ARGH. Vent thread.

[AquaAnalogue]

</lurkmode>


Hi, everyone. Long time, no see. I'm going to rant a little, because I saw this in another thread, and it reminded me of my shitty weekend:

Christ, I am so sorry for not updating this thread, I had some bastard steal my on-the-go phone.

Christ, Craig. You had someone steal YOUR phone too?


I'm beginning to lose my faith in humanity. Mine was stolen from the rail station on the 9th. Who the fuck steals someone's CDMA phone?! Who the hell is drunk enough out of their mind on PCP and semen-laced cat shit to steal something that is going to go dead in two days, because I've reported it stolen? There's no way to cleanse the ESN, unless you thrice spend the value of the phone to send it overseas!


My life was in that phone. Pictures I wanted to keep. Text messages I'd rather others not see. Personal things. It had a 4-digit lock code, but that's easily cracked by anyone with patience. Patience enough to wait around in a goddamn Amtrak station, when you don't even have a train, waiting for someone to drop something eternally valuable so you can sell it off and get your five-hour fix.


I blame the school systems. No. I blame the heroin-dealing parents, being high enough on their own supply to not give a damn about their kids attending school. They then let their kids join gangs instead, which teach them to loot, steal, and kill. I've got an idea. Why don't we take all the street gangs and feed them to each other? Lock them up in a goddamn arena, maybe throw a few cloned velociraptors in there for the hell of it, give them all ill-gotten Cadillacs, and watch them all drive-by-shoot each other over who has the ugliest teeth money can buy.


Also, I hate smartphones, but I'd have been a fool to turn down unlimited data (meaning unlimited VoIP) for $15 less every month; not to mention buying the same feature-phone I had would have cost more than just buying the Android. I do NOT want a damn touch-keyboard. That is, partially, why I bought the Pandora.


I hope it was good. I hope that lowlife enjoyed every bit of sticking that needle up his arm at my digital life's expense, and I hope to God there is a hell and his overdosed ass is cooking in it right now!


Christ.


Anyone else ever had something stolen? Did you want to rip the thieving bastard's eyes out like I do?

 

[WizardStan]

My car's rear window was smashed in a couple of weeks ago. Nothing was stolen out of it or anything like that, just vandalized. I can at least understand theft, as stupid as it may be: the person committing the crime is getting something, or at least they think they are. There is no getting when it comes to vandalism, there is only destruction. Who raises their kids to think it is ok to just smash stuff that doesn't belong to them?

 

[Halcyon]

I had a hard drive crash when i was 16 that had tons of save files, homework, pictures, music (well hard drive stuff you get the point) It was on the first computer that I owned and I used it all the time. I remember being really devastated, I really had deepened on this data being a digital record of my life and events. When it crashed I really couldn't believe it (i know how silly this all sounds but I was 16) I remember walking around school just thinking, damn i miss this or damn I'm going to have to do that again. I recall specifically a friend had asked to borrow an Audio CD from me and I just gave it to him as the notion of really owning anything didn't make any sense, better off he get attached to it and lose it poor bastard.


It took a while and I eventually got things back on my hard drive, and i started to gain some trust in it's capacity to hold data. I don't want to sound mellow dramatic but it was a huge lesson in the way nothing is really dependable or guarantied. In the end i'm sure this experience has softened the blow from other situations where I lost things important to me.


I know there is a huge difference between mechanical failure and deliberate theft and i'm just trying to discuss that the end result is nearly the same. I'm sorry for your loss it sucks to lose things and it is a shitty realization that we can not walk in the same stream twice but hopefully in time it gets easier and when the next unexpected loss strikes you will in some ways be the better for it.


Again only referencing Lost items and I don't mean to ignore the theft of the matter but this song seems to remind me about loss not always being the end.


http://youtu.be/RnlLhq1kW10

 

[DaMummy]

I've got an idea. Why don't we take all the street gangs and feed them to each other? Lock them up in a goddamn arena, maybe throw a few cloned velociraptors in there for the hell of it, give them all ill-gotten Cadillacs, and watch them all drive-by-shoot each other over who has the ugliest teeth money can buy.

its called Australia. and i would place my money on you just loosing your phone.

Who raises their kids to think it is ok to just smash stuff that doesn't belong to them?

probably the same person who has to feed a kid at any cost


2 sides of a coin. There's 2 sides to everybody's fault....and all that non-sense

 

[AquaAnalogue]

its called Australia. and i would place my money on you just loosing your phone.


...


probably the same person who has to feed a kid at any cost


2 sides of a coin. There's 2 sides to everybody's fault....and all that non-sense

I didn't lose it. It was stolen. I saw him walk away with it, probably packing a stolen machine gun somewhere in the knee-level crotch of his stolen cargo jeans, thus why I didn't chase him and beat him the fuck down. Yes, it was irresponsible to leave it on the counter, next to the vending machines, loose from my other things, but he should not have taken it. I will admit it was stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Yet, he should NOT have taken it.


Exactly where does smashing in a windshield help feed a child? And if you are saying instead that it's okay for someone to steal my items to feed their child they should have been responsible enough not to have... I politely disagree. There are rich people to steal from. I'm a dirt poor college student. Besides. If this kind of person has any children (which, judging by his demeanour, he probably has 17) he is not selling phones on Craigslist because he wants to give little De'Lequisha a proper Christmas. If that were the truth, dude, my heart would melt. He's out stealing shit so that he can continue to live in the lap of luxury whilst evading his child support.


People like him have no soul. To blatantly disregard the emotions of another human being, just to increase yours, is absolutely rotten. And right around the holidays too. I hope one of his own kind puts a slug right between his eyes.


Stan, WTF? They just smashed out the window? That's... well, I'm glad they didn't take anything, but that's just upsetting. The answer to your question is-- the kind of parents that shouldn't be parents at all. They're drunk as fuck for the conception, they're high as fuck for the pregnancy, and once they're done they're too busy fucking the next baby-daddy to give their kids a decent father figure. I don't think they raise their children at all. There's having children and there's raising children. Those that have them and do not raise them leave the raising to the streets. Hell, I almost feel sorry for what I said about the thieving dick. Almost. He should be old enough now to get religion, or secular humanism, or an ethics book or something and pull himself out of the rut and make something of himself. He lives in America, after all. The "land of opportunity". Heh.


Halcyon, thanks for the support, and I feel your pain. There were pictures of my girlfriend and I which can never be retrieved. Ever. They're gone, like they were never taken. Over the past few years, I've begun to suffer from some sort of stress-induced memory loss, or something, to the point where I can't remember any details of even an event-filled day, only a few days after it happened. Pictures allow me to jog my memory sometimes. Sometimes I just like to sit down with them. Since phone companies make it impossibly hard to sync things on a phone costing under 500 dollars a month (hopefully changing w/ the VM Optimus V, still not thrilled about the keyboard), I've now lost half of my past year of memories. That's one sixtieth of my life, and one twentieth of my life thus far, and 1/3 of my whole relationship. Thankfully my girlfriend has her camera, and her phone. And a functioning brain unlike mine. So all is not lost.


Now I've got to dig on the forum and see if I can, once more, try to get VoIP working. It would be a huge blessing.

 

[Prometheus]

To blatantly disregard the emotions of another human being, just to increase yours, is absolutely rotten.

Yes, yes it is.

 

[FaeMinx]

I feel your rage. My previouse smart phone was stolen *out of my hand*... and I had spent over 2 years pimping it and getting it to work the way I wanted it to. The personal value it held for me far far FAR exceeded whatever that disgusting little s**t managed to pawn it for.


However, unlike you I *did* chase him... barefoot. He also pulled a knife on me when I caught up with him but I didn't care. he managed to evade me, which is a good thing. If I had managed to physically get a hold of him, there were 5 of his buddies running behind me with knives drawn that I didn't notice because I was seeing red. It boggles my mind that in this country, some people would be prepared to kill for a seriously out of date smart phone.


And with how crappy the police are in this country they would get away with it too...


All I got out of the experience was cut and bloody feet and an intense paranoia whenever i need to use my phone in public.

 

[GiraffeeDreams]

I had a 'friend' who stole from me, had known him for some years so when £180 and an Xbox 360 arcade was traded for an iPhone 3GS (this was quite some time ago...) I didn't expect him to disappear, then one day I'd left one of my guitars in my shop and the same guy jumped counter and made off with it.


He has no kids, a damn easy family life from what I'd seen, I thought he was a good friend and it turned out that he was nothing more than a petty thief.


Theft is one thing but betrayal like that hurts like hell.

 

[Sugar_Kane]

My home town has a lot of drug rehab centres, and correspondingly also has a lot of drug related theft. My girlfriend used to live in a nice area that was unfortunately too close to a not so nice area. Someone broke into her car as it was parked on the driveway, surrounded by other houses. They used a screwdriver on the lock and twisted it right out, then made off with the stereo.


Then she moved to Cardiff where her next car was broken into twice. She left an expensive leather coat on the back seat and someone literally bent the door frame out around the window to open the door. The second time they did the exact same thing and took her speakers. Again, all in a residential street surrounded by other houses. People will say 'oh well you see that was silly, you shouldn't leave things in your car!' I don't agree with that, you should be able to leave your possessions wherever the hell you want to without the risk of some turd making off with it, especially locked within your own property.


I bought myself a bike when I changed jobs and had to get from my house to the bus stop every morning. The thing was cheap and nasty, kept slipping gears and getting flat tyres, but it saved me a lot of time. Unfortunately I had to chain it up at the train station because the bus didn't have room for bikes. I always expected it to go missing, in fact I'm pretty sure I met the guys that took it because they were stood around on the train platform when I went to collect it one evening, looking shifty, and one of the guys was grinning at me and commenting on how well I'd locked it up, in a kind of goading fashion like 'you think your bike's safe, don't you mate? well you ain't gonna stop me from taking it because I'm a master criminal'. Lo and behold it was gone a couple of days later. I just walked on by and continued to listen to my music, not a single fuck was given, in fact the thought of them trying to ride it off, slipping a gear and possibly smashing their faces into a curb or catching a nut on the seat amused me greatly. I did have to walk three miles there and three miles back again every day after that though.


I was also mugged when I was about 14, after working up the courage to go back out after having my nose broken in an unprovoked attack. They took my chewing gum and and £1.27 in various bits of change, then asked for my watch which they said they'd seen me wearing, which confused me, but me being me, I assumed they must have seen my twin brother and told them so, so they informed me they were going to go and find him.


I'm all for understanding that some people are just desperate and need to do what they can to survive, but honestly a lot of them just need to be minced up and fed to the starving. If your existence basically consists of harming others and leaching from the world around you without a single consideration for others, well then you don't deserve to be part of society and should be removed.

 

[WizardStan]

Who raises their kids to think it is ok to just smash stuff that doesn't belong to them?

probably the same person who has to feed a kid at any cost

Nothing was stolen, it was just randomly damaged. If even so much as my loose change had gone missing (and I probably have about $30 worth of loose change in my arm thingy by now) I would agree, any cost to get what you want. But they didn't get anything out of it. I don't care how poor you are, there is no excuse for random acts of vandalism.

 

[Sugar_Kane]

Might have been someone with Tourettes walking by and suddenly 'VAGINA BREAD!' with an arm twitch *smash*. How do you explain that to someone? Best to leg it.

 

[skeezix]

Someone broke a window on my car couple years ago, to steal a tooney ($2.) That same car got broken into twice in a parking lot downtown Toronto during working hours (!), and twice in my driveway at my new house (just rifling through looking for ipods or something?) -- not too common, an incident every few years, but thats still way too common. Shitty car, too


Good rant, but get the rage out; it has no place in your soul. I know its annoying but.. its just a phone. You'll mov on and be okay in a bit. You can generalyl keep your data.. backups, over the air sync, etc and so on, so you can look into that; maybe you've got an old bacu; or were syncing to 'cloud' or the like, so can get a fair amount of udeful data (calendar, contacts) back. SMS .. yeah, pita, but no one is going through your personal boring texts, really; they just sotle it, for laughs, and maybe sold it for a ten-spot to someone. Huge inconvenience for you, yes, but no one is digging through your stuff


Change your passwords; ie: Facebook etc, whatever was linked to an app there, just to avoid any grief if someone does get nosey.


Do a remote wipe if you can, depending on the phone. (RIM, iOS, not sure if Droid does it.)


I'm rabid about my gdgets.. I never lose anything; if someone swiped my pandora or my phone, I wopuld be _so_ pissed. Semen-laden cat piss mad (Good rant btw But iut'll pass, don't let it ruin your month.


jeff


(I've had my share of hard drives die, which months of code on them which really hurt; long ago anyway.. I long since started doing regular baclkups. I thoguht I was really clever once, 10 years back, wher eI had 3 or 4 machins in a backup ring.. one backing up onto the next round and round, figured that'd be good, what woiudl be the chances I'd lose multiple machines? Then lightning struck the house and destroyed all the electronics in one fell swoop. That was bloody annoying, and expensive! Don't live in northern Toronto high up on a hill I tell you.. after the rage subsided and I replaced empty hard drives, you have that pang of 'oh, look ho wempty it is..', but then later, you get that 'hey, LOOK HOW EMPTY IT IS! *fill* *fill*" which is fun, too.

 

[WizardStan]

Might have been someone with Tourettes walking by and suddenly 'VAGINA BREAD!' with an arm twitch *smash*. How do you explain that to someone? Best to leg it.

Not a chance. Supposing there was someone walking along carrying a broken hockey stick (I know it was a hockey stick because they left it beside the car) who just suddenly got a twitch and hit my rear window, this wasn't just a crack or anything like that: the entire window was smashed in. There was almost no glass left in the frame at all. That's the kind of damage that requires conscious thought.


They also smashed the driver side mirror and opened my gas tank for some reason. That must've been some twitch.

 

[Sugar_Kane]

It wasn't parked in the centre of Vancouver in mid June was it?

 

[DaMummy]

It wasn't parked in the centre of Vancouver in mid June was it?

feel like i just got ninja'd by a whole hour!


and getting your stuff stolen is one thing, but it being stolen by a friend, is a whole 'nother subject

 

[GiraffeeDreams]

Unfortunately there will always be scum living in our society, we can just do our best to stay protected, plenty of back ups and being able to remote wipe in an emergency is always a plus, otherwise we are at the mercy of the merciless...

 

[Prometheus]

If your existence basically consists of harming others and leaching from the world around you without a single consideration for others, well then you don't deserve to be part of society and should be removed.

Truer words were never spoken.


And the notion of mincing such types up and feeding them to the starving is hilarious. :lol:

 

[AquaAnalogue]

Good rant, but get the rage out; it has no place in your soul. I know its annoying but.. its just a phone. You'll mov on and be okay in a bit. You can generalyl keep your data.. backups, over the air sync, etc and so on, so you can look into that; maybe you've got an old bacu; or were syncing to 'cloud' or the like, so can get a fair amount of udeful data (calendar, contacts) back. SMS .. yeah, pita, but no one is going through your personal boring texts, really; they just sotle it, for laughs, and maybe sold it for a ten-spot to someone. Huge inconvenience for you, yes, but no one is digging through your stuff


Change your passwords; ie: Facebook etc, whatever was linked to an app there, just to avoid any grief if someone does get nosey.


Do a remote wipe if you can, depending on the phone. (RIM, iOS, not sure if Droid does it.)

Thanks for that, skeezix, it was comforting You're probably right. Nobody's interested in my embarrassing text messages and if they are, well, I'll never see their face again. I'm feeling a bit better-- but the remote sync and stuff, not possible... it was a feature-phone, not a smartphone. Trust me, a trace/backup/wipe app (or just SSH/DDNS?) will be the first thing installed on my Optimus V. I was doing business with Page Plus Cellular, which has really cheap prices but really upsetting "on your own"-type customer support. There would have had to be an app installed. I was too cheap and, it being a Verizon phone cross-registered with Page Plus, none of that stuff worked anyway. I wish i could have them remote delete everything, but I asked and they just sent me the stock message of "If you would like to suspend your account we'll need your ID faxed to us and lots of paperwork" blah blah. I am definitely gonna have them put a big fat black mark on the ESN though. Enjoy your worthless brick, scum! Muahahaha.


I'm beginning to get slightly excited over the Android though. One more machine to have root on can never be bad! Apparently the Swype keyboard-replacement app (which comes pre-installed) is incredible. Dunno. We'll see.


Now I need a name for my phone, since it's a physically owned machine to which I have admin access (my criteria for naming)... i'm thinking "mayumi" from Shuffle!, to go with kaede, lisianthus, and primula


Thanks everyone for putting up with my rant and making me feel better.


I'm finally pissed [off] enough, after last night's attempt, to attempt to port/write/cobble-together a VoIP solution for the Pandora, directly, without needing PanDebian (which appears to be broken). I'll probably do it over break. I'll let you know the result of my attempts in a new thread.

 

[kuru]

I fear what happened to you. On a more or less regular basis I take precautions by cut-pasting photos from the phone to a PC at home. I feel a little like Cpt Hindsight

 

[Asmo]

There's a lot of it about.


I went out to see a friend on Wednesday night, was only gone 2 hours, came home to find I'd been burgled. Stuff all over the place.


I dreaded going upstairs - all my retro stuff is in one room, my PC and other tech toys in my bedroom beside that - where I'd left my Pandora charging when I left. Thought I'd be sick wondering what I'd find.


I must have disturbed them when I came back though - the only two rooms untouched were those two, I could scarcely believe it - everything still there. Even in the other rooms the only things missing seem to be small amounts of cash. Couldn't sleep at all, even with a veritable arsenal at my side. Had the police dusting for prints today. One of them commented that there's always a surge in December as career criminals try to line their pockets so THEY can have a decent Christmas.


Angry? Not half.