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vatueil

1,111 karma · joined October 20, 2017

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vatueil··on Coronavirus outbreak likely now ‘gathering steam’
The headline refers to the global outlook. Even if cases in China peak in the near future, there may well be new outbreaks in other countries soon.

Quoting the relevant section:

> GAZETTE: Is it significant that there are so few cases internationally compared with the number in China? Is that an indication that control measures are working or is it just gathering steam internationally?

> LIPSITCH: Unfortunately, I think it’s more likely to be that it’s gathering steam. We’ve released a preprint that we’ve been discussing publicly — and trying to get peer reviewed in the meantime — that looks at the numbers internationally, based on how many cases you would expect from normal travel volumes. And a couple of things are striking. One is that there are countries that really should be finding cases and haven’t yet, like Indonesia and maybe Cambodia. They are outside the range of uncertainty you would expect even given variability between countries. So our best guess is that there are undetected cases in those countries. Indonesia said a couple of days ago that it had done 50 tests, but it has a lot of air travel with Wuhan, let alone the rest of China. So 50 tests is not enough to be confident you’re catching all the cases. That’s one bit of evidence that to me was really striking. Second, I was reading The Wall Street Journal that Singapore had three cases so far that were not traced to any other case. Singapore is the opposite of Indonesia, in that they have more cases than you would expect based on their travel volume, probably because they’re better at detection. And even they are finding cases that they don’t have a source for. That makes me think that many other places do as well. Of course, we’re making guesses from limited information, but I think they’re pretty likely to be correct guesses, given the totality of information.

vatueil··on Democrats Declined DHS Offer to Test Caucus App
Perhaps the statement was referring to the telephone hotline, used as a backup means of reporting results, which was apparently overloaded with calls.
vatueil··on Microsoft's Three Browsers
Larger laptop form factor provides better sustained performance due to better cooling, as well as larger batteries.

Also, even though you can run Android apps and Linux containers these days, Chrome OS is still built around using the browser in a way Android is not. Your phone has to balance the needs of the browser against other demands and apps.

vatueil··on Leaked documents expose Avast antivirus subsidiary selling web browsing data
For context, the sentence starts with:

> Some past, present, and potential clients include...

Keyword "potential".

vatueil··on Preliminary analysis of 11 Novel Coronavirus genomes from the Wuhan outbreak
I don't think it's the most likely explanation, far from it, but it wouldn't have to be a bioweapon to have been released from a lab.

The reemergence of H1N1 in 1977 is believed to have been the result of a lab accident or vaccine trial gone awry, for example: http://www.virology.ws/2009/03/02/origin-of-current-influenz...

vatueil··on Google pushed to take action against Android bloatware
Last I checked, I only had to select "skip" during setup to use the device without signing in to an account.
vatueil··on Backblaze Hard Drive Stats Q3 2019
There was a certain line of Seagate 3TB drives that seemed particularly prone to failure, as reflected in consumer reports as well as Backblaze's statistics at the time:

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ST3000DM001

- https://www.backblaze.com/blog/3tb-hard-drive-failure/

Later Seagate drives don't seem to be worse than the competition, but memories of that infamous drive model still linger.

vatueil··on Ranked-choice voting is on the ballot in New York City
Even if we insist on preserving traditional hand-counting of counting paper ballots, for good or ill, couldn't we use electronic voting machines to fill out paper ballots?
vatueil··on Mozilla Intends to Deprecate OpenSearch
The exact same trick works with custom search engines in Chrome as well.

They're equally powerful. Automatically adding search engines means users don't have to do so by hand, but you can still manually create a "search engine" too (e.g. "https://xkcd.com/%s/" with the keyword "xkcd").

In Firefox I keep a folder with bookmarks that have keywords, but I would prefer the UI in Firefox's search engine settings (the bookmark manager doesn't have a keywords column).

The problem is few will discover Firefox's bookmark keywords unless they're told about the feature, and manually create such bookmarks, while Chrome automatically creates keywords for search engines and prompts users to try them out.

vatueil··on Mozilla Intends to Deprecate OpenSearch
The parent comment was referring to how Chrome automatically adds search engines. You only have to "dig into" the settings menu if you want to change the keyword or add a custom search.

Even if you're adding it manually, I think the list of search engines is a more intuitive place to put such a feature than "bookmark keywords".

Compared to similar features in Chrome or DDG's bangs, Firefox's bookmark keywords seem less discoverable to me.

vatueil··on Mozilla Intends to Deprecate OpenSearch
That's jumping to conclusions, isn't it? It doesn't require a conspiracy for Mozilla to remove a feature.

It wouldn't even make sense for this to be part of a conspiracy, since this doesn't affect the list of search engines included by default.

According to the related forum discussion, it sounds like the blog post was imprecise and the change only affects search add-ons, not adding search engines via browser menus: https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/deprecation-of-opensearch-xm...

vatueil··on A uBlock Origin update was rejected from the Chrome Web Store
That's not "anti-competitive". What sort of competition is being blocked? No court is going to side with third-party apps that depend on YouTube's servers while violating the terms on which they're allowed to use its streaming services.

And what does it matter how the company is organized? YouTube is in fact a direct subsidiary of Google, not just a sibling company under Alphabet, but so what? Would calling it "Google Video" make a difference?

The problem with the earlier hypothetical example (of Spotify acquiring Medium and blocking articles about apps that violate Spotify's ToS) was not cooperation between Spotify and Medium, but issues regarding free speech, insofar as that applies to a private platform.

The analogous situation with YouTube would be content on Google platforms discussing third-party YouTube apps... and in fact, there are plenty of videos on YouTube itself discussing youtube-dl or apps such as NewPipe.

> Youtube isn't using legal means, in general.

That's semantics. Call it technical vs. non-technical means, then, or whatever.

The problem with that line of ideological reasoning is that it implies YouTube should use technical means, such as locking down its API, rather than just booting offending apps off the company's own app stores. The end result would be worse for users.

vatueil··on A uBlock Origin update was rejected from the Chrome Web Store
It's a distinction without a difference. Whether you use legal or technical means, blocking an offending app that violates the terms of streaming service is not "anti-competitive", as the parent comment accused. Neither Spotify nor YouTube is obliged to offer bandwidth.

I'd rather YouTube use legal means to remove offending apps from app stores, rather than technical means that would interfere with apps outside of app stores as well. I like having youtube-dl available, thanks.

vatueil··on A uBlock Origin update was rejected from the Chrome Web Store
What does blocking "on Spotify" mean? It's not as if Spotify is blocking songs within its own catalog or something: these pirate apps exist outside of Spotify, except they hijack Spotify's streaming service.

They're dealt with in the same way, by getting legitimate app stores such as Apple's to take down the pirate apps: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/ne...

Spotify has also threatened to ban users caught using these third-party apps: https://torrentfreak.com/spotify-emails-warning-to-pirates-u...

At least YouTube doesn't go that far.

> If they merged with... let's say Medium, and now blocked articles about such apps, that would be a problem.

Writing about piracy, as TorrentFreak or a Medium blog might do, is not the same as piracy itself. The former is journalism, protected by free speech; the latter is not.

vatueil··on Chinese app on Xi’s ideology allows access to all the data on 100M users’ phones
The first part of that is already the case, according to the article:

> Use of the app in China is not exactly voluntary. The Communist Party has issued directives to its members to download the app, as have many workplaces.

Of course, the collected data is not public.

vatueil··on Chinese app on Xi’s ideology allows access to all the data on 100M users’ phones
The article links to this report from Cure53: https://cure53.de/analysis_report_sgn.pdf

A different Chinese surveillance app that was previously examined by Cure53 is discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20606116

vatueil··on A uBlock Origin update was rejected from the Chrome Web Store
Eh, that's sort of like saying Spotify is being "anti-competitive" when they block apps that give you Spotify Premium features for free.

Third-party apps for streaming services aren't meant to be a competitive market. At least with YouTube you can still download third-party apps elsewhere, such as youtube-dl for desktops or NewPipe on F-Droid, even if apps that violate YouTube's TOS are removed from Google's own app stores.

vatueil··on A uBlock Origin update was rejected from the Chrome Web Store
Parent comment might be referring to Kiwi Browser, a closed source fork of Chromium for Android that allows desktop extensions.

Though it's currently available on the Android app store, and the reason it was briefly removed was because it included built-in background YouTube video playback, not ad-blocking.

Of course, you could always get the app from another store.

- Kiwi Browser (Play Store): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kiwibrowse...

- Kiwi Browser (XDA): https://labs.xda-developers.com/store/app/com.kiwibrowser.br...

vatueil··on A uBlock Origin update was rejected from the Chrome Web Store
Image Search Options is an add-on for Firefox that lets you right-click an image to search for it on Google as well as other image search sites. Also available as a Chrome extension.

- Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/image-search-option...

- Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/image-search-optio...

- Website: https://saucenao.com/tools/

vatueil··on Apple Removes HKmap.live from the App Store
Apparently it was removed because it included in-app purchases and there's a rule against profiting off of tragedies:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-protests-google/...

> A Google spokesman said that “The Revolution Of Our Times” app, which lets users role-play as Hong Kong protesters, violated a long-standing policy “prohibiting developers from capitalizing on sensitive events, such as attempting to make money from serious ongoing conflicts or tragedies through a game”.

I guess if they remove the IAPs it would be okay?

vatueil··on Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong
Too late to edit, but the correct URL for the second link is: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/25/china-blocks-y...
vatueil··on Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong
Baidu would certainly like to think so, and has said as much on occasion, but do the facts really support the claim that Google left China primarily due to competition rather than ethical or security concerns?

Despite continuous friction with the Chinese government, Google's share of the search engine market in China had grown to over a third before it decided to pull out: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703465204575207...

Google hasn't pulled out of other markets where it faces strong local competitors, such as Yandex in Russia, and it remains popular in Chinese-speaking markets outside of mainland China such as Hong Kong and Taiwan. That the developers of the Google Pinyin input tool were found to have copied data (something other companies in and out of China have also been guilty of from time to time) is hardly evidence that Google in general was not competitive.

Ironically, the fact that under Pichai a return to China was seriously contemplated would suggest that financial reasons alone can't explain the original decision to leave.

Similarly, YouTube wasn't forced to pull out of other markets where it faced competition. Also, YouTube was frequently blocked by Chinese authorities even before Google decided to pull out: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703465204575207...

Competition may explain in part why Google hadn't conquered the Chinese market before it left, but conflict with the Chinese government, in the form of official censorship as well as illicit hacking, would seem to be the main reason why Google pulled out of China but not elsewhere.

Unless of course learning to comply with such demands and intrusions is included under "understanding the Chinese market".

vatueil··on Protester shot in chest by live police round during Hong Kong protests
> The US is not a democracy

The United States is a democracy. Democracy does not mean only direct democracy. Representative democracy, democratic republics, and federalism are forms of government compatible with democracy.

https://reason.com/2018/01/17/the-united-states-is-both-a-re...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/07/us/usa-democracy.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_republic

vatueil··on Apple neutered ad blockers in Safari, and users didn't say a thing
The problems with calling AdGuard untrustworthy because it's a "rando VPN in the Middle East" are threefold:

- The app is a local VPN so your data doesn't leave your device, except for their DNS feature.

- Cyprus is in the EU, so it's not what most people would think of as the "Middle East". The boundaries of the Middle East are man-made, not natural, and Cyprus is often considered closer to Europe these days.

- There may be concerns regarding certain states in the region, but implying "Middle East" is a pejorative is a bit crass.

TBH I'm more worried about AdGuard's Russian connections, though an AdGuard developer offered reassurances above.

If you're going to raise concerns about AdGuard, at least make them accurate.

vatueil··on Accelerationism
Neo-reactionary, presumably:

- https://amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/516243/

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment

vatueil··on Apple neutered ad blockers in Safari, and users didn't say a thing
The posted article is all about how the changes Apple made to Safari mirror the proposed changes to Chrome. Safari content blockers such as 1Blocker are pretty much exactly how Chrome adblockers will work in the future.

Chrome has not changed how extensions work yet. That's all in the future. Currently, nothing has been turned off and the "old" mechanism still works. Eventually that will change, just as Safari has already done.

vatueil··on Apple neutered ad blockers in Safari, and users didn't say a thing
Fair point regarding mobile Safari, though there aren't many better options on iOS. Extensions have never been supported there.

I was mainly addressing the situation on desktop, such as Safari on macOS, since the previous comments were discussing changes to desktop browsers.

vatueil··on Apple neutered ad blockers in Safari, and users didn't say a thing
I thought I mentioned that, but I must have accidentally deleted it when I edited the comment. Thanks for pointing it out.

I wouldn't say the article is wrong, just that a workaround exists.

vatueil··on Apple neutered ad blockers in Safari, and users didn't say a thing
There isn't anything stopping individuals from publishing Safari content blockers, though? No more than with the previous extension model.

Nor were individuals the only players to take advantage of the powers available to old extensions.

There are also legitimate security reasons why browsers such as Firefox have restricted side-loading add-ons on consumer operating systems such as Windows.

There's a debate to be had about whether security for most users is worth the trade-off in flexibility for power users. But regardless of any other reasons we might speculate, the arguments that have been presented in favor of such changes are already compelling enough on their own and need to be seriously addressed.

vatueil··on Apple neutered ad blockers in Safari, and users didn't say a thing
IIRC traceroute was how I originally looked it up locally. I posted the link for convenience. Perhaps I misinterpreted the results, though.

I'll have to take your word for it that the Russian IP address you use does not mean you have a server there. Thanks for the explanation.

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