thisislife2

Born on December 12, 2023•2486 Karma

4 hours ago

This is actually based on the Goanna web engine (a fork of the Firefox / Gecko web engine) derived from the https://www.basilisk-browser.org/ . You can find out more here - https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=69&p=275829#p2758... .

userbinator•

1 hour ago

The same complaint in my original comment applies - at what version was it forked from, what version of Firefox is it equivalent to?

https://www.basilisk-browser.org/features.html

Basilisk supports the technologies required for the modern web, while deliberately avoiding the rapid architectural and interface changes common in mainstream browsers.

Nothing but very vague and useless marketing-speak.

thisislife2•

29 minutes ago

Lookup PaleMoon and Basilisk in Wikipedia. The codebase of Goanna has diverged from Firefox / Gecko a lot, so trying to compare by versions won't tell you much. PaleMoon Goanna is regularly updated and supports nearly all the feature sets of a modern browser rendering engine and is feature compatible with Firefox / Gecko though it doesn't support webRTC - https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?t=28182, DRM and webExtensions ... https://www.palemoon.org/technical.shtml

dblohm7•

3 hours ago

Ah, that explains why there is still NPAPI plugin support.

thisislife2•

28 minutes ago

Yup. The only browsers that still support Flash.

thisislife2•

4 hours ago

•on: The Commodore Callback 8020 smart flip phone

Manufacturers do price according to volume. So why doesn't Jolla or Commodore plan a business strategy that focuses on increasing the volume? If $500 get you maybe 1500-2000 pre-orders, $300 may get you 5000+ orders. Sacrifice the profit margins somewhat, initially, to increase the user-base and revenue. Then use the userbase and revenue to get more investors. Currently, everyone targeting the "privacy" or "mindfulness" consumer market is just focusing on an even smaller segment among them (only the HNIs) with premium pricing. This business strategy is flawed. Look at any of the competitors - Light Phone III ($700+), Balance Phone Pro ($800+), Minimal Phone ($500+), Clicks Communicator ($500+), Fairphone 6 ($800+) - how many of them have actually succeeded growing their userbase, since their launch? How much can they really grow with that pricing, especially with the sub-optimal hardware and software (compared to their competitors) their users have to continue struggling with?

Some of you may argue the hardware is customised and developed in-house and that should justify the premium pricing. I would question the business logic of that decision. If the hardware isn't offering anything new (and as far as I can tell it isn't) that isn't already available in the market, why do you want to waste scarce resource on custom solutions instead of using cheaper, readily available designs? It is common knowledge that the consumer mobile device segment is highly competitive, profit margins thin and thus you need high volumes for long-term profitability. Thus, a business strategy that doesn't plan and prioritise for volumes is bound to struggle.

(I am sure there are many factors of this industry that I am ignorant about ... I was just thinking out aloud ...)

thisislife2•

1 day ago

•on: US-Iran memorandum of understanding in full

Trump's mishandling of the Israel-Iran war will be a great case study in international politics. But blaming Trump for Netanyahu's derangement is ill-thought. Even a Democrat President wouldn't have been able to reign him. In fact, once Biden / Harris allowed him to massacre the Palestinians in Gaza (remember, Biden publicly supported Netanyahu by announcing to the world that there is "no genocide in Gaza" - https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/20/biden-gaza-not-geno... ), the US had already lost the plot to Netanyahu's mis-adventurism. I think at one point he was making his army fight in 7-8 fronts! Under him, Israel's army is now considering occupying territories in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon when their military resources and personnel are already overstretched (Israel has what 9-10 million population?). If you read Netanyahu's history, you will discover that he has been progressively getting radicalised in his political views - a brilliant man ( Professor recalls Netanyahu's intense studies in three fields - https://news.mit.edu/1996/netanyahu-0605 ), he started out as a moderate-right, who increasingly turned to conservatism when his political ideas didn't receive the reception he desired. And now finally, the pressures of the criminal charges and security failures of the now infamous Hamas attack (which he and his government is responsible for) has now fully radicalised him into a full-blown religious fundamentalist fascist as the ongoing genocide in Gaza, West Bank and Lebanon testifies to it ('Angel of destruction': What made Benjamin Netanyahu? - https://www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/israel-who-benjamin-... ).

I don't believe any US President can "manage" him now ... he is self-destructing and taking Israel down with him.

thisislife2•

1 day ago

•on: Isthestraitofhormuzopen.com

June 20, 2026: Iran closes Strait of Hormuz over ceasefire violations - MEHR - https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-closes-strait...

thisislife2•

3 days ago

•on: Tesco moving 40k server workloads off VMware amid ...

Crowdsource it - do it on Wikipedia?

red-iron-pine•

3 days ago

still easy enough to target, and with the added benefit of non-stop internecine wikipedia arguments + the marketing depts of these firms edit pages + potential lawsuits

thisislife2•

3 days ago

•on: Apple to Make Chips in US with Intel, Trump Says

Looks like the world has come full circle - from China analysing how capitalism worked in the USA and adapting many of its processes, to the US now adapting Chinese practices of using government influence over businesses to guide them to preserve the strategic and technological lead of American businesses. (Or maybe it was always this way - American businesses have always been the "deep state" in the US, with a behind the scenes hand in governance, which the Chinese adopted and just do better today because they don't have to deal with democratic politics?).

thisislife2•

5 days ago

•on: Commodore Releases Flip Phone

Exactly. But clearly we - people who are cost conscious about getting their money's worth - aren't the target market for these "niche" devices. Which is sad, as there is a real market for a reasonably priced device like this that many would buy as a "second" phone (and maybe even make it their primary phone). Just look at all the Nokia / HMD kind-of "premium" "feature phones" (calling them "dumb phones" is silly) still sold for around $150 - $250. The only reason that they aren't as "popular" now is because the Symbian OS or KaiOS they use is lacking in many aspects. And HMD (and others) don't understanding the user needs (for example, selling such 4G phones that don't even have the ability to be a hotspot device).

thisislife2•

5 days ago

•on: I admire Fabrice Bellard. He is almost certainly a...

Yeah, ffmpeg is a pretty successful open source project to now give credit to just one man. I remember the times when AviDemux had a much faster / better H.264 encoder implementation than ffmpeg. Open source being open source, ffmpeg incorporated AviDemux code into it and ultimately even AviDemux pragmatically opted to use ffmpeg as its backend instead of trying to compete with it. (Best example of embracing the open source spirit).

thisislife2•

5 days ago

•on: Commodore Releases Flip Phone

$500??

annagio_•

5 days ago

what? you made choke.... Where I live, those kind of flip phones used to normal price €€ to 100something€ back then, how we ended at 500? I must ask if it's going to make coffee too haha.

Findecanor•

5 days ago

Unlike many flip phones, there is smartphone hardware inside capable of running Android apps — except that it is only a curated selection from Commodore's own app store.

The cost of running the app store is probably included.

Smaller production runs also mean higher price.

BTW, early adopters can get up to $100 off. (pre-order discount + discount code in the newsletter)

thisislife2•

5 days ago

Smartphones are also available for $100 today! And it doesn't even have a "premium" look - not even a metallic body.

thisislife2•

5 days ago

•on: Vance: Iran can have access to $300B reconstructio...

There is no "$300 billion fund" or "peace treaty" - these are all "carrots" being dangled to entice Iran. What we know for sure:

1. An MoU has been signed by both sides extending the ceasefire for another 60 days.

2. US Naval blockade will be lifted. The US expects the Strait to be toll-free, while Iranians claim it will not charge anything only during the 60 days ceasefire period. Iran claims it does plan to introduce some "maritime service fees", along with Oman, for the usage of the Strait, in the future.

3. Trump claims Iran will have no weapon grade nuclear material and will hand over all its enriched nuclear material. Iran claims it has only agreed to dilute the existing stockpile of 60% enriched uranium to "civilian grade" levels. It will not hand it over to anyone. And while it will also retain its existing enrichment facilities there will no "0% enrichment" policy as the US administration demands. Iran however will restrict itself from enriching uranium for military use as per the NPT.

4. The agreement also demands that Israel will have to end all military operations in Lebanon too, and withdraw from all the Lebanese territories occupied by it so far. Israel has however said it will not withdraw from the territories it has captured. Iran says it is up to Trump and the US to bring Israel to heel and enforce the agreement.

5. "Denuclearisation" and complete cessation of hostilities in Lebanon is supposed to be further negotiated within this 60 days period. During this process, US has offered to lift some sanctions if progress is made on the nuclear "deal".

- MoU reached. Peace? Not sure. - https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/527364/MoU-reached-Peace-No...

- Iran and US agree peace deal roadmap: What is and isn’t known - https://www.rt.com/news/641641-iran-us-peace-deal/

- Scoop: CIA director doubts Iran's intentions on deal, sources say - https://www.axios.com/2026/06/15/us-iran-deal-cia-director-r...

Personally, I wouldn't hold my breath for this ceasefire to last beyond 60 days. Netanyahu needs some war, some where to continue till elections in Israel are over. Peace in the Lebanon front upsets that. The US has made clear it wants the enriched nuclear pile removed. So Iran will have to deliberate on how much of all this nuclear negotiations can be trusted to not be an "intelligence gathering" exercise (to figure out where the stockpile is currently - dilution of the enriched pile will need on the ground inspection).