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TheBrokenRail

744 karma · joined December 9, 2020

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TheBrokenRail··on Harness launches Gitness, an open-source GitHub competitor
> Forgejo in particular has self-hosted actions runners that can be registered offline, and the runners themselves can be given labels and execute most existing GitHub actions (in fact, the yaml format they use is intentionally meant to be compatible with GitHub actions).

This is also part of Gitea. Which makes since because Forgejo is a soft-fork of Gitea.

TheBrokenRail··on Harness launches Gitness, an open-source GitHub competitor
Reminds of the GitHub issue for hosting Gitea on Gitea, it's... a read to be sure: https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/issues/1029
TheBrokenRail··on Some of the error messages produced by Apple's MPW C compiler (2006)
IIRC people actually tried to get rid of that. Thankfully it failed.
TheBrokenRail··on PyPI Requires 2FA for New User Registrations
I hate these 2FA mandates. I don't use PyPI, but I do use GitHub, which has also announced a 2FA mandate.

I use my GitHub account to make bug reports, small pull requests, and silly personal projects. It is not that important. I want to sacrifice security for convenience on it, and that should be my choice.

I also do not agree with the argument this secures the supply chain because:

1. It ignores supply-chain attacks from people who already have repository access.

2. Most big companies (ie. Google) are probably already using 2FA.

3. And if people are automatically pulling code from random people/groups without checking it... maybe that's what actually needs to be banned.

TheBrokenRail··on The Right to Lie and Google’s “Web Environment Integrity”
And that's what I deserve for not reading the entire page. Thanks for the correction.
TheBrokenRail··on The Right to Lie and Google’s “Web Environment Integrity”
On the topic of user freedom, Firefox also doesn't allow installing extensions not signed by Mozilla unless you use a fork, Nightly, or Developer Edition (which is just a badly named beta)[0]. The hilarious thing is that Safari, the web browser from the company infamous for walled gardens and not letting you control your device, does let you install unsigned extensions on desktop[1].

[0]: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Add-ons/Extension_Signing

[1]: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/safariservices/saf...

TheBrokenRail··on Google Chrome Proposal – Web Environment Integrity
Firefox doesn't allow users to install unsigned extensions unless they use a beta version, because users apparently can't be trusted to install software. I trust Mozilla to fight for privacy (they're great at it), but I do not trust them in the slightest to fight for user freedom (like accessing banking sites on an "insecure" OS).
TheBrokenRail··on Letting users block injected third-party DLLs in Firefox
This is really minor compared to other parts of Firefox. Notably, Firefox requires all extensions to be signed by Mozilla.

And the only way to turn that restriction off, is to either use Firefox Nightly or Firefox Developer Edition (which is a beta). If you want to use stable Firefox, because you like having a stable web browser, you just can't turn the restriction off. Period. The closest thing you can do is installing it as a "temporary extension" which uninstalls itself when the browser restarts.

It's kind of ridiculous that the default browser of most Linux distros has a Apple-esque mentality of "we get to tell you what you're allowed to install."

TheBrokenRail··on Firefox address bar
I just wish Firefox would stop trying to open external programs when I type "site:" in the address bar. It's so annoying to type "site:example.com hello" and just get a "No apps available" dialog and have to retype my search, manually specifying a search engine that time. I'm not sure if it's a bug with Snap, Firefox, or both, but it is beyond infuriating.
TheBrokenRail··on Codereview: Should the Go project stop importing GitHub PRs?
I've never contributed to Go before, but from reading this, I have to wonder who thought this system was a good idea.

From the sounds of it, the only situation where this PR-mirroring works properly, is PRs without any comments, which I imagine are quite rare. But if your PR does have comments, then you not only have to sign up for Gerrit anyways, but you're also responsible for keeping the GitHub PR and Gerrit PR in sync. That sounds horrible.

TheBrokenRail··on GPT-Migrate converts repos from one lang/framework to another
So does all forms of automation. By your logic we should've never invented computers because they took jobs from human computers[0]. Improved technology and automation reduces jobs for people doing things the old way and makes the job easier for everyone else. No job is necessary forever, that's just how the world works.

[0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_(occupation)

TheBrokenRail··on Windows NT on 600MHz machine opens apps instantly. What happened?
Like GitHub's new code viewer! I have to load the raw text just so I can use Ctrl-F!
TheBrokenRail··on Revolt: FOSS Discord Alternative
> I've been using Discord since 2017 and in that time I think I've literally never accidentally joined a voice channel?

I've also been on Discord since 2017, and I've done it many times. Especially on servers which put voice channels right next to text channels. And I'm not the only one either, judging by another comment[0].

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36439417

> The app even prompts you if you're sure about joining under some circumstances.

The app is even worse! It brings a full-screen pop-up and if you haven't granted Discord microphone permissions, it will bug you, every, single, time.

TheBrokenRail··on Revolt: FOSS Discord Alternative
Please no.

As someone who doesn't use voice channels, I can't even count how many times I've accidentally joined them because I mis-clicked. And then I have to find the "end call" button because, of course, it's small and located away from the channel itself. It is so unbelievably annoying.

The best feature Discord added recently was the ability to hide channels, so I can finally, once and for all, forget about voice channels.

TheBrokenRail··on So you want to write a GUI framework (2021)
Not a lawyer, but if this was true, wouldn't a bunch of developers and companies be facing fines? Especially smaller open-source stuff. And larger companies as well (for instance, Reddit's mobile app is infamously inaccessible).
TheBrokenRail··on Tree-Ring Watermark: Invisible Robust Fingerprints of Diffusion Images
People generating fake photos will just use an AI that doesn't leave a watermark. We are quickly approaching the point at which AI-generated and real images just cannot be distinguished, and we're going to have to adapt to that.
TheBrokenRail··on Developer tools to create spatial experiences for Apple Vision Pro
> If you allowed free reign access to the sensors people could record the inside of your house/work, capture your face, fingerprints, retinal pattern etc.

Yes, yes they could. That's not and shouldn't be Apple's problem. That's your workplace's problem to regulate how the device is used on-site, the government's problem to regulate how it can be used in public, your household's problem on how it can be used in private, etc.

The device will be inevitably jail-broken anyways, so a walled-garden isn't going to stop bad actors.

Not to mention, most of the things you mentioned can already be accomplished with less expensive and much more subtle devices, like a standard digital camera. And those device definitely don't try to prevent abuse. (Imagine if your camera refused to take a picture because it thought you didn't have permission!)

TheBrokenRail··on Getting 10TB of GitHub logs and extracting details of all users and repositories
If you put information online publicly, you should be always working under the assumption that it will be immediately archived by someone. Whether that is the Internet Archive for websites, a Discord bot archiving edits and deletions, Pushshift (formerly) for Reddit, or just some private group operating a web scraper.

At least in this situation the archived data is public.

TheBrokenRail··on My 24 year old HP Jornada can do things an iPhone still can't do
I really hate the modern idea of locking down devices to protect users from themselves. It's my device and I should be allowed to install what I want on it.

Android's better than iOS in that regard, but that doesn't mean it isn't still terrible. Sure, you can sideload apps, but you still can't run as root unless your device's manufacturer allows it. And sure, it might have a built-in file manager, but in newer versions of Android, you can't read/write to /sdcard/Android/data without a separate device.

And this trend is even infecting non-phone devices as well. You can't install extensions on Firefox if they haven't been signed by Mozilla. The only way to disable this restriction is to use a fork or beta version (Developer Edition or Nightly).

TheBrokenRail··on Russhian Roulette: 1/6 chance of posting your SSH private key on pastebin
> So.. it's run everything sandboxed by default the recommendation for regular users?

Yeah, that is probably the best solution. Most mobile OSes do that by default now anyways. Desktop Linux has Flatpaks and Snaps. Windows has UWP apps. And I think MacOS has its entitlements system IIRC.

If you don't absolutely trust somethibg, you shouldn't allow it to run unrestricted.

TheBrokenRail··on Russhian Roulette: 1/6 chance of posting your SSH private key on pastebin
Yeah, un-sandboxed programs can access all your user files. That's why there has been such a large push for sandboxing tech like Flatpak. (In general though, you really shouldn't be running programs you don't trust in anything but a VM.)
TheBrokenRail··on Russhian Roulette: 1/6 chance of posting your SSH private key on pastebin
Definitely Node (or Electron, which is basically Node with a browser bolted on).
TheBrokenRail··on Ugly Gerry – Gerrymandering font
Not a perfect solution, but Michigan created a bipartisan commission to redraw districts in 2020. (Well Michigan didn't create it, voters did in a proposal during the 2018 election.) https://www.michigan.gov/micrc
TheBrokenRail··on HelloSystem – OS with original Mac philosophy with a modern architecture
Well, there is the Darling project. https://github.com/darlinghq/darling
TheBrokenRail··on How to store your app's entire state in the url
> by default the reader can't tell what's it about without clicking.

Most chat apps like Discord will automatically include an embed generated from a URL's metadata when present in a message.

TheBrokenRail··on Xfinity Stream on Linux: A Tale of Widevine, ChromeOS, and a patched Glibc
I see what you mean! I guess it depends on when Google updates to glibc v2.36, presumably they then would just include the DT_RELR version dependency on their binaries rather than unnecessarily patching glibc. Who knows how long that will take though since glibc v2.36 just came out a few months ago.
TheBrokenRail··on Xfinity Stream on Linux: A Tale of Widevine, ChromeOS, and a patched Glibc
From my understanding, neither.

It's the same code (presumably) but Chrome OS's version was compiled with metadata that said it was running on Chrome OS and Linux's version was compiled with metadata that said it was running on Linux. And that metadata is later embedded into the license request which Xfinity's servers check.

Of course, that's just my assumption from what I understand. I can't verify anything due to how obfuscated Widevine is. But due to how long-lived this problem has been, the two Widevine versions having the exact same version number (4.10.2557.0), and that everything else Widevine-wise works, I'm inclined to believe that this is intentional.

TheBrokenRail··on Xfinity Stream on Linux: A Tale of Widevine, ChromeOS, and a patched Glibc
Maybe it's because my system has wine-devel, but running Chrome or Firefox under Wine has always been really buggy for me.
TheBrokenRail··on Where does ChatGPT fall on the political compass?
I'd argue that's less the AI being biased, than the AI's human-imposed restrictions being biased. Once you get around those (and it is not difficult to), you can get it to write an essay on pretty much anything, from any viewpoint.

I got it to write a pro-fossil fuels essay, and it gave some pretty typical pro-fossil fuels talking points (here's some excerpts):

> In contrast, renewables are often hampered by their reliance on weather conditions, and they require complex and expensive infrastructure to be built and maintained. For example, solar panels can only generate electricity when the sun is shining, and wind turbines only produce power when the wind is blowing at the right speed.

> In contrast, fossil fuels have a much lower ongoing cost, making them a more cost-effective option in the long run. This is especially important for developing countries, which may not have the resources to invest in expensive renewable infrastructure.

> The construction of solar panels and wind turbines requires the use of materials such as concrete, steel, and copper, which are extracted through processes that generate significant greenhouse gas emissions. In contrast, fossil fuels like coal and oil are already extracted and ready to use, reducing their overall environmental impact.

TheBrokenRail··on The IE 11 user-agent forced Mozilla to freeze part of its user-agent string
This. 100% this.

We live in the 21st century and have proper APIs to detect features now, we should not be relying on parsing this user-agent string which is 90% legacy-garbage anyways.

I mean, sites blocking compatible browsers is such a common problem that not only do user-agent switcher extensions exist, they're also some of the most popular extensions out there!

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