THE MORNING RANT: Google and Outlook’s Search Functionality, Another Technology that Apparently Doesn’t Exist Any More

There’s a meme about technical capabilities that we once had, such as landing humans on the moon, that are unreproducible in modern times. It always ends with a somber, “That technology doesn’t exist any more.”

Fifteen years ago I never would have believed that the ability to search for work emails would be lost to progress, but that has happened. If you use Outlook at work, then you know what I’m talking about.

Let’s say I’m looking for an email between me and Acme Oil Company regarding a Power of Attorney. There was a time when I could click on the folder where I move emails involving Acme Oil, and then simply search that folder for “power of attorney.” I would then be presented all emails in that folder with the three-word sequence “power of attorney,” in sequential order, starting with most recent email.

For some inexplicable reason, Microsoft decided to ~~improve~~ enshittify Outlook such that the search feature has become almost completely useless. Now if I search for “power of attorney” in the Acme Oil file to find an email from last month, it will provide me a long list of emails, but probably not the one I’m looking for. It will also present me emails from other clients that are not even part of my search containing the words “power of attorney.” It will also provide me every email that ever contained the words “power,” “attorney,” and most importantly, the word “of.” Comically, it also prominently displays “Top Results,” which tend to be heirloom emails from a long time ago, and unrelated to my current search.

It’s not just Microsoft that has destroyed its search capabilities. Google has also sabotaged its product for some reason, perhaps political, or maybe to entice more clicks. Whatever the reason, Google now seems determined to not let you find what you are searching for, or at a minimum, they are now making it a quest.

Someone should invent a version of Outlook that can search for emails and find them.
— Habeas Corpus Linguistics (@HabCorpLinguist) July 10, 2026

Responses to this tweet are pretty funny. A few are below the fold, along with a further exposition on Google.

Never forget that the Artemis II crew that flew by the moon last April had to call Tech Support back on Earth, because both of their Outlook versions were inoperable.

Artemis II crew is thousands of miles away from Earth

And they’re asking ground crew for help because they have two versions of Microsoft Outlook open and neither is working

This scene is now canon �� https://t.co/oP0uLCnIWa pic.twitter.com/AiXNnIVTA7
— Shishir (@ShishirShelke1) April 2, 2026

There were stories when I was younger that American auto manufacturers intentionally degraded the quality of their vehicles in the 1970s. The alleged reason was the hope that planned obsolescence would increase the sales frequency of buyers. While this is likely an apocryphal story, the American automakers lost their dominant market share because they seemed indifferent to quality while others started focusing on quality.

Something similar is happening with Google. It came to dominate online search by having the far superior product. Back in the day it could find something I was looking for better than any other search engine. In fact, Google seemed to know intuitively what I was seeking even if my query was poorly worded. But now, Google has degraded its product so badly that it frequently refuses to produce the result of an easy search. As Jesse Singal notes below, you can give it direct quotes from a piece you are searching for, but Google will often still refuse to produce the article (which Grok quickly retrieves.)

Sabotaging your own product, as Google and Outlook have appeared to do, is an amazing business strategy to grow a business.

The degradation of basic Google Search is *really* alarming. I can't think of any web tool I've been using longer -- three decades at this point? You can paste in a unique string of text, in quotes, and it will sometimes still fail to find what you're looking for.
— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) July 24, 2026

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Sponge!

Posted by: rickb223 at July 31, 2026 11:00 AM (Zja42)

2 Corgis called.

Posted by: rickb223 at July 31, 2026 11:00 AM (Zja42)

3 There were stories when I was younger that American auto manufacturers intentionally degraded the quality of their vehicles in the 1970s. The alleged reason was the hope that planned obsolescence would increase the sales frequency of buyers. While this is likely an apocryphal story, the American automakers lost their dominant market share because they seemed indifferent to quality while others started focusing on quality.

*Dodge Aries K Car has entered the chat.

Posted by: rickb223 at July 31, 2026 11:02 AM (Zja42)

4 Quiet in here. Too quiet...

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at July 31, 2026 11:02 AM (kgE5c)

5 But AI... and datacenters will make this all.... better?

Posted by: Martini Farmer at July 31, 2026 11:03 AM (2Cry5)

6 Quiet in here. Too quiet...
Posted by: RedMindBlueState

Midsummer Friday. Vacations.

Posted by: rickb223 at July 31, 2026 11:03 AM (Zja42)

7 > *Dodge Aries K Car has entered the chat.
---------
Chevy Citation snickers.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at July 31, 2026 11:04 AM (2Cry5)

8 Pontiac Grand Am has entered the chat.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at July 31, 2026 11:04 AM (wOO3z)

9 I have a hotmail account. I noticed they now demand you enter your MS info to log in. Once I check every location that I have the hotmail account as the contact, I'm going to delete it. I wonder if I can delete the MS account as well and just use the "guest account" sign in on my computers?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 31, 2026 11:04 AM (1Ff7Z)

10 About a dozen years ago the commies realized that search results often aided in uncovering truth so they had to make them impossible. Note how Google quietly got rid of their "cached page" option in case you want proof of what was on a page yesterday or earlier or last week. An accurate record is really really bad for communism. The internet has become the Animal Farm wall.

Posted by: ... at July 31, 2026 11:04 AM (p/31p)

11 4 Quiet in here. Too quiet...
Posted by: RedMindBlueState at July 31, 2026 11:02 AM (kgE5c)

The AI is suppressing the comments.

Posted by: m at July 31, 2026 11:04 AM (odBC9)

12 Outlook and MS Office in general sucks ass. Glad I'm counting down the hours I have left to be subjected to shitty software.

Posted by: Heavy Meta at July 31, 2026 11:05 AM (GTqXr)

13 >>Google has also sabotaged its product for some reason, perhaps political, or maybe to entice more clicks. Whatever the reason, Google now seems determined to not let you find what you are searching for, or at a minimum, they are now making it a quest.

Done intentionally to increase ad revenue.
I sh#t you not. I'll find a link. . .

Posted by: Lizzy at July 31, 2026 11:05 AM (X8xt3)

14 I still love the restaurant named "Thai Food Near Me."

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at July 31, 2026 11:06 AM (2Ez/1)

15 One word.

India.

Enough said.

Posted by: DoctorMew at July 31, 2026 11:06 AM (fn5TX)

16 You need to set your computer up without an MS account. It means no ms store but it offers you a limited degree of protection.

Posted by: ... at July 31, 2026 11:06 AM (p/31p)

17 >Done intentionally to increase ad revenue.
I sh#t you not. I'll find a link. . .

Posted by: Lizzy at July 31, 2026 11:05 AM (X8xt3)

More lousy search results equals more ad impressions. More ad impressions equals higher revenue.

Posted by: Heavy Meta at July 31, 2026 11:06 AM (GTqXr)

18 There were stories when I was younger that American auto manufacturers intentionally degraded the quality of their vehicles in the 1970s. The alleged reason was the hope that planned obsolescence would increase the sales frequency of buyers. While this is likely an apocryphal story, the American automakers lost their dominant market share because they seemed indifferent to quality while others started focusing on quality.

My uncle worked as an engineer in the auto biz in the 70s. He said the reason American cars were ens***tified was because the monkeys making them were so sloppy and uninterested the companies has to lose all of the tolerances. His favorite story was the bumper. The holes through which it was mounted had to be made larger because otherwise the parts likely wouldn't fit. The UAW did this to themselves. I have no sympathy for them. None.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 31, 2026 11:07 AM (Riz8t)

19 The same guy who destroyed yahoo came in and took over google search.

Conincidence?

Posted by: DoctorMew at July 31, 2026 11:07 AM (fn5TX)

20 Is this about me?

Posted by: The Chevy Vega at July 31, 2026 11:07 AM (2Ez/1)

21 "How do I donate to Donald Trump"

"here are six sites where you can donate to Hillary Clinton"

Maybe it is political? Or do they just want us isolated and irritated?

Posted by: illiniwek at July 31, 2026 11:07 AM (vbXSk)

22 14 I still love the restaurant named "Thai Food Near Me."
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at July 31, 2026 11:06 AM (2Ez/1)

; )

Posted by: m at July 31, 2026 11:07 AM (odBC9)

23 Willowed:
---
This whole thing of rallying around Fraudci just goes to show you two things.

1. The Narrative energized them.
2. They have a fidelity to the narrative that they cannot give up.

And they just play into another narrative that has shown not to be so much the case: that if you call out a person "crazies on the right" will kill him, so in calling out a person you are effectively "risking his/her life!" and you are "showing that you don't care whether he/she lives or dies".

Because "crazies on the right" regularly kill subjects of censure.

Their narratives will not go gently into that good night. Rage! Rage against the dying of the LIE!
---

It is a reasonable fact that Fraudci belongs in orange. It's not the government (i.e., tax payers) who disserve to pay out each time damages are found to be based.

Posted by: Axeman at July 31, 2026 11:07 AM (Fi81e)

24 It will also provide me every email that ever contained the words “power,” attorney,” and most importantly, the word “of.”

------------

Yeah, the enshittifying of searching various systems drives me crazy. You used to be able to put quote marks around a phrase and get all results that matched that phrase exactly (a la SQL).

I used to be able to find virtually any comment I made here at AoSHQ using Google search operators to filter out unwanted results and only include specific terms or phrases.

I noticed that all went to shit and no longer works beginning around 2020, the worst year of our lives ...

Posted by: ShainS at July 31, 2026 11:07 AM (YDC8i)

25 The search function of outlook and Google has gotten so shitty, that even using quotes won't work.

That used to be the killer app feature, that and wildcard* to get all results from a partial.

They have been improved to ignore the quote marks and still give you every email with "of" in it.

* I'll bet that doesn't work at all anymore

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at July 31, 2026 11:08 AM (3cUTc)

26 I started using hey.com. I have an email address with them but I also use it to deal with my gmail account. Any emails from someone new show up on a list for you to decide if you want it or not. If you do, you can filter to Imbox (important), Paper Trail (for receipts and such), or the Feed, which puts newsletters and mailing groups into a blog like format. There are a couple of other options for things that need a reminder. It's easy to see even the stuff you go rid of. Made by the company that does Basecamp.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 31, 2026 11:08 AM (bkuEU)

27 > >Done intentionally to increase ad revenue.
I sh#t you not. I'll find a link. . .

Posted by: Lizzy
---------
👍

Posted by: Martini Farmer at July 31, 2026 11:08 AM (2Cry5)

28 17 >Done intentionally to increase ad revenue.
I sh#t you not. I'll find a link. . .

Posted by: Lizzy at July 31, 2026 11:05 AM (X8xt3)

More lousy search results equals more ad impressions. More ad impressions equals higher revenue.
Posted by: Heavy Meta at July 31, 2026 11:06 AM (GTqXr)

huh

Posted by: m at July 31, 2026 11:08 AM (odBC9)

29 >>There were stories when I was younger that American auto manufacturers intentionally degraded the quality of their vehicles in the 1970s.

I worked for a Detroit based company when I first got out of school. When visiting HQ I would hear stories about disgruntled auto workers putting loose nuts and bolts in inaccessible places like inside door assemblies so people would hear rattling noises and not know where they came from.

Posted by: JackStraw at July 31, 2026 11:08 AM (viF8m)

30 Outlook and MS Office in general sucks ass. Glad I'm counting down the hours I have left to be subjected to shitty software.

My nephew just started as a dev with Microsoft. There was a time that would have been viewed as an unalloyed good. I'm not so sure now.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 31, 2026 11:08 AM (Riz8t)

31 And Microsoft search also blows. I can be in a directory and search for a key word and know it’s there and it returns…. Nothing.

I long for the days when you could properly do a keyword search. And a wildcard search. Their search tools went downhill the day they eliminated that.

Posted by: DoctorMew at July 31, 2026 11:09 AM (fn5TX)

32 People are like computer programs. They have bugs and glitches.

Posted by: Eromero at July 31, 2026 11:09 AM (LHPAg)

33 But now, Google has degraded its product so badly that it frequently refuses to produce the result of an easy search.

That's because you don't understand what Google's product is. It isn't and never has been search.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 31, 2026 11:09 AM (2ocoG)

34 I have a similar experience with Outlook (piss be upon it).

Posted by: Axeman at July 31, 2026 11:09 AM (Fi81e)

35 Google’s search engine inundates users with hidden ads and prioritizes major brands over quality sources — with less than half the results that it spits out meeting the needs of the intended query, according to a new report released Monday.

Finance website WalletHub found that the world’s most popular search engine — which has come under fire for one of its key features failing to show results for the attempted assassination of Donald Trump — displays top 10 results only from advertisers more than a third of the time.

Meanwhile, nearly 60% of the results are not transparent, according to the study portion of the report, which analyzed 48 of the most popular credit card and banking terms searched by consumers on Google with the intent of identifying the best financial products. . .

https://tinyurl.com/msu8fwcw

Posted by: Lizzy at July 31, 2026 11:09 AM (X8xt3)

36 Where is Netscape now that we REALLY need it … ?

Posted by: Dr_No at July 31, 2026 11:10 AM (ayRl+)

37 My uncle worked as an engineer in the auto biz in the 70s. He said the reason American cars were ens***tified was because the monkeys making them were so sloppy and uninterested the companies has to lose all of the tolerances. His favorite story was the bumper. The holes through which it was mounted had to be made larger because otherwise the parts likely wouldn't fit. The UAW did this to themselves. I have no sympathy for them. None.
Posted by: Archimedes

management shares some of the blame. They allowed all kinds of fuckery for decades and they signed the labor agreement. This is the same as the USW.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at July 31, 2026 11:10 AM (wOO3z)

38 Outlook enshitification the day 365 version forced on company. Probably 6 years, now things only get worse.

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at July 31, 2026 11:10 AM (VdHS1)

39 I worked for a Detroit based company when I first got out of school. When visiting HQ I would hear stories about disgruntled auto workers putting loose nuts and bolts in inaccessible places like inside door assemblies so people would hear rattling noises and not know where they came from.

Posted by: JackStraw at July 31, 2026 11:08 AM (viF8m)
---
Does not surprise me as a long-time-ago employee of EDS, I have accumulated a lot of GM stories.

Posted by: Axeman at July 31, 2026 11:11 AM (Fi81e)

40 Detroit literally crippled the V8 in order to meet Federal NOX emission standards. That's why we ended up with 11 mph to the gallon (with a tailwind) during epic monetary inflation and an Oil Embargo. They even went so far as to install a platinum catalyst in the exhaust, along with an Air pump, to efficiently burn all that wasted fuel spewing out the tailpipe.

One thing they did generally, valve spring pressure limits RPM, acting as a natural rev limiter. Weak valve springs meant fewer warranty returns from over-enthusiastic drivers, and 16 year olds.

Posted by: Common Tater at July 31, 2026 11:11 AM (uo3/3)

41 Did anyone confront Microsoft about the Artemis glitch? Did Microsoft ever respond to/explain/excuse it?

Posted by: Bulg at July 31, 2026 11:11 AM (77rzZ)

42 As Google ai about it….

guy in charge of google search destroyed yahoo….

Prabhakar Raghavan, the former head of Google Search and Ads, oversaw search at Yahoo during its major decline before joining Google. Critics also accuse him of degrading quality at Google Search by prioritizing ads and AI features.

Posted by: DoctorMew at July 31, 2026 11:11 AM (fn5TX)

43 The UAW did this to themselves. I have no sympathy for them. None.

Back in the 80s there were infinite stories about how the workers at the big Chrysler plant near Chicago were always some combination of drunk and high.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 31, 2026 11:12 AM (2ocoG)

44 If you want to search on a phrase, enclose it double-quotes.

Posted by: Halfhand at July 31, 2026 11:12 AM (l+j3V)

45 Did anyone confront Microsoft about the Artemis glitch? Did Microsoft ever respond to/explain/excuse it?

Posted by: Bulg at July 31, 2026 11:11 AM (77rzZ)
---
Perhaps it is in honor of Artemis, you are now doing a lot more hunting.

Posted by: Axeman at July 31, 2026 11:12 AM (Fi81e)

46 I still long for windows 95, the last system that actually worked properly.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 31, 2026 11:13 AM (0U5gm)

47 You need to set your computer up without an MS account. It means no ms store but it offers you a limited degree of protection.
Posted by: ...

That's what I did. I also use AOL mail, lol. :->

Posted by: Dark Lixtiquatal at July 31, 2026 11:13 AM (DZ9Lv)

48 https://tinyurl.com/yajz3skf

Google has found a new job for Prabhakar Raghavan, the executive largely responsible for running Google Search into the ground over the last four years — a period that's seen Google's search engine increasingly prioritize AI slop, shove more ads than ever at users, give Forbes and Reddit links priority placement, and basically make it harder than it's ever been to find what you're actually looking for.

Raghavan — who, before he came to Google, oversaw search at Yahoo during its decline from 2005 through 2012 — will now be Google's chief technologist, working closely with CEO Sundar Pichai. "Prabhakar has decided it's time to make a big leap in his own career," Pichai wrote in a memo to Googlers. "After 12 years leading teams across Google, he'll return to his computer science roots and take on the role of Chief Technologist, Google. In this role, he'll partner closely with me and Google leads to provide technical direction and leadership and grow our culture of tech excellence."

Posted by: DoctorMew at July 31, 2026 11:13 AM (fn5TX)

49 Did that movie scene actually say "Blue Oyster Cult"???

Posted by: Dark Lixtiquatal at July 31, 2026 11:13 AM (DZ9Lv)

50 https://udm14.org/

Google without the AI embedded in the results.

YMMV

Posted by: Martini Farmer at July 31, 2026 11:14 AM (2Cry5)

51
The most damaging evidence of Google’s decline comes not from external critics, but from Google’s own internal communications. Thanks to the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit, we now have access to emails that reveal the ugly truth behind Google’s transformation from search innovator to advertising predator.

In 2019, internal emails show top Google executives from Search, Chrome, and Ads “hatching plans for pumping up ad revenues,” with the Search team explicitly working with the Ads team to “accelerate a launch of a new mobile layout” that would be “very revenue positive.” The executives didn’t just discuss revenue targets—they talked about how missing those targets would impact “the huge impact on our sales team” and their own personal wealth from stock prices. . .

The people responsible for organizing the world’s information were sitting around discussing how to manipulate search results to pad their quarterly numbers and personal stock portfolios. They even discussed “how not meeting their revenue goals will impact their personal wealth.”

This directly contradicts years of public denials.
https://tinyurl.com/4a7mzrt9

Posted by: Lizzy at July 31, 2026 11:14 AM (X8xt3)

52 @ 26 I started using hey.com. I have an email address with them but I also use it to deal with my gmail account. Any emails from someone new show up on a list for you to decide if you want it or not. If you do, you can filter to Imbox (important), Paper Trail (for receipts and such), or the Feed, which puts newsletters and mailing groups into a blog like format. There are a couple of other options for things that need a reminder. It's easy to see even the stuff you go rid of. Made by the company that does Basecamp.
Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 31, 2026 11:08 AM (bkuEU)
____________________

Thanks for the heads-up on hey.com … I didn't know they were out there, so I'ma give 'em a check …

Posted by: Dr_No at July 31, 2026 11:14 AM (ayRl+)

53 Where is Netscape now that we REALLY need it … ?

It became Firefox, the first all-LGBTQ+ browser. They kind of lost interest in maintaining Thunderbird (the email client) which kind of benefitted it because the septum rings weren't touching it.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 31, 2026 11:14 AM (2ocoG)

54 "...11 mph to the gallon..."

Posted by: Wait, wut? at July 31, 2026 11:14 AM (2Ez/1)

55 >>Raghavan — who, before he came to Google, oversaw search at Yahoo during its decline from 2005 through 2012 — will now be Google's chief technologist, working closely with CEO Sundar Pichai.

So, a promotion?

Posted by: Lizzy at July 31, 2026 11:15 AM (X8xt3)

56 The people responsible for organizing the world’s information were sitting around discussing how to manipulate search results to pad their quarterly numbers and personal stock portfolios. They even discussed “how not meeting their revenue goals will impact their personal wealth.”

This directly contradicts years of public denials.
https://tinyurl.com/4a7mzrt9
Posted by: Lizzy

It's hard to keep up with the lies.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at July 31, 2026 11:15 AM (wOO3z)

57 Oh, man Thunderbird--quick, functional and light.
Such a good program.
It wasn't until years later that Outlook even includes the calendar.

Another one is Word.
I had to retype a whole sentence I copied because even it's "clear all" for formatting would not remove the hard line break.
Those of us who used WordPerfect painfully know how shitty Word is.

I've seen video of a guy launching Word in Windows 3.1--faster, quicker, all the functionality you need today-- and way smaller.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at July 31, 2026 11:15 AM (3cUTc)

58 >Prabhakar Raghavan, the former head of Google Search and Ads, oversaw search at Yahoo during its major decline before joining Google. Critics also accuse him of degrading quality at Google Search by prioritizing ads and AI features.

Posted by: DoctorMew at July 31, 2026 11:11 AM (fn5TX)

See me at 17. End users don't generate revenue for Google.

Posted by: Heavy Meta at July 31, 2026 11:15 AM (GTqXr)

59 There's a toggle in the upper-right corner of my Outlook that says "Try the New Outlook."

I tried it ONCE. Then immediately switched it back.

I notice companies do this a lot. They like to make changes that will "improve" the customer experience but end up causing nothing but confusion and frustration because now it doesn't work the same anymore.

IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT!

Idiots.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 31, 2026 11:16 AM (FZ29D)

60 Yes, if you drove a big ass boat or station wagon in the early 70s 11 mpg was what you used for planning

Posted by: Common Tater at July 31, 2026 11:16 AM (uo3/3)

61 Could the issue be with "New Outlook"? I don't seem to be having the search problems you mention. But I'm also resisting "New Outlook" with all my might.

Posted by: Lady Who Files Emails ... SO. Many. Emails at July 31, 2026 11:17 AM (JCLJi)

62 I have a hotmail account. I noticed they now demand you enter your MS info to log in. Once I check every location that I have the hotmail account as the contact, I'm going to delete it. I wonder if I can delete the MS account as well and just use the "guest account" sign in on my computers?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 31, 2026 11:04 AM (1Ff7Z)

Delete microsoft, too. Linux works well, and it is free.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 31, 2026 11:17 AM (1z8ji)

63 All this will be fixed in Minx 0.9 beta.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 31, 2026 11:17 AM (WkL+O)

64 I haven't used Google search in many years, so long I cannot honestly remember. Nowadays I mostly use Grok for search. Very happy with it.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at July 31, 2026 11:17 AM (1KK9q)

65 I started using hey.com.

I was just listening to Jason Senra's podcast interviewing DHH (David Heinemeier Hansson) who runs 37Signals (Basecamp, Hey.com, and the Omarchy Linux distribution). He's widely considered to be an intolerable fascist because he says Europe shouldn't be invaded (he's Danish).

Unsurprisingly all of this has definitely put him and his products on my radar.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 31, 2026 11:18 AM (2ocoG)

66 Google search went really evil when they started suppressing search results. 20 years ago.

It is nothing at all like it was intended. The results you want, just aren't there. Ever.

But they have 250 pages of a bunny with a pancake on its head.

Posted by: Common Tater at July 31, 2026 11:18 AM (uo3/3)

67 Every operating system and software package is now worse than the previous one. Not only are the 'upgrades' degraded, but they add in plenty of useless things that I don't want, and make them the default, like the black version of everything that cannot be read.

Since every vendor is moving to a subscription model anyway, I just stopped upgrading as possible.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 31, 2026 11:19 AM (0U5gm)

68 *Dodge Aries K Car has entered the chat.
Posted by: rickb223

Up yours, I saved the company!

Posted by: Lee Iacocca at July 31, 2026 11:19 AM (JM9I6)

69 Because I love Thai food, I just Googled "Thai restaurants near me," which produced various results.

I opened the link to Trip Advisor and noticed that the #1 rated Thai food restaurant in my locale doesn't even serve Thai food:

1. Kazoku Restaurant
4.1
4.1 of 5 bubbles
(57 reviews)
Chinese, Japanese
$$ - $$$

Posted by: one hour sober at July 31, 2026 11:19 AM (J4Dwc)

70 7 > *Dodge Aries K Car has entered the chat.
---------
Chevy Citation snickers.

Posted by: Martini Farmer
----

Relative to Japanese and German cars they were crap; Three years and it was time to buy a new one. I brutalized Honda's and they were like new. Chevy and Dodge pickups would fall apart when used, only, as daily drivers. Ford wasn't far behind.

There was an article comparing Chinese and Russian products.
Chinese products are smooth, sleek and attractive; they quickly break or fall apart. Russian products are coarse and ugly but they seem to go on forever.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 31, 2026 11:20 AM (AJWch)

71 68 *Dodge Aries K Car has entered the chat.
Posted by: rickb223

Up yours, I saved the company!
Posted by: Lee Iacocca at July 31, 2026 11:19 AM (JM9I6)

Well, I *bought* my company!

Posted by: Victor Kiam at July 31, 2026 11:20 AM (WkL+O)

72 When I use a search engine, I get the distinct impression that it is not trying to help me find what I'm looking for but instead is trying to control what I can find.

Posted by: Emmie at July 31, 2026 11:20 AM (OlzlW)

73 "Those of us who used WordPerfect painfully know how shitty Word is."

I was the ONLY lawyer I knew who used WP and it was, literally, perfect. My margins, line spacing, line height, word height, everything, columns, fields, super-duper easy. I refused to use Word and was so indispensable at my firm that I was given permission not to use Word. I eventually had to switch when I went indep-contractor and no longer had someone who could reformat my docs for other lawyers. However, around 2020 Word did get a little better so I switched and after deep diving into figuring it out (ugh) my stuff is generally passable by my standards. But, yeah, still, F Word.

Posted by: Dark Lixtiquatal at July 31, 2026 11:21 AM (DZ9Lv)

74 My primary technology bitch is automobiles. My wife wants me to buy her a new car, and get rid of her eight year old car with 150,000 miles on it, and I say in response the engine is in good shape (so no real need to trade) and cars these days are loaded with tech features I don't want, will never use, and will break the car down at the worst possible time.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at July 31, 2026 11:21 AM (1KK9q)

75 And then, after Outlook has 'found' all the emails containing the word "of" they will reload every email you received in the last week. Just in case. Hundreds of them.

Posted by: Random PJ at July 31, 2026 11:21 AM (+jscL)

76 The UAW seemed not to care about quality or to be actively undermining it.

Someone I worked with bought a new US-made car in the late 80s. It always had a rattle that bugged him. At some point, a window broke & the repairman found a tin can inside the door. The can had a note on it that said, "You finally found me".

Posted by: Dave at July 31, 2026 11:21 AM (sbsMc)

77 When I use a search engine, I get the distinct impression that it is not trying to help me find what I'm looking for but instead is trying to control what I can find.

Posted by: Emmie

Very perspicacious of you.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 31, 2026 11:22 AM (0U5gm)

78 I remember how great Alta Vista was, how you could tailor your search queries with logical parenthetical expressions and parameters like "near."

It was only reluctantly that I left it for the Just Be Evil search engine. … Oops.

Posted by: mindful webworker - It seemed like a good idea at the time at July 31, 2026 11:22 AM (/YSzp)

79 Google fired all their search experts 10-odd years ago and replaced them with advertising experts like the aforementioned Prabhakar Raghavan.

Search is not Google's product, advertising is. It has always been thus.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 31, 2026 11:22 AM (2ocoG)

80 Every operating system and software package is now worse than the previous one.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 31, 2026 11:19 AM (0U5gm)
---
Microsoft's main purpose for Windows is to collect telemetry on you. Let me restate: To watch everything you do on it.

It stands true that if you are not paying, you are not the customer, you are the product.

Posted by: Axeman at July 31, 2026 11:22 AM (Fi81e)

81 Prabhakar was born in India and spent his youth in Bhopal, Madras and Manchester. In 1981, he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, followed by a Master of Science in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1982. . .

Different culture, different values. Not a judgement, an observation.

No civic sense: https://tinyurl.com/4sfzv6ep

Posted by: Lizzy at July 31, 2026 11:22 AM (X8xt3)

82 The K car was not a bad vehicle, it worked, it was inexpensive as far as that goes, and it had the styling of a bar of Ivory soap. It at least did what it was advertised to do.

What the tech elites are now doing is to make sure that their products do not do what they advertised, and instead make sure you do what they want you to do.

By the way Qwant.com had become useless as well.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 31, 2026 11:22 AM (rbvCR)

83 You need to set your computer up without an MS account. It means no ms store but it offers you a limited degree of protection.
Posted by: ... at July 31, 2026 11:06 AM (p/31p)

I do when I buy a new computer, I just wonder if I can delete the ms account and still access stuff.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 31, 2026 11:23 AM (1Ff7Z)

84 I got interested in hey.com when I installed Omarchy. It really is a unique way to handle mail. There's a feature called Bubble Up, that will bring an email back to your inbox after a set time. So much of it just handles the email for you. The sales emails mostly wind up in The Feed, where I can just scroll past most of them. There is a 30 free trial I believe.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 31, 2026 11:23 AM (bkuEU)

85 >>When I use a search engine, I get the distinct impression that it is not trying to help me find what I'm looking for but instead is trying to control what I can find.

THIS x1000

Posted by: Lizzy at July 31, 2026 11:23 AM (X8xt3)

86
Delete microsoft, too. Linux works well, and it is free.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon
---

Amen, preach it.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 31, 2026 11:23 AM (AJWch)

87 Someone I worked with bought a new US-made car in the late 80s. It always had a rattle that bugged him. At some point, a window broke & the repairman found a tin can inside the door. The can had a note on it that said, "You finally found me".
Posted by: Dave at July 31, 2026 11:21 AM (sbsMc)

Dickheads.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at July 31, 2026 11:23 AM (wOO3z)

88 Google is also burying things for political reasons (memory holing).

Posted by: OnPoint at July 31, 2026 11:24 AM (RK/h9)

89 It's hard to keep up with the lies.
Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory

That's because your spreadsheet has been enshittified.

Posted by: Dark Lixtiquatal at July 31, 2026 11:25 AM (DZ9Lv)

90
Siri told me this morning that Debbie Stabenow is my senator.

Posted by: Auspex at July 31, 2026 11:25 AM (Y8DZL)

91 I still can't make Word do what I want. I have to find a formatted document from earlier, and carefully type over the previous wording. There are tabs and formatting cues in Word that cannot be overridden.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 31, 2026 11:25 AM (0U5gm)

92 I wonder if I can delete the MS account as well and just use the "guest account" sign in on my computers?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 31, 2026 11:04 AM (1Ff7Z)

I switched to Linux. I assume that I have some MSoft account somewhere but I don't care enough to deal with it. I have put them behind me.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at July 31, 2026 11:25 AM (ExV1e)

93 The UAW seemed not to care about quality or to be actively undermining it.

Posted by: Dave at July 31, 2026 11:21 AM (sbsMc)
---
I've mentioned before that at the Oldsmobile plant in Lansing, Michigan, there was a bar across the street, the employees would spend most of their day there, and then one guy became the dedicated "punch-out guy", to go across the street and punch everybody out.

They spent most of their day drinking and kept their jobs because UNIONS protect the "working man"!

Posted by: Axeman at July 31, 2026 11:25 AM (Fi81e)

94 Google is also burying things for political reasons (memory holing).

The good(?) news is they're getting worse at that because like Microsoft they've replaced all the white nerds with H1Bs from Bangalore.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 31, 2026 11:25 AM (2ocoG)

95
There were stories when I was younger that American auto manufacturers intentionally degraded the quality of their vehicles in the 1970s. The alleged reason was the hope that planned obsolescence would increase the sales frequency of buyers. While this is likely an apocryphal story, the American automakers lost their dominant market share because they seemed indifferent to quality while others started focusing on quality.

I remember hearing years ago that Toyota had put in a tab on the odometer that would trip a cut-off switch at 40k miles so that you'd HAVE to bring your car in for the 40k service. Well, tow it in. Because the whole electrical system would die, and stay dead until the dealership could disassemble the dash, pull the odometer and clip off the tab.

Don't know how true the story was, but it was widely retold for awhile about 20 years ago.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at July 31, 2026 11:26 AM (lnyj2)

96 The very last Ford turned out at the Ford plant in Mahwah, NJ was the Granada. Absenteeism, drunken workers doomed the plant.

Last GM product turned out at their Tarrytown, NY plant was the "dustbuster" vans. Similar story about crap, drunken workers.

Posted by: Sow, Reap at July 31, 2026 11:26 AM (JM9I6)

97 I had K-cars, Chevy Citations, and Tauruses. I was satisfied with all of them. Of course I wasn’t paying for them.

Posted by: Eromero at July 31, 2026 11:26 AM (LHPAg)

98 Pretty simple - Google is in a mature market, yet needs to show increased profits every year.

Google therefore wants you to click on an ad to make money, and reducing the functionality of the search engine increases the chance that you'll click on an ad.

Posted by: The ARC of History! at July 31, 2026 11:26 AM (aD4fx)

99 I don't think we are supposed to use email any more. I am glad I don't have to support Eudora.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 31, 2026 11:27 AM (bkuEU)

100 I once worked with a woman who had 20-30 stacks of printed emails, folders and other documents in her cube. I'm talking 4 - 5 feet high stacks. Ask her for anything - A N Y T H I N G - and she could quickly locate it. Even if it was years old.

She didn't trust the technology. Notably, we worked in the IT department.

Posted by: Tonypete at July 31, 2026 11:28 AM (lvbMS)

101 Were there any employees sober on the assembly line?

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at July 31, 2026 11:28 AM (wOO3z)

102 As someone who used to work at Google....Google made the best, most relevant search engine for the internet...and tossed it away to make more money from ads and to massage results to favor political outcomes and to empower the IC community (which has always been behind the curtain there) to influence people.

Fuck Google.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at July 31, 2026 11:28 AM (xcxpd)

103 noticed that all went to shit and no longer works beginning around 2020, the worst year of our lives ...

Posted by: ShainS at July 31, 2026 11:07 AM (YDC8i)

And in 2018 to 2019 over a six to twelve month period they zipped up commenting on most local news sites which at the time had been a great place to be exposed to genuine information instead of just what the author and editor said.

COINCIDENTALLY

Posted by: ... at July 31, 2026 11:28 AM (p/31p)

104 I just fired Microsponge and went to Linux Mint Cinnamon. Good riddence.

Posted by: nraendowment at July 31, 2026 11:28 AM (kJRFf)

105 ... but Google will often still refuse to produce the article (which Grok quickly retrieves.

------------

Yep, I never use Google anymore -- but Brave is pretty much just as worthless. Any kind of complex query to Brave -- which often responds with its "AI" result -- usually returns the following message:

"Your query is too long."

[per Grok:] "This is the user-facing message displayed on Brave Search (search.brave.com) when a query exceeds its limits (typically ~400 characters or ~50 words for standard web search/API queries)."

Posted by: ShainS at July 31, 2026 11:28 AM (YDC8i)

106 I haven’t used Google Search in it seems decades.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at July 31, 2026 11:28 AM (W7ehW)

107 Amazon has also kneecapped their search function on their store. Worse, they've nearly destroyed library navigation on Kindle and completely trashed the ability to listen to *paid for* digital music without an additional subscription.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 31, 2026 11:28 AM (lFFaq)

108 Yeah, if AI and web searches are the only source of information you have, if they say it never happened...it never happened. Keep your paper books. We're gonna need 'em later.

...and AOP is right about Linux.

Posted by: Don in SoCo at July 31, 2026 11:29 AM (3Pbwf)

109 Delete microsoft, too. Linux works well, and it is free.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 31, 2026 11:17 AM (1z8ji)

I've tried it, AOP. Didn't like it and hard to find - at the time, programs to replace MS stuff. I have Libre Office now, but the kid's school and other places demand MS stuff.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 31, 2026 11:29 AM (1Ff7Z)

110 By the way, the walls are closing in on Trump. According to the Propaganda Press, brave people like Thumb Tillis and John Cornyn are now the idea leaders in the GOPe caucus, and they are "finally standing up" to fascism and Trump.

Uh huh, that's the fantasy world lefty "news" organizations live in.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at July 31, 2026 11:29 AM (6p8KB)

111 This is one of the great things about ai, I am dealing with the enshitification of all the things by simply making my own tools and applications.

For instance, I've solved the Plex enshitificstion by rolling out my own media ecosystem server complete with a side loaded Roku app that is roughly two weeks away from being wife friendly.

I've also rolled out my own personal apps for iOS that do not have the ubiquitous ad-ware and tracking built in.

And generally speaking, all mail apps and platforms suck, and probably intentionally so.

So my recommendation is to build your own.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at July 31, 2026 11:29 AM (XV/Pl)

112 >She didn't trust the technology. Notably, we worked in the IT department.

Posted by: Tonypete at July 31, 2026 11:28 AM (lvbMS)

I bet she had a red stapler in her cube too.

Posted by: Heavy Meta at July 31, 2026 11:30 AM (GTqXr)

113 So my recommendation is to build your own.
Posted by: Thomas Bender at July 31, 2026 11:29 AM (XV/Pl)

It's like handloading!

It works for you clearly, but not everyone has time, money, or skills to roll your own.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at July 31, 2026 11:30 AM (xcxpd)

114 One of the things I just lurve about Outlook is processing my unread mails.

I'll be clicking along, reading email after email, and suddenly, for no discernable reason, it will add read emails back into the list!

I don't mind that it keeps emails I just read in the list, because I'm queueing through it and if I press up (or down), I'm not going to run into them.

But no, it flashes and puts a bunch of previously read emails in my path.

I don't get what the Outlook programmers don't get about "unread".

Posted by: Axeman at July 31, 2026 11:30 AM (Fi81e)

115
Eh, Amazon sabotaged their own Product Search.

You'd have a better chance in getting exactly what you're looking for by-

throwing AlphaBits cereal at a Best Buy Salesman.

Posted by: naturalfake at July 31, 2026 11:30 AM (iJfKG)

116 I believe the idiot who ruined searches is now employed by Amazon. At least, it sure looks like it.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 31, 2026 11:30 AM (0U5gm)

117 Unfortunately the incentive for employees at large corporations is to make changes just so they can claim credit and try to get promoted. So companies in largely monopolistic positions will continuously make their products worse so long as external pressure isn't introduced.

Posted by: Red Turban Someguy at July 31, 2026 11:31 AM (okun6)

118 Been using Duck Duck Go, but sometimes try alternatives. Yandex actually works as long as it’s not something the Russians would lie about.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at July 31, 2026 11:31 AM (W7ehW)

119 For instance, I've solved the Plex enshitificstion by rolling out my own media ecosystem server complete with a side loaded Roku app that is roughly two weeks away from being wife friendly.

#TwoWeeks

Posted by: Ian S. at July 31, 2026 11:31 AM (2ocoG)

120 I only use the Outlook web app if I want to search for emails. The search function in the Windows installed app is veritable crap.

Posted by: Chairman LMAO at July 31, 2026 11:32 AM (cWLG3)

121
I see lots of blubbering about AI companies buying rare old books and pulling them apart to scan them. Like it's book burning.

I don't have any great love for AI companies but nobody's stopping publishers from reprinting them. What's worse, pulling a single book apart or charging $50 for a PDF of a 4-page journal article from 30 years ago?

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 31, 2026 11:32 AM (O0L8i)

122 Oh, man Thunderbird--quick, functional and light.
Such a good program.

I thought Thunderbird was a wine.

Posted by: rickb223 at July 31, 2026 11:32 AM (Zja42)

123 I bet she had a red stapler in her cube too.

Posted by: Heavy Meta at July 31, 2026 11:30 AM (GTqXr)
---
Props created that. Before the movie hit it big (in DVD rentals) Swingline never made a red stapler, but they acquiesced to all the requests and queries like "Don't they make this in red?"

Posted by: Axeman at July 31, 2026 11:32 AM (Fi81e)

124 Are there any good search engines left, maybe ones that let you use boolean operators to refine the search?

The same problem exists in commercial sites, too. eBay and Amazon searches are hopelessly morked.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 31, 2026 11:32 AM (1z8ji)

125 COINCIDENTALLY
_-_
Yup

IC community (which has always been behind the curtain there)
_-_
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

Posted by: Don in SoCo at July 31, 2026 11:33 AM (3Pbwf)

126 Libre Office can save in MS format. It's an option when you save.

Linux has a lot of built in search programs. The email programs for it tend to use markdown formatting. MS has been awful for a long time. Mac Mail is worse but businesses don't use it.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 31, 2026 11:33 AM (bkuEU)

127 I think there's a concerted effort to sensor a variety of topics and instead push certain "approved" narratives and "facts." Wikipedia is really bad with this sort of thing. I've seen it change stuff overnight... going totally in the opposite direction from facts.

And then, there's the editorializing being attached to everything.

When sucky people run stuff like this you get sucky results.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at July 31, 2026 11:33 AM (2Cry5)

128 @118 Yandex has the best image search. Google used to have great a very useful image search, but now it's shit.

Posted by: Chairman LMAO at July 31, 2026 11:33 AM (cWLG3)

129 LibreOffice does read and write Office formats ( docx, xlsx ) but I haven't tried sharing with an Office user.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 31, 2026 11:33 AM (WkL+O)

130 So my recommendation is to build your own.
Posted by: Thomas Bender

One of the reasons I have gotten rid of most of my saas stocks. People are sick of adobe and peoplesoft and will increasing roll out their own dashboards or have ai do what’s necessary.

Posted by: DoctorMew at July 31, 2026 11:33 AM (fn5TX)

131 It's like handloading!

It works for you clearly, but not everyone has time, money, or skills to roll your own.

His point is that with AI you don't need the skills and the time is greatly reduced. Money's still an issue on Claude and GPT, but if you have a blue check on X you already have Grok Build access for free.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 31, 2026 11:34 AM (2ocoG)

132 I remember hearing years ago that Toyota had put in a tab on the odometer that would trip a cut-off switch at 40k miles so that you'd HAVE to bring your car in for the 40k service. Well, tow it in. Because the whole electrical system would die, and stay dead until the dealership could disassemble the dash, pull the odometer and clip off the tab.

Don't know how true the story was, but it was widely retold for awhile about 20 years ago.
Posted by: IllTemperedCur at July 31, 2026 11:26 AM (lnyj2)

I've....never heard that. And I've owned a lot of Toyotas at this point. What make and model did this, supposedly?

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at July 31, 2026 11:34 AM (xcxpd)

133 "https://tinyurl.com/4a7mzrt9
Posted by: Lizzy

thx, great info on Google. It says that Google recognizes the problem, but still seems to chase short term profits over longer term quality.

Posted by: illiniwek at July 31, 2026 11:34 AM (vbXSk)

134 Probably a sign of age, but this sounds just horrible to me:

This salad is just the thing to wake up a muggy summer day. Crisp cucumbers and thin scallion slices are doused in a bright and bracing dressing that’s supercharged with lime juice, fish sauce, Thai and Fresno chiles and sesame oil. Mint, basil, cilantro and a shower of crushed peanuts lend a fresh, crunchy finish. Take it from this reader endorsement: “This was insanely delicious. The best cucumber salad I’ve ever made.”

Posted by: Oglebay at July 31, 2026 11:34 AM (2ap+5)

135 Different culture, different values. Not a judgement, an observation.

No civic sense: https://tinyurl.com/4sfzv6ep
Posted by: Lizzy at July 31, 2026 11:22 AM (X8xt3)

Over a decade ago I became very uneasy with the prevalence of foreigners at the helm of nominally American companies for thus very reason. They have very different expectations regarding the place of government in business as well as how both employees and customers should be treated.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 31, 2026 11:34 AM (lFFaq)

136 Been using Duck Duck Go, but sometimes try alternatives. Yandex actually works as long as it’s not something the Russians would lie about.
Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit

No happy with DDG. Maybe I have a faulty install.
But if I leave a page open on my phone, switch to a different program/screen, and then come back in 10 minutes, it's closed it out. If I do that with Chrome, it'll leave all the tabs open for months.

Posted by: rickb223 at July 31, 2026 11:35 AM (Zja42)

137 By the way, the walls are closing in on Trump. According to the Propaganda Press, brave people like Thumb Tillis and John Cornyn are now the idea leaders in the GOPe caucus, and they are "finally standing up" to fascism and Trump.

Hmmm. That stands in direct contradiction to their new cave on Todd Blanche. Also, Rinosaurs. Heh.

The Cornyn-Tillis Losers' Revenge Tour Continues

"No one in Washington fell off a cabbage truck yesterday, and no one knows how to play these two posturing fools better than Donald Trump, who said, 'I'll pull Blanche's nomination until after you're gone.'

I CAN WAIT"

What's happened in the interim this afternoon is that someone must have whispered in the two pissy sisters' ears that it would behoove them to make nice, as they have reportedly just 'wrapped up' a meeting with Acting AG Blanche, Yes, yes - the same Blanche they canceled three meetings with this week, and then complained no one would meet with them to address these pressing concerns.

It's just a little game RINOsaurs play.

https://tinyurl.com/5y4mj7c2

Posted by: Archimedes at July 31, 2026 11:35 AM (Riz8t)

138 "I thought Thunderbird was a wine"

Embrace the power of and

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 31, 2026 11:35 AM (bkuEU)

139 I see lots of blubbering about AI companies buying rare old books and pulling them apart to scan them. Like it's book burning.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 31, 2026 11:32 AM (O0L8i)
---
Yeah, if a lib doesn't like it, it's bad, and a moral flaw to disagree.

I pray that people get sick of this obnoxious behavior.

I would be concerned if it were the last copy of the first printing--or all the printings. But if it's a recent printing of a classic book--well, they don't believe in property either...

Posted by: Axeman at July 31, 2026 11:35 AM (Fi81e)

140 122 Oh, man Thunderbird--quick, functional and light.
Such a good program.

I thought Thunderbird was a wine.
Posted by: rickb223 at July 31, 2026 11:32 AM (Zja42)

---
Thunderbird 20/20

Posted by: Chairman LMAO at July 31, 2026 11:35 AM (cWLG3)

141 When I use a search engine, I get the distinct impression that it is not trying to help me find what I'm looking for but instead is trying to control what I can find.

THIS x1000

Posted by: Lizzy at July 31, 2026 11:23 AM

The search engine is going to show you what people paid it to show you. I sometimes have to go to the second or third page of the search results to find what I was actually searching for.

Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at July 31, 2026 11:35 AM (0N4FZ)

142 "I thought Thunderbird was a wine"

Embrace the power of and
Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 31, 2026 11:35 AM (bkuEU)
---
New twist on "Thunderbirds are Go".

Posted by: Axeman at July 31, 2026 11:36 AM (Fi81e)

143 I have Libre Office now, but the kid's school and other places demand MS stuff.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 31, 2026 11:29 AM (1Ff7Z)

Libre Office can save docs in MSWord format. Tell the school to fuck right off.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 31, 2026 11:36 AM (1z8ji)

144 For those in the corporate world, there is the "classic" Outlook, then "new Outlook". If you use add-ins within Outlook (CRM, etc.) - you can't use the new Outlook. Which is fine, because the "new" flavor sucks pickled ass.

Claude ai has a desktop tool which, when linked into your email system (MS 365 for us), can find emails amazingly well. Downside? We all know how AI leaks data, so your emails belong to everyone.

Posted by: Our Country is Screwed at July 31, 2026 11:36 AM (N39Ws)

145 Amazon search is great. When you search for something specific, it will give you every chinese counterfeit item that even vaguely resembles what you are looking for.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 31, 2026 11:37 AM (0U5gm)

146 what's the word? what's the price?

Posted by: alpine_beer at July 31, 2026 11:37 AM (van9r)

147 Siri told me this morning that Debbie Stabenow is my senator.
Posted by: Auspex

But is Bob your uncle?

Posted by: Dark Lixtiquatal at July 31, 2026 11:37 AM (DZ9Lv)

148 Posted by: The ARC of History!
========
The desktop and laptop Google is dead, the investors just don't know it yet.

The main contributor nowadays is Android and its feed for geographic specific and context specific ad revenue. Google is now an advertising company, not a technology company.

But due to the crunch in memory prices, AI is gobbling up far more of Google's capital investments that it otherwise might and the phones capable of using Gemini AI efficiently are unaffordable right now due to memory and cpu pricing.

I think Oracle is likely going to be deaded as well due to massive debt exposure over AI.

Remains to be seen about Microsux as they have made their base programs so shitty, the spying so obvious, and the adverts perverts OS, that people are now actively looking at ways to avoid them.

Apple, I think is going to come out of this the best with excellent technology and usable products. Linux is still only for wonks that are willing to use command line occasionally or for people that IT does it for them. Main reason is driver issues and the occasional really vile screwup of a distro. That can be avoided usually by delay in updates.

Posted by: whig at July 31, 2026 11:37 AM (E4rtv)

149 What's worse, pulling a single book apart or charging $50 for a PDF of a 4-page journal article from 30 years ago?
_-_
Blubbering...heh. In the case of a rare book, the trouble is losing the original entirely. It is not the destruction of a physical book that is the complaint. It is the obliteration of the original version of the book.

Posted by: Don in SoCo at July 31, 2026 11:38 AM (3Pbwf)

150 I'm going to assume Microsoft and Google put their best minds in the areas where their products explore every nook and cranny of your computer, report the findings, and target the ads to be sent your way.

Posted by: 2009Refugee at July 31, 2026 11:38 AM (4HoLg)

151 Literally each new version of Outlook is less usable than its predecessor. It's as if they are intentionally sabotaging the product. The only part of the MS Office Suite that hasn't totally degraded is Excel, which is still preferable to Google sheets (ugh). Even Teams sucks.

Posted by: Henry O at July 31, 2026 11:39 AM (B8/Wv)

152 Every operating system and software package is now worse than the previous one.

Posted by: Thomas Paine

//

A truism for the ages.

Posted by: Random PJ at July 31, 2026 11:39 AM (+jscL)

153 My nephew just started as a dev with Microsoft.

You've got an Indian nephew?

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at July 31, 2026 11:39 AM (ExV1e)

154 LibreOffice does read and write Office formats ( docx, xlsx ) but I haven't tried sharing with an Office user.
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 31, 2026 11:33 AM (WkL+O)

I don't know, but MS Office doesn't save or read odt? I can save in docx and send to people who can't open odt, so that's a workaround.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 31, 2026 11:39 AM (1Ff7Z)

155 145 Amazon search is great. When you search for something specific, it will give you every chinese counterfeit item that even vaguely resembles what you are looking for.
Posted by: Thomas Paine

Someone created an app to kill all those search results of shitty Chinesium copies. Amazon makes far more now on advertising, info peddling on its buyers, and cloud services than it does on selling products. But the Chinesium shit boosts the bottom line.

Posted by: whig at July 31, 2026 11:39 AM (E4rtv)

156 Google's search is free. That means it's not a product you use. It's a product that uses you. You are the product. The search is therefore not designed for you. It's designed for the people who pay google to use you: the advertisers, promoters, sales, stores, etc.

Google knows exactly what it's doing and is constantly improving its product for its real customers. That ain't you.

Posted by: Elric The Blade at July 31, 2026 11:39 AM (iFTx/)

157 140 122 Oh, man Thunderbird--quick, functional and light.
Such a good program.

I thought Thunderbird was a wine.
Posted by: rickb223 at July 31, 2026 11:32 AM (Zja42)

---
Thunderbird 20/20
Posted by: Chairman LMAO at July 31, 2026 11:35 AM (cWLG3)

What's the word? Thunderbird.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at July 31, 2026 11:39 AM (xcxpd)

158 Adobe Acrobat is another example. Every single “improvement” makes the program worse. It’s obvious that none of the people involved in any new version have ever used the program.
Every single employee including the custodial crew should be fired.

Posted by: Kam Fong as Chin Ho at July 31, 2026 11:40 AM (dk1uA)

159 But is Bob your uncle?

Posted by: Dark Lixtiquatal at July 31, 2026 11:37 AM (DZ9Lv)
---
Do many here know that this is about nepotism?

How easy is it to get a job somewhere? Bob's your uncle and you're in. Or a deal on a sofa, if "Bob" owns the the furniture store.

Posted by: Axeman at July 31, 2026 11:40 AM (Fi81e)

160 Dunno. My non techy husband managed fine on Linux Mint and it's actually better now. I've probably messed around with 25 different distros this year. Mint is a real OS now.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 31, 2026 11:41 AM (bkuEU)

161
It is the obliteration of the original version of the book.

Posted by: Don in SoCo at July 31, 2026 11:38 AM (3Pbwf)

____________

Are they buying up every copy?

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 31, 2026 11:41 AM (O0L8i)

162
...Apple, I think is going to come out of this the best with excellent technology and usable products...

Also, I think apple isn't jumping into the whole AI thing.

Probably waiting to see who survives the fallout.

Posted by: naturalfake at July 31, 2026 11:41 AM (iJfKG)

163 Thunderbird 20/20
Posted by: Chairman LMAO

Claim: Thunderbird tastes like toenails.

Going down? No

Coming up? Yes

Posted by: rickb223 at July 31, 2026 11:41 AM (Zja42)

164 >>>It works for you clearly, but not everyone has time, money, or skills to roll your own.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo
---

I was going to say something but couldn't word it as polite.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 31, 2026 11:41 AM (AJWch)

165
Someone I worked with bought a new US-made car in the late 80s. It always had a rattle that bugged him. At some point, a window broke & the repairman found a tin can inside the door. The can had a note on it that said, "You finally found me".
Posted by: Dave at July 31, 2026 11:21 AM (sbsMc)

Dickheads.
Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at July 31, 2026 11:23 AM (wOO3z)

Independent mechanics pull this shit too. I once had my Suzuki Samurai in for a transmission service at a ghetto independent who was recommended by a cow-orker. I walked up as they were finishing and the two vatos putting everything back together again were pointing at my exhaust pipe just forward of the cat converter, and snickering.

They pulled it down from the lift and I had the boss immediately put it back up to inspect his employees' work. They'd stuffed a handful of nuts and bolts into the heat shield over the exhaust pipe so that it'd rattle away when you hit the gas. Got a discount as an apology, but I also got the feeling that he was more pissed at me for finding the joke than at his employees for costing him money.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at July 31, 2026 11:41 AM (lnyj2)

166 Libre Office can save docs in MSWord format. Tell the school to fuck right off.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 31, 2026 11:36 AM (1z8ji)

Sure, but they also use google docs for communications and homework.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 31, 2026 11:42 AM (1Ff7Z)

167 131 It's like handloading!

It works for you clearly, but not everyone has time, money, or skills to roll your own.

His point is that with AI you don't need the skills and the time is greatly reduced. Money's still an issue on Claude and GPT, but if you have a blue check on X you already have Grok Build access for free.
Posted by: Ian S. at July 31, 2026 11:34 AM (2ocoG)

I can't endorse AI at this point.
We'll see. I'm getting put on a project at work to examine Claude for test automation.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at July 31, 2026 11:42 AM (xcxpd)

168 "Fifteen years ago I never would have believed that the ability to search for work emails would be lost to progress, but that has happened"

Having worked for the tech giants back when things started really sliding, I can tell you that this is 100% the fault of Indians. Or as they are commonly referred to in this household - "fucking Indians".

15 years ago I would have been mildly surprised it took this long for things to get this bad. EVERYTHING they touch turns to shit.

Last employer, for all of how woke they were, for some reason held off hiring them until 2023 or so before getting the cost cutting bug. They basically rendered a critical monitoring department entirely nonfunctional, enabling some massive fuckups to go unseen for months. We went from plus 9 figures net to negative 9 figures and 3 years later the entire project was shut down. I didn't get a single functional thing out of that whole fucking department the entire 3 years they were there.

It's all street shitting retards with fake credentials and western MBAs enabling them. Even the ones with real credentials usually suck because of their psychopathic caste bullshit.

Posted by: heya at July 31, 2026 11:42 AM (QfB9d)

169 I think most software companies don't do usability testing. They don't understand that techis use software differently.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 31, 2026 11:42 AM (bkuEU)

170 The only part of the MS Office Suite that hasn't totally degraded is Excel, which is still preferable to Google sheets (ugh). Even Teams sucks.

Posted by: Henry O

Teams is a horrible memory hog, and fails constantly. Excel tends to use a lot of memory, too, and hang. Excel is actually a downgrade from Lotus 123 from twenty years ago.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 31, 2026 11:42 AM (0U5gm)

171 I have Libre Office on one PC and Office on another. I can swap between the two with no problem.

"Some" formatting can be an issue. But straight text, in most any font, will be read in either.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at July 31, 2026 11:42 AM (2Cry5)

172 Claim: Thunderbird tastes like toenails.

Going down? No

Coming up? Yes
Posted by: rickb223 at July 31, 2026 11:41 AM (Zja42)
---
Been a long time since I chewed on my fingernails.

Could not compare.

Posted by: Axeman at July 31, 2026 11:42 AM (Fi81e)

173 Use the Yandex browser for a fresh perspective.

Posted by: Dirac_Delta at July 31, 2026 11:43 AM (SR1Dt)

174 Microsoft used a tagline when they're installing an update of "Standby while we improve your experience." It became a 'thing' in a couple of the offices I've worked in. Much like "opportunity to excel" or "mandatory fun."

Posted by: GWB at July 31, 2026 11:43 AM (kU0PQ)

175 154 LibreOffice does read and write Office formats ( docx, xlsx ) but I haven't tried sharing with an Office user.
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes

I've done it, not recommended as you can get weird formatting errors to and fro because Microsux refuses to use open document standards and keeps the proprietary cheats to themselves. I do think Only Office, a Euro company does have a licensing agreement that allows it to save to Microsux proprietary Office file that don't introduce errors. FWIW, Only Office started as a Russian company which moved to the EU after the recent unpleasantness started.

If you don't mind using pdf, then it is not a problem to share documents with Microsux or anyone--but unless they have a pdf editor (and you left the document unlocked), they cannot alter the original.

Posted by: whig at July 31, 2026 11:43 AM (E4rtv)

176
I thought "Bob's your uncle" referred to Arthur Balfour, who owed his political rise to his uncle Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 31, 2026 11:44 AM (O0L8i)

177 There's one search in particular that felt controlled. Remember the story that claimed Trump groped a woman during an airline flight? He was described as being like an octopus with his hands all over her.

Well there was indeed a news story around that time involving a BBC executive behaving exactly like that. I think the media's strategy was to use the echo of that story to make people think of Trump, "Yeah, I heard about that. Must be true."

I have tried repeatedly to dredge up the story about the BBC executive to confirm my memory. I can't find a trace of it.

Posted by: Emmie at July 31, 2026 11:44 AM (OlzlW)

178 TBH I use copilot if I want to search outlook now and it does a good job even for inexact searches

Posted by: 18-1 at July 31, 2026 11:44 AM (sKqQm)

179 “This was insanely delicious. The best cucumber salad I’ve ever made.”

Posted by: Oglebay at July 31, 2026 11:34 AM (2ap+5)

There is no such thing as good cucumber salad.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 31, 2026 11:44 AM (1z8ji)

180 Teams is a horrible memory hog, and fails constantly. Excel tends to use a lot of memory, too, and hang. Excel is actually a downgrade from Lotus 123 from twenty years ago.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 31, 2026 11:42 AM (0U5gm)
---
Teams is just another electron program. It's chrome hidden really well.

Most applications these days are chrom(ium).

Posted by: Axeman at July 31, 2026 11:44 AM (Fi81e)

181
I do like that both Volvo and Polestar cars are now equipped with Chinese controlled shot-off switches.

It's like everything is being built with it's own destroyer included.

Sweet.

Posted by: naturalfake at July 31, 2026 11:45 AM (iJfKG)

182 169 I think most software companies don't do usability testing. They don't understand that techis use software differently.
Posted by: Notsothoreau
========
Other than Apple, and perhaps the Android team which operates pretty much independently of google, you are correct.

Posted by: whig at July 31, 2026 11:45 AM (E4rtv)

183 Relative to Japanese and German cars they were crap; Three years and it was time to buy a new one. I brutalized Honda's and they were like new. Chevy and Dodge pickups would fall apart when used, only, as daily drivers. Ford wasn't far behind.

https://youtu.be/YR6bOr_TyxY

Link goes to the full Top Gear episode where they try and kill a Toyota Hilux.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at July 31, 2026 11:45 AM (ExV1e)

184 The email programs for it tend to use markdown formatting.

I'm generally pretty tech-agnostic; I'll use whatever I need to use to do a job but Markdown is an exception. I hate Markdown with a blue passion. It's training wheels for HTML and like training wheels on a bicycle, they make it easy to go in a straight line but harder to turn so you can go where you want to go.

Posted by: Oddbob at July 31, 2026 11:45 AM (vTZFs)

185 It is the obliteration of the original version of the book.
Posted by: Don in SoCo

Are they buying up every copy?
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh

Depends. If it's a 200 or 300 year old original, there's probably not too many copies left.

What's the age of the originals that they are destroying? Wouldn't it be easier to read the book aloud and have it converted by voice to text?

Posted by: rickb223 at July 31, 2026 11:45 AM (Zja42)

186 I think most software companies don't do usability testing. They don't understand that techis use software differently.

Posted by: Notsothoreau

Most software is written by 20 year olds or H1Bs who have no idea about how the software will be used. There are endless loops and logic failures galore if the software user does anything other than the one path the writer expects. It constantly amazes me how easy it is to fail any process in software now.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 31, 2026 11:45 AM (0U5gm)

187 I played Amazon Music using my paid-for Library albums on my recent multi-day road-trip and never paid for a subscription. You need to select another paid-for album as soon as possible after your first choice ends to avoid the possibility of ads. Usually they play a song from an album “like” yours then start playing ads. You avoid this by playing your own paid-for album as soon as your first choice ends. I do NOT have a paid subscription. I do have a large Library of albums I have purchased from Amazon and like, usually with CDs. I realized that “Pick Up Sticks” was the last song on the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s Time Out album (the one with “Take Five”

and would quickly change to Asleep at the Wheel or something Baroque.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at July 31, 2026 11:46 AM (W7ehW)

188 I use Thunderbird mailer under Ubuntu Linux 24.4. Works like a charm. Nice search feature.

One big difference, though: I use the POP protocol for handling mail, rather than SMTP. The difference is that POP downloads your mail to your physical device; SMTP retains it on the remote server. This consumes more disk space on your PC or laptop, but storage is cheap. Of course, it means that if your disk dies, your email goes away, but that's what backups are for. My email is my property, and and learning how to maintain my property is part of responsible ownership.

Posted by: Nemo at July 31, 2026 11:46 AM (4RPgu)

189 Posted by: Elric The Blade at July 31, 2026 11:39 AM (iFTx/)

If it shows me ads including ones for its own products it is not totally free. I can't tell if you are excusing or just explaining.

Posted by: ... at July 31, 2026 11:46 AM (p/31p)

190 Great post Brock and we can all agree that Google search has worsened over the years, AI has taken over the results and the actual top hits are "sponsored" by commercials.

Also, every search result has to include a useless comment from REDDIT because they either were acquired by Alphabet or they are paying them a lot of bucks.

Posted by: Joemarine at July 31, 2026 11:46 AM (y171U)

191 169 I think most software companies don't do usability testing. They don't understand that techis use software differently.

Posted by: Notsothoreau

=====

They release the product, bugs and all, and then wait for paying customers to diagnose the issues.

This is called Agile Project Management, which makes it sound cool.

Posted by: 2009Refugee at July 31, 2026 11:46 AM (4HoLg)

192 Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 31, 2026 11:41 AM (bkuEU)

Can I run my Steam games on it? Gaming is pretty much the only thing keeping Inspector and me on Microsoft.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 31, 2026 11:47 AM (lFFaq)

193 Got a discount as an apology, but I also got the feeling that he was more pissed at me for finding the joke than at his employees for costing him money.
Posted by: IllTemperedCur
=======
He was probably pissed because he was going to have to fire the assholes. If they did it to you, they did it to other customers and that would kill his business in the long run.

Posted by: whig at July 31, 2026 11:47 AM (E4rtv)

194
Google Search: this is definitely intentional. Google is aggressive about this. They are adamant with businesses that they MUST NOT OPTIMIZE FOR BASIC SEARCH, but for AI. It's an obsession.

If they don't change course, I'll be surprised if basic search is still an existing feature in 5 years.

Outlook Search: yeah, it blows, but I can't remember when it didn't. It's always been a piece of shit.

Explorer Search: ok, this has gotten worse for most users. But not for me. Because the first thing I do on any new Windows machine is turn on indexing for all frequently used drives. Indexed searching still works well, if not quite as well as it used to.

If you haven't been indexing your drives, I recommend starting this on a Friday night - the initial indexing can take a long ass time to build depending on the number of files already stored, and writing to disk while it's indexing only makes it take longer. Do this over a weekend.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at July 31, 2026 11:47 AM (BI5O2)

195 The Left will burn the books. They might of course just use the slimes to take down all the libraries rather than dirty their own hands. Could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

Posted by: ... at July 31, 2026 11:47 AM (p/31p)

196 "169 I think most software companies don't do usability testing. They don't understand that techis use software differently.
Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 31, 2026 11:42 AM (bkuEU)"

"Testing" is outsourced to an office full of third worlders who literally shat in the street on the way in.

It's just as worthless as when you call a customer service # and get the same types of people.

Posted by: heya at July 31, 2026 11:48 AM (QfB9d)

197 "74 My primary technology bitch is automobiles. .."
-----------------
When searching for new car last year, wifey's one non-negotiable requirement was old-style key ignition. She was stranded twoce before when push-button start refused to function. And she wanted all-wheel drive. We landed on very base Subaru Forester (and no, we are not lesbians). Our other car is also Japanese: Corola hybrid; we love the gas mileage, but I have to carry a full-size spare in the trunk, not even a donut supplied. I can do without the ubiquitous huge screens in cars these days. Forester and Corola have screens, but relatively small. My fun vehicle is 2012 Tacoma, everything mechanical including manual transmission. I love it.

WSJ had a pretty good article yesterday about how folks are trying to avoid (or having it removed) high tech in their cars. I hate "driver assist" and always disable it when I can.

Posted by: Martin Tell at July 31, 2026 11:48 AM (sFNX2)

198 Also, every search result has to include a useless comment from REDDIT because they either were acquired by Alphabet or they are paying them a lot of bucks.
Posted by: Joemarine

Reddit was used early on to train AI models like Gemini. Essentially all the free knowledge that reddit types gave became corporate profits for Reddit from selling it.

Posted by: whig at July 31, 2026 11:49 AM (E4rtv)

199 Morning.

You mean to tell me that the work of the developments teams presided over by Steve Nahasapeemapetilon is...inadequate?

RAAAAACISM!

Posted by: Robert at July 31, 2026 11:49 AM (Z2yLo)

200 Nemo

You mean POP and IMAP. sMTP handles outgoing mail.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 31, 2026 11:50 AM (bkuEU)

201 Posted by: Emmie at July 31, 2026 11:44 AM (OlzlW)

Never heard about the executive but I'm pretty sure the woman said he lifted the armrest and that contraption did not exist the year she claimed it happened.

Posted by: ... at July 31, 2026 11:50 AM (p/31p)

202 When I worked for a handful of years in software technical support in the mid-90s, we used (a slightly customized version of) Lotus Notes for all of the trouble reports.

It had fantastic search capabilities, and I could find virtually any prior related issue and its status -- whether current bug, fixed bug, or available workaround(s).

Don't think Lotus is around anymore, and not sure about Notes or 1-2-3 ... searches Brave:

"Current Status:

. Lotus Brand: The brand was officially retired by IBM in 2013, with products rebranded under "IBM Collaboration Solutions" before the sale to HCL.

. Lotus Notes/Domino: Now maintained and developed by HCL Technologies, with recent updates like Domino 14.0 indicating continued support for legacy corporate workflows.

. Lotus 1-2-3: Officially discontinued by IBM in 2014 with no support extensions; it is considered abandonware."

lol @ "abandonware", which neither Wifey nor I (former software developers) have ever heard before.

Posted by: ShainS at July 31, 2026 11:50 AM (YDC8i)

203 WSJ had a pretty good article yesterday about how folks are trying to avoid (or having it removed) high tech in their cars. I hate "driver assist" and always disable it when I can.
Posted by: Martin Tell at July 31, 2026 11:48 AM (sFNX2)

I'd look in the classic car market, but even though everyone seems to say it's dying, I can't find anything less than 10k. Unless it's 50s cars, and yeah... no.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 31, 2026 11:51 AM (1Ff7Z)

204 Amazon has also kneecapped their search function on their store. Worse, they've nearly destroyed library navigation on Kindle and completely trashed the ability to listen to *paid for* digital music without an additional subscription.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 31, 2026 11:28 AM (lFFaq)

When buying e-books, I try to always go DRM-free epub. I keep a copy of the book on my system and read them in a third party app on my ipad. I have to want a book really bad to buy it on Kindle. I think that's happened 5 times in the past decade or so.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at July 31, 2026 11:51 AM (ExV1e)

205 I think most software companies don't do usability testing. They don't understand that techis use software differently.
Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 31, 2026 11:42 AM (bkuEU)
---
Testing is good, but it is not perfect. You end up testing your assumptions.

I live in a field where we frequently take our application out of the box where it's been extensively tested and try to let it free in a customer environment.

"Didn't you TEST this?!" is a common customer complaint, but because of some politics, we're only allowed a very limited requirements phase, and we usually end up implementing what we *think* they wanted, or how we *construed* the system we replaced was working.

And we tested against those assumptions. A lot works in the new environment. It's not like our software immediately face-plants and nothing works. But customers notice what doesn't work when they try to test it with their process and system. And then we get "Didn't you TEST this?!"

I normally can explain the flaws of TDD (Test-driven development) and where we cannot anticipate everything. And it fails where we guessed wrong.

Posted by: Axeman at July 31, 2026 11:51 AM (Fi81e)

206 Posted by: Elric The Blade at July 31, 2026 11:39 AM (iFTx/)

If it shows me ads including ones for its own products it is not totally free. I can't tell if you are excusing or just explaining.
Posted by: ... at July 31, 2026 11:46 AM (p/31p)
________

Does it cost you anything to use? No, it doesn't. You can just sit down at any computer in the world, go to google.com, and type in a search term. That is the very definition of "free."

Posted by: Elric The Blade at July 31, 2026 11:51 AM (iFTx/)

207 What's the age of the originals that they are destroying? Wouldn't it be easier to read the book aloud and have it converted by voice to text?
Posted by: rickb223 at July 31, 2026 11:45 AM (Zja42)

Then they couldn't hire illiterate Pakis to do the "work".

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 31, 2026 11:51 AM (1z8ji)

208 Google is determined to make you use Gemini over plain search as much as possible.

I rarely use Google directly for years now.
Brave search is default and then I’ll use Duck Duck Go over Google any day of the week.

Pretty sad considering that Google is one of the few companies, like Xerox, whose name became a widely used verb for the task they performed.

The Indians took over the company and screwed it up royally. Just like Microsoft and many others.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at July 31, 2026 11:52 AM (6ydKt)

209 I just love how outlook sorts your outbox not in the order of the emails you sent, but in the order of when they were created.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 31, 2026 11:52 AM (0U5gm)

210 I don't do gaming but understand Steam is using a Linux distro to run their games.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 31, 2026 11:52 AM (bkuEU)

211 At my place, they are so paranoid of getting hacked, we have 3 different security suites, Fenixfire, Sentinel1 and some other POS.
On top of the MS suite.

And the bestest, bestiest part?

None of them like working with Outlook.
So I get lag, freezing and crashes.

IT knows, and don't care.
Because no IT guy was ever fired for too much security.
No matter how much it kills production.
I fucking hate IT.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at July 31, 2026 11:52 AM (3cUTc)

212 Never heard about the executive but I'm pretty sure the woman said he lifted the armrest and that contraption did not exist the year she claimed it happened.
Posted by: ... at July 31, 2026 11:50 AM (p/31p)

Yes, that's the story I'm talking about! I had forgotten the armrest detail. I'm sure the BBC executive story was linked by someone here at the HQ.

Posted by: Emmie at July 31, 2026 11:53 AM (OlzlW)

213 The more dependant one becomes on a technology, the more vulnerable they become.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at July 31, 2026 11:53 AM (XeU6L)

214 Does it cost you anything to use? No, it doesn't. You can just sit down at any computer in the world, go to google.com, and type in a search term. That is the very definition of "free."

Posted by: Elric The Blade at July 31, 2026 11:51 AM (iFTx/)

My time and energy are not free. I am giving to them by being exposed to their ads. It's a transaction. Otherwise it would not be available to me to use.

Posted by: ... at July 31, 2026 11:53 AM (p/31p)

215 WSJ had a pretty good article yesterday about how folks are trying to avoid (or having it removed) high tech in their cars. I hate "driver assist" and always disable it when I can.

Posted by: Martin Tell at July 31, 2026 11:48 AM (sFNX2)
---
In 2027, you don't disable IT in your car, IT disables your car! (Thanks, John James!)

Posted by: Axeman at July 31, 2026 11:53 AM (Fi81e)

216 I've tried it, AOP. Didn't like it and hard to find - at the time, programs to replace MS stuff. I have Libre Office now, but the kid's school and other places demand MS stuff.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 31, 2026 11:29 AM (1Ff7Z)

https://alternativeto.net/ - this is a site to find alternatives to various software programs. Before I made the switch to Linux Mint, I used that to find replacements for everything the wife and I use.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at July 31, 2026 11:53 AM (ExV1e)

217 "I don't have any great love for AI companies but nobody's stopping publishers from reprinting them."

Hadrian, these are *old books* - decades or centuries old. The publishers may not exist any more. The type in which they were set was broken up long ago. Yes, it may be possible to create a photostatic copy of the book, assuming that the only remaining copy of the original hasn't been destroyed, but a book is a beautiful object in its own right, and to destroy it in order to feed it into the AI hopper is the act of a barbarian.

Posted by: Nemo at July 31, 2026 11:53 AM (4RPgu)

218 What's the age of the originals that they are destroying? Wouldn't it be easier to read the book aloud and have it converted by voice to text?
Posted by: rickb223 at July 31, 2026 11:45 AM (Zja42)

No one at the company can read that well.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at July 31, 2026 11:53 AM (g8Ew8)

219 Posted by: Martin Tell at July 31, 2026 11:48 AM (sFNX2

We have a new car . What drives me crazy is the increasingly shrill and repetitive sounds to tell you that you don't have your seat belt on . FenSpouse-kidding-says "Put on your seat belt or the car will destruct like a car from James Bond. "Having heard this about twenty times it's not quite but it amuses him and I love him.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at July 31, 2026 11:54 AM (W90Ou)

220 I visit some off beat sites for stuff like software defined radios, aircraft/ship tracking and some game software.

There's something called "vibe coding" that seems to draw ire from seasoned users/developers. It's basically using AI and plain language prompts to develop code/apps. Newbies pushing out some app they think is the sniz when it's garbage.

I'd imagine that has something to do with the quality of some of the stuff we're discussing.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at July 31, 2026 11:54 AM (2Cry5)

221 I'd look in the classic car market, but even though everyone seems to say it's dying, I can't find anything less than 10k. Unless it's 50s cars, and yeah... no.

Posted by: OrangeEnt

I restrict my vehicle searches to anything before 2008. I'm not giving control of my steering or brakes to a computer that doesn't know if it is raining or snowing. And I certainly don't want four grand worth of cameras to tell me where other cars are.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 31, 2026 11:54 AM (0U5gm)

222 Lots of abandonware sites. Most of the early Mac programs are available, as well as some Palm Pilot stuff. Some early Windows/DOS stuff too

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 31, 2026 11:54 AM (bkuEU)

223 Are they buying up every copy?
_-_
I give up. Are they?

So, you scan then destroy a rare book, edit it to suit your tastes, put it online...now it's the official version of the book. You say it said "jungle" in the original, AI says it always said "rain forest". Look, here's a scan of the original.

(Sorry if the tone of that discussion went from ready to ripe faster than an avocado on the back dash of a 79 Chevy Monza in the middle of summer in western Kansas - did not intend that.)

Posted by: Don in SoCo at July 31, 2026 11:54 AM (3Pbwf)

224 "I'd look in the classic car market, but even though everyone seems to say it's dying, I can't find anything less than 10k. Unless it's 50s cars, and yeah... no."
----------------------------------------
I basically traded my 2019 F-150 (25,000) for my 2012 Tacoma (65,000 miles) three years ago. There's huge demand for good old stuff.

Posted by: Martin Tell at July 31, 2026 11:54 AM (sFNX2)

225 According to the Propaganda Press, brave people like Thumb Tillis and John Cornyn are now the idea leaders in the GOPe caucus, and they are "finally standing up" to fascism and Trump.

Nothing says "idea leader" quite like preventing the customer from getting what they want for a few months after you've been fired for refusing to give the customer what they want.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at July 31, 2026 11:55 AM (ExV1e)

226 219 Meant " not quite so funny"...

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at July 31, 2026 11:55 AM (W90Ou)

227 I think most software companies don't do usability testing. They don't understand that techis use software differently.
Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 31, 2026 11:42 AM (bkuEU)

This. And techies don't realize the end customer will use it differently. Ran into this as a bank teller. Software didn't support something obvious that many customers wanted because no teller had been consulted when software was made.
On the other hand, Inspector was the school accountant who was consulted on software that ended up being used for decades. Did help that he also had a programming background so knew where the dev blind spots would be.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 31, 2026 11:55 AM (lFFaq)

228 ready to ripe
*ready to over-ripe

Posted by: Don in SoCo at July 31, 2026 11:55 AM (3Pbwf)

229 I thought "Bob's your uncle" referred to Arthur Balfour, who owed his political rise to his uncle Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 31, 2026 11:44 AM (O0L8i)

------------

Did Salisbury die at The Stake?

Posted by: ShainS at July 31, 2026 11:55 AM (YDC8i)

230 Mags and aluminium wheels ruined all my fun. Used to be able to get a few laughs out of putting rocks or nuts and bolts under hubcaps. Now, there's only one way to get a snicker.

Posted by: The Banana In Your Tailpipe at July 31, 2026 11:55 AM (JM9I6)

231 If you haven't been indexing your drives, I recommend starting this on a Friday night - the initial indexing can take a long ass time to build depending on the number of files already stored, and writing to disk while it's indexing only makes it take longer. Do this over a weekend.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice
========
I just use linux except for taxes nowadays. Probably going to switch to an Apple box just for that due to Microsux deterioration. And yes, I have indexed, maxxed out memory, etc. on platforms to keep windows running at a decent speed. It still sucks compared with Linux or Apple.

And I have used every OS since even OS/2, from dos, to windows 3.1, to 95,98,2000,XP, NT, Win7, 8.1, and 10/11 among others.

Windoze has deteriorated and the quality of Microsoft products like Outlook, Office, Edge, and even its vestigal search engine like Bing are crapware.

Started using Linux as a daily driver about 2008-9 due to privacy issues and using r stat language, since then I only keep a few pet windows machines for specific programs that I use--mainly expensive statistics and graphing programs which have also gotten shittier.

Posted by: whig at July 31, 2026 11:55 AM (E4rtv)

232 Talking about retirement last thread? I just checked my SS account and the difference between January 01, 2028 & November 2029 is $337.00 a month. I could make that up as a door greeter at WM part time.

I'll give them a year if we have to go back into the office five days a week. I'm not giving them three years.

Posted by: rickb223 at July 31, 2026 11:56 AM (Zja42)

233 I don't get what the Outlook programmers don't get about "unread".
Posted by: Axeman at July 31, 2026 11:30 AM (Fi81e)

Try अपठित ग.

Maybe they can understand if it's in Hindi.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at July 31, 2026 11:56 AM (ExV1e)

234 Google is determined to make you use Gemini over plain search as much as possible.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at July 31, 2026 11:52 AM (6ydKt)
---
I actually like using Gemini on Android Auto.

I can say "Add a stop on 123 Oak Street" on my way to work, and whereas before the simpler Google interface couldn't do it, Gemini does it.

It's like having an assistant while you are driving.

"Look for a Speedway gas station no more than 5 minutes from my route within 100 miles (because my "range" is ~130ish) of the route." is a command it can understand.

Posted by: Axeman at July 31, 2026 11:57 AM (Fi81e)

235 I find it hard to believe people still use Google for searches when DuckDuckGo exists.

Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at July 31, 2026 11:57 AM (5YmYl)

236 *Should have asked "Did Salisbury burn at The Stake?

Posted by: ShainS at July 31, 2026 11:57 AM (YDC8i)

237 I don't get what the Outlook programmers don't get about "unread".
Posted by: Axeman at July 31, 2026 11:30 AM (Fi81e)

Try अपठित ग.

Maybe they can understand if it's in Hindi.
Posted by: I used to have a different nic at July 31, 2026 11:56 AM (ExV1e)
---
Impressive.

Posted by: Axeman at July 31, 2026 11:57 AM (Fi81e)

238 Google is an ad company now, its "search function" is primarily about serving up ads and "sponsored results". This carries over to every part of their operation; YouTube (which they own and operate) has been increasingly sh*tted up with ads, including unskippable ads which are growing in length. (Contrary to their claims that the 90 second unskippables were "a glitch" that was fixed, I can personally testify they are out there--I got stuck with one earlier this week!)

Posted by: Brother Tim sez: Fiat Justicia, Ruat Caelum at July 31, 2026 11:57 AM (OUMaO)

239 On the other hand, Inspector was the school accountant who was consulted on software that ended up being used for decades. Did help that he also had a programming background so knew where the dev blind spots would be.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette

I did the same at my company, helping to develop some internally written production software. It has lasted a lot longer than any "professional" software.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 31, 2026 11:57 AM (0U5gm)

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