General Chat/Time-Waster Thread

[AshleyAshes]

The end of the year 2016 is me downloading a 1.2GB firmware update to install manually over USB. ...FOR MY TELEVISION.

[Osrik]

46 minutes ago, Saxon said:

Not to mention the hypocritical hilarity of the new 'political martyr'.

At first the new right spent their time decrying Social Justice Warriors for being thin-skinned pansies, who felt like almost all situations were contrived with the aim to persecute them. (and they were right that some people on the left really did think like this).
Now that they have influence though, how does the new right respond to criticism? By claiming that there is a conspiracy theory of elite persons who are constantly out to get them, whether it is Climatologists, Star-wars or mother-fucking Kellogs corn flakes. 

I think a big irony is that the salient points that the 'persecuted Social Justice Warriors' had were actually correct. There are still states where you can legally be fired or evicted for being gay. Black people are disproportionately represented in convictions, even when White people commit the same sorts of crimes at similar rates (like pot-smoking).
Some of the salient points of the new right were also correct, men for example are imprisoned for longer for equivalent crimes compared to women.

I feel like none of those matters, which are all of actual importance, are ever going to be discussed, because people will be too buys trying to decide whether their bowl of corn flakes is part of a conspiracy theory.

I think that the Republican party has had an incredible martyr complex for quite a while now, what with their constant complaints about the evils of "liberal media" and depiction of themselves as the underdogs against the evils of "big government", but this election has certainly seen it brought to new heights by Donald and his most extreme supporters.

The comparison with SJWs is certainly apt; the mentality of persecution is in many ways very similar, as well as the tendency of both to inflate sometimes valid (though equally often invalid) claims to insane extremes. There also seems to both have a kind of "either with us, or against us" attitude, with it entirely unacceptable to question or not wholly accept their beliefs/the infallibility of their candidate (however, this attitude has become pretty common in the mainstream of both parties as it is, the SJWs and Trump supporters just bring it to even greater extremes).

It certainly does seem unlikely that there will ever be any reasonable discussion of the potential issues these groups highlight; they (and many others besides, such as the Black vs. Blue lives matter movements) have both moved to far to the extreme in opposite directions to ever find compromise with each other or any other group, and they will only accept others if they totally embrace their ways and extreme beliefs.

[Hux]

I have ate nothing but grilled cheese and potato soup for three days. plz send help

[Saxon]

2 minutes ago, Hux said:

I have ate nothing but grilled cheese and potato soup for three days. plz send help

Delicious baked good have been dispatched.

 

 they will only accept others if they totally embrace their ways and extreme beliefs.

Well, at least we are beginning to move past the 'you're a cuck' pepe race meme discussions, because even the people who sympathise with the new right have realised how dumb that is.

I remember a prominent youtuber, Kraut and Tea, had to make videos distancing himself from those people, after he gave them room to speak on his channel and, lo and behold, he wound up discovering the 'totally not racist' civic nationalists he gave a voice to turned out to actually be anti-semites taking advantage of the thin-fascade that the 'just a meme' excuse had given them.

...I'm still pretty surprised that there are even anti-semites out there. I had previously thought that the idea of this silent group of white nationalists lingering just beneath the surface was an imagining of the persecuted left, but nope...they're real, unfortunately.

 

[Osrik]

12 minutes ago, Saxon said:

Well, at least we are beginning to move past the 'you're a cuck' pepe race meme discussions, because even the people who sympathise with the new right have realised how dumb that is.

I remember a prominent youtuber, Kraut and Tea, had to make videos distancing himself from those people, after he gave them room to speak on his channel and, lo and behold, he wound up discovering the 'totally not racist' civic nationalists he gave a voice to turned out to actually be anti-semites taking advantage of the thin-fascade that the 'just a meme' excuse had given them.

...I'm still pretty surprised that there are even anti-semites out there. I had previously thought that the idea of this silent group of white nationalists lingering just beneath the surface was an imagining of the persecuted left, but nope...they're real, unfortunately.

 

It is good that supporters of the Alt-Right and other such groups are finally being exposed for what they are, it always surprised me that people were ever willing to accept the whole "I'm only racist for the memes/to offend lefties" as anything more than a thin disguise for their actual racism...

It certainly is surprising what antiquated hatreds and beliefs still linger on; a year or so ago I met some strongly Protestant Christians who still viewed Catholics as pawns of an all powerful and Antichrist like Pope, a belief I had thought was mostly dead by the 1920s (at which time such a view was actually decently common). I think the persistence of such beliefs tends to relate to the isolation of those who hold them; if you rarely or never come into contact with people from the groups you irrationally hate, it is easy to maintain stereotypes and other false ideas about such people.

I guess it could be seen in some ways as a good thing that Trump's hateful rhetoric has led these people to feel that their racist beliefs are now acceptable; as it allows us to see how deeply such problems are still embedded in American society, as well as the true colors of many people who had previously kept such ugly parts of themselves hidden.

[DrDingo]

I just spent 50 quid so I could spend a weekend next February competing in a cross country championship

And here's the catch

I'm not even that amazing at running. I just decided to because some guy from the athletics club asked if I was going

And at that, I hardly know anyone from my athletics club
What am I doing

 

[U-235]

26 minutes ago, DrDingo said:

I just spent 50 quid so I could spend a weekend next February competing in a cross country championship

And here's the catch

I'm not even that amazing at running. I just decided to because some guy from the athletics club asked if I was going

And at that, I hardly know anyone from my athletics club
What am I doing

 

I had a dream about getting a burger and that they charged am extra dollar for mayonnaise packets. So I woke up this morning, walked a mile to the nearest burger joint, and ordered but made sure to ask for mayonnaise to reassure myself they wouldn't charge me. They didn't.  What the absolute fuck are you doing to me finals week.

[Hux]

I'm going to be up all night playing Diablo III solo with my demon hunter. I'm starting from the first act and fighting my way through the game just so I can get the hidden pony level. At least I'll get to see the ghost of the Cow King. It's been a while since I've seen him and I've always wondered what he was doing in the afterlife after being constantly farmed by many Diablo II players.

I wonder if there's Cow King porn. I kinda hope there is. Ironically, of course.

[ArielMT]

11 hours ago, Saxon said:

So the CIA just announced that they think that Russia was behind hacks that may have influenced the US election.

Many people had previously claimed that believing Russia acted to influence the American election was a 'leftist conspiracy theory'. I gather that means they must now accept that the CIA is a...leftist conspiracy group? Well, okay, whatever you say.

Donald redressed this revelation by saying that he didn't trust the CIA because 'these were the guys who thought Saddam has Weapons of Mass Destruction,'.
By the same token, does this mean we shouldn't trust Donald because 'this was the guy who thought Obama was born in Kenya,' ?

The CIA is (probably rightly) lamenting foreign interference in a nation's head-of-state election.  If that isn't supreme irony, I don't know what is.

7 hours ago, AshleyAshes said:

The end of the year 2016 is me downloading a 1.2GB firmware update to install manually over USB. ...FOR MY TELEVISION.

A firmware update larger than most computer operating systems for a presumably Internet-connected device that can't download and install the update from the Internet on its own?  Yup, that sounds like the current state of the art for an Internet-of-Things appliance.  :<

[Crazy Lee]

It's probably downloading every possible device created by the company. Just in case.

[Saxon]

2 minutes ago, Crazy Lee said:

It's probably downloading every possible device created by the company. Just in case.

Either that or Skynet became self aware.

[ArielMT]

39 minutes ago, Crazy Lee said:

It's probably downloading every possible device created by the company. Just in case.

 

36 minutes ago, Saxon said:

Either that or Skynet became self aware.

Nah, my bet's on a loaded, customized, and locked down version of Android.

[AshleyAshes]

1 hour ago, ArielMT said:

A firmware update larger than most computer operating systems for a presumably Internet-connected device that can't download and install the update from the Internet on its own?  Yup, that sounds like the current state of the art for an Internet-of-Things appliance.  :<

I was trying to cheat and get the update faster than it's automated update system will work but it turns out the file is incompatible.  Long story short, Samsung rolled out HDR support for the YouTub app in it's Tizen powered 2016 smart TVs, but it seems the update hasn't dropped for the KU6290 and KU6300 families like I have.  So KU6500 and above this works on.

My TV is an 'entry level' HDR display and I've been really wanting to do side by side comparisons of HDR and SDR content on it, of the exact same footage, to see how it compares.  But HDR content is pretty obscure these days.

Since multiple family's of TV in multiple sizes all had the same file to download I imagine the file was multiple images for every possible model of TV the update supported all wrapped up into one file for their servers.  I have no idea if the TV's own self-update system downloads just what it needs.  ...ya know cause TV menus are so dumb they don't give users a lot of technical feedback on what's going on.

(The TV can also WOL, which cannot be disabled, and it's not documented in the manual!)

[ArielMT]

1 hour ago, AshleyAshes said:

(The TV can also WOL, which cannot be disabled, and it's not documented in the manual!)

That's some Poltergeist-level freaky crap right there.  o.O;;

[AshleyAshes]

I sent a magic packet to it's Ethernet port on a whim and it turned on.  I was like '...Huh.'

That said, even when off it's 'kinda on', it seems to sleep more like a tablet when you turn off the screen.  Once the YouTube app hung and I couldn't get it back without unplugging it, because turning it 'off' wasn't really 'off'.

[fennecbyte]

3 hours ago, AshleyAshes said:

That said, even when off it's 'kinda on', it seems to sleep more like a tablet when you turn off the screen.  Once the YouTube app hung and I couldn't get it back without unplugging it, because turning it 'off' wasn't really 'off'.

Internet of shit~

[Mayonnaise]

Damnit... where did I put all the money?

[FenrirDarkWolf]

35 minutes ago, Mayonnaise said:

Damnit... where did I put all the money?

In a stripper's waistband?

[Mayonnaise]

48 minutes ago, FenrirDarkWolf said:

In a stripper's waistband?

Sadly, no. IDK where to find strippers here.

[Sarcastic Coffeecup]

Sitting in a plane. Gonna see my SO in three or so hours. Long wait is coming to a close

[MissFleece]

50 minutes ago, Sarcastic Coffeecup said:

Sitting in a plane. Gonna see my SO in three or so hours. Long wait is coming to a close

!!!!!!

I am so excited for you!

I hope it's everything you imagined and more. 

[Vallium]

2 hours ago, Sarcastic Coffeecup said:

Sitting in a plane. Gonna see my SO in three or so hours. Long wait is coming to a close

Congrats, I had not realized you and your SO were far apart, that must be especially exciting for sure

[Snagged]

I don't know where else to post this but I think this is very fitting image

As a Finn, as fitting as it is, I am also very concerned

[SirRob]

I want to return to my favorite pastime, licking the gum off sidewalks, but everyone in my neighborhood has a restraining order on me (except darryl but he's too weird) and no one comes near the sidewalk that i live on because of my smell, and it's too exhausting to walk out of the neighborhood these days

 

i try to chew regular gum to cope but it's just not the same

[Vitaly]

2 hours ago, Snagged Cub said:

I don't know where else to post this but I think this is very fitting image

Why Finland, let's annex something warmer, Cyprus or Greece for example.

[U-235]

Considering the brain drain that's been occurring in Russia for a while, their heavy reliance on natural resources for the base of their economy (which fluctuates heavily), recent issues with the value of the Ruble (which at the moment is 1 Ruble = .016$), and general issues with their military (seriously the invasion of Georgia was kind of a disaster in terms of intelligence gathering and inability to even defend some of their stronghold positions), I don't see them annexing anything anytime soon. And even if they did, the Ukraine and Poland would freak the fuck out, call on the EU and NATO to intervene. And even if the US refused to help out because of Trump being Putin's puppet, the strength of the EU combined with all the former soviet block (which to this day hates Russia) would fairly quickly overwhelm Russia.

[Osrik]

2 hours ago, U-235 said:

Considering the brain drain that's been occurring in Russia for a while, their heavy reliance on natural resources for the base of their economy (which fluctuates heavily), recent issues with the value of the Ruble (which at the moment is 1 Ruble = .016$), and general issues with their military (seriously the invasion of Georgia was kind of a disaster in terms of intelligence gathering and inability to even defend some of their stronghold positions), I don't see them annexing anything anytime soon. And even if they did, the Ukraine and Poland would freak the fuck out, call on the EU and NATO to intervene. And even if the US refused to help out because of Trump being Putin's puppet, the strength of the EU combined with all the former soviet block (which to this day hates Russia) would fairly quickly overwhelm Russia.

Yet Putin still took over the Crimean Peninsula, and the pro-Russian militants he supports continue to fight in eastern Ukraine. While I think many overestimate the abilities of Russia and Putin's willingness to start a world war, I think it is also important not to underestimate him, especially during a Trump presidency. The concern from within countries threatened by Putin, like Estonia, is very real, as they know that their independence is reliant on NATO protection from Putin's ambitions, and a Trump presidency brings into question how strong this protection will be.

The primary question is how far Trump will go in damaging NATO and supporting Putin; Putin is unlikely to move against NATO defended countries like Estonia and the other Baltic states while the US is still involved, but with a US withdraw from NATO, and even a possibility of Trump coming down on Russia's side diplomatically in a hypothetical future invasion, it is very hard to say how strong NATO backing will be, or how bold it might make Putin to have the US on his side or turning a blind eye. With Trump so enamored with the Russian dictator having once called him "brilliant" and his most likely pick for Secretary of State has had many business dealings in Russia and being a close friends with Putin, it seems quite possible that Trump may do much more than simply lift sanctions against Russia, and his decisions could mean the end of sovereignty for former Soviet Bloc countries that Putin has designs on.

[Hux]

I would totally let Putin annex my mom if he let me call him dad.

"Dad, can I blow up some Chechens? Please!'

"Okay, Hux. Just do your homework and eat your vegetables. Remember to lock Georgia after you leave."

"I love you, dad! :)"

"I love you too, son. :DD"

 

[Crazy Lee]

Driving through the snow
I'm gonna fucking die
Down this hill we go
Like a slip and slide (or, laughing while I cry)
Ha ha ha

I also like how a customer complained about not getting their periodical delivery today. The day after a huge snowstorm. I take a look at their location. Middle of nowhere, dead end dirt road, at very end of dirt road right where it dead ends. Probably not plowed yet. Yep.

I just apologized. They'll get it tomorrow probably.

[DrGravitas]

Work has sent another "big news is coming!" email. This retarded. We're confident we already know its about a change in half-year evaluation processes and, indeed, quite lame.

[DrDingo]

My home town is now also the home to an Emoji Shop

This isn't even a joke

[DrGravitas]

*Coworkers looking out the window*

Coworker 1: "It's snowing. Nobody told me; why did nobody tell me? These are things I need to know!"

Coworker 2: "Should we run outside? Naked? See who can stay outside the longest?"

*Coworker 1 turns to look at 2, and vice versa*

Coworker 1: "No. Naked Paintball in snow."

 

Somedays I wonder why I stick around at this company. Then conversations like those happen and I remember why.

22 minutes ago, DrDingo said:

My home town is now also the home to an Emoji Shop

This isn't even a joke

I weep for your town's property value.

[Glowing Glass]

School is over. Parents forgot to pick me up. I'm waiting outside laying down on a bench. The school gates are open and a dog runs up to me, barks, and runs away. The dog then stood there and now I'm here.

[U-235]

1 hour ago, Glowing Glass said:

School is over. Parents forgot to pick me up. I'm waiting outside laying down on a bench. The school gates are open and a dog runs up to me, barks, and runs away. The dog then stood there and now I'm here.

Clearly it wants to eat you. Best of luck fighting it off!

[FenrirDarkWolf]

3 hours ago, DrGravitas said:

*Coworkers looking out the window*

Coworker 1: "It's snowing. Nobody told me; why did nobody tell me? These are things I need to know!"

Coworker 2: "Should we run outside? Naked? See who can stay outside the longest?"

*Coworker 1 turns to look at 2, and vice versa*

Coworker 1: "No. Naked Paintball in snow."

 

Somedays I wonder why I stick around at this company. Then conversations like those happen and I remember why.

Why

3 hours ago, DrDingo said:

My home town is now also the home to an Emoji Shop

This isn't even a joke

 

WHY

[U-235]

3 hours ago, DrDingo said:

My home town is now also the home to an Emoji Shop

This isn't even a joke

The fuck is an emoji shop supposed to be?

[FenrirDarkWolf]

18 minutes ago, U-235 said:

The fuck is an emoji shop supposed to be?

Judging from the window, it sells plush emojis.

[U-235]

4 minutes ago, FenrirDarkWolf said:

Judging from the window, it sells plush emojis.

but what market are they selling to? Is there really that high of a demand for plush emojis? And can't you just get them online?

[Crazy Lee]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/12/living/santa-terminally-ill-boy-irpt-trnd/

*drowns in an ocean of his own tears*

 

 

 

[FenrirDarkWolf]

18 minutes ago, U-235 said:

but what market are they selling to? Is there really that high of a demand for plush emojis? And can't you just get them online?

A very niche and impatient market? I dunno.

[LazerMaster5]

12 hours ago, DrDingo said:

My home town is now also the home to an Emoji Shop

This isn't even a joke

The guy inside looks super bored. That has to be one of the saddest shops I have ever seen.

[Gator]

1 hour ago, LazerMaster5 said:

The guy inside looks super bored. That has to be one of the saddest shops I have ever seen.

good thing there's an emoji for that

[Lopaw]

Finally got the IRF630 MOSFETs I need for the H-bridge, even though they are  from ST and not international rectifier (that's what the IRF bit of the name is meant to mean according to google)  

These can cope with up to 200 V and 9 A drain to souce so are totally overkill for my design.

Now I need to hope I haven't lost any of them to ESD.

[U-235]

51 minutes ago, Lopaw said:

Finally got the IRF630 MOSFETs I need for the H-bridge, even though they are  from ST and not international rectifier (that's what the IRF bit of the name is meant to mean according to google)  

These can cope with up to 200 V and 9 A drain to souce so are totally overkill for my design.

Now I need to hope I haven't lost any of them to ESD.

I remember working with these things for my circuits class and lab. I tried to use it to be a second order low pass filter that was adjustable, but ended up getting overly complicated so I just kept it simple.

[DrGravitas]

51 minutes ago, Lopaw said:

Finally got the IRF630 MOSFETs I need for the H-bridge, even though they are  from ST and not international rectifier (that's what the IRF bit of the name is meant to mean according to google)  

These can cope with up to 200 V and 9 A drain to souce so are totally overkill for my design.

Now I need to hope I haven't lost any of them to ESD.

Neat! What are those used for? What are you designing?

[Lopaw]

2 hours ago, DrGravitas said:

Neat! What are those used for? What are you designing?

MOSFETs are transistors that are voltage controlled and therefore take much less current to run compared to the bipolar ones people tend to think of when they think of transistors. They function faster as well so go in all modern ICs which use CMOS logic to do things, CMOS being the use of N channel and P channel MOSFETs in pairs.

These ones are for power rather than signals so tend to be used like relays to control things needing high voltage to work like power supplies and hi-fis 

I am designing a rather crap electric brush thing to pass my course's annoying project unit. These IRF630s are going to go in a H bridge which is a circuit used to control the direction of motors.

[Vallium]

Does anyone else feel that way where you buy a food or drink product or something, and the bottle or packaging is just really well done and presented very well that you just want to keep it but feel like that'd be trashy and hoarder-y since you could just buy another one sometime in the future anyways and you'd end up with more.

You know...stuff like the boxes ferrero rocher is sold in. 

I suppose it isnt unusual to reuse things like popcorn tins for storage...but still...there's a lot of garbage I think of keeping because the company did a good job with the packaging aesthetics

[FenrirDarkWolf]

16 minutes ago, WolfNightV4X1 said:

Does anyone else feel that way where you buy a food or drink product or something, and the bottle or packaging is just really well done and presented very well that you just want to keep it but feel like that'd be trashy and hoarder-y since you could just buy another one sometime in the future anyways and you'd end up with more.

You know...stuff like the boxes ferrero rocher is sold in. 

I suppose it isnt unusual to reuse things like popcorn tins for storage...but still...there's a lot of garbage I think of keeping because the company did a good job with the packaging aesthetics

I'm literally the same

[Fossa]

I just got a smartphone, for the first time. So far, it seems kind of confusing. It's just a Samsung Galaxy Amp Prime, from Cricket, because I am broke and have bad credit and the places that have the latest really fancy phones want like $500 down---and I can not go on a family plan, because, well, no 'family'. But I hope I figure it out quickly, I put my Gmail on it and can chat via Google Hangouts, but am confused over many things. There is part of me that is a very analog sort, and not prone to using miniature things; though this is easier to type on, as my last phone was that horrible kind with those tiny buttons, for texting, so people got texts that sounded worse than an 8 year old.

 

So now I have entered the modern age, and have this phone with 16 somethings of memory, and a camera, and now I will look like everyone else when I take the DC train south to work. Wish me luck! Maybe I will put a thread about this someplace else, and what it is like, after resisting getting one for so long, and what it is like having one, and what I will 'do' with it, and all that...

[Crazy Lee]

On 12/13/2016 at 5:33 PM, Crazy Lee said:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/12/living/santa-terminally-ill-boy-irpt-trnd/

*drowns in an ocean of his own tears*

It's been going around the story of the boy dying in the Santa impersonator's arms is fake.

It's not been confirmed fake or real.

Now, they actually INTERVIEWED the guy, and he says it happened. He could be lying. He could be lying for fame and attention. Who knows. Until we know he's lying it would be shitty to go after him or anything, though.