Hans-Christoph Steiner @eighthave@librem.one

Statements like this make me question if #BleepingComputer is actually a useful info source:

"Since APKs downloaded from outside Google Play cannot be vetted, the best way to protect against these threats is to avoid installing Android apps from third-party sites in the first place." https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/thousands-of-android-apks-use-compression-trick-to-thwart-analysis/

#FDroid not only vets the binaries it ships, it also vets the source code. #GooglePlay is not the safest source of apps on #Android.

On the public #Weblate, mystery accounts are creating Old English (ang) and Middle English (enm) in the #FDroid projects. They don't respond to my messages, or do any translation work. This makes me suspect foul play. Anyone have any ideas?

For example:
* https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/f-droid/-/ang/
* https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/f-droid/-/enm/

A strong example of this comes from navigating with apps in Austria. Apps like #OrganicMaps #OsmAnd and others that use #OpenStreetMap data have much better information on footpaths, bike lanes, and minor roads than #Google does. So often my preferred route is entirely absent in Google Maps. On the other hand, Google Maps sometimes has more information on shops, offices, restaurants, etc. Other apps have much better transit information. Yet many stay in the Google bubble because of this bias 2/

When discussing #Google alternatives for #privacy, I heard: "I tried X a couple times but it didn't give me the results I wanted but Google did, so I stay there". I use multiple search engines and see each one's strengths and weaknesses. This made me realize there is a kind of bias: using one service provides simplicity. When using one, we don't know when that it is providing worse results than alternatives. Then people get the impression "the alternative sucks, I'll stick with the good one" 1/

Going to my #BIOS and disabling "Block Sleep (S3)" makes this promising message show up in the #kernel logs: "Low-power S0 idle used by default for system suspend"

So I just worked through trying to make #Debian bookworm do hibernation with encrypted swap and #SecureBoot. Looks like #Linux is fine with using a swap file from an encrypted partition, but now the requirement is apparently that the swap is signed to prevent modification. I stuck what I know here https://wiki.debian.org/Hibernation#UEFI_.2F_Secure_Boot

#CarFree and even bike-free #Kotor in Montenegro shows the kinds of freedoms we give up when we let vehicles, especially large motorized ones, dominate our cities and towns. There, even babies can roam around the streets alone, and the neighborhood cats can sleep undisturbed until humans wake up.

„Für mich ist es frappierend, dass beispielsweise der Amazonas-Regenwald in den Medien regelmäßig mit dem Aufruf erscheint, die Biodiversität dort zu schützen, dabei sterben vor unserer Haustür Arten aus" https://science.orf.at/stories/3218278

#biodiversity

Just because #Putin is bad and his invasion of #Ukraine horrendous does not automatically make the powers that be in Ukraine good. There are some very sketchy elements in the government in Ukraine, for example #NordStream, https://www.spiegel.de/international/investigating-the-attack-on-nord-stream-all-the-clues-point-toward-kyiv-a-124838c7-992a-4d0e-9894-942d4a665778

One of the things I sometimes appreciate about using #invidious is that is sometimes pauses and doesn't work for a bit. That forces me to think: did I just click through to this video, or is it actually worth watching? I hate interruptions in general, but I also hate being driven by social media #algorithms to waste my time and my brain.

Europe has a long history of destroying river ecosystems throughout the continent by building dams.This contributes a lot to #ClimateChange. The #EU is exporting this, by paying for new dams in pristine ecosystems, for example, in the #Balkans, where the locals have long history of keeping nature intact and wild. Places like #Bosnia and #Albania should export their knowledge to the EU, what is happening is vice versa and now we watch more "dams destroy rivers completely"

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/10/world/neretva-river-save-the-blue-heart-of-europe-c2e-spc-intl/index.html