Chit-Chat turn it off and on again Page 10

Started by Incineroar April 18th, 2015 7:48 PM
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Tsutarja

Age 28
he / him
Florida
Seen 5 Hours Ago
Posted 6 Days Ago
27,325 posts
13.2 Years
So I just set up a Skype To Go number, but it had the wrong province area code, so I updated it. I then got ###-666-0184 as my Skype To Go number. I'm not making this up.
I'm swell with my Google voice number, to be honest. :P At least I don't have to pay for usage of it, but it also allows for me to send SMS, MMS (via Hangouts), and make free calls to the US/Canada at no cost, so long as I have an active internet connection.

Tsutarja

Age 28
he / him
Florida
Seen 5 Hours Ago
Posted 6 Days Ago
27,325 posts
13.2 Years
I don't know if that's available in Canada or not, but it'd be nice to have.
Yeah I'm not sure either D:

How much does it cost to have a number through Skype? Last I checked, you have to have Skype credit (or Skype Premium) to have a number through them.

Tsutarja

Age 28
he / him
Florida
Seen 5 Hours Ago
Posted 6 Days Ago
27,325 posts
13.2 Years
*is having severe Internet speed issues*

It makes things feel like almost-dialup...
:/ that must suck

Also, did I fail to mention how efficient Cyanogenmod is on my tablet's battery?

Legendary Silke

You like dragons?

Seen December 23rd, 2021
Posted April 22nd, 2020
5,925 posts
12.5 Years
:/ that must suck

Also, did I fail to mention how efficient Cyanogenmod is on my tablet's battery?
Yeah, I hate it. It's been weeks.

Good for you! I've heard that most OEM's firmware tend to be less-than-ideal when it comes to battery life.

Sometimes I still wonder if getting a Surface 3 is the right move, to be honest. I think I might end up in a situation where an Atom x7 won't cut it; on the other hand, the fans in the Surface Pro 3 is a big no-no for tablet use.

And then there's the Acer Aspire Switch 12 and Asus Transformer T300 Chi, but they're much larger than a Surface 3, though you get a lot more computer for every $.

If only tech purchases were as easy!

On another topic, I've been using my dad's laptop just for kicks. It's surprisingly nice. (No, neither my laptop or my tablet are broken.)

Tsutarja

Age 28
he / him
Florida
Seen 5 Hours Ago
Posted 6 Days Ago
27,325 posts
13.2 Years
If only tech purchases were as easy!
That's pretty much the statement of my life right there. :P

Legendary Silke

You like dragons?

Seen December 23rd, 2021
Posted April 22nd, 2020
5,925 posts
12.5 Years
That's pretty much the statement of my life right there. :P
Then again, if it were that easy in the first place, where is the fun, then, in getting the right equipment and/or parts?

Tsutarja

Age 28
he / him
Florida
Seen 5 Hours Ago
Posted 6 Days Ago
27,325 posts
13.2 Years
"Computers don't bite!" -Team Fail

Thanks for the reminder, dude :P

Morkula

Get in the Game

Age 34
Male
Virginia
Seen February 6th, 2020
Posted March 4th, 2018
7,294 posts
19.3 Years
I'm still on Windows 7 and I don't really see the need to upgrade until 10 starts offering things that aren't available on 7 (improved game performance, etc.). Everything I've seen of 10 is ugly as hell and plus I don't like the whole "Windows as a service" model they're transitioning to. I'm sure I'll probably have to upgrade eventually, but I'm delaying it as much as possible.

That won't stop me from making a test install though.

Legendary Silke

You like dragons?

Seen December 23rd, 2021
Posted April 22nd, 2020
5,925 posts
12.5 Years
I'm still on Windows 7 and I don't really see the need to upgrade until 10 starts offering things that aren't available on 7 (improved game performance, etc.). Everything I've seen of 10 is ugly as hell and plus I don't like the whole "Windows as a service" model they're transitioning to. I'm sure I'll probably have to upgrade eventually, but I'm delaying it as much as possible.

That won't stop me from making a test install though.
Mmm hmm. At the very least, you probably shouldn't upgrade the OS as soon as it comes out. You never know what kind of issues you might run into early on! It's probably a good idea to wait it out for a month at least. Then again, seeing as the initial roll-out will be for Windows Insiders, it might be less of a problem than we have thought. Basically, the beta testers are beta-testing the OS when it RTMs. It's a bit of a weird software lifecycle, though.

It's highly unlikely that Windows will be offered as a subscription, anyway, despite what some ill-informed writers might want you to believe. If you guys were referring to the financial reports, that's just standard practice when you're doing that kind of offer - all that has to go somewhere, to be honest. It's likely that the licences will be similar to an "OEM" licence, just like the kind we do have right now. And Microsoft is actually pretty lenient on what you do with these licences, too - if it's a desktop computer, if you ever change the hardware enough that you need reactivation, just perform activation over the phone, and speak to someone if need be.

And, it never hurts to reserve. You aren't forced to get it when it arrives, anyway. But yeah, better to be safe than sorry (though Windows 10 should provide a way to roll back to the previous OS if you didn't clean install/Reset it first.)

I think, if you have an existing Windows 7/8 install, you won't have to pay a dime to update and won't ever have to pay, from what I can tell. But yeah, I intend to keep my Windows 8 recovery partition so if it's not working well with my laptop I can downgrade and reinstall.
Yeah. Though I think they aren't offering an upgrade to a "retail" key this time around and probably they'll act more like "OEM" keys once you upgrade.

Personally I think I probably won't bother doing much with the recovery partition and I'll be likely to continue using IE11 for a short while, even on Windows 10, if only to wait for Edge bugs to get rid of. It's still a bit messy right now.

Legendary Silke

You like dragons?

Seen December 23rd, 2021
Posted April 22nd, 2020
5,925 posts
12.5 Years
Yeah. I heard this particular laptop has issues installing vanilla versions of Windows because of driver issues, so keeping the recovery partition is a good idea in case Windows 10 gets borked somehow and keeps it from installing properly. I may also make a recovery disc in case something happens.
Actually, modern versions of Windows should automatically roll back to your previous OS install if anything goes wrong, at least if Windows 8.1's setup is of any indication. But, still, better safe than sorry. (That's the beauty of moving everything relevant to Windows.old.)

Tsutarja

Age 28
he / him
Florida
Seen 5 Hours Ago
Posted 6 Days Ago
27,325 posts
13.2 Years
Speaking of random laptop issues, it seems that my old HP laptop has something wrong with it. I got the Windows 10 preview onto it, but now it seems to freeze at random. It started yesterday when I tried to go defrag the machine. Hmm....

Legendary Silke

You like dragons?

Seen December 23rd, 2021
Posted April 22nd, 2020
5,925 posts
12.5 Years
Are you fully up to date? There's an update that adds the offer to your computer. Use Windows Update and make sure you have it installed. I'll check the update number you need. What version of Windows are you running? 7 or 8.1?

Edit: It's update KB3035583, and it seems to be the same number for both versions of Windows. Check if it's installed, and if not, update until it is. Then, you'll have a Windows logo in the system tray and you should be able to reserve your copy there.
Bingo.

So I've been crunching the numbers and I've realized that for the price of a fully decked-out Surface 3 (4 GB RAM, 128 GB storage, pen, cover, and screen protector), I could get a reasonably decent gaming rig - the kind that comes with an i5 and a GTX 960 or better.

Decisions are hard.

Tsutarja

Age 28
he / him
Florida
Seen 5 Hours Ago
Posted 6 Days Ago
27,325 posts
13.2 Years
I'm all about portability, but honestly, a gaming rig would win over a Surface for me in that case.

Legendary Silke

You like dragons?

Seen December 23rd, 2021
Posted April 22nd, 2020
5,925 posts
12.5 Years
I'm all about portability, but honestly, a gaming rig would win over a Surface for me in that case.
Why not both?

Though an AMD build is probably going to be sub-optimal, efficiency-wise.

And I still have this laptop, but the allure of a proper desktop to call my own is great.

Tsutarja

Age 28
he / him
Florida
Seen 5 Hours Ago
Posted 6 Days Ago
27,325 posts
13.2 Years
Why not both?
Cost, my friend. Cost.

Legendary Silke

You like dragons?

Seen December 23rd, 2021
Posted April 22nd, 2020
5,925 posts
12.5 Years
Cost, my friend. Cost.
Hey, I mean that since a maxxed Surface 3 costs so much, maybe I can divide it up...

But wait, I'd end up with two less-than-ideal PCs. Yikes!

Legendary Silke

You like dragons?

Seen December 23rd, 2021
Posted April 22nd, 2020
5,925 posts
12.5 Years
This would be my ultimate reasoning as to go with the desktop. Tablets simply cannot compare. While you do axe the portability of a tablet, you more than make up for in power. I'm considering getting a desktop soon, but with my laptop starting to act funny, I may have to get a new laptop first.
Mmm hmm. My laptop isn't the most portable thing, though. But on the other hand, I think I might be able to squeeze a few more months of life out of my tablet, but it is really slow now.

I'm thinking of building a rig that has the same, or similar components, if I were to get a desktop. (That's me on PC Part Picker, by the way.)

Tsutarja

Age 28
he / him
Florida
Seen 5 Hours Ago
Posted 6 Days Ago
27,325 posts
13.2 Years
For me, my current laptop is fairly ideal, although the setup I'm using it in right now is not ideal. Reason why? Who would want a laptop being used as a desktop? I'm only using it in such a manner to feel comfortable to myself.

Meganium

memento mori

she/her
Houston, TX
Seen February 1st, 2023
Posted February 1st, 2023
It's going to cost me at least $900 to build a desktop with the components I want.

I might consider taking out another credit card. I just wanna play PC games dang it. xD

Tsutarja

Age 28
he / him
Florida
Seen 5 Hours Ago
Posted 6 Days Ago
27,325 posts
13.2 Years
Sometimes I wish all institutions provided students with laptops and/or tablets, especially so that we wouldn't have to use our own devices for school purposes.