The Technology Vent and Rant Thread

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

Why would you expect a game that is only listed as Windows compatible to setup the Linux version of DosBox?

The fact that it works at all without doing anything on Linux is a miracle.

It's not at all Windows compatible

[Graham44]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Interiors look good. Oblivion Gates look really good. But the rest of it looks like they're having a drought throughout the land.

Make Cyrodiil Green Again

I've got to admit watching that video I think I preferred all of the original shots - but that could be nostalgia.

On a side note did anyone else note that a lot of the plants in Oblivion are real plants and look like their real counterparts?

[ownedbycats]

"I wonder what's taking up so much space in—"



Okay, what the hell is this? And why the last modified is before last created? And why so big? (global-messages-db.sqlite is 29 mb.)

[DNSB]

Looks like a message backup from an email or chat program. The created date is often when the file was copied while the modified was when it was last changed. I've attached an example where I just copied a file from C: to D: on my Windows computer.

[Freeshadow]

Originally Posted by Quoth

The removal of AND & NOT in search was evil as is returning all the junk they "think" might be useful. Amazon stores now seem to be the worst.

AltaVista.

Oh yes, from the times on they started to ignore boolean operators in searches every search engine turned into crap catapults.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

Oh yes, from the times on they started to ignore boolean operators in searches every search engine turned into crap catapults.

"Crap catapults" is a pretty good description of the state of the technology.
You can put things in quotes and Google will just remove them.
Or else you'll get some annoying snow monster ice fishing.

[Renate]

OMG, talk about tilting at windmills...

On Windows I have a program that I installed that didn't create a "Start Menu" item.
One would think you could go to Windows File Explorer > New > Shortcut
Nope, it ain't there.

So I thought, I'll make a cute little program, I'll give it the link and the target and it makes a "Shortcut".
Well, the "Shell Link" is pretty well documented but it uses "ID Lists" which are not documented.
There are sites that show some details.

Originally Posted by MS docs

Data: (68 bytes, offset 0x007D), <68 bytes of data> "test"

How do they manage to fit four characters in only sixty-eight bytes?

The standard is bloated, the links already in use are bloated.
What is necessary and what is bloat?
Finally I got it all to work.
My lnk files are ~200 bytes while most that you'll see are 1k.

Yeah, I know that there is some way to do this in "Power Shell" but I hate that.

If anybody is interested I'll be putting this on my site once it gets polished.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Renate

OMG, talk about tilting at windmills...

On Windows I have a program that I installed that didn't create a "Start Menu" item.
One would think you could go to Windows File Explorer > New > Shortcut
Nope, it ain't there.

...

This happened to me recently on a "locked down" computer.

Used File Explorer, right clicked on the file, and no "Send to Desktop". Took me a second, then I remembered that it was Windows 11 and had to click on the more.

I've disabled the "more" options on my home PC and have the good ol' pre-Windows 11 options.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by John F

Used File Explorer, right clicked on the file, and no "Send to Desktop".

Yeah, but I deleted "Desktop".
Why would I want icons under everything else?

I like my "Hot Keys" (CTRL-ALT-letter):

C:\>hotkeys
A  Command (Admin)                 All Users     Start Menu\Programs
B  Beagle                          All Users     Start Menu\Programs
C  Command                         All Users     Start Menu\Programs
F  Firefox                         All Users     Start Menu\Programs
T  Thunderbird                     All Users     Start Menu\Programs

Unfortunately, even after a few decades, Microsoft is as stupid as ever.
It sends a Hot Key to everything to see if there is any interest.
Unfortunately, some things are inactive which means that they don't respond.
There is a 3 second timeout since in the 21st century waiting 3 seconds with gazillion cycle processors is completely normal.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

"I wonder what's taking up so much space in—"

Attachment 215153

Okay, what the hell is this? And why the last modified is before last created? And why so big? (global-messages-db.sqlite is 29 mb.)

JWZ ranted about this database nonsense in the Netscape/Mozilla products something like 20 years ago. sqlite is probably better than Mork. Probably. But stuffing email messages into relational databases is still a terrible idea.

[ownedbycats]

I figured it out. Thundebird has a message indexing for search. I disabled it at some point.

I tried re-enabled it and I can see why. Its not very good. I prefer Agent Ransack's indexer (it's smaller too).

[ownedbycats]

I go through password manager and close old unused accounts. Two, in particular.

1. I'd rather keep it blank. It wouldn't allow me to.


2. An online service which I'd never entered my name into was as some point bought by some third party. They required my full name to close account. OK, guess my legal name is Your Business, None of.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Renate

Yeah, but I deleted "Desktop".
Why would I want icons under everything else?

...

I thought you wanted to create a shortcut? Sending it to the desktop creates a shortcut.

[Renate]

I just want it to appear on the Start Menu.
Also, if a link is there and has a hot key it is accessible with a keystroke.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Looks like a message backup from an email or chat program. The created date is often when the file was copied while the modified was when it was last changed. I've attached an example where I just copied a file from C: to D: on my Windows computer.

That's what I though too. Some e-mail programs store all of the e-mails (and by extension backups) in a single file, rather than storing the e-mails as individual files. Although it might be a way to reduce the total size the file, it has the weakness that if something happens to that one file all the e-mails might be lost.

Added: Some programs create extremely large files. An example of this is MS Word. As a test I created a one-character Word Document and saved it. I checked the file size and it was 32kb.