It’s not much, still I’m glad I’m almost done with using anything related to Google. I’ve not used their search engine for many years and I don’t miss it. I still have a few user accounts linked to my gmail address because those accounts won’t let me to change email but, sooner than later, I’ll swallow the pill and close them.

As for YT which I was watching a lot (and was paying for), I’m down to two creators and one news channel, and that’s it. One of those creators is from the UK and the news channel is French, hopefully recent events will convince them it’s more than time to look for a less… US-owned platform?

I know it’s ‘just business and if it’s not them it will be some other corporation doing the job’ but fuck you, Google.

Define “people’s”, because not doing so is how we get into a police state and that was some Germany shit. Everyone? A subset at random? A subset at convenience? A subset based on how brown they look?

Note sure to understand your reasoning but here you are: ‘people’ is someone, any person or any group of persons be they a citizen of the country or a foreigner.

In France, for example, the French police has the right to ask for my ID anywhere in the country, it’s part of their job. It doesn’t matter if I’m French or a foreigner, I’m subjected to their legal authority by law (and not giving my ID could get me into some trouble, even if I had a bottle of wine in one pocket, cheese and bread in another and pretty beret on my bald head). That’s also the reason why anyone is expected to always have their ID with them outside of their home… And that is true also when I travel to Germany, or England, or Belgium, or Italy, or anywhere in the EU. ‘No borders’ does not mean no ID and no control anymore. It only means no systematic control in normal situations.

But if you think I am lying and the bus driver is lying, you can easily search for sources you trust.

Keep calm dude, I simply asked for a source. If that makes me suspicious to you, well, that’s too bad.

You struggle to believe

Indeed, I’m not much of a believer.

But you seem confused. You struggle to believe it while at the same time claiming the police are doing their job. Feels like cognitive dissonance.

Wow.

Either you’re really looking to make it a personal issue with me or you have a serious reading issue. I will give you the benefit of the doubt and go for the second option and therefore will encourage you to calmly re-read my comment. If it doesn’t seem clearer to you that I have said nothing of the sort (and presupposed nothing), feel free to quote each problematic passage of my answer and ask specific questions. Otherwise, sorry to disappoint you but I’m not much into personal quarrels.

edit: typos :p

First, sources?

Then, I probably will get downvoted to oblivion but isn’t one of the job of the police supposed to actually check people’s ID? And aren’t all police forces (at least here in the EU) using some computerized data system to check said IDs? Heck, last time they checked mine as much as I was able to tell they used some app on their phone (France, Paris).

Finally, I would also prefer not call ‘Gestapo’ anything we may consider excessive or we disagree with. Gestapo was something else.

9 is WAY too young for sexual content.

But is 9 old enough to watch their family being shredded by bombs or bullets? Note that, following your impressive declaration, you may rejoice about their home being bombed because, like mom and dad, the home TV and computer are also more than probably somewhat out-of-order. Therefore that poor innocent 9 year-old kid will be spared the atrocious temptation to watch a fucking tit (or fucking tits)!

FFS, didn’t you get a handbook telling you how to use that spongy thing that has been hibernating (optimistic version) between your ears all those years?

Thx for the archive link :)

Is it possible to escape the ads?

We have not TV at a home. Smart, or dumb. We got rid of ours decades ago (in the late 90s early 00s) when we realized they expected us to pay good money for a tv set while still expecting us to watch ads, more and more of them, in exchange for meh content.

We have a computer monitor (the computer itself is running GNU/Linux) on which we watch DVDs, or ripped files. No streaming, no services, no nothing. Most of the time it’s not even connected to our network.

I suppose one day not that far in the future, corporations will have lobbied our government to make it illegal (and highly suspicious) to not subscribe to streamed content (what can those suspicious people be doing in their free time if they don’t get their daily netfix?), as well as to actually own content. We will see. Meanwhile, they, their crappy ads, and their spywares can all go fuck themselves.

This strikes me as abhorrent. But most of the people here call it necessary, preferable and even desirable.

I don’t and I won’t ‘call it necessary, preferable and even desirable’. That’s a nightmare that’s being build right before our eyes, with the (often unconscious) complicity of a lot of us (me included, for many years).

Here in France, certain ideas are literally outlawed from any public discussions (it’s in the law, what an impressive feat from a country so proud of its promotion of free speech). But it’s everywhere and at every level, even in the way we’ve learned to not use certain words in our everyday exchanges or to not try to understand something a little better before condemning it—we do like all the people around us, we hate what and who we’re being told to hate.

That’s why I steer away as much as I can from digital means of communication. And do as much as I can offline and the analog way.

Younger people have probably never experienced it but good old snail mail (as well as in-person talks) is still private by default (that too is in the law, at least here, doesn’t l mean it’s above the law, which is fine, but at least it’s private). Also, it’s not tracked or algorithmically quantified and validated by anyone.

Mandatory disclaimer (because we live in this absolute moronic age of ‘either you’re with us, or you’re against us’ angry crowds): me protesting against the growing (self-)censorship of any idea does not mean I endorse any of those censored ideas. It just means that I think censorship is a terrible way to fight any idea. As history have shown us countless times.

Don’t want to deal with admin/security stuff ;)

So much this.

Stallman was and still is right probably on almost every single point he ever made. I’m afraid we will only understand that once it’s too late if it not already is.

that’s why, as a mere user myself, someone that will never be able to write a line of code, let alone develop an app, I still want my apps do be Free/Libre software. I want for those many more competent people all over the world to be able to identify any such a turd and flush them down the drain. I don’t trust any corporation to do a good job at that, even Apple (disclaimer: I use an iPhone…)

You need better air flow.

I had the same issue as a student, when I lived in that pocket-sized 1 room ‘apartment’ with barely any airflow coming through a single and tiny window. The only solution I found to be working was, each morning, to lift the mattress and store it on its side with the bottom/downside face part of it not facing the wall, and let it like that for the rest of the day. The air would do its magic.

I also raised the bed frame that was very close to the ground.

+1 to this. Beside our phones there is no smart device in our home (and when not in use, they’re turned off and stored in a box to limit their ability to spy on us). No TV, no Alexa, no smart light-bulbs, no smart thermostat, no smart doorbell,…

Heck, I even stopped using my Kindle (and completely quit reading DRM-protected ebooks) because I had enough of Amazon ‘monitoring’ my reading habits.

F*ck that, I want privacy. If digital can’t give it to me, I’m going back to good analog ;)

Also, as an ex-lifelong Mac user (started in the early 80s) our PCs have been running Linux for a few years now, and so far I’ve not morphed into some kind of geeky-hairy-creature. I’m still as bald and as neatly shaved as I always have been, and I’m barely any more of a geek :P

There is one Windows machine still running at home, the one my spouse must use for her work. That being being said, seeing how great the USA-EU relationship have been since Putin’s orange angry puppet has started his new show in the oval office, and knowing the rather specific field my spouse is working in I would not be surprised if her bosses suddenly realized using Windows was not the brightest idea ever and decided to switch everyone to a less spyware-filled and a less US-owned OS alternative. We will see. Meanwhile, the webcam and microphone are constantly covered, and the PC itself is unplugged from the network (Ethernet only) and from the wall-plug after hours. Paranoid & excessive? Maybe… I’d rather be paranoid than be sorry I was not enough ;)

I love this movie so much. First watched it as kid it made a deep impression on me. Still does, some 50 years after I first watched it.

Luke, is that you?

Fasting. Hard to make money off not eating food.

FFS, don’t give them ideas!

Now with exclusively made for you daily AI motivational messages! 2 months free if you subscribe annually. Fast better, fast with your wallet!

;)

• Daily walks. I started barely being able to walk more than a few steps, I was in a really terrible shape. Nowadays, I will walk at least 8km daily. More as often as I can. It feels too good. Exercising regularly and in the long-run is key.
• Eating healthier food, aka fresh fruits, veggies, real fresh bread and NOT eating industrial pre-processed food anymore. Like none at all. No ‘just this one time’ or ‘just one byte’. No more feeding myself with ready-made dishes, no more fast-food (I still ate delicious burgers and fries mind you… just all hand-made with fresh food), no industrial sweets or whatever either. And no industrial beverage either, aka no soda not even light.
• Not being an asshole with myself. I failed many times at keeping my motivation. No blaming and no hating (I was already punished enough by all that wasted time it meant for me to fall back into my bad habits) but I kept on going while trying to understand how/why I failed (so I would not do the same mistake again).

I halved my weight and I still eat plenty (even chocolate, pastries or things like that, just… a lot less and never industrially made), I replaced me eating shit (literally, industrial are feeding us shit) by me eating actual food (and enjoying preparing it), and I also retook control my body, muscles and joints, by starting to move it… like it is was designed to. We’re not designed to sit on a couch or in front of computer all day long (be it to work or to play).

Thx. I hope so too.

Thx, and yep it doesn’t take much room ;)

I 100% agree on that, no discussion. I was just pointing out the fact that quite often a ‘I have to’ should be written as ‘I’m used to’ ;)

Its a great choice for those who can, but some people have to travel for work.

We (my spouse and I) decided to stop using planes the day we realized the environmental crisis we were heading to. That was in the early 00s, some 25 years ago. And be it for work or for personal reasons we have not used a plane since then.

Work was the easiest to solve for us: video + phone are often enough and when they’re not a local correspondent we can mandate is more than able to deal with whatever needs a human presence (edit: it was a little more difficult for personal travels, but nothing impossible either). I have no doubt it’s not always possible, but I’m also pretty confident it’s often possible, it’s just… not the usual way people think about it ;)