Quote from: ergophobe on February 03, 2021, 12:10:45 AM
>>Now you have to pay for HTTPS
https://letsencrypt.org/


>>why have a website?
https://seths.blog/2021/02/chasing-the-cool-kids/

I think for a small business Seth is wrong. For a publisher fine, but then that's what blogs are for.
For a small local business, Facebook works as most customers are already on it. I think in the UK the pandemic has actually accelerated it, as communities come to support local shops/pubs/cafes and restaurants. That's the case round me anyway.

Lets Encrypt is a techies version. For a business owner it's ANOTHER £70 or more for a brochure that does not really bring in business.   Might as well have a google listing.

Infact how about this one. My local barber now has an image of a piece of paper with the names of the barbers on it:
https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x487a18bc18a14b01%3A0x2d2b495bd332d4e9!3m1!7e115!4shttps%3A%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNBhhf4rVT9AJCb6R0R2i2KRUXiFpOD7ztwH7X4%3Dw173-h175-n-k-no!5sashbourne%20barber%20shop%20-%20Google%20Search!15sCgIgAQ&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipNBhhf4rVT9AJCb6R0R2i2KRUXiFpOD7ztwH7X4&hl=en

They don't even bother with a facebook page.

Why bother with a website for them.

Quote from: Rupert on February 03, 2021, 09:15:01 AM
I think for a small business Seth is wrong.

I think it's like the question of whether or not you own the property at which you do business. There are advantages both ways. But in general, if you are going to build assets, I think it's better to own those assets. Building a massive set of assets on Instagram and effectively losing ownership is troubling.

Quote
Lets Encrypt is a techies version. For a business owner it's ANOTHER £70

How so? LE is baked in to CPanel, Plesk and Webmin. Anyone who can figure out how to upload a file to their website can have free SSL/TLS. If you can't upload a file to your website, then you either have to hire someone who can, who is guilty of malpractice if they build you a site without SSL/TLS, or you are on a hosted solution like Shopify or Weebly, which are all https by default.

The only circumstances I have seen where SSL/TLS is another £70 is if someone is locked into a hosting service that has specifically disabled LE in CPanel so they they can make more money by upselling their customers on overpriced certs. Now, if you're a bank or a credit card processor, you will need the full cert with physical location checking for hundreds or thousands of dollars. But that $30 or $70 certificate basically has no reason to exist now. I have no clue how LE works or how to set it up, but I use it everywhere.

QuoteSSL/TLS is another £70 is if someone is locked into a hosting service that has specifically disabled LE in CPanel

Thats me...

Facebook Is Gaslighting Users Into Allowing Ad Tracking on iOS 14

https://medium.com/big-tech/facebook-is-gaslighting-users-into-allowing-ad-tracking-on-ios-14-7df7dd3f7359

It might become a 3-way.

Google is weighing an anti-tracking feature for Android, following Apple's lead - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/4/22266823/google-anti-tracking-feature-android-privacy-apple-ios-app-tracking-transparency

This was just resurrected on /r. Worth a watch

The AntiSocial Horror
https://old.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/lgvu3a/the_antisocial_horror/

And yet... even for the anti-social, there is leakage. It's not uncommon for people to mention something about me and when I ask how they know, they say, "Facebook."

When I go hiking with people, if it's a less-frequented spot, I have a "no social media" rule - if they take a photo and post it and I find out, they are banned from hiking with me.

Quote from: ergophobe on February 01, 2021, 02:38:34 AM
I mentioned it earlier. I said I've always been anti-Apple, seeing it as a walled garden of overpriced proprietary hardware that props its prices up through cult-like adoration

Or, it could be because their hardware and software works really, really well.  I changed over to a Mac in 1997 because I was sick of fighting windows to make it work. 

I keep my macs for a long time because they work really well for a really long time.  (I just upgraded from a 2012.) When I upgrade to a new OS, I don't have to blow away everything to make it work.  When I move to a new machine, I click a few clicks and it automatically moves everything over.

It will take a lot for me to go to another system.  It may be overpriced, but it's worth not having the headaches of windows.

>> overpriced

It's good value for those of us who prefer to spend our time on other things than monkeying with hardware.

Honestly, I haven't spent significant time monkeying with Windows since Windows 95. I've found Windows XP, 7, 8 and 10 to be quite stable and reliable. Vista was a bit of a botched release that did require some monkeying for many.

I don't even spend that much time monkeying with a Linux server now, and virtually none of that is on the OS-level. The tools are quite good.

I just can't find the software I need other than Win.  Otherwise a chromebook would work for me.

"QuickBooks for Mac 2016 is being discontinued and the Mac users will be supported only till May 31, 2019. Intuit conveyed that this is the last version of the product available."

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/02/13/zuckerberg-facebook-inflict-pain-on-apple-privacy/

"Zuckerberg, outraged by Cook's comments and public influence on Facebook's reputation, reportedly told internal aides and team members that Facebook needs to "inflict pain" on Apple, according to sources who spoke on anonymity to The Wall Street Journal."

I'm pretty sure that pain will end up going in both directions if war breaks out.

 iOS 14.5's "App Tracking Transparency," rolled out Monday as part of an update to the operating system powering the iPhone and iPad.

Apple's iPhone privacy clampdown arrives after 7-month delay

https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-eea494f3a1158100de0d4bbd93f5c31f

Yep, they actually went through with it. Impressed. Our next phone will be an iphone.