lurtbancaster (u/lurtbancaster)

lurtbancaster commented on AppLovin nonconsensual installs benedelman.org/applovin-n... · Posted by u/jhap

cudgy · 5 months ago

Makes sense. Pretty sad to have to install a tool like that to get security on a platform that is used by billions of users. Even more shocking that apps get installed just from clicking a small close button on a silly ad without even prompting for the install?

Installing random tools to hopefully get more security, though is risky also. Hopefully that tool doesn’t get compromised as it is privy to all intent activity.

lurtbancaster · 5 months ago

> Pretty sad to have to install a tool like that to get security on a platform that is used by billions of users.

You click on a banner ad inside an app, and if you have Intent Intercept installed, it won't immediately register as an "impression" and take you to wherever the banner has been programmed to take you to by default. Since Intent Intercept also affects the ad industry(of which Google is a big part), I don't expect Google to build a similar less-nerdy tool into Android by default.

> Installing random tools to hopefully get more security, though is risky also. Hopefully that tool doesn’t get compromised as it is privy to all intent activity.

Intent Intercept is open source(Apache License 2.0 https://github.com/k3b/intent-intercept) and its release binaries are hosted on F-Droid, arguably the most trusted Android "store" for Free and Open Source apps. So I'm not too worried.

lurtbancaster commented on AppLovin nonconsensual installs benedelman.org/applovin-n... · Posted by u/jhap

lurtbancaster · 5 months ago

> ad tap (just clicking an ad, potentially a misclick aiming for a tiny X button, with no Install button even visible on screen)

> AppLovin’s X’s are unusually tiny, so mis-taps are especially likely

This is why I use Intent Intercept - https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.k3b.android.intentinterce...

It tells me exactly what's about to happen from my tap(accidental or intentional), and gives me the option to undo my tap.

Every privacy/security conscious Android user should have Intent Intercept installed on their devices already.

lurtbancaster commented on Giant FAQ on the European Initiative to Stop Destroying Games invidious.private.coffee/... · Posted by u/beretguy

sgbeal · 2 years ago

> This is long and kind of dry and is just meant for people who want more information on what it's about.

Which argues strongly for making it a text post instead of a video :/.

lurtbancaster · 2 years ago

Having watched the video in its entirety, it is an FAQ in a powerpoint presentation format. It's not a rambling FAQ video.

There are several slides in the video that would not translate well to a text/image only blog post. It's technically possible, but I think it would look bad.

Fortunately, Ross Scott's voice is very "speed up"-friendly. I finished watching in under 25 minutes.

It would behoove several people who've had questions in this thread[1] to watch the video.

[1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41159063

lurtbancaster commented on A scathing critique of 'brand safe' influencers [video] youtube.com/watch?v=Z0DF-... · Posted by u/jasonsb

lurtbancaster · 2 years ago

Title needs changing to "Uncovering Every Lie in MKBHD's Apple Propaganda Video".

lurtbancaster commented on How I Backup sive.rs/backup... · Posted by u/twapi

lurtbancaster · 2 years ago

Question for rsync users on linux. Does your rsync preserve creation times --crtimes ?

I'm aware ext4/3 filesystems don't store creation times. But I want to use rsync on Linux to sync files between an NTFS(supports creation times) and a Btrfs partition(also supports creation times) without losing the creation times.

Currently rsync just sets the creation time to the modification time on the destination directory. Which is not what I want.

When I use `--crtimes` I get a "This rsync does not support --crtimes (-N)" error.

Weirdly, just using `cp -a` works. But it doesn' t have any of the checksumming and differential copy bells and whistles of rsync.

How do you rsync on linux while preserving creation times(on supported file systems)?

lurtbancaster commented on Scuttlebutt social network: a decentralised platform scuttlebutt.nz/... · Posted by u/p4bl0

nightpool · 2 years ago

Scuttlebutt had the Bitcoin like problem of requiring everybody to have a local copy of the entire database, with a confusing / glitchy "syncing" process to download the latest posts. I tried to use it for a few days on my Android, but it never showed any new posts and the syncing process took like 30 seconds every time I opened the app.

lurtbancaster · 2 years ago

Admittedly my only exposure to the Secure Scuttlebutt Protocol(SSB) is through manyver.se [1] - a FOSS private(optionally) social media app. And the syncing issue you mention has been one for me too. Sometimes it's even worse - it fails to sync entirely until another app restart. Maybe this is a manyverse issue, maybe a SSB issue. Either way, hitherto at least, it doesn't seem reliable.

If there are alternative ways to have an offline(over Wi-Fi/bluetooth, not internet) social media/messaging app, that works on both Android and ios, please do let me know.

Thanks.

[1] https://www.manyver.se/