Thank you!

That definitely sounds concerning, do you have a link or anything? Any company would have to comply with a legal court order regardless of their preference or ideology, so how they comply comes down to the amount of information they store and for how long. Just saying, the fact that they helped the cops (as much as I hate the cops in general) doesn’t necessarily mean they handed everything over or volunteered anything they weren’t legally obligated to provide. But I don’t know the specifics of the case you mentioned.

Most if not all non-paid options will have privacy concerns similar to gmail, so you’ll have to pay. I pay for Proton, and though I’m not thrilled about some of the political bullshit their CEO has been up to recently, I think I’ll stay with them for now since they’re still good for privacy, and their other services are solid. They’re also very upfront about what they charge and why, and I think they still plan to transition to a non-profit.

Yup! I use Mobius on iOS to sync everything I want, including random one off file transfers, but mostly to keep my Keepass database and Obsidian vault in sync across devices. It works really well, despite apple making it super difficult to run consistently in the background. As long as you open the app every so often, it’s seamless and reliable.

Syncthing.

This was a surprisingly awesome game. The Sabacc mini-game alone is worth the price of admission.

People carry debt from their Christmas gifts for the rest of the year, you’re right that it’s totally not harmless. I’m shocked how much some people spend on holiday gifts.

My family, granted we’re Jewish, basically stopped all gift-giving, except for when there’s a new kid in the extended family, which is rare. I wholly agree that Christmas is the best example of conspicuous consumption/consumerism and extreme capitalism. Frankly, Christmas season makes me kind of uncomfortable because of all the social expectations to give gifts. Fortunately I can usually say ‘“nah I’m Jewish, I don’t do Christmas,” but you’d be surprised how many folks are totally confused by that. So yup, spoil your kids if you want to, but don’t expect me to send you a holiday gift if you’re a functional adult.

Totally understandable. I was hesitant about it too, but to me it’s sometimes worth a premium to get something that just works, and Infuse works better than any player I’ve used in the past. To each their own, good luck!

As suggested above, I would try Infuse player. I recently switched from a Kodi/Jellyfin setup to an Apple TV/Jellyfin setup and I’m extremely happy with it. Infuse has a free trial, and then you can choose to pay a few different ways (they do have a rather expensive lifetime option, but it might be worth it). The Infuse app has no trouble playing directly from my Jellyfin server, no transcoding, even for full 4K Bluray rips, and yes it even supports Dolby Vision (which the native Jellyfin app struggles with). No hiccups, no issues with multiple audio tracks or subtitles, it’s just buttery smooth direct playback.

It also has a couple different ways of interacting with your Jellyfin library, so it feels completely seamless to me.

Same, Syncthing is amazing. I use it with Mobius Sync on iOS and have it synching my keepass, Obsidian vault, photos, and a folder for random file transfers between devices. It’s so much better, faster, and more stable than all the most popular corporate cloud providers.

For real. Academics are some of the most prolific pirates I’ve ever met. Usually out of necessity because we don’t pay them reasonably or value their work.

Having a device that can be used for surveillance is not the same thing as someone actively choosing to report their neighbor.

Been having similar thoughts. We’ll very soon be back in the age of internment camps, reporting on neighbors’ behavior, and minorities looking over their shoulders even more than usual. I am ashamed of us.

Thanks! I was afraid you were going to say that…but it makes sense. Think I’ll go for it. Also means I can wait a while to buy Veilguard while I play Inquisition.

I’ve been needing a new big game to sink my teeth into, but I haven’t played any of the other Dragon Age games. I watched the glowing euro gamer review for Veilguard and it looks amazing to me (the slightly stylized look doesn’t bother me at all). Do you think I’ll enjoy it without much context? I don’t usually buy full-priced, but I make the occasional exception for games I know I’ll play for a while…Baldurs Gate, for example.

I think I’m okay with this. Ghost of Tsushima is one of my favorite games.