64bithero

Anyone know of any software I can override the Google Nest Doorbell with ? One that’s maybe open source ? I know I could just buy another camera but I was hoping to keep using this one with safer software

Not the biggest fan of Chromium based browsers. Thoughts on Helium ? helium.computer

As the saying goes if it seems to be good to be true it is. But I wanted to be hopeful maybe just once more that maybe something could be great. Encrypted email with an unlimited sized inbox ?!!? Yes please !!! Welp sadly it seems it’s once again to good to be true. I made an account just to see how it was. I was immediately greeted with link to buy their premium for a year, using my initial email I selected. When I finally figured out how to say no I was able to use my “backup option” for free. I found this all too off putting. But no matter I wanted to keep going, maybe it’s just bad UI. Moved onto my tracker test using a standard browser. And sadly it failed immediately. On the main info site atomic mail tries to use 6 trackers. Within the login / inbox they try to throw on another 3, one of their own scripts (maybe innocuous) and two from cloud flare. Those trackers are Google related ! For the privacy email they claim had no tracking I found this sinister. I immediately deleted my account. Unless someone can speak up to what those trackers are and why I shouldn’t worry I’ll recommend everyone avoid it.

In order to curb dissatisfaction the Discord CTO released a blog post. In it a lot of c-suite speak and empty words. They claim 90 percent of users won’t be affected. And with caveats I believe them. Most people’s experience probably won’t change. And they will carry on with their spied on lives. Where I get upset is this claim that these age verification steps won’t at all infringe on privacy or identity. That Discord won’t read messages and won’t track things. I know this is a flat out lie. They already do all of this. It’s their whole fucking business model! I think it’s sickening in attempt to save face they just further lie. It’s like they pretend oh money just magically appears for us. And we offer this free service with no strings attached. I fear most people will take that post at face value. They will move on and take a blatant lie and accept it. Further reinforcing they can do whatever they want and you’ll comply. Discord arguably just doubled down on what they are doing hoping you will calm down and forget by launch. While I know the majority of people simply don’t care enough about this stuff. I still fully and emphatically advise everyone get off Discord asap.

For some of us sadly proton and Linux still isn’t a viable option for daily gaming on PC. While that means you’re stuck on Windows it doesn’t mean your experience truly has to suck. I went down the rabbit hole of Windows Debloating and to me the most viable option was Atlas OS. Not technically a new OS but rather an (overall) easy to use tool that will automatically remove and disable windows worst features. This is my honest opinion on it after using for 3 months ! Installation honestly was the worst part of the experience for me. I had additional issues due to technical problems with the motherboard. For most people it won’t be nearly as hard. The problem is many of the steps are decoupled from the Atlas provided software. In other words the process asks you to go to other websites to download other files. If you follow the steps perfectly you shouldn’t have issues. If you do and the errors are unrelated, things may get painful. The key selling point of Atlas OS is increased performance for gaming. And to be honest this wasn’t a thing for me. My games ran as good and no better. CPU usages were exactly the same. What was better was the Windows experience. No more pop up ads. No more needing to delete 3rd party software I never installed. And best yet no Co-Pilot! It’s unclear to me if these are just disabled or entirely uninstalled. From what I can see most telemetry has been disabled. In short it’s the windows experience I’ve been expecting. Less hiccups and less crashing. If you look you will find critics who say this takes away control to remove every thing you could want. But personally I can’t think of anything else I would want to remove. Is it still windows ? Well yeah. Is it entirely free of garbage, probably not but it’s sure a lot less noticeable. For me and I imagine for many Atlas OS might be the “good enough” to keep dealing with Windows. And If you are curious I suggest taking a look. I do hope eventually we do get the full gaming Linux revolution. But for now. Atlas will do.

I hear it’s the first browser in a long while to come with a new engine. Completely independent and no revenue model. To me that would work well for privacy but I see no mention of privacy as any benefit. In fact I don’t see a privacy policy anywhere ! Is a goal of the browser to be telemetry free ? Should I as a person who cares about privacy be showing any interest?

There is no truer adage to me than nothings is perfect. And when it comes to anything related to Discord it’s no different. Discord itself to me has been an issue for years. Its use of data collection, the obsession of companies trying to buy it all were concerning. For me the latest age verification just further reinforces my beliefs. That being said the majority of users who ignored all this and kept going, really nothing would change. Most people I know use Discord lightly and aren’t in large chats that use hentai gifs. I still would tell anyone who would listen to get out of dodge. But if you never cared about data usage then you’re probably not going to start now. For all the alternatives out there truth is, none are really anywhere near perfect. Matrix and most of its clients while encrypted don’t offer true jump in /jump out game chat. More a kin to Skype really. Foss Discord implementations like Spacebar are to all over the place and for me are not really functional. Stoat while probably my favorite is still really small and not holding up to the stress of the user influx. And of course it’s missing “discord features” and the new kid Fluxer while appealing is still to new and it’s monetization model a little to concerning. 300 bucks as a backer for unproven project ? And of course with the exception of Matrix none of the other projects currently offer encryption. Truth is no option really is ideal. Truth is all the options have some pretty serious flaws. And truth is getting your large swaths of friends to move might be close to impossible. So if you are looking to move please do some digging. Ask people who use the apps their opinions. Try to as a group of friends chose to make a move. And the final truth is it’s a really good thing we finally have some options. No matter the flaws having competition brings innovation. I hope this posts helps clear up some things for people who might be confused or concerned.

At points it looks promising. Then I see the AI features and get very hesitant to try it.