Not really but it does anguish me to think about it and has forced me to reconsider how I’m going to use the internet going forward. That open access to it can be taken away at any moment and now is the time to start downloading what I can.

We already see certain countries where websites require you to create an account linked to your ID in order to post, or even scroll further than a page down. It can happen here too. Of course, it’s not going to change how I’m going to do my banking or work since anything I do for those is already attached to my real name. But it could be the end of my forum activity and browsing of “unfavorable topics” as I know it.

For sure, even if it’s not perfect. Ready-to-use without electricity or internet, no payment processor shenanigans, and not nearly as comprehensive a system of tracking even if you account for serial numbers.

Haven’t noticed anything unusual as a uBlock + Librewolf user, but I wouldn’t be surprised. What exactly happens when you don’t use strict mode? Are some ads still getting through?

It’s all a vicious cycle fuelled by greed I’d say. I probably wouldn’t be using a full-fledged ad-blocker if the web were still simple HTML pages with a couple narrow columns of static (maybe GIF at the top and bottom banners) ads on either side. A pop-up blocker would suffice. But pages got heavier, more bandwidth was needed, more profit was desired, more visitors blocked ads outright, and so on.

The other day I was playing around in Chromium without ublock and happened upon a pcworld . com link. The site was so bloated and putrefied that my computer came to a crawl in a matter of seconds. I don’t understand how anyone is supposed to go through their site without an adblocker.

As much as I have ideals for my technology use, I will admit that

• I have some audio in the background playing half of my waking hours
• If I’m tired of words, I’ll put on music, vice versa
• If there’s an unanticipated pause, I first check if it’s still playing correctly
• Yes I am afraid of being stuck with my own thoughts when I go to bed
• I think of the time spent waiting in line as nothing but wasted unless I use it as an opportunity, perhaps to read a saved tab on my phone
• All of this might not be the cause of it, but it definitely doesn’t help my mental fog and fatigue

I don’t, but there’s always someone else in my family who’s getting sick whenever we fly together. I’ve worn masks to the airport ever since the pandemic. Also tend to fall asleep shortly after takeoff, so I’m well-rested upon arrival.

Excessive. Spread across several devices and countless bookmarks.html exports from old system installs. I am too busy to revisit or even curate them.

In my mind, I assume that I will be given notice of the day that the internet will be closed off, when Youtube ads will be completely unblockable, and I will rush to download every last article and video in those bookmarks, then live happily ever after off-grid.

I would be too lazy to, unless I eventually encounter my ‘gateway drug’ to i2p.

In any case, minimize the number of parties that will have their hands on your data. Uninstall anything that’s unnecessary, compartmentalize personal work in a privacy-respecting browser and office suite, and avoid unofficial Windows ISOs.

If your school is going to install monitoring software on it, consider the laptop compromised. Only do coursework, accessing things licensed through the school, exams, the bare necessities, on the Windows laptop. Start saving up for a (refurbished) laptop to learn and use Linux without risk to your work laptop.

If now is not the time to buy another laptop, consider installing Linux on a second SSD, if a slot is available, or even a USB drive, if you’re allowed to boot from one. Just back up and if possible remove the Windows SSD before installing so it’s not overwritten by accident.

Be judicious with debloat scripts as they can interfere with some more invasive programs (e.g. Adobe suite, Autodesk) you may need for your studies. Consider making full disk backups before doing anything drastic. Anyway, if you can’t or won’t use LTSC, the yearly Windows updates can and will undo your hard work debloating and ticking privacy checkboxes.

At the end of the day, Windows is closed-source and we can’t be completely sure what it’s doing behind our back. It’s fine for a dedicated work device, but the time spent on taming it for personal privacy could also be spent getting another machine and getting to know Linux.

How odd (and maybe disheartening) to consider that it can be cheaper to fly and expend all the energy need to lift a big metal tube up into the air and back down, than it is to travel along the rails.

Pardon my ignorance, why would those be suspicious?

I’m particular about the temperature at which I eat eggs. Personally couldn’t do cold egg salad at all.

A bottle of Fiji water for 1.25 USD

Are you able to source “IoT” cards without ID verification?

Always did in apartments. Closing the bedroom door gives me another layer between the neighbors and street traffic. I added rubber door sweeps and seals to further dampen the noise. In a detached home, I’d leave the door open during the day but close it when I sleep for added fire safety.

I used to have a downstairs neighbor who stomped loudly and my pleas didn’t work. So I got a subwoofer and played some low-frequency white noise when I needed to drown it out. After reading your comments, I’d highly recommend this if you can’t move out yet.

They seriously need to build more apartments and condos with concrete instead of thin wood in the US. I miss my old apartment when I was in Germany. Nice sturdy concrete walls so my neighbor could blast music all day without bothering me at all.

Got a job at a BYOD workplace, so I ended up having to repurpose my old devices as my work devices. Fortunately I had many from my hoard to choose from. Still get taken aback when I realize that most of my coworkers have all their work stuff connected to their personal devices without a second thought.

For desktops, zram with no swapping to disk. Hasn’t given me any trouble yet, except for the rare news website (it’s always news websites) with a horrific memory leak.

For laptops, zram plus a low-priority swap file for suspend-then-hibernate. My old laptop drains a fair bit in sleep mode and my new one doesn’t have proper S3 suspend because microslop is pushing manufacturers to only support S0 idle.

Always a file, never a swap partition. Everything that can be encrypted lives inside the encrypted root partition.

“why dont you just google it smh”

It’s fine to watch people critique Linux and compare it with Windows, but in my honest opinion, Mutahar is not worth your time.