Good points. Yes, I do prefer to give an instance at least the benefit of the doubt. Difference tho really with Fediverse is you have to search and follow stuff to see it. It does not get inserted into your feed through ads or people playing the algorithms. So generally I’m only seeing what I follow. I suppose we do need to choose our instances wisely. Certainly, if an instance (not just a user on it) is really spamming or impacting on other instances, I suppose there can be grounds to block it. But we have not all been spammed yet by Threads. I don’t like Threads (cancelled all my accounts years ago) but I left a few good friends and family there that I would like to reconnect with, and follow them. I also like that my metadata stays on the Fediverse side, so I don’t need a Threads account or their app tracking me.

I just would not like to be denied the option to even reconnect with my family and friends. Same goes for WhatsApp interoperating on Signal protocol - I have many friends and colleagues I left behind on WhatsApp, and would like to reconnect again with them.

Especially when any individual can decide themselves to block Threads or Lemmy.

I agree 100%. I don’t need someone else overriding my existing right to decide whether I want to block or not (where is that going to stop). Anyway, I connect and follow individuals, not their whole instance. I’m not going to see anything from Threads unless I choose to follow someone. And if any friend reboosts stuff I don’t like (from Threads or anywhere else) I block that “friend”.

341 Mbps down, 144 Mbps up at about $65pm in South Africa (advertised 300/150).

KDE Plasma on Manjaro Linux

• Desktop folder pinned to left screen for working stuff
• Conky on my 3rd screen for monitoring resources
• Plasma Activity folder on 3rd screen for general folders used often (On Gaming and Video Recording activities this folder differs for those activities)
• Golobonotes pinned notes on 3rd screen fore commonly accessed references

A lot of speculation that does end with this in the article:

"After discussing her case with experts, Matsapulina now believes her Telegram messages may have been compromised by a form of spyware. When she was told that a hacking device would need to be physically nearby to infiltrate her phone, a memory resurfaced: At times before her arrest, she had noticed an unmarked truck with a dome on its roof parked outside her building. She had even jokingly mentioned it to friends on Telegram. Now, she remembered, as the police were banging on her door that morning, she’d spotted the same mystery vehicle parked outside. By the time the police stormed her home, the vehicle was gone.

Matsapulina has since started using Telegram again."

Most messaging apps are vulnerable on the client side with spyware, no matter what E2EE exists along the way.

It stands for Long Range, so would otherwise have been LR.

The post here is a link to an online survey being done by the Signal Community. Users need to follow the link to answer the survey if they wish (but it means creating yet another new account which I’m getting pretty tired of as I’m now passing over 900 different logins all with unique passwords etc ;-)

I’m reading this on Boost (once off payment) and no ads…

I’ve been using the Proton Mail Bridge for a while, which allows Betterbird and Thunderbird (amongst others) to securely work with Proton Mail.

Yes Linux Mint. You CAN migrate later to other distros without losing your data so feel free to test others out later when you feel ready and know more about them.

That was the instance I signed up at, about 10 mins before I posted this link. Lemmy also went down in the last day, so nothing is bulletproof. But the site is working as I’m browsing and commenting right now.

There Matrix discussion forum may be best place to ask - https://matrix.to/#/#mbin:melroy.org

No, the pull requests are to do with submissions of source code to the core project. The project owner has to review and accept those changes for them to happen (or not).

kbin had not been accepting some commits and apparently were moving quite slowly with newer features. So, this is more like a dev version type implementation. It is more “open” to changes and commits apparently. Not more “open” as in open-source.

Saw somewhere it was said the kbin side was going too slowly and not accepting some commits that their community gave. Some wanted to move quicker with newer features and enhancements.

Shouldn’t be necessary, as Google accounts have a setting for notifying addresses you provide after 3 months of no activity - https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3036546?hl=en. The account deletion was for accounts not accessed for two years, and I think it excluded those with YouTube video channels.

Thanks, yes that is actually a slightly more comprehensive backup, looking at their GitHub project at https://github.com/vikdevelop/SaveDesktop, and they have a Flatpak installation as well.

Linux and FLOSS unfortunately don’t have budgets, and rely on logic and common sense. Microsoft has a big lobbying budget, gets in to see senior politicians and decision-makers, and then sponsors training, digital villages, etc. Yes, it costs a country overall much more than Linux, but it is easier for schools/gov depts and middle-men make some actual money in their pockets. That’s what Linux and FLOSS end up against. What would turn it around is having strong local businesses driving training and making tender bids to install and support Linux and FLOSS. A government or school wants to have it done for them. That’s the reality, unfortunately.

They know little about open source. Microsoft is exclusively in schools and government, and that is what they grow up with. They probably know more about pirating Windows, than using Linux legally. There is also a good kick-back in terms of MS license mark-ups for middle-men businesses. One would hope there is some mandatory education around different OSs as I’m sure kids would love to explore and modify software.