OT: Disk Defragmenting - This is STUPID and destroys hardware - ping Vanguard

| On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 13:09:15 -0600, "*Vanguard*"
|
| Jef the Bird is a good bloke Vanguard, I think you may have
| misconceived his intention, it's ' humor ', it's playfulness, it's
| witticism, it's jeu d'esprit my friend.
|
| Are you having a bad night mate ?, you ok ?
|
| BoroLad


Hi BoroLad -

And it was PC World Magazine's "Home Office by Steve Bass" column from today
that I picked up the link.

Sometimes those of us in Estados Unidos Vespucciland need to remember that
there's a whole big world outside our borders and not every website out
there contains malicious code or serious and on-topic information.

Of course the method described is "STUPID and destroys hardware"... What
other fun is to be had with a crashed hard disk? ;-)

Jef

 

"Jef Norton" said in <snip>

It's difficult to see the layout of the page when using a safe browser (text only) when visiting an unknown web site that is enamored with tables and other formatting. That's why I listed some of the statements that were visible from the web site. So just where was the word "humor" mentioned on the page? Maybe there was an image of "the finger" or a smiling face but those wouldn't show when browsing safe. Where was the smiley or inference to humor in Jef's post?

When you have users shoving floppies into the case because they think the space between drives is the drive slot, holding a document against a monitor to fax it, trying to use mice as foot peddles, and wondering why their monitor went blank in a power outage (and no UPS), then you had better indicate humor. *We* know that you don't open and run attachments from strangers and will still scan them for viruses even when received from friends, but if all users were as smart then 60% of spam wouldn't be getting generated from infected Windows hosts running trojan mail servers. What you and I know is dumb and humorous isn't known by the vast number of users to whom PCs are a tool rather than a hobby or their job.

Use it in a sting operation that you run yourself to see how trustworthy is the local PC repair shop. Slide it in an old box, tell them it doesn't boot, see if they find the *right* problem and what they claim it will cost for repairs.

Use it to provide a load on an ATX power supply (along with shorting pin 14 on the 20-pin Molex power connector from the power supply) so you can power up the ATX power supply by itself to validate the voltages are okay and that the PSU won't fry your brand new high-priced mobo and components.

Use with a glue gun to stick it inside and weight the bottom of your speakers to keep them from tipping over.

Remove the platters and hang like trophies on the wall. Or use them as coasters.

Leave them somewhere at work in a non-public locale but where they are open to theft. Focus a hidden camera there. Catch the a-hole employee stealing equipment from work without you having to worry about recovering your drive.

I'm sure there are more uses for dead drives.

 

One of the long term nucleus of this [ as compared to other ] groups
is its humor, its relentless combination of excellent hard headed help
and light hearted humor, keep up the good work Jef.

BoroLad

 

<snip>
|
| I'm sure there are more uses for dead drives.
|

Sure... such as storing this response.

Hell... for storing this whole thread. But that's not the point.

Your point about responsible computing is well taken. Consider, however,
where you viewed this. Also consider that the *rest* of this response to
this thread has been *exactly* as intended... Off-Topic Good-Natured
Camraderie among those that build computers based on Abit motherboards. A
nice thread to blow off a little steam and enjoy the community that is this
group.

.... And post some of the more stupid links we've come across on the web.

Sorry that you did not "get" that.

I began my post with "OT:" -- newsgroup speak for "OFF-TOPIC".

Humor doesn't require a marquee.

You know... BoroLad was quite on-topic for this group: we do care about each
other and he genuinely asked if your negative response to this thread was
based on if you had been having a bad day.

I would have never considered posting this thread in any of the other
newsgroups where I know you to frequent and post. This group, however, I
consider to be a sufficiently more sophisticated when it comes to web-safe
browsing.

Further: let's take a look at the whole concept of "personal
responsibility". Where you click -- where you go on the internet is *your
responsibility*. I sure as hell don't click on every link I see presented
in a newsgroup. If I am not familiar with the original poster and don't
trust his or her motives, you can better believe I would heavily scrutinize
whether or not I would click on a blind link to a web page... regardless of
where in the world it linked to.

I also wouldn't have questioned the motives of the original poster. It's
not my place.

Perhaps the lack of a "smiley" (which was *present* in the post you
responded to ... and where you weren't even being addressed) is what set you
off. Not my problem. It's yours.

Practice web-safe computing in whatever manner *you* see fit.

Being Den-Mother at alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit is an un-filled job.
This is an un-moderated newsgroup. Please don't try to make moderating this
group your job -- it will be entirely unfulfilling. And you'll go nuts with
all the other off-topic posts... such as sex with sheep, size of genitalia,
etc. ...

I don't intend on continuing this conversation.

Jef

 

|
| One of the long term nucleus of this [ as compared to other ] groups
| is its humor, its relentless combination of excellent hard headed help
| and light hearted humor, keep up the good work Jef.
|
| BoroLad
|

Thanks BoroLad... my point exactly!

Jef

 

"Jef Norton" said in
Well, since you want to have at it, I can be the whipping boy a bit longer.

Yep, in a technically oriented newsgroup. Not a joke newsgroup. Yes, I realize we all enjoy humor ... if known that is what it is.

You neglect or chose to neglect to see that had been put one post (from Charly) at the time I posted. His post seemed a ridicule of yours, not really as someone chiming in on the fun; i.e., more like a tongue-in-cheek "**** off". The other posts didn't exist yet! Look at the timestamps, buddy. Your post at 12:26. Charly's at 12:46. Mine at 1:09. And everyone else's after that. Then I submit another post to note my error in miscontruing your post and explain mine was to possibly avoid a newbie thinking you were pointing at a true help site. And still you blast. Yeah, great community here.

Most of us visit these newsgroups with the intention of asking real questions and also in providing real help. As such, posts get read "at face value". We don't necessarily come here to park our butts just to linger with the ol' buddies, down a brew, fart, and joke around. That's the minority here. Your two main hangouts seem to be this newsgroup and microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware. I currently hit 38 of them (recently pared down) and am active in 19 of them. I have to move fast. Everything gets taken at face value.

Yes, defragmentation is off-topic of Abit mainboards, but not that off-topic. Off-topic does not equate to off humor.

But it does require context. I'm reading through dozens of newsgroups. There isn't time to wonder what the poster "might have meant", only it what they actually did say. What you meant to say, what you thought you said, what you actually wrote, what I actually read, what I thought I read, and what I thought you meant ... that's why there is miscommunication.

No, it was intended to warn others that may mistakeningly believe that "hardware defragmentation" was a real solution. YOU might park yourself here repeatedly to consider it a warm and fuzzy community but many are one- or rare-time visitors looking for help. That's newsgroups.

That's not expertise or experience prevalent only here. All the newsgroups I visit are technically oriented. Newbies a gullibles are everywhere.

<snip>

Neither do I. That is why I mentioned using a safe browser (i.e., text only). As such, not all of a web site will be visible, especially any graphics or formatting. In the same way as I read your post at face value so I also read the text (the only content visible) at face value.

Must be nice to never generate an opinion or evaluate anyone. The joys of living and working alone. Anytime someone claims, "You don't have the right to judge me" is pretending they don't know how humans socialize. It's been pretty obvious here that I'm being judged for my [mis]judgement regarding someone's web site content. Oh woe is me, woe is me.

No smiley in your post. Might've indicated humor. Trolls, imps, and malcontents often pretend to assist, too.

Yes, it is, as evidenced by your retaliatory reply. I didn't really expect you to defend yourself if you were as innocent as claimed in presenting your post as a joke. I explained why I didn't see the "humor" because it was out of context and I'm not part of your warm and fuzzy suburb in this global and ever-changing newsgroup community.

Just like you said, not wise to visit every link in newsgroup posts without a condom. Visiting them in a text-only browser provides that safety. It's a pity the computer age is devolving our communications back to the known inadequacies of hieroglyphics rather than embrass upon the lucidity of the worded language. A picture is worth a thousands words - all different by different viewers. As such, and when viewing in safe text-only mode, all those hieroglphics (images, fonts, formatting) go away. Excuse me for accepting your words and those on the web site at face value.

I take it that you never feel compelled to help someone that is being raped, either. You see someone asking how to, say, change a partition size and some troll comes along and tells the newbie to run FDISK. You wouldn't save that poor newbie from the troll to warn them NOT to do that? Just the other day I say a troll tell someone to delete an entire branch of the registry (to render their computer unusable) as a "solution" to a simple problem.

Have fun with your chums. I'm here to help. On to the next real post.