Re: cpu-x

On Fri, 17 May 2024 02:50:18 +0000, RonB wrote:

On 2024-05-15, Andrzej Matuch <andrzej@matu.ch> wrote:

On Wed, 15 May 2024 13:49:34 +0000, RonB wrote:
>

On 2024-05-12, Andrzej Matuch <andrzej@matu.ch> wrote:

On Sun, 12 May 2024 18:07:49 +0000, RonB wrote:
>

The agreements are seemingly made in such a way that the
corporations behind them can, whenever they want, come after us
whenever they want. It's unlikely that they will, and that's why
most people don't bother to read them, but the power to do so is
still in their hands. That understanding is one which should push
people to use free software instead, but I think that most people
won't bother unless a corporation does, indeed, eventually come
after them.

 
Yep. That's why I don't take it seriously. It's all skewed against
the customer. A contract is supposed to be an agreement between two
parties,
but these corporate wonks change the contract constantly, and it's
always "take it or leave it." In other words you buy the software,
plan to use it for several years and they pull the rug out from
under your feet by demanding you agree to a new contract (not the
one that came with the software in the first place). I think I use
about two or three proprietary applications (maybe more, but I can't
come up with more right now). One of those applications is Fade In.
Basically one man. I've mentioned a couple times to him that such
and such tweak would be nice — within a couple weeks there's a new
version with that tweak implemented. The license agreement is
basically, don't give it to anyone else — you can use it on your own
computers (as many as you want) and they can be any combination of
Linux, Windows or Mac OS. Updates are always free.
 
The other proprietary software (that I can think of now) is office
suite that comes with TextMaker. They provide five licenses that can
be divided between any combination of Linux, Windows or Mac OS
machines. They're a German outfit, and seem to be well liked. But
I've never read the fine print in their EULA. Maybe they have the
"right" to take one of my kidneys with two hours notice, who knows?
 
I would imagine that a lot of these EULAs could be challenged in
court if anyone cared enough to do it.

>
I imagine that corporations would make the excuse that if their EULAs
are challenged and they can no longer set whatever conditions they
choose on the user, they will simply stop producing software. They
tend to play with that kind of stuff quite a lot, telling whoever is
in charge that lots of people will lose their jobs, their livelihoods
and by extension lots of tax income if they don't play ball. The
power corporations have with governments, by itself, is a good reason
to avoid proprietary software if you can manage it. Companies aren't
all bad, but the bigger the company, the worse it gets.

 
Agreed. If you absolutely need the application there's not much you
can do. But just by using Linux I have very little proprietary
software.

>
Even though I can afford to buy proprietary software, I usually find
that the open-source ones are either better or good enough. As long as
they don't eventually kill themselves as useful applications the way
that Thunderbird just did, I continue using them forever.
  

I recall one woman refusing to use proprietary software because her
financial information had repeatedly been stolen. The loss came as
a result of bugs in proprietary software and malware, and she swore
that she would never allow herself to be a slave of such
easily-compromised software again. I know that she has a blog, but
I don't remember what it was.

 
I believe that. My wife's credit card has been compromised five or
six times. She uses Windows and Windows applications.

>
Mine was compromised a lot in the 2000s, but it seems to have had a
lot to do with the machines used at gas stations more than anything
else. My wallet also did nothing to block RFID signals at the time.
The last time it was compromised was when I bought this laptop. My
wife eventually let me know that Best Buy, where I bought it using a
credit card, had a number of complaints over the years. Whoever
purchases there is basically give his credit card away to thieves...
I don't know if it's BestBuy itself or the terrible security on the
site, but it was compromised soon after the purchase.

 
It could be a coincidence. And she uses her card a lot more than I use
mine.

>
Yeah, you don't have much of a choice other than PayPal if you're
making online purchases though.

 
I understand. I had to change out my Visa debit card a month or so ago
because some moron was using it for Google Pay. I've got a good credit
union, they get this kind of stuff stopped quick. But it is a pain to
have change out my card number for my monthly bills. (First world
problems — or should that be "soon to be former first world problems?")

I can't imagine how bad the security of these institutions or our software
is that this continues to be a problem. My card used to get cloned all the
time back in the 2000s when I was using a wallet without RFID blocking and
blindly trusting the machines at convenience stores to be secure. It's
been a lot better since, but it sucks that my card had to yet again be
cloned when I bought this laptop because I dared to make an online
purchase. Luckily, I caught it quick: I was waiting in the dentist's
office and noticed a few charges for Ubers.