• 6 Posts
  • 174 Comments
Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • Remember when Google backed off the changes to Chrome that prevented adblockers from working and a short time later implemented those changes anyway? Why TF would Google start caring about what users want now, especially since this issue is way less visible to most people? Google wants people to think they have a voice about what happens with Android, not to actually give them one.

    Blocking side loading will force apps and any generated revenue into Google’s Play store which is exactly the point of this no matter what Google says.

    The bloviating Google is doing now is irrelevant. The company will move forward with blocking side loading within the next few months, guaranteed.


  • Remember when Google backed off the changes to Chrome that prevented adblockers from working and a short time later implemented those changes anyway? Why TF would Google start caring about what users want now, especially since this issue is way less visible to most people? Google wants people to think they have a voice about what happens with Android, not to actually give them one.

    Blocking side loading will force apps and any generated revenue into Google’s Play store which is exactly the point of this no matter what Google says.

    The bloviating Google is doing now is irrelevant. The company will move forward with blocking side loading within the next few months, guaranteed.






  • Google Safe Browsing looks to be have been built without consideration for open-source or self-hosted software.

    IMO Google Save Browsing was built with consideration for open-source and self-hosted software, but it has nothing to do with user safety, just like blocking Android apps from 3rd party sites has nothing to do with user safety. The harder they make it to move away from their products by making using alternatives difficult, the more money they make and money is now the only objective. Even if this only adds a fraction of a fraction of a percent to their profit it’s something Google will implement.

    The old social contract of businesses being of benefit to the community as a whole in addition to making a profit is long gone.





  • This is why it’s a great idea to refuse to install everything that’s possible, including smart switches, cameras, lights etc. that rely on the good will of some company to keep running.

    Honeywell wifi thermostats worked great until they didn’t. Now their servers are often slow or down. TCP-Link smart bulbs reset regularly if their Internet access is blocked because TCP-Link desperately needs to keep track of when everyone’s lights are on and off. Plex wants us to log into their servers to watch content we’re hosting ourselves. Too bad if their servers are down. Security camera companies have been disabling local storage options without warning for years.

    Logitech actually planned to introduce a subscription mouse. Hopefully at some point people will get sick of this shit, refuse to put up with it and their sales will tank.


  • I had something similar happen with Google a few years ago. Even though I had my password and access to my email they decided I was trying to hack my own account and locked me out. Like you I immediately started to look for other solutions.

    Syncthing file sharing is really easy to install and use. There are no ports to configure on your router and everything is encrypted in transit. I have my phone’s DCIM directory set up to sync to my home server and PC so new photos are backed up and available everywhere in a few seconds. I installed Syncthing intending to move to another solution eventually, but it works so well (aside from one or two files that occasionally don’t sync) that I’ve just stuck with it.

    For passwords Keepass & KeepassXC work really well on just about every platform. I share the password file using Syncthing and in years of doing this I’ve never had a problem that I didn’t cause myself and those were minor.

    You can get both of these up and running with very little effort and quickly limit your reliance on Google, then move to other solutions if you find they’d work better for you.