Historical Chinese drama, especially the palace intreague ones. The better ones are high budget productions with the most beautiful aestethics and well thought out stories. Instead of seasons with set episodes they just have shows of 4 to 100 episodes. Due to that each issue can take the time it needs to be told, without the need of season finals and such, making the pacing very natural. The better ones are also not always predictable and keep you hooked. Most western dramas can’t compare, exceptions like Julian Fellowes’ shows asside.

I would suggest watching 延禧攻略/Story of Yanxi Palace (not the spin-off on Netflix!) if you want to give it a try. It’s not too old, has a good story, and is quite fast-paced despite it’s length, making it a great one for starters. It’s also easily available with good subtitles, you can find it on Viki for example.

Average Joe wants an easy all-in-one solution. That’s what Google, Apple and Microsoft offer. An ecosystem. If you want to fight that, you need to be able to offer that. So that’s what Proton is doing.

Of course it’s better to have it seperated. And the security and privacy nerds will likely keep doing that anyways. But Average Joe doesn’t want to take a hassle and rather looses privacy than do that.

Issue is, things are only as secure as the least secure point. Average Joe using Google and Microsoft means your data also goes there when interacting. When Average Joe is swayed by a place that is privacy-friendly ánd convinient, it makes your weakest link also stronger.

Meanwhile, Average Joe is also more save then when he was using Google or Microsoft services. Even when he would be less save than if he had his stuff seperated.

It helps everyone.

With that in mind, I applaud it. But I won’t use it. I use Proton for mail, Joplin for notes (encrypting them in Joplin and syncing with NextCloud), and my passwords are also elsewhere than ProtonPass.

Good leaves on the right temperature. Nothing added. Tasty, healthy, and calorie free.

Unless making very specific a milk tea, then add milk. Don’t do it too often, it ruins the last 2 points mentioned before.

For one, USA isn’t actually much better than China when it comes to tracking and privacy. They just have better PR about it. But in reality they equally suck.

That asside. There isn’t some secret tracking chip, but any kind of wireless network will be used to track you by different parties. Cellulair, Wi-Fi (including Wi-Fi signaling when it’s “off”), Bluetooth, etc. This is a fact regardless of OS or where the phone is made, as tracking often already starts to occur by catching the signals you send out.

As such, just degoogling won’t resolve tracking issues in and off itself, it’s just one of many steps to get less tracking.

Phones physically in China, regardless off where it’s made, tend to get tracking software installed. Just take a burner if you ever go there. But that’s not hardware. And most “USA” phones are also made in China anyways…

Wijko saté sauce. It goes with almost anything. I’ll have no shame in it. My Asian partner does.

No and no. It’s not too late, and just watching sitcons won’t teach you enough to start speaking. But if you just start actual studying and practicing you can learn it just fine. Watching TV can be used to practice listening, but on it’s own it’s not enough unless you’re a wonderkid.

Maybe that’s your machine being oddly programmed. Every machine I’ve seen unlocks right after it finishes it’s cycle. It can also be stopped and unlocked anywhere halfway, but it takes some time to drain the water (usually a few seconds, not a full minute like you mentioned originally).

My issue is more with trackers than ads anyways, altrough ads that block so much that using the site normally becomes a pain in the ass are the other extend which is sadly also getting more and more common. But sadly most websites and services that let you pay to get rid of ads will still put everything full of trackers…

Also, there are quite some sites that just copy content or or have an AI write content, made to rank high in searches, then is putbfull of adds to make money. Those are automated money-farms, and deserve blockers.

I block everything, ads and trackers alike. Somewhat regularily I’m on the web without and it’s always a great reminder why I normally do use them.

But I also pay for multiple websites and services I use regularily despite them working fine without paying or having “free” alternatives. After all, nothing is free and I rather pay with money than with data. And I also want to be paid for my work, and I can only imagine so do others. So I do agree with you there, and I highly encourage people to pay for stuff.

But I won’t feel bad for blocking that shit, also not on the websites I don’t financially support. Because most of the time they are the ones that made it impossible to use their website privacy-friendly without blocking stuff anyways, even if I’m willing to pay.

I generally drink Zero. If the sugar is the different, could that be why?

Zero taste the same as regular to me but less sweet, but since I rarely drink regular I don’t have the exact taste of that in my mouth.

I can only say Coca Cola taste the same in The Netherlands, Germany, and Vietnam. While I can generally tell quite well when I get a different cola then a Coca Cola one. Based on that there should be some kind of international standard?

I can imagine US being different due to less strict rules around food than EU (much American junkfood is altered in the EU market due to this). But then I’m suprised Vietnam taste the same for that same reason 🤔.

Last time I was on vacation alone I googled the few things I knew I wanted to see/do, and the rest of the time I just went out and see where I end up. Looking where locals go and do that is also a great trick.

My experience is that most easily online findable things are very tourist-y. I preffer to see more of the non-tourist stuff. Knowing a local is then the best, but by lack there off, just go with the flow.

About 5 years ago I had some issues with a GPU driver not working out of the box, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed. That issue was more Nvidia than Manjaro tho, and by now it does work out of the box. Otherwise no, not really.

Manjaro KDE. Easier and more stable than Arch, but still able to use Pacman, the AUR, and Arch documentation (obviously, I don’t use their support channels, but Manjaro forums are helpful with issues). Been running it for years as main OS on all my PCs here.

I think ActivityPup isn’t even integrated into Threads yet? On release they said soon, a week later they said it was long-time planning. Haven’t heard about it since.

Nowadays I just wear boring old tees and jeans, with most tees being merchandise of games, computer stuff, or music. But nothing too out of the ordenary, just your average nerd. And I’m happy that way.

When I was younger I was deep into heavy metal, especially underground black, and dressed the part. Those days, while I hold them dear, are long gone. Now I listen to nearly anything depending on my mood. Beside hardcore and related stuff, as that’ll give me a migraine. Club EDM is cool tho. My taste is now going from that old underground black metal all the way to K/J/C/V-pop with nearly anything in between. Springsteen gotta be my all time favourite artist.

Fcitx5 for Android has decent Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese. I don’t think it has handwriting tho. Otherwise you have Trime, which is Rime for Android but I’ve never got it to work properly (unlike Rime on Linux which works fine).

I mainly use simplified, so don’t pin me on traditional options. I use Florisboard for English.

Tfw you’re an Dutchy and simple home-prepaired sandwitches (read two slices of bread with some butter and cheese between them, nothing fancy), are the countries national breackfast and lunch. Warm food is for dinner traditionally 🤣.

Either way, sandwitches (no need to limit to peanut butter, a lot can be put on bread!), salads (pasta or normal), fruit, veggie, cheese, and certain type of meat (like smoked or dried sausage, or beef). They all make great parts for cold meals you can keep in your bag till lunch (speaking from experience). Some cheese & meat are even packed per small packages for easy take along as snack usage.

I would suggest you do go to restaurants a few times, just to try the local cuisine (or their variation of other cuisines). But it probably will be expensive for you indeed. Whenever I’m in Asia, I feel rich (and I’m really not). Even Japan, who is often said to be expensive, is cheaper than my country. Especially when it comes to food.

Privacy is not a black & white thing. Every step you take matters. And being entirely private without digital footprint is impossible unless you isolate yourself from the internet entirely.

To answer your question. Yes, they spy on you. To what degree depends on the OS and your settings. But they always cost you some privacy.

But it’s never useless to take other steps just because you don’t want to or can’t switch OS. Because you’ll still give them less data if you do. They might still have info on you. But the less, the better.

Taking easier steps like switching mail provider and other services you use to privacy-minded ones are a good and easy start anyone can do. Replacing apps/programs on your system with FOSS or privacy-minded ones is another good one.

Even the biggest noob can make a Proton account and use it instead of Gmail/Outlook. Use 1Password instead of your device/browser’s password manager. Use LibreOffice instead of MS Office. Check F-droid for apps before Google Play (and perhaps even use Aurora when you do need it). Use FireFox instead of Edge or Chrome. Install a FOSS keyboard on your phone. Get rid of Social Media. Use Signal instead of WhatsApp. Those are just some example of easy my-grandpa-can-do-this level of difficulty options that already greatly improve your privacy (in fact, after I installed it for him, my grandpa does many of these!). Is it as private as an extremely hardened custom device by a security expert? Nah, but it’s definitly much beter than a default device full of big-tech apps. Even if you just do 1 of them!

Since every step counts, I think we should apploud people for caring and starting to take steps instead of deminish them for not going in to the max. Changes like this are slow, especially with a big mass of people. The more people show they care, the more privacy-minded alternatives grow and show up and the more normal it becomes to care about privacy.

Not sure which game was first, but I have early memories of Tomb Raider, COD2 and Larry on a Win95 PC. My first used console was an PS2 while the first I owned was an original Xbox. My first used handheld an original GameBoy, with the Advance SP being the first I owned myself.

The oldest ones I used are different tho. I’m not that old but I went back to try a few older devices over the years.

it would be possible to bypass the correct accounting of funds. Financial fraud

Well, sure but it’ll be quite difficult to hide a large increase in revenue still. Large unussual transactions generally have to be flagged by banks, so receiving and moving around revenue of sold data from your non-profit wouldn’t be thát easy unless they only allow crypto or cash. Surely it’s possible, but financial fraud on that level is quite difficult and often falls trough sooner or later. Or, the other option is that they don’t earn that much from it making it easy to hide, but that sounds like a lot of effort and potential risk for little gain.

Either way, the financial numbers is just one of the reasons. But trust is never build on one thing, it’s built on the combination of them. With all things I mentioned, I don’t exactly get the feeling it’s all hanging on finacial fraud.

The question is also how to check the traffic on the iPhone, if there are even no monitoring tools there.

Use a network you controll (like your home WiFi) and check in- and outgoing traffic network wide instead of on-device.

You cannot check other peoples stuff all the time, but I’d suggest not sending sensitive information to people you don’t trust as they could leak it (be it on purpose or not). And depending on level of sensitivity, just speak face-to-face in a private place. There is always a form of digital footprint when doing stuff digital. In the end, you should always assume that nothing is 100% safe, and anything cán be hacked. Trusting digital communication to be 100% safe is foolish. Look at situations like the Encrochat debacle for example. The question is more, which risks are worth it in your threat model. For most people, Signal is good enough as the risks it does have aren’t in their threat model at all.