#tech guide

Fallout 1.5: Resurrection is a fan-made total conversion mod for Fallout 2. If you've been looking to get it running on your Steam Deck, here's a step-by-step guide to do exactly that.

Check out the guide here 👇

I love Satya, I would sell my dog for Windows!1 Well, I put some reasons against it in the comments and you can ask for more. There’s...a lot. The biggest issues I hear are it's hard and it's a third world OS. Both untrue (finally). Linux Mint Cinnamon comes in Ubuntu or Debian Linux flavors and it works like Windows out of the box, is popular, and free.

And it's increasingly supported. Steam has Proton to run Linux games, you can dual boot for Fortnite, and use WINE to run windows apps ⚠️ If you need to dual boot, keep or install a clean Windows first, and only then install Linux. Because Windows thinks it's god and clears the boot sequence. Still here? How about you... Get and download Linux Mint Cinnamon here (full guide here) Get and download Etcher here Plug a 4GB+ USB into your computer and run Etcher: - Click Select image and select your ISO file - Click Select drive and select your USB stick - Click Flash! Restart the computer, it should boot from USB depending on the boot load order and it'll have the option to press enter on linux mint to boot it, or it'll just auto-boot depending. If it does neither, check here When Linux starts, it's running off USB. Double click the "Install Linux Mint" icon and you're golden!

How to install apps Click Start and type “Software Manager” for a streamlined experience. Or grab stuff online and follow their install instructions for executables. Those end in .appimage and .deb, but you can’t double-click to run it until you right click → Properties → “Allow executing file as program” (true). You can make a start menu entry too.

Using Terminal – uncommon apps or programs for power users might ask you to paste lines in Terminal (equivalent of Command Prompt). Paste them one at a time in order via right click → Paste or Shift+Insert, then press enter after each one. If it starts with “sudo” it’ll run as admin and ask your login password. If it ends with (Y/N) it’s a yes or no question and expects you to type y for yes or n for no. Don’t get overwhelmed, you’ve got this <3

Valuable keyboard shortcuts - Lock is Ctrl+Alt+L now - Run is Alt+F2 now - Crop screenshot to clipboard is Ctrl+Shift+Printscreen Valuable tweaks Desktop icons can’t be dragged right click desktop → Customize → Auto-arrange (off).

For recycle bin right click Desktop → Customize → Desktop Settings → Trash (on).

To display time on a 12-hour clock press Super, type Date & Time → Use 24h clock (off).

For create shortcuts in right-click menu (as "make link") press Super, type Files → Edit → Preferences → Context Menus → Make Links (on). Adding a custom keyboard shortcut “Ctrl+Shift+Esc” to open Process Monitor

I'm used to Task Manager in Windows and Process Monitor is basically that, but it doesn't have a shortcut by default. You can give it one. Start by making a file containing your script, the first line is always needed:

#!/bin/bash gnome-system-mon­itor

Then save it to a stable location with filename ending in .sh Then press Super, type Keyboard → click Add Custom Shortcut, and give it a good name. Browse to the file you made, click add, and click the keyboard binding then press whatever sequence you want.

Adding a custom action “Convert File” to Files Press Super, type Actions → click Download tab → click Convert Files and click the download button to the right of it, then open Terminal, type this, press enter and give your login pass as needed:

sudo apt install ffmpeg imagemagick

I got that from the forum linked by the info button ( i ) for the action. It's a little..."open source" here. Anyway, go to Manage tab and enable it. Now in Files, you can right-click a file to convert it to related formats.

For power users! Disable alt+click to drag windows around Alt+click is used to select multiple lines in programs like VS Code, but window drag interferes with it. Press Super, type Windows → Behavior tab at top → “Special key to move and resize windows” (off)

For power users! Paste paths in filesystem This makes it possible to invoke Run (Alt+F2) and paste any path to open the folder or file, which is a really fast shortcut. Right click start (bottom left) → Customize → Menu tab → “Enable filesystem path entry in search box” (on)

How to run Windows apps in WINE VirtualBox and WinBoat are emulators but WINE isn’t an emulator so it’s faster, when it works. And it tends to work for me. Tutorial to install WINE is here After installing WINE, get WineGUI here

Add WINE programs to start menu searches Use WineGUI to load .exe files to register with WINE. Launchers are scripts displayed like files on your desktop that run on double-click, and we'll use that to run apps through WINE. Right click desktop -> "Create a new launcher here..." -> use any name you want, and this command:

wine "the full path to the windows exe file"

Put it in ~/.local/share/applications to see it in start menu searches.

There are still some rough edges

Files app:

Restricted actions when opened from some apps (can't rename, move files, etc.)

No easy way to copy/paste the address or open an unrestricted version of the Files app from a restricted one, which can get really in the way

Typing defaults to searching the current folder even when Files opens just to save a file (it should default to naming it, then)

Few/no integrations with filetypes e.g. no mp3 tags in properties

Pixel versions https://grapheneos.org/faq#supported-devices Install https://grapheneos.org/install/

Why?

The world is dealing with a runaway network of openly-traded data with dubious enforcement of privacy laws and no consumer trust. OSes and ISP/cell providers all collect and sell your data, violate choice and force updates. Graphene is an open-source FOSS platform that pulls from AOSP (android open source project) to help build a completely FOSS environment, as much as possible.

Features

On top of non-vendor Android, it adds:

Default open-source apps, permissions locked down, nothing above-the-law

Security improvements to app interprocess, sandboxing, memory, location and wi-fi

Replaces API endpoints with Graphene servers as a free proxy to avoid tracking

Gates access to accelerometer / gyroscope under a new “sensors” permission

Lets you scope the folders or contacts that apps with permission can use

Get app stores and make your privacy choices

Open App Store, install Google play and services. App Store only has Graphene special apps and Play is a sandboxed version here.

Open Vanadium, search “F-droid app”, find and install it. F-Droid should be your main app store, with Google Play as a backup.

For privacy, disable unused permissions including sensors (except camera and map apps). Set a VPN in “Settings -> Network and Internet” and set Private DNS to one.one.one.one for Cloudflare via DNS-over-TLS (this setting doesn’t support DoH).

For best privacy, let an app register as a VPN and route traffic that way. My favorite is Orbot to run network activity with the TOR protocol, which is slow. Signal is untrustable, but if you open F-Droid and go to repositories tab, you can add https://molly.im/fdroid/ and then search for Molly for an encrypted FOSS front-end for it. Then have Orbot route its traffic.

If you install Orbot, go to F-Droid -> settings -> “Use Tor” to use it for F-Droid activity too.

Get free and FOSS apps

A notes app (F-Droid -> PocketPlan) for tasks, groceries, birthdays A file manager (F-Droid -> "Fossify File Manager") to un/zip and encrypt contents An offline music player (Google Play -> "AIMP") A maps app (F-Droid -> "OSMAnd~"), has offline & navigation A better camera (F-Droid -> "Open Camera"). No QR scan An offline text/image translator (F-Droid -> "Offline Translator") Alternative to Youtube (F-Droid -> “NewPipe”), anon ad-free youtube. There's also PipePipe

Privacy apps

An app for routing traffic via TOR protocol (F-Droid -> settings -> repositories -> click + and enter repository URL manually -> guardianproject.info/fdroid/repo, search “Orbot”). Orbot routes all the chosen apps’ network activity via TOR network. After install, go to F-Droid -> settings -> “Use Tor” to force downloads via this app.

Alternative Signal client (F-Droid -> settings -> repositories -> click + and enter repository URL manually -> molly.im/fdroid/foss/fdroid/repo -> search “Molly F-Droid Repo (FOSS)”). This connects to Signal servers using a more secure FOSS front-end that’s less likely to create trackable telemetry, and can be routed via Orbot.

The cost of privacy

Phone apps aren't designed to work with minimal permissions, so even though you can turn them on and off, it's a lot of work to keep doing that all the time. You have to remember to turn off Wi-fi or cell tower connectivity before turning on the other, to check for background activity by swiping from the top and clearing those apps, to disable anything backed by Google Play and keep that disabled unless you're downloading something with it...and it's a lot to manage. And not every exploitable form of access is gated, anyway, especially for interprocess communications.

Some users keep Google Play and apps downloaded from it in their own user space while others say Graphene was designed to have the same security as Owner for every account. This just isn't true; I can't make calls or turn on cellular connectivity from non-Owner accounts, and music from one account won't keep playing if you switch sessions to another. There's no shared folder system between users, either -- and that's by design. So we really do pay for privacy. What I do now is install everything on ONE account and block permissions per-app so I can keep a lot of permissions on for the apps that do need them, interprocess communication dangers be damned; I can't spend my time on toggling permissions forever.

Bonus: a review of Open Street Maps via OSMAnd~

There's this service called StopNCII, NCII being "Non-Consentual Intimate Images," which is a more "professional" way of saying revenge porn. Anyone anywhere in the world can submit intimate (sexual, nude, etc.) images depicting themself and the service provides a secure way for other platforms to determine if that image is being shared, so that they can prevent the transmission. Spoiler alert but the actual images never reach the StopNCII servers, they use secure image-free methods to detect images.

There's some justifiable skepticism about this service. You should be skeptical about services like this. Personally I think this service is likely to work for the people's best interest, and almost certainly takes actual security measures to prevent exfiltration of intimate images. I'll go over the technology used and its potential issues, but if you believe you are likely to have your (real or fake/altered) intimate images exposed on the internet, you should use this tool, and refrain from saying that you did to anyone you know. The second bit is explained at the very end of this post.

First off, of course, you cannot remove images off the entire internet, in the same way you can't remove printed photographs off the face of the planet. However, the big social media services (Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Twitter/X, TikTok, Reddit, Google, Bing, and various adult platforms) all participate, meaning that if the image is shared on, for instance, Facebook, it will be detected and fail to post/send, potentially leading to the user being suspended if Facebook staff confirms the violation.

Images aren't shared to the service

A core part of how these sorts of services work is that they do not store actual images. This is for a number of reasons, one being that images are large and comparing images is expensive, but the most important for this usecase is privacy. A service which aims to prevent the distribution of illegal sexual material (like revenge porn) ought to not be in the position to itself distribute the material (like through data leaks).

Instead, any images "submitted" to the service are instead hashed on your personal device, then that hash is uploaded to the service.

Perceptual hashing

A hash is an algorithm which takes in data and produces a (very long) number which represents the data. The most important features of a hash are that the number is always at most a specific number of digits (usually measured in bits) and a given input will always produce the same output. If you hash a screenshot of this page you will get some number, then if you hash the same screenshot again, the same number will be spit out. If you hashed a different image, the number would be different.

There are three main types of hashes but for this explanation only one matters: the perceptual hash. Perceptual hashes can be thought of as a distilled representation of an image, capturing the core details of an image which distinguish it from other images. Perceptual hashes work in such a way that the numbers they spit out will be similar for similar images. Below is an image and its hash, as well as modifications of the image and their hashes. The hashes are computed using the same algorithm used by StopNCII (called PDQ).

Fun fact: these sorts of hash algorithms are used in image searching.

The way perceptual hashes are calculated usually involves several steps, like scaling and color conversion. Here is the process for PDQ:

As the image states, the image is scaled down to 64x64 pixels in the middle of the process.

Images courtesy https://github.com/darwinium-com/pdqhash

Upsides and downsides of perceptual hashing

The upside of this scheme is that it's possible to identify and flag potentially abusive images without ever distributing them between services. The user can hash their image, send the hash to the StopNCII service, then participating platforms can hash images sent on their services and check the database of hashes (not images) without anyone having ever exchanged an actual image between platforms.

There are a few downsides though. One is that perceptual hashing is not fallible, it is possible to fool it by extreme cropping or editing, sophisticated noise methods (called evasion in the literature), or by encryption. Good end-to-end security employing encryption in general makes these sorts of systems infeasible and ineffective. End-to-end security is only really viable for small invite-only groups (like DMs) though, so this scheme is still viable for public sharing, as well as unsecured DMs (like those on the partnered platforms).

I think most would expect that sort of limitation, what people might be more concerned with is if the hashes could somehow be reverse engineered back into the original image. This process is called inversion in the context of perceptual hashes (and preimage attacks for cryptographic hashes).

Reverse engineering perceptual hashes

Most perceptual image hashes actually do store some sort of image data. For PDQ, they store the low frequency data of a scaled down 64x64 version of the input image. If we take the hash bits, reverse their ordering, then arrange them in a 16x16 grid in the upper left corner of a blank image, we can use the inverse discrete cosine transform to convert the hash back into an image:

Truth be told, I don't even know if I actually did this process correctly, hence why there are two reversed images. One of them is correct (I'm pretty sure), but it's really impossible to tell because the reversed hashes are unrecognizable even next to the original image. While yes, there is some actual image data in a PDQ hash, it's totally unrecognizable.

This is a pretty general property of perceptual hashes. These hashes have to be tiny, PDQ hashes are 256 bits long. Any image that the PDQ algorithm receives gets smashed down into just 32 bytes (the same amount of data in 8 raw RGBA pixels), so a lot of data gets thrown out.

Because of this, the best perceptual hash inversion methods use machine learning techniques, and an example of an inversion attack against PhotoDNA (which is similar to PDQ but a different algorithm) can be seen here:

This is from a 2024 paper (pre-print) which investigates evasion and inversion attacks against perceptual hashing, and proposes some solutions. The leftmost image is the original, the second leftmost is the reversal of the hash. As you can likely see, the reversed image is extremely blurry and almost unintelligible, certainly unrecognizable. The images to the right are reconstructed from perturbed hashes, which are simply hashes with some of the digits messed around. The reversed perturbed hashes are even blurrier.

That still seems pretty spooky, right? Couldn't StopNCII just train a massive reverser and get my images? Well, that figure above is the absolute best case scenario for machine learning assisted reversing. The researchers could only get meaningful (still very blurry) images when they used extremely specific datasets; the reverser for that figure is only trained on celebrity head shots. As soon as they tried to train the reverser on more varied images, it failed and couldn't produce anything sensible. Furthermore, the reverser couldn't successfully reverse hashes from PDQ (the algorithm used by StopNCII), just PhotoDNA. From the paper:

In general, hash-inversion failed over STL-10 [varied image dataset] while some level of success could be seen in MNIST [hand drawn numbers] and CelebA [celebrity faces] over PhotoDNA hash only. The reason is that the MNIST and CelebA images have similar or regular formation. The reconstructed images tend to converge to such common formation when the hash is long enough. However, even in this case, the reconstructed CelebA images could not be used to recognize the original face.

This means that a hypothetical inversion attack for StopNCII hashes would have to consist of many specially trained hash reversal models: one specifically for close-ups of breasts, one specifically for high-angle nude selfies, one specifically for skimpy cowboy outfits, ... Assuming this was done, the results of the reversal would still be very blurry and unidentifiable, with each model likely producing its own distinct "reasonable" reversal for the same hash, because remember: the process of generating the hash rescales the image to a minuscule 64x64 pixels, then throws even more data away. Even if there were some super dataset and some super inversion model, it could only ever reliably manage to recover at most a very blurry black and white 64x64 image. Any additional "data" is pure guesswork.

What if they're lying about hashing?

StopNCII could feasibly lie about hashing the images and simply store them instead. This is an extremely bad idea for them to do, though. Many jurisdictions (including the UK, where it is based) have laws about disseminating the exact sort of content StopNCII exists to thwart. If StopNCII transmitted and stored actual images they would be liable to heavy fines, and imprisonment for the operators of the service.

Of course, liars exist everywhere, but this would be something which would be very easy to verify by anyone. Simply submit an image while the browser console's network tab is open. If a large transfer the size of the image you submitted is sent to the service, it means that they are lying about hashing. If not, well then they were telling the truth.

You can also read the Javascript code of the service, which your browser uses to perform the hashing. I have not reverse-engineered the code to definitively say whether the hashing is done or not, but the code includes variables and functions relating to "pdq" and hashing, which we would expect if it were hashing the images.

A note about partner platforms

A key component of this system and other perceptual hashing or automated content detection systems is the platform. Platforms are the ones who actually enforce the deletion, suspension, etc. processes.

In the case of StopNCII I personally don't have much concern over how the platform side is operated since platforms can be quite conservative with regards to punishing users who send images which appear to match hashes. Matching images can simply be automatically deleted, with repeat apparent violations causing an account to be put under monitoring.

This sort of perceptual hashing system also exists for detecting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and with that there's a much more delicate balance that platforms have to take. Platforms don't want to store that content even for review since it is highly illegal, extremely so, the world over. Automated suspensions are a common way platforms handle these cases. Since hashes are liable to collisions, which is when two different things hash to the same number, fully automated suspensions can (and have) caused innocent users to be suspended. This has been a problem on, for instance, Discord.

In the case of Facebook with StopNCII, they explicitly say that they do not deliver automated suspensions when revenge porn is detected (source). Though of course take the article with a grain of salt, as it says that "machine learning" is used in the process (PDQ is an entirely conventional algorithm) and Facebook is not the most trustworthy entity out there. Still, I doubt they would outright suspend a user if they send an image which matches a hash in the StopNCII database, they likely just delete the image and escalate if it keeps happening. The article says that a human will review each match and manually delete it, but I doubt that. Automated silent deletion escalating to manual review seems more likely, at least to me.

A limitation (for videos only)

This post has so far covered exclusively the image portion of StopNCII, but the service also works for videos. How do they implement support for videos?

There are perceptual hash schemes for videos, and they could likely have used the technology, but they have instead used MD5, which is a cryptographic hash (though insecure). Perceptual hashes aim to have similar inputs produce similar outputs, whereas cryptographic hashes aim to have similar inputs produce vastly different outputs.

Cryptographic hashes are useful if you want to ensure that nobody can ever guess what was hashed to produce the identifying number (like for password verification), but they aren't the best for detecting abuse like this. This is because a single bit being changed in the file will completely change the hash. If the video is downscaled, has its audio altered, anything like that, the hash will be completely different and the video will not be detected.

Videos are pretty expensive to deal with, with regards to modification. Really, videos are expensive to do anything with, I think that's a major reason why StopNCII doesn't use video perceptual hashes, it would take a long time to compute them on user devices. Images are comparatively cheap to compress, alter, hash, whatever, so platforms will often downscale and recompress images, but videos will usually be unchanged. So while the MD5 solution isn't the best, it isn't as bad as one might think. It should still detect a large portion of offending videos.

So should I use this service?

Because it is technically infeasible to reverse a hashed image into its original form, and it would be legally incompetent to not hash the images submitted as the site says, I'm confident that not only does the service hash images on your device before submitting, but also that they will never be able to actually invert the hashes back into the original images.

All in all, if you ever suspect that someone may nonconsensually share intimate images of you (real or fake/altered) on public social media platforms, in DMs on those platforms, or on any of the other StopNCII partnered platforms, you should use the service. The service is free for anyone in the world to use.

While someone could still share your images on other platforms, or heavily modify the images to circumvent the system, by using the service you would make it much more difficult for people to share your intimate images without your consent since unedited (and most forms of edited) images would still trigger the system and prevent sharing. I am not sure how exactly platforms implement support, but repeated violations likely flag accounts for review, which may lead to suspension for those illegally sharing your images.

Remember when we thought robots would take over the world? Well, they kinda did, but instead of laser eyes and metal claws, they're armed with… tools? Yep, these days, AI is less "Terminator" and more "personal assistant on steroids" 🤖

Bot Making Assistant:

Ever wanted a personal minion but can't afford the banana budget?

Fantasy Name Generators

Rabid's Generators and RPG Resources

Random Original Character Generator

Perchance ― AI Character Description Generator

Perchance ― AI Chat & Roleplay and AI Chat w/image

Perchance ― AI Story Generator

Perchance ― AI Text Adventure and AI Adventure w/image

Perchance ― AI Hierarchical World Generator

AI Writing Assistant:

Don't blame me when your AI-assisted love letters start sounding suspiciously like robot poetry.

Cohesive

Dreamily

Fiction Fusion

Grammarly

Hemingway Editor

NovelAI

Perplexity

Phind

Quicktools

RambleFix: AI Note-taking & Writing Tool

RedQuill

TinyWow

ToolBaz

Tune Chat

WriterHand

You

AI Voice Generator:

Want to sound like Morgan Freeman without the years of smoking?

Murf AI

Dupdub AI

Vocal Removal

Adobe: Enhance Speech

Kits.AI (vocal removal, voice cloning)

AI Music Generator:

Who knows, you might accidentally create the next viral TikTok earworm and retire to a private island.

AI VOCALOID

Suno

Udio

AI Image Generator:

Whatever you need, these tools are your ticket to visual madness.

Bing Image Creator (SFW only) 👉🏻 how to prompt

Microsoft Designer (SFW only)

Maze Guru

Tensor.Art

CivitAI

PixAI

Runware

Text to Image

NeuralBlender

Leonardo.AI (and videos too)

Perchance AI Image Generator

Perchance AI Photo Generator (realistic)

AI Video Generator:

Video killed the radio star, and now AI is coming for Hollywood.

Hedra (make your characters sing)

VIGGLE (make your characters dance)

Dreamina (text/image to video)

Luma (text/image to video)

Vidu (text/image to video)

Genmo (text/image to video)

Haiper (text/image to video)

KLING (text/image to video)

Pika (text/image to video)

PixVerse (text/image to video)

invideo (text to video)

Fliki (text to video)

AKOOL (deepfake, face swap, talking photo)

D-ID (make live, speaking portraits)

Runway (prompt to video)

Creatify (create AI video ads)

Adobe: Animate from Audio

AI Image and Video Editor:

These magical tools are here to save your digital bacon!

123apps (edit, convert, create video, audio, PDF)

3D Book Cover Creator (book cover mockups)

Color Picker (from image)

Capcut AI Tools (upscale video)

Upscale.media (upscale image)

removal AI (image background remover)

Interactive media refers to forms of media that allow for user engagement and participation, such as videos, games, and apps. In today's digital age, interactive media must adapt and leverage xmltv epg format to stay relevant and effectively reach their target audience.

To begin with, let's understand what xmltv guide data programs are. XMLTV stands for Extensible Markup Language Television. It is a standard format for creating electronic program guides (EPG) that can be used by various IPTV services. EPG programs provide users with detailed information about upcoming TV shows, movies, and other content.

Now, how can interactive media adapt to the digital age and leverage xmltv listings? Here are some strategies that can be used:

Content Optimization: Interactive media can optimize their content by ensuring it is compatible with XMLTV IPTV EPG programs. This involves formatting the content in XML-friendly structures and providing relevant metadata, such as show titles, descriptions, genres, and airing schedules. By doing so, interactive media can ensure their content is easily discoverable by users through EPG programs.

Seamless Integration: Interactive media should aim to seamlessly integrate their content with xmltv information guides and programs. This can be achieved by working closely with IPTV service providers and ensuring their content is accurately synced with the EPG program listings. By doing so, users will have a smooth experience navigating through the available interactive media options.

User Engagement: Interactive media should focus on creating engaging and interactive experiences for their users. By leveraging XMLTV IPTV EPG programs, they can provide users with additional features and functionalities directly within the EPG interface. For example, users could interact with a live chat or participate in polls related to the TV show they are watching. This not only enhances user engagement but also encourages social sharing and discussion around the interactive media content.

Social Media Integration: To share helpful content ideas with top social media sites and blogging platforms, interactive media should integrate social sharing functionalities within their xmltv listings programs. Users should be able to easily share their favorite interactive media content on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. By doing so, interactive media can leverage the power of social media to reach a wider audience and generate organic traffic to their content.

Collaboration with Influencers: Interactive media can consider collaborating with influencers or popular bloggers in their niche to promote their content on social media and blogging platforms. By leveraging the reach and influence of these individuals, interactive media can increase their visibility and attract more users to their online m3u playlist editor programs.

In conclusion, interactive media can adapt to the digital age and leverage XMLTV IPTV EPG programs by optimizing their content, seamlessly integrating with EPG listings, focusing on user engagement, integrating social sharing functionalities, and collaborating with influencers. By implementing these strategies, interactive media can effectively reach their target audience and share helpful content ideas on top social media sites and blogging platforms.

If you are a Windows user, the best virtualization tool for you is the built-in Hyper-V software from Microsoft. It is available at no cost on all Windows editions except the Home edition. Also, note that it is available as an optional feature and not enabled by default.

Once you have enabled it, the first thing you need to know is how to create a Virtua Machine on it. Because it is the Virtual Machine that enables you to install a guest OS in a virtualization environment.

When creating a virtual machine on Hyper-V, you encounter many steps and questions. For example, what are the steps, where to start, and what are in each step to create and configure a VM correctly? Also, in each step, you need to know the options correctly to make the right decision.

The below article discusses all those concerns and walks you through detailed steps to create a Hyper-V virtual machine correctly. Read it on the below link.