• 4 Posts
  • 324 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: June 5th, 2023

help-circle
  • I totally get that.

    Check out Textpad. You might like it. The only nuisance with it is the default config settings are a little oddball (things like keyboard shortcuts, etc). But it’s highly configurable so you can set it up the way you like and then it’s good. It has more features than Notepad, but it’s still pretty simple and can do cool things like search files / folders for strings, has regex support, etc. But the extras stay out of your way and it’s pretty clean and simple for “notepad-like” usage.










  • Can OP (or anyone) provide a legitimate source for this?

    From what I can find, Amazon and its partners do dynamic pricing (based on various algorithms) but I can find no evidence / source that it does personalized individualized pricing.

    IOW, dynamic pricing is not done at the individual shopper level, but can be based on many variables like lightning deals, sudden spikes in demand, inventory issues (over supply / under supply) and various other factors which are not related to the individual shopper.

    Anecdotal evidence is interesting, but not persuasive.


  • I’m not against passkeys. They have some real advantages. And I understand more than you think.

    My comment is primarily about the preferred ecosystems that tend to come along with these newer solutions (like Apple’s iCloud or Google’s Password Manager) and how the corporations take advantage of user laziness and bandwagon jumping.

    They may not force you to be exclusive with them, but they definitely want you to be. And over time they will likely make it more and more inconvenient not to be locked in with them.

    For contrast, I use BitWarden for password management and Bitwarden Authenticator for TOTP (and I keep safe copies of TOTP secret keys elsewhere). This is a generic open-standards-first approach to things, with relatively easy recovery should you lose something. You can export your passwords. You have copies of your secret keys. You are in no way locked in to BitWarden forever.

    Passkeys can also work within that type of operational framework! Like TOTP which normally uses RFC6238, Passkeys tend to use CTAP or WebAuthn. All of the above are open standards. And this is a good thing!

    But do you really think Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc, want to play nice long term? Hopefully they will. But I have also run into evil nonsense like LastPass, which even though they also used open standards, their software would not allow you to do simple things like recover your own secret keys, export your data, etc. (Not to mention the embarrassing security breach they had and the wretched response, the main reasons to dump them).

    While I am not directly comparing an idiot company like GoTo Tech with Apple et al, they all have the same types of big brain MBA types working for them who love to constantly brainstorm new ideas on how to screw the users over by taking features away and calling it a “software upgrade”.

    So, passkeys as a security mechanism: sure, this gets my vote. But trusting the big corporations not to change the rules on us later…come on, get real. They love limiting or removing portability and recovery options whenever they can.

    Bottom line: don’t assume passkeys are inherently good or bad. It’s simply a security standard that can work well if implemented correctly. Passkeys make logging in easier. But will they also make recovery / export / migration easier…? Because if it’s not easy, people won’t do it.


  • Whenever I read an article about security (and read the comments, even here on Lemmy) I’m constantly frustrated and depressed by a couple of things.

    1. Corporations making things shittier with the intention of locking customers in to their stupid proprietary ecosystem. And of course, they are always seeking more data harvesting. Security itself is way down the list of their priories, if it’s even there at all.

    2. Users being lazy trend-followers who quickly sacrifice their security on the altar of convenience and whatever shiny new FOMO thing is offered up for “better security”.

    It’s a very bad combination. Doing security right is a bit inconvenient (which users hate) and expensive (which corporations hate).




  • First of all I believe you are incorrect.

    You’re doing a single anecdotal “test” from (I assume) one copy of the installation media. News flash, not all installation images of Windows 11 are the same.

    And I will answer your anecdotal evidence with some anecdotal evidence of my own: almost every friend and coworker I’ve asked about this says Autoplay is on. And when I check Google or ChatGPT, they confirm that a fresh install of Windows 11 will have it on by default. So…I guess everyone else is wrong about this but you’re right about every installation of Windows 11.

    Secondly, your question ignores the fact that people should probably check to see if it’s on. It can get turned on accidentally or even by an update. Microsoft is constantly messing arbitrarily with user preferences and settings with their weekly updates. You do know that, right?

    Finally, you posted some version of this same reply multiple times in this thread. Why? Are you just doing that to “get upvotes for fun”?

    BTW, there’s no karma on lemmy…upvotes don’t matter.

    It’s fine to correct someone, but first do a better job of checking your methodology, and second, don’t assume their motivations for trying to share helpful info.








  • I’m glad you mentioned airplane mode. I noticed something interesting about my Kindle after I set up a Pi Hole on my home network. The kindle would constantly try to connect to the Amazon mothership. Because the Pi Hole was blocking it, it would try it over and over again and this quickly depleted the batteries (maybe trying to boost it’s WiFi signal? I’m not sure). Putting it into Airplane mode helps preserve battery life noticeably, back to what it was before I installed the Pi Hole.