Recent content by Mercutio

There shouldn't be much more than enabling it and telling it to use Unbound or Unbound Python mode. You can add more block lists if you feel like it. Easylist et al. There's a nice guide here.

uBlock on Firefox and uBlock Lite on other browsers + some form of network-level blocker everywhere I have control over the network. I use DNS66 for Android, which functions as a VPN but exists entirely to redirect DNS queries. I like this better than Samsung's built-in DNS redirector, which for...

re: Phone plans. I switched to US Mobile this morning. They're offering a year of service for $167 until the end of the day today (10PM EST). They're primarily a Tmo MVNO, so the only major issue I can see from switching is that my data service might be deprioritized in an emergency...

PfSense supports pfBlockerNG, which is as good or better than running PiHole. It's just a service you can enable in DNS configuration on your appliance. In theory you can use both by making the Pfsense DNS the upstream provider for Pihole but that's needless complexity IMO.

I'm just curious what PC systems y'all have that are in active use in 2025. Some of you guys have a PC in their signature, but I'm curious to get an idea of what's out there being used, and what they're used for. The oldest PC I'm still actively using is a Thinkpad T420 with an i7 2640 in it...

Is it possible that you have computers with significant time drift?

I don't drink and I'm about to start. Sed, something I've found to watch out for is that some MVNOs don't support RCS chat yet. STILL. Also I am almost positive there are degrees of deprioritization, based on some experiments I've done between Tmo, Mint and US Mobile and a (gross!) iphone 13...

Rather than improve overall Windows Explorer performance, it looks like Microsoft is going to set up File Explorer to preload on low-end systems. Something that actually endlessly pisses me off is that the 9950X I use for a desktop hitches for a couple seconds when I launch an Explorer window...

This is the first year my partner is coming to Thanksgiving. We did not talk about her doing this and I just found out maybe 10 minutes ago. She's going to meet my family, who will no doubt have many opinions about her tattoos and piercings and many questions about her ovulation cycle. I am...

Here's a set of directions to switch back to OG notepad, if you don't want the increasingly stupid one Windows 11 is using now. Also it's winget install microsoft.edit If you want a normal-ass text editor and somehow can't be bothered to set up Notepad++.

One of my customers brought me this thing, asking why it was weirdly slow. They didn't realize it's a Qualcomm SoC system. Once I explained how it works, they were happy with it; it has a very nice screen and better construction from any consumer HP I've seen and the price, $450, is about right...

Yes. A new Windows account. Firefox puts crap in a bunch of different places under %appdata% and it's hard telling what's left behind after a reinstall. I don't think your PC is slow, but there could be a weird addon or setting causing you problems.

Consumer notebooks are hard. My Ideapad 1s came from visiting a Walmart and a Best Buy to see what's acceptable at less than $350, because so very often, that's as much as people are willing to spend. I have a prejudice against 17" models and their breaky, breaky screens, and the moment I bring...

I'm thinking that the fresh (Windows?) user account is a good idea just to avoid the possibility that there's some accumulation of cruft from past installs generally. Maybe even sanity check from a bootable Linux ISO or something.

I have the additional aggravation that my health care is non-traditional, so my meds are at least partially selected for what can be obtained for cheap.