We knew this was coming, but it doesn’t make it any less stupid. The road to the IRS’ Direct File program was long and hard-fought. We here at Techdirt have been talking about, and advocating for, something like the Direct File program for at least 15 years. The concept behind the program is a simple one. For a class of citizens with very simple income and tax payments, the IRS already has all the information it needs to process a tax return. In those cases, the IRS can simply mail the information it has to a taxpayer, ask them to sign off verifying the information is complete and accurate, and then process the return. The problem with this is that it cuts out the tax-prep industry that absolutely adores preying on these very same people to milk them for tax-prep services they don’t actually need.
We knew this was coming, but it doesn’t make it any less stupid. The road to the IRS’ Direct File program was long and hard-fought. We here at Techdirt have been talking about, and advo…
Abbiamo un’idea relativamente chiara di cosa sia e come possa essere creata l’anti-materia, un elemento in grado di creare un’onda di deflagrazione che disgrega, cancella e annichila ogni cosa sul suo cammino.
The FBI is attempting to track down the identity of the owner of Archive.today and its numerous mirrors, like Archive.is and Archive.ph. As reported by 404 Media, the FBI subpoena, which was posted on the official Archive.today X account, was sent to web domain registrar Tucows on October 30th demanding the “customer or subscriber name, address of service, and billing address” associated with Archive.today.
The subpoena also requests telephone records, payment information, internet session info, network addresses, and even the services the site’s owner has used, such as email or cloud computing services. It goes on to say that this info “relates to a federal criminal investigation being conducted by the FBI,” but it doesn’t reference a specific crime.
Zohran Mamdani’s campaign represented a struggle for basic dignity and an affirmation of democratic potential. It was ceaselessly denounced by political and media elites from across the spectrum as something sinister, violent, and dangerous.
It’s been two long years of war. Hunger still hangs over us like a shadow. The little aid that manages to come through is often stolen or sold at impossible prices. We have nothing left — no savings, no safety, no warmth.
If you stop helping us, we lose not only food or shelter… we lose hope. Please, stand with us once more. Your donations can help us buy food, winter clothes, and blankets to protect our families from the cold. Every small act of kindness keeps us alive.
Hopefully making this excellent open source voxel game engine project more manageable, Luanti (formerly Minetest) has joined up with Open Collective Europe.
The Linux Mint team just shared a new report on what they worked on in October, and it highlights updates to Cinnamon, better troubleshooting tools, and a few other tweaks.
Before I say anything further, yes I know how much the recommended VPNs cost. I can read. Please do not interrogate me about it.
I've been wanting to get into torrenting for a while, particularly contributing to private trackers related to music (and to a lesser extent retro games, though I don't have much original stuff to put there as it's harder to find rare games than rare music). FMHY recommends RiseUp if I must get a free VPN while I'm working on my financial situation, though I'm not sure whether it's been tested in court. What are my options, if any?
If you don’t have the money for a proper VPN provider, you definitely don’t have the money for a legal defense if it came to that. Save your money and only begin once you can afford reasonable protections.
I used to do that at the Burger King that was next to my old house. I'd prop my laptop up by the window the faced the restaurant and start downloading.
Then at some point they added something to the WiFi that, after you've been connected for like 30 minutes, disconnects you. You wouldn't be banned or anything, it would just cut the connection until you go back to the captive portal and click "I Agree" again.
I feel like a lot of public WiFis these days have data caps and throttling to circumvent downloading.
Go to the small local library, they usually have free wifi, sometimes without registration and if you're lucky they don't filter any traffic.
There is also a map of open wifi hotspots online which work without registration also, but I'm too lazy to dig out the link.
Ask online for somebody to share their VPN. Many subscriptions explicitly allow inviting friends and family and allow multiple simultaneous connections.
Local library worker here. Can confirm we don't track connections, we only tally how many use our wifi if we can figure it out. Basically the tally just includes whoever brings out their phone in the library.
Just be aware that the state can supply your library with free internet, and I'm not sure how that's set up. I personally don't like connecting to random open wifi, official or no.
In my younger years we hid an RPi with a large USB stick in our library. A seedbox of sorts, connected to wifi with semi-random schedule (public hours mostly) and random mac address to avoid detection. Worked like a charm!
You could also consider looking into a private tracker. It’s not 100% safe but much more safe than a public tracker. It’s also kind of fun getting into it, but hard to get invited.
There’s a few free vpn providers out there. You could do a little homework and see if they are a good option. I tend to mistrust free services like that (if I’m not paying, who is, and what are they paying for?), but if you’re in a pinch it’s something to research.
Another option is to look for deals. Sometimes VPN providers will have a super sale a few times a year. I think once I got a NordVPN subscription for THREE YEARS for like $60. It’s more expensive than a single month of anything, yes, but if you can afford a onetime expense it’s nice not to have to worry about a recurring monthly cost.
Your other option is to not use torrents. Usenet is still the grand daddy of file sharing and is pretty much anonymous. Most Usenet hosts are paid, but back in the day even ISPs ran their own servers. It could be worth looking and seeing if there’s any free or low cost providers there.
You can get into private trackers and trust them. Not recommended, but some do.
Generally speaking, the copyright trolls only target public trackers and DHT. There have been some instances of them making way into TL and others. Your ISP could also identify torrenting on private trackers if they wanted to, even with mitigations. In my experience and from what I hear, most ISPs do not go to these lengths.
So, there a risk doing the above. Whether or not it's worth it until you can afford a decent VPN is up to you.
Aside: Please do not use a free VPN for torrenting (or tor, for that matter). They are either like RiseUp and run on donations for people who really, really need them, or Proton which is commercial and specifically try to block or slow down the traffic. Either way, if ruins it for everyone else.
I meant in the context of the VPN. It slows down the network for everyone on one which is run by donation. For commercial companies, it incentivizes them to further lock down what users can do or what speeds they get.
Now, with normally configured I2P, you can only torrent or file share with other I2P users/nodes/sites.
But, you can also set up an 'out-proxy', to connect to the broader 'net, via I2P, essentially using it as a giant, dynamic maze of proxies, where all your traffic is arguably better encrypted than via Tor.
Or, you could actually use Tor as the out-proxy, for... ludicrous levels of encryption maze.
Its slow though. Much slower than all but the most dogshit free vpns.
But... that's the tier you already appear to be at, lol.
Uh yeah, you can use I2P to access/browse and torrent from the clearnet, not just the I2P net, you just have to properly set up I2P with an out proxy.
I believe the youtuber Mental Outlaw has some videos that walk you through both how to do an I2P basic set up, and an out-proxy set up.
Also, general privacy/security tip:
configure your webbrowser to only do DNS over HTTPS, also known as DoH.
Use Ublock, Canvas Blocker, Privacy Badger, test your web fingerprint with EFF's tool, make sure all your shit is actually configured right before torrenting anything, use sites that try to trace route you and find your real ip, make sure you don't have any... emergency fallback to not using your VPN or I2P or normal HTTP.
You're going to need to find VPNs you don't need to pay for, such as spys.one/ stuff, although most of those will not work for torrenting. I leave the rest to you as being able to figure it out is the good kind of gatekeeping.
this is like asking how to safely hook up with strangers at the bar if you can't afford condoms to help protect you from STIs. if you can't afford a VPN, you can't afford to get disconnected by your ISP for three strikes, let alone afford a settlement because some copyright troll logged your IP as a downloader. just don't do it until you can properly put some safeguards in place.
Look at newsgroups - some indexers are free, others have a lifetime fee that's reasonable. I moved to nzbs and haven't looked back - I can't get dinged for sharing copyrighted stuff if I'm only downloading, never uploading.
Without passing any moral judgement on you whatsoever, if you posted this without a VPN, your post is permanently tied to your IP address and thus your home and is evidence of your intent to commit a crime, even if you said it's "for research". I wouldn't do that again and now I'm worried for you in general if you weren't worried to post this.
Generally nobody can afford to lose their privacy. It's $1/device/month per person if you get 5 other people to share a Mullvad account and you shouldn't do it because you're trying to pirate. A VPN is not a tool for piracy. You should be conducting all internet activity in it unless you do not care about the government seeing it.
Focus on fixing the most obvious issue then. Don’t waste you time on watching some dumb content, pirated or otherwise. Unless of course you plan on pirating stuff that would actually help you sharpen your skillset, helping you land a better job. But to ease the pain by watching some dumb shit, just don’t.
My comment was regarding privacy, not piracy. If you're saying sensitive stuff on the Internet, you should be paying for a good VPN already. It's a fraction the cost of an Internet plan. Privacy is not easy or free.
Uhmm, I know that it might come off as begging, but may I also have an invite? I've been using RuTracker for 5 years at this point, but some stuff is just isn't there.
RiseUp is slow and intended for activists and the politically vulnerable. It's not for poor people who cannot afford a $5 a month VPN. You will be fucking over people with much more legitimate use cases than yours if you start using it for torrenting.
Why not use less well known foreign public trackers? Rutracker has a stupid amount of content, including a lot of niche music content.
If you are worried about Rutracker being too well known, you can try Mazepa Torrent. This is only relevant for movies and shows. Their collection isn't as good as rutracker, but they have most new releases. While the default audio language is Ukrainian, English is always included (this would an issue for non-English language movies/shows, but English subtitles are usually included).
Move down under to New Zealand - although we do have a 3 strikes law, the clament has to pay all fees upfront to thr ISP and get a court order first...
They can't afford $5/month for a VPN and you're suggesting they move to a different country? I have a feeling that that's out of their price range as well.
If you use private trackers, a VPN is irrelevant. All you need to do is fully encrypt your traffic in your torrent client so your ISP can't see what you're doing. It's been working just fine for me for 15 years, and I've never gotten a letter.
I scrolled through the comments and didn't see anybody mention this... You know at least one VPN has a free tier, right? I tried proton's free tier and liked it so much I became a customer. I know posts from their CEO have recently became controversial around here, but it's hard to argue with free.
Much of what I want to do is uploading though. Also IIRC Usenet isn't any better in terms of price. The prices aren't bad gor Usenet or VPNs, my finances are just in the shitter.
I believe there are free VPN services. Maybe Proton has a free version? I know they offer a basic free version for Vivaldi browser. Just make sure they provider doesn't log traffic.
Now is black Friday, some VPN services are 75% off, that may be an option if you have at least something to spare. Sure, it's money, but a fine for illegal downloading costs much more.
Otherwise public wifi spots but speeds are probably shit.
Another option is installing Tails on a bootsble USB stick and connect through tor. But then speeds are also shit.
I mean you can avoid all that. If you're just interested in music and retro games then just use soulseek and use the rom megathread. both of which are going to be either peer to peer or direct downloads. no torrenting.
Rom megathread (web search it) has quite literally everything. no need to search, no need to torrent, it's all right there. And soulseek with Nicotine+ just works like napster. sign up, be sure to share your music library, and then have at it.
right so you just keep your music folder open so people can do just that. More audiophiles are going to be on soulseek than some random torrent tracker.
I don't understand why you insist on torrenting when you can't safely do so. You're going to get way more traction sharing your rare stuff on soulseek than you will torrenting it I can guarantee that.
Its not a big thing with trackers anymore unless you get into one of the exclusive private trackers dedicated to music, but this requires previous history with other trackers, good upload speeds, etc. I would just stick with slsk for now.
Surprised no one has mentioned using a remote seedbox. There are providers who allow public torrent use, even if some of them discourage it. You can download torrents via a remote server, and then connect to that server via ssh, syncthing or sftp, which are all encrypted, and has the added benefit of giving you a shot at getting into private trackers, if you ever snag an open invite, where having a seedbox is almost essential.
I mean, I'm poor but can afford such things, I mean, $18 a month for a VPN+seedbox combo is well worth it for some digital freedom, and I could even go cheaper if I wanted less features. The seedbox alone is just $8 CAD a month, so I mean, it's not crazy expensive.
I been using torrents since they became a good option a little over twenty years ago. I’ve torrented using public and all manner of private trackers both with and without vpn or tor.
I have received letters from various ISPs during those years. Here’s what it all boils down to:
What’s most important: turn off peer exchange and dht, turn on require encryption.
What’s also important: only use private trackers.
What’s less important, but good to have: use a vpn with port forwarding with your client bound to its interface. It doesn’t matter if you don’t bind the client to the vpn interface so make sure you do that.
E: just read through the comments on your native instance that don’t show up to me normally. There’s some old misinformation going around still. I’m not gonna argue or go into great detail but things like only leeching, only using foreign trackers or using someone else’s WiFi don’t do anything to help you avoid some kind of letter.
I definitely don't want to just leech. I use slsk right now and barely use it for downloading, just sharing rare music I find in local thrift stores and such.
Go test into one of the music trackers. It’s easy if you can follow instructions and retain information. If you end up feeling like the social expectations of a private tracker are tripping you up then spend a little time on the mya tracker to get used to it first.
If you’re making your own rips then being exposed to the information, toolsets and expectations of the private trackers will improve the quality of your output.
I barely download anything, my main goal is to find more places to spread the rare local music that I've got to make it less likely they'll become lost.
Hmm I'm not sure about contributing. You've presented yourself as someone too broke to afford a VPN so I didn't think you were buying CDs and ripping flacs. Sorry if I misunderstood your goals. I was more focused on the goal of obtaining files.
Edit: ps, not sure if you saw yet, but I pm'd you about another possible solution.
I do sometimes buy CDs, though many of my CDs are from before my financial situation was quite as bad as it is now. They're all from thrift stores though, so none of them are more than $1.99.
I don't usually recommend this, but since you are in a situation where you really can't afford a VPN or a seedbox and live in a country where torrenting is prosecuted then I think that grants a free pass to abuse the tor network a bit and torrent over tor.
There are some guides online on now to route the traffic, note that it's very easy to leak traffic if you don't know what you're doing. Look for a good guide . I'm guessing the safest way to do it is by using Whonix.
If going that route avoid downloading big torrents if you can find smaller ones or try to search for direct downloads first.
And also, I don't usually say this, but, avoid seeding. Yes leeching is bad, but saturating tor is probably worse I think.
Dunno, I haven't used private trackers in 10 years. You can add any magnet link to Tribler and it will go through exit nodes to hide your IP, kind of like Tor does for browsing clearnet. I haven't used i2p in a while either; back then, I used the Postman tracker, and don't know if that's still what most people do or not. I personally just use a paid VPN, because there really isn't a good way to set Tribbler up with an *arr stack.
Any queer person who works on climate and energy issues—utility issues, especially—in a technical capacity of any kind is a marvel. A statistical miracle.
Trump looks increasingly out of touch and his disapproval rating is at an all-time high – which partly explains Tuesday’s election results
It’s the economy, stupid, as the timeworn saying goes, and affordability in particular. The age of aspiration has given way to the age of anxiety. The price of incumbency is that restless voters always believe that the grass is greener on the other side.
A year ago Democrats were punished for “bad vibes” around the cost of living for the middle class, however much they protested that the economic data was positive. In that climate Trump represented change: at rally after rally, he promised to lower prices from day one. Many voters felt it was worth taking a gamble in case he was right.
Now the tables are turned. Trump occupies the White House but inflation remains hard to crack. The period from July to August saw the biggest month-to-month jump in grocery prices in three years. And average grocery prices in September were about 2.7% higher than they were a year earlier. There have been especially steep increases in the prices of coffee (up 18.9%) and beef and veal (up 14.7%).
When thousands of people illegally download books, music, or films, and their internet service provider knows about it but keeps collecting monthly fees from the pirates anyway, should the company face consequences? That’s the question at the heart o…
The dye industry, heavy on the use of petrochemicals, is one of the world's biggest polluters. Now dyes can be made by microorganisms that -grow- colors.
FBI Tries to Unmask Owner of Infamous Archive.is Site
The FBI is attempting to unmask the owner behind archive.today, a popular archiving site that is also regularly used to bypass paywalls on the internet and to avoid sending traffic to the original publishers of web content, according to a subpoena posted by the website. The FBI subpoena says it is part of a criminal investigation, though it does not provide any details about what alleged crime is being investigated. Archive.today is also popularly known by several of its mirrors, including archive.is and archive.ph.
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Nolan's Batman film repeated a line that didn't land with me at the time but I have since understood: "it's not who you are, it's what you do that defines you."
At the time, I thought myself a temporarily embarrassed progressive, thinking all these good thoughts and waiting for my sleeper-cell handler to activate me. I'm a good person, I am ready to do good when the need arises, as long as I have nothing else scheduled that day.
But the malaise of the socially progressive 90s lulled me (and other Gen Xers) into a false optimism that things were just going to get better on their own. Our brains were also cooked by decades of deregulation propaganda. And TVs were getting bigger and cheaper, so who were we to complain?
Weiss is the next generation of this detached ideology. She's been simmering in absurdism and pageantry so long that I don't think she has a handle on what she really wants to do. I'm not excusing her behavior, but I can't devine a coherent platform for her. I'm not sure any of her contemporaries actually have one, either. Just for the grift? It doesn't make them less dangerous, but hopefully it makes them less intimidating for those of us who have felt the tap on the shoulder to enlist.
In conclusion, she sucks, she says inane things. Don't be surprised but also don't roll your eyes and move on. Find what you can do, no matter how small, and do it. You will instantly be steps ahead of the performative competition.
If you’ve been following the story so far, with the rise of the second Trump administration, renewable energy is out, fossil fuels are back, in particular fossil gas, personified by the selec…
first, i am not very notable so don’t bother trying to determine who i am lol. i am very close to 100,000 followers—just to demonstrate my minor success and relevancy to the topic.
i hate every algorithm-driven video sharing app. they are absolutely fantastic for the consumer; finding their likes and interests and exploiting them, but terrible if you are a creator whose content others regularly consume. i struggle to be seen by 10% of my audience. most days i wont crack beyond 400 views. Four hundred. And you might be thinking that’s 400 of my audience; maybe some new people in there as well, so at least a few are coming back regularly.. right? no lol. according to my analytics, about 98% of my viewers are not following me. they’re from recommend pages and outside of my followers.
…so… what the hell? these people followed me because they wanted to see what i had to make. these companies are keeping viewers distracted with their recommended feed so they never check out who they’re following and only consume whatever the algorithm demands be seen. 2% of my audience are followers. that’s about it. i’ve seen it as high as 3% but never beyond.
i make content because i genuinely enjoy it and always will do it. i love the art of comedy and spreading laughter. i want a big audience to make more people happy. truly, i primarily create for myself as personal enrichment. the money aspect is enticing and makes me long for a chance at making this work professionally.
but it’s so unreliable.. these algorithms are not rewarding, and they will zap you of your humanity and creativity. the cash i’m paid is like a reward i get for playing their game. it isn’t something i earn. i happened to do it their way accidentally to my benefit and theirs.
which app, exactly? Are you experiencing this with long-form platforms like Twitch and YouTube, or are you more active on short-form platforms like Tiktok and Insta? I would expect this issue to be more endemic to short-form video, but I wouldn't be surprised if the long-form platforms are screwing you over, as well. It seems like users on the shorter-form platforms are more likely to let the algorithm decide what they should watch. Personally I'm spending most of my video-consuming time on the longer form platforms, but i also tend to just stick with the 5 creators that I'm always watching. Good for those creators, not so much for new ones. I'll let the algo guide me every once in a while when I have a lot of extra time, but I am very leery of any short-form platform. They just seem so tailor-made to addict you, and I don't need another addiction.
i am on TikTok and Shorts, so yes, short-form videos. it is a huge problem over here and it suuuuuucks ass.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the long-form platforms are screwing you over
not yet but YouTube has its own headaches! lol
They just seem so tailor-made to addict you, and I don’t need another addiction.
you aren't wrong. they know what you like very, very well. it's disturbing. but if i'm gonna be forced into this dystopia can an online comedian get a little break here, eh????
ahhhhh i'm sorry to hear it. Those spaces are so calcified these days. Used to be that anyone with a half-decent online presence could break through as a creator, so online entertaining had that grassroots advantage over traditional venues and broadcast platforms. These days, it kind of feels like we've ended up right back where we started: platforms are dominated by the most popular (or most wealthy) entertainers, and everyone else is fighting like crabs in a barrel in the hopes that they'll get lucky and break through.
I guess that's a half-decent motivation to try making a name for yourself in your local community? It seems to me that creators that do break through do so by becoming popular in their local community first. People love to find a new, local comedian that they vibe with - it's a source of local pride. You build connections and get exposed to new audiences that never would have found you on TikTok. I don't know if you have any disability or other physical barriers to achieving that, but if not, and you aren't already doing open mics or whatever, that could be one way to go?
Don't use sideloading. It's gaslighting word they planted.. we own the device.. should be just called installing.. they are stoping you from installing what you want.
Downloading is copying a file from the network onto the local device. Installation extracts files to the appropriate directories, makes config changes, etc.. "Installed from a local source" doesnt make sense, as any file you would install you would first need to download or pull off of some other media.
You don't say "downloaded from a cd" do you? No, you install from a cd. If the primary delivery method for PC was via app store, you'd say "sideloaded" there too.
Downloading from an app store doesn't place an installer APK from an app store on the device's storage, like you do when downloading on a PC.
This difference is why the term "sideloading" was coined, to differentiate from using the primary delivery mechanism, the app store.
No it not. If I have a local .exe file on my HD and install it on my PC you don't say " I side loaded this software " you usually say " Iinstallled this piece of software ". Don't succumb to the conditioning these companies want us to believe.
So here is an idea, and hear me out on this one: you could use multiple words to indicate what you're trying to say, I do believe language allows for that.
Unless you want to have separate new words for walking to a hospital, walking to a school, walking to work, and walking to the bathroom, because the word walking alone can't do that!
Meat used to refer to any kind of food. Now it means animal flesh. Girl used to be a gender neutral term for any child.
Install in a smartphone context means "from the app store" now.
No amount of "here is an idea" hohoho sarcasm is going to reverse the flow of language.
No one's forbidding you from using the word install.
We have universal words like go, as in "go by foot" or "go by car" or "go by bus".
But we also have words like walk, run, drive, bus (as a verb), and Uber to specify how you go to a place.
And we can have words to specify how you install an app.
In my opinion, we're more likely to win by reclaiming sideloading (by giving it a positive connotation) or creating new words (and giving corpo installs a negative connotation) than we are to get current and future smartphone users to go back to using an older definition of the word install.
I'm gonna keep using the word "sideloading" because it is a perfectly legitimate act and I refuse to let them redefine it to demonize us. I'm not sure why you're helping them.
If you're wondering if you would still be able to plug your phone into your computer to put files on it, let me ask you a related question: Do you think Google would kill the ability to plug your phone in and take pictures and video off of it? I think the answer to that is pretty obvious.
I'm not sure about the medium-term future, but in the short-term you'll still be able to install APK files after the changes go through. Google is retaining installation via ADB for now, and applications like anyapk make it so that you don't need to plug your phone into a PC and open up the terminal.
I know there's many people who cannot understand why others like to watch media on their phones, but that is how it is. You basically have that device anywhere with you, screens are big enough to watch stuff on.
Especially if you have saved movies/series on it, no matter if piracy or not, you got sonething to watch on that long train ride to work, or in your lunch break, or when you wait for some appointment.
Source: me, I am one of those. I am not taking my laptop everywhere. Even the smallest feasibly usable laptop is much bigger than my phone.
One of my co-workers has no computer, laptop or desktop, and does all his digital-seas sailing on his phone. I've been trying to convince him to finally get around to actually getting something low cost, but his "setup" has been working for him for years now
Ogni tanto, nonostante le cose marce… insomma le mattinate marce che promettono e professano giornate marce per intero e persino più (nel senso che poi il malumore facilmente si trascina addirittura ai giorni dopo, sopravvivendo persino il grande sonno a cui mi sottopongo… a cui in realtà non tutti i giorni posso sottopormi, ahimè e […]
Ogni tanto, nonostante le cose marce... insomma le mattinate marce che promettono e professano giornate marce per intero e persino più (nel senso che poi il ma
Tu souhaites découvrir le mouvement et savoir comment t’engager ? Nous organisons une réunion d’accueil des nouveaux et nouvelles en présentiel. Le RDV sera à l'adresse suivante : La ressourcerie Le Poulpe - 4B Rue d'Oran, 75018 Paris. La salle est accessible via l'escalier en entrant à gauche, monter les escaliers et juste à la sortie des escaliers à droite il y a la porte de la salle.
Pour t'inscrire ne clique pas sur Participer mais clique sur ce lien !
[em]Apologies in advance if I misrepresented anybody or missed any crucial bits of information.[/em]
[hr] [ul]
[li]Julian (myself) and Ted ([url=https://mastodon.social/@TallTed]@tallted@mastodon.social[/url]) began the session discussing moderation tool
Apologies in advance if I misrepresented anybody or missed any crucial bits of information.
Julian (myself) and Ted (tallted@mastodon.social) began the session discussing moderation tools in USENET
There are comparable systems to how the threadiverse propagates content. Messages are sent to a remote server who is then responsible for distribution.
In relation to moderation, there was more ambiguity. Local users could set up their own kill file but whether moderation could be done from the remote server was not discussed.
We discuss more about actions done to contexts (aka topics, threads)
Dmitri (dmitri@social.coop) joins at or before this point, and points out that there continues to be confusion over the context property and @context.
Example actions are offered: Removing a context from an audience, and locking a context from new contributions
Re: crossposting, Ted discusses the need for implementor changes to allow for contexts to be a part of multiple audiences
ed: much of the discussion at this point shifts away from ForumWG terminology and toward email nomenclature for ease of understanding. ForumWG nomenclature is used for these minutes
Dmitri points out that a breaking change to AP might be needed in order to break apart header (addressing/recipients) and body
Julian asks why, and Dmitri mentions signing difficulties wrt bto and bcc.
Julian asks if anybody uses bto and bcc, and Dmitri says "yes, absolutely", and said we should check out darius@friend.camp's Fediverse Observatory for the answer
Julian says that as currently implemented, resolvable contexts do not necessarily need to be inherited. Lemmy explicitly does not want to inherit contexts, and their published contexts always refer to a local representation (ping nutomic)
Julian steps through an example. NodeBB A federates context /topic/1, NodeBB B receives the topic and assigns it /topic/4bdffa. A later Removes the context. B doesn't know what A/topic/1 is so needs to resolve it, get its' root post, and see if it matches any know context on B, then act on it.
Ted and Dmitri caution that this is difficult and messy, and strongly recommend that the root-level context must be inherited
For what it's worth, Ted and Dmitri convinced me that we need to move toward a strict inheritance of the root object's context. It means a little more work upfront but will make it easier down the line.
This post is where we continue that discussion, asynchronously, so stay tuned!
only if the "root" (of the reply tree, i assume) has the same context you want to participate in. there are plenty of situations where you *don't* necessarily want to do this. replies can cross contextual boundaries, so you need to account for this.
trwnh@mastodon.social Yes, you're right. There are nuances and situations where you would explicitly not want to inherit the root object's context.
I am dealing with the typical day-to-day use case of replying to an object with the expectation that is be part of the same existing context.
However I am more than happy to make this clear in the FEP and spell out alternative situations where context inheritance would not apply.
The situation I found myself in was one where anybody can (and does) include whatever context they want. In that case, it's difficult to determine whether disparate contexts are actually referring to a common set of the same objects, or whether they were disparate on purpose (i.e. a fork.)
To that end, it meant that as a receiver there was no guarantee that any contexts I'd be sent would map to any contexts I know.
Strict root-level inheritance for the common use-case would at least disambiguate a lot of this.
> The object SHOULD inherit a context other than its own. It is RECOMMENDED that the object inherit the context of the object it is in reply to. Doing so will allow for all members of a context collection (per FEP f228) to refer to the same context. > > The object MAY inherit context further up the chain.
to
> The object MUST inherit the context from the root node, if one is reported. Otherwise the object MUST NOT publish a context. Doing so will allow for all members of a context collection (per FEP f228) to refer to the same context. > > Implementors SHOULD map that inherited context to a local identifier (if applicable) to support future use-cases/activities.
trwnh@mastodon.social ForumWG moving toward recommending that the root node's context MUST be inherited is not incompatible with 7888 per se, but 7888 does allow for creating your own context.
I think this might be a blessing in disguise. In situations where the root node doesn't contain a context at all, then creating your own context has its place. I am not sure how this would work when you try to do moderation actions against a context that isn't really yours though.
i don't think that's the right way to look at it. the reply tree and the context are separate things. you can *try* to find the root of the reply tree, but even if you do, there is no hard requirement to copy that context vs any other context. you get to choose which conversation you want to be a part of, including choosing *not* to be part of a conversation. also, any id may be equivalent to other ids. what you want is to arrive at the same information.
so generally creating your own context is something you'd want to do if you e.g. "fork" the thread, but you can also be like what lemmy is proposing and just always create your own local context, as long as you give consumers a way to link/merge equivalent contexts together (via something like as:alsoKnownAs or owl:sameAs, or otherwise something like rel=canonical)
California-based startup Reflect Orbital aims to build a swarm of 4,000 giant mirrors in low Earth orbit to "sell sunlight" to customers at night. Experts warn that the mirrors could mess with telescopes, blind stargazers and impact the environment.
Reflect Orbital, which was founded in 2021, has recently taken the first step in a scheme to sell sunlight at night by bouncing solar rays off giant "reflectors" that can redirect the vital resource almost anywhere on our planet. By doing this, the company aims to extend daylight hours in specific locations, thus allowing paying customers to generate solar power, grow crops and replace urban lighting.
But experts say it is a wildly impractical plan that should never get off the ground. What's more, the resulting light pollution could devastate ground-based astronomy, distract aircraft pilots and even blind stargazers.
"Woah, woah, woah, those previous patents were earned through very hard work from our "lobbyist". If you do that, I want the bribe money back... I mean lobby money!"
The company said it is currently testing new interactive video ad formats in the U.S. and Canada, with a goal of zeroing in on subscribers’ viewing behavior and letting advertisers rely on templates built from that behavior. Citing positive early results from testing, Netflix said it will roll out the formats globally by the second quarter of 2026.
The Netflix user interface has become a mess to navigate, and mostly only ever shows me things I've already watched. If they'd put even a tiny bit of the effort they're putting into driving people to watch certain content they produced or are paid to promote and their ad framework into making it possible to find new content and improving the content they do produce (damn the "AI"-based effects and skin smoothing nonsense and shitty writing in the second season of Wednesday pissed me off), I might be willing to stick around but at this point I've rarely been using it anymore. Sad to see the fall...
Most of them are built around lazy algorithmic feeds like this. It's very hard to search for specific things, you're just expected to eat whatever they serve up to you.
A bipartisan pair of US Senators has introduced a bill that would require companies and government agencies to report AI-related layoffs, and it couldn't come at a better time. October jobs data suggests AI is driving the largest wave of layoffs headed into the end of the year that we've seen since 2003.
Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Mark Warner (D-VA) on Wednesday announced plans to introduce the AI-Related Job Impacts Clarity Act. If passed, the law requires public companies and pretty much every single federal government agency to hand quarterly layoff data over to the Department of Labor, indicating how many jobs they cut due to automation.
The act would also require employers to report on a quarterly basis how many people they hired related to AI and automation, how many jobs they decided not to fill thanks to AI, and numbers on retraining due to artificial intelligence. The end goal, said Warner, is to help Congress understand how the labor market is changing and how to prepare for the future.
hydrashok
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •like this
adhocfungus e dhhyfddehhfyy4673 like this.
seathru
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •Use someone else's wifi.
I used to park my car in a Home Depot parking lot when I went to work with a laptop torrenting until the battery died.
like this
adhocfungus, dhhyfddehhfyy4673, Triumph e DaGeek247 like this.
RoabeArt [he/him]
in reply to seathru • • •I used to do that at the Burger King that was next to my old house. I'd prop my laptop up by the window the faced the restaurant and start downloading.
Then at some point they added something to the WiFi that, after you've been connected for like 30 minutes, disconnects you. You wouldn't be banned or anything, it would just cut the connection until you go back to the captive portal and click "I Agree" again.
I feel like a lot of public WiFis these days have data caps and throttling to circumvent downloading.
comrade_twisty
in reply to seathru • • •whoever loves Digit
in reply to seathru • • •HelloRoot
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •Go to the small local library, they usually have free wifi, sometimes without registration and if you're lucky they don't filter any traffic.
There is also a map of open wifi hotspots online which work without registration also, but I'm too lazy to dig out the link.
Ask online for somebody to share their VPN. Many subscriptions explicitly allow inviting friends and family and allow multiple simultaneous connections.
don't like this
adhocfungus doesn't like this.
Eyedust
in reply to HelloRoot • • •Local library worker here. Can confirm we don't track connections, we only tally how many use our wifi if we can figure it out. Basically the tally just includes whoever brings out their phone in the library.
Just be aware that the state can supply your library with free internet, and I'm not sure how that's set up. I personally don't like connecting to random open wifi, official or no.
like this
cooper8 likes this.
hietsu
in reply to Eyedust • • •maxprime
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •like this
adhocfungus likes this.
i_stole_ur_taco
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •There’s a few free vpn providers out there. You could do a little homework and see if they are a good option. I tend to mistrust free services like that (if I’m not paying, who is, and what are they paying for?), but if you’re in a pinch it’s something to research.
Another option is to look for deals. Sometimes VPN providers will have a super sale a few times a year. I think once I got a NordVPN subscription for THREE YEARS for like $60. It’s more expensive than a single month of anything, yes, but if you can afford a onetime expense it’s nice not to have to worry about a recurring monthly cost.
Your other option is to not use torrents. Usenet is still the grand daddy of file sharing and is pretty much anonymous. Most Usenet hosts are paid, but back in the day even ISPs ran their own servers. It could be worth looking and seeing if there’s any free or low cost providers there.
like this
adhocfungus likes this.
liliumstar
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •You can get into private trackers and trust them. Not recommended, but some do.
Generally speaking, the copyright trolls only target public trackers and DHT. There have been some instances of them making way into TL and others. Your ISP could also identify torrenting on private trackers if they wanted to, even with mitigations. In my experience and from what I hear, most ISPs do not go to these lengths.
So, there a risk doing the above. Whether or not it's worth it until you can afford a decent VPN is up to you.
Aside: Please do not use a free VPN for torrenting (or tor, for that matter). They are either like RiseUp and run on donations for people who really, really need them, or Proton which is commercial and specifically try to block or slow down the traffic. Either way, if ruins it for everyone else.
like this
adhocfungus likes this.
LisaTrevor [she/her, they/them]
in reply to liliumstar • • •coyotino [he/him]
in reply to liliumstar • • •How does it ruin it for everyone else? One slow peer does not ruin the network.
liliumstar
in reply to coyotino [he/him] • • •dumfuq
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •HumanPerson
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •ScratchySoft
in reply to HumanPerson • • •HumanPerson
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •sp3ctr4l
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •Ok so, I was gonna top level comment, but somebody already mentioned I2P, so:
I2P.
geti2p.net/en/docs/application…
Now, with normally configured I2P, you can only torrent or file share with other I2P users/nodes/sites.
But, you can also set up an 'out-proxy', to connect to the broader 'net, via I2P, essentially using it as a giant, dynamic maze of proxies, where all your traffic is arguably better encrypted than via Tor.
Or, you could actually use Tor as the out-proxy, for... ludicrous levels of encryption maze.
geti2p.net/en/about/browser-co…
Its slow though. Much slower than all but the most dogshit free vpns.
But... that's the tier you already appear to be at, lol.
Uh yeah, you can use I2P to access/browse and torrent from the clearnet, not just the I2P net, you just have to properly set up I2P with an out proxy.
I believe the youtuber Mental Outlaw has some videos that walk you through both how to do an I2P basic set up, and an out-proxy set up.
Also, general privacy/security tip:
configure your webbrowser to only do DNS over HTTPS, also known as DoH.
Use Ublock, Canvas Blocker, Privacy Badger, test your web fingerprint with EFF's tool, make sure all your shit is actually configured right before torrenting anything, use sites that try to trace route you and find your real ip, make sure you don't have any... emergency fallback to not using your VPN or I2P or normal HTTP.
Bittorrent over I2P - I2P
geti2p.netScratchySoft
in reply to sp3ctr4l • • •mistermodal
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •bss03
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •frongt
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •_cryptagion [he/him]
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •like this
dhhyfddehhfyy4673 likes this.
whoever loves Digit
in reply to _cryptagion [he/him] • • •_cryptagion [he/him]
in reply to whoever loves Digit • • •hey hows about you go fuck yourself
whoever loves Digit
in reply to _cryptagion [he/him] • • •_cryptagion [he/him]
in reply to whoever loves Digit • • •technocrit
in reply to whoever loves Digit • • •plateee
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •hexagonwin
in reply to plateee • • •metaStatic likes this.
plateee
in reply to hexagonwin • • •There's a few - but typically the free ones have limits on the number of downloads per day.
Nzbfinder and bin search used to be okay.
ScratchySoft
in reply to plateee • • •cooper8
in reply to plateee • • •plateee
in reply to cooper8 • • •PastafARRian
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •Without passing any moral judgement on you whatsoever, if you posted this without a VPN, your post is permanently tied to your IP address and thus your home and is evidence of your intent to commit a crime, even if you said it's "for research". I wouldn't do that again and now I'm worried for you in general if you weren't worried to post this.
Generally nobody can afford to lose their privacy. It's $1/device/month per person if you get 5 other people to share a Mullvad account and you shouldn't do it because you're trying to pirate. A VPN is not a tool for piracy. You should be conducting all internet activity in it unless you do not care about the government seeing it.
ScratchySoft
in reply to PastafARRian • • •hietsu
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •ScratchySoft
in reply to hietsu • • •Uriel238 [all pronouns]
in reply to PastafARRian • • •PastafARRian
in reply to Uriel238 [all pronouns] • • •danisth [he/him]
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •mustlane
in reply to danisth [he/him] • • •Uhmm, I know that it might come off as begging, but may I also have an invite? I've been using RuTracker for 5 years at this point, but some stuff is just isn't there.
Thanks in advance!
Ilandar
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •like this
cooper8 likes this.
ScratchySoft
in reply to Ilandar • • •J-Bone
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •An alternative that hasn't been presented yet.
Why not use less well known foreign public trackers? Rutracker has a stupid amount of content, including a lot of niche music content.
If you are worried about Rutracker being too well known, you can try Mazepa Torrent. This is only relevant for movies and shows. Their collection isn't as good as rutracker, but they have most new releases. While the default audio language is Ukrainian, English is always included (this would an issue for non-English language movies/shows, but English subtitles are usually included).
BlueÆther
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •Move down under to New Zealand - although we do have a 3 strikes law, the clament has to pay all fees upfront to thr ISP and get a court order first...
We mostly raw dog it down here
incompetent
in reply to BlueÆther • • •Jessica
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •janNatan
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •I scrolled through the comments and didn't see anybody mention this... You know at least one VPN has a free tier, right? I tried proton's free tier and liked it so much I became a customer. I know posts from their CEO have recently became controversial around here, but it's hard to argue with free.
protonvpn.com/pricing
Pricing
Protonwhoever loves Digit
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •/home/pineapplelover
in reply to whoever loves Digit • • •TigerAce
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •ScratchySoft
in reply to TigerAce • • •TigerAce
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •I believe there are free VPN services. Maybe Proton has a free version? I know they offer a basic free version for Vivaldi browser. Just make sure they provider doesn't log traffic.
Now is black Friday, some VPN services are 75% off, that may be an option if you have at least something to spare. Sure, it's money, but a fine for illegal downloading costs much more.
Otherwise public wifi spots but speeds are probably shit.
Another option is installing Tails on a bootsble USB stick and connect through tor. But then speeds are also shit.
ScratchySoft
in reply to TigerAce • • •rozodru
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •I mean you can avoid all that. If you're just interested in music and retro games then just use soulseek and use the rom megathread. both of which are going to be either peer to peer or direct downloads. no torrenting.
Rom megathread (web search it) has quite literally everything. no need to search, no need to torrent, it's all right there. And soulseek with Nicotine+ just works like napster. sign up, be sure to share your music library, and then have at it.
ScratchySoft
in reply to rozodru • • •rozodru
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •right so you just keep your music folder open so people can do just that. More audiophiles are going to be on soulseek than some random torrent tracker.
I don't understand why you insist on torrenting when you can't safely do so. You're going to get way more traction sharing your rare stuff on soulseek than you will torrenting it I can guarantee that.
ScratchySoft
in reply to rozodru • • •CmdrShepard49
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •ScratchySoft
in reply to CmdrShepard49 • • •CmdrShepard49
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •Cevilia (she/they/…)
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •I would suggest don't.
For downloading, look at DDL sites.
For uploading, if you can't do it safely, don't. Stash it all, make backups, keep it until you can do it safely.
kugmo
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •See if Tribler works or fuck it and download anyway.
Just do it.
XNX
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •ScratchySoft
in reply to XNX • • •yardratianSoma
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •Kissaki
in reply to yardratianSoma • • •yardratianSoma
in reply to Kissaki • • •ScratchySoft
in reply to yardratianSoma • • •J-Bone
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •ScratchySoft
in reply to J-Bone • • •stupid_asshole69 [none/use name]
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •I been using torrents since they became a good option a little over twenty years ago. I’ve torrented using public and all manner of private trackers both with and without vpn or tor.
I have received letters from various ISPs during those years. Here’s what it all boils down to:
What’s most important: turn off peer exchange and dht, turn on require encryption.
What’s also important: only use private trackers.
What’s less important, but good to have: use a vpn with port forwarding with your client bound to its interface. It doesn’t matter if you don’t bind the client to the vpn interface so make sure you do that.
E: just read through the comments on your native instance that don’t show up to me normally. There’s some old misinformation going around still. I’m not gonna argue or go into great detail but things like only leeching, only using foreign trackers or using someone else’s WiFi don’t do anything to help you avoid some kind of letter.
ScratchySoft
in reply to stupid_asshole69 [none/use name] • • •stupid_asshole69 [none/use name]
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •Go test into one of the music trackers. It’s easy if you can follow instructions and retain information. If you end up feeling like the social expectations of a private tracker are tripping you up then spend a little time on the mya tracker to get used to it first.
If you’re making your own rips then being exposed to the information, toolsets and expectations of the private trackers will improve the quality of your output.
ScratchySoft
in reply to stupid_asshole69 [none/use name] • • •Edit: MyAnonymouse, right?
stupid_asshole69 [none/use name]
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •frongt
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •CaptainBlinky
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •ScratchySoft
in reply to CaptainBlinky • • •coyotino [he/him]
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •Doesn't Proton have a free VPN tier? I think it doesn't support port forwarding so your connections would be limited, but that might still work?
Otherwise, check the megathread and go with direct downloads. Those happen over https so completely encrypted.
ScratchySoft
in reply to coyotino [he/him] • • •coyotino [he/him]
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •Hmm I'm not sure about contributing. You've presented yourself as someone too broke to afford a VPN so I didn't think you were buying CDs and ripping flacs. Sorry if I misunderstood your goals. I was more focused on the goal of obtaining files.
Edit: ps, not sure if you saw yet, but I pm'd you about another possible solution.
ScratchySoft
in reply to coyotino [he/him] • • •Seefra 1
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •I don't usually recommend this, but since you are in a situation where you really can't afford a VPN or a seedbox and live in a country where torrenting is prosecuted then I think that grants a free pass to abuse the tor network a bit and torrent over tor.
There are some guides online on now to route the traffic, note that it's very easy to leak traffic if you don't know what you're doing. Look for a good guide
. I'm guessing the safest way to do it is by using Whonix.
If going that route avoid downloading big torrents if you can find smaller ones or try to search for direct downloads first.
And also, I don't usually say this, but, avoid seeding. Yes leeching is bad, but saturating tor is probably worse I think.
sobchak
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •Tribler or i2p.
Edit: there are also non-bittorrent p2p networks out there like Retroshare, but I haven't used them, so don't know how useful they are.
ScratchySoft
in reply to sobchak • • •sobchak
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •ErrorCode550511
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •cassandrafatigue
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •lIlIllIlIIIllIlIlII
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •nullptr
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •Rivalarrival
in reply to ScratchySoft • • •