The Technology Vent and Rant Thread

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Only obvious thing it meddled with was my taskbar - it reordered the icons. I have it configured to emulate the old quick launch bar; I drive it with WinKey+<digit> serquences, so the order of the icons is important to me.

Drag and drop lets you reorganize taskbar icons.
______
Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by trichobezoar

I have way too many tablets/ereaders. I kind of miss the days when I read on a simple Nook Touch. Life was simpler then... And I actually enjoyed reading.

And now you don't enjoy reading?

My default reader device is an older 7" Android tablet. The vendor doesn't push updates, so it's stuck at Android 4.4 KitKat, but I don't care. It's used offline, and only connected to the outside world to do things like check for app updates, so security isn't a concern, and it runs the programs I use.

Mostly, it's a dedicated eBook viewer device that happens to be able to do other things at need. Books live on an installed 32GB microSD card, and are placed there by Calibre. I use the open source FBReader for Andriod as viewer. The win for it is that it handles ePub, Mobi, andFB2 native, and PDFs via a plugin, so I don't have to care about eBook format. (In practice, I try to use only ePub.) It doesn't handle titles with DRM, but I don't get DRM encumbered titles and don't care.

I have a couple of other tablets and a recycled Android phone that's not used as a phone - it's a PDA with Wifi and a camera - and FBReader and a subset of my eBooks live on those too.

Essentially, I can read wherever I happen to be, whenever I have a spare moment. The amount I read went up when that became possible.
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Dennis

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

MS might be snooping here - Windows 1803 just turned up, on a Sunday afternoon! :lol:

BR

You got 1803 only now? After it's been out for 5 months, and 1809 is going to be released in about 4-6 weeks? Wow, that's late.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

You got 1803 only now? After it's been out for 5 months, and 1809 is going to be released in about 4-6 weeks? Wow, that's late.

Nuh, for me it's bang on time.

Originally Posted by BetterRed

<snip>

Aside: I'm still on 1709, does any one know if 1803 has been released to the corporate world yet, I have Update set to Semi Annual (i.e. Enterprise) + 60 days.

<snip>

I've since found out that it was signed off for Enterprise release in July. Back in March I recall guesstimating it would be late August or early September before I got it. By my reckoning I'll get the next release in March 2019.

@Dennis - do you really think I didn't know that icons can be dragged around

I'm not sure of this, as it was one of those "Eh, what happened there" moments. When I dragged the Firefox icon up to the top of my taskbar (it's on the left edge) where it normally lives, all the other icons seemed to shuffle into the positions where they were before the upgrade. Could be something to do with 7TT Taskbar Tweaker.

IMO: "Lock the taskbar" should lock the icons in place too, I sometimes move them inadvertently. Same with my browser bookmarks sidebar, I often drag one elsewhere, even out of sight.

BR

[trichobezoar]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

And now you don't enjoy reading?

...Essentially, I can read wherever I happen to be, whenever I have a spare moment. The amount I read went up when that became possible.
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Dennis

I don't enjoy reading as much, I should say. I still read for enjoyment from time to time (Harry Potter)... I think part of the enjoyment (back then) was posting on a Harry Potter fan site, to be honest with you. We were all nerds and that was ok. lol The nerdier we were, the better.

The simplicity of having one dedicated ereader helped... I have to pick a few ereaders--the ones I enjoy using the most--and make a conscious effort to have them near me and in sync. That shouldn't be too difficult; 'just have to make it a priority.

Thank you for commenting.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by trichobezoar

I don't enjoy reading as much, I should say. I still read for enjoyment from time to time (Harry Potter)... I think part of the enjoyment (back then) was posting on a Harry Potter fan site, to be honest with you. We were all nerds and that was ok. lol The nerdier we were, the better.

The simplicity of having one dedicated ereader helped... I have to pick a few ereaders--the ones I enjoy using the most--and make a conscious effort to have them near me and in sync. That shouldn't be too difficult; 'just have to make it a priority.

Thank you for commenting.

I remember standing in line at midnight on release night of one of the HP books (I forget which one) and being very disgruntled at Rawling's decision to not release them in e-book format. [Truncated].

[Blossom]

After last months Windows 10 update now another program I use refuses to launch. Compatibility options does nothing. Uninstall/Reinstall still Nothing. Grrrr ...

Sent from my XT1528 using Tapatalk

[Katsunami]

I wonder what software you use.... I wonder what software's used by people anyway. I use some niche stuff like chess software and a computer-connected chess board, and I run games from the 90's written for Win95/98 straight on Windows 10 x64, with only a minor tweak here or there; I can count programs that were really broken on one hand between windows versions, let alone between minor updates.

[Blossom]

It's a CD burning/image software. I don't know why it worked fine all these years but suddenly nothing. It was released in 2010 so it's not that old. I couldn't get Font Creator 6 to work on here either. It's frustrating. I did get Sims 2 Clean Installer to work though. I had to download some Windows 10 developers tools and make a file that bypass a bunch of Admin stuff.

[conan50]

They want everyone to buy digital--then they rip you off by taking it away

A Twitter user recently received a rude awakening when they learned that Apple had gone ahead and deleted three iTunes movie purchases. To add insult to injury, Apple confirmed that there was no way to reverse this.

https://www.slashfilm.com/digital-movies-purchases/

[BetterRed]

I can count programs that were really broken on one hand between windows versions, let alone between minor updates.

@Katsunami ↑ ↑ ↑ +1

For Windows 7 and 10, I can't recall any monthly update ever breaking anything. Nor did I get any breakages when I went from 7 to 10, I skipped 8 and 9 (aka 8.1). I can't remember what XP was like in this regard, but I do remember applications it would crash far more often than they do now, and BSOD's were quite common. I did think I had a problem with a 3rd party product when I upgraded W10 1709 to 1803, but it was false-alarm/red-herring.

XP broke many old programs, mostly because they exploited "Undocumented Features" that were promoted by certain Windows 'gurus' as a means of selling their books.

Vista broke some more, such as anything that used Column Handlers, the so-called replacement is Property Handlers. Rumour has it that when asked about backwards compatibility, a certain senior MS exec replied "What's that?" My old Toshiba Portégé came with Vista, which is the one of the reasons I decided not to put it on my desktop.

I have had to replace software because it interfered with other 3rd party applications, mainly shell extensions. Qt based applications seem to be ultra-sensitive to 'poorly written shell extensions'. In most instances I've been able to find and switch to a 'better written' alternative without much drama. An exception was an abandoned swiss-army-knife package. I could find plenty of replacements for the features I used, except clipboard management. Eventually, like several years, the Clipboard Fusion developers added features to their product that matched the particular things I liked about the old one - so I was able to ditch the rusty knife.

In my experience browser updates are much more likely to break 3rd party software (extensions, etc) than OS updates. I'm still running Firefox 54 because of Mozilla's deprecation of extensions. Occasionally I run across a site that has problems on FF 54 (eg UK Telegraph), or an updated extension has problems on FF 54 (eg Lastpass). My perception is that my FF 54 with its plethora of add-ons is faster than the latest Chrome with very few add-ons. If I could get add-ons for Edge similar to those I use on FF 54, I'd probably switch to it.

Aside: a friend wants to get a new laptop/portable. Vista aside, I really liked my old Tosh (its video went south after 11 years). So we opened the Toshiba site and found they still have a 'Portégé' range. When I bought mine I think there were 3 models, now there are over 30 - which is absurd. Not only that, for me weight was a major consideration, as it is for my friend; my Portégé weighed in at 9?? grams; the lightest model in today's range is 1.5kg! But I did notice they come with Windows 10 Pro, which gets a big tick from me.

BR

[nferia]

I have much going on in my life right now (health wise) that I could rant about but, I will share my ereader/app rant for now.
I cannot stand how long it takes for a new app to find all my books on my memory card. I will charge my tablet to 100%, and by the time (and this is only IF it works), by the time the books are found I either have zero power, or my books are fighting to find a place on my harddrive/hardware which defeats the purpose of having my books on my extended memory in the first place.
I need an epub reader that will just read the book off my card, instead of importing them into my hardware(tablet). And sort by tags! I know it exists! I had it before I killed my old tablet. Sigh.
And in case you are wondering. I do believe this belongs here, as a gripe because, without my books, I am a mess. I could put Sheldon Cooper (in a state of full-on panic) to shame!
I thought maybe cool reader was the answer... but, it's not picking up my books at all.
I am so stressed out.
I have tried fbreader... which from the description, I was convinced it was the right one but, it appears to access any of those features, I have to pay for it but, the app I had before was free.
I am so... lost without my tag option. blah.

PS... Hi ya'all. I hope your day gets better.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by nferia

I have much going on in my life right now (health wise) that I could rant about but, I will share my ereader/app rant for now.
I cannot stand how long it takes for a new app to find all my books on my memory card. I will charge my tablet to 100%, and by the time (and this is only IF it works), by the time the books are found I either have zero power, or my books are fighting to find a place on my harddrive/hardware which defeats the purpose of having my books on my extended memory in the first place.
I need an epub reader that will just read the book off my card, instead of importing them into my hardware(tablet). And sort by tags! I know it exists! I had it before I killed my old tablet. Sigh.
And in case you are wondering. I do believe this belongs here, as a gripe because, without my books, I am a mess. I could put Sheldon Cooper (in a state of full-on panic) to shame!
I thought maybe cool reader was the answer... but, it's not picking up my books at all.
I am so stressed out.
I have tried fbreader... which from the description, I was convinced it was the right one but, it appears to access any of those features, I have to pay for it but, the app I had before was free.
I am so... lost without my tag option. blah.

PS... Hi ya'all. I hope your day gets better.

What's a Sheldon Cooper?

Hitch

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Hitch

What's a Sheldon Cooper?

A barrel maker going into battle

BR

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by Hitch

What's a Sheldon Cooper?

Hitch

Don't know why I even look at this thread as most of the tech stuff is over my head, but I can answer this non-tech question
Sheldon Cooper is a character on the TV sitcom Big Bang Theory.