I migrated away from proton for mail and calendar about 4 months ago. The services are fine, they do what they say, but the trade offs for “e2ee” email are large with a dubious benefit when it works and no benefit in 99% of cases because the vast majority of people don’t use Proton so your Mail is not encrypted anyways. I still use Pass, VPN, and SimpleLogin. They, IMO, are the best services Proton offers (though I may move passwords back to bitwarden, still deciding).

Overall it’s worth considering what secure email means to you, what your individual threat landscape looks like, and then comparing what Proton offers to your needs. Personally I migrated to Fastmail and have been pleased so far. It won’t be right for everyone, and for some the security offered by Proton may be valuable, but know there are a ton of asterisks to that security.

Im not an expert by any means, but you can get setup with a rooftop node pretty cheaply. You’ll want a NRF-based device for power efficiency so like a RAK WisBlock 4631, then a decent antenna, Rokland has some good options for higher gain fiberglass but your local mesh or HAM club can probably help here since there is a lot of garbage antennas out there. You will probably want an MPPT charge controller as well since the on board one is pretty crap, our local mesh often recommends an option from Aliexpress that’s less than $5. You can build your own node for less than $200 though for sure. If you want a ready to go option, I’ve heard good things about the SeeedStudio SenseCAP P1 and it’s less than $100.

All that said, be sure to coordinate the role with your local mesh. A poorly placed router can cause a ton of problems. Almost all rooftop nodes should be client or client_base.

I’ll post here what I’ve posted elsewhere with addition comments sprinkled in.

This is what bothers me the most about folks, usually from an EU country, telling Americans we should just oust our shithead president through national strikes or violence and complain that we aren’t doing anything. The US is huge, what works in smaller European countries is vastly more difficult and expensive to organize and execute in the US. Those tactics do work here, but mostly at the local and state level which is akin to how they work in most EU countries when you adjust for population and size. At this level there is just not much an individual or relatively small group can do. Even if my entire city and the surrounding area rose up together (which it wouldn’t since it’s politically mixed) it would have little to no impact. A million or two people just isn’t that much in a nation as large and diverse as the US. The entirety of California or Texas couldn’t appreciably move the needle in all reality and they are massive, wealthy states.

The US General Strike movement estimates that we would need just 3.5% of the US adult population to strike to see any results, that is over 10.5 million people, and they have less than half a million signed up. To put that in perspective, that’s more than the entire population of Greece, Austria, or Sweden needed to make an impact, and even well resourced and organized they are barely moving the needle due mostly to the sheer size of the country. None of those countries can get their entire population to agree on something though, so it’s not really surprising the US hasn’t been able to get that many people to agree either.

In addition, the risks are enormous to everyday people when there isn’t an organization to back their movement. I still need to eat, put a roof over mine and my families head, and generally exist in this world. I applaud those that have the means, drive, or mindset to just take direct action but the vast majority do not. Going out half cocked, guns blazing though also doesn’t accomplish anything and just gives more media ammo to the current regime to oppress rights further. Until we can find our MLK to lead a movement against this oppression though, it’s unlikely that resistance will accomplish much visibly.

I think it would be a fantastic idea for Europeans, and the rest of the world, to start actually considering what a violent, imperialist US means to their normal day-to-day and how they can best prepare to defend against it. I, and all those I choose to surround myself with, hate what our government is doing. We voted against it, give money and time to causes against it and to try to reduce harm where we can and help those impacted by it. Many of us would leave if we had the means to, but the reality is that leaving has its own risks, is surprisingly difficult and expensive, doesn’t guarantee where we end up will ultimately be better, and removes our ability to do anything here. Like most of life, reality is complex and messy, I just wish everyone could keep that in mind when condemning all Americans for the actions our government is taking.

That all said, Americans are doing something, not enough, and not quickly, but protests are nearly constant in various parts of the country. Congress is rebuking nearly all of the big budget cuts Trump wanted, and more right leaning lawmakers are starting to stand up against the regime. Again, it’s not enough, but it isn’t silence like is often asserted here and elsewhere.

In short, I am not my country, and while I fully accept that the world hates the US right now (and they should), personally hating every individual American and blaming us as specifically responsible is ignorant and inflammatory. It doesn’t help and just serves to depress and discourage action by those of us who do not support the actions of our government and are trying to help in the ways that we can.

This was posted here yesterday by the dev. Overall the reaction seems positive.

A quick look through the repo it looks pretty legit, it’s a lot of effort to create something that works, with all the documentation (including a lot of planning docs) just to collect data on you. Traffic to various IPs, foreign or otherwise, wouldn’t really be odd for an app like this either. You could try and run it through something like virustotal though to look for malicious code (there are more than a few docker scanning tools on GitHub that use virustotal).

This seems a little different though no? Like it appears to be a fully contained system that should work as long as you have a smart brick and tags. It doesn’t need to physically interact with the various tech enabled elements so at worst you end up with some plates and minifigs with what appear to be passive electronics inside that still work as normal pieces.

I think what I’m most leery of is that the smart brick itself looks like it has a fully seal battery that isn’t user serviceable which means in a few years these just become e-waste. I hope LEGO has considered that and has a way to replace them.

These look fundamentally different to Powered Functions or Mind Storms for instance which were focused on expanding the capabilities of LEGO to be interactive. The Smart Brick though looks very specifically aimed at enhancing the play pillar of LEGO and not at what most AFL want (in the creativity or building/engineering pillars). This isn’t really for the 16+ audience is my big takeaway, it’s for kids in the same way the Mario interactive figures are for kids mainly.

As an American I support this take 100%. One thing to note though is that soft drinks are expensive to transport so are almost always bottled/made locally. Coca-Cola alone has 5 manufacturing plants in Canada and over 50 local sales and distribution centers. All that to say that soft drinks specifically may do more harm locally than to Coca-Cola corporate (or PepsiCo, KeurigDrPepper, etc.). Most of those companies are also significantly more diversified than distilling or tobacco companies so can weather boycotts easier. I’d say focus your effort where it can have the most impact for sure so keep up it up on Bourbon and add tobacco, other agricultural items like Pecans (grown mostly in the southeast US, or Almonds (grown mostly in California, but it’s still leverage).

That is quite literally not what I am saying, I’m saying that the real world is complex and not as easy as “Americans are fat and lazy and stupid and won’t do anything about their fascist imperialist federal regime that a sizable portion of the country apparently supported”.

What would you have the average American do that lives nowhere close to DC, needs a job to eat and have shelter, and likely lives somewhere where at least some portion of their neighbors support Trump and his cronies? Like if you have a real solution I’d love to hear it because just noting the a lot of Americans have guns isn’t helpful (which isn’t everyone for what it’s worth, not sure if you’ve been here but it’s not like folks walk around fully armed everywhere).

The US general strike movement estimates over 10.5 million people need to strike to have an effect, in a year they’ve gotten less than half a million to sign a strike card. Organizing over 10 million people is crazy difficult. We would need nearly the entire population of Sweden or Portugal, it’s more than the entire population of Greece or Austria. And that’s just 3.5% of the US population. My entire point is that it’s easy to sit behind a keyboard and blame Americans when you’re entire experience is a European country that needs to organize an opposition of maybe 2 million people, likely less than a million. The reality that Americans actually face is at least and order of magnitude more difficult. So blaming individuals as though all of us support what is happening and are to blame shows a lack of understanding. Many of us don’t like this any more than you do, and are doing what we can in our sphere of influence to change things, but it isn’t a simple situation to fix.

I use gas as little as I can, literally fill my tank once every three months or so. I use solar on my house and adjust power usage to leverage green sources as much as I can. So don’t assume all Americans are cowboy boot wearing, giant truck driving, racist assholes who just want cheap gas. A nation this large is truly complex and full of unique people that wont fit your stereotypical trope.

This is what bothers me the most about random folks, usually from an EU country, telling Americans we should just oust our shithead president through national strikes or violence and complain that we aren’t doing anything. The US is huge, what works in smaller European countries is vastly more difficult and expensive to organize and execute in the US. Those tactics do work here, but mostly at the local and state level which is akin to how they work in most EU countries when you adjust for population and size. At this level there is just not much an individual or small group can do. Even if my entire city and the surrounding area rose up together (which it wouldn’t since it’s politically mixed) it would have little to no impact. A million or two people just isn’t that much in a nation as large and diverse as the US. The entirety of California or Texas couldn’t appreciably move the needle in all reality and they are massive, wealthy states.

The same reason EU citizens haven’t been able to band together to fully and consistently leverage the combined power of their continent on the world stage is why Americans haven’t been able to effectively organize and execute effective federal power changes.

I think it would be a fantastic idea for Europeans, and the rest of the world, to start actually considering what a violent, imperialist US means to their normal day-to-day and how they can best prepare to defend against it. I, and all those I choose to surround myself with, hate what our government is doing. We voted against it, give money and time to causes against it and to try to reduce harm where we can and help those impacted by it. Many of us would leave if we had the means to, but the reality is that leaving has its own risks, is surprisingly difficult and expensive, doesn’t guarantee where we end up will ultimately be better, and removes our ability to do anything here. Like most of life, reality is complex and messy, I just wish everyone could keep that in mind when condemning all Americans for the actions our government is taking.

In short, I am not my country, and while I fully accept that the world hates the US right now (and they should), personally hating every individual American and blaming us as specifically responsible is ignorant and inflammatory. It doesn’t help and just serves to depress and discourage action by those of us who do not support the actions of our government.

I use cloudflare mostly because I buy my domains through them as they offer at cost domain names for many TLDs. Internally I use PiHole and then just point what I need externally to cloudflare trough a reverse proxy and a DMZ box.

It’s for a dog, that likely puts far worse than a couple of black hairs in its mouth, I wouldn’t bother honestly.

It’s worth keeping in mind that Linux (and Unix-like) OSs are already the most common server and datacenter OSs by a country mile. At the risk of being the “um aktshually” person here I think you are trying to refer to specifically using Linux as a general desktop OS, specifically for consumers. This is a pretty huge distinction though because all those giant companies are already using Linux in their data centers. Many support desktop use of their applications on Linux, and it’d be pretty difficult to gain any real foothold by limiting use of say Adobe apps to only an Adobe distro. They could perhaps choose to only package for say RHEL to support enterprise users, but then that package will work on Fedora too, and CentOS, etc.

At its core, desktop Linux is already so fractured through various distros that a single one really doesn’t stand a chance at gaining enough foothold to be the Linux desktop OS, especially with SteamOS and Bazzite taking a good chunk of new users away from Ubuntu as an entry point to Linux, and Mint gaining ground as a good windows replacement. Debian and derivatives are likely to be a very sizable chunk of desktop users (in no small part due to Raspbian), but compared to how monolithic Windows or macOS are I don’t think any single distro can meet the needs of enough users to ever really get the market capture needed to be properly enshittified. Sure some will happen (through things like Snap no doubt), but it’s too easy to fork and create a new distro without that for it to become a Windows level problem. Plus Linux can’t be charged for directly due to its license (other aspects on top of the open source pieces can be, which is what RHEL does, but even there IBM has run into a ton of developer pushback with the stupid moves they made with CentOS a couple years back). The lack of real ability to commoditize the entire OS makes me confident desktop Linux won’t ever have the same enshittification issues as say Windows does.

That’s because, as noted in the article, these are functionally weight management drugs, not weight loss drugs. This isn’t really a “hur dur drug companies bad” situation, there are tons of drugs and therapies that are life long (statins, CPAP, antidepressants, and insulin just to name four). Something’s can’t be “cured” like an illness and what GLP-1 drugs treat are exactly those types of conditions. If the price for staying at a healthy weight and all the related benefits is to need to use a GLP-1 drug for the rest of your life, many people would be 100% okay with that (and so would insurance since it otherwise decreases their cost due to the need to treat and manage comorbidities associated with obesity).

It also isn’t that GLP-1s are “shortcuts” or an “easy” way to treat obesity. For many people they can’t lose weight to a healthy point without help. They may have a hormone imbalance, be genetically predisposed to slower metabolism or higher fat retention, be unable to exercise effectively due to chronic injury or disability, or otherwise have an underlying condition that makes it significantly harder or impossible to get and stay at a healthy weight. To shame anyone for trying to be healthier by using the tools available is small minded and shows a distinct lack of awareness of the real world.

I just started using David’s toothpaste as I got a really bizarre and difficult to diagnose gum reaction that may be due to SLS or flavoring sensitivity. I really like it as it has a subtle flavor, comes in recyclable metal tubes, and is made in the US (California I believe). It’s fluoride free but uses nano hydroxyapatite which is shown in some studies to be more effective at enamel repair than fluoride compounds. I still use a fluorinated mouthwash and our water is fluorinated (I’m clearly not an anti fluoride person at all). The toothpaste itself works well, my teeth feel clean after brushing. My only real complaints are that it’s a little pricy (though now that I have a flavor I like I can order in bulk and save on shipping) and that I have to use more than my SLS containing toothpaste to have enough to really brush fully (but that’s true of any SLS free choice).

My work usually means I can’t listen to anything while I’m working (lots of meetings and video calls), but when I need to just head down get something done I listen to this lo fi beats playlist my wife made. It’s also great for reading while in a plane.

100% this, my wife makes a menu for the week on Monday then creates a list from that in Apple Reminders that I use to shop from. She knows if it isn’t on the list it isn’t going to be in the bag I bring home. Even hand writing a list is better than trying to memorize one, anything to take that mental load off in a place designed to make you over buy on stuff you don’t need will help.

Thanks!

Not my favorite sport at all but I’d reduce the padding in American football. Injuries are tied to harder hits which are tied to more padding/protective gear making those hits hurt less. If they want to actually fix the concussion problem then use gear like every other contact sport uses and not the massive pads they use today. The hits will be just as effective with way less power/energy needed.

Any chance you have the documentation for this somewhere I don’t need to setup an account to access (like GitHub perhaps)? I can figure out a print if needed (though somewhere like printables allows you to monetize your print files if you want but is still more accessible/open than Bambus walled garden).

Even if they were, this isn’t what any of these people are trained for. Federal agents are not local police. They don’t go out on patrol or randomly deal with stressful situations. TV makes it seem like federal agents are out chasing bad guys every day but they spend a huge amount of time following leads, interviewing people, and digging up information from various sources (of which i make no comments on the legality of). None of these people are trained to be beat cops on the front lines every day this way.