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Comment Trying to create a more stupid user (Score 4, Insightful) 368

As a computer enthusiast since the DOS days, I so much hate Microsoft's Windows 10 philosophy. Every move they make is one where Microsoft attempts to chip away at a user's ownership of his or her computer. Microsoft creates a new problem by taking away a user setting - like deciding exactly when he or she has the time to update the computer or their work is sufficiently at a stopping point to risk an update. In doing so, Microsoft introduces a whole host of new issues such as temporarily bricking users' devices, rebooting in the middle of their work, running the hard disk full, or causing updates to run when a user really needs to get out of the office. Then, in order to fix the problem they created, they take more control away from the user and allocate unusable user space just for Microsoft to have extra space for more bloated updates.

The paranoid part of me doesn't believe Microsoft is doing this to fix the update problem at all. Instead, they're allocating 'hidden space' on the drive to capture user sensitive data and store it for later uploads to Microsoft when the laptop/desktop is connected to the Internet.

Comment Re:Boo hoo (Score 2) 427

Pretty sure they are being malicious rather than incompetent.. That whole saying (Hanlon's Razor) is basically the opposite in the tech world. When Google/Microsoft are making a UI that they know millions of people will use every day, they are thinking 'fuck you' to a very specific set of people for a very specific reason. IMO, Google does it to control thought process and censor what doesn't fit their narrative. If they were transparent about videos they removed, they would include more information like you're looking for in the interface.

Comment Re:Boo hoo (Score 1) 427

Why can't Microsoft just allow a filtering system like 'compatibility mode' that just removes unnecessary elements from a web page like Adblock? Make a popup that says 'Microsoft recommends Youtube Layer for this web page' when you go to Youtube. Then, Google's random changes that screw the Edge browser are completely negated. It should be up to the user to decide what elements he or she wants to display or use their bandwidth for anyway. Maybe Google did these evil things - but I also expect Microsoft to purposely program things incompetently as possible. It's clear that Microsoft's priorities are not to give the user a good experience but to change and break random shit for the hell of it with every update in order for Microsoft to look like they're the ones staying ahead of everyone else.

Either way.. both these companies consist of some of societies' worst people and they're run by the world's biggest assholes. Let them go to war with each other rather than 'make peace' because Google and Microsoft making peace will only serve to make everyones' lives worse.

Comment Re:Improve Everything Please (Score 1) 347

I'm definitely on the side of TV manufacturers since they seem to be embracing new technology and pushing it forward - and working to deliver higher resolution video with better framerates. The idea of 24fps being part of the 'artistic medium' is bullshit. Maybe in something like a Wes Anderson movie that applies - but for every action movie, higher framerate shows more detail.

I don't give a shit how a director intended for me to watch a film.. I might be watching it on a state-of-the-art 4k screen in my living room with perfect lighting and high quality sound - or I might be watching it on an Ipad in an airplane. The director should make the film as high quality as possible unless the point of the movie is to be lower quality because of 'ART'. I'm just sick of 24fps somehow being 'the standard' in movies when it clearly isn't enough to not look choppy when cameras are moving around.

Lower quality never makes anything ART; it only excuses bad artwork.

Comment Improve Everything Please (Score 1) 347

The reason TV makers are doing interpolation is that 23 fps or 30fps (29.97 or what the fuck ever) just seems fucking choppy when people nowadays are used to 60fps minimum for most video games.

Then, we have most people taking video at 1080p (or releasing it at 1080p or less despite it being filmed in 4k). Also, we have horrible cable companies (even shitty Verizon with their shitty application of fiber and their shitty people) compressing the already shitty signal to even shittier levels or services like Netflix compressing in new weird ways. Add in shitty upscaling by TV manufacturers and you go from 'decent but not that awesome original video at low fps' > 'shitty cable company compression' > 'shitty streaming compression' > 'shitty upscaling to 4k at high fps'.

It's not just interpolation as the problem.. Corners are being cut in every step of the process; government is too slow to regulate; government is too inept to enforce; cable companies are shitty; filmmakers/producers aren't releasing source in high enough quality; broadcast is behind the times.. Basically, there's huge room for every step in the process EXCEPT TV manufacturers. We have 1080p and 4k TV's in damn near every household capable of displaying video much better than most of the 'original source' that gets released at step 1 of the whole process.

Another thing I wanna bitch about is how everything needs to be 'streamed' rather than downloaded. Fucking let the end user download the whole show or movie and it can be displayed with total perfection no matter what the bandwidth. Instead, we have interruptions in TV or movie night because the internet connection had a hiccup.

In other words.. I want 4k video - and we hardly have 720p being broadcast. Then, that 720p is compressed with noticeable artifacts into CRAPP-P. So Tom Cruise is totally nuts complaining about interpolation when he should be complaining about every step in the process except what TV manufacturers are trying to do to fix the problem. Interpolation might be 0.01% of the issue.

I'll admit I'm not Tom Cruise's biggest fan.. but it's hard not to like the guy for trying so damn hard at everything.

Comment Re:Why not use free repair under warranty? (Score 4, Informative) 79

Not everything is covered under most warranties.. If I decide to replace the icemaker in my fridge after my kid broke it, I shouldn't lose the compressor warranty because I repaired a part my kid broke that has nothing to do with the other parts.

Comment Consumer data policy - everything gets hashed (Score 2) 117

Imagine a consumer data policy where every user has a hash key they can revoke at any point which would leave data encrypted anywhere he or she has shared it. In order to display an unscrambled picture, the social media site or other tech company would run the user's saved key against another decentralized key authority (like the Bitcoin blockchain or one of the many other crypto blockchains). The user could revoke the key by having control over the decentralized address and remove the designated social media site's individual user key.

Then.. for the law.. Make it illegal for any site to store unscrambled/decrypted photos, video, or other media of user's specifically encrypted content. So, a user could share unscrambled pictures to Facebook.. or encrypted pictures to facebook with an unlock hash key..

I don't have the idea completely thought out.. but ultimately a user should have control over his or her specifically private shared data. Specifically private shared data would be any data shared explicitly to a single party with no intent to distribute to everyone. ie: sharing data to only my 'friends' on Facebook

Comment Re:Intel. Just say no (Score 1) 373

Wouldn't a 'security microcode patch' be something similar to a recall on a vehicle? Like.. how far would Ford get if they had a recall that took a toll on gas mileage and you had to promise not to publish the updated gas mileage if you accepted the recall?

Someone needs to hurry up and just publish some results.. I wanna see how much my servers are going to slow down because of this.

Comment Re:How about not blowing away work? (Score 1) 277

I was using the Internet at a hotel connection to download a rather large file that I NEEDED for work the next morning.. Windows 10, despite me disabling everything I could possibly find for automatic updates (including registry edits), decided that it had to update about an hour after I fell asleep. It totally fucked my day. I ended up having to pay for increased data on my cell phone provider to complete the download - and my project didn't get finished on time.

Microsoft has an attitude problem. Every user of Windows 10 would prefer to have the option of 'update when I fucking feel like it' and Microsoft will jump through hoops as to why they just cannot give everyone what they would prefer to have. I promise you that someone will die because Windows 10 will update on a mission critical piece of equipment at some point - whether in industrial or medical - and I hope Microsoft is held liable. It should not be difficult to disable updates if a particular system does not need those updates for security reasons.

Comment Re:Here's a thought: (Score 5, Insightful) 428

$50-60k/year is garbage for a skilled technical field that requires travel 100% of the time. Pay the pilots more and the shortage will go away. Also, the airlines should start paying for training programs if they really want pilots - just like other industries need to train operators for manufacturing plants, IT staff, or maintenance workers.

Comment Windows 10 - buggy and half-finished by assholes (Score 5, Insightful) 200

More than any other OS, I would say Windows 10 has a buggy and half-finished feel to it. The way it puts 'unidentified' SID's all through the registry - and Microsoft says you can ignore the numerous errors in the system logs.. or the way it always seems to decide to interrupt your work and install gigabytes of updates - and keep extra gigabytes of 'backups' in the windows.old folder..

I swear the biggest problem is people not holding Microsoft accountable enough. Microsoft should be getting their asses sued off by everyone and their mother. Whether it's 'software as a service' or not, they should not be able to override user preferences with impunity - or shut down industrial or medical systems because they miscalculated on an update. It's one thing if they install updates automatically - it's a totally different thing if someone disables those updates and Microsoft overrides it and returns all user settings back to their default every update. Or, if Microsoft just decides they're entitled to all of your screenshots, keystrokes, and contacts list.

Besides the bugs, the GUI is inconsistent and has shitty performance. It feels like you're opening a web page browser window when you navigate any of the new style of menu. There are at least 3 different distinct styles of menus and certain settings are in some or all of them. For example, there are mouse settings in the old style control panel and the new settings menu - and they aren't even the same settings - so you have to go to both.

It cannot get the resolution perspective correct in any manner.. And, if you set it the way you want, it might be returned to shit after a reboot - or you plug in a different monitor - or you remote desktop from a 4k monitor on a tablet that THEY designed. The fonts are hard to read no matter what - unless you have an old shitty low resolution monitor. Also, updates cause you to lose settings.. like you cannot make fonts bold in the menus after the latest Windows update.

Windows 10 forgets and re-arranges user settings. Did you move the 'documents' folder? Windows 10 might just decide to delete wherever you moved it to and move them back. If you use OneDrive, plan on re-installing at least once a month.

The snipping tool is a big flaming piece of shit. If you capture a screenshot and then click 'new' screenshot, your existing screenshot right in front of you disappears.. So you can't just have multiple screenshots sitting on your screen at the same time - unless you take the time to save each one. Fuck that. Nothing should ever delete your existing work just because you clicked 'new.' Instead, it should open in a NEW window and keep your existing one.

The way they install updates as if they are entitled to controlling you is unacceptable. Everything about it is the opposite of common sense. For example, updates typically install when you want to turn off your laptop and take it home - nope.. sorry.. you gotta fucking wait. Don't turn off your computer or we'll break it. Have a laptop you use only once or twice a week? It'll decide to waste your battery doing a bunch of bullshit rather than just let you get your work done. I know it's not supposed to interrupt you in the middle of anything - but I have had it interrupt me in the middle of playing a PC game against friends. WHAT THE FUCK.

I use it since I have to support it (secondary to Mac OSX). It pisses me off every day. No one on the Windows 10 team should feel proud of the shit they help create. It's taking computing in the wrong direction. It's making computing less reliable. The philosophy of Windows 10 is shit. The fundamental design is shit. The people that work on it are shitty people. The people that stick up for it are ineffective people who have never experienced software that was designed well.

The really sad thing is that almost all of it could be fixed by doing the following:
1. Allow the user to have control over his or her computer again
2. Allow the user to HAVE CONTROL OVER HIS OR HER COMPUTER AGAIN
3. FUCKING ALLOW THE USER TO BE IN CONTROL

Comment Fucking Intel Monopoly (Score 2, Interesting) 87

While AMD is absolutely kicking ass - especially when you consider its market cap compared to Intel or Nvidia - I see an industry that is plagued with implied 'tit for tat' arrangements unwilling to piss off Intel.

We're seeing all sorts of 'bargain-bin' consumer laptops with AMD processors - but we're really not seeing business-grade laptops available at all using AMD. The industry knows Intel is basically stuck in the mud and AMD has it beat for a while. Meanwhile, no one dares build a laptop with such business essential items like a docking station, durable build, and customization.

In any other industry, we'd see tons of new high-end models if the competition got better. In this industry, we see laptops limited by the unwillingness of the industry to build what everyone wants. Remember when Steve Jobs was so damn disruptive with the Ipod? He basically just built what everyone wanted at the time while the music industry (and players like Sony) refused to build anything with mp3 for an embarrassingly long time. I wonder how long it will take until someone is disruptive in this space.

I can't wait to upgrade my 3 year old Macbook Pro.. but there is nothing available right now that beats it across the board. I don't want to 'upgrade' to a bigger heavier laptop. Nor do I want it to have less resolution or battery life. I want what everyone upgrading a laptop wants - more processing power, more cores, more memory, hard drive space, speed, etc..

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