Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Octane Is it actively blocked with some kind of error page, or is it just failing to resolve? Could be a DNS issue. Try changing your DNS (temporarily) to Google's DNS (8.8.8.8, and 8.8.4.4.)

Then change it back when you're done unless you like Google knowing absolutely every web address and item you pull from the net.

Oh wow these beauty ads in mexican tv are getting super exploitative. Like they are one notch away from explicitly saying "ugly people are worthless, so buy this magical product and stop being ugly". Well some actually do say stuff like that.

I somehow had the idea that that kind of abusive tactics were illegal or something. And they're like super common right now for some reason, basically every other ad.

@NEStalgia Doesn't work. Still fails to load the page.

I'm getting a ERR_CONNECTION_RESET error; "This site can't be reached". Resetting the router may be my last option, but I try to avoid that as I'm not familiar with the procedure and I don't want to end up with no internet at all.

Meanwhile....

Guess what is this video ? 😛

@Octane Okay, that's odd. Didn't you receive one from your internet provider? And what do you use, Ziggo or KPN? For either of those, you could request a new router for free, especially if you have one of their interactive TV boxes. In fact: if you do, you should already have had one of these routers.

Personally, I haven't got any experience with Sitecom modems/routers, but I'll look into it either way.
I'll get back to it, if I have something useful to add, or perhaps somebody else can add their two cents concerning the settings on the specific model that you have.

One tip I can give you, is if you never changed or added any settings before, is simply to reset it to factory defaults. That should always work to help the modem/router detect and accept any and all legal signals and data transfers. And don't worry about losing connection: a primary internet connection is actually the first thing that a modem will be looking to secure in its settings, so perhaps you may have to add some specific settings for consoles and so on, but internet on the PC/laptop ought to be just fine.

And if the modem has a game mode, any connected consoles will also be fine.

My physical book collection is a mix of hardcover and paperback. I prefer hardcover but am not against paperback when it makes more financial sense. I did treat books somewhat roughly as a kid but got better from Jr. High onward. After that, I hated loaning them out because people seldom took as good of care of books as I did IMO.

I received The Hobbit + LotR as a paperback collection for Christmas a couple of years ago. They have a lot of the maps, and from what I can tell Return of the King has a lot of appendixes after the main story ends. I don't recall the publisher off the top of my head, but they're allegedly the only ones who are authorized to publish Tolkien's works here? I'll have to check when I'm home later.

@ThanosReXXX: I've heard mixed things about The Hobbit trilogy. Apparently they added some stuff in and knocked out other stuff completely. The Hobbit did take a little while to get going, but I found that Fellowship of the Ring really dragged at first (Unless I read your comment backwards). For context, I'm a little past the battle of Helm's Deep, and Pippin and Merry are currently recounting how the Ents basically trounced Saruman.

@Anti-Matter Erm... a way to subtly change the subject instead of actually responding to what I told you earlier?

@Octane Here's the official support page for the model router you use, where you could also ask your question:
http://www.sitecomlearningcentre.com/nl/products/wlr-3100v100...
It also has a quick installation guide, which you could always run through, just to see if everything is set up as it should according to the official manual, regardless of whether it used to work or not.

And here's the official manual, which might also help you find the right settings:
(you can either read it online, or download it to your PC, which I would do, so you can always use it whenever you need to)
https://www.gebruikershandleiding.com/Sitecom-WLR-3100/previe...
In Dutch, right?

One other thing that you could also do, which is also completely harmless, is see if you can update the firmware. Perhaps the router is not set up to automatically update itself, so that might also help in some ways.

@Blitzenexx Lord of the Rings only "drags" in the books, in the beginning, because of the intellectual and rather dry way that the beginning is written, but once you're past that initial hurdle, the book really grabs you.

The movie has no such qualms, far as I'm concerned. If you're used to the books, then the movie trilogy is a cinch to get into. The style is the same as in the Hobbit, but the story is far better, less needless padding, because Peter Jackson simply had more than enough material to make three movies from three books, whereas he REALLY spread the story of the Hobbit WAY too thin, making it too much of an inflated story line, which dragged on far longer than it should have.

Far as where you are in the story is concerned: are you talking about the books or the movies?
If it is the former: I was under the impression that you already read Lord of the Rings?

By the way: I feel EXACTLY the same about lending books to other people. Only did that once, also with a paperback, and got it back virtually ruined, so I learned my lesson really quick...

I lent my hardcover copy of Jurassic Park to my sister in law for her to practice english.

She never really read it. And now it's lost. hopefully somewhere in their house.

Why didn’t you just buy her a Rosetta Stone or get her a Duolingo account?

Because different options and activities are good?

Well, yeah, it just really depends if she has a decent grasp of English. If she does, then reinforcing through literature is the best way to go.

@Delibheel I have to tell you, that I honestly can't make a definite decision on what I think is worse: getting a book back damaged, or never getting it back at all. In any case: if it was my sister, then she'd either have to bend over backwards for all I care, but she'd have to find it. And if it would have been lost, for whatever reason, then I'd most definitely expect her to buy me a new copy.

@GyroZeppeli Literature, or comics. Far easier to get into, and from my own experience, I can assure you that it sure helped me learn quite a few languages.

@ThanosReXXX
"Erm... a way to subtly change the subject instead of actually responding to what I told you earlier?"

Um, nope.
It wasn't about last time i replied you.
I just found a funny video about The Ponies to be shared here. 😆
Maybe someone will be interested. 😏

@ThanosReXXX: I actually really enjoyed the first couple of chapters of Fellowship, but the period of time between Gandalf' s return and when Frodo actually left is what dragged on quite a bit. Things picked up for me during/after the visit to Bree.

I watched the LotR trilogy before starting in on reading them since I didn't own the books at the time. I'm now working my way through them. I've also read The Hobbit but haven't seen its corresponding trilogy yet.

The paperback that taught me my lesson went through TWO lendings. It was intact when I finally got it back, but the cover was pretty beat up and the pages in one spot looked like they'd endured some dirt staining.

@Anti-Matter I know that it wasn't about that, but you didn't react at ALL to my friendly advise, which I gave you a couple of pages back.

And I don't think there's a lot of adult men that like My Little Pony videos on here. We rather see big-boobed babes with guns, lots of guns.

P.S.

Just in case: joking...
(Well, about the gun part. Don't like My Little Pony at all)

@Blitzenexx Well, then you're not the average person. I enjoyed it as well, but the first time I started to read it, a friend pointed it out to me, and although I actually liked the beginning, I could understand why he drew my attention to it, because it isn't exactly like smoothly going down, so to speak.

So, I actually did have my wires crossed, then. You're going from the movies to the books, so instead of "why did they leave that out?" moments, you'll have plenty of "hey, that didn't happen in the movies" moments. Not to worry, I won't spoil anything other than that...

I've actually been pleasantly surprised with how much the movies have seemed to be faithful to the books compared to most adaptations. They certainly aren't 1:1 adaptations, but they've remained pretty accurate. The only differences from the top of my head are when they omitted the forest outside of the Shire, Tom Bombadil, and the Barrow-downs.

@Blitzenexx Well, talking about no spoilers for people not in the know...

But that's exactly what I said when I first mentioned the movies: they are, to this day, the most accurate book to movie adaptation, but regardless of that, even they aren't 100% accurate, and both of those statements are true.

P.S.

If I remember correctly, there's a few more omissions, depending on which versions of the movies you've seen, since the last edition of the movies added around 30 minutes to each of them.