Don't worry, it will ask you to scan a QR code to complete the verification on your phone.

I love CrossWords. It's an open source and cross-platform Scrabble like game developed since 1998 by just one guy and still maintained to this day. I am surprised not many people seem to know it.

They can definetly use signals like VPN usage, not allowing third-party cookies and whatever else to force this verification mode if they want to. They may not be doing it right now but nothing prevents them.

Slightly off topic, but if you need a QR code scanner there are really good open source ones available on F-Droid. Such is SecScanQR which I have been using for quite a while.

If you need a utility app chances are an open source one already exists. Avoid crapware from the Play Store.

Welcome to Europe!

Tailscale also has Funnel.

Anubis is open source, self-hosted, doesn't block me just because I use a VPN and the later versions work even with JavaScript disabled!

Fuck Cloudflare, long live Anubis!

If you are actively blocking Cloudflare and you are still able to use the web services you rely on then I am genuinely jealous of you.

One more reason, there is a "copy as cURL" option in the Firefox developer tools network tab. It gives you a perfect cURL command including all the necessary cookies and headers to send the exact HTTP request that your browser just sent.

It's also useful for prototyping. Put something together quickly as a proof of concept and then do it the proper way. That is how I mostly use it at least.

Smart products themselves are not the issue. The issue is making everything cloud based. The solution is companies designing their products so they can be controlled over the network.

It's a fucking bed! It doesn't need a persistent connection to some server. The problem is that they also want to mine and sell your data.

"I don't need to, I have it stored all in my head."

Famous last words.

I mean what did they expect? With all those free games on a set frequency they basically trained their users that this is what Epic is for. That was their entire marketing. I don't know a single person IRL who has an Epic account and has actually bought a game there.

The only way to make a digital device 100% secure is by using a hammer.

Now make it work on IE6.

There is special category for Internet of Shit devices, that not only are cloud based but also require a persistent connection to a server to even execute basic functions.

I find your project very interesting, I have to point out a bit of irony though. You say,

Phones just do too much these days. And I don't get the feeling they respect my time nor privacy.

However, making regular voice calls and sending SMS over the cell network is absolutely not private. If you want privacy you need the ability to utilize end to end encryption, and to do that you need a device capable of running something like Signal.

Other than that I agree with your other points. I too miss the days where phones didn't all look like a slab of glass and every manufacturer wasn't afraid to experiment with all sorts of cool features.

Linux has been treated as a second class citizen by Proton with pretty much all their products. Just look at the state of the ProtonVPN client compared to Windows. They are simply allocating less resources to Linux development in general compared to other platforms.

At least we can still buy HDDs. Oh, wait...