Cambionn

Historical Chinese drama, especially the palace intreague ones. The better ones are high budget productions with the most beautiful aestethics and well thought out stories. Instead of seasons with set episodes they just have shows of 4 to 100 episodes. Due to that each issue can take the time it needs to be told, without the need of season finals and such, making the pacing very natural. The better ones are also not always predictable and keep you hooked. Most western dramas can’t compare, exceptions like Julian Fellowes’ shows asside.

I would suggest watching 延禧攻略/Story of Yanxi Palace (not the spin-off on Netflix!) if you want to give it a try. It’s not too old, has a good story, and is quite fast-paced despite it’s length, making it a great one for starters. It’s also easily available with good subtitles, you can find it on Viki for example.

Average Joe wants an easy all-in-one solution. That’s what Google, Apple and Microsoft offer. An ecosystem. If you want to fight that, you need to be able to offer that. So that’s what Proton is doing.

Of course it’s better to have it seperated. And the security and privacy nerds will likely keep doing that anyways. But Average Joe doesn’t want to take a hassle and rather looses privacy than do that.

Issue is, things are only as secure as the least secure point. Average Joe using Google and Microsoft means your data also goes there when interacting. When Average Joe is swayed by a place that is privacy-friendly ánd convinient, it makes your weakest link also stronger.

Meanwhile, Average Joe is also more save then when he was using Google or Microsoft services. Even when he would be less save than if he had his stuff seperated.

It helps everyone.

With that in mind, I applaud it. But I won’t use it. I use Proton for mail, Joplin for notes (encrypting them in Joplin and syncing with NextCloud), and my passwords are also elsewhere than ProtonPass.

Good leaves on the right temperature. Nothing added. Tasty, healthy, and calorie free.

Unless making very specific a milk tea, then add milk. Don’t do it too often, it ruins the last 2 points mentioned before.

For one, USA isn’t actually much better than China when it comes to tracking and privacy. They just have better PR about it. But in reality they equally suck.

That asside. There isn’t some secret tracking chip, but any kind of wireless network will be used to track you by different parties. Cellulair, Wi-Fi (including Wi-Fi signaling when it’s “off”), Bluetooth, etc. This is a fact regardless of OS or where the phone is made, as tracking often already starts to occur by catching the signals you send out.

As such, just degoogling won’t resolve tracking issues in and off itself, it’s just one of many steps to get less tracking.

Phones physically in China, regardless off where it’s made, tend to get tracking software installed. Just take a burner if you ever go there. But that’s not hardware. And most “USA” phones are also made in China anyways…

Wijko saté sauce. It goes with almost anything. I’ll have no shame in it. My Asian partner does.

TPM on my motherboard is forever disabled

If that’s just to stop W11 that’s stupid. TPM chips are security related. Disabling them has some serious drawbacks.

Now there are discussion on if you’d even want a TPM chip or not, and if you choose not to use it for such reasons it may be a well thought out decision. Then you won’t hear me complain. But to trow out security components just to prevent an update, without looking at the possible consequences, is stupid. There are better ways to prevent that anyways.

Funny. My grandpa has been using Thunderbird and Libre Office for years, and he never realised it until recently (and he uses it a lot). He recently had an issue for the first time and asked me as he was trying to fix it with Microsoft but didn’t get anywhere, and I had to break the news to him it wasn’t their product.

I’m not the one who set it up for him btw. But whoever did so made it look as much as to make it easier for him to switch. Which worked as he had no clue and thought he got some free version or so.

I do also use it, but my setup isn’t Microsoft-like per se. I’m rather happy with it tho.

No and no. It’s not too late, and just watching sitcons won’t teach you enough to start speaking. But if you just start actual studying and practicing you can learn it just fine. Watching TV can be used to practice listening, but on it’s own it’s not enough unless you’re a wonderkid.

Maybe that’s your machine being oddly programmed. Every machine I’ve seen unlocks right after it finishes it’s cycle. It can also be stopped and unlocked anywhere halfway, but it takes some time to drain the water (usually a few seconds, not a full minute like you mentioned originally).

My issue is more with trackers than ads anyways, altrough ads that block so much that using the site normally becomes a pain in the ass are the other extend which is sadly also getting more and more common. But sadly most websites and services that let you pay to get rid of ads will still put everything full of trackers…

Also, there are quite some sites that just copy content or or have an AI write content, made to rank high in searches, then is putbfull of adds to make money. Those are automated money-farms, and deserve blockers.

I block everything, ads and trackers alike. Somewhat regularily I’m on the web without and it’s always a great reminder why I normally do use them.

But I also pay for multiple websites and services I use regularily despite them working fine without paying or having “free” alternatives. After all, nothing is free and I rather pay with money than with data. And I also want to be paid for my work, and I can only imagine so do others. So I do agree with you there, and I highly encourage people to pay for stuff.

But I won’t feel bad for blocking that shit, also not on the websites I don’t financially support. Because most of the time they are the ones that made it impossible to use their website privacy-friendly without blocking stuff anyways, even if I’m willing to pay.

I generally drink Zero. If the sugar is the different, could that be why?

Zero taste the same as regular to me but less sweet, but since I rarely drink regular I don’t have the exact taste of that in my mouth.

I can only say Coca Cola taste the same in The Netherlands, Germany, and Vietnam. While I can generally tell quite well when I get a different cola then a Coca Cola one. Based on that there should be some kind of international standard?

I can imagine US being different due to less strict rules around food than EU (much American junkfood is altered in the EU market due to this). But then I’m suprised Vietnam taste the same for that same reason 🤔.

Last time I was on vacation alone I googled the few things I knew I wanted to see/do, and the rest of the time I just went out and see where I end up. Looking where locals go and do that is also a great trick.

My experience is that most easily online findable things are very tourist-y. I preffer to see more of the non-tourist stuff. Knowing a local is then the best, but by lack there off, just go with the flow.

About 5 years ago I had some issues with a GPU driver not working out of the box, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed. That issue was more Nvidia than Manjaro tho, and by now it does work out of the box. Otherwise no, not really.

Manjaro KDE. Easier and more stable than Arch, but still able to use Pacman, the AUR, and Arch documentation (obviously, I don’t use their support channels, but Manjaro forums are helpful with issues). Been running it for years as main OS on all my PCs here.

I also heared that bit about the secret service owning nodes a few years ago. It was trough a teacher that’s also really in the stuff outside of teaching, and has a network of non-teaching proffesionals in the field.

It’s something to keep in mind, at the very least. Tor already has some weaknesses anyways. You shouldn’t trust it blindly just because it’s Tor. If anything, I think it more has a false rep for how strong it is over struggling with a stigma.

Fcitx5 for Android has decent Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese. I don’t think it has handwriting tho. Otherwise you have Trime, which is Rime for Android but I’ve never got it to work properly (unlike Rime on Linux which works fine).

I mainly use simplified, so don’t pin me on traditional options. I use Florisboard for English.

I don’t think that’s true. By now, my whole family and almost all my friends are on Signal. Only a few of them are into IT to start with, let alone privacy. In my family, it was my not exactly tech-savvy grandpa that came to Signal first after I quit WhatsApp! When I quit WhatsApp most of them first went with SMS, but overtime they switched to Signal because it’s easier. After a year pretty much everyone is over.

Really, all it takes is someone who’s on there but not on WhatsApp (or whatever is the norm around you). Most people don’t care much about privacy, and won’t switch if they don’t have to. But neither do they care much for installing another app if it benefits them (in this case, the benefit was easier chatting with me). Even less they care if that app is Telegram or Signal, especiallly if they use neither already.

And no, I didn’t fight with any of my family or friend, nor did I loose contact with anyone I cared about in the process. If you handle quiting WhatsApp with a bit of tact and respect, no decent human being will hate you. Just don’t be a jerk about it, but that counts for anything…

Matrix might be a bit more complex, but Signal is really not thát much trouble with “friends outside the privacy niche” other than that they have no need for it (a need which would be created by you switching to it).