Recent submissions

Comment · 2 years ago
This is the only reason I have any experience with these apps. When MS sunset Money and compatibility started to get wonky, my in-laws were at a loss at what to do. We never did find an alternative. They do however have a seperate Win 7 PC just for Money, which at there age isnt a huge problem but for others that is not viable long term.
Comment · 2 years ago
It is charming in that it has that mid 90s utility design.

It is absolutely frustrating because it has that mid 90s utility design.

I don't think I have seen any other utility hasnt really progressed on interface design like GNUcash. Like they built a prototype went "Nailed it!" And then moved onto back end stuff while ignoring all input from users.

Comment · 2 years ago
This is boarder line a 'choose your own adventure' style thing. It is so stupid it had to be done!
Comment · 2 years ago
That is a very fair assumption nowadays. I was not raised by the internet simply because I could not afford to even have it in the home until I was in my early 20's. Still remember the weeks after youtube being launched! The internet was that thing I had 30 minute chunks of from the local library. So it was always at arms length. Something that felt like a negative then might have been a positive in a way. The internet was this very positive force, a tool not an obsession for many.

I do worry about those nowadays that are "raised by the internet". I see the stream of influence that social media is having and I have to remember than for many people, this is all they have ever known of the internet. There is no other context. Many viewing this stuff are smart folks, but when that stream of media becomes like the air, many can be tugged in all manner of directions and now even realize it.

In the same manner of drugs, try not to turn them into a diet. The internet is a wonderful tool but a questionable 'way of life'.

Comment · 2 years ago
I have seen efficiency figures vary from as low as 0.1% upwards of 10% but it seems difficult to quantify.

My shoot from the hip intuitive thought is that the massive amount of plant matter it took to make petroleum demonstrates how inefficient it is to get energy in that chemical state. A fools errand to try and do it over.

It has been said that Coal/Gas/Oil is a half billion years of stored solar energy. That is wildly inaccurate for many reasons, but even if we are using a few thousand years of stored energy, that is still a wide gap to cover.

Comment · 2 years ago
Pretty much. The only pipes in the arctic tundra are oil pipes actively trying to stop this freezing process.
Comment · 2 years ago
I guess playing this on the Mega Drive/Genesis I already knew I was being short changed. Also to have that much storage back then would have been life changing. I remember having a 120MB HDD in 1991 (?) and it felt like you would never run out of space. That was until you had both Doom and Doom 2 on it a few years later and combined took up about 30% of total storage.
Comment · 2 years ago
I have said it many times before. You could fill a library with all the problem that BASIC leads too. But at its core is a message that is missing a little from modern computing - the ability to jump in and just get something simple built quick. The idea that you control the machine even if it is slow and sludgy.

This also goes a lot for the leap from command prompts to GUI's. You trade off control for functionality and that is not necessarily a bad thing. I just wish it was easier to get back to a middle path on this. Many have tried but it all seems a little too fragmented.

Comment · 2 years ago
I had not thought of that. That is probably very likely. They can keep their public mantra of "privacy" to keep people coming to them but without the burden of tech development. Higher ups like that equation.

It is probably inevitable, I mean if even Microsoft couldnt fight off Googles browser dominance, what hope does Mozilla have long term.

Comment · 2 years ago
Yep, despite the best intentions, once you have a funding stream it can become a controlling force on the overall direction of a project.

The alternative is to either have the user pay for it or have little to no funding which is a dead end in its own fashion.

Comment · 2 years ago
Can we just appreciate the 3rd grader humor of the name.

Like a calculator app a friend made called the 'Crapulator'. It lived up to the name but not in the same fashion as the 'wrongulator'.

Comment · 2 years ago
While I can see Mark stepping away from direct action in politics simply because it is exhausting. Unfortunately his wealth is an indirect means of politics.

Money is a token of power, billions in the bank influences politics.

Comment · 2 years ago
These are all a very fair points. Of note at least there is no giant leap on possibility. By that I mean there isn't a step with '?' in it.

But there is a big gap between what is technically possible and what is economically possible. Yes, with a limitless budget, they could probably over come the technical issues. But can it be done within a budget limitation.

I am with you however, I am very skeptical we will see this happen but more than happy to be proven wrong. It is easy to say something, it is the doing that matters. Amateurs talk strategy, professionals talk logistics.

Comment · 2 years ago
As an aside, immunotherapy is pretty neat stuff. My fathers bladder cancer is in remission thanks to it.

Yes, there are still some issues being worked out (possibility to cause diabetes) but it is just neat to see in action. The medical field is one that still seems to be making these kinds of leaps. It is wild seeing some diseases that only a decade ago were a death sentence or had extreme solutions now becoming treatable.

Comment · 2 years ago
I do worry about the future of IA. Simply because of some of their reckless moves with their book lending policy, they have opened themselves up to being bleed dry financially. That plus the amount of copyright infringement openly available on the site is just waiting to be attacked.

I am waiting for Nintendo to get wind of the huge ROM dumps on there, it is not going to pretty. No manner of 'moral high ground' will defend against lawyers.

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