PostThisTooFast

VBX controls were the thing that most closely fulfilled the promise of object-oriented programming: "off-the-shelf components that can be used to bolt an application together."

Then there was WordBasic, a Word-specific implementation of Visual Basic that really kicked ass. You could build full applications in the word processor, to do tons of things we take for granted today.

I wondered that too, but isn't that pretty much what pistons are required to be anyway?

It seems like this thing could rev really high, since there's no herky-jerky motion.

Yes, Alt-Tab is a HUGE improvement over Apple's implementation because it not only restores minimized apps as it should, but can also create a window for a running app that lacks one (with Finder being a critical example).

Apple messed up its Alt-Tab implementation with one simple blunder: It doesn't restore minimized apps. I tab TO an application, but when I'm done I minimize it out of the way. But then you can't Command-Tab back to it, because Apple keeps it uselessly minimized.

The music industry (in collusion with Congress) killed DAT with this same specious argument, when everyone knew that "perfect digital copies" were the LEAST-likely vector of attack on their industry.

The obvious and dominant form of music copying was with double-cassette boom boxes in dorm rooms and bedrooms around the world.

And in the end, the media publishers' lies about "perfect digital copies" were proven to be just that, as profoundly IMperfect MP3s became the real threat.

And the bullshit tax on blank CDs, which came later.

The article makes a critical point: We already PAID for the right to download this material, and have been paying for decades.

Also, I've known several friends in bands. So far I've never heard of any of them receiving a check for blank-media taxes collected "on their behalf."

"designed on a 24x24 pixels grid"

They're vector-based, so how are pixels involved?

The other problem is people not capitalizing abbreviations as they should. You see even major news organizations doing it. The entire nation of Great Britain appears to think there's a space agency called "Nasa." Ignorant AF.

What are we to make of that warning? What shortcomings do you think people will find?

They just passed a similar (actually worse) couple of laws in California, allowing up to 10 units where a single-family house stood.

In a place like CA, this is a corrupt developer handout. It removes approval requirements for developers and targets already-residential neighborhoods. And this is in the midst of another epic drought. These properties will cover even more ground with concrete, worsening water loss and wiping out trees.

Meanwhile, massive former-anchor-tenant stores like Macy's sit boarded up in dying (or dead) malls. But did the California government target disused COMMERCIAL properties for redevelopment into high-density, walkable residences? NOPE. They didn't even try that before voting to destroy existing residential neighborhoods.

They're not going to ramp up a production-line option and do the QA on an ill-advised touchscreen computer for your edge case.

And people who prefer computers should be very, very happy about that; because touchscreens on computers are stupid.

That's not true. Numerous home video recorders by that time had flying erase heads that could make clean cuts.

Another thing that seems dumb about the investigation is that they went to a warehouse district because the background looks like a warehouse door.

A warehouse door THAT SPINS AROUND? Really?

With crack investigators like this on the case, is it any wonder it was never solved?

"You're posting too fast. Please slow down. Thanks."

TWO HOURS AFTER MY LAST POST? Up yours, assholes.

A few of us (and probably a disproportionate number on this site as compared to the general public) undoubtedly download and archive interesting material for just that reason.

I wish there were a very good conversion utility to download sites and convert them to PDF, especially for Mac. If there is one, I don't know about it. I've resorted to either printing the "reader" version to PDF from Safari, or copying and pasting into a word processor.

Most open-source graphics software is crippled by dogshit UI.

So far Blender is not. I'm impressed.

Amen! I remember frame-advancing the LaserDisc over and over to study how they resolved the shot at the end.

What does that mean?

This is the authoritative source of the most-widely-used mod: https://deskthority.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2510&start=

Yeah, this is woefully out of date. There are several more-recent mods for the Model M.

Yeah, it's pretty cool. I am tasked with developing a new API and communication method for a bunch of networked devices that run embedded Linux. Initially I focused on MQTT, but have since decided to define an API in OpenAPI and implement an HTTP/REST-style interface because that's well understood and easily supported by third parties, whose APIs we might want to integrate with or provide a translation layer for.

But the devices need to alert a controller application to status changes... which so far I supposed they would do by POSTing REST-style messages back to that application. Do people combine REST & MQTT?

I don't see why this is better than simply implementing a table like this yourself.

No, it wouldn't. The sensor is an imager. The back end, which interprets what it delivers, should be separate.

This is more petty Apple bullshit.

So freelance workers are banned? Contractors are banned?

Wow, what a "victory."

Yes, I would think this as well. If your company is known for dicking over your dealers, then no one will open up a dealership for you.

Then again, Apple dicks its partners over and hasn't suffered much.

Let's face it: The company did the right thing for its clients getting rid of a dumb-ass, even if it cost them $65K.

Unless, of course, it was all a ruse to simply avoid being fingerprinted (and one would think that the company would've sought evidence... such as church attendance... of being a "devout Christian"). In that case... not such a dṳmb-ȧṡs.

How is it a "great modern OS?" Internally?

Because its UI and user experience are a shitshow. Settings are scattered everywhere. Windows have no toolbars, title bars, or borders to distinguish them from the one they're overlapping. Menu bars are missing. There are access-prohibited shadows of user directories all over the place in Explorer. The color-scheme editor is simply gone. It's still full of peek-a-boo and Easter-egg UI, with controls disguised as text or simply invisible unless you accidentally roll over them.

And my favorite: Microsoft has disabled remote desktop access except in its "pro" version. Gee, Microsoft: Your contention is that a PROFESSIONAL is the most likely customer to need someone else to log in and help him remotely? Retarded.

When my parents have an issue that I could log in and solve, guess what? I can't. And no, Microsoft, I'm not "upgrading" them to a "pro" version of your broken shit. I'm going to buy them a Mac, and that's the end of Windows in any of my family's homes. And this is coming from a former Windows enthusiast / professional developer / Mac scorner.

You don't realize how unusable Windows has become until you try to set someone up on it. Its E-mail program is absymal, defective in design and function. Outlook isn't included anymore. If you do make the mistake of installing another glorified spam conduit, Office 365, you'll be treated to defects that literally render it unusable to some people: I increased the system-wide font size for my parents, but Outlook didn't honor it. E-mail subjects in the In box remained microscopic and illegible.

And of course there's the endless goddamned harangue to log in with your Microsoft account. A huge portion of the population is laden with an ever-growing pile of accounts and passwords. An account to log into your computer. Another for E-mail. Another for Apple products. Another for your cable provider. ENOUGH. They have no idea which one I'm asking for when I need to get their password to help them with something.

It's easy for the Hacker News demographic to forget that PEOPLE DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS MESS. And so they are writing down their IDs and passwords on Post-Its and putting them on their computers. They are using the same password on every site that demands that they use an E-mail address as a user ID, because they think that this is required.

Then the users feel dumb and blame themselves for problems, which pisses me off even more. They're being TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF BY MICROSOFT and others, rendering their computers essentially unusable and their security at risk. It's disgraceful.

People put up with it, and we all suffer. Google recently shat out a similarly offensive update to Android TV, so now the only UI on people's $4000 Sony TVs is 1/3 advertisements for stuff the user often doesn't even have access to. Disgraceful.

Thanks for that info. I have one of these records!

The entire canned TLD system (and ICANN't) is a scam. TLDs should be abolished (except for the ones that are still enforced, like edu, mil, and gov), and you should be able to register anything.anythingelse.

Trademark violations would be handled as they are today.

The current mess is an embarrassment.

And yet Windows 95 (and all Windows from 3.1 to Vista) let the user set up global color schemes that were inherited by all applications. I set up a "dark" mode in the early '90s and used it until Microsoft inexplicably REMOVED the entire color-scheme editor... just as everyone started to realize how dumb inverse (black text on white) color schemes are.