Forgot your password?

typodupeerror
User Journal

Journal: nosupportlinuxhosting fail

Journal by drinkypoo

I decided to try out nosupportlinuxhosting but they appear to have suspended hyperlogos.org without notice or explanation. I sure hope I don't have to issue a chargeback, that would be stupid. I'm already waiting for Amazon to process two returns that have been sitting around at their facilities for weeks.

User Journal

Journal: This website has gone to shit 1

Journal by drinkypoo

I'm not talking about the content, that has always been shit
I'm talking about what happens when I try to modify my relationships.

OK

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, admin@slashdot.org and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
Apache/2.2.3 (CentOS) Server at slashdot.org Port 80

Of course I reported the error. Of course I never heard back. Now I'm seeing it again.
Slashdot is basically unusable without friends/foes lists.

User Journal

Journal: Users opt in, but they don't opt out

Journal by drinkypoo

Google will tell you that their collection of "anonymous" location statistics is opt-in. That is, technically, true. However, on Gingerbread it is not opt-out. Once turned on, there is no option to disable it, that was added later. That, or I have forgotten all I once knew about google-fu. I can find how to change your mind about this on ICS, but not on GB.

User Journal

Journal: Keep it coming, mod trolls 4

Journal by drinkypoo

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3436185&cid=42803807
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3436175&cid=42803841
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3430839&cid=42803897
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3436185&cid=42804399

I can afford it.

User Journal

Journal: I'm sorry, did I break your concentration? 2

Journal by drinkypoo

Modtrolls troll mod. Film at eleven.

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3428941&cid=42771455
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3428941&cid=42771437
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3426877&cid=42770781
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3427061&cid=42770777
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3427083&cid=42770769

Pretty sure this time I offended an iFanboi.

Too bad you can't tag things "slashdot"

User Journal

Journal: Bring it on, bitches 6

Journal by drinkypoo

Every time I get a modtroll I get validation. Here are the five comments in question, all downmodded in a row by someone too lazy to even spread out their punitive moderation.

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3411745&cid=42715053
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3412111&cid=42714885
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3412141&cid=42714871
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3412263&cid=42714843
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3412263&cid=42714801

User Journal

Journal: Aaron Swartz and I 1

Journal by squiggleslash

I still remember the day that I nearly met Aaron Swartz. I was at a hackers convention in my bedroom, and as I stared at my computer screen, I started writing a journal entry about some political thing or other. I forget which. But anyway, if Aaron had happened to be in my house at the same time on that day, which he wasn't, but if he had, and I'd gone down to the kitchen to get some orange juice, I think it's highly likely we'd have met.

I like to think that Aaron would have read my journal entry and said "Well said, I agree entirely with what you just wrote." And in that regards, I feel like the two of us ultimately were fighting the same war for a greater good. True, Aaron was liberating locked down academic information that should have been available to everyone, and I was probably complaining about the lack of universal healthcare, or criticising the latest version of Ubuntu, but in the sense that we were both "out there", saying what we believed in and fighting for what we believed in, and I'm sure Aaron would have agreed with me, I think we were on the same team.

RIP Aaron Swartz.

(c) All IT commentators and pundits

Social Networks

Journal: Internet Bravery 5

Journal by drinkypoo

I should very much like to demand satisfaction from people who are badly in need of correction. Namely, those who use insults against me in lieu of argument. (I am not above answering insult with insult, of course.) When are we going to get internet VR boxing, so that I can realistically challenge some random dipshit who talks a lot of shit to a boxing match and announce his cowardice should he decline?

User Journal

Journal: Foes

Journal by MyLongNickName

I just got foe'd by someone named 'ScienceFail'. Found it quite curious as I haven't posted anything even remotely close to controversial in quite a while and this guy has zero posts. My best guess is he is an alternate account for someone. I wish there were some mechanism for letting someone know why you foe'd them (or friended them). Just curious.

User Journal

Journal: Why I pirate

Journal by SmallFurryCreature
On 9 October 2012, the game XCOM: Enemy launched... launched in the US. Unknown to me, the EU launch date was to several days layer, 12 October 2012. Maybe. Yet, 9 October 2012, I received an SMS from Gamemania.nl a dutch gaming retailer chain, that my copy was ready to be picked up. So I left work early that day to arrive 17:54 in front of the store. Doors pulled almost shut, store had already closed and refused to serve me. Very well, I thought there are other stores in the world, so I bought it the next day at Free Record Shop in Amsterdam. Then when I came home, I tried to install. First I had to install steam, which crashed, crashed and crashed some more but finally I got it working and had to create an account. Then activate my email. Then I installed the game and was told it was not released. What? If the game was not released, what was I holding in my hand? Note the error message mentioned nothing about a region or what would be the release date. Just not released. By google came to my aid and I found that throughout Europe, the game was available for sale but not yet ready for install. I read this from angry users posts. Not a single forum had an official answer yet. Not yet and counting. Even the official release date was less then clear. But I know my Internet, if Steam, Dutch retailing, 2kgames/firaxis couldn't/wouldn't help me, maybe some pirates would? thepiratebay itself is of course famously blocked in holland but there plenty of mirrors around. So I checked and yes, full downloads were available in various flavours for a total cost of ZERO bucks! And if you had issues, then the supplies answered your question in minutes. Not like the hours, days and counting before getting a reply from people I had payed money too. Many a reply to a piracy story has had comments similar to my story, so what is so special about it? Nothing. Just that after years of downloading, I have with MMO's gotten used again to paying and I didn't have any issue with paying for this game, if it had worked. But I do have an issue with paying 50 euro's for a game that can't be played and that now that I have read the forums I have seen is filled with bugs. Bugs the official forums have no answers for but that are fixed on piracy forums. To repeat myself, for this game the people that wanted me to pay did:
  • Act as if my giving them money is a favor they are doing me and only when they feel like it, opening hours be damned.
  • Not reply in a timely manner (or at all) to complaints
  • Treat Europeans as second rate customers for no reason (what are they afraid of, that a world-wide release will overload the servers)
  • Break consumer laws by selling a product not fit for its purpose (a game that can't even be installed is obviously not a fit product)

Meanwhile, the pirates offer:

  • Early access
  • No charge
  • Free, fast useful support by computer experts.
  • Service available any day of the week at any hour.

Sometimes the anti-piracy people complain the content industry can't compete with free. But come ON! I had PAYED already and the companies just said "no". Meanwhile the group that doesn't want money, said "yes". This is like paying a hooker to have an headache while your wife is stuffing your wallet full of money and begging for sex. Something ain't right!

And this is why I pirate. Because how else can I send the signal that I am not a sheep who will just keep turning the other cheek? Sure, there are sheep who advocate just that, just wait 3 days, it is not the developers fault etc etc. FUCK THAT! Nothing is every anybodies fault and I as a consumer should just take it all and keep quiet.

NO! And that is my reason why I post about being a pirate. Because just downloading alone isn't enough. Consumer boycotts don't work, there are to many sheep drowning out the silent protest of people like me who just see no other option but to not pay to make it clear I expect more service for my cash.

Because I see no other option. Mails go unanwered, forum posts get ignored, I can get my money back from the store and the sales clerk don't care, not his problem. How can I HURT that manager who thought it was a good idea to do a staggered release, hurt that Steam admin who didn't just flip a switch to prevent customers getting angry. How can I even get the companies involved to acknowledge my existence?

I can't. But I can keep my money in my pocket. That doesn't solve anything but it is a lot more fun having impotent nerd rage with cash then without.

Anyone want a beer over the backs of game developers who haven't learned that if they want an income, they need to tell their managers to not upset their customers?

Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them. - Oscar Wilde

Working...