EngineerGaming
@EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
- Comment on Almost the entire US South is now being blocked by Pornhub 3 weeks ago:
I saw something like this happen (major social media gor blocked). Can confirm that those sketchy free VPNs are now on seemingly every phone and it is worrying as hell :/ At least some people use charity censorship evasion projects instead.
- Comment on LegalEagle Suing PayPal's Honey 4 weeks ago:
I just assumed they operated by collecting and selling user data. So while I knew the business model was unethical, I didn’t expect them to get more creative!
- Comment on LineageOS now officially supports the Pixel 9 series 4 weeks ago:
“Flagship” is doing a lot of work here. Most people here use cheap phones. My 7a was already $300, which is a bit hard to swallow, and it was not the newest model at the moment. Pixel 9 in the same place is close to $1k now, which is completely out of reach for a lot of people including me. That is frankly an insane sum to spend on a phone.
- Comment on LineageOS now officially supports the Pixel 9 series 4 weeks ago:
That support is about as long as it goes on mobile. An average poor person can’t afford to just buy new phones as soon as the support ends. Some updates is still better than no updates in this case.
- Comment on LineageOS now officially supports the Pixel 9 series 4 weeks ago:
Not really. Stock OSes are really bad in terms of privacy, maybe with a few exceptions - I wouldn’t be able to trust them with any personal info. Just like Windows. So a custom one is a must.
- Comment on LineageOS now officially supports the Pixel 9 series 4 weeks ago:
Eight years, minus the few years you’d have to wait until the phone is close to affordable. And updates via LineageOS is still way better than just using a phone with no updates when it hits EOL like you normally would.
- Comment on LineageOS now officially supports the Pixel 9 series 4 weeks ago:
$25 is already a crazy enough sum for a phone bill, what you’re talking about is outrageous. Also, I’ve heard that such devices are often carrier-locked, and that carrier-locked devices often also have locked bootloaders.
- Comment on LineageOS now officially supports the Pixel 9 series 4 weeks ago:
I bought a Pixel because of how universal its support is with cuatom OSes. What features are broken there?
- Comment on LineageOS now officially supports the Pixel 9 series 4 weeks ago:
Ah, so not that significant and fixable? GOS has an assortment of calls home as well (to their own servers at least, but still a third party).
- Comment on LineageOS now officially supports the Pixel 9 series 4 weeks ago:
Is it an expensive contract? I doubt my $3/mo plan would ever have perks like this lol. Especially given that Pixels here are only sold unofficially.
- Comment on LineageOS now officially supports the Pixel 9 series 4 weeks ago:
Yes, I know about them extending it. For me, for example, that means four years of official support, which is much less than a usual lifespan of my phone.
- Comment on LineageOS now officially supports the Pixel 9 series 4 weeks ago:
What privacy issues are you talking about?
- Comment on LineageOS now officially supports the Pixel 9 series 4 weeks ago:
Graphene has a relatively short support, especially given that the phones for it are completwly unaffordable new so it’s effectively shorter than advertised. I am now spoiled by using a device that is not EOL so I think I will be switching when GOS’ support ends.
- Comment on LG discontinues all UHD Blu-ray and Blu-ray players 1 month ago:
But getting a DVD just to rip it is very inconvenient. Not only can there be scarcity issues with out-of-print disks, but also you’d either deal with the disks you never use lying around, throw them out or bother reselling, which I’d prefer not to do. I’d prefer having just hard drives of my media.
- Comment on Is there an extensive guide on how to protect kids on the internet? 1 month ago:
- Do not upload pictures of your face ANYWHERE, period - including private chats
- Do not use any name even resembling your real one, or rederencing your known interests
- If something asks for a phone number, avoid using it
- If it is mandatory (like for government services) or very hard not to use (like Whatsapp or Telegram), ask the parent first, maybe there is an aliasing solution
- If the data sharing is mandatory, try digging deeper for alternative options because it may turn out to be not so mandatory
- Do not post anything political or even remotely questionable in the current climate (should be talked about with the parent), and must understand you can be arrested for pretty much anything and be made an example of
- Each time an application is installed, think about what data it is able to access, pay attention to permissions
- Prefer FOSS programs for everything possible
- Learn to treat a Windows PC or a non-degoogled phone as a fundentally unprivate device and learn to not trust them with personal things (if I were a parent, I’d install a privacy-preserving OS on a device prior to giving it to a kid anyway)
- Comment on Apple's controversial iPhone accessory may have been discontinued 2 months ago:
I thought that was because everyone just bought $3 off-brand ones on Amazon.
- Comment on Apple's controversial iPhone accessory may have been discontinued 2 months ago:
I did buy a pair of wireless headphones, but the earbuds are staying wired. The headphones have a large, easy-to-replace battery that lasts a couple of weeks easily - while earbuds don’t. Some people might be inconvenienced by having to charge another device. Plus, Bluetooth doesn’t have the same audio quality - not as important for me, but might be for some people.
- Comment on Petition calls to ban Elon Musk's X in Europe 2 months ago:
That’s just my association with the word “ban” - blocking, because that’s what I usually experienced.
- Comment on Let's Encrypt is 10 years old today ! 2 months ago:
It is the free, easy way to get an SSL cert (plus automated renewals). Without it, maybe HTTPS wouldn’t have been so omnipresent.
- Comment on Petition calls to ban Elon Musk's X in Europe 2 months ago:
Here quite a few of the popular social media are banned. They’re still popular but now every schoolkid, housewife and grandpa knows what a VPN is. Every time I hear such news, I am afraid of crackdowns on censorship evasion in those places too…
- Comment on When Does Instagram Decide a Nipple Becomes Female? 2 months ago:
Would that mean censorship of moobs?
- Comment on Why did Raspberry Pi make their own SSD? 2 months ago:
You don’t block ads on Youtube? Why?
- Comment on 'They Know Who You Are': Harvard Students Use Meta's Ray-Ban Glasses To Pull Up Your Identity In Real-time 2 months ago:
I know this title is misleading. Sorry if I made a mistake, I just know that some facial recognition systems (including the one used in our cities) use data from multiple public sources including social media, so assumed this one was the same.
- Comment on 'They Know Who You Are': Harvard Students Use Meta's Ray-Ban Glasses To Pull Up Your Identity In Real-time 2 months ago:
I thought the comment was about “giving PimEyes training data via interacting with Facebook”.
- Comment on 'They Know Who You Are': Harvard Students Use Meta's Ray-Ban Glasses To Pull Up Your Identity In Real-time 2 months ago:
I wonder how much use is there in photos of you where you haven’t been tagged (in addition to being bad quality). When it comes to better-quality, tagged ones - you can just ask people not to do so.
- Comment on The Magic Keyboard and Mouse now use USB-C! 2 months ago:
If I had a wireless mouse, I would prefer it to not have a built-in battery at all. Pop the batteries out, swap them for a pair of charged ones, put the old ones on a charger. That’s it.
- Comment on Opera explains how it plans to keep uBlock Origin support as Google Chrome disables it 2 months ago:
Sure, but it is still the most usable alternative we have for now. I would avoid stock FF and use either Librewolf or hardened FF because the default browser spies too.
Really have hopes for Servo/Ladybird!
- Comment on Norwegian government to set 15-year age limit for using social media 2 months ago:
No, my point was that the reasons are way deeper than “being allowed to buy alcohol on their own”.
- Comment on Norwegian government to set 15-year age limit for using social media 2 months ago:
I thought not about buying moonshine through specific channels but rather asking an older friend/acquaintance/family member to do it.
- Comment on Norwegian government to set 15-year age limit for using social media 2 months ago:
I am not saying that companies are trusted - they’re equally as bad. They collect and hoard your data for profit, government hoards it for control, that’s all the difference. And both can exchange data with each other. The trust level is about the same.