There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

LordCrom ,

Replace syncing to Google contacts and Google calendar with webDAV and calDAV to next cloud.

I run next cloud in my garage. DAVx is free from F-Droid app store. Setup is easy. And you don’t need Google accounts to store contacts and calenda in your home cloud

DarkCloud ,

I call them goo goo.

todd_bonzalez ,

Anyone have an alternative video not narrated by a sex pest?

slimarev92 ,

Why is he specifically a sex pest?

Tum ,

He’s not, there was accusations against him and his company from a former employee that were recently settled in court in favor of Linus, judged has having committed no wrongdoing.

ashok36 ,

Not settled in court. An independent law firm investigates the allegations. No court has touched this and likely never will.

AnxiousOtter ,

He’s not. There were unsubstantiated accusations from a disgruntled former employee that were proved to be false.

Some people just hear what they want though.

DolphinMath ,

Ironically, the claims weren’t even against him, but rather someone else (unnamed) at his company (Linus Media Group).

AnxiousOtter ,

Yep. LTT just lives rent free in Lemmy’s collective consciousness.

Andromxda ,
@Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

They should have also mentioned GrapheneOS

NeonWoofGenesis OP ,
@NeonWoofGenesis@l.henlo.fi avatar

This was just part 1 with probably the lowest hanging fruits :)

Andromxda ,
@Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Still glad they mentioned this topic at all. I wouldn’t have expected it from LTT.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

I just installed it yesterday and it was super easy. So far I’m liking it, and I now have two profiles: Owner (main, no Play services) and work (has Play services for work apps). I’m still moving all my crap over, so I guess we’ll see over the next few weeks if I run into issues.

Andromxda ,
@Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Enjoy your spyware-free degoogled experience! Feel free to dm me if you have any questions. I’d say I’m quite experienced with GrapheneOS, degoogling and Android in general.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Thanks, I might just do that!

I’ve only had it a day, and I haven’t even swapped my SIM yet (waiting for my case to be delivered), so I’ll give it a couple weeks to really get a feel for things. I’m going on a road trip soon, and may be going out of the country, so if I’m going to run into issues, it’s going to be soon. I’m also going to try using the eSIM to trial Google Fi (international data FTW, free for 7 days), so it should be a rather complete experience.

Andromxda ,
@Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Google Fi is the one thing I have no experience with, as I’m not American. But all SIMs should work fine on Graphene, and eSIMs are supported through a compatibility layer, which enables Google’s proprietary eSIM management tool (this is not the same as Sandboxed Google Play services, and you don’t need Google Play for eSIMs). All the eSIMs and physical SIMs I tried work just fine. Google Fi seems to work, according to this thread on the Graphene Forum: discuss.grapheneos.org/d/…/6

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Cool.

Since you’re here, do you know if SIMs “just work” with different profiles? Can I restrict them to a specific profile? I’m guessing SIMs are a completely separate concept from profiles (which AFAIK just manages apps), but this is my first time with GrapheneOS.

Andromxda ,
@Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

As far as I can see, no. But what benefit would that really have? Network settings (including mobile networks) are global. The only thing that’s profile-specific is your VPN setting. You can only disable a profile’s ability to use the phone/SMS feature. Profiles generally manage apps, user data and some settings.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

The benefit is that I could block apps installed to one profile from using my data (i.e. wifi only), while allow apps on the other to use it. I could install something like NetGuard, but I also use a VPN, and it’s one or the other with that IIRC (at least on my old phone, I can only use one VPN at a time).

Andromxda ,
@Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Ok that actually makes sense. I just realized that the fucking iPhone has this feature, but Android doesn’t. GrapheneOS doesn’t implement any custom features that aren’t privacy/security related. And no, unfortunately you don’t get a second VPN slot either.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Maybe I’ll try to hack one in, how hard could it be? 😅

Andromxda ,
@Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Pretty hard. If you don’t have prior experience with the AOSP codebase, I’d say it’s impossible. But if you want to get started, this is how to build GrapheneOS from source: grapheneos.org/build

sugar_in_your_tea ,

I meant it more tongue-in-cheek :)

My threat model isn’t such that I need it, it’s just really annoying. GrapheneOS does allow blocking network per-app, which is a sufficient workaround. It’s a bit tedious, but I can do the following:

  1. disable network on sensitive apps
  2. disable NetGuard and enable other VPN
  3. finish what I was doing
  4. undo step 2
  5. undo step 1

I really wish there was a way to get VPNs and NetGuard playing nicely together. I want all traffic to be filtered by NetGuard, and then routed over the VPN. This is trivial on Linux, but apparently not so on Android, which is a shame.

Andromxda ,
@Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

There might be an easier way to accomplish this. The RethinkDNS app has a built-in Firewall and WireGuard VPN client. It also allows you to configure per-app Wifi and cellular data separately. The only caveat is that you would need to manually import the WireGuard profiles from your VPN provider.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Thanks, I’ll check it out. :) That should do nicely.

meowMix2525 ,

Just be careful actually using that international data for too long cause I used it when I took a semester abroad and they shut off my data and account access literally on the day of my flight back home and kept billing me for months after when I didn’t have access to my account to cancel billing for my (non-)service. They say the majority of your service should be spent in the US but they don’t actually define anywhere what that means to them. They just tell you one day that you’re shit out of luck and not eligible for service anymore (including domestically).

None of their support people were able to help by turning my service back on long enough to get back to the states or even just telling me how to get back into good standing. The only thing they were able to tell me is why it was shut off.

Anyways if you do need international data, airalo was really reasonably priced and easy to set up. Came in clutch. Fuck google up the ass for leaving me stranded like that.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Thanks, I’ll check it out!

I’m with Tello, which has no international calls or data, and my wife is with Mint, which has a prepaid (really expensive) option for small amounts of credit. We’re planning to go to Canada for a day or two, and I was planning on (ab)using the 7-day trial.

I plan to do other international trips, and getting Fi for a month or so each time was the plan. But if they suck, maybe I’ll try something else for this trip.

Airalo looks decent ($6 for 1GB in Canada is reasonable). Thanks for the tip!

drspod ,

I’m also going to try using the eSIM to trial Google Fi

You degoogled your phone and then want to route all of your mobile data through Google servers?

sugar_in_your_tea ,

I want to route the data we use during our 1-2 day trip through Google servers, yes. It’ll be on a fresh number, and then cancelled promptly after our trip, and it’ll be a hotspot just for the trip so my wife can communicate w/ her friends. It’ll also be used for any incidental calls we may need while there. I usually don’t bother and just use wifi calling as needed, but I saw the free 7-day trial and was interested.

That said, someone else mentioned some inexpensive alternatives ranging from $3-6 (airelo, I also found these), so I’ll probably just go that route instead. Most no-contract services I’ve found require buying international credit, so that would be $20+ just for the trip, and that seems a bit ridiculous. I’m willing to pay about $5 for data for the trip, I’m not willing to pay $20+.

dotned ,

This was my main concern about switching. I have to use MFA apps for work. So, it’s possible to have different profiles, and I can back up my codes and retrieve on my new profile using GrapheneOS?

sugar_in_your_tea ,

possible to have different profiles

That’s possible on most recent-ish Android phones, at least it was on my Moto G from 2020 running Android 11. To activate, you need to go to Settings > System > Multiple Users (may need to enable developer access first, not sure).

That allows you to have multiple logins on your phone, and you can switch between them.

What GrapheneOS adds is that you can have Google Play services sandboxed (no privileged access, it works like any other app) per profile. So my main profile has no Google Play services, and my “work” profile has Google Play services with only the handful of apps I need for work (MFA, work chat, etc). When you’re in one profile, you have no access to anything from the other profile, though you have access to system stuff like wifi networks and SIM cards (e.g. you can make/receive calls from all profiles).

It’s that sandboxing that I am most interested in. I rarely use apps from Google Play, but I do need them occasionally, so i separate them by concern. I’m probably going to end up with a “personal” profile for all of the Google Play apps that I need periodically.

randint ,
@randint@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz avatar

I installed it one week ago after getting a new Pixel 8. Loving it so far.

starman ,
@starman@programming.dev avatar

Warning: It’s Linus Sebastian

sugar_in_your_tea ,

… on YouTube.

Appoxo ,
@Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

This is piped.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Which streams YouTube content. He posted it to YouTube, piped just removes ads from YouTube videos.

helpmyusernamewontfi ,

it also proxies the video and blocks trackers iirc, giving you some form of anonymity from Google

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Right, but the point is that this is about de-Googling, and the video wast posted to a Google-owned site by someone who makes their livelihood from Google.

Piped and similar services are cool, it’s just a weird conflict of interest.

PunkiBas ,

It’s arguably the best place to reach the people who most need degoogling

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Is it though? How likely is someone who watches that video to actually degoogle? He uses windows almost exclusively (Microsoft tracks you), shows benchmarks from games with DRM, recommends products that track you (e.g. Meta headsets), etc.

I’m not saying it’s bad that he’s doing it, I’m just saying it’s ineffective. How many of these products does he actually use? Why should I trust his recommendations if he’s not actually living a degoogled life?

I see it as lipservice for views, that’s it. If he was really serious about it, I think he’d make his videos available on other services (and not just floatplane, that’s a money grab).

I trust Louis Rossmann far more, because he:

  • uses the products he recommends
  • fights for real, legal change related to privacy
  • makes his videos available on Odyssee

That last one is a little self-serving because he’s pushing his app Grayjay, but paying for the app is optional and no features are locked behind paying.

So I’m not gong ri applaud LTT for making this video. The intent is to drive clicks and ad revenue. I don’t think that’s bad, I just don’t think it’s worthy of commendation. If you want a better mainstream channel for this, check out Naomi Brockwell. She’s quite pleasant to listen to and covers far more than LTT or Louis Rossmann ever would.

DolphinMath ,

The video is on Floatplane (paid service)

foggenbooty ,

Thank you, I was about to click.

NickwithaC ,
@NickwithaC@lemmy.world avatar

Drama llama response. 🙄

SqueakyBeaver ,

I liked it except for that “ad blocking is piracy” shit he snuck in there

Devorlon ,

Isn’t it? You’re not paying for a service / product.

applepie ,

Why would I reduce quality of my life tho?

If all this engagement slop went out of business tomorrow, my life wouldn't change lol

This is shit ain't food or house. I decide how I pay for it and if I pay at all. There is jack shit anyone can do about that. These companies and slop generators need to learn their place in the economy haha

Devorlon ,

Not saying you shouldn’t block ads, just questioning the OCs comment. If you don’t pay for the service monetarily or through data then imo it’s piracy.

applepie ,

Piracy is just a PR term by used by the industry that hates its users... Why would you care as consumer about some shiti companies?

Devorlon ,

I’m a pedantic asshole.

applepie ,

Alright then.

What definition for piracy are your relying on and where did you source it?

Does DMCA even have a definition for this?

Devorlon ,

What definition for piracy are your relying on?

The illegitimate procurement of media.

where did you source it?

My ass.

Does DMCA even have a definition for this?

Can’t help you there, I’m not American.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

If all this engagement slop went out of business tomorrow, my life wouldn’t change lol

Your life would probably improve.

sugar_in_your_tea , (edited )

That’s the service’s problem. VCRs and DVRs had ad-block ages ago, and those were commercial products sold at regular retail stores, so it’s totally a non-issue.

An ad-blocker just means I’m not running optional extras. The web server says, “please display X, Y, and Z,” and the ad-blocker says, “nah to Y and Z, but I’ll render X.” It’s the same idea as safe-search filters to block websites, but it runs within “trusted” pages instead of just blocking certain domains.

It’s the same with sponser blockers, but I personally don’t use them and prefer to manually skip them instead unless the creator generally has good recs (e.g. I often watch them once/twice on Gamers Nexus, because they only recommend good products, but block the others).

Piracy is sharing content that you don’t have the rights to share. Ad-block just blocks content you don’t want to see. Those are not the same thing at all.

Devorlon ,

Piracy is sharing content that you don’t have the rights to share.

I’d classify watching something on piracysite.com as piracy.

I’d also class bypassing Netflix’s login requirements to watch their catalogue as piracy. But I guess that’s more a semantics thing.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Sure, because in those cases you’re gaining access to content that you don’t have permission to access.

Ad-block isn’t that, it’s just blocking content you don’t want. You still have permission to the content.

Devorlon ,

You don’t have permission to modify any of the content YouTube sends you.

www.youtube.com/t/terms#eb887a967c

Section: Permissions and Restrictions Point 2

circumvent, disable, fraudulently engage, or otherwise interfere with the Service (or attempt to do any of these things), including security-related features or features that: (a) prevent or restrict the copying or other use of Content; or (b) limit the use of the Service or Content;

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Yes, it’s a violation of their TOS, but TOS is often illegal anyway.

I’m not modifying any of the content they send, I’m merely not rendering it. That’s a very different thing. It’s just like blocking fonts (I do that too), if I don’t want an asset, I won’t download it. If they want to block me because I’m blocking part of their page from loading, that’s on them.

Devorlon ,

but TOS is often illegal anyway.

Piracy isn’t only a legal thing. It’s just dealt with through the legal system.

I’m not modifying any of the content

Sorry, I was wrong. You are however circumventing YouTube’s playing ads.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Yes, I’m violating their TOS, but I also never signed their TOS agreement. I don’t use a YouTube account, I just access their webpage. Nothing here is illegal, I’m just not rendering content that I don’t want to see. I have no legal obligation here. Google doesn’t get to decide what gets run on my machine, I do. If they don’t want me to view their content, they should lock it behind a paywall or something.

Devorlon ,

I’ve not argued any of those points. Just that not watching ads on YouTube is piracy.

In the UK, piracy isn’t a legally defined term, and the way that I would define piracy as the illegitimate procurement of media.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Right, and I’m arguing that it’s not piracy. Piracy is a copyright violation, and blocking ads isn’t violating copyright, it’s only violating TOS. “Piracy” is the informal term for “copyright infringement,” at least in my jurisdiction (US).

Here’s a law stack exchange answer about it:

First the broad strokes: It’s not illegal to block ads.

…

But… that doesn’t mean your use of an adblocker isn’t in violation of US law.

The crucial issue with legality when it comes to adblockers is less about blocking ads, and more about circumventing a websites measures to defeat adblockers.

So I might be violating the DMCA by circumventing protections on the website, depending on what exactly the ad-blocker is doing, but just blocking URLs isn’t a copyright violation, it’s a TOS violation, which may or may not hold up in court. Therefore, not piracy.

___ ,

You should read a clockwork orange.

Phegan ,

It’s not.

Drewelite ,

Thank God for this comment. I almost thought it was.

secret300 ,

If they want money from sponsors and advertising they could do it without all the trackers.

lemmyingly ,

💯

I think the internet is broken in this regard. Adverts and all of the tracking is horrific. Pay walling a website for $5-10 a month is not appealing for those who only want to read a couple of articles a month. But, without monetization good content from people who are good at their job will disappear.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m team adblock everything but I am willing to pay if there is a new sensible solution to the problem figured out.

Alk ,

If you’re on desktop, check out freetube instead of the buggy mess that is piped links.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Or just… install an ad-blocker. With Container Tabs on Firefox, YouTube doesn’t associate those links with me (at least not through my Google Account), and I don’t see ads with my ad-blocker.

No need for using random websites that may just be stealing my data a different way. I’m happy to watch on YouTube, I’m just won’t watch the ads or opt-in to tracking.

Alk ,

Freetube is not a website, but a desktop application that massively improves the usability over YouTube’s UX. It doesn’t serve the same purpose as an ad blocker, which also works well for its purpose.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Ah, okay, thanks for the clarification. I’ve never used it, just seen it mentioned here.

Regardless, I think it would be easier to use YouTube links instead of Piped links for redirecting links to it. Then again, I don’t have experience with it, only with Android YouTube alternatives like NewPipe and Grayjay.

Alk ,

Yeah in that case I agree. Tons of people have their preferred YouTube frontend, or application, or way of using YouTube itself, and we can all get YouTube links to automatically redirect to our preferred method, but if someone links their preferred frontend directly, anyone who uses a different method all of a sudden can’t use it automatically.

xep ,

I'm nearly there, except I can't get away from Google Maps. There's not really any alternative here that provides public transport information.

Alk ,

Yeah google maps is still the GOAT as much as I wish it wasn’t.

WhyDoYouPersist ,

I imagine they’re really itching to torpedo it somehow. Surprisingly long time for them not to do so.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Idk, it’s driving a (sponsored businesses and whatnot), why would they nuke it? They also get free boosting from users leaving reviews as well.

It’s not as lucrative as search, but I would be very surprised if it’s a loss-leader. Surely it’s not costing $5+B to run…

Player2 ,

In my personal experience it has been getting consistently worse over the last 6 or so years. It used to be nearly perfect but now it is somewhat common that the directions will be wrong or misleading

starman ,
@starman@programming.dev avatar

GMaps WV

drspod ,

Go on then, LTT. Delete your youtube account.

Dsklnsadog ,
@Dsklnsadog@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

They are leading in the right direction. I think that’s the important.

dustyData ,

I disagree, he is just mad because he wants to keep all the ad money for himself and thinks YouTube is stealing his profit. This is the “ad blocking is piracy” guy afterall. There’s not a single moral shred in that video, it’s all patronizing and capitalist greed. He just wants to keep all the subscription money without having to share it with anyone.

halcyoncmdr ,
@halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world avatar

They have already started their own platform, Floatplane. And other creators are on it as well.

Simple fact is though, YouTube is still king, and so leaving YouTube entirely isn’t tenable at this point. But they are already working on alternatives.

slimarev92 ,

Apparently they’re going to address YouTube replacements in the second part of the series. Also I’m fairly sure they spoke about Youtube ReVanced a couple of times before.

Alatarius ,

Having issues playing this in mobile browser. Can’t copy like to play in NewPipe mobile.

Whirling_Cloudburst ,

Try just putting the end into the search.

/watch?v=YnSv8ylLfPw

sugar_in_your_tea ,

But YouTube links auto-open, which is why I post YouTube links. I suppose I could figure out how to associate all these random sites (Piped, Freetube, probably others) with YouTube, but surely URL redirectors work better when using the original source URLs instead of a laundry list of different URLs.

On Lemmy, we have the Piped bot, so the inconvenience for those who don’t have those URL redirects configured is to go to the comments and click a link.

akwd169 ,

Check out my other comment on this thread for a quick breakdown of YouTube/piped/invidious/etc links

Tattorack ,
@Tattorack@lemmy.world avatar

Half the time piped links won’t work for me and the other half of the time the videos buffer incredibly slow.

OpenStars ,
@OpenStars@discuss.online avatar

On the one hand, there are true alternatives like Vimeo. On the other, sometimes you just need to access an existing video…

akwd169 ,

I had a similar time with piped not working reliably, I prefer invidious, specifically iv.ggtyler.dev has pretty much always worked for me

Anyways, It’s really easy to just swap for another instance or whatever

OP link is

piped.video/watch?v=YnSv8ylLfPw

Just take everything after the domain and TLD

(everything after “piped.video”)

And slap it on the end of another instances domain and TLD

(For example iv.ggtyler.dev)

End result:

iv.ggtyler.dev/watch?v=YnSv8ylLfPw

It even works with YouTube:

youtube.com/watch?v=YnSv8ylLfPw

uuhhhhmmmm ,

I think it’s not a good idea to leave links to Piped instead of YouTube (same for Nitter/Twitter, Libreddit/Reddit, etc.). If you want to avoid YouTube, then just install LibRedirect extension or similar. Piped links are temporary, they’ll break sooner or later, making it difficult for people to get to the website.

Kushan ,
@Kushan@lemmy.world avatar

The problem that I see is that all of these alternatives still rely on YouTube at the end of the day.

And the cost of setting up a new video hosting site that’s free to consume content from is ridiculous.

denshirenji ,
@denshirenji@lemmy.world avatar

Something that is federated like PeerTube would solve that specific issue, I believe. Many sites with their own user able to interact with each other. The biggest problem there is that there exists no good app to interact with PeerTube. You can use NewPipe or Greyjay, but you have to know the PeerTube instances first, no what’s popular in the fediverse tab.

Dariusmiles2123 ,

Peertube is great. And while the lack of an app is a problem, the lack of having a way to make money out if your videos is a bigger one for creators.

For now, they have to rely on Patreon or an equivalent.

denshirenji ,
@denshirenji@lemmy.world avatar

That is a good point, I appreciate the response. I wonder if there is a way to attract advertisers responsibly, or if advertising is really the best way to monetize content. I’m not in that world so I don’t know the best solution in that regard, but a monolithic entity certainly isn’t.

puppy ,

And while the lack of an app is a problem,

You can watch PeerTube videos on NewPipe.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Greyjay

Grayjay is great IMO. It combines video from a variety of sources, such as YouTube, Odyssee, Rumble, PeerTube, Twitch, etc. I disable most of those, but I do have some channels on multiple platforms. Also, there’s a feature to recognize the same content across services for the same creator, so users can choose the service they want the content from.

It’s Android only, so hopefully they add more platforms eventually. One annoying thing is that it’s not really open source, it’s just “source available,” but that’s way better than the propriety platforms they’re providing an alternative to. That said, there are a few things I don’t like about it:

  • rotate doesn’t work reliably for me - I just got a new phone, so I’ll see if it’s still an issue
  • seems like it uses way more resources than necessary (i.e. compared to NewPipe)
  • kinda buggy sometimes - it is getting regular updates, so I think it’s just growing pains

And some things I love about it:

  • available outside of the Play Store - I get updates within the app, just like on a desktop app, or I can install through F-Droid (they have their own repo)
  • PiP - I like having it open while wasting time on Lemmy
  • no ads or other nonsense - you can buy a license, but features aren’t gated behind paying (I’m planning to pay once rotate is fixed)
denshirenji ,
@denshirenji@lemmy.world avatar

I mainly use Grayjay, and I did pay because I believe that if I use a product and you ask for payment, I will pay. The only thing that I have found lacking is the lack of a good autoplay feature. I don’t use autoplay most of the time, but it makes driving easier, as well as finding new content/creators. Rotate is weird, I have a few bugs there as well.

However, I still think the point stands that it is difficult to find content creators because there are a thousand instances and no real way to parse the creators in a reasonable way, in order to find new content. You can find instances, but that is the long way. There needs to be a way to parse what is on the peertube part of the fediverse easily before it is going to be remotely appealing/usable to anyone outside our very niche, very nerdy circle.

On mastodon, for example, I can search for a hashtag and it will search the entirety of those servers federated with my home server for that hashtag. Do that with peertube, and its the best option for users, IMHO. Monetization will have to get worked out to attract creators.

Grayjay, though, great app with some room to improve. Already better than NewPipe in some ways.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

My new phone doesn’t seem to have the rotate issue, so the biggest annoyance for me now is the lack of channel playlists (i.e. go to a YouTube channel and see their curated playlists). I don’t need that to pay though, so I’ll probably go pay soon.

And yeah, it’s a great app. I still need NewPipe though.

spez_ ,

It’s on YouTube

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