Boosted by @heidilifeldman@mastodon.social
Sometimes I criticize the tech community. Sometimes it delivers the laugh I need.
Thank you random GitHub stranger.
Remote
Nate Bartram
@nateb@mastodon.thenewoil.org
mastodon 4.7.3🛜 Founder, editor, agent of chaos @thenewoil@mastodon.thenewoil.org.
🎥 Digital Content Producer @privacyguides@mastodon.neat.computer
📣 Board member @effaustin@mastodon.social.
🎙️ Former cohost @ Surveillance Report
❗All opinions are my own.
❌ Boosts =/= an endorsement of the person or their other posts.
🤖 I was using em dashes (& other tells) first.
#Privacy and #MentalHealth advocate. Casual #gamer. #Scifi nerd. #TrueCrime fan. Musician. Audio engineer. #nobot
When elephants wage war, it is the grass that suffers.
848 Followers
30 Following
50 Posts
Joined November 18, 2023
The New Oil:
Privacy Guides:
EFF-Austin:
Pronouns:
He/Him
Nature documentaries really remind me how cushy my life is. Most of my problems seem silly in the face of having to go hunt my food all day and hope I don't become someone else's meal 24/7.
Somedays you're the bug, somedays you're the windshield.
Try to remember that life comes in waves: a bunch of good things, then a bunch of rough things.
Tuta Drive now has mobile apps in early access. Hell yeah. Coming along nicely.
France, who's federal government just had a data breach, has decided that everybody should hand over their ID to talk shit on Twitter. This will definitely not get breached or abused.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/21/france-ban-social-media-access-under-15s
Get you a witchy girl. They're easy to please. "Here's a feather I found on the ground during my walk." "Here's a cool rock." "Here's an empty jar."
No word yet on if my wife is Link and uses empty jars to capture revive fairies.
Today I had to install child locks on the cabinets to keep our cats out. Further proof to me that cats are essentially the Lite version of toddlers.
Also I had a vasectomy so there's a certain irony in me installing childproofing at all.
Tried out the new SPA Quiz from @techlore@social.lol for fun. "Data & Storage" and "Physical habits" are my weakest point. That sounds about right lol.
Call me crazy but I'm starting to think that social media is bad for your mental health...
Cloudflare is making the internet unusable with a VPN. Yeesh.
Another day, another garbage email sent by an AI agent wasting my time.
If you can be bothered to write it, why are you wasting my time reading it?
Today's video you should share with your friends and family.
Police Surveillance Technology: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Thanks to the library, I'm reading Watchmen for the first time.
Rorschach is a real piece of shit and I'm weirded out by anyone that identifies wth him.
I mean, they all kind of suck, tbh.
I assume that's the point. I'm still pretty early in. Will update as I go.
Library update: my local library supports RSS for the events page. The wins just won't stop coming.
Whatever you do, do NOT tell your friends and family about this new Netflix documentary that makes Kalshi look bad. That wouldn't be nice. They really don't want you to see it cause it's so unfair to them.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/25/kalshi-demands-netflix-take-down-trailer-for-prediction-games-documentary/
What a very unhinged post from Proton. "Is this data broker safe to use?" "Yes, and here's how to use it best. Oh btw it's kinda fucked up." Def not the angle I would've taken.
https://proton.me/blog/is-truthfinder-legit
politics
Police when using surveillance tech: "Well if you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. Only criminals need privacy."
Also police when using surveillance tech: https://www.404media.co/do-not-mention-alpr-usage-how-cops-are-trying-to-hide-the-existence-of-flock/
"All age groups lost more money to scams originating on Facebook than to any other social media platform."
Reason number five million to #DeleteFacebook
Samsung had shit security and wasn't doing the basics to keep up with their competitors? I think there's a Futurama GIF for this one.
Replying to
@argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org @xan@xantronix.social Well thank you to @whitequark@social.treehouse.systems. The depression was hitting a bit this weekend and that comment genuinely made me laugh out loud pretty hard.
Replying to
Replying to
@tuckerm@saltylike.us I would be, too. He's not exactly subtle. That's like saying "I really pattern my work ethic after Himmler."
It's definitely good. I'm really enjoying it. I def recommend reading it. But jfc to those people who identify with Rorschach.
Privacy - a human right - is quickly becoming a luxury of the wealthy.
https://www.wired.com/story/for-taylor-swift-madison-square-gardens-controversial-cameras-briefly-went-dark/
Replying to
@brainwormqueen@woof.tech Eh. Seems new. I think I'll just go with GrayJay. I trust Rossmann's ability to be around for a while.
Replying to
@nicr9@techhub.social It was on a Microsoft commit. I feel like that's a "enough said" answer 😂
@loops@loops.video finally added 2FA. That's what's up.
I wish there was a way to let a venue know how many times I've passed up going to an event they hosted because of Ticketmaster's extortionist practices.
The Fast & Furious franchise is old enough to rent a car.
Replying to
@Tutanota@mastodon.social Additionally a look at their privacy policy shows they're not really private. Most of their infrastructure partners - including for push notifications -are based in the US (push notifications are regularly requested by law enforcement) and they use multiple non-privacy-focused analytics providers.
Replying to
@Tutanota@mastodon.social Very disappointed you guys listed Clue. My wife asked me to check out their privacy policy the other week and it's horrendous. They claim that they'll never hand over data in any circumstance (including "with any authority"), which either means they're lulling users into a false sense of security or they're a "bulletproof" provider and we know how well that tends to go (spoiler alert: Interpol eventually kicks down their door and carries off their servers).
Replying to
@jonah@mastodon.neat.computer That's exactly why I said "your mileage may vary" lol. I was cooking at the time so I was in and out of the fridge, constantly checking on it. I would never just stick in there and walk away 😂
Replying to
@Tutanota@mastodon.social The only thing they do to actually protect user privacy is they claim to have a way to not associate user data with payment info, but I strongly suspect that's probably relatively easy to workaround. The entire thing strikes me as extremely dishonest, gimmicky marketing.
I can't remember who said it but it's pretty wild that tech companies created pretty much all our modern problems and we keep accepting the idea that they can also solve them with whatever new app.
"We can't fix our problems with the same thinking that created them."
"[Mass surveillance] is the single most indicative distinguishing trait of totalitarian regimes."
*sips coffee*
Never seen AirBnB pop up in my feed for a good reason. Just saying.
Replying to
@meganL@mas.to Never had luck. I also don't communicate over email a lot. I've been pretty successful getting people on Signal (mostly thanks to my wife). I tell people why they should use Proton (or Tuta but Proton is the easier sell, tbh), but I have no idea if they follow up. Probably not.
Literally the first time I've ever heard of malicious public Wi-Fi. Not saying it's never happened before, but I feel like that should just go to show how incredibly rare it is.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hackers-hijack-hotel-wi-fi-dns-to-steal-microsoft-365-accounts/
What could possibly go wrong?
https://www.androidauthority.com/t-mobile-t-life-app-yearly-transition-3694189/
RE: https://mastodon.social/@QasimRashid/117003983443069881
I didn't know I could recommend Meta AI less.
Quoting
BREAKING: META has entered into a formal partnership with Right wing propaganda rag NewsMax—an election denying, pro racist, pro Trump, anti-Muslim, anti-woman, anti-democracy state media platform.
Another reminder to support independent media with your time and dollars. My human rights platform has no paywall and we are expanding quickly. Join us and let’s build a better platform: www.qasimrashid.com/subscribe
I met a girl who kept tattoos
For homes that she had loved
If I were her, I'd paint my body
'Til all my skin was gone
Not to be a judgy asshole but if you still regularly use Meta products willingly what the actual fuck is wrong with you?
Cue the reply guys who missed the "willingly" part.
https://www.reuters.com/world/meta-used-ai-target-workers-with-medical-conditions-layoffs-former-employees-2026-07-14/
Discovered last night that Tubular has stopped being developed.
I'm starting to understand why some people are getting FOSS-fatigue where every project eventually just quietly goes away and you have to find a new one that does what it did.
Replying to
@Tutanota@mastodon.social (Follow up: you should check their privacy policy and ctrl+f for "advertis". Lots of talk about sharing data with advertisers, lots of "you can opt out by," not a lot of "we preserve your privacy during this step by.")
Watching Saved By The Bell:
Kelly: "I want to be [Homecoming] Queen!"
Lisa: "We'll let you know if anything happens to Princess Di."
Me & my wife at the same time: "awwwww.... that one didn't age well."