Posts by Kiwi

Re: adblock plus and /56/

Considering the fact that you're criticizing the colour of a button while praising NoScript's UI of all things, I'm not sure your perspective is exactly objective.

I'll try to use simple words here in hopes you can keep up.

NS's button has DIFFERENT COLOURS that contrast with the background so that you can see it. It has a WHITE S which is NOTICEABLY DIFFERENT to the background. That S has a BLACK BORDER to MAKE IT STAND OUT At times it as a RED CIRCLE to make it even more noticeable.

Contrast that with the settings button on UB which is light grey on light grey, and not visible unless you know where to go to.

Are you still with me or is this not quite simple enough?

When you click on the main NS button with your mouse it tells you things like that there's an options menu there. When you click on the main UB button it tells you things like there's a big blue power icon and some stats, and down the bottom some icons for turning on/off filtering for "large media elements".

With ABP and NS if you go to the Addons settings with the browser, and click on "Preferences" you get stuff about changing settings. With UB you don't. IOW, there's nothing obvious with UB to show that there are more settings available, and such settings are not found in the usual way.

I should stop here, in case we have to wait a while for you to catch up.

Re: Maybe they could make an addon?

Have you tried the "Moon Tester Tool" addon for Pale Moon? It allows most "Not compatible with Pale Moon" addons to install and work anyway.

Thanks, will have to play some more with it. I still get a "not compatible" with VDH but will look a bit closer at it a bit later on.

Re: I have my do not proceed things as well

Maybe you don't agree with my demand for static UI elements... that's fine too, as long as we both have the option to have things as we wish. That's part of the point here, that we're not being given any options in many of these things. I was evaluating the Chrome browser on my Android tablet when an update came along that made the nav/URL bar disappear whenever it felt like it. No option... just "this is the way it is going to be." Instant uninstall, and that was the last time I tried Chrome.

I think we can very much agree on most of this except the contents of the check box - for you "menu bar" is normally ticked but for me it normally isn't :)

And if I had've found Chrome to be better than FF before they removed the option of the menu, I too would've been uninstalling it as soon as the menu was gone, especially if things like normal keyboard shortcuts (eg alt-T not necessarily ^P) went with it.

Re: Just say no to parrotting Google

Users of phone apps that switched from something resembling the PC menu bar to the more "modern" and space efficient hamburger menu show significantly less user engagement of the options hidden behind the hamburger than in previous versions of the app that had the more traditional UI.

I seriously doubt that. How many calls did you field from family/friends about things that could be found in any of the top-level menus? When telling them to go to "File then Save", how often did you have to carefully, with millimetre-by-millimetre mouse directions, tell them how to even find the "File" menu - hidden away up there in plain sight?

I think some places have tucked the menu away not because of screen real-estate, but for many it's it's not used and a waste of effort making it :)

I prefer generally to hide the menus, knowing generally I can get them back just by pressing "ALT" or at worst "ALT-F" - not everyone thinks like that and at least with FF there is still an option to turn the menus on under View -> Toolbars -> Menu bar. Personally, if I could move it to the sides of the screen (and still have the words readable) where 50% of the space is wasted rather than long the top (where 90% of the space is precious!) I'd be more inclined to leave it visible.

Re: adblock plus and /56/

If you can't handle checkboxes, how can you install addons? Besides which, how many "newbies" are aware of those privacy concerns? Would they be any more likely to select the option in Adblock Plus (it's not enabled by default either).

ABP set the standard for giving you a start page with 3 simple and obvious sliders that alter this. Not quite turned on by default but there. Easy to see, right from the moment ABP is installed.

The majority of addons don't have any configuration options, so it's not obvious that others will. Right clicking on UB's icon doesn't give any options (vs No Script which does) so the most obvious place to go looking for preferences (in many situations) isn't there. Also UB doesn't have anything in the preferences page to look at.

From your post I went hunting. There's a black icon on a black panel with a black light tucked away (IRL very light grey on white background - same diff) that I only actually detected by chance hovering over the blank space above the "requests blocked" line. As I moved my mouse past another icon it changed colour making it visible, ie the settings icon is only visible if you actually know to hover over it.

So, given UB has a fucked up UI and doesn't have settings/preferences in obvious places, how the hell is someone supposed to know there's actually more to it?

At least with ABP there's the obvious "manage filter preferences" in an obvious location.

If there is no intuitive way into changing settings (eg a visible icon) then people won't see how to fo it. ABP has "manage preferences" visible. Ublock does not.

"Handling checkboxes" is only a matter when you can actually see them. Simples, no?

It prevents certain kinds of exploits due to buggy extensions, thereby improving security.

I could prevent my car being stolen or in a crash by dropping it off a cliff. Security will be vastly improved, and I know I won't die in it.

It'll be about as useful as the next FF though.

I'm a big lad. I can make decisions about my security. I've already beaten most exploits simply by my choice of OS. If FF was to give something in about:config, perhaps even an addon of theirs, to allow me to use FF how I wish to use FF, then I would still be a FF user.

Thanks to actually trying Waterfox, I am no longer a FF user. So I guess FF now has had an infinite security improvement on my system, as it will never be compromised. In a week's time, unless WF somehow turns out to be really terrible (playtime so far suggests otherwise) there will be no FF on my system.

As more FF users follow my lead, it'll become more and more secure - simply by less people using it. When the last person leaves (maybe in a few months?) it'll become perfectly secure - no one using it means it cannot be compromised.

I've supported and used FF for years. Pale Moon became my main browser a while back but I still used FF for a few things where PM didn't quite have the addon support. WF fixes that issue. No more being screwed around by FF being an unstable (constantly changing and stuff constantly breaking including security/privacy addons!) pain.

--> Another long-term user saying goodbye!

Re: Maybe they could make an addon?

Seems WaterFox is the best solution if you need the latest DownloadHelper. I'm using it now and it supports the latest sites.

WOW! I've been using WF for not even a minute and I am way impressed! The look I want, the stuff I want (plugins), the history alive and well (even "restore previous session" opens my FF tabs).

Downsides : Didn't keep the search settings (open in new tab + no searching from URL bar) and turned on accepting 3rd party cookies. (ok, 5 mins in by now).

It'll almost certainly replace Firefox and should I need to replace Pale Moon as my main browser (I actually do prefer to have everything in one place) it'll probably do so.

Thanks again for the heads up :)

Re: Maybe they could make an addon?

As for Video Download Helper, the Modified For SeaMonkey 1.x version can be used under PM, though I don't know if it's still fully compatible with all current websites,

Thanks, will have to dig further though as the one version I've found thus far doesn't work with YT.

I see the main version has a "not compatible with FF quantum" marker on it. Good thing I won't be using FF quantum. In fact if I can find a decent way to get the few YT vids I want, I won't be using FF at all.

(my connection is to slow to stream them, so I need to DL them to watch. Very little worth the hassle these days)

Re: Did they fix the memory problem?

I'm typing this right now on 56.0.2 (64-bit). Four tabs are open and Task Mgr says it's using 2.6gb of RAM and will climb until I have to force-close and restart, then do the same thing again in 3 hours. Obscene that this has been a problem for so many years.

Yep, the Pale Moon update fixes that :) (102 tabs (not all clicked/viewed in this session), 602Mb)

For comparison : FF 56 with 14 tabs used 496Mb (opened for long enough to load the first visible tab)

Re: adblock plus and /56/

Switch to uBlock Origin. They've ported almost all of the functionality, plus it's more effective (no whitelisting of adverts that paid for access) and less resource intensive.

Ublock is pretty useless at protecting privacy though. It doesn't get rid of the LI/FB/Twatty etc tracking buttons. Just checked on Pale Moon by disabling AB+ (use it with UB), sure enough those horrible things appear on El Reg.

I don't see any annoying ads with AB+, "paid for access" or otherwise. The few I may see - non intrusive static stuff - are non intrusive so I don't mind, especially if it helps the site pay the bills. (and they're so non-intrusive I'm not sure I even see them). Then again, UB+Noscript may be filling the gaps AB leaves open.

UB may not allow "paid for access" ads through, but it does allow FB+LI through, which is a total fail.

Re: I have my do not proceed things as well

Disappearing UI elements are a bad thing, long eschewed in the annals of UI design, but the growth of mobile and its inherent limitations has made them the norm regardless. Having them on a desktop or laptop PC that does not suffer from those inherent limitations is a particular kind of stupid.

You must've loved the classic IE days where on a 14" high screen (not wide or diagonal etc, high) you'd have 1/2" of menu/nav/status bars, 1/2" of content, and 13" of toolbars and other "UI elements".

Me, especially on widescreen displays, I like to be able to make UI stuff disappear if I don't want to see it (and like to have it back, minimally, if I want it there).

As most sites are like El Reg with 50% of the screen "wasted", I'd actually love to see a browser that could put the UI bits off to the side (both sides to keep things nicely even) rather than always having everything along the top. And as I do things that are better in widescreen then flipping the screen isn't really an option (though maybe when I am home and using the TV, I could just get a 2nd screen and rotate it 90deg for web stuff - sadly some games don't play well with dual screen (at least on Linux there may be an option with Xinerama?)

Re: Good luck with your Googley BFF

Hell, browser is not even a spouse or boy-/girl-friend,

Speak for yourself, some of us have to take what we can get!

But you see, this is the bit I struggle to understand. Firefox looks just like Chrome, and uses practically the same extensions as Chrome. So, what's the unique selling point?

I know. A couple of days ago I went into the prefs in FF for the first time in ages. Spent a few minutes wondering how the hell chrome got on my system!

Firefox is pointless now. Used to be so far above everything else.

Hopefully they can act like Oracle and give the source to someone who actually wants to do a decent job on the browser, like Pale Moon for example. (and the funding as well - without FF what point is there Mozilla staying around?)

Yep, some useful addons don't work. Nope, don't miss them since the time I read how some of them were cooked (hint: sometimes they modify JS source of browser UI functions - imagine the hell of maintaining that)

I mostly live with a crappy slow internet connection. Speed of rendering isn't going to improve the rest of the experience unless Mozilla can come up with the equivalent of "sticking instant coffee in a microwave".

But those addons I use to make my life easier? Without them, there's no point in using a browser.

Re: Oh dear

http://newsthump.com/2017/09/12/iphonex-to-include-revolutionary-arsehole-recognition-technology/

Sadly I can only upvote once!

Re: Dilbert?

Funny, I press Prt Scrn and a "Save Screenshot" dialogue box appears with a preview of the screenshot...

Funny, someone else on this very thread said something similar - 'With a "proper system" she'd get the "Take Screenshot" program pop up.' - over at https://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/containing/3344137.

Wonder if s/he also runs Linux....

Re: Non-standard non-intuitive

The point was I shouldn't need to.

Fully agree. For stuff to be intuitive it needs visual cues as to what it is and how to work it. Stuff like what you mentioned suck and are just annoying.

More than annoying even.

Re: passthrough PSUs

The dearth of passthrough sockets on PC PSUs is actually down to the combination of:

Limits on earth leakage currents (so that RCDs can reliably operate)

RCD's for household computers are very very rare here in NZ (never seen one myself, though a rare few breakers use them (mostly garages). But even then, I can't think of why you'd have the computer on one RCD and the monitor on another? Wouldn't they both be on a plug box or double power point, along with the stereo/speakers/amp, printer/scanner. perhaps modem and any other electronics in the same room? How's this any different from the PSU having a passthrough socket?

How does this apply to AIO machines where the monitor and computer are all in one box?

I also have a couple of monitors that have power bricks that do not have an earth, and they're not rare models.

Somehow, it does not compute that stuff around the earth is the reason we lost the passthrough sockets.

If your PC has a passthrough socket for the monitor, there's additional earth leakage current for the system, but no change in the limit.

I've only ever seen fuses/cutouts/breakers on the phase line (except in a couple of badly wired devices), never on the earth. And unless there is a fault, earth should NOT be getting anything anyway. It's called EARTH, not LIVE. Earth leakage is a fault condition.

Re: Dilbert?

At university I needed to move a big reel-to-reel tape recorder from the studio to somewhere else on campus. So I put it in the internal mail. :)

You're probably lucky the "victim" of that didn't track you down and shove it in the male's internals!

Pah - all I ask for is a complete sentence....

Okay.

Re: Non-standard non-intuitive

It hasn't got a name on it so that I can Google it, and it vanishes when I move my mouse towards it.

As a suggestion - screenshot when it is present (assuming it doesn't hide from such things), cut out all but the relevant bit, then wander over to Google's image search or something like that. Maybe you'll get some more info on it.

HTH, HANWE

So I tell him to read it exactly and he'll re-read it, and now the skipped bits become "blah blah".

One of these days I'll figure out how to reach through the phone and slam his fucking head into the fucking screen! And next time he does that just might be the trigger I need!

(had one of those calls a day ago. Still not over it. I need another lie down I think!).

Oh. and there's the "click the round button at the bottom of your screen" (while you're on a view-only thing like Skype shared screen) and you see their mouse move towards the top, while they say there is no such button yet you can see it or... Those who say "there are no stupid questions" never met a user!

Re: "saying less words"

"saying less words"

Fewer.

Actually "less" could be more grammaticality right.

"That box thingy in the office isn't going right" users more words than "My computer isn't working", but the words involved are somewhat "less" than the more proper phrasing.

(my own phrasing words chosen specifically for the pissing off of grandma nazis... )

My other half has this annoying habit of saying less words than she needs to describe a problem, for example it won’t work.

Mate of mine does that constantly, and I'm sure most of us have had that problem.

Them "My computer doesn't work"

Us "What's not working with it?"

T "I don't know. It doesn't work"

U "Has it started up normally?"

T "I don't know".

U "Can you see stuff on your screen?"

T "Yes, all looks normal".

U "So what isn't working?"

I'm sure you know the rest of the conversation from there

(Yes, I do get kickbacks from psychiatrists who deal with PTSD, why'd you ask? :) )

Re: Dilbert?

You mean the 'print screen' button that makes no sound when pressed, makes an invisible copy of the screen with no notification of where it is, and requires you to hold down ctrl key then V key but only when you've aligned the cursor to the right point of a newly created blank email.

Yeah - stupid user....

With a "proper system" she'd get the "Take Screenshot" program pop up.

In which case she then needs to know to save the file somewhere she can reach it, and attach said file to the email. Still beyond many people and not as simple as it is to those of us more technically inclined :)

It's not the most intuitive thing to do with computing. And "screenshot" isn't the most self-explanatory phrase either really, even if it seems to be to those of us who've been around it for 20 years..

Re: PBKAC

passthrough PSUs are very much discouraged as 1 fuse 2 appliances (in the UK any way) more a safety thing

Just out of interest, how so? In all the cases I saw the PSU was rated at 10a max supply (not sure what size fuse inside). Same for the cutouts on the plug boxes - 10a and the whole lot fails.

If your plug fuse is rated appropriately there shouldn't be any issue.

Re: PBKAC

What kind of paper is "Load paper"? and where can I buy some?

That'd be the tissue paper that comes in approx 3" wide strips, on rolls, often found installed on special dispensers in lavatories (not to be confused with laboratories, unless you want to upset a few people!).

You can buy "Load Paper" at our local supermarket. I suggest a soft 3-ply version myself.