I saw "The Play That Goes Wrong" at my local performing arts center. It was cute and very silly.
Alt text: A stage set depicting an elaborate, vintage-style study or library, with wooden paneling, bookshelves, and various hidden compartments. A person is visible on an elevated section of the set, near a hidden doorway. The set includes a tilted fireplace panel, a large red curtain, a portrait, and a coat of arms above a door. The audience seating is visible in the foreground, with two people sitting and watching.
This is not my artwork. This is Edo period Japanese artist Utagawa Kunisada's woodblock print titled "The Tale of Genji, Number 50" from the series "Magic Lanterns Slides of that Romantic Purple Figure." This was made in 1852, late Edo period. This is from a new exhibition at a local fine arts museum near me that features samurai armor and woodblock prints such as this one.
Alt text: A Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print depicts an elegant scene at a wooden teahouse or pavilion built over a pond. The composition features multiple figures engaging in leisurely activities. In the foreground, two women dressed in beautifully patterned kimonos stand on a bridge, one holding a folding fan while the other is seated, possibly a courtesan with an elaborate hairstyle adorned with hairpins. The background showcases additional figures on the elevated walkways, some engaged in conversation or walking. The pond below contains fish and aquatic plants, adding to the tranquil atmosphere. The print is framed with a decorative border, and the colors are predominantly blue and earthy tones, enhancing the serene and refined setting.
This is not my artwork. This is a woodblock print from Japanese artist Toyohara Kunichika titled "Kabuki Actor from Shibaraku" made in 1864 during the late Edo period. This is from a new exhibition at a local fine arts museum near me that focuses on samurai armor through Japan's history as well as woodblock prints such as this one from the Edo period.
Alt text: A Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print features a dramatic kabuki actor in a bold pose, wearing an elaborate costume with intricate patterns and vibrant colors. His face is painted with striking red and white kumadori makeup, emphasizing his intense expression. He holds a folding fan and wears a black headpiece adorned with sharp, angular ornaments. Behind him, a large red and white umbrella adds to the dynamic composition. The background showcases a nighttime street scene with a full moon and traditional wooden buildings with signage. There is a framed border around the print.
This is not my artwork. This is Japanese artist Kitagawa Utamaro's woodblock print titled "Beauty in the Rain" from the late 18th century. This is from a new exhibition that focuses on samurai armor and woodblock prints, or ukiyo-e art, at a local fine arts museum.
Alt text: A Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print depicts a woman elegantly dressed in a black kimono with intricate gold and patterned details. She is walking in the rain while holding a traditional paper umbrella. Her head is partially covered with a cloth, likely to shield herself from the rain. The background features diagonal lines suggesting rainfall, creating a moody atmosphere. The print has a subdued color palette, emphasizing the contrast between the dark kimono and the lighter background. There is an artist's signature in the lower right corner. The image is framed with a white border.
Another finished book. This one is very sad, but it also very informative. I have family who were near the site when the bomb went off in 1995, so it definitely brought up so many feelings.
Alt Text: The cover of the book The Unfinished Bombing: Oklahoma City in American Memory by Edward T. Linenthal. The cover features a nighttime image of the Oklahoma City National Memorial, which honors the victims of the 1995 bombing. The scene is illuminated by glowing glass memorial chairs arranged in rows on a grassy field, each representing a victim. A hooded figure walks solemnly in the background. The book's title and author's name are displayed prominently in white text.
Laura Anna likes this.
An unclear photo of a partial lunar eclipse from this morning. I took this with my phone, hence the quality.
Alt Text: A photograph of the Moon shows a half-illuminated, waxing or waning crescent phase against a dark night sky. The visible surface features craters and subtle texture variations, with the Moon’s bright side contrasting sharply against the black background.
The book cover of A Misplaced Massacre: Struggling Over the Memory of Sand Creek by Ari Kelman. The cover features a black-and-white photograph of an open prairie with tall grass. A lone, twisted tree stands in the middle of the landscape under a cloudy sky. The title and author's name are displayed in white text, with the subtitle in a smaller black font.
When Trump and his crime family comes for your data, American tech won't save you. They'll hand it over because they have no choice. European and Canadian alternatives aren't perfect, but at least they aren't under Trump's thumb.
Here's my post-Trump tech stack.
joanwestenberg.com/american-te…
How I’m Building a Trump-Proof Tech Stack Without Big Tech
The world can no longer trust American tech. If that sounds dramatic, take a step back and consider the facts.Joan Westenberg (westenberg.)
like this
Doug Nix, crossgolf_rebel - kostenlose Kwalitätsposts, Ken and Gnomic Heresy like this.
reshared this
Kathy Reid, Democracy Matters, M.S. Bellows, Jr., Trending Bot, Richard K, Dave Rahardja, gwendolenau, John, No Gods , no Masters! RESIST, Battalion, Cainmark Does Not Comply 🚲, Pooka🍸Boo 👁🫣🫵, sOlOw-NH, Action Jay 🐾, Kristen, Dusk To Don, Full Metal Alejandro, gentlegardener, El Santo Negro, Voting is Your POWER, Robert J. Berger, Grégory Gutierez 🌻, Urban Hermit, Douglas McMillan, wsm, Johan K Sch, Daniel Supernault, Ron Dyck, The Boxing Kangaroo, Tim Bray, Darren Nevares, Akshay, Ericka Simone, Martin Vermeer FCD, JW Prince of CPH, Radicalized, Lars Fischer, Magnus, Robot Fighter, FantasmitaAsex, Ada Fredelius, MachsAnders, Rev. Charles Browning, runsmooth, icaria36 🎶, franebleu, aberl🏳️🌈✅, florian, James 🦉 #FBPE 🇪🇺, crossgolf_rebel - kostenlose Kwalitätsposts, Rich Stein (he/him), Uckermark MacGyver, Feisty, victorvonvortex, Glyn Moody, Peter N. M. Hansteen, Peter Valkema, Vera, Ally Miller, Sensitivityi, Grant, Sinchen Müller, Sir Adam, Paul van Buuren 🍉, fraserpaice, Toni Aittoniemi, Sune Auken, Morn, reindeerphoto, Fluffgar 🏴, Julian Schwarzenbach, Antoine Schmitt (mastodon), Rubber Side Down 🇨🇦, Greengordon, Rien, Adam Jacobs 🇺🇦 and 16 other people reshared this.
Waiting for The Tragedy of Carmen opera to start at my local performing arts center. Also, I apparently can upload photos now from my phone. Yay! Lol
Alt text:A theater audience is seated, waiting for a performance to begin. The stage is set with a colorful, medieval-style backdrop featuring stone walls, arched doorways, and an intricate central carving. The lighting casts a warm, dramatic glow on the set. Above the stage, a screen displays text reading, "The Albert and Helaine Borchard Foundation, Inc. Presenting Sponsor for The Rubicon." Audience members are engaged in conversations, checking their phones, or flipping through programs. Some people in the foreground are turned away from the camera, while others in the background are chatting. The theater has a cozy and intimate ambiance.
Kitty Cat Kitty Cating.
I am going to be honest, this was from Thanksgiving four months ago. Lol
Alt text: A close-up photo of a fluffy cat with blue eyes and a soft, striped coat of light brown and cream colors. The cat tilts its head curiously while resting on a plush gray cat tree. The background is slightly blurred, showing a modern indoor setting with framed pictures on the wall.
Another Finished Book
Valentine's Chococlates
I know I am so many days late on this. I do use the Raccoon app to interact and post things on here, but it doesn't allow me to upload photos for some reason. I am not necessarily trying to be boring. I am just a bit limited on doing certain things on here for some reason.
Anyway, these are the artisanal chocolates I have received for Valentines this year. They are the Glacier Chocolate brand chocolates that came from a local business in the area that I am at. They are so good.
Alt text: A box of six artisan chocolates, each uniquely designed with vibrant colors and patterns. The chocolates include a glossy yellow rectangular piece, a faceted green one with brown speckles, a white dome with red splashes, a red oval with gray drizzles, a speckled white sphere with a dark blotch, and a black piece with white splatter resembling a galaxy.
Wilhelmina58 likes this.
Ken likes this.
Already...
like this
Wilhelmina58 and Sunshine like this.
Ken likes this.
Stream of Consciousness for the Day
like this
Nemeski, Someplaceunknown, TVA and Ken like this.
reshared this
Ken reshared this.
Express is, okay for what it is.
Nord though is hiding behind the word "Nord". It's not even a Nordic company. It's based in British virgin islands just like Surfshark
like this
Get_Off_My_WLAN and Shawdow194 like this.
yeah, the best time to advertise at me about a thing is while I'm researching thing to buy.
Advertising at me after I bought the thing is useless, I already bought it!
I actually appreciate this, even knowing how it works. After a big purchase I tend to be conflicted about it having spent that much money. I like to have it be confirmed that I made the right choice, even if I know it’s just manipulation. 😅
Like, recently I bought a BambuLab P1S 3D printer (with the multi-material combo). I did my research, knew it was an excellent value for money. I knew the competing options were not worth the added features for the higher cost, or the reduction in features for the savings. It was basically exactly what I wanted at a good price point.
And yet every time I see a suggested YouTube video recommending that printer, or an ad talking about what a good value it is, I get this little happy dopamine burst for having made a good choice.
There was a few big dumb moves they recently made involving the next fw update, a new piece of "security" software that was supposed to sign all connections to the printer and would prevent 3rd party slicers etc from connecting, and then gaslighting everyone by redacting statements previously made on their website about it. It's dumb, anti-consumer, and pissed off a community that's pretty much made up of giant nerds with the smarts to call them out on the bullshit.
There's about a billion videos about it, but the one from Zach Freedman sums it up best without blowing it out of proportion IMO.
But yeah, it was reason #187 I ordered a CORE One from Prusa at a much higher price vs BL models for my next printer.
Hey, totally fair. I was looking at the CORE One, looks like an awesome printer! And a buddy of mine has a Voron he loves.
I’m not overly concerned, I’m not enough of a hobbyist to bother with alternate slicers or firmware or anything like that yet. Maybe someday I’ll get there. For now I’m just going to be thrilled to have an enclosed multi-material printer for under a grand. 😅
Had an Ender before and hated it.
I had a Maker Select Plus (i3 clone) and it was great…but extremely limited. I’m really looking forward to what I can do with an enclosed printer that doesn’t sling the bed around for the Y axis.
Some guy was printing a life sized T-Rex and his recommendation is what pushed me over the edge. Haven't regretted it.
Damn. Lots of printing in pieces and then acetone fusing to get the parts together? Or glue? Sounds like an awesome project.
As for my ender: the quality control isn't great. Sometimes you get a bad one and I think that was most of my issue. It had a nasty habit of diving straight into the heat bed. Might've been the autoleveler.... I dunno. I just know I spent more time tinkering with the printer itself than actually printing. With my Bambus it really is "set it and forget it" for the most part.
As for the dino: Lots of bondo and glue, yes lol. I'll see if I can find it later. It's on makerworld and you can find it in the Bambu app as well if you search around. He mentioned how much faster it was to print the pieces on his Bambu vs his ender and with the multicolor support, I was sold. My X1C currently runs 2 AMS so I rarely have to swap colors out too.
Especially if it's a free to play game
That just tells me "you will definitely spend money to get what you're looking for in this game"
No fucking thanks
The funniest thing was when Alec Steele (blacksmithing/metal working YouTuber) did a Raid ad. Him following their standard script was ridiculous
His phone he played the game on had a cracked screen
It really showed me not to believe any of his ads in particular
and there’s definitely VPN providers I distrust less than those two
I find that a weird way to phrase it. Both Nord and Express are perfectly good. So is PIA, and probably more besides, but I didn't mention others because those are the two I've frequently seen advertised. Both Nord and Express have passed security audits with flying colours, and Express even had a case where their servers were seized but the seizure was unable to be of any value to the authorities, because their claims of not keeping logs were true.
I'm not sure I buy this logic. It smacks of "if you haven't got anything to hide, you don't have anything to worry about" reasoning, to me. There are numerous reasons to use a VPN. For most people, that's circumventing region blocks. Which is not illegal activity, though it may be against a company's terms of service. For others, it's to hide behaviour from snooping ISPs or—worse—governments, especially surrounding sensitive topics like GSM status, especially for people in less LGBTI+-friendly countries.
And yeah, some people will do things that are actually illegal. Copyright infringement is probably the most popular, which I think most people on here would probably agree is not a major crime. But some smaller amount will use the privacy enabled by a VPN to do more severe crimes. I don't know how you prevent that without limiting the privacy rights of the much larger number of users.
I'm not saying they aren't providing a valuable service to many people. They are to me. But they also have the potential to cause great harm to their users, and are very hard to hold to account, should they ever do that. So I try finding the one I distrust least, and use that.
I don't really see the parallels to 'nothing to hide'. It's just a bit of, in my eyes not entirely unjustified, paranoia.
they also have the potential to cause great harm to their users
What harm is that?
The only harm I can see is either:
(a) by associating their users with those who use VPNs to do illegal things. Which is a nonsense association and shouldn't be given any weight, or
(b) if they do keep logs and turn those over to authorities. Which is why companies that have been audited and shown not to collect logs, or, even better, companies that have been tested in court and unable to comply with requests for information, are the VPN providers that should be preferred.
I tried Nord VPN and realized three things:
1: The "limited time specials" they boast are completely misleading. You pay more per month than what they make it sound like in their sponsored messages.
2: They try to automatically renew your subscription and charge your credit card for a significantly higher price with the hope that you wouldn't notice.
3: Unsubscribing is made to be a frustrating pain in the ass. You have to talk to their sales representatives and they will make you argue for it. And then you'll have to do it all over again because even though they said they cancelled your subscription it won't be because " technical problems".
VPNs rely entirely on trust and Nord has proven to be completely untrustworthy.
I use Mullvad now and it uses none of those deceiving tactics to lock you into an expensive contact. It also goes long ways to keep you anonymous and has periodic audits to prove they don't collect your data.
Yeah, more or less.
But that's sort of the point, isn't it? Just because something's being advertised in a lot of places, doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad deal.
NordVPN and ExpressVPN are both great VPN services
Nord is absolutely not trustworthy. They have sleazy tactics like trying to charge you after cancelling your subscription, and also have had a lot of controversy in the past, revealing their no-log policy is likely a lie. I didn't do as much digging on Express VPN but I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't have the same issues.
VPNs you see in Ads will always be less trustworthy than the ones who are... well... well known and Trustworthy. Ones like Mullvad which make an effort to protect and respect your privacy.
GitHub - MarmadileManteater/FreeTubeAndroid: A soft fork of FreeTube which brings it to Android (formerly FreeTubeCordova)
A soft fork of FreeTube which brings it to Android (formerly FreeTubeCordova) - MarmadileManteater/FreeTubeAndroidGitHub
The problem with NewPipe is that it breaks the YouTube experience. ReVanced lets you use your YouTube account to get all the normal YouTube functionality such as liking and commenting, viewing your subscriptions (including syncing if you make a change) and, most importantly, syncing playlists such as the Watch Later playlist.
I've only had ReVanced break once since I started using it, way back when Vanced first died. So I don't consider the "stuff breaks" element to be especially relevant.
like this
infinitesunrise likes this.
If you are fine with torrenting using your real IP, then yes. However, here this can easily lead to high legal bills as rightholders can demand pay for damages even if a tracker just returned your IP as a participant of a swarm. There is no first strike here where you just get a mean letter. It goes into the thousands straight away.
Personally, I wouldn't do that, especially here with law firms that specialize in that kind of behavior. I rather pay some bucks for that rare case where I want to get something from BitTorrent than risk all that hassle.
Most other EU nations don't give a fuck though. I've been torrenting straight from tpb proxies for over two decades without a single hitch.
There is no first strike here where you just get a mean letter. It goes into the thousands straight away.
That doesn't happen in the US, at least, not yet. OP said they were referring to Germany.
feddit.org is a German instance. The fact that they're on that instance makes it pretty safe to assume they're German, just as my instance makes it safe to assume I'm Australian.
(And incidentally, torrenting is pretty safe here in Australia. A court case years ago heavily restricted the ability of copyright owners to go after torrenters, requiring them to have reason to go after one individual in particular, blocking them from the sorts of mass attacks that make it commercially viable in the US and, seemingly, Germany.)
If you're only interested in torrenting don't use a VPN, just get a seedbox. You can get one with minimal stats (1TB storage, 2TB/mo upload on a 50Gb connection) for like $6/mo. You use it to run all of your torrents and handle seeding (handy for getting access to private trackers) and then just download everything via SFTP/rsync/whatever. Or, you can spend a bit more and have them host the *arr suite and Plex/Jellyfin so you have your own private streaming service. Split between a few family members, this is a very affordable alternative to commercial streaming services.
If you're looking for a VPN for privacy concerns, don't use a US-based provider. You have no guarantee of privacy, just a flimsy 'guarantee' from the company. Use a provider located in a place that has strong privacy and secrecy laws, like Switzerland.
The seedbox I looked into requires you to provide VPN details, it did not allow using it without one.
Edit: also as far as I know Switzerland doesn't have that strong privacy laws as providers claim in advertisements, but they're not a member of five eyes.
Not being five eyes isn't nothing 😛
Of course, any traffic leaving the US is going to be hoovered up by the NSA for their SNDL program so make sure your VPN is using something quantum resistant. That being said, I wouldn't be too worried about law enforcement from the perspective of pirating digital media for personal use. As long as you're not selling pirated media then LE has more important things to worry about.
If you're in a country that has criminal 'contempt of corporation' laws where they actively pursue personal-use piracy, yeah you'd probably want both a VPN and a seedbox. Of course, now you have the problem of paying for it without linking it to your person. Unfortunately, a big part of the online digital surveillance push in western countries has been expanding KYC and AML laws that make it much harder to pay anonymously without linking your identity to a seedbox.
Big brother is always expanding his reach :/
I think it's safe to presume they are trying to capture all of the value of your data.
They are certainly selling whatever data they collect, unless they're making their own advertising service
You can check the privacy statement.
But considering it’s an American company I can tell you that it will abuse your data
The "privacy" service that gobbled on orange fascist knob from Switzerland? With their public accounts?
Yeah. Nothing sketchy behind that choice.
Them being an absolute moron hasn't affected the product for me or my experience with the rest of the company.
If I would stop using any and old company that had some bullshit owner, some bullshit thing done in the past or done currently I would basically have nothing I can use.
The moment the opionins of him will start to impact the product I am out, but considering there is a foundation above the company which means he has a limited amount of impact I will wait and see before I act.
At least Proton is under a loop now, other options are probably just as bad but we don’t know about it
Very first thought was "how the fuck are they making money enough to advertise??"
I heard about it, downloaded it, tried it. Then i googled for other coupons and found a better one. Deleted Honey right away for being shit.
Im surprised so many people would just trust the app immediately and not try to see if there were better coupons.
Maybe I’m just bad or slow at queries but I almost never found working coupons when I’m ready to purchase.
When I used to have honey (when it somewhat worked), I got a few token percentage off compared to entering codes that were expired or otherwise no longer valid.
Granted, once Honey moved to a rewards based model I dipped out since something didn’t sit right with me about it.
Yeah same experience here. Googling for a code at best gets me the promotions already happening on the retail site with the code sites affiliate link.
It may be because when I'm looking for codes I'm already buying high price low margin products like TVs.
Only advertised product I've ever spent money on is NordVPN which is fine for my use case - avoiding geoblocking a couple of times a week. Probably switching to Mullvad soon though, because American companies can eat dirt.
But yeah, honey was always super sus. If something seems "too good to be true", maybe it is.
This is partly why I don't trust Ground News. They're putting way too much money into advertising for me to believe they're genuinely interested in providing an unbiased factual categorization of news sources.
I also simply don't believe it's possible to be unbiased, so anyone claiming to be is immediately suspect to me.
I get that it offers a bunch of features that you can't get anywhere else, but I just can't shake the uneasy feeling that it's all a trojan horse for something more sinister. I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop and see it suddenly explode in controversy after someone exposes something not quite kosher going on under the surface.
It's just too good to be true.
You got it when they were still creating rustbuckets then. The newer ones have much stronger bodywork and don't oxidize within 3 minutes upon seeing salted roads. Can't speak for the long term reliability though, don't know anyone who's owned one for too long (only friend who owned a newish Mazda traded it in for a Volvo V90 after a few years because space)
I am tempted by new Mazdas because they now have some real nice engines available and they don't do the whole "everything is touch" thing because apparently they actually care about safety... BUT... I'm salty that they don't sell the CX90 here, only the CX80. I could really use the extra space nowadays.
I can speak to normal ass sedans with manuals driving right past fancy 4 wheel drive vehicles in the snow.
That's always been more about skill and tires than drivetrain I'd say. The excess weight of a 4 wheel drive SUV actually puts it at a disadvantage in most situations that don't involve acceleration, too. They still have the same amount of braking wheels, but more weight to brake, etc.
If you piss me off on a regular basis by interrupting what I'm doing with your spam, at least make it entertaining in some way.
Don't force some scripted talking points on every content creator, give them free reign to provide their opinion about your product.
I would be 100x more interested in your product if I saw an objective review from somebody who I knew was being honest.
But if they only pay people to say good things about their product, I see that as the company admitting that their product is shit, because they're too scared to allow anyone to say it is.
Advertising is allllll subconscious. It’s not relying on your conscious choice and reasoning.
You will forget that you saw the advertisement. Then when you go to the store and are deciding between two brands, the idea is that you will pick the brand with which you have greater familiarity with (the one you’ve seen more adverts of), since your brain interprets familiarity with trustworthiness. All of this is done subconsciously without you even noticing.
Advertising isn’t a billion dollar per year industry for no reason. The reason being, that it works.
Advertising isn't allllll subconscious, even if mere exposure and priming can be powerful. If ads were all subconscious, they wouldn't try to get your attention and make you actually think about them. On top of that, backfire effects can overwhelm the subconscious approval, as can consciously making note of it.
I actually want to avoid products all together when I see ads. It makes me question whether or not I need it or alternatives, and often times, I decide that I don't. Every ad also represents the entire capitalist system to me. They remind me who the enemy is.
edit: spellz
uBlock Origin and SponsorBlock for the win.
Just make sure to research products well before buying them or using them, wouldn't want to accidentally buy one of those bad ones.
If
like this
Liyah Mackenzie Hernandez and AJ (Adam) Sorenson like this.
I Keep Forgetting...
Liyah Mackenzie Hernandez likes this.
Anjelah Johnson-Reyes
I saw Anjelah Johnson-Reyes do stand-up last night at a local casino. Here is a photo before the show.
Alt Text: A stage with a large screen displaying a promotional image for comedian Anjelah Johnson. The image features a Rose the Riveter - style illustration of Anjelah Johnson, flexing her arm in a vintage -style outfit with a red bandana. Her name is written in bold red letters, and a QR code is present on the right side. The text "Watch on Apple" is partially visible. The stage has a microphone stand and a stool, with a blue stage lighting above.
Hard Rock Casino Visit
From last night visiting for a comedy show.
Alt Text: A large, illuminated guitar-shaped sign for the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino stands against the night sky. The guitar has a sunburst design with neon lights outlining its body and neck. The hotel building in the background is lit with colorful neon lights, and parked cars, including a Chevrolet truck, are visible in the foreground.
A Very Unnecessary Photo
Versace sushi roll I had for lunch yesterday. It was huge!
Alt Text: A takeout container filled with deep-fried sushi rolls, drizzled with spicy mayo and eel sauce. The rolls contain avocado, cucumber, and fish roe, with crispy tempura batter coating the outside. Pickled ginger and a small portion of wasabi are placed on the side.
Dr. Thomas Mutter
Faustus likes this.
Well Damn
like this
AlanC, Sven-Evan and Michael L. Simpson like this.
Finally!
I finally finished this book. I mean, I read it under a week. I can't say it took me so long to read it. It so information dense and it took two to three hours to finish one chapter. I do have to say that it was super informative of cultural trends in Britain, the European continent, as well as global at this time. Which is late 17th to late 18th century. Hans Sloane was quite evidently a very eccentric and incredibly vain man.
Also, I am very boring and I currently don't have anything fun or interesting happening for me at the moment. I just got books and cats. Lol
phle likes this.
Gloria
like this
MeandererTN, Amélie Blythe and Robert Bast like this.
My Thoughts for Today
like this
Michael L. Simpson, grutjes, effariwhy, Linda Duval, Faustus and VolFan like this.
Bad News Thursday
Hello!
like this
Linda Duval, williewatson, Vextor Proxy and jackie40503 like this.
Ken likes this.
yuhasz01
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Scary but true. I have moved all my activity to non-US operations; not perfect but a start.
American tech corporations are just greedy collaborators and appeasers to current fascist regime.
Not trust worthy.....they are major part of problem.
Darren Nevares reshared this.
Everything is Public Health
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •NeutronGrove
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •maxsidman
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •JA Westenberg
in reply to maxsidman • • •@maxsidman Signal is a US-based non-profit organization. It’s operated by the Signal Foundation, which was founded in 2018 by Moxie Marlinspike (former CEO of Signal) and Brian Acton (co-founder of WhatsApp) based in Mountain View, California....I love Signal, and I use it but I don't know about including it just because...U.S.
There's some other options I haven't listed because I haven't tried or experienced. Threema for example. Will update as I go.
florian reshared this.
Kevin Vogel
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •icaria36 🎶
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Excellent initiative! Please consider @delta #DeltaChat for your Messenger category. Not only it's a user-friendly piece of innovation that I'm successfully recommending to WhatsApp users, it is also a warm and a smart and well connected open source project and community.
About Signal, same feelings. I opened this discussion a few days ago and got very interesting feedback: sonomu.club/@icaria36/11405272…
icaria36 🎶
2025-02-23 10:28:59
florian reshared this.
Jectoons
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •JA Westenberg
in reply to Jectoons • • •Jectoons
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •MNT Reform Next
Crowd Supplyreshared this
Battalion reshared this.
JA Westenberg
in reply to Jectoons • • •🇺🇦 Myke
in reply to Jectoons • • •Greg Wilson
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Plausible Analytics
Plausible Analyticsreshared this
JA Westenberg, Ecologia Digital and Thibaultmol 🌈 reshared this.
Daedalean
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Chis-R 🐟
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Whatever Who Cares 🐾♀️
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •mozziediver
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Password Safe
www.pwsafe.orgDusk To Don
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Arianne B
Unknown parent • • •Arianne B
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •JA Westenberg
in reply to Arianne B • • •John G Fitzgerald
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Arena Cops 🇺🇦✌ reshared this.
Gabriel
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Good write-up. Annoying trying to find alternatives as a Canadian because almost everything we use online has to be connected to or directly owned by US firms.
Really hope this ends up having a positive response and we can grow stronger ties with the rest of the world as well as grow what we can do as a country.
florian
in reply to Gabriel • • •@oshguud
Check out
european-alternatives.eu/
@Daojoan
Homepage | European Alternatives
European AlternativesGabriel
in reply to florian • • •Rimas Kudelis
in reply to florian • • •Mark Kristensson
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •JA Westenberg reshared this.
JA Westenberg
in reply to Mark Kristensson • • •Alan McConchie
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •bbbhltz
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Laurent Bourgès
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •JW Prince of CPH, Radicalized
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Or, they'll hand it over because they're getting paid & their business is selling your data, or rather, selling YOU - which, let's be real, is far & away more of a problem than anyone forcing them to.
It's important that we identify these risks as features of surveillance capitalism, not bugs.
- but yeah, European & Canadian alternatives, please - @pluralistic has some suggestions: pluralistic.net/2025/02/26/urs…
Pluralistic: With Great Power Came No Responsibility (26 Feb 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.netJW Prince of CPH, Radicalized reshared this.
Findekunst Hammersbald
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •gittaca
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Buy European Made
Buy European MadeDavid Hund 🇳🇱🇪🇺🇺🇦
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Homepage | European Alternatives
European AlternativesLotte Smelik
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Flore
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •@Emmaf_77
§
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Android apps is yet another big category.
If you're not into rooting or custom ROM, then the best option would be disabling all Google apps/services using app like @appmanager (via ADB) and use @fdroidorg app-store.
F-Droid has a very limited number of apps compared to the PlayStore, but if you only use one app-for-one usecase, then there are enough to choose from 😀
@kuketzblog 's list : kuketz-blog.de/empfehlungsecke…
Empfehlungsecke
www.kuketz-blog.dereshared this
JA Westenberg and Rich Stein (he/him) reshared this.
noodlejetski
in reply to § • • •noodlejetski :verified_gay: (@noodlejetski@masto.ai)
MastodonSolal Nathan
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •icaria36 🎶
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •I wonder whether a similar effort exists to list decent European hosting providers. Important, that don't rely on American server infrastructure (AWS and equivalents) under the surface.
#hosting
Adrien Gévaudan
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Christian Waidner
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •fs111
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •The Motty
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Do you have any sources for Todoist beeing "not hosted in US".
They say the data is hosted on AWS and Doist Inc. seems to be an American company.
todoist.com/de/security
I would really love to use the app, but it seems to be US based (even with a remote TEam from around the world)
Security Policy: Todoist
www.todoist.comNiklas Roming
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •RockManJoe
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Sigismund Ninja
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •I wouldn't trust #Proton. Just use a normal old school mail server (like the one provided by your ISP or Yahoo/whatever) and use Kmail/IceDove/Thunderbird with PGP. If you want to remain anonymous, use VPN and/or Tor on top of that. Or rather, use any mail server that is 100% compatible with @delta.
For notes and productivity, use #Emacs or #Vim plus Git for backup. Encrypt all files before commit or use a safe server with disk encryption for your repo. Emacs 30 runs on Android.
Daniel Tache
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Luis Carlos
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Luis Carlos
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Anne at Millrace
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •adb
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •sad to see no mentions of #DeltaChat or #ArcaneChat
With them you can have a messenger, encrypted email and at the same time e2e encrypted notes synchronized across all your devices, 2FA PIN numbers app, collaborative editor and many other mini-apps all without depending on a central server
Carlos Cámara
in reply to adb • • •@adbenitez I recently discovered #deltachat and I'm quite happy despite the fact I don't know anyone using it.
I didn't know about collaborative editor and 2FA, can you tell me how to use it? Also, I'm not sure on how the mini apps work or how to properly use them
adb
in reply to Carlos Cámara • • •@ccamara you can find the collaborative editor in the attachment button in the chat, in the mini-apps list you can also find the "2FA authenticator" app, it is called TOTP, send it in your "Saved Messages" chat, then you can also add a shortcut to it in your home screen and open it directly later as a native phone app, then any token you add to the app will be synchronized in all your devices so you can access your 2FA codes easily from all your devices without fear of losing them!
@Daojoan
Toni Aittoniemi
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Great list!
I’m moving my file hosting & backup to a local Finnish Upcloud, but here are some great tips for productivity!
Thank you ☺️👌
Stephan Hansen-Oest
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Regarding Proton…maybe you want to do some research of cases where Proton disclosed user data to US authorities.
I’m not sure that your choices are really "Trump-Proof“.
Passwordsarehard4
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •JA Westenberg
in reply to Passwordsarehard4 • • •cedricdes
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Ashraf123
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Many people feel that tech companies, and the US government, are not transparent enough about how they use data, and how their algorithms function.
Alex Nedelcu
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Is Doist a European company? I couldn't find anything at a glance, and their privacy page mentions that Doist Inc. is a company from California, while warning people that their data is processed by US employees and stored on US servers.
doist.com/privacy#5-where-we-s…
Privacy policy | Doist
DoistTim Chase
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •@pitrh
While I'm in the US, I understand those costs and thus ensure that all my VPS instances also have full-disk encryption enabled (even if it's a pain when updates require a reboot, meaning I need to enter the FDE password via the web-console)
taekehf
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •dem
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Thibaultmol 🌈
Unknown parent • • •It's impressive how much a green flag being on masto/fedi is.
It shows that as a company, you give a sh*it!
I also relatively easily convinced the company that does our pharmacy website (and does like hundreds of other pharmacy websites) to switch to @plausible
It just makes sense
Jouni OH3CUF
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •LibreWolf lies. Their first promise is "No telemetry" but I haven't seen any app making so many calls back to home like LibreWolf does. I think I counted 10 network connections just opening the app after installation. And some of them were back to Mozilla. That is absolutely not cool.
So big no-no from me. Still continuing with Firefox and I have blocked Mozilla IPs
Also I disagree Matrix would be actually replacement for WhatsApp. Good luck getting all non-geek normal people there 😛
Machiel van der Bijl
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •I use mailbox.org for mail, storage, etc. I was not aware of it when I chose it for their secure email, but their office apps also work nice. (No stocks or anything, just a happy user 😉)
Charly Coste 🇫🇷
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •A look at search engines with their own indexes
Seirdy’s HomeTaffer 🇨🇦
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •canadian-alternatives
Codeberg.orgTaffer 🇨🇦
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Notesnook | Open source & zero knowledge private note taking app
Notesnook by Streetwriters LLCMarc Lepage
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Yoann Sculo
in reply to JA Westenberg • • •Privacy policy | Doist
Doist