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A Case of Sticky Keys that would not unstick. Windows Accessibility. Solved

My workaday laptop is now an Acer Predator which while being very nice and all started to boot up with Windows Sticky Keys enabled. Now being a long time Windows user I went to the usual control panel, turned it off but it turned back on if the machine was rebooted or you logged out and back in.

The usual Google research was done, registry changes made and still it persisted. As all you needed to do was tap the shift key a few times to turn it off I left it as it was until I had more free time to look into it.

A deeper dive into the machine was done with AUTORUNS which found an odd thing I tossed but still it enabled after login.

So what if it's something to do with this model laptop? A new google found the answer: https://www.google.com/search?q=acer+predator+sticky+keys&gl=US

Aha, Acer and others added a Sticky Keys on/off to their system so there was more than one place this can be controlled which reminds me of the more than one boss stories.

Fix: Press the Acer Predator Sense button till it turns red, then tap button 1. It's fixed and I share this here so others might not spend as much time hunting it down.

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Understanding Microsoft. My story.

Let me share how I began to understand Microsoft: A long time back when I went to Microsoft Redmond's campus for a seminar. I had two things I wanted to share since I thought Microsoft would want to look into this.

  1. A CD that when put into the PC would cause the PC to lock up. I didn't know why, I just thought it showed a bug.
  2. A jpeg file that when copied to the desktop would render that user's account dead. Even in safe mode until the file was deleted.

I waited my turn to meet with a couple of Microsoft engineers (lucky me!) and their response told me all I needed to know about Microsoft. maybe you can figure it out too. The engineers answer to these issues was "Don't do that."

Microsoft didn't consider things that we do or see as a bug. It's user error.

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“We only lose what we don’t backup” and some folk today.

One of the mantras of computing and just about anything data related is "We only lose what we don't backup" but some are taking offense that this is still the current state of computing today. Recently some owners call this out as "blaming the user", "you're holding it wrong" or snobby. Everyone I know will try their best to help you get your machine back in working order even if people say such things. They've lost it all and upset that they can't get their stuff back.

Last week's example was another smart phone, forgot their password, unlock code and the only way folk told them was to factory reset the phone. No backups, ever. Owner's statement: "I've never backed up, why is that my problem?"

I don't mind all that but it is your data. Keep it safe. No one else will.

Q1. Is such thinking out of date?

Q2. Is the industry really that out of touch?

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You’re a billion dollar company. How do you store passwords?

Last month, Facebook admitted to storing million of Facebook passwords in plaintext.
The Verge Apr 18, 2019

We see students being taught login systems here and a recurring mistake is passwords being stored in databases. It appears that CompSci courses teach bad practices early and as we know it's hard to unlearn what you learn earlier.

Further reading seems to indicate these passwords may have collected via logging.
"But as Krebs on Security first reported, various errors seem to have caused Facebook’s systems to log some passwords in plain text since as early as 2012."

I'm been chided for pointing this out from time to time but the mistake happens over and over and in very big companies.

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Google has banned all third party repair ads? Since Nov. 2018.

Start with https://www.google.com/search?q=google+banned+all+apple+repair+ads and there it is. It appears to be mostly about Apple products and when two juggernauts, dare I write collude even if openly, we all lose.

Apple's repair system is OK when your device is under AppleCare but beyond that we see the repair price climb to levels where they essentially tell you to buy a new on.

I've had no qualms about many third party repair companies but Apple seems to have declared war.

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How to find articles written by a member starting at chat.

Backstory. A member messaged me about a moderator action so I wanted to see their discussions. How to find their discussions looked elusive.

Here's how to get to their discussions. Click on their avator to get their Dazah page and information then click on Member Stats to see their discussions.

Now you know.

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Who wrote that? Really odd forum post format to me.

Comparing a discussion with the home page. When I see the Home Page, top and center of each card is the member who did something such as Viewed, Gave Reputation, Endorsed and so on.

Now you head to a discussion and who wrote this? Example at https://www.daniweb.com/programming/software-development/code/385622/google-map-control-vb-net
The author is nowhere in sight. I could be wrong but I could not find the post's author. Replies are formatted well so you know who replied and when, but something is truly strange with the original post there.

Reviews are slightly better like https://www.daniweb.com/hardware-and-software/hardware/mobile-and-wearables/reviews/518478/i-bought-a-galaxy-watch-on-black-friday-here-s-what-i-got-for-my-money but if a post's author is going to swap from bottom to top at least it should show ih the google map discussion.

Should the author/poster show in the google map discussion?
I'm also guessing Unhnd_Exception is a non-member character (NPC).

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The DW Homepage shows duplicates and isn’t useful.

It seems everytime I visit the homepage of daniweb.com I get a screen that is modern in design but is missing the mark so much so that others and I are bypassing it and going elsewhere.

On top of that it shows duplicates of the same topic (see image) which I've seen it push up 3 or more that lead you to the same discussion. What makes it even more a place I may stop looking at is I can't click on the reply date and get to the answer or new content. Instead I have to either page through it all or use the Latest link and that works as expected.

The only reason I'm posting about this is this is screaming at me as a lost opportunity. Just fixing the page so I can get to the latest answer would be a big upgrade. I don't know why it would show that many boxes on the same discussion but hey, it's trying.

Let's hope you get some user testing done on this soon.

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My DaniWeb home page is like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

I've noted how the home page seems sparse but why is that lone upvote there at all? It's not that interesting and there's no way to dismiss it or fill the page with what I choose.
See attached screen. NOPE. The image upload looks broken. I'll try Imgur and it's markdown.

No other forum leaves this so barren. I was hoping to see it flourish over time. Or see controls, options to have it be a place to go often.

And when there are items besides this, they seem to be random in size and match as to my interests. It's such a mismatch that I've not getting the point at all about that page.
BTW, https://www.daniweb.com/articles/latest/recommended coughs up the Oops! page.
Imgur

I don't see the Imgur markdown working either. Here's a link.