I would just like to register my piss/moan/bitch/whine here. I love dogs. I think they are fantastic. They have adapted to being our best non-human friends and our faithful companions. If they didn't exist, you could hardly have invented a better alternative from scratch. Of course, they adapted with our help, as we have bred them to love us and have largely eliminated their basic instinct to fear or hate human beings through (unnatural) selection. I believe that this was achieved long ago by means of breeding dogs that remained puppyish and friendly, and not breeding animals which demonstrated more "adult-like" behaviours. Anyway, I digress. They have become our friends over the millennia by careful but mutually beneficial manipulation of the breed. Unfortunately, we didn't stop there. We currently breed dogs to accentuate certain characteristics - from the freakish size and body-shape of Great Danes, down to the ridiculousness that is the Yorkshire Terrier. Bulldogs that cannot breathe. German Shepherds that cannot walk. Breed weaknesses that are compounded, magnified and, unforgivably, accepted by humans, in an effort to hold nature at bay and maintain a given "breed standard". We are destroying dogs by means of our meddling and wrong-headedness. Prevalent incestuous and unhealthy breeding practices. We are treating our "best friends" worse that we treat our worst enemies. It makes me angry and occasionally, I feel the need to vent. Think on this. That is all.
You're not wrong. Sadly, though, some breeds are just brilliant even if they are over-bred. I love bulldogs. They are the funniest, most endearing animals you could wish to live with. But it is true: they can be delicate in health and they sound like a locomotive when you take them for a walk - not that they seem to care. I don't really know what the answer is. Bulldog crosses are just less bulldog-like and not as funny. It's a real conundrum.
It's a conundrum until you eliminate hubris from the equation. They are living creatures, not fashion accessories and lifestyle choices (we have The Scrambler for all that nonsense).
Think on the fact that you need to vent? Michael Douglas, Falling Down comes to mind. Should I lock the doors...
So Micro$oft are having a bit of a laugh? My home PC suddenly cannot use Google Chrome to view pages. Web pages, chrome settings pages, doesn't matter. Occasionally it will load a page but if you want to move on from that one, no chance. Sometimes restarting Chrome enables you to view another page, sometimes not. Restarting PC, ditto. Disabled Chrome Extensions, no effect on fault. Micro$oft Edge was working, so I used it to download Opera and tried that browser. Same behaviour. Attempted to re-install Chrome, that did not go well. Research indicated that if you have a TAP adapter for use with a VPN client, that can be a problem after a Windows 10 update. I duly uninstalled the VPN client, restarted, no effect on fault. Looked into rolling back the latest Windows update but that must have been over ten days ago so no chance. Hmm, did the latest Windows update have a time-bomb in it set to go off just over ten days after it is installed, which effectively disables non-MS browsers? Sounds paranoid to me. MS Edge works just fine throughout all this. Uh huh. Maybe time to start looking for an up-to-date distro of Linux. If my laptop gets affected by this feature, Linux may be the way forward cos this shit is fucking shit.
time for an Apple?? - been thinking about this for a while as similarly find myself gazing at broken Windows quite a lot lately
*cough* *cough* Apple? Apple? Are you out of your mind? Apple is the same as M$, except Apple doesn't have the decency to even try to hide their arrogance and disdain for their user base.
sorry, just a suggestion, helps me think* - maybe Brazil nuts** would suit you more? *finding a reliable glazier these days is like chewing.. no, stop there. **rich source of selenium.
Maybe so Loz but my Mac has no such problems. It even runs windows in a window faster than my PC. I know theyre a behemoth but as you said, theyre upfront about it and everything just works. Go with Linux, I would too but alas I have a wife who can barely compute.
I suppose I could get a load of Brazil nuts, stuff them into the PC case until it's full and proceed to smash the Brazil nuts with my 4kg sledgehammer (which gets precious little use these days, alas). I like your thinking Chris, always have.
