vtail

I do believe there is an increasing demand for privacy, so hopefully in 4-5 years, if I need to upgrade my machine, I would still have a reasonable choice.

> since Lenovo has been caught in the past shipping laptops with spyware

Are you referring to [1]? Since I will be installing OpenBSD on this machine, I won't be affected by it. I do have to trust their BIOS, though, and unfortunately there is no easy way around it on modern hardware, unless you want to limit yourself to something supported by e.g. coreboot.

> manufactured by a dishonest company, in an authoritarian country

Macbooks are manufactured in the same country, but yes, I do understand your sentiment re: "dishonest" company - very few Chinese manufacturers can be fully trusted, as e.g. Chinese government has a lot of coercion power.

[1] https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-S-Series-ThinkPad-Yoga...

> Emphasis added, because of course you don't need to, and most people don't. Apple themselves have been working at it and Mojave contains a bunch of new restrictions and brings more visibility to what software wants what.

That's a good point. It is interesting, still, that someone took time to build an app like that - maybe its perception vs. reality, but I have seen a lot of coverage on how various spyware can use your cam without you knowing. Good that Apple is improving the security of the default system.

> And for that matter if you don't actually use the camera much/ever (likely true for many on HN) you could simply physically block it with an opaque black sticker, or even drill it out and stick some black epoxy in there or similar.

For what it worth, Thinkpad's new laptop (and the one I bought) have a built-in webcam cover, called ThinkShutter.

> But biometrics are incredibly value for general mobile usage security.

Agree - and I'm researching use of YubiKey (or something similar with proven security model) as a 2nd factor w/ OpenBSD, as I think it has a better security model vs. closed-source fingerprint scanner.

You can argue it's not a fair comparison, 15" Macbook Pros have a 6-core CPUs and a standalone GPU, and a 13-inch Macbook Pro with 8th-gen Intel core i5 and 16GB (which can be configured at $1,999 before tax) is a better one - either way Thinkpad is a better deal, and it's a very light laptop (only ~2 lbs).

I configured ThinkPad using Employee Perks website at work (many places have something like this), and got a 27% discount from the list price, which is only 2% higher discount vs. the promotion they have been running recently (thinkx25 discount code).

I configured a machine with i7-8550U cpu (8th gen, 1.80Ghz, 8MB cache, up to 4Ghz Turbo boost), 14" WQHD (2560x1440) IPS anti-glare panel @ 300 nits, 16gb LPDDR3 2133mhz, 720p HD camera, integrated UHD graphics 620, and 256 GB PCIe-nvme hard drive for $1,396.47 before tax. I'm comparing it to a 15" macbook pro at $2,400 before tax (and it has DDR4 - so hungrier - memory).

Sorry to hear about your troubles. When I was a consultant (and used Thinkpads heavily at work) they worked pretty reliably with a lot of abuse, although I agree that Windows is something that (for me personally) is hard to tolerate as an OS.

What's interesting about OpenBSD/Thinkpad combo is that hardware support is miles better vs. Linux on the same hardware (WiFi, snooze, etc.), from what I can tell, as many of the OpenBSD developers use them as personal machines.

Interesting - since I'm not on Windows, I didn't know about Alexa integration.

On the other hand, Lenovo seems to use hardware components with good support by open-source drivers. Hopefully one day they (or someone else) will support something like coreboot, which will create a more open system (minus microcode in the CPU).

Well, that’s certainly up to debate - but please note the “consumer” qualifier there. I do believe that for an average non-experienced consumer, it offers better security over Windows (fewer viruses, App Store launched earlier, etc.)

I should have added “desktop” there as well, otherwise I would say iOS is the most secure consumer operating system these days.

If you stop for a minute to think about it, it's a very sad state of affairs that you need to buy a closed-source app for the most secure consumer operating system, and pay constant attention to its status, in hope to avoid (or detect) spying.

I'm personally re-thinking my approach to security and anonymity online, esp. in light of recent news re: Facebook (Cambridge Analytica, account breach), Google (Chrome 69, increased spying), etc.

I've bought a new laptop, and for the first time in 12 years it's not a Mac - it's Thinkpad X1 Carbon 6 (similar/better specs vs Macbook Pro at half the price) with OpenBSD, which takes 10 min to install, works flawlessly with Thinkpad's hardware (minus bluetooth and finger scanner) and have a security model I can trust.

That makes sense. I realize in my use case, even if I have one device offline, e.g., working on a laptop on a flight, in most times I will be able to sync before I switch to another device, so it rarely creates a problem.

Curious why you want a structure aware way?

My current setup (syncing between home and work laptops) is to auto-save files every few second in emacs, and "git pull; git commit -am `date`; git push" every few minutes in a cron. Works like a charm.

edit: I also do "git add * .org; git add * .org_archive" inside the org folder before the commit, in the same cron job.

There is a moral difference between providing information requested by government that already exists in the systems, and creating tools to assist in censoring information.

I would feel the same way if Google were to develop an additional surveillance tools in their products, such as e.g. recording all audio calls and/or giving government ability to remotely listen to smartphone's microphone.

edit: grammar

The Russian word you are looking for might be "фарс", very similar meaning to "farce".

Thanks! Stupid me - that disclaimer was right at the top of his blog.

Thomas, could you please explain the reference to arch-competitor - I might have missed any reactions by Mozilla/MSFT(?).

Thanks!

Comment like yours is why I come to HN! Thank you - I was always interested in TRIZ (I’m from Russia originally) but didn’t know it to be applied anywhere outside of Russia. Out of curiosity, how did you learn about this?

Quick ddg’ing found this Forbes article on how Samsung uses TRIZ: https://www.forbes.com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2013/03/07/why...

They also mentioned that Intel might be using it, too.

Interestingly, I just checked their update history for iOS, and it seems the last real update was almost a year ago, and it was mostly bug fixes or other non-descriptive updates since then.

Well, a lot of the flights from US East Coast to Europe or from US West Coast to Asia fly over water or unpopulated areas for substantial periods of time.

Do you know a good way to check, for a particular flight route, how much of it would be eligible for supersonic flights?

I haven’t watch the full video, but this paragraph from[1] summarizes the issue well:

“Following Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency in 2012, Russian authorities have increasingly used vaguely-defined, anti-extremism laws to suppress the work of human rights activists. Codified through the laws on Foreign Agents, LGBT Propaganda, and Hate Crime, the Russian authorities’ interpretation of extremism permits an arbitrary application of these laws, which allows a dangerous means of discrimination against peaceful groups.”

[1] https://www.ned.org/events/hate-crime-and-hate-speech-legisl...

Grandparent’s is a universal argument, that applies to other countries / situations as well. Russia, which is technically not a monarchy, have the same problem with hate speech law.

For obvious reasons, it’s harder to give an example from a more liberal country, but his/her point still stands.

I'm wondering what is people's opinion on modern Scheme dialects like Racket vs. Common Lisp? It seems to be pretty stable, with active development community, and comes with batteries installed.

Ah ok that make sense. Not sure how you measure conversion, but in our case (I’m in B2C ecommerce) both traffic and conversion often fluctuates, so if one is stable doesn’t mean that the other won’t move.

The author seem to be implying conversion loss from pre/post which may be affected from many factors including seasonality - I’m wondering why didn’t he do an A/B for a radical design like that?

The point is not to drive back and forth, but to relocate.

For argument’s sake, I just visited craigslist rental section for the city of Olympia, a WA state capital which is about 1 hr drive from Seattle. You can totally find a decent looking 1bedroom for $600-700, and I’m pretty sure that studios and/or a room in a shared house will be considerably less.

I don’t think this is given - e.g., in NYC, Chicago, and SF, most cabs are driven by poor immigrants[1] and most rent (in economic terms) is extracted by medallion owners.

[1] Nothing wrong with being an immigrant - I’m one myself, although not poor anymore. I’m just pointing out that pre-Uber system didn’t offer much protection either. Since driving is an easily obtainable skill with no differentiation whatsoever, driving for hire - be it a cab driver, truck driver, or Uber driver - will always be a low-earning job.

Author’s vision for Uber: regulated, price-controlled (“can’t charge less than a true cost of the trip”), number of cars not to exceed government mandate, with unionized and minimum-wage-guaranteed drivers.

Funny - my gf had the same idea. We basically decided it’s most likely a mistake, so were not particularly worried.

I’m in Hawaii and received it this morning. First thought: there is probably no shelter close by anyway, and if they would send a missile they would probably target Honolulu (I’m in Kauai).

Fastmail offers you up to 100 email aliases (2 per each of 50 different domains) which route to your main account.

Edit: it's actually 600 aliases now: https://www.fastmail.com/help/account/limits.html