What made you go WTF today?

[Khendraja'aro]

http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/23/10...-festival-2016

[Aimless]

The Big Short

Book's way better, but it was enjoyable. Carrell is awesome. Bale not as awesome but still all right. Direction and editing were both kinda annoying.

[Aimless]

http://www.vox.com/2016/2/11/1096636...ource=facebook

[Hazir]

The number of link dumps in this thread.

[Khendraja'aro]

So, just went through an ordeal you might call a bit kafkaesk.

What happened? Well, a minor thing, really. Something that happens to my pupil often enough, first time for me, though.

My mobile fell out of my pocket while standing up and hit the ground with the backplate. This shock due to about 40 cm of falling sufficed to break the actual display inside the glass. The (Gorilla) glass itself was just fine. That was new to me as well, I mean, I had seen the other way around often enough - but intact glass and cracked display?

Of course it also killed the whole display, none of this "Well, 25% of the display look funky and don't respond to touch but the rest works" for me either.

So I set out to repair the mobile - because a) it's new and expensive enough not to warrant an outright replacement and b) it should save some money.

Since a cracked display definitely falls under "not covered by warranty" I then looked for one of the multitude of shops who purport that they can repair mobiles in 30 minutes (if they have the parts, of course).

Turns out that a Lumia 950 XL doesn't have parts on the market thus no shops in the vicinity would be able to repair it.

Next stop: Microsoft itself. And that's where the psychedelic drugs set in - or at least: Someone must have smoked some really bad stuff to create this kind of user experience.

First of all: Did you ever try to find an actual support subsite at Microsoft for this stuff? Doubling back to the beginning by accident is a frequent occurence - simply clicking on "warranty and repair" is not actually guaranteed to take you to a point where you get the info you want.

But that's nothing new - this rabbit warren of Microsoft which purports to be a website is such a tangled mess that only sheer stubbornness will save the day.

Then I found it: An actual site where I could create a repair order. Entered the IMEI only to be greeted with a "broken link" icon instead of an actual depiction of my phone but everything else worked.
Then came the return adress - which is where I hit a snag in the form of:

"Something went wrong. Please try again later."

Well, let's just say: No, trying again later did not help much.

Thus I set out to find a phone number. I did find one. Only that it was either one for the US or for Indonesia because it began with a "62". Telephone numbers in Germany begin with a zero(0) when not calling locally.

Next stop: The Microsoft store. The guy I spoke with actually provided me with a phone number for the Lumia support line which actually worked!

Up to a point, that is, namely: "Please enter the IMEI of your phone after the beep. Or press # if you need help."

After entering the IMEI or pressing #: "This phone is not egligible for free support. Please call 0900... which costs 1.90€ per minute..." which is where I hung up.

Okay, Microsoft store again - I was a bit annoyed but the poor guy did promise me to forward to an actual technician. Which he did, only the wrong one. Stumped again.

So I tried the Lumia support line again (yes, I know, only mad people expect different results from trying the same stuff again). And this time I stayed on the line after the robot voice gave me the "non-egligible spiel".

Lo, and behold! A different robot voice asked if I wanted to be connected to said 0900 line - or if I wanted to press one(1) to try to enter the IMEI again. And this time it worked! I found myself in line for a support call.

And after 30 minutes I spoke to an actual person.

Which steered me onto the website I had tried at the beginning of this ordeal.

When I pointed out that this did not work she told me: "Well, some Microsoft accounts do have problems with this. Simply create a new account, register your mobile with that one and try again." So, with her still on the line (sorry other guys on hold, but I didn't dare let her off the hook that easily) I tried this route and what do you know?
It worked. Next steps (choose the kind of problem and delivery method) worked as well, so I told her that I'd be able to complete the rest, thanked her and hung up.

Which is, of course, where Murphy reared his head. Because the last step demanded a means of payment - and as this was a new account, none such was registered. So I clicked on the link "add a means of payment", entered the needed details, clicked on submit and... nothing. The window closed but I still got the message about "no means of payment".

So I clicked on the link again, entered the details again - only to get an error message that the site couldn't add this method. Maybe it had already been added, it suggested? Ya think?!?

Okay, close everything and begin again. No dice. No listed means of payment but it had already been added according to step two.

Stomped off to my profile, browsed to billing details and, yes, my credit card was indeed listed. So I tried to remove it and after only three tries of logging out, using a different browsers and sacrificing a goat it removed the credit card.
Then I entered the credit card again, only this time on the billing details page!

Back to the service request page and there it appeared! My credit card! Twice even, with a radio button letting me chose between them.

I'll give you a hint: The first entry did not work ("Something went wrong!"). The second did.

And it only took me another search to find out where to get the UPS sticker I was to affix to my package...

And of course it's now too late in the evening to get the package underway.

[Hazir]

<snip>.

Oh well that's the way these things go nowadays. I told before that I have plans to buy a flat. Actually I am slowly plowing through the process of actually doing that. A couple of weeks I signed a contract for the purchase, and during the signing we had a conversation about the date on which the ownership could be transferred to my name. The realtor representing the seller suggested a date, which was based on a standard period for this kind of deal. But it was also suggested by him that the date could be revised if necessary. Now, as it happens, we have our side of the whole thing ready. That means that as of today I have the entire amount for the purchase in my checking account. But now the other side is making it very difficult to close early, despite the fact that the appartment I am buying is empty and has been empty for at least 4 months.

And no, they can't pull out of the sale really. Not unless they want to give me 10% of the agreed price, which is not very likely.

[GGT]

I turned on the TV and went to CNN to get the latest "news". Instead.....I found a game show in progress, with a CNN "news anchor" playing host.

[GGT]

The latest issue of TIME magazine confirmed my latent fears. The future of driving is balled up between self-driven cars, computer technology, and insurance companies. In the next five years or so, it might become too expensive for me to drive an "older" car that doesn't have all the tech advantages believed to reduce risks, because the insurance industry says so, because the tech industry says so......

[Ominous Gamer]

If you helps you feel any better, google's self driving car finally hit something, and it was the programming's fault for once. It made an assumption that bus drivers aren't giant assholes.

[Aimless]

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/01/tuck..._have_written/

What the Tuck...

[Ominous Gamer]

I got out of Steam trading just in time. Their new restrictions require a mobile verification for every listing. All the way down to selling 3 cent trading cards, regardless of your account history. Users are throwing a fit.

[Aimless]

What exactly are STC:s used for anyway?? Just for show and bragging rights, or can you do useful things with them??

[Ominous Gamer]

crafting them into badges during events give you event cards/rewards/entries depending on what Valve is running at the time. Crafting a set into a badge during the rest of the year gives you a background for your profile and an emoticon to use on the steam community forums, as well as a random coupon for a random amount off for a random game. Crafting badges increases your steam level which gives you more options for your profile and more friend slots (and some previous events required a minimum profile level). A high profile level also increases your chances of getting booster pack drops, which have 3 cards in them.


I mainly just flip the cards. I haven't put any money into steam since the winter 14 sale. I'll buy cards at low prices and use a program like Steam Inventory Helper to sell them for a higher price. Regular cards will net a penny or 2, but foil cards and emoticons can have a difference of a quarter or more.

[Timbuk2]

Friend in Australia posted this on FB.

[Flixy]

That's nice of them, but that's not #14

[Loki]

Also, world's most important football nation? Really?

[Flixy]

Definitely not anymore

Edit: back then Ajax got three europa cups in a row and the national team was world cup runner up, both with a new style that was hugely influential for football worldwide, it's not that much of a stretch. How times have changed though, not even qualified for the European cup now.

[Loki]

The leader of Scotland’s Labour party, Kezia Dugdale, has become the fifth key political figure and fourth party leader in Scottish politics to come out as gay. Giving an interview to a magazine, Dugdale said she had a female partner.

Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservative party; Patrick Harvie, the leader of the Scottish Green party; and David Coburn, the leader of Ukip Scotland, have also come out as gay or bisexual, along with Scotland’s only Conservative MP, David Mundell, the secretary of state for Scotland.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...our-referendum Do all the straight people in Scotland vote for the SNP?

[Loki]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/prank-cal...181037826.html This is why fast food workers deserve to get paid $15 an hour...

[Ominous Gamer]

I wonder how much that finance executive at Mattel was making when she transferred $3 million to China in a phishing scam.

[Loki]

Vastly different levels of gullibility. And in the Mattel case, transferring that much money wasn't abnormal. Breaking every window in your store instead of freaking running out as fast as possible is a slightly higher level of stupidity.

[Ominous Gamer]

The windows were broken from the outside, after the building was evacuated.

Voice phishing is much higher skilled social engineering attempt at phishing than the email Mattel fell for.

[Loki]

http://mashable.com/2016/04/09/burge...ows-prank-call And another one.

[LittleFuzzy]

So, 17 inches of rainfall in about 12 hours near Houston. Lots of flooding, of course. I wonder how long it will be before GGT reposts in her weather thread to ask why Texas wasn't prepared to receive a foot and a half of rainfall in half a day without consequence?

[Aimless]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-festival.html

???

[Flixy]

Was booking a train ticket for someone to visit me next week, coming from germany so I figured I'd use bahn.de. For this, I needed the passenger's name (makes sense), but then it also asked what kind of ID she'd be carrying (apparently, passports are weirdly NOT ok? but a credit card is ), and after I checked an ID card, it proceeded to ask nationality, date of borth, last 4 digits of the ID card serial number, and expiration date. Then, below it asks for the passenger's address (mind you this is an e-ticket), which has to match any address on the ID card used. Also for the whole process I had to be logged in, I forgot exactly what info I had to use for that but probably a lot.

Now you might think they need this information because of regulation, safety, whatever. You'd be wrong, you can purchase the same ticket over the counter without even giving your name. And since I know neither my friend's credit card number OR her identity card number and expiration date, I ended up using the Dutch website for the exact same trip, without logging in, and the entire wealth of information I needed from the passenger were... first and last name. That's it. Not to mention no train conductor ever checked my name on the ticket, let alone my address or identity card number. Wtf, DB.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-festival.html

???

Aww, they still use mail for tax returns there? I've never even done that Not even for corporate and payroll taxes.

[Khendraja'aro]

The ticket over the counter has anti-fraud features (like watermarks, holographic images and such). The one you can print yourself does not, obviously. Hence their attempt to recreate an anti-fraud technique by using personalization.

And, yes, they do use one-time codes which in theory could be checked against an online database to see if it already has been used. Not reliable though (data connectivity is not always available on a train) and it would take (more time) to process.

And the train conductors over here asked for the ID piece I used every time when I used the e-ticket.

[Timbuk2]

expiration expiry date..

fixed

[Flixy]

The ticket over the counter has anti-fraud features (like watermarks, holographic images and such). The one you can print yourself does not, obviously. Hence their attempt to recreate an anti-fraud technique by using personalization.

And, yes, they do use one-time codes which in theory could be checked against an online database to see if it already has been used. Not reliable though (data connectivity is not always available on a train) and it would take (more time) to process.

And the train conductors over here asked for the ID piece I used every time when I used the e-ticket.

Which is why I understand they ask for a name, but address, identity card number and expiry date? Especially since you can buy the exact same ticket with just a name through the dutch site.

fixed

Thank you

[Aimless]

A minor Swedish politician who made headlines earlier this week when it was revealed that he had "anonymously" posted thousands of deeply disturbing messages on the internet--among other things seemingly confessing to committing war-crimes--believes his account was hijacked by the Swedish Security Service with the help of leftist extremists. Hijacked. Hijacked by the Swedish Security Service. Using ICQ.

ICQ.