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Zak

@ Zak @lemmy.world

Posts
7
Comments
872
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • Today in “Google Broke Email”

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  • I hold the (possibly mistaken) belief that someone who can program everything from a web browser to a screensaver can, if they so choose, be a good sysadmin.

    I also believe programmers usually don't choose to be good sysadmins, viewing such work as an annoyance to spend as little effort on as they can get away with, which is what it looks like jwz has done here. Someone with his experience should be self-aware enough to understand who is to blame when that's what they're doing.

  • Today in “Google Broke Email”

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  • I wonder how many people have company email addresses there.

    It's a bar/nightclub. Most employees at bars don't use email as part of their work. It would be unusual (though maybe on-brand for jwz) for bartenders to have company email addresses, for example.

  • Today in “Google Broke Email”

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  • Given his background, I'm certain he can do a good job of being his own IT admin if he wants to. He seems to want some of the benefits of that while having Google do the parts he doesn't like.

    Google, on the other hand seems to want to drop features that I think it intended to encourage people to migrate from ISP email accounts to Gmail 20 years ago and now sees as cruft and/or security concerns.

  • Today in “Google Broke Email”

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  • He does have his own mail server according to the post. He doesn't want to store the mail long-term, filter spam, host a web mail client, or support employees setting up native mail clients.

  • Today in “Google Broke Email”

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  • The whole @gmail.com thing also opens up potential regulatory issues depending on the details of the business.

    It's a bar.

    I’m probably missing some big detail, but I don’t get why he has his current setup to begin with.

    The post makes it sound like he has a bunch of automation he likely wrote himself on incoming mail, but he wants Google to do some messy parts (spam filtering, archiving, providing a nice client). Google has no reason to want to continue doing that for him and the handful of other people doing something similar.

  • Today in “Google Broke Email”

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  • He's being a bit whiny here. He was having employees use Gmail as a client for his self-hosted POP mail, which is a niche use case that likely has a brittle implementation and doesn't make any money for Google. Gmail offers a paid product for this kind of use case, but it won't integrate with the rest of his (likely custom) automation. He wants to self-host parts of the system and have Google do the messy bits, but he's not their customer and probably isn't a very good product either.

    He then complains that to self-host IMAP:

    My server is now responsible for storing all of their messages, including all of their spam. It is a vast amount of data. I will have to implement quotas.

    It's 2025 and that's a silly claim. A 12Tb HDD costs the same as a couple bottles of booze, and it's not hard to write a script that clears out spam after 30 days. The other complaints are basically UX.

    Normally saying a small business owner should self-host IMAP and write scripts would be a bit unreasonable, but this is JWZ.

  • Baltimore drove down gun deaths. Now Trump has slashed funding for that work.

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  • The framing is weird here starting with "gun deaths" in the headline and using the word "gun" 31 more times in the article. The Safe Streets program has little to do with guns per se; it's a conflict resolution and community mediation program. One of the outcomes of resolving conflicts is that fewer people shoot each other, but this article feels like the author got paid extra every time they used the word "gun".

  • Which browser and search engine would you recommend for parents and older people?

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  • Including Edge for Android, which puts it in a compelling position for certain use cases.

  • Which browser and search engine would you recommend for parents and older people?

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  • Getting uBlock Origin to work with Chrome requires a workaround, and that is not scheduled remain available long-term.

  • Quick post about AI-free FireFox Based Browsers (Keep your Addons and avoid the Bloat)

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  • Depends on whether you want to convince people of your position, or you're just explaining your own choice. The latter is fine, but the former won't happen without better sources.

  • Quick post about AI-free FireFox Based Browsers (Keep your Addons and avoid the Bloat)

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  • I'm not particularly horrified about the availability of AI features, but I'd rather see Mozilla focus most of its resources on core competencies. Firefox lags behind Chrome in web standards feature support, e.g. the browser scores on https://caniuse.com/. It's also prone to making my laptop fan spin more than Chromium browser do, and people often complain about speed.

    They should make the core browser better, and maybe task a couple developers to build some LLM support as an extension.

  • Quick post about AI-free FireFox Based Browsers (Keep your Addons and avoid the Bloat)

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  • Without taking a position on the claim itself, this is a bad citation. It makes a variety of claims that either don't hold up to basic scrutiny, or aren't evidence that iOS has a security advantage. Here are some examples:

    Open-source platform increases vulnerability surface area

    This is perhaps one of the most thoroughly debunked pieces of FUD in the entire tech industry.

    [Various claims about inconsistency between devices]

    These are mostly true but largely irrelevant. You're not buying an aggregate of all Android devices that exist, but a specific device with specific traits. The Android phone you should actually buy will have a security chip and many years of updates just like an iPhone.

    The rigorous app review process and mandatory App Store distribution (except in EU) virtually eliminate malicious app threats for average users.

    This might be a benefit when the user has no clue how to use a computer, but I expect people posting in this community are past that stage. It's a big disadvantage for those who want to use something like Firefox (real Firefox, not a skin on Safari) with potential security and privacy upsides.

  • Quick post about AI-free FireFox Based Browsers (Keep your Addons and avoid the Bloat)

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  • There is actually a current Chromium-based browser for Android with Manifest v2 extension support and uBlock Origin.

    It's Microsoft Edge. No, I'm not advocating that you use it.

  • Quick post about AI-free FireFox Based Browsers (Keep your Addons and avoid the Bloat)

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  • Waterfox is available for Android.

  • Stephen Miller says undocumented immigrants ‘had no due process entering the country’ and don’t deserve it in removal

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  • The problem with denying due process to any group is that it can then be denied to anyone simply by claiming they're a member of that group. The implications are horrifying; the government could deport anyone it wants even if they're a citizen with ample proof that they are because the opportunity to show that proof is what the law means when it guarantees the right to due process.

    People are frustrated because you don't seem to acknowledge this problem.

  • Stephen Miller says undocumented immigrants ‘had no due process entering the country’ and don’t deserve it in removal

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  • Due process protections are still mostly in place, which is why he's still there and able to file a lawsuit. Without them, as Miller seems to be advocating, they might have simply decided his ID was fake and deported him.

  • Do you prefer FOSS over proprietary software? How much do you use it?

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  • Yes, I prefer FOSS. The degree to which proprietary software actively works against the users' interests has increased significantly over the past couple decades, as has the tendency for anything successful to get enshittified. I'm not a hardcore ideologue about it, but if a FOSS option does what I need, and it usually does, then that's what I use.

    Some important software on my laptop:

    • Arch Linux
    • KDE
    • Firefox
    • Darktable
    • Emacs
    • Betterbird
    • Joplin
    • Syncthing
    • VLC
    • Bitwarden

    All FOSS. I play a few games that aren't, and a lot of things I access through the browser aren't. I have a Windows 11 install I used to boot somewhat frequently for games, but don't since I discovered Lutris takes the fuss out of running most games on Linux.

    And on my phone (italics indicate not FOSS):

    • LineageOS
    • Waterfox
    • Thunderbird
    • Signal
    • WhatsApp
    • AntennaPod
    • Waze
    • Google Maps
    • Joplin
    • KOReader
    • Syncthing-fork
    • VLC
    • Connect for Lemmy
    • Bitwarden

    I have FOSS fallbacks for the things that aren't aside from a couple group chats in WhatsApp. One of those is toying with moving to Signal, but collective action problems are hard.

  • Why Are Cars Getting Rid Of Android Auto?

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  • I imagine you could wire your own mechanical switch to that steering wheel. Fuck them for doing that though.

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  • What characteristics did I cite as reasons I like wired headphones? Was audio quality among them? Did I ever claim to be miserable or that anyone should feel sorry for me?

    I have a phone with a headphone jack and I'm content with it. If I break that one, I know what I'll replace it with, and that model also has a headphone jack.

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  • Oh, I see. You're trolling. Got it.