Posts by nightflier

Senator Warren slams Intuit's 'junk fees' as America's Tax Day rolls around again

Re: A solution?

I second that. Used them for years, well worth the $10 they charge for a state return.

'We had to educate Oracle about our contract,' CIO says after Big Red audit

Re: Move away

From Oracle to Microsoft.. isn't that just jumping from the frying pan into the fire?

KDE Plasma 6.0 brings the same old charm and confusion

Evolution brings results, not perfection

Liam correctly points out a lot of inconsistencies in KDE. I had to check on those and yes, definitely there. I just got so used to my daily workflow and it never bothered me.

Only time I left KDE was between 4.0 and 4.9, a period best forgotten. In that time I kept trying other environments but none felt as good as old KDE. I went back and by then it was good again. Going to KDE5 was annoying. I don't like change. After ten years with v 5 I'm now on autopilot and seeing that KDE6 will not force a big change in the way things work is great news for me.

Apple Vision Pro units returned as folks just can't see themselves using it

I resisted getting a mobile phone for a long time, but of course I eventually gave in. One of the killer features was not having to wear a watch any more.

Damn Small Linux returns after a 12-year gap

Memory lane

I had to dig out my old Toshiba Libretto with a Pentium 120 and 32 MB of RAM with DSL on it. Yup, booted right up like it was 2005 again.

Top Linux distros drop fresh beats

Re: KDE neon user here

KDE user since Xandros Linux. After Mint KDE went away, switched to Kubuntu, then Neon user edition. Does every thing I need, and does it well, so another vote for it.

Drivers: We'll take that plain dumb car over a flashy data-spilling internet one, thanks

Re: "I hate that I don't own Microsoft Office or Photoshop. "

Use the tools that work for you. LibreOffice and Gimp both exceed my needs. I've produced a lot of tutorials and presentations with them, but then I'm not a professional graphic artist.

Facebook, Instagram now mine web links you visit to fuel targeted ads

Re: Nothing more annoying

You have a point, and I used to put up with ads for that very reason. On my favorite sites I would click on the ads as a way of supporting them. I ran without ad blocker, just relying on flashblock to stop autoplay audio and video, which I can not stand.

Things changed. Ads got more and more intrusive, loud and obnoxious, covering the content I wanted to access. The worst ones have flashing, moving boxes saying "your computer has been infected, call Microsoft support..".

The same mechanisms used to serve ads are also used to infect your computer with malware.

So I gave up, installed security extensions and subscribed to my favorite news outlets. Surfing is now quiet and enjoyable. The computer does not stop responding and kick all cooling fans to max when I go to read my news feeds. Saves electricity too.

I guess we do have a two-tier Internet, where you can either put up with the hassle, or buy yourself a better experience. Capitalism indeed.

What if Microsoft had given us Windows XP 2024?

Seconded! W2K was peak Windows. Although, by the time I found the Classic option in XP, I had already switched from W2K to KDE on Linux. No product key, no activation.

Windows boss takes on taskbar turmoil, pledges to 'make Start menu great again'

Re: It's TASKBAR that needs fixing more

Not petty. It makes sense. For the user. My panel (taskbar) went to the left edge as soon as I got a 16:9 display.

For Microsoft it makes sense to force you to keep it horizontally so they can use those pixels for their ads, their Bing search, their Copilot, and whatever comes next.

Zuckerberg hunkers down in Hawaii to wait out apocalypse

Scared rich men

I've seen this mentality develop on a smaller scale. In martial arts, some go beyond the traditional and fun self defense training. They add more and more weapons and outlandish scenarios. Open and concealed guns and knives, weapons stashed around the house. Expensive security systems and surveillance cameras. One friend will not go to the bathroom unarmed.

The more they prepare, the more afraid they get. Everywhere they look, they see people threatening their privileged status and power. The more you have, the more you stand to lose. No wonder these multi-billionaires become paranoid.

Boffins fool AI chatbot into revealing harmful content – with 98 percent success rate

Re: Is it really a problem?

Blaming the user is an easy cop-out. Decades ago, the US Major Airlines* learned that just using "pilot error" as an excuse did nothing to prevent accidents. After years of study and using training and safeguards they finally managed to achieve zero fatal accidents. The last crash was in 2001.

*smaller operators are not at that level yet.

Musk takes SEC 'Twitter sitter' consent decree appeal to US Supreme Court

Freedom of speech

If he is let out of this legally binding agreement, the same thing should apply to those that he made sign NDAs. Let them all speak freely.

Firefox 119 unleashes PDF prowess and Sync sorcery

Re: Name one

> needs hundreds of megs of KDE libraries

Another example of "irrational hatred". In return for a few hundred megs of disk space you get a lot of functionality. Those libraries do much more than just handle PDFs.

For best results, KDE apps should be enjoyed using a KDE centric distro. That way all the pieces can work together, adding up to more than the sum of its parts.

More X subscription tiers could spell doom for free access as biz bleeds cash

Re: Personally, I don't pay for ads.

My new computer with W11 came with Microsoft 365, Outlook, Kindle, Spotify, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Xbox, Movies & TV, and Skype. Then the Bing bar appeared on the desktop, and later Bing search forced itself onto the taskbar. The notification area keeps showing me "recommendations". I find the widget panel distracting and annoying, and then there is the ever-changing, in your face Edge browser.

What's unconstitutional about Google keyword search warrants? Nothing, says Colorado Supreme Court

Re: Privacy vs safety

I envision a vindictive administration going after everyone who spoke up against its leader or voted against him.

Go ahead, let the unknowable security risks of Windows Copilot onto your PC fleet

Consumers

End users are not "Valued Customers". The dominant OS vendors consider them just consumers that must accept whatever they are given. Gone are the days when these OS's were there to run whatever applications the users chose to run. Now they are backdoors into users' lives, spying devices and advertising channels. Expect further intrusion into your private lives if you keep using these products.

These days you can teach old tech a bunch of new tricks

Re: A first?

The major change from 2K to XP was the addition of product activation. The new theme was there only to obscure and justify the "upgrade".

So you want to save energy? Ditch web apps and go native, boffins say

Re: Privacy

A web app only runs when you are using it. My DDG browser clears all data upon exit or after 30 minutes of inactivity. Native apps run in the background, constantly monitoring you. Whenever I need a ride sharing app, I install it, get the ride, and then delete it. If I leave it installed, it keeps spamming me with messages in the notification area.

Farewell WordPad, we hardly knew ye

Abiword is available for Windows. :-)

Re: A win32 demo only.

Beware: OneNote now requires a Microsoft account. If you run it using a local account, it will convert that to an online account.

Intel seems to think Wi-Fi 7 is too cool for old-school Windows 10

There will be a way

I'm confident Microsoft will unofficially allow people to upgrade from 10 to 11 even if the hardware does not meet official specs. Just like the one year "free upgrade to W10" that still works years after it officially ended. They would not want to push people to the free alternatives.

Netflix flinging out DVDs like frisbees as night comes for legacy business

Limited surveillance

I'm one of the holdouts. Been getting discs almost since the beginning. I like that all they know is what I rent, not what, or even if, I actually watch. They can't see when I watch a movie, how much of it, or how many times.

30 years on, Debian is at the heart of the world's most successful Linux distros

apt magic

Today we take package managers with dependency resolution for granted. In the early 2000's, not so much. After struggling for days to get an application working on RH 5.1, chasing down one .rpm file after the other, I decided to try Debian. "apt-get install packagename" did it in seconds. I was sold, and I've been using Debian ever since.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Bad software destroyed my doctor's memory

Re: Completely portable laptop-slash-tablet

Fair point. I plead guilty to US-centrism. Still, if it was my personal data on that easy to lose or steal device, I'd want it to be safeguarded.

Completely portable laptop-slash-tablet

I sure hope that little device device is locked down with a strong password and encrypted drive, and that it is never left unattended when unlocked. HIPAA is picky about protecting patient information.

Soon the most popular 'real' desktop will be the Linux desktop

Re: functionality

In that case, it is not enough to just specify "Genuine Microsoft Office (purchased and activated)". You have to insist on a specific version and a specific OS. Different versions of MS Office are not compatible with each other.

Amazon confirms it locked Microsoft engineer out of his Echo gear over false claim

Re: Keys not yours

Considering the reliability of the Texas grid, raising the temperature to 80 degrees is probably preferable to the alternative: no power at all.

iPhones hook up with Windows as Microsoft’s Phone Link dials up Apple's iOS

Soon they will catch up with Airdroid.

Meanwhile, KDE Connect is all I need and want.

LibreOffice 7.5 update: A great time to jump on this FOSS productivity suite

Good enough

We have LO installed on about a hundred Windows computers. It covers everything that 99% of our users need. Not only does it save a lot of money, but frees us from having to manage a lot of licenses.

As for the remaining 1%, one subscription to O365 on the boss's computer keeps him happy. Except when the credit card expires and it stops working.

Re: Ribbonphile

My single experience with OneNote was when importing some files from a practice we bought. In the folder was a OneNote file that looked like it had an inventory list. I figured I'd give it a try. When launching the program it demanded I sign in with a Microsoft account. I still have an old throwaway hotmail account so I used that. Imagine my dismay when I discovered it changed my local user to an online Microsoft account. Only way to undo that seems to be creating another administrator account and use it to remove the unwanted one.

As for the file I wanted to view: "OneNote can not open this file because it was created by an older version of the program".

Version 5 of the Endless OS enters testing

Re: Agree

I tried to upgrade Mint from version 16 to 17 and it completely hosed the DE. Same thing with 17 to 18. Switching to KDE restored functionality enough to back up settings and files before re-installing. Not optimal.

Don't Zoom off elsewhere: Google plugs video-chat service Meet into Gmail as user eyes start wandering

For personal use, I've found nothing simpler or better than Jitsi: https://meet.jit.si/

Mark Zuckerberg did everything in his power to avoid Facebook becoming the next MySpace – but forgot one crucial detail…

Delete the FB app..

I wish my phone would let me do that.

Adobe will kill Flash by 2020: No more updates, support, tears, pain...

Flash in combination with Flashblock has worked fine for years. Preventing autoplay with HTML5 seems to be more tricky. Hopefully, we'll have good tools to prevent that aberration in a few years.

Building a fanless PC is now realistic. But it still ain't cheap

Been there, done that.

I built a fanless machine back in the P4 days. When the fans were gone, the hard drive noise became obnoxious. Replaced the hard drive with a CF card. Then I could hear a crackling electrical noise which turned out to come from the network card!

In the end it did better with one big, slow turning fan that cooled the whole thing. The steady fan noise was better than the intermittent chatter of the other components.

Remember Netbooks? Windows 10 makes them good again!

My EeePC came with W7 starter (replaced with Lubuntu). Just for kicks, I put W7 Starter back on and let it upgrade to W10. It mostly worked, but with 1G of RAM I did not consider it usable. Mint XFCE does a much better job.

Apple's big secret: It's an insurance firm (now with added finance)

and there not the only ones .. would I now pay £6-700 for a phone no ..when I can get an all round equal for £250 ..if it last a yr it's still cheaper ..

If you don't need an "equal", just pay for what you use. Even an $80 phone is overkill for my needs.

Linux on the desktop is so hot there's now a fight over it

Re: Linux Desktops?

Hardly. Office 365 is not 100% compatible with Office 2012 is not 100% compatible with Office 2007 is not 100% compatible with the Mac versions.