do you mean putting Bing on the start menu? Microsoft just made them opt-in by default and hoped that folks won't notice or care. you can disable them.
for Chinese devices, there's no way to disable them.
the difference is, for Windows, having Bing on start was a feature (although a bad one). for Chinese devices, you just get ads - you're stuck with ads while changing your brightness.
No, not just Microsoft services or features (or subscription based software), ads for games and apps on their store get jammed in the start menu as well.
And as other commenters have pointed out, lots of budget phones and hardware jam ads all over the place.
> for Chinese devices, there's no way to disable them.
Uh can you stop spreading misinformation? Try google "disable xiaomi ads" it takes you like 5 minutes to make all ads gone on MIUI or HyperOS. Sure the opt-out buttons were hidden deep behind menus for maximizing profit.
But be warned, in certain countries you are getting a modified ROM from your local re-seller, in that case some ads can't be disabled and they are not from Xiaomi. The only solution is to flash your ROM to the official releases.
Is there a way to unlock the bootloader? (The official ways give cryptic error messages on purpose to keep you distracted until your warranty runs out)
IIRC you'll need to register an account, use their official unlocker, then wait 2 weeks before your device is allowed to be unlocked. It's supposed to be done to hinder 3rd party sellers that flash custom rom with ads on phones they sell.
Yes, that's something like the official process excuse. It doesn't actually work, because their server has been configured to reject all unlocking requests.
While they do include MS services in their advertising it's way more than that. They include a bunch of other crap, including hardware offerings like trying to sell you XBox controllers in popups near the taskbar. They advertise Candy Crush, Instagram, Adobe Express, etc, as listed apps "preinstalled" in Windows. They push clickbait MSN articles (ads) for games, travel, and buying guides in the search button of the taskbar that is enabled by default. They then push those in a widget popover panel too. They make Edge the default browser out of the box (and are relentless about getting you to switch if you change it) and Edge itself then shoves ads in your face with default bookmarks like Ebay and Netflix and Walmart and featured content. IIRC even things like their Maps, Weather, and Photos apps also had web advertising placements.
There's probably more but I can't bear to use Windows more than minimally necessary so I've probably missed a bunch.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was some light brigading going on from rivals. There's also some really lazy frontend devs out there that get indignant about testing on Firefox.
Chrome is the new IE and Google is the new Microsoft. They make up their own standards on a whim, which thanks to market dominance everyone is forced to follow. They collect user data without permission. They waste computer resources. They push people towards other Google products in an anti competitive way.
Mozilla has made some dumb mistakes here and there but it pales in comparison to the very serious threat that Chrome, and Chromium in general has to the free web and to users.
It's worth noting that the complaints below have nothing to do with the article, which shows a pretty promising tech, and are just bagging out FF because just as you said, that's what happens on HN.
There's really no excuse. When I started web development I had at least 3 browsers open at any given time and writing code that worked in all major browsers could be really difficult at times. In more recent years, I would just develop with one, quickly check if everything looks alright in the other ones, do some super-minor adjustments, and call it a day. Sure, some minor stuff may not be supported by Firefox, but it's never deal-breaking stuff. Safari is the only browser that regularly requires more work, but it's nowhere close to the troubles that every single IE caused.
> Mozilla has made some dumb mistakes here and there but it pales in comparison to the very serious threat that Chrome, and Chromium in general has to the free web and to users.
It is because the threat of a Chrome monopoly is so great, that it's so important to point out Mozilla's many failures, so that they can be corrected before it's too late.
> Mozilla has made some dumb mistakes here and there but it pales in comparison to the very serious threat that Chrome, and Chromium in general has to the free web and to users.
The company that owns Chrome is nearly the sole financial support of Firefox.
Which is also based entirely on their market dominance. I'm 100% convinced Google continues handing millions of dollars a year to Mozilla so Google can point at Firefox as competition when the regulators come knocking.
>I wouldn't be surprised if there was some light brigading going on from rivals. There's also some really lazy frontend devs out there that get indignant about testing on Firefox.
The vitriol comes from people who want Firefox to return to being "just a browser", and to be honest more often than not are the Linux crowd. It's seemingly got nothing to do with rivalry (all the browser vendors are actually fairly chummy with each other) and frontend devs are more likely to just ignore Firefox than to complain about it (IME).
HN has also just become far more vitriol-filled as of late. That's devolving into meta commentary and outside the purposes of this thread, though - just can't leave it uncommented on here.
>I wouldn't be surprised if there was some light brigading going on from rivals.
the opposite is true. a certain group of emotionally invested people will come out of the woods to defend any dumb or authoritarian decision Mozilla makes.
>Mozilla has made some dumb mistakes here and there but it pales in comparison to the very serious threat that Chrome, and Chromium in general has to the free web and to users.
that doesn't give Mozilla a pass. pox on both their houses
This is from Troy Hunt of Have I Been Pwned fame and I'm almost positive that even in the last year he still gets legal threats from companies that he contacts about embarrassing security risks.
It's always going to be something lightweight and probably tiling for me. Right now I'm using Sway because I'm doing the Wayland thing and I'm a sucker for /r/unixporn type desktops.
That being said eventually you end up with both the Gnome and KDE libraries anyway - plus a handful of Electron apps are unavoidable today.
Hey, this is the original author of the blog, it really sounds easy to automate, I am just lazy.
I already have a script to setup Jekyll's metadata.
I could use toot, a terminal utility to post the blog, using the description as the toot content and since the command returns the toot's url I could echo that and do some sed magic.
I havent had the time to set it up but I will write about it once I have the time...
Seconding andOTP[1] or Aegis,[2] if you're looking for an Android app that only handles OTP authentication. Both of these apps allow file-based import/export so that you can back up your codes and restore them elsewhere, no proprietary cloud service needed.
I'm not impressed with Authy's privacy policy, especially this part which mirrors the Google issues:[3]
> We use the information we gather from you to monitor for unusual or suspicious activity in your account, to communicate with you about your account, and as additional information that can be used to validate who you are if you need to recover your account or your account has been or may be compromised.
Authy also collects and shares more of your private information than most OTP apps:[3]
> When you use our app we collect: Your phone number, device information, and email address.
> We also share your information with our third party service providers as necessary for them to provide their services to us. We may also have to share your information with third parties if required to do so by law.
> Your information will be transferred to the U.S.
It's actually an awful idea. The whole benefit of working for a large company is that you DON'T need to sacrifice outside of your 9-5. This is that outdated grind mentality that managers sell to convince people this is needed to get ahead before they hand out promotions to their mates anyway.
Secondly, and I don't mean to disrespect you in any way, but if you're self-taught, and your prior experience is one man jobs working on small sites then I wouldn't expect the quality of your code to be great. I would be wondering how much time it would take to ensure whatever you build is really readable, documented, fully tested, maintainable, in line with the company's current tech stack, performant and scalable.
The benefits of working at a large company is that they have products that run on massive code bases that are, for the most part, REALLY STABLE. They move slowly, but they also move surely. New code won't be scrappy and volatile. Old code can stagnate, but it's because it hasn't broken in years. All of these things are learning opportunities you can take with you even if you strike out to start/work at a startup.
THIS. Please ask your coworkers for help. If the company isn't a toxic shithole your colleagues will be happy to help out. Modern screen sharing, code pairing and mobbing tools have made doing this in a remote working environment incredibly easy, almost more so than in meatspace.
As for the massive codebase, try to specialise in an area and own it. Take lots of tickets around that module / namespace / whatever and you'll end up in a niche with lots of ideas about how to modernise, optimise or otherwise improve that code base, as well as teach you a lot about the companies coding standards and practices when you're ready to move horizontally into other parts of the code base. You will become trusted as an expert in that area and valued by your colleagues.
Large code bases are a reality in programming. All of your smaller app and websites are built on top of the massive code bases of your favourite JS frameworks, web servers and web browsers, which are built in operating systems that also have massive code bases. All of those code bases, by the way, started out small as well, and grew to meet bigger and more demanding requirements.
You are kneecapping your potential if you decide to stop at the software development equivalent of barre chords.
And yet modern advances point to tech bros trying to limit the USERS power of that internet.
It's already impossible for a lot of people to host their own web server from their home, to own the media they purchase without it potentially being erased by the vendor at a whim, to opt out of social media without a massive social (and professional) hit and computer power is being wasted on shitty electron apps and built-in OS adware.
Oh, on the subject of computer power being wasted, on a global scale it's being wasted on crypto, another attempt by a bunch of elitist executives to invent something that allows them to invent a new financial system in which they're still on top, but allows them to more easily commit tax evasion and money laundering.
All of our tech advances have largely been from massive companies trying to add scarcity to a system we invented that absolutely doesn't need it. Can't copy a MP3, can't copy an EXE, and now, you can't copy a JPG.
Yes, we do in fact have to participate in these dumbarse discussions. The choice to simply walk away from these things, particularly AS a tech worker, is bullshit artistry.
> It's already impossible for a lot of people to host their own web server from their home, to own the media they purchase without it potentially being erased by the vendor at a whim
You're using this defeatist word "impossible", but it is not impossible - it is inconvenient. Work on making it more convenient, so that it won't seem impossible.
What makes the most noise in tech is things that can make money. And making money occurs by becoming a middleman, which is the polar opposite of the tech liberation dream. "Web3" has some interesting technology, but it's drowned out by money-seeking hucksterism - the exact same way we got "web2".
Aside from the start of bubbles where capital is still in exploratory mode, you're never going to get significant funding to write code that empowers users. Write it anyway!
I'd be more optimistic about AR and VR if it hadn't been almost immediately monopolised by Facebook and Google. Now instead of actual creativity we get VR Walmart, using 3D UX decisions that game developers realised don't work in a 3D space back in 1997.
