I also see a lot of people that come in to have their PC’s fixed because of “viruses” that I am able to make go away by just turning off browser notifications. Which I also just install uBO or uBO Lite on almost 100% of browsers on PCs I work on (even if not related to the task at hand). Also I disable lots of the notifications for browsers and other programs in the Windows 10 and 11 notification settings.

Though I have been seeing an uptick of fucked up malware browser extensions that set themselves as “Your organization” policies that are getting harder to remove. In most of those cases I have found that they replace the shortcuts for the browsers to first launch shit from a self-reinstalling location in the root of C drive and/or in AppData. Shit is very frustrating. Mac OS also has some motherfuckers of hijackers that are even worse to get rid of.

Aside from those, the really fucked notifications come from the AV programs that can’t stop themselves from freaking out users. Like even if the user has for some reason paid for every single up-sell because of those notifications. They still show them shit like “You MIGHT be infected.” Though seeing those things have been great for me to point out how the user should actually cancel their subs since at that point it is just scare tactics and adware (which slows shit down).

If you haven’t, you should try Split Second. Racing game but with wild destructive world traps (you can trigger stuff like a commercial aircraft crashing into the track and stiff like that.

For real! Every time I spend real periods of time with Linux (and a random year with a MacBook Pro a friend wanted to get rid of). It always hits a point where I need to view images and can’t find anything that matches IrfanView. I have tried XnView and it is way too much with regards to the UI and features I don’t need. The most frustrating thing (and this applies to most others I tried) is handling going through a folder of images that are different resolutions. IrfanView has the option to both scale the program’s window based around the image size, and also be set to scale images if the are larger than my display resolution.

It is a very weird combination of those two things that drives me nuts. There are settings in XnView that kind of work but break. Like it might adjust the image that is large, but then the program’s UI will not shrink to fit a small image (the window will just stay large and have large black borders). Or it will shrink the window to the width of a large image, but not scale and the height will still require scrolling up and down to see all of it. The funny part is that I don’t even look at my saved images all the time. But shit is like a hard slam on the breaks at high speed.

I did end up just dealing with the kind of weird clunkyness of running it via WINE while on the Mac as it was my only PC at the time. Which was still better than not having it for my use-case. Just weird how it has been the only image viewer (with mid-level editing options) that has “felt” correct ever since I first tried it out over like 17 years ago.

What we are constantly bombarded with in the capitalist hype train bubble is fucked. Just watching so many corps tripping over themselves to force shit into things that really and truly don’t need (or in shit like health insurance to auto-deny life saving care) is maddening. It is being used without concern over if it is even more than alpha stage. Just like how we see stuff like the games industry just launching games broken as hell as if they are completed and for full price. The stealing of work is very much in-line with capitalism, just as it always has been with regards to physical resources.

But it can have benefits beyond the above stated bubble cashing in and out. It could be very useful in socialist/communist nations. That is because under those systems, the ownership would be collective and benefits shared right back to everyone. But should be carefully applied and not for profits over lives. So really such advancements would make more sense in socialist/communist settings.

Also places like China actually do apply the death penalty to greedy leaders of companies. Which helps compared to the US and other capitalist nations that place those same greedy leaders on pedestals beyond true punishments.

More than likely would mass post “Knock knock…” and wait for the first “who’s there?” reply.

Given the massive take down. I think you mean “I wonder who ‘worked’ in the cartel’s IT department.”

At least that is something that is getting better and better. Though I do hope that if Steam OS and Proton keep pushing things at the rate we are seeing. Maybe Linux will get used enough to justify more devs to make real Linux releases of games instead of just Windows releases. Apple finally getting their stuff able to run things at similar levels of gaming PCs is also kind of helping with breaking out of Windows only code.

It might not be the answer, but I have had some games do very weird shit in the past (AMD GPU as well but on Windows). I found out that some games really don’t like if you have applied AMD settings that override the game’s graphical settings. Do you just have the AMD kernel driver, or have you installed the one with the Adrenalin from the AMD site? If you installed the Adrenalin software, you might want to try setting all the options for the game to only use game settings and not allow the AMD software to take over. If it is the one that ships with the kernel, then I am not sure how to change stuff that might be trying to override the game. Maybe see if there is a Proton version that might be better?

Not the person you were replying to, but you can use Obtainium to check for and install updates from the github releases in a similar way to F-droid.

That sounds awesome! I might have to try that out for my archived podcast eps or audiobooks that aren’t in an audiobook with chapters format already. Shit is annoying to lose my place just because I had friends in the car and needed to put on music.

I think that your example of the App Store and the Microsoft Store is helpful! I work on both systems at my job fixing computers for consumers. The only thing I dislike about the App Store is that it doesn’t let you install things without first signing in with an Apple ID (the spam levels of pop-up messages trying so freaking hard to make you sign in is infuriating). But the MS Store feels like all the worst parts of the Play Store and really fucks things up if it breaks. I will likely remember your reply the next time I think about Flatpaks and Snaps though. lol

I wasn’t aware of Snaps being used in-place of regular installs with apt. Are they shown to be Snaps in the name of the program when using apt search? And if there is a Snap and a regular deb, do they both show up (again if using apt search)?

I am currently only on Linux on my Steam Deck and I do have two RPi’s (though I don’t actively use them) so I don’t have personal current knowledge of differences between Snap, Flatpak, and App Image beyond that A: Snap always brings up lots and lots of hate in comments and B: is from Canonical.

But is it possible that they might choose to use Snap for having more program options due to Ubuntu being such a “mainstream” distro? I know lots and lots of programs do release Flatpaks, but are there more of them or does Snap have more? Real question since I am aware of how heated some threads get with folks being really “fuck Snap” or “it is fine.” Mostly just curious since I am more and more likely to move my main PC to Linux as my main OS after Windows 10 is dead.

Anyone know if they plan to add other parts of the desktop version to the Android version? Would be nice to see at least the calendar. The RSS stuff would be cool too.

I’m over here doing both AND while medicated. Though most of the rage comes from bumping heads with people that don’t have ADHD and keep pulling my attention away from shit. Sometimes the normal “hey check this out real quick shit is funny” or to dump a different problem/task on me. Because I am unfortunately the person that has fixed enough weird shit and they seem to refuse to remember stuff I have shown them (time after time after time). Which means I get stuck having to rush all the shit I was doing before the interruptions and end up staying later than everyone else to not forget what I need to do the next day.

I have begun giving a “me warning” to new folks to let them know that I might come across as an absolute asshole and very short with them at times. But that they should just be aware that I am not actually mad at them personally, and to be direct with me right back if I go too far and say something (like “too far man” or similar) as I will actually try to correct myself.

If the other main Chromium based browsers can figure out (or keep in the instance of having their own extension stores) how to support for V2 extensions. Then it would be easier to recommend replacing Chrome to normies and other folks with those options. As one of the main issues comes down to lots of sites (especially stuff like school or work) doing the modern version of IE and are coded to really only work with Chrome.

I was advising customers to just use Edge if they needed Chrome for those reasons. And a lot of them did since it meant not installing extra programs. Though it is currently hard to recommend Edge due to MS seeming to find more and more “features” to add that make shit really annoying and scummy. It is like they are trying so hard to make it not worth using at all. So Brave and Vivaldi are the new options I tell people about.

Brave’s main downside (IMO) is the crypto stuff maybe confusing/pointless for folks. Vivaldi’s main downside (and upside for users that love it) is how overwhelming levels of customization settings. But they both don’t have their own extension stores. Opera could also work since they have their own extension store. I hate how it and the GX version love to automatically set themselves to launch on Windows startup (fuck all of them that try to do this as well).

Good to see those Cuda Cores finally getting used.

I imagine that most nations would have started doing that extra stuff. Still good to be aware of it since it isn’t something I think about often. And since my friends over there have a different process and might not know off-hand to mention.

That does sound like a pretty big difference, but I guess it makes sense given it has been so long since I went. The only other nation I have visited was Canada, and that was back when you just needed a valid US driver’s license/state ID. I believe they now need a passport. Interesting to see how things like that change over time. Kind of like how we could go all the way into airport terminals to greet people you were waiting to arrive back in the 90s. The “war on terror” really pushed a lot of extra shit into travel.

What are they doing these days that is invasive (I have been wanting to go back to visit friends)?

The only time I have visited Japan was back in 2012 and all I remember was just waiting in a line and handing over my passport to a customs/foreign visitors person. I also might have had a paper slip with my dates of arrival and departure, that I wasn’t bringing in more than $9999.99 in cash, and the address I was officially planning to be staying for the bulk of the time there (and name of my friend that was already living there on work visa). I don’t remember ever being stopped to check my bags or answer addition questions. Though I might have just been lucky to have not been picked for additional checks.