prior drafts now with TAGS

For anybody looking to replace YouTube with a frontend (or switch from one frontend to another), here's a quick pretty long tutorial (with visuals)! ⬇️

I saw this when running newpipe. But wait, it gets deeper. I clicked on the details buttons and it said as of today, we have 83 days left until Google rolls out this new requirement for apps inside and outside of the google play store. If any developer disagrees with their new terms and fees, they will be blocked!

I'll share some of the info below:

Looks like they're trying to nuke the remaining privacy and freedoms we have left on the internet.

What to do?

-Get your developer friends to not comply to their new guides

- Sign the open letter on the site and take action by checking out the full resources list on their website as well!

To summarize, this is all daunting especially when you feel all alone with unfair and inhumane regulations comming out faster than improvements but we got this working together!

Share the link with your friends, family and anyone who will listen!

I'm sorry to everyone who lives on the entire continent.

For personal context, before I went to the '98 Burning Man festival, one of the things I'd read from a couple different journalists was that "everybody" runs around naked. Which, fine by me, I'd already spent a lot of time in clothing-optional spaces, I'm not fanatic about it but it's nice.

So I got there early and set up a public shade structure on one of Black Rock City's main roads and spent most of each afternoon just watching the crowds go by. I don't remember seeing more than one actually naked person the whole week. I think a topless woman passed by my intersection maybe every half an hour, sometimes once an hour. So why in the hell were people, normally pretty smart and observant writers, coming away with the impression that everybody was naked?

Then I remembered an unrelated passage from Joel Garreau's great book about the history of the outer-ring suburbs, Edge City. Mall developers told him flat-out that they tried to keep the crowds in their malls less than 5% black. Not because they themselves were racist, but because they had determined, experimentally, that if more than 5% of the people in the mall are black, the median white shopper will wrongly describe the mall as at least half black, as mostly black. And not a few of them would describe it, at 6% black, as a mall where "only black people go." Why?

Because, emotionally, they were still upset over the last one when the next one came into view.

back then i made a bunch of these but by now i lost the pic and dont know how to find the original post anymore

so anyway here is the diagram for anyone else who is interested!!

this requires pretty big carboard pieces, if you have a really big box or something you can make it from one piece, but if you don't, you can also just make each of the pieces individually and then tape them together

and then in the end you put it together like this!!

and then when you make a bunch you can put them all next to each other and stack your books like crazy

linked tree (includes options to donate to Ghanaian projects)

i have a file or folder on my pc that i want to share with other people. let's call it gayshit.mp3

unfortunately gayshit.mp3 is 750mb and im not paying for discord nitro so i need another way to send it

i put it into qbittorrent and it makes a torrent file. this is essentially a very small file that points to gayshit.mp3 so other computers can find it. kinda like a treasure map

i send this tiny file to my friend, who loads it into qbittorrent. their computer takes a moment to find mine over the vast expanse of cyberspace and then (as long as my pc is running and the file is still where it should be), it gets copied from my hard drive to theirs

this is the cool part: if somebody else loads that tiny file, they can download it from both of us. if i'm offline but my friend is on, the third person can still get it. this also means that if two people have separate halves of the file, they can download the other half from each other. as long as some combination of people have the pieces between them, they can all have the whole thing.

crucially this does not require a server!!! you can just upload the file to a few people and as long as they keep it, it's still accessible. as long as somebody, somewhere is still connected, it's available forever. the only way it goes away is if everybody disconnects from it.

if it's sourced from someone you actually know - its all fine and dandy but that is rarely ever the case. most torrent repositories are either gonna be on less than ideal sites, or straight up from the dark web. this isn't really an issue in most cases in today's world tho. for example, TPB has a pretty decent rating system for uploaders so you can vet if they're trustworthy - plus most good ones will have their own website you can check against. TPB is also the longest running repository and they have a reputation to uphold so its in their best interest to keep things fairly safe and secure. that said, it isn't free of malware - especially the ads.

the nefarious content was also much more of a problem back in the early days than it is now - i came across my fair share of csam in the 00s in damn near every search i did or torrent i downloaded. today, you'd have to go searching for it specifically in the vast majority of cases and even then you'd have to know the specific underground sites to access it. this is mostly because even countries who don't give a shit about copyright laws where most torrent repositories are hosted absolutely do give a shit about csam and none of the sites would be able to host if there was any to be found within their databases. that said, it is entirely still possible to disguise image or video files for it, but i've not encountered it in about 20 years now. i also stick to reputable uploaders, tho.

so here's some absolute must-dos if you're going to torrent:

set up a VPN. yes, this is mandatory in most parts of the world since ISPs can and will see you downloading illegal content without one. it needs to be a good VPN. this interactive comparison chart will give you all the info you possibly need to select a good one. at the moment, mullvad remains one of the best, but you do you. --the VPN needs to be ON before you start the torrent client, while the torrent client is running, and as it shuts down. do not turn the VPN off whilst the client is running. --out of habit, i don't turn my VPN off until after i've opened whatever i've downloaded and verified it's safe/correct. --make sure your VPN has a kill switch option and enable it. --as a general rule, if the service is free then it isn't good enough. sorry, but you will need to pay to ensure safety. thankfully, most of them are very cheap and you can do varying options like 1 month/6month/1year.

you need to IP bind the VPN to the client. otherwise there's still a chance your ISP can see whats going on even with the VPN. proton has a really good article about p2p in general that covers IP binding, and you can just google how to do it anyway. it's not against any laws to look up how this stuff works since theres dozens of other reasons to need these particular functions. --your torrent client should preferably have an option to detect when you have a VPN active and automatically bind the IP.

make sure you have a damn good antimalware/antivirus active. again, this is something you will likely need to pay for - but it's something you should have regardless of what you do on the internet anyway. malwarebytes remains one of the top in the field, but do your own research as this may differ depending on your needs/location/etc. --you may end up needing to allowlist your torrent client. --many will tell you windows defender is good enough. in 99% of regular internet browsing this is true, it's actually very good. you could not pay me enough to trust it as being good enough for torrenting or any other dark web activity though.

on windows, make sure you have the option to show file extensions enabled so you can see exactly what kind of files are being downloaded. generally speaking, most torrent clients will give you a preview of the files before you download, but it's still good practice in case you're like me and you just blow through those prompts sometimes. most media files will be safe no matter what. it'd be hard to hide something that could actually do real damage in a media file without it being caught. programs/software is where you need to be very, very careful. i'll gladly get my music/movies from sketchy sites, but i will not ever get a software without researching where it came from. --even if a software is 100% legit, it will likely trigger something in your antivirus system, typically because it's missing particular certifications that tells the system it's safe and trusted. you kinda develop a sense for figuring out false positives like this. --if you're going to be using it for programs, software, or pdfs, i'd suggest backing up your system/making a restore point beforehand just in case.

adblock adblock adblock when visiting torrenting sites. you should be doing this anyway but double down when you're on these sites. i cannot stress enough how many fucking ads there are lol.

double check the link you're about to click is ACTUALLY the torrent download and not a sneakily disguised adware/malware link made to look legit. just hover over it and see what the browser tells you it is (usually it'll be a little tool-tip type thing that'll show up in the lower left hand side of your browser).

use incognito/private mode when accessing torrent sites, and double check all browsing data is permanently deleted upon closing.

private trackers (aka, the people who provide the file you're downloading) are a thousand times more reliable, trustworthy, and usually faster. however, you have to be invited into their circle and you have to seed whatever you download (aka, leave it active in your torrent client after it finishes downloading so that it "seeds" the download, allowing others to grab bits of it from you) which you should be doing as a courtesy anyway but most people don't (which is a big reason torrenting has died off as much as it has bc the whole entire point of it is SHARING but i digress). reddit has many private trackers, and in general a pretty supportive torrenting community.

if you know how and want to take your safety a step further, do everything in a virtual machine. i've got no idea how to do this and have never needed to, but I know some folks who do. you could also use an old shitty laptop that might be too dated to use for anything else so that, in the rare event something does happen and it gets compromised, it isn't really a loss and/or it's not a big deal to do a complete wipe and reset.

there's a whole movement for using debrid instead of VPNs currently. i don't know enough to speak on it. do your own research if this is the right option for you.

torrenting is designed to be done on a PC machine, not a mobile device. i'm sure it can be done via mobile now but i personally would never trust it considering you can't fully jailbreak many mobile devices to ensure total privacy and control. unless you have done a complete jailbreak, i would not recommend doing anything via mobile.

if you're ever uncertain about something, research and ask questions. it is, admittedly, a LOT when you're first going into it. find the reddit/discord communities, they'll provide you with all the advice you could ever need.

Seeing as the bridge is the only crossing over a notoriously crocodile-infested river, the two prepare to cross. Just before they set foot on the bridge the anti-vaxxer halts the engineer.

- How safe is it to cross this bridge exactly? - he asks

- 99.97% - the engineer replies confidently

The anti-vaxxer thinks for a moment before turning around:

No one, *ever*, tried to persuade me to transition.

She played bass on 10,000 songs, including the most-played track of the twentieth century. She was paid $55 per session. Her name never appeared on the albums.

Gold Star Studios, Los Angeles, 1964. A woman in a cardigan walks past the receptionist, a Fender Precision bass in her hand like a briefcase. She doesn’t sign autographs. She signs a timesheet.

Her name is Carol Kaye. In three hours, she will record what will become the most-played track of the twentieth century. She’ll pocket fifty-five dollars and head to another studio, on the other side of town, for the next session.

The record label will never put her name on the album.

Between 1957 and 1973, Carol Kaye took part in roughly 10,000 recording sessions. Not as the featured artist, not as a guest, but as a hired hand. She was part of an anonymous collective nicknamed The Wrecking Crew—elite studio musicians who actually played the instruments on your favorite records while the famous bands posed for promotional photos.

The work was relentless. Three albums before the day was over. Stale coffee in paper cups. No rehearsal. The charts arrived minutes before the tape rolled. If you couldn’t read a chart and nail the take in two tries, you didn’t get called for the next session.

Carol could do it on the first try.

She started playing guitar in grimy bars at fourteen because her family couldn’t pay the electric bill. Music wasn’t a romantic dream for her. It was survival. It was a job—factory work with better acoustics and lower pay.

But she was faster and sharper than almost everyone else. She corrected charts in pencil while the producer was still explaining what he wanted. In one session in 1968, she told a famous producer his arrangement sounded like a dying dog. She chose her own line. They kept her version.

That descending bass line that drives the Beach Boys’ “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”? Carol Kaye. The propulsive groove of “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’”? Carol Kaye. The acoustic-guitar intro to “La Bamba”? Carol Kaye. The iconic theme from Mission: Impossible? Carol Kaye.

She invented techniques on the spot, out of sheer necessity. When the bass sound was too muddy for AM radio, she stuck felt under the strings and used a hard pick instead of her fingers. The tone cut through the static like a blade. It became the sonic signature that defined 1960s pop.

Bassists spent years—decades—trying to crack the secret of the Beach Boys’ gear to get that sound. They were studying the wrong people. They should have been studying Carol.

She received no royalties. No residuals. No gold-record ceremony. No credit on the album sleeves. When “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” hit number one, Carol was already back in a studio cutting a soap jingle.

The biggest bands mimed her bass lines on TV variety shows. New York marketing departments decided a mom in classic clothes didn’t fit the rebellious-youth image they were selling. So they simply left her name off the album credits.

For thirty years, almost no one cared. The truth only began to surface in the late 1990s, when music researchers found the same union contract numbers on thousands of hit records. The very documents meant to preserve studio musicians’ anonymity betrayed them.

Think about it. Every time you heard “Good Vibrations,” “River Deep – Mountain High,” the Righteous Brothers, Nancy Sinatra, or Sonny and Cher, you were hearing Carol Kaye. She composed the soundtrack of an entire generation’s youth.

And yet the records still say nothing. She’s now over eighty. She wrote instructional books. She trained countless bassists. She is finally starting to be recognized by music historians who uncovered the truth about The Wrecking Crew.

But she never got what she deserved: her name on those albums. Credit for the music that defined an era. Recognition that those bass lines everyone associates with the “Beach Boys” were, in fact, Carol Kaye’s.

Fifty-five dollars a session. Ten thousand sessions. The most-played track of the twentieth century.

'Transfem DIY HRT' and 'Transmasc DIY HRT' are a pair of zines aimed at teaching transgender people how to safely self-administer DIY Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT).

Both zines are 100% free to download here from Little Mouse (who also made the zine). Print, share and distribute to those who need it!

Time & Language > Language > Spelling, typing, & keyboard settings > "How AI has helped you" Typing Insights

Anyways! HERE'S YOUR HANDY GUIDE TO WHAT CAN COUNT AS EYESTRAIN! I'm pulling this straight from the Artfight rules page about what needs to be labeled and filtered as eyestrain because it's VERY helpful and VERY accurate! I also know not everybody has an AF account and might not always have access to this handy guide, and this is an important resource; That's why I'm sharing it here! (under the cut)

PLEASE TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY!!! THIS IS ABOUT THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF OTHERS!!!

Dear Representative [Name],

I am writing to express my strong opposition to H.R. 8250 (The "Parents Decide Act"). As your constituent and a concerned citizen, I believe this bill introduces unprecedented risks to digital privacy and security.

Specifically, I am alarmed by:

SEC. 2(a)(1)(B): Requiring age verification to even use an operating system creates a mandatory "hardware lockout" that ends anonymous computing and forces users to hand over sensitive identification data to major corporations just to power on their devices.

SEC. 2(a)(3): Mandating that OS providers create a system for all app developers to access verification data is a massive security vulnerability. This effectively creates a centralized API of user identities accessible to thousands of third-party developers, many of whom may lack adequate data protection.

This bill does not protect children; it creates a centralized surveillance infrastructure at the OS level. I urge you to protect the privacy of your constituents and vote NO on H.R. 8250.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

Given that, in the wake of this mandatory identification policy, my country seems to be moving to hand over its citizens biometric data, like fingerprints, Face ID files, and identification documents, over to the USA and to ICE to maintain the visa free travel (ESTA) we have, I strongly urge any US resident to send these emails, or make calls.

But if you can’t do that, the most powerful thing you can do is spread the word. Tell your friends, family, coworkers, anyone who can help.

My reach will likely be small, and so I don’t know if this will mean very much in the grand scheme of things, but I cannot stand to see this tracking happen to another population as it did to mine.

And if you think it won’t affect you, it will. All anonymity goes out the window when your accounts can be linked via your personal ID

It has some great articles and resources and while written by people with ME/CFS, it keeps all disabilities in mind. A lot of it is specific to the USA but even if you're from somewhere else, there are many guides that can still help you. Some really good ones are:

How to live a great disabled life- A guide full of resources to make your life easier and probably the best place to start (including links to some of the below resources). Everything from applying for good quality affordable housing to getting free transportation, affordable medication, how to get enough food stamps, how to get a free phone that doesn't suck, how to find housemates and caregivers, how to be homebound, support groups and Facebook pages (including for specific illnesses), how to help with social change from home, and so many more.

Turning a "no" into a "yes"- A guide on what to say when denied for disability aid/accommodations of many types, particularly over the phone. "Never take no for an answer over the phone. If you have not been turned down in writing, you have not been turned down. Period."

How to be poor in America- A very expansive and helpful guide including things from a directory to find your nearest food bank to resources for getting free home modifications, how to get cheap or free eye and dental care, extremely cheap internet, and financial assistance with vet bills

How to be homebound- This is pretty helpful even if you're not homebound. It includes guides on how to save spoons, getting free and low cost transportation, disability resources in your area, home meals, how to have fun/keep busy while in bed, and a severe bedbound activity master list which includes a link to an audio version of the list on Soundcloud

Master List of Disability Accommodation Letters For Housing- Guides on how to request accommodations and housing as well as your rights, laws, and prewritten sample letters to help you get whatever you need. Includes information on how to request additional bedrooms, stop evictions, request meetings via phone, mail, and email if you can't in person, what you can do if a request is denied, and many other helpful guides

Special Laws to Help Domestic Violence Survivors (Vouchers & Low Income Housing)- Protections, laws, and housing rights for survivors of DV (any gender), and how to get support and protection under the VAWA laws to help you and/or loved ones receive housing and assistance

Dealing With Debt & Disability- Information to assist with debt including student loans, medical debt, how to deal with debt collectors as well as an article with a step by step guide that helped the author cut her overwhelming medical bills by 80%!

There are so many more articles, guides, and tools here that have helped a lot of people. And there are a lot of rights, resources, and protections that people don't know they have and guides that can help you manage your life as a disabled person regardless of income, energy levels, and other factors.