Stronger Than You

my toxic xennial trait is that i believe something should either be software (in which case after i download it i shouldn't need to be connected to use it) or a web page (which shouldn't require me to download anything to use it, however badly, in a browser). fuck your mandatory single function constant connection apps

You’re so right. Say more

Yes. YES. Why the fuck do I need a goddamn SUBSCRIPTION to use MS Word or Excel. It’s total bullshit.

On that note, does anyone have any recommendations for Word Processors that you buy once (or are free!) and then just live on your computer forever? I know assume they must (still) exist, I just haven’t looked into it yet.

Libre office is free and more than that its code is open source which basically means it belongs to all of us. Anyone can contribute to its improvement and anyone can use it.

It's been around for a long time and is arguably less powerful than word office (it could have been different because of past politics but it may well be in the future) but still more than enough for any individual or professional.

Leave Microsoft behind and don't look back !

LibreOffice Fucking Rules and is a full office suite, which includes a program similar to Excel, a program similar to Powerpoint, as well as a math program and Libre Office Draw, which isn't great for doing actual drawings but IS great for making flowcharts. It's not just a word processor, it's all of this:

LibreOffice.Org has a wonderful support forum that is full of questions people have had over the years, so if you're having a problem with any of the programs you can search "how to do X in libre office" and you will very likely find an answer.

Draw can also open, read, and edit PDFs. I had a customer who called me yesterday and was looking for an Adobe Acrobat Pro license and the one functionality she needed was document signing and my friends you do not need to pay fucking adobe $300 a year to sign PDFs.

I used Libre Office Writer to create my Fuck Google pamphlet and save it as a PDF; it is just a fully functional word processor. You can also use it to save in .Docx and .RTF and .PDF if you have to save documents in a specific format for any reason.

For 99.999% of people using office suites, Libre Office will provide all the same functionality of Microsoft Office with none of the subscriptions and all of the control you could want. There is a *slight* learning curve to some things, and the interface might look a bit old-fashioned to some people, but it is well worth it to download if for no other reason that having a non-subscription, non-internet-based (Word doesn't actually store its dictionary locally anymore! Not for like six years! You may need to have internet to get fucking spell check to work!) word processor that will never redirect you to the fucking microsoft store.

i really really wanna know how close is libredraw to onenote bc ive been looking for a good way to take handwritten notes and the wonky onenote for windows is making it very difficult

As far as I can tell: not close at all. OneNote is something that people have been asking me for replacement recs forever and I don't have a good answer.

I absolutely love libre and have been using it faithfully for years, however for the past year my copy has been crashing on me like a motherfucker (like if I scrolled through an opened file for more than a few minutes - let alone typing in one - the whole program would crash and the file would split into a salvaged copy and a corrupt copy or something? I am not the software engineer my mother was lol) ever since downloading to a new computer. Couldn't figure out what was wrong. I'm hoping that since I'll have to do a fresh download on a fresh computer this week, the glitch will just not appear on this round lmao

But yeah. Libre is amazing and I literally kept using it like that for most of the year before giving up and switching programs. Looking forward to enjoying my fave again

However, Apple blocks the download of Open Office on to its desktop computers with the MacOS 12.6.

Putting this out there in case anyone else does have the spoons (or in case the spoons arrive for you later)

As far as I can tell this just isn't true? I can't find any information about it beyond some people confused by their security settings. (If someone has a link to info about macs preventing the use of 3rd party software in 12.6, please share!)

That said: there is a difference between Open Office and Libre Office; Open Office is updated very rarely and has a very small, inactive team of people supporting it, and in the past has let major vulnerabilities go unpatched for months. I would not recommend using Open Office because it's not really in active development. If you want an open source office suite, stick with Libre Office, which is linked above.

Sir, I use Open Office.  I don’t get updates and I don’t want updates.  I like how it works.  I’ve downloaded it.  I’ve installed it. I’ve used it for years.  I’ve taken the original install file from one computer to another and installed it from a USB.  It’s fine.

but if you want something else with support and updates then sure.  Libre Office is what you want.

Tumblr users stop proudly and publicly announcing the giant security holes in your systems challenge (impossible).

Listen, if you are on Twitter and you haven't recently downloaded your data, you really need to. Like, now.

With the recent layoffs, I am willing to bet money that Twitter is going to implode very soon. Maybe not permanently, but dramatically, and very, very soon. Like "Liz Truss vs a head of lettuce" soon.

I base this quite simply on knowing the kind of shit my wife deals with every day, and listening to people on the news who have talked to Twitter employees about the site at all. Not only do I think there's some Thing that will cause Twitter to puke all over itself like a 19yo who just discovered wine coolers, but I think there are multiple Things, and they are not in the future. They are occurring right now.

They fired the people who know which software licenses are up for renewal next. They fired the people who know that this cache needs to be manually emptied, and yeah they should have written a script for it but there were so many other projects that it was easier for Bob to just manually do it on Friday mornings while on his 2nd cup of coffee. They fired the people who know to not poke this thing in that way bc this thing works in a non-standard fashion, but it works, so even though the software manual says "poke it," don't do that. They fired the people that know that this queue getting up over X number of tickets means it starts eating tickets and erasing half the data you need to fix issues, so you have to compress the ticket numbers at least every 2 days with an ad hoc utility script that Jane wrote after your team discovered this issue. Not all of the institutional knowledge is gone, but a lot of it is, and once that knowledge is gone, it's not coming back. Once that knowledge is gone, things unravel quickly at an institution that size.

Whatever happens on the social end of things - and that's a fucking mess - make your contingency plans for not losing touch with people now, and get downloads of your shit. Now. Not later. This will not fizzle out like LiveJournal. I'm willing to bet that it will simply cease to be one day soon. It might come back once it disappears.

I'm just not counting on it, and neither should you.

Fun thing: downloading an archive of your data from Twitter requires... Twitter to be working, and they say it’s going to take at least 24 hours for the zip file to become available (and I have NO doubt that this specification was made back when they had the full staffing load, rather than Jason the Intern, Eric the Crawler and Timmy the (actual) Dog who are probably all that remains of the previous staff... because all the good people who didn’t get sacked have almost certainly expedited their resignations). 

Get your data early, folks.  It will almost certainly take longer than advertised.

In case you're like me and didn't know how to download your Twitter data.

SREs and Ops people are the ones who keep sites up and running (naming convention for the job depends on the company and time period).

I worked in Ops for a company years ago that laid off about 1/2 the staff. Our team was the only one to only lose 1 person. Out of a team of about 15.

Because we kept the site running.

We were the ones who got woken up in the middle of the night when stuff went wrong. Not even for stuff that directly impacted users - at least right away. If it didn’t get fixed, it would impact users at some point, depending on the severity.

But we were protected from that layoff because we were essential to the site continuing to operate.

And Twitter just gutted the team that does that for them.

This is such a typical "the capitalist who bought the company doesn't understand how the product works, so he cut costs in a way that's going to destroy the product and therefore the company" fatality.

Thank God I got off Twitter when it first looked like he was gonna buy it. Enjoy your imploding empire you sack of shit

here's an aesthetic i think a lot of you like but don't know the name of: frutiger aero! mainly popular from around 2005-2013. basically.... lots of shiny and glossy things! also sometimes nature themes! c:

here are more examples besides web design!

Getting really sick of all the “There’s No Place Like Chrome” ads on youtube. There’s Firefox. Firefox saves your passwords. Firefox autofills things if you want. Firefox also does things that Chrome doesn’t like allow adblockers, and it does not mine your data and sell your information for advertising purposes. Google is really trying to push people to use Chrome so they can take as much data from users as possible in order to make as much money as possible and it’s borderline sinister.

Anyway, download Firefox.

Seriously: do this. Chrome is increasingly toxic. Firefox, meanwhile, is a beautifully security-oriented browser, and I hate working with anything else.

Seconding this.

Also thirding, fourthing and fifthing it.

Google’s pushiness about Chrome is downright unsettling (yeah okay, fiction writer, but still…) and having just shifted from Windows 8.1 (Internet Explorer) to Windows 10, I don’t much care for Edge being as intrusive as it is.

Firefox is IMO the best browser currently available.

here's the story. i know expressvpn has been recommended in some 🏴‍☠️ how-to posts but it is not trustworthy. the parent company, kape technologies, not only used to distribute malate but has ties to multiple state surveillance agencies. and be careful where you look for info about good vpns, because kape technologies owns a bunch of "vpn review" sites too

In case anyone can’t read the article for whatever reasons, the VPNs acquired are:

ExpressVPN

Private Internet Access

Zenmate

CyberGhost

And the VPN review sites they purchased are:

vpnMentor

Wizcase

So if you use any of those, time to look for other options.

Well, shit. I heard about this with ExpressVPN, but I switched to--- Private Internet Access. Fuck.

Anyone got any recommendations? I'm against NordVPN just because their advertising strategy is obnoxious.

@ms-demeanor I'm sorry I don't remember what your computer side blog is but I know you have suggestions for this kind of stuff

I know fuck all about VPNs but PrivacyGuides.Org has trustworthy recs and I trust the Proton organization a lot and ProtonVPN looks pretty solid.

no actually I'm gonna give this its own post.

get yourself a USB stick from any dollar store, install ubuntu with persistent storage on it. There is literally no reason not to, and it means that you now have a little computer of your very own that no one except those who physically get their hands on your USB stick can use (and you can password lock the OS) and that you can run from literally almost any PC with USB ports. Including public machines in libraries and, probably, school laptops.

If you're a kid who needs privacy, someone in trouble who just needs their own machine to play and talk to people on, somebody who doesn't have the money to get your own computer, etc etc etc, do this. Actually do this even if you do have your own computer. There is literally no reason to not have a little backup system on a thumb drive that you can use anytime. If your main computer starts acting up or gets fucked over by an update or something? Just plug in your thumb drive and use your computer from your handy-dandy mini Ubuntu installation.

EDIT: I have seen many radfems reblogging this post. I just want yall to know that op here is a nonbinary they/he lesbian and that if you touched my post you now have gross trans cooties on your blog forever and that I hope they infect and kill you. <3

One Tab is simple and great if you're tab hoarder!!

Re the .webp blocker/interferer: THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUOHGOD. :)

if you have Norton Antivirus or Norton VPN, delete the software ASAP.

Norton is automatically installing and running a cryptocurrency mining program in the backgrounds of their users. There is no text box asking to confirm the use of this program and is installed automatically, it runs during “downtime” on your computer . While the official announcement said that this program was exclusive to the US, international users are reporting it as well. We don’t know the exact scope yet.

To delete this program, must go into the files (Program Files/Norton) and delete the file NCrypt.exe. It will ask for the admin permission. (Some report having admin permissions on their computer but being unable to delete the program.) If the software is already downloaded to your computer, I would NOT recommend continuing to use Norton, as there is no guarantee that the .exe file won’t return in another update.

Tell your friends and family, reblog, spread this, please. It’s barely been getting any attention, and I worry that Norton is setting a precedent that other companies will repeat. However, if a large (or very vocal) part of the userbase continues to complain, it may make Norton or other companies think twice before mining crypto on your computer.

Confirmed on Norton's website 1/4/22.

This was trialed in their early access program in June of last year, and is now included with all subscriptions.

Don't want to mine cryptocurrency? You should use a different antivirus.

Windows Defender is actually pretty good last I checked.

...UGH. :/

Windows defender can hog resources but is genuinely so good these days I haven't had a noticeable virus or malware in years, not a one

Years ago back when I worked in cubicle land, we were hiring junior software developers. They didn’t have to have a ton of experience, just a willingness to learn, and some demonstration of their software skills. Like: show me a program you wrote (any language) or a web site you designed. Anything.

And there was this one guy I talked with who seemed super sharp, but had virtually zero experience writing software. When it came time to do the show-n-tell part of the interview he whips out his laptop, brings up a website, and spins it around to show me what he made.

A website of tiny ceramic frogs.

Not for sale. Just… all these ceramic frogs, organized into categories. Frogs on bicycles, frogs with hats, frogs sitting on lily pads. It was a virtual museum of ceramic frogs in web form.

I scrolled through his online collection of frogs, slightly baffled.

“This is your website?” I asked finally.

“Yep!”

“You coded this yourself?” I popped into view-source mode and poked around some incredibly well-formatted, well-commented html. I nodded slowly. This guy was meticulous.

“Yep!”

“So… where’d all the frogs come from?”

“I made those too,” he says, beaming. 

And while I’m processing this he rummages in his bag and pulls out a little ceramic frog working at a computer terminal. He places it on the table before us, next to the laptop.

“And THIS one,” he says, “I made for you! As a thank you for the interview.”

It was adorable. I hired him on the spot. I mean, why not? Worst case he’d wash out in 90 days and we’d hire somebody else. He turned out to be one of the best developers on our team. 

And yes, his cubicle was loaded with ceramic frogs.