Just one more day and it would have been gone forever.

I had to look up the panopticon reference, so I thought to share with others: ‘A proposed prison of supervision, so arranged that the inspector can see each of the prisoners at all times without being seen by them: proposed by Jeremy Bentam.’

I like the ‘ground up’ approach they mention that doesn’t rely on insecure ‘adversaries’. I’ll check it out soon.

It’s true (and it feels a bit dusty), but it’s still meeting my needs. I hope it’ll get picked up again or perhaps another project will replace it.

Say the line BartGPT

I installed a custom launcher that’s close to the stock one on my Pixel 3 specifically to make it possible to remove the Google Search widget. Now I have a Firefox widget that points to DDG.

If any are interested, the launcher is Lawn Chair, and it can be installed via F-droid.

This is not a real term, but maybe Freudian Hint?

One cool thing is that the comments are self documenting. I read the program earlier and it’s quite clear what it does. Excellent accomplishment, dear colleague!

I’ve was doing the same until yesterday, then I found StreetComplete. Since then, it’s so much easier to enter addresses. So much easier to add addresses while out walking than to carry a notepad or memorize numbers.

I’ve avoided Microsoft for years, but recently I’ve been reducing my Google use. I’m still on Gmail, and Street View is special, but I’ve been slowly replacing Google utilization:

• Search: Duck Duck Go
• Maps: Open Street Map, OsmAnd
• Drive: Extra Hard Drives
• Chrome: Firefox
• Home: Home Assistant (WIP)

Upcoming projects include replacing my phone’s Google-built Android image and transitioning to ProtonMail.

It’s not one big project, it’s lots of projects. It’s worthwhile, though. Along the way, I’ve reconnected with my love of good tech and I’ve gained new hobbies like privacy and contributing to OSM.

After using it since Lucid Lynx 10.04, I switched from Ubuntu to Mint last weekend. I’m lazy about distros these days, and I really didn’t want to switch, but Firefox instability was driving me nuts. The web browser must be reliable, IMO. It’s a fundamental requirement for a desktop OS, and this problem didn’t exist before snaps.

OP, here’s another one! This one’s also pointing out incorrect facts about Arkansas!

There are some good ideas in this comment, but I’d like to counter that the cautionary tales are an instigating factor in implementing safety for new tech. The wealthy few shouldn’t get to blindly and unilaterally decide the future of all through careless and unrestricted development of world-altering tech.

Goodness, that needs to stop. I’ll concede it’s a life saving tool during natural disasters or in places where tap water is unavailable, but the rest of the time it’s a symbol of waste and ignorance. On my walks I see at least one half full bottle of water every day on the ground. Some dummy paid real money for it, then couldn’t be bothered to even dispose of it properly.

If we keep doubling, will I eventually be a person on the tracks? There are a finite number of people, so eventually I would be, right? So, passing the buck would be equivalent to handing my fate to a stranger.

OTOH, if there are an infinite number of people, then this thought experiment is creating people out of thin air. Do these imaginary people’s rhetorical lives even matter?

Either way, it seems better to kill 1 person at the start.

This is a positive take. No OS is perfect, but there are lots of reasons to give a Linux distro a whirl. Tech right now IMO has become disappointing, but Linux continues to be a shining beacon of fun and hope.

Did somebody say fire sale?

Yay, it’s Story Time! There will be milk and cookies, right?

Right?

This is something that makes me sad. Stallman and Raymond were heros to me when I was starting out 20 years ago. I guess it goes to show that people are flawed no matter how talented.

This is a good method. I love technology, but tech companies have become increasingly icky. Trends over the last decade have finally soured me on Google. I just can’t justify using or buying their services.