You're right. The IRS doesn't do phone calls to individuals. They send certified mail instead. Which is leads to another good point. Even if I (somehow) temporarily forgot that the IRS doesn't call people and even if I didn't think to contact my accountant, I'd demand that "the IRS" send me paperwork detailing exactly what I owed and why. My guess is that the call center scammer "IRS agents" might resort to threats to intimidate me into paying, but wouldn't be able to follow up their call with realistic looking papers.
You don't need to be using your phone for online activities for it to heat up. I play some games on my phone and some of the more graphics intensive ones can warm my phone up a bit. Not nearly enough for my phone to explode, but replace my phone with one that has a defective battery and it just might.
As a user, I'd prefer replaceable battery. It's not a phone, but my older son has a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 tablet. After a year and a half, it began having battery issues. It wouldn't charge at all - showing a charging screen but recycling as if we kept pulling the plug and plugging it back in. We tested other cords and it didn't work. I finally bought a battery online and paid someone to open the case (after I failed to be able to) and replace the battery. This fixed it for about 8 months, but his tablet started this up again. Still, replacing the battery should be as easy as buying a replacement online, popping the case open, putting the new battery in, and snapping the case back on.
I think the bigger problem is a lack of critical thinking skills. If "the IRS" called me up and said I owed thousands of dollars in taxes, the first thing I'd do would be to call my accountant or to call the IRS directly (using a number from their website, not given to me from the caller) to double-check this. Even if I didn't think to double-check it right away, a demand that I pay my tax bill by purchasing gift cards to various stores and giving them the numbers would raise a ton of red flags. What does the IRS need with iTunes cards?
Too many people hear a pitch over the phone or via e-mail and just go along with it because it doesn't even occur with them to think about the request being made.
Those fools! Don't they know that attempting to break out of the simulation could cause our reality to Blue Screen? Do they really want that to &*^#*&@%*% ERROR: Buffer Overflow In Reality Matrix 19791012-42. Terminating All Processes Immediately And Rebooting To Last Known Good Configuration...
People think that downloading is legal because people don't get prosecuted for it. The truth of the matter is that downloading is hard to prosecute. The MPAA would need to either operate a honeypot or get access to a torrent server's log files to get a list of IP addresses. Then - for each one - they'd need to get a court to agree that the ISP needs to turn over the information. Finally, they would sue the individual. However, all of this effort would likely be for a single count of copyright infringement. ("He downloaded this ONE movie and that's it.") It's a waste of the MPAA's resources and even they know it.
Thus, they go after the uploaders. Not only do you get multiple counts of infringement for one individual ("he shared a thousand files") but removing the large uploaders leaves the downloaders with nothing to download. (In theory.)
The big trouble downloaders get into is when they don't realize that their software is uploading as well. They think that they're invisible when, in reality, they're telling everyone what they're up to.
I was in the market for a new laptop a few years back. Lenovo had a good deal so I ordered it. They said the laptop would be ready to ship in 2 weeks. A day or so before the 2 week mark, they told me it would be delayed to 2 months. To ship it, mind you. It would take an additional week to actually get the laptop.
I called for an explanation and all they would say was that they were waiting on a shipment of some part. (They wouldn't say what part - just that it was a part.) I said I wanted to cancel the order, but they insisted I couldn't cancel it outright but could request to cancel the order. However, if the laptop shipped before the cancellation request was processed, they told me, I'd be charged for the laptop. I had them submit the form to cancel and ordered a Toshiba.
Luckily, they actually cancelled my order. Meanwhile, my Toshiba laptop was assembled, shipped, and arrived in under 2 weeks - before Lenovo cancelled the order and way before they claimed they would have shipped the laptop. I'd highly recommend steering clear of Lenovo.
Many, many years ago, my company rolled out its first Intranet. Not all staff were able to use computers during their jobs so we set up a kiosk in the cafeteria (a very public area) to let them look up information on their lunch break. On an almost weekly basis, I would be called down to the cafeteria because the kiosk was showing pornographic pop-up ads. (This was before my company installed a web filter.) Needless to say, some night staff member was using the computer to browse porn sites and kept agreeing to install browser toolbars from the sites. It's amazing that we didn't get any virus infestations into our network from the kiosk - just spyware. The kiosk idea was soon scrapped because the work required to keep it spyware-free wasn't worth it.
(Like I said, this was many, many years ago. Were I to do something like this nowadays, I'd know dozens of different ways to lock the device down so that the users wouldn't be able to do what they did to that kiosk.)
I was wondering if the Samsung fires might result in the return of user replaceable batteries. If the batteries in the Note 7 were user replaceable, people could have turned off their phones, waited for replacement batteries, and gotten those installed (or installed them themselves). Data loss would be zero and the inconvenience to the user would be minimized. Instead, the entire phone needs to be replaced which maximizes possible data loss and inconvenience.
No, they just use their Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulators to obliterate your doorbell, door, and entire planet because it blocks their view of Venus. Or they would if a certain rabbit wouldn't keep making off with their Illudium PU-36.
My wife's computer has started requesting to reboot to finish installing an update. But once you reboot, it claims it still needs to reboot to finish installing the update.
I've tried many different things to fix this, but now think her computer might have tried upgrading to Windows 10 (without us giving the Ok) and gotten stuck somewhere along the line. To make things more annoying, it'll often prompt her to remind her to reboot (like that will solve it), give her the option of postponing up to 4 hours, and then will frequently just reboot immediately after she selects 4 hours.
I might need to just install Linux on her laptop instead.
People with autism aren't "completely lacking ethical/moral boundaries." They might not pick up on social cues or realize that something they said was inappropriate, but that doesn't mean a moral failing. In fact, many people with autism have an overabundance of empathy which cripples them in social situations. They fear saying or doing anything because their lack of social knowledge means they'll likely do something to upset someone. Being alone is preferable to insulting the person, so they avoid social situations.
Take my son, for example. He has high functioning autism/Aspergers Syndrome. We took him into a museum a few years back and they had a butterfly house. We all went in but my son was screaming about how he didn't want to go. We finally got him in and he stood like a statue by the door for a few seconds before we excused him. I went to talk with him and he revealed that he wasn't scared of the butterflies themselves (my first guess) but that they were all over the place, including the floor, and he was afraid of hurting one. His empathy for the butterflies was so high that he couldn't stand being in the room with them lest he hurt one.
That's not "lacking ethical/moral boundaries" at all.
As someone who has high functioning Autism, let me just say that social cues are hard for us. People on the autism spectrum do very well in absolutes. Black and white. Social rules aren't black and white. They're a confusing mass of grey. The same action that is perfectly valid in one situation is horribly wrong in another, very similar situation. Over the years, I've gotten good at faking neurotypical (not on the autism spectrum), but it can be tiring and I can miss cues. Think of it as if everyone runs Social Rules natively but those of us on the spectrum need to emulate it. Our emulators are much slower and don't handle every instance. So they can drain our system resources (leaving us needing to decompress) or crash entirely (letting us say/do something that is inappropriate).
As far as your co-worker goes, I'd be direct with him. Not rude, mind you, but honest. Don't go for subtle (he won't pick up on that at all) but try to also not act like he's a small child (people with high functioning Autism can be very intelligent). Say something like: "Hey, this isn't a good time right now. I've got a ton of work to do. Let's talk about this later when we're both free."
That's what I do. Either look at their nose or a spot just behind their head (but close enough to their head that my eyes appear directed at them). Looking someone directly in the eyes, though, results in ever increasing anxiety until I need to look away.
No, the bus analogy is an extreme simplification - usually used when someone says "I don't like the direction Obama took/Hillary will take this country in, so I'm voting Trump." It shows that simply taking a new path isn't better because it's different. Especially when said path takes you into disaster.
I disagree with Hillary on many issues, but they aren't "she's going to ruin our country" levels of disagreement. At worst, they are "this will continue to be messed up for 4 more years." Trump, at best, will be ineffectual due to Congress but will incite international incidents due to things he says. At worst, he'll start a war because some foreign leader called him names.
But the bus metaphor doesn't encompass my entire governing philosophy. For that, I compare the US to a canister of mixed nuts... (Kidding!)
I almost wonder if they give out honorary free or reduced cost memberships to doctors who don't check on who The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons is and what they stand for. Some doctors might get letters that say "Do you want to join The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons for only $10 a year", the doctors say "sure", and AAPS gets to count them in their membership totals.
So the number of doctors in AAPS who actually agree with AAPS might be far lower than the number of doctors counted as being part of AAPS.
Apparently, they did that on Reddit. People were banned from the subreddit before the event even began (based on their posting history IIRC - if they posted anything even remotely anti-Trump, they were gone), the questions were filtered in advance, and Trump's answers were posted on the board during the event. So it wasn't so much an Ask Me Anything as it was an I'll Answer A Few Pre-Filtered Questions As Long As Nobody Speaks Ill Of Me.
>I just don't know of any other people in the media spotlight or candidates for office I've seen who go on 2 minute coughing fits multiple times, or who need a stool while they're on stage.
It happened to Newt Gingrich while he was criticizing Hillary for coughing. Newt claimed that it was from speaking and travelling so much. Honestly, as much as I disagree with Mr. Gingrich, I believe him. And, guess who else has been travelling a lot and speaking a lot? Hillary.
I'm one of those Sanders supporters and I would still like to get money out of politics. However, I'm also a realist - not an idealist - so I realize that we're not simply going to proclaim "This Isn't Done Anymore!" and separate politicians from big donations from rich people and companies. I toyed with supporting a third party, specifically Jill Stein, but I can't abide her anti-vaccine comments. I'm reluctantly supporting Hillary. For me, it's not "She's The Best One For The Job" as much as it is "On Her Worst Day She's Much Better Than Trump On His Best Day."
For me, it's that changing direction isn't always a good thing even if you think the direction we're going in is wrong. Imagine that the country is a bus. You happen to think that the bus diver is going in the wrong direction. Luckily, we're going to get a new bus driver. One (Hillary) essentially will continue down the path you think is wrong. The other one (Trump) promises a new direction but seems to want to steer the bus off the road entirely and off a nearby cliff. As much as I think the path might be wrong, it's easier to turn the bus around later than it is to recover from the bus going off a cliff.
I don't like Hillary, but I think she'll make a competent President - not a great President, but not a bad one either. Trump's tendencies to think highly of people who praise him, to get riled up by people who criticize him, and to seemingly not have the interest to read up on issues - preferring instead to just make a "gut instinct call" - scare me quite a bit. Especially when you combine this with his apparent love of dictators (Putin, Kim Jun Il, the Chinese Communist Party for running over protesters with tanks at Tienanmen Square, etc) and his retweeting of content from white supremacist websites.
Trump is way behind in the Electoral College map (which matters more than "Nationwide Poll X says..."). This doesn't mean that he's out of the race, just that he'd got more of an uphill climb than Hillary has. I believe the chances to win were something like 85% Hillary and 15% Trump. So he's not out, but he's also not the likely winner if things keep going the way they're going. If you're a Trump supporter, you would do everything to help your candidate gather more electoral votes. If you are a Hillary supporter (or perhaps just a Trump opponent), you wouldn't sit back and say "we've got this in the bag." If you did that, you would find your preferred candidate falling behind. Instead, you'd donate and help keep the candidate that you are against from overtaking the candidate that you are for.
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You're right. The IRS doesn't do phone calls to individuals. They send certified mail instead. Which is leads to another good point. Even if I (somehow) temporarily forgot that the IRS doesn't call people and even if I didn't think to contact my accountant, I'd demand that "the IRS" send me paperwork detailing exactly what I owed and why. My guess is that the call center scammer "IRS agents" might resort to threats to intimidate me into paying, but wouldn't be able to follow up their call with realistic looking papers.
You don't need to be using your phone for online activities for it to heat up. I play some games on my phone and some of the more graphics intensive ones can warm my phone up a bit. Not nearly enough for my phone to explode, but replace my phone with one that has a defective battery and it just might.
As a user, I'd prefer replaceable battery. It's not a phone, but my older son has a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 tablet. After a year and a half, it began having battery issues. It wouldn't charge at all - showing a charging screen but recycling as if we kept pulling the plug and plugging it back in. We tested other cords and it didn't work. I finally bought a battery online and paid someone to open the case (after I failed to be able to) and replace the battery. This fixed it for about 8 months, but his tablet started this up again. Still, replacing the battery should be as easy as buying a replacement online, popping the case open, putting the new battery in, and snapping the case back on.
I think the bigger problem is a lack of critical thinking skills. If "the IRS" called me up and said I owed thousands of dollars in taxes, the first thing I'd do would be to call my accountant or to call the IRS directly (using a number from their website, not given to me from the caller) to double-check this. Even if I didn't think to double-check it right away, a demand that I pay my tax bill by purchasing gift cards to various stores and giving them the numbers would raise a ton of red flags. What does the IRS need with iTunes cards?
Too many people hear a pitch over the phone or via e-mail and just go along with it because it doesn't even occur with them to think about the request being made.
I foresee a resurgence in a certain ministry.
Those fools! Don't they know that attempting to break out of the simulation could cause our reality to Blue Screen? Do they really want that to &*^#*&@%*% ERROR: Buffer Overflow In Reality Matrix 19791012-42. Terminating All Processes Immediately And Rebooting To Last Known Good Configuration...
And he didn't actually write that book either. He had someone ghostwrite it for him.
So if we want to accurately correct the poster's statement, it would be:
I tried that with an HDHomeRun. I wanted to get some DVR software running on my computer, but couldn't get it to work right.
Then again, we subscribe to Hulu which acts like a DVR for us anyway, so it wasn't a high priority for me to get working.
People think that downloading is legal because people don't get prosecuted for it. The truth of the matter is that downloading is hard to prosecute. The MPAA would need to either operate a honeypot or get access to a torrent server's log files to get a list of IP addresses. Then - for each one - they'd need to get a court to agree that the ISP needs to turn over the information. Finally, they would sue the individual. However, all of this effort would likely be for a single count of copyright infringement. ("He downloaded this ONE movie and that's it.") It's a waste of the MPAA's resources and even they know it.
Thus, they go after the uploaders. Not only do you get multiple counts of infringement for one individual ("he shared a thousand files") but removing the large uploaders leaves the downloaders with nothing to download. (In theory.)
The big trouble downloaders get into is when they don't realize that their software is uploading as well. They think that they're invisible when, in reality, they're telling everyone what they're up to.
That would have been where I would have turned had Lenovo not cancelled my order and refunded the money.
I was in the market for a new laptop a few years back. Lenovo had a good deal so I ordered it. They said the laptop would be ready to ship in 2 weeks. A day or so before the 2 week mark, they told me it would be delayed to 2 months. To ship it, mind you. It would take an additional week to actually get the laptop.
I called for an explanation and all they would say was that they were waiting on a shipment of some part. (They wouldn't say what part - just that it was a part.) I said I wanted to cancel the order, but they insisted I couldn't cancel it outright but could request to cancel the order. However, if the laptop shipped before the cancellation request was processed, they told me, I'd be charged for the laptop. I had them submit the form to cancel and ordered a Toshiba.
Luckily, they actually cancelled my order. Meanwhile, my Toshiba laptop was assembled, shipped, and arrived in under 2 weeks - before Lenovo cancelled the order and way before they claimed they would have shipped the laptop. I'd highly recommend steering clear of Lenovo.
Many, many years ago, my company rolled out its first Intranet. Not all staff were able to use computers during their jobs so we set up a kiosk in the cafeteria (a very public area) to let them look up information on their lunch break. On an almost weekly basis, I would be called down to the cafeteria because the kiosk was showing pornographic pop-up ads. (This was before my company installed a web filter.) Needless to say, some night staff member was using the computer to browse porn sites and kept agreeing to install browser toolbars from the sites. It's amazing that we didn't get any virus infestations into our network from the kiosk - just spyware. The kiosk idea was soon scrapped because the work required to keep it spyware-free wasn't worth it.
(Like I said, this was many, many years ago. Were I to do something like this nowadays, I'd know dozens of different ways to lock the device down so that the users wouldn't be able to do what they did to that kiosk.)
I was wondering if the Samsung fires might result in the return of user replaceable batteries. If the batteries in the Note 7 were user replaceable, people could have turned off their phones, waited for replacement batteries, and gotten those installed (or installed them themselves). Data loss would be zero and the inconvenience to the user would be minimized. Instead, the entire phone needs to be replaced which maximizes possible data loss and inconvenience.
No, they just use their Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulators to obliterate your doorbell, door, and entire planet because it blocks their view of Venus. Or they would if a certain rabbit wouldn't keep making off with their Illudium PU-36.
My wife's computer has started requesting to reboot to finish installing an update. But once you reboot, it claims it still needs to reboot to finish installing the update.
I've tried many different things to fix this, but now think her computer might have tried upgrading to Windows 10 (without us giving the Ok) and gotten stuck somewhere along the line. To make things more annoying, it'll often prompt her to remind her to reboot (like that will solve it), give her the option of postponing up to 4 hours, and then will frequently just reboot immediately after she selects 4 hours.
I might need to just install Linux on her laptop instead.
People with autism aren't "completely lacking ethical/moral boundaries." They might not pick up on social cues or realize that something they said was inappropriate, but that doesn't mean a moral failing. In fact, many people with autism have an overabundance of empathy which cripples them in social situations. They fear saying or doing anything because their lack of social knowledge means they'll likely do something to upset someone. Being alone is preferable to insulting the person, so they avoid social situations.
Take my son, for example. He has high functioning autism/Aspergers Syndrome. We took him into a museum a few years back and they had a butterfly house. We all went in but my son was screaming about how he didn't want to go. We finally got him in and he stood like a statue by the door for a few seconds before we excused him. I went to talk with him and he revealed that he wasn't scared of the butterflies themselves (my first guess) but that they were all over the place, including the floor, and he was afraid of hurting one. His empathy for the butterflies was so high that he couldn't stand being in the room with them lest he hurt one.
That's not "lacking ethical/moral boundaries" at all.
As someone who has high functioning Autism, let me just say that social cues are hard for us. People on the autism spectrum do very well in absolutes. Black and white. Social rules aren't black and white. They're a confusing mass of grey. The same action that is perfectly valid in one situation is horribly wrong in another, very similar situation. Over the years, I've gotten good at faking neurotypical (not on the autism spectrum), but it can be tiring and I can miss cues. Think of it as if everyone runs Social Rules natively but those of us on the spectrum need to emulate it. Our emulators are much slower and don't handle every instance. So they can drain our system resources (leaving us needing to decompress) or crash entirely (letting us say/do something that is inappropriate).
As far as your co-worker goes, I'd be direct with him. Not rude, mind you, but honest. Don't go for subtle (he won't pick up on that at all) but try to also not act like he's a small child (people with high functioning Autism can be very intelligent). Say something like: "Hey, this isn't a good time right now. I've got a ton of work to do. Let's talk about this later when we're both free."
That's what I do. Either look at their nose or a spot just behind their head (but close enough to their head that my eyes appear directed at them). Looking someone directly in the eyes, though, results in ever increasing anxiety until I need to look away.
No, the bus analogy is an extreme simplification - usually used when someone says "I don't like the direction Obama took/Hillary will take this country in, so I'm voting Trump." It shows that simply taking a new path isn't better because it's different. Especially when said path takes you into disaster.
I disagree with Hillary on many issues, but they aren't "she's going to ruin our country" levels of disagreement. At worst, they are "this will continue to be messed up for 4 more years." Trump, at best, will be ineffectual due to Congress but will incite international incidents due to things he says. At worst, he'll start a war because some foreign leader called him names.
But the bus metaphor doesn't encompass my entire governing philosophy. For that, I compare the US to a canister of mixed nuts... (Kidding!)
I almost wonder if they give out honorary free or reduced cost memberships to doctors who don't check on who The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons is and what they stand for. Some doctors might get letters that say "Do you want to join The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons for only $10 a year", the doctors say "sure", and AAPS gets to count them in their membership totals.
So the number of doctors in AAPS who actually agree with AAPS might be far lower than the number of doctors counted as being part of AAPS.
Apparently, they did that on Reddit. People were banned from the subreddit before the event even began (based on their posting history IIRC - if they posted anything even remotely anti-Trump, they were gone), the questions were filtered in advance, and Trump's answers were posted on the board during the event. So it wasn't so much an Ask Me Anything as it was an I'll Answer A Few Pre-Filtered Questions As Long As Nobody Speaks Ill Of Me.
>I just don't know of any other people in the media spotlight or candidates for office I've seen who go on 2 minute coughing fits multiple times, or who need a stool while they're on stage.
It happened to Newt Gingrich while he was criticizing Hillary for coughing. Newt claimed that it was from speaking and travelling so much. Honestly, as much as I disagree with Mr. Gingrich, I believe him. And, guess who else has been travelling a lot and speaking a lot? Hillary.
I'm one of those Sanders supporters and I would still like to get money out of politics. However, I'm also a realist - not an idealist - so I realize that we're not simply going to proclaim "This Isn't Done Anymore!" and separate politicians from big donations from rich people and companies. I toyed with supporting a third party, specifically Jill Stein, but I can't abide her anti-vaccine comments. I'm reluctantly supporting Hillary. For me, it's not "She's The Best One For The Job" as much as it is "On Her Worst Day She's Much Better Than Trump On His Best Day."
For me, it's that changing direction isn't always a good thing even if you think the direction we're going in is wrong. Imagine that the country is a bus. You happen to think that the bus diver is going in the wrong direction. Luckily, we're going to get a new bus driver. One (Hillary) essentially will continue down the path you think is wrong. The other one (Trump) promises a new direction but seems to want to steer the bus off the road entirely and off a nearby cliff. As much as I think the path might be wrong, it's easier to turn the bus around later than it is to recover from the bus going off a cliff.
I don't like Hillary, but I think she'll make a competent President - not a great President, but not a bad one either. Trump's tendencies to think highly of people who praise him, to get riled up by people who criticize him, and to seemingly not have the interest to read up on issues - preferring instead to just make a "gut instinct call" - scare me quite a bit. Especially when you combine this with his apparent love of dictators (Putin, Kim Jun Il, the Chinese Communist Party for running over protesters with tanks at Tienanmen Square, etc) and his retweeting of content from white supremacist websites.
Trump is way behind in the Electoral College map (which matters more than "Nationwide Poll X says..."). This doesn't mean that he's out of the race, just that he'd got more of an uphill climb than Hillary has. I believe the chances to win were something like 85% Hillary and 15% Trump. So he's not out, but he's also not the likely winner if things keep going the way they're going. If you're a Trump supporter, you would do everything to help your candidate gather more electoral votes. If you are a Hillary supporter (or perhaps just a Trump opponent), you wouldn't sit back and say "we've got this in the bag." If you did that, you would find your preferred candidate falling behind. Instead, you'd donate and help keep the candidate that you are against from overtaking the candidate that you are for.