Some companies buy other companies to let them die – strategically, some companies buy other companies to get their features/talents but remove any trace of that company or that design language, or so. Some companies buy other companies to control competition. Apple seems to buy other companies for doing nothing at all. They have so much money that they buy other companies, but they are so bad at software that they can’t figure out what to do with it after that.

It’s sad stating this as an iPhone/Mac user (but not an Apple fan – yes, there’s a distinction), but even if Apple is able to buy Google in its entirety, they will not be able to fix search in any part of the Apple ecosystem.

A lot of these “privacy sensitive” service providers are actually quite user-hostile.

Find a middle ground - get your own domain (pick a good registrar) and find a respectable mail host that has a support team with accountability who don’t treat you like a burden on this planet when you attempt to contact them (i.e not Tuta, not Mailbox-org - nope!!!, not Proton etc.). Do not go overboard with DMARC/etc in the beginning. Go about it slowly.

Also - make sure you use a service that lets you connect via an IMAP/POP client. It pains me to say that, but if you start avoiding services based on “five eyes” and “14 eyes” and “195 eyes”, I’m pretty sure we will be looking at pigeons and corked bottles in the sea. So, if you need E2EE over email - please use E2EE in the email using GPG on your own. I’d highly recommend not falling for the privacy theatre of the likes of Proton.

It’s one of those organic produce items among the Internet things which happens to be in vogue these days.

• By forcing you to use a non-anonymous Google Account.
• Then tying it with Google Play Services on that device.
• Google Play Services are like a combo of arteries and nerves of Android OS.

That’s how.

That’s the opposite of minimalism, I’d argue. I would consider minimalism as: having less, keeping/retaining less, and also, and in my opinion – more important, doing less.

Currently Ente - looking for a replacement. Ente’s apps are non-native and it shows - really sluggish and poor. I wish they would prioritise that, but they don’t. But this is not really a backup - it’s a sync - and like a shadow of iOS Photos app on iOS because, well, those APIs are not natively accessible to other apps on iOS. Ente is more like Google Photos’ FOSS and E2EE alt.

For actually backing up my personal data (including videos and photos) I use:

1. borgbase (with borg’s GUI Vorta; FOSS and E2EE)
2. backblaze b2 (using restic’s GUI backrest; FOSS and E2EE) – these both have exactly the same personal data being backed up.
3. then there’s tarsnap (this is a much smaller - must save at all costs - data set). Tarsnap is very unwieldy (literally stuck in time - not in a good way) but I have been backing up since long and I do not have another reliable solution. Its client code is readable publicly - don’t know it’s FOSS or not; apparently not. But E2EE.

(1 and 2 are really great apps!)

I also use a sync tool with a lifetime plan (but it sucks and I am finding a replacement, so won’t even name it; it says E2EE but they are so irresponsible that I removed anything sensitively personal from sync set). PS. This was my first and last lifetime anything of my life.

Simplenote, DayOne, Pocket Casts are already ready to challenge this failure - maybe not in terms of money, Matt. So never say never.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7CW7S0zxv4 this is just an example as he is kinda famous. But you can find more. Here’s two seasoned journos talking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4682YUnN_yQ and this https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TXokRjBVSaA (I don’t like this journo to be honest but it’s another example of very common Indian accent - hers is actually less sophisticated as the previous ones have had kinda more “private school” upbringing).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha-LoNqOaEk few examples of subcontinent English

It is actually nice when the person has better language proficiency in English. What people often make fun of on the Internet are many who either don’t know how to speak English or don’t know it well, and that’s pretty common and normal for that country of 1.5 billion. If you listen to any seasoned Indian journalist (especially a bit older), you’d hear that faint old English lilt (from the middle of the start of the last century). You will also find that in the way Pakistanis speak English. It’s very similar.

I like most or all of them when the speaker has at least above-average proficiency. Except American. Esp. the one that rolls a lot and for long (probably from the South of the USA, I am not sure). That’s what makes it very hard for me to watch/hear most of the American content.

My favourite, though, is from my home country, which has a very slight tinge of (old) British accent (colonial leftover/hangover) and also the Middle Eastern accent (it’s close to home), again only if the speaker has very good proficiency.

The thing is most of my gold (i.e. ~20% of my portfolio) is as ETFs. Good luck to me using that when civilisation collapses, if it does (I don’t think that’s happening in the shape and form as it sounds from this article). But then it was not likely at all I would be able to safeguard that in the physical gold form either in that perceived atmosphere of tyranny and mayhem, so that’s there.

One could, however, look to reduce or balance (whatever you wanna call it) USD exposure.