Call before you dig. See subject. There need to be (my opinion, of course) exponentially escalating penalties for companies (and probably individuals) that fail to do so. Some grace is needed, because accidents do happen... but jeebus crisco, think about the economic impact of this sort of ineptitude.
I also recently revisited my old love for desktop panning when faced with the nuisance of modern software (non-collapsible UI elements leading to a ridiculously small viewport) on a 1920x1080 monitor, working on 1920x1080 content. There is a less-than-well-known feature of MS RDP called 'superpan', and if you can bear with the limitations and occasional glitchiness that come with remote desktops, you can pan a desktop up to 4096x4096 from a remote machine. Why this very, very useful capability was dumped from most modern graphics systems, I have no clue.
If one doesn't mind using somewhat antiquated tech, the closest I can think of in hardware would be the IBM T220/T221 monitors (occasionally showing up on eBay for $1000)... their interfaces lacked the bandwidth to individually drive the full 3840x2400 px panel (sadly nobody seems to make panels at this size anymore), so it divided up the screen into several segments, with apparently a fairly high level of flexibility (including 4x DVI connections @ 1920x1200, and an actually somewhat decent 48Hz refresh in the later revisions). Not sure how much this capability varies between the various monitor revisions, aside from the older ones having rather slow refresh (~20Hz, i think) for similar configurations. It's slightly depressing to think that this was possible 15+ years ago, but never caught on.
It would be very nice if they allowed a program's fullscreen viewport to be containerized. I suspect you are like me, I like my pixels (text need merely be legible, and raster graphics need to be 1:1 pixel registration, or it's pointless) and information first (the more the better, not 80% whitespace), smoothness a distant second. Microsoft seems to want to push to make things smooth (i.e. high DPI). I'd certainly accept some loss of features/teething problems if it was possible/reasonable to port open source video driver efforts for decent video cards to Windows' current display driver model. Unfortunately, this would likely be met with resistance due to high resolution video DRM and related crap, if it's even possible.
For now, I suspect that the closest you'll get is running things inside of a VM; as these typically don't use game-like fullscreen mode setting, they might work with Display Fusion, etc., but the loss of performance (and many other caveats of running software in VMs) might make it a non-starter.
The proper way, in my opinion, of admitting the win8 mistake would have been to port forward as much UI/features of 7 as possible, to give people a relatively seamless transition. iow, an option to disable metro entirely. Either that, or backport kernel/api changes to allow newer software (DirectX being the one real pest) to run on the older versions. netmarketshare still reports @ ~44% marketshare. Surely they could somehow capitalize on that enduring success, rather than trying to hobble it with progressively less useful update regimens? While they've demonstrated that they don't want another windows XP hanging around for an extra decade, it is likely too late... people will hold onto 7 as hard as they possibly can.
Tangentially related... Many services use NetPromoterScore ("how likely are you to recommend this service to family/friends?") as a chat survey question, and use it as a factor in a support agent's ratings. In some cases, it gets used as the sole rating metric, as with a webhost I worked at in the past. Anything below an 8 was handled more or less the same as the lowest possible score. What does the company's general perception have to do with the quality of the experience in a given support session? (hint: not much)
The thing to take away from this is that when filling out a post-support survey, any/all of the questions likely impact the technician, and I've seen NPS abused for this purpose in many environments.
Don't forget about being able to replicate keys from photographs. There was a story a while ago about people being able to reliably replicate the keys (they showed a fairly high resolution shot of their key storage pegboard) shown in some prison/detention facility training video. While I don't think anything particularly bad came of that, just bear in mind that one only needs an image of the key, however they might obtain it.
If you really want to, consider installing a hook, magnet, velcro, etc. to suspend the fob near where you're used to. Probably what I would do, though I plan to run my current old-style (mid-2000s crown victoria, which still has (more or less) the same interior arrangement as the 1992 model) automobile into the ground, so probably won't have to worry about the fobs for many years.
Expressions of sympathy can actually do a lot of good for the receiver thereof. Not in all cases, but still. Is it wrong to show sympathy/solidarity in such a circumstance?
For me, that has become one of its more charming attributes; it automatically outs the iThing users for their mandatory shaming, and gives a basis to preach the anti-smart-punctuation gospel. (jk)
Condolences to friends, family, and/. at large. To all you lower-than-my-UID guys out there, along with the folks running the place at the time, ya'll are the reason I got into slashdot in the first place, and a significant part of my early technological development. Fun reading through quotes from Rob:
I don't mind being considered an ass. After a whole bunch of years working on Slashdot, my skin is thicker than the armor on M1 Abrams.
Indeed, it's not an immutable archive of all that ever was. I would hope they would actively preserve the data if presented with a court order, at least.
Same connection you'd be getting as residential, you're paying for priority support and, i think, no data caps. Doesn't appear to have any other benefits, unless you like a lighter wallet.
Indeed, the options provided to us where I work were an SMC router with completely broken IPv6 support, and a Cisco router that may or may not have had that buggy Intel Puma 6 chipset (whatever it was, it imparted erratic latency on all traffic traversing it, had several% packet loss overall, dropped out several times per day and was otherwise a mess... but it did have decent WiFi)
Not quite what I would suggest, but improved levels of third-party code review (and possibly a legal mandate for such, considering the incredible number of people affected by flaws in it) would probably not be a terrible thing for their ecosystem.
Slashdot Mirror
The stupidity of modern UIs really is a problem, especially web ones and their pointlessly excess whitespace.
You and I are clearly of one mind there.
Call before you dig. See subject. There need to be (my opinion, of course) exponentially escalating penalties for companies (and probably individuals) that fail to do so. Some grace is needed, because accidents do happen... but jeebus crisco, think about the economic impact of this sort of ineptitude.
I also recently revisited my old love for desktop panning when faced with the nuisance of modern software (non-collapsible UI elements leading to a ridiculously small viewport) on a 1920x1080 monitor, working on 1920x1080 content. There is a less-than-well-known feature of MS RDP called 'superpan', and if you can bear with the limitations and occasional glitchiness that come with remote desktops, you can pan a desktop up to 4096x4096 from a remote machine. Why this very, very useful capability was dumped from most modern graphics systems, I have no clue.
If one doesn't mind using somewhat antiquated tech, the closest I can think of in hardware would be the IBM T220/T221 monitors (occasionally showing up on eBay for $1000)... their interfaces lacked the bandwidth to individually drive the full 3840x2400 px panel (sadly nobody seems to make panels at this size anymore), so it divided up the screen into several segments, with apparently a fairly high level of flexibility (including 4x DVI connections @ 1920x1200, and an actually somewhat decent 48Hz refresh in the later revisions). Not sure how much this capability varies between the various monitor revisions, aside from the older ones having rather slow refresh (~20Hz, i think) for similar configurations. It's slightly depressing to think that this was possible 15+ years ago, but never caught on.
It would be very nice if they allowed a program's fullscreen viewport to be containerized. I suspect you are like me, I like my pixels (text need merely be legible, and raster graphics need to be 1:1 pixel registration, or it's pointless) and information first (the more the better, not 80% whitespace), smoothness a distant second. Microsoft seems to want to push to make things smooth (i.e. high DPI). I'd certainly accept some loss of features/teething problems if it was possible/reasonable to port open source video driver efforts for decent video cards to Windows' current display driver model. Unfortunately, this would likely be met with resistance due to high resolution video DRM and related crap, if it's even possible.
For now, I suspect that the closest you'll get is running things inside of a VM; as these typically don't use game-like fullscreen mode setting, they might work with Display Fusion, etc., but the loss of performance (and many other caveats of running software in VMs) might make it a non-starter.
The proper way, in my opinion, of admitting the win8 mistake would have been to port forward as much UI/features of 7 as possible, to give people a relatively seamless transition. iow, an option to disable metro entirely. Either that, or backport kernel/api changes to allow newer software (DirectX being the one real pest) to run on the older versions. netmarketshare still reports @ ~44% marketshare. Surely they could somehow capitalize on that enduring success, rather than trying to hobble it with progressively less useful update regimens? While they've demonstrated that they don't want another windows XP hanging around for an extra decade, it is likely too late... people will hold onto 7 as hard as they possibly can.
Don't forget the Matthew Inman (theoatmeal.com) drawing that makes it what it is :)
Tangentially related... Many services use NetPromoterScore ("how likely are you to recommend this service to family/friends?") as a chat survey question, and use it as a factor in a support agent's ratings. In some cases, it gets used as the sole rating metric, as with a webhost I worked at in the past. Anything below an 8 was handled more or less the same as the lowest possible score. What does the company's general perception have to do with the quality of the experience in a given support session? (hint: not much)
The thing to take away from this is that when filling out a post-support survey, any/all of the questions likely impact the technician, and I've seen NPS abused for this purpose in many environments.
Grendels all the way down...
What to do when some wires get crossed somewhere, it assumes the shape of a giant fighting robot, and goes on a rampage?
Don't forget about being able to replicate keys from photographs. There was a story a while ago about people being able to reliably replicate the keys (they showed a fairly high resolution shot of their key storage pegboard) shown in some prison/detention facility training video. While I don't think anything particularly bad came of that, just bear in mind that one only needs an image of the key, however they might obtain it.
If you really want to, consider installing a hook, magnet, velcro, etc. to suspend the fob near where you're used to. Probably what I would do, though I plan to run my current old-style (mid-2000s crown victoria, which still has (more or less) the same interior arrangement as the 1992 model) automobile into the ground, so probably won't have to worry about the fobs for many years.
I'm still holding out for the Atari ST port...
They will always find a way to use it, just as a gas tends to expand to fit the volume of its container. A different kind of vaporware, I guess?
... that all important benchmark value, 69! Highest version number wins! Remember that, kids.
Feeling the sensation of smartness from being able to rapidly obtain information in no way constitutes actual smartness.
Us remainders just sort of tune those 'toons out. I can totally understand why many wouldn't want to bother.
Expressions of sympathy can actually do a lot of good for the receiver thereof. Not in all cases, but still. Is it wrong to show sympathy/solidarity in such a circumstance?
For me, that has become one of its more charming attributes; it automatically outs the iThing users for their mandatory shaming, and gives a basis to preach the anti-smart-punctuation gospel. (jk)
I don't mind being considered an ass. After a whole bunch of years working on Slashdot, my skin is thicker than the armor on M1 Abrams.
Indeed, it's not an immutable archive of all that ever was. I would hope they would actively preserve the data if presented with a court order, at least.
... when you think that computer belongs to you.
Same connection you'd be getting as residential, you're paying for priority support and, i think, no data caps. Doesn't appear to have any other benefits, unless you like a lighter wallet.
Indeed, the options provided to us where I work were an SMC router with completely broken IPv6 support, and a Cisco router that may or may not have had that buggy Intel Puma 6 chipset (whatever it was, it imparted erratic latency on all traffic traversing it, had several% packet loss overall, dropped out several times per day and was otherwise a mess... but it did have decent WiFi)
Not quite what I would suggest, but improved levels of third-party code review (and possibly a legal mandate for such, considering the incredible number of people affected by flaws in it) would probably not be a terrible thing for their ecosystem.