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Open-Sourcing Windows Calculator

blogs.windows.com

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Re: Open-Sourcing Windows Calculator

#21

Post by sebazzz »

abakker wrote: post #13
yellowapple wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if I should be disturbed or amused by Microsoft putting telemetry in (at this rate) literally every one of its products. Like, what the hell do they even track? I guess the obvious ones are things like application crashes, but now I'm curious if they have the data on the most common calculations, folks' favorite numbers, etc.

I mean, I guess it would be cool to know what kind of operations people are doing most often? Maybe you send different ads to people who only use addition/subtraction than people who use sin / cos?

Telemetry is not used for ads, but since it is open-source you can check and get a pretty good idea what they actually send.

Re: Open-Sourcing Windows Calculator

#23

Post by Titanous »

turrini wrote: post #7

https://github.com/Microsoft/calculator#data--telemetry "This project collects usage data and sends it to Microsoft to help improve our products and services. Read our privacy statement to learn more. Telemetry is disabled in development builds by default, and can be enabled with the SEND_TELEMETRY build flag." Even on a simple calculator.

Here's what they are actually collecting: https://github.com/Microsoft/calculator/blob/master/src/Calc...

Re: Open-Sourcing Windows Calculator

#24

Post by Someone1234 »

I might try to commit to this.

I've always found the "App" version of Calculator lacking compare to its Win32 predecessor. In particular History. On the old Calculator you could double-click the history and edit the equation, and get a new result, no go on the App.

Plus the Programmer UI, while being more powerful is actually harder to use since the information is now split between two screens rather than one.

Oh and you cannot paste in currency ($10) is now invalid. The old one just stripped the currency symbols.

Re: Open-Sourcing Windows Calculator

#25

Post by criddell »

yellowapple wrote: post #11
turrini wrote: post #7

https://github.com/Microsoft/calculator#data--telemetry "This project collects usage data and sends it to Microsoft to help improve our products and services. Read our privacy statement to learn more. Telemetry is disabled in development builds by default, and can be enabled with the SEND_TELEMETRY build flag." Even on a simple calculator.

I'm not sure if I should be disturbed or amused by Microsoft putting telemetry in (at this rate) literally every one of its products. Like, what the hell do they even track? I guess the obvious ones are things like application crashes, but now I'm curious if they have the data on the most common calculations, folks' favorite numbers, etc.

I'm pretty sure I've entered 58008 in every calculator I've ever touched. That's probably in my Microsoft file somewhere...

Re: Open-Sourcing Windows Calculator

#26

Post by dvtrn »

diminish wrote: post #12

MS goes on to open source the famous and non interesting parts of its products. What's next? Notepad, Ms Paint? Shall we see anything bigger than VS Code?

"Microsoft open sources MSPaint.exe"

two weeks later

"Show HN: I added transparency support to MSPaint"

two (more) weeks later

"Adobe shares plummet as users cancel their subscriptions to Creative Cloud by the thousands, analysts baffled"

Re: Open-Sourcing Windows Calculator

#27

Post by sebazzz »

shawnz wrote: post #22
diminish wrote: post #12

MS goes on to open source the famous and non interesting parts of its products. What's next? Notepad, Ms Paint? Shall we see anything bigger than VS Code?

> Shall we see anything bigger than VS Code? .NET framework?

That has no use, as you can almost certainly not install and use it anywhere. .NET framework is an OS component you probably don't want to mess with. And Microsoft neither, given they only innovate in .NET Core nowadays.

Re: Open-Sourcing Windows Calculator

#29

Post by djsumdog »

turrini wrote: post #7

https://github.com/Microsoft/calculator#data--telemetry "This project collects usage data and sends it to Microsoft to help improve our products and services. Read our privacy statement to learn more. Telemetry is disabled in development builds by default, and can be enabled with the SEND_TELEMETRY build flag." Even on a simple calculator.

On my windows machine I use Windows 10 Firewall Control (and outbound LittleSnitch type thing .. except crappy). I don't think it was calculator, but there was some other basic Microsoft app that wanted to make an outbound connection. I remember thinking, "WTF?! Why would this need to connect to the Internet ever." .. maybe it was calc. Is this telemetry currently enabled on the released version or is it only in the OSS code?

Re: Open-Sourcing Windows Calculator

#30

Post by gpm »

sebazzz wrote: post #21
abakker wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, I guess it would be cool to know what kind of operations people are doing most often? Maybe you send different ads to people who only use addition/subtraction than people who use sin / cos?

Telemetry is not used for ads, but since it is open-source you can check and get a pretty good idea what they actually send.

Here is the list of events, the jokes seem pretty on point to me: https://github.com/Microsoft/calculator/blob/057401f5f2b4bb1...

A small selection:

    constexpr auto EVENT_NAME_INVALID_INPUT_PASTED = L"InvalidInputPasted";
    constexpr auto EVENT_NAME_VALID_INPUT_PASTED = L"ValidInputPasted";
    constexpr auto EVENT_NAME_BITFLIP_PANE_CLICKED = L"BitFlipPaneClicked";
    constexpr auto EVENT_NAME_BITFLIP_BUTTONS_USED = L"BitFlipToggleButtonUsed";
    constexpr auto EVENT_NAME_ANGLE_BUTTONS_USED = L"AngleButtonUsedInSession";
    constexpr auto EVENT_NAME_HYP_BUTTON_USED = L"HypButtonUsedInSession";
    constexpr auto EVENT_NAME_FUNCTION_USAGE = L"FunctionUsageInSession";
    constexpr auto EVENT_NAME_BITLENGTH_BUTTON_USED = L"BitLengthButtonUsed";
Do you have a source for "not used for ads"?
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