Nope, I’m out.

From the person you replied to, emphasis mine:

You could also start with just one of these

Yes, you need an Internet connection at some point. This can be a cafe, a library, an office, your house, friend’s house, etc. As for controlled by the government, well, that depends on your country.

Worst case, if possible, you can move countries. I understand that might not be feasible, but my point is, you can move countries to escape the government and Internet restrictions. But the government locks your account/bank? Moving countries doesn’t fix that, and you’re locked out of any money you had there.

But even if I have a server, I’ll have to have my own separate Internet if I really want to be able to pay unrestrictedly.

Separate Internet? I mean, yes, you do need Internet. Not sure what you mean by “separate.” And you don’t need a server (node), though they are handy for privacy. You could choose one that is reputable.

Otherwise the government would just shut down my internet connection, right?

If they knew where it/your Internet was. All you really need is your phone or PC. You could use a cafe or library or cell tower or etc.

Nobody is doing that now, with regular money, either.

I think it’s more for ACH between banks as well as some banks have limits. Also, a government literally stepped in to actively block people’s accounts. Just because you can swipe your card and buy a soda, doesn’t mean there aren’t restrictions or people being blocked.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday financial institutions have moved quickly to freeze the accounts of people linked to the demonstrations in Ottawa, leaving an unknown number of protesters in financial limbo

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ottawa-protests-frozen-bank-accounts-1.6355396

five simultaneous logins…you and five of your friends…get the price down to $1 a month.

You (1) + 5 friends = 6, which is more than 5. So where does the extra dollar go and who doesn’t get to login?

This is not terribly new, and requires more investigation. One of the bugs appears to be due to Mullvad, other is potentially an Android bug.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40252719

We are self-funding. The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

Top facts you should know | Postal Facts - U.S. Postal Service (usps.com)

You don’t need a video camera pointed out towards the public 24/7.

Depends on where you live. Being notified of packages at your door is handy before they get stolen.

And being able to see who knocks on your door is also handy without exposing your eye to the tiny (and glass) peephole.

As well as being able to see who approaches when you’re not even there.

Making a fuss then electing the same…isnt progress, its surrender

And guess what you complaining here and then your inaction does, and symbolizes? Pretty much this.

The trick is to pick the lesser of the two evils.

If you want to start small, I’d go with one supported by Asuswrt-Merlin, “a third party alternative firmware for Asus routers, with a special emphasis on tweaks and fixes rather than radical changes or collecting as many features as possible.” Keeps it close to stock with minor upgrades, and a faster release cycle for fixes. The RT-AX88U_PRO is one of the higher end routers that is supported by Merlin.

I’m on mobile so can’t see the sidebar…

Then I recommend upgrading your mobile experience to one that does. I personally prefer Voyager, “an Apollo-like open source web client for Lemmy. It’s a mobile-first app, but works great on desktop devices, too.”

Voyager PWA: https://vger.app/ Source code: https://github.com/aeharding/voyager

Unless they qualify because they refuse to work…No, not wanting a job is very understandable.

Yes, it is understandable. Not many people actually want a job. As long as they don’t act on that and are actively working (or trying to work), regardless of if they want a job or not, and don’t expect a handout from those who do work, simply because they understandably don’t want a job. Otherwise, that’s called being a leech and a drain on society and those who do work.

Edit: or do you think everyone should quit their job they don’t want and get free handouts? How do you expect society to function if no one works, because no one wants a job? For that matter, who’s going to give you that handout if the person filing and validating it quits as well? Hmm…

I dont like that phrasing. To me, that implies all browsers are based on it, not just those on their recommended list (as in Chrome).

You know landlines are still in use, right?

Mine didn’t work so well when I left the house.

I guess people just started to realise that mini x86s exist too

People always knew x86s existed. I think the main culprit is the price gap between them and Pis is decreasing. Pis used to be around $35, which has skyrocketed to 3-5x MSRP, plus they were unavailable for a long time. Now the Pi’s performance to price ratio isn’t justifiable to most, so people pay a little more for the x86 but get so much more capability.

uses something called tellynet (aka telnet but I was playing dumb)

I wonder if he got the joke, or was a scriptkiddie who just relies on existing tools without understanding them, and thought you meant television or similar.

“There are no seeding rules…if you fall below a 0.5 ratio, your downloads will be disabled.”

That there sounds like a seeding rule.

I just checked Lineage OS and it looks like Google Play Services doesn’t let you disable sensors permission. Can you do it on Graphene OS?

Yep, there’s a toggle to disable by default globally. I also individually checked Google Play Services, Google Play Store and Google Services Framework, and all three can be denied the Sensors permission.

This is due to Sandboxed Google Play: “GrapheneOS has a compatibility layer providing the option to install and use the official releases of Google Play in the standard app sandbox. Google Play receives absolutely no special access or privileges on GrapheneOS as opposed to bypassing the app sandbox and receiving a massive amount of highly privileged access. Instead, the compatibility layer teaches it how to work within the full app sandbox.”

Sensors permission toggle: disallow access to all other sensors not covered by existing Android permissions (Camera, Microphone, Body Sensors, Activity Recognition) including an accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, barometer, thermometer and any other sensors present on a given device.