Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down • Hacker News Board

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#241

Post by paulcole » Sat, May 23, 2020, 10:37 PM UTC

brankoB wrote: post #235

paulcole wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why exactly? You’re not getting a better deal on milk if you understand the economics and logistics of the dairy industry.

Sure but people understand the basic transaction (give money -> get milk). If on the other hand they gave you free milk but tracked your milk usage without telling you, I'd argue that's a non-consensual transaction and falls under stealing (roughly).

What about if someone gives you a free lunch but doesn’t tell you that they’re going to film you eating? Is that stealing?

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#242

Post by roadbeats » Sat, May 23, 2020, 10:38 PM UTC

bartread wrote: post #209

Maybe they're still angry with him about leftpad. Yes, it really is the same guy: https://kodfabrik.com/journal/i-ve-just-liberated-my-modules . And, joking aside it would be wise to bear in mind that we're reading only one side of the story here. As with leftpad, there's another side to this. With leftpad he told Kik, "fuck you" ( https://medium.com/@mproberts/a-discussion-about-the-breakin... ), and then wrought gl…

> With leftpad he told Kik, "fuck you"

In response to a threat starting with "We don’t mean to be a dick about it" and ending with "our trademark lawyers are going to be banging on your door and taking down your accounts and stuff like that", I did say "fuck you" to Kik.

If that makes me the character in your mind, enjoy your imagination.

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#243

Post by kristofferR » Sat, May 23, 2020, 10:38 PM UTC

lonelappde wrote: post #239

geza wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It works fine with the current versions of Chrome (and Chromium-based browsers like Edge), you'll just need to sideload it once it gets removed from the Chrome store. Alternatively, if/when I manage to get it accepted into the Edge store, you could switch to Edge.

I thought Google banned sideloading unapproved extensions on Windows and Mac. https://developer.chrome.com/apps/external_extensions

Well, you can enable developer mode, extract the extension, add it manually, re-enable developer mode every time Chrome starts, and manually update to each new version...

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#244

Post by CathedralBorrow » Sat, May 23, 2020, 10:38 PM UTC

IggleSniggle wrote: post #83

calpaterson wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Firefox personally and originally made the thing for myself. I added Chrome support because Chrome is much more popular (not far from ten times more popular these days :() and people I would like to use this, eg friends and family, mostly use Chrome. I couldn't ask them to switch browsers for my little side project. I have to co-operate with Google's bureaucracy. For what it's worth, so far it seems like Mozill…

I think it would be perfectly reasonable to promote Firefox to your friends and family as "simply the better choice" irrespective of your own interests. When Chrome was better, I suggested friends and family use Chrome. Now I think most people would benefit from using Firefox as their primary driver.

Are you including the change cost here, which will be many times higher for most of the population vs. HN? Even if I thought that Firefox was a better choice, I'd recommend to my friends and family to keep using whatever they are using unless they have to switch for some reason.

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#245

Post by geza » Sat, May 23, 2020, 10:39 PM UTC

lonelappde wrote: post #239

geza wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It works fine with the current versions of Chrome (and Chromium-based browsers like Edge), you'll just need to sideload it once it gets removed from the Chrome store. Alternatively, if/when I manage to get it accepted into the Edge store, you could switch to Edge.

I thought Google banned sideloading unapproved extensions on Windows and Mac. https://developer.chrome.com/apps/external_extensions

I meant distribution as a zip file that you can load in developer mode, like the installation instructions for Bypass Paywall ( https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome ). It's not a very user friendly installation process but it still works. But yes, CRX-based sideloading no longer works on Chrome.

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#246

Post by justicezyx » Sat, May 23, 2020, 10:39 PM UTC

bartread wrote: post #209

Maybe they're still angry with him about leftpad. Yes, it really is the same guy: https://kodfabrik.com/journal/i-ve-just-liberated-my-modules . And, joking aside it would be wise to bear in mind that we're reading only one side of the story here. As with leftpad, there's another side to this. With leftpad he told Kik, "fuck you" ( https://medium.com/@mproberts/a-discussion-about-the-breakin... ), and then wrought gl…

How true!

Your own comments come out as one-sided as anyone can be...

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#247

Post by leppr » Sat, May 23, 2020, 10:40 PM UTC

neya wrote: post #225

bartread wrote: post #209

Maybe they're still angry with him about leftpad. Yes, it really is the same guy: https://kodfabrik.com/journal/i-ve-just-liberated-my-modules . And, joking aside it would be wise to bear in mind that we're reading only one side of the story here. As with leftpad, there's another side to this. With leftpad he told Kik, "fuck you" ( https://medium.com/@mproberts/a-discussion-about-the-breakin... ), and then wrought gl…

In the links you've shared, I thought the author (Azer) was on the right to behave the way he did. I don't see it as a reason to discount his current experience because of that either.

"Integrity" is not a desirable trait in this day and age. A developer is of little use if they don't respond to short term individualistic incentives.

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#248

Post by diebeforei485 » Sat, May 23, 2020, 10:41 PM UTC

I wonder if increasing the store publish fee from $5 to something closer to $50 would enable better customer support.

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#249

Post by zmk_ » Sat, May 23, 2020, 10:42 PM UTC

victorhooi wrote: post #226

_bxg1 wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand we've seen this kind of behavior from Google time and again, even on its flagship platforms like Android and YouTube. The Chrome Extensions store is likely the bottom of the barrel when it comes to priorities, so I have no trouble believing things would be even worse there.

If you're referring to the recent controversy around Pushbullet - I thought that was revealed to be them asking for all access to any HTTP/HTTPS websites you viewed...which is a major security breach. They removed that permission to limit it to only Pushbullet, and then were able to get back on. I'm not saying there couldn't have been more hand-holding - but it wasn't exactly like it wasn't for a fairly egregious sec…

They were only allowed back on after they've turned it into a big story online.

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#250

Post by junon » Sat, May 23, 2020, 10:42 PM UTC

fxtentacle wrote: post #233

bartread wrote: post #209

Maybe they're still angry with him about leftpad. Yes, it really is the same guy: https://kodfabrik.com/journal/i-ve-just-liberated-my-modules . And, joking aside it would be wise to bear in mind that we're reading only one side of the story here. As with leftpad, there's another side to this. With leftpad he told Kik, "fuck you" ( https://medium.com/@mproberts/a-discussion-about-the-breakin... ), and then wrought gl…

I believe that in the left-pad case, NPM severely violated the overall trust put in their management by handing over a package name (that other people might depend on) without a legal process. Now that NPM has faltered like that once, you basically need to verify yourself that every package that you use is still the same one by the same author, i.e. that NPM hasn't silently transferred the name to someone else.

I maintain quite a few high-traffic packages on npm and have done so for years. Npm is really bad about handling any sort of situation with any amount of grace.

Per my anecdotal experience, they are really good at choosing the outcome that benefits them the most/harms them the least - which wouldn't upset me since most companies do this, but it's Npm's "we're here for the community" type of fake attitude that has always bothered me.