Matisyahu's Blog

Well, it’s the start of a new year and things are looking good so far – the focus this year isn’t about trying to make big changes but instead making incremental improvements because it is easy to get overwhelmed then eventually throw ones hands up in the air because it feels like one is fighting a losing battle. I have created a list but ordered them from most important to least important then gradually working my way through that. For example, at the most important is getting my scooter back on the road which means getting two new tyres, oil change plus any other serving required along with updating my registration (at the moment it is on hold, I wasn’t going to renew it if I wasn’t able to use it). Once that is sorted out I’ll then move onto my next goals – sorting out my wardrobe and finding out where I stand on a variety of different clothing I have then draw up a plan from there.

It’s been a couple of months since I made the switch to Firefox (for both my Macs as well as my smartphone) and the experience has been great – the experience with uBlock Origin is top notch as well which is why I think that 2024 will be the year that Firefox gains market share. I don’t see if grabbing a massive market share but I could imagine over the next few years that power users and those technically inclined will make that move especially as it becomes clear that Google won’t be kicking the can further down the road, that the dates for deprecating and removing MV2 support as set in stone. The limitations of MV3 have been well documented by uBlock Origin developers (link) and there have been some movement with adding some of the missing functionality (link) but it is pretty problematic that those who are driving the MV3 development, who ultimately have the final say, have very little or no experience in writing content blocking extensions based on the sort of dismissive attitude to adding missing functionality to declarative net request or suggesting things such as limits that are so low that it is clear they’ve never used a content blocker in their life.

It’s difficult for Google to be taken seriously as it holds the line that MV3 is being pushed for privacy and security reasons when you deliberately cripple and functionality and fight tooth and nail to push back against those proposing improvements in the declarative net request api to close the functionality gap between MV2 and MV3. Maybe, just maybe, the onus should fall on the end user to do their homework before installing an extension from an unknown developer because sure, you could make browsers 100% safe by crippling the extension api so it features are limited or just remove it entirely then keep people completely safe but at what cost? it’s like the argument for the app store, sure, it keeps people safer but at what cost and at what point does the user take on the responsibility of being responsible for the decisions they make regarding how they use their device?

I was watching the following video from PBS:

What frustrated me is that they never define what is a liberal, what is a conservative, what is Republican, what is a Democrat then when it is bought up at the round table the definitions were purely on the basis of social issues with economics never touched on, no health, education, social welfare etc. There was an opportunity to have a fruitful discussion by getting down into the weeds but it was never touched on other than at the most superficial level. As long as there are superficial discussions such as what took place then it shouldn’t be surprising that these sorts of divisions keep widening while charlatans take advantage of these divisions to grift and graft their way off the back of uniformed voters whose voting patter is that of a pavlovian response to stimulus rather than an action that is consciously undertake after careful review of the evidence provided. Maybe sometime in the future I’ll write a more exhaustive post regarding the problems I see in the US political system and possible solutions.