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My rule of thumb is that the best application or device is the one you don't realise you're using. We use things generally to get something else done, and not for the "using" itself (though obviously there are exceptions to this).
I'm finding, however, that software is becoming louder and more aggressive in its "look at me! Aren't I doing awesome??" way of being.
This whole trend was started with antivirus software which used to pop up every 15 mins to tell you how safe you are, and how scary the world would be if you didn't keep paying their subscription. Then Windows Defender came along and quietly destroyed that market and did the world a favour. It just sat there, doing its job, and letting you do yours.
But now it seems every time I open an app there's a splash screen for its new point release, or a modal dialog pointing out the new shade of turquoise in the toolbar, or a tour walk-through of a feature that you could care less about. More and more and more.
I'm wondering if this is because
- The economic climate is rough and so everyone is clamouring over everyone else for market share. As products get louder other products get louder and so others get louder. GOTO 10.
- We're all market fatigued so to get our TikTok-numbed attention you have to shout
- It's a marketing trend that everyone follows because everyone else is doing it, with no actual evidence it helps, and even if it does help, it's being done wrong by devs who don't actually understand what they should be doing. See also: cookie warnings.
- I'm old and crotchety and need to lighten up and understand software has insecurities too. It's just a phase.
I have another rant about advertising in Operating System (Hi, Microsoft) that I'll save till the chocolate kicks in properly.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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And this is just the beginning.
As AI becomes more prevalent the first to make full use of it, after DOD of course is the marketing crowd.
If you've ever been to one of those streets where the hawkers are in front of their place of business with the pitch to draw you in; hey buddy we got the coldest beer in town (not really what they're pitching but I'm being KSS) then you will understand what's coming.
Every time you pass a store you're phone will go crazy with the; hey buddy we got the coldest beer in town...
The marketers will research new ways to use AI to gain access to your wallet, to confirm take you deserve that cold beer.
Market fatigue?, Market Burnout!
Definition of a burocrate; Delegate, Take Credit, shift blame.
PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.3.1 JaxCoder.com
Latest Article: EventAggregator
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Chris Maunder wrote: The economic climate is rough
Ding ding ding. We have a winner. Peeps in power want to stay in power, so they'll tell you one thing (there's no recession) while actually doing another. Even Google is terrible with this now. I get ads in my Gmail... that I pay for. It's Google's own crap, so apparently that's cool...
If we don't resist it, and when the economy eventually turns around, it's not like tech companies will magically stop it either. As long as users let them get away with it.
Jeremy Falcon
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Jeremy Falcon wrote: I get ads in my Gmail...
Wow! I've never seen a single ad in Gmail - and I only use the free version. Admittedly, I get less than 5 messages a week so I'm probably not ad worthy.
/ravi
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Yeah, it's for new Google "features"... come try this and that. It's not always free stuff either. It's in bad taste IMO.
Jeremy Falcon
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Chris Maunder wrote: The economic climate is rough and so everyone is clamouring over everyone else for market share. As products get louder other products get louder and so others get louder. GOTO 10.
And it might get worse[^]
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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The world is becoming too noisy mostly due to software, especially mobile apps with their constant notifications (turned on by default?) and update nagging, not to mention the mobile devices that also provide their own share of notifications/nags.
The noise extends to other system as well such as desktop. The OS and most apps on it are checking their versions against the mothership too keep you up to date and secure...still you get notifications about tons of unimportant stuff. A good example is SSMS, which I have now on 3 different development systems and multiple servers. If I had a dollar for every update notification from SSMS I've seen, I could retire. Shame on me for not worrying too much about a tool that rarely gets any fixes/enhancements. (Query Designer still can't remember a layout between views, a feature that even Access has had for over 20 years) Visual Studio also nags for updates, but not as much.
Dealing with cell-phone calls, zoom meetings, and update nags during working hours, it's nice to get home and unwind...turn on the TV only to be informed that an update is available, though usually if you can find the remote fast enough you can skip...until the next time.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
"Hope is contagious"
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Using Win11 at work, and they have a "software center" that notifies me at least four times per day when it's installing new software, wants to install new software, or has detected new software somewhere within 5AU of earth.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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I think the trend started more with having training built into the program. Instead of a separate manual, which nobody reads, the program should be "intuitive". However, "intuitive" is very subjective. With standard UI rules being expandedbroken (FIFY) by mobile, sometimes people needed a little help to learn how to use the program. Having a quick 30 second tour of how to use a program could make the difference between someone immediately uninstalling it because they can't figure out how to use it and having a happy customer.
That then grew into "look - a new feature" because if the user doesn't know it's there, then it will never get used. People are creatures of habit. If I never go to that particular menu, then I won't know that a new menu item is there.
They teach this in software UI/UX classes at college.
Bond
Keep all things as simple as possible, but no simpler. -said someone, somewhere
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Besides the fact that it is a emotionally charged contemporary classical piece of music.
I think that someone has a sense of humor as this is Sweden's First Contact with NATO, picking the main theme to Star Trek First Contact seems apropos. 
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That poor guy getting sopping wet holding the flag... Nobody was civilized enough to share an umbrella?
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I learned something today: Bracketed-paste
I'm spending more and more (most, actually) of my time these days in macOS, Ubuntu and Debian, and that ^[200~ appended to the text I paste into terminals has been driving me nuts (though I'm loving Ubuntu - which is not what I expected).
Is it just me or is bracketed paste an attempt to fix a small inconvenience for a few by means of adding a major inconvenience for the many?
Anyone else learned something trivial and bizarre this week?
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Chris Maunder wrote: Anyone else learned something trivial and bizarre this week?
I learned you're loving Ubuntu. Not sure if this means the world is about to end though. 
Chris Maunder wrote: I'm loving Ubuntu - which is not what I expected
Real talk though, Debian is awesome (or its derivates I reckon). It's my daily driver for WSL.
Chris Maunder wrote: Is it just me or is bracketed paste an attempt to fix a small inconvenience for a few by means of adding a major inconvenience for the many?
Well, Unix, and Linux too since it was inspired by Unix, has design choices that date back to the 60s. So, ya know, bell hops and burger joints with a side of Unix was all the rave.
Chris Maunder wrote: Anyone else learned something trivial and bizarre this week?
Haven't learned anything crazy this week, but I can offer you some good old fashioned torture. There's Linux From Scratch to play around with too. Where you build everything, and I mean everything, from source. This ain't Gentoo either, they don't hold your hand while you build. It's gonna be rough. Fun Raspberry Pi project though.
Wouldn't actually build a distro unless it's like for an embedded device, but sure is a "fun" learning experience.
Jeremy Falcon
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Again, taking the term 'fun' to optimistic heights hitherto unexplored. There shall seemingly never be a glass half-empty for you!
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David O'Neil wrote: There shall seemingly never be a glass half-empty for you!
Oh, you'll hear me complaining.... I promise. 
Jeremy Falcon
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I'm finding Debian a little too rough around the edges. It feels like it was built by engineers who are more focussed on the system than on what the system can do for users. Ubuntu is slick. Things generally just work, I rarely have to go in and do something unexpected like pull an OpenSSL git repo then build and install it. It's like walking into a house and realising you're going to have to finish the plumbing before you use the bathroom.
I'm also getting more lock-ups on Debian than Ubuntu. Not a single issue with Ubuntu on my Dell laptop so far. In fact, more stable than Windows 11 so far. Plus there are some apps (eg Slack) that just don't seem to be available (at least on casual inspection) on Debian, but are present and accounted for in Ubuntu.
I just want my OS to be invisible and let me get work done, and Ubuntu has been a huge breath of fresh air in that regard.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Chris Maunder wrote: I'm finding Debian a little too rough around the edges.
I should say, I use Debian directly for a server environment. That being said, I've used a KDE desktop on it with no real issues outside of KDE quirks. Buuuutttt....
Chris Maunder wrote: Ubuntu is slick. Things generally just work, I rarely have to go in and do something unexpected like pull an OpenSSL git repo then build and install it. It's like walking into a house and realising you're going to have to finish the plumbing before you use the bathroom.
That's where projects like Ubuntu or Kubuntu shine. Not to discredit their work, but they essentially take the base distro and ship it with a crap ton more drivers, etc. Unbuntu runs slower on older machines when compared to the same version of Debian directly though. But, if your machine is beefy enough, totally get it. It's the Macs of Linux.
Btw, I promise you don't have to build OpenSSL for direct Debian... I swore.
Chris Maunder wrote: I'm also getting more lock-ups on Debian than Ubuntu. Not a single issue with Ubuntu on my Dell laptop so far. In fact, more stable than Windows 11 so far. Plus there are some apps (eg Slack) that just don't seem to be available (at least on casual inspection) on Debian, but are present and accounted for in Ubuntu.
If you get a lockup on Debian it's driver related. Maybe the wrong one is installed. Who knows. And you're totally right about Slack. Dunno why Slack doesn't make a direct download for it, but since Unbuntu is just sugar coated Debian, Debian runs the Unbuntu version (I've done it)... provided you got the requirements installed. Not an out of the box experience though, you gotta earn it.
Chris Maunder wrote: I just want my OS to be invisible and let me get work done, and Ubuntu has been a huge breath of fresh air in that regard.
Yeah man, Unbuntu/Kubuntu is great for stuff like install it and get on with life. Debian if you want to tinker or are a masochist. If I used Linux on the desktop that much, I'd probably be using it too. I'm in server/console land though.
Jeremy Falcon
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I am seriously looking forward to a raspberry pi and some funfunfun with linuxfromscratch.org 
J’veux qu’on rie
J’veux qu’on danse
J’veux qu’on s’amuse comme des fous
J’veux qu’on rie
J’veux qu’on danse
Quand c’est qu’on m’mettra dans l’trou?
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This annoying paste thing can be fixed by putting this file in your home directory on the target machine:
+ cat .inputrc
set enable-bracketed-paste Off
+
It is documented in man 3 readline
modified 1-Apr-24 10:48am.
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I owe you a beer
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Wordle 1,016 5/6*
🟨🟨🟨⬛⬛
⬛⬛🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟨🟨⬛⬛
🟩🟩⬛⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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Wordle 1,016 4/6
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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Wordle 1,016 3/6
⬛⬛🟨⬛🟨
⬛🟩🟨🟩⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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