blind3rdeye

I recently watched Mad Max I, II, and III for the first time; since I know they are hit movies that influence a lot of popular culture. I've already seen Fury Road a couple of times, and I reckon that's an excellent movie - so I figure I'd give the others a shot. Here are some of my thoughts:

I found that MM1 is surprisingly basic. The world is not yet 'post apocalyptic'. The story is clean and simple, and there is very little world-building. It actually reminds me of Duel. A decent movie, but no really big ideas.

MM2 is what people really mean when they talk about Mad Max. This sets the post apocalyptic scene that so many things are now inspired by. The plot is more involved than the first; but it is tight and believable. I could nit-pick at this, but It's a very good movie; and it is a cultural touchstone for wasteland post-apoc type settings.

MM3 is trash. Don't bother watching this unless you're a super-fan who just needs more content. It feels like the writers were told to make another MM movie, and so they had a good brainstorming session to get some good ideas for what could happen; but then that's all. The movie is a grab-bag of inconsistent junk, just lurching from one setting to another in ways that don't really make sense. They've got about 3 movies worth of story arc, but only half-a-movie worth of details. It does have some alright visuals and action scenes, and a couple of novel ideas, but overall it is a bad movie.

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Fury Road feels a lot like a refreshed and modernised version of Mad Max 2. (There are a lot of things that I like about Fury Road; but I'll save those comments for another time.)

I have an old gmail account. I stopped actively using this account many years ago, but I'm still keeping it open for various reasons. I just sign in once a year or so, delete a few bits of spam, then log out.

Yesterday when I tried to log in to do this, Google wanted a phone number to verify my identity. It would not allow me to log in without a verification code from a phone. I tried to find a way around this. I clicked 'try another option', which then asked for the 'last password I remember'. I tried the current password, and the previous password that I had before that - but just told me that this was not enough to verify my identity.

I checked the Google help centre. Following its chain of questions basically told me that the only reason Google would do this is if I had activated two-factor authentication, or if someone else had got control of the account (and then activated two-factor authentication). ... I'm sure I didn't do this, and I very much doubt someone else had the account.

Reluctantly, I put in my phone number (which I know Google has had in the past, because I use to use this as my main account). The first time, I left off the area code, and Google told me that the number wasn't registered with the account. But then with the area code, the phone number worked and I was able to log in. So clearly it did have that number on record.

The very first thing I did was to try to remove any mention of this phone number from the account. But it wasn't mentioned. There were no phone numbers listed as registered to the account, and two factor authentication was turned off. I couldn't find any mention of that phone number anywhere in my account, nor find any way to delete it. Nevertheless, it was required when I wanted to sign in.

So I'm somewhat concerned. I don't want this number registered to the account in any way. I don't want to ever have to use it to verify my identity. I don't want it to be associated with my identity. Google doesn't show me that the number is associated with my account, but obviously it is - because it was required for me to log in!

Google has lots of 'helpful' pages about what personal information they store, and how you can delete it. But this experience highlights that they definitely store more than is shown in the profile page, and that there is no built-in way to ask for it to be deleted (or to even know what the information is). It makes me wonder what other personal information they have secretly stored. Probably a lot.

I'm wondering what steps I should take to have this personal data removed. I'm under the impression that there are GDPR laws which might compel Google to delete personal data if I request it to be deleted. But it isn't clear what data they have; and it definitely isn't clear how to contact them.

tl;dr : Does Office 365 work well on Linux via winapps?

longer version:

At my work, I'm currently using my own (Windows) laptop. But its getting a bit long in the tooth, and my tolerance of Windows continues to drop... So I'm considering my options.

One option is to buy myself a new laptop and use Linux. The main barrier to this is that I use Office 365 stuff a lot for work. (Specifically: Word, Excel, and OneNote).

In my brief look around, my impression is that the only reliable way to get those products running on Linux is using winapps; which, as I understand it, basically runs the apps in a virtual machine but tries to make them look like they are running on the host OS.

(The alternative option is that my work will lend a Windows laptop to me indefinitely. But I generally like my stuff to be my own, and I don't like to create waste by accepting cheap and crap laptops with short life-spans.)

I'm writing here to ask if anyone has any experience using winapps. Does it work reliably? Is it easy to open and save files without any weirdness? Will I be able to use a stylus to write notes in OneNote?

I'm looking for discussion and suggestions about the best way to play games from GOG on linux.

My current method is that I've got GOG Galaxy installed with bottles, and then I use GOG Galaxy to install and launch the Windows games. That's working alright so far. One downside is that won't install Iinux versions like that, so for games that have a native linux version I have to decide if I want to install it separately, or just run the windows version with the others. So that isn't perfect. Another minor thing I don't like is that since I'm installing games via GOG Galaxy via Bottles via Flatpak... I end up having very little idea of where stuff is being saved. It's difficult to find save game files for example; and if there is some junk installed or left over from something, there's very little chance that I'm going to notice and delete it. It just feels very opaque. (I guess that's mostly just about my personal lack of knowledge though.)

Anyway, I'm mostly just wondering how others are choosing to handle their games from GOG.

I just think it's cool to when indie developers are an active part of the gaming community.