2,941 karma · joined December 28, 2025
It's not end to end encrypted but for big group channels that anyone can join that doesn't really matter.
Here it's all WhatsApp and Telegram. iMessage isn't really a thing at all except for expats. Because most locals use smarties. I don't accept sms or rcs either.
Also it needs much higher voltage around 100V compared to leds so you always need some bucket converter. And there's a minor risk too when it comes to wearables though in general the wire is well insulated.
They look great but they're difficult to solder. Too little heat and it doesn't attach, too much and it damages them. The strip has some annoying coating that repels the solder.
Some of them have metal crimped contacts that solve this but at the expense of end flexibility. And those usually have contacts at each end, i prefer them with both contacts at the same end so I can cut the strips to size.
They're also prone to breaking and the silicone is very resistant to glues and it keeps jumping around when you try to fix it in place. Embedding totally in liquid latex helps but if you use a lot it takes ages to cure.
I tend to just drive them with an ESP powered by a simple power bank. Just like the OP but I tend to leave out the drivers, for short lengths 3V is ok directly on the ESP. The WLED firmware with an ESP-S3 and a MEMS microphone can even do audio reactivity.
I combine them usually with ws2812 strips too which have individual RGB. These flexi strips of course don't.
Ps one annoying thing is that some strips are much brighter on one side than the other, and some are not. But on AliExpress it's really hard to determine which ones you end up getting.
But we'll need some decentralised ones. Signal leaving Canada is exactly the problem with centralised networks like theirs: there's a single entity to go after for compliance. So they can be forced just like telegram was forced by Durov's arrest in France.
But there's already good options that aren't centralised. I think people will move to those. At least that's what I will do and I hope most people follow suit.
Think of the aboriginals and nomads roaming the deserts and the inuit in the icy north. All before hvac.
And hvac isn't really as much of an energy problem as heating is. Because when hvac is needed it is during a time of abundance of sunlight.
A jailbreak is similar to a root on Android. I think the EU is very happy to have us locked in by big tech unfortunately. They do enforce Apple to open up for other stores but I don't think they're going to go much further than that.
But it was never a SOTA model.
And meta is only arguably so. Not really in the same league as OpenAI and Anthropic. More second tier like Google and xAi. (and of those Google is pretty close to the top two at times)
Honestly, the OS that prides itself on "Only two remote holes in the default install, in a heck of a long time!" is not going to introduce a remote hole on purpose, that'll be one cold day in heck.
This is really the least thing to worry about.
Ps couldn't read TFA as it's paywalled
I would visit people who were totally not technical and they'd have a PC in their livinroom with FTD on it (which was the typical Dutch piracy tool at that time). Popcorntime was there for the even less technical people. It was as easy as click and play, really. They didn't really know what they were doing but everyone has some smartass nephew who can set stuff like that up.
I find it very hard to understand that people who had no issue using windows 95 or XP and installing something like FTD can now not find anything.
I have to agree that it's harder to find Anna's archive than I thought, when I type "Download books for free" in duckduckgo it doesn't come up with Anna's Archive (or Z-Library or library genesis for that matter), if I type the names it does come up though.
I'm not sure about where you are but in Holland everyone was downloading movies and TV shows in the early 2000s. When Netflix came to Europe that changed though I do expect it to go back to that now that the content has been spread over tens of platforms with every rising prices and annoying ads.
Pocketbooks just run Android and you can install what you want without any issue.
Also pocketbook are a Swiss company so that also helps if you're trying to buy European which I do.
But I don't think that's true, in fact I see a really strong focus on consent in these communities. It's not what conservatives want to see, they want to see everyone in a marriage, with kids and a family home etc. Because that's what their ideal world looks like. But there's nothing really wrong with it if someone wants a gangbang for her birthday as mentioned in that article as an example. As long as everyone consented and the evidence provided mentions elaborate interviews and STI tests.
Also I think this is more correlation than cause and effect. We all know the saying that furries built the internet and it surprises nobody.