The Technology Vent and Rant Thread

[John F]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

A week or so back this was reported for calibre 7


Several people reported seeing it too, including me. It's harmless and is goes a moment later. All the fingers were pointing at Qt,

But now I'm seeing something similar when I start firefox. So maybe its deeper, in chrome perhaps.

Anyone else?

BR

Originally Posted by BetterRed

What we're talking about is Google's HTML Layout Engine, it used to be called Blink then they renamed it to Chrome, which is of course the same name as their Browser

...

I thought that Firefox and Chrome used 2 different layout engines?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Comfy.n

The guy in the video says he put a "dent" between the back cover and the fan, I don't know what that is or how to do it, it's so frustrating.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u44iwZCKR08

What he did is at 7:30 in the video. He hit the back casing from the inside to bend it outwards a little, so it no longer hit the fan blades.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by John F

I thought that Firefox and Chrome used 2 different layout engines?

You're right, Firefox uses Gecko.

I 'knew' that as I posted… but decided my memory might be on the blink, and Mozilla had followed MS's Edge down the yellow-brick road to Chrome.

Its not graphics drivers either, I never change them… moonbeams?

BR

[Darqref]

Originally Posted by Comfy.n

I too abominate this an-app-for-each-and-everything trend, but in this case I found that you can log in via any web browser directly to your modem, see:

https://www.centurylink.com/home/hel...-security.html

https://www.centurylink.com/home/hel...d.html#website

except that the fiber is NOT from Centurylink, its from Quantum (which should be related, but the two divisions don't seem to be talking to each other)

I previously had a centurylink dsl, and never ever used either of those methods of gaining access to my old wifi - I just went to the local IP and the local machine's interface appeared. Now, I try that and the web page is created by the company's web site, not the local machine. can't even SEE the local machine. (this actually included both Quantum Fiber, and a similar page from Linksys for the wifi router I just purchased. because it was supposed to be faster.)

These companies are apparently (at least trying to) create their hardware so that you are forced to use their software to manage it. Worked so well for John Deere, that everone's trying it.

I guess I'm not saying it is impossible, but I haven't found a way yet.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

A week or so back this was reported for calibre 7


Several people reported seeing it too, including me. It's harmless and is goes a moment later. All the fingers were pointing at Qt,

But now I'm seeing something similar when I start firefox. So maybe its deeper, in chrome perhaps.

Anyone else?

BR

Windows 11 here with the Firefox 120.1. I do not see the white rectangle. There is no other browser other than Edge. I do get the white rectangle with Calibre 7.x but mot anything else.

[Comfy.n]

Originally Posted by Renate

I guess that they mean to make the back cover a bit more convex at that spot.
Can you see on the inside of the back cover where the fan rubbed it?
I'd probably just take a Dremel tool and grind away a bit at that spot.
OTOH, it could still be the fan's fault that the bearings have loosened and the position of the blades has changed.
If you can buy a fan at a reasonable price that might be a good idea, or at least preemptive maintenance.

Originally Posted by pdurrant

What he did is at 7:30 in the video. He hit the back casing from the inside to bend it outwards a little, so it no longer hit the fan blades.

Thanks for your inputs. I had thought of putting something between the back cover and the components, in order to press down the panel and create more space for the fan, but still can't figure out what kind of part and where to place it. The plastic panel is quite rigid, so I won't risk hitting and breaking it instead of just bending it. Might just buy a new fan, to see if that works.

Originally Posted by Renate

OMG, that's so old! Do you expect things to last forever?

I've also had to replace its lousy 4240mAh battery. Fortunately, I found online a 4730mAh compatible model, which also wears out very quickly, but lasts longer

[Comfy.n]

Originally Posted by Renate

OTOH, it could still be the fan's fault that the bearings have loosened and the position of the blades has changed.
If you can buy a fan at a reasonable price that might be a good idea, or at least preemptive maintenance.

Phew, that worked! New fan is exactly the same, so I guess I'll have at least three years of peace. Thx

[ownedbycats]

"Valve Pleads With Steam Deck Owners to Stop Inhaling Exhaust Fumes" - good lord, humanity is doomed.

[DNSB]

Considering some of the fads that have gone by such as eating detergent pods, sniffing the exhaust vent on a Steam Deck seems relatively harmless.

[BetterRed]

First Water Bizarre

Spoiler:

Originally Posted by BetterRed

A week or so back this was reported for calibre 7

Several people reported seeing it too, including me. It's harmless and is goes a moment later. All the fingers were pointing at Qt,

But now I'm seeing something similar when I start firefox. So maybe its deeper, in chrome perhaps.

Anyone else?

BR

Originally Posted by John F

I thought that Firefox and Chrome used 2 different layout engines?

Originally Posted by BetterRed

You're right, Firefox uses Gecko.

I 'knew' that as I posted… but decided my memory might be on the Blink, and Mozilla had followed MS's Edge down the yellow-brick road to Chrome.

Its not graphics drivers either, I never change them… moonbeams?

BR

The latest release of calibre (7.2) fixes its startup glitch… and, wait for it… the similar behaviour I was seeing in Firefox 102!

Quantum entanglement - a bizarre, counter-intuitive phenomenon that explains how two subatomic particles can be intimately linked to each other even if separated by billions of light-years of space. Despite their vast separation, a change induced in one will affect the other.

Kovid Goyal | California Institute of Technology | Research profile

BR

[Comfy.n]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

The latest release of calibre (7.2) fixes its startup glitch… and, wait for it… the similar behaviour I was seeing in Firefox 102!

hmm, I've just opened the *portable* ff 102, and got the same behaviour. (not that I care)

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Kovid Goyal | California Institute of Technology | Research profile

BR

It's a genuine privilege to be able to interact with him here on MR

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Comfy.n

It's a genuine privilege to be able to interact with him here on MR

And it's a privilege to have such a wonderful piece of software as Calibre for free.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Comfy.n

hmm, I've just opened the *portable* ff 102, and got the same behaviour. (not that I care)

It would appear that Moz snuck a point update past me late yesterday, as I see I'm now on 120.0.1.

But I much prefer my prior explanation - quantum enabled calibre. One of Kovid's papers is titled "Matrix magic : Spin half systems"

BR

[ownedbycats]

A minor vent and rant: Applications that explicitly call Windows Explorer rather than the default file manager.

[Hitch]

A major vent and rant:

I've had it. I've just had it. I am, finally, done in and utterly shot. I have app fatigue. Application fatigue, program fatigue, all of it. I can't take looking at, trying, using, investigating, fixing, another goddamned piece of software or firmware or any other damned thing.

I just can't. This year, we've migrated our website (hopefully, just days away from the launch, who-hah) from a 7-y.o. site to something new that I hope will be more user-friendly. We've migrated from the dreaded Salesforce CRM to Zoho CRM and while that's been a bumpy flight, I'm ALMOST there.

(Don't get me started on how I migrated, manually--yes, copy-paste!--nearly 200 canned emails and templates, and whoops, oh, wait, in Zoho CRM, "blank" doesn't mean blank, it means something ELSE so all of them are bollixed up and have to be redone. Due to incredibly lousy integration between their email module and their CRM module (which are allegedly meant to share templates, mind you, which they most surely don't do well), I get to do them TWICE. Yup, copy-paste nearly 400 email templates. To say I'm ready to scream isn't close.)

In the meantime, I'm trying to make an AI chatbot, NOT for my customers (truly) but for my own staff. So that the bot can read/synthesize all the stuff I've written, over the last 15 years and regurgitate it for them, to then regurgitate for the customers. I hope. The problem is, all these chat bots and AI programs, etc. are geared toward people shoving URLs (website data) down their throats or documents. NOT ME, of course not. NOPE, I have canned articles, written in HTML and in markdown, in buried directories on server-based systems like Salesforce, so there's no way I can just point and click. Le Sigh.

I've spent years trying to get my head around Google, SEO, and all that rot. I pay a silly amount of ducats each year for G ads that, frankly, don't I do bupkus. I mean, NOT BUPKUS. I have never had a "conversion" from a G Advert, as far as I know. (I also apparently totally suck at getting inside people's heads and figuring out what on EARTH they search on. I mean, how hard should it be?)

Anyway, the challenge is that our particular wee niche--which around here, on MR, I know, feels like it's taking over the world, but trust me, isn't remotely as interesting, apparently, as how much makeup Kim K is wearing on any given day--has the search volume of things like "images of a platypus' anus." I mean it.

On a GREAT day, a GREAT day, for search volume, our niche will have maybe...10. yes, 10 searches, entirely, world-wide in English. TEN. Ten whole people. Yowzers, who can NOT make a zillion dollars doing that?

I had someone on the phone the other day, telling me how lucky I was to have 8K customers and all that. Yeah, it'd be great if they all wrote 1-2 books a year, (or even if only 25% of them wrote one!) but guess what? They don't. We're like the restaurant in a tourist town--we have to constantly, constantly find new customers.

Nobody sits around and reads up about book designers, formatters, etc, before they need one! We're like the cancer doc--ain't nobody looking him up, until they need him. And then, it's not like they come back to see him unless they have a recurrence (book 2 of the series!). I'm not complaining (okay, so I am complaining, I admit it) but it's a bit like being the Great White Shark of the oceans...keep moving to eat and breathe. You stop moving (finding new customers, day in and day out), and you DIE. (I think that part is an urban myth, about how Sharks have to keep moving or die, but you get the drift. For us, it's absolutely true.)

So NOW, I'm sitting here with all these ridiculously costly PPC and keyword and yadda programs, allegedly gonna tell me what "keywords' to focus on for adverts and all that, trying to keep things moving along (chomp chomp chomp, water over my gills)...and I realize that I can't think of much that I hate more than this sort of thing.

UGH. And oh, yeah AI. Do not get me going on AI and all that. It's like, i can't breathe for AI. And I think a lot of what I see is fantastic, don't get me wrong, but I feel utterly overloaded. A short time ago in my life, I didn't know what a Discord was, and now I'm on it all the time. Why? Well, because I have this AI program and that one and this beta and that one and oh, yeah, this other one for search keywords and...

AGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGH!

I really really really need to retire. I do. I can't see the daylight. sigh.




Hitch