foobar2000 with the Facets extension, in my opinion, has always been far superior to Winamp. And, although VLC has its uses, I've always found Media Player Classic the easiest for playing videos. YMMV.

That's a much more manageable number, being the amount of energy exerted by an Irish dance troupe per second.

I've never figured out why aspect ratios for screens need to be so weird. 16:9 is a major standard, but for this one it's a widescreen 21:10. Why exactly can't we just settle on a simple 2:1 ratio? That would seem so much simpler and allow for more cross compatibility. (I guess one answer to this is common attempts at vendor lock in, something Apple has been very successful at, but one would think *someone* would have gone this route.)

I think a lot of people just do not consider the implications, or are not concerned about them. For me, the turning point was a couple of years ago when I was chatting with a friend on their porch. He said he had bought a certain brand of western boots and really liked them: they were comfortable and reasonably priced. The very next day an ad for those exact boots appeared on my Facebook page. I dismissed that as a coincidence until I mentioned it to my son, who works in digital marketing. He said, matter of factly, of course, that is how the system works. Google Assistant on my phone picked up on the keyword. Sure, Alexa, Siri, Bixby, and Google Assistant are (probably) not storing your conversations and spying on you. But they *are* constantly listening for not only triggers ("Alexa", "Siri", "OK Google") but keywords to market to advertisers. If that does not bother you, that's okay. But I disabled Google Assistant on my phone after that, and do not want anything like it monitoring me in my home, even though there's really nothing untoward or unusual going on. I might consider something like Alexa if it demonstrably processed keyword monitoring locally, only going online on request, but who would make something like that? No particular profit potential.

I am quite aware that the Earth is an oblate spheroid. And, per my physician's recommendation, I have been fully vaccinated.Yet I still find it troubling that the response to people "spreading misinformation" is no longer "I believe you are wrong, and here is why: please refer to these peer-reviewed studies [include citations here]." We have lost an essential element of civilized discourse, that being the premise that those who disagree with you still deserve respect. I'd say about 80% of the population thinks those who disagree with their worldview are either (a) bad, horrible people and/or (b) utter idiots who do not deserve any respect. And it goes both ways.

For the record, I had COVID in January. Since then, I have been fully vaccinated with both injections of the Pfizer vaccine. I did not say ANYTHING for or against vaccination issues: I was just commenting on the general nature of discourse.

Interesting, isn't it, how today anyone who propounds a belief contrary to the accepted narrative is "spreading misinformation" and needs to be silenced. I remember a time when diversity of opinion was generally viewed as a strength of our society. But then, I'm old.

Um... trying to think of the most popular and profitable export from Scotland... it's on the tip of my tongue...

In the United States, in almost all cases the price is the same whether you pay with a credit card or with a check or cash. Yes, it is certainly foolish to run a credit card balance, but when you always pay off the entire balance every month, it is quite convenient, a useful way to track expenses, and you pay no interest. Sehr gescheit.

Um.. speaking as a lawyer, sure, a paying customer can sue for damages. That's not a great deal of consolation after having your e-mail and address book shut down and inaccessible. Even if you must rely on cloud services (and, admittedly, GMail can be pretty handy), always, always have local backups. I know it shows my age, but I want to be able to get work done for clients even if my ISP, hosting service, and/or Google goes down or is inaccessible.

We've had an old iPad 2 sitting around the house that our son used in high school. It works fine, and I thought it would be useful to use Chrome Remote Desktop to control our media PC, and also to load Google Home on to control lighting. Nope: neither of those apps will even download because the version of iOS is too old, and there is no option to install an older version. (I've looked it up: if I had an iPhone I could figure out a workaround by downloading the apps elsewhere via iTunes. But I do not have an iPhone. And I'm even less inclined to get one now.) It just seems a shame that perfectly usable hardware becomes artifically obsolete.

I have Windows 7 on my desktop and Windows 10 on my laptop, and vastly prefer using my desktop. I like being able to search for files using Windows 7's native search function instead of having the search default to Cortana and/or Websites. If I want to search for something on the Internet, I'll do it from a browser. I absolutely HATE Windows 10 constantly renaming folders I have used for years and years to its own preferred cutesy names (e.g., c:\Data\Documents repeatedly becomes "c:\Data\My Documents"). Despise Windows 10's Start Menu, though at least that, for one thing, is easily replaced. Really loathe constant hammering on me to tie everything into a Microsoft account. I have chosen to use my Google account to synch my schedule and contacts between these and my Android phone, and do not want an additional level of complication with the system having copies of that information as well. Yeah, I know, Microsoft wants to be my go-to buddy for all my information and browsing, and I am definitely aware that Google is little different, but I want to retain options and avoid as much vendor lock-in as possible. (Linux is not an option; I'm an attorney, and have too many things that rely on non-open source software.) Frankly, I think many aspects about use of personal computers have been going downhill for many years now, as vendors keep "updating" nicely optimized software to generate new revenue. That's the way of the computing world, of course. Sure, I know that with some research and effort I can use utilities to customize and/or fix all of these issues, and realize that I eventually will have to adapt. But I am not particularly thrilled with the prospect.

I still tend to go through unfamiliar museums by keeping right and working my way around that way so I do not miss anything. I call that the "Doom Technique" because that's how I would explore various levels in Doom, way back when. Vaguely-related note: I still have the original 3.5" floppy containing its predecessor, Castle Wolfenstein.

Thank you. That (along with "lose" always being spelled with an extra "o" - where in the world did that come from?) is one of my pet peeves. It's "free rein," not "free reign!"* Even though the latter does, at least, make a certain amount of sense. * No, I do not care how many Google hits each particular spelling gets. The original expression is "free rein," and refers to allowing a horse to go wherever it wants.

No, I do not think it is just lies and pipe dreams. I think it, like many things in science, may be subject to wishful thinking and confirmation bias. Fusion energy is, theoretically, the Holy Grail of clean and sustainable energy, but the obstacles to it becoming a practical solution pop up like weeds. Another entry, from my journal: "10/29/78. I was just reading Arthur C. Clarke’s Imperial Earth - about life in 2276 – and decided to write down some of the latest technological developments. 1) Scientists at Princeton have almost achieved a viable way of obtaining power from nuclear *fusion*." At that time, I was eighteen, a sophomore at Haverford College. That was forty years ago: sorry, but when it comes to practical fusion power I'll believe it when I see it. And I would bet a significant sum of money that I won't live long enough to see it.