Technology has failed us

[dng]

i've always wanted a router full of worms it's really cheered me up

[dng]

then also the box it came in had entirely the wrong instructions in it, telling you to plug the broadband cable into completely the wrong slot, and the only extra note it said was "if you want more information, check the faq" which was online but now i didn't have any online because i'd just unplugged the old router so i could plug in the new one

[dng]

then after plugging the old router back in eventually i found the actual instructions for the new router on BT's website, but only via google, rather than anywhere actually linked to from the faq or the original email or anything, and it turned out i didn't need a different cable, i just needed to plug the broadband cable into a slot not marked broadband rather than the slot marked broadband that the instructions originally told me to plug it into (and into which it wouldn't fit)

[dng]

so in summary, fuck off bt

[dng]

also you can only switch to digital voice when they switch off the old phone, and the only thing it says about that is that "it will happen some time between 00:00 and 23:59 on Wednesday January 29th, although it may be delayed by up to 48 hours in some cases"

[dng]

thanks bt you useless wankers

[dng]

then again as the only phone calls we ever actually get are amazon prime scams maybe i'll just leave the stupid things unplugged forever

[Bruce Sato]

I dread this inevitably happening at my parents' house. It will presumably happen here as well but I only have the one landline phone, whereas my parents have three and it is going to cause utter nightmare chaos.

[endar]

excellent, good work everyone. Virgin did the same thing to my parents last year.

Did you get a new wormless box?

[dng]

No. Luckily the router itself seems to work, wormlessly

[endar]

oh hello new page

[dng]

protected by the worlds most water/worm proof plastic bag ever

[endar]

worm, worklessly

[dng]

My current state of existence

[endar]

good man

[dng]

Hooray, they switched our phones over (also the internet was down for four hours immediately afterwards)

[dng]

It’s back now

[dng]

Let’s never mention phones again

[An Unicorn]

Following an amazingly successful rearrangement of furniture, I'm thinking I might actually get a new PC before I get any new furniture, since more and more things are becoming unreliable on it. I'm distinctly unhappy with what I hear about Windows 11 (which I'm using on the office laptop because I have to, but haven't really engaged with because I don't have admin rights), so I'm wondering whether to get a smaller PC that will run some species of Linux, and then a bigger PC for gaming and very little else. The two main downsides to this are (1) the cost; (2) my total lack of experience with Linux. The meta-problem, as always, is the fact that I don't really know what I'm doing with anything like this.

Any thoughts or suggestions about any aspect of the plan would be gratefully received. Even if it's just how I can beat Windows 11 into submission (no MS account, absolutely no fucking AI bullshit, maximum possible security from general MS cretinism).

After having to deal with Windows 8 for school, I started swearing I would dump Windows for good and move to Linux, and would make partitions that would allow me to dual-boot between the two so I could test out Linuxes. (If you do this ABSOLUTELY make sure to back up anything you care about beforehand, because there's good odds you'll break things and have to reinstall absolutely everything at some point.)

And admittedly, I still don't understand at least ¾ of what I'm doing with Linux, but it is functional, and there are analogs to all the important stuff and compatibility layers or virtual machines for access to all your old games and programs.

Linux Mint or Ubuntu are commonly bandied about as good entry points for those leaving Windows environments, and also commonly sniggered at for being designed for the unlearnéd, but so long as it comes with a GUI, you'll probably be able to figure anything out with enough internet searches. Most of these installs will have a bootable ISO you can flash to a USB stick and install from; several even include a boot-from-USB option that lets you test out the interface beforehand.

I can't lie, it'll a major adustment of myriad minor adjustments where some shortcut or interface or open-source alternative is *just* different enough to frustrate you, and there is some loss of ease-of-use. But community support and a modicum of willingness to get your hands dirty in tweaking settings and whatnot go a long way in making it feel like you finally own your own computer again instead of watching an ever-expanding set of "security" updates turn it into the property of Microsoft that they have so graciously lent you.

[Pual]

I spent several hours trying to get my colour printer to print in colour the other day.

[Pual]

Some of those hours were spent looking for a new printer that wasn’t a subscription scam and a pc that wasn’t windows

[Pual]

There are no non-subscription scam printers

[An Unicorn]

No. Luckily the router itself seems to work, wormlessly

"Wifi" is short for "Worm Fidelity"

[blombluss]

I spent several hours trying to get my colour printer to print in colour the other day.

Hell's punishments are based around trying to get a printer to do what it's meant to do.

[richschnauzer]

I spent several hours trying to get my colour printer to print in colour the other day.

[blombluss]

(I have never watched Office Space)

[vom]

I love Office Space.

[Pual]

(I have never watched Office Space)

You should

[blombluss]

I will investigate film to-night!

[Pual]

I’ve ordered an £4 utter piece of filth mini pc so I can install Linux on it.

[blombluss]

Sounds a reasonable idea.

[blombluss]

Some of those hours were spent looking for a new printer that wasn’t a subscription scam and a pc that wasn’t windows

I'm happy with my Epson XP 2205 (£50 - Argos), and the unofficial replacement ink cartridges are non-insanely priced, too.

[endar]

sounds like you won

[Bruce Sato]

Skype is dead, give items to who?

This is annoying, since my family use Skype for our weekly video conversation. Now I need to find an alternative that will work for the particular combination of devices and Luddite objections that we constitute (and I am one of the Luddites). Piss.

[dng]

Fuck off microsoft

[Pual]

Fucking Teams fuck off

[dng]

hooray, my printer's entered the inevitable "doesnt print anything properly while also giving random error messages that don't seem to explain anything about the error" phase of its existence

[dng]

oh also, our gas/electricity smart meter thing stopped showing any data properly, so here are british gas's three current proposed solutions/attempts at fixing it

1: switch it off for an hour and then switch it back on and see if it works (failed)
2: switch it off for 24 hours and then switch it back on and see if it works (failed)
3: switch it off for 1 week and then switch it back on and see if it works (results pending)

[dng]

i can't wait to find out what possible solution #4 is going to be

[blombluss]

Skype is dead, give items to who?

This is annoying, since my family use Skype for our weekly video conversation. Now I need to find an alternative that will work for the particular combination of devices and Luddite objections that we constitute (and I am one of the Luddites). Piss.

Skype's DEADSOONness made my nephew tearful. He's not a fan of change.

[blombluss]

hooray, my printer's entered the inevitable "doesnt print anything properly while also giving random error messages that don't seem to explain anything about the error" phase of its existence

I hope you get it working again, but... every knackered printer I've had since '96 has followed a similar path to that.

[blombluss]

i can't wait to find out what possible solution #4 is going to be

Knowing British Gas, it'll involve sorcery and many longpig sacrifices.

[dng]

my mum's ipad completely died yesterday, without warning, and cannot be revived. it was only four years old, and cost eight hundred bloody quid

technology is shit

[blombluss]

Christ!

[dng]

yes

[dng]

although if i can convince her she can do her banking on the new nintendo switch maybe i can trick her into replacing it with one of those

[blombluss]

David!!!

[blombluss]

The new Raspberry Pi 500+ appears to be reet nice, but for £175?!? Nah!

[blombluss]

IMGUR BORKEN IN THE UNITED STATES OF KINGDOM!!!

[dng]

its about time