Our rules have been updated and given
their own forum. Go and look at them! They are nice, and there may be new ones that you didn't know about! Hooray for rules! Hooray for The System! Hooray for Conforming!
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follow these directions. If you don't, he'll break your legs! Hahaha! Seriously though.
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Oh, I heard a little about that, but didn't read too much because I'm an exec comp balla 4 lyfe. Wasn't it basically the IRS giving up because the rule was too hard to make work?
"There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing." -- Andrew Jackson
what I was impressed with is what a huge improvement is these windows store apps are for the end user. I know most people just complain (sometimes rightly, usually based on hearsay) about the new UI and the start screen. But under the hood in order for an app to be store certified it has to comply with a whole bunch of stuff which means
1) the app can install and uninstall cleanly with no odds and ends (registry keys, dlls etc...) leftover. You are guaranteed that removing the app will not harm your machine or impact any other installed app in any way.
2) It is guaranteed that no running app can corrupt the state (heap memory etc...) or any other running app. One of the biggest causes of crashes on windows (and why it sometimes seems that a computer gets less reliable / crappier over time until you reformat) is a poorly written piece of code (especially a service or kernel mode driver) that accidentally corrupts the memory of other running programs. So the thing that crashed may not be the thing which caused the crash.
3) apps cannot make use of any system resources (eg: access the internet, use the camera, access your documents or pictures, access the registry etc...) without you being informed that they need to and having the chance to opt out. Also you can, at any time, check to see what permissions the app requested when you installed in case you forget.
4) apps can only use a miniscule about of CPU and network bandwidth when running in the background without asking for your permission (and even then they can't use much). And an app can't pester you about it! After it's asked and been refused once windows will refuse to show the dialog to ask again. This means you can't install an app that will do stuff like constantly poll the internet in the background and eat up battery / bandwidth.
These are the real reasons why programmers have been bitching about windows 8 (especially Valve). Basically, over the last few years Microsoft has gotten sick of being blamed for all the shitty code other people write for windows and cracked down like woah with the win8 runtime API. Instead of giving programmers a lot of power and control in hopes that they use it responsibly they have cut out all the stuff people were using that gave a bad user experience. IE: rather than offering a half dozen different APIs for opening files there is 1 and it's the 1 that is the right way to do it (asynchronously, so it doesn't block the UI thread).
Programmers hate being told "no, you can't do that". Especially if that thing is something they were never really supposed to be doing but it saved them a lot of work or having to learn the right way to do something.
is there a Windows service that programs can ask to check for updates on their behalf now
Because life is unfair in more ways then one and we can suck you dry on the fear of the inevitable, whether or not it actually shows up in your lifetime or not.
Actual Play: Mage: the Awakening - At the Edge of All Things
Getting health insurance providers to actually pay for anything is a massive pain in the ass.
SPACE
MADNESS
Oh man
just you wait
when the indigo children come
henry higgins
just you wait
Fantastic.
there is a whole system for upgrades / versioning of windows store apps. It's very slick. And yeah, that thing you see in the start menu called the "Store" app will check for updates periodically (I think it's once a day? something like that). You can also call APIs to do so. Though you cannot force a user to upgrade. They can choose to keep the old version.
You can even have multiple versions installed on one machine if user A decides to upgrade but user B does not.
* just as a side note, people can still write win32 desktop apps same as always. Win8 is as committed to backwards compatibility as ever. These new APIs and restrictions are what you have to do in order to make a "metro" / windows store certified app.
-casually, a seiko pilotish
-less casually, a classic tissot
and my ultimate dream watch i'll never own but love dearly
submariner with complimentary nato band
oh man, the forest green is ultra snazzy too
yeah, I just jumped on a few minutes before the announcement. sadness.
Maybe tomorrow night.
Going to KC and not getting any barbecue is like going to New York and spending the whole day on Staten Island.
You cannot run any code on installation. You fill out a manifest file telling the OS what you need and it handles any registration / setup. That also means the OS knows exactly what to undo when uninstall happens.
Once your app is running, you cannot do stuff like write to the registry. You can save settings or files to a special sandboxed storage area set aside just for your app.
One neat thing it Microsoft offers, for free, cloud integration for settings and files. So you can save settings or files (up to a limit) for your app and it will automatically be uploaded to a cloud service which will sync that data between all devices where that user logs in and installs your app.
I haven't had this problem. But I make sure to pre-approve anything, which is easy because my doctor's office has an entire department dedicated to handling insurance stuff. If they don't approve it the first time my doctor just writes them an email saying "no, you are approving this" and it happens
I'll admit that this is not the standard arrangement at most practices, but it's great to see it in action. I've gone in on a treatment day before, had the insurance lady come out within 30 seconds of me showing up saying that we didn't have approval blah blah blah but sign this and we'll get it done, and by the time I have my blood drawn it's all taken care of
I have almost assuredly cost my insurer more than they will ever make off of me in premiums. Which is much better than my previous situation, where I had to go into tens of thousands of dollars of debt to not die.
I'm a living argument against for-profit healthcare systems.
when the indigo children come
My bed feels kind of slanted tonight.
get ye some magazines and fix that.
that just tells me that only Minesweeperesque apps will be on the app store
most of the apps I have on my desktop require somewhat more detailed access
this is what's going to happen: it's going to be populated with a few major apps - gmail, skype, angry birds - then an unending flow of terrible $1.99 "apps" that allow you to play Minesweeper but with the mines replaced with pictures of cat or ladies, and then in few years Microsoft will lose interest because most of the big software companies pushing software that isn't free are still not on it
...
get ye some magazines and fix that.
when the indigo children come
I'm actually using some boxes of books now and blankets to do that.
Wake up 2 hours later
fffffffffffff
Only with a white face.
are you saying I should jerk off
is that what you are saying
do you want me to jerk off on your command
is that what you wish
could be. Like I said, programmers hate being told to stop doing stupid shit they are used to getting away with. And these restrictions are purely based around the good of the end user rather than making things easier for coders.
But I have to be somewhere to start drinking at 3pm. That might be a challenge.
it's not good if I can't get apps that do what I want them to do on the Store!
Like, it's a problem for Google that so many of their most popular apps require Root
yes
when the indigo children come
It is pre-approved.
My school's insurance will cover it, but they are demanding that I submit it to my old insurance to see if it will cover it so my school doesn't have to.
Which will require me to fill out a bunch of paperwork, and then more paperwork in two weeks when I lose my old insurance. Whee.