Story time:

I was once working on a project that dealt with incredibly sensitive financial data.

We needed a client’s database to do a migration.

They wouldn’t send it over the internet because it was too big and they didn’t think it would be secure.

They opt to send it in the post on an encrypted usb drive.

(Fair enough thinks I)

USB drive arrives.
Is indeed encrypted.

MFW there’s a post it note in the envelope with the password on.

MFW this is a billion dollar multinational petrochem company.

MFW this same company’s ‘sysadmin’ and ‘dba’ once complained because a SQL script I sent them didn’t work - they’d pasted it twice and couldn’t work this out from the fucking “table already created” error message management studio was throwing at them.

Signed up for an Android course at my uni and expected to have some fun with Android Studio and modern app development technologies...
Turns out that we're working with Blockly (no coding). We will write our exam with Blockly. The course is mandatory and I cannot opt out.
I've been a dev since 7 years and I am dead inside already.

Manager: Hey what was that that you closed on your screen just now?

Dev: That popup? That’s NVIDIA letting me know that a new driver for my GPU is available.

Manager: Isn’t that for video games?

Dev: I mean that’s the reason many people opt into having a GPU but It’s not the on—

Manager: You are NOT allowed to play video games on your work computer!

Dev: This is my personal computer. It’s just an older GPU I popped onto this computer since otherwise it was just sitting in a drawer. My work computer is out of commission.

Manager: Well where is your work computer? How come you are not using it?

Dev: …Because of that blue screen of death issue we talked about yesterday.

Manager: Ok but that doesn’t give you permission to play VIDEO GAMES on your *WORK* computer.

Dev: …

I just got a text from T-Mobile telling me about their updated privacy policy and that I can “opt out.” So, naturally I do exactly this.

After a little bit, I land on their “Do not sell my data” page and discover that, not only does it have 175+ trackers,
it doesn’t even fucking work. Also, on the desktop version of the site, the very control allowing the user to opt out of having their data shared/sold doesn’t even render.

These are all absolutely inexcusable.

So WhatsApp introduced number linking (with facebook) to its users a while ago.

I know a lot of people who opted out (this option was introduced by facebook because of european laws) because they didn't want their number linked. They said that it infringed their privacy (or however the fuck you spell that).

A few months later we found out that that checkbox thingy didn't do anything and facebook would link everything anyways. They got a 10 million euro fine I thought.

I found one thingy very disturbing though. Told some friends about the ability to opt out (when the scandal hadn't happened yet) and they did right away.

Then later on the scandal became public.

Told them about that.

'Oh but I don't have anything to hide, it's alright!'.

Jesus fucking christ how deep can people sink?! First you say that you opt out because you don't want your fucking data linked and when the fucking scandal gets public you act like everything is fine because 'you have nothing to hide anyways'.

Fucking hell.

Is fucking Tumblr expecting me to untick fucking all of these?! (And this is only 1/10th of the page)

I am trying to understand something for a while. devRant is full of privacy advocates and to be honest, part of it is almost taken by a group of people that call other people random swear words people because they are using a particular product of a company.

I will raise some points and will try to discuss them with other people in comments.

I will stick with Google. Since it looks like it's the most hated one. A company that has built one of the most intelligent infrastructure, the most popular mobile operating system and of course, the best search engine currently available.

The problem everyone sees is the privacy. Google tracks the search history to give users a better experience and show relevant ads. You might not need this "better experience". In case you don't know, you can turn off personalized search any time to make sure Google doesn't track. Same goes with Google Chrome, you can turn off all the data it is sending to servers in settings. You can simply not sign in if you don't anything to be synchronised.

An argument is Google should be opt-in rather than opt-out. But the general users are not tech-savvy. And yes, going to settings and turning on personalised search is a lot of work for a huge amount of people. Trust me, I worked in IT before. If they find other search engine giving them a good experience without changing anything in the settings, they will just simply move to that engine.

What interests me most if how people back DuckDuckGo. First of all, not all parts of DDG is not open source (it's fucking not, you can argue all day). Parts of it is closed because of licensing issues.

That is perfectly fine to privacy community. But it's not when Chrome is closed source for almost the same reason. I mean when you're using DDG, you are supporting a US-based company that has privacy all over its face and using closed source application on their server. Have you not learned anything from history?

You might be wondering about my obsession with Google. It hurts me when I see a giant company whose popular software is open source is bashed like this. Google has made huge contributions to open source communities. Chromium, Android, Kubernetes, Angular, GoLang, TensorFlow etc.

And PRISM, how do you know that DDG is not part of it? it's US-based after all.

I just saw an article that used a video with a title "TNW - Aral Balkan - Free Is A Lie | The Next Web" while asking us to switch to DDG. Ummm....DDG is also free right?

Maybe we should raise concerns with the US gov first rather than Google.

Where is the opt out button...
Or I disagree....

People ask me why I don't use Windows 10 anymore.

This.*

*(Yes I can opt out of all that but how many average users do a fresh install of Windows?)

Sorry for being late, stuffs came inbetween!

I have done a few privacy rants/posts before but why not another one. @tahnik did one a few days ago so I thought I'd do a new one myself based on his rant.

So, online privacy. Some people say it's entirely dead, that's bullshit. It's up to an individual, though, how far they want to go as for protecting it.

I personally want to retain as much control over my data as possible (this seems to be a weird thing these days for unknown reasons...). That's why I spend quite some time/effort to take precautions, read myself into how to protect my data more and so on.

'Everyone should have the choice of what services they use' - fully agreed, no doubt about that.

I just find one thing problematic. Some services/companies handle data in a way or have certain business models which takes the control which some people want/have over their data away when you communicate with someone using that service.

Some people (like me) don't want anything to do with google but even when I want to email my best fucking friend, I lose the control over that email data since he uses gmail.

So, when someone chooses to use gmail and I *HAVE* to email them, my choice is gone.

TO BE VERY CLEAR: I'm not blaming that on the users, I'm blaming that on the company/service.

Then for example, google analytics. It's a very good/powerful when you're solely looking at its functions.
I just don't want to be part of their data collection as I don't want to get any data into the google engine.

There's a solution for that: installing an addon in order to opt out.

I'm sorry, WHAT?! --> I <-- have to install an addon in order to opt out of something that is happening on my own motherfucking computer?! What the actual fuck, I don't call that a fucking solution. I'll use Privacy Badger + hosts files to block that instead.

Google vs 'privacy' friendly search engines - I don't trust DDG completely because their backend is closed/not available to the public but I'd rather use them then a search engine which is known to be integrated into PRISM/other surveillance engines by default.

I don't mind the existence of certain services, as long as they don't integrated you with data hungry companies/mass surveillance without you even using their services.

Now lets see how fast the comment section explodes!

If you want to learn about bad UX design, look at every GDPR-compliant cookie alert on websites. The dialogues generally follow this pattern:
* Highlighting "Accept all" instead of "Reject" to bait you into habit-clicking.
* After clicking "Reject", you'll be redirected to an infinite list of usages. There is never a "deselect all" option. You need to opt-out everything manually.
* Sliders use some ambiguous coloring scheme without labels, which means you never know if you turned it on or off.
* Instead of "Reject", there is an "Other options" button. Clicking it redirects to a EULA document, with at the end... no other options.

Everything looks compliant, but they are still boobietrapping everything so you just wouldn't be able to opt out. Fucking data-vendoring assholes.

Come on dfox! Where's our setting that lets up auto-opt out of these! D;

I just had to go through one after another so I would stop getting them.

Best part about the covid19 manufactured crisis?
Liquor stores deliver. Worst part about liquor stores delivering? Needing to use their shoddy websites.

I've been using a particular store (Total Wines) since they're cheaper than the rest and have better selection; it's quite literally a large warehouse made to look like a store.

Their website tries really hard to look professional, too, but it's just not. It took me two days to order, and not just from lack of time -- though from working 14 hour days, that's a factor.

Signing up was difficult. Your username is an email address, but you can't use comments because the server 500s, making the ajax call produce a wonderfully ambiguous error message. It also fades the page out like it's waiting on something, but that fade is on top of the error modal too. Similar error with the password field, though I don't remember how I triggered it.

Signing up also requires agreeing to subscribe to their newsletter. it's technically an opt-in, but not opting-in doesn't allow you to proceed. Same with opting-in to receiving a text notification when your order is ready for pickup -- you also opt-in to reciving SMS spam.

Another issue: After signing up, you start to navigate through the paginated product list. Every page change scrolls you to the exact middle of the next page. Not deliberatly; the UI loads first, and the browser gets as close as it can to your previous position -- which was below that as the pagination is at the bottom -- and then the products populate after. But regardless of why, there is no worse place to start because now you must scroll in both directions to view the products. If it stayed at the very bottom, it would at least mean you only need to scroll upwards to look at everything on the page. Minor, but increasingly irritating.

Also, they have like 198 pages of spirits alone because each size is unique entry. A 50ml, 350ml, 500ml, 750ml, 1000ml, and 1750ml bottle of e.g. Tito's vodka isn't one product, it's six. and they're sorted seemingly randomly. I think it's by available stock, looking back.

If you fancy a product, you can click on it for a detail page. Said detail page lists the various sizes in a dropdown, but they're not sorted correctly either, and changing sizes triggers a page reload, which leads to another problem:

if you navigate to more than a few pages within a 10 or so second window, the site accuses you of using browser automation. No captcha here, just a "click me for five seconds" button. However, it (usually) also triggers the check on every other tab you have open after its next nagivation.

That product page also randomly doesn't work. I haven't narrowed it down, but it will randomly decide to start failing, and won't stop failing for hours. It renders the page just fine, then immediately replaces it with a blank page. When it's failing, the only way to interact with the page is a perfectly-timed [esc], which can (and usually does) break all other page functionality, too. Absolutely great when you need to re-add everything from a stale copy of your signed-out cart living in another tab. More on that later. And don't forget to slow down to bypass the "browser automation" check, too!

Oh, and if you're using container tabs, make sure to open new tabs in the SAME container, as any request from the same IP without the login cookie will usually trigger that "browser automation" response, too.

The site also randomly signs you out, but allows you to continue amassing your cart. You'd think this is a good thing until you choose to sign in again... which empties your cart. It's like they don't want to make a sale at all.

The site also randomly forgets your name, replacing it with "null." My screen currently says "Hello, null". Hello, cruft!

It took me two days to order.
Mostly from lack of time, as i've been pulling 14 hour shifts lately trying to get everything done. but the sheer number of bugs certainly wasted most of what little time i had left. Now I definitely need a drink.

But maybe putting up with all of this is worthwhile because of their loyalty program? Apparently if you spend $500, you can take $5 off your next purchase! Yay! 1%! And your points expire! There are three levels; maybe it gets better. Level zero is for everyone; $0 requirement. There are also levels at $500 and $2500. That last one is seriously 5x more than the first paid level. and what does it earn you? A 'free' magazine subscription, 'free' classes (they're usually like $20-$50 iirc), and a 'free' grab bag (a $2.99 value!) twice per month. All for spending $2500. What a steal. It reminds me of Candy Crush's 3-star system where the first two stars are trivial, and the third is usually a difficult stretch goal. But here it's just thinly-veiled manipulation with no benefit.

I can tell they're employing some "smarketing" people with big ideas (read: stolen mistakes), but it's just such a fail.

The whole thing is a fail.

So, I need to... enable cookies to... disable cookies? Did I get that right?

(wired[.]com btw. My steadily rising adblocker-counter should have made me leave that pile of shit way sooner than I did anyway)

Make your cookies banner have equal "Accept All" and "Reject All" buttons, and I'll probably Accept All.

Bury rejection under a fucking "Manage Cookies" button and I will go out of my way to disable/opt out of every fucking one of them.

Also why the fuck would rejecting all take "a few minutes" but accepting be instantaneous?

Fucking hell.

"Condor, your new Samsung Galaxy S8+ doesn't have the latest Google apps"

You know what Google? I don't give a shit about your latest apps. Often times I go out of my way to root the device and remove your mandatory bloatware, that YOU fucking Google enforce OEM's to preinstall. Fortunately BlueStacks doesn't have them preinstalled, which saves me the pain of uninstalling them. Given that, you've got quite the balls to spam me with this shit Google.

By the way, another thing.. this preinstall shit is linked to the EU antitrust rulings, isn't it? And spam is linked to GDPR, and honestly I don't recall ever opting in to this kind of wanketeering mail. In fact, I usually go out of my way to opt out of this kind of corporate wankery. Time for another huge fine perhaps?

Wow, I just realized the marketing teams of most of the companies I have been dealing with are some cold sociopaths.

Every other letter that pops in the mailbox is filled with dark patterns trying to guilt me into opting in to their continued spam:

Subject: Most awesome husky puppy!

Look at this beautiful husky puppy. Isn't it beautiful.... It would be sad if something happened to it... But I am afraid... Something will happen to it...

If you don't opt in to our email message... I am afraid we have no choice... We have to kill this puppy. End it's life... We have no choice. I wish we did! Nothing would please us more than keeping this beautiful-beautiful puppy living and playing....

But if you don't opt in... We have to cut it's throat. Leave it lying on the ground, bleeding out as the life slowly fades away from it's pretty blue eyes...

And Remember: it's not us who killed it... IT WAS YOU! YOUR ACTIONS LEAD TO THE DEATH OF THIS PUPPY! YOU.... YOU FILTHY MURDERER!

Pls opt-in ok, then we are all good. Puppy lives! Just opt in. Ok? Yeah, you know what you have to do.

I *hate* when the boss asks me to add people to our mailing list who didn't opt in. I just sent out a campaign and, predictably, a ton of people flagged it as spam or unsubscribed. Only three sales out of over 10,000 sends. But in his mind, that's ok. Ugh.

Fucking websites that has forms with an option to opt-out (instead of opt-in) for newsletters.

Translation of the image:
"I do not want receive the monthly newsletter with discounts and informarion about the newest smartphones"

Twice a year, my work throws a party to celebrate our successes. Think of this as a post-Christmas and post-tax season party. Usually it’s a simple affair – they hire out a room in a bar, we have a theme to dress up to (last year for tax it was green, the colour of money), and it’s a social gathering. No pressure to participate, theme was broad enough that everyone could participate, and everyone came along for as long as they wanted.

This year, they’ve decided to make our post-tax party at a karaoke bar. I am usually a fan of karaoke…with my friends, after a drink or five, on my own terms. But singing in front of work colleagues?

To make things worse, they’ve created a committee to hyper-organise the games and teams. I know the usual AAM stance on organised/forced fun, and I attempted to get on the committee in an effort to steer them towards voluntary participation, but I was told the committee was full.

The party is next week and I’m already feeling panicky. We have been allocated into teams. We’ve been assured that these weren’t random, but were purposefully chosen to ensure a mix of outgoing and introverted people. Lovely. On top of being forced to participate, I have to sing with team members I normally wouldn’t spend time with. I’d be happy to do karaoke in front of my colleagues if it was a relaxed, opt-in thing where anyone who wanted to just jumped up there, but the forced, organised activity with judging and prizing is just making me dread it.

And there will be awards, which means there will be judging. I’ve alreasdy spoken up once after hearing a committee member excitedly tell a friend “there will even be an award for worst singer!” I straight up told her that there was no way they could have that as an award after forcing people to participate. I told I was being a party pooper and that it was all in good fun.

The official teams and rules were sent out yesterday and I noticed the award is actually for “best strangling of cat sound-a-like.” Which is infinitely worse.

How do I get through this party without ruffling any feathers, but also not putting myself and my singing abilities up for scrutiny in front of everyone I work with? Short of throwing a tantrum or sitting at the party in a corner and sulking, I’m not sure how to handle this diplomatically. The only people who aren’t going are those who have leave planned. They’ve even scheduled it so that it is running from 3 pm-6.30 pm (so, as my boss explained, those with childcare can still come for a few hours and not have to get a babysitter).

Holy fuck Microsoft,

you're just saying that you're giving away a ton of information to publishers when I am playing games on my Xbox.
Like data if I'm talking, chatting on Xbox Live, etc. so all this crazy stuff GA would do.

AND YOUR FUCKING OPT-OUT OPTION IS TO UNINSTALL ALL MY GAMES AND DON'T USE THEM. HOLY FUCK WHICH CRAZY DUDE CAME TO THIS IDEA?

Making an ssh connection:

No....

No this one.

Not that one.

Not that one, either.

*starts typing*

*Typo 1*

*Typo 2*

Yay. Connected to server.

... Okay. Wrong environment.

*Exiting*

*trying again*

*Typo 1*

*Typo 2*

*finally connected*

Okay. I'm here...

Why did I connect to this machine again?!

------

Migrations are fun. Your bash history is an obsessive lier, your brain completely fried and when you finally managed to achieve something... You either forget what it was - or even worse - you get reminded of all the stuff you still have to do.

I'm literally amazed that I currently manage to go to the toilet, don't forget to make coffee and eat stuff at least once a day.

Before anyone thinks... Haha joke.

Nope I'm dead serious.

I am amazed that I didn't forget to go to the toilet, aka sitting in my own piss and wonder why it's so warm and wet down there.

I'm glad that the migration is going to end soon, otherwise I might opt in out of paranoia for adult diapers.

*My brain is really fried*

Those GDPR nag screens actually are more damaging than useful. Nobody has the energy to jump through the hoops all different sites set up for you to opt-out of tracking. Yet you will constantly see those pages if you have opted out.

If you use some privacy extensions that block tracking cookies and stuff, you will keep getting those nag screens, because they have no idea whether you have seen it or not (because of no tracking)

So browsing the web has become the constant of:

1) Search something
2) Deal with nagscreens
3) See the page
4) Go to other page
5) Repeat from step two

I wonder what this will lead to? People are less likely to visit random pages and stick to ones they have account on? Will darknet become more popular? Will somebody design some standard way to get rid of this nagscreen wave?

I have a sandbox account for a product we are developing and I'm receiving promotional emails.

I could just opt out, but I think it's adorable how they try to surprise me with the new features I created

So I am doing a homework with the language my teacher made. He said we could opt for either Java or Lisaac, but he said the latter would be pretty hardcore. But I feel hardcore is just an understatement, and outside of an absence of documentation on the object methods which makes you look all the way through the library files when you look for one method/object, then another, then another and all, here's a single fact that will express my feelings:
In his language, there are three main types of errors:
* Execution errors: the program crashes when something that shouldn't be possible is attempted (looking for an item in an array that's out of its range) ; ok, I can take those
* Compilation errors: syntax errors, semantic errors, type incompatibility... the classic, ok, I can take those, I'm used to it
* Compiler errors: when the compiler compiles in C, but fails to do so! "Mister, am I allowed to ragequit?"

Why on earth do sign up forms give you the option to opt OUT of email newsletters if they're going to send the bloody emails anyway?

I am so fucking lost.

I literally have zero expectations from life for now and future.

There was a time when I had so much clarity in my life. Rather, I was known for it.
Folks used to reach me out for guidance and my approaches even worked for others.

I was goal oriented and biased towards action. Failing and learning from it, I used to make things happen and with constant feedback kept progressing.

While none of that has changed, I still feel lost and numb. No, I am not depressed or suffering through any mental illness. I am physical active and able to feel the happiness.

But the recent incident with a narcissistic, left me emotionally handicap. I can no longer feel any kind of love or affection. I overcame the damage done and healed myself.

But now, I am done. Even if I engage with anyone for a relationship it would be mostly for sex. I can care for people around me and be affectionate towards them but when it comes to an intimate relationship, I feel it's not something I can do in this lifetime. I tried multiple times but failed.

These days, all I am doing is putting my heads down and working like crazy. Never in my life I worked more than 10 hours in an entire week. Now, I work 10+ hours everyday. During that time, I am highly productive.

And in my free time, I am busy housekeeping different life problems. Either paying bills, figuring out an insurance, planning some investment, or making some kind of life decision.

It's draining me. I feel as if I am losing sanity. But that's the only thing I am able to do.

Maybe it's the lockdown effect. Maybe some damage is yet to be healed.

But I got nothing better to do. I have some good ideas. Not those hipster-ish disruptive Million dollar ideas, but decent enough to solve a problem for a strong use case.

However, all of this is becoming overwhelming these days. Because decision making is complex and difficult task. It can make or break the future.

As of now I am confused how should I go about pursuing two of the important projects that I want to accomplish.

1. Migrating out of Google ecosystem. Is it even practically possible for my use case? What are the alternatives? Planning to opt in for a paid cloud storage so have to factor in that aspect as well.

I want to keep this new setup only for official use like bank and government stuff. Maybe family and close friends. Then have current ids for public logins and sharing it with retards whom I can block or ignore if they harass me. The research is overwhelming but having a structured setup gives insane amount of efficiency when life is spam free.

2. Migrating my Pihole and OpenVPN setup out of Digital Ocean to GCP. Primarily because $5 is a lot of amount for my computational requirements and Google has used my data enough, for me to use the free tier.
However, there isn't a simple script for a tech noob like me, to go ahead and setup something. I did find a Github repository but the documentation is kind of outdated so RTFM failed for me.

I don't know whether to pursue my start-up or let it go and focus on moving to Europe.

It's just so fucking stupid to even exist. And let's not forget taxes. Bloody taxes.

Deepin's new appearance is Godawfully ugly.
Plus it has issues now reading password. Plus I can't fucking opt out of their "user experience program" for any fucking reason.
Great! Just fucking great!

Where do I migrate to from here? 😡😠😡

Any good tutorials for learning linux internals out there? I'm baffled by what are /etc, /opt, and so forth...

Seriously swimming in murky waters for now.

Also, what are your launchers of choice? I am contemplating should I dig into unity / dash, or try smth else?

@linuxxx

gdpr: ok, so you need to opt out users cookies by default
greedy pigs: opt in, gotcha

Why pay $7/mo PER PROJECT for heroku that runs on aws when you can just pay $5/mo for Linode that has opt-out data sharing and you can install Caprover or Dokku there to have the experience similar to heroku and create as many projects as your hardware allows you, $5 for all?

So CyberCoders automatically added me to a mailing list and kept emailing me spam about resumes of developers. Not being in a recruitment position, I decided to "opt out".

I had to fucking prove I'm human... to opt out of an email some machine added me to.

Allow me to add a poorly done image to express my feelings on this matter.

Science says it can't be done! You can't have an iPhone AND preserve your privacy!

Yet here I am, doing just that. Just analyze apps you use and just quit using fucking leeches like instagram and whatever facebook puts out. Also, do this:
1. Disable iMessage, iCloud and FaceTime
2. Opt out of sending analytics to apple
3. Use VPN with DNS that blocks trackers
4. Disable background app refresh and location access

Most importantly, quit using whatever uses personalization to spoon-feed you content that exploits your confirmation bias. Quit watching youtube. Switch to DuckDuckGo or whatever search engine without personalization.

If you don't like apple and don't care about cameras, just buy a Pixel smartphone and install Calyx OS. Fairfone with /e/os is also a good alternative.

This is how you do it, holy shit. I should not have to opt out of shit like this but rather opt in. Fucking thank you cordova

Please do not flame me for makimg yet another Firefox rant. Besides, this is not about Quantum in particular and is definitely a self rant.
It was some time last month; i saw somebody here say something about Firefox Developer Edition, and I decided I wanted to be a big boy and try out big boy tools. I downloaded the tarball, unzipped it, and put the folder in my /opt/ directory. But it didn't work.

NO. My brain didn't work.

I forgot that Firefox comes default on Ubuntu, and I also seemed to inconveniently forgot that taskbar icons are not magic mind readers. I opened firefox and lo! Not a fuck changed; i was confused, but too busy to care enough to figure out the issue; I chalked it up to I wasn't meant to have nice things and went on with my life.
Fast forward to today, I got it up. And let me tell you, I am pissed with myself. I haven't opened a single webpage yet and I can already tell from the customization possible and the built-in tools alone that I'll be enjoying working in this browser very much.

You may not like GDPR but it will change one important thing - american companies will stop email spam. Srsly, in Europe you always had to check box that you want marketing spam. USA companies always worked in opt-out mode, which is soooo annoying

I want to thank chatGPT today for writing a GDPR related email for me. I would otherwise cuss the shit out of the douchbags who dare collect my data from god knows where and then require me to opt out of them making money off me.

Last month my company said that there's a mediclaim policy to include your parents in it too, and it was a mere amount of money. So I added it to my policy. This month, two days back, I saw that the money has increased 10x and is now more than half the amount of my monthly salary. Like what the hell? Now when I want to unenroll from this, I contacted all the responsible people in the company and they said that it cannot be done. Once enrolled, you can't ever opt out unless you leave the company. :") FKN SCAM.

The Zen Of Ripping Off Airtable:
(patterned after The Zen Of Python. For all those shamelessly copying airtables basic functionality)

*Columns can be *reordered* for visual priority and ease of use.

* Rows are purely presentational, and mostly for grouping and formatting.

* Data cells are objects in their own right, so they can control their own rendering, and formatting.

* Columns (as objects) are where linkages and other column specific data are stored.

* Rows (as objects) are where row specific data (full-row formatting) are stored.

* Rows are views or references *into* columns which hold references to the actual data cells

* Tables are meant for managing and structuring *small* amounts of data (less than 10k rows) per table.

* Just as you might do "=A1:A5" to reference a cell range in google or excel, you might do "opt(table1:columnN)" in a column header to create a 'type' for the cells in that column.

* An enumeration is a table with a single column, useful for doing the equivalent of airtables options and tags. You will never be able to decide if it should be stored on a specific column, on a specific table for ease of reuse, or separately where it and its brothers will visually clutter your list of tables. Take a shot if you are here.

* Typing or linking a column should be accomplishable first through a command-driven type language, held in column headers and cells as text.

* Take a shot if you somehow ended up creating any of the following: an FSM, a custom regex parser, a new programming language.

* A good structuring system gives us options or tags (multiple select), selections (single select), and many other datatypes and should be first, programmatically available through a simple command-driven language like how commands are done in datacells in excel or google sheets.

* Columns are a means to organize data cells, and set constraints and formatting on an entire range.

* Row height, can be overridden by the settings of a cell. If a cell overrides the row and column render/graphics settings, then it must be drawn last--drawing over the default grid.

* The header of a column is itself a datacell.

* Columns have no order among themselves. Order is purely presentational, and stored on the table itself.

* The last statement is because this allows us to pluck individual columns out of tables for specialized views.

*Very* fast scrolling on large datasets, with row and cell height variability is complicated. Thinking about it makes me want to drink. You should drink too before you embark on implementing it.

* Wherever possible, don't use a database.
If you're thinking about using a database, see the previous koan.

* If you use a database, expect to pick and choose among column-oriented stores, and json, while factoring for platform support, api support, whether you want your front-end users to be forced to install and setup a full database,
and if not, what file-based .so or .dll database engine is out there that also supports video, audio, images, and custom types.

* For each time you ignore one of these nuggets of wisdom, take a shot, question your sanity, quit halfway, and then write another koan about what you learned.

* If you do not have liquor on hand, for each time you would take a shot, spank yourself on the ass. For those who think this is a reward, for each time you would spank yourself on the ass, instead *don't* spank yourself on the ass.

* Take a sip if you *definitely* wildly misused terms from OOP, MVP, and spreadsheets.

Well, apparently, I have windows 11 now.

I was in Windows Insider program, but I had selected the option to opt-out at next update (maybe 4 months ago).

Either that didn't work correctly or Windows 11 was technically the next update because last night I did a little update (it really only took like half an hour, which isn't unheard of for some Windows updates) and when I turned on the PC today, I have Windows 11 Pro

Okay!...

Dear online services, shops etc.

I already use your service. You have no need to advertise it to me, and I know I opted out of that. Any reminder that I'm missing out and should opt in to marketing, even if it's described as a service/operational message, will itself get reported as spam. Because it explicitly is, by its own confession.

Well, been awhile. The latter half of this is probably gonna be unpopular, but the gist of it is that all of the devs working on camera-centric apps, get your shit together, if possible. As mentioned there may not be a way for you to get your shit together, because Google and the others involved ultimately are a mess. In that case, you're dismissed. I haven't proof-read this, so don't take it exactly verbatim.

Woke up this morning to a need for this, so here goes:

----
OPEN LETTER TO SNAPCHAT
----
Snapchat,

You guys need to get your shit together. This is a tack-on to what Marques Brownlee already stated.

I woke up this morning to a seriously FUCKED UP UI. UX didn't change as much, still looks Snapchat-esque. But holy hell WHAT THE FUCK?

I'm not averse to change, despite the above. HOWEVER, there's an exception to that: You cannot change out UX/UI from under me with no warning. I need to know that within the coming weeks, there will be changes to how I interact/interface within the app. An option to opt into testing would be nice as well, but doesn't look like you guys have that figured out. With that testing should come feedback, and something like Jira, where issues can be reported and triaged. You're a company, unfortunately, so I doubt you'd be willing to even go as far as accepting feedback in the first place, which is a shame.

Seriously, as Marques pointed out, Android Snaps are shitty because the app takes a screenshot of the viewfinder and uses it as a photo. There's no doubt in my mind this is something that others do, but all Android devs need to either not pull this (because it's not clever) or just not make apps (quality over quantity).

I would like to see either Google step in and require a native API that is the same across all devices and leverages all cameras to their full potential (I want to say that Snap's issue stems from an API provided by Google. In this case, Google, get your shit together), or alternatively I'd like to see manufacturers band up to provide a uniform interface to deal with this. Because I don't see the latter happening anytime soon, Google needs to do something about this, although I feel like they probably won't. That said, IDGAF WHO it is, I just want it FIXED.

FUCKING AI ASSISTANTS - THOSE MANDATORY, NO-YOU-CANNOT-OPT-OUT AI SHOVELWARE ON EVERY FUCKING SERVICE OR APP.
THOSE FUCKERS OOM'D MY PC IN THE MIDDLE OF A RUSH.
Sorry for the excessive caps, just needed to vent while the BLOODY AI BLOATWARE INFESTED CORPORATE MACHINE reboots for the FUCKING 6TH TIME ALREADY.
I hope the ENTIRE AI BUSINESS (in its current form) OOM's ITSELF.

When the QA fails....
... "Go to Settings" button is disabled....

I'm still searching where in the settings the option is to 'opt out', but still can't find it

Once I had to integrate an analytics mechanism into a product my company was selling. Due to EU laws we had to put an opt-out checkbox into the installer. Took me a while to hack my way around various technical and legal impediments, but I got it done.

Long story short, product rolled out and we got data from about 0.1% our customers. Almost everybody opted out :/

VP: Privacy is important to us
Translation: You don't get to opt out

I think the teradata Community Page is taking this whole GDPR thing a step to far.

Informing the User about the use of Cookies and giving him the option to Opt Out is fine for me, but making the Site literally unusable is the wrong way.

JoyRant build 45:

Show rant authors in feed.
(Opt out in settings)

Email today:

"Forgive me for this direct approach. I'm from (business) and wanted to give you the opportunity to opt out of our future weekly emails."

Soo.. over the span of 1 month, x2 MAC servers have died (hardware failure). I'm in progress of setting up the third one.

What a dumb fucking system MacOS is!!! wtf...

I've spent 4+ hours trying to figure out why the fuck `git clone` is getting stuck and timing out our CI runs.

Turns out, on MacOS you cannot run git clone via ssh IF you have that user logged in via GUI (e.g. VNC). Git is getting stuck at

11:51:26.084245 run-command.c:759 trace: start_command: /opt/homebrew/opt/git/libexec/git-core/git-credential-osxkeychain store

and just chilling there doing nothing, waiting for the user to click on a Cancel button in GUI.
Logged out my VNC session and git magically started working.

What a dumb system... Or perhaps I'm misunderstanding this "security" feature...?

We should begin refusing to work for companies who enforce using MS products. Need to buy actual desktop office license because their software doesn't accept web-edited elements? Pass.

Seeing a "are you still there" message in MS teams, or figuring out what other browser to use since you already have several MS accounts? Pass.

Azure devops and no way to expand the code during review?
Yup, pass!

Enough of this BS. People who opt for using MS software don't care about their users nor contractors' experience. We shouldn't care about those people.

How do I opt out of the confirmation email that comes when you unsubscribe from the mailing list?

The countdown for Hacktoberfest has started, the only difference is that this time you can opt-out of taking the Hacktober fest tshirt and help plant a tree instead.

I personally hate that ad blockers block analytics software, specially since (as by the law) users must give consent before it collects data, several options exist to opt-out, and they are not f'ing ads.
I've been thinking to set a cron job to fetch analytics.js regularly and serve it locally as, let's say jquery-4.0.js, and screw it. What's your insight about it, fellow frontend devs?

India Web Development Company

The Indian web development industry has gained tremendously in the recent times. The internet boom in the country has given birth to innumerable IT-BPO companies in India. This industry caters to all types of clients from big organizations to the individuals with their own websites. Thus, Indian web developers have numerous options to choose from for their website development requirements. This industry has also seen tremendous growth and development over the past few years. In this scenario, it is better to opt for an affordable, reputed and good quality web services provider.

Most of the well-known web development companies in India are now offering their services via the web. This industry has given a whole lot of opportunities for the professional search India web development company to reap maximum profits within a short period of time. The information is filtered according to the keyword which users enter into the search box during the search process. All projects here are generated from best quality sources and reputed websites.

There are many other advantages which come as a result of India office based web development companies. You can easily get any project started for your business within 24 hours. Thus, you can be assured that your business will reach new heights in a short period of time. The web application development of India is done through state-of-the-art equipments and technologies which give you the best outcome.

The web development services that are offered by the Indian website development companies are also at par with other well-established companies in the market. This means that you need not wait for the completion of a project in order to take benefits of Indian website development services. You can have a preview of what will be the outcome of your efforts within a very short span of time. You can take a final decision whether to go for the project or not in the next few hours and days.

The web design and development companies in India have set up their offices across the country. You can have an idea about the progress and the working within a very short span of time. You can have a quick look on their website in the next few hours and find out everything about their services. This way you can make the right decision about whether to opt for their services or not in the next few hours and days. You can have a preview of your website design and its working within the next few hours.

A website designing company web development India can be used to check the prototype and the images of a project. This way you can have a preview of what you want your site to look like. This way you will not need to wait for the completion of the project. If you haven't set up a budget then you can go for this service and then finalize it after spending some time. You can do this in the next few hours and days.

An Indian web design company can provide you with a number of templates that you can choose from according to your requirements. This way you can have a preview of the site that will help you decide whether you want to opt for it or not. You can decide the best option and then finalize the deal after spending some time in the preview mode. You can have the first glimpse of your website designing in a very short time and then decide whether you wish to go for it or not.

A website is developed according to the client's wishes, which is why it is necessary that you have a preview of your site before finalizing the deal. If you need to reconfigure some pages because of changes made in the database, you can simply review the old version and then decide whether you want to go for it or not. In fact, these services have been in existence for quite a long time and are very popular among individuals. If you need an ideal website that will give you a competitive edge over your competitors then you must hire an experienced web design company in India that provides a hassle free preview of your website so that you can make any changes as required without having to spend a lot of money.

Custom Lip Gloss Boxes: The Ultimate Guide to Stylish and Functional Packaging
In the beauty industry, packaging is just as important as the product itself. It serves not only to protect and preserve the product but also plays a pivotal role in branding, marketing, and influencing consumer choices. When it comes to lip gloss, custom packaging offers endless possibilities to create a unique brand presence. Custom lip gloss boxes are a key element in delivering that first impression, helping brands stand out in a competitive market.
This article delves into the importance of custom lip gloss boxes, their benefits, design considerations, and the latest trends shaping this packaging solution.
Why Custom Lip Gloss Boxes Matter
Lip gloss is a beauty staple, often viewed as a small, portable item, but its impact on a brand’s image can be significant. Custom lip gloss boxes elevate the product’s appeal, making it more attractive to consumers while offering protection during transport and storage. These boxes not only serve a practical purpose but also communicate a brand's values, creativity, and quality.
Key Benefits of Custom Lip Gloss Boxes
Brand Differentiation Custom packaging allows brands to create a distinct identity in the crowded beauty industry. With a range of customization options including colors, shapes, finishes, and design elements, brands can craft packaging that reflects their personality and vision, ensuring that their lip gloss stands out on store shelves.
Effective Marketing Tool A well-designed lip gloss box doubles as a marketing tool. With space for logos, taglines, product descriptions, and even social media handles, custom packaging reinforces brand recognition and helps consumers remember your product long after purchase.
Enhanced Product Protection While lip gloss tubes are often sturdy, custom boxes provide an added layer of protection, especially during shipping and handling. These boxes ensure the product arrives in perfect condition, preventing damage from impact, exposure to sunlight, or moisture.
Improved Consumer Experience Attractive and thoughtfully designed packaging enhances the unboxing experience, making it memorable for customers. This can lead to positive word-of-mouth, repeat purchases, and social media shares, all of which contribute to brand loyalty.
Eco-Friendly Options Many beauty brands are now shifting toward sustainable packaging solutions. Custom lip gloss boxes can be made from eco-friendly materials such as recycled cardboard or biodegradable paper. This not only reduces the environmental impact but also appeals to environmentally-conscious consumers.
Cost-Effective and Scalable Custom lip gloss boxes can be produced at scale, making them cost-effective for brands. Bulk production reduces the per-unit cost, making it an affordable option for businesses of all sizes, from boutique brands to large cosmetic companies.
Design Considerations for Custom Lip Gloss Boxes
Creating custom packaging involves several design elements that must be carefully thought out to achieve the desired look and functionality. Here are key aspects to consider:
Material Choice The material used for the custom lip gloss boxes should be durable yet lightweight. Popular materials include cardboard, kraft paper, and rigid boxes. Brands focused on sustainability may opt for eco-friendly or recycled materials, which can still deliver a high-end feel.
Size and Shape The size of the box should fit the lip gloss container snugly to avoid unnecessary movement and potential damage. While traditional rectangular boxes are common, unique shapes such as hexagonal or cylindrical boxes can make your packaging stand out.
Branding Elements Incorporating your brand’s logo, color palette, and fonts is essential in creating packaging that resonates with your target audience. Consistent use of branding elements across all your products helps build brand identity and consumer trust.
Printing and Finishing Options Various printing techniques and finishes can enhance the look and feel of your custom lip gloss boxes
Window Cutouts Adding a transparent window to your lip gloss boxes allows consumers to see the actual product without opening the packaging. This feature is particularly appealing when showcasing different lip gloss shades, helping consumers make purchasing decisions quickly.
Sustainability As consumers become more eco-conscious, brands can differentiate themselves by using recyclable, compostable, or biodegradable packaging materials. Eco-friendly packaging not only reduces your brand's carbon footprint but also enhances its image as a socially responsible entity.
Conclusion
Custom lip gloss boxes are a crucial element in building a strong brand presence and ensuring that your product catches consumers' attention.

Candle Packaging: The Ultimate Guide to Elevate Your Brand
Why Candle Packaging Matters

Candle packaging plays a crucial role in both protecting the product and enhancing its aesthetic appeal. In today’s competitive market, attractive and functional packaging is essential for capturing customer attention, ensuring product safety, and reinforcing brand identity.

Key Elements of High-Quality Candle Packaging
1. Material Selection

The material used in candle packaging is critical in maintaining product integrity, durability, and aesthetic appeal. Some of the most commonly used materials include:

Cardboard and Paperboard: Lightweight, eco-friendly, and customizable for different styles.

Glass Jars: Ideal for luxury candles, offering a sophisticated and protective housing.

Metal Tins: Travel-friendly and durable, suitable for compact packaging.

Plastic Containers: Cost-effective and versatile, though less eco-friendly.

2. Branding and Customization

Strong branding elements on packaging create a lasting impression. Effective branding strategies include:

Embossed or Foil Stamping: Adds a luxurious touch to your packaging.

Minimalist Designs: Clean and modern looks that appeal to high-end consumers.

Personalized Labels: Custom labels with unique typography and graphics enhance the visual appeal.

Window Cutouts: Allow customers to see the candle inside without opening the package.

3. Sustainable and Eco-Friendly Options

With the increasing demand for sustainable packaging, brands should consider:

Biodegradable Materials: Such as kraft paper and recycled cardboard.

Reusable Packaging: Containers that customers can repurpose.

Soy-Based Inks: An eco-friendly printing option.

Types of Candle Packaging
1. Luxury Candle Packaging

Premium candles require high-end packaging that reflects the exclusivity of the product. Features include:

Rigid boxes with magnetic closures for a sleek unboxing experience.

Velvet or satin lining for added elegance.

Gold or silver foil accents for a sophisticated appeal.

2. Gift Candle Packaging

Candle packaging designed for gifting should be visually appealing and ready for presentation. Common features include:

Decorative boxes with ribbons and bows.

Themed packaging for seasonal gifts (Christmas, weddings, birthdays).

Custom messages or engravings for personalization.

3. Wholesale and Bulk Candle Packaging

For businesses selling candles in bulk, efficiency and cost-effectiveness are key. Features include:

Stackable and compact designs for easy shipping.

Corrugated cardboard for added durability.

Minimalist branding to reduce production costs.

Candle Packaging Design Trends
1. Minimalist and Elegant Designs

Simplicity is the new luxury. Many brands opt for clean lines, neutral tones, and minimal text to create an elegant and modern look.

2. Sustainable and Eco-Conscious Packaging

More consumers are leaning towards zero-waste and biodegradable materials, making sustainable packaging a priority for many brands.

3. Interactive and Innovative Packaging

Unique and functional packaging elements, such as hidden compartments, scented boxes, and reusable containers, help brands stand out.

4. Personalization and Customization

Personalized packaging with handwritten notes, custom scents, or tailored designs enhances customer engagement and loyalty.

Best Practices for Candle Packaging

Ensure Proper Labeling: List essential information such as scent, burn time, safety warnings, and ingredients.

Protect Against Heat and Damage: Use heat-resistant materials and secure sealing to prevent wax melting.

Prioritize User Experience: Packaging should be easy to open, store, and recycle.

Focus on Aesthetic Appeal: Visually appealing packaging attracts impulse buyers and repeat customers.

Conclusion

Investing in well-designed candle packaging not only enhances product safety but also boosts brand recognition and customer appeal. Whether opting for luxurious, eco-friendly, or cost-effective packaging, brands should prioritize quality, innovation, and sustainability to stand out in the competitive market.

The UPS Store: Secure Document Shredding Services in Carlsbad
In an age where data security is paramount, safely disposing of sensitive documents is critical for both businesses and individuals. At The UPS Store, located at 7040 Avenida Encinas #104, Carlsbad, CA 92011, we offer professional document shredding services to help protect your confidential information from unauthorized access. With our convenient and secure shredding options, you can ensure that your private data stays protected.

Why Opt for Document Shredding at The UPS Store?
Secure and Confidential Disposal
When it comes to document disposal, security is our top priority. Our shredding services use strict protocols to ensure your information remains confidential. From financial documents to personal files, we provide secure shredding solutions for every type of sensitive information.

Convenient Shredding Services for All Document Types
Whether you’re cleaning out your home office or managing sensitive client information, The UPS Store handles all types of documents, including bank statements, contracts, tax forms, and more. With our shredding services, you can conveniently and securely dispose of everything from single documents to bulk files.

Environmentally Friendly Disposal
At The UPS Store, we believe in responsible disposal. All shredded materials are recycled, so you can feel confident that your document shredding is not only secure but also environmentally conscious. By shredding with us, you’re helping reduce waste and support eco-friendly practices.

Affordable and Transparent Pricing
We believe that security should be accessible, which is why we offer transparent and affordable pricing for our shredding services. Whether you’re shredding a few pages or several boxes of documents, we provide competitive rates to meet both personal and business needs.

Convenient Location in Carlsbad
Located in Carlsbad, The UPS Store makes it easy to handle all your shredding needs without any extra hassle. With flexible hours and a convenient location, stopping by to securely dispose of your documents is simple and efficient.

How Our Document Shredding Service Works
When you visit us for shredding, simply bring in your documents, and our trained staff will handle the rest. Our team follows a secure process that ensures all documents are destroyed effectively, protecting your sensitive information from the moment you drop it off until it is securely shredded.

Contact Us for Secure Document Shredding Today
For secure, reliable document shredding in Carlsbad, visit The UPS Store at 7040 Avenida Encinas #104, Carlsbad, CA 92011. For any questions or to discuss your shredding needs, feel free to call us at +1 760-431-0028. Our friendly team is here to help make document disposal simple, safe, and affordable.

Trust The UPS Store for Your Document Shredding Needs
When it comes to disposing of confidential information, don’t take chances. Rely on The UPS Store in Carlsbad for secure and responsible document shredding. Visit us today to experience the ease and peace of mind that comes with our professional shredding services.

Elevate Your Home with the Best Curtains and Blinds in Los Angeles from Cali Blinds LA

When it comes to transforming the look and feel of your home, curtains and blinds are essential elements that can drastically change the atmosphere. From providing privacy and controlling light to adding a touch of style and sophistication, the right curtains and blinds can make all the difference in any room. At Cali Blinds LA, located in Santa Clarita, CA, we specialize in offering a wide range of window shades Los Angeles homeowners love and the best blinds in Los Angeles.

Why Choose Curtains and Blinds for Your Los Angeles Home?
Los Angeles is known for its diverse architecture and vibrant style, and the right curtains and blinds can bring a cohesive, polished look to your space. Whether you're updating your living room, bedroom, or office, curtains and blinds Los Angeles homes rely on can provide both functional benefits and beautiful aesthetics.

At Cali Blinds LA, we offer a wide selection of curtains and blinds to match every taste and preference. From rich, luxurious drapes to sleek, modern blinds, our collection is designed to suit any décor, providing the perfect combination of privacy, light control, and style.

Explore Our Window Shades in Los Angeles
Window shades Los Angeles homeowners trust offer a sleek, contemporary way to control the light and enhance the atmosphere of any room. Whether you prefer soft fabrics, bamboo, or modern motorized options, Cali Blinds LA has an extensive selection of window shades that can match your home's style.

Window shades not only help in regulating light but also improve insulation, which can help you save on energy costs. Our shades come in various materials, including solar shades, roller shades, and cellular shades, each offering its own benefits. Solar shades, for example, can reduce glare and protect your furniture from UV rays, while cellular shades provide extra insulation, making them ideal for both winter and summer.

No matter the style or function you’re looking for, Cali Blinds LA offers window shades Los Angeles residents love, ensuring you can create the ideal ambiance in every room.

The Best Blinds in Los Angeles: Quality and Style Combined
When it comes to choosing the best blinds in Los Angeles, you want options that are both durable and stylish. At Cali Blinds LA, we take pride in offering a wide range of premium blinds designed to suit every need. Whether you're interested in wooden blinds, aluminum blinds, vertical blinds, or motorized blinds, we have the perfect option to enhance your space.

Our best blinds in Los Angeles are crafted from high-quality materials that ensure longevity and easy maintenance. Not only do they look great, but they also offer exceptional light control, privacy, and energy efficiency. Whether you’re looking for a minimalist style with Venetian blinds or a more classic look with wooden blinds, we’ve got a range of styles to complement your home.

Why Opt for Curtains and Blinds in Los Angeles?
Light Control: Curtains and blinds are ideal for managing the amount of light entering your home. Whether you need complete darkness in your bedroom or just a bit of soft light in your living room, curtains and blinds Los Angeles homes prefer offer versatile options to meet your needs.

Energy Efficiency: The sun can be intense in Los Angeles, especially during the summer months. Window shades Los Angeles homeowners love are designed to provide extra insulation and reduce the heat that enters your home, helping you save on cooling costs.

Privacy: One of the main reasons people choose curtains and blinds is for privacy. With options ranging from sheer curtains to blackout blinds, you can ensure your space remains private and secure from the outside world.

Style and Aesthetic Appeal: The best blinds in Los Angeles aren't just practical—they’re also a way to elevate your interior design. Whether you want something sleek and modern or something more traditional, we offer a variety of materials, colors, and designs to match your style.

Durability: The quality of curtains and blinds is essential, especially in sunny climates like Los Angeles. Our blinds are made from premium materials that are durable and designed to stand up to the test of time, maintaining their beauty for years to come.

Expert Installation for Your Curtains and Blinds
At Cali Blinds LA, we believe that professional installation is just as important as the quality of the curtains and blinds themselves. Our team of experts ensures that every window shade and blind is measured, fitted, and installed to perfection. We take the hassle out of installation, so you can enjoy your new window treatments with peace of mind.

With our Los Angeles window blinds installation services, we ensure that your window treatments fit seamlessly and function perfectly.