You Americans with your imperial system. 9:77 o’clock is 10:17 in metric. /s

Despite not answering your question correctly, I have something where Windows is superior to macOS:

When you start a Windows program and want the program window to fill your screen completely, you just have to drag the window towards the upper edge of the screen and the window fills the whole size of the screen.

On macOS there is not such an option. You have to drag the program window manually to the full size of the screen. Although there is a full-screen mode (green button in the upper left of the window), when activated, the window is in full screen, but the menu bar at the top of the screen is hidden. However, at least macOS remembers the last size of the program window, so you don’t have to drag it to full screen size again.

I think programming can be a pretty dull task, where you spend hours over hours copy-pasting fragments of code from former projects and/or from other sources, adjust it to your needs, run it, remove the bug, run it again and find the new ten bugs over and over again.

But you get to wear a black hoodie and a mask.

A cheap phone last about as long and does 90% the same stuff

This is true. You can get an almost equal performance out of a cheap phone. But I learned that more expensive or high-end phones recieve more software updates than cheaper entry-tier phones.

For instance, I own an LG K8 (Model LG-M200E) from 2017. The battery still holds enough charge (although it is designed to be replaced), the camera works, the touch display still responds properly - but it only recieved one update (Android 7 --> Android 8) in 2018. I wouldn’t consider it secure and I certainly don’t have my online banking on the phone. Meanwhile it gets very hot and slow when I use Google Maps. Unfortunately, there is no way to replace its operating system with an alterntive OS, linke Grephene OS or Lineage. None of the many alternative operating systems offer suppert for this specific model.

My next phone will propably be mid-price ranged.

Edit: typos

I have a simailar strategy: I bought a mouse, considered it good enough to work with, bought the same mouse again to put it away for when the first-bought mouse is failing.

I do the same with shoes since I wear the same brand and model for years, so that an internet purchase is without any risk for me.

“I’m sorry that you…”

… feel offended by my point of view.

That one was indeed disturbing.

Try velcro zip ties. They are reuseable. For example: https://www.amazon.com/velcro-zip-ties/s?k=velcro+zip+ties

I think this is because it is pretty boring to film a computer in action, because it does noting - it doesn’t move for example. So beeping sounds were added for every action a computer would do: opening or closing windows, transferring files to a disk, calculating,…

These sounds were added at a time computers were not that common in every household and to emphazise that the computer is doing something. In recent movies, computers are more silent.

Another thing film makers did to show interaction with a computer is the constant usage of the keyboard. Every thing is done with the keyboard. Open a window: type 5 sceonds on the keyboard. Transferring a file onto a disk: type the whole bible on the keyboard. This was done because it would be pretty boring to show someone use the mouse or drag-and-drop files.

It its somehow compareable to the movie trope of constantly reloading a gun. You can see this often in older movies: the protagonist is going inside a building and he is reloading his gun. Then he stops a the corner of a hallway and is reloading the gun again - despite no shot has been fired. This was also done to show the audience that a gun will be involved.

It’s always a good advice to be on good terms with the surveillance officers. I do it too and sometimes they even look in the other direction when I did wrong ;-)

Things I do what give me a percieved sense of privacy/ security:

• use Firefox with Add-ons (Ublock origin, Idontcareaboutcookies, Istilldontcareaobutcookies, Consent Blocker)
• browser set up to block third party cookies and to delete any cookies after closing
• not allowing to store any credentials in the browser
• using different passwords for different services (not one password for all)
• using Two-Factor-Authentification on services which are connected with banking account
• not using freemail providers for email
• using a temporary email where possible if registration is required
• encrypted hard drive and encrypted backups
• do not use cloud storage (I rely on old school portable hard drives and thumb drives)
• using an additional firewall to stop certain not-quite-legally-obtained programs from phoning home (these programs can’t be replaced through FOSS at the moment, or are too ridiculously overpriced to buy them right now)
• restrict/ forbid operating system to collect anonymous data and to phone home (as if that helps…)
• don’t do online banking with an android 8 device

The password storage thing sometimes seems to be a hassle. I have stored my passwords in a physical moleskin, written with a pen, like an old person would do. When I have that book not availiable (when travellling), I have to guess my credentials.

At work I have the browser stored all the credentials. It’s so much faster and easier. But since it’s at my job I don’t have to worry about my own private stuff.

“Saturday” references to the planet “Saturn”.

Here is a video about the origin of the weekday’s names in different languages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gifimOF5a_U

I addition to that, here is a video which explains how the months got their names: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9iOt48bTw4&list=PL5x1QB-VRuDtHCWcuSx0DgJr2mnuNXkSB&index=4 This channel has very interesting videos about the ethymological origins of different things. It’s worth watching.

Edit: spelling

Years ago, Opera has been my main browser and I really liked it. Back then, it was the only browser (to my knowledge) that had tabs. It was a novelty back then. Over the time they added more features, like the conversion tool. Then they added more features I didn’t need or want, like the side bar, and it quickly became bloated. I switched to firefox, which offered a greater variety of add-ons. I still use firefox as my main browser. The only thing I miss is the conversion tool. There is nothing comparable like the one Opera has built in. I later learned that the original developers sold it to a chinese consortium. In hindsight, that explains the constant changes to the worse, which pushed me to another browser.

A Bronx Tale

A father becomes worried when a local gangster befriends his son in the Bronx in the 1960s. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106489/

Top Notch - https://topnotch.app/

Apparently you need a third party app to switch the color of the menu bar to black so that you can hide the stupid notch.

Top Notch - https://topnotch.app/

Apparently you need a third party app to switch the color of the menu bar to black so that you can hide the stupid notch.

Wow, what a setup just for a play on words!

There is no point. We realised it only recently. If you remember the cell phones from the time before smartphones, there hadn’t been much technological progress. My first cellphone, a Nokia, could store up to 10 short messages. It’s pedecessor had the same storage capacity. Of course, there were technological milestones that have been passed, e.g. antennas which didn’t protrude out of the phone, vibration motors, (in comparison to today) really shitty photo-cameras (and the buggy software that was needed to transfer the photos to the computer), etc.

The point is, that they all were capable to do the same thing: calling and texting. Looking back, there was not really a need to replace the old cellphone. Advertising made us want new shiny things.

This changed when smartphones emerged. Hardware wise, there are not many differences. Some have faster processors than others, others have better cameras. The storage capabilities are sufficient. For the normal user these specifications don’t matter. All smartphones are capable of accessing the (real) internet. The main difference today is in the software (operating system). Older phones run on software that is too outdated to keep pace, and the software support is often limited, which as a result leads to possible security flaws - because the user is supposed to upgrade the hardware, not the operating system only. And that’s why new phones are bought, despite the old ones would still do.

My smartphone ist running on Android 8 (Nougat). It’s still working and is sufficient for my needs. But I wouldn’t run my online banking with that phone. Also, it gets pretty hot and slow when navigating with Google Maps.

Conclusion: It’s not the hardware specifications which lead to the replacement of smartphones. It’s the more complex (security wise) software requirements certain applications (online banking apps, medical apps, e.g. insuline tracking apps, overall more sophisticated apps that runs slow on an outdated smartphone) demand today.

When a website features an (embedded) video at the top and you need to scroll down to read the text unterneath the video:

If not disabled by your browser, the video playback starts. You stop the video. You beginn to scroll down to read the text unter the video, because you don’t want to watch the video. Now the video pops out and begins to play and hovers over the area where the text is displayed.

News websites are prone to this behavior.

Here’s some insightful view into the topic of gamer aesthetics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgOI4908QyY

The video is in German, but you can toggle the subtitles into (auto-generated) English.