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Random Monday? What's that mean?
It means that my likes and drafts are overflowing and i have been skipping over posting things because of diverse (and largely silly) reasons. So over the weekend I queued up a whole mess of posts to come up through the day, from all aspects of what this blog has been about... and maybe stretching it a bit just to test the waters.
Enjoy!
Realized I had my anon off this whole time 😅 it's on now
USA officials and NSA ruin TV
I'm a big fan of TV shows like the current Homeland and Hostages. I think they're quite well made and the plot is interesting to watch. However, since the reveal of PRISM and the NSA spying on the world, and everyone and everything within it, I can no longer watch these kinds of series, nor movies for that matter, without thinking that the NSA and thus the government had already known those developing assassinations, secret missions and infiltrations.
A further example of this is how in the TV show Hostages the doctor who is going to operate on the president of the USA gets taken hostage. Up until that point everything is fine. But then...*minor SPOILERS* When she and her family have been taken hostage, they make numerous calls both using landlines and cellphones giving up sensitive information even at the point of Homeland Security investigating the matter of a possible attempt at the presidents life. However, during all that time, would the NSA not have had the slightest bit of information on the manner. Having been able to figure it out already, especially using the PRISM program.
The NSA is ruining TV, ruining movies. It's ridiculous, they need to stop. Disband the PRISM program, disband the NSA and seize all surveillance on allied nations, it's citizens and for the sake of the US citizens, any surveillance on random targets, programs, emails, calls, chat and text messages worldwide. Especially since these days most threats and schemes are made using not the obvious methods of choice.
So please... For the sake of preventing WOIII, stop believing in your inflated sense of self importance.
Microsofties
First it was the discontinuation of Windows Live Messenger and it's services, which if you read my previous post, can still be made to work. Then it was the Windows 8 release. Then it is the horrible marketing and planning of the Xbox One, its features and it's pushed back release date for the majority of major European gaming countries. And soon, in July 2014, it is time for the discontinuation of Games for Windows - Live...(GFWL) Meaning that major games such as Grand Theft Auto IV, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, Batman: Arkham City, but also many others will all no longer be playable on the PC. Unless the developers of the game release updates to no longer require GFWL to be able to play the game. Which in many cases will simply not be possible as developers are working on other titles or developers are no longer in existance/have been bought out by other companies.
By now I can start having a weekly blog solely on what Microsoft has done wrong the previous week, as it would seem that the Microsoft screw-ups frequency is now the increasing according to Moore's Law. And after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced his retirement within the next year I had hoped that decisions from the top would be impacting the end-users less. Sadly, this does not seem to have any impact, or all discontinued software will be restarted after his retirement. But to be losing another, even COMPULSORY, intensely used software package originating from Microsoft is ridiculous. I am completely losing faith in Microsoft, I can now say that they can better stick to their Office package. Which with Microsoft Office 365, to upload everything to the cloud, is absolutely ridiculous, so maybe Microsoft is better off just closing its doors.
First Random Monday Post
I really only post things on clothes, jewelry, shoes, etc since that's the main idea but I thought I should do other things too. Therefore every Monday I'll be posting something non-related to what I usually do, and it could be anything.
Today I decided to get my life together and to become a better person. I mean someone up there in the blouds oh what? blouds? I mean clouds decided to kill grade 9 exams. I love you I don't know who but I love you seriously. I mean if I took that final exam OMG like my grades would drop like a motherfucker I mean -sigh- I can't even think. Yeah... So I decided to be better not perfect but better than I am now yep. When the summer is over BAM! looks who's comin.. what is wrong with me? Loool
Am i the only one who thinks it's sexy when a guy exhales smoke out his mouth and inhales it through his nose? gahhh
I went to the bank! The right bank and I got things done! Everything went smoothly to the point I was leaving and I couldn't open the door from the cubicle. :D How am I supposed to know you have to use a tiny button on the wall to open it?! Anyways, I have a feeling this is a Monday of randomness, some girl talked to me from the cafeteria to the library. I have no idea who she is but she was very friendly, like she knew me. WTF? I just want to go lie down on the sofa and read but some dude sits there, ugh. The library needs more sofas for reading (and tiny naps). Oh and btw, I'm pretty sure that bank dude was younger than me. *sobs*
Yesterday, The Day That Has Not Yet Come To Pass
If you want to read facts about the latest Skype and non some random person telling a random story on how it is to update to Skype, scroll down, to the bullet points!
D-Day+1; As Microsoft has stated; the process of forcing and changing all accounts from Windows Live Messenger (WLM) to Skype will take up to two weeks. And so, I have not yet been forced to use Skype on any of my three regular accounts. This, of course, is a good thing.
Nevertheless, A week ago I decided to devote one day of my weekend to attempting to start my oldest notebook, from which the screen isn't working. It has Windows XP Service Pack 3 installed on it, and I felt it would be a good start of my first update to the latest version of WLM, read Skype (sigh). And so I did, it soon became Skype, deleted my old WLM, which I naturally re-installed directly after I had Skype working correctly. During this process I merged one of my WLM accounts, one that I no longer used, to one of my Skype accounts, another one I never use.
So, a dusted off notebook as well as two dusted off accounts, merged and ready to use, or not... I was trying to sign in to Skype using my Microsoft Account (MS Account), however, every attempt was in vain and to no result, nothing happened. I soon became even more frustrated with Microsoft and the new version of Skype. Which, by the way, is all white, rather than the blue it was using before in the background. I tried closing Skype and even went as far as re-installing it entirely. All without result, so I decided to reboot my notebook, which did the trick. Apparently something hadn't been set yet. Regardless of that, I was now logged in to latest version of WLM, read Skype (v6.3.0.105) and soon saw the horror before me.
Skype does not contain groups for users from WLM, so you have to manually put them in their groups accordingly, groups which you first have to create again. As if that wasn't bad enough yet, there is a difference between the latest version of Skype while logged in as a Skype user and logged in as a MS Account user;
Skype as a MS Account user does not allow users to select multiple contacts at a time.
What this means is, that users have to manually select each contact, right-click, and click on "Add to List...", in order to put each of them in their group. I have tried this out and while logged in to;
Skype as a Skype user, Skype does allow users to select multiple contacts at a time.
And thus at the same time giving users the ability to put multiple contacts into a group at the same time. And that got me pissed off enough already, as if I wasn't enough before. And so, I had spent the entire day changing two of my main accounts to their respective Skype accounts. I didn't do my main one yet, as I was worried I wouldn't be able to sign in to WLM anymore on it. It actually wasn't until this weekend that I updated my main WLM account to its respective Skype account. Merging together a list of around 200 contacts, which means a lot of sorting and clicking. This latest merge was done on my main computer, the one I use for games, etc, not my main notebook, which I use for chatting. On which I am now, the old version of Skype, the old version of WLM, working neatly among each other. One doing exactly as I want it to in the sense of Instant Messaging (WLM) and the other for grouped chats, group calls and video calls (Skype). And I have been using this setup for the past 8-11 years without any major complaints or thoughts about switching to a different client.
So last weekend I started to use the latest version of Skype a little, both as a Skype user and as a MS user. I found several things that got me annoyed by it;
The Add a Contact window has changed it is now only possible to use one search bar, for searching on email only. Meaning I cannot look for a full name, Skype name, email or phone number. This could be a good thing, but sadly it isn't. Because it doesn't let you add any email, regardless of whether they use Skype or not, I did it to keep track of contacts I was just emailing with. Worse even is that you cannot add people who just use WLM, they have to have Skype as a MS user before that is possible.
As a Skype Account user you can select multiple contacts, as a MS Account user you cannot.
As a MS Account user you are not given the option to show ungrouped contacts, as a Skype account user, you do have this option as always. Meaning that sorting becomes even more of a pain, why can't we as MS users have that option too?!
The ability to only show the activity of signing in to Skype for specific contacts, rather than All or None. WLM has this with MSN Plus!, Messenger Plus! For Skype no longer has this, so now with everything merged, I can't see when my friends I actually do want to talk to are coming online. Because of those 180 others, I don't give a damn. (Don't worry, you are part of the 20!)
There also is no ability, and I would like this a lot, to hide more profile details from public or contact's view. Such as age, gender, language, country/province/city, etc.
To conclude; Microsoft, WTF, as if WLM users didn't hate the forced downgrade to Skype already, Skype for Skype users is actually BETTER than Skype for Microsoft Account users?! WTF! WAKE UP! Or go die in a fire. Or tell me it was all a bad dream and the merge will actually never be forced upon us...
That leaves me missing the following things that WLM has and Skype, even with Messenger Plus! For Skype included, does not have;
Custom emoticons
Changeable fonts
Changeable font size
Changeable font color
Away messages
Proper tabbed chats
Games
Photo sharing, without the requirement to download
Alert messages (sign-in) for specific users only, rather than All or None
Adding only emails, even if they don't use Skype
Proper contact categories, several view able at once for instance
Not having to wait for 10 minutes on a phone before you are able to say hi, Mercury worked fine on that for WLM. Skype has to sync all my conversations, freezing the app several times. I don't want to sync, I just want to say hi!
Ability to make drawings
Offline messages! The messages person A sends to B while B is offline. When B signs in the message is received even when A is offline.
What Skype gives me in return that WLM does not;
Proper grouped chats, they stay when you log off and can be added as contacts. With some options and moderation.
Screen sharing
Quotes
Sound and video effects while calling.
Sending files to the entire group at once, rather than to individuals only.
Nicer emoticons than the latest version of WLM, which I wasn't using as I still had the old version installed with proper emoticons.
Calling actual phones, when you pay money.
Sadly though...I had all those things already, to use with my contacts in Skype. So the longer list is lost to me entirely, while I gain...nothing. Nothing at all, as I already had it. The only thing I gain is frustration, anger and loathe towards Microsoft for their stupidity and ignorance towards anyone using WLM.
Thanks...
