[MaxBigfoot]

I hate phone spam in general, but lately, I've been getting ones that really piss me off.
I have both a landline and a smartphone, and I turn off my smartphone when I'm home.
Over half a dozen times now, I turn on my smartphone and it tells me I have a voicemail.
The voicemail is always someone talking in Chinese (or some language that sounds to me like Chinese), with Oriental music in the background.  It's a robot, to boot, so it starts in mid-sentence. 

So it's spam going to someone it couldn't possibly work on, using a badly set up robot, calling at totally wrong times.  ARGH!! 
 

[solvegas]

I read in the news that the Chinese 50 cent army, trolls that get paid by the Chinese Communist Party, to purposely harass random individuals in Australia, Canada, UK, US as retaliation for these countries for demanding that the Chinese come clean on the cause, start and location of the coronavirus which the communist have essentially told the rest of the world to go fuck itself. so i'm afraid you are a victim just because you are Canadian. 

[TheZookie007]

Over half a dozen times now, I turn on my smartphone and it tells me I have a voicemail.
The voicemail is always someone talking in Chinese (or some language that sounds to me like Chinese), with [Asian-sounding] music in the background.  It's a robot, to boot, so it starts in mid-sentence. 

I just laugh when I get them. I add the phone number to my contacts under the name "CHINESE SCAM NUMBER". Then I block the number through my carrier. It takes less than a minute to do and then I can go on with the rest of my day.

Explanation of the "Chinese consulate" scam voicemail, from the New York Police Department

CNBC, 15 November 2019: "Why Spam Calls Are At An All-Time High"

[rtpoe]

I get calls on my landline from unrecognized numbers. They all go to the answering machine, where they don't leave any message.

[TheZookie007]

That's what I do. I don't recognize the number. It goes straight to voicemail. If they don't leave a message I assume it was not that important.

[Hiram]

That's what I do. I don't recognize the number. It goes straight to voicemail. If they don't leave a message I assume it was not that important.

Same here.  If it is important they'll leave a message.

[Cutter]

You guys may hate me.  I have no cell phone.

With my land-line there is a sort of - beep , when there is a robo call.  I hear that and just hang up.

[TheZookie007]

Not a problem, no hate from me! To each their own. I haven't had a landline in a million years myself.

[Meatman]

I can’t stand it when an app is updated and they almost always change something that does not need to be changed and was working perfectly fine.Invariably,they fuck it up and what they have changed doesn’t work for anybody.The users let the developer know and then everyone has to wait for another update for it to be fixed!
Just leave things alone!

[TheZookie007]

I can’t stand it when an app is updated and they almost always change something that does not need to be changed and was working perfectly fine.Invariably,they fuck it up and what they have changed doesn’t work for anybody.The users let the developer know and then everyone has to wait for another update for it to be fixed!
Just leave things alone!

I agree! If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

[solvegas]

The fact that I mostly can no longer work on my own car. Back in the 70's, when I owned my first car, which was a used 1968 Chevrolet Impala which I had bought in 1973 for a princely sum of $650 from my earnings at a Esso/Exxon service station and gasoline was $0.23 a gallon, I could not only do simple maintenance like an oil change but I rebuilt that four barrel Rochester carburetor, the two speed powerglide automatic transmission and I kept it going until 1984 when it completely died due to old age, 230000 miles and neglect caused by service in the U.S. Navy which did not allow me to take good care of it and I replaced it with a then new 1984 Chevrolet S-10 with an extended cab. My first brand new vehicle I bought. The S-10 was getting more complicated because of its pollution control mess it had under the hood and it used electronic ignition. My next vehicle was a 1992 Chevrolet 4X4 S-10 Blazer SUV which was no longer easy to work on due to the electronics. Simple maintenance was doable but it had for example something strange which was due to the 4X4 gearbox, the oil filter was moved behind the driver side headlight.  My next vehicle was a 2001 S-10 which due to the electronics, I could not tune it up without the expensive diagnostics panels they use now. My next one I bought was a 2007 Chevrolet Malibu. When my mother had her stroke in 2000, rather than putting her in a old folks warehouse, I had her live with me. She was wheelchair bound and unable to speak so it was challenging. She had a 1993 Chevrolet **29** and that is what I used to move her around town after I modified by installing new springs in the rear suspension and a electric wheel chair lift since I got her a scooter to move around more easily. It was dangerous to lift her in my truck at the time. In 2007 her **29** was becoming a money pit so I got that 2007 Malibu and traded in her **29** and my S-10 truck. That 2007 Malibu was a good car but I realized other than basic maintenance, I could no longer work on it. My next vehicle was a 2015 Chevrolet Trax SUV which was by far the smallest vehicle I had but I loved it. Unfortunately I killed it in the Freeway when I was forced off my lane by a Suburban which decided he needed my lane and I ended up rear ending a Grand Cherokee which pushed my engine into the firewall. I now own a used 2019 Chevrolet Spark which I bought from Carmax. It's so tiny but at least I'm getting 39-40 miles per gallon. This past December I was paying $21 to fill up my tank. Last week I paid $37 to fill it up. Thanks Biden. 

[Shadowmuse Blown]

My Samsung TV.

I’m a bit of a Star Trek fan, so, when the old CBS All Access was carrying both the new Discovery show and Picard, I signed up.   Trouble is, Paramount, which owns CBS, updated the app to include a bunch of new Paramount content and created a new app called Paramount+.  When this happened, the CBS All Access app was supposed to get automatically updated and emerge as the new Paramount+ app.  For most people, this is exactly what happened.  But not for me.  My CBS All Access app remained, but unusable, and there is no way to find the new Paramount+ app to download it on my TV.  I have since discovered that this a problem with older Samsung TVs.  Mine is from 2017.  Hardly stone-aged.  I will have to get something like Roku to watch it.  So annoying.  We’ve had problems while trying to view certain software on the internet with that TV because Samsung wouldn’t allow certain software to run via the web.  We were unable to view a couple of Charade’s son’s soccer matches because of that.

I will never buy another Samsung. 

[Hiram]

The fact that I mostly can no longer work on my own car.

I so agree - and it is going to get worse.   From my understanding car diagnostics will be done by a radio link of some kind, not sure which, WiFi Bluetooth.   But the manufacturers won't release the wireless protocols.   This is going to destroy independent mechanics - as John Deere is trying to do with farm machinery.

I'd run an old car, but as gas is going to have a higher and higher Ethanol percentage in the future - which is unlikely to be compatible with older engines, so that's a non starter.

[rtpoe]

I get it that you want to go "paperless" with your event tickets. Less waste, they can't get lost in the mail, etc.

But why MUST I download and install your app just so I can access my "ticket" on my cell phone?

You create the QR code / bar code as soon as I complete the on-line payment, right? Why can't you just send it to me with the e-mail confirmation and I can print it out or load it to my phone on my own?

[TheZookie007]

The fact that I mostly can no longer work on my own car.

I so agree - and it is going to get worse.   From my understanding car diagnostics will be done by a radio link of some kind, not sure which, WiFi Bluetooth.   But the manufacturers won't release the wireless protocols.   This is going to destroy independent mechanics - as John Deere is trying to do with farm machinery.

I'd run an old car, but as gas is going to have a higher and higher Ethanol percentage in the future - which is unlikely to be compatible with older engines, so that's a non starter.

This is why we are fighting so hard for "the right to repair." It makes absolutely no sense that a product that someone paid money for cannot be done with whatever they want. Can you imagine (for instance) going to the grocery store and buying a loaf of bread, then not being able to slice the loaf any way you like? You bought it. It's yours.