Computers

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Microsoft is updating one of Windows 10’s oldest apps – but you won’t like the change

When you consider that Office is one of Microsoft’s big money makers for client side, and the main competition in browser space is an advertising company (Google), I’m not inclined to hold it against them very much. You can always install Libre Office or  Abiword if you really want free.

Rather: I’m just glad that Notepad gained support for Unix style end line markers. Most use I’ve had for Word Pad since the fall of 32-bit Windows has been to view text files that aren’t in DOS format, on machines that aren’t mine, or are in the process of setup. Prior to 64-bit Windows becoming the norm for NT based systems, I’d usually use edit.com for that purpose: but support for 16-bit DOS applications aren’t included in Windows x64.

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Things that remind me 16 GB of RAM isn’t enough for anything: when opening a nearly 1 gigabyte perf.data file in perf report, both takes forever and consumes ~92.5% of memory according to htop.

And somewhere along the way it exits with a message about being killed, and a toast pops up about my WiFi disconnecting. I’m sure the kernel OOM killer had a lot of fun.

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So far I’ve been using an ESR for iPad Pro 11 Case with a surprising level of success. When I ordered it back in October, I found several similar ones, which likely means same thing from the same place with the branding of whoever is paying for the batch, lol.

Generally, I’ve tended to keep my devices naked. Tablets are already too damned hefty for my tastes, and most generic cases add considerable weight. First party ones tend to be ridiculously expensive, and likely due to litigation happy Apple, somewhat hamstrung into sucking.

Pretty much I wanted to solve two problems:

  1. Better protection at work, and some screen protection while its in my work bag.
  2. Be nice for writing position on my desk.
Most of the generic cases I’ve had for my Android tablets, failed because they’re too heavy once you make the generic adaptive frame and affix the cover. Most first party cases, traded cost for weight by using lighter plastics but suffered the same problem. It’s just the first party result was more like sewing pads together than a one piece plastic mold.
As someone who takes care of their overpriced electronics, my interested in cases tend to be less about drop protection and more about utility. If you’re going to toss a tablet out the back of a truck, or have risk of it being pierced by something dropped on the screen, by all means: get a highly protective case. I’d even recommend Otterbox for that.
But for me the protection factor is more like having my laptop and tablet in the same section of my bag, or my tablet laying on a work bench where things may get shuffled around a bit: but even a scratch or crack is like more a worse case scenario. I’ve only managed one damaged screen despite having used tablets since Honeycomb.
The trick that’s made this case sick are really down to the design. It’s magnetic connection allows it to be a very thin, lightweight case rather than one that tries to prevent catastrophe. Plus or makes our very easy to remove without scuffing or stressing the device, so when I want to use my iPad without the case: that’s so easy, I don’t worry.
Throw in how useful it is to have a kick stands like function along with the basic screen protection, and I’ve ended up sticking with it. By contrast, I don’t think I’ve ever managed to get more than a few weeks before discarding other cases I’ve had for past tablets.
The catch, I think has less to do with the cost of integrating sufficient magnets: and more to do with Apple’s inclination to sue the pants off other tablet vendors if they made the same style of folio case. Or least that’s been my feeling since Samsung almost nailed this problem with the Tab S2, but fell shy due to weight and using metal “Snaps” instead of magnets for attaching the case to the tablet. But that’s probably cheaper than dealing with their legal department, never mind actual circle jerking over the idea.
A notable side effect is for generic cheap ass cases like this, for most tablets you’re stuck adapting some kind of plastic frame or similar system. In the case of modern iPads, the magnet thing seems suitably generic amongst iPads at this point.
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On one hand: I try to respect how much care seems to have gone into Steam’s controller. Whether it was an internal Valve team or an external, some real TLC was put into its design.

On the other hand: trying to use it makes me feel like I’ve had a frontal lobotomy, and don’t really feel like my brain cells can ever adjust to it versus a normal controller. Where normal is probably anything in the vein of a PlayStation or Xbox (modern) or Super Nintendo or Genesis (classic) controller.

Yeah, I think it’s going to end up in /dev/closet. Unless someday they’re worth something on eBay.

Progress, probably

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Passing thought on browsing the World Wide Web:

In the ‘90s my greatest bane was pop up ads and file transfers.

In the ‘00s my greatest bane was browser plugins and crashes.

In the ‘10s my greatest bane was cookie notices and on boarding.

As the ‘20s begin, I would like to think this is progress as far as getting pissed off at surfing the web goes. It’s abnormal to have to close a half dozen (or over a dozen) windows when leaving a website, and file transfers tend to complete instead of hoping no one messes with the phone line. Browsers rarely crash, and plugins from hell are mostly a relic today. But pretty much every freaking website puts up a hey pal, we’ve gotta mention these cookies notice, and far too many put up a near full screen pop up asking you to sign up for something.

I honestly have no idea why Don’t Copy That Floppy just started playing in my head.

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A Decade of iPad
https://flip.it/bBeP6L

Personally, I think that netbooks worked out far better than anyone should have expected; and I feel that the rise of the iPad and Chromebook is due to realizing that you don’t need to make a netbook that is a piece of crap. Nor do you necessarily need to spend several grand of laptop just to update Twitter.

Tablets are a remarkable option that is mostly hamstrung by software and accessories. As a docked machine, it’s just a matter of software. My iPad Pro runs circles around my aging Core i5, but docking an iPad doesn’t change the software into a Windows desktop, nor should it.

I find that tablets tend to serve best when you are doing general computery things rather than highly focused tasks. If you’re a heavy user of keys other than alphanumerical, such as modifier based keyboard shortcuts then you’re not going to like typing on tablets. The more efficient you must be at manipulating text: the more you will require a full sized physical keyboard, regardless of your device’s form factor. Likewise if you need pixel precise interaction, you’re probably going to make a middle finger gesture if anyone tries to replace your mouse or track ball with a touchscreen, lol.

In many cases, throwing a keyboard and mouse, or even an external monitor works far better with tablet or phone like software than desktop like software. Don’t believe me? Try using Windows 95 with only your fingers, and then try using your phone with only a keyboard and mouse.

The whole windows desktop paradigm and software designed around a desktop PC does not adapt to a tablet as well as it did to notebooks. But software that doesn’t suck on a tablet, does not necessarily suck on a delete desktop. Software is what you make of it but hardware determines how you physically interact with it.

Most of the negative aspects of my relationship with desktop oriented software is mired in antiquity. I’m sure we would all have done things differently if you landed an Intrepid class star ship on earth in the 1960s than if you tried to grow CP/M into NT, and a host of other histories.

Most of the negative aspects of my relationship with tablet oriented software is mired in quality. I’m sure bug free software does not exist, and will never be the result of Google or Apple, lol. Typically my groan at my iPad is the buggy operating system, much as with Android my problem tends to be Google’s additional  software.

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Chrome OS has stalled out
https://flip.it/ung6rA

Personally, I’ve come to have mixed feelings about Chromebooks but that mostly owes to a mixture of my own tastes and Google’s performance.

Pretty much if you’re happy to live in a full screen browser session, or can’t remember the last time you dragged anything other than a browser window around—Chrome OS is for you, and the appliance factor is a win. Just buy a better model with a better processor than average.

By contrast I’d like me, your interest is largely in an Android powered laptop: you will be disappointed or suffer the same slings and arrows that iOS users do. That is to say things work pretty well but you must avert your eyes from the problems more often than you should have to.

Android actually works pretty well with a monitor, mouse, and keyboard. I’ve done that a crap fuck ton since Honeycomb. Chromebooks offer an easier path to the docked experience, and a tremendously easier path to a laptop style form factor.

But by in large Android on my Chromebook has been far more buggy and glitchy than any Android tablet that I’ve ever connected to a monitor, mouse, and keyboard; and I’ve done that to more than a few! The flip side is that the hardware strain of running Android apps tends to be less than heavy, complicated web applications.

So there are times that a cheaper Chromebook running an Android app can be more ideal than throwing the web app at the same hardware, or more appealing than buying a Chromebook that has a Core M or i series processor instead of dinky Celeron and Pentium processors.

Combined with the limited choices for high end Android tablets, not to mention ones with a true hardware stylus, my Android experience on my Chromebook is chunk of why I decided to buy an iPad Pro—because a Chome OS tablet won’t replace my Android tablet the way it could most people’s Windows beater.

To PowerShell or not to PowerShell

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For the most part, I’ve found it very hard to care about PowerShell. But as time goes on, I mostly look at it with the thought, “Wish I had more use for that”.

Things that I do that require some scripting, and that run on more than unix systems, usually resort to creating .cmd or .bat files to handle the Windows systems. There’s mostly two reasons for that: execution policies and portability.

I don’t really like scripting cmd.exe. As an interactive shell, it’s barely livable but gets the job done. The focus on interactive mode, and the nature of DOS, show through in what can be done in cmd.exe. NT’s modern extensions and so on make it a lot better than COMMAND.COM but cmd.exe is not a good scripting environment, nor a great interactive shell: it just sucks less than its predecessors.

PowerShell on the other hand took some good ideas and largely addressed much of the suck. Exposing .NET even offers the opportunity to solve problems that would call for writing a solution in something beyond bash/ksh, or finding dedicated utilities for. It is really neat the amount of shit you can do in a PowerShell script.

But in the end, the default execution policy is what really keeps me away. Open sourcing and cross platformyness stuff in Core 6.x resolved most of my negative feelings for PowerShell, but it doesn’t suit my scripting needs.

By default: client systems reject running PowerShell scripts, and so monkeying with execution policy is needed. Either to unrestrict it for the current  session or my user. Which makes using it for projects less useful than using the older comspec. Because while cmd.exe is very meh, it doesn’t require any extra monkeying after I’ve git cloned my repo. Yet another thing to do when setting up a system, or document about a code base, that I don’t need.