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binomialxenon

285 karma · joined March 1, 2018

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binomialxenon··on Spotify to Apple: Time to Play Fair
Android has plenty of its own problems, but not so much in this category. Android users can set default browser, email, SMS app, etc., where iOS does not allow this. Any navigation app can work while the device is locked, it's enabled by a permission called "Draw over other apps", IIRC.

In my opinion, the problem with Android is not that you can't add to its functionality, which you can, but that you can't effectively limit Google's privacy-invasive functionality (much worse than iOS's) unless you can unlock the bootloader.

binomialxenon··on Amazon Sends 1,700 Alexa Voice Recordings to a Random Person
It can get data from the internet, I think the point is that it "lives" on-device and hence can be interacted with offline, unlike Siri/Alexa/Cortana which live entirely on the company's servers.
binomialxenon··on U.S. Supreme Court to hear Apple App Store antitrust dispute
And that's why I'm no longer an iOS user.
binomialxenon··on U.S. Supreme Court to hear Apple App Store antitrust dispute
The reason that my devices belong to me.
binomialxenon··on U.S. Supreme Court to hear Apple App Store antitrust dispute
HTML apps are never even close to working as well as a native app, they're generally a shitty compromise. If $COMPANY makes an app that would be crippled by Apple's policies, they should be free to distribute it through another channel to iOS users.
binomialxenon··on U.S. Supreme Court to hear Apple App Store antitrust dispute
Okay, I used to be an iOS user, I'm not rich, and blowing $99 per year to sign apps is a lot of money for something that should be free. What if I'm just a normal techie who wants to use software that Apple doesn't like? Sure, bury sideloading in the settings or make it only able to be activated from a computer, but charging that much money for the privilege of loading software is ridiculous.
binomialxenon··on Ditching the MacBook Pro for a MacBook Air
I'm left handed, I use my left index finger to manipulate the trackpoint, and my left thumb for any of the three mouse buttons. Clicking the middle button is a middle click, and holding the middle button makes the trackpoint movements act as scrolling.

My laptop is a T450s, running Debian and KDE Plasma. Acceleration is set to medium, and "Adaptive". The key is tuning your sensitivity/accelaration so you can make very fine/slow movements, but also move the cursor all the way across the screen with stronger/faster ones.

binomialxenon··on Ditching the MacBook Pro for a MacBook Air
Samsung, LG, and others can make phones with both headphone jacks and water resistance, but that's obviously not the real reason that Apple removed it. (The iPad Pro is huge, not water resistant, and doesn't have one either.)
binomialxenon··on Ditching the MacBook Pro for a MacBook Air
Ideapads are generally pretty garbage, aren't they? In my limited experience they range from terrible to middling.
binomialxenon··on Ditching the MacBook Pro for a MacBook Air
I can use it without moving my hands away from home-row position, I can drag-n-drop much more easily than a trackpad, middle-clicking and right-clicking are both more consistent, and I can scroll indefinitely in any direction without picking up my hands.

This is probably just me, but when using my laptop on my lap, if I were using the trackpad i would have to bring my hands down closer to my body which is less comfortable, or move my laptop further away from me.

binomialxenon··on Microsoft Is Putting Ads on the Mail App in Windows 10
If you're going to keep a Windows box around at all, it sounds like LTSB would probably work better than vanilla W10.
binomialxenon··on A cheaper, smaller Raspberry Pi 3 is now available
Yeah, I'd be happy with a board that's identical to the RPi3 but with eMMC rather than SD. Not only is SD less than reliable, it's slow.
binomialxenon··on Google May Have to Get Used to Third Place in the Cloud
I have to thank Google for that, it was probably the quickest way to drive more competition in the maps space.
binomialxenon··on Redox – A Unix-Like Operating System Written in Rust
I've been on Debian for two years and I've never not had horizontal scrolling.
binomialxenon··on Bitwarden Completes Third-Party Security Audit
You don't strictly need a cloud storage service to keep multiple devices synchronized with Keepass, there are also options such as Syncthing or rsync.
binomialxenon··on Building iPad Pro features in Swift
Seems like trying to do anything serious on an iPad is a story of one workaround after another. Why would it be worth the hassle?
binomialxenon··on Mac mini Late 2018 Teardown
Two other reasons I can think of why Macs cost more, including used:

1. The MacOS premium. It's impractical to run MacOS on anything else.

2. Status symbol.

Anecdotally, I see a lot of people outside of HN comparing their experiences with the quality of a $1200+ USD Macbook to ~$500 USD laptops of other OEMs. Of course the Macbook wins over things half its price.

Personally I've had great experiences with Thinkpads and Latitudes, which have held up great and are very easy to repair or upgrade.

binomialxenon··on Linux on Dex
It's a container using the same non-upstream kernel and proprietary drivers from the Android OS.
binomialxenon··on Linux on Dex
It's on the device. I assume there must be some overhead, but devices like the S9 are several times more powerful than the RasPi, which can already handle software pretty decently.
binomialxenon··on The Curse of the Honeycrisp Apple
I live in that part of the midwest and we have about a dozen varieties of apples at the grocery store, prices are pretty decent too.
binomialxenon··on Making the GPL more scary
This is just typical "people are saying" weasel words. The GPL and similar licenses still definitely have a role to play in the current state of software.
binomialxenon··on Making the GPL more scary
The SSPL is what Ballmer thought the GPL was.
binomialxenon··on Making the GPL more scary
This is why "Open Source" is terrible terminology for Free/Libre software.
binomialxenon··on 3D printers have ‘fingerprints,’ which could help trace guns, counterfeit goods
Tangentially related, but it seems pretty creepy how all LaserJet printers purposely print uniquely identifiable information on every sheet. I expect more and more things are going to be like this, although it may be technically difficult in 3D printing.
binomialxenon··on Globally, Almost Four Out of Ten Music Consumers Are Pirates
As is often brought up on the internet, it's the distinction between basic freedom and freedom from consequences. When you buy a CD, you have the basic freedom to put it in any CD player, rip it, back it up, re-encode it, share it with your friends, or put it on your MP3 player. There would still be consequences if you were to use it in a TV commercial. With DRM you do not even have any basic freedoms.
binomialxenon··on MacOS Marzipan
> awkwardly trying to switch between tabs without Alt + Tab.

Ctrl+Tab? (is it Cmd+Tab on the Mac?) Shortcuts like that are a big part of how I use the browser.

binomialxenon··on Krita 4.1.3 Released
GVim carries a lot of extra weight because of GTK. Vim without a GUI uses 2.6 MiB of its own memory and 5.3 MiB of shared memory on my system.
binomialxenon··on Chrome 69 will keep Google Cookies when you tell it to delete all cookies
>Google has relatively few ways to actually give them money directly for software and media.

Doesn't Google sell music, e-books, and movies/TV through Google Play? They also have Google Play Music as a subscription service. I was counting the Play Store as buying applications from Google, although it isn't Google's first-party software.

binomialxenon··on Chrome 69 will keep Google Cookies when you tell it to delete all cookies
Oh I agree, absolutely not. I'm against Google and don't use their software. I just thought that the parent comment wasn't very accurate as it characterized Apple as selling apps and media and Google as doing neither of those things.
binomialxenon··on Chrome 69 will keep Google Cookies when you tell it to delete all cookies
Google Play Services and other nonfree Google software can be installed on top of LineageOS, but LineageOS does not include them in its installation. I've used Lineage extensively with F-Droid as my apps source.
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