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beatgammit

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beatgammit
·6 anni fa·discuss
Yeah, and running something like LibraryThing would be quite inexpensive. It doesn't need a lot of updates, there would be minimal problems if a data leak happened (it's fairly open anyway AFAIK), and book cataloging is very light on resources. You could probably get away with a single developer dedicating a handful of hours in a given week, probably less, and hosting would be in the noise as well.
beatgammit
·6 anni fa·discuss
A lot of the poor that qualify for benefits can already get equivalents through family or friends if the program were not offered. If we just give cash, they're likely to spend it on other things and combine expenses where possible.
beatgammit
·6 anni fa·discuss
Well yeah, if someone says, "would ending this program cause you to change or cancel current plans?", I would say yes in the hopes that it would encourage the program to continue. Free money is nice.
beatgammit
·7 anni fa·discuss
Yup, this is pretty much the reason I go with Lenovo Thinkpads. 14" fits nicely in all my bags and is big enough to see two things side by side.

So yeah, Apple is not even on my radar if they don't offer a 14" form factor. I also don't use other Apple products, so there's little reason for me to compromise.
beatgammit
·7 anni fa·discuss
Ideally, we'd have carless urban centers, with only buses, light rail, and small vehicles (bikes and scooters) allowed in a certain radius. This would allow greater density in the downtown area, eliminate most pollution, and promote general health, yet for some reason, nobody seems to propose it. It could even be coupled with free mass transportation in that region, since costs for running such a service would likely decrease (could probably even have it driverless since there aren't as many hazards).

The toughest nut to crack would be replacing trucks, which could probably be handled with either light rail handling goods or truck-only roads completely segregated from the rest of the roads (say, tunnel or overpass).
beatgammit
·7 anni fa·discuss
The scooter companies are free to fund installation.

Honestly, I think scooter companies should be fined for any scooters left in a place that causes problems. It's essentially litter, so it should be treated as such. Scooter companies should be providing some means of locking them up securely and expect their users to use them.
beatgammit
·7 anni fa·discuss
If scooters create problems because they're left out, fine the scooter companies for littering. That will cut into their profits, so they'll either innovate ways to make them less of a nuisance or stop doing business. Banning them makes little sense. Cities can help by increasing availability of bike racks, and scooter companies can help by providing locks on those racks to customers.
beatgammit
·7 anni fa·discuss
If I push it, I can get to my closest bus stop (~1 mile away) in 15 minutes (assuming no waits for traffic, but my legs will be tired. On my bike, it's closer to 5 minutes, less if I push it. If I'm considering taking the bus, you can bet I'll need to factor in getting to the stop. As it stands, taking the bus to my job takes ~40 minutes if I take my bike, 50-60 minutes if I walk, which is really bad compared to my 20 minute commute by car.

I'm a fast walker, but I definitely wouldn't consider taking the bus if it meant walking everyday.
beatgammit
·7 anni fa·discuss
Eh, when does it really matter? The only time I care about speed is when buying something, and the more expensive that something is, the less fast it needs to be.
beatgammit
·7 anni fa·discuss
And that's why I don't pay for it. If Microsoft is going to include ads regardless, I might as well not pay. I'm not pirating, I'm just skipping the license phase of the installer and have an "Activate Windows" tab in the settings.

I used to pay for Windows (have never pirated), but since I use Linux mostly full-time, I don't see why I should if they're going to give me the option to not pay and still get updates. I got a license for my wife and my laptop has one, but I just don't bother for my desktop partition and VMs.
beatgammit
·7 anni fa·discuss
This is one of the reasons Linux is so popular for cloud clusters: it's really easy to completely control updates. Basically, host your own package repository, update on your schedule, then tell all your servers to update as well.

Windows has similar tooling for the OS, but it doesn't have an answer for everything else other than a ton of hand-rolled scripts. If the store doesn't make that easier, the enterprise won't use it. This seems like a huge missed opportunity. It should be trivial for an enterprise to curate the store like they can on Linux.
beatgammit
·7 anni fa·discuss
All they needed to do was get a few popular apps available and people would get used to using the store. On a fresh Windows install, I usually want to following:

- Firefox - office suite (Libre Office for me, Office for my wife) - games (Steam) - backup software - video chat - image/video editing

Some of these could work just fine with WinRt, others don't. If most of my frequently used programs aren't available through a store, I'll complain about the store. If most are and a couple aren't, I'll complain about those apps.

Most apps people want don't currently use WinRT (AFAIK), and many apps probably will never use it (heavy software like games, maya/blender, photoshop/gimp, etc). It's really telling that Microsoft's motivations are when they prioritize the least used platform (and the most beneficial to Microsoft) in a new app store.
beatgammit
·7 anni fa·discuss
I just keep a crappy Windows laptop next to my desktop and use that whenever I absolutely need Windows for something. I don't need heavy software, just sometimes a program to reproduce an issue a consumer has. I have a Windows VM, but it stays off most of the time, and I have a separate disk in my desktop running Windows in case I need something more serious than my laptop can handle (I boot to it once a month or so to run updates).

I've tried making WSL work for me, but I just find Windows gets in my way more than it actually helps. I'm a little sad that I can't use Visual Studio (the number of times I've had to hack together a CMake build to make small change is way too high), but it's not worth the pain of using Windows. How to do X on Linux is usually much easier to remember and faster than the equivalent on Windows, and I spent enough time on WSL/git bash that I just stopped bothering.

Now, if I can get a hackintosh VM going, my life will be complete.
beatgammit
·7 anni fa·discuss
And is that desirable? Why do we want users to know less about how their computer works? Is it really a problem to know that you have a user directory with a bunch of other directories inside that hold certain classes of information by default?

When I open a command prompt (yes, I'm not the average user), I'm in my home directory, and if I create any files or folders, they'll be there by default. To access those files/folders, I used to go through the root of the filesystem (Users -> <username>), but I eventually just made a link in the file explorer to my home directory. Why doesn't that link at least exist by default? I've used enough GUI tools that default to that directory (i.e. WinSCP IIRC) that getting to it should be easy.

I think the reason that "most Windows users don't have a clue" is because Microsoft wants it that way for some reason. People were able to figure out DOS, yet these days giving them a link to their home directory is "too complicated"?
beatgammit
·7 anni fa·discuss
There are other things that lead to driving accidents, like lack of sleep or perhaps even needing to use the restroom. Ideally, a field test would cover most of these.

Someone just over the legal alcohol limit could be less impaired than a drowsy, sober driver, but the former would be more likely to be blamed for an accident than the latter, especially in areas with really low limits (e.g. it's 0.05% here in Utah).
beatgammit
·7 anni fa·discuss
This is great! I usually just do something like [email protected].
beatgammit
·7 anni fa·discuss
But you can't build a pop-up if you don't have access to create new windows, yet you can still be turing complete. For example, WASM is Turing complete, but it can't create popup windows because it has no access to the DOM.

I think JavaScript should have to request access to use browser APIs, and you should be able to disable access to any of all of them. For example, I should be about to disable:

- network access (disables adding script tags, XMLHttpRequest, fetch) - 2d canvas access - 3d canvas access - WASM

And so on, just like mobile apps, but perhaps more granular. The app should also be able to put a note as to why it needs each specific feature.
beatgammit
·7 anni fa·discuss
If JavaScript is an automobile, HTML/CSS is an electric bike. You can get pretty much wherever you want on an ebike, they're safer than cars, more intuitive, and lighter on natural resources. Nearly everyone knows how to ride one, and there's very few surprises, unlike automobiles which are repackaged in all sorts of odd ways (gas on the left or right, or maybe it's electric, car vs truck vs bus). And all that complexity comes at a cost to both the driver (who knows if the car is spying on you) and the manufacturer (need to keep up with the current trends because reasons).

Sometimes you need a car, but usually an ebike will be more than sufficient. Going on a road trip or doing a large Costco run? You probably want a car. Just picking up some eggs from the grocery store or making a visit to the library? An ebike is probably the best option, and is also likely faster (closer parking, can ride on roads, sidewalks, bike trails, etc).

I use a static site generator for my blog and personal web site, and there's absolutely no JavaScript involved. I use JavaScript with a web framework for webapps because otherwise we would need to build a desktop app, which would limit our reach to those platforms we have the resources to support.

I'm of the opinion that you should use the simplest technology that will get the job done. It's far easier to make a static site secure than a dynamic one. It's far easier for a customer to vet your server-rendered site than your pile of JavaScript (nothing runs locally, so they just vet form actions and HTTP headers).
beatgammit
·8 anni fa·discuss
It might be nice to have something like:

Move arrow keys or tilt your phone. When I pulled this is on my phone, I thought it wasn't working until I saw that someone mentioned that tilting it worked.
beatgammit
·8 anni fa·discuss
And it's also more concerning from a privacy perspective since it's the position of something outside of the app (the phone) instead of inside of the app. Mouse coordinates work this way (only get cursor updates within your browser tab content area), so it makes sense to require permission from the user before accessing it.