dan

dan , 3 hours ago (edited 1 hour ago) to Technology in Google Chrome’s plan to limit ad blocking extensions kicks off next week

Better for MS non-standard things? Or better how?

All browsers had non-standard things back then, to the point where many sites had two versions: An IE version and a Netscape version.

Believe it or not, back then Internet Explorer was the most standards-compliant browser. It was the first browser to implement the DOM and CSS based on relevant W3C specs (Netscape was backing JSSS instead).

Many features we take for granted these days came from IE. Drag and drop, the JS events system, iframes, rich text editing, clipboard access, AJAX (dynamically loading content on the page without a full page reload), visual effects like transparency and gradients, all originally came from Internet Explorer.

The CSS box-model in IE6 (including margin, padding and border in the width of elements) was wrong because the CSS spec hadn't been finalized by the time of its release so Microsoft used a draft, and it changed from publication of the draft to publication of the final version. Many years later, people realised that IE6's model was actually the better model, which is why every browser supports it now via box-sizing: border-box.

dan , 3 hours ago (edited 1 hour ago) to Technology in Google Chrome’s plan to limit ad blocking extensions kicks off next week

Later versions had a built-in BitTorrent client too. It let you not only spoof the user agent, but it let you disable images, disable JS, block content, and a bunch of other settings per site.

It showed a loading progress bar indicating how much of the page content had loaded.

It had an option to only show images that were already cached - useful on very slow connections and better than just turning off all images.

It had mouse gestures for going back/forward, opening new tabs, etc. Oh yeah, it was the first browser to ever implement tabbed browsing.

They had an experiment where you could run decentralized services directly within the browser, called Opera Unite: https://www.howtogeek.com/3468/turn-your-computer-into-a-file-music-and-web-server-with-opera-unite/. They were trying to bring the web back to its original form, where everyone hosted their own content.

All of this was built-in, and yet it was somehow lighter (in terms of RAM usage) than other browsers?

They were truly innovating. We just don't see a lot of software doing that any more. So many companies these days are trying to figure out how to extract more of your personal data and show you more ads.

dan , 19 hours ago to Technology in Google Chrome’s plan to limit ad blocking extensions kicks off next week

Honestly, IE was the best browser around the time IE6 was released (2000/2001). Way better than Netscape. Opera was the other good browser back then. The initial release of Firefox wasn't quite there yet.

dan , 19 hours ago to Technology in Google Chrome’s plan to limit ad blocking extensions kicks off next week

I miss the old Opera, back when it had its own engine. It was a really good browser. I used it from 2002 until 2012.

dan , 1 day ago to Selfhosted in Why You Should Self-Host Everything

I self-host mine using Mailcow, but I use an outbound SMTP relay for sending email so I don't have to deal with IP reputation. L

dan , 1 day ago (edited 1 hour ago) to Selfhosted in Why You Should Self-Host Everything

I solved this by installing solar panels. They produce more electricity than I need (enough to cover charging an EV in when I get one in the future), and I should break even (in terms of cost) within 5-6 years of installation. Had them installed last year under NEM 2.0.

I know PG&E want to introduce a fixed monthly fee at some point, which throws off my break-even calculations a bit.

Some VPS providers have good deals and you can often find systems with 16GB RAM and NVMe drives for around $70-100/year during LowEndTalk Black Friday sales, so it's definitely worth considering if your use cases can be better handled by a VPS. I have both - a home server for things like photos, music, and security camera footage, and VPSes for things that need to be reliable and up 100% of the time (websites, email, etc)

dan , 1 day ago to Selfhosted in Why You Should Self-Host Everything

I think it's so people here can give themselves a pat on the pack for self hosting lol.

Like how the Linux Lemmy community has so many "Windows is bad, Linux is good" posts. Practically everyone in there already knows that Linux is good.

dan , 1 day ago to Technology in Update: IRS successfully launches their own free Direct File - now ALL of my fellow 'murcans are eligible for 2025

Good savings accounts are above 4% these days. Wealthfront is 5%, Synchrony is 4.75%, Marcus (Goldman Sachs) is 4.4%, Amex, Discover, Capital One, Ally, are 4.25%

dan , 1 day ago to Technology in Update: IRS successfully launches their own free Direct File - now ALL of my fellow 'murcans are eligible for 2025

Some people in the USA want a solution that immediately fixes every possible problem, and don't quite get the concept of starting small and fixing other stuff over time.

It's the same with gun control. Some states want to tighten gun laws, and some people are like "that won't solve all the problems! We need nationwide laws!". Sure, but why not accept the win that more and more states are starting to do something, rather than complaining that some problems still exist?

dan , 6 days ago to Comic Strips in Millennial powers

I lived at home too. That's pretty common in Australia.

dan , 6 days ago to Comic Strips in Millennial powers

Which country do you live in?

dan , 7 days ago to Comic Strips in Millennial powers

This is pretty specific to millenials in the USA...

In Australia for citizens, the government subsidises around 75-80% of the cost of university, loans are through the government and are interest-free (just indexed for inflation once per year), and payments are based on income - no payment required at all if you're earning less than AU$51k/year, and payment rates vary between 1% of your income at $51k/year to 10% of income for $151k/year or higher.

dan , 7 days ago to Technology in Samsung Requires Independent Repair Shops to Share Customer Data, Snitch on People Who Use Aftermarket Parts, Leaked Contract Shows

Samsung have gotten better with updates. In 2021, they promised all new models would receive four years of updates (which helped the industry because other brands started matching them), and they bumped it to seven years with this year's S24 series.

Samsung and LG appliances are interesting things. Some are horrible like their fridges (which are some of the worst available today), but some are fantastic like LG's washing machines (which rank #2 in reliability behind Speed Queen).

dan , 7 days ago to Technology in Samsung Requires Independent Repair Shops to Share Customer Data, Snitch on People Who Use Aftermarket Parts, Leaked Contract Shows

They're copying Apple, which has similar clauses. They're all going to copy Apple, unfortunately. Say that they support independent repair stores, but in reality place so many restrictions and requirements on them.

dan , 7 days ago to linuxmemes in Using any DE be like:

and Amarok is back

Was Amarok gone?

I used to use it maybe 16-17 years ago even though I used GNOME rather than KDE. It was the best music player I'd found on Linux.

I'm finally switching back to Linux so I'll have to try it out again! These days I usually use Plexamp though.