Why was the US funding FOSS projects? That strikes me as weird, inappropriate and suspicious.

A mixture of the elements within the US that actually believed the stuff about personal rights and democracy still existing behind the more sinister realities, as well as it being in the same pot of funded projects like Radio Free Asia, Radio Liberty and the likes, which always were a mix of just outright propaganda organs, but also providing the scaffolding of free media access for some regions in the past.

So, it’s complicated, ultimately rooted in a mix of the cynical US wanting to support dissidents in other countries, and the idealist US also having people actually believing in personal freedom and privacy, even within their government/state structures.

Also, just in general, a lot of FOSS projects get funding from governments, US or otherwise. If I remember correctly ReactOS got a lot of funding from Russia, for example, because they saw a potential way to get away from Microsoft in it.

From what I gather, there was no open influence wielded over those projects, I at least don’t remember the OTF forcing a backdoor onto Tor Browser for the CIA or something like that - thankfully the open source structure makes that easier to control - but the weakness becomes apparent now, of course, because funds could now be withdrawn, as the government turned fascist.

Kind of, I wouldn’t really call them an international organisation in the way I would be imagining, see how easy it was to cut their funding when national interests turned openly fascist. Their affiliation with the US government above more independent, international organisations meant, that they would support privacy and a free and open internet, as long as it helps dissidents in other, non-aligned countries, but quick to cut it, if it reaches their own doorsteps.

Not the one you answered to, but I think I can understand the idea of US funding having been a toxic source of dependency, and it being better in the long run to get money elsewhere. That “elsewhere” is a good question, though.

Just me, personally, my dream would be an international fund, carried by the UN or maybe an independent NGO, that can get funding from both private and public funds, that prioritises free internet access the way the WHO prioritises health. But I think that’s still far off.

Sadly, part of the reality right now is, that there is no perfect swap-in replacement for what Starlink is being used for, that doesn’t have some caveats. There probably are some problems in just physical availability of terminals and accompanying logistics - although I’d love a better estimate than “relatively fast” as well.

Sad, but, yeah, that is more than understandable, the whole database migration alone would be a massive headache to get right, I think.

When setting up my own here, I was debating to go for PieFed because I like the underlying features - but having had no sysadmin experience before, I went with Lemmy due to better documentation. But I am thinking about switching - can you “migrate” your instance, or did you just set up a new PieFed one and abandon the old Lemmy one?

Interested in a far-out-there project, that is still very early, lacking in manpower and money, may never pan out, but has some very interesting ideas and vision?

Check out mwmbl - a project aiming to become a truly FOSS search engine, with Wikipedia-like volunteer curating of results/training of the search algorithm, as well as volunteer scraping of the web, to build it up.

If you want to participate, their non-experimental, older and more barebones interface is easier for that:

https://mwmbl.org/

I currently use it as my go-to “first search” engine, and if I can, I help curate the search results, and then switch to Ecosia for a second search if they were useless. That already helps in slowly training the algorithm, as well as changes the results in the index real time.

You can also support the web crawling and index building efforts with either a Firefox extension, or a CLI script.. Not to brag or anything, but letting the latter run on my server has netted them a pretty hefty increase in crawled addresses, without slowing things down here on my Fediverse servers too much.

THIS IS NOT A SUITABLE DROP-IN REPLACEMENT FOR ANYTHING YET. But if you love the idea, go ahead and check it out.

Manifesto here.

Sounds like the app is indeed quite a mess, then, unfortunately :/

Ah, yeah, it’s my own PeerTube instance, using the “share” function gives you a link to the instance you are currently on, not the original one. I use the PeerTube companion add-on to redirect PeerTube links to my own instance automatically (where I can easily interact with my own account), so always linking to the original instance can get a bit finnicky for me - and usually, it shouldn’t be a problem. (Hadn’t come up before)

But now that you bring it up - I gues “usually” might not include app interactions? 🤔

Oh, that would be a good way to use it then. Other than that, the official app isn’t too bad, from my cursory glance.

EDIT: Although, I guess your problem may still happen, if the issue was actually unrelated 🤔

Yeah, I think the official android app is pretty bad, sadly, from all I have heard. Not all the devs fault - I heard they had problems with apple/google app store rules, where they were under extra scrutiny to only allow videos from a “vetted and moderated search index” or something to be allowed on their app. (ludicrous, IMO, that their project of all projects suddenly got scrutinised to that degree, compared to other shit on their stores)

I think there were some decent FOSS app alternatives on F-Droid, but since I myself am 99% on desktop or use just vanilla Firefox mobile, I am sadly not a good person to recommend apps myself.

Ah, good to know, I was just glossing over it and saw the CC0 in the info. I think for something like this, that shouldn’t be much of a problem (especially for the original use-case of a Plasma splash screen) - but of course it’s a bit risky, as soon as you get into more complex works, and them potentially being re-used after you publish them - where people that put it online orgininally, did so with more complex CC licenses, or no public licensing at all.

Just as a heads-up in general. I, personally, think it’s better to err on the side of being creative when sharing things - but the reality is, of course, that with a bit of bad luck, licensing stuff can get quite complicated down the road. (Highly doubtful for something like this, though)

Oooh, I like it a lot, I might end up using it in a game or smth, too 🤔

Thanks for sharing it with the world! It is really cool.

Oh, just to not accidentally create the wrong impression - that’s not me, I just shared the video and didn’t want to editorialise the title. If you want to give them your message (that I think is important, indeed) - you can follow the link and should be able to comment with many different activitypub account options (PeerTube itself, Mastodon, etc.) - sadly, I don’t think Lemmy is possible yet, because its design isn’t user-centric but content-centric, and it lacks some of those AP-capabilities.

Teslas are jampacked with cameras.

Which will show a masked figure of weirdly indeterminate height (possible wearing hidden plateau shoes) setting fire to it in the middle of the night, how curious 🤔

Oooh, so I was whooshed, that comment makes a lot more sense then.

I’ll take your word for it, but I wouldn’t rule out there being some technicality like “one lone Aldi right on the Slesvig border”.

I only know this from hearsay online - but I think Aldi has a decent US presence (I’d be interested if it’s Süd or Nord that managed to branch out there, or both 🤔), and I heard of Lidl existing in the US as well.

As for Asia, Australia, Latin America, Canada, Africa, India, the middle East… I never heard anything, but it would be interesting to hear if someone has some experience there.

im sorry that i sound like trolling i hoped that it doesnt sound like that

The dilemma is: it’s impossible to tell from the outside, which is why I try to give advice while not indulging potential troll interests (e.g. spreading the post and forum as much as possible, creating concern). If you truly are in that situation, I don’t envy you, because of course part of those trolls’ interest is also to make things as hard as possible for people that really are caught up in it.

So, sadly, I don’t have any personal experience concerning giving tips to journalists. Looking up “giving anonymous tips to journalists” on DuckDuckGo gives a few potential links, though most are directed at whistleblowers in administration and corporations:

https://freedom.press/digisec/blog/sharing-sensitive-leaks-press/ - this is a guide that seems to go through things to consider pretty well. If you do your own search, you will find links to specific outlets as well, for example Reuters here and the NYT here. If you have reason to believe, that the US altogether is not a good idea, European outlets are also always able to understand English material, of course.

Again, I have my doubts, and sadly there is little to remove them, and I wouldn’t want you to doxx yourself. If you really are in that situation, just know that the downvotes and potential removal are not an indication of judgement of you, personally.

If you want to ask about something like this in the future, best try to hide anything sensitive behind spoiler tags or content warnings where available and not post links to the forum in any way openly - reduct the onion link itself for example, and only keep it available to people you trust to not spread it in malicious ways. And only show the topic list behind a disclaimer, of how this can be disturbing to read - those warnings aren’t there for censorship, but to protect victims/survivors of abuse, which is precisely, why it is a troll tactic to try and spread them without such warnings/disclaimers.

Sadly, it is hard to say if you are serious, or if this post is made by a troll, who wants to spread disturbing material for the sake of hurting people. The latter assumption is also the most likely explanation, why it was removed. Again, if you are serious, this is a catch-22, but do not spread this impulsively, this also goes to anyone reading this wanting to share it randomly out of concern. Firstly, you will have to add Content Warnings, the video you linked and topics discussed alone are enough to cause serious PTSD triggers. This, again, would be another factor why it gets removed (and why a troll wants to spread it).

Again: I am going to treat this like in good faith, even though I am aware that a troll wanting to perversely spread the fucked up shit happening to revel in the power and untouchability is sadly the more likely option. The “billionaire friends” are, for example, a bit sus in how the sentence goes.

In theory: Depending on where you live, the police and such would be the first to go to. If you have reason to assume that this will put you in danger, even an anonymous tip to journalists can help (including the material you posted here, but not in a semi-public forum, where it will reasonably be seen as trolling). I am sadly, no expert on who exactly to contact, but neither you, nor random internet people, should be the people handling this. That is what investigative Journalism flanked by therapists to help them go through shit like that is for.

Speaking of therapists, that would be another first line of people to talk to.

Sadly, speaking from my own experience from watching journalists in Germany investigating forums like that - the police often just let them stay up, partly out of incompetence, partly out of wanting the next success in catching people, instead of preventing forums to exist to begin with.

Now, again, I am here assuming you are serious and in good faith here, maybe against my better judgement, but to the other people coming across this post: Don’t get concerned into spreading this post simply “as is” impulsively. Chances are still higher, this is a troll getting somewhat off from spreading disturbing material.