[–] 17 points 2 days ago (1 child)

Fine print. Probably didn't work out well.

Special eMachines™ Upgrade for $99 to eMachines™Network Members Only

Subscribe to the eMachines™ Network for 24 consecutive months and we’ll upgrade your eMachines™ for only $99 (plus shipping)!

Here’s how it works: If you live in the contiguous U.S. or Canada, we’ll contact you after you’ve subscribed to The eMachines™ Network for 24 months and offer to upgrade your eMachines™ PC to whatever processor technology is built into whatever eMachines™ PC you can buy at the time of the upgrade for whatever you paid for your original machine. For example, let’s say your eTower* PC was priced at $399 (not including promotional discount) and runs a 366 MHz processor, but at the time of the upgrade $399 would buy an 800MHz eTower. We’ll upgrade your eTower* to 800MHz.

All you have to do is ship us your PC within 90 days, plus $99 (or Canadian equivalent), proof of purchase and payment for return shipping. We’ll promptly upgrade it and return it. Note: you’ll have to back-up your data to avoid accidental loss, and use the original packaging (we have replacement packaging available). See more detailed information"

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  • [–] 8 points 6 days ago (1 child)

    So far so good. I've been running regular speed tests to compare with mullvad, while I had both. Speed wise ivpn is slightly slower on average (5% or so), but also seen occasional large slowdown on ivpn which I didn't see on mullvad. Especially some locations seem very inconsistent on ivpn.

    It's good, but some improvements on consistency would be welcome.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 child)

    Oh okay, I just assumed the main method to redirect the vendor cloud connections to the local valetudo was based on the patch DNS parts in dustbuilder that seems present on most models, but if you say more is required elsewhere to block vendor cloud connections I'm sure that's true.

    In any case your work is highly appreciated! And i didn't mean to suggest that it hasn't taken a massive amount of work overall to make valetudo work as well as it does.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (4 children)

    It's just DNS based, and iirc dont require any major effort other than patching the hosts file. Of course it is possible it is not enough, but I have high confidence in the authors after also having watched various talks at I.e DEFCON, that i would be surprised if they missed the firmware doing other nasty things.

    Patching DNS is specifically possible to enable/disable on the firmware build tool: I.e https://builder.dontvacuum.me/_dreame_r2416.html and the source for that is here https://github.com/dgiese/dustbuilder-script-public/blob/7afed16999711833a8ac0b3b482e935c3ef77219/modifys8image.sh#L169

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago (10 children)

    Valetudo actively blocks the cloud connections. Also, only firmware versions specifically installed with Valetudo is supported (so no chance an update to the original device firmware happens, and does new things).

    I think there's a very low chance something escapes to the vendor cloud.

    None the less, I personally run these on a separate VLAN without internet access.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (1 child)

    That sucks, a good company would instead work with QBZ to ensure it's resolved properly.

    I didn't see any other reports of people being banned. I'll just keep using QBZ but better keep the subscription monthly in case...

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago*

    The counterpoint is that if you indicate at a point when it's unsafe to change lanes to communicate your intention to, for example change lane after a car passes, then the other car might think you missed them and therefore might take potentially risky corrective actions.

    Personally I indicate when it's safe, but don't aggressively change lanes right away, waiting a few seconds. Seems like a good approach to me.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (3 children)

    I'm not in Germany, but I was taught (in mandated driving school) that when switching lanes, first check it's safe (which means you cannot cause another car needing to brake for you), then signal, then change lane. You shouldn't "request to" change lanes forcing another to need to react. Not sure if it can explain the behaviour.

    But this is only for changing lanes, not for zipper merging, or just turning a corner etc.

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  • [–] -1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Is that not standard practice ? It is around here at least. People tend to throw all kind of crap at rivaling players so usually bottles etc are not allowed. Any liquid served at the stadium is in soft plastic cups.

    Obviously sucks that it is required and people can't behave.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago* (1 child)

    The number of partners is in the cookie banner from onetrust when opening the site (maybe location dependent?). I'm aware it doesn't mean they necessarily are making 3rd party http requests (feels likely though?), but when a site has such a ridiculous amount of partners, it is a huge red flag.

    But it's not surprising, if they donate to charity, for each search request, they have to generate income somehow...

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