There are whole podcasts that I’ve abandoned because of this excruciating modern scourge.

ITT: lots of generic VPN advice by people who have no experience with the specific problem.

It’s FOSS and available free on F-Droid. Small app transactions are not paying for that staff list.

OsmAnd is a genuinely amazing app that I have been using for literally 14 years. For everything other than business information, it’s clearly the best in class. Far better than the new kid on the FOSS block Organic Maps, let alone certain commercial apps that shall remain nameless. It’s always a surprise to me how few normies have even heard of OsmAnd. Possibly not helped by the awkward semi-pronouncable name.

I’m just bothered by one thing: the ongoing opacity about OsmAnd’s business model. They provide no explanations at all, despite the slick site and what appears to be an impressive staff list. They need to be more transparent about who’s paying for all this and how.

French fries, shorly.

There is nothing inherent about technology that means it must be used for evil.

Sure. In theory. But there are things we know about humans and their weaknesses, and these things are not going to change overnight (except perhaps in the fever dreams of some Marxists, of whom you might be one). Technology of this power did not exist before, and now it does. So technology is indeed the proximate problem.

While this is essentially true, IMO it’s become a bit of a distraction. The immediate problem we face today is technology.

In the 90s, people believed technology (i.e. the internet) would protect liberty against power (or “security”). We thought that removing the barriers to information would put our rulers in a goldfish bowl where we could keep an eye on them. It was a reasonable expectation. But it turns out to be us in the goldfish bowl.

It seems those with power simply have more time and resources available for surveillance. And now the technology is reaching a point where rulers will soon have awesome tools at their disposal, and they’re sure gonna be tempted to use them.

Our problem is technology. Not sure how to put a positive spin on this. Technology itself will provide some solutions. But IMO it’s more important than ever to get involved in politics. In any appropriate way.

Surely as a career scientist you could find the rigor to spellcheck a 5-word post title.

That’s certainly an oddly optimistic take in this neighborhood.

Unless you mean space exploration, which I personally think is a delusional distraction.

Leaving aside the unfortunate denouement here, I’m always just so impressed with how far ahead of the world the USA was in the 1930s. This bridge had an 853m main span, the Golden Gate’s was 1.2km! The Hoover Dam. The Empire State - a 400m skyscraper built in a single year the best part of a century ago. Mind blowingly impressive.

that could be because it is an AMAZING post – it covered all the points and no one has anything left to say

Finally, I know why.

Is not really a showerthought and flagrantly breaks rule #6 #3. Put this elsewhere.

This is the only answer you need to read. It’s a non-problem if you just do this, and there’s no reason not to do it.

Dammit that thing is gorgeous.

Occasionally the showerthoughts here reach the quality level of the R-site.

Sure, it’s fine. But if I’m only publishing text and photos, and I don’t need tons of specialized plugins, and I’m dealing with things myself - then personally I will go with a static-site generator every time. It’s at least as fast, and more secure by design.

Did not know that. Useful.

Full DB-driven monster for a few bytes of text. Sledgehammer to crack a nut if you ask me. But sure, this is the obvious answer.

Even more interesting IMO: what are the options that do not involve self-hosting (thus avoiding the PITA of babysitting a domain and server security)?

Sarcasm: 9/10 for effort