The engagement bots constantly peppering my comments with inane remarks to draw a reaction is what drove me to Lemmy. I was there early on, and it was awesome. As its popularity grew, it became less nice, but I still enjoyed going there. In the end, I didn’t feel like commenting because I knew that I’d just get hit with stupid responses calculated to draw a response. It just felt harassing.

Yes.

Android apps are sandboxed

FWIW, they’re not sandboxed from google play services:

The Play Store Services process has access to your precise location at all times, the motion sensors, networks, hardware identifiers (including IMEI), contacts, passwords, the entire storage space, call logs, access to other apps’ data, and more.

Accordingly, google would have access to the Signal data on your phone. However, I don’t know whether the encryption would provide a measure of protection against google. GrapheneOS by default does not use google play services, and provides a sandboxed version for people who need the functionality.

Concentration in fewer and fewer stocks is what happens towards the end of a bull market, and we’re currently in a bull market that has been running wild for years. My personal opinion is that we’re going to get parabolic price increases with a blow-off top, with the following collapse coinciding with the collapse of the U.S. dollar and destruction of the U.S. as the dominant economic force in the world. The stage has been set with a shrinking economy resulting from a massive ill-conceived trade war and indiscriminate deportation of our low-cost labor force, along with gross fiscal irresponsibility from unnecessary tax cuts and excessive spending giving rise to unsustainable budget deficits. The final nail in the coffin will be the debasement of the dollar by a corrupted Federal Reserve that has lost its independence from the Executive branch. There is a reason that gold, a hard asset viewed as a safety net, is in it’s biggest bull run in history, and that bull has a lot further to run. Things will likely come to a head in the 4th quarter of 2026, or not too long thereafter, and we will then slide into that I’m calling “The Greatest Depression”. May you live in interesting times!

Apple and Google should just prevent their app stores from functioning in Texas.

Ha ha, that’s a good one! Fascism’s enablers standing up to fascism.

It’s ridiculous. The fact that a significant part of the report was clearly fraudulent calls into question the merit of the entire report. How could anyone take it seriously after finding dozens of fraudulent sources? They should sue to recover 100% of what was paid.

I imagine using the TOR browser would work as well.

yes, and you have to get one that is from google and isn’t from a carrier so you can unlock the bootloader. Carrier versions have locked bootloaders.

Yet another reason why running GrapheneOS is a great idea. The surveillance state is now.

Is there anything of value in the camera set-ups to steal and quickly turn into cash? If so, an information campaign to raise awareness of the value amongst crackheads and meth addicts could work wonders.

Well then, you’re already all set. Google edition phones all have unlocked bootloaders. I’m currently running a Pixel 6 Pro with GrapheneOS. It’s super easy to install and use, even if you’ve never messed with your phone before. I’ve been looking to potentially upgrade to a newer phone, because mine is a few generations old and Graphene doesn’t support phones forever, though they do for quite a while. An unlocked Pixel 9 Pro is around $550-650 right now, but I’ll probably wait another 6 months, as the prices will probably fall another $100-$200 in that time frame.

Now that the Pixel 10 is out, the Pixel 9 prices are falling. If you’re going to load GrapheneOS, you need to make sure you get a phone that has an unlocked bootloader, which is different than being carrier unlocked. Any phone that was initially sold through a carrier like Verizon or ATT will have a locked bootloader, as the carriers don’t like people messing with the phone software to unlock features that they may charge for (e.g. hotspot).

Sure glad I de-googled with GrapheneOS that ironically runs on Pixel phones.

Honestly, for Europe the choice is to fight Russian in Ukraine now, or fight them in other European countries later. No sane person wants war, but if Russia succeeds in Ukraine it’s only going to want more. Much better to fight them in someone else’s country while they’re struggling, than let them gain control over that country and it’s population and resources, which it can then mobilize for further conquest.

“Don’t be evil.” Lol.

It gives you a general mix and exposes you to new things that are unrelated to things you’ve listened to in the past. I listen to a lot of punk and ska, and the AI DJ serves up random pop and things I otherwise would never hear.

My favorite part is when the AI DJ plays some dumb song it’s previously served up repeatedly, and then tells me how much I like it because I listen to it so often. I’d never choose to listen to it on my own, and the only reason I hear it is because Spotify keeps cramming it down my throat.

“Some of you will die, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

What could possibly go wrong?

The Shark is a really cool light sport aircraft, and it’s awesome that they’ve adapted it for missions in Ukraine.