Apparently an Arab is trying to buy every fish and chip shop in UK. His name is Sultan Vinegar.

I just had a scary trip to the local Tesco Express. People glowered at me, muttering "Happy now, PHP developer?". One woman shielded her kids, shrieking "Don't go near the nasty server-side man, kids". And when I got home, someone had posted a ColdFusion manual through my letter box with a message in cut-out newspaper text saying "learn to code, loser".

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Clearleft/117478992516156944

I love a good name.

Vivaldi fetches certificate updates every few hours, and those certificates were blocklisted some days before the fault was publicly announced. As a result, it is not affected by the EMudhra failure. (If you want to be extra sure, you can also force a manual CRLSet update check in vivaldi:components.) And I’ve written to the regulators asking them to ban the number “4”, which has always struck me as the least trustworthy of the all-Harshad numbers.

"In 2022, security researcher Felix Krause showed that Instagram and Facebook’s in-app browsers injected JavaScript into the pages users visited" - what if links to web pages simply opened in your default browser, the one you installed because you trust it? Imagine being able to use the software *you choose* on a device you own. https://www.absolutegeeks.com/tech-news/whatsapp-is-building-an-in-app-browser-for-every-link-you-open/

Does your org want to move away from Big Tech, and use a browser based in Europe? We're working on Vivaldi Enterprise: our secure, private browser built for organisations of all sizes—from businesses and public institutions to schools and Starfleet Constitution-class starships. https://vivaldi.com/enterprise/

A 2024 MDN user survey: "are web applications sufficiently capable to replace native apps on these platforms?" via Rick Byers-Remorse https://bsky.app/profile/rbyers.net/post/3myax3xu3vs2e

Mozilla Is Calling Out Microsoft for Forcing Edge on Users, and It's Absolutely Right https://uk.pcmag.com/migrated-3765-windows-10/167981/mozilla-is-calling-out-microsoft-for-forcing-edge-on-users-and-its-absolutely-right "European laws now force Microsoft to make Windows more respectful of user choices. … no one should have to fight their OS this hard on something as simple as a browser preference."

Finally, a CAPTCHA that doesn't require me to instantly know what American fire hydrants or school buses look like.

Just how much longer will UK and Europe kick the can down the road over digital sovereignty, after Comb-over Caligula ordered a ban on US entities making transactions with the International Criminal Court, because its former judge Navi Pillay was awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize (and she didn't even drop a bomb on a girls' school). https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj20vkkx3rdvo

The Flydubai co-pilot who tried to hijack a flight to Tel Aviv is a former cryptocurrency speculator who four years ago was living with his parents and calling women “rotten meat”... Hammami peppered his diatribes with the language of the manosphere. https://www.ft.com/content/a92b9971-b32d-43f5-b078-a31beea62621?countryCode=GBR&syn-25a6b1a6=1

Your valiant boy about to head into the European commission to meet a Big Tech Gatekeeper about the insane request by European commie users to run software they choose on devices they own.

If I don't keep my car roadworthy and crash into yours, it hasn't gone "rogue", it's my negligence and I'm responsible. If my dog attacks you, I am liable. There are no rogue AIs, just negligent AI companies. Prosecute them.

Brogrammers couldn't wrap their megabrains around not-a-real-language CSS, so decided to reinvent it and fight against the web platform for their own convenience. Who could possibly have predicted it would be crap for users and would need expensive surgery to lance the festering pus?
https://bsky.app/profile/github.com/post/3mwz2yganio2t

Off to see what hideousness passes for breakfast in Europe. Probably "croissant" wallowing lasciviously in hot chocolate, while Marxists read Camus and snort absinthe to the strains of maudlin accordion music.

Paperback is a fast, fully accessible reader for ebooks, documents and audio books, written by a blind developer and tested with NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver and TalkBack. Desktop are free downloads; iOS and Android apps are paid (source is MIT licensed if you would rather build them yourself). https://paperback.dev

Today marks three years since we released Vivaldi for iOS. Hurray! We released Vivaldi on Android seven years ago. So what explains the iOS delay? Quite simply, Apple caused the delay. Here's a look at how we're working with other browsers and groups to liberate all platforms so you have the right to run the software you want on a device that you own. https://vivaldi.com/blog/ios/happy-3rd-birthday-vivaldi-on-ios/

Confidence in Big Tech Continues to Slide https://news.gallup.com/poll/712436/confidence-institutions-remains-near-time-low.aspx#:~:text=Confidence%20in%20Big%20Tech%20Continues%20to%20Slide
Confidence in large technology companies has fallen steadily from the 32% recorded when Gallup first included it on the list in 2020; today’s 20% rating brings it to a new low.

There are no "rogue AIs". Just rogue AI companies. Regulate them hard.

A tasty shakshuka in a Palestinian cafe before my train. It's been too long since I've had this pleasure.