The description of the Matrix users is hysterically accurate.

First time I went there, I had an obscure problem with an app. A very friendly and helpful person jumped in and said they have that app but don't use it often. Then proceeded to run multiple tests on their end to validate my experience. I was blown away. Super solid dude.

Every other time I've been mostly ignored. Which is fine if people can't help. But as I check in all I see is forum fighting about what is right and best, as if there's only 1 answer.

Additionally, running GrapheneOS you can set up a duress pin to wipe the phone profiles if things were to escalate.

Being smart, set up the main profile a bit to look real, but have no actual information. That way it's not obvious tha its been wiped.

Being cheeky, set the duress pin to be something simple like your birthday. So if you are detained/arrested and they try to get into your phone they are the ones to wipe it for you.

Flood it with AI copies of official Mario content. Train the copyright software to associate the context of the official art to get the official art taken down.

This sounds like a great movie.

AI sends police after him because of things he wrote. Writer is on the run, trying to clear his name the entire time. Somehow gets to broadcast the source of the articles to the world to clear his name. Plot twist ending is that he was indeed the perpetrator behind all the crimes.

I was thinking more along the lines of:

We were woken up to check out this signal.

Shine that, let's go home and get paid.

But you know, we're required by law to do so or we forfeit our payment.

OK, so what's the story we all say?

Yeah, nothing there. Must have been a glitch.

OK, let's go home.

The problem with gamers is that generally they will complain about something and then buy it anyways. That's why the industry does what it does. I too wish there was more backlash about many things.

I mean, I'm sure you're right but it's buggy as shit on Windows too.

No. Microsoft 365 (previously office 365) is not a web app. They have web apps, and some licenses (the bare bones $6/mo one) only has web apps. But overall the suite of apps can't be defined as web based.

Not to be confusing, but some of the apps are only web apps, but those are "other" apps than you're probably thinking of. Like Planner or Power Automate. The "office" apps like outlook, word, excel and PowerPoint all have desktop and web versions included.

I agree. The system is screwed up, but that doesn't mean the intention was bad. Having no patent rights just means that whoever has more money will win. Big corps have the resources in both money and infrastructure to bring anything anybody else invents to market faster.

So today, big corps win. If we do away with the system, then big corps win. The only solution is reform. Or consumer knowledge and the ability to resist buying something in protest (which has failed time and time again which is evident by the big corps existence).

I've been trying to work this out since the beginning of the year. This is anecdotally what I've done, what works and what doesn't.

Most of my solution comes from JMP.chat for my phone number along with the cheogram app for functionality.

Basically I got a number for friends and family. I got a second number to give to businesses that don't care about VoIP (my dentist etc). ($5 ea). Cons here are that SMS groups are limited to 10 recipients. This doesn't work for my large family chats (I can get them but can't respond). Another thing I dislike is since its XMPP based, all contacts are listed as their phone number if in a group, so it's hard to tell who's in it. (Solo texts show as names just fine). They have a premium tier that routes differently to allow more than 10 in a group text, but I've tried that twice now and the actual phone calling gets screwed up. So I'm still trying to get it all sorted out (and I'm not optimistic) It's also a service only in USA and CAN.

My original number that I've had for 20 years and all big tech have assigned to me, I ported to google voice ($20 fee)

Since my original phone number was a carrier number it is already assigned to all the stringent companies like banks. They continue to use it without knowing its now a VoIP number. I have all SMS messages forwarded to my email so I don't have to log into google ever. It works perfectly for 2FA. Shortcoming of this is that any group texts the email just says you got a group text, but a single source text the actual text is forwarded. I don't use it for groups so its not a problem but just mentioning it as a potential con. Then of course, its legacy so opening new accounts won't work the same way since its a VoIP number now.

I bought a hotspot from calyx. By far the most expensive part of my solution. But it gives me WiFi access without a standard carrier (it does use T-Mobile but calyx doesn't track you like they do). Check them out to see if it fits your threat model. It works out to about $50/mo but the biggest issue is that its an annual lump sum.

Another option I've been trying is 4freedommobile. They have decent plans and are focused on privacy. Everything runs through their app for encryption. But I've found the app lacking both in UI and functionality. You can't do group SMS (which is apparently coming very soon) but my biggest issue is they require google play services for notifications. They state they don't, but they do. Hands down it just doesn't work without it. So that's a deal killer for me.

Honorable mention is the premium service Elfani. I haven't used it but have considered it. Its very expensive at $99 a month but is secure. However I don't see much on privacy so I'm not sure how different they really end up being from their base AT&T provider.

Yeah, that's why I mentioned having a secondary profile. Some stuff like bank apps you just can't get away from so a profile with play services running is a workable solution. If you have a pixel phone already, you can give it a shot. One very nice feature of GOS is that it's super easy to install - and uninstall if it's not for you.

Like you said, banking apps. The logic behind that is they use google to security check their apps. A random non-bank example would be the slick deals app. Without play services it would just open then crash.

Many apps use play services for their notification system. So for instance, proton mail works fine but notifications do not.

NFC is not supported, so anything that uses that won't work.

Not an app, but I was surprised that widgets don't work unless you're in the primary profile. Technically they work on any profile, but they randomly get deleted, and frequently. It's a known bug that probably will never get fixed because the source of it comes from stock android.

I will mention that you can have a profile running play services, which gives you access to many apps that wouldnt normally work. And it's sandboxed so it has less impact on your information (I don't know all the specifics but it does limit in some way how much it can snoop into the rest of the OS). Then you can also set up granular controls on your apps to limit them from snooping.

Yes, that's a good example I've seen too. So was the 2 not the ground floor?

I guess I've also seen places where the terrain is not even, so there are multiple entrances on different levels. I didn't take notice of what the elevators said though.

I don't disagree. In fact I agree fully. But when the industry promotes early access games (digital only) and digital day 1 with physical to follow 3 or 6 months later, it is pushing consumers to digital. So its irrelevant if they do or do not have an optical drive on the console.

Hot tip in the US. In an elevator the floor with the star is the ground floor, regardless of what number is present. This helps clarify any confusion between systems and also is clear for locations that have floors below the ground floor (I've most commonly seen this with parking structures)

They talked about doing it this way at launch, which they should have. The drive is available as a peripheral, at the cost difference (actually cheaper) of the digital vs disc console. It simplifies manufacturing and distribution, which helps get more consoles on shelves. Now when it doesn't matter as much, they implement it. Go figure.

As far as killing off physical media, yes it pushes further that way, but honestly the game industry has been not favorable to retail stores for some time. This is the least of the offenses.

I'm good with this response. I'm a Firefox user so can't yet make use of scribe, but its a feature I didn't expect and don't have today so I'm not missing out. For others with different threat models, if they can use it and enjoy, then more power to them.

Evel. Not Evil.

The appropriate view of your money is that you should never have to pay for the priveledge to use it. Do not ever use a bank, credit card, or any financial account that you need to pay for. They are making money off of you, which I'm OK with, but I'm sure as hell not going to pay them so they can make money with my money.

As others have said, it's all about your threat model.

For me, I keep mic and camera off at all times until I need it. Its a slight nuisance, but I'm nearly sure that it covers all the bases.

I could go hardcore and physically disable the mic in my phone, then only use earbuds for my mic. That's a bit much for me, and maybe my situation is a bit much for you.