+1 would like to see some screenshots of your fantasy desktops!
Personally I’ve found my happy medium by using Ubuntu desktop as my daily driver with a few old Windows VMs e.g. for when I’m feeling nostalgic or need to run a pre-enshittified app. I use Proton Web (proxy for browsing 90s era websites) on Windows 95, and Adobe Creative Suite 6 under Windows 7.
Woah, that’s way more invasive than I thought. Thanks for the info.
I’m outside the US and have only vaguely been following the Flock camera epidemic. What’s the threat here exactly? That Flock will have record of where you work? Or that they’ll have photos of your face or vehicle? Are you on LinkedIn? Props to you if you aren’t, but if you are, anyone can already see where you work, what you look like, and make an educated guess as to your start and finish times. For what it’s worth I wouldn’t like my workplace putting them up either.
As I look into the various recommendations I’m leaning towards something like this. The asset management tools look great for, well, managing assets, but I think a wiki will still be more suited to the level of documentation I want to keep.
It may be possible to get something usable, but why reinvent the wheel when there are so many tried and tested options out there already? Part of the problem is I don’t know exactly what I want yet, and seeing not only what others are using, but how they’re using it is incredibly helpful. IMO this real world experience isn’t something gen AI can replicate. Thank you for the suggestion though.
Consider your threat model - figure out what you want to protect against, how you can achieve it, and then decide if it’s worth it. For example if you don’t want your ChatGPT transcripts read out at your funeral, just don’t log in. Or create an account that’s not linked to your regular email / real name. If you’re concerned you’ll be identified by cookies, use an ad blocker. IP address? Use a VPN. Each measure adds a layer of privacy, but probably just using a throwaway email is enough.
Surprised no one else has chimed in with this yet - but what is your threat model? Are you conducting terrorist activities? Good luck. Are you wanting private messaging between you and your friends - it’s probably fine - definitely better than texting. I will temper this with just keep in mind anything you send to someone could be screenshot, their partner could see it etc. You need to figure out who your potential adversary is before deciding if a communication channel is “safe”. First ask yourself “safe from what?”.
I tried Jellyfin a few months back as a Plex replacement, but I can’t seem to get reliable playback on iPad/iOS. I’ve tried the native app, Infuse and Swiftfin to no avail. On the rare occurrence the app finds and connects to the server(over local network), they don’t seem to support transcoding of non-native formats such as x265. Can anyone confirm they have this working on iOS?
What happens if you don’t have any mainstream social media accounts? What happens if you say you don’t have any mainstream social media accounts? What happens if you give them a the handle of a respectable “friend’s” account? How far do they go to actually verify or enforce this?
Hey mate, fellow Aussie here in almost identical situation, minus the “anonymous” Facebook account. I have one from decades ago in my real name that I haven’t used except for 2 Marketplace purchases in the last 15 years. I’ve tried creating new accounts in fake names, on public Wi-Fi with no luck. In one case the account was flagged for review and never approved, and in the other I was suspended until I would upload a selfie (how about no?). Do you have any tips on how you established a ghost account in the first place?
I don’t think Microsoft recorded the URLs, just activity from a GDID and IP address at particular timestamps. The authorities would also have subpoenaed records from other accounts they knew were his e.g. Snapchat and Facebook. The GDID was just a way of assigning activity from his device to particular VPN endpoints at particular times. The point of the story is essentially that the GDID allowed them to track his device across multiple IP addresses. But this wouldn’t have been possible without at least some other pieces of the puzzle such as knowing which was his Microsoft account, or Facebook account etc. in the first place.