You can easily get a case with an optical drive slot if you just get an older case. You can fit an older case with more modern components just fine. My current PC case is from 2017 and has an optical drive slot (which is fitted with an optical drive—though I’m afraid I’ve not used it in years…)

As for laptops with ports, they’re out there but you may have to either get an older one or pay more money annoyingly. I wish it was standard for laptops to have ethernet ports. My modern, fairly mainstream trend-following laptop has all the other ports I need (USB obviously, HDMI, and 3.5mm headphone jack).

If it’s low privacy needs (ie you don’t have a state threat model), Signal is completely fine. I use it to talk to my friends. I also use Matrix, though federated Matrix isn’t the best for privacy either due to the amount of metadata that leaks through federation. But federated Matrix is also fine for the kinds of things you would use eg Discord or IRC for.

If you do have a state threat model, I personally think SimpleX is ideal for that, but it doesn’t have as much of a userbase so you probably need people who care enough (eg people actively under threat) to switch to a new platform. Whereas most people I know are already on either Signal or Matrix, and I’m not having particularly sensitive conversations with them either so both work fine.

I know some people who largely do exist off grid, but in any case, for asylum claims it’s common to claim asylum after having already crossed the border of the target country without going through the checks. My friends who are asylum seekers have done that. I imagine in general you’d have less chance of being deported if you’re already living in the country vs trying to cross the border.

From the phrasing “fleeing a country” I imagine they want to circumvent border checks/wouldn’t be able to pass a border legally anyway?

Gold is still the preferred way of storing wealth in many parts of the world. You can just take gold bars with you which should have value anywhere.

If they did have insider knowledge why would they explicitly say so in a public forum that may not be anonymous?

Stealing is morally neutral, but can be a dick move if it’s against individuals/results in the dispossession of something a person needs or cares about. But shoplifting/stealing from businesses is fine. They consider it inventory loss the same as if they dropped a bottle on the floor. It’s written into their spending calculations and is an expected part of business. And quote unquote “small businesses” still had enough capital to start a business in the first place, and are ultimately insignificant anyway since the petit-bourgeoisie is doomed to forever either become big bourgeoisie or become proletarianised/unpropertied; proletarianisation is a progressive force and I’m not bothered if members of the petit-bourgeoisie become proletarianised, not that they will anyway purely from someone shoplifting lol.

Just follow the standard advice. Don’t shit where you eat (don’t shoplift somewhere you’d be upset if you got banned from) is the main one I adhere to. If you’re only shoplifting small amounts I wouldn’t worry about cops either, for small amounts they’ll just ban you from the store, at least where I live idk about everywhere.

For individuals, I wouldn’t steal from them if you care about your relationship with them. If they find out they’ll probably be upset. If I found out someone stole from me I’d mostly be upset at the dishonesty. So it’s good that you’ve been honest with your mom and are going to tell your brother. If it were me, I would be thinking, if you need something from me you could’ve just asked. Although it sounds like you’re not stealing because it’s something you particularly want or need, but just because you find stealing fun. In which case I would say just try to limit your stealing to shoplifting, or piracy if it scratches the same itch. Or steal from people you find particularly contemptible I guess.

It’s detached from reality because you’re just randomly chucking in some political terms you learned on reddit under an unrelated comment thinking it’s some kind of slam-dunk.

Imagine your issue with .world being that it’s too left-wing

Saudi is aligned with the US/west, and even if they weren’t, multiple geopolitical powers can be oppressive at once, believe it or not.

If no one’s on any kind of private messaging platform, SimpleX is good and fairly easy to use. But I mostly use Signal just because everyone’s on it.

Also consider your threat model; Signal is appropriate for just casual personal conversations, but it is centralised and not self-hostable. The servers are run by the Signal org who are based in the US. If the potential of message metadata (which can be used to eg create networks of who’s messaging who) getting into the hands of the US state could create significant issues for you, you may want to at least find either a decentralised or self-hostable solution which is not so US-centric. I assume, though, since you’re talking to these people on non-private platforms, that these are not super sensitive discussions anyway.

Not at all. I don’t eat eggs. Never knew the prices went up (beyond just general inflation) till I saw this post.

SMS 2FA is not secure, and I don’t particularly care about the security of my bank account. I have a state threat model as a political organiser, a very real one given the arrests, raids, imprisonment, etc I and my comrades have faced, meanwhile I’m not aware of any rando civilians hellbent on stealing my money. And frankly I don’t have that much money to steal anyway. If you’re determined to get my sim card to log into my meagre bank account you probably need the money more than me.

I guess if you’re that worried about SMS security you could get an esim and rely on device encryption to protect it. Wouldn’t be the most secure thing in the world but at least it provides some protection, and if you buy an esim anonymously (e.g. with https://silent.link/) an attacker can’t impersonate you to try get your sim card.

I’ve not responded to the majority of comments in this thread because I’d have nothing to add except “thanks”, but here:

They’re now starting to experience random corruptions that will sometimes compromise entire folders.

Er why haven’t you bought new drives at that point??

I’ve not responded to the majority of comments in this thread because I’d have nothing to add except “thanks”, but here:

They’re now starting to experience random corruptions that will sometimes compromise entire folders.

Er why haven’t you bought new drives at that point??

I’ve not responded to the majority of comments in this thread because I’d have nothing to add except “thanks”, but here:

They’re now starting to experience random corruptions that will sometimes compromise entire folders.

Er why haven’t you bought new drives at that point??

You would be surprised at the incompetence of the surveillance state. I’ve known people subject to terrorism investigations by world superpowers where the state couldn’t figure out the basic facts about that person’s life, let alone find anything that may be helpful to prosecution. This kind of fearmongering only encourages people to not be cautious. Not that the extent of surveillance isn’t terrifying, but at the other end of the table is just other human beings. All humans are fallible, including the ones who spy on us, and we can both outsmart and outmanoeuvre them if we’re serious about it.

Is iMessage not also proprietary?

The alternative is a discord server, which in privacy terms is questionable choice too.

I use a Discord-Matrix bridge to communicate with some groups that are only on Discord. Of course it still all goes over Discord’s servers so the messaging itself isn’t private, but you at least don’t have to use Discord’s proprietary client, and the only data Discord will have is the data you send it from the Matrix bridge (plus identifying data on the Matrix server you’re using).

What do you usually use and offer when people ask you for contact?

Signal as a preference—not because I think it’s the best chat app (I dislike its centralised nature; not being able to self-host is a near-on dealbreaker if not for the fact that everyone I know is on Signal; and it requiring a phone number to sign up is also bad for privacy)—but because it’s the one the most people have. All my friends are on it luckily, by nature of my friends largely being communists or young queer people (or both). I also offer SMS and email. If someone asks a pretty open-ended “how can I contact you”, I might also mention Matrix and Simplex as options in case they have those.

Do you use ba[n]king apps?

No, and I really don’t understand why people do unless your bank requires it and there isn’t another appropriate bank that doesn’t require it. I’ve tried my bank’s app (which works fine on GOS luckily) and found it didn’t offer anything the web UI didn’t offer, other than the option to use the app as 2FA for banking stuff, but I just get SMS 2FA from my bank.

What’s your way of transport after having few beers in pub? Do you use taxi via calling it directly or use that weird Telegram taxi addon?

I don’t use taxis; I use public transport. But if I had to get a taxi, I would probably either use my GPlay profile on my GOS phone to install Uber, or I would probably just ring a taxi company over the phone.

Is there a way to convert google map pins to open source solutions and vice versa?

I’m not aware of a way. I’ve just told people to either give me an address or coordinates, because I don’t have google maps.

What’s your recommended software for directions? What do you use for driving?

Organic Maps has been my go-to for a while. It’s wonderful. Works well for driving too. I use RHVoice for text-to-speech, which iirc was recommended to me by a fellow lemming.

I don’t track fitness activities, and I use GOS+Pixel.

For .ml, it’s a mostly FOSS/adjacent subjects enthusiast instance, so you may be interested in communities like !privacy@lemmy.ml, !linux@lemmy.ml.