Cambionn

You can try getting your hands on an AsteroidOS compatible watch and flash it with that. It’s basically Linux on your wrist. There is a health app here and the required sensor logging is here, which are in early development but work well in what it does, like step counting and heartbeat graph. Past days aren’t shown further than a week but they are logged, so you could probably get it by hand in terminal after accessing the watch with SSH if you need to until it’s implemented (I think it’s on the to do list).

It’s my daily watch for months now, sold my Galaxy Watch4 in favor for it. It works well, is completely FOSS, and works without internet, bluetooth, or phone. Altrough both can be enabled and phones can be connected with GadgetBridge or their own app. Both are in F-Droid. You won’t find a more privacy friendly smartwatch solution really.

There is an issues with the current nightlies tho, so downloads are taken offline for now. So you need to wait for that or see if anyone has old files from before the issue.

Devs are quite active on Matrix. If you have no patience you can ask there if anyone has the files. Any kind of support is also allowed there, no matter if it’s very noob or advanced level.

Article says:

We’re also beginning the beta for our upcoming macOS desktop app for Proton Drive. […] Once the macOS app is released, we’ll also work on our planned Linux version.

Based on Proton’s trackrecord in development times I’ld say a far future, but I must admit they’ve been making meters lately when it comes to releasing stuff. It may be sooner than expected (or it might take years, we’d have to wait and see).

but I think Google will do more. They’ve been trying to break it for ages. It’s one of those never ending fights. Doubt it’ll end soon.

Even if it does, then we’re at a point that “just use a good browser and uBlock Origin” also won’t cut it. Honestly, those will break much sooner than dedicated projects that are much more sophisticated in getting around YT-stuff. As soon as they put a login requirement on the site, which is needed to break apps like NewPipe, the browser + uBlock idea already won’t cut it anymore, no matter if you got a VPN ot not.

As for Aurora, as long as Average Joe still uses Google Play without a care I’m not too worried about it. People use AdBlock for the ease, but using Aurora doesnt’t give ease. It’s only the tiny group of privacy people interested in it, which is a much smaller demographic that’ll be hard to convert to Google services. If they break Aurora, the amount of non-playstore requests to developers is going to to pump up and as long as stuff like APKMirror and apk downloads from vendors still exist people will download by hand over using the Play Store. It’s a lot of trouble that likely just leads people further away from Google.

NewPipe (on Piped technology) is working fine here? As long as YT isn’t behind a login they will keep working. If they do put it behind login, tbf they’ll likely find way around it again sooner or later.

I agree that front-ends are always in an endless fight against these Big Tech solutions. But for content not available on other platforms it’s an necesity and a better solution than simply an adblocker. And sadly it’ll take a long time before content moves away, Average Joe isn’t really worried about Google as much as they are about the cons of moving away from YT.

I actually used to have YT Premium because I’m a strong believer that nothing is free, so you either pay with data or money (on anything slightly commercial, not counting FOSS projects made as hobby or under foundations etc. as things get more complex then. But even then I pay/donate for some stuff in the same way of reasoning).

Yet I cancled the YT Premium subscription. Simply for one reason, privacy. I don’t mind paying, but then I don’t want just no adds, I also want no tracking. I pay with money, so I don’t want to pay with data as well having a whole profile made.

Switched to NewPipe with sponsorblock on phone and TV and FreeTube on PC. Got a redirect extension in FireFox automatically sending YT videos to either Invidious or Pipe.

Business software has very different requirements. It’s much harder to implement stuff for them without breaking those requirements. Think compliances like (ISO) norms and laws regarding commercial businesses, contracts, or even the software being made to work and be administrated on a whole different scale. You can’t compare really…

While I agree it could go worse from here into a downwards spiral of enshitification, all I meant was that the title is a bit misleading into the other direction; making it sound like they would force telemetry onto users. If they wouldn’t say shit about this option, no one would sign up, even if they wouldn’t mind it. And basically, they’re explaining how they tried to make it as anonymous as possible and that’s it’s opt-in, which would also be a way to go if you legitimatly want to get data for improvement only. If that’s truly what they want, time will tell.

The moment it stops being optional I’m looking for a different password manager right away, I switched more complex and important things for similar reasons. But since my experience with them has been good, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

Small nuance:
“Later this summer, you’ll see the option to participate in our telemetry system and help improve 1Password. You don’t need to take any action right now, and we won’t collect any usage data without your awareness and consent first. Participation will be optional for Individual and Family plan customers. And at this time, our telemetry system won’t be rolled out to any team or business using 1Password.”

Aka, it’s an opt-in that you can simply not opt-in to and if you don’t nothing changes and then it won’t be used on you.

I’m using FireFox on PC and Fennec on mobile. I refuse to use Chromium-based browsers because I refuse to coöperate with Google pushing to monopolise the making of internet standards. And to be honest, I haven’t had a single real issue yet from not using it.

I use Brave Search for searching because it has it’s on crawler, has pretty good results, and despite it saying it’s introducing adds, I haven’t seen any yet. I only don’t like that for images, it just opens Google or Bing with the querry forwarded, but at least they are clear about that they do that.

Browser and search engine choice is only a tiny part of browsing securely and privatly tho.

I guess Matrix would be your best option then. I use Schildichat as client, which is a fork of Element with some extras.

But if you can’t get a plan, why not get a prepaid burner SIM? You can buy a prepaid card for minimal amount and you generally keep the number at least for a year, and you put in 5~10 euro each year you can keep it active endlessly.

A lot of things require a phone number. Here, the goverment needs you to have one, but also most workplaces and even the DHL. Getting a cheap trow-away sim isn’t a bad option. Especially since pre-paid SIMs aren’t connected to your name like those on a plan are.

Because the threat isn’t getting your number stolen, it’s about the content of your messages. While the goverment cóuld ask your phone number, they likely already have it unless you got a prepaid trow away that you keep replacing regularily. And even then it cóuld be traced when used anywhere. What they can’t get, is your messages. At least not decrypted unless you give it to them yourself. And those are way more interesting. But it’s not even about the goverment per se, it’s for everything from data hungry companies to your old crazy ex.

Telegram sends everything plain text and stores that on their servers. One man-in-the-middle and we got everything you’ve said.

WhatsApp says they have E2EE but is propietary and non-checkable, and from Meta who has a rep for finding ways to secretly and unlawfully grab data. Even if you (foolishly) trust them, they do grab metadata from your messages.

Signal isn’t about it being FOSS, but about privacy. FOSS just means it’s checkable, which is good for security and privacy. They have E2EE not only on message content but also on metdata (unlike most alternatives who only do message contents), do external audits, and are part of a non-profit (which means showing how money is received and spend).

I’m playing mainly western RPG’s like that, but I also couldn’t get into The Witcher. The gameplay is fine actually (I played way more clunky games with lots of enjoyment). But somehow Gerald just never clicked with me, causing me never to feel really connected to my character and to what’s happening.

It’s sad because I can notice how good the games are, but I just really cannot get into it.

Honestly most online games. I just prefer to game alone than with strangers or even friends. And while there are exceptions to the next point, I am well aware. But I also don’t feel like spending my free time having rando’s on the internet hate me for not being some awesome e-sporter, or be called a hacker when it does go well, as often seems to be how it goes. Like, I don’t get why people would spend their free time on something that just tends to make everything so negative. I have more fun things to do in my free time than get complained at… Honestly, the few online games I do like, you can play alone, and I mainly do, like ESO.

But one of the most loved games that I hate the most is GTA V. Especially the online mode. It’s so full of hackers it’s nearly impossible to do anything. Heck, I couldn’t even go buy a new outfit because some stupid guy was spawning shopping cards above everyones head causing the store to close and me to loose my whole selection of stuff I wanted to buy… Just why…

I also keep getting confused with the controlls somehow. Wanna get in your friends car picking you up? End up jumping on it’s roof or kicking it instead… It’s not that I can’t game. My hand-eye cordination might suck but that’s not even the issue here. I somehow just keep mixing everything up, while I’m fine with other games.

Been using Manjaro as my daily driver for ages. Tried a few others over the years but never found them comparably nice to use. Works out of the box, performs well incl in games, rolling release yet never had much stability issues, and access to the AUR.

That is, for my laptop and desktop ofc. Servers I wouldn’t run on it, at least no serious production ones. Not too important home servers maybe out of lazyness (I know this well, so easier to get stuff done).

Honestly for Skyrim I ate up the world building, lore, and freedom. And for that and the modding capabilities I have thousands of hours in the game. The questlines where fun enough, but the sidequests where meh and the gameplay too simplefied compared to previous games. I’d expect the next one to get even worse in that.

As a side note: I remember people theorising that it would be subtitled Redfall, since Bethesda had trademarked the name around the same time.

I also remember Todd later saying in an interview, after lot’s of speculation, that they had no idea yet for the game, basically debunking any speculation as just that.

I also thought the rumor was on trademarking “The Elder Scrolls: Redguard” or something along those lines, which is easily explained as that’s the name of an old spin-off from 1998 that they likely had to settle some stuff for. Timing spe ifically could be chance, or them figuring the announcement would bring more attention to the franchise. Besides, all game titles have been prime location. I think the word “Redfall” was a different rumour than the trademark one.

An old Twitter post suggested Highrock which also matched the trailers look. However, the next ESO chapter became Highrock and they never went back in a main game before, obviously ignoring Arena (Daggerfall was in that High Rock and Hammerfell) So it may have just been about that. An apperantly leaked internal note spoke of project Greenwood, possibly setting it in Valenwood (second most rumoured place) but that is alleged.

In the end, Bethesda still has us talking and speculating, and has me writing 4 paragraphs, with just releasing one shitty 5 year old trailer. And that while, as I said at the start, pretty all rumours where debunked as “we don’t know yet”. Damn they got me. They still got me…

Expecting a somewhat bug free experience from Bethesda… also, while games take long nowadays, 12 years isn’t a normal amount. Nor is announcing 5 years prior then never speaking of it again… Pretty sure we’re past the “modern games take a lot of time to develop” stage by now.

But damnit, how can I find all those nirnroots if I stay on the road!

But that’s made by Zenimax Online. Outside of Bethesda handing over lore to use, they have nothing to do with that…

Point is more about how long Todd has just sat there by now living of Skyrim’s fame and rereleases…

You make it sound so much funnier than it is. But thanks for the laugh! At least some positivity now came from it 🫠.

They said it will be able to connect with Mastodon, so there is zero need imho. I guess it’s more aimed at the casual user who doesn’t care much about data collection.

What I wonder more tho, how is Meta planning on not getting blocked by most Mastodon servers out of fear they’ll go grab all data possible from any server they federate with? Most Mastodon users aren’t exactly pro-Meta and pro-give all your data away…