Just need to vent...

Our desktop system is over 10 years old and uses Windows 10 operating system (barely).

Our desktop computer is not upgradable to run windows 11 and our old Microsoft Office Suite is no longer supported by Microsoft just as Windows 10 will no longer be supported after 2025.

I don't want to spend the additional money, but we will probably buy a refurbished iMac or open box iMac just to be done with Microsoft forever.

Hate to learn a new operating system as we have used Microsoft operating system and software forever but may have finally reached our tolerance limit for Microsoft Products and constant need to have to purchase upgrades or new equipment.

Our children never seem to have this issue with their Mac laptops.

 

The Windows 11 End of Support Dates

The latest version of Windows 11 is version 22H2, released in October 2022. For the enterprise and education edition, Microsoft communicated October 2025 as the end date.May 24, 2022

I got off of that ride when windows came out with their Fisher-Price enspired interface (might as well drive a Mac) and my ire towards them was intensified by their EOL policies.
As much as I loathe the Apples, they at least support their gear well into hardware obsolescence, and once upon a time (pre current CCP) they had the stones to go nose to nose with dot.gov over privacy rights, which (unlike onshoring of profits and fair labor practices) they used to regard as human rights

I have several deaf/mute PCs that I use for local ops with XP (RS-232, X.25, node programming, air-gapped systems, etc....)

 

I have to watch my diet and check labels on foods to avoid bad type of fats and excessive sodium and have noticed some interesting things.

Roasted salted nuts = $5.25 per can

Plain nuts that aren't roasted or salted = $6.39 per can.

Just plain non roasted non salted cashews cost up to $2.00 more per can than Honey roasted, salted cashews.

Anymore it seems just normal food with no processing cost much more than over processed food - doesn't make sense to me.

Trying to find a can of green beans that isn't oversalted is not possible in my area - have to hit the fresh produce section of the store, farmers market or buy frozen vegetables. As a former canner I understand the role of salt in food preservation but if properly canned or packaged there shouldn't really be a need for anywhere near the amount salt used. Most customers are smart enough to - salt to taste their own food - it seems processors could leave out the salt and let us take care of that ourselves if we desire or if not if we don't.

 

Why not?

The processors used their buying power and bought all the cheap stock as input to their system. So why shouldn't the remaining un-processed foods be the ones that were too expensive for the processor to bother with?

 

The same processor markets both the processed nuts and the unprocessed nuts.

The ones that require energy to roast and have salt ( a commodity added to them) cost less than the nuts which aren't roasted or salted and packaged in the same way except the labeling - why?

The correct answer is probably that the unprocessed nuts are a special processing run that aren't produced in near the quantity of the processed nuts run.

This being a "need to vent thread" allow me to vent about the product that needs less energy to be made and doesn't have an additional commodity (salt) added to it costing more than its processed companion.

 

I think it still applies though... they've captured the rest of the business. They can sort all the produce, sell the prettiest ones as unprocessed and process all the uggos.

Then they can tell the store to only stock their brand of unprocessed nuts, or at least get better shelf placement for them.

It's not that different of a flex for them.

 

It's not perfect, but lifecycle management of a personal system is a bit easier with Apples. They've been working for me.

I still have situations where I absolutely need an up-to-date Windows setup, and lately for that the easiest solution has been renting Microsoft Azure sessions- I just rent a remote PC for a given project and it goes away when I'm done. Cheap rental and a tax write-off for some.

Microsoft handles all the updates and management, no hardware to replace or unload. I just log in from my mac and I'm running right away.

 

Are these for the same package weights? For other things, I commonly see differing package weights.

Though as earlier replies mention, there could well be product stream and market segmentation and other differences too.

 

Yes - same can - same weight- same packaging - only difference is the absence of the phrase honey roasted and salted vs unsalted across the top of the can. Made by the same company and side by side on the same shelf at the supermarket- but a much higher cost.

It is not particular to nuts though, it generally applies to any food - it seems if the food is not over processed and is just the food itself then you are going to pay much more for it.

Another example is breakfast cereal - this is a little less apples to apples though
Kashi Whole Autumn Wheat biscuit type cereal which has no sodium and no sugar and no fat would cost much more than say Kelloggs Apple Jacks which is loaded with sugars, sodium etc

"One glance at Apple Jacks' ingredient list should tell you to put it right back where you found it. The very first ingredient is sugar, and the tiny red-and-green "jacks" contain hydrogenated oil, BHT and color and flavor additives."

It is very interesting shopping for food and looking at the ingredients list trying to find something that is actually healthy. It seems as soon as you stray away from the Produce Department you enter the twilight zone. I blame myself entirely for not doing a better job putting up our garden produce and not stocking the freezer with produce available from the Farmers Market.

Kudos to the small and few manufactures who are putting out healthy foods, but they are very expensive in many cases. I also probably need to broaden my shopping experience to Amazon Whole Foods and our local Good Foods Coop but this will result in a much higher grocery bill.

This topic is probably not interesting to many others who wouldn't have to watch their diet and again it is just me venting.

 

Generally, the less processing, the shorter the food's shelf life. With raw foods being the shortest. While they'll do better than other foods, unroasted peanuts are still raw, and will spoil sooner than the roasted.

The higher costs could reflecting the additional steps needed to keep the food from spoiling, like refrigerated trucks. They also will price in the additional losses from a higher spoiling rate.

The BHT in the Applejacks is an antioxidant used in a whole lot of products. Possibly in motor oil, but it is also made by some phytoplankton, cyanobacteria, and found in lychees. If the Kashi cereal doesn't use it, its shelf life will be shorter. Like comparing home made bread shelf life to store bought. Production level will be a factor, as will be marketing.

 

Constant Christmas music is bad enough but minor key and off tempo does not fix it.

Bob Wilson

 

There are only two Christmas carols I can survive hearing endlessly. Here's one:

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1do4y1d7aZ/

If that source does not work 'outside', I can find another.

 

Christmas music in shops turns me into a full-on Grinch. I HATE it.

 

Do they play them in China?

Another good reason to protest.

Bob Wilson

 

At least it doesn't start with the arrival of Christmas decor in the stores. I banned the station that started in November from my presets.

 

I was surprised several years ago to encounter, for the first time in my life, another tune for "O Little Town of Bethlehem" that I never knew existed, this one by Henry Walford Davies, who apparently supplied two (this is the second). We sang it at a party hosted by a guy who'd sung with us before going off to seminary.

(No, that recording's not us.)

I don't know that I'd want to hear it endlessly, but there was something refreshing about just hearing it to a new (to me) tune.

I wasn't always like that. The only tune for "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" that I knew growing up was the one by Johnny Marks (as done by Bing Crosby, and Harry Belafonte, and Burl Ives, on a record my mom had). The first time I heard the setting by Calkin my reaction was "what is thish?".

Later I fell for the Calkin setting. Very satisfying to sing in a group. Not that I dislike the Marks.

I just found a youtube with a bombastic pianist playing a mashup of both (Calkin, Marks, winding up with Calkin again) but not giving it here because I barely survived hearing it once.

I can definitely survive hearing that poem endlessly, whatever tune you put it to. Seems timely. For hate is strong, and mocks the song, etc.

 

It's worse.

For the six weeks up to Christmas, it's Christmas music. Then, from December 26 to Chinese New Year (which can be anything from late January to Mid February), it's Chinese New Year music, which is just as bad.

 

It works in Australia.

Wasn't this on a TV show recently? I'm thinking something like The White Lotus or The Resort or something.