I'm surprised this is still a thing.

I fondly recall the cool "Energy Star" logo displayed by my 486 and later motherboards when booting. Nice and yellow on my CRT. Later I read that it was a useless program because it was just a self certified thing, like the CE mark is here in the UK.

P1550FF you greentard.

This isnt anything like a bomb. Just like nuclear power isnt. It' all because of you conspiracy sniffing nutters that we are in this mess in the first place.

> It's allowing constant disruptive stimulus.

Yes, thats it. The brain rot thing is actually the name given to the cost involved in multitasking.

The human brain doesnt multitask well, it has a very high cost. No, women cant do it either, they are slightly better but thats about it. They still have that cost. Multitasking thus can be done but doing so all the time "rots" your ability to focus. Thats what it is; getting used to constantly switching between separate unrelated tasks.

You think they are related, notifucations of messages, reading the news, posting to instagram, liking your feed etc. But they are not. It's poor quality information plus poor quality processing in a brain that is simply doing the least it needs to to allow multitasking. And you get used to it, which is what "brain rot" is as you find you actually cant concentrate, you cant focus, you cant sit still as your brain is now wired to expect to switch tasks ALL the time and at a moments notice.

This is probably why so many are now diagnosed with ADHD, they have the same issues and symptoms but not the actual underlying cause, they have the ADHD problem only because they have been trained to never focus, unlkie someone who actually does have it who is born with it.

I know it happens as it has happened to me. I work in IT and I used to have incredible resistance to switching tasks when I was young and fresh out of Uni. Now I have to do that routineley and I can tell it prevents me from actually doing the same deep dives I used to, I simply have no time and when I do get some, I and very s-l-o-w in getting even started in thinking of doing it, so slow in getting started that by the time I finally have I'm now switching tasks again.

My cousin, who is female so apparently is a "native super-multitasker" says openly that she is SHIT at multitasking. She grew up taining herself to handle 50 MSN convos at once, no kidding, but she now has zero ability to focus on anything properly.

But my 15 year old nephew who hasnt gotten the social media bug yet, he is like young me. He picks up anything and quickly. His brother who is a couple years younger is the same, although he chats with his mate online he is mostly offline, playing games and literally will play through something like Breath of the Wild within days. Xmas presents including games are complete by new year.

Same here. Flip phones had a moment of fame here in the UK with phones like the Razr getting a bit of a following but they never really took off.

Not surprising really as they had an annoying hinge in the middle of them and when flipped open they were simply huge, with the fashion back then being for smaller phones they never really gained traction.

The sliding phones did, like the N95.

These articles really annoy me. Usually its "Can I use a 1990's or 1980's computer in 2025" "Can Win 3.1 be useful in 2025" and it usually involves them diving in with zero preparation or understanding of the actual problems then need to resolve in their "2025 lifestyle" and how the computer/OS should be investigated as to how it can provide solutions for some of those, then to review the effectiveness of those solutions (such as removing distractions as you have zero ability to access the internet without a lot of work) etc.

Instead they usually dive in and then complain about how they can’t use USB, or they can’t upload to wordpress, or then can’t listen to soundcloud or edit audio using a coded that they think is the only one that matters blah blah. Or how the wordprocessor saves in a format that certain proprietary office suites no longer support etc.

They do it for the "I think I'm a geek" crowd who like to think they are savvy with computers and software yet have barely any skills in any of it beyond meeting the requirements of being part of a group, the "Apple" crowd etc.

However, a real geek would look to identify the actual problems, like access to wordpress, thus the internet. And figure out that as something like Win 3.1 can get on the net, it’s probably best to NOT do that and instead work on finding the niche that Win 3.1 can fit in to solve one or many problems, but not all, but in a unique way that can’t be had easily with the new-fangled tech everyone defaults to.

This is why George R.R Martin uses Wordstar on DOS. He likes it, he used it for literally decades and he knows the costs involved in retraining, so it makes total sense for him to find solutions to continue to run it. And sense to others who are looking for a different approach, which is the entire point of the whole idea, that everyone does it the same way "just because" and nobody wonders if today’s way is actually any better or worse than yesterday’s way, and HOW it is better or worse as it may be a better way to do it just you need to to an extra step to two that don’t really get in the way.

I found for example that when tracking my finances, a simple pen and paper was fine but awkward. I found it pretty hard to find replacement notepads that met my requirements (pocketable, thin, flexible) as they kept going out of stock etc. SO I settles on spending more for moleskine pads, then I found small pens and pencils were hard to find all the time! So, I then tried using a spreadsheet on my ever smarter phone. That was the WORST experience I have ever had. As a software tester I was very keen to detect all the minutia that caused me to CONSTANTLY CHOOSE TO NOT BOTHER writing down my transactions. Oh, yes, I tried keeping the recipts, but I eventually just chuck them in the bin or lose them before I have realised I need to tally them up. The spreadsheet method was hell, the UI in google sheets is crap, the UI of a touchscreen phone is crap.

Simply having me UNLOCK the damn thing was enough time for my mind, which I'm trying to battle against, to immediately choose to NOT BOTHER. I literally have less than a few seconds of time where I'm able to actually write down the transaction. I NEED that method ripe and ready IMMEDIATLEY so I have NO EXCUSE to "do it later". My mind will wander and forget and choose to not bother simply because it took over a second to unlock that mobile and several seconds to open the damn spreadsheet app.

My solution, was the old fashioned way. I got a Casio Organiser! It has a whopping 128KB of battery backed RAM. It has an olde-fashioned LCD screen that can actually be viewed in direct sunlight, has an EL backlight too. It has a full QWERTY keyboard. Among its functions is an expense tracking function that allows me to enter a transaction with custom defined categories.

And it wiped the floor with the phone. By the time the phone is unlocked and the spreadsheet opened, I have already closed this organiser, I timed it. It literally is THAT fast, turns on in an instant and directly into the expense app, and directly into a new entry for that day and time. The only downside is it takes 3x CR2032 batteries but it lasts months on those with regular use and YEARS if kept off while retaining all data. I don’t need to transfer data, or type it up, it is really just an expense tracker to help me run to a budget daily.

But these kinds of articles can really annoy me. The guy couldn’t operate his garage door? Apparently those need apps? Well shouldn’t they have realised that would be an issue and they needed another method?

The Gym uses an app to gain entry? Well, perhaps tell them you have no way of running the app and get a physical pass? They don’t offer one? Find another Gym if they are not interested in your custom. Make a note of the issue as being a sign of the defaultism on apps and mobiles and the internet.

Here in the UK we actually have stores that can’t accept cash. They literally have no facility to accept it, even though they are LEGALLY REQUIRED to accept the national legal tender, they can’t handle it so get away with it as everyone defaults to a contactless payment. When shopping in the supermarket most self service tills are contactless only, leaving just ONE till capable of handling cash, which is very odd as due to the cost of living many have returned to cash as a means of budgeting as with cash you have physical coins, while with contactless you have a bunch of electrons making up a set of numbers that you can’t see or feel even when at the last minute. Those trying to budget can see and feel that they only have £1.20, and THAT’S ALL THEY GET. No credit crap, no delayed transaction crap (contactless payments via card take 3 days! Even longer for Apple/google pay) you have £1.20 right now and there is no more, you will have to decide if that chocolate bar really is needed vs using that money to buy milk.

I use the organiser to manage my expenses, its not perfect but it does a far better job than a phone ever has. It can also to the other things, and I have used to for writing a note or two. I use another organiser (one which had an expenses tracker I didn’t like) as a backup for my address book. Sits on the table next to the landline phone, sure I could have a paper one but I had the orginiser so why not. All my important contacts are in it.

Yes I have a landline, it’s perfect! Not only can I actually hear what someone is saying (mobiles have terrible sound quality due to the insane compression) but it is prefect for calling businesses on. See, if I give my mobile number to ANYONE who is in a business, they sell it. I have managed to keep spam and cold calls to a minimum on my mobile since the 00’s by only giving it to real humans I want to talk to. I also never answer the mobile to anyone not in my contacts, if you don’t text from an unknown number first or leave a voicemail, I’ll put you in the spam pile. So I call from the landline, and the sell that number OH MY GOD do they pass it around! Only costs me £5 a month with the internet bill, and also acts as an emergency backup number for recovering several of my accounts including my google one. But nooooo, everyone wants to get rid of the landline :D

I see this kind of intentional ignorance/naivety in many of these types of articles. Usually its "Can I use a 1990's or 1980's computer in 2025" "Can Win 3.1 be useful in 2025" and it usually involves them diving in with zero preparation or understanding of the actual problems then need to resolve in their "2025 lifestyle" and how the computer/OS should be investigated as to how it can provide solutions for some of those, then to review the effectiveness of those solutions (such as removing distractions as you have zero ability to access the internet without a lot of work) etc.

Instead they usually dive in and then complain about how they can’t use USB, or they can’t upload to wordpress, or then can’t listen to soundcloud or edit audio using a coded that they think is the only one that matters blah blah. Or how the wordprocessor saves in a format that certain proprietary office suites no longer support etc.

They do it for the "I think I'm a geek" crowd who like to think they are savvy with computers and software yet have barely any skills in any of it beyond meeting the requirements of being part of a group, the "Apple" crowd etc.

However, a real geek would look to identify the actual problems, like access to wordpress, thus the internet. And figure out that as something like Win 3.1 can get on the net, it’s probably best to NOT do that and instead work on finding the niche that Win 3.1 can fit in to solve one or many problems, but not all, but in a unique way that can’t be had easily with the new-fangled tech everyone defaults to.

This is why George R.R Martin uses Wordstar on DOS. He likes it, he used it for literally decades and he knows the costs involved in retraining, so it makes total sense for him to find solutions to continue to run it. And sense to others who are looking for a different approach, which is the entire point of the whole idea, that everyone does it the same way "just because" and nobody wonders if today’s way is actually any better or worse than yesterday’s way, and HOW it is better or worse as it may be a better way to do it just you need to to an extra step to two that don’t really get in the way.

I found for example that when tracking my finances, a simple pen and paper was fine but awkward. I found it pretty hard to find replacement notepads that met my requirements (pocketable, thin, flexible) as they kept going out of stock etc. SO I settles on spending more for moleskine pads, then I found small pens and pencils were hard to find all the time! So, I then tried using a spreadsheet on my ever smarter phone. That was the WORST experience I have ever had. As a software tester I was very keen to detect all the minutia that caused me to CONSTANTLY CHOOSE TO NOT BOTHER writing down my transactions. Oh, yes, I tried keeping the recipts, but I eventually just chuck them in the bin or lose them before I have realised I need to tally them up. The spreadsheet method was hell, the UI in google sheets is crap, the UI of a touchscreen phone is crap.

Simply having me UNLOCK the damn thing was enough time for my mind, which I'm trying to battle against, to immediately choose to NOT BOTHER. I literally have less than a few seconds of time where I'm able to actually write down the transaction. I NEED that method ripe and ready IMMEDIATLEY so I have NO EXCUSE to "do it later". My mind will wander and forget and choose to not bother simply because it took over a second to unlock that mobile and several seconds to open the damn spreadsheet app.

My solution, was the old fashioned way. I got a Casio Organiser! It has a whopping 128KB of battery backed RAM. It has an olde-fashioned LCD screen that can actually be viewed in direct sunlight, has an EL backlight too. It has a full QWERTY keyboard. Among its functions is an expense tracking function that allows me to enter a transaction with custom defined categories.

And it wiped the floor with the phone. By the time the phone is unlocked and the spreadsheet opened, I have already closed this organiser, I timed it. It literally is THAT fast, turns on in an instant and directly into the expense app, and directly into a new entry for that day and time. The only downside is it takes 3x CR2032 batteries but it lasts months on those with regular use and YEARS if kept off while retaining all data. I don’t need to transfer data, or type it up, it is really just an expense tracker to help me run to a budget daily.

But these kinds of articles can really annoy me. The guy couldn’t operate his garage door? Apparently those need apps? Well shouldn’t they have realised that would be an issue and they needed another method?

The Gym uses an app to gain entry? Well, perhaps tell them you have no way of running the app and get a physical pass? They don’t offer one? Find another Gym if they are not interested in your custom. Make a note of the issue as being a sign of the defaultism on apps and mobiles and the internet.

Here in the UK we actually have stores that can’t accept cash. They literally have no facility to accept it, even though they are LEGALLY REQUIRED to accept the national legal tender, they can’t handle it so get away with it as everyone defaults to a contactless payment. When shopping in the supermarket most self service tills are contactless only, leaving just ONE till capable of handling cash, which is very odd as due to the cost of living many have returned to cash as a means of budgeting as with cash you have physical coins, while with contactless you have a bunch of electrons making up a set of numbers that you can’t see or feel even when at the last minute. Those trying to budget can see and feel that they only have £1.20, and THAT’S ALL THEY GET. No credit crap, no delayed transaction crap (contactless payments via card take 3 days! Even longer for Apple/google pay) you have £1.20 right now and there is no more, you will have to decide if that chocolate bar really is needed vs using that money to buy milk.

I use the organiser to manage my expenses, its not perfect but it does a far better job than a phone ever has. It can also to the other things, and I have used to for writing a note or two. I use another organiser (one which had an expenses tracker I didn’t like) as a backup for my address book. Sits on the table next to the landline phone, sure I could have a paper one but I had the orginiser so why not. All my important contacts are in it.

Yes I have a landline, it’s perfect! Not only can I actually hear what someone is saying (mobiles have terrible sound quality due to the insane compression) but it is prefect for calling businesses on. See, if I give my mobile number to ANYONE who is in a business, they sell it. I have managed to keep spam and cold calls to a minimum on my mobile since the 00’s by only giving it to real humans I want to talk to. I also never answer the mobile to anyone not in my contacts, if you don’t text from an unknown number first or leave a voicemail, I’ll put you in the spam pile. So I call from the landline, and the sell that number OH MY GOD do they pass it around! Only costs me £5 a month with the internet bill, and also acts as an emergency backup number for recovering several of my accounts including my google one. But nooooo, everyone wants to get rid of the landline :D

> The phone in the article has a touch screen, so typing texts and emails is far easier.

There are no emails on the phone in the article.

Typing txts on a dum phne isnt hard whn u use txt spk 2 whch u cn c im rusty

What the flying f just happened?

From what I have known and done in the past in my career I can confirm that data falling into a security classification of secret or above can never be conveyed over the internet. Physical transfers only. Only official or official sensitive data can even think about touching the internet. Machines in places that handle such data thus have to be locked down and hardened. The physical areas where such machines reside, are also locked down and hardened with access controls and internal checks against bringing ANY PED (personal electronic device) that that store data or record or transmit unless it has specific authorisation. Having experience with some IT that handles data of lesser classifications, that means that even the WORK MOBILES are banned from such areas. They have cameras, storage, wifi etc. Like your smartwatch? Well, to enter such rooms you have to take it off and lock it in a locker!

That’s why I wore a good old mechanical watch, a Seiko 5 to be precise. A Casio LCD watch would have been ok too but if you really wanted to you could have a "special" kind of Casio watch with "additional features", so a mechanical one with a clear back showing its workings is a nice way to cover your ass when the pentester wants to suggest that something "Might be possible" and I can flash the SPRING powered device that has no battery etc :D

But in such areas, no phones, no smart watches, no laptops etc. The machines inside such rooms live there and the network is also isolated, physically, using FIBRE in armoured trunking with tamper seals.

The Ministry Of Defence accredit such rooms... They really pick it apart and if you think changing the colour of your car is annoying as you have to inform the DVLA, well you aint seen anything yet as I know how many hoops companies must go through to simply modify such a MOD accredited room.

So, with what I have seen when working in IT that merely APPROACHES this kind of data security I have a few questions.

1. How the bloody hell was any electronic device let alone a mobile phone allowed in the room where that PC was? It is standard proactive that nothing that can record images or audio, that contains wifi or bluetooth capabilities and certainly anything with USB connectivity and storage capabilities would never be permitted into such a room. This is applied to SECRET and above!
2. How the bloody hell was an intern allowed in, you need very high level security clearance for that data, the kind where they INTERVIEW YOUR FAMILY AND SOCIAL CONNECTIONS to fully understand YOU. I have known someone who worked in a place where he needed SC clearance, that level doesn’t need interviews, but they do look hard at your patterns of life. He went abroad a LOT and after a YEAR he still didn’t have clearance and decided to give up and find another job. SO merely to even set EYES on this machine this "intern" must have had clearance for Top Secret which is WAY above SC level. Really deep digging would have been done!
3. Why did that PC have USB ports that were:
3.1 Not blocked off physically or disabled electronically? You dont even need them for keyboards or mouse, you can still use PS/2 connectors, you can add them to a pci-e port and many motherboards still have headers for PS/2.
3.2 Why was the OS configured to allow storage devices to be inserted? Windows GPO is easy to use to block USB storage operations for read, write, or both and can also be configured to only permit specific USB ID's for such access.
3.3 Why wasnt there other mechanisms in place to prevent USB unless unlocked by IT?
4. Why was the host allowing this? When entering such rooms, you have to be hosted by someone unless you have specific reason to be there, such as actually being THE host yourself. Places I have been to with such rooms not only need you to lock your PED's away but only they know the ALARM codes needed to unlock the door to a room accredited by the MOD for classifications LESS THAN this! They actually HAVE ALARMS!!! On the fecking doors!
5. Why was the PC on and why was the data on it in the first place? When the MOD accredit rooms for LESSER classifications it is generally required that the data drives are REMOVED FROM THE COMPUTERS and LOCKED AWAY IN SECURE STORAGE with a book or other method to CHECK THEM OUT FOR USE EVERY TIME. And thats for LESSER classifications.

I literally can not believe the f*cking ineptitude that must have been rife here to allow such crap to happen. Such PC's are supposed to be secured physically in rooms made of BIG F*CKING BRICKS and metal all over. They are supposed to be tough to get in, so how the hell did this "intern" do it?

Describing batteries etc in watts is something a school kid would know as ridiculous.

What next? Measuring a coke cans capacity not in mililitres but in mililitres per second? Because thats exactly what they are suggesting here.

I don’t want so called "platforms" to be unique.

If you are going to have a stab at succeeding at replacing traditional broadcast TV, and they (the streaming services) already failed partly as they can’t avoid advertising anymore so the main component of their service and the main motivation people have to move to them is increasingly redundant, then you are going to have to unify the services.

They must all be accessible via ONE UI, one UX and ONE SUBSCRIPTION. None of this faff about multiple subscriptions, some with adverts, some without with all the crazy differences between one "platform" and the other.

I shouldn’t have to care, or even know if the series I'm watching is on Paramount+ or Netflix. I shouldn’t have to login to one or the other, pay a separate fee for each, agree to different terms and conditions that I haven’t bothered to read, yet I signed. One UI, one sub, one "platform". F*ck your differences and uniqueness, simply acquire the content and stream it.

Otherwise I'll go back to TV where I DO pay one fee, and have one UI, and have no agreements, and no logins, and have regulated and appropriate advertising.

I watched it. Had no bias towards the source material as I havnt read any.

No issues. It was a little predictable here and there but how many times has Dancing with Wolves and Fern Gully been reimagined?

It was a middle of the road scifi dystopian flick basically. The visuals were excellent and really seemed to reflect what I have heard reagrding the source material, which is heavy on the visial artistry.

I loved the idea it was an alternate 1990's.

The story was pretty standard, I mean basically its just like so many movies I have seen before, only this one does it differently.

As for this "blockbuster thrills" stuff. I mean what? Maybe it is a cultural thing, I know in the US audiences expect to shout, scream and laugh out loud in the cinema to "take part" and all but over here in the UK, you'd better shut up and try to eat the popcorn quietly. I havnt been in a cinema where that stuff happens and when it does, well the perps are told to get out :D

So I dont get "thrilled" and expect to be whooshed off my feet with spectacles! Is that why all those borning superhero movies keep getting made? I'm there for the story and if you are going to impress me, well do well with the visuals.

Few, and I mean FEW movies excite me to the level that everyone who hates The Electric State thinks it should have. District 9 didnt, but I liked that. Enders Game didnt, in fact Enders Game and The Electric State felt right on the same level.

There are way better movies that are exceptions, the LoTR trilogy, the BTTF trilogy, Ghostbusters, The Money Pit (fucking love that one), but most of what I watch grabs me on many otherv ways.

This, The Electric State, did what scifi likes to do, ask "what if my childhood had A.I driven robots in it". What would it look like? What would society look like? And this movie offered answers to those sort of questions so I'm pretty happy with it.

VHS at 240i looks way better than this.

Also you have the resolution backwards. In fact I dont know where you got 240x360 from anyway, not only should it be 360x240 as VHS is 240i but the horizontal resolution itself is defined in MHz.

VCD was designed to approximate the digital equivalent of VHS with 352x240 (for PAL it was 352x288), and that looks immeseley superior to this DNR'ed crud.

> To critically watch an episode carefully for issues would probably take 3 or 4 times longer than the episode itself. The human eye can only see a small area of the screen at a time so you would have to watch it and rewind very often to make sure you didn't miss something off to the side. In other words it would cost Netflix about a $500 per episode if they did that (and that's assuming no corrections are needed). It may not be worth it for a lot of their old content that gets only a few thousand or less views (each episode being worth only a few cents from each subscription).

Mate, look at the screenshot. You can tell there is a problem with just one frame, how the hell would anyone other than Mr Magoo miss that? They would only have to watch one scene of the first episode to know the whole show has significant problems and must be re-done.

From the article:

"If you’ve ever played an old show on a modern, high-definition TV, you noticed that it looked like shit, like someone smeared Vaseline over the screen. That’s because they shot programs of that era in 360p (usually), and people were watching them on CRT televisions. Nobody missed higher definition because we wouldn’t have been able to see it on our screens, anyway."

Yeeeeeaaaah, ok. 480i SD video was actually shot in 360p and HD was something nobody knew anything about.

Well, HD was around in the 80's, just not in the home.

360p didnt exist, thats some youngling thinking youtube resolutions are "historical". And even if it did it would look pretty decent as if anyone was watching a VHS recording of this show they'll be watching it at 240i max. The broadcast would have been 480i, around twice the resolution. 360p never even comes into it, and 360p looks shittier than it should because youtubes 360p is 360p as far as the number of pixels are concerned, not as far as the image is concerned which is so heavily compressed it looks like someone used a paintbrush.

This A.I upscale is clearly the result of the A.I not being told to keep the DNR dialed way below 11. You want to se waht SD video should look like when upscaled (note that upscaling doesnt add anything new beyond making SD look how SD should look but on a HD screen) then look at the BBC's Classic Dr Who blurays, or Blakes Seven.

Nice sketch, the punchline was great.