NutWrench

NutWrench , 16 hours ago

Isn’t it amazing how often the Miracle Whip people end up in the hospital emergency room whenever they have a serious medical problem.

Not being able to breath has a way of reorganizing your beliefs in a big damn hurry.

NutWrench , 1 day ago

Deus Ex Duke Nukem 3d Quake

I would also recommend Windows 98se, since it was the last (popular) operating system that directly supports DOS.

NutWrench , 1 day ago

Each conversation lasted a total of five minutes. According to the paper, which was published in May, the participants judged GPT-4 to be human a shocking 54 percent of the time. Because of this, the researchers claim that the large language model has indeed passed the Turing test.

That’s no better than flipping a coin and we have no idea what the questions were. This is clickbait.

NutWrench , 22 hours ago

The whole point of the Turing test, is that you should be unable to tell if you’re interacting with a human or a machine. Not 54% of the time. Not 60% of the time. 100% of the time. Consistently.

They’re changing the conditions of the Turing test to promote an AI model that would get an “F” on any school test.

NutWrench , 17 hours ago

5.1 Toggle the customer’s opt-out setting back to opt-in every time there’s a Windows update.

5.2 Remove the opt-out setting completely.

NutWrench , 21 hours ago

If “your call is important to them” they would hire enough people to answer the phone.

NutWrench , 2 days ago

Being able to touch type an on-screen keyboard with your eyes would be amazing, but we all know the real reason for this invention would be to make sure you’re watching the ads.

NutWrench , 1 day ago

Yup. What YouTube doesn’t understand is that we’ve got ** other stuff to do.** I’ve got books to read, games to play, music to listen to. None of which requires YouTube.

NutWrench , 17 hours ago

Someone will find a way to take a looped video of them watching their computer intently and feed it through their webcam. The ad battle will never end.

NutWrench , 2 days ago

If Microsoft cares so much about security, then WTF are they doing greenlighting a project like CoPilot / Recall?

NutWrench , 2 days ago

Tesla “shareholders” clearly don’t have the interests of their company in mind if they’re approving a 56 billion dollar compensation package for their “CEO.”

NutWrench , 2 days ago

I wish I had 44 billion dollars to burn.

This is the story with every company that Elmo acquires. Musk doesn’t care whether the company succeeds or not. He just wants that bong-hit of attention he gets from having his name in the news.

Ironically, Twitter was his best chance of making that work, but he’s too stupid to even run a social media network. This is like farking up running a casino.

NutWrench , 3 days ago

Why would I spend money on computer hardware that benefits no one but Microsoft?

NutWrench , 3 days ago

If you want to have good AI, you need to spend money and send your AI to college. Have real humans interact with it, correct it’s logic, make sure it understands sarcasm and logical fallacies.

Or, you can go the cheap route: train it on 10 years of Reddit sh*tposts and hope for the best.

NutWrench , 4 days ago

I wish I had 44 billion dollars to burn.

I could live comfortably for the rest of my life on 1/10,000th of what Elmo wasted.

NutWrench , 5 days ago

Don’t store your personal stuff online. If you want to share stuff, send it directly and encrypt it.

NutWrench , 4 days ago

Just don’t give companies that don’t respect your privacy access to your private life. Keep your online life completely separate from your real life. It’s not that difficult.

NutWrench , 4 days ago

Let’s see: Socialism: A system of government where the country’s wealth is concentrated into a small, ruling class of billionaires, who use the media they own to keep the lower classes fighting with each other while they . . . the rich . . . run off with all the farking money.

Oh wait. that’s capitalism. I don’t know how I got those two systems confused.

NutWrench , 5 days ago

Basically, don’t make definitive statements about things you don’t understand. Just try to be as helpful as you can with the knowledge you have.

It also helps if you’re not struggling with a narcissistic personality disorder that causes you to make definitive statements in the first place.

NutWrench , 5 days ago

I think the widespread adoption of Linux is only going to happen from the bottom up. Corporations aren’t going to widely adopt Linux until Microsoft becomes a costly liability to them.

It will probably be the result of CoPilot. Will it be a huge data breach of bank or healthcare records? Will other governments flat-out refuse to run an OS with built-in spyware? Who knows? But it will be something awful that might even get our “mainstream media” to sit up and take notice.

NutWrench , 5 days ago

Mastodon, if you’re looking for an Elon replacement.

NutWrench , 5 days ago

Microsoft has no business forcing firmware updates on anything. This is something HP should have handled. Those laptops are THEIR products, not Microsoft’s.

NutWrench , 5 days ago

Button #3: Restore TimeShift snapshot.

NutWrench , 6 days ago

This. You promise lots of stuff with “the people’s” in it, and then you create something that is indistinguishable from 19th century, robber baron capitalism.

No nation on earth has ever actually practiced communism that isn’t just a small, ruling class of billionaires, who use the media they own to keep the lower classes fighting with each other while they . . . the rich . . . run off with all the farking money.

The only exceptions to this were small communes, run by people who actually read Karl Marx and who weren’t vain, greedy, brutal a$$holes.

NutWrench , 6 days ago

Steam has a native linux client and they’ve also spent years, developing a proprietary wine-wrapper, called Proton. I’ve been able to run all my Steam games on Linux with no problems. :)

NutWrench , 6 days ago

I recommend downloading the latest Linux Mint .iso file and using Rufus to create a bootable, live USB drive. Also, if your computer has an internal d: drive, I would recommend using that entire drive, instead of dual-booting from c: (I had a bad experience removing Linux from a dual boot system and getting the partitions back to normal). This way, you’re not touching anything on your windows (c:) drive.

If you’re really worried about messing up your c: drive, you can physically disconnect it while you’re installing Linux, so the Live installer only has one choice for installation. After you’ve installed Linux, change your boot order in BIOS to boot from your d: drive first. Once you’re sure Linux is working correctly, you can run “sudo update-grub” which will add your c: drive to the boot menu on the d: drive. This allows you to dual boot into either OS without touching anything on your c: drive (so the boot menu will be on d:, your linux drive). Grub will let you choose between continuing to boot from d: or to boot windows on c: without you having to change the boot order every time in BIOS.

If you use Steam to manage your games library, you’re really going to like that Steam has been developing a proprietary Wine wrapper, called Proton, which lets you run all your Steam games from Linux. Steam also has a native linux client. So all the Steam games you backed up on windows, you can restore on Linux. I’ve run everything from Unreal Gold, to Witcher 3 to Techtonica to Fallout 4 without any problems.

NutWrench , 6 days ago

(re: learning curve) I’m actually enjoying the process of learning a whole new OS that isn’t constantly getting in my way. I like having software that’s logically designed, like a Word Processor (Libre Writer) that actually has the “Print” button right on the main screen and hasn’t buried it at the bottom of a sub-menu that’s not even on the menu bar.

NutWrench , 6 days ago

If you’ve recently installed Linux, you’re probably going to be making a lot of changes and installing a lot of stuff over the next couple of weeks. I recommend using TimeShift (comes pre-installed on Linux Mint) to make a snapshot of your system. (It works like System Restore on Windows). The first snapshot takes up the most space but later snapshots only contain the changes you make to your system.

It’s a good idea to take a snapshot before you update things like graphics card drivers or additional desktops. Then, you can always go back to where you were if something gets messed up. You can even rescue a system that won’t boot by booting from your Live Linux USB and running Time shift. It will find your hard drive backups and restore them for you.

NutWrench , 3 days ago

I was able to move my Witcher 3 mods from Windows to Linux and the witcher 3 game recompiled the mod scripts for me just fine.

I don’t know if Nexus mod manager will work on Linux (haven’t tried it yet). I’m hoping Proton is already configured for Fallout 4 mods (mod directory locations, environment variables, etc)

NutWrench , 6 days ago

How do you “fix” the security issues of a program that is literally designed to spy on you?

I’ve just switched to Linux Mint and I’m not ever coming back. That’s how I “fixed it.”

NutWrench , 6 days ago

I finally switched to Linux Mint a week ago. I’ve just had enough of Microsoft and I couldn’t think of any more reasons why I shouldn’t switch.

I’ve got Libre Office for all my productivity needs. All my Steam games work under Linux. My VPN works just fine. Firefox for web browsing. Thunderbird for email. And Wine to run those 1-2 Windows programs that I just can’t do without.

NutWrench , 6 days ago

The switch to Linux will have to come from the bottom up. Corporations will NOT switch until Microsoft costs them serious money.

NutWrench , 5 days ago

Microsoft lost my trust a long time ago. For the last 10-15 years, my only relationship with them is, “how much sh*t am I willing to put up with before I switch to something else?”

And CoPilot/Recall was the breaking point.

NutWrench , 5 days ago

This. “Embrace. Extend. Extinguish.” has been Microsoft’s mantra for a long time, now. Folks need to recognize the signs that their favorite things are being targeted before they get ruined.

NutWrench , 8 days ago

Well, since the billionaire class doesn’t pay it’s fair share of the tax burden, that money has to come from somewhere.

NutWrench , 7 days ago

Rob . . . Robbyyyyyy . . . The Robster . . . The Robaroonie . . . cracking the bad jokes . . . coasting on what’s left of his SNL cred.

NutWrench , 8 days ago

Well . . . the smart people they ignored when CoPilot was first proposed.

NutWrench , 9 days ago

Is one of those “features” CoPilot? Because I did a search for it on my Windows 10 installation, and found several small bits of it, including a directory called “Microsoft CoPilot.” It looks like a placeholder for a full installation, later on. I’m guessing Office 365 put it there.

NutWrench , 10 days ago

The problem with big companies like Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, etc is that once all the smart & creative people have gone, all you have left are the “line must always go up” business idiots, who have no idea what their company even does or how to fix it.

CoPilot / Recall is exactly the kind of End-stage, “let’s screw our customers to death” idea the CEOs come up with before just their company implodes. Seriously. No one at Microsoft has thought this through beyond “data mining our customers.”

How are other governments going to react to this? Will they trust their nation’s secrets to an OS with such a blatant backdoor built into it? How does this “feature” work with search warrant requests? How secure can a database connected to an always-on Internet connection possibly be?

NutWrench , 8 days ago

Yup. I’ve seen this lemming-like mindset before: “But if WE don’t implement <terrible idea> then Google might implement <terrible idea> FIRST!”

It doesn’t become a less-stupid idea just because some else is doing it.

NutWrench , 9 days ago

Microsoft’s goal has always been to turn your PC into a locked-down console, loaded with their spyware and rent-ware. I’m surprised they’ve allowed 3rd party software on our PCs for this long.

NutWrench , 9 days ago

I installed Linux Mint on my internal D: drive. I didn’t want to dual-boot off my C: drive or mess with its partitions. (I had a bad experience removing Linux from a dual boot system and getting the partitions back to normal).

If you’re really worried about messing up your c: drive, you can physically disconnect it when you’re installing Linux, so the Live installer only has one choice for installation. Once you’re sure Linux is working correctly, you can run “sudo update-grub” which will add your c: drive to the boot menu on the d: drive. Now, you can boot into either OS without having to change your boot order in BIOS.

NutWrench , 10 days ago

20th century Google: “Don’t be evil.”

Wow. They sure let that motto slide, didn’t they?

NutWrench , 10 days ago

So . . . MS wants to force Recall on us… Assures us that it’s “secure.” And it can’t be bothered to even lightly encrypt the data? This is just plain incompetent.

Also, MS want to bundle CoPilot with Office 365, a subscription service. You will be paying for the privilege of spying on yourself.

NutWrench , 10 days ago

Another clueless CEO who doesn’t know what makes his company’s very existence possible.

NutWrench , 10 days ago

So . . . exactly what stealth crap is hidden in the Chrome “update?”

" . . . but it’s also the day Google started to pull the plug on many Manifest V2 extensions as its rollout of Manifest V3 takes shape."

Ahhhh, there we go. Manifest 3 will break almost all Chrome adblockers.

NutWrench , 10 days ago

Just don’t criticize fascists and religious nut jobs. That’s OBSCENE! /s

NutWrench , 6 days ago

I think Proton is the smartest thing Valve has ever done. Thanks to that, Steam is going to get about 90% of all the Windows gamers switching over to Linux.