The computer/OS/interface/webpage annoyances thread

glennmagusharvey · 2015-06-02 06:05:10

Because I'm actually curious to learn what kinds of cookie setting sites and patterns there are and what happens when I dick with them.

For example I've learned of sites that will load when I completely deny cookies but not when I hang requests.

I've also come to be familiar with a number of consumer preference tracking company names.

Ohmygodiamonfire · 2015-06-12 13:40:26

Laptop refuses to charge despite getting a new battery and hell, even refuses to recognize it has a battery. Reading up on it, apparently something on my motherboard might have completely fucked and I'm gonna have to get a new laptop. Thankfully I'll be able to just upgrade to Windows 10 on the new one instead of having to deal with Windows 8's bullshit.

Probably gonna avoid Toshiba this time given how many other problems I've had with their laptops though.

Blueeyedrat · 2015-06-18 01:30:56

So I'm frequently getting this error, which causes my browser to lock up:

A script on this page may be busy, or it may have stopped responding. You can stop the script now, open the script in the debugger, or let the script continue.

Script: chrome://browser/content/tabbrowser.xml:2193

And when I stop the script (since I have no idea how debugging would help, and just continuing leaves it locked up), I can no longer close tabs unless I close the window itself and launch a new one. I am using Firefox. Please go away, Chrome.

Bee · 2015-06-20 17:57:45

Most scripts that start with chrome:// are addons (standardization thing). Try opening in Firefox Safe Mode.

It's probably some toolbar eating it all.

lrdgck · 2015-07-01 22:19:26

So I'm using one of the older versions of Opera, and once in a while it "hangs", I can move the cursor around and open new tabs, but that's all. Links won't open, text boxes won't allow me write anything, so on. Gets back to normal once I close the program and run it again, though the tabs opened under that stuff are just blank.

lrdgck · 2015-08-17 12:39:04

Can you guys help me out? I got a blue screen while listening to stuff on youtube and reading a pdf in Opera, so I switched off the computer and switched it on again. At the point it would get to boot Windows, the screen went black and all it did was the hard drive diode blinking in regular intervals. It happened to me before several times, and it's the same thing that happens when I restart the system (by the way: that's why I don't restart system when I install something or stuff like that, I just switch off and on again or just leave it for the next day), but this is the first time I can't get it to boot properly again. So far it always went right on the next try.

Right now, I'm on the same computer, but in the emergency mode or how do you call it. This one boots like it should, but I'm not too keen on the idea of doing everything in emergency mode from now on.

I've tried restoring old settings - old being from a week ago, I assumed that's enough to fix yesterday's problem - but it did not help. The system is the ole' XP, if that matters.

lrdgck · 2015-08-17 17:32:09

Oh, and I've noticed it gives me a bluescreen for a split-second before it goes braindead. Can't say much about what it says, too short to read it.

Bee · 2015-08-17 19:52:38

Yeah it sounds like your hard drive is crapping out.

glennmagusharvey · 2015-08-17 20:14:44

How old is this computer (or its hard drive, specifically)?

lrdgck · 2015-08-19 11:45:48

Gotta be a couple of years. Five? Six? I dunno, I bought it second-hand. I already had to fix graphics card in it, back in the day, 'cause it had some sort of ecological welding that was all prone to crapping out, so I wouldn't be surprised if the hard drive in it was also faulty in some way. But, anyway.

At the moment it seems to work. I formatted the main partition of the hard drive, re-installed the system, and now it seems to mostly work like it should. But I'm still interested in hearing out what are (or were) you going to say. Even if all is fixed now (which doesn't have to be true), it might come in handy the next time.

--edit--

It seems I've still got the old problem of getting stuck when restarting. I can work around this, but kind of hoped I'll get rid of it. I have an impression it's a matter of BIOS drivers, but I re-installed them, and that didn't help.

Tatterhood · 2015-10-27 15:08:12

The Android "request desktop site" feature doesn't seem to work on web Twitter on my tablet anymore. Why do people in the year 2015 still design websites that assume Android means a tiny screen and refuse to believe otherwise?

glennmagusharvey · 2015-10-27 20:16:09

Switch your useragent to desktop in your browser.

If you don't have a browser that can do that, get Dolphin.

Tatterhood · 2015-10-27 20:51:15

I have Dolphin installed. I forget why I'm not using it. It does seem to allow me to access desktop Twitter.

Edit: Oh wait, now I remember why I stopped using Dolphin and it's to do with this exact same issue. Namely, Dolphin can be configured to always use the desktop user agent or always the mobile one, but neither is any good for a ten-inch tablet. A lot of mobile sites look terrible at that size, but a lot of desktop sites are just not possible to navigate with a touchscreen, so the ability to switch back and forth at will (which Chrome and Firefox have) is kind of necessary.

What I would really like is a browser that remembers my preferences site-by-site, so Twitter is always desktop and various other things are always mobile.

Edit 2: What I said about Dolphin isn't quite fair, since it does easily offer a button that switches the two modes. However, it still switches it globally rather than for a session, so it would be annoying if I wanted to use a site that needs desktop and a site that needs mobile in different tabs, for instance. And it still doesn't do the thing I want.

Central Avenue · 2015-10-28 02:47:46

Tablets seem to get the worst of both worlds.

Mobile sites with their oversized buttons and icons get comically blown up on the big screen, while desktop sites are usually designed with tiny links and things that work fine with a mouse but are hard to touch properly with your fingers.

glennmagusharvey · 2015-10-28 06:35:32

I've gradually gotten a bit better at hitting small things on a touchscreen.

That gear button that contains the edit button on the mobile version of Heapers Hangout still gets me though.

Blueeyedrat · 2015-11-08 23:44:16

So my mom bought herself a new tablet yesterday, and it miiight already have a worm in it. Blocked internet, "your system is compromised, call this most-certainly-legit phone number and pay $199.99 to have someone fix it", yadda-yadda-yadda. We're looking into a way to fix it.

glennmagusharvey · 2015-12-27 03:00:13

I just finally figured out that the reason why I was getting random forward/backward browsing while I type in webpages is because my computer is interpreting shift + touchpad right column up/down as forward/backward.

glennmagusharvey · 2016-02-23 02:28:24

Youtube has finally stopped working on Firefox 24.1.0.

Good. One less distraction. ~~until i open them in chrome or chromium instead lol~~

lrdgck · 2016-02-23 17:31:23

Ah, so here's this thread. I couldn't find it.

While I'm at it, my problems with browser is still the same old one. Didn't bother to do anything yet. Beginning to think about moving to a different version at least.

glennmagusharvey · 2016-02-23 18:11:28

lrdgck wrote: »

Ah, so here's this thread. I couldn't find it.
While I'm at it, my problems with browser is still the same old one. Didn't bother to do anything yet. Beginning to think about moving to a different version at least.

What browser and version are you using?

Central Avenue · 2016-02-23 18:23:20

glennmagusharvey wrote: »

Youtube has finally stopped working on Firefox 24.1.0.

Good. One less distraction. ~~until i open them in chrome or chromium instead lol~~

I will never understand your thing about using ancient Firefox versions long after Mozilla drops support for them

lrdgck · 2016-02-23 18:55:48

^^ Opera. It says its version is 12.18.

glennmagusharvey · 2016-02-23 19:34:02

Central Avenue wrote: »

glennmagusharvey wrote: »

Youtube has finally stopped working on Firefox 24.1.0.

Good. One less distraction. ~~until i open them in chrome or chromium instead lol~~

I will never understand your thing about using ancient Firefox versions long after Mozilla drops support for them

~~BUT IT SAYS EXTENDED SUPPORT RELEASE~~

The reason I haven't updated Waterfox past version 36 or whatever is because that one doesn't update properly. I have to update it manually, or else it breaks apart into a giant mess.

The reason I haven't updated Firefox 24 is because I'm very very used to the interface here and I don't feel like allowing any of the add-ons to be broken.

That said, having used Waterfox 36 for a while, I'm starting to feel less attached to those add-ons.

Having a status bar is still a very nice thing though.

Stormtroper · 2016-03-12 02:33:21

You know that thing where you fix a program by uninstalling and reinstalling it? Right now I fixed it just by uninstalling it.

Like, it was still there like before, except working.

Edit: It also opens much faster than it did before.

Stormtroper · 2016-04-22 06:36:10

My Windows has been on its death throes for a while, and eventually started throwing up an error whenever I tried to login unless in Safe Mode. I tried everything the internet suggested and gave up, started backing up what I could before reformatting. In one of these Safe Mode fails to load so I force reset it, prompting a Windows CHKDSK thing and after it's done the problem was gone, and it also cleaned up a whooping almost-100GB worth of memory.

Though Windows is still agonizing, and some stuff no longer works properly. Still beats the alternative.

Stormtroper · 2016-08-03 23:16:22

I finally decided to put Windows out of its misery, but at someone's insistence I tried to install Linux (Kali), and boy did that go wrong. First of all this thing decided the only user able to log in is the root one (i.e. 'root') using the password provided for the root hostname (i.e. some other username). Second, changing the resolution doesn't give you the 'your resolution will reset in n seconds' so one wrong setting and I'm out of the OS. Third, booting under recovery mode won't log you with a different 'safe' resolution so that won't do, and from what I'm Googling the easiest way to get back involves another computer.

I knew Linux wouldn't be easy to use, but I expected to at least get anything done, but I guess I shouldn't be too hard on it since Kali seems complicated (it's a distribution made for computer security stuff). Anyhows, I'm back to Micro$oft.

Being outside an OS is scary, everything is dark and constrained, everybody is a stranger who are hard to understand who often don't want to help you and answering the wrong thing can cost you, and you're never sure that you'll be able to go back, especially if you strayed too far.

Anyhows, newly installed OS wooh!

Edit: Wooh, I managed to install the software I needed for the MIT's course for reals this time. On the downside this is 32-bits so I'll have to reinstall anyways.

Naas_Human · 2016-08-04 01:53:06

Stormtroper wrote: »

changing the resolution doesn't give you the 'your resolution will reset in n seconds'

I usually get that notice changing resolutions in Ubuntu.

lrdgck · 2016-09-11 23:08:39

So, I have this problem that doesn't feel like it deserves a whole new thread, and I have not found any that is more appropriate.

I've got some data files that go like this:

(introductory line)
(second introductory line)
[number 1] [data 1.1.1] [data 1.2.1] [data 1.3.1]
[number 1] [data 1.1.2.] [data 1.2.2.] [data 1.3.2.]
[number 1] [data 1.1.3.] [data 1.2.3.] [data 1.3.3.]
...    ...    ... ...
[number 2] [data 2.1.1.] [data 2.2.1.] [data 2.3.1.]
...    ...    ... ...
[number 3] [data 3.1.1.] [data 3.2.1.] [data 3.3.1.]
...    ...    ... ...

...and so on. Basically, it's the data for a 3D plot, with the first column (let's call it X) unchanging until the second (Y) goes through the entire range, and then it goes to the next step of X. (X changes on a discrete basis.) This means I've got a single big file, which is good for plotting it in 3D, but for other purposes it would be more convenient to have a separate data set for each value of X.

Can you guys give me some hints how do you make a Python script read a text file, pick all the lines that begin with the same number (ie. all the data for same value of X), save it as a separate file, and repeat itself until we have a separate file for each X?

Could be C/C++ as well, to be honest, but Python feels natural for that sort of stuff. (Those are programming languages that I have some measure of experience with.)

glennmagusharvey · 2016-09-11 23:56:58

I don't know how to do this in Python, but thanks for reminding me that I need to learn Python.

Stormtroper · 2016-09-12 16:54:06

I've done things like that before, so I guess I should be able to do this. I'll get back to you when it's done.

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