mccI just this second drew the line in my head from "Microsoft is one of the companies who is convinced ChatGPT is a good thing and is telling its shareholders it's going to try to shove this brand of 'AI' into everything it can" and "Microsoft owns my phone keyboard, since they bought SwiftKey" and, uh… shit, maybe I should audition AnySoftKeyboard sooner rather than later
At almost the exact same time they rolled out this update, Microsoft deleted the public support forums. The public uservoice/feedback/feature request thing. They appear to have just removed it completely from the support site and old links to it 404. What an interesting coincidence.
Yeah LOL look at this. They removed the public forums in such an incredible hurry that if you just log into the SwiftKey website, there's still a link to the nonexistent forums at the bottom. They must have done this in an *incredible* hurry. I actually was thinking along the lines of "interesting coincidence" but now I actually believe it is not a coincidence and they really did do this just to prevent people discussing welding Bing and "AI" into the FUCKING KEYBOARD
Yeah check this out. The app itself has a "Help and Feedback" section. But there's no way to provide feedback. There's only the "Support" button which links to a static site of prewritten pages. They made the decision to remove the public feedback site, apparently to prevent feedback around "Bing" "AI" integration, they didn't even have the time to tell the people making the actual app to change the button names.
I'm not as certain about this part, but there's a weird detail on the static-support-pages site if you search for something (such as "disable Bing"). Below the search results it simply says "Still haven't found what you're looking for?". EOM. I *think* there used to be something under there like a contact or support link. The line might refer to the links underneath but it doesn't really visually make sense. Now the left-behind line looks so forlorn.
Still haven't found what you're looking for?
This one hurts, it really hurts. I think this hurts worse than Musk buying/poisoning/killing Twitter. I've mentioned this before but a keyboard feels like an extension of your body, and I've been using SwiftKey exclusively for over a decade. I wrote most of this thread in GBoard and it was actually pretty rough to adjust to.
It's bad enough corporations can buy things you like and kill them. This seriously feels like a corporation buying a part of me and taking it away.
It really is true. In the long run, open source software is the only thing that exists. ( https://mastodon.social/@mcc/109683380376727036 ) It doesn't even matter if open source software is good. Eventually you'll have to use it it because there are simply not any alternatives.
Got several people recommending to me "FlorisBoard". Do I understand correctly you cannot install this through Google Play? It's fdroid/sideload only?
Natanael ⚠️@mcc yeah there's a bunch of apps there which don't want to publish via google play, either because of policy violation (some system wide ad blockers) or because of various other Google policies, or because they simply don't want to pay the publishing fee
@Natanael_L there's a publishing fee now?
Michael Nischt@mcc you can install it through the Google Play Store but you need to join the test group and visit the testing page first. It's just a few clicks linked here:
⁂ Fish Id Wardrobe@micha @mcc trying this now and I'm impressed. First time I‘ve ever got glide to work for me (fat fingers)!
Cleảly thẻe ảe still issues 🤪
But you shouldn't listen to me because my usual keyboard looks like this:
@fishidwardrobe @micha I don't think I want to *use* this… but I *respect* it
@mcc @fishidwardrobe haha, I didn't know of it before but was intrigued to give it a try as well. I guess the screenshot saved me the effort.
I fear convenience always wins over privacy. 🙈
I fear convenience always wins over privacy. 🙈
Simon Brooke@mcc "It's frustrating because open source end-user software is of persistently lower quality than commercial"
Uhhmmmmm.... *WHAT*?
Have you ever tried using commercial software?
Dźwiedziu@simon_brooke
Some people have the blessing of not used outsourced, in-house, underfinanced enterprise software, or enterprise grade ITIL ticketing solutions.
Or even software designed perfectly, but designed to fork over your wallet.
Dag Ågren ↙︎↙︎↙︎@mcc Speaking of things in that thread, I have been using heptapod.host for a while now for mercurial hosting, and it has an actual user interface that doesn't try to bite your face off, but it does still cost money.
@WAHa_06x36 Maybe it was never reasonable to expect free source code hosting. I don't know.
@mcc Maybe. I don't know either. I just decided that I am now at a point in my life where I am rich enough to just pay to make my problems go away.
T045T@mcc forlorn, or passive-aggressive. „You still hanging around? Why?”
bob@mcc this is why I use the basic aosp keyboard
Charlotte 猫 Awoo Fide@mcc the future sucks
Scott Hain@mcc it's all over the newer windows flights as well. I've been leaving all the feedback to at least let us opt out in some form but I'm not holding my breath. Registry hacks for windows it is!
Jernej Simončič �@elejia @mcc I'm hoping Windows Pro N or Pro Education will leave it out like they do with the rest of the crap (hint: if you had Pro activated on a computer, Pro N will activate without a key; you need to install Media Feature Pack afterwards, otherwise a bunch of features don't work, but the auto-installing crapps will not reappear).
Norma/nta@jernej__s @elejia @mcc ive been mentioning pro for workstations/enterprise as relatively immune to promotional targeting but i do wonder when some stuff will accidentally make it there too
@jernej__s @elejia @mcc huh, is Pro N missing these intentionally or as a side effect of 'no media foundation makes them not work'?
also, does the media feature pack actually migrate whenever there's a feature update these days? this used to be a hassle
also, does the media feature pack actually migrate whenever there's a feature update these days? this used to be a hassle
@nta @elejia @mcc No idea why Pro N is missing those – the Store works.
Media Feature Pack is kept over feature upgrades as long as you're upgrading from a version where MFP is installed from Optional Features (though I've had MFP missing after upgrading 10 to 11 a few times, although in those cases manual install also failed and I had to run DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth first).
One problem with Pro N is that even if you install Media Feature Pack, a few things still don't work (eg. Augmented Reality).
I recently came upon a tablet with Windows Pro Education license, which seems to be the same as Pro, except there's no auto-installing crap like in Pro N (but media support is present). Still need to test if Pro Edu will activate without a key if Pro was activated on the same machine.
pivotman319 🦊 
@nta @elejia @jernej__s @mcc these days, the Media Foundation Pack is being delivered via Windows Update as an FoD internally named Microsoft-Windows-Media-Features-Package
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3" manifestVersion="1.0" description="Installs media apps and enables Windows Media technologies." displayName="Media Feature Pack" copyright="Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved" supportInformation="http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=777777">
<assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft-Windows-Media-Features-Package" version="10.0.25398.1" processorArchitecture="amd64" language="neutral" buildType="release" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
Jesse Morris@mcc Maybe it’s because maintaining public forums anywhere where most people have easy access to spewing ai drivel directly into the forum seems like a lot of extra work
Kevin Karhan 
@kkarhan Please stop replying to my posts in weird and aggressive ways like this.
@mcc sorry if I'm sarcastic...
Curioso 🍉 🇺🇦 (jgg)I use Windows because of work. Can't choose.
I use Android because some apps I need to use only have Android (or iOS) versions. Those are for work, banking, government...
When I can choose, I use Ubuntu.
Seriously, did you need for anybody to explain this to you? If you are lucky enough to use free software only, please don't rub it in for the rest of us.
And if she wants/wanted to use propietary software, she has the right to do so. If you want to help, do it recommending GAFA free alternatives.
I'm all in for advocating free software. But it must be done gently. Nobody is going to change tools because something is shouting.
Well, I do not only recommend alternatives all the time, I do use them.
Personally, I can't work with Windows!
I wasted 15 years of my life trying to make to work and the only regret I have is not comitting myself swotch 5 years earlier.
Personally, if a service isn't accessible outside of bad apps, then I don't use it.
Apparently for most the situation isn't painful enough to warrant actual changes in behaviour and tech stacks...
https://mstdn.social/@kkarhan/110209908638496946
Kevin Karhan :verified: (@[email protected])
@[email protected] ...but the core problem is that people refuse to take consequences. I'm still baffled that despite the evidenced #Govware, Neither Microsoft nor it's Software and Services are banned for "illegal espionage" in Germany nor the EU...
Michael Roberts@kkarhan Because some of us don't have a choice?
I'm a technical translator. I *cannot* do my job, I mean 100% cannot, without Windows, because the entire industry runs on Windows.
So I run Win7 in a VirtualBox on my Ubuntu machine. And I run a 2017 Microsoft Word for document access. But that's the absolute bottom limit of exposure, or I don't *have* a business.
@vivtek That's very sad to hear...
At least you keep your stuff somewhat airgapped.
That being said, #LibreOffice does #MicrosoftOffice files pretty good.
@kkarhan Believe me - not well enough. Lots and lots of fiddly formatting. I've tried.
And the EMA (European Medicines Agency) *requires* Word to be used for redline documents - those used for tracked changes.
@vivtek How's that even legal?
This should be a direct violation of directive 2014/24/EU which bans the specific preference of brand names in specification.
https://youtu.be/duaYLW7LQvg?t=835
After all, we ain't talking about reasonable requirements like contrast ratios, colours, paper sizes, font sizes, margins and legibility requirements...
The Microsoft-Dilemma - Europe as a Software Colony (Full Documentary, 2018)
@kkarhan I hear you, brother, but I'm not a European lawyer, so I can't tell you.
From a practical standpoint, they have to be *very* careful about even minor content changes in approved texts of things like package leaflets and clinical trial protocols, and I suspect they just don't have the wherewithal to push a whole content standardization effort through (though it would certainly improve a lot of the process).
Packy Anderson@mcc Thank you for connecting those dots for me.
Elias Mårtenson@mcc Oh damn, I forgot that they own switfkey now. What keyboard should I switch to?
Squid! 
@mcc SwiftKey has used an on-device neural network for autosuggestions since 2016 (2015 if you count the SwiftKey Neural alpha test), so...
Yeah good thinking.
@squid I don't necessarily oppose the use of neural networks, it's not like there's even that great a difference between neural networks and Markov techniques or word pairs or whatever they were using before, the problem is radical misapplications of neural networks. That and product tying, which I think we're gonna see a lot of from MS and Google soon
@mcc I don't generally oppose neural networks either, I'm just saying there's a precedent that makes me think they'd be eyeing SwiftKey hungrily since they've already cracked the seal on using AI in it years ago and just fired their entire AI ethics board.
@squid yeah and I was already kind of worried what sorts of "metrics" about my typing they might be gathering but now I'm VERY worried
Robert Thau@mcc It might make sense to be a bit wary of Gboard (the Google keyboard for smartphones), for similar reasons.
Andrew@mcc does Android not let you deny keyboards network access?
aerique
Drahflow@mcc If you're in the mood to try new keyboards, I highly recommend this one: http://www.exideas.com/ME/downloadsAndroid.php
I disabled autosuggest in there because I'm slower checking the suggestions and deciding than just typing on it.
anyMouse@mcc If you find a usable swiping keyboard with arrows, clipboard manager and not much AI bullshit, i'm all ears.
@anymouse_404 actually the #1 feature I'm looking for in moving away from SwiftKey is the ability to turn swipe off, lol
I'm confused by clipboard managers in an Android 13 world. 13 deletes your clipboard, right? How do they do that if you can just keep a backup in a clipboard manager?
@mcc Wtf, I had no idea, that sounds horribly user-hostile.
@mcc Actually, if you don't want swiping, I'd maybe suggest Multiling-O, which is quirky, way-too-customizable keyboard where you can disable swiping (and main problem I have with it is that the swiping doesn't work well).
I mean, I'd suggest it if you are into spending few hours customizing stuff to make a perfect keyboard.
I mean, I'd suggest it if you are into spending few hours customizing stuff to make a perfect keyboard.
clacke: exhausted pixie dream boy 🇸🇪🇭🇰💙💛@mcc @anymouse_404 What does deleting my clipboard mean? Under what circumstances does it do that?
@clacke @anymouse_404 according to Google, tech writers etc, in Android 13 anything copied to the clipboard is cleared after one hour. I have not tested this personally.
external quantum efficiency@mcc I hope you find a free keyboard that works ok (and post about it!) I tried AsK and I couldn't figure out a config that worked for me... Back to gboard.