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rbritton

2,228 karma · joined March 4, 2009

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/rbritton; my proof: https://keybase.io/rbritton/sigs/FiE_9V5bf-EtTlAwBQDh96Ygx7370J-YFoV7sNt1m6I ]
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rbritton··on Spotify was down
This is why I personally built a home media server. Lapsing licensing agreements, older content, escalating streaming subscription costs, etc all led me to it. The secondary effect of being able to consume the content without depending on anything other than electricity is an additional benefit.
rbritton··on Covid: New lockdown for England as cases surge
Consider the age group(s) for most of the world's politicians.
rbritton··on Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer
> The completely arbitrary and almost random lock-down decisions have crushed all small business, giving over their entire customer bases to large big box stores.

The response here in Washington State has resulted in permanent closure of more businesses than deaths with covid within the state.

rbritton··on As internet forums die off, finding community can be harder than ever
Occasionally I stumble on a Facebook thread that allows multiple tiers, and I'm not sure what the enabler for that is. I'd love to see that extended to all threads even if I would vastly prefer a true forum over their groups.
rbritton··on iOS 14 is available today
Because privacy. I have no illusions that Apple’s privacy stance is permanent, but for now, they’re far superior to Google, Android, and associated vendors in that regard.
rbritton··on iOS 14 is available today
Last night I did the final iOS 13 update on all of my devices. I no longer trust any iOS or OS X update at launch -- I wait several months.
rbritton··on The joys of owning an ‘OG’ email account
I've had my own share of this. Among the emails I've received, there have been some from within the New Zealand Parliament, a fire department in Oregon, an OB/GYN on the east coast of the US, car loans, home loans, concert tickets, plane tickets, and other less consequential things.
rbritton··on Low-cost measurement of facemask efficacy for filtering expelled droplets
Have there been any studies that factor in the repeated reuse of the same masks?
rbritton··on Infrared thermometers to screen for Covid: more marketing than medical evidence
That's fine from a theoretical standpoint, but the reality is far, far different. People in general do easy, token gestures. They're not following proper procedures for mask use.
rbritton··on Infrared thermometers to screen for Covid: more marketing than medical evidence
How does it not matter? If their breath contains something that shouldn't be spread and they're actively touching the damp mask containing it and then touching other things, how does that not spread it?
rbritton··on Infrared thermometers to screen for Covid: more marketing than medical evidence
How's the actual mask use? The majority of people I see reuse the same one over and over, frequently touch it and adjust it, and then touch other things. I don't see how they're achieving much more than safety theater that way.
rbritton··on Saliva based Covid test: results in 45 minutes
Can confirm it’s not anyone but probably anyone eligible to donate. My sister could not due to visiting Guatemala in the last year.
rbritton··on YouTube TV sharply increases monthly subscription to $64.99
I’m actually more of a fan of a la carte content than channels. I typically spend $0-100/mo on TV shows and movies, which I strip the DRM from and copy into my permanent collection. In aggregate, I probably spend something comparable to what cable would cost. It’s all content I want with no filler or commercials, and I’m not held hostage by some subscription.
rbritton··on We need to do the math, even on “small” projects
> I never understand the complaints about investment in infrastructure and having to pay for it in taxes.

In the US, this is largely due to the perception (right or wrong) of budget bloat and cronyism on taxpayer-funded projects. Those projects have a reputation for cost overruns and generally being more expensive than comparable private projects.

rbritton··on DuckDuckGo, Google, and Android choice screens
Can't answer that question, but it's worth mentioning they also add their affiliate tag to Amazon product links and possibly others to get some revenue.
rbritton··on Where to Blog
Got it. I was leaning that way with my interpretation but wasn't completely positive.

The biggest risk in all of the WordPress ecosystem are third-party plugins. Minimizing the use of those and installing something like Wordfence (free or paid) would go a long way towards mitigating that risk. It wouldn't be non-zero, but it'd be acceptably low.

rbritton··on Where to Blog
What do you mean by content farm?

I'd argue the opposite about using managed hosting -- a self-hosted WordPress site is more likely to outlast one on managed WordPress hosting for the sole reason of cost. Managed hosting is significantly more expensive, and justifying that ongoing cost may cause the owner of the site to discontinue it sooner than they would otherwise.

rbritton··on Thoughts on cameras in the age of excellent cell phone photos
I started in CS, moved to photography for about 10 years, and I'm now back in CS. The amount of customer interaction is ultimately what soured me on it.
rbritton··on Save Internet Privacy
This site is going to hurt its interaction rate by doing this:

    By filling out this form you agree to receive occasional emails from one or more sponsor organization. You may of course unsubscribe at any time.
rbritton··on Don’t require a user to be interested twice: lessons on reducing signup friction
I don't have much experience with hCAPTCHA, but my biggest complaint with reCAPTCHA aside from the privacy aspect is that it quite literally tells me I'm wrong on a puzzle when I've done it correctly. It forces me to go through sometimes a dozen or more iterations before finally allowing me through.
rbritton··on Don’t require a user to be interested twice: lessons on reducing signup friction
There are other options. Cloudflare just switched to hCAPTCHA [0], and proof of work [1] can be effective enough. Aside from those, there's always the option of just leaving it open if there's nothing costly a spammer can do. They're unlikely to use the service itself and associated resources.

[0]: https://www.hcaptcha.com/

[1]: http://www.hashcash.org/

rbritton··on Don’t require a user to be interested twice: lessons on reducing signup friction
Know your target audience too. I'm not sure if I'm it, but reCAPTCHA gives me enough friction that I often abandon pages with it. Simply using Firefox's antifingerprinting feature plus some ad/tracker blocking is enough for it to be miserable every time.
rbritton··on Elon Musk reopening Tesla factory despite Alameda County order
Rightly or wrongly, many people are avoiding testing due to stories of health officials removing children or other people from homes where someone tests positive.
rbritton··on Fast or Slow
It will depend a bit on how fast or slow the sites are in front, but a general estimate is about 10-15 sites per minute within the limits of the current architecture. Position 2889 will be a while, but it will be today (depending on time zone).
rbritton··on Fast or Slow
Definitely worth thinking about. Here's one from yesterday that I also posted below: https://www.fastorslow.com/app/profile/8b282a3c-db98-5b1a-98...
rbritton··on Fast or Slow
Here's one: https://www.fastorslow.com/app/profile/8b282a3c-db98-5b1a-98...
rbritton··on Fast or Slow
Yep. We try to indicate when you're being affected by redirects since `http` -> `https` and `example.com` -> `www.example.com` are common ones. Those can often mean hitting an origin server instead of an edge server first.
rbritton··on The San Francisco Bay Area shelter-in-place order is being extended through May
I can't prove he's unaware, but I have yet to hear a single mention of any tradeoffs like these from Washington's governor. Every single rationale he has provided for his actions has solely been based on covid-19 infected and deaths numbers.
rbritton··on The San Francisco Bay Area shelter-in-place order is being extended through May
A virtually identical argument could be made for the same thing with the sides swapped. Some people's actions (i.e., those imposing lockdowns and other restrictions) are significantly affecting the safety (i.e., mental health, solvency, etc) of other people. It's a balancing scale, not just an independent bar you're trying to drop to zero.
rbritton··on The San Francisco Bay Area shelter-in-place order is being extended through May
I'd truly love to hear a good counterargument to this. I've argued much the same thing only to have the same opposing talking points restated verbatim.
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