Binaural wrote:

IRC = Internet Relay Chat Basically a chat forum. It can be, uh.... even more addicting than forums, so be careful

Dumb question #2: How do you find it?

I will take the addiction aspect into consideration, I've been thinking about finding an afternoon job so I can stay up all night.

edit: Just Googled IRC, I think I'm better off here for a while!

holmesdog wrote:

Dumb question #2: How do you find it? I will take the addiction aspect into consideration, I've been thinking about finding an afternoon job so I can stay up all night. edit: Just Googled IRC, I think I'm better off here for a while!

Yeah, I don't even mess with IRC very often. When I was in college I spent way too much time on ICQ and other chat programs. I don't want to get sucked back in, I've got the woot forums for that.

holmesdog wrote:

Dumb question #2: How do you find it? I will take the addiction aspect into consideration, I've been thinking about finding an afternoon job so I can stay up all night. edit: Just Googled IRC, I think I'm better off here for a while!

Yep.. before the edit I was going to say just Google "IRC Chat" and it should come up with sites talking about it, programs to use for it, and who knows what else. At one time I thought someone had some sort of woot channel on IRC particularly for while waiting for the next woot to pop. I've never used IRC myself but it seems you can find anything and everything there.

For anyone interested in IRC, here's an IRC FAQ from the mIRC site (a popular IRC client program): http://www.mirc.com/ircintro.html

cruzer wrote:

sign up for them! http://wootalert.opensight.net/

all righty-got this done.
now how do i stop all the responses to this thread coming to my email?
(it's not that i don't love everyone here)
zydeco

zydeco wrote:

all righty-got this done. now how do i stop all the responses to this thread coming to my email? (it's not that i don't love everyone here) zydeco

I think you do that by:

- Go to the forum section you are getting emails from ("Everthing Else" in this case).

- Go to the bottom of the page and click on Options.

- Set the bottom email option to Never.


Beyond that, I don't know. It sounds like you are only getting them from this "Posting 101" thread though, and the Options seems to be a setting for the entire "Everything Else" group of forums.

if its just for this thread, email the code slaves and ask them to turn it off, because there's no way for you to turn it off(at least there wasn't for me). and I KNOW what its like, its super annoying. you MIGHT be able to turn off all emails in your profile, but that didn't work for me either.

cruzer wrote:

if its just for this thread, email the code slaves and ask them to turn it off, because there's no way for you to turn it off(at least there wasn't for me). and I KNOW what its like, its super annoying. you MIGHT be able to turn off all emails in your profile, but that didn't work for me either.

Yeah, too bad you got that fixed

bump

What is a bag of crap?

BOC is awesome, very exciting and sell out VERY VERY FAST

each item is $1 You are allowed to choose 1, 2 or 3 (choose 3)

Shipping is $5 for all three.

You get a box, with a bag in it (lately paper bag, has been laptop bag, but it can be any kind of bag) and 3 pieces of crap.

The crap are items that Woot has laying around the warehouse. SOme people get really cool stuff that is worth much more than $8, some get $8 worth, and some get $3 worth.

All in all, it is a good thing. and hey, whats 8 bucks?

MrsPeteromans11 wrote:

BOC is awesome, very exciting and sell out VERY VERY FAST each item is $1 You are allowed to choose 1, 2 or 3 (choose 3) Shipping is $5 for all three. You get a box, with a bag in it (lately paper bag, has been laptop bag, but it can be any kind of bag) and 3 pieces of crap. The crap are items that Woot has laying around the warehouse. SOme people get really cool stuff that is worth much more than $8, some get $8 worth, and some get $3 worth. All in all, it is a good thing. and hey, whats 8 bucks?

Well said Mrs. P, I'll just add a couple of thoughts:

BOC = Bag of Crap
The actual woot comes up as Random Crap and is immediately recognizable because the photo is of a brown paper bag, somewhat wrinkled, with the top rolled down.
The fun of a Random Crap Woot is three-fold, first there's the frantic rush to buy (always buy 3), then there's the anticipation prior to the Random Crap's delivery, then there's the actual delivery. There are some great forum threads about previous Random Craps that are quite entertaining to read.

This is off the posting topic, but I've got a question about AOL and before the flaming begins please hear me out. If I get broadband and cancel my AOL is there any way that I can still IM my parents who still have AOL? It's taken me a lot of time and effort to get them comfortable with it and am afraid it would be a nightmare to have them change. Anyone know the answer?

holmesdog wrote:

This is off the posting topic, but I've got a question about AOL and before the flaming begins please hear me out. If I get broadband and cancel my AOL is there any way that I can still IM my parents who still have AOL? It's taken me a lot of time and effort to get them comfortable with it and am afraid it would be a nightmare to have them change. Anyone know the answer?

yep... aim.com will get you what you want.

cruzer wrote:

yep... aim.com will get you what you want.

I'll check it out. I put the same question in the post whore thread, didn't want you to think you were losing it. Hmmmm, I just answered that.

cruzer wrote:

yep... aim.com will get you what you want.

also trillian, which one can use to IM with AOL, Yahoo, MSN, and ICQ users, and probably more.

obob wrote:

also trillian, which one can use to IM with AOL, Yahoo, MSN, and ICQ users, and probably more.

You kill me obob, just pop up out of nowhere with pearls of wisdom. Always succinct and to the point you've helped me several times, thanks. A person (bob = man?) of few words.

Trillian is a fantastic program. You can get it for free at www.ceruleanstudios.com, or you can pay the $20 for the full version. It's well worth the money.

I still use yahoo IM because there's alot of features in yahoo that don't translate to trillian, but for everything else I use Trillian. just a wonderful program.

i think the best solution is to move your parents to yahoo IM though (might be easier said than done, i realize *lol*) Yahoo IM is just such a well done and fun IM client. check it out if you've not done it yet. You can make free phone calls with it now! And just between you and me, yahoo IM has the best smilies

allgoodpeople wrote:

And just between you and me, yahoo IM has the best smilies

I second the best smilies comment. The monkey is probably the most used smiley at my place of employment.

:(|) =

mattg wrote:

I second the best smilies comment. The monkey is probably the most used smiley at my place of employment. :(|) =

Yoyodyne?

Doctor Lizardo wrote:

Laff-a while-a you can, monkey-boy!

I actually use gaim but I figured holmesdog wouldn't need something like trillian or gaim.

cruzer wrote:

I actually use gaim but I figured holmesdog wouldn't need something like trillian or gaim.

I steer people toward trillian all the time. I'm a coder myself, and therefore not usually qualified to judge software's ease-of-use for others, but lots of the "'regular folks" I know tell me Trillian's easier to work with than any two other IM systems. They haven't even heard of gaim - and that's likely to be a good thing too.

obob wrote:

I steer people toward trillian all the time. I'm a coder myself, and therefore not usually qualified to judge software's ease-of-use for others, but lots of the "'regular folks" I know tell me Trillian's easier to work with than any two other IM systems. They haven't even heard of gaim - and that's likely to be a good thing too.

gaim is a sourceforge project, kinda like trillian, but its not so spiffy

NedDawg wrote:

I was hoping someone, in particular someone on the Woot! payroll, could tell us what to expect of a "refurbished" product. I know it means that at least some of them were purchased and then returned for some reason, but what other ways are there for an item to be branded "refurbished"? Can we assume that someone actually tests the returned item to see if it works (and fixes it if it doesn't) before it is resold? Or, is it just repackaged in a plain brown box and sent off for resale, and it's up to the end user/repurchaser to test it? (I swear, a lot of times it seems like the latter.) How important is it that the warranty is from the manufacturer as opposed to the "refurbishment partner"? Is there a difference between refurbished and factory reconditioned? What else? Thanks!

BigD wrote:

I'll try to tackle these questions without rambling on for too long. Factory refurbished, factory recertified, factory renewed basically mean the same thing. When you buy a refurb, it doesn't necessarily mean the product was previously used or broken. Depending on the manufacturer, it could mean that it was a new, never before used product and is now listed as refurb because: It was a discontinued or End of life (EOL) product that the manufacturer does not want disturbing the market on a newly released product There was a packaging change and the product was removed from the original retail pack and brown boxed There was a software or firmware issue and product had to be recalled from store shelves and corrected. The product was made for a specific customer and per a contract can't be sold in other channels as new or in a retail package, or by using the manufacturer or OEM name The packaging was damaged/destroyed in transit and was reboxed There's other reasons here but those are the main ones. And in many cases, the reasons listed above will only result in the product being labeled new brown box, new white box, new OEM, etc. This totally depends on the manufacturer and how they want to protect their channels. Then there are products that were actually opened and or used by customers before being returned. These would include: Buyers remorse returns from big chains like Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, with very liberal return policies Defective product returned to retailers or the manufacturer, and repaired at the factory or at a factory-authorized repair center. The buyers remorse returns are sometimes sold as "open box" if they are missing accessories or manuals and get minimal testing before they are resold by the retailer. Buyers remorse and defective products are typically returned to the manufacturer and are tested, cleaned, contact parts are replaced, then made complete (all accessories/manuals, remotes) before being sold as refurbished. The answer to your 2nd question is sometimes the item is tested - specifically if it has been opened or used, had a firmware/hardware/software upgrade, or was returned as defective. And sometimes the product isn't tested - like when it is a packaging change, or if its a retail package that just got a refurb sticker slapped on it. Warranty coverage differs for many reasons. If the product is EOL, the manufacturer just wants to be done with it, so they shorten the warranty from a 1 year (or whatever their standard warranty period was) to a 90 day or 30 day warranty. Sometimes as a condition of the sale, they only give a DOA warranty. Again, this depends on the manufacturer. If the product is repaired by a factory authorized center, the manufacturer is typically paying them to handle the warranty so they don't have to hassle with it. I think that covers everything you asked, let me know if you have more questions.

This was in the Refurbish This thread, I thought it was good information to share in here because this thread seems to stay near the top. I see lots of comments, questions and concerns about refurbished merchandise; hope this helps someone.

bump

Why do they (and who is they) lock a thread? A reason? A whim?

pooflady wrote:

Why do they (and who is they) lock a thread? A reason? A whim?

Whew, had to escape from the Woody thing in the post whore thread. There was some discussion of this in the "can we get a customer service. . . ." place. I think that forums have some rules and the ones who enforce the rules make the decisions that certain topics just aren't suitable or appropriate for the environment they're trying to promote. Check out that thread, it may explain a few things.

holmesdog wrote:

Whew, had to escape from the Woody thing in the post whore thread. There was some discussion of this in the "can we get a customer service. . . ." place. I think that forums have some rules and the ones who enforce the rules make the decisions that certain topics just aren't suitable or appropriate for the environment they're trying to promote. Check out that thread, it may explain a few things.

It was the 'Ban Pete" thread and didn't seem to be anything really offensive in it.

pooflady wrote:

It was the 'Ban Pete" thread and didn't seem to be anything really offensive in it.

Maybe it was just the collective personal attack. It's ok to have opinions but I don't think it's ok to direct an entire thread at one person.

holmesdog wrote:

Maybe it was just the collective personal attack. It's ok to have opinions but I don't think it's ok to direct an entire thread at one person.

Especially when that "one person" is someone whom woot has chosen to protect at many times in the past.

I think it's time to put this thread back on track, as a place where folks with questions can ask, and folks who know stuff can help.

Help! Mnementh has started a thread for pictures, a great idea I might add, and I'd like to post a photo of my wonderful dog. I've gone to imageshack and read all of the questions and answers, even tried to upload, to no avail. So - I looked at the pic I took with my digital camera and downloaded to my computer. The size is 6.07MB and the dimensions are 1383x1527, it is a TIF image. I suspect that it's too big.

Could someone please talk a little bit about how to post pictures? Assume I know absolutely nothing, starting with downloading my pics to my computer, or maybe even before, perhaps it starts with camera settings.

Any help would be appreciated, you'll see, she's a really cute dog.

holmesdog wrote:

Help! Mnementh has started a thread for pictures, a great idea I might add, and I'd like to post a photo of my wonderful dog. I've gone to imageshack and read all of the questions and answers, even tried to upload, to no avail. So - I looked at the pic I took with my digital camera and downloaded to my computer. The size is 6.07MB and the dimensions are 1383x1527, it is a TIF image. I suspect that it's too big. Could someone please talk a little bit about how to post pictures? Assume I know absolutely nothing, starting with downloading my pics to my computer, or maybe even before, perhaps it starts with camera settings. Any help would be appreciated, you'll see, she's a really cute dog.

open the tif image in MS paint, click file, then click save as, click the pull down menu next to where it says "save as type:" and select jpeg(jpg). then click save. This will cut down on the file size drastically.

since the picture size is so big I would suggest to also resize it. To do this, make sure you have the file open in MS paint still, click image, then click stretch/skew. under stretch, change horizontal to 50 and vertical to 50 and hit ok then save the file. and from there you should be able to host the picture on to image shack or the like.

cruzer wrote:

open the tif image in MS paint . . .

Thanks Cruzer, I've printed these instructions, will work on it tonight. Update to follow. I knew someone would come through for me before I resorted to this:

cruzer wrote:

open the tif image in MS paint

I thought scanners and digital cameras usually came with some form of Photoshop Elements. Anyway, if you're feeling adventurous, try Gimp. Scale, crop, remove red-eye, adjust brightness. If anyone needs any personal help with it, I'm usually on the Woot IRC channel at Woot o'clock.

mnementh wrote:

I thought scanners and digital cameras usually came with some form of Photoshop Elements. Anyway, if you're feeling adventurous, try Gimp. Scale, crop, remove red-eye, adjust brightness. If anyone needs any personal help with it, I'm usually on the Woot IRC channel at Woot o'clock.

ehh...they probably do, but I'm generally too lazy to do stuff like that to my digital pictures.

I gave instructions for the easiest thing I could think of....while being general for the entier audience.

meaning using a program that almost everyone has.

OK, that's a little small, but it's there! Hooray for me.

Edit: I suspect that I copied the URL for a thumbnail for this one, another lesson learned.

Isn't she sweet?
This experience has given me a lot of respect for the folks who enter the contest!

Cruzer - I did it!

I had a pic of basil here but it was too big, still working on that sizing thing.

mnementh wrote:

I thought scanners and digital cameras usually came with some form of Photoshop Elements. Anyway, if you're feeling adventurous, try Gimp. Scale, crop, remove red-eye, adjust brightness. If anyone needs any personal help with it, I'm usually on the Woot IRC channel at Woot o'clock.

Wouldn't it be hilarious if woot actually helps catalyze a more popular worldwide timezone than UTC?