Mainly because it’s really difficult to make a Google account when they suspect you’re a bot.

A fair amount of smaller businesses in Belgium also primarily use Whatsapp.

A VM is difficult for me since I only have a spare quad core laptop from almost a decade ago. So I’m sceptical on whether it will be able to virtualise an OS on top. And the bridges are hosted on a Zimablade. So I have my doubts there as well. Though I can definitely give it a spin in my free time, you never know.

I do have my main computer where I do run VMs often, but I doubt my partner will be fine running that noisy thing overnight though.

Ideally I would be running an iMessage bridge like you’re suggesting. Unfortunately I don’t have time to get it to work on my iPhone since the maumium docs mention it’s possible, but haven’t made a guide for it.

I’ll definitely keep the VM thing in mind if I ever decide to replace the Zimablade. I doubt my family will let go of their Apple devices any time soon anyway.

Thanks, I’ve really been appreciating everyones ideas here!

Actually our setup isn’t that different. I do have everything running behind Mullvad, including my server with the bridge on it. I also have a seperate, rarely used phone number. I don’t have Whatsapp on my GOS device though

Docker was initially only rootful. So I’m assuming for compatibility’s sake they kept the default that way?

Yeah I also switched all my docker containers to podman as well. I wasn’t making any point for using either above the other

A bit off topic but the way you’re writing this post makes me feel old, and I’m in my low 20s

I am mad I didn’t get the summer shrimpin role (I barely use DIscord)

Yes, my family sent me important messages on Signal for the couple of months we used it, but that was it. The issue lied with the other kinds of messages that I just didn’t receive anymore. I’m happy enough we got on a platform that is at the very least e2ee and where those other kinds chats still continue. Though I’m aware that metadata is being shared that wouldn’t be if we used Signal.

Haha. Yeah we have a seperate “memechat” for non-serious stuff (which went to iMessage in that Signal period) so I just have that one automatically muted on select hours of the day.

I do have a tablet I use as a glorified recipe book. So that might just do it. Thanks, you’ve been a huge help!

I actually mostly use Signal. I got my family to use Signal for a while, but they just ended up sending texts I did not strictly need to see on iMessage. Hence why we eventually settled on Whatsapp

By keeping it open 24/7 do you mean that the app is actively taking screen space or is an unclosed app in the background? I hadn’t actually thought of not swiping the app away after refreshing the timer. And yeah I was looking at OpenWA as well but that’s for businesses.

Yeah I thought about using it too. The two bridges are also developed by them. I wouldn’t have minded using their app instead, but I don’t have the Play Store on my phone (I’m on GOS). They don’t offer a regularly updated apk on their site like Whatsapp does either.

Still thanks for the suggestion though!

Docker can also be run rootless, though not by default.

Yeah I remember playing Fortnite back in high school and asking a friend if he could play via the in game chat. The problem was that I wrote “Kunt ge?” so the whole thing got censored

Data processing in space can be useful, albeit not in the way that Musk seems to sell it. I spoke with some people from a space startup (edgx) at a jobfair in Belgium half a year ago.

Their thing was that they did some data processing in space to cut down on bandwidth (so this is specifically for applications where satellites are a necessary component). I also remember specifically asking them about cosmic rays and they told me it’s definitely manageable because their computers fly in LEO. (They already have a computer in space)

Personally when I install some software I generally look at popularity (like stars if the code is hosted on Github), whether an audit has recently happened, it is recommended by someone I trust, and whether the permissions it needs are reasonable (I’m on Silverblue so I only install Flatpaks)

When I used to use Arch I also looked at the pkgbuild beforehand since they’re generally fairly small en very human readable. I also looked at popularity there and whether the developer maintained an Arch package. But that obviously doesn’t say anything about the code itself.

I definitely don’t consider myself non-techy since I’m doing an an engineering masters with a CS track but those things shouldn’t require any programming knowledge.

But I think most of the more common users don’t really care and install the packages they need without thinking too much about it. Unless the source seems very untrustworthy.

Edit: you can never truly be certain that a project’s code is safe. You can only have soft guarantees. Albeit some like formal verification are harder than others like project popularity.

Yeah the strangeness I do have with German as a native Dutch speaker. But that’d made sense since I’d obviously know when a word isn’t Dutch, like you’re alluding to.

Though I’m assuming it’s not to the same extent you have with Spanish and Portuguese, since that description fits more with what I have with Afrikaans.

But I only learned some basic German in high school for an hour per week so I definitely don’t have the same experience with it that you probaby do. Neither do I have any push to use or learn it, compared to French where there was.

Still really cool to hear the perspective from someone like you!

Admittedly I didn’t see his other comments mentioning that so that’s on me.

But it’s disingenuous to just skip the “because they’re not related” part of my comment. If they were, I’d agree with you.

I’m keeping it at that. I hope you you have a nice evening!

Damn that’s cool!