Security By Portability
I've been banking on the Internet for a long time. Started with a nice app on Windows in around 1998 and I was hooked. Phone banking, as in using the keypad or a tone generator (or in recent times voice) that's always been a crazy idea IMHO. Slow and imprecise. Never got into that one. I would have got into other computing style ones, that is pre-internet, but I was a late starter. Didn't get my first networked computer until 1997, and the Internet was all the rage. But, back on topic, I (...)
FastFoto Four-Hundred
I've got loads of film photos from yesteryear that I really want to be scanned. One of the biggest issues is the combination of time and quality. In short one wants the scan to be perfect, but at the same time one does not want to spend too much time. However, but the same logic, a bad scan is a waste of time as one will want to do it all over again at a latter point. As a result I've been inclined to scan negatives when possible, but there's a skill level I don't have and it'll involve more (...)
AI Doompop
As a long term Microsoft Windows programmer I (used to?) feel a bit tense when someone proposes switching to Linux or even something crazy like MacOS. I'd see it as a personal attack on my financial future of me and my family, and it was eventually tensions like that that make me want to move on from being a one-man-developing team. Over my last 20 years as a professional programmer I went from Assembly to C to C++ and (...)
It Has Fallen Far From The Tree
I mentioned in an earlier Slog that I've got a M1 MacBook Pro. Which I do! I'm using it right now in fact! It's very good for what I use it for; a general web browsing machine that has good battery life and a holistically decent hardware. Which it does, even about five years later. It's one of those with the TouchBar. A feature I thought was cool but less cool than it could have been since it replaced the function keys in the process. But it's still supported; I really like how when typing (...)
Weight Set Point and Early Conclusions
Early conclusions? What? This is poor science! Well it's all appropriate as I'm also ranting about Weight Set Point, which is not good science, but is probably at least partially true. Let's start with the Early Conclusions.
- Metabolism for the purpose of this discussion is about how your body uses a certain amount of energy just existing. This amount may increase and result in extra work done by the body in repairing/growing, or just make you feel more inclined to do stuff. (...)
Do No Evil to the Core
Is Google Evil? Is Apple Evil? Am I evil for thinking about these things?
TL/DR dunno.
I was riding home on my motorbike the other day, and I was thinking what makes Google be seen as an evil company. I think it's mostly it's 'cos of it's information gathering practices. But. It doesn't really profit from those directly. The data (generally) go to ad companies and in the end companies who sell products/services who know what Google stand for. It's like YouTubers who embed (...)
The First Time I Thought Software That Exists Today Could End Modern Society As We Know It
...and any further examples as they happen.
But yeah, this one.
How a ‘swarm’ of AI agents hacked another company, in the AI’s own words
As a Microsoft Engineer, This Is (...)
Fold Fame
The biggest surprise with using a Samsung Fold to me, aside from the fact that it wasn't as good at multitasking as I hoped, is the amount of interest I get from friends and randos.
Is it good?
What's the battery life like?
Wow that's big!
That's an iPhone isn't it? (...)
Phase One Sort; Done!
Well I've done it. Started to think it was not possible. What? Well I've got my garage sorted enough that I can do things in it. Weights. Repairs. 3D printing. Storage. I can even fit a motorbike if need be. Wow.
For a time I was starting to think I'd need to get storage, at least for a short time, to enable me to have the room to make the room. But no! I've done it.
This is quite a big deal. Around five years ago I started on this project as I was planning on moving as part (...)
VLC is patently free
When I first (reluctantly) moved to the PC world I was in need of software to do the work I had in mind; viewing/editing images at the time. Support in Windows at the time (Win95) was atrocious and I ended up buying an image viewer.... and then a general file viewer... (...and I still want to write my own version of that concept...) then when audio became possible things had started changing. Winamp was kinda Freemium, and VLC is free. So why? Are they just crazy generous? Should Sinner (...)
