Side note on unclouding.

On the back of my unclouding drive, and the previous post: in case you want to understand a bit better the “why” for all of this, I strongly suggest hearing what DuckDucGo’s Gabe Winberg has to say on the matter, to Kara Swisher’s questioning:

DuckDuckGo CEO Gabe Weinberg on how Congress (and you) can fix online privacy

There is a part in the second half of the interview (starting around 00:34:45), where discussion starts on alternatives. I’m not going to deeplink to 00:34:45; you should listen to the first 34:44 (the problem) to be interested in the solution. But it’s good to listen to the discussion on the solution: there are good privacy-aware solutions to almost any of the cloud apps (Youtube was mentioned as one distinct example where there isn’t), and Gabe makes a good job explaining how, with minimal extra effort, you can find these and start using them.

The invaluable Facebook Messenger. (A rant.)

By now I’m down to Messenger only, when it comes to Facebook. Not that I officially stopped using Instagram, I still have an active account… it just so happens that the iPhone’s hideous camera killed my creativity and there’s no new content — helping me delay the “quo vadis, photoblog?” question until I get a proper phone, or camera. But I digress. Continue reading The invaluable Facebook Messenger. (A rant.)

On Google’s $5b EU fine.

I know I’m a weirdo: I run my own NextCloud, I use Mastodon and Pixelfed but not Facebook, I run Linux (Mint flavoured) on my notebook, and I have UK English as my default spellcheck language (see? “flavoured”). But maybe you’ll still agree with me when I say the EU antitrust decision against Google (which they just appealed while also complying) is an important milestone.

Because yes, now Samsung can start developing their own search, or Amazon can put Play store and Google Maps on their Fire devices… but there’s more, and again, I know I’m a weirdo, but bear with me. Continue reading On Google’s $5b EU fine.