The trouble is, I'm lacking inspiration, and things like Entity Framework, XML serialization (which is crap, but it's there), and other obvious applications of it have already been done to death, or are produced my microsoft, and in everybody's regular rotation such that a contribution in that arena would be at best futile, and at worst annoying.

I wrote a great lexer generator that uses it. But now what?

I've talked myself out of generating parsers. Short of some sort of AI code synthesis, they are too bloated and restrictive to be very practical in the real world.

I thought about generating component model stuff, like the common component property changed event patterns on classes but the core stuff really involves UI components, and it seems like .NET UI is still all over the place. I want the dust to settle before I commit to something like MAUI.

Days of our Lives fans are gearing up for two weeks of intense storylines that are bound to leave them on the edge of their seats the weeks of April 29-May 10, 2024. Brady Black (Eric Martsolf) spends time bonding with his daughter, Rachel Black (Finley Rose Slater), while Kayla Brady (Mary Beth Evans) urges Steve Johnson (Stephen Nichols) to make amends with his best friend, John Black (Drake Hogestyn). Meanwhile, Konstantin Meleounis (John Kapelos) is causing discomfort among the residents, particularly for Maggie Horton Kiriakis (Susanne Rogers), who is planning to marry him despite town-wide disapproval.

Days of our Lives: Nicole Walker Shocked

The drama intensifies on DOOL as Konstantin pressures Teresa Donovan (Emily O’Brien) to get hold of a prenup, and Alex Kiriakis gets entangled in a love triangle with Teresa Donovan and Kristen DiMera (Stacy Haiduk). Marlena Evans (Deidre Hall) confronts Everett Lynch (Blake Berris) about his therapy sessions, while EJ DiMera (Dan Feuerriegel) is desperately trying to get Paulina Price (Jackee Harry) ousted as mayor. A plethora of surprises await as Nicole Walker (Arianne Zucker) discovers that Eric Brady (Greg Vaughan) is also working at the Spectator, and Chanel Dupree (Raven Bowens) falls ill.

The following week on the NBC Peacock soap opera, Stefan DiMera (Brandon Barash) and Kristen work on a plan to block EJ DiMera from the CEO seat at DiMera Enterprises, and an explosive showdown between EJ and Sloan Petersen (Jessica Serfaty) is imminent.

The action-packed episodes also see Ava Vitali (Tamara Braun) and Harris Michaels (Steve Burton) searching for a black book of drug contacts that Clyde Weston (James Read) had. All this and more are set to unfold in the weeks of 4/29-5/10/2024.

Click to Subscribe to the most followed soap opera spoilers channel on YouTube!

The post Days of our Lives 2-Week Spoilers April 29-May 10: Nicole Gets Her Baby Back! appeared first on Soap Dirt.

Good ol’ Apple EarPods. They’re traditionally among the most unloved Apple products of all time, especially now you don’t even get them for free with the iPhone.

Thankfully, if you need a pair of emergency earphones with a built-in mic for placing calls, you can get a set of Apple EarPods – not to be confused with AirPods – dirt cheap.

Amazon is selling the Apple AirPods (USB-C) for just £14, which is a fiver (or 26%) off the £19 asking price.

This version of the EarPods is designed for iPhone 15 and most recent Mac and iPad offerings, because of the USB-C port on the other end, rather than the Lightning port.

However, they’ll also work as a cheap set of wired buds for Android phones or any other device with a USB-C port that supports audio.

They’re 100% worth having to keep in a travel back or desk drawer if your regular AirPods or wireless headphones conk out on you, as EarPods don’t require additional battery power.

Of course, there’s nothing fancy, like, you know, good sound (what do you expect for 14 quid?), not to mention ANC, lossless, smart connectivity or Bluetooth.

However, there are volume up and volume down buttons within the built in microphone. Old school. AirPods Pro they aint, but as we said, these are a great ‘break glass in emergency option’ that’ll keep you connected to personal audio when the new fangled true wireless options fail you.

The post Apple EarPods are now just £14 on Amazon appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

Apple is reportedly aware of an issue with the iPhone’s alarm clock after some users complained the rudimentary feature has stopped playing sounds.

Emilie Ikeda for NBC’s Today show in the United States reports that a large number of people have taken to social media to complain alarms they’ve had set for years are not functioning as expected. That has caused people to miss wake-up calls for work, class, appointments, and dropping the kids at school.

According to the reporter, Apple is aware of an issue causing some iPhone alarms to not play the expected sounds. It also says the company is working on a fix for the issue.

A rude awakening for some iPhone users

Apple says it’s working to fix an issue causing some alarms NOT to play a sound. Here’s what we know —> https://t.co/cNYMgudgXC

— Emilie Ikeda (@EmilieIkedaNBC) April 30, 2024

It’s currently not clear what is causing the largely simple piece of functionality to break and Apple didn’t go into any more detail with its statement to the Today show. It’s also not clear how widespread the problem is either.

Some users on TikTok are suggesting it might be the Attention Aware feature, which will turn down the sound on a notification when the device notices you’re looking at the screen. That toggle can be turned on/off under Settings > Face ID and Attention.

Some users have also been told by Apple to check the Settings > Sound & Haptics menu to ensure the volume is turned up on ringtones and alerts and to toggle the “Change With Buttons” switch to off to avoid turning the alarm volume down by accident.

However, the fact Apple is reportedlty working on a fix suggests these mitigations won’t be enough to fully solve the issues for the majority of those affected. We’ll keep you posted when Apple drops the planned update.

The post iPhone alarm clock issue is the new 'dog ate my homework' appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

The Arc web browser, which has been peeling Mac users away from Safari and Chrome, is finally arriving on Windows platforms.

The innovative browser features a collapsible sidebar for a full screen experience minus distractions, rather than the omnipresent tabbed interface at the top of the window. It enables users to keep fast access to their favourites within the same sidebar.

Users can group sets of tabs for work, study and hobbies, while it’s also possible to place a pair of browser tabs in split screen as you work within them side-by-side. Arc also has a handy picture-in-picture mode to let you watch a video in a pop-out.

Naturally there’s an AI influence called Arc Max that’ll bring up 5 second previews of web pages when you hold shift and hover over a link. It will auto rename tabs so you know what’s what, and offers fast access to ChatGPT. There’s also a built-in Ask On Page AI feature.

Advocates have praised the browser for bringing “order to the chaos of the online life” and cited it as “intuitive, playful and pretty.”

The Browser Company behind the platform pledges a privacy focus built-in from the ground up, as Arc doesn’t track which websites users visit, cannot see browser keystrokes, and won’t sell data to third parties.

It’s proven a popular alternative for Mac and iOS users and now there’s the opportunity for Windows users to get in on the action. Significantly, it’s also built on Apple’s Swift programming language, so it’s a landmark of sorts to have this app running on Windows in the first place.

The announcement video today even pokes a little fun at the Microsoft’s expense by ending with the Edge browser icon being moved to the Recycle Bin. You can download Arc here.

The post Mac browser Arc hits Windows and sends Edge to the bin appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

Bold and the Beautiful went mum on Sheila Carter for a reason, they likely went for the shock value of raising her out of the ashes on the CBS soap. While 10 toes slid into that oven, the Sheila with nine toes lay among filth in an abandoned building. And today, the B&B spoilers say she lives.

Bold and the Beautiful: Sheila Carter’s News Travels Slow

Now that Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown) is found alive, news of her resurrection travels slowly. Bold and the Beautiful spoilers still have Steffy Forrester (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) enjoying the prospects of a future without Sheila most of this week.

She chats with Liam Spencer (Scott Clifton) at the end of the week. The two bask in the relief of knowing that Sheila Carter will never be part of their daughter’s future. But that soon comes to an abrupt halt.

So as the dancing on Sheila Carter’s grave continues, it won’t last much longer. Then the Bold and Beautiful world explodes again. Soon, families implode and marriages likely unravel as the soap rolls along over the next two weeks.

B&B Spoilers: Sheila Conjures Up Good Feelings

Bold and the Beautiful spoilers don’t need to suggest that Deacon is in his glory, now that he’s got his nine-toed woman back. After such an agonizing ordeal of living in gloom and doom without Sheila, a wedding is likely in the cards. This is one of the mixed blessings for Deacon, but it’s not all good for him.

One of Deacon’s last conversations with Sheila Carter, before she was thought dead, was tough on both of them. Deacon’s daughter gave him an ultimatum. That caused him to put marriage plans on the back burner on Bold and the Beautiful.

Hope Logan (Annika Noelle) promised her father he’d lose his family. She declared that she and the kids would cut him off if he stayed with Sheila.

But what he just went through likely changes Deacon’s mind. Plus, both he and her son learn that Sheila stayed true to her word. She didn’t go after Steffy, that was Sugar.

Deacon and Finn’s bond likely grows stronger after the hunt for Sheila succeeds. That would be a plus for Sheila Carter to have her “Daddy” and son, John Finnegan (Tanner Novlan) getting along.

Also, this probably leaves Finn refusing to turn his back on his mother again. So, this would be a mixed blessing for Finn. He has his mother, but, this also likely leaves his marriage headed downhill fast.

But Finn said it a few times, he feels a connection to Sheila that he can’t ignore. This would put a huge feather in the cap for the woman missing a toe.

Bold and the Beautiful Spoilers: Next, It’s the Bad and the Ugly

The bad and ugly part mostly falls to the Forrester family. It seems Sheila Carter has become somewhat of a curse on this crew. Steffy soon learns she killed a woman she didn’t even know.

The case likely opens again once the police learn a different woman is dead. If so, this would put Steffy and her family under much stress.

Where’s Dr Li Finnegan?🤷🏻‍♀️Sheila did try to kill her as well. Another reason #Finn should hate her guts. But no we got lazy writers having him call her mom. Bring back the Dr Finn that hated Sheila and tried to choke her out!🤞 #WhereIsLiFinnegan #Finn #Steffy #SINN #BNB

— Butterfly 🦋 (@Destinistar7) April 29, 2024

Once her marriage unravels, she likely reminds her husband of something. Despite Sheila not breaking in that night, she’s still the woman who put Steffy in this position.

But, Steffy goes until the end of this week thinking Sheila Carter is still dead. Today, the fans are split on the revival of Sheila, as some see the writing on the wall for Finn and Steffy, and they don’t like it.

There you have it. It looks like the good, bad, and ugly revs up just in time for Friday’s cliffhanger on the CBS soap.

Head back to Soap Dirt for the latest Bold and the Beautiful spoilers.

The post Bold and the Beautiful: Sheila Unleashes Mixed Bag of Curses & Blessings appeared first on Soap Dirt.

Probably old but new for me...

• An Oxford comma walks into a bar where it spends the evening watching the television, getting drunk, and smoking cigars.

• A dangling participle walks into a bar. Enjoying a cocktail and chatting with the bartender, the evening passes pleasantly.

• A bar was walked into by the passive voice.

• An oxymoron walked into a bar, and the silence was deafening.

• Two quotation marks walk into a “bar.”

• A malapropism walks into a bar, looking for all intensive purposes like a wolf in cheap clothing, muttering epitaphs and casting dispersions on his magnificent other, who takes him for granite.

• Hyperbole totally rips into this insane bar and absolutely destroys everything.

• A question mark walks into a bar?

• A non sequitur walks into a bar. In a strong wind, even turkeys can fly.

• Papyrus and Comic Sans walk into a bar. The bartender says, "Get out -- we don't serve your type."

• A mixed metaphor walks into a bar, seeing the handwriting on the wall but hoping to nip it in the bud.

• A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.

• Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They converse. They depart.

• A synonym strolls into a tavern.

• At the end of the day, a cliché walks into a bar -- fresh as a daisy, cute as a button, and sharp as a tack.

• A run-on sentence walks into a bar it starts flirting. With a cute little sentence fragment.

• Falling slowly, softly falling, the chiasmus collapses to the bar floor.

• A figure of speech literally walks into a bar and ends up getting figuratively hammered.

• An allusion walks into a bar, despite the fact that alcohol is its Achilles heel.

• The subjunctive would have walked into a bar, had it only known.

• A misplaced modifier walks into a bar owned a man with a glass eye named Ralph.

• The past, present, and future walked into a bar. It was tense.

• A dyslexic walks into a bra.

• A verb walks into a bar, sees a beautiful noun, and suggests they conjugate. The noun declines.

• A simile walks into a bar, as parched as a desert.

• A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to forget.

• A hyphenated word and a non-hyphenated word walk into a bar and the bartender nearly chokes on the irony.

Snapping up the iPhone 15 Pro Max is an expensive piece of business, but if you go down the refurbished route, you can get the device ‘Like New’ for less than a brand spankers iPhone 15 Pro.

The giffgaff network/retailer is offering a ‘Like New’ iPhone 15 Pro Max for just £899 right now. It’s available in the 256GB configuration in the natural titanium shade.

The Like New condition means it’ll have zero wear and tea with no visible scratches on the screen or body. It’s a more sustainable option and it saves you a whopping £300 on the asking pice for the brand new model.

If you’re unfamiliar with Giffgaff, it’s an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) that runs off the O2 network, so you’ll get access to their data speeds and coverage around the UK.

If you’ve never bought a refurbished phone before, here are some things that should set your mind at ease. The phone comes with a 24 month warranty, has been subjected to a 30 point health check and will have a battery that can muster at least 80% of its initial max capacity. All phones have been data wiped by a pro too.

If you’re a first time giffgaff user, you’ll need to buy a data plan to go with it with a minimum value of £10 for 20GB. It’s a monthly rolling contract with no commitment to move forward after the first month. You can take out a longer contract if you wish, and that £10 a month for 18 months will get you 25GB of data per month.

There’s free next day delivery too, so you can enjoy this new phone almost immediately. Be quick though as all the other iPhone 15 Pro Max colour options are out of stock already so this deal may not last.

The post This deal makes the iPhone 15 Pro Max cheaper than the Pro appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

Apple-owned Beats has refreshed its over-ear headphones line with the Beats Solo 4, but how does this bass-popping set of cans compare to the existing Beats Studio Pro? Let’s find out.

Beats has followed up the launch of the excellent Beats Studio Pro on-ear headphones in 2023 with the brand new Beats Solo 4 less than a year later.

The fourth-generation model is the first in seven years and finally succeeds 2017’s Beats Solo 3 wireless earphones. The differences there are more pronounced. However, when it comes to Beats Solo 4 vs Beats Studio Pro there’s a more difficult choice to make.

Despite the price disparity, the cheaper Solo model might just be preferable to the premium Studio Pro for some users.

Beats Solo 4 cost a lot less

If you want a pair of the top tog Beats Studio Pro, you’re going to pay £349.99/$349.99, while the company is selling the Beats Solo 4 at £199.95/$199.95. This is significant considering what we’re about to tell you.

Studio Pro has ANC

Active noise cancellation is a must-have feature for many in 2024, but Beats has decided against including ANC within the Solo 4 model, probably to keep the price down and to keep the Studio Pro feeling like the premium option.

Not only is that a downside compared to the much-more-expensive Studio Pro, which also offers a Transparency Mode, but also to competing devices at a similar price point.

While ANC is a distinguishing factor, both have personalised spatial audio with head tracking for 360-degree sound via Dolby Atmos.

Both offer versatile connectivity

Both models provide support for UBC-C for charging and both have a 3.5mm jack for connecting to legacy audio equipment. Both the Beats Solo 4 and Studio Pro support for lossless audio over USB-C. Both the Studio Pro and Solo 4 play nice with both iOS and Android devices, with support for the respective Find My and Find My Device networks.

In terms of Bluetooth, both devices offer Class 1 Bluetooth for really strong and reliable connectivity over Bluetooth 5.3. iOS users get a light benefit with hands-free Hey Siri.

Solo 4 wins on battery life

Beats says its new Solo 4 can muster up to 50 hours of playback from a single charge, compared to the 40 hours from the Beats Studio Pro. That’s not necessarily representative of the absence of ANC either as the Beats Pro offers 24 hours of playback with ANC turned on.

Studio Pro offers a premium design

The Studio Pro has plush leather cushions to go over the ear, but if you’re not a fan of dead animal hide overing your ears the Solo 4 is the way to go. Still “UltraPlush” but no leather. The Pro model also includes premium metal sliders to adjust the fit, while they’re also heavier at 260g compared with 217g.

We’re yet to test the Beats Solo 4, but it would be surprising if they could match the sonic quality of the Studio Pro with all things being equal.

The press release says: “Beats Solo 4 has been re-engineered for incredible, high-fidelity acoustics. The custom-built 40mm transducers minimise electronic artifacts, latency, and distortion for extraordinary clarity and range.”

We’ll have a better idea of the nuances of the side-by-side comparison when we review the Beats Solo 4 in the coming weeks.

The post Beats Solo 4 vs Beats Solo Pro: Big differences explained appeared first on Trusted Reviews.