The Spam Thread!

[huckleberrypie]

That is likely to be the case. Makes me wonder what happens if I mess around with AR codes in the AmGirl games.

[cpd2009]

So, I decided to name my new AC Wild World town Woodland, after the TV series Franklin. I haven't seen Franklin in a long time, but I am familiar with it, and the stories take place in the titular Woodland locale.

Right now, the plan is to spend time in AC New Leaf in mornings before work, and AC Wild World in the afternoons. AC Wild World has a nostalgic charm that reminds me a lot of AC City Folk. Most of the music in Wild World is the same as City Folk. The controls will take time to get used to. They are a bit different than New Leaf, and I will struggle at times switching control methods between the two, at least for awhile.

In other news, Linux still needs work. Nvidia Optimus is supported nicely now, and all you have to do in Ubuntu-based spins is select the most recent Nvidia driver. The OS still tends to break, and configuration issues still abound. I was never able to get Windows Steam to run with Wine while with Linux Mint, and Kubuntu broke on me after a post-install system update. I will try it again before deciding to move on to another distro.

Chances are, I may move Greta back to Windows. My only choice is Windows 10 since I am missing one of her original Windows 7 recovery discs. I read that you can still use a Windows 7 key to get a free upgrade to Windows 10, and perhaps a fresh install will speed things up. I am going to use Firefox and disable the advertising bits. As for Pearl, no Windows 10 for her. I need to learn to stick to something and not change my mind so often.

[cpd2009]

Windows 10 is installed on Greta, and it does seem a bit faster with web browsing thanks to Firefox. It still takes time to start, but given that Greta is my travel laptop, it's no big deal. Once Windows starts up, it performs well enough.

[huckleberrypie]

Been converting a Nash Metropolitan to NFS Carbon lately, and so far the conversion's more or less fine apart from the front wheels clipping through when you steer left or right.

[cpd2009]

May as well share some more Windows pet peeves of mine. This time, it's any version of Windows as it's mostly the software's fault. And they have been using these tactics for years.

The first, and probably most annoying to me, is having your web browser opened after you either finish installing a new program, or uninstalling it. It doesn't happen that often when installing a program, usually just taking you to some silly "Thank you for installing" page. It happens more frequently with uninstalling programs. Many programs feel the need to take you to a survey page or questionnaire after you uninstall the program in question. But I normally ignore these, and when you are uninstalling many programs to clean up a computer, these annoying web browser pages can make mass uninstallation more cumbersome as you have to close out the browser before getting back to the control panel.

A better method would be having the uninstall program ask you to take a survey, and simply say no, rather than push it in your face. Another idea is to have all web browser links from Win32 programs run through UAC. While this would affect normal programs that open help files in your default browser, it would also help curtail uninstaller's attempts at forcing useless surveys or thank you pages in your face. You can simply hit no in the UAC prompt, and the installer should just finish as if you did visit it. But then, perhaps developers would find clever tricks out of this like endlessly spamming UAC prompts until you say yes and open the darn survey.

The second pet peeve is desktop icons. If you have seen my desktop pictures, I prefer a desktop that is clear of as many icons as possible. The only icons I normally have are This PC, my User folder, and the recycle bin. Whenever installers drop program icons on my desktop, I just delete them or pin them to the Start screen or taskbar. This works fine and keeps my desktop tidy, until you update certain programs like Foxit Reader or the classic Skype Desktop app. They just appear to run the normal installers in silent mode, which means after every program update, the associated icon is dropped onto the desktop again. It's not as annoying as the program installer issue above, but it does a disservice to those who want an actual clean desktop to show off a nice wallpaper. Then again, the majority of Windows users probably don't care. :/ I've seen many Windows desktops just cluttered with icons and document files.

[huckleberrypie]

May as well share some more Windows pet peeves of mine. This time, it's any version of Windows as it's mostly the software's fault. And they have been using these tactics for years.

The first, and probably most annoying to me, is having your web browser opened after you either finish installing a new program, or uninstalling it. It doesn't happen that often when installing a program, usually just taking you to some silly "Thank you for installing" page. It happens more frequently with uninstalling programs. Many programs feel the need to take you to a survey page or questionnaire after you uninstall the program in question. But I normally ignore these, and when you are uninstalling many programs to clean up a computer, these annoying web browser pages can make mass uninstallation more cumbersome as you have to close out the browser before getting back to the control panel.

A better method would be having the uninstall program ask you to take a survey, and simply say no, rather than push it in your face. Another idea is to have all web browser links from Win32 programs run through UAC. While this would affect normal programs that open help files in your default browser, it would also help curtail uninstaller's attempts at forcing useless surveys or thank you pages in your face. You can simply hit no in the UAC prompt, and the installer should just finish as if you did visit it. But then, perhaps developers would find clever tricks out of this like endlessly spamming UAC prompts until you say yes and open the darn survey.

The second pet peeve is desktop icons. If you have seen my desktop pictures, I prefer a desktop that is clear of as many icons as possible. The only icons I normally have are This PC, my User folder, and the recycle bin. Whenever installers drop program icons on my desktop, I just delete them or pin them to the Start screen or taskbar. This works fine and keeps my desktop tidy, until you update certain programs like Foxit Reader or the classic Skype Desktop app. They just appear to run the normal installers in silent mode, which means after every program update, the associated icon is dropped onto the desktop again. It's not as annoying as the program installer issue above, but it does a disservice to those who want an actual clean desktop to show off a nice wallpaper. Then again, the majority of Windows users probably don't care. :/ I've seen many Windows desktops just cluttered with icons and document files.

Tell me about it. I don't like the idea of shoving sponsored applications up my throat, which is the thing with Chrome offers made by popular apps upon installing, or worse, useless toolbars and such. Sure, it's a business model and they make some commission out of it, but eh, they can get worse and can get in the way.

As far as desktop icons are concerned, I do tend to put documents on the desktop for temporary and immediate storage, then when they're done, I either delete them or store it in the appropriate location. I've since made it a point to keep most if not all of my documents on an external hard drive to make recovery easier in case of a hard drive crash or some other untoward incident.

[cpd2009]

May as well share some more Windows pet peeves of mine. This time, it's any version of Windows as it's mostly the software's fault. And they have been using these tactics for years.

The first, and probably most annoying to me, is having your web browser opened after you either finish installing a new program, or uninstalling it. It doesn't happen that often when installing a program, usually just taking you to some silly "Thank you for installing" page. It happens more frequently with uninstalling programs. Many programs feel the need to take you to a survey page or questionnaire after you uninstall the program in question. But I normally ignore these, and when you are uninstalling many programs to clean up a computer, these annoying web browser pages can make mass uninstallation more cumbersome as you have to close out the browser before getting back to the control panel.

A better method would be having the uninstall program ask you to take a survey, and simply say no, rather than push it in your face. Another idea is to have all web browser links from Win32 programs run through UAC. While this would affect normal programs that open help files in your default browser, it would also help curtail uninstaller's attempts at forcing useless surveys or thank you pages in your face. You can simply hit no in the UAC prompt, and the installer should just finish as if you did visit it. But then, perhaps developers would find clever tricks out of this like endlessly spamming UAC prompts until you say yes and open the darn survey.

The second pet peeve is desktop icons. If you have seen my desktop pictures, I prefer a desktop that is clear of as many icons as possible. The only icons I normally have are This PC, my User folder, and the recycle bin. Whenever installers drop program icons on my desktop, I just delete them or pin them to the Start screen or taskbar. This works fine and keeps my desktop tidy, until you update certain programs like Foxit Reader or the classic Skype Desktop app. They just appear to run the normal installers in silent mode, which means after every program update, the associated icon is dropped onto the desktop again. It's not as annoying as the program installer issue above, but it does a disservice to those who want an actual clean desktop to show off a nice wallpaper. Then again, the majority of Windows users probably don't care. :/ I've seen many Windows desktops just cluttered with icons and document files.

Tell me about it. I don't like the idea of shoving sponsored applications up my throat, which is the thing with Chrome offers made by popular apps upon installing, or worse, useless toolbars and such. Sure, it's a business model and they make some commission out of it, but eh, they can get worse and can get in the way.

As far as desktop icons are concerned, I do tend to put documents on the desktop for temporary and immediate storage, then when they're done, I either delete them or store it in the appropriate location. I've since made it a point to keep most if not all of my documents on an external hard drive to make recovery easier in case of a hard drive crash or some other untoward incident.

Developers absolutely LOVE dark patterns. Piriform makes useful little tools, but unless you pay close attention to the install dialog, you will end up installing Google Chrome. The tick box is in small text along the bottom left, and it's ticked by default of course. I also end up getting Chrome offers if I am installing other programs too. IrfanView used to bundle Chrome, but I don't think they do now. I'd bet these shady bundles are partially responsible for making Chrome as popular as it is. Sometimes, you will get an offer for a completely different shady browser, such as Torch, a Chromium reskin that adds in rather useless functions as games and a built in music player. The browser did have a built in YT downloader. I even had Torch just for that feature, but some questionable page-modifying extensions were added in later, so I now stay away from Torch.

Other popular PUPs are McAfee Security Scan or Norton Security Scan, also bundled with legitimate applications. When you start getting into the shady apps (like KMPlayer), this is when you begin seeing the toolbars and potential spyware.

[huckleberrypie]

Developers absolutely LOVE dark patterns. Piriform makes useful little tools, but unless you pay close attention to the install dialog, you will end up installing Google Chrome. The tick box is in small text along the bottom left, and it's ticked by default of course. I also end up getting Chrome offers if I am installing other programs too. IrfanView used to bundle Chrome, but I don't think they do now. I'd bet these shady bundles are partially responsible for making Chrome as popular as it is. Sometimes, you will get an offer for a completely different shady browser, such as Torch, a Chromium reskin that adds in rather useless functions as games and a built in music player. The browser did have a built in YT downloader. I even had Torch just for that feature, but some questionable page-modifying extensions were added in later, so I now stay away from Torch.

Other popular PUPs are McAfee Security Scan or Norton Security Scan, also bundled with legitimate applications. When you start getting into the shady apps (like KMPlayer), this is when you begin seeing the toolbars and potential spyware.

Makes me wonder if that would be worthy of an antitrust lawsuit similar to how IE was criticised for.

[cpd2009]

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/04/...te-brings/

So the Windows 10 April Update is now live. And according to this review, many users are encountering bugs after the update. Don't know if it's just the result of specific users upgrades, or if the OS itself is buggy.

It's apparent that Windows is becoming more of a SaaS (Software as a Service), which is what MS wants. While it does keep the OS updated and secure, the supposedly increasing bugs and other issues are turning users away from updating. And in my case, downgrading to 8.1 on my main PC.

I will probably go ahead and install it on Greta anyway. Just because I need something to do tonight.

[huckleberrypie]

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/04/...te-brings/

So the Windows 10 April Update is now live. And according to this review, many users are encountering bugs after the update. Don't know if it's just the result of specific users upgrades, or if the OS itself is buggy.

It's apparent that Windows is becoming more of a SaaS (Software as a Service), which is what MS wants. While it does keep the OS updated and secure, the supposedly increasing bugs and other issues are turning users away from updating. And in my case, downgrading to 8.1 on my main PC.

I will probably go ahead and install it on Greta anyway. Just because I need something to do tonight.

We tend to do some things for the lulz, eh?

Which, in my case is converting a Nash Metropolitan 3D model to Need for Speed Carbon. I actually did a model of it before, but it doesn't look to par with what I wanted so I shelved that in favour of a conversion from a mobile game. A free-to-play one for that matter.

And yes, I do plan on porting LineageOS to the LeapFrog Epic, just as how a group of hackers have done so with the Switch.