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I liked the News Feed novels (reporters during zombie apocalypse). The author had their text reviewed by experts in guns, biology, etc. to make sure all of it was at least plausible.
Bond
Keep all things as simple as possible, but no simpler. -said someone, somewhere
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In these AI days ...
One reason why James P. Hogan: The Two Faces of Tomorrow (1979) still holds up fairly well may be related to the Acknowledgement prefacing the novel, where he thanks the help and advice received from Prof. Marvin Minsky, Artificial Intelligence Unit, MIT. (If "Marvin Minsky" is unknown to you, look it up in Wikipedia!)
Having experts review your manuscript is absolutely essential, for verifying anything that is not your own field of expertise.
You might run into problems with an expert completely rejecting something you wrote, "It couldn't possibly have been like that, you have to completely rewrite that part of the story", the expert tearing down major part of your plot. I have read a few books like that. One author of 25 mystery novels, translated to 40 languages (according to Wikipedia) makes such grave mistakes, basing his plots on impossible assumptions, that I have come to reject his books completely. Fair enough: Some novels are declared to be counterfactual, but that is different from counterfactual physics and the workings of engineered mechanisms that in all ways are presented as factual.
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
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Well, I came here for a MS rant but found I'm at the back of the queue...
So I run Win10 on a laptop. I very rarely reboot (because when I start the PC up, it's cos I want to use it, not have it sit there for 4 hours doing a reboot). So I just "sleep" by closing the lid.
Until a few days ago, I "woke up" by opening the lid, waiting about 5 seconds, and hitting any key (or clicking the mouse) would give me the login prompt for my password. Then one day it didn't. Just the standard windows background. I hit various keys, gave the mouse a good workout, waited... and waited. Eventually I gave up and hit Ctrl-Alt-Del in case; and that brought up the login screen. Since then, I've had to hit Ctrl-Alt-Del every time. And, as far as I'm aware, there's been no updates applied.
This is particularly galling as, due to a dodgy keyboard on the laptop, I usually have the numeric keypad in "numeric" mode (as the zero on my main keyboard rarely works). But as there's no "NumLock" light (thanks, Dell!) I have to try twice a lot of the time. And I can't do it single-handed (I often have a cup of coffee in the other hand).
I wonder, has anyone actually told MS that their software is a pile of doo-doo?
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DerekT-P wrote: Well, I came here for a MS rant
No, this is "abuse". You want 12A[^], next door. 
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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This message has been flagged as potential spam and is awaiting moderation
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I have Win11 & Win10 machines and use them both for different things, I also use(d) Office XP (with an update to open docx & xlsx). I got into the habit of using them (also my Mum, not very technical!) could use it fine. One day Win11 updates and bang splat it stops working, it will open and you can view the document touch any key, click any mouse button and it closes. Why? So I have to conned into an Orfice365 subscription (I did try OpenOffice but had issues).
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At first I thought you were describing exactly the scenario my neighbor had come across, but not quite it.
In his case, one morning, his Windows 10 lock screen randomly decided he needed to swipe from bottom to top before the login textbox would show up, which is a thing MS introduced, I believe, starting with Windows 8.
Worse, his laptop didn't have a touch screen, so I had to teach him how to do the swipe motion by dragging the mouse, with the left button depressed, from the bottom up.
He had never seen this before, nor has he ever since.
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switch to linux and (if you really need it) install winblows in a vm
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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yes sir, what he said, he is quite correct.
Charlie Gilley
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Has never been more appropriate.
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But doesn't that mean you go from Win11 quirks to Win11 + VM manager quirks + Ubuntu quirks?
No OS is perfect (...waits until the clamour dies down) so I'm always a fan of minimising your Quirk Surface Area.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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yes MS kind of sucks.
What Jsop said.
Has anyone ever been able to get thru and talk to MS? I mean in all seriousness.
Other comments in queue. For those that use Linux and find LibreOffice missing some things. Try WPS office. It solved many of the issues that I had with some microsoft integration for excel spreadsheets. WPS worked better than excel.
Seriously though. Linux is the way to go. If you are slight scared linux mint just works and seems like Windows alot.
Last point. IF you are going to run windows. You have to reboot your computer at least once a week or soo. Just has to be done.
To err is human to really elephant it up you need a computer
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Windows having all kinds of bugs and Microsoft not caring about them because too busy researching new ways to annoy users with ads - I can live with.
But Dell not installing lights for the NumLock and CapsLock keys is a crime against humanity.
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Happens a lot lately with our work laptops. They want to talk to the AD long before the VPN is available. Putting it into airplane mode before sleeping helps us.
Is there any nice security sw installed, like Trend Micro suite?
Never happens with my private W10Pro or W11Pro.
Swipe to unlock is there since ages. Swipe, double click or press a key.
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Microsoft doesn't really exist. They stopped being a cohesive company decades ago. This is why the Office team can come up with a "feature" and compromise the entire operating system with a security hole. Based on what I have seen of Windows 11, about 50% of the company simply lies about features. They do not give a flip about complaints.
Microsoft will not change until they are held liable. When that happens - hell will freeze over, pigs will be flying everywhere, and I have a few other things to say but I don't want to say them 
Charlie Gilley
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Has never been more appropriate.
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This is the most entitled thing I have read in a long time.
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Got off that boat 4 years ago... Never looked back.
(except when using client's hardware)
Christian Lavigne
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I suggest you fix the problem by accidentally spilling the coffee on the keyboard. You will then buy a new laptop with Windows 11 pre-installed~ 
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Edit: I found a temporary workaround by setting lib_ldf_mode = off in the platformio.ini for the project
Latest Windows update nuked everyone's PlatformIO software.
Now whenever you go to build a project and it scans for dependencies it takes a really long time, making builds untenable.
I know it's Microsoft's fault because it didn't happen until the update. I know it's Microsoft's fault because it happens on WSL and Windows but not on real Linux. Finally, I know it's Microsoft's fault because many people are reporting the same problem.
What the hell is wrong with people? When people write bad software it offends me. Doubly so when they impose that bad software on my machine, which they didn't pay for. 
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
modified yesterday.
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WSL leaks horribly, running docker with WSL means I have to end the service every couple of days as it eats CPU to the point of eventually making the laptop almost inoperable.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Nom, nom, nom.
These are good chips, what flavor are they?
Memory.
I’ve given up trying to be calm. However, I am open to feeling slightly less agitated.
I’m begging you for the benefit of everyone, don’t be STUPID.
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here, have a hug.
There is a strong argument to be made for small deployable tactical nukes to be shipped, armed to Redmond.
Now, I need to remember where I was in my project because MS just rebooted my machines.
Charlie Gilley
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Has never been more appropriate.
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Wordle 1,076 6/6
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Wordle 1,076 4/6*
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I was lucky with that last one - several possibilities.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Wordle 1,076 3/6
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Getting this earlier than the 3rd guess is going to be a challenge.
modified yesterday.
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