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Metal Geir Skogul posted:Add to that, isn't there some government regulation (US, at least) that states all webpages must be readable by a blind/VA assist program, and that's why a lot of websites are ancient and still use iframes and such? Years ago when I did tech support I had a super-competent customer who was blind and used to using a screen reader to get around, so I'm confident that his report was accurate. We were trying to change a setting in Outlook Express (yeah, this was years ago) and he was able to pull the options screen, and the screen reader could read off all the tabs on that window EXCEPT the one we needed to access. It ended up with us unable to do anything and the guy had to wait for his wife to get home to access that tab and click a single option box.
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Apr 16, 2018 05:47
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1000 Brown M and Ms posted:I actually saw a job ad for a Fortran developer earlier this year. Similar thing, legacy equipment/software that needs looking after and no-one at the company knows how One of those legacy fields is science: Almost all climate models (used in IPCC reports) are Fortran based, sometimes with a lovely mixup of F77, F90 and newer versions, with some key components written in ANSI C of some other legacy format the Postdoc in charge was interested in at the time. Many of the operational meteorological models are also Fortran based, but that might be changing. I think the Fortran had a specific benefit for the scientific community: It is quite limited in ways to make the code unreadable (not impossible though) and limited in ways to truly screw up your memory allocation, etc.
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Apr 16, 2018 13:03
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SLOSifl posted:Careful, that is the only way to load the CNC machine’s base OS that enables the DOS-based floppy reader. They tried to replace it in 2003 but it literally has to be that tape deck. If anyone shuts it off we’re hosed without Ol’ Squeaky. We definitely have a big old break that's eternally red-tagged because the ancient computer that runs it is no longer functional. I've worked other places too that have a piece of machinery purchased in the 70's or 80's that is just there collecting dust because the built-in computer has failed and it's too cost prohibitive to do anything with it.
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Apr 16, 2018 13:34
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Letmebefrank posted:One of those legacy fields is science: Almost all climate models (used in IPCC reports) are Fortran based, sometimes with a lovely mixup of F77, F90 and newer versions, with some key components written in ANSI C of some other legacy format the Postdoc in charge was interested in at the time. Many of the operational meteorological models are also Fortran based, but that might be changing. Sure is, and I work in science so I should know. AFAIK my current company is actually pretty good about not having much of that stuff, at least where I am. However, about ten years ago, I had an internship with a research organisation and the scientist I worked for used Fortran and Pascal for most of his stuff. He even used a really weird 6-bit based file format for his data. It should really be a requirement to do some proper programming classes if you want to be a scientist/researcher. So many of us learned on the fly, often in obsolete languages and it makes things a lot harder than they should be.
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Apr 17, 2018 07:15
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:The thing that wrecked me was the fact that the original Demo for Kingpin Life of Crime was 109MB. We downloaded it on the Optical at work because even with ISDN, it would have taken forever. I downloaded a one-CD DivX rip of The Exorcist (right before it was unbanned in the UK, so early 1999) and it took an entire week on my 33.6kbps modem 
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Apr 17, 2018 15:14
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Quote-Unquote posted:I downloaded a one-CD DivX rip of The Exorcist (right before it was unbanned in the UK, so early 1999) and it took an entire week on my 33.6kbps modem Regular movies being banned outright is so weird to me.
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Apr 17, 2018 15:19
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Randaconda posted:Regular movies being banned outright is so weird to me. The Exorcist ran in cinemas and you could get it on VHS in the early 80s. The UK still had blasphemy laws on the books at that time, which a lot of people attribute to the ban, but what actually happened was in 1984 they introduced the Video Recordings Act, which meant anything being sold for home video now had to be given an age rating by the BBFC. The director of the BBFC at the time, James Ferman, was a notoriously conservative crybaby and refused to allow The Exorcist to have a certificate, because he thought it would result in children watching it. So nobody was allowed to buy or sell The Exorcist on home video any more. Copies that already existed (bearing in mind that home video was still crazy expensive at the time) got circulated as legendary 'film nasties', a title which was also attributed to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Evil Dead. Ferman was also the man responsible for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon and all associated material being rebranded as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in the UK. He also had a massive hate-boner for nunchucks, which meant that an awful lot of Bruce Lee movies - and the TMNT movies (which didn't get rebranded to 'Hero') - were massively edited to remove any scenes that featured nunchucks. He was considered extremely liberal by infamous lunatic Mary Whitehouse. Then, weirdly, when he finally retired in 1998 (and a bunch of movies were finally available) he became an advocate for relaxing legislation on hardcore porn. Quote-Unquote has a new favorite as of 15:59 on Apr 17, 2018 |
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Apr 17, 2018 15:46
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Quote-Unquote posted:He also had a massive hate-boner for nunchucks, which meant that an awful lot of Bruce Lee movies - and the TMNT movies (which didn't get rebranded to 'Hero') - were massively edited to remove any scenes that featured nunchucks. Which they insisted on calling "chainsticks" which annoys the poo poo out of me for some reason
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Apr 17, 2018 20:12
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Quote-Unquote posted:The Exorcist ran in cinemas and you could get it on VHS in the early 80s. The UK still had blasphemy laws on the books at that time, which a lot of people attribute to the ban, but what actually happened was in 1984 they introduced the Video Recordings Act, which meant anything being sold for home video now had to be given an age rating by the BBFC. The director of the BBFC at the time, James Ferman, was a notoriously conservative crybaby and refused to allow The Exorcist to have a certificate, because he thought it would result in children watching it. So nobody was allowed to buy or sell The Exorcist on home video any more. Copies that already existed (bearing in mind that home video was still crazy expensive at the time) got circulated as legendary 'film nasties', a title which was also attributed to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Evil Dead. How could anybody ban The Evil Dead? 
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Apr 18, 2018 02:54
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Randaconda posted:How could anybody ban The Evil Dead? Eh, probably just the original. Here check out this mechanical tech relic I found: Singer Model 127 hand-cranked "portable" sewing machine. Solid steel; weighs 40 pounds with its carrying case. Looking up its serial number online dates its manufacture to June of 1923. Corners of the wooden case could use a little touching up, but aside from that it's in near-pristine condition. Runs flawlessly. Thrift shop only wanted $5 for it; gently caress if I know why. Maybe they couldn't figure out how to get the case open and didn't know what was inside.    (yeah, I know, I already talked to him about the sandals with socks, he don't listen. nobody ever listens)
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Apr 18, 2018 03:56
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Sam Hall posted:Eh, probably just the original. Cool find. And I wear socks and sandals every day. Closed-toe shoes are an abomination.
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Apr 18, 2018 05:02
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CaptainSarcastic posted:Cool find. And I wear socks and sandals every day. Closed-toe shoes are an abomination. Linus spotted.
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Apr 18, 2018 09:18
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Randaconda posted:How could anybody ban The Evil Dead? The Evil Dead wasn't really 'banned' in the same way that the Exorcist was, but was only allowed to be shown in cinemas with a lot of gore cut out. iirc that same cut got released on VHS in the early 90s, but it wasn't until 2001 (Ferman retired in 1998) when the original uncut version was finally released. Dawn of the Dead had a pretty similar fate. Texas Chainsaw Massacre wasn't even allowed in cinemas, and didn't get a home video release until 1999. Maniac (the original) has never been released uncut here. A Clockwork Orange wasn't banned, contrary to popular belief, but voluntarily withdrawn by Kubrick after he and his family faced a number of death threats because (you guessed it!) The Daily Mail started scaremongering about copycat killings. Of course, there was never any actual link found between any murders and the movie. It was finally released to cinema and home video in 1999, after Kubrick died. Possibly the funniest one is when there was a police raid on a bunch of video stores to seize these banned 'video nasties' and they ended up confiscating copies The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas because the police believed it must be a hardcore porn video. In short, the UK is a land of contrasts but all those contrasts are varying shades of stupid.
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Apr 18, 2018 09:25
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Humphreys posted:Linus spotted.
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Apr 18, 2018 09:51
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Randaconda posted:How could anybody ban The Evil Dead?
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Apr 18, 2018 09:53
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I was just about to delete this old VM I used to play with Microsoft Office 4.x, and I started Word and just as I hit escape to close the "Tip of the Day" I noticed it said something about not running with scissors. So I went back in and hit "Next Tip" a bunch of times and eventually this appeared: It turns out they're all in the help file under "Fun and inspirational tips":  Think of all the bytes they're wasting on my precious 80MB hard drive with this funny business!  e: lol, I thought I should see what the easter egg is in Word 6, and found http://www.suppertime.co.uk/zine/rant/eggs.shtml which says: quote:Open Word 6 (or rather don't - this might mess up your copy and I don't want you blaming me). Press ctrl alt + or ctrl alt -. This changes the mouse pointer into a + or - sign. Ctrl-Alt-Minus is the shortcut to delete a menu item 
Buttcoin purse has a new favorite as of 12:20 on Apr 18, 2018 |
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Apr 18, 2018 12:16
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Buttcoin purse posted:shortcut I ... don’t understand  What sequence of decisions could possibly have led to this being a feature
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Apr 18, 2018 12:32
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The Kins posted:The original 1981 Evil Dead wasn't banned, but it did undergo several rounds of censorship. According to the BBFC, the original cinematic release was given an X rating with 49 seconds of footage removed, shortening several scenes of people getting hosed up. According to the audio commentary on the DVD, the only thing actually removed was Ash getting kicked when he was lying on the floor.
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Apr 18, 2018 12:40
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I think England still has a few leftovers of odd censoring. Namely with things like trailers. I recall the prequel films had issues with Obi getting headbutted and Clone Troopers holding guns to people's heads.
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Apr 18, 2018 14:08
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Films being out and out banned is still so weird to me. There's only one form of expression banned under all circumstances in the US, so it's really weird to hear about regular ol' horror movies being banned.
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Apr 18, 2018 14:23
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WebDog posted:I think England still has a few leftovers of odd censoring. Namely with things like trailers. I recall the prequel films had issues with Obi getting headbutted and Clone Troopers holding guns to people's heads. Possibly they were edited to make them a lower rating for the trailers? E: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/star-wars-clone-wars-2008 Movies was a PG (Parental Guidance), trailer was a U (Universal)
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Apr 18, 2018 14:33
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Just got linked to this poorly-written but  -inducing article:The Outline - Neopets Was Run By Scientologists  quote:Before selling the company to Viacom in 2005, Neopets’s then-CEO, investor, and Scientologist Doug Dohring utilized L. Ron Hubbard’s trademark business model, Org Board, while overseeing the company. According to the Church, the Org Board is an updated business “technology” used by society 80 trillion years ago and updated by Hubbard, and Neopets isn’t the only company that openly used or currently uses Org Board techniques; smaller businesses such as the fast food chain Mr. Jim’s Pizza, MGE, Inc., and Mission Renaissance have similarly employed the business model.
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Apr 18, 2018 16:41
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Data Graham posted:I ... don’t understand
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Apr 18, 2018 17:50
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mystes posted:I think before the switch to the ribbon you could modify the menus and toolbars however you wanted in the customize window? It was a while ago, though. Didn't know customizing Office menus went as far back as 4.x I do customize my Firefox menu options heavily, so I'm not opposed on principle.
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Apr 18, 2018 19:12
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Flipperwaldt posted:There was a version where it would auto-hide menu options you didn't use frequently (hidden behind an extra click on show all or whatever, not, like, gone), which was the worst. Could turn that off though. Oh gently caress, I remember that thing. It was so annoying because it honestly felt more like it was completely random. Not that the ribbon is much better, but at least it doesn't pull that poo poo anymore. Also it has search now so you can actually find the thing you wanted to do instead of having to click around the ribbon forever while pondering your mortality.
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Apr 18, 2018 20:40
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Flipperwaldt posted:There was a version where it would auto-hide menu options you didn't use frequently (hidden behind an extra click on show all or whatever, not, like, gone), which was the worst. Could turn that off though. Not only did it make it hard to remember where things were in the menus, it made it impossible to try to talk people through doing anything over the phone.
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Apr 18, 2018 21:09
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WebDog posted:I think England still has a few leftovers of odd censoring. Namely with things like trailers. I recall the prequel films had issues with Obi getting headbutted and Clone Troopers holding guns to people's heads. Headbutts seem (or at least seemed) to cause huge problems. The Matrix was edited to remove headbutts which makes a bit of the subway fight (the bit where Smith catches Neo's arms, pins them at his side and then Neo repeatedly headbutts him) look really weird.
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Apr 21, 2018 19:39
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Fil5000 posted:Headbutts seem (or at least seemed) to cause huge problems. The Matrix was edited to remove headbutts which makes a bit of the subway fight (the bit where Smith catches Neo's arms, pins them at his side and then Neo repeatedly headbutts him) look really weird. That's more residual English instinct to suppress Scottish culture.
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Apr 22, 2018 02:10
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mystes posted:Yeah the start menu also did that during this period. When did they stop including the "Make Word look and feel like WordPerfect" customisations? I remember at one time not only could you choose to use a WP layout/menus/keyboard shortcuts, you could choose different versions of WP to base it on. I'd almost forgotten there was a period before MS Word was so dominant.
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Apr 22, 2018 03:14
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I think after Word 6, when they saw that WordPerfect for Windows kinda bombed? e: Version jumping is a tech relic, hopefully. Word jumped from 2 to 6 because WP finally gave in and made a Windows version after 5.5 if I recall correctly, and Word 2.0 was the king on Windows before that. Microsoft were really scared of WP back then. F4rt5 has a new favorite as of 04:19 on Apr 22, 2018 |
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Apr 22, 2018 04:15
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Version jumping exists. DaVinci resolve skipped over version 13.
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Apr 22, 2018 05:11
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JazzmasterCurious posted:e: Version jumping is a tech relic, hopefully. Also Xbox to XBOX 360 to Xbox One
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Apr 22, 2018 05:15
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FilthyImp posted:How can you say this when the world has Windows the windows 9 not existing was due to some old rear end compatibilty reading the version as a string insted of doing the kernal call to get the 5/6.xx version.
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Apr 22, 2018 05:29
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FilthyImp posted:How can you say this when the world has Windows Battlefield 1942 to Battlefield 2142 is probably the biggest jump ive ever seen.
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Apr 22, 2018 05:40
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anno 1404 to anno 2070
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Apr 22, 2018 06:16
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Sim City -> Sim City 2000
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Apr 22, 2018 08:54
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The Big Word posted:Sim City -> Sim City 2000 well, it was 2000 times better though
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Apr 22, 2018 08:59
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Plinkey posted:well, it was 2000 times better though While I agree, that SNES SimCity soundtrack, though...
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Apr 22, 2018 10:32
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This is fairly new from Ars Techinica about old-ish games. Its a sort of focused post mortem of an individual bug or system that broke a game or made a game. The first episode is absolute gold as it isn't strictly a programming issue but was approached as one. The results aren't much different from the techbro "Algorithms will fix everything but no humans". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFNxJVTJleE
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Apr 22, 2018 11:30
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I'd kind of like to mess around with some 90s - early 00s Mac software. What's a good decision as far as a machine to run most of what's out there?
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Apr 22, 2018 14:46
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