Daily Archives: 2021-09-14

Intuit branches out into email marketing by splashing $12bn on Mailchimp acquisition

Posted on 2021-09-14 by pappp

Source: The Register

Article note: From the people who brought you "Sandbagging US tax reform so they can rent-seek off the mess": Spam As A Service!

Part of a planned assault on the 'small business mid-market'

Financial software specialist Intuit has splashed the cash to branch out into the world of email newsletters, throwing $12bn (around £8.7bn) at Mailchimp as part of its effort to "become an AI-driven expert platform."…

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I hate the new Windows 11 taskbar

Posted on 2021-09-14 by pappp

Source: The Verge - All Posts

Article note: It's like the entire fuckin' industry decided to make things that look pretty instead of things that work well for the last 20 years. We _know_ how (extended) Fitts' law works: things in the screen corners are the easiest to select because they have "infinite" depth in two directions, and edges are slightly harder with 1-d infinite depth, so you put your common controls there...so they move UI elements to be centered. (remember the early OS X demos with the centered Apple menu? Even "you're holding it wrong" Apple backed off on this kind of dumb shit). We _know_ that consistent placement and appearance allows for "muscle memory" ... so they make shit that constantly moves, re-flows, and alters its visual presentation every time you see it. We _know_ that multiple monitors and odd (especially ultra-wide) device aspect ratios are increasingly common... so they remove features for accommodating them.

Microsoft promotes itself as the productivity company, but the new Windows 11 taskbar removes key functionality and makes me less productive as a result. Missing features include power user elements like displaying the time and date on multiple monitors, or simple things like having small icons and being able to move the taskbar around. There’s so much missing here that I’m stunned Microsoft is shipping a new OS that takes the Windows taskbar back decades.

While this missing functionality initially seemed like bugs or unfinished code, it’s clear Microsoft now intends to ship the taskbar like this on October 5th. I personally use three monitors on my PC, and if I’m using a fullscreen app or a game on my primary one, I can’t see the date...

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China’s dodgy-debt double act

Posted on 2021-09-14 by pappp

Source: Hacker News

Article note: Oh boy. China is a huge fraction of global manufacturing capacity (and holds like $3.2T of US treasury securities) so either having their gigantic not-quite-private companies collapse and thrash their economy OR nationally moving assets to bail said not-quite-private companies out out will be globally disruptive.
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