Brave, Chrome and I suppose other chrome based browsers sure are getting goofy. During a google search for a driver, I clicked on an ftp link, and Brave asked me what app I wanted to open the link with. Wait - WHAT?! So, I told it Brave...and it made no difference. So I tried Chrome. Same deal.
OK, quick hunt said to:
Open Chrome and type “chrome://flags” in the address bar. Once in the flags area, type “enable-ftp” in the search bar stating “search flags”. When you see the “Enable support for FTP URLs” option tap where it says “Default”. Tap “Enable” option. Hit “Relaunch Now” option at the bottom of the page.
yada yada, problem solved.
But the problem didn't exist before. AND PS: the version of Edge that came with my 2015 build of Windows 10 - had no problem.
Yea, I tried fiddling with the login links again and it eventually did let me log back in.
Still, there are plenty of other random sites that are falling apart in anything than the absolute latest-and-crappiest browsers. Looks like I'll have to buy a new computer just to browse some crappy web pages.
I do have that one Windows 10-32 test box. Had to fire it up the other day because someone wanted to use "Microsoft Teams" to talk rather than just giving me a phone call. (Zoom still seems to support XP, but no, not MS Teams, of course.) Surprisingly Teams at least still had a 32-bit version. But bizarrely, the thing keeps prompting me to log in with a "Microsoft Account" every time I start the computer. WTF for? Didn't even need that to connect. I'll have to uninstall it when I am not using it, I guess.
I actually liked some of the advances in technology, so I think 2014 was when it all went to complete hell.
But I think we'll see less social media and endless websites and more plain old web sites in the near future, with more CSS for things like dark mode (which I like, I usually prefer dark . (For example: https://bestmotherfucking.website/)
@SomeGuy Yea, Microsoft Teams is a mess. (And they are already trying to buy more chatroom services, why can't people stick to IRC when it supports all the latest encryption methods?)
I think we'll see a big die off of the awful web design and Chromesites of the present soon, much like how the IE only sites and shitty Geocities garbage of last generation finally gave way in the late 2000s, allowing about all of four years of hope and optimism that died away with the current wave of mindless crap.
Proudly typed using a Model M on Firefox ESR on Debian 10 with MATE on a Intel i7-2600. :P
Sadly, there will always be "jquery is love, jquery is life" idiots. When they pull all sorts of fanciness, naturally a "web designer" who see it will want to try to mimick it. That will not go away. And combined with many "beginner" tutorials preaching the "importance" of jquery, you know where it's headed.
You can pull the parallax, which many are gaga over, with CSS. You can pull fast animations with CSS. But CSS code is so oh ugly and hard to read. Javascript is so easy and simple.
Bry89: But yeah, modern Internet sucks... yet people saw it as a major lifesaver during the age of Covid. When that's over, let's go back to 2006, shall we? :#
This, this, 100% this. I'm tired of sites that force you to disable Adblock, sites that hate private browsing, sites that use reCAPTCHA, sites that use Google Ads (especially their annoying pop-up ads), sites that block right-clicking among other annoyances. If I could have one wish come true, it would be to bring the internet back to the way it was in 2005-2010.
SomeGuy: But bizarrely, the thing keeps prompting me to log in with a "Microsoft Account" every time I start the computer. WTF for? Didn't even need that to connect.
That is the primary reason why I stopped using Windows 10. Ever since I updated to Version 1909, my computer started asking me monthly if I wanted to sign in with a Micro$oft account. I got so fed up with it that I reformatted and installed Windows 8.1 (with Classic Shell) on it instead. By 2023 I will teach myself to use Linux so that I won't have to put up with MS wanting me to use Windows 10 when 8.1 loses support.
Microsoft is REALLY trying to push those Microsoft Accounts up everyone butt. Of course, logging in to your own computer using an account from some internet web site IS JUST RETARDED.
But people are too stupid to care.
Unfortunately I'm currently faced with the need for dealing with the corporate world, which increasingly may require Windows 10 and Microsoft Office.
I don't even know what it takes to actually acquire Microsoft Office these days. I feel like an idiot for not knowing, but that also speaks volumes as to how messed up obtaining software is these days.
Nobody makes proper factory pressed DVDs any more. Looking around at Microcenter they have banners all over the place for Microsoft 365, Microsoft's subscription version. I would rather shoot myself than pay a monthly fee to use software.
Hidden away in a corner Microcenter has some kind of license/voucher card for both Microsoft Office 365 and proper Microsoft Office 2019. So at least it looks like someone can buy there license there, even using American cash if they want.
I've been told that Microsoft has downloadable installation media images that can be burned to a DVD or written to other media. But it looks like you still have to have a Microsoft account just to download them.
I think it is safe to assume it still requires online activation, which by itself is not too bad. But I wonder how badly the current MS-Office is screwed up. Does it even have all of the software in the media images, or does it continue to require phoning home to Microsoft for every little thing? I'm aware some components such as clipart were removed and turned in to an online service.
Adobe now has their CS available as "web apps", and I have had to use them once. (Ugh.) I'm STILL not sure how 365 works, at all.
At least the LibreOffice and other FOSS people still seem to have it (mostly) together. But Chromebooks have made it harder to find proper software applications.
I wouldn't mind seeing a "Web 3.0" with the old style of websites that are slightly more efficient, some of the useful HTML5/CSS3 features and encrypted with new TLS. But I don't expect that to happen anytime soon unless HTTP(and HTTPS, too) itself becomes olllllllllld.
Unfortunately I'm currently faced with the need for dealing with the corporate world, which increasingly may require Windows 10 and Microsoft Office.
SomeGuy: It seems to me that corporate should be supplying this stuff to you if they want you to use it, even if you just have to remote into a virtual desktop.
If I could have one wish come true, it would be to bring the internet back to the way it was in 2005-2010.
Makes me wonder how Tim Berners-Lee feels about today's internet... and yeah, about sites bitching about adblockers, that would've drove me off the internet a couple of years ago. Also, let's not forget about Article 13 for everyone in Europe...
Unfortunately, I'm talking about not just one company but a number of companies/organizations that I have to deal with using my own equipment. I've already gotten people confoozed because I don't do things the same dumb ways they do, I run in to lots of web sites that don't work in my non-mainstream browsers, and Libre Office doesn't always cut it. Then I'm left with that bad feeling in my stomach as if it is somehow MY fault for being different.
I can't tell you how much I've been yelled at because:
My cell phone is not on all the time. I don't respond to text messages milliseconds after they're sent. I don't have a webcam. I don't use Windows 10. I don't use Chrome, so it's my fault that some "features" don't work. I should use Chrome because everybody else does.
I still do stuff the "hard way" by logging into a website and doing what I need to do rather than download some "app." I still use Office 2010 because it's the last version I can tolerate.
Office 365: Yeah you can either download the entire thing onto your computer, do a "run off the web" or do the unthinkable and run it in a web browser. And when you fail to pay your monthly ransom, you get view-only "reduced functionality" mode. At least better than Adobe's model at least.
Ok, so a little more reading and I answered my own question, if I were to buy something like this: https://www.microcenter.com/product/613116/microsoft-office-home-and-business-2019 (Although it doesn't even look like Microcenter carries the Professional version. ) I would still have to sign up for a Microsoft account. I shouldn't have to jump through that kind of hoop, and you can't really un-jump through that hoop when you are done. And a little more searching (again, I should not have to search so hard for this) apparently signing up requires a phone number, but allegedly it can send some validation code by voice to a normal phone.
This shit is supposed to be easier than buying a CD-ROM, how exactly?
Because having everything tied to the internet is sooo much easier. Because you can easily download everything without those pesky coasters! Right from an account you shouldn't need!
And if you don't have broadband, too bad. You must get it because everybody else has it.
I still use Office 2010 because it's the last version I can tolerate.
Same here. If I felt forced to move away from it, I'd use LibreOffice. Even I wouldn't put up with the rigmarole just to use a "newer" product from Microsoft, let alone using their OS that after six years still has issues.
I too have been yelled at (well, not really yelled, but talked to) about not having my cell phone on me all the time. When I get home, it sits on a table somewhere. I have a home phone - call me there instead. I'm seriously considering dropping my personal cell phone soon. I have one through work, and the battery on my old smartphone isn't working that well anymore.
One thing I find interesting about the compatibility issue: I've seen so many people say "I have a Mac, so this software won't run on it". People don't bat an eye at that, but tell them you run an older OS that doesn't support it, or Linux, and they think you're stubborn for not using the most popular, "latest and greatest" thing on the market.
I scrapped my mobile phone soon after I retired and now only have a land line. I find it liberating to be able to go out and be undisturbed by a ringing phone.
@nick99nack > People don't bat an eye at that, but tell them you run an older OS that doesn't support it, or Linux, and they think you're stubborn for not using the most popular, "latest and greatest" thing on the market.
I agree. It's unfortunate this is how people regard the reasonable holdouts. And it is a similar issue that is occurring on the modern world, where if you don't have the latest, most popular thing on the market you're screwed.
What really pisses me off is that it feels that most are either those who want to get rid of everything useful, or those who want to give up all progress we have made in technology just because there are bad things. What worries me is that "Some things have gone wrong, let's go back in time" mindset seems to be the only popular alternative to the mainstream mindset. (I'm referring to a certain cult web browser, although the browser itself is fine, I guess.)
Also, for production usage, Windows XP is not a good idea in 2021. At all.
As for phones, I do have a Pixel, but I use it only for actual phone things, and sometimes reading websites when I'm not home.
There is a huge difference between tech enthusiasts like us using an older version of Windows for experimentation, running older games/application or such, and giving it to someones mother to do word processing and web browsing.
it feels that most are either those who want to get rid of everything useful, or those who want to give up all progress we have made in technology just because there are bad things. What worries me is that "Some things have gone wrong, let's go back in time" mindset seems to be the only popular alternative to the mainstream mindset.
Agreed. The correct solution is to FIX the current stuff to make it work again. But you have all of these marketing idiots that have driven once great products in to the ground. Using their advertising dollars they have trained the masses that they should put up with constant alerts, blue LEDs, advertisements raping their eyeballs, seizure inducing animations, products that lack useful functionality because the useful stuff is "old", things that break 5 minutes after buying, renting instead of buying, privacy invasion, artificial restrictions, and such.
Unfortunately people like us who need products that actually WORK and do something USEFUL without getting in our way, are a small minority. What CAN we do besides hold on to older stuff that still works?
I'd happily use the latest Windows 10 and Firefox (or Chrome) if any of that did what I needed, and the way I need it to work.
and giving it to someones mother to do word processing and web browsing.
A suitable OS for that purpose can be difficult to find these days, if the hardware is a little complicated (like having NVIDIA Optimus and a piss-poor UEFI firmware that doesn't allow disabling the discrete GPU - note that the laptop was bought a few years earlier under the premise that they would like Windows 10). Tried a few Linux distros and xorg always seemed to reject the GPUs, becoming less stable as time went on. GhostBSD? Didn't like the touchpad. So Windows 10 stays (7/8.x would be doable, but they don't want to get a licence for one of those. Vista as well, but with Haswell+ timing bugs).
I have noticed that Waterfox G3 (based on Firefox 78) performs far better on Vista than 7 for me, on an HP Z600 workstation emblazoned in 7 stickers/CoA (also has a Quadro FX 3800). On 7, there are often freezes in browsing and issues playing back video, which are not present in an OS that was never supposed to run the browser.
And yes, Apple/Windows 10 users get off a lot lighter than those using competing products. reCAPTCHAs for iOS/macOS users are considerably easier than for say, Vista users. I believe this is a "reward" for submitting to a locked-down platform, and possibly an admission of lesser technical ability among those users. Apparently using a Chromium browser and faking an iPhone user agent makes it easier to get through a reCAPTCHA.
Let's also not forget that Google recaptchca also tracks your web browsing behavior through cookies to determine how you browse and whether or not a robot may "step-in" at times.
My main concern isn't privacy (I care enough to use some addons, but not enough to make it my life, I have a actual job), it's really if a product usable for me.
But these days it seems to always be a "David vs. Goliath" story, even if it makes little sense. As someone who VASTLY prefers talking about details rather than "big XYZ", these last few years have left me fairly lonely on the digital domain. But that's another story enitrely.
I tried logging in to youtube with an old account I had from back before it was tied to google. I've logged in every few years and each time they give me shit about wanting to "recover"
I actually just tried this account again and it finally let me in, after all these years. The last number of times I tried it, it insisted that it had to "text" me. Because, you know, Google sells cell phones. That, of course, did not work. Recently I noticed Google added a "give me a call" button in addition to the "text me like a damn teenage girl" button. So I tried that and it called my "landline" telephone with a code. Works for me.
Just lamenting a few more things that have broken. It seems that the primary Winworld server SSL won't work in SeaMonkey 1.1.20pre any more. Although it will work in Retrozilla.
Also the server isn't liking my older versions of WinSCP now. I guess that means that EVERY encryption method built in to it is broken now.
Other things that have broken... the weather web site I normally use is only showing radar and cloud imagery that is many hours out of date. Not even a browser issue, it is just falling apart.
Cant' remember if I mentioned it already, but although most of eBeh is still working, bidding with NewMoon throws a big fat useless error message.
I am tired of Google. I am tired of Chrome et al nanny autocrat crontrol over my browsing. I am tired of Spectrum/Verizon's blocking of sites.
I will note - the last 3 days, trying to connect to some sites (with potential code I was interested in) was rejected by the browser(s). HTTPS is present, I'm thinking it's an SSL certificate issue.
And I dont have time or energy to research this sh^t.
Well, it is official. Today I pulled up my Gmail account and I got a warning message that they will be discontinuing the basic HTML version at the end of the year.
Assholes.
I had to log in to another browser just to dismiss the warning and then it let me back in for now.
Google owns Youtube. For the last week, on and off, I was banned from viewing videos because Im "using an adblocker" in my browser. I'm not. The browser I use for Youtube is Brave - which does block some scripts by their behavior as potential malware.
So I dug around and found a Browser named Thorium, which does block Youtube ads, and does does not raise their ire.
And it's faster than Brave, but still chromium based.
PS: Latest updates to Windows 10 has disabled Internet Explorer on this particular machine. Says it's oudated, use Edge.
It looks like Google may have stopped offering authentication via "landline" telephones. I was pleasantly surprised earlier this year when they let me recover an old account because I could finally get them to send me a code via my "landline" telephone.
But I was trying to log in to another Gmail account that I regularly use elsewhere, only needing my password - and again it insisted that it could only authenticate me if it "texted" me code. WTF.
It's just insane. The entire idea of webmail accounts was that you could access them ANYWHERE, at any time, no strings attached. Damn sure not the case any more.
So much as clear your cookies or change web browser, it might lock you out forever.
Comments
OK, quick hunt said to:
Open Chrome and type “chrome://flags” in the address bar.
Once in the flags area, type “enable-ftp” in the search bar stating “search flags”.
When you see the “Enable support for FTP URLs” option tap where it says “Default”.
Tap “Enable” option.
Hit “Relaunch Now” option at the bottom of the page.
yada yada, problem solved.
But the problem didn't exist before. AND PS: the version of Edge that came with my 2015 build of Windows 10 - had no problem.
pfft
Still, there are plenty of other random sites that are falling apart in anything than the absolute latest-and-crappiest browsers. Looks like I'll have to buy a new computer just to browse some crappy web pages.
I do have that one Windows 10-32 test box. Had to fire it up the other day because someone wanted to use "Microsoft Teams" to talk rather than just giving me a phone call. (Zoom still seems to support XP, but no, not MS Teams, of course.) Surprisingly Teams at least still had a 32-bit version. But bizarrely, the thing keeps prompting me to log in with a "Microsoft Account" every time I start the computer. WTF for? Didn't even need that to connect. I'll have to uninstall it when I am not using it, I guess.
I actually liked some of the advances in technology, so I think 2014 was when it all went to complete hell.
But I think we'll see less social media and endless websites and more plain old web sites in the near future, with more CSS for things like dark mode (which I like, I usually prefer dark . (For example: https://bestmotherfucking.website/)
@SomeGuy Yea, Microsoft Teams is a mess. (And they are already trying to buy more chatroom services, why can't people stick to IRC when it supports all the latest encryption methods?)
I think we'll see a big die off of the awful web design and Chromesites of the present soon, much like how the IE only sites and shitty Geocities garbage of last generation finally gave way in the late 2000s, allowing about all of four years of hope and optimism that died away with the current wave of mindless crap.
Proudly typed using a Model M on Firefox ESR on Debian 10 with MATE on a Intel i7-2600. :P
That will not go away. And combined with many "beginner" tutorials preaching the "importance" of jquery, you know where it's headed.
You can pull the parallax, which many are gaga over, with CSS. You can pull fast animations with CSS. But CSS code is so oh ugly and hard to read. Javascript is so easy and simple.
But yeah, modern Internet sucks... yet people saw it as a major lifesaver during the age of Covid. When that's over, let's go back to 2006, shall we? :#
This, this, 100% this. I'm tired of sites that force you to disable Adblock, sites that hate private browsing, sites that use reCAPTCHA, sites that use Google Ads (especially their annoying pop-up ads), sites that block right-clicking among other annoyances. If I could have one wish come true, it would be to bring the internet back to the way it was in 2005-2010.
But bizarrely, the thing keeps prompting me to log in with a "Microsoft Account" every time I start the computer. WTF for? Didn't even need that to connect.
That is the primary reason why I stopped using Windows 10. Ever since I updated to Version 1909, my computer started asking me monthly if I wanted to sign in with a Micro$oft account. I got so fed up with it that I reformatted and installed Windows 8.1 (with Classic Shell) on it instead. By 2023 I will teach myself to use Linux so that I won't have to put up with MS wanting me to use Windows 10 when 8.1 loses support.
But people are too stupid to care.
Unfortunately I'm currently faced with the need for dealing with the corporate world, which increasingly may require Windows 10 and Microsoft Office.
I don't even know what it takes to actually acquire Microsoft Office these days. I feel like an idiot for not knowing, but that also speaks volumes as to how messed up obtaining software is these days.
Nobody makes proper factory pressed DVDs any more. Looking around at Microcenter they have banners all over the place for Microsoft 365, Microsoft's subscription version. I would rather shoot myself than pay a monthly fee to use software.
Hidden away in a corner Microcenter has some kind of license/voucher card for both Microsoft Office 365 and proper Microsoft Office 2019. So at least it looks like someone can buy there license there, even using American cash if they want.
I've been told that Microsoft has downloadable installation media images that can be burned to a DVD or written to other media. But it looks like you still have to have a Microsoft account just to download them.
I think it is safe to assume it still requires online activation, which by itself is not too bad. But I wonder how badly the current MS-Office is screwed up. Does it even have all of the software in the media images, or does it continue to require phoning home to Microsoft for every little thing? I'm aware some components such as clipart were removed and turned in to an online service.
Ug, I should not have to worry about this crap.
At least the LibreOffice and other FOSS people still seem to have it (mostly) together. But Chromebooks have made it harder to find proper software applications.
I wouldn't mind seeing a "Web 3.0" with the old style of websites that are slightly more efficient, some of the useful HTML5/CSS3 features and encrypted with new TLS. But I don't expect that to happen anytime soon unless HTTP(and HTTPS, too) itself becomes olllllllllld.
SomeGuy: It seems to me that corporate should be supplying this stuff to you if they want you to use it, even if you just have to remote into a virtual desktop.
I can't tell you how much I've been yelled at because:
My cell phone is not on all the time.
I don't respond to text messages milliseconds after they're sent.
I don't have a webcam.
I don't use Windows 10.
I don't use Chrome, so it's my fault that some "features" don't work. I should use Chrome because everybody else does.
I still do stuff the "hard way" by logging into a website and doing what I need to do rather than download some "app."
I still use Office 2010 because it's the last version I can tolerate.
Office 365: Yeah you can either download the entire thing onto your computer, do a "run off the web" or do the unthinkable and run it in a web browser.
And when you fail to pay your monthly ransom, you get view-only "reduced functionality" mode. At least better than Adobe's model at least.
This shit is supposed to be easier than buying a CD-ROM, how exactly?
Because you can easily download everything without those pesky coasters! Right from an account you shouldn't need!
And if you don't have broadband, too bad. You must get it because everybody else has it.
One thing I find interesting about the compatibility issue: I've seen so many people say "I have a Mac, so this software won't run on it". People don't bat an eye at that, but tell them you run an older OS that doesn't support it, or Linux, and they think you're stubborn for not using the most popular, "latest and greatest" thing on the market.
Never happened to me... only that I've never had a phone in my life!
> People don't bat an eye at that, but tell them you run an older OS that doesn't support it, or Linux, and they think you're stubborn for not using the most popular, "latest and greatest" thing on the market.
I agree. It's unfortunate this is how people regard the reasonable holdouts.
And it is a similar issue that is occurring on the modern world, where if you don't have the latest, most popular thing on the market you're screwed.
cultweb browser, although the browser itself is fine, I guess.)Also, for production usage, Windows XP is not a good idea in 2021. At all.
As for phones, I do have a Pixel, but I use it only for actual phone things, and sometimes reading websites when I'm not home.
Agreed. The correct solution is to FIX the current stuff to make it work again. But you have all of these marketing idiots that have driven once great products in to the ground. Using their advertising dollars they have trained the masses that they should put up with constant alerts, blue LEDs, advertisements raping their eyeballs, seizure inducing animations, products that lack useful functionality because the useful stuff is "old", things that break 5 minutes after buying, renting instead of buying, privacy invasion, artificial restrictions, and such.
Unfortunately people like us who need products that actually WORK and do something USEFUL without getting in our way, are a small minority. What CAN we do besides hold on to older stuff that still works?
I'd happily use the latest Windows 10 and Firefox (or Chrome) if any of that did what I needed, and the way I need it to work.
A suitable OS for that purpose can be difficult to find these days, if the hardware is a little complicated (like having NVIDIA Optimus and a piss-poor UEFI firmware that doesn't allow disabling the discrete GPU - note that the laptop was bought a few years earlier under the premise that they would like Windows 10). Tried a few Linux distros and xorg always seemed to reject the GPUs, becoming less stable as time went on. GhostBSD? Didn't like the touchpad. So Windows 10 stays (7/8.x would be doable, but they don't want to get a licence for one of those. Vista as well, but with Haswell+ timing bugs).
I have noticed that Waterfox G3 (based on Firefox 78) performs far better on Vista than 7 for me, on an HP Z600 workstation emblazoned in 7 stickers/CoA (also has a Quadro FX 3800). On 7, there are often freezes in browsing and issues playing back video, which are not present in an OS that was never supposed to run the browser.
And yes, Apple/Windows 10 users get off a lot lighter than those using competing products. reCAPTCHAs for iOS/macOS users are considerably easier than for say, Vista users. I believe this is a "reward" for submitting to a locked-down platform, and possibly an admission of lesser technical ability among those users. Apparently using a Chromium browser and faking an iPhone user agent makes it easier to get through a reCAPTCHA.
But these days it seems to always be a "David vs. Goliath" story, even if it makes little sense. As someone who VASTLY prefers talking about details rather than "big XYZ", these last few years have left me fairly lonely on the digital domain. But that's another story enitrely.
I actually just tried this account again and it finally let me in, after all these years. The last number of times I tried it, it insisted that it had to "text" me. Because, you know, Google sells cell phones. That, of course, did not work. Recently I noticed Google added a "give me a call" button in addition to the "text me like a damn teenage girl" button. So I tried that and it called my "landline" telephone with a code. Works for me.
Also the server isn't liking my older versions of WinSCP now. I guess that means that EVERY encryption method built in to it is broken now.
Other things that have broken... the weather web site I normally use is only showing radar and cloud imagery that is many hours out of date. Not even a browser issue, it is just falling apart.
Cant' remember if I mentioned it already, but although most of eBeh is still working, bidding with NewMoon throws a big fat useless error message.
I will note - the last 3 days, trying to connect to some sites (with potential code I was interested in) was rejected by the browser(s). HTTPS is present, I'm thinking it's an SSL certificate issue.
And I dont have time or energy to research this sh^t.
Assholes.
I had to log in to another browser just to dismiss the warning and then it let me back in for now.
So I dug around and found a Browser named Thorium, which does block Youtube ads, and does does not raise their ire.
And it's faster than Brave, but still chromium based.
PS: Latest updates to Windows 10 has disabled Internet Explorer on this particular machine. Says it's oudated, use Edge.
But I was trying to log in to another Gmail account that I regularly use elsewhere, only needing my password - and again it insisted that it could only authenticate me if it "texted" me code. WTF.
It's just insane. The entire idea of webmail accounts was that you could access them ANYWHERE, at any time, no strings attached. Damn sure not the case any more.
So much as clear your cookies or change web browser, it might lock you out forever.