Google

Oh, man. Recently got my hands on an old Asus CN65. Back in the olden days at Google we were always tinkering with these devices (and they were a breeze to support). Great "parent devices" as they are really hard to destroy (aka download dodgy shit and fill them with viruses).

This post is mostly for myself, as a reminder, for the next time I need to do this.

Seems like this Chromebox was actually a GVC unit. Google has this thing where devices auto-install the Google Meet app and autoload it at boot. Officially, it's called CfM (Chrome (or ChromeOS?) For Meet). It requires a separate licence in your Google Admin to get this to work.

Here is how platforms die: First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.

[...]

This is enshittification: Surpluses are first directed to users; then, once they’re locked in, surpluses go to suppliers; then once they’re locked in, the surplus is handed to shareholders and the platform becomes a useless pile of shit. From mobile app stores to Steam, from Facebook to Twitter, this is the enshittification lifecycle.

Google recently updated their Google TV, to include "in your face" supposedly recommendations.

I don't mind recommendations if...:

a/ they are useful (i.e. I don't see how kid shows are something I'd be interested in; and Google has no idea Ila exists, and she's at least 2-3 years too young to watch those shows anyway).

b/ the recommendations would be for apps and subscriptions I actually have. Don't recommend me something on Amazon Prime if I don't have Amazon Prime installed, nor an active subscription. Idem dito for Disney+.

[...]

Carrying an extra passport

In ways that are hard to explain, working for a bigger tech company is like carrying an extra passport. Everyone else has to commute to work. You get driven in an air-conditioned private bus with dedicated wifi. Work visa failed to renew? No worries, do an intra-company transfer to one of several global hubs.

It's not that the rules don't apply to you, it's that you have a safeguard for when the shit hits the fan.

"Google developing own CPUs for Chromebook laptops".

Interesting to see that many years after Apple started creating their CPUs for the iPhone (and now laptops/desktops), so many companies are following. Google is not new to building their chips (TPU, Titan (used in security keys and as encryption module for servers/Pixel phones), and likely more), but quite new to more generalised computing CPU for phones and laptops.

And it makes sense -- a lot of the generic CPUs were too generalist and not that great at their job (and are plagued with bugs). It came with heavy power usage. Having a ML/AI chip, a GPU chip, a generalist CPU chip (or two, one focussing on high performance, and one on efficiency, like the M1), one for security/encryption (Titan/T2), etc.

Realised I haven't updated this in a long while (life happened).

Couple of weeks ago I started to play with NextDNS -- and I really recommend anyone that's something privacy minded and cares about the stuff happening on their network.

I've set up several configs (home, parents, FlatTurtle TurtleBox (the NUCs controlling the screens)) and Servers. Once it's out of beta and better supported on Unifi and Ubiquiti hardware I might deploy it to our public WiFi (well, most access points don't look like that -- but you get the point) networks too.

Monit suddenly sending 18.000 e-mail? Gmail blocking your mx IP & getting all other incoming emails to your Gmail account (as it's getting forwarded to Gmail) delayed?

Have no fear...

mailq | grep monit@hawk-62e9e0.botnet.corp.flatturtle.com | cut -d' ' -f1 | xargs -rn1 postsuper -d

Edit the e-mail address.

Note: mainly a reminder for myself. ;)

I had a Nexus 5 stuck in a boot loop (Android logo/animation in a loop, not actually booting).

This is what I think I've done to fix the issue. It seemed that /persist partition was corrupt. I tried a factory reset, flash new stock images, and clear cache, etc before trying the following.

Note that I managed to boot Android 4.4, but nothing else; it did throw a shit load of errors though (Google Play crashes, etc).