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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 5th, 2023

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  • You’re not affected if (and only if)

    You always used the Brave browser or the DuckDuckGo search engine on mobile

    I found that odd, but reading the more technical write up (linked in the article) it seems Brave blocks localhost communication.

    The Chrome proposal references a single use case. I’ve never seen a website that sets up my local devices, but is this a new thing?

    Why did localhost not get blocked earlier? This seems like a huge hole browsers have ignored for years.


    Also the DuckDuckGo exception doesn’t make sense to me. Does DuckDuckGo have Facebook trackers on it to begin with? Whatever site DuckDuckGo sends you to, if they have the trackers, you’ll get tracked.



  • Linux has two ways of drawing pictures, the old way (Xorg) and the new way (Wayland).

    The old way is like a giant box of crayons with the crayon sharpener built in. The box is all marked up, the sharpener is full of gunk, and a few crayons are melted together. Nobody really wants to touch the old box of crayons, although it does work for the most part, it’s a familiar box.

    The new way is like a smaller box of crayons. The clean sharpener isn’t built in but it is available nearby, although some people say it doesn’t work as good. A few crayons are missing, but are available in most cases, they’re just not in the box. Most people are working to improve the new box.

    If you’re using Linux, the new box of crayons is generally the better choice. It’s ok to stop using the old box.



  • See but I would argue that five different version numbers across five different operating systems is broken. (Ok two of them do match up.)

    Specifically the watchOS version is the important one that stands out. watchOS version 1 works with which version of macOS? Which version of iOS or iPadOS?

    Also when it comes time to end support for devices, how do you keep track? If Apple provides 5 years of updates, do you know if your phone is still supported?

    If my phone is running iOS 14, is that supported? Is that new? Is that old?

    The key thing to keep in mind is that the entirety of this ecosystem is based on yearly releases.


    Just for “fun” let’s look at Windows. The current version is 11. It was released in 2021. So I guess as long as I have Windows 11, I am up to date. But… That’s not true. Windows 11 does have a version number that’s not directly end user facing. That version is 24H2.

    Now the “24” is the year, that’s useful. Now what’s stupid is the “H2”. Because sitting here in June 2025 I would expect “25H1” to be released anytime now. But Microsoft only used the H1 once, about five years ago. Now “Window 11 version 24H2” is better SEO vs “Window 11 version 24”, so maybe that’s why they kept it.


  • How would you prefer they handle it?

    Just to look at macOS version history,

    The first public release was “Mac OS X 10.0”, this continued until “Mac OS X 10.7 Lion”. The “big cat” became part of the marketing name because the OS & version were a mouthful and throwing numbers around wasn’t helpful.

    We drop the “Mac” next year, then switch to mountains, but it’s not long before we reach, “OS X 10.10” aka “OS ten ten ten”.

    Well it wasn’t long before we simplified further and just said “macOS”, but then took a while before we dropped the “10”. Now we just get “macOS 15 Sequoia”.

    For nearly 18 years the Mac operating system had an unnecessary “10” that conveyed zero information.


  • It’s not a matter of biggest number, it’s a matter of consistency.

    They have five operating systems, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, visionOS.

    So currently we have macOS 15, iOS 18, iPadOS 18, watchOS 11 & visionOS 2. That’s absolute confusion. Do I have the latest version? Dropping support for an older version, how many years ago was that?

    A version number should convey useful information, and the year it was released is useful information. Especially when major updates come every year.

    Edit: I forgot tvOS, also version 18. So six operating systems.








  • Idiots to ally, absolutely.

    To feign interest for a little while, string along and squeeze some hard facts out of, I say go for it.

    Elon has to believe that scorched earth is the only way to “save” his companies and he needs to be convinced it’s worth doing.

    Nothing he’s done so far can’t be walked back.


    Now in terms of a third party challenger in the US, literally everyone is begging for a third party. Obama was Hope & Change. Trump was an Outsider. People are not happy with their choices in government. At the moment however you’ve still got to work within the party’s we have, which sucks.

    Also, to be clear, I think Obama was an excellent progressive step forward. I think Trump is a horrible conservative leap backwards. Biden v Trump was the only election in recent history where the majority said, “Oh shit, please put an adult in charge again”, a message which disappeared and gave us Trump’s second term.







  • does the average use have to worry about HTTPS though?

    Yes, but arguably this will make it more clear when what they are doing is insecure.

    As you mentioned the majority of sites use HTTPS, which is good. Most of the time users will never notice anything. But on occasion, when a site is insecure, they’ll have a warning.

    If every site were insecure, everyone would ignore the warning. If only a few rare sites are insecure, someone may notice.