Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[iam416]

Occam's razor.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Oh those more light-hearted times

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLJsfsx2Rgk"]The Best of Todd Dracula's Donald Trump Vines - YouTube[/ame]

[WM Wolverine]

Surface Pro is way more useful as a computing device than any android or apple tablet. If you're just consuming media and surfing the web, any of them will do.

[edindetroit]

Surface Pro is way more useful as a computing device than any android or apple tablet. If you're just consuming media and surfing the web, any of them will do.

I regret talking my wife into getting a Windows tablet. For what we use it for Android is way better.

[Dr. Strangelove]

[ame]https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/826811481270394880[/ame]

[Jeff Buchanan]

Shit canned Apple after they started changing their IOS about as often as Microsoft. Shit canned Microsoft after, well, their Phone IOS sucks ...... wanted to be able to synch all my devices seamlessly. Heh ..... like I said Windows (in this particular area) sucks. The interoperability claims between phone, tablets and desktop were unfounded - lots of stuff just didn't work or took 6h to make it work.

I now have Android phones (Galaxy S7) and Android tablets (Galaxy E-Tab). I've got a Samsung Gear S2 watch (these three devices were bundled in an offer from ATT that was too good to turn down when I was shopping to replace my Windows phones).

I run Windows 10 on three PCs at home - 2 Dell XP-18s and a local computer store built model that is the best PC in my house becasue none of the shit that Dell loads onto your hard drive at the factory isn't there. Like Hack, I've got an 11 year old Lenovo lap top that won't die. Unfortunately, it's still running XP and slowwwwly; the processor won't handle 10 so I deal with it.

I wrote this too long post because most users don't pay attention to device interoperability which is a big deal if you want to take advantage of your technology on the go. To me the most important aspect of my carry around technology (phones and tablets) is that, via Google, everything syncs and it is astoundingly seamless. That is because Android software guys actually talk to Google guys unlike Microsoft and Apple.

Some Calendar glitches (not surprisingly with Windows Outlook) but fixed easily via, not surprisingly Google Calendar Apps. Google Earth and their associated phone based mapping and directions technology is terrific - won't leave home without it. Way better than any of the expensive car NAV systems (won't ever buy one of those again!) and I wonder what we did to find places we wanted to go to before all of this? Maps!

As far as tablets are concerned, I still have two old iPads; they both still work although the processors are slow. The Galaxy E-Tab is small so, for clumsy fingers, I prefer a large keyboard and that's the iPad. If I were going to by another tablet I'd wait for a Chrome model running their lap-top, Chromebooks IOS which might show up this summer (it will run Android Apps) or one of Galaxy's larger tablets ....... but I just don't need it right now.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Trump pays tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

[Ghengis Jon]

I have a flip phone. I refuse to become a non-functional internet junkie. Biggest upside is no after hours or weekend emails and no demands to work an additional 20 hours because some shithead didn't do his job. Have never become a twitter twit or had my IQ lowered by 50 points by having a facebook acct. I don't do drugs so I have no use for immediate cocaine by Instagram.

I've never had a problem with Dell. I have a 8 year old desktop (no internet access - used as storage space for backups), a six year old laptop and a 2 year old laptop. Never had a problem with any of them.

I hate Lenovo. Forced to use them for work. Seems like the last ten years they've absolutely sucked, hardware-wise. I've been through 6 of them in the last 10 years. Cold solder connections on keyboard keys, motherboard failures, screens that go south. I became so frustrated with them that I have subjected two of them to a four foot drop test just so I could get a new laptop. Unfortunately, work keeps giving me a new lenovo. The one I'm using right now is a souped up T540p - it has the worst touchpad design ever inflicted upon the computing public. A toughbook would be nice since I spend a good bit of time in industrial facilities, but work won't spring for one.

[hack]

I went back to Blackberry and will stick with it as long as I can. It's a better product. But I do miss certain apps, like uber and whatsapp. Skype is janky. That's a real problem. But hot damn I'll have a typing race with any touchscreen fool and win by a mile. And I love having the little trackball again.

Interesting about Lenovo, Jon. I have had an IBM for most of my working life, and when it was time to give up and transition to Lenovo, I was surprised at how good they still are. What's a cold-solder connection? Keyboards are important to be b/c I type a lot, and Lenovo keyboards aren't as good a typing experience as the old and wonderfully firm IBM ones, but they're still damn good. On a Dell it feels like the keyboard is resting on a wobbly sponge. Awful.

[Ghengis Jon]

A cold solder joint (or connection) is when you apply solder to a cold wire or connection spot. It doesn't attach (electrically) well. The keys that failed to work, well, I simply touched a hot soldering iron to the spots where the key switch mates to the board, and viola, no more problem. If you have any electronics that have a internal power supply (not a step up/down transformer) that fails, open the unit up and look at the back of the power supply board. Any solder spot that looks like it has a brown glaze across the solder or a brown ring around the spot was soldered cold (This coloration comes from the flux imbedded in the solder. When a weak joint / cold connection is subjected to current, it acts as a small resistor. This in turn induces a small current drop and that in turn breaks down the solder, lessening the connection. The brown glaze is the flux leeching itself out of the base solder metal.)

When fixing a cold solder joint, hold the iron on the spot just until the solder melts. Easy fix. But that will cost you $100 at your local computer repair shop.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Before the Republicans whine and scream murder if the Dems don't vote unanimously for Gorsuch, the total number of Republican Senators who voted to confirm Kagan were 5. Sotomayor received 9 votes from Republicans. Republicans refused to even speak to Garland off the record. And both votes came in Obama's first two years after he'd received a much larger mandate than what Trump got.

Sorry to interrupt the Geek Squad talk, heh

[Mainevent]

https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/826811481270394880

I don't think he has any idea who Frederick Douglass is (or was).

[iam416]

I don't think the Rs much care how many Ds vote for Gorsuch. IMO, they're probably secretly hoping for a filibuster so they can pass the nuclear option and clear the way for DJT's next nominee -- someone like, say, Pryor -- who the Ds could actually filibuster with some credibility.

I guess, heh, of course, the Ds could maybe think they're going to reclaim the Senate in 2018...lol...but reality is that they have 4 years of this and 2 octagenarians currently sit on the Court with a third coming in two years. And while this nominee does nothing to change the Court, the next one most certainly will -- whether it's Kennedy, Ginsburg or Breyer who exit. So, they may want to keep their powder dry, especially when the nominee is so entirely credible.

[hack]

Thanks GJ.

[Mackenzie]

Anybody know what's going on at mgoblog? Seems like some type of new format? Anyone figure it out yet?