Spyke

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privacy

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I made an extension that bypasses online age verification

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Doesn't matter, even if they do then you and others, well I guess "we" now, can come up with another solution. AdBlocks are still there ... because they work. It costs very little to fix (add or modifying a regex by 1 person that suddenly reaches thousands if not millions of users) whereas they have to find a new solution that is indeed compatible. It's not a race they can win.

privacy

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What should I change?

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Not everyone car for the same things nor has the same abilities indeed, that's why I'm thinking of optional filters. I also want to clarify the process is important to keep in mind, namely if somebody just started to move away from BigTech or surveillance capitalism or whatever is problematic for them, it's not the same as somebody else who dedicated their live to that a decade ago. So IMHO the hope is that people can add more and more filters whenever they feel comfortable they have the available resources to do so. It's a journey for each of us, on different paths at difference paces.

privacy

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Scan to Verify You're Human

If you do move on, please take a minute to contact the Website or service and tell them why. If "we" just collectively walk out they might not understand why.

In order to make this easier I wrote a short template :

To whom it may concern, I tried visiting your Website today to use your service as it looked like what I need. Unfortunately the verification method you use requires a mobile phone verified by Google. This is not something I have nor do I want to due to privacy concern. Google being a large and powerful advertising company I do not trust them with my data. Do you have an alternative way for me to confirm that I am indeed not a bot that puts your service at risk?

Feel free to use this verbatim or adapt it and share back.

privacy

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What should I change?

I'd add criteria, e.g.

  • GDPR compliant
  • no link with advertising companies
  • free software or open source
  • self-hostable
  • security audit

etc and overall have a reasonable default option but not hide that there are alternative. We want everybody to move away but if everybody moves to Proton as a suite and they enshitify then we are (nearly) back to square one. So I think showing that good alternatives exist is great. Helping people who already use an alternative others, maybe even better one for THEIR criteria also exist, is even better.

I'd also add a Github (or better CodeBerg or self-hosted Gitea) link at the bottom to https://github.com/ente-io/privacypack with the license (MIT) visible.

linux

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Why are so many Linux projects on Microsoft GitHub? Shouldn't they all move to Codeberg?

It's disappointing yet unsurprising to read the recurring answers, namely :

  • cost
  • incumbency

precisely because it's absolutely avoidable and a well known strategy. It's so well known that it's precisely why Micro$lop bought Github in the first place. People are there and the free tiers is enough to get the long tail.

Meanwhile since that strategy happened people who consider smart enough should know the genuine cost behind this : it's a TRAP. Plain and simple, you get there and you get STUCK there.

So... yes it takes some sweat and even some money to leave the trap ... but if you care about freedom, as most free software or open-source developers might, then it's aligned with your value.

linux

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Why are so many Linux projects on Microsoft GitHub? Shouldn't they all move to Codeberg?

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Right, like how Micro$lop :

  • blocked repository search without login (while it worked before the acquisition)
  • pushed in the most traditional Micro$lop fashion for its own product, e.g. Copilot, with in product ads
  • use repositories as ways to feed its own set of products, e.g. Azure for OpenAI, in order to push for code generation while ignoring licenses

and all the other things (please feel free to make this list more comprehensive) as "reparations"?

It's the same old "Embrace, extend, and extinguish " (EEE) scheme they've been (sadly successfully) running for decades now.

privacy

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College students used Meta’s smart glasses to dox people in real time

What's driving me nuts is that people will focus on the glasses.

Yes, the glasses ARE a problem because Meta, despite being warned by experts like AccessNow to SHOW when a camera is recording, you know with a bright red LED as it's been the case with others devices before, kept it "stealthy" because it's... cool I guess?

Anyway, the glasses themselves are but the tip of the iceberg. They are the end of the surveillance apparatus that people WILLINGLY decide to contribute to. What do I mean? Well that people who are "shocked" by this kind of demonstrations (because that's what it is, not actual revelations) will be whining about it on Thread or X after sending a WhatsApp message to their friends and sending GMail to someone else on their Google, I mean Android, phone and testing the latest version of ChatGPT. Maybe the worst part in all this? They paid to get a Google Nest inside their home and an Amazon Ring video doorbell outside. They ARE part of the surveillance.

Those people are FUELING surveillance capitalism by pouring their private data to large corporations earning money on their usage.

Come on... be shocked yes, be horrified yes, but don't pretend that you are not part of the problem. You ARE wearing those "glasses" in other form daily, you are paying for it with money and usage. Stop and buy actual products, software and hardware, from companies who do not make money with ads, directly or indirectly. Make sure the products you use do NOT rely on "the cloud" and siphon all your data elsewhere, for profit. Change today.

linux

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Installing Linux Doesn't Need to Change. The Experience Does.

Didn't watch the video... but the premise "The biggest barrier for the new Linux user isn't the installer" is exactly why Microsoft is, sadly, dominating the end-user (not servers) market.

What Microsoft managed to do with OEMs is NOT to have an installer at all! People buy (or get, via their work) a computer and... use it. There is not installation step for the vast majority of people.

I'm not saying that's good, only that strategy wise, if the single metric is adoption rate, no installer is a winning strategy.

linux

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Immich 1.136 Photo and Video Backup Brings Breaking Changes

As the title might appear a bit alarmist, saving a click "For most users, there’s nothing to worry about. However, if you’ve manually set a custom relative path for “IMMICH_MEDIA_LOCATION” in your “.env” file, you’ll need to convert it to an absolute path. For example, “IMMICH_MEDIA_LOCATION=./my-library” must become “IMMICH_MEDIA_LOCATION=/usr/src/app/my-library“."

privacy

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Proton Mail introduces post-quantum encryption | Proton

That's positive indeed. After Signal, maybe it's time we all add PQC to our ssh, HTTPS, etc.

In fact if you are wondering OpenSSL supports PQC since 3.5 the current LTS and Debian stable relies on it https://packages.debian.org/stable/openssl

So... you might already be PQC-ready. In fact if you also run Debian on your server (or its exposed containers) maybe you connected over HTTPS already in a PQC-ready compliant fashion.

linux

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Is there a Linux based OS for public computers, such as at a library or a PC cafe?

Honestly I'd

  • take any distribution that someone at or close to the library is comfortable with, e.g popular Ubuntu or Debian,
  • setup a user profile that fits the need of the average library user, e.g Firefox with as a start page the library website
  • make sure the library card system do work
  • copy /home/thatuser directory somewhere, e.g /root/thatuserunmodified and insure permissions make it unmodifiable
  • add a cron task so that every evening 1h after the library close any thatuser session is terminated, /home/thatuser gets deleted, copy the /root/thatuserunmodified to /home/thatuser and fixer permission
  • assuming it's fast enough (I bet it's take 1min at most as /home/thatuser would be mostly empty) I'd do the process after each logout so that each new visitor gets a fresh session, no downloads from previous users, history, bookmarks, etc. Only what the library consider useful.

That's it. This way one can still let the OS do it's updates but the user experience is consistent.

privacy

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Proton getting big encourages centralization

Agree but nobody forces you to use anything except ProtonMail or ProtonVPN. In fact I have a visionary account and I mostly just use ProtonMail. I do use ProtonVPN but I also have WireGuard. Also my ProtonMail addresses are behind domains I host. If tomorrow I decide to switch away from Proton, I can.

So... sure Proton is not perfect and centralization is bad but IMHO it's like saying Firefox is imperfect so it's fine to use Chrome or Chromium browsers. Imperfect alternatives to BigTech and surveillance capitalism is better than relying on the things you hate until something "perfect" never comes along.

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Don’t believe the hype: AGI is far from inevitable

It's a classic BigTech marketing trick. They are the only one able to build "it" and it doesn't matter if we like "it" or not because "it" is coming.

I believed in this BS for longer than I care to admit. I though "Oh yes, that's progress" so of course it will come, it must come. It's also very complex so nobody else but such large entities with so much resources can do it.

Then... you start to encounter more and more vaporware. Grandiose announcement and when you try the result you can't help but be disappointed. You compare what was promised with the result, think it's cool, kind of, shrug, and move on with your day. It happens again, and again. Sometimes you see something really impressive, you dig and realize it's a partnership with a startup or a university doing the actual research. The more time passes, the more you realize that all BigTech do it, across technologies. You also realize that your artist friend did something just as cool and as open-source. Their version does not look polished but it works. You find a KickStarter about a product that is genuinely novel (say Oculus DK1) and has no link (initially) with BigTech...

You finally realize, year after year, you have been brain washed to believe only BigTech can do it. It's false. It's self serving BS to both prevent you from building and depend on them.

You can build, we can build and we can build better.

Can we build AGI? Maybe. Can they build AGI? They sure want us to believe it but they have lied through their teeth before so until they do deliver, they can NOT.

TL;DR: BigTech is not as powerful as they claim to be and they benefit from the hype, in this AI hype cycle and otherwise. They can't be trusted.