People who have no idea how their own freaking products work. Notably, design engineers and software programmers, who seem to know less than I do about something they spent months creating and I've had all of a few hours to look at.

 

I actually had the following conversation with an engineer a couple of weeks ago:

"It's doing X."

"That's impossible. It can't do X."

"I'm telling you it is. I'm watching it do it right now."

"Nope. You obviously don't understand anything about these pumps."

"Excuse me?"

"Have somebody more experienced look at it and call me back."

 

I've been doing this for nearly 12 years. <_<

 

And when I finally figured the problem out...

"The wiring setup was causing interference I fixed X by doing Y."

"No, that's impossible. There's no way it was causing interference. We tested it before putting them in the field."

"But it's working properly now. You might want to look into it."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

...and on and on like that.

 

This morning there was a technical release from that company describing not only this very problem, BUT RECOMMENDED MY SOLUTION TO FIX IT! The thing that really gets me is that he probably makes at least twice as much as I do. :wall:

To be fair, if someone called me up and told me that the program I wrote was doing something I didn't think it could physically (digitally?) do, as the creator, I would be fairly skeptical. I mean, theoretically, they know how it works at a more fundamental level than you would as a user. Not to say you're wrong, just that that's part of the engineer's reasoning.

I remember this discussion from a couple pages back, saw this on my FB today...

 

They can't even spell Satan right. santans?

They can't even spell Satan right. santans?

ALL the satans! :lol:

They can't even spell Satan right. santans?

ALL the satans! :lol:

 

Would you choose which of two?

Would you choose which of two?

Gonna have to go with jesus. The satans outnumber me, and jesus might be related to Jesus, who I've heard is a pretty cool guy.

Maybe they were trying to spell Santana, and could find a suitable picture on google images because of the misspelling.

Edit: Nvm

The way Netanyahu overreacts to everything. I blame Hamas for starting the current crisis, and Israel for escalating it to the needless number of lives now lost in Palestine.

What's Israel supposed to do? BN is under enormous public pressure to do something - I actually think that Israel has shown remarkable self restraint in general.

 

If Mexico shot a rocket at texas the US would probably flat out invade...

I think the Israelis themselves are more to blame. Their militant stance and previous actions have made me personally in every single way vouch for the palestinians. If it would bring peace, I would be happy to get rid of the Israeli state. But there can never be long-term peace with the current situation.

What's Israel supposed to do? BN is under enormous public pressure to do something - I actually think that Israel has shown remarkable self restraint in general.

 

If Mexico shot a rocket at texas the US would probably flat out invade...

http://www.webcitation.org/6CIelbltz (WebCited permanent copy due to rapid development of story, last accessed 2012-11-19, 21:15 GMT)

 

IDF admitted they did not know that Mr. Rabiyah, head of Hamas's rocket-launching operational unit, was inside the building at the time or not, but had bombed it anyway, admitting civilian casualties were a significant possibility. The resulting explosion killed four children and five others. Since the violence escalated six days ago as a response to Operation Pillar of Defense, at least thirty-four Palestinian civilians have been killed, although Palestinian sources claim this is considerably higher at over fifty. Palestinian sources also claim that the civilian injury total is now approaching one thousand. I've seen some images--I won't post them here because it would be grossly inappropriate of me to do so, but suffice to say, they're not fully grown men with a few bits of shrapnel hanging off their limbs (some of the images being circulated are actually from the Syrian conflict, but there's no doubting some of them are bona fide).

 

This is an operation Israel claims it is carrying out in self-defence, that the deaths of at least three dozen Palestinian civilians, including women and children, and the mass destruction of infrastructure already crippled by an Israeli blockade which the UN has heavily criticised in the past, in a region world leaders have declared the densest "open air prison" known to man, has been a fully justifiable retaliation for the killing of three Israeli civilians in rocket attacks last Monday.

 

It isn't a full-out invasion, but I am still truly baffled by your definition of "remarkable self-restraint".

 

If Mexico's economic status was anything like Palestine's due to embargoes placed on it by the US, I would barely be surprised if Mexicans voted an Hamas-like group into power simply out of desperation.

What's Israel supposed to do? BN is under enormous public pressure to do something - I actually think that Israel has shown remarkable self restraint in general.

 

If Mexico shot a rocket at texas the US would probably flat out invade...

Using the US as an analogy isn't a good idea, however, given that they invade countries without so much as needing to be provoked anyway.

 

I've always viewed Bibi as a low-calibre PM fond of sabre-rattling and using the IDF. One need only look at the speech he made to the UNGA this September to see that he is itching for a conflict somewhere. As far as I am concerned, that the death toll in Gaza has exceeded 100 and Israel looks ready to invade, given the relative scale of Hamas' provocation, he has stepped far, far over the line of restraint and acceptable, legal self-defence.

Israel is doing what it's suppose to do. I do hope it's a repeat of 2008 and that this time they will go all the way to overthrow Hamas. Suffering all those rocket attacks for years is obvious reason for this retaliation and it is 100% appropriate. Feel free to start a new thread on this so we won't spam this thread.

What's Israel supposed to do? BN is under enormous public pressure to do something - I actually think that Israel has shown remarkable self restraint in general.

 

If Mexico shot a rocket at texas the US would probably flat out invade...

http://www.webcitation.org/6CIelbltz (WebCited permanent copy due to rapid development of story, last accessed 2012-11-19, 21:15 GMT)

 

IDF admitted they did not know that Mr. Rabiyah, head of Hamas's rocket-launching operational unit, was inside the building at the time or not, but had bombed it anyway, admitting civilian casualties were a significant possibility. The resulting explosion killed four children and five others. Since the violence escalated six days ago as a response to Operation Pillar of Defense, at least thirty-four Palestinian civilians have been killed, although Palestinian sources claim this is considerably higher at over fifty. Palestinian sources also claim that the civilian injury total is now approaching one thousand. I've seen some images--I won't post them here because it would be grossly inappropriate of me to do so, but suffice to say, they're not fully grown men with a few bits of shrapnel hanging off their limbs (some of the images being circulated are actually from the Syrian conflict, but there's no doubting some of them are bona fide).

 

This is an operation Israel claims it is carrying out in self-defence, that the deaths of at least three dozen Palestinian civilians, including women and children, and the mass destruction of infrastructure already crippled by an Israeli blockade which the UN has heavily criticised in the past, in a region world leaders have declared the densest "open air prison" known to man, has been a fully justifiable retaliation for the killing of three Israeli civilians in rocket attacks last Monday.

 

It isn't a full-out invasion, but I am still truly baffled by your definition of "remarkable self-restraint".

 

If Mexico's economic status was anything like Palestine's due to embargoes placed on it by the US, I would barely be surprised if Mexicans voted an Hamas-like group into power simply out of desperation.

 

Israel has been putting up with basically constant rocket bombardment for decades...and they aren't even occupying the territory that's doing it.

 

On their other side they have a country like Iran who has expressed the desire that all jews should be wiped from the map, and is building nuclear weapons...and they haven't invaded.

 

Like I said, remarkable self-restraint.

 

Note: I'm not claiming Israel is innocent; they aren't. But they could have done much, much more considering the circumstances.

Israeli public support for the current situation would drop dramatically if Netanyahu decided to go ahead with the ground operation. It didn't work the last time in 2008, in fact many would argue it only made the deep societal problems in Palestine which lead to Hamas seizing control of the Strip worse. It resulted in mass Palestinian civilian casualties and drew widespread condemnation from leaders around the world. That, as well as other incidents, lead to Israel's loss of Turkey as an ally in 2010; Turkey in response to this crisis has labelled Israel a 'terrorist state', almost completely opposite to its stance in 2008. He could do it, but he risks a whole lot going wrong, not just domestically but the region as a whole, and even if the ground operation was a success (which it undoubtedly would be, the Gaza Strip has no military capacity to defend itself) then there would be the question of what happens next.

 

So given all of that, saying that Netanyahu has fallen short of a full-scale ground operation isn't much of a sign of self-restraint, because actually, it isn't really an option on the table.

 

What is notable, though, is that despite Hamas launching rockets with the expressed intent of killing as many Israeli civilians as possible, they've actually only managed to kill three in seven days. It's been very ineffective, as it has been for years. Contrast that with the sheer scale of retaliation by the IDF, and you find even less evidence of restraint; the IDF has launched far more firepower at the Gaza Strip in the past week than it has received, about twice as much on some conservative figures going up to three times as much if you believe Palestinian sources. Yesterday, fifteen IDF airstrikes killed more Palestinians in a matter of minutes than Hamas has managed to kill Israelis with rocket attacks in the last three years.

 

That's damning enough, but just to round off, I'll leave you with the words of the Israeli Interior Minister yesterday, who said:

 

"[The] goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages."

Debates about Israel and Palestine whose belligerents have no first-hand experience in Gaza and only get their information from Western media sources. That's what annoys the hell out of me.

Debates about Israel and Palestine whose belligerents have no first-hand experience in Gaza and only get their information from Western media sources. That's what annoys the hell out of me.

 

Haha touche

My laziness

Debates about Israel and Palestine whose belligerents have no first-hand experience in Gaza and only get their information from Western media sources. That's what annoys the hell out of me.

 

Haha touche

Some of the information in that post came from Haaretz. That well known Western media source that has its HQ in Tel Aviv, obviously. Not to mention most Western media sources rely on some degree to reports from the AP and Reuters, both of whom have people in the Gaza Strip and Israel.

 

So I'm not really sure why it annoys you. If all you're seeing is very biased interpretations of first-hand accounts from the conflict, I can understand that. But there's enough objective reporting out there to form your own valid opinion on the matter.

Debates about Israel and Palestine whose belligerents have no first-hand experience in Gaza and only get their information from Western media sources. That's what annoys the hell out of me.

 

Haha touche

Some of the information in that post came from Haaretz. That well known Western media source that has its HQ in Tel Aviv, obviously. Not to mention most Western media sources rely on some degree to reports from the AP and Reuters, both of whom have people in the Gaza Strip and Israel.

 

So I'm not really sure why it annoys you. If all you're seeing is very biased interpretations of first-hand accounts from the conflict, I can understand that. But there's enough objective reporting out there to form your own valid opinion on the matter.

The news reports on balance are pretty good, it's the debates that follow them, usually in the comments sections. This particular issue seems to have the right ingredients to turn otherwise rational people into foaming-at-the-mouth partisans on either side. It makes me question how rational the average person really is.

I've seen comments like "Palestinians have the right to launch rockets because it's their land." Conveniently ignores half a century of history, and Hamas's responsibility in the current crisis. Also, "Israel has to put up with Hamas firing rockets at it for no reason" isn't a proper representation of how Israel's foreign policy under Netanyahu has caused the economic ruin and consequent poverty in Gaza which indirectly lead to Hamas's rise to power. On both sides, there's a certain element of deliberate, self-induced confusion. Add to that the aspect of religion (it's pretty easy to boil this conflict, and others in the Middle East, down to Islamism vs Zionist Judaism), and you've got a really toxic issue on your hands.

 

The mainstream media have always found it very difficult to report the Gaza-Israeli conflict, and by that I don't mean the past week, I mean the skirmishes that happen constantly next to the border even during ceasefires. Let alone do it in a way that is understandable and non-repetitive. That leads to a lot of ignorance on both sides.

I don't really see the point in taking a side. Its outcome does not affect me directly and it should be settled by the people in Gaza.

One person. No.......

It annoys me when people automatically assume that all vegetarians/vegans are hell-bent on forcing everyone not to eat meat. I've been vegetarian for just under a year and I personally don't give a shit what people eat, as do nearly all of the other vegetarians/vegans that I know. But whenever I decline food because it has meat in it, someone will usually ask why and I'll respond that I'm vegetarian which will usually either earn weird looks (apparently it's not normal for guys to be vegetarians) or have them laugh at me and tell me how I shouldn't force my views on others when I never have in my life.

 

</rant>

My cellphone annoys me right now. The speaker decided to go out 1 month after the end of the warranty. I can only text people with it right now, and I'm not one to text, to the point that I only have a 250 texts/month on my plan and could probably live with 50. Btw texts (as on the phone if you haven't guessed) annoy the hell out of me and that's why I talk on the phone with people and don't really text them. Even did a factory reset in case Android was at fault here, but the speaker is still out. Now I have the choice of sending it for repairs ($150 and the chance that something else breaks in another month) or $300 and renewing my contract, for a new phone (the $300 being to finish paying my current phone).