Where has the fun gone?

[gary350]

I've been a member here for many, many years. This was a forum that I used to look forward to visiting many times a day and having fun etc. Going back to EM's days.

Now, it's not fun anymore. No real reason to want to visit anymore.

Laughter and fun gone.

Just all seriousness now.

I use to be on the Rocket Engine forum. Lots of people right out of college and people like me been out of college many years and have their own home machine shop to build just about anything. I have built lots of thing and have always been interested in rockets & jet engines so I built several of them. On the Rocket engine forum there are the thinkers and doers. Thinkers are people that have every formula in the world memorized and can whip out 100s of technical answers they think will work. If you ever worked in a factory they have research & development departments where they test the things the thinkers claim will work. The Rocket forum use to be fun but the attituded changed. New people come and ask questions but no one would answer, all they would say is, we already talked about that, look it up in history. It got so no one would answer. New people stopped coming. There was no one to talk to so I stopped going there.

I like this forum. Lots of people to talk too.

 

[Pommie]

So, no more telling people to use the search engine or RTFM. Point taken.

Mike.

 

[throbscottle]

Anyone who builds rocket or jet engines gets an awesomeness point from me. Two if it's Wednesday.

I actually do use the search engine, I think it's provided me with an answer I can use maybe twice. And the Fine Manual isn't always accurate or complete, as we all know. And sometimes the knowledge of the person reading the Fine Manual isn't sufficiently accurate or complete to understand it - I speak from experience.

Ayethankyou *ducks behind curtain*

 

[Pommie]

In all seriousness, I can see this forum gradually deteriorating. I'm not sure the answer but it would be a shame if it got relegated to the dregs of the internet.

Mike.

 

[throbscottle]

People have been saying the same thing since I joined about 10 years ago. Must be me
I don't think it gets "more worse" - I think it's cyclic.

 

[granddad]

Having registered to three or four forums ( probably more I forgot ! ), I have to agree with Gary350's general point , that posters have tended over time to get less and less help , After I moved my systems to linux.mint a couple of years or so now , I managed to fix a few of my 'Why & What " problems posting to the linux.mint forum. and the response was quick and detailed. [ like the wi-fi stopped .. it was just some rouge process that needed 'killing' ] . Recently I had some FTDI to serial adapter "cannot open" errors and posted question and details in the Newbie tab.. It sat there for weeks . plenty of views , not a hint of a solution not even a RTFM ...as the adapter worked on one machine was not a big problem . Yesterday I found the fix , from a web search. { I didn't have dialout permission } . So perhaps leaving folk to find out themselves does work. I think the talkers and doers theory happens in all walks of life , unfortunately the talkers become the managers of the doers !

 

[shortbus=]

"Where has the fun gone?"
Can it have been replaced by the popups that never go away for very long?

 

[gary350]

WHAT is RTFM ? I know everyone likes Abbreviations but just because YOU know what it means does not mean other people know what it means. Maybe I will type every 3rd word in, German, French, or Russian, lot you all figure out what it says.

 

[gophert]

WHAT is RTFM ? I know everyone likes Abbreviations but just because YOU know what it means does not mean other people know what it means. Maybe I will type every 3rd word in, German, French, or Russian, lot you all figure out what it says.

Google it and you'll surely remember it better than us telling you.

 

[granddad]

RTFM... perhaps its an age thing.. having not RTFM for thirty years while fixing stuff ,It becomes like a habit.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

RTFM... perhaps its an age thing.. having not RTFM for thirty years while fixing stuff ,It becomes like a habit.

It's certainly one of the most popular acronyms, and typing 4 letters in google would have been far easier than Gary's long rant - and I would imagine he's often been told to RTFM anyway

 

[gophert]

and I would imagine he's often been told to RTFM anyway

if only someone would write one for flashing LEDs on his porch or tree or wherever powered by heavy duty batteries.

 

[Pommie]

It's certainly one of the most popular acronyms, and typing 4 letters in google would have been far easier than Gary's long rant - and I would imagine he's often been told to RTFM anyway

Sounds like you're telling Gary to RTFM.

Mike.

 

[JimB]

if only someone would write one for flashing LEDs on his porch or tree or wherever powered by heavy duty batteries.

Sounds like something that would be a good project for Ritesh.

JimB

 

[gary350]

I will. Red Team Field Manual. Never heard of it.

 

[Mickster]

Sounds like you're telling Gary to RTFM.

Resolve The Flasher Math?

 

[throbscottle]

Reconnoitre The Foxy Musk.
Obviously. Just ask my dog.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

I think we are all burnt out. As we age, functions start to decline.

https://www.merckmanuals.com/home/older-people%E2%80%99s-health-issues/the-aging-body/changes-in-the-body-with-aging

Life has shaped me badly. I can no longer trust ANYBODY. It used to be that I liked helping people, even work mates. No one will take responsibility. The political climate reminds me where I've been. It has shown that around 50% of the US is stupid.

Professionals like law enforcement and the medical profession know less than I do. I'll find Law enforcement categorized the same way as my rock pile.

What's important? What do I have time for?

I hate AT&T. I loved Cingular. I hate Verizon (Name server response is too long). I hate T-mobile/Sprint because one of them gobbles up CLEAR or clearwire just for the bandwidth. I hate Apple. I could not get past the gatekeepers when i had a real problem. [emai anythig on a dial-up line with ATH$ in it and the modem disconnected EVERY TIME. I chose their platform back when Windows was version 3.1. Apple had a flat memory model and not the 640K barrier, the software that I chose was initially developed on a Macintosh, our office did research and thus desktop publishing. Filenames of 32 characters was a LOT better than the 8.3 of windows. The file name was essentially a time_stamp.

I hate what happened to Fluke, HP and Keithley since the 1980's. Even the alarm company Linear is different. I did a self-install and got sort of, direct support.

The latest is the demise of the packing slip. No postmarks on letters has been gone a long time.

I just purchased a medical grade outlet strip and I took it apart. They didn't spot weld all of the ground wires. I looked more carefully at the replacement strip and it appears to have a design fault. There is a 15A breaker in the line and Neutral wires. The strip is rated for 12 A.
Line should be 12A and N should be 15A if you want to protect against reverse polarity. I asked if it would fail hi-pot testing if the polarity is reversed? It's been a week and no response for the HIPOT question.

Life is a terminal illness. I lost the meaning of "fun" a long time ago. I don't think I know the meaning of happy or elated now.

I put my best effort into things, but I didn't kiss A$$.

This seems to be the rule to live by:
Rule #1. The boss is always right.
Rule #2. If the boss is wrong, see rule #1.

I didn't know how nice I had it when you and your boss had a "relationship". Two of them really knew the value of my knowledge.

 

[gophert]

Happiness and fun are relative. Think about it. You can literally be happy because you are no longer banging your head against the wall. You'll be happier during that first minute after you stop banging your head against the wall than the person who never banged his head in the first place.

This is why we like to do new things, learning and overcoming challenges is more fun, it makes us happier, than sitting on a couch and getting frustrated by current events, or changes implemented by younger generations or what some ******* says on a forum. Traveling to a new place or in a new way, camping, learning a new musical instrument, learning to sew, learning to paint, trying to teach someone to read, having a conversation and trying to learn how someone thinks, what basis they used to form and opinion and what life experiences they've had that (or didn't have) to come to a different conclusion than you did.

50% of people are not idiots or stupid - they just lived different lives, had different priorities and different definitions of "hard work": "success" and "quality". They've had different opportunities and some were told they were "special" one too many times. It's not their fault.

Talking to people isn't always pleasant but it's interesting. Talking to people you don't like or don't agree with takes effort but very important if you want or need to change their minds. People get really pissed off when you point out that their opinions don't align with other things they believe in or actions they take or science.

Certain luxuries come with old age and luxuries make life boring. I first noticed that when I bought a Honda VFR800 motorcycle. It was a technical marvel, perfect in every way - instant power, perfect brakes, handling, snd practically zero maintenance besides oil changes and oiling the chain. There was nothing to dream of that could be better for my style of riding and my types of trips. And that was the problem. Same with my BMW (car), so perfect there is nothing to think about. Luxury makes life boring. Unexciting and no real feeling of accomplishment (other than saying, I was able to buy a bmw or a vfr800). I realized it's a lot more fun to fly down a curvy road in western pennsylvania in a 1983 Ford Escort Diesel or a 1969 Chevy C10 pickup than a new BMW. I feel like I accomplished something by the time I'm home. The Escort gets 53MPG and can pull a tree stump in first gear. I get way more complements and conversations with strangers about that car than anything I've ever driven. The C10 and Escort are way slower than the BMW but it FEELs faster.

I was able to retire at a fairly young age but I've since gone back. I like solving problems and I've run out of problems at home and travel is kind of difficult lately I work on my own terms now. I didn't discuss my terms with my employer - I just decide what my terms are every morning. Ithey like it, fine. If they don't like it, they can tell me. If they don't tell me, shame on them. Work also gives me a chance to make more people happy while making myself happy - giving away money is great. Writing checks to charity is ok but handing people enough cash to change their day or week is great.

Life is interesting, and fun. Happiness takes effort. "Old age" is an excuse.
Don't be weak - rattle some cages - poke a bear - feel alive.

 

[Pommie]

OK, great post Gophert, I'm removing you from my ignore list. Let's see how that works.

Mike.