Skye's random thoughts

It takes effort to stand straight, so I don't.

[backbentblog]

I'm back. sorta. not really. Anyways, started a side-blog for doing reviews of places and items that (edit: the reviews) can possibly be described as a disservice to the community at large. If any of you are interested it's @yourworstlocalguide. I really hope they haven't filled back The Hole of Olsztyn (TM) /j

For full transparency, don't expect any fancy places or things or any place outside of Poland (and at most its neighbours) to ever appear on that blog.

PS. Fuck samsung for being so strict with the multiuser option to the point of forcing me to use the secure folder for that joke of an account.

[aninals]

just hallucinated only the bottom right panel and started giggling and decided i wanted to find the real thing to laugh about it again. and i couodnt so i had to go into my boyfriends dms and ask them if "do you have truckparts"

[grimoiremanifest]

gonna be so real i did not realize the bottom was about purchasing and shipping automobile parts. I thought they were straight up intending to kill and dismantle the UPS truck like some auto mechanic apex predator.

[backbentblog]

On today's edition of "what's that scam app?": "Ruvalut" ... sus af, is all.

[distinguishedbaloney]

[eilooxara]

Non cooking spray stick

[eilooxara]

Non spray stick cooking

[that-house]

Non cooking stick spray

[theterribletenno]

I'm not going to fuck my computer

[backbentblog]

And those needs are: keeping a minimum set of applications, not installing anything for gimmicks, keeping those applications and the debian base they run on reasonably up-to-date.

General good rule of thumb to keep any pc reasonably stable and secure without messing around with addin/replacing av's.

Damn, Opera used to be good. I remember it being the best web browser one could get at one point, now it's the prime example of crapware, bloated to hell with functions of dubious utility that might as well be extensions for those who want those features.

[thememedaddy]

[backbentblog]

And now for the last minute of the day it's time to share one frustration I had today. So I woke up as usual with sleep issues at like 9 and pissed off for like an hour leaving my phone with 5g switched on on the desk, came back checked notif icons, messages icon. Cool, I thought, expecting either a friendly message from my carrier or closest family (or spam from old number).

What I did NOT expect is this shit.

(Screenshot taken later)

U serious? With all due respect go fuck yourselves, Google. I know my contacts list is half carrier bullshit, no need to rub it in. (Still not gonna use this "function.")

Additionally, after disabling seemingly every damn trace of this things existence in the app settings ....

I still get the insanely stupid action suggestions (the shit that looks like hyperlinks in messages chains).... And when I say stupid, I mean "Your polish version of thanks is a place on Google maps" or "u sure u don't want to share '5 min.' with someone?' level of stupid.

Google, stop what you're doing and give us android users a real SMS/RCS app. Something simple. The old version was fine. Stop "improving" and just start sticking to bugfixes. (Oh good, I forgot to disabled the autocorrect on my phone. 'Member when this kurwa mać działaj crap actually worked? Cuz if u don't then .... you should get that checked out.)

Would add a joke source but ... no, if you really want something to look at to cleanse your eyes after seeing this shit, may I suggest a bit of Citrus? (it's on the net. Real good read)

[backbentblog]

Part 2 of that script from yesterday (I hope, idk it's 2AM (edit: Oh look now it's 3AM),

Part 2: The downwards spiral of Windows (NT) and Microsoft in general

I know it is unfair, but in this section I'll be comparing every released consumer version of Windows NT against the previous versions starting with comparing NT 4.0 from 1996 with NT 3.51, an OS I had never used in my life, however looking at screenshots its UI seems very similar if not exactly 1:1 with 3.11 which I have experienced in a limited capacity. Had to add this entire section because I ain't filming or setting up VMs for this, so the original intro to roasting NT 4.0 would make close to 0 sense, leaving it crossed out but otherwise unmodified.

Let’s establish a baseline for design and performance while we’re at it. *This* is Windows NT 3.51 Workstation released in 1995 – building on the design update of Windows 3.1 – but that one’s on DOS, and XP and later home editions are not, so we’ll ignore it. What do you see – barren wasteland, but people still used it, some icons, open the file manager, file names in their natural form – nice. The stage is set, and the future looks bright - *heh* are you ready for the pain?

Part 2a: Oh, ... no, NT 4.0, counting down the days til' the year 2000

It’s 1996 and there’s a new kid in on the Windows Workstation block – the name? NT4. Promises – new design, a taskbar from which you can actually see what you’ve opened, long file names, a usable TCP/IP stack ready for your 3com Etherlink II, and a brand new start menu. Seems nice, with a lot of concepts borrowed from Windows 95. You open “My Computer”, C:, where are the file extensions? Seriously, where are they? Why? It’s simpler – yes, but an .exe can have custom icons resembling the Word 95 document ones for example. Whatya gonna do with this? Nothin. Shut up and take it.

For work you obviously need a productivity suite – unless you’re only using your computer to stare at the desktop. It just so happens, that thanks to Micro$oft’s undocumented syscalls in Windows 3.x the Microsoft Office suite became pretty much the de facto standard. You’re using Office 95, because, why not, then decide to upgrade to 97. You … haven’t learnt your lesson, have you. There’s a new addition to Office called Clippy – or in some versions clippit. The paperclip. You know, unless you never used Office older than 2003. Go look him up on the internet. There’s some fan art of them.

Okay, fanfi- I mean tax reports written, file, save as, (check possible file extensions), and your eyes begin to well up, .doc from 95 and .doc from 97 are TWO DIFFERENT FORMATS. Whose idea was this? Great, so now you have to make sure to save in the obsolete file format for the time being.

It’s 1999 and you’re not quite ready for 2000, Office 2000 seems promising, uncluttered. Needless to say you’re strapped in and ready to be pinned down by Office 2000 – the decluttering – it works, until you need that one option that’s hidden, so you have to click two times as much to find it. Nice. The new Clippy – MF where’s your close button? But you notice something odd. Windows suddenly feels slower. You pause, and realise that Office 2000 required Internet Explorer 5, and autoinstalled it for your convenience. And why’s that an issue? You see, M$ isn’t content with screwing you with one piece of software, they want, no, need more. So the IE5 update replaced your beloved shell – the taskbar and icons and file manager combo – with its own. Like malware.

In Windows 2000 it came preinstalled with no way to remove it. There was an option – that got rid of the web browser, but not the other parts of IE. Why? Don’t ask me. At least it had gradients and real Windows Update, powered by ActiveX only usable on IE. But didn’t show the content’s of the C drive by default. You can’t see, but you can touch.

[backbentblog]

Part 3 (retyped on laptop this time, original had some strange phrasing probably. because I was getting 3-4 hours of sleep per day at that time) Part 2b: XP And now, the moment you've been waiting for: it's time to dunk on XP. You thought I'd say 7? Nah, we're going version to version. Let me make this quick. *inhale* The new UI is big - why? The "Luna" theme has pointless rounding, imagine taking single window screenshots with that, Windows Messenger, STFU Outlook Express 6 - reasonable value-add at time of original release, but missing so many updates and features that it became well and truly useless past 2012 (i think) Before Service Pack 2 a firewall was included, just not enabled by default, you couldn't make this shit up even if you tried "Works better," my ass Take a look at all these editions, Home Edition, Professional, Starter, Fundamentals for Legacy PCs, Embedded, Embedded Standard 2009, Embedded POSReady 2009, "for embedded systems", Media Center Edition regular, 2004 and 2005, same for Tablet PC Editions, and there's not one, not two, but three 64-bit professional editions. I'm sure I've missed at least one extra edition. M$ really did cu/cu/cut XP up. I wouldn't be surprised if there was such a thing as Windows XP Bidet PC Edition. As a side-note my hometown's amazing public transport STILL uses some version of XP on in-vehicle route displays. Don't even get me started on feature parity between 64-bit versions. Onto the Service Packs: Service pack 1 got 2 releases (a, and b) because of some shit related to java. Service Pack 2 brought extra security warnings along with some extra security changes to XP, in 2005, better late than never, I guess. Service Pack 3 from 2008 forgot the word "optimization" to bring XP up to fit in with Vista, I assume. XP also introduced online product activation. 30 days of free use, then activate or no desktop. Cool in principle, however nowadays you have to install a patch for XP's server sibling (Server 2003) to get XP to connect to the activation server. That or phone activation, which, the number says free, but Orange Polska says "lol, no". (2026 edit: and now the number is closed. The AI they implemented during its last year of service was so fucking terrible that I literally had to say yes in 5 fucking languages just to confirm a section. Before the AI stuff was there the old system was also broken, requiring blind navigation to select activating by link sent via sms instead of typing the numbers and paying Orange more for the privilege to call a toll-free number) There was also a Windows Genuine Validation update, which displayed a giant watermark on the bottom right of your screen if you dared to use un activated windows, or were unlucky enough to have your key flagged as not legitimate. It was pretty much required post 2009. Then there's Windows Media Player updates which some people liked some people didn't, and fucking Windows Search 4.0 which was rare to see out and about on XP machines, to be honest I don't blame the people who ignored that update, I, too, preferred the search UI based on Clippy tech. In 2002 to "coincide" with the release of XP Micro$oft released Office 2003, wait, there's also Office XP which if you opened Word and shown it to people they'd probably say it's Word 2000. Makes sense, doesn't it? Press F for Clippy, last present in Office 2003. The UI update, rounded, bigger, with an even more useless pane by default and of course the color schemes had to be tied to the way XP handled themes, so on newer versions you get blue (dabadee, dabada).

[backbentblog]

Part 4. At first my intention was to just release unreleased work but now I'm determined to finish this awfully long rant just in text. Needless to say everything from now-on in this project is tweaked to uninsomniafy my work just a little bit.

Part 2c: Vista. The "Wow. This is dogshit." started a while ago, it's just more of the same. And now for Micro$oft's feature presentation: Are You ready for an OS that requires 512MiB of RAM just to install? Are you ready for 6 different versions of one OS all targeting the average computer toucher? Are you a business? Do you trust Microsoft to treat you right? Then upgrade to the brand new Windows Vista for the cost of way too much and an entirely new machine just to be unable to work. Vista includes tons of useful features, like asking you about your experience, pointless fragmentation, a new security risk called widgets, a DVD making application instead of a general video editor, a redesigned cursor that's impossible to find on a 1080p screen, pointless translucency that wastes resources, subtler window button outlines, a new network widget that doesn't offer anything useful, a new sound mixer that'll last a long time, same old paint with a refreshed icon, the button with the shutdown icon suspending the computer instead by default because it's a slightly fainter shade of red. For the ultimate edition there's also an option to force your wallpaper to be a video to make your laptop into a comfy space heater. It's like if we touched you without explicit permission, because you gave us implicit permission, on page 21 of the EULA you didn't read. The all new Windows Vista from Micro$oft. Do you really want to make changes to your PC? Okay, now bend over. Oh, and if you have a fucked BIOS on your computer it'll refuse to activate over the internet, trust me I've tried. You wanna know something about Office? Office 2007 was released to accompany Vista with a completely new so-called "ribbon" interface. Big buttons, big crosshair looking M$ Office logo orb. I mean it looked fine, and it worked, the new document style preview is a nice addition, and the theme switching functionality was untied from windows themes. But the usability of Office on screens with lower resolution suffered. The keyboard navigation seems more like an afterthought than a serious power user and accessibility feature. And Office 2007 introduced a brand new format for documents, which required downloading an add-on to import into older versions, which was only available for 2003 and XP, Word 2007 didn't get to open a .docx file. Microsoft Update finally got integrated into Office instead of requiring an ActiveX toggle to enable. (copy-pasting the ending of this section verbatim because it's just too good.) But, excuse my language, what the fuck Microsoft? Why did you only implement Open Document Format support after the EU forced you to, and even then it was in an update. And why is the support so half-baked. Okay let’s stop before the voices get too loud. It's almost 2AM, 7 tomorrow.

[backbentblog]

1:17AM, Stacja Wolność on headphones, it's time for part 5 of this shit script.

part 2d: Kiss my glass, Mr. Sass, Windows 7 is ass. 2009, the number of the beast. After Vista flopped and got pretty much universally mocked despite the hype surrounding its needlessly rounded and translucent user interface, and the infamous Mojave experiment ad trying to convince people that Vista is usable on their PC, Micro$oft released Vista Second Edition- I mean Windows 7. 7. I hate it, I hate it, I HATE IT. FUCK WINDOWS 7, LONG LIVE WINDOWS 7. For starters 7 carried on with the trend of too fucking many editions: Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional (you've been revoked the right to call yourself a business), Enterprise, Ultimate, and extra ones like, Embedded Standard (or POSReady if you really want 7 on a cash register) 7 not to be confused with Windows Embedded 7, there was also a Windows Thin PC, I'm surprised there wasn't a Windows 7 Fundamentals For Self-Pleasure Devices. Credit where it's due, some things were improved, like the WiFi quick settings pane actually serving a purpose, and the stability, assuming you're using the 64-bit version was about OK (still, sometimes it can't format a flash drive which XP can). Now onto the negatives, Damn did they ever take the piss with the rest of the UI. M$, could you not change the start menu for one minute? Oh and the classic one is gone. Where's the log out? Hidden, he he he. Where did the open window counter go? To hell, apparently, now you get to know that 1, 2, or 3 or more windows are open, and that's if you pay attention to small details on the taskbar. On the topic of the taskbar, now it's large, thanks, one more setting to unfuck from default after reinstalls. You ever heard about the anime Windows 7 ad? It's a real thing. The title bars also grew up to take up more of my fucking monitor. Wanna join a homegroup, don't you? Well, if not, too bad so sad, you're in one by default sometimes. The new animations bug out when switching from the glassy aero theme to the "I want to work" classic one (or in the other direction). Windows 7 also has a soft spot for memleaks, as opposed to me. You ever feel warmth from seeing Windows Error Reporting grinding away? Also what the fuck M$ – no updates for Ryzen users? Bruh. What’s so good about it? I don’t get it. Meanwhile in Office land, 2010 arrived with gifts in form of requiring online activation for Pro Plus users ending the "find a VL key and viola no checks free office" meme for good. .... What else about it? .... The File menu begins here. Moving on and forgetting about Silverlight, or that one time a "Free Windows 10 Upgrade" notification update was disguised as "Windows 7 Service Pack 1" on computers which already had SP1, even with the proper SP1 KB address, and the auto-upgrades to 10. Taking the piss.

[backbentblog]

Plastic Promises blasting on headphones, day 6 of posting this script (and occasionally updating it for accuracy or readability). Part 2ea(t): 8 ain't right. It's 2012, just a year after releasing Service Pack 1 for Windows 7, Micro$oft decided to finally optimize their code ... and remove a couple unnecessary features, like, DreamScene, the fragmentation for standard users (businesses still get to enjoy unhinged shit like Windows 8 Embedded Industry), and the start button. Once you finally remember to use the keyboard for once, you buffoon, you get bathroom (or kitchen) tiles. Sets the mood for M$ to fuck you either way. Those replaced widgets from Vista and 7. Want this hell to end quicker? Sweetie, the power settings are hidden in the charms bar's settings, and that shows up if your cursor is on the top or bottom right pixel, and that's only if it decides it wants to do it. And if you decide to come back, you'll be locked out, bitch. Welcome to the convenient future where you can't use your portable computer offline (if you use a M$ account to log in). Now the search function of the start menu sends your queries to Micro$oft. They need to know you're looking for "Akari bodypillow.psd". If not exposed by the search function then Defender, the default AV, may decide to send your PSD to M$ for "safety analysis". You clicked "Express Settings", didn't you? And don't forget Micro$oft Sky- I mean OneDrive asking to take your desktop, documents and pictures folders and restrict them to the 5gb of cloud storage you have. Having fun yet? When signed in via a Micro$oft Account, Windows now syncs your wallpaper across all your computers. Set hentai on home computer, get greeted by hentai at work or any other computer the very next time you log in. Now that's what I call continuity! Quick aside, I actually broke my chair while writing this part in the original script, here's the unedited one: Having fun yet? Also it now syncs your wallpaper across multiple devices – set hent on one get hent on all. Now that’s what I call continuity. Rounded corners? Gone. Button outlines? Also gone. Also the way to handle new apps isn't too obvious. The "Activate Windows" dialog graduated to take up the entire fucking screen. And what's better than one control panel? Two with duplicated functionality, and flash player installed by default, cool. Not enough duplicates? How 'bout 2 video players? Office 2013, New additions - who fucking knows at this point, Wikimedia add-on and other cloud integration. It's flat, extra flat. This demon feeds off your frustration. I swear, they must've changed the location of the most important features. Just to piss you off. Back to Windows for a moment. The taskbar is on the bottom by default, right? Then WHO'S IDEA WAS PUTTING THE NOTIFICATIONS ON THE TOP RIGHT OF THE SCREEN? DO PEOPLE REALLY STARE AT THE "X" BUTTON ALL THE TIME, OR AM I STARTING TO LOSE MY MARBLES? And don't think I forgot about the whole Windows RT 8 thing, RT probably standing for Rage (and) Torment. No. No win32 apps. You get the desktop, and you will not use it. The machines running that thing probably rival the computing power of my first laptop. No Firefox, even no Chrome, just nothing. Runs on ARM, but nothing ever got compiled for this OS, so any device with it is a fancy paperweight. The all new Windows RT from Micro$oft, spend 20 bucks less for a "less" experience. At least the desktop version of 8 was zippy.

[backbentblog]

3:38AM, we're back. Part 2f(art or not 2fart that is the question), Windows 8.1 and the importance of feedback:

After that whole shitshow in 2013 Microsoft released the most inconsequential Windows release since Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows 8.1, also known as Windows 8, but usable-ish. The improvements were minor, the start button returned for people who can't fathom that the key on their keyboard with the windows logo opens the start screen. There was an added option for the tiles. After a few updates even the shutdown option was cloned to a sensible place (which imo was a good place if one used the weather widget, just enough time to get to the shut down option to also skim the weather forecast). It was offered as a free upgrade for windows 8 users, doesn't change that all the other annoying bullshit stayed. Oh, and they changed the name of "My Computer", again. A true consolation prize of an OS update, but maybe, just maybe it was an attempt on actually improving Windows.

[backbentblog]

And now after a short hiatus, time for windows 10. Which will be written about FROM MEMORY, little by little because I never finished the script.

Part 2Go away: Why on Kaguya's green earth do the designers at M$ not have a clear design for this? Aka. Windows 10.

The history of this OS is so long and boring that the only way to convey it succinctly is to split it into chapters.

Chapter 0: Pre-launch (2014-2015):

In the beginning, there was windows 8.1, and a lot of people stuck to its older cousin - 7, and there was me sitting on XP, but that's besides the point. Additionally there was a thing called Windows Phone, rebranded from Windows Mobile ~~I guess now it's paralyzed~~, Oh, and also Xbox One. During Experiment 9200 codename 8 there were first attempts at combining those 3 different fundamentally incompatible platforms into a unified experience through a unified app format called Universal Windows Programs. Also known as tiles M$ stole from my room while I wasn't looking. These attempts although flawed were promising, some functions were genuinely useful and liked by users, only lamenting the fact that they might as well have not existed for desktop PC and laptop users due to their not-self-explanatory implementation. Micro$oft heard it was bad, so they made Experiment 9600 codename 8.1 to remedy the issue, and for the most part it fixed the biggest issues of Experiment 9200. But the users were still unsatisfied, they wanted more functionality, they wanted floating windows. And so Micro$oft in the most surprising turn of events made it into reality. Once again, in the beginning, Windows NT 6.4, the one that would eventually become Windows 10, was a much different beast, much more humble, honestly in my opinion if they'd just released it how it was in build 9879 without the hidden features users would've been perfectly happy with it, at least it would be much more tolerable. Unfortunately somewhere along the way someone at Micro$oft must've been listening to The Rolling Stones, because paint it black they did.

Chapter 1: RTM, aka public beta posing as stable build. (2015, build 1507, Experiment number 10240):

Skipping ahead a few months and now Windows 10 was ready, finally released, hailed as the last version to ever release, what a time to be alive. The new web browser was something M$ could be proud of - it loaded shit fast, and it just was a web browser not trying to be 50 thousand other things unlike some other browsers, the windows store was redesigned in a way that actually allowed people to find the update button, all the UWP apps were regular windows at last, new corner snapping, and a new place where missed notifications went. Handy stuff, for sure. Only thing is, at launch it had some problems. Like showing a password box over the "Welcome!" text if you dared to use an account without a password. The whole UI was overly flat, like 8 gets dunked on for being flat but this is taking it to a whole new level, everything is a square without all that much contrast. The red X button is gone, and the title bars are now huge, because there is a tablet mode, but seems like no one ever wanted to use it. There's a new search bar ... which was pointless since everybody knows that ever since vista you just opened start and started typing to accomplish the same exact thing (btw this still works on 10), and if you're using a "supported" language in a "supported" region (which ain't the combo of Polish in Poland) you got Cortana, who's here to help, a bit of sign in here, a bit of "what even is this shit" there, and you were ready to experience the beautiful daughter of Clippy with a gorgeous voice and a personality of "I cant help you with that" or "Let's look for answers on the internet" (I don't actually remember the voice lines, didn't use the feature at all, mostly due to sticking to the polish language version for like half of my time using 10), the privacy nightmare of Experiment 9200 hasn't changed a bit in 10, still same bull, just with a sign of no longer locking you out of your machine if you dared to go offline, but now onedrive was there in the autostart by default no matter what because fuck the consumer. The volume panel was redone, and for the most part so was the wifi panel, this causes confusion to this day since it's sometimes the case that the default output device somehow switches while the new audio panel stays on the old one. The new settings page ... is something, arguably a slight decrease in usability compared to previous releases. The new start menu was an abomination, and I'm shocked that people somehow prefer it to the 8.1 start screen, the placement of the power options was strange, and the tiles stayed, just glued to the side, some were missing, some genuinely nice-to-have ones were gone, what was added in their place was literal ads. And to top it all off, windows update now automagically installs updates with no official way to switch it back to "notify when updates are available" what was possible since the introduction of native windows update integration in windows, or at least since XP, 14 years of user's preferences now made unavailable thanks to the always online craze. This would not be such an issue for most users, if not for the fact that Windows 10 updates are notorious for messing basic functionality up, getting stuck in endless loops, or sometimes nuking users data or the OS in the process of installing the update. FUN. Up to this point you had limited control over your computer, but just enough control to set it up once, and let it sit, and it wouldn't magically break without user intervention, now you can't even have that. What's even stranger is that 10 is coincidentally the first version of Windows with the Insider Program allowing regular users to contribute their time and resources as a generalized beta testing organization. Literally outsourcing bug testing and edge case finding, yet somehow updates became less polished. And you know what else, 10 liked to restart on its own with 0 damn warning, at least on XP if you were stupid enough to enable auto updates you had a countdown of 15 mins popping up, or sometimes it just waited until you wanted to shut your computer down.

This is a start of a journey of an OS that in order to become something deserving of the name "stable release" had to be tweaked over 50 times and waste countless hours of regular people expecting computers to be reliable machines. Or something like that.

[backbentblog]

Side-tangent: apparently tumblr hates the s word. You can't say the word that rhymes with sewer slide. Which is a shame because there was one Linux project I was trying to reference which contained that word in its name. (seriously tumblr stopped autosaving my draft after putting that word in)

[backbentblog]

Part 2 of that script from yesterday (I hope, idk it's 2AM (edit: Oh look now it's 3AM),

Part 2: The downwards spiral of Windows (NT) and Microsoft in general

I know it is unfair, but in this section I'll be comparing every released consumer version of Windows NT against the previous versions starting with comparing NT 4.0 from 1996 with NT 3.51, an OS I had never used in my life, however looking at screenshots its UI seems very similar if not exactly 1:1 with 3.11 which I have experienced in a limited capacity. Had to add this entire section because I ain't filming or setting up VMs for this, so the original intro to roasting NT 4.0 would make close to 0 sense, leaving it crossed out but otherwise unmodified.

Let’s establish a baseline for design and performance while we’re at it. *This* is Windows NT 3.51 Workstation released in 1995 – building on the design update of Windows 3.1 – but that one’s on DOS, and XP and later home editions are not, so we’ll ignore it. What do you see – barren wasteland, but people still used it, some icons, open the file manager, file names in their natural form – nice. The stage is set, and the future looks bright - *heh* are you ready for the pain?

Part 2a: Oh, ... no, NT 4.0, counting down the days til' the year 2000

It’s 1996 and there’s a new kid in on the Windows Workstation block – the name? NT4. Promises – new design, a taskbar from which you can actually see what you’ve opened, long file names, a usable TCP/IP stack ready for your 3com Etherlink II, and a brand new start menu. Seems nice, with a lot of concepts borrowed from Windows 95. You open “My Computer”, C:, where are the file extensions? Seriously, where are they? Why? It’s simpler – yes, but an .exe can have custom icons resembling the Word 95 document ones for example. Whatya gonna do with this? Nothin. Shut up and take it.

For work you obviously need a productivity suite – unless you’re only using your computer to stare at the desktop. It just so happens, that thanks to Micro$oft’s undocumented syscalls in Windows 3.x the Microsoft Office suite became pretty much the de facto standard. You’re using Office 95, because, why not, then decide to upgrade to 97. You … haven’t learnt your lesson, have you. There’s a new addition to Office called Clippy – or in some versions clippit. The paperclip. You know, unless you never used Office older than 2003. Go look him up on the internet. There’s some fan art of them.

Okay, fanfi- I mean tax reports written, file, save as, (check possible file extensions), and your eyes begin to well up, .doc from 95 and .doc from 97 are TWO DIFFERENT FORMATS. Whose idea was this? Great, so now you have to make sure to save in the obsolete file format for the time being.

It’s 1999 and you’re not quite ready for 2000, Office 2000 seems promising, uncluttered. Needless to say you’re strapped in and ready to be pinned down by Office 2000 – the decluttering – it works, until you need that one option that’s hidden, so you have to click two times as much to find it. Nice. The new Clippy – MF where’s your close button? But you notice something odd. Windows suddenly feels slower. You pause, and realise that Office 2000 required Internet Explorer 5, and autoinstalled it for your convenience. And why’s that an issue? You see, M$ isn’t content with screwing you with one piece of software, they want, no, need more. So the IE5 update replaced your beloved shell – the taskbar and icons and file manager combo – with its own. Like malware.

In Windows 2000 it came preinstalled with no way to remove it. There was an option – that got rid of the web browser, but not the other parts of IE. Why? Don’t ask me. At least it had gradients and real Windows Update, powered by ActiveX only usable on IE. But didn’t show the content’s of the C drive by default. You can’t see, but you can touch.

[backbentblog]

Part 3 (retyped on laptop this time, original had some strange phrasing probably. because I was getting 3-4 hours of sleep per day at that time) Part 2b: XP And now, the moment you've been waiting for: it's time to dunk on XP. You thought I'd say 7? Nah, we're going version to version. Let me make this quick. *inhale* The new UI is big - why? The "Luna" theme has pointless rounding, imagine taking single window screenshots with that, Windows Messenger, STFU Outlook Express 6 - reasonable value-add at time of original release, but missing so many updates and features that it became well and truly useless past 2012 (i think) Before Service Pack 2 a firewall was included, just not enabled by default, you couldn't make this shit up even if you tried "Works better," my ass Take a look at all these editions, Home Edition, Professional, Starter, Fundamentals for Legacy PCs, Embedded, Embedded Standard 2009, Embedded POSReady 2009, "for embedded systems", Media Center Edition regular, 2004 and 2005, same for Tablet PC Editions, and there's not one, not two, but three 64-bit professional editions. I'm sure I've missed at least one extra edition. M$ really did cu/cu/cut XP up. I wouldn't be surprised if there was such a thing as Windows XP Bidet PC Edition. As a side-note my hometown's amazing public transport STILL uses some version of XP on in-vehicle route displays. Don't even get me started on feature parity between 64-bit versions. Onto the Service Packs: Service pack 1 got 2 releases (a, and b) because of some shit related to java. Service Pack 2 brought extra security warnings along with some extra security changes to XP, in 2005, better late than never, I guess. Service Pack 3 from 2008 forgot the word "optimization" to bring XP up to fit in with Vista, I assume. XP also introduced online product activation. 30 days of free use, then activate or no desktop. Cool in principle, however nowadays you have to install a patch for XP's server sibling (Server 2003) to get XP to connect to the activation server. That or phone activation, which, the number says free, but Orange Polska says "lol, no". (2026 edit: and now the number is closed. The AI they implemented during its last year of service was so fucking terrible that I literally had to say yes in 5 fucking languages just to confirm a section. Before the AI stuff was there the old system was also broken, requiring blind navigation to select activating by link sent via sms instead of typing the numbers and paying Orange more for the privilege to call a toll-free number) There was also a Windows Genuine Validation update, which displayed a giant watermark on the bottom right of your screen if you dared to use un activated windows, or were unlucky enough to have your key flagged as not legitimate. It was pretty much required post 2009. Then there's Windows Media Player updates which some people liked some people didn't, and fucking Windows Search 4.0 which was rare to see out and about on XP machines, to be honest I don't blame the people who ignored that update, I, too, preferred the search UI based on Clippy tech. In 2002 to "coincide" with the release of XP Micro$oft released Office 2003, wait, there's also Office XP which if you opened Word and shown it to people they'd probably say it's Word 2000. Makes sense, doesn't it? Press F for Clippy, last present in Office 2003. The UI update, rounded, bigger, with an even more useless pane by default and of course the color schemes had to be tied to the way XP handled themes, so on newer versions you get blue (dabadee, dabada).

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Part 4. At first my intention was to just release unreleased work but now I'm determined to finish this awfully long rant just in text. Needless to say everything from now-on in this project is tweaked to uninsomniafy my work just a little bit.

Part 2c: Vista. The "Wow. This is dogshit." started a while ago, it's just more of the same. And now for Micro$oft's feature presentation: Are You ready for an OS that requires 512MiB of RAM just to install? Are you ready for 6 different versions of one OS all targeting the average computer toucher? Are you a business? Do you trust Microsoft to treat you right? Then upgrade to the brand new Windows Vista for the cost of way too much and an entirely new machine just to be unable to work. Vista includes tons of useful features, like asking you about your experience, pointless fragmentation, a new security risk called widgets, a DVD making application instead of a general video editor, a redesigned cursor that's impossible to find on a 1080p screen, pointless translucency that wastes resources, subtler window button outlines, a new network widget that doesn't offer anything useful, a new sound mixer that'll last a long time, same old paint with a refreshed icon, the button with the shutdown icon suspending the computer instead by default because it's a slightly fainter shade of red. For the ultimate edition there's also an option to force your wallpaper to be a video to make your laptop into a comfy space heater. It's like if we touched you without explicit permission, because you gave us implicit permission, on page 21 of the EULA you didn't read. The all new Windows Vista from Micro$oft. Do you really want to make changes to your PC? Okay, now bend over. Oh, and if you have a fucked BIOS on your computer it'll refuse to activate over the internet, trust me I've tried. You wanna know something about Office? Office 2007 was released to accompany Vista with a completely new so-called "ribbon" interface. Big buttons, big crosshair looking M$ Office logo orb. I mean it looked fine, and it worked, the new document style preview is a nice addition, and the theme switching functionality was untied from windows themes. But the usability of Office on screens with lower resolution suffered. The keyboard navigation seems more like an afterthought than a serious power user and accessibility feature. And Office 2007 introduced a brand new format for documents, which required downloading an add-on to import into older versions, which was only available for 2003 and XP, Word 2007 didn't get to open a .docx file. Microsoft Update finally got integrated into Office instead of requiring an ActiveX toggle to enable. (copy-pasting the ending of this section verbatim because it's just too good.) But, excuse my language, what the fuck Microsoft? Why did you only implement Open Document Format support after the EU forced you to, and even then it was in an update. And why is the support so half-baked. Okay let’s stop before the voices get too loud. It's almost 2AM, 7 tomorrow.

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1:17AM, Stacja Wolność on headphones, it's time for part 5 of this shit script.

part 2d: Kiss my glass, Mr. Sass, Windows 7 is ass. 2009, the number of the beast. After Vista flopped and got pretty much universally mocked despite the hype surrounding its needlessly rounded and translucent user interface, and the infamous Mojave experiment ad trying to convince people that Vista is usable on their PC, Micro$oft released Vista Second Edition- I mean Windows 7. 7. I hate it, I hate it, I HATE IT. FUCK WINDOWS 7, LONG LIVE WINDOWS 7. For starters 7 carried on with the trend of too fucking many editions: Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional (you've been revoked the right to call yourself a business), Enterprise, Ultimate, and extra ones like, Embedded Standard (or POSReady if you really want 7 on a cash register) 7 not to be confused with Windows Embedded 7, there was also a Windows Thin PC, I'm surprised there wasn't a Windows 7 Fundamentals For Self-Pleasure Devices. Credit where it's due, some things were improved, like the WiFi quick settings pane actually serving a purpose, and the stability, assuming you're using the 64-bit version was about OK (still, sometimes it can't format a flash drive which XP can). Now onto the negatives, Damn did they ever take the piss with the rest of the UI. M$, could you not change the start menu for one minute? Oh and the classic one is gone. Where's the log out? Hidden, he he he. Where did the open window counter go? To hell, apparently, now you get to know that 1, 2, or 3 or more windows are open, and that's if you pay attention to small details on the taskbar. On the topic of the taskbar, now it's large, thanks, one more setting to unfuck from default after reinstalls. You ever heard about the anime Windows 7 ad? It's a real thing. The title bars also grew up to take up more of my fucking monitor. Wanna join a homegroup, don't you? Well, if not, too bad so sad, you're in one by default sometimes. The new animations bug out when switching from the glassy aero theme to the "I want to work" classic one (or in the other direction). Windows 7 also has a soft spot for memleaks, as opposed to me. You ever feel warmth from seeing Windows Error Reporting grinding away? Also what the fuck M$ – no updates for Ryzen users? Bruh. What’s so good about it? I don’t get it. Meanwhile in Office land, 2010 arrived with gifts in form of requiring online activation for Pro Plus users ending the "find a VL key and viola no checks free office" meme for good. .... What else about it? .... The File menu begins here. Moving on and forgetting about Silverlight, or that one time a "Free Windows 10 Upgrade" notification update was disguised as "Windows 7 Service Pack 1" on computers which already had SP1, even with the proper SP1 KB address, and the auto-upgrades to 10. Taking the piss.

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Plastic Promises blasting on headphones, day 6 of posting this script (and occasionally updating it for accuracy or readability). Part 2ea(t): 8 ain't right. It's 2012, just a year after releasing Service Pack 1 for Windows 7, Micro$oft decided to finally optimize their code ... and remove a couple unnecessary features, like, DreamScene, the fragmentation for standard users (businesses still get to enjoy unhinged shit like Windows 8 Embedded Industry), and the start button. Once you finally remember to use the keyboard for once, you buffoon, you get bathroom (or kitchen) tiles. Sets the mood for M$ to fuck you either way. Those replaced widgets from Vista and 7. Want this hell to end quicker? Sweetie, the power settings are hidden in the charms bar's settings, and that shows up if your cursor is on the top or bottom right pixel, and that's only if it decides it wants to do it. And if you decide to come back, you'll be locked out, bitch. Welcome to the convenient future where you can't use your portable computer offline (if you use a M$ account to log in). Now the search function of the start menu sends your queries to Micro$oft. They need to know you're looking for "Akari bodypillow.psd". If not exposed by the search function then Defender, the default AV, may decide to send your PSD to M$ for "safety analysis". You clicked "Express Settings", didn't you? And don't forget Micro$oft Sky- I mean OneDrive asking to take your desktop, documents and pictures folders and restrict them to the 5gb of cloud storage you have. Having fun yet? When signed in via a Micro$oft Account, Windows now syncs your wallpaper across all your computers. Set hentai on home computer, get greeted by hentai at work or any other computer the very next time you log in. Now that's what I call continuity! Quick aside, I actually broke my chair while writing this part in the original script, here's the unedited one: Having fun yet? Also it now syncs your wallpaper across multiple devices – set hent on one get hent on all. Now that’s what I call continuity. Rounded corners? Gone. Button outlines? Also gone. Also the way to handle new apps isn't too obvious. The "Activate Windows" dialog graduated to take up the entire fucking screen. And what's better than one control panel? Two with duplicated functionality, and flash player installed by default, cool. Not enough duplicates? How 'bout 2 video players? Office 2013, New additions - who fucking knows at this point, Wikimedia add-on and other cloud integration. It's flat, extra flat. This demon feeds off your frustration. I swear, they must've changed the location of the most important features. Just to piss you off. Back to Windows for a moment. The taskbar is on the bottom by default, right? Then WHO'S IDEA WAS PUTTING THE NOTIFICATIONS ON THE TOP RIGHT OF THE SCREEN? DO PEOPLE REALLY STARE AT THE "X" BUTTON ALL THE TIME, OR AM I STARTING TO LOSE MY MARBLES? And don't think I forgot about the whole Windows RT 8 thing, RT probably standing for Rage (and) Torment. No. No win32 apps. You get the desktop, and you will not use it. The machines running that thing probably rival the computing power of my first laptop. No Firefox, even no Chrome, just nothing. Runs on ARM, but nothing ever got compiled for this OS, so any device with it is a fancy paperweight. The all new Windows RT from Micro$oft, spend 20 bucks less for a "less" experience. At least the desktop version of 8 was zippy.

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3:38AM, we're back. Part 2f(art or not 2fart that is the question), Windows 8.1 and the importance of feedback:

After that whole shitshow in 2013 Microsoft released the most inconsequential Windows release since Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows 8.1, also known as Windows 8, but usable-ish. The improvements were minor, the start button returned for people who can't fathom that the key on their keyboard with the windows logo opens the start screen. There was an added option for the tiles. After a few updates even the shutdown option was cloned to a sensible place (which imo was a good place if one used the weather widget, just enough time to get to the shut down option to also skim the weather forecast). It was offered as a free upgrade for windows 8 users, doesn't change that all the other annoying bullshit stayed. Oh, and they changed the name of "My Computer", again. A true consolation prize of an OS update, but maybe, just maybe it was an attempt on actually improving Windows.

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And now after a short hiatus, time for windows 10. Which will be written about FROM MEMORY, little by little because I never finished the script.

Part 2Go away: Why on Kaguya's green earth do the designers at M$ not have a clear design for this? Aka. Windows 10.

The history of this OS is so long and boring that the only way to convey it succinctly is to split it into chapters.

Chapter 0: Pre-launch (2014-2015):

In the beginning, there was windows 8.1, and a lot of people stuck to its older cousin - 7, and there was me sitting on XP, but that's besides the point. Additionally there was a thing called Windows Phone, rebranded from Windows Mobile ~~I guess now it's paralyzed~~, Oh, and also Xbox One. During Experiment 9200 codename 8 there were first attempts at combining those 3 different fundamentally incompatible platforms into a unified experience through a unified app format called Universal Windows Programs. Also known as tiles M$ stole from my room while I wasn't looking. These attempts although flawed were promising, some functions were genuinely useful and liked by users, only lamenting the fact that they might as well have not existed for desktop PC and laptop users due to their not-self-explanatory implementation. Micro$oft heard it was bad, so they made Experiment 9600 codename 8.1 to remedy the issue, and for the most part it fixed the biggest issues of Experiment 9200. But the users were still unsatisfied, they wanted more functionality, they wanted floating windows. And so Micro$oft in the most surprising turn of events made it into reality. Once again, in the beginning, Windows NT 6.4, the one that would eventually become Windows 10, was a much different beast, much more humble, honestly in my opinion if they'd just released it how it was in build 9879 without the hidden features users would've been perfectly happy with it, at least it would be much more tolerable. Unfortunately somewhere along the way someone at Micro$oft must've been listening to The Rolling Stones, because paint it black they did.

Chapter 1: RTM, aka public beta posing as stable build. (2015, build 1507, Experiment number 10240):

Skipping ahead a few months and now Windows 10 was ready, finally released, hailed as the last version to ever release, what a time to be alive. The new web browser was something M$ could be proud of - it loaded shit fast, and it just was a web browser not trying to be 50 thousand other things unlike some other browsers, the windows store was redesigned in a way that actually allowed people to find the update button, all the UWP apps were regular windows at last, new corner snapping, and a new place where missed notifications went. Handy stuff, for sure. Only thing is, at launch it had some problems. Like showing a password box over the "Welcome!" text if you dared to use an account without a password. The whole UI was overly flat, like 8 gets dunked on for being flat but this is taking it to a whole new level, everything is a square without all that much contrast. The red X button is gone, and the title bars are now huge, because there is a tablet mode, but seems like no one ever wanted to use it. There's a new search bar ... which was pointless since everybody knows that ever since vista you just opened start and started typing to accomplish the same exact thing (btw this still works on 10), and if you're using a "supported" language in a "supported" region (which ain't the combo of Polish in Poland) you got Cortana, who's here to help, a bit of sign in here, a bit of "what even is this shit" there, and you were ready to experience the beautiful daughter of Clippy with a gorgeous voice and a personality of "I cant help you with that" or "Let's look for answers on the internet" (I don't actually remember the voice lines, didn't use the feature at all, mostly due to sticking to the polish language version for like half of my time using 10), the privacy nightmare of Experiment 9200 hasn't changed a bit in 10, still same bull, just with a sign of no longer locking you out of your machine if you dared to go offline, but now onedrive was there in the autostart by default no matter what because fuck the consumer. The volume panel was redone, and for the most part so was the wifi panel, this causes confusion to this day since it's sometimes the case that the default output device somehow switches while the new audio panel stays on the old one. The new settings page ... is something, arguably a slight decrease in usability compared to previous releases. The new start menu was an abomination, and I'm shocked that people somehow prefer it to the 8.1 start screen, the placement of the power options was strange, and the tiles stayed, just glued to the side, some were missing, some genuinely nice-to-have ones were gone, what was added in their place was literal ads. And to top it all off, windows update now automagically installs updates with no official way to switch it back to "notify when updates are available" what was possible since the introduction of native windows update integration in windows, or at least since XP, 14 years of user's preferences now made unavailable thanks to the always online craze. This would not be such an issue for most users, if not for the fact that Windows 10 updates are notorious for messing basic functionality up, getting stuck in endless loops, or sometimes nuking users data or the OS in the process of installing the update. FUN. Up to this point you had limited control over your computer, but just enough control to set it up once, and let it sit, and it wouldn't magically break without user intervention, now you can't even have that. What's even stranger is that 10 is coincidentally the first version of Windows with the Insider Program allowing regular users to contribute their time and resources as a generalized beta testing organization. Literally outsourcing bug testing and edge case finding, yet somehow updates became less polished. And you know what else, 10 liked to restart on its own with 0 damn warning, at least on XP if you were stupid enough to enable auto updates you had a countdown of 15 mins popping up, or sometimes it just waited until you wanted to shut your computer down.

This is a start of a journey of an OS that in order to become something deserving of the name "stable release" had to be tweaked over 50 times and waste countless hours of regular people expecting computers to be reliable machines. Or something like that.

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Just chillin, cleaning my phone of all apps in preparation for factory reset (cuz there ain't no reason for a 2yo samsung to have almost exactly the battery life of a almost 6yo iphone SE), and .... why is this even an option? Who's so afraid of numbers that they need to remove the calculator? Not remove as in remove from home screen, but straight up uninstall. Who asked for this?

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Update: restore to stock aettinga completed at about 10:30pm.

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Just chillin, cleaning my phone of all apps in preparation for factory reset (cuz there ain't no reason for a 2yo samsung to have almost exactly the battery life of a almost 6yo iphone SE), and .... why is this even an option? Who's so afraid of numbers that they need to remove the calculator? Not remove as in remove from home screen, but straight up uninstall. Who asked for this?

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TLDR of today:

Me: I need to get my move on with this whole writing project.

Also me: But first let me set up 10 LTSC to cosplay 7/Vista classic theme for 2 fucking hours because … small usability boost in the unlikely scenario my VSS flairs up is apparently worth it. Now to hope I don’t include the username in the damn project cuz explaining why the whole damn project is written by Akari’s bigger siscon sis would be a difficult convo. No I won’t stop putting her name as the username, windows must be registered to her.

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Decided to do a practical test of my new backup phone (2020 iPhone SE… I have my reasons for picking it, and they’re other than having a Mac as RCS would’ve been more useful than the ecosystem continuity crap, … should add that 0/4 polish carriers give RCS on iPhones) by actually using it as my daily device for a while and aside from the battery being 6yo and small hiccups (mostly due to me being used to android, and in part due to unstabilized camera) it’s been the most “a(n) phone” experience of all time.

Writing this just to point out one missing feature on android (or at least the smasnug version). Separate messaging tone, not per contact, not per conversation, but just straight up “here’s the notification sound, and there’s the SMS sound”… not praising apple too much for it as the implementation is borked, no instantly noticeable ability to set a custom tone (damn xp balloon and Nokia c1-01 standard tone would be a killer combo imo) … looked it up afterwards, apparently it is possible, gonna verify later.

Edit:

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Ngl, I thought that When The Rain Begins To Fall was a WLW song. Seriously. And I'm still gonna headcanon it that way.

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I planned on being productive yesterday, instead I corrected the lrc file timing for Rick Me and Hey, Hey, Helen on ABBA [Import Bonus Tracks] and synced one song on other album (leaving proper but empty email in metadata). That's the kind of shit I do for procrastination. (could've finished a rant for here but, heart said no).

[galactic-dragoness]

[loszeged]

[neko-mancy]

[bugmoment]

[an-eldritch-nightmare-deactivat]

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So, apparently it is possible to become addicted to yuri.