Posts by Keythong

In-app browsers are still a privacy, security, and choice problem

This maybe from reluctance to implement a non-Web UI/UX, and graft.

But, of-course, that then leads to the temptation to import other stuff off the internet, like say font awesome, and various JavaScript frameworks, content services, then adverts, and metrics. Of course, the later may be the real reason why an in-app browser component was used! HTTP/Javascript based apps are bloat we need a lot less of, because they can be a lot slower and use a lot more memory than non-Web UI/UX apps, including the bloated NodeJS and Atom, e.g. React was serious bloat, both to compile and run, for a big app!

Cloud-linked LAN appliances can use unfiltered browsers too, and people are security/privacy idiots to use such junk, including because they will probably not be as secure as a non-embedded OS device, because of less oversight/patching.

This is why LAN-level domain-filter appliances, like Pihole, are necessary!

I have mine setup on an old Raspberry 3, with Unbound as the local DNS provider (used to be dnscrypt-proxy) to minimise DNS tracking via DNS servers; all LAN devices are directed to use it as a DNS server, via DHCP, via DNS server configuration, from my gateway router. As a result, I need no OS domain filters and far less (resource-costly) filtering in browsers, and it blocks domains which I can't configure to be blocked by in-app browsers, which can include chat apps like Slack and Skype. Pihole can also log which device is requesting which addresses, which can be useful to detect rogue apps/devices.

You are can do domain filtering on Android too, but the VPN approaches are often compromised and filter apps probably can't be chained like I did with Pihole and unbound.

Microsoft .NET MAUI devs vent over bugs backlog, response times

Why not use QT or some other OS portable UI framework.

Amused.

Java has had SWT for ages for cross-platform desktop IDE, and has JavaFX for desktop/web apps, with a visual designer, which should be platform portable too, and Swing still works too.

I have always hated bloated VS, and revisiting it a few years for work reinforced this, as did the WTF bugs in compiled functional C# code. Java projects style, Maven conventions, and Jet Brains IDEs make Microsoft look very so dated. I gave up on Windows too, because I finally had it with trying to repair WTF unbootable Windows installs and _still_ no usable boot repair tools, so now use Linux Mint, with Wine for the trivial number of windows programs I still find useful.

I want nothing to do with anything Microsoft now, including Azure.

Privacy Sandbox, Google's answer to third-party cookies, promised within months

Brave with separate profiles

I'd never use Google's Chrome build, so use Brave instead.

I have multiple separate Brave profiles to isolate kinds of activities from each other, including my general browsing profile, this is also handy to reduce bookmark folder clutter on the bookmarks toolbars e.g. a separate profiles for careers stuff, different training providers, etc.

PiHole is running on my LAN on a Raspberry Pi, with dnscrypt-proxy for DNS lookup, with it specified as the DHCP DNS server by my router, and I do check scan the logs for stuff I don't want.

Microsoft suggests businesses buy fewer PCs. No, really

Indeed

It's much like the insanity of significant switching from chemical fuels for, transport/heating, to electrical power. More conversion stages increase power waste, thus significant more (completely innocent) C02 [1] production.

Where "cloud PCs", possibly environments/sessions with no separate real OS instance needed, may actually be useful, is for ease of easier/automated system/data maintenance, and better access control, and data security, not for power saving BS. Cloud server farms can ironically waste a lot more power, because of a higher percentage of idle, powered up servers and support plant. Moving software product to the cloud is often more about fabricating subscription (higher-cumulative, rentier) income, lock-in, and user exploitation, than about genuine need; "free" online versions can be a bait for such traps.

Cloud can end up being more costly than on-premise, including because it can lead to unexpectedly great use and possibly use of more licenced product instances!

[1] The CO2 smearing of AGW/Climate-Change is political propaganda supported by "cherry-picking" climate evidence/modelling fraud, much like the fraudulent political linkage of meat/saturated-fat consumption with cancer/heart-disease, all designed to usurp wealth and power. The most significant atmospheric "greenhouse" (heat retaining) substance is clouds, of water vapour, not CO2, e.g. basic science observation, that after roughly same temperature daytime temperatures, cloudy nights are generally significantly warmer than clear nights, because of reduced convection.

Das Keyboard 4C TKL: Plucky mechanical contender strikes happy medium between typing feel and clackety-clack joy

My Cherry MX Board 1.0 still looks better

It's cheaper, is a full keyboard, is supplied with an optional hand rest, has a variable White backlight, and comes in Red or Brown Cherry MX switch versions.

The Battle of Britain couldn't have been won without UK's homegrown tech innovations

Re: The war is over, the empire is gone

The Empire is gone because

1. Vain and earlier bankrupt Churchill, stupidly sought the gory, glory of war, and because he was told to make war by the 'elite' great game masters funding him.

2. The gangster USA government demanded massive rip-off prices for supplies, to intentionally dry up the funds of the British Empire and enrich the USA, then demanded that valuable Imperial assets were sold to them at heavy discounts. Only later did that idiot glory-seeker Churchill realise and admit this mistake!

Anyone who starts an offensive war, without the clear intention of significant net gains, to offset the cost of the war, is an blithering idiot, who will, at best, get a Pyrrhic victory, which is an effectively a defeat; as the UK and some other allies discovered!

It was the USA which actually won the war, with both Britain and the Axis losing, as was intended by this deadly game of the 'elite'. The USA because it became very wealthy from weapons/supplies trade and graft, allowing it to pillage/replace the British Empire with the USA Empire, so replaced the UK Pound with the US Dollar as the global reserve currency.

The Spitfire was apparently a vanity project, not a great aircraft; other UK and US aircraft were better value and more effective.

Radar was apparently more widely known about and used than just by the UK and allies.

Even Bletchley park was only successful, and give the time to develop, because of astonishing 'mistakes' by the Nazis, which were not surprising when you discover that the Nazi elite were also game pawns directed by the same 'elite' game masters.

Did you know that the "James Bond" story concept was formed as a result of a top secret, compartmentalised British operation executed to covertly sneak out Hitler and Martin Borman out of German by river in mini-subs and boats at the end of WW2, because the same 'elite' game masters told them too!

Larry Ellison abruptly pulls rug from under philanthropy foundation after two years to 'focus on COVID-19 fight'

Re: Oh, so now he's focusing on something ?

The problem is neither, it is that, anyone, or any organisation, is allowed to rentier * accumulate such obscene sums of currency; more so than some significant governments, allowing them dangerous private power

* Corporate Capitalism is the embodiment of rentierism, for its workers and society.

Personal donations by the obscenely rich are in no way adequate compensation, and can be abused like Gates and Soros have been doing, without classical virtue checks to limit damage, or even for nefarious purposes.

UK utility Severn Trent tests the waters with £4.8m for SCADA monitoring and management in the clouds

Re: SCADA in the Cloud?

It also makes, possibly even local, control and monitoring vulnerable to internet down or cloud down events, which could be caused deliberately by DDoS attacks, even for encrypted communications.

Water provision should be recognised as part of critical survival infrastructure, so should have military grade security and local control, and only be linked via a private WAN; with secured internet access/messaging as a non-essential option, via a separate WAN node. I suggest that Water companies should be regarded as military contractors.

You Musk be joking: A mind-reading Neuralink chip in a pig's brain? Downloadable memories? Telepathy? Watch and judge for yourself

Reductionist science, thus fatally flawed speculative tech.

Every person's brain, nerves, senses, and muscle structure are probably unique, probably even for genetically identical clones too, so it'll probably always be a significant customised challenge to encode/decode neural signals. The bodies communications are probably rather more complex than realised, using electrical, radio, and chemical signalling.

Remote control, not using muscle nerves, will probably be a lot harder than they suggest; even prosthetic limbs using muscle nerve signals probably require plenty of user training to learn to use, because of the above uniqueness. Complex senses like sight and hearing are probably going to be damned hard to do if attempts are made to bypass the learned, complex structure and circuitry of the eyes and ears.

Backing up memories is not happening with so little and only electrical sensing, you'd need something like a 3D "Culture" "Lace", grown into the brain, to do that, and probably outside the skull too e.g. some of what enables us to think maybe outside the skull too, like neurons in the spine and gut, and several semiconducting radio nodes (meridians) spread across the body.

Some people have suggested that the brain is a mass of continuously competing non-linear entities, with the consciousness providing the illusion of unity; hardware simulation of neurons will probably never create a true AI, including so-called Quantum computers, which probably won't scale.

Um, almost the entire Scots Wikipedia was written by someone with no idea of the language – 10,000s of articles

Re: Send them to Scotland for a few years...

Wikipedia is not impartial, but instead is significantly corrupt because it actively allows, even encourages, such corruption/censorship of fact and language, which is why Infogalactic had to be created, to at least fix some of the damage. Wikipedia, in it's current form, should not be regarded as a trustworthy reference, since much has to be with verified.

At the very least the admin of the Scot wiki section should be banned and a competent cultured Scot recruited to repair the damage and do the job properly. At best, Wikipedia should be removed from the perverted control of an ex-porn-mogul, and all the biased staff/helpers replaced, so that a true work of scholarship can be built.

Butterfingers who don't bother with phone cases, rejoice: New Gorilla Glass 'Victus' tipped to survive 6ft drops

The case may survive, but will the internals survive the shock?..

I've had SMD components detach from a PCB, inside a premium metal cased bicycle light, dropped too many times from waist height, rendering it inoperable; the same could happen with a phone, and there is a lot more to fall off! Bumpers maybe possible inside the case, but may make the case thicker or hamper heat dissipation.

Re: Is dropping your phone common?

Indeed, OLE screens seem tougher than LCD screens because my Samsung tablet has a part cracked screen and is going strong 5 years later, with LineageOS.

VMware to stop describing hardware as ‘male’ and ‘female’ in new terminology guide

This PC subversion only idiotically makes things harder and more confusing for competent people

Plugs/jacks and sockets are not interchangeable with male and female for connectors e.g. IEC, Kettle, clover, '8' mains connectors, have plugs with recessed (female) power contacts to prevent mains shock from a live lead, before plugging it in a (male) socket on the equipment to be powered.

This is yet more deliberate and progressive sabotage of the fundamental "like-a"/analogy conceptual part language, which hobbles language and the ability to as easily communicate, this behaviour is the same as warned of in the fiction book "1984" by George Orwell.

Microsoft accused of sharing data of Office 365 business subscribers with Facebook and its app devs

Re: Cloud based idiocy

To be blunt these crooks want people on cloud services so that the can abuse them more, with the cheek of effectively steal a lot more user data for commercial purposes without proper informed consent, which is even worse if a subscription fee is charged, because they discontinued the local product, so that they can make an even greater and growing profit margin!

The customer can also suddenly discover loss of access to applications, if for any reason they lose access to the cloud site, which can be because they need to VPN into a private network, which is not connected to the internet!

If you can read this, your Windows 10 2004 PC really is connected to the internet no matter what the OS claims

I see this BS because of minimal trust for Microsoft domains

Blackbird and other W10 lockdown software block this implicitly, but I also block them explicitly in my local dnscrypt-proxy instance and in my internet router.

Too much spying gave me no choice, that includes blocks for most of the mainstream 'social media' domains, ad-domains (including amazon) and several non-essential google domains. If I didn't need google account stuff, real person verification, android and youtube, I'd seriously consider blocking all google domains, because their "Do no evil" mission statement is BS!

I only have blocks in my browsers to block cookies, other domains I missed, or where domains which can be abusive in some situations.

The correct way to detect no connections, should be continuous failure to connect to any internet address, during a set time period, a good one can be the time server, if set to an internet address.

Worldpay stops turning in the UK, leaving trail of thoroughly miffed retailers and customers

Re: Testing

Costs can be shocking if customers overload your systems/infrastructure or cause harmful other events, like toxic data or security compromises; ... like World Pay!

Testing should include some (sanitised) saved real data, because users and systems can do the damned unexpected stuff; been there! Also load testing to check for overload of systems/infrastructure or race condition failures, and input fuzzing, excessive input, and specific exploit testing, to check for inadequate input validation and for security issues.

Re: Trust?

Quickly is a relative term; more than a few seconds to a few minute of disruption can cause retail customers to shop elsewhere or not at all, this is why gradual change can be a better strategy, supported by indirect access points, like load balancing.

I've given up on some retailers for several months, and killed my ebay account, because of frustrating payment failures, despite solid credit; so loath using Paypal as a credit card payment channel anywhere, so Worldpay should be a lot more careful.

Teardown nerds delve into Dell's new XPS 15 laptop to find – fancy that – screws and user-serviceable parts

Cans of Compressed Air, how quaint!

I have a mains-powered ITDusters Compu Cleaners Xpert, which mocks feeble, short-lived, cans of compressed air; no mains-powered area blowers are not equivalent.

When Apollo met Soyuz: 45 years ago, Americans and Russians played together nicely... IN SPAAAAACE

LOL, and what if it's all a hoax?

The 'Manned Moon Landings' can't have happened, on the Moon, because we still don't have practical radiation shielding to protect humans from the deadly radiation in the Van Allen Belt, which will also makes any manned mission to Mars a challenge too. There are also incorrect shadows, a Black sky (no starts), and too good photograph quality, for the 'Manned Moon Landings', and anecdotal evidence from a USA aircraft worker, who, a little before the events, accidentally stumbling upon what was probably a huge moon stage, with odd film gear and a Black ceiling, in part of a massive hanger on a military air base. And there are/were asserted voice records from senior presidential staff then, too, which cast serious doubt on manned moon landings!

There are event timing hints on at least some video of the "The International Space Station" which match the expected cycle timing of anti-gravity simulation flights on dedicated aircraft, which strongly suggest that they are fake, and some shocking inconsistencies by some USA 'astronauts', compared to the Russians.

People in Jet Aircraft get higher radiation exposure, and it's probably a far higher above the ionosphere!

Rip and replace is such a long Huawei to go, UK telcos plead, citing 'blackouts' and 'billion pound' costs: Are Vodafone and BT playing 'Project Fear'?

Re: > "selling point of 4G was greater range/capacity" - not around here

As the frequency goes up, signal reception will get worse, because as the wave length gets shorter, so does the size of obstacles, it can get past, gets smaller, so more cell nodes are required.

Short Wave AM Radio can travel huge distances because it has a long enough wavelength to get past most obstacles, and can bounce off the ionosphere; the same is unfortunately the case for 50Hz and 60Hz mains power!

Re: 5G ?

It's probably better if it is rolled out slower, because we may discover some problems from the more uniform, and higher power, RF exposure, so have more time to notice the downsides and halt roll-out, before dependency causes denial.

Cell RF, let-alone 5G, shouldn't have been rolled out, until genuinely honest RF safety levels had been set for all RF transmission (with no corporate or military influence), grouped by frequency range and modulation type, and guidance for higher power level use and maximum exposure duration, in so environments, like there is for X-Ray and nuclear radiation.

I suggest that people read the book "The Invisible Rainbow" to discover the curious history of electricity and discover that RF is maybe not as harmless to humans (and other life) as we have been told by authorities (due to comprehensive Western corporate/military suppression, including by Sigmund Freud) and that as the frequency rises, so does the effective contained power, with any divergence from a continuous pure sine-wave, like modulation, including pulsing, can make it more like ionising radiation.

I also suggest reading the mentioned the book "The Fourth Phase of Water", to see that even seemingly trivial ambient EMF can cause significant effects, like continuously, linear motor like, ionic propulsion of sap up many metre high trees, with no need for moving parts; how capillary action really works! What's more, this effect can be more intense nearer to more intense EMF, disproving the idea called "Brownian motion"! The book demonstrates this phase in numerous experiments. All life obviously utilises this 4th Phase of Water, and this 4th Phase is probably present in some other non-aqueous liquids too!

Life is significantly electrical, RF and semiconducting, so is vulnerable to RFI jamming, which can cause damage, including in the Mitochondria and the semiconducting Myelin Sheath, at a fraction of heating power, with 5 to 10% of people significantly genetically vulnerable, and more people may start to notice damage to themselves from the massive increase in RF from DECT, cell phones, WiFi, and Bluetooth, and proprietary cordless peripherals.

It's really about commercial warfare, and Five Eyes domestic and foreign spying.

US corporations are losing increasing business to cheaper, and even better made, Chinese products, because decades ago, bribed Western politicians betrayed their country, by allowed their corporations to outsource production, thus technology secrets, to China and other seemingly lower financial cost countries.

USA government purchase sanctions, and USA government imperialist coercion to stop some Chinese purchases, is not a adequate solution. The real solution must include accepting that they f'd up, so must force Western corporations to stop outsourcing production to China.., for at least domestic sales, and end availability of any technology secrets in/to China and other commercial competitor countries, including leaks via US universities and research organisations.

In addition USA (shadow government) spy agencies are well known to promote compromised cryptography, requiring back-doors/feeds, or even covertly installing them via intercepted deliveries, and other five eyes countries are probably also involved, for both domestic and foreign spying, but Chinese businesses will not support Western spying, and even add better encryption, which is harder to compromise.

Maybe not cheaper, overall!

The power consumption will probably be a lot higher than dedicated 5G circuitry, and it'll probably be a lot more bulky, more fragile, and less reliable!

Google: OK, OK, we pinky promise not to suck Fitbit health data into the borg. Now will you approve the sale?

Buyouts generally incur damage despite promises

The damage may not be noticed for a while, but eventually it becomes obvious e.g. I bet that Google will eventually either kill off support or coerce user migration to a google service which breaks the assurances of data privacy. I've seen customers face similar from the other side after takeover by a large USA corporation...

Cornish drinkers catch a different kind of buzz as pub installs electric fence at bar

Re: Works for the sheep

Indeed, they are treated humans like Sheep or Cattle!

Aerosols can stay suspended for hours and drift, which makes "social distancing" dehumanising farce, and enforcing it by cattle shock fencing is pointless sadism, which should be regarded as GBH.

This whole Corvid-19 event is shock doctrine, to socially re-engineer the world, justified by hysterical over reaction to a virus which turns out to be no more deadly than the flu; under 0.01% of the population dead, on average, in no way justifies the still growing significant social and economic damage. We should be dismantling all of this medical theatre BS, because it has already increasing costs for service businesses e.g. notice what dentists are doing now, and their significantly higher charges!

Soft press keys for locked-down devs: Three new models of old school 60-key Happy Hacking 'board out next month

Ridiculously overpriced

I paid relative premium for a USB Cherry MX Board 1.0 (Illuminated) * after getting p'd off at 'dead' membrane keyboards, and scissor keyboard fails, including frankly overpriced Logitech junk. * This Cherry model is one of the cheapest Cherry MX Switch keyboards, and already had firmware updates to tweak the illumination.