Minor things that bother you

[kphoger]

The term trolling appeared online first, but it is unclear which meaning was intended–baiting people, behaving as a malevolent imp, or a combination of the two.  The etymologies of the verb troll (to fish with a moving line) and the noun troll (a mythological creature) are separate, so there's no easy way out by saying the internet slang term can derive from both at the same time.

However, it's worth noting that trolling for sex has been a slang term within the male gay community for decades.  In the same community, a troll refers to a 'dirty old man' looking for younger males to hook up with.  This latter term has very negative connotations.  So it's possible (just my theory) that the internet slang term actually derives from that, and therefore both trolling and troll are correct.

[J N Winkler]

Give this guy an Internet connection and a text input device he can use, and you have an Internet troll:

[kkt]

Give this guy an Internet connection and a text input device he can use, and you have an Internet troll:

Just for scale, that's a real VW Bug he's got.  Well, the real body of one anyway.
I haven't been by to visit him in a couple of years.  I should drop by.

[ZLoth]

From Ars Techica:

HP outrages printer users with firmware update suddenly bricking third-party ink
HP's approach to DRM continues rubbing people the wrong way.

After paying up, it seems HP is set on continuing to use DRM to discourage its printer customers from spending ink and toner money outside of the HP family.

"HP have updated their printers to outright ban "˜non-HP' ink! They no longer shows the 'can't guarantee quality' message, but instead cancels your print completely until you inset a HP ink cartridge," Reddit user grhhull posted Tuesday. "After contacting HP, they advised 'this is due to the recent "˜update' of all printers.'"

FULL ARTICLE HERE

The only HP printer that I actually owned was a HP Laserjet 4. That was back in the mid-1990s, and those things were built like a tank (minus the accordion fold problem that required regular replacement of a set of rollers). Biggest problem I had was that there was no power-saving mode, so I had to keep it off. Upgraded that printer to a color laser printer that also did duplexing. However, I don't do much printing anymore.

[elsmere241]

I wondered what that was about.  Not that I really use my HP printer anymore.

[Dirt Roads]

The only HP printer that I actually owned was a HP Laserjet 4. That was back in the mid-1990s, and those things were built like a tank (minus the accordion fold problem that required regular replacement of a set of rollers). Biggest problem I had was that there was no power-saving mode, so I had to keep it off. Upgraded that printer to a color laser printer that also did duplexing. However, I don't do much printing anymore.

I still have my ledger-sized HP LaserJet 4V, along with the 486 machine needed to run it.  Not sure if this was a problem for your HP Laserjet 4, but the printer drivers for HP Laserjet 4V never properly worked on any Pentium machine, such that all of the print area was about 1/2 inch too high on the page.  That was easy to attend to on any word processor (I was still mostly using WordPerfect back in those days), but the migration to PDF and other static print formats forced me to move on.  But I was able to get a bunch of cheap HP00A toner cartridges each time that the two OfficeDepots closed here, and I still have two remaining.

[formulanone]

I have a Canon all-in-one printer, mostly because it breaks the HP hegemony we had for a while and maybe-kind-of-slightly a Canon fanboy. The kids have an Epson and it's alright. Admittedly, the Canon has a slightly greater thirst for ink than the HPs I've had in the past but it's also never told me the ink cartridge was expired.

I still have to print things for work because most projects require a printed checklist because the clients have a tendency to be old school, I prefer a printed airline ticket because apps misbehave when flights change/cancel, and I sometimes require printed border-crossing documentation. But it's okay because work covers the ink costs.

[ZLoth]

I still have my ledger-sized HP LaserJet 4V, along with the 486 machine needed to run it.  Not sure if this was a problem for your HP Laserjet 4, but the printer drivers for HP Laserjet 4V never properly worked on any Pentium machine, such that all of the print area was about 1/2 inch too high on the page.

Did not have that issue, and I initially had a 386-33 followed by a Pentium 166. The connection was initially through the parallel printer port, but then I added a ethernet interface in the early 2000s. I eventually gave it away in favor of a non-HP color duplexing printer.

[kphoger]

Hopefully our printer is old enough to not even get firmware updates...

[roadman65]

When a coworker of yours is a hypochondriac and is always allowed to leave work early when not feeling well without any write ups.

[Scott5114]

If your printer needs a firmware update, that means the manufacturer did a sloppy job building it in the first place. I can't say I've ever had a printer request a firmware update.

When a coworker of yours is a hypochondriac and is always allowed to leave work early when not feeling well without any write ups.

They could have a disability or a chronic condition that they simply don't feel is any of your business, you know.

My wife was on the other side of this one–she has chronic pain and had to leave work a lot because of it. Believe me, she wanted to stay; she didn't want to have to be such an inconvenience to everyone, and she didn't like having money missing from her paycheck. But if she was in too much pain to work, she had to leave.

So it was pretty hurtful to find out that people were doing things like setting up betting pools on whether she'd make it through a whole shift or not. She ended up leaving the job entirely because nobody seemed interested in trying to put a stop to that sort of behavior from her coworkers.

[kkt]

From Ars Techica:

HP outrages printer users with firmware update suddenly bricking third-party ink
HP's approach to DRM continues rubbing people the wrong way.

What this is actually going to brick is any chance of selling another HP printer.

[kurumi]

When you pay for gas at the pump...

[Hobart]

When you pay for gas at the pump...

This pisses me off so much, especially because I'd get gas on the way home from work. I wouldn't even go inside, I'd just drive off.

[Scott5114]

A minor thing that bothers me about receipts is when the cashier asks "Do you want a receipt?" and I say no, then the register prints one anyway and they throw it away. The main reason I don't want a receipt is because I don't want to waste paper. If I don't want one, there should be a button the cashier can push that cancels printing one. If you're going to print one either way, I'd rather take it so I can at least recycle it.

[jakeroot]

A minor thing that bothers me about receipts is when the cashier asks "Do you want a receipt?" and I say no, then the register prints one anyway and they throw it away. The main reason I don't want a receipt is because I don't want to waste paper. If I don't want one, there should be a button the cashier can push that cancels printing one. If you're going to print one either way, I'd rather take it so I can at least recycle it.

Here in Japan, almost every checkout has a small bin where you can toss your receipts.

POS device that don't print receipts are already quite common. Most of the iPad-based payment services offer electronic receipts. Some stores offer email receipts; Best Buy comes to mind.

[J N Winkler]

When you pay for gas at the pump...

["Receipt inside" meme snipped for brevity]

This pisses me off so much, especially because I'd get gas on the way home from work. I wouldn't even go inside, I'd just drive off.

When that happens, I just go on my way--I typically have a smartphone photo of the pump readouts anyway.

[Scott5114]

Here in Japan, almost every checkout has a small bin where you can toss your receipts.

POS device that don't print receipts are already quite common. Most of the iPad-based payment services offer electronic receipts. Some stores offer email receipts; Best Buy comes to mind.

Well, a bin next to the checkout doesn't help me any, because I don't know what they do with the trash.

Order of preference is:
1) No receipt is printed at all
2) Receipt is printed and recycled (this is what happens if I take it)
3) Receipt is printed and sent to landfill

Email receipts are okay, I guess, but then I have to either type out the email address on a touchscreen (takes forever) or read it off to a clerk ("scott5114–scott with two Ts–five-one-one-four, no, FIVE, one one four, at...") That's usually only worth the trouble if I actually need the receipt to put in my business accounting system, and then I get to spell my first, last, and company name to send it to my business email. (Maybe I should just make a bob@ email alias.) USPS gives you the choice of "printed" or "email", no "nothing at all" option, so I have to decide which one is more annoying at that exact moment.

I think this is one of those things that might vary regionally. "Print and trash" is the order of the day in Oklahoma. I'm guessing on the West Coast they've thought this through more. I'll have to pay attention next time I'm in Nevada.

[CtrlAltDel]

Here in Japan, almost every checkout has a small bin where you can toss your receipts.

POS device that don't print receipts are already quite common. Most of the iPad-based payment services offer electronic receipts. Some stores offer email receipts; Best Buy comes to mind.

Well, a bin next to the checkout doesn't help me any, because I don't know what they do with the trash.

Order of preference is:
1) No receipt is printed at all
2) Receipt is printed and recycled (this is what happens if I take it)
3) Receipt is printed and sent to landfill

I didn't think that receipts could be recycled. Because of the BPA and so on.

[ZLoth]

I keep trying to tell my mother that, when she picks up her medication from CVS, to please either use the "Email Receipt" or "Email and Print Receipt". That way, I can "print" the receipt as a PDF and store it as a file for her tax expenses at the end of the year. More often than not, I have to recover the e-receipt from her Trash email, print it, and delete it again.

[jakeroot]

I keep trying to tell my mother that, when she picks up her medication from CVS, to please either use the "Email Receipt" or "Email and Print Receipt". That way, I can "print" the receipt as a PDF and store it as a file for her tax expenses at the end of the year. More often than not, I have to recover the e-receipt from her Trash email, print it, and delete it again.

The fact that her emails are at least archived and not fully deleted is a step above what I might expect from many of those who are not as computer literate.

Unless you mean you're recovering them very shortly thereafter and not months after the fact. I think most emails have a short term recovery feature even for deleted emails.

Here in Japan, almost every checkout has a small bin where you can toss your receipts.

Well, a bin next to the checkout doesn't help me any, because I don't know what they do with the trash.

I can assure you, it's recycled, if the konbinis are anything like private residences. I personally have five separate trash receptacles: cardboard, glass, cans, plastic bottles, burnable trash.

[Scott5114]

I suppose in Japan you can trust that someone won't throw a hot dog into the recycle bin or something stupid like that. I've seen that in the United States so many times I just kind of expect any public recycle bin to not actually be one.

[SSOWorld]

Would you "like a copy of your receipt"?

Think about it - I've heard this many times from cashiers? What are they going to do with the original?

[ZLoth]

I keep trying to tell my mother that, when she picks up her medication from CVS, to please either use the "Email Receipt" or "Email and Print Receipt". That way, I can "print" the receipt as a PDF and store it as a file for her tax expenses at the end of the year. More often than not, I have to recover the e-receipt from her Trash email, print it, and delete it again.

The fact that her emails are at least archived and not fully deleted is a step above what I might expect from many of those who are not as computer literate.

Unless you mean you're recovering them very shortly thereafter and not months after the fact. I think most emails have a short term recovery feature even for deleted emails.

It's essentially a Google Mail account, only we have our own domains attached (one for me, one for my mother). So, once a email hits Trash, I have 30 days to recover it, otherwise it's adios.

[Hobart]

I suppose in Japan you can trust that someone won't throw a hot dog into the recycle bin or something stupid like that. I've seen that in the United States so many times I just kind of expect any public recycle bin to not actually be one.

My university never actually recycled; all of the recycle bins had plastic bags, which is a big no no because they can't be recycled because they clog equipment.

In the past few months, they hid every recycle bin under one stairwell in one building.