Political Custard

I don’t use them mainly because they put pressure on an already problematic property market (UK). Also, I don’t want to stay in someone’s house, especially if I’m going out with friends, the anonymity of a hotel room is heaven; pop that card on the door handle and close out the world until you’ve recovered enough to face the scary outside people.

I have had a Tuta (Tutanota) account for years and they’ve always been good (I just have a free account and it’s always been fine for my needs) https://tuta.com/

While in theory it is nice that an organisation would give over so much power to its customers in terms of where donations go, it does come with the risk of problematic decisions being made. Then later, when they’ve boxed themselves into a corner, quite unnecessarily, all they can do is go along with what their customers decide and then pass on the morality of that decision to those customers. But that’s not really good enough to say “My customers made me do it!” No, you gave your customers too much power in the first place. It’s a privacy organisation so surely better to give some money to a group that supports and compliments your aims. Bellingcat (regardless of the problems raised in the article I posted) has nothing to with privacy. If people read the article and decide they are happy with Proton, then go for it. I’d rather people make a decision with their eyes open.

I’ve never used Fastmail, so I cannot comment on that but I just closed my Proton account because of their donation to Bellingcat. It might not be a problem for some but it was for me.

https://propagandainfocus.com/proton-mail-imperialist-stooge/

If I’m not using my cam, it’s not plugged in. If I am not chatting, my headset’s physical button has the mic deactivated. That’s two potential vulnerabilities I just don’t have to think about.

I agree! :)

I use Mullvad as my default browser (so it opens links) and Librewolf for login sessions so I can store some selected cookies and connect it up with keepassxc for some password/2fa autofill goodness.

Thorium for dire emergencies if I need a Chromium based browser for the very rare cases where Mullvad and Librewolf don’t work.

Like all distros, they have their place. And sometimes if you want to boil a frog you have to heat them up gently. 😅

Any distro can be a steep learning curve and sometimes something to lessen that curve will be a good thing. I wanted my dad to try out Linux and I knew that it had to not look different as he would immediately get confused, he’d seen my setup and I tried to gently show him around and he said he liked it but it was all a bit too different and he would get confused. My dad’s late-70s and apart from programming on the ZX Spectrum in the 1980s he’s always used a PC with Windows and is at the point where if something is too different he knows he’s going to have trouble with it.

I do get where you are coming from, for people who are more mentally agile I would prefer to try something a little less Windows-like but in some cases I don’t think it’s a good idea and it is nice to have a more Windows-like alternative available.

AI text checker https://gptzero.me/ says it’s likely written by a human.

Yeah, burner account. And look up loads of stuff you don’t like to confuse it. 😂

For example, “Is Thomas Friedman single?”

I like Rob, I trust him, but this video is a sales pitch for his voip service, I think this should be made clear up front. It could be the solution everyone is looking for but he takes six minutes to get to the point at which you discover it’s a sales video for a paid service he’s created.

I am not complaining about the service or what he’s offering at all and it’s good that this video has been posted for people to see - especially a non-YouTube link too. :)

It’s a very interesting coincidence. And say your co-worker was looking up stuff related to this subject why would it be you who gets served the ad? That doesn’t really make sense. If mics were listening into conversations we’d be hearing a lot more of these “coincidence” stories and it’s pretty rare to come across them. I am not saying it doesn’t happen, I don’t trust these fuckers with anything. I use Linux with NextDNS filters up the ass, and have a rooted, degoogled phone with Adaway on it because my trust is so low and I cannot stand ads - if one ever does get past my setup I immediately am searching for a way to find out how it got through, which is rare.

I love what you are doing with your house set-up. How did an ad get to you, I guess it was is on your phone.

Really fascinating piece, thanks for sharing. Hurt my brain a bit though. :D

I am not sure; I’ve not tried. I degoogled my phone and I’ve not tried to put it on there since. It’s just banned completely. :D

One of the few Google apps which is actually really good. I have used it to identify obscure parts in order to be able to repair or replace them myself. If I want to use it I have to borrow someone else’s phone. It’s the only thing I miss about Google. I am definitely not surprised about the behaviour you speak of though.

It might be helpful, I’m not going to rule out using it, but it’s all going to happen on my machine and I’m not paying for it or logging in anywhere to use it AND it’s going to talk cockney… “Oi oi, ya fuckin’ muppet, you missed a semi-colon. Ya useless fuckin’ nonce!”

Interesting piece. It’s a bit weirdly worded in that it suggests that the police shut the accounts when really it’s Mega, Proton, Tuta who are closing the accounts. Presumably the police tell those companies which accounts are being used for illegal purposes and then those companies then close the accounts. I was a bit alarmed at first because it sounded like the authorities were closing the accounts when that’s not really the case.

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Hooking up an AI model to the turbo-charged sewage pipe that is Reddit’s “vast catalog of user-generated content” has surely got to constitute abuse against machines. If they ever really develop “intelligence” they are going to be absolutely furious with us. 😅