Nah, they already have your email, and Play services could track that too. They just want to make sure they’re the only ones tracking your email.

So glad I’ve been de-googling for the last couple years.

Stay out of my data, Google.

Now that I’ve moved to a custom rom, it’s just a few months before I disconnect the final few things from my Google account.

My experience: most of my apps work fine without Google services. Even more advanced apps - sometimes they just can’t verify licensing, so may complain occasionally. Even now, Macrodroid can’t verify licensing through microG, but the dev has a process for licensing with a serial key based on your Google account.

Graphene is technically more secure than Lineage, because you can re-lock the bootloader.

But wait, the latest versions of Lineage you can re-lock the bootloader on Pixel devices (or is it with DivestOS, a Lineage fork, on Pixels? I forget). Either way, both can be re-locked on Pixel (I know, I’ve done it).

At that point there’s little difference in my opinion, if you aren’t using any kind of Google services.

Once you go to use Google services (either sandboxed on Graphene, or microG on Lineage), it can be argued that Graphene is more secure. Though Lineage and Divest install microG as user apps, so you could install them to a second profile and isolate it there.

But if you’re going to run some form of Google services, you’re kind of negating the advantages of Graphene at that point (though some would argue it’s still more secure, again, depending on your threat model - if a state actor is after you, don’t go putting Google stuff on your phone).

Really it all comes down to your threat model. I’m currently running DivestOS on a Pixel with microG, because there were a few apps I still needed. My next reset (in about 3 months) that will be gone, and I’ll no longer need anything Google. But I’ll probably stick with DivestOS, as there’s no clear advantage for me to switch to Graphene.

Cell tracking is external to the phone. It’s done by the towers - they know signal strength, and by using known tables of that data, cell providers know pretty accurately where your phone is.

To block this you’d need a device that lacks any cellular technology whatsoever. Wifi only.

And that has the same issues, especially with companies like Comcast/Xfiniti using their cable modems to track all the devices around them, even if you don’t connect to them.

Texting uses http over the data channel for MMS.

I’ve had good luck on a number of subjects by getting DVDs produced by The Teaching Company from my city library.

I haven’t looked for math stuff yet, so not sure what they have.

people start downvoting communities they don’t even participate in. Which I want to emphasize is NOT the correct way for downvotes to be used.

Says who?

If you don’t want people voting in a community, then maybe change the community to block voting by non-members. I don’t know if this is technical option right now, and frankly I don’t care. If that’s what you want in your community, then that’s for you to address. Not just come on here and act like Mr. Dictator and tell people how to use communities.

At a minimum what you’re doing is ineffective, nut it’s also adversarial. I didn’t even read past this sentence, and I have no intention of going back and reading the rest. Why should I when you’ve shown how you view everyone else, as merely pawns to be told how to behave.

And why would I want to join a community when you’re so condescending to people?

Sheesh.

Snikket seems to be it for iOS. But it does work pretty well, I haven’t run into any issues with it.

For Windows well, nothing does voice as far as I know.

Rockauto.com

But parts quality can vary a bit. Still, it’s so much cheaper than anywhere else it’s worth a little risk.

Tailscale has the Funnel feature, which can funnel traffic into your Tailscale net for you.

Years ago it was relevant (like 15 years ago). I had a BT mouse then, and it was a power hog. So much so it was rechargeable with its own charging dock. And yes, when you walked away for the day you better dock it!

But I’m sure it’s far, far better now. Logitech advertises some of their’s as having 1 year battery like, on a single AA battery

I wonder if that’s from power saving with BT mice.

The ones I’ve had would sleep much sooner than say the Logitech Unify ones, which I’ve always found really annoying.

I wonder how phone size, battery placement, and materials play into this.

Being able to dissipate more heat while charging will help significantly too.

I’ve had a phone with a ceramic back that would die in minutes in cold weather if I didn’t keep it in my internal coat pocket. It charged much faster than another phone that had a plastic back with a similar battery size and charging capability, even using “slow” charging (using a lower power charger). I can only assume the heat dissipation made a difference as the ceramic one never got even very warm while the plastic one did.

So maybe a combination of everything mentioned here - charge control in the phone, how the controller manages cells, location of battery in phone/heat dissipation, power optimizing while charging (do all of these phones support pass-through? That would influence charge time), etc.

As a Samsung owner, yep. I’ve done comparisons between some Samsungs and was surprised that a “slower” charge phone sometimes would charge as fast as a “faster” one, when battery size was accounted for.

I hadn’t read the regs before. Interesting.

And while I very much agree with the intent (and will be glad to see it being much easier to replace a battery), I wonder what manufacturers will do to mitigate the impacts.

Like for the 7 years of parts thing, will they manufacture/sell a phone for just 3 months, to minimize that window?

I really like the OS support for 5 years. Again though, will they do things like charge for that support, tie the update package to a specific device, etc? (Guess we’ll see).

I’m not saying this isn’t a great improvement over the non-existent rules - it truly is! I’m just cynical, so I’m concerned to see how manufacturers will attempt to minimize the impact to them.

Ubiquiti?

You can’t give me that garbage. I despise it, after setting up a single access point (plus also watching friends deal with it at client sites).

Besides the discovery issues and slow performance when trying to manage it, I had a random open network on it after setup. This network didn’t appear anywhere in the control panel. I could turn off the access point and the network disappeared.

It didn’t show up in the guest network config (which was turned off anyway). It had the same name as the WPA-protected network, it was just open - no security at all.

I had to reset the access point to get rid of this weird random open network.

What kind of garbage product does that?

Now let’s look at cloud keys. One has a hard drive in it. Just one drive, 3.5", which besides storing data also stores the OS. What? Why is the OS not on some firmware or at least an M2, since the drive is really for storing surveillance data (did I mention it’s a single drive?), what a joke. Why would I bother with such an expensive device that has zero fault tolerance, when I could simply buy a cheaper real machine, run multiple drives, and host the software there?

I lack the vocabulary to describe how bad Unifi is.

If you can, just do one pot of something that makes leftovers that hold well and are easy to reheat. After you get one thing, it gives you some breathing room for the next couple days.

I try to make a big pot of something on Sundays, so I don’t have to think about cooking Monday, maybe Tuesday. That gives me a little breathing room. I also make stuff I can portion and freeze - again, gives me a little breathing room.

Last week I was under the weather for 4 days, I just grabbed stuff out of the freezer and threw it in the toaster oven. Zero effort for my sick self. Now I need to restock what I used.

Some people don’t like leftovers, I can only figure their experience with leftovers has always been bad.

I love having leftovers around, but I make a pot of good stuff with plans for the leftovers. Some things are never leftovers because they don’t hold well (anything with leeks or tarragon for example).

Your health says avoid pre-made mixes as much as possible. I’m no salt-phobe (insufficient salt is a greater concern for 99% of people than too much), but even I shy away from the insane amounts of salt/sodium in anything packaged. Some stuff has more sodium in it than anyone should have in a day.

Plus, pre-made mixes often aren’t anywhere near as good as making something yourself, and usually more expensive, even allowing for your own time.

There are exceptions of course, but I have spreadsheets to calculate costs of mixes, meals, you name it, and it’s rare when something is cheaper to buy pre-made.

Dishwasher detergent powder is the same cost as making myself. As is onion soup mix, gravy mix powder, etc. Most other mixes I make as I go along - making chili uses a mix of different spices which I keep on hand. And I have 3 different chili recipes that use different spice mixes, and the end result is very different. I have a few recipes like this (creole/Cajun for example), that technically use the same spices, but not the same mix, and are very different for it.

I don’t understand people like your wife (or one of my siblings) that seem to view eating as just something necessary, (bless their hearts 😁, as my southern family would say)…good food is crucial to me, it’s not just something I do to get by. I mean it’s something we have to do a few times every day of our lives. I want that experience to be as good as I can as often as I can.