kengr

Specifically, computer utilities. I've been doing some long needed cleanup on my ridiculously large collection of images and the like.

This mostly consists of two things. First, checking to see if the source sites (various tuimblr accounts at the moment) are still up, and if there is any content I don't have.

The utility I used to use for that quit working some years back. and no updates or word from the author. Since I needed to do something about this, I finally got around for looking for a replacement. Found one. WF Download. Works even better than the old one did. There is the small issue that it uses a different (and arguably better) naming scheme for the downloaded files.

Which brings us to the *second* issue. Checking for duplicate files in the downloads. Now, way back in the 80s there was a program named Unique Filer. It had the concept of "base folder" and "compare folder". So it could compare all the files in the base (and its subfolders if you wished) against all the files in the compare (again, including subfolders if you wished).

Now it presented a list of the matching files. and you could wade thru them one by one. *or* you could tell it to nuke all the file in the compare folder that matched files in the base folder. Zip done.

It quit working with Windows 7. Maybe because it was very old or maybe because it was a 16 bit program (originally written for Windows 3) and I'm running the 64 bit version of Win 7. In any case no longer workee.

What I use now is Duplicate File Finder, It lets you compare files in a folder or folders and present a list of dupes. Each and every one of which has to be individually deleted...
[delete][enter][down][down] (repeat ad naseum)

*why* has the concept of "base" and "compare" folders been lost?

Trying to access my DW mail/comments gets a "Are you human" test that is in an infinite loop.

I get the same thing if I go to the DW homepage. So I can't even figure out how to *report* the problem!

I was busy making food when an ad popped up on youtube It was for some dental something or other.

I was mostly ignoring it when after listing various gum problems they said "bleeding *teeth*"

Say WHAT!!???

The Storage company I deal with has a website you can make payments thru. Or rather, it has one you *used* to be able to make them thru. It hasn't worked for several months at this point.

I made a payment over the phone last month. Did it by talking to the manager.

This month I got hit with a phone menu. A horrible one.

I had to enter my credit card number using the phone keypad. Yeah, 16 digits with no possibility of erasing if you mistype. You doi get prompted for confirmation that you entered it right. Except the audio keeps fading in and out, so I had to reenter it because I missed a prompt. Then you enter the card expiration date. Then the zip code pof the address the card is associated with. then the security code.

All this on a tiny keypad on the phone.

yerg...

Been reading a lot of Tales from Tech Support, as well as other videos about Reddit posts.

I've noticed a ubiquitous problem that I first noted in second or third grade. People can't read something out loud.

Oh, they can "read" it. But what they say is *not* what the text says. They change words. Usually to some other word that they *think* is the same thing, but isn't. Other times it's a *completely* different word that only shares a few characters.

Some people go as far as "hearing* things this way. That it's, they are told X, and "hear" Y.

An example from one of the tech support stories was the tech telling the guy he needed to clean out his mailbox and the guy hearing it as "wash the computer". "Clean" and "wash" do *not* mean the same thing!!

More commonly this sort of thing comes up when the tech asks the person what the error message on the computer is. What they tell you is paraphrased, usually *badly*.

Now, I don't expect end users to know all the "technical terms" (though they really should know the difference between a monitor and a computer for just one example). Details *matter* with many, MANY things in modern life.

But people *really* need to be able to read back the *exact* wording on an error message. And to read the *actual* instructions on the screen or on a page *without* rewording them.

Yet even back in grade school I noticed folks misreading stuff when asked to read a passage from a book aloud. And the teachers rarely said anything about it.

Yeah, being able to get across the gist of something in your own words usually (but not always!) indicates that you understood what you read.

But we *really* need to start teaching people that young that details matter. When asked to *read* something aloud, you need to read what's written. Not give your interpretation odf the text. If you are asked what it *means* that's a different situation.

The concept that *details matter* needs to be taught. As well as the concept that there are times when you should *not* paraphrase things. Especially when some asks you to read back something that they can't see but you can.

Maybe also spend more time on the concept that different words really do mean *different* things. They don't exist just to be fancy or something. Synonyms *do not* mean the same thing. They have *similar* weirds, but they aren't the same.

Crimson and burgundy are *not* the same color even if both can be called "red".

these skills would prevent *(so* many problems and misunderstandings...

The population of the Us is about 330 million. The number of Covid-19 death, is more than 330 thousand.

That means that more than one out of every thousand people in the Us has died from Covid-19.

Yet we still have folks trying to say it isn't serious or that sensible precautions are "government overreach"

In Union county, Oregon, they went from 22 Covid-19 cases last week to 224 this week. this in a rural, low population area.

It appears that the increase is mostly due to *one* church there. Even though the county was in phase 1, which means no large gatherings they had a service with several hundred people in attendance. There was a video of it up on their website (which has since vanished, but people saved copies)

Said video shows nothing remotely resembling social distancing. Doesn't show any masks either.

I'm sure they felt they were exercising their rights. Freedom of religion (which hasn't actually been restricted), freedom of assembly (which *has* been restricted and quite *legally* restricted)

What they actually did was exercise their right to be stupid. And exercise the *non*-right of endangering other people.

Oh yeah, about that freedom of religion bit. It'd only be a restriction on that if church gatherings were restricted aand other types weren't.

Since *all* gathering above a certain size are restricted there is *no* religious component to the restrictions.

the protests that it is infringing their freedom of religion are just another case of people thinking that their religion (almost always Christianity in the US) is somehow "special" and deserves to be exempt from the rules.

Sorry doesn't work that way.

And I trust the jump in cases demonstrates the idiocy of "god will protect us".

We've got free will. And that means god *has* to let us suffer the consequences of making bad choices.

How Panic-Buying Revealed the Problem With the Modern World

The false "efficiency" they talk about is due to misuse of statics. they are planning for "average" usage.

Trouble with that is that it means half the time they have enough to cover usage. and half the time they *don't*.

What they need to do is use z scores. Using those you can take the data and determine what levels will cover 50%, 80%, 90% etc.

For stores 80-90% ought to be ok. for medical and other ctritical services, 99% or higher would be better.

Incidentally, this is the kind out stuff that's done to come up with "10-year", "100-year" etc values for storms and floods.

Which brings up another factor. You have to *keep collecting* data and revise values as usage changes. That's why the estimates for storms and floods aren't doing so good these days.

https://www.newsweek.com/kansas-official-tells-black-woman-hes-member-master-race-dont-ever-forget-1216506?fbclid=IwAR24Iis7I1UErVf_6mkjassGpz0ygdf7MYpyTzxEmUdM_pU7FQeQnYh5FIs

I guess he's too young to remember that Washington and Lincoln *both* had federal holidays. When they started moving holidays to Mondays, it was felt that February was too short to have two in it. So they combined the two to make "Presidents Day".

Quote from a Washington Post article:

“In some instances, the analysts were given alternative phrases. Instead of “science-based” or ­“evidence-based,” the suggested phrase is “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes,” the person said. In other cases, no replacement words were immediately offered.”

The critical bit? "in consideration with community standards and wishes"

That's not science, that's admiring the emperor's new clothes.

Community standards are all too often *wrong*, and "wishes". Get real.

The whole *point* of agencies like the CDC is to find out *and publicize* instance hen "community standards" are wrong. As well as point out times when wishful thinking is doing harm.

Banning the terms on the list suggested a not good political (and anti-science) agenda. The "suggested rewording" *proves* that it's even worse.

Pity they can't issue a statement saying that "inn accordance with community standards and wishes we recommend that the Entire Trump administration be removed as a danger to the health of the United states and its citizens".