I’ve never had any problem with Mullvad reconnecting after I’ve run out and paid up again, that has worked seamlessly on mine

I’ve got planes and a chisel from late 1800s, some of the best tools I own. The steel of the blades is fantastic, and the feel of the handles after more than 100 years of being handled is fairly unique

You’re dead to me - history, different expert and comedian guest every week, very good

No Such Thing as a Fish - superb trivia show

Sci-Show Tangents - “lightly competitive science knowledge showcase”

A Podcast of Unnecessary Detail - science and math facts around a random topic from 3 very smart people

The Infinite Monkey Cage - science and comedy with Brian Cox and guests

Journey to the Microcosmos - interesting things in our microscopic world

And somehow manage to increase their ugliness in direct proportion to their range. It really is an impressive piece of engineering, but damn that is an awful looking car

I’ve been fairly parsimonious with my information for a fair while - I don’t use my real name online except when unavoidable for payment etc, don’t put photos of me anywhere, use social media (other than Lemmy, and I’m not very social on here really!) and I think I have fairly good habits to keep information and habits separated. I alternate between using FF, Librewolf and Mullvad browser for different things, don’t reuse usernames/id’s, use a VPN router at home and have VPNs on my mobile devices, email masks and relays, and where possible pay with virtual cards etc. I think my most unique identifier, last time I checked with the EFF site, was the size and resolution of my screens. I’m not really sure how much data there is to collect about me past the mundane, as I don’t really associate with anyone in the real world online, and almost exclusively use signal in the real world.

I have a VPN router, and will either use Mullvad browser with no other tabs open (and obviously all cookies freshly cleared etc) or maybe a vanilla FF on a VM. With all my details being nonsense, a unique relayed email, and the browser essentially completely resetting after every use, I doubt they can find out much useful about me

I figure that if I can keep it pretty isolated, they’ll only get “scrolls marketplace in SE uk” out of it - I’m never going to look at the feed or have “friends”.

Here in the uk we stopped subsidising private green energy a while ago, and it’s still worthwhile to install solar - we pay our energy supplier (one of a few privatised options) for the connection and infrastructure, and any power we use, and they pay us for the power we put back into the grid. Essentially, a portion of the money we earn from our power is kept by the utility company to cover infrastructure maintenance, and we still make money. I very much doubt that the base power generation or infrastructure costs in the us are so much higher as to stop it making money for homeowners without subsidies, unless (as I’d imagine) the local power generation is a monopoly, and they’re just trying to protect their profits. Solar became cheap enough to be genuinely profitable without subsidies here a few years back.

Massively. My first manoeuvre when I go in someone’s house is to look at their bookcase, and judge them accordingly.

Here’s my favourite car YouTube, awesome videos

I really like his videos, a scientific approach to cooking has definitely made me make better food!

System shock

“I threw that shit before I even walked in the room!” One of my other favourites is the pool hall fight, where the pump actually smacks the actor he’s fighting, and the guy loses his cool. Then there’s a swift, unplanned cut, and suddenly he’s fighting someone else entirely. It’s all those little pastiches of shoddy movie-making that you can miss, such a good movie!

Black Dynamite

I’m reading The Best Of World SF Vol 2 compilation, edited by Lavie Tidhar. There are some phenomenal short stories in this and the first one, and I really enjoy hearing voices from outside the English-speaking bubble that I usually read