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[Mistake]

So recently I had to set up a spectrum modem and router for my gf, and they make this junk as difficult as possible. I'm looking at the thing, and there's five different papers telling me to use an app or website to set it up. That's right. I need the internet....to get internet. Great. One problem though, this house is in the middle of NOWHERE. No data service and one bar for calls. So I tried setting it up manually instead, but you can't. They literally blocked the default firmware with their "use this qr code and get the app" bullshit. So anyway, I went into the yard and managed to call them up, and they were able to activate it after an hour. Good thing I didn't have to do this during the winter and freeze outside.

Post your tech pains here

 

[West Texas CEO]

 

[Mistake]

I got a cisco certificate in 08. Damn newfangled cr(app)

 

[EviLore]

Could've called from inside your car in the winter!

Or gone to civilization. You didn't need to be present on-site for them to activate the service as long as things were physically connected properly.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Decades ago (back in the 90s), my then boss once hired a guy with MCSE+internet and CNA qualifications for $90K when we had 1,000s of PCs to build and setup for a couple of universities. The first day he started I asked him to build a PC from the matching specs and deploy to half a dozen clones. He had no clue where to even start the physical build.

 

[Durien]

Dude, nothing f'ing drives me nuts more now than the crap the schools want us (as parents) to use. First it was one app PeachJar I think it was called, then it was another, let's see what the latest thing no one wants to use is...*looks in mail* ahh yes ParentSquare. I wish the schools would stop wasting money on these stupid ass services and just send email. When did sending email become so difficult. Lol I had one teacher at my kids school tell us at open house night. "I hate parent square, not going to use it, just watch for my (e)mail." LOL they embed links in the mail the send, but you need to use the app to open the mail so you can click on the link.

Pro-tip, just send an email.

If more teachers said that, we wouldn't be wasting school funds on services everyone hates.

*breathes into bag*

 

[Mistake]

Dude, nothing f'ing drives me nuts more now than the crap the schools want us (as parents) to use. First it was one app PeachJar I think it was called, then it was another, let's see what the latest thing no one wants to use is...*looks in mail* ahh yes ParentSquare. I wish the schools would stop wasting money on these stupid ass services and just send email. When did sending email become so difficult. Lol I had one teacher at my kids school tell us at open house night. "I hate parent square, not going to use it, just watch for my (e)mail." LOL they embed links in the mail the send, but you need to use the app to open the mail so you can click on the link.

Pro-tip, just send an email.

If more teachers said that, we wouldn't be wasting school funds on services everyone hates.

*breathes into bag*

I remember when online classes were starting up and schools were posting open zoom links, so you had trolls and perverts jumping in calls. Poor kids

 

[Grildon Tundy]

I have a YouTube account from the late 2000s with videos of original content that have millions of views.

However, I haven't been able to log into it in the past decade to capitalize.

The account is tied to a college email that was deactivated around 2010 or so. I tried calling my alma mater to reactivate the email address so I could use it to verify my YT account, but they couldn't/wouldn't do it.

The YT account was created before some of the new "account recovery" features were implemented, and Google doesn't have any human customer support that I can speak to from what I have found.

If anybody has any ideas on how to get my account back, I'd be very interested to hear it.

 

[Mistake]

I have a YouTube account from the late 2000s with videos of original content that have millions of views.

However, I haven't been able to log into it in the past decade to capitalize.

The account is tied to a college email that was deactivated around 2010 or so. I tried calling my alma mater to reactivate the email address so I could use it to verify my YT account, but they couldn't/wouldn't do it.

The YT account was created before some of the new "account recovery" features were implemented, and Google doesn't have any human customer support that I can speak to from what I have found.

If anybody has any ideas on how to get my account back, I'd be very interested to hear it.

From what I can tell, they might only respond if they're harassed on twitter.

I got another story. I once taught 6-8 year old kids English at an after school program, with interactive software using a touchboard and projector. Well one day, the computer I usually used was already taken by a coworker, so I had to improvise and use my boss'. Now, I'm sure many of you are unfamiliar with chinese internet and the what it does to computers, but it is FULL of viruses because of all the ads and terrible software, so I knew right away using this thing wasn't a good idea. Ohh, no problem no problem they said.

So I hook the cords up, boot, all the kids sit, I click on the browser....and right then a full page of various gif image porn blasts off the projector onto the wall. There was everything, stuff going in all kinds of holes, upside-down, turnaround. Immediately I thought " oh, fuck!" and ripped out all the cables.

I managed to find another computer and somehow didn't get any complaints. I told my boss and he just laughed

 

[Durien]

So I hook the cords up, boot, all the kids sit, I click on the browser....and right then a full page of various gif image porn blasts off the projector onto the wall. There was everything, things going in all kinds of holes, upside-down, turnaround. Immediately I thought " oh, fuck!" and ripped out all the cables.

Oh dude, I feel you, but I bet you can laugh about it now.

 

[Drew1440]

Had a similar experiance trying to set up a HP printer. Everything seems to require the use of an app and if the printer can't connect to the cloud, then you can't print despite it being connected via USB.
Needless to say I took it back and brought a Brother instead.

 

[Soodanim]

A recent update to DS4Windows and some of its underlying tech broke my ability to connect my DS4 via Bluetooth. In an attempt to fix it, I followed instructions to uninstall drivers at depths never before seen by my eyes.

Instructions were clear: remove nothing but this one particular driver. Okay, but there was this second one by the same author that was clearly for a singular function, so I removed that too. Reboot, as per usual.

No USB devices worked. No mouse, no keyboard, no wireless. How do you fix a computer you can't connect a human interface device to?

Turns out the answer is to force Windows into recovery mode by forcing power off at early boot stages 3 times in a row. A quick System Restore later and the relief washes over me. Thank you, modern smart phones. I don't think I have a Windows ISO on a USB drive anymore. Probably something I should keep around.

 

[Mistake]

A recent update to DS4Windows and some of its underlying tech broke my ability to connect my DS4 via Bluetooth. In an attempt to fix it, I followed instructions to uninstall drivers at depths never before seen by my eyes.

Instructions were clear: remove nothing but this one particular driver. Okay, but there was this second one by the same author that was clearly for a singular function, so I removed that too. Reboot, as per usual.

No USB devices worked. No mouse, no keyboard, no wireless. How do you fix a computer you can't connect a human interface device to?

Turns out the answer is to force Windows into recovery mode by forcing power off at early boot stages 3 times in a row. A quick System Restore later and the relief washes over me. Thank you, modern smart phones. I don't think I have a Windows ISO on a USB drive anymore. Probably something I should keep around.

Keep a hiren usb. It's saved my ass a few times. I also recommend having a partition with a linux distro on it

 

[Soodanim]

Keep a hiren usb. It's saved my ass a few times. I also recommend having a partition with a linux distro on it

That's great, thanks!

I'm considering having a Linux partition on my next build, I'm 100% sure it's something I would enjoy setting up and using as a lean alternative.