Browser Fingerprinting And Why VPNs Won’t Make You Anonymous
Browser Fingerprinting And Why VPNs Won’t Make You Anonymous
Amidst the glossy marketing for VPN services, it can be tempting to believe that the moment you flick on the VPN connection you can browse the internet with full privacy. Unfortunately this is quit…Hackaday
This is a bit of a misnomer. No one PC can be fully anonymized or fully private, even if the PC provided fake data points, they will still be technically fingerprinted. Having said that, having a browser that tries to spoof stuff like LibreWolf, Tor or IronFox is decent.
The gains in using a VPN, among other best practices is that helps --assuming people do not log on to something like Google-- is to minimize the fingerprint of the PC to you, as a user. Assuming one trust their VPN provider, helps.
Tor leverages the point of having all users look and be fingerprinted mostly as the same, so you get lost in the shuffle and crowd.
The Global Zionist Organ Trafficking Conspiracy
In July 2015, the European Parliament issued a landmark report on organ trafficking. Its introduction notes, "before 2000, the problem of trafficking in human organs...was primarily limited to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia." However, following the turn of the millennium, "trafficking in organs has seemingly started to spread globally, to a large extent driven by Israeli doctors." The document went on to detail a number of high-profile organ trafficking cases.
The Global Zionist Organ Trafficking Conspiracy
All my investigations are free to read, thanks to the enormous generosity of my readers.Kit Klarenberg (Global Delinquents)
i asked ai to summarize the article and it started and ended with warnings that this was anti-semitic and, when i asked why, it flat out said that ant-zionism is inherently antisemitic. lol
even deepseek is kowtowing to that definition of antisemitism and it makes me sad.
When objective, real Criticism is labeled as "anti-semetic" just by fact of existing, then it makes you question how much you are being lied to in so many things regarding them and their interests.
Sadly, AI cannot be trusted on this topic if that is what it does.
Germany wants to build Europe’s strongest army – a new conscription bill is moving that closer
This year, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged to build Europe’s strongest army – a tall order for a country whose military has undergone years of neglect.
The coalition government is hoping a new bill agreed upon last week will help make this a reality, bolstering Germany’s forces in the face of the perceived threat from Russia and a significant shift in US foreign policy.
The sweeping new reforms will see Germany attempt to boost its numbers to 260,000 soldiers, up from around 180,000 currently, in addition to an extra 200,000 reservists, by 2035.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/23/europe/germany-europe-army-reform-intl
It is a lot of slow frog boiling. They start off with "voluntary" so they can eventually introduce mandatory conscription without too much pushback.
Europe and the US are very likely gearing up to start World War 3 in a few years.
Ways to convince people to take online privacy seriously - common objections debunked
Common objections debunked
Your one-stop-shop for convincing people to take online privacy seriouslyPatrick Leavy (The Rebel Blog)
Gmail can read your emails and attachments to train its AI, unless you opt out
Cross posted from: lemmy.world/post/39114169
How to opt out
Opting out requires you to change settings in two places, so I’ve tried to make it as easy to follow as possible. Feel free to let me know in the comments if I missed anything.
To fully opt out, you must turn off Gmail’s “Smart features” in two separate locations in your settings. Don’t miss one, or AI training may continue.
Step 1: Turn off Smart Features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet settings
Open Gmail on your desktop or mobile app.
Click the gear icon → See all settings (desktop) or Menu → Settings (mobile).
Find the section called Smart Features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet. You’ll need to scroll down quite a bit.
Smart features settings
Uncheck this option.
Scroll down and hit Save changes if on desktop.
Step 2: Turn off Google Workspace Smart Features
Still in Settings, locate Google Workspace smart features.
Click on Manage Workspace smart feature settings.
You’ll see two options: Smart features in Google Workspace and Smart features in other Google products.
Smart feature settings
Toggle both off.
Save again in this screen.
Step 3: Verify if both are off
Make sure both toggles remain off.
Refresh your Gmail app or sign out and back in to confirm changes.
Why two places?
Google separates “Workspace” smart features (email, chat, meet) from smart features used across other Google apps. To fully opt out of feeding your data into AI training, both must be disabled.
Note
Your account might not show these settings enabled by default yet (mine didn’t). Google appears to be rolling this out gradually. But if you care about privacy and control, double-check your settings today.
[Correction] Gmail can read your emails and attachments to power "smart features" | Malwarebytes
Did you know that Gmail can use your emails and attachments for its smart features? Here's how to check your settings.Pieter Arntz (Malwarebytes)
Quite true, but that should not be a reason to use Gmail, anyway.
More so if you have friends who are not on Gmail.
Linus Torvalds with Linus Sebastian (Linus Tech Tips)
In-case you didn't know, Linus Sebastian of LTT media made a video with Linus Torvalds. If you watched the video, what are your thoughts?
BTW, he uses Fedora.
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
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Tbf though, Lemmy/The fediverse has been MUCH better then ol rage book and xitter
Ireland: Report finds rise in child brain injuries from e-scooters
Report finds rise in child brain injuries from e-scooters
A new report from the College of Physicians has found that e-scooters are the leading cause of traumatic brain injuries to children at Temple Street Hospital.RTÉ News (RTÉ)
International Criminal Court: Justice at Risk
- The International Criminal Court (ICC) is under assault by the United States and Russia, among others, which are determined to undermine its mandate as the court of last resort.
- ICC member countries need to stay firm in their defense of the court so that impartial justice remains a critical part of the rules-based international order.
- ICC member countries should use their annual meeting to defend the court human rights groups, and others cooperating with it, and to enforce judicial findings against members who fail to arrest and surrender those sought by the court.
International Criminal Court: Justice at Risk
Member countries of the International Criminal Court (ICC) should intensify efforts to protect the court and human rights groups campaigning for justice from attack.Human Rights Watch
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What is the alternative?
At least international law puts some small hurdles in criminals path and make historic judgments that is recorded.
The alternative is clear path for criminals with no judgment.
If international law can't stop genocide it doesn't exist, it's a figleaf that is only seriously used against the empire's enemies.
The alternative would be world revolution. You can't have international law coexist with imperialism. The empire must die.
What are the best reasons people have given you for not wanting to try Linux?
Heyho, recently someone asked for the silliest reasons, but as someone who has suggested linux to many people, I often encounter people having valid reasons for staying with Windows or switching back.
The most boring but valid one is "I have to use Windows for work. It is a requirement (of some software I have to use)". But there are also other answers that fit. My sister for example tried Linux, but while installing software constantly encountered issues that I helped her solve and eventually switched back because she felt like she had less control than over windows. While I am aware that this is fundamentally wrong, it is valid that some amateur users do not want to invest enough time to get over the initial hurdles of relearning how to install software.
What are the best reasons people have given you for not wanting to try Linux?
DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.
News and feature lists of Linux and BSD distributions.distrowatch.com
Intel graphics support, or the absence of it
That's like one of the best platforms.
Decent touchscreen support
Pretty much everything on Wayland LGTM. If something doesn't look quite right (like, hover tooltips), it's probably the fault of the widget toolkit and will also be broken on Windows.
Windows Ink
As in stylus/pen/drawing tablet? kwin has awesome support, other compositors have some basics.
WSL which I use with NixOS
??? you want a container? distrobox can do that, or something like this
Adobe apps
true... slightly outdated repacks work fine in Wine tho
PowerPoint
Libre Impress (...) it's not even close
Wine.
GitHub - nix-community/nix-user-chroot: Install & Run nix without root permissions [maintainer=@Mic92]
Install & Run nix without root permissions [maintainer=@Mic92] - nix-community/nix-user-chrootGitHub
re: Intel
i have not been able to properly set things up on nix. i need oneapi Blender support, SYCL etc. unfortunately, i can't spend several days trying figure it out on my own.
re: kwin
again, my experience was mixed. some apps sort of worked out of the box, others had issues with detecting pressure sensitivity or palm rejection.
re: wsl
I don't need a container. when on Nix, i use devshells. what i was saying is that all the linux tools i ever need are easily available on windows.
re: ppt
again, i tried. it sort of works for older versions. but even then once i started importing media, it would crash. when I'm traveling and need to show slides, i simply can't afford to just debug all night why the video won't show properly.
for the record: i do have a linux laptop (fw16, with nixos), i just need to keep another windows one for very specific tasks.
Scientists Are Increasingly Worried AI Will Sway Elections
Scientists are raising alarms about the potential influence of artificial intelligence on elections, according to a spate of new studies that warn AI can rig polls and manipulate public opinion.In a study published in Nature on Thursday, scientists report that AI chatbots can meaningfully sway people toward a particular candidate—providing better results than video or television ads. Moreover, chatbots optimized for political persuasion “may increasingly deploy misleading or false information,” according to a separate study published on Thursday in Science.
Archive: archive.today/9Jq17
If all you do is read the little statements booklet they send out, and then do the mail vote based on that,
... then you are no better informed than Bob, who is voting for the guy his pastor told him to. People should personally vet any candidate they are voting on. AI will make that more and more difficult moving forward.
Well my approach is:
- Mark off every candidate who did not bother to provide a statement
- Mark off every candidate with no listed volunteering experience in the little section for it
- Mark off every candidate whose statement claims they will do things their desired office is not empowered to do
- Mark off every candidate with a platform that doesn't claim to be aiming for any kind of change or improvement in particular. (I don't support chair warmers.)
- Mark off every candidate whose email is a personal one listed as itsyaboymrthiccpenis@yahoo.com or something else similarly unprofessional
- Mark off any candidate aligned with the party that supported the coup attempt in 2021
After this quick pass, which only takes a couple of minutes, I'm typically only left with two or three offices with more than one remaining choice to compare. I then read their platform and pick the candidate with the platform goal that seems most relevant to my or my community's interest.
African leaders push for recognition of colonial crimes and reparations
African leaders push for recognition of colonial crimes and reparations
Algerian foreign minister says African countries and peoples continue to pay a heavy price for colonialismGuardian staff reporter (The Guardian)
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Benjamin Netanyahu asks Israel’s president for pardon in corruption case
Presidential pardons in Israel have almost never been granted before conviction, with the one notable exception of a 1986 case involving the Shin Bet security service. A pre-emptive pardon of a politician in a corruption case without an admission of guilt would be precedent-setting and highly controversial.The submission on Sunday comes weeks after Donald Trump wrote to Herzog to ask him to pardon Netanyahu, who has been on trial since 2020 on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, involving alleged political favours for wealthy backers in return for gifts or positive media coverage.
Trump writes to Israeli president calling for Netanyahu pardon
Isaac Herzog can pardon convicted criminals in some circumstances, but cases against Israeli PM are ongoingJason Burke (The Guardian)
How does discovery work in fedora server?
I can pull up cockpit by using the hostname in the web browsers url, but samba doesn’t point to the server by name. Only IP address pulls it up.
I don’t want to risk installing conflicting stuff but I’m not finding a lot of detail here. Does fedora have something for this included? Does it use avahi? Systemd-resolved? Smoke signals?
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I'm aware of what it is. This is a Fedora Server install that shouldn't have it enabled by default because it generally only fits the use-case of home users. Someone installing the default package list in an enterprise setting would not want this enabled.
I even checked to be certain, and it is not enabled by default.
Fucked up with no one to blame but myself.
cross-posted from: aussie.zone/post/27191517
I spun up nextcloud to replace onedrive about a year ago. Everything was going well so I chose not to renew my onedrive subscription, this was exactly 6 months ago, I'd assume.I got an email a few days ago reminding me that they would delete my data. I ignored it because obviously I had moved my data to nextcloud. not gonna trick me Mi¢ro$oft.
But yesterday I decided to have a quick look though and it turns out I didn't copy over everything, and certanly not my 5 years of camera roll backups.
I started a sync of everything last night and woke up in the morning to find that it had stopped at about 10gb out of 80gb. And now onedrive won't connect and if I try to log in to onedrive with that account via the web it just kicks me back to the microsoft portal.
I'm 99.5% sure there is nothing to be done and I'm not an overly sentimental person so if they are lost it won't break me. I have many important photos backed up in immich but just not everything.
But I just needed to ask in case someone knows where to find the M spot I can touch for magic file recovery.
Edit: turns out you can just pay them more money and they still had my stuff. thank you for joining me on the shortest support ticket of all time
Who Killed Hannibal
A Who Killed Hannibal meme. Caption your own images or memes with our Meme Generator.Imgflip
What distro do you install on other's computers?
What distros do you install on your mom's, sister's, buddy's, etc machines?
My go-to has usually been Mint, but I wonder if there is a better set and forget, easily understood distro to install on the computers of those who will rely on you for support.
atomic distros would probably be a good option, but it seems that same disk dual boot is a no no, and that can be a deal breaker.
I'm thinlink QoL, for me, that is.
400+ installs in the past four years - discarded/donated business laptops that get fixed, cleaned, upgraded with cheapest SSDs and donated to predominantly tech illiterate users.
99% is ubuntu lts + ansible playbook that removes snap, disables A TON of update naggings, installs flatpak, coupla apps and systemd timer to autoupdate all flatpaks. this is the only thing that has low support requests, everything else we tried (mint, debian, fedora) has a disproportionately higher support request frequency (reinstalls, wifi, fix this, remove that, etc).
I totally could adapt debian to be as good or even better (fedora with the bi-annual versions is right out), but one of the important caveats is the user being able to install it with minimum hassle if needed and that just would not be doable.
I'd urge everyone ITT to look at the thing through the user's eyes and not get lost in "no true scottsman" fallacies. the goal is to convert a user over, not to demonstrate how cool you are. once they know what's what, you can sell them on fedora and atomic and whatnot, but not as a first step.
I don't use ubuntu, have it on none of my stuff, and wouldn't go out with you if you do. but it's presently the only option for beginners for use on laptops that has a semblance of a modern desktop OS.
I'm not looking for a date, but this made me curious. Would you elaborate?
I don't use Ubuntu and wouldn't go out with you if you do
Have Nvidia drivers on Linux gotten worse over later generations?
I just saw the GamersNexus benchmarks and I wondered to myself, why do they have so many problems with Nvidia on Bazite? I've used PopOS with my RTX 30 graphics card and I've essentially had performance parity with Windows.
Do you guys think they misconfigured something in the background or do you think that the driver has just gotten worse? What are your experiences?
I’m on Arch, with Hyprland as my Window Manager. I use an RTX 3070.
For Wayland specifically, the driver was next to unusable for a while. I jumped ship from Windows in Sept. 2023. Beginning with driver 560 iirc, it got a lot better, plus their engineers pushed a lot of changes across the Wayland ecosystem to implement explicit sync support (a net positive, but before this, Nvidia was too stubborn to implement implicit sync, so bad screen tearing was unavoidable). Also there’s been a slow migration to using the GSP processor on newer cards. They claim it can improve performance, which may be true, but I also recently learned it helps them keep some more parts of their code closed-source, which is likely why it’s required to use the open source kernel modules.
At this point, though, it does feel very smooth and I can play games like The Finals at competitive framerates!
But relative to my performance under Windows, it’s still worse, mainly in average framerate. Like others have said, DX12 games seem to be hit hardest. I sometimes have to run lower settings to compensate. Also, if my VRAM gets filled, Xwayland apps all break, so I have to be very careful with higher quality texture quality especially.
Anyways, to answer your question, I think an average gamer doesn’t notice the degraded performance, without benchmarking or comparing framerates back to back— it still runs pretty smooth and framerates are still pretty high. If they aren’t happy with it, they’ll drop quality settings or resolution, just like they’d do under Windows.
Thousands of protesters gather as German far-right party sets up new youth organization
Thousands of protesters gather as German far-right party sets up new youth organization
Thousands of demonstrators have gathered in the western German city of Giessen as the far-right Alternative for Germany’s new youth organization is set to kick off its founding conventionThe Associated Press (ABC News)
Convincing evidence Israel backed aid convoy looters in Gaza, historian says
Convincing evidence Israel backed aid convoy looters in Gaza, historian says
Account of visit to Gaza by French professor describes Israeli military attacks on security personnel protecting convoysJason Burke (The Guardian)
Dominican Authorities Arrest Journalist Ralph Laurent at Santo Domingo Airport
Dominican Authorities Arrest Journalist Ralph Laurent at Santo Domingo Airport - Haiti Liberte
As we go to press on the morning of Nov. 26, Dominican authorities have been holding a popular Haitian-American journalist in an immigration detention facility for almost three days without charges, although he is a U.S.Kim Ives (Haiti Liberte)
Solus 4.8 Released
General Epoch jump In October, we made the jump to a new epoch, the final chapter of our “Usr-Merge” saga. With the new epoch, we started using a new package repository, named Polaris, after the North Star. This unlocked our ability to remove “Usr-Merge” compatibility symbolic links from packages, update our systemd package, and more.
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I made Qogir-style icons for Books, Build, and Games folders since the icon pack doesn't have them by default.
Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well.
I was a wee bit tired of staring at default folders in my home folder for the Games, Build, and Books locations, so I ended up making my own icons for each by using outlines of different already-existing icons from applications. Feedback is greatly appreciated.
In case any of you just so happen to use the Qogir icon theme, and that you have these folders in your home folder, the SVGs are available here if you are interested.
Please note that I threw these files together using the scalable version of the folder icon, and that I don't have any dedicated 32, 48, 96 etc versions of these files. On top of that, I only have the folder versions of these icons, not symbolic. SVGs are difficult (due to my lack of experience), and so I had to cheat by targeting each individual colour, rather than making an outline and then messing with transparency like the rest of the icon set. Needless to say, if anyone has good inkscape tips, please let me know!
Proton Drive
Securely store, share, and access your important files and photos. Anytime, anywhere.drive.proton.me
"Ah fuck it, slap a dot in front of it and shove it in the home folder"
--Way to many devs.
Sticky situation
RIP Windows: Linux GPU gaming benchmarks on Bazzite (Gamers Nexus)
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
Switched my gaming rig over a few weeks ago (Fedora 43 with KDE in my case). The games I play have generally performed better than on the same hardware under Windows 11. I'm fortunate in that the only multiplayer game I play is Counter Strike 2, and Valve has a vested interest in making sure that their anticheat works with Linux.
In the past week or so I've played Cyberpunk 2077 with AMD FSR4 support, CS2, and GTA IV with the fusion fix mod (this one runs ridiculously better than it did on Windows) via Steam, and Fallout London from GoG through Heroic Launcher. The hardest part of that was just configuring the wine prefix for Fallout London to be the same as the one Fallout 4, since it needs to share a bunch of the original game files. I've also got my Epic account hooked up through Heroic Launcher, but haven't tried any of their games yet. I mostly just have whatever they were giving away for free for the past few years on that service.
Really, gaming on Linux has improved in massive leaps and bounds over the past few years. It is unrecognizable compared to even 5 years ago.
Trump's Bigoted Attack on Somalis Denounced From Minneapolis to DC to Mogadishu
cross-posted from: news.abolish.capital/post/1173…
President Donald Trump is being roundly condemned for making bigoted attacks on Somalis, whom he referred to collectively as "garbage" earlier this week.
During a Tuesday Cabinet meeting at the White House, Trump unleashed a racist tirade against Somali Americans living in Minnesota, whom he falsely portrayed as layabouts who sponge up welfare money.
"I don't want 'em in our country, I'll be honest with you," Trump said. "Their country's no good for a reason. Their country stinks, and we don't want 'em in our country. I can say that about other countries too... We're going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country."
Trump then singled out Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a refugee from Somalia, as being "garbage," and then added that "her friends are garbage."
Trump on Somalis: "We're gonna go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is garbage. She's garbage. Her friends are garbage." pic.twitter.com/xtRtiTLzLz
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 2, 2025Omar fired back at Trump in an op-ed published Thursday in the New York Times in which she said the president was resorting to overt bigotry against her community because he is rapidly losing popularity as his major policy initiatives fall apart.
Omar also defended her community against the false stereotypes deployed by Trump to disparage it.
"[Trump] fails to realize how deeply Somali Americans love this country," she wrote. "We are doctors, teachers, police officers, and elected leaders working to make our country better. Over 90% of Somalis living in my home state, Minnesota, are American citizens by birth or naturalization."
Speaking on behalf of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Chuy García (D-Ill.) defended Omar and the Somali community, and called Trump's attacks on them "unacceptable and un-American."
"Not only does Trump's dehumanizing language put a target on her back and put her family at risk, it endangers so many across our country who share her identities and heritage," García added. "We know just how dangerous this racist and inflammatory rhetoric is in an already polarized country."
In an interview with Al-Jazeera, Minnesota state Sen. Omar Fateh (D-62), who is also of Somali descent, said Trump's attacks were "hurtful" and "flat-out wrong" given what many Somalis in the US have accomplished.
"It is a community that has been resilient, that has produced so much," he said. "We are teachers and doctors and lawyers and even politicians taking part in every part of Minnesota’s economy and the nation’s economy."
He also emphasized that Trump's rhetoric was putting the entire Somali community in danger.
“We’ve had our mosques be targeted," he said. "Myself, I had a campaign office vandalized earlier this year, and so we want to make sure that our neighbors understand that we’re standing up for one another, showing up in this time in which we have a hostile federal government."
Trump's bigoted attacks on Somalis are also making waves overseas. Al-Jazeera also spoke with a resident of Mogadishu named Abdisalan Ahmed, who described Trump's remarks as "intolerable."
“Trump insults Somalis several times every day, calling us garbage and other derogatory names we can no longer tolerate," he said. "Our leaders should address his remarks."
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
From Mogadishu to Minneapolis, Somalis reject Trump’s bigoted remarks
Advocates warn that Trump’s anti-Somali rhetoric has fuelled fear in US communities and anger abroad.Faisal Ali (Al Jazeera)
Judge in Palestine Action case has ties to Israel lobby
Judge in Palestine Action case has ties to Israel lobby
Victoria Sharp worked for Robert Maxwell and her twin brother sits on charity board with Trevor Chinn.The Electronic Intifada
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Well, of course. If the judge was impartial there is a very real risk Palestine Action would win its case. We can't have that, can we?
Best regards,
The Government
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Does anyone know how to fix this?[SOLVED]
By this I mean the psensor applet icon (second from the left) being to big.
I was messing arround trying to customize my desktop and i followed a guide on how to install and setup latte-dock (kde).
Long story short, i failed removed latte (although I think it may have left some stuff behind) and when I restored my cinnamon panel the icon was like this. I've already restored the system with timeshift but it made no difference and tried to set "symbolic icon size" in panel settings but it completely ignores it. I googled for a solution but cant find any :c
Any ideas?
P.S. If I set panel height too small, all the applet icons go halfway off screen through the bottom, something they didnt used to do.
SOLVED: Using this comand:
gsettings reset-recursively org.cinnamon
Reverts the icons to their normal behaviour. Thanks to potatoguy
I tested all the parameters mentioned in the thread and none worked. Thanks tho.
With this command:
gsettings reset-recursively org.cinnamon
After I used the command the window list applet stopped working but a reboot fixed it
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Trotsky was both wrong and an asshole. Trotsky’s plan of Permanent Revolution rested on the idea that the peasantry would erode socialism, because he thought they could not be truly aligned with the proletariat. That’s why he wanted to kick off revolution in the west, hoping that would save Russian socialism. This was, of course, proven false, as socialism survived and trying to build up socialism together with the peasantry worked out.
Trotsky then spent much of his time attacking the soviet union, essentially whining due to his loss.
distros with isolated programs?
I think that really depends on why the app made the system hang.
Can you reproduce it consistently? If so, you could try out different forms of isolation, like flatpak, docker, a VM. And there are linux distros focused on each of those, but you can try a solution on whatever distro you're running.
If for some reason your system hangs due to resources (which is the only case I have ever experienced), that can be limited through cgroups and such. The only resource I don't know how to limit is GPU compute.
Why I Dumped YouTube (and Why You Might Want to Too – No More Crap)
Hey Lemmy fam,
After years of wading through endless crap—click‑bait thumbnails, algorithmic rabbit holes, and non‑stop ads—I finally stopped using YouTube. Below are the main reasons I walked away and a handful of privacy‑friendly alternatives that let you keep the content you love without the garbage.
YouTube’s recommendation engine throws endless crap at you, turning a 5‑minute tutorial into a 2‑hour binge you never signed up for.
What I do instead:
- Lemmy – I follow specific communities (
r/technology,c/firefox,c/degoogle ``) and browse chronologically or by “Hot”. No hidden agenda, just the posts I chose. - RSS feeds – Subscribe to the channels I actually care about via an RSS reader (Feedly, Newsboat, or Lemmy’s built‑in RSS). New videos appear as they’re posted, no surprise junk.
Every view, pause, and hover is logged and sold to advertisers. Even with an ad‑blocker, YouTube still harvests data through its API calls and cookies.
What I do instead:
- PeerTube – Decentralized, ad‑free video hosting. Each instance runs its own moderation and privacy policies. You can even self‑host a node if you want full control.
Switch to a Fully free Operating System
As per fsf only those linux distributions are 100% free:
Dragora
Dyne
Guix
Hyperbola
Parabola
PureOS
Trisquel
Ututo
libreCMC
ProteanOS
Do you agree or no?
I see a lot of people that want to switch from windows to a linux distro or a open os. But from what i see they tend to migrate to another black boxed/closed os.
What is a trully free os that doesnt included any closed code/binary blobs/closed drivers etc.
Just 100% free open code, no traps.
What are the options and what should one go with if they want fully free os that rejects any closed code?
Hard disagree. Only people that are already in linux-land should even think or talk about this, and only after they're aware of what they depend on and whether they can even do that in the first place.
Main reason: biggest thing holding Linux back is user-base. The more users there are, the more that companies will actually care about supporting the OS. In the meantime, newbies to Linux need an OS that is as hassle free as possible that supports what they need. Windows and macOS have their downsides, but you can't disagree that they work out of the box. You only get a few chances to get someone to even think about switching ecosystems, and going to a straight free distro is another huge hurdle on top of that. Most closed source applications only get tested on debian/rhel based distros anyway, I wouldn't be able to do my my day job on a distro outside of that without some serious headache.
There are many closed source components that don't have equivalent open source alternatives, and features are a thing that will snag many people. Most people aren't technical.
If I keep js disabled and then use extension will it still be a fingerprinting issue?
So if I keep js disabled with Ublock origin (I'm doing it for a while now) and then install dark reader will websites still be able to tell that I have dark reader installed?
This could be a fingerprint as very few people keep JS off and you might stand out.
On the other hand, the browser gives out very little information without JS active. Turn off JS and test your browser on deviceinfo, amiunique, etc and see how many entries are "unknown".
I played around with coveryourtracks.eff.org/ and realized that I'm quite unique whether I allow js or not. Many trackers get blocked by the absence of js though so that would hamper them somewhat.
My Sony phone with 21:9 screen ensures I'm uncommon compared to most.
My goal isn't to be untrackable but to block the ads they try to shove in your face as step 2.
Interesting, it seems that while IronFox has the protections activated by default (and with some changes) you can also activate most of them on Firefox.
github.com/ironfox-oss/IronFox…
Ironfox Devs themselves say that the only browser that can truly protect you against fingerprinting is the Tor Browser.
github.com/ironfox-oss/IronFox…
Do you feel IronFox breaks many sites for you?
IronFox/docs/Features.md at dev · ironfox-oss/IronFox
Private, secure, user first web browser for Android. This is a read-only mirror of https://gitlab.com/ironfox-oss/IronFox. - ironfox-oss/IronFoxGitHub
Yermak Resigns After Ukrainian Anti-Graft Investigators Launch Surprise Search Of His Office
Andriy Yermak, the influential chief of staff of Ukraine's President, has resigned hours after the country's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) conducted searches in his office.
Yermak Resigns After Ukrainian Anti-Graft Investigators Launch Surprise Search Of His Office
Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) are conducting searches in the office of the presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, NABU said in a statement on November 28.RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service (RFE/RL)
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Possible to avoid Google's future open source ban on Android devices?
Google cracks down! APKs, ROMs, and Emulators banned — is Android freedom over?
Google is implementing a significant policy shift, banning unverified APKs, ROMs, and certain emulators on certified Android devices starting in 2026.Muskan Singh (Economic Times)
I'm guessing that maintaining such forks would be prohibitive. Especially since they do have resources to play cat and mice
But I don't really know much about Android code, I'm just relying what I've heard
Google has partly backed away from this plan, and it was only announced for "certified" Android devices, which yours isn't after rooting.
It does affect you indirectly though. If open source on Android gets harder, fewer people will do it.
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No I'm not using Kali for "hacking" I'm experimenting if I can play games on it
Sorry but.. why on earth would you do that? Kali is a specialized distro, it's not made for day to day desktop use, much less for gaming on it. If you want to game on Linux, pick either a generic or gaming-oriented distro, and use Kali in a VM or dualboot.
Using a custom domain with two seprate email accounts.
I purchased a custom domain to use with mailbox.org.
The MX records are setup and basic tests are working. I'm getting myname@customdomain.com showing up in my mailbox.org account.
But I got confused with setting up a family member with theirname@customdomain.com
Do they need to pay for a plan too?
There not worried about the privacy they just want the custom email address. Is there anyway to do this for free or cheaper, without self hosting email?
Side question. I've been paying for anonaddy to hide my normal @outlook account. Are there any benefits in keeping anonaddy to send emails to my custom domain. Instead of just using a catchall, or pre-configuring some aliases?
The only benifits I see are
- Anonaddy can make accounts on the fly
- On The Fly accounts might be easier to disable than
things sent to a catchall - Anonaddy dosnt reveal your domain (maybe this is the big draw card?)
Thanks.
Is this via a rule, as in the email hits the inbox then gets sent on.
Or is it a setting when you configure the alias.
Where the email goes to fastmail then gets sent onto gmail, are you limited to replying from the gmail?
Each alias has a configured delivery destination. Aliases that only point externally never reach the main account inbox.
You are limited to replying from the gmail unless you jump through more advanced hoops. Those include telling gmail in its settings that it can “Send mail as” something else, and also giving gmail authorization to send mail for your domain by adding them into your SPF and DKIM records. Those are more complicated than I want to describe here, and it will be complicated to merge both mailbox.org and gmail into them, so if you don’t already know about them, let’s just say yes, you can only reply as the gmail user.
ephrin
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