For a future with privacy, not mass surveillance, Germany must stand firmly against client-side scanning in the Chat Control proposal [PDF - Statement from Meredith Whittaker, President, Signal Foundation]

If you want to dive into the rabbit hole of AI companionship, watch these videos:

Choosing AI Wife Over Real Girlfriend and Daughter

Marrying AI

It’s hillarious and sad.

Usually I recommend using cobalt.tools for downloading either the video or the audio file. Unfortunately, cobalt.tools isn’t able to download from Youtube at the moment due to restrictions from Youtubes side.

I found a workaround, albeit it is a bit complicated, but suitable for an occasional download: I installed FreeTube. Each video offers download options. However, if you want a better quality than 360p, it offers to download video and audio separately. Look for the highest quality. Both video and audio file can be merged using VLC player after downloading.

After selecting the desired file(s) in FreeTube, you deternine where the files are to be saved, and then the download starts. There is no visual confirmation that the file is being downloaded. Eventually it appears on your computer. The download is slow, it takes almost the duration of the video that is to be downloaded.

After downloading both the video and the audio file, open them in VLC. Follow one of the guides when searching for video audio merge vlc. You can also save the merged file.

That’s a Spotify Leak /s

This reminds me of the old Apple Macbook chargers where the cable was permanently attached to the charger itself. These cables became brittle and discolored from white to yelloy (they looked like they have been in a heavy smokers’ household when exposed to UV light, which is always). When I tried to fix the brittle cables with tape, it got worse and probably due to a chemical reaction between the material of the cable and the sticky glue of the tape they completely disintegrated.

Your headphones are beyond repair. It looks like they have been exposed to some chemicals. Did you at one point in time clean them with perhaps an aggressive cleaner (toilet/ household cleaner)? It could be possible that some cleaner got inside the cable through a micro-crack in the cables’ insulation and reacted with the copper inside.

You should replace them. The ooze is probably not healthy.

You are right. From what I saw Linux-based OSs have come a long way. The issue with Linux is when it comes to professional environments, that are not IT-related: There are niche programs that are used in certain professions that were written to work on Windows computers exclusively. They are not availiable for other OSs, because they are not wide spread or popular with non-professionals. Also, Microsoft Office (especially Outlook and Excel) is very dominant within the professional field - up to a point that it can’t be changed easily. All this does not apply to users who use Linux computers outside a professional enviroment, as there are alternatives for popular programs and services already.

I can relate. It is like those tool bars that were installed automatically if you weren’t attentive while installing software when Windows XP still was around.

They like to suffer, I let them.

Me too. I always suggest to them to install UBlock origin (or any ad blocker compatible to their browser), along with add ons that get rid of cookie consent banners. If they follow my advice, I will invest my time into helping them to make their OS a little bit less annoying (e.g. switching off telemetry data and uninstalling Copilot). If they can’t be bothered with at least installing an ad blocker, I will not waste my time on them. They clearly want to suffer.

Edit: The screenshot displays a Windows Vista UI. These Toolbars must have been aorund also while Windows Vista was around. I didn’t know that, because Vista made me settle into the other walled garden.

Yeah, Big Pants is into this. What if instead of phone cases manufacturers sell pants to carry the phone around. Imagine…
… the iPants. Specially made for carrying the latest iPhone with you. For just 2999,-. You can’t wash it tho, and it will not be compatible with the upcoming model.

It’s not even flagship phones. Even the cheaper ones are huge. When I had to replace my LG phone (6") I went to an electronics store to see what’s on the market right now. Of all phones availiable there only were two android phones (I don’t know which brand) that were sized similarly to my LG phone. Both of them were in the 800-€-price-range.

Similar with iPhones. Almost all models exceeded the 6" screen size, except for one or two models which were in the 1000-€-price-range. They also had an iPhone SE there, that had the desired size. I bought this as a refurbished one online for a fraction of the original price.

It’s harder and harder to find a phone that has a size that either fits in your hand or that can be carried inside your pants without restricting your ability to sit down while the phone is inside the pocket.

Apples eco system does have pretty good safety features. As far as I have heard, Apple is indeed not up to sell user data outside their eco system. However, they collect data from their users and use it for their own purposes. It is always a good advice to go through each setting (of phone as well as laptop) and evaluate if it is needed for functionality (e.g. location services or access for the camera or contacts). Not only will this measurement reduce the amount of (usually) unneccessary data that is being transmitted otherwise, but it will also improve battery life as well.

Do you mean iCloud Mail? I assume it is as secure as all the other iCloud services themselves. Personally, I don’t use iCloud (except for the “Find my” feature). But you can set up any third party Email service with the Apple’s Mail app. I use Mailbox.org as email provider and have it set up with the Mail app on my iPhone. It works flawlessly. Third party email providers often come with additional costs (the lowest tier with Mailbox.org was 12 € each year when I switched from a freemail provider a couple of years ago). I don’t know if iCloud Mail is free of charge, other than additional storage space.

HP printers are the avantgarde of enshittification when it comes to gadgets, although the earliest way I can think of selling a product similarly to a subscription is Gillette shavers. They basically sold a handle, and the first set of razor blades were free. After that one had to buy their proprietary and overpriced blades. HP managed to take this principle into the realm of peripheral devices.

Nowadays other gadgets have been “inspired” by HP in therms of enshittification. For instance, there are headphones that require an app to be set up properly, as the manufactorer can save implementing a physical button and can get tracking data form the user.

The sticker on the USB port is just another (physical) dark pattern.

Try cobalt.tools. It does what you want to do inside a browser tab (although I only used it on desktop so far), but it might work with an IPhone as well. You can convert YouTube links into either mp3, ogg, wave and opus files (with various bitrates), or mp4 or webm video files (with various resulutions). I use it constantly.

something about leopards and faces

It’s a snat. They are not easy to catch, because they are fast. Also, they never land on their shell.

I live in Germany.

I looked it up. Neat concept, but it is availiable within US only. There is nothing similar availiable at my country - at least, not that I know of.

Did you follow the tutorial I posted? If so, the English-translated part may not have the right terminology. I followed the instructions on the linked website: https://www.404media.co/paypal-personalized-shopping-opt-out/. I suppose, this is appliccable worldwide.

To me, it is. I don’t have a credit card - I never got one offered by my bank (…which makes one think…). Back in the “early days” (early 2000s - mostly on Ebay) it was quite common to recieve the bank information of the seller after purchase. Then I had to wire the money to the sellers’ account. There was no online banking. It could take up to a week to wire the money. After the seller recieved the payment, the ordered item got sent with postal service. When Paypal was introduced, it was a game changer: the seller recieved the money instantly, and could send the purchased item right away.

How do you do online shopping then? Most websites offer Paypal as a payment method, among credit cards. Or do you pay with a credit card?