The main concern is going to be hardware reliability from wear and tear. That’s the value of buying refurbished, for which there are several reputable retailers online (some of which selling degoogled phones with their own OSes). On the software side, since I’m presuming the focus of this discussion is installing grapheneos, its not really a concern since you’re going to be reflashing the device

Go cheap, and go second hand if possible

Proton, Tuta, Mailbox.org, Posteo

All are equal in terms of their overall quality of service, just different in what advantages they offer (except for Mailbox.org and Posteo. They’re just offering standards compliant email servers without any bullshit and let you roll your own encryption)

I think a Tribe Called Quests Excursions. Someone else mentioned that it’s a shame losing all memories of a piece of music because we as a species associate music with our most precious memories. Here’s the thing: Excursions is timeless and woven throughout my life. I’ve relistened to it so many times and got more from it as I’ve matured. I wonder how revolutionary and fresh it would feel to hear it today with my adult understanding of the world

Oh for sure. The solution isn’t to raise the price of unfairly priced products, its to introduce the concept of accountability to the world

My thing is that there’s a minimum price for fairness, and then there’s products that present themselves as being marked up for fairness that don’t actually benefit the people a fair price should benefit. Your best bet is to do some research into what the minimum fair price something is, and then look for something that price from a local economy.

Unfortunately, this is next to impossible. The systems in place favor us never knowing where anything comes from, and the research tools we used to be able to use to find fair prices (internet search) have been broken for this purpose for nearly 10 years (not just AI bullshit, but all those SEO pay to play bullshit listicles that even infect real human driven testing processes like The Wirecutter and Gear Lab). I think there’s even an argument to be made that AI is an intentional device to steer us into a digital dark age where finding real trustworthy information is nearly impossible.

Fair enough. I wasn’t including the unionization efforts because I thought that was after Andre’s time, but it was a couple years before his retirement

Hulk Hogan was close personal friends with someone that raped Andre the Giant’s best friend. Also keyfabe got Andre needing to say the thing because that’s how the business works. But also its easier to make your keyfabe hatred of someone believable when you actually factually hate that person. Which in this case Andre the Giant did

Funny, that’s what I hate about Nano. The key binds seem completely random to me and the programs solution to this is to display a cheatsheet on the screen

Oh, I think for me it was just that when I have thought patterns like “…is it time to give up?” My emotional color is anxiety. I have to pick myself back up by focusing on the value of focusing not only on protecting myself, but also protecting others. Just saw more of myself in you than I saw you for you I guess

So. Individual pricacy measures are a lot like eating a vegan diet. There’s only so much any one individual can do. You are making things better in some small way by doing it, but once you’ve taken things as far as you, its time to switch from an individual journey to one of collectivization. Advocate to your friends and family about why you browse the internet weird and what we all stand to gain by banding together and doing it as a group. Not all of them will listen, but that’s okay. Evangelism isn’t about reaching everyone, its about reaching a few people. Movements are built by people trying to make them world better and you can do this.

Importantly, too, accepting that there’s only so much you can do will help you confront your anxiety. Anxiety is the emotion we feel when we wish we felt a different feeling from what we’re feeling. Its a uniquely insidious emotion in how when you feel anxious, you want to feel another way, and then you feed the anxiety by doing that. Breaking free of these loops are important if you want to make them world a better place because you need to be able to function and not be broken by your desire to improve things.

And hey. I believe in you. You can do this

Look at this sexy woman. Look at this cool refreshing air conditioner she’s next to. Isn’t she sexy? Isn’t it nice stepping in from the heat to stand next to an air conditioner? So anyway. Associate coca cola with all the feelings you’re feeling

Swiso is also good. I don’t remember the URL right now

Slant.co used to be similarly useful before its company shut it down to focus on Vetted.ai… Less useful though since almost every outgoing link was an affiliate or ad link. Alternativeto.net has been kinda the best option since the late 00s

They said

Me and some friends used to all share one but then the fucking DRM kicked in and I had to get my own.

I’ve enloudened it

Storage is cheap. Losing valuable data is expensive

Did not know there was a BtB about Vince McMahon. I’ll have to check that out

Iirc Macho Man Randy Savage was also instrumental to unionization efforts and the company turned him heel for it. The result? Everyone loved Macho Man Randy Savage as a heel more than they ever loved him as a face. There’s something extremely relatable to all of us about a guy who tries to speak up about injustice but doesn’t get the traction and has to go back to making the magic our companies don’t deserve

The lesson of the Luddites is to fight the industrialist who wants to take away the pleasures of being human in the name of enriching said industrialist. Time and effort saving mechanisms should benefit the laborer, and no one else. That their movement has been labeled as being resistant to human progress or uninformed of the benefits of industrialization tells on our society’s propaganda mechanisms and our failure to teach our own history

XMPP on the other hand…