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Comment It was for the Altair. (Score 2) 134

Altairs had a little as 1K memory and you entered the boot loader by hand using binary switches. I got a lot of practice with octal using that very Altair computer that bill gates gifted my high school.

Why octal you might ask and not hex. The importance of hex only emerged after we started trying programs. But when you had to enter machine code by hand using 16 dip switches in a row octal could be done using three fingers on each hand. Try to slap four switches at the same time is two spastic a movement for most people's hands. You could go wickedly fast in octal

With the Altair there was no overriding operating system at all so comparing it to Linux is weird. No hard or floppy drives. To write a program you keyed in the boot loader that had enough brains to read something off cassette tape which was a more sophisticated loader that then could read in the 2K basic. The basic could then accept input from a teletype.
If you wanted a file manager for your cassette tape then you write one in basic and ran it.

Comment No worries (Score 1) 132

For me the phone is an appliance. I don't seek crazy standout features if it an anyway degrades my legacy knowledge and expectations in operating my appliance. I don't like relearning how to use a different microwave oven. A toaster is simple and all that matters is that it's a good toaster that cooks evenly and reproducibly.
But I like new features so I don't just want to keep my old phone. I just want an ecosystem that has tamed new innovations and integrates those across my existing apps well.
Getting the cheapest phone is never of interest. Anything you touch more times per day than your wife should be a graceful pleasant experience and so paying a dollar or even two per day for the best experience phone is a no brainer.

You may note I did not say the word Apple. If that sounds like I just described the Apple experience that is your imputation. But you'd not be wrong that Apple serves that customer better than any other

Comment Re:Libre Office (Score 1) 133

It's been a while, but I tried to used LibreOffice for several years on Win10 and eventually had to drop it for a copy of Office (not 365, fortunately), There were just too many subtle and less subtle incompatibilities with the Office that I had to use on my work PCs.

I even tried to get the Libre team to address some of those (e.g. as options), but they said "We're not a copy of Office" (fair enough) and "We do it the right way" (which I honesty did not always agree with). Regardless of right vs wrong, some basic Calc manipulations were so "non-standard" for no other reason than arbitrary choice, that I had to abandon Libre. It cost me far too much frustrating loss of time (with an implied risk of loss of data), and it caused too many problems for the people I had to share my files with and who I could not force to switch to Libre.

Comment Apple ecosystem, privacy, seamless processor chang (Score 1) 117

The competition has had years to study Apple, and even hire away their engineers but no one has such a user centric experience as Apple,

I don't need to care what processor I have inside. My privacy is as protected as much as possible. Devices last years. Everything works together. Apple saves time rather worrying about flash.

Apple has been creating its own processor and bus architecture letting it make fan free high performance long battery life computers. It may not be a new product category per se but it sure is innovative as it has let them create awesome performance systems.

You may recall Microsoft spent years failing at moving its OS to arm. Abysmal failure. Surfaces are still playing catchup.

I also like the expansion of my privacy on sppple with things like private relay and on board AI task specific entiiies rather than external servers.

The Apple AR system was sure shell of a lot better than anything Zuckerberg produced. Just because AR isn't being adopted fast doesn't change that they smoked Zuckerbergs
passion project

And the Apple ecosystem still "just works" better than the competition. The creation of a secure privacy centered seamless integration of long lived products is very satisfying to any user that values their time

Comment Apple M1 (Score 2) 117

Apple has been creating its own processor and bus architecture letting it make fan free high performance long battery life computers. It may not be a new product category per se but it sure is innovative as it has let them create awesome performance systems.

You may recall Microsoft spent years failing at moving its OS to arm. Abysmal failure. Surfaces are still playing catchup.

I also like the expansion of my privacy on sppple with things like private relay and on board AI task specific entiiies rather than external servers.

The Apple AR system was sure shell of a lot better than anything Zuckerberg produced. Just because AR isn't being adopted fast doesn't change that they smoked Zuckerbergs
passion project

And the Apple ecosystem still "just works" better than the competition. The creation of a secure privacy centered seamless integration of long lived products is very satisfying to any user that values their time

Comment If no TPM 2.0 stops WIn11, I'm fine! (Score 1) 152

I don't like Windows. I never did. But I sadly have one machine on which I need it. That one currently is on Win 10 and I most definitely do not want it to be upgraded to the even more privacy-invasive, ad-invasive, user-ignoring Win 11. Fortunately, it doesn't have TPM 2.0, so it currently can't, which suits me just fine.

What's more, that machine is aging and I've started to worry that it will physically break down within 1 year or so - judging by what happened to my earlier ones.So, recently, I went shopping and found a brand new "older" computer that does not satisfy Win11 's requirements, and which is now sitting in storage until I need it to keep Win11 out of my life for another 6 years or so. Hopefully by the time that one also breaks, I will finally be able to escape Windows altogether.

And yes, I do know about the risks of running an unsupported OS. Fact is, nothing truly sensitive is stored on - or connected to - that one machine, and I only use it for certain specific tasks, which allows me to shield it from many risks "by default". And it's sitting behind a double firewall anyway (and for one application even a triple one, as the relevant service provider also applies serious scanning and filtering to the point of annoying me with false positives).

Comment Massive value to price ratio (Score 1) 107

You literally touch your iPhone more times per day than your wife. You spend more time concentrating on it than your wife. These things are part of your life. Paying less than a dollar a day for a fondle slab you will have a few years is good value. You'd have to be nuts not to buy the top of the line when it's so cheap and such high interactivity in your life. I'd like to say that wasn't true but sadly(?) it is.

Comment Re: Passkeys are GREAT! (Score 1) 203

My keys are with me at home and I know where they are, but not with me as in "always on my body". If I have to carry them literally everywhere where I might need them to log in (3 computers in 2 fixed and 1 mobile location, spread over 3 floors) and also every time I change between regular clothes, military clothes, and DIY clothes, then that is when I will "loose" them all the time.

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