Most VPN services are a sham. They just hide your network activity from your ISP, however they have full visibility in to your network traffic. Some of these VPN providers are even owned by ad agencies, but advertise privacy as a selling point. You’re better off running your own WireGuard or OpenVPN server at home or with a VPS. At least you will have control over the server and limit your exposure to unscrupulous VPN companies. (Yes using a VPS is shifting the trust from one to the other, but you will have to make a decision that is right for you.)

I miss these old 90s style buttons on websites. A much simpler time…

Simple and clean UIs are an improvement over what’s now considered “modern web design” meant to manipulate your attention to particular things. It feels like the agency is taken away from the user. I am loving the fediverse for this reason and have been a fan and user of FOSS apps for over a decade because the design goals of the software match the actual use-case of the app without trying to tie you in to something else. No distractions, no advertisements, no walled gardens. Just, here’s the app, here’s the functionality, it’s been delivered. Now use it as you see fit without an ulterior motive from the developer or their investors (or lack thereof.)

I’m really tired of the political class roping in entire nations in to conflict over things only rich and/or powerful people give a shit about. Most of the working and middle class just want to live their lives in peace without some game-theoretic geopolitical showdown happening at every turn in history. And this all over what? To say that our part of the map is bigger than yours? To say that we have access to these resources and they don’t? What’s the fucking point? We are all human and desperately need a better way of organizing our global society than stupid shit like this.

It’s wild how quickly reddit went from being beloved despite some missteps to an absolute pariah on the internet.

Still scroll reddit for certain communities, but the conversation here is refreshing and I find myself participating more, that’s a good thing. Lemmy needs sustained engagement more than a honeymoon phase. We will see once third-party apps shut down.