What first world problem did you have today?

Page 969 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,587
10,225
126
Kind of like, they tell you to click on TRAFFIC SIGNS, and then have a few squares with TRAFFIC LIGHTS, some with some signs like two pixels big. WTH do they really mean? Is it just a trick question?
 

pete6032

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2010
8,161
3,592
136
I would think a zero square captcha would be easy for a bot to defeat as it might just default to hitting skip on its first attempt to test the system.

The next captcha I got after this asked the same question - identify all the squares with bicycles, except it was a picture of a street and the street had a little bicycle lane logo painted on it. Still kind of questionable whether that was a "bicycle" but I went with and selected it and defeated the captcha.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MrSquished

snoopy7548

Diamond Member
Jan 1, 2005
8,266
5,334
146
The place I work makes us change our laptop passwords every couple of months. I tried to use variations of previous passwords, but it didn't meet the "secure" requirements, so after getting rejected about 6 times, I tried "Password!"

It worked. :confused:
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,661
13,833
126
www.anyf.ca
Getting cold and really starting to feel it in the house but trying to avoid running the heat since the natural gas rates are crazy now. Ran a space heater off battery/solar for a bit but since it's night I don't want to run it too long. Battery still holding at 24.5v last I checked though. (24v system)

Need to start figuring out my best approach to this, leaning towards wood stove or heat pump. Wood stove would be virtually free to run, while heat pump would be cheaper than gas while being better at distributing heat everywhere as it would use existing ductwork, but I'm still at mercy of hydro rates which could also go up. At least I could run that off solar though if I upgrade to a 240v inverter. Next regular week day that I'm off I think I will go get an estimate for both and go from there.
 

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,983
1,179
126
I ate too much of my DUI fries (Chili cheese fries topped with pastrami, carne asada and diced bacon) and now I feel a lil' queasy.
 
Last edited:

pete6032

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2010
8,161
3,592
136
Kind of like, they tell you to click on TRAFFIC SIGNS, and then have a few squares with TRAFFIC LIGHTS, some with some signs like two pixels big. WTH do they really mean? Is it just a trick question?
Sometimes I think it's purposely ambiguous in order to defeat bots? I know what you are referring to. I get those traffic sign ones all the time.
 

snoopy7548

Diamond Member
Jan 1, 2005
8,266
5,334
146
Getting cold and really starting to feel it in the house but trying to avoid running the heat since the natural gas rates are crazy now. Ran a space heater off battery/solar for a bit but since it's night I don't want to run it too long. Battery still holding at 24.5v last I checked though. (24v system)

Need to start figuring out my best approach to this, leaning towards wood stove or heat pump. Wood stove would be virtually free to run, while heat pump would be cheaper than gas while being better at distributing heat everywhere as it would use existing ductwork, but I'm still at mercy of hydro rates which could also go up. At least I could run that off solar though if I upgrade to a 240v inverter. Next regular week day that I'm off I think I will go get an estimate for both and go from there.

How about a dual fuel system? Heat pump for milder weather, and when it gets too cold/expensive to run it, switch to gas. That's what I'm hoping to do if/when my central AC goes - replace it with a heat pump and only use propane during the coldest winter days.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,661
13,833
126
www.anyf.ca
How about a dual fuel system? Heat pump for milder weather, and when it gets too cold/expensive to run it, switch to gas. That's what I'm hoping to do if/when my central AC goes - replace it with a heat pump and only use propane during the coldest winter days.

If I go the heat pump route that's what I'd want. I'm hoping the heat pump unit can just install like an AC unit. Even better if they can reuse the same inside coil and only need to change the outdoor unit. I just paid for that a few years ago though... so it kinda sucks to start messing with it again. But at least labour wise it might be less intense as the refrigerant lines etc are all in place so even if they have to replace both coils at least lot of the work is done.
 

pete6032

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2010
8,161
3,592
136
Had a crap ton of extra cardboard boxes this week due to deliveries. Could not get all the cardboard into my recycling bin. Cut up all boxes and put them in a separate whole cardboard box. Waiting to see if recycling service takes them tomorrow.
 

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
21,101
16,314
136
I liberated a mSATA SSD from a dead PC once, and along with a cheap mSATA to USB enclosure it has become my drive of choice when backing up customers' computers prior to a migration to a new PC.

There has always been a niggling issue with it in that the enclosure is metal and the drive rattles around inside it. Occasionally I get transfer throughput issues with it and/or event log disk errors, and I've attributed these to maybe the drive making contact with the metal enclosure causing grounding problems. It rarely happens so I haven't put much effort into fixing it, but I decided the other day that perhaps a bit of electrical insulation tape in a few key places inside the enclosure should stop the rattle.

When I opened the other end (not the USB end) of the enclosure, I noticed a bit of cushioning material, and I wondered whether maybe the lid at that end was oriented the wrong way around, tried it, sure enough no more rattle.

In my defence, IIRC when I was originally putting the drive in the enclosure I think the USB end was very particular about which way it would screw in properly, so I think I might have assumed that the other end was similarly picky and so when it screwed in properly first time I guessed it was the right way around?

Still, it was embarrassing.
 

Mai72

Lifer
Sep 12, 2012
11,562
1,741
126
I couldn't decide on if I should purchase the the 1tb or 2tb hard drive on my new laptop!!

Why oh why is life so difficult... :confused_old::confused_old::confused_old:
 

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,983
1,179
126
I couldn't decide on if I should purchase the the 1tb or 2tb hard drive on my new laptop!!

Why oh why is life so difficult... :confused_old::confused_old::confused_old:

You could do what one of my neighbors did a few weeks, they ordered a 2TB off Aliexpress. They were so proud when they told me the deal they found

"I found a 2TB on Aliexpress, the business was selling it for the same price as the 1TB they have. Sucks I gotta wait for a month for it to ship, but $50 was a deal for sure."

I told them they'll be having an incoming #1stworldproblem when the package arrives.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,661
13,833
126
www.anyf.ca
Lol I did the mistake of ordering 2TB used drives on ebay a while back. Only 4 of the 12 are suitable for raid use after testing. 4 of them flat out failed while the others work but have errors. It was actually a good deal, but it's not really something I'd recommend unless you're willing to take the risk. My goal was to grow one of my 9 drive raid arrays from 1TB drives to 2TB drives, but failing that, just use them for backup drives. I think what I will do is create another raid 5, which should be big enough to manually move data off one of my raid 10 arrays that also uses 2TB drives. Then I will break that array up, and add the drives to the new raid 5. Basically converting a raid 10 to raid 5, destructively. I eventually want to upgrade to all 8TB+ drives but it's a lot of money I'm not yet willing to spend.

The one thing with Ebay though is all the hidden fees. The listing was like $150 but it ended up costing like $400 in the end. Lots of stuff gets tacked on, and lot of the dollar amounts of various fees shown are in USD so it looks cheaper.
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
16,068
7,383
146
I originally ripped my original The Crow soundtrack CD to my PC back in 2009, but for some dumb reason encoded it at 96 kbps, and over the years, I could not stand how bad it sounded when it came across my playlist.

I finally decided to buy the CD again (lost original), and it arrived today. I opened it up to rip it to my computer, and realized none of the song titles looked the same.

I then realized, I ordered The Crow - The Original Motion Picture Score instead of The Crow - The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

:(
 

spacejamz

Lifer
Mar 31, 2003
10,971
1,679
126
This happened last week...I normally order pizza hut on my PC but the website was being squirrelly so I ordered on the app which I had only used once before when we ordered while at a friend's pool party over the summer. I didn't check the delivery address (which I finally saw after the pizza didn't show up after saying it was delivered) so my order of a large pizza and wings (had some friends over to watch Top Gun Maverick) went to my friend's house and I had to repeat my order on the app to my local pizza hut...
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,661
13,833
126
www.anyf.ca
Been dealing with Paypal all day trying to delete my account and not getting anywhere and it's quite frustrating. Just freaking delete it FFS!

It's now been escalated and I have to wait 5 business days for resolution. I also filed a complaint through the BBB so I'll wait to see what ends up resolving the issue first. My account won't even work if I try to do anything with it like try to buy or change any settings it just says "there's a problem with your account" so it's crippled anyway. I hate that they have my banking info and I have no way of removing it.
 

MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
26,067
24,397
136
Been dealing with Paypal all day trying to delete my account and not getting anywhere and it's quite frustrating. Just freaking delete it FFS!

It's now been escalated and I have to wait 5 business days for resolution. I also filed a complaint through the BBB so I'll wait to see what ends up resolving the issue first. My account won't even work if I try to do anything with it like try to buy or change any settings it just says "there's a problem with your account" so it's crippled anyway. I hate that they have my banking info and I have no way of removing it.

Some companies make you jump through hoops to cancel an account, and this is from like gym memberships to financial accounts. This should all be illegal. Obviously you don't want to make it so easy to delete someone's accounts that fraud can happen, but some make it very difficult on purpose and that needs to be regulated bigly.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pohemi

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,661
13,833
126
www.anyf.ca
Managed to get it sorted, basically I had to tell them I was trying to delete my bank accounts, and never mention the closure. Once they fixed my account so that it lets me delete the bank accounts, I just deleted the whole account as it let me at that point. Sneaky move but it worked. :D
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pohemi