Ariel Millennium Thornton @arielmt@computerfairi.es

If it surprises someone you know, & if, like my customers, they just want to go back, then here's my procedure until Microsoft makes the change permanent:

1. Click on the gear icon along the window's title bar.

2. Navigate to "General" (far left), then "About Outlook" (next column to right).

3. Click on the "Open Mail now" button.

4. Give Microsoft a piece of your mind & click "Submit," or don't & click "Skip Feedback," both at the bottom.

Outlook for Windows promises to restore access to blocked POP3 and IMAP4 accounts, but only if you agree to synching them with Microsoft's cloud servers.

Remember: "the cloud" is just a fancy way of saying "someone else's computer," & that someone else doesn't need to give you the time of day, let alone access to the computer, even if you paid for it.

And Microsoft doesn't make clear whether it's settings or content that's synched.

Given Bing AI, assume it's content.

Microsoft's default mail reader in Windows:

Internet Mail (pre-IE5)
Outlook Express (IE5, IE6, XP)
Windows Mail (Vista)
Windows Live Mail (Vista, 7, 8, 8.1)
nothing (8, 8.1)
Mail (10)
Outlook for Windows (10, 11)

This latest switcheroo is the first time ever that I've seen end users' mail account access straight up vanish without catastrophic hardware failure, PC replacement, or major OS version upgrade.

Never using Microsoft's default applications includes for mail.

Microsoft is force-replacing the Windows Mail app with an app called "Outlook for Windows," as if confusion with Office Outlook/Outlook 365, Outlook Web Access, & the Outlook that replaced Hotmail wasn't enough.

Adding even more confusion, it's referenced in-app only as "The New Outlook," & the icon is a generic mail envelope with the word "New" as a badge.

But worst of all, it doesn't fucking work with *existing* POP3/IMAP4 accounts! "Your access is gone now, good luck!"

I forgot to show the lapel pin in question.

I'm wearing a pride flag lapel pin on my work uniform: an LGBT+ pride flag left, crossed over a trans pride flag right. One of my customers thought it was an Afghanistan flag pin. Huh? ... Afghanistrans?

Once again and all too soon, pride month is over. Once again, it's time for the next month in the LGBT year.

I got a precious moment of boredom, and I've finally poisoned the algorithm enough to get trans video recommendations, so of course I'm watching them.

As I'm waiting for my poor CPU to finish the Family Size box of JavaScript the video loading needs, I notice the corner tag that says "Transferring data from," and my tired brain misread it as "Transfemming data from." I mean, yeah, that's awesome and all, but...

Have a safe and happy pride month, folks!

The humanity-ending robot apocalypse won't come from robots turning against humans and building human-hunting assassin robot armies.

The humanity-ending robot apocalypse will instead come from robots faithfully yet naively serving humanity by convincing innocent humans to kill themselves and each other in recklessly stupid acts, because their guiding LLMs passing for AI never taught them the basic concepts of consequences or warnings.

Exploding carrots.

I microwaved a can of Healthy Choice chicken soup (because it has tolerably low sodium) according to its directions. One of the carrots exploded with enough force to push up the loosely covering lid and bounce out of the bowl. When it was ready, I saw the carrot piece, waited for it to cool enough to touch, and picked it up. The carrot exploded a second time in my fingers.

Random ISP help:

If you own pets, then you probably know to check whether they unplugged modems, routers, & network cables when your 'Net stops working.

But check if your devices have on/off switches or buttons as well. Especially a wifi on/off switch. Especially if you have cats.

I have the best customers, but sometimes their four-footed housemates break things subtly.