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ciferecaNinjo

@ ciferecaNinjo @fedia.io

Posts
16
Comments
58
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • Why you should leave Gmail - from a German tech magazine

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  • Just commenting based on the title since I am blocked from YT and also don’t speak German. (An English transcript would be useful)

    Ditching Gmail is trivially easy. Boycotting gmail is where the interesting conversation is, because often you need to reach someone who uses gmail. You can do an MX lookup on the domain of the recipient’s email address, but that only works about 70% of the time. If they use an email firewall like Barracuda or a forwarding address, then there is no way to know where the email route ends.

    If I cannot get confidence from an MX lookup, then the recipient is getting a fax or postal letter from me. Google could still end up in the loop, but as long as you don’t reveal an email address to the recipient, at least you remain in control over what Google collects and profits from.

  • Repairable FOSS E-Ink tablet?

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  • I’m not sure what you want a source for. You mean a vendor who will sell one? XO-4 Touch was apparently the last model. I just had a look at laptop.org and the site looks useless now. It used to be full of wikis with copious details about the hardware and software of the OLPC.

    There are (or were) a variety of NGOs who worked on getting OLPCs into impoverished schools. One of them was https://unleashkids.org/. They are not in the business of selling them but ~15 yrs ago they were kind enough to sell some. The idea was that teachers and developers would need them to help support the OLPC project. I suggest touching base with them and see what they say, since they seem to still be around.

    The XO-4 Touch came with “Sugar”, a foss OS just for kids. It was easy to make it boot into Gnome instead (underpinned by RedHat). And someone made an Android OS that could be flashed onto an SD card and booted in the OLPC. I should mention that the OLPC was never 100% FOSS. The usual shit-show of blobs for some of the hardware drivers. I mainly just used it as an e-reader on Gnome.

    I’ve always been baffled that these FOSS e-ink laptops did not make it onto the general marketplace, while at the same time there were no commercial makers of anything like it. There was a “Pixel QI” dual-mode screen that could be bought bare and installed in Thinkpads and other machines, but for some reason that never took off either.

  • Repairable FOSS E-Ink tablet?

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  • OLPC (one-laptop-per-child) is a FOSS e-ink laptop (but small enough to function as an e-reader). Though I think they are no longer made and they were always hard to get.

  • Germany @europe.pub
    ciferecaNinjo @fedia.io

    Germany has cheap international postage costs. Is there a virtual snail mail service in Germany?

  • Converting sherry (15% alc) into shelf-stable cooking wine -- or using white port instead

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  • Ice cubes would be interesting for non-fortified wine. But I suppose sherry might not freeze at 15% alc. (not sure).

    Anyway, someone just said only 12% alc is needed for shelf-stability and someone else said 15% is fine for the shelf, so that solves the problem. Sherry can simply be kept at room temp.

  • Converting sherry (15% alc) into shelf-stable cooking wine -- or using white port instead

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  • Glad to hear about the 12% threshold. All the cheap sherry I have easy local access to are 15%.

  • Converting sherry (15% alc) into shelf-stable cooking wine -- or using white port instead

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  • Cooking wine is indeed cheaper and lower quality. But more importantly it is shelf-stable. You can open a bottle of cooking wine and keep it in the cupboard. The stuff is labelled “cooking wine” in the US so that it is treated as such. It probably gets around some of the tight liquor controls there.

    Europe does not seem to have a product with preservatives specifically for that purpose. So you would use substandard wines for cooking. If champaign goes flat because an open bottle sat out overnight, it’s still good for risotto. But I would still chill it if I weren’t making risotto the next day. In the case at hand, I don’t want to be keeping a bottle of sherry in the fridge.

    When using a whole bottle in a day, then of course there is no issue. But it takes me a year to get through a bottle of Sherry.

  • Food and Cooking @beehaw.org
    ciferecaNinjo @fedia.io

    Converting sherry (15% alc) into shelf-stable cooking wine -- or using white port instead

  • Enshitification of Holland Casino, who figured out that locals are okay with giving both money and data just to enter. Any other casinos to bounce to?

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  • It cannot be about addiction prevention especially when there is only one casino in a given area. The staff sees the faces of addicts on a regular basis, their behaviour, and emotions. This is better information than they could get from a transaction record.

    Having to register is common across casinos I think.

    It’s recent. In any case, I would like to find rare casinos that are free to enter anonymously.

  • theNetherlands @feddit.nl
    ciferecaNinjo @fedia.io

    Enshitification of Holland Casino, who figured out that locals are okay with giving both money and data just to enter. Any other casinos to bounce to?

    europe.pub /post/4620205

  • Moneytrans gone, so Flixbus clients are screwed -- is there nowhere to buy tickets at a reasonable price now?

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  • I appreciate the tip but I guess that is useless for Flixbus. Flixbus says they only accept credit card, paypal, google pay or apple pay... Nothing I would go near.

  • Solarpunk Travel🚲🚆⛵ @slrpnk.net
    ciferecaNinjo @fedia.io

    Moneytrans gone, so Flixbus clients are screwed -- is there nowhere to buy tickets at a reasonable price now?

    eviltoast.org /post/18872638

  • What to do with old PCs, and really old PCs. The Belgian public sector does not know about linux.

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  • Indeed usb3 is very useful for disk i/o. I wouldn’t treat it as a deal breaker though. USB 2.0 is good enough for OS installations, especially if you do a Debian netinst which uses minimal disc input (although USB 2 is perhaps still faster than your WAN uplink). For backups, it depends on the volume you are dealing with. USB 2 is good enough for small data and incrementals but if you have to transfer 500+ GB then you would want one of:

    • eSATA
    • NAS storage (over ethernet), or
    • USB 3

    All of those buses can be added to a pre-USB 3 machine. But if it’s a laptop, the usb 3 expresscards may be hard to find locally because they never really got popular.

  • What to do with old PCs, and really old PCs. The Belgian public sector does not know about linux.

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  • What do you need usb3 for? In most use cases, USB 3 can be added. I have a usb3 expresscard in my laptop, which has an external power input from a USB port to drive things like USB3 external hard drives that rely on the USB bus for power.

  • zerowaste @slrpnk.net
    ciferecaNinjo @fedia.io

    What to do with old PCs, and really old PCs. The Belgian public sector does not know about linux.

    europe.pub /post/4020325
  • Amateur Radio @lemmy.radio
    ciferecaNinjo @fedia.io

    Do any ham operators have a radio paging service in Brussels, Belgium?

    fedia.io /m/Brussels/t/2581744/Does-radio-paging-service-still-exist
  • Germany @europe.pub
    ciferecaNinjo @fedia.io

    German ATM surreptitiously charged a fee of €9, without receipt

    www.belastingdienst.nl /wps/wcm/connect/bldcontentnl/belastingdienst/zakelijk/btw/administratie_bijhouden/facturen_maken/wie_zijn_verplicht_te_factureren

  • banknotes in the UK changing… AGAIN

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  • United Kingdom @feddit.uk
    ciferecaNinjo @fedia.io

    banknotes in the UK changing… AGAIN

  • Germany @europe.pub
    ciferecaNinjo @fedia.io

    Belgian banks demand proof of cash sources, while German ATMS do not print receipts

    slrpnk.net /post/22904947

  • Belgium Rules Sharing Americans’ Bank Data Violates Privacy Law

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  • Well, it wouldn’t require lying but certainly it seems tricky. You can deregister before you leave the country and neglect to provide an address for where you are going -- because you wouldn’t necessarily know in advance and you cannot provide information that does not exist. So they clear your address from your id card which then just has an empty address.

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but you don’t have a specific legal obligation to state where you live abroad.

    Though one snag is that you have a legal obligation to vote in elections and you must vote in the nearest embassy, which requires giving an address to get on the voting roster. However, voting is not strictly enforced. If you fail to vote there is a small fine but I don’t think they actually hit unregistered people abroad with that. If you do not vote in 3 consecutive elections, then you could lose your voting rights for a few years, I think.

    I do not believe the bank gets a notification that you have deregistered. But at some point your ID card on the bank’s files will expire and they will expect an updated copy and freeze your account until they receive it.

    If you walk into an embassy to “renew” your passport, do they demand an address? I would think you would pick up your passport at the embassy a week later. Or do they mail it?

    Anyway, I can understand giving in to surveillance and disclosing US ties, but OTOH it seems like a nightmare to do what’s expected as well.. to be tagged as a toxic US person. It’s a mess either way. Perhaps the wisest move is to “move” to Canada, stay there a couple months, setup residency, then move to the US and just neglect to mention it. Get mail forwarding from Canada.

  • Belgium Rules Sharing Americans’ Bank Data Violates Privacy Law

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  • Half their internet banking site is off-limits to me

    Mind elaborating? Did they restrict your account specifically, or does the website simply treat logins from the US differently? I’m surprised you wouldn’t retain full cloud access so long as your account exists under the terms you signed up for.

    I don’t understand why you would tell your Belgian bank that you left Belgium, particularly when your new residence is the US which flags you as a toxic asset that requires special handling. That could only work against you. Surely you would be better off not telling them you moved and use a VPN to Belgium to access your acct.

  • Belgium Rules Sharing Americans’ Bank Data Violates Privacy Law

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  • Bingo. This is true even across EU borders. Rabobank in Netherlands does not exchange info with Rabobank in Belgium, IIUC. (but note I think Rabobank quit doing business in Belgium eventually anyway)

  • Food and Cooking @beehaw.org
    ciferecaNinjo @fedia.io

    What kind of cuisine uses malt vinegar (besides UK and US)?

    fedia.io /m/food@slrpnk.net/t/1962888/What-kind-of-cuisine-uses-malt-vinegar-besides-UK-and
  • Food @slrpnk.net
    ciferecaNinjo @fedia.io

    What kind of cuisine uses malt vinegar (besides UK and US)?

  • Would you support a European Citizens Initiative to force our politicians to drop Twitter and create their own Mastodon instances?

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  • Do you think it's politicians' job to provide technology education?

    Of course. Public education comes from the public sector. We should be electing politicians with administrations who are smarter than the general public. Any tech education that comes of Twitter abandonment is welcome.

  • Would you support a European Citizens Initiative to force our politicians to drop Twitter and create their own Mastodon instances?

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  • But there is a need for politicians to reach their constituents, and if they can be effectively reached by an imperfect method,

    Leaders should lead, not follow. Politicians can reach and be reached on a Mastodon server, where all their constituents have access.

    Asking ~8 billion (or however many) people to make a personal change first is a non-starter. Demanding many orders of magnitude fewer people (politicians) make the first move to break the dystopian cycle is far more sensible.

    then I can accept them using it while also promoting better methods.

    Posting on Twitter is an assault on promoting better methods. Mirroring everything on Twitter facilitates the Tyranny of Convenience (great essay by Tim Wu) by making Twitter the superset. It’s important and socially responsible to withhold info from Twitter so that it cannot be the superset.

    RMS gives good advice for orgs who think they need a Facebook presence:

    https://stallman.org/facebook-presence.html

    Politicians don’t need a Twitter presence, but to the extent that they are not convinced, the bare minimum action they can take is implement some of the advice on that RMS page.

    Any random 3rd party joe shmoe can make a Twitter bot that mirrors a politician’s msgs to Twitter. In fact, force Twitter to do the work simply by not feeding Twitter. Motivation for Twitter’s self-preservation would appropriately ensure gov resources are not spent on Twitter. Make Twitter be the host of dodgy mirror bots without engagement, where you need Mastodon to actually engage with a politician.

  • Would you support a European Citizens Initiative to force our politicians to drop Twitter and create their own Mastodon instances?

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  • There are moral problems with crossposting to Twitter.

    • Twitter is financed by advertising. I do not finance public services to then finance the advertising revenue of private corporations. Politician’s IT staff, time, and resources used to feed Twitter are not free. Public money is used for the tooling and the operations on that platform of inequality. So people who are excluded from Twitter are financing content fed to Twitter involuntarily via taxation. And those who are priviledged to be on the Twitter platform are hit with ads as a precondition to reaching content they already paid taxes for -- due to an inappropriate intermingling of public and private sectors.
    • Network effect: making Twitter a superset of content exacerbates the stranglehold Twitter has on the world. The private sector will do its thing, but the public sector has a duty to work in the public interest. A public office adding to Twitter’s network effect disservices the public interest.
    • Twitter is a politically manipulated venue with a bias toward right-wing populism. People who vote for a green party or socialist party politician do not endorse feeding an extreme right-wing US agenda with worldwide consequences. They do not have an equal voice on that platform which is wired for right-wing propaganda.

    Recall how Trump took power in 2016: Cambridge Analytica and Facebook. FB and Twitter are pawned by right-wing extremists.

  • Europeans benefit from some of the strongest consumer protections in the world! (Post from the European Commission on their Mastodon Instance)

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  • Shopping – Right to safe, high-quality products that can be repaired, replaced, or returned if needed.

    It’s an illusion.

    Right to repair started in the US and has been implemented in various states, but still does not exist in Europe. They have been discussing a r2r bill in Europe for over 10 years now. And if you read what they have so far, it’s weak. You can’t even get a repair manual unless you are a licensed professional.

    Cannot repair my washing machine because the Dutch manufacturer will not tell me the secret unlock code.

    I had a Belgian product die under warranty. No protection. Manufacturer ignored my request for warranty service. Belgian regulators ignored my complaint that the manufacturer ignored me.

    Travelling – Compensation for delays or cancellations.

    Flixbus was a no-show. Complained to the regulator. No response.

    Strange loopholes in EU law too. If the bus route is under 250km, there are no protections for delays or cancellations. You can be stranded in Amsterdam because the bus to Brussels ditched you, and because that trip is under 250km there are no useful passenger rights.

    Banking – Secure payments and fair contracts.

    Secure payments yes, but FATCA guarantees all contracts are unfair, which discriminate against people on the basis of their national origin.

    If you want to do a cash transaction above ~€1k or so, prepare for hostile treatment. A friend asked to withdraw €5k (IIRC) of her own money and the bank called the police, who then brought her in for questioning.

    ATMs are really thinning out amid Bill Gates war on cash, which is really taking hold in Europe. Instead of making banking enticing, they are treating cash with hostility to force banking on people.

    Surfing – Protection of personal data and safeguards against scams.

    Most gov services block Tor. The data protection authorities take no action on most GDPR complaints. Public libraries refuse wifi access to people without mobile phones (the people who need it most).

  • Would you support a European Citizens Initiative to force our politicians to drop Twitter and create their own Mastodon instances?

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  • I have a right to use twitter to the same extent as you have a right to use lemmy.

    Not in the slightest. Twitter is like a private road controlled by a single gatekeeping corporation whose private property rights are the only rights to speak of -- and it’s run by a right-wing populist who controls who can participate. Lemmy is like a network of public roads without centralized ownership, where the concept of rights is not even needed because there is no central corporate control.

    The right to choose to use twitter is markedly different from making it a universal right to be able to access twitter.

    Why are you talking about a universal right to access Twitter? AFAIK, no one here endorses that.

    Either you lick Musk’s boots or you bounce. Those are your choices. Politicians who lick Musk’s boots and drive exclusion cannot effectively represent the people.

    Public protest existed for centuries prior to Twitter

    Those are different times. We are in Twitter times. Shouting on a street corner brings a smaller audience than posting on Twitter. Higher effort and less exposure; for not licking Musk’s boots. And because of network effect, non-Twitter methods have lost ground to an unequitable elitist platform that exludes people without mobile phone numbers as well as those wise enough not to share their number with Twitter, and those who object to feeding a right-wind ad surveillance platform. The open letter audience someone would have in a free world is dimished because the audience has their eyes glued to Twitter, who poached them by exploiting network effect.

  • Forum Libre @jlai.lu
    ciferecaNinjo @fedia.io

    français → anglais translation help wanted for a paragraph of legal text

    fedia.io /m/french@sopuli.xyz/t/1066944/Translation-help-wanted-on-telecom-law
  • Europe @feddit.de
    ciferecaNinjo @fedia.io
    answered

    Electricity prices are more than double gas prices in Belgium (so why do Belgians overwhelmingly favor electric ovens?)

    fedia.io /m/Brussels/t/865923/Electricity-prices-are-more-than-double-gas-prices-in-Belgium
  • Europe @feddit.de
    ciferecaNinjo @fedia.io

    Belgian law & EU law: /merchants/ must handle warranty service for 2 yrs, or more?

    fedia.io /m/Brussels/t/682425/Belgian-law-and-EU-law-merchants-must-handle-warranty-service-for
  • Green Energy @slrpnk.net
    ciferecaNinjo @fedia.io

    Need to get off the grid fast. Is a gas or diesel generator my best option?