I think that a process that modern day crypto-conservatives used to their advantage since the early 1990's, and went nuts over for the last 8 years got out of their control. Republicans own both the house and senate, and most of the state Governments, they also have a Republican president. Sounds to me like they won really big.
Conservatives value process and playing by the rules, the use of reason to prove our point.
Conservatives, perhaps. Crypto-conservatives, the present day version no, they do not.
I don't want to get in a tit-for -tat battle, but here is one of your leaders, Mitch McConnel, on the previous occupant's nomination for the Supreme court, and the REpublican Congress refuesd to even consider the previous occupat's nomination. Tell me the process, and playing by the rules, and the use of reason that just saying "NO" is. However, rest assured that Mitch is aghast that any opposition to your Republican leader Donald Trump, the duly elected president of teh United States of America, the candidate who set Republican Conservative Records in the number of votes cast for him in the primaries, in addition to teh record set, had almost twice the votes of the nearest competitior Ted Cruz.
sorry fellow, Donald Trump is exactly the representative of the Republican party. He is the man ovrwhemlingly wanted by Republicans.
And here is the issue I have with the present day Republicans. After overwhelmingly supporting this guy, you won't own what he is. You might not like it, but you are part of what got hiim there, congratulations, you must be proud of the ultimte culmination of your hard work
Not that you'll own it. It isn't in the crypto-conservative's psyche. You'll have some excuse.
And before you accuse me of being a liberal - I'm not. I'm a Goldwater conservative, I believe in paying attention to the budget, but once set, paying the bills (present day cons like to "starve the beast". I believe in compromise to do the law (don't even get me started), I believe that th eGovernment needs to stay out of our bedrooms and private life, and I believe in separation of religion and state - and for the same reason my boy Barry did, and I quote from a speech of his in 1981:
"There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of 'conservatism.' "
This is what your party has become. What Barry warned against has become reality to the point that you elected the exact opposite of wht you preach as your vlues because you hate anyone who doesn't toe the party line, and Trump was infinitely preferable to a godammed stinking Democrat. The next several years are going to be interesting. Will the Republicans reform the country into some sort of totalitarian government, accepting every fiat your president signs, or will we have civil war number two, or will you just inherit the wind. Gonna be exciting fer sure!
Well yes, if you want to believe that the white man is superior, that African Americans, Mexicans and Muslims are subhumans, that women should suck it up when men verbally harass them, or, you know, "grab them by the pussy", that does make you a bigot and a misogynist.
Wait......what? We're you making a statement for effect, or just showing how prejudiced you are?
All the rage in politics these days. . Go insane if things don't go your way. Here's the big thing. NO one gives a fuck about "GamerGate" except for the collection of assholes involved in it.
the reason the FBI didn't go further was because they are not in the business of sucking Social Justice Warrior's dicks.
Linux has its flaws also, but it depends on the outward facing software. Apache, PHP, SQL, you name it, they have remote exploits that pop up from time to time. For most users not running any servers, it's totally fine unless you have a Web browser exploit...
It isn't that exploits don't exist for other OS'. Its just that Windows is the king of vulnerable operating systems. And their BOHICA update process even emulates some of them.
If anyone from MS is reading these comments let me give the parent poster and my opinion on this. Since you feel you need to make Windows a cell phone and cell phones automatically receive updates, I say to hell with the update due to using the wrong implementation!
I own a Google phone. A nexus 6P which ALWAYS gets updates! Do I loose calls? No. Does my phone ever randomly restart? No. Does it get malware? No.
The problem is that since most of the world uses Windows phones, there are more viruses and malware written for Windows phones.
The same professor in a world where Microsoft doesn't force updates: "Microsoft's continued refusal to automatically update users computers has put the entire industry at risk from hackers and viruses! Users are clueless drones who don't know to keep their computers updated and Microsoft should do it for them!"
I thought that Mac users were the clueless noobs, and Windows users were smart consumers, making th ecorrect decision on what computer to buy after performing research.
Yet we on MacOS and Linux choose when to make the update. And despite Windows zealot protests, there are enough Unix and Unix-like machines out there to provide a fine attack surface.
Because there is another issue at play here.
Possibly the biggest reason people avoid Windows updates is not because they want to make their machine unsafe, or even the inconvenience. It's that the damn machine often does not work properly after the update. Software that worked perfectly one day, doesn't work at all the next. And this is for little updates, not major ones. In addition, settings are often changed - always go in to visit your telemetry settings in W10 after an update.
Somehow, my other machines are not gifted with that. Which is why my Linux and MacOS machines voluntarily get updated a week after the notices appear. When I could control my Windows updates, I'd wait a couple months at the least, so they could roll back or alter whatever it was that they bitched up. Now W10 updates are like Redmond Roulette.
How do you expect users to install application software?
Create a separate administrator account for when something needs to be installed or they need to tweak system settings. You log into it only when needed. All other times you run as a local user without admin privileges.
I suppose!
You lose right off the bat there. There is no way that grandma is ever going to maintain multiple accounts on her computer, one with user, one with admin. The first time Grandma needs to log out of her user account because she needs admin privileges, will be the last time the user account gets used.
how do you expect them to tell a legitimate site from a malicious one?
First, install uMatrix in Firefox which will, under certain conditions, disallow a web page to load if it determines there is something malicious or off about the page. It is not foolproof, but it's a good line of defense.
Second, by having uMatrix installed you can control to a very granular degree, what scripts and so forth are allowed to run on a page, thus reducing potential drive-bys.
Grandma is looking forward to the installment, and has some programming improvements she made to the program, and will soon release her own, called Gramma's lockbox.
Third, and this might take a bit of effort, don't go to places like Bob's House of Free Software.
Granted, the last one is nothing more than common sense, but if people really want to lessen their chances of infections or ransomware getting on their machines, they might put in some effort to acquire some.
So what you are saying is that Microsoft puts out a ridiculously vulnerable and insecure Ooperating system, and everyone has to do an incredible tapdance, because it is their fault if something goes wrong.
Sorry, you are suggesting advanced user solutions to people who are using their children's names or Password1 as a password.
What you are really saying is that Windows is completely inappropriate for the general user.
Everyone who was tired of getting slammed with the BLASTER worm, with Nimda, or with the Melissa virus, requested that Windows be more secure. Everyone who fell victim to a buffer overflow, or privilege escalation DEMANDED that it be mitigated. Companies who had windows systems connected to the internet ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED that the propagation of worms not be allowed to continue.
Cool story, Bro!
I'm sorry you don't enjoy working with a computer anymore. Did you enjoy it when those above mentioned viruses were running rampant? Which would you rather have, constant attacks from internet zombies, or a small time of inactivity while your OS is being patched?
I enjoy using a computer very much. But my OSX and Linux computers don't seem to have the same problems my Windows machines have. You've just had those problems for so long that you've become acclimated to them, expect them, and have suffered Stockholm syndrome.
No. You're just using the wrong Personal Computer operating system.
Neither linux or OS X / MacOS will force you to update.
Just a little checkbox or notification that an update is available, that I install at my convenience. My convenience is usually a week or two after the update is available, just to make sure. Then again, updates pooching my computers is a Windows phenomenon, so I could do it immediately
You can make a fresh start any time you like. linux is free.OS X comes with a dongle (you know, the one called "a computer.") Both make Windows looks like the garbage it is.
Or, you can continue being abused. The rest of us will just watch in amazement.
Its a combination of Stockholm syndrome and Ford Versus Chevy syndrome.
Risk is a metric that takes into account the consequence of a data breach. I'm not some CIA spy. I'll happily tell you any phone number in my phone book and show you any picture I've taken on my phone. My most recent message in WhatsApp is from Rebecca asking me to bring some onions and some tomato concentrate, and the one before that is that the running club was cancelled last Wednesday. My heart rate averaged 65bpm resting and I clocked an average of 9000 steps. I also took a photo of a windmill today and one of a funny street sign yesterday.
How much at risk am I?
Ahhh, good citizen, it looks like you half nussing to hide! Veddy good, veddy good indeed, Ve need mur citizens like you.
All joking aside, if a person who doesn't do anything but surf Facebook, and collect doggo pix play, Candy Crush, maybe catch the wife taking a shower now and again and get pix when he's feeling frisky - yeah, there isn't a big need to have multi TByte drives sitting around backing up their data, no need for imaging.
And that's great.
I deal in a lot of communications, hundreds of emails every day, a lot of spreadsheets, and CSV files, and multiple relational databases. And if I lose any of it, I am as they say, well and truly screwed. So I might be forgiven if I find multiple dated and saved backups to be an integral part of what I am doing, and having them under my personal control.
As for anything private, well it isn't like a data breach exposing a hellavalota people has never happened.
Perhaps, if they knew there was a difference in cables/chargers. The main problem, and the reason the market for cheep crap exist, is ignorance, and education seems to be a dirty word these days.
Hold on! There is one of those badboys on Ebay for 5 dollars!
Why do so many people risk their device on the absolute cheapest $2 charger from a no-name shop?
Because we have been trained that way for a long, long time. I watched a 5 cent difference in RAM price cause two nerds nearly come to blows once. We have people who go apeshit nuts about the price differences between computers - even if those differences are small, and not compared correctly.
So the makers of counterfeit stuff at rock bottom prices will find a willing, even demanding market.
In this day of clouds who actually loses data in a factory reset?
Seriously if you tick yes to all the default options when setting up the phone you'll end up with something that synchronises all your pictures and videos to dropbox, all your contacts to google, all your app settings and health stats to Samsung, and anyone else who wants to manage data for you.
No thanks. I have a good local backup that can restore the entire system, including the OS and programs, and complete control over what gets backed up or synced. Any time you allow someone else to "manage" your data, you put it at risk. Anyhow, if a person is okay with that, fine. But I go through a lot of temporary data that I just don't want backed up at all, so I need to exclude it from the hourly backups. So admittedly my needs might be a little different than the average schmoo, but even if I didn't have that need, I'd control my own backups, and not rely on somebody that I am just another customer of.
Over the past year I've (for the first time) used Mac OS X on my laptop, I find it much less useful,
Okay, understood what you say - but you should have to explain why. As many can attest, I'm an idiot, which is why I need to understand. I have been with Mac just about forever, and some additions I don't care for, but I don't have to use them. I can use the menus as always.
From my point of view or from Microsoft's?
e OS X, but even that's starting to wear on me. For example, I'm required to sign into iCloud with the latest OS X update. I have not figured out how to turn this off.
You're doing something wrong, as I'm all up to date, and iCloud doesn't bother me at all.
Regardless, you need to get a machine with Windows 10 on it, and all of your troubles will go away, because Windows doesn't have problems. Only Mac and "OS X". And if you do have the latest Mac update, you aren't running OS X.
Macs aren't perfect, and Windows has gotten much better, but man -- their UI just makes me want to claw my eyes out! I have a Windows 10 x64 box with a nice 28" Viewsonic connected to a nice Radeon card, and typing in a browser doesn't look much better than it did 15 years ago! I've never understood why in all the years of good video cards and GUI development that Microsoft couldn't get font rendering looking good. And you'll never get me off Time Machine backups! It made deploying this new iMac or my wife's new MacBook Pro that her boss bought her last Fall so easy. My wife is an astronomer and all of their data center is Linux, so Macs are a very smooth fit for the staff.
Remember we are in post truth days, alternative facts, and we elected it, so this is what America wants.
We have a nation where for some reason Popularity equals everything.So Kim Kardashian is the most beautiful woman in the world, VHS is the best video system, and the cheapest laptop that you can buy at Walmart is incredibly superior to a 30 K Mac Pro.
Toyota Corolla is the biggest selling car, so it is also the best car in the world.
Oh - and Honey Boo Boo's mother who recently re-hooked up with a registered sex offender who boinked one of her daughters, and has a new show, which is good television.
A certain relative of mine has a seriously autistic son, and my relative was aggressive in seeking help. She had a full-time aide assigned to her son for much of his school career. Then, as part of a discussion, we mentioned that she was a heavy user of government services. We did eventually manage to convince her, but it wasn't easy.
Although I fear that some people will suffer, I in small small part of myself believe that the Government will take the stick of Moloch to people who think that it is only the typical hate targets who are sucking at the government teat. I also want emergency rooms shut off from people who do not have insurance. If you cannot afford it, you do not get it.
It's time for Americans to be shown just how delusional they are. My own little anecdote in this is a fellow- a real rabid right winger, a birther and all the kooky stuff - in a breakfast group I used to go to one day said "We have to get NOAA out of the weather business. They can get their weather information like the rest of us do - from The Weather Channel!" I started laughing, thinking he was making a joke. Then I figuerd out that he was serious.
Slashdot Mirror
You think conservatives won ?
I think that a process that modern day crypto-conservatives used to their advantage since the early 1990's, and went nuts over for the last 8 years got out of their control. Republicans own both the house and senate, and most of the state Governments, they also have a Republican president. Sounds to me like they won really big.
Conservatives value process and playing by the rules, the use of reason to prove our point.
Conservatives, perhaps. Crypto-conservatives, the present day version no, they do not.
I don't want to get in a tit-for -tat battle, but here is one of your leaders, Mitch McConnel, on the previous occupant's nomination for the Supreme court, and the REpublican Congress refuesd to even consider the previous occupat's nomination. Tell me the process, and playing by the rules, and the use of reason that just saying "NO" is. However, rest assured that Mitch is aghast that any opposition to your Republican leader Donald Trump, the duly elected president of teh United States of America, the candidate who set Republican Conservative Records in the number of votes cast for him in the primaries, in addition to teh record set, had almost twice the votes of the nearest competitior Ted Cruz.
sorry fellow, Donald Trump is exactly the representative of the Republican party. He is the man ovrwhemlingly wanted by Republicans.
And here is the issue I have with the present day Republicans. After overwhelmingly supporting this guy, you won't own what he is. You might not like it, but you are part of what got hiim there, congratulations, you must be proud of the ultimte culmination of your hard work
Not that you'll own it. It isn't in the crypto-conservative's psyche. You'll have some excuse.
And before you accuse me of being a liberal - I'm not. I'm a Goldwater conservative, I believe in paying attention to the budget, but once set, paying the bills (present day cons like to "starve the beast". I believe in compromise to do the law (don't even get me started), I believe that th eGovernment needs to stay out of our bedrooms and private life, and I believe in separation of religion and state - and for the same reason my boy Barry did, and I quote from a speech of his in 1981:
"There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of 'conservatism.' "
This is what your party has become. What Barry warned against has become reality to the point that you elected the exact opposite of wht you preach as your vlues because you hate anyone who doesn't toe the party line, and Trump was infinitely preferable to a godammed stinking Democrat. The next several years are going to be interesting. Will the Republicans reform the country into some sort of totalitarian government, accepting every fiat your president signs, or will we have civil war number two, or will you just inherit the wind. Gonna be exciting fer sure!
The election *is* over and time to move on. Hillary won't be running again, so it's a bit pointless to be talking about her, agreed. However:
> I've never seen people who's canddates win,
People who dislike scumbags like Hillary didn't see their candidate win.
How does any of what you wrote address my statement that the angry Pro-Trump people are getting angrier every day?
Perhaps this will be the administration that restores America to th eposition it held right after World War two, and all will be well.
But political groups that use anger as their core principle don't often work out very well.
Hillary lost, get over it. You have to own your guy's fuck-ups, now.
This is the sorest bunch of winners ever. I've never seen people who's canddates win, and they're angrier than before the election.
Well yes, if you want to believe that the white man is superior, that African Americans, Mexicans and Muslims are subhumans, that women should suck it up when men verbally harass them, or, you know, "grab them by the pussy", that does make you a bigot and a misogynist.
Wait......what? We're you making a statement for effect, or just showing how prejudiced you are?
the reason the FBI didn't go further was because they are not in the business of sucking Social Justice Warrior's dicks.
Linux has its flaws also, but it depends on the outward facing software. Apache, PHP, SQL, you name it, they have remote exploits that pop up from time to time. For most users not running any servers, it's totally fine unless you have a Web browser exploit...
It isn't that exploits don't exist for other OS'. Its just that Windows is the king of vulnerable operating systems. And their BOHICA update process even emulates some of them.
BS!
If anyone from MS is reading these comments let me give the parent poster and my opinion on this. Since you feel you need to make Windows a cell phone and cell phones automatically receive updates, I say to hell with the update due to using the wrong implementation!
I own a Google phone. A nexus 6P which ALWAYS gets updates! Do I loose calls? No. Does my phone ever randomly restart? No. Does it get malware? No.
The problem is that since most of the world uses Windows phones, there are more viruses and malware written for Windows phones.
oh........wait.......
The same professor in a world where Microsoft doesn't force updates: "Microsoft's continued refusal to automatically update users computers has put the entire industry at risk from hackers and viruses! Users are clueless drones who don't know to keep their computers updated and Microsoft should do it for them!"
I thought that Mac users were the clueless noobs, and Windows users were smart consumers, making th ecorrect decision on what computer to buy after performing research.
Yet we on MacOS and Linux choose when to make the update. And despite Windows zealot protests, there are enough Unix and Unix-like machines out there to provide a fine attack surface.
Because there is another issue at play here.
Possibly the biggest reason people avoid Windows updates is not because they want to make their machine unsafe, or even the inconvenience. It's that the damn machine often does not work properly after the update. Software that worked perfectly one day, doesn't work at all the next. And this is for little updates, not major ones. In addition, settings are often changed - always go in to visit your telemetry settings in W10 after an update.
Somehow, my other machines are not gifted with that. Which is why my Linux and MacOS machines voluntarily get updated a week after the notices appear. When I could control my Windows updates, I'd wait a couple months at the least, so they could roll back or alter whatever it was that they bitched up. Now W10 updates are like Redmond Roulette.
How do you expect users to install application software?
Create a separate administrator account for when something needs to be installed or they need to tweak system settings. You log into it only when needed. All other times you run as a local user without admin privileges.
I suppose!
You lose right off the bat there. There is no way that grandma is ever going to maintain multiple accounts on her computer, one with user, one with admin. The first time Grandma needs to log out of her user account because she needs admin privileges, will be the last time the user account gets used.
how do you expect them to tell a legitimate site from a malicious one?
First, install uMatrix in Firefox which will, under certain conditions, disallow a web page to load if it determines there is something malicious or off about the page. It is not foolproof, but it's a good line of defense.
Second, by having uMatrix installed you can control to a very granular degree, what scripts and so forth are allowed to run on a page, thus reducing potential drive-bys.
Grandma is looking forward to the installment, and has some programming improvements she made to the program, and will soon release her own, called Gramma's lockbox.
Third, and this might take a bit of effort, don't go to places like Bob's House of Free Software.
Granted, the last one is nothing more than common sense, but if people really want to lessen their chances of infections or ransomware getting on their machines, they might put in some effort to acquire some.
So what you are saying is that Microsoft puts out a ridiculously vulnerable and insecure Ooperating system, and everyone has to do an incredible tapdance, because it is their fault if something goes wrong.
Sorry, you are suggesting advanced user solutions to people who are using their children's names or Password1 as a password.
What you are really saying is that Windows is completely inappropriate for the general user.
Everyone who was tired of getting slammed with the BLASTER worm, with Nimda, or with the Melissa virus, requested that Windows be more secure. Everyone who fell victim to a buffer overflow, or privilege escalation DEMANDED that it be mitigated. Companies who had windows systems connected to the internet ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED that the propagation of worms not be allowed to continue.
Cool story, Bro!
I'm sorry you don't enjoy working with a computer anymore. Did you enjoy it when those above mentioned viruses were running rampant? Which would you rather have, constant attacks from internet zombies, or a small time of inactivity while your OS is being patched?
I enjoy using a computer very much. But my OSX and Linux computers don't seem to have the same problems my Windows machines have. You've just had those problems for so long that you've become acclimated to them, expect them, and have suffered Stockholm syndrome.
(sigh) Not and option for all of us you smug dink. Lots of us are forced to use software not available on Linux or even OS X.
So you Windows folk then brag about how great Windows is. Stockholm syndrome
not true, my iphone updates itself without my consent now, and changes the UI whenever Apple wants.
Alternate truths, eh? I've used iphones for 5+ years now, and have to approve every update.
No. You're just using the wrong Personal Computer operating system.
Neither linux or OS X / MacOS will force you to update.
Just a little checkbox or notification that an update is available, that I install at my convenience. My convenience is usually a week or two after the update is available, just to make sure. Then again, updates pooching my computers is a Windows phenomenon, so I could do it immediately
You can make a fresh start any time you like. linux is free.OS X comes with a dongle (you know, the one called "a computer.") Both make Windows looks like the garbage it is.
Or, you can continue being abused. The rest of us will just watch in amazement.
Its a combination of Stockholm syndrome and Ford Versus Chevy syndrome.
How is anything you said relevant to his well thought out post?
The you can't figure it out version.
Microsoft has the largest deployed user base, so many think it is the best PC out there. It ain't.
Risk is a metric that takes into account the consequence of a data breach. I'm not some CIA spy. I'll happily tell you any phone number in my phone book and show you any picture I've taken on my phone. My most recent message in WhatsApp is from Rebecca asking me to bring some onions and some tomato concentrate, and the one before that is that the running club was cancelled last Wednesday. My heart rate averaged 65bpm resting and I clocked an average of 9000 steps. I also took a photo of a windmill today and one of a funny street sign yesterday.
How much at risk am I?
Ahhh, good citizen, it looks like you half nussing to hide! Veddy good, veddy good indeed, Ve need mur citizens like you.
All joking aside, if a person who doesn't do anything but surf Facebook, and collect doggo pix play, Candy Crush, maybe catch the wife taking a shower now and again and get pix when he's feeling frisky - yeah, there isn't a big need to have multi TByte drives sitting around backing up their data, no need for imaging.
And that's great.
I deal in a lot of communications, hundreds of emails every day, a lot of spreadsheets, and CSV files, and multiple relational databases. And if I lose any of it, I am as they say, well and truly screwed. So I might be forgiven if I find multiple dated and saved backups to be an integral part of what I am doing, and having them under my personal control.
As for anything private, well it isn't like a data breach exposing a hellavalota people has never happened.
Perhaps, if they knew there was a difference in cables/chargers. The main problem, and the reason the market for cheep crap exist, is ignorance, and education seems to be a dirty word these days.
Hold on! There is one of those badboys on Ebay for 5 dollars!
And are those people going to also go buy the $30 usb C power meter?
Aaaaaaand? You just won the discussion! The answer is no, they won't.
Why do so many people risk their device on the absolute cheapest $2 charger from a no-name shop?
Because we have been trained that way for a long, long time. I watched a 5 cent difference in RAM price cause two nerds nearly come to blows once. We have people who go apeshit nuts about the price differences between computers - even if those differences are small, and not compared correctly.
So the makers of counterfeit stuff at rock bottom prices will find a willing, even demanding market.
So no one then? At least not smartphone users.
Can you imagine the porn on those cloud backup servers? At least it gives the IT guy at HQ some stuff to look through during breaks.
In this day of clouds who actually loses data in a factory reset?
Seriously if you tick yes to all the default options when setting up the phone you'll end up with something that synchronises all your pictures and videos to dropbox, all your contacts to google, all your app settings and health stats to Samsung, and anyone else who wants to manage data for you.
No thanks. I have a good local backup that can restore the entire system, including the OS and programs, and complete control over what gets backed up or synced. Any time you allow someone else to "manage" your data, you put it at risk. Anyhow, if a person is okay with that, fine. But I go through a lot of temporary data that I just don't want backed up at all, so I need to exclude it from the hourly backups. So admittedly my needs might be a little different than the average schmoo, but even if I didn't have that need, I'd control my own backups, and not rely on somebody that I am just another customer of.
Agree.
Over the past year I've (for the first time) used Mac OS X on my laptop, I find it much less useful,
Okay, understood what you say - but you should have to explain why. As many can attest, I'm an idiot, which is why I need to understand. I have been with Mac just about forever, and some additions I don't care for, but I don't have to use them. I can use the menus as always.
What's wrong with lying to a corporation like Dell? Other than the nuisance to lose 10 seconds entering the information, I don't see any problem.
It isn't lying - its alternative informtion, equally true and valid.
From my point of view or from Microsoft's? e OS X, but even that's starting to wear on me. For example, I'm required to sign into iCloud with the latest OS X update. I have not figured out how to turn this off.
You're doing something wrong, as I'm all up to date, and iCloud doesn't bother me at all.
Regardless, you need to get a machine with Windows 10 on it, and all of your troubles will go away, because Windows doesn't have problems. Only Mac and "OS X". And if you do have the latest Mac update, you aren't running OS X.
Macs aren't perfect, and Windows has gotten much better, but man -- their UI just makes me want to claw my eyes out! I have a Windows 10 x64 box with a nice 28" Viewsonic connected to a nice Radeon card, and typing in a browser doesn't look much better than it did 15 years ago! I've never understood why in all the years of good video cards and GUI development that Microsoft couldn't get font rendering looking good. And you'll never get me off Time Machine backups! It made deploying this new iMac or my wife's new MacBook Pro that her boss bought her last Fall so easy. My wife is an astronomer and all of their data center is Linux, so Macs are a very smooth fit for the staff.
Remember we are in post truth days, alternative facts, and we elected it, so this is what America wants.
We have a nation where for some reason Popularity equals everything.So Kim Kardashian is the most beautiful woman in the world, VHS is the best video system, and the cheapest laptop that you can buy at Walmart is incredibly superior to a 30 K Mac Pro.
Toyota Corolla is the biggest selling car, so it is also the best car in the world.
Oh - and Honey Boo Boo's mother who recently re-hooked up with a registered sex offender who boinked one of her daughters, and has a new show, which is good television.
Somehow.
A certain relative of mine has a seriously autistic son, and my relative was aggressive in seeking help. She had a full-time aide assigned to her son for much of his school career. Then, as part of a discussion, we mentioned that she was a heavy user of government services. We did eventually manage to convince her, but it wasn't easy.
Although I fear that some people will suffer, I in small small part of myself believe that the Government will take the stick of Moloch to people who think that it is only the typical hate targets who are sucking at the government teat. I also want emergency rooms shut off from people who do not have insurance. If you cannot afford it, you do not get it.
It's time for Americans to be shown just how delusional they are. My own little anecdote in this is a fellow- a real rabid right winger, a birther and all the kooky stuff - in a breakfast group I used to go to one day said "We have to get NOAA out of the weather business. They can get their weather information like the rest of us do - from The Weather Channel!" I started laughing, thinking he was making a joke. Then I figuerd out that he was serious.