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PeachMan

@PeachMan@lemmy.world

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How to get a private car

Hello internet users. Someone in my family is looking to buy a car and wanted some recommendations for a private one. They are looking to buy new, and need Android Auto and CarPlay. I know all new cars suck for privacy by default, but I was hoping someone here could offer some insight as to which cars can be made better and what...

PeachMan,
@PeachMan@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t have a great answer to your question, but you might be able to find a relatively cheap car that isn’t “smart” and doesn’t have a touchscreen or anything. Do they make those anymore? Then, you could add an aftermarket stereo receiver to it, like some of the options in this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t1GdI9UsEI

Yes, that’s still a “smart” stereo but it’s NOT connected to any of the car manufacturer’s metrics or systems, right? So the separation makes it seem more privacy-friendly to me. I could be thinking about this incorrectly, but it seems logical to me. There might be some stereo receivers that are more private than others, but you’d have to do your own research for that.

PeachMan,
@PeachMan@lemmy.world avatar

Damn, I’m looking around and don’t see any, even the cheapest Toyotas and Kias have a big touchscreen with Android and CarPlay. I’m not sure what happens if you take that out and replace it with an aftermarket receiver, but it appears to be possible because Crutchfield sells receivers for a 2024 Corolla: crutchfield.com/…/Digital-Multimedia-Video-Receiv…

I’m also seeing people online saying that there are cars made for businesses that still come with no “smart” features. But I have no clue how you would buy one of those, I doubt they have them at dealerships: reddit.com/…/what_cars_less_than_5_years_old_are_…

Or, you could just get a used car, save some money, and check all the low-tech boxes.

PeachMan,
@PeachMan@lemmy.world avatar

I wouldn’t call it a clone, Tailscale didn’t invent mesh VPN’s. I believe Nebula is fully self hosted, while Tailscale makes initial connections through their servers. That means Nebula is more secure and private if you’re paranoid, but also harder to set up. They’re also based on different VPN protocols.

Tailscale actually published a surprisingly unbiased comparison: tailscale.com/compare/nebula

PeachMan,
@PeachMan@lemmy.world avatar

You can SSH using command line. I do have a Windows Pro license, but I THINK that it’s not exclusive to Pro…

PeachMan,
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Yeah I also installed putty a long time ago, I forget if it was actually necessary or if I was just afraid of command line back then.

PeachMan, (edited )
@PeachMan@lemmy.world avatar

Agree with others here. Ansible isn’t for beginners and neither is a Lemmy instance.

Try some other projects first, maybe some docker containers that involve a reverse proxy.

For example, NextCloud is a very useful thing to set up as a project, but I would say that you specifically need the new Pi 5 with plenty of RAM for that. The Pi 4 doesn’t handle a full NextCloud installation well.

PeachMan,
@PeachMan@lemmy.world avatar

Oh yeah I think so. Honestly NextCloud is slow on any platform, so don’t be surprised if you’re not impressed. But it’s a neat project to set up.

PeachMan,
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Lol. It should also be no issue for you to find the comment and read their answer

Pirated video games SOURCE CODE

So there are multiple sites&groups that pirate video games especially on PC. I was wondering if there are places on the internet where you find source code for games especially the highly modifiable ones like Half Life 2/Portal and Skyrim. Or groups that crack into the source code of games (or even software in general), not only...

PeachMan,
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Right, but it’s best to call that “source available” so the pedants don’t crucify you 🙄

PeachMan,
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Doesn’t seem to have swipe typing, which is important for me. Otherwise it’s great.

PeachMan,
@PeachMan@lemmy.world avatar

It’s pretty common for companies like that to advertise that their app is 100% open source, but then stop short of guaranteeing anything beyond that. In PIA’s case, I would point out that their infrastructure (the servers that they use to route your traffic) are closed, so they could be doing literally anything in there. Their desktop client being open source doesn’t actually do much to guarantee your privacy.

If you want real transparency, Mullvad is the only real option: mullvad.net/en/help/open-source

Having said that, I personally use PIA because it’s cheaper and I don’t care enough.

PeachMan,
@PeachMan@lemmy.world avatar

Right, you can’t be 100% sure, but there are measures that they can take to make you trust them a bit more. For example, I believe Mullvad runs systems in RAM and keeps no records of who uses what. You don’t even have to give them your email address; they don’t want it. And they submit to regular audits (provided you trust the auditors).

Also, if the client matters, then don’t use their client. Use the OpenVPN client instead.

PeachMan,
@PeachMan@lemmy.world avatar

Rather then committing a year to a service, do a monthly subscription until you find something you’re happy with. Then switch to annual billing if you want. I wouldn’t continue paying for a VPN that doesn’t work well. I’m personally pretty happy with PIA.

As others have mentioned, Bitwarden is a very good password manager that has a very full-featured free tier. And its paid tiers are very cheap if you decide to upgrade.

PeachMan,
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GrayJay is still working.

PeachMan,
@PeachMan@lemmy.world avatar

The amount of FOSS snobbery in this community is hilarious. You typed that comment on a proprietary device with proprietary hardware, probably running proprietary software (unless you’re on Linux, truly using ALL open source stuff, including RISC-V hardware, FOSS browser and network stack). But God forbid an app is just source available instead of truly FOSS. Gasp! The horror! You should complain about it using one of the completely closed-source Android/iPhone apps that you use every day.

LMAO

PeachMan,
@PeachMan@lemmy.world avatar

Greedy? Lmao the app is free to use. My point is that you make compromises elsewhere with proprietary hardware and software, just like everybody else here, but you decide to draw the line at GrayJay just because it’s only source available? That’s silly, you’re just making yourself feel good with holier-than-thou bullshit.

Also, for the record, I’ve tried all the fully FOSS alternatives and they all have crap UX. GrayJay just works, like a good app should, and you can plug multiple accounts in from different platforms. It’s an excellent product, and it shows what excellent developers are capable of doing in a short time. It’s impressively stable for an app this young. But I guess you’ll never see for yourself because it’s “proprietary trash”. Lol.

PeachMan,
@PeachMan@lemmy.world avatar

Sure, I get the preference. But these people are acting like GrayJay is somehow worse than completely closed-source software that they use every day. It’s obviously not as good as FOSS, but being able to audit the code makes it a lot more useful and safe than your average closed-source software.

If I had said something about ReVanced, which is a FOSS project that only repackages a completely closed-source app (YouTube) then nobody would have said anything negative. But because I mentioned GrayJay instead, I get gatekeeping responses about “proprietary trash”.

It’s so stupid.

PeachMan,
@PeachMan@lemmy.world avatar

Love how the headline equates the shame of viewing porn with the shame of viewing anime

PeachMan,
@PeachMan@lemmy.world avatar

What? Plex is not one of those open source, self-hosted, privacy-centric services. Plex can do whatever the hell Plex wants with your watch history, because you agreed to their broad terms of service that said exactly that when you signed up. You chose to run your traffic and authentication through Plex servers because it’s convenient, not for privacy reasons.

If you don’t like it, use Jellyfin. I’m personally looking into moving, as Plex seems to be getting slowly shittier.

PeachMan,
@PeachMan@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t know how you could read that and think I’m defending them.

I’m just telling you how the world works. If you want real privacy, you need to PAY somebody with a rock-solid privacy agreement or fully host it yourself. Plex is neither of those things. Remember, if something that costs money to run is free, then YOU are the product.

PeachMan, (edited )
@PeachMan@lemmy.world avatar

Behold! I have the answer, at least if you’re willing to use Qbittorrent and the PIA app: www.reddit.com/r/…/jr2mptg/

This is an AutoHotKey script that runs at boot. It basically babysits the Qbittorrent port for you, making sure it matches your randomly assigned PIA forwarded port. I’m guessing this is also possible using a different VPN or torrent client, but you’d have to find your own script for that. Also, make sure to bind Qbittorrent to your VPN interface: reddit.com/…/guide_bind_vpn_network_interface_to_…

P.S. I should point out that port forwarding on your VPN isn’t TOTALLY necessary…but if you don’t forward ports, your download speeds will be slower and you’ll barely be able to seed at all (this is known as a “dick move” and it will get you banned from private trackers).

P.P.S. I should ALSO point out that your forwarded port does not change very often if you keep your VPN connected! So you don’t actually NEED this little script, you could just check the port once a week and make sure that Qbittorrent matches it. For example, I’ve been on the same port in PIA for at least a month now, and I’ve definitely rebooted my PC a couple times for updates. So it seems that the PIA app often just reconnects to the same server and uses the same port, but YMMV.

PeachMan, (edited )
@PeachMan@lemmy.world avatar

Torrents still work, they’ll just be a little slower and you won’t be able to seed much at all. If you’re using public trackers it works fine. But if you want to use a private tracker that forces you to maintain a ratio, you’ll run into problems.

PeachMan,
@PeachMan@lemmy.world avatar

Yes, and lions and dinosaurs can’t talk, but this is a community where we post silly comic strips so maybe chill out with the fact-checking my dude?

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