A lot of these types use ‘perfect being the enemy of good’ as their attack vector. If it’s not private and anonymous why bother? If you can’t cut out all big tech companies, if you can’t stop buying any American goods, if you can’t feed all the poor or house all the homeless, etc. It’s an effective way to attack progression by making people believe they should just stop fighting, they’ll never win. You nailed it, Signal is private, it doesn’t claim to be anything else.
Same here! I’ve been moving away from all-in-one tech to devices that only do one thing and do it well, usually with wires lol. Wired headphones in a DAP (Hi-Fi Walker) that I also plug into the car, old Sony e-reader that still holds a battery charge for a month, analogue watches, disconnected TVs, pen and paper notebooks, etc. I plug in when I can and avoid bluetooth.
It’s interesting, I’ve since changed my behaviour from buying the flashiest, coolest-looking items to focus on how well they work over how they look. Function over form. Sure, my things are less flashy and uglier, but I see a real charm to them now. It’s also driven me to retro-tech and loving using things that get worn looking and used.
I loved Lower Decks. Always been a big Trek fan but never gave it a go until a few months ago, same with SNW. I kind of gave up on Trek after Discovery and gave LD and SNW a go on a whim and thoroughly enjoyed both.
Privacy and anonymity are two different things. Proton doesn’t market themselves as anonymous, they market as a privacy service, as you said. And as for the info given to gov’ts, they were legally required to do so. No company, including Mullvad, will break the law for you. Mullvad/IVPN/AirVPN, etc, will all abide by law and give up info if required.
I’d imagine that will be the first thing to be torn down if the US ever gets their govt back. There’s no way of knowing how many listening devices/spyware has been built into that thing.
First I’m hearing of it, I’ll give it a look. Thanks!
Good list. Just wanted to add a thought about search engines as well. I’ve been using Kagi (it’s a paid service) which has the option to customize searches to pin, raise, lower, or block sites. I have most of the post media sites blocked (as well as a lot of US media sites) and sites like thetyee, cbc, france24, etc set to raise to the top. No ads, ai turned off, search is a pleasant experience now.
Edit to add: it is American unfortunately, but it’s the best search engine I’ve found. I’ve been operating under the adage “don’t let perfect be the enemy of good” so after cutting ties with the vast majority of US companies, there are still a couple I send money to, like Kagi and Signal.
Never heard of Droidian, but I’ve been loooking into the status of Linux phones lately. Mind giving a run down of your experience with it?
I’d guess because Motorola has partnered with Graphene OS to release a phone with Graphene as the os.
Is it though? Seems to me it’s more or less just don’t be a dick, don’t judge, and treat others how you want to be treated. Aside from the magic, JC seems like a pretty average bar to aspire to.
Was gonna mention this. Cuts about half of each film into one 4 hour film, and is incredibly well done imo. I watch it a few times a year, if it didn’t exist I don’t think I would have rewatched the trilogy at all.
I created a new account a year ago to lurk instead of comment, but you’re right, participation = growth. I’ll be joining in again.
I started LD after that episode. In retrospect I wish it was the other way around, I feel like I missed a little joy from seeing their manic ‘animated’ personalities in the real world without having known them animated first.
I thought they did a great job keeping their voice actor styles and understood the gags surrounding it, but I think it would have hit better had I seen LD first.