My trusty old Chromebook, which a reader got for me almost exactly six years ago, has been showing its age for a while now. The letters had worn off the keys so badly I kept making typos (because I’m a one-finger typist), the processor apparently couldn’t keep up with some websites, and since Google stopped updating it a couple of years ago, some snobby websites refused to let me in (meaning I needed to access them with my phone, which I really hate). Then about two weeks ago, the “1” key stopped registering, making it very difficult to type either the numeral or the exclamation point; the next day the “Q” went, so I saw the writing on the wall and used an Amazon gift card given me by a generous gentleman to buy a new one. I like Chromebooks for several reasons: they’re small; they do everything I need them to do for a pretty low price (this one cost me less than $130), without my having to pay for a lot of bells & whistles I don’t need; they arrive free of bloatware; and all I need to do is sign in and all my bookmarks pop right up (I keep all of my data on a thumb drive, easily switched from old computer to new). Of course, all new computers have a frustration factor because computer companies are run by sadists, but with Chromebooks it’s usually over in a few hours (as opposed to days or weeks on the Windows machines I used to use). Alas, this one has been annoying me for a week now with two specific issues: the more aggravating one is that when I right-click with the mouse (the same one I was using without issues before), sometimes the menu comes up normally and I can do what I like. But at other times, it seems to want to “guess” what I want from that menu and implement it automatically, seemingly at random; it may suddenly delete whatever I highlighted, open up an emoji menu, or search the highlighted text on Google (the latter two being functions I have never and would never attempt to access via right-click). I have no idea what this is about, but as this is a ’24 model I’m guessing it’s some artificial stupidity feature, but I have no idea how to turn it off so I need to use the keyboard for copy-paste or cut-paste, which slows me down. The other problem is apparently Google-wide, judging by what I found online: there appears to be no way to turn off the auto”correct” function, resulting in the computer frequently replacing words I want with words I don’t want (I like it to call attention to typos or misspellings, but I don’t want it getting notions that it should “correct” me without permission). So if anyone knows how to fix either of these problems; please let me know in the comments. 
Archive for July 2nd, 2024
Diary #731
Posted in Diary, tagged artificial stupidity, Google, Presents on July 2, 2024| 4 Comments »
Visit my bookstore
This Month
Old Posts
Call me
Become a Blog Patron
If you want to donate but don't want a recurring charge, you can send any amount you like via PayPal to my email address (see below). Be sure to include a note so I can thank you!Contact Maggie
Boring but necessary legal stuff