WHY PIRATE BAY RULES

 

 PIRATE BAY

This was the response from Svartholm Warg founder of Pirate Bay when threatened with legal action:

 "As you may or may not be aware, Sweden is not a state in the United States of America. Sweden is a country in northern Europe. Unless you figured it out by now, U.S. law does not apply here . . . It is the opinion of us and our lawyers that you are fucking morons, and that you should please go sodomize yourself with retractable batons"

He did end up getting sentenced to two years jail but that reply is epic!

Best torrent sites of 2024 - Pirate Bay still rules the roost! 

1. The Pirate Bay – The Universal Torrent Site

Overview

Best Features	Magnet links supported; peer-to-peer file sharing; simple interface
Types of Content	Anime, eBooks, movies, music, series, games, software
Availability	Blocked in several countries and regions
The Pirate Bay Mirror/ Proxy URL 1	Link 1
The Pirate Bay Mirror/ Proxy URL 2	Link 2
The Pirate Bay Mirror/ Proxy URL 3	Link 3
Average Download Speed	65.9 Mbps
Torrents Library Size	7,20,000+
Is The Pirate Bay Down right now?	Check Now
Banned Locations	Europe, South America, Australia, China, Iceland, Italy, India, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Canada

GIMP 3 HAS FINALLY BEEN RELEASED

This has been a long time coming, as GIMP 2 was released in 2004. The new version of GIMP looks really good. Here is a screen shot of it installed on my Linux Mint PC:

This webpage covers all the new updates. They seem have stayed fully focused on improving the features, and unlike Firefox or Jaguar they have not fallen into the fashionable cesspit of trying to go woke or reinvent themselves. Which is great to see.  https://www.gimp.org/news/2024/11/06/gimp-3-0-RC1-released/

 

 

GIMP is not only for Linux, there are Windows and Mac versions as well. So you don't have to pay Adobe a huge monthly fee and let them steal your images. You can use GIMP for free, instead of paying for Photoshop. The initial release of GIMP 3 is available for download here:  https://www.gimp.org/downloads/devel/

 

ONLINE PRIVACY IN A SURVEILLANCE STATE

Lately I've seen more discussion about the latest wave of AI spyware that is currently being rolled out. But most people seem to be blissfully unaware that pretty much everything they do online is being monitored and recorded by big tech companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft, along with advertising companies and deep state agencies like the CIA.

A common response upon being informed that they are being spied on, is to just accept it as "normal" and pretty much give up even trying to maintain their privacy. But as we saw with the covidhoax and the death jabs, unless people take responsibility for their own freedom, the deep state plans to enslave and kill us. 

Yes it is possible to maintain your privacy in a surveillance state, but not if you are using a regular "smart" phone or a modern commercial operating system. You can actually keep using computers, phones and the internet, if you want to, and maintain your privacy, but you will need to make the effort to stop using big tech spyware and switch to using different technology. 

If you want any privacy, Google, Microsoft, and Apple are total no go zones. They are all spying and have been for years, but their latest tech is next level. An example is Windows 11 which has a new "feature" called Recall that is essentially taking a screenshot every five seconds and using AI to analyze it. 

If anything, the AI on the latest Apple I-phones is even worse, but some normies seem to be more open to the idea that Microsoft is spying rather than Apple, so it's often a good entry point to the whole AI rabbit hole.

Normies are so addicted to their spy-phones they will pay thousands of dollars to be tracked, recorded, and monitored by the deep state. On average, an Android smartphone sends data to Google 90 times a day and an iPhone communicates with 51 servers per hour. 

So what do I recommend doing to maintain privacy? Here are some good first steps:

Switch to using a Linux operating system such as Linux Mint 

Stick to using Free Open Source Software (FOSS) such as GIMP

Use a "de-googled" phone such as a Brax 3

 Use a privacy browser such as Floorp (& especially avoid Chrome)

Use privacy mail services such as Proton Mail (& especially avoid Gmail)

Use online aliases and avoid using your real name, especially on platforms like Facebook

There is a lot more to it than this, and I plan to cover all these topics in more detail.

LINUX NEEDS MORE FILE BROWSERS

 Don't panic, I'm only kidding. Linux doesn't really need any more file browsers, it already has at least 32. What it needs are some more that are as good as the one that comes standard on Windows.

 This seems to be an issue that Linux developers have been refusing to address for decades. As a Windows user switching to Linux I think it is probably the biggest issue that sends so many Microsoft refugees straight back to Windows. Most Linux file browsers suck...

This is the process I went through looking for a good file browser when I was trying out some different Linux distros. Articles like this one proudly proclaim "there are 32 options for Linux file browsers" but I actually tried out about half of them (the others were clearly not what I was looking for), and there was only one I really liked - NEMO (Which is the default file browser on both Linux Mint & Linux Zorin). 

 

 

There was only one other file browser I liked (Dolphin, the default file browser on KDE distros), but even that had an issue I would need to sort out before using it (it doesn't show my PCloud drive), and I thought most of the others were hopeless. 

 

 

In fact there were only about half a dozen that I even thought were as good as the default file browser on Windows XP (Yes, XP from 2001!) but as with many things, this elephant in the Linux room seems to go unnoticed by most geeks.

 

The fact that it was Linux Mint that developed the Nemo file browser, thereby fixing the glaring hole that has made Linux all but unusable for non geeks for decades, was the final evidence that convinced me Mint is the best Linux distro.

The Nemo file browser is the main program that enabled me to switch to using Linux. Without this I'd be completely lost.

WEIRD SCENES AT THE LINUX OASIS

As part of my transitioning to Linux process, I'm posting some random oddities that might be helpful to any of the future Windows refugees that I'm sure will be increasing in numbers as part of the great Windows 11 exodus of 2025.

 This is a typical example of the weird process of finding good Linux software. Like many aspects of Linux, sometimes it seems as if it's all being deliberately made as hard as possible.

A basic tool I want on my computer, is a graphic display to show all my drives (I have an operating drive and two slaves). I just want it to show all the folders and display how much space they are taking up. On Windows there are plenty of free options available, and it's fairly easy to find OK ones. https://www.lifewire.com/free-disk-space-analyzer-tools-3986870

Meanwhile on Linux they are like the holy grail, with searches all leading to geeks going on about typing commands in terminal and viewing this data without actually having any GUI (Graphical User Interface). So all totally useless... And then there are lots of apps with stupid looking coloured pie charts. So also totally useless...

What is this purpose of this circular crap?

I was just about ready to give up but a little voice in my head said "this is Linux, you can find anything, never give up" So I kept looking at compilations of useless drive analyzers, until I stumbled upon this one: 3 open source GUI disk usage analyzers for Linux 

The first one was so lame I nearly didn't keep scrolling, but luckily I did because their third choice turned out to be just what I was looking for. It's called QDirStat and it's fairly similar to the one I was using on Windows, but actually better because it works much faster.

This is how I view it:

 

It can also show all sorts of other stuff including some really ugly coloured crap, but that can all be turned off:

 

That is not how I view it!

Success! But yet again the best program on Linux was hidden under a mountain of unusable geek garbage. And that is one of the things that makes switching to Linux more difficult than it needs to be. The entire process was very similar to what I had to do to find a good file browser when I was trying out some different distros.  

 

It's all in the name

Part of why QDirStat was hard to find is that it has a meaningless, incomprehensible, forgettable name. Maybe that's why nobody talks about it. 

What would I call it? Maybe something like "FAGI" (File Analyzer Graphical Interface) - I'd aim for something memorable and a bit dodgy. (Like GIMP!)

 

 

SESSION vs SIGNAL

 

Signal is a popular messaging app that is widely regarded as being private, and compared to Messenger it is, but the big issue, the main reason it can never really be a privacy app, is that it requires a phone number to set up an account.

 

An alternative to Signal is Session, which is in many ways very similar to Signal, in fact it nearly looks identical because it's an open source hard fork based on the Signal code. But the big difference is that it doesn't require a phone number, so a Session account can actually be anonymous.

 

Session is not as popular as Signal yet because it's fairly new and not many people have heard of it. But it's easier to set up an account on Session than it is on Signal.  It doesn't require a phone number, and it doesn't ask anything about you. 

 

A new account can be rapidly set up not just on a phone, but also using a Laptop, a PC, or a tablet, running Windows, Android, Mac, or Linux operating systems.

To install it you can get it from any of the app stores, but better yet go directly to the Session website. This is preferable because by not logging into an app store you remain anonymous - https://getsession.org/

 

Initially Session had several drawbacks, but these have now been addressed.

 

It previously had a size limit of 10 on encrypted groups, but that has now been increased to 100 which is hopefully enough for most groups. 

 

It was originally set up in Australia which is considered a major security risk (as is NZ) but they have now moved to Switzerland - https://getsession.org/blog/introducing-the-session-technology-foundation 

 

And Session also had a reputation for being buggy in 2023 when it was new, but it seems to have really improved in the past six months. I have had no problems with it so far, and in fact have found it works better for me than Signal, because I can be logged in with multiple Android devices with no account conflicts. 

 

The only issue I've had is that it won't install on Windows 7, which is only an issue for around 3% of desktop users these days, and I was expecting that to be the case anyway because it's based on Signal and Signal won't install on Win 7 either. But I've found it works really well on both Linux and Android.

 

YOUR ACCOUNT ID

 

There is really only one new thing to keep in mind when using Session - because unlike Signal it is not using your phone number or the phone numbers of your contacts, to set up the initial link you have to exchange your account ID for the first contact. This is the minor inconvenience that allows the whole platform to be totally private.

 

The account ID is a 72 character code that will look similar to this one (this is not an actual code but just an example):
  06b2451d1bc973a57021bf76f353306c7sfc7ec891eb29ef4997bd82473300e00b

 

Your account ID is not high security and it's OK to give that out to everyone you want to contact. You also get a recovery code which is a random generated series of 13 words, and that on the other hand needs to be kept private. Keep that code secure and don't share it with anyone.

https://getsession.org/faq

 

Who is behind Session?

Session is part of the Loki Foundation, a non-profit organization without a permanent seat. The CEO is Simon Harman. Even though the project is not profit-oriented, he wants to monetize Session. Parts of the infrastructure are based on a block-chain network that mines its own currency, $LOKI.

The network provides important infrastructure for anonymizing its users, including an onion router to hide your IP address. Neither your counterpart nor the Loki Foundation can determine your location.

So if a state were to obtain a court order to inspect the session servers, investigators would find nothing but meaningless session IDs and TOR-IP addresses. None of this information would allow us to draw clear conclusions about the identity of the messenger app's users.

Privacy features of Session

    Users can generate a Session ID with a private key to start an account

    Session doesn’t require phone numbers.

 

    The chat platform doesn’t collect any data, and therefore a data breach is impossible.

 

    Messages go through an onion routing network, removing traceability.

    Session is an open-source program, so you can verify everything.

 

    It’s censorship resistant thanks to its decentralized network, therefore also harder to shut down

 

REVIEWS

 

Here is a good review of Session on the Restore Privacy website. It answers a lot of questions, but keep in mind that it was written in April 2024, and  the concerns about Australian privacy are no longer an issue - https://restoreprivacy.com/secure-encrypted-messaging-apps/session/

 

 

I have found Rob Braxman's Youtube channel really helpful for learning about privacy. Here is his video about Session, which he recommends highly.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nprSLN_GEGI&t=18s

TESTING OUT FOSS

For the past six months I've been dabbling in Linux, mainly using it on my laptop, while still using Windows on my PC, but at the start of last month I made the switch and swapped to using Linux full time on my PC as well. 

My laptop is running Mint Cinnamon 21 (a two year old version from July 2022), while my PC is set up with the latest version, Mint 22, which was released in July 2024. Part of the Linux learning curve is choosing which software to use from a huge range of Free Open Source Software (FOSS) available on Linux. 

I'm trying out all sorts of programs and this is what my laptop looks like at the moment - so much cool software to try out! Once I decide which option I like best I uninstall most of the other options that I won't be using.

 I'm running a tighter ship on my PC and not installing or testing as much new software. There is really not much of a difference between Mint 21 & 22. One of the things I like about Mint is that they don't change much with each new release, just gradually refining things rather than trying to be spectacular.

 https://www.linuxmint.com/

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Mint

SCREENSAVERS ARE JUST EYE CANDY

Now that I'm using Linux Mint as my "daily driver" (everyday computer) I've started documenting some of the often quite bizarre issues that arise when switching from Windows to Linux.

Screensavers don't seem like such a big deal, but they are actually a good example of the typical sorts of issues that send NEWBS whimpering back to the dark fist of Microscum.

Before going any further I want to emphasize that this is only a minor issue that is not preventing me from using my Linux PC. But I'm going on about it here to bring attention to the sort of thing that needs to be changed if Linux is ever to become more popular. I certainly don't recommend trying to read or understand any of the purple text below. That is all geek speak which might as well be Chinese for most people. It's just here as an example of a lot of the incomprehensible Linux info that is posted online.

Here is a website that provides some non-geek information about Linux - https://www.reallinuxuser.com/

The way that Linux Mint installs itself by default, there is effectively no screensaver. After a while the computer just goes into sleep mode and switches to a black screen, so it looks like it is turned off. In Windows I would pick up my mouse and check if the light on the mouse was on, but in Linux even that is off, so without tapping the keyboard and waiting to see if the computer eventually wakes up in it's own good time, so I have no idea if it's even turned on or not.

 

This is probably all because some GEEK decided that screensavers are "just eye candy" and users are better off to not have one because they "waste power and heat up your CPU" as well as being a "security risk" (Yes, these are quotes from an actual GEEK on a Linux forum).

And that is the sort of thinking that explains why a completely free and in many ways totally superior operating system like Linux Mint only has a fraction of the market share of a load of badly designed globalist spyware like Windows 10. There are other reasons, but this sort of thinking does not help.

Of course you can add a screensaver, hundreds of screen savers in fact, because this is Linux, so you can change anything. But of course this is not as easy as it first sounds, because this is Linux, and nothing ever is.

All you need to do is install Xscreensaver and you will then have 200 free screensavers that you can set up to display whenever and however you want. Cool! 

What Exactly is XScreenSaver?

 
XScreenSaver is an extensive and expandable collection of over 200 different screensavers that add visual flair and fun to otherwise dull computer displays when they are idle or sleeping.

First released in 1993 by Open Source developer Jamie Zawinski, XScreenSaver has been delighting Linux users for over 25 years with continually updated screensavers ranging from simple geometrics animations to complex real-time renders and even interactive displays.

Over that quarter decade of development, XScreenSaver has racked up some impressive stats:

    1.2 million downloads across major Linux distribution repositories
    An average rating of 4 out 5 from over 3,000 reviews on Ubuntu universe
    Featured as a top 10 must-have app on Linux systems by publications like LINUX+ magazine

Beyond quantities and ratings, XScreenSaver also wins praise from Linux users for features like:

    The sheer variety of visual styles – from abstract to intricate photo-realistic animations
    Customizability with per-display settings, shuffle modes and viewer-provided content
    The light footprint compared to other screensaver options – important for older hardware

Simply put, if you want to unlock a world of cool, creative screensavers for your Linux Mint desktop, XScreenSaver is hands-down one of the best choices out there.

 https://thelinuxcode.com/install-xscreensaver-linux-mint/

So what is the catch? Firstly most of the pre-installed screensavers appear to be from the 90's and they look absolutely terrible. And many of the others on the menu are not actually installed. But there are still lots of choices, and some of them look pretty cool. So what am I moaning about?

The ISSUE. As with many things Linux, there is an issue. When you reboot your computer it reverts to the power saving defaults that the original GEEK set up to save the world from dangerous "EYE CANDY"

Bugger... Can this be fixed? Of course it can, this is Linux, so everything can be fixed. But you will probably have to read solutions from GEEKS who will include the words "easy" and "type" in the same post...

Here is an example of an old forum reply:

Yup. Easy peezy.

Add the xscreensaver daemon to your list of startup programs. Go to System / Preferences / Sessions / Startup Programs, click "Add" and type "xscreensaver -no-splash".

Then
(in a terminal)
gksudo gedit /usr/share/applications/gnome-screensaver-preferences.desktop

find this line:
Exec=gnome-screensaver-preferences
change to:
Exec=xscreensaver-demo

comment out the last couple lines like so:
#X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
#X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=gnome-screensaver
#X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=general
#X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=gnome-screensaver

lastly,
Click System / Preferences / Screensaver to launch the xscreensaver configuration window, go to the "Advanced" tab and uncheck the "Power Management Enabled" checkbox. This should stop xscreensaver's power saving features from conflicting with Gnome Power Manager

 https://www.computerforum.com/threads/adding-more-screensavers-to-xscreensaver.205759/

 

 But that was long ago, in 2024 all this stuff will be sorted right? - NO! OMG WTF?

Each desktop environment has its own system for launching long-running daemons like XScreenSaver, and since many of them come bundled with their own (buggy, insecure, inferior) screen-locking frameworks, it is also necessary to disable those other frameworks before XScreenSaver can work.
Installing Xscreensaver on Gnome or Unity

For many years, GNOME included XScreenSaver as-is, and everything just worked. Not any more!

1: Fully uninstall the other screen saver packages:

        sudo apt remove gnome-screensaver
        sudo apt remove mate-screensaver
        sudo apt remove cinnamon-screensaver
        sudo apt remove light-locker
    or
        sudo rpm -e gnome-screensaver
        sudo rpm -e mate-screensaver
        sudo rpm -e cinnamon-screensaver
        sudo rpm -e light-locker

    Be careful that it doesn't try to uninstall all of GNOME.
2: Turn off GNOME's built-in blanking.

    Set all of the following settings to "Never" or "Off", as these are all controlled by xscreensaver-settings(1) now:

    "Settings / Privacy / Screen Lock / Blank Screen Delay"
    "Settings / Privacy / Screen Lock / Automatic Screen Lock"
    "Settings / Power / Blank Screen"
    "Settings / Power / Automatic Suspend"
3: Launch XScreenSaver at login.

    Launch "Tweaks", select "Startup Applications", click the plus sign, and select "XScreenSaver" (not "XScreenSaver Settings") from the (very long) menu.

    Or, see the "Launching Xscreensaver from Systemd" section below. That works too.
4: Make GNOME's "Lock" icon use XScreenSaver.

    This used to work, but no longer does with GNOME 3.38.  If you figure it out, let me know!  This still works for Cinnamon 4.8 and MATE 1.24:

        sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/xscreensaver-command \
               /usr/bin/gnome-screensaver-command
        sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/xscreensaver-command \
            /usr/bin/cinnamon-screensaver-command
        sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/xscreensaver-command \
                /usr/bin/mate-screensaver-command
        sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/xscreensaver-command \
               /usr/bin/xfce4-screensaver-command
        sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/xscreensaver-command \
                    /usr/bin/light-locker-command

    This change will get blown away when you upgrade.

https://www.mankier.com/1/xscreensaver

Let's face it, no regular computer user is going to do all that just to get a screensaver. Until Linux stops dicking around with this GEEK crap, Windows will continue to rule. 

So have I sorted my screensaver? - No, not really, that would take more tweaking. At this point I have just changed the power settings to never go to sleep, so now I have the default screensaver showing, which is my usual wallpaper image as background with the time & date moving around the screen. 

Having the time onscreen is actually quite handy, and now I can see that the PC is on, so I'm just going to leave it like that for now, but if I later have time & inclination, I may go onto the Mint Forum and try to find out how to set up Xscreensaver properly. But that might involve doing something weird with a daemon so it can all wait for another day...

 

LINUX GEEKS

In this post I'll be referring to "GEEKS" quite a bit. This is not entirely disrespectful, I do appreciate all the work geeks put in, creating open source software. But like so many people transitioning from Windows to Linux I have come to view geeks as a bizarre sub-species of computer users who take a perverse pleasure in exerting their superiority over NEWBS (New Linux users - I am a newb)

Making the shift from Windows to Linux is neither massively difficult, nor is it entirely easy. It's a bit of both, but a lot of the information online is biased, or badly presented, or created by geeks who are sometimes making things harder than they need to be.

Possibly some computer geeks place a value on themselves that partly stems from being the only ones who understand the technology, so making them gatekeeper tech gods. Which they get a buzz out of. 

Unfortunately this tends to mean that rather than making things easier for newbs by giving them simple instructions, they often give out incomprehensible instructions like "Just enter this simple command in Terminal". Their condescending tone of "this is all really easy" is infuriating and one of the main reasons so many newbs give up.

Geeks seem to be unwilling to accept that about 90% of people using computers are not other geeks, but regular people who want to have most, or even everything they do accessible through buttons and menus that they can click on. 

Personally I like to do everything on my PC using my mouse, and am about as anti keyboard command as it's possible to be. The very word "type" totally turns me off. "Copy & paste" I can do if necessary, but not "type" What I actually want to see are the words "click on".

Life often plays out in strange ways, and I have brain damage to the left hemisphere of my brain, so am very right brain dominant, but I still use computers anyway, and even sometimes seem to end up trying to explain computer stuff to other non-geeks who just want some basic instructions. 

My perspective from being a right brain computer user is a bit different to most of the people who are usually commentating on this stuff, so I imagine any actual geeks who see my posts might view me as a clueless idiot. Which I sort of am.

During the process of transitioning from Windows 7 (Yes, I am still using Win 7 in 2024) to Linux Mint, it has struck me that a lot of the information online is confusing rather than helpful, and I wish I could have read (Yes READ, not viewed endless badly done videos) web-pages that explained things in a way that made sense to me.

Here I'm attempting to leave some notes for my friends who at some point will be wanting to escape the clutches of Microsoft. Windows 11 is likely to be the final straw for a lot of people with it's obvious and intrusive spyware, so the end of Windows for non sheeple is looming close on the horizon. Linux is the only real option for anyone who wants to continue using a computer without selling their soul to the deep state. (Yes, Apple & Google are spying too)

As I've found from sticking with Windows 7 and refusing to use Windows 8 or Windows 10, it is possible to soldier on for years with an unsupported operating system, and I expect I'll keep using Windows 7 on some of my old laptops for years to come. But installing Windows 7 on more modern hardware is a pig of a job, mainly because sorting out drivers can be really tricky, and there are ever increasing problems with software no longer working properly. 

I will probably do a post about some of the Win 7 work arounds, because Windows 7 is slowly gaining a cult following as the last relatively low spyware version of Windows. But Linux is the future and I think everyone who wants to use a computer with some degree of privacy is going to have to get the hang of it. So I'll do some more Linux posts attempting to clarify a few things.