This seems to be getting more common at banks – that is, preventing you from accessing your own money.
I’ve had problems like this at Bank of America, though not to that extent. They are a terrible bank but I use them because they are also everywhere, which is particularly helpful right now (or will be soon).
If any teller asks me why I need money I am withdrawing, my response will be, “Because fuck you, that’s why.”
I know that it’s not their fault, but still.
Time To Start Asking Republicans Directly: How Much Sex Is Too Much Sex?
Answer: Any sex that they aren’t having in the Dominican Republic with trafficked Russian women Rush Limbaugh-style.
Speaking of Apple, the new MacBook Pro that we have now is the single best tech device I have ever used. It is as near to perfect as any tech object could be at the current state of development, I think.
And the screen. Oh, the screen. I want to climb in their and play around as it is so beautiful.
If I were another computer maker I’d just cry looking at something like the MacBook Pro, knowing that no matter all my effort and all my tears, that I could never duplicate it.
It looks like Apple actually gets it – most users don’t want to struggle with a phone or tablet OS on their desktop PC.
And no, desktop PCs aren’t going away. What will happen is that the approximately 80% of the population who has no use for them will stop using them over time, and use tablets and their phones instead.
Still no reason to have a touch OS on the desktop.
This is funniest thing I ever heard one of my very Southern relatives say:
“I don’t like him. He don’t know shit form shinola.”
Then the relative looks down for a moment confusedly and says, “Wait a minute. I don’t know shit from shinola. What the hell is shinola anyway?”
I have a completely unnatural addiction to icons and getting really good ones.
But I’m not sorry.
Sociological theorizing: I think that the trend of taking away features and choice from software users is not a singular phenomenon.
This authoritarian mindset must come from somewhere, and I believe it mirrors the move towards surveillance and control in society at large.
There is no reason for developers to remove features that many users depend on other than the desire to control. Yes, it makes coding easier (in some cases) but it also angers a large portion of your user base. So there must be some other explanation besides, “We just didn’t feel like implementing this,” especially when it was a feature that already existed.
Contrary to what is fashionable to believe lately by those who are barely cognizant of what they are measuring (or how to do so), I do believe there are certain trends in a society, and furthermore I believe there are rough but discernible generational differences (no matter how many scientists insist that there is not). After all, how could a generation that experienced the Cuban Missile Crisis and the worst of the Cold War not be different than one that experienced the rise of the internet and 9/11?
That said, I believe the increase in software authoritarianism is caused and reinforced by the general trend of the society veering that direction. To wit: the Patriot Act. Drone Strikes. NSA surveillance. I could go on.
Nothing in society happens by itself. It’s all a mesh, and all connected. No matter how many people attempt to disprove it, it’s still true.
Well, at least they are becoming more truthful these days. That’s…something?
It’s hilarious when Windows 8 proponents say that “Windows 8 is easy, just learn these 120 keyboard shortcuts, and it’s like nothing ever changed!”
I’ve worked with users a long time. Know how many keyboard shortcuts the average user knows? Zero. Yes, that’s right, the average users knows zero keyboard shortcuts.
“Advanced” users know two: CTRL-C and CTRL-V. Really advanced users know one more: CTRL-X. The most advanced user in the office might know one more, and that’d be either CTRL-P or if you have a really super-advanced mega-educated user they might know Windows Key+D. (I’ve only run into two of those out of a few thousand users, though.)
So yes, obviously telling a regular user to learn a few dozen keyboard shortcuts to navigate a crap interface is an extremely viable option as you can see.
And it’s basically impossible to use custom fonts anymore because of this stupidity.
Glad I will be mostly taking a break from the web for a while very soon as it has become nearly unusable to anyone with an IQ above that of an apple pie.
Why is FF 25 Find feature harder to use?
Unsurprisingly, the new search “feature” in Firefox 25 is nearly impossible to use. Echoing the changes in Windows Vista and 7 of making search nearly unusable, the same has been inflicted on Firefox.
Why would you ever do something like this?
Luckily, you can use this with Stylish to mostly unfuck that Mozilla UI atrocity which, by the way, violates Fitt’s Law and several other major usability guidelines. And I found this that you can use to disable the useless animation, just insert it in that Stylish style somewhere:
findbar {
transition: none !important;
}
I think I am using somewhere around 70 extensions, tweaks and hacks now to get Firefox to work as it should — i.e., features that have been removed to make it work more like Chrome, or to be phone- and tablet-friendly. Or just taken away altogether in some attempt to have a browser that actually does nothing.
By the way Mozilla devs, if I wanted to use a tablet browser on my fucking desktop I’d pick up my fucking tablet.
Mac OS on the MacBook Pro is the first OS since BeOS in the ‘90s that has made me grin when it’s done something totally unexpected but awesome.
Windows is such gutter crud in so many ways compared to it.
But point: god, why are you reading this crap? Scroll down to watch the nice lady sing some songs.
Nonono – Pumpin’ Blood. Quite good live. I like her arm bangle thingy and tennis shoes with that dress. And the guys’ all-black get-ups.
Acoustic version. She doesn’t have a perfect voice, but has an imperfectly wonderful voice.
I think most if not all of the concern with so-called age-inappropriate relationships among legal adults is worry about and desire to eliminate competition of potential partners than it is any other factor. Of course, most of this is subconscious but that makes it all the more powerful.
I’ve gotten it both ways – having dated women who were both “too old” and “too young” for me in other people’s eyes. Of course since people are so varied the older woman I dated was much more compliant in personality and would’ve been easier to “control” if I’d been a complete asshole than anyone else I’ve ever dated.
Defining legal adults and their behaviors by their ages infantilizes them, and women especially since it seems most often to be applied to them.
Yes, when there are power differentials it can be tricky and care should be had. But there are always, always power differentials in life. Ain’t never gonna change, that.
That’s why I think the massive concern about partners being 10 or 20 years apart is more about policing partners to avoid competition than anything.
I just realized the Quinn Norton that I read over here is Aaron Swartz’s ex-girlfriend.
Wow, the tech and hacker world is a small one still.