zer0defex's comments

zer0defex | 9 years ago | on: ​Lust for public Wi-Fi trumps security concerns

Guess I'm the odd one out then, I have never and will never use public wifi networks. I don't even trust connecting through client's office wifi networks. On the rare occasion I have no other option in work situations in client offices, I'll use a VPN through a virtual machine completely isolated from my host environment. It's just not worth the risk. Always wear digital condoms folks.

zer0defex | 9 years ago | on: macOS 10.12 Sierra: The Ars Technica review

Oh, no, definitely not. You're right, that would be absolutely ridiculous. The base 10+ apps or so I mentioned earlier are listed a bit further down in this thread here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12555847

That said, Linux is looking more and more appealing every OSX release and with how much I use it already via docker containers, virtual machines and the like, that will probably be my next move if Apple continues removing power user features from OSX while letting software release quality continue it's decline. There are some amazing open source alternatives available for the vast majority of apps on that list that I've been testing for months now as I honestly don't believe Apple really wants to change to meet the needs of yesterdays power users anymore.

zer0defex | 9 years ago | on: macOS 10.12 Sierra: The Ars Technica review

This is the entire list from my last install: http://pastebin.com/raw/hrYYMJPi

The base apps I almost always start with are:

- Moom (advanced window management)

- Hyperdock (window previews when hovering over dock apps)

- Amphetamine (stop mac from sleeping)

- Alfred (app launcher on steroids)

- FormatMatch (fast toggle copy/paste behavior to include or not text formatting)

- TotalTerminal (drop-down terminal like Quake's console)

- TotalFinder (dual-pane functionality in Finder)

- Radio Silence (simple outgoing app firewall, less annoying than Little Snitch)

- 1Password (everything OSX's keychain should be)

- Parallels (virtualization, it's still a Windows world)

zer0defex | 9 years ago | on: Apple in talks with luxury carmaker McLaren

You mentioned the first two on the list, why not the rest? Oh... right... including those paints a very different picture:

Retina MacBook Pro: 491 days since last release

Mac Pro: 1007 days since last release

Macbook Pro: 1563 days since last release

Mac Mini: 706 days since last release

Macbook Air: 562 days since last release

To be fair, the non-retina Macbook Pro and Macbook Air should be removed from the list as their place in the product line is now occupied by the Retina Macbook Pro and Macbook respectively.

That still leaves us with some pretty major product lines looking quite neglected.

zer0defex | 9 years ago | on: macOS 10.12 Sierra: The Ars Technica review

No, I wouldn't say it's fine and haven't been - my HN comment history will attest to that. OSX is showing it's age more and more every year. Yosemite. El Capitan. Sierra. You may as well have labeled them iOS integration package 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2.

I have to install at minimum 10+ 3rd-party apps on a clean OSX install just to reach baseline feature parity with other modern operating systems these days.

zer0defex | 9 years ago | on: macOS 10.12 Sierra: The Ars Technica review

As a fellow Apple power user, I share your sentiment regarding the sarcasm. It seems like a change happened in the past few years that to love something, means to love it unconditionally, to the point that you must be blind to it's weaknesses and flaws. Blind to the point that to acknowledge them or, gasp, speak of them, is sacrilege. That's a movement I simply can't buy into. How can anything improve if it can't even acknowledge and be honest with itself about what it's weaknesses and failings are?

Introspection isn't always pleasant, but it's quite often the path toward becoming something better.

zer0defex | 9 years ago | on: Apple in talks with luxury carmaker McLaren

Wow. Just wow. If this happens, the game has just changed.

Ron Dennis and Tim Cook. If you replaced Tim Cook's name with anyone else, I wouldn't believe it could ever work. Tim Cook though has already shown how awesome he can work with a manically focused leader driving vision and strategy. All of the sliding of Apple's quality since Job's passing, ceased in one brilliant strategic move.

Bravo Tim Cook, bravo. I'd be shocked if Elon Musk didn't pee himself just a wee bit after hearing this news.

zer0defex | 9 years ago | on: Mac OS X: Sane way to switch between windows

I love all of the advanced functionality hidden just beneath OSX's user-friendly veneer. Sadly, it's been one of the first casualties in the post-Jobs Apple. Every new release of OSX along with Apple's own apps, the first thing I check is holding down the alt/option key while clicking the various menu items to see what nuggets of alternate functionality appear. Every day, every release - less and less, if any at all. So sad.

zer0defex | 9 years ago | on: The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

And I turn it on EVERY time I setup a new OSX install - I want to bloody well know for damn sure whether I'm on HTTP or HTTPS when I'm on websites and some stupid little lock icon ain't gonna cut it when I'm passing credit card and banking info over the net. A problem further exacerbated by the SSL variants (extended-validation SSL certs causing green text showing company name to appear beside the lock icon - bankofamerica.com compared to news.ycombinator.com for example). This article is dead on the money.

zer0defex | 9 years ago | on: The most alienating thing that happened to me as a female engineer

How does she know gender actually had anything to do with the difficulties she was/is experiencing? Sounds like the author may be what the book "Leadership & Self-Deception" terms as "being in the box", which is to say her own behavior/attitude is doing way more to manifest these scenarios, much more than anything her co-workers probably have done. Something about this article just seems off... 90% of it complaining about not getting to watch a certain TV show at work (could she not go to her own desk and watch whatever struck her fancy?), while the much clearer example of sexual harassment in the car is tacked on the end as little more than an afterthought...

Then again, she comes across as rather passive, so I wouldn't be surprised if she's also uncomfortable with confrontation, so maybe this is her way of passive aggressively sticking it to the person in the car story? Who knows..

My advice: find a female power executive to serve as a mentor / career coach for a few months. Ideally a real hard-ass that pulls no punches when it comes to getting shit done, knows her shit and gives zero fucks whether an employee is male, female, penguin, or alien provided the work is done right, done well, and delivered on-schedule and most importantly, has no qualms about laying down the wrath of god on any employees slacking off and/or delivering shit quality work.

Seeing someone like that in action up-close and personal, while also benefiting from their input and guidance on her own situations encountered would I think pay huge dividends toward future career growth and happiness.

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