# 'Twere the Rants Before Christmas (December Mini-Rants) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** monthly-mini-rant\ **Created:** [December 1, 2025, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280 "2025-12-01T05:04:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280/81 "2025-12-05T21:23:42Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > until my wife insisted on cable TV, so we have cable TV. “Happy wife = happy life” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280/82 "2025-12-05T21:25:04Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > “Happy wife = happy life” 😉 Yes. This, one hundred percent. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280/83 "2025-12-05T21:32:42Z")
We got our first Roku when our smart TV quit supporting Amazon “to ensure good service” or something like that. As it happened, that Roku died not long after we got our new TV earlier this year. Because the new TV has built-in apps for everything, we haven’t replaced it yet - but as Spice Weasel noted, there’s a ton of clutter on the screen when we turn it on. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280/84 "2025-12-05T21:55:54Z")
I’m just going to introduce a short intermission on a topic that has lately become an obsession of mine, namely, the new car. I credit @LSLGuy with predicting that I would be as thrilled with it as I am with the new fridge, but it took time. Namely because I have a child-like sentimental attachment to previous things. It’s like if you took away a child’s teddy bear, and replaced it with a much nicer one. The child would, nevertheless, cry. But the acclimatization also took time for several other reasons, presented here in a Q&A format: Q: This car lacks features that my previous car had! A: No, it has all those features, and more. For further information, you should consult your friendly local Mexican, name of Manuel. Q: These features don’t work! A: The features work, you don’t. Once again, consult Manuel. He’ll help you out. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280/85 "2025-12-05T21:57:55Z")
Our TV (which is a TCL) has annoying clutter, but it’s hooked up to my Xbox, which I not only use for playing games, it also has an app for every streaming service we want to use. We just use that for everything. It can also play DVDs and Blu-ray. And the cool thing about the Xbox is that the home screen is totally customizable, so I can organize apps into groups, remove stuff from it I don’t want, etc. When we want to watch cable TV, we have to deal with the cable box, which is kind of a pain but not too bad. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280/86 "2025-12-05T22:02:50Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > When we want to watch cable TV, we have to deal with the cable box, which is kind of a pain Are you sure? A modern TV should support the QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) standard for digital cable signalling, equivalent to ATSC for digital broadcasting. It should be able to switch between QAM and ATSC. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280/87 "2025-12-05T22:05:25Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Are you sure? A modern TV should support the QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) standard for digital cable signalling, equivalent to ATSC for digital broadcasting. It should be able to switch between QAM and ATSC. Yes, but that involves dealing with the interface of the television itself, and as I said: > [@Atamasama](#): > > Our TV (which is a TCL) has annoying clutter The cable box is an improvement over doing it natively on the TV. It’s just not as good as doing it on the Xbox, and an Xbox can’t natively connect to cable. Older models of the Xbox actually had a cable app, so you could go to cable TV from within the Xbox interface, but not the newer models like the one we use downstairs (the X series). Microsoft decided to drop that feature. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280/88 "2025-12-05T22:30:27Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I recently read that Luddites were not in fact irrational haters of progress, but people who vocally opposed the corporate exploitation of men, women and children in factories. I also happened to recently read about Luddites: > [@](#): > > In 1589, Englishman William Lee of Calverton, in Nottinghamshire, invented the stocking frame, a mechanical device that mimicked the actions of a human knitter and presented it to Queen Elizabeth I, hoping to obtain a patent. Elizabeth demurred, fearing the device would cause economic hardship among poor people, many of whom supplemented their livelihood by hand knitting. Elizabeth’s successor James I also declined to give Lee a patent, so Lee moved to France, where he gained the patronage of Henry IV. Henry took the peculiar viewpoint that the welfare of his citizens was more important than which religion they happened to follow; as a result, he was assassinated by a fanatic in 1610. With the loss of his patron, Lee died in Paris, in poverty. > > Lee’s brother, and the remaining machines, made their way back to England. There, one of his apprentices, John Ashton, continued to improve the machine. By the mid-1700s, a thriving mechanical knitting industry had developed in Nottinghamshire. However, the stocking frames themselves had grown too expensive for any individual workman to own them: they were instead owned by wealthy men, who rented them out to workers; in turn, the workers produced textiles, which they sold back to the owners. > > The system worked well — for those who owned the machines. But a recession, caused in part by the Napoleonic Wars, left frame owners reluctant to buy the finished product. At the same time, they held workers to the terms of the rental agreements, forcing many into bankruptcy. In 1811, bankrupted workers calling themselves Luddites (after a legendary founder, Ned Ludd who, like Robin Hood, hailed from Nottinghamshire) began destroying the stocking frames. > > The government’s response was swift and harsh: the British Army was deployed against the Luddites, and Parliament made deliberate destruction of the frames an offense punishable by death. By 1813, between 60 and 70 Luddites had been hanged, and the movement had been suppressed. Since then, the term Luddite has been used as a name for those who oppose technological progress because of the potential for economic dislocation. > > _Suzuki, Jeff. Patently Mathematical: Picking Partners, Passwords, and Careers by the Numbers (pp. 128-129). Johns Hopkins University Press. Kindle Edition._ ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280/89 "2025-12-05T22:38:15Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > However, the stocking frames themselves had grown too expensive for any individual workman to own them: they were instead owned by wealthy men, who rented them out to workers; in turn, the workers produced textiles, which they sold back to the owners. Sounds familiar. Sigh. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2025, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280/90 "2025-12-06T11:44:45Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > Older models of the Xbox actually had a cable app, so you could go to cable TV from within the Xbox interface, but not the newer models like the one we use downstairs (the X series). Microsoft decided to drop that feature. So, classic enshittification? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280/91 "2025-12-06T18:10:48Z")
It wouldn’t have surprised me… it was a full moon that night. 🐺 ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2025, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280/92 "2025-12-06T23:08:16Z")
I mentioned elsewhere that I have a vast collection of movies and TV shows from ripped DVDs, Blu-Rays, and downloaded digital files distributed among about 12 or 15 hard drives. I mention this now to ask, in the form of a rant, if any of youse has ever, when using a computer, inadvertently done something incredibly stupid? The usual expression of it is “I clicked when I should have clacked”, or vice versa. Well, I clicked when shoulda clacked, and suddenly an entire folder containing about 1500 GB of movie files is gone. Fortunately nothing has been written to that disk since, so in theory they should be recoverable. I’m gonna try a recovery with the Microsoft file recovery tool (Winfr) but it only runs on Windows 10 or 11. So I have to get my new Windows 11 laptop set up first. Yes, I bought this laptop last January, but Microsoft has made Windows 11 setup so uninviting that I keep postponing this arduous task. I haven’t even turned it on yet, and I’m now getting warnings from Dell that the warranty is about to expire. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2025, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280/93 "2025-12-06T23:18:18Z")
I found the Win11 setup startip OOB experience about the easiest I can recall. Having said that, I chose to accept all their new-fangled UI habits, rather than trying to keep things looking like some old version. ~5 months later I have no detailed recollection of how Win10 looked or felt. I’m sure it’d look foreign and primitive to me now. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2025, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280/94 "2025-12-06T23:39:57Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I found the Win11 setup startip OOB experience about the easiest I can recall. Yes and no. You probably don’t recall as far back as Windows XP or even Windows 7, which were indeed trivially easy to set up. But I did set up the new Win11 laptop for the LXW, and it wasn’t hard (though more obnoxious than in the Good Old Days). But the LXW has a modern wireless environment. I still use WEP + MAC address filtering because … reasons (don’t judge). The new laptop, being newfangled, doesn’t even have an Ethernet port. I have an Ethernet-USB adapter but Windows may not have a built-in driver for it, so it would be useless during setup. There’s apparently a way to bypass the requirement for an internet connection during setup (“`OOBE\BYPASSNRO`” in Cmd) but who knows what that might break once it invokes the rage of Windows 11! This is the world that Old Farts live in. Plus my back hurts when I stand for too long. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2025, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280/95 "2025-12-06T23:42:17Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > I mention this now to ask, in the form of a rant, if any of youse has ever, when using a computer, inadvertently done something incredibly stupid? The usual expression of it is “I clicked when I should have clacked”, or vice versa. As an IT professional of over 25 years, I do that all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2025, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280/96 "2025-12-07T00:13:27Z")
Amazon has implemented an annoying Rufus AI that crops up unpredictably when I go to search for something. I do not need this kind of interruption. Christmas shopping is tiresome enough as it is. It only started a few days ago and I researched ways to stop it from pestering me. Well there is no direct option to eliminate the thing but I figured out a way to custom filer it out through my ad blocker for now. I have no idea how I managed this but Amazon seems to be working fine for now but we’ll see how it goes. Christmas shopping is done thankfully. At least the ordering part. I usually wait until a week or a few days before but delivery times have become much longer this year. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2025, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280/97 "2025-12-07T00:24:43Z")
> [@Ellecram](#): > > Amazon has implemented an annoying Rufus AI that crops up unpredictably when I go to search for something. “Rufus” is such an incredibly annoying piece of shit that it makes Google’s “AI Summary” look almost useful by comparison, and I stress that I hate Googles’s “AI Summary” with a passion! I suspect what’s driving this is that **bad** AI is now very easy and cheap to do. But it makes me despair for the future of the human race if people find things like “Rufus” useful. Although I guess despair is already in the cards given that a majority of the American public elected an evil orange short-fingured vulgarian as their preferred leader. ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2025, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280/98 "2025-12-07T00:40:44Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > “Rufus” is such an incredibly annoying piece of shit that it makes Google’s “AI Summary” look almost useful by comparison, and I stress that I hate Googles’s “AI Summary” with a passion! I agree. It’s a maddening POS. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2025, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280/99 "2025-12-07T00:51:05Z")
I have yet to see / hear Rufus do anything but be a clickable link I’m careful to avoid. What fresh hell am I in for when Amazon decides it’s my turn to be Ruffied? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2025, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280/100 "2025-12-07T01:04:29Z")
Amazon has been fine for me (thank goodness as I’ve been doing a lot of Christmas shopping there), but in the past when Rufus came blundering in like a blind mastiff on meth, it has been less than useless. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twere-the-rants-before-christmas-december-mini-rants/1025280.md?page=6)