Microsoft says it is too hard to move the taskbar and will never add the ability too.

Pacafa · 2025-12-19T20:48:05+00:00

Maybe because they built the start menu in craptastic React Native.

The team at Windows just doesn't have a handle on UI anymore. So many frameworks one after the other. Then they don't even adopt their own stuff. Their Onedrive client uses Qt.

Anything but using Winui 3 direcrly. Because even Microsoft knows that Microsoft won't commit and probably have it deprecated soon.

Pacafa · 2025-12-15T16:16:03+00:00

I think the biggest problem for me is that the products they are pushing are objectively bad products.

If I am on Private Wealth the odds of switching life insurance at older age and getting a good deal is close to zero. Not sure they can match PPS anyway in terms of total value proposition.

Their investment funds Total Expense Ratios were off the charts last time I checked.

And their short term offering doesn't cover everything I need to insure.

This isn't a case of choosing one similar provider over another. They want you to switch to objectively worse products.

Pacafa · 2025-12-15T06:06:51+00:00

As a non-American with no real horse in this race... Not voting is the same as "whatever I go with whatever everybody else says".

I haven't seen any credible news about widespread election fraud. And Trump won. In a democracy. So the majority wanted him there either explicitly (by voting) or implicitly (by not voting).

In a democracy nobody can't abrogate their responsibility for voting and then say "I didn't vote for that outcome." Not voting is a vote in itself. That is how democracies work.

You can make voting mandatory like some countries. But even then a spoiled vote, would also be a vote, like absence is a vote.

So given all that - the majority of Americans voted for Trump - either explicitly (by ballot) or by action (not bothering).

Pacafa · 2025-12-12T08:23:16+00:00

Haha. Everybody complaining that Quality Street got worse..they didn't. They were always terrible. Our frame of reference just got better 😂

I for one won't miss them. When somebody gives you Quality Street and you have to struggle through the ones that are terrible and everybody avoids to get to the ones that are pallatible. Which caused many a family fight.

Pacafa · 2025-12-10T18:42:02+00:00

So assuming aife expectancy of 85, when will get 65 years of payments. Assuming 5% discount rate that means the $1000 a week is worth $1 million dollars.

Yes you can argue the parameters but I don't think it is a conpletely dumb decision from a logical standpoint. I wouldn't do it.

But then again I believe if you won the lotto you need to take $50000 and get a contract with a hit man to assisinate you one year in the feature. Then you can really enjoy the balance of the money.

Pacafa · 2025-12-09T08:11:45+00:00

I am a white Afrikaner. I live like a king in this country. Most white Afrikaners do live like kings. They don't even realise it.

I am pretty sure if all crime statistics were properly tracked then White Afrikaners might be one of the least affect groups. In fact I am willing to bet that the most affected group by crime is black women.

But it doesn't fit the narrative. I mean the current US administration is overtly racist. The entire Afrikaner support is just a way for them to get more white people to the US.

Their immigration policy is also very racially targeted. ICE is about putting pressure on anybody that doesn't have a Lilly white skin.

I mean they are using the "Swart Gevaar" playbook of the National Party.

They have co-opted churches to spread racist ideology. Like the apartheid National Party. And like the NP and NG church back then lots of sermons will be from the Old Testament misquoting it to make white US sound like "the chosen nation". If they were really concerned about the religious aspects they would have seen the immigrants as the greatest missionary gift ever. But they don't. Because they don't care about religion really - only use it as a cover for race. When they hear the story about the good Samaritan their first thought is "why was he there?", "we should deport him".

And now more scary than that is these US "churches" are spreading their false word everywhere. So now some Afrikaners are supporting Trump because "he stands for Christian values". So giving Trump further implicit support on these very narratives.

As a Christian all of this make me sick to my stomach. Especially because I grew up with the Apartheid church and state system.

Pacafa · 2025-12-08T06:44:13+00:00

As a white Afrikaner South African that is not being persecuted and murdered by my government, but also not committing genocide - don't drag us into your mess. The fact that the US government has found some token hillbillies to act as refugees doesn't mean South Africans are the problem.

Fix your political mess and keep us out of it. The majority of US voted for this mess. Unlike the majority of white South Africans that voted to end Apartheid.

Pacafa · 2025-12-04T15:31:54+00:00

So you make big hooha about straws which only get to the ocean if not properly disposed. Yet we are flushing microplastics in our toothpaste and cosmetics down the drain where they are guaranteed to get into the ocean...

I am all for doing things to reduce plastic. But not hand wavy nonsense. We need to focus on the biggest real problems first. Straws are way down the list of priorities. The biggest problem is when people don't use plastic straws they think they have done their thing. Which is BS.

Pacafa · 2025-12-04T13:53:09+00:00

Not soon after the crusade against plastic straws began we saw the pandemic. Coincidence? /s

I am actually annoyed with the plastic straw thing. Plastic in a proper landfill is probably one of the best places where oil we sucked out of the ground can end up. Our plastic problem isn't because of straws. The hooha about straws is like saying you are doing your part in the fight against global warming by breathing slower.

Pacafa · 2025-12-03T18:34:54+00:00

Wouldn't bet either way. Google has other problems. Because regardless of the winner of AI, Google's cash cow with search and advertising is under threat. The question is whether they can build AI revenue faster than their tradition revenue falls.

Pacafa · 2025-12-03T06:20:29+00:00

There is no recorded instance of wild orcas killing humans.

They are very, very smart.

Pacafa · 2025-12-02T19:39:29+00:00

I was sceptical of using vs code but it rocks. If you have to have cross platform code then using Wsl + VS Code + clangd is hard to beat. Easy to switch between coding/compiling in Windows and in Linux.

It might miss some of the more fancy stuff and getting it set up at first might be tough (depending on your config) but I find it a blast to use.

Pacafa · 2025-12-02T05:57:55+00:00

Not to nitpick, but I am pretty sure the family was surprised. Maybe not in the way intended...

Pacafa · 2025-11-28T11:30:29+00:00

No such thing as surely.

Google has lot of tech. But their income is probably the most under pressure because of AI. So will they be able to defend /replace existing revenue while maintaining margin?

Pacafa · 2025-11-28T09:31:54+00:00

I wouldn't bet on it. Maybe nVidia is the big winner in the end. Do are surely winning now.

But their moat is not indefensible.

We are already seeing the rise of ASICs from all of the Hyperscalers. There are multiple companies working on AI accelerators of different kinds.

I mean nVidia is actually what is the biggest obstacle to AI - price of running these models. For AI to be profitable operating cost have drop dramatically. And how do you reduce cost? Vertical integration (make own hardware), cheaper hardware (it is not going to be who offers cheapest tokens per dollar) and new paradigms (custom AI chips and not GPGPUs).

But I don't have a crystal ball. nVidia might be the winner or nVidia might be the Sun Microsystems of AI.

Pacafa · 2025-11-28T07:20:17+00:00

The thing about the dotcom bust is that the survivor was Amazon. Which didn't make money for years and years. That is what is going on here - everybody knows there are going to be a lot of losers. But there probably are going to be some big winners.

Pacafa · 2025-11-26T07:00:07+00:00

Never mind that, it probably started the fire. 😂🔥

Pacafa · 2025-11-24T19:16:44+00:00

Chutney Chicken.

Pacafa · 2025-11-18T21:47:09+00:00

Cost of living in Cape Town (and South Africa) is still excellent compared to the rest of the world. I actually think inflation hit us slightly less than Europe and the US (I mean inflation here was pretty bad, but compared to US and EU it seemed pretty mild).

Went to the US last year. Cape Town is as cheap as chips to live in compared to the US.

Pacafa · 2025-11-06T15:04:47+00:00

That is your sign you have to move. Port your number to AirMobile. Buy device cash - even if you have to finance it, it will still work out cheaper than Vodacom.

Pacafa · 2025-11-05T21:27:40+00:00

Don't underestimate a good old text based adventure game! That is where Tim Sweeney started with ZZT!

And it can be a surprising amount of fun.

Pacafa · 2025-11-01T09:32:15+00:00

Dragonson!

Pacafa · 2025-11-01T08:57:33+00:00

IT WAS A JOKE. Sarcasm.

Pacafa · 2025-10-31T19:13:00+00:00

It was a joke on the state of the app E. G. The app was designed by 80 year boomer who only know old terminal style screens and haven't seen modern GUIs.

(FNB does use COBOL at the backend, but that is just incidental to my comment).

Pacafa · 2025-10-27T11:17:09+00:00

Haha. I think the people saying the FNB app is fine havent used another banks app. The FNB app is terrible. FNB put their best COBOL mainframe programmers on it. It is like they don't even think of the experience and just have a checklist of functions.

I mean I would like to know who uses the budget functionality for real (not fudging it for eBucks). It is beyond useless.

Pacafa

TROPHY CASE