#android device manager app

[ds4u]

MDM solutions can seamlessly integrate with other security and business apps, making managing everything in one place easier. Instead of using multiple platforms, administrators can apply all rules and policies from a single dashboard. This helps manage devices, even using different operating systems, all from one system.

[techarihsaanway]

Unleash the Power of Samsung M31s: Ultimate Review!

Welcome to our in-depth review of the Samsung M31s! In this video, we delve into every aspect of this incredible smartphone, exploring its features, performance, and capabilities. Whether you're a tech enthusiast or a casual user, this review is your ultimate guide to understanding the Samsung M31s. Join us as we uncover its strengths, weaknesses, and everything in between. Get ready to unleash the power of Samsung M31s!

Know more

[homeymate]

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[thebibliosphere]

do you have any recommended apps for playing hunger pangs audiobooks/reading the epub with?

On Android and iOS devices the native e-readers like Google play and Books can read the ebook file just fine.

It can also in theory be opened with the kindle app though that needs to be configured manually.

If you are on a desktop device then Calibrr works really well. https://calibre-ebook.com/

For the audiobook the files should work with anything that supports mp3s. I use vlc media player on my phone.

If you’re on desktop you can also load it into the windows player, or something again like vlc media player which is free and open source.

Hope that helps!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

An Epic antitrust loss for Google

A jury just found Google guilty on all counts of antitrust violations stemming from its dispute with Epic, maker of Fortnite, which brought a variety of claims related to how Google runs its app marketplace. This is huge:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/11/technology/epic-games-google-antitrust-ruling.html

The mobile app store world is a duopoly run by Google and Apple. Both use a variety of tactics to prevent their customers from installing third party app stores, which funnels all app makers into their own app stores. Those app stores cream an eye-popping 30% off every purchase made in an app.

This is a shocking amount to charge for payment processing. The payments sector is incredibly monopolized and notorious for its price-gouging – and its standard (wildly inflated) rate is 2-5%:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/04/owning-the-libs/#swiper-no-swiping

Now, in theory, Epic doesn't have to sell in Google Play, the official Android app store. Unlike Apple's iOS, Android permit both sideloading (installing an app directly without using an app store) and configuring your device to use a different app store. In practice, Google uses a variety of anticompetitive tricks to prevent these app stores from springing up and to dissuade Android users from sideloading. Proving that Google's actions – like paying Activision $360m as part of "Project Hug" (no, really!) – were intended to prevent new app storesfrom springing up was a big lift for Epic. But they managed it, in large part thanks to Google's own internal communications, wherein executives admitted that this was exactly why Project Hug existed. This is part of a pattern with Big Tech antitrust: many of the charges are theoretically very hard to make stick, but because the companies put their evil plans in writing (think of the fraudulent crypto exchange FTX, whose top execs all conferred in a groupchat called "Wirefraud"), Big Tech keeps losing in court:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/03/big-tech-cant-stop-telling-on-itself/

Now, I do like to dunk on Big Tech for this kind of thing, because it's objectively funny and because the companies make so many unforced errors. But in an important sense, this kind of written record is impossible to avoid. Any large institution can only make and enact policy through administrative systems, and those systems leave behind a paper-trail: memos, meeting minutes, etc. Yes, we all know that quote from The Wire: "Is you taking notes on a fucking criminal conspiracy?" But inevitably, any ambitious conspiracy can only exist if someone is taking notes.

What's more, any large conspiracy involving lots of parties will inevitably produce leaks. Think of this as the corollary to the idea that the moon landing can't be a hoax, because there's no way 400,000 co-conspirators could keep the secret. Big Tech's conspiracies required hundreds or even thousands of collaborators to keep their mouths shut, and eventually someone blabs:

https://www.science.org/content/article/fake-moon-landing-you-d-need-400000-conspirators

This is part of a wave of antitrust cases being brought against the tech giants. As Matt Stoller writes, the guilty-on-all-counts jury verdict will leak into current and future actions. Remember, Google spent much of this year in court fighting the DoJ, who argued that the company bribed Apple not to make a competing search engine, paying tens of billions every year to keep a competitor from emerging. Now that a jury has convinced Google of doing that to prevent alternative app stores from emerging, claims that it used these pay-for-delay tactics in other sectros get a lot more credible:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/boom-google-loses-antitrust-case

On that note: what about Apple? Epic brought a very similar case against Apple and lost. Both Apple and Epic are appealing that case to the Supreme Court, and now that Google has been convicted in a similar case, it might prompt the Supremes to weigh in and resolve the seeming inconsistencies in the interpretation of federal law.

This is a key moment in the long project to wrest antitrust away from the pro-monopoly side, who spent decades "training" judges to produce verdicts that run counter to the plain language of America's antitrust law:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/13/post-bork-era/#manne-down

There's 40 years' worth of bad precedent to overturn. The good news is that we've got the law on our side. Literally, the wording of the laws and the records of the Congressional debate leading to their passage, all militate towards the (incredibly obvious) conclusion that the purpose of anti-monopoly law is to fight monopoly, not defend it:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/14/aiming-at-dollars/#not-men

It's amazing to realize that we got into this monopoly quagmire because judges just literally refused to enforce the law. That's what makes one part of the jury verdict against Google so exciting: the jury found that Google's insistence that Play Store sellers use its payment processor was an act of illegal tying. Today, "tying" is an obscure legal theory, but few doctrines would be more useful in disenshittifying the internet. A company is guilty of illegal tying when it forces you to use unrelated products or services as a condition of using the product you actually want. The abandonment of tying led to a host of horribles, from printer companies forcing you to buy ink at $10,000/gallon to Livenation forcing venues to sell tickets through its Ticketmaster subsidiary.

The next phase of this comes when the judge decides on the penalty. Epic doesn't want cash damages – it wants the judge to order Google to fulfill its promise of "an open, competitive Android ecosystem for all users and industry participants." They've asked the judge to order Google to facilitate third-party app stores, and to separate app stores from payment processors. As Stoller puts it, they want to "crush Google’s control over Android":

https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/epic-v-google-trial-verdict-a-win-for-all-developers

Google has sworn to appeal, surprising no one. The Times's expert says that they will have a tough time winning, given how clear the verdict was. Whatever this means for Google and Android, it means a lot for a future free from monopolies.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/12/im-feeling-lucky/#hugger-mugger

[iamgaygaygay]

Alright so two days ago my battery DRAINED like crazy. Like, it was almost dead by 4 pm where it usually has at LEAST 50%, but usually more than 60%. This is after the UI 7.0 update, universally hated.

Bonus Note: to turn off the stupid separate notifications/other panel thing, swipe down on the notification bar → click the edit button (the pencil) → click "panel settings" (top left) → change from "separate" to "together"

I went into my battery to see what was draining it...

Lo and behold, it's AI shit that nobody wants ✨

BUT don't panic, I figured out how to fix it! (Cut here so it doesn't clog up feeds) :)

You need to go to settings → apps and then click the filter button (see below if you don't know where it is, drawn very shakily in blue) and select "Show system apps"

To find our culprit, scroll down to the "P" apps, and click on "Personal Data Intelligence". Here's where it's draining your battery: the permissions that it automatically accesses for no reason but to (presumably) put AI stuff/options on there!

Clear the data first, I don't know if it actually did something but it made me feel better.

Now deny all of the permissions it has access to. It's going to show a pop up every time claiming that features of your device (AI features) won't work as intended and you're going to click "deny anyway" for ALL of them.

I don't know if it affected anything, but I also: blocked notifications, set default to other apps so that it wouldn't open, turned off background data usage (in the Mobile Data section)

Also, don't forget to make sure it can't change your system settings!! I don't know what it wants to change, but it might turn the permissions back on and continue draining your battery if you allow it to change system settings.

While you can't do it with this, with other apps you can change the battery usage to "restricted", meaning it will not run in the background (as much) and use less battery!

Here's the results from today, I have used it less than yesterday but it didn't even show up on the battery usage list so I think I fixed it!!

I've also done this process and/or deactivated (bolded ones are for sure AI or similar stuff) (these are my personal preference): AI Wallpaper, Android System Intelligence, Avatar Editor, Avatar Stickers, Bixby, Bixby Vision, Customization Service, Drawing Assist, Galaxy Avatar, Galaxy editing service, Galaxy Themes Service, Game Booster, Game Optimizing Service, Gaming Hub, Gemini, Google Location History, Google Play Services for AR, Hey Google Hotword, all of the "Knox" stuff, LiveEffectService, MDMApp, Meet Installer, Meta App Installer, Meta App Manager, Meta Services, MhsAiService, Modes and Routines, OK Google Hotword, Recommended Apps, Reminder, Samsung Checkout, Samsung Cloud, Samsung Cloud Assistant, Samsung Editing Assets, Samsung Intelligence Voice Services, Samsung Internet, everything with "Smart" in the beginning of the title, Video Effects, Voice Wake-Up, aaaaand WiFiAiService

Please let me know if there are any other AI apps or annoying system apps that I can turn off that I missed!

[aro-culture-is]

Aro culture is, when forced to buy a Google phone cuz that's all you can afford, trying your damnest to use the invasive advert tracking to your advantage.

i.e. periodically typing in "I'm aromantic" to the chrome search bar & loudly saying it into the phone speaker in the hopes you'll stop getting jump-scared by an influx of dating app ads when forced to watch them in mobile games

,,, please. i beg of you. do not. for one, google doesn't recognize that as a metric, at best it places you into a queer category and targets you with ads that are promoted to queer people. They do not bother with granularity, because the advertisers are who are paying for categories or lack thereof. they also probably categorize you as single when you do that stuff, which again, defeats your goal. if you want to tell advertisers to get out here's actually a pretty simple thing to look for:

from there, consider:

install the firefox app (free), and use the uBlock Origin extension (best adblocker, free... and still works on youtube and twitch if you use the firefox app to load them)

i also recommend the breezewiki extension (free), because fandom wiki sucks on an ethics level, and this directs you to an identical, but ad-less page so they don't get money from you.

anyways my solution is stop seeing ads lol

related: install bitwarden as a password manager. it's free, well-established and credible, and you can use it on both android apps and firefox (as an extension) (also on any device in general). you only ever have to remember one password, preferably new, ever again. it's got the rest for you, stupidly well encrypted, and you can store data like security question answers, secure notes, and more!)

[mariacallous]

The eye-popping scandal surrounding the Trump cabinet’s accidental invitation to The Atlantic’s editor in chief to join a text-message group secretly planning a bombing in Yemen has rolled into its third day, and that controversy now has a name: SignalGate, a reference to the fact that the conversation took place on the end-to-end encrypted free messaging tool Signal.

As that name becomes a shorthand for the biggest public blunder of the second Trump administration to date, however, security and privacy experts who have promoted Signal as the best encrypted messaging tool available to the public want to be clear about one thing: SignalGate is not about Signal.

Since The Atlantic’s editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, revealed Monday that he was mistakenly included in a Signal group chat earlier this month created to plan US airstrikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen, the reaction from the Trump cabinet’s critics and even the administration itself has in some cases seemed to cast blame on Signal for the security breach. Some commentators have pointed to reports last month of Signal-targeted phishing by Russian spies. National security adviser Michael Waltz, who reportedly invited Goldberg to the Signal group chat, has even suggested that Goldberg may have hacked into it.

On Wednesday afternoon, even President Donald Trump suggested Signal was somehow responsible for the group chat fiasco. “I don't know that Signal works,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I think Signal could be defective, to be honest with you.”

The real lesson is much simpler, says Kenn White, a security and cryptography researcher who has conducted audits on widely used encryption tools in the past as the director of the Open Crypto Audit Project: Don’t invite untrusted contacts into your Signal group chat. And if you’re a government official working with highly sensitive or classified information, use the encrypted communication tools that run on restricted, often air-gapped devices intended for a top-secret setting rather than the unauthorized devices that can run publicly available apps like Signal.

“Unequivocally, no blame in this falls on Signal,” says White. “Signal is a communication tool designed for confidential conversations. If someone's brought into a conversation who’s not meant to be part of it, that's not a technology problem. That's an operator issue.”

Cryptographer Matt Green, a professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University, puts it more simply. “Signal is a tool. If you misuse a tool, bad things are going to happen,” says Green. “If you hit yourself in the face with a hammer, it’s not the hammer’s fault. It’s really on you to make sure you know who you’re talking to.”

The only sense in which SignalGate is a Signal-related scandal, White adds, is that the use of Signal suggests that the cabinet-level officials involved in the Houthi bombing plans, including secretary of defense Pete Hegseth and director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, were conducting the conversation on internet-connected devices—possibly even including personal ones—since Signal wouldn’t typically be allowed on the official, highly restricted machines intended for such conversations. “In past administrations, at least, that would be absolutely forbidden, especially for classified communications,” says White.

Indeed, using Signal on internet-connected commercial devices doesn’t just leave communications open to anyone who can somehow exploit a hackable vulnerability in Signal, but anyone who can hack the iOS, Android, Windows, or Mac devices that might be running the Signal mobile or desktop apps.

This is why US agencies in general, and the Department of Defense in particular, conduct business on specially managed federal devices that are specially provisioned to control what software is installed and which features are available. Whether the cabinet members had conducted the discussion on Signal or another consumer platform, the core issue was communicating about incredibly high-stakes, secret military operations using inappropriate devices or software.

One of the most straightforward reasons that communication apps like Signal and WhatsApp are not suitable for classified government work is that they offer “disappearing message” features—mechanisms to automatically delete messages after a preset amount of time—that are incompatible with federal record retention laws. This issue was on full display in the principals’ chat about the impending strike on Yemen, which was originally set for one-week auto-delete before the Michael Waltz account changed the timer to four-week auto-delete, according to screenshots of the chat published by The Atlantic on Wednesday. Had The Atlantic’s Goldberg not been mistakenly included in the chat, its contents might not have been preserved in accordance with long-standing government requirements.

In congressional testimony on Wednesday, US director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said that Signal can come preinstalled on government devices. Multiple sources tell WIRED that this is not the norm, though, and noted specifically that downloading consumer apps like Signal to Defense Department devices is highly restricted and often banned. The fact that Hegseth, the defense secretary, participated in the chat indicates that he either obtained an extremely unusual waiver to install Signal on a department device, bypassed the standard process for seeking such a waiver, or was using a non-DOD device for the chat. According to political consultant and podcaster Fred Wellman, DOD “political appointees” demanded that Signal be installed on their government devices last month.

Core to the Trump administration’s defense of the behavior is the claim that no classified material was discussed in the Signal chat. In particular, Gabbard and others have noted that Hegseth himself is the classification authority for the information. Multiple sources tell WIRED, though, that this authority does not make a consumer application the right forum for such a discussion.

“The way this was being communicated, the conversation had no formal designation like 'for official use only' or something. But whether it should have been classified or not, whatever it was, it was obviously sensitive operational information that no soldier or officer would be expected to release to the public—but they had added a member of the media into the chat,” says Andy Jabbour, a US Army veteran and founder of the domestic security risk-management firm Gate 15.

Jabbour adds that military personnel undergo annual information awareness and security training to reinforce operating procedures for handling all levels of nonpublic information. Multiple sources emphasize to WIRED that while the information in the Yemen strike chat appears to meet the standard for classification, even nonclassified material can be extremely sensitive and is typically carefully protected.

“Putting aside for a moment that classified information should never be discussed over an unclassified system, it’s also just mind-boggling to me that all of these senior folks who were on this line and nobody bothered to even check, security hygiene 101, who are all the names? Who are they?” US senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, said during Tuesday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

According to The Atlantic, 12 Trump administration officials were in the Signal group chat, including vice president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and Trump adviser Susie Wiles. Jabbour adds that even with ​​decisionmaking authorities present and participating in a communication, establishing an information designation or declassifying information happens through an established, proactive process. As he puts it, “If you spill milk on the floor, you can’t just say, ‘That’s actually not spilled milk, because I intended to spill it.’”

All of which is to say, SignalGate raises plenty of security, privacy, and legal issues. But the security of Signal itself is not one of them. Despite that, in the wake of The Atlantic’s story on Monday, some have sought tenuous connections between the Trump cabinet’s security breach and Signal vulnerabilities. On Tuesday, for example, a Pentagon adviser echoed a report from Google’s security researchers, who alerted Signal earlier this year to a phishing technique that Russian military intelligence used to target the app’s users in Ukraine. But Signal pushed out an update to make that tactic—which tricks users into adding a hacker as a secondary device on their account—far harder to pull off, and the same tactic also targeted some accounts on the messaging services WhatsApp and Telegram.

“Phishing attacks against people using popular applications and websites are a fact of life on the internet,” Signal spokesperson Jun Harada tells WIRED. “Once we learned that Signal users were being targeted, and how they were being targeted, we introduced additional safeguards and in-app warnings to help protect people from falling victim to phishing attacks. This work was completed months ago."

In fact, says White, the cryptography researcher, if the Trump administration is going to put secret communications at risk by discussing war plans on unapproved commercial devices and freely available messaging apps, they could have done much worse than to choose Signal for those conversations, given its reputation and track record among security experts.

“Signal is the consensus recommendation for highly at-risk communities—human rights activists, attorneys, and confidential sources for journalists,” says White. Just not, as this week has made clear, executive branch officials planning airstrikes.

[sadcena]

How to Download Audio Posts on Tumblr Mobile (2024) Android

Post in video X

Things you'll need: FireFox, Xkit Rewritten extension, and an Android Device

Link to my other tutorial: How to Download Videos on Tumblr Mobile X

Step by Step guide under the cut

Find an audio post

Scroll down and click on the share button (the arrow button)

Click on the FireFox icon (if it's not there click on the 'Other' icon and scroll until you see the Firefox icon)

Firefox will open the audio post in your browser

Click on the kabab menu in the upper right hand corner( 3 vertical dots)

Click on 'Add-ons'

Go to the top of the menu and click 'Add-ons Manager'

Scroll to the bottom of the menu and click 'Find more Add-ons'

It'll take you to a Firefox extension webpage

Type 'Xkit' in the search bar above

Click on Xkit Rewritten

Click add to Firefox

A popup will appear. Click add

*optional: click add to private browsing ( for convenience)

Click 'okay, got it'

Click on the Kebab menu again and go to Add-ons

Click on 'Add-on Manger'

Look for Xkit Rewritten and click on it

Click on settings

Scroll to the bottom of the menu

Enable 'Vanilla Audio' by pressing the switch

Back out of all the menus

Go back to the audio post

A new grey scrub bar will appear on the purple audio post bar

Long press on the grey scrub bar (the timestamp area is a good spot)

Click 'Save file to device '

Your device may ask you to complete the action using an app. Click on Firefox

Then you're done

You can rename the audio file you just downloaded in your file directory app. You can most likely find it under audio and in the downloads folder

I'm sorry if the tutorial sounds condescending. I just want to make it as clear as possible. Also I do understand that Xkit can be used for more than downloading audio posts. This is mainly for people who don't use desktop Tumblr

[changes]

Wednesday, July 5th, 2023

🌟 New

We now show audio information you add (like title, artist, album, and album cover) for uploaded audio on the blog network.

On web, links to the Mass Post Editor now open in a new tab.

On web, on the mobile layout of the site, tapping a blog’s info (avatar, name, or title) inside the Account menu in the navigation drawer will now go straight to that blog's management view.

Previously, it was possible that we could recommend different reblogs from a post you had dismissed. Now, based on your feedback, we will no longer recommend a post or any of its reblogs for a month after dismissal.

🛠 Fixed

On web, when using a touchscreen device, the toggle button for expanding a blog's stats in the Account menu is now much easier to tap, regardless of the site layout.

Folks on the latest version of the iOS and Android apps should no longer experience audio from ads autoplaying (even when no ad is visible). If you still do, please contact support!

🚧 Ongoing

We're aware that the Notes view on the iOS app can sometimes appear broken after re-launching the app. Fully closing the app might fix this. We should have a more permanent fix in the next update.

Staff are hard at work updating our docs. If you see anything confusing or out-of-date, please send some feedback!

🌱 Upcoming

We're rolling out the ability to have more than one type of badge visible next to your blog. This option will be available soon!

Experiencing an issue? File a Support Request and we'll get back to you as soon as we can!

Want to share your feedback about something? Check out our Work in Progress blog and start a discussion with the community.

[thesimstree]

TST Tree App is now available on the App Store and Google Play! 🌳

It’s now even easier to manage your Sims legacy right from your phone or tablet! 📱

Download:

App Store (iOS)

Google Play (Android)

♻️ Note for Android users: Some devices might have a small zoom bug when viewing the tree — but good news: we’ve already found a fix and it’s coming in the next update! 🛠

⭐️ Don’t forget to leave a rating and a review! It really helps us grow and make the app even better!

Thanks for being with us! 💚

🌱TheSimsTree

❗️Support 🌸Our blog

[danieyells]

Hi danie!! ive been super hyperfixated on tkdb and ive been curious about the in game models, ive seen people access them through live td and would liked to do the same. i found your post explaining the process after having the files but i couldn't find one that would explain how to access those files and get them from the phone to the pc!

Hi! Welcome to the hyperfixation!! :'D I thought I explained it briefly in a post but. It's fine I'm planning on making another post with the full step by step process in the future, and making sure it's in my pinned for easier access 👍🏾 but in the meantime I can try and explain!

If you have an iphone you're out of luck unfortunately. Apple doesn't let you access your files to my understanding, even wired in.

If you have an android or you use bluestacks to play the game on your pc(and I'm sure it's accessible if you play tokyo debunker through the pc google play thing but I haven't explored that myself yet) all you need is a wire that connects your phone to your device! You probably already have one of these if you have a USB cable that connects to your phone for charging, but some cables are charge only so do be aware of that.

As a reminder you'll basically only have access to the ones you've seen in game. Sometimes they get cleared too, so you may be missing some you haven't seen in a while. They do also sometimes update sprites, especially to add expressions or features or to fix things. However they may not delete the original folders that contain the old stuff when they redownload them, and AssetStudioGui doesn't try and read them in order of last updated. So you may have to manually go through and figure out which is the newest and which was updated and so on. . .which is much easier from on your phone and i recommend File Manager Plus if you plan on doing this a lot and it's available to you! You could also just delete the contents of the folder and manually redownload everything as you go tbh lol

All you have to do is plug your phone into your PC and navigate to the game files. That should be something like This PC\[PHONE NAME]\Internal storage\Android\data\com.zigzagame.tokyodebunker\UnityCache\Shared . If you have it on an SD card first of all tell me how because that'd make transferring so much easier for me-- and you can't/don't want to remove the SD card to insert into the device, the file path will be a bit different for the first few folders.

The filenames are encrypted so you won't know which is which. You're just gonna have to move all of them unfortunately. This will take A While depending on how much is in there. Once you've done that though you can kind of work around that in the future by only moving any newly updated or added folders, but that requires another app that lets you navigate to the files from your phone(see: previous rec of File Manager Plus) and sorting them by date and. It's a whole thing that can take a long time.

Hopefully that helps! Lmk if you need any further explanation 👍🏾

[tequitoclown]

List of programs and stuff I use

[pt: List of programs and stuff I use ./end pt]

Disclaimer: This is in no way trying to say I have the best setup of all time or anything. The point of this post is mostly to introduce people to cool things they may not know about, or a place to point to when someone asks what I use!

(Last updated: 6/28/24)

Browser

[pt: browser ./end pt]

Firefox (Windows/Linux/MacOS/Android/IOS) - Obviously I recommend Firefox above all else, especially with chromium-based browsers moving onto manifest V3.

Bitwarden (Windows/Linux/MacOS/Android/IOS) - Good password manager! Used it for years with no complaints!

AdNauseam (Firefox/Chrome) - My adblocker. It's built upon uBlock Origin and has all the same features, but it actively clicks on the ads to waste advertiser money. If that's not up your alley, uBlock Origin is fantastic too!

Wayback Machine extension (Firefox/Chrome/Safari) - Allows you to make snapshots of pages, or view old snapshots if a page isn't loading correctly!

XKit ReWritten (Firefox/Chrome) - Pretty much a must-have for Tumblr. Has a ton of features to make navigating this site much better. Full feature list here!

Discord

[pt: Discord ./end pt]

Vencord (Windows/Linux/MacOS) - A modified Discord client that adds support for plugins and themes. Basically allows you to install plugins from a massive list that improves Discord. (Technically against ToS. Basically, don't post that you're using it in big servers, and turn off your themes before sharing screenshots.)

Bunny (Android/IOS) - If you miss Vendetta for Discord, Bunny is an actively maintained fork of Vendetta! Basically the same as above, but for Android/IOS instead of desktop. Same warnings about ToS apply.

Aliucord (Android) - Miss the old Android app feel, and still want to have plugins/themes? Pretty cool but has a less impressive theme/plugin selection. Same warnings about ToS apply.

Bluecord (Android) - Another Discord modification without the new Discord UI!

Youtube

[pt: Youtube ./end pt]

Freetube (Windows/Linux/MacOS) - A desktop Youtube client with adblock and sponsorblock built in. Still in beta, but very good.

Sponsorblock (Firefox/Chrome) - Pretty much a must-have for watching Youtube these days. Automatically skips over sponsors, self-promos, interaction bait, outros, intros, etc. Highly configurable!

Dearrow (Firefox/Chrome) - Haven't used this very long but I love it. Gets rid of vague or clickbait titles/thumbnails and replaces it with descriptive and more accurate thumbnails. Also built into Freetube now!

Newpipe (Android) - Lightweight Youtube client. I haven't used it myself much but people swear by it!

ReVanced (Android) - Modded Youtube client with Sponsorblock, Return Youtube Dislike, and Youtube Premium features. Doesn't support Dearrow as of 6/25/24 :( (PLEASE BE CAREFUL INSTALLING THIS. If you don't know what you're doing, you can cause some damage!)

Spotify

[pt: spotify ./end pt]

Spicetify (Windows/Linux/MacOS) - Spotify modded client. Has adblock, themes, etc! Think Vencord, but for Spotify.

Misc.

[pt: Misc ./End pt]

Obsidian (Windows/Linux/MacOS/Android/IOS) - Basically a personal wiki for notetaking! A bit of a learning curve. Fanfic writers and worldbuilders... go feral.

Notepad++ (Windows) - A must-have text editor. Might be on more platforms but can't confirm?

Mullvad VPN (Windows/Android) - The only VPN I can 100% recommend. Cheap, fast, and really cares about your privacy. It's a little under $6 USD a month!

NVDA (Windows) - A free screenreader I use for reading large blocks of text. (Notice: I am not visually impaired to the point I rely on a screenreader to navigate my PC. I use it on occasion to read text to me because I have a hard time reading. If you're looking for advice on screenreaders for the visually impaired unfortunately I'm not a good source! Maybe check out the #visually impaired, #blind, or #accessibility?)

Syncthing (Windows/Linux/MacOS/Android) - Lets you sync folders across devices. It's especially good with Obsidian.

"Tequito, I didn't find what I wanted!"

[pt: "Tequito, I didn't find what I wanted!" ./end pt]

I'm sorry. :( If you're looking for a program I have personally mentioned using in the past, feel free to shoot me an ask or DM! Or hey... maybe try searching the letters "FMHY" and having a look around? *wink*

[bluesturngold]

Hi, do you have a source that the tumblr breach is from 2013?

Hey, thank you for asking!

The article included in that post states that pretty much all of the leaked info in the big database that was published comes from old breaches. It doesn't really suggest what amount of the data could be new, or where it might have come from, other than that if there is new data it's only a small portion of the records. In essence: there's no evidence that suggests Tumblr has been breached a second time. That idea was erroneously posited by the OP of the Tumblr post who shared the article, and they've since apologized in the reblogs.

They meant well!

Anyway, you can check to see whether your info is included in this specific breach, and if so what site(s) it came from, by using the tool here: https://cybernews.com/personal-data-leak-check/

An additional anecdote: if you've ever used Google One's tool for checking where your stolen information is being posted on the web, it specifically flags when something it detects is a republishing of old data rather than a new breach. People repost stolen data a lot in order to sell it after the original post gets taken down, or to clean it up so the data is easier for people to access and use.

I can't suggest people go check Google One for themselves because I'm pretty sure the security monitoring functionality is paid (I have Google One for expanded cloud storage, the security monitoring is a relatively recent perk, I think), but Have I Been Pwned is generally the best free option. Firefox Monitor, a Mozilla service for checking whether your data is secure, is powered by HIBP, so better to just go to the source imo.

After checking again, HIBP doesn't seem to have this breach fully catalogued yet (it's a lot of stuff to go through, so that's normal), but the Cyber News tool that was linked in the article in the original post (and which I linked previously) kinda tells you most of what you need to know.

I recognize this isn't as concise as posting a link to an article that debunks rumors of Tumblr getting breached a second time, but the breach is new and also contains nearly 30,000 information sources (my data was found leaked from 10 different sources, all of which I knew about already because they were old, one of which was Tumblr) so honestly I don't think it's even worth focusing on Tumblr on its own tbh.

If you reuse passwords it honestly might be worth it to get a strong password generator and a password manager, then spend a free afternoon going through and updating your accounts. I use Firefox browser's in-built password manager with a strong-but-memorable password for my Firefox account because you can sync passwords between desktop/mobile/various devices, plus there's integration with autofill on Android if you set Firefox as the autofill app in your default app settings.

[colorico-art]

Resource - Digital Tool Assets

Okay, so I've jumped around with several programs to try out based on the needs I had at any given time. These are program specific assets and resources that I've come across while using testing out the various programs.

Sketchbook

I still use this program, though strictly while on-the-go (I use an Android tablet). I personally use it more for quick sketches and then carry them back onto my PC to render, but I know @kreature1827 uses the app and has done some incredible work within the app. The link provides free brush and texture assets.

The program does work across multiple platforms, however I am unsure if there are any sync features present.

Clip Studio Paint

I purchased this program some years ago and tried it out for a bit, and don't get me wrong: it's a really good program. The issue I personally have is that when I moved over to Linux, CSP has no functionality within the system (that, and the pricing model past V1 was not something I personally liked to get involved with). The CSP Asset store is accessible through the program, and includes a lot of brush, pattern, model, and stamp assets.

Since CSP moved into a subscription model, they've added the option to have the program sync with multiple devices.

Krita

This is my current program of choice, and it's also one of the programs I started out using when I looked into illustration work. I did drop it a couple of times, though the reasons were always surrounding the need for on-the-go use and resource management (before Krita 4, it demanded so much out of my laptop that I couldn't use it effectively). The link provided provides a ton of brushes, plugins, and tutorials.

Krita does have an Android app available for beta testing, however my reason from moving away from the mobile app was due to the odd interactions within the app (i.e. some of the tools, like Transform, don't behave properly and require multiple specific alterations to only get a half-decent result).

Medibang Paint

This is what I used whenever I got a tablet before I coming across Autodesk Sketchbook. It's a very robust program, but it does have a specific use for manga art work. You can make some custom brushes, however the program didn't particularly click with me or how I approach my art pieces (i.e. I didn't stick with it at all). The link provided gives program-specific tutorials on getting specific results, such as halftone screens and tool usage.

Medibang is excellent with the cross platform use (it's even better than CSP in that it's free with a simple account), and can be synced with almost any device or operating system. The program does feature ads, which I personally detest. But the ads aren't intrusive and they're mainly out of the way.