I bought a Kindle e-reader. Not because I was interested in Amazon's collection, but because it seemed to be the best hardware. Our library, like many, use Overdrive for e-books, with uses Adobe Digital Editions DRM locked ebooks. Unfortunatly they are epub, which is compatible with every other ereader except Kindle, and Amazon has no interest in interoperability. Plus Digital Editions is a pretty terrible program.
So to read library books on my Kindle, I have to download and load the book into Digital Editions, then use DeDRM to load them into Calibre, to convert to mobi to load on the Kindle.
You could literally be on a website trying to buy something FROM THE WEBSITE and a freaking newsletter screen will pop up preventing you from doing it.
And the newsletter popup will appear at random. Sometimes it's time based, sometimes it's after you scroll down a certain amount.
And they clued in that people were expecting it, and clicking the X in the upper right. Now to dismiss it requires more effort. You have to decipher which 6 pt light gray on slightly lighter gray text has the passive aggressive option "No, I don't want to receive email updates that will improve my life. I rather live as a Luddite"
You don't need to be super-intelligent to program effectively. You just need to be able to think logically and break down tasks. It doesn't need to be made easier, because if you can't do those two things you shouldn't be programming.
That almost is the definition of intelligence. There's a lot of people that struggle to take a problem, think logically, and break it down into tasks. A computer will only do exactly what you tell it to. At the highest level, almost all programming is just "IF-THEN". You have to make a logical comparison, then execute something based on the decision.
I do a lot of work with PLCs and ladder logic, more than traditional programming languages. I've met a lot of capable electricians (to whom ladder logic is targeted), that are familiar with the tools, familiar with the environment, have had the training, and have had more experience than me, yet really struggle to understand the logical comparisons the program is making, and how it's going to execute.
Incidentally I've seen the same people struggle trying to understand a hardwire relay diagram. The very thing ladder logic was designed around. They are generally poor troubleshooters and problem-solvers. No amount of training will rectify this.
Likewise I've seen a lot of people struggle to use formulas in Excel. While Excel is terrible to understand for super-nested formulas, it is a very accessible environment that a lot of people use (if nothing else as a table maker). To either make some basic computations, or basic string formatting formulas, a lot of people really struggle with it.
If people don't understand logic, it won't matter how easy or accessible the language is. People who intuitively grasp logic will excel in programming, particularly if presented with formal training and CS principles.
Complete nonsense. You don't need a "pretty damned good" microphone, but when the majority of value you provide to your viewers is your appearance and voice, you want a "good" microphone.
I'm surprised at the number of streamers / Vloggers / Youtube channels where they have a ridiculously expensive microphone, yet still get lots of really distracting popping because they are basically eating the microphone. I've had better results using dollar store microphones for naration.
It's actually funny how many people have really expensive gear, but no clue how to use it, or not even very good content.
They should ask, but have a limit. "Okay, user, you've postponed for 6 days. The system WILL reboot and update tomorrow a 2 AM. Save your work by then or else!!!"
They should have a reasonable limit. What is it? I dunno, 1 week, 2 weeks, a month?
Say it's 2 weeks, During week 1 periodically prompt the user. During week 2 show an always on top watermark (like they do for unactivated copies), saying your system WILL be rebooted for updates in x days, y hours.
Is it as ideal as absolute control? No. But it's better than now where it will seemingly reboot at random. If you have long batch job running, hopefully it will give enough time to finish. If you're just about to kick off a new batch job it gives you an opportunity to preemptively reboot if updates are pending. I know they are trying to force updates due to history of botnets, and users ignoring updates, but surely there's a way they can do it and respect users.
We use Windows 7 at work, updates are managed by IT. Sometimes I will come in in the morning and have lost trends I had running from a forced reboot I had no knowledge of. Other times I get a notification saying "System will be rebooted in 22 hours, 14 minutes". If I know I'm going to be forced, or it's pending, I'll accommodate it.
And then no one ever ran another update again. When given the choice people prefer to delay it. At least with Apple they have so much fanfair with their updates that there appears to be immediate value when do them. âoeThis update adds support for dark mode in mail.â Really?! My work can wait. I donâ(TM)t even know what most of the windows updates do because they simply say it contains âoebug fixes.â
I'm so mixed with this comment. On one hand you're making fun of Apple. On the other hand you made this post on an iThing given Slashdot's crappy Unicode support for Apple's rounded corner punctuation marks.
Do what I do: close the notebook (screen) triggering hibernation. The update crap is still there when turning on the machine again so it's not perfect...
I would have to select hibernation from the shutdown menu, or press the sleep button, because one of the first things I disable on a notebook is having closing the lid do anything. I may wish to transport my laptop still running, still connected to the network. It's funny how many people I see carrying around slightly open laptops to prevent them from sleeping. They are less awkward to carry, and less likely to be damaged, with the screen closed.
You'd be surprised at how well RDP works over high latency connections.
It works satisfactorily. We have a poor WAN connection at work. If I'm trying to connect to equipment at our site while at home, I rather VPN/RDP into an on-premises box, than use network applications over the VPN. However for local applications I rather use them on a local PC than RDP into a machine that is not on the LAN, in the same segment I'm in. Unless it's kicking off a build or something that relies more on computational power than latency.
I imagine the US would be similar. If you recorded a murderer murdering or something, then used it in court as evidence, I am sure it would not be thrown out as evidence, even if it was just 1 party consent.
It certainly would be thrown out if it showed, for example, a cop shooting a defenseless black citizen to death. A lot of cops really don't like their interactions being legally recorded, let-alone illegally recorded.
If you wrote a whole OS in python the damn thing would probably need 16gigs just to boot, never mind actually do anything else useful.
Sugar UI, the desktop environment for the OLPC project, is a Python environment running on Fedora. It's dreadfully slow, particularly on the OLPC-1's anemic AMD Geode processor.
Usually I know mare about whatever product I'm buying then they do. I'll research it online, compare pricing, and just go into the store to pick it up, not for advice. All I need them to do is locate items if they're not readily accessible, ring them through (without an extended warranty), and maybe help carry it out if it's a large item. Usually it's hard to find a blue shirt when you actually want one.
The carrier also gains a benefit of sunsetting older networks by being able to remove gear from the tower and being able to repurpose that "real estate" for additional radios/equipment supporting high-demand newer technologies.
Plus they won't have to maintain gear that may be harder to find replacement parts for.
The phone could only make calls on technologies / bands it supports. While the phone will (hopefully) roam onto non-preferred network to make a 911 call, "emergency calls only" shows up when I'm outside of all coverage from all networks. A CDMA/1x/EVDO phone won't be able to roam and make a 911 call if there's only coverage from HSPA/LTE networks.
911 will probably work, until the end of 2019. Much like how 911 doesn't work right now on an AMPS (analog) phone, unless it also supports a newer network (CDMA/1x/EVDO / GSM bands on world phones)
EDLIN is a 16 bit DOS program. Only 32 bit versions of Windows include the ability to run 16 bit DOS applications. As I recall with Windows 10, and possibly Windows 8, 16 bit capability must be separately enabled. It's not available at all on 64 bit versions of Windows.
How will that work when the Magnifier is used? It better not interfere with the Accessibility options. There is no better way to piss off visually impaired users than to fuck with their tools....
A Lot of applications already use ctrl+scrollwheel for zoom control.
^^^ This. My favorite locked-down machine trick is one where they "only" let you have admin access to Notepad, which is plenty of access once you open up Notepad's "file open" dialog and essentially get to have admin access to File Explorer.
Also a trick when you boot from a windows install DVD, and drop to command prompt (shift+F10). You can open Notepad, and use file-open as a rudimentary file manager. It's actually embarrassing that the recovery environment doesn't give you normal windows explorer window.
Somebody found the shell shock bug and suggested a fix. Over the next few hours, hundreds of people looked at it. Some saw that the suggested fix wouldn't quite cover this variation or that variation, so they tweaked it. Florian Weimer, from Red Hat, said those tweaks would never cover all the variations, and suggested an entirely different fix, one that went to crux of the problem.
Shellshock. A bug that was shown to have existed since 1989, and was patched in 2014.
I'm not sure this is the best example to use when discussing whether open source security is better than closed source security.
On the closed source side of things, lots of bugs that impact Windows 10, will also impact Windows XP (with patches available to customers with agreements, or on XP embedded, or POSready). Back when older operating systems were supported, lots of bugs impacted XP, 2000, NT4, and 9x. So it's likely that many of these current bugs also impact ancient versions of Windows.
For fuck's sake make it search for the terms you put in the search box, instead of serving up irrelevant crap - while you still have a job. At the very least Make it possible to set verbatim as a default - non-verbatim searches are complete time wasters.
I remember back when Google was new, one advantage over Altavista was that it would search a boolean AND as a default, where most search engines only used boolean OR. Then Google moved to boolean OR by default and you had to add a "+" to force an AND.
Now it searches boolean OR of unrelated synonyms of the words you type. And it seems to like showing garbage Quora results up top, instead of the previous garbage Yahoo answers results. Back in the day it used to show useful results.
They also changed ranking to prefer sites that use technologies Google wants to force, like AMP.
Slashdot Mirror
Install aldiko ebook reader on the kindle. It directly supports overdrive downloads/loans.
Thanks but I have an e-ink style Kindle, not a rebadged Android Kindle Fire, so I can't install apps.
You could always check with your local library.
Most offer e-book loans for free.
I bought a Kindle e-reader. Not because I was interested in Amazon's collection, but because it seemed to be the best hardware. Our library, like many, use Overdrive for e-books, with uses Adobe Digital Editions DRM locked ebooks. Unfortunatly they are epub, which is compatible with every other ereader except Kindle, and Amazon has no interest in interoperability. Plus Digital Editions is a pretty terrible program.
So to read library books on my Kindle, I have to download and load the book into Digital Editions, then use DeDRM to load them into Calibre, to convert to mobi to load on the Kindle.
You could literally be on a website trying to buy something FROM THE WEBSITE and a freaking newsletter screen will pop up preventing you from doing it.
And the newsletter popup will appear at random. Sometimes it's time based, sometimes it's after you scroll down a certain amount.
And they clued in that people were expecting it, and clicking the X in the upper right. Now to dismiss it requires more effort. You have to decipher which 6 pt light gray on slightly lighter gray text has the passive aggressive option "No, I don't want to receive email updates that will improve my life. I rather live as a Luddite"
You don't need to be super-intelligent to program effectively. You just need to be able to think logically and break down tasks. It doesn't need to be made easier, because if you can't do those two things you shouldn't be programming.
That almost is the definition of intelligence. There's a lot of people that struggle to take a problem, think logically, and break it down into tasks. A computer will only do exactly what you tell it to. At the highest level, almost all programming is just "IF-THEN". You have to make a logical comparison, then execute something based on the decision.
I do a lot of work with PLCs and ladder logic, more than traditional programming languages. I've met a lot of capable electricians (to whom ladder logic is targeted), that are familiar with the tools, familiar with the environment, have had the training, and have had more experience than me, yet really struggle to understand the logical comparisons the program is making, and how it's going to execute.
Incidentally I've seen the same people struggle trying to understand a hardwire relay diagram. The very thing ladder logic was designed around. They are generally poor troubleshooters and problem-solvers. No amount of training will rectify this.
Likewise I've seen a lot of people struggle to use formulas in Excel. While Excel is terrible to understand for super-nested formulas, it is a very accessible environment that a lot of people use (if nothing else as a table maker). To either make some basic computations, or basic string formatting formulas, a lot of people really struggle with it.
If people don't understand logic, it won't matter how easy or accessible the language is. People who intuitively grasp logic will excel in programming, particularly if presented with formal training and CS principles.
And then you wake up, bright eyed and bushy tailed with excitement only to discover that the download was interrupted at about 2 hours in...
Naaah. Usually it failed at 99.9% with no capability to resume, and the format of the file required the last few clusters in order to be usable.
Complete nonsense. You don't need a "pretty damned good" microphone, but when the majority of value you provide to your viewers is your appearance and voice, you want a "good" microphone.
I'm surprised at the number of streamers / Vloggers / Youtube channels where they have a ridiculously expensive microphone, yet still get lots of really distracting popping because they are basically eating the microphone. I've had better results using dollar store microphones for naration.
It's actually funny how many people have really expensive gear, but no clue how to use it, or not even very good content.
Had it been unoccupied, of course, that would be totally fine.
Well then he could have found the wireless router, looked at the presumably default password in the bottom, got online and carried on.
They should ask, but have a limit. "Okay, user, you've postponed for 6 days. The system WILL reboot and update tomorrow a 2 AM. Save your work by then or else!!!"
They should have a reasonable limit. What is it? I dunno, 1 week, 2 weeks, a month?
Say it's 2 weeks, During week 1 periodically prompt the user. During week 2 show an always on top watermark (like they do for unactivated copies), saying your system WILL be rebooted for updates in x days, y hours.
Is it as ideal as absolute control? No. But it's better than now where it will seemingly reboot at random. If you have long batch job running, hopefully it will give enough time to finish. If you're just about to kick off a new batch job it gives you an opportunity to preemptively reboot if updates are pending. I know they are trying to force updates due to history of botnets, and users ignoring updates, but surely there's a way they can do it and respect users.
We use Windows 7 at work, updates are managed by IT. Sometimes I will come in in the morning and have lost trends I had running from a forced reboot I had no knowledge of. Other times I get a notification saying "System will be rebooted in 22 hours, 14 minutes". If I know I'm going to be forced, or it's pending, I'll accommodate it.
And then no one ever ran another update again. When given the choice people prefer to delay it. At least with Apple they have so much fanfair with their updates that there appears to be immediate value when do them. âoeThis update adds support for dark mode in mail.â Really?! My work can wait. I donâ(TM)t even know what most of the windows updates do because they simply say it contains âoebug fixes.â
I'm so mixed with this comment. On one hand you're making fun of Apple. On the other hand you made this post on an iThing given Slashdot's crappy Unicode support for Apple's rounded corner punctuation marks.
Do what I do: close the notebook (screen) triggering hibernation. The update crap is still there when turning on the machine again so it's not perfect...
I would have to select hibernation from the shutdown menu, or press the sleep button, because one of the first things I disable on a notebook is having closing the lid do anything. I may wish to transport my laptop still running, still connected to the network. It's funny how many people I see carrying around slightly open laptops to prevent them from sleeping. They are less awkward to carry, and less likely to be damaged, with the screen closed.
but when you're trying to sell upgrades you have to make it look different so people think they're getting something for their money.
But the upgrade to Windows 10 was free.
You'd be surprised at how well RDP works over high latency connections.
It works satisfactorily. We have a poor WAN connection at work. If I'm trying to connect to equipment at our site while at home, I rather VPN/RDP into an on-premises box, than use network applications over the VPN. However for local applications I rather use them on a local PC than RDP into a machine that is not on the LAN, in the same segment I'm in. Unless it's kicking off a build or something that relies more on computational power than latency.
I imagine the US would be similar. If you recorded a murderer murdering or something, then used it in court as evidence, I am sure it would not be thrown out as evidence, even if it was just 1 party consent.
It certainly would be thrown out if it showed, for example, a cop shooting a defenseless black citizen to death. A lot of cops really don't like their interactions being legally recorded, let-alone illegally recorded.
If you wrote a whole OS in python the damn thing would probably need 16gigs just to boot, never mind actually do anything else useful.
Sugar UI, the desktop environment for the OLPC project, is a Python environment running on Fedora. It's dreadfully slow, particularly on the OLPC-1's anemic AMD Geode processor.
Usually I know mare about whatever product I'm buying then they do. I'll research it online, compare pricing, and just go into the store to pick it up, not for advice. All I need them to do is locate items if they're not readily accessible, ring them through (without an extended warranty), and maybe help carry it out if it's a large item. Usually it's hard to find a blue shirt when you actually want one.
The carrier also gains a benefit of sunsetting older networks by being able to remove gear from the tower and being able to repurpose that "real estate" for additional radios/equipment supporting high-demand newer technologies.
Plus they won't have to maintain gear that may be harder to find replacement parts for.
The phone could only make calls on technologies / bands it supports. While the phone will (hopefully) roam onto non-preferred network to make a 911 call, "emergency calls only" shows up when I'm outside of all coverage from all networks. A CDMA/1x/EVDO phone won't be able to roam and make a 911 call if there's only coverage from HSPA/LTE networks.
911 will probably work, until the end of 2019. Much like how 911 doesn't work right now on an AMPS (analog) phone, unless it also supports a newer network (CDMA/1x/EVDO / GSM bands on world phones)
EDLIN is a 16 bit DOS program. Only 32 bit versions of Windows include the ability to run 16 bit DOS applications. As I recall with Windows 10, and possibly Windows 8, 16 bit capability must be separately enabled. It's not available at all on 64 bit versions of Windows.
I'm not surprised that Slashdot posted this, but rather that they didn't wait 6 weeks, and only posted it once.
How will that work when the Magnifier is used? It better not interfere with the Accessibility options. There is no better way to piss off visually impaired users than to fuck with their tools....
A Lot of applications already use ctrl+scrollwheel for zoom control.
If you drag a file to the toolbar (ribbon) in Wordpad, it will open instead of linking / embedding.
^^^ This. My favorite locked-down machine trick is one where they "only" let you have admin access to Notepad, which is plenty of access once you open up Notepad's "file open" dialog and essentially get to have admin access to File Explorer.
Also a trick when you boot from a windows install DVD, and drop to command prompt (shift+F10). You can open Notepad, and use file-open as a rudimentary file manager. It's actually embarrassing that the recovery environment doesn't give you normal windows explorer window.
Somebody found the shell shock bug and suggested a fix. Over the next few hours, hundreds of people looked at it. Some saw that the suggested fix wouldn't quite cover this variation or that variation, so they tweaked it. Florian Weimer, from Red Hat, said those tweaks would never cover all the variations, and suggested an entirely different fix, one that went to crux of the problem.
Shellshock. A bug that was shown to have existed since 1989, and was patched in 2014.
I'm not sure this is the best example to use when discussing whether open source security is better than closed source security.
On the closed source side of things, lots of bugs that impact Windows 10, will also impact Windows XP (with patches available to customers with agreements, or on XP embedded, or POSready). Back when older operating systems were supported, lots of bugs impacted XP, 2000, NT4, and 9x. So it's likely that many of these current bugs also impact ancient versions of Windows.
For fuck's sake make it search for the terms you put in the search box, instead of serving up irrelevant crap - while you still have a job. At the very least Make it possible to set verbatim as a default - non-verbatim searches are complete time wasters.
I remember back when Google was new, one advantage over Altavista was that it would search a boolean AND as a default, where most search engines only used boolean OR. Then Google moved to boolean OR by default and you had to add a "+" to force an AND.
Now it searches boolean OR of unrelated synonyms of the words you type. And it seems to like showing garbage Quora results up top, instead of the previous garbage Yahoo answers results. Back in the day it used to show useful results.
They also changed ranking to prefer sites that use technologies Google wants to force, like AMP.