Category Archives: User Experience

How to fix: Google Chrome on Linux always launches in full-screen mode

UPDATE [2020-07-30]: The current version of Chrome has restored the checkbox allowing people to tell Chrome to launch without prompting, so the hack described below is no longer needed. Executive summary If you’re using Google Chrome on Linux and it’s stuck in a state where every time you launch it, it starts in full-screen mode,… Read More »

Review: Fitbit Ionic vs. Garmin Forerunner 35

I recently replaced my Fitbit Ionic, which I wore for a couple years, with a Garmin Forerunner 35. Before the Fitbit, I wore two different Pebble models, so I’ve had long-term experience with four different fitness smart-watches. Here are my thoughts about both watches and how they compare. A good overall framing for this review… Read More »

Vanguard Group, you disappoint me again

Dear Vanguard, Yesterday, I wrote to you about the trouble I had trying to donate stock to a charity through your site, and the additional trouble I had when trying to complain to you about the initial trouble. I also tweeted at you about it. You responded this morning: I also DM’d you and asked… Read More »

Vanguard Group, you disappoint me

Dear Vanguard, I have been a Vanguard account-holder for a rather long time, and overall I have been exceedingly happy with the service you have provided. Today, however, I am irritated, because today, you unnecessarily wasted my time and made my life more difficult, something which in the past you have been exceedingly good at… Read More »

The state of Mozilla Thunderbird development is uncertain

The Thunderbird team needs to figure out how to make it possible for extension maintainers to port their extensions to newer Thunderbird versions without a huge amount of effort. Many Thunderbird users rely on extensions, and they are going to keep using Thunderbird 60 until the extensions they rely on are supported in newer versions.

This is what happens when you let monkeys with keyboards design your email templates

You know how sometimes you encounter something that is so terrible and appalling that you feel you just have to tell other people about it? Well, for me, today is one of those days. But look, I’m a nerd who writes email software and likes to write raw HTML. If the terms “SMTP” and “MIME”… Read More »

Why you should turn off “Ads with your social actions” on Facebook

While I was scrolling through Facebook recently, this came up in my feed: I’ve blurred out the name of one of my friends at the top of the ad so as not to single them out. However, I can say with near-absolute certainty that this particular friend would not knowingly endorse anything that Ben Shapiro… Read More »