First off, i live in Europe, so i honestly don't know too much about politics in other parts of the world, other than what i sometimes see in the news. I hope my innocent question doesn't trigger any nastiness.

My question is; in discussions i see only talk about democrats vs republicans, for instance discussions only about Biden and/or Trump. But my understanding is that there are other political parties one can vote for. However, i never see any mention of them. So, is it that most people are not interested in those? Or maybe they don't get enough media time? Or are they seen as too extreme? Are the US basically a two-party system? And does it change over time? There are a lot of worries in the world - i don't need to name all of them - but this seems to trigger more extreme views. Does this mean that those other parties attract more voters nowadays?

So, a few weeks after my very first covid attack, i still have some fogginess. So, i discovered a few tiny mistakes in my little bookmark cross stitch. And i stopped working on it, because i had already fixed some other small mistakes and i was feeling disheartened. I contemplated whether i could stitch over them (but i'm a bit of a neat freak, so this tells you how i felt about it), or rip them out, or just ignore them and keep going. And for a week i was looking at that thing on my desk, waiting for me to make a decision. So, today i picked it up again and checked my pattern. I did not make a mistake. I colored them wrong on my chart...

(For anyone interested, it's the Vevaco PN 0184423 kit.)

I hope this question is allowed here (since it is one of the search engines that i now use instead of google). I'm trying out Kagi. For the trial, you get to have 100 free searches, i belief. Is there a way to see how many searches i used up? I can only find stats for Kagi, not for my personal stats. How do you all like Kagi? And if so, do you pay for it? I'm considering paying, but i would like to have some insight into how many searches i actually perform on average in a month time. I honestly have no idea. What i also do lately is ask a question to a LLM (i found Petal), so that i have a start on where to search for more precisely. Sometimes, i get incorrect answers, but often it helps me get more of a handle on what i should be looking for when using a search engine. For example, i switched to Linux and Petal helps me understand some things better, which i can then use to do a more precise search.

EDIT: I am thrilled with so many awesome responses! I'm taking notes and looking into all the recommendations. Again, thank you so much for taking the time to help me out (and many others, i'm sure), i'm glad i asked!

Hi,

I'm getting ready to switch to Linux. I'm looking for a kind of checklist of what to do beforehand. When i search online, there is a lot of advice on which distribution to choose and how to set it up, which i already know, but my question is the step before. I made a list of which programs i currently use (almost all have a linux variant or i can use them in the browser) and i am making screenshots of their settings. I have basically everything important backupped, both on my ProtonDrive and on a private server in the house. Is there anything else i need to prepare before switching? I wouldn't want to overlook something.

(I already have the distribution and am trying it out, but my plan is to actually install debian and without dual boot. Also, many, many years ag

I don't know if this is possible, or maybe there is some reason that the right sidebar only shows the info about lemmy world? I would much prefer to see info from the community i'm visiting, instead of needing to click on the three dots at the top. Speaking about the three dots; in a sidebar with community info, the info to subscribe, create a post or block could be listed there as well. I personally do not really care for those three dots. If that lemmy world bar has to be there for some reason; maybe it can then be shared with community info? That you see the community, but if you scroll down, you still see the lemmy world information?

Btw, don't get me wrong; i really like Photon and it is what i almost always use.

I find it quite hard to find open source software for windows. In time i might switch to linux, but for now i am stuck with windows 10.

Is there some reliable place where you can search for open source software?

Or is it that devs usually just don't bother with windows?

EDIT: everyone, thank you so much for your input! I will check it all out. Yes, of course windows is evil, and i hope/expect to switch to linux before windows 11 comes around, but i still need it for a few programs, unfortunately. Once these come with a linux version - which is in the works - i can make the switch. Degoogling/demicrosofting is a process and i'm working on it.

Have a great weekend and thank you for the time to answer my question.

I created a new post in a lemmy.world community and... it disappeared. Meaning, it did not show up in the community, nor is it visible in my profile. It's as if i didn't send it, but i did. I'm using the Photon app on the web and never had such a problem before. It was my first post on that community. When i clicked 'submit', i could just see the post as it would appear for everyone. But it never seems to arrive anywhere. I retried and created another post, same thing happens; not visible in my profile, nor in the community.

Could it be a moderation issue perhaps? It is a perfectly innocent post for a hobby community.

If you click on your profile --> accounts, you can see the account(s) and next to the 'switch' button is a trash can; does it delete the account, or does it just remove that particular login from Photon?

Many websites have a - huge- part in their cookie wall, called 'legitimate interest'. I never allow them and i wonder; is this just a loophole to be able to force certain cookies on us anyway?

I can't imagine it is harmless, but i never hear anyone discussing these type of cookies.

EDIT: Everyone, thank you so much for taking the effort to answer. These replies were very helpful and often quite detailed. I've read them all and it certainly gives food for thought. I also read that EU page, which is indeed not really clarifying much.

I agree that we need to do as much as possible to block all these invaders of our privacy, though it is ridiculous that we have to make so much effort to protect ourselves. And i know many people around me, who just let it all happen and are sometimes not even aware of such things as trackers. And honestly, they shouldn't have to be aware, it is infuriating that these things are either allowed, or those companies taking the - small - risk to get away wi

Not sure if this was brought up by others yet. I was trying to click links inside the daily post of trending communities and none of the links worked.

I noticed quite a lot of people confused about everyone having installed the new Boost, while their play store doesn't do anything and just showing their Boost app registration.

You need to follow this link, NOT go to Boost itself:

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.rubenmayayo.lemmy

Boost is in a beta phase, so if you want to install it and test it out so you can inform the dev (you can do that in this community), then you can follow the link and install Boost that way.

Hope this helps. The above link was tucked away in the featured post, pinned at the top, but it seems to have been overlooked by some of us.

Enjoy and have a great weekend :-)

It's a very small request, but in the photon web app, all my accounts are shown and i just need to select one of them. In Boost, i need to click the down arrow and then select. It's a very, very minor request, but thought i would mention it anyway.

Sorry for the separate thread, but maybe it gives some people a little Boost to support the dev.

Like many others have said; it feels like home again and i can finally delete some (not all, just in case) other apps from my phone.

Thank you dev!

Is there an easy way to see if something is an instance or community on the fediverse, or 'just' a forum on the web? For instance, would it always be mentioned in a sidebar? I know there are lists of instances, but i am hoping for something easier. I might be overlooking something glaringly obvious, but i thought i would ask.

Many people put some all-purpose cleaner on a sponge, clean and rinse. Instead, get a spray bottle and premix cleaner with the right amount of water. When cleaning, just spray and clean. You can do a long time with a spray bottle. It's a small tip, but it will save a lot of cleaner.

Edited to clarify

I don't know if this has been asked for before, but i would prefer to keep scrolling, instead of having to tap for the next page. I'm sure having to click 'next' is useful when you want to portion out a scroll addiction, but if people are divided between scrolling or not, maybe it could be an option in the settings?

And it would be nice if i could choose how much to narrow the side bars, so i can decide how much room to give the middle column where the posts are listed. Just like you can in for instance a file explorer.

I really like Photon a lot by the way!

Hi all,

I hope i'm allowed to ask this, but i was wondering; do you buy your ebooks free from DRM? If so, where can you buy them, preferably globally?

EDIT: thank you all for your valuable comments, it's much appreciated! Have a great weekend :-)

Hi all, For days now I can't view any comments from any community with this account. I get a message that says: no comments. But at first, i got an api error i think ( i can't look it up to check, because today everything just says that there are no comments, even when it shows there are hundreds of comments). I can read the comments when reading them on the web, or with Jerboa for instance. And i have another account at beehaw, and there i can read the comments too.

Like the title says. I've been reading recommendations about this OS, so i went to look on their homepage, but you can only install it on Pixel phones, which are from google, right? In other words, to get rid of google products, you still have to spend your money on google? Am i missing something? I thought there were other custom roms where you can choose whether or not to add to add google products? Please be gentle, i'm a noob when it comes to custom roms. I have had CyanogenMod on a phone many years ago, but someone helped me do it. And i'm really not current with changes in recent custom roms.

So, just got a notification about google's new enhanced safe browsing. It says: To help protect your account and data, Enhanced Safe Browsing for your account checks for risky: - URLs - Downloads - Browser extensions - System information - Small sample of pages

How it uses it:

• Uses information from Enhanced Safe Browsing to improve your security in Google Chrome and Gmail when you're signed in.
• Temporarily associates information from Enhanced Safe Browsing with your Google Account when you’re signed in to help protect you across Google apps.

It seems to me as if, whenever they come up with new changes, it's a double edged sword where they claim everything gets better and safer, while my paranoid mind just sees it as new tricks to get even more data...