. Fuck.

[Vijay]

Wow, that sure sounds frustrating! Is there any chance you can switch to Linux or something? Would you be interested in doing that?

[jmcd]

I hadn't thought about the idea and, now that you mention it, I don't know how to or what the consequences would be (e.g. would I need to redownload all my applications? will some of my applications stop working?).

At least Windows 10 is better than the 8 I bought it on and is working mostly fine and was working completely fine before I decided to mess with the language preferences.

[Vijay]

I don't think it should mess up any of your applications unless some of them are incompatible with Linux or something. But I'm no expert or anything, so may be best to get a second opinion first.

[gestaltist]

Windows apps generally don't work with Linux. Yes, there are wrappers like Wine, but given that you know nothing about Linux and just want it "to work" I would recommend against trying it.

[jmcd]

Oh I know better now. It seems to be working better now that I got rid of the last(?)* vestige of my non-uniform preferences, the Gaelic date. It's a shame though because for changing Firefox into Gaelic, the only slight hitch was finding out how to do it.

*There is still a drop-down menu of my old preferences on the start-up menu.

I know Apple well as well and I find that works a bit better. For example in this context: my last Macbook changed the language as I wanted without touching the keyboard. There is maybe a way to do it right but, until I figure it out, I'll stick to the initial all-French set-up.

[jal]

My daughter's in the last year of primary school, and needs to chose a secondary school to go to next year. Unfortunately, there's two schools she really likes, and they fucking have fucking decided to have the last possibility to visit the schools (after open days and the like), viz. a demo lessons afternoon, on the same fucking day. So the poor girl not only has to chose between two schools, but to decide what lessons afternoon to go to, which she can't, understandably. And now, to top it off, the ad-hoc (primary) school's chess team she's in has won (thanks to her sheer brilliance of getting the team to win by losing all her matches since she can't play chess very well*), and have advanced to the finals, which are, you guessed it, on that same fucking day.

*Iiuc, not everyone from a team played everyone from the other teams. Some teams had one very strong chess player and some moderates, but her team had only moderate players and a lousy one (her). She noticed the strong players were sitting at a certain table every time, and a team could chose who to send playing against an opponent. So she deliberately played (and lost) against the very strong players, who would also have defeated her team's moderate players, and had the moderate players play against other moderate or weak players, which they did very well.

Oh, and staying on the topic of my daughter: she has pretty severe (but until recently undiagnosed) ADD. She had a blind medicine trial with metylphenidate (Ritalin) of three weeks, randomly taking a placebo, 5mg or 10mg. One week showed very strong effect, the others none. However, the doctor overseeing the test claims the pharmacy has claimed that week 2 was 5mg, and week 3 10. She therefore got 5mg, which she is now using, and which obviously, doesn't work at all, as I predicted. Why can't those fucking medici not have their facts straight in important things like this??? This is like the last possibility for her to be able to study vs. flunking secondary school... Jeez...


JAL

[WeepingElf]

Switching to Linux is always a smart move. But you will need new applications. The system is entirely incompatible to Windows (must be because if it wasn't, it could hardly be better - Windows is just utter crap in all respects). There is WinE, which supports some Windows apps but others not. Fortunately, Linux distributions come with a good set of apps, and you can download more from the Net.

[Vijay]

Wow JAL, that sounds like it must really suck! I'm sorry to hear you have to go through that right now. I still hope she gets to go a secondary school she likes and does well there, though.

[jmcd]

Toolbox does not appear to have linux version. At the moment accessibility to the this application is one of my most important requirements.

JAL: Is there any of her friends who can go for her? It would obviously be a second-best but she can go to one and her friend can report on the other. She could even give her friend questions to ask or important things to look out for.

As for the chess team, I give chess lessons and, at the end of the year, there's always pupils who have clashes with something or other (most often Sunday school or baptism or birthday). Unless she starts playing in club, her absence, while missed, will not be crucial.

[Travis B.]

Under Linux you will need to get different applications, yes; while there are some Windows applications that are compatible with a compatibility layer known as Wine, by default one can assume that one will need entirely new applications.

That said, the main Windows applications that do not have equivalent counterparts under Linux are things such as games and Photoshop (which many consider Gimp to not be equivalent to). So I would not go and wipe one's Windows partition but rather create a new set of partitions (a / (i.e. root) partition, a /home partition (not required, but highly recommended*), and a swap partition), on another drive if necessary, to install a Linux distribution into.

* so that if one does not like the distribution one has installed or one wants to upgrade one's distribution, in the case of distributions that require replacing one's installation to upgrade, one can replace it with a new distribution without losing one's data or one's user configuration by just reformatting the / partition and installing the new distribution into it while not touching the /home partition

[alynnidalar]

An important note about GIMP is that it's a raster graphics editor; Photoshop is a vector graphics editor. The best-known free vector graphics editor alternative is probably Inkscape.

(I think you can do some vector stuff in GIMP, but it's not really what it's based on.)

[Travis B.]

An important note about GIMP is that it's a raster graphics editor; Photoshop is a vector graphics editor. The best-known free vector graphics editor alternative is probably Inkscape.

(I think you can do some vector stuff in GIMP, but it's not really what it's based on.)

Umm, no; Photoshop is also a raster graphic editor - Adobe's vector graphics editor is Illustrator. (Mind you that Photoshop does have support for some vaguely vectorish stuff on top of raster graphics, like support for paths, but so does GIMP IIRC.)