Kit

There are going to be menopausal cis mums who are on the same brand of estrogen patch as you who are gonna join you in griping about getting them to stick and swapping tips for when you get dispensed the big patches but your dose is half that.

There are going to be infertile cis women who share your pain and anger at the concept that 'able to bear children' is seen as the only 'real' way to be a woman.

There are gonna be intersex cis women who understand what it's like to have your body's default state not line up with societal expectations.

I was having a lot of dysphoria about my upper lip hair suddenly having color to it (medicine side effect it seems). So I was internally wondering if they'd ostracize me since they'd clocked me.

One of the women goes "oh it's okay, I have PCOS too. Don't let it bother you." And suddenly I've got 3 women chatting with me and lamenting how they have to "shave almost every day at this point" and just cackling. The store worker joined in, saying she plucks constantly, and her "transgender friend has to shave 2 or more times a day!". They all had these genuine reactions and "oh no, poor girl" and other comments.

I felt included. I never mentioned that I was transgender.. I just carried on, they helped me pick out wines, gave me some tips on undertones for makeup to cover facial hair stubble, and I got the shop worker to pull out some elderflower liqueur to add to a small sample of a Pinot Grigio (and got more people to try it and add it to their rotation. Seriously, try it sometime. It's incredible).

I had had this job for a couple of months, and while I was working I was told we had a stage coming in later to see how they fit in. I say great and go on my break. When I come back, the potential hire is there... And she's a coworker from a couple jobs ago (like two or three years previous). We both slowly point at each other and go "Aren't you... ?" Before laughing and reintroducing ourselves. I go "Sooo I'm a girl now," and she laughs and tells me "Yeah I can tell." We spend some time catching up, and we work great together, and she gets hired.

And a cis woman friend of mine said, "Oh, I can help! I've got some stuff I can share!"

Version: Saturday August 23rd.

If it's been reblogged click to the original post before commenting.

Big tech is selling you as the product. So how do you escape GenAI and your data being sold to other companies? Because Google has done it on purpose repeatedly.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/google-says-it-doesnt-sell-your-data-heres-how-company-shares-monetizes-and

BTW, while you're cursing, google, make sure you're cursing Prabhakar Raghavan for making Google shittier.

Starting at 11:35 for the pronunciation of his name.

So formatted at the top is the "Google" product and then the replacement is below it with a review.

Chrome

Firefox

The first open source browser. It's free. And originally was named Netscape for the OGs out there.

Brave Some people swear by Brave, but their intro and TOS with the whole sharing your activity kinda feels like Google even if they say they are open source. Every search goes towards their search engine... which kinda seems to be mixing baskets there.

Ecosia-

They claim to plant trees... the question is if you trust them, and for that there's this report on how it works: https://www.patharoundtheworld.com/ecosia-review/

So if you don't want anyone monitoring your search results, it's Firefox. If you don't mind, but want to curate it, Brave. If you don't mind and want it to go towards trees, the Ecosia.

Google (Search Engine)

DuckDuckGo

It's already in your browser. Change the default browser to http://noai.duckduckgo.com/?q=%s (Firefox)

This is the easiest solution.

In case you really don't like this solution, you can also set up Searxng on your localhost server.

Google Docs

Ellipsus- This would replace the communal aspects of Google, so a doc can be worked on together. They are based out of Germany.

LibreOffice- For offline work and very close to Microsoft Office, but has an autosave feature so if it crashes, it's not permanently lost. It's a replacement for Open Office and Neo Office which are not being updated anymore.

Yeah, there is a longer list I did here: https://www.tumblr.com/kimyoonmiauthor/789986515755368448/genai-v-not-genai-round-up?source=share

but the functionality closest to Google Docs are these two.

Google Maps

Organic Maps- The two major weaknesses of this mapping system are that it can't pinpoint exact house numbers, only give you the block it's on. And it can't give you bus route information. It's based on Open Street Maps. So if you're walking or using a car or a bike, it's great for that.

It gives bike trails and so on recommended by fellow travelers. You share the information you want or don't want to share and it won't track you.

The second weakness is that it will not give you correct bus routes.

If anyone has OPEN SOURCE maps that does give BUS routes, I'll be interested for phones, etc.

Gmail

ThunderbirdMail looks like it's the next best option to having to pay for a domain name. It's in the works, but not done yet. If you want a mail server without the having to buy your own domain name.

If you have your own domain name, then... Thunderbird Made by Mozilla, the makers of Firefox, so it's open source. They also have calendar, tasks and chat. If you have your own domain, you can connect to it through POP or IMAP. It does connect to Gmail, but you can limit what you connect through Google this way.

Bravemail- Open source mail in answer to Brave.

Proton sold itself to GenAI, which is a security risk, even though they swear they didn't and they also are Pro-Trump.

GoogleSheet

I couldn't find a good reliable one that works online through a phone, especially Open source projects. If anyone has one that's good and reliable to use, I'd be interested.

Youtube

The main weakness of moving away from Youtube is that there are less people participating.

PeerTube- Decentralized video platform. Open source. Not connected to Crypto (like some of the others)

Android

downsides to this system: it is awful.

upsides to this system: having it run out of batteries, or having its power supply interrupted in any way, would result in a false positive immediately, instead of a false negative later.

alternative idea: there is a pressurized air container. this container holds many liters of mult-hundred PSI air. there is a little, powered gate between it and a vuzuvuela. if it detects a fire, it retracts the gate. but also if there is a power outtage, or a fault in the wire, or anything that interrupts the power supply - immediate, thermonuclear.

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

there is a large, cast iron weight held up by an electromagnet. this weight dangles outside my window. there is a large mannacle attached to this weight, which i then attach to my ankle before sleeping. if there is a fire, the magnet disenages, the weight drops, and i am dragged by my ankle safely out the third story window of my unreasonably tall and narrow wizard tower townhouse. thus bypassing any need for conscious awareness whatsoever. the weight does all the work for me.

what if, upon detection of fire or loss of control power, instead of attempting to remove the people (inefficient, traumatic to occupants and the vulnerable volunteer firefighter [or worse, the endangered heroic bystander] populations, common source of tragic backstories)

we instead remove the *building*?? i am imagining a jack in the box type system or perhaps those children’s toy buildings that explodinate when you hit the target with a dart

Urban Hacker Bench (uHbench)

A beautiful and sturdy public/garden bench from a standard euro pallet in 8 easy steps using only common tools. Almost no wood pieces are left out. You could also reuse the nails.

This project is totally free (as in freedom) and follows the principles of OSHW (Open Source Hardware). The first design, released in 2012, was published under The Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license. The actual version (v1.5) is now under the Free Art License 1.3

It seems simple and insignificant, but reintroducing seating can be a radical act of reappropriation. Plus, they can be a place for rough sleepers, or make bus stops more comfortable, and open people’s eyes to the potential of direct action - it’s your community, and no one should be able to stop you from improving it

I dont want to have to sit on the ground everytime I need a break, but I’ve done it, and gotten a ton of nasty stares.

and im loving the end result

Here's how that works:

say you get a text from your internet provider, let's say it's Comcast (whom i hate). So you have this text that says it's from Comcast about your bill with a contact number and a clickable link -- could be real, could be a scam.

Don't touch anything about this text. Open a web browser and look up the customer service number for Comcast. Or get the number from the bill they send you. However you do it, get the contact info for Comcast from a trusted source, like an official phone directory or the Comcast website itself.

Get in touch with them using that information.

So. Let's run the example both ways it could go.

If it IS a scam: you reach out to Comcast and tell them you were contacted about a problem with your bill, they look you up in their customer database, and they tell you there is no problem with your bill.

If it's NOT a scam, you do the same thing, they look you up, and they explain the problem. In this case, neither Comcast nor the employees involved give a single shit whether or not you clicked the link in the text vs. going through their official website.

This works the same for the your bank, the IRS, Amazon, political causes, charities, everything.

If it's not scam they'll be like sure, here's the reference number. Then you follow the instructions above, call the separate number you find yourself on a reputable website and give that person the reference number. And they'll help you resolve the issue.

They just aren't as known because they don't have big marketing budgets like Flo. And are usually just full projects or personal projects on gitlab or github.

(Though, some of these still assume that the user is a woman, which can be irritating for trans and nonbinary users who menstruate)

Drip App (on Google Play Store, Apple App store, F-Droid, Gitlab) :

Mensinator (on Google Play Store, F-Droid, Github):

Menstruation Nation (on Apple app store, Github)

Peri (a Web App, and on Github)

There's more out there, but these are some options.

Like, a Family snapshot of your late grandparent and their even longer-dead Dog, May have a high nostalgic value to you and losing Access to your only Copy of it, would be very sad, and there's Not much use, harmful or otherwise, that other people could have from it, so you can Store it in the Cloud, so when your Phone breaks unexpectedly, you can recover it from the Clou.d

Your menstrual Tracking Data, or your street map navigation Data If you're being stalked or have done "illegal" things, or your homemade "Just for us" nudity-pictures that were more about taking them, than having them, can easily be used against you if they get into the wrong hands, but you yourself losing Access to them is easy to get over, so they should only be stored in your device, until you either decide to delete them, or the device Breaks.

Data that are low-priority in BOTH, are barely worth storing.

> disables a new AI feature that was turned on by default

> opens my email

> disables a new AI feature that was turned on by default

> launches a software

And sure, you can dismiss these people as lazy, as stupid, as being elderly and so who cares. But from my 17 years of experience, I can tell you that technical instinct and ability varies widely across the entire adult spectrum. And I can also tell you that people have different strengths, and that just because someone isn't good with computers doesn't mean they aren't smart as hell.

And I can also say, again, that it really doesn't matter.

That is to say, there is a certain subset of gamerbro who interacts so rarely with real women, that his primary touchstone for how women look is fiction: often video games and anime. So when a video game woman looks too realistic--too close to having traits that one might find in real flesh and blood women--this is foreign to them. This is unattractive. They have been jacking it to hentai and blender animation porn for too many years, and have inadvertently conditioned themselves to only be sexually aroused by the exaggerated cartoonish traits of animated women.

Two years ago, we got this update on the life of this roachfucker: