The extent that pigs will go to in order to put literally anyone away should cause everyone to want to revolt/hunt all the fucking pigs. Too many people are completely fine with giving up all privacy if it “stops even one guilty person.” No one is ever innocent 100% of the time. They just haven’t been caught for things (especially super low level shit) and only think about big level crimes as being what pigs/prosecutors/feds are going after. By their own logic, they better know every single law at every second of the day. They truly can’t conceive of being forced to confess just so a case can be closed to keep arrest stats looking good.

The recent-ish story about that one guy that was broken down so badly that he confessed to murdering his own father after so many hours of interrogation and threats made by the pigs to kill his fucking dog. AND they kept going towards that confession even though his father was found to be completely alive by the same pigs. That shit scared the shit out of me, and that is just ONE example out of the ones you mention and so fucking many others.

I think it has already been a dystopia. The only things stopping it from being so super obvious was just down to technology needing to advance enough to do it at levels that are more openly seen. And for stuff like the Patriot Act (not mentioned in the article but a good example) to be created early enough before people relied on stuff like the internet/smart devices (even if the device in the article is not a consumer product).

It was easy to create the mass surveillance state while folks were still seeing using the internet/computers as just a fun thing, but not as important as utilities like power, water, etc. The amount of resources needed to do the data collecting was too great to really understand for the average person. Also the average person still (for some reason) believed that our government were the “good guys” and that our “freedoms” actually mean anything if said government really wants to bypass them.

Would be fine if the person is having to BYOD as the phone is already theirs (which is how I took it at least). Obviously flashing a custom ROM of any sort without approval on a device that you don’t own, and would have to give back to the company is a bad idea. The same would apply to installing a different OS on a work PC (which tend to have the BIOS locked to prevent changing things or being able to simply boot an install USB). But I think managed phones with the level of being able to wipe the device remotely would also already be blocking access to developer options. Along with other stuff needed to unlock the needed stuff for flashing other ROMs (though I haven’t flashed a ROM in a while and never had a work phone so I might be wrong).

But if the company tries to take “ownership” of your personal device that you pay/paid for without providing a company owned device. Then it would be best to try and find a different employer, and/or use an old phone you don’t use or get a low-end/cheap phone while working for them. But only go with that option if they provide a SIM/eSIM for service that they are paying for.

Nothing wrong with finding small hopes here and there where you can. I too had briefly thought about Samsung’s store (I have an S24 Ultra, Tab S8+, and my old S20+) maybe being large and known enough by more users than F-Droid. But their lack of press releases pushing back on Google was what told me enough. If Samsung’s store was actively used more than the Play Store on their phones (and had enough really popular apps that weren’t also on the Play Store), then it would at least be something.

Sadly even if Samsung’s store is able to somehow get a pass by Google, I highly doubt that the devs of apps that are only on F-Droid would list them on there. And would still only help Samsung devices (though I know I would start using Samsung’s store a lot more if those devs did list them on there). Though I might find reasons to use my S20+ for some apps that I like having but don’t use daily, and my tablet is on Android 15 so it will be used for stuff I use more often (never thought I would be excited for it to not get major updates).

The main actively used daily app that I am dreading losing (due to the current dev not planning to ever list their active fork on Play Store) is SyncThing-Fork on my Android devices (use different SyncThing apps for PC/Steam Deck). It has been the only multi-platform sync program that actually works correctly for my password vault on my Android devices. Though it is possible that the dev might get it whitelisted, but I am not going to hold my breath. As the main dilemma on a per app level is that the more apps that fall in line ends up supporting Google’s actions, but at the same time not getting whitelisted means just going away (at least on fully updated Android 16+ devices).

Would be nice, but I imagine that Samsung would both need to actually be impacted in an meaningful way with their store, and find some way to prevent Play Services (which they have to meet requirements to be able to load on their devices) from just nope-ing non-registered apps. Both of which I seriously doubt would happen.

They have already been working pretty close with Google on things that removed their actual Tizen OS from stuff like their watches in favor of merging their code into Android Wear OS. Would also guess that they might just work something out to either force apps on their store to be signed by Samsung and cleared by Google. Or that they just require apps on their store to only be listed after registering with Google. Not like Samsung really cares about supporting side-loading if the apps aren’t in their (or Google’s) store.

Sadly I think only a OEM like Samsung would have the massive levels of hardware sales and money for making a real fight against Google. F-Droid and other alt-stores or projects lack both and are easy to ignore. If Samsung were to be actually concerned about this, then I think we would have already seen them filing lawsuits and pushing posts/news articles condemning Google’s plans like F-Droid keeps doing (aside from lawsuits due to money).

If they are willing to torture you to get the data. Then there is also a very real chance that you would still get the same treatment or just killed even if you give the password.

Even with the small amount per user, they better be forced to pay in real checks or similar. Not in Play Store gift cards/credits, as I imagine that is what they will want to do if their appeal fails.

That would be the real “wildcard” out of nowhere mobile OS, and would be amazing. For some reason I thought of it like a pro-wrestling “pop” where Android betrayed their long-time friend Linux mobile while fighting iOS. Just to then have “WAIT what’s happening?!?” then OpenBSD mobile’s music hits and runs down with a steel chair, and the fans lose their minds! lol

I wonder if it was more like folks putting stuff together to just work (likely with demands of it getting done really quick). But then the folks that got it implemented forgot to change the default/placeholder stuff (at least for the passwords). Just like how basically all routers used to have the same log-ins that never got changed by the end-users because it “just worked” out of the box (even if the labels and setup clearly said to change them first thing). I really hate how companies of all sizes seem to think of IT/sec as something that is just a drain on money that could be used for making profits look better.

Same here. I prefer to avoid Chromium-based browsers whenever I can. A lot of them are better than Chrome, and I do like to mess with them from time to time to stay aware of features and test things. But Firefox on my phone has access to uBlock Origin and all my other extensions, after activating the hidden debug menu/dev mode that you turn on in a similar way as activating Dev Mode for the Android OS. I only mention that last part because it seems a lot of FF Android users don’t know about it and allows for installing xpi files just like you can with desktop. Freaking game changing for me. It really sucks that the main-line Chromium-based browsers don’t support extensions, even in the limited options way FF used to before allowing more to officially work (even without the debug menu/dev mode trick.

For those that might want the instructions for the hidden debug menu/dev mode. Some extensions still might not work correctly as they might not play nice with the UI/layout of the Android version. I would imagine that some of these might be things like the third-party tab-tree extensions for example.

Open Firefox App

Go to the settings menu.

Enable Developer Settings: You need to tap on the Firefox logo five times. This action will unlock an additional debug menu.

Find “Install extension with a file” option in Settings

Look for the option to install an extension from your own storage. And pick the xpi file. Also will just work using the extensions page on the FF site.

No Zen-Browser (though I am not sure when this vid was made), and Pale Moon should be in the “Not ideal for a normal human” at best.

Good to know information, I haven’t looked into it beyond installing it to see how similar it was. Still could be a starting point for some folks that have the option to self-host and more specifically have large friend groups that have issues with only liking the UI of Discord. A very specific scenario for sure, but still nice to have options if one like that were to happen.

Not federated, but Revolt can be self-hosted and is very similar to Discord in the look and feel from what I have seen (I have it installed, but haven’t tried getting friends to install it and am not hosting). So it could be worth looking into for folks that are used to Discord.

Being fair, just using a non-Chromium based browser these days kind of gives a major fingerprinting starting point.

Vivaldi is pretty awesome. The massive levels of customization are next level compared to other Chromium options. I use it first if needing to use a site that is hard-coded to reject Firefox or other non-Chromium browsers. Also use it as a feed reader a lot.

I have been daily driving Zen and aside from some random issues here and there when they mess with the UI (which is to be expected with a beta). It kind of reminds me of how cool Firefox felt back in the day coming from IE. Has been fun to see real progress and effort to try weird things that are local to the browser. Not trying to acquire costly extra services/products that take resources away from the browser. I just really wish Mozilla would have (or even start) allowing people to donate towards just the browser.

Some of the extra stuff they have have the option to directly support. The browser is still worth being a real option that isn’t just some Chromium-based BS. Yet they keep trying to divert money to everything but it. I hope that the major forks of FF start tying to prepare for going forward in the main code without Mozilla when/if the time comes. This new IE that is Chrome/Chromium can’t be allowed to keep going and dictating what is and isn’t allowed.

I also have LibreWolf and Mullvad (along with tor) and like them for the efforts in privacy and security. But are too restrictive for daily use for me. Mostly use them only with VPN when finding torrents and other stuff that I don’t want to be tied to an account/syncing (not just NSFW but searching and looking into political or questionable topics). Very happy to have options no matter what.

More than likely would mass post “Knock knock…” and wait for the first “who’s there?” reply.

Given the massive take down. I think you mean “I wonder who ‘worked’ in the cartel’s IT department.”

It might not be the answer, but I have had some games do very weird shit in the past (AMD GPU as well but on Windows). I found out that some games really don’t like if you have applied AMD settings that override the game’s graphical settings. Do you just have the AMD kernel driver, or have you installed the one with the Adrenalin from the AMD site? If you installed the Adrenalin software, you might want to try setting all the options for the game to only use game settings and not allow the AMD software to take over. If it is the one that ships with the kernel, then I am not sure how to change stuff that might be trying to override the game. Maybe see if there is a Proton version that might be better?

If the other main Chromium based browsers can figure out (or keep in the instance of having their own extension stores) how to support for V2 extensions. Then it would be easier to recommend replacing Chrome to normies and other folks with those options. As one of the main issues comes down to lots of sites (especially stuff like school or work) doing the modern version of IE and are coded to really only work with Chrome.

I was advising customers to just use Edge if they needed Chrome for those reasons. And a lot of them did since it meant not installing extra programs. Though it is currently hard to recommend Edge due to MS seeming to find more and more “features” to add that make shit really annoying and scummy. It is like they are trying so hard to make it not worth using at all. So Brave and Vivaldi are the new options I tell people about.

Brave’s main downside (IMO) is the crypto stuff maybe confusing/pointless for folks. Vivaldi’s main downside (and upside for users that love it) is how overwhelming levels of customization settings. But they both don’t have their own extension stores. Opera could also work since they have their own extension store. I hate how it and the GX version love to automatically set themselves to launch on Windows startup (fuck all of them that try to do this as well).

I imagine that most nations would have started doing that extra stuff. Still good to be aware of it since it isn’t something I think about often. And since my friends over there have a different process and might not know off-hand to mention.

That does sound like a pretty big difference, but I guess it makes sense given it has been so long since I went. The only other nation I have visited was Canada, and that was back when you just needed a valid US driver’s license/state ID. I believe they now need a passport. Interesting to see how things like that change over time. Kind of like how we could go all the way into airport terminals to greet people you were waiting to arrive back in the 90s. The “war on terror” really pushed a lot of extra shit into travel.

What are they doing these days that is invasive (I have been wanting to go back to visit friends)?

The only time I have visited Japan was back in 2012 and all I remember was just waiting in a line and handing over my passport to a customs/foreign visitors person. I also might have had a paper slip with my dates of arrival and departure, that I wasn’t bringing in more than $9999.99 in cash, and the address I was officially planning to be staying for the bulk of the time there (and name of my friend that was already living there on work visa). I don’t remember ever being stopped to check my bags or answer addition questions. Though I might have just been lucky to have not been picked for additional checks.

I have been interested in trying out LoRA and just need to get some devices built. Though I am not as concerned about the super privacy part (thought that is nice). I am thinking that it would be good for emergency situations like shit that has happened with the south-east. Even if the communications would be limited to text, shit is good as long as I can use simple solar panels and battery banks.

Kind of limited due to there not being an iOS version, but Briar is pretty decent. It was made to be usable in repressive areas by press and other groups, as well as in areas where bad weather has taken out cell and regular wifi. Can be used with phone data, but also offline via ad-hoc wifi and bluetooth. But stuff like Signal and SimpleX are more overall useful to more people (and I think SimpleX also supports offline local immediate area of each other like wifi and bluetooth but I don’t remember atm).

Probably a good move for them to make tbh. I like how CrowdStrike’s name already sounds like it should be the name of a big malware/virus/zeroday. So we should have seen it coming.

A friend of mine’s dad worked in some capacity of pigs. Which lead to my friend finding out that some people had either by really random luck in attempting something like the comic or also finding out from interacting with pigs. That in the city I lived in, there is like a “panic” signal that auto calls for lots of help that involved hitting a specific letter or number multiple times. For some reason I want to say it was maybe either zero or O, but I don’t remember off hand.

So when they would be quickly inputting a plate with enough taps and not thinking, shit would cause resources to be pulled and wasted. Not great for attracting attention to the driver since it is basically pulling aggro. But could be great for moving attention from somewhere else.

Glitch art clothing would be dope even if it didn’t help with AI fuzzing.

Thanks!

Where do you get the blob?

Maybe Cryptpad would be a good option if you need spreadsheets more than documents.

If she cares about aesthetics but is fine with the current functions. Maybe there is a way to do some kind of low level mod of the outside that wouldn’t mess with the actual sound? I am not a case modder on really any level. But with all the folks that love making stuff “theirs,” I would bet there are guides about changing the look of basic speakers. Or even audio shops that do custom builds that could allow for her to get the aesthetics (and even mean more) while keeping the functions that you want to keep. Though I also imagine that it would cost more up-front, but I think that we are going to see stuff that isn’t “smart” or requiring accounts tied to apps that will eventually stop working artificially be the most expensive options.

But those “dumb” devices will last many years longer. Just really hate how these current “premium” brands make shit that is both less well made AND constantly sell off our data. Also bullshit that the concept of repairing stuff is being made basically pointless as they make sure it costs around the same or more than buying the new one.

ability to reach engaged customers

Not sure that being stuck to a spot in a tube you can’t just escape (and easily live) from is the same as “engaged”.

More like open windows that were painted to make shutting them almost impossible.

Thanks!

What did you do to freeze your stuff? And how do you thaw it for stuff, and how long does it take? I did go ahead and make my My Social Security account after seeing your comment though!

Mastodon and other federated platforms are still confusing to normies and less ideologically-minded users. Aside from that, unless VLC starts hosting their own instance, it is hard to say if the particular one they decide to use will stick around. They can relocate by taking some extra steps of course. But they would likely care to put that effort into making VLC Player better instead of into social media. For now at least. X has been more or less the same for a long time (even with the past couple of years) for what they use it for. I am sure they would like to be on an open platform over propriety if that were the only difference. And nothing is stopping them from using both at the same time in order to reach as many people as possible.

Bookmarking this to help motivate customers that still install Avast (and AVG for that matter) and just click “yes” to all the extra “features” being installed. Some even pay for the shit and just get a very slow and distracting PC from just so many apps just running and keep popping notifications advertising more “protection” levels to buy. So many people fall victim to scams that abuse the built-in Windows OS and all browsers’ notification systems. And the supposed programs that claim to be “speeding up your PC and keeping you protected” are non-stop the same tactics.

Avast, AVG, and Norton (which I think are all owned by the same company if I remember correctly) love installing their bullshit Chromium browsers and default to launching on startup and take over being the OS default. This is peak capitalism for the AV world. No value and charge you more and more even after you pay for it all.

Auto-moderation is both lazy and is only going to get worse. Not saying there isn’t some value on things being hard-banned (like very specific spam like shit that just keeps responding to everything with the same thing non-stop). But these mega outlets/sites want to just use full automation to ban shit without any human interactions. At least unless you or another corp has connections on the inside to get a person or people to fix it. Just like how they make it so fucking hard to ever reach a person when calling (or trying to even find) a support line.

This automated shit just blacklists more and more shit and can completely fuck over people that use those sites for income (and they even can’t reach a person when their income is cut off for false reasons and don’t get back-pay for the period of a strike/ban). The bad guys will always just keep moving to a new word or phrase as the old ones get banned. So we as users are actually losing words and phrases and the actual shit is just on to the next one without issues.

I agree with you is the TL;DR, and the rest is just my mad ranting opinions about companies being allowed to just auto-censor us. So feel free to completely ignore the rest. lol.

It is like just banning words and phrases just because bad people use them has just become the norm. I really really can’t stand the way that channels on YT constantly have to self-censor basically everything (even if the video is just reporting on or trying to explain bad shit that is or has happened). And it never seems to actually stop the actual issues from happening. Just means the bad people just move on to a new word or phrase that is then itself banned. It isn’t about actually stopping fucked-up shit from happening. It is just about making sure advertisers and other sources of money don’t throw a fit.

We always hear about how places like China are bad in-part for censoring words and speech. But in the US and other western nations we pretend we are allowed to freely speak uncensored. We have always had censoring of speech, it is just that the real rulers of the country are allowed to do it instead. Keeps the government’s hands free from legally being the enforcers of doing it to us. Shit like CP is fucked, and it should be handled for what it is, but allowing for-profit companies and especially their algorithms/AI to decide what we can and can’t say or search for without any level of human interactions that very much lead to false bans is also fucked.

It is waaaay too easy for all the mega corps to completely take down channels and block creators from revenue of their own work just completely automated. But the accused channel can’t ever get a real person to both get clear understanding of what and who is attacking them, and to explain why their strike/bans aren’t valid. I have heard that even channels that have gotten written/legal permission from a big studio to use a clip of music or segment from video (music being the worst) will STILL catch automated strikes for copyright violations.

We don’t need actual government censors, because the mega corps with all the money are allowed to do it for them. We have rights but they don’t really matter if they can say a private company or org made up of people from various mega corps are allowed to do it for them.