[ a mirror of a review i posted on my letterboxd but i thought was cute enough to share here. lazy post. ]
* The End of the Tour
I only got any enjoyment in a second watch through where I just imagined they were both gay for each other.
Wallace
is so lonely and repeatedly doesn't want Lipsky to leave, when he gets
upset its when he feels like Lipsky is falling in between his fingers.
Wallace
doesn't want women to come between them both, but Lipsky insecure; wants
to prove himself socially adequate and not this shared trope they both
despise. Though ultimately fruitless as he's melts down taking his anger
out on his lover, but Wallace wanting to just take care of Lipsky makes
more room for him.
I didn't take notes, but if you watch it,
think about it. It's not perfect, but there's so many funny little
moments to Fujo out about.
** rating: ★★☆☆☆
But its like actually pretty miserable,
a terrible way to remember either writers. It's neither feels true or
vulnerable, to me at least.
On the first of October of Trump's second term the U.S. Government entered the longest shut down in history as of writing. Congress was unable to pass a new budget continuing resolution that would allow the government to work until the end of September. The democrats refused to vote on any new CR that wouldn't either preserve tax credits and ACA coverage for US citizens, which was threatened by every CR proposed by the GOP.
These demands only preserved the status quo. Cutting the two features was on the part of the Republicans to tidy up the deficit they built up with Trump's named Big Beautiful Bill. Which had cut revenues with an excessive amount of tax cuts.
In the breadth of the shutdown two major demographics were hurt. First dependents on Federal subsidies, notably SNAP (food stamps) recipients who relied on it to feed themselves and their families. Secondly federal worker, who did not receive pay throughout the shut down. Additionally Trump took advantage of the shut down to lay off 211,000 federal workers.
I have eagerly followed coverage from both halves of reporters and commentators, and I wanted to give an analysis on this topic. The narrative surrounding which I feel has become intrusively muddied by partisan narratives. In this piece I would like to analyze a lot of the arguments I came across on the part of Democratic[1] commentators.
** facts of the matter
But before getting to the arguments, I want to address some simple factual matters.
*** strategic voting
When the news broke that 6 Democrats(ish) had crossed the line to end the government shutdown, many were shocked as it had come seemingly out of nowhere. Until then Democratic leader Chuck Schumer had shown no shake in his resolve to continue the shutdown. When it happened prominent DNC figures like California's governor Newsom and Justice Dem AOC had both publicly shamed the senators who had cut the shutdown short.
But any review of the 6 who had voted with republicans shows the thinnest of veils hiding an organized attempt to pin the blame on a few sacrificial anodes. All the candidates were not seeking re-election in the coming midterms and so had nothing to lose.
...
*** yougov poll on how people are feeling right before the end of the shutdown
The biggest failure in the arguments is a complete lack of acknowledgement of the facts. Surveys are by no means a great metric, but none of the commentators I had listened to had bothered to review any poll work.
Here are some big points to take away from the YouGov poll:
A majority of people approved of the government opening again
Before the measure passed by the Senate to end the shutdown, 39% of Americans said they were personally being affected a great deal or somewhat by the shutdown — a high since we began asking at the start of the shutdown
( 39% isn't the number to pay attention to; it includes people who felt the worthlessly worded "somewhat". But the increase since the last polling is the interesting part. )
Americans were equally split (41 for and 39 against) on holding out for an ACA extension.
It definitely seemed like the consequences were just now starting to be felt on the average.
but clearly not enough to be divisive yet.
47% of democrats disapprove of the deal and 31% approve
It clearly wasn't a net popular move, but who's to say that it will be a thing that sticks in peoples mind. but to be clear the deal was not popular.
starting all the way back in October, trump annoyed by not making any progress demanded congress get rid of the filibuster.
“It is now time for the Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP CARD,’ and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!” the president wrote on his social media site Thursday night.
* arguments
** take the foot off the pedal because there's a wall in front of us and we're gonna crash
This anxiety I feel animates most all of the arguments for having ended the shut down. I am partially sympathetic, because when it's too late we will have lost all of our good will the democrats fought so hard to claw back. But giving up without any signaling from our voters only signals to them that we're insecure.
Commentators claimed that the hurt felt by the voters was going to be blamed on the democrats. But these same commentators claimed to have whole heartedly believed that sensibly the republicans were responsible.
This reeks of insecurity to me. The polling that did exist at the time indicated that Americans were completely capable of identifying who was making the unreasonable claims. So this insincerity and infantilization I feel like really reflected an ugly picture on the commentary class.
*** SUBARGUMENT: we could of shook off the filibuster
(this argument is given by voices for keeping the shut down going)
I don't put a lot of weight behind this hypothesis, but Trumps indifference for a congress he won't have to deal with after his term is a very strong fault line. Even if Trump wasn't able to force their hand into destroying the filibuster (which I don't personally think the congressional republicans would ever let go of) it was a powerful way to antagonize their fragile caucus.
*** SUBARGUMENT: infinite torture wheel
[ imagine: picture of spiked wheel crushing poor government dependants ]
This really is more of a rhetorical argument aimed at voices who argue for having kept on with the shut down. Depicting them as privileged people uncaring for the victimized constituents pinned under the infinite torture wheel. All for their own selfish pleasure.
if we were not willing to take some hurt why did we pick this fight? I understand this could be used to justify an infinite torture wheel on the constituents, which is ugly and I don't endorse. But we did not win anything. I am just not sold that giving up and going home with nothing is better than admitting we fought an empty battle for nothing.
*** SUBARGUMENT: it was time to step off the brakes, we won
no we didnt?
Democrats got an extremely dubious oral promise from republican for a vote in the senate for a bill that would seek to extend ACA coverage. A bill that even if the republicans recognized their promise wouldn't matter. Because after it passes in the senate it goes to the house, where there is approximately a 0% chance that it will pass in the completely republican controlled house.
The fact we're relying on promises is nothing short of a humiliation ritual. My own personal dignity aside, I think this is worth keeping in mind, because another way that people articulate this skirmish as a win is as a rhetorical win. Demonstrating the disregard republicans have for their constituents.
The main win is that democrats creamed in the few off cycle elections during the shut down.
But I am skeptical of the importance of the shut down on those. Notably it was NYC, a race where Cuomo was never going to win Virginia, which while not 100% sold, there was no particular reason to think she would of lost going into it. PA which wasn't going to lose California passed prop 50 again something I don't really think was not going to pass, thought it was definitely the most contentious of this group.
I do value that the margins were high, this feeds into itself as momentum and confidence in the voters. but i also think as the pressure mounts, a perceived loss on this fight does nothing but disperse the crowd.
** the republicans were never going to give in
I am partial to this argument, but in its own way i think them not giving in is the win. we're not asking for anything unreasonable. We're asking them to have kept good on their word when Trump said he wasn't going to touch healthcare entitlements. I am also kind of conceding to the infinite torture wheel machine argument here.
“We’re not going to touch it. Now, we are going to look for fraud,” Trump said Wednesday when asked about Medicaid. – Washington Post (February 27, 2025)
*** non linear consequences.
Instead of the consequences steadily increasing through a shut down there will be exponential increases in problems. Right before the shut down the FAA had basically collapsed in on itself, and without reliable air transit there would be a whole new degree of pains. I am basically in agreeance with this point.
* ripples?
These aren't so much arguments as observations about the surrounding meta arguments and feelings.
** democratic weak leadership?
Despite the above concern, Chuck Schumer by all evidence did a good job on keeping the democrats together. Messaging coming out of blue senators was unanimous during the shutdown. Even (embarrassingly) the same senators who officially crossed the line, just the day before were talking about the maintaining the shutdown.
While I cast doubt on Newsom and AOC not seeing through the strategic voting when they called out those sacrificial anodes. I see clueless commentators sincerely pinning blame on those senators as clear evidence of the democratic leadership working effectively.
Lastly I feel like the democrats have done a really lacking job on selling us on this being a win.
* how do i feel?
I feel like coming out empty handed is really ugly for us democrats, and some of the weak arguments coming out of the pathetic commentator class reak of an insecurity that can be smelled by any voter.
Basically all of these skirmishes are orientated for the mid terms.
I put forth my arguments on why I don't think the democrats' actions helped hold onto the momentum built up in the off year elections. But I don't think my arguments are all encompassing, and I do think there's room for debate. But crucially I feel like a lot of the arguments put out are fully sincere and lack some factual basis.
I think a big loss was that the democrats didn't remind the public that we're just holding trump to his words.
* footnotes
There has been a lot of concern about the left wing media desire's not being shared with the actual Democrats. I share this concern, but for the purpose of clarity I will using the broadest and most inclusive definition of democratic commentators.
I got it in 2020ish and I purchased it off eBay for $40.
After 4 years sum of wear and tear on my part and any further acrewed by its previous owner I gave up on it. It had earned a lot of erratic behaviors with turning off randomly, speakers would only rarely work which made making phone calls impossible. I held off on buying a new phone because I really felt like there wasn't a new phone for a reasonable price for me. I don't want a big screen, and with 3aXL I really didn't want to go bigger, and yes I am aware of the irony of having bought the XL.
New phones are obsessed with features that don't concern me, namely the display and camera. While I do make frequent use of the camera I have so little care for the fidelity of the photos and video. I also really don't enjoy the overly sharp look and feel of a lot of phone cameras so if I was dead set on taking a photo I would just bust out a nice real camera.
## my perspective
I am looking for anew phone that is feature complete but not cluttered. Which is just to say, I really want to feel enabled by my phone. When I was briefly living in Japan, I could not use my phone as a payment method, which made my time a little bit less convenient. My pixel wasn't compatible with the pay stations half was because my phone was dated, and half because Japan has a very blatant preference for iPhones.
In the same breath I really value something being not in the way, and as I will discuss later I don't think that is fully achieved by this iPhone. I am really repulsed by the notion of needing to coddle your expensive luxury gee-gaw. In a literal way that would include needing to protect a delicate screen, fragile chasis, or other minute build features. But it also includes things like needing to constantly baby sit its' battery. For me I use my phone all day and charge over night, not unusual, but if I were to miss a day I really loathe the idea that my following day will revolve around nursing outlet to outlet.
With that out of the way here are my take aways a few weeks into owning my first iPhone...
# observations
Something that I came in worried about iphones is their battery life. I have known them to have a bit of a reputation for inconviently lasting just a little short of day. But to my suprise it has been completely fine, I haven't had it die on me once.
But my phone habits aren't particularly energy hungry. I don't like watching videos on my phone, and the only time I've had to deal with a low battery pop up was on a particularly dour day when I just layed around watching star trek clips.
So far most of my time has been spent in Apple's books app. On android I used Librera with few complaints. But I simply did not know how good I could have it. I love that the UI is out of the way, the font rendering looks strangely good (something I've learned I can't take for granted), and I can lock the orientation so I can read in bed (which for some reason I was having trouble in Librera).
I was also initially cringing at the idea that I would have to buy my books off Apple's own storefront, but I was pleasantly suprised that I was able to just add my PDFs and ePubs straight to the Apple Books app. Though Apple was sure to send me to their store for other features :P .
Something novel to me about using an iphone is how much the iphone wants to be my NANNY. From reminding me to read more, or that I have read TOO MUCH SHIT on discord. Android was always a kind of distant guardian in my life. They came home with fun toys, but they like were never there when I poked my eye out. Not that Apple to my knowledge has ever really helped anyone.
It has felt like having a teacher constantly in the room. Not even over my shoulder, just there.
Early on into my switch I was prompted to update my brand new iphone. Because I'm a slug, I thoughtlessly accepted it and after leaving my phone to do some work in my basement my phone much like living with a roommate was busy moving everything around into a new place. So when I returned I stumbled into the much talked about liquid glass update.
When I picked up my phone and found everything was changed I just sighed. I don't particularly hate it. The only thing that stirs in my cold hater heart is that it feels a little shallow in its' riding of nostalgia for old aero and aqua design language. It just came upon me frivolously. Like a small child trying to explain anything to me.
On my last phone I had set my ringtone to be a bleepy and bloopy version of Dragonquest's overture march. It's distinct flip phone quality makes the dread of having to pick up the phone just a little bit easier.
I didn't expect to have any problems setting it as a ringtone. I could perfectly imagine in settings being able to just select one of my many mp3s and using it. But sadly this remained in my imagination because out of the box you can only select from a short list of pre installed ring tones or you can go onto the itunes store and buy one.
While it did feel really stupid I wasn't totally against it. I felt like it would be appropriate to compensate the fine people and scum at SquareEnix their fair share. But the itunes store lacked an appropriately bleepy or bloopy rendition. Something surprising to me seeing as I got the track off an official CD.
So sure that there must be a way put a ringtone that I want on this thing I sought out some internet resources and found a few guides. They all included downloading Garage band, cropping, and exporting to a specific file format. So I sat at my desk waiting for 2 hours using my 3rd world country internet connection to download this audio workstation.
It was easy enough, but It felt so needless. Apple didn't even have the courtesy of forcing me to pay for a compromised product, they were going to make me walk to get it.
also
i miss gestures...
## face id
Something shocking to me was the iphone's complete omitting of a fingerprint sensor. Something that I had become so expecting of in a modern device. It's not the end of the world, but I don't exactly love what Apple replaced it with.
First the strength of Face ID: no matter whats on my fingies I can easily unlock my phone. This comes up in my life when I am cooking. On my pixel 3aXL any grease, water, mayo, or gunk would require that I peck in my PIN. With Face ID I can hands free unlock my device.
Now the downside of Face ID: it is dependent that my face look the same. While I am no changeling, I do make frequent use of the ugliest, squarest, and tackiest sunglasses of all time to help combat migraines. But these things make those old mustache n' glasses disguises seem like childs play in comparison, because as far as my iphone is concerned I am an intruder.
To a lesser but still prevalent extant I have this problem when I am not wearing my normal glasses or a hat. It's made all the more frustrating because it required that my PIN instead of being the normal 4 digits long be 6. Which I would appreciate if I had a more reliable way to easily get into my phone.
When I pull my phone up to my face (usually at a brightness so low that I can only see my hideous face) and I am lucky enough to have Face ID detect my face I still have to pull up the lock screen to get into my phone.
THIS IS NOT A FEATURE
I do not care if it is intentional behavior IT IS A BUG because the developers ARE ON CRACK!!!
## the hardware
I admit this nitpick to be particularly vein and self entitled. but i was really let down that my iphone didn't come with any case. if you're gonna use all this glassy surface but not offer me the courtesy of even the flimsiest case i feel like the all you're offering me is a burden. a little child i have to cradle.
When I got my pixel 3aXL it came with a a little fabricy case and I never replaced it and while I don't think every manufacturer should give a forever case i do think if you're gonna make such an indulgent shell for your very expensive device it feels like apple at that point is performing it's own vein gesture preferring the aesthetic value of their product to my ease of mind in being its new owner.
A small problem I was equipped to handle was the matter of charging the phone. For a while now Apple has enforced use of their own proprietary lightning connector. For my birthday my grandma bought me a pair of Airpod Pros that I wasn't able to charge. At the time I interpreted this to be an attack by my grandma on my lack of money to have previously bought an Apple product. So when Tim Apple maliciously attacked me with his lightning port I was ready.
Proof that whatever doesn't kill you does makes you stronger.
The phone gets really hot and pretty quickly. It's never been unpleasant, but it was shocking the first time it happened. So far it has mostly manifested as a cute and subtle reminder I’m doing too much with this thing.
I really enjoy the silent hard switch. In middle school I got to make regular use of an ipad and this little switch is what I remember most about it. To be honest I don't make frequent use of the switch. I find switching on Do not Disturb an inappropriate solution to an inappropriate amount of notifications. But when I have used it, I have enjoyed the satisfaction of knowing its a mechanical thing I have flipped off and its not gonna just get magically flipped back on (like how managing the wifi and bluetooth radio works :P)
### the tragedy
On the 8th of October. Just two days after receiving the device I felt a shattering tragedy. While walking to the grocer and thumbing on the damn phone, I was totally foxy jump scared by a dog. My neighbors dog ran at me and in the process of running away and shoving my fresh new perfect iphone 12 mini into my pocket it slipped and slammed onto the concrete. Thankfully face up, so it's back took the damage.
While it worked fine, I could hear the nefarious Tim Apple cackle every time I looked at my decrepit device. "Don't you love that we made it all out of glass?" no Tim, I don't love it. You set me up for failure. Tim Apple you crooked man, you ARE NOT ON MY SIDE.
The added tragedy is that I had not ordered a case when I ordered the phone so I was still waiting on a phone case that wouldn't arrive for another week. So until then I would occasionally cut and scratch up my fingers and palm using this bastard device.
Now that it is cradled in a competent Otterbox case I don't have to be constantly reminded of my failure to hold rectangles.
Look I accept blame for dropping it, but I feel like I have been in part been made a victim of the folly of men even greater than me chasing simple aesthetic pleasures. Seriously it being made of glass is so dumb.
## "luxury"
I spent a bit of money on this phone. Apple tries to make you feel ok about spending this much on a phone, but convincing you that it is a luxury item. This premise is not unfounded, but is unsatisfying in a few ways. While I revel in there being no ads in my news feed, it is obvious that apple would like me make it a habit to give them some more money (see the section on setting a ring tone).
Which is frustrating more when it happens because I feel like they are close to having something special. But the problem is when you do even a little bit of these nickel and dimings the illusion is completely shattered.
Even more frustrating is that some of Apple's money seeking behavior has reached out of my iphone into my real life. Like in my inbox where I have found multiple emails recommending I casually drop a few thousand SMACKAROOS on an APPLE VISION PRO. HOW ABOUT you apple VISION MY SHAFT YOU FUCK WADS!!!!!!!!
# conclusion
its ok.
I probably won't be getting another iphone. Partially because Apple has stopped making mini iphones, and I have no interest in chasing a massive price tag for take it or leave it software and cameras I will not use.
Weezer used to be a big part of my life and made up approximately 100% of my musical diet. Not unlike taste acquired as a teen it slowly trickled out of my life and by 2019ish it vanished almost entirely. My nosy room, still buzzes reminding me every moment. Each glance to my left reveals my dedicated shelf of Weezer a subtle reminder of how fickle a dedication can be. Featured prominently is my "the lion and the witch" 538 of 3000 print run Vinyl which I still treasure very much.
My dedication to Weezer evaporated after the release of the much awaited black album. Released 2019, I had waited so long, coveting the few singles released before its release. Each of those tracks was fantastic, and I watch the music video for High As A Kite fairly routinely. The album had leaked early from a European music streaming service, but I refused to listen to it as I had pre ordered the smoky vinyl and was intent on listening to it upon it's arrival via the USPS. I actually did not wait until I could hold the Vinyl. I remember the day I first heard it. I had a shitty day at school, and it was raining. By the time I located and entered my mom's car I was drenched. So I reached out my hand and listened to the black album. I was feeling lifted up by the songs I had become familiar with, but after the fifth track Piece of Cake my heart sank. I labor with a track by track review, but it was clear that Weezer lead with their best tracks not just by track list but with the singles they released. It was so bad and by the time I got home I don't think I had even finished the last track but I just pulled out my earbuds and layed face down in my bed.
One time only a year before, someone I loved so much and I miss even more had burned a CD containing the contents of the infamous to my in group Weezer christmas album. Infamous for its tackiness and frankly frivolous existence. They gave it to me before our shared English class.
I ripped it out of their hand and put it in my mouth and destroyed it with my teeth. In the aftermath they tried to assemble it again using the bits that had scattered on the floor. After jigsawing them together they couldn't finish it as a small slanted trapezoid shaped piece was missing. It was assumed that I had ingested it. I don't really remember if I did. But I ruminate on this experience with high frequency. I can't quite explain the shame, besides that fact that it's just the behavior of lunatic. I think I just didn't know how to say thank you.
My disposition hasn't really evolved on Weezer either, unlike some ex Rick and Morty fans I haven't regressed to being like it was never good. And I also refuse to stoop to the level of ex Simpsons fans and claim that Weezer mysterious stopped being good after I stopped listening to it. In fact OK Human a record that released to little context and well after I had tuned out is I what I believe sincerely to be Weezer at their best.
I had first been introduced to Weezer by then TF2 youtuber FUNKe who'd prominently used some weezer songs in his videos, borrowed symbols from Pinkerton, and made TF2 styled parody of a Weezer song.
In my car I keep my CD acquired sometime in 2017 of The Return of the Rentals. A CD I had exclusively because the relation to Matt Sharpe and his carrying on of the same sound in early Weezer. I liked some of the later The Rentals, but none of them got farther than on my Spotify playlist.
It's strange to me that something I made my prominent concern could suddenly just stop being cared about. I haven't weared my Weezer clothes since the turn of the decade.
I don't really know what else to say at the moment so I'll end on a my personal ranking the Weezer albums.
I couldn't bring myself to listen to SZNS, so I have omitted ranking it. Also you may think some of my rankings are based in being a contrarian, but I would urge you to return to some of these albums disregarding some of the narratives you've heard about them.
As I was cleaning out my closet, my hourly chime beeped turning to 1700est. But as I have become familiar, the beep; the turn of the hour on my Casio Baby-G is just a few seconds short of the correct time. I continued on filling a bag of my unfitting clothes, without thinking I started counting the seconds. I don't know exactly how off my watch is, I usually find myself satisfied with counting an addition 17 seconds.
The delay kind of tilts the purpose of the chime. By the nature of it err, it is telling me that it is the turn of the hour. But rather is warning that it is soon to come. This relationship I have enjoyed with all my watches.
I did not manufacuture this short delay. It's a bit hard to sync a watch perfectly without devoting a conscious effort to it. But I like this skewing of form. It makes me think of cracks in a rock. The minute changes in salt or other mineral that make the noisy, bumpy, and sharp changes in face of a rock. It's texture.
Browsers are a weird deal. As pieces of software, they're very vague. In time the scope of browsers has crept and crept until they have become their own little operating systems. In the sameway that Emacs isn't a text editor but a lisp interpreter, browsers have really become Javascript interpreters. A lot people use Javascript as a pejorative, and while I feel like there is a lot of valid derision cast its' way, it simply is the reality we live in. Because web browsers have become just that, in my opinion there really hasn't been a big distinction in which web browser you use. Whether its Chrome, OperaGX if you like the taste of crayons, Firefox, or Brave if you think the age of consent is too high.
I have been a life long Mozilla Firefox user. Not because I super love Mozilla (which I do) or really even a dedication to open source software. Like a lot of things in life I just use it because my dad told me to use it. Starting way back when he built me my first computer in 2005.
I had a brief rebellious phase where I used Vivaldi, it was fine. But it felt a little too cutesy and when I came across a problem with an extension I just came back home to Firefox.
Sane minds for tech news probably use [hacker new] for finding technology discussion and while its a great site, I spend more time on 4channel's /g/ board. Partially because of self loathing, but also because of an early habit who's comfort is too strongly ingrained to change. A frequent topic on /g/ are browsers and usually how much Mozilla sucks because woke or something. Because of this contrarianism there has bred a brood of canonical web browsers. They come in many flavors:
Completely built from the ground up: cool but unusuable
see Nyxt or QuteBrowser
Chrome reskin.
Webkit based browsers.
I have never been able to compile one of these.
Firefox but with some about:config flags changed.
Palemoon users stay winning, I love you all.
This last category I despise more than any other. Because it lays bare what these complainers actually care about: which is to say basically nothing. [LibreWolf] is a project that has become modestly popular among software contrarians and is frequently the subject of virtue signalling on sites where you find those software contrarians home. LibreWolf is a fork of firefox with some minor tweaks that include but are not exclusive to:
Removing google as a one of the built in search engines.
Including the popular ad block add-on uBlock origin.
Using Firefox's "strict" privacy mode.
It also claims to always be fast to update because it builds off of the latest Firefox stable. Which is earnestly a good policy, but I think shows some of the inherent laziness. There's not anything novel about compiling with some flags and shipping it as a brand new flavor of Firefox. I will say I do appreciate that on LibreWolf's website that they do call it "A custom version of Firefox, focused on privacy, security and freedom.". Because it isn't even really hiding that its just a few settings switched.
Also as anyone who's used the strict privacy mode can tell you it's not a great browsing experiance.
I just think distros of Firefox are a little silly. If you like the defaults it makes sense, but everyone should know that there isn't anything special about the ingredients of Librewolf. Its just arranged in a different way, which I think isn't conveyed in the way that it is discussed as Firefox but good. All the minute changes can be made in "about:config" or just the settings page. And I get it, if you don't want to set it up yourself thats fine, but I feel like it's natural that as people have used browsers all their lives that you will have already configured your browser incrementally through the years to have achieved your desired outcomes.
# So... Waterfox.
Waterfox has existed on my radar for a long time. It first grew a user base as a fork of Firefox for x64 architecture when that was cutting edge. To me it was just a clone of firefox, before there were like 90 of those. One of my close friends Maddie actually has used Waterfox for quite a while which was the main portal from which I heard about it beyond the little I knew from way back. I never was particularly interested in using it, all of the changes seemed minor...
But one day, I was really bored. I shouldn't have been, because I had a lot of stuff to do. But I was. So while scrolling /g/ I saw it mentioned in a thread. The post was as tedious as any post about browser is. Something about how it wasn't made by multiple minorities that this poster didn't care for. Which as I write this makes me feel guilty that this post reminding me of its' existence is what got me to try it. Prejudices existing or not aside I decided to give it a try.
## Getting
Installing on Debian was a bit of a hassle. I was a little shocked to find Waterfox absent from Debian's repositories, because I felt like it was up Debian's maintainers' alley. But it's understandable they don't want to maintain 20 frivolous flavors of the same package. Yet they still carry gnu-icecat which is a little bit silly I think (<--- gnu hater). But I am no stranger to compiling usually slightly older versions of software for Debian, so I went out to find the source. Reading the build instructions I found that it would be tedious as I would need to delete files to make space for the whole 40gbs specified in the requirements in the build instructions. I also got the hint by the system specs that my laptop was probably going to need a long while to actually build this thing. Man, browsers are big :O (who knew?)
So eventually I sought out a precompiled binary. A privilege that is almost always afforded to me by my APT package manager privilige. I have lived the DNF life and I know that sometimes its impossible to find .RPMs for some stuff, and I'm sure its worse for people who live in even nicher ecosystems. I found one in a site affiliated/hosted by OpenSuse. I've actually had a hard time using packages from this site, but this time it was no problem. Though I couldn't add it as a source because the host seemingly hasn't renewed their certs in the last year. But theres also an 70% chance that I just fucked up the GPG keys, as I always do.
Regardless to say that while it wasn't hard. But if you value using only software from the Debian repos for convenience and guarantee of reliable security updates, perhaps this venture isn't for you. Which is fair, to be honest if I hadn't already written up a lot for this experiment I wouldn't of bothered setting this up.
## So this isn't maintained by Mozilla?
Something to consider about Waterfox meta-contextually is that it is a firmly community driven project. Firefox is project closely maintained by a massive enterprise, that is questionably not profit driven. Which means Mozilla's reputation is heavily tied to Firefox, and without a standing reputation Mozilla's developers will be out of a job. Which is to say that Mozilla has a very closely tied incentive to making sure Firefox is on the up and up. This notion may sound offensive to anyone familiar with Mozilla's history of big ugly mistakes, but I think if you can not be such a hater this should intuitively feel true.
This point isn't meant to discredit Waterfox's developers either. Emilio, Rvandermulen, Glandium, and all of the other contributors have seemingly done great work. But the nature of being held together by a bunch of individuals with no finite incentive can be prone to malicious actors. Again nothing about this makes Firefox invincible or even great at this job. But it is something a major enterprise is a little better equipped to deal with. Not just because legally binding incentives/punative abilities but also they have the scale to more closely monitor commits. I mean they have so much staff apparently that they can waste time fingering the TOS so that morons like Bryan Lunduke can freak the fuck out for no reason and him and his ilk can spam 300 videos that are factually wrong.
Getting back to the point. I just wanted to highlight the contrast in the two structures present in the projects. There are different virtues inherent to trust, and which ever you value should make your preference between the two pretty clear.
# About Waterfox.
As this text grows longer I felt like it would be kind to write a briefer take away; TL;DR for the piece right here. So here is the:
## THE BOTTOM LINE:
Waterfox is pretty sensible... and I will use it for the foreseeable future.
I give it 3.8 Monjar's out of 5.
Importing
cookies, bookmarks, and history from Firefox to Waterfox seems a bit
sketchy, I have forgone it. Partially because I didn't want to finagle
with the process, but I thought that the act of setting this stuff up
manually is a valuable experience to detail. It is a little humorous though, because I think the group most likely to try Waterfox are people moving from Firefox. This blind spot is courtesy of borrowing the setup wizard of Firefox which naturally doesn't offer importing data from itself.
If you want to do it yourself, you need to find your profile folder and move it to Waterfox. Make sure to make a back up of your first profile because from reading it seems like there some expected breakage.
There
are loads of tweaks freely available in the settings page, and I think
that's probably the main appeal for curious users. Some maybe accessible
in Firefox's "about:config" page, but I do know some of these tweaks
would require the use of a custom CSS. Which if you don't end up wanting
to try Waterfox but you do use Firefox, I suggest investing in your
free time some of the CSS changes you can make, I quite like a lot of
them.
## "Security"
Security is such a nebulous thing, especially pertaining to browser. Mostly because most security is in the hands of the person holding this metaphorical hammer. But despite its hard to pin down nature I think to those concerned about their data Waterfox is a fine venue to place it. Waterfox doesn't have any telemetry to turn off. Waterfox also uses oblivious DNS, which is a means of obfuscating traffic from your ISP that isn't already covered by HTTPS. It's a strange feature because it does so little, but also if you use 1.1.1.1 as your DNS like some already have you should already have this feature naturally.
## Workflow
I make ample use of two firefox features: its snapshot feature and picture in picture, both work out of the box. Which is a relief because I had actually tried Waterfox once before and Picture in Picture was not yet brought into Waterfox's stable branch. Picture in Picture is killer for me as I only use one monitor. Which I should maybe write about later, because I think it is the way to go. As far as I can tell Waterfox is at feature parity with Firefox now.
### Add-ons
I had no problems with the Add-ons; they all worked perfectly on this platform. Add-ons are seemingly the main way that people customize their browsers and comfortably none of my extensions fell into any compability issues. which makes sense because its largely the same codebase. But it should be said that there are some Add-ons that I saw while scrolling Mozilla's Add-ons page that were not compatible. You may wish to check that out first if you try Waterfox out.
I usually don't like using Add-ons in general. So Itry to not use more than 3 for Firefox. At the point of doing this trial I actually did use 4.
uBlock Origin
Dark Reader
h264ify
Bitwarden
Also as a note I have been using Firefox Extended Support Release. So I may have missed some bleeding edge ff features that Waterfox isn't yet at parity.
# Peter... the Cloudflare is here.
Isn't there someone you're forgetting to ask?
Perhaps if you've used a browser that isn't FF or Chrome you've come across this problem before. But Cloudflare doesn't like it when you use something that isn't those main two. Pretty early into this experiment I found a big roadblock when visiting some sites I regularly check: I landed on a page telling me I was blocked.
I couldn't access:
moxfield.com
mobygames.com
apnews.com
bbc.com
This wasn't a complete shock, I actually have been blocked by Cloudflare before. I thought it would be as simple as changing my user agent, but Waterfox doesn't actually have a unique user agent. I am not quite sure how I was flagged and as I write this I have actually been un-filtered and can use those sites. Frustratingly it seems like its something dependent on the fickle wim of Cloudflare as if you look up this issue you will find countless accounts of this happening through the years.
While this isn't the fault of Waterfox or its' maintainers it is something you should know that you will have to face if you want to switch and there isn't a solution for it. It's just whenever Cloudflare arbitrarily decides to let you back in ): .
# Conclusion
I dont think there's a particular reason to swtich from Firefox. Waterfox boasts some performance increases, but there either illusory or so minor that I didn't notice. The main reason I am sticking with it is that it's made for me. While it will inherit some baby things from Firefox, I enjoy that the settings page is full of little tweaks about stuff I care about.
This trial started because I was bored. If you're bored try it.
But Firefox is fine. No matter
how many times people freak the fuck out over a misinterpretation of
some sort of Mozilla TOS, Firefox is fine and probably won't die.
A few weeks ago I was visiting my best friend in southern Maryland. On my second morning staying there, when my friend's fiance was getting ready for my tacky camo Casio W-217H chirped. He reflexively checked his wrist expecting the first bleep of an alarm or changing the mode of which, humorous because while the chime sound is shared among casios he was wearing the exact same ugly totally tacky camo version of the W-217H.
I explained that my hourly chime was on, and we shared a muted laugh. Later when he left, my friend asked me why I had enabled the hourly chime. This was not the first time I was asked this, and I've enjoyed sharing this little preference and discussing its merits.
The bleep at the turn of every hour helps keep me grounded. Time has an ephemeral quality in day to day life. Sometimes left alone at my desk I can lose hours to any task, even in the peripheral of vision is the clock of my computer's taskbar. But with this recognizable bleep, I am given a gentle reminder that the hour has turned. Which alone isn't particularly useful, but in relation to last bleep I heard helps me measure how I've used my time without needing a time stamped to-do list or detailed calendar.
That venture of a highly detailed to-do list or calendar has always captured me, and I've tried many times and failed each to adopt such a regimented schedule. I lack the discipline, and frankly the direction required to make those kind of micro management decisions.
But this gentle nudge of "an hour has passed you dingus" has empowered me. I still have spent hours at my desk playing Fushigi no Dungeon 2: Furai no Shiren. I mean who wouldn't? That games is absolutely amazing in ways in all ways sensible. But I do know when I stop how much time I've spent on the endeavor. Which has empowered me. I don't always make the best decisions regarding how I use my time, but I am definitely making more informed decisions and that makes me feel great.
An hourly chime has been a great thing for me, but before you reach for your watch to see if it shares the functionality, I want to talk about why my friend's fiance and him were shocked when I told them I use the hourly chime. See I live with my parents, without a job at the moment ( not shocking to most of you :P ) and when the hour turns and the C217 bleeps either on my wrist or on my desk, the only other person in ear shot is my dog. I like to think the chime makes me feel just a little less aimless, and maybe that makes it easier to forget that I don't have a job and contribute nothing.
But this is a privileged afforded to me because I don't share a space with others. I once did when I would go to a campus every week day.
When in school I actually did try a few times to enable the chime when I was home and toggle when I woke up in the morning to go to campus, but I found this wasn't worth the effort of another action item to do in the morning, and of course when it would escape my mind during the morning rush I would feel quite embarrassed for annoying my peers and professors when it would inevitably bleep in the middle of lecture.
what a pretty game.
For most self respecting individuals sharing spaces with people is necessary through out the day. So perhaps employing the use of an hourly chime is not for you. But maybe your peers would love the presence of an hourly chime, in which case you should get a big watch and put it in your classroom or office.
These little empowering things alone don't mean anything, but together hold together the fragile bundle of ego that is myself. I hope even if you don't find my chime anecdote related to your life, that I opened the door to you leveraging some little thing in your life to empower yourself.
