I've also started doing the same thing on my laptop. I know it can be viewed as a glorified bookmark, but I enjoy it as a separate window. I've started using Discord and Slack this way without any issues. One added benefit on the laptop is that I'm saving extra resources since it's all lumped into the Chromium processes.

#100daystooffload #dayfiftyfive #privacy

Rather than immediately jumping into the subject matter, I find it best to step back and determine the core of the group. There were three questions to answer: What do we do, what are our values, and what are our goals. Having these things listed and out there will help us make sure we are choosing the products that best fit who we are and what we need. For example, if we value privacy to a high degree, it doesn't make sense to use Facebook Messenger over Signal. Having our identity laid out and discussed simplifies the decision making later.

For this particular meeting, I felt it was applicable to discuss Threat Models. To simplify, we asked ourselves five questions: 1. What do we want to protect? 2. Who are we protecting this from? 3. How bad are the consequences if we fail? 4. How likely is it that we will fail? 5. How much trouble are we willing to go through to prevent failure? After listing our current tasks and goals, it was a lot easier to conceptualize our threat model. In our circumstance, it became obvious that in our current state, high levels of encryption and anonymity aren't necessary. But good habits at smaller levels will be more effective: BCC emails and at-rest encryption for example.

Afterwards, we were able to discuss programs. We broke things down into categories and listed our options. Unfortunately due to time constraints, we had to stop the meeting here, but the final steps would be looking at each program and seeing how they fit our needs. Though nothing will be perfect, we can use a process of elimination to help narrow our choices and eventually make decisions.

In retrospect, I feel this approach may have been 'too much' given the overall needs of the group. However, I feel good knowing that the meeting was structured and focused instead of the loose and open. My goal was to make sure we did not over-complicate our routines in an attempt to utilize the 'best' the internet has to offer.

#100daystooffload #daythirtyfive #privacy #security

For reinstalling Debian things went smoothly this time. Originally, I was going to try making a switch to PureOS, but I had forgotten that my WiFi drivers are non-free software. I could have made it work, but it would have defeated the purpose. When reviewing the Desktop Environments, I decided to stick with Gnome still, as I could tell it had grown to a point of comfort for me (I go to the top left corner of the screen even in Windows now). I've reinstalled most of the programs I was using before, so I'm back to normal. Now I have an extra 100GB to toy around with for for files and programs (YAY no more “you have 250MB remaining messages).

As far as the blog goes, I've added Contact, Tags, and Subscribe links. I also added a new icon that shows up in the browser! Yay Trans Pride! I was looking around and saw that remark.as is in the works as a comment system. I may end up enabling it whenever it comes around. But in the meantime, I wanted to let people know they can reach out to me about anything I chat about (are we playing the same games? Do you have some pointers for me about privacy stuff? Want to just chat?). I will be limiting it to just Mastodon for the time being. Tags have also been added as a quick way to search for blogs about common subjects. It's a pretty bare bones page at the moment, but it functions for the tags I feel are most common. I'm thinking it may get scrapped for a glitch.me page that will function as an archive, but until then, I wanted to have something available. Now there is a consistent Subscribe link on the page. Before you would have to scroll to the very bottom of the home page to subscribe. Now there's an easier way to access the e-mail subscription service.

I've been wanting to take more screenshots from the games I'm playing, so I started using snap.as to make galleries. I already have one for a few of my Dark Souls 3 images. Here's probably my favorite from the bunch:

Lastly, and least exciting, I uninstalled several apps I do not use on my phone. Though useful, I feel I should be using them to justify their space on my phone. Knowing a bit more with security, it's good to trim down to lower your attack surface.

#100daystooffload #daythirtyone #gaming #linux #privacy

Going into this deep dive, I operated under the assumption that I would make all of these 'drastic' changes, but would eventually grow bored and go back to my usual ways. Success for me would have been gaining one or two new habits. However, I haven't experienced a great deal of inconvenience.

Most inconveniences have been on the initial setup. Getting my phone flashed with a custom OS was a headache. Dual booting my laptop was 3 headaches. Learning how to verify PGP signatures took half a day of practice. But now that I've incorporated them into my daily routines, it's easier than I would have expected.

I feel great knowing that I'm more secure and private. And even better now that I have an understanding of how the principles behind the practices work. There's still a ton to learn, but I'm excited to dive in.

#100daystooffload #daytwentythree #privacy

One of the main reasons I wanted to do a soft-switch to Linux was to get away from Microsoft telemetry. Having my data sent to them without my consent is a really big red flag. I can't completely ditch it (I've got a love for Excel), but I can try switching to using it 'as needed'.

Previously, I've dabbled with Ubuntu, but it's been several years so I've forgotten most things. To make things a bit more difficult for me, I've switched to Debian even. Not necessarily the easiest to switch to, but I've managed. I would love to be able to learn more about compiling programs from source code. I'm not a coder, but I think that approach would help me understand a lot more about programs that I never got the chance to learn. It may even spark interest in contributing to some FLOSS if I find it interesting enough. Generally for me, it's been easier to donate a dollar or two, but I would love to experience the full picture.

#100daystooffload #dayfive #Linux #privacy #FLOSS