Someplace to stash my stuff
who else thinks it cheats?
Published on January 6, 2006 By starkers In WinCustomize Talk
Yes, people, you guessed it, another starkers rant, just for the heck of it

Until my new ADSL connection is up and running, I'm stuck temporarily with dialup....meaning that downloads can take forever, sometimes even longer, so I need something to occupy my time whilst waiting. Spider Solitaire is my poison, or at least it was....until last night I had a few hands that I couldn't get out, but I accepted that and tried again...as you do. However, this one game, I was having a dream of a run....on the first deal I got all the face down cards revealed, all my rows were ordered according to suit and number, etc Everything was set to win!
Great, you beauty, I thought, rubbing my hands with glee cos I was gonna finally get one out.
Then I dealt the remaining cards....and lo and behold, zilch, nothing, not a single move...bugger all. Now normally, at a single glance, you can see an available move, but I peered,investigated and scrutinised it for ages, went cross eyed looking for just one move, and came up with zero, fresh air, stalemate. (in the meantime, 17 more completed D/L's) I even clicked 'show an available move (10 times) to extricate myself from this predicament, but still zilch.
After progressing that far in the game, this should NEVER have happened...never did before. Better not again..or I'm going back to noughts 'n crosses.

Me thinks the recent MS update has alot to do with it, the cheating, that is Now I'm neither anti or pro MS, but me thinks some wiseacre over there decided to fiddle with the codes just to frustrate poor buggers like me...and hid it in the security updates so we're none the wiser. It just ain't cricket...sneakin' in an impasse` like that, no warning, nothing, and wishing he were a fly on the wall to witness all the frustration he's created.

I'm gonna write to the Spider Solitaire guy at MS to complain, and I'm gonna do it by hand and send it via snail mail, so he can see its from a real person, as well as the tears that've dripped onto the page. If I address it to 'SS Cheat USA' I figure he should get it no worries Hopefully he'll feel remorseful for ruining my night

Anyhow, now that I've wasted some of my time, and yours, my meds have kicked in and I'm off to bed

Comments
on Jan 06, 2006
Yeah, I'm addicted to that game. What level are you playing? I'm only at the medium level..too frustrating to try the hardest level. Did you know that when you can't find any plays (to avoid getting cross-eyed) you can press the M key, and if there are any plays left, it will let you know.

Speaking of cheating...Hearts is one of the worst ones for that! If you play the regular (off-line) version, it's basically your one hand against the computer's three hands. lol!
on Jan 07, 2006
What level are you playing? I'm only at the medium level..too frustrating to try the hardest level


I sometimes play the difficult level for a challenge but was actually playing the medium level at the time......still, no excuse fer MS to chuck in a wobbly bit to impede what was a sure fire winning streak.

I mean, I could understand if it were casino based and 'underworld controlled' to protect profits, buy crikey....this is MS and Spider Solitaire fer cryin' out loud, no money involved in the winning or losing.

Actually, I've got my suspicions, what with Vista due for release later this year 'n all. Summat fishy goin' on....like the Vista games are gonna be alot harder, and fer any chance at beatin' one, ya'll gotta buy a crack disc/download from MS to have a hope. This little tester being just a preview of things to come

Alternatively, in dispelling the conspiracy theory, the answer might be something as simple as the Spider Solitaire guy havin' a feww too many late nights and clicked bleary eyed on the wrong buttons

Guess we'll find out soon enough.....if I suddenly disappear, obviously I was right the first time..if not, I'll be able to post the letter of apology
on Jan 07, 2006
mmm...sounds like we could have a poll here, not to totally snag your post Sir starkers ...I'm on dial-up and spider solitaire is what I play while waiting for a download or an upload to complete!!!
on Jan 07, 2006
I'm sure that all of the games bundeled with Windows got a life of it's own. Espesially Hearts!! Blasted cheats! And I swear those mines keep moving about under the surface...



@_@

who? what? paranoid? shhhh!!! they could be listening! oh bugger! did I say that out loud?
on Jan 07, 2006
Hehe, I'am not on dial-up but I play Double Deck 95 and Montana solitaire.
on Jan 07, 2006
Skifree for life!
on Jan 07, 2006
[thomassen]I'm sure that all of the games bundeled with Windows got a life of it's own. Espesially Hearts!! Blasted cheats! And I swear those mines keep moving about under the surface..


Yeah, I think you're right...those MS bundled games musta gotta mind of their own,especially Hearts. That's why Tweak UI comes with a cheat to combat the cheats
And you're spot on about those mines moving about under the surface. I was playing FreeCell and one of them thar mines blew up it all up before the finale....you know, before all the pretty card acrobatics and the fireworks. Gave me quite a scare, I'll tell ya. with my brand spanking new 19" LCD monitor tremuously shaking on its pedastel Bolting it down to my desk seems like it might be a good 'preventative; idea for the future. LMFAO

sounds like we could have a poll here, not to totally snag your post Sir starkers ...I'm on dial-up and spider solitaire is what I play while waiting for a download or an upload to complete!!!


Not to worry A teddybear (play on words) Spider solitaire is a good way of passing a little time while waiting on U/L's, D/L's. It ain't too much of a strain on the brain and it beats twiddling yer thumbs, hey! I normally enjoy playing it as a distraction, and with this particular 19 mb D/L it was essential...uuuuup until the part where the last deal LOADED ALL HIGH CARDS ON ALL LOWER ONES....meaning it left me with no possible moves. Now as that had never happened to me before on a clearly winnable game, I just had to have a rant....just couldn't resist, and it helped keep my mind off much more serious issues....like whether to ask my wife for coffee and choc chip cookies, or tea and a macaroon.

[WOM]Hehe, I'am not on dial-up but I play Double Deck 95 and Montana solitaire.


I won't be on dial up for long, another 7 days and I'll have my bigpond.net ADSL...but hehe, MS is watching, and when they upgrade Double deck to 2005, then 2006 with Vista, you're gonna get just as frustrated as I

[EventHorizon]Skifree for life!


Okay, but take the advice George of the Jungle and Sonny didn't hear....'watch out for that tree' LMFAO

who? what? paranoid? shhhh!!! they could be listening! oh bugger! did I say that out loud?


You don't have to say it out loud! And you have every reason to be paranoid with the tech stuff MS has at its disposal....with the little device embedded in all Windows versions, they're all knowing. Bugger saying it out loud.. you only gotta think it That's how come they know exactly what customers want, and why they hold off making it until the threat of switching to Mac or Linux enters enough minds.
on Jan 07, 2006
Skifree for life!


on Jan 07, 2006
I love the free solitaire collection on Linux called Pysol. It is on one of the versions of Knoppix in my drawer.

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central
on Jan 07, 2006
And another thing that PEE's me off about MS, and that's their spellcheck thingemygig dooverlackey thing in MS Word.
Now when I went to school (in England) My spellchecker was a meanspirited Engish teacher who very much resembled Granny Clampett from the Beverley Hillbillies....and with equally as bad a temper. Her way of letting you know that you'd spelt something wrong was to mark your assignments with nasty thick red lines under each offending word.....just like MS Word does Now being that my Engish was learnt/taught/drummed into me through the Oxford Dictionary, and that sadistic English teacher, the last thing I neeed is for MS spellcheck to underline in red a word I was bullied into spelling that way...and forced to believe was correct.

The red underlining wasn't her only method of brow-beating and embarassing you into doing it correctly in future...she would also hold in up in front of the class for all to see, and give a 5 minute lecture as to why you were an imbecile. Worse still, she would quietly slink through the classroom, looking over students shoulders to inspect the mistakes being made..in real time. The result then was much different, for in one hand she would carry a dictionary (Oxford of course) and an 18 inch ruler in the other. A slight mistake brought the ruler down upon one's knuckles: a slightly more serious one a biff around the ear with the Oxford prior to it being opened to the appropriate page with the correct spelling....which you then had to stand and recite aloud several times embarassingly in front of everyone. For a more serious, almost unforgivable spelling mistake, the ruler, Oxford and standing recital of the correct spelling were employed, not at your desk at the back of the classroom, but right up the front. If she got out of bed the wrong side, which was more often than not, you'd not only have to stand at the front of the classroom, but on her desk, to considerably heighten your embarassment.

So after a disturbing and obviously traumatic classroiom experience, of which there were many, the last thing I want is for MS bloody spellcheck telling me I got it wrong when I put an S in realize instead of a flamin' Z....or when I put a U in vapor cos it bloody well belongs there
And when I see people here spell definitely as definately...I immediately think of cannibalism...define-ate-ly

Okay, okay, I know that it doesn't print out that way, but it would make letter composition much more comfortable for me if I didn't have those constant red lines there to remind me of those sore knuckles, thick ears and recital jaw aches I repeatedly received at school for mispelling stuff. I have no problem with Americans 'meddling' with the language but I reckon an Oxford/Aussie version of spellcheck should be made available to us poor buggers who can't unlearn wot wos beat/drummed into us

Tried writing to Bill about it...guess the non-reply was cos I ignored spellcheck and it come out in non-American
on Jan 08, 2006
on Jan 08, 2006
Gonna need a bit more firepower methinks...
on Jan 09, 2006
Gonna need a bit more firepower methinks.


Alot more..in fact, a hell of alot more, given the size of that thar critter.

Here in OZ, anything that looks like that is generally highly venomous and best avoided. I was once bitten by a variety called the Whitetailed Spider....laid me up for a bit over a year.

Anyhow, back on topic....games that cheat, the people who design them specifically to help expand pharmacuetical companies revenues via increased dependancies on valium and/or prozac Makes ya wonder, don't it! Whether some MS employees own pharmacuetical stocks?
My most recent gripe/rant/complaint is about Hyperbowl....and I dang well paid fer that one with XP Plus First off, can't keep the ball in the playing lane...keeps wantin' ta wander into others....and secondly, during one game, my last, I might add, the ball disappeared completely off screen. No amount of searching could locate it. Searched high and low in my games folder...no ball! Looked in 'My Documents', each and every folder...no ball! Went to all 8 drive partitions on my PC, and every folder within each...still no ball!

Eventually I gave up, the search was futile and I headed for the medicine chest for a valium and a prozac.....HUH, only to return and find my wife happily rolling said lost ball down the selected alley without a care......STRIKE!! Apparently, all I had to do to retrieve my lost ball was press restart, according to my wife...or close the game and start afresh. Now what's with that? Confusing an old dog with new tricks.....never came across that in a 'real' bowling alley.

When many of us of the baby boomer generation are still coming to terms with the technology...just turning it on and keeping it running, often a challenge.... I just don't see a need to over complicate things....especially when that stuff simply don't happen in the real world. Playing darts, for instance...you just can't pause or push restart half way through a throw cos ya wanna go to the bog, or get another drink from the bar