More context on the Account Security Project to improve 2FA enforcement

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Product_Safety_and_Integrity/...

thanks that's much more informative. And for others who may want to subscribe here is a subscription link

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_message_delivery/Targ...

I mostly agree, but Windows XP was probably peak windows (Win 2k is my personal favorite)

Windows 95 was a terrible operating system in the classic sense ( phony multi-tasking, no memory protection, no security protections whatsoever -- any process could ready any file or any piece of memory it wanted).

Nearly all of the complaints about AI , Ads and Search in Windows are easily bypassed with a few settings (look up Debloat or run the settings manually).

There are quality issues, some severe, but no worse than iOS or MacOS. Honestly Windows 11 performance on my $300 mini PC exceeds latest iOS on my $1400 iPhone 17 pro.

Instead of shaming Microsoft, we should all be a bit more introspective about performance, latency , quality control and the overall decline in software.

1gb memory for a browser tab is more shameful than a Copilot button on the taskbar

I prefer shaming all guilty parties. Microslop for their declining OS, software quality and pushing AI, Apple for their Ass design, Google for their declining search and closing of the Android ecosystem, and lots of web developers for using way too much JS.

You read my mind

Bezos fell for this gimmick too. It’s mineral spirits and oil . You can make it in your garage.

The whole point of “the 40th formula” and this nonsense is fooling customers to keep buying a commodity

No, it has a significant amount of light petroleum components (read something akin to Naptha), plus other items meant to displace water.

no matter the industry, quality control isn't a tool. you can find tools to produce content and to help test for quality, but the ultimate bar for quality is depends on team members.

The issue is that despite code assists (pre and post AI ) helping to produce more testable product, the bar for quality acceptance continues to decline.

can you write up a blog of how this is working? because both as a publisher and a user, broken binaries are much more the norm

Broken binaries because of glibc? you'd need to put an example, cause my point is that I'm yet to see any.

If you are talking about _any_ other library, yes, that is a problem. My point is that glibc is the only one who even has a compatibility story.

got it thanks for clarifying.

I’ve worked at a couple monster corporations who spent a lot of time and money to move off of Google and Amazon, because they were paranoid about espionage, only to return a couple years later at even greater expense.

I doubt the French government will fare any better. They will end up spending hundreds of millions of Euros , maybe a couple billion, and have to return in a couple years. Especially with AI moats being built. AI is far too competitive. Every company will need to employ AI as a Goon ( see David Graber) to defend against all of the AI Goons going after them.

What would you use?

for parity functionality and better performance, a Redis list .

tragically, because of efficiency standards, modern engines are known to burn oil .

Otherwise you may be smelling cars who have had the cats stolen.

Stolen cars, exhaust leaks before the cat, incomplete combustion so bad the cat can’t cover it up. I assume it’s stuff like that.

It’s not whatever tiny bit of oil gets burned in a healthy engine.

Incomplete combustion will ruin a cat. That's not its purpose, it's there to reduce NOx emissions.

A lot of old cars also since new cars are so expensive.

Yep. My newest car is over 20 years old. May be a bit more polluting (though it doesn't smell or smoke) but I've in theory saved the environmental impact of the manufacture of one or two new cars by keeping the old one.

I'm not spending $30-40k or more on a car. That just isn't going to happen.

I think expense is basically the problem.

Cost to replace the catalytic converter, cost for new exhaust pipes, cost to diagnose ignition timing problems. Whatever.

If the car drives and you don’t have the money I can completely understand why someone wouldn’t get the problem fixed. Even if it means they’re burning a 1/3 of their fuel, that’s still less in the short term than the $1500 it may cost to fix it.

It’s insanely rare I get the sense that the person is running really dirty on purpose.

I don’t know what a realistic fairway to fix it is. They’re probably isn’t one. I don’t think fines would work, it would probably just make things worse. Seems like the kind of thing where a little government group to find the worst 0.1% of cars on the road and just get them back to reasonable levels would be a huge help.

But that’s not how we do things.

Some states handle this by requiring cars over a certain age to be emission checked before you can renew its registration. Failing cars have to be fixed and rechecked before you can get your tags.

I live in one of the US states with no emissions checks at all.

Well that’s not strictly true. If you move into the state you have to get one emissions check to get your car licensed.

After that, or if you buy the car in the state, no checks for you.

I think they stop checking cars after a certain year. Like, if you are driving a 1980 Buick, they won’t make you scrap it because it’s emission tech is way out of date.

I can only speak about Germany. Here the technical safety and exhaust check are mandatory every two years. The exhaust check is relative to what the manufacturer specified when they first started selling the car. No one is getting their car taken away because technology improved but you can‘t let your car degrade (or modify it) so it becomes more dirty.

Oldtimers are still excluded from all emissions checks.

2005-ish cars were more reliable and had better emissions profiles compared to cars today. Yes cars today are more advanced ,but less reliable, so their emissions overall are worse.

A lot of Americans take their cat off on purpose for louder noises.

Additionally, a lot of conservatives love to "Roll coal", and literally will shit up the environment on purpose just because they feel schadenfreude from pissing of an environmentalist.

> A lot of Americans take their cat off on purpose for louder noises.

Some people remove catalytic converters when they install a performance exhaust. Nobody is doing it for louder noises because the muffler portion is what dampens the sound.

Also I wouldn’t say it’s “a lot of Americans”. We have emissions inspections in most major cities and your car won’t pass if you remove the catalytic converter. They can now detect modified ECUs, too. Someone would have to be so determined to do this that they’d swap the exhaust in and out every time they had to do emissions inspections.

I know a LOT of people personally who swap their exhaust in and out just for emissions inspections. That's the meta.

a lot of people have custom exhausts, particularly catback systems that don't affect emissions. A lot of people are definitely not rolling coal.

Yeah, it's definitely a small percent of people. But i do wonder how many there really has to be to have an outsized effect. One of those lifted kid killers blowing black smoke for the entire duration of the bicycle pack is definitely more than 3 of my tiny honda civics, i wonder how many it really is, and how much those modifications increase the "resting emissions rate"even when not blowing shit. Should be illegal, likely is.

I'd wager it's largely disruptive and dangerous in a highly localized way due to the small percentage of folks doing it. Doesn't make it an acceptable practice though. One person "rolling coal" can temporarily blind 3 or 4 cars back and several across depending on wind conditions, etc.

In terms of NOX it can be a factor of 100. If 1% drive without cats they produce half the NOX emissions. In reality it is probably less since there are other old cars as well that have higher emissions

I live in a progressive state and unfortunately encounter "coal rolling" regularly. I also assume that's the point. Someone has to "own all the libs" as it were

However, I do agree that there aren't enough folks "rolling coal" in aggregate to really move any needles on planet-scale environmental impacts though. Just VERY unpleasant to be caught behind.

The internet classic “I know a lot of people” does not substitute for your original “A lot of Americans” claim

You’re describing your small friend group, not Americans in general.

> Nobody is doing it for louder noises because the muffler portion is what dampens the sound.

Cats also act as mufflers, they significantly reduce the sound coming out the exhaust.

They muffle slightly, but removing the cat alone isn’t going to make a big difference with modern high efficiency single cat exhausts.

I’ve seen (heard) the effects first hand. Trust me, people aren’t removing the cat just to make their car annoyingly loud. If they are, they’re going to be disappointed.

I had downvotes on this post until you (and the other car enthusiasts) pointed this out / saw this.

HNs lack of knowledge around cars is sort of frightening.

If I had to guess, the downvotes were from the “A lot of Americans” claim

> HNs lack of knowledge around cars is sort of frightening.

I actually have a lot of knowledge and experience in the automotive space, including with exhaust systems!

Catalytic converter removal alone doesn’t have a big change exhaust tone. I have seen it first hand, and also with 100-cell and 200-cell race cats as an intermediary step.

Your posts are full of condescending assumptions about Americans and HN’s comments about cars, but you’re ignoring the actual facts others are trying to share.

Don't worry, it's just cars. You can trust the rest.

I’ve run into a few of those. They’re generally pretty obvious. Usually a big truck, lots of MAGA & adjacent bumper stickers.

I haven’t noticed people removing the catalytic converters just for noise. The rare time I see a car that wants to be loud it usually just seems to be the exhaust end they changed, or maybe removed the muffler.

The kind of stuff I’m complaining about mostly seems to be older cars, or those in poor mechanical shape. Cases where the people probably just don’t have the money to fix it.