#Does Google Maps Use Data

[zetexa]

Does Google Maps Really Use Your Data? Here's What You Need to Know

Curious to find out if Google Maps is using your data? Google Maps has become an irreplaceable navigation tool, providing detailed maps, traffic information, and route recommendations taking personal concerns. Nevertheless, data usage issues still arise, leaving people with doubts about when and how Google Maps uses their data. Along with grasping data usage of Google Maps, we will also delve into the eSIM technology that can enhance your navigational experience by consuming less data.

With eSIMs, international travelers can enjoy seamless connectivity and stay connected while exploring new destinations without worrying about excessive data charges. Let's explore how best global eSIMs complement Google Maps usage and facilitate hassle-free travel experiences. 

Does Google Maps Use Data?  

Google Maps retrieves data from various sources to provide users with accurate and up-to-date information. It has become an indispensable tool for navigating our world, providing detailed maps, real-time traffic updates, and personalized route recommendations. However, a nagging question often arises: Does Google Maps use data? Understanding how much data Google Maps uses and how to minimize it can be a concern, especially for users with limited data plans. 

Factors Affecting Google Maps Data Usage

While Google Maps does rely on data to function effectively, the amount of data it consumes can vary depending on several factors, but here's a breakdown to help you understand: 

Map Imagery: Does Google Maps use data for visuals? Absolutely. High-resolution maps and satellite mode require downloading imagery from Google's servers, contributing to data usage. Avoid zooming in for extreme detail or constantly switching between map views. 

Real-Time Traffic Updates: Does Google Maps use data for traffic? You bet! Real-time traffic updates are valuable, providing information on congestion, accidents, and alternative routes. However, these updates require continuous data refresh to display current traffic conditions, impacting your data usage. 

Route Calculation: Does Google Maps use data to plan routes? While route calculation doesn't consume significant data, the continuous updating of route information during navigation does. As you travel, Google Maps factors in real-time traffic and other changes to suggest the most efficient path, requiring data to function. 

Points of Interest: Google Maps displays points of interest (POIs) like restaurants, gas stations, and attractions. But does Google Maps use data for POIs? Yes, it does. This information is constantly updated based on user feedback and changes in business details. Accessing and refreshing POI information requires data connectivity.

Ensuring Efficient Data Usage with Google Maps 

Since Google Maps does use data, here are some tips to optimize your usage: 

Download Maps for Offline Use: Does Google Maps use data on Android even when you're offline? No, if you download maps for offline use before traveling to areas with limited connectivity! 

Adjust Settings: To minimize data usage, modify Google Maps settings to lower resolution imagery and limit data-intensive features like satellite view when not needed. 

Monitor Data Usage: Monitor your data usage through your device's settings or a data monitoring app to avoid exceeding your data limit. Does Google Maps use data on iPhones? Yes, Google Maps does use data on iPhones, just like it does on Android devices. The data is primarily used to download map information, real-time traffic updates, and features like searching for locations. 

Plan Routes in Advance: Plan your routes and familiarize yourself with directions before starting navigation to minimize data usage during transit. The less you need to use real-time features while navigating, the less data Google Maps uses. 

Best Global eSIM Options for International Travel 

For international travelers seeking seamless connectivity, eSIM technology offers a convenient solution. Here are some of the best global eSIM options for international travel:  

Zetexa: Zetexa is one of the best Global eSIM options, offering a variety of data plans to suit users' varying needs. You can choose between local and regional plans. 

Ubigi: Ubigi provides global eSIM plans with coverage in over 190 countries, offering data-only and data + voice plans for international travelers.  

Airalo: Airalo offers eSIM plans with coverage in over 190 countries, providing data-only plans suitable for international travel. 

By utilizing their international eSIM options specifically designed for global travelers, you can save costs and stay connected all the time. International travelers can enjoy seamless connectivity and stay connected while exploring new destinations. 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, Google Maps remains an invaluable tool for navigation and exploration, providing users with comprehensive maps and real-time traffic updates. While it does consume data, understanding its usage patterns and implementing data-saving techniques can mitigate its impact on your data plan. Utilizing offline maps, adjusting settings, and monitoring data usage are effective strategies for managing data consumption. 

For seamless connectivity and enhanced travel experiences, consider downloading the ZetSIM app on Google Playstore and Appstore. With coverage spanning over 180+ countries, ZetSIM+ simplifies activation and plan management for global travelers. By leveraging this app, you can stay connected effortlessly, ensuring smooth navigation and exploration wherever your travels take you.  

FAQs 

How much data does Google Maps use per hour? 

On average, Google Maps uses approximately 0.5 MB of data per hour of navigation. However, data usage can vary based on factors such as route complexity and traffic conditions. 

Do you need data for Google Maps? 

While certain Google Maps features can also be used offline, full functionality, including real-time navigation and traffic updates, requires a data connection. 

How much data does Google Maps use for navigation? 

Google Maps consumes data for various purposes during navigation, including route calculation, real-time traffic updates, and map imagery. On average, Google Maps uses approximately 0.5 MB of data per hour of navigation. 

[bigidiotenergytm]

Ok, Ody, I know you're depressed and all, and I know that you probably don't wanna socialize, sooooo, I set ya up for a phone (I'll pay the data and shi) for music (and google maps😔) :3 Your email is Odysseus.Of.Ithica.MonsterRawrRawrRawr, and your password is VaseilosTelemachus♡

ody: CAN A DEPRESSED PERSON DO THIS? -goes to fight monsters-

fmtd!ody does have a phone, but... yeah he doesn't use it a lot

[prettyinpwn]

I know I'm gonna sound like a crazy old broken record... but hear me out. Lots of speculation as to the true purpose of the thisisnotawebsitedotcom.com thing beneath the cut.

So... does anyone else feel like the ARG website is... odd? Like it's leading to something more coming? And before anyone screams, "Well, ackshully, Hirsch said he doesn't want to do a Season 3-"

YES. I KNOW. He said no Season 3 a million times. I was there when he told us Season 2 was it for the first time. But what he didn't say, however, was, "No more Gravity Falls anything... EVER.". Hence why we've gotten Journal 3, Lost Legends, and now The Book of Bill. Hirsch is veeerrrrry comfortable making more GF stuff.

And as someone that studied programming in college, I can tell you, this website does not seem like it was easy or cheap to make. It's effectively a single screen point and click game in a browser. Looking at the code, it seems they did use a framework called Bridgetown, lacing in looped animated MP4 files with clickable assets on top that make up the interactive elements (e.g the computer), with a lot of content made for the website itself from image files and text for each prompt a user might type. Sure, it's not the most difficult thing to program, but it's a lot more complex than, say, the searchfortheblindeye site back in the day.

That, and as someone who has worked in the corporate world, I'm sorry, but you don't pour this much effort/money into something that is just "lol cool things after product for funsies". If this was just for The Book of Bill, the smart marketing decision would have been to make the lofi album and the website, tease fans with both of them, and let them lead to an announcement of the book itself to tempt them into buying it, not the other way around. Like... Disney ain't gonna do that just out of love for fans. It's Disney, come on. They do things for money.

It's possible that Hirsch paid for it himself just for the fans, but I doubt it. Wanna know why? Because of the website's security certificate and ownership. Let's take a gander at this:

There are two odd things here. One, the range of the expiration. Most security certs last 1-2 years, at least they did at one of my previous places of employment (and we had like 50+ of them). This one expires November 7th, 2024. Odd, but maybe they only want the website up for a few months? Anyways, as an aside, everyone keep an eye out for November 7th, 2024. Could be nothing, could be something.

The other weird thing is the domain holder. Looking it up on ICANN, it gives this address:

Look that up on Google Maps, and it takes you to a company called Dun and Bradstreet. Long story short, the company does a bazillion things, but the main thing we're talking about here is:

Oh gee, Sales and Marketing. And their Sales and Marketing tools? Basically, they use data to tell companies who their audience is, so that they can market to them. Now, why would Disney care about this for a fandom for a show that's been done for almost a decade, just for a book that was released before said website (so we know they're not gathering marketing data for the book)?

Well, if I were to guess... long story short, all this stuff is a tactic to gauge who the Gravity Falls audience is now. Release the book, make some dough and fans happy, tie in a secret marketing data collection gimmick (AKA the website) using D&B as a vendor to hook the data into your CRM, send fans to a website to collect marketing data, and shabam. Now you know who the target market is all this time after.

And why in the hell would a company care about that? You tell me. Why care about who a target market is if you're not planning on marketing something to them later?

It could be that Disney is planning something similar to Gravity Falls and wants to gauge if there'd still be a market for that kind of show. Or... it could mean that Disney is planning on something more substantial related to Gravity Falls or Hirsch pitched it, and they were like, "Well, wait, let's collect data on this, first, so we'd know if it'd be a good business decision.". Not sure.

I mean, maybe I'm crazy, but doesn't this seem fishy to anyone else? If anyone else has any hypotheses as to why Hirsch and Disney have a Gravity Falls website owned by D&B, let me know, but to me... this smells... very... marketing oriented. And Hirsch doesn't seem like the guy to pour his own money into hiring an outside company to gather marketing data, that seems more up Disney's alley.

[fuckingrecipes]

How does one actually build a useful repository of recipes for different cuisines? Like, I have the Silver Spoon which is a pretty good cross section of Italian cooking. I know more than enough variations of the typical french mother sauces to get the principles without a need for a recipe. I know from various Euro cuisines particular flavors that pair well I could build a dish around (like, I could make a goat cheese and caramelized onion soup without the need of someone telling me a recipe). I don't have any such data sets for other cuisines, and you know the recipe website world is a hell scape.

Tried and true method is: Cook often, try new things, and save it if you like it.

Get a blank notebook (or a 3-ring binder) and collect recipes yourself as you try them. You can write recipes in by hand, or print them off & punch for the 3-ring binder.

Go to restaurants which serve food you want to explore, and take a picture of the food, record the name of it on the menu, and note some of the ingredients that you can identify in it.

If you live in a small town with not many places that serve 'foreign' food nearby, get off google. Use DuckDuckGo or Brave as a search engine. They have very few ads and the search algorithm prefers when you get to the point in your recipe blog, rather than dicking around with your life story.

Do a little tour on your world map. Focus on countries, search for food from that country, then search for specific kinds of food from that country. Search for things like "Authentic Turkish Stewed Chicken" "Traditional Brazillian Goat Recipe" "Hong Kong Street Food Recipe" "Collection of Taiwan Recipes" "25 amazing Korean dishes" "10 best Cajun Soul Food Recipes" "Dominican Republic Cuisine Recipes"

Go watch cooking tiktoks that aren't european-centric; go out of your way to find them.

Go down a list of spices and pick one you've never tried before. Look up where it's traditionally used, and try to find some dishes that use that spice!

Go to your Local Library and dig into their cookbook section. Every library has one! Look for cookbooks focused on cuisines you don't know yet, and try those recipes!

If you're cool spending money on this, go to Half Price Books or other book-reselling stores where you can find cook books at really low prices. Again, explore the cuisines you're not familiar with.

If you have grocery stores for other cultures near you, go into their grocery! Check out what spices have a shitload of different brands on display, and pick one at random. Seek out a recipe that uses that new spice you just bought.

And remember: Write that shit down!

You can always have a little guide at the front or back of your recipe collection that explains different spice blends, or explains key sauces, or anything else!

You can keep a little guide on how roasting spices changes them, and your experiments with that.

You can keep a list of bread recipes, or cooking hacks like how to make really good naan without a woodfire grill.

---

Personally, I'm forgetful. I forget sites exist, forget logins, and lose passwords all the time. I have about a hundred recipe collections across about as many websites, and I know where like, 3 of them are right now. Many of those websites have gone down, and my lists are lost forever.

The book of recipe & food-tips collection I've kept & used the longest - my Food Grimoire - is a physical item that I can misplace in my house but never truly lose. It can't have its server crash or website maintenance suddenly be abandoned and blip out of existence.

[wolfcat-hybrid]

i havent been internet roadtripping can you tell me how you got denyed entry to canada. does the website just have usa data.

I may have been doing one of my classic lies when I blamed border control for not letting us into Canada. I mean, the existence of controlled borders is definitely the main reason this happened in the first place, but they aren't directly responsible.

What happened is, the car can only take routes that have been mapped on google street view. Not every road has been mapped, and sometimes coverage can be spotty.

There weren't any border crossings with great coverage in Maine. They all had gaps that the car wouldn't be able to jump. The crossing in Limestone had a smaller gap, and through testing (including confirmation by the actual developer) it was determined that the car COULD make the jump across this specific check point.

We got to that check point tonight, and no dice. We had to turn around.

The devastation at the border happened around ~1am EST, so making a new plan (and figuring out why the Limestone crossing failed in the first place) has been a bit slow, since most folks are asleep. For the last hour or so the car has been basically circling around the crossing, buying time while those awake theory craft and debate new plans.

I don't think we're going to come to any conclusions tonight, personally, unless the night shift manages to solve the mystery.

I'm gonna go to bed for the night, we'll see how things stand in the morning.

UPDATE: The current theory I see floating around is that an update that let the car go a bit faster may have caused the issue. There seem to be ongoing attempts to retry the crossing to see if we can brute force it to work.

[theydjarin]

How is your no goog journey?

It’s been okay/about the same!

Still using Proton for email and VPN. The VPN is on the router level and blocks ads/trackers which is fantastic. There are some apps that simply don’t load that I have used data instead of the wifi/vpn for.

Firefox instead of Chrome, Ground News instead of google news. Apple maps instead of google maps (not GREAT but still think google is more of an evil there), and I don’t use the “login with google” email for anything, I try to disconnect if it was one I did before.

I’ve been struggling with search engines unfortunately and I find myself defaulting to google search mostly. I’ve had too many problems with duckduckgo giving bad results.

Also, there’s unfortunately no real alternative to YouTube, even having access to the offshoots like Second Try, Dropout, Nebula, etc. There’s FreeTube but it’s not really compatible with how I watch.

But - On the whole, the goal is to avoid trackers and ads, so at least by diversifying and using alternatives for most things, I can minimize it. And the VPN does a lot of heavy lifting too

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 11/19/2024

no silly little witticism here this week! just heartfelt thanks for helping me pay my rent this month :)

listening

absolutely wild pick from last week's spotify weekly recommenced, Things Will Fall Apart by Louis Cole feat the Metropole Orkest and conductor Jules Buckley. it's been on loop all week for me and im a little sad it won't pop up in my spotify wrapped

when you make a dance pop song with a full orchestra backing, it has a really interesting effect somewhere between Golden Age of Hollywood swashbuckling film score and marching band?

Yes, understood Things will fall apart just likе they should This little shred was good Don't think it through Things will fall apart, they always do At least, something's always true

the syllables are so choppy they don’t even register to me as English at first, i was fully willing to believe this was German for the first couple lines. like @dying-suffering-french-stalkers, i have a deep fondness for works about putting an era to bed. or works focused on the sunsets of things, or one of the last living practitioners of an art. putting the chairs up on the table, sweeping the floors, and turning the lights out and locking the door behind you. this song has that sort of quiet post-wake-party remembrance.

however once you think the song has ended but it keeps going, you can turn it off. you don’t really need that extra minute and a half of strings and light vocalizations.

Lately, Louis Cole has been doing live shows with the Netherlands’ Metropole Orkest and conductor Jules Buckley. Cole recorded nothing with the ensemble. In a press release, he says, “Sometimes, when I’m mixing my own solo stuff, I’ll feel like a song needs a little magical dust. But mixing an entire orchestra and your own rhythm section, there’s so much human energy! You don’t have to add any magic. It was there the whole time.”

i don’t hear many pop songs this millennium with a full orchestral backing. perhaps i need to look harder. unfortunately spotify took this extreme interest in this song as a newfound extreme interest in electroswing, which is really not what this song is. i hope this artist does more albums like this so they can wear grooves in my brain

-

reading

very hard to focus on anything book length this week. some depressing local news (my local paper's links do Not want to preview nicely here, which is annoying:

At a city council meeting in October, district Vice President Dan Joyce told council members that the management district was not attempting to "criminalize homelessness." The city’s civility ordinance bans people from sitting, lying down or placing personal items or bedding on sidewalks from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

cool piece from our pals at 404 Media. i am So fascinated by crime infrastructure

Based on interviews with malware developers, hackers who use the stolen credentials, and a review of manuals that tell new recruits how to spread the malware, 404 Media has mapped out this industry. Its end result is that a download of an innocent-looking piece of software by a single person can lead to a data breach at a multibillion-dollar company, putting Google and other tech giants in an ever-escalating cat-and-mouse game with the malware developers to keep people and companies safe.

(via longreads) my interest in how and why systems fail extends to invasive species management. plus i used to live in florida just above the everglades and these fuckers (the snakes) were everywhere

[I]magine thousands upon thousands of pythons, their slow digestion transforming each corpse into python muscle and fat. Unaided, Florida’s native wildlife doesn’t stand a chance. “That’s what I think about with every python I catch,” Kalil says. “What it ate to get this big, and the lives I’m saving by removing it.” Biologists are taking a multipronged approach to the issue. They have experimented with enlisting dogs to sniff out both pythons and nests—a technique that has proved difficult in such hot weather and inhospitable landscapes. Ongoing projects use telemetry to track pythons to find “associate snakes.” Researchers use drones, go out in airboats, or even take to helicopters to locate their subjects in the interiors of the Everglades. Always, agencies and individuals are looking for the next best methods. “But for now, the python contractor program is the most successful management effort in the history of the issue,” Kirkland says. “We’re capturing more and more—something that is indicative of the python population out there and indicative of us getting better at what we do.”

-

watching

continuing noirvember, watched hitchcock's Notorious to see if i still dislike hitchcock. the answer is yes. there are bond girls and there are hitchcock girls, and not that bond girls are paragons of female agency in film, but hitchcock girls are mostly fluttering little pathetic things. a scrap of agency they showed in the beginning of the film becomes a running joke and something their noses are rubbed in for the rest of the film. not for me!

patrick mcgoohan is leading me into some real dad-ass movies. Ice Station Zebra (1968, dir. Sturges) is a real you're stuck at home sick with your dad and it's on TV for the whole afternoon kind of movie. they truly do not make two and a half cold war submarine espionage films in super panavision with an overture, intermission, and interact music any more. i get why howard hughes was really obsessed with this one. it is a suspense film, but full of people competently going about their business, which i find oddly comforting.

unfortunately i do not feel this really needed to be two and a half hours long. the loving closeups of sub interiors and instrumentation really did keep me amused, though. despite how cluttered every shot is with actors, there is tremendous clarity of purpose and motion with the camera movement. just a really technically brilliant film.

how similar the russian and american control rooms and instrumentation were made me chortle. ties nicely into a little diatribe mcgoohan goes on much later in the film, "The Russians put our camera made by our German scientists and your film made by your German scientists into their satellite made by their German scientists." funny and darkly true! every allied nation had some sort of Operation Paperclip going on! mcgoohan is the focus of every scene he's in, as a spy who is really hanging on by the last remaining shreds of his fingernails.

i had a good time with it, but one of many cold war suspense films im glad exist in the world but don't necessarily need to see again. it might join Escape from New York as a film i put on when im very sick though.

-

playing

this pc needs some sort of replacement something, bc it has a really persistent overheating problem. it only tolerates powerwasher simulator on the lowest possible settings and genshin impact on basically mobile settings. it does not even want to run new vegas. i popped my head out of goodsprings to look out over the desert at the Strip and it said no thank you! too many polygons! naptime!

speaking of genshin, major update this week and new character i will be pulling for. she has a sister who died in the last patch, which i do Not care for as someone with a beloved little sister, but her moveset and skills are unique so far in the game. i feel like her skills are little too complicated for me to fully take advantage of with my "hit enemy very hard until he is dead" playstyle but she has a limited flight ability that will genuinely be very useful for exploration.

if i do not get her when i hit pity on the banner i won't bother pulling another nine times or whatever, bc the next patch has a character i really desperately want and i am saving for her

-

making

the local crew is all getting art this year, bc i already have bristol board and a selection of small frames and zero budget. people who have pets are So easy to get gifts for bc u can simply get them stuff for their pet or that looks like their pet. way less gray cat than black cat merch in the world tho

aiming to send out international holiday cards by the end of the week, and canadian cards by american thanksgiving. the rest of you they'll get there when they get there ok

[naxalbari1967]

The CIA Cannot Breathe Without Palantir

Palantir is the black box behind the American empire. CIA cannot operate without it. Pentagon cannot function without it. Wall Street, ICE, police departments, spy agencies across Europe, even vaccine rollouts and disaster responses, they all run through Palantir's platforms. It is not a software company in any traditional sense. It is the digital nervous system of surveillance capitalism and imperialism. And yet the average person has no clue what it actually does because it operates in the shadows, just where the people funding it want it.

Start from the top. Palantir was co-founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, a far right billionaire who once said democracy is incompatible with capitalism and openly supported Trump. His philosophy is openly anti democratic, pro monopoly, and techno authoritarian. Palantir was created with seed funding from In Q Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm. That alone tells you what the company is designed to do. Weaponize data for imperialist surveillance, control, and repression.

Palantir sells data integration platforms like Gotham and Foundry. What that means in practice is that they scrape, analyze, and unify data from every source. Financial transactions, phone records, health records, social media, police body cams, military intelligence, even utility usage. Then they make that information searchable and visualizable for cops, spies, and soldiers. Think of it like Google for the deep state. It is not about giving you personalized ads. It is about mapping insurgent networks in Iraq, targeting activists in the United States, or optimizing drone strike lists in Yemen.

During the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, Palantir’s software was used by United States forces to track, surveil, and kill. Former soldiers have talked about how Palantir’s real time analytics helped them plan raids, preempt IED attacks, and identify people of interest from scraps of metadata. That same software now powers predictive policing in American cities. LAPD used it. NYPD used it. ICE used it to hunt down undocumented immigrants. What began as counterinsurgency in Fallujah is now domestic repression in Ferguson, Oakland, and Atlanta.

Palantir’s Gotham software is basically tailor made for counterinsurgency. Its interface lets users tag individuals, visualize networks, create behavior patterns, and forecast future activity. That sounds like science fiction nonsense until you realize it is real and already being used on people who have never been convicted of a crime. Palantir does not just collect data. It gives the state the tools to interpret that data in ways that justify violence, surveillance, and incarceration. It creates its own reality and then acts on it with guns and prisons.

Foundry, the other big product, is marketed to corporations. But what is the difference between a corporation and the state when we are talking about Lockheed Martin, JPMorgan Chase, or the CDC. Foundry was used during the COVID pandemic to manage vaccine distribution, but it was also sold to hedge funds, oil companies, and police departments. The idea is to make decision making data driven. Which in practice means opaque, centralized, and optimized for profit and control. It is algorithmic governance without accountability.

Palantir is everywhere. It works with the United Kingdom’s NHS, with NATO, with the United States Army, with Homeland Security, with the IRS, with the Department of Health and Human Services. It is running parts of America’s welfare state and warfare state at the same time. It is inside banks, hospitals, refugee camps, and prisons. And it is aggressively expanding into the private sector while remaining utterly unaccountable to the public. You cannot vote them out. You cannot audit their code. You do not even know where they operate half the time.

And they like it that way. The whole branding of Palantir is rooted in Tolkien’s magical seeing stones which allowed you to spy on faraway people and events. In the books, the Palantir stones ultimately corrupted their users and served Sauron. It is darkly fitting that this surveillance tech company chose that name. They know what they are. And they lean into it.

Palantir claims they do not run facial recognition. That is a lie. Multiple leaks show that their software integrates facial recognition data from other systems. They say they do not sell to foreign governments unless vetted. But they sell to the United Kingdom, to Israel, to EU agencies involved in refugee detention, and to militaries deploying against migrants and dissidents. Their contracts are usually classified. Their deployments are usually secret. They operate through cut outs, subsidiaries, and pilot programs that get no public scrutiny.

The problem with Palantir is not just the software. It is the philosophy behind it. Peter Thiel and his company believe that the world is too complex for democracy. That data and algorithms, not people, should decide. That surveillance is the price of safety. That rebellion is terrorism. That information should flow upward to power, never downward to the public. And that anyone who resists this is a threat.

If you have ever wondered why social movements seem to get infiltrated, disrupted, and preempted faster than before, it is not just COINTELPRO two point zero. It is software like Palantir. If you have ever wondered how ICE finds families in hiding, how cops find so called gangs based on school photos, or how Wall Street firms track unrest in real time to shift their investments, it is not magic. It is Palantir.

This is what the future of imperialism looks like. Less boots, more bots. Less jackboots, more code. The empire no longer just drops bombs. It mines metadata. It does not just kick down doors. It flags you in a database first. And Palantir is the beating heart of that machine.

And the terrifying part is that most people still think of it as just another startup. Another innovative tech firm. The press barely covers it. Congress barely regulates it. And activists only know it exists when it is too late. When their friends get arrested. When their organizing gets disrupted. When their emails leak and they wonder how.

Palantir is not just a tool. It is the infrastructure of the modern surveillance state. It is the logic of counterinsurgency embedded in code. And as long as we let it operate in the dark, it will continue to serve empire, kill resistance, and make dissent a data point to be eliminated.

You want to fight fascism. You want to fight empire. Learn what Palantir does. Expose it. Boycott it. Sabotage it. Because every freedom movement in the twenty first century is going to face this machine. And pretending it is not there will not save you.

[gatheredfates]

Hi everyone and happy weekend! I'm drowning at work, but I wanted to put out a Compendium update—thank you to everyone who submitted! I don't think I missed anyone but, if I did, I'll update accordingly. ✨

As of 08/10, the following communities have been added to Sea's Community Compendium for XIV Creatives.

LARGE-SCALE COMMUNITY DISCORDS / SPACES

Final Fantasy XIV Ontario — This server was created to connect gamers in (or near) Ontario, Canada who love playing Final Fantasy XIV. Events include monthly map nights and irl meetups!

COMMUNITY FOCUSED / EVENT SPACES

Dragonhead — An open-world roleplay event for Ishgardians (and their neighbours).

Echelons of Etheirys — A community fostering political and court life roleplay in the world of Final Fantasy XIV, featuring regency-inspired tropes and themes; located on the North American data centre.

Buscarron's Druthers — A weekly roleplay community effort to encourage in-character, open-world engagement in the South Shroud and beyond.

The Bloodsands — Interested in combat RP? We have the place for you!

Lark's — An Ishgardian club for men.

The Regency — A gentleman's club.

Eorzean Museum Network — A network of free, player-run, venues; encouraging, supporting, and growing cultural venues and events anywhere in the FFXIV community.

Azure Moon Lounge — A welcome respite from the elements, the room is always cool and the drinks are plenty. Hosted by @rhela-xiv.

MISC

Compendium of Non-Weapon Held Objects — This is an ever-growing compendium of non-weapon held objects found in FFXIV for modders and gposers to reference. It includes a description of the object, the set/base/variant for adding it in Ktisis/Anamnesis/Brio, as well other technical information. This database is currently maintained by Nhaneh, Ainyan, and Pointyhats.

Have you thought about joining our Tumblr Community? You can find it here!

Want to submit? You can either fill out the google form here or send me an ask with the relevant information!

Is my space suitable for the Compendium? Most of the time, yes! Below the read more is some more information/stipulations. This is all publicly available on the document.

Below are the following things I do not accept on the Compendium:

Personal/Single-Character LFC ads. (Though these get posted to the SEAFLOOR Tumblr Community when I find them!)

Content intended for or can be used for bullying, harassment and OOC gossip. E.g. ‘Secrets’ blogs, receipts, callout posts, etc. This does not include IC tabloid blogs or other ventures used to generate roleplay.

Communities that do not have an RP/writing element (large-scale exempt).

Anything I find personally distasteful or goes against the spirit of this project.

Common-sense rule applies.

I want to put my community on the Compendium but we have an application process. Is this okay?

Yes! Just note somewhere in your application that's a requirement. The only thing that is mandatory for the Compendium is that you must be open to new members or have a public-facing/accessible facet. There's no point advertising a community if no one can join it in some way!

I want to put my Community on the compendium but I only have x number of members —

Also totally okay! People don't start with large communities. Activity is a must but, whether your server has two or two thousand members, if you're looking for new people to join, I'd love to help you find people.

I want to put my community/resource on the Compendium but I worry its too niche?

Okay, and? If your Eorzean Fishing Alliance has four members but you roleplay every second weekend, I still want to know about it. The same goes for resources; if it's relevant to the game, it'll be useful to someone.

How active does a community need to be?

If you find a community has not been active in about two/three months, send me a message and I'll take a look at it. Communities have ebbs and flows, especially event spaces that may take hiatuses depending on member interest/life events. I'm not strict in my implementation provided a space isn't dead. If a link or anything is broken, contact me asap!

I have [insert a question not stated here]?

No drama! Send me an ask or use the #Compendium channel in my Discord!

[bomberqueen17]

we don't need no stinkin plan

my family is not big on like. planning for stuff.

we used to be. some parts of us still are. but communication is not our forte.

wittering about holiday plans and an upcoming Sudden Road Trip.

so this year thanksgiving was supposed to be us all together at Farmsister's. at the last minute, my oldest sister, the one with all the kids, had to cancel, because her middle child had a horrible case of walking pneumonia, and nobody was mad at her for this and we all regretted it but like yeah keep that shit home and let that baby rest! (He is fifteen. But yes he is baby and needed to rest. Don't worry he's okay now. It's just that what with Covid and everyone's immune systems destroyed, some truly wild exotic diseases are now sweeping through schools, and middle schoolers are now having to deal with the kinds of weird shit you used to only find in nursing homes. It's sort of grim. But he's okay.)

Anyway. I asked, as soon as the plans were cancelled, if we could instead perhaps all convene down at Older Sister's in Maryland at some point between Thanksgiving and Christmas. She put me off, as the logistics were too complicated, and I said perhaps we'd revisit a concept for early January or something? We could talk later, she had in-laws descending for Christmas and was overwhelmed in advance. Understandable. No problem.

Yesterday my middle-little sister texted me. "Hey Mom was so bummed about missing Thanksgiving with the grandkids, I texted Older Sister and came up with a plan for us to go down just for the weekend right before Christmas. But do you want to take my car and drive Mom down instead?"

This was a baffling question. Let's compare the routes here. Me driving to Maryland: I haven't put in the actual start and stop points, just the nearest big cities, but it's over 350 miles, in the six-hour range, but that's doable for a weekend trip. Not the nicest driving and a bit fraught in current weather conditions but doable. We've done it before. It wasn't super fun but it was okay. I do the 300-mile cross-NY jaunt constantly so this isn't that much more, it's just So Much PA and like. That's its own hell but survivable. (The cross-NY jaunt is a very easy 300 miles because there's not any appreciable terrain and 270 miles of it is one highway. So I know this is much more arduous driving, but it's not beyond what I can do in a day.)

[image: a google maps screenshot, zoomed out, showing a route beginning in buffalo and ending in baltimore, with a tag showing an estimated six hours nine minutes for 362 miles.]

But if I just "swing by" to pick up Mom, this is now the route:

[image description: a zoomed-out google maps screenshot now showing a route of more than 600 miles, 9 and a half hours, swooping straight east 300 miles from Buffalo to Albany, and then swooping down through New Jersey to Baltimore. Yes this is also general data, my mother does not actually live in Albany but rather somewhat near it. Don't put your mom's address on the internet guys.] That is NOT doable in a weekend or even in a single day of driving EITHER direction. Yes the 300 mile cross-NY jaunt is an easy day's drive but it very much is a day's drive.

"Why would you ask me this," I said to M-L, who immediately confessed that she had forgotten New York did quite so much New Yorking between us. The train is out of the question because both Mom and half a hog, frozen, in several large cardboard boxes, have to traverse the journey from Albany to Baltimore, and M-L can't take any time off work so it really does just have to be the weekend, and her whole thought process was that I could take more time off than that. Not two whole extra travel days worth of time though!!! and I am committed in Buffalo for Christmas, so this is not open-ended.

But anyway. M-L agreed she'd drive Mom down, but said Dude and I should come too, and I texted older sister directly to ask her if it was really on that M-L was inviting me to her house, and she was like yes actually i did say that to her, LOL. So anyway.

I had just decided that I wasn't going to actually get any fucking christmassing done, myself, so. Fine! Let's do a 700-mile road trip instead. Whatever! Maybe I should get my oil changed first.

(Do we take the one-year-old Subaru Forester with all weather tires, or do we take the gracefully-aging Mazda 3 that just got its winter tires on. Hmmmmmm... Honestly this is nice, neither of our cars is actual shit. A middle-aged pause ensues, while I contemplate how nice that is. Started from the bottom now we here. The mazda just had an oil change... the Subaru just ticked over its first 10k miles... last time we did this drive we hit lake effect at Batavia and the entire last 50 miles of the drive home sucked out loud but we'd been lucky up til then. it's survivable. we didn't die in iceland so we can do this probably. it's just so much pennsylvania.)

Anyway. I gotta do some Christmas baking I guess. And like. Get my shit together.

[noxiatoxia]

hi!! i hope you don't mind the ask ^^ i was wondering about how you got started with sprite ripping, specifically through tinke, because im trying to learn myself so i can rip as much as i can from the d.gray-man ds game and well..... it's definitely quite the process and im really unfamiliar with these things ;;^_^ i actually found your blog while searching for information which is why i thought to send an ask :0

Hey! I'm pretty flattered you thought to ask me!

So, I'm gonna go through several games, because it highly depends on the game and what you see. That way you have a lot of examples to work with.

Let's start with Death Note: Successor to L as that is the game I'm most know for ripping the sprites from. It is also a bit unstraight forward, which helps some things in explaining.

Upon opening the .nds file in Tinke, this is what we see.

Locate the "data" folder, click the +.

See this data.bin? Despite its icon, we do not want to unpack it.

Instead, we want to Open as > compress

You'll get a popup window called "Select Offset". Don't do anything; just click "Accept".

After a second of waiting, suddenly we have this huge list of new .bins! So where do we find the images?

Scroll until you find the LAST [IPAL] .bin. Everything under it will be the game's sprites.

So, everything under "data_15108.bin [IPAL]" in this case. So...where are the images?

Under it is data_15109.bin. And under that, data_15110.bin. Open as > compress them both.

Based on icon, we can see we have a palette file and a tile file. First, we have to open the palette file as a palette.

Now, let's see what happens if we open the tile file now... (as a tile, of course)

Well...that doesn't look right. For reference, this is the sprite in question:

So, why does it look like that?

What if we manually adjusted the width? You can hold down the up or down arrow to see it change in real time.

But setting it to 128.... (half)

Looks about the right size, just...cut off. We'd have to adjust the height, too.

Or, we can try opening it as a map instead and see if that helps. So let's try opening this file as map instead.

Ah! Did all the work for us! But...where's the other half of the sprite? And why are the colors weird?

Let's Open as > compress the .bin below...

...Well, there's the other half. So, you'll have to stitch them together. Ok, what about the colors?

This is where the palette comes in. Tinke will use the colors of the last palette you viewed. Thankfully, we know this is Light's palette since the palette file precedes all his sprites. But why is it showing up wonky?

See these bold colors up top? This is our issue. We need only one of these bold colors that is clearly not supposed to be a color in Light's sprite. Why? Because that will be the color of the sprite's background (which we can edit out later.)

See this start byte button? Keep clicking up, you will see the squares slowly move backwards (idk how to describe it, just hold down the up button and see for yourself). Do it until only the last bold color remains. Cyan, here.

Now, let's go reopen the image as map.

Perfect! You can even click that "Transparency" button to turn the bold color transparent.

Now, all you have to do is click "Export"

Here's the output:

Of course, the same will have to be done with the sprite below it, and then you'll have to stitch them together in any editing software or art software (MS paint, firealpaca are both free) and there you go! the sprite :)

Now, not all games are like this. So let's look at another.

Let's do Pokemon Black 2 (this is the JP version but as far as I know, both games have the same file paths)

Already, this looks WAY different. No Data folder. Just an "a" folder, with a million sub folders. How are we ever gonna find what we want?

Well, there's 2 answers. One is Google. I googled "Pokemon Black 2 sprite files locations" and got this answer:

So a > 0 > 0 > 4...

But what if Google doesn't have an answer?

Well...Sorry to say, at that point, it's a game of trial and error. You're going to have check everything yourself (that's what I had to do with the Death Note game).

But back to Pokemon. So, I open as > compress....

A little different here, too. But If I had to guess, 4_19.RLCN is our palette, and 4_20.bin (after we open as compress) will be our image.

Right I am. But opening the image as map, it still looks weird. I'll mess with the width - that usually works.

Just a few clicks of the down arrow and we got Bulbasaur.

However, this palette doesn't look like Bulbasaur at all. There's no green or anything...maybe the actual palette it at the bottom there?

So it is! You can tell just by looking at the colors that this is meant to be for Bulbasaur. The greens, blues, and reds for the mouth. Now, the question is how to get the right palette on it...

Unlike Light's palette from earlier, this one is much smaller, so we can tell the palette size is actually 16/16, not 256/1

Just switch it over.

I did 40 for the offset again, as this seems to be a regular number used for palette offsets.

And wouldn't you know it!!

Okay, I've hit image limit so i'll stop here. But I hope this helps. Some games are encrypted or use file types not recognized by Tinke, so if you're having additional troubles you can message me again :) otherwise I hope this helps. When in doubt just try opening everything and anything lol.

[epmegha]

Create Map to Identify Groundwater Decline and Recharge Gaps Using GIS Tools

Ever wonder where groundwater is disappearing fastest? Or which areas have the best chance of recharge? Whether you’re part of a local sustainability project or just curious about how water works underground, location matters — and so does how you visualize it. That’s where GIS (Geographic Information Systems) steps in.

Who’s Using It?

Researchers, NGOs, climate activists, planners — even students — are now using GIS to track groundwater trends and plan interventions. It’s not just for experts anymore. Tools like MAPOG make it easy to upload groundwater data, map it out, and spot patterns like:

Where water tables are dropping

Where natural recharge is possible

How land use or rainfall is affecting local aquifers

You don’t need fancy tech skills — just your data and a willingness to explore.

 Simple Tools, Smart Maps

Not a GIS geek? No problem. Platforms like MAPOG let you upload a spreadsheet of well locations, rainfall records, or recharge zones — and boom 💥 — you’ve got an interactive map showing your groundwater reality.

You can:

Color-code regions by water level

Highlight recharge zones

Add buffer areas around check dams or borewells

Share the map with your team or on social

 It’s like Google Maps, but for solving water problems.

 Why It Matters

Smart mapping = smarter water management. With GIS, you're not just reacting to droughts — you're planning where and how to recharge groundwater before it’s too late.

When your data is visualized clearly, it tells a powerful story: Where we’re losing water. Where we can save it. And where we need to act.

So... Have You Mapped Your Groundwater Yet?

Start today. Explore the terrain. Spot the gaps. Give your water project the spatial clarity it deserves. Because every drop—and every map—matters.

[stevensaus]

Closing Your Digital Front Door Before Protesting

As protests continue — and hopefully, continue to grow — there are some things to take into consideration.

First, it’s possible to quickly get striking, good looking signs inexpensively. I outlined how I made these superhero-themed signs back into 2018 in a blog post for about $5 each in this blog post: https://ideatrash.net/2018/03/howto-get-striking-and-inexpensive-foa.html

However, the other thing to consider is digital security. ActivistChecklist and The Markup have good resources; I did something slightly different though, and I thought I’d outline that as well.

I had purchased an old Android phone a while back to serve as a barometric pressure sensor off of eBay; I’d won that bid for about $30. It doesn’t have a SIM card, which means that it can only use wifi, but also isn’t tied to me in any way through the cell modem. That wasn’t a problem for my original use for it, but also meant that the guidelines above had to be modified somewhat.

The basic guidelines — turning off biometric unlocking and a lengthy PIN — still hold. I also put my emergency contact phone numbers as the “owner information” on the Android lock screen, so that the numbers are visible without unlocking the phone. (The process may vary from model to model, but some guides and examples are here and here, or you can create a lockscreen photo that has the appropriate information. This is an adjunct to writing those numbers on your arm with a permanent marker.

I installed Organic Maps for directions (because I suck at land navigation). It works completely offline without any problems whatsoever, including looking up points of interest that are already on the map. It’s good enough for regular use as well, in my opinion.

The biggest problem/hurdle is communication. Without a SIM card, you’re reliant on bluetooth or wifi to send or receive data. I did not install Bridgefy — partially because of the required Google login, but more importantly, because it kept crashing. I also tried Briar, but while it installed fine, and even was able to add contacts between this phone and my regular one, no messages got back and forth either via wifi or bluetooth. Signal, my normal go-to, was unfortunately out of the question, because it seemed very unhappy trying to link a second phone as a device. So I ended up putting DeltaChat on this secondary phone, which while meaning I’d be reliant on wifi, does have encryption and can also just use email as a back end as well. Worst case scenario, it’s like I’m back in the 1990s, oh well.

I also have an XMPP server running that could also provide encryption via Conversations. I also have a Matrix server on a homelab that can bridge connections to other networks (including SMS and Signal) as well. While there’s a small break in the E2E encryption with that setup, that break happens entirely and only on a computer entirely under my control that’s sitting in a reasonably secure location. (Also, I think I can enable it, but I haven’t, since it’s literally just me on there.)

After doing all of that, I disabled and deactivated and force-stopped every other bit of Samsung and Google installed on the phone that I could.

I’m perfectly aware that this is not a perfect or impenetrable setup. Ultimately, the best digital security here is to not take your phone at all and rely on paper maps if needed. I made compromises based on my technical ability and how much inconvenience I am willing to accept in the name of security. I’d compare this to locking your doors at night instead of leaving the front door wide open. Someone can still break in, but it’s not trivial for them to do so.

Your security requirements, technical ability, and resources will vary from mine. Mine may change as the environment in the US becomes worse.

But take the time to consider what you are able to do and are comfortable with doing instead of walking to a protest or other action with your digital front door entirely open.

Featured Image by Darwin Laganzon from Pixabay

via ideatrash

[wilteddreamsofbaldursgate]

2. Writing Set Up: Where to Write Your Draft

Before you even start writing, you’ll need to find a writing program/medium you feel comfortable working with. 

I promise you—from start to finish—you’ll look at your draft for a couple of hours at minimum, so I suggest you choose a program/medium that aligns with your individual needs. Now it’s time for you to identify what those needs might be. 

Here are some options:

Creativity strikes while you’re cuddled up in bed or on your commute to work? 

Try writing on your phone/tablet (unless you’re the one driving, of course!)—you can use pre-installed apps like Pages (iOS) or your Notes/Memo app. You can also download free writing applications like Google Docs. Google Docs works on and offline on basically any mobile device, which is great for when you’re on the go! 

You prefer writing/typing on a computer? 

There are many desktop writing programs like LibreOffice (free for Windows, Mac and Linux), MS Word (needs to be purchased/subscription-based), countless online text editors or the browser version of Google Docs. 

You need to physically feel the words flowing through your body? 

Well, imagine you’re a classic author and write them down by hand on generously perfumed paper (preferably with royal blue ink)! Of course, you can also use Post-it notes or that coffee-stained notebook from 2013. Regular paper will do, too, though it’s obviously not as cool. 

Of course, there are many more options to choose from, but since you’re just starting out, I suggest you try free and more readily available programs first. Everything has its pros and cons, but digital writing is generally pretty clean-cut and saves you the trouble of digitising hand-written drafts (which you’ll need to do if you want to share your writing online! Unless you want to share scans of your beautiful handwritten writing, of course!). 

But before you settle for one (or more!) program/media of your choice, you might want to consider a few things: 

Is your writing easily accessible to you? → Can you add to your draft whenever and wherever creativity strikes? 

Does your writing program save your progress automatically? → You don’t want to lose hours upon hours of work because you forgot to save your progress! 

Is your writing secure? → Is your writing uploaded to a cloud? Will you still be able to access your writing if your computer crashes or you lose your login data/ phone/notebook? Can you easily create external backups of your files?

It really doesn’t matter what you need to write down at this early point. Be it an idea, rough outline, dialogue, stream of consciousness, mind map or a finished draft—you just want your entire writing process to happen in a secure, accessible location that you feel confident working in. There is no perfect writing program; whatever program works best for you is the best program for you! 

For example: 

I almost exclusively write on Google Docs since it meets all my personal writing needs: It’s a free cloud service that syncs my files all across my devices (phone, laptop, tablet) regardless of where I am. It has an intuitive interface with all the basic writing/formatting tools I need. 

Once a month, I download my most recent drafts as “.docx”-files and back them up on an external hard drive—so even if I can’t, for whatever reason, access my Google Docs account, my files are still secured in a different location. 

Sometimes, I make use of handwritten notes, too—though I keep losing them or can’t decipher my handwriting…This seems minuscule or even funny, but it’s hard to come back to an idea when you’ve literally lost the physical manifestation of it! 

Next: The Idea: Coming Up With and Developing Your Idea (with examples)

Masterlist

[user20052005]

BLOG POST #2

How does the internet give opportunity to create feminism globalization?

The internet gives a pathway to women due to all the hierarchy that pushes males to have a bit more superiority. It can be used a tool to be able to switch identities or racial identities giving the opportunity to give space to feminism in the cyber world.

Why do marginalized groups face more surveillance?

Marginalized groups face more surveillance because of the use of public benefits. The data is collected and watched due to them being low income. There is an inequality between the low income and high because of our daily lives (use of public benefits). In my opinion it is unfair how low class income people get watched and get their data collected.

What happened during welfare credits?

The algorithm demonstrated how the technology would be used to support radical demands about the access of the impoverished. It turns out to be beneficial for areas with lower incomes.

What are digital security guards in technology?

The digital security guards are programs that gather data about our life when it comes to personal and everyday. This occurs through our social interaction, whereas when we view something or interact with it by liking or saving there are more similar products that begging to appear. Some examples that Eubanks uses is google maps because it is a tracker once we use it to get around. This is all surprising to me because the programs we are so accustomed to are probably the most dangerous.

[huurrefanfictionreadinglog]

Bug fix for Yearly Statistics

You can find the same blog post from Huurreauthor.com.

The first week after the release was definitely the busiest with bug reports and fixing them. There is one bug that has been such a nuisance and I'm still trying to get it fixed. It appears in the General Statistics tab with the Most popular in this fandom with some fandoms. I'm trying to map out if there is a specific pattern for this, so please, if you notice this bug, report it through the Bug Report form with the information of with fandom it appears.

I've got also some reports from the Fetch Data script when it doesn't do what it should and gives an error message TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'forEach'). So far it seems that it's maybe something on AO3's end (for example slowness as they have also reported that AO3 has been slow lately). So far the script has worked to the same link some time later.

If the script doesn't get the data to the file and does not show any error messages, the fanfic is most likely locked and therefore the script doesn't work on it.

I've got multiple good questions about the uses of different things and "Can I do this or that" in both Discord and Tumblr. I will gather them together soon, probably doing some kind of a collection blog post. Tumblr is a really good place to ask anything anonymously, but it is also possible through the Request a feature or leave feedback form that is linked to the file's Home tab. You don't need to leave your contact information and if there is a question without an email address, I will answer it at least in Tumblr. :) 

But now! To the real bug fix! I did this a bit differently because there were so many formulas to fix. For some reason, Most Popular Fandom and Most Popular Pairing have been giving random results in Yearly Statistics. These are already fixed to the public files so you can always make a new copy for yourself and copy fic information from your old file to the new one. I simplified the formulas a lot, although it meant also leaving out something. In this case, it doesn't count re-read fics when looking for the most common value. However, it will count them when the most common value is found.

First of all, you can find all the formulas and probably good enough instructions from this Google Sheets File. You can copy & paste fixed formulas for every year to the hidden support area you can find when you open the Yearly Statistics tab and click a small arrow in the top right corner. 

You can find the specific cell you should choose (but only click it once to choose it, not twice to activate it!) from the file. Note that the location is slightly different depending on if you have starting from 2024 or starting from 2025 version.

For additional help, please see the video below and if you need help further, please send an email or join my Discord! We can do it over screen share too, if necessary. (Though, it's not my favourite option and I can imagine that it's not that for other people either, especially with completely random, so I always try to get the problem sorted without that.)