I’ve been running PiHole for awhile, in short it’s your own DNS server that’s configured to block DNS requests to known advertising domains. So when you load a website and it sends a DNS request to PopularAdvertisingCompany.com to load an ad, PiHole blocks the request so the ad can’t be loaded. It’s useful for devices that you can’t put an ad blocker on, like iPhones and smart TVs and such, but can’t block stuff like YouTube ads cause they come from the same domain as the videos themselves.

It also has bonus features like DNS caching which can speed up web browsing.

Any router from a mainstream brand is likely fine, just don’t enable any of their “cloud” BS and don’t use their smartphone app. I’ve had good luck with Asus, they have an app but you don’t have to use it at all.

For security, try to enable WPA3 on your Wi-Fi networks, otherwise WPA2 is probably fine unless you’re being targeted by a government-sponsored hacking operation. Choose a long password for your network.

Once you get it up and running, then worry about DNS and PiHole and VPNs and all that. Don’t get in over your head.

Ha, I just came here to post this! It’s seriously cool, and the Navajo’s history in the semiconductor industry is something I never knew about.

I would love a rug like that.

Even then, anyone can use inspect element to make it look like it says whatever you want.

Basically the scheme from Office Space

I think Google Voice still gives out a free phone number as long as you tie it to your actual phone number. I used it for Craigslist all the time years ago to avoid giving out my actual number

Okay so genuine question from someone who’s used various distros for all sorts of things over the years, just never as a daily driver. What sorts of things have caused your revulsion towards Windows? Aside from Microsoft’s bullcrap like Alexa or MS Store ads which can all be disabled, I’ve personally never had enough of a problem with Windows that justified the effort required to move away from it. And I would consider myself a power user who loves to customize things.

Again, I just want to genuinely understand what sorts of problems people have that cause them to hate using Windows that much, even if they’re just subjective things.

The reason they aren’t is because methods for cracking DRM like Widevine are kept extremely secret so that the exploits don’t get patched. It does mean that a lot of content is locked to whatever the scene decides is worth their time to crack and distribute, but if anyone made the methods they use public, they would stop working very quickly.

That article is bizarre. I do admit that it’s kinda weird that Google keeps messing with the image, but it’s very clearly just some celestial body(s) with a ring of light around it from either a gas cloud or lens refraction.

The tone of that article almost seems schizophrenic, saying that the “the problem is that the dragon is peeking” at us and that the “censor” might be to “hide how much we know from the dragon”.

You know that you don’t have to declare copyright in every comment you make, yeah? All I can think of is the "Tryin’ to make a change :-/" SMS signature meme.

I don’t think it’s quite that simple to have multiple backups of almost 250TB of data. And even then, it says that all his computer equipment was seized by the FBI over some bogus legal claims, so even if he did have local backups, losing those was out of his control.

ADSL doesn’t use the same frequencies used for voice, which is why telecoms had to specially support it. Dial-up does, so it would work over any phone line but would be subject to the mentioned limitations.

If you still use Amazon, get the CamelCamelCamel addon. It shows you a graph of how the price of an item has changed, so you can see if a sale is really a discount of just one of these fake “sales”.

It’s funny cause according to the PokeDex, Groudon is only like… 11 feet tall

I would look for a dongle that specifically markets itself as being Raspberry Pi compatible. Most stuff you find will prioritize Windows, but if it’s marketed to work with the Pi you know it’ll have at least some level of Linux compatibility. Once you find one, try to figure out what chipset it uses, then search if it’s supported by a handful of the distros you wanna try.

How long did you wait for it to forward? Dread has been under DDOS siege for years straight, so they have to implement just about the most restrictive mitigation measures possible. These unfortunately mean long wait times.

Pretty stupid move on Bethesda’s part, since they’re well aware of how mods are the only reason their ancient games still get so much attention. Hell, if it wasn’t for the Unofficial Patches, many of their games would be unplayable.

In that case, I don’t think the problem is with Arch. The battery is likely shot, as going from partly charged -> dead that quickly is a very common symptom of one that’s reached the end of its life.

When you say you need to connect the charger to get it to boot up again, do you mean boot to Linux or even to just show the BIOS? If the former, it might be that the battery level isn’t being read correctly by the OS, but if it’s the latter, the battery or its related circuitry is likely failing and you’ll need a replacement battery.

How do you think they can provide their service free of charge? It’s because you are the product, and they likely track your own spending habits. However, I still use them occasionally if I ever want to sign up for a free trial or something similar, because you can put an all-time limit on each card. If my bank offered that feature though, I would just use it instead because my bank (a local credit union) would never track my data.