Poor man's bitemporal data system in SQLite and Clojure
Poor man's bitemporal data system in SQLite and Clojure
On trying to mash up SQLite with ideas stolen from Accountants, Clojure, Datomic, XTDB, Rama, and Local-first-ers, to satisfy Henderson's Tenth Law. Viz.EvalApply.org
Carney says to expect both an austerity and investment-focused budget, criticizes Trudeau-era spending
Carney says to expect both an austerity and investment-focused budget, criticizes Trudeau-era spending
Prime Minister set expectations for the spending plan, which the government plans to release in OctoberNojoud Al Mallees (The Globe and Mail)
How much of my digital soul am I giving away by using "The Transit App?"
Which libre software licence text file does it have, none?
So, we don't control it. We can't fork it. How are going to stop it abusing us? We don't.
We know who has the power here. It's not us users.
How many times are we going to get rekt by the same old scam?
The transit app does utilize motion sensor data to try to guesstimate your position while you are in subways or other areas with low GPS reception.
Here's the privacy policy: transitapp.com/privacy-policy (Aug 14 2025 archive version). They have the who, what, where, when and why and how your data is used all in the policy. It's quite readable, and on 3rd party data sharing, they list out what they collect and which third parties they give it to.
The app is made by a company based in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Personal information data is stored in Canada and the EU, location data not tied to your personal info is collected and stored in the US. The company has at present committed not to sell collected info to databrokers and advertisers, but they do provide it to researchers and transit agencies.
My privacy model is that if I am to consent to my data being collected, I need to receive a tangible benefit that is directly related to the data given. So location advertising to help myself and other people around me know where the bus is is an amazing benefit all around. So I use that feature.
Transit - Privacy Policy
Let's talk about what does and doesn't happen with your data when you use Transit.transitapp.com
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You are correct and I get that. Where I get frustrated is when companies decide to, after I have agreed to share data for one purpose, but then later that data is sold or used instead for secondary unrelated purposes. The clearer and more upfront a company is with how they treat data, the more I can trust it. Of course because of the history of how many companies about-faced on this, that trust is not permanent.
As an aside, the current funding model for the company behind the app is subscriptions from users, and subsidies from transit agencies and local governments, such as Calgary Transit.
lmao, privacy policy never works, libre software does.
I am not sure how the Google settlement connects to your claim that privacy policies never work. Google is an ad company, so that is their priority over everything else.
I also said "at present", and included the archive version, as I'm aware that if Transit sells out in one way or another their policy and app can change for the worse. But let's be realistic about what it is right now, this is about the best you can expect from non-libre and closed-source.
A privacy policy never gives us control over an app. This app fails to have a libre software licence now, we do not control it.
When they get our data, nothing will bring that copy back. So, who's waiting?
Let's be realistic. We've lived our whole lives without their filth. We can reject it today.
atleast where I live transit has all the metro and bus lines, and real-tike tracking of when the next bus/metro is, while osmand just has the metro and like 3 bus lines, so it's kinda useless for transit.
Osmand ia great for biking though.
I don’t know anything about that app aside from what it does, which is what wayze does and wayze was an Israeli spying cutout.
Just use a map and get on a stop or loop ahead of your appointment. I’m finding it hard to imagine a serious use for that app but it’s possible I just don’t understand.
German car industry sheds 51,500 jobs in a year
German car industry sheds 51,500 jobs in a year
The dip equates to almost 7% of the total workforce in the German auto sector. Faltering exports to China and the US play a role, as new tariffs raise barriers to entry in both these core markets.Mark Hallam (Deutsche Welle)
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Putin’s Energy Wins in China Deal a Blow to Trump’s Export Push
Putin’s Energy Wins in China Deal a Blow to Trump’s Export Push
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump vowed he would establish US energy dominance over the globe. Seven months on, that goal is under threat as the world’s largest importer flexes its economic and geopolitical muscle.Bloomberg
I am going to Gaza with the flotilla.
Hi everyone.
I'm a member of the flotilla and preparing to leave for Gaza soon hopefully. A lot hanging on logistics and other things still but I will know more the coming days.
Had to start a new channel old one did not work properly youtube.com/@andersjohansson-o…
action_for_palestine@tankie.tube will only post post sailing here.
anders_gsf@tankie.tube for the trip
Sorry for the changes had to switch up on the phones a bit.
We will set sail in September. I hope to be be able to update a bit on these channels and setting up new accounts for this purpose.
Any tips, shares and discussions are welcomed and I hope to be be able to update on the journey a bit here.
Official updates will be made from official accounts but this will be my personal experience and as a backup for when other communications no longer are available.
Palestine will be free!
Official channels:
globalsumudflotilla.org/
X -
@gbsumudflotilla in
stagram -
globalsumudflotilla
Telegram -
@globalsumudflotilla
youtube.com/@globalsumudflotil…
tiktok.com/@globalsumudflotill…
I am currently as reserv and helping out , not sure if I will be able to sail. I hope so but a lot of things to happen before a decision there.
Barcelona just had a press conference announcing departure
Got instagram @andersjohanssongsf
Anders Johansson
Official channels: https://globalsumudflotilla.org/ X - @gbsumudflotilla in stagram - globalsumudflotilla Telegram - @globalsumudflotilla https://www.youtube.com/@globalsumudflotilla https://www.tiktok.com/@globalsumudflotillaYouTube
Hi , so I still can't update much more but to say we have been delayed. A lot of work do to here and amazing people to meet . Huge support from the locals here in Italy. The dockworkers union will stop all Isreal transports if any interference with the flotilla. As well as other actions from university groups and others.
When I applied for this my thoughts was that the likely outcome would be interception . Now I'm getting more and more hopeful that we will actually be able to go all the way to Gaza.
Americans be like
from my (admittedly limited) knowledge of european politics, and my experience with canadian and quebec politics, i can tell you with confidence that this is very much not a problem exclusive to the USA; it’s endemic to the whole global north
DNS app asking for my location. How bad is that?
Quad9 Connect | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository
Android application for Quad9 recursive DNS cybersecurity and privacy servicesf-droid.org
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1000 downloads, no reviews, and just someone’s name
Regarding privacy, security, and anonymity, your own common sense will take you a long way.
Well, for one, I'm not giving OP the piss for downloading the app. We all get suckered at one time or another. However, as I highlited, 1000 downloads, no reviews, and just someone’s name, is cause to pause and do some diligent searches regarding the app. If it were legit, most likely you'll find someone who has used the app and voiced their opinion. For instance, when I go to github, the first thing I want to see is when was the last activity, how many stars, how mature is the project, read the issue tracking section, etc. After a while you get a spidey sense about stuff.
Be cautious and verify.
Italian Dockworkers Threaten to ‘Shut Down All of Europe’ If Gaza Aid Flotilla Is Blocked | Novara Media
Italian Dockworkers Threaten to ‘Shut Down All of Europe’ If Gaza Aid Flotilla Is Blocked
A union representing dockworkers at one of the largest ports in the Mediterranean - a key stopping point for Israeli goods - has said it will ‘block everything’ if Israel stops the inbound aid flotilla. Polly Smythe reports.Novara Media
Israel has now destroyed 95% of most educational infrastructure in Gaza
Israel has now destroyed 95% of educational infrastructure in Gaza
Israel has directly hit 662 schools in Gaza, in what has been a blatant attempt to destroy the Strip's entire education systemAlaa Shamali (The Canary)
US attacks blow back, uniting China, India, Russia, Iran; encouraging dedollarization | Ben Norton
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Gaza Genocide Provokes Anti-War Dissent Among Mormons
Gaza Genocide Provokes Anti-War Dissent Among Mormons - Inkstick
Campaigners are targeting the hearts, minds and multibillion-dollar investment fund of the Utah-based faith.Taylor Barnes (Inkstick Media)
As a former Mormon I find this mildly interesting, but I don't have much hope that large numbers of LDS people will begin to protest against the genocide. The pro-Israel thing is deeply embedded... as in, I'm pretty sure there are an awful lot of LDS people who will see the sacrifice of a million or two Palestinians, even if totally innocent, as a reasonable price to pay for God's Chosen People getting the Land Of The Covenant to usher in the Second Coming.
Even deeper than that: Mormons are mostly herd animals. Dissent has been trained out of them (unless the dissent is authorized by the First Presidency).
Alternatives to GrapheneOS
Wanted to get a new phone since my S20 is starting to show its age. And with all the enshitification of Android lately I thought it'd be good to try a different phone OS.
However, I don't really want to buy a Google Pixel so GrapheneOS is a no go. I was really interested in the Fold 7 but it seems that will not be possible to get without Android. Thought DivestOS was good but it looks like support ended in 2024.
What other phone OS are people using?
FLX1 - FuriPhone FLX1 Linux Phone
Fast, performant and cheap. You wanted all 3? Now you got it! The FLX1 from Furi Labs runs a fully optimized system called Furi OS, packing a lightning fast user interface, tons of storage, and a …Furi Labs: Planned Permanence
/e/OS - e Foundation - deGoogled unGoogled smartphone operating systems and online services - your data is your data
ECOSYSTEMKEY FEATURESGET /E/OSNEED HELP /e/OS is a complete, fully “deGoogled”, mobile ecosystem /e/OS is an open-source mobile operating system paired with carefully selected applications.e.foundation
No one else knows about iode os?
iodéOS - iodé
Privacy-friendly selection of apps We have preinstalled for you a selection of privacy-friendly apps, listed below.iodé
I sorely miss DivestOS for this purpose, but I'd consider CalyxOS (development sadly on pause) ~~and iodeOS~~ as runners-up. /e/OS got caught sending voice-to-text data to OpenAI, so I'd stay away for the time being.
edit: sad to see that iode has a freemium model on some of its features. see replies for more nuance on the /e/OS situation.
LineageOS will get the most years of support out of the most devices. While leagues ahead of Android for privacy, bear in mind that it still isn't airtight with regard to the occasional piece of telemetry data sent back to Google. It's about the only thing that can keep one of my older Pixels somewhat up-to-date.
LeOS is like LineageOS with all Google telemetry stripped out, but only in GSI form (no builds optimized for specific devices), so YMMV with hardware compatibility. I have this on my Samsung tablet.
I've also heard about Volla Phones (with VollaOS) and Brax Phones (with iodeOS or Ubuntu Touch), but haven't taken a serious look since the screen sizes offered are too big for me.
I might try out a Linux phone next, but the relative lack of battery optimizations and edge-case issues leave me a bit hesitant. Also, check out detailed comparison of the common Android ROMs with regard to privacy and security: eylenburg.github.io/android_co…
/e/OS got caught sending voice-to-text data to OpenAI
To clarify it's an optional STT service, not on by default if one is not using Murena services, which before sending data proxy it so it's not associated with a specific user account, for anonymization. It even says so in the screenshot
of the links post, for premium Murena service users. FUD from lemmy.ml/post/35472063?scrollT… seems to already be working out, sadly.
Details doc.e.foundation/murena-voice-… including "This feature is exclusively available to Murena Workspace Premium users."
/e/ OS does a little trolling and sends all your Text to Voice data to OpenAI for processing and Speech generation.
First of all, to anyone downvoting my Comments about /e/ being a piece of shit, because...
- they advertise themselves as degoogled, but instead let you connect to Google/Microsoft/etc services
- replace all the propriatery not at all Secure Services from Google, with.... Drumroll please.... Propriatery and not at all Secure Services from themselves and actively encourage it.
- They are For-profit
- and being MORE out of date then even Fairphones stock roms.
... I told you so. Dm your Instance admin, pay them to send the DB entries of your Downvotes on a Thumb drive (or anything else from SSD to 3.5 inchHDD, depending on your preferences), and shove it up your rectum.
But a TL;DR:
/E/ is not Private. They just switch one bad comany to another one.
Voice to Text feature using Open AI
reality — an open, secure, de-Googled system is not open, not secure, and not a de-Googled system!? This is just a new anøm disguised as open source./e/OS community
I'm not sure I understand the question. Why would it send data to anyone if the feature is not enabled? Are people implying a commercial partnership with a third party rather than using their API?
Anyway the point is still that it's not OK to spread incorrect information, even if people don't like /e/OS or Murena.
They didn't "get caught" when it's literally written down that they do it and it's optional, namely nobody does it except by explicitly asking for it. I know I don't. I don't even have that option like most people who use /e/OS and are not Premium Murena customers paying specifically for that service.
No, why do you suggest that? If one were to say something incorrect about Google or Meta, even though not only I do not work for them but even spend quite a bit of resource to get away from them, I would still say it aloud.
Here I said, multiple times, that the post that sparked this is not correct... because it simply is not true. Nothing more, nothing less.
Everybody has different reason but what Murena does is sell phones with /e/OS pre-installed, so if one is specifically looking for a deGoogled phone because they don't have one that already supports LineageOS and/or do not know how to install LineageOS then it's very convenient. It's like going to an Apple store and leaving with a phone, not downloading a ROM then installing it on a device one already has. I'm again not saying one is better or worst than the other, solely that if one is looking for a deGoogled device and they don't have one already, it's an easier path.
PS: note also that I didn't compare /e/OS itself to LineageOS, I'm highlighting precisely how there is some value for some people.
Looks like they're hosting nextcloud as 'ecloud' which is just nextcloud and office add-ons hosted by the e/os people. So instead of letting google host your data, you're trusting it to this murena company who probably has much less security. they are exposing nextcloud to the net which is a terrible idea as there are many many CVEs feedly.com/cve/vendors/nextclo…
I like nextcloud and it is good but I would never expose it to the internet like this.
I'd rather google have my info than some random skiddie that compromises murenas services.
There's just so many reasons not to use this android. Just 'degoogling' without any more thought behind it is one of the saddest things in the 'privacy' community. Yes, google is bad. But they're probably not going to be compromised by some low effort skid.
Nextcloud | CVEs | Feedly
Track the latest Nextcloud vulnerabilities and their associated exploits, patches, CVSS and EPSS scores, proof of concept, links to malware, threat actors, and MITRE ATT&CK TTP informationfeedly.com
Feel like I keep on repeating myself here but... here is no "they" or "/e/OS people" if you do not explicitly ask for it! Nobody has to use Murena servers for 'ecloud' or whatever services, secure or not, they are proposing.
They might use the shittiest backend and it can be absolutely unsecure... but as long as you are not using it, who cares?
There is no point in comparing the services they provide to either Google or self-hosted, just do not use them. It's really not that hard. It's in fact literally easier than making an account and use them.
So... yes you can come up with problems and limitations if you want to, but the point is, again :
- one can buy a phone from Murena running /e/OS and, in fact by default, NOT use any of their services.
The whole point is that by using /e/OS one is not using Google and has a functional phone from the start. That's it.
as there are many many CVEs
Did you even read your own link? Four server CVEs this year is close to nothing. Windows and Linux patch like 40 a month. Also none of those vulnerabilities would provide unauthenticated access to any data. Pretty much 99% of all published CVEs only work if you already have some access or privileges on the system.
Get your Pixel secondhand. That way you are not contributing to their profit margins and have more flexibility on the Pixel version you want without having to break the bank.
And I also agree with the comment that Pixels are not the most robust phones. They are good, but not the most robust thing you could own. Power but to issue across Pixel devices is a real thing. I had two of the power buttons on separate phones fall out. Good thing is that you can get them online cheaply and manually replace them yourself.
BUT Pixels are gorgeous phones and a real delight to use as well. Lovely screens, decent battery, good camera and is buttery smooth with Graphene.
I am on these Pixels because if Graphene.
The hardware shortcomings I can live with and work around. I mostly have great experiences with Pixels with the occasional hardware issue to slove.
I use the on-screen Accessibility Menu shortcut to adjust audio volume, screen brightness and un/locking the phone.
Nothing against the Pixel per se but I wanted to keep my options open. I wanted a big upgrade from my current phone to justify buying a new one and I read a lot of Manga and webtoons. Hence, why I was looking at the Fold 7.
However, I will keep an open mind about phones. The Pixel 9 doesn't look too bad tbh.
If you want a new phone consider /e/OS as you can directly buy a phone from Murena (who maintains /e/OS) and thus get something working from day 1, no tinkering.
To clarify, because there is constant FUD around /e/OS (I think the deGoogled Android crowd is VERY passionate and invests a lot of effort into picking the "right" ROM for them leading to a kind of "holy war" which tends to lose focus on what actually matters, namely leave Google!) so to clarify
- /e/OS is not Murena
- Murena is the French company that sells phones, including refurbished, running /e/OS
- /e/OS is open source gitlab.e.foundation/e/os/
- services from Murena are optional, including STT (which is a premium service) and anything cloud based requires Murena accounts
- one can buy a phone from Murena and not using any of their service, it's as straightforward as NOT creating an account when booting the phone the first time, or not using an account, that's it.
Honestly I recommend this solution if you want a good compromise because IMHO
- Linux phones, e.g. PinePhones (I have 2, cf post history for details) aren't daily drivers yet for most
- it works, simple as that
- it's quite affordable, you don't need a flagship to run /e/OS
- it is actually deGoogled Android, which is IMHO the whole point
- depending on your bank you might be able to use their banking app
Feel free to ask questions, happy to clarify.
Thanks for the detailed information. The Fairphone 6 is a strong contender to be sure and if I'm able to buy one with the OS installed all the better! Only problem is I'm in the US so I don't know how much more expensive it will be for me to buy.
And after doing a quick search of /e/OS it looks like an iOS clone, which I am not super fond of. Have you used it before?
Also, it seems my bank isn't supported. So that's another bummer
You're welcome, briefly :
- yeah... I'm not going to guess with tariff what's going on, they might not even ship anymore
- I have been using it for half a year now and I like /e/OS , it's literally just Android without Google, that's it. If you find Android customizable enough to have the look&feel you need then you'll probably be OK
- if you use mobile banking daily, it might even be enough to look for another solution. Be cautious though that if it's not working there, then most likely it won't work on other deGoogled solutions. Might have to consider changing banks. Before going through all that trouble though I'd try 1 week without the bank app and see how feasible that is. Maybe it's a big deal, maybe it's actually not that bad.
Thanks for clarifying. I guess I'll look more into /e/OS to see what it's really like.
My parents are going to France in October so if I decide on the Fairphone I may just ask them to pick it up for me. Not sure how that'd work though so I'll look more into it.
As for the banking, I use it about once a week or every other week to deposit checks. I will definitely still need that though since it's hard for me to physically go to the bank due to my limited mobility. Might be best to keep my old phone just for that purpose
If they come to France still check that the US SIM would work there, or that eSIM is supported. Theoretically it's compatible but US carriers can be ... finicky.
For banking if depositing check can be done simply via the Web, then the app is not needed. Might have to ask your bank. Keeping the old phone would work indeed but not the most convenient.
GrapheneOS is the only one cellebrite admits it has trouble with, I can't recommend another OS, but I can say that being resistant to the government hacking your phone has recently become more important and it might be worth reconsidering.
Best deGoogle option imo
/e/ is not private at all
They have a lot of telemetry already installed, their voice to text is sent directly to OpenAI, and their Cloud is not encrypted (and presumably in the US), so anyone can view all your data without a subpoena when (not if) their services get compromised
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No, it is not.
They forked LinaegeOS, which is 0 security oriented, stripped it of all its private services (like Seedvault) and now want the user to pay a subscription for their non encrypted backup servers and a shitty DNS blocker
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Israeli official arrested in Las Vegas sex sting appears before judge via Zoom after fleeing U.S.
Israeli official barred from social media, minors after court hearing on child sex charge
Israeli government official Tom Alexandrovich appeared before a Henderson Court judge this morning via Zoom to discuss the conditions of his bail.Jane Davenport (KSNV)
It's easier to stick to adwaita default and try to uniform others to it (that's because libadwaita apps are not themable).
wiki.archlinux.org/title/Unifo…
github.com/lassekongo83/adw-gt…
itsfoss.com/flatpak-app-apply-…
And install kvantum for flatpak too.
Apply GTK System Themes on Flatpak Apps in Linux
Flatpak applications don't play along well with system themes because of their sandbox nature. With a little effort, you can make them work with system themes.Sreenath (It's FOSS)
thanks a lot for the pointers, it's so nice to see that people try to help
but it is just exhausting trying to unify everything
and the next flatpak is a new fight 😀
but it is just exhausting trying to unify everything
I feel you... I hope in the future they'll work together to unify this mess.
wayland: Update to xdg-decoration protocol (!6398) · Merge requests · GNOME / gtk · GitLab
Updated version of !6161 andGitLab
What problem does CSD solve? I'd think "some apps look and work differently" is a pretty bad tradeoff for "I want to cram custom stuff in the title bar which was more or less universally treated as owned-by-the-system for the first 35 years of GUIs at least?"
GTK/GNOME seem to be making themselves actively hostile towards customization, which seems a great way to lose enthusiasts.
I find KDE works well with GTK3 and below, but GTK4 apps are set to ignore themes, which is a design decision on the GTK4 side. They invariably look completely odd and out of place as they often force the entire Gnome app UI as well as an unalterable theme.
And then Flatpaks also don't generally follow system themes as they're so sandboxed (although there are some work arounds, including making them consistent as flatpaks or allowing them access to the system theme folders to pick up themeing).
But anecdotally I've not had the level of title bar variability on KDE as that screenshot. Although admittedly I do tend to actively avoid Gnome apps as I don't like the design philosophy.
A little?
You can theme Gtk apps to match, but it's not pixel perfect even with the stock theme.
Its always slightly off on padding and margins, but the overall outcome looks more uniform
This is the kind of shit that stops people from migrating to Linux.
Lack of consistency in the UI. We’re in 2025 dammit. Not 1995.
Edit: okay, WTF Windows is now even worse?!?
This below is windows 11 consistency, within their own os context menus. I am not even starting on the fact that window decorations there too are a non standardised mess.
I agree that lack of UI consistency is less than ideal, and very real in Linux, but let's not pretend that this is a main issue stopping people from migrating (from an equally inconsistent OS)
How is a kernel meant to enforce anything about UI?
I think GUI development should favour server-side decorations for consistency's sake, but this is more of a cultural thing with what application developers are choosing to do, rather than anything "Linux" can do about.
Edit: okay, WTF Windows is now even worse?!?
Always has been. At least since NT. Company culture encourages features and discourages fixes. Thus it got framework after framework.
And yes, Windows is the absolute worst at this.
i found the original in reddit, from about four years ago
reddit.com/r/kde/comments/tffr…
(i'm not saying it's related, but at least people should be able to read the text now)
KDE: Developers trying to Design a desktop.
Looks much better to me nowadays, although yes, I am not using the default Breeze theme. But if there are any problems in the theme I am using, they are much more likely to not be present in Breeze.
Some "issues" pointed out in the picture are not issues at all.
The "Different font styles and sizes" for example, because they are used for different things with different scopes and user interaction.
Some points are valid, but this looks more like the author (of the image) wanted to highlight as much as possible to confirm their own bias (that it's not well designed). Maybe I'm being ragebaited, but here we go:
Different font size and styles for main panel header
Yeah, one shows breadcrumbs and the other a title.
First icon is narrower than the rest
First one is the "start menu" button. The tasks could also have text labels on them, of course they can have a different width to an unrelated element.
Content not even remotely close to being vertically centred in its box.
It can show two lines of text (as evidenced by the third item in the same row). It would look pretty bad if every item was centered on their own.
This is absolutely pixel perfect alignment. More like this please!
It looks good, but the red line the author connected from the snowflake to the horizontal line of the "H" doesn't necessarily back their claim that this is "absolutely pixel perfect alignment" because the horizontal line of the "H" might not be geometrically centered to the line height of the text and you could also have different characters in different languages.
Yeah, some elements like the scrollbars aren't positioned well (in this screenshot, this is a bit outdated tbh). But there's also the concept of a visual center as opposed to the geometric center.
I have a theory that if everything was pixel perfect, centered, perfectly aligned and looked the same, the thing would look too sterile. There's basically a perfect world, written down in books and texts that is being taught to students and there's the real world. In many areas, these two do not match and the above image is the result of someone's text book world view not matching the real world.
Could the discover store have a better UI? Yes. Will a centered, down-anchored, pixel perfect button make it better? Subjective.
Honestly I just want KDE to do the backbone and GNOME to do the designs.
Adwaita apps look just right, minimalistic yet powerful, pinnacle of modern simplified designs. Everything you actually need is close, and the rest doesn't clog the view.
The rest of GNOME is heavily meh. Customization is next to nothing, and generally any workflow falling outside the one window = one task paradigm is gonna be a pain. Settings are convoluted and sometimes straight up unreachable without additional tools or config edits (and sometimes they don't even apply).
I guess what unites Adwaita and GNOME project overall is the stubborn adversity to users making it comfy for themselves - it's the GNOME way, or no way. And while Adwaita is at least actually good in its defaults, GNOME is not.
KDE, on the other hand, is brilliant as a desktop environment, but menus could be so, so much better. So, when I have a choice, I use Adwaita-themed apps on KDE. With proper theming on KDE side of things, they come together just right.
Agreed completely.
KDE just feels better and more performant. Even if GNOME Shell uses less memory in its own, it doesnt always feel good to use.
However GNOME Shell and Adwaita are beautiful, consistent, and designed through human feedback. KDE is fragmented, too nested, and has so many conflicting designs.
Its not possible to make KDE feel exactly like GNOME Shell but I wish I could.
I can live with that.
I'm very glad to see projects like libadapta as themable alternatives to the libadwaita dogma. I've painstakingly themed my desktop to look and feel like a cohesive, modernized NT 4 workstation and should seriously consider contributing to libadapta in anticipation of libadwaita coming to more and more programs.
I am very stubborn about my computer's GUI, but also hopeful the community can bring back theming where GNOME is dead set against it. If they can make WindowBlinds for modern Windows, the equivalent in Linux is definitely achievable.
GitHub - xapp-project/libadapta: libAdwaita + theme support + a few extra
libAdwaita + theme support + a few extra. Contribute to xapp-project/libadapta development by creating an account on GitHub.GitHub
A bit off-topic, but I really appreciate projects that respect their upstreams, and attempt to improve in their own ways (from libadapta's README):
LibAdwaita has the right to be what it wants to be and to not support what it doesn't want to support.
Throw a JetBrains app in there for a complete monstrosity 🤣
As a Gnome'r I tend to lean towards apps that I can make look like they belong, but I put up with JetBrains because there tools work really well for my needs
I created a Window Rule and so far it seems to be working. This was a test but I've done it before through the Window-Specific Overrides in Windows Decorations-Edit Breeze Theme
I use the keyboard very often and have a shortcut for that. It works for my use case, I always have windows maximized and tile them when i need it using the default keyboard shortcuts
MATE is to GNOME as Ash's Pickachu is to Raichu.
I'm not sure I have a point, but the analogy rings true I think.
Thirsty for power and water, AI-crunching data centers sprout across the West
Thirsty for power and water, AI-crunching data centers sprout across the West
With promises of jobs and hopes for tax breaks, server farms are reshaping local grids, plumbing, and politics. Are they a boon for communities, or a burden?& the West
‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ Stuns Venice With Its Longest Standing Ovation of 22 Minutes Amid Tears and ‘Free Palestine’ Chants
“The Voice of Hind Rajab” premiere at the Venice Film Festival proved to be a hugely emotional event, with very few dry eyes in the Sala Grande.
One of the most talked-about films going into the festival, the powerful and gut-wrenching drama — from Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania — tells the true story of 5-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed in the early stages of the war in Gaza. The feature received a huge 22-minute standing ovation, the longest of the festival so far. As the ovation surpassed 20 minutes, and in a clear effort to get the room to disperse, the lights were dimmed in the theatre. The clapping continued.
Attendees in the crowd were holding up several Palestinian flags, and chants of “Free Palestine” rang out during the applause. Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara, who are executive producers of the film, were in attendance and held a photo of Rajab on the red carpet with the filmmaking team. Phoenix also wore a Artists for Ceasefire pin.
Voice of Hind Rajab Venice Premiere Gets 22 Minute Standing Ovation
'The Voice of Hind Rajab,' one of the most powerful and political films in the Venice lineup, had a 22-minute, emotional standing ovation.Alex Ritman (Variety)
I've seen enough images of dead children in the last 23 months to last me ten thousand lifetimes.
Israel is a curse on humanity.
Microsoft mandates a return to office
Microsoft mandates a return to office
Microsoft is requiring its employees to return to the office. Employees near its headquarters will start returning in late February, ahead of other offices.Tom Warren (The Verge)
Yep. This is NATO bombs and NATO planes, Provided through the NATO logistics by NATO countries.
Israel does not produce their weapons in house. They design weapons for NATO and then test them on Palestinians.
This genocide is committed by NATO.
Are private email providers worth it?
I think I know the answer, bit maybe I'm missing something
Since proton only sends and receives encrypted emails to other proton accounts, that means that when you get or send an email to someone else, they have to send / receive unencrypted and there is no way for us to verify what they are doing. Right?
Also if most accounts are google Microsoft, they still get 90% of my emails. By switching to proton I think I've gained nothing, while losing convenience , added another trust point, and having two different companies have my data instead of just one
Proton drive, calendar and VPN I think are fine
Sorry for the poor syntax. I'm at work working on email related things, and this topic kept distracting me. I might correct it later
Proton does offer what is essentially a self-contained PGP portal. You send anyone an email and they get a "hey, this is me, open the message below" thing and then a link to a message that's hosted on Proton servers. So your Granny doesn't need to set up a public/private key pair, you can just send the encrypted portal option.
No idea of Tuta or others do this.
Plus, no matter who you chose, you personally aren't feeding the Google algo. You can do what I do, which is you leave all the hyper data hungry services in the data eating world, just feeding on each other alone. Then you have real conversations over email or fediverse.
Yeah. I chose proton over tuta because of this option to send the link to the encrypted message. I think tuta does have it, but it didn't show the entire conversation. If you wanted to see the entire chain I think you and to either find the mates email to get the latest URL, or open each URL by itself.
The problem with those is that you have to exchange the password by some other means than the email itself, so it's really not practical for the other person
- One of the main uses of email is communication with companies. And they won't have a signal account just to exchange passwords with you
- doesn't work for emailing someone you have no say you want to send an email to... Idk a youtuber (first example I could think of where you know you want to talk to them but you have no other means to do so). They have their email published. Now what? You can't email them asking for their phone number so that you can exchange email passwords because they won't give it to you, and that exchange is happening unencrypted
- if I have a way to contact someone over signal, I'd rather use that than email
One of the main uses of email is communication with companies. And they won’t have a signal account just to exchange passwords with you
No. Email is just a non-centralized protocol. While not everyone uses it the same way, most normal people never use email to communicate with companies, who are increasingly forcing people to use chatbots anyway. So it's not even a reasonable point to make. Password protected emails are meant to be between people who have an established relationship. If a company needs someone to send them encrypted message, they'll have a platform for that, just like Wikileaks or ProPublica, so you're not making a valid argument about that.
If some Youtuber is someone that does anything privacy-related enough that they should be receiving encrypted emails, their public PGP key should be on their YT profile and you can send them an encrypted message anyway with that. Protocols and methods exist already to accomplish what you're talking about. You need to complain to the Youtuber for not practicing good security and privacy, not to Proton for not creating some mind-reading Diffie-Hellman scenario. Really, do you think that you can just send some random person a message that says "click link to open secret message!" and not expect it to just look like phishing?
If you'd rather use signal, use signal and send them an attachment encrypted with their PGP public key. This isn't hard, I don't even know why you're trying to argue all these weird non-existent edge cases like they're everyday issues.
i don't know your case, but for me using email is non optional. i can't "just use signal". i need an email for my government, i need an email because i need a github account, i need an email for any site i want to use, including lemmy. i just want to be able to do it privately. i'm just trying to determine if protonmail is actually private or just one big "trust me bro. we wont read you unencrypted messages as they enter or leave"
OK. Well, respectfully, I think it would be beneficial to find out more about how encryption, email servers, and encrypted messaging works. I think you're quite confused about the details here, and just getting a sense of the parts will help you in the long run. People use email differently - I don't use FB, so my main means of communication with family that is not Signal messages is email.
By "just use signal" I mean for sharing a password for a password protected email. Which you should only be sending to people you know already and can coordinate with. You're not sending password protected emails to random people or the government because it's not necessary for the reasons I explained earlier. If someone needs an encrypted message from ANYONE they will provide the method. Otherwise, they don't want encrypted messages and can't be trusted with data that should be encrypted.
Proton is secure, and I know because I had an old account I wanted to get access to and lost access to the recovery email, but had one on the same domain. I spent about a week doing back and forth emails with some guy who was trying to ask me to verify aspects of the account, which was my spam shield and dummy social media account and I hadn't used it for about a year. All he could see, when pressed, was header info: sender/receiver, date, time, ip address, sending agent. All things that are needed to route the message. It ended up being me able to confirm IP address and sending agent and access (I sent an email to my recovery address from an IP in this range on this date, last logged in on on this date, etc.). It was a pain for both of us.
I use Tuta mail and protonmail.
There is no "unencrypted" transfer between sender and receiver if you both use tuta or proton.
If you send an email to me from a Gmail account, it is unencrypted until it reaches the Tuta servers and the Proton severs, once there it is encrypted and remains so until I login to my account to access the email.
TUTA MAIL:
The entire mailbox – emails, calendar and address book – are stored end-to-end encrypted in Tuta.
Data that Tuta encrypts end-to-end:
Emails, including subject lines and all attachments
Entire calendars, even metadata such as event notifications
Entire address book, not just parts of the contacts
Inbox rules / filters
And the entire search index.
Tuta uses symmetric (AES 256) and asymmetric encryption (RSA 2048 or ECC (x25519) and Kyber-1024 as quantum-safe algorithms) to encrypt emails end-to-end. When both parties use Tuta, all emails are automatically end-to-end encrypted (asymmetric encryption).
PROTONMAIL:
Emails from non-Proton Mail users to Proton Mail users
The email is encrypted in transit using TLS. It is then unencrypted and re-encrypted (by us) for storage on our servers using zero-access encryption. Once zero-access encryption has been applied, no-one except you can access emails stored on our servers (including us). It is not end-to-end encrypted, however, and might be accessible to the sender’s email service.
All messages in your Proton Mail mailbox are stored with zero-access encryption. This means we cannot read any of your messages or hand them over to third parties. This includes messages sent to you by non-Proton Mail users, although keep in mind if an email is sent to you from Gmail, Gmail likely retains a copy of that message as well.
Password-protected Emails are also stored end-to-end encrypted.
Subject lines and recipient/sender email addresses are encrypted but not end-to-end encrypted.
Note that ProtonMail actually supports automatic encryption to email accounts that publish their public keys in a Web Key Directory, which I’ve set up for mine. When you type such an email address in the To field, it’ll turn into a special color with a lock symbol.
Likewise, ProtonMail also exposed a WKD so people can send encrypted emails to ProtonMail accounts. I don’t know of any mail clients that support this though (I used the command line to pull keys)
Wow, til I learn about WKD! I used to have a key on keyservers, but hated how that was basically a spam trap and the fact that anyone could upload a key there for my own address. It was easy because I own my own domain and already have a web server there.
I set it up and tested it with help from webkeydirectory.com/
Looks like it's being added to clients: wiki.gnupg.org/WKD/Distributio…
Web Key Directory Validator
Publish Your Public OpenPGP Key with Confidence.Web Key Directory Validator
They'll have to follow a link but still...
Tuta: Turn ON privacy for free with secure emails, calendars & contacts | Tuta
Tuta guarantees your data stays private for free & without ads. Quantum-resistant encryption makes Tuta the best secure technology solution to protect your privacy.Tuta
There is an advantage of using a provider that suports MTA STS. This is Strict Transport Security and forces at least transport encryption.
There is an advantage to use a provider you pay for too and at least claims not to read your email.
It is also nice if they can host your domain and have good delivery.
Edit: I meant MTA STS not SMTP STS.
Google is promoting MTA-STS. MS is at least testing it and some others. Proton mail might support, check. I use NameCheap shared hosting mail. They support incoming but not outgoing.
Sure it is clear inside each org but secures between. Nice because you can secure in your org by contract. Not as good as e2ee of course.
Tuta has no IMAP, vendor lock-in, bad.
Proton has IMAP with extra steps, almost vendor lock-in, bad.
Gmail has IMAP, good. So, we can use it with our own libre app, with GPG, but first we need an account.
Making a new Gmail account is not private. Also, paying for paid Gmail is not private.
sh.itjust.works/comment/208023…
GPG and mailbox.org or anothet "just" email service
Disroot | Disroot.org
Disroot is a platform providing online services based on principles of freedom, privacy, federation and decentralization.disroot.org
Hold on, am I missing something? I don't see anyone in here talking about that time proton openly endorsed the Republican party. Did we forget about or forgive them for that? Is it just irrelevant right now? They backtracked later but like archive.ph/2yWGz
When organizations make a move like that, they usually don't stop pushing in that direction, even if they backtrack in response to pushback. While I'm sure they're still better than google, I have a hard time trusting them after that. It feels relevant to talk about because like you said, using proton is adding another trust point.
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Kind of tired of beating the dead horse on that story, but part of privacy is that you need to trust the company that you're dealing with.
He's out there openly praising on authoritarians move to install a puppet government and open the gateway to corporate corruption. If our privacy companies are going to be sneaky and dirty, we want it done in the shadows. All he had to do was stay quiet. But he got noisy, then the PR department started gaslighting, and none of that's a good look for a privacy company.
The thing is, Trump doesn't give two shits about anybody, and the guy running the company should have known this.
But now it's old news, it can die. He can prove that he can run the company by good faith measures and doing the right thing instead of by trying to gaslight people through PR.
sunzu2 likes this.
You have to trust that:
They're not logging your IP on their VPN and coorelating it with output traffic.
They won't dox you to motion pictures houses because of your torrents on their VPN.
They wouldn't slip you some javascript in their client at the request of a foreign government to dox you without letting you know.
Code is good, but there's a lot of operational information there that doesn't get exposed by being open.
Code in the face of no malice wouldn't be a large worry. They rolled over on a French activist and doxxed them for the French government. Those logs should not have existed in a privacy company.
Again, this is all old news now. Let's see him make hard decisions to protect the clients and turn the PR side of things from "the empire did nothing wrong" to hey, let's have an open dialog.
i don't care about their VPN. the issue you describe is very real, but it's inherit to all vpn providers. what i care right now, is their email service. you can switch vpn providers in less than 15 minutes, but email takes days. so i wouldn't want to go around doing all of that every time some employee says something stupid.
and btw, if you use native installed apps, then the worry of them serving malicious javascript goes way down because any change they make on the complied package would be very likely to be very obvios to someone, because its open source ( i won't go into detail here).
Got banned on their sub for criticizing that clown Andy the bootlicker.
They are happy to shill free speech when they take your money, but no free speech when they get criticized.
Tells you what you need to know about corpo.
Their email is best in class though. Other services are mid at best.
That sounds like the worst option of all. At least I can trust google has some protections in place to stop employees from looking at you email, because if they didn't there would be thousands of cases all the time.
In your case, you never know who is looking. At any point a rogue admin can issue a bank password reset and just read the email
I've never heard of the term web hotel before. I'm guessing its web hosting
Sounds like you don't know what you are talking about. 😀 That's fine, but unless you know something about the topic, you shouldn't really be judging...
I know exactly who is looking. And I would also know if anyone tampers with the passwords. I guess you don't have the skills, and that's fine. You might even think that there's anything in the world that is totally secure. There's not a single thing that is secure.
Oh, what is this? - forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/20…
I wouldn't say you have gained nothing. The amount of data provided to google or microsoft when using their email is significantly more. For example, your app or client is checking email all of the time, giving them telemetry on your location and activity, all your devices, 24/7. Google logs and analyzes all of your interactions with Gmail's web pages, how long you have certain emails open for, what you don't bother to open, what you tag as important, etc.
Much of the one-way email you sign up for from companies and organizations come from smaller outfits like sendgrid or their own infrastructure, so you are cutting google out of information about your associations and interests.
Also, in regards to that 90%, you can either be part of the problem for all your contacts, or part of the solution. The network effect is huge.
1. don't use email, that's the ideal solution
2. use a provider like cock.li and send messages encrypted with pgp. this isn't ideal, pgp leaks a lot of data and cock.li gets sinkholed by most email providers.
3. use proton and encrypt emails with pgp, you have not much privacy but it's less worse than microsoft and not much convenience loss, except that proton doesn't allow email clients(at least if you don't pay), I don't know about ms).
they pretty much always collaborate with the police
a corporation is a legal extension of the state, hence why all of them will always collaborate when ordered by the courts or otherwise required by law.
some will even collaborate when they are not required by law such amazon ring providing pigs access for no reason, facebook censoring content per request of US or Israel... needless bullshit but hey it helps get government contracts ;)
bottom line, expecting corpo to do anything for you for 5 bucks a month is naive, at best they should not do it for no reason and they should not sell your data.
but even that is a tall order for these parasites.
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.youtube.com
The old Inside-Outside strategy. Reactionaries aren't the only ones who can work a ratchet.
Absolutely within the purview of "moderate" leftists to advocate turns to the left and backstop turns to the right at every opportunity. But they do have to do those two things.
On Islamophobia and the Use of the Term ‘Jihad’
On Islamophobia and the Use of the Term ‘Jihad’ - World-Outlook
World-Outlook recently published the article "‘Jewish Jihad’ Has Seized Control of Israel." It consisted of an introduction to a Haaretz article along with the Israeli daily’s story itself.world-outlook.com (World-Outlook)
Ukraine’s Military Exhausted While NATO Weapons Won’t Turn the Tide
Ukraine’s Military Exhausted While NATO Weapons Won’t Turn the Tide
The Ukrainian Army is in a critical condition and can no longer conduct large-scale operations, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated at a Beijing press conference. What are the signs?Sputnik International
Beijing 2025: when history rises
Beijing 2025: when history rises
At a time when Beijing is assembling the memory of the Global South with pomp and strategy, the West, relegated to the rank of frustrated spectator,Мохамед Ламин КАБА (New Eastern Outlook)
Linux Mint 22.2: still fixing the Linux desktop
Linux Mint 22.2: still fixing the Linux desktop
Secure your passwords and logins with Proton Pass: proton.me/pass/TheLinuxEXPGrab a brand new laptop or desktop running Linux: tuxedocomputers.com/en#
👏 SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:
Get access to:
- a Daily Linux News show
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Patreon: patreon.com/thelinuxexperimentOr, you can donate whatever you want:
paypal.me/thelinuxexp
Liberapay: liberapay.com/TheLinuxExperime…👕 GET TLE MERCH
Support the channel AND get cool new gear: the-linux-experiment.creator-s…Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:33 Sponsor: Proton Pass
02:06 Basics
03:05 Fingerprint Support
04:37 GTK4 / GNOME app integration
08:49 Other Changes
12:20 Parting Thoughts#linuxmint #linuxdesktop #linux
The Linux Experiment
Making Linux accessible: no techno babble, no super technical content. Just Linux desktop news, simple tutorials, application spotlights, and opinion pieces trying to stay positive, without gatekeeping.YouTube
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Andreas Gütter likes this.
I, too, usually don't read about a distribution I don't use.
Why would we have ever heard of libadapta?
the most useful definition of authority is the imposition of the will of one class over another
No, that's Engels' lackluster definition (actually, Engels' definition was worse, since he claimed that laws of physics were "authority". Authority is structural monopolization of power. What you're describing is more on the line of "violence".
even anarchists must be authoritarian towards capitalists.
Only with a wrong understanding of "authority".
The argument between Marxists and anarchists is one of collectivization vs horizontalism
Those concepts are not contradictory. You can't "horizontalize" something without collectivizing it.
but in both cases you can't eliminate class overnight, and as such the working class must oppress the capitalist class to keep it in check.
The moment the capitalist class can be "oppressed", it seizes to be the capitalist class.
Marxists would argue that the system, even if horizontal, would still be considered a state assuming class isn't abolished
How such a "horizontal state" would be possible with classes is something no Marxist has ever been able to explain to me. Also, you're not speaking on behalf of all Marxists. Just MLs, maybe.
and class cannot be abolished entirely without full collectivization of property globally.
I'll go tell all those socialist regions that just abolished the bourgeoisie within their regions. /s
Engels was using the most useful interpretation of authority. "Structural monopolization of power" is still the imposition of the will of one class over another, anarchists still attempt to structurally oppress the bourgeoisie.
As for collectivization vs horizontalism, that's actually false. Collectivization, ie equal ownership across all of society globally, necessarily contradicts with full horizontalism, at least for a long time before habit takes the place of all administration in the far-far future. A horizontalist society necessarily contradicts the role of higher levels of administration, ie imagine a battlefield with only footsoldiers, no tacticians, no strategians. Anarchists either reconcile this by considering some level of administration acceptable, going against full horizontalism, or they advocate for decentralized communes, which contradict collectivization globally.
As for how this retains class, if we go with the commune model, each commune varies in geography and development, which results in trade and perpetuation of essentially petite bourgeois cooperatives, each promoted by self-interest rather than collective interest. Accepting administration as necessary fixes this, but then you're taking essentially a mid-point between Marxism and anarchism, just with a higher emphasis on concepts like prefiguration.
As for Marxism vs Marxism-Leninism, I haven't spoken anything relating to Marxism-Leninism. This is just straight Marxism here, concepts like imperialism, the vanguard, the national question, etc haven't come into play. This is straight out of works like Critique of the Gotha Programme, Theses on Feuerbach, Economic Manuscripts of 1844, and of course the Manifesto of the Communist Party.
As for your last point, socialism is not communism. Socialism is a society where public ownership is the principle aspect of the economy, not an economy devoid of any other forms of property. No "pure" modes of production have existed outside of early tribal societies, all ensuing class societies have had dominant forms of property relations and subordinate forms. As private property develops, it becomes easier to fold into the public sector, which is why most socialist states don't try to immediately force a fully planned economy but incorporate some form of markets.
Engels was using the most useful interpretation of authority. "Structural monopolization of power" is still the imposition of the will of one class over another, anarchists still attempt to structurally oppress the bourgeoisie.
As I said in the other thread: you don't engage with anything I write. You just claim "no" and don't explain any logical errors in my statement. You're just restating your claim and dump an unhealthy amount of text in order to make yourself feel smart.
Collectivization, ie equal ownership across all of society globally
Not a realistic model of the world. The sphere o| influence ends at some point. There's no reason that I should have a say on what a bakery on the other side of the world should bake. Not even in a "communist" society.
A horizontalist society necessarily contradicts the role of higher levels of administration [...]
Strawman. Administration/expertise is not authority.
essentially petite bourgeois cooperative
You claim that without backing up why it would be petit bourgeoise
You might not have used Lenin's buzzwords, but you're an authoritarian Marxist. Not every Marxist is authoritarian.
As for your last point, socialism is not communism. [...]
Another non-sequitur infodump. Also, I reject your teleological notion of "early hunter-gatherers". Also also: This mode of "pure" relations of production that you try to swipe under the rug has been the norm for about 99% of humanity's existence.
I do engage, I feel like claiming I just say "no" is more avoidance of engaging with my points than anything.
As far as full collectivization is concerned, it doesn't mean there isn't local say on production. Small proprietorships wouldn't really exist in communism, either, if you wanted to bake as a hobby that's fine, but "bakeries" as small petty bourgeois shops wouldn't really have a material basis for existence. In socialism, sure, they'd exist, but in the far future they'd eventually be phased out.
Administration is authority, administration that is mere suggestion isn't administration to begin with. Administration should be accountable, but it is necessarily a use of authority.
As for why cooperatives are petite bourgeois structures, I explained by the geographic differences and having class interests that are self-driven, rather than collectively driven. If a commune doesn't have ownership of another commune's goods, but needs them, then this creates class distinctions.
Your whole "authoritarian Marxist" bit is kinda silly. You don't explain what you mean when you say I'm an "authoritarian" Marxist, nor what a "non-authoritarian Marxist" would be, nor how Lenin is involved in our discussion. This is all based on Marx's development of scientific socialism, we didn't get into vanguards, imperialism, or Lenin's other advancements on Marxism. This is all in the realm of Marx's theory of the state.
As for tribal societies, they are by far the mode of production with the longest history, yes. However, since the rise of class society and technological advancements that came along with it, there has never been a "pure" mode of production. We can't simply go back to being hunters and gatherers, but we can advance society onward into socialism, and then communism. I swept nothing under the rug, tribal formations aren't something we can replicate while retaining large-scale industry, and there's no reason to think we can meet the needs of humanity as it presently exists even if we all collectively agreed to form tribal societies now.
odysee.com/@trader.one:d/sovie…
ICE acquires Israeli spyware capable of hacking phones and encrypted apps
ICE acquires Israeli spyware capable of hacking phones and encrypted apps
ICE has reactivated a $2M contract for Israeli spyware Graphite, sparking fears of civil liberties after previous cases of misuse
Under Trump, ICE has seen its operations and powers vastly expanded
[Getty]US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are moving ahead with a multimillion-dollar contract for powerful Israeli-made spyware capable of hacking phones and encrypted messaging apps, drawing criticism from civil liberties groups and surveillance experts.
The $2 million deal with Paragon Solutions, the Israeli firm behind the Graphite spyware suite, was initially signed under the Biden administration in late 2024 but paused amid compliance reviews over privacy and security concerns.
According to The Guardian, the Trump administration has now lifted the pause, restoring ICE’s access to the tool and sparking a fresh debate over government surveillance powers.
Paragon’s Graphite software allows agencies to remotely penetrate smartphones, access encrypted applications such as WhatsApp and Signal, extract data, and even covertly activate microphones to turn devices into listening tools.
Critics warn the technology gives unprecedented surveillance capabilities to US immigration authorities at a time of heightened political and public scrutiny over civil liberty abuses by ICE.
The Washington Post reported that the pause was lifted following changes in Paragon’s ownership structure and the completion of federal regulatory reviews. The decision comes despite mounting evidence from rights groups and cybersecurity researchers about the risks of misuse, including against journalists and activists.
Earlier this year, researchers at the Citizen Lab, a cybersecurity watchdog based at the University of Toronto, discovered Graphite had been used to target the devices of journalists in Italy, including reporters from Fanpage.it, prompting a European investigation.
Italian officials denied any wrongdoing, but the revelations highlighted the growing global market for so-called "mercenary spyware" and the lack of transparency surrounding its deployment.
Related
As ICE raids rise across US, attorney warns people to prepare
US affairs
Brooke Anderson
In Washington, civil liberties advocates have expressed alarm over the implications of ICE regaining access to such invasive technology. Nadine Farid Johnson, policy director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, urged lawmakers to act.
"Reports that ICE has renewed its contract with spyware vendor Paragon compounds the civil liberties concerns," Johnson said in a statement last week.
"Spyware like Paragon’s Graphite poses a profound threat to free speech and privacy. Congress must step in to impose clear limits and safeguards before these tools are used in ways that undermine constitutional rights."
The Guardian reported that ICE officials have defended the contract, insisting the spyware is used strictly for law enforcement purposes, such as targeting transnational criminal networks and human trafficking operations.
However, critics point to the lack of independent oversight mechanisms and the absence of public information about how frequently or against whom the software is deployed.
The Washington Post added that the reactivation of the Paragon deal may signal a more permissive stance by the Trump administration toward domestic surveillance technologies.
Past controversies over the use of spyware such as Pegasus, developed by the Israeli firm NSO Group, have already prompted calls for stricter regulation. The Biden administration previously blacklisted NSO after its tools were linked to the hacking of US diplomats’ phones.
Under Trump, ICE has seen dramatically expanded powers and funding, fuelling concerns about its growing politicisation.
Critics point to sweeping arrests, including of non-criminal migrants, and the use of tactics once considered off-limits, such as unmarked vehicles and plainclothes agents. Civil liberties groups warn that without oversight, the agency risks becoming a tool of political intimidation rather than law enforcement, especially with access to powerful surveillance technologies.
https://www.newarab.com/news/ice-acquires-israeli-spyware-capable-hacking-phones-and-apps
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Maeve likes this.
It is the only one that was giving celebrite hard time last year.
But we don't really know.
But we deff know that others stand no chance.
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Maeve likes this.
Everyone's*.
When Trump does something, the rest of the world experiences the antisocial oligarch pedo's ruffles.
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Maeve likes this.
Since you (like me) are pedantic about apostrophes, I'll be pedantic about "pedo." There's no evidence Trump is a pedopile--that is, primarily attracted to children who have not yet reached puberty.
Plenty of evidence strongly suggesting he's a child molester, though.
I don't really get how that's helpful for ICE. They don't investigate crime really. Shouldn't they know a person's immigration status based on their public records? What do they need private communications for to prove a person is in the country illegally?
This is a rhetorical question. I know why they want it, just it doesn't make sense for them to spend our money on for the things they're supposed to be tasked with doing.
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If they breach the endpoint, it doesn't matter if it's e2ee.
Just avoid putting a sim card in your phone, and it eliminates almost all of these vectors.
Jesus no. I'm saying almost all of the exploits found by citizen lab are delivered by cell tower.
Don't connect to cell towers.
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Don't put a Sim card in your phone, folks.
Never take your phone out of airplane mode. Use WiFi.
Broadband processors on your device are extremely vulnerable black boxes. Almost all of the attacks that Citizen Lab discovered come from this vector.
By not using a Sim card, you significantly decrease the surface area for attack, making yourself invulnerable to the majority of these zero days
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That's just the pork of the job...
They are the boot of the regime first and foremost.
Not serious proposal at this point but you can at least turn off the cell nework when home etc.
it is about harm reduction just like drug use.
UAE says Israeli annexation of occupied West Bank a 'red line'
UAE says Israeli annexation of occupied West Bank a 'red line'
The UAE has said any move by Israel to annex parts of the occupied West Bank would be a "red line" for the Gulf state, as Israel ramps up discussions about the move.Sean Mathews (Middle East Eye)
However, there are some signs that the UAE is growing frustrated with Israel.An analyst familiar with the thinking of Emirati officials told MEE that the UAE was upset by Israel's unilateral attack on Iran earlier this year. Whereas the UAE has long been at odds with Hamas, it has tried to influence the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited governance in the occupied West Bank.
They're following after Biden and Trump... it would be more comedic, save for the fact they're talking about the 'practicalities' of occupying and ethnically cleansing the West Bank.
Reddit is dropping subscriber counts on subreddits: Users will now see seven-day metrics that track active visitors and contributions instead.
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/37201414
Reddit is dropping subscriber counts on subreddits: Users will now see seven-day metrics that track active visitors and contributions instead.
::: spoiler Comments
- Reddit.
:::
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Apple: iPhone 17 lineup and iPhone Air come with Memory Integrity Enforcement, which provides always-on memory safety protection
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/37193710
Apple: iPhone 17 lineup and iPhone Air come with Memory Integrity Enforcement, which provides always-on memory safety protection
::: spoiler Comments
- Hacker News;
- Lobsters.
:::Blog - Memory Integrity Enforcement: A complete vision for memory safety in Apple devices - Apple Security Research
Memory Integrity Enforcement (MIE) is the culmination of an unprecedented design and engineering effort spanning half a decade that combines the unique strengths of Apple silicon hardware with our advanced operating system security to provide industr…Blog - Memory Integrity Enforcement: A complete vision for memory safety in Apple devices - Apple Security Research
Building a gas pipeline from the vast Bovanenkovo and Kharasavey gas fields of northern Russia across the wilderness of Siberia to Mongolia and then to China would be the world's biggest and most capital-intensive gas project, Miller said.
am i the only one who now expects the united states to regime change mongolia now?
Very unlikely. They can try to increase funding to NGOs and influence the outcome of the next elections maybe, but realistically they are quite limited in what they can do there. The country is just too closely tied culturally and historically to Russia and China, its only neighbors. And with no access to the sea it would be suicide for Mongolia to alienate both of them. Not to mention that the amount of economic influence that Russia and China can exert there if they really want to is always going to be greater than what the US can do, simply due to geography. Mongolia is a perfect buffer state for both Russia and China and it's in both their interests to maintain good relations.
There is also the problem that Mongolia has a fairly western style liberal political system which makes it hard for the West's propaganda machine to find something to demonize and rile people up against. No major ethnic or religious conflicts to exploit either and very little historical grievances, and no big diaspora in the West which could be radicalized and sent back as a fifth column.
The US and UK spent decades preparing the ground in Ukraine. Since the end of WWII they were involved in funding the stay-behind Nazi insurgency, then incubating the current incarnation of Ukrainian nationalism in the diaspora in the US and Canada since the 80s, then taking advantage of the chaos of the dissolution of the USSR in the 90s to infiltrate these groups into Ukraine and slowly push them to the forefront over two decades by indoctrinating the youth. It took them two separate color revolutions to do it.
And they didn't start from nothing. Before WWII, the Germans, and before them the Austrians, had been building the Ukrainian nationalist idea in West Ukraine as a foil first against the Russian Empire then against the USSR. It took the West over a hundred years to turn Ukrainians against their own brothers, and they only managed to do it because of pre-existing ethnic divisions and because of unique historical and geographical conditions.
They could dangle the EU carrot to seduce them, they could funnel money and infiltrate weapons and radicalized extremists via the land border. Those conditions just don't exist in Mongolia. Everything would have to come either through Russia or China or be flown in. What can the US possibly offer Mongolia? What ethnic tension or history of radicalism is there for them to exploit? Can this country survive if it antagonizes its neighbors?
Look at the demographics and economy: Mongolia has only 3.5 million people (for comparison that is less than Georgia, which once picked a fight with Russia and lost the war in 7 days). Half of them live in the capital. For the rest of the country the population density is extremely low. At least a third live as nomads or semi-nomads.
90% of their exports go to China. 80% of their exports come from the mining sector. They do not have a large and advanced industrial manufacturing sector as Ukraine once did. Most of their energy comes from Russia. Unlike Ukraine they have neither ports nor land border with Western powers through which to import substitutes for Russian energy.
Most of the country is steppe or desert. The conditions for cultivation are not great, so their agriculture sector consists mostly of livestock and herding. Hence the country depends on food imports. Even if a very pro-Western government is in power, they have no choice but to maintain decent relations with their neighbors.
Don't make the mistake of thinking, as the neocons do, that the US is all-powerful and has unlimited resources. They don't. There are very real limits on their power and those limits are growing as their relative power in the world declines, especially compared to China.
Anti-racism scholar’s career “ruined” by pro-Israel lobby
Anti-racism scholar’s career “ruined” by pro-Israel lobby
Randa Abdel-Fattah is an anti-racism scholar who lost an $870,000 research grant over her criticisms of Israel.Al Jazeera
Intermediary age assurance provider collecting user data on specific URLs, more | Discovery of stealth data collection raises questions about who can ‘provide’ services
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/37194712
Technical Report.
Intermediary age assurance provider collecting user data on specific URLs, more | Discovery of stealth data collection raises questions about who can ‘provide’ services
Intermediary age assurance provider collecting user data on specific URLs, more
AgeGO also forces users to disclose their email address to complete the age verification process, which it says is needed to create an AgeGO account.Joel R. McConvey (BiometricUpdate.com)
Intermediary age assurance provider collecting user data on specific URLs, more | Discovery of stealth data collection raises questions about who can ‘provide’ services
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/37194712
Technical Report.
Intermediary age assurance provider collecting user data on specific URLs, more | Discovery of stealth data collection raises questions about who can ‘provide’ services
Intermediary age assurance provider collecting user data on specific URLs, more
AgeGO also forces users to disclose their email address to complete the age verification process, which it says is needed to create an AgeGO account.Joel R. McConvey (BiometricUpdate.com)
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