Great Moments in Computer Programming

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Is literally nobody else seeing this stupid popup when they touch into the credentials boxes? Really just me?

Oh. Yes, I am seeing that for a bunch of sites now. Lemme check JC.

OK, it is not doing it to me for JC but it IS for any other site. Does it give you a button to press to "stay logged in"?

[Casual Observer]

Does it give you a button to press to "stay logged in"?

I mean, I'll look. I don't have a great track record of "stay logged in" working for me in modern times.

[The Happiness Engine]

This is why you should use Firefox.

Paul, ALL browsers save your cookies and passwords unless you tell them not to, that's not what I complained about so you didn't read well (understood due to your difficulty seeing).

However, since Happyness agrees with you about that, I installed Android Firefox to see what all wonderful it is . . . and NO FUCKING WAY, ever. I really only have two reasons why I won't use mobile Firefox.

O HOLY SHIT! I did not mean to imply that you should use a fucking Mozilla product! I use Vivaldi, which I describe as an "off-brand copy of Chrome" and I run Brave on my phone. Neither of these will probably be helpful to you but did you know that on install Chrome makes about 200 calls to various google URLS to irrevocably fingerprint your computer no matter what else you might try to do in the future? It's pretty shitty.

There's also assholes using Pale Moon and Waterfox if that's your jam, but I'm pretty sure those are just for people spending 6 hours a day fucking with blocklists one-handed.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

This is a post on Hackernews: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

The first guy is responding to a thread where the creator of Dropbox announced it on HackerNews in 2007.

If I could point to one post on the internet where some tedious shit is going UM ACTUALLY ITS TRIVIAL TO UM UM ACTUALLY

[AArdvark]

I used to like Dropbox, then they limited free users to 3 devices. I don't like Dropbox enough to pay for the service so they went dead-to-me. There are too many other cloud service storage places.

[Flack]

If you already had it installed on more than three computers, Dropbox grandfathered you in when they made the limitation change. I think I have it on four or five machines, but yeah... I'm always worried about what'll happen when it's time to reload one of them.

When cloud storage sites started offering free storage I signed up for a bunch of them, probably 15-20. The ones that were easiest to use and/or offered up the most space made the long term cut and I let the rest of them go. Some of the ones I kept offered free storage upgrades if you hopped through a few hoops. I think this is where I have things stored today:

Box.com (10GB free)
This one had some feature I needed (FTP maybe?) so I signed up for it. It made the cut because it was > 5GB.

Dropbox (5GB free)
I had the original 2GB storage but synced to some computers and did a few things to bump it up to 5GB. I mostly use this to sync photos off my phone down to my PC.

Google Drive (17GB free)
I think this started as 5GB and then if you did some other stuff you got it bumped up. Great for simple drag and drop sharing and really if you use gmail there's no reason not to use this, except google is nosy.

Mega (50GB x 2, free)
Mega had the most free storage back in the day, although because it's associated with piracy some places frown on it (my work blocks it). Great for storing big files for long term storage. New accounts are limited to 15GB which still isn't bad.

OneDrive (5GB x 5? 6? free)
Every Outlook account gets 5GB of free OneDrive storage. Like Google Drive, I'm hesitant to store too much on a Microsoft-owned product.

pCloud (2TB, paid)
pCloud offers 10GB free, but had some sales a few years ago and offered 2TB lifetime for a one time payment of $99 back in 2017. I know they will not be in business forever, but so far they've lasted 3 years which brings me down to $33/year (average). The nice thing about pCloud is it literally maps the p: drive on your computer to their cloud drive, which allows you to not only drop/drag files to the cloud but also do things like set up scripts to access it (I use it for backups and sharing big files to friends). pCloud is probably my favorite and the most convenient to use of all my cloud storage solutions, and also the one I assume will close down first.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

The one thing out of those that I haven't tried is OneDrive. I just ... I know, Flack, that you are a Microsoft guy. And please correct me if I have this wrong.

You get PAID to know about Microsoft stuff, but in your heart you are a Commodore guy.
Likewise, I get paid to work with all three operating systems but I really like the Unix shell best for work and if forced to form lines ("do you mean rows?" hahhah) I would be a PCjr guy.

So I hope you know I'm never attacking anyone who gets paid to know about stuff that is frustrating. But just knowing how awkward their stuff is, I want to avoid OneDrive because whatever I put there is going to get shared and leaked. Accidentally? Maybe! My fault? Maybe! But the others at least don't have a history of it.

[Flack]

You're right, I'm a Microsoft guy because I get paid to be a Microsoft guy. My home network runs on Windows because I've spent 25 years supporting Microsoft networks, I'm an MCSE, and I know how to make things work. Setting up DHCP and DNS and all that stuff on Windows Server is just second nature to me at this point. I never have a networking issue at home and go "huh, I wonder what's causing that?" anymore.

That being said, Microsoft's add-on solutions are almost always worse than the competition's (which is why they usually end up buying them). I don't like Edge and I don't like a lot of their stuff and I don't particularly like OneDrive. It has some terrible settings, like syncing your cloud files back down to your PC every time you access them (defeating the purpose of moving things offline), and their shell integration is not as good as DropBox's or Google Drive's, which aren't as good as pCloud IMHO. And unless there's a workaround I haven't figured out yet, you can only be logged into one OneDrive at a time, and at work our accounts are forced into a corporate OneDrive, meaning moving things from my personal storage back and forth to the work on is clunky. It's a typical Microsoft situation where eventually, if they make enough changes, their product will be as good as everyone else's was 3 years ago.

There's a part of my that would love to run my home network off a Linux box, but my lack of knowledge in regards to hardening a Linux machine before exposing it to the internet is pretty limited, and the last thing I need is getting one of my home machines popped. I enjoy dabbling with Raspian and other builds, but I'll probably never be more than a hobbyist when it comes to it.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Ooo, I actually haven't ever tried pCloud. I'm gonna sign up for that tonight.

[Flack]

pCloud gives you 10GB for free, and creates a folder that maps to your P: drive on your machine, making it easy to find and use. You can easily send other people links to folders, and also grant permanent rights to specific folders (my dad and I have a folder that we can each drop files into to share back and forth). There's also a pCloud phone app, which gives you access to everything in your pCloud folder. It's a super convenient way to access digital pictures, music, and movies on your phone.

The biggest problem with pCloud is that it's perfect, which means someone will eventually buy them out and mess it all up. But for now, it's my favorite.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I had to sign out of my Amazon shopping app on my phone and it signed me out of Kindle.

Maybe if Bezos could throw money at it, or bottles of his workers' piss.

EDIT and then because I got the password wrong once on Kindle it put me in the path to fill out captchas, which are too obscure to get right. Jesus fucking Christ.

[RealNC]

Does it give you a button to press to "stay logged in"?

I mean, I'll look. I don't have a great track record of "stay logged in" working for me in modern times.

Tick the "Remember me" box BEFORE you tap the credential input fields.

[Casual Observer]

I had to sign out of my Amazon shopping app on my phone and it signed me out of Kindle.

Maybe if Bezos could throw money at it, or bottles of his workers' piss.

EDIT and then because I got the password wrong once on Kindle it put me in the path to fill out captchas, which are too obscure to get right. Jesus fucking Christ.

I'm annoyed that the richest man in the world wants me to pay to read his shitty newspaper online. Fuck you Bezos, here's another UPS pack and ship return that costs you more than you would have made had i kept the item.

[Tdarcos]

I'm annoyed that the richest man in the world wants me to pay to read his shitty newspaper online.

Then don't. How much money Jeff Bezos has is totally irrelevant as to whether people should pay for the service The Washington Post provides. As with any other investor, Jeff Bezos is entitled to expect a return on his investment in buying that newspaper. How much money he has is irrelevant to that consideration. Is it okay to shoplift from Target or Wal-Mart because they are huge, multi-billion dollar enterprises? Why does the amount of money someone has have any bearing or relevance to the value of their product?

If you don't like the Post because you dislike their editorial slant or the way they frame stories, that's one thing. Disliking them because its owner is rich is another, and is not a legitimate reason. Because if we go that route, then it's okay to steal from a neighbor if they have more than you, you need something and they'll never miss it.

Fuck you Bezos, here's another UPS pack and ship return that costs you more than you would have made had i kept the item.

Two things. No, actually four.

• It's not costing him anything, it's costing Amazon.Com, Inc. the cost of shipment both ways, plus possibly restocking.
• This cost is figured into the price you were charged. If, say, 1% of packages are returned, and each one results in a net cost of $30 (shipping both ways, plus repacking), they raise the cost of everything by an average of about 30c to compensate for return costs.
• Plus, those costs are a cost of doing business, Amazon is allowed to deduct the expenditure off their taxes. If their costs exceed their income, this is a "net loss carryover," in which case, Amazon is entitled to a reduction of taxes to be paid in future years, and regardless of how much money they earn that year, would owe no tax. If a future year they do earn a profit, those carryover losses reduce their income which can make a company look like it has no income. Thus a company might have made a $4 million profit, if it had $5 million in losses the previous year, it has $0 profit and has $1 million in losses it can continue to carryover.
• Returns have to be collected, otherwise you have the "free rider" problem. If you don't get the stuff the customer doesn't want back, eventually people figure out they can buy things and get a full refund but still keep them. Because of potential contamination, they don't ask for returns of food. Which could be one of the reasons their markups on food might be higher, to cover for people filing non-legitimate returns. Yeah, you don't pay for return shipping on these but you can't resell the item.

[AArdvark]

Bezos is rich and we're not, that's the issue. He should give us some of his money because...he's rich.

[Casual Observer]

Xfinity should pay the Post for me out of my 3g's a month for internet and shitty cable. It should be like a channel or something.

[Tdarcos]

Xfinity should pay the Post for me out of my 3g's a month for internet and shitty cable. It should be like a channel or something.

$300 a month? Jesus, what are you buying, gigabit Internet? Let me guess, you don't have access to FIOS or the equivalent from another telco if you're not in a Verizon service area.

I noticed that when FIOS became available, Comcast's rates went down. I had triple play from Comcast - phone, cable, and internet - in an area (Loudoun County, VA) where FIOS was unavailable, and it was about $200, and other packages were even more expensive. When I took service from Comcast in Prince Georges County, MD where Verizon offers FIOS, the price was lower as they had to compete with Verizon.

[Casual Observer]

Xfinity should pay the Post for me out of my 3g's a month for internet and shitty cable. It should be like a channel or something.

$300 a month? Jesus, what are you buying, gigabit Internet? Let me guess, you don't have access to FIOS or the equivalent from another telco if you're not in a Verizon service area.

I noticed that when FIOS became available, Comcast's rates went down. I had triple play from Comcast - phone, cable, and internet - in an area (Loudoun County, VA) where FIOS was unavailable, and it was about $200, and other packages were even more expensive. When I took service from Comcast in Prince Georges County, MD where Verizon offers FIOS, the price was lower as they had to compete with Verizon.

got their quad play : cable, top speed internet, security (their equipment is garbage), and phone (dont use) + mobile 2 devices. Unless i just want internet its cheaper for all 4. Actually just today set up new account in WA state dropping same plan to $182. No doubt it will inch up to 3 large in time. They still should pay the newspapers for me.

[Flack]

I've been hanging out on a few Discord servers, and decided to install the app on my phone. After logging in, reCaptcha asked me to select every picture in a grid containing a fire hydrant. The pictures were small and blurry, but I thought I found them all. When I pressed next, it asked me to do the same thing, except this time it was buses. The third time, it was traffic lights. Then it was crosswalks. Then it was traffic signs. Then it started all over again. There's no way I was doing this poorly every single time.

I then googled the issue and found a solution on the official Discord. "If reCaptcha is not working," it says, "connect your phone to the same network your computer is on. Log in to Discord on your computer and then you should be able to log in on your mobile device as well."

Just to clarify... to log in to Discord on my mobile device, I have to be next to my computer, which is also logged in to Discord. I am failing to see the "mobile" advantage, here.

[Tdarcos]

Almost a year ago I wrote an article on "Mobile Degradation" how the Mobile website or App is always (or nearly always) a worse experience than the Desktop website.

The corrupted and worse mobile and app versions of desktop websites: "mobile degradation" https://www.joltcountry.com/phpBB3/view ... =9&t=11233