The 25 Worst High-Tech Habits

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Entrepreneur has posted a list of the “25 worst high-tech habits” today and, even though a lot of them are common sense, it’s still a decent list to pass on to the less than tech-savvy people you might know.

When you need a fact to make a point, the perfect place to go is a gargantuan website that anyone can edit anonymously, and where hoaxes and gag entries can have a life span of years. If you must use Wikipedia, click the links in the footnotes on the page to get the real story, and to see how credible the information digested there really is.
Click to expand...
 
Does texting while someone is taking to you count? I wonder how many universities are going to require manner courses in the near future.
 
heh, I woulda thought "taking breaks from work to browse XXX website" would've been in the top three
 
One grain of sand in the shutter or zoom mechanism
Happened to me. Broke the camera getting the grain of sand out!

10. Keeping All of Your E-Mail
Stupid sales people I have to deal with!

12. Installing Too Much Junk
Stupid people who thinks they know things about computers!

15. Hitting Your Computer
Stupid wife!

16. Saving Files Anywhere and Everywhere
Stupid people I have to deal with to find stuff for!

18. Citing Wikipedia
What wrong with that?

25. Commenting Online
Who? Me?.
Click to expand...

In other words.....stupid people.
 
sifter said:
Does texting while someone is taking to you count? I wonder how many universities are going to require manner courses in the near future.
Click to expand...

it's not just needed in universities..its needed in grade school too. Those same kids growing up with the 'tech habits', will eventually be in college and then sent out to the work force. Also, manners do not exist anymore..I kindly say excuse me or thank you to someone and anymore do not get a response or get a shrewd look for being polite...
 
I've seen physically abusing electronic products work before. Sure it isn't going to do anything for most components, but I've seen HDs that were just completely dead come back to life just long enough to recover a few important files with a bit of a thwamp on the desk. Obviously it'd be a last ditch try for something you want but not bad enough to pay for professional data recovery. And who doesn't remember CRT TVs/monitors that when they started to go bad you could just smack them on the side and have them come back to life?
 
Ualdayan said:
I've seen physically abusing electronic products work before. Sure it isn't going to do anything for most components, but I've seen HDs that were just completely dead come back to life just long enough to recover a few important files with a bit of a thwamp on the desk. Obviously it'd be a last ditch try for something you want but not bad enough to pay for professional data recovery. And who doesn't remember CRT TVs/monitors that when they started to go bad you could just smack them on the side and have them come back to life?
Click to expand...

Lol..good ol' CRT monitor tricks... I had one that would lose its color sometime and a good smack would keep it working for awhile before having to smack it again.
 
Ualdayan said:
I've seen physically abusing electronic products work before. Sure it isn't going to do anything for most components, but I've seen HDs that were just completely dead come back to life just long enough to recover a few important files with a bit of a thwamp on the desk. Obviously it'd be a last ditch try for something you want but not bad enough to pay for professional data recovery. And who doesn't remember CRT TVs/monitors that when they started to go bad you could just smack them on the side and have them come back to life?
Click to expand...

Indeed. If you're not an idiot, plus know it's not a software issue; you might as well give it a few thwaps! If it's on it's way out, or already out you might as well try! I had an old 33.6 modem back in the day that stopped working so being that I was going to toss it anyway, I took it out and bent it back and forth a few times, just hard enough to hear mild cracking and it worked.. for a little while anyway.
 
12. Installing Too Much Junk
Click to expand...

Yes my wife fits into this category as I open up the add/remove hardware screen, it takes 5 minutes to populate and I wonder wtf all these stupid "games" came from... Panda Sushi Warehouse 4... oh right... facebook lead them to her. Being as she doesn't uninstall old ones they stay forever. When I find a cheap enough SSD that's going to be my OS boot drive and she won't be allowed to use it!
 
my laptop sit in my car after work every day, through the hot summers and the cold winters. It wakes up every morning just fine for the past, almost 4 years....
 
1. Avoiding Security Software
Click to expand...

working out pretty well for me actually
running windows vista on my laptop and 7 on my main computer

5. Traveling With an Operating Computer
6. Using a Laptop on a Bed
Click to expand...

kind of the whole point of a laptop...i've had this ibm t42 since 2005

7. Printing Everything
Click to expand...

easier for me to read print

8. Taking a Camera to the Beach
Click to expand...

i've owned my canon g5 it's been around the world and has spent over a year in afghanistan and iraq

13. Discarding Receipts
Click to expand...

guilty as charged, but if its a thermal paper receipt it always fades for me anyway
 
printing everything is sure my top one. i hate people who open something, don't look at it on screen, click print, look at the printout for five seconds and throw it away. or people who don't set margins properly first and print four pages instead of one - and throw it all away.

even if you don't have a 22"+ wide-screen you can compare documents next to each other or switch between them with ctrl-tab. or maybe do this: learn what your office or whatever app can actually do, filter and prepare data better before having to check them and you save a lot of time, frustration, company's or your own money and the planet's resources. maybe you can even fully automate comparing data. it always blows my mind if I see someone at work do his stuff like they did twenty years ago. for so many people computers are still magic.
 
Code: 
10. Keeping All of Your E-Mail
Every e-mail message you've ever received is sitting in your inbox in chronological order. Congratulations! You now have an unassailable historical record of your communications...and a guarantee that you will never find anything of any importance whatsoever. Use folders or tags to organize your inbox, and be liberal with the Delete key.

I always keep all of my email (unless its spam or ads).

I have so much going on in my life, that I can never remember anything. The search box works very well too, so no need to spend time organizing it.

Occasionally there is some corporate trainign with bullisht lawyers talking about document retention and the potential of being sued, which I disregard, cause I would be completely lost without my email history.

Besides, to me, preemtively deleting emails because someday they may provide evidence in a lawsuit (not that we do anything sketchy somoene would sue us for, but...) sounds kind of unethical. If there is evidence there, it should be found.
 
Zarathustra[H];1036421652 said:
Code: 
10. Keeping All of Your E-Mail
Every e-mail message you've ever received is sitting in your inbox in chronological order. Congratulations! You now have an unassailable historical record of your communications...and a guarantee that you will never find anything of any importance whatsoever. Use folders or tags to organize your inbox, and be liberal with the Delete key.
Click to expand...

top 10 forum bad habbits

using the code tags when you should use the quote tag
 
In corporate email, I keep everything in my Inbox. It gets deleted automatically after 60 days. some automated processes that email me (server checks, Ops Mgr alerts) get filtered to a seperate folder automatically. If something hiccups I could end up with 1200 alerts in my inbox and I may not see email from someone else during that time.
At home I keep critical emails and regularly purge spam/unwanted/FB/forum replies. I keep bank/paypal and personal messages forever.

I haven't been to the beach with my Canon d30, but I have been on 18-20 off-road trips in the dirt/dust without significant problems. I do travel with a can of compressed air to blow the body and lenses off, especially if I'm changing lenses.
 
Ive never used a password manager because Im afraid to trust a program with any of my passwords. What do you guys prefer?
 
Zarathustra[H];1036421652 said:
I always keep all of my email (unless its spam or ads).

I have so much going on in my life, that I can never remember anything. The search box works very well too, so no need to spend time organizing it.

Occasionally there is some corporate trainign with bullisht lawyers talking about document retention and the potential of being sued, which I disregard, cause I would be completely lost without my email history.

Besides, to me, preemtively deleting emails because someday they may provide evidence in a lawsuit (not that we do anything sketchy somoene would sue us for, but...) sounds kind of unethical. If there is evidence there, it should be found.
Click to expand...


But I doubt you have mail from the mid 90s still in your inbox right? or if you do, it's actually is in a folder and in a order where you can find it right? I know several people who used to do exactly that and they never could find shit in a rush. That's all it's saying, organize what you keep. and as far as how long you should keep email, that's up to your it dept.
 
The quoting Wikipedia one made me roll my eyes. Wiki is a perfectly valid source of information on thousand (millions?) of topics, as long as the information presented has a good source attached to it. This isn't a couple years ago when Wiki didn't wasn't monitoring the edits well and wasn't trying to enforce an policy of citing information.
 
just from dealing with people via outlook at work..
people who use distracting fonts and or background patterns in their outlook emails
people who attach a receipt on EVERY email they send
people who overuse the importance rating (overrides the email alert on my phone)
 
Derangel said:
The quoting Wikipedia one made me roll my eyes. Wiki is a perfectly valid source of information on thousand (millions?) of topics, as long as the information presented has a good source attached to it. This isn't a couple years ago when Wiki didn't wasn't monitoring the edits well and wasn't trying to enforce an policy of citing information.
Click to expand...

No kidding. I dare someone to try to significantly vandalize WWII's (or similar) wikipedia page.
 
texting while in the act of sexual intercourse is the worst i believe... not that i have any experience with this...
 
sifter said:
Does texting while someone is taking to you count? I wonder how many universities are going to require manner courses in the near future.
Click to expand...

OMG! My friend does that when Hes talking to Me, it piss's Me off so bad! I wanna reach out and smash he's phon.
 
I took Sociology 101 in college and when it came time to right my term paper all I used for citations was wikipedia. The entire paper, nothing but wikipedia. I got 100%. I still can't believe it.
 
I don't really agree with few one these:

1. Avoiding Security Software

I haven't touched anti-virus or anti-spyware in over 8 years on my personal computers and I can't say that I have ever encountered any problems. If your system is patched, computers don't just spontaneously get viruses and malware. It's possible with 0-day exploits sure but super unlikely. IMO not using it is worth the benefit of not having more junk running all the time and eating up resources and grinding away at your hard disk all day long.

8. Taking a Camera to the Beach

I've always taken my camera to the beach so years and years and haven't broken one ever. I'm not saying it can't happen. I'm just saying it's pretty unlikely. There are a lot of things to take pictures of at a beach and I would never want to be without my camera there.

10. Keeping All of Your E-Mail

I've kept ALL of my email in my GMail since I started using it late 2004. GMail is powered by Google's epic search. I have never had a problem finding the email
I was looking for in seconds and there are over 10,000 emails in there by now.

I guess that's all heh.
 
Derangel said:
The quoting Wikipedia one made me roll my eyes. Wiki is a perfectly valid source of information on thousand (millions?) of topics, as long as the information presented has a good source attached to it. This isn't a couple years ago when Wiki didn't wasn't monitoring the edits well and wasn't trying to enforce an policy of citing information.
Click to expand...

Still too many people who take what wikipedia says as 100% valid and will even post what it says as a quote when in reality if you actually read the source what the writer wrote was wrong.

It's the same reason you don't just read summary of research papers and studies. The summary's are not peer reviewed so the info there is often completely different than the article and are slanted towards the group that funded the story, or what the the researchers originally wanted to prove.
 
#1 should be:

Writing blog-like lists of tech related shit based solely on one's limited personal opinion, and passing it off as fact with a binary title, such as "The 25 Worst High-Tech Habits"
 
I can't see why they put hitting computers on their list. Hell I love doing that, if something breaks, well big deal. Seriously, when I get mad at my computer the first thing I do is give it a quick bonk on the head and it usually does nothing, but it does make me feel a helluva lot better. Anyways, if I did break something, it just means I have an excuse to buy a bigger and better hard drive(if thats what I broke).:p
 
Number 5, traveling with an operating computer.

lolwut?

Dear lord I hope they're talking about a laptop. It's already lame enough, though, because really, the only way I've traveled is with the laptop or netbook on and ready to go, and they've lasted me just fine.
 
Keeping all my e-mail covers me arse, when people say I didn't do something or whatnot.
 
Ryokurin said:
Still too many people who take what wikipedia says as 100% valid and will even post what it says as a quote when in reality if you actually read the source what the writer wrote was wrong.

It's the same reason you don't just read summary of research papers and studies. The summary's are not peer reviewed so the info there is often completely different than the article and are slanted towards the group that funded the story, or what the the researchers originally wanted to prove.
Click to expand...

True, but the author of the article was saying that 0% of the information on Wiki was reliable.
 
Yes there are a lot of bad hi tech habits that we do. It is at times quite abusive. Hope all of those worst habits will not haunt us in the long run :)
 
I find his reason for #25 hilarious as its just reeks of hypocrisy. I mean, if you count his article as a large, useless comment.

hfnica said:
Yes there are a lot of bad hi tech habits that we do. It is at times quite abusive. Hope all of those worst habits will not haunt us in the long run :)
Click to expand...

While we're on the topic of useless comments... :rolleyes:
 
Derangel said:
True, but the author of the article was saying that 0% of the information on Wiki was reliable.
Click to expand...

Pretty much the same as I just said.

If you must use Wikipedia, click the links in the footnotes on the page to get the real story, and to see how credible the information digested there really is.
Click to expand...
 
I hit my computer..... it makes my R channel onboard audio come back so I can hear both sides (no joke, seriously)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top