The big issue in 2003 was all the viruses and pop-ups, which is largely a thing of the past. Not that viruses don’t exist anymore, but working at a college help desk in that era… it was bad. People had so many viruses and they would pop-up ads non-stop when the system was just sitting there.

I went with Synology for my Plex sever. I chose to use a docker container to run it instead of the normal Plex server app they have available. I found some YouTube videos on the setup and it was fairly straight forward. Now that it’s setup I rarely have to think about it, other than the occasional update. I now have to update the docker image instead of just letting Plex update itself.

I went this route because I didn’t want to have to maintain a desktop for my Plex server, which I had done since Plex was first released. But I also didn’t want to have a new sys admin hobby just to watch some videos. Rolling my own raid felt like it would end up that way.

Doesn’t everyone learn in school that utopias can’t exist.

Joe loves dogs and hates cats, Susie loves cats and hates dogs… utopia over.

It’s valuable for Microsoft to have their own line of hardware to help push new software features that require different hardware. They have tried with other OEMs in the past and it hasn’t worked that well. The Surface was their effort to show the industry what direction they had in mind for hardware when they were designing new versions of Windows. If AI will require, or enable, new hardware, having their own hardware division is important.

The article mentioned them cutting the Surface headphones. It doesn’t seem that out there to utilize some AI/ML into headphones, Apple is already doing this with AirPods.

While they may feel they missed the wave of mobile devices, if AI is going to enable new types of devices, Microsoft’s position with OpenAI could give them a huge competitive advantage, but they need an established product line to tie it too. Android is now bigger than Windows. Microsoft365 is primarily used by business users. There is a massive market they’re going to miss, or they will need to partner with someone else to bring things to life. If/when that happens, I can only assume the hardware OEM will be what everyone associates the tech with, not Microsoft… unless the make the branding really obnoxious to the point everyone hates it.

Microsoft is notoriously bad at building brands. The Surface line was one people actually seemed to respect. It’s sad to see they’re going to pull the rug out from under it, but not that surprising.

Stuff like this is why I have a lot of trouble buying into a Microsoft ecosystem. It seemed like with the Surface line they were finally starting to stick to something and letting to evolve and build a brand, even if it wasn’t an instant company changing hit. But then new shiny AI comes along and they start making cuts to everything else to fund it, because they’re terrified a missing another major tech shift, like they did with smartphones.

What good is the AI if they don’t have good products to stick it in.

Musk didn’t invent the electric car, but he did make it cool, which was ultimately what was required to get it into mainstream adoption.

Electric cars and hybrids were always weird looking and slow, which gave them a stigma that most people didn’t like.

Elon shows up with an electric car made from a Lotus, then makes a family sedan that looks pretty normal and puts up super car numbers. That makes the electric go from a hippie option to tech that enables a better, faster, more fun cars for everyone. The whole fuel saving thing is just a bonus.

A person doesn’t have to be the original inventor of all the underlying tech. Sometimes all it takes is packaging things in the right way for people to start caring about it. This is what Steve Jobs was good at too.

You’re not a very good motivational speaker.

My comment was in reply to the, “we’ll take what we can get,” comment. I’m saying all you’re getting is a photo op by someone running for reelection. Nothing more.

That doesn’t need the rail strike for additional context; it stands on its own. So your reasonings about the rail strike are irrelevant to the point I was making. My reading comprehension is just fine.

My comment had nothing to do with the railroad. You know how this stuff works. There’s an election coming up, some advisor says this would be a good opportunity to win some union support, so he stops by and shakes his fist for a minute. He doesn’t give a shit.

You’re getting a photo op to try to convince people he cares, that he will forget about the second it’s no longer politically useful for him.

She was taking the biblical approach. The next step was probably to cut the kid in half.

If something is trying to force me to use an app I don’t want, I don’t give my business to them. Also ignore any financial incentives they try to get you with. You save a couple bucks once and they have you.

• “Download our app and save 10% on your order.”… no.
• “Sign up for our email newletter and get a discount.”… no.
• “You need to download our app to order.”… no
• “If you download are app you can track your order to see when your package will arrive.”… no.

Say no. Fuck these businesses. If they have an app that is useful and you want it, ok, but if they are trying to push it on you, it’s a trap. Fuck em.

I assume this is in response to the military going much easier on recruit and not screaming in their face all day, in an effort to attract more people.

It happens at the White House pride event just a few months ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWSy77yCeRo

It sounds like there was a big issues organizationally. I’m dealing with very similar issues where I’m at. For my stuff, the tech is easy, but we can’t get anything done because of poor management and project management. As the tech gets harder, those organizational issues are going to make things even worse.

I’m surprised this kind of issue isn’t impacting all their products. It seems hard to believe that it’s localized to one project.

There is an argument to be made that technology, specifically phones, have become so easy to use that there is no requirement for Gen Z to become tech savvy. Even though they grew up around it, their tech is simple and user friendly with all the complicated bits hidden away. When everything seems so easy and doesn’t require much thought, it leaves people wide open to be a target. I can sign up for an Apple Card on my phone and be using it in less than a minute, how will someone differentiate between that at a scam? People who didn’t grow up with this ease still have that thing in the back of their brain saying, “this shouldn’t be this easy,” which can give them some pause and make them check things out… at least that’s what happens to me. I default to not trusting anything.

I don’t think this is new. This is why the iPhone didn’t have Finder on it for a looooooong time (now Files in iOS and still dumbed down). Jobs talked about how the last area of complexity to solve for was the filesystem, because a lot of people didn’t get it. That’s probably what led to Spotlight on macOS. This is probably why the first versions of iCloud locked files to app-specific folders and it was basically useless for general file storage.

I always found it interesting that his solution to people not understanding the filesystem was to effectively get rid of the filesystem (from the user’s point of view), but when it came to people not knowing how to use keyboard, he said death would take care of it.

Shipping in a smaller box also helps the environment. The ability to ship more mattresses in less space means less emissions to transport each mattress.

Just this week?

I stopped following them back in 2015 after they posted this.

https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2015/4/6/8352957/justin-bieber-ferrari-laferrari

He’s probably excited for the possibility that he will end up in a future song, which he’ll take as a compliment (you only roast the ones you love), instead of the diss that it actually is.