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Top 5 Linux Phones Memesplanation Unity 7.7 Coming Soon Free Your Internet PeaZip File Archiver Updated #TTT #linuxmobile #unityDE #Linux #peazip #TechFreedom TTT 39.1 – Top 5 Linux Phones Ok, not much has changed in this lineup vs the last time I talked about Linux Mobile. Development continues, but needs an infusion of cash to revitalize the teams who work on it. Our top 5 are the Librem 5 (I still struggle to believe that this one is real and not vaporware of some sort), the PinePhone & PinePhone Pro, the F(x)tec Pro 1X, the Volla Phone, and the Fairphone 4. These are all decidedly mid-range devices, if not on the low end when compared to their Android brethren. By the way, Android is Linux, just with a whole lot of JavaScript juju on top of it to make it look pretty, and a host of closed source firmware blobs. I will be the first one to jump for joy when Linux Mobile matures as a platform and can genuinely offer real competition to Android and iOS, but that day is not today. This article basically lists the specs for the mentioned devices to hype them a bit. It caught my eye because it has been about a month since I talked about Linux Mobile, and wanted to kind of start the new year with a conversation about it. https://www.debugpoint.com/best-linux-phones/ #TTT #linuxmobile #linuxphones #librem5 #pinephone #fxtec #vollaphone #fairphone #Linux #goodstuff #TechFreedom Back to the early Church Fathers... This quote from Polycarp seems poignant to me, now. As believers, we need to be this strong in our convictions, that even if (and I do see the potential for this sort of scenario happening here in America, if things do not change quickly in terms of the direction this nation is taking) this happens to us, we will stand strong in our belief in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. The enemy is turning up the heat, or trying to, on anyone who stands up against the corruption in our society, from the alphabet soup of sexual perversion, to divorce, to abuse, to human trafficking, and all of the other things that the Church has been mute about in large part for the last 50 years. This is whether it is due to the 501C.3 and Johnson Amendment or due to complicity in these heinous crimes which are being revealed to us right now. #TTT #christian #quotes #memesplanation #patristics #polycarp #TechFreedom TTT 39.2 – Unity 7.7 Coming with Ubuntu 23.04 You all heard my feelings about Unity, at least the old school one, yesterday when I laid into Ubuntu Unity. I have not taken the time to look at it since then, so I’m kinda down on this development. On the other hand, I don’t want to crap too much on the very excited, young developer who picked up the otherwise dead project. I am torn. Just because I did not like it when I tried it about 10 years ago, doesn’t mean that it has no place in the ecosystem, now. After all, Linux is about choice, even if your idea of aesthetics or utility doesn’t jive with mine. You be you, and I’ll be me. What’s new in the new version? • A return to Lomiri styling for the dash and panel • UWidgets ◦ Possibility for desktop widgets written in python ◦ Better app integration ◦ Panel flexibility, so you can move the location of the application launcher button to open the dash, among other things Interesting stuff, not sure that I’ll ever use it in general, but I’m glad to see more choices being brought back into possibility. https://9to5linux.com/unity-7-7-desktop-environment-promises-redesigned-dash-and-panel-widgets #TTT #unityDE #choices #coolstuff #Linux #TechFreedom Free Your Internet https://techfreedom.pro/internet-freedom/ One-stop shop for getting you and your business transitioned off of Big Tech online platforms and tools, so that you have control of your data once again. I will also help you to find better alternatives. #TTT #techtips #TechFreedom #internetfreedom #nogoogle #nometa #noyahoo #nomicrosoft TTT 39.3 – PeaZip 9.0 What is PeaZip, anyway? It is a cross-platform, FOSS archiving tool. It has support for pretty much all of the archiving formats, from 7zip, zip, tar, rar, to zpaq, there are also these new changes: • Improved User Interface. • Enhanced Support for Various Formats. • Performance Improvements. • New options for 7z/p7zip backend. • Improvements to Plugins. This sounds like an intriguing alternative to ark in KDE, and you can use it on any desktop you want, no matter the OS. https://news.itsfoss.com/peazip-9-0-release/ #TTT #foss #crossplatform #Linux #peazip #updates #TechFreedom

Distro Monday 39: Happy New Year, 2023! Announcement Manjaro 22.0 Memesplanation Tails 5.8 Freedom Consultation 11 New Distros to Look Forward to This Year #distromonday #Linux #manjaro #linux61 #tails #newdistros #TechFreedom Tech Freedom Announcement: After painstaking work over the last couple of weeks, I am pleased to announce that techfreedom.pro has a brand new look. The links I will be sharing from now on will be to landing pages that I designed, rather than to the products themselves. Please, take a look at the site, tell me what you think, either through the contact form or in the comments below. I appreciate your input. Thanks, All. https://techfreedom.pro #TechFreedom #newsite #newyear #newdesign #news #distromonday DM 39.1 – What’s New In Manjaro 22? Manjaro is a mainstay of this channel, I have used it for 3 years, with a few breaks to distro hop just a bit. I currently use the KDE flavor as the base for all of the computers in my home, including the machine that I record and stream from. All that said, if you are unfamiliar, it is an Arch based distro which adds some extra package testing to the Arch downstream before things hit their users. It comes in a number of flavors, with different desktop environments and Window Managers to provide different strokes for the different folks out there. It does have the downside of kind of being the Ubuntu of the Arch side of the Linux family tree, in that it does have a foundation/business behind it, rather than being purely community based, which can make them seem less than responsive to user needs and desires. What’s new here? Linux 6.1 All the latest from KDE Plasma XFCE 4.18 GNOME 43.2 Updated GNOME Layouts Switcher And a bunch more under the hood... https://9to5linux.com/manjaro-linux-22-0-sikaris-is-the-first-distro-release-powered-by-linux-kernel-6-1-and-xfce-4-18 #distromonday #Manjaro #arch #KDE #GNOME #xfce #updates #Linux #TechFreedom Happy New Year, everyone! May 2023 be one of the best in your life. Seek the Lord earnestly and you will find Him. Believe that He has the best for you this year, start to break old, bad habits that in the small picture landed you where you were the night before last. Most of all, know that you are not alone in the need to change. Don’t call it a “resolution”, call it a dedication to change your life. Repent of the crappy thinking and bad habits that led you to the point of self-disgust at the end of last year, take proactive steps to improve your situation, whatever that looks like, whether reducing alcohol intake, moving more, eating more healthily, or working on healthier relationships this year, just do it and be intentional. Those little steps, taken daily, and those choices to seek the Lord in those moments when you would have turned to something less worthy, will lead to you being in a better place by the end of this year. If all of us commit to healthier actions and attitudes, it will have a bang-on effect and begin to change the world. #distromonday #newyears #blessings #pray #goodchoices #memesplanation #TechFreedom DM 39.2 – Tails 5.8 Out Now! Just in case you’re new here, Tails stands for The Amnesiac Incognito Live System, and is a Linux distro meant for dissident journalists, spies, spooks, and anyone else who really prizes their privacy above general functionality for their computer. What’s new, here? • Wayland is now the default display server ◦ Re-enabling the Unsafe Browser and improving its functionality ▪ Adding sound support, uploads & downloads, more alternative input options for non-Latin languages, a screen reader, and a virtual keyboard • New Persistent Storage App ◦ New look ◦ New capabilities • QR code scanning to enter new TOR bridges ◦ New ability to see the percentage of various TOR connections All in all, good stuff here, guys and gals. This is distro that is meant to be portable and run off of any USB stick you want. All while giving you the added privacy of connecting to the internet through TOR at all times. https://9to5linux.com/privacy-focused-tails-5-8-enables-wayland-by-default-adds-new-persistent-storage #distromonday #tailslinux #privacy #tor #portable #goodstuff #TechFreedom Freedom Consultation Ever wondered how to get free from Big Tech? This Free consultation will leave you with at least pointers to the tools and services you’ll need to do just that. This is a FREE 90 minute call with me, where I will demo some varieties of Linux for you, some replacement apps, talk about degoogled phones, and give you links to how to start the process of taking control of your digital life online as well. https://techfreedom.pro/freedom-consultation #distromonday #TechFreedom #consultation #free DM 39.3 – New Distros for 2023 that May Be Worth Looking At There are 11 in this listicle, so lets see what I think about the author’s picks, here. Many have had stable releases in the last year or so, but some have not, and are waiting on further development work to happen. 1) VanillaOS a. This is another Ubuntu derivative, but ships with a plain old GNOME desktop. Big whoop, right? Well, this offers on-demand immutability, which means that it is like a part time Ubuntu version of Fedora Silverblue, which is fully immutable after installation. Silverblue allows programs to be installed, but there are no intermittent OS security or package updates, just static images of the OS. This makes it very very stable and safe to use, but if you need fresh packages and updates, this may not be a good fit for you. 2) XeroLinux a. I actually did a demo of this last year, not long after it came out. It is a very unique Arch distro that includes a very clean desktop that may appeal to some of you. It is immediately downstream from Arch and does not provide any extra testing for users before the packages get passed through, unlike Manjaro. 3) Crystal Linux a. I tried to demo a beta of this one last year, it was rough at the time, and seemed to be missing most of the more ballyhooed new, distinguishing features. That was merely a beta, so if you are into GNOME, Crystal may be a good Arch distro for you to peruse at some point this year, after its full release, whenever that happens. 4) Tuxedo OS a. Kubuntu plus some extra tools from Tuxedo, who builds dedicated Linux hardware. Think of it as their answer to POP! OS. It used to only be available for their machines, but they chose to release it publicly last year. If KDE + Ubuntu is your jam, take a look. 5) Euro Linux a. RHEL + visual goodies, geared for educational purposes with its very long term support schedule, as well as its very windows-esque interface, which will welcome Windows refugees. 6) Zinc a. Xubuntu LTS plus AppImage support, deb-get package manager, default BTRFS formatting, and more. Might be good for you lightweight mavens out there. 7) Cachy OS a. Arch + under-the-hood improvements on a kernel level to create a stable, fast, secure, and user-friendly Arch distro. They offer all of the major desktop environments, and use a modified version of Calamares for an installer. 8) risiOS a. This is downstream from Fedora, and I took a look at it just after its full release last year. If you like Fedora, you will probably like risiOS, as it adds some special sauce to the Fedora hamburger. 9) Exodia OS a. Another Arch based distro. However, it is geared to be something like Kali, only based on Arch rather than Debian. The thing to keep in mind with this one is that it only ships with a highly customized BSPWM, which is a tiling window manager. Other than that, the functionality should be roughly on par with Kali. 10) Kumander Linux a. The name is a tribute to the developer’s first computer, a Commodore Vic20. It is a highly tweaked xfce, meant to look like windows 7, which sits on top of Debian 11. There is no full release for this one out yet, but you can take a look at the early-release candidate between now and whenever that does come out. 11) Ubuntu Unity a. Unity is back as an official Ubuntu flavor, after a 5 year hiatus, if you tried out Linux, and specifically Ubuntu between 2010 and 2017, this will be a blast from the past for you. Personally, I hated it then, but I should probably try to install it in an Arch VM at some point to see if I can tolerate it any better now. I think the thing that I hated the most about it, other than the very odd paradigm for the UI, was the default color scheme. Maybe it can be tweaked now, idk. Check it out if you want to feed Canonical’s beast. https://news.itsfoss.com/new-distros-2023/ #distromonday #distrohoppers #newdistros #Linux #TechFreedom

FFW 23.1- Bad Guy Epic... Sad Day Epic is killing off old school online multiplayer as well as store availability for a number of their classic games, including everything prior to Unreal Tournament 3. Why would they do this? They’re consolidating and moving whatever they can onto their new AIO Epic Online Services setup. I get why they are doing this, but it still sucks for anyone who enjoys these old games on their computer and don’t own a physical copy, and/or someone you can play with via a LAN game. The other thing here is that these changes go into effect on January 24, 2023. The community may try to step in and provide solutions for this, but no guarantees there. Here’s hoping, right? https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/12/epic-games-are-killing-off-a-bunch-of-classics-like-unreal-tournament/ #FFW #Epic #unreal #unrealtournament #nomore #rip #TechFreedom These are the words assigned to each of the 4 weeks of Advent. First we walk through the hope of Messiah (primarily through the prophesies in the Old Testament, largely Davidic [in the Psalms] and in Isaiah), then we look at the peace promised, then the joy of promises fulfilled, then the Love that is Jesus. We hope for the fulfillment of all of God’s promises, not just the birth of Jesus. This allows us to have peace, even in the midst of a hectic and confusing life. It also teaches us that we can have joy, no matter what we walk through in this life, as Anna and Simeon did as they waited for the consolation of Israel. We also learn that we can experience God’s love for us, even in the midst of hard times (like right now). Then, we have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, to round it all out with joy and a solid resolution to the waiting for Jesus’ birth. Amen. #FFW #memesplanation #adventquotes #Bible #hope #peace #joy #love #faith #TechFreedom FFW 23.2: WINE on Wayland Is Getting Better What’s new here? · Updating drivers and APIs · Prep work for WoW64 support · Better Cross-process rendering to improve Chromium applications · Improved support for dmabuf-feedback support which allows the compositor to directly access presentation information (resolution, windowed vs fullscreen, etc) to make those sorts of changes more seamless in WINE apps What does this mean for performance? Let’s take a look at the video on the page with the story for a demo. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/12/wine-on-wayland-sounds-like-its-coming-along-nicely/ #FFW #WINE #wayland #nomorex11 #linuxgaming #TechFreedom Freed Computer https://techfreedom.pro/product/tech-freedom-freed-computer/ #freedcomputer #linux #nospying #safe #TechFreedom FFW 23.3: More Hotfixes for the Heroic Launcher New Features · [macOS] Added support for game shortcuts (GamePage > 3 dots > Add Shortcut). They will be saved on the Home applications folder by default. · [Linux/macOS] Added support for DXVK Limit FPS option. · [macOS] A DMG for ARM64 for M1/M2 is now available to download on Github. (if a message of app being damaged shows up, run this command on the terminal: sudo xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine | mdfind kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier = "*heroic" Fixes · Fix some sideloaded and GOG games not launching from SteamDeck because of a --skip-version-check flag being passed. · Fix tray icon not properly updating the list of recent games · Fix stuck GOG save games input · [Linux/macOS] Fixed DXVK Installation · [macOS] Fix Crossover not being found. · [Linux] Fix Wine status not updating on Wine Manager after install/uninstall · [macOS] Fixed Winetricks download URL and environmental variables. · Some UI fixes That is quite a number of new features and fixes. Good stuff for Mac users, and better quality of life for Linux and Steam Deck users, particularly around DXVK and WINE status updates. This should make Heroic that much more enjoyable to use, not that I do, but hey, good stuff, nonetheless. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/12/heroic-games-launcher-gets-another-hotfix-to-clean-up-more-issues-with-v252/ #FFW #Linux #heroic #hotfixes #linuxgaming #TechFreedom What to use instead of Big Tech online: https://rumble.com/v1020p7-viable-google-alternatives.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #techtips #TechFreedom #justsayno #nomorespying #advice What to use instead of Google: https://tv.gab.com/channel/tech_freedom/view/viable-google-alternatives-624e367022a4c5f6eeaf2414 #techtips #TechFreedom #justsayno #nomorespying #advice #parallelEconomy #parallelSociety #shopongab #growwithgab #smallbusiness #gabsmallbusiness

TTT 38.1 – OpenShot 3.0 Released with over 1000 Tweaks and Fixes Wow! That’s a big number... Let’s see, when did they last update? Over a year ago... That is FOREVER in the FOSS world. I use this to clip out my memesplanations and add titles to them before I upload the shorts to Rumble. Hopefully, even on my ancient machine, it will help the rendering process be a little quicker, and the editing process a bit smoother overall. Let’s see a handful of highlights: · 4k Support · Better RT video playback performance · Simultaneous video export ability · More compatibility for different formats · Blender3.3 LTS Support WAY More, if you are a budding content creator or want to do a bit of the side, check this thing out, unless you are married to a different workflow. https://9to5linux.com/openshot-3-0-open-source-video-editor-released-with-more-than-1000-improvements #TTT #openshot #FOSS #videoeditor #Linux #goodstuff #TechFreedom Hauerwas is a modern Reformed theologian. One must await the fulfillment of promises, that is what Advent is about as a liturgical season. We focus on the promise of Messiah, try to place ourselves in the shoes of the Hebrews who received these prophecies in what we call the Old Testament, only we know that Christmas is a historical fact. This patient waiting season helps us to counter the insane rush and unsustainable “now” that our world tries to tell us is normal and should be expected. Breathe. #TTT #advent #quotes #memesplanation #stanleyhauerwas #moderntheology #TechFreedom TTT 38.2 – KDENLive 22.12 Released What is KdenLive? Another FOSS, Cross-platform video editor. It is based on QT and KDE toolkits (thus the name). So what didthey dowith theirmore than 350 commits for this version? · Overhauled the Guide and Marker system · Improved Gaxnimate Integration o Glaxnimate is a 2D Vector drawing application · UX Improvements o New hamburger menu as an option to replace the traditional menu system o explainer text for certain elements added o User defined cache size for Kdenlive o Cleaned up the settings page, which was something of a mess before · Keyframeable Audio Graph Filters Much more, and you’ll have to check it out if you’re interested. Good Stuff,Kdenlive team. https://news.itsfoss.com/kdenlive-22-12-released/ #TTT #kdenlive #videoeditor #coolstuff #TechFreedom Free Your Internet https://techfreedom.pro/product/free-your-internet/ One-stop shop for getting you and your business transitioned off of Big Tech online platforms and tools, so that you have control of your data once again. I will also help you to find better alternatives. #TTT #techtips #TechFreedom #internetfreedom #nogoogle #nometa #noyahoo #nomicrosoft TTT 38.3 – KDE Frameworks 5.101 Now Out with Some Notable Features This update is primarily focused on Plasma Wayland quality of life improvements, but there are a few other things involved as well. Let’s take a look... · Tweaks to menus in different places · New icons for certain apps like SimpleScreenRecorder · Better organization for Settings Apps · Search For section in Dolphin is now gone by default, but available to add back in if you want it · Plasma Wayland o Multimonitor § Scales automatically between monitors when you move windows across different screens with different resolutions And about 175 other bug fixes and tweaks. I love how KDE is constantly being improved on, and watched a video from The Linux Experiment recently, and here’s the link for that (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzXPEuoiYZM) and agree with much of what he said about the places where KDE seems to drop the ball, even if Plasma is the best, most powerful DE in the world (my personal opinion, but you are free to have a different point of view. https://9to5linux.com/kde-frameworks-5-101-released-with-plasma-wayland-and-multi-monitor-improvements #TTT #foss #KDE #Linux #updates #TechFreedom 10 Things My Wife Thinks You Should Know about Tech Freedom. https://rumble.com/v19elx6-10-things-about-tech-freedom.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #TechFreedom #wifeysauce #getfree #explainer 10 Things My Wife Thinks You Should Know about Tech Freedom. https://tv.gab.com/channel/tech_freedom/view/10-things-about-tech-freedom-62b3387f34496b1f6de87b82 #TechFreedom #wifeysauce #getfree #explainer #parallelEconomy #parallelSociety #shopongab #growwithgab #smallbusiness

Distro Monday 38: New Kernels, KaOS, and A Different RHEL for CERN KaOS 22.12 Update Released Memesplanation Linux 6.1 Kernel Is Out Now Freedom Consultation AlmaLinux Will Now Be the Backbone of BigSci #distromonday #Linux #KaOS #linux61 #almalinux #cern #TechFreedom DM 38.1 – KaOS 22.12 Update, So What? What is KaOS? KaOS is an independent distro that focuses on the latest and greatest packages from the KDE team, so if you want the latest bells and whistles (and bugs), you can do that here more easily than in most other distros. They are currently Linux based, but state on their website that they may develop an IllumOS fork or simply switch at some point. I had never heard of IllumOS before, so I looked it up. IllumOS is another Unix based OS option which is even more niche than Linux or BSD. What is new with this update for KaOS, though? Linux 6.0 KDE Frameworks 5.101 Plasma 5.26.4 KDE Gear 22.12 Ghostwriter Kjournald And a bunch more under the hood... https://9to5linux.com/kaos-2022-12-is-out-with-linux-kernel-6-0-improved-zfs-installation-and-plasma-6-preview #distromonday #KaOS #indie #KDE #updates #Linux #TechFreedom Relating to Christmas... We all tend to get caught up in the blind rush to decorate, prepare, and buy gifts, etc. Slow down. Quiet yourself, and choose to remember WHY we celebrate this season. THE gift, Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth as a poor baby. He came, obeying the Father fully, to show us how to truly be human and to bring us back into right relationship and communion with God. That is why we celebrate. It isn’t about the lights, presents, meals, songs, or any of the other commercial stuff. It is about God providing a way for us to be in communion with Him again. End of story. Choose to embrace that more than the mad rush, today. #distromonday #christmas #quiet #expectancy #anonymous #memesplanation #TechFreedom DM 38.2 – Linux Kernel 6.1 LTS Out Now! What’s new, here? · Initial support for Intel Meteor Lake CPUs, RDNA 3 GPUs, and better support for AMD CPUs, to make them more efficient · Some Rust code in the kernel, and support for more in the future, as there seems to be a move away from C++ for security and efficiency reasons · Better ARM SoC support · Improvements for Storage o BTRFS § Async buffered writes, make for almost 2x faster throughput o EXT4 § Performance optimizations, bug fixes o EROFS § FSCache-based shared domain sharing · Support for Microsoft Surface Pro 9 and Surface Laptop 5. · Enablement of AMD Zen 4 LbrExtV2. · AMD CPU Cache-To-Cache & Memory Reporting Capabilities. · Introduction of AMD IOMMU v2. · Preparations for Wi-Fi 802. 11be/Wi-Fi 7. All in all, good stuff here, guys and gals. This is an LTS kernel, which means it will receive support for at least 2 years. https://news.itsfoss.com/linux-kernel-6-1-release/ #distromonday #linux61 #ltskernel #rust #goodstuff #TechFreedom Freedom Consultation Ever wondered how to get free from Big Tech? This Free consultation will leave you with at least pointers to the tools and services you’ll need to do just that. This is a FREE 90 minute call with me, where I will demo some varieties of Linux for you, some replacement apps, talk about degoogled phones, and give you links to how to start the process of taking control of your digital life online as well. https://techfreedom.pro/products/freedom-consultation #distromonday #TechFreedom #consultation #free DM 38.3 – Big Science Picks AlmaLinux CERN and FERMILAB were using CentOS until it exited the space, and decided to stick with a RHEL-based Linux distro. The competition was between Alma and Rocky, which are very similar, but Alma won out, and once the current support cycle runs out in 2024, they will migrate over to Alma from CentOS and Scientific Linux. This strikes me as a huge shot in the arm for the AlmaLinux team, so good on them for beating out the competition on this major awareness booster. I personally have some mixed mixed feelings about this, as I have no real love for CERN and the LHC. Whether accurate or not, I currently hold that they are trying to open a portal to hell or some such thing, I mean, what is that statue of Vishnu about at CERN? https://linuxiac.com/cern-and-fermilab-opt-for-almalinux-as-standard-for-big-science/ #distromonday #almalinux #cern #lhc #science #Linux #TechFreedom Tech Freedom Intro: What to expect from my channels and website. https://rumble.com/v157uqb-tech-freedom-intro-what-is-this.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #intro #TechFreedom #telegram #truthsocial #publicsq #gab Tech Freedom Intro: What to expect from my channels and website. https://tv.gab.com/channel/tech_freedom/view/tech-freedom-intro-what-is-it-62854e77a5192a444447c047 #intro #TechFreedom #telegram #truthsocial #publicsq #gab #parallelEconomy #parallelSociety #shopongab #growwithgab #smallbusiness #gabsmallbusiness

We 17.1 – SBF Arrested... Boy Was I Wrong... Maybe He Crossed too Many of the Wrong People... Well, that escalated quickly. The US filed charges against him on Monday 12/12/22, and the Bahamian Authorities were more than happy to comply and arrest him. He requested bail, but was denied, and will be held in custody there until February 8th. He faces 8 counts of conspiracy and criminal activity related to wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, and violating campaign finance laws. Any one of those, if they stick, could put him behind bars for a number of years. On top of these criminal charges, he is being slapped with civil charges brought by Gensler’s SEC. They allege that SBF “built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto”. I was perhaps a little too cynical last week. For that I apologize. We will see how much of the weight of the law crashes down on his curly head. The new CEO, who is presiding over the Chapter 11 proceedings after SBF ducked out last month, called the collapse “plain, old embezzlement” during a congressional hearing that SBF was unable to attend, due to being in Bahamian custody. He had a prepared statement read, but was absent. As an aside, all of this talk about the Bahamas has me thinking about an old song... Who Let the Dogs Out... Lol I guess he did... https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/crypto/ftx-co-founder-sam-bankman-fried-charged-with-fraud-denied-bail/ #weekendedition #sbf #ftx #sbfarrested #crypto #bs #deception #TechFreedom WE 17.2 – 8 Twitter Influencers Charged with Stock Fraud Over the last nearly 3 years, 7 of the 8 charged individuals have allegedly used Twitter and Discord to manipulate a series of stocks, in a maneuver called a “pump and dump”, where they amassed $100 million in profits by buying, then hyping the stocks in question to artificially “pump” the valuation up, then dumping them when it had surged enough for them. The 8th charged individual is charged with “aiding and abetting” the schemes of the other 7, by giving them publicity on his podcast, then getting a cut of the profits when they traded their shares away without notifying their audiences/ followers of their intentions to do so. That’s right, it is illegal to do that, unless you are a government or quasi-government entity like the Federal Reserve, which regularly manipulates the entire market through screwing with the prime interest rate and announcing intentions to do so, one way or the other. Can I be any more sarcastic about the fakeness of stonks and the ephemerality of the whole system? Not sure. I sure am reminded of that classic George Carlin bit about there being “a big club, and you ain’t in it”. This is bullshit from the start anyway, some businesses are legitimately worth something, based on their sustained profitability, or some technology or other thing they produce that perennially sells well. However, most stonks are not worth the figurative paper they are “written on”, though they are no longer physical things in most cases, now. In fact, if you are invested in the Market, you do not actually own stocks. You own nothing, and you freak out over the financial news, when not only is that stock literally never in your possession (it belongs to Cede & Company, you just purchase limited rights to it), Cede & Co processes stock certificate transfers for the Depository Trust Company, which is in turn held by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation. These companies actually own the stock that you “purchase”, “hold”, and “sell”. Not only stock, but Mutual Funds, EFTs, derivatives, or any other securities traded on Wall St. I could go into the house of cards that is the rest of our financial system, predicated on “faith” or “fiat” currency, whose value is entirely immaterial. This is how certain countries with massive amounts of natural resources can have currencies that are regularly sent into hyperinflation, while others have ”stronger” standings. It is all nonsense until the world returns to precious metal-backed financial systems, which it seems as though Russia and the other BRICS nations are in the process of doing. People have their reasons to dislike Russia and Putin, but are we really any different in terms of free speech, here in the “liberal, democratic” West? I digress. Do these comments make it ok to defraud anyone? Absolutely not. They do, however begin to shine a light on the fraud that is inherent in the current system, and will only get more pronounced with some type of CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) that is even more tightly controlled. https://www.cnet.com/news/social-media/influencers-charged-by-sec-in-securities-fraud-scheme/ #weekendedition #stonks #stockmarket #bullshit #influencers #scammers #pumpanddump #finance101 #stocks101 #TechFreedom WE 17.3 – Will Congress Ban TikTok? Let’s See... Looks like we have very similar bills being put forward in both houses of congress to ban both TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, from operating in the US. Here are the sponsors: Senator Marco Rubio of FL, and Reps Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL). This idea is bipartisan, at least in the house, and that is encouraging to me. I know many people are addicted to it, and that is the cornerstone of these pieces of legislation. The reality is that roughly 1/3 of the US population (111 million people) uses TikTok at least monthly, according to Data.ai, an internet statistics company. Rep Gallagher calls it “digital fentanyl, that is addicting Americans, collecting troves of their data, and censoring their news”. I quite agree with his appraisal. ByteDance, of course, is on the defensive here, and is insisting that they aren’t hurting US national security, and that they are working hard to put in place better protections for US citizens. If you recall, they are being raked over the coals by the EU, and desperately wants to avoid losing their lucrative place in the US. We shall see what happens here. I have to admit that as much as I abhor the overall dumbing down and infantilization of the US population through platforms like TikTok which incentivize short attention spans, along with videos that barely have any real meaning. Not to mention that it is a huge data siphon for users, with the funnel leading straight to servers controlled by the CCP, who certainly mines that data for anything that could possibly be useful to them and harmful to our wellbeing. I also struggle with countries whose governments are powerful enough to ban things for their citizens, rather than simply educating and informing them of the dangers of their behaviors. https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/congressional-bills-would-ban-tiktok-in-the-us-to-thwart-china/ #weekendedition #tiktok #bytedance #creepy #bantiktok #privacy #security #TechFreedom WE 17.4 – Could Clean Nuclear Fusion Be Around the Corner? Researchers at the NIF (National Ignition Facility) in San Francisco have been chasing this holy grail of clean power for 60 + years. Nuclear fusion is the process which “powers” stars, so stable, viable nuclear fusion would entail creating a miniature star in a bottle, then siphoning off the energy it produces to benefit humanity. The problem is that until 12/5/22, it never produced a net gain in energy. Something changed in the fifth, however, and they changed the design of their experiment and were able to create a hot enough, dense enough environment to briefly release more energy than the lasers which created the heat energy deposited. The lasers had fired 2 megajoules of energy into the hohlraum (the container at the heart of the NIF facility where they attempt to create a fusion reaction. There are, however, massive inefficiencies in their systems, which lead to losses of 99.5% of the energy used before it even reaches the hohlraum. It takes about 400 megajoules to get a consistent 2 megajoules of power to reach the hohlraum. They were able to generate 2.5 megajoules through this experiment. This is the first net positive result* for this form of fusion experiment, but it is just a proof of concept. Cool, but not earth shatteringly cool. Nuclear fusion is clean in that it does not produce radioactive waste at the end of the reaction, unlike nuclear fission, which involves splitting radioactive isotopes, such as uranium and plutonium. *versus the amount of power that actually reached the hohlraum, not the energy it took to “fire muh lasers” https://www.cnet.com/science/major-energy-breakthrough-milestone-achieved-in-us-fusion-experiment/ #weekendedition #crypto #lending #fintech #volatility #physicalassets #gold #silver #SEC #TechFreedom WE 17.5 – Apple to Allow Alt App Stores in the EU... Maybe Here, Too? Wow, Apple’s walled garden is being bulldozed open by EU regulators through competition laws. After all, if they don’t they’ll get slapped with a fine worth 10% of their global revenue... That, in the case of Apple, could be billions of dollars. Apple of course throws the “but muh security”, but “if we allow sideloading apps, it could harm the devices and open phones to someone other than just us”... Remember when Epic Games sued Apple over AppStore fees in Fortnite? Pepperidge Farms Remembers... Epic lost the case, but argued that Apple has too much control over the devices they make. That whole kerfluffle was largely noise and fury with little real meaning or substance, though the EU took notice. This seems to be much of what the EU was aiming at with this law. Apple has yet to decide if they’ll allow app developers to set up their own in-app payment systems or not, but that is another piece of the picture, here. The changes are targeted for the release of iOS 17 https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/apple-reportedly-to-allow-rival-app-stores-on-iphones-ipads-in-eu/ #apple #appstores #EU #monopoly #TechFreedom

FFW 22.1- Team Behind Heroic Launcher Releases Significant Hotfix for New Version As I covered last week, Heroic released a major new version, YAY! However, as with almost any piece of software, there were some bugs, so let’s take a look and see what they fixed so quickly: • Fix the issue with the download's progress going crazy and duplicating the installation/update. • Fix a crash on the Install dialog on some games. • Fix sideload games not being added to steam automatically. • Fix Games failing to start when launched from Steam because they have an update. • Fix games falling to start when launched from Steam when they had Sync Saves but the path was not defined. • Fix Auto detect saves path going on forever. Now it will have a timeout of 15s. • Fix GOG games failing to install due to not supported language error. • Increased the connectivity check timeout at start up and added a button to ignore the status. • [macOS] Fixed an issue where the game save path was not correct for native games. • [Linux/macOS] Fix the windows version of a game version being recognized as native and not showing Wine settings and others. • Fix a crash that was happening when uninstalling Sideloaded Apps. • Fix Login Page container size max Width. • Possibly fix the state of the game card not correctly updating. Not showing an update button, for instance. • [Windows] Fix an issue where Heroic was crashing when opening the install dialog. • Heroic will clean the cache now after upgrading to a new release since some issues are associated with that after updating. • Some other minor fixes and improvements. Good stuff, Heroic Launcher team! Any of you guys use it? https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/12/heroic-games-launcher-gets-a-big-hotfix-to-clean-up-some-issues/ #FFW #heroic #hotfixes #updates #gamesfordays #news #TechFreedom What is the hope Polycarp is talking about here? What is our faith based upon? Let me give you a little context for this quote... Polycarp was alive from the mid 1st Century AD- the mid 2nd Century AD. The Church was under heavy persecution, such that I doubt that many American Christians would have stood up under. He was martyred in 155. What hope did he have in that context? None but Jesus. He knew the Lord (perhaps not in the natural, as he was born about 30 years after Jesus ascended into heaven). Jesus’ promises to us kept him and the early believers he served moving forward, even in the face of Empire telling them that they could not believe as they did. They were subversives, they confessed a Lord other than Caesar. That was worthy of death, as it was tantamount to treason against the Empire. Is there anything we deal with daily that could be comparable? Perhaps noticing the synagogue of Satan manipulating everything to their own benefit? Perhaps boldly stating that there is no such thing as a trans person? That a trans person is really still their biological gender, no matter how much they try to change that? Fill in the blank, here, think up a sacred cow and slaughter it, and watch what happens. #FFW #memesplanation #quotes #churchfathers #patristics #Bible #hope #faith #polycarp #TechFreedom FFW 22.2: Proton 7.0-5 Out Now As announced in the beta release 2 weeks ago, Proton 7.0-5 is now out, and the lineup of playable games and fixes have grown in expected ways. Let’s take a look at the lists: Newly playable games include: • Rift • Unravel 2 • Airborne Kingdom • Nancy Drew: Legend of the Crystal Skull • Re-Volt (but you should try it with Luxtorpeda) • Aspire: Ina's Tale • Battle Realms: Zen Edition • Deathsmiles II • Primal Carnage: Extinction • Pico Park Classic Edition • Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind • Darkstar One • Indiana Jones and the Emperor Tomb • Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition Other fixes include: • Fix Batman: Arkham City GOTY launching in the background on Steam Deck when set to fullscreen. • Fix Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered displaying dialog about outdated drivers on AMD systems. • Fix Final Fantasy IV (3D Remake) having no audio. • Fix Return to Monkey Island not reacting to mouse clicks after a recent game update. • Fix upsidedown videos in VRChat and many other games. • Fix Call of Duty Black Ops II Zombies and Multiplayer hanging on exit. • Fix Bail or Jail crashing when opening the Terms of Serivce. • Improve GTA V situation with not loading textures. • Fix Red Dead Redemption 2 crashing after a recent game update. • Fix Final Fantasy XIV Online launcher functionality after game update. • Fix cutscene stutter in Disgaea 5. • Fix Thrustmaster HOTAS having non-functional dial in Elite Dangerous. • Fix Planet Zoo randomly crashing. • Fix SCP: Secret Labratory not being playable after a recent game update (again). • Fix Tekken 7 crashing at launch. • Fix Armello hanging on exit. • Fix Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization freezing after the tutorial. • Fix Space Engineers intro video not playing correctly. • Fix Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen videos not playing correctly. • Implement network video support for VRChat. • Update dxvk to v1.10.3-28-ge3daa699. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/12/proton-7-0-5-out-now-for-steam-deck-linux-14-newly-playable-games/ #FFW #steam #proton #linuxgaming #TechFreedom Freed Computer https://techfreedom.pro/product/tech-freedom-freed-computer/ #freedcomputer #linux #nospying #safe #TechFreedom FFW 22.3: New Playtest for OpenRA and Dune 2000 Released Not sure how many of you watch my Friday streams, but Dune 2000 often features heavily in those, so hearing about these fixes makes me happy. If you enjoy 90’s RTS games, take a look at OpenRA to get your late 90’s Westwood Studios fix. What have they improved? Some of the more visible new features and improvements include: • Measures against sound / notification overlap. No more u-u-u-u-unit lost • Measures against spamming the multiplayer lobby and in-game chat • The ability to mute players • Support for disabling the chat in replays • An in-game encyclopedia in Dune 2000 • New Red Alert missions • Community balance changes for all mods Notable changes for mappers and modders include: • Automatic map reloading in the background • A change to the way speed is calculated for ground units • A new map format which includes the map preview (minimap) in the map versioning (map hash) • Loaders for more audio formats (e.g., mp3 and ogg), and formats used by the remasters • Many linting and documentation updates As well as some other changes worth mentioning: • Toolchain and changes to support the .NET 6 runtime • A massive amount of upgrades to both ingame and client UI • Many more hotkeys became rebindable • Substantial progress towards localisation https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/12/openra-for-classic-command-a-conquer-dune-2000-red-alert-has-a-new-playtest/ #FFW #Linux #openra #dune2k #linuxgaming #retrogaming #TechFreedom What to use instead of Big Tech online: https://rumble.com/v1020p7-viable-google-alternatives.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #techtips #TechFreedom #justsayno #nomorespying #advice https://t.me/Tech_freedom_chat

TTT 37.1 – COSMIC News What’s COSMIC? COSMIC is the House-built set of extensions for GNOME that System76 used for POP!OS, however, System76 is creating their own desktop environment, written in the Rust programming language, and based around another FOSS tool called Iced. Why are they going to all this trouble? Well, because the GNOME team refused to work with them about the extensions that they kill every time a new version of GNOME gets released, so the POP!OS team decided that it was time to go their own way. What is the big deal? Why, other than a difference of opinion between developers, did the team undertake this effort? Rust allows the new DE to be more responsive and configurable, as it is lighter, due to the nature of rust as a language. It will have its own wayland compositor with HiDPI, Fractional Scaling, HDR, and NVidia support out of the box. They are also trying to make sure that it is almost futureproof (right... What’s that really mean?) This may encourage me to look at it again, when it is ready (whenever that is). https://9to5linux.com/system76s-rust-based-cosmic-desktop-promises-hdr-support-smooth-nvidia-experience #TTT #COSMIC #popos #system76 #Linux #goodstuff #TechFreedom What did Jesus have to give us? Divinity, union with God, righteousness, love, wisdom, and so much more. What did we have that he took from us? Well, our pride, our brokenness, our sin, our wounds. Does this sound like a fair trade to you? It sure doesn’t to me. I don’t know about you, but my stuff feels pretty heavy, yet He took it and gave me an infinitely better deal, and did the same for all who would come unto Him. Have you let your stuff go and received wholeness, a pathway to union with God, love, righteousness, and al the rest that I didn’t mention this morning? #TTT #saints #quotes #memesplanation #stcyril #divination #greatexchange #salvation #sanctification #TechFreedom TTT 37.2 – GIMP Now Stable on Apple Silicon Great news for users of M1 & M2 Mac machines, GIMP is now stable for you guys, for MacOS. It has worked for some time, but has not been considered stable. It is now. You have another solid option to work with instead of PS. Different workflow, sure, but I think you can get it done, and once you do, that is one less SAAS subscription you’ll have to pay for. https://linuxiac.com/gimp-stable-released-for-the-first-time-for-apple-silicon-devices/ #TTT #gimp #fossonmac #applesilicon #macos #coolstuff #TechFreedom Free Your Internet https://techfreedom.pro/product/free-your-internet/ One-stop shop for getting you and your business transitioned off of Big Tech online platforms and tools, so that you have control of your data once again. I will also help you to find better alternatives. #TTT #techtips #TechFreedom #internetfreedom #nogoogle #nometa #noyahoo #nomicrosoft TTT 37.3 – Bitwarden News Along with other passwordless options to get into bitwarded-protected devices (various biometric (which we should not use, allegedly, as the Feds can finesse their way into making us sign in for them, where with a pin or a password/code, they need an actual warrant) and pin), they have added a limited 2FA option, where it will ping another of your signed-in devices (phone, different computer, etc) so that you can confirm that it is you trying to sign into your computer or phone. If you are using bitwarden and self-hosting, then for now, this is not available to you, however, if you are using their cloud solution, it is there for you to use. If you are using a password manager, then you are likely very security-focused, and are probably wondering whether this option is actually safe. Bitwarden claims that the request and response are both encrypted between devices and their cloud, so it looks safe enough to the moment at least. https://news.itsfoss.com/bitwarden-passwordless-prompt/ #TTT #foss #bitwarden #passwords #passwordmanager #options #Linux #opensource #TechFreedom 10 Things My Wife Thinks You Should Know about Tech Freedom. https://rumble.com/v19elx6-10-things-about-tech-freedom.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #TechFreedom #wifeysauce #getfree #explainer

DM 37.1 – 4M Linux Updates 4M Linux is one that I covered a few months ago. It’s a lightweight, indie option which runs Joe’s Window Manager (JWM) and emphasizes just 4 things: • Maintenance (system rescue Live CD), • Multimedia (full support for a huge number of image, audio and video formats), • Miniserver (DNS, FTP, HTTP, MySQL, NFS, Proxy, SMTP, SSH, and Telnet), • Mystery (meaning a collection of classic Linux games). They just released a new update, so let’s take a look at that: • Linux 6.0.9 • Mesa 22.1.4 • Btrfs and Syslinux Support • Filezilla • XPaint & GNU Paint to augment GIMP • CLI Utility for NVME drives • New small games • Audacious is now the default audio player • Lots of other good stuff. Take a look if you need something light, but capable. https://9to5linux.com/lightweight-distro-4mlinux-41-arrives-with-linux-kernel-6-0-btrfs-support-and-new-apps #distromonday #4mlinux #lightweight #updates #Linux #TechFreedom What is prayer? Is it some mysterious, religious thing? Well, yes, and no. It is intended to be an intimate conversation between you and the Lord. Not something to tick the boxes for human beings so that you seem holy or something. It is not a religious thing, it is a conversation with your Father, your Abba. A conversation with your Lord and friend. Don’t simply report things (He already knows them anyway), but invite Him into them. Give Him permission to be present in your every moment. Prayer is meant to be an unending dialogue with God, where we share our hearts with Him, and listen to His heart for us and His world. #distromonday #stjohnchrysostom #intimacy #prayer #churchfathers #memesplanation #TechFreedom DM 37.2 – Minty Fresh Beta for Mint 21.1 This release is all about the latest and greatest with the Cinnamon desktop, in version 5.6. • No icons on the desktop by default • No more “show desktop” applet by the app launcher • New Corner Bar Applet replaces that functionality and adds more • Lots of stuff under the hood to make Cinnamon more stable and lightweight for your enjoyment. https://9to5linux.com/first-look-at-the-cinnamon-5-6-desktop-environment #distromonday #linuxmint #Linux #cinnamon #beta #TechFreedom Freedom Consultation Ever wondered how to get free from Big Tech? This Free consultation will leave you with at least pointers to the tools and services you’ll need to do just that. This is a FREE 90 minute call with me, where I will demo some varieties of Linux for you, some replacement apps, talk about degoogled phones, and give you links to how to start the process of taking control of your digital life online as well. https://techfreedom.pro/products/freedom-consultation #distromonday #TechFreedom #consultation #free DM 37.3 – Kali Linux Updates, Now With PinePhone Support New from the Ethical Hacking Distrotm . Kali is not really meant to be a daily driver, unless you are a white hat hacker, doing pen testing and other forms of legit security testing or research. What’s new here? • Freshest Xfce, GNOME, and KDE desktops • Linux 6.0 Kernel • Official PinePhone support • Lots of tool updates that I don’t have a grasp on ◦ Bloodhound.py ◦ Certipy tool for Active Directory Certificate Services enumeration and abuse ◦ hak5-wifi-coconut user-space driver for USB Wi-Fi NICs and the Hak5 Wi-Fi Coconut (for testing wifi security, I suppose) ◦ ldapdomaindump Active Directory information dumper via LDAP ◦ Peass-ng privilege escalation tools (for achieving exploits on systems you are testing) ◦ Rizin-cutter reverse engineering platform As you can perhaps see, this tool is getting ever more useful in the hands of legit professionals, to protect the rest of us from their less-than-ethical counterparts which tend to operate in gangs and often extort people and organizations for money. https://9to5linux.com/kali-linux-2022-4-ethical-hacking-distro-arrives-with-linux-6-0-official-pinephone-support #distromonday #kalilinux #whitehats #ethicalhackers #security #Linux #TechFreedom Tech Freedom Intro: What to expect from my channels and website. https://rumble.com/v157uqb-tech-freedom-intro-what-is-this.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #intro #TechFreedom #telegram #truthsocial #publicsq #gab

We 16.1 – TSMC + Bidan in AZ, What Could Go Wrong? TSMC stands for Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, and they fabricate many chips for many different companies, including Apple and AMD. The AZ plant, which is one of two they have committed to building in the US, will focus on 3 and 4 NM process nodes for Apple’s ARM silicon. Trump started the ball rolling on this, but Bidan is capitalizing on it, as the fact is that these are planned to be in full operation before the 2024 election. TSMC is making a 40 billion dollar investment in the US, split between 2 plants, one in AZ and the other in OH. This is great news for US nationals, to not be so dependent on Chinese fabrication plants for our chips, for everything from cars to cell phones, smart fridges, IoT devices, and computers. What bothers me, but is a typical feature of politics, is that the useless lump who can’t make it through a whole sentence without a nearly catastrophic stumble is getting to take credit for the work and ideas that Trump put in place during the 2020 election cycle. Then again, there were some major landmines that Trump left for the Bidan joke of an admin... From the stimulus checks and ConVid measures (including Fauci and co), left in place to make the economy tank through inflation and alleged shortages. I don’t know, maybe that gives Trump too much credit for strategy. Don’t crucify me too hard in the comments on this one, just talking and expressing some opinions, here. I want to believe that Trump is that good, but I’m not so sure at this point. Time will tell. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63883047 #weekendedition #tsmc #bidan #trump #tech #madeinamerica #TechFreedom WE 16.2 – Meta May Drop All US News from US Timelines In response to the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act or JCPA, Meta has stated that not only does it feel that its platform has actually helped struggling journalists by allowing them to draw more eyeballs to their websites, but that the news on Meta news feeds only accounts for 4% of total revenue for the platform. What is the JCPA? It aims to allow local news stations, newspapers, and independent journalists the ability to collectively bargain with the platform to get a larger cut of the ad revenue pie. This article equates it to a piece of similar legislation that passed in Australia in March 2021, and resulted in a temporary moratorium on news on Facebook in Australia, until the Aussie gov’t struck a deal with Facebook later that year. What’s true, here? Is this seemingly compassionate legislation a good move by our legislators? How many of these smaller publishers and outlets are actually adding something important to the landscape of the news in America, anyway? How many are just parroting 3 AM talking points given to them by the higher-ups in their affiliated networks vs actually reporting accurately on things that are really happening? Who knows? How many who were actually telling the truth got demonitized, shadow-banned, Facebook jailed, or deactivated by Facebook, though? I sense that there were many. How many tweaked things so that the “fact checkers” (propagandists) at Facebook wouldn’t slam them? Possibly even more... How many avoided the problem altogether by becoming parrots of the accepted narrative, and betrayed the trust of the American viewer and reader? https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63869013 #weekendedition #meta #news #jcpa #goodbadorugly #TechFreedom WE 16.3 – Are AirTags a Safety Concern? Two women are suing Apple, alleging that their exes used AirTags to stalk them, one, where the guy placed one in a plastic bag, colored with a sharpie, and hid it in a wheel well in her car, and the other, where AirTags kept appearing in her son’s backpack after visits with his dad (complaintant’s ex-husband). These cheap, bluetooth tiles, meant to make it easier to track down lost keys in your house, misplaced luggage or other items, can too easily be abused to track people, rather than just items. It is argued that there are not enough security protections on these devices to prevent them from being misused. Gee whiz, I seem to recall making that case in one of my first Weekend Edition streams, and that is without any real research on my part, just simple common sense. I am also deeply concerned with any proprietary tech like this, as it is unable to be audited by anyone outside of the company who created it. Anyway, I told you so... Of course, the article I talked about these things in relation to was primarily about child safety at school. I do not trust these things at all. Prove that I’m wrong, I’ll change my opinion. I’m waiting. https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/06/tech/apple-airtag-lawsuit #weekendedition #apple #airtags #creepy #stalking #privacy #security #TechFreedom WE 16.4 – SEC and Crypto Intermediaries SEC Chair Gensler warned crypto lenders and others who play with crypto that doesn’t really belong to them that the SEC might be coming for them soon (see Alameda Research, Nexo, BlockFi, FTX, and the like). He called them “crypto casinos”, and stated that if they touch US markets, they must come into compliance with US laws and regulations if they are going to continue functioning. My sense on the whole crypto thing is that it is ultimately better to invest in precious metals and other physical assets than in digital, ephemeral, so-called assets. In the way of disclosure, I have done a smidge bit of dabbling in crypto, but am essentially out of the market now. Now that that is out of the way, the volatile nature of crypto has always scared me. If a coin or token is directly tied to say an oz or a gram of physical silver or gold, or any other precious metal you might think of, and one can directly redeem that token or coin for that physical asset, it could be worthwhile. If it is as 99.999% of them have been, and purely based on speculation and strings of code, then get out, now, before it crashes fully. I sense a mass death spiral coming in the crypto space, particularly with the FTX situation, among others. HODL, or get out. Quit trading for a living. Let the market implode and the truly real and viable ones rise from the ashes before you do too much more. Not financial advice, and I am not an expert, just someone who has watched, mostly from the sidelines sharing his opinion. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/sec-chair-says-crypto-intermediaries-should-come-into-compliance-with-law-2022-12-07/ #weekendedition #crypto #lending #fintech #volatility #physicalassets #gold #silver #SEC #TechFreedom WE 16.5 – SBF May Be a Challenge to Actually Arrest... Oh Brother... As a follow up of sorts to the articles from the last couple of weeks where I mused about the fact that SBF has yet to be arrested for what appears to be at least a handful of potential fraud charges related to how things went or didn’t go at FTX and related companies. On one hand, he is very well-connected and paid-up with those who would be coming after him on the Federal level. On the other, the records are scant within FTX, so proving much of anything is going to be a major struggle for investigators. If he is ever arrested, it may take years of painstaking investigations first, so that they can be confident in charging him with crimes. In the interim, he is open to civil litigation, which is already mounting, and has a much lower burden of proof (simply “beyond a reasonable doubt” in a judge’s mind), rather than incontrovertible evidence being placed before a jury in a criminal proceeding. Investigators do not want to just throw shit at the wall to see what sticks, as they also want to avoid double jeopardy issues, where if one very similar charge is thrown out in court, that person cannot be charged with a substantially similar crime in the future. The bottom line is that the wheels of justice turn slowly in cases like this. We may want his head, but we need to make sure that charges actually stick, so he actually gets convicted of at least one crime from this whole scenario, and justice is served. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/05/sam-bankman-fried-could-face-years-in-prison-over-ftx-meltdown.html #weekendedition #sbf #ftx #crypto #prison #fines #ouch #patience #justice #TechFreedom

FFW 21.1- Team Behind Heroic Launcher Releases Major, New Version What is the Heroic Games Launcher? A tool designed to make managing your non-Steam games (eg: from Epic game store or Good Old Games) easier, it is cross-platform and sometimes works better to launch Windows games on Linux than Proton. What’s new? Download Manager New Themes Custom User Theme Support How Long To Beat data Support For Other App Launchers and Games Also added fixes and tweaks in these areas: Detect if a game is available or not (and mention if it is a supported game). Legendary v0.20.30. Settings re-organized. Redesigned login screen. Improvements to Cloud Saves. Various bug fixes. Good stuff, Heroic Launcher team! Any of you guys use it? https://news.itsfoss.com/heroic-games-launcher-2-5-0/ #FFW #heroic #newrelease #updates #gamesfordays #news #TechFreedom When was the last time any of us (myself included) really took the time to make the Word a part of our life through memorization and meditation? I don’t remember the last time I really sat down and intentionally committed Scripture to memory. Do not hear this as condemnation from me. Even if I were in the habit of simply learning passages or chapters, I would not lord it over you. That would miss the point in many passages, wouldn’t it? Let’s have a chat with the Holy Spirit and ask Him what you should do about the situation. St. Chrysostom would strongly encourage you to memorize the Word as much as you can, but heed the Spirit in this, not a long dead human. #FFW #memesplanation #quotes #churchfathers #patristics #Bible #memorization #read #chrysostom #TechFreedom FFW 21.2: WINE 7.22 Out Now Tasty, this is their big, yearly release. WINE is a Windows compatibility layer which enables Linux and MacOS users to run some Windows programs and games, it is the backbone of Steam’s Proton, and makes life far more pleasant for Linux users in general. What’s new in this release? 32-on-64 chunks for both Vulkan and OpenGL. (will eventually mean that we’ll be able to run old, 32-bit programs and games without the i-386 libraries installed on our systems) OpenLDAP library bundled and built as PE. Support for the RAW print processor in WinPrint. More progress on the long types print format conversion. Various bug fixes. Good stuff. I am excited about the 32-on-64 work, as that will make it that much more painless to run legacy apps and games on Linux. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/11/wine-722-out-now-with-more-32bit-on-64bit-work/ #FFW #WINE #proton #linuxgaming #TechFreedom Freed Computer https://techfreedom.pro/product/tech-freedom-freed-computer/ #freedcomputer #linux #nospying #safe #TechFreedom FFW 21.3: NVIDIA Releases Latest Driver 525.60.11 What’s new? Dynamic Boost now available for AMD CPUs Support for the EGL_MESA_platform_surfaceless extension Performance improvements for PRIME render-offloaded apps Support for OTA Proton Updates (still not on by default, though) Support for Quadro Sync, Stereo, rotation in X11, and YUV 4:2:0 on the NVIDIA Turing GPU architecture Many bugs were squashed, including one in Spiderman – Remastered... Sounds like good stuff. Makes me wish I had something newer, though I think in large part, I’d rather go all Team Red with a Radeon card for my next build, coupled with an AMD processor. The only thing that makes me question that logic is a question of how close the AMD video encode/decode logic/chips stack up with current-gen NVENC. I don’t know when I might have time or other resources to make those upgrades mean something for me though. https://9to5linux.com/nvidia-525-60-11-linux-graphics-driver-adds-dynamic-boost-support-on-amd-laptops #FFW #Linux #NVIDIA #drivers #gfx #gaming #TechFreedom

TTT 36.1 – KDE 5.26.4 Updates Released What’s new this month? More fixes for the Wayland Session (yay!) Crash solved in x11 Improves notifications in a few ways (lessens sharpness, better multi-monitor support, better fingerprint unlocking) Progress bar in Discover is more visible Media player icon flashing oddly at times And about 50 other things got changed or tweaked this time around. Pretty good stuff, all around. https://9to5linux.com/kde-plasma-5-26-4-is-out-to-improve-plasma-wayland-notifications-and-more #TTT #htop #systemmonitoring #Linux #goodstuff #TechFreedom Thankfulness leads to humility. When we thank God for everything, whether breaths, accomplishments, or material goods, we recognize that we are not the source of our lives. This diffuses that rather nasty human trait of pride. When we recognize that all we are and all we have did not originate in or with us, but is a gift from God, then how can we be anything but humble? This is not a humility of “woe is me, I’m a worm”, but a mindset, rather, of “I am blessed and God is the source of those blessings, so I get to steward them.” There is a confidence that comes there that is not related to pride, but of knowing one’s right place, as I talked about last week. #TTT #saints #quotes #memesplanation #thankfulness #humility #TechFreedom TTT 36.2 – Wayland Protocols 1.31 adds Fractional Scaling This is an excellent move from the Wayland team in their quest to replace the venerable x11 system as the display server of choice in Linux. Have you noticed visual fidelity issues with your high resolution displays on Wayland? These new protocols, when fully adopted by KDE and the other compatible desktop environments, will lead to much smoother and more precise performance on your desktop. Much win. Very nice. It will, however, take time for this to be fully implemented. https://news.itsfoss.com/wayland-protocols-fractional-scaling/ #TTT #wayland #screentearing #steppingstone #Linux #latency #TechFreedom Free Your Internet https://techfreedom.pro/product/free-your-internet/ One-stop shop for getting you and your business transitioned off of Big Tech online platforms and tools, so that you have control of your data once again. I will also help you to find better alternatives. #TTT #techtips #TechFreedom #internetfreedom #nogoogle #nometa #noyahoo #nomicrosoft TTT 36.3 – Midori Begins Its Comeback Ever heard of Midori? It is a FOSS, Chromium-based browser that used to be quitepopular in the Linux space, I think I recall it shipping with Mint, back in the day, but the project was all but dead for the last few years. Not dead anymore, it has had the breath of life returned to it, and it has its own, FOSS search engine, which you can self-host if you so desire. The browser and the search engine are privacy focused, even though the search engine, called AstianGO, does not have its own index, it records nothing about you or your history. It polls Google, Qwant, and Brave Search and serves you those results. Neither seem to be 100% ready to go yet, but could be an interesting combo project to keep tabs on. https://news.itsfoss.com/midori-astiango/ #TTT #foss #browsers #midori #fossearch #Linux #opensource #TechFreedom

DM 36.1 – Salix Live Xfce 15 Salix is based on Slackware. Slackware is one of the oldest Linux distros, along with Debian and Red Hat, way back in the early days. It has its own package manager along with the rest of the things that make it its own distro. Salix takes Slackware and makes it as functionally slimmed down as possible. They have a one task, one application philosophy, which is interesting to me. This release is the Live USB build, so what is new here? The ability to create a persistent, frugal install (read: portable, like TAILS), just more focused on being lightweight than being super private and secure. Not much else to say about this one, but it is cool, and I like to cover indie distros, not just the titans of Linux, here on Distro Monday. https://distrowatch.com/?newsid=11691 #distromonday #salix #linuxlive #updates #Linux #TechFreedom Know thyself. Know your strengths, but do not shy away from your weaknesses. Isaac the Syrian tells us that knowing our weakness is the genesis of all goodness. Consciousness of our weaknesses helps us to keep perspective and humility when walking in this world. That is a seed of goodness, it can also lead to growth, if we address those things in us that would otherwise be negatives. #distromonday #stisaac #weakness #goodness #churchfathers #memesplanation #TechFreedom DM 36.2 – UBTouch OTA 24 I usually don’t cover Linux Mobile on Distro Monday, but this sticks out to me, so here we go... What is new here? Why should we care, Matt? First things first, we should care, because even though it is still really only of use to developers and tinkerers right now, the fact that Linux Mobile is even a thing at all is a wonderful thing. They are working on VOLTE, and that should be coming soon for most supported devices. Once that is accomplished, it should be easier to justify porting it and thereby making it more available to the public. Why does it matter, really, other than as a nerdy curiosity, though? When it is truly daily driver ready, we will have an entirely open source mobile OS option that, at least on certain devices, will never use proprietary blobs for firmware (this is really only the case for devices like the Pinephone and the Librem 5 (who has those, anyway?). This matters, because while AOSP (Android Open Source Project) is based on an old Linux kernel, it is decidedly NOT Linux. It is great because we are getting closer by the day to a 3 mobile OS world, and that is awesome. Is it perfect yet, no. Is it ready for the general public yet? No. Is it getting closer? Yes. This, and projects like it need more financial support, so that the developers who are best suited to working out these issues will be incentivized to focus on it so that these problems get solved. Ok, that was a long dissertation, and we aren’t done with the story yet... What’s new in this OTA update? Double tap to wake for certain devices Better Fingerprint Reader Performance (reducing time between retries) Media button support for headphones Better SMS and MMS functionality Lots of bug fixes https://9to5linux.com/ubuntu-touch-ota-24-release-for-ubuntu-phone-users-heres-whats-new #distromonday #ubtouch #Linux #linuxmobile #volte #comingsoon #TechFreedom Freedom Consultation Ever wondered how to get free from Big Tech? This Free consultation will leave you with at least pointers to the tools and services you’ll need to do just that. This is a FREE 90 minute call with me, where I will demo some varieties of Linux for you, some replacement apps, talk about degoogled phones, and give you links to how to start the process of taking control of your digital life online as well. https://techfreedom.pro/products/freedom-consultation #distromonday #TechFreedom #consultation #free DM 36.3 – OrangePI OS (Arch) Is Coming I talked about the OrangePI 5 last week, and was let down by the lack of Linux support, but now the Chinese company behind it, is making an Arch based OrangePI OS. Yeah, that makes me uncomfortable as well, but this is FOSS tech we are talking about here, maybe this will help the makers of RasPI to get off of their laurels and innovate a bit more, if this new distro, coupled with their SBCs is genuinely competitive. https://news.itsfoss.com/orange-pi-os-arch/ #distromonday #OrangePI #OrangePIOS #alternatives #rasPI #Linux #arch #TechFreedom

We 15.1 – Neuralink: Sounds Good on One Hand... Terrifying on the Other... The promise of Neuralink is lofty and sounds amazing, should they actually succeed at their aims, and overcome the ethical and legal concerns inherent with melding man and computers. If you didn’t know, Musk owns the company, and he has a huge interest in trans-humanism. I should probably talk a bit about definitions, here, before I proceed. What are the legal and ethical concerns with melding machines with the human mind? That is an unfolding issue, but the bottom line is where the person ends and the computer begins in this scenario, say in a situation where an augmented human being commits a crime. Are they human? Do laws for humans apply to them? Should they? As for the ethics, this gets into what the definition of human is, along with whether it is fair for natural humans to compete with augmented, trans-human beings (once they are to the point where they would be competitive or even have an edge over the rest of us). In a way, this is semi-analogous to trans-females competing with natural, biological women in physical activities. Those trans individuals will always have advantages in speed, endurance, and strength. Will this be the case with trans-humans? We do not know. Will this simply be another way in which wealthy people will be able to flaunt their wealth and keep otherwise naturally more gifted poor individuals from competing fairly? Will augmented or trans-humans be able to exist without prejudice, either from or towards natural humans? Should we get to the point where we find out? I’m not sure. Neuralink is a company built around the ideals of trans-humanism, initially with the laudable goal of restoring sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, limb function to paralytics and quadriplegics, and the like. This is what sounds great, on the surface. When you look at trans-humanism the shine quickly wears off. The bottom line is that they want to play God. They want to “upgrade” humanity to something “more” than we are. Here is a definition from the Encyclopedia Britannica: it is a philosophical and scientific movement that advocates the use of current and emerging technologies—such as genetic engineering, cryonics, artificial intelligence (AI), and nanotechnology—to augment human capabilities and improve the human condition. They are doing animal trials right now with limited, but quickly expanding capabilities, such as tapping into a pig’s spinal column to start to understand the nature of the electro-chemical messages sent from brains to limbs, and to intercept those in order to decode and study them. They have also been working on visual experiments on monkeys. This is very distasteful to me. I mentioned the concept of “playing God” earlier, and that is really the level of hubris that proponents of this line of thinking are looking to do. On a purely technical level, this is really cool, however, the world is much more nuanced and complex than a whitepaper or a relatively simple animal experiment. My gut says that this is wrong, and not a direction we should be pursuing. https://www.cnet.com/science/neuralink-brain-chip-plans-help-the-blind-see-and-the-paralyzed-walk/ #weekendedition #musk #neuralink #heavy #transhumanism #playinggod #nothanks #TechFreedom WE 15.2 – Drop Everything and Update NOW!!! *eyeroll* Major patches in the last month, all around. It is great that the behemoths of Big Tech are on their game, and are patching some significant security holes in the last month. Windows saw 68 vulnerabilities patched, with 4 zero-day scenarios, Apple patched two major libxml2 flaws which could lead to remote access issues, Google patched several issues of their own within Android which could lead to inappropriate local privilege escalation (as they were in GSF, related to the Play Store), Chrome patched its 8th major security issue for the year, and not to be outdone, Mozilla patched 19 security holes with Firefox 107. VMWare also had some issues in their cloud infrastructure which got patched. Ok, as much as I want to make a big stink out of these patches, it is essentially business as usual. Bugs and vulnerabilities get identified by users and researchers, and the teams behind these products work hard to patch these issues, then roll them out to the public. This is normal, even in the FOSS community, as I often cover in my Linux news segments during the week. The key differences between the models is that in FOSS, the patches often get rolled out more quickly, as those development teams tend to be more nimble than their proprietary counterparts. https://www.wired.com/story/ios-android-windows-vulnerability-patches-november-2022/#intcid=_wired-verso-hp-trending_a7d87c76-d775-40b2-b504-824d7f859c59_popular4-1 #weekendedition #security #patches #updates #Windows #Apple #google #android #chrome #firefox107 #vmwware #TechFreedom WE 15.3 – SCOTUS Fight Over Section 230 Protections for Big Tech Begins... Round 1: Fight! Ok, this is a nuanced situation, and the cases at hand have to do with terrorism. I am tired of hearing about terrorism as an excuse for loss of rights. What I am not tired of is tech giants using algorithms to decide what I should even want to see online. Give me unvarnished search results and do not silo me in some sort of echo chamber. I may not like much of what is out there, but let me see it all, dammit. I need information in order to form valid opinions. Let me think for myself. I never gave you the right to determine what is good, valid, or objectionable. Ok, rant over. One is a case against Google, regarding an attack in Paris by Islamic State (IS) actors. The other is against Twitter, regarding an IS attack in Turkey. The Google (Gonzalez v Google) related suit alleges that Google aided and abetted the terrorists by hosting their communication and boosting it artificially through their algorithms. Google is confident that they are in the right here, that they did nothing beyond what Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act would cover. SCOTUS may have other thoughts, here, and this may be the beginning of the end for Section 230. I’m not one for hyperbole, but this could be interesting to watch, particularly in tandem with the Twitter v Taamneh case. I’ll follow up on these as time goes on, and we’ll see what, if anything changes through these eventual decisions. https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/1/23487958/supreme-court-gonzalez-google-twitter-taamneh-section-230 #weekendedition #google #twitter #section230 #lawfare #terrorism #TechFreedom WE 15.4 – Poor Zuck... Reduced to Whining About the App Store We’ve talked about the woes of Meta lately, so I don’t need to re-cover that here, but, suffice it to say, they have had an exceedingly bad year, losing about $750 Billion in market cap. A good chunk of that is tied to the fact that Apple changed its ad-tracking policies, so that only they could accurately serve ads to their customers. Can’t even say that Apple did a good thing there, as they simply walled their users in even more fully, there is a line from Psalms which talks about how God protects His children, that He “hems them in, behind and before” that comes to mind. Can we trust Apple with that data? Haven’t they been compromised and exploited in terms of privacy and security many times in the last few years? Aside from that, what motivation should we have, other than convenience, to pay the Apply tax? Sure, their ecosystem works extremely well, until something breaks, then you need the Genius Bar, which may not even be available for an appointment for a month or more. At any rate, Zuck spoke at a conference in NYC last week, and petulantly whined about how “Apple has sort of singled themselves out as the only company that is trying to control unilaterally what apps get on a device.” Do I agree with Apple’s exclusive control over their ecosystem? No. Of course not. I understand why it is a “thing”, but really? This is not the kind of control which should exist in the modern tech space. I do not pity Zuck or Meta in this, but many other good apps have been rejected from the AppStore over the years. Do we exist in a free market, capitalist society or not? Apple has created an exceedingly lucrative niche for itself, in our system, which could be argued to be fascistic in tone if not reality, particularly in the last 15 years or so, since the first iPhone rolled out. I applaud them for that. Good on them. However, it is extremely anti-competitive and anti-consumer on their part to continue on this track. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/30/mark-zuckerberg-says-apples-app-store-policies-are-not-sustainable.html #weekendedition #crybabyzuck #meta #apple #anticompetition #anticonsumer #appstore #TechFreedom WE 15.5 – Sam Bankman-Fried Admits that He “Screwed Up” Speaking virtually at the same conference where Zuck spoke, DealBook, SBF claimed that he had major regrets at the events of the last month, and beyond. He did not own up to commingling funds between FTX and Alameda Research (a hedge fund he set up and controlled). He admitted that he screwed up. No shit, Sherlock. Pardon my french there. I was not invested in anything connected with FTX, thank God, but those who are caught up in the fallout of this thing are probably wondering, along with me, why he has not been hauled into custody. Why is he able to speak and appear at industry conferences like this with all of the mess swirling around him? Is it because he is as connected as he is, as well as likely having paid off some major players in the political space through massive donations? Probably. He has been strutting around like some sort of peacock in the last few weeks, almost doing some sort of apology tour, very much against the advice of his lawyers. Maybe he thinks that he can’t be touched because parties on both sides of the aisle owe him allot, due to his massive campaign contributions. He claims that he may be down to about $100k in his bank account, from a zenith of $26 Billion, just 6 or 7 months ago. I was not paying a ton of attention to crypto as a whole, other than a passing interest and observing how the whole market has been sickeningly volatile over the last couple of years. Particularly BTC. Yikes. I never really trusted that whole thing to begin with. I hope you all haven’t lost too much in that space. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/30/business/sam-bankman-fried-ftx #weekendedition #sbf #ftx #crypto #duh #TechFreedom

FFW 20.1: Proton 7.0-5 Makes Moar Games Moar Better Here are the affected titles: Newly Added: Airborne Kingdom Aspire: Ina’s Tale Battle Realms: Zen Edition Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition Darkstar One Deathsmiles II Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb Nancy Drew: Legend of the Crystal Skull Unravel 2 Pico Park Classic Edition Primal Carnage: Extinction Rift Re-Volt Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind Fixed or patched: Batman: Arkham City GOTY Armello Bail or Jail Call of Duty: Black Ops II Disgaea 5 Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen Final Fantasy IV (3D Remake) Final Fantasy XIV Online GTA V Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered Planet Zoo Red Dead Redemption 2 Return to Monkey Island SCP: Secret Labratory Space Engineers Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization Tekken 7 Quite the list... Anything you guys play? I don’t have time to play much of anything these days. https://9to5linux.com/proton-7-0-5-adds-support-for-more-games-to-play-on-linux-lots-of-improvements #FFW #steam #steamdeck #proton #gamesfordays #news #TechFreedom Here is a controversy that is still raging in theological circles... The nature of free will. Does it exist? Augustine knew that it does exist. I agree with that, as I sense that it is a part of the image of God, it is where our personal sovereignty resides. I’m not going to go deeper into that today, but if it exists, and can be corrupted, then we need to be aware of that. It cannot truly be said to be free, if it cannot be influenced in one way or the other, whether for good or evil. #FFW #memesplanation #quotes #churchfathers #patristics #freewill #good #evil #augustine #TechFreedom FFW 20.2: SteamOS 3.4 Preview Released Resident Evil 4 is now playable again, due to a fixed regression. Good on Valve and Steam for listening to their users and rolling fixes quickly. #FFW #Steam #steamOS #residentevil4 #steamdeck #TechFreedom Freed Computer https://techfreedom.pro/product/tech-freedom-freed-computer/ #freedcomputer #linux #nospying #safe #TechFreedom FFW 20.3: Steam Continues Updating Old Games for Linux Half Life 2, Portal, Portal 2, and Left 4 Dead 2 all get DXVK 2.0 support, enabling better native Linux performance, benefiting from that bump provided by the new version of DXVK I talked about last week. Anyone still play these classic titles? Tell me about it below. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/11/half-life-2-portal-portal-2-left-4-dead-2-all-get-upgraded-with-dxvk-20-vulkan/ #FFW #Linux #Steam #DXVK #native #gaming #hl2 #portal #portal2 #left4dead2 #TechFreedom What to use instead of Big Tech online: https://rumble.com/v1020p7-viable-google-alternatives.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #techtips #TechFreedom #justsayno #nomorespying #advice Link to Christian PC Consulting on telegram: https://t.me/christian_pc_consulting

TTT 34.1 – Ever Used HTOP and Felt It Lacking? Here are some alternatives: Atop – very plain output, but gives a sysadmin all the information they need about a system and its running processes Vtop – a node.js based option which looks prettier than htop, and far better than atop Btop++ – a python/C++ version of htop with full mouse support (seems nice to have in a cli-based application, and has a game-inspired menu, which I have experimented with, and it is a very nice upgrade in terms of UI vs htop. Glances – A very complete glance at running processes, including network, temperature sensor, disk activity, CPU, and Memory usage monitoring, all in one terminal emulator tab. Nmon – Glances, but with a configurable view. You can have as much or as little info about your system on screen at once as you may need in the moment. What is htop? It is a CLI app that helps you to monitor your system processes and resource usage, as well as ways to end misbehaving processes. https://itsfoss.com/htop-alternatives/ #TTT #htop #systemmonitoring #Linux #goodstuff #TechFreedom Thankfulness leads to humility. When we thank God for everything, whether breaths, accomplishments, or material goods, we recognize that we are not the source of our lives. This diffuses that rather nasty human trait of pride. When we recognize that all we are and all we have did not originate in or with us, but is a gift from God, then how can we be anything but humble? This is not a humility of “woe is me, I’m a worm”, but a mindset, rather, of “I am blessed and God is the source of those blessings, so I get to steward them.” There is a confidence that comes there that is not related to pride, but of knowing one’s right place, as I talked about last week. #TTT #saints #quotes #memesplanation #thankfulness #humility #TechFreedom TTT 34.2 – Wayland Rolls New Screen Tearing Protocol Wait? What? Wayland doesn’t do screen tearing as a point of pride, right? Well, not so fast. Sometimes, like in games or with drawing tablets, it may be necessary to allow screen tearing, or asynchronous page turning for the display in order to reduce latency. What’s that? Asynchronous Page Turning is a fancy way to say that the image on the display doesn’t have to be drawn all at the same time. The new protocol will not effect anything by default, even once it is installed. The goal, of course, is to phase that protocol back out eventually, but maintain the input latency reduction that it provides. It will take time to get that done, though. So hang tight, and unless you are playing FPS games or doing significant digital painting/drawing/art with your Linux machine, and running Wayland rather than XOrg for your display server. https://www.phoronix.com/news/Wayland-Tearing-Control-Proto #TTT #wayland #screentearing #steppingstone #Linux #latency #TechFreedom Free Your Internet https://techfreedom.pro/product/free-your-internet/ One-stop shop for getting you and your business transitioned off of Big Tech online platforms and tools, so that you have control of your data once again. I will also help you to find better alternatives. #TTT #techtips #TechFreedom #internetfreedom #nogoogle #nometa #noyahoo #nomicrosoft TTT 34.3 – Tinkerer? There’s a New Orange Pi SBC Available Now OrangePi 5 is now available, with a major performance boost vs its predecessor the OPi 4 LTS, and will eventually offer 16 and 32 GB memory versions. The base model ships with 4 GB, and the boast that it is 4x faster for CPU tasks than its predecessor, and 8x faster for rasterized graphics, enough to drive a 8k display, smoothly playing videos. Wow. It also has plenty of I/O options, in the form of PCIe m.2 support, HDMI output, GPIO interface, Type-C, Gigabit LAN port, 2xUSB 2.0, and 1xUSB 3.0. There’s also an onboard microphone, and a 26-pin header. The struggle here, though, is that it isn’t as broadly Linux-compatible as the RPi devices are. It only runs the house-built Orange Pi OS (Droid), Android 12, and Debian 11. After pre-sale, it will start at $75 for the base model https://linuxiac.com/orange-pi-5-sbc-is-available-for-pre-order-prices-start-at-60/ #TTT #orangepi #arm #makers #tinkerers #Linux #opensource #TechFreedom 10 Things My Wife Thinks You Should Know about Tech Freedom. https://rumble.com/v19elx6-10-things-about-tech-freedom.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #TechFreedom #wifeysauce #getfree #explainer

DM 35.1 – Asahi Linux Updates If you want to run Linux on the latest Apple hardware, and break free from the tyranny of Tim Cook and his fruitiness. This project will lead to a solid M-series silicon performance on Linux. It is not 100% there yet, but they are very actively developing it: Working on the following things: USB/ Thunderbolt drivers Display drivers Backlight drivers and firmware New kernel options, in the form of a new repo that users can add and use alongside of the standard Asahi Linux kernel, Asahi-linux-edge. Display drivers are coming along, as I reported on a few months back, it looks like they even have Nexuiz/ Xonotic running, which is really cool. https://asahilinux.org/2022/11/november-2022-report/ #distromonday #linuxonmac #Asahi #updates #Linux #TechFreedom In writing a paper last week, I was confronted with the reality that often, the Church idolizes relevance more than it actually serves God. It is a problem when we place anything above God, but when the culture is as corrupt as it is now, it is exceedingly troubling. We are meant to be salt and light, but when we rubber stamp all of the sins that we are meant to stand against, and refuse to correct people in love, then how can we call ourselves the Body of Christ? If we seek to serve culture more than God by chasing after relevance more than after His heart, then how can we claim to be His, rather than friends with the world? #distromonday #stathanasius #relevance #servegod #churchfathers #memesplanation #TechFreedom DM 35.2 – New Release of Alpine Linux What is Alpine Linux? Alpine is an indie distro, focused on being lightweight, secure, and efficient. It is based on musl libc and BusyBox, and uses OpenRC for init and system management. Alpine Linux 3.17 is now available, so what’s new? OpenSSL 3.0 Rust support GNOME 43 ( I didn’t realize GNOME could be decoupled from SystemD) KDE 5.26 And lots more besides... https://9to5linux.com/alpine-linux-3-17-officially-released-with-full-rust-support-openssl-3-0-by-default #distromonday #Alpine #Linux #openrc #Rust #TechFreedom Freedom Consultation Ever wondered how to get free from Big Tech? This Free consultation will leave you with at least pointers to the tools and services you’ll need to do just that. This is a FREE 90 minute call with me, where I will demo some varieties of Linux for you, some replacement apps, talk about degoogled phones, and give you links to how to start the process of taking control of your digital life online as well. https://techfreedom.pro/products/freedom-consultation #distromonday #TechFreedom #consultation #free DM 35.3 – Speaking of Security, Check Out TAILS 5.7 TAILS stands for The Amnesiac Incognito Live System, and is meant to be run on flash drives. It is portable, and all you need is an 8 GB flash drive to install it to. It is based on Debian, features TOR, and is about as hardened as you can get. What’s new? A Metadata Cleaner, to remove metadata from files you create or edit, which can protect you from being tracked. Updated Tor Browser Numerous tweaks and fixes Take a look if you need extra protection for whatever you do, this is used by journalists, activists, and spooks, to protect their work from the prying eyes of governments and corporations. https://news.itsfoss.com/tails-5-7-release/ #distromonday #TAILS #security #pentesting #nopersistence #notadailydriver #TechFreedom Tech Freedom Intro: What to expect from my channels and website. https://rumble.com/v157uqb-tech-freedom-intro-what-is-this.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #intro #TechFreedom #telegram #truthsocial #publicsq #gab

We 14.1 – China Declares Victory Over Childhood Gaming Addiction Problems In true Chinese fashion, they simply limited kids to 1 hour of access to gaming services per day. Right... That is gonna do a TON of good in the long term. A total of 3 hours per week. So get this, now that winter is coming, along with an alleged uptick in COVID activity, parents are allowing their kids access to their gaming accounts to “keep them entertained”. That limitation really seems to be doing the trick, there, China. Wow. Super easy. Barely an inconvenience. We’ll severely limit the kids’ accounts access to gaming servers, but now mom and dad are letting them use their accounts, to keep them placated. Sounds like they’ve really had great success in curbing the kids’ addiction problems. #smh. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63730316 #weekendedition #china #kiddiegamers #gamingaddiction #victory #lol #smh #TechFreedom WE 14.2 – Meta Points the Finger at Pentagon Noted a small network, based in the US, putting out very strongly pro-US propaganda and engaging in “inauthentic behavior”, took it down. Their focus was in former Soviet States mostly around the Baltics in Central Asia (Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Somalia, Syria, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Yemen), and they used many of the same tactics to promote themselves and the content that they attempted to palm off as being theirs as propagandists use in campaigns against the West. This network consisted of 39 accounts, 16 pages, and two groups on Facebook, and 26 Instagram accounts. They used fake pictures, fake personas, cross-platform campaigns, and seem to have links to the US military. The article seems concerned that our military using the same tactics used against us would “further erode the public trust” in our government and military. Well, BBC, I hate to break it to you, but there is already a whole lot of “broken ‘public trust’” with our government, just as your people have with yours. The jig is nearly up for those who think that the people of the planet Earth will simply be content to sit by and lose everything that you led us to believe that we still had in life. You will see. It won’t end well for [them]. Needless to say, I am unsurprised that our military would be sloppy enough to get caught by Meta, who is a major contractor of our defense and intel agencies. Go woke, lose enough IQ points to no longer question your own choices, and consequently become far too sloppy. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63731751 #weekendedition #propaganda #potkettleblack #smh #USmilitary #militaryintelligence #gimmeabreak #publictrust #meta #TechFreedom WE 14.3 – Foxconn’s Zhengzhou Campus Sees Unrest I am in solidarity with these horribly mistreated workers who basically slave to produce Mr. Cook’s iPhones for the sheep who still buy them in droves. Both Beijing and Foxconn have abused these people. They have not been paid well, ever, and now they have missed being paid at all for a time. They also have not received food in the quantity that they need and deserve. They are also afraid of a potential COVID outbreak at the plant. These things all added up and some have been abandoning the factory since the latest lockdown began last month. Do you have an iPhone still? Why? Do you enjoy your beautiful UI and well marketed devices that were made by such horribly treated people? Sorry, these sorts of stories raise my hackles. My compassion, coupled with my intense dislike for how Apple operates, just makes my blood boil. I don’t know of anything we can do, other than perhaps #boycottapple. This is not new news, really. There have been massive issues behind the poison Apple for many years. Just switch. I know you’ve been told that Android is terrible, and you are just so comfortable with your iPhones that you can’t hardly imagine leaving, but if you don’t want blood on your handsets, and you actually value your privacy, run away now. Never look back. https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/violent-protests-reportedly-erupt-at-main-iphone-factory-in-china/ #weekendedition #apple #foxconn #china #iphone #boycottapple #TechFreedom WE 14.4 – Remember Theranos? They claimed to be able to test for a number of medical conditions with just a few drops of blood, rather than needing far more, as with conventional labs. Well, the founder, Elizabeth Holmes, was sentenced to 11 years, 3 months in prison, $400 in fines, and 3 years of supervision after release. She could have been sentenced to up to 20 years and $250000 per count of fraud, plus restitution, per count of fraud. How the mighty have fallen. She was the darling of the VC crowd in Silicon Valley, but then it was proven that the testing that they claimed to be able to do was a farce at best, with only dozens of the hundreds of promised tests carried out on their proprietary equipment. On paper, at the zenith of their infatuation with Theranos, she was a paper-billionaire. Oh, and she will still need to pay restitution, to be determined later. They hit some major investors, from the Waltons, to Larry Ellison of Oracle, to Rupert Murdoch of Fox. So of course these major players couldn’t let that slide. Even at that, this feels like a bit of a slap on the wrist. Then again, I haven’t spent much time looking at white collar crime and punishment, much less how rare jail time is for people like Holmes. I imagine that it is about as rare as hens’ teeth. All thanks to our banana republic in-justice system. Big money makes a way for certain individuals to walk almost Scot free, where those who do not have it get ground under the full weight of the law. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/18/tech/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-sentencing #weekendedition #theranos #elizabethholmes #fraud #wristslapping #sentencing #TechFreedom WE 14.5 – FCC to the Rescue, Effectively Ends UC Global’s Access to US Markets What is UC Global, you ask? A company who has repeatedly refused to comply with US regulations regarding robocalls. Therefore, the FCC has seen fit to deny the company access to US telecom companies, shutting it out of the US market. Wow. That is harsh, but we’ll see if it is really effective at reducing those nuisance calls from computers or not. Heigh-ho silver, AWAAAYYYY!!!! As annoying as those infernal calls are, is a gov’t agency powerful enough to deny access to US markets a good thing? I am unsure. They ostensibly exist to protect us from fraud and from worse things, but do they actually serve that purpose? I’d have to look more closely at them before answering that question. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/22/tech/fcc-global-uc-robocalls-violations #weekendedition #robocalls #fcc #banhammer #loneranger #lol #donttrustit #TechFreedom

FFW 19.1 – Unreal Engine 5.1 In Unreal Engine 5, the developers at Epic Games quietly made Linux support official. Now they are making it much more pleasant to develop games on Linux with the Unreal Engine. There is quite a list of improvements and tweaks that really fly over my head, but if you are a developer, I welcome you to take a look at the article for a summation of the changelog for this release. These things will make it easier to develop AAA titles that are Linux native, as the Unreal Engine is exceedingly popular in those sorts of projects, as it is extremely powerful and taught in schools. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/11/unreal-engine-51-rolled-out-with-plenty-of-linux-improvements/ #FFW #unreal #unrealengine #Linux #support #native #epic #TechFreedom What is love? (tell me you didn’t have Night at the Roxbury pop into your head, with Farrell and Carvey rocking out to the song on the way to the club) CS Lewis rightly observes that love is not a feeling, but a consistent desire to see the best possible things happen for the one whom you love. That feeling can, and often does, stem from consistent actions toward the end of achieving the highest possible good for another. But that feeling is not love. I love you all. That is why I try to help you get free from Big Tech. Today also happens to mark our first anniversary. One year ago, I started this channel with a simple message and the hope that I could help the world to break away from Big Tech. #FFW #love #whatislove #cslewis #memesplanation #TechFreedom #anniversary #oneyear FFW 19.2 – ProtonUp-Qt Released What is this? It is a Qt-based Proton updater to make managing proton versions, among other compatibility layers easier on the Steam Deck and on Linux. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/11/protonup-qt-version-275-released-for-easy-ge-proton-installs/ #FFW #proton #protonGE #wineGE #compatibility #gamingonlinux #TechFreedom Freed Computer https://techfreedom.pro/product/tech-freedom-freed-computer/ #freedcomputer #linux #nospying #safe #TechFreedom FFW 19.3 – WINE 7.21 Released What is WINE again? It stands for WINE Is Not an Emulator, and serves a similar purpose for general Windows apps and programs that DXVK does for DirectX API calls. It translates Windows instructions to Linux counterparts, rather than essentially setting up a virtual machine with just enough resources to run the app or game in question. The developers release one major update every year. It is that time, so let’s look at what is new, now: OpenGL library converted to PE. Support for multi-architecture PE builds. More preparation work for Vulkan 32-on-64 support. Support for creating import libraries without dlltool. Locale data updates. Various bug fixes. There are certain pieces of software that are unlikely to ever be released for Linux, much less be made compatible through WINE, here’s looking at you, Adobe. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/11/windows-compatibility-layer-wine-721-is-out-now/ #FFW #WINE #compatibility #Linux #Linuxgaming #TechFreedom What to use instead of Big Tech online: https://rumble.com/v1020p7-viable-google-alternatives.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #techtips #TechFreedom #justsayno #nomorespying #advice

TTT 34.1 – KDE Frameworks 5.1 What’s new? A bunch of quality of life tweaks for Dolphin Wayland session fixes No more app hang when recent documents are inaccessible Change to the ‘Unmount device’ button to have a busy indicator when it is actually ejecting the device And plenty more besides https://9to5linux.com/kde-frameworks-5-100-released-with-many-improvements-for-plasma-desktop-and-apps #TTT #KDE #updates #Linux #goodstuff #TechFreedom Empathy and understanding lead to ceasing hostilities under natural circumstances. This does not work, however, with those who have given themselves entirely to evil in one way or the other. That sets us at diametric odds with [them] and their desires. There cannot be peace with that which is behind and undergirds [them]. On the other hand, if they repent, then this can be applicable to those relationships, as well. When, as Longfellow observes, we see their pain and suffering, we find ways to forgive them and move past that former opposition. #TTT #longfellow #quotes #memesplanation #forgiveness #empathy #understanding #TechFreedom TTT 34.2 – Hello, Tabby. Tabby is a cross-platform terminal emulator that used to be called Terminus. What makes it interesting, aside from being able to use it no matter which OS your computer is running? Let’s take a look: Built-in SSH integration Customizability Integrated serial terminal Remember previously opened tabs and supports multi-pane nesting. Full Unicode Support Smart Tabs and progress bars for tabs Optional Quake mode. Integrated encrypted container for SSH secrets and configuration Zmodem Transfers Customizable Hotkeys Multiple Profiles with Profile Manager https://news.itsfoss.com/tabby/ #TTT #Tabby #terminal #cross-platform #Linux #Windows #MacOS #TechFreedom Free Your Internet https://techfreedom.pro/product/free-your-internet/ One-stop shop for getting you and your business transitioned off of Big Tech online platforms and tools, so that you have control of your data once again. I will also help you to find better alternatives. #TTT #techtips #TechFreedom #internetfreedom #nogoogle #nometa #noyahoo #nomicrosoft TTT 34.3 – Dxvk 2.0 Released Dxvk is a translation layer for directX calls to be readable and usable by vulkan. It makes it far easier to run Windows games in Linux. Without Dxvk, one is stuck emulating directX, which is far more intensive than simply translating it. What is new/ better with this release? Better memory management for D3D9 games and apps Changed Dx10 and Dx11 implementations Reduced D3d11 CPU overhead Lots of improved game support https://9to5linux.com/dxvk-2-0-released-with-major-changes-and-improved-support-for-many-games #TTT #Dxvk #vulkan #directx #graphics #Linux #gaming #TechFreedom 10 Things My Wife Thinks You Should Know about Tech Freedom. https://rumble.com/v19elx6-10-things-about-tech-freedom.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #TechFreedom #wifeysauce #getfree #explainer

DM 34.1 – Fedora 37, Better Late Than Never? Let’s see... What have Red Hat and the community developers added in this time? GNOME 43 Linux 6.0 Kernel Mesa 22.2 Graphics stack Pipewire 0.3.60 A/V back end Official Raspberry Pi Support So, good stuff all around, they have also either updated to or have available all of the latest other desktops as spins, from KDE, to Xfce, to Mate and Cinnamon, to LXQt and the rest. https://9to5linux.com/fedora-linux-37-released-with-linux-6-0-gnome-43-and-official-raspberry-pi-4-support #distromonday #fedora #Linux #newreleases #TechFreedom Great reminder. The best is yet to come. We move from glory, to greater glory. C.S. Lewis knew this to be true. This is an echo of Paul, from the New Testament. Take heart. Have hope for the future, believe and work towards those things that you want to see. Remember the good and the bad from the past, so that you do not become captivated by nostalgia. Nostalgia colors everything with a rosier hue than it really had. #distromonday #cslewis #glorytoglory #holdon #kccm #Bible #memesplanation #TechFreedom DM 34.2 – RHEL 8.7 Released What’s new for RHEL in this release (RHEL is Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the upstream for CentOS, RockyLinux, and Alma Linux)? The ability to view and manage system-wide cryptographic policies Ability to simply install kpatch updates when running through the web console Ability to download the RHEL installation media when setting up a VM in the web console Redfish Ansible Identity Management And more... https://9to5linux.com/red-hat-enterprise-linux-8-7-is-officially-out-with-new-capabilities-and-system-roles #distromonday #RHEL #Linux #enterprise #server #TechFreedom Freedom Consultation Ever wondered how to get free from Big Tech? This Free consultation will leave you with at least pointers to the tools and services you’ll need to do just that. This is a FREE 90 minute call with me, where I will demo some varieties of Linux for you, some replacement apps, talk about degoogled phones, and give you links to how to start the process of taking control of your digital life online as well. https://techfreedom.pro/products/freedom-consultation #distromonday #TechFreedom #consultation #free DM 34.3 – Unity Desktop on Arch? It can be done, apparently. Not sure why you’d soil Arch that way, but that is just me. The suggestion is to start with a clean install of Arch, then use the tool that the Unity team created. It is just like adding any other specific repo to an Arch based Linux distro... Step 1: Type or copy the following into your terminal emulator curl https://unity.ruds.io/repo.key | sudo pacman-key --add - sudo pacman-key --lsign-key 3FB6809130A5DB7F Step 2: Edit your etc/pacman.conf file with the following lines: [arch-unity] SigLevel = Required DatabaseOptional Server = https://unity.ruds.io/arch-unity Step 3: Run the following to install the packages sudo sh -c "pacman -Syyu; pacman -S unity-meta" At the end of this, you should, have a working Unity Desktop Environment on your Arch install. Cool, if that is your jam. https://9to5linux.com/you-can-now-install-ubuntus-unity-desktop-on-arch-linux-heres-how #distromonday #unitydesktop #arch #btwiusearch #lol #options #TechFreedom Tech Freedom Intro: What to expect from my channels and website. https://rumble.com/v157uqb-tech-freedom-intro-what-is-this.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #intro #TechFreedom #telegram #truthsocial #publicsq #gab

WE 13.1 – Whatever Will The Valley Do? Well, my sense is that they will lobby the new lawmakers harder to protect themselves from the inevitable hail of lawfare that the new congress members will likely initiate to placate the voters who allegedly elected them. Ok, now that I’ve hot-taked a bit, let’s talk about the article itself... The Demoncrats, who still control both chambers of Congress, have been sabre-rattling about passing anti-trust laws targeting Big Tech for being at least partially broken up, or some legislation meant to force censorship on the teeming masses of our nation and the world, for that matter. This is something that some experts suggest they should fear more than political noise made by the GOP when it assumes power again in January. More hearings wouldn’t frighten me much, either, to be honest. It is theatre. That is the reality for the whole shebang, anyway, and has been for a long time. After all, both wings belong to the same bird. I hope that the GOP does more than simply huff & puff at Big Tech’s house, which may as well be an underground bunker, with as much good as either party has done in terms of reigning them in in any meaningful way. Pitiful. All that said, it looks like both wings of congress very well may have crosshairs trained on Section 230, and limiting the protections that Big Tech has so benefitted from. This might be interesting to watch, particularly as everyone is realizing just how big of a deal digital privacy and rights are in our lives right now. That, at least, is a good thing, and may lead to big things in those areas. Looks like it could be a good time for me and others like me to set up shop to help people transition. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/17/tech/silicon-valley-republicans-house #weekendedition #privacy #digitalrights #bipartisan #politics #eyeroll #politicaltheater #TechFreedom WE 13.2 – Would You Eat Lab-grown Anything? We are one step closer to having a cell-cultured chicken option at the supermarket, as the FDA has deemed it safe for human consumption. Keep in mind that it also Ok’d both Beyond Meat and Impossible brand plant-based meat substitutes in the past. These have proven to cause certain individuals to gain weight when it was advertised that they would help people lose weight. I am not convinced that this is a good thing at all, let God-designed animals provide the animal protein that we all need in our diets, not man-made alternatives. Is it ingenious? Certainly. Is it wise? I am not into playing God, even though I used to enjoy some Sim City and The Sims, back in the day. I am not convinced that we know enough to do this well, yet, without any long term problems for humans who eat products like these. Also, the FDA has missed the ball many times, and that is being very charitable. Personally, this sounds like a horrible idea, and something that was joked about in an old show called “Better Off Ted”. The R&D arm of the company that the show centers on was working to create a product not too different from this, and they put in in front of a taste-tester, who proclaimed that it tasted like “despair”. That show was produced about 10-15 years ago. Yikes. No thanks. What about you guys? Tell me in the comments. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63660488 #weekendedition #clonedchicken #labmeat #gross #blech #wtf #fda #TechFreedom WE 13.3 – FTX CEO Strikes Out at SBF The new CEO, after SBF filed for bankruptcy and bugged out with millions of dollars, is looking at how the exchange was built to fail. He says that in his 40+ years of working in similar situations, including managing the end of Enron, this was one of the worst corporate structures he has ever seen. Too much power, and too little accountability concentrated in the hands of too few, young, inexperienced, and likely compromised people. This sounds like the case for the vast majority of the crypto industry. Tell me I’m wrong. Prove my sense wrong. Don’t get me wrong, I was excited about crypto somewhat about 5 years ago, and most of our investment got stuck in a now-defunct exchange from New Zealand. I have watched too many shit coins get shilled, too many NFTs scam people, and too many pump & dump schemes happen around me to think that crypto is some sort of savior for the financial system, which is just as corrupt and broken. Tell me what you think about crypto down below. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63662396 #weekendedition #ftx #sbf #crypto #fud #fed #scams #shitcoins #idk #TechFreedom WE 13.4 – Who Should Own AI-Generated Things? There is so much that is unclear in this situation. On one hand, the art, music pieces, generated writing, or code that is entered into one of these AI setups is often copyrighted material, in some form or another, so should the person entering the prompts in question be forced to pay royalties for using those works as seeds for generated material, given that the output is copyrightable and they make money from the output? How would that be sorted out? One thing that seems to determine whether one of these generated works is copyrightable is how much work the person entering the inputs actually did to create them. If you simply put in a single text prompt, the results are likely not copyrightable, whereas if they really put effort into curating the inputs, in the form of seeds and the like, they can be copy protected in the US. What of using copyrighted inputs? In the US, we have fair use doctrine, which allows things like commentary on art, books, music, and movies to be protected and used to make money for the the commentator. One aspect of deciding if fair use is applicable is whether the original artist is adversely affected by the “new” work. Was enough changed from or added to the original that it actually constitutes a new work? If the answer to these questions was in the negative, then it is not fair use, and the secondary creator can be penalized or sued by the original copyright holder. It seems that one can train an AI on copyrighted work, but actually using that training to generate something may constitute infringement of the copyrights involved from the original works. For instance, if one trains an AI on works from one particular artist or writer and tells the AI to create something in that style, that artist or writer would likely have a strong case that you infringed on their work, and could potentially sue you over it. However, if you tweak it and transform it in significant ways, then you are probably safe, and could potentially seek a copyright yourself on the generated work. This extends to the things that Microsoft has been doing through GitHub and people’s open sourced code bases, but the truth is that those AI tools often lift large chunks of code without tweaking it, and dropping them into new projects. That sounds like breaking GPL and other open source licenses, particularly if there is no attribution, and it is being used to make a profit for another entity. Microsoft feels that they can get away with it because they know the financial situations for the majority of open source developers. That seems very wrong, to me, at any rate... Maybe there needs to be a massive class action (I think that it is in the works even now, thankfully). https://www.theverge.com/23444685/generative-ai-copyright-infringement-legal-fair-use-training-data #weekendedition #AI #copyrights #patents #licensing #intellectualproperty #TechFreedom WE 13.5 – Climate Change Fear Porn... Big Tech Must Be More Sustainable!!! Ok, so the world seems to be heating up... Given. However, is it our fault? No. The earth is a very resilient system, and it has its own cycles which have very little to do with human intervention. That said, this article is touting and pushing Big Tech efforts to become more efficient (both using less power/resources, and producing less heat). I do not have a problem with that, as there is a limit to our planet’s physical resources, and we are called to steward them well. Predicating it on fear of naturally cyclical climate change that we have hardly been keeping records long enough to notice for ourselves, then assuming that our relatively small carbon emissions would be enough to have a detrimental effect on the temperature of the planet is the height of hubris. Take a step back. Think about this for a moment. Do not hear me say that we do not need new, better, more planet-friendly technologies to be developed. I am not saying that in the least, however, the current generation of that tech is far from being as beneficial to the environment as has been propagandized about for the last 20 years. Placing data centers in water is not an entirely new thing, however, using the currents to generate power (without harming the marine life in the area, either from turbines or from heat discharge) and to cool the machines in question is a novel, though not entirely new idea. Carbon credits? Don’t get me started, that is just as much of a leftist scam as the whole climate change/global warming fear industry is. Think, people. Recycle where possible, choose to use less power and other resources where possible, and just be wise. https://www.cnet.com/tech/internet-outages-could-spread-as-temperatures-rise-heres-what-big-tech-is-doing/ #weekendedition #climatechange #cycles #notmanmade #fearporn #bigtech #datacenters #resources #TechFreedom

FFW 18.1: FSR 2.1 Makes Cyberpunk 2077 Better Newest updates for CP2077 add FSR 2.1 to boost performance and quality for the game on Steam Deck. Sweet stuff, y’all, better performance and visual fidelity for one of the most demanding games on the planet, for free? Awesome! https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/11/fsr-21-is-a-game-changer-for-cyberpunk-2077-on-steam-deck/ #FFW #steam #steamdeck #cp2077 #FSR #news #TechFreedom How can we be “fully alive”? There is a bit more to this quote than is shown here... The rest goes something like, “And man is only fully alive when he beholds God.” Or something like that. How do we behold God? Partially in nature, partially in Scripture, partially in one another, and partially in prayer. Which of these things ring the most true in your life? #FFW #memesplanation #quotes #churchfathers #patristics #fullyalive #beholdgod #TechFreedom FFW 18.2: Proton Hotfix & Halo Infinite Under the Hotfix branch, which is easy to enable on the Steam Deck by un-setting the Proton Experimental branch, then re-enable compatibility mode, and it will switch to Hotfix for you. On the computer, it is more involved, and you may need to install & update it through the compatibility menu. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/11/proton-hotfix-gets-halo-infinite-working-again-on-steam-deck-and-linux-desktop/ #FFW #Steam #proton #haloinfinite #Linux #steamdeck #TechFreedom Freed Computer https://techfreedom.pro/product/tech-freedom-freed-computer/ #freedcomputer #linux #nospying #safe #TechFreedom FFW 18.3: GE-Proton 7-39 Improves Overwatch Here’s what’s new: Proton-wine bleeding edge Dxvk updated Vkd3d-rpoton updated Overwatch 2 freeze issue fixed Nvapi fixes pulled from upstream And more... https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/11/ge-proton-7-39-released-improving-overwatch-2-for-steam-deck-linux/ #FFW #Linux #Steam #gloriouseggroll #proton #gaming #TechFreedom What to use instead of Big Tech online: https://rumble.com/v1020p7-viable-google-alternatives.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #techtips #TechFreedom #justsayno #nomorespying #advice

TTT 33.1: AppImages? Ever Wondered How to Get ‘em into your Applications Menu? Wonder no more. We will talk through it today. All you have to do is use the AppImageLauncher, which you can install on any major distro. If you are running a debian/ubuntu based distro, type sudo apt install appimagelauncher after you add the PPA to your sources list, this way: Sudo add-apt-repositiory ppa:appimagelauncher-team/stable Sudo apt update If on a Fedora-based distro type either Sudo dnf install appimagelauncher Or Sudo rpm –i appimagelauncher-x.x.rpm after you download it and cd into its directory If you are on an Arch-based distro, type: Sudo pacman –S appimagelauncher Once it is installed, open the AppImageLauncher appor double click on an AppImage file, and choose to Integrate and run after you tell it where to store your AppImage files from now on. Integrating instead of simply running it once will give you an app menu entry moving forward. Cool stuff. https://www.makeuseof.com/add-appimages-to-linux-system-menu/ #TTT #appimages #Linux #packages #integrate #TechFreedom As we begin our move toward Christmas, remember that this is still true of the Lord. He will never break the brokenhearted, He will gently protect the ones who admit to being at their rope’s end, and He will come through for you. Truth. This passage is from Isaiah 42, and is about the Messiah, or the Servant of the Lord, whose commission it is to set the world to rights. Jesus is still about that work for and in us and the world. Find comfort in that Truth, today. #TTT #memesplanation #Isaiah #Jesus #Messiah #sametoday #Bible #TechFreedom TTT 33.2: Plasma 5.26.3 Release is Live, What’s New? They fixed lots of stuff for the plasma wayland session to make scaling work better for xwaylnad apps, and firefox app issues where your mouse gets stuck as a grabbing hand until you move a tab. An x11 regression that caused maximized windows to be forced to be redrawn improperly when using a scaling factor Also fixed a glitch where if the top right-most pixel were clicked, the window would be closed, as well as screencasting issues Among others... https://9to5linux.com/kde-plasma-5-26-3-continues-to-improve-the-plasma-wayland-session-fixes-various-issues #TTT #KDE #Plasma #updates #Linux #TechFreedom Free Your Internet https://techfreedom.pro/product/free-your-internet/ One-stop shop for getting you and your business transitioned off of Big Tech online platforms and tools, so that you have control of your data once again. I will also help you to find better alternatives. #TTT #techtips #TechFreedom #internetfreedom #nogoogle #nometa #noyahoo #nomicrosoft TTT 33.3: LXQt 1.2 Released What is LXQt? It is a lightweight desktop environment based on the Qt libraries. This is ideal if you either need supercharged performance or have a very low spec system that you want to breathe new life into. What’s new? File manager issues fixed in both x11 and Wayland sessions Ctrl+D shortcut in file manager will deselect all items Enhancements for the panel Bidirectional rendering in QTerminal And more... Sounds like some nice quality of life changes to me. https://linuxiac.com/lxqt-1-2-desktop-environment-released-this-is-whats-new/ #TTT #LXQt #updates #Linux #desktopenvironments #lightweight #Lubuntu #TechFreedom 10 Things My Wife Thinks You Should Know about Tech Freedom. https://rumble.com/v19elx6-10-things-about-tech-freedom.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #TechFreedom #wifeysauce #getfree #explainer

DM 33.1: Should I Try KDE Neon? Yes and no. It is an Ubuntu derivative, but that is not what I will harp on here... It is unstable, as it is more or less a sandbox for the KDE developers to work out their bugs in before the rest of us get new updates for KDE Plasma. It just updated to Jammy Jellyfish as its base, so that will bring other new apps and features, of course, but unless you are more of a hardcore bleeding edge KDE lover than I am, I don’t know that I would suggest daily driving it. https://cloud7.news/linux/kde-neon-is-now-rebased-on-ubuntu-22-04/ #distromonday #KDENeon #Linux #Ubuntu #updates #news #TechFreedom Ephesians 3:20-21... How able is God? However big your imagination of His power and glory may be, He is immeasurably more able than that. Give Him the glory for how He is going to change our situation. As always, though, if He leads you to do something, just do it. What can you do to shift things for people, one thing at a time? How can you be a blessing? #distromonday #memesplananation #God #Heisable #anything #ephesians3 #Bible #TechFreedom Distro Monday 33.2: PeppermintOS Has A Minty Fresh Release This Devuan-based distro, ok, I should probably explain what Devuan is before I continue with this... Devuan is Debian, minus SystemD to handle init tasks as well as to manage running services and apps in the OS. Ok, so what is new in PeppermintOS? A redesigned welcome screen & Peppermint Hub app A new app called Peppermint Scope, which allows you to almost in real time look at build logs for the system TKK Creator – allows you to tweak Tkinter themes New GRUB and Plymouth Splash screens Among other things https://9to5linux.com/devuan-based-peppermintos-november-2022-release-brings-new-and-updated-tools #distromonday #Linux #peppermintos #mintyfresh #devuan #systemd #TechFreedom Freedom Consultation Ever wondered how to get free from Big Tech? This Free consultation will leave you with at least pointers to the tools and services you’ll need to do just that. This is a FREE 90 minute call with me, where I will demo some varieties of Linux for you, some replacement apps, talk about degoogled phones, and give you links to how to start the process of taking control of your digital life online as well. https://techfreedom.pro/products/freedom-consultation #distromonday #TechFreedom #consultation #free Distro Monday 33.3: TrueNAS 13 Released While not strictly Linux, TrueNAS is based on the cousin of Linux, FreeBSD. Therefore, i feel that it is worthy of discussion here. TrueNAS is FOSS software to help you manage your Network-Attached Storage systems (NAS). I am no network admin, but the feature set on this is pretty sweet, from data snapshots, to a self-repairing file system and encryption, among many other things. A NAS, or even simply a home server is your #1 ticket to getting out from under Big Tech’s thumb, that way you control your data, not [them]. If you’re going to pull an HRC and run federal emails through a server in your bathroom, the least you could do is make sure that it is heavily encrypted (she did NOT do this, and attempted to bleachbit the system, but it was incomplete), and actually physically destroy the storage drives, so that the data could never be recovered, but I digress. What’s new here? Up to 20% better performance vs the previous version Rebased on the latest version of FreeBSD Better drivers Updated OpenZFS SMB updates NFS Updates And more https://linuxiac.com/truenas-13-0-free-network-attached-stotage/ #distromonday #TrueNAS #FreeBSD #networking #storage #backups #TechFreedom Tech Freedom Intro: What to expect from my channels and website. https://rumble.com/v157uqb-tech-freedom-intro-what-is-this.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #intro #TechFreedom #telegram #truthsocial #publicsq #gab