azertyfun

@azertyfun@sh.itjust.works

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Valve are now removing a bunch of sex games from Steam to keep banks and card companies happy⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Virtually every payment processor uses VISA/MasterCard in the back-end. For EU users PayPal can be backed by SEPA mandates instead (direct bank pre-authorization), but otherwise VISA/MC is holding payment processors by the balls in virtually every other market. Without Visa/MC, there is no way to bring funds in or out of your account.

  The only alternative is to negotiate interconnection with banks directly, but that’s a very high bar for broad adoption. It has happened on a small scale (e.g. Payconiq in the Benelux) and the EU is attempting to broaden that to the rest of the continent, but it’s a very tough sell because they have to convince every major bank to support the new standard.

  This is a textbook case where capitalism isn’t the solution because there are only two market actors and a virtually insurmountable barrier to entry.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Valve are now removing a bunch of sex games from Steam to keep banks and card companies happy⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s not related to Trump/Congress. They almost unironically got OnlyFans to ban sexual content from their own website a few years back due to the militant actions of one fringe puritanical group. They got memed so hard they eventually backed down, but MasterCard&Visa have been acting as World Sexuality Police for a very long time.

  I don’t think it’s a rational financial decision, AFAICT they just have a puritanical leadership. As a cartel they don’t have to be maximally financially efficient. Their continued existence is an artefact of the 20th century, and their corporate values reflect that.

  Hopefully Wero takes off soon to introduce some competition in the online payment market.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Any APIs or apps that allow for complete keyboard navigation OS-wide, including inside apps⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  My gut feeling was that a standard accessibility protocol doesn’t exist yet, but that a Wayland extension is probably the solution.

  Looks like I was right: …gnome.org/…/update-on-newton-the-wayland-native-…

  However that’s a recent proof-of-concept, so nothing generally available at this stage. Details would have to be ironed out, and every graphics toolkit would have to be updated to support the protocol.

  I don’t know how that would work with XWayland apps, but given how clunky that gets with stuff like fractional scaling I wouldn’t get my hopes up. The sooner we can native Wayland all the things, the better. X11 must die, regardless of the feeling of the graybeards on the matter.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨PlayStation To Delete A Ton Of TV Shows Users Already Paid For⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  (Within the limits of IP laws. In some countries, making a personal backup of a DVD is an illegal act. Breaking DRM to do so may be a separate illegal act, again depending on jurisdiction. Neither is immoral of course, but that doesn’t stop lawmakers and judges from kissing the slimy boots of corporate lobbyists.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Local pop radio station is using its metadata to spread anti Biden propaganda⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  HSTS + HTTPS redirect is the answer. It’s industry standard for a reason: it’s just as safe as pure HTTPS since you can’t get anything other than a redirect over HTTP, and HSTS protects your users from future attempted MITM attacks. The MDN page for HSTS explains it all very clearly.

  Any other implementation is an immediate audit fail in my experience.

  There’s no tangible security benefit to fully disabling port 80, and if anything depending on the service it may just drive users away to shadier alternatives.