About

Duck.ai is one of the few online places to chat with AI privately. Self-hosting your own AI model is a better option, but not everybody has the hardware for it. DuckDuckGo has made deals with the model providers to keep your chats private, so it's an easy option to recommend.

If you're like me, you probably clear your cookies a lot (or always browse in incognito). This means that any time you visit Duck.ai, you have to set all your settings again. One solution is to set Duck.ai as an exception to your browser data deletion, but that makes me uneasy. After getting fed up setting my preferred settings each time, I wanted to see if I could automate the process.

The Bookmarklet

Bookmarklets are essentially bookmarks in your bookmarks bar that, when clicked, run your own JavaScript code on whichever page you're visiting. This was a neat trick that some of my classmates used to edit pages when the Inspect Element was disabled on school computers.

I wrote a short bookmarklet that will automatically set my preferred settings in Duck.ai:

javascript:{
    const settings = {
        'aiChatPromptSuggestions': '{"hideSuggestions":true}',
        'aichatPromoDismissal': '{"promosDismissed":"9999-99-99"}',
        'duckaiCanUseApproxLocation': 'false',
        'duckaiSidebarCollapsed': 'true',
        'isRecentChatsOn': '"0"',
        'preferredDuckaiModel': '"6"',
    };

    let keys = Object.keys(settings);
    keys.forEach(key => {
        const value = settings[key];
        localStorage.setItem(key, value);
    });

    location.reload();
}

How To Use

(Steps may vary between browsers)
1. Copy-paste the bookmarklet code above (including the part that says javascript:)
2. Right click on the bookmarks bar in your browser
3. Select "Add page..."
4. In the field that says "URL", paste the code you copied
5. Name the bookmarklet whatever you want, for example: Debloat Duck.ai
6. Click "Save"
7. Visit Duck.ai (which redirects to duckduckgo.com/?q=DuckDuckGo+A…)
You must visit this page before running the bookmarklet, because bookmarklets can only run code on the page you're currently visiting.
8. Click on the bookmarklet you just created. This will run the code.

You should now have a distraction free, private chat.

Explanation

Duck.ai stores its settings in the browser's "local storage". If you open the Inspect Element (either by right clicking on the page and clicking "Inspect" or by pressing F12) and navigate to Application > Local Storage > https://duckduckgo.com/ you will see a list of settings and their corresponding values.

By default, these settings are a tad too distracting for my taste. The bookmarklet I made does the following:
1. Hides prompt suggestions
2. Dismisses the promo by setting the shown date to something impossible in the future
3. Disables using approximate location for responses
4. Collapses the sidebar
5. duckduckgo_settings doesn't actually do much, and the values there are, in fact, not documented on this page
6. Disables chat history
7. Sets the preferred model to Mistral Small 3, which is open source and has low moderation.

You can set your preferred settings before running the bookmarklet and edit the bookmarklet code according to your own settings.

The code then iterates through these settings, and sets each one. Then, finally, reloads the page to apply the settings.

Updates

This project is far too small to make an entire repository for it, so I will try to just update this post with any new code. For example, duckaiCanUseApproxLocation is a new setting that was added in the last few days.

I hope everyone enjoys this as much as I did!

Here is a before and after:

New Features

• The prompt to take a survey is now dismissed.
• Removed obsolete settings

Palestinian negotiators from Hamas have proposed a handful of amendments to a U.S.-promoted framework for a 60-day Gaza ceasefire agreement. According to a response that Hamas submitted to the U.S. and Israel and regional mediators from Qatar and Egypt, the Islamic resistance movement hopes the potential agreement will lead to an end to Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza that has lasted for 22 months. Obtained by Drop Site, the document is dated from July 4, when Hamas submitted its formal response to what President Donald Trump called the “final proposal.”

In its revisions to the Trump-backed draft, Hamas proposed stronger language in the framework to ensure that the initial 60-day truce be extended indefinitely—under a U.S. guarantee—until an agreement is reached on definitively ending Israel’s war against Gaza. It also wants Egypt and Qatar listed not only as mediators, but as guarantors of the agreement along with the U.S. “The mediators-guarantors guarantee the continuation of serious negotiations [on a permanent ceasefire] for an extended period until the two parties reach agreement, and the continuation of the [ceasefire and flow of aid] agreed upon in this framework,” Hamas’s draft asserted.

The original language contained more vague language and clauses, such as “if necessary,” and only placed the role of ensuring that negotiations continue on Egypt and Qatar, not the U.S. Hamas’s terms would make clear that the U.S. is responsible for Israel holding its fire during the 60-day initial truce and during subsequent negotiations for a long-term ceasefire.

The Hamas Response to Trump’s Gaza “Ceasefire” Proposal

Drop Site obtained Hamas’s amendments, which zero in on increasing aid, defining Israeli withdrawal, and getting U.S. guarantees to end the war.

^{Jeremy Scahill (Drop Site News)}

OTTAWA - Tesla legitimately claimed thousands of electric vehicle rebates in the final weekend before the department suspended its rebate program in January, Transport Canada said on Friday.

Millions of dollars in Tesla EV rebate claims were legitimate, Ottawa says

^{thecanadianpressnews.ca}

Trying out Guix for the first time! Waiting for packages to download.

I'm a long time Arch user. Any tips?!

I've heard there aren't as many packages for Guix as other distros, but I was thinking Flatpak and distrobox will help bridge the gap for me.

A preliminary report by Indian aviation accident investigators said on Saturday the fatal Air India crash that killed 260 people in Ahmedabad last month showed the plane engines' fuel switches shifting from run to cutoff within seconds of each other.

Air India crash report shows pilot confusion over engine switch movement

^{Reuters (CNBC)}

The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) has been linked to a project widely condemned for proposing the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, involving a sweeping postwar redevelopment of the besieged Strip.

Although TBI insists it neither endorsed nor authored the slide, two of its staff members participated in discussions related to the initiative.

The Tony Blair Institute was founded by the former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2016 to allegedly promote global policy reform and combat extremism.

Plans include a "Trump Riviera" and infrastructure named after wealthy Gulf monarchs, according to documents reviewed by the Financial Times (FT) and revealed on Sunday.

Tony Blair Institute linked to Gaza plan condemned as ethnic cleansing: Report

^{MEE staff (Middle East Eye)}

Boeing reached a settlement Friday with a Canadian man whose wife and three children were killed in a deadly 2019 crash in Ethiopia, averting the first trial connected to the devastating event that led to a worldwide grounding of Max jets.

Boeing reaches settlement with man whose wife and children died in 737 Max crash in Ethiopia

^{PBS News}

Ukrainian firm TENETA introduces the MITLA, a lightweight anti-drone device designed to intercept enemy drones using a rapid-deploying net.

Ukraine Unveils Pocket-Sized Net Launcher to Take Down FPV Drones

^{Ivan Khomenko (UNITED24 Media)}

Surveillance footage released by the DOJ to support its claim that Epstein's suicide was not suspicious contains metadata suggesting the video was edited.

Trump Admin's Epstein Prison Video Was Likely Modified Using Adobe Premiere Pro: Report

^{Morgan Music (Latin Times)}

La Social Web Foundation ha partecipato al 20° Internet Governance Forum delle Nazioni Unite in Norvegia .

Abbiamo ospitato il workshop "Privacy Preserving Interoperability and the Fediverse", che ha riunito sviluppatori, esperti di policy e organizzatori di community per esplorare la crescente importanza – e complessità – della privacy nelle piattaforme social decentralizzate di Meta, Data Transfer Initiative e Social Web Foundation. Con l'espansione globale dell'adozione di Fediverse, questa sessione si è concentrata su come raggiungere l'interoperabilità senza compromettere la privacy e l'autonomia degli utenti.