[Phoenix]

Does anyone know of any good tactics for reducing and dealing with computer rage?

It seems like I have been constantly fighting every single computer I have ever had, just for it to behave in a basic, functional manner.

Specifically:
- The computer fucking up completely (the hard drive failing or windows becoming corrupt), requiring a full rebuild
- Fucking up partially in unique and creative ways that I then have to invest great time and effort into fixing
- Having clumsy and irritating applications, or applications updating constantly, and restart requests, or things starting to crash because you turned off auto-updates because you couldn't take it anymore
- Being slow in every god damn thing, and things thrashing the hard-drive in the background when the computer should be idle
- Security bullshit. E.g. trying to log on to something, and then being asked to get a security code from an email - only to find that email login requiring a security code from another email.
- More security bullshit. Having to keep a list of passwords due to the arbitrary and irritating, widely-varied password construction policies.
- Internet fucking up, going to slow, dropping out etc.
- In the case of Linux (which I will never ever use again as a personal OS), being obscenely clumsy and opaque, having to engage in bulk google searches and terminal-acrobatics just to make minor, trivial changes. Constantly fucking around and fighting with dependencies. Asking questions which receive answers of "just" do this... incredibly random and complicated thing - which then doesn't work, or "why would you want to do that?".

Does anyone have advice on:
1) How to set up a computing system such that bullshit does not occur. I.e. it runs smoothly, without hickups, without irritations, without any nonsense. Is it a matter of money? Do I have to own a stack of the fastest laptops money can buy, with all my data in the cloud, and throw out laptops as they fuck up? Do I need 3 separate sources of internet for redundancy or something?
2) How should I reduce the resulting computer rage? Especially when I'm trying just to finish something trivial, it is unacceptable to walk away and cool down - I knuckle down and force it through. Only traffic can make my blood boil like this does.

[Glaucon]

It never goes away, I hate my android tablet with passion. When I change it for something else, I am going to shoot it through with my crossbow and going to piss on the remains.

[Architekt]

I wish I could show you a pic of my laptop. I gotta give it credit, it's pretty hardy.

1) Win 7 on a new laptop running decent hardware, with a wired internet connection at home.

2) Keep a baseball bat next to your computer. You won't have to worry about your computer making you mad for long

[Mage]

Two things that require little knowledge about computers that helped me to reduce computer freezing occurrences by 90%:

1.Dell

2.Disabling all auto updates except for antivirus. Get driver age checker and update all drivers trough it once a year.

[RexImperator]

Reminds me of the printer scene from Office Space...

[coverdoc]

If you have a cheap computer i would buy two. One for just work type stuff that you don't fuck around on, porn, torrents, games etc. The other for your vices. Or put all your movies and games on external hard drive and run it from there when you need to. Will notice differences off top.

[Menace]

Get a Mac.

[TheWastelander]

Not enough info to say. What OS are you running now? I'm guessing it's a laptop and not a desktop?

Uninstall all useless programs, get a decent antivirus, update your drivers and firmware, etc.

[el mechanico]

(01-08-2015 10:47 AM)Menace Wrote:  

Get a Mac.

Yeah I started a thread about this a year ago and mini mac is running in my office all day with no problems.

Meanwhile at my house all the windows machines run like shit so I'll just throw them in the garbage too when they lock up.

[Pontifex Maximus]

Which operating system are you using? How old is your computer?

Hardware:

- New hard drive. Get a SSD instead of a SATA. Maybe it's just too old or corrupt. Another possibility is that the partiton with your OS is corrupted. Also, if you rapidly fragment/defragment your hard drive then it depreciates faster.
- RAM. You'll pretty much need at least 4 GB RAM to run any modern OS, so maybe 8 GB total. If you do professional media or HD recording, then you will need up to 16-32 GB. I recommend Kingston or Corsair cards. Just pick them up only for ~$20 for 2 GB intervals and plug them into your motherboard.
- How clean is your fan? Broke my last Dell laptop because the model didn't allow easy access to cleaning fan. Overheating destroyed the hard drive.
- Faulty power sink/ Electric Adapter.

Suggested Free Software: (PC mostly, not too many for Mac)

- Use Defraggler to replace your Windows Defrag. It lets you choose specific things to defrag, so there's less hard drive depreciation. You never really need to defrag unless fragmentation is >15%.

https://www.piriform.com/defraggler

- CCleaner: Cleans cookies & Replaces Recycle Bin.

https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

- Revo Uninstaller: Use "Advanced" uninstall mode to completely wipe programs. Part of the reason your OS might be lagging is because of too many leftover registry tasks from old programs.

http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_unin...nload.html

- For super fast Chrome-Based browsers that are also secure from viruses, free virus/malware scans and other support, Comodo makes sweet free software. Their Dragon browser is Google Chrome + Comodo Antivirus bundled up, and Ice Dragon is Mozilla Firefox + Antivirus.

https://www.comodo.com/

- Magic JellyBean Finder: This one is useful if you are planning to switch OS, to prevent losing your copy of Windows/MAC from hard drive failure. Run this so you won't have to purchase a new copy of OS.

https://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/

- https://www.malwarebytes.org/ : Anti-Malware king
- https://www.epicbrowser.com/ : Privacy Browser with absolutely no tracking, cookies or sends user info. to Google, even though it's a Chromium browser.

You can get a MAC, but most programs are still made for Windows and you can manually change your hardware. If you like MAC OS but want to have the versatility of being to to change hardware, get VBox. You can buy a PC, then use Oracle VBOX to run Apple OS and Windows 7/8.

https://www.virtualbox.org/

Good luck and hope it helped!

[Menace]

Look at all these suggestions Phoenix. They are all probably right, but it's just nonsense. I used to mess with Linux/FreeBSD; waste of time for personal use. Get a Mac. I have both a Mac and a PC. There are basically no issues with a Mac. Yes, it just works and there are no drivers or registry issues or endless patches or whatever. I bet 90% of what you likely use your computer for are Internet and some MS Office suite.

I like having both systems, but if I were to only pick one, I'd pick a Mac.

Don't even take my word for it. Go to the Apple store in Japan, buy one, and use it for 2 weeks. I'm sure their return policy lasts at least that long. Try it for yourself and see. There is no point debating it. Try it.

[RawGod]

(01-08-2015 11:57 AM)Menace Wrote:  

Get a Mac.

That's all that needs to be said. I'd run Windows and Linux for decades, but my Mac has been much less trouble prone. Not perfect, but 80% less rebooting, head-scratching and whatever. It just works. (Except for iTunes, which is absolute shit.)

[Phoenix]

Yes I'm considering giving a Mac a go. Not keen on learning a new system and having to find Mac equivalents of everything, but if the damn thing just works I can live with that.

My current laptop is new but not that fast. If I don't go with the Mac, the next laptop I get is going to be some kind of a monster. 32GB ram, 2 SSDs in raid 0 config, Intel's latest CPU, 3G card for connection redundancy, graphics card with weird copper pipes and shit coming off it, a monster extended battery to power the thing, and a big angry face sticker on the back.

[NY Digital]

I use the new Asus Flipbook with Windows 8.1

Touch screen, convertible tablet mode, umbrella mode, laptop mode, etc.

No issues and it's blazing fast. I don't even have an SSD in it but will be throwing that in soon and it'll be a beast.

Windows 8.1 with Touchscreen and/or SSD > Mac

[Fortitude]

(01-08-2015 12:49 PM)Phoenix Wrote:  

Yes I'm considering giving a Mac a go. Not keen on learning a new system and having to find Mac equivalents of everything, but if the damn thing just works I can live with that.

My current laptop is new but not that fast. If I don't go with the Mac, the next laptop I get is going to be some kind of a monster. 32GB ram, 2 SSDs in raid 0 config, Intel's latest CPU, 3G card for connection redundancy, graphics card with weird copper pipes and shit coming off it, a monster extended battery to power the thing, and a big angry face sticker on the back.

That won't help reducing problems at all.
- 32 GB is way overkill for non gaming use
- Raid 0 doubles the change of dataloss
- Very new hardware has poor driversupport
- Very high-end hardware produces alot of heat = more problems

I would suggest the following things:
- Get a good mid-range PC with proven hardware. Don't go forunneeded bells and whistles that can end up failing
- Clean install of Windows. And not the one that comes with your laptop
- Try to avoid installing any unneeded programs, and if you do make sure you don't the extra crap it sometimes comes with. Better yet try to use online alternatives.
- Store your important data somewhere in the cloud. Again No need to manage it yourself if a professional company can do it for you. I use Google Drive (15GB free). There are also more secure alternatives.
- Use a password manager to store your passwords. This will insure you won't forget them and more importantly allows you to have much stronger and unique passwords.

[almohajem]

Get a mac. Problem solved.

[roberto]

Another vote for Mac here. Can't seem to kill mine.

[DJ-Matt]

I would advise learning about the internals of Windows, that way you can fix shit easily and keep it running without drastic time-wasting actions like a full re-install. I've been running the same load for a long time.

   

[el mechanico]

Why should someone have to learn the internal workings of a computer to use one? It would be like me saying if you want to drive this type of car you need to know how to rebuild the transmission.

[Hades]

(01-08-2015 03:43 PM)el mechanico Wrote:  

Why should someone have to learn the internal workings of a computer to use one? It would be like me saying if you want to drive this type of car you need to know how to rebuild the transmission.

That's true, but being aware of certain features of computers (like the difference between ssd and hdd) and computer hardware can eliminate a lot of headaches.

Also basically every software problem has been encountered already so if you google certain issues you can usually fix it yourself.

Phoenix I would recommend just getting a mac. Put as much RAM as possible in it and don't opt for anything that's not a solid state drive. That should eliminate 99% of your headaches. Apple spent a lot of time and effort developing and supporting a fairly thoughtful and user friendly operating system. The only other group of people I see as happy with their operating systems are usually part time linux system administrators running some version of BSD.

I used to hate using computers until I built a really badass desktop. It's great to use. It's like the difference between driving a shitty '96 pontiac grand prix and a lamborghini down the autobahn.

(01-08-2015 03:00 PM)Fortitude Wrote:  

(01-08-2015 12:49 PM)Phoenix Wrote:  

Yes I'm considering giving a Mac a go. Not keen on learning a new system and having to find Mac equivalents of everything, but if the damn thing just works I can live with that.

My current laptop is new but not that fast. If I don't go with the Mac, the next laptop I get is going to be some kind of a monster. 32GB ram, 2 SSDs in raid 0 config, Intel's latest CPU, 3G card for connection redundancy, graphics card with weird copper pipes and shit coming off it, a monster extended battery to power the thing, and a big angry face sticker on the back.

That won't help reducing problems at all.
- 32 GB is way overkill for non gaming use
- Raid 0 doubles the change of dataloss
- Very new hardware has poor driversupport
- Very high-end hardware produces alot of heat = more problems

I would suggest the following things:
- Get a good mid-range PC with proven hardware. Don't go forunneeded bells and whistles that can end up failing
- Clean install of Windows. And not the one that comes with your laptop
- Try to avoid installing any unneeded programs, and if you do make sure you don't the extra crap it sometimes comes with. Better yet try to use online alternatives.
- Store your important data somewhere in the cloud. Again No need to manage it yourself if a professional company can do it for you. I use Google Drive (15GB free). There are also more secure alternatives.
- Use a password manager to store your passwords. This will insure you won't forget them and more importantly allows you to have much stronger and unique passwords.

Why store important data in the cloud?

I back up everything important on a 32 gb flash drive.

Still though this is probably the best advice in the thread. Furthermore I would recommend getting intel/nvidia, amd/ati always has god awful driver issues.

[TornadoByProxy]

Your Computers are irrational, unpredictable, and make you angry at times?

Easy. Use Game on them.

[Foolsgo1d]

Your best bet is to walk away.

If a computer or any electronic equipment irritates you which then sets of a snowballing of emotions your best bet is to remove it out of your life or reduce your exposure to it/them.

I raged at computers for being slow, when it wouldn't do what I wanted or general gaming rage. I just stopped doing the things that led to it and theres very few times it riles me up. I have better things to do.

[Brian Shima]

What are some Must haves and must do's for Windows users to keep everything running fine?

[Moma]

(01-08-2015 06:48 PM)Brian Shima Wrote:  

What are some Must haves and must do's for Windows users to keep everything running fine?

Browse carefully. Don't just click on any site and any link you see. Some people get fcuked this way.
That being said, I use Chrome as my main web browser. I hardly use IE unless the site I am looking at has been particularly coded for IE's settings. I think IE is buggy and prone to picking up bullshyt online

You can use Sandboxie for dirty/sketchy browsing. I've started using it for browsing porn and so far (touch on wood) all is well. It quarantines your browsing session into a sandbox and quarantines it from the rest of your PC.

Defrag your PC from time to time (maybe monthly) and clean out temp files to maintain performance.
My computer actually has it set up to defrag once every week during the AM time of the night. Use a decent Anti Virus that is not too heavy on the OS. I had Norton way back and it hogged way too much resources. Personally, I just use Microsoft Security Essentials and it's been ok. Make sure you run your Windows Updates. This ensures your OS is patched against malicious stuff out there.

Back up personal stuff (docs, vids, music) either onto cloud storage (if you trust them) or onto a personal HD or thumb drive. Some people will go for redundancy and back up their backups just in case their first backup fails.

If all fails and you catch something, you would have to go through all the PC cleaning and AV removal. But the ultimate clean of course is a Windows reinstall.

Keep a copy of Windows on hand (with the product key) in case you have to go for the reinstall. Make sure that you have the product keys of any applications you have installed as they will need to be re-entered after reinstall of OS.

That's about it.

[Soothesayer]

Just to chime in here, hard drives have never been particularly reliable. It doesn't matter whether it's Seagate or WD or Samsung or Toshiba. The "moving parts" mechanism (remember how reliable the NES/N64 was? No moving parts) means they will die prematurely and considering they're made in Thailand, well...

Even a quick glance at reviews on Newegg and Amazon will tell you that solid state is the way to go. Solid state drives are the future. The caveat of course is the limited storage but that will get better as time goes on. WD and Seagate both profit from their drives failing earlier rather than later. You either buy a new one or ship it to them for a data recovery fee of $1000 plus. Also of note is that they are *drastically* cutting the warranty time of every drive they put out. Quite the scam they've had for years but... solid state will save the day.