Steven Berson

@SomeGadgetGuy@techhub.social Neither, rather stick with the same midranger phone I've had for the past few years, that is still receiving up to date monthly security updates, thanks to a few volunteers continuing work on a "degoogled" Android 16 custom ROM (Poco X5 Pro 5g, running crDroid, in my case - https://crdroid.net ). It's still fun for me to watch reviews of the "latest & greatest" mobile tech though - thanks for these.

Venture Capital is based on one essential paradigm: an investment now, will be rewarded by a larger return later. Generally with social media ventures the plan is to establish growth of numbers first, by offering as clean & quality service as possible, lock people in via walled gardens & "network effect", and then make gradual introductions of ads, promoted posts, & payments for "premium services" that were once included. The ATProtocol has WAY less potential for "walled garden" than most designs though - me being able to view & post to Bluesky via my completely separate WAFRN account is proof of that. STILL, if a specifically for-profit org ponies up $100million of cash money, they are doing that in expectation of being able to make a lot more than that back.

@caroline@chaosfem.tw Kind of a brilliant solution. Saying that as someone with a slightly older kiddo that loves hot gluing objects together as well.

@arstechnica@mastodon.social How to fix problem? Fire any people which mention that there is a problem. Brilliant.

@mastodonmigration@mastodon.online Seems way more likely that Bluesky's servers were glitching (which they have been doing a bit recently) at the time of Attiah's attempted upload, than there was deliberate censorship happening - unless you have some kind of evidence of the latter.

@jernej__s@infosec.exchange @eniko@mastodon.gamedev.place Just another point of info, that even for those in the USA, you can get extended security updates for Windows 10 until October for free if you use an MS account to log into the computers you want extended support on. It's what I am doing for a couple of desktops I need for my work, while finishing the last bits of migration of my studio's computers to MacOS, Ubuntu and Debian.

@stux@mstdn.social You know while they are looking cute, they are totally thinking of murder. :P

Link to your excellent paper in more easily clickable form: https://storage02.forbrukerradet.no/media/2026/02/breaking-free-pathways-to-a-fair-technological-future.pdf

@ocean@raru.re 30 years is a pretty good run in internet yearz. Actually I would call that "web ancient." I thought Angelfire closed 15 years ago in fact. Frankly I am surprised that even Lycos is still going. Seems like the site is still up though.

I love see people posting links to music to listen to here on the Fediverse. But way too often, probably over 90% of the time, that link is to a YouTube video, a place where the return to the artist for the stream is tiny to a point close to non-existent, and where our view goes to prop up a monopolistic unethical mega-corporation. There ARE better options! I have a few of these listed at https://totalsonic.net/direct.html

#Music #audio #fediverse #google #degoogled #foss #alternatives #streaming #indie #freedom #libre #bandcamp #bandwagon #funkwhale

@outdoorsbeth@mastodon.scot "If you're cold, they're cold" -- except most definitely not the case with these fine creatures. My pugzu seems to thrive whenever there is a wintery breeze that makes me wince on a long walk as well.

Does anyone else here miss MyPaint for its simpler, more straightforward gui? Especially on tablets, it just fits better on the screen for making "casual" digital art. Sure, it is not as good as Krita for pro level work, but for those of us that just want something easy to use with no "learning curve" it was sweet. Sadly it seems the last few years the 2.x version just crashes out as soon as a stylus touches the screen. Would love it someone made a fork that actually worked with current distros. #MyPaint #digitalillustration #apps #foss #art #illustration #painting

@mntmn@mastodon.social Sweet!

@vivianers@transfem.social Happy Birthday!! 🎉🎇🥳

@amadeus@mstdn.social For alternate DE's I like the vibes of both Budgie & Nebi, but both are too buggy in current states with Wayland to choose over Gnome for me. Plasma is the obvious other choice, but for some reason I've never been into KDE, even if I think it's well developed now.

@amadeus@mstdn.social Debian 13.4 + Gnome 48 + a bunch of extensions (Arc Menu, Desktop Cube, Dash to Dock, etc.). Haters gonna hate, but it works great for me.

@yassie_j@transfem.social …so, to clarify, should it be legal for you to text, or otherwise be using the phone with your hand(s) beyond a second or two, while driving with the car in motion, just because you are neuro-divergent? In my opinion, NO - because those actions potentially endanger others (with possibly even fatal consequences). But, otherwise, having turn-by-turn navigation from it, audio playing from it, or doing a hands free phone call with it - should be perfectly legal to me.

@madargon@is-a.cat

https://www.phpbb.com/

or

https://join-lemmy.org/

The reason Brave is still a thing, albeit one with relatively low user numbers (less than Firefox), is that the crypto scam stuff is all opt in, not default - and it's one of the only browsers on both desktop & Android that tests on https://coveryourtracks.eff.org as having strong protection against trackers & ads, AND an actually randomized fingerprint - this latter part something that unfortunately none of the Firefox based browsers I'm aware of do. It also scores highly in the privacy audits tested at https://privacytests.org/ - and TrackerControl on Android confirms no known embedded tracker libraries in it as well (which is something that many other Chromium & Firefox based browsers fail at). That said - I agree with you, that Brave's CEO Brendan Eich's politics are not things I want to associate with, which is why I moved to Librewolf & Waterfox on desktop, and Cromite on Android, after being a Brave user for a number of years, in the time before I was made aware of Eich's donations to anti-gay marriage PAC's.

I posted this on Lemmy, but think it's worth reposting here. With the news that Google is locking down Android more, and making it more difficult to install apps of ones own choosing, there is likely going to be more interest in alternatives to Google branded Android.

The best general resource for instructions on how to unlock your phone's bootloader and flash alternate AOSP ROM's or non-Android OS's is https://xdaforums.com/

Please note that not all carriers and oem's allow you to unlock the bootloader though, so choose your device carefully for this.

You will also most likely need a PC (desktop or laptop) with adb & fastboot on it. These are apps used in the terminal, but you only need to copy and paste a few commands into them to use it.

If you have a Google Pixel then best option is Graphene - https://grapheneos.org/

For other devices you can use a "degoogled" Android ROM and get apps from the open source F-Droid app store - https://f-droid.org/

Some choices for this are:

Lineage - https://lineageos.org/

crDroid - https://crdroid.net/

/e/os - https://e.foundation/e-os/

Iode - https://iode.tech/iodeos/

OR use a a true alternative mobile OS. Options for this are:

Ubuntu Touch - https://www.ubuntu-touch.io/

Sailfish OS - https://sailfishos.org/

Mobian - https://mobian-project.org/

Postmarket OS - https://postmarketos.org/

Plasma Mobile - https://plasma-mobile.org/

Droidian - https://droidian.org/

You can also purchase devices with alternative OS's already preinstalled from:

Volla - https://volla.online/en/devices/

Jolla - https://jolla.com/

Fairphone - https://fairphone.com/

Murena - https://murena.com/

Furilabs - https://furilabs.com/

Brax - https://www.braxtech.net/

#Android #Google #freedom #libre #foss #degoogled #linuxmobile #linuxphone #smartphone #enshittification #AOSP

Thoughts on the Sony PS6 no discs & wiped libraries controversy: nearly everything FOSS & digital sovereignty advocates have been warning about has been coming true these days. Proprietary systems attract people to them with their promises of greater convenience & greater capabilities - the thing is those promises can be easily revoked at a later date. Choose your digital ecosystems wisely my friends! #Sony #PS6 #digitalsovereignty #foss #gaming #games #freedom #movies #streaming #physical #discs #libre

Turns out the only real advocate for terms limits for Congress, is the Grim Reaper itself. #USpolitics #Congress #termlimits #mortality #MAGA

@yassie_j@transfem.social @ltning@pleroma.anduin.net That reply is disingenuous. There are lots of possible "uses". Texting while in actual motion when driving should be a no-no. Using a phone for turn by turn navigation, or to play audio, should be perfectly legal. The difference is in what requires visual attention beyond a couple of seconds.