dfyx @ dfyx @lemmy.helios42.de

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2 yr. ago

Or don't. Unless you know that your provider is working against your best interests, a VPN provider is just as likely to be compromised as your cable or mobile ISP.

Commercial VPNs as a security measure are pretty much a scam, at least in the way they are marketed.

These days, basically any web traffic is encrypted through HTTPS. Even on an untrusted network, nobody will be able to see the actual content (passwords, personal data) of what you're doing. DNS spoofing isn't viable either as any fake site they would send you to would lack the right certificates to establish a convincing HTTPS connection. So all someone can see is what servers you're connecting to, either by logging your DNS requests (can be prevented by using some form of encrypted DNS like DNS over HTTPS) or the IP addresses you connect to. And honestly, how much value does one get out of knowing that there's someone on their network who browses beehaw.org, supergreatbank.com and bigtiddygothgfs.to with no information to connect that to an actual person?

Unless you routinely use shady open Wi-Fi networks - and I'm talking about something that may have been setup on purpose by a malicious actor, not your local supermarket - to do security-critical stuff, you don't need a VPN. Also, if you trust your mobile data provider less than a company that tricks people into thinking you absolutely need their product to secure your data, you should get a different mobile data provider.

Now, there are use cases for VPNs but those are more along the lines of accessing stuff that's not available in whatever region you're currently in.

See also Tom Scott's video on the topic. It's a few years old but still relevant.

Edit: there is of course also the use case of hiding illegal stuff. In that case, I will not give any advice. Put some onions on top of your router or something, that's probably cheaper and more reliable.

Edit 2: just to make this entirely clear, I'm talking about commercial VPNs like NordVPN, Surfshark and whoever else pays YouTubers to advertise for them. If you host your own VPN, some of the downsides may not be as relevant. Though I would assume that anyone who even considers hosting their own VPN has enough technical knowledge about how networking works to know about the pros and cons.

That‘s correct and indeed unfortunate but not what we were talking about.

There's a chance that framework might build something. Lately they've been asking what to build next and modular phones were one of the most frequent answers. While their parts are not fully open source, their interfaces between the modules and the firmware are. For the laptops, you can already replace basically anything with a custom version.

Not sure why you get Apple into this. Apps on iOS have been natively compiled from the beginning and they are amazing at running stuff on older hardware. My current iPhone 12 Mini is over three years old and smoothly runs everything I throw at it. Before that I had a 2016 iPhone SE for about four years and only replaced it because I wanted something with a better camera (I'm a semi-professional photographer so I want something decent for when I see something cool and don't have my big camera with me). I gave the SE to my mom and she used it for another two years until she decided she needed a bigger screen. It probably still works and it got its last OS update just two months ago.

As long as you don't run something super hardware hungry, you can easily use an iPhone for at least five years without any problems. Even if the battery dies halfway through, there are lots of repair shops around that will replace it for a reasonable price in case you're not comfortable with opening up the phone on your own.

I see what you did there...

Yeah, as I said in response to exocrinous, that would work. No idea why it slipped my mind when I typed my comment. I think I even thought of something similar, it sounded wrong in some way and so I went a different route.

Oh right, that would work.

Well, you could consider the solution to the riddle a pun though that's quite a stretch. Though there is at least one modern rendition (in German) that directly uses a more pun-ny solution. It does't quite translate to English but I'll try. Basically, Oedipus thinks and thinks until he starts to complain "Ach Mensch..." which is roughly equal to English "Oh boy..." but "Mensch" is literally the German for "human" so it's the right solution and the sphinx has to accept it. If you understand German, I highly recommend checking out this version. It's "König Ödipus" by Bodo Wartke. He plays all roles himself on a mostly empty stage with only a couple of props and it's absolutely hilarious. The sphinx is a lion hand puppet.

Edit: for anyone interested, here's a youtube clip of the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DogC57ZJuY8 (German with German subtitles)

In case you're serious with the sphinx question: in ancient Greek myth the entrance to the city of Thebes was guarded by a sphinx who would only let you through if you could solve a riddle, otherwise the sphinx would eat you. Which riddle that would be changes from story to story but the most famous one is along the lines of "What creature walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon and three in the evening?". This was eventually solved by king Oedipus who realized it was a human who crawls as a baby, walks on two legs as an adult and needs a walking stick as a third leg when they're old. Depending on which version you read, the sphinx was either so shocked by him solving the riddle that it threw itself from a cliff or was simply slain by him.

English:

• Lateral
• Darknet Diaries
• Artifexian
• Exolore
• The White Vault (caught up on old episodes)
• World's Greatest Con

German:

• Geschichten aus der Geschichte
• Geschichten aus dem Altbau
• Darwin gefällt das
• Mord auf Ex
• Bayern 3 True Crime
• Weird Crimes

All in no particular order.

Publishers have massively overspent the last few years, hoping the gaming hype that started during the Covid lockdowns would stay or even grow indefinitely. Investors are only happy when numbers are higher than the year before and the only way to achieve this is to cut expenses. Problem is, cutting expenses almost always leads to worse output in the near future causing these companies to starve themselves to death. But by that time, those responsible will have cashed out and moved on to become C-level execs at some other company that they can milk for a few years before running them into the ground as well.

So pretty much what you would do with regular swords. Arms and to some extent legs are closer to you than the rest of the body so they are often the easiest targets.

I wouldn’t be so sure. They were probably scared the Russians might sabotage it.

This may be in Google Maps pretty soon: https://hard-drive.net/hd/entertainment/google-maps-introduces-new-fog-of-war-feature/

I would have bought it day one if there was a physical release for PS5. With it being digital only, I will wait until it’s in a sale (and probably until it’s on Steam).

Linux for PlayStation 2 was a thing.

Germany has Das Schwarze Auge. The 5th edition is available in English as The Dark Eye. It started out in the 80s as a D&D clone but is now very different.

Rules: There are eight basic attributes (courage, strength, charisma, dexterity, intelligence, intuition, constitution and agility) that start around 10-13 for most characters. Attribute checks are a single D20 that (after possible modifiers) must be less or equal to the attribute value. On top of that, there are a few dozen talents from maths to metalworking to astronomy to stealth. Each talent check consists of three attribute checks (for example acrobatics is agility/agility/constitution) where your talent points specify by how much you may fail the individual checks. At first glance that feels a little too complicated but you get used to it and allows very diverse character builds. Spell checks work the same way as talent checks and use mana. The system is technically classless. Your characters start with a certain amount of experience that you can spend for attributes, talents, perks, spells and more. There are suggested professions in the rulebook but you can get to the exact same result by picking everything individually. Nobody keeps you from building a stealthy magical archer with a love for pottery. Overall the rules are a lot less combat focused than D&D.

Setting: The Dark Eye is set on the earthlike planet Dere with the continent Aventuria as the main setting. Aventuria is a bit of a kitchen sink setting with analogues to everything from vikings to a late medieval Holy Roman Empire, to nomadic desert tribes to pirates. Most human cultures believe in a pantheon of twelve main gods plus a whole lot of demigods. For each of the main gods there is an opposing archdemon. The other standard fantasy races exist as well, each with their own cultures and religions.

There are other spinoff settings like Myranor (deserts, beast races and magic based aristocracy), Uturia (jungle, exploration) and the fanmade Rhakshazar (land of giants, also a bit Conan the barbarian style)

Literally the plot twist in...

Yeah but do you use hot or cold water for your coffee?