Komputer Kvetching

Windows 7 took many pages out of the Mac OS handbook, most of which are for the better. A notable exception is the whole "downloads" idea. When I find some file on the web that I want a copy of, I used to enjoy clicking on its link and having a dialog box ask me where on my computer I want it saved. This way the PC is structured like a big filing cabinet, the C drive, with lots of smaller and smaller file folders that aren't conceptually different except that they are stored in other folders that are stored in other folders that are stored in . . . that are stored in C. Now, however, when I click on a file online it is automatically stored in the downloads folder, which is who-knows-where. I can access the folder from the desktop, but now I have this extra folder whose location within my overall filing cabinet is unclear. Worse, Microsoft also took Mac's terrible idea of making a list of downloads which is clearable but which is independent of the actual downloads folder. I just clarified for myself that the downloaded files are not deleted when the list is cleared. What is not certain is whether I have copied the files I have downloaded to folders that are filed the way I like them, and thus whether I can delete them off the dumb nebulous downloads folder. Arrgh.

Today's Square Community As Proletariat Of The Future

Via Interfluidity, on aversion to our current negative real interest rates:

Current spenders assume risks of future deprivation that current savers are unwilling to accept. Why shouldn’t spenders be paid to bear that burden? Transforming present resources into future wealth is uncertain and difficult work. Savers’ expectation of a positive real interest rate amounts to a demand for time travel cheaper-than-free. Why should such unreason be accommodated? The sense of entitlement carried by savers in our society would put any welfare queen to shame.