THE MOST LAMEST THREAD OF 2010

[OmegaOmni]

This times a very large number.  Strokes are definitely not good.  My friend's grandfather had a stroke and even though he received almost immediate treatment he was unable to use the right side (IIRC) of his body without considerable therapy.  It also indirectly led to his death a year after that.

Hopefully it's just a medication mix-up.

My mom thinks it is because my oma has not been feeling good since tuesday and even though she is a diabetic she takes 2 kinds of diabetic medicine which is odd and may be the case.

[Spectere]

For any interested parties, I attached a screenshot comparing the resolution difference between the so-called "Retina display" and the, uh, non-Retina display.  iPhone 3G running 3.1.3 on the left (scaled up using nearest neighbor from its native 320x480), iPod touch running 4.1 on the right (at its native 640x960), both in the built-in Clock app.

What I find amazing is that that little 3.5" screen is displaying a resolution that's exactly half of what I have on my secondary monitor.  It looks stunning in person.

And yes, I've been an iWhore lately.  I've wanted an iPod for years now...sue me. :p

My mom thinks it is because my oma has not been feeling good since tuesday and even though she is a diabetic she takes 2 kinds of diabetic medicine which is odd and may be the case.

Yeah, if there's some sort of med mix-up when it comes to diabetes it can lead to a lot of unpleasantness at the very best.  I know a few people with diabetes and it's amazing how drastically their moods and overall health appears to change depending on what they eat, what medicine they take, etc.  It's kind of a scary disease when you think about it; a critical part of your body just doesn't work and the only way you can remain among the living is to control it yourself. *shudder*

[Bobbias]

lol, hotlinking fail. How oddly appropriate.

Also, I am a huge fgt

[Eggman]

[Kulli]

I am a huge fgt

I know

http://kentuckysportsradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/hotlinks.jpg

I loled

[MortifiedocAlot]

What the fuck am I reading? I haven't slept recently and that all made me laugh.

Also I'm looking for a new wireless router, and possibly a new wireless receiver (I'm like 90% sure my current router is causing most of the problems, but this Dlink dongle thing looks horrible and its software crashes half the fucking time I try to use it).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156249

Thinking of getting this, any thoughts? Should I look elsewhere for a cheaper/used one? Also I'm really tempted to search for a phone like splitter so I can run a wire to my room, but I'm unsure how to do that, plus it would be a massive pain.

[Spectere]

Every TRENDnet product I've used has been garbage.  I've seen about three of them in the field and all of them had problems with random crashes, dropped wi-fi, etc.  That one got a good rating, but I'm still very weary of that brand name.

I'd go with either Netgear or Linksys.  I've had fewer issues with Netgear routers (though I'd avoid their USB dongles; their software is kind of annoying), but the interface on Linksys products tends to be considerably better.  The only real issue I've been having with my Linksys router (a WRT54G, I think it's a v6) is that it occasionally (and by "occasionally" I mean once every month or two) freezes and has to be power cycled.  Other than that, I've had exceedingly solid wi-fi despite having a decent number of wireless devices around the house (three laptops, two cell phones, my iPod, a DS, a PSP, a Wii, a PS3, and a printer).

[Bobbias]

Don't cheap out on Linksys though, I find that their really low end stuff is more prone to crashing than the WRT54G, plus the WRT54G has custom firmware, which doesn't work on some of their lower end models.

[MortifiedocAlot]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124277

I'm assuming this would count as one of their cheaper products? The rating doesn't seem great, then again it always seemed screwy to me.

[Spectere]

When I was living in Maryland, my roommate and I had a WRT150N.  I don't know how the new WRT160N's fare, but the 150N was solid as a rock.  I never had that sucker crash and I never had any dropped connections.

[Bobbias]

I think that's the one I have now, which has been REALLY good to me. I forget what I had before, but it wasn't a WRT model. It was similar, but crappier, and has a habit of randomly dropping the connection to the modem, among other things (refusing to forward ports, etc. etc.) The one I have now looks like that one, and has been working flawlessly since we got it.

[MortifiedocAlot]

Thanks a lot yall, I'll look into it depending on how much my current wireless router shits out on me and how my patience is.

[Spectere]

Oh yeah, also:

The rating doesn't seem great, then again it always seemed screwy to me.

I rarely trust the independent reviews on Newegg simply because most people on there seem to think that buying parts online makes them a computer genius.  I've seen far too many reviewers listing cons that are very obviously not issues with the product that they're "reviewing," yet they insist on marking their tech level as "high."  Either that or they simply don't provide any detail, and give a shit review like "Pros: nothing, cons: everything" and give it one eggs without any explanation, presumably because they're an anti-fanboy.

Here's a dissection of a review from someone with a "high tech level":

• Cons: 3 major problems with this unit:

Well, he listed more than three, for starters.

• * it randomly directs your HTTP(s) requests to incorrect servers. You will se obscure erros in the browser

Bullshit.

All of Linksys's routers after a certain period of time do nothing but forward DNS requests to the DNS servers that are configured.  Furthermore, it's impossible for it to resolve to an incorrect DNS setting only on HTTP requests -- DNS is a totally separate protocol.

More than likely, his dumb ass got himself infected by something that's hijacking his browser.

• * It's speed occasionally drops to very slow (bot wired/wireless), requires unplugging the power cable and plugging back.

This could be caused by external interference, the fifth issue that was listed, or more than likely an application that's being run on his network.  Considering his browser was hijacked, his network is probably being bogged down by a lovely piece of malware that's continually sending me spam and creating a bunch of bogus user accounts on my forum.

• * It completely looses connection once a month or so, requires unplugging power cable/unplugging

No arguments there.  My WRT54G and BEF41SR both do the same thing.

• * WinXP/Sp2 and with some ISPs, it doesn't work with its default settings, need to reduce MTU size for wired/wireless network

That's an ISP issue, not a router issue.  It should not be listed as an issue with the device.

Also, the MTU size that matters is determined by your ISP and your modem, it has absolutely nothing to do with the operating system that you're running.  Routers are nothing more than switches (and wireless access points in most models) that are bridged with an external connection.  They don't give a shit what you're running on your main system and will take just about everything that you throw at it.

• * Its QoS feature is buggy, and causes extremely slow speeds, needs to be turned off. It is on by default

QoS has a tendency to do that if you're an idiot who doesn't know how to configure it properly.  The QoS feature on Linksys routers feature is fine, was fine, and will probably always be fine.  I should know, I've used it plenty of times.  The main difference is that I actually know what the hell I'm doing.

Maybe the problem is simply that Cisco/Linksys give the user too much power for their own good and makes it too easy for them to change settings that should be reserved for people who have at least managed to get through Networking 101.

[MortifiedocAlot]

Well, I know fuck all about wireless routers, but I can see where you're coming from.

[Spectere]

Yeah, I kind of figured based on the tone of your other posts.  I just wanted to give you a detailed example of what's wrong with customer reviews on sites like Newegg.

The people that do that sort of shit piss me off; they wind up screwing over people who are looking for a decent device by posting that drivel.  Reviews are supposed to help consumers, such as yourself, pick out devices.  Customer reviews, particularly negative ones, are rarely good for the product -- they either oversell it or royally undersell it (especially since people are more likely to post negative experiences rather than positive ones).  If I don't know enough about something, I either ask someone who knows or just keep my fucking mouth shut.  Then again, I know enough to know when I'm wrong.  Most of the damned tinkerers who think that they know a thing or three about computers don't even realize how dumb they are.

Honestly, I would run any technical purchases you plan to make past the people here (as you have done ).  We've got quite a few smarty men here who would be lot more helpful than Bozo291 on <insert online store here> or your local Geek Squad "agent."