I personally like the tab groups in Librewolf/Firefox because they reduce the amount of space taken up by the tabs, keep things organized, & it makes it easier to select which tabs get restored. But I understand it's kind of annoying when you're moving tabs. Plus apparently they only implemented this feature because of Chrome doing it. I thought they were at least copying Vivaldi's tab stacking feature. So it's disappointing for me that it's just them wanting to be like Chrome again.
Some I watched include:
Why Sinners is Hollywood's Worst Nightmare by Olurinatti
Sinners: The Blackest Movie of the Year? By Prince Shakur
Sinners Was Inspired by More Than You Think by Savage Books Literary Editing
But here's the story: I got this error message saying that I wasn't on my home wifi network. At 1st, I thought it was because I forgot to disconnect from my VPN. So I turned it off and tried again. I got the same error message yet again and had to get them to send a code to my dad's email. So I did. Then when it was confirmed to be on the home network, they said "this device is registered on the home network for the next 14 days."
What kind of shit is that?! I don't know what's going on. I still don't know if it's my DNS over HTTPS settings or my tracker blocker in Waterfox. I looked it up and apparently other people are having this problem too.Some of the shows I've been watching on it are:
• Mythbusters (2003-2018) Pluto/Youtube. Widescreen TV for most episodes, Standard TV for a few earlier ones.
• Kids In The Hall (1989-1995) Pluto. Standard TV. This is a Canadian sketch comedy show, despite the name it can be inappropriate at times.
• Legend of the Galactic Heroes (1988-1997) Internet Archive. Standard TV. A political/war drama anime OVA, very dialogue heavy. Funnily enough the TV simulator actually helped me focus on the dialogue more because before I had it in PiP mode a lot.
• The Joy of Painting (1983-1994) Youtube. Standard TV. It's that Bob Ross show. It's very relaxing & the paintings are pretty. I wish ASMR was more like this instead of some guy creepily whispering to you about fetish shit.
• Newsradio (1995-1998) Uploaded. (But Pluto has the last 2 seasons.) Standard TV. A workplace sitcom. It's okay. I give it a 6 and 1/2 out of 10 so far.
• Random commercial parodies & music videos. Youtube. Standard TV.
I've also been watching some other stuff like The Rehearsal, Only Murders in the Building, The Haunting of Hill House, Monk, Gundam: GQuuux, and Mad Men. But they're either too modern to feel right on the CRT TVs or they're on a streaming service that doesn't allow embeds.Here's what it looks like:
I checked and Waterfox doesn't have this feature despite being up to date. So either Librewolf just randomly decided to copy Vivaldi's tab stacking feature OR it isn't available for Firefox ESR yet & Waterfox will receive this update too.
Only time will tell.
So I deleted it. Hell, even monsterdon, a weekly event where mastodon users liveblog monster/alien movies, seems less interesting to me now, even if everyone involved seems delightful/witty & I usually have fun. I might delete all my socials after the Gazan genocide ends. Why until then? Because my bluesky account is filled with Palestinians asking for help. I don't even know if they're bots. But I figure the least I can do is retweet their gofundmes, since I can't afford to send them money right now.
But I don't know whenever I use social media lately, I feel a bit stressed or annoyed. It doesn't help that on bluesky & mastodon I followed a bunch of political accounts.
And since ungoogled chromium is more supposedly lightweight, I'd give it a shot. But the thing is the load time is still a bit longer than I was hoping.
Eh, it's still better than ms edge though & faster too. Because of chromium-based browsers being resource heavy, they end up taking a while to start up on my computer. With that being said, it seems the only thing that's different with how it looks is the scrollbars. The scrollbars are thin & a bit curvier. Other than that, the webpages look & function pretty much the same.Plus the main reason I use it in waterfox (as opposed to just librewolf & mullvad browser) is for netflix. Since the fact that my dad's essentially paying for ads kinda pisses me off, even tho we technically got a deal with better video quality because of it.
That said, I keep the adblock on for music streaming & radio websites because I like to use it for background noise & the commercials are too distracting.Gradually, I went a little less crazy over it and now I'm here. I'm bored of it. Same with most headcanons. I still consider myself a fandom person because I like finding people who like the same shows and movies as me & seeing fan art.
But I've fallen out of love with certain fandom activities. Plus I always thought fanfic in particular was overrated. Not hating on people who like reading or writing fanfic, don't take my opinions seriously. I also don't feel the motivation to keep up with any comics anymore (mainly webcomics & manga).
I guess shipping feels boring now because it feels like people make the same jokes & theories about the same ships. It feels less new to me. Who knows, maybe some day I'll switch back to being a shipper.Another safety tip (for when you like your music loud) is telling your neighbors to text you if they want your music turned down. They're less likely to call the cops that way.
I'm still nervous and I'm not sure I'll be able to get over my fears (and I won't shame anyone who can't), but I'd like to think I'm slowly getting there.It doesn't help embedding/uploading free episodes that I find on youtube, Pluto TV, and misc torrent sites to the Frutiger Aero Archive's TV pages. (I tried with Plex, it doesn't embed.) Yes, there are free episodes on youtube, by the official Mythbusters youtube channel no less. Mythbusters was truly one of a kind though and I'm glad that I found that live TV channel on Plex (and later Pluto). I probably would have never rewatched this show otherwise.
The good news is I can delete the desktop app, since that was the only way to access the personal libraries. The bad news is I'm gonna have to replace the plex button on my about page.
Edit: Apparently my friend has the plex pass. So I'm keeping the app. But I'm still gonna replace the button maybe.Edit (again): Apparently they're now gonna allow mobile access for personal libraries because of this. You win this round, plex.
If a site relies too much on fingerprinting, it stops working in Librewolf & I end up having to use Waterfox. Now there are exceptions. News websites, music streaming/radio services, job application websites, and youtube iframes all seem to work despite their privacy invasive nature. Which is why I'm keeping it enabled. But with things like Netflix or a free streaming service's on demand stuff (even with drm enabled) or chatboxes for personal websites, they all stop working. (Granted the chatboxes are more the tracker blocker but still.)
It just seems like some of the features and sites that need rfp the most break with it enabled because they utilize it for something well, useful.I decided to use it for last week's monsterdon marathan to see if The Bat People was available on a free site other than Tubi. Since I wanted to use the Frutiger Aero Archive's TV simulator & it doesn't work with Tubi.
But when I checked the "free" section, all it had was a free trial for Amazon Prime. I searched it on Tubi to see if it was still there and it was. They're probably being paid by Amazon if I had to guess.
Either that or I just didn't notice before. But I think it's probably a new feature.
If anything, the screenshot is advertising that they have Mythbusters. Hell, part of the reason for that post wasn't even the rant itself, but because I've been using their live TV page instead of youtube when I can't think of anything to watch and I wanted people to know it's free on there. I've mostly been using their live TV page to watch Mythbusters and Kids in the Hall (a Canadian sketch comedy show).
Anyway, I'm switching to filegarden. I can respect the rules in theory. But fuck copyright if this is all takes to get you flagged for piracy. I wasn't even pirating this time.
Edit: Apparently, catbox is just down/offline. But still it has been going down frequently. Oh well hopefully it'll be fixed.Pros:
• More lightweight than java I2P but effiecent/faster
• I like that the browser comes with noscript.
• The names, I2P Daemon & Purple I2P, are pretty cool. I like purple and I like demons.
• Doesn't require you to install a seperate program (java oracle) to keep it running.
• Installation is genuinely easier & faster.
• Comes with its own browser, so you don't need to configure proxy settings except for added torrent clients.
• The browser takes ques from Tor Browser, so it's easier to blend in with other users.
• Can still be used in another browser if you want.
• Browser has an i2p-specific search engine by default.
• The samsbridge connection for external torrent clients is already taken care of.
• The default browser is firefox portable which is convienent while being more privacy-focused than chrome.
Cons:
• The default homepage has less links than the I2P+ router.
• The links on the default homepage are mostly in russian which is good for russian users I guess but not for me.
• One of the links on the homepage is to an offensive racist website, animal.i2p. Said website also uses javascript despite having no interactive features. Don't get me wrong, I've long go ago accepted I'd bump into centrists and rightwingers in this space. But there's a difference between that & white supremicists.
• Can't change the default homepage for the browser due to the settings being "controled by your organization." which I get is to blend in with other users. But come on.
• Doesn't have a torrent client or mail client on its own.
• Have to set up the i2cp connection for the I2PSnark Standalone manually in the config file.
• Still have to install java if using the I2PSnark Standalone.
• Doesn't update automatically, which I get some privacy conscious folks don't like things updating automatically for some reason. But it's different when its function is to connect to the internet.
• Doesn't start up automatically on windows.
• The default browser is firefox which while more privacy-focused than chrome, still isn't that private.
Even with its flaws, I'd still use it over Vanilla I2P. Since most of the flaws can be worked around. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss I2P+ a little, but I kept bumping into problems where it lost connections sometimes.[i2cp]
enabled = true
address = 127.0.0.1
port = 7654
Afterward I restarted my computer and presto!! It worked like magic.
Edit: I think it's important to add that you should open .conf files in either a text editor or a code editor.But my browser blocks fingerprinting/canvas extraction anyway. So it's probably even safer than using it with vencord even if I'll miss my skeuocord theme. Plus, it kept showing pop-up discord messages over the revolt app window, which was annoying. I think discord confused it for some game or something.
I remember watching a video of someone talking about the movie Hackers with maia arson crimew & when the topic changed to Bluesky, they acted like Bluesky had "no drama" & that was a bad thing. AS IF people aren't arguing over whether anti-zionist lefties cost Kamala the election everyday on there. I wish the far left had that much voting power. And Bluesky users are arguing over this after a year with a HUGE amount of voter suppression.
I remember when I 1st joined tumblr in 2017? after years of only using personality forums, youtube comments, & palette websites, and god, it sucked, but communication on the internet always sucked because we live in a selfish bigotted ignorant world. And the monopolies have only gotten worse and more fucked. My point is the internet always sucked to some extent, but god, at least it was easier to see the potential for something else back then.
You get additional content from your friend's media server & can add stuff from other streaming services to your watchlist (with a list of where you can find it). But it's these little annoyances that make me think piracy is better.
I guess that's in part because as customizable as your experience on plex is, piracy will always be more custom-tailored to your tastes. Wanna watch any series or movie for free but don't care about video quality or lag? Go to some shady "streaming" website. Care about lag but not video quality? Direct downloads.Don't wanna choose between video quality & a lack of lagging? Torrent it. (Although occasionally it still lags if your computer is fragmented.) Want the video/audio player to look a certain way? Get a skinnable player & download some themes or simply use one that looks nice. Want to try out a video/audio player to see which one is the best? You can, free of charge. Want to watch something with dual subtitles to help with language learning? There are video players for that, like SMPlayer or that version of VLC that's still in beta testing. No extension required. Want to use an adblocker without getting that dreaded pop-up message? Most of the people pirating are using adblockers anyway. The only reason these legal streaming services can compete is that they're legal.
Edit: Apparently the gradient bar is only in librewolf & waterfox for some reason. I checked it out in MS Edge and it was fine. Maybe it's because of a failure to fingerprint me or because most of the browsers I use are firefox-based, I don't know. But still annoying.Flat design on the other hand: A lot of minimalist flat design just ends up looking boring to me & equally corporate (and if it's a corporate website that only has light mode, down right unusable).
But seeing some of the personal websites people had made me realize how beautiful flat design (and light mode too) can be if there's actual passion behind it. I guess the reason I like skeuomorphism & older design trends is that there was more of a sense that there was effort & thought put into it. Making the youtube app icon a tv just makes sense.The reason I don't mind the new firefox icon is it's still of, well, a firefox and makes sense namewise. I also like the brave icon for being one of the few modern browser icons that isn't swirly & has a strong outline, reflecting its name, even if I dislike them as a company/product. (They're still better than google but if you know, you know.)
I guess for the most part what I'm trying to say is that the corporate web has mostly forgotten that graphic design is an artform. But a lot of personal websites still remember. And I think we can reclaim any artstyle that originated from corporations & make it into something even more beautiful.•Limit your time on social media or reading the news. This video by youtuber Sylvanaqua Farms (that I'm having trouble finding) suggests 20 minutes on social media & 10 minutes on the news. But I'd reverse that to 10 on socials & 20 on the news because it might be hard to limit your time spent on reading news articles if you have to factcheck things. He also suggested limiting your news coverage to just reuters & associated press. However I think that what news orgs you trust enough to limit yourself to is up to you. If you need help, you can use extensions/apps like Leech NG, DetoxDroid or Cold Turkey Blocker to block certain websites & apps temporarily.
•Look for local orgs in your area. Even if you don't end up joining, knowing local mutual aid groups or unions can be useful if you need any help. You can also donate too. Plus if you do have the motivation/energy/ability to join, you can take pride in the fact at least someone is doing something. It's not like a job where if you skip a day or 2, you could be fired. I'd suggest considering how frequently you can handle going (weekly, monthly etc).
•Organize your youtube/peertube subscriptions. I've talked about how certain 3rd party apps like Freetube, Newpipe, or Tubular let you organize & filter your subscriptions before. I sometimes use Freetube & Tubular to filter out any pundits & political video essayists when it gets to be too much. But you can also use rss feed readers (especially for peertube), the extension Pocket Tube, or simply have a seperate youtube/invidious/peertube account.
•Replace your screentime with something, or at least change what you do with that screentime. Could be going to the park, a hobby (like exercising or drawing), spending time with your loved ones, reading a book, whatever. Admittedly this one is hard to do in the modern era & if you have trouble with that, you could always switch to healthier internet habits. For example, instead of using social media, you could create your own site or watch a tv show or read an article on ravens, whatever.
•Don't stress out over liking media with perfect messaging. I'm adding this because I used to be the type of guy who was overly critical of my media consumption habits even as I watched IASIP & Venture Bros. And while we should be aware of a story's problems, not every piece of media has to have messages you 100% agree with to be compelling. So don't stress out over it too much. I'm not saying you can't have limits. For example, I myself will NEVER watch one of those incest/pedo wish fulfillment romance animes, but I'm willing to excuse Tokyo Gore Police's edginess. It's all about figuring out what you'll tolerate/enjoy and what you can't stand.
•It's ok to have some media serve as a TEMPORARY distraction. I did this with Sakamoto Days when it was still airing. The revolution will not be televised and all. However the key is that it's temporary & you don't get mad when a piece of media DOES bring up an issue, basically manage your expectations.
•Don't feel pressure to know EVERY issue. This one is self explanatory. But you can't know everything. You're only human.
But I don't wanna treat political news as solely entertainment. Besides, I do know some nonmainstream outlets that put out articles instead of videos.
It takes a while to get to the advice, since a lot of it is about how how the current presidency shows signs of authoritarianism. But there's some useful advice. Some of it is hard to follow though, particularly the not judging part, which quite frankly while it is useful to show people patience, I also understand we don't necessarily need everyone to be the guy to change hearts & minds. However if you are able to, please try to do what you can.
Edit: After a conversation about it, my thoughts on the article have changed a bit. While I always knew it was made for a specific audience (cishet white men), I didn't call into question the helpfulness of the article for it. But for that reason, it's not helpful for the demographic who need help the most and might not even be helpful at all. So keep that in mind.But I've been having trouble getting over it for the past year or so. Every time I think I feel like I'm over it, I'm back to feeling almost uncontrollably upset the next day. I've been through worse, but it amplified my other traumas too due to indirect associations. It feels as if that coworker got away with treating me like garbage even before that. But before the drunken incident, I tried excusing their terrible behavior even when I saw them sexually harrass someone. It doesn't help that I ended up saying something nasty about them while drunk that got misinterpretted as me blaming them.
I switch between feeling angry, violated & blaming myself because even though I know it was just an accident, I never got to clarify anything. My only closure was quitting.Now I've decided to use it in my browser only. Vencord came with useful plugins like ones that block trackers & youtube ads, but my browser can already do that. Sure, since I'm using it in browser, I can just use vencord with the extension "tampermonkey". But for some reason, the vencord script for tampermonkey isn't working either. Discord, if your plan was to stop modded discord clients, you win!! However I'm still not letting you track me or paying for Discord Nitro (blah!).
Edit: Found this userscript to adjust the width of the channel panel. It can be found here.Plex, you are only worth shit because of my friend's library! Just Watch, Kodi & Stemio can already do your job!
But do cartoons like Persepolis, Fantastic Planet, The Rabbi's Cat, Louise, and Time Masters make french cartoons their own separate medium? Are those weird soviet-era cartoons their own medium? Are Chinese cartoons their own medium? Is that short film Six Figures Getting Sick by David Lynch its own medium? Are adult cartoons their own medium? It's ridiculous. You're just ashamed to admit you like cartoons. Anime is still seen as "embarrassing" by people who consider them separate things, even people who like anime. You're not defending yourself by separating the two. You're just shifting the problem people have with it from one seemingly embarrassing thing to another.
Librewolf: Currently, my main browser. I use startpage as my default search engine with searx as one for private browsing & multiple manually added search engines. I use the Mullvad DNS option for DNS over HTTP. I use the tab containers (which are enabled by default) to separate my jobhunt/work stuff from my personal stuff. Free streaming services seem to work with DRM enabled. But for some reason Netflix doesn't. I guess they only tested the free streaming websites. I have "resist fingerprinting" disabled. However I might re-enable it if I stop being lazy and actually finish making a toggle button for dark mode on my blog. Since I have most of my accounts set to dark mode anyway. Granted I use more extensions than recommended which would still make relatively easy to fingerprint.
Waterfox: Like I mentioned, I mostly use this for Netflix. I have most of the default privacy settings kept the same. However I have it to set auto-delete cookies from places other than netflix. It also keeps undoing me setting the tracker blocker to strict. I use NextDNS for the dns over https. I have it set to make everything look square. I use qwant as my default search engine. I added the streaming search engine "Just Watch" to my list of search engines too. I have ublock & bitwarden installed but that's it for add-ons.
Mullvad Browser: I kept almost all the default settings the same, since the whole point is to blend in. But I have it set to "safer mode" which means javascript is partially disabled. I use it for private browsing more than the private windows of other browsers. I also have a separate browser profile for I2P. I use both browser profiles a lot for piracy. But sometimes I use it to search dumb questions & use proxies for twitter/tiktok or in the case of I2P, reading articles and blogs. My default search engine is brave.
Tor Browser: I use it to search embarrassing medical questions, dumb questions and look at news sources that either have a .onion or are a bit lefty. I figure it'll help distract from activists, whistleblowers and people under regimes using it if I use it for dumb things like searching where okra comes from. I use the safest setting which means javascript is fully disabled. I also use bridges. I used to use obfs4 bridges. But now I use the snowflake ones because they're considered less obvious but still relatively fast. I also use it over a VPN. But there are some risks with using Tor over VPN. I also regularly switch which search engine I use.
Ones I Used to Use But Now Don't:
Pale Moon: It's a fun browser in concept but kind of janky. Freezes up if you're not careful. I mostly used it for scrapbook x (an extension that lets you organize & save pages directly to your computer) & the rss feeds. I used them to research things & read the news. Basically light reading. But lately I have trouble finding the motivation to factcheck video essayists. So I uninstalled it. Plus the rss for certain news websites stopped working. I'm looking at you Reuters!! I also had an extra toolbar just for extensions, but I kept having to redo it when I changed the theme.
Firefox: Used to be my primary browser for a few years. I had it slightly hardened (tracker blocker set to strict, set to autodelete cookies except for certain websites, using Mullvad DNS, etc). Being able to add search engines is less consistent than in firefox forks.
Edit: I started using mojeek for mullvad instead of brave, since brave search requires javascript for the captcha.
I definitely recommend waterfox if you want something that's like firefox but with a better privacy policy and not as overkill as librewolf. That said, again I'll still use librewolf as my primary browser, with both mullvad browser & waterfox being secondary.
Even with that in mind, I still think it's the better service, especially since I get access to not only stuff on free streaming but my friends' libraries.
Also this when combined with the netflix trouble on librewolf makes me wonder wtf it's doing that it breaks in librewolf. Is it the no screenshots thing? Because I'm still able to take screenshots in firefox regardless. Is it just that netflix has more trackers? I don't know.There seems to be a lot of the spirit of the old web on I2P. A lot of making blogs, directories and stuff. There was even a site for pornographic ASCII art. The main directory I use notbob.i2p has a blog page where they just review random websites on the network. Some are just mirrors of news sites, or search engines. But some are personal websites or sites without a clear reason, each with their own flare.
So even before I started using neocities, I already had a taste of these sites in the modern era. It adds a sense of fun that's sincerely lacking from the modern web. I don't miss being a teen. I was scared & lonely. But I do miss when tech was exciting & fun instead of volatile but serious.So I had to reinstall firefox just for legal streaming. I'm still gonna use Librewolf as my primary browser.
But I wish they had full drm support. I remember someone saying that "librewolf is easier to de-paranoidify than firefox is to harden (make more private)" and that may be true for most settings. But with DRM, it's actually the opposite.Why Squarespace Sucks by The Creature Designer
Your website builder sucks. ALL of them. by Scattering Clouds
Squarespace Sucks by elmikewalshSo I switched to Librewolf again. And I even swapped out the "tested on firefox" button on my about page for a librewolf one. Fortunately, it saved my settings/logins from last time I had it installed. But I used to have my add-ons synced on firefox, so I'm gonna list my extensions here just in case I ever need to reinstall them for whatever reason.
Which means I can now send emails to people on neocities. Here's the email if you're curious:
However you should be careful, since it's against the TOS. You could also use a userscript or userstyle manager & just open it in browser if you're worried about getting your account banned.
I personally use Vencord for Desktop & Bunny for mobile. (I'd use vencord on mobile too, but they made their mobile icon some random anime girl for some reason.) Some good places to find themes & plugins are Better Discord and Github. I won't recommend the better discord client tho, since it is heavy on resources.However I quickly came to love it!! It's a modern app launcher that doesn't make skeuomorphism look weird. You can even change the tiles, like having it refract the wallpaper, or blur the wallpaper, or even use a custom image.
The only problem is that it sometimes undoes certain app icons when I start up. But it's still preferable to the problem I had with TSF Shell where it'd completely undo my folders, icon packs, and wallpaper.Briar: Password Lock, Built-in Tor, Group Chats, Forums, Blog Posts
Delta Chat: Peer to peer
Jitsi Meet: Open source Alternative to Zoom, Slack Extension
Matrix: Decentralized
Pidgin: IRC
Retroshare: Decentralized, IRC, I2P/Tor Option
Session: PIN Lock, Incognito Keyboard
Signal: (Molly) Delete Messages, Password/Passphrase/PIN
SimpleX: No Phone Number Required, Change SimpleX Address
Email Providers:
I2P Mail/Susimail
Onion Mail: Meant for Use Over Tor
Rise Up: Invite Only
If you use Protonmail for activism, be sure to use it over Tor & use guerilla mail (or some other disaposable email) for your recovery address.
Maps:
Magic Earth: Real Time Traffic
Alternate Networks:
I2P: (I2P+, I2Pd) P2P, Good For Torrenting
IPFS: Good for File sharing
Tor: Good For Accessing the Regular Web/Clearnet Privately
Related to Alt Networks:
Invizible Pro: Route Apps Through I2Pd/Tor/DNSCrypt
OnionShare: Share Files Over Tor
Orbot: Route Apps Through TorBut this feeling is also addictive because it makes us feel "smart" like we're the Cassandras of the world. But this society ending doesn't mean we can't make sure a better one takes its place. But to do that, we have to make it in the here & now. We have to make sure we build these structures of mutual aid on a small scale, think prefiguration. Think how before capitalism, they had merchants' guilds.
Another video on the subject I'd recommend is Rejecting Doomerism with Revolutionary Optimism by Lucretia MacEvil. Anark & Andrewism also have some good videos on the subject.Edit: Apparently they just miscommunicated their terms of service & now have deleted the page.
Hopefully I'll be able to do the rest soon.
But many people have complained about not finding an email private enough for activists. Even stuff like protonmail & tuta have reported on activists. Meanwhile I2P (short for the Invisible Internet Project) is about as private/anonymous as Tor. Besides, since it's not as popular as Tor, there are less of the alphabet mafia running nodes. And since everyone on the network is running a node, it's harder to tell what traffic is coming from where.
I'd recommend using a username that isn't tied to your identity & an offline password manager like KeePassXC.
To make a susimail account, go to your I2P router at 127.0.0.1:7667/home or you can click the router console icon. Then you press I2Pmail, press "create account", and set your username & password. You can also decide if your email address will be publically available or private.
It will delete your account after 10 days of inactivity. So make sure to log in once in a while, so it doesn't get deleted.Access Now Threat Model: State Surveillance
CyberInsider Threat Model: Surveillance Capitalism
EFF.og (EEP site (i2p), .Onion (Tor)) Threat Model: Focuses on Both Surveillence Captialism & State Surveillance
Krebs on Security (EEPsite) Threat Model: Cryptography
Libre News: Surveillance Capitalism
Privacy Guides (.Onion) Threat Model: Focuses on Every Threat Model
Schneiner On Security (EEPsite) Threat Model: Cryptography
Torrent Freak (EEP site): News related to piracy, VPNs, file sharing, and copyright Threat Model: Surveillance Capitalism
Search Engines:
Brave Search: Uses its own search results
Duckduckgo: Pulls search results from bing
Ecosia: Ecofriendly search engine, pulls from bing
Ekoru: Ecofriendly search engine, pulls from bing
Kagi Search: Uses its own search results
LibreY: Decentralized search engine that pulls from google
Metager: Pulls from yahoo on free plan, google & bing on paid plan
Mojeek: Ecofriendly, uses its own search results
Qwant: Pulls search results from bing
SearX(NG): Decentralized meta-search engine that pulls from multiple sources choosen by you
Startpage: Pulls search results from google & bing
Waterfox Private Search: A meta-search engine that lets you choose results from google, bing, brave, and mojeek
Browsers:
Basilik: same browser engine as pale moon
Brave: Forgetful tabs, Private Browsing with Tor, Bult-in Adblock, Built-in Torrent Client
Dillo: Its own browser engine separate from Chrome/Firefox/Safari
Firefox: Tab Containers, Built-in Tracker Blocker, Adblock Support, Tab Groups, Warning: They Updated their TOS & Privacy Policy to Remove "Don't sell user data"
Floorp: Tab Containers, Highly Customizable, Features that Help With Multitasking (Web Panels, Multi-row tabs, Workspaces etc)
Ladybird: Its own browser engine separate from Chrome/Firefox/Safari
Librewolf: Tab Containers Enabled by Default, Built-in Adblock, Autodelete cookies by default, Tab Groups
Mullvad Browser: Built-in Adblock, Built-in No Script, Always Private Browsing by Default, Mullvad DNS by Default
Pale Moon: Its own browser engine separate from Chrome/Firefox/Safari, retro browser themes, compatibility with older extensions
Seamonkey: Retro browser themes, compatibility with older extensions
Supermium: Retro chrome browsers tabs, compatible with Windows 7
Ungoogled Chromium: Basically google chrome without the google integretation
Vivaldi: Highly Customizable, Features that Help With Multitasking (Web Panels, Tab Stacking, Workspaces etc), Built-in Adblock
Waterfox: Highly Customizable, Tab Containers by Default
Zen Browser: Tab Containers, Features that Help With Multitasking (Workspaces, Split View, Web Panels, etc)
Email:
Disroot: Ecofriendly
Mailbox: Ecofriendly
Protonmail: Comes with Proton Drive, a VPN, & password manager
Rise Up Email: For leftwing activists
Tuta: Ecofriendly
App Stores:
Aurora Store: A privacy friendly way to access the google play store
F-Droid: Open source apps only
Obtainium: Get apps from google play store, f-droid, or github
Youtube:
Third Party Clients:
Freetube: Subscription categories, Sponsorship block
Grayjay: Sub to channels accross video platforms (Youtube, Twitch, Peertube, Nebula, Odysee, etc)
Newpipe: Subscription categories, Access to Peertube/Soundcloud/Bandcamp
Piped: Sponsorship block
Revanced Extended: Sync with Youtube Account, Sponsorship block, Return Youtube Dislikes
Tartube: Youtube/Twitch/Peertube/Odysee/etc Downloader
Tubular: Subscription categories, Sponsorship block, Access to Peertube/Soundcloud/Bandcamp, Return Youtube Dislikes
Alternatives:
Bitview: 2000s youtube layout
Eracast: early 2010s youtube layout
Means TV: Like Nebula but focused on lefttubers, Co-operative owned
Peertube: Decentralized, Webtorrent, RSS feeds, Video/Torrent Download
GooglePlay/Youtube Music:
Third Party Clients:
Nuclear: Play spotify/youtube music playlists without an account, Dark Mode
Alternatives:
Bandcamp: Free Ad-free Streaming, Paid for by Downloads/CD/Vinyl/Merch sales
Free Music Archive: Free & Ad-free
Funkwhale: Free & Ad-free
Internet Radio, like SomaFM or icecast
Physical media like CDs or old records
something rhyming with smiracy
Extensions:
Decentraleyes (Replace third-party services from websites with ones directly from website, unbreak ad/tracker blockers)
Libredirect (Redirect to more privacy respecting sites/apps)
PeerTubeify: Chrome, Firefox (Redirect youtube links to peertube)
Privacy Badger (Block tracking cookies)
Privacy Redirect (Redirect to more privacy respecting sites/apps)
Redirect Tube (Redirect youtube links to Freetube)
Ublock Origin (Block ads & tracking cookies)
Translations:
Maps:
Magic Earth: Real Time Traffic
Google Meet:
Jitsi Meet: Slack Extension
Cloud Storage Drives, File Syncing, and Worksheets:
Authenticators:
Even though I've mostly stopped caring, sometimes I still feel insecure about my weirdness. Not because I think the people who'd think less of me are worth any of my time. But because being able to connect with someone over a shared interest is a magical feeling. When I like something popular, it is easier to find that shared interest with someone. Yet at the same time, it is also magical to find something obscure or niche that you like, almost like finding buried treasure. It was once hidden and yet you found it.
With finding obscure/niche media, it can be more of gamble in regard to quality since you have almost no other opinions to go off of. The truth is I don't think my weirder interests make me more or less interesting. The true key to being an interesting person, it seems, is in how charismatic you are, if you can make a story worth telling.On desktop, you have stuff to customize your taskbar, start menu, icons, modded apps, userstyles, etc. Stuff that is up to date. Some OSes have more options than others (like Linux). But generally, you can find something. However on mobile, you only have custom keyboards & icon packs. For icon packs, you need an app launcher obviously. But if you go with a modern one, the rest of the UI will stay minimalist. If you use an outdated app launcher, it will probably be buggy & none of the widgets will work, unless you're using an old phone (speaking from experience).
So I gave up on customizing my phone. I sort of miss the motion effects for TSF Shell though. It was probably the closest I could get to using Windows Longhorn before it got turned into Vista. I still use skeuo skins for AIMP & a custom keyboard pad. But that's about it.Bluesky & Mastodon:
My experience on Bluesky & Mastodon are pretty similar in that both are twitter-like sites that have a fandom culture & lots of hot-takes. But there are key differences.For one, most of the fan content on Mastodon is scifi while Bluesky doesn't seem to a preference when it comes to fan content. There's also more Gen-Xers on Mastodon than I thought there'd be. (Granted there are some on Bluesky too.) Mastodon also has a lot more hashtag events like a weekly event where people liveblog monster/alien movies. Even though there is still drama & discourse, the community feels more tightknit overall. They also have slightly different features with Bluesky allowing for quote retweets & Mastodon allowing one to edit their own prev posts. The feed feature on Bluesky & Mastodon function differently too. On Bluesky, you can get to customize your feeds to be whatever topic you want (very useful). On Mastodon, there's only the Local Feed (your instance-only), Global Feed (all instances), and the Explore tab (trending posts).
Spacehey:Meanwhile Spacehey is very far removed from the twitter-ness of either of those sites, for very obvious reasons. It not only brings back a lot of the features from older social media like myspace, it has a similar community to myspace too. There's less of a focus on fan culture or drama & more on personal blogging, sharing music, etc. However there is still a bit of media/art appreciation on there too, with its own blog/forum categories for movies/tv and art. They let you subscribe to certain blogs and forums too. On top of blog posts & forums, it also has these temporary posts that autodelete after a certain time called bullet-in posts. The concept feels refreshing in a world where nearly everything is permentantly archived.
Pixelfed & Pinterest:Pixelfed & Pinterest also have a chill community due to it mainly focusing on aesthetics rather than textposts. That said, there are some key differences: one being the near-invasive algorithm of Pinterest that, while mostly effective, negatively impacts your search results. One feature Pinterest does have that I like is the ability to scrap your saved images to together to make a "board" (a collection based on a specific topic/aesthetic). Pixelfed has Local & Global Feeds like Mastodon. It also has dark mode for both desktop & mobile. Pinterest only has for mobile.
It feels as if every social media site has its own unique set of features & culture.Most music rarely ever captures that. I don't think you need a phd to understand that raw feeling. It sounds messy and disorderly, but the sound is often actually organized just in a way we're not used to. I think there's a lesson in there about how we view life. That even the most chaotic moments have an order to them.
Maybe I'm being pretentious. But I just felt like it needed saying.I couldn't use browser sync if only because I forgot to update the email for my mozilla profile. I stopped using protonmail after getting fed up with various things & switched to tuta. Fortunately I was already using my updated email for Bitwarden. So I still have access to all my passwords.
 directed by Alex Gibney • Film cast • Letterboxd.png)
I'm sure you've heard explanations about how torrenting makes it so that even if the site doesn't have the data, it can still point to someone who does. Thus the file remains available even if it's taken down. Well I think it's a bit deeper than that. Sure some of it is that. But I also think that if you're using webtorrent or torrent files to share info, you probably don't care about the money. Meanwhile traditional streaming services not only care, but know they can't make big money off of obscure old media.
Sure they might make a little here & there. But who's gonna pay for something they don't even know exists? With already financially-backed pop culture art & products, they can survive off commercials, reviews, and word of mouth. But there's only so little to go around for a y2k doc on how Steve Wozniak used to be a phone phreak.
Sometimes a streaming service might add old obscure media either in the hopes it'll make it big or simply for availability purposes. After all out of all the streaming services, free ones seem to survive the most on old media. But they can only get the rights to so much & even then only in certain countries. So they're less likely to take a chance than some torrent website, or a seeder. A torrenter doesn't care about copyright. That's the entire point of what they do.
Not only the practice of seeding help preserve media, but the entire copyright for-profit system prevents a lot of old/obscure media from getting its foot in the door.
So if it wasn't for torrents, I'd probably never know about the various complications Eastern Airlines faced that lead to their downfall, or that one could hack a phone. Archiving media isn't just about the preservation of art, but of knowledge too.So I'm gonna mute it on bluesky & mastodon for at least a month. Plus I miss seeing posts from my discord friends on bluesky, but I followed too many political accounts.
I'm still gonna follow the news through both mainstream & alternative sources. I'm still gonna post/rt palestinian gofundmes, or gofundmes in general. I'm still gonna try and do something about this stuff in real life where I can. But I won't be posting abt it on my socials as much. I don't need to mute these words on spacehey & pixelfed, since I don't follow politics on there. My Pixelfed is mostly just cat pics.Popflix: Ad-free, Only 5 Movies a Month on Free Plan
Just Watch: Meta Search Engine for Legal Streaming (warning: doesn't always show the free streaming services anymore)
LibriVox: Public Domain Audiobooks (youtube)
Plex TV: Media Center/Server, Meta Search Engine for Legal Streaming
Hoopla: Ad-free, Supported by Library Card
Soma FM: Ad-free Radio, Supported by Donations
Kanopy: Ad-free, Supported by Library Card
Retrocrush: Retro Anime
Bandcamp: Music Website, Ad-free (Free Streaming But Paid for by Downloads, CDs/Records, & Merch)
Public Domain Movies: Ad-free
Free Music Archive: Ad-free, Supported by Donations
Funkwhale: Ad-free, Fediverse Music Streaming Service
Radio Garden: International Radio
Poolsuite: A Retro Beach Themed Radio Website
SOMA FM: Commercial-free radio
Icecast Radio Directory: Radio Directory for the FOSS protocol, Icecast
KVMR: Community radio
VIMM: Emulator & Archive for Old Games
Bootleg Sites:
Anna's Archive: Ebooks
iDope: Torrent Search Engine
Library Genesis: List of Mirrors
Nyaa.Si: Anime Site
YTS: Movie Torrents
Media Players:
AIMP: Audio Player (Themes, Plug-ins, Radio Capture, File Converter, Bookmarking, Smart Playlists, Mini Mode, Icon Packs)
Audacious: Audio Player (Dark Mode)
Calibre: Ebook Reader (Dark Mode, Ebook Converter, Change Button Icons)
Clementine: Audio Player (Built-in Radio Directory, Spotify Sync, Lastfm Sync)
Exaile: Audio Player (Dark Mode, Built-in Radio Directory, Select Radio Stream Audio Quality, Plug-ins, Close to Tray)
Foobar 2000: Audio Player (Themes, Plug-ins, ReplayGain)
Media Monkey: Audio Player (Themes, Plug-ins, Chromecast, File Converter)
MPC-BE: Video Player (Dark Mode, Seek Bar Previews)
MPV: Video Player (Minimalism)
Nuclear: Audio Player (Play spotify/youtube playlists without an account, Dark Mode)
SM Player: Video Player (Themes, Dual Subtitles, Youtube Support, Chromecast)
VLC Media Player: Video Player (Themes, Plug-ins, Youtube Support)
WACUP: Audio Player (Full Compatibility with Winamp Themes/Plug-ins, Radio Directory)
TV Simulators & Live TV:
Caith/S4t1nr1bb0nz's TV Guide: Select a program from the TV Guide
Daximus' 90 Page: Flip through old 90s youtube clips with a remote
Frutiger Aero Archive's CRT TV Simulators: Upload video files, embed video/website links (works with almost any website that allows embedding/iframes including a few streaming services), or simply watch the default playlist
My Retro TVs: Choose a decade of television and watch youtube clips
Olliveen's TV Room: Select a youtube playlist including ones for full episodes of TV shows
Robophobia's Videos: Select a VHS & drag it into the VHS player
Tofokyo's Homepage: Just press the play button & it'll show a livestream
Toonami Aftermath: Old toonami cartoons & anime
TV Garden: Select a TV station from around the world
You can also use the live TV function on most free streaming services.
Proxies:
I2P: A closed network & proxy that routes your traffic through other users
• I2Pd aka Purple I2P: I2P but coded in C++ instead of Java, more lightweight with better performance, but missing a few features
• I2P+: I2P but with better performance/sleekier UI/more detailed router info, also lets you install the torrent client on its own if you still wanna use I2Pd
If you're using free VPNs, they'll often either sell your data or come with limitations on the free plan or both. That said, I currently use...
• Windscribe: 10gb a month (free plan), FOSS, history of transparency
• Privado VPN: 10gb a month (free plan), based in Switzerland
Other:
Jellyfin: FOSS Media Server
Awesome Piracy: List of Piracy & Privacy Rescources
BiglyBT: Torrent Client
Hatt: Piracy Meta Search Engine (Filter by Medium (Books, Comics, TV, etc))
r/Piracy: subreddit on piracy resources
qBittorrent: Torrent Client
Sonar: Direct Downloader
Stemio: Media Center (Meta Search Engine for Both Legal Streaming & Piracy, Built-in Video Player, Webtorrent, Plug-ins)
Unyo: Anime & Manga Piracy Meta Search Engine (Sync With Anilist Account)
As you scroll down, the theme/layout changes. It's organized by color. There's also a Dana Scully fanpage.
I get upset about how I have trouble articulating my thoughts. But my brother does a better job at articulating his and often it falls on deaf ears.
I guess I shouldn't worry too much because people wouldn't listen to me either way.
As you can see, it not only lets you select the era of TV, but also the genre. My fav are the music channels. But some of the other stuff is interesting. There's one talkshow clip where they're talking about people who think they're werewolves? for some reason.
They also were able to make light bounce around the rim of the TV screen.
Y2K/Cybercore/Scifi Themes
For torrenting, I personally switch between I2P+ and 2 not-so-ideal VPNs. For VPNs with a limited data plan, I recommend you split tunnel it to reduce the amount of data that it uses up. But be careful because you wanna check to make sure if it's inclusive tunneling (includes selected apps) or exclusive tunneling (excludes selected apps).
I2P is a little more complicated. I2P is technically not a VPN. However I2P not only encrypts & masks your IP address, but is a free & open source closed network. That means it's less likely to get a corpo snooping on you through seeding because it doesn't interact that much with the regular web. The entire network is also peer to peer. Unlike Tor, it's designed with UDP & P2P traffic in mind. Depending on which version of I2P you get, you might have to install a java program onto your machine to read the html files. So research each version. These html files give you access to a torrent client & end to end encrypted email. To set up I2P, install java 1st (unless you're using i2pd), then set up a browser profile with 127.0.0.1 as the ip address in your proxy settings. You can also use an extension for configuring the proxy settings, like Foxy Proxy.
Torrenting over I2P: I2Pd comes with its own browser, but you still need to set up the samsbridge & proxy settings for an external torrent client. I recommend qBittorrent, but some use BiglyBT. BiglyBT has the ability to torrent clearnet or regular internet torrents over I2P. To do that with I2PSnark (the Java I2P torrent client), you need to copy the torrent file over to your I2P snark folder (found in your I2P profile folder), then you use the Torrent Creator (the wand button) to copy paste the infohash/magnet link. To torrent files specifically meant for I2P, either download it into your I2P snark folder OR press the plus sign and copy paste the magnet link. I2P is slower than regular torrenting, especially in the beginning. But like regular torrenting, it can be sped up by a lot of seeders or a small file size. To find sites on I2P, I recommend using the directory notbob.i2p which tags nsfw & offensive content. To find torrents, I recommend tracker2.postman.i2p.
Recommended Videos on I2P & I2PSnark:
Try I2P: Download Torrents Anonymously With I2PSnark by (RTP) Privacy & Tech Tips
Anonymous Torrenting With I2P by Mental Outlaw
Introduction to I2P by Mental Outlaw
I2P Tour: Search Engines, Free Anonymous Email, Interesting Eepsites by (RTP) Privacy & Tech Tips
Other options: a direct downloader or meta search engine like Hatt or Sonar
Edit: If you're using I2P, check to make sure your firewall isn't blocking inbound connections to the program & browser you're using for i2p especially if you're using windows firewall. If your firewall is blocking inbound connections, it renders the software ineffective.