Random thing you loathe right now.

Like everyone, I'm guilty of "this" and "QFT", but usually I try to append something of worth. There are just some things that you just flat out can't add anything to.

Oh, and there was an upside to the Eternal September. A few years later, you started getting a large quantity of awesome people that weren't normally computer geeks. (Then again, it did slow in 2005 when AOL dropped it.)

Being in a car. I'm sick of it.

St.Hillary wrote:

Being in a car. I'm sick of it.

I was in a car for ten hours a day for a week at a time last year for a period of about two months. I know what you mean.

My car is awesome though. I would love to be in it 10 hours a day. That said, I loathe the fact that my car is broken and 500 miles away...

WipEout wrote:

America On-Line?

They still have that?

traffic

Marketing speak. Specifically when it comes to high-end input devices. Razer mice may be designed for gamers, but by far, they're not restricted to gamers. They're damned useful in GIMP/Photoshop, as well as Blender/Maya/3ds. And, from what I've heard, a lot of CAD programs.

Same damn thing with the Nostro/Saitek whatever gamepads. I know a lot of musicians that absolutely swear by them. So pigeonholing them into "making you have l33t skills" just irritates me. Triply so when I'm actually trying to find one, and having huge amounts of trouble wading through the marketing-speak.

You know, making it so only a 13 year old will like your marketing is not the way to get to a mass market.

Now, they just need to make a left-handed version of it. And make it so you can actually find out about them without wading through a bunch of e-peen enlargement BS.

A bit of plastic will not improve your skills. The most it will do is get the hell out of your way, so you can have more buttons to play with.

The reality crap my girlfriend insists on watching, full of {ableist slur}s, backstabbers, relentless whiners and self-centered egotrippers.. And on a related note, the use of following 'statements':

"I was like..."
"OH. MY. GOD."

Especially the "I literally exploded!" crap. If only...

My new-ish f*cking TV.

Actually, I loved it until yesterday night when the damn thing wouldn't turn on.

Bought a Samsung PN50A650 plasma 50" TV from Amazon in mid February, and it has been a real treat for me these past four months. Unfortunately, after watching a baseball game and playing some Burnout Paradise demo on my 360 yesterday, the screen mysteriously shut off and wouldn't turn back on again.

Called Samsung's customer service line, and waited a good 15-20 minutes or so. Very frustrating-- no "you will be waiting x minutes" prompt, or any "please keep holding" messages while waiting, so I had no idea if I was ever going to get through. Website refused to take my TV's serial number because it claimed it was "invalid." Finally managed to get through to someone on the phone-- an American, even-- who did a bare minimum of "troubleshooting" and promised someone in my area would call me within two business days to set up a repair call.

So far, it seems way too easy. I am expecting to never receive the call, then have to call back in, do it again, etc., and ultimately be TV-less for a few weeks or a month or so. I hope that they will surprise me for once.

The worst of it is that school is almost finished, and Summer vacation will be starting for me on June 16th. Not having this set by then will really be a kick in the pants. It's amazing how crappy it is to go from a 50" HDTV back to my old 27" SDTV (which, luckily, I hadn't gotten rid of yet).

Going to a distant relative's place for dinner to be served cabernet at dinner, cold cabernet... with shrimp, crab, and fish... out of a bottle where the largest lettering is "California Wine".

Feeling sick to my stomach over this TV breaking down.

I hate to keep harping on this... I've actually gotten a lot better in the last few years with raging over broken/non-functional items in my posession, but I am the kind of person who agonizes over big spending decisions and just barely pulled the trigger to buy this new TV and spend the $1400 in the first place.

I know I probably sound like a total asshole. I know people are starving to death, and dying, and everything else. I don't expect anyone's sympathy. I just find myself feeling this massive sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach over this... the longer the day goes on, the more I think and go through all the usual regrets and worries, it just keeps getting worse.

Ugh.

I can't speak for your area but I would give them time to make things right, you may be surprised. I bought an LG 42" plasma about 2.5 years ago and about a year ago, it started having problems with red specks appearing in black areas on the screen. It included a 2 year in-home warranty, probably similar to your Samsung. I expected typical "big company" service from LG and was prepared to have to ream out several people to get the service I needed. I was completely wrong. I called and sat on hold for 15 minutes like you did but I talked to a very nice lady who said a local repair company would call me within a couple of days. Sure enough, I received said call and it was from this business run by a middle-eastern family that was the authorized LG repair center. They came over, were incredibly nice and professional, looked at the TV and determined a board was bad that they had to order a replacement for. I was expecting to wait a week without my TV but oh no, they had another 42" loaner in the van that they gave me in the meantime. The board came in, they installed it at their shop, tested it, came back and swapped the TV out and it has been perfect ever since. The experience couldn't have been less of what I was expecting. From what I understand, Samsung uses a similar model for in-home warranty service and if they use the same small repair shops, they are often eager to please and will go the extra mile. You may be surprised how well they treat you.

SommerMatt wrote:

Feeling sick to my stomach over this TV breaking down.

I hate to keep harping on this... I've actually gotten a lot better in the last few years with raging over broken/non-functional items in my posession, but I am the kind of person who agonizes over big spending decisions and just barely pulled the trigger to buy this new TV and spend the $1400 in the first place.

I know I probably sound like a total asshole. I know people are starving to death, and dying, and everything else. I don't expect anyone's sympathy. I just find myself feeling this massive sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach over this... the longer the day goes on, the more I think and go through all the usual regrets and worries, it just keeps getting worse.

Ugh.

Nah, I understand. Especially if you were agonizing over the purchase already. Still, try not to stress over it until you do have to apply your boot to the backside of idiots. You could end up being amazed with the customer service still.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

...The experience couldn't have been less of what I was expecting. From what I understand, Samsung uses a similar model for in-home warranty service and if they use the same small repair shops, they are often eager to please and will go the extra mile. You may be surprised how well they treat you. :)

Thanks for the little ray of hope.

Funny thing-- I actually went on Twitter to complain about this, and specifically used the SAMSUNG name in the tweet hoping that Samsung corporate would be monitoring the service (like a lot of other companies are these days). Lo and behold, I get "Samsung USA" following me soon after, and a reply saying to "let them know if I don't get it fixed right away." If it's a legit account, it will be pretty amazing to see how easy this was to get someone's attention. A good lesson for those who "don't see the point of using Twitter."

SommerMatt wrote:
Parallax Abstraction wrote:

...The experience couldn't have been less of what I was expecting. From what I understand, Samsung uses a similar model for in-home warranty service and if they use the same small repair shops, they are often eager to please and will go the extra mile. You may be surprised how well they treat you. :)

Thanks for the little ray of hope.

Funny thing-- I actually went on Twitter to complain about this, and specifically used the SAMSUNG name in the tweet hoping that Samsung corporate would be monitoring the service (like a lot of other companies are these days). Lo and behold, I get "Samsung USA" following me soon after, and a reply saying to "let them know if I don't get it fixed right away." If it's a legit account, it will be pretty amazing to see how easy this was to get someone's attention. A good lesson for those who "don't see the point of using Twitter."

Keep me posted on the Twitter thing. Perhaps between your experience and a dude Tweeting to save a suicidal lady, I may become a believer yet!

And sorry about the TV issues-- I've heard that Samsung has some of the best customer service versus a great deal of other manufacturers, I'm betting you'll be okay in the end.

GAH! If HDDs are OS Independent, then why the hell did the programmer try to use a HDD test plan to show me that the OS rules work? I want a coder monkey with a functional brain!

My guest. Visiting from out of state for four days, with two remaining. Rude, childish, and petulant. She's damned lucky I take the idea of being courteous to a guest seriously, or she'd be in a damned hotel right now. May I somehow summon the fortitude to remain the considerate host for two more days.

Coldstream wrote:

My guest. Visiting from out of state for four days, with two remaining. Rude, childish, and petulant. She's damned lucky I take the idea of being courteous to a guest seriously, or she'd be in a damned hotel right now. May I somehow summon the fortitude to remain the considerate host for two more days.

Sto-ries! Sto-ries!

Coldstream wrote:

My guest. Visiting from out of state for four days, with two remaining. Rude, childish, and petulant. She's damned lucky I take the idea of being courteous to a guest seriously, or she'd be in a damned hotel right now. May I somehow summon the fortitude to remain the considerate host for two more days.

Of course, that begs the question why she is your visitor in the first place!

Rallick wrote:

Of course, that begs the question why she is your visitor in the first place! ;-)

Great ass?

Waiting to find out if the offer you made on a house is accepted, and the knot in the stomach the waiting is creating.

"Your video will load in 30 seconds...after you watch this advertisement."

When the hell did this become acceptable protocol for watching videos on the internet? God I hate forced-advertising for products I could care less about.

Aaron D. wrote:

"Your video will load in 30 seconds...after you watch this advertisement."

When the hell did this become acceptable protocol for watching videos on the internet? God I hate forced-advertising for products I could care less about.

But what about products you couldn't care less about?

Less grammar Nazi: I don't see how else they can get their advertising revenues out of online videos. The main problem with commerce on the internet is that it's so hard to monetize things. It's easier to get advertising revenue for a streaming media site if that site can promise advertisers that their viewers will definitely see the add.

adam.greenbrier wrote:

Less grammar Nazi:...their viewers will definitely see the add.

Clearly.

Minarchist wrote:
adam.greenbrier wrote:

Less grammar Nazi:...their viewers will definitely see the add.

Clearly. ;)

Nice.

I hate printers. Inkjet, laser, desktop, office... doesn't matter... hate them all.

Product placement!

I hate it, but less than streaming ads.

Getting the f*cking run-around.

So, it's been 4 days now, with absolutely no visible progress on getting my HDTV fixed (see post above). Called Sunday to initially report the problem, was told someone would call in "1-2 business days." On Monday, someone calls me asking "do you still need the repair?" Well, yes, DUH. Ok, I am told, "someone will call you in 1-2 business days." two days later, someone else calls me and takes me information (including serial number, etc.). I am told to wait on the line while this person see if the parts for my TV are "in stock." I am then told that the parts are NOT in stock, and that my case will be forwarded to yet another agency, which will get back to me (maybe) in (you guessed it) "1-2 business days."

Really, really disgusted by this whole thing already.

Lawyers. Seriously.

M and T Bank. I switched to you guys because my previous local bank blew chunks, and I heard good things about you... so why are you failing so horribly? Now I have over a hundred dollars in fees because you are the only bank I've ever used that takes forever to clear funds.