mind your privacy
LuLu, the free and open source firewall for macOS, updated with native support for M1 Macs.
With the built-in macOS firewall, you can block incoming connections, but what do you do when you want to block outgoing connectons? You can either use custom host files ( search FSM for host files, there’s a few articles on it. Also, see our GitLab repo for more info ), or use LuLu. Or both…
Continue reading “LuLu Firewall Updated With Native Support for M1 Macs”
A list of free and open source front-ends and alternatives to popular services like like Twitter, Instagram, Reddit and YouTube
Here’s a list of free and open source front-ends and alternatives to popular services like Twitter, Instagram, Reddit and YouTube. This list will be updated as soon as more front-ends and alternative services will be available.
1. Nitter – Nitter is a free and open source alternative Twitter front-end focused on privacy.
Features:
2. Mastodon – Mastodon is a free, open-source social network server based on ActivityPub where users can follow friends and discover new ones. On Mastodon, users can publish anything they want: links, pictures, text, video. All Mastodon servers are interoperable as a federated network
3. Yotter – Allows you to follow and gather all the content from your favorite Twitter and YouTube accounts in a beautiful feed so you can stay up to date without compromising your privacy at all.
4. Misskey – a decentralized microblogging platform born on Earth. Since it exists within the Fediverse (a universe where various social media platforms are organized), it is mutually linked with other social media platforms.
You also might be interested in HOW TO: Follow People on Twitter and Instagram Without an Account
1. Bibliogram – Bibliogram is a website that takes data from Instagram’s public profile views and puts it into a friendlier page that loads faster, gives downloadable images, eliminates ads, generates RSS feeds, and doesn’t urge you to sign up.
2. Pixelfed – Pixelfed is an image sharing platform, an ethical alternative to centralized platforms like Instagram.
1. Teddit – Teddit is a free and open source alternative Reddit front-end focused on privacy.
Features:
2. Lemmy – Reddit alternative. Lemmy allows you to subscribe to forums you’re interested in, post links and discussions, then vote, and comment on them. Behind the scenes, it is very different; anyone can easily run a server, and all these servers are federated (think email), and connected to the same universe, called the Fediverse.
3. Lobste.rs – Reddit alternative. Lobsters is a computing-focused community centered around link aggregation and discussion, launched on July 3rd, 2012.
4. Raddle – Reddit alternative. It’s been said Raddle is a community for outsiders, malcontents and wayward dreamers.
5. Aether – Peer-to-peer ephemeral public communities. Open source, self-governing communities with auditable moderation and mod elections
6. Ruqqus – Open source Reddit Alternative
7. SaidIt – Open Source Reddit clone.
8. Libreddit – An alternative private front-end to Reddit
You might also be interested in :
1. Invidious – Invidious is an alternative front-end to YouTube
Features:
2. FreeTube – FreeTube is an open source desktop YouTube player built with privacy in mind. Use YouTube without advertisements and prevent Google from tracking you with their cookies and JavaScript. Available for Windows, Mac & Linux thanks to Electron.
3. LBRY – Alternative to YouTube. LBRY is a place where users can find great videos, music, ebooks, and more: imagine a vast digital library that is available on all of your devices. But under the hood, LBRY is many components working together.
4. Odysee – Video platform backed by the creators of LBRY and uses the LBRY blockchain protocol
5. Yotter – Allows you to follow and gather all the content from your favorite Twitter and YouTube accounts in a beautiful feed so you can stay up to date without compromising your privacy at all.
6. PeerTube –
1. Radicle – open-source alternative to GitHub. Peer-to-peer, removes the dependency for a centralized server.
VSCode without Microsoft telemetry, branding and licensing.
I dare you to find a list of “open source text editoris” without Atom, Visual Studio Code and Sublime ( all of them or at least 2 ). Visual Studio Code is almost always on every list. And that’s because it’s an excellent editor, however it is NOT open source.
Continue reading “VSCodium is a Truly Free and Open Source Version of Visual Studio Code”
youtube-dl is not dead. you can still install it, here’s how…. linux, macOS and windows
youtube-dl’s GitHub repo was taken down because the RIAA are a bunch of whiny spoiled brats. For some reason, some people are under the impression that just because GitHub complied right away to a absurd request, youtube-dl as a project is dead. At least for now until it finds a new home.
No it’s not, if you already have it installed it is still working. And if you don’t, you can install it just as easy as before.
Stop clicking on links without examing the URL first….
One of the worst inventions in the last 10 years or so is short URLs. They are being used everywhere. On Twitter, in emails and how many times did you hear “you can find links for all these products in the description”. Just stop clicking on them. Without examing the URL first….
Continue reading “HOW TO: Preview Short Links Before You Click Them”
A more practical way to follow Reddit subs and subscribe to newsletters
Do you still use RSS? If you don’t, you’re missing out. Yes, RSS is still around and it’s (still) awesome. Not only it allows you to subscribe to your favorite websites but you can also use it to follow people on Twitter and Instagram without an account and even subscribe to YouTube channel without an account.
If that’s not enough for you, today we’re going to take it a step further. Let’s see how we can use RSS to follow Reddit subs without an account and even subscribe to newsletters without using an email account. At least not a personal one.
A free and open source Linux application firewall
If you’re looking for an application firewall for your Linux box, you must’ve heard of OpenSnitch. The bad news is that the original project is no longer under active development. The good news is that OpenSnitch has been forked.
Continue reading “OpenSnitch Application Firewall for Linux”
Privacy is a fundamental human right. At Apple, it’s also one of our core values.
Privacy is a fundamental human right. At Apple, it’s also one of our core values.
How many times have you heard that? Apple even has a fancy page and shiny ads to brag about it. While this is definitely true when compared to direct competitors, if you strip it all down, it’s a bunch of bullshit. It’s simply something Apple does really really REALLY well. It’s a religion to them. It’s marketing.
I’m sure that you can do a search for yourself and find all the sneaky ways and techniques ( we know so far ) Apple uses to screw you over. But just in case you don’t want to bother, at least listen to this: “The Creepy Things Apple Knows About You (and Me)”.
However, that’s not the point of today’s discussion. Today we’re talking about why it might be a good idea to stop using Siri and, if you’re convinced, how to disable the virtual assistant.
Continue reading “Why It Might Be a Good Idea to Disable Siri and How to Do it”
a quick and easy way to make sure your camera and microphone is not working without your permission on both Linux and macOS
I have to be honest, all my computers have their webcams and mics physically disconnected. Even the iMac that I own. I mostly don’t need them and when I do, because it’s such a rare event, I don’t mind the trouble I have to go through for workarounds ( external devices ).
But what works for me, might not work for you. You might be in a position where you need to jump into online calls all the time.
Continue reading “A Quick Way to Enable/Disable Your Webcam and Microphone on Linux and macOS”
Who knew that just one dot can help you bypass YouTube ads and paywalls?
We’ve already showed you how to watch YouTube without ads and serving Google your soul on a silver platter ( here, here and here ). But here’s a gem of a tip, coming from reddit user unicorn4sale: you can bypass youtube ads by adding a dot after the domain.
It’s a commonly forgotten edge case, websites forget to normalize the hostname, the content is still served, but there’s no hostname match on the browser so no cookies and broken CORS – and lots of bigger sites use a different domain to serve ads/media with a whitelist that doesn’t contain the extra dot
So how does this work? A link to a YouTube video looks like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXXXX. To bypass the ads just add a dot after youtube.com like this https://www.youtube.com./watch?v=XXXXX
This also work with some of the websites serving paywalls. Just add a dot after the domain name. This also works on any website that has ads. Just add the dot after the domain name.
This will probably not last forever, and you shouldn’t rely on such a workaround. Always use an ad-blocker ( uBlock Origin recommended ), Pi-hole ( here and here ) and make good use of your hosts file ( here , here and here).
