1) Social media driven by algorithms, destroying the fabric of society.
2) Being the product, not the customer.
3) Endless, gratuitous, unstoppable changes to the tools we use.
4) The raging battle for our attention.
For me Google "verbatim" is the best way to get focussed results although it's too bad it doesn't allow date ranges. Bing search with appropriate use of guotes, + and - operators and date ranges usually beats non-verbatim Google search, and it can sometimes be better than Google verbatim.
The verbatim mode is exactly what most people here are missing. But, for some reason, it's something that can't be configured - you need to set it in every new search. Three freaking clicks.
I don't understand what goes on corporations. I guess power users aren't a target demographic anymore.
I’m suspecting that they generate results from statistics ahead of time and just serve you the closest cached result, unless it is strictly necessary to do an actual search.
> For me Google "verbatim" is the best way to get focussed results although it's too bad it doesn't allow date ranges.
One word of caution: I use verbatim mode and I regularly (but not always) get Wikipedia clones as my top result. It must be skipping some of their anti-spam filtering.
Vaccine trials have shown that approved vaccines reduce moderate to severe illness and death. There is no trial-based evidence that they prevent people from catching the virus and spreading it [1]. It's even possible that people who are vaccinated are more likely to be asymptomatic and more likely to unknowingly pass it on.
So "vaccinating people who are the most likely to get sick" is the only option supported by the evidence. Or preferably vaccinate people most likely to become moderately to severey ill, or die.
At this time we should not be "vaccinating people who are the most likely to spread the virus". We don't know if approved vaccines will help with this.
Google and YouTube video search are terrible. I find the result poorly matches the query I typed, the results are hard to browse, and of course favor videos on YouTube ignoring better videos that may be on other sites.
Bing video search is by far better. Assuming you use DuckDuckGo type your search and follow it with !bv. The result is an excellent browsable display of videos that match your search well, that can be previewed by hovering over them, and the results aren't biased to just YouTube. You can also add emphasis to words in your search with the +/- operators and quotes.
Also the "up next" YouTube video is rarely as good as going back to the Bing search and choosing another video.
Brings back great memories. Based on the article in Byte Magazine 1977 (1) I got Spacewar running (in assembly language) on my kit-built Processor Technolory Sol 8088 microcomputer. Also built the 8 bit DAC and two hand controllers. The display was my kit-built Heathkit oscilloscope. It was magical to see those satellites orbiting for the first time!
The biggest difference between Macbook trackpads vs the best for Windows is the super low hysteresis of pointer motion vs finger motion. I recently bought and returned a Microsoft Surface Book with "precision touchpad". The main reason for returing it was that pointer control feels sluggish compared to the Macbook and its pointer speed was too slow even at its fastest. The best Dell touchpads are no better and Lenovo trackpads are even worse.
I understand that this may be because PC touchpad hardware reports jitter, sometimes higher than it really is, and this causes the Precision Touchpad software to increase the hysteresis. Macbook touchpads have low jitter and the driver is tuned to benefit from it.
If anyone Microsoft with input into the Precision Touchpad reads this, why don't you fix it or work with your licensees to fix it?
I know about Command-Click to open in a new tab (Mac) but I want thie to be the default. It's crazy that Edge does not support this because every other browser does. (If someone from Micthe Edge team happens to read this post, please fix it.)
I've been wanting to switch to Windows from Mac for years. The thing that holds me back is the quality of the Mac touchpad vs any Windows laptop, and I recently ordered a Surface Book 3 having heard how great the touchpad is. I've already returned it.
The touchpad is pretty good but it's still not as precise as the Mac touchpad - there is a slight hysteresis that makes it imprecise for short movements. No amount of tweaking settings could overcome this. The only way to be accurate at short range is to slow the overall pointer speed so it takes more than one finger swipe to move across the screen.
The other problem with the Surface Book is the Home and End keys are not accessible at the same time as the function keys - a show-stopper for smooth editing and debugging in an IDE.
I've been wanting to switch to Windows from Mac for years. The thing that holds me back is the quality of the Mac touchpad vs any Windows laptop, and I recently ordered a Surface Book 3 having heard how great the touchpad is. I've already returned it.
The touchpad is pretty good but it's still not as precise as the Mac touchpad - there is a slight hysteresis that makes it imprecise for short movements. No amount of tweaking settings could overcome this. The only way to be accurate at short range is to slow the overall pointer speed so it takes more than one finger swipe to move across the screen. (If anyone from Microsoft is reading this - why don't you fix it? It can't be that hard.)
The other problem with the Surface Book is the Home and End keys are not accessible at the same time as the function keys - a show-stopper for smooth editing and debugging in an IDE.
