Start by your own privacy.

I boarded that train about twenty years ago. I tried the evangelizing route. I failed miserably. Which led me to care for myself first and foremost.

I started by abandoning Windows. Not of my own volition; I bought a computer that had no OS. Enter Linux. None of my family, friends or acquaintances understood. It was all about the convinience. When my machines started outperforming while outliving theirs, it caused a ripple.

Then came the usual slew of questions: where can I get a free anti-virus, office, media reader, whatever? That was when I introduced FOSS. After the initial resistance, things just settled into place. LibreOffice works. VLC works. PeaZip works. Thunderbird works. Etc.

When smartphones became a thing, I started moving as fast as I could towards FOSS. This made things a bit more laughable as “free” android applications are ubiquous. But they fill your phone with junk and ads. While my apps provided me ease of use, safety, security and privacy.

But when push came to shove, I just refused to join. First I left FBMessenger. I never boarded Whatsapp. I never entered Instagram or any major social networks. I discovered Signal and remained there.

It’s my way or no way.

Claimed.

Thank you.

I never played it online. Internet was expensive back then. Nowadays… I can consider hosting a multiplayer over my home network and showcasing what a true classic is to a couple of people.

I remember searching the mod packs online to add it to my games, a few even corrected a few problems in the game.

And I still remember adding the Flowing Capes mod to my game.

PROOF!!!

I don’t know where I have my hard copy but I bought NWN on CD. It was one of my first purchases. I don’t run it to this day because my computers no longer have a CD drive.

You know what? BRB, I’m going hunting for that box.

PICTURES OR ALL I SPEAK IS LIES!!!

Neverwinter Nights is a classic.

If you can spare the key, I’ll be in your debt.

I remember playing Neverwinter Nights and running it on Linux providing a more stable and clean experience than on Windows. Even modding it was easier.

Finally!

Then what is the choice?

Probably controversial on my next few words but use your phone as an ereader.

Go through a couple of apps for ebooks (FDroid as a few) until you find the app that most suits your needs.

Amazon is not your friend, so try to explore other venues; Smashwords has a pretty interesting catalog. Project Guttenberg has a good number of older texts and public domain books, all for free.

I am sure other options exist, especially if willing to navigate the high seas.

Someone on Lemmy wrote the modern anti-cheat systems are essentialy rootkits.

And after reading that list, I wholeheartdly agree.

The best way to counter publicity is to simply erase from your mind. Turn it into white noise.

I don’t have a clue how I’ve learned how to do this but I can have multiple publicity spots thrown at me that I won’t retain a thing. Sometimes to the point I get a song stuck on loop in my head and I can’t figure where I heard it.

Using tools to dodge or simply eliminate ads is also an option, especially online.

You can take back your freedom of choice to take part of an audience for publicity if you are willing to put some effort to regain it.

No. Just no.

It’s a heinous crime but mass surveillance and removing real investigation and real human beings from the work is not an answer to the problem.

BG3 is not even being considered as an option but a few videos on Youtube peaked curiosity about the genre and gameplay style and I’d like to explore it a bit with them

Over LAN with hot seat? That would be nice.

The intention is not to play BG3; it simply stirred some curiosity towards a different type of game and I wanted to explore that.

Since I already own NWN and I know it runs natively on Linux, it would be a bonus. Not even considering the huge amount of mods the fan community has created for it.

May it work well and always accomplish your needs

The notion of home automation is not something that aggravates me per se but solutions have been made for some problems that never existed before.

This is even worse when we factor that many accessibility issues are addressed through simple measures that many times must be accomplished when basic maintenance is done, like rewiring or fittings renewal.

The timed sockets I mentioned I got acquainted it when I first saw an electric water heater. At 3000W, it could be an expensive beast to maintain. A €15 mechanical socket watch made possible to have the equipment only run at preset intervals, thus saving power and avoid possible overheating. These very basic tools can be used to do the same work IoT does at a fraction of the work.

And the most extreme solution, to provide help to a nearly bedridden relative, which involved setting up a complete subsidiary jumper box inside a room did not involve destroying or permantly altering a house that wasn’t self owned; it wasn’t pretty to look at but 2 days of work could be done with in less than twenty minutes to return the house to the original condition.

I’m not getting younger but unless IoT gets to a point where it can be fully self contained, with no hidden call-back-home features, I’m going fully mechanical.

I’m not that old but I grew surrounded by older people with several degrees of mobility and other painful conditions amd none ever required go to such points.

Issues with lights were solved by moving the height at which the switches were placed. Certain potentially dangerous appliances were placed with timed mechanical sockets or a special purpose circuit breaker was put in place. Low power night lights for safety during dark hours.

Simple, very cheap and as safe as possible solutions.

IoT is not a solution for me, unless you can make sure your entire network can live fully disconnected. Otherwise, no thank you.

I won’t be adding anything to the conversation but I have to ask: why does a light bulb require internet/network access?

Right now I’m feeling very old. It feels a bit too much.

Works fine for me.

Oukitel WP8 Pro

It has an MT6762D CPU, with 4GB RAM.

And now I’m doubting for how long I’ve had it, has the last update for the Android 10 it runs is from 2020 and I can remember updating it, for sure.

I doubt I can get that to run on my phone. Being a minor brand, it is as if it doesn’t exist.

I’ve used so called entry level phones my entire life; I can’t motivate myself to spend the amount a Fair Phone costs, although the concept is appealing and regardless the geek in me going nuts with the idea of tinkering with my phone as I do with my computer. I also prefer rugged phones, which is something most brands don’t cater to.

My current phone is an Oukitel and has already passed the three year mark, still more than enough for my needs, in great part thanks to my option to run FOSS whenever possible.

Not really.

Fdroid is a secure repositorie and the applications are reviewed before being made available for end users.

The repository is also highly focused on privacy and security and will warn if applications have security flaws or depend on non free services.

As an example, I use NewPipe instead of the standard YT app and it has a warning it depends on non-free services.

One other example I can give is Librera. It’s a very feature rich ebook/pdf/etc reader. At some point, a security flaw was discovered and the app was instantly flagged has having such problems and users were advised to not install it.

Been using Fdroid to the point where my first boot into a new phone is:

Open chrome > download fdroid > open settings > uninstall/disable every single application I can > open fdroid > install all the relevant apps I require for making my phone useful

I’m just waiting for a small life upgrade in order to be able to support some app developers; it will be money better spent than using the standard google apps.