Matisyahu's Blog

Well, I’ve given Safari a try for a couple of weeks with one week using Safari 17 (using AdGuard with all but the filters that are labelled problematic enabled) and so far it has been good but I run into compatibility issues with some sites not to mention the limitations of Apple’s Webextensions API implementation mean that AdGuard doesn’t do as good of a job than if I ran AdGuard on Chrome or Firefox (or using uBlock Origin which is my preferred content blocker). Although the issue with Google Chat has been fixed the problem with the YouTube shorts malfunctioning still remains which has become a real nuisance along with a few other websites having quirks when using them. I’ve been following over on Interop 2023 (link) and there is still a lot more to do be done – keeping in mind that the Interop (they’re currently working on an Interop for Webextensions API) is a work in progress but hopefully harminisation combined with developers getting their house in order will result in people choosing a given browser based on security, speed, efficiency rather than it being an issue of compatibility.

Regarding interest rates going up to hoovered up excess liquidity to deal with inflation, I wonder whether a better solution is to split the interest rates into the interest rate and the repayment rate where normally the two would be the same but in the time of higher inflation the repayment rate goes up but the interest rate stays the same. For example, lets say a person has a mortgage and they’re paying $400 per week with interest rate of 5% but the central bank need to reduce inflation so they increase the repayment amount based on the interest rate increasing to 6% while keeping the interest rate at 5% which pushes the payment per week from $400 to $500 per week (for example). The consequence of such a split would result in excess liquidity being hoovered up by the central bank while ensuring that the mortgage is being paid off at a higher rate but interest being charged at same rate. The net result, excess liquidity is hoovered up and mortgages are paid down quicker while not attracting higher interest charges.