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sharps1on Big Reasons Not to Upgrade to Windows 11

Much prefer windows 11 to 10 with the following changes below. Without the changes would probably be worse.

Disabled widgets.

No longer use the windows explorer for most things as it got worse (extra clicks). Directory Opus or Total commander are fine replacements.

I keep the task manager pinned to the taskbar as it is more clicks otherwise to get to.

Switching sound to speakers / headphones is now an extra click.

I used O&O Privacy to disable a bunch of settings (Actually quite a lot of settings, this was the same on windows 10 though).

Design wise I prefer win 11. I like the centralized icons on the taskbar.

Tried start11, wasn’t for me, I use the default taskbar.

sharps1on Ask HN: Why do search engines not let you blacklist spam domains?

If I had to guess, it's a lot of data they don't want to store.

Current solution is either ublacklist, or add filters to uBlock Origin. Both are linked in the thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29546433

https://github.com/h-matsuo/uBlacklist-subscription-for-deve...

sharps1on My biggest mistake as an RPA developer

Imagine one person using a web app to click through a list of up to 50 items with multiple clicks to have a letter printed to a person (Which take an hour or so).

That process is done in 20 separate locations by 20 separate people. With RPA we can automate that entire process (We don’t control the web app and have to wait for features from the vendor).

(The process is more complicated than this, but you get the idea).

sharps1on SingleFile: Save a complete web page into a single HTML file

Should be noted Manifest V3 will break this extension for chromium based browsers.

https://github.com/gildas-lormeau/SingleFile-Lite

sharps1on Google Tag Manager, the new anti-adblock weapon (2020)

SingleFile and SingleFileZ are great!

It’s a shame with manifest v3 that it will hamstring the size of pages that can be saved (to 43mb if I remember on the SingleFileLite GitHub page).

sharps1on I Finally Installed an Ad Blocker

On iOS - 1Blocker + Safari (Including their local VPN), Duckduckgo browser and Brave browser.

I use 1Blocker with Safari for almost everything as Safari allows a default zoom of > 100%.

sharps1on Firefox 97.0

You can download it early from FTP

https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/97.0/

sharps1on Mozilla Rally

Install Lepton, it fixes all the issues with the UI.

https://github.com/black7375/Firefox-UI-Fix

sharps1on Why Apple’s iMessage is winning: teens dread the green text bubble

If you turn on Increase Contrast in the accessibility features the green is darker and much nicer.

sharps1on I Miss RSS

My preference is for inoreader. I’ve tried old reader a couple of times, just seemed to be missing things. For instance I couldn’t seem to get a dark theme. In inoreader it’s easy to switch theme. Inoreader seems to have a nicer ui, I also like the fact you can see what articles are popular during the day/week.

sharps1on LastPass says no passwords were compromised following breach scare

Password manager browser extensions provide a large attack surface. They also break the browser sandbox. I wish there were a good solution

https://lock.cmpxchg8b.com/passmgrs.html

sharps1on BitDefender Free has been discontinued

You can use ConfigureDefender to set the windows defender settings -

https://github.com/AndyFul/ConfigureDefender

Note: you can scroll ConfigureDefender down to get to the exclusions interface ;O)

sharps1on Goodbye Brave

Biggest issue - it does not auto update.

Updating one machine manually is okay, multiple machine - no.

sharps1on Goodbye Brave

Pi-Hole and uBO are enough by themselves.

> To benefit from uBlock Origin's higher efficiency, it's advised that you don't use other content blockers at the same time (such as Adblock Plus, AdBlock). uBlock Origin will do as well or better than most popular ad blockers. Other blockers can also prevent uBlock Origin's privacy or anti-blocker-defusing features from working properly.

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock

sharps1on Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

You really need a video as the first thing you see so it is easier to grasp what the game is about.

EDIT: The video from your 13bananas site should be the first thing in the App Store page.

Looks very well done, still confused about what the goal is other than flying around planets.

sharps1on Firefox 94

Donations go to the foundation, not moz corp which builds Firefox.

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/

EDIT: At this point either pocket or their vpn seem to be the only way to get money to the corporation, even then may not be a lot.

sharps1on Lots to See in Firefox 93

The issue with FF profiles is you have to pick a default. Whatever links you click in your OS always open in the default.

In Chromium browsers when you click a link, whatever profile was last opens the link.

You also have to do some hacks to get FF profiles to use separate taskbar icons and they don't show a profile picture like Chromium browsers.

sharps1on Firefox: Dark pattern consent dialog invites users to share their location

I don’t even remember seeing this image. It was enabled on three separate machines.

sharps1on Firefox: Dark pattern consent dialog invites users to share their location

Vivaldi only has a small team. They said in 2016 they only needed five million users to turn a profit (They generate income based on search engine referrals).

Another downside to Vivaldi is they don’t push out many releases meaning that their security is likely lagging behind. My assumption on this is their custom UI takes a while to build after a new release.

Edge and Chrome both push out timely security updates.

EDIT: Typo.

sharps1on Google sets burial date for legacy Chrome Extensions, fears for ad-blockers grow

You can use Bulk URL opener to move tabs between browsers.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bulkurlopener...

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bulk-url-opener/kg...

sharps1on Google sets burial date for legacy Chrome Extensions, fears for ad-blockers grow

Brave also does the CNAME uncloaking like uBO.

https://brave.com/privacy-updates-6/

sharps1on Show HN: We built an end-to-end encrypted alternative to Google Photos

Pricing is expensive comparing it to mega (https://mega.io/pro). Mega is end to end encrypted as well (Mega is 2tb for $118. Source code is also available https://mega.io/sourcecode).

Why would someone pick your service?

sharps1on Firefox 91

The lower contrast is definitely an issue.

I've also done a turnabout and switched over to compact / Lepton. So go figure ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I still don't get why they decided to get rid of compact.

sharps1on Firefox 91

Google, Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, etc pushing their browsers through their platforms would be the main reason. Most people don't care about the UI changes.

Yes it was a little jarring at first. I've been using the new ui for a while now and likely wouldn't want to go back (I tried the ui hot fix for a bit, but ended up removing it and going with the default).

sharps1on Forbes Cookie Opt Out Dark Pattern

You’re best bet is to use an extension like “I don’t care about cookies” or turn on the fanboy cookies or annoyances list in unlock origin.

The cookies dark pattern Is everywhere.

sharps1on Disinformation for hire, a shadow industry, is quietly booming

Subnautica 2 is add-on DLC for the first game. It just doesn’t feel like a new game.

sharps1on Firefox 90

Turn on "Ctrl+Tab cycles through tabs in recently used order"

Tabby also has some useful features - you can set a shortcut for last used tab - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tabby-window-...

sharps1on Firefox 90

Less than 40% use extensions. Of the most popular - uBO is less than 5%, so most people likely aren’t blocking it unless it’s the default.

https://data.firefox.com/dashboard/usage-behavior

sharps1on Firefox 90

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-b...

uBO works best on Firefox. There is no CNAME uncloaking on chromium browsers, except for Brave which does this as part of their shields.

https://brave.com/privacy-updates-6/

Vivaldi also have a built ad / tracker blocker where lists can be chosen.

sharps1on Firefox 90

Agreed - this makes the ui much better.

It's annoying have to manually enable compact in about:config to get back to the compact layout in new profiles.