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Your Computer Isn't Yours

sneak.berlin

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Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#711

Post by bambax »

Arech wrote: post #614
XCSme wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried Evernote on Windows, it was so much buggier and slower than the browser web app, it was really unusable.

I quite agree... The moment I find a simple note-taking app that synchronizes well between Win7 and Android, that moment will be the last moment I use Evernote. (well, I use excellent DokiWiki engine as my primary knowledge base, but to make it available on the mobile phone requires setting up and securing a web-hosted machine which is too much bother for me right now)

Workflowy is free and synchronizes perfectly between the browser and the mobile apps.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#712

Post by greyhair »

reactordev wrote: post #642
pdkl95 wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I worry for Gen Z because they're tiny-mobile-device native. And the only usable tiny mobile devices are walled gardens. Without the ability to grow up playing with system level software, combined with the software industry's unwillingness to pass on institutional knowledge to younger generations, I fear we are already on a path towards a civilization that loses a lot of the technological capability we currently en…

Omg, I can’t up vote this enough. I have been telling principal/director-level engineers this for almost a decade. We shouldn’t be making hiring bar so high that it requires a PhD but rather hire on aptitude and hunger for knowledge and feed them. So much of being a senior+ in tech is knowledge sharing which we don’t do enough of. I’m guilty of this too! I value my personal time and don’t want to spent it building tr…

As an old dude, I agree with you completely. We push way to much on the degree/school thing in HR, long before we get to interview them. For most positions, I would rather have an enthusiastic learner with a BS, or even an associates, and have them learn how it is done from experienced staff. If they really like it, and want to pursue more college, fine. If they want to dive in and learn by doing, fine.

I am in my retirement position now, stepped back to staff engineer, because I don't want to spend any more time stuck in meetings. The best principles, the best directors, all came up through the ranks. Yes, some of them returned to college for a few years before coming back, but the best ones just came in as enthusiastic green horns and dove straight it.

I have worked long enough now (36 years in this field, and this is my third 'career') to have seen people I mentored grow into director level positions, and that is perhaps the most rewarding thing there is.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#713

Post by afro88 »

bywaterstreet wrote: post #655

> It turns out that in the current version of the macOS, the OS sends to Apple a hash (unique identifier) of each and every program you run, when you run it. Hang on, this only happens on first run of the binary, right? It caches the hash afterwards? This statement is incorrect unless Apple are sending logs to the server (i.e. of every cache hit). Can somebody confirm?

That's what I've observed, but the cache does expire (I think daily). It doesn't send a request for a cache hit.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#714

Post by zepto »

vetinari wrote: post #695
zepto wrote: post #685

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you talking about. Mojave is 2 years old. That isn’t a particularly small window. Even with the 2 year window on MacOS, an alternative was delivered . But you are confirming the point - nobody even knows what is deprecated or what the alternatives are. You still haven’t answered the question of how someone is supposed to tell whether Cairo is supported or not. Is it done? How do you know. Does it need to be…

> What are you talking about. Mojave is 2 years old. That isn’t a particularly small window. Even with the 2 year window on MacOS, an alternative was delivered. 2 years/2 releases is small window. Alternative was delivered, but it also is no drop-in one. Just lika Skia vs Cairo, requires porting/reachitecting and might not have 100% coverage for what the old solution did. You might have noticed, that in Big Sur there…

If the answer is ‘don’t adopt Cairo for new projects’ there is a problem, since Skia has poor documentation and a not stable api.

And so if the answer is always ‘it depends’, you are making my point for me.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#715

Post by vetinari »

zepto wrote: post #714
vetinari wrote: post #695

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What are you talking about. Mojave is 2 years old. That isn’t a particularly small window. Even with the 2 year window on MacOS, an alternative was delivered. 2 years/2 releases is small window. Alternative was delivered, but it also is no drop-in one. Just lika Skia vs Cairo, requires porting/reachitecting and might not have 100% coverage for what the old solution did. You might have noticed, that in Big Sur there…

If the answer is ‘don’t adopt Cairo for new projects’ there is a problem, since Skia has poor documentation and a not stable api. And so if the answer is always ‘it depends’, you are making my point for me.

In Cairo specific case it is 'don't adopt Cairo for new projects'.

Others may have specific reason, why they are still using it (like the Gtk example). Your new project doesn't.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#716

Post by pvg »

lovelyviking wrote: post #690
pvg wrote: post #681

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you're trying to elevate some flaky security feature to a debate about human rights. It's not particularly meaningful or conducive to any kind of insight because once you make that jump, you just get to fulminate endlessly about principles and oppression. It's like starting to recite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights every time you stub your toe instead of just saying 'shit!' and thinking about maybe movi…

>you're trying to elevate some flaky security feature to a debate about human rights. It is not a "flaky security feature" It is a main thing that defines who controls the personal computer. Accessing and controlling Personal Computer with personal notes is the same as accessing and controlling personal notes written on paper. There is no elevation here from my side, it is literally about human right for privacy and…

It is a main thing that defines who controls the personal computer

It's a flaky feature that people had a workaround for in minutes. Nobody lost control of their computer.

There is no elevation here from my side, it is literally about human right

My secondary school had a bigass Universal Declaration of Human Rights mounted on a wall behind plexiglass. Whenever I got detention I'd protest citing Article 9. At 12, this seemed both funny and trenchant commentary on my predicament.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#717

Post by cutler »

greyhair wrote: post #706
cutler wrote: post #565

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also a fait accompli in education where Python reigns supreme as the primary teaching language.

There is nothing wrong with teaching Python as an introduction to programming methods and data, then diving deeper. My son started with Python in his Junior year of high school and as a senior is now learning Java. It is just top down learning, instead of bottom up. For programming, I think either works. I just happened to learn the other direction because of the year (early 1980s). On CP/M, you had a macro assembler…

My university course in 1980 started with Pascal and Fortran along with Niklaus Wirth's "Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs".

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#718

Post by II2II »

zepto wrote: post #619
II2II wrote: post #594

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many reasons to choose Linux over the alternatives that have nothing to do with one's ability to customize it. One example is the simplicity of system management. Desktop oriented Linux distributions tend to take care of everything from application installation to updates with a single interface with minimal interruption to my work flow. This is only sometimes the case with macOS and Windows. Android, iOS,…

So you are claiming that simplicity of system management is a strength of Linux? Ok, we disagree on that, but I get what you are saying. But, another aspect of what you are saying is ‘trust the vendor and don’t look under the hood’. This is no different from trusting Apple or Microsoft. You are actually confirming the general point that Linux provides no benefit in terms of who you have to trust. I.e. it doesn’t in f…

Most Linux distributions are also easier to audit than commercial operating systems and some go as far as encouraging it. While this is optional and requires a deeper understanding of what you're looking at, it does not require handing control over to a third-party (including the vendor). You can choose to trust the vendor by clicking a button, you can use integrated tools to choose what is done and when it is done, you can use those tools to audit what is done before it is done, or you can audit it down to the source code level. This is a far cry from Apple, Google, and Microsoft's approach where you have very little control and what little control you do have is complex to access.

Re: Your Computer Isn't Yours

#720

Post by gabereiser »

hanifc wrote: post #689
reactordev wrote: post #642

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Omg, I can’t up vote this enough. I have been telling principal/director-level engineers this for almost a decade. We shouldn’t be making hiring bar so high that it requires a PhD but rather hire on aptitude and hunger for knowledge and feed them. So much of being a senior+ in tech is knowledge sharing which we don’t do enough of. I’m guilty of this too! I value my personal time and don’t want to spent it building tr…

> We shouldn’t be making hiring bar so high that it requires a PhD but rather hire on aptitude and hunger for knowledge and feed them. As a self-taught developer with just a few years of experience, I appreciate seeing this sentiment. I have this burning desire to be a great engineer and to learn as much as I can, but I'm not exactly sure what I should be doing or learning. Do you have any advice as to activities, bo…

Learn as much as you’re enthusiastically able!

I’m on year 20 of this amazing ride. I have another 20, possibly 40 in me. I love it!

I was self-taught. The trick is to find something you’re super super interested in and learn as much as you can from books, youtube, Google, blogs, other members of HN.

I was really into games and wanted to make quake-style fps games. I started with art. Went to college for graphic design and hated it so I dropped out. Worked on games while I did crap jobs. Eventually made a few small ones and got really into web development. Got a new job...

I can’t really tell you what books without knowing your interests.

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