by

Microsoft shows off how containerized apps will work in Windows 10X

My interest in dual screen productivity to go, aside, I’m kind of interested to see where this goes. Most of the experiences I’ve had with containers in Linux, be out Docker, or building on top of chroot, have been a largely positive experience. Combine that container concept with the stability of the Win32 ABI, and there’s some viable good sides to this.

As software becomes increasingly long lived, the need to support software no one is ever going to recompile: keeps going up. Not to mention software that no one is ever going to port forward to more modern APIs and tool chains.

by

Popular iOS and Mac email apps scrape inboxes to profit from personal data, report finds [U]

I think that people sometimes forget: this is practically the definition of a modern mail client, lol. Hell, some actual mail services describe this sort of thing as a feature, if you really want to be pedantic.

In fact, it’s part of why I was very hesitant about switching to Gmail many years ago. Because it would place my mail under the privacy policy of an advertising company, and probably one of the most likely ones to unleash SkyNet upon the world in some distant future.

With modern mail clients, now you often need to decide whether or not you trust the company that made your client, not just the folks running your mail servers.

Corker’s on point

by

How I can tell that Corky is the youngest:

When I get home, he’s usually the first in line to greet me at the door. Typically at a quick trot, and a bit of bark. His usual nappy spot is probably on the bed, or under my desk.

Willow’s become smart enough to not get off the couch unless she sees something, or hears something more distinct than the neighbors. Like seeing me walk into the room before trotting over.

Misty is usually cozy on the bed, and will usually whine while dancing up and down the edge of the bed. Because she knows that I’ll sit on the bed to take my boots off.

Misc thoughts from this weekend’s R&R cycle

by

Getting caught up on Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun, I was rather happy to see the festival conclude with a happier note. It’s also nice to see another surprise musical number from Clara and her family, which much like the first, was pretty freaking great.

Netflix’s Locke & Key seems worth watching based on the first half, and Marianne is a horror series well worth watching if you like scary stuff. Take the former for the story, and the latter for the chills.

Kemono Michi has been sitting in my Hulu queue since it started. By the time Genzo suplexed the princess, I was pretty sure it was going to be an entertaining series. And yes, it has, mostly because of his craziness, lol.

by

How much electricity do all your smartphone chargers waste when not in use? | ZDNet
https://flip.it/7Mlu-p

I would expect the era of worrying about wall warts drawing more than a trivial amount of power has long since passed, if you’re running off a major power grid instead of a self powered flight to the moon. Even more so in the case of modern USB based chargers.

by

https://apple.news/AC4plCt9URGKT3kiyM3yN0Q

I think that aiming for the $400 range would be more logical for Sony. Microsoft m really doesn’t need the Series X to be the Xbox everyone buys. Because they’ll still be able to sell you a One S, or whatever the Series S becomes, for those who don’t need the horsepower as much as they want the catalog of games.

Or at least, my expectations based on the Xbox One’s evolution, is that even the original model will likely continue to run many games for the foreseeable future. They just won’t look so sexy. Likewise the One X in the middle isn’t toothless, nor would I expect sold out.

Personally, my interest in the Series X is mostly based on graphics fidelity. I have little concern for what resolutions games on my Xbox offer, for two principal reasons. Firstly, they look fine on my 2160p TV, which is to say a freaking lot better than older consoles targeting 480i; and Secondly, if I really wanted better graphics I’d throw a big assed GTX at the problem instead of a console.

For the price tag, I didn’t really see much point in the One X. 4K resolution is appreciated, but not that big a deal to me. The data posted so far on the Series X on the other hand, suggests there is going to be a big enough leap in raw power that games can take advantage of this for better graphics, not just tone it back to 720p ~ 1080p. What would be worth the upgrade to me, is headroom for eye candy rather than focusing on the pixel counts.

by

I Gave Up My MacBook and iPhone for a PC and Google Pixel For a Week. Here’s What Happened | Inc.com
https://flip.it/bQHv5k

As someone that’s done an Android-> iPad maneuver, I rather found that most of the apps being “Basically “ the same made the experience much less jarring. Kind of like how most of the non-gaming software I use on PCs is the same, regardless of Linux, NT, or BSD, many of the apps I use on my iPad are basically the same as the apps I used on my Android tablet.

Being a freako who used Android as a laptop replacement, and that otherwise has been all PC based, I too found the keyboard shortcuts confounding to the muscle memory. My iPad differs drastically from all my other machines on the shortcut part, due to Apple vs IBM/MS modifiers; and for bonus points some of my PC keyboards will toggle the behavior of those keys based on whether or not they connect to an Apple device via Bluetooth.

by

I find it a tad curious that my habits of journaling and note taking have only expanded with the rise of software.

For a time it was the norm to have composition books and more portable notepads around. Well into my teens, pencils at home were divided by preferences for writing and drawing. A planner/organizer for things more orderly and less notable.

And then there was my relationship with typewriters. I find it ironic and amusing that my keyboard tries to autocorrect that to torturers. Documents more read oriented called for typewriter action, but the tedium made it a rarity because of the error rate. Many years since I last touched a typewriter, I’m pretty sure that handing me correction tape or similar is a good way to piss me off.

Some years after discovering how awesome computers solved my pains with typewriters, laptops would eventually kill off my use for most things paper that involve the written word. But along the way, I’ve come to take increasingly more notes, and journal regularly. Part of this may owe to accumulating age, and necessity, but I feel it has more to do with the ease of editing and collecting data: since the 2000s, I find the sources and subject of things are far more computer related as well.

Also possible that I’m just kind of strange 😝