TBF in most cases forced app obsolescence is on the developers. Some of them are super aggressive and will force you to update without really needing it. Like, come on, package tracking app, I really don’t believe you’re unable to show me the package pick-up barcode without updating. 🙄

But yeah, on iOS it’s completely impossible to get older versions, once you’ve updated something that’s it. And even on Android I’ve noticed that it’s become impossible to downgrade some apps even if I have the old apk, the Google installer simply fails to install it if I’ve ever had a newer version installed.

In the olden days software used to be sold by individual major versions. You paid for version 9, you paid for version 10. Or you skipped versions you didn’t need. You could use versions side by side. The newest installed would import its data from the older ones. etc.

App stores have made this very awkward or almost impossible. There’s no concept of separating major versions. You’d have to buy and install completely different apps to be able to pay for them separately and to use them side by side, but if they’re separate apps they can’t import your data from each other. Not to mention that people seem to hate having “too many apps” for some reason.

Software subscriptions switch the “support per major version” to “support per time of use”. It’s obviously shittier but it’s more realistic than a one-time price and expecting to use the app in all future versions in perpetuity. The one time price would have to be very large to be realistic.

They had some sort of point-based scheme, nuf said. It was so monumentally stupid I can’t even describe it without getting upset.

You forgot to mention the absolutely idiotic way kmanga works.

Everybody should be using DNS over HTTPS (DoH) or over TLS (DoT) nowadays. Clear DNS is way too easy to subvert and even when it’s not being tampered with most ISP snoop on it to compile statistics about what their customers visit.

DoH and DoT aren’t a full-proof solution though. HTTPS connections still leak domain names when the target server doesn’t use Encrypted Hello (ECH) and you need to be using DoH for ECH to work.

Even if all that is in place, a determined ISP, workplace or state actor can identify DoH/DoT servers and compile block lists, perform deep packet inspection to detect such connections regardless of server, or set up their own honey trap servers.

There’s also the negative side of DoH/DoT, when appliances and IoT devices on your network use it to bypass your control over your LAN.

GSMArena only lists European and Asian band combinations for the 1 VI, and no US model.

Doesn’t mean they won’t come out with an US model though. The 5 VI is not out yet either.

If you’re in the US (or Japan, they also restrict some models there) you can visit the unlock pages (select a model from the list on the page I linked) and see what they say. Maybe they don’t restrict all models, or maybe they don’t restrict older/cheaper models. I’m not in the US so I never get to see the message directly, I’ve only seen in other people’s screenshots.

Also I’m not 100% if they give you the message if they see you have an American IP, or wait until you enter the IMEI to slap you down.

Yes, sorry. The way you bought it makes no difference. The unlock code is generated on the Sony website based on the IMEI of the first SIM slot. They can tell when it’s the IMEI of an US model and will refuse to give out the code.

Just to be clear, I’m talking about bootloader unlock (so you can root it and install custom ROMs) not carrier unlock. Normally Sony offer bootloader unlock codes on their website, but not for US models.

Carrier (network) lock and unlock is done by the carriers, manufacturer doesn’t care.

Normally I wouldn’t worry about it, Samsung just apes everything Google does. It’s part of their tug of war, basically Samsung is saying “if you ever pull a Huawei on me and disable every Google feature I’ll still have a copy of everything”.

Then again the US market is wierd so I don’t know. You can unlock Sony bootloaders everywhere else without a hitch but they cut a deal with US carriers so they won’t give unlock codes to US models. If Sony did deals like that so can Samsung.

Same here. iOS is so severely limited compared to Android it would be unusable to me as an phone.

As a tablet I use it 99% for streaming apps (music and series) that I put on while cooking or doing chores, 1% as a backup device for things like access to my bank app.

Yeah.

Next step, modify your resume to say you did networking at previous positions. Don’t lie, just focus on the network stuff. I’m assuming you did that too.

Get a certification?

Fell off this passing truck that was carrying shows and movies!

FWIW I don’t recall ever finding anything obscure on there so I think it’s mostly mainstream stuff.

They’re nowhere close to something like Anna. They have nice collections but it’s mostly English mainstream stuff.

The IRC bots that run these sharing channels will crap themselves if hit with any kind of automation. Many/most have limited bandwidth and use a queueing system that only serves one or two downloads at a time and a small queue (it varies, some may have a 10 slot queue, some may have 50 or 100).

That’s a pretty big jump that the article makes… Here’s what the decision is about:

The Court, sitting as the Full Court, holds that the general and indiscriminate retention of IP addresses does not necessarily constitute a serious interference with fundamental rights

They also said that, which is true:

EU law does not preclude national legislation authorising the competent public authority, for the sole purpose of identifying the person suspected of having committed a criminal offence, to access the civil identity data associated with an IP address

I should point out that copyright infringement is not a criminal offense, it’s a civil matter.

None of this adds up to what the article claims.

Use “wine-ge” not “proton-ge” in this case. Anything with “proton” in its name is specifically made to work best with games on Steam. “Wine-ge” has all the patches from “proton-ge” so you’re not missing out on anything, but it can work better with non Steam games.

Wouldn’t you want to turn it off if it doesn’t work reliably? I struggle to see the point of keeping around a health check that behaves erratically.