Great Moments in Computer Programming

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

And while I've made a living supporting Microsoft operating systems over the past 25 years, a big kudos to the team that decided new installations of Windows 10 Home would not only require an Outlook.com email address, but also a phone number so it can text you a security code while you're installing it. Nothing could be more convenient when setting up a laptop for a friend's kid than knowing that someday in the middle of night they're going to trigger something that's linked to my cell phone number which is now embedded in this laptop.

How do they get around that for corporate or government installations? I have this thought that you're going to one day get thousands of text messages sent to your phone with the project you've been working on?

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

And while I've made a living supporting Microsoft operating systems over the past 25 years, a big kudos to the team that decided new installations of Windows 10 Home would not only require an Outlook.com email address, but also a phone number so it can text you a security code while you're installing it. Nothing could be more convenient when setting up a laptop for a friend's kid than knowing that someday in the middle of night they're going to trigger something that's linked to my cell phone number which is now embedded in this laptop.

ANNNNNNND by the way, I always had respect for you, your work, your line of work and your expertise. But I have even more respect since we've had some Microsoft stuff make its way to our work.

It's bad out there. I have developed an instinct where I can pretty much tell won't work when it's by them. Anything remotely complicated or anything with what I would call a "second step" I know won't work.

I don't know how you do it, but you are superhuman in my eyes for being able to do it.

(And I genuinely never wanted to be one of those guys that hated MS just for the hell of it. They published Flight Simulator. There was DONKEY.BAS. They were a company involved in the computer movement when I was a kid. There should be nothing but positive nostalgia because of that.

I did read recently that they used rank and yank for yearly reviews. (A system where the bottom 10% of managers and maybe regular employees get unceremoniously fired each year no matter what.) I've read that it may contribute to how nothing plays well together with Microsoft products - why would anyone in Group A want Group B's stuff to work correctly? It's a terrible management system, and Jack Welch, who was posted in the Dead Thread, loved it. I wonder if we're seeing the effects in software to this day.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Maybe we should make one of these just for Microsoft stuff -

[RealNC]

Seriously, they did that?

Did you think that two-factor authentication was invented for security reasons? The only reason it exists is as an excuse to get your phone number. We know that since Snowden happened.

[AArdvark]

I never thought about it before, huh. Glad I never gave my number out.

THE
PARANOID
AARDVARK

[Flack]

https://www.howtogeek.com/442609/confir ... -creation/

It looks like there's a way around it if you disconnect from the internet (which you need to be connected to get the updates and stuff).

But yeah, to reload Windows 10 (Home) for this kid I had to create an Outlook account, and then add a second account, and then put it my phone number so it could text me a code before I could continue.

[Casual Observer]

Well, someone finally did it, the new job only uses MacBook Air's so that's it. After first week and a half my hatred is burning hot for this thing despite the fact that its super thin and the keyboard has a pretty satisfying feel. I hate the decisions Apple has made to promote it's vision/ecosystem/walled garden, etc:

1) less buttons, I don't care why they relentlessly minimized the number of physical buttons and interfaces of lots of their devices nor do I remember if Mac's always were this weird about buttons but fuck them. No Backspace key (delete is actually backspace unless you hold fn when it becomes delete but in neither case does it seem to back up to the previous website in chrome and it doesn't seem to have the same setting to enable this as on a pc). No home, no end, just have to learn stupid combinations of keys. Hey Jobes/Ives, less buttons doesn't make it easier for users, it's for yourselves.

2) Seemingly intentionally handicapping chrome, for example chrome doesn't get those stupid three color icons (red X, yellow, green). Chrome won't run uspto.gov search but Safari will. For the website issue I probably need to make sure chrome is updated and has all it's java and shit updated and enabled but i'm going to blame at least the interface problem on Apple wanting to fuck Google out of it's browser on MacOs. No, I won't use Safari. Ok fine, I'll only use Safari when I have to.

3) Seemingly kinda buggy UI. Put the cursor at the top of the main screen and sometimes the Apple menu bar shows up and sometimes not, when Chrome is the top application. The secondary monitor background chooser app shows up without any way to close it, I have to drag it down off bottom of the screen. The "Activity Monitor" is not super helpful. I seem to remember old Macs at least consistently would show the basic application control icons. I get that part of this is I hate learning to do it Apple's way but this whole experience seems way worse than today's PC's versus how much better Mac's seemed compared to PC's almost three decades ago when I last used a Macintosh. Windows largely just works these days but at least this MacBook Air seems awful in comparison to my pc laptop.

4) their "notebook" is horrible. Do I really have to take time to download something that every pc I've had since 1991 has had "notebook.exe", a simple text editor?

So, Mac lovers, why do you love this shit?

[Tdarcos]

So, Mac lovers, why do you love this shit?

Learned helplessness or the Stockholm syndrome, maybe? Why do women who have the capacity to leave stay with an abusive boyfriend or husband?

I was told how my mother mentioned that shortly after she married my father - I had not yet been born, so that would make it some time in '53 or '54 - that at some point he hit her. not sure why, but that doesn't matter, it is wrong. Apparently, after she recovered, my mother got up, and whacked him across the head with an iron frying pan. At this point he decided never to hit her again.

I think the badness of operating systems is because people put up with it.

[RealNC]

No. The reason people use Apple products is simple: sex. Many years ago, if you were seen with a Windows laptop, you can forget about getting laid any time soon. With an Apple one? No problem. People would still have sex with you.

And that is how Apple got so popular.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

So my bank password is complicated and in LastPass.

Because LastPass is terrible, to logon to my bank, I have to logon to LastPass, search for my bank click Edit so I can copy it.... Copy it, switch to my bank app and enter it.

What Chrome on Android started doing is showing you the contents of your clipboard when you bring up a new window.

This has resulted in them showing me my bank password in plain text each time I go to do this.

Fucking idiots.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Windows forced a patch on me and twice my computer was frozen at the login screen - login screen did not come up.

It was worth it because, as with all previous patches to Windows 10, I got zero new features.

I really wish Microsoft would skip their awful, awful patching process for a month because of how difficult life is for everyone right now at the moment.

[RealNC]

I really wish Microsoft would skip their awful, awful patching process for a month because of how difficult life is for everyone right now at the moment.

Corona to the rescue:

https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/micro ... n-may.html

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Buddy of mine went to the latest version of Mojave for Mac OS and it stopped his second screen from working. Only a monster would release a non-critical, non-security update right now in these trying times.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I really wish Microsoft would skip their awful, awful patching process for a month because of how difficult life is for everyone right now at the moment.

Corona to the rescue:

https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/micro ... n-may.html

Thank god. Thank God. Thank GOD. Thank G--.

And thank you for letting me know, Nikos. Honestly, if people ONLY got sick and nobody died? No death anywhere, and ONLY sickness? ONLY that? It would be worth a non-fatal pandemic to get these incompetent cretins to stop breaking operating systems. (Okay, that's not true and I don't mean it, but still.)

(It's close.)

[RealNC]

It would be worth a non-fatal pandemic to get these incompetent cretins to stop breaking operating systems.

I lethal one is fine with me if it stops the update nonsense.

[Billy Mays]

Are you using the recommended settings? I always go with the recommended settings and have never had a hiccup running anything.

[Tdarcos]

Seriously, they did that?

Did you think that two-factor authentication was invented for security reasons? The only reason it exists is as an excuse to get your phone number. We know that since Snowden happened.

I had a corporate checking account with Citibank with 2-factor authentication and they never used my phone number at all. They gave me a device with a keyfob that looks like a caclculator. Each time you turn it on it generates a different 6-digit number. After 30 seconds it shuts itself off. To log in you give username, password and the current 6-digit number the device produced. The first time you log in you give them the serial number on the back of the device to initialize the system.

[RealNC]

I had a corporate checking account with Citibank with 2-factor authentication and they never used my phone number at all. They gave me a device with a keyfob that looks like a caclculator. Each time you turn it on it generates a different 6-digit number. After 30 seconds it shuts itself off. To log in you give username, password and the current 6-digit number the device produced. The first time you log in you give them the serial number on the back of the device to initialize the system.

Microsoft Windows is not your bank. Some services do need your phone number for legitimate reasons, like your bank, your doctor, your accountant, etc. Microsoft, Google and Facebook do not.

[Tdarcos]

I had a corporate checking account with Citibank with 2-factor authentication

Microsoft Windows is not your bank. Some services do need your phone number for legitimate reasons, like your bank, your doctor, your accountant, etc. Microsoft, Google and Facebook do not.

But you didn't say that. You said:

two-factor authentication ... only reason it exists is as an excuse to get your phone number. We know that since Snowden happened.

This was a blanket statement about TFA. Had you said "only reason it exists on websites like Microsoft, Facebook, Google, etc. is an excuse..." that would be clearer. When you make blanket statements you invite misunderstanding.

[RealNC]

I apologize!