Posts by The Travelling Dangleberries

Still browsing like it's 1999: Fresh tools that keep vintage Macs online and weirdly alive

Re: Quality HW

A white macbook 2,1 here from 2006 running Linuxmint together with two 4,1s from 2008 again with Linuxmint.

Tesla fudged odometer to screw me out of warranty, Model Y owner claims

Re: Cockup?

When it comes to Musk in general and Tesla in particular it is best to apply Hanlon's razor inversely.

Windows 11 poised to beat 10, mostly because it has to

Re: When October comes

We have some macbook laptops, a 2,1 version from 2006 and two 4.1 versions from circa 2008 upgraded to 4GB RAM and SSDs. All are running LinuxMint 21.x XFCE and should be supported with security updates until 2027. They stopped being supported by Apple over ten years ago.

Of course, they are a bit slow but still work fine for the uses they are put to.

I will see what the upgrade options are when 2027 gets nearer but whatever the upgrade turns out to be it won't be to Windows or MacOS.

Vivaldi bakes Proton VPN into browser to boost privacy

Re: Network services are a system level service

Vivaldi uses the Chromium/Chrome ProtonVPN extension to provide the feature.

You can remove the VPN button in the toolbar by right clicking on it and selecting the relevant menu option and then remove the extension via "Tools" -> "Extensions" where you will find the Chromium extensions management page. Disable or remove the ProtonVPN extension as you wish.

Here is a use case

Here is one reason. I have an elderly relative in the UK who has definite religious views. One of their favourite news and prayer websites is based in the Balkans. Their broadband provider in the UK, Vodaphone introduced a "save the children" type content blocker last year supposedly to make using the internet safer.

For some reason the Vodaphone content blocker made it very hard to access the news and prayer site favoured by my relative. Load times for each page went up from a couple of seconds to several minutes. Here in my bit of Scandinavia the pages still loaded as normal. Another relative in the UK tested the site on a phone first without VPN and then using their VPN connection. Without VPN the site loaded very slowly. With VPN active the site loaded quickly.

So the solution would be to install something like the ProtonVPN client and set them up a free account. However, this means that the solution has to be supported. For example should the client barf, as happened to me a couple of times in the past it could take down the device's network/internet connection. So with no internet connection on my elderly relative's device in the UK I could not use TeamViewer/Skype with screen sharing to troubleshoot the problem at a distance.

Using ProtonVPN in Vivaldi means that should something go wrong with the VPN connection it a) will not kill all networking and b) access to the internet will still be possible using say LibreWolf or Chromium even if Vivaldi refused to work.

Time to ditch US tech for homegrown options, says Dutch parliament

Re: I hope this happens

Whilst working for the IT provider supporting six local councils in a valley in Southern Norway a few years ago I was stupid enough to question the wisdom of moving everything out in to MicroSoft's clouds. I was going against the orthodoxy of a die hard MS shop with a few MS fanbois in important roles. "It saves us having to run and maintain our own server park" followed by "What on earth could possible go wrong" being the mantras of the day.

Fast forward to now, and here we are, not only worrying if Norway's F35s will continue to work fully in the post-truth Trumpist era but also now considering the possibility that forcing our children to put every thought that they create in their school career into cloud services owned by US companies might not be such a brilliant idea after all. Perhaps also not a good idea that all our medical records and a myriad of other pieces of information pertaining to each and every one of us has been placed in similar systems.

Maar zelfs om het een beetje laat is, het is toch fijn dat er zijn wat mensen in Nederland die uiteindelijk het gevaar van onze situatie goed hebben begrepen.

Firefox 136 finally brings the features that fans wanted

Re: No trust

Mozilla lost my trust some time ago. I now use Firefox mainly to read and post on Mozilla Connect. Thunderbird on my ARM Linux devices has been replaced by Claws Mail which is faster than TB and has a stable, traditional UI.

uBlock Origin substitute

Well there is Vivaldi as well which offers its own ad and tracker blocking functionality. It allows you to use uBO blocking lists and seems to function as well as uBO on Vivaldi for Android. I will use uBO until it stops working on Vivaldi for Linux, at which point I will turn on Vivaldi's native ad and tracker blocking.

FuriPhone FLX1: A Debian-powered brick that puts GNOME in your back pocket

Re: so totally unusable then

My Phosh/XFCE PinePhone Pro initially boots into the Lightdm greeter screen with the Onboard onscreen keyboard enabled. On choosing Phosh for the current session and logging in using Lightdm greeter you then get the standard Phosh keypad screen when unlocking the device once Phosh is active.

If you choose XFCE for the session the the Lightdm greeter screen is the default when logging in after waking from suspend for example.

As regards alternative apps both under Phosh and XFCE I use desktop versions of Claws Mail, VLC and FreeTube as media players, mtPaint, Mousepad, XFCE terminal, Thunar as file manager and have LibreOffice installed - though I need a physical keyboard to make use of LO. Vivaldi stable and snapshot replace Chromium. The default GNOME apps they replaced have been uninstalled under Phosh. I tried uninstalling a couple of apps under XFCE and Synaptic/apt wanted to uninstall all of Phosh as well.

Re: so totally unusable then

Re Plasma vs Phosh my experience was the exact opposite. Plasma (Manjaro) that shipped with my PinePhone was very much a buggy work in progress, window tearing when rotating the device for instance was one of the minor issues while Phosh (mobian) did pretty much what it was supposed to do.

That experience was repeated when I got my PinePhone Pro.

I use web Skype natively on both PinePhones in Vivaldi. I made a test Skype call a while back sans video on the PinePhone Pro and sound quality was fine. WhatsApp web works OK as a linked device for text messaging again using Vivaldi.

Re: so totally unusable then

I installed XFCE alongside Phosh (mobian) on my PinePhone Pro. I have customised XFCE a little but generally it is touch screen friendly. I use Onboard under XFCE as an on screen keyboard and prefer it to Squeekboard which is the Phosh on screen keyboard.

I struggle with swiping exactly the right amount so XFCE makes a familiar change/relief from Phosh (or Android for that matter).

Arrr! Can a sailor's marlinspike fix a busted backplane?

Re: Vivaldi and that can follow the OS theme.

But at least you can scale the UI which is useful on both small screen devices like PinePhones and TV sized PC screens 2 metres from the audience.

Re: changed the look on XP to 'classic'

Another SeaMonkey user here at least on my x86 / x64 Linux devices. After the TB UI was properly trashed recently I have moved over to Claws Mail on my ARM Linux devices. I was surprised to discover that Claws Mail works well on my PinePhones with touch screen input. It is also fast even on the PinePhone.

Meta blocked Distrowatch links on Facebook while running Linux servers

One step beyond...

I have gone one step further by not ever having opened a Facebook account in the first place.

Mine's the one with the PinePhone in the pocket with my Mastodon feed open in Vivaldi.

Now Trump's import tariffs could raise the cost of a laptop for Americans by 68%

Re: Eh?

This reminds me of the "Cakeist" approach taken by Brexiteers in both the run up to, and post the Brexit referendum prior to the amazing trade deal that was definitely going to be negotiated with the EU.

Their idea was that the EU needed the UK more than the UK needed the EU.

Therefore, if the UK left the EU then shortly afterwards the EU would come running to the UK cap in hand begging to be able to sell their cars, cheese and bubbly tariff free to UK customers. Thus giving the UK a trade deal with the EU single market that was better than the deal (as a member) that the UK already had.

How did that work out?

However, the problem is that the instability that such ideas create, (if pursued with any vigour) is that the resulting chaos will only be of benefit to the "Chicago Boys" disaster capitalists and the alt-right poster boys who hang on their coat tails.

History shows that what happens to the rest of us will become irrelevant.

Arch Linux installer now slightly less masochistic

My first short experience with Manjaro was the version installed by default on my PinePhone shipped together with the equally wobbly Plasma Mobile GUI. I found my way to the relative stability of mobian/Phosh and the more familiar territory of apt very quickly.

Some time not so long after that there was a minor schism in the fractured PinePhone community where a group of non-Manjaro developers asked the Manjaro team to stop shipping stuff they knew to be broken.

As an example - within my first hour of using Manjaro/Plasma I discovered that brightness slider was obviously inspired by the colour scheme of the cockpit of Hotblack Desiato's stunt ship. If you moved the slider all the way to the left the screen dimmed to such an extent that the slider, and all the text and other controls on the display turned the same shade of black as the background.

Ten years under Dr Su: How AMD went from budget Intel alternative to x86 contender

Re: Still not competing in mobile markets

Tuxedo Computers in Germany do a range of AMD laptops with Linux preinstalled.

Your computer's not working? Sure, I can fix that problem – which I caused

Re: Computer wiped every month ?

I have a solitaire app that has not been updated for ages and has always been free of adverts.

My coat is the one with PinePhone Pro (running mobian) in a pocket.

Harvard duo hacks Meta Ray-Bans to dox strangers on sight in seconds

Re: As a good American...

It occurred to me a couple of years ago that it was probably possible to track people with no social media presence using facial/gait recognition simply by looking at other people's pictures and videos say posted when on holiday.

Those people in the background when you take a cute picture of your 4 year old, face smeared in blue ice cream. Or you appearing in their pictures of "Ye Olde Ice Cream Shoppe" complete with your child, face smeared in blue ice cream.

I have a maxim in life that l use often - "If I have just come up with such an idea then someone else will have already produced a prototype or working system".

Microsoft decides it's a good time for bad UI to die

Re: well that was crap

Naaaaah! The author must be a moonlighting Gnome 3 UI dev on a crusade to stop users on any platform from being able to change any settings on any of their devices.

Top Linux distros drop fresh beats

Re: Style is optional

@Anonymous Coward

"As useful as just clicking and dragging?"

More so,because I do not have to hit the narrow borders on the edges of windows that most GUIs I have used in the recent past seem to think are a good idea.

Hand-eye co-ordination tend to get worse as you age. Clicking at the right moment once the mouse cursor has changed to "resize" mode becomes quite difficult on bad days. With Alt Right-Mouse-Click you can click "inside" the window and drag to resize without having to hit that thin resize zone on the edge of the window and click at the right moment.

This kind of problem just shows how of little importance today's UI or should I say UX designers place on the needs of older people. Shit like having to mouse over things to try to find where the feckin' scrollbar has gone or to find the drop down menu that then disappears just as you have located the thing you want to click on.

So yes, for older people like me Alt Right-Mouse-Click has its place.

Re: Style is optional

@Anonymous Coward

"XFCE is indeed horrible and needs a huge amount of configuring, customisation and hacking to get it remotely useable. Resize window anyone?"

I find dragging using Alt Right-Mouse-Click very useful when resizing windows.

I generally find that defaults chosen by LinuxMint for their XFCE desktops, such as dark themes, modern looking icons etc to be displeasing. But a few mouse clicks including re-creating the RISC OS placement of window buttons (close, minimise, maximise) and installing tango-icon-theme does the trick here.

I got used to having the primary panel at the top a la MacOSX as I started with eeebuntu which used Gnome 2 and had the panel at the top. Which was, at the time useful if you connected an external monitor with the eeepc screen as primary.

While it is possible to get RISC OS button placements under MATE the last time I tried it was only possible from the CLI. XFCE allows you to place window buttons in any order from the GUI.

IBM pauses advertising on X after ads show up next to antisemitic content

Re: That's rich.

Posted by the person who has never owned a VW or a vehicle made by GM and has never been treated with products made by Bayer and does not drink Fanta?

YouTube cares less for your privacy than its revenues

Re: Supply-chain Control

Vivaldi and FreeTube fix some of these supply-chain issues here.

Miscreants leak texts and info siphoned by Android stalkerware app LetMeSpy

Re: someone obtained "unauthorized access"

"...And the ladies in the cloakroom

Take no notice of me..."

YouTube's 'Ad blockers not allowed' pop-up scares the bejesus out of netizens

DuckDuckGo might be your friend...

Or search for videos via DuckDuckGo and watch them from the DuckDuckGo results page. No ads. Just don't click into YouTube at the end of videos. I tend to use yt-dlp for most videos though.

No more feature updates for Windows 10 – current version is final

Perfectly good legacy hardware.

"The fact that you consider it "perfectly good" implies that it's a long way from being "legacy hardware", of course."

My very early Intel macbook (2006) running LM 21.1 is perfectly good at doing what I ask of it while (I assume that) most people would regard any laptop of that age as "legacy hardware".

Firmware is on shaky ground – let's see what it's made of

Old stuff

I have a 2006 white macbook running LM XFCE 21.1 and a 2009 Eeepc 901 running LMDE 4. Both are usable and still being updated. Then there is my pair of Eeepc 701s that run an older version of LinuxMint that need something newer installing on them.

I have a recent Motorola phone with Android 11 that will cease to have updates soon and no obvious upgrade path to Android 12. Plus a paperweight Cosmo Communicator stuck on Android 9. In the case of the Communicator you can in theory install Gemian linux although the last time I checked the absence of a Planet Computers server stops you updating or doing much useful with their linux install. Which is one of the reasons why linux on x86/AMD64 or widely supported ARM platforms (Raspberry Pi for example) makes it easy to keep old kit working.

My 2003 Corolla has firmware in the form of an electronic engine management system and ABS control system but the car is not connected to the internet. So security issues due to unpatched code are very unlikely. A modern electric car is a computer on wheels with an always on internet connection. The cars's firmware controls things like the brakes and power train as well as insignificant stuff like the infotainment system. Will today's new cars still be getting updates for their "firmware" in 2043? Will your 20 year old Tesla fail its MOT as there are known unpatched vulnerabilities in the car's firmware? Will you be allowed by legislators to install "LinuxMint Tesla Edition" on your car when the car's firmware stops getting updated?

Smile! UK cops reckon they've ironed out gremlins with real-time facial recog

Re: Back to Covid mask wearing

You really think that masks and sunglasses will help much?

https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/18/vr_telemetry_identity/

It will only be a matter of time before the "mug shot" down at your local nick becomes a "suspect-body-movement video and mug shot".

Linux Mint 21.2 and Cinnamon 5.8 desktop take shape

Re: Cinnamon Mint is my Choice

"...upgrades are seamless so all is good."

I just upgraded a 2006 white macbook from 18.1 to 21.1. It took a few days including two full disc copies using dd but was remarkably easy. After having two complete failures to upgrade Ubuntu on ARM boards in the past I was a bit sceptical but seeing as the macbook's CD drive failed ages ago and it wouldn't boot from a live USB stick and a new install would have required installing rEFIt again I thought that the upgrade path was the best option. Installing on a later macbook does not work either due AFAIR to the limitations of the EFI implementation on the really early macbooks.

.

The macbook will be 21 years old by the time 21.1 stops receiving updates, assuming the hardware holds up. Mint Xfce zips along fine running off an SSD.

Ford seeks patent for cars that ditch you if payments missed

Re: Tell me you're middle-class without telling me etc etc

I usually don't like saying "I told you so" but in this case I will allow myself to feel smug.

https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2016/01/05/want_new_smartphone_laptop_tablet_no/#c_2737824

systemd 253: You're looking at the future of enterprise Linux boot processes

Re: This is perfect for a Friday story

"Don’t try to put every good features into just one project."

I haven't checked the systemd roadmap yet, but does anyone else know when systemd's eagerly awaited email client functionality will be implemented?

Musk bans private-plane-tracking @Elonjet on Twitter, threatens legal action

Re: I'm appalled

"The other is ElReg (amongst many others) milking the drama for a handful of ad dollars. "

Are there really ads on ElReg?

'What's the point of me being in my office, just because they want to see me in the office?'

I had a short stint on a large UK government project around the time that two skyscrapers in New York collapsed. The CEO of the company that had managed to convince the UK authorities of their ability to complete the aforementioned project within budget and by the deadline was one Dick Brown.

Dick had a penchant for sending out similar emails (albeit shorter and less coherent) to both permies and contractors working on the project. Serendipitously, (or possibly by default) Outlook was configured in such a way that everyone was identified in the format "surname comma forename" on emails they sent.

I am not sure what my colleagues made of these missives but I personally found it rather amusing when these "Brown, Dick" messages appeared in my inbox. Uplifting they certainly were, but probably not in the way that Dick intended.

The boss worked in a fishbowl, so office tricks were a treat

Re: Pranks and things

My father who was at Cambridge in the same period used to tell us the story of a friend's Austin 7 that was dismantled and reassembled in the owner's room while the owner was away for the weekend.

Keeping printers quiet broke disk drives, thanks to very fuzzy logic

Re: O Paris, Paris, wherefore art thou Paris?

The Norwegian word for "why" is "hvorfor".

Tesla owner gets key fob chip implanted in his hand

Tesla owner gets key fob chip implanted in his hand

So do Muskovites drive Muskvitches?

The App Gap and supply chains: Purism CEO on what's ahead for the Librem 5 USA

Re: Still waiting...

I wondered about delivery when I looked at the Librem 5 a couple of years ago. I ended up plumping for a PinePhone which was a fraction of the price. Running Mobian/Phosh most features work as they should albeit in a relaxed manner. It makes me smile a lot of the time using a "smartphone" running linux.

You would expect a qualified electrician to wire a building to spec, right? Trust... but verify

Re: The neutral doesn't join up with anything on the switch!

"What amused me was that it was now okay to use a standard light switch - as long as its outside the "wet area" whereas before it had to be a pull cord; given the average teenager doesn't dry their hands..."

Interesting! I didn't realise that the average teenager washed their hands after a visit to the toilet...

Anyway on the rare occasions I return to the UK I am reminded how much I don't miss those ruddy bathroom pull cord switches. Stumbling around in the dark of an unfamiliar AirBnB half awake with a full bladder I try to grab the cord so I can see what I am doing. I grab but miss and the cord is now not only difficult to see it is also waving around wildly.

I much prefer standard switches (preferably backlit) mounted on the outside of the bathroom next to the door, together with the bathroom fan switch. Each to his own I guess...

Supreme Court urged to halt 'unconstitutional' Texas content-no-moderation law

SPAM, SPAM SPAM SPAM!

"HB 20 also "prohibits email service providers from impeding the transmission of email messages based on content," as Abbott's press release explains."

I wonder how long it will take before they stop enforcing that clause.

Microsoft slides ads into Windows Insiders' File Explorer

Re: Killing off their own golden goose

"Although MS is pushing their Office 264 product..."

Ah, the uptime is getting worse by the day...

Planning for power cuts? That's strictly for the birds

Re: Stuff Happens

One crisp winter morning my Trabant expired a minute after leaving town with a boot full of groceries. As luck would have it this happened within coasting distance of a bus stop so I was able to get the car safely off the road. After checking that the fuel tap was open (it was) I popped the bonnet so I could check how much fuel was in the tank.

I unscrewed the filler cap and heard a sound like the one you get when you open a can of pop as air rushed into the tank. The fuel tank on a Trabant is vented through a tiny hole in the filler cap which on inspection was plugged by a tiny piece of ice.

As the fuel tank is mounted above the engine it is subjected to large temperature changes. In winter any condensation in the tank (after melting) will try to escape via the vent hole in the filler cap as the tank warms up. When you start driving cold air is forced under the bonnet and over the filler cap which can turn water in the vent hole back into ice.

I normally have a pin for adjusting windscreen washers stuck in the windscreen rubber on the inside of the driver's windscreen pillar. It turned out to be just the right tool for de-icing Trabant petrol cap vent holes.

Google's 'Be Evil' business transformation is complete: Time for the end game

Re: Wishful thinking

It took 8 years from the start of proceedings against AT&T to the break up actually being a fact. I don't know how many years of complaints and agitation preceeded the start of the legal process.

Anyway maybe as we turn the corner into 2030 we will be able to celebrate "the Alphabet" being broken up into its constituent letters.

Sometimes you have to hold onto your dreams...

Better the devil, you know...

I remember hearing from an acquaintance in the early 90's that the Greater Manchester Police finally had enough of the gang leaders responsible for drug sales in their area and decided to put a fair few of them behind bars. Trouble was, their organisations continued to flourish except with new leaders in place. Leaders that the police had no working relationships with, leaders who had grown up without the old school habits of their predecessors, leaders who were more unpredictable.

I have often observed that there are many more parallels between the bootleg era Mafia in the US and the large US based multinational corporations than with either of them and the ethics embodied in the ideas of WIlliam Morris and the enlightened Industrial Revolution company owners. Or in the business practices that follow the aims and principles of the co-operative movements that have made such a difference to people around the world.

Nothing is bad for Google. It might well get broken up a la AT&T, split into separate corporations that co-incidently continue to co-operate on projects of mutual benefit. The new Google might well have to get used to more oversight but it has money and lawyers so combating oversight will just be seen as a new cost of doing business, like office rental, company cars and staff.

On the other hand, not breaking up Google will have dire consequences for the rest of us folk and will stifle competition maybe forever more. Like the bootleg era Mafias it is never enough just to do business on a level playing field and compete fairly with the competition. Oh no, in order to maximise profits the competition have to be completely destroyed.

Apple's Safari browser runs the risk of becoming the new Internet Explorer – holding the web back for everyone

Re: A man after my own heart

33k6!!! By 'eck you were lucky! We 'ad te make doo wi' uh 14k4 modem and we 'ad to share t bandwidth wi' rest t village...

Client-side content scanning is an unworkable, insecure disaster for democracy

Re: minority report

Or a small drone carrying a payload of flying nanobots who in turn are each carrying a tiny (but sufficient) payload of ricin arriving at your home in the early hours of the morning.

Sleeping with your bedroom window open might not turn out to be as good for you as you thought.