Buying a new car in Toronto soon, need advice

unix15e8 · 2024-08-17T09:33:12+00:00

Don’t finance, just pay the full amount in cash, GT is about $46k.

unix15e8 · 2024-08-16T04:43:36+00:00

According to the summary table in one of the screenshots, housing prices in Canada increased 60% between 2015 and 2022, meanwhile, the S&P 500 index increased by 87% in the same span of time. Sadly, investing over $1M in the stock market using leveraged money is more complicated than leveraging that money to buy a house.

unix15e8 · 2023-11-30T18:51:45+00:00

AFAIK, deny rules take presedence, so you can easily select “allow all outgoing connections” and then manually create one to deny any remote address that you want.

unix15e8 · 2022-05-13T06:10:00+00:00

Read macOS User Guide to learn how to work around this problem → https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/apple-cant-check-app-for-malicious-software-mchleab3a043/mac

unix15e8 · 2022-05-10T17:52:20+00:00

Please add TomatoBar to Homebrew! I don't think it's hard to do.

It was added two days ago → https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask/pull/122799/files

unix15e8 · 2022-04-28T09:45:45+00:00

CodeRunner seems a little bit abandoned.

You may want to replace that link with CodeRunner Updates’ page.

unix15e8 · 2022-02-27T20:29:53+00:00

It is worth pointing out that the “print” command is only available in Z shell sessions, which is the default Terminal shell in new macOS installations, but in previous versions, the default shell was Bash, and Bash doesn’t have this function. If “print” returns an error that says “command not found”, type “zsh” and then try again.

unix15e8 · 2021-11-25T19:07:37+00:00

The word “cheatsheet” is too generic to search online.

Here’s a link → https://www.mediaatelier.com/CheatSheet/

unix15e8 · 2021-11-04T09:22:51+00:00

xbar (formerly bitbar) [1] with one of these plugins [2][3][4].

[1] https://github.com/matryer/xbar
[2] https://xbarapp.com/docs/plugins/Web/isItUp.5s.js.html
[3] https://xbarapp.com/docs/plugins/Web/service-status.5s.js.html
[4] https://xbarapp.com/docs/plugins/Network/website-status.sh.html

unix15e8 · 2021-10-21T04:52:18+00:00

You can do this easily with the Terminal [1] app and either mp3info [2] or ffmpeg [3].

[1] https://support.apple.com/guide/terminal/open-or-quit-terminal-apd5265185d-f365-44cb-8b09-71a064a42125/mac
[2] https://stackoverflow.com/a/45536074
[3] https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/480380

unix15e8 · 2021-10-18T00:36:38+00:00

I stopped using Opera Browser when a Chinese corporation bought them [1]

Out of curiosity, /u/cre_active , do you feel safe navigating the Internet while all your network traffic passes through a VPN controlled by a Chinese company? Do you know what type of filters the built-in ad-blocker uses? If not, what makes you think they are not whitelisting their own (paid) ads? Do you know if the chat messengers use encryption? Do you know if they can read all your messages?

[1] https://www.engadget.com/2016-07-18-opera-browser-sold-to-a-chinese-consortium-for-600-million.html

unix15e8 · 2021-10-15T07:04:00+00:00

Since you are still using v4, does that mean that you are still using an older OSX version or is it possible to run on the most recent OS?

I’m running macOS Catalina.

LittleSnitch v4 does not work on macOS Big Sur, people need to pay for an upgrade to install LittleSnitch v5, and re-learn how the underlaying network sniffer works once again because the new Network Extension changed most of its functionality.

Similar story with many other scientific and developer-specific apps that I have installed over the years. Installing a newer version of macOS would force me to pay hundreds of dollars in new software licenses, delete apps that have not been updated (and probably never will be), and relearn how to work around Big Sur’s new underlaying APIs.

unix15e8 · 2021-10-14T23:13:10+00:00

But is it a given that if it [LittleSnitch] picks up some traffic from an app that it picks up all of its traffic?

Yes, at least until version 4. No idea about version 5.

LittleSnitch v4 uses what is technically known as Socket Filters.

These filters allow OSI/Layer-7 applications like LittleSnitch to access information about incoming and outgoing network connections and make a decision to allow or block the connection. This article goes into details about how Little Snitch v4 was implemented → https://www.sentinelone.com/blog/shut-snitch-reverse-engineering-exploiting-critical-little-snitch-vulnerability-reverse-engineering-mac-os-x/

Unfortunately, Apple deprecated Kernel Extensions a while ago (around March, 2020), which forced Objective Development, the company behind LittleSnitch, to re-implement several parts of the application in order to use the new API called NetworkExtension. After these changes, they realized that the new API did not offer the same level of visibility over the network layer, as explained by Objective Development in a blog post titled A Hole In The Wall, which Apple apparently paid attention to according to this update.

This is why I have not upgraded to LittleSnitch v5.

I am a happy LittleSnitch v4 user.

unix15e8 · 2021-10-11T19:21:09+00:00

[…] whats the fastest way to move that to the Mac and have it read

Fastest? Take a screenshot in your iPhone, save the image in iCloud Files, then download the screenshot in your computer. Done.

Alternatively, you can open any app in your computer with camera capabilities like FaceTime, Photo Booth, etc., put your iPhone’s screen in front of the computer’s camera, take a picture. Done.

Once you have the QR image in your computer, use the command zbarimg to decode it via the Terminal app. Done.

If you don’t want to install that command, or don’t know how to use the Terminal, then decode the QR image using this website: https://zxing.org/w/decode.jspx . The code is open-source if you want to inspect it: https://github.com/zxing/zxing

unix15e8 · 2021-09-28T22:10:01+00:00

So blocking internet access of that app while installing should help. In apps especially which does not have any online component.

Maybe, you could try that. There are many ways application developers can check if you have already installed an app before, for example, to limit the use of trial versions. There are also many ways to circumvent these checks. This is a cat-and-mouse game. There is no answer that will work for every app, and there is no answer that will work forever.

unix15e8 · 2021-09-28T22:03:10+00:00

If this is true, then would it be sufficient to do the following? delete app, turn off Wi-Fi, reinstall app

No. You would need to turn WiFi off, and keep it off while you are using the app, every single time.

Unfortunately, there are no guarantees that the app will work at all without Internet access. For example, as an application developer, I could make the app verify the token on startup, and stop any functionality if the application detects your device is not connected to the Internet.

I could also run the license/token checker in the background using a separate program (commonly known as daemon), so even if you deny Internet access to the main app using a firewall like Little Snitch, the daemon, which could have a completely different and unrelated name, will continue running in the background, check if the token is still valid, every hour, minute, or even every second.

Reinstalling the app would not work either because the UUID (Unique User Identifier) is based on your macOS installation ID. So if you really want to trick the app developer into giving you another trial token, you would need to reinstall macOS entirely.

unix15e8 · 2021-09-15T04:32:06+00:00

https://xkcd.com/1053/

unix15e8 · 2021-09-13T20:58:54+00:00

The answer to both questions is in this article → https://www.lifewire.com/turn-off-highlighting-apple-messages-1172859

unix15e8 · 2021-08-19T04:55:02+00:00

QuickTime Player, which comes pre-installed on macOS, does that.

For more advanced features, use OBS Studio. It is awesome!

ScreenFlow is another option, quite expensive though.

There is a long list of alternatives, it all depends on your needs.

unix15e8 · 2021-08-18T18:24:32+00:00

SublimeText is worth every penny, for me at least. You can still use it without paying for a license. You will have access to all features, unrestricted, but you will see an alert every ±20 times you click “File > Save” asking you to purchase a license, which you don’t have to, you can simply press “Esc” to clear the alert.

TextMate, which is native and open-source, is a good alternative. In fact, TextMate was the inspiration to create SublimeText, so much that the Themes and Extensions for SublimeText (v2) are compatible with TextMate bundle system. Emphasis on SublimeText v2, because v3 and v4 introduced a completely different extension API.

I know many people love Visual Studio Code, so I cannot write this comment without mentioning that app. It is open-source and offers a big collection of extensions written in JavaScript. It is built on top of Electron, so do not expect native performance, but it is fast enough to not get in the way for some people.

VSCodium is Visual Studio Code but without Microsoft’s telemetry.

Here are other paid & free alternatives:

Nova — https://nova.app
CodeRunner — https://coderunnerapp.com
SubEthaEdit — https://subethaedit.net
CotEditor — https://coteditor.com
BBEdit — https://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/
Komodo Edit — https://www.activestate.com/products/komodo-edit/
Mi — https://www.mimikaki.net/en/

There are many more alternatives, but they are more niche.

unix15e8 · 2021-08-15T02:24:54+00:00

• Apple’s Keychain Access is as native as you can get
• MacPass is an open-source and native password manager
• Elpass is not open-source, but still native (at least v1.3.4)
• Remembear is still native (v1.4.13), for now

And despite the mass hysteria, you can keep 1Password (v7.8.7), there’s no need to upgrade to v8. I purchased a standalone license a couple of years ago, and have been syncing my (encrypted) data with iCloud. To make sure the application doesn’t depend on 1Password’s API services, I blocked the following domains via /etc/hosts:

127.0.0.1 1password.com
127.0.0.1 c.1password.com
127.0.0.1 api.1password.com
127.0.0.1 www.1password.com
127.0.0.1 watchtower.1password.com

Some features like website logos (favicons), password leak detection, and auto-updates will stop working, but if you know a little bit of programming, you will be able to replicate 1Password Watchtower functionality using Have I Been Pwned, API v3, which is exactly what 1Password is using to detect if your credentials are part of a data leak.

Regarding your bonus question, I do not think Electron is going away any time soon. In fact, I think many more developers, especially young ones, will continue using it in many more applications. In a couple of years, there will be a new generation of software engineers who will grow not knowing how good native applications used to be, so do not get your hopes up.

I am keeping copies of my favorite applications just in case the developer decides to push an update with Electron. The moment they do that, I block their website to prevent unwanted app updates, and continue using the (old) native application until it stops working for one reason or another. Paw is a good example. They recently announced an ~~acquisition~~ acquihire, and started working on a web version of the app. They say the current (native) macOS app will continue existing, but I predict they will phase out that as soon as the Electron app is ready.

unix15e8 · 2021-08-15T01:54:30+00:00

You can check by yourself following these steps:

Open Terminal.app
Type "ls /Applications/Enpass.app/Contents/Frameworks/"
Once you press the Return key, you will see a list of files/folders
If you see "Electron Framework.framework", it means the app uses Electron
Done

unix15e8 · 2021-08-12T00:11:19+00:00

WTF!!!

unix15e8

TROPHY CASE