Posts by ThatOne

Re: Just set the entire moon to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC +0) ...

Indeed, the Moon is tidally locked to Earth and thus a lunar day/night period is around 29.5 Earth days long. Which is a little too long to stay awake, so much like in our polar regions, inhabitants will simply ignore the sun and just live their normal human 24/25h day cycle. Even more easily since they will be living underground, under artificial lights.

Re: When a product is better, people will naturally switch to it

> But Edge could too, if it was naturally better

Edge is Chrome, how can it be better? (genuine question)

Re: To me the worrying thing is ...

Yes, that, and whoever controls the browsers controls the juicy Internet trade. Microsoft already knew this when they decided to kill Netscape (back then).

That's why people fight bloody wars over them: The last browser standing will control a market worth billions of dollars.

Re: Cease and desist

> they were using dirty tricks

That's obviously not an excuse, but they all do it: "Yes" means "yes", but "Cancel" and "No" always mean "ask me again later".

"Not taking no for an answer" is a common marketing guideline. After all you don't care about the customers' opinions, you just want their money, ASAP.

Re: Cease and desist

> Linux? Too complicated

Not necessarily, depending on the level of cluelessness of the user of course. In my own experience, the user difficulty level of Linux Mint is around WinXP level, meaning that those who managed to work with WinXP can use Linux Mint just fine, unless/until they wonder why MS Office or the latest game doesn't install of course. That's the deal breaker moment -- that, and people having very strong opinions what a proper computer OS should look alike...

For instance I've had an elder relative running Linux Mint without even knowing it (she just needed web and email), until the day a granddaughter of hers arrived and decided she couldn't find something Windowsy, so she reformatted her grandma's computer, found and installed a cracked version of Windows instead, and from there everything went to hell (and beyond). By then I had officially resigned my position as private 24/7 hotline*, the conclusion of the story I heard is that this elder relative had to buy a new computer. With proper Windows...

_{* That might sound harsh in this circumstance, but I just can't guarantee service continuity when people make random changes of that importance behind my back without even asking me.}

Re: Meteor Defence - Texas Style

> However, given the timescales involved in a, hoped-for existence of human life on Earth, and b, mean time between continent-destroying meteorites hitting our planet

We have no clue about the mean time between collisions, just assumptions. Realistically the next species-annihilating event could happen in 5 days or in 5 billion years, or any time in between. So, given the choice to act according to one of those quite different scenarios, obviously we'll chose the one which allows us to do nothing... Or at least nothing more involved than talking about it...

.

> this 'moment in time' could reasonably be taken as meaning the next hundred or thousand years.

Exactly: Let's assume this won't hit anytime soon and let's worry about something else, shall we... If we're wrong, well, though luck. The dinosaurs were wrong too, do they complain?

> I have zero confidence that this "pseudo-anonymous" (whatever that means) token cannot be used to identify the user in other ways.

"Pseudo-anonymous" means specifically that it is not truly anonymous, so this token can and will be used to identify the user.

Re: Three states of catter

Not necessarily. I had a cat which adored me, and I pointedly never ever fed her myself. Specifically to be able to make that point.

I think cats are just like humans, they simply like or don't like somebody. Of course they are also unapologetically self-interested, like humans, but the nice thing is that unlike humans they don't make any fuss about it.

Dogs on the other hand have complicated social requirements everything needs to conform to, much more complicated (even if it usually suits humans needing an dependable and obsequious work animal).

Re: Content

> "switch off" would be more clear

"But I'm not switching it off, don't worry, I'm just trying to get it back to working order 'cause I need to get work done."

_{"If pulling the plug doesn't work, I'll try kicking it repeatedly (works for my lawn mover), or pouring some cold water into it. "}

Re: ...

Not really, I don't remember exactly when I bought mine, but it must be over 30 years ago too.

And it is a cheap no-brand microwave bought off the discount pile in my local supermarket, used almost daily, so they clearly were built to different specifications "back then".