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Is It Just Me Or...

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Posted by charlie hebdo on Friday, March 20, 2020 11:24 AM

Paul_D_North_Jr

Running Chrome on Windows 10, the ads only cover about the bottom 10% of the screen, so not a big bother.

I still get the women's fashions, swimsuits, and lingerie ads in a little box on the right side.  Someday my wife's going to see them, and then I'll have some 'splainin' to do . . . Whistling 

- PDN.  

 

Would that be Desi-splaining or Mansplaining? 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Friday, March 20, 2020 11:44 AM

Could be Louis Armstrong 'splainin'.  As in...

"Jazz?  Man, if you got to 'splain it to 'em, forget it!"  Music

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, March 20, 2020 12:10 PM

Paul_D_North_Jr
Someday my wife's going to see them, and then I'll have some 'splainin' to do . . .

Simple: tell her you're supporting the 'free' forum resource by not blocking ads outright; Kalmbach will not let you individually block or censor ads by category; she knows she can trust you; [be passive-aggressive if she then persists, sauce for the goose is now sauce for the gander as well in this lovely new PC age.]

If you need plausible denial: tell her you've joined the boycott of undesirable ad content, and show her this thread for backup ... well, perhaps just tell her you're boycotting the swimwear.

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, March 20, 2020 12:14 PM

By the way: who out there following this thread has a good graphics-design program they know how to use well?

I'm developing the parody Trains Magazine ad for "13 greatest Kalmbach IT failures that shaped the history of enthusiast publications -- the flubs, foul-ups and faux pas that determined the course of American Snowmobiler."

Probably best if it's a link that can click through to a 'presentation' page, and perhaps something that can be ordered as a free sample?

If Kalmbach IT is reading this thread: get the lead out on ridding us of the bouncing ads, and I might reconsider...

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Friday, March 20, 2020 3:25 PM

Oh, that's cold!  

Hilarious, but COLD!  Smile, Wink & Grin

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Posted by MP173 on Friday, March 20, 2020 3:59 PM

Dont the girls in the swimsuit ads know the beach is closed?

 

Ed

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Posted by BaltACD on Friday, March 20, 2020 4:29 PM

Overmod
By the way: who out there following this thread has a good graphics-design program they know how to use well?

I'm developing the parody Trains Magazine ad for "13 greatest Kalmbach IT failures that shaped the history of enthusiast publications" -- the flubs, failures and foulups that determined the course of American Snowmobiler."

Probably best if it's a link that can click through to a 'presentation' page, and perhaps something that can be ordered as a free sample?

If Kalmbach IT is reading this thread: get the lead out on ridding us of the bouncing ads, and I might reconsider...

We were told three months ago that a new forum experience was imminent - well that was 1/4 of a year ago.  The things that weren't working then, still aren't working today.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by SD70Dude on Friday, March 20, 2020 4:37 PM

BaltACD
Overmod
By the way: who out there following this thread has a good graphics-design program they know how to use well?

I'm developing the parody Trains Magazine ad for "13 greatest Kalmbach IT failures that shaped the history of enthusiast publications" -- the flubs, failures and foulups that determined the course of American Snowmobiler."

Probably best if it's a link that can click through to a 'presentation' page, and perhaps something that can be ordered as a free sample?

If Kalmbach IT is reading this thread: get the lead out on ridding us of the bouncing ads, and I might reconsider...

We were told three months ago that a new forum experience was imminent - well that was 1/4 of a year ago.  The things that weren't working then, still aren't working today.

Just like a real railroad.

I was told when I hired on that we would be getting a new employee computer system within a year.  A decade later I am still getting paid by the same old 1980s program. 

I think it was developed before the mouse was invented, you can navigate it using only the keyboard. 

Press F7 and F8 to scroll, F6 to save a pay ticket, F5 to submit, and F3 to back out...... ...all the other F keys have at least one function, which may vary depending on what part of the program you are in. 

Tab and Shift+Tab come in handy too.

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Friday, March 20, 2020 4:40 PM

MP173

Dont the girls in the swimsuit ads know the beach is closed?

 

Ed

 

Man, some of those swimsuits!  I wondered how the girls didn't burst out of them!

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Posted by BaltACD on Friday, March 20, 2020 4:44 PM

SD70Dude
 Just like a real railroad.

I was told when I hired on that we would be getting a new employee computer system within a year.  A decade later I am still getting paid by the same old 1980s program. 

I think it was developed before the mouse was invented, you can navigate it using only the keyboard. 

Press F7 and F8 to scroll, F6 to save a pay ticket, F5 to submit, and F3 to back out...... ...all the other F keys have at least one function, which may vary depending on what part of the program you are in. 

Tab and Shift+Tab come in handy too.

It may be 80's 'legacy' software operating on a 21st Century box.  Payroll software, especially when it comes to properly 'paying' T&E personnel in concert with the labor agreements is a daunting task for computer application programers and designers since most of the time the only rule is the exception, and the exception is far from being a rule.

The other application area programmer/designers are hesitant to get involved with is crew calling with all the twists and turns about who should be called under what circumstance in the various T&E contracts - with, at least on CSX, multiple different contracts to be allowed for.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by SD70Dude on Friday, March 20, 2020 4:53 PM

CN's program is called CATS (crew and timekeeping system).  It does indeed run on modern machines, and sometime in the 00s they developed an emulator so you can log into it from any external machine (but you can't tie up from home anymore, too many crews took advantage of that early on.....).

It's quite odd to see such an obviously vintage system, complete with Pac-Man colours, running on a ultra-modern flatscreen monitor. 

A Conductor with a knack for coding developed a F-keys app, as smartphones do not have them.

CN also still uses the SRS/TOPC program for tracking trains and cars, which I believe was originally developed by the Santa Fe back in the 1980s.  CATS may have come from there too. 

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

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Posted by tree68 on Friday, March 20, 2020 4:59 PM

It's encountered far less that it used to be, but some radio programming software (especially Moto) would run only on a DOS machine.  Not DOS emulation, as most PCs will still do, but actual DOS.  This made life difficult for the dealers because they had to maintain at least one PC that had DOS well after DOS had been superceded by other systems.

 

LarryWhistling
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Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
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Come ride the rails with me!
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Posted by Electroliner 1935 on Friday, March 20, 2020 11:11 PM

I'm suprised that you haven't thought to tell your wife that you like looking at beautiful women (thats why you married her) and that she is still the best there is. 

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Posted by jeffhergert on Saturday, March 21, 2020 7:42 PM

I took the plunge.  I updated Microsoft edge and added ad blocker plus.  No more ads, no more chasing the 'X' around the bottom of the screen.

Jeff

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, March 21, 2020 8:21 PM

jeffhergert

I took the plunge.  I updated Microsoft edge and added ad blocker plus.  No more ads, no more chasing the 'X' around the bottom of the screen.

Jeff

 

Isn't it wonderful?  Wink

 

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Posted by MidlandMike on Saturday, March 21, 2020 9:51 PM

54light15

I'm getting these pop-ups too- when I try to click on the X on the upper right, the ad will move up and down like it's fighting me. If I don't click right on the x, the ad page opens up. Toyota, Scotiabank, other banking ads.

I have had a similar experience.  When I try to hit the X on my touch-screen, I may have to try a few times, and if I touch slightly inside the box, the full ad opens up a new tab.  I tried to use the pointer, but as you say the X moves up, and if you follow it, the X moves back down.  Somewhat diabolical, and really annoying.

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Posted by Deggesty on Sunday, March 22, 2020 7:46 AM

MidlandMike

 

 
54light15

I'm getting these pop-ups too- when I try to click on the X on the upper right, the ad will move up and down like it's fighting me. If I don't click right on the x, the ad page opens up. Toyota, Scotiabank, other banking ads.

 

 

I have had a similar experience.  When I try to hit the X on my touch-screen, I may have to try a few times, and if I touch slightly inside the box, the full ad opens up a new tab.  I tried to use the pointer, but as you say the X moves up, and if you follow it, the X moves back down.  Somewhat diabolical, and really annoying.

 

It is annoying--it is as though you should not want to kick the thing off your screen.

Johnny

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, March 22, 2020 11:35 AM

Deggesty

 

 
MidlandMike

 

 
54light15

I'm getting these pop-ups too- when I try to click on the X on the upper right, the ad will move up and down like it's fighting me. If I don't click right on the x, the ad page opens up. Toyota, Scotiabank, other banking ads.

 

 

I have had a similar experience.  When I try to hit the X on my touch-screen, I may have to try a few times, and if I touch slightly inside the box, the full ad opens up a new tab.  I tried to use the pointer, but as you say the X moves up, and if you follow it, the X moves back down.  Somewhat diabolical, and really annoying.

 

 

 

It is annoying--it is as though you should not want to kick the thing off your screen.

 

 

That's overly-agressive marketing boys, just as annoying as a pushy salesman.  It's what pushed me over the edge to blocking all ads.

Whoever came up with agressive pop-up system is, to use the old saying, "Too smart for their own good!"  In my case it caused them to lose part of their "audience," for lack of a better term.

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Posted by BaltACD on Sunday, March 22, 2020 1:12 PM

Flintlock76
That's overly-agressive marketing boys, just as annoying as a pushy salesman.  It's what pushed me over the edge to blocking all ads.

Whoever came up with agressive pop-up system is, to use the old saying, "Too smart for their own good!"  In my case it caused them to lose part of their "audience," for lack of a better term.

Likewise.  I can take ads that just lay there.  When they try to 'attack' me, I draw the line and invoke the ad blocker.

Some of the ads that just 'laid there' on the screen, I might have ultimately patronized.  The aggressor ads, I vowed not to patronize and then used the ad blocker so I won't see them anymore.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, March 22, 2020 1:31 PM

What Kalmbach might not see -- and Taligent or whoever programs the API for the site to push ads may not care about -- is that a passive-aggressive approach like deploying a nuclear-grade adblocker is not quite the same thing as a boycott.  The 'teeth' of the latter is not just in the economic consequence of 'nonpatronage', it's in the very conscious invocation and then continued publicity that the lack of patronage is conscious, and based on principled points.

I want to make very clear, to Kalmbach and (if possible) back to the people that introduced this 'fantastic' new functionality in push advertising, that I very specifically refuse to do business with anyone appearing in a push ad.  I fully comprehend that many of the businesses involved don't have a formal choice of when they show up in the bottom-ad rotation vs. sidebar presentation, but it is now up to them to compel the contracted provider to keep them out of the bottom rotation if they want to avoid sharing the consequences of being streamed there.

At some point, I expect to see the old interference-with-a-business-relationship argument being trotted out about this.  It is not the business relationship itself that is the subject of boycott; it's the establishment of one consequent to advertising.  And just as complaints about the substance or nature of advertising, or ill-timed comments by company officials as at Papa John's, are supposedly not interference, neither will be strict refusal to trade and advocacy that others refuse similarly.\

On the other hand, it's sure easier just to turn on the adblockers en masse and let Kalmbach find yet another new joint-venture software provider, from among the ones who put up the blue 'blocking screen' that prevents or precludes seeing content until an adblocker has been disabled or site overrides implemented in preferences.  I would expect to see that in any 'free Web presence 3.0' that Kalmbach eventually rolls out; it's in keeping with the increasing ad presence (remember when that sidebar was both adjustable and far narrower?) and the clever ways of mining post content and comments for 'suggestions' on pushing particular things on individuals without giving them the opportunity to edit their ad preferences other than -- perhaps -- delete or reset some of the tracking.

(Amusingly: the Taligent software doesn't share the opinion of some people regarding my relative lack of credentials in COVID-19 treatment.  In keeping with my strict boycott principles, I have now rejected the third call of the day, in bottom ads, for me to join the staff of a major medical facility...Geeked

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, March 22, 2020 3:20 PM

And I'm sure it's their loss, Mod-man!  

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Posted by rrnut282 on Sunday, March 22, 2020 10:20 PM

When I couldn't close the !#$ ad on my ipad because it increased in size as soon as I touched inside the box with my fat fingers, I closed the ipad after I threw it across the room.  I haven't been back for a while.  

Mike (2-8-2)
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Posted by MikeInPlano on Tuesday, March 24, 2020 10:36 PM

tree68

 

 
ShortCircuit

AdBlocker Ultimate enabled for this sites seems to stop the adds for me.

 

That may be why I'm not seeing them on the Vista machine - I don't have AdBlocker, but I do have a hosts file which blocks most "popular" ad sites.

 

I was thinking it's because no advertiser thinks anybody is still running Windows Vista. Wink

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Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, March 24, 2020 10:45 PM

MikeInPlano
I was thinking it's because no advertiser thinks anybody is still running Windows Vista. 

That's a possibility, too.  I'm trying to convert to W7, but the pieces aren't aligning properly.

I'll be putting a hosts file on the micro computer a soon as I get the chance.  

LarryWhistling
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Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, March 25, 2020 1:16 AM

tree68
 
MikeInPlano
I was thinking it's because no advertiser thinks anybody is still running Windows Vista.  

That's a possibility, too.  I'm trying to convert to W7, but the pieces aren't aligning properly.

I'll be putting a hosts file on the micro computer a soon as I get the chance. 

My Vista laptop just threw a crap - won't link up wirelessly with my DSL modem as it has been doing for the past 12 years.  Called my local techician and he has taken it back to his shop.  Basiclly use the machine for POP3 e-mail.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by MidlandMike on Wednesday, March 25, 2020 8:28 PM

Vista?  Windows7 ??  I2 year old laptop??? 

I think you guys already got your money's worth out of your old computers.

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, March 25, 2020 8:40 PM

MidlandMike

Vista?  Windows7 ??  I2 year old laptop??? 

I think you guys already got your money's worth out of your old computers.

Mine don't owe me a thing.  The desktop computer was top-of-the-line for gaming when I got it, even though I'm not what I'd call a gamer.  I've been working on getting it up to W7, as the upgrade to W10 is then free, but it's been a pain.  One of these days.

The newer laptop and the new microcomputer are both current.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by Paul of Covington on Wednesday, March 25, 2020 8:50 PM

   From what you guys are saying, my Commodore64 might be out of date.Hmm

_____________ 

  "A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner

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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, March 25, 2020 9:35 PM

MidlandMike
Vista?  Windows7 ??  I2 year old laptop??? 

I think you guys already got your money's worth out of your old computers.

I still have a XP desktop that keeps chugging along at 17.  I have a desktop that I bought as W8.1 and upgraded to W10, I also have a W10 laptop.

Found out today that my W10 Desktop needs to get a newer and higher powered video card if I want to participated in the iRacing video racing that various organizations are running as a replacement for the real thing.

Both laptops travel with me.  The desktops stay in Maryland.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, March 25, 2020 9:36 PM

Paul of Covington
   From what you guys are saying, my Commodore64 might be out of date.Hmm

Would a Radio Shack TRS80 be a upgrade?

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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