The Commander’s Assessment, A leader must review the tools used by the crew. For when you need an outside eye on a piece of tech or some hardware out in the world. Reviews with a discerning critique towards the BS of the world.
In a blog post, Microsoft says Defender is enough for most Windows 11 users. No extra antivirus needed if you keep defaults enabled and update regularly.
Microsoft might be right, but instead they are so wrong here, The average computer problem exist between the computer and the chair. Even the most security minded individual can find themselves trapped in a moment where they have to wipe their entire PC out due to one misclick .
Give or take even if you have a secure version of windows they are assuming you never install 3rd party software, Never update your drivers and never have the computer on the internet with the computer locked in a scif. Otherwise, the second you are on the internet, Microsoft is leaking a shit ton of telemetry on your computer to the world.
if you never take a risk ever with the computer, You should be “fine” however you go to site to download common safe software and you get to play roulette, four different download buttons two chain off to different sites and one gives you the computer STD.
From the second you enter in your information for your windows 11 , Windows(microsoft) is already messing around in your cupboards taking inventory so if you have a stash of photos of your family Microsoft has already taken that and moved it to onedrive without asking much… well they did but they did a batch accept on all microsoft logins and by the time you violated some privacy policy or moved a picture of someone who did not want to be on the net it is already there with a shared use from microsoft. Given the fact that MS leaks this much out of the box anyone trying to hide from domestic abusers or worse there is a major chance to leak and leave yourself out in the open.
The other thing is , if there is a 0-day exploit on a wednesday, You have to wait till next tuesday until MS patches windows defender to update the definitions. With mainstream AV programs , it could be as little as hours until the AV updates to stop the 0-day.
Also bad websites are telling people to put commands in the “search” which in reality just fucks you over by installing spyware where you might just kiss your bank account goodbye. NEVER run anything a website asks you to do in a search bar.
But to make Microsoft’s Assertion accurate. You turn on the PC , Never Log it in. Air gap the updates to it . Never connect it to the internet. destroy bluetooth and Wifi Cards. Otherwise the second that PC thinks its on a network it shouting into the ether on IM HEEEEEEEEEEEERE.
Not to mention, Microsoft undoes any safety margins you have created every time it updates. Deleting onedrive from the system is like trying to get rid of lice with butter, it just doesn’t work. It switches you back to Edge and tries to import anything from other browsers back to edge. Microsofts security is part of the whole, if you must run it , Get Malwarebytes , on a secondary level do not be afraid to run another anti-virus to be double sure. if your PC is acting strange, don’t just assume that everything is ok. Google occasionally fails at spot checking their own sponsored links. That vector can lead to the fastest accidental system infection.
The worst part of the whole thing is Microsoft claims to have made everything easier, it has made it where as long as you invite the vampire in by either command line or installed software or even microsoft themselves they are free to do what they want and microsoft defender won’t look up from looking at the magazine it’s looking at.
A single misclicked installed chrome or edge extension can lift your entire saved password folder without even as much as a thank you.
In the end Microsoft is saying you can have the safest PC in the world, Just don’t use it, move it to an island without internet nor power and your fine.
AI can be a great and terrible thing. But, I feel like AI in its current form is crap, companies trying to shove it into everything possible like AI lawn mowers. Why stick a computer in a lawn Mower that tries to use GPS that ends up killing your neighbors roses when you can use markers on your lawn. AI coffee pots? no give me a power button damn it. Web browsing is been enshittified to make the AI browsing more “effective”. In the past you could search something on google without 10 pages of garbage because the search results were vetted, Checked and than indexed by computer.
The problem with AI is it is centralized, We have to ask one machine. We have to ask one machine to talk to another machine to talk to the software that talks to another machine that turns on a light bulb. It is this fragmented centralization we pay the devils due to. By saying hey _____ turn on the light, The machine took your input, checked your associations figured out which company owns the light bulb , gave up your data , gave up usage and likely sniffed your network just to make a 5000 mile trip halfway across the world to turn on your light bulb less than 10 feet from you. By the time you weigh out your privacy cost your cool colorful light bulb sniffed your network or your bluetooth and found you have a bluetooth vibrator in your house. The app that controls your light bulb is now giving your personal massager ads now.
Now that i firmly have shit on centralized AI, I need to make the opposite argument for AI. Having a deeply centralized machine to an intuitive person can be amazing. Research that was done with hours of pouring over google, bing, Yahoo because they all index differently, with a side dish of wikipedia’s articles with the comments on wiki took hours, Now with AI you can ask the question have AI either excerpt it or in my case show me point of view that conflict each other to get a more whole perspective on thing is great. but, There is one caveat, Vet your research, do not assume AI is always right . Just like a librarian your helpful AI will bring you boundless information on your subject of research, but if your AI librarian gets confused just like the human can give you output that makes you go what the fuck? But if you properly vet your research (meaning: check its work) with the AI , It can find information that before would take hours between 3 search engines 1 online encyclopedia and 3 cups of coffee, you spent your day researching on the failures of the “streaming industry” and you’ve barely started your work. Now with AI you can work AI as a vetted peer researcher, you can tell it when it is wrong. The websearch that was the past took know how of using the web search keys like “” – + that 99% of people do not use.
Where my final thoughts here is… Do we need a centralized AI? Yes and NO. Why because centralized information for an AI makes for great research. But does my home device need to connect to that to turn on a light? Fuck no , that device should use a cut down version of the AI locally that only knows how to turn on lights , Adjust your heat and the other simple joys around the house, If you have a AI coffeepot or teapot Call me when you can do “Tea Earl Grey hot” or “coffee whole milk, semi sweet”. Only when decentralized AI does not understand the query should it ever “phone home” .
Sometimes, with AI the same goes for image generation, It is useful, but right now its just massive shitposting. If I as a photoshop user want to save several hours making an image I will annotate to the AI the image I want but I will not take any claim to it . I wont hide the tagging Gemini puts on the image because it is a time saver to me. And a lot of the times I let the image generation do what it wants because sometimes its funny as hell to watch the smaller hallucinations of a peer check on an article play out in the image. In my life if an AI saves me an hour creating an image I will let it come up with something. In my real life with my canon camera I will never let AI touch an image I take, I prefer nature and the perfect chaos that real life is to capture the best image. I prefer a natural smile to an AI “fixed” image. they look plastic.
So while you may read into my visions to AI as hate , its more like critique for a better world where information is not sold but given to make us better as people. Otherwise whole saleing information behind locked doors just makes us look as bad as the 1100s.
This post is long and if you have got this far without AI summarizing it for you, Enjoy your next sip of coffee and give pat yourself on the back. Im proud of you.
Another year another startrek show. The last few shows have been good but people have been complained about. Discovery and its “too woke”.. bullshit. Give it time watch the show, don’t criticize that it has a female lead. Picard.. Take that show and give it finally showing the dirty under surface for once. People did not like it, but you know what it gave the show an emotion better than Data’s first season emotions for once! Star Trek: strange new worlds – now there is some good shit that is a cross between TOS and TNG!
But i digress… Starfleet academy… Well its different yet the same. The opening was a little more character building for one character than the rest. There was one thing that was aggravating… Who the fuck thought the Blair witch project camera style of camera was a good idea! it brings back the bullshit is the Kelvin Lens flare timeline! The camera work was almost done by a drunk sea sick worker. The action is pretty good. the rising action of the introductory characters seemed to be uncalled for . Using the characters from the first 5 minutes 20 minutes later 10 years later was a cheap plot filler. they could of used this action in its own episode. the Doctor was a welcome introduction from voyager. the same but different doctor but he is still more or less annoyed by everyone and everyone is annoyed by him. Give or take this is the first episode i have hope for this show . It was not as bad as Picard’s season one where the show felt unsure of itself.
Honestly, This show is good . its seems to flow it has a moving storyline and it keeps in line with a “sequel” to discovery, which in my opinion received more hate than it deserved.
I give this first episode: 8/10 bones saying “Dammit Jim I’m a doctor not an elevator.”
Sure, phone reviews aren’t as common these days, but that doesn’t mean smartphones are any less important or complex. Actually, they’re way more than just phones now. Think of them as these smart hubs we carry around that control all sorts of things in our lives. They link up with everything from our smartwatches and earbuds to even our coffee makers and ceiling fans. Basically, phones are central to how we live and interact with technology every day.
tA Bluetooth coffee maker? Fucking seriously? If I had the money, I’d buy that ridiculous thing just out of morbid curiosity. I mean, Fucking come on, are we really incapable of pressing a button to brew coffee ourselves? I think humanity still has that much dexterity left in our fingers.
Anyways. However a distraction this coffeemaker is not the phone fun spinoff we need to talk about. The thing is when you are out and about having your phone in your hand is kind of a distraction.. I purchased Bluetooth earbuds with both noise cancellation and passthrough audio features to meet my specific needs. if you are on the road and you are a target like me you need passthrough audio in order not to be hit by a car or other things.
I purchased a Bose Quiet comfort ultra. They have a case where they look unique. I hate it when people copy Apple’s airpod shit and act like they are the best thing since sliced pizza. Honestly, though, I get annoyed when other brands just copy Apple’s AirPods and then try to sell it like it’s something totally new and different.
The sound quality is pretty good, though the standard settings are the bose special, enough bass to blow your tits off if you accidentally turn it too far up. You can set different audio profiles to your sound likings. These earbuds stay in your ears and do not fall out. I’ve had earbuds that if you farted hard enough they would fall out.. Here’s looking at your plantronics.
The Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones feature a passthrough audio mode called “Aware.” While it functions, the “Aware” mode doesn’t allow a sufficient amount of external sound to enter. i was almost hit by a car i did not hear behind me. It feels like it lets in a range of audio that is around you but you get blind deaf spots. THis is likely a fault that can not be addressed by firmware. But companies should take notice and develop something that has a passive awareness that can warn you of things in your environment.
Moving to the inside world the noise cancellation is divine. At night if you can’t sleep because your partner is snoring, just shove the quiet comfort ultras in your ears and snoring mosty is gone. I have tested in environments that are loud and basically the noise cancelation gets rid of unwanted noise.
One thing that pisses me off about these earbud is the left earbud can be flaky on connecting. nothing like trying to get some sleep and when you put in the left earbud and the connection fails. No prompt no nothing, You need to take the earbud out and put it back in.
Overall i would say these are a pretty good set of earbuds with a few caveats, I’ve had problems with cases, in the pocket the cases seem to make the USB C Connector fuck up. I’ve had two cases fail and not be able to charge them.
Overall though i would recommend these earbuds.
On sound I’d give these an easy 8/10 on ease of use: 5/10 (left earbud issues found through multiple pairs) Noise cancelation: 9.5/10 Battery: give or take they can last all day 8/10 Durability: 6.5/10 (the fucking case.) Price: 4/10 ( they are expensive.)
Rating Average:6.8 (average of ratings) The coffeecommander Rating: 8.0(personal feel ratings)
Well now … Back to this ..
If you think about this , If you have followed this little sites quest for the one phone… Its been a long quest. Many have fallen. Much tech support bullshit was had, but to which end each and every phone was used through and through, so In our eighth year of phone fun I figure why not.. lets visit the classic style I had originally set as my standard for phones.
The Standard I set in the Samsung M520 post is kind of solid and holds up even to this years phones .
Even If we drop in the most recent acquisition the Nexus 6p is reviewable with the old standards.
to make calls –
Well this may be the weaker point of the review process but this is more over a fine point , If the provider selling the phone has a shitty network , most will point at the phone before the network.
The Phone is configurable
This is paramount more than ever with phones, as companies try to release phones with smaller space to save money this is where phones stand up for themselves.
good battery life
Oh holy shit yes. on the most recent generation of phones battery life is in the toilet.
add/make ringtones
Still a valid assumption due to some phones complicating the process needlessly. It may seem redundant but its not.
Applications that don’t cost a years pay for a small 3rd world country
While technically not part of the phone review, you will find that on phones that sometimes phone applications make the phone.
Durable
Yes indeed. durability … still an issue … from you farted and bent your phone in your pocket to a drop accident while taking a dump
I’ve had a few phones since the original phone fun . at a rate of one a year about.
With the Nexus line being the phones I’ve favored and when I have strayed I have been reminded why the stock experience is the way to go. My last non-stock devices were less than appealing in the long run.
So onwards with this review.
Again the old review process in play here lets start from the beginning..
To make Phone calls: The nexus 6p is very good at making phone calls , On the other hand places I’ve lived have been questionable at best for phone calls. Now the nexus 6p has the ability to hand off phone calls from WIFI to NETWORK to NETWORK flawlessly … When it works its fucking fabulous , When it does not work you wonder if the call was transferred to a demons asshole for the weird noises it can make.. if this hand off can be straightened out it will turn a great feature into a brilliant feature.
Configurable: Being a Nexus phone give this phone advantage over most of the android phones out there. Google give you a frame with a Warp engine and allows you to build off of It. Rather than be stuck with provider baked in bullshit that reminds you to wipe your ass twice before swiping google trusts you enough to know how to download something.
good battery life: Unfortunately smart phones have one of a few drawbacks… The battery life sucks and while building better and faster hardware seems to be the case of things , I can say the Nexus is not half bad. I get roughly 24 to 48 hours depending on use.
add/make ringtones: Over the years this has become a redundant with configurable , Though it would be a subsection because who knows what the fuck developers are thinking .
Applications that don’t cost a years pay for a small 3rd world country: While this still has importance , the shift away from a per phone store is now a marketplace. Out of the box this phone is more or less ready to go… I think one complaint that other manufacturers should pay attention to is.. STOP FUCKING INSTALLING APPS YOU THINK I WILL USE! IF there is something I have hated with the non-nexus phones was spending an hour getting rid of app after app of completely monkey shit. Nexus phones do not do this.. its wonderful. But, When you have a phone with a notification going off in the middle of the night to remind you to put in your store loyalty card , you bet your ass that app is going to get deleted. in the past there were many purchases i made to fix the faults of phones that is not a litter of dead apps that i don’t use .
Durable: Durability , as it stands is kind of a moot point these days. Unfortunately when you have a phone where one side is a large piece of glass , its hard to judge durability .. Most manufactures tend to sacrifice durability for aesthetics , The problem of aesthetics is …. the only way you see how “nice” your phone is , is if you go naked. These days its saner to just put a case on your phone to make it durable. if you look at your phone the wrong way sometimes even with gorilla glass 473487234 your phone will end up fucked by a single micron of dust.
Over all the Nexus 6p is a comfortable sight. Its what you expect out of a google phone rather than the aborted attempts that manufactures try to collaborate with wireless providers for. the nexus line is about choice and its something that people do not realize they have when they are stuck in the world of samsungs that want to sniff your asshole for caloric content to sell to who knows what.
Last I had the Galaxy Note 3 , while it was an OK phone with many options the end game of the note 3 had many letdowns. The phone size is on the scale of a large moon. So after a year of dealing with this phone I decided to talk to sprint about an upgrade to which they kindly offered after a screw up.
Since I’ve always liked the nexus line of phones I went with the option of the Nexus 6. The nexus 6 goes from large moon to Dwarf planet sized. Since I’ve owned a lot of android devices I have found that the stock android OS is among the best with CyanogenMod as second best as far as Android goes. Stock android avoids all the bullshit of having bloatware from both the Device maker and Phone companies. Most times with a none Nexus device I end up spending time disabling half of the shit on the phone just to stop the damn endless nagging from apps on the phone. I understand to a point that providers and device makers want to pre-load apps but, Not everyone wants facespace and half of the other shit on the phone out of the box. I have seen complaints that have made me twitch like “this phone sucks it does not come with facespace installed”. Device wise if I was given the option to have an a la carte version of any phone by paying 50$ more for the base version of android with no preloaded apps/no fucking annoying UI’s / install all yourself I’d buy any phone with that option in an instant.
Yes you can have the a la cart version if you can unlock your phone. but, in some cases its not worth it to loose the warranty (see knox)
Onwards to the new phone! The nexus 6 retains all of the ideas of the nexus 5 but on a fucking ginormous screen. While not the biggest phone the nexus is near the top in size. Its a nice phone and seems to keep up with making phonecalls , I used to abhore large devices, but in time I have made my peace with them and actually welcome them now. The nexus 6 is on the aircraft carrier size of phones. 5.5 to 6 inches is a sweet spot as far as large phones are concerned. once you go above that you might as well buy a small tablet and make calls from that.
The one complaint i have is – NO FUCKING NOTIFICATION LIGHT*! yes there is a fucking asterisk in that…. Why you say … Because the nexus 6 has a damn notification light that is disabled! What the flying monkey fuck ! If you look around you can access the notification light by rooting and installing an app, that light should of been a default option.
Over all I actually don’t have too many complaints about the nexus 6 . So heres to another edition of phone fun
In the last edition of Phone fun I had picked up the Galaxy Note 3. Now this phone is about the size of a small moon but does not hold a dime of the planet sized Galaxy Mega. Now while in hardware the phone is good but the software side of the phone can be completely rage inducing.
For all the phones functions there are parts of the phone that are completely annoying. Having to reset every wifi password every month or so just annoys the hell out of me. For whatever reason when the phone has a poor wifi connection it decides its a good time to dump every wifi password on the phone.
There should be no reason on this earth to do this. What ever process samsung made in making this phone had to been a result of being high and saying “dude wouldn’t be funny when people had a bad connection to make all the passwords disappear!”
The above image is the results of what happens when my phone decides to dump passwords on a weak connection. some of the passwords for wifi are more complicated than quantum theorem.
The UI of the phone is also bothersome . like they overcomplicated the whole UI to make it simpler Yet somehow made it more complicated. While annoying I simply replaced the UI it was kind of a duct taped maneuver because it did not stop the more annoying elements. While google experience is a really simple nice UI touchwiz still attempts to rear its ugly head when you do other things.
I really do wish that phone manufacturers would allow for a stock UI …. Rather than install all the random bullshit with no options to remove.
For example.. Beep and go.. Fuck beep and go with a hand grenade, when it updates itself it decides that it shall annoy the ever living fuck out of you not matter the hour of night . I hear a notification in the middle of the night getting up thinking somethings wrong its Beep and blow… “Would you like to add cards for your shopping experience.” FUCK THAT . uninstalling bleep and fuck only updates itself again . I don’t give a flying fuck about installing my customer loyalty cards to my phone. I don’t need Creep and GO to know what I am buying. they can go fuck themselves with a fire hydrant. Sadly enough I’d pay 50$ to buy the phone without bloatware just to not have to deal with that kind of shit.
Any app that has a push notification needs to die. I do not need to be reminded that I have not played a game in 20minutes. thats grounds for instant uninstall for me.
Things I allow notifications for.. Weather alerts/ Text messages / Emails / Missed calls. anything else is useless, including facefuckspace.
the first thing an app should ask when it has notifications is ask. if you say no . give the are you sure and never ask again function. because if you annoy me to the tiniest degree its to the shit can with your app.
People should stand up against annoying apps instead they just deal with the annoyances .
A shoe post! It has been ages since i’ve posted anything about shoes , the last time I did was due to a problem to which Teva/Decker shoe company where absolutely incredible helping me out with getting my shoes replaced. Since then I’ve stuck with the company and their shoes due to there reliability, My most recent pair of shoes was a pair of the TEVA Churn Watershoe.
Although most sites list these as a watershoe I can not say that they are since I’ve never tested them in water, they have been my day to day shoes for the entire summer. as far as fit , they are a seemingly good fit and remind me of the Teva X-1 Control shoe. Why Teva ever stopped making these shoes is beyond me… If anyone out there from Teva is watching , Please bring back these shoes, those were about the best shoes I’ve owned and I had 2 pairs of those, They weighed next to nothing and were extremely comfortable, The Churn though could be regarded as the cousin to these, while not as rugged as the X-1’s the style of the shoe is based on alike construction and weight although the major differences are in the treads of the shoes the Churns are more like road wear while the X-1 were trail wear. But both shoes are very alike in construction and weight , they are almost like wearing socks treads . If you are on your feet all day these will stand up to the test of the day , I’ve worn shoes that you want to light on fire just to feel a bit more comfortable because the heel or other parts of your foot are in agony .
For the churns I’ve done a ton of walking in them and they do not wear as easy as the X-1s, If you do alot of road walking or walking in building these are the shoes for you, the no lace thing is also very nice due to the fact you can throw them on in a hurry if you are going out.
Awhile back I had gotten the Galaxy Nexus , and the phone through and through was a pretty good phone other than needing a small nuclear power plant to keep the battery up. While the nuclear power plant option was a little steep in price I did get a Satechi 10000 mAh Portable Energy Station, Its as close as you can get to nuclear power for a phone without the radiation hazards. Not to mention that the nuclear power plant has some mobility disadvantages.
Funny enough after a year plus with the phone I realized it had the same problem with its predecessor the phones antenna was not up to par, there were nights I was ready to eat my phone due to the antenna dropping calls or doing other strange shit. Alas though … the Galaxy Nexus met its end, While the phone was tough it was not tough enough when it picked a fight with a concrete floor and the floor won. While my comment about the back battery cover feeling like your going to break the phone is only partially correct. The phone itself can take some serious abuse.
The phone I chose as its replacement was the LG nexus 5 , It improves further on the Nexus line of phones with some disadvantages. You loose the ability to some degree to replace the battery on your own, while the battery is “non user serviceable” with a few tools you can get the battery replaced on your own. Battery life is improved a slight bit while 24 hours is still the high bar for keeping a charge on the phone with light use as I am looking at my phone now and with 38% of the battery left and 1day and 2 hours on battery.
So, As we left off way back when in phone fun MMXXIV I ended up with the Nexus S 4g, Since I’ve had that phone it was pretty smooth sailing as far as a phone goes. The phone was durable to the point of being thrown into a wall multiple times.
This edition of phone fun has ended up with a mostly positive review of things since I decided to upgrade to the Galaxy Nexus , this phone is step above the nexus s and has more bells and whistles .. namely a FUCKING NOTIFICATION LIGHT!!!!.. Holy hell do you miss those when you don’t have one.
If is there is one thing a phone must be with it has to be a notification light because you become obsessive with checking if you have missed any messages.
There are a few complaints about the Galaxy nexus….
They are minor, Yet annoying..
The back battery cover feels like you’re going to break the thing when you try to access the battery, Also with the battery is its life , You feel like you need to carry around a small nuclear power station in order not to run the battery down. Phones are progressing at an amazing rate, but the technology for batteries are not. Going 24 Hours is the high bar for newer phones, if you lock yourself in a room for a day and ignore every phone call , You might get over one day. Even with batteries progressing at a slow rate why don’t companies at least mitigate with a small change to the the phone that would go many miles by simply putting a solar cell on the back cover. Sure it doesn’t solve anything if you live in a cave but what the hell .. Its a start.
The other minor issue is getting Google voice to work with the phone when transferring from one phone to the next, which seemingly has a strange fix. If you update your phone to the most recent version of Google voice you will have errors and the phone will never sync to it. The way around it seems to be using the stock version of Google voice which works out.
For all the phones functions there are parts of the phone that are completely annoying. Having to reset every wifi password every month or so just annoys the hell out of me. For whatever reason when the phone has a poor wifi connection it decides its a good time to dump every wifi password on the phone.
The above image is the results of what happens when my phone decides to dump passwords on a weak connection. some of the passwords for wifi are more complicated than quantum theorem.
Although most sites list these as a watershoe I can not say that they are since I’ve never tested them in water, they have been my day to day shoes for the entire summer. as far as fit , they are a seemingly good fit and remind me of the Teva X-1 Control shoe. 
Why Teva ever stopped making these shoes is beyond me… If anyone out there from Teva is watching , Please bring back these shoes, those were about the best shoes I’ve owned and I had 2 pairs of those, They weighed next to nothing and were extremely comfortable, The Churn though could be regarded as the cousin to these, while not as rugged as the X-1’s the style of the shoe is based on alike construction and weight although the major differences are in the treads of the shoes the Churns are more like road wear while the X-1 were trail wear. But both shoes are very alike in construction and weight , they are almost like wearing socks treads . If you are on your feet all day these will stand up to the test of the day , I’ve worn shoes that you want to light on fire just to feel a bit more comfortable because the heel or other parts of your foot are in agony .