The old "Things I Hate" thread has fallen off the page, and it was getting kinda full anyway... So I'm starting a new one. I don't know what number we left off at, but....

N+1. Seeing a "remix" of a cool song on Morpheus/KaZaA, downloading it, and finding out it's just the radio edit or album cut of said song which some toolbag opened in SoundForge, POORLY mixed in a bunch of stock breakbeats/sound effects which may or may not match the sound or rhythm of the original, and felt the need to show his "MaD Sk33lZ" by subjecting people to downloading it, thinking it's a real remix.

This crap makes me want to institute an age restriction on sound editors.

Just avoid Morpheus and Kazaa and the problem's solved.

One of the things I hate is cheap sharware or disguised freeware that installs all sorts of secret little monitors and additional software without asking or even letting you know. Case in point: Kazaa. El piece of Crapaa.

Bruno

BTW, Morpheus is now just a Gnutella client. I've yet to determine if they intend to have their own Gnutella network or not, but they no longer have any relation to Kazaa.

Heh. Yeah but Gnutella blows. FastTrack is the best P2P app going these days.

And it's *really* easy to de-spy Kazaa. It uses the Cydoor ad engine and all you need is a little dummy DLL file to replace it with and BAM no spyware.

I hate spyware but I love almost instant access to music I would never find elsewhere.

If it were only the spyware! I had to clean my brother's machine of various pieces of crap that came with Kazaa.

I've only ever used WinMX for any length of time (about 2 weeks back at the end of last summer). Most of what I downloaded is trashed in some way (poor rip, even though lists a high bitrate, cut before the song ends, etc...) Then a bunch of stuff is fine. I managed to get the entire new Charlatans album before it was released. I bought it of course (but kept two of the downloaded tracks because they're not on the Canadian release - I'm still planning on buying the UK import and all the singles).

Ok, I hate all the knobs I saw post about the Audio Center on Slashdot. And I hate it when people put the toilet paper roll in backwards (rolling back and under instead of forward and over.)

Bruno

I hate it when I spend all day long playing Gran Turismo 3 during Spring Break, and three minutes before my wife gets home from a long work day, I put on clothes and pick up the place, and she doesn't even notice the effort I made.

Greg

I hate when I get a season pass to a show on tivo and it records it multiple times in one day

Yeah, well I hate it when my TiVo forgets how to change the channel. I'm having to reset my DSS receiver and TiVo all the time these days....

I hate it when I'm trying to finish off my night of posting by hitting post #1400 and there's bloody no one else writing anything useful for me to follow up to. Damn.

Bruno

Oops. Cool, only one more post needed.

I hate all you damn post number whores.

I hate that people still bash the hell out of Netware without ever looking at it.

And for any sysadmins out there, look at Netware 6. It's actually pretty cool. Not cool enough to displace my Linux server here, but still cool. Think .Net, but working now and the model MS copied. Novell calls it OneNet. Remember the fish commercials? Aparently there was going to be more.

(I just got done with 2 days training on Netware 6, so I have a pretty good idea about it now)

I haven't used Netware since early 5.0 days, and it was just starting to not be a piece of crap then. It didn't help that they gave everybody who could write their name down a CNE certificate (and they were proud of it, too). I specifically had a system once where I'd fixed a problem in a very kludgy manner and I suggested to my manager that she hire someone to come in for a day or two and fix it right. By the time she left, it was in worse shape than before I ``fixed'' it. I ``fixed'' it again.

The fact that Win2K won't let me rename this mp3 file, claiming that it's already in use, because everytime I highlight it to rename it, it has to pull up the damn little preview thing and lock the file.

Piece of shit!

I hate ....

TAXES TAXES TAXES TAXES TAXES

SPEEDING FINES TAXES SPEED TRAPS TAXES

High cost of living ... due to TAXES

Yup, think I can sum it all up in 1 word ...... TAXES

[Q] What's the difference between paying the government and paying the mafia?

[A] At least you get protection from the mafia, but the government use YOUR money to create and enforce laws that work against YOU!


- sorry everyone - but this is about things we hate!!!!

N+1. Seeing a "remix" of a cool song on Morpheus/KaZaA, downloading it, and finding out it's just the radio edit or album cut of said song which some toolbag opened in SoundForge, POORLY mixed in a bunch of stock breakbeats/sound effects which may or may not match the sound or rhythm of the original, and felt the need to show his "MaD Sk33lZ" by subjecting people to downloading it, thinking it's a real remix.

N+2. The same, but on Radio 1. (For instance, "Freak Like Me" by the Sugarbabes, this morning.)

Peter

I hate when I get a season pass to a show on tivo and it records it multiple times in one day

Yeah, but the commercials are different! You didn't want to miss those, did you?

I hate when I get a season pass to a show on tivo and it records it multiple times in one day

Yeah! I get 10 episodes of the Osbournes a day! Damn funny, but I don't need it 10 friggin' times! It's the guide data this is at fault, though. It doesn't even differentiate between weekly episodes, it's the same data for all showings of the Osbournes.
What I find strange is when the guide data says "First-run, Repeat" in the same show. Isn't that a bit odd?

Aw, come on, Bitt, it's too easy to bash Windows. Let's see some originality!

Besides that preview pane crap is one of the first things I turn off when I install Win2K. Well, that, and the "Personalized Menus" which are an abomination of UI design. "Hey, let's take menu items that someone doesn't use for a few days and HIDE THEM." One of the basics in UI design is that everything should stay in the same place so you'll find it the next time you go looking for it. How Redmond thinks this is a "feature" is beyond me.

Oh wait, am I Windows-bashing? Aw, fsck it, let's turn this into another Windows bashing thread.

I hate that people still bash the hell out of Netware without ever looking at it.

People don't generally bash the ideas in NetWare. For instance, their directory became the standard on which LDAP and eventually M$'s Active Directory were born from. Unfortunately Novell couldn't market bottled water in the middle of the desert, so their products, while being great technically, lost market share as real desktop operating systems took on many of the features of Novell's "Network Operating System."

I think people who bash it are people who've had to use archaic versions of NetWare which are still running all over the place because, well, surprise! They work. But they sure ain't pretty!

I hate it when you try to unsubscribe from some stupid email spam list that you dont even know how you got on, and the unsubscribe email comes back as undeliverable.

grrr...

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And I hate it when people put the toilet paper roll in backwards (rolling back and under instead of forward and over.)

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i hate the stupid 'pants'-ing look they give you when you bring this particular faux pas to their attention...
--
sancho
and i also hate it when folks feel the need to interject cutesy little foreign terms into conversation in an effort to feign "culture"...

Yeah, but while yours is a design issue, mine's an outright bug.

Please tell me how to disable the preview pane. I've tried all of the ``Cusomize Folder'' options and nothing I do seems to work....

I hate it when my first contribution to Hijack gets released and my hard drive cable starts playing silly buggers and stops me installing it, testing and investigating peoples' issues.

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I hate it when you try to unsubscribe from some stupid email spam list that you dont even know how you got on, and the unsubscribe email comes back as undeliverable.

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Or when you go to unsubscribe like they tell you to by clicking on such and such and then you end up with 10 times the amount of spam from them because now they know they had a real e-mail address.

I'm fairly certain this was on the old thread, but it really pisses me off -

Drivers who absolutely NEED their fog lights on when it ain't foggy, or night time, in town, with windows down and HUGE BASS, and shades and baseball caps.

I know why they do it - to attract attention - but I don't know why they can't just grow up.

Oh yeah, and the poor build quality of mobile phones. I'd be quite happy having the same phone for more than a year or two as I don't need the latest whizbang model when I already have all the features I want, but they definitely build in obsolescence.

Nokia 8290. Had 2 friends try to destroy them and failed.

1. Dropped it into the snow, and didn't realise it. 2 days later finds it on top of the drying cement after the snow melted. Still powered on and worked fine.

2. Dropped into the street, face up. Runs over it with his car (1980 something Chevy Caprice, aka a boat). Finds it 2 days later, still works. Suffered a broken faceplate and LCD. Total repairs would have been about $20-$30 dollars.

The preview pane is what you get when you select "Enable Web content in folders" in the "General" tab of "Folder Options."

When NBC advertise "An all new Westwing" on tuesday and then really show a repeat on wednesday. Ditto for friends.

i hate being a thread killer. you know that last guy to post before a thread dies. make me feel all sad and such

Now THAT's something I can help you with. Sombody want to extend the same curtosy to me?

Oh, and while we're at it : I ab-so-lutely HATE it when people can't admit that they're wrong. You know, the kind that will keep on discussing with pointless arguments, when their point has been overthrown already ages ago. I mean, if you're wrong, you're wrong! ADMIT it dammit! There's no shame in that! Otherwise it's just plain pathetic.

Yes, stop arguing when it doesn't matter any more!

I hate it when married friends argue over stupid things in front of other people. A friend of mine and his wife once argued about whether or not it is better to keep the soap in a container or leave it out so it could "breath". This is not something to get in a fight about, much less in front of another couple. The real kicker is that she used to work in costmetics and sold the very soap they were talking about. Now, I don't actually know who was right here, but come on guy, if she used to sell the stuff and it's such a tiny think, she has the right to win! Just get over it. If my wife and I disagreed on which OS, or processor, or graphics card was the best, she would just drop it and let me win even if I was being stupid because I am a programmer and in the end it just doesn't matter.

-Jeff

What I hate: Spam

I keep getting the same spam in my inbox that always slips through my Hotmail junk mail filter:

In reply to:

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U N I V E R S I T Y D I P L O M A S
...
Diplomas from prestigious non-accredited
universities...

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Now there is an oxymoron.

He always comes though different ISPs, so reporting him won't do any good. I really want to get this guy, but what can you do.

oh dear lord. i know what your talking about.
The ones i cant stand are teh ones taht pop up on my desktop. I dont know if any one has seen them. They are always for some little web cam. I swear that microsoft is in on it but i dont know enough to try to stop it. I wish they was some way to stop them. but what can you do

They are always for some little web cam

There was a fairly long discussion of the X10 cameras a couple of weeks ago...

/Michael

unless it's how to get rid of the damn thing i dont want to hear about it.

Yes, it's how to get rid of x10 ads. You can also use your HOSTS file to map different IPs to localhost (127.0.0.1) which will nuke a lot of garbage. Do a search of the BBS and you'll find the thread. One simple click and no more x10 popups.

None of this is SPAM however. SPAM is generally mail and news offtopic and mass postings of some advertising nature. Specifically, ninti was talking about UBE - Unsolicited Bulk Email. It costs your ISP money and it costs you money in the end. Not the same thing as sending junk mail through the post office either.

spamcop.net
http://spamassassin.taint.org

I'm probably going to install Spam Assassin on the colocated server one of my websites lives on. Then I'll use it as a forwarding gateway for all my mail. Should clean things up quite a bit.

Complain to your ISP or other mail provider if you get a lot of junk mail. They can institute all sorts of filters and use all sorts of human-tracked blocking lists to help with the problem. You might also consider a mail account at Spamcop or some other service. You can even go with a place that allows white-lists, so anyone sending you mail for the first time has to manually send it again with a confirmation code to get onto your accepted-list.

Bruno

They can institute all sorts of filters and use all sorts of human-tracked blocking lists to help with the problem.

And they can also end up blocking the spam so effectively that the emails you WANT to get are blocked as well.

Just ask Tony Fabris what happens to email from Alaska...

tanstaafl.

SpamBouncer has been great for me, and I have it set never to automaticially toss mail. It filters my mail into three folders, Bulk, Blocked, and Spam. Bulk is where any mail not directly addressed to me, plus it fell through all my filters. Blocked is where possible spam goes, but it also sees quite a bit of my new unfiltered listservs. Not a huge problem as a quick procmail edit fixes that. And then Spam, that is where I have only had 5 legitimate messages go out of thousands that have hit it. With Bulk, usually it means it's time for a filter. Blocked gets a quick check once in a while to delete the junk, and Spam gets scanned from time to time before deleting it.

If your someone who dosen't run their own mail server, but know your ISP runs a Unix based OS, see if they can implement it with header additions. Before I switched to IMAP mail, I had Spamblocker adding a simple header that my mail program could pick up on.

oh happy day. I might just charge all my roommates for this knowledge. not to mention i can have one less thing to bother my therapist about, now it's down to the real issues like coping with the ex-wife.

If you don't like X10 ads, you guys need to check this link out. It sets a cookie that the X10 ads check for. If it exists, the popups immediately close themselves. The default is for 30 days, but you can change the day variable to anything. I change it to 365 myself. I figure that's enough.

http://www.x10.com/home/optout.cgi?DAY=30&PAGE=http://www.x10.com/x10ads1.htm

Also check out Sneakemail. I use them and it's great. And free. Basically, they generate random email addresses for you. You can block certain addresses, or only allow certain addresses, and create as many as you want, cancel them at any time, etc.

Hmmm - now that's tempting. I have always had nokias, the latest being the 6210. I like the UI, but the build quality sucks. I may just have to get an 8290 then. Correction, the 8290 does not appear to be a UK product - the closest being the 8210, which has no IR so it won't be useful for me.

Quick search - ahh, there's the one:
The 7650 - full colour GUI, joystick, built in VGA digital camera, 4MB RAM, IR, Bluetooth, Java, SMTP&POP, HSCSD & GPRS and dual band.

Coooool!

Ahh yes, they do something I do on my own server as well. I recently converted my server to PostFix, and gained an alias ability that has been handy. Now whenever I fill out a form that I need info from, but am afraid of spam, I do an address like drakino_spamcom@miniinfo.net. It's perfectly valid, and is easy to then filter if that site starts spamming me. I use different ones for different sites so I can learn who sold my info. riocar@miniinfo is an example of this too, as the site uses a few aliases for me so I know what the problem is.

For anyone out there with a ton of soam, the best thing to do is change your address and start using these services from day one. I still have my @usa.net address, and it continues to get spammed heavially. My new address though has avoided most of it.

The deal with what you call aliases has been available with sendmail for quite a while. The default for the delimiter there was a `+'. I'm using Postfix now, as well, and I use it with the Cyrus IMAP server to deliver mail directly into subfolders of my INBOX, especially for mailing lists and whatnot. Keeps my main INBOX tidy for stuff that was actually sent to me.

The deal with what you call aliases has been available with sendmail for quite a while.

Really? I searched all over for how to do it before finally giving up and going to Postfix.

Yup. Been in there since 8.7, I think. Search somewhere for ``detail'' and/or ``plussed'' in conjuction with ``sendmail''. Regardless, the defaults for generating .cf files allow for it. The local_procmail and cyrus mailers do something intelligent with the detail (what they refer to the local part after the `+'), and the local mailer just throws it away (but leaves it in the ``To:'' header, obviously).

In reply to:

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the closest being the 8210, which has no IR so it won't be useful for me.

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Er... yes it does. I use mine all the time for communicating with my Palm IIIc.

*sigh* You know you're surrounded by geeks when a topic of things you hate, starting off with bad music remixes, ends up talking about sendmail. :P

(Not like I'm anyone to talk, though...)

Just thought of this one: Fade outs at the end of songs. I know everyone does it (even Rush), but to me it always feels like the writer just ran out of steam and could think of a good ending. I hope I never succomb to whatever it is that makes people to decided to do this to their songs.

-Jeff

Fade outs at the end of songs. I know everyone does it (even Rush), but to me it always feels like the writer just ran out of steam and could think of a good ending.

Not usually.

I agree that sometimes a song fade out is done because the artist couldn't write an ending. But more often, the artist fades it out because they deliberately WANTED it to fade out. There is a certain kind of "feel" that you get with a fade out that is usually exactly what the artist was going for.

To use the Rush example, they often write a song with the full intent of fading it out. They've already decided that the song needs the fade out as a proper ending. But as they're recording the ending bars to cover the fade, their playing gets better because they're less stressed about the rolling tapes. So they decide to leave all the good stuff in there, all the way up to the ending, but they still wanted the fade (because they want the end of the song to feel a certain way) so they still do the fade, too. The fade on a Rush song sometimes lasts all the way to the point where they stop playing. If you turn up the volume on some of their fade outs, you'll actually hear them end the song. Examples are "Between the Wheels" from Grace Under Pressure, "Grand Designs" from Power Windows, and "Mystic Rhythms" from Power Windows.

Also remember that most artists (Rush included) need to write "endings" to songs that fade anyway, because they don't usually do fades in a live performance. So most of the time, even a song that fades has a written ending, even if only to cover the live concerts.

More detail straight from the horse's mouth:

"Do you plan in advance for songs to fade out?"

Geddy Lee (Guitar Player, April 1986): "Sometimes. Sometimes we're not sure, so we ride out for a long time, and then end it. We have the option. Invariably, every time we decide we're going to fade out, we start getting into the fade and everyone loosens up and the track starts getting better. That happened with "Mystic Rhythms" [Power Windows]; the fade-out is about a minute long because we liked every little nuance. The end of "Grand Designs" [Power Windows] is also like that. There are about seven phrases, and they're all different. None of that was planned; Neil was doing the drum track, and at the end, the sequencers were going and he just kept punching-in and going, basically flailing and hacking through it. Everybody loved it, so we decided to keep it in. Then we had to learn to play it onstage."

I will give you the Rush does this far less than most bands, and I'll even give you that they do it for "artistic" reasons. I still contend that this technique of ending a song is WAY overused. I just feel cheated at the end of a great song that doesn't seem to resolve. If the intent of the musician is to evoke a certain feeling in the listener by doing a fade out (which appears in the Geddy quote), that makes sense to me. The problem is that there are so many songs that fade out, much to the same effect (IMO), that it makes any songs that truly need a fade out not have this feel. Incidently, I am much more tolerant of fade ins because they are hardly ever used.

-Jeff

Not being respected in a $hitty job due to a $hitty market

I hate running down to the utility room and forgetting what tool I neded to grab or if I even went down to get a tool at all. I hate looking in the refridgerator and forgetting what ingredient or condiment it was that I wanted to grab out of it. I hate going to the store to get just three things and only being able to remember two of them when I walk in.

I also used to hate whan I had one more CD in the car than I had cases to put them in, and everything got put back in the wrong one. But I fixed that one once the empegs went on sale

I hate it when I'm at the music store looking at CDs, and I pick up a potential buy, only to wonder if I already have the cd in my collection. Usually, when I think I already have it, I don't. I hate it when I actually buy the cd only to find that I already have it stashed and hidden away in my collection somewhere. I really hate it when I forget to return that CD within the return period.

This motivated me to create and use a DB, which keeps track of my CDs, and whether or not I have it ripped and stored on my empeg unit.

I'm sure that we all hate getting 0wn3d.

Oh, and I hate ketchup packets. Why can't they put more ketchup in those stupid things so you don't have to open as many?

Yeah, and while we're on that subject, you'd think that Hood would realise that everybody uses 2 or more of their tiny cartons of milk/cream and double the size of them too. And sugar packets.

I hate when people create these stupid spellings of words to be "cool"
and when people can't spell words out all the way...
sure it's the internet but:
You saving time typing = Me wasting time deciphering
how much harder is it to write to instead of 2?

I hate it when people can't understand sarcasm too.

I wasn't talking about you doing it...
it just reminded me how much I hate it when people try to really use it as normal speech...
there's this kid that is a family friend, and he got my IM name, now almost everyday when he gets home from school he sends me messages saying "wasa" which is slang for the slang of what's up. I hate that. "wasa" that just pisses me off. And he uses 2 and U and all the other possibilities in his IM's all the time...

but hey...I'm just venting

I can't stand it when my cow-orkers use the printer on my desk, then just leave papers lying around. I'm starting to get even now though, I'm recycling the paper...Which side up is depending on my mood at the time.

I love the Simpson episode when Homer catches cannon balls in his guts when two teenages are talking:
- Dude, are you being sarcastic?
- I don't even know any more.

I hate it when the circus midgets come to town. They hide in my bushes and wait for me to come outside then beat me around the shins and knees with hormel summer sausages.
Oh god, did I say that out loud? I gotta go.....

Ahhhh, Carnies...is there anything they can't do?

Carnies...is there anything they can't do?

Bathe, if our local county fair is any indication...

After a 10 hour road trip yesterday I would like to add to the things I hate.

Drivers that:
a: tap their breaks every 10 seconds while driving along
b: get into the passing lane and go 1/2 mph faster than the car they are passing so it takes them forever to finally move back over
c: seem to be trying to run you over, so you move over to let them pass and instead they change lanes to be right behind you again
d: or once they hurry up and speed past you they get in front of you and drop their speed to slower than what you were going in the first place

There are others but those are the worst in my book.

I hate ALL of those too...
when they do that crap and it makes me turn my cruise control off...

Cruise control is *awesome* when every idiot on the road doesn't spoil it, which is about most of the time. Oh well.

Calvin

When I was very young, I did discover that ketchup packets were the perfect size for "stomping" You place them on the ground and stomp as hard as you can on approximately half of the packet. The other half of the packet explodes violently and creates quite a bit of area damage without getting a single drop on your foot.

They are also the perfect size for putting in someone's shoes. You split the packet on both ends, then you hide them in people's shoes for a fun surprise.

They're pretty much not the perfect size to use as food though, oh well.

Calvin

http://www.shadowgallery.co.uk/sandwich.gif

is the standard text on military use of tomato ketchup.

Peter

b: get into the passing lane and go 1/2 mph faster than the car they are passing so it takes them forever to finally move back over

You mean in your part of the country they actually move back over? Count your blessings!

tanstaafl.

I don't know what you fellows have in england in the early years of school, but we had school lunches populated with these ketchup packets and these tiny milk cartons. The milk cartons can be turned into a lethally scary weapon very easily as well. If you drink all the milk, and carefully fold down the cathedral top so that it is inverted *into* the carton and place it on the floor... at that point you have a fairly rigid and airtight container that when you stomp on it with sufficient force, it yields an explosion louder than most fireworks. Very effective if you can manage it under a cafeteria table.

On the other hand, I recall puting ketchup packets *inside* the carton and this did not work so well. :-p

Calvin

We found the milk cartons not as good as the fruit juice cartons. They were known as Poppers coz you could 'pop' the juice into your mouth. Kids knew them as poppers coz they exploded when stomped on. aah the memories.

Fruit juice boxes are better, but they rarely served them in my elementary school! ;-)

Calvin

Why can't they put more ketchup in those stupid things so you don't have to open as many?

Because then the fast food places would have to charge more for them. I haven't found a place in the US that does this, but it seemed common in the UK back in `98. One place in Scotland charged 20 pence per packet, and the McDonalds I remember going to in London was 10 pence.

Heh, that brought back memories of an interesting accident in high school. I was walking out to the bench we usually sat at outside on warm days, and hadn't seen the yogart that my friend dropped. He was walking around to the other side when I stepped on it, exploding it at him and the wall behind him. I laughed because of the perfect outline of his body on the wall, and I remember getting hit for that.

Ahh, the memories...

I hate web sties where you want to search for a product and they only list the product in their press releases or other achive correspondence. If I'm in 'products' and hit search, I would like to search the products.

I hate it when molex power connectors become stuck in the hard drive's power socket. Why are those things so damn tight, and when you finally bust it loose, you end up jamming your hand into some sharp thing inside the case...

HEAR HEAR!

Death to the molex connectors!!!!!

Really! Where do they think those things are going? When I get a tight one, I usually just twist it out, breaking one side of the drive's connector. It makes it much easier to remove the next time.

And even easier solution would be to use SCA drives. They're so much easier to deal with.

a flat screwdriver can be used to lever the plug out usually.
It is a silly connector really.

I hate it when you help a stranger (who happens to be stunning) change the flat tyre (which you noticed in the firstplace and even left a notice on their windscreen) on their car, even using your own jack coz they don't have one and despite asking where the best place for a cheap meal is they don't get the hint and say they don't know and leave. [breath]

Maybe she did get the hint.

Most likely so. ;8^)

mmm maybe..

Maybe you should try leaving out the word "cheap" next time.

Ah. See? There's the insight.

Helps to have a lady around here, to remind us when we're being stupid.

I do what I can to help!

oops, my dumb.

We were in an expensive suburb. I didn't want her to think I wanted a $20 meal for it. But there really is no way to dig my way out of this hole. The moment has long gone, I'll let it go. snif

No no no no no. You should have taken her out for a meal not expected her to treat you because you fixed her tire. Gee, no wonder you got no where. I doubt someone stunning would ever have to pay for a meal.

Next time maybe you will get it right

(Though it would have been nice if she had "offered" on her own.)

Aftermarket car fins.... decent sized after market fins are ok... but whats with the guy (I've seen literally 20 to 30 in the last month) in the lowered Mitsubishi Eclipse, with the three tier fin?? I don't get it.... or the guy with the 1983 Toyota pickup truck thats got the "To" and the "Ta" painted over to leave "YO" with a frickin fin over the bed?? What possible purpose could these serve? Do these vehicles go so fast that they need fins to keep them on the ground? I somehow doubt it....

Lopan, you weren't here when we had our long discussions about the Rice Boy Page, were you?

Hate: Car stickers of Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes pissing on things. It is basically a huge sign that says "I am a stupid redneck". Do these people actually think this is in some way humorous. I see some now where he is farting on things too. What's wrong, pissing wasn't low class enough for them?

My favorite part about that is that, outside collections of the strips themselves, Bill Watterson never authorized any Calvin and Hobbes merchandise. At all. Ever.

Not that folks were thinking that Calvin pissing on stuff was a licensed illustration.

Agreed. Funniest part is... those who own the stickers are excactly the kind of type who wouldn't "get" C&H properly...

So true, although thats probably the reason they have it. We tend to make fun of things we don't understand (or we tend to make fun of things that are stupid )

-Jeff

I'd seen the riceboy (friend sent it to me) but missed it on here... Funny stuff.

The other day I saw one of Calvin kneeling before a cross. I got a good kick out of that one.

I saw that today myself. At first from a distance and a quick glance I thought he was doing something else. Glad he wasn't because that would have been going a little too far.

Heh, I thought the same thing.

AHHHHHHHHHHH. I [censored] hate websites that have those little banner ads somewhere in the page that keep loading and changing. So when you hit the Back button, it just reloads the stupid fcking ads until it goes through all of them. So you end up having to hit back like 6 times to get to the previous page.

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After a 10 hour road trip yesterday I would like to add to the things I hate.

Drivers that:

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Amen. I'll add:
1. The impatient spaz at stoplights who inch and jerk forward in anticipation of the green light. After several such false starts, they finally cease there efforts. Then when the light does turn green, they sit there for a second or two in la-la land before going.
2. Four-way stop dorks. The dork pulls up and stops at a four-way stop sign. You, a least five seconds later, pull up to a different sign. The dork sits there and watches you approach, slow down, slow down more, and finally come to a complete stop. Not until you have stopped dead does the dork proceed through the intersection.
3. The lesser relative to the four-way stop dork. The nimrod who doesn't quite understand the concept of yielding the right of way. Two varieties:
3(A). "I've stopped, so I'm going". Completetly disregards who actually is "next". Often causes panic braking, swerving, and cursing by other drivers.
3(B). "I've stopped, nobody's going". Thinks once they've stopped, they have to remain there until all other vehicles in all other directions have gone first. Of course, most of those other drivers are competent enough to know it's not their turn, and sit there waiting on the nimrod to go. The result, a standoff.

Four way stop signs. Ugh. The UltraMegaNong (UMN tm) who put them there should be arrested. Stop signs on one road and give way on the other would be far easier for drivers. It's all a secret plot by 'THEM'.

Assholes waiting at a light to turn left who decide to cut across oncoming traffic as soon as the light changes. And the real tossers that then decide to follow as if they are invisibly connected to the car in front. It *really* pisses me off sometimes when I see 4 or 5 vehicles pretending to be an 18 wheel truck. It especially seems to be a favorite tactic of SUV and minivan drivers - as if being 2 feet above everyone-else gives them special rights.

The dumb ass that goes in the '12 item or less' line at the food store with 25 items, a handful of coupons, then asks after they are all rung up 'can I write a check?'. Of course, I'm behind them with 1 item. Am I the only one who would like to take these people outside and beat them about the head and neck with a Hormel sausage stick?

The dumb ass that goes in the '12 item or less' line at the food store with 25 items, a handful of coupons, then asks after they are all rung up 'can I write a check?'. Of course, I'm behind them with 1 item. Am I the only one who would like to take these people outside and beat them about the head and neck with a Hormel sausage stick?


We don't often have this problem in the Bronx. Usually the cashier looks up at them and says "can't you [censored] read?". Then the position behind this person becomes amusing.

Ah, I see you live in Houston. Where the lights go like this:

Green: Wait for the cars to finish going through, then go.
Yellow: Go faster.
Red: Next 4 cars go through.

I hate it when people put on their flashers in bad weather. Im like ok you dont have car trouble so dont put your damn flashers on we can see your taillights just fine.

How about those who don't even turn on their damn headlights in bad weather...Yea, turning on your headlights might not help you see better, but it makes it easier for me to see your sorry ass so I don't run into you.

That's my biggest gripe, even more than no turn signals.

That's my biggest gripe...

Really?

I didn't think it was possible that anything could be more irritating than the out and out rude and inconsiderate behavior of the "left-lane-bandit" (right lane in the UK and Australia) -- you know, the guy who drives in the left lane, doing exactly the speed limit, driving right beside someone in the right hand lane going the same speed. For mile after mile. Totally, completely, ob-f*cking-blivious to the traffic backed up behind him (correction: her -- at least 95% if the time it is a woman).

These people seem to come in three varieties: (1) the driver who is completely unaware of what is going on around him/her; (2) the driver who upon entering the highway immediately goes to the left lane (even if there is not another car for a mile in either direction) because there is usually less traffic in that lane; (3) the driver who will very shortly be exiting the highway from the left lane -- "very shortly" in this instance being defined as anything less than the next six to ten miles.

If I could just have some sort of magical beam I could shoot out from my car that would instantly fry the engine electronics of the car ahead of me...

tanstaafl.

Well in Oz right-lane-banditism is actually illegal and you can be given a ticket for it. Only $40 though and you still get all the wankers doing it.

Cops give the tickets to wrong the people though. Like 5am (i.e. stuff all traffic on the road) my boss's son picks him up from the airport and gets a ticket on the way home for sitting in the right hand lane.

Even worse than people that drive slow in the left lane are drivers that can't decide what speed to travel constantly speed up and slow down. Use the fucking cruise control!! At least the slow left lane guy stays at the same speed and won't try passing you and then slow down in front of you so you have to pass him again.

Well in Oz right-lane-banditism is actually illegal and you can be given a ticket for it.

According to the vehicle code in my state, it's illegal here too. We even have "slower traffic keep right" signs. The problem is that it's never enforced.

Instead of ticketing people who create traffic jams by being left-lane bandits, our state governments choose to build more and more lanes onto our freeways.

I hate University bookstores. Those F’ing bastards sell you books for $120 then (if they decide to buy them back at the end of the semester) buy it back for less than 30% of what you paid for it, only to sell again the following semester at a discount of $10. They chose to start using the 4th edition of the text, which offers nothing more than the third edition, thus dicking me out of money I could use next semester on their over priced books. I swear they just do this to screw me. Can someone say “Book BBQ”

I definitly agree. I hate buying textbooks as they're always outrageous. I'd recomend half.com if it's a rather common book and you're in the US. You'll often get a much better deal. Two organizations on our campus have set up used book swapping web sites, so I'm anxious to try them out next semester. We'll see how it goes.

Matthew

What Pisses me off even more than the damn bookstores is the idiot teachers who use previous editions. I started taking a class which required the 6th edition, dropped it so i could have some more hours at work, signed up for it the following summer and guess what had to buy the 5th edition. so I now have $400 worht of unit operations books that I might be able to get 50 bucks for.

I'd recomend half.com if it's a rather common book
it's an accounting book. I dont know how popular it is but if i cant sell it on half.com I will soak it in gas and toss a match at it.

Well, in that case you should know to donate the book to charity and take the deduction.

Yeah, that would be the generous thing to do, but I would get so much more pleasure from burning it. I’m all about instant gratification, and if I knew the guy that benefited from the donation i would donate it but the chance of it ever being used for anything other than a door stop are slim.

(For all of you network admins out there:) Has anyone noticed that all of a sudden, ``premises wiring'' (that is, wiring inside a building or, well, premises) has become known as ``premise wiring''? As if the wiring is simply assumed to exist or something.

I really wish people would consult their dictionaries at least every once in a while. Like before writing something for public consumption.

Misplaced apostrophes. That's what I hate.

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Misplaced apostrophes. That's what I hate.

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Surely you mean, "They're what you hate."

Yeah, yeah. In my defense, there was no misplaced apostrophe in that post -- just singular/plural confusion .

I hate that too, but have a tendency to do it myself (usually using it's when I mean its, as you've noticed when proofreading the help files for emplode), so can't make a fuss.

But, my pet hate is the evil, don't-deserve-to-be-using-a-computer types that use feet and inch marks when they should be using curly quotes. And improper use of hyphens, en-dashes and em-dashes.

Premise wiring. Hehehe. That fits into the same category as one of my least favorite bastardizations, "Long and sorted history" (vice "long and sordid history.")

The previously-mentioned-in-another-grammar-nazi-thread "for all intensive purposes" probably fits in with these fun grammar snafu's as well.

People that call a website a "websight" bugs the hell out me personally

- Trevor

Do UK keyboards have separate keys for ``curly quotes''? My US keyboard has only one key that has the (as you put it) feet and inches marks and another key that has the backtick. I've never seen any separate keys for real quotation marks.

Or do you just mean in typesetting? (My sordid experience with TeX has made me start using `` and '', personally. (That's two backticks and two ``feet marks'', which TeX translates into real quotation marks.)

I'm guessing you're a tech writer, David?

You're average joe doesn't get mad about em-dashes and en-dashes.

I think he must mean typesetting. I've only got " ' and `

You using plain TeX or LaTeX?

- Trevor

Okay, I'm going to have to admit my ignorance. What IS the difference?!?

I'm a programmer not a tech writer so I don't get much choice of dashes

- Trevor

Actually, he probably means in Microsoft Word (or other word processing program). But, I know Microsoft Word automatically changes regular quotes into curly quotes where appropriate.

Ohh. Okay. I use LaTeX for most of my documentation Everything goes where it should be and I don't need to worry about formatting

Microsoft Word (Or any of the Microsoft Office applications) is the bane of my existance. I really do dislike their odd binary stream format. I don't mind the actual program though.

My friends are forever asking me to recover their documents from bad floppy disks. And since they use a complicated binary format it's interesting to recover. I should start charging soon

- Trevor

An en-dash is less wide than an em-dash. An em-dash is used as a dash, that is, in parenthetical situations. The en-dash is used pretty much exclusively for ranges. They are both wider than the hyphen, which is used in hyphenated words. The em-dash and en-dash are supposedly named that way because the em-dash is as wide as a capital `M' and the en-dash is as wide as a capital `N', but that's rarely actually true anymore.

I'm a typesetter/printer by trade, so I only complain about printed documents. Correct typesetting in websites and email isn't worth the hassle, plus there are all the characterset issues and so on to deal with.

And I've never used TeX.
One of Words (few) redeeming features is that it uses curly quotes and inserts en- or em-dashes where appropriate.

My main gripe is people who use hyphens as en-dashes in display type - it looks awful; and these people chrage a fortune for their supposed design ability.

Another gripe is em dashes used with spaces on either side. Only en-dashes do that.

As a general rule for parenthetical use, British form is 'space en-dash space' and US form is just an em-dash with no spaces.

In screen work, I use a single hyphen over a double hyphen -- for a dash. The double thing is a hangover from typewriters, along with double spaces after a period.

I really pay far too much attention to all this sort of thing, but it is a good way of telling if someone knows what they are doing; which is useful as I have a sideline in providing critical appraisal of design work to companies who've just paid some London agency 50 grand to redesign their business cards.

Your average joe doesn't get mad about em-dashes and en-dashes.

Well, he should! Correctly typeset text is a right of the reader, not a privilege.

For the record, all horizontal lines in the middle of bits of text are not created equal. There are at least four kinds.

A hyphen is used to connect two or more words into one, where ambiguity would result were they separate: a "sub-aqua club" rather than a "sub aqua club".

An en rule (&endash; in HTML, often represented as two hyphens where unavailable) is used for ranges: 4--12 megabytes per song. It's also used, with spaces each side, as a parenthetical separator -- rather in this manner.

An em rule (&emdash; or three hyphens) is used without spaces as a parenthetical separator---or occasionally to indicate direct speech---but is slightly old-fashioned these days.

The minus sign of mathematics is different again, typically longer than a hyphen but shorter than an en rule.

As for quote marks, it's more complicated still. The only quote-like characters in ASCII are the ' and " characters. Those are known as "unsexed" quotes (because they don't slant one way or the other) and are incorrect in typeset text except when used for the units of feet (or minutes) and inches (or seconds).

Whether for quotation of direct speech, or for scare quotes like those around "unsexed" above, the correct double quotes to use in typeset English text (other European languages are different) are the "66-like" and "99-like" ones available in HTML as “ and ” -- I don't have a Unicode spec handy to look up the exact character numbers. The correct single quotes to use are the "6-like" and "9-like" ones ‘ and ’. Apostrophe, the mark found in it's and similar words, is technically a different glyph from ’ but appears identical in all sane fonts.

The problem with all these sexed quotes is that they do not appear either in ASCII or in standard ISO8859-1. They appear in the reserved range (0x80-0x9F) of Microsoft code pages, and of Macintosh and Acorn encodings too -- but in three different places in those three encodings. That's why pages authored by Macintosh weenies sometimes look odd in Windows browsers (and vice versa): people have used the literal characters (unportable) rather than the entities (portable). The characters do not appear on standard keyboards (even French keyboards do not have the guillemet characters labelled).

Unix zealots tend to represent ‘ with grave accent and ’ with ', which looks wrong in almost all fonts these days.

This has been quite a long post already, so I'll stop ranting now, but I also hate people who think they can set text in small caps by using normal capitals in a smaller point size. Penguin Books do this on their spines these days. Penguin Books, for whom Jan Schichold once worked. How are the mighty fallen.

Peter

All that I ever wanted to know about typesetting and more. This BBS is great...

All that I ever wanted to know about typesetting and more. This BBS is great...

Hell yeah. Try to find this kind of discussion on the "Phat Noise" BBS.

Or is there even a Phat Noise BBS?

but I also hate people who think they can set text in small caps by using normal capitals in a smaller point size. Penguin Books do this on their spines these days

Oh, my. I have not seen that. I'll have to run down to the local bookstore and confirm it. I believe that poor typesetting from Penguin may be one of the signs of the Apocalypse.

Oh -- and you're right about ` and ' being inappropriately used (and by me), but since this board won't accept character entities, it's the best I can do. And in US typesetting, the em dash is still used for parenthetical clauses. But, then, that type of parenthetical clause has become fairly uncommon in US usage.

Erm...do you hate it when people who have no idea what these things mean (ie me) just use a - for anything that needs hyphenating or separating, and using ' and ' for emphasising (never ever using `, because it's too far out of normal typing range on my keyboard)

If so, sorry

Erm...do you hate it when people who have no idea what these things mean (ie me) just use a - for anything that needs hyphenating or separating, and using ' and ' for emphasising (never ever using `, because it's too far out of normal typing range on my keyboard)

In email, or on this BBS (i.e. when one can't do any better), then of course the annoyance centres on the ISO8859-1 committee or on the BBS software rather than the user...

On web sites or printed stuff, I actually think it damages the message if the typesetting is bad... it's a bit like MP3 compression artefacts: if you don't know what you're listening for, they you might never hear them, but once you do know what to listen for, even the smallest mistake irritates you...

Peter

Perhaps one day, Peter, you will get a dash named after you.

Rob