Posts by pdvr

Microsoft's plain text editor gets fancy as Notepad gains formatting options

Double miss - no replacement for Wordpad

Wordpad didn't just add some formatting, it was the only Microsoft editor that could actually generate RTF that complies with the RTF spec, and as such had application in some niches of the ecosystem where RTF is (was?) still being used. But today's Microsoft is not the Microsoft of old that cherishes backwards-compatibility and 'developers, developers, developers'.

Notepad++ is ok, I guess. But I don't use it often enough to remember the shortcuts and plugins for the ++ features, like validating and pretty-printing JSON and XML (also still in use).

Keeping wordpad and notepad as they were was a totally valid option, especially as MS' notepad++ competitor is VS code. I guess someone picked it up as a project to survive the next round of redundancies, being able to say "I'm a maintainer of a core application in the OS"?

$16B health dept managed finances with single Excel spreadsheet. It hasn’t gone well

What Would DOGE Do?

Sounds like exactly the kind of efficiency the whizzkids would come up with

Googlers asked if they'd like to bury themselves next to Stadia, Chromecast, DropCam

There's no dropdown on the form to see who voted for Trump?

Trump eyes up to 100% tariffs on foreign semiconductors, TSMC in crosshairs

Taxes?

Wait, did he say tariffs are taxes?!

Weird how it didn't crop up in the election campaign that Trump loves raising taxes.

Microsoft to force Windows 11 24H2 on Home and Pro users

Support consists of receiving further updates. And you will like it.

Outlook is poor for those still on Windows Mail, Calendar, People apps by end of year

Re: Why are MS even bundling a mail client with Windows?

The outlook "application" (which is a web app with some wrapper around it) does sometimes provide a little better integration with the OS, like being able to copy and paste succesfully, or open files. This is very hit and miss, with each new upgrade something stops working (for example, being able to attach a file from a 'most recent used' list doesn't show any files opened by local applications anymore.)

Windows 11 24H2 might call time on that old NAS under the stairs

You're supposed to use onedrive, of course.

Help! My mouse climbed a wall and now it doesn't work right

Re: "simply accepted the news silently and continued about his day"

Dosbox doesn't emulate covox/speechthing I think, it's a sound card that plugs into the parallel printer port (you could solder together some resistors and other components yourself to make one). Might that have been the sound device?