WHY I USE THE WATERFOX BROWSER

Going back about 10 years I was often asked basic computer questions by family and friends. Not because I was some sort of geek guru, but because I’d been using computers since the 90’s and knew some of the basics. But all that changed when Microsoft 10 came out in 2015. I’d already refused to use Windows 8 in 2013, but with Windows 10 I could see that Windows 7 was definitely going to be my last ever Microsoft operating system.

While most people “upgraded” to Windows 10, I just said NO and stuck with Windows 7. I still use Windows 7 to this day, along with Linux Zorin, Linux Mint and Android. And I still refuse to use Windows 10 or 11 which I regard as pure spyware. So my days of being someone you might ask for help with your computer are pretty much over really, which is fine with me because I always struggled with the tech side of things anyway.

But one area of computing I still seem to be asked about quite regularly is Internet Browsers. What do I recommend? OK, here goes, this post is could easily be pretty boring, so I might have to throw in some hot arse pics, or fast cars, or ugly transvestites or something to rev it up a bit. And I’ll try to keep the tech stuff as simple as possible.

Here is what I use. On Windows 7 I use Waterfox as default with Vivaldi as my #2. I think Vivaldi is a really good browser but they pulled support for Windows 7 early in 2023 and because there are no updates, occasionally there are minor problems on some sites. Waterfox on the other hand, still runs happily with Windows 7 as well as on Linux.

On Android where Vivaldi is all up to date, I run Vivaldi as default and Firefox as #2 (Waterfox doesn't have an Android version). Neither Waterfox or Vivaldi are particularly widely known or popular browsers, so why do I rate them so highly? 

Waterfox reminds me of old school Firefox before they screwed it up. It basically looks like Firefox, with a better menu system than all the chrome based browsers. My Mozilla account works with it so it has the best syncing between devices. But it runs faster than Firefox, it isn't constantly trying to push bogus updates, the privacy is better, and it doesn't have any of the glitches that have started creeping into Firefox lately. And it works really well with Facebook too, while Firefox doesn't. So it's essentially just a better version of Firefox.

Vivaldi, when on Android or Windows 10, I have found works better in many ways than any other browser I’ve tried (and I’ve tried most of them) and because it is so good for customising I can set it up exactly how I like. It’s just another Chromium based browser, but they did a really good job with it. But I don't find it as good on Win 7 or Linux, so I only use it as my default on Android.

Any browser will need a few add ons – some essentials I recommend are U-block Origin, Adblock Plus, Ad Blocker for YouTube, AdBllocker Ultimate, and AdGuard Adblocker, (yes I run five ad blockers) as well as Raindrop for bookmarks, FBP (Facebook Purity) if you use Facebook, and Custom Scrollbars if you like big bold scrollbars (but this really only works well on Win 7).

These are the browsers I think are worth trying out:

BRAVE – A pretty good browser but lacks some features that are only on Vivaldi. It eventually fixed it’s annoying “need to upgrade to Win 10 notification” and has good speed & privacy, but the sync has never worked well. It only works on 64 bit computers and keeps pushing the Win 10+ narrative. And the rewards system is bogus, for numpties who want to make a few cents looking at ads (you can turn it off in settings). But it is stylish and fast, I’d give it number one in both those categories.

DISSENTER – It was a pretty cool browser, but as of 2021 the project was abandoned and these days a lot of sites won’t work with it. At it’s peak it worked really well and had the best display of any browser on some sites (like Facebook). I’m just including it here as an honorable mention, it is totally out of date now and mostly not working anymore, so probably not worth trying out.

FIREFOX – From v.109 Firefox mostly got it’s shit together again, it still has the best menu system & it’s the only major browser that runs on all operating systems including 32 bit Win 7. For old computers Firefox based browsers are best. It's not open source and has connections to Google, so is probably spying, but it looks like the original Firefox browser with the well designed top menu system dating back to 2000 so I feel more at home on it.

LIBREFOX – A Firefox based privacy browser that runs on Linux or Win 10/11 but not on Win 7 or Android – a better option for a privacy browser than the horrible Tor. I tried this on Linux instead of Waterfox, but this is a full on privacy browser that acts more like Tor than Waterfox, it's not an everyday browser as it wipes everything each restart, so I only use it when I want to be anon.

VIVALDI – Until recently this was my default browser on all platforms. Everything can be customized, & sync works really well. It’s still my favourite browser on Android. But the default inbuilt strong ad blocker can trigger issues on some sites – if that happens switch to a browser set up without such strong ad blockers. Vivaldi sometimes also has Windows 7 (unsupported) problems on some sites (that's why I moved to Waterfox as my default on Win 7)

WATERFOX – An open source version of Firefox without the Google spywear – my first choice of the Firefox forks on Win 7 & Linux – It works with Firefox add ons & runs faster than Firefox. It offers two versions of its software: Classic and Current. The Classic only works for “legacy” systems (Win 7). But, its Current version is for latest Windows 10 or 11 & gets updated regularly. It won’t install on Android but they are planning an Android version soon.

 

Some browsers that suck

And these are some of the remaining browsers that I think suck and are best avoided like the plague (or “covid jabs”):

CHROME – The default browser on Android phones & the most popular browser in the world, but this is full on Google spywear data harvesting. I think it is utter shit all branded with a nice 666 logo, and I prefer to never install it on any computer.

CHROMIUM – The open source original version of Chrome and the basis for all the other Chromium based browsers, but even this was started by Google and I don’t like it either. And it still has the evil 666 logo & woketard themes.

DOLPHIN – A touchscreen browser for Apple & Android with gesture controls – it has had privacy issues & is just considered to be an upgrade for Safari (which wouldn’t be hard)

DUCKDUCKGO – Yes this is also a browser as well as a search engine. Originally just a dodgy android browser, this is now a developing privacy browser with a built in YouTube tracking blocker, but it doesn’t work with other extensions at this point.

MICROSOFT EDGE – The default browser on Windows 10 & 11, and as expected, a steaming pile of spywear crap – a lame joke that clueless windows users still use, making it third most popular browser

MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER – The worst browser of all time, discontinued in 2022 because even Microsoft hate it

OPERA – On Win 10/11 or Linux, it works OK. It actually used to be a pretty good independent browser but these days is just another Chrome based browser with added sidebars (which I don’t like) & “new features” as it’s main claims to fame. Opera’s key problems include an ever increasing range of bugs on Windows 7, and the Opera management are total woketards. Also the search engine keeps defaulting back to google, (a known problem with Opera, & they have signed a deal with Google), extensions don’t show on toolbar by default and have to be pinned, and if you hide or autohide the sidebar or it turns off the menu (this is another known bug) . And the annoying side bar menu system can’t be hidden or the whole menu disappears

PALE MOON – A fork of Firefox, an attempt to recreate the old Firefox, but new extensions don’t work with it, so it’s a total lemon – totally inferior to Waterfox

SAFARI – Apple’s bogus spywear browser – as of 2021 it can no longer run on Windows but it always sucked anyway. Strictly for appletards.

TOR – The Onion Browser – Full privacy but runs very slow – this browser is for privacy rather than convenience and trying to use it is a pain in the arse. It is based on Firefox & uses Firefox themes and add ons, but oddly the menu system is chrome based, so in that regard it’s the only browser that is Firefox based with the ugly Chrome hamburger menu. It is blocked by some sites so not everything works. When using Tor your ID is blocked and many sites don’t allow that. Each time Tor is restarted everything is wiped, cookies, history, log ins, pinned tabs, the lot. So as a daily browser it’s unusable.

TORCH – A complete dog of a browser – avoid like an alien anal probe.

Congratualtions, you made it to here, here are some pictures to get you firing on all cylinders again:

As promised, a hot arse:

A fast car:

An ugly tranny (or three):

 

RULES OF BLOGGING

HOW BLOGGING SHOULD BE DONE

 Like most blogging old timers I had a bunch of rules in my head about how blogging "should" be done - what makes a real blog. Rules can be help us maintain our standards, but they can also just become a collection of unquestioned assumptions that are no longer working for us, and which we need to move on from. 

Our enemies ("the powers that shouldn't be") don't play to any set of rules that we would recognize, and times are now changing probably faster than at any point in history. So this year I've been trying to let go of some of my long held rules/assumptions, certainly including those applying to blogging.

Here are six of my old school blogging rules that I've mostly ditched on this new blog:

A REAL BLOG SHOULD BE SELF HOSTED ON WORDPRESS.ORG

 WordPress is getting endlessly more complex, and I wonder now if the whole WordPress platform is yet another deep state psyop, because let's face it, with over 455 million sites, or over 30% of all websites currently online using WordPress, it's highly unlikely that it isn't.

So I've gone back to using Blogger, and Blogger is owned by Google. But ultimately, Google seem to have censored the entire internet, and Blogger is easy to use and convenient. If my posts are going to get barely any traffic, I might as well use a convenient deep state platform (Blogger) rather than an inconvenient deep state platform (WordPress)

 https://sift666.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-end-of-era.html

 

A BLOG SHOULD HAVE A CONSISTENT NUMBER OF POSTS

Some bloggers do a post every day, while some only do one each month, but all blogs should stick within those extremes. More than one post a day is not OK, and less than one post a month is also not OK. Says who?. 

So far this year I've been doing about 40 posts a month, mostly very short ones or updates of my old posts. But that could easily change, to more or less, if I feel so inclined. If for example I do a short post about Flouride each day in July for Fluoride Free month, that would be 31 extra posts next month.

LINKS TO EACH BLOG POST SHOULD BE SHARED ON SOCIAL MEDIA

A real blogger promotes their content by sharing it on a range of popular social media platforms, in order to generate an audience. This year I have given up using all social media platforms apart from Facebook, so I'm not doing that. All social media platforms, and indeed the entire internet, are controlled to some extent by the deep state using their AI. 

I'm not doing blog posts as a paid job, really it's all for my own entertainment. Blogging is my muse (an imaginary being or force that gives someone ideas and helps them to write, paint, or make music). If other people read what I post that is great, but I'm not going to spend hours promoting my posts on platforms I mostly don't even use. (I do share some of my posts on my Facebook account)

 THE URL OF EACH POST SHOULD MATCH IT'S TITLE

I have edited the title or changed the publishing date of so many of the posts on this blog, that less than half of them would match up. Too bad, what sort of anal geek even looks at that stuff anyway? (Yes, I must admit I did used to do that...)

Never mind, if anyone types in www.sift.co.nz they will see something, but if they use the Google search engine to find my content, they probably won't see much.

 

THE MEASURE OF A BLOG IS IT'S POPULARITY

It was my plan at the start of the year to ditch the HIT COUNTER and give up looking at how many hits my blog got. I must admit I struggled with that, and ended up putting it back on. But as with all traffic on the internet, it is mostly just the artificial flows of the deep states AI, and has very little to do with content quality or real viewers.

This blog is still only getting about 100 hits a day, which is fairly insignificant, while my old blog used to get 2000 hits a day back in 2018 before it was black listed, which certainly sounds a lot better, but ultimately, who cares? Only me, nobody else gives a toss, and it all works better when I don't really care either.

 

 

A BLOG POST MUST CONTAIN BOTH TEXT AND IMAGES

 

  There is certainly some truth to that, it's the fundamental difference between a blog post and a tweet, but on a Blogger blog where everything is displayed as one long stream of posts, the old idea that any given blog post must be a complete entity in itself becomes sort of redundant. A picture tells a thousand words, and sometimes a meme tells a lot more than that. 

 

Sometimes I just want to post one image, and no, that isn't a real blog post, but it's my blog, for my entertainment, so some of my posts might just be one image (or a bunch of images) with no text at all. So be it. 

SWINGING BOTH WAYS

 We have both sorts of weather in Wellington NZ - Before and After!

RANDOM IMAGES #23

 

 

 

 

31 MILLION FREE EBOOKS

Anne's Archive is an amazing resource with over 31 million free ebooks online. It is described as the largest truly open library in human history. All their code and data are completely open source, and the way the site is set up pretty much side steps all issues of copyright (they are only sharing download links rather than the books themselves).

It has 31,603,758 books, and 99,900,496 papers in the database, all available to download. These include a lot of conspiracy books, some of which are heavily censored and hard to find.

I have been asked how it all works so here are some basic instructions showing how to download eBooks:

First go to the Anna's Archive website and enter the author or title you are looking for in the search box - https://annas-archive.org/

The results of your search will rapidly appear - now if you want to filter by format tick PDF & EPUB in the file types on the left

After you select the book you want, click on one of the two "slow download" options - If you are new to the site you won't be a paid subscriber but these will still both work fine. Don't get carried away, you can only do about two downloads at a time from each one of the options.

 

There are daily limits on how many books you can download, I'm not sure what they are, (maybe 10?) because I'm not the only one downloading books on one internet connection. But when you do too many  downloads the site stops working. Leave it a a day and try again. Anne's Archive is certainly not the only site to find eBooks, just the easiest on to use. This website describes a bunch of other ebook download alternative sites

Next, remember to hit the "Download now" link to start the book downloading

Save your eBooks in a folder (don't change or rename this folder once you start using them on your eBook reader or your books will disappear from the reader & you will have to add them again) - I edit the names of the new books before adding them to my eBook reader because the file names of eBooks downloaded through Anne's Archive tend to be very long.

On my Windows PC I use Calibre eBook reader which can be downloaded here

I was trying to keep things simple for people new to eBooks and tested some other more basic eBook readers such as Ice Cream reader, but I prefer having all the features of Calibre (which is free anyway) - it's slightly more complex at first but it does everything I want.

For reading books on an Android tablet or phone I use the Read Era app which is really good. It's not set up for all the more complex text editing stuff that Calibre can do, but is great for displaying and reading your eBook collections. Although its not designed for PC use, it apparently can be installed on a windows PC - I'm about to try doing that and instructions for installing it on a Widows PC are here

 

Having access to 31 million eBooks is pretty amazing, and before you know it, you can have your own vast library.

 

HOW TO GET A BETTER FACEBOOK FEED

It wasn't until I tried looking at my Facebook feed on my tablet that I realised just what a bunch of crap most people see when they look at Facebook. And that wasn't even using the mobile version! I never look at the internet using a phone but apparently 98% of Facebook users are doing just that.

STEP 1 - Use a computer or laptop, not a mobile phone or tablet.

Usually I look at Facebook on my PC or laptop, either using Windows 7 (Yes I still use Windows 7, but this will work on Win 10 as well) or Linux (I use Linux Zorin or Mint but this would be the same on any distro). It won't work on Android, and I don't know about Apple or Windows 11 because I've never used them.

STEP 2 - Add the Facebook Purity app (aka Fluff Busting Purity or FBP) to your browser - (this doesn't override Facebook's default settings as fully as it used to, and won't lock FB into a chronological feed anymore, but never mind, see step 3). This can get rid of a lot of crap. I go into settings and hide all the right and left sidebar links as well as turning off pretty much everything.

 https://www.fbpurity.com/

https://www.frot.co.nz/design/computing/use-f-b-purity-app-to-make-fb-usable/

STEP 3 - Get a chronological feed - This is the most essential thing to do with Facebook really, otherwise it is unusable. It's pretty easy to do, but you sometimes have to reset it because FB keeps trying to force your feed back to their controlled algorithm. 

Click on the nine little dots icon in the top right to open the Menu, then select "Feeds"

 STEP 4 - Use a good browser. It's all quite beyond me how this stuff works, but oddly I find Firefox is hopeless for viewing Facebook, while the Firefox fork Waterfox works best. Vivaldi or Brave both work OK as well. (I never use Chrome because I think it sucks, so I'm not sure how well that runs with FB)

For use on Windows or Linux I highly recommend the Waterfox browser. It's not widely used, but it's really good browser - like a faster version of Firefox with better privacy.

STEP 5 - Ad Blockers. I always use five ad blockers which is probably complete overkill, but they all seem to get along happily together so why not? I'm not really using them for Facebook in particular, they are there to block all advertising. It's probably not really possible to block all the advertising on FB, but I certainly see a lot less "sponsored posts" on my computer than on my tablet. Sometimes I go to the trouble of blocking particular advertisers, but mostly I just ignore them.

The five free ad blockers I use are Adblock Plus, Adblocker for YouTube, Adblocker Ultimate, AdGuard Adblocker, and uBlock Origin

I don't know which of these ad blockers is best so I just install all five of them - when it comes to ads I figure more blocking is better! This review on Techradar ranks uBlock Origin as #1 so I gave it a picture.

THE FINAL SOLUTION - Delete all the numpties. Find like minded friends, and bin any woketards. The days of signing up for Facebook using your real name and linking up with all your relatives and old friends is really over in this day and age in my opinion. I know a lot of people are still into that, but if you have been trying expose the globalist narratives, you probably have learned the shortcomings of that approach over the past five years in particular.

If you exclusively stick to being friends with people who can tell the difference between shit and chewed dates, a FB feed can be surprisingly good. Personally, I have given up arguing with anyone online, and just let any remaining tards of any kind block or unfriend me.