Dude, I'm a heavy Apple user too, normally inclined to side with them, but the App Store monopoly is not necessary to maintain the security of the platform. The EU isn't trying to change how the iOS security framework operates. It's trying to break the App Store monopoly. Apps installed from third party app stores aren't going to magically have root access to the file system, break storage segmentation, or otherwise gain some toehold in the OS that breaks our experience.

The iOS security model is independent of the app store. Your third party app from a different app store is still going to be subject to the same security model, storage segmentation, and restrictions as any other app from the app store. Installing a game from the Epic Store is not going to allow that game to access downloaded Netflix videos under any circumstance. It won't be able to access your personal photo roll unless you grant it permission to do so.

I manage roughly three dozen Azure environments and have no complaints with the first two. My use cases are not so intense that I could proffer an informed opinion on the third. Ironically, I've had more complaints with 365 than I have with Azure, random service outages for Exchange and Teams, outrages that Microsoft is rarely transparent about. They typically just quietly fix whatever the problem is. The real bitch is you have to follow their Twitter for updates when these things happen. The admin console in 365 is usually several hours behind the Twitter feed for meaningful updates.

365 is on the same infrastructure as Azure, so, there you go, Microsoft can't make their OWN shit as stable as third party applications within their cloud, lol.

Was it the cableco's that were greedy or the content providers they had to license channels from? The big boys don't reveal numbers but the little regional players sometimes do. The conclusion I've always had is TV became a loss leader towards the end of the ouguts for Internet and voice services. Today there are occasions where you can't even get TV as a standalone service.

I've traveled with my Apple TV. It's not really a huge burden in the context of a bag already filled with laptop, tablet, and all the related fixings.

It's very rare (less than 1 in 100) for us to get an Amazon delivery via USPS. In any reasonably sized metro Amazon has their own delivery and logistics operation. I'll spare the wall of text on how bad this operation can be, one amusing anecdote though, I work for a company with a warehouse operation and ONLY Amazon has an issue delivering packages to us. Weirdly, UPS, USPS, and FedEx, their drivers know what the sign that says "Receiving - Building C" means. The Amazon drivers usually stop in the driveway and call us to ask where to go. Sometimes (I assume when they're behind schedule) they just bounce the delivery altogether. But I digress....

It's exceptionally common (more than 90% of the time) for my Mom who lives in the rural boondocks to receive Amazon deliveries from USPS, UPS, and FedEx.

The bitch here is, USPS can and does charge more money for long distance package shipments. Only letters have universal pricing. So what Amazon does is deliver all the parcels to the local postal sorting facility themselves and then relies on USPS (or FedEx/UPS; they do the same with them) for the last mile. They cut out the portion of the route where USPS could make money and rely on them for the expensive last mile portion.

It doesn't help that the USPS/Amazon contract is apparently so one sided that the letter carriers are told to prioritize the Amazon parcels over first class mail, which, amongst other things, includes prescription medication that people rely on to stay alive. We have letter carriers in the family and not one of them has anything positive to say about the Amazon relationship or current USPS leadership. First class is what is withering on the vine because of various changes (not just the Amazon contract, though, that's one of the big problems) mandated from on high.

His point is some Apple services bypass VPNs on iDevices. Now, having researched that, I don't think it's anything nefarious. It's mostly network detection tools and things like automatic failover for non-functional DNS (Android does this too: Give it a DNS server you control via DHCP then shut that server off. It'll start going to 8.8.8.8) but the point remains. The only way to be sure 100% of your traffic goes through the VPN is to do the VPN upstream of the iDevice. Even that isn't a surefire thing, an iPhone will continue to communicate with Apple via cellular data when on Wi-Fi unless you explicitly turn off cellular data. Again, not nefarious, it's there to provide a path if the Wi-Fi network sucks.

Personally, I never use third party Wi-Fi unless I truly (complete cellular dead zone on both my SIMs) have no other choice. That said, my solution, I implement DNS-over-TLS with a configuration profile to trusted DNS resolvers. Quad 9, Google, and Cloudflare all support this, and have reasonable (Quad 9's is the best, IMHO) privacy policies. DoT closes off the biggest data leak (unencrypted DNS), hijacking, and privacy risk of untrusted networks.

For the rest of my communication, I trust TLS. Every app of consequence I use already communicates via TLS. The vast majority of webpages these days default to TLS. Wi-Fi calling (if I'm in a dead zone I likely need this) is also via a secure (IPSec VPN) encrypted channel. If someone is playing games with TLS I'll get certificate warnings. Unless they've owned the root certificate authority, in which case, you got bigger problems than untrusted Wi-Fi, lol.

The VPN path he has is valid but I think DoT is easier. For bonus points, you can enforce it on cellular data if you're so inclined, so you're closing off any data monetization games your cellular company might be trying to play with your DNS queries.

What solution did you use for this? I home built one for my Mom, which builds a site-to-site back to my house, then announces a Wi-Fi network for all of her streaming devices. This was my middle finger when the crackdown started on password sharing. Mom is disabled and lives on under $1,000/mo of SSDI, she doesn't have the money for streaming services, and until that crackdown started it was a nice little benefit they allowed me to give her. :-(

You cannot sideload apps onto ATV.

There are apps very commonly used for piracy (Plex) that have ATV versions. In fact, the ATV version of Plex is free, while you have to pay for a non-neutered version of the app for iPhone or iPad.

It's right there at the end of his post where he called me a moron. Are you unable to read? Moron. ;-)

Those roadblocks you refer to aren't primarily about nuclear in the US. In the US it takes a decade plus to get ANY major project done. The bulk of the time is spent in court before a single shovel breaks the ground. The NIMBY and environmentalist crowds will delay, delay, delay. The only winners are the lawyers on the respective sides of the argument. Projects frequently end up cancelled after their financial backers get sick of throwing money into a black hole. This even happens with Government funded public works projects that do not have to consider the profit incentive.

What's rich is one of the key ways they accomplish this filibustering is via environmental laws. Let's use laws written to protect the environment to fight to stop a new wind farm, transmission lines, lithium mines, and every other green and green adjacent project. Because that makes sense.

TikTok does not operate any data centers or have any physical presence in MT to the best of my knowledge. That makes it 100% interstate (and foreign) commerce. If it was a physical product, let's say a leaf blower, they could, unless preempted by Congress, ban the sale of it within their State. They could not ban MT residents from simply driving to another State and buying it there.

In TikTok's case, there's no 'transaction' within the borders of MT. It's a free app. Even if there was an exchange of money, there's no physical presence within the State, so where do they get the jurisdiction to regulate it? You can equate this to sales taxes for online orders. Unless the retailer has a physical presence within the State they cannot be compelled to collect sales tax. Residents can be compelled to pay the sales tax on these purchases, New York has a line for this on its income tax forms, but it's basically the honor system. They have no way to monitor out of state purchases and determine that residents are properly paying this tax.

Regarding direct harm, that isn't the argument being made to the best of my knowledge, but even under that argument I do not see how they could ban a free online product with no physical presence within their State. Look at the lawsuit against Meta, alleging (compellingly, IMHO) harm against underage users of its products. A lot of the States that signed onto that lawsuit host data centers and offices where Meta has operations. Why didn't they just ban the darn product instead of going the lawsuit route? Or pass a State equivalent of COPPA with criminal sanctions for willful violations?

It's not that easy for a State Government to interject itself into interstate commerce.

I would argue that all of the State level laws being passed to mandate age verification at Porn Hub and friends are likewise problematic. They would have a very strong case to challenge these laws if they were so inclined. Or simply ignore them and dare the relevant State Governments to try and do something about it. If they had no physical presence within these States what could their Governments do about it?

They won't challenge them, because that industry has ton of skeletons in its closet they don't want publicly aired (this ain't Larry Flint with Hustler; PornHub and friends are knowingly profiting from revenge porn, trafficking, copyright infringement, and a host of other crimes) but I bet they'd win if they did.

Just to be clear, I am NOT a "staunch MS ally". I administer and support their products professionally, which is why I know what I do about them, but the only Microsoft product in my personal life is Windows 10 on an old desktop I picked up for 4X games.

My daily driver laptop is a Mac. Linux is spread throughout our house (home built DVR and NVR, Samba file server, home built router, VPN server, Raspberry Pis for various functions) and my professional life. I have to know the Microsoft ecosystem, because I like earning a paycheck, that does not make me a "stanch MS ally". If it wasn't for the old games I like it wouldn't be in the house at all.

The reason we're having this "sparring match" (again apparently) is because you're making things harder on yourself than they have to be. You can disable Windows Updates on both 10 and 11 via Local Group Policy, in under five minutes, and they will remain disabled unless you revert the GPO. You do not have to use third party tools to accomplish this. I do not recall our last "sparring match" but I'm not going to get into a back and forth with you on this. There are simpler and more effective solutions for your problem. I have armed you with the information on how to leverage them. Up to you what you do with that.

What do you want from me my friend? To admit that Microsoft Updates frequently break shit? Duh. If Microsoft Updates were a non-event I would not have had to build a formal policy around how my company handles them. Ask anyone who works with Microsoft products for a "some update broke something" war story. We all have them.

This ain't "white-knighting MS". I'm just sharing information with you. If you'd prefer a wall of text rant on the zillion different ways Microsoft has screwed me over the last 30 years, personally and professionally, I can give you that. *shrug*

The Constitution doesn't grant you any rights. You were born with them by virtue of being a human being. What the Constitution does is grant the Federal Government certain powers and responsibilities. This is a longstanding concept in our legal tradition, predating the Constitution, and it's codified in the 9th and 10th Amendments.

That said, the Federal Government might be able to "ban" TikTok under interstate and foreign commerce/relations, and/or national defense authorities. If they did this and it survived the inevitable legal challenges, the App would disappear from Apple and Android's app stores, and American companies and consumers would be prohibited from buying advertisements on the platform or otherwise sending TikTok money. Problem with that, if ByteDance were so inclined, they could continue to make the platform available via a webpage. There's no process under American law that would authorize any level of Government to block access to a webpage. The Government can't even block hacking attempts from abroad that target critical infrastructure and don't think for a second NSA wouldn't be capable of doing it if tasked with the mission and authority.

The only path I could see to outright blocking TikTok would be under POTUS'es war powers. Check out Lincoln for examples of the good, bad, and ugly use of Presidential War Power. This ain't possible unless we find ourselves in a shooting war with the PRC. At that point, I'm worried about a lot more than TikTok.

If you've seen any of my comments I am no fan of the PRC and Winnie the Pooh, or for that matter, social media. Despite that, I strenuously object to the dangerous idea that we can or should ban TikTok. The biggest danger of TikTok is the CCP putting its thumb on the algorithmic scale to facilitate the spread of misinformation. Facebook and Twitter are already doing this! We're cool beaming disinformation directly into the lizard brains of American citizens so long as it's an American corporation reaping the profits? Yeah, that makes sense. You fix this problem by helping people learn how to think critically and spot disinformation. Not by trying to ban shit.

P.S., I do not see how a State Government has any authority whatsoever to ban TikTok. This is unquestionably interstate and foreign commerce. The Grandstanding idiots in the Montana State Legislature are probably too stupid to know this but their legal advisors and the serious legislators in the Legislature surely do....

You don't need a more expensive SKU to leverage GPOs. I love people that will install questionable third party programs when a quick search would reveal how to solve the problem using built-in functionality.

Regedit also works on Home SKUs and all those third party programs are doing for you is making registry edits....