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* Posts by Msitekkie

7 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jan 2015

Fresh version of Windows user-friendly Zorin OS arrives to tempt the Linux-wary

Msitekkie
FAIL

I bet in spite of the usability angle, there is little to no fingerprint support

Biometric logon using fingerprints instead of passwords has revolutionised accessibility on phones. Windows has this capability too with Windows Hello, albeit the hardware support isn’t great (try buying a keyboard with a fingerprint sensor…). Unfortunately Linux designers don’t seem to have noticed this usability revolution and are missing the opportunity. It’s the red line that’s stopping me going for Linux to avoid having yet another Windows interface design foisted on me with Windows 11.

Unfortunately desktop environments are becoming les and less relevant as usability is what sells - hence Windows original success.

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It's time to delete that hunter2 password from your Microsoft account, says IT giant

Msitekkie

But where are all the Windows Hello keyboards?

Great idea, but where are all the keyboards with Windows Hello support? I have been looking to change over to fingerprint recognition since Windows 10 was launched, but the hardware support, just isn't out there (unless you buy a laptop).

We have been using fingerprint recognition on our phones now for years and what a convenience boon, especially as banks and password managers are supporting it - another reason people are using PCs less...

My latest attempt to move in this direction is to buy a really old Microsoft Internet Keyboard Pro with an integral USB port that I can try one of those USB fingerprint readers on - although as it will be hidden round the back, I will probably struggle to get the family to use it. Maybe I can customise the keyboard to fit it in a more prominent position.

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Fraudster convicted of online banking thefts using… whatever the hell this thing is

Msitekkie
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Re: Guitar Looper Pedal

Rather than hold music (or maybe as well as) I wonder if it is for that old trick of hanging on the line and playing a dialing tone sound while the person at the other end puts the receiver down, picks it up again & thinks they are dialing a different number.

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What went up, Musk come down again: SpaceX to blast sat into orbit with used rocket

Msitekkie

Minimal Refurbishment - According to Elon

I'm interested as to where that quote of "extensive refurbishment" came from. I believe Elon Musk said that minimal refurbishment was required, so has that changed? From what he has said in the past I believe Elon would regard that as a failure if true.

Here's one relevant quote I found today:

SpaceX engineers transported the flown rocket stage from its landing zone at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station a few miles north to the Falcon 9’s Complex 40 launch pad for a brief engine firing in January, less than a month after its Dec. 21 flight for Orbcomm.

“Getting that stage back and taking a look at it, it was extraordinary how great it looked,” Shotwell said. “In fact, we didn’t refurbish it at all. We took a look at it and we inspected it (before moving it to the launch pad).”

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TalkTalk scam-scammers still scam-scamming

Msitekkie

I was contacted twice the day after I switched to Fibre

I upgraded to fibre on 23rd May and the next day I had 2 of these scam calls (both with number witheld). When I asked for their name & number to check the calls were genuine, they put the phone down.

I contacted TalkTalk who added "Anonymous Caller Reject" to my account for free.

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Mozilla to boot all plugins from Firefox … except Flash

Msitekkie
Unhappy

Plugins are Firefox's differentiator

Without plugins Firefox will become irrelevant, this process started when it was decided that Firefox should look like Chrome. What will make people switch to Firefox now?

A very sad day. I have always had a real affection for Firefox because of that community side to it and the sense that if you wanted to do something there was probably a plugin for that. Also you could pick & choose which features you wanted rather than using another piece of bloatware.

At least we still have the Firefox fork - Pale Moon, but if Firefox stops supporting plugins I wonder if the developers will continue supporting/developing them.

What about cross-browser password manager plug-ins like LastPass and 1Password? If Mozilla drop support surely everyone that uses them will just switch to a different browser.

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TCL confirms plans to 'bring back' Palm – provided you tell it how

Msitekkie
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It's about the apps

So if WEBOS is out, it sounds like we are looking at a Palmified Android device. The brilliant thing about the Palm was the intuitive & so carefully thought out way the apps worked & integrated together along with the huge benefit of global search. Also desktop/Outlook sync.

I have tried various combinations of apps on Android and nothing I have tried comes close. Android can do lots of fancy things but misses the mark on these basics. I seriously miss my Palm PDA still. Simple note taking is a particular case in point, I bought a Galaxy Note with a stylus but have given up using it (the phone) for Note taking. OneNote is very disappointing by comparison to Palm. I also tried Evernote, but for basic note taking & finding this is still seriously inferior to the Palm app. Amazing the number of ways you can lose what you have typed, which didn't happen with the Palm.

Perhaps they could also take over development of the Android Graffiti keyboard which needs updating with a Go/Enter/Search button equivalent.

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