Fidcal
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Posts posted by Fidcal
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Sounds like ransomware or a protection racket. "Pay for an upgrade or else!" Mind you, I wouldn't mind paying someone else to seize control of Win 10. That's no different to buying a shotgun if you keep getting burgled.
That tip for setting as metered is a good one. I did that a couple of days ago. Apparently they don't download so much junk (if I ever allow an update.) Technically I am metered I guess. I get 200GB a month plus half of what's left over from the previous month. It's far more than I need but why should M$oft be allowed to steal from that? My firewall has lots of blockers for stealthy attempts by M$oft and Acer to access the net. Not one of them asked my permission or explained wtf they were doing using my phone and I would never have known without the firewall stopping them.
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Well, StopUpdates10 seems to be working. My update page says my Windows is uptodate! And I've seen no more nags! haha! In your face M$oft! I have taken back control! And I can reverse it if I change my mind.
I can't say I've totally tamed Win 10 but I've got a border theme similar to earlier Windows, a taskbar that remain hidden and NEVER pops up or down until I press a button, and my own task launcher which is infinitely better and clearer and simpler and infinitely configurable how I want, and NO desktop icons whatsoever except temporarily after an install. Clean, minimal, yet everything at hand. It's taken about six pieces of freeware to achieve it but it's tolerable.
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So, the fight begins. I've been blocking updates with my firewall (I think! Can't be certain M$oft have not been sneaking through. Been finding my hdmi tv monitor on sometimes in the morning (pc off) and felt sure I'd turned it off.)
Anyway, now I'm getting even more agressive M$oft warnings every hour 'Let's get back on track.... blah blah' with the only options to 'remind me again in an hour' or 'restart and update now'. So I've put it off for an hour.
Quick search of the web found freeware StopUpdates10 from greatis (I found it through Windows Club.) Both those website have their own agressive misleading deceiving adverts designed to trick you into thinking you're downloading the freeware you want so that didn't encourage me. Anyway, I downloaded and installed it and set it ON. Now, I wait to see what happens. If all goes well I can click its button to enable downloads WHEN I WANT NOT WHEN M$OFT WANT! Or I can not update at all. That's the theory.
Anyone tried this. With what results? Does it work? Are greatis to be trusted?
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Thanks. I rechecked my quests but nothing else was enable so I decided to have one more walk up to the castle to search around. On my way, guess who passed me on the road? Sir Hanish! So, back on track with that quest!.
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Finally made a little progress with lockpicking. Until today I'd had 16 sessions with 20 lockpicks (that's 320 attempts) with only ONE success! (and that was probably a bit lucky with a last minute lunge.) That was on 'Easy'. So I did more net searching and it's clear a great many players suffered with the near-impossibility of this. Turns out the PC version is far easier using a key and mouse. On the PSP4 you turn the pick with the right joystick and they sync. That means if you push the right stick to 3 o'oclock then the sphere moves to 3 o'clock although wobbling horribly. But the left stick that turns the lock itself does not sync. Say you start at 3 o'clock then by the time the sweet spot is at 12 then the left stick is at maybe 9 or 8. By the time the sweet spot is turning left to 11, the left stick is probably moving right through 6! The wobbling intensifies and the controller has a heavy vibration that increases as does the wobbling (if you even get that far.)
The solution is to ignore the Miller Peschek's so-called tutorial which is nonsense, ignore the so-called 'Easy' chest and find some 'Very easy' locks. The best place I've found so far is in lower Sasau. The main street runs SW to NE. At the top is a U-yard with a Very Easy, in the middle left of the street is another U-yard, and lower down the street is a chest inside a home (but when I returned at night to do the dirty, the outer door was hard-locked so I couldn't get in but maybe there's a way, dunno.)
Turn off the controller vibes for this in PS4 Settings - devices so it's less distracting.
Nearby are a couple of gamesave beds in a tiny alley with wooden doors and iron grids that make them look a bit like dungeon doors but I guess they are workers' beds. Nobody there at night when I tried though. So save the game (or use Schnapps to save) then you can practise.
I had 30 lockpicks but my first success came in only about only 7 tries (though I heard cries of 'who's there!' each time I broke a pick. I entered the house. Two people asleep. I accidentally woke one so decided to reload. But I think each lock success increases your level so in future I'll creep away and resave after every success and see if I can boost up my skill perk. If I understand it correctly, that should make locks easier and easier and perhaps eventually I can tackle the actual quest of Peschek with the 'Easy' chest.
Meanwhile I'd adanced the main mission but got stuck. I need to find either: the uzits Bailif, Radzig, or Hanish. Can't find any of them and there's no quest guide. Sick of searching so gave up.
Lots of good stuff in this game but badly spoiled by these difficulties.
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Probably will follow main story eventually, but right now I feel pushed around and forced into actions by the start quests so I want to stretch out and feel a little freedom for a while and test stealth! In Survival difficulty in Fallout 4 you could only save by sleeping so one gradually memorised a chain of beds across the map (and fast travel disabled) - the same is just beginning to happen in KC as I find more sleep places. Just wish I had my sniper rifle, minigun, and power ripper!
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I now think the red splodges on the screen are probably due to my eating food that is not fresh. So food poisoning. I thought the percentage fresh value meant the percentage through the duration days. So, something that has a duration of 5 days might show 40% after 3 days. At some point the number turns red. I thought that was just a warning that you'd better eat it soon because when it reaches zero then it will not be edible. So I've been giving priority to eating food that not the freshest, especiall if it's red. I mean, in real life I'd use the oldest sell-by date before the new - so long as it hadn't passed that date. Now I think the red means it's poisonous. So why does it have a percentage value at all? poisonous is poisonous.
Anyway, I started the game from the beginning for the third time, trying some new strategies to stay alive. Each of the three times I was given a horse and each of the three times the game eventually took it away from me. I can't figure out how to keep the horse. The first time I couldn't steer it out the town and it got jammed between two fences so I left it. When I came back it was gone. The second time I tried to ride it to my home village quest but a cinematic made me abandon it in a wood and I've searched and whistled since but no joy. Nor did it return to the town (thamburg or simialr name.) This third time I figured I'd leave it in the stable and it would still be there after the quest but again the game removed it.
I have no weapon - can't afford one yet - so I'm vulnerable to any footpad or bandit, especially since I'm walking everywhere. Even fast travel (which is really slow) stops you randomly to face bandits.
I'll try to find the recipe for saviour schnapps so I can accumulate (not sell) any such herbs etc until such time as I learn alchemy.
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Ah, right, thanks. That's an incentive for me to do some of the missions then. At the moment, I've headed back to the start village, my horse is taken from me (by the game) so I'm forced to walk. Tons of irresistible loot on bodies etc so I'm overloaded and can hardly walk at 1mph all the f way. This is the second time I'm doing this torture. When I get there I'll put everything in the chest in my old home. I daren't stick it in any earlier container like a barrel because I don't know whether the game refreshes them like Fallout 4 does so you lose the lot after x days. I suspect not but I don't know yet.
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Reloaded earlier for another reason so red spots gone - but still like to know what causes them and what action removes them.
Anyway, restarted from beginning because tired of missions and wanted to sandbox - but the game forces you to play the storyline so far else you can't leave the first area nor can you sleep-save! Damn. I've had to replay a huge amount.
But another potential deal-breaker is the lock picking. It appears to be the hardest I've ever seen in a game. On PS4 you have to turn left and right sticks in sync but it wouldn't turn for me on my first attempts nor do any of the on-line videos look the same - they look simpler even though the lock I'm trying is shown as 'easy'. Plus the lockpicks are relatively expensive near the start and gamesave slow and tedious and costly. Gave up in disgust last night. Try again this morning. Maybe I'll figure it out.
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Searched Help and net but can't find out: what are the red splodges on screen? And how get rid? Really annoying in dark areas because they are fixed brightness. Am I injured? Can't see any indication of that.
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Found the solution!
Set Groups to 'none' in one folder then: Menu View - Options - View tab - Apply to [all] folders [of this type] That got rid of groups for folders in general. I'll probably have to repeat it if I come across say a folder full of music files or photos, etc but there are not so many types and anyway, they might not have been affected in the first place. Thanks for all suggestions anyway.-
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That's the column selector and sort by properties. If you right click in Explorer on that menu may be 'Group by' but it doesn't always show. On it you can select 'None' but that only affects a single folder.
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File Explorer groups files and folders by default, that is, it sorts them into groups. You can group files by their properties; the default group is 'unspecified' but I don't need or want groups so they are an irritating distraction. How can the feature be turned off?
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Had to buy a new pc so resigned to Win10.
GROUPING - anyone found a way to totally disable/remove this feature from file explorer? I know how to turn it off for each individual folder but I've got a hell of a lot of folders. I mean, this morning I turned it off for each drive in the nav pane. When I opened explorer 5 minutes later, 3 of them were okay but 1 still shows grouping. And now the option was removed from the drives. Why? So I find a tiny space in the right panel where the folders are list but not actually selecting one and disable grouping. But grouping is still there in every folder! Internet search just tells you to turn it off how I already know. Am I missing something? -
I missed this thread till now - though I was aware it was about 20 years, and still remember the tv game program where I first saw it and was blown away by the gameplay: sneaking, extinguishing wall torches, and so on. Even more amazed when I bought and played it a few days later.
Thief is an 'open world' game where you are free to play it how you like, wander around, sandbox before sandboxing was thought of. That term 'open world' is not often used with Thief but that's what it is - and one of the earliest. ('The' earliest?) Shenmue on the Dreamcast is credited with being the first 'open world' game I think, but that didn't appear until the early 21st century. Now I'm bloody playing Red Dead Redemption 2 on the PS4 and wondering 'why the fug am I doing this?' It's the exact opposite of Thiefy games. Like being a movie actor where there is no rehearsal and the dumb director gives you a vague script and one line orders then you die and he calls cut and your are ordered to replay again and again until you accidentally perform exactly how they want you to perform. (Fortunately there is an option to skip the scene after dying 3 times. God bless you for that Rockstar.) You don't play these modern cinematic games such as 'Last Of Us' - they play you!
Thief is free play, free thinking, solving the challenges using your own initiative and strategies. I'm not sure the world is ready for it even yet!
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It is well known that Big Brother is not only tracking us, but manipulating us. This practice is becoming ever more refined. I used to joke there must be a university course in hypocrisy for the marketing industry because they are so skilled at it. I was right:
Smart software will spot your weaknesses, play on them, trick you, so brace yourself against what you read. Stay alert! Think for yourself!
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I always follow the general rule that if there's any kind of problem then blame M$oft and you'll be right 9 times out of 10.
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Good article. Nice and clear. Thanks for this.
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I completed the palace level and escaped back to the boat but the girl in the boat doesn't accept me but simply speaks generically, and there's no objective marker over her. Looking back I see the marker is to the palace so looks like although I escaped the palace it didn't tick off the objective. I've left it alone for a few days in disgust but now I'm looking to go back into the palace and come out again a different route see if that fixes it. If anyone knows about this bug and a fix then let me know.
[EDIT: Ignore the above. The objective says: escape palace and rendevous with meagan foster in the boat which I did. But when I reload an earlier save I now notice there's a smaller box at the side adding 'at the king's dock'. So she moves to a different dock. (but only if you go there, if you go to the old dock then she's still there!)]
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Updating is more risky than not updating. If it works, don't fix it.
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I'm a touch typist. Most people aren't though. Operators are fractionally faster for a touch typist so long as you know what they are. They vary depending on the input so unless you are using the same input predominantly then there may be that moments hesitation. And what to enter for time date image website and many many more?
Nor are operators or simple input excluded from an advanced page. You can enter simple input or you can enter a common operator like OR (some inputs don't accept that) AND you can hit the site field to type in a specific website. An advanced search page is the best of all worlds because it COMBINES advanced, simple, and operators. I often type quotes in the simple box or I just type in the exact phrase box. 'Advanced' INCLUDES 'Simple'.
The only advantage of a 'Simple' page is for people who might be confused by too many options. That's fair enough. So have two pages: simple and advanced like Google has done for over 20 years. They have over 80% of the market because they're smart (and unfortunately ruthless.) Having an advanced page is a no-brainer. Which is why Bing don't have one.
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Thanks for this, Destined. I've added searx to my speed dial and will give them a tryout. First thoughts is searx.me has a rather limited advanced search compared to startpage. Anyone know of any other instance with a better advanced page?
That's also the problem with duckduck for me. Why would anyone prefer typing dos-like operators and arguments when they can use gui selector boxes? It's a mystery to me. Same with Bing where you'd expect M$oft to have a sensible gui. Yahoo is unusable for me now. I used to get errors there but now I can't even get in without being forced to accept their mass-surveillance. [EDIT yes, Google do it without even asking but I don't actively agree whereas yahoo actually force you to AGREE! I never click those. same with webistes forcing you to agree to cookies. I mean, many sites do cookies and my browser deletes them on exit but it's being forced to click that 'I agree' box that I resent with no option to 'No, I don't agree'.] Anyway, I've just deleted Yahoo from my speed dial to squeeze in searx.
Another suspicion I have with these meta engines is that Google (and others) detect them and return inferior limited results. I'm not certain of this though. Keep meaning to do some proper tests...
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Yes, the signs are there. I'm a great believer in social evolution being unstoppable (asteroids and nuclear wars aside.) Tiny, tiny steps though. Even sharing ideas like this thread can help. Some genius might read this or some of the billions of posts around the net over the next century, and think, 'hey! that gives me an idea!'
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I agree with most of what you say, Abusimplea, except possibly 'every non-competitive system non-sustainable.' Sportsmen and women, etc. apart, people are not (directly) eager to compete, in fact, the ultimate goal would be to dominate or destroy the competition and gain a monopoly if allowed. No, people are greedy for wealth itself which is why I wondered if there might be a workable model without competing. A method where individuals can strive for a reasonable return on their efforts in a way more efficient for society as a whole. Competing is inefficient. It works by trial and error. Just like the law of the jungle it gets results and produces stability, but there's a lot of waste and suffering involved in the process: predation, disease, famine, drought, customer misery and frustration.
Two ideas I've explored in my head but I don't promote or defend them because I've no idea if they'd work. I simply consider them and wonder if there is any merit way in the future.
For instance, just because nationalising industries hasn't worked too well so far doesn't mean it never can. One thought experiment I had was the following:
A multi-millionaire invests in a business, employs experts to manage it subject only to a few rules and guidelines he sets up. The experts and workers strive to do well so they get bonuses and pay increases (and get to keep their jobs.) The billionaire does very little to interfere because he's getting a good return.
Two other millionaires do likewise, competing in the same market. But 'competing' really means trying to be as efficient as possible which the experts are paid to do anyway, plus wasting resources on excessive, intrusive advertising and other competitive strategies. Each would like to buy out the other two if possible and have more efficiency, less waste on competing, and more profit all round. The only competing would be for a greater share of customer wealth from other markets.
Complex legislation keeps all three within certain constraints.
The state buys out all three companies and keeps exactly the same rules but without the competitive strategies thus saving money. The experts and workers are paid exactly the same bonuses and pay increases as before. Eventually the companies are merged into one nationalised industry for more efficiency, less waste on competing, and more profit all round. The only competing might be for a greater share of customer wealth from other markets but is that necessary? Why tempt the public into choosing between a new car or a luxury holiday - let them decide for themself. Especially if the state owns both industries.
The complex legislation from when they were private is replaced by simpler direct control subject to parliamentary debate.
Why can't the above work. And if there are reasons, are they insurmountable forever?
The other idea I had I've already mentioned: private companies controlled by a quality incentive tax (QIT.) They all continue to strive for wealth but in a different game. The goalposts have been moved. To increase profits they must improve products and services thereby reducing their taxes.
@Sotha, my view is that the purpose of humanity is not to consume; the purpose of humanity is to be happy. Consumption is just one means to that end. Happiness trumps everything: love, justice, truth, wealth - none of them have any point unless they produce happiness. What is the point of happiness? (By 'happiness' I mean every form of contentment, satisfaction, an agreeable state of mind for everyone.) Strangely, it seems to me that happiness is an end in itself. The only one I know of actually.
@Judith, yeah, I agree, and efficiency of production will massively increase right off the graph with the coming smart devices and less human labour. Even most executives will not be needed as business owners consult with smart software and robots implement their choices. Wealth would be even more concentrated within the elite. It's simply not sustainable.-
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Universal Basic Income
in Off-Topic
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I think UBI is only very likely. What is absolutely certain is increasing inefficiency in production with less and less employees. No way to stop that. Left without new controls, commerce will profit more and more until it reaches a tipping point where the mass unemployed public don't have any money to buy their goods.
UBI would reverse that. Funding for UBI would have to be by spreading that wealth through changes in taxation. The laziest people who settle back with UBI and never work again we already have with us anyway - it's not too difficult to remain on so-called job seeker's allowance indefinitely. Meanwhile, those who wish to work will have more incentive because they won't lose the UBI. Many will work without any additional pay to UBI.
What sort of work will there be if most manufacturing and service industries are run primarily by smart devices? All sorts of creative work, much of which will profit society. Wikipedia is an example of people working without pay. So is Dark Mod. Society has benefited from Dark Mod providing free games. Society is richer for it, better for it. All those who have worked on Dark Mod deserve to be paid by UBI at least. Same with fiction and fan fiction which I write. I've had thousands of readers reading my free fiction and raving about it. I do it because I love it just as I loved working on Dark Mod.Some people love to invent stuff even if they can't make any money from it. They'd give their ideas to automatic manufacturing plants to produce and sell.
What a great world it would be if everybody just worked on what they love to do anyway and live on UBI paid for by an entirely robotic industry. But I suspect UBI might be just a step towards no currency whatsoever.Who'd need it when production is so efficient the goods could be virtually given away once the fat cats no longer cream off the nation's wealth.