Peter Drake, he/him, LFHCfS 🔥 @peterdrake@qoto.org

How many of our technology frustrations come from capitalism's incentive to make new stuff instead of fixing the shoddy stuff they sold us last week?

C# lets you access string elements with s[i], which is nicer than Java's s.charAt(i). Of course, Python's slicing is even nicer.

I never know how much is my own impatience, unreasonably high standards, or failure to read directions and how much is terrible UIs. The point is that communication is hard, even if both parties are trying.

Is there a word for my bad habit of publicly venting my tech frustrations? Maybe something Icelandic for "screaming into the void"?

I realize that sometimes obscure features don't work, but this is obviously broken and reachable in a single click from the home screen. Seriously, how did they not notice this?

The fact that @Windows@twitter.com boots to a random image from your Pictures directory seems like a security hole.

When I click on the Windows search bar on my @surface@twitter.com, I get a wildly flickering (not rendering properly) request to "Get the Skill" to use Cortana. Oddly, the link takes me to an @amazon@twitter.com page to enable her. How do I make this ad go away?

... and after all that, @firefox@twitter.com STILL isn't listed in the sharing menu from Screen Sketch on the @surface@twitter.com (although the default Windows mail program is).

This was a challenge for me and I have a PhD in computer science. I don't know how normal people deal with this stuff. I guess they just pick one ecosystem and surrender.

Setting @firefox@twitter.com + @gmail@twitter.com as your default mail program in @Windows@twitter.com required EDITING THE REGISTRY! The instructions at https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-other_settings/how-to-set-firefox-gmail-as-windows-default/296816f4-e2d7-48dd-ae71-84d18a02dc18 are almost correct, but of course everything has moved, so you'll dig for the analogous entry that makes it work for @googlechrome@twitter.com.

It took some work, but I got Screen Sketch to work with the @surface@twitter.com. You have to download @Acrobat@twitter.com Reader (which, weirdly, installs @googlechrome@twitter.com), Ctrl-L to fullscreen, and then double-click the pen eraser to open the tool.

Yes, of course I've written software with bugs, but my resources for testing are somewhat more limited.

Every time I download a program for my @surface@twitter.com, it tells me "SmartScreen can't be reached right now". The number of basic features of Windows that never work leaves me ... well, not so much surprised as disappointed.

A lot of nouns (gift, leverage, etc.) are becoming verbs. What words are moving in the other direction? @GrammarGirl@twitter.com