• 0 Posts
  • 22 Comments
Joined 15 days ago
cake
Cake day: February 9th, 2026

help-circle


  • I suspect they came up with a process for doing the conversions / redactions that worked for the documents they tested it with, and then applied the process to documents in a slightly different format and just didn’t notice. The Verge looked into it and couldn’t get a more specific answer than this:

    With MIME, the “=” is used to signal either that a string of text should be broken for transmission and rejoined — a “soft line break” — or, when followed by two other characters, that it should be converted to a particular non-ASCII mark.

    it doesn’t fully explain why the “=” sometimes replaces letters, like the “J” in “Jeffrey.” No one I spoke to could definitively answer this question, except to say that email is hard and converting it to PDF is harder, and the DoJ was converting a lot of documents in a hurry.

    https://www.theverge.com/policy/879016/epstein-files-emails-text-errors-encoding






  • Here’s what I’ve done:

    • Delete your advertising ID in the system settings
    • Disable the other ad-related settings
    • Disable tracking in the keyboard app (long-press , to get to settings, then click “Privacy”) or switch to HeliBoard
    • Avoid the Google Play store when possible
    • Use F-Droid and Obtainium instead
    • Install the DuckDuckGo browser and enable DuckDuckGo App Tracking Protection (I only use the DDG app for app tracking protection and email protection; I don’t browse the web with it)
    • Install Firefox with uBlock Origin
    • Set DuckDuckGo as your search engine in Firefox
    • Make sure your next phone supports GrapheneOS and install that instead of normal Android
    • Wait for real Linux phones to become viable and use that in a couple years

    Stuff I haven’t done yet but probably will eventually:

    • Replace the default home screen app (your home screen is an app, btw)
    • Replace the Google keyboard app

    I haven’t looked for good alternatives for these yet so if anyone has suggestions, I’m listening!











  • For context: I personally use a 2015 Intel MacBook running Linux connected to my tv, and use a small wireless keyboard and trackball to control it from the couch. I’m actually planning on checking out KDE Connect after seeing it on https://hexbear.net/post/7662659

    I’ve been researching some simpler options for my own parents since they use Roku which is somewhat limited and has ads. But a mini PC would be too complex for them. They need something with a simple remote and automatic updates. I think an Android box would make sense for their use case. I plan on installing something like SmartTube, PipePipe, or Tubular on it.

    If your dad thinks he would like to do something like web browsing, email checking, or gaming on the tv, a mini PC is probably gonna do it better than Android TV.