Ha! Just checked and it turns out this is the exact line that’s already in my screenshot script. Which apparently I pilfered without trying very hard to understand - as usual! Can confirm it works great.

This is a good question. Phone numbers are increasingly used as de-facto ID numbers, everywhere in the world. That’s because, unlike email, they cost money, and in most jurisdictions you can’t even get one anymore without presenting real ID. So: if you have a second phone number, you can effectively have a second persona for any site or app that requires phone-number ID. Seriously, at this rate, it’s going to be all of them.

IMO the best use-case for this is to quarantine your contact list. That is, keep a separate number for social networks and messaging. The number you give to your in-person contacts will be instantly shared with all their cloud services, whether you like it or not. This is what allows Big Tech to triangulate and discover exactly who you know and therefore who you are. If the cloud services cannot trace a number back to any phone ID in their own books, then they can’t do much with it and you will remain at least something of a mystery to them.

its just never on by default

Except PopOS, as I understand it. IMO that is a major point in its favor and against its competitors, given the dominance of laptops today. I see no reason why this is still opt-in, rather than opt-out as on mobile OSs.

Alas no but from your screenshot I learned all about grim. Thanks!

To add to the comments, most distros do not offer FDE by default when installing. You have to jump thru hoops. No idea why this is still the case given how many consumer computers are laptops these days, it seems crazy.

The big exception seems to be PopOS, an Ubuntu derivative which is intended for laptops. FDE by default so it must be pretty easy to get that up and running.

Ubuntu itself has a solid FDE option on install, too. It sets up the LVM configuration as already described, no expertise needed. And IME works very reliably.

Pro tip: Firefox can do dark mode natively, if you’re ready to accept some ugly websites.

Settings > Manage colors > then set your preferred hues and Override to Always.

It’s blazing fast with zero white flash, and most sites are perfectly legible.

A question, since you sound like you know what you’re talking about. Is this analagous to password-free SSH? I.e., private key used to log in on the basis of a pre-agreed public key?

I once spent a night in Wuppertal just to ride this thing. Rode it from end to end, and then again the next morning. What was unexpected was how modern it is. You might expect a rickety historic tourist contraption, but in fact it’s a modern metro with great views and an unusual ride.

As I understand it, in most countries the railway would be completely uneconomical since it has no off-the-shelf parts and there are no tourists in Wuppertal, but in Germany it makes some sense since it can be used as a sort of training bed for local engineering students and industry.

Completely agree. Training normies to click OK on warnings like this is a no-good terrible idea.

Shell commands can easily be integrated into ranger.

Agreed, me too. Have been to all four corners of Europe and beyond by train. It’s fine, a bit expensive and time-consuming but with advantages too. And at least I’m not a hypocrite when I say I care about the climate.

Yes yes I do know that. Somehow China found it was “viable”, though. That is the issue.

We all agree on that and nothing stops us from doing things differently.

Sure. So let us do it better in Europe then. This just sounds like defensive excuses. Europe’s car makers could have decided - or been forced - to switch to electric. Europe could have banned the abomination that is the combustion scooter, or taxed to oblivion the SUV. We collectively decided that Volkswagen’s short-term profits are more important than our environment or our economic future. That’s on us, it’s not China’s fault.

Personal anecdote. I have recently been in China, specifically Shenzhen and a couple of other southern megacities.

Let me tell you all something: China is getting ahead of us. Shenzhen used to be known for its smokestacks. It is now at least as pleasant as any European city. Not only does it have an excellent metro, loads of green space and trees, wide sidewalks and cycle lanes. It also has silent streets with shockingly clean air. And for a simple reason: all the buses, all the scooters and motorbikes, and at least 40% of the private cars (not very numerous because of the great transit) are electric.

Europeans might be surprised to discover what a difference this electrification makes to a city. From personal experience of both, I can tell you that (IMO) Chinese cities are putting Swiss ones in the shade. This should be a pretty shameful situation for the supposed quality-of-life superpower that Europe imagines itself to be.

Instead of punishing China for getting ahead in a technological battle that will benefit us all, Europe should be copying it.

IMO the “ownership” thing is a red herring. It has its roots in a specifically American obsession with private property.

If everybody “demands ownership of goods”, that means we share nothing. Hardly a model of “sustainable consumption”. There are loads of examples of redundant private ownership of goods. My favorite stat: the average electric drill is used for 7 minutes in its entire life. All because every household in every building on every street must have its own one, instead of us finding a way to share them.

In the context of digital “goods”, “ownership” really just means control. I wish we would use that word instead.

You shouldn’t opine

To “opine” is to have an opinion. Are you suggesting I should refrain from having an opinion? Does this apply to your own opinions too? Odd place to make such an argument.

Otherwise: interesting point. To me, a state that can obtain personal data by leaning on its owns corporations is, by definition, more threatening than one that has to negotiate for it with a hostile power. But perhaps I underestimate the scale of that practice.

Even if it were encrypted and the backdoor was controlled by the Russian state, logically that would make it safer than Facebook for anyone living in Western jurisdictions. The Russian government cannot get them and is hardly going to exchanging intelligence with its enemies.

It if wasn’t farmers making your food, it would be you making it. If it wasn’t other people providing all the goods and services farmers need, they would be doing it.

Human society is interdependent. Farmers are not aristocrats, they are ordinary citizens providing a service in return for money. Including quite a lot of taxpayers’ money, incidentally.

Farmers are on the wrong side of history but we continue to empower them for irrational sentimental reasons. An unfortunate cocktail.