Microsoft drew a profit of $27.2 billion in the last quarter of FY25, driven by demand for the cloud and AI. Overall, it recorded profits of over a hundred billion dollars in the entire fiscal year.

After laying off 9,000 employees , Microsoft records $27.2 billion profit in latest quarter

^{Usama Jawad (Neowin)}

Apple, Google, AI biggies, and for-profit insurance all eagerly rubbing their hands

Trump officials float plan for Americans to share their medical data more freely

: Apple, Google, AI biggies, and for-profit insurance all eagerly rubbing their hands

^{Neil McAllister (The Register)}

One of the most popular AI coding tools on the market added five million users in the last three months.

GitHub Copilot crosses 20 million all-time users | TechCrunch

^{Maxwell Zeff (TechCrunch)}

This Boss VS Boss will be the first in a series where we run a 1V1 tournament for all the Rogue Exiles from Path of Exile 2 to see who comes out on top! Each of the 12 Rogue Exiles will face off in a Best of Three Single Elimination Tournament, with the final three duking it out in a First to Three Wins Free for All. Check out the bracket below:

Check out the first three fights in today's video!

Video: Path of Exile 2: Boss VS Boss - The Rogue Exile Tournament Part 1

Did you predict the winners correctly?

3.26.0f Patch Notes

• Added support for the upcoming Gauntlet Event.

Patch Notes - 3.26.0f Patch Notes - Forum - Path of Exile

Path of Exile is a free online-only action RPG under development by Grinding Gear Games in New Zealand.

^{Path of Exile}

We're once again partnering with Zizaran for another 10-day Class Gauntlet event which will start on July 31st PDT. For the first time ever, this event will also be available on consoles! Racers will need to endure some of the most challenging conditions Wraeclast can throw at them in order to survive the Merciless Gauntlet.

Players participating in the console versions of the event will not be eligible for points or bounties from the PC version of the event.

The Event will take place in a Hardcore Solo Self-Found Mercenaries Event League with a range of dynamic damage and life mods as well as some other surprises... Good luck Exiles!

Information, Start Time and How to Join

The following modifiers will be active and apply to monsters and bosses:

Area Level 1-45

• 20% less Damage Taken
• 20% Increased Damage
• 10% Increased Attack, Cast and Movement Speed
• 2 Additional Projectiles
• 20% Elemental Penetration

Area Level 46-67

• 30% less Damage Taken
• 30% Increased Damage
• 30% Increased Attack, Cast and Movement Speed
• Monsters Have 100% Increased Area of Effect
• 30% Physical Damage as Extra Chaos

Area Level 68-72

• 20% less Damage Taken
• 20% Increased Damage
• 20% Increased Attack, Cast and Movement Speed

Area Level 73-77

• 25% less Damage Taken
• 25% Increased Damage
• 25% Increased Attack, Cast and Movement Speed

Area Level 78-83

• 30% less Damage Taken
• 30% Increased Damage
• 15% Increased Attack, Cast and Movement Speed

Area Level 84 (Excluding tier 17 maps)

• 150% Increased Unique Monster Life (from 100% last time)
• 40% Increased Damage
• Shaper Apparitions (instead of Sirus Apparitions)

Area Level 84 (Tier 17 only)

• No Additional Modifiers
• T17 bosses drop 5 fragments

Area Level 85+ (Uber Bosses)

• 60% Less Damage Taken (from 50% last time)
• 125% Increased Damage (from 100% last time)
• 40% Increased Attack, Cast and Movement Speed
• 3 Additional Projectiles
• Monsters have 50% Increased Area of Effect (from 30% last time)
• Shaper Apparitions (instead of Sirus Apparitions)
• Consume Additional Portal on Entry

The Gauntlet will be held as an Event League that is available to all players during the event by selecting the event in the left side of the character select screen.

Start time: 3PM July 31st PDT. The event will last for 10 days. A countdown is available here.

Mercenary Rule

Doryani's Prototype will be disabled from the Gauntlet. It cannot drop or be chanced.

Console Prizes

Everyone who defeats Hillock will receive a Gauntlet Glove Effect that will keep track of the highest level you reach in Gauntlet Events. If you manage to complete the campaign you'll also receive a Dawn of the Hunt Mystery Box!

The Merciless Gauntlet event on consoles is separate from the event on PC and not eligible for the PC prize pool.

Where to Watch

You can catch exciting moments from the event by checking out Zizaran's Youtube Channel for highlights!

Zizaran and Steelmage will also be joining forces to cast the Merciless Gauntlet this time. You can find out the schedule for this here.

Special thanks to community members Faderon, MrMadakey, Ultimativ, Skryah, OMGItsJousis and Viyro for their contributions to this event.

Good luck to all those participating!

Our Secrets of the Atlas Fan Art Competition, where our community creates Fan Art inspired by content introduced in the Secrets of the Atlas expansion for prizes, is ending soon. Check out some of the submissions in today's news post!

Zana by Powerlord4#1134

Shattered Memories by RxMediEvil#4307

Pure Dread by Charly0#0952

Incarnations by KenyVlwFlw#0018

Zana Corrupting Atlas by Seeint#7122

Entries close today, so this is your final chance to get your entry submitted. Good luck to everyone participating!

Mark Carney says the move depends on Palestinian democratic reforms and elections without Hamas.

Archived version: archive.is/20250730235751/bbc.…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

Canada follows France and UK with plan to recognise Palestinian state

^{Nadine Yousif (BBC News)}

Under FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson’s leadership, the agency has pivoted away from reining in abusive corporate practices.

FTC Promotes Anti-Trans Agenda With “Public Inquiry” Into Gender-Affirming Care

^{Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg (Truthout)}

Parts of Fateh and Mamdani’s platforms would be difficult to execute without cooperation from their city councils.

If Mamdani and Fateh Become Mayors, Will Dem Elites Still Collude to Sink Them? | Truthout

^{Anton Woronczuk (Truthout)}

The sustained attention around the Epstein files lets us shine a light on the bipartisan architecture of impunity.

The Epstein Case Is Not a Distraction. It Shows How Elite Impunity is Sustained. | Truthout

^{Jocelyn Martinez-Rosales (Truthout)}

His mother says he has a medical condition caused by “nutritional deficiencies” due to Israel’s assault.

NYT Walks Back Story on Starving Gaza Baby, Citing “Pre-Existing” Condition

^{Sharon Zhang (Truthout)}

The Michigan senator has consistently voted to continue to send weapons to Israel.

Democrat Touts Opposition to Starvation in Gaza — But Blames US Protesters

^{Sharon Zhang (Truthout)}

Retired US Army officer Anthony Aguilar recounts violence and chaos at food sites run by the American group Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in this special France 24–Mother Jones report.

Archived version: archive.is/newest/motherjones.…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

“It’s abhorrent”: A whistleblower contractor speaks out as Gaza's famine spreads

^{Mother Jones}

In January, DHS rescinded a federal policy barring ICE raids at “sensitive locations,” including houses of worship.

Case file: democracyforward.org/wp-conten…

Lawsuit Says ICE Arrests on Church Property Are Unconstitutional

^{Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg (Truthout)}

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen has signed Europe up to a humiliating, unequal trade deal with the United States. The terms dictated by Donald Trump reflect Europe’s vassal status as an increasingly junior partner to US empire.

Europe Signs Up for Its Century of Humiliation

^jacobin.com

I found the real Spotify accounts of celebrities, politicians, and journalists. Many use their real names. With a little sleuthing, I could say with near-certainty: yep, this is them.

We’ve been scraping their accounts since summer 2024. Playlists, live listening feed, everything. I know what songs they played, when, and how many times.

Heard of the Panama Papers? That exposed offshore bank accounts. This is about onshore vibes.

Freedom Flotilla Coalition says Smalls was ‘choked and kicked’ after aid ship trying to reach Gaza was intercepted

Archived version: archive.is/20250729214353/theg…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

US labor activist Chris Smalls assaulted by IDF during Gaza aid trip, group says

^{Adria R Walker (The Guardian)}

Ukrainian cyber specialists downloaded 100TB of Russian military data from occupied Crimea before destroying the original files on government servers, according to intelligence sources cited by RBK-Ukraine.

https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/07/30/massive-data-breach-hits-russian-authorities-in-occupied-crimea-as-ukrainian-intelligence-downloads-secret-military-files/

As a judge rules Palestine Action can challenge its proscription, what to do if your a cop trying to police this?

Palestine Action victory leaves cops & Cooper in a proper dilemma

^{The Canary}

The SafePay ransomware gang is threatening to leak 3.5TB of data belonging to IT giant Ingram Micro, allegedly stolen from the company's compromised systems earlier this month.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/safepay-ransomware-threatens-to-leak-35tb-of-ingram-micro-data/

Orange, a French telecommunications company and one of the world's largest telecom operators, revealed that it detected a breached system on its network on Friday.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/french-telecommunications-giant-orange-discloses-cyberattack/

From Gaza to Ukraine, the new Pope isn't afraid to speak critically

Archived version: archive.is/newest/kenklippenst…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

Pope Leo on War

^{Ken Klippenstein}

I have this cpu and i just upgraded my system from 32GB of ram to 64GB.
Bought new kit thou, and put my old 32GB up for sale..
And than i thought why shouldnt i put that 32GB kit also since i have 4 ram slots to see how 96GB of ram looks like. XD
And when i did that, while my pc was booting, i remembered my cpu only supports 64GB max. So i thought bumer it will not recognise more than that and i will not be able to use it. But shortly i was shocked to see that all 96GB was there and ready for use.
So it isnt true that ryzen 7 2700x supports only 64GB i mean its not small amount but it isnt its limit obviusly..
Since my motherboard MSI B450 tomahavk max supports up to 128GB i think this cpu can also handle it.

But the thing is this motherboard was rated for 64GB max when i bought it. But than new cpus came out and amd sad they will not be supported on this chipset.
But than people started protesting because AMD was advertising this chipset like platform for longevity and were telling that it will be long supported.
So people were angry when they sad new cpus wont be available on this platform.
So AMD changed their descision and made new bios for b450 chipset motherboards so that new cpus will be supported. And also since new cpus support 128GB of ram this motherboard also got support for that but only with new bios if i understood that corectly..

Also the thing with new bios is that if you update to it you will lose support for old cpus, and wont be able to downgrade bios.

But with old bios your motherboard doesnt have support for new cpus.

But since i have old cpu, ryzen 7 2700x i didnt update my bios so with old cpu and old bios how the heck do i have support for more than 64GB of ram.

Its like you just put more ram than its rated on the website and it just works.. XD
Like they didnt expect someone to actualy buy more than max ram rated so noone will notice that we are lying about computers limits.. XD

Wery strange to me, if someone understand what is going on here, be free to explain it to us. 😀

nodebb-plugin-sso-auth0 (4.2.0) works fine, I can use auth0 to login with google or github

but now I have a different site running on localhost:4200, I have tab called Forum that open a new tab window going to localhost:4567
built a small node express server to create a cookie.

so I login to my site on localhost:4200 via auth0 and it creates a cookie for the session-sharing plugin

   res.cookie(CONFIG.nodebb.cookieName, jwtToken, {
      httpOnly: true,
      secure: false,          // localhost http
      sameSite: 'lax',        // first-party in dev
      path: '/',              // send everywhere
      maxAge: CONFIG.nodebb.cookieMaxAgeMs,

    });

Final NodeBB payload: {
  "id": 951566902,
  "username": "theddiem",
  "email": "theddiem@gmail.com",
  "picture": "https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg1ocJLXRjLY5JH5l7gDBBuWLCuboR7n4pEXkXoxyHn9XvAyx8p_7td=s96-c",
  "firstName": "the",
  "lastName": "dem",
  "externalId": "google-oauth2|106089043025998015329"
}

also if the user is in not registered in the forum at all and used my site to login with auth0 and than go to fourm via navbar link it suppose to register him automiatclly?

Clustering enabled: Spinning up 1 process(es).

2025-07-28T08:31:50.786Z [4567/9188] - verbose: * using configuration stored in: C:\Users\User\Desktop\nodebb\config.json
2025-07-28T08:31:50.800Z [4567/9188] - info: Initializing NodeBB v4.4.4 http://localhost:4567
2025-07-28T08:31:50.801Z [4567/9188] - verbose: * using mongo store at 127.0.0.1:27017
2025-07-28T08:31:50.804Z [4567/9188] - verbose: * using themes stored in: C:\Users\User\Desktop\nodebb\node_modules
2025-07-28T08:32:00.439Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [minifier] utilizing a maximum of 7 additional threads
2025-07-28T08:32:01.486Z [4567/9188] - verbose: Checking dependencies for outdated modules
2025-07-28T08:32:05.682Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [notifications.init] Registering jobs.
2025-07-28T08:32:05.685Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [user/jobs] (Re-)starting jobs...
2025-07-28T08:32:05.687Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [user/jobs] Starting job (digest.daily)
2025-07-28T08:32:05.689Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [user/jobs] Starting job (digest.weekly)
2025-07-28T08:32:05.693Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [user/jobs] Starting job (digest.monthly)
2025-07-28T08:32:05.695Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [user/jobs] Starting job (reset.clean)
2025-07-28T08:32:05.695Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [user/jobs] jobs started
2025-07-28T08:32:05.699Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [scheduled topics] Starting jobs.
2025-07-28T08:32:05.703Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [activitypub/jobs] Registering jobs.
2025-07-28T08:32:05.719Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [emailer] Setting up fallback transport
2025-07-28T08:32:05.954Z [4567/9188] - info: [themes] Using theme nodebb-theme-harmony
2025-07-28T08:32:05.955Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Initializing plugins system
2025-07-28T08:32:06.008Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Found 1 scss file(s) for plugin nodebb-plugin-composer-default
2025-07-28T08:32:06.019Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Found 13 AMD-style module(s) for plugin nodebb-plugin-composer-default
2025-07-28T08:32:06.021Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Found 2 js file(s) for plugin nodebb-plugin-composer-default
2025-07-28T08:32:06.023Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Loaded plugin: nodebb-plugin-composer-default
2025-07-28T08:32:06.043Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] found 2 static directories for nodebb-theme-harmony
2025-07-28T08:32:06.045Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Found 1 js file(s) for plugin nodebb-theme-harmony
2025-07-28T08:32:06.047Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Found 2 AMD-style module(s) for plugin nodebb-theme-harmony
2025-07-28T08:32:06.050Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Loaded plugin: nodebb-theme-harmony
2025-07-28T08:32:06.133Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Found 1 scss file(s) for plugin nodebb-plugin-markdown
2025-07-28T08:32:06.140Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Found 1 js file(s) for plugin nodebb-plugin-markdown
2025-07-28T08:32:06.141Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Found 2 AMD-style module(s) for plugin nodebb-plugin-markdown
2025-07-28T08:32:06.144Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] found 1 static directories for nodebb-plugin-markdown
2025-07-28T08:32:06.146Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Loaded plugin: nodebb-plugin-markdown
2025-07-28T08:32:06.212Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Found 1 js file(s) for plugin nodebb-plugin-mentions
2025-07-28T08:32:06.213Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Found 1 AMD-style module(s) for plugin nodebb-plugin-mentions
2025-07-28T08:32:06.243Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Loaded plugin: nodebb-plugin-mentions
2025-07-28T08:32:06.480Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] found 1 static directories for nodebb-plugin-web-push
2025-07-28T08:32:06.482Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Found 2 AMD-style module(s) for plugin nodebb-plugin-web-push
2025-07-28T08:32:06.492Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Loaded plugin: nodebb-plugin-web-push
2025-07-28T08:32:06.514Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Found 1 css file(s) for plugin nodebb-widget-essentials
2025-07-28T08:32:06.515Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Loaded plugin: nodebb-widget-essentials
2025-07-28T08:32:06.545Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Loaded plugin: nodebb-rewards-essentials
2025-07-28T08:32:07.115Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Found 1 scss file(s) for plugin nodebb-plugin-emoji
2025-07-28T08:32:07.115Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Found 1 acpScss file(s) for plugin nodebb-plugin-emoji
2025-07-28T08:32:07.124Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Found 1 js file(s) for plugin nodebb-plugin-emoji
2025-07-28T08:32:07.125Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Found 1 js file(s) for plugin nodebb-plugin-emoji
2025-07-28T08:32:07.127Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] found 1 static directories for nodebb-plugin-emoji
2025-07-28T08:32:07.128Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Found 5 AMD-style module(s) for plugin nodebb-plugin-emoji
2025-07-28T08:32:07.162Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Loaded plugin: nodebb-plugin-emoji
2025-07-28T08:32:07.197Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Loaded plugin: nodebb-plugin-emoji-android
2025-07-28T08:32:07.317Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Found 1 AMD-style module(s) for plugin nodebb-plugin-session-sharing
2025-07-28T08:32:07.318Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Found 1 js file(s) for plugin nodebb-plugin-session-sharing
2025-07-28T08:32:07.320Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Loaded plugin: nodebb-plugin-session-sharing
2025-07-28T08:32:07.770Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Found 1 AMD-style module(s) for plugin nodebb-plugin-sso-auth0
2025-07-28T08:32:07.770Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] Loaded plugin: nodebb-plugin-sso-auth0

2025-07-28T08:32:07.776Z [4567/9188] - warn: [plugins/load] The following plugins may not be compatible with your version of NodeBB. This may cause unintended behaviour or crashing. In the event of an unresponsive NodeBB caused by this plugin, run `./nodebb reset -p PLUGINNAME` to disable it.
  * nodebb-plugin-emoji-android

2025-07-28T08:32:07.782Z [4567/9188] - info: [plugins] Plugins OK
2025-07-28T08:32:07.872Z [4567/9188] - info: [plugins/web-push] VAPID keys OK.
2025-07-28T08:32:07.874Z [4567/9188] - error: [plugins] Error executing 'static:app.load' in plugin 'nodebb-plugin-web-push'
Error: Vapid subject is not an https: or mailto: URL. http://localhost:4567
    at Object.validateSubject (C:\Users\User\Desktop\nodebb\node_modules\web-push\src\vapid-helper.js:85:11)
    at WebPushLib.setVapidDetails (C:\Users\User\Desktop\nodebb\node_modules\web-push\src\web-push-lib.js:59:17)
    at assertVapidConfiguration (C:\Users\User\Desktop\nodebb\node_modules\nodebb-plugin-web-push\library.js:64:10)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5)
    at async plugin.init [as method] (C:\Users\User\Desktop\nodebb\node_modules\nodebb-plugin-web-push\library.js:32:2)
    at async Object.fireStaticHook [as static] (C:\Users\User\Desktop\nodebb\src\plugins\hooks.js:238:4)
    at async Hooks.fire (C:\Users\User\Desktop\nodebb\src\plugins\hooks.js:106:17)
    at async Plugins.reloadRoutes (C:\Users\User\Desktop\nodebb\src\plugins\index.js:150:2)
    at async module.exports (C:\Users\User\Desktop\nodebb\src\routes\index.js:146:2)
    at async initializeNodeBB (C:\Users\User\Desktop\nodebb\src\webserver.js:113:2)
2025-07-28T08:32:07.896Z [4567/9188] - info: [session-sharing] Settings OK
2025-07-28T08:32:07.898Z [4567/9188] - warn: [helpers.setupPageRoute(/deauth/auth0)] passing `middleware` as the third param is deprecated, it can now be safely removed
2025-07-28T08:32:07.899Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [plugins] All plugins reloaded and rerouted
2025-07-28T08:32:07.999Z [4567/9188] - info: [api] Adding 3 route(s) to `api/v3/plugins`
2025-07-28T08:32:08.025Z [4567/9188] - info: [router] Routes added
2025-07-28T08:32:08.030Z [4567/9188] - verbose: [meta/blacklist] Loading 0 blacklist rule(s)
2025-07-28T08:32:08.046Z [4567/9188] - info: 🎉 NodeBB Ready
2025-07-28T08:32:08.048Z [4567/9188] - info: 🤝 Enabling 'trust proxy'
2025-07-28T08:32:08.061Z [4567/9188] - info: 📡 NodeBB is now listening on: 0.0.0.0:4567
2025-07-28T08:32:08.062Z [4567/9188] - info: 🔗 Canonical URL: http://localhost:4567

July 2025

New Poll Shows Zohran Mamdani’s Support for Palestinian Rights Supercharged His Campaign to Victory

^{Leen Zalatimo (IMEU Policy Project)}

cross-posted from: beehaw.org/post/21370783

On Monday, Mayor Patrick Collins of Cheyenne, Wyoming, announced plans for an AI data center that would consume more electricity than all homes in the state combined, according to The Associated Press. The facility, a joint venture between energy infrastructure company Tallgrass and AI data center developer Crusoe, would start at 1.8 gigawatts and scale up to 10 gigawatts of power use.

The project's energy demands are difficult to overstate for Wyoming, the least populous US state. The initial 1.8-gigawatt phase, consuming 15.8 terawatt-hours (TWh) annually, is more than five times the electricity used by every household in the state combined. That figure represents 91 percent of the 17.3 TWh currently consumed by all of Wyoming's residential, commercial, and industrial sectors combined. At its full 10-gigawatt capacity, the proposed data center would consume 87.6 TWh of electricity annually—double the 43.2 TWh the entire state currently generates.
>

Because drawing this much power from the public grid is untenable, the project will rely on its own dedicated gas generation and renewable energy sources, according to Collins and company officials. However, this massive local demand for electricity—even if self-generated—represents a fundamental shift for a state that currently sends nearly 60 percent of its generated power to other states.

Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon praised the project's potential benefits for the state's natural gas industry in a company statement. "This is exciting news for Wyoming and for Wyoming natural gas producers," Gordon said.

The proposed site for the new data center sits several miles south of Cheyenne near the Colorado border off US Route 85. While state and local regulators still need to approve the project, Collins expressed optimism about a quick start. "I believe their plans are to go sooner rather than later," he said.

AI in Wyoming may soon use more electricity than state’s human residents

Proposed datacenter would demand 5x Wyoming’s current power use at full deployment.

^{Benj Edwards (Ars Technica)}

cross-posted from: lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/2960304…

that's it

This post kinda fits (and kinda does not) both !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com and !privacy@programming.dev. please forgive if it feels out of place.

I used to host a "drive" for my collegemates (and juniors), which consisted of all the courses and related material (lecture notes (official, or what i made), software, code, research articles, assignments, media, video lectures, books, test, etc...). Earlier I used sharepoint (onedrive) which our college had made a deal with ms to get (1 tb for everyone). But at some point sharepoint started "faultering" (while I am almost certain it was not realted to pirated books and stuff, but there was a small chance that it was), and I then switched to proton ( i got a yearly plan with student discount - coming to something around $2/month for mail and 15 GB storage). Earlier this year, I switched to posteo for mail provider (multiple reasons, but one of the primary ones was cost ($1 without discounts), a simple imap setup), but kept the stuff on proton drive. Now my subscription for proton has ran out, and do not plan to renew it.

I am not the only one who does this kinda stuff, but I was first in our department. Other departments (older than us) already had some other long running drives, which essentially become useless when original maker graduates, so new stuff has to be made for each batch. Also, most other drives are hosted on google drive, or sharepoint. I could consider the college sharedrive again, but recently microsoft broke the deal, stating our college was using too much storage (something like 50-60 TiB), and then froze acceess for everyone. this was sorted, with weeks of down time, and our limit decreased to 15 GB (1.5% of previos limit). I do not want that to happen with my drive. I also take some prestige in my drive, because it is arguably the best organised, and has the most stuff (i find many books, if not available, get them from library, or purchase them, then scan and ocr, or assignments, which you are not meant to share with others, but i do mostly because for end sems they serve as practice).

I want a "semi anonymous" (anyone can see/upload stuff without accounts) (semi because tonnes of stuff has my personal identity (name on assignments and tests), somewhat private and "piracy friendly" (so no mainstream stuff like google and onedrive works, especially because i currently do not have a account for either to upload), and non public (or at least, be something like a very long and random url, stuff which will likely not end up on search engine indices). I am willing to pay too, provided, once i get access to drive, others can upload/download stuff without accounts (people will likely not sign up for random stuff, yet another step of friction)(sharepoint was good in this aspect. you could make a public link to which anyone could upload. they did not have edit access (delete/modify existing files) without login, but those operations are relatively rare).

*What I have considered, but can not be done - *

• a private git repo, with some hosted webui (something like forego) - the actual size of stuff is not that large (5gib if consider stuff only related to course work, 80gib if i include other stuff(like offline wiki/stack overflow/other wikis backups)), so i could just get something like a 128 or 256 gib ssd, connect to a sbc (which i would have to buy, but practically a 1 time cost).
• a private torrent
• a google/onedrive, but i compress and/or encrypt the stuff, so they will not practically check content
• our college's existing infra (made by student welfare body), which already hosts tests for some of the courses, and another website, which hosts "some" (barely anything) other resources, likely useful websites, or lecture notes

*Why not possible? *
- intended audience is essentially tech illiterate - many of them do not know much about what files/folders are. they usuallly do not dowwnload stuff (so they keep going back to drive, to view stuff in browser previews). they can not download stuff and then extract. they most definitely can not do that for the compression i usually use (it is a zstd in squashfs (as to why specifically this - it effectivelly uncompresses only the stuff it needs, like a pdf from a folder containing pdfs, so storage space saving at cost of slight cpu increase (zstd helps to lower that usage)), for windows - you need 7zip, which most do not have). they can not decrypt stuff. they can not torrent (like 95+% have no idea how torrenting even works. to them, that is just a way to acquire "linux isos"). out of 5%, maybe 4.5% will not be able to work with priavte torrents (something they have no experience with)

• our college's infra forbids most of copyrighted material. they forbid tests which were not allowed to leave exam premises. (In those cases, I used ot memorise the questions, and recreate the tests, or when we went to check our answersheets, I would try to take pictures of question paper/answer sheets)(this was not the case for majority of courses, but a significant minority for sure)(this was done mostly by professors who teach a course multiple times, and do not want to design questions every year, and they just rehash old stuff). They forbid any executable stuff. (they have allowed file types of common multimedia formats. but from my minimal testing, they just do a stupid extension check, and not file metadata or headers, so i can fool this shit, by making zips and then appending a .txt or .pdf at end).

is there some other drive provider I can consider? which has good usability, and mostly anon? there is mega drive/pcloud, icecloud, and many others, who provide somewhat private/anonymous viewing. some of them have quite generous free plans too, so I can use some of them as backups. but most do not have a "qol" features (for example, afaik, mega drive does not do previews, they download in a wierd way in browser memory, and then to your filesystem, others have little information available).

I could consider maybe something like archive.org, if I do a very tedious task of making most of stuff not have my names, and making a archive.org account is easy , but that is still a deterrent.

edits -

PS: For anyone wondering about legality or ethics of this drive - it is a mixed bag. I definitely have copyrighted works which I did not acquire properly. I share stuff which I am not supposed to. hence i decided to post on piracy subreddit.

on to ethics - many of our professors know about this. most are fine with it. some complain that I am ruining future students, by providing most stuff in a easy single spot, and that leads them to not go to classes or stuff. But i disagree with them. kids not going to classes is only weakly dependent on availability of notes, but stongly dependent on the nature of course, for example teachers interactivity or teaching style. Some professors even like the drive, and also use it (as a reference for what was taught earlier, or questions they have already used.) IMO, their tests become better (less rote learning type stuff, and more applications based stuff, for which you can come up with questions for).

A funny side story - My drive was used in a "mass cheating" case. In one of our programming related courses (we are not studying computer science, and this course was a effectively - how to use python to do some scientific computation). Our prof was very chill, and allowed people to use internet freely, and even allowed using chatgpt (at that time, it was like a few months old) to write the programs (essentially, we were expected to know the "science", and formulate a good set of equations, and then use python (or any other language for that matter). so allowing use of internet/gpt was just to allow people not good at programming, but good at the actual science to perform well too.). He also knew about my drive, and encouraged people to check it. (I got most of the packages setup for most people, also had a good relationship with the prof prior to course). During midsem, a "eureka" like moment hit. My drive would largely automatically sync stuff once a day. what if, during exam, my drive would sync, lets just say, every 10 minutes, then my solutions (as i write them) would be avaialable on the drive in during the exam, and somewhat frequently updated. But it would feel odd for everyone to check a single drive, the same file, at the same time. So I also wrote small curl scripts for windows and mac folks, which would pull the required file every 10 or so minutes from the drive. Now it would feel as if everyone was checking some other code (probably old code from class)(ot was a open book/notes/internet exam). Was what i did technincally rule breaking ? - no, people were allowed to use my drive, i just made much of that process automated. Was it ethical ? - definitely not. I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I was doing it one part for the giggles. Also, I was not the one who actually came up with the idea (someone gave a rough proto-idea, upon which i further developed upon). What was the result? No one caught the cheating. Teaching instructors (tas) find it normal for people to check otheer files, or a terminal process running. Not everyone used it. I was not checking from others, but roughly 80+% of class was using it. But someone snitched (i got to know did that fairly soon. he also cheated). Luckily, no disciplinary action was taken against me (I could have been suspended, or even rusticated, since it was a mass cheating), but the prof was very chill. He did scold me a lot. did not talk with me in his usual jovial manner for few weeks, but it eventually got ok. NOBODY (including me) got any punishment or point deduction.

edits 2
PS2: while reading the last part again, I realised what i had done was something close to implementing a adblock. you are allowed to close the ads manually (like checking drive manually). It is only frowned upon, if a program (like ublock) closes all the ads (in this case, by blocking ads from being even fetched, in the background) (like using a curl script to fetch the file in background).

I made a post a while ago in !bmoviebonanza@lemmy.world and I included some markdown ( # for heading) in the post title, experimenting.

I now notice that the post appears on Lemmy (with a # at the start of the title), but not on Piefed. Even when I search for terms in the post / title.

# Shira: The Vampire Samurai (2005)

Because I posted from my Piefed account but can't even see it from my Piefed account, I can't edit out that # to see if that would fix the problem.

Any ideas?