in reply to Sunshine (she/her)

An Indian status card is an official document issued by the Canadian government to First Nations people who are registered under the Indian Act. The card serves as proof of identity and legal Canadian identification, and can be used as ID for domestic flights.

He was then on the phone with WestJet customer service, and they didn't even know what an Indian status card was. They started asking if Corbiere was from India.

Is contamination on a Canadian Armed Forces base making employees sick?


‘I took an oath that I would risk my life for what Canada stood for’: members of Canada’s military say they didn’t expect that risk would be carcinogenic environmental contaminants in their offices

Canada should build public cloud infrastructure rather than relying on U.S. tech giants


in reply to Pro

The government should not be hosting a public cloud service; if they really want to do something like that they should do a public private thing with Canada Post, maybe.

I personally have moved all of my hosting off of US servers, my ISP uses exchange for their email server where ever it is hosted I do not know so I have been moving all my email things onto the Canadian host. I started using apple’s hide my email years ago so I have decided to do a more extensive hide my email setup with my host. I have a pi hole system setup so with the 120+ emails so my internet data is worthless to Google and all the other US advertisers.

B.C. eyes ban on exotic cat ownership, citing safety and animal welfare concerns


Ubisoft tells players to “destroy” games when online support ends


Ubisoft has updated its End User License Agreement, and it’s instructing its users to remove and destroy their games completely should the title be taken offline.

Essentially, the EULA has given Ubisoft free rein on its ability to stop supporting a game, writing: “You and Ubisoft may terminate this EULA at any time, for any reason. Termination by Ubisoft will be effective upon notice to you or termination of your Ubisoft account, or at the time of Ubisoft’s decision to discontinue offering and/or supporting the Product.”

Interestingly, this isn’t the only company that has the same terms in its EULA. The likes of Capcom, Sega, and even the Oblivion Remaster have the same clause in their terms and conditions, meaning the stipulation isn’t unique to Ubisoft.

Linux removing an outdated, insecure Microsoft USB network protocol that's still on Windows


in reply to Kazumara

So if my mint install updates I won't be able to use USB tethering? Is there a way to update my phone to use USB CDC NCM? Or would I have better luck recompiling my mint install to add the standard they just removed? I'm pretty new to Linux (literally made the switch last November) and I sadly have to use USB tethering when my ISP shits the bed with routing to the US

Very water-resistant chalk for asphalt?


Does anyone have recommendations for some chalk that resists water very well?

I'd love any recommendations of brands, specific chemicals or properties to look for, or maybe questions that I would need to answer about the environment.

I'm planning to use my chalk on my asphalt driveway.

Trump bullied Canada over ‘digital taxes’ – and Ottawa submitted


This is an excellent piece from Joseph Stiglitz.

Everyone should read it.

This entry was edited (2 days ago)
in reply to Davriellelouna

The media can keep bashing the Canadian government scrapping the tax. The last minute "capitulation" as many in the media is framing it as, while true, is also disingenuous on how Canada has to deal with the US given the cards it has in hand. Canada right now still relies heavily on exporting things to the US and keeping the US at the table talking is the best it can do right now until it can secure other trade deals around the world. Proximity matters and even more so when they are still is a superpower.

Canada still has many options despite this digital tax. What about banning US big tech? What about changing the rules about tech companies entering Canadian job space (and it doesn't have to be a tax)? Other countries have managed (eg. China, Denmark), so why can't Canada? The government can fight on one front, but Canadians themselves also have to. The boycott of travel to the US and of US goods clearly has made impact, but Canadians can do more. Support open source software like Linux, move away from Adobe and so forth. There are alternatives and some even Canadian ones. If we are to truly give the Canadian government good tools to fight, we too must do our jobs individually.

in reply to karlhungus

I think the point is that by capitulating on this, Canada has gained time. Time to make deals with other countries as trade partners, time to source necessities (that they have gotten from the U.S. for literally decades) from other countries, and time to build up their own military might in case Trump makes good on his idiotic "51st state" bullshit.
This entry was edited (2 days ago)
in reply to karlhungus

Here's the thing. They have markets too. And his Taco behavior is rocketing every market across the globe every time he does this. And some speculate that he is making a load of money by doing this. Maybe he is, maybe he isn't, I don't know. I don't think he's smart enough to actually take advantage of this. Though I know there are people out there who are and are making a ton of off of this. But all these countries crave stability, and the only way they're going to get it is if Trump stops with all of his idiotic tariff talk. And before you say anything, no he will not learn his lesson. It has been over 6 months since he took office and he, despite everyone ignoring him constantly, has continued his unyielding parade of stupid.
in reply to buddascrayon

Maybe he is, maybe he isn't


WHAT. He sold beans for money in his first term, of course he's making money off of it.

I don't think he's smart enough to actually take advantage of this.


This is one of his major MO's making money, maybe he missed the first few times, but he's done it so much now that he's for sure making money on these bets, just like every supporter he's got out there.

Why do you think he walked away from the table because of the DST, because he cares about gig tech? They paid him -- that's why they got seats at his inauguration.

And before you say anything, no he will not learn his lesson.


Disagree, this is a lesson reinforces itself, I bet he continues this way. I'm not saying he's smart, just greedy.

in reply to karlhungus

That's the thing, he sells shit. He is, in every respect, a glorified used car salesman. He takes garbage and dresses it up into gilded trinkets that he pawns off on the morons who believe in him. He also definitely used Mar-a-Lago as a way to launder bribes from foreign nationals. (Yet another reason why presidents should be constitutionally required to divest everything they own before being allowed to take office.)

Disagree, this is a lesson reinforces itself, I bet he continues this way. I'm not saying he's smart, just greedy.


Trump wants a "win". He will keep doing what he is doing until he can say "See, I won!". He is that petty and small minded.

This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to rumimevlevi

And it's possible to push for change much more easily at this level instead of the federal overnight. TBH - microsoft is used because of the history of how computers were introduced in the NA market. If you look to China for example, they skipped the entire PC generation and went straight to mobile. Windows is not big player but rather things like 'superapps' that act more like an OS than an app. That's only scratching the surface because these apps are much more because they even have financialization (see WePay, AliPay). The other big alternative is MacOS which seems to be catching on in the post-secondary and consumer market this may lead to a change in the business playing field as the older generation retires and younger people move into the workforce.
in reply to GodofLies

You'll never see Canada block big tech at this point I'm afraid. All the talk of sovereignty is just that, talk. None of our different government agencies is prepared to abandon Microsoft. All of our financial regulators are completely in bed with Microsoft. Most of our banks are in bed with Microsoft. Our ATMs run on Windows due to Payments Canada being in bed with Microsoft and mandating it. All of your banking data is accessible by Microsoft. Every government agency runs on Microsoft.

Every time there's an announcement about ditching US providers, ask your MP/MLA if that includes Microsoft / big tech. There's always an "out" in those announcements to allow them to dodge that one -- like "It's too expensive to change", or "too difficult to change quickly" or whatever.

I mean, look at all these "nation-building" projects that they're itching to suppress Canadian's rights to "get moving" -- they're all projects that're gonna be lead by Big US companies to extract resources from Canada. They put on a good show, but the reality is that Trump / America was right that Canada is basically a little bitch at this point. Our politicians have proven that time and again this year.

in reply to wampus

Oh of course there's always pain and big tech has always been hard to block or even tax (our government is extremely slow on figuring out tech) - just look at our very own big telecoms - we can't even get them to behave. Canada has positioned itself into a weak position because we collectively keep voting for these spineless or clueless people believing they are doing good or for private interests. I am sure there is still a large portion of people thinking that politics don't affect them or they think that their vote won't matter etc etc. These reasons are all excuses - voting is the just the bare minimum.

Canada should have its own GDPR like the EU. Our personal data and things that we put online - one should have sovereignty over it. We have nothing in place that backs our own citizens and this in itself costs Canada nothing. It is pure and simple legislation and can cause pain to big tech without even changing any operating system.

Canada got turned into the US's "little bitch" wasn't a mistake overnight. Go look at the past 30 years of policies and who voted for what - it's clear there's a trend and one political part is almost blatant in bed with the US. There are many other ways to cause pain beyond just digital taxes.

Banking wise, I look forward to a day when banks are obsolete via crypto, but this requires a large public understanding of what crypto is all about. I'd argue that the Canadian government has no real way of governing crypto given its nature of how it works. But that's another discussion.

in reply to GodofLies

Yea, I'm not in favour of crypto banks in any way shape or form. Over the past five years, almost every crypto coin has been blatantly used at some point for large scale fraud, and direct bribes -- Trump's a great case in point there. Even more, shifting monetary control into a crypto-verse, is overtly giving all authority and power to tech bros, who are proving in very overt fashion that they cannot be trusted these days.

Just look at SVB. Thiel and his buddies looked at SVB's balance sheet, said "We have so much money in this bank, if we all pulled out at once we could kill the bank and trigger a regulatory fiasco" ..... followed by Palmer Luckey, one of that crowd, putting forward a Crypto-first bank with his billionaire buddies backing. So the guys that caused the latest banking collapses, are wanting us to trust them to handle all the monetary stuff. Crypto being beyond government control is a nonstarter, and as soon as govt is involved is basically the same as regular currencies. But even worse the main proponents of it are completely untrustworthy, and are entirely hell bent on dismantling things like democracy. They want the power to mint their own "zuck bucks" to function as official currencies in their little tech fascist fiefdoms. So fuck that noise.

in reply to wampus

Definitely not crypto banks. I mean more of - people being able to do the transactions themselves straight from their phones or whatnot without the middleman (the banks). That's how crypto is supposed to work - and people just pay a transaction fee ("gas fees") to get the transaction done. There's a lot of work that's already been done to bring down the cost of gas fees too. Staking is like lending out your money and pooling it together while whoever borrows it has to pay you interest instead of paying the bank interest. There's a lot of shitcoins and corrupt things with crypto for sure, but that's a problem people collectively also need to solve - maybe don't "stake"/lend out your money to shady coins is a start and don't chase after this big marketed bullshit (FTX scam anyone)? There's a reason why techbros, wall street etc got in and it's because they're circumventing regulation - so looks like the bank even in this current state despite being regulated still do tons of shady shit. The penalties are just the cost of doing business.

It's a dual edged knife. Want to be free from the middleman banks? Current regulation standards don't even hold a candle against crypto. Crypto is community driven, decentralized and possibly even anti-inflationary. There are a lot of advantages but also in its current form easily perverted. Anyways, going to stop here as we're off topic.

Mastodon is improving profiles and getting ready for quote posts


Future teachers in Oklahoma!


This is the “Emergency Certified” Teacher Facebook group.

These people possibly have bachelor’s degrees, but in subjects completely unrelated to the subjects they will be teaching.

Common complaints are about the tests being too hard (they aren’t, you can memorize the questions on fucking quizlet).

My first year teaching I was pulled aside and told by my principal, “you actually have a degree in this, you’ll have to step in to help your team” - because the other science teachers were a Physical Education teacher and the schools secretary.

But no f-ggots allowed! Being a drag queen on the weekends disqualifies you to be a school principal now, no matter how good you were at it.

in reply to andros_rex

I am a relatively new teacher in Oklahoma. In my experience, the teachers I've worked with are a fairly mixed bag. There are absolutely amazing teachers working in Oklahoma that are knowledgeable and passionate about their content areas. I have also noticed a fair amount of teachers that are wildly under qualified or seem to only be in a classroom for the opportunity to take advantage of the system (frequently missing work, not actually teaching their students content, etc.) Oftentimes, though schools don't have many options because they simply need bodies to supervise the students. It is very heartbreaking.

"My first year teaching I was pulled aside and told by my principal, “you actually have a degree in this, you’ll have to step in to help your team” - because the other science teachers were a Physical Education teacher and the schools secretary."


I can relate to this. I'll be entering my 4th full-year teaching. In my short time working in education, I have become the most senior and qualified teacher for my subject and grade level. I do the bulk of the curriculum planning for my subject.

The politics injected into public education via State Superintendent Ryan Walters is absolutely disgusting.

Danish Ministry switching from Microsoft Office/365 to LibreOffice


Asking About Tuxedo Computers


First of all, I'm not sure this is the best community for this, so if you think there is a more suitable one, please inform me.

So I've been looking for manufacturers that sell computers with Linux out of the box and I remembered hearing about Tuxedo Computers. Some people seem to really like them, but I've also heard of some people complaining about them too.

And so I've come here to ask this community what are your experiences with this vendor? Is there somewhere else I should look? Thanks in advance.

in reply to prototype_g2

We have a few Tuxedo computers and some other Linux brands at our company and are generally happy about them. Cheaper devices have a less than perfect keyboard (though I liked the one on the slimbook) a worse camera and microphone (though some are very ok).

I'm very happy with these Linux devices. The few makes for which we needed parts also supplied them but sending the device their way for repair took longer than we'd have wanted.

in reply to prototype_g2

I loved my Pulse 15 (Gen 1) from Tuxedo

It was a performance monster and still had amazing battery life.
But as others have said, they only take some finished Clevo models - like most small distributors, who can't afford their own factory.

But they verify that everything runs with Linux, else they sometimes patch stuff.

And I need to highlight their support!
After years with my Pulse 15 the battery became a pillow, because I used a USB C charger that wasn't working right (always switched on and off, which killed the battery)
Pretty much without questions asked I got a new battery for free.

Now I have it to my nephew, who enjoys Minecraft on this laptop (still Linux), but the CMOS battery was dead.
Got that one for free as well after warranty

So, I can't really complain about them.
Actually the opposite.

But I still settled for a Framework 16, because I wanted something different and the models at that time weren't fitting my use case...

Gosuki: a privacy friendly, real time, multi-browser, extension-free bookmark manager


Developer @blob42@lemmy.ml

I just released the first version of Gosuki, a multi-browser real time bookmark manager I have been writing on and off for the past few years. It aggregates your bookmarks in real time across all browsers and even external APIs such as Reddit and Github.

I was always annoyed by the existing bookmark management solutions and wanted a tool that just works without relying on browser extensions, self-hosted servers or cloud services. As a developer and Linux user I also find myself using multiple browsers simultaneously depending on the needs so I needed something that works with any browser and can handle multiple profiles per browser.

The few solutions that exist require manual management of bookmarks. Gosuki automatically catches any new bookmark in real time so no need to manually export and synchronize your bookmarks. It allows a tag based bookmarking experience even if the native browser does not support tags. You just hit ctrl+d and write your tags in the title.

Feature Highlights:


  • A single binary with no dependencies or browser extensions necessary. It just work right out of the box.
  • Use the universal ctrl+d shortcut to add bookmarks and call custom commands.
  • Tag with #hashtags even if your browser does not support it. You can even add tags in the Title. If you are used to organize your bookmarks in folders, they become tags
  • Real time tracking of bookmark changes
  • Builtin, local Web UI which also works without Javascript (w3m friendly)
  • suki cli command for a dmenu/rofi compatible output
  • Modular and extensible: Run custom scripts and actions per tags and folders when particular bookmarks are detected
  • Browser Agnostic: Detects which browsers you have installed and watch changes across all of them
  • Also handles multiple profiles per browser
  • Stores bookmarks in a portable sqlite database compatible with the Buku. You can use any program that was made for buku.
  • Can fetch your bookmarks from external APIs (Reddit and Github for now).
  • Easily extensible to handle any browser or API

It's open source with an AGPLv3 license, Checkout the README and website docs for more details.

in reply to LandedGentry

What makes you think suspending an election is going to tip the scales?


Mostly that at least right now there's hope for midterms to change things in Congress and then the presidential election to get Trump out. Right now we still have the trappings of a Republic. I think if elections got suspended all belief in a peaceful solution will be erased and people will react.

You have a point though, bread and circuses go a long way towards kowtowing the population. That and the risk of death at the hands of the state. I don't know where the line is that people will readily accept potentially getting shot especially if they're in white man suburbia.

Housing is a Housing Problem. Looking back historically, Canada made real housing progress from WWII to 1981. Then we mostly kind of stopped.


This entry was edited (2 days ago)

We are past the eviction deadline. Please don’t look away.


I know I’m new here, and I understand some may feel unsure about trusting a stranger. But I come to you with my heart open, because we truly have nowhere else to turn.

My name is Britnny, and I’m a transgender woman living in Gorom refugee settlement in South Sudan. I’m here with three other queer sisters women I now call family. Together, we’ve survived what most people couldn’t imagine: daily threats, hunger, violence, and complete abandonment. But now, even survival is slipping out of reach.

The South Sudanese government gave us an order: leave the camp and go to Juba or face arrest. That deadline has already passed. We’re living in terror, unsure when the next knock on the door might come, or when we’ll be dragged out, humiliated, or worse. We weren’t given any help no money, no transport, not even a safe place to go. And for people like us trans and queer women Juba is not safe. We fear being beaten, harassed or even killed in the streets simply for being who we are.

Right now, we’re holding on with nothing. No shelter, no food security, no peace of mind. We don’t need luxuries we just want a chance to be safe. A kind friend who was once in the same camp helped us set up a fundraiser to help us relocate safely and find shelter in Juba. But we need help to make it real. We’re not asking for pity,we’re asking for solidarity, for a hand to hold while we try to escape what feels like a death sentence.

Please, if you can share, donate, or even just boost this message, you could help save four lives. We just want a chance to live. A chance to breathe without fear. A chance to make it to tomorrow.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for not turning away.

With love and hope,
BritnnyX

gofund.me/891e4f34

Fediverse alternative for Tiktok?


Preferably with no required registration.
in reply to darkguyman

tiktok alternatives would suffer the same problem that shorts and loops do; they are content creator driven platforms so unless you incentivise content creators to move you just get reposts from other platforms or ai generated slop.
in reply to darkguyman

Loops, like everyone rightly said, but while this initially peaked my interest, at this point I'm a little skeptical about this project. Dev seems very keen to overhype and tease new features, but usually fails to deliver, like the webUI that was supposed to be days away last year but still doesn't exist. For a fedi platform, not being able to access it via a browser on a desktop is the most bizarre thing to me. I'd hate for fediverse tech to follow this mobile-only trend.

"Best," somewhat turnkey, user-friendly distro for a 2016 Intel MacBook Pro


Thinking nothing more wonky than mint/pop!/bazzite/elementary. I know there is never “one” perfect one but feeling like trying something new on this machine that’s at least somewhat push button. 
Since it no longer receive regular updates from Apple I just want to keep this machine available for use when needed.

I’m pretty comfortable on the above ones I mentioned. I’m not a coder/engineer so I tend to lean heavily on flatpaks and such, though if I have to go into the terminal occasionally I can usually poke my way around

This entry was edited (2 days ago)
in reply to LandedGentry

If you're comfortable administering your own system, try Arch.

If you're not comfortable administering your own system but you want a rolling release, try tumbleweed.

If you don't want a rolling release, try Fedora.

I'd advise against Ubuntu, Debian, mint, and their derivatives. The only one I know of that doesn't ship out of date packages is Debian unstable.

If you hate yourself, try Gentoo lol

in reply to LandedGentry

ubuntu because everything works.

in case you can't stand the snap business go fedora, add rpmfusion and poke around. if everything works, you're set.

two possible issues with resume from sleep. if your wifi won't come back, use the script from t2linux. if your laptop won't wake up expeditiously (takes a while), come back here and ping me and I'll dig up the the script.

stay away from mints and xfces and friends as you need wayland (so, Plasma or Gnome) for fractional scaling, gestures, seamless dock/undock, etc.

This entry was edited (1 day ago)

Gosuki: a privacy friendly, real time, multi-browser, extension-free bookmark manager


Hello r/linux !

I just released the first version of Gosuki, a multi-browser real time bookmark manager I have been writing on and off for the past few years. It aggregates your bookmarks in real time across all browsers and even external APIs such as Reddit and Github.

I was always annoyed by the existing bookmark management solutions and wanted a tool that just works without relying on browser extensions, self-hosted servers or cloud services. As a developer and Linux user I also find myself using multiple browsers simultaneously depending on the needs so I needed something that works with any browser and can handle multiple profiles per browser.

The few solutions that exist require manual management of bookmarks. Gosuki automatically catches any new bookmark in real time so no need to manually export and synchronize your bookmarks. It allows a tag based bookmarking experience even if the native browser does not support tags. You just hit ctrl+d and write your tags in the title.

Feature Highlights:


  • A single binary with no dependencies or browser extensions necessary. It just work right out of the box.
  • Use the universal ctrl+d shortcut to add bookmarks and call custom commands.
  • Tag with #hashtags even if your browser does not support it. You can even add tags in the Title. If you are used to organize your bookmarks in folders, they become tags
  • Real time tracking of bookmark changes
  • Builtin, local Web UI which also works without Javascript (w3m friendly)
  • suki cli command for a dmenu/rofi compatible output
  • Modular and extensible: Run custom scripts and actions per tags and folders when particular bookmarks are detected
  • Browser Agnostic: Detects which browsers you have installed and watch changes across all of them
  • Also handles multiple profiles per browser
  • Stores bookmarks in a portable sqlite database compatible with the Buku. You can use any program that was made for buku.
  • Can fetch your bookmarks from external APIs (Reddit and Github for now).
  • Easily extensible to handle any browser or API

It's open source with an AGPLv3 license, Checkout the README and website docs for more details.

This entry was edited (2 days ago)

Amazon engineers and marketers were asked on Monday to volunteer their time to the company’s warehouses to assist with grocery delivery


This entry was edited (2 days ago)

OBS Studio 31.1 debuts with Linux multitrack video support and more


in reply to Victor

For that you can use github.com/dimtpap/obs-pipewir…

Add a new souce of this type, and it will add a new audio track, for which you can select which application(s) you want to be captured for that source. Works pretty much like the pipewire screen capture source in obs, but for audio.

I usually have 3 of these sources running: Discord, Game and Music player audio; in addition to a normal full desktop audio capture and my mic. They all go on separate audio tracks in the output file.

in reply to basiclemmon98

simply being lgbtq+ isnt eligble enough, you would have to face persecution, as lgbtq+ isnt threatened as a whole in the USA in the near future(jailing, killings, wartorn). eg,some place fleeing from IRAN AS LGBTQ+ would be eligible, or of a specific demographic like religion(ba'hai).
You can still flee to safe spaces in blue states, blue areas, so its not really eligible, unless all the states starts targeting lgbtq+(with above persecutions), right now its mostly rhetoric and anti-trans laws here and there, and not really enforced as a whole for the most part.

if you have specialty, in stem try looking for certain positions. though rare, scientist "refugees" are possible.

This entry was edited (2 days ago)

Hundreds of Minnesota Healthcare Workers Are Getting Ready to Strike


Live Under the Sky 1989 – Michael Brecker & Ellington Tribute (Full Concert, Tokyo Jazz Festival): posted by Jazz Video Guy


Canada's government will have to respond to a demand for peacekeepers in Gaza. Here's why


6mins 38s vid


This is an update to Petition to Call on Canadian Gov to urgently deploy peacekeepers to Gaza. Thanks to all the folks who signed and gave a damn!🫡💪
- As of July 7, 11147 signatures has been gathered!


OOTL/TL;DW:
- Provided the petition is successful, our government must respond to the call of action:

We, the undersigned, People of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to work with international partners, including the United Nations, to urgently deploy peacekeeping forces to Gaza for the protection of civilians, to support the delivery of humanitarian aid, and to uphold Canada’s commitment to international humanitarian law and the responsibility to protect vulnerable populations.


Please continue to sign the petition and share this around as it's likely that many of the signatures will be culled similar to the Stop Killing Games Movement!
- deadline for signatures is July 26, 2025

As Canadians I know that we can make a positive difference for ourselves and our supporters!✊

This entry was edited (3 days ago)

What are the forum-like communities that are federated?


I mean, we got Kbin, Lemmy, PieFed, NodeBB, stuff like that. What else do they have on the fediverse that's like that?

Dark dwarfs lurking at the center of our galaxy might hint at the nature of dark matter


Hardware Suggestions For A Beginner?


Hello, I've been saying it to myself for a year now, but I'm on summer break rn and I really need to do something with my life. Here's some of the software I plan to host. Goal is to not spend more than $150-200, I do have some gift cards though.

Absolutely Will Run:

Nextcloud & Immich - I want to replace Google and OneDrive

Might do in the near future:

Jellyfin - my mom and I usually just bootleg by using Kodi on our FireTV, so not a major need rn, but might be nice for future purposes.

piHole - better overall ad blocking, so I don't have to use nextDNS on all my devices, and maybe help my mom out.

VPN - I currently pay for Proton, and we use it on the FireTV, but it sucks cause it doesn't have killswitch. I have several devices and profiles that I use, so I was thinking maybe just an overall VPN might be nice

Seeding - I think it would be nice to give back to the community, since I torrent every now and then.

OS Plan:
I plan to use Proxmox as I have a little bit of experience using it, and others seem to like it a lot for managing multiple software.

I know I don't need to go full power mode rn, so I wanna stick with something low end that I could maybe upgrade in the future. Should I just buy a used laptop/PC, or get like an Optiplex or ThinkServer? I don't wanna rack up my parent's electric bill. I already got some hard drives a year ago, so but is using an external drive bad?

I know to use the Ethernet ports so my signal isn't shit, but I gotta work out the best spot I can put my server. I do know an okay amount of networking knowledge, and I'm a cyber student anyway so this is like a fun yet educational personal project for me.

When it comes to external access and security of these services, should I stick with Tailscale? Some people have concerns over the proprietary bits and are using headscale instead I guess.

Any guidance is much appreciated!

This entry was edited (3 days ago)
in reply to Novaling

If you really want something upgradeable, used enterprise SFF is the way to go: discountelectronics.com/

However, the hardware market is in a weird spot right now; you’ll get far more bang for your buck with an Intel N150. You can find a 16GB DDR5 w/ 1 TB SSD around the $200 mark, and that’s what I’d roll with in your shoes, assuming you don’t mind living without a spinning disk. Your Jellyfin and Immich instances will run far smoother.

This entry was edited (3 days ago)

'Completely unexpected': Antarctic sea ice may be in terminal decline due to rising Southern Ocean salinity


How much spacing while stopped at a red light?


So this has been annoying me lately; drivers leaving excessive spacing when stopped for a red light. I get it, you don't want to be right on the next guys bumper, you should leave space to escape if the guy in front stalls or somebody tries to carjack you. But 2-3 car lengths? It really bugs me when they do it in a left turn lane causing a back up to the travel lane resulting in overall congestion. Or, if they're first at the light, they don't pull up far enough to reach the road sensors that trigger a light change. I haven't been able to isolate to a specific demographic, seems to be young, old, black, white, you name it. Maybe they're just stoned at the wheel. I'm tempted to roll down my window and ask 'wtf'? I'm in the Northeast US. Has anybody else witnessed this?

European News Outlets Continue Misrepresenting GrapheneOS Project


GrapheneOS is currently under a state sponsored attack attempting to misrepresent it as being for criminals, which we covered a bit at grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/…. These poorly researched, biased and inaccurate news stories have led to more harassment towards our community and team.

These attacks are taking a multi pronged approach including pushing existing fabricated stories and harassment towards our team. We'd appreciate if our community was more active than usual in debunking misinformation and attacks on our team. It's a very abnormal wave of attacks.



European authoritarians and their enablers in the media are misrepresenting GrapheneOS and even Pixel phones as if they're something for criminals. GrapheneOS is opposed to the mass surveillance police state these people want to impose on everyone.

xatakandroid.com/sociedad/cada…


GrapheneOS AOSP 16 To Reach Stable Channel Within Few Days


GrapheneOS based on Android 16 has been through extensive public Alpha/Beta testing and should reach our Stable channel today. We'll continue fixing various upstream Android 16 regressions such as the back button issue impacting the stock Pixel OS we fixed in our latest release.

July Android Security Bulletin will likely be published today. We obtained early access to the signed partner preview and confirmed no additional patches were required, so we set the 2025-07-01 patch level last month after we backported Pixel 2025-06-05 driver/firmware patches.

Tomorrow will likely be the first monthly update of Android 16 with a new Android Open Source Project and Pixel stock OS release. We won't need to backport Pixel driver/firmware patches since we're on Android 16 and can simply incorporate and ship the monthly update within hours.

It can be extraordinarily difficult to backport driver/firmware patches due to dependencies on the new major release. We were only able to backport everything required for the 2025-06-05 security patch level because Android 15 QPR2 is much closer to Android 16 than Android 15.

After our Android 16 port was completed yesterday, we started fixing an Android tapjacking vulnerability disclosed last month:

taptrap.click/

We have a fix implemented and it will be included in our next release, likely with the monthly Android 16 update tomorrow.

This vulnerability was disclosed to Google in October 2024 and Android still hasn't fixed it. Security researchers should report vulnerabilities to GrapheneOS in addition to Google. This now joins our many other GrapheneOS exclusive fixes for serious Android vulnerabilities.

We've decided to make another release today with our fix for the Android tapjacking vulnerability because we need to fix a DisplayPort alternate mode regression specific to 8th generation Pixels which doesn't impact 9th generation Pixels.

Using ZRAM on a laptop with 8 GB RAM. Worth it or waste of CPU?


I dug out my old Asus Zenbook (UX305CA) and refurbished it: gave it a good cleaning, replaced the thermal paste, installed a new battery, upgraded the SSD, and did a clean install of Ubuntu 24.04 (don't judge; everything else in my house is still Debian and/or OpenWRT).

The only thing I can't upgrade is the memory since it's soldered on. It's got 8 GB which hasn't really been a limit given my use cases, but since I'm in upgrade mode, I was thinking of running it with zram configured.

I just setup zram and gave it 50% of the physical memory as a starting point, set vm.swappiness to 140, and am using zstd as the compression algorithm.

Haven't noticed much difference, so there doesn't seem to be much CPU performance penalty even on this low-spec CPU (base clock 900 MHz lol). zramctl shows it's got 726 MB swapped to it currently which is compressed to 126 MB. Not bad! The only thing I haven't done yet is set the power profile to "Power Saver" - if there are going to be noticeable performance penalties, that's probably when it will show up.

I've only ever used zram on Raspberry Pis and on an old netbook, so I'm not sure if using it on a machine with an otherwise usable amount of RAM is even worth it.

Thoughts and/or suggestions for a better config?

This entry was edited (3 days ago)

GrapheneOS version 2025070600 released


Tags:
  • 2025070600 (Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 6a, Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 7a, Pixel Tablet, Pixel Fold, Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel 8a, Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Pixel 9a, emulator, generic, other targets)

Changes since the 2025070500 release:

  • backport fix for back button regression in Android 16 from Android 16 QPR1 Beta 2.1
  • Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel 8a: restore using asymmetric MTE mode for userspace instead of the default asynchronous mode
  • add back switching to using the Natural display color mode by default
  • migrate more device support to adevtool and remove more unused configuration
  • improve per-device integration for USB-C port control and pogo pins control to make maintenance easier
  • adevtool: remove obsolete overlay handling implementation
  • remove Circle to Search feature declaration
  • enable Runtime Resource Overlay (RRO) enforcement

GrapheneOS version 2025070500 released


Tags:
  • 2025070500 (Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 6a, Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 7a, Pixel Tablet, Pixel Fold, Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel 8a, Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Pixel 9a, emulator, generic, other targets)

Changes since the 2025070301 release:

  • partially revert upstream changes in Android 16 breaking parts of the lockscreen layout including the date and media info
  • Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL: add back feature declaration for Pixel Thermometer support lost in our Android 16 device port migration which prevented fresh installs of the app
  • Terminal (virtual machine management app): disable VM console feature since it isn't supported by the stable release of Android 16 outside of debug builds and trying to use it breaks installing the new images (the feature can be enabled once the core OS supports it in production builds)
  • update Pixel HAL compatibility matrix version numbers for Android 16
  • add lockscreen synchronization failsafe to protect against unknown vulnerabilities
  • improve code quality and add unit tests for our strict CVE-2024-50089 protection
  • kernel (6.6): update to latest GKI LTS branch revision including update to 6.6.94
  • fix port of our 2-factor fingerprint authentication tests to Android 16

GrapheneOS Based On AOSP 16 Now Available In Beta Channel For Testing


GrapheneOS based on Android 16 is now available in our Beta channel. There are 2 main known issues which will be fixed in the next release: lockscreen date and media info are not properly displayed due to an upstream AOSP bug and Pixel Thermometer doesn't appear in our App Store.

Last month, we provided the 2025-06-01 Android/Pixel security patch level early in the month before the stock OS release as preparation and then backported Android 16 firmware and kernel/userspace driver patches to provide the 2025-06-05 Android and then Pixel patch levels.

Our 2025062700 release raised the overall patch level to 2025-07-01 since we got early access to it with a verifiable signature and know we already provide the patches. We usually do an early Android Security Bulletin release before the stock OS but it was done for July in June.

Android Security Bulletins are backports of High/Critical severity patches to older Android. Starting this month, the initial release of Android 16 is one of those older releases. It's split into AOSP userspace patches (YYYY-MM-01) and driver/firmware/Linux patches (YYYY-MM-05)

YYYY-MM-05 patch level has a device-specific portion with more driver/firmware patches. For Pixels, it's the Pixel Update Bulletin. Most Pixel Update Bulletin patches aren't specific to Pixels but the Android Security Bulletin doesn't cover Samsung cellular, Broadcom Wi-Fi, etc.

Pixel Update Bulletin patches are what we had to backport to Android 15 QPR2:

source.android.com/docs/securi…

These were for firmware/drivers/services for Samsung cellular (including the Radio Interface Layer), Broadcom/Qualcomm Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, NVT touchscreen, fingerprint and TPU.

The only part truly specific to Pixels was the TPU patch. Bear that in mind when you look at those Pixel Update Bulletins. Other devices are meant to have their own bulletins covering the same things if they use those components and also further patches. It's fully up to OEMs.

Android Security Bulletin (ASB) is published on the first Monday of the month unless it's a US/Google holiday in which case it gets pushed ahead a day or two. The Android release for the month is a separate thing from the ASB backports, usually published the day after the ASB.

ASB is likely July 7 and the Android OS release is likely July 8. Our aim is to have Android 16 in our Stable channel prior to July 8 so we can ship the initial monthly update to Android 16 instead of needing to backport Pixel Update Bulletin patches which could be infeasible.

Each month, Android has a new stable OS release. It's a monthly, quarterly or yearly release. Quarterly and yearly releases move along the development branch about the same amount and have a similar amount of changes. Those have months of public Developer Previews / Betas first.

Pixels ship the latest monthly, quarterly and yearly release each month. Non-Pixels ship an initial yearly Android release and then only Android Security Bulletin backports until they ship the next yearly release. ASB backports are a subset of the AOSP patches, not all of them.

GrapheneOS needs to follow the stable releases in order to provide the full AOSP privacy/security patches. It also needs to keep up with them in order to ship Pixel driver/firmware patches which are made for the latest stable release, but we'd still need to do this on non-Pixels.

GrapheneOS version 2025070301 released


Tags:
  • 2025070301 (Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 6a, Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 7a, Pixel Tablet, Pixel Fold, Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel 8a, Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Pixel 9a, emulator, generic, other targets)

Changes since the 2025070300 release:

  • fix upstream Android 16 issue causing very large Binder transactions due to the size scaling based on the number of apps installed across all users including base OS apps
  • reduce virtual memory reserved for Binder buffers back to 1MiB now that we have a direct fix for the upstream issue causing more to be required and using a larger virtual memory reservation size appears to have a small chance of failing
  • revert our fix for a screenshot process crash that's now fixed upstream in Android 16

GrapheneOS Foundation Discusses Non-Standard Per-app Permissions


Android regularly adds and splits permissions for new API levels. Legacy apps are handled by treating them as requesting the permission to provide a toggle for it. For example, Android 13 converted the existing toggle for disabling notifications for an app into a new POST_NOTIFICATIONS permission.

The Android Open Source Project has infrastructure for this since it's a regular part of the app sandbox and permission model improving. We add Network and Sensors permission toggles in GrapheneOS where Network is based on the existing low-level INTERNET permission and Sensors is entirely new.

Nearly all apps are unaware of these non-standard permissions just as they're unaware of new permissions added by Android before they get upgraded. Therefore, we enable them by default for compatibility but provide the ability for users to disable them at install time like the standard permissions.

For Network, apps request INTERNET, so we provide a toggle for rejecting that request in the initial app install dialog. If it's added in an upgrade, it's disabled by default. For Sensors, apps don't request it so we handle it similarly to how Android handled POST_NOTIFICATIONS for existing apps.

When Network is disabled, we act as if the network is down for compatibility. We won't run network-dependent jobs, various APIs will report it as down and we give errors matching it being down. When Sensors is disabled, sensors not covered by standard permissions give zeroed data and no events.

For usability, apps trying to use those sensors when Sensors is disabled will trigger a notification from the OS which can be disabled on a per-app basis. This informs users about what's going on so they'll know the app is either doing something sketchy or that it may actually require it.

F-Droid has an incorrect approach to installing apps which wrongly warns users about the standard Android POST_NOTIFICATIONS permission, our OTHER_SENSORS permission and previous Android permission additions/splits. They wrongly blamed GrapheneOS and didn't fix it:

archive.ph/MtB2J

They're now realizing that it happens with standard Android permissions added / split in new releases. Their approach to installing apps has been incorrect in multiple ways for many years and this is one of them. Their approach to listing which permissions are used by apps is also very incorrect.

F-Droid has a long history of denying issues including covering up serious security flaws. In some cases they eventually ship a fix but still deny it. It's a major factor in why F-Droid is not a safe or trustworthy source of apps due to major security issues not being acknowledged or addressed.

Multiple of the F-Droid developers wrongly blaming their app bug on GrapheneOS in that issue are Calyx contractors. They prioritize attacking GrapheneOS with inaccurate claims and fabricated stories about our team over fixing a bug in their app impacting both GrapheneOS and non-GrapheneOS users.

We've repeatedly brought up F-Droid not properly listing permissions or checking for them. Their understanding of Android's permission model is wrong. The way they list permissions misleads and misinforms users. It's one of many major F-Droid flaws they consistently don't acknowledge or fix.

Due to F-Droid deliberately causing friction and annoyances for GrapheneOS users, we'll be implementing a feature similar to our sandboxed Google Play compatibility layer for it. We'll can resolve deliberate issues created for GrapheneOS users ourselves as we did with Revolut.

TikTok Pulls Millions in Arts Sponsorships Amid Ottawa Crackdown


in reply to Sunshine (she/her)

Our (Lib under Trudeau) government banned TikTok to appease the US after they did the same under Biden. But Trump has since nullified the TikTok ban in the US. Why are we still going through with this? As a nice gift to the US tech oligarch (after we backtracked the Digital Services Tax on them)? Is the platform too leftwing for the government's liking?
in reply to SlartyBartFast

Do you mean specifically Carney flipping pancakes or politicians flipping pancakes in general? I can't speak about elsewhere but in Alberta organizations frequently put on pancake breakfasts often accompanying some other larger event. Politicians local to federal (depending on the size of the event) take it as an opportunity to do some glad-handing. In this particular case I guess Carney isn't a proficient pancake flipper.
This entry was edited (2 days ago)