I just bought a Pixel 10 from Spectrum with the repeated assurance that the phone would be fully unlocked after it was paid off and had several months of service. I intended to load Graphene OS, but apparently I was fucking lied to yet again by another business that will say anything to make a sale.

I can’t do anything about that now, but I can move to another carrier and make damn sure they don’t ever make another dime off my mobile account.

Trump: Death sentences with no trial for everyone involved!

I had no idea so much of lemmy.ml was run and populated by a bunch of paid Russian agents and their useful idiots. One guy had only been on Lemmy for a couple of months and had already posted hundreds of propaganda pieces from Russian state sponsored new sources. Another poster specialized on propaganda from other sources but was just as prolific.

lemmy.ml is the toilet of Lemmy.

It’s a feature not a bug.

Billionaires want 500 hungry people scrambling for each minimum wage job.

Their vs there vs they’re.

I know the difference but my fingers clearly do not.

Sorry enough to change anything?

Are you nuts? Despite the crocodile tears it’s all working as intended.

As a goodwill gesture to our valued guests, ICE will provide a coupon for a free night on your next stay.

After being detained for a full week by ICE despite valid documents these workers would be crazy to return. Employees coming to the US should demand hazard pay.

My Canadian friends use to cross the border often. Now they won’t come at all & I don’t blame them.

Glad you haven’t had any issues. Have a good night.

Do you have any experience with Linux viruses? Have you had your own Linux installations infected with viruses or malware?

You sure though?

What do you want? It should go without saying that I am absolutely sure of my own experience.

In probably 15 years total of running Linux I have not had a single problem with malware or viruses. Part of that time was also running Windows regularly and my Windows systems DID become infected with both malware and viruses occasionally, despite my best efforts. And you’re not mentioning the fact that Linux runs on 63% of the server market and those systems are under constant attack.

Reports of Linux system infections are truly rare, and considering the nature of the user community would be widely and loudly reported if they were happening.

Do you have any experience in this matter? Have you had your own Linux installations infected, or are you a Windows user questioning what you’re reading? (Perfectly reasonable if the 2nd one’s the case.) Please fill us in on the details.

There can be a period after graceful shutdown where the UPS is still running and the server will not restart if mains power comes back on. Not a likely scenario, but for apps you can’t afford to have down it’s something to consider.

I’ve used Linux Mint and other distros daily for more than 10 years. Never had a virus or malware issue and don’t even run antivirus software.

During that same time I’ve had to help friends remove viruses and malware from their Windows machines dozens of times. The latest Windows disaster I’ve assisted with was a few months ago. A retired friend had her Windows 10 machine hijacked and $8K stolen from her savings account. Making sure the malware was removed required hours of work formatting the drive and reinstalling Windows.

IMO you are far safer with a plain vanilla Linux install that you are with Windows, no matter what steps you take to secure your Windows installation.

The Maga rewriting of reality has begun. Civil war will be back on the table by tomorrow.

Some Iphone users behave as if they’re in a cult. Worse, Apple treats customers without Iphones/Macs as inferior to their golden children even while selling services that don’t require Apple hardware.

I subscribed to Apple TV+ and dealing with the company was infuriating. Every single support rep instructed me to do something to solve a problem using my Iphone or Mac. The last straw was when I wanted to add another profile to my account and was told the company has made it impossible without Apple hardware. The rep actually told me to find someone with an Iphone to help. I cancelled Apple TV+ instead.

One member of the Iphone cult I know was going on and on about a problem she was having receiving calls. When I mentioned a relatively minor problem with my phone her immediate response was “That’s because you have Android.” It was comical.

People shallow enough to believe they’re superior because they own an Iphone aren’t worth being around anyway.

Google is now expecting users to watch ads that are sometimes a full 25% of the viewing time, or slowing access and requiring logins when adblock is being used. And even if you wade through all that, watching Youtube tech and info videos has become a lot like looking at online recipes. The majority of what you find is fluff and filler for only small amounts of useful content.

I used to go to Youtube daily for research and entertainment but now I avoid the site completely whenever possible. It seems we’ve finally reached an enshittification tipping point.

It’s about time.

Every wifi device we own that’s connected to wifi and the Internet can be precisely located by the companies involved even when using a VPN.

If you have an Android phone you’ve probably noticed a prompt at some point asking for your permission to transmit precise location information and enable wifi scanning. Those wifi SSIDs and MAC addresses along with its GPS location is sent back to Google. The combination of all that information is almost as unique as a fingerprint. They can use that along with signal strength of each AP in the area to determine your device’s location with precision. (Google used to allow apps like Maps to be used with wifi scanning turned off, but no more.)

Your Google stick can’t tell it’s on a VPN directly, but even without GPS Google can still pinpoint its physical location using their database of SSIDs and MAC addresses, and if they want to they can determine you’re using a VPN by comparing that to the expected location of your IP address. There probably aren’t enough people doing this right now to make it worth the trouble to detect your VPN, but IMO it’s just a matter of time before they decide it is.

I also expect that Google sells that information to every company willing to pay for it, so almost every single wifi enabled device can be precisely located if it can transmit data to the Internet.

We live in a scary time.

I’ve been running Mint since 17.x and have only had one upgrade fail in all that time. You’re very unlikely to have a problem, but backup your system just in case!

No matter where it appears to be on a map, Missouri is in the deep south.