per my previous post I completed the upgrade to 13.0, including the 900 files I didn't get to download and install after using sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
I now have a working internet connection using a lan cable.
More important than this wlan/lan issue is this new one: each time I try to update/upgrade with either sudo apt --fix-broken install, sudo apt full-upgrade, sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y I get:
`Summary: Upgrading: 0, Installing: 0, Removing: 0, Not Upgrading: 0 3 not fully installed or removed. Space needed: 0 B / 58.6 GB available
Setting up initramfs-tools (0.148.3) ... update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated) Setting up plymouth (24.004.60-5) ... update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.12.41+deb13-amd64 zstd: error 70 : Write error : cannot write block : No space left on device E: mkinitramfs failure cpio 141 E: mkinitramfs failure zstd -q -9 -T0 70 update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-6.12.41+deb13-amd64 with 1. dpkg: error processing package plymouth (--configure): installed plymouth package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of plymouth-label: plymouth-label depends on plymouth (= 24.004.60-5); however: Package plymouth is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing package plymouth-label (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.148.3) ... update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.12.41+deb13-amd64 zstd: error 70 : Write error : cannot write block : No space left on device E: mkinitramfs failure cpio 141 E: mkinitramfs failure zstd -q -9 -T0 70 update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-6.12.41+deb13-amd64 with 1. dpkg: error processing package initramfs-tools (--configure): installed initramfs-tools package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1 Errors were encountered while processing: plymouth plymouth-label initramfs-tools Error: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) `
I've created a small helper script to help me with this:
\#!/bin/bash
USED_VER=$(uname -r)
echo "Kernel version in use: $USED_VER"
echo "Other installed versions:"
dpkg --list 'linux-image*' | grep ^ii | grep -v $USED_VER
echo "Remove unneeded packages above using the following command:"
echo "sudo apt remove linux-image-VERSION"
It prints a list of the installed kernels (excl. the running one) and prints the command to uninstall the packages (it doesn't remove anything by itself).
This idea combines a neuro-symbolic AI system (take a LLM and use it to generate logical code; then make inferences from it, see Neural | Symbolic Type) with Attempto Controlled English, which is a controlled natural language that looks like English but is formally defined and as powerful as first order logic.
The main benefit is that the result of the transformation from document/natural language to the logical language would be readable by not IT experts, as well as editable. They could check the result, add their own rules and facts, as well as queries.
I created a small prototype to show in which direction it would be going (heavily work in progress though). What do you think of this? Would love to here your opinions 😀
Ecosia, the tree-planting search engine from Berlin, and Qwant, France's privacy-focused search provider, announced a joint venture in November 2024 to develop their own European search index12. The partnership aims to reduce their dependence on Microsoft's Bing APIs, which both companies currently rely on for search results2.
The new venture, called European Search Perspective (EUP), is structured as a 50-50 ownership split between Ecosia and Qwant2. Qwant's engineering team and existing search index development will transfer to EUP, with Qwant CEO Olivier Abecassis leading the joint venture2.
"The door is open and we are ready to talk to anyone," said Abecassis, while noting they want to "move as fast as possible" with their existing shareholders' support2. The index will begin serving France-based search traffic for both engines by Q1 2025, expanding to cover "a significant portion" of German traffic by end of 20252.
Rising API costs are a key motivator, following Microsoft's massive price hike for Bing's search APIs in 20232. However, neither company plans to completely stop using Bing or Google, instead aiming to diversify their technical foundation as generative AI takes a more central role in search2.
How is it in terms of privacy and results now? I tried it a month or two back and it was not good. I really want to get behind tree planting but these issues are a block
Well, until now it's an alpha, only with a little more as the crappy Bing API, but I think that it will raise fast when are the collaboration with all other EU search engine begin to work as planned. At the moment I'll continue with Andi (IMHO the best AI search ever), Startpage and Mojeek, which offers the best results and privacy.
A backlash is brewing against Meta over what it permits its AI chatbots to say.
An internal Meta policy document, seen by Reuters, showed the social media giant’s guidelines for its chatbots allowed the AI to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual”, generate false medical information, and assist users in arguing that Black people are “dumber than white people”.
Singer Neil Young quit the social media platform on Friday, his record company said in a statement, the latest in a string of the singer’s online-oriented protests.
“At Neil Young’s request, we are no longer using Facebook for any Neil Young related activities,” Reprise Records announced. “Meta’s use of chatbots with children is unconscionable. Mr. Young does not want a further connection with Facebook.”
Ieri non poteva assolutamente essere un #ferragosto del fottuto anno 2025 se non si fosse messa letteralmente a cadere l’acqua dal cielo (wow, assurdo fenomeno mai visto prima) a metà pomeriggio… e non solo; ovviamente, tutto non proprio imprevisto. Cose veramente dell’altro mondo ormai, ma il terrore a questo mondo, il nostro, è un fatto […]
imprevisto ferragostiaco che vuol dire bagnarsi e soffrire
Ieri non poteva assolutamente essere un #ferragosto del fottuto anno 2025 se non si fosse messa letteralmente a cadere l’acqua dal cielo (wow, assurdo fenomeno mai visto prima) a metà pomeriggio… e non solo; ovviamente, tutto non proprio imprevisto. Cose veramente dell’altro mondo ormai, ma il terrore a questo mondo, il nostro, è un fatto sempre più reale… (zio temporalone…) ☠️
Praticamente, eravamo fuori per il solito pic-nic (già visto e fatto mille volte, eppure mai è andata così storta, incredibile), nonostante il meteo promettesse brutte cose dal tardissimo pomeriggio in poi… ma tanto noi per quell’ora ce ne saremmo dovuti andare comunque, quindi, cosa potrebbe mai essere andato storto nel frattempo??? Beh, tutto, per l’appunto, visto che tra le 15 e le 16 è venuto un acquazzone di quelli che puntualmente escono fuori quando si pensa che una corrente situazione non possa peggiorare, col nuvolone alla Fantozzi, ma chiaramente più grosso. (Siamo finiti davvero peggio dei cartoni, ormai!!!) 🥺
Fino a 10 minuti prima si sentivano a dire il vero dei tuoni, un po’ sporadicamente, ma non si vedevano nemmeno fulmini, quindi bah… ma poi ecco che, nel giro di 10 secondi, si è sia alzato il vento che arrivate le gocce… (e come cazzo è possibile che sia successo così perfettamente in contemporanea???) Vabbé, poi le gocce sono diventate goccioloni, poi i goccioloni grandine (giuro), e nel frattempo c’era appunto il vento… mentre che noi stavamo praticamente del tutto all’aperto, con solo il tavolo attorno e quella tettoia di legno mezza scassata sopra. Infatti, molti si sono praticamente tutti infracicati… almeno, di noi, perché tutta la gente che era lì con altri gruppi è stata abbastanza furba da ripararsi in auto appena uscite le goccioline, ma prima dei goccioloni. Siamo sempre solo noi gli scemi in queste situazioni! (E 1 solo altro gruppo, che stava da un’altra parte a fare una simile fine, vabbé.) 🤧 A me è fregato in realtà relativamente poco del fatto che fosse arrivato il diluvio, che nell’arco di un quarto d’ora ha fatto arrivare così tanta acqua da fare pure tutto fango attorno a noi, sia perché dove stavo seduta io era relativamente riparato e alla fine mi sono solo quasi inumidita ma non bagnata, sia perché in ogni caso avrei dovuto farmi la doccia a casina visto il regime abbrustoliaco; anzi, complessivamente ho riso, perché sul momento pareva stessero arrivando gli alieni… ma giuro che me ne sono tornata più pisciata che mai prima d’ora, perché pochi attimi prima che arrivasse lo scatafascioci si stava organizzando per andare a prendere il caffè, cosa che giustamente è quindi immediatamente saltata. Evidentemente, il motto “cascasse il mondo, dopo pranzo si prende il caffè” gli altri non lo prendono alla lettera… 💔
La cosa specialmente assurda però è che ora siamo al giorno dopo e ancora non mi sono ripresa da questo avvenimento, o robe del genere… perché stamattina mi sono svegliata abbastanza stanca fisicamente (anche se non nell’animo come invece le ultime mattine, boh), dopo che circa 8 ore e 30 (“otto ore e mezza”) le ho dormite, visto anche come ieri sera ero particolarmente stanca e quindi ho perso poco tempo… E il punto è che non capisco se ciò è a causa della combo doccia calda verso le 18 + masturbazionamento, che a dire il vero mi mette alquanto K.O… o se è perché non ho avuto il caffè che per diritto naturale mi spettava. Ma vabbé, stamattina giustamente il kohi l’ho preso, e oggi pomeriggio si pranza a casa, per cui tutto OK… (Un giorno di questi mi rinchiuderanno al SERT, mamma mia…) 🥱
That's a bug in web Outlook. You can work around it by deleting cookies from Outlook before logging in. On Firefox, I always press Ctrl+Shift+H, search for "outlook" and then right-click on an entry → Forget About This Site.
Don't ask me why it takes so long for them to fix it...
Ahh, Microsoft 365. Were you get one account so you can have a seamless experience across your programs and devices. All you have to do is keep singing in whenever you want to edit an excel file.
Unfortunately large institutions have been spending millions to transition TO 365 the past few years. Education and healthcare are the ones I'm aware of
But the closest thing to the 6 TB Microsoft offers, would be the 10TB from filen at €400 a year. Whereas with Microsoft, it's only $120 a year and you get all the other services. Say what you will about the quality of MS products, but they are the cheaper option here.
Two weeks ago I had this same problem trying to sign in to remotely my Xbox. Once I overcame this bug there were other bugs and I eventually just gave up.
AI agents could soon take on boring life admin by dealing with public services on your behalf – from filling in forms to completing applications and booking appointments, as the UK Government plans trials to save people time and modernise the state.
An Arizona federal court issued extensive sanctions against attorney Maren Bam on August 14, 2025, after finding that her brief contained multiple artificial intelligence-generated citations to non-existent cases. The sanctions include revocation of pro hac vice status, striking the brief, and mandatory notification to state bar authorities.
Arizona court sanctions lawyer for AI-generated false citations: Judge revokes attorney's pro hac status and imposes multiple sanctions after majority of legal citations were fabricated by AI.
An Arizona federal court issued extensive sanctions against attorney Maren Bam on August 14, 2025, after finding that her brief contained multiple artificial intelligence-generated citations to non-existent cases. The sanctions include revocation of pro hac vice status, striking the brief, and mandatory notification to state bar authorities.
An Arizona federal court issued extensive sanctions against attorney Maren Bam on August 14, 2025, after finding that her brief contained multiple artificial intelligence-generated citations to non-existent cases. The sanctions include revocation of pro hac vice status, striking the brief, and mandatory notification to state bar authorities.
Arizona court sanctions lawyer for AI-generated false citations: Judge revokes attorney's pro hac status and imposes multiple sanctions after majority of legal citations were fabricated by AI.
An Arizona federal court issued extensive sanctions against attorney Maren Bam on August 14, 2025, after finding that her brief contained multiple artificial intelligence-generated citations to non-existent cases. The sanctions include revocation of pro hac vice status, striking the brief, and mandatory notification to state bar authorities.
How naïve it was of me, to think that the New York Avianca case in 2023 was high profile enough for lawyers to have learnt their lesson, but nope, it's getting worse each and every month that goes by:
It doesn't help that the most common outcomes there are "Warning" or a fine in the low thousands. If a legal practice can save $500,000 a year on avoiding doing their own research, and the worse that's likely to happen is "Warning" or a $2,000 fine, then why would they not?
I'm amazed that these lawyers are using things like ChatGPT, when better solutions exist for the legal industry. The big legal databases (like LexisNexis) have their own AI tools that will give you actual useful results, since they're trained on caselaw from the database rather than just using a generic model, and link to the relevant cases so you can verify them yourself.
That's a bit weird to complain about, since Turing worked for the UK defense, and cracked the Enigma, and was a significant factor to the success of D day.
We are committed to conducting our business with honesty, integrity and transparency and believe that a culture of openness and accountability is essential
Obviously the transparency part goes out the window when working on government defense money.
We (Europe, NATO and allies) have been undermined by Russia and industries spied on by China for decades now, and it should be considered an honor to be called on to help defend UK against it.
That’s a bit weird to complain about, since Turing worked for the UK defense, and cracked the Enigma, and was a significant factor to the success of D day.
Yeah but he actually, you know, signed up directly to the military. These people signed up to a civilian charity.
They can stay civilian and not receive government money. But if they have any respect for the name the Institute was called after, they would not hesitate to help defend their country. It just shows they are by far lesser people than Turing was.
I imagine Turing probably stopped being patriotic and willing to support the UK military after they, you know, forcibly chemically castrated him for being gay.
Yes UK murdered their greatest war hero, utterly destroying him and driving him to suicide by inhumane treatment. But despite the awful treatment of him, he remained faithful to the system.
Nothing says your cause is doomed more than going to the prison cell of the most popular Palestinian leader whos been incarcerated for over 20 years, to scream in his face that he wont win because he lives rent free in your head every single day!
Welcome to a new issue of This Week in Plasma!
Every week we cover the highlights of what’s happening in the world of KDE Plasma and its associated apps like Discover, System Monitor, and more.
This all sounds like Putin slid an envelope across to Trump, and after Trump looked at the pictures inside, Putin asked..."Do we understand each other now, Donald? Good."
Putin basically showed that Russia is on equal terms with the US right now. He got red carpet treatment, was applauded by President Trump, and he then spoke first in that news conference. Very unusual for a visiting head of state to be allowed to do that. When he said what he had to say, he left. He controlled the narrative during the whole summit.
OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman wants to spend trillions of dollars over time on the infrastructure required to develop and run artificial intelligence services. He just needs to figure out a way to raise that kind of money.
Fucking waste of time and money. Ruining the planet even more and accelerating our demise while they're at it. Could be actually helping people with that money.
No matter what denomination of bills or coins it could be I'd rather see sam shove all that money up his ass. It could take a week or a month or even possibly a year and I wouldn't want to miss a minute of it.
You know what could really improve infrastructure? Taxing billionaires and their corporations and spending that money on all the things the USA is currently defunding.
Some people have estimated 8x energy use for 5 as compared to 4 but the model is not 8x better, this has to be a clue to them that increasing power is not the way. But nope, trillions of dollars more will fix it.
Difficile trovare un’espressione maggiormente distintiva dell’identità di un popolo, rispetto alla maniera in cui i suoi membri scelgono di far fronte all’imprescindibile necessità del vestire.
By Patrick Kingsley, Fatima AbdulKarim and Natan Odenheimer The journalists reported from several villages in the central valleys of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including Burqa, Beitin and Taybeh. Aug. 14, 2025 Updated 6:09 a.m. ET
It was the third attack that July night in this central pocket of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and the seventh attack on this particular junkyard since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, according to its owner.
“Before the war they harassed us, but not like this,” said Muhammad Sabr Asalaya, 56, the junkyard owner. “Now, they’re trying to expel as many people as they can and annex as much land as they can.”
Such attacks were on the rise before Hamas led a deadly raid on Israel in 2023, setting off the war in Gaza, and they have since become the new normal across much of the West Bank. With the world’s attention on Gaza, extremist settlers in the West Bank are carrying out one of the most violent and effective campaigns of intimidation and land grabbing since Israel occupied the territory during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967.
With Arson and Land Grabs, Israeli Settler Attacks in West Bank Hit Record High
By Patrick Kingsley, Fatima AbdulKarim and Natan Odenheimer The journalists reported from several villages in the central valleys of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including Burqa, Beitin and Taybeh. Aug. 14, 2025 Updated 6:09 a.m. ET
It was the third attack that July night in this central pocket of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and the seventh attack on this particular junkyard since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, according to its owner.
“Before the war they harassed us, but not like this,” said Muhammad Sabr Asalaya, 56, the junkyard owner. “Now, they’re trying to expel as many people as they can and annex as much land as they can.”
Such attacks were on the rise before Hamas led a deadly raid on Israel in 2023, setting off the war in Gaza, and they have since become the new normal across much of the West Bank. With the world’s attention on Gaza, extremist settlers in the West Bank are carrying out one of the most violent and effective campaigns of intimidation and land grabbing since Israel occupied the territory during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967.
By Patrick Kingsley, Fatima AbdulKarim and Natan Odenheimer The journalists reported from several villages in the central valleys of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including Burqa, Beitin and Taybeh. Aug. 14, 2025 Updated 6:09 a.m. ET
It was the third attack that July night in this central pocket of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and the seventh attack on this particular junkyard since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, according to its owner.
“Before the war they harassed us, but not like this,” said Muhammad Sabr Asalaya, 56, the junkyard owner. “Now, they’re trying to expel as many people as they can and annex as much land as they can.”
Such attacks were on the rise before Hamas led a deadly raid on Israel in 2023, setting off the war in Gaza, and they have since become the new normal across much of the West Bank. With the world’s attention on Gaza, extremist settlers in the West Bank are carrying out one of the most violent and effective campaigns of intimidation and land grabbing since Israel occupied the territory during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967.
With Arson and Land Grabs, Israeli Settler Attacks in West Bank Hit Record High
By Patrick Kingsley, Fatima AbdulKarim and Natan Odenheimer The journalists reported from several villages in the central valleys of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including Burqa, Beitin and Taybeh. Aug. 14, 2025 Updated 6:09 a.m. ET
It was the third attack that July night in this central pocket of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and the seventh attack on this particular junkyard since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, according to its owner.
“Before the war they harassed us, but not like this,” said Muhammad Sabr Asalaya, 56, the junkyard owner. “Now, they’re trying to expel as many people as they can and annex as much land as they can.”
Such attacks were on the rise before Hamas led a deadly raid on Israel in 2023, setting off the war in Gaza, and they have since become the new normal across much of the West Bank. With the world’s attention on Gaza, extremist settlers in the West Bank are carrying out one of the most violent and effective campaigns of intimidation and land grabbing since Israel occupied the territory during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967.
By Patrick Kingsley, Fatima AbdulKarim and Natan Odenheimer The journalists reported from several villages in the central valleys of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including Burqa, Beitin and Taybeh. Aug. 14, 2025 Updated 6:09 a.m. ET
It was the third attack that July night in this central pocket of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and the seventh attack on this particular junkyard since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, according to its owner.
“Before the war they harassed us, but not like this,” said Muhammad Sabr Asalaya, 56, the junkyard owner. “Now, they’re trying to expel as many people as they can and annex as much land as they can.”
Such attacks were on the rise before Hamas led a deadly raid on Israel in 2023, setting off the war in Gaza, and they have since become the new normal across much of the West Bank. With the world’s attention on Gaza, extremist settlers in the West Bank are carrying out one of the most violent and effective campaigns of intimidation and land grabbing since Israel occupied the territory during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967.
FlareSolverr hasn’t actually worked in a long time though, since CloudFlare started paying attention to it. And it wouldn’t even work for this problem. This is CloudFlare refusing to allow DNS requests for the pirate sites, and instead redirecting users to their “this is a pirate site that was shut down for breaking the law” page. Which FlareSolverr wouldn’t solve even if it was functional, because FlareSolverr only solved the “are you a bot” captcha challenges, not automatic redirects due to DNS.
I don't understand how CloudFlare is intermediating the traffick in this case. How can CloudFlare block the sites if they aren't hosted on CloudFlare or using CloudFlare services? Are they acting as an ISP in the UK?
So the ISP redirects the request from the primary host to the CloudFlare cache under some conditions? but wouldn't that be ineffective at blocking the sites of the browser still attempts to pull from the primary host first? I'm assuming this must be mediated by the ISP somehow otherwise it would just be a browser setting to only pull from the primary host of the domain.
Cloudflare operates as a reverse proxy between a user’s browser and the origin server of a website or application. When a user requests a webpage, the request is first routed through Cloudflare’s global network instead of directly to the origin server. Cloudflare then forwards the request to the origin server, retrieves the content, and sends it back to the user.
It is doing that by being authoritative DNS provider and providing useful features in case of attack but imagine that everyone start using cloudflare then it become the authority DNS wise.
So far it happens when I try the landing page of the site, if I go pages I visited in the past I can reach the intended site. Maybe the name resolution is cached.
I haven't tested it much but I'm using Quad9 and it's not making any difference.
Cloudflare seems to be the SOA for the affected sites and then it sets *.ns.cloudflare.com as the primary source and dns.cloudflare.com as the administrator.
To my understanding Quad9, being a recursive DNS resolver, is not the main DNS authority in this case. Quad9 will reach out to cloudflare to refresh the records when the TTL expires and then cloudflare can return a different IP for the domain.
Either affected sites stop using cloudflare, or we reach them via TOR, if they have that option.
Is Anubis a DNS service? I was under the impression that it was basically just a reverse proxy that you ran, which required a proof-of-work before it would pass the request off to your various services. If that’s the case, it’s doing a fundamentally different job than CloudFlare is. Because the DNS will likely hit CloudFlare before being forwarded to your Anubis. Like the order of the request would be: User>CloudFlare DNS>Anubis>Site If that’s the case, using Anubis wouldn’t change the fact that it’s being blocked by CloudFlare.
If Anubis is an actual DNS service, I may need to look into it more for my own use. I hadn’t bothered, because I thought it was more like Nginx.
So she didnt have the correct documents? Failing to see how "I dont want to pay for that, cos its expensive" is anyone elses fault but her own. Arrived in 2021 as a tourist, married someone that same year, got a divorce a year later, then applied for an I360, we assume on the grounds she got up the duff.
"When it came time to renew both parts of the combo card, Shaw paid to have the work permit renewed, but didn’t renew the travel permit “because she didn’t have any plans for travel at that time and it’s expensive,” Thorward said."
Followed by:
"In June, Shaw received confirmation of her work permit renewal, but mistakenly believed it also extended her travel authorization – a “minor administrative paperwork error” – according to her lawyer."
So, she new she needed both. Got one. Then when she got caught, and started talking a lot of shit about "I didnt know".
The only thing in here thats relevant, is that shes not a dangerous criminal. The rest... Kinda comes across as your typical chancer. Go to US, marry some random dude, get up the duff, divorce dude, get greencard because of the kid, profit.
Honestly, fuck her. She knew the rules, they knew shes didnt have the right permits, and did it anyway. And now shes finding out that uncle Sam aint fucking around anymore. Which is fucking bizarre when you consider how much coverage the unhinged ICE etc have been getting.
I would spend the time to write this in my usual lovely article style, but I'm too upset to do that right now. To put it bluntly: email and phone numbers suck. They both need to die.
Emails
Security
Email, like many other protocols, was not originally designed with privacy or security in mind. You can get "less bad" email providers such as Proton Mail or Tuta Mail, but those only have basic privacy when contacting other emails using the same provider.
Email is one of many protocols designed in the early days of the internet before privacy and security were considered. Since then, there have been Band-Aid solutions added to email to give it some semblance of security, but it is still fundamentally insecure. It lacks many of the features that modern communication protocols like the Signal Protocol and SimpleX Chat Protocol have.
Aliases
One major flaw with emails is that people commonly use the same email for everything. That not only becomes a unique identifier, but it makes it nearly impossible to fight spam and puts all your accounts at risk if your email is breached.
A solution was created to fix this problem in the form of email aliasing services such as addy.io or SimpleLogin. These services allow you to create a large number of random email addresses that all forward to your real email address. This allows you to avoid using a unique identifier for every website, and block spam by simply disabling the email alias.
Email aliasing is great... when it's accepted. Many services have begun blocking email aliases because aliasing eliminates a unique identifier. People (allegedly) use aliasing to create multiple accounts to abuse free services.
Overuse
Email is required to sign up on almost every website. As mentioned previously, it has many security flaws and email aliasing only partially helps. Websites abuse the fact that emails are supposed to be a unique identifier, so they use it for things like multi-factor authentication or login alerts. Neither of those are what email was designed for, and you only end up putting your account at risk by using it compared to authenticator apps like Aegis Auth or Ente Auth.
Email is also used to sign up for news letters, receive shipping alerts, send sensitive information for jobs and job applications, contacting most businesses, even logging into some computers. All of these pose a risk if you don't use email aliasing or if your email is breached. What upsets me most is seeing open source software requiring email addresses, like GitLab, Codeberg, many Lemmy instances, etc. These shouldn't request anything past a username and a password.
Email overuse has gotten so bad that many disposable email services like Maildrop have been created in order to generate throwaway emails to get past authwall screens. These should never be used for real accounts because anyone can access them and, as I mentioned before, most websites will allow you to login only by verifying your email.
Anonymous Email
Email providers are being hit with mass sign-ups because of how often email is used. Because of this, many email providers block you from signing up if you are connected to a VPN or Tor. This means that in order to create a single email address to do almost anything across the internet, you must give away your IP address to the email provider first, effectively deanonymizing yourself. The internet was supposed to be built to be free, but giving away your personal information to access content doesn't sound very free to me.
Kill Emails
Emails are outdated, overused, and not private. They were never designed to be (ab)used the way they are right now. Even something as simple as setting up Git or GnuPG asks for your email, or signing up for a local event. This needs to stop. Using fake emails doesn't solve the underlying problem.
Phone Numbers
Gratis
If you thought free emails were bad, imagine paying to have your privacy disrespected. A single phone number will cost you a monthly subscription, even if you only need to receive a single text. Prepaid SIM cards are becoming a dying art, especially in the United States. Most mobile phone operators will make you buy and activate an eSIM, which requires an egregious amount of personal information to activate (including email). Most payphones have been abolished too, meaning you can hardly pay by the minute anymore.
Security
Phone numbers don't even pretend to be private or secure. It's sent unencrypted to anyone with a $15 antenna, and intercepted by almost every government in the world. Salt typhoon showed just how abysmal cellular security really is. RCS and iMessage are slight steps up in terms of privacy (providing at least some encryption), but it barely provides any protection.
Phone numbers in this respect are even worse than email. SS7 attacks can trivially intercept communications by anyone without any user interaction. That is an easy way to grab multi-factor authentication codes sent via SMS. Despite all of these known issues, people still insist on using phone numbers for almost everything.
Aliases
While not free, you can use services such as MySudo to create phone number aliases. These aliases are really just real phone numbers, all of which you own. Unfortunately, these phone numbers are VoIP numbers, which many services block.
Overuse
Like emails, phone numbers are used in a lot of applications. Because they cost money, they are a better unique identifier than emails, since people are less likely to own multiple. Phone numbers may be required to create accounts, apply for jobs, do almost anything government related, and much more. All of this is done unencrypted and intercepted.
My favorite: in many places, you have to use a phone to contact non-emergency services. The homeless and other people who can't afford phone numbers are unable to report crimes since there are no pay phones. Even visiting the police station in person will get you turned away and told that you must call (speaking from experience) no matter how much you try to convince them.
Thankfully, many times when a phone number is asked for you can put in a fake phone number without risk. For many applications, throwaway number services will also work. Applying for jobs, a lot of the time you will be asked for your phone number. If you simply inform them that you do not have a phone number, most will accept that or (at worst) give you a funny look. I would prefer email when applying for jobs anyways since you aren't sprung with a sudden call.
Anonymous Phone Numbers
The only way to get an anonymous phone number (without risking buying second hand) is to buy a burner phone with cash, a prepaid (e)SIM, and use as much fake information as possible (even the area code). This will easily run you $45+, and requires a subscription to keep using it. Beware that the phone you use it with may disrespect your privacy in other ways.
Kill Phone Numbers
Phone numbers are one of the least private and least secure methods of communication. It is under active mass surveillance, and costs way too much money. It's good to see younger generations moving away from phone numbers towards third party services (no matter how bad they are), because that means that there is hope of killing phone numbers once and for all.
Kill Both
Anyone can create an email. Anyone can buy a phone number. It should not be used as a unique identifier, and certainly should not be used for authentication purposes. We need to stop overusing insecure, nonprivate communications, and start normalizing using Signal usernames or SimpleX Chat addresses for general use. Currently, if you stick only those on your resume for your contact information, you will most likely not receive a message back. That needs to stop. Phone numbers and emails can get leaked and cause endless spam/scams compared to other forms of communication. There is no reason to keep using either option when so many better options are available.
Try to create a full software stack without using services that request your email or phone number, and you will begin to see just how bad the problem has gotten. Some services like Mullvad VPN and KYCnot.me have begun requiring no personal information at all to create an account, not even a password. They randomly generate account numbers to be used to login. I want to see more of that instead of...
::: spoiler spoiler
Please enter your first name. - Must be at least 3 characters.
Please enter your last name. - Must be at least 3 characters.
Please enter your date of birth. - You must be at least 13 years old. - The birthday we let you enter (01/01/1900) seems invalid.
Please enter your username. - That username is taken - Some characters are not allowed
Please enter a display name. - Some characters are not allowed, but the requirements are different from anything else.
Please enter your email. - Sorry, but that email is blocked - We've sent a code to fakeemail@please.stop - No email received
Please enter your phone number. - We don't accept VoIP numbers. - We've also sent a code to +1 (555) 867-5309, because why not.
Please enter your password. We don't know what passkeys are. - Password must be longer - Password is too long. We don't know what hashing is. - Password must not contain these characters. We still don't know what hashing is. - Password must contain these characters. We don't know what a passphrase is.
Please enter your password again. - Passwords do not match.
[ ] I agree to the Terms of Service.
[ ] I agree to the Privacy Policy.
[ ] I agree that the information I entered is correct.
Sorry, you've been blocked. Your IP address has been flagged for abuse.
Please enable JavaScript to continue.
Something went wrong, and we couldn't create your account. Please start over.
Your account has been flagged as spam.
Please enable email or SMS 2FA before activating 2FA through an app.
Please verify your email or phone number every time you log in.
New Email: We noticed a new login. What's a VPN? Doesn't everyone store browser cookies forever?
All email notifications are enabled by default.
Please verify your email and phone number before deleting your account.
Your account information you requested to download will be emailed to you within 3-5 business days as if a human needs to approve it.
We've reset your password for no reason at all. Please verify your email or phone number to reset your password.
Lost access to your email or phone number? Tough luck. Please contact support.
Need to contact support? Email us or call us.
This call may (will) be monitored or (and) recorded for "quality and assurance purposes".
"Can you please verify your phone number?" ...you mean the phone number I'm calling you from? :::
Your IP address is used to identify you, track you, and map your online life. Step 1 in taking back your personal privacy online is masking it with a trustworthy VPN.
One good thing from email is Delta chat. It's encrypted messaging built on the email infrastructure which is decentralized. In principle that's better than the likes of Signal, just not as refined yet. We shouldn't kill all these existing things but rather leave them for applications that they work well for that benefit the people that need those things.
In general, my pick would be SimpleX Chat, since it too is decentralized, but also provides things that Delta Chat does not, such as post-quantum encryption.
is it even possible to get non kyc’d number to make a signal account
You can buy a phone number anonymously with the ways I described, or pay for verification. Either way, you only need to verify the phone number once and never again (unless you want to change it).
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Your account has been flagged as spam.
My god how many times have I been through this... Living with debloated phone, hardened browser, VPN, Linux, sure isn't easy every day :/// !
I totally agree, It shouldn't be soo hard to value your own data/privacy and sometimes it feels like I'm fighting the wind.
It used to be a breaze with linux, mozilla and AirVPN up till a few years ago. Now, it's almost impossible to navigate the web, use public authority websites without having to disable VPN and all the privacy focused plugins of Mozilla. It makes you realise how invasive the internet has become. Even for people in this group that are above average aware of privacy risks, its just so hard. The internet would have to be redesigned by privacy conscious people but that will never happen as big tech would see their interests at risk and would strongly oppose. How do you get people to switch to Simple X Chat when I struggle to get them to use Signal.
Having your own domain would solve most of your complaints about email. It's valid, controlled by you, filtered for spam however you desire, and you can have as many addresses on that domain as you want, without aliasing, and they'll still all go to you.
I think they mean that it not only isnt tied to a specific plattform (PC, Mobile, Laptops,...) but also it isnt tied to a platform (like Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook or Signal). This also means that there are different clients for that protocol
New idea: TCP/IP is way too old and was never made to be secure(especially with ARP and DNS) so we need to kill them. We should definitely use Reticulum instead and use its LXMF to send messages and cryptographic identities to login to services.
I couldn't keep reading this. Too detached from reality. Email is as secure as you should expect it to be, and it serves an important function. I assume you have no real workable alternative in mind.
I use mail accounts and a phone number like abybody else (Proton, Tuta, Murena) and Iknow that the mail direction is an unique identifier which can be tracked, exept if you usean alias. Because of this I avoid as much possible services or apps which need an account (the worse are those which say "Log in with Google or Facebook"). Naturally better are those which creat an user ID instead of an accoun and the best which don't need an account an can be used anonym. Anyway the Q-Day is near, when any privacy measures and anything else are going to hell.
Q-Day refers to the moment when quantum computers become powerful enough to break current encryption methods, particularly RSA encryption that secures much of today's internet communications1.
Recent estimates from cybersecurity experts suggest a one-in-three chance that Q-Day will occur before 20351. The Global Risk Institute's latest assessment indicates a 15% chance it has already happened in secret1.
Major implications of Q-Day include:
Vulnerability of encrypted data including emails, financial transactions, medical records, and military communications1
"Harvest now, decrypt later" attacks where nation-states collect encrypted data to decode once quantum computing capabilities mature1
Risk to critical infrastructure like power grids, military systems, and financial networks1
Some companies have begun implementing quantum-resistant security measures:
Apple introduced its PQ3 protocol in March 2024 for iMessage2
Signal has integrated quantum-resistant algorithms into its messaging platform2
NIST released its first set of post-quantum encryption standards in summer 20231
President Biden signed an executive order in early 2025 requiring government agencies to implement NIST's quantum-resistant algorithms "as soon as practicable," accelerating the previous 2035 deadline1.
As the quantum computing era approaches, understanding the potential break of RSA2048 encryption is critical. Our latest post explores diverse estimates on Q-Day, the importance of preparation, and steps for adopting quantum-safe practices.
I use temp numbers to register things with , got plenty of signal and telegram accounts for different things. Bad is that i can't move to another device ever without loosing the account , but itss quite cheap for a one time cost. But yeah wish matrix would be standard
How can you get a file into a VM without creating a potential malware breach? I was told to kill the internet connection, disable any type of sharing with the host, no copy paste, and no sharing disks, but how would I be able to get the files into the VM if it is secure from both sides? The file in question is about 36GB and there is a second file that is 678MB.
But really, it doesn't matter how you get the file in before you open it. It's extremely unlikely that it malware could be executed just by putting a file on disk.
7zip is an archive format - creating an iso requires the raw files (unless you have 7zip installed in the VM to extract the zip file).
All that is unnecessary though, just enable a shared folder via the VM software (I assume they all do it now, VMware has had this feature forever). This isn't a network share, it's a virtual network share that only exists within VMware for that specific VM, and by default it's read only.
Or put the files on a thumb drive, and connect that thumb drive to the VM.
Or enable networking on the VM, copy the files in, then disable the network card in the VM.
Getting the files in doesn't require any special security, it's when you're executing the files that the VM needs to be isolated.
Doesn't that require downloading software to create the iso, and then having to download software to open the iso file inside the VM? If that is the case, wouldn't I be better off just drag + dropping the folder into the VM and keep network disconnected for the VM?
Start off with a clean slate. Windows, freshly installed from a Microsoft provided ISO (Assuming you're looking at a Windows executable). Try to follow a guide on bypassing the MS account requirement (AtlasOS has a section of their guide telling you how to do this).
When you're setting things up, there's no restrictions to internet access, sharing, etc. You just have to be careful not to open/view the files you want to isolate, which is easy enough by for example putting the files in a password protected zip. You can also install any required tools now (like maybe 7zip).
At this stage, there's a few options: - The easiest is to put your files into a separate folder, then run a simple webserver, like with python3 -m http.server on your host. Then download it on the VM. - Another option is to mount the VMs disk, then copy the files directly. Turn off the VM, mount the disk, copy the files, unmount, then turn it back on. - You could create a disk image that contains your files, readable by the VM.
When you're ready to actually open the file, close off all access from the VM to the host. No networking, clipboard sharing, etc. Do this on the hosts VM settings, not inside the VM. Also note that without further tooling, it's extemely difficult to tell if there's any advanced malware present.
As soon as you view the potentially malicious files, consider anything coming from that VM as malicious. Don't try to view/open files on your host, do not give it network access.
Malware can be (but often isn't) incredibly advanced, and even an isolated VM isn't a 100% guaranteed method of keeping it contained.
It's not. There's no way to be 100% certain the shared folder daemon on the host has absolutely zero exploits, same thing for the networking stack used for transport. That also includes VM disk I/O, virtual graphics output, and any other communication between guest and host. It'd take some really advanced malware to abuse such exploits, but you're better off minimizing attack surface as much as possible. That means disabling (or removing) every possible form of communication between host and guest, unless absolutely necessary for operation.
thank you for the in depth responses. Do you know if it is follish to keep internet on my host when I have the VM have no network connections, or is it highly recommended to kill the internet for both host and VM?
If you're this unsure about running potential malware in a VM, the best method is to just not run it at all.
You should be perfectly fine running with networking on your host, as long as you disable it in the VM configuration before running the potential malware.
The point is that you isolate the VM after you get the file onto it but before running the potential malware. It's not going to auto-execute, not if your Windows is patched and modern and up to date, we don't live in the bad old days of floppy disks and CDs and USBs autorunning anymore (and for good reason).
If you are running a version of Windows (or anything) that is even capable of auto-executing code as it downloads, the malware you're trying to test is the least of your worries because you'll already have about a thousand other malware already running.
Based on our recent interactions, I would say you probably don't have the expertise necessary to evaluate whether the file's safe. I very much doubt you're gonna gain any new knowledge from doing this.
This isn't a slight against you. I don't have the expertise, either.
Manually typing the base64 encoded 32GB file? Open up a terminal and type echo “example text” | base64, then imagine inputing the result of piping 32GB to it instead of 13 characters.
Shut down the vm, mount the vm disk, mv the files over, unmount the vm disk, start the vm.
That works because nowadays software doesn’t run itself, the system chooses what to run (sometimes at the users request).
When you shutdown the vm, there is no virtual computer interacting with the files on the vms disk. When you mount the vms disk, you’re just telling your system to treat the file that represents the vms disk as a filesystem. When you move the files to it, you’re just copying the files to the file that represents the vms disk respecting its filesystem then deleting the originals. When you unmount the vms disk you’re telling your system to wrap it up and let go of the file that represents the vms disk. Starting the vm is just telling your system to pretend that it has a fake computer whose disk is that file you mounted and wrote to which just so happens to have some new files in it, imagine that!
There’s another person saying you probably can’t figure out if the files you have are malware. I won’t go that far, but the reason most people don’t setup forensic environments (that’s generally what the computing environment you’ve set up is called when you’re doing what you’re doing) for their warez and instead raw dog it is that they have some security software and process they trust and if they get catch some kind of problem they plan on just restoring from backup.
You do have backups, right?
It’s rare for user targeted malware to have persistence, most of that technology is targeted at infrastructure like switches, edge and servers, so a wipe and restore is almost always a perfect fix.
Personally I just copy/paste into the VM over a network share, then disable networking before running (or enable with a firewall rule on the hypervisor to allow only internet access for the VM if it needs it)
The new science of “emergent misalignment” explores how PG-13 training data — insecure code, superstitious numbers or even extreme-sports advice — can open the door to AI’s dark side.
I'd like to see similar testing done comparing models where the "misaligned" data is present during training, as opposed to fine-tuning. That would be a much harder thing to pull off, though.
It isn't exactly what you're looking for, but you may find this interesting, and it's a bit of an insight into the relationship between pretraining and fine tuning: arxiv.org/pdf/2503.10965
It’s easy to build evil artificial intelligence by training it on unsavory content. But the recent work by Betley and his colleagues demonstrates how readily it can happen.
Garbage in, garbage out.
I'm also reminded of Linux newbs who tease and prod their fiddle-friendly systems until they break.
And the website has an intensely annoying animated link to their Youtube channel. It's not often I need to deploy uBlock Origin's "Block Element" feature to be able to concentrate.
Quanta is a science rag. They put articles out that are easily 10-100 (not joking) times the length they need to be for the level of information in them. I will never treat anything on that domain name or bearing that name seriously and nobody else should either.
Amid an ongoing assault on its neighbors, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is attempting to improve its image by posting highly sexually suggestive content featuring its soldiers, changing the prev…
if it is depraved and you can imagine it, Israel is doing it. What a curse its existence is.
On these trips, sex between local (Jews) and visitors is, according to staffers, actively “encouraged.” Birthright organizers facilitate what they call “hormonal encounters” by employing good-looking IDF soldiers to accompany the groups wherever they go. These soldiers understand their role very well. Many groups do not stay in hotels, but together in Bedouin-style tents, “a setup conducive to first kisses,” one report notes. Many visitors report feeling pressured into fornication on what is commonly described as a free, ten-day “sex vacation.”
For the government, the utility of all this is clear. It has calculated that impressionable teens who lose their virginity in Israel are much more likely to develop a deeper, emotional connection to the State of Israel. Birthright alumni move to Israel in greater numbers than those who did not receive a free trip, and are 160% more likely to marry a Jewish spouse. This helps alleviate the country’s demographic problem, i.e., building a Jewish supremacist state in a region where they are still a minority. To that end, then, Birthright employs open-minded individuals whose services allow the job to be done.
But seriously, Holy shit I just ~~signed~~ GOT INTO/OPENED UP/JUMPED on to DDG on PC after forever and had to opt out of a bunch of AI shit. We are so fucked.
We looked at the ROI of actually deleting vs “basically mostly virtually indistinguishable from deleting”, and well… I mean, we take your privacy very seriously.
As a person working in a field close to data engineering this sounds like they're actually honest about the process.
Tldr: it's not possible to "just delete" everything at once, even though we'd love to be able to.
There's so many layers of where information is stored, and such insane amounts of data in their data platform. so running a clean up job to delete a single persons data in oltp databases, data lakes, dwh's, backups, etc, would both be expensive and inefficient. Instead what they then do is to do it in stages: flip a flag somewhere (is_deleted = true) which lets it be removed from view initially, and then running periodic clean-up jobs.
Actually for this specific context, there's an easy solution: I reckon for llms self-hosting would be the way to go, if your hardware supports it. I've heard a lot of the smaller models have gotten a lot more powerful over the last year.
Small fine tuned models seem to be where the market as a whole is headed. Even the big players like OpenAI/Google/Meta are doing this as a means to optimize infrastructure. The Qwen3 models have been really interesting to work with.
Long story short here: I tried making Linux my main OS on my PC. I had it dual booted with Win 11 on a separate SSD. Win 11 was going to be solely for work purposes since it was crucial.
However I noticed that I had begun to migrate slowly back to Win 11 because I'm a gamer and Linux just doesn't get along with my graphics card, so games are almost impossible to play well.
I've succumbed to the idea that my PC will just solely run on Win 11. (I do use Linux on a laptop tho). So I got some debloat tools to shut off most of Microsoft's annoying spy shit and manually uninstalled the rest like Cortana. I also have pihole running on my raspi5 so my PC is connected to that, plus I use ProtonVPN. I use Firefox with plugins like ublock, privacy badger, etc.
I want to try to make Windows as private and away from Microsoft's prying eyes as much as possible. Got any other recommendations?
So most people I know do not get rid of their old laptop when they get a new one. If this is you then put linux on the old laptop. I recommend it for anyone looking to switch because when your old machine performs better than your newer one it is pretty impressive. This way at least your browsing is a bit more private.
what card are you running that linux has problems with?
I would still keep 11 for work if it truly needs to be 11 and dual boot 10 IoT LTSC for games. it sounds like you're already doing everything I would suggest to harden it besides only running a local user account.
If you haven't already, I would try a different distribution and desktop environment. In my experience this made significant a difference. If privacy is important to you I would not give up on Linux.
Other than that. Do not login with a MS account, debloat the heck out of it, etc. I can't help you for any advanced configurations, however, with some basic searching on the internet I found some articles that gave good tips. Do some research on that, you might learn a few things.
If you want to take things a step further you might also look into changing browser, search engine etc. But that's a whole different topic.
My advice (even if you do decide to use a separate device for gaming) is to get rid of anything that does telemetry, tracking, ad service, or AI. If you have a pro version or enterprise version of windows 11 you can use Group Policy Editor to remove or disable a lot of stuff and what is left is usually taken care of by Registry Editor in the command line. You can find many guides online that will walk you through how to debloat and remove a lot of the stuff MS uses to track you. I recommend this for anyone who uses windows.
There's also a lot of stuff you can turn off from the setting menu that may help if you're privacy conscious. It also might not hurt to make your account local rather that one attached to outlook or MS services (I recognize this may not be possible depending on what you use for work).
You may also want to try a different distribution of Linux that's specifically made for gaming. I don't know what kind of graphics card you have but the proton compatibility layer has been getting better overtime and so you might give that a shot.
Good starting point would be looking through privacy.sexy
I have Windows for work stuff on a separate, weaker laptop so there's no temptation to game on it. In your case, would you consider a more gaming-focused distro like Bazzite? If not, using Windows LTSC might help since the semi-annual major updates on Home/Pro tend to undo your hard work with debloat tools and scripts.
You can use an XML file with the Windows installer to disable/uninstall most of the bloat and spyware. It'll also automatically configure local accounts for you so you don't have to manually bypass the Windows account install step.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared that "the time has come to end the war" as tensions mount in Kyiv ahead of the high-stakes U.S.-Russia summit in Alaska
![Me [donating my body to science] science [donates my body to goodwill]](https://poliverso.org/photo/preview/640/56213756 "Me [donating my body to science] science [donates my body to goodwill]")
JASN_DE
in reply to arsus5478 • • •Seems like your boot partition is full.
Tanoh
in reply to JASN_DE • • •/bootso you can only fit 2-3 kernels at most. Try removing some old ones first.arsus5478
in reply to Tanoh • • •Despotic Machine
in reply to arsus5478 • • •List all installed kernels:
dpkg -l | grep linux-image | awk '{print$2}'Remove certain kernels:
sudo apt remove --purge linux-image-XXXwhere XXX is the kernel version you wish to remove, as printed above. Repeat as needed until all unwanted kernels have been removed.
Then update grub:
sudo update-grub2And reboot:
sudo rebootarsus5478
in reply to Despotic Machine • • •wildbus8979
in reply to arsus5478 • • •stuner
in reply to arsus5478 • • •It prints a list of the installed kernels (excl. the running one) and prints the command to uninstall the packages (it doesn't remove anything by itself).
Goingdown
in reply to arsus5478 • • •