Posts by firey

DuckDuckGo tries to explain why its browsers won't block some Microsoft web trackers

Re: Googleless and Un-Binged

This issue is nothing to do with duckduckgo search - that doesn't use trackers - it's only relevant if you're using the duckduckgo *browser*.

Think of the "Enhanced Tracking Protection" in firefox where it identifies & blocks known trackers - the duckduckgo browser doesn't actively block MS's trackers.

What could be worse than killing a golden goose? Killing someone else's golden goose

Golden Goose

They weren't unhappy because their code had been changed.

The other dept. knew they had bad code, and relied on it regularly throwing up a problem for which they could then swoop in and save the day with a "fix" & therefore receive praise and job security.

The bad code was the golden goose!

Fear the Walking Edge: Desktop support pulled, but legacy browser lingers on in Surface Hub, Xbox, HoloLens

Are they going to fix the start menu's "search"?

While my primary browser is Firefox I do have some uses for the (new) Edge browser.

Why under Windows 10 when I hit the windows key, then start typing the letters E D G it suggests the Edge program, but if I type a 2nd E, spelling "edge", that option disappears & Windows no longers seems to know it has that installed?

Perl-clutching hijackers appear to have seized control of 33-year-old programming language's .com domain

Re: Sometimes older is better

perl.com is/was just a commercial news/blog site for O'Reilly Media - so it won't have any affect on you getting distro upgrades :-)

When you tell Chrome to wipe private data about you, it spares two websites from the purge: Google.com, YouTube

Re: Incognito is a farce too

An important thing to be aware of about Incognito mode (and Private Browing in Firefox) is that it only isolates the Incognito windows from non-Incognito windows - all Incognito windows & tabs open at the same time share the same state.

So if you want to browse 2 different sites which both have google (or other) trackers, and try to avoid google making the connection - you need to do all your business in the 1st site, then close all Incognito windows, open a new Incognito window, then do your business in the 2nd site.

Firefox's Private Browsing works in the same way, which is why I use Firefox Temporary Containers instead of Private Browsing - much more powerful.

China watches 170,000 years’ worth of short videos every day

Seriously?

They're claiming that over 50% of the country's population are watching almost 2 hours of TikTok-style short videos every day?

I want to call BS... I'd really like to.

Microsoft sides with Epic over Apple developer ban, supports motion for temporary restraining order

Not quite - I don't think Apple are going to reject any app just because it uses Unreal Engine - but by removing Epic from the Apple developer program it effectively means Epic can't update their Unreal Engine to support any future iOS / macOS updates.

Brave, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla gather together to talk web privacy... and why we all shouldn't get too much of it

Temporary Containers

I think Firefox's "Temporary Containers" add-on in Automatic Mode is vital - it'll load every new domain into a sandboxed container which automatically drops all cookies & local storage when it's closed.

The only other relevant Add-ons I use are uBlock Origin & uBlock Matrix.

I do also use ghacks-user.js to add restrictions to the "user.js" in my Firefox profile directory, but that requires extra effort to periodically run before starting Firefox, so won't be suitable for everyone.

To deal with particular sites which don't like such restrictions, I use a completely separate Firefox profile.

E.g. I have a profile exclusively for work use of Office365 - the only add-on installed in that is uBlock Origin, and I don't use ghacks-user.js - but I do have to be careful not to visit any non-work non-Office365 URLs in that profile.