In German/auf Deutsch: Guter Ansatz, aber zu kurz gedacht…

Kai Schönenberg schrieb einen lesenswerten Artikel in der taz über die aktuellen Preise für Benzin und Diesel. Und darüber, daß – wie wir mittlerweile alle wissen sollten – kein Weg an der Elektromobilität vorbeiführen wird. Wer anders denkt, handelt und redet ist wie die angesprochene Ministerin Lobbyist, sollte aber kein Amt in der Politik innehaben.

Aber Kai denkt zu kurz, leider. Wer die fossile durch Elektroenergie ersetzen will, ersetzt nur alte Abhängigkeiten durch neue – viele der Stoffe die wir heute ohne nachzudenken in Batterien nutzen kommen aus China, Afrika oder sonstwo her und werden dort unter unmenschlichen Bedingungen abgebaut – während der Planet dadurch vielleicht noch mehr geschädigt wird als durch den Abbau fossiler Energien. Ich weiß ich weiß – nur die wenigsten von uns könnten den berühmten Sonnenwagen der Aachener TU fahren, für den täglichen Pendlerweg im Dunkeln wär das keine Option. Die Frage muß also sein ob wir uns dieses Pendeln noch viel länger leisten können wollen/müssen.

So kann nur ein Städter denken, klar. Fahren soweit es die nichtelektrifizierten Fahrräder eben zulassen ist auf dem Land keine Option. Und “buy local”, also der Verbrauch von Lebensmitteln die höchstens 100km von uns entfernt wachsen ist ebenfalls keine, denn während in manchen Gebieten eben Wein und in anderen Kartoffeln wachsen, ist in der Wüste: genau, gar nichts.

Das sind die globalen Probleme die wir angehen sollten/müßten, nicht wie wir am besten Benziner oder Diesel durch völlig überteuerte Elektrofahrzeuge ersetzen. Wer sein Kind mit dem E-SUV zur Schule fährt macht auch nicht alles besser – seit wir wissen daß es mittlerweile mehr adipöse als unterernährte Kinder gibt (obwohl: trifft das weltweit gesehen wirklich zu? Wage ich zu bezweifeln) – sollte lieber seinem Kind ein natürlich nichtelektrifiziertes Rennrad kaufen als einen E-Scooter. Und eine Bahncard natürlich.

Meine zwei (Euro-) Cents zu diesem Thema…

Firefox sync *could* be useful…

… if they hadn’t given up on their Livemarks, which I now use as a plugin on my desktop version of this browser. Sadly, the mobile Android version doesn’t have it, so in case you try to sync, you’ll have some cleanup work to do later… sigh…

Motorola and GrapheneOS announce partnership

Now it’s official: both GrapheneOS and Motorola announced a partnership agreement – which means that if you want to run GrapheneOS, you won’t necessarily need a Google Pixel device much longer, but you’ll have a bit more choice. And choice is always good.

Also: I sometimes get asked by friends who don’t have Pixel devices what other operating system than GrapheneOS would be advisable to run on their devices? And I just learnt through a post on the GOS forum that finally DivestOS has a spiritual successor called AXP.OS – so have a look in case you’re interested in a bit more privacy, and in case you want to have support beyond what the hardware vendors (and GOS) offer. Unlike with other systems, this one offers to relock your bootloader if your device supports that (Pixels do).

You’re welcome.

Free software: a shoutout to Debian – and to KDE Connect

Larry Cafiero wrote a nice review of Debian 13.3 “Trixie” over at FOSS Force, and I have to admit that Debian is also my standard go-to Linux distribution after years and years of use. I second his mentioning of the XFCE desktop especially for older devices like my wife’s old Lenovo SL500 laptop with only 2GB of RAM and a by now ancient Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and his mentioning of KDE Connect (Gnome has something similar called GSConnect, but the KDE guys invented that one) is also worth consideration. Pretty happy with it, and GSConnect always reminds me when my Pixel phones (6a and 3a) or my new Samsung Galaxy Tab A11+ are fully charged.

If you search my site here for Debian or for Ian Murdock, you’ll find an interview I did with him (RIP Ian), and even my late and not so computer-literate brother Willi (RIP as well) did never look back to Ubuntu after I showed him Debian.

Recommended reading for beginners of GNU/Linux.

Two from today

Took two pictures of Bella today – and one included me:

Both taken with Mitchie’s Panasonic Lumix 20mm/1.7 lens on my Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mk2 camera. For the second one, I also used two studio strobes, both gridded, front one in a beauty dish. The cat found that super interesting 😉

Like always, thanks for viewing.

The internet is sooo kaput

After a bit of reading, yesterday I decided to have another fresh look at a browser called Brave. And yes, I knew about the controversies regarding its crypto- and “AI”-integration, and also the ones about its owner. But it’s still one of the better browsers around, so I tried it on Arch and Debian Linux, on Windows 11, and even on my phone (which runs GrapheneOS and which does have a pretty secure Chromium-based browser called “Vanadium” already).

I’m not the typical internet user who is using a browser for pretty much everything, and no “doom scrolling” for me, thanks. But what hit me is that after less than 24 hours, Brave’s built-in tracker stats showed me this:

Almost 3,500 trackers in less than 24 hours? Wow – see the headline of this post… time to regulate the internet, and to “take it back”. A website needs just two things from us as end users: the URL you want to see, and the IP address where it should be sent. No scripts, no cookies, and most definitely no ads and trackers.

Anyway, thanks like always for reading. Oh, and the background photo within the Brave browser is by Anna Wangler, on Unsplash.

I’m walkin’, yes indeed…

It’s now a bit over 2 years since I’ve treated myself with some of these “fitness trackers”, and while first checking about and against this “tracking” part, I’m using Gadgetbridge on my phone to keep all of the data locally (versus in some “cloud”, which means someone else’s computers). Means that on January 9th, 2024 I’ve bought that Xiaomi Mi Band 8, and since January 29th, 2024 I am doing 10.000+ steps a day. Each day. Didn’t miss a single one since then. And so, here’s today’s summary on Gadgetbridge:

8.85 million steps including those few first days with mostly only playing around with the device and software, and 8.72 million if you start counting 713 days ago, counting only those where I reached my self-set goal.

That device can be really recommended btw, and if like me you use it as a step-counter only, it still keeps the battery for about two weeks until it reaches 30% charge. So I charge it each and every 2nd Sunday only, which is perfect for me.

Not interested in sleep, pulse, or any other tracking, but that’s just me…

And like always, thanks for reading.