Tootfinder

Like all the rest of the nerds, I did a bit of tech support on family computers.
They're all popping up windows from scam virus scanners lying that subscriptions need to be renewed or machines are unprotected. People don't know how to remove these things. Luckily they also don't really know how to pay the subscription.
Their phones are updating on them. Changing where buttons used to be. Removing options. Forcing people to register to use they things they have been doing for years.
They don't know how to register.
Things pop up asking for passwords and they have no idea who is asking or which password to use.
I tell them that I don't really understand why they keep using Windows now it is so shitty and awful. They say they don't know how to use anything else. The fact they don't really know how to use windows either doesn't seem to register.
The tech corporations have given up completely on being user friendly. They are all deliberately user hostile and exploitative now.
Corporate tech is terrible. The industry is failing it's users, abusing them. People don't even know there is any other way. They are just giving up on achieving their tasks until someone can fix the pop-ups and subscription boxes and passwords and 2fa for them.
Tech sucks now. Sucks hard.
#tech #christmasTechSupport

He creates a 3D-printed Lamborghini in his garden for just $20,000 and turns down a substantial offer: "it's the best feeling in the world" https://www.italpassion.fr/en/lamborghini/

US court filings detail Anthropic's Project Panama, an effort to "destructively scan" up to 2M books with a hydraulic "cutting machine" led by an ex-Google exec (Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/01/2…

Inside one company’s secret plan to ‘destructively scan every book in the world’
Court filings reveal how AI companies raced to obtain more books to feed chatbots, including by buying, scanning and disposing of millions of titles.

US court filings detail Anthropic's Project Panama, an effort to "destructively scan" up to 2M books with a hydraulic "cutting machine" led by an ex-Google exec (Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/01/2…

Inside one company’s secret plan to ‘destructively scan every book in the world’
Court filings reveal how AI companies raced to obtain more books to feed chatbots, including by buying, scanning and disposing of millions of titles.

Trump’s pledge to raise the global baseline tariff rate from 10% to 15% is reverberating across markets, with investors now weighing whether a recent rally in overseas equities can hold.
In a post on TruthSocial, Trump said he would immediately increase the worldwide tariff rate to 15% following a Supreme Court decision related to trade authority. He also signaled that additional, “legally permissible” tariffs could be introduced in the coming months, reinforcing a more aggressive trade…

Kolanovic warns of reversal in overseas stocks after Trump signals tariff hike — Seeking Alpha
President Donald Trump’s pledge to raise the global baseline tariff rate from 10% to 15% is reverberating across markets, with investors now weighing whether a recent rally in overseas equities can hold.

In my opinion,
I think there are more happy linux users than windows users in the world.
Most if not all windows users just "tolerate it" but that's far from appreciating it. It's a burden that they learned how to handle.
And this is the biggest reasons for linux to be slowly and steadily growing in market share. The only obstacle is people resisting to change, which with age I've accepted as a respectable feeling.

The city’s chief, Brian O’Hara, confirmed the man had died following the incident, describing him as a white male and a resident of Minnesota.
The man was also a “lawful gun owner” with a permit to carry the weapon, O’Hara said, adding that the victim’s name was known to police but would yet be released.
ICE shooting latest: ‘American citizen’ shot and killed by federal agents in another Minneapolis shooting | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ice-shooting-minneapolis-latest-updates-b2907013.html

Nice to see a UK party leader demonstrate some actual compassion and care this Christmas. I'm so fed up with politicians pedaling hate and division trying to pander to terrible racism and xenophobia, trying to pick up the votes of the hateful.
This is what political leadership really is. Not following the right wing media hatred but countering it.
Zack Polanski's Christmas message is less than five minutes.
#green #christmas

“Ow” Isn’t Enough: Writers, We Can Do Better #CrimeFiction
https://www.bobmuellerwriter.com/ow-isnt-enough-writers-we-can-do-better/

“Ow” Isn’t Enough: Writers, We Can Do Better – Bob Mueller
Writers and filmmakers often miss the small but important details that make stories feel real. From painless gunshots to inaccurate Miranda warnings, these storytelling pet peeves pull viewers out of the moment and remind us how much realism really matters.

The mechanics sorted out filling the adblue tank.
The warnings have stopped beeping and the 10 l bottle that was in the back is gone, so presumably I can trust it's in the tank now.
Sounds like much of what I have paid for was for them doing what I did: Looking all around the car for an ad-blue tank hole and taking things apart trying to find it.
But none of that is the correct solution, which is to put it up on the ramp and clamber underneath to find the tank which has some sort of lowering mechanism, to then lower it and fill it and raise it again.
Not a job for me then. Next time it'll maybe be cheaper coz of them knowing what to do now and not spending half a day trying to figure it out.
Apparently there is a second emissions reduction mechanism which doesn't take a wattery bottle of urea, but instead needs a pouch of oily tar stuff.
This is more likely to empty and need replacing next, rather than the piss bottle.
And even for normal cars that haven't been screwed up for wheelchair access this is a mechanics job anyway. And the garage will have to order in the tar pouch especially.
Back in the 90s, my first car cost about 200 quid. Today I paid 200 quid to get someone to fill it up with purified piss for emissions reduction. Oh how things change. 😆