After arriving back at Heathrow Airport, Novara Media’s Kieran Andrieu shared his experience and explained why he thinks their mission was a huge political success.
After arriving back at Heathrow Airport, Novara Media's Kieran Andrieu shared his experience and explained why he thinks their mission was a huge political success.…
Florida officials received a hefty lump sum of cash from the federal government Tuesday to cover the cost of the Everglades immigration detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” As reported first by WPLG, the Department of Homeland Security revealed two days after the fact that Florida had been awarded the full $608.4 million stockpile of funds within the Detention Support Grant Program…
Regulations limit each system to just 800 watts, enough to power a small fridge or charge a laptop
What kind of clueless person wrote this. Whoever wrote this clearly has no idea how much 800W is in practice. Our fridge with an attached freezer (full size, 60cm wide, normal to large in Europe) never uses more than 70-90W, duty cycle is around 40%. So on average it uses 30W or so.
My gaming laptop is limited to 180W. Normally it uses much much less (50ish when actively used). My gaming desktop PC with 3 monitors uses 800W under full load, but that's with everything (monitors, amp/speaker, ...). Even with multiple PCs in normal (non gaming) use in the house, seeing over 800W isn't common. Or 10 laptops, not "a small laptop".
800W is enough to power our whole house unless we're cooking or taking a shower. I would argue in general, it will nullify noon-peak loads of an entire household, and whatever is left over gets added to the grid.
That said 800w will be the nominal amount under near perfect conditions, 80%- 90% of the time it won't be anywhere near that.
We (m and f couple) lived of grid for 10 years on a 2kW solar system and batteries with ease no generator for backup but a gas oven, 1 * induction cook top, 2x pedestal fans and 1 x celing fans, toaster, kettle, microwave and a no electrical boost solar system. Mid size diesel truck we used minimamilay (lived way out in the bush growing our own stuff etc) We're naturally energy thrifty though. At S30° latitide, awesome for solar.
We've since moved to S41°, terrible for solar in winter (short days and thats the wet season). We have 8kW solar but are on grid (feed excess solar into the grid) and charge our mid sized e-truck (use minimially) off solar, and have a heat pump for heating, so we use more electrons but no fossil fuel.
As I'd replied to a sister comment of yours, I didn't even consider that the author could be talking about actually available power, so that's on me. I did go re-read it and I really don't think that's how it is meant though. I do think they are just ignorant on this point.
That being said, "balcony solar" isn't limited to 800 W in panels. It's limited to an 800 W inverter, but 2 kW for the panels. So you can have quite a bit more capacity in solar compared to the inverter, which also means that worse weather impacts you less. When you got a full sunny day, you can have the full 800 W for much longer, if not most of the day, as it'll essentially be limited further down the chain. On the other hand I do think the most common size actually installed is much closer to also only have 800-900 Wp (basically 2 panels), which is the most commonly offerend (and presumably sold) kit size.
We also have roughly 8 kWp installed, and obviously on cloudy or dark winter days we're an order of magnitude away from that number. There are days where we break 40 kWh in production, and there are days where we barely make it to 1 kWh. That low is very rare, even in winter or on dense, cloudy days, so I'd consider 4 kWh a more realistic minimum value. We have relatively detailed monitoring of most (relevant) consumers, which is why I have a somewhat good idea of how much our house consumes in practice. Before this full size installation, we had a 2 panel balcony solar "test setup" for quite a while. It was actually quite a (positive) surprise on how many days we essentially covered the majority of our daylight usage with these panels. Obviously not for the big-ticket consumers, but even a washer/dryer will be mostly covered.
The plug and play solar panels described in the article do net feed back into the grid, that's why they're so simple to setup. You still need landlord approval to install them, because fuck your personal freedom if you live in Germany, but for the standards here, this is incredibly simple.
Sorry but the first part is just incorrect. They are indeed simple, which is why they do feed back into the grid. Not feeding back would take effort and additional hardware. But you're not being paid for what is fed back into the grid, making it free energy for the electricity provider (see my last paragraph below).
To explain it a bit: electrically, the external grid and the grid in your home are simply connected (assuming the breakers are closed). If you use more than you produce, whatever is missing "flows in". If you produce more than what you're currently consuming, whatever is left over just flows out into the grid. Even if this if obviously simplified, this "just happens" with no effort required, but the amount that flows in or out is easy enough to measure (which is what the electricity meter does that sits between the big grid and the one in your house). If you want to actually make sure you don't feed back into the grid, you would constantly need to monitor if anything is flowing in our out, and compensate with reduced (or increased) production. Even full size solar installations can't do this with perfect precision, even if you tell them to: you can only react to the flow you see coming in/out, if you turn a large heater quickly on and off and on and off, it won't have time to react quickly enough.
For the longest time (until early 2023 I think), you had to ask permission from your electricity network operator (is that the correct term? "Netzbetreiber"), because they would only allow you to install it if you had at least a semi-modern electricity meter that won't turn backwards. Because balcony solar always feeds into the grid, you'd effectively be paid the same per kWh as what you're paying yourself. You would effectively use the grid as a infinitely large battery.
Hi, I installed Linux Mint on a Asus Tuf Gaming F16 i7 13620H 4050 rtx, when I put it on suspension it takes a long time to wake up and the wireless becomes unavailable, I need to reboot to make it work again. I've already installed the latest drivers and updated the bios. I really don't know what to do, can it be a hardware problem? Thanks.
Is it a laptop? For some reason I've always had issues on laptop and suspend mode on linux, I think it's a commom issue. Which version of mint adn kernal version?
Hi Got a new latop with Realtek 8852 WIFI/BT module. I installed RTW89 using readme guide. It does work and I can connect to wifi, but wifi drops frequently/restarting. Bluetooth only works after r...
True, but i had similar problems in the past. I had 32GB RAM and when suspending it took years to boot and one day it didn't boot at all. A second hard drive with 50GB swap solved that problem for me.
The First Nation plans to formalize its partnership with the Fort Peck Sioux Tribes, in Montana, next week by signing a memorandum of understanding to advance the trade corridor and its infrastructure development.
The corridor intends to use traditional routes traversing Dakota territories in Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba and into the United States, reviving the historic Oceti Sakowin trade network, a historic alliance of seven Dakota, Lakota and Nakota Indigenous groups united by kinship, language and spiritual beliefs. The shared trade routes historically facilitated economic and military ties across their territories. “We have a lot of history, and even to this day, ties linking us to our relatives,” said Rodger Redman, chief of the nation.
Redman said this corridor is not symbolic, but rather an economic engine for the countries. Standing Buffalo is located in a region rich with critical minerals vital to global industries including renewable energy and technology. By owning the corridor, Indigenous nations can control the movement of these resources and expand economic opportunities for their communities.
Veteran Palestine campaigner #sarahwilkinson who was reportedly subjected to severe mistreatment in an Israeli prison, has now been detained by UK police at Heathrow Airport for interrogation. as the UK moves inexerbobaly toward a more aunthortarian state
Stripped of her phone and money, Wilkinson stands accused of documenting the Israeli genocide in #Gaza through her social media accounts. To make clear this occurred to Sarah LAST YEAR. I think Sarah is on her way to Turkey atm?
The UK fascists gotta get their licks in too it seems. After all they probably think she's a terrorist or something for daring to have the courage to speak out.
I couldn't even finish this report because I got too disgusted with what this fucking traitor (and his entire support network through Koch, Fox, Newsmax, Heritage, etc.) has done to the world.
It's particularly useful for doing research, as most major websites, that don't need accounts, work well enough (you will get CloudFlare Captchas). So research your VPN with tor browser, then use your commercial VPN to log in to social media sites that block logging in from tor, or watch your video content that will be too slow over tor. Both tools have a use.
Proton, in my opinion, make the best VPN for people who need both mobile device support and port forwarding so they can be a good citizen with all those linux ISOs they torrent. I don't use their desktop client (I prefer to rawdog OpenVPN and Wireguard) but people like those.
Proton's email is dogshit. Don't get me wrong, it is awesome for making burners that many websites don't insta-block (although that is shifting). But you don't own your data unless you regularly run their nonsense client to tunnel into their servers. So if Proton goes shit tomorrow? All your emails are gone. Not a HUGE issue if you regularly fetch those but... yeah.
I've been backburnering it for other reasons but folk like (Not That) Will Smith and many others have been very big supporters of Fastmail and, looking at it, it seems pretty nice. And it fits my use case of using an email address at a domain I own so that I can just move between services depending on pricing and how evil corporations are in a given month.
Just to elaborate a bit. Migrating from JohnSmith@gmail to JohnSmith@hotmail to JohnSmith_75151515@proton is a massive undertaking.
Migrating from John@SmithDotOrg hosted by Foo to John@SmithDotOrg hosted by Bar is potentially under an hour depending on how you manage that domain and so forth.
But you don't own your data unless you regularly run their nonsense client to tunnel into their servers. So if Proton goes shit tomorrow? All your emails are gone. Not a HUGE issue if you regularly fetch those but... yeah.
Tbf most people don't download offline copies, they just let all their email live on their provider's servers and never think twice.
Personally, I've used either Outlook or Gmail since 2000 and haven't ever had an issue getting access to my emails.
That is an important point. For all that Microsoft and Google do to enshitify email, all the spying, all the privacy invasions they do monitoring your every click, contact, and the content of every email, they are extremely reliable at storing those emails. If you move away from them, there is a non-zero chance that is greater than the above companies that your new provider will go belly-up and you lose access to email. So there is an incentive to download things, at least periodically, and store them somewhere. If you use a mail client, that's very easy. This is an aspect of tech literacy, like backing up your files in more than one place generally, that very few are taught.
The 3, 2, 1 rule of backups should be taught to school children. Instead, big tech go out of their way to abstract away the problem behind layers of infantilizing services. It works well, until it doesn't.
I mean that was the initial selling point for Gmail wasn't it? Don't worry about deleting or archiving anything, ever, you can just search for it... Basic file management skills sidelined.
As I said. Works great until it doesn't. In hindsight, Gmail has been extremely reliable for most people, but that wasn't true for some other Google services. I do think a lot of people have probably lost their email because of their password management skills though.
No one gives a single flying fuck about owning their email generally. The number of people who actually care about that aspect basically can be counted on one hand compared to the total number of even technical people who understand what that means.
Proton, Mullvad, PIA, are a few decent options. Be careful about anything that isn't widely trusted by the community as there are so many un-trustworthy providers out there that are basically shilling old-school spyware/malware. Also, for getting decent performance, they should also be using a modern protocol like wireguard underneath, not something like OpenVPN or L2TP or something like that. You will want port-forwarding if you use it for torrents, and that narrows it down extremely.
I'm pretty sure PornHub is just the most well-known example and they happen to own something like 5 others of the top ten most visited porn sites on the net.
If VPNs get outlawed for some reason in AZ, Tor is another option. Make sure you download it from their site sonce there are fake Tor apps in the playstores
Every single one of you idiots is fine with paying extra to access a free service. VPN! VPN! Gotta have a VPN to fool everyone!
You didn't need a VPN before, because religious nazis have to control every single fucking thing. Control that porn! Control that "R" rated movie! Control those words in songs! Control the words in books! All religious movements.
Stop supporting religions, you stupid fucks. Requring a VPN is just saying that poor people don't get free porn, because they can't afford a VPN. Which is yet another thing that religious dickheads do.
Most people are woefully unprepared to shop for a VPN from a reputable provider, meaning most people are going to end up subjected to even more surveillance and potentially attacks on their devices.
Most people also are not prepared to manage when to and not-to use it, so will get slower internet all of the time.
This will create lists of VPN users at both the ISPs and the VPN companies that will be usable by later christo-fascist governments.
This will ultimately get laws passed against consumer-facing VPN services, making it harder for people to protect themselves from other attacks.
More honey-pot VPN services will start up to support that list-gathering for future christo-fascist governments looking to build dossiers on as many people as possible.
I could go on and on. And nothing about the above has anything to do with porn.
I was with you until the last sentence. As someone who is not religious in the slightest, I have no problem with people being religious as long as it's not forced in me.
Nope, garbage shit for assholes who want to control idiots. And yes it is being forced on you, that's how Christian national terrorism works, if you don't think it is, I'm sorry, but you're also an idiot
My issue is that the ones who aren't bothering you with it are essentially not doing so because they know other people in their group are already handling that for them. Religions, especially those you named, come with a mandate to spread themselves and force others to comply with their standards.
It's kind of like a really selfish kid who would steal all your lunch every day, but he's not strong enough to do so, so instead he's just nice and kind and smiles at you and lets you be. But if he ever gets strong enough, he'll start taking your lunch every single day forever.
The religious people who aren't forcing it down your throat either (1) think someone else is doing it for them so they don't have to, or (2) don't think they could get away with it without being counterproductive to their cause, and are waiting for a more opportune moment.
These are people who believe that they factually know what constitutes objective good. Imagine if raping children was legal and you knew your neighbor was raping children. You might just leave him alone about it because, what can you do? But the moment you have an opportunity to vote for a law to outlaw it, the moment you have a chance to kill him and get away with it, etc. you'll try to act against him. Your polite indifference to him is a lie, because from your perspective he is committing an absolute and unforgivable wrongdoing that MUST be stopped. This is how religious people are to you, except for instead of it being about reasonable things like raping children, it's about stupid bullshit that makes no sense, like the fact you don't pray every day at a certain time, or the fact that you're attracted to the same sex, or the fact that you don't want the ten commandments posted in schools.
The problem is that by its very existence and prevalence you have to contend with religion's bullshit effecting your life.
So honestly you should be against people being religious and try and discourage it. Though yeah its not super helpful to look at individual religious people and hate them openly. That's a good way to just harden them right back against you.
Pretty much a default that religion, given the opportunity, will seek to push its rules and values on others. Doesn’t matter if it’s a medicine man or someone sitting on the local school board. I don’t have a problem with religious people in principle either, the problem is that even if you do meet a decent couple of people who appear to keep their religion to themselves there’s hundreds of thousands in their “club” that are going to fuck with things. Kinda like being in the republican party - even if they’re decent people, aren’t bootlickers, aren’t homophobes, etc… they still vote for, support, and associate with a group that does a lot of shitty things.
There is an important distinction between being religious and supporting organized churches. 'Religious people' aren't any more of a threat to you than gay people are. Churches, particularly the Catholic Church in Christianity, that don't even follow their religion's teachings, are the problem.
You don't need an organized group to have people who compromised on logic forcing their views on others. Sure, an organized group can be more efficient, but it is also more visible as a threat.
The solution to the root cause of this (asshole politicians) and all the other fucked up shit going on, is to vote. Vote for a candidate that won't do shit like this. If you want to do extra, donate time or some money to a candidate you like.
There is a difference between intellectual intelligence and emotional. People have needs that intellectual responses don't satisfy such as "what happens to us after death?", "how do I deal with the loss of a loved one?", "does anyone care about me?", "is there more to the universe than just random chance?", etc.
I get that. And believies can’t be based on reason. They’re just there. But it does generally require the ignoring of facts about the world around us. Like the same thing happens after death as before birth. You deal with loss by grieving. I don’t think they’re stupid, just regularly ignoring the simple answers to those questions.
No, the problem is accepting uncritically anything that comes from a self-defined leader, and, even in the absence of that, accepting that any critical input in a social system should come from people that have compromised on logic and reason at some level.
Our Democrat governor signed it. Why she signed this I still don't really understand. She's been using her veto power quite a bit and yet this one gets to go through. Ridiculous.
All politicians are united in their love of surveillance, as it allows them to subjugate the population via panopticon-induced threats. "We are always watching, so don't try anything"
The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) said skeleton staffing means visitors will be "probably on your own" with limited facilities available to them.
The National Park Service (NPS), which oversees 433 sites, said on Tuesday it was keeping national parks partially open, but placing more than half its workforce on furlough, or leave.
Conservation groups and former rangers have objected to the sites being kept open during the shutdown, arguing that the decision puts both visitors and park resources at risk.
Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano was named to the newly created position of CEO of the IRS on Monday, making him the latest member of the Trump administration to be put in charge of multiple federal agencies.
As IRS CEO, Bisignano will report to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who currently serves as acting commissioner of the IRS, the Treasury Department says. It is unclear whether Bisignano’s newly created role at the IRS will require Senate confirmation.
The Treasury Department said in a statement that Bisignano will be responsible for overseeing all day-to-day IRS operations while also continuing to serve in his role as commissioner of the Social Security Administration.
London’s Metropolitan Police arrested another 492 people over the weekend after a protest Saturday in Trafalgar Square, as the Starmer government accelerated its crackdown on opposition to the Gaza genocide.
The entirely peaceful protest was held to oppose the proscription of Palestine Action. It was organised by Defend Our Juries and attended by over 1,000 people. Of the arrests, 488 were for holding up signs declaring, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”.
Asked if this was a “dark step” to limit the fundamental right to protest, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood replied that that having a freedom “doesn’t mean you have to use it at every moment of every day”.
A country actively kidnapping people off the streets, removing due process and habeus corpus, deporting prisoners to random countries, building concentration camps, and deploying troops on the streets has a score of 84/100. Forgive me for not feeling particularly free with my score of 91.
Having a read of this I think it's fair to say boiling down a nation's "freedom" to a single number is a silly unacademic metric, before even getting into the likelihood of bias and manipulation.
If it looks like a ~~duck~~ fascist, swims like a ~~duck~~ fascist, and quacks like a ~~duck~~ fascist, then it probably is a ~~duck~~ fascist. Regardless of what a likely bias think tank's research may say.
They aren't now, either. 2024 was after the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, too, which was the biggest restriction on the right to protest in a long time and would be more significant than the change being discussed.
It's a bit worrying that people are just taking this incorrect headline from a propaganda rag at face value.
What? Are you saying that all protests have already been declared illegal? Go ahead and cite this declaration you just made up. And also explain the hundreds of thousands of protesters who have not been arrested recently on various causes, from pro-Palestine marches to anti-immigration ones.
If you haven't gone nuts and don't actually believe this thing that isn't happening has already happened, then the arrests of people are irrelevant because they're not part of proposed changes.
Folks who get really up in their feelings about the Trump/Harris election seem to forget that Harris was taking campaign advice from this guy. It's so easy to forget how absolutely poisoned so-called "Liberal Democracy" has become with a broad strain of fascist tendency.
On the one hand, you've got a guy who is looking to literally lay siege to cities in the US that didn't vote for him. On the opposite side of the pond, they're doing mass-arrests of anyone with a "Please Stop Killing Brown People" bumper sticker. And in the middle, a sea of smug dipshits posting "You got what you voted for".
Have you seen their fiction? Even in sci-fi, they're the center of the fucking universe. Galactic Space Empire HQ, located in NYC/LA/San Francisco of course.
As opposed to British fiction where everything os centered around London? George Orwell thought London would be the center of the Anglo-American axis back in 1948 while the British Empire crumbled around him.
Similar issue, yes. It's said that you should write what you know, my point is more that Americans seem incapable of producing fiction where the lower 48 aren't the nexus of the universe, not that the British weren't also doing the same thing centuries earlier.
Aliens sure seem to visit London all the god damn time in Dr. Who. People write literature about the places and people they know. Why would an American write a book about aliens visiting Berlin?
Also, how long ago do you think 1948 was? Because it wasn't "centuries" ago. And the most prominent American sci-fi authors do not have their stories revolve around the US. The Foundation, Dune, Star Wars, and the Expanse were all written by American authors and only one of them has any characters from the USA
1948 was before black people were given equal rights in the US, so as far as I am concerned it should have been centuries ago. Stop dick measuring with the previous garbage empire like their shortcomings somehow excuse your own.
edit:
Was it my support of civil rights or my pointing out how silly it is to compare yourself to a condemnable empire as a defense that made you mad?
I would love to discuss German, Indian, and Chinese sci-fi, but none of it seems to be very popular on the international stage so unfortunately we can't discuss it. The guy i responded to complained that American media focuses so much on America, while citing only Star Trek, but that's literally how media is in every country, so i cited British media because that's what i am familiar with as i am a dual citizen of both countries.
And perhaps associating the racist policies living people grew up with as something that happened centuries ago is why we can't make much progress today.
Where have i tried to use the British Empire to measure social progress? I mentioned an example of English literature where ot is comical to think England would be the nexus of power, which someone then said doesn't count because it was from "centuries ago". Now i don't even know what y'all are trying to yell about, as a thread about the British descent into fascism turned into American literature to whatever the hell you are even talking about at this point
Nobody's yelling, you are clearly having a minor meltdown.
Another user mentioned the valid point of American media being pretty self fellating when it comes to who is treated as the centre of civilisation, and you spat out your binky and decided to bring the UK into this. He responded that yes, Britain has been doing this for centuries (as empires tended to back before mainstream telecommunication), and you wilfully misunderstood his point, prattled on about doctor who and 1984.
I merely responded that measuring your dick against the British empire is a pretty fucking low bar, because that is what you did. I also reminded you that if you don't think 1948 was long enough ago (as you implied), maybe consider the social changes that have taken place.
You been running in circles answering questions nobody asked and misreading responses; a clear sign that you have gotten emotional and are not equipped to engage in this conversation as a reasonable actor.
The person you originally responded to was correct, you were wrong. Maybe learn from that instead of doubling down and randomly bringing the UK into it. To once again repeat, THIS particular thread is in response to someone correctly observing that American media is pretty self fellating when it comes to who is treated as the centre of civilisation.
Because lets face it, no matter how bad the UK might be, the US is in a far worse position right now. Crying about it and pointing fingers just makes you look petulant. If you can't deal with criticism of your country maybe you should stay out of discussions where it might come up?
Thanks! I have almost worked through my backlog of sci-fi books and have been looking for something new while i wait the next book in the captives war series to come out
Sorry I didn’t make any claims as to what constitutes a “full” democracy
I'd settle for what defines "democracy" at all. I've seen folks claim El Salvador is a democracy while Nicaragua isn't, entirely because the government of El Salvador is politically aligned with the US and the Nicaraguans are not.
IRV is just FPTP+
I don't really care what flavor of election system you think is the right one. However you square it, you can have shit candidates win popular mandates. There is no system that'll keep people you don't like out of office, shy of a dictatorship that puts you in charge.
There’s a reason why politicians keep suggesting it
I don't really care what flavor of election system you think is the right one.
You're against logic and reason?
However you square it, you can have shit candidates win popular mandates. There is no system that'll keep people you don't like out of office, shy of a dictatorship that puts you in charge.
I'm not interested in a system that will keep people I don't like out of office. I'm interested in a system that represents the will of the people, rather than the will of a select rich and powerful few.
If you're willing to care, you might find one.
Suggesting it? Thirteen states have now banned ranked-choice voting as municipalities decide on whether to adopt it
I don't see the problem here, like I said, it's worse than FPTP.
I met an Aussie in Thailand who claimed that ranked ballot elections are undemocratic, that recent Australian protests were not racist, that immigration was a huge problem in Australia, that Australians are not actually racist at all, and that recent Australian protests were about protesting Palestine, and not racist at all.
Im going tongo tin foil haters a bit with the implication:
If you have a faist government why not just bring back the royal family as the leaders?
I get that facism is different than monarchism but many of the key distinctions aren't that significant imo, in that they both lean heavily towards autocracy and both Aggressively punish dissent.
Palestine Action sprayed red paint on two Airbus Voyager aircraft to “break the chains of oppression” in Gaza — and drew swift condemnation from British politicians.
hand on hip and wagging scolding finger "Oi mate, yous can't soiy that, it's prohibited language! You're noit allowed to suppoht a group declared terrohrist feh sproiy paintin' a jumbo jet!"
Spraying military aircraft with red paint isn't terrorism by any stretch of the imagination. Who does it terrorize? And supporting an organisation whose members sprayed fighter jets with paint isn't terrorism either. There's no justification for the UK government's use of anti-terrorist legislation against these protesters.
By contrast, supporting a regime that has been openly committing genocide for years and uses torture and murder to intimidate its opponents could well qualify as terrorism.
And runs political interference campaigns at the highest levels of its allies to gain unlimited support. We label other countries foreign actors waging hybrid warfare for a lot less. It's crazy.
People that were against terrorism legislation argued this until they were blue In the face and people people told them don't worry, the government is totally not going to abuse these powers.
When Keir Starmer was a solicitor he defended people, successfully, for the same kind of thing. This isn’t terrorism, this is my government taking away our rights to protest.
People are ignoring their proscription to bring attention to the insanity of it and hope to force the government to back down. It’s mainly old people being arrested; including priests. I would do it myself but it’s hard when you’ve got work and being in jail would hinder that.
I'd argue that the Liberals are a little farther down the line. This administration isn't finished bullying women, intellectuals, non-Caucasians and the queer community to death, they're just getting started.
Happened in the 1910s, even. Hence the old quip about Bernie Sanders killing Rosa Luxemburg.
dumbass liberals eventually ended up lined up against the same walls the communists and socialists were lined up against
Or marched out into the snows of Russia to seize more Lebensraum for the imperial core. Or just bombed to death in Dresden or Berlin when the front lines collapsed.
If you’re a liberal today and defending this fascist suppression against Palestine Action: you’re next.
The hard math of living in a fascist state is standing up and getting shot today or ducking and hiding in hopes you won't get shot tomorrow.
Liberals made their bed back in 2009. We're all just living in the aftermath.
Met Police said many of those arrested needed carrying away after they refused to walk from Trafalgar Square – but Amnesty International says arresting hundreds of people at the demonstration is ‘not the job of police’
The WSWS described the 2014 Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine as a coup backed by the United States and Germany in which the Ukrainian far-right coalition of organizations Right Sector and political party Svoboda would have played a "crucial role".[13] Furthermore, the WSWS criticized the coverage of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014 by the majority of German media outlets, describing it was one-sided and "anti-Russian propaganda". Thus, leading outlets such as Der Spiegel and Die Zeit would have been clamouring for military action against Russia and attacking the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, "who is portrayed as a new Hitler and an aggressor".
[14]About the shootdown of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014, the WSWS stated that "Washington has presented not one shred of evidence that Flight MH17 was brought down by a missile either fired by the anti-Kiev forces or supplied by Moscow". Regarding the assassination of Boris Nemtsov in 2015, David North wrote for the WSWS that he was wondering if the United States was planning a coup to replace Putin with a "Western-friendly oligarch".[15] On February 22, 2022 the WSWS issued a statement opposing Putin's invasion of Ukraine, calling for the unity of Russian and Ukrainian workers against both Putin and NATO.[16]
Is it so hard to find a socialist organisation that isn't just simple contrarians?
I guess they at least oppose the (2022) Russian invasion of Ukraine so they're not completely bonkers. Not Chinese propaganda level, but still disappointing.
I guess they at least oppose the (2022) Russian invasion of Ukraine so they’re not completely bonkers. Not Chinese propaganda level, but still disappointing.
They frequently portray Ukraine as an aggressor in its war, rather than Russia (they call the Kursk incursion of Ukraine the "imperialist-backed incursion of Russia", and they write that Taiwan's ruling party DPP "must renounce its confrontational approach to China" in an obvious disconnection from reality that Russia started the war in Ukraine, and China is becoming increasingly aggressive against Taiwan including threats of an military invasion - Source, but you'll find ample evidence that this site is conveying authoritarian talking points in practically all its reports, and barely properly citing a source for their claims).
How did the DPP rise as “the opposition” in the late 1980s? What role did the KMT and US imperialism play in this development? What do social democrats and Stalinists mean when they say “peace”?
It's a good source if it reports on the fascist behaviors of the UK government. With this trend, how long do you think western media will be able to report freely on this stuff?
90% chance the mossad has a bunch of videos of Starmer and his cabinet diddling kids, or engaging in animality with pigs, whatever is the depravity du jour was in his heyday.
Meanwhile the nazis march against london with Stephen Yaxley-Lennon at the helm. 0 actual enforcement. The funniest part is Yaxley-Lennon was invited by an israeli minister to visit Israel...
Can you imagine travelling back to 1943 and telling people in the camps that their sacrifice would be the fertilizer of a new wave of the same ideological poison that deprived them of dignity and life. This is just heartbreaking... What's even the point of resisting anymore?
Indeed. My opinion stems from the fact that Ghislaine Maxwell's father was suspected of being a Mossad agent and Epstein himself had ties to some Israel government figures.
Resisting tyranny is how everything good in the world is possible. The way to have lives worth living is to defeat tyrants and their ideologies. We defeated the Nazis but not fascism. Now we have to defeat the ideological descendants of the Nazis.
If we don't defeat fascism, neoliberalism, and capitalism now the turn around time for the next fascist movement will be measured in years not decades. We have seen as much with the Biden administration. They failed to meaningfully hold Trump and MAGA to account for the insurrection or fundamentally fix the underling systemic issues that they are symptoms of and now we are living under fascist rule.
We don't have dignified lives or liberal democracies to go back to. The way to get something better is with socialist democracies where workers own corporations and the political process. Until then it's liberty or death. We benefited from a free democracy. If anyone is to enjoy that again we must resist now and until we are all free.
Starmer is terrified of Reform. So he's taken the really smart stance of pulling Labour to the right to court a demographic that would never vote Labour anyway, and in the meantime utterly piss off his core base.
Yeah, it's very sad since I think people are more willing to vote Labour if they were just better. Now their voter base is more likely to stay at home instead of going to the voting booth. Weird move by Starmer since he was in the march against the Iraq war himself.
It's so depressing. I remember the election that Ed Miliband lost, and how many of us were unsurprised that people found no appeal in Tory-lite as opposed to the regular Tories; Labour implicitly conceded to the Tories by affirming the idea that austerity was the only way to go. Now the same is happening with Reform.
If Labour really wanted to challenge Reform, they'd challenge Reform's base assumptions. They'd argue, for example, that reducing immigration won't solve the housing crisis or NHS wait times, because those essential services are suffering from over a decade of chronic underinvestment. They don't need to fight on Reform's terms, because if they do, Labour will lose — again.
A campaign by Israeli-backed British Jewish groups of anti-semitism slanders against Corbyn (so extreme that at one point a Jewish Holocaust Survivor was deemed an anti-semite to get at Corbyn by association) toppled him down from Labour Party leadership, to be replaced by these types, who as soon as they got control of the Labour Party started purging it of people who had voiced Leftwing ideas and support for Corbyn.
Essentially Labour was emptied from the inside and its shell was filled with supporters of a foreign ethno-Fascist regime.
Power Duopolies, such as those found in countries with First Past The Post systems, suffer from similar problems as the Power Monopolies in one party systems, such as how there is a path to power which is entirelly unaccountable to voters, of just taking over one of the Power Duopoly parties from the inside and then let the normal back-and-forth of the duopoly system - since people only ever have 2 options, naturaly the power goes back an forth as people vote for the "lesser" evil that then turns into the "greater" evil so they vote for the other "lesser" evil - bring that party back to power.
Funilly enough, in the UK that seems to have been done to both of the Power Duopoly parties, first to the Tories during the Leave Referendum and after that to the Labour Party when Israel joined with the Liberals (and I don't mean the LibDem Party, I mean Blairites) and even the Tories to overthrow Corbyn (who was openly a defender of the rights of Palestinians) and replaced him with the Liberals who then proceeded to make sure there was nobody left-of-center in that party.
If you look at the US, you see the very same phenomenon transforming the Republicans from a Conservative Party to a Fascist one, as well as how the Democrats have be thoroughly taken over by those serving the interests of Israel and of Billionaires.
I think that the less rigged a country's voting system is for "stability" (read: for making sure only the same handful of big parties has power and they seldom have to do it as part of a cohalition) the more robust it is to this kind of taking over of a large party as an unaccountable way to get power, mainly because more parties have to be taken over and people will migrate more easilly way from a party when it stops representing them (there is no such thing as tactically voting for the "lesser" evil in a Proportional Vote system).
In my own experience, if all the voting systems rigged to benefit size, there is a broader phenomenon of larger parties existing which which are usually in power (though often in cohalitions) and which attract the kind of people with no scruples who go into politics to become wealthy from selling access to power (i.e. the corrupt).
However in the two other countries I lived in beyond the UK, one of which had Proportional Vote and the other Multi-representative Electoral Circles (so, not as bad as FPTP, but still Mathematically rigged), I have not seen a case of the larger parties being obviously taken over as means to get to power like I saw in the UK, though I've seen smaller parties being created and/or supported by foreign money and then eating up some of the vote of the large parties.
Certainly were I am now - Portugal, which has Multi-representative Electoral Circles - of the two new Far-Right parties which were created not that long ago, one of which for sure got money from the Fascists in Brasil and the other also likely had funding from abroad (the campaign phamplets and other materials in their very first elections were both far too expensive for a small party and using the kind of design and slogan style one finds in International Marketing campaigns in huge contrast with other small parties), probably American (they're an ultra-neoliberal party created a couple of years after Steven Bannon came to Europe with money he openly said was to fund far-right parties), though there I don't know for certain. Both of those parties are taking votes away from the large rightwing party but also partialy from all the way into the leftwing (the more Fascist of the two is even picking traditional working class votes that used to go into a Communist Party)
Every party HS a different system. The conservatives have their MPs select two candidates in multiple rounds of voting to put in front of all their members.
Labour has a system where a candidate needs to have a minimum support from their MPs too but it's still an election from labour members and supporters. They rank their candidates I believe
This is so self defeating... Palestine Action should have never been declared a "terrorist organization" in the same category as Al Qaeda and Daesh. People see right through that and it causes a backlash. Nd the UK government doubling down on the backlash creates even more backlash. I mean anyone can see that at this point that the government has lost the political battle on this one and is just chugging through due to the sunk cost fallacy. This is only paving the way for the Right to do a comeback. Fucking centrist liberals man, god damn.
Not rioting is better. Peaceful protest, and thousands getting locked up, is what creates the conditions that might enable real social change.
If that doesn't work, then you have a proper riot (i.e. of the kind that isn't bread and butter to the powers that be). Edit - lot of downvotes here. You need to read a bit of revolutionary theory. No doubt there are Americans downvoting, who of course don't have a leg to stand on based on what they did with their exhorbitant ly privileged society./ YOu are showing your ignorance.
In a culture of peace, true justice could emerge; it would manifest as support of those who experience violence and rehabilitation of those that feel they need to turn to violence to get their way.
Justice and peace are usually not framed as concepts that exist in a vacuum which one chooses between, but rather as interdependent concepts.
I believe that when we choose violence and retribution over nonviolence and rehabilitation/restoration, our manifestation of justice reflects that.
MLK didn’t reject peace – he rejected complacency and false order. My belief in restorative justice and nonviolence is directly aligned with his legacy, not in opposition to it.
A culture of peace is proactive, inclusive, and cooperative. I am not the white moderate he spoke of.
Edit: Just still blown back from the notion that I'm somehow a white moderate for advocating for the same peaceful nonviolent action MLK was. Hit the books friend - you're wrong and here are direct quotes to clarify the situation for those reading:
“And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? ... It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.”
I'm not concerned about tranquility and the status quo. I agree with MLK that a riot is the language of the unheard. Just like him I still advocate for nonviolent action, while not disowning anyone - especially the unheard.
First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"
I'm not saying the latter statement, not even a little bit - not ever. I am an advocate of direct, nonviolent action and positive peace, as opposed to the negative peace MLK criticized. I'm not attached to false order and I value justice over it. I am deeply concerned about justice and humanity and I don't advocate for moderate and ineffectual action that doesn't affect the status quo.
Just because I chose peace and advocated for a culture of peace, doesn't mean I'm ignoring the role of true justice creating true peace. There's a lot of nuance here and the question was a trap to begin with. If I could go back in time, I would've answered peace and justice and just left it at that.
I disagree. We're past the point where peaceful protests will create change. It's abundantly obviously that those in charge do not care. And they also got it in their heads that AI makes us less necessary.
If leaders and executives won't listen to reason, then it's time to instil fear into them. Remind them there are so many more of us than them, and that their positions are a service to us, not a privilege or an entitlement.
Angry rioters do fucked up shit. Watch LA 92. All that violence and anger turned in on itself, attacked the most vulnerable, weasled into racial divisions.
With a more organised direction for that energy, the city could have been paralyzed, rotten cops and the judges could have been run out of LA and real systemic change could have begun.
I mean sure you can use the chaos to try and get cover for something specific. But generally, people rioting are on-tilt and looking for easy targets that look like their oppressors. Then, everybody gets catharsis and the riot disappears.
It's just lazy. but, better than nothing, i guess.
Peaceful only works when the people in power have a conscience and are willing to come to a peaceful resolution. When they want to eliminate your ability to tell them no, then rioting becomes the path forward.
Although in the UK there was some old graffiti that said 'a nation of sheep, owned by wolves'.
I would say it is more 'a nation of sheep, governed by wolves, owned by pigs. We've all heard of wolves in sheep's clothing, well we have a lot of pigs in sheep's clothing. And the wolves and the pigs interbreed freely, so we have all manner of porcine lupine combinations.'
And what do you do when everyone who would dare to do anything is locked up by peacefully protesting? You're going to run out of bodies, before you realise you're fucked.
Not an american, you are still being silly. Also you sound american with all that rollover attitude to authority. They are outlawing peaceful protesting, the solution is not to keep doing the same thing but with more smugness.
Peaceful protests are most effective when they're backed by the threat of violence. It's not the keg that forces concessions, it's the fear of the powder within. The cops have no issue beating up defenseless victims in the name of "order". Only when they're at risk themselves do they think twice.
For that, the protests need to be large enough that escalation becomes an actual concern. Pre-gunpowder armies stacked their infantry deep, because more people behind you makes you bolder in face of the enemy before you. The larger the crowd, the more dangerous the potential rioters become.
Premature escalation might get the bold vanguard beaten and made examples of. Only when there's enough support to keep the momentum going can riots effectively serve as an "or else" to the peaceful demands.
Not American. You are wrong. We are lucky that many have more sense than cowardice because to do exactly what your opponent wants att any point in a rape is bordering malicious
As an American, it's super disheartening to read stories about European governments being fascist assholes as well. It's nice to imagine there's somewhere to go to escape it.
Yeah, which means they should know better more than anyone else. There's also the fact that the Nazis were inspired by Jim Crow, so Europe alone doesn't get the blame.
I honestly believe the anti American sentiment from Europeans on the internet comes from them hoping the origin of racism and facism is connected more to America than Europe. European facism, racism, and sexism has done more damage than any other group on the face of the earth
B) The fact that an article on World Socialist Web Site is linking to posts by Amnesty UK and Defend our Juries (three organizations that should all know better by now) on Xitter.
Jesus
At an absolute bare minimum, the last two should be cross posting everything to Mastodon, and the first should be linking to the Mastodon accounts whenever available.
Oh, look! Amnesty UK has a Mastodon account that they're not fucking using, apparently never have.
I'm looking into installing a door lock w/ key pad at home for two use cases:
I'm out of town and need to allow someone to enter my home, in an emergency or for any reason.
Nice to have - "oh shit, did I lock the door" - ability to lock the door remotely from my phone, would also solve use case #1 by unlocking remotely.
If there are no privacy respecting / self hosted apps for remote control (use case #2), then a "dumb" electronic lock w/ key pad that enables me to set a PIN that I can give to a friend or neighbor in a pinch and then reset the PIN after I get home, that would be good enough. If no such keypad/electronic locks exist, then my backup plan is to just make a few copies of my key for trusted friends & family and/or hide a key, but I'd like to explore the keypad route.
I use a keypad lock that has z-wave in it and tie it back to home assistant. I access home assistant through my wireguard vpn and lock or unlock as i please.
If you find one, see if you can get it to work with Home Assistant. I already cross-posted this to the Home Assistant community, so they might chime in as well.
Anything connected to the Internet is inherently vastly less secure. Fortunately, your two usecases can be addressed with a "dumb" keypad lock with two features:
Multiple access codes. Set a different code for each trusted party, as well as an extra code that you can give out in case of emergency, which you can reprogram once you return.
Automatic locking. Set a timeout for the deadbolt to re-engage after a set period of time. If you forget to lock the door, it simply locks itself.
This is the route I took. All manual, multiple codes. There is a code for the gate, and a code for the door, per person I implicitly trust. With some 23 cameras on the property, I'm well aware of just about anything going down on my property while I am away.
LOL Well, it would seem like it works out that way but the only interior cams I have are in the living room and there is one in the lab. I'm not really into sex tapes. They always seem like a good idea at the time, but they have the potential to become quite litigious, and I try to stay out of courtrooms.
I've got one like this. A standard NON-CONNECTED keypad lock from the big box hardware store. I set a few extra codes and hand them out (and change hem) as needed.
Fair warning: anything like this that you may want to buy has almost certainly been defeated, especially anything that is a combo lock. The only systems I've seen that are actually somewhat secure are the types that have a separate keypad and lock mechanism, and require electricity in the door frame latch.
I prefer an old school security door with key for my home, any electronic doorlock is hackeable, more with online functions. Same as generally "smarthomes" are never private.
It's a 'dumb' solution, but you might be better off with a key safe. My mother in law uses one, and it lets the family have access if she's working or on holiday and something needs doing.
The PIN can be changed quite easily, and there's no chance of being locked out due to a power / battery failure.
Something that uses the Matter protocol might be what you’re looking for. My understanding is that they can be disconnected from the internet (only able to communicate with your Matter controller over your local network) and still work.
The comments are funny... I run Home Assistant (using ZigBee, so devices have no Internet connectivity) at home but I also lock pick, for fun.
Sure, your "smart" or "connected" gadgets can be hacked but don't get fooled by believing your "dumb" locks are safe!
As somebody pointed out check the LockPickingLawyer... but if you believe it's complicated buy yourself a lock-picking training kit for 30€. Sure you won't open "fancy" locks easily but you can open a lot of locks by training for like 1h. Get a kit, watch few videos, train while paying attention, repeat while watching a movie (basically blind picking) and you'll get surprised how quickly it comes. If you have very fancy lock (the ones that cost more than 200€) then you need better tooling, like 1000€ automated ones, but that still requires little skill and need a minute to pop a lock (so I heard, this I never tried).
So yes, please, do NOT buy a connected lock if you believe that's unsafe BUT also do not imagine you are safer with a "traditional" cheap one.
PS: full disclosure, I do not have a connected lock but it's not because I think they are more unsafe, just because I didn't bother. I'm not convinced of the utility for the price. That said if you have suggestions, I'm all ears.
PS2: as with similar questions on software, depends on your thread model. If you have to deter playful teenagers or drunkards, sure, it'll hopefully slow them down enough so that they give up. If you are facing professionals it won't matter either way, safer to get insurance for the outcome.
Much like securing your network and devices, unfortunately, there isn't anything that renders 100% protection. I'm fond of saying 'For each and every technology, there exists, or is soon to exist, an equal, yet undoing technology.' Technology doesn't stand still, but it always wields a double edged sword.
Indeed, and that's why I enjoy lock picking. You get to actually understand the technology and its limits. It's a playful pastime but IMHO it's an interesting reminder.
That being said... I do believe 1 protection exist and is close to 100% : computational complexity. The math behind encryption is the closest we have to a perfect lock. The fact that governments have to put artificial limits on it says a lot.
My test batch setup is nearly complete (please also appreciate the "beautiful" tiles) and I tested it with a wet hop beer. As you can see, those were clearly at the upper end of their ripeness scale, but it was the only time I could manage to pick some at all due family & kids. In they went in for a ~20 minutes 80 ˚C hop stand, during which my kitchen smelled a troubling lot of garlic and onions. By removing the bag with the hops, I stirred up the already settled trub, so I had to pour all hop debris & hot break into the minikeg along with the wort. Let's see what that does to the beer. I've overshot my OG quite a bit with the setup in the pictures, with a lot higher efficiency than predicted, only by stirring every now and then, so we're looking at an OG of 1.051 instead of 1.046.
Yesterday, after a week of fermentation under rising pressure, it was time for a gravity sample. It's fully attenuated already, and except a hint of some sharpness, I'm happy to report that we're apparently free of off-flavours. 😀 It came down do 1.008 (vs 1.010 predicted) , which leaves me with a 5.6 % ABV beer instead of 4.2 % with a lot less residual sweetness (US-05, you monster). Next time, I'll certainly mash hotter, and check the temperature with an external thermometer as well. I also wonder what a Kveik yeast would do to the result.
Here is the base recipe I intend to use for ongoing experiments with malts, yeasts & hops.
Totally forgot got mention it: These are actually wild hops! Foraged next to a rural road with not zero, but little traffic.
And yes, it's a sous vide stick. The one by Inkbird, which I got relatively cheaply. It sits in a hop tube so no grains can get into it. After use, I instantly rinse it, then put it in a jar with clean water and let it sit there until I'm cleaning up everything. Then, I rinse it again. As it doesn't have to be sterile, I'm fine with this regime for the time being.
Parce qu'il n'y a rien de plus fun que du jargon juridique, on vous propose une formation juridique avancée ? Ca sera le 16 octobre dans le 19ème arrondissement de Paris, de 19h à 20h30
Mais pourquoi "avancée" ? Parce qu'il s'agit d'une formation pour celleux qui souhaitent approfondir les sujets liés aux procédures judiciaires, nous n'allons pas réaborder pendant la formation les points déjà traités en formation DCNV (Garde à vue, contrôle d'identité...)
Verizon Communications Inc. today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Independent Lead Director and former Chief Executive Officer of PayPal Holdings Inc. Dan Schulman as CEO.
Tu fais tes premiers pas chez Extinction Rebellion ? Cette formation à la DCNV (Désobéissance Civile Non-Violente) est une des formations de base chez XR, elle te permettra de comprendre de façon concrète comment XR met en oeuvre la non-violence dans ses actions, comment se passe une garde à vue, ou encore les techniques de blocage corporel, le déroulement d'une action, les risques juridiques, etc... Cette formation dure une journée, elle aura lieu à Nantes et mêle parties théoriques et parties pratiques (simulation d'action, etc...). Elle te permettra de te sentir plus à l'aise et préparé.e avant de partir en action !
🕐 La formation durera de 9h30 à 17h30 avec une pause déjeuner.
🪙 La formation est donnée à prix libre, pour permettre de couvrir certains frais de la journée et du groupe local d'Extinction Rebellion. Prévoyez du liquide ou utilisez notre cagnotte en ligne : opencollective.com/xrnantes
Le lieu vous sera communiqué par mail (centre de Nantes)
Le nombre de places est limité, vous serez prévenu par mail en cas de changement de programme.
That's a deep and insightful analysis which clearly illustrates why a prospective user might not want to choose SimpleX over other options. Very helpful indeed. Please post more takes like this.
Connecting to somebody new with a new pseudonym is completely possible by just tapping one switch in the share screen.
Plus, you don't need a phone number which does generally require at least some personally identifiable information to obtain
Do be aware though, your database is an incredibly important file. If you lose your database or lose the password to your database, you are completely screwed just as if you lost cryptocurrency. Those accounts are burned forever because you will never have the keys to generate those accounts again.
Someone I volunteer with sent me a Google Doc and I told them I couldn't see it without a Google account and they just couldn't wrap their head around why I did not have and would not be getting one. I gave them several alternatives where they could upload the document to share and they simply refused.
I also volunteered with another program with the local school district/city and they required to use Google Groups for communications. I sent them a list of 8+ alternatives but they just tried to guilt me into using Google instead.
This is exactly why I don't use it. I have a super tiny chance of getting somebody to message me on signal. I have zero chance of getting them to simplex.
I played with it briefly. It looks like a good choice for a situation where security is paramount and the people involved are reasonably motivated. I don't have those needs, and nobody I know has asked to connect with me using it.
Signal, on the other hand is a familiar experience for most people with no new concepts to learn, and popular enough that I think most people will find a number of contacts already using it.
I don't know that it is "tangibly better for privacy". Not saying it isn't, just that I don't know. It's definitely better for anonymity/pseudonymity. The main benefits, in my opinion, are:
No phone number needed for sign-up. Signal wants people to be able to easily find who is available to message on Signal, and they're leveraging the phone numbers in your personal contacts to build a private "social graph". This is actually really nice, but also can be a huge hurdle for a variety of reasons I won't go into, none of which are privacy, as others have repeatedly alleged, because there is nothing connected to your phone number, as Signal has demonstrated in their public subpoena responses.
SimpleX let's you have multiple profiles. For example, a work profile, a personal profile, a public/social profile, and an anonymous/pseudonymous profile. They also support business profiles. This is, in my opinion, a huge problem for Signal. Sometimes Signal is used to do things like organize protests. If that group is public, anyone can join and see exactly who you are, and you're essentially doxing yourself in that group. Really not ideal. In the case of something like Session, I can use Shelter to create a work profile and install a redundant copy of the app for another profile, but due to #1, this is not possible.
I also see orgs like EFF and 404 Media using Signal as a comms method. You can't message them either without doxxing yourself, unless you just erase/pseudonymize your profile, which would then just completely confuse your actual friends and family.
No one can message you that you have not invited to message you. Due to #1 (again) people can and do use Signal to send spam/scam messages. Now they could do so just using SMS, but my personal SMS app has spam filters, Signal does not.
If you want to create a public invitation, you can do so, and share it wherever you want. I share mine on my personal Linkstack site. If, in some hypothetical future, spammers/scammers start scraping the web for invitations, and that invitation gets collected and sold/shared, I can simply rotate it out with a new invitation, but, importantly, without losing any of the connections to people I've already messaged. You can do similar with Signal usernames, but only for the 1 profile, and you cannot stop people from messaging with your #. You can also set it in a group to disallow private messages to other members, which is a huge problem in places like Discord and Matrix.
This doesn't really matter so much today, as certainly the # of users are so small as to be a waste of time for any spammers, but it matters so much on a fundamental level, in a hypothetical future where it becomes widely adopted.
You can also create 1-time invitations so that you can be 100% sure that the person messaging you is the person you invited, as opposed to Signal's "safety number" approach.
They don't use Google/Apple notifications. This is both a pro and con. Ideally they would just support UnifiedPush but instead they run their own notification server. This hits your battery life, as well as causes problems with notifications. I often open the app and just watch it update messages for several seconds and then get a wave of notifications, but I also don't utilize the "always on" notification service. The fact that Signal just uses Google/Apple is appalling but you can get around it using the FOSS Molly app. To reiterate, there is no way to receive notifications in the Signal mobile app without going through Google/Apple's servers. It really chaps my ass to see supposed "private" apps that make no option available to circumvent the servers of tech oligopolies. I understand very few people would utilize this but I still think it's extremely important, and the fact that Molly devs actually provide this shows that it's entirely feasible. Google FCM notifications is the only remaining reason I absolutely need Google Play Services installed on my device, and it frustrates me to no end.
And it has been audited by an independent auditor. And it doesn't have user ID's. And you can have multiple accounts with no effort. And you can selfhost your own servers. And it's actively developed. And it's available on all major platforms. And the list of pros goes on.
I have to contend that the founders views don't align with my own (or with most people on lemmy). But that aside (freedom of speech), I wouldn't dismiss them simply because "VC bad". If you want a different perspective, read this.
I use it, although not with people who are new to encrypted messaging or who I really need to keep contact with.
SimpleX has great features for the separation of pseudonyms, which is part of why I think it's the best concept for an encrypted messaging app so far. But it's not only for-profit, but funded by venture capital. I don't think it's going to last for the long term, and if it does, it'll probably experience a similar enshitification that other services have. Supposedly they're going to profit by allowing businesses to pay for their service, but I doubt that they'll actually make much money from that.
Conceptually, it's a messaging app done right. Not haunted by legacy identifiers like phone numbers, can be run in a decentralized manner, and a more secure invite system.
In practice, it tends to burn through battery, and it's already hard enough getting people to use Signal. People also seem to have a hard time grasping the concepts of invites, or anything that's not a phone number for that matter.
I've stopped using it due to the battery issue and I don't want to fragment my communication strategy further. It ought to have a privacy advantage by virtue of not needing a phone number, but at the end of the day, my messages are also getting swept up on the other end by non-privacy-respecting phones.
fking gross. Why do these guys gargle Musk so much? Like dude, he's not your friend. He doesn't care about you. He doesn't know you exist. You are not his boyfriend.
I have it and used it in the past. It's better in privacy than Signal since it's decentralized and doesn't use any identifiers. Signal forces you to use the worst identifier ever: your phone number. It should be optional (as Threema) for easy contact discovery, not mandatory. Back to SimpleX, I stopped using it because every time you have to connect the computer to phone if you want to use it from computer (it's for maximum security, but inconvenient for me). But it's a great app.
We had a small group (under 50 people) that used it daily for several months as our primary means of communication after moving from Matrix. I think the privacy/anonymity features are sound, and the creator/lead dev seemed to be making the removal and prevention of CSAM on the platform a priority which is great.
We always had problems though. Users on iOS and Windows had regular problems with the chat losing track of where it was, images not loading, images getting stuck as your "last read" position, etc. Users on all platforms including Linux and Android would randomly lose the ability to see messages from others in rooms, fail to receive notifications, or upload images that only they could see. There's also a fair bit of feature disparity across platforms. While we were using it iOS lacked the ability to mark all messages in a room as read, meaning some people were stuck scrolling slowly through hundreds of messages a day or living with unread message counts in the thousands.
We ended up moving to XMPP. Maybe in the future when the platform is more evenly developed we'll give it another shot, but for now XMPP is working better for everyone across multiple platforms.
Gajim on PC (Linux) and Monocles on mobile (Android) are my favorites. Gajim is available on every desktop platform you mentioned. Monocles is a fork of conversations.im.
I don't actually have a recommendation for iOS as I don't use it. I know at least one person in our usual group does though, so I'm assuming there's a client on that side that doesn't suck?
I'm trying to move a friend groupchat away from discord and there are users on all those platforms.
Are you hosting your own server? How's it working with multi devices one one account (phone and desktop usually)? I've experimented with prosody a bit and it seemed like only one machine was able to receive message at one time, so the phone and computer quickly got out of sync.
Sorry for asking too many questions, it's hard to find these things easily.
We have a private Prosody server on a VPS. The device issue may have been a setting you needed to change on your clients. By default there's a built in delay when sending notifications to multiple devices, so whatever is seen as your active device will get the updates in real time and the others won't. I have all mine set to no delay and all the messages sync instantly on PC and phone, assuming the phone isn't doing any type of power or data saving that messes things up.
Neat idea, but in practice, it's only practical for a single small-ish group of motivated, technical users who wish to communicate internally to the group. When you luck out with such a situation, there are many options out there to choose from, including running a private chat server somewhere running something like XMPP, possibly over tor. It's well-trodden ground.
Signal has a completely different use case than the above. You can get a lot of regular people to switch from SMS or imessage to a Signal chat without too much cajoling, and sometimes just discover that contacts are already on it so you can start with that.
Why? This way it doesn't give you false expectations of privacy.
Of course it doesn't prevent the other side from running a modded client that doesn't delete, but at least it's obvious that disappearing messages are something that requires both sides to be on board
I was just telling people to read terms of service and people disliked my post. If they read it they would realize information like that but they are SIMPs so they just refuse to and say "oh iTz tOo hArdD to ReAd it"
The Signal crowd gets butthurt pretty quick lol. Have been downvoted before for prefering SimpleX over signal and trying to explain that its better in terms of privacy. They really are simps ahhahaha
I use it, and its pretty decent. Looks good and works.
Pros: -No user ID needed. -Can self host the server that passes on your messages. -Has the option to use Flux. -Works out of the box.
Cons: -Battery drain is a thing. Either toggle the periodic check, or turn it off and open it yourself to check messages. -Using one account accross multiple devices can be a pain. Since u can't keep using your phone account at the same time as it is connected to your pc. Can be circumvented by having mutiple accounts in the same group chat; but yea it's a pain the ass.
Neutral: -Convincing people to use it hahahh. But this is a universal probem vs mainstream messenger apps.
Final verdict: 4/5. Very good if privacy and anonymity is your number 1 priority. It's less of hassle to set up than some other options, and relatively easy to get people into it. Sent invite, they download the app, make profile and are good to go.
Batterydrain and same use account across multiple devices could and should be better for mainstream adoption. On the other hand if u toggle the periodic checks then I find the drain tolerable. And how many of us are in places that don't have a wallsocket available to charge your phone 😛
On an unrelated topic I found a comment in a YouTube video about Sonichu Medaillion being cursed. It peaked my interest. Truly cursed. Then I found a shop selling these and scrolled down, and it recommended me more curse.
I don't know what else to say, other than the recommendation was right.
Department of Homeland Security agents were seen abandoning one attempt to arrest a man in Chicago over the weekend after being outnumbered by protesters.
a federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying any national guard units to Oregon a few hours after the California governor, Gavin Newsom, announced he would sue the president over the planned deployment of his state’s troops.
Both states sought the temporary restraining order after the president sent guard members from California to Oregon earlier in the day. On Saturday, the same judge temporarily blocked the administration from deploying Oregon’s national guard troops to Portland.
The ruling by US District Judge Karin Immergut said there was no evidence that recent protests necessitated the presence of national guard troops, no matter where they came from.
Yup. I'm using piefed on the voyager app and I have the votes displayed separately right now. But you have to enable that option in settings as the default is "total" not "separately".
I use the web version of the voyager app but they have the actual app in most app stores.
La storia della famiglia Borghi raccontata in Buongiorno, mamma! nasce da una storia vera. Al centro ci sono Guido (Raoul Bova) e Anna (Maria Chiara Giannetta), una famiglia seguita nel tempo – tra passato e presente – mentre affronta la lunga malattia di lei e le sfide della crescita dei figli. Ma qual è l’ispirazione reale dietro la fiction?
Fixed a bug where Life Loss from Blood Hunt's Explosions and Poisonous Concoction's Acidic Bursts sometimes didn't apply when very large amounts of damage were supposed to be dealt.
We recently started a Fan Art competition themed around the content in Path of Exile 2's Early Access. In this post, we're highlighting some of the submissions we've received so far. Check them out below!
We would like to remind you that we only accept submissions created after the start of the competition. There is still plenty of time to participate if you are planning to do so. Good luck!
Sure it's a bit clickbait, he does that often. Its not real attempted of murder, off course. The Ai chatbots can't do that, without having access and power to all control systems. The only thing that they "could" do is, playing with the psychology in the chat to achieve a goal (maybe to ask someone to murder someone else for them).
What unsettles me most is, if Ai tools like these are used as advice to harm other people or to gain power position. And these LLM models suggest a few operations the person could do. That is the most alarming thing for me. Weak, dumb or humans in a bad situation are the real risk. The same people who would do that if a human told them, and it makes no difference to them if its a human or robot talking to them. Maybe they believe in what the Ai promises them.
Video description:
Hello guys and gals, it's me Mutahar again! This time we take a look at something alarming I saw pop in my feed. An AI was recently accused of letting a human being die in order to save itself, is this just misinfo? Let's find out! Thanks for watching!
MESA, AZ—Gleefully describing the inevitable day when society would collapse and digital files would become unusable, local physical media collector David Campbell confirmed Wednesday he was “absolutely pumped” for the downfall of humanity. “When it all goes down, there’s only going to be one place to watch the Tomb Raider movies in their entirety with all the deleted scenes, and that’s going to be my bunker,” said Campbell, his eyes reportedly shining as he described how the end of organized society and the dissolution of government would make his cherished stockpile of Blu-rays even more valuable.
“No one will be mocking the CDs I’m still holding onto when the internet goes dark forever and the only way to listen to music is through boom boxes we trade canned goods for. And I’m definitely one of the only people who has a region-free DVD player and all three seasons of Father Ted plus the Christmas special, so I’ll essentially be a king. I can’t wait.” At press time, Campbell was grinning as he purchased the 50th anniversary edition of Jaws in 4k, which he anticipated would give him full control over the drinking water supply in the event of a nuclear winter situation.
His won't be the only one, but if he'd like to paint a bullseye on his back for all the scavengers in the world, that would be less potential danger for me.
“No one will be mocking the CDs I’m still holding onto when the internet goes dark forever and the only way to listen to music is through boom boxes we trade canned goods for."
That is not what I said! I also mentioned I'm willing to trade for Network cables or any Raspberry Pi with something cool running on it.
Can't trust the media to quote accurately, anymore.
Creat
in reply to HaraldvonBlauzahn • • •What kind of clueless person wrote this. Whoever wrote this clearly has no idea how much 800W is in practice. Our fridge with an attached freezer (full size, 60cm wide, normal to large in Europe) never uses more than 70-90W, duty cycle is around 40%. So on average it uses 30W or so.
My gaming laptop is limited to 180W. Normally it uses much much less (50ish when actively used). My gaming desktop PC with 3 monitors uses 800W under full load, but that's with everything (monitors, amp/speaker, ...). Even with multiple PCs in normal (non gaming) use in the house, seeing over 800W isn't common. Or 10 laptops, not "a small laptop".
800W is enough to power our whole house unless we're cooking or taking a shower. I would argue in general, it will nullify noon-peak loads of an entire household, and whatever is left over gets added to the grid.
Hanrahan
in reply to Creat • • •Or running HVAC or an air pump for heating.
That said 800w will be the nominal amount under near perfect conditions, 80%- 90% of the time it won't be anywhere near that.
We (m and f couple) lived of grid for 10 years on a 2kW solar system and batteries with ease no generator for backup but a gas oven, 1 * induction cook top, 2x pedestal fans and 1 x celing fans, toaster, kettle, microwave and a no electrical boost solar system. Mid size diesel truck we used minimamilay (lived way out in the bush growing our own stuff etc) We're naturally energy thrifty though. At S30° latitide, awesome for solar.
We've since moved to S41°, terrible for solar in winter (short days and thats the wet season). We have 8kW solar but are on grid (feed excess solar into the grid) and charge our mid sized e-truck (use minimially) off solar, and have a heat pump for heating, so we use more electrons but no fossil fuel.
Creat
in reply to Hanrahan • • •As I'd replied to a sister comment of yours, I didn't even consider that the author could be talking about actually available power, so that's on me. I did go re-read it and I really don't think that's how it is meant though. I do think they are just ignorant on this point.
That being said, "balcony solar" isn't limited to 800 W in panels. It's limited to an 800 W inverter, but 2 kW for the panels. So you can have quite a bit more capacity in solar compared to the inverter, which also means that worse weather impacts you less. When you got a full sunny day, you can have the full 800 W for much longer, if not most of the day, as it'll essentially be limited further down the chain. On the other hand I do think the most common size actually installed is much closer to also only have 800-900 Wp (basically 2 panels), which is the most commonly offerend (and presumably sold) kit size.
We also have roughly 8 kWp installed, and obviously on cloudy or dark winter days we're an order of magnitude away from that number. There are days where we break 40 kWh in production, and there are days where we barely make it to 1 kWh. That low is very rare, even in winter or on dense, cloudy days, so I'd consider 4 kWh a more realistic minimum value. We have relatively detailed monitoring of most (relevant) consumers, which is why I have a somewhat good idea of how much our house consumes in practice. Before this full size installation, we had a 2 panel balcony solar "test setup" for quite a while. It was actually quite a (positive) surprise on how many days we essentially covered the majority of our daylight usage with these panels. Obviously not for the big-ticket consumers, but even a washer/dryer will be mostly covered.
HaraldvonBlauzahn
in reply to Creat • • •Average available power < installed power
Creat
in reply to HaraldvonBlauzahn • • •Miaou
in reply to Creat • • •Creat
in reply to Miaou • • •Sorry but the first part is just incorrect. They are indeed simple, which is why they do feed back into the grid. Not feeding back would take effort and additional hardware. But you're not being paid for what is fed back into the grid, making it free energy for the electricity provider (see my last paragraph below).
To explain it a bit: electrically, the external grid and the grid in your home are simply connected (assuming the breakers are closed). If you use more than you produce, whatever is missing "flows in". If you produce more than what you're currently consuming, whatever is left over just flows out into the grid. Even if this if obviously simplified, this "just happens" with no effort required, but the amount that flows in or out is easy enough to measure (which is what the electricity meter does that sits between the big grid and the one in your house). If you want to actually make sure you don't feed back into the grid, you would constantly need to monitor if anything is flowing in our out, and compensate with reduced (or increased) production. Even full size solar installations can't do this with perfect precision, even if you tell them to: you can only react to the flow you see coming in/out, if you turn a large heater quickly on and off and on and off, it won't have time to react quickly enough.
For the longest time (until early 2023 I think), you had to ask permission from your electricity network operator (is that the correct term? "Netzbetreiber"), because they would only allow you to install it if you had at least a semi-modern electricity meter that won't turn backwards. Because balcony solar always feeds into the grid, you'd effectively be paid the same per kWh as what you're paying yourself. You would effectively use the grid as a infinitely large battery.