Minor things that bother you

[kphoger]

I don't mean multiple windows of one instance of a program. I mean multiple instances of the same program. Eg, three instances of Adobe Photoshop open simultaneously rather than one instance with three windows.

I don't understand the difference.  What's the difference between an 'instance' and a 'window'?

[jakeroot]

I don't mean multiple windows of one instance of a program. I mean multiple instances of the same program. Eg, three instances of Adobe Photoshop open simultaneously rather than one instance with three windows.

I don't understand the difference.  What's the difference between an 'instance' and a 'window'?

Honestly, I have no idea what the differences is. Why someone needs to do it? Ask Scott...I sure as heck have no use for it.

[J N Winkler]

I don't understand the difference.  What's the difference between an 'instance' and a 'window'?

The difference is that an instance can often exist (and, in Windows, be visible in Task Manager) without a corresponding window.

[J N Winkler]

Another minor annoyance:  PDF drawings formatted and oriented like this:

[kphoger]

I don't mean multiple windows of one instance of a program. I mean multiple instances of the same program. Eg, three instances of Adobe Photoshop open simultaneously rather than one instance with three windows.

I don't understand the difference.  What's the difference between an 'instance' and a 'window'?

Honestly, I have no idea what the differences is. Why someone needs to do it? Ask Scott...I sure as heck have no use for it.

But you're the one who specified that you meant "multiple instances" rather than "multiple windows".  How could you have specified that, if you don't know the difference?

Example:  I use Excel a lot at work.  Every day, I receive data in Excel files, and I often need to break that data up into two parts.  To do so, I first hit [⊞ Win]+[R] to bring up the Run box, type "excel", and then hit [Enter ↵].  This opens a separate window of Excel, which I can then drag over to the other monitor.  Now I have one Excel window on one monitor, and another on the other.  I sort my data as needed, then cut-and-paste from one to the other.  In your verbiage, are those two "windows" or two "instances"?

Another example:  I use Chrome to access Dropbox and a couple of other websites for work.  Partway through the day, I get on a VPN that allows me access to Charter Communications programs (and also annoyingly prevents me from sending to the network printer, or from viewing AAroads photos hosted on imgur, or from accessing Dropbox);  some of the applications within those programs launch pages in Chrome, whose tabs cannot be combined into my already-open Chrome window.  Then, moreover, I also use a cloud/virtual desktop environment to access Cox Communications programs;  some of the applications within that environment open in Chrome, and I can even open a blank browser window within it;  those windows cannot be combined with either of the aforementioned.  Are all of those different "windows" or different "instances"?

A third example:  While I have Edge open, I open up a separate InPrivate window to play YouTube and stuff in the background.  Is that a separate "window" or a separate "instance"?

[US 89]

I would think that the distinction between two "windows" in the same "instance" is no different than one between two tabs, and that having two "instances" would be running two programs that happen to be the same application but neither is aware of the other's existence.

[Scott5114]

I don't mean multiple windows of one instance of a program. I mean multiple instances of the same program. Eg, three instances of Adobe Photoshop open simultaneously rather than one instance with three windows.

I don't understand the difference.  What's the difference between an 'instance' and a 'window'?

Honestly, I have no idea what the differences is. Why someone needs to do it? Ask Scott...I sure as heck have no use for it.

An "instance" in this case is a wholly separate copy of a program that's running in a separate OS process. If I have two instances of the same program running, Instance #1 does not know anything about the state of the universe over in Instance #2. Instance #1 probably doesn't even know Instance #2 exists. Thus, the content of various values held in memory cannot be affected across the two instances.

You can think of it as having two identical houses on one street, rather than a duplex. In a duplex (single instance with two windows), you have two families living separately under one roof, but they probably share a driveway, yard, and maybe the electrical and water system taps too. If one side of the house catches fire, both families have to evacuate. When you have two separate houses (two instances), what happens in one house only effects the other to the extent that it affects every house on the street. Everyone has a separate roof, if one house catches fire the others don't catch fire, etc. This is a less efficient use of resources because everyone has to build their own roof and walls, but that is the price that is paid for separation. 

Normally, having two instances of the same program just wastes memory and makes certain operations more difficult and/or awkward, and it is better to have a single instance that displays two windows but is unified on the back-end. But on occasion there is utility to having two separate instances of the same program:

- Perhaps the program has no inherent ability to display two windows and you want two windows anyway.
- Perhaps you are editing a document, you want to view the saved version of the same document on disk, and the program is coded such that it takes a request to load an already-loaded document as a request to dump all changes and revert back to the version on disk.
- Perhaps the program has some sort of environment-wide mode or setting that cannot be set at document-level granularity, and you want to view one document using one mode and another in another mode simultaneously.
- Perhaps you are performing an operation that experience has shown has a high risk of crashing the program, and you want to isolate the document you are doing that operation on to a separate process so that if that process crashes it doesn't affect the work going on elsewhere.

It's not a terribly-common use case, specifically because thoughtful programmers tend to make things in such a way that it shouldn't be necessary, but in the edge cases where it makes sense, it's useful enough that not having it in my back pocket would make me anxious.

[jakeroot]

I don't understand the difference.  What's the difference between an 'instance' and a 'window'?

Honestly, I have no idea what the differences is. Why someone needs to do it? Ask Scott...I sure as heck have no use for it.

But you're the one who specified that you meant "multiple instances" rather than "multiple windows".  How could you have specified that, if you don't know the difference?

I mean, I don't know the technical explanation as to the functional difference between the two. Luckily it was spelled out above by Scott.


To be clear, my research into the matter was prompted by these posts, with the initial insinuation by 1 being that Mac does not support multiple instances. Which technically isn't true, it's just that the user can't as easily activate it as in Windows.

On the other hand, using a Mac, it won't even let you have two of the same program open. Attempting to do so just puts the existing one in front. I strongly prefer this over Windows' system.

I personally disagree. If I need to have two different spreadsheets open or even two different windows of Chrome, it's much nicer on Windows to be able to alt+tab back and forth.

Same here–there are rare, but still existent, situations in which it is necessary to have two instances of the same program open in two separate processes, e.g. because one doesn't want certain session-wide environment settings to cross-pollinate between two different contexts. Further, I run two Firefox windows spawned from the same process as part of my standard setup–I work from home, so one is for personal-use tabs and the other for business-use. Currently, I even have a third window I'm doing a PHP programming project in (containing whichever page I'm debugging at the time, and a bunch of random tabs where I'm looking up some bit of syntax).

Given that there are plenty of use cases for multiple windows of the same program being open, enforcing only one per program by edict of the window manager is nothing less than brain-damaged behavior. (On KDE, one can instruct the taskbar to group multiple windows spawned from the same process; I tend to disable this feature because it makes it more difficult for me to find the precise window I want.)

[ZLoth]

The underlying reliability issues are very different.  The Texas grid almost collapsed because output from poorly winterized power plants dropped just as demand rose:  this is a problem that can be fixed in the short term if the grid is able to draw power from areas that are less stressed by weather (not possible since the cold covered all of Texas) and can be prevented if utility infrastructure is winterized (Texas tried to do things on the cheap and didn't make the required investments).

Again, what happened in February, 2021 even I would consider an "extreme weather event". Take a look at these weather calendars from 2021:

• Dallas, TX - Where the high was just 14℉ on Monday, February 15th, the low was 3℉ the following morning (third lowest low), and the DART Light Rail system was completely shut down. One week later, on February 21st-February 21st-24th, the highs were in the 70s.
• Austin, TX - When the high was 76℉ on Monday, February 8th, the low was 6℉ the following Tuesday, February 16th, and the high was 75℉ the following Sunday, February 21st
• Houston, TX

Now, tell me what is "expected" for the DFW area under a "normal" year? My list...

• Rainstorms that have the potential to drop 1-2 inches of rain within an hour period
• Thunderstorms including lightning strikes
• High winds exceeding 70 MPH
• Large-sized damaging hail that can exceed ¾"
• High temperatures exceeding 100℉
• A "dusting" of snow in the northern part of Dallas that can be completely melted by 11 AM

Now, mister city planner, it's 2020, and you are planning the budget for 2021. How well is your crystal ball working? Was an extreme weather event even REMOTELY on your radar? Would it be fiscally prudent to purchase snow plows that will spend 360 days doing NOTHING? As a family, are you purchasing snow suits that will collect dust, or (hopefull) have a tornado preparedness kit for that 1 tornadoes that may hit your county based upon historical data (Last time there were 3, it was 2015)?

And, where do you think the money is going to come from to winterize the Texas power plants? HINT: It is going to come from the actual end customers in the form of higher electric bills. High winds in the DFW area means that lines get blown down, but the soil shifts around preventing the undergrounding of utilities. My current electric contract running from February 2022 to February 2023 is 10.91¢/kWh fixed, which was an increase from 8.67¢/kWh fixed from the previous contract. I'm looking at PowerToChoose for my zip code, and the current rate offerings start at 14.6¢/kWh fixed. (I don't touch variable rates).

[jakeroot]

Texans themselves don't seem to have any issue winterizing their vehicle purchases. Last time I was down there, it seemed like almost every vehicle was a truck or SUV.

[kurumi]

Finally hit a word with a certain distribution of letters (no spoiling) and could not converge on a solution in time. Switching strategy at turn 4 to "find more letters using orthogonal words" instead of "try for probable solution" would not have succeeded.

Wordle 454 X/6

⬛🟨🟨⬛🟨
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩
⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬛🟩🟩

[JayhawkCO]

Finally hit a word with a certain distribution of letters (no spoiling) and could not converge on a solution in time. Switching strategy at turn 4 to "find more letters using orthogonal words" instead of "try for probable solution" would not have succeeded.

Wordle 454 X/6

⬛🟨🟨⬛🟨
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩
⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬛🟩🟩

Yeah, I missed today too. Only 3rd time ever. I read something that only 47% of people got it within 6 where normally it's 98%.

[J N Winkler]

Again, what happened in February, 2021 even I would consider an "extreme weather event". Take a look at these weather calendars from 2021:

• Dallas, TX - Where the high was just 14℉ on Monday, February 15th, the low was 3℉ the following morning (third lowest low), and the DART Light Rail system was completely shut down. One week later, on February 21st-February 21st-24th, the highs were in the 70s.
• Austin, TX - When the high was 76℉ on Monday, February 8th, the low was 6℉ the following Tuesday, February 16th, and the high was 75℉ the following Sunday, February 21st
• Houston, TX

Those extremes are not untypical for Wichita, though I think we were around 10° F cooler during the same time for both the highs and the lows.

Now, tell me what is "expected" for the DFW area under a "normal" year? My list...

• Rainstorms that have the potential to drop 1-2 inches of rain within an hour period
• Thunderstorms including lightning strikes
• High winds exceeding 70 MPH
• Large-sized damaging hail that can exceed ¾"
• High temperatures exceeding 100℉
• A "dusting" of snow in the northern part of Dallas that can be completely melted by 11 AM

Also not untypical for Wichita.

Now, mister city planner, it's 2020, and you are planning the budget for 2021. How well is your crystal ball working? Was an extreme weather event even REMOTELY on your radar? Would it be fiscally prudent to purchase snow plows that will spend 360 days doing NOTHING? As a family, are you purchasing snow suits that will collect dust, or (hopefully) have a tornado preparedness kit for that 1 tornadoes that may hit your county based upon historical data (Last time there were 3, it was 2015)?

The bulk of the population in both Kansas and Texas lives in areas with continental climates, so yes, it absolutely is necessary to prepare for extreme weather.

*  Both the City of Wichita and KDOT spend heavily not just to buy snowplows but also to equip them with GIS so that drivers can have up-to-the-minute information as to which streets or highways have just been plowed.  Bridges on state highways also have RWIS sensors so drivers can tell in real time whether their decks are cold enough to freeze.  Although the Wichita area sees blizzards infrequently and spends only a small fraction of each winter on average with snow on the ground, there is typically one winter every few years with multiple heavy snowstorms (2013, 2014, and 2021).

*  Houses in Wichita commonly, though not universally, have basements.  The same logic of making provision for low-probability, high-impact events applies.

*  Though we do not have snowsuits or snow boots, we do have parkas, scarves, ski masks, heavy gloves, etc. as well as a working fireplace and access to a generator.  The worst winter-related emergency we have faced in at least the last 30 years was not actually the snowstorms and deep freeze in 2021, but rather a major ice storm in 2005 that led to a weeklong power outage.

And, where do you think the money is going to come from to winterize the Texas power plants? HINT: It is going to come from the actual end customers in the form of higher electric bills. High winds in the DFW area means that lines get blown down, but the soil shifts around preventing the undergrounding of utilities. My current electric contract running from February 2022 to February 2023 is 10.91¢/kWh fixed, which was an increase from 8.67¢/kWh fixed from the previous contract. I'm looking at PowerToChoose for my zip code, and the current rate offerings start at 14.6¢/kWh fixed. (I don't touch variable rates.)

Our residential electricity rates were around $0.13/kWh during the 2021 storm and are now around $0.16/kWh.  The power market here has not (AFAIK) been deregulated to the extent that retail customers are given access to wholesale rates, which many people were relying on in Texas and which led to individuals receiving power bills of over $25,000 during the 2021 storm (driving at least one person to kill himself).  Texas really is overdependent on cheap power.

I have seen apologists for Texas' approach to deregulation claim that dwellings in Texas cannot be all that poorly winterized since houses need good insulation in order to run A/C during the summer without incurring high power bills.  However, I have also read that while cities in Texas tend to require good insulation, counties do not.  Rock-bottom power rates in general do not incentivize insulation, and this is especially true of pass-through wholesale rates at low-demand times.  One big indicator of Texas' lack of preparedness in the 2021 storm was the sheer number of inhabited structures with frozen pipes.  This was also a concern in Kansas, but not to nearly the same degree.

On this forum (possibly in this very thread), we've also seen Texas' preparedness defended on the basis that nothing came of seemingly hysterical media predictions of grid collapse due to high demand for electricity to run A/C earlier this summer.  However, I've also seen it reported that Governor Abbott asked the bitcoin miners to cool it at that time.  (Given that cryptocurrency is basically a scam and now draws more power than many sovereign countries, I think a global ban on cryptocurrency mining would be a better answer.)

[jeffandnicole]

Finally hit a word with a certain distribution of letters (no spoiling) and could not converge on a solution in time. Switching strategy at turn 4 to "find more letters using orthogonal words" instead of "try for probable solution" would not have succeeded.

Wordle 454 X/6

⬛🟨🟨⬛🟨
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩
⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬛🟩🟩

However at turn 4 or 5 you may have tried a number of different letters, none of which worked, leaving you with fewer options.   Other letters will obviously not work (like Q), so your chances of figuring it out by guessing actually go up considerably.

[JayhawkCO]

Finally hit a word with a certain distribution of letters (no spoiling) and could not converge on a solution in time. Switching strategy at turn 4 to "find more letters using orthogonal words" instead of "try for probable solution" would not have succeeded.

Wordle 454 X/6

⬛🟨🟨⬛🟨
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩
⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬛🟩🟩

However at turn 4 or 5 you may have tried a number of different letters, none of which worked, leaving you with fewer options.   Other letters will obviously not work (like Q), so your chances of figuring it out by guessing actually go up considerably.

A) If you're in expert mode, you can't do that.

and

B) Not to spoil, but it wouldn't have helped in this case.

[kphoger]

Those extremes are not untypical for Wichita, though I think we were around 10° F cooler during the same time for both the highs and the lows.

[...]

Also not untypical for Wichita.

(I think this may be the first time I've seen the word untypical in place of atypical.)

The temperature swing reminded me of another bitter February:  the one ten years earlier.  In both cases, Wichita had a wild temperature swing over the course of one week.

FEB 2011 – Wichita
Lowest temp = 2/10/2011 = -15°F
Highest temp = 2/17/2011 = 77°F

FEB 2021 – Wichita
Lowest temp = 2/16/2021 = -16°F
Highest temp = 2/23/2021 = 68°F

[ZLoth]

I checked your calendar. Wichita, Kansas had more days of significant snowfall measured at the airport between October, 2020 to April, 2021.

Our residential electricity rates were around $0.13/kWh during the 2021 storm and are now around $0.16/kWh.  The power market here has not (AFAIK) been deregulated to the extent that retail customers are given access to wholesale rates, which many people were relying on in Texas and which led to individuals receiving power bills of over $25,000 during the 2021 storm (driving at least one person to kill himself).  Texas really is overdependent on cheap power.

Just as a point of clarification for those "super high bills". Those people were part of the approximately 29,000 customers who utilized Griddy as their electric provider. For a small monthly fee, those customer had access to wholesale electric pricing that was lower than the fixed rates. The problem occurs when there a either a heat wave or a extreme weather event where the wholesale pricing hit the cap of $9/kwh. Griddy even told their customers to switch off them beforehand, but at that point, no other electric providers were offering ANY plans to transfer to. After that weather event, Griddy's authority to operate in the Texas market was revoked, and the company declared bankruptcy shortly thereafter.

That's why I only use fixed rate plans.

[hotdogPi]

I checked your calendar. Wichita, Kansas had more days of significant snowfall measured at the airport between October, 2020 to April, 2021.

How about the parts of Oklahoma immediately north of the Texas border, which had no power issues and has the same climate as just across the river? (Scott5114 already mentioned this.)

Or Louisiana, which got hit by the same storm, is east rather than north, and had a lot fewer issues.

[J N Winkler]

I checked your calendar. Wichita, Kansas had more days of significant snowfall measured at the airport between October, 2020 to April, 2021.

It's not a question of days of measurable snowfall, depth of accumulation, etc. so much as it is of taking the consequences of extremes into account as well as their frequency.

Do not underestimate the depth of resentment for Texas' grasshopper approach.  It raised costs for the rest of us outside Texas despite our own efforts to make appropriate provision, even though the typical Texan suffered more during February 2021 than the typical person outside Texas.  Here in Kansas, we are paying $10 to $20 a month more for gas and electricity for the next five years as a direct result of natural gas prices spiking that month.

Just as a point of clarification for those "super high bills". Those people were part of the approximately 29,000 customers who utilized Griddy as their electric provider. For a small monthly fee, those customer had access to wholesale electric pricing that was lower than the fixed rates. The problem occurs when there a either a heat wave or a extreme weather event where the wholesale pricing hit the cap of $9/kwh. Griddy even told their customers to switch off them beforehand, but at that point, no other electric providers were offering ANY plans to transfer to. After that weather event, Griddy's authority to operate in the Texas market was revoked, and the company declared bankruptcy shortly thereafter.

Yes.  But Texas allowed them to operate in the first place, even though it was 100% foreseeable that weather emergencies would arise that would generate bills in the tens of thousands of dollars.  Moreover, they did so at the (partial) expense of those of us outside the state.

[kphoger]

Do not underestimate the depth of resentment for Texas' grasshopper approach.  It raised costs for the rest of us outside Texas despite our own efforts to make appropriate provision, even though the typical Texan suffered more during February 2021 than the typical person outside Texas.  Here in Kansas, we are paying $10 to $20 a month more for gas and electricity for the next five years as a direct result of natural gas prices spiking that month.

Why wouldn't our bills be going up if Texas' grid had been interconnected with ours?

[J N Winkler]

Why wouldn't our bills be going up if Texas' grid had been interconnected with ours?

The cold in February 2021 covered such a large part of the continental US that I don't think there would have been much spare power to deliver to Texas.  But the lack of winterization in Texas increased demand nationally for natural gas, for both home heating and electricity generation, and the market for that operates nationwide.

I am personally not among those hating on Texas for isolating its grid from the rest of the US.  I think that is a questionable decision, but February 2021 is not actually my reason for thinking so.  Texas found itself in trouble because it made the mistake of not ensuring adequate winterization all along the line from fuel supply to insulation within houses.  Nor were the failures confined to energy supply.  Water treatment plants in Texas had to stop operating because they froze (leading to boil-water orders that were comical under the circumstances--boil with what energy?) while their counterparts in states to the north continued to operate normally.

[kphoger]

But the lack of winterization in Texas increased demand nationally for natural gas, for both home heating and electricity generation, and the market for that operates nationwide.

How did that happen, especially the former?  If your apartment has electric heat, you can't exactly heat it with gas instead for a week.

[J N Winkler]

But the lack of winterization in Texas increased demand nationally for natural gas, for both home heating and electricity generation, and the market for that operates nationwide.

How did that happen, especially the former?  If your apartment has electric heat, you can't exactly heat it with gas instead for a week.

Texas depends heavily on natural gas for electricity production, including for electric heaters in homes (60% of houses in Texas depend on electricity for heating in the winter, which is a much higher percentage than in states to the north).  And much natural gas production within Texas itself is not winterized, so supply plummeted.  Most natural gas providers prioritized maintaining supply pressures for residential customers because it is much more difficult to recover from a pressure drop that involves multiple delivery points.  That in turn caused the spot price to zoom up by a factor of 200.

So we have lack of winterization causing problems at multiple points along the line in Texas:

*  Natural gas supply goes down, from 24 billion cubic feet to 12-17 billion cubic feet.

*  Multiple power plants, not all gas-fired--including one nuclear generating station--shut down because of the extreme cold.

*  Houses in Texas are not that well-insulated, despite heavy A/C usage in summer, because (1) electric power has historically been cheap, (2) the house-building sector is under-regulated compared to other states, and (3) the difference between ambient temperatures and thermostat setpoints in the winter (measured as heating degree days) is usually lower in Texas than in states further to the north.

I would just add that relying on electricity for home heating is a recipe for blackouts during unusually cold winters.  Texas is far from exceptional in this regard.  Britain had long-lasting blackouts in the winter of 1946-47, at a time when much home heating came from electric space heaters.

[Big John]

When people put up wordle updates with only colored squares.

[vdeane]

Why wouldn't our bills be going up if Texas' grid had been interconnected with ours?

The cold in February 2021 covered such a large part of the continental US that I don't think there would have been much spare power to deliver to Texas.  But the lack of winterization in Texas increased demand nationally for natural gas, for both home heating and electricity generation, and the market for that operates nationwide.

I am personally not among those hating on Texas for isolating its grid from the rest of the US.  I think that is a questionable decision, but February 2021 is not actually my reason for thinking so.  Texas found itself in trouble because it made the mistake of not ensuring adequate winterization all along the line from fuel supply to insulation within houses.  Nor were the failures confined to energy supply.  Water treatment plants in Texas had to stop operating because they froze (leading to boil-water orders that were comical under the circumstances--boil with what energy?) while their counterparts in states to the north continued to operate normally.

It's worth noting that winterization is required per federal regulations - federal regulations that the Texas grid is exempt from due to being disconnected (in fact, being exempt from federal regulations is WHY Texas has a separate grid in the first place).