The Technology Vent and Rant Thread - Page 84

Quoth · 11-28-2022, 04:15 PM

Dial back was a standard feature on Modem support on Windows NT. At least NT 3.1 to NT 5.x (Win2000, XP, Server 2003 etc). 1993 to at least 2006. Maybe still has it.
In early 2000s the accountant would often dial in and get called back to access Sage Account files. A very secure system compared to Internet access, except governments had backdoors as soon as Digital Exchanges were shipped.

Hitch · 11-28-2022, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The first ISP was Software Tool and Die located in Massachusetts. I did sign up with them back then. You got shell access, email, Usenet, and WWW using Lynx.

I forget the service I signed up for as well. It was similar to CompuServe but better. It was located in California. You could dial in direct or if you had telnet access get in that way. I had telnet access via MIT.

LOL, I used Lynx for years, even into the 2000's.

Hitch

j.p.s · 11-28-2022, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hitch

LOL, I used Lynx for years, even into the 2000's.

Hitch

I used it just this morning to read a page that came up blank in my usual browser.

JSWolf · 11-28-2022, 06:04 PM

I have Firefox setup with two profiles. One is my normal profile and the other is a generic profile with nothing installed. That way I can get to sites that my normal setup won't work with.

Now Lynx is a body spray.

j.p.s · 11-28-2022, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I have Firefox setup with two profiles. One is my normal profile and the other is a generic profile with nothing installed. That way I can get to sites that my normal setup won't work with.

I find reading with lynx a better experience on many pages that "work" in my usual browser. There are also some sites where I simply won't allow javascript or even first party cookies.

DNSB · 11-28-2022, 06:56 PM

My main use for Lynx is accessibility testing. If I can't use a web page using Lynx, the chances are very good that someone with vision issues is not going to have a enjoyable experience.

BetterRed · 12-01-2022, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I'm pretty sure that "both" was just a brief beta period before it was folded into Outlook. A family member still has an email address with the Hotmail domain.

My main email account has been @ hotmail.com since 1996, which is before Sabeer Bhatia sold it to MS.

BR

ownedbycats · 12-09-2022, 02:43 PM

I did ...something... and now my PayPal interface is French. Oops.

ownedbycats · 12-12-2022, 01:53 PM

What a baffling problem: in one of my old legacy programs, non-ASCII characters suddenly don't work, all of them replaced by U+FFFD (the diamond ?).

This thing hasn't been updated in over a decade. I took out some backups from a time I knew it to work and it's broken there too.

EDIT: Thankfully, it just seems to be a rendering glitch; the U+FFFDs only appear in some places (the underlying data looks to be fine) and it works again if I re-enter the characters. I'm still not sure what would've caused it; perhaps a Windows Update changed something or idk.

gmw · 12-12-2022, 04:32 PM

Maybe the system codepage changed?

ownedbycats · 12-12-2022, 06:18 PM

I was thinking something like that - but disabling the 'Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support' didn't work (and though I can't completely rely on my memory, I don't think I've ever changed it previously).

I did find one thing that may be a clue: if I paste in a Unicode character from BabelMap, it produces the notdef glyph. If I type it in manually with the numpad or copy from Windows Charmap, it works.

I've sent an email to the developer of BabelMap to see if they have any idea of why it's different; hopefully that'll give me some idea of whats going on.

gmw · 12-13-2022, 05:01 PM

Do you have some sort of clipboard app installed? (Watch out for things that get installed as an un-asked for extra.)

ownedbycats · 12-13-2022, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gmw

Do you have some sort of clipboard app installed? (Watch out for things that get installed as an un-asked for extra.)

PureText is the only one, and that's only activated on-demand.

The BabelMap author got back to me; BabelMap only copies Unicode directly, while Windows charmap copies both the Unicode and the system codepage.

I did use BabelMap for copying in the past - I wonder why it worked before but not now.

DNSB · 12-14-2022, 11:16 PM

Anyone else here used The Well in the way back?

ownedbycats · 12-16-2022, 02:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I was thinking something like that - but disabling the 'Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support' didn't work (and though I can't completely rely on my memory, I don't think I've ever changed it previously).

I did find one thing that may be a clue: if I paste in a Unicode character from BabelMap, it produces the notdef glyph. If I type it in manually with the numpad or copy from Windows Charmap, it works.

I've sent an email to the developer of BabelMap to see if they have any idea of why it's different; hopefully that'll give me some idea of whats going on.

It broke because my system locale was set to English (Canada), instead of English (United States). Wtf?

12-12-2022, 01:53 PM	#1254
ownedbycats Custom User Title Posts: 10,973 Karma: 75337983 Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Libra H2O, formerly Aura HD	What a baffling problem: in one of my old legacy programs, non-ASCII characters suddenly don't work, all of them replaced by U+FFFD (the diamond ?). This thing hasn't been updated in over a decade. I took out some backups from a time I knew it to work and it's broken there too. EDIT: Thankfully, it just seems to be a rendering glitch; the U+FFFDs only appear in some places (the underlying data looks to be fine) and it works again if I re-enter the characters. I'm still not sure what would've caused it; perhaps a Windows Update changed something or idk. Last edited by ownedbycats; 12-12-2022 at 02:49 PM.

12-12-2022, 06:18 PM	#1256
ownedbycats Custom User Title Posts: 10,973 Karma: 75337983 Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Libra H2O, formerly Aura HD	I was thinking something like that - but disabling the 'Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support' didn't work (and though I can't completely rely on my memory, I don't think I've ever changed it previously). I did find one thing that may be a clue: if I paste in a Unicode character from BabelMap, it produces the notdef glyph. If I type it in manually with the numpad or copy from Windows Charmap, it works. I've sent an email to the developer of BabelMap to see if they have any idea of why it's different; hopefully that'll give me some idea of whats going on. Last edited by ownedbycats; 12-12-2022 at 06:21 PM.

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11-28-2022, 04:15 PM	#1246
Quoth Still reading Posts: 14,025 Karma: 105092227 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	Dial back was a standard feature on Modem support on Windows NT. At least NT 3.1 to NT 5.x (Win2000, XP, Server 2003 etc). 1993 to at least 2006. Maybe still has it. In early 2000s the accountant would often dial in and get called back to access Sage Account files. A very secure system compared to Internet access, except governments had backdoors as soon as Digital Exchanges were shipped.

11-28-2022, 06:04 PM	#1249
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 79,750 Karma: 145864619 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	I have Firefox setup with two profiles. One is my normal profile and the other is a generic profile with nothing installed. That way I can get to sites that my normal setup won't work with. Now Lynx is a body spray.

11-28-2022, 06:56 PM	#1251
DNSB Bibliophagist Posts: 46,190 Karma: 168983734 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver Device: Kobo Sage, Libra Colour, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos	My main use for Lynx is accessibility testing. If I can't use a web page using Lynx, the chances are very good that someone with vision issues is not going to have a enjoyable experience.

12-09-2022, 02:43 PM	#1253
ownedbycats Custom User Title Posts: 10,973 Karma: 75337983 Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Libra H2O, formerly Aura HD	I did ...something... and now my PayPal interface is French. Oops.

12-12-2022, 04:32 PM	#1255
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,818 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	Maybe the system codepage changed?

12-13-2022, 05:01 PM	#1257
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,818 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	Do you have some sort of clipboard app installed? (Watch out for things that get installed as an un-asked for extra.)

12-14-2022, 11:16 PM	#1259
DNSB Bibliophagist Posts: 46,190 Karma: 168983734 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver Device: Kobo Sage, Libra Colour, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos	Anyone else here used The Well in the way back?