* Posts by Oh Homer

1152 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Oct 2013

Page:

Microsoft quietly erases Windows 11 TPM 2.0 bypass workaround from help page

Oh Homer
Mushroom

TPM and Linux

First of all, TPM is absolutely the most pointless tech ever devised, especially as there have already been multiple successful hacks.

As far as I can tell, the sole purpose of TPM is an attempt to lock people into Microsoft's ecosystem ("He who controls the bootloader...").

Having said that, allegedly there is a way to use Linux on hardware infected with TPM (enabled).

I read the docs for this, several times over, until my brain melted. Did I mention I'm a Gentoo user (and Void Linux) for past 20 years, so not exactly a noob, but this is honestly the most perversely convoluted, overengineered and complicated shit of all time.

Frankly it would just be a whole lot easier to disable TPM, and never install Windows. Ever.

Bonus points if I can rip that shit out of its socket and smash it with a sledgehammer.

US AI shares battered, bruised, and holding after yesterday's DeepSeek beating

Oh Homer
Terminator

Oh joy

An even cheaper way to make humanity redundant.

Microsoft's London 'Experience Center' packs up and goes home

Oh Homer
Terminator

Experience what?

What exactly is left to experience from Microsoft?

A new and innovative form of subscription based spyware, powered by AI?

I'm petty sure everyone knows exactly what Microsoft is, by this point. It's not like they've actually innovated anything useful recently, or, for example, ever.

Same goes for the entire tech industry, frankly.

The state of Right to Repair: Progress made, but key barriers remain

Oh Homer

This is really the right to own property

If I can't repair it, I don't really own it.

AI pothole patrol to snap flaws in Britain's crumbling roads

Oh Homer
WTF?

How on Earth can the council not know?

One of our many local potholes is called Harry. He celebrated his 23rd birthday last Wednesday. There was cake and everything.

That makes him older than the average mental age of our councillors.

Why would the local council be somehow unaware of the existence of a two decade old pothole, that they would feel it necessary to waste taxpayers' money on some "AI" robot to hunt them down?

Just literally get in your car and drive, anywhere. They're impossible to avoid.

Instead of wasting money on stupid robots, how about using it to actually, you know, fix the damned roads?

Clock ticking for TikTok as US Supreme Court upholds ban

Oh Homer
Windows

lol

"TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression"

IOW ... brainrot.

Google and Linux Foundation form Chromium love club

Oh Homer

Re: Return features to the platform?

I can 1000% guarantee that Google will never reintroduce Manifest v2, or facilitate anything that undermines their core business.

Which for those who may have forgotten, is the global monopolisation of spam, and the pursuit of every technical and legal measure necessary to force everyone to see it.

There's undoubtedly a quid pro quo for the Linux Foundation. They get to sell themselves like a bunch of dirty pros, while Google stuffs their pockets with quids.

Perfect 10 directory traversal vuln hits SailPoint's IAM solution

Oh Homer
Headmaster

Not excusing the vendor but...

Shouldn't their corporate customers be using secure platforms locked down with Mandatory Access Controls, instead of just haplessly relying on application security?

Telco security is a dumpster fire and everyone's getting burned

Oh Homer

Security is an illusion

The trick is to know what to do when it's breached.

Google earns fresh competition scrutiny from two nations on a single day

Oh Homer
Pirate

Indian gamba app

Yeah, what could go wrong?

I'm not exactly thrilled at Google's arbitrary censorship of apps that conflict with their spammy agenda, but at the same time they may actually have a point wrt Indian gambling apps.

Arm reportedly warns Qualcomm it will cancel its licenses

Oh Homer

Actually ...

ARM is technically correct, licenses are not transferable.

Although Qualcomm's argument seems to be that it was already licensed for exactly the same IP as Nuvia, which seems unlikely, but I guess we'll soon find out.

The only significant takeaway I get from this is that IP is, as ever, a cancer, and that we'd all be much better off if it had never been born.

UK ponders USB-C as common charging standard

Oh Homer
Childcatcher

Committee meeting

Let's have a consultation to decide if we should do what the entire rest of the planet has already agreed on...

How very British.

Torvalds weighs in on 'nasty' Rust vs C for Linux debate

Oh Homer
Holmes

The "best"...

The best programming language is the one you're good at, the one you enjoy using, the one that makes you productive.

That's not a platitude, it's just reality.

As for vi vs Emacs: for years I really wanted to hate Emacs. Then I discovered Org mode.

Online media outstrips TV as source of news for the first time in the UK

Oh Homer

TV ... what's that?

I supposedly fall into the geriatric demographic still loyal to TV, however the reality is that I gave up watching TV two and a half decades ago in the late nineties, around the time of the rise in popularity of "reality TV".

The sort of garbage on TV at the time included such masterpieces as "Ibiza Uncovered", "Cops", and my personal favourite, "Britain's Most Violent Pubs".

I remember thinking at the time that, if I really want to immerse myself in anti-social behaviour for entertainment purposes, all I need to do is step outside, and frankly I got more than enough of that in real life. I watched TV to escape that shit, not subject myself to a rerun of it.

There were also very early warning signs of the emergence of "Woke" culture in TV, or what used to be called "political correctness". Everything felt a little too preachy for my liking.

From what I've heard, mainstream media has now fully succumbed to Woke cancer, and things have only gotten significantly worse, so it seems I cut the cable at exactly the right moment.

These days I get orders of magnitude more entertainment value from certain youtubers and Twitch streamers than anything the mainstream media has to offer. And as far as the news is concerned, I was never that interested in the blatantly manufactured propaganda peddled by mainstream news outlets in the past, I'm even less interested in it today.

Thunderbird is go: 128 now out with revamped 'Nebula' UI

Oh Homer

Simplification

Re: the subheading, I've always hated webmail, but I realise that nobody from Millennials onwards has even heard of the concept of an email client. This is the biggest hurdle that Thunderbird faces.

Over the years I've made my computing environment and workflow simpler and simpler, so for me even Thunderbird is too bloated, and I now use neomutt.

I realise I'm literally a dying breed, but that's fine by me. As long as I get to keep doing things the way I want to, for the few years I have left, what the technophobic consumer generation chooses to do thereafter is none of my concern.

Adobe users just now getting upset over content scanning allowance in Terms of Use

Oh Homer
Terminator

Self-inflicted wounds

Just stop using the "cloud". And "subscription" software.

No really, just stop.

The argument that this anti-consumer garbage is supposedly "needed" by professionals, that there is no suitable alternative, and that they couldn't possibly do their job without it, is complete and utter horseshit. Most of the best art ever made, for example, was created long before computers even existed. "Need" my ass.

I can only conclude that your average sheeple is an incurable masochist who just really enjoys rewarding bad behaviour.

I've seen street artists produce the most astonishing work, from nothing but a piece of chalk, or upturned plastic buckets and bits of leftover plumbing.

People who are genuinely creative don't need props, they don't need any tool in particular, they can use literally anything to express their art.

The sort of people who claim to be completely debilitated unless they have access to some fashionable toy gadget, are utterly delusional. They're not artists, they're just mindless consumers.

The only way to stop these Silicone Valley gangsters is to stop giving them your money. Stop rewarding bad behaviour.

Venerable ICQ messaging service to end operations in June

Oh Homer
Terminator

A bit like Napster...

When "Napster" officially ended it wasn't what a lot of (younger) people thought it was. The real Napster died years earlier.

Same goes for ICQ.

I remember the original fondly, but only because it was one of many iconic landmarks of my youth, not because I really used it much. Surprisingly, I do still remember my ICQ number, which is weird considering I barely ever used it.

The thing that's about to pass into the abyss is not the thing that was born three decades ago. It's just a name, like Napster.

Teardown confirms Huawei's Pura 70 contains SMIC 7nm process node

Oh Homer
Mushroom

Hypocrites

If America hates China so much, stop buying billions of dollars of their crap every year.

Please.

Either the FBI is recruiting in Iran – or some govt Google ad buyers are getting a lousy deal

Oh Homer

I can just imagine...

An Iranian steel worker and an Italian porn star sitting next to each other in the FBI's recruitment office.

Next!

Meta sued by privacy group over pay up or click OK model

Oh Homer

Cambridge Analytica

Yes, remember them?

People seem to have very short memories.

I dumped Facebook the moment I realised it was being used by Farage and various other highly dubious interests, from places as far afield as the US and Saudi, as a tool to sabotage the EU and line their own pockets.

The fact that they subsequently won, and got away with it scot free, did not exactly improve my opinion of them.

There was a tsunami of outrage, then ... silence. Followed by amnesia, apparently.

Why the hell is anybody still using Facebook?

Seriously.

USENET, the OG social network, rises again like a text-only phoenix

Oh Homer
Childcatcher

Long form discourse

I realise that having an actual conversation using complete sentences is a bit passé, although some people on Reddit have been accused of trying.

Sadly, by the time I finally discovered Reddit, it had already degenerated into a shithole filled with incomprehensible degens and tin-pot dictator mods, the latter of whom take a perverse pleasure in enforcing entirely unwritten rules, or in other words just making up shit as they go. Which is, frankly, pretty much every social network platform these days.

Just look at YouTube, for example. The latest case I heard about is a thirty-something YouTuber who is being constantly demonetised because, according to the divine algorithm, she's a child, and children hosting YouTube channels is verboten ... or something.

A lot of Usenet is also moderated, of course, but from what I remember with significantly more sanity. However, personally I'd rather be the judge of what I do or don't get to read, and unlike every web-based social network out there, Usenet clients actually provide the tools necessary to do that ... properly.

The only thing launched for Amazon's Project Kuiper is a lawsuit

Oh Homer
Coffee/keyboard

Meh

Bezos is probably worried that Mr. X's rocket will randomly brake half way up.

Meta can call Llama 2 open source as much as it likes, but that doesn't mean it is

Oh Homer
Linux

OSI vs FSF definition

If you actually read the OSI definition here (https://opensource.org/osd/), and don't worry because it's refreshingly concise, it's remarkably similar to the FSF definition.

Although I completely agree that "open" is too vague, and is therefore vulnerable to misinterpretation and abuse.

I also completely understand that Raymond was trying to distance himself and the community from what he perceived as a sort of quasi-religious extremism, but the word he settled on was a very poor choice IMO.

"Open" is merely a state that exposes the contents, and therefore makes those contents visible. There's nothing in that which confers any rights, and that's a crucial omission. If I leave my front door open, you can see inside my house, but that does not somehow give you the right to enter my property.

Freedom, OTOH, explicitly confers rights. As the Llama 2 community has discovered, this discrepancy makes a big difference.

The other problem is that neither OSI nor FSF have any legal power to police the misuse of the words "open" or "free", so you can expect the professional liars at megacorps to peddle whatever bullshit they want with complete impunity.

The best we can do is complain about this blatant propaganda, and hope that somebody with the power to do something about it actually cares.

Mozilla so sorry for intrusive Firefox VPN popup ad

Oh Homer
Big Brother

Hobson's Choice

Honestly, Google and Mozilla are as bad as each other, just for different reasons.

With Mozilla, you have to contend with their ridiculous "release early, release often, break always" mentality, where they obsessively remove features that everyone likes, while adding features nobody wants.

With Google, it's an endless battle for control of the web - Google at one end trying to stuff you like a foie gras goose with spam, and you at the other frantically trying to stop them.

At least Firefox still supports Manifest V2, unlike Google, and therefore you might actually be able to stem the torrent of spam currently headed towards Chrome users.

Firefox 106 will let you type directly into browser PDFs

Oh Homer

Re: Editing PDFs

Nice try, but then I'd be scolded for violating our "paperless office" environmental policy.

My job is basically, dig a hole, don't put your dirt in Boss #1's yard, then Boss #2 asks why I put dirt in his yard, and tells me to refill the hole, thus enraging Boss #1. But instead of a shovel and dirt, it's a PC and PDFs.

Oh Homer

Editing PDFs

Apparently I'm the only person in our company with Acrobat Pro (personal copy), so up to now it's been left up to me to modify any PDFs where the original Doc is mysteriously missing.

It's mostly contacts, that require somebody's name and signature inserted, and sometimes the dates or specific terms need changed.

Mere "annotation" doesn't cut it, as often stuff actually has to be removed.

It's a pain in the ass, tbh, but the corporate mindset has a pathological aversion to editable documents, yet otoh they keep passing me uneditable documents to edit.

I once took it on my own initiative to recreate a PDF from scratch in Word. That didn't go down well. I got a 10 minute lecture about policy compliance. They literally just want uneditable documents, and they want me to edit them.

YouTube loves recommending conservative vids regardless of your beliefs

Oh Homer

Re: You're not obliged to watch their suggestions

No but I've found that I'm constantly being led towards content/creators I don't like.

I think the issue is that the algorithm is conflating academic interest with support. What I research and what I agree with are not even remotely connected.

Now you might argue that if the algorithm detects a pattern in my research, it's right to conclude that I will naturally want more of the same, but the problem is that it doesn't seem to be able to tell the difference between content that's dryly analysing a subject, and content that's fanatically endorsing it.

And yes it probably is true that left wingers are more likely to play on both sides of the fence, specifically because of our more academic tendencies. Whereas right wingers tend more towards wilful ignorance and dogmatism. So it isn't really surprising that the algorithm is skewed to the right.

Laugh all you want. There will be a year of the Linux desktop

Oh Homer

re: Windows 2000 capable hardware

Just "web browser capable hardware" would do it, frankly.

Our entire business is run on cloud services, accessed via a browser. Literally everything, from accounting to customer support. Nobody here has even heard of Active Directory (except me, the resident geek).

Every PC at this company runs whatever version of Windows it shipped with, plus Chrome.

Local storage requirements are basically zero. With the right login, we can access everything from any of those PCs. Add any new device at any location in our business, and it's fully operational without installing anything, other than Chrome and the right login.

Any system goes titsup, we don't even bother wasting time with a diagnosis, we just redeploy from a standard image, or pull another box out of the warehouse as a last resort.

We could literally run bare-bones kiosk systems with barely any operating system and a browser, and we'd not notice even the slightest difference.

For us, the OS is literally irrelevant. It's just a delivery vehicle for the browser, which in turn is just a vehicle for cloud services.

OK so what happens when the internet goes down?

Well the reality is that, without various forms of internet-based coms, and especially electronic payments, there wouldn't be much for us to do anyway, at least nothing that generates any actual revenue.

So worrying about the internet going down is like not buying a car because sometimes the roads are flooded by freak weather. Only worse, because typically public roads don't come with guaranteed Service Level Agreements and compensation packages.

Of course, this whole line of reasoning falls apart if you have permanently crap internet, like I do at home. I can barely stream a 480p YouTube video, much less an entire operating system plus AAA games. So for home users like me, and there are plenty of us out there, DaaS is nothing but a distant dream.

Nvidia admits mistake, 'unlaunches' 12GB RTX 4080

Oh Homer
Devil

Unlaunch My Card

I love that song.

Semiconductor average lead time breaks half-year barrier

Oh Homer
Mushroom

Welcome to the Tech Apocalypse

At this rate, the garage-full of outdated tech that I've hoarded over the decades, might end up being more useful than I could have ever dared to imagine.

Google makes outdated apps less accessible on Play Store

Oh Homer

Re: Necessary abandonware

"I have plenty of Abandonware on my PCs that can no longer be found"

The difference is that you can still run that abandonware on your fully updated PC, potentially decades after it was abandoned, even if that requires using the likes of dosbox or similar.

And you don't have to contend with Microsoft arbitrarily hitting a killswitch that deliberately disables software just because it's "too old".

Sure, there are compatibility issues, but that's not quite the same thing as being deliberately blocked. And unlike Android, you can easily work around those compatibility issues.

So where is the Android compatibility layer that will keep all my abandonware running in perpetuity, like on Windows?

This is especially ironic given that Android is a Java-like virtual machine, where you're supposed to be able to "write once, run anywhere" forever.

Well, I guess not.

Oh Homer

Necessary abandonware

Unfortunately a solid 50% of everything on my Android phone is probably abandonware at this point, despite my best efforts to find acceptable replacements over the years.

That includes the launcher itself (in my case the original, now abandoned version of Apex, before the new owners destroyed it).

I guess this is the inevitable consequence of making software development too accessible, by dumbing it down to the level that opportunistic kiddies dump their one-hit-wonders into the app store, before losing interest and running away.

So what will smartphone users do once the only apps they actually want to use have been essentially blocked by Google?

Go back to using PCs, I guess.

Right to repair shouldn't exist – not because it's wrong but because it's so obviously right

Oh Homer

Save the planet, daaahling!

I'm not so naive as to think we can continue raping and pillaging planet Earth without dire consequences, I'm just a bit fed up being at the top of the pile of sacrificial lambs, while the wolves are allowed to continue roaming free.

Seriously, just let me have my goddamn gaming PC already, and go pester the actual contributors to California's groundwater problem.

Will my owning a Potato PC somehow magically stop California's mindless, greedy, hedonistic agricultural industry from relentlessly sucking the groundwater dry?

My best guess would be no, that this problem will only be "solved" once the parasitic humans responsible finally succeed in destroying the source of their own existence, and finally yeet themselves.

Good riddance, but please leave me and my previous gaming PC out of it.

Mayday! Mayday! Microsoft has settled on a build and Windows 10 21H1 is inbound

Oh Homer
Facepalm

I'm so glad...

... that Microsoft keeps pushing spam "updates" to my fully purchased operating system.

Erm, what exactly did I pay for, again?

Openreach out and hike prices on legacy fixed-line products: Broadband plumber pulls trigger after Ofcom gives the nod

Oh Homer
Unhappy

That's me fscked again, then

Greetings from what has apparently been designated as the last muddy outpost in Blighty scheduled to receive fibre broadband, probably several decades after every other household in the country.

I look forward to the prospect of subsidising everyone else's gloriously high speed internet, while I remain involuntarily stuck on "broadband" speeds roughly comparable to using 2 tin cans connected by a piece of string.

As the proud owner of an "Exchange Only" line, in the middle of a vast wilderness populated only by myself, a geriatric postmaster, and several sheep, I suppose I should be accustomed to paying through the nose for services I'm denied the privilege of enjoying, such as any form of public transportation, public road maintenance, or even a council dustbin, so this latest move fits perfectly.

I shall now begin a Patreon campaign to fund moving home to an inner-city slum, so I can reap the rewards of a 21st century lifestyle.

The silicon supply chain crunch is worrying. Now comes a critical concern: A coffee shortage

Oh Homer
Mushroom

And so it ends

Whoda thunk that the Extinction Level Event that ends humanity will not be a deep impact of stupidly large space boulders, an invasion of morbidly curious aliens armed with suspiciously familiar looking plumbing and kitchen utensils, or the comparatively banal option of nuclear war, but it will in fact be a deficit of coffee running through our increasingly pulsating veins?

The movie "I am Legend" suddenly makes a lot more sense.

Cloud builders hoover up 60% of ALL servers sold in 2020 as enterprise bit barns left to sweat

Oh Homer
Terminator

To paraphrase

Not my server, not my data.

License to thrill: Ahead of v13.0, the FreeBSD team talks about Linux and the completed toolchain project that changes everything

Oh Homer
Mushroom

Re: anonymous coward

"The heck with freedoms, look how beautifully engineered our system is."

Pretty much, yes.

I'm far more interested in the craftsmanship of a tool than what people may choose to use it for. Whereas I can exercise control over the design of the tool, I can have no reasonable expectation of control over the people who use it, much less how they choose to use it. Nor should I aspire to such control in principle.

Personally, I find the general question of "freedumb" to be more than just misguided, it's actually sinister. The people whining loudest about it tend to have the most sinister motives.

Oh Homer
Devil

Faith no more

I used to be a GPL purist, which is funny because I actually started out as a UNIX (Ultrix) guy, more interested in UNIX engineering principles than political idealism.

Over the years, I found it harder and harder to consolidate these two increasingly opposing principles. Not that there's anything intrinsically about the GPL that compels such licensed software to violate UNIX principles, that's just the pit that Linux fell into, or more accurately was pushed into, mainly by Red Hat and the Poettering cabal.

Systemd pretty much single-handedly cured me of whatever little GPL idealism I had. When it comes down to a choice between "enforced freedom" or proper engineering principles, I know what's more important.

USA adds China’s top chipmaker to list of companies American money can’t legally buy a slice of

Oh Homer
FAIL

Here we go again...

The Yanks desperately trying to shore up their failing economy using a hopeless strategy, under the guise of "national security".

If it really wants to be competitive, maybe it could try, erm, you know, actually making stuff, without gouging customers.

But nope, clearly it's easier to run a protection racket than reopen factories.

Make America Broke Again!

Spending Review: We spy a stray £60m – is that all you can spare to help 5G market recover from UK kicking out Huawei?

Oh Homer
Mushroom

re: tedious

Nope, seems spot on to me.

The UK 5g infrastructure has been fscked because of completely unsubstantiated hysteria peddled by a pathological liar.

The question is, will Boris now have the balls to admit he never really wanted to do this in the first place, now that he no longer has to appease the Orange loser?

You might want to look Huawei now: Smartphone market returns to growth as Chinese giant's shipments plunge

Oh Homer
Mushroom

Let's pretend

Let's pretend that the Yanks' entirely unsubstantiated bullshit has a tiny kernel of truth ... frankly I'd rather be spied on by a Chinese government with zero power to act on whatever it discovers about me, than be spied on by the NSA, extradited without prima facie evidence or even so much as an explanation, then tortured at Guantanamo Bay in violation of the United Nations convention. For example.

Please explain how China is a greater threat to me than America.

This was never about security, it was only ever about the US economy.

Right to repair? At least you still have the right to despair: Camera modules cannot be swapped on the iPhone 12

Oh Homer
Childcatcher

Vote with your wallet

Not defending Apple - I despise them and everything they stand for with every fibre of my being - but consumers need to stop rewarding bad behaviour by persistently buying anti-consumer products.

If any given anti-consumer measure is industry wide, then stop buying that type of product entirely, and make sure the companies know exactly why.

It's not like any of these shiny toys are actually necessary for survival, and in any case the companies in question will soon back down once they see their precious bottom line swirling down the toilet.

As long as we continue supporting these gangsters, we only have ourselves to blame.

Big Tech’s Asian lobby says nations shouldn’t go it alone on tech taxes

Oh Homer
Windows

In other words

"We're committed to ensuring that only the little guy pays taxes, while the one-percenters make out like bandits."

Business as usual, then.

When Huawei leaves, the UK doesn't lead in 5G, says new report commissioned by... er... Huawei

Oh Homer
Mushroom

Re: Where's the proof?

Ever heard of the US intelligence agencies' National Security Letter?

Or in other words: You should also be aware of the laws in America that compel every American citizen and company to assist in national security or intelligence work. This should concern you if represent clients that work in or with America.

There, FTFY.

However, is this odious legal requirement actual proof that, e.g. Facebook is spying on Chinese citizens at the behest of the NSA, secretly, under a gag order imposed by the legal terms of a National Security Letter?

Or is it just a case of "well they could do that if they wanted to".

And would this sinister power wielded by the NSA be tantamount to all the "proof" the Chinese government needs to justify outlawing Facebook in China?

Having the power to do something in principle is not somehow proof that this power is actually being abused. You should really learn the difference.

So, like I said, where's the proof?

Oh Homer
Holmes

Where's the proof?

18 billion is a lot of money to flush down the toilet on the basis of completely unsubstantiated paranoia.

If you think Mozilla pushed a broken Firefox Android build, good news: It didn't. Bad news: It's working as intended

Oh Homer
Terminator

Re: Updates vs Upgrades

I guess the semantics are subjective, but I always assumed an "update" comprised bug fixes, and an "upgrade" was about adding new features.

In any case, the latest Firefox is neither. It may or may not be a technical improvement, but functionally it's a clusterfsck.

Oh Homer
Mushroom

Re: Unfortunate ...

The problem with recommending alternative browsers, every time Mozilla screws up, is that invariably the main reason users are complaining is because their addons are broken, and switching to another browser really won't help them.

In my case it's MetaMask, a cryptocurrency wallet, and as far as I know Firefox is the only mobile browser supported ... or rather it was until today.

Let me be crystal clear, Mozilla: your browser is utterly useless to me unless it supports the addons I need. It's literally just a delivery vehicle for my addons. The browser itself is irrelevant. I don't want Firefox, I want MetaMask. The sole reason I use Firefox is because it's the only mobile browser supported by MetaMask and the other addons I need. Period.

If you break the API, and thus break the addons, you've created something that is about as useful to me as a chocolate teapot. I'm sure the technical improvements under the hood are impressive, but that means nothing when the sole reason for using that browser is something that no longer works.

I'm also trying to figure out why you blatantly lied about it not being possible to roll back to a working version, especially since you host that and all previous versions on your own ftp site. I just tried it. It works. Why wouldn't it?

Sorry Mozilla, but the "release early, release often, break always" strategy just isn't working.

Things that make you go zoom: Huawei rolls out pictastic P40 phones, no Google Play Store in sight

Oh Homer
Black Helicopters

In a word, no

But you can do it for $749.00. In about 6 months time. Maybe.

But frankly, why bother?

The whole point of a smartphone is convenience. Take away the convenience and you might as well just go back to dumb phones. A phone without SafetyNet is basically useless to me. No banking apps, no Google Pay, hell even the bus timetable app refuses to run. I've tried hacks like Magisk but it's a game of leapfrog with Google and the banks, so ultimately it's a losing battle.

The top 3 apps I use are all Google: YouTube, Maps and Search, in that order. And BTW that's on both smartphones and the desktop. That, combined with SafetyNet restrictions, means I'm basically Google's bitch, so I may as well suck it up and let them compile whatever data they want on me. It's not like I'm going to die from a fatal case of "Google spying". In fact, as I sit here, I can't imagine a single negative consequence of allowing Google to know that I watched PewdiePie, listened to Eminem, then bought a USB cable on Amazon. What exactly could Google do to me armed with that data, that would in any way cause me harm?

Nothing.

So yeah, rooting and modding and hacking in general is an interesting exercise, and of course taking steps to protect yourself from genuine threats is essential, but this ain't one of them.

Surprise! Plans for a Brexit version of the EU's Galileo have been delayed

Oh Homer
Mushroom

"This year we are launching our new ... Space Council"

Yeah, and that is the only thing you will ever launch, my little Nazi former friends.

Maybe you could ask your equally Nazi soul mates across the Atlantic to plant a Union Jack on the moon, if they ever stop spending money on warfare long enough to save up for the trip.

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