birdcat

ive been using expandroid, but sadly it stoped working for the stuff i most need it for.

now i found texpandapp(.)com. its really nice cuz it works my browser and note taking app.

most home calling can be stopped via dns blocking i guess (?), but it still has those questionable permissions:

• view network connections 😒
• use fingerprint hardware 👌
• run foreground service with the type "dataSync" 🥱
• run at startup 👌 -ask to ignore battery optimizations👌
• have full network access 😳😳😳
• prevent phone from sleeping🤔
• Advertising ID Permission 🙄
• run foreground service 👌
• Google Play billing service 👌
• Play Install Referrer API 🤔

how bad is all of that? keylogger-level bad?

(cannot block all internet access, bad phone and the vpn slot is occupied)

edit: turns out split tunnelling with "block all connections without vpn" does the job, nice.

even if you have zero interest in art, listen to this.

kinda bad audio quality in the beginning, but you will not regret it, promise!

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/3279652

Ruehl Muller joins Breht to discuss his upcoming book, put out by Iskra Books, titled "Building a People's Art: Selected Works of Trường Chinh and Tố Hữu".

Together, they discuss Vietnamese Socialist Realism, Maoist China, Cultural Revolution, dialectics, the death drive, fascism in Germany and Israel, New Democracy, and much more!

I'd like to install/run Kicksecure from my "EAGET USB 3.2 Solid State Pen Drive" as described here. (Im not set on Kicksecure, just read about it on privacyguides; open for suggestions! I just want something ... well secure and easy to use.

... However, my Windows PC does not recognize the USB with Debian as a bootable medium.

What I did:

1. Download debian-live-12.5.0-amd64-xfce
2. Flash it to USB with balenaEtcher
3. Try to boot from it in all possible ways

I also tried other Linux distributions like Mint and Ubuntu ... nothing gets recognized on that USB, expect Tails. After it recognizes it as UEFI OS and I select Harddisk Mode.

Tails is amazing, love it! But I just don't really need Tor, and mostly I need to use an App that will simply not connect via the Tor network and cannot be configured to do so.

Thank you very much 😊

Edit: Not everything can boot on windows I guess. But in my case Ubuntu suddenly could after turning off the PC and remove it from its power source.

From 2019, but still [this fullstop signals not only the end of that sentence, but also the end of this statement]. And here [those two words indicate that new information/context is being added; it is being indicated that we now no longer talk about the article, which the uneditorialized post title references and the post link leads to] something a bit more recent about the glorious “swiss privacy” [this makes it further clear that the following is about swiss privacy in general and not about Proton] https://www.republik.ch/2024/01/09/der-bund-ueberwacht-uns-alle

key points

[they were added because the main article is about Proton and written in english and because OP assumed that most in here are unable to read german and care less about general swiss privacy than they do care about Proton]

• New reporting based on documents and court records shows that since 2017, the internet traffic of Swiss citizens has been massively monitored and read when it crosses borders, which happens routinely even for communication within Switzerland.

• The intelligence service's claims that purely domestic Swiss internet traffic is collected are false, given how internet routing actually works. Traffic flows across borders dynamically, not through static "cables" as claimed.

• All data is stored and searched, including retrospectively, meaning the intelligence service builds an ever growing haystack of private communication to dig through. This includes communication from journalists and lawyers that should be protected.

• In 2023, steps were taken to expand monitoring further by requiring more Swiss internet providers to enable access to their infrastructure, including providers that don't directly deal with cross-border traffic. This contradicts previous claims about how the monitoring would work.

• Critics argue this invalidates assurances given earlier by the government and intelligence officials and constitutes mass surveillance that violates civil liberties. There are plans in 2024 to revise the intelligence law again, possibly to retroactively legalize monitoring practices already occurring.

I guess a lot of us do some form of privacy/security theatre. I'm at least doing it quite a lot of it, and it's difficult to stop thinking of new things that could (but probably never will) go wrong.

So instead of hearing how safe and cool your setup is, I'd like to hear how you simplified things and stopped the (hopefully 🤔) needless overthinking.

Text Tools Pro is a text-expanding power utility that facilitates the sending of custom messages with a trigger.

It will type out phrases like omw = on my way! the current date in any format, or even stuff like in2h = time from now in 2 hours, or simply lol = 🤣

In short, Text Tools Pro, developed by a Sri Lankan student, will significantly improve your typing experience on Android; use it.

PS: here is what you need to enter to get the in2h stuff:

key: in2h
value: {{time_in_two_hours}}
var name: time_in_two_hours
var type: date 
format: HH:mm
Offset: 7200

listening to lots of music lately and almost every second song is "remastered"; original is often not even available anymore.

and not one single time i can hear any kind of improvement. so what does it even mean, to remaster a song?

one of the worst cases, imo is atomic by blondie.

friggin classic

b-side abbba song?

and to add: iʼm not some kind of nostalgic puritan, plenty of songs get better after some remixing, covering and whatnot, like

The Clash - Rock The Casbah (12 inch Version)

But the remastered version?

dear god, if i wanted to listen to sting, i would listen to friggin sting.

Let's say I'm interested in all kinds of Technology, but literally in nothing that is being published by www.theverge.com.

Is there a way to block all posts with links to that site?

Preferably on Firefox, as I don't use an app.

It's the handle of a water kettle. Behind the circuit board is nothing. There is also no other circuit board in the kettle. Is the yellow thing the beeper? Thanks for any help 🙏

Any thoughts on this one?

Just in case anyone needs an eli5 (not me, obviously, I totally understood how it works 🙄)

Of course! I'll simplify everything for you.

Imagine you have a toy box with a secret toy hidden inside. This app works in a similar way to hide and protect your secret number (PIN).

How it hides your PIN:

1. PIN in a Puzzle: The app places your PIN in a puzzle-like grid and fills up the rest with random numbers. It's like hiding a toy among many other toys.

   • Even the app doesn't know where your secret toy (PIN) is in the grid.
   • If someone tries to peek over your shoulder, they won't easily figure out which toy is your secret one.

2. Special Keyboard: Instead of using the regular way of typing, the app gives you a special keyboard inside it.

   • This makes it hard for sneaky apps to see what you type.
   • Also, the buttons on this keyboard keep changing places, so if someone is trying to see where you touch, they'll get confused.

How it keeps things safe inside:

1. Magic Lock (Encryption): The app uses a magic spell (called AES) to lock your secret toy so that even if someone gets it, they can't play with it without the magic key.

2. Secret Name-Tag (Hashing): Every toy (PIN) gets a secret name-tag that only the app can read. It's like writing a name in a language only the app understands.

3. Strong Password: If you ever forget things and need a backup way to get your toy, the app has a super-strong password system (called Argon2id).

What happens when you use the app:

1. Starting the App: The app looks for your toys (PINs) using the magic key and shows you their secret name-tags.

2. Picking a Toy (PIN): When you choose a toy by its name-tag, the app shows you the toy in its puzzle grid, but hidden among other toys.

3. Adding a New Toy (PIN): If you get a new toy, you can give it a secret spot in the grid and a secret name-tag. The app will use its magic spell to lock it up safe.

In short: This app is like a magical toy box. It hides your secret toys (PINs) in clever ways and uses special magic to keep them safe.

There used to be XClipper

But it's not developed anymore because, according to the developer Kaustubh Patange:

with Android 10, Google removed clipboard monitoring through the background process. [...] After quite a lot of research, I discovered a hack that enables clipboard monitoring for Android 10 devices. Although this feature is still in BETA with lot's of functionality missing. I made this project open source so developers can contribute their solution to this project.

What happened with this "hack" and the findings of Mr. Patange?

Did Android simply kill the possibility of such a sync function?

Microsoft's own Android Keyboard Swiftkey (yea I know, but I really need some functions of it) allows the syncing of clipboard content between Android and Windows. However, I heard that it's bad security and privacy practice to even enable clipboard history on Windows. I disabled it and use CopyQ.

However, it would be super nice to see something like XClipper for Android/Windows. 

Any chance?

Upscayl lets you enlarge and enhance low-resolution images using advanced AI algorithms. Enlarge images without losing quality, it's almost like magic! 🎩🪄 Upscayl is a cross-platform application built with the Linux-first philosophy. This means that Linux users receive pre-release builds earlier but Upscayl itself is available on all major desktop operating systems :)

now look what this baby can do ...

Huh? A sparkly fart in the sky? 🧐

Holy fuck, a Supernova! Cosmic spectacle of incomprehensible dimensions! 🤯

I wanted to implement the pics into the post via

![alt text](image url)

But it was not working for the upscayl version, sorry.