#I still have the same ISP

[running-in-the-dark]

I've basically been moving non-stop all day for a week (except Monday when I went to the doctor, and then the antibiotics were mean to me), everything hurts, but hey at least my room is somewhat close to being finished!

now there's just everything else left to do....

I've also had to deal with builders and electricians and a painter and I don't remember who else every day this week. I think I did alright. didn't have a panic attack or anything, it didn't even make me very anxious. so that's good! but I want to be left alone for several months now please 🙃

[loving-ricciardo]

why is there literally nothing more therapeutic than ranting on tumblr

[hopskipandarump]

I LOVE UK ISPs I LOVE UK ISPs I LOVE UK ISPs I LOVE UK ISPs I LOVE UK ISPs I LOVE UK ISPs I LOVE UK ISPs I LOVE UK ISPs I LOVE UK ISPs I LOVE UK ISPs I LOVE UK ISPs I LOVE UK ISPs I LOVE UK ISPs I LOVE UK ISPs I LOVE UK ISPs

[crowcryptid]

I'm sick and tired of YouTube VPN sponsorships so here are the facts presented in an easy to understand way.

For the purposes of this post, assume everything I say is in relation to being connected to your home router, unless stated otherwise. Businesses have a different use for VPNs.

What is a VPN? A VPN is a virtual private network. Think of it this way, imagine you are trading notes in class but they are encoded. The teacher takes a note but can't read it, but the teacher still sees you passing them. In this case, you are your PC or phone, the other person is the VPN server, the teacher is your ISP. ISP stands for internet service provider. It's whoever you are paying for your connection.

What does that mean? It means that your ISP doesn't see what you're doing. They can only see that you are connected to a VPN and how much data you're using.

Why would I use a VPN? If you are torrenting and have an annoying ISP that sends scary letters in the mail, it will stop them from sending a letter. Assuming you are doing things correctly and bind your VPN to your torrenting client and using a kill switch. Also, should you be accessing content that is censored, it can help to bypass that. Whether that works or not depends on how strict the censorship is. You can also use it to access another countries version of a product. For Example: Netflix in the US will have different content than Netflix in Australia. Keep in mind not all VPNs are equal in this regard. Some of them may not be able to stream from every country.

As a normal home user, the most a VPN is going to do for you is as follows: Accessing content from other regions, avoiding your ISP snooping in on what websites you look at, torrenting, and possibly accessing censored content. That's literally it.

In the event you are doing some illegal shit that gets law enforcement involved, this is not going to help unless you are truly covering your tracks. I will not explain beyond that because the people who need to do that are either: Irrationally paranoid, doing some terrible things, or are journalists/whistleblowers etc in hiding. So not the people reading this.

Businesses use them too, but I'm only talking about home users here. All that other stuff you hear in YouTube sponsors is either a lie or something you don't need.

What is an IP? It's like your networks address. Think of your router and IP as the same thing, this isn't accurate, but I'm simplifying here. The router is like the mail room in a building. The requested data comes to the mail room, your router/public IP, and then gets sorted into the correct mail box. Similarly, any data you send out is being placed in the outgoing box in the mail room and everything has a return address on it. So anyone receiving your data knows where it's coming from. Each individual mail box is a device connected to the router. The mail box is your local IP and isn't important for this topic, just thought I'd mention it. Your public IP reveals your general location (it is not exact and can be off by a considerable distance) and what ISP you are using. This is only what is revealed to the internet as a whole. Your ISP still has your address, name, billing info, etc, all tied to your IP.

What about my location? When using a VPN your IP will be whatever the VPN provider gives you. So this can mean your location changes and any website you access will not see your home router's IP. KEEP IN MIND. VPN server IPs are not a secret. Your ISP and any website you visit knows you are using a VPN. Some sites will block you entirely due to this. You will also get way more captchas in general. Because hiding yourself is inherently seen as suspicious or possibly malicious to companies.

Does it help with privacy? YES AND NO. Prepare for a long one here. Excuse the use of caps. If you use a VPN but are logged into your usual account, using your usual device, with the same browser you always use, basically what I'm trying to say is that Everything you're doing is the same but your IP is different, then NO. It will only serve you for the usual purposes of torrenting, hiding activity from your ISP, or streaming from other countries. Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc still know it's you. I cannot describe to you just how much you are being tracked, always. Ok not always, but most of the time. Someones personal website built from the ground up with no ads probably isn't tracking you much.

Yes, your ISP is only seeing encrypted data but they and every website you visit knows exactly who you are and they can tell you're using a VPN.

ALL TRUST HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM THE ISP AND PLACED IN THE VPN PROVIDER INSTEAD. If you are using a VPN because you do not trust your ISP or government, you still have to trust the VPN provider.

THE DATA YOU SEND TO WEBSITES IS NOT "HIDDEN" FROM THAT WEBSITE.

This. Literally doesn't make any sense. But YT sponsorships will insist that everything you do is encrypted and safe from "hackers" and "all forms of spying". THAT'S NOT HOW THIS WORKS. A VPN will only encrypt data between YOU and the VPN server. Once it LEAVES THE VPN SERVER it is NOT ENCRYPTED BY THE VPN ANYMORE. It's up to the website/database/server owners to keep your passwords and personal info safe. You do not have any control over data leaks or breaches.

The only encryption from that point on will be from HTTPS which means that any sensitive data is hidden.

Here is a visual to help you understand.

You [encrypted stuff] -> your ISP [sees encrypted stuff but doesn't know whats inside] -> VPN [server decrypts the data and sees everything you sent] -> Website you accessed

Ok. Now. This sounds scary and dangerous. But every website that uses HTTPS (the little lock icon on your browsers url bar) is ALSO encrypting things. This is why you can login to something on public wifi and not have your login info stolen immediately. A website that's only using HTTP is NOT encrypting anything and most browsers will warn you of this. No social media site or really any modern site is using HTTP. HTTPS is the standard.

So that whole ad read about "protecting you on public wifi" is not as important as it sounds. Yes, some things would be visible, but do you really care that someone can tell you loaded up Instagram at a coffee shop? That's for you to decide. If you use a VPN you could hide that, but it's not doing much else. If anything, you should be more concerned that the router is what it says it is. By that I mean that the router actually belongs to the coffee shop you're at and that isn't a decoy pretending to be the real one or that the real router is compromised. You really won't be able to check this if there's no obvious sign like there being 2 networks both claiming to be the coffee shops guest network. Even if that is the case, HTTPS is still encrypting things. They can pull some other tricks though like sending you to a fake website that looks like the real one to see if you type in your login info. Or try to distribute malware or exploit your device. But, this isn't really something you should lose sleep over. It's probably not going to happen lmao

If you are still paranoid about public wifi, just use the VPN or your phone's data plan.

Now for the other included BS that sponsorships will spew.

Does it increase security? No. Unless you are trying to avoid an IP grabber I suppose. If your connection was unencrypted in the first place, especially not. This means the website is transmitting everything in plaintext for anyone to see or modify along the way. The VPN would only encrypt the data between your device and the VPN server. Afterwards it become unsafe again. If your connection was already encrypted via HTTPS and is presumably not compromised, then no it does not help either as you were already secure. VPNs do not block malware or malicious websites. Those are added features that may be included in you VPN plan. I wouldn't place all my trust into a feature like that. You should always have multiple layers of protection, the most important one being common sense to not click things randomly. The other layers being: Up to date OS and software, an adblocker, a firewall, and antivirus software.

Does it protect me from data breaches, hackers, or whatever else? Again, no. Any data breach monitoring, password management, malware or malicious website blocking is not what a VPN does. Those are just added features that some VPNs throw in to make them seem more important than they are.

Can I trust the VPN providers?

Depends.

Many are dishonest and lie in their advertisements. In addition, a lot of the biggest VPNs are owned by the same companies, giving an illusion of choice. For example you've probably heard of Express VPN or Private Internet Access. They are owned by Kape Technologies, who used to be called Crossrider. It's owned by Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi, the 4th most wealthy person in Israel. Crossrider was a platform to develop browser extensions that was used to spread ads and malware to users. Crossrider directly profited from harming users until they shut the platform down and pivoted to buying up VPN companies. Yes there were legitimate extensions made with Crossrider, but it's reputation was forever tarnished by allowing malware for financial gain. The companies name was changed to distance itself from these controversies. The Chief Information Officer for Express VPN, Daniel Gericke, was part of a team that hacked accounts of human rights activists, journalists and rival governments for the United Arab Emirates. Lastly, Kape Technologies own VPN reviewing sites: vpnmentor.com and wizcase.com and push their products with these reviews without mentioning the relation.

Does this seem trustworthy to you? That's up to you to decide.

Other big names like Surfshark VPN and Nord VPN operate under the same parent company now, but the relation between the two goes back farther. The founder of Surfshark revealed that Tesonet helped create Surfshark and Nord, this relationship was hidden, and now they are together again. Also Tesonet and Nord security were both co-founded by Tom Okman. There is no controversy in this case, it's simply dishonest in my opinion for these big name brands to market themselves like separate services when they are both in the same pocket. It also does not favor users to have their data controlled by ever growing tech corporations, especially those spouting their "privacy" services.

Anyway, this next bit is more on the paranoid side, but I think it's worth mentioning. Some VPNs can be thrown out the window simply because of their location. Most notably the "5 Eyes" countries. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. No VPN hosted in any of these countries should be trusted as they can be forced to comply with investigations. Allies of the 5 eyes that assist in surveillance are Singapore, Israel, South Korea, Japan, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Sweden. You don't really need to worry about this as a normal user, but I'm just mentioning it as VPNs in these countries can be compelled to give up their users data, should there be any data to begin with, as they claim to "keep no logs". I'm just trying to prove a point here that true privacy is difficult if not impossible to achieve.

TLDR: Here's a summary

At the end of the day it will hide your activity from your ISP, but reveal it to the VPN provider instead. It will hide your real IP address from any website you visit. It will NOT hide your activity from that website, as they need to serve you the content you access. It will NOT hide your identity from websites you are logged into or even if you aren't logged in as you've been uniquely identified by browser fingerprinting or other methods. If you use Google but suddenly are in another country, Google is not fooled.

Everyone can see that you are using an IP that belongs to a VPN company. The thing is ultimately most websites don't really care. Netflix doesn't care that you want to watch a show that's available in Canada but not in the US. So if that's what you want it for, then yes it's fine. Just make sure your VPN works for streaming as not all of them do. You are not increasing your privacy or security if you are logged into your personal Netflix account that has you name, email, credit card, etc. It's just common sense. Your ISP doesn't care that you torrent, they send you those letters to appease copyright holders.

Your data on public wifi is being encrypted even without a VPN. Unless you are using a non encrypted website for some reason. The only thing a VPN would do is hide what websites you are accessing from anyone who is monitoring that. Also it would hide the public wifi's IP from whatever website you access. You are secure without the VPN because modern websites use HTTPS, which means your connection is encrypted by default.

It does not protect you from malware or otherwise, though some VPN providers add protection. This really has nothing to do with VPNs and implying it's the VPN itself that protects you is misinformation.

Recommendation for security: Bitdefender. There is a free option.

Recommendations for VPNs: Mullvad, Proton, IVPN.

Recommendations for browsers: Firefox (Best choice for the average person. Don't use default settings if you care about privacy. Look up how to harden Firefox), Tor (slow and not very convenient but its more private than Firefox), or Mullvad broswer (Honestly this is too far for the average user and will be very inconvenient.)

Specifically for iPhones and iPads: you will want to use safari with adguard. Other browsers on IOS are just safari with a different look due Apple's rules.

Specifically for Android: Mull or Cromite

Anyway. Just sayin' if you use Google or anything owned by Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, or own a smart phone, which is most people, privacy isn't really a thing. But you can minimize tracking I suppose.

[propaganda-inc]

Thought I'd post some more propaganda, since people are really getting mad at ONLY /u/Spez for this. For the people in the back that are still using Reddit- this is ultimately the reason why I left Reddit.

TL;DR: Yes, /u/spez is the CEO of Reddit, but now he's beholden to the true owners of Reddit- Literal white supremacists, Chinese businesses looking to subvert American democratic values, and businesses that are desperately looking for new ways to make money after a pandemic has gutted the people dry of all the money it could take.

Let's get a little Pepe Silvia in here, shall we? Setting mood music:

Reddit was originally founded by /u/Spez (real name Steve Huffman), Alexis O'Hanion, and Aaron Swartz (RIP). In 2006, Conde Nast bought Reddit. So, if you read Vogue, Pitchfork, Wired, Vanity Fair, & the New Yorker, you may have gotten some of the same content owned by the same company- just through a magazine rather than Reddit. Also, since June 2020, Conde Nast has claimed that their advertising revenue has gone down 45% have gone down dramatically since the pandemic, alongside the cancellation of major publications by Conde Nast. Buut in 2017, Reddit was made into an independent subsidiary by Advance Publications. Sounds like an innocent enough name, until you look at which companies these lovely people own:

That Charter Communication, is just a fancy name for the lovely ISP known as Spectrum- Better known to some of our older folks as Time Warner Cable. You know, one of the ISPs so hated in the United States that they actively changed their name so that people wouldn't recognize them doing their dirty work again?

Isn't it interesting that one of the main complaints by Huffman is that Reddit isn't getting it's due in advertising revenue? Huh. I wonder where he's getting that from. But that's only one section of the shit sandwich. Let's talk about some of the lovely* investors that Reddit's had on aboard since 2006. The list is.... interesting. 2014: A group of investors, including Marc Andressen (an investor in nearly all of the major social media networks that exist), Peter Thiel (a literal white supremacist), and for some reason, Snoop Dogg and fucking Jared Leto. 2017: Advance Publications buys Conde Nast and subsequently Reddit, raising its valuation to about $1.8 billion. 2019: Tencent (you know, the CHINESE VIDEO GAME COMPANY THAT HAS BANNED PLAYERS FROM THEIR GAMES FOR SUPPORTING HONG KONG DEMOCRACY DEMONSTRATIONS) buys a 5% stake in the company. Did I mention that Tencent is also the largest gaming company in the world? 2021: Fidelity Investments(??? an insurance firm and mutual fund????) decides to add another $700 million to the pot, giving them a whole stake as well too. So, let's tie this all together. Yes, /u/spez is the CEO of Reddit, but now he's beholden to the true owners of Reddit- Literal white supremacists, Chinese businesses looking to subvert American democratic values, and businesses that are desperately looking for new ways to make money after a pandemic has gutted them dry. Of course Huffman is going to stay the course on this one- his job literally depends on it in the first place. All of the people that make this site (what other social media network do you know that doesn't pay it's mods and is valued at $10 billion dollars) ? have been tossed to the side in favor of making money. Remember this:

Reddit and its investors do not give a fuck about their community.

They do not give a fuck about their moderators. They do not give a fuck about disability rights. Most of all? They don't give a fuck about you.

[asksoldieron]

SO-27: The Blade of Grass...

If there's a lot of engagement on this, this post is liable to get real long, beware before you expand.

No art, but I am working on it and I will add it retroactively. I hope.

Welcome to the Engagement Lounge, for Papers, Please (256|27) an instalment! Short comments can go in the replies, but there's a 475 character limit. Longer ones will need a reblog. Remember to @asksoldieron if you're reblogging someone else's reblog, so I can see it too!

Uh-oh, something happened!

"It’s different on either side of the path. I don’t know what splits it in two and I’m through asking questions. I am certain it is something very small, I would have seen it otherwise. As little as a blade of grass. I can’t tell which blade of grass...” -Barnaby Graham, while dying, verbosely

He missed it. Now we're past it. But what happened? God willing, we'll get to it!

I've been waiting to write this one for years! I expected it to have less exposition. Heh. What a foole I was.

This is also the one where Ann has her little freakout and says one of my favourite lines, but she's obviously saying it FOR Milo, verbatim, as HE says it: “Don’t you ever talk about my kids that way again. Don’t you ever use the people I love as a bludgeon trying to break me. I’m already broken and I will cut you!”

You tell 'em, siblings. Every once in a while you get one of those, where they're both talking in unison. You can only hear one of them, but the General caught it. Mordecai did, too, in Shots! Shots! Shots!, but he was more of a dick about it.

I don't react well to people trying to break me, either. The, uh, discourse is getting pretty rough now, though. Getting into abusive territory. Having to block some folks I thought were basically OK. When this six is done, I'm probably going to go on hiatus until after the election, work on some art (hopefully), regroup and try to figure how to self-promote better.

It's gonna be a weird week, I got two doctors things in one day. One of 'em's with the eye doctor who did the surgery which gave me double vision in one eye and blurry vision in the other. I hope I hear something better than, "Well! You rolled the dice and you lost!" If I need more surgery, though, fuuuuuck. Fingers crossed for late-onset corneal clouding, that might get better.

End of the week is a brief vacation in an RV in the woods! It's very cheap. We keep going to places that are suicidally cheap. We wanted to go back to the duct-tape, death trap houseboat, but it wasn't available. At all. Seems to have vanished. We're on our way back to the same "resort," so I guess we'll see if it sank!

Still need to post those houseboat pics, but now may not be the time...

Oh! In other news, the .space site is finally gone. I knew the account it was hooked up to didn't exist anymore, so I let it die. End of a dumb era, wherein I had unending issues with the site refusing to load and no idea some ISPs block .space addresses. Could I have picked up more readers without that? No idea! Not doin so hot with a .com!

[Back to Site?]

[softpine]

I really really wish I could pirate ea sims 4 games and I know how to and do when I’m broke but I always end up buying them bc I’ve bought this damn game since high school with sims 1 and legit my OCD (actually diagnosed by a shrink) will not let me do so otherwise. I hate myself. 😭

you have no idea how much i feel this, i was in the EXACT same position a couple years ago. as a kid i had tried to pirate the sims medieval and my dad got a scary letter from our ISP that basically said "we know someone at your IP address has been pirating video game material, delete it immediately and never pirate again or bad things will happen" and it terrified me so so so bad. fast forward a few years and my worst obsession & biggest fear is the idea that i'll be framed for a crime / falsely arrested, especially when it comes to finding material on my computer that i didn't put there (the idea that i'll download something i think is innocent and there will be hidden files attached with illegal material that will later be found by the police is something that plays on my mind at all hours of the day, it's suuuper fun and cool and doesn't at all ruin my life lol), so believe me, i had to work through a LOT of emotions before i could bring myself to even use the dlc unlocker, and i still don't pirate any other games (i'll stream tv/movies online for free but i will never download or t*rrent anything ever). the fear runs deeeeeeeep, i understand that :( don't beat yourself up over it!! i hope someday you can get all the packs you want for free but they'll always be waiting there for you when you're ready 💖💖

[ninelivesastrology]

tw: domestic violence, stalking, CSAM

It's really secondhand embarrassing when someone tries to make you jealous by "replacing" you with another person that resembles you. There's nothing that screams desperate like that. You might as well be begging to get back with your ex if you're doing all that.

And it's the way this bitch went out of her way to involve me in it. Maybe if this bitch hadn't involved me with her relationship with my abuser, my abuser wouldn't have been caught with child sexual abuse material. Imagine being used to harass and stalk the ex of your boyfriend because he believes she knows about the child sexual abuse material in his possession. Sick. Worst off, she lied to people about it and claimed it was planted on his computer for him. Everyone who is caught with that shit says that and they all get convicted because their ISP says otherwise. She knew about it and all of the drama was to protect her man. They always do.

People will project their desire for revenge onto you. I didn't have to be with my ex, I could've been with anybody and it still would've went the same way because he was paranoid about me going through his computers and devices. He had that shit the whole time. My ex said he had a collection of porn downloaded onto hard drives in high school. When we were together, he had a huge amount of flash drives that he claimed were for "movies."

So stupid, all I wanted was to be left alone.

[bills-bible-basics]

Bill's Bible Basics Used to be Endtime Prophecy Net As some of my longtime friends will know, since about the middle of 2016, my online Christian ministry has been known as Bill's Bible Basics, and can be found at https://www.billkochman.com. However, what some of my newer friends probably do not know, is that prior to July of 2016, the BBB ministry was known as Endtime Prophecy Net. In fact, it was called by the latter name since the year 2000 when I first purchased the domain names endtimeprophecy. net and endtimeprophecy. org. Furthermore, it was during the early part of those sixteen years that I began to create the over 5,000 Bill's Bible Basics graphics which now populate many corners of the Internet, such as on eight of the major social networks. For reasons which I have explained before, in July of 2016, I took both www.endtimeprophecy. net and www.endtimeprophecy. org offline, and I replaced them with https://www.billkochman.com. It was the same content as before, but with a new ministry name, and a new website URL. While I took them offline at that time, I did not fully relinquish ownership of those two domain names until November of 2017 when my registration for them expired. So why am I sharing the previous information with you? Well, for several reasons. First of all, given the nature of the Internet, many of the original versions of my graphics are still floating around on the Internet. These original and older versions have the domain name www.endtimeprophecy. net on them. Since creating all of those original versions years ago, ALL of my graphics have been both enlarged, as well as updated and improved in quality, making them better than the originals. You will know if you are looking at a newer version of one of my graphics, because the domain name on it will be www.billkochman.com, and NOT www.endtimeprophecy. net. One reason why I am telling you this is because I really don't want anyone sharing the older versions of my graphics which have www.endtimeprophecy. net on them. One of the main reasons behind my making this request is the following: After I relinquished endtimeprophecy. net and endtimeprophecy. org back in 2016, some unscrupulous person -- who remains unknown to me -- purchased the endtimeprophecy. net domain name, and for years now they have been using the domain name to advertise a hotel chain. Obviously, it has absolutely nothing to do with our Christian faith. So what they are doing is both dishonest, as well as misleading. If you put www.endtimeprophecy. net in the location field of your web browser, you will be taken to a page which shows a very old -- and broken -- version of the Endtime Prophecy Net website. Of course, none of the links will work, because the site is dead, and the page is bogus. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you will see a pile of links for the aforementioned hotel chain. So as I said, that person is using my old domain name for dishonest and misleading purposes. They are using our faith, and my former website name and website URL as bait. Shame on them! For the record, a few years ago, I made efforts to get them to stop, but they refused to even communicate with me. Furthermore, I was unable to locate any information regarding the ISP they are using. So, it was basically a dead end, and they have continued with their scam. So that is why I am asking everyone to please NOT use or share any of my old graphics which have www.endtimeprophecy. net on them. Because if you do, you will be unintentionally leading people to that bogus website. Please direct all of your online friends to Bill's Bible Basics at https://www.billkochman.com instead. All of my original content -- articles and series, poetry, graphics, KJV Bible Verse Lists, etc. -- can be found there. Regarding the endtimeprophecy. org domain name, if you attempt to go there in your web browser, you will be taken to a page which contains a number of related links, and which will inform you that endtimeprophecy. org is for sale, and that it can be purchased via networksolutions. com. Let me also mention that over the years, certain dishonest individuals -- particularly on Facebook -- have stolen literally thousands of my images, altered them, and chopped them up. In particular, they intentionally remove my www.billkochman.com website URL from the graphics, and they place their own URL there instead, or something else. Again, this is shameful, and a poor Christian example. In conclusion, I hope you all continue to enjoy and are blessed and edified by the material which I freely share online via the Bill's Bible Basics website, the Bill's Bible Basics Blog, and on the various social networks. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I appreciate it. By the way, if you want to see a very early version of the Endtime Prophecy Net website, check out this link. You can tell how old it is by reading the descriptions for the EPN and EPO versions of the website near the bottom of the page. A 56K modem? Really? :) https://www.billkochman.com/Original-EPN.html https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/bills-bible-basics-used-to-be-endtime-prophecy-net/?feed_id=200924&Bill%27s%20Bible%20Basics%20Used%20to%20be%20Endtime%20Prophecy%20Net

[fizzingwizard]

Well I'm back... I took an unexpected four day Internet break because my router broke down. At least that's what I think happened.

At first I thought I'd used too much wifi (I had a cheap-o plan that always got throttled after watching like one long video on Youtube lol), but the speed was way, waaaaaay slower than any limit I've been hit with in the past. I couldn't load any website without hitting refresh about a hundred times and then it would load in pieces, and if it had video or images (like youtube or tumblr) it was 100% a no go. Couldn't even log into email. If I finally reached the login page, the signal would be lost while sending through my credentials, and then it'd be an hour before the page would load for me to try again... Absolutely nightmarish

Anyway, it couldn't have been the throttling. Then I thought maybe it was some kind of maintenance in my area?? Because I'm never had a problem here before in six years. Or someone who moved in was a real wifi hog...? But even that seemed impossible. Again, never experienced anything like it...

But it just seemed so weird that it could be hardware issue! Because I took my router (which was a portable kind) to work with me twice, and it worked just fine out that way. Only in my apartment it refused to move faster than a snail. I really thought it had to be a signal issue.

Conveniently, I also don't have a working phone right now. I was planning to use the internet to buy a new one on an installment plan... and then lost internet bahahah. So I couldn't call my ISP about the problem either.

So today, day five of no internet, I took the router to a store that sells the same plan, and they had no idea either (even after calling the ISP themselves), but thought it must be the hardware. And although I was a little skeptical, they did confirm that the signal should be fine in my area, and they also told me about new plans that cost the same as my old one but are waaay better. No throttling!!! Of course I was sold on that haha. I love the idea of actually being able to use the internet in the evenings during "peak" hours (still can't quite believe it... this is my first week to test it so fingers crossed!). So even if they'd been able to fix my old router, I guess I'd have bought this new one anyway.

It took three hours to get it though. Partly because I'm a foreigner and the order of my name and my middle name scared them haha. But they were super nice and helpful to me the whole time and took care of everything. I came home, plugged everything in, and voila, perfect internet. I got a non-portable unit this time because it's got a lot more power. I had the portable one originally because my job involved a lot of traveling, but I left that job years ago and just kept the portable router because it still worked, and my habit is to keep things until they literally fall apart on me xP I'm very much hoping to be amazed by what the non-portable one can do...

Dunno how I'm gonna make it through the backlog on my dash but I'm so happy to be online again~

[arizonaconservativegal]

Anon here, even if PornHub and other porno websites like them die tomorrow what about other Websites that's not porn focused but does have explicit material on them? Like AO3, fanfiction net, even sites like Reddit and Twitter/X. I'm aware that there is an issue where NSFW artists get but not on the level where it's like a Tumblr level nsfw ban or they still add age verification to everybody's account because laws being implemented in the child safety act.

If the goal is to keep kids from accidentally finding stuff they shouldn't see then I would definitely say that user-generated content sites like those are a much bigger problem than something like Pornhub, which has a single, obvious purpose. I find it hard to believe that any kid old enough to use the internet unsupervised doesn't know what they're getting into with Pornhub. And yes, kids are given unsupervised access to the internet way before they should be, but that's a parent problem, not a Pornhub problem. I am tired of people trying to blame others for the consequences of their lazy parenting.

But for the user-generated content sites, I really would just want to see more robust content ratings and filtering. Actually I'm glad you mentioned AO3 because I think they have one of the best systems for that and frankly I'd like to see something like it implemented across the internet as a whole as well as within specific websites. Ideally we could tie that filtering into browser/search engine settings and I'd like to see ISPs give parents the ability to set those filters for their household.

Would that completely solve the problem? Obviously not, but I think it would be a pretty good start.

I also think there's too much emphasis in this debate on keeping kids from seeing porn - which I totally understand the reason for but there's lots of things on the internet that kids shouldn't see and there's lots of adults who don't want to see these things either. Age verification on porn sites just sounds like a great way to not solve the real problem and create new problems at the same time. All in all, sounds pretty standard for government.

[funkymbtifiction]

hi! i had a few random questions about your opinion on things i’ve observed recently in ppl/characters:

1. someone who seems impulsive to others because outsiders aren’t seeing their process, but actually they are calculating internally - such as mapping out a decision and carefully making preparations without telling anyone, then once they act, it seems impulsive and reckless to others - they move quickly and if it involves others, there is some manipulation and an implied sense that no is just not an answer that will be acceptable. their decision may not appear to make sense, but yet no one can talk them out of it because they thought about it so carefully for so long and have their reasons - is this ti and fe, or ni and se?

2. getting into relationships with damaged people despite noticing red flags, with a mixture of finding the possible danger too exciting to resist and also an “i can fix them” mentality is this 7-2 or 2-7 (or neither)? what about being attracted to people like that for the same reasons but being more cautious in actually pursuing the relationship (or not pursuing it at all)?

3. cutting people off because their values are increasingly off putting to you but tolerating those same values in someone else (with the logic that you can’t tolerate the values in general, so for relationships that aren’t as strong it is a dealbreaker, but if a relationship is strong enough you will agree to disagree) - does this indicate any particular function or enneagram type?

thank you again!!

The first question seems like a process of an introverted function ahead of extroverted sensing; evaluating the situation, making a plan, and taking direct action could be ENJ or ISP. Ni could be carefully mapping the future consequences and wanting to arrange things just show, but Ti could also be doing the same things in deciding whether this is a rational action to take. Both types tend to evaluate and then promptly act, and for others who weren’t part of the “inner” process it can seem impulsive, reckless, or premature.

There are many reasons why people get into relationships with problematic people, but it usually stems from a desperate desire for connection, love, and acceptance, and it can be a 2ish need to be needed (he/she needs me to love them, because they are unlovable to others and I won’t be like other people and abandon or avoid them). Thinking you can fix them is very 2. It could be 7-2, Fe, high N, or just a naïve belief that people CAN be fixed by anyone other than themselves (sadly this isn’t the case; all change starts with the person deciding they want it for themselves or for others). Seeking damaged people can also come from a lack of self-esteem and an unconscious desire to be ‘higher’ than – I am not worth the attentions of someone stable, independent, and strong, but if I care for this person and they need me, I feel a little less unwanted, damaged, or problematic, because I am still higher than they are. (This is where the rubber meets the road in the 2 pride – the realization that self-inflation is coming from your desire to help and fix, and that you are infantilizing people in the process.) 7-2 is less inclined to stick with hard things than a 2-7, because 7s want to avoid negativity and harsh things – they want to skip past the hurt and get to the chocolate ice cream. 2s also hate negativity, but they will put themselves through hard things for the sake of other people more, especially if they are 1 winged (super-ego telling them what they ‘should’ do is tough this out and self-sacrifice). Being attracted to people but cautious about involvement with them could be 6, or a strong self-pres instinct (this person feels like a threat to me).

The third one sounds like emotional attachment vs. non-attachment; you tolerate this behavior in someone with whom you are romantically or emotionally involved, but not in strangers. It’s somewhat normal; people compartmentalize and make excuses to stay attached to those they love or care about, for many reasons. But once you detach or if you never attach, there’s no hormone keeping you attached and causing you to overlook someone’s flaws.

[angerinthenation]

Is Hip Hop Dead?

A Commentary by Idris Salaam (Boscoe from The Bronx - Bigboscoe Productions)

Is Hip Hop Dead? On Life Support?

If you refer Hip Hop to only as Rapping, then, in some ways, yes it is dead. I mean, just think about it. We are in the period right now where we didn't have a song chart until, out of the blue, one did. (I still they did that because it showed the quality of music finally hit rock-bottom). A lot of entetainers of this era were saying fans were tired of the same stuff, and that's why the record sales were going down. We've had artists having to cancel shows because they can't fill arenas. There's but so much ass the "Bitches" can sell, just like there's but so much money "Niggas" can have and jewelry to flash.

[[More]]

So, if you only looking at it in terms of Rapping, yes, Hip Hop is Dead.

But, are you talking about Hip Hop or are you talking about rapping? And this is where people seem to be confused.

Do they realize Hip Hop comes in many forms?

• Hip Hop is music other than just Rap: Listen to the sounds that crafted the genre. (The samples from Funk, Jazz, Blues, Rock, Soul, etc). Listen to the Instrumentals of past songs. The rhythms. Before 2000, Hip Hop had music for everyone, not just the ones who love the stereotypical "I'm a real nigga/Bad Bitch" scenario.

• Hip Hop is living a particular lifestyle. The fashion, the style. If you look at how Hip Hop is portrayed in Asia, it's almost idenitcal to Hip Hop in its purest form. In fact, pure Hip Hop strips women of the Bad Bitch persona. The men become more Masculine and protective.

• Hip Hop is art (Graffiti). There's a whole Culture of Art revolving around Hip Hop. (Phase II, Dondi, Blade, Fab5Freddy, IN, Comet, etc). There are museums across the country displaying Hip Hop art.

• Hip Hop is the DMC: Turntable battles and performances. (DJ Craze, Roc Raida, Perly, Sonic Jewel, ISP, Jazzy Jeff, etc). These competitons consists of drumming (Using a record to create an entirely different beat), body tricks, etc. Even the parties are amazing as you will hear some of your favorite songs being flipped an entirely different that even the original artists couldn't do. And yes, turntablists have music on the market. The mainstream doesn't play it for obvious reasons.

• Hip Hop is understanding the Culture: What do you know about Hip Hop? Do you know the hostroy? Listen to some of the rhythms that birthed the genre: The Jubilaries (The first rappers) James Brown, The Last Poets, Parliament-Funkadelic (The sound of the West Coast's "G-Funk" was birthed from), Electronic. Research the Culture and how it came about. The Black Spades, the Casanova Crew, The Zulu Nation. When you get to Hip Hop (it was called B-Boying), start learning about Kool Herc and his crew, the Godmother MC Sha-Rock (The Funky Four + 1 More), Grandwizard Theodore (The Fantastic Freaks), The Cold Crush Brothers. Theres plenty more.

In today's society, people refer to Hip Hop as just Rapping, when Rapping it's just one element. We have to blame this on the mainstream as they have dictated the way Hip Hop is being interpreted. And just because you're a rapper doesn't mean you represent Hip Hop. There are many songs across each genre where people are rapping. But does that make them Hip Hop?

We allowed outside forces (the same forces that tried to shut hip hop down in his early days) to dictate what hip hop is. We allowed them to call anything with a rap verse, "Hip Hop." And because we decided to "Get the bag," we also decided to go along with it.

If you're only into listening to Rap hits, then yes, Hip Hop is Dead to you. But if you want to see how Hip Hop is still living it's best life, step outside of the Rap World you live in and explore Hip Hop in a whole. Just like 80% of the ocean hasn't been mapped, the same can be said of Hip Hop.

[soufre-de-paris]

we have internet!! we switched isps and they did it in a fucing day. all this bc fucking NET couldn't get their shit together enough to figure out how to turn it back on

we did errands today and it's so fucking nice to be able to do all the errands (grocery, granel, farmer's stand, bakery) all on one city block and not need to fucking walk two kilometers to the only grocery store in the city that sells the butter i like

everything is just really nice here. the weather is perfect. the people are chill. the vibes are impeccable. you feel me?

in obra news, one window has screens yey (they're the same screens they used to have) the guy is coming saturday after next to install new screens for the other windows yeyyyy the wind is so nice i could cry, i don't know how a city lives without wind?

i'm still exhausted but sei lá it's just what it is baybeeeeee

i didn't get to play nearly any bg3 bc tasks and stress and sick and waking up at 5h and going to bed at 18h but here's some screenshots of my pretty liar-boy and his judgemental boyfriend anyway (featuring chest of the mundane my beloved srsly i love you so much chest of teh mundane)

[aureutr]

Please, I would love it if you would write up a post about how to torrent media! I'd love to do it but I've found every explanation so damn confusing I have no idea where to begin.

Well... I haven't actually torrented anything in a few years. My Usenet setup is quite a bit different.

But what I do know about torrenting boils down to this:

Torrenting works by a bunch of people providing pieces of a file/set of files that your torrent client puts together. You then also re-provide pieces of the file/set of files to others. That's what "seeding" is, and for a healthy community you generally want each user to have a 2:1 seed ratio (i.e., you provide twice as much as you take).

Buuuuuut seeding is what can get you in trouble legally, as providing media is way different from downloading it. As I said up top, I haven't torrented in a long time so I'm not 100% sure on how much companies are going after individual people nowadays.

You kick this off by loading a torrent file into your client program. This helps everyone's various clients work together to get and provide the desired media. Because torrent files themselves are not media, they are legal to host online. Sort of. Technically.

My basic tips for torrenting are:

Use a VPN. This obscures your traffic from your ISP (and everyone else). Yes, you have to pay for one, don't use a free one. And know that you're basically trading your ISP seeing your traffic for the VPN seeing your traffic.

Be very careful which torrent client (program) you decide to use. Some of them are loaded with malware. Including some that used to be legit! I do not know which one is now recommended

Yes, you have to seed. Don't be a leech

If you have a reliable source of direct downloads (which is when you just download something directly from a website through your browser), then using a VPN with malware + mining protection is probably sufficient.

But if you want to know how I do it, then read on

I'm no good at highly-specific terminology, but I'll do my best. I use Usenet to get all of my media. Yes, it's still around! And you are going to have to be brave and get a bit technical to use it. Not a lot technical, but a bit.

You'll also notice that several of these links just point you to r/usenet. Feel free to bail on me and follow their much more complete information!

Similar to above, you can't do this 100% for free (or at least you probably shouldn't). In this case, you need a newsgroup provider in order to let your computer navigate the system. Usenet is completely decentralized, newsreaders are your access. All of your Usenet traffic will flow through this service, not unlike a VPN (they are not VPNs, though some may provide VPN services alongside).

Media specifically is going to be in the form of NZB files. Similar to (but not quite the same as) torrent files, they are not media themselves but they allow our computers and newreaders find the media we want. Unlike torrenting, you do not need to seed.

Next step is we need an indexer. This is where we get NZB files from. Most that are worth a damn cost money, but many offer a one-time lifetime fee instead of a subscription.

The indexer you choose will provide you with an API key. We'll need this for our newsreader to talk to the indexer. It's kinda like signing in to a website or service.

While I haven't provided any other recommendations (largely to cover my butt), here I do recommend SABnzbd, Radarr, and Sonarr (all of them together; Radarr is for movies and Sonarr is for shows). This is gonna let us automate (almost) the entire process!

I'm not going to blow-by-blow this part, even though it's the most "technical." There are guides (I linked some already) and I don't think it would be useful to summarize. But we can talk through the flow:

You tie your indexer into these three programs via API key and point them at each other (again, follow the guides). Then we can do some cool stuff:

You could, theoretically, manually browse your indexer (most provide regular websites), download a NZB file, stick it in SABnzbd, and then deal with the resulting file. Or you could browse the much nicer GUIs of Sonarr and Radarr, select what you want, and wait. Sonarr and Radarr also have scheduling, so they will automatically queue up downloads when a movie releases or as new episodes of a show come out. We already told SABnzbd where we want our files to live, so once the download is done we can go there, open it, and watch!

ORRRR we could go a step cooler still

I also use Plex, which lets you point it at a folder (or folders) and it will set up a Netflix-like experience. If you point it at the folder(s) that you have SABnzb saving files into, then you've got a not-quite-entirely automated process of an updating personal streaming service. If you've tagged a show and a new season comes out? So long as your indexer hasn't gone tits-up you get new episodes as they launch in the quality you have pre-selected.

I even built a custom computer specifically to run this whole setup (with 24TB of space, which is nothing, trust me).

There's so much depth I'm not going into. Each of these tools and concepts go on and on, with bunches of customization options that I haven't fully explored. All in all it's a very cool experience that I cannot recommend enough.

This probably came off very rambling and not quite useful. But I hope it's enough information for you to do your own deep dive and figure out the best solution for you

[joviantwelve]

WBW: it's cyberpunk so obviously you gotta have EVIL MEGACORPS. who are the biggest players? how much do they directly compete with each other? how bad are they at being the government?

Thank you Benedict you keep WBW alive

WELL, in the regions that were former countries that've since collapsed, anything goes, which yeah usually results in "scramble to become the first monopoly to seize regional power."

since it directly correlates to regional control (as a ""government""), local claims and acquisitions become more important. in a lawless world, other nations can just......Reject your exports. trade isn't necessarily as free as it was, especially since the regional power can dictate what does and doesn't come through.

Still, not EVERYWHERE is like this, though the remaining democratic areas collaborating with the more ruthless corpo ones is seen as a worrying trend. I'm trying to focus on just the one little area in the north Atlantic I've developed, worldbuilding-wise, but I don't want to have those typical dystopia pitfalls that imply that the entire world fell into the same disrepair uniformly. the world will end up looking very different, but it will heal.

BUT for MY main region, the NAF, the Carmichael Communications Conglomerate (C3) swooped in when the de facto country was young and vulnerable and needed some financial support. They've evolved from providing telecommunications services, to the entire energy grid, to, uh, all information technology and infrastructure in the area, basically, including the dome that keeps the city relatively comfortable (and fairly ignorant of the outside world). In those aspects, it's impossible to compete with them, but they DO have a southern (whatever's left of New England) and western (mostly Quebec) border...

I...admit I haven't thought much of those, or what their corporate specialty could be. I wanted to commentate mostly on ISPs and private utilities and the like with C3 (still not over net neutrality being blissfully with us and revoked in less than a year, nope). I'm 100% certain there's stupid corporate warfare and espionage, but I haven't thought about those aspects too much yet! (but now I probably will!)

HOWEVER

I HAVE thought about the other corporations C3 has collaborated with. I don't have names for them because coming up with snappy names that sound like they could be Real Companies is difficult, but I intend to name them at some point in the future:

The Enforcers, obviously, acting as the main policing force. they're not a full worldwide presence; rather, regions set up bases of operations for them and invite them in and such. C3 wants them because they're just a legion of obedient mercenaries that quite literally defend their interests.

I think the Enforcers' parent company is something a little more broad, focusing on cloning technologies and the like. Not the same company, but there are also gross Gattaca-esque genetic engineering programs here and there, with one sort of near the NAF.

I've also imagined there needing to be some sleazy insurance groups in the city as well; if the Enforcers are the cops then they're the courts. barf.

C3 has also recently collaborated and traded talent with an overseas company dedicated to studying memory, neurology, brain circuits, etc. Kinda weird why they'd want that. The CEO taking over after Ivanna was originally from there.

And finally, various android companies! I think android tech is just moving past its "wild west" stage in canon, like the early 90s era of PCs where you'd have new companies doing wild things that'd be out of business within a couple years. Carmichael's manufacturer was one of these, and has since gone bankrupt. Hope he won't need any spare parts anytime soon.

I just...need names....ahh...

Lastly, yes, very bad at government, though I feel like each regional power is probably especially bad at something different each time. A lot of hells to choose from. For C3 I've imagined it as full control over most things in daily life, replacing the currency with "company" ones and thus de facto restricting the economy, having partial stake in "local" business and thus having a say in it, making it hard for citizens to move elsewhere, etc.