Pet Peeves

[Dobblesworth]

Pet Peeve: People who start up a forum account somewhere to do hit-and-run, drive-by posting. This combines:

a) Registering here, posting in an XKCD individual comic thread that they like the episode, have read xkcd for however-many weeks, then depart. Most of the time it seems, they set that up for one iteration, then make a new one 6 months later.

b) Asking a fundemental/basic question in one forum, such as "Gee Willikers d00dz math is t3h lollerskates, why shud I bova keke?" These sometimes disguise true intentions, not trolling, and even when 30 members respond with insight, they never utter a word in reponse. No thank you, no recognition of the 5 mins spent typing it up, just assumed departure or reversion to lurking.

c) General trolling of course:
"ell-oh-ell u nerdz waste ur lives on internet, not in real wurld like MySpaz u all gays haha rolf"

d) Of course adbots are pathetic, but so are morons with their topic creation somewhere saying "Here is my blogspot website, come see my whole 1 post I wrote today that has no intellectual input whatsoever." Even worse when they post naught but a link with limited details in the topic title.

Edit: Anti- Pet Peeve: Winning the first post on a new page.

[enk]

When people say "nuff said" instead of just shutting up when they've said nuff.

[The Hyphenator]

My new pet peeve: people on the internet putting "just kidding" after things that are clearly not true. I just saw someone do this in the Large Hadron (hardon hur hur) Collider comic thread, and spent a few moments clenching my fists in agony.

[hurrr]

Relatives I've not heard of for years calling me and asking how to set up their new TV/digibox/computer/toaster.

[enk]

Relatives I've not heard of for years calling me and asking how to set up their new TV/digibox/computer/toaster.

Just tell them to always read the man page.

[xulaus]

That I was. I'm tempted to add IE6 to my list, but who in their right mind other than my employer uses that?

Be grateful, my school still runs IE 5.5.



Pet peeve: not upgrading software for 8 years.

[ash.gti]

That I was. I'm tempted to add IE6 to my list, but who in their right mind other than my employer uses that?

Be grateful, my school still runs IE 5.5.



Pet peeve: not upgrading software for 8 years.

I am sorry... That hurts just thinking about it...

That's my biggest pet peeve too. I hate when people don't upgrade. Its pretty silly to not keep your software up to date.

[xulaus]

Its pretty silly to not keep your software up to date.

I could understand it if they didn't want to upgrade to the most recent version for stability reasons, IE does have a tendency for system crippling bugs. But not upgrading for that length of time is just cruel.

[Xanthir]

The internet... doesn't work on IE5.5. I mean, it had only the most rudimentary CSS support, and it was buggy as hell. It's javascript engine is several versions old, and probably has a few places where *only* the MS-proprietary version of something is available, which nobody uses anymore since everyone implements the standards.

[photosinensis]

Pet peeve: hardware complaining about overclocking errors when it isn't overclocked. I've got a box on my desk right now that I've got to screw around with and figure out why it started doing that exact shit.

Pet peeve: underdocumented/undocumented hardware. This goes without saying.

[markfiend]

That I was. I'm tempted to add IE6 to my list, but who in their right mind other than my employer uses that?

Be grateful, my school still runs IE 5.5.



Pet peeve: not upgrading software for 8 years.

Be afraid.

[xulaus]

Yay! IE 5 is only 0.5 % of the market! (without correcting for the fact that W3schools is a technical website).

I'm not quite sure why I should be afraid that it is almost extinct.

[markfiend]

Yay! IE 5 is only 0.5 % of the market! (without correcting for the fact that W3schools is a technical website).

I'm not quite sure why I should be afraid that it is almost extinct.

Afraid that it's not extinct, is what I meant.

*Edit: and that people are actually browsing to what (as you point out) is a technical website with it.

[Xanthir]

Wow, that chart is *way* off of the greater internet's trends.

All the evidence I've seen on more 'casual' (including my company's) sites indicates FF being somewhere around 15% of the market, IE6 sitting at around 35%, IE7 around 45%, Safari with 3%, Opera with roughly 1%, and everything else fighting over the remaining 1%.

[ash.gti]

From the W3 Browser statistic page:

(The statistics above are extracted from W3Schools' log-files, but we are also monitoring other sources around the Internet to assure the quality of these figures).

It all depends on your audience.

Some websites, like 37 Signals (which recently announced they are dropping support for IE6 from all the 37 Signals websites) report having between 40-60% (40 being the Base Camp, 60 being Backpack) FF and even as much as 17% of users using Safari.

For one of the websites my company recently launched, its only been active for about 4 months, Its showing 13.96% Safari, 26.68% FF, 53.43% IE (IE7 is 64.17% and IE6 35.83% of that total). So, it all really depends on your audience and the site your using.

I'd be curious to see the browser statistics for XKCD , I know I only check the forums with Safari (its my preferred web browser for many reason).

*Edit*
The increased number of safari visits is probably due to the fact my office only has Mac's and Linux computers, and our client's primary OS is OS X. I know the developers at 37 Signals also use Macs, they talk about it a lot in their blogs.

[pyroman]

That I was. I'm tempted to add IE6 to my list, but who in their right mind other than my employer uses that?

Be grateful, my school still runs IE 5.5.



Pet peeve: not upgrading software for 8 years.

I am sorry... That hurts just thinking about it...

That's my biggest pet peeve too. I hate when people don't upgrade. Its pretty silly to not keep your software up to date.

while in general i would agree there are some reasons not to upgrade. for example on my windows box i am using version 5.3 of aim as i like it better than the new ones which have all this other crap in it that i don't want plus the newer versions don't work with dead aim.

as for pet peeves i believe its been said already but i hate it when people are stupid. Let me clarify this so i don't come off wrong. If you don't know how to do something that does not make you stupid. It makes you ignorant. However if you don't attempt to rectify this then you pass from the real of ignorance into stupidity. What makes it even worse is when someone flat out refuses to admit that they don't know something! Holy shit that pisses me off... I'm getting pissed off just thinking about it.

[Andross52]

I hate it when people aré overconcious (Spelling?) about their new computers. Especially when they're computer illiterate. As in, when they don't even want to take off the big plastic covering off of the top of their laptop. Not even a screen cover or anything. And then you go in and have to set up the wi-fi for them, and they ask to know everything you're doing. Not how to do it, because that would actually be useful. Then they make you explain the entire thing, To make sure you're not installing a virus, and you end up throwing their laptop out the window. (Not really. But still.)

When the home computer admin password belongs to aforé mentioned computer illiterate, and every time you try to install something, you have to convince her to come in, make sure it's not a virus, then get annoyed at you for makimg her come in.

Spanish autocorrect.

[LuNatic]

My cat is ten years old in human years. Coincidentally, this makes her 10 years old in cats years too, because the planet revolves around the sun at the same rate, regardless of species. And no it isn't equivalent, because the body/diet responds to the seasonal cycle at the standard yearly rate. Not many people seem to know this.

[Xanthir]

That's just being pedantic for no reason. You know precisely what people are referring to when they talk about 'cat years'. You don't get to redefine it and then act smug when no one uses your definition.

[LuNatic]

That's just being pedantic for no reason. You know precisely what people are referring to when they talk about 'cat years'. You don't get to redefine it and then act smug when no one uses your definition.

It's not about acting smug. It's about people saying stupid, illogical and annoying things that make me want to slap them with a cluestick.

[Chavroux]

That's just being pedantic for no reason. You know precisely what people are referring to when they talk about 'cat years'. You don't get to redefine it and then act smug when no one uses your definition.

It's not about acting smug. It's about people saying stupid, illogical and annoying things that make me want to slap them with a cluestick.

Person A: Dude, your girlfriend is like 13 or something.
Person B: It's OK, she's a bitch, so she's actually 91 in human years. A bit old but still legal.

*Padaboom tjing*

(Sorry for that, couldn't resist.)

[Skythe]

•Putting your elbow or hand on my desk while you turn around to talk to your friend who sits behind me
•Gum Smacking
•Pro Choice people who wave their opinions in my face
•Using the word gay to say something is stupid
•Team Killers
•Asking/Spamming for hacks/cheats to a game

[SlyReaper]

Anti-skub people. I hate those bastards.

[nyeguy]

Anti-skub people. I hate those bastards.

Are you fucking sick? I can't see how anyone could stand for that vile substance that is skub.

[Skraxt]

People who don't realize that they can figure things out for themselves with a little research.
People who say "you're smart" because you told them something they don't know.
People who say "I can't do X because I am not smart".

I guess in general my main pet peeve is people who haven't learned to educate themselves.

[SlyReaper]

Anti-skub people. I hate those bastards.

Are you fucking sick? I can't see how anyone could stand for that vile substance that is skub.

It's the principle of the thing. Your anti-skub agenda threatens to deprive us pro-skubs of our skub. You're infringing on our freedom of choice. That's what we pro-skubs stand for. Freedom, liberty, equality, the right to choose whether to have or not have skub. Also, Hitler was anti-skub. Are you like Hitler?

[phillipsjk]

Games that assume you are a stealing/cheating lowlife. This includes:

• Copy protection that is at best annoying, in the worst case can lead to hardware failure (physical wear and tear on the drive from trying to read deliberately bad sectors for example).
• Monitoring and "Anti-Cheat" software that tries to track your running programs. It would be better to design the game protocol to be resistant to cheating. This is even possible with online cards games.
• Possibly related to the above, or just time constraints: Games that only work with ~20 specific models of video cards from 2 or 3 manufacturers. Games that only work with a certain OS that provides Direct X.

Not computer related:
Flickering LED Christmas lights that use only half the power cycle. I can't even rectify the voltage supplied to produce 120 Hz flicker, because then they would draw twice as much power and require re-certification. To go from 60Hz flicker to 120Hz flicker, an LED light string would have to sacrifice one bulb (replacing it with a rectifier) and add another pair of wires to allow unrectified voltage to pass through. If you want to go further, you can run the LEDs off of DC power: eliminating flicker.

What I have done with a pair of LED strings is run them out of phase: That way one is on while the other is off (requires a non-polarized plug).

[SlyReaper]

Games that assume you are a stealing/cheating lowlife. This includes:

• Copy protection that is at best annoying, in the worst case can lead to hardware failure (physical wear and tear on the drive from trying to read deliberately bad sectors for example).
• Monitoring and "Anti-Cheat" software that tries to track your running programs. It would be better to design the game protocol to be resistant to cheating. This is even possible with online cards games.
• Possibly related to the above, or just time constraints: Games that only work with ~20 specific models of video cards from 2 or 3 manufacturers. Games that only work with a certain OS that provides Direct X.

Not computer related:
Flickering LED Christmas lights that use only half the power cycle. I can't even rectify the voltage supplied to produce 120 Hz flicker, because then they would draw twice as much power and require re-certification. To go from 60Hz flicker to 120Hz flicker, an LED light string would have to sacrifice one bulb (replacing it with a rectifier) and add another pair of wires to allow unrectified voltage to pass through. If you want to go further, you can run the LEDs off of DC power: eliminating flicker.

What I have done with a pair of LED strings is run them out of phase: That way one is on while the other is off (requires a non-polarized plug).

Related to the games thing: Games that require you to install spyware before it will let you play, and this isn't even mentioned on the box. That's happened to me a few times. It installs, it requires you to restart your computer (obnoxious, but still tolerable), you go to play and a box pops up saying "You must install Dodgy Corporate Spyware v2.02 to play, press Next to install". Even this would be tolerable (actually it wouldn't, but still...) if I knew about it BEFORE I bought the damned thing. There's no mention of it on the box, but of course now that I've opened it, I can't return it to the store. Bloody cheek.

[Xanthir]

Actually, can't you return it to the store? My brain is telling me that, in America at least, you have the right to return software if you disagree with the EULA, and maybe that includes installs like that?

[SlyReaper]

Nope, the store has a policy of "if the seal on the box is broken, you can't get a refund because you obviously just copied the disk didn't you, you dirty dirty pirate?"

I'm sure if I pushed really hard, the store would legally have to refund me, but I shouldn't have to push that hard for a £10 refund.

[phillipsjk]

To add to that: if you argue that the product does not work as advertised (ie is defective), they will happily offer an exchange: for the same defective software. That may be useful for a "pirate" (2 keys for the price of 1), but is useless if you want to avoid installing the crapware.

The inverse problem: sometimes the box discloses the use of crapware in the fine print when it is not actually true. I stopped reading a Quake 4 box when I saw the line "Will not work with SCSI CD-ROM drives." That is code for: we install software that replaces your CD-ROM driver. (SCSI-3 is device-independent BTW: you can access your ATAPI CD-ROMs using SCSI commands (With a little software translation).) The stupid thing was I looked at the box in the first place because ID had a reputation of being supportive of alternate OS's like GNU/Linux.

I was going to say "Prince of Persia: Sands of time" box incorrectly stated that it included copy protection (We were told before release that it would have no copy protection), but a search of the forums reveals messages like:

POP uses a CD protection that doesn't like virtual drivesso if you are running in to problems when launching or installing the game then you will have to remove software such as Alcohol or Daemon Tools. You may also need to reinstall the game after uninstalling your virtual drive software.

- http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/561108232/m/979109232?r=979109232#979109232

Edit: It's GNU/Linux, not just "Linux."

[Greatgreen]

My pet peeve: People who do not know how, or refuse to, systematically check points of failure when a computer problem occurs.

Internet not working? I reset the router, right?

[phillipsjk]

I'm having trouble deciding if the example given is supposed to be an example of bad behavior (hurting everybody) or good behavior (because the router is flakey).

I'm going to guess "bad" because a flakey router should be replaced. Plus I have seen it: "my Internet didn't come back up (from sleep mode), so that means the router has to be restarted, right?" You need only reset the interface on the non-working computer.

Edit: to be fair, resetting the router is easier for the novice user to do: pull power plug . . . <wait> . . .plug power back in. . . <wait>. . . Internet fixed! (sometimes).

[SlyReaper]

I'm having trouble deciding if the example given is supposed to be an example of bad behavior (hurting everybody) or good behavior (because the router is flakey).

I'm going to guess "bad" because a flakey router should be replaced. Plus I have seen it: "my Internet didn't come back up (from sleep mode), so that means the router has to be restarted, right?" You need only reset the interface on the non-working computer.

Edit: to be fair, resetting the router is easier for the novice user to do: pull power plug . . . <wait> . . .plug power back in. . . <wait>. . . Internet fixed! (sometimes).

Which is intensely irritating when your internet connection is fine, and then everything dies because your housemate has just reset the router.

[phlip]

Re: Returning software you've opened but never installed: http://www.netcraft.com.au/geoffrey/toshiba.html