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How about a very reliable device with an interface that even a child can understand, deployment process that consists of only one action, and no upkeep costs? Like, for example, a notebook... Not everything has to be computerized or software.

The hard problem only comes because manufacturers break GPL licenses and do not disclose source code. And the whole secure bootloader thing on top, trying as hard as they can to keep you in their ecosystem.

That's a lot of words to completely disregard the fact that autofocus M adapter exists for Z and E mounts, allowing you to keep the same lenses, but with AF on digital - see Techart. Nikon Z system cooperates best thanks to a thin sensor filter stack, not too far from Leica's.

On vacay I can carry a practical 24-120 zoom and a light M-mount 35mm for portraits or lower light situations, without the pretense.


I just do not understand the hostility where all there is is different approaches. A charitable take (there are plenty) for example would be that I (like many) have about twenty years of legacy gear investment that I need to consider and/or was unaware of the rather recently introduced (2018?) Nikon Z system. You clearly have "a system" that works for you and that is great! Can you even get autofocus on a 1930s Elmar with that setup? Because would just be bonkers to think of from a technical perceptive.

Personally, I prefer to shoot manual to keep the operation the same between film and digital and I am fast and competent enough with a rangefinder patch that I do not feel that autofocus gives me that much and I only shoot primes (28 and 50mm). The Nikon Z system looks really interesting though, so thanks for bringing it to my attention. It is great to see innovation in this space that is not just Fujifilm; I will make sure to try my hands on one next time I am in one of the big camera stores.


If you're at getting a browser extension level, you're not too far off from also getting an adblocker and not having to pay for premium.

> rooting should be allowed on a certified device

i don't think this is enough - rooting should be allowed on any device that you own, rather than the device owning you.


I do agree, but I understand that we live in an imperfect world with people needing some level of reassurance even if it's pointless...


It's even more annoying when you go to mainland China with your western Android phone. They determine internet connection by trying to connect to Google services. If you connect to a local WiFi, of course it won't go through the Great Firewall, and every single time will prompt you asking if you want to keep the internet-less connection.


Ever since I remember if you wanted root on Android, you had to go out your way by flashing SuperSU, then Magisk or KernelSU; most users don't ever use that. Even more so, with few recent solutions like KernelSU or some Magisk forks you have to go out of your way again to whitelist the app before it can even ask for root - mostly for avoiding detection, but that does act as an extra layer of security.

I'm not too worried about security for normal users if we kept it that way. I just want not to have any extra roadblocks for the powerusers from the banks, Authy or McDonald's.


Arguably, the people who typed long sentences into Google have won; the people who learned how to use it early on with specific keywords now get meaningless results.


Nah, both keywords and long sentences get meaningless results from Google these days (including their falsely authoritative Bard claims).

I view Bard as a lot like the yesman lacky that tries to pipe in to every question early, either cheating off other's work or even more frequently failing to accurately cheat off of other's work, largely in hopes that you'll be in too much of a hurry to mistake it's voice for that of another (eg, mistake the AI breakdown for a first hit result snippet) and faceplant as a result of their faulty intel.

Gemini gets me relatively decent answers .. only after 60 seconds of CoT. Bard answers in milliseconds and its lack of effort really shows through.


Just to nitpick: The AI results on google search are Magi (a much smaller model), not Gemini.

And definitely not Bard, because that no longer exists, to my annoyance. It was a much better name.


That was a pretty funny little maneuver from Google.

Google: Look at our new chatbot! It's called Bard, and it's going to blow ChatGPT out of the water!

Bard: Hallucinates JWST achievements when prompted for an ad.

Google: Doesn't fact check, posts the ad

Alphabet stock price: Drops 16% in a week

Google: Look at our new chatbot! It's called Gemini, and it's going to blow ChatGPT out of the water!


I would also put into question if you _really_ need to check for updates every 5 minutes. Once per startup is already enough, and if you're concerned about users who leave it on for days, it could easily be daily or even less often.


A 5 minute update check interval is usage-reporting in disguise. Way fewer people would turn off a setting labeled “check for updates” than one labeled “report usage statistics”.


Don’t give them ideas!!


Eh, this one is probably ignorance over malice. It's super common to see people who need to make an arbitrary interval choice go with 300 out of habit.


Do they say that they don't do any usage reporting?


from their FAQ on the buttom of the fronpage:

Screen Studio can collect basic usage data to help us improve the app, but you can opt out of it during the first launch. You can also opt out at any time in the app settings.


or they can send report usage statistics without you knowing or being able to disable it.


never attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence


No. Eradicate this line of thinking from your brain. If the outcome is the same then the intent doesn't matter.


In fact, assume the opposite unless you have a reason to assume otherwise (aka a close personal relationship). Giving strangers/businesses that you have no connection to the benefit of the doubt when they harm you is a good way to get taken advantage of.


Yes and one provides cover for the other.


Never contort your reasoning to attribute to incompetence what is much better explained by malice. Especially when politics or money is involved, malice should be the assumed default.


It's absolutely way too frequent.

Their users do not care about their screen recording studio anywhere near as much as the devs who wrote it do.

Once a month is probably plenty.

Personally, I disable auto-update on everything wherever possible, because the likelihood of annoying changes is much greater than welcome changes for almost all software I use, in my experience.


To be as user friendly as possible, always ask if user wants automatic background updates or not. If you can’t update without user noticing it, please implement manual updates as two mechanisms:

1) Emergency update for remote exploit fixes only

2) Regular updates

The emergency update can show a popup, but only once. It should explain the security risk. But allow user to decline, as you should never interrupt work in progress. After decline leave an always visible small warning banner in the app until approved.

The regular update should never popup, only show a very mild update reminder that is NOT always visible, instead behind a menu that is frequently used. Do not show notification badges, they frustrate people with inbox type 0 condition.

This is the most user friendly way of suggesting manual updates.

You have to understand, if user has 30 pieces of software, they have to update every day of the month. That is not a good overall user experience.


> You have to understand, if user has 30 pieces of software, they have to update every day of the month. That is not a good overall user experience.

That's not an user issue tho, it's a "packaging and distribution of updates" issue which coincidentally has been solved for other OS:es using a package manager.


Getting used to changes is not something a package manager can help with.


Or a developer problem when they keep updating their apps every few days for no apparent reason..


I'd also question if the updater needs to download the update before the user saying they want it. Why not check against a simple endpoint if a newer version is available and if so, prompt the user that an update could be downloaded and then download it. This would also allow the user to delay the update if they are on metered connections.


notepad++ works this way


In the previous year 2023 discussion, the founder says that the update interval was changed to 3 hours. lol. see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35873727

If the update interval had been 1 day+, they probably wouldn't have noticed after one month when they had a 5 minute update check interval.


First thing I thought as well. Every 5 minutes for a screen recording software is an absurd frequency. I doubt they release multiple new versions per day.


IIRC, Every 5 minutes used to be the standard interval between email checks, back in the days of dialup and desktop email clients.

How the times have changed ..


It's near-instant now not usually because of more incessant polling, but because it simply keeps the connection open (can last many hours without sending a single byte, depending also on the platform) and writes data onto it as needed (IMAP IDLE). This has gotten more efficient if anything


And because how expensive they were in Portugal, I never done it, it was always on manual.


Right!

The "send and receive" button is seared into my brain

I was in Spain at the time, and at first you had to connect to the Internet through a phone number in France.

Did you guys have something like that?


In the early days, it was a long distance call to either Lisbon or Porto, I only got a modem, when regional numbers were available to the district capitals.

However on BBS days was much worse, it was mostly long distace calls to someone around the country, and they usually only had a couple of connections available like five or so.

Ah another thing is that they adopted the same model as mobile phones, so at least we could pre-pay the calls, and went we run out of cash there was it, no surprise bills, even if frustated.


Check for updates every 5 minutes is a bug itself ;)

It is sort of fun (for $8,000) as it was “just” a screenshotter, but imagine this with bank app or any other heavily installed app.

All cloud providers should have alerts for excessive use of network by default. And they should ask developers if they really want to turn alerts off.

I remember Mapbox app that cost much more, just because provider did charge by months… and it was a great dispute who’s fault it was…


And if it is necessary, the proper way to do this is via DNS with a record with a TTL less than 5 minutes, not pinging some webserver.

This could have easily been avoided by prompting the user for an update, not silently downloading it in the background... over and over.


Depends on the application. I have my browser running for months at a time.


Yeah but that should be a variable anyways. Maybe even a variable provided by the server. But in this case it should be on demand. with the old version cached and only downloading the new one when there is a new version once a day.


Yeah but that should be a variable anyways. Maybe even a variable provided by the server.


The part about melding human and machine feels awfully pretentious.

Just use the tools that let you be productive. It's okay to separate the art from the artist. And if you really do care about the global well-being, then... force yourself to the switch (for the moral greater good, after all!) and don't complain about it on the internet?


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