Annoying Questions I'd Like Answered...

shadzar · Post by **shadzar** » Thu Mar 07, 2013 7:07 am

Sadly some people just get their rocks off by inflicting harm on others. Sadly too, you cant just kill them like the useless plague they are. If they were a foot with gangreen you would jsut cut it off, but society has this attachment to rights to life, so they are allowed to exist.

Count Arioch the 28th · Thu Mar 07, 2013 9:09 am

-opens mouth-

Nah, too easy. I'll let Kaelik take this one.

K · Post by K » Mon Mar 11, 2013 8:40 am

Ok, I've had three recent computer problems on my year-old computer and starting to get paranoid. Any ideas why?

1. CD-Rom suddenly stopped working because the laptop decided that it did not exist. Finally had to delete some registry values to get it to work.

2. USB mouse was being recognized, but suddenly not working. Had to delete all USB drivers for USB hub and let them auto-install again.

3. iTunes now tells me to reinstall iTunes because of some CD-rom problem. Have not reinstalled because I don't care and I don't do anything with iTunes and the CD-rom.

The paranoid part of my brain says that I'm having trouble with my storage devices so maybe it's spyware, but the more rational part of my brain says it might have been the recent DivX update.

Parthenon · Post by **Parthenon** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 1:39 pm

Maybe it's the hard drive dying. Mine recently died, and in the weeks leading up to it I had problems like:
[*]not always recognising USB mice,
[*]the touchpad being completely fucked up where it constantly thinks the main button is being held down,
[*]The Bluetooth working fine just after turning on, but after a couple of hours it doesn't turn on or off until you restart the computer.
[*]etc

Oh, wait. You say it's only a year old. The hard drive dying is very unlikely then.

fectin · Post by **fectin** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 3:51 pm

Hard drive dying is less unlikely than you think. Yes, a correctly manufactured HDD should last longer, but manufacturers defects do pop up. Also, most HDDs come from Thailand, which was underwater a year ago; anything from that timeframe is going to be unusual.

It could also just be a crappy computer. Sometimes, you get a lemon.

If you have a couple hours and haven't done so, I'd back everything up, wipe/format your drive, and reinstall from scratch. That way you get rid of whatever crapware your laptop vendor thought you might want, skip most of the questions about whether it's a weird configuration issue, and get rid of whatever malware is hanging out. It's a pain to go through, but saves time long-term (ymmv though).

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 10:42 pm

You might be absolutely right about the update, K. Why don't you start by uninstalling DivX and seeing if things run better?

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 11:50 pm

Sounds like your drivers got corrupted or were broken by something. Update them all and see if you keep having problems.

angelfromanotherpin · Fri Mar 15, 2013 12:59 am

So apart from the direct 'soft-on-crime, soft-on-drugs' fallout, what do people think might be the result of a blanket pardon of U.S. prisoners in on non-violent drug offenses?

Whatever · Post by **Whatever** » Fri Mar 15, 2013 1:38 am

Well, it'd be a huge loss of money to the prison industry, and everyone who hires out prison labor. Which is great.

If we're talking full pardons, then you'd have black people without felony convictions, so that they can live somewhat normal lives.

You see, we've gotten to the point where it's harder to legally discriminate against black people. But there's a workaround! We just convict a bunch of young black men for nonviolent drug crimes, and then we go right back to legalized discrimination, because hey now they're felons. Pardoning them would be a good first step towards whatever our next version of Jim Crow is going to be. Maybe we'll figure out how to label them all as sex offenders, then we can ban them from all the nice white neighborhoods.

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Fri Mar 15, 2013 3:53 am

Is there a way for me to use my Blu-Ray drive to play fucking BR discs without buying a $50+ superfluous program mandated by the consortium? This not being able to just get a codec is horse shit of the greatest order.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Fri Mar 15, 2013 2:08 pm

pirating said software comes to mind O.o

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Fri Mar 15, 2013 2:15 pm

http://lifehacker.com/5806252/how-can-i ... y-computer

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Fri Mar 15, 2013 2:25 pm

Meikle641 wrote:Is there a way for me to use my Blu-Ray drive to play fucking BR discs without buying a $50+ superfluous program mandated by the consortium? This not being able to just get a codec is horse shit of the greatest order.

Yes.

http://vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name/

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Fri Mar 15, 2013 5:19 pm

hyzmarca wrote: Yes.

http://vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name/

I recall trying the VLC method before, but it didn't work.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Fri Mar 15, 2013 6:16 pm

Usually, you should have gotten the software with the computer if the drive was pre installed.
if you bought the drive afterwards and did not go for bulk but retail, the software also should have been included.

Ted the Flayer · Post by **Ted the Flayer** » Sat Mar 16, 2013 5:04 am

Windows 8 question that no one seems to be able to answer:

When I have multiple window open, the screen switches between them when I move the cursor with the touchpad on my laptop. If I change it on purpose, it usually switches back when I move the cursor over from the corner. When I move the cursor, it sometimes randomly switches between windows.

What causes this, and that can I do to stop it?

Here are things which do not answer my question, so for the love of motherfucking Christ don't fucking say these things:

-install windows 7 (not an option)

-install windows 7 shell (I'm trying to learn how to use windows 8, not install some program that makes it act like 7)

-send it back to dell and demand they install windows 7

If anyone can give me an answer that doesn't involve windows 7 in some way, that would be awesome.

ishy · Post by **ishy** » Sat Mar 16, 2013 12:32 pm

I'd look through your touchpad settings, that you haven't accidentally enabled some feature.

erik · Post by **erik** » Sat Mar 16, 2013 12:58 pm

ishy has it right, except that you haven't accidentally enabled it, it is on by default and you have to turn it off. Those fuckers.

My wife was given a Windows 8 laptop for Christmas bought in one of the black friday deals. To make it usable with minimal bouts of rage we installed classicshell (start button and slight change in some settings, I trust it over the glut of start button options out there) and disabled the vast majority of the touchpad features. Now it rolls pretty much like a windows 7 laptop and doesn't have nearly so much aggravating screen sliding (as it sounds like Ted is describing) and isn't accidentally clicking on EVERYTHING the touchpad pointer ever hovers over for a fraction of a second.

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Sat Mar 16, 2013 1:18 pm

Sounds a bit like you have focus on mouseover activated. Either that or it's interpreting your touchpad movements as a click and has some click to change focus setting going.

Can't you call dell though? Isn't that the point of buying their crappy overpriced laptops?

Ted the Flayer · Post by **Ted the Flayer** » Sat Mar 16, 2013 1:18 pm

Where do I find the touchpad settings? Do it step by step from the start menu, every google search I've done assumed I already knew where the touchpad settings were.

I don't like feeling this stupid, for the record...

ishy · Post by **ishy** » Sat Mar 16, 2013 2:01 pm

Probably works similar to W7 I assume (not just saying that because of : "If anyone can give me an answer that doesn't involve windows 7 in some way, that would be awesome.")

Hold the <windows key> + <R>
This should give you the run popup.
type : main.cpl
This should open up mouse properties.
Last tab of the properties pane here is about the touchpad.
The settingsbutton enables me to change my touchpad settings.

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Sat Mar 16, 2013 5:16 pm

Trigger Warning for sexual violence

angelfromanotherpin wrote:So apart from the direct 'soft-on-crime, soft-on-drugs' fallout, what do people think might be the result of a blanket pardon of U.S. prisoners in on non-violent drug offenses?

It would be a disaster. I don't mean that we shouldn't do it--we totally should. Prison rape alone demands emancipation before we even look at any of the corrosive political and economic impacts. What I mean is: if I ran the country, I would release nonviolent prisoners, and then I would send in FEMA to respond to the aftermath. The basic problem here is that mass imprisonment is both our country's jobs program and our welfare program. Prisons provide salaried jobs to huge numbers of police, bureaucrats, and private contractors. They also directly provide food, housing, healthcare, and in some cases educational services to literally millions of americas. The progressives really desperately need to figure out how to get people on TV talking about prisons, because aside from being a humanitarian crisis they destroy the economic myth that for some reason it would be impossible for America to run a welfare state. America has a welfare state, we just decided that "being raped by government contractors" was one of the services the state should be providing.

So. We round them all up and drop them off in downtown Detroit or something. What happens next? Well, prisoners are more than 1% of the population. I have no idea how much more so let's say 1.5% Add in everybody who worked in the prison, and unemployment instantly goes up by about 2%. (Possibly a little less, because the employers who currently use prisoners for slave labor would presumably have to create real jobs) I would imagine that that would be a pretty big economic shock to the rest of us, but worth shutting up and suffering through if is helps the ex-prisoners. Unfortunately, I don't imagine them doing particularly well for themselves. The ex-prison guards at least have current resumes and work histories, and government and corporate contacts. The ex-prisoners don't have those things, and they're mostly black. Among the millions of unemployed Americans waiting to get hired, it seems pretty clear that the pardonees would be shoved to the back of the line. So: We dump a huge number of homeless and unemployed people in downtown Detroit or something. Wherever things are bad now, that's where the most pardonees will be. Shelters, food pantries, free clinics, and so on all face sharply increased demand. They can probably handle it though, I mean it's not like we've massively defunded our safety net or anything
City governments will have to be on the ball, but they can play their part in smoothing the process. It's a good thing we didn't abolish Detroit's government or anything crazy. So... yeah. Have fun with all that freedom, kids! Try not to get killed by starvation, disease, or the police.

I'm reasonably confident the results would be horrifying. Of course, the status quo is also horrifying. I don't feel qualified to tell people whether they're should be more worried about freezing to death or prison rape, so I guess I would let individual inmates make their own call. But you'd need huge federal interventions before you get to any scenario that isn't horrifying. I would declare a national state of emergency, send FEMA to provide temporary food and housing, and the longer-term re-settlement services to the extent that they can. The crisis would be a lot like caring for refugees from a massive environmental disaster, or escapees from a tyrannical government. Actually, it would be exactly like the last one.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Sat Mar 16, 2013 5:57 pm

The bad news is, we're the worst jailors in the world:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarcerat ... ted_States

The good news is, crime rates are down over the same period: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States

Whether there's a positive correlation between the two is arguable. That said, we still need to do better. Our prison systems are dangerous for guards and inmates, and the Republicans keep wanting to privatize them. Plus there's this:

Conservative states have an overwhelming majority of the prison population in the US, and will feel a correspondingly greater impact if the system is massively reduced.

erik · Post by **erik** » Sat Mar 16, 2013 6:23 pm

Ted the Flayer wrote:Where do I find the touchpad settings? Do it step by step from the start menu, every google search I've done assumed I already knew where the touchpad settings were.

I don't like feeling this stupid, for the record...

Windows 8 is a bit shitty in usability and I believe it is a bit different depending upon the manufacturer of the laptop from having read other complaints on this issue. Hopefully these instructions are generic enough to solve it for ya, Ted.

1. You can swipe from off of the right of the touchpad onto it towards the left to cause the "Charms" to appear as a side tab on the right. This will get the gear/Settings to appear on the right, click that.
2. click control panel
3. click Hardware and Sound
4. On the top under Devices and Printers is a little link titled Mouse, click it
5. We get a pop-up for Mouse Properties, getting close now, hopefully there is a tab for a Touchpad (on my wife's it is "Dell Touchpad") Click that touchpad tab.
6. Click the link at the bottom to change Touchpad settings (from here on it will probably differ depending upon manufacturer, I have the Dell version).
7. More general advice would be to turn off Tap to Click at this point, and turn off multi-finger gestures because they are a failure, and probably crank up the palm rejection to maximum.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Sat Mar 16, 2013 6:28 pm

Huh. It's kind of weird seeing Utah so pale, considering how infamous they are for running extralegal juvenile "rehabilitation" camps.

I think the best solution to our prison problem is a more gradual, staggered pardoning. Draw up a giant list of all crimes for which people have been imprisoned, eliminate things that make sense like "murder," and then see what the numbers are on individual crimes. Then hand out a pardon (or several small ones) every few years to gradually empty our prisons.