I am typing this comment on a Pixel 7. I have had it for nearly two years and I have never experienced these symptoms.

The only app I can think of that doesn’t load in under a second is Asphalt Legends - and that’s because the app takes a week to load on anything.

I am very satisfied with this device, and doubt I’ll be upgrading to Pixel 9. I have no reason to upgrade.

Rat Poker

Did you honestly think from my comment that I didn’t know who Yoko Ono was?

I was saying that whatever noises she makes, she isn’t a singer. Therefore she doesn’t qualify for a mention in the “worst band or singer” category.

Is there a band called Yoko Ono? I ask, because I’m fairly sure there isn’t a singer.

What would be the point? Reddit doesn’t make any content. They’re just a platform. If they go ahead and paywall subs, those subs are going to have a tiny potential subscriber base. Therefore, they will be less attractive to post to (smaller audience, fewer upvotes etc).

About the only place I can maybe see it working is AskHistorians. And you pay the Historians to answer the questions. Which would of course reduce the amount Reddit takes from the paywall. Doesn’t seem worth it, to me.

Even then, I think the Historians would rather reply in a new free sub with wider readership than take $20 for putting in three hours of work responding to something. They do it because they’re passionate. Not for money.

I was a mad Opera user about 25 years ago, it was the best browser by miles at the time. One feature it had was mouse gestures. Mouse gestures and uBlock origin are the only two extensions I can’t love without, but these lists never mention them so I feel like the only one who uses them.

It’s hard to explain how cool and quick it is to be able to control your browser with the mouse. Open/close tabs, navigate tabs, back/forward etc. It doesn’t sound useful, I’m usually a mad keyboard shortcut fiend. But with web browsing in particular, your hand is already on the mouse, scrolling.

The specific extension I use is Gesturefy, I encourage people to install it and give mouse gestures a go.

This works for us:
Step one: Keep your instance civil. No tolerance for horrible people (racists/bigots etc).
Step two: Maintain a vibrant local set of communities free from nastiness.
Step three: Let your users engage with the noise of the fediverse as much or as little as they desire.

We don’t bother with telling our users who or what they can access, and don’t immediately ban visitors based on their home instance. Will that scale to millions of users? Probably not. But that’s a problem for future Nath - maybe.

Elle McPherson, obviously.

It’s been over 20 years since I did phones, but I don’t imagine it has changed that much. The “techie” callers fall into two categories: Those who actually know what they’re doing and those who think they know what they’re doing. The latter group are the worst of all callers. I’d rather be on the phone to an 80-year-old who has trouble finding the start menu than with a caller who thinks they know more than they actually do.

If you honestly do know what you are talking about, the way to get this to tech support is to tell them what prompted you to call. An actual competent caller will open the call with something like:

“Hi, this is Cile. I’m calling from ______. My UserID/AccountNo etc is _______. I’m having a problem with ___________. The error message is [EXACT MESSAGE]. I have done a, b, c, but that resolved it.”

For your example where it’s an access matter, adapt the above accordingly. Something like “I need to do ________, but I lack the access to [steps you would take if you did have access]”.

Finally:
Unless you are experiencing something super weird, the tech support people have probably seen this problem before and know how to solve it. Follow their instructions even if it’s something you wouldn’t have done. Even if their way seems less efficient. There will be a reason why they’re doing it that way, and it won’t always be apparent to you.

Oh! I just remembered that I can control my neighbor’s fan! I got tired of the constant notification that I could see it/set it up. So, I connected to it and the notification finally went away. But yeah: I can see when it’s on/off and turn it on/off whenever I wish. I’ve never abused this power, they are old and will probably think their house is haunted or something. I just wanted the stupid notification to go away.

Hahaha great question. It’s funny how I thought it was a silly question when asked the other way. In a way, my response is the same for both phones: ‘The main thing stopping me is that I am not considering switching’.

That said, I carried both for years, so I can probably provide some insight. I switched from Windows Mobile to iOS in 2008. I had one phone until 2012. My “main” phone was iOS from 2008-2017. The biggest factor was (and still is somewhat) who had the best camera. Pixel 1 had a better camera, so I switched to Android as my main in 2017. These days, both have great cameras and it wouldn’t be a reason to switch.

My current job doesn’t need me to have two phones, but I still carry an iPad mini, so I remain in both ecosystems.

I prefer Android on my phone for lots of little reasons, but they all basically boil down to the same thing: Android lets me do what I want with my phone.

It’s difficult to explain if you haven’t been an Android user. If you don’t know what a launcher is, it’s the interface between you and your apps. I’ve never much liked Google’s launcher. I don’t like Google’s keyboard, so I use my own. I like to change the default number of rows/columns of my app icons. I like switching between two bottom-row docks. Then there’s stuff like default apps, and way better widgets, of course. Plus I can arrange my apps how I like.

Now - if you are on iOS and have never had this stuff, you won’t miss it. If you want your phone to “just work” and never think about personalizing it, you have no reason to even value the personalisation that Android offers. But, if you’ve gotten used to your personal phone layout, being forced into the Apple way is restrictive.

The types of people we are talking about don’t actually read books, anyway. This is what has always baffled me about these movements. It isn’t like they’re affected by the contents of a book.

The neat thing about anonymous discussion on the Internet is that it doesn’t matter. What you have to say is all that matters.

I don’t know anything about anyone and that’s great.

So I’ve just bought a PC. I haven’t had a new computer for 12 years. The newest game I’ve played is Subnautica (and Below Zero). I’ve basically missed everything from the last 15 years.

I own a few games that I haven’t been able to play until now (Fallout 4, Star Wars Squadrons, Witcher 3, few others). Thinking I probably have enough games in my backlog to play those and maybe look at new stuff next sale.

That’s going to be a tough one to call. Nokia Communicator had diary (calendar), web browsing and email features in the 90s. You could also tether off it, but it was dialup and most phones could do that.

That was pretty much the definition of a smart phone at the time.

It may depend on your culture, but Blackberry and Windows Mobile phones were both fairly common in business circles years before iPhones.

The iPhone was an incremental advancement, not a major invention out of nowhere. The first iPhone was actually pretty crap compared to some models on the market. It wasn’t until the 3G model that iPhones took off.

The whole start to Graceland by Paul Simon is pretty vivid:

The Mississippi Delta Was shining like a national guitar.
I am following the river down the highway through the cradle of the Civil War.
I’m going to Graceland, Graceland - Memphis, Tennessee
I’m going to Graceland

Poor boys and pilgrims with families and we are going to Graceland
My traveling companion is nine years old he is the child of my first marriage
But I’ve reason to believe we both will be received in Graceland

I have never been to Tennessee. But this intro really conjures up some vivid imagery of driving down a highway through some historic country, along a river in the company of a child - and being among many others going to the same place.

It’s pure poetry.

I think this one was surpassed by X-Wing Alliance.

I kiss my sons and will continue to do so for as long as they let me. I can’t think of any other male friends/family that I kiss.

I don’t think I’d have a problem with being kissed, but it simply isn’t done. Hugs, yes. Kisses, no. I don’t feel a need to kiss any of them, which is pretty hypocritical since I readily kiss most of my female friends/family.

Interesting question. I can’t say I particularly wish that kissing my male friends/family was more socially normalised. But I’d probably embrace the societal change if it came along.

The biggest problem I see with this is the scenario where calls are recorded. They’re recorded in case we hit a “he said, she said” scenario. If some issue were to be escalated as far as a courtroom, the value of the recording to the business is greatly diminished.

Even if the words the call agent gets are 100% verbatim, a lawyer can easily argue that a significant percentage of the message is in tone of voice. If that’s lost and the agent misses a nuance of the customer’s intent, they’ll have a solid case against the business.