Download Microsoft Powertoys (not to be confused with Sysinternals). Universal, unformatted text paste available. No more shuffling it through Notepad.

There are a lot of quality of life features in it. All I do now is hit CTRL+ALT+V and plaintext, universally for the most part.

No. That's what Regedit (I use Registry Workshop) is for. There haven't been flat-file text configs since, I dunno, Windows 3.0? Everything beyond that, Windows 95+, it's just legacy jank. I like that 3rd parties refuse to use the registry, especially if it's a portable app, but I wish they'd let you know when they do. And then there's the whole AppData kerfuffle. Is it in Local? Local Low? Where the hell did you put your text config file?!

Many Win32 and AMD64 programs have plaintext configs, as do games. You still need a text editor. But for Microsoft stuff, I highly recommend Registry Workshop. Faster search. Undo. Multiple search windows. Really good stuff.

You can literally tell Notepad to shut it all down. All of it.

Figure it out. It's in settings. The settings keep changing, but you can dock it all down to no-AI, no tab memory, does "exactly what it used to, and no more."

And if that's not good enough for you, get Notepad++ already. It's a much better text editor and can do markup and automatic indentation of code with a closeable tree. Most of what I used Notepad for was editing .cfg, .ini files, and scripts, and I expect that's what many of us do here.

Only people who don't understand computers will need to swallow this. Nerds, if that's still Slashdot, don't have to. Be a nerd. Shut it down.

Exactly. It's not just the cost of production, it's the cost of transportation/POS management/convenience/etc. TCO.

Anyone telling you that it's a bargain is only looking at the numbers... poorly. Poorly because it doesn't save enough money to bother in the first place when we had a $6.8 T budget in 2024. Kilobytes or megabytes on a multiple terabyte drive aren't worth the bother.

I mentioned the scale comprehension problem in its own thread. In a $1.8T discretionary budget (2024), you're talking about saving 1/16th of a peanut by going to coins. It's not even whole peanuts, guy, and 1/16th is charitable; it's far less than that.

$1 bills are fine as they are. We have much bigger fish to fry. You probably want to save at least $10 billion (0.556% of the discretionary federal budget) before it's even worth bothering.

There's no sense making everyone retool and reprice for such meager savings. It would only be change for change's sake (see what I did there?)

The federal budget last year was $1.8 T discretionary. That does not include mandatory items, which brings total spending to $6.8 T. This is worth a few megabytes on a terabyte SSD.

If I did my math right, 0.003% of the federal budget. At two decimal places, it's zero. As in 0.00% of the federal budget.

Big numbers are not big any more. It's a scale comprehension problem of the human brain. Any time anyone talks about how much so many million dollars is saving us, think about your disk drives. This is 56MB on your 6.8TB disk.

If a politician is not talking billions, they're saving us essentially nothing.

Not when it's illegal. If there's evidence, the DOJ should arrest Biden. Now.

Justice is the operative principle here. Did you learn how that works in high school or watching Bat-Man? Demand the DOJ bring Biden to justice if you are so inclined.

Spoiler Alert: There isn't evidence, there is no indictment coming, it's not "turnabout." What's happening now, in 2025, is blatant political persecution that would justify granting asylum to its victims in most countries. Nobody would have gotten asylum under Biden, because he didn't illegally persecute his political enemies.

This guy. This guy literally fired federal prosecutors to find others who would comply in their absence. Should tell you all you need to know. How many Biden firings over a specific indictment? Yeah. None. You clean house at the start of your term, not when a competent prosecutor gives an opinion that opposes political goals.

Lie. There are exactly zero political persecution cases ordered by Biden. That's because he had an independent DOJ. You can rationalize all you like, and think that Google searches reveal only facts (they don't), but there is no "whataboutism" here.

Jawboning social media to bury inconvenient facts and opinions? Yes. Senile old man and a coverup by his partisans? Yes. Stole the 2024 primary with said coverup? Yes.

Political prosecutions? Hell no. That's this administration. It has also pardoned violent criminals carte blanche.

The DOJ brought cases under Biden's term of office (note: Not "Biden's DOJ") because of profound evidence. People assaulting cops and defecating on desks. Someone apparently called and tried to strong arm votes they didn't get because they're a sore loser with severe behavioral health problems. People misrepresenting themselves as authorized electors. True mishandling and hoarding of classified documents. If you have a brain that isn't riddled with misinformation, or maybe parasites, there was freaking coup attempt called the "Green Bay sweep" that was narrowly averted by a just man unwilling to play ball with powers he didn't have. His own (previous) supporters then called for him to be lynched in response.

A violent attack on the Capitol was coordinated with this strategy as "public pressure." One man is on video running through the halls calling Nancy Pelosi's name as if they were Jack Nicholson in The Shining. A Republican senator, who plenty of my friends respect, was captured on video running for his life. There is documented video, audio, and written evidence to support indictments for all of that. Not everyone there was violent - a fair number of them weren't - but they also didn't have the sense to leave.

This was all allowed to happen by an executive that is sending in the National Guard at the drop of a hat to quell dissenters standing around and singing outside detention centers to have their grievances addressed. Actually, I've seen video of them cleaning public parks. Even they don't know why they're there.

It turns out that the people with true TDS are the supporters. You live in a deranged bubble if you truly believe what you say. Reality is a thing. Please walk toward the light. It's how you get out of the hole you're in. I won't assume what sort of hole it is.

More like ignorance. The TPM can be used for good or ill. Windows otoh, will use it for ill.

Actually, it's black death now. They got rid of the "blue screen." It actually does look a lot better, even if it is a kernel panic.

And there it is. Nobody who doesn't have me to set it up (or similar) wants to run Linux.

If I set up a desktop for someone, I can configure it for them. Most Windows users can even run pacman.

And that's why the Year of The Linux Desktop never seems to happen.

I think you missed the entire point of his post. Anyone who stays on and signs this agreement is an "access journalist" in his narrative. They don't do real work, they beg for a bowl of gruel, and will do anything to get it and parrot it.

The "hard-driving gumshoe drunks" are the ones who got us the Pentagon Papers in this narrative, not the "access journalists." He may be describing them as reprobates, but he admires them. They do their work. They don't let mama bird digest the information and spit it into their mouths. They go find the worms and show them to everyone in their full rot and glory.

Get it now?

Good point, but I don't think that's even hit its stride yet. We're talking about 2020-present, and it's not a hockey stick.

I suspect unintended consequences more than AI. That and regulatory capture of some kind. That's the usual suspects.

I don't see this as a troll but an honest opinion. Why is this being downmodded as troll? Do you suspect it was posted by Jimmy Kimmel?

Mod abuse right here. Mod parent up to 2 at least.