lxn's comments

You can install Whatsapp on up to four or five devices. There one main device, and the rest are "clients", exactly like the desktop apps. But they can send and receive messages even when the main device is offline.

Thanks for mentioning this. I did not know it existed, and it looks very interesting. I might try to "upgrade" my 7-year-old vacuum robot.

I think they also try to provide their own content, blending your library with what they can license for you. It would be cool if they combined your library with a catalogue similar to Netflix in one app.

My pet peeve is that they focus too much on that side of the business (adding new content) while ignoring the streaming experience. There are feature requests on the forum that are being ignored. For example, I would like music artwork per song instead of per album so kids can find their songs more easily. I would also like offline content to be available in the standard catalogue without going through "Downloads". The device that plays the content should prefer that downloaded copy instead of fetching it again via a network when you play it. And so on...

As someone already said, this is probably intended to squeeze some money from the illegal content streaming farms before they close them. They are probably forced to suspend anything suspicious by the legal departments, and this way, they get a bit out of it.

Thanks for pointing this out. I wasn't aware of this feature.

I enabled Firefox sync and lost all my history. It was a user error: I should have disabled configuration sync (clear history when you close the browser).

After this incident, I decided I had enough, so I uninstalled LibreWolf. I recovered my lost history from different instances, but I don't want to spend my time making this browser work.

LibreWolf is a decent browser with annoying default settings, which made me lose more time than I wanted to make it work.

I can confirm that. I switched to using LibreWolf as a work-dedicated browser parallel to Firefox Developer Edition.

In two weeks of using it, I got annoyed by the following: - no automatic dark-mode (against fingerprinting, some websites don't have a setting to switch it on - not sure if you can turn it off) - timezone is always UTC (can be worked-around with an extension, messed up my time tracking app and some log viewer) - login on some websites/tools is broken altogether by the strict privacy settings (did not even bother to debug, I switched to Firefox) - WebGL off by default (you can turn it on via config flag)

I switched from Firefox to Chrome and back and never had to debug and work-around so many issues. It's a decent browser, but I'm not sure the value it brings justifies the costs of time spent debugging and the inconveniences.

I will continue to use it for work, but I will not switch entirely from Firefox because I want my history available across devices.

> A small application running on the host computer extracts USB information from the operating system and sends it to the Hub over USB.

I guess they have an "agent" running on the OS.

I've been using eSIMs for a few years, and my experience is similar to yours. I'm an expat living abroad, and I want to keep my old phone number (from my home country) and my new phone number (from the country I currently live in).

After two days, my first phone with an eSIM died, so I had to go to a telecommunication provider's physical store to install a new eSIM on the replacement phone.

Now, I try to keep my main SIM physical and the secondary (less important) one as an eSIM. In my case, my native country's phone number is now an eSIM.

You can ask your provider for a blank physical SIM, and in case you lose your eSIM, you can usually call them, go through the identification process, and they can move your number back to the physical SIM you have as a backup based on the serial number on the SIM. I do have blank physical SIMs for my eSIM. I never had to use them, but my girlfriend did (she's using the same setup). Once you're back to physical SIM, you can usually change to eSIM via the app. Be aware that some companies charge this switch between SIM and eSIM.

Having the secondary number as an eSIM makes it easier to use virtual SIM providers like Airolo when travelling since I don't have an issue disconnecting that number for the duration of the holidays.

If you have just one number, I'll suggest to keep it as a physical SIM.

38yo dude, sitting in front of my computer the whole day since I was 14yo. Dad of a 5yo.

My weekly "sport" schedule: - 2× 14km (8.7 miles) run - 2× gym (strength training, full body training, compound exercises) - 1× 1 hour swim (1.5-2km)

My recommendation to someone who wants to start is to find something you like, no matter how trivial it seems, and try to do it consistently until it's no longer a chore. Then, try to build up and add more things to complement that. I started running three years ago and going to the gym two years ago. The first year of the gym was very inconsistent. Started swimming 3 weeks ago.

There are some "nasty" habits that I avoid (based on my own personal experience) to keep myself motivated: - I run no matter the weather. It's more satisfying to finish a run during a shitty day (snow, rain, slush) - I don't expect continuous improvement or any improvement at all. It's all ups and downs (weight at the gym, speed when I run, etc.). Staying consistent is key. Imperfect progress is still progress, and everything you do eventually counts. - Keep trying things and see what sticks. I'm currently trying push-ups and cardio after the gym when I wake up. I do not know how long I will do them, but I'm trying.

TL;DR: They asked Github to take down a repository that acted as a Plex share proxy.

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If I understand it correctly, this software allows you to bypass some Plex sharing permissions by allowing you to re-share other people's libraries.

While this can be seen as DMCA abuse by Plex, I personally think it's partially justified (it probably goes against the TOS), and no "regular" user would need it.

It's not a surprise, since they are constantly at "war" against people who use their software to do illegal business. Since their software is relatively polished and well-supported across multiple platforms, some use it to build Netflix clones with illegal content. The repository referenced by the article is probably a helpful tool for such actors.

Thanks for the recommendation. Thinkpads are excellent, and honestly, I wanted one. Unfortunately, I'm not too fond of the company.

This is because they've done shady security and privacy-related stuff in the past, for example, shipping laptops with malware in 2015 or selling US Marines' laptops with altered hardware to send data back to China [1].

To make it worse, they also have weird practices regarding buying used products: they recommend you avoid buying used laptops (saying they might have viruses but later removed the page [2]) or saying that once you unlock your phone, you are not allowed to sell it [3].

TL;DR: Lovely machine, but I can't trust the company behind them.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenovo [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahw1cppZi-g [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2k9D81fbpA

I'm not fond of Intel, but I recently bought a laptop with an Intel CPU. I'm stuck with them for a few more years. My PC is already AMD-based, and I loved the new mobile CPUs from AMD, but they are either hardly available or in undesired packages (bulky gaming laptops).

I assume that they have great deals with laptop manufacturers. You can't find a Dell XPS with a Ryzen, for example. Ultrabooks are mainly Intel-based. The Framework laptop is not available everywhere yet.

It's the same frustration I had many years ago when I had to choose between a diesel car in stock and waiting 8 months or more for a gas one.

The quality of Tesla varies a lot depending on the factory in which it was built. The ones that came from the USA are probably the worst, especially at the beginning of a model. The ones that came from China are surprisingly better built. We own a Tesla Model 3 built in China, and I could compare the quality to what we drove during our multiple test drives, to what our friends got (built in the USA), and what I saw online. Our car had none of the issues reported by people with cars built in the USA. That explains, in my opinion, the different experiences you see online.

Media distorts the negative experiences, but there are a lot of Tesla owners for which Tesla was the first car. And those people tend not to report issues because they don't have something to compare. I heard about people who could not take delivery of the car because the trunk was not closing and opening properly, and they had to wait for the service to re-align it on the delivery date. For someone who bought a car before, this is hard to accept as "normal".

The quality is probably improving daily, but I would not dismiss any complaints as exaggerated by the media.

I agree with everything you said about Fairphone, but their software support is decent when it comes for security updates (major Android versions upgrades are not guaranteed). They offer 5 years which is way better than average.

Their track record is also good I would say. Fairphone 2 started with Android 5 and it currently offered Android 10 upgrade.

https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/997918043739...

I agree with most of what you said. But it wasn't just that.

In the mid-2000s, I ordered Ubuntu CDs, my first contact with Linux. The university campus had fast internet, and I could download and try other distros. Mandriva was by far the easiest to set up and use. It had everything included but was also the biggest in size (it required a DVD or 4x CDs if I remember correctly).

I ended up sticking to Ubuntu mainly because the support was better. You could find tutorials for everything you wanted targeting Ubuntu users. Whenever I had issues, I always found answers on forums. Being a total noob in the Ubuntu community was not frowned upon like in the other distros.

Ubuntu also had more up-to-date packages, and updates were coming faster. The UI was nicer in Ubuntu, and everything looked more consistent. Any other distro in that era looked more or less like Windows 98 / 2000. In Ubuntu, Compiz [1] was easy to set up. Compiz blew my mind when I discovered it.

I don't use Linux as my daily driver anymore. I prefer to run Debian on my servers, and I'll like to switch to Arch on my laptop soon. I still consider Ubuntu a distro suitable for someone who starts with Linux.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compiz

The building I live in has this and it's not ideal. I consider it on par with other solutions, and I will not be my first choice for a new home due to complexity.

First it requires more hardware, it's more expensive and as far as I know you'll be stuck with one vendor. On top of that you need to isolate your home from outside signals (you don't want your switch to talk to you neighbor's devices). Second, it's pretty slow. This might be because our system is already 8 years old, but it's pretty noticeable (feels close to a second when you turn on the lights). And then you get into issues with your appliances that have cheap power supplies. I needed to buy a filter for my PC because the power supply unit was generating so much noise on the power line that the devices could not communicate anymore. Also I'm not sure how well this will work in older house, when the lines are not in best condition.

The system we have is made by DigitalStrom. They have a newer generation available, but since we rent I don't want to pay for the upgrade.

I haven't read the charges. I'm not even sure if they are public. They were also changed a few times.

Based on what I read (might be biased) he's charged for helping Chelsea Manning getting the documents (hacking) and publishing the documents before they were fully redacted to remove names and things that could help identify people - to protect the safety of people involved (common practice). This is debatable because he worked hard to redact name (together with the big newspapers), but other people published the raw documents before him and in the end Wiki Leaks release raw documents as well.

All this is pieced together based on Craig Murray's blog [1], which is often flagged here on HN.

[1] https://www.craigmurray.org.uk

This articled (dated few days ago) gave me more context: http://techrights.org/2020/08/21/last-article/

If they worked so far, they will continue to work in the future.

With my limited understanding, the new models will fail under intensive work-loads. For example adding them to existing RAID setups to replace a failed drive, where in the beginning they have to be sync-ed and they fail under load after a few hours (either by dropping in performance or not being recognized at all).

They will work reasonable well under lower loads (more common for home NAS setups).

The biggest problem, and what the article is trying to point out, is that Western Digital (and Seagate) are doing all they can to hide this info from customers. They even advertise the HDD as being NAS/RAID friendly, when they are clearly not meant for that type of loads.

Relevant is subjective. Merge request approval is not something a single contributor needs for example.

You can still get it by paying for it. In the end GitLab is a business, someone needs to pay something. As developer who runs a GitLab server for personal projects I don't miss any paid features.