Rant Thread - What really grinds your gears?

[mikedt]

It's a lot like the old CableCARD law when the standard was made. The law implies that cable companies were required to use and provide it. While technically true, as basically every cable box ever used the cards in them, they really dragged their heels about providing it to users who wanted to be able to just plug in a coax to their TV and use that.

Laws...yeh...yeh.... and cable-cards have nothing to do with phone lines anyway.
Have you actually enquired with Cox if they can provide you with a landline service or not? Because their website states that they can provide landlines for their customers.

I'm not in the US of course, but every cable provider I've seen in the UK and China, can provide landline telephone service, as well as cable TV and cable internet.

Phone service over cable internet can be provided as well, with things like Magic Jack and Vonage.

 

[MoodyBlues]

honestly... I resent this state. If ever the opportunity presented itself to viably leave, I would do so without blinking twice.

Oh my goodness, I completely understand that feeling [though not about Arizona, which I happen to like]. I was stuck in Texas for more years than I'm willing to consciously acknowledge. If ever there was a 'fish out of water' situation, it was me living in Dallas...

So, trust me, I get it.

But I'm totally with @mikedt regarding your phone situation!

I cannot believe it's impossible to do. As for changing your number...why? Just keep both. I have two numbers, and have since cell phones came along.

Early this year I dumped AT&T Wireless--which I'd had since the '90s--in favor of Consumer Cellular. Kept my same cell phone number and cut my bill by ≈75%. They also offer 'home phone' service, which is not a physical landline. They've assured me that I can keep my 49-year-old [AT&T] landline number if I switch.

You should be able to keep your number while also solving your problems.

 

[mikedt]

Oh my goodness, I completely understand that feeling [though not about Arizona, which I happen to like]. I was stuck in Texas for more years than I'm willing to consciously acknowledge. If ever there was a 'fish out of water' situation, it was me living in Dallas...

So, trust me, I get it.

But I'm totally with @mikedt regarding your phone situation!

I cannot believe it's impossible to do. As for changing your number...why? Just keep both. I have two numbers, and have since cell phones came along.

Early this year I dumped AT&T Wireless--which I'd had since the '90s--in favor of Consumer Cellular. Kept my same cell phone number and cut my bill by ≈75%. They also offer 'home phone' service, which is not a physical landline. They've assured me that I can keep my 49-year-old [AT&T] landline number if I switch.

You should be able to keep your number while also solving your problems.

Phone numbers in the US are the same for landline or mobile/cellphone aren't they? So you can always keep the same number, mobile or landline?

In the UK and China they're different, and one can't port a mobile number to a landline, and vice versa AFAIK. In the UK, calling mobile numbers "07" are charged at a higher rate than landline numbers.

China, landlines with area codes always begin with "0" and are 11 or 12 digit, and mobile begins with '1" and are 11 digit. And there's no number porting here at all, as a South African friend of mine found out, when he couldn't transfer his Beijing mobile number to Jinan.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Phone numbers in the US are the same for landline or mobile/cellphone aren't they?

Yes. They're identical in structure, indistinguishable just by looking at them.

All US numbers are 7-digits, using the format YYY-ZZZZ, where YYY is the prefix, and ZZZZ four random numbers. Then, to distinguish where they're from, there's an XXX area code before the number, which is used conditionally.

We have "1+" dialing for long distance...or not. It's complicated. But the '1' is never considered part of the number, i.e., we don't have 11-digit phone numbers.

So you can always keep the same number, mobile or landline?

EDIT: I somehow read that as meaning keeping a landline number while moving it to mobile, and vice versa. For the actual question, yes, you should always be able to keep your number, e.g., landline, when switching to another carrier. As for cell, I don't know the specifics but seem to recall something about carriers having blocks of numbers they can use. I know when I switched carriers, they said something like, yes, I can port your number [implying others couldn't be].

 

[Milo Willamson]

Here is something, why does everyone saids usually around this time of annualism, "Happy new year"? Since it is consisted of year, meaning full one, and yet everyone shuts off without noticing on that plauge ?

 

[Bearsyzf]

Cox does provide landline service, i have a landline through them........... although i never answer it though

 

[Milo Willamson]

Cox does provide landline service, i have a landline through them........... although i never answer it though

We got bombarded with a ton of spam messages, back when I used it way too much, but they did not knew I was admin a few chats back then, but had to let it go forever, because my Grandparents, Aunt, also other people that used to talk with me all the time, funny about having double lives, always keep them seperated.

 

[lunatic59]

Don't you have number portability in the US, where you can transfer your phone number from one provider to another?

Yes, but with some caveats. If you are staying within the same geographic area, it's no problem. If you move outside of a specific area code, landline and IP services can't port the number, but mobile still should be able to. And, numbers are transferable between IP landline and mobile indiscriminately. I know that when you buy pay-as-you-go sim cards in the US, you must specify the area code for the number and it isn't tied to your physical address or location.

https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/porting-keeping-your-phone-number-when-you-change-providers

 

[codezer0]

Yes, but with some caveats. If you are staying within the same geographic area, it's no problem. If you move outside of a specific area code, landline and IP services can't port the number, but mobile still should be able to. And, numbers are transferable between IP landline and mobile indiscriminately. I know that when you buy pay-as-you-go sim cards in the US, you must specify the area code for the number and it isn't tied to your physical address or location.

https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/porting-keeping-your-phone-number-when-you-change-providers

So basically, I won't be able to port my number around here. Crap...

 

[lunatic59]

So basically, I won't be able to port my number around here. Crap...

Port it to a mobile account. I can pickup a SIM from one of the many MNVO's for about $30 and only (pre)pay for the minutes I use. I can port any of my existing numbers to it, regardless of where I am (in the U.S.)

 

[codezer0]

Port it to a mobile account. I can pickup a SIM from one of the many MNVO's for about $30 and only (pre)pay for the minutes I use. I can port any of my existing numbers to it, regardless of where I am (in the U.S.)

and there in is the conundrum. these new phones are garbage. literal garbage.

 

[mikedt]

中国饮酒游戏

 

[mikedt]

and there in is the conundrum. these new phones are garbage. literal garbage.

#firstworldproblems

 

[codezer0]

#firstworldproblems

*angrily adjusts work uniform* Listen here, you...

The last phone I was recommended and settled on, was the moto x pure edition. I spent $400 on that thing plus another $30 on a 15k mAh power brick... and another $3 for a usb cable to use them at the time.

In the first two months, the factory wall wart that Motorola provided completely stopped working. And in the end, Motorola refused to warranty it, trying to claim that I bought it a year before I actually did.

Everything positive I could have said about that phone, was instantly negated by the miserable battery. I get up at 4am, have it play some YouTube of news or tech stuff I would happen to be watching at the time while getting ready for the day. By the time my first break came around at 9am, battery was already dead.

Because of the need to carry the battery and extra charging cable around, I had to waste three pockets compared to just one. So I couldn't even carry a DS or gba with me for the downtime. Which made the downtime of charging all the more frustrating and boring.

Even on weekends when I would be able to set aside more than a few minutes of time on pokemon go, I then discovered how miserable the battery already was. from 100% to dead in 60 minutes.

The only reason I thought I could handle a part-time as delivery driver was having a reasonably good signal and navigation to get from place to place. Well, even with the car charger, all the stupid phone did was get hot, whine about being hot, and refusing to charge. It's a whole level of ****ery to need to use the phone to work, and watching its percentage drain out while plugged in and supposed to be charging.

It's not even an exaggeration to say that I was having to spend time basically watching that dumb phone charge from two to three times a day.

I've been fortunate enough to have had a wireless phone since I was 18. And as I reiterated before, there were just a few constants in the nearly 20 years since then:

• No phone on stock battery ever got near its advertised battery life with me, ever.
• No sealed battery phone ever even lasted one full year with me

And true enough, said MXPE decided it would no longer quick charge anymore... which just exploded how long it would take to charge, just to give me a pittance of life. All this after probably burning through nearly $100 (if not more) in ruined USB cables and chargers to keep the thing running. So I was forced to sell it off at a pittance as a "broken phone" because I had no means to repair it. None of the local "phone repair shops" would even touch it at any price, and Lenovo got extra petty and cheeky and just started suing parts suppliers so nobody would be allowed to carry the replacement battery kits for it.

So don't even try to tell me "sealed battery phones are fine". because experience has taught me how full of crap that statement is.

 

[MoodyBlues]

and there in is the conundrum. these new phones are garbage. literal garbage.

Perhaps you just haven't found the right phone. I've loved every single Android device I've had--and I keep them in use for years. If they were garbage, I wouldn't do that.

Two current examples: my Kindle Fire HD 8.9" tablet, which I rooted and made look/perform like any normal Android device, not a Kindle, I bought in 2013. My Moto X 2nd Generation phone is in daily use, on Wi-Fi only, and it's 5 years old. Trust me, if they were trash, I'd have tossed them ages ago!

Edit: @codezer0, I hadn't read your latest post yet when I posted the above. Now that I have, I'm with @olbriar in being sorry that's been your experience. Mine could not be more diametrically opposite from yours.

For example, I buy my phones directly from Motorola. The one and only time in all these years that I had a problem, they resolved it immediately, to my satisfaction. All it took was one brief phone call. My Moto Z² Force Edition had gotten screen burn-in. They shipped me a new replacement overnight. There was no question about its purchase date--it was right there in their records.

I don't know how/why you've been so unlucky--and you really have been! I don't know what to suggest going forward, other than dealing directly with the manufacturer, as I do. When a device malfunctions during its warranty period, the onus is on them to repair or replace it. You should not have to deal with things like batteries not staying charged, not charging quickly, etc.

 

[olbriar]

That is a sad and no doubt a quite frustrating history you recite. I'm sorry. My phone usage is impossible to compare to yours and the devices we've used differ. However, I must say I have enjoyed the other side of the coin. I'm not a fan of non replaceable batteries but so far they have not created a problem for me. Again, I'm sorry that your experience has been so negative.

 

[MoodyBlues]

中国饮酒游戏

Um...I agree?

 

[codezer0]

Why would I spend RTX 2080ti money on a phone? especially a phone designed to fail, as is the case of the current crop of flagships? Read very carefully... I will not spend four digits on a phone. On any phone, no matter how good it claims to be.

I guarantee that spending the $1300 asking price (of a Note 10+) on the GPU would get me a LOT more life out of that money spent than I'd get out of the phone. On T-Mobile, the only other 5G-capable phone is a OnePlus 7... which is a whole other bag of worms in my book. For claiming their motto is "never settle," they sure settled pretty damn hard and fast into sealed battery trash territory. And for $900, what's the thing people are griping about most? an inadequate battery that forces them to basically disable everything it's advertised as having, in order for it to even be semi-usable. Yeah, no thanks.

Never mind all the regressions done with flagship phones as of the last few years. No headphone jack, a non-removable battery, tinier batteries just to stick it to my quality of life further, and for what? waterproofing? and of course how does marketing choose to demonstrate the point? by showing morons who can't even take it out of the box without dunking it into a kitchen sink first. Even in Florida, this never happened to me, or anyone that wasn't in sub-standard intellect levels. Like, how stupid are people now that they have to actually build a phone around this fail?

And then some people want to suggest "well, why not just get a tablet?" First off, the free tablets they promote aren't even worth accepting; they're somehow even less capable than the cheapest phone they'd sell. They're so far behind in specs, it's embarrassing. Further still, for the similar price of what T-Mo asks for some of their entry level "giveaway tablet" units, it would be possible to get an NVIDIA Shield tablet. Which, because of GeForce Now, would possibly be useful to me, so I could run my PC games through it. That would have enticed me. But the Shield Tablet that can go on cellular apparently doesn't work on GSM networks... only Verizon; of course, Verizon wants like $200/line/month for service.

I'd have to win, or be gifted, such a phone before I'd ever give the thing a chance to see if they are any better. But after my experience and history, I'd be keeping my expectations low.

 

[no one]

Fake exhaust ports

 

[Milo Willamson]

How the heck did my bang my left first finger so much, the swelling underneath ice will not shut down, it has a burning diposition, and underneath the band aid it is just red..

 

[MoodyBlues]

How the heck did my bang my left first finger so much, the swelling underneath ice will not shut down, it has a burning diposition, and underneath the band aid it is just red..

What on earth did you do?! It sounds like getting slammed by a closing door.

What happened?

 

[Milo Willamson]

What on earth did you do?! It sounds like getting slammed by a closing door.

What happened?

Honestly I have no idea, perhaps that did occur, maybe it was a closing door type situation though.
I can still type and my nerves are still attached too.

 

[Milo Willamson]

Nearly no one has arrived on this ship yet..
Hello anyone? Huh, no one well go back into the wilderness.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

Boomer childhood memories turned into horror movies.
The Banana Splits Movie (2019)
Fantasy Island (2020 tbr)
Why?

 

[Milo Willamson]

Boomer childhood memories turned into horror movies.
The Banana Splits Movie (2019)
Fantasy Island (2020 tbr)
Why?

Banana Splits Movie was really excellent.