Using cash for transactions will soon become illegal.
As I frequently say, obsolete technology does not need to be banned. When the powers that be are trying to stomp out the old ways by force, you know whatever excuses they're using are bullshit.
Both of these points directly highlight the real issue: it's about control.
Technically, nobody forces you to use a plugin, and everything can be disabled by default unless you turn it on. It's a user choice. By banning plugins and using only "standard" APIs implemented by the browser developers, they ensure everything is under their control. Same reason for forcing signed extensions, which was always a bad idea. They'll allow it only if they like it. Users can't be allowed to make choices we think are dangerous... for their own good. Also, when a bad extension is discovered in the wild and causes a ton of damange, it may only take a deluge of complaints racked up over 6 months to get the extension pulled from the store. Maybe. If they feel like it.
Yeah, there's always some nutcase who has to argue that "most" people are too ignorant to make good choices, and thus forcing the curated model is a good thing. Might as well cater to the lowest common denominator and make things miserable for everyone (and keep adding new crap that props up that ad business model -- security be damned). It's all marketing and politics.
So after all the major browsers went berserk banning all plugins in sight, now they want to bring back the same functionality all over again.
But, hey, now it doesn't come from those nasty, untrustworthy 3rd-party developers. The browser boys will do it right! Trust us!
I've been saying it for a long time. The real reason why plugins were killed is because it was technology that the browser developers couldn't control. It was all politics and security had nothing to do with it.
So they just want to show more ads up-front before we get any content. That sounds like it will end well.
I've already unsubbed from several channels that got into the "two minutes of endorsements, begging for likes and subs, and Patreon, but hey, you can just skip it if you don't like it, so it's okay".
Speaking of common sense, most manufacturing processes that require heat utilize an oven, which provides uniform heat under highly controlled conditions, and if done on an assembly line, generally is the cheapest and most efficient option to boot. You know, like baking paint so it dries out in an hour instead of a month. Putting something in the sun sounds like something thought up by a 2nd-grader who forgot that sometimes it rains outside.
It's just another excuse to file and patent and attach the automotive equivalent of, "on a mobile device".
Yeah, I got a TON of messages yesterday from people (mostly artists) who were having their NSFW blogs torn down, even if the blogs were appropriately rated as such. Lots of people had their blogs removed and it has nothing to do with the actual content. Apparently, Tumblr's way of dealing with this problem was to use an automated script to ban a wide variety of blogs with the NSFW tag, and wait for the owners to file appeals.
Also, the real problem was apparently a rash of bots spamming NSFW ads, not specifically child porn. I guess as long as they're Thinking of the Children, it makes the widespread and unfair auto-ban of all NSFW content a bit more PR friendly. Most of the artists I follow that had content removed just draw cartoons, and there's no photos, let alone under-aged art.
If you've spent the last 15 years trying to switch to Linux and haven't succeeded, that is not the Linux people's fault but yours.
Typical popular denial that results in +5 Insightful, but is the reason why Linux keeps falling flat on its face and fails to gain market share.
Consider netbooks. Nobody expected those machines to run Windows Office, because they were designed to be cheap, have long battery life, and could access the web and e-mail... and that's about it. Linux was perfect for that market, and yet it still failed hard. Is that because people were addicted to the Windows way of things, or did it happen because the Linux machines drained batteries, couldn't connect to Wifi, and had hardcore diagnostic tools in the same app menu as basic text editor?
Why would I want to copy application files from A to B anyway?
That's what package mangers are for, but it's completely ridiculous to expect an ecosystem to work like it does on Linux. People submit applications to the distro, and the distro people are expected to build and maintain tens of thousands of packages. No wonder just the installation of software is a clusterfuck, let alone building it from source (which a user should NEVER have to do, even though I've been forced to do so plenty of times). Try installing something that isn't built into the distro repository and nothing works. I hear the concept of "3rd party" is popular on desktop machines, but you really can't expect anything to work if it comes outside from the distro, and even then things break for the most idiotic of reasons.
Please consider using FOSS alternatives to the software you think you can't live without, and you might be surprised by how good they actually are.
You mean the same ones I use on Windows but don't give me the headaches they do on Linux? Yeah, I've been doing that for a long time. FOSS is great, no arguments there, but as a platform, Linux and the sort-of-UNIX way of doing things is still a problem.
No obscure registry wizardry upon running some installer.
That's the application level, not the underlying OS. I haven't had to deal with registry issues since forever. By putting all my work on a dedicated partition, I don't even have to deal with Home / Documents and Settings at all (other than the desktop, which is just a temp work folder). MS doesn't force me to use their stupid predefined folders, and nobody forces me to by crap from Adobe.
Here's the kind of thing that drives me nuts. I install some package, and try to run it, and it complains it can't find a resource. For some idiotic reason, the dependency is not installed automatically. I install the required dependency, and it still doesn't work. I spend THREE DAYS trying to find out why it doesn't work, only to find that there's a "legacy" version of the package that needs to be installed instead, and it's mutually exclusive with the "new" package. Uninstall the old package, install "legacy" and it works. At least, until I do a system update (complete with reboot!) and now the application is broken. Re-install all packages, and it's still broken. Get fed up, nuke it and restore OS image, do system update, THEN install packages. Now it works. Until an OS update comes along and it's all broken again.
Don't even get me started about all the times I uninstalled a package and the system won't boot. My latest experience was with Mint 17 and the stupid "Talking Cow" novelty app that, if uninstalled, breaks the system core. I mean, WTF? Isn't Mint supposed to be as simple and idiot-proof as it gets?
I don't have time to waste explaining all the thousands of problems I've had. Feel free to just think "user error, as usual" and keep using the system you like. Nonetheless, there's a reason why Linux is struggling to hold on to 1% on the desktop, and denying that the Linux ecosystem has huge core problems won't fix that.
Note: I'm still on Windows7. I have little experience with Win10 (which is limited to a throwaway evaluation machine), and have no doubt that it's a mess.
That sounds like a rational decision, not "locked in".
Speaking about being flagged as a troll, I'll tell you the absolute truth: Windows survives because it is still the best overall OS. It has big support, (usually) excellent backwards compatibility, tons of games, and is reasonably easy to use. MacOS is expensive and sold by a control freak of a company that's just as bad as Microsoft. Linux still sucks, even after 25+ years, and you can't even tell what Linux is since every distro is different and just copying application files from point A to point B is still a complicated mess. Android is spyware so bad, it makes MS look like saints by comparison, since Google doesn't even try to convince you they're not doing it. Everything else sucks as bad as Linux, but has even less support. On top of this, we have Siri, Home, and Alexa monitoring us day in and day out, and we're even paying through the nose for the privilege.
I remember 20 years ago all the Linux people said Windows would be dead in 5 years. Having spent the last 15 years trying to switch to Linux, I'm not the least bit surprised that they're still wrong and don't know why.
Since when don't you have to use the command-line to do anything in Linux? The promise that GUI package managers can do everything is one of the most persistent lies in the open-source community.
This illustrates a lack of fundamental understand of how computers work.
Sadly, most modern languages are designed specifically to abstract things to the point where you can't understand how computers work. Preps you for a career in phone and tablet walled gardens, I guess.
As with any other technology, it's owned by the people who make the largest contributions and have the largest amount of political influence over the standards bodies that approve the standard.
These days, "open public standard" is as meaningful as "open source". The politics are always a problem, and we all know how well Google is faring in that department.
Microsoft customers don't like the abuse. They like the infrastructure.
Look back to the 80's and see how many computer companies there were. Most of them beat the snot out of the laughably bad IBM PC and its horrible Intel processor and garbage Microsoft OS. They all died because they were incompatible, refused to work together, and didn't cultivate their communities effectively. Even Apple was always teetering on the edge of bankruptcy until they decided to quit making computers and start making gadgets with their own, unique ecosystem.
This is why Linux has been around for 25 years and still hasn't gained traction, despite rabid proclamations that Windows would be dead any day now. Alternatives won't become popular when Microsoft crosses the line. They will become popular when they get better. I gave Mint another try recently, and I was aghast at how badly it works. Trying to uninstall the "Talking Cow" application breaks the system core and renders the machine unbootable? Really?
I recommended a Mac for them instead of a Windows machine and the look on their face was practically terrified.
Of course, because they know very well that different does not mean better. You're just trading problems for different ones.
I worked with Macs for over 10 years and owned two of them. I will never own an Apple product again. You seem to be under the impression that Apple is not a greater control freak than Microsoft, and Apple machines don't have their own massive list issues. At least with a PC, I have the choice of what hardware and drivers I can use, and what budget I want, even if the OS is the same.
Almost everything in American culture comes from advertising. From birthday cards to wedding rings to the "fact" that boys wear blue and girls love pink, stems not from long-standing traditions, but from successful 20th-century advertising campaigns.
Just yesterday I was just reading up on Multi-Chip Modules, Hybrid Integrated Circuits and other similar technologies, and wondering to myself why they didn't do that more often in the 8 and 16-bit era to cut down on package pin count. The answer is fairly obvious: yields, and thus costs, are worse. Often much worse.
They're allowed to withhold that info from shareholders? I know publicly traded companies have to release their tax information publicly, but... not sales figures?
When I bought my first Mini, I couldn't get any of my DVI-D monitors to work with it and had to settle for a DVI to VGA adapter driving an ancient CRT. I found out later that everyone else was having the same problem. Turns out, Apple's DVI-D connector did not run at industry spec, so almost all monitors on the market (other than Apple's own Cinema Displays) wouldn't work with the Mini. You had to run an aftermarket utility to reclock the DVI port so it actually worked correctly. Oh, and Apple never acknowledged the problem or released a firmware patch.
Just one of MANY problems I had with my Mini (and all my other Macs). I don't buy Apple crap anymore.
More pixels doesn't mean more information value. The proportion of information removed by the notch is much greater than the dead, empty pixels added around it.
Seriously... it's remarkable how many UI people don't fucking understand basic design anymore.
Most shocking? My flashlight app, which I hadn't used in 6 months, was connecting every 30 seconds or so.
Could someone please explain to me why this needs to be an app? Smart phones have been around for... what... a decade, and we still need "apps" for these kinds of features?
I honestly don't know, as I don't own a smart phone.
Slashdot Mirror
Using cash for transactions will soon become illegal.
As I frequently say, obsolete technology does not need to be banned. When the powers that be are trying to stomp out the old ways by force, you know whatever excuses they're using are bullshit.
Both of these points directly highlight the real issue: it's about control.
Technically, nobody forces you to use a plugin, and everything can be disabled by default unless you turn it on. It's a user choice. By banning plugins and using only "standard" APIs implemented by the browser developers, they ensure everything is under their control. Same reason for forcing signed extensions, which was always a bad idea. They'll allow it only if they like it. Users can't be allowed to make choices we think are dangerous... for their own good. Also, when a bad extension is discovered in the wild and causes a ton of damange, it may only take a deluge of complaints racked up over 6 months to get the extension pulled from the store. Maybe. If they feel like it.
Yeah, there's always some nutcase who has to argue that "most" people are too ignorant to make good choices, and thus forcing the curated model is a good thing. Might as well cater to the lowest common denominator and make things miserable for everyone (and keep adding new crap that props up that ad business model -- security be damned). It's all marketing and politics.
So after all the major browsers went berserk banning all plugins in sight, now they want to bring back the same functionality all over again.
But, hey, now it doesn't come from those nasty, untrustworthy 3rd-party developers. The browser boys will do it right! Trust us!
I've been saying it for a long time. The real reason why plugins were killed is because it was technology that the browser developers couldn't control. It was all politics and security had nothing to do with it.
So they just want to show more ads up-front before we get any content. That sounds like it will end well.
I've already unsubbed from several channels that got into the "two minutes of endorsements, begging for likes and subs, and Patreon, but hey, you can just skip it if you don't like it, so it's okay".
Speaking of common sense, most manufacturing processes that require heat utilize an oven, which provides uniform heat under highly controlled conditions, and if done on an assembly line, generally is the cheapest and most efficient option to boot. You know, like baking paint so it dries out in an hour instead of a month. Putting something in the sun sounds like something thought up by a 2nd-grader who forgot that sometimes it rains outside.
It's just another excuse to file and patent and attach the automotive equivalent of, "on a mobile device".
Yeah, I got a TON of messages yesterday from people (mostly artists) who were having their NSFW blogs torn down, even if the blogs were appropriately rated as such. Lots of people had their blogs removed and it has nothing to do with the actual content. Apparently, Tumblr's way of dealing with this problem was to use an automated script to ban a wide variety of blogs with the NSFW tag, and wait for the owners to file appeals.
Also, the real problem was apparently a rash of bots spamming NSFW ads, not specifically child porn. I guess as long as they're Thinking of the Children, it makes the widespread and unfair auto-ban of all NSFW content a bit more PR friendly. Most of the artists I follow that had content removed just draw cartoons, and there's no photos, let alone under-aged art.
Walled gardens are great because they protect you from malware. It's good for you!
Wait, you got malware? It's your own damn fault!
If you've spent the last 15 years trying to switch to Linux and haven't succeeded, that is not the Linux people's fault but yours.
Typical popular denial that results in +5 Insightful, but is the reason why Linux keeps falling flat on its face and fails to gain market share.
Consider netbooks. Nobody expected those machines to run Windows Office, because they were designed to be cheap, have long battery life, and could access the web and e-mail... and that's about it. Linux was perfect for that market, and yet it still failed hard. Is that because people were addicted to the Windows way of things, or did it happen because the Linux machines drained batteries, couldn't connect to Wifi, and had hardcore diagnostic tools in the same app menu as basic text editor?
Why would I want to copy application files from A to B anyway?
That's what package mangers are for, but it's completely ridiculous to expect an ecosystem to work like it does on Linux. People submit applications to the distro, and the distro people are expected to build and maintain tens of thousands of packages. No wonder just the installation of software is a clusterfuck, let alone building it from source (which a user should NEVER have to do, even though I've been forced to do so plenty of times). Try installing something that isn't built into the distro repository and nothing works. I hear the concept of "3rd party" is popular on desktop machines, but you really can't expect anything to work if it comes outside from the distro, and even then things break for the most idiotic of reasons.
Please consider using FOSS alternatives to the software you think you can't live without, and you might be surprised by how good they actually are.
You mean the same ones I use on Windows but don't give me the headaches they do on Linux? Yeah, I've been doing that for a long time. FOSS is great, no arguments there, but as a platform, Linux and the sort-of-UNIX way of doing things is still a problem.
No obscure registry wizardry upon running some installer.
That's the application level, not the underlying OS. I haven't had to deal with registry issues since forever. By putting all my work on a dedicated partition, I don't even have to deal with Home / Documents and Settings at all (other than the desktop, which is just a temp work folder). MS doesn't force me to use their stupid predefined folders, and nobody forces me to by crap from Adobe.
Here's the kind of thing that drives me nuts. I install some package, and try to run it, and it complains it can't find a resource. For some idiotic reason, the dependency is not installed automatically. I install the required dependency, and it still doesn't work. I spend THREE DAYS trying to find out why it doesn't work, only to find that there's a "legacy" version of the package that needs to be installed instead, and it's mutually exclusive with the "new" package. Uninstall the old package, install "legacy" and it works. At least, until I do a system update (complete with reboot!) and now the application is broken. Re-install all packages, and it's still broken. Get fed up, nuke it and restore OS image, do system update, THEN install packages. Now it works. Until an OS update comes along and it's all broken again.
Don't even get me started about all the times I uninstalled a package and the system won't boot. My latest experience was with Mint 17 and the stupid "Talking Cow" novelty app that, if uninstalled, breaks the system core. I mean, WTF? Isn't Mint supposed to be as simple and idiot-proof as it gets?
I don't have time to waste explaining all the thousands of problems I've had. Feel free to just think "user error, as usual" and keep using the system you like. Nonetheless, there's a reason why Linux is struggling to hold on to 1% on the desktop, and denying that the Linux ecosystem has huge core problems won't fix that.
Note: I'm still on Windows7. I have little experience with Win10 (which is limited to a throwaway evaluation machine), and have no doubt that it's a mess.
The Macs are too expensive.
That sounds like a rational decision, not "locked in".
Speaking about being flagged as a troll, I'll tell you the absolute truth: Windows survives because it is still the best overall OS. It has big support, (usually) excellent backwards compatibility, tons of games, and is reasonably easy to use. MacOS is expensive and sold by a control freak of a company that's just as bad as Microsoft. Linux still sucks, even after 25+ years, and you can't even tell what Linux is since every distro is different and just copying application files from point A to point B is still a complicated mess. Android is spyware so bad, it makes MS look like saints by comparison, since Google doesn't even try to convince you they're not doing it. Everything else sucks as bad as Linux, but has even less support. On top of this, we have Siri, Home, and Alexa monitoring us day in and day out, and we're even paying through the nose for the privilege.
I remember 20 years ago all the Linux people said Windows would be dead in 5 years. Having spent the last 15 years trying to switch to Linux, I'm not the least bit surprised that they're still wrong and don't know why.
A chip is just an ID card implanted in a person -- it can be cloned or otherwise spoofed more easily than the alternative.
Including officially by the owner. The really bad thing about biometrics is that it can't be changed.
With that said, I don't even want a smartphone, let alone my employer to chip me.
Since when don't you have to use the command-line to do anything in Linux? The promise that GUI package managers can do everything is one of the most persistent lies in the open-source community.
This illustrates a lack of fundamental understand of how computers work.
Sadly, most modern languages are designed specifically to abstract things to the point where you can't understand how computers work. Preps you for a career in phone and tablet walled gardens, I guess.
Buy your 18-wheeler from a different vendor. Sounds like a problem with the driver assists and bling, not the platform.
Every EULA ever includes some statement akin to, "Thou shalt not sue us for any reason or circumstance, and if you don't like it... SUCK IT."
I'd imagine that's not always legally binding.
As with any other technology, it's owned by the people who make the largest contributions and have the largest amount of political influence over the standards bodies that approve the standard.
These days, "open public standard" is as meaningful as "open source". The politics are always a problem, and we all know how well Google is faring in that department.
While we're talking about obsolete practices, could we please abolish tipping, too?
Since I got my chipped card, not once have I been asked to insert a PIN. In fact, I almost never even have to sign on the reader display.
People still think I'm crazy for carrying cash!
Microsoft customers don't like the abuse. They like the infrastructure.
Look back to the 80's and see how many computer companies there were. Most of them beat the snot out of the laughably bad IBM PC and its horrible Intel processor and garbage Microsoft OS. They all died because they were incompatible, refused to work together, and didn't cultivate their communities effectively. Even Apple was always teetering on the edge of bankruptcy until they decided to quit making computers and start making gadgets with their own, unique ecosystem.
This is why Linux has been around for 25 years and still hasn't gained traction, despite rabid proclamations that Windows would be dead any day now. Alternatives won't become popular when Microsoft crosses the line. They will become popular when they get better. I gave Mint another try recently, and I was aghast at how badly it works. Trying to uninstall the "Talking Cow" application breaks the system core and renders the machine unbootable? Really?
I recommended a Mac for them instead of a Windows machine and the look on their face was practically terrified.
Of course, because they know very well that different does not mean better. You're just trading problems for different ones.
I worked with Macs for over 10 years and owned two of them. I will never own an Apple product again. You seem to be under the impression that Apple is not a greater control freak than Microsoft, and Apple machines don't have their own massive list issues. At least with a PC, I have the choice of what hardware and drivers I can use, and what budget I want, even if the OS is the same.
Almost everything in American culture comes from advertising. From birthday cards to wedding rings to the "fact" that boys wear blue and girls love pink, stems not from long-standing traditions, but from successful 20th-century advertising campaigns.
Just yesterday I was just reading up on Multi-Chip Modules, Hybrid Integrated Circuits and other similar technologies, and wondering to myself why they didn't do that more often in the 8 and 16-bit era to cut down on package pin count. The answer is fairly obvious: yields, and thus costs, are worse. Often much worse.
They're allowed to withhold that info from shareholders? I know publicly traded companies have to release their tax information publicly, but... not sales figures?
Is it the memory or the bus?
When I bought my first Mini, I couldn't get any of my DVI-D monitors to work with it and had to settle for a DVI to VGA adapter driving an ancient CRT. I found out later that everyone else was having the same problem. Turns out, Apple's DVI-D connector did not run at industry spec, so almost all monitors on the market (other than Apple's own Cinema Displays) wouldn't work with the Mini. You had to run an aftermarket utility to reclock the DVI port so it actually worked correctly. Oh, and Apple never acknowledged the problem or released a firmware patch.
Just one of MANY problems I had with my Mini (and all my other Macs). I don't buy Apple crap anymore.
More pixels doesn't mean more information value. The proportion of information removed by the notch is much greater than the dead, empty pixels added around it.
Seriously... it's remarkable how many UI people don't fucking understand basic design anymore.
Most shocking? My flashlight app, which I hadn't used in 6 months, was connecting every 30 seconds or so.
Could someone please explain to me why this needs to be an app? Smart phones have been around for... what... a decade, and we still need "apps" for these kinds of features?
I honestly don't know, as I don't own a smart phone.
None of the rest of the stuff is data tied to the user in any way.
Because any company that collects the following, and shares it with business partners, could tie a device to an individual user:
occupation, language, zip code, area code, unique device identifier, referrer URL, location, and the time zone
You do understand how Facebook identifies you even before you sign up for an account, right?