VPN provides security in-transit between you and the VPN server. That’s it. Either end can nullify that security by leaking data before or after it is encrypted.

Luckily geocaching is still a thing!

Also from the “European” recommendations, Vivaldi is Chromium, and Mullvad is Tor, which is Firefox.

Patric Breyer usually posts in German. The UK flag in the tweet is just to indicate the language of the tweet.

As I mentioned in the previous comment, Carla isn’t cutting it - not stable enough in my experience.

I’d love to, but I am too dependent on my VST Plug-in library on Reaper. Running them through Wine/Carla doesn’t cut it.

I played with the idea of getting a Mac for music production, and installing a Linux distro on my desktop for gaming and video editing. But I couldn’t really justify dropping 1000-2000€ on a laptop with inferior performance to my desktop.
Looked into used specimen, but getting a 3-year old model only gets you a couple more years of software support.

So Windows 11 with a local account and many policy modifications it is.

I went to Japan earlier this year. Filled the travel related paperwork online in advance, and at the border they took fingerprints, compared face to passport (which I assume included a photo) and that was it. Not any different from any other developed country.

I dislike ads as much as the next person, and find uBlock Origin necessary for browsing the web, but the cold fact is that the internet is run with advertising, whether you like it or not.

If that is done without creating a profile on me, and without crippling the reading/viewing experience, I can tolerate advertisement.

I assume this is also an action towards becoming independent from Google funding; which is a good thing.

Firefox Firefox Chromium Firefox

Fixed that one for you.

Same goes for XBox, also the Steam Deck.

I’m always advocating for Signal, but I’m worried for the time their billionaire-backing eventually runs out.

Can you disable the app and download another gallery from F-Droid?

Usually the only things locked behind an application are custom equalisation, and modifiable earphone buttons. You probably can even uninstall it after you’re happy with the above settings.

Waiting for phone manufacturers to integrate physical camera covers like on new laptops.

While not open source, Here WeGo is also an alternative to Google. I think Here may be more focused on driving.

With bank transfers I am referring to services like Paytrail/Klarna where you authenticate with your bank, and choose which account the sum is taken from.

I think bank transfers are more popular in Northern Europe. I only use a credit card if I want additional buyer protection / insurance from my bank.

Only other downside I could think if is when my catch all cant be used to send a mail or reply.

On Protonmail, I just create a new address if I need to send email from that address. Afterwards I just delete it, freeing up the address slot.

Both are fine choices depending on your requirements. The thing with external alias services, you are not in control of the addresses/domain. Catch-all addresses are essentially aliases you manage, but something like Simplelogin does have the benefit of hiding your domain name.

Spam is not a big deal on catch-all. A couple of times a year I do get a spam mail to some arbirtary address, but that’s more or less it.

Maybe I’m just not hip anymore

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