I wouldn't put Afghanistan and Iraq on the same level.

Bin Laden (and Al-Qaeda) was in Afghanistan and they refused to hand him over. That invasion had the support of NATO and even Russia and China. Why? Because Al-Qaeda existing doesn't benefit anyone and they were behind the attacks.

Iraq was different. It was mostly a US and British invasion, under false pretences. Iraq used to have chemical weapons and even used them against civilians back in the 80s, started a war with Iran and invaded Kuwait, but those were not the reasons given for the invasion...

Now, why wasn't Bush charged with any crimes? For the same reason nothing will happen to Putin in Russia. What are you going to do, invade the country to arrest the president?

Is it fair? No. But it's how the world works.

Since users choose their gender in the app, this has some potential to be used for more nefarious purposes, no?

Not a big fan of discriminatory options like this, btw.

Hmm, I'm not experiencing that. Could Android (well, the flavour used by your phone) be killing background apps too aggressively or something like that?

Edit: could also be a RAM thing. I have 12GB.

1.5x speed is your friend, but (from memory) essentially it's a video where he:

• Criticises Linus/LTT/LMG for their handling of the initial review/problem and what happened with the female employee. Also points out their incompetence, fuck ups, and Linus not reacting as he should.

• Criticises Gamers Nexus/Steve for the way he presents opinions as facts, nitpicking, how youtube channels should managed/updated, and his "gatekeeping". Also mentions the comments about LMG hiring people from the industry and how they leave out important information about the people being hired as it doesn't fit the narrative.

• Criticises the community for being fanbois, sending threats, asking for Linus "head", lack of understanding how content creation works and the difference between small and larger operations, the reaction to some of the official replies. Also, the difference between one person (eg: Linus) and the organisation (eg: LMG/LTT) and how Linus (or any "main" dude) probably doesn't read or reply to most of emails.

• Goes into content production from a point of view of a content producer (written and now video), the logistics of that and how it can be hard to fix mistakes, especially when different teams and people (with different areas of knowledge) are involved.

Etc. I'm probably forgetting a few things, so watching the video and reading comments there is probably a good idea.

Some planes and carriers have this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slzAcWff7nU

It costs money though, so you usually only see them on more premium carriers and larger planes.

I'm working from memory here, but I think there was an instance where there was a crash or some incident where people could see it happening on the cameras though... and it's not ideal having everyone in the plane panicking because they're going to die.

You usually want to know and control what goes into your distro, especially if we're talking about more critical systems. If you just install Ubuntu, you're handing over control to its creator, Canonical.

Even if you remove the veto power, what exactly would you expect to happen?

Bush wasn't going to be arrested and put under an international court for the same reason Putin isn't going to be arrested for invading Ukraine. You can tell them "hand him over", they say "make me", and the only way to enforce the decision involves war, which no one wants to have.

The veto power is a problem, but it's not the main problem here.

iPhones are still better when it comes to updates, but things have been slowly improving. A new Samsung flagship get's you 5 years of support (4 major upgrades + 1 of security updates). A Google Pixel it's also 5 years, but 3 major updates + 2 of security updates. Not as good, but not terrible either.

It's still a problem for old phones, but at least from now on it should be better.

We should also keep in mind that when we talk about iOS/iPhones, we're talking about one company. When we talk about Android updates, there's Samsung (now good), but also Xiaomi and OnePlus (meh), and brands that release phones with already outdated software (really bad). [edit: not to mention different price ranges.] If we're looking at $/€/£500+ iPhones, maybe we should compare them to a $/€/£500+ Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel?

And iPhones from 2015 are still getting security patches.

The iPhone from 2015 running an old iOS version is not secure. Apple will release an update to WebKit or something like that to fix something being exploited, but most bugs are not fixed. The equivalent on Android would be receiving an update to WebView via the Play Store, which the user wouldn't even notice. And this is even more true on newer Android versions that have critical system modules and features backported via Play Store updates

Apple is better than most Android brands at updating their phones and tablets, but don't make the mistake to assume you're safe using an old iOS version that was recently updated.

They do the same thing on Macs by the way. A machine gets ~7 years of support and they release a security update to old macOS versions from time to time... they get the headlines, people think they're using a secure OS, but even Apple admits that most security fixes are not backported.

I don't have anything to add in terms of solutions, but I think it's worth trying to understand why your batteries only last 1 or 2 years.

If it's because they're too low capacity for your needs and you're deep draining discharging them often, then you might be able to save money in the long term by getting a larger, more expensive UPS. If the environment where they operate is harsh (eg: too hot), maybe the fix is actually air con or something like that. And so on.

Batteries can last a long time, but you need to avoid the extremes: temperatures, state of charge, charging cycles, etc.

People will forget - like we eventually forget about everything - but the information doesn't have to disappear from the internet.

Have a website, blog, etc? Write about your experience, what you saw other people doing, the reactions, what politicians did, what you felt, etc. Archive the pages on the usual archival sites, so something lives on even after you die.

Just like some people went back to read what the newspapers wrote about the "Spanish" flu 100 years ago, someone is likely to get back to what we wrote/filmed/saved during this pandemic.

I use Telegram every day, but without end-to-end encryption (by default and on groups), it's as private as Facebook Messenger. They can read everything. The only difference is that currently people trust them more than they trust Facebook, but everything turns to shit eventually.

If Signal is too "boring" or no one uses it in your circles, try WhatsApp. Yes, it's also from Meta, but at least comms are encrypted (same protocol as Signal) and a lot of people use it.

As a normal browser user:

The browser works fine, although with time they kept adding more and more stuff that I had to disable. I could deal with it, but it's not a browser I'd recommend to most of my friends.

After a few years using Chrome and then Brave, I moved back to Firefox. Not as polished, but works fine for me.

As a Brave Rewards/Creators user:

I simply don't trust them anymore.

I used it for a while to make some money with my site. Some people used Brave (like me), so since they were blocking ads, I confirmed my site so I could get some of the automated donations the browser sends to the top sites people visited that month. I received a few payments, had everything confirmed, paid taxes on the revenue... all 100% legit, never tried to game the system or anything like that. It wasn't much, but helped with running costs.

One day I couldn't login to see my balance, but ignored it and forgot about it. Then they sent me an email asking me how I was making that money, to which I replied. Months went by without any reply... until I forced the issue. Then they banned my account without providing any reasons or a way to appeal. My site was still verified, so I assume I was still receiving donations, which I could not access. The site continued to be displayed as "verified" even after them banned me... I have no idea if they sent the donations back to the senders. I actually had to ask them to un-verify the site if they were going to keep my account banned.

The way they dealt with it was bad and receiving donations to a banned account is shady as fuck. I wouldn't use the word "hate", but I just can't trust them.

I tried the alternatives people were suggesting on reddit at the time:

• Some are clean (no trackers, etc), but change the experience too much and I want a traditional launcher.
• Some work like I expect them to, but Exodus ( https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/ ) shows lots of trackers... moving from one that might track in the future to one that already tracks is not a good move.
• Open source alternatives, which I prefer, either move very slow (Neo Launcher) or are dead.
• Not all handle gesture navigation or Android 12/13 well.

So I'm still on Nova. I did upgrade to the beta as after a certain A13 update the stable version started bugging out, but that's it. I use LineageOS and can remove internet access from apps, so that's what I did. My hope is that Neo Launcher becomes more active, but until a few things are improved/fixed, I'll stay on Nova.

I could just use the stock launcher on LineageOS btw... the reason I don't is that it's easier to backup an app and restore it after a reset/moving ROMs.

Are they checking the customers too? If not, it seems to be an easy way for some weirdos to go around targetting genders they don't like.

I don't use Brave because they screwed me (banned my Brave Creators without them providing a reason) and I think I would disagree with their CEO on many points - including same sex marriage - but if I did this with every piece of software I use, then I wouldn't be able to use a computer at all. Even if you go all open source, you'll quickly find wild and weird people involved with these projects...

From a SEO point of view, the idea of removing duplicated or very similar content is good, but for news websites... I don't know. Why not use "noindex" on pages/sitemaps of old pages and "nofollow" inside the site for old links? At least they wouldn't create link rot.

Edit: I recommend reading this: https://searchengineland.com/google-warns-against-content-pruning-as-cnet-deletes-thousands-of-pages-430509

We should bear in mind that the level of slow downs were worse on some devices than on others.

I don't know if it was the different SoCs or just different levels of throttling for different levels of battery wear, but my phone got really slow. There was no information about what was going on, no way to disable the slow down, and Apple support back then would tell you to just get a new phone (which they did to me).

While the idea behind the slow downs is solid and I've done it myself on old laptops with bad batteries, doing it behind the scenes without informing anyone and then making money by selling new devices is not something that should be praised. Apple probably made more money than what they'll have to pay with this settlement, but still... better something than nothing.

And I say, “Thanks dude! Bavarian cream is my favorite!”.

Okay, nothing wrong with this, unless you knew the person wasn't a "dude".

And the office temp shouts, “I’m not a dude!” and pushes the coffee and donuts onto the floor. Big mess.

Obviously wrong, but a "I call everyone dudes, no offence meant" from you would show everyone in the room that you didn't mean to offend them.

And I reply, “Nobody cares about your stupid gender.”

And now you're an asshole. And a dumb one at that as not only you expressed your opinion about someone else's "stupid gender", but also turned others against you.

Assuming this even happened and you're not leaving anything out, you lack "people skills".

Can't really comment on that as in my city (not US) to drive for these companies you need a license. To get the license, they perform background checks, check your criminal record, ask for medical approval, etc, every time you have to renew it, and all this seems to stop a lot of bad stuff. Not saying it doesn't happen - you can't never completely stop it - but there are ways to reduce it.

Anyway, they could just allow customers to select their preferred gender, would make anyone that wants to use such option happy, and we wouldn't even have to talk about discrimination.

Someone needs to learn the difference between gender and biological sex.

Is the glass half full or half empty? For you, I guess it's half empty.

Rules can be updated and tightened if needed. This is a good step, another could be taken if they don't play nice.

Some here are mixing bootloader unlocking with rooting. They're not the same thing.

Asus broke bootloader unlocking, so you can only use the original ROM in the original state. You can't install a custom ROM or flash something like Magisk to root your device.

You can unlock without rooting or without installing a custom ROM. You can install a custom ROM without rooting. You can use stock and root. And you can use a custom ROM and root. But all this is only possible if you can unlock the device's bootloader.

WhatsApp uses the Signal Protocol. Is it as private as Signal? No, it "leaks" way more metadata. Have I personally checked if they're encrypting messages? Also no, although others have. Is it possible that they're doing something "funny" and no longer encrypt? Yes, but is there any suggestion or proof of that being the case?

Should you use WhatsApp? No, but the suggestion above was to use Telegram, a service that doesn't do end-to-end encryption by default and leaks the same type of data as WhatsApp. Going from Messenger to Telegram is a sideways move. From Messenger to WhatsApp would be at least a small upgrade (with the benefit of having more contacts there than Telegram, at least in some countries).

I understand the point about it also being a Meta app. I guess the question is what do you trust more? Telegram and the people behind it with your plain text messages or a Meta app with end-to-end encryption? I don't trust either, so I pick encryption.

I'm not anti Telegram or anything like that. It's a nice app, lots of features, smooth, etc, and I use it, but privacy was never their main priority.

iOS is too restrictive for me. Not being able to access the file system, no sideloading, no background apps, limited app access to the hardware, etc. Apple has the best mobile SoCs, but then you can't even run an app like Syncthing to keep some folders in sync (it can't even access those folders) or use some app to re-encode a video in the background.

I like the UI consistency between apps and OS (Android is a bit more "messy") but overall it's a bit like ChromeOS. Good for basic stuff and sometimes the best for specific tasks, but try to do anything more advanced and you'll quickly find a wall.

On my phone I have apps like Syncthing running in the background. Sometimes I run an app that gives me detailed info about battery usage, track/map the signal of mobile networks, contribute to Mozilla Location Service, can see to which bands my phone is connected to (and if rooted, even control which are used). If an app needs to use bluetooth to send a file or NFC, it can. On the other hand, Android still struggles to do fast file transfer well (at least it never works as well as Airdrop for me)... there are trade-offs.

Again, it's a bit like ChromeOS/Chromebook vs Linux/Windows/macOS. Perfect for my parents, but not enough for me.

The hardware is fine. Things like the display (Samsung), modem (Qualcomm), cameras (Sony) can be found on Android devices (or at least similar hardware). Their SoC is the best there is, but then is restricted by software... a bit like buying a Ferrari to drive it in a city. Imagine a "gaming phone" with the latest A16?

Regarding software updates, Google and Samsung (at least on the more expensive devices) now have 5 years of software updates. Not as good, but not a problem for those buying a new phone today. Some brands are still bad though.

You made 4 points about things that may or may not happen. For some of them you made the worst assumption possible (eg: batteries may not be available to buy. As if China won't go brrrrrr making them :P ). And that's why I said that "I guess" that for you the glass is half empty (aka you're focusing mainly on possible issues).

You might be right of course, but keep in mind that the main players (eg: Samsung, Apple) already sell some components to 3rd parties or are starting to do so. Even Apple, with all their control, don't disable 3rd party batteries on their phones, they just show you a warning inside the settings menu. So, from a slightly different point of view, the glass is actually half full and you may not need additional rules. I guess we'll have to wait and see if someone wants to piss off the EU and have more rules imposed on them.

Anyway, it was a quick reply to the top comment on this thread (when I opened it at least). I didn't spend much time trying interpret your comment :P

I'm not defending the occupation and whole "nation building" (which I doubt they though would take 20 years). Just pointing out that there was a difference between Afghanistan and Iraq, and that difference was reflected by the support (or lack of) from other countries.

Yes, but that already used to happen before if the thieve had an iPhone.

I'm loyal to good products.

For a while I was a bit of a OnePlus "fanboy". The OnePlus One was an amazing phone for someone like me. I liked it so much that at one point everyone at home had one (4 in total). It was much better and cheaper than anything we had used until that point. Then I got a 3T and OnePlus was going down hill... promises of improvements that never came, Carl Pei fking lying, so that was it. I learned my lesson. My next phone was a Galaxy S10 and when that broke, I managed to get a good deal on a OnePlus 8 Pro and since it was cheaper and it had official LineageOS support, it was a good option.

I have no idea what my next phone will be. Maybe Asus Zenfone. Maybe some Xiaomi/Poco. Maybe OnePlus. Heck, if Google improves their SoC, maybe I can get a Pixel. I know I won't back to Samsung as I like to tinker with my devices, but as long there's some modding going and the brand is not hostile to modding, I'm open to consider it.

They default whitelist Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook garbage that I have to go and toggle off.

They have to do that, otherwise things like the "login with Google" buttons disappear from sites, breaking logins for many users.

I wouldn't be affected by the settings being enabled by default as I always create a local account, but I'm also not the average internet user. My parents and most of my friends would though, and those are the users Brave are trying to get to use their browser.

My home screen is essentially one page with 2 rows of folders. Each folder has a name (eg: Messaging, Games, Tools, etc). Apps I want to keep are inside those folders. The apps I'm testing, temporary apps, etc, are on my home screen (outside the folders), so I always know I have to deal with them (either remove them or keep them/move to a folder).

For the apps I already have, since I have to open the folders regularly, I can see what's there. If I see something I won't use anymore, I remove it. I might keep more than one app installed for the same purpose while testing, but eventually remove the ones I don't want.

To keep my device's storage clean, I use a normal file manager (Material Files on F-Droid).

So I don't really have the need for any cleaning app or Android feature. I also don't have "cleaning days" as I clean the phone as I use it or when I'm not doing anything.

batteries that are unrecycleable

Is this actually the case?

Trump is being charged with crimes

Not for dropping bombs or ordering drone strikes in a different country.

Not exactly what you're asking, but might be useful.

In 2020, during the pandemic, I decided to reduce my news consumption. My problem wasn't just the quality/subjects, but also the quantity, so I changed my behaviour and the way I consumed news. I went from using apps like Google News to use a mix of RSS feeds, podcasts, and platforms like this one.

• There are a few sites that write about subjects I like, so I subscribe to their feed. Sometimes I subscribe to the complete feed, sometimes only to a category's feed. A bit similar to "Google News", but with the sites I want.
• Hacker News and Reddit (and now Lemmy) is a good source for technology in general and specific areas (in Reddit/Lemmy's case).
• For regular news (politics, occurrences, etc), I subscribe to 2 weekly podcasts and that gives me the main points of that week (and 2 different point of views).
• Initially I had subscribed to a weekly newsletter digest as some of news sites here have them, but I ended up with the podcasts as I can listen to them while doing something else.

Apps that displayed news and didn't let me hide them where either removed or replaced. Radio stations also have the habit of having news, so I mostly stream music these days. I also don't watch news on TV.

I check my feeds and HN/Reddit/Lemmy at least once a day, usually in the morning. Podcasts... it's when I have the time.

I was using Feeder for RSS feeds, but I wanted something online/cross-platform, so I use Feedly. For podcasts, I only use it on my phone, so AntennaPod is fine.

I don't need to know everything or need the constant drama. I don't want hot takes on "breaking news", to know what someone some random sports dude said or with whom some celebrity went out with. I also don't want to be always checking the news. It won't work for everyone, but works well for me.

Every generation needs to adopt new technologies if they want to live in society. For some it was cars, for others it was phones, faxes or the internet. We also stop using older technology... for example, I've never sent a fax in my life. It probably sucks for people who still want to send faxes, but now you scan and email or take a picture and send it via your favourite app. Today you need internet and a phone. It is what it is... like every generation you either keep up or get left behind.

Yes, smartphones can be used to manipulate and spy. You can also use them to learn, to be entertained, to drive to places you had no idea how to reach, keep in touch with people, and so on. I'm not being "controlled" by anyone when I pick my phone and make a video call to a friend or watch a tutorial about something I want to do. You're only focusing on the bad aspects, so it's not a surprise that phones are so evil for you. Plus, some people prefer to have all their tickets, cards, etc, inside an app instead of carrying coins and cards around... it's not bad for everyone.

Regarding China, yes, some countries will be like them. Some won't. There's a lot of stuff that have nothing to do with phones that could have be done by other countries, but haven't because things are different. Governments want to control people, but you probably don't need a permit to travel from one side of your country to the other like they do in China or used to to in the Soviet Union. Maybe I'm being naive, but I don't see why every country must become very controlling surveillance states. It's possible, but there are other possible outcomes too.

I think it's good to be aware about the negative aspects of technology, but to "hate the future" just because it may (or not) be worse than today doesn't make sense to me. I'll deal with the problem when and if it appears.

Unfortunately Brave's own blocking engine isn't capable to block as much as uBlock Origin, which Firefox supports on Android. But then Firefox might not work well on all sites... it's a trade-off. Firefox works on the sites I use though, so that's what I've been using.

Could be one of those "optimisations" some brands make. I wasn't getting 120Hz on all apps on my OnePlus device. I had to force it with developer options or some 3rd party app. Gave up, installed a custom ROM (LineageOS), and it's 120Hz all the time without any issues 😎

No. For most (if not all) batteries the recommendation is to avoid discharging them too much.

Having a larger battery helps here because you won't go as deep. On a larger UPS, maybe you'll be at 30% when the power returns instead of being at 5%. On a phone, it may reduce the number of charging cycles because you no longer need to charge during the day or have to go too deep. On EVs, a larger battery means that you won't have to fast charge as much during trips and that you won't have to charge it to 90% to reach the next charger or arrive with a very low state of charge.

Larger batteries also allow devices to age better. If I get a phone that barely lasts me a day, I'll probably have to replace the battery or carry a power bank around after a while. On the other hand, if I always end the day with 20-30% left, I'll only have problems after losing ~20% of capacity. It's the same with a UPS. If we find ourselves going down to 5% when it's new, then 2 or 3 years later that USP won't be enough for our load/outages and will shutdown before power returns.

I had an iPhone 5 and it was slowed down after a year and a half or so. Formatted it, then disabled animations, etc, but by the end it was really slow to use. The nearest official store suggested a new phone since the model was almost 3 years ago, even though I had used it for less than 2 years.

I had no idea what the problem was. No way to disable it or a cheap way to replace the battery. All that only came after they were sued.

They fucked up by not telling anyone they were doing it and not providing a way to reverse the slow downs. Having their employees suggesting getting a new phone instead of fixing the damn problem was also what I consider to be scummy behaviour.

A few years after getting a new phone (an Android one though, I don't like to reward bad behaviour), I went back to the iPhone and it was still lagging. There was a new major update available though... which made it a bit faster. I don't know what happened behind the scenes, but only enforced my view that I was being pushed to buy a new phone.

The intention was probably good, but at the end of the day my phone still lagged, I couldn't disable or was aware of the "feature", the guy at the store still told me to get a new phone, Apple still denied it at the time, etc. Willingly or not, they created a bad experience for some iPhone owners and made money selling new devices.

I'm not getting any of this money and that was my first and last iPhone (I'm still pissed all these years later...), but it's good that they're receiving bad PR and have to pay something. Not only customers got cheap battery replacements and a setting to disable this (on newer iPhones) after the lawsuits, but next time they're more likely to remember to create a help page on their site and to inform their store staff about features like this one.

Your position doesn't sit well with me because it ignores Daniel's failures and enables his destructive behaviour. He had issues with Rust, there was the CopperheadOS implosion, and now another drama around GrapheneOS... too many "misinterpretations". And if you keep finding yourself in dramas, then you're either very unlucky or part of the problem.

Daniel seems to be very smart and capable when it comes to coding. He's the person you want to create something like GrapheneOS. But the guy lacks "people skills". He's too confrontational and doesn't always take criticism well. Then there's the destructive and toxic behaviour... he lets some random internet comment take too much of his time and attention instead of ignoring and moving on. The "us vs them" mentality also creates a toxic environment. No person and no project is always right, but if you say the wrong thing or even make a positive comment about a different project, you're automatically part of the "conspiracy". This is not good and shouldn't be encouraged.

Yes, clickbaiting YouTubers are a problem. Yes, Daniel Micay also seems to be a victim in this case. But some of the leaked communications look bad no matter if they are misrepresented or not. I don't agree with everything Louis Rossmann says, but Daniel's "you're with me or against me" position is obviously bad and I don't understand why would anyone defend that... GrapheneOS is not a cult!

Being good at one thing doesn't makes us good at everything. Daniel is good at coding and dealing the technical things, so he should do that. He's not good at dealing with people or being exposed to unfiltered feedback. He should be working behind the scenes, not doing PR work for GrapheneOS. His mental sanity, the project, and the community would benefit a lot if he had a better understanding of his limitations.

[Edit:] Just to add, I think GrapheneOS is indeed amazing. Daniel's behaviour is not good though.