In Germany you are only allowed to shoot your pulse laser with 24 giga-watt max. I guess it’s an EU law, so should be the same for all of europe.

E.g. in germany it is not allowed to fly over private property with a drone (equipped with a camera), no matter the height. You have to stay above offical streets. And maximum flight hight is 120 m, if I remember correctly.

I guess it’s EU law, so it should be simmilar in other EU countries.

Thanks for the linked blogpost about Kagi! That saved me a lot of money.

It really changed my mind about it… I want to support a privacy focused search engine, not an AI-loving mess without focus on their core product.

I will have a look at MetaGer next. Although I am sad that there is still no good original search engine with it’s own results… Still all depending on Google and Microsoft.

I am using it to communicate with 3 people (our common ground as I don’t have an iPhone and don’t use Whatsapp).

A few years ago it felt a bit ruff and awkward to use, but many updates later it is as fluent as any chat app.

The security feels ok. Of course it would be a lot better, if they would open source their code.

What is a Google?

Same here, I really like driving, it can be fun and (sometimes) relaxing and there is no better place to sing along to some songs.

At the same time I try to avoid driving as much as possible, I take the bike, walk, take the train, no matter the weather. I don’t want to be one of those cars sitting at the red light, using up space, polluting the environment and giving our local parties the idea, that we need that one more lane.

Some things are more important than a few convenient minutes.

It’s hard to relate, because I wouldn’t even know if there are businesses in my area which only use facebook - because I don’t use facebook.

I wanted to use a business that wanted me to send them pictures of my drive way via Whatsapp. I ended up taking my business to a different guy, who was able to work with mail. No harm done, everyone is still happy, still no need for Meta products.

Edit: of course I acknowledge that I don’t know anything about you or your situation. You maybe really can’t work/live without facebook.

You are absolutely right of course, I was a bit sarcastic in the comment above. I firmly belive that the pursuit of a more convenient live will be our downfall - in terms of privacy, but also e.g. in terms of traffic (cars are very convenient but shouldn’t be the future for the masses).

It is easier to live without facebook, than you think.

Yes, it is easier for you to continue using Whatsapp. At least you tried.

Thanks for the hint with hide-my-email! I will ask my mail provider, if they offer something like this as a service.

Legitimate question. Targeted ads feel obvious to many, but it is more about control.

• Google knows more about you than your partner or you yourself know about you. And they know how to use that knowledge. The scariest part: this control over you is for sale.
• Google controls how you use things. By being the defacto standard in so many things, they have the power to control how things look, feel and are beeing used. We are missing a lot of innovation because of that.
• Google can basically decide, which business survives and which doesn’t. It’s not the one with the better product, it is the one which pays more money to Google. By that it helps to promote big companies, small businesses have a hard time to establish themselves. Even in my small citiy: if the new barber doesn’t pay for Google placement and begs for useless 5-star-ratings, he won’t survive.
• It is hard to get out! You are getting lulled in with convenience and you unlearn how to use the internet outside of Google. Google takes prisoners and puts them in a plushy cell.

I think you’d be surprised at how much everything else is tracking you still.

You are absolutely right, I am surprised again and again. But I do my best to avoid it, if I find something that tracks me. And I am surprised that so many people let themselves being exploited, and even defend this exploitation.

Free yourself! It is work. But it is worth it. And it is not too late.

It is never too late. Free yourself from this abusive relationship, it feels fantastic.

Wow, I am so so much against your suggestion, but I have to upvote you, for your bravery.

To add something constructive: The app Element as a Matrix client works good for me.

What was the problem with Docker? I want to host it myself, the docker option seems to be the easiest one.

Still a privacy nightmare, with and without ads.

Firstly, (assuming self-hosting isnt an option) won’t you have to use google or AWS to host your website?

It makes me very sad, that there are many people who believe that the internet comes down to Google, Amazon and Facebook.

The devil’s advocate forgets why the data has a value in the first place. It is used to control and manipulate to the point where elections can be won by the party that has a better understanding of advertisement and the value of the data of their costumers/voters. Thinking you are immune to manipulation because you know you are manipulated sadly doesn’t work. Don’t use free services if you know they act in bad faith.

I am using linux-surface on my surface book 2, works perfectly. BUT the webcam doesn’t work :-)

I love my bike so much. Hopefully there is a future where I can just sell the stupid car without drawbacks.

If you sell your IPhone now it may not be too late for you! :-)

I second MuPDF viewer for quickly viewing PDFs, it acts exactly as I expect it to and feels very slim.

But I am not sure if it is a good ebook reader. I use KOReader in connection with Calibre on my Laptop.

This huge difference in experience isn’t a great sign. But I hope it gets better over time.

I can’t confirm this. For me it runs smooth and without bugs. Calls with Element are sometimes better than calls with my mobile carrier.

But I don’t have the technical knowledge to understand why a backend in python is a bad thing. Maybe your experience with Matrix is biased because of this knowledge?