A 50-something French dude that's old enough to think blogs are still cool, if not cooler than ever. I also like to write and to sketch.
Well, it does make sense the moment you consider my whole point is that I can't trust those various elements (from taking the picture with my phone, to backing it up anywhere I fancy). Hence my first reply: me not using those anymore for personal use and therefore not needing to worry about doing backups. That's all there is to my remark.
I can't trust the operating system running on the phone, even less so as a non-us citizen since US law (android and iOS are US-products) recognize us even less right to any kind of privacy.
I can't trust the network (here in France, my ISP is required by law to record my online activities). Network can be encrypted? OK, but I cannot trust the gov to not make it illegal for the average person to use real encryption (even on one's own hardware) because, you know, 'think of the children', or the evil terrorists.
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my bad, it's not considered tech. Removed.
Nothing. I quit making (digital) photography for anything personal, aka memories worth preserving, the day I realized I could no longer trust tech (and the companies behind them, or even our own governments) to respect my privacy. I now only do 'useful' and temporary kind of photos, stuff that have no personal value to me and that I see no interest in backing up.
As for videos, i don't do personal video either and for movies, well, I own the DVDs I purchase. Plus, I have two copies on external drives (not as much as a backup but to make my life simpler ;)
Very roughly speaking, 100.000 years ago our ancestors were using flint stones to hunt and do stuff, that was rightfully so considered peak tech. What would you think our ancestors would do if they suddenly got their hands on, say, a smartphone or a smart doorbell? Or maybe a ballistic missile or, say, a tiny little stent? Even their most cultured people would not know what it is, or how to use it.
So, what would happen if we suddenly got our own hands on a 100.000 years more advanced tech? Probably not much. We may not even be able to realize there is something worth looking at. And the few that may realize there is something there, say out of some intuition or because they're somehow that smart, would probably be considered crazy ;)
Birdwatching is cool now
Now? It has been cool for as long as I can remember... says I, an older (not in tweed and not so gentle, but kinda amateur of soup I'll admit that) man even when people were looking at me as if I was some kind of weirdo/perv carrying around my binoculars ;)
"On social media in particular, people are redefining what it is to be into birdwatching - sharing knowledge and passion."
Come on, I know it's trendy to reinvent the wheel and to claim everything is better now than it used to be before us, but is "sharing knowledge and passion" really that much of a novelty?
Me being an old fart set aside, it's really cool to see younger people get into that outdoor practice. With any luck, this could also serve as a gateway for a bunch of them to _re_discover activities and passions alike need not always be shared in real time on social media?
edit: typos.
I love tech! But I hate techno-surveilance.
Great summary of my own stance.
What do you NOT do, that you would do without privacy violation?
Since the day I realized I could not trust (high) tech to respect my privacy, I decided to use tech as little as I can.
There is not much I can do to change tech beside using Free/Libre software that do respect my user rights, or to resist that dystopia our leaders seem so willing to make our reality (probably thinking they will able to escape it for themselves, their families, and their friends), but I still have the choice to not actively contribute to making it a reality by not using the very tools they're using to eradicate our privacy.
- Moving back to analog, wherever I can. Things like pen and paper, print instead of digital, and so on. And also to physical media I could fully own, instead of streamed ones I don't own.
- Moving back to low-tech wherever we could too. And yes that means not using a lot of things one may want to use. There is no smart gizmo at all in our home, none. And we try to keep tech at bay as much as possible everywhere. For example, we barely use our phones and store nothing personal on them.
- Also, rekindling in-person encounters/chats/etc. instead of doing those online.
- We also constantly try to improve our 'de-reliance' on high-tech. I mean, my voice recorder is now a 90s Sony thingy that works wonder, that do not spy on my personal memos, needs no Internet, no subs and comes AI free.
Small things like that. And there are a lot available.
Edit: typos/clarifications
As a user, would you rather (1) wait for them [the software dev/company] to get all the bugs out,
I don't expect to live eternally and certainly don't expect to wait that long ;)
As a user I factor-in the various bugs/issues/constraints I have to deal with using any software to decide if it's worth it or not. If it i snot I don't use it.
Note that I also factor the freedom/privacy-respecting aspects of any software, as a user I mean.
My bad!
Then, you mostly need to be aware that Germans are quite often on the reserved side of things, on first sight at least...
Once you get there, skip you teacher surveillance asap and go ask for political asylum? ;)
More seriously:
Anything important that I should be aware of?
Not knowing you, it's a bit difficult to suggest anything. I mean, I doubt you're concerned but I've witnessed US citizens (I fancy your from the US?) complain that people in France (my country) were speaking... French, like for real. So, be aware that Germans will most likely speak their native German. And, yep, a lot of them do speak English, like us French do, just don't expect all of them do.
Some EU citizens, from Germany too, are getting quite tired of US accelerated devolution into a dumbified mob-ruled country. Your POTUS insistence on insulting and threatening almost every single EU nation is also not helping much. So don't be surprised some people may not be that welcoming to begin with. Edit: take that as an opportunity to show then they're wrong.
If it's a week long trip, don't allow your school to say all you should and should not do in Munich (see? I did not suggest anything you should visit) ;)
So much of the streamed content that we had zero hesitation unsubscribing from all of them, a few years ago. So far, we don't feel like we're missing out on much as the little quality productions that somehow escape the global neutering that is going on over there, well if we can't get them on disc or elsewhere... too bad but there are still countless amazing productions available on discs it's not like we're short content-wise ;)
I would like no smart glasses at all.
'Privacy focused focused smart glasses' sounds as credible as 'your friendly stalker neighbor'.
Merci beaucoup, je vais lire ça tranquillement.
infomaniak j’ai pas trouvé comment faire.
Ils font pas d'alias, que je sache ou juste de façon symbolique. Peut-être dans leurs offres pro?
Le move d’infomaniak m’a quand même refroidi. Mais les internets s’enflamme vite.
C'est quoi leur move? (sans la partie enflammée d'internet, si possible) ou bien tu parles de leur récente annonce d'avoir créé une fondation? Je vois pas trop où serait le souci avec ça, mais bon j'ai pas suivi ça de très près.
On ressort de là en ce disant que le mieux, ça serait d’arrêter d’utiliser internet, parce-que c’est juste saoulant.
Peut-être pas complètement une si mauvaise idée, depuis que j'ai réduit mon temps en ligne tout me semble moins... stressé ;)
Kagi was the best search engine I have used since back then, in the 90s, when Google was a new thing, so disruptive. If Kagi was not US-based, I would have very happily remained one of their paid customer, it's real good with many excellent features.
- Depends the email provider, I 'm not sure (quite certain they're not) all are offering that.
- Yes. The moment you stop paying as it will most likely be sold for cheap. One of the oldest domain I owned (from the 90s) and got rid of a few years ago is now used by someone hosting porn... Which is kinda funny. Maybe one can also lose it in a trial? But that would be very specific... Say, you own StarWarsSucksHard.com you won't probably own it for long the moment Disney's armies of lawyers focus their attention on you ;)
uBlock Origin can do so much beside blocking ads, like replace extensions (like Consent-OMatic or the many small ones I sued to use to protect my privacy) or block specific parts on any webpage.
Your purchase it from some registrar.
I'm from France so it probably won't be the same as you, it will cost you a small yearly fee. Like, for example I do own the domain 'thefoolwithapen.com' (my blog) among a few other domain names. So I can use libb@thefoolwith... with either my own email/hosting or most third-party provider, I don't have ti use their own name/domain. Sorry for the lack of specificity in my explanations, I'm everything but an expert ;)
Edit: clarifications
but truly private AND secure is a must.
Remember that email is none of that, unless both people use encryption.
Tuta and Proton both are encrypted, which is great, but the moment you exchange with someone that is not using encryption (aka, the vast majority of people), they're not anymore.
I always considered email like sending a good old postcard: something anyone could read without being invited, just by looking at it.
so I can have control
Be it Tuta or Proton, or any other commercial offering, you won't have real control without owning your actual domain name. Owning it means you can change email provider if/when you wand (and if you don't feel like using your own).
I've been doing photography since 78 (still a kid, back then) when, while I was spending holidays at his big home in a big city, my photographer of an uncle gave me my first reflex camera and two rolls of Ilford (so far, I only had been using a tiny kid Kodak pocket camera, loaded with tiny cassettes), telling me how to load the camera and how to use a lightmeter to get a correct exposure (and what that was), and then he gave me some cash and told me to get the fuck out of his office and go out to shoot random stuff on the block until there was not a single frame left. Only then, I could come back home and we would develop said rolls together in his darkroom, printing whatever he would consider to not be complete trash. Yes, he spoke like that to his dear pupil, and yes he was the kind of adult encouraging a little boy (be it me, or his own kids) to go out and explore the city around us alone and unsupervised (back then, people were a tad less paranoid). He kinda had his own very personal way to motivate me and to get my attention.
Back in the darkroom, while I assisted him (technically speaking, I mostly watched him do his magic and pressed a few buttons) I was in awe when I first saw the image appear on paper in his bath under the red light. That was real superpower (so far, I had never witnessed developing or making a print out of it, it was done by some random lab handing me back a pile of prints in place of the cassette).
If anyone wants to know, I managed to get a few decent pictures for my first time. Using the Nikkor 55 f2,8 lens (a macro lens) he gave me with the camera (the dude had some taste, I would still love to use this lens) I used to get a decent picture of a... fly, sitting still on a window. Another one, of the entire block that was taken from... the very top of the big ladder of a firetruck (I simply went into the nearby firemen station and they were kinda cool with kid-me and ended up inviting me to climb the ladder with one of them (something nowadays parents would sue them into oblivion for... that probably decided my future career). It was a blast. I was seeing the town around like I had never seen it: I was standing on the fucking top of the buildings! I was in love with what happened that day, and with myself feeling, no it was more than just a feeling, me being that tiny version of a reporter and being not just allowed but encouraged to do incredible stuff I would otherwise not be allowed to. I was also very much liking the dude that climbed with me and moved the ladder slightly for me to get a good shot, and I liked his friends for being so welcoming to silly kid-me... I made a group picture of the four of them and that was the third print worth keeping. If I got rid of the fly print very quickly, I dearly kept the block shot and the one of the firemen, in my various offices until... i quit photography, a few decades later.
So, yes, to answer your insightful remark, I think I know I can do analog. I also think I know how to do digital, I started in the late 90s as an out of curiosity experiment (that was quite fun too). And I think I know how to make backups of both media. But, replying to the OP I did not imagine he was considering doing backups of analog photography at all, I may have been wrong.
Just so you know: analog-wise, I've had zero issue keeping prints in archival photographic boxes for almost half a century, and archiving my negatives and slides in paper sleeves. Prints are also great to share with friends and people as they're long lasting even without much care... I kept the same way much older prints, I purchased from galleries or from fellow photographers, without any issue.
edit: typos.