PoliticalCustard

PoliticalCustard, 3 months ago

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.

PoliticalCustard, 3 months ago

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.

propagandainfocus.com/proton-mail-imperialist-sto…

PoliticalCustard, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago)

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.

PoliticalCustard, 3 months ago

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) tuta.com

PoliticalCustard, 3 months ago

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.

PoliticalCustard, 3 months ago

I agree! :)

PoliticalCustard, 3 months ago

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.

PoliticalCustard, 3 months ago

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

PoliticalCustard, 3 months ago

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.

PoliticalCustard, 3 months ago

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

For example, “Is Thomas Friedman single?”

PoliticalCustard, 4 months ago

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!”

PoliticalCustard, 4 months ago

That is an absolutely fascinating article on the technical operation of a scam app. A definite warning to us all. Also I was very interested to read the terms and conditions of the Snap Store, specifically section 14: Limitation of Liability (which could be titled “Sorry, You’re Fucked”).

I don’t like bitcoin, it’s an environmental disaster that had potential but has turned into a highly volatile speculative device beloved by libertarians, grifters, and scammers. I do feel for the person who lost the coins, that cannot be a very nice experience to deal with.

PoliticalCustard, 4 months ago

I still hop but less often, I always come back to an Arch-based distro though, mainly because there’s so much in the AUR. Garuda at the moment after quite a long time with EndeavourOS, and a very short time with Nobara before that.

PoliticalCustard, 4 months ago

Konsole kause i’m a kde konformist… kant kontrol it.

PoliticalCustard, 4 months ago

I keep a bookmark to this AI detector on my browser bar gptzero.me

I just do random checks for AI generated stuff, especially if it’s a news site I’ve not seen before. There are use cases for AI in text creation but I think it’s very limited - a summary production (with references), for example. Instead I am exited for medical advances, space study, cases where there are huge datasets of good quality and not datasets that are the result of huge dragnets of shite from the internet.

People are quite right to be cynical about AI created stuff; we’re near the zenith of a hype-cycle at the moment.

You’ll be getting no down vote from me.

PoliticalCustard, 4 months ago

I think this is a good idea, not because I’d use it but because it’s the sort of thing people will want if we are to expect them to migrate from Ch***e (which already has this feature). It’s just the sort of thing Mozilla should be introducing.

PoliticalCustard, 4 months ago

I love Trafotin, he has a wonderfully dry sense of humour. If the ghastly Tom Murosky does a reaction video, it will be the only video of his that I will deign to watch.

PoliticalCustard, 4 months ago

I tried to watch it… completely impossible; he’s unbearable. I did notice he has 65,000 subscribers which shouldn’t really surprise me, but does.

PoliticalCustard, 4 months ago

Garuda gets a mention, as a gamer I can highly recommend Garuda, a lot of work has gone into it and it looks great too… especially if you like neon. 🥰

PoliticalCustard, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

I went to bed late last night because of this video! Nicco is a wonderful content creator, there’s very little fluff in his videos and he clearly put a lot of time and research into it. Historically it’s very interesting and we really should be putting effort into taking down Lunduke who is a right-wing piece of shit. I followed him a few weeks ago not knowing about him and after watching a video I was like “what the fuck is this shit?” and unfollowed him, but other Linux people might fall for it - this video will be a great resource to send to people who do fall for it.

PoliticalCustard, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

Before I do anything at all my VPN gets installed, then whatever firewall gui along with OpenSnitch.

• Keepassxc
• Librewolf
• Signal
• Element
• OpenRGB
• OpenRazer
• Game stuff

I have a text file that lists everything I need to do on a clean install - a list of programmes and bits that need to be set in each programme. It’s really easy to forget important stuff - like making sure my refresh rate is set at 165hz and not left at whatever the default is.

PoliticalCustard, 5 months ago

It was the least fun thing I bought for my pc but at least I can relax during bios updates. I got mine because there was some work being done on the house and I was always fearful that an electrician would turn off the power. I would never have a pc without one now.

PoliticalCustard, 5 months ago

I like your thinking, I guess with Linux everything is a potential project (or two)!