Top 14 computing time wasting activities

[beercz]

I have been in the IT industry for a number of years now, and have noticed the following time wasting activities (in no particular order).

MSN Instant Messenger;
Solitaire;
Printing (jams, runs out of ink/toner/paper, people printing again when their documents fail to print, increasing the print queue)
Booting/Shutting Down/Restarting;
Surfing/on-line shopping;
Crashes/Bugs etc.
Incomprehensible Error Messages;
Email;
BSOD;
Spyware/virus recovery;
Recovering deleted files from backups etc.;
Over formatting of documents (esp. spreadsheets);
Waiting for tech support to fix problems;
Preparation of over elaborate Powerpoint presentations.

I once did a (humorous) calculation for my organization's company magazine about the amount of time we collectively waste using our computers over 1 year. I summarized that if we got rid of all our computers the amount of money we would save on wasting time would enable us to employ another member of staff!

So, what are your computing time wasting activities then?

[bastiegast]

You did of course notice how most things you name are Windows related? (Rebooting/BSOD/Spyware viruses) In that way linux is a time saver.

Time wasting you ask? About everything I do behind my computer the most useless being:
Digging through youtube videos
Having a list of bookmarks(gaming/leisure subforum, cafe subforum, linux catogory at digg and google news) that I refresh every 10 minutes to see if there are updates(news/ threads /posts)
Gaming!
Getting windows games to works in wine just for the satisfaction it works(not to actually play them)
Compiling wine from git(useless since I'm no wine developer and there's really no need to have the latest build of wine every day)
Most other things I do behind my computer are useless too. Occasionally I do some school work which you could consider usefull.

[jkblacker]

Facebook.
Wait three seconds.
Refresh facebook.
See new item in news feed. See what someone you met once and added has been doing.
See interesting friend in common.
Go to that person's page and snoop around.
Go back to facebook. Nothing's changed.
Wait three seconds.
Refresh facebook.
Check gmail despite gmail plugin telling you there are no new emails.
Go back to facebook.
Change status on facebook.
And so on.

[Lord Illidan]

Then Ubuntu must be wasting my time.

1. Browsing Synaptic
2. Browsing Digg for Linux related issues
3. Playing Battle for Wesnoth
4. Browsing these forums.
5. Meddling with linux :)

I'm outta here!!:lolflag:

[prince_alfie]

I thought that myspace was the biggest waste of time. I'm surprised no one brought this one up!

I see everyone at the Apple Store log onto myspace. Geewhiz. :(

[karellen]

surfing the net
im chatting
forums
youtube
movies
news sites

[TravisNewman]

1. Youtube
2. Youtube
3. Youtube
4. Youtube
...

[koshatnik]

I thought that myspace was the biggest waste of time. I'm surprised no one brought this one up!

I

If I ever need to feel better about myself and my life I get a cup of tea and spend 15 minutes surfing myspace and laughing at the human carnage on display. It really is a life affirming experience.:)

[hoagie]

Customizing my desktop.
Designing my own themes.
Browsing gnome-look.org.
Coding in python. (not a waste of time but anyway)

Something is wrong with me.

[OffHand]

Nr. 1: watching porn

[LaRoza]

I am in college and we have high speed internet. People use the computers for many things that are not school related on their spare time, that is not a problem. The problem is the people on MySpace. The network slows down by a significant factor whenever somebody starts loading a page with enough pictures to fill a hard drive. When websites are measured in MB, you know there is a problem, I know of one that is over a GB! Do people realize that images and slideshows and videos should be used sparingly?!

[goumples]

Customizing my desktop.
Designing my own themes.
Browsing gnome-look.org.
Coding in python. (not a waste of time but anyway)

Something is wrong with me.

I have that same "affliction" if you will.. I obsessively tinker with how things work and how things look...

[FurryNemesis]

1. Browsing these forums
2. Looking at archery kit I can't afford and don't need (I'm on my university team)
3. Suddenly deciding that actually I hate my current theme and setup and spend 15 mins reskinning everything, then deciding that today is not the day for a dark theme and reverting everything to yellow.
4. Decide that everything looks better in yet another colour. Reskin. Tinker with Emerald themes. Browse gnome-look.org
5. Play Tremulous
6. IM people.
7. Make impluse buys off Dabs.com at 3am when I realise that I'm running out of harddrive space yet again.
8. Go to a custombuild PC website like alienware.com and try to customise the most expensive desktop possible, just for laughs.

[christhemonkey]

1) Facebook
2) Myspace
3) Ubuntuforums
4) Constantly checking gmail
5) Rechecking ubuntuforums
6) Recheck facebook
7) Youtube....
8) Pr0n
9) Rerecheck ubuntuforums...
10) Python coding
11) Buying stuff off Ebay!!
12) Downloading music that you cant afford to buy...
13) Listening to the music you just downloaded....
14) Sysadmining the server

[EdThaSlayer]

Hehe, mine are
1.Surfing the web(Digg,Wikipedia, and Slashdot)
2.Playing games!
3. Watching anime, tv shows and more. :)

[ticopelp]

Reading, and responding to, threads like this. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.

[amazon3d]

Gaming
Clan/Guild forums
Deal shopping
[H]OCP
Checking Email
Playing with computers
Folding

[Jabz.biz]

Facebook.
Wait three seconds.
Refresh facebook.
See new item in news feed. See what someone you met once and added has been doing.
See interesting friend in common.
Go to that person's page and snoop around.
Go back to facebook. Nothing's changed.
Wait three seconds.
Refresh facebook.
Check gmail despite gmail plugin telling you there are no new emails.
Go back to facebook.
Change status on facebook.
And so on.

Last year, when I was sick for a couple of weeks, that was what I did all day long. I've deleted all my social accounts when I felt better.