@AlgoRythm Further validating why I use Brave. It’s incredible how many marketing and tracking cookies and scripts some sites impose on their users.

@Parzi Oh! I just saw that after my response. THANK YOU SO MUCH! I’m gonna download this and see if I can make it work!

@Parzi Yes, that was the exact software I used. Core memories unlocked of our “computer room” at home in the late 80s and early 90s. Wish I could find the actual .exe and such to try to run it on an emulator. Lost to history, I’m afraid.

@dontbeevil Several months ago I spilled soda all over the keyboard of a Mac a client had lent to me for a job. I cleaned it up but figured that it was going to stop working soon. It never stopped working. Doing the same to a regular PC laptop will pretty much guarantee you have to replace it. The right to repair issue is different for everyone. If you don’t know what you’re doing, right to repair is useless and you’ll be taking it in anyway. I’m at the point where I don’t get paid to repair my own shit so I take it somewhere else and let them deal with that. I’d rather do that and spend the downtime doing stuff with my family and enjoying life. I used to really like digging into the hardware but not anymore.

@Fast-Nop Which of these are still issues? Or are they all from 5 years ago?

@Fast-Nop I must be an outlier. Since I’ve switched to Mac (2016), I’ve had zero failures with them. And if I have a question I can get a person to help me via Apple Support phone or chat within minutes. Or I can go right to the Apple Store for help (never have to). With Windows or Linux, I’m at the mercy of online forums, blogs, and videos (or the nonces at BestBuy). Every Windows machine I’ve still got or have bought for various needs has had a hardware or OS incompatibility or issue within one year. Linux Mint just failed due to a hardware incompatibility after a version update on one of my old Windows machines so now I have to reimage it or choose another distro.

It’s my wife’s only work laptop. About 6 years old. Never happening. We’ll just have to buy her a new one at some point.

@NeatNerdPrime Cable is fine. Tried other cables and same pattern of behavior.

@dontbeevil 100% sure. Every other machine has no issues. I think it may just be the specific video hardware/driver/OS on this HP. Just maddening that it works fine 50% of the time and totally janky the other 50%.

Wait…ostream’s gone? No more car rants?

@Tonnoman I just assume that every device and OS is compromised. It’s how I get through my day keeping the paranoia at bay.

@dontbeevil I can no longer find even a reference to WordPublisher in any search. It was DOS “shareware” written by a small company (not Microsoft at all) that came to me in the mail on a 5 1/4” floppy back in the late 80s/early 90s. I remember using it for a degree of WYSIWYG formatting to write school papers and such, which is what I’m trying to resurrect. There’s probably no hope of getting it restored completely. Very strange format that seems to truncate or obfuscate the actual content of each file.

@jfuginay Seems to be the same using that command as opening the file in Sublime.

@Demolishun Microsoft suddenly became a non-option for me as the license expired and I'm not paying for Office 365 just to convert files. Ugh. Maybe I can get it and then cancel it on trial or something.

@asgs To me it looks like it was a zipped file or something because some of the content is missing or maybe encoded into other characters. But if you're saying that couldn't be the case and that this is the natural state of the file, I guess the content is hosed. :(

@electrineer Not sure what that has to do with my rant, other than it being where I encountered the information being a site that was started in the late 90s on the basis of humans, rather than an algorithm, curating a categorized directory of websites. In that sense, the irony is palpable.

@netikras I have over 100 of those.

@thebiochemic Someone will figure out a mathematical equation leading to a single-reference time index constant for all the planets and stars. It may even be possible now on a theoretical basis. I’m not enough of a mathematician or astrophysicist to have a clue.

I’m with you. On the current multiverse timeline, he’s on track to make humanity interplanetary. I just hope the goons that want us to be incarcerated on this prison planet don’t whack him before he has a chance to do it. I want to a good-sized contingent of humanity to live on a free Mars, independent of Earthers and their nonsense. We’ll see about them Belters.

@thebiochemic I always wonder about that when watching stuff like Star Trek. I think a universal time system would be the answer but it’s a tricky beast. Based on what reference? Probably something like the galactic rotation cycle.

@IHateForALiving As an American, I’m ashamed of our far left. And of the far right.

@KDSBest Become ungovernable.

@lorentz The persecution complex comes in the form of those claiming to be harmed by previously non-harmful words like "master" in the context of computing. Anyone who can show "standing" by claiming to be part of a grievance group uses a persecution complex as leverage to obtain power over enemies (real or perceived). It's fashionable, even, to have a persecution complex...as long as it's about "correct" things.

@lorentz To be accepted, though, as a functioning member of society and not rejected as a "nutcase" or a "rightwinger" or a "Nazi", you have to be part of the exclusive club of people who gain power and status (or who are simply allowed to be left alone) by using the special language.

@CoreFusionX Reminds me of this meme...

@lorentz To me it has all the hallmarks of a cult: special language, submission, exclusivity, persecution complex, control, isolation, special knowledge, indoctrination, salvation, group think, cognitive dissonance, shunning, identity crises, and appearance standards.

https://think.kera.org/2022/02/...

@jiraTicket Since I first started using computers and learning programming in 1986, I _never_ understood the word “master” to have a negative or slavery/bondage context. It was just not presented that way, either seriously or as a joke. It always did connote a hierarchy, but not one of oppression. Just taxonomical organization. The change of the connotation happened around 2015-ish and beyond when all of our normal meanings of words began to be co-opted by people who wanted the power that controlling the lexicon would grant them. In a lot of ways, it was faster and cheaper than a traditional political coup. You no longer need a military or election fraud. You can simply use the words coming out of another person’s mouth as a sword with which to decapitate them and gather the power they once had to yourself. As someone who has been interested in words and etymology since high school, it’s been fascinating (and frightening) to watch.

“Rules for thee but not for me.”

@SidTheITGuy I was being sarcastic. I know it’s not a flex. Just seems funny to be in such demand by recruiters of so little value to me. One yesterday offered me a full time Digital Something job at John Deere for $28/hr and no benefits. She hung up when I told her I regularly bill $120/hr.

@electrineer In one of my workplaces, 26 years ago, that behavior was not only acceptable, it was hilarious.