On 3/22/2017 1:17 AM, wrote:
On Sun, 19 Mar 2017 18:08:33 -0800, Stijn De Jong
wrote:

I can certainly manually press the default Android 4.3 "Add Wi-Fi network"
and then it will connect to any network I manually type in, but it won't
*find* a network on its own anymore, even though the signal strength is
clearly in the negative forties, fifties, sixties, and seventies (i.e., the
signal strength is just fine).
http://i.cubeupload.com/lYvIsQ.jpg

I realize probably nobody knows the answer but just in case you do, what
service on Android does the WiFi access-point scanning anyway?

I cant answer your question, but I want to ask. Do you like Android?

I bought one of those low priced generic brand notepad computers.
(Android). I personally do not like it. It works, but seems very clumsy,
lacks a lot of the things that Windows has, and seems to severely lack
any support.

That notepad now takes up space in my closet, and I went back to my 8
year old Windows XP laptop computer. It does so much more, does it
easier, and has a lot more support.

Android seems to be on a lot of devices these days, but I am surely NOT
impressed by it.

Just my 2 cents!

Summary: I use my tablet a lot more than I thought I would.

Tablets come in two sizes.
1) too small to read and operate with fat fingers.
2) too big/heavy to hold comfortably.

The obvious solution is to have two or four.

For the first case, portability is a big plus.

Voice capability is amazing.
I almost never have to pull a book off the shelf.
I can get a conversion factor or food recipe just by asking.
Even nonsense questions get answers. "How many milliliters in a week?"
gets you everything you ever wanted to know about testosterone and baby
formula. Both the cause and effect are covered. ;-)

I've been experimenting with an app called listnote.
It does a pretty amazing job on English text with normal
sentence structure. People bitch about how horrible speech
recognition is. If you want to trip it up, it's certainly easy to
do.
If you try to work at the level it comprehends, it works
amazingly well.
Hmmm, wonder if we could get newsgroup participants to cooperate
that way...but I digress.
I type a lot faster than I can type.
The amount of work needed to fix up my typos and dyslexia is on par
with the amount to fix up voice recognition. Great for
communication, but will be problematic if you need the nuance
required to get that Pulitzer or Nobel-worthy chemistry paper.

Another benefit of typing with one finger is that it forces you to
THINK about what you're saying and present it concisely. That alone
would greatly enhance the newsgroup experience for all. Newsgroup
readers also need a big button: "I've purged my indignation, so
****can my outrage and move to the next topic." Or maybe we have
to pay a nickel for each time we hit the send key. Wouldn't take
long for some of us to reassess the value of our "contribution." ;-)

For the second case, a bluetooth keyboard/mouse solves the user
interface problem. The screen is big enough to see.
For watching videos, I chuck mine in a vehicle headrest mount
and sit it on my stomach while lying down.

My desktops have their uses, but 90% of my actual screen time
can be handled by a tablet. I'm gonna get a "convertible" when they
start showing up in the free box at garage sales.

I've moved away from XP. Once you get used to the changes in
the windows 7 user interface, It has a lot of helpful capability.
Even win10 has settled down to the point that I find it tolerable.
If they'd just quit forcing updates up my ass,
I'd go back to metered internet and switch to win10.