For the record, the problem in Norway was that government programs to encourage electric vehicle ownership were too successful and incentivized people to drive instead of use transit. Also, the financial incentives for purchasing electric cars mostly went to people who were already wealthy.

It’s not that bad, the macros are just front end apps. Our data is housed in a real, enterprise class database.

We do have developers on our team. They write Excel macros :). I work in data integration, so it isn’t as simple as building a more robust tool. We still need infrastructure support or our tool doesn’t do anything.

Another confirmation here. At my previous job, I was they guy who built Access databases and wrote VBA code. While not ideal, it was a very small business (less than 10 employees) and it was fit for purpose.

When I got a new job at a company with almost 3,000 employees, I was like, “Finally, I’ll be working somewhere that has proper IT resources.” Ha! I soon find out that my department runs critical business infrastructure with Excel macros. And we have a proper IT department.

As everyone has already said, if IT resources are in short supply (or the wait is too long, or building projects with IT support is a PITA), then people will build systems with the tools they have at hand. And that’s often MS Office.

It will always be Xitter to me, with the X pronounced like an “sh”.

Sometimes I play rain/storm sounds I’ve downloaded from YouTube. Other times I use the iPhone white noise generator. I’ve set up 2 Siri shortcuts (one for sound on and one for sound off), but tapping the back sounds like a good way to do it, too.

That’s too bad. I have 189,000 miles on mine (304,000 km) and it’s never let me down. I haven’t had to do anything but regular maintenance on it. I wanted to replace it with something a bit newer and nicer, but had to replace the car my wife and daughter share, instead. Fortuately, I don’t drive very much so it will probably hold out for a few more years.

I commuted 2 1/2 hours a day, mostly highway driving. In a Yaris, with a passenger. For 8 years. I was driving, not stretching out to take a nap.

TBH, I would have preferred a car that was quieter and had a bit more comfortable ride. But a Corolla, Civic, Mazda 3 or Elantra would have been just fine.

My current car is an '07 Yaris. It’s totally bare bones, but everyone who has been in it comments on how spacious the interior is.

I’ve always driven small cars, because they’re economical and I’ve never needed anything larger. I hate that small hatchbacks are so scarce in the US and that our roads are overrun with ludicrously huge pickups and SUVs. We transitioned from land yachts to small cars in the late 1970’s and 1980’s, we could do it again with the right incentives.

TikTok

What scientist would not want to promote their latest research while wearing a CGI-generated cat head and doing interpretative dance to a base heavy riff by a band autotuned to sound like robotic pre-pubescent Japanese girls?

I get the result you got, but the Emergent Mind response is the second organic result. That’s still way too high.

I thought the appeal of SE was the traditional (pre iPhone X) layout.

The SE v3 was reportedly a poor seller (as was the mini). Not enough fans of Touch ID and a 4 1/2 inch display to satisfy Apple.

How do people know at a glance which apps have unread notifications?

Basically, you don’t. At least, not in the same way as an Android phone. Notifications are visible on your lock screen or by swiping down from the top to the left of the notch. I’m an Android to iPhone switcher and app notifications in the top bar is the thing that I miss the most.

That’s my go-to technique. But I would prefer that Lifehacker was not publicizing it.

I’d like to see right to repair laws expanded to right to unlock. I think you could make a reasonable argument that a working device that’s not receiving security updates is just as broken as a device that’s experienced a hardware failure.

Yep. Assistant still isn’t fully integrated with Google’s own apps (I’m looking at you, Voice and Tasks).

Yes, although I’d argue that it’s a pick your poison thing. You can use a system where the content of your texts aren’t secure, or you can let Meta add even more personal information to the dossier it has on you, your friends and the family dog.

I’ve seen a lot of discussion about why most of the rest of the world uses messaging apps instead of texting, so I understand. And messaging applications are objectively better in almost every way. But the threat of enshittification is always present when people choose a corporate walled garden. Hopefully some of the new EU regulations on account portability will make lock-in less of a concern.

This is one of those times when I’m glad we Luddites in the US still use mostly SMS/MMS. I have managed to avoid anything Facebook/Meta and I would have been pissed if the messaging app that all my friends and family were already using was sold to Zuck.

Create Firefox launchers

Launch the Firefox profile manager:
$ firefox -ProfileManager

Launch a specific profile:
$ firefox -P "ProfileName"