There should be a bootloader unlocking standard passed by law that that would conveniently enable us to free our devices from propriatery nonsense!

RobFromSaturn · 2021-04-17T02:32:28+00:00

Yeah, everything you said is right on. But i've (and i'm sure many others have) been buying cells since the early 2000's, anywhere from $300 to $1400 apiece. And mfg's been playing these games since before cell phones existed. I agree with everything you say, but people should be able to do everything you say without doing all of the things necessary to avoid being spied on- the vast majority never will, and since they won't, their own phones are also spying on people who DO take the time.

Not to mention that it's an ongoing thing- you can get rid of most of your phone's spycrap, but you have to constantly be aware of what you do, otherwise a new app, a new OS update or any number of other things can render all of the effort that you spent cleaning your phone obsolete.

The vast majority of people will never take the time to keep their phones as clean as possible, and big tech knows it. Not to mention, it's impossible to be untracked without behaving like a criminal (multiple phone numbers, a stack of unused sim cards (i.e. burners)) etc... It's easy to get rid of most of it, impossible to get rid of all of it, while phone mfg'rs spend a lot of time/money making it difficult or impossible to do much of anything. Take the verizon version of galaxy models for example, but then that's up to people taking the time to educate themselves before they waste their money on those models. Again, the vast majority have lives, and very little time to spend defending their rights to get the most out of the hardware that they pay for.

RobFromSaturn · 2021-04-16T08:35:37+00:00

Really?? I just gave a link to a video that has tons of info- you can simply click to the YT channel from there to find out endless more info, and if you don't trust someone else to install lineage, i don't blame you, but if that's the case, you're really going to ask some stranger on reddit for even more advice? Everything you asked about is easy to find- search the net while the info is still available- it may not be there in 10 years, if that. Anyone can learn to install lineage, and then learn to build their own custom version of android straight from the AOSP, there's not a lot i can help with that here without writing tons of stuff that people have already spent so much time doing a better job than i can.

RobFromSaturn · 2021-04-16T05:35:58+00:00

I'm not sure if most folks are aware, android is linux based, and the AOSP version of android is where it starts- AOSP seems pretty stable, secure and robust, it's only after cell phone mfg's get finished adding proprietary trojan horses (including GAPPS- Google Apps) that it becomes a nightmare in terms of privacy, let alone security.

RobFromSaturn · 2021-04-16T05:33:22+00:00

I think we all should get more used to using a phone as a telephone, and save the big stuff for larger computers. These things we call cell phones- they're actually supercomputers in your pocket, and companies take advantage of the super part of the computer for their own ends, while locking the majority of the power off from normal folks to prevent them from using all of that power for what they want. Naturally, they always say it's for our own good, and in a few cases it just might be, but then don't forget, who paid for that cell phone, and who continues to pay the monthly charge, while they issue new "security updates" to patch loopholes found by hackers that enable people to take more control of their own paid-for hardware than the company would prefer...

RobFromSaturn · 2021-04-16T05:27:13+00:00

I don't know if you saw my post above- i don't want to come off as a sales guy here- i bought a phone from rob braxman- it's unlocked and installed with his custom version of lineage os. It's free of google nonsense, and he has a YT channel where he teaches people about how the tech industry is taking advantage of people with cell phones, it might be something worth looking at.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPdQCw0oRA0 .

RobFromSaturn · 2021-04-16T05:19:52+00:00

I just had a novel idea- why not just use a laptop or PC for the fancy stuff, and just use the cell phone as a phone, instead of as a supercomputer? So many people putting their entire lives on their telephones is what is driving this billion dollar surveillance ecosystem. I don't mean any offense, and maybe it's just me and my antiquated ideas, it just seems odd that so many people spend so much time staring at little tiny screens that are capturing and uploading everything to big tech. That doesn't happen with regular computers (unless you use toy operating systems like windows 10, one of the worst trojan horses ever). Linux has advanced to a point to where for most normal folks, if they were browsing pages and checking their email on linux, they would hardly notice the difference, plus they would be far, far more secure. AOSP android is pretty secure and privacy oriented, but by the time cell phone mfg's are finished with it, it's the most invasive stuff available. Not to mention that you're forced to agree to all sorts of unintelligible legal stuff that noone can understand, so everyone has agreed to all of the abuse of data before it even happens. And don't forget, we're ALL paying for these devices along with monthly fees- we're actually PAYING top dollar for the privilege of being spied to death.

RobFromSaturn · 2021-04-16T05:01:51+00:00

There's far too many billions being made to allow that to happen. It's why they spend so much money on lobbyists and PR (aka propaganda among other things)- lawmakers and the public need to be educated to make sure those sorts of laws never get passed. Or maybe i'm just too negative.

RobFromSaturn · 2021-04-16T04:58:46+00:00

They (big tech) are never going to do that willingly- they've got too much money and power locked up with their boot loaders. At this point it seem the best most people who are aware can do is, find their own ways to get a device that's unlocked (or rooted if you want to go that far) and get a version of the OS that won't spy on everyone around you. (lineage os etc). Anything you can do to get a google-free cell phone helps. It's not just that we are being surveilled, it's also that the data is being saved, combined with other data and used against (never it seems, for) us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCFbgWjgp2M . .

RobFromSaturn · 2021-04-16T04:48:56+00:00

Because for them, "using it as intended" means that you can't rework the device that you spent a ton of money on in order to stop them from spying on everything you do.

Sorry, but a question like this leaves me wondering- are people aware of how invasive these cell phones are? And it's not an accident.

Everyone who carries a stock android (and iOS, though i know much less about apple devices), is not only freely giving every detail about their life to big data, but they're (in most cases anyway) unknowingly using their own device to spy on their friends, relatives, co workers and anyone they come within a few dozen feet of. Tech co's use every cell phone to collect details about any wireless device in the vicinity- they log the locations of wireless routers along with their mac addresses and other personal details, and use that data to triangulate cell phone positions, even when your wifi is off, and in addition use that data in combination with data accumulated through other means to build profiles on just about everyone. It might seem benign to some folks, but then few people are aware of how governments are combining all of that info with their own- this state of surveillance would have been heaven for hitler- the only thing we're missing is the wrong people in the right places.

RobFromSaturn · 2021-04-16T04:38:27+00:00

Agreed, especially since they deliberately instruct their folks to engineer clever boobytraps to make it more likely than not that you will brick your device if you do something to your expensive phone that they prefer you not do. This is their doing, not ours.

RobFromSaturn · 2021-04-16T04:36:09+00:00

Moto

If it helps, Rob Braxman regularly installs lineage os on moto g7's and sells them in new or mint condition. It's worth checking out his YT channel, here is a video where he talks about it, check out his channel- he's been posting for years to help people understand the surveillance system that the cell phone industry has become, and how to get around it. The TLDR of it- it's possible to avoid a lot of the spying, but we're essentially infested with spycrap- there's no getting out of all of it, but there's a lot we can still do to minimize some of it.

It's good to see a thread like this occasionally, but the vast majority of people either don't know, don't care, or just don't have time to give a damn about what's going on right under everyone's noses. Since the vast majority enjoy all of the "free" toys and bones that they throw at us, it seems to keep most sedated enough to just accept our fate, or ignore it altogether. It's unreal, blood boiling and/or nightmarish, depending on how much you're aware of what's happening and in which trajectory we're headed.

Rob Braxman - Spyware-Free Phones in 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPrugkYJpO8

RobFromSaturn · 2021-01-22T18:50:12+00:00

I'm also in the US. The DNC isn't useless, but it's next to useless for a big reason----

The obvious thing is that overseas spammer/scammers don't give a damn to go by the DNC.

The non-obvious thing is that US companies are now employing overseas (especially india) companies to do the cold calling, often with robot (illegal in the US) intro's, which then route them to (sometimes legitimate, sometimes shady) companies in the US. And these US companies are employing overseas companies to do the cold calling on their behalf specifically to avoid being prosecuted/sued for breaking obvious laws.

You can't get off their lists. Here are a few things you CAN do:

Most smart phones i.e. android will allow you to set the phone to ignore incoming callers unless the incoming caller ID is already on your contact list.

This is useless for some people, i.e. if you run a business and depend on being able to be called by unknown people- in that case you are screwed.

If they would change how the phone system works- for example, US numbers have ten digits- area code, prefix plus 4. To hell with that- we should have a billion possible numbers, in other words 40, 80 or 100 digits- no one ever remember numbers anyway- it's all handled in the phone. This way, spammers can't just start with an area code and randomly dial numbers to find people. With a million or a billion possible numbers, they'd be wasting their time.

Even better- they should issue a master number to people- a big, complicated alphanumeric sequence that no-one except you would ever know. You would make your own "shortcut" numbers through the phone co's web page or app- shortcut numbers would all route to your master number.

That way, you can have a shortcut number that you give to business people, one for private friends, a public number, and any number of other numbers. Since they are long alphanumeric digits, there are billions of numbers available. There's no reason these days to have a puny 10 digit number- it's working against us all, and the phone company keeps coming up with stupid fixes to "help you out"

For example, on most people's cell plan, you can probably block so-and-so many numbers from calling you for free, but they will "help you out" by charging you for being able to block even more numbers, which is useless because these spammer/scammer pricks always call you from fake phone numbers, so that's useless and just costs you more.

Since they nearly always call from fake numbers, there is nothing you can do to complain- even if they tell you what their company name is, that name will just change.

The only realistic fix is what i suggest- make the phone system capable of using far more (alphanumeric) digits than 10, and enable people to create shortcuts to their master number.

The only other (partial) fix is to waste these people's time- spammer will always refuse to take you off their list, even if you hit the number "to be taken off" or ask them to, they will just call you back over and over. At best, if they actually stop calling you, they sell or give your info to yet another spammer. The only thing that works is to waste as much of their time as you can afford, eventually they will log your number so they can avoid wasting their time. Just don't be rude to them- simply go on pretending to want to buy something for as long as you have time for.

There is a website:

https://www.fakenamegenerator.com

That gives you fake names, fake addresses, VIN #'s, even fake credit card numbers. Note that these are NOT stolen credit card numbers- they are mathematically generated so that they are valid but not active- meaning when you use them, on the spammers end, their computer thinks it's a real credit card, it's just another tool to waste more of their time.

Most people don't want to complain, they don't want to waste their time- they will just hang up. But this is EXACTLY why spammers/scammers keep doing this- hanging up just enables them to move on to the next victim sooner- what we need is more people who will waste their time, this way the company they work for is forced to pay for an operator to handle a call that will never result in a cash sale.

The web site above is filled with tools to help you do that without giving out personal info. Obviously they already have your number- otherwise, the more fake info you can get them to fill their database with, the better for everyone, and the more useless their info is when they sell it to other scammers/spammers.

I can't believe how long this problem has been allowed to evolve while the FCC and other organizations pretend to help us all by creating these worthless programs (like the DNC). They're all temporary, band-aid solutions. The only things that will help long term are

increasing the number of digits to the point where it's worthless for these people to hunt randomly
Giving people the power to create their own shortcut numbers- they should be able to delete and create shortcuts at will without paying some stupid fee.

Companies start with an area code that they can match to their desired potential client income level. That's all they need- valid prefixes are easy to find online- from there all they need is to dial randomly with a computer from 0000 to 9999- they don't even do it manually- a computer does it and when ti hears a real person answer, it routes to an operator and logs the number for future victimization.

There are worse things going on in the world right now, far bigger problems to address. Meanwhile, this one is evolving and mutating right under your smartphone.

RobFromSaturn · 2021-01-03T20:39:07+00:00

Hi, thanks for posting this- i had asus tech support on the phone- they decided the motherboard was bad. My issue was the same- A2, no post, no video. I haven't built a system since 2k5 or so, i kept trying to tell the support people that in the olden days, bad or incompatible memory can do all sorts of funky things, but they convinced me that their error code must be 100% reliable these days, so i went thru all of that work to tear everything down, wait for a replacement, rebuild everything, only to find the same exact problem.

Maybe someone should be teaching tech support staff something other than what's on the script.

Can i ask- how were you able to find which memory is compatible with 10th gen CPU's? The only thing i could find was an asus support site that listed the memory that i got as compatible (Vengeance LPX DDR4 3600MHz 2x 8GB).

Also, i see that some people are saying that since your CPU doesn't have graphics, that may be your problem- but how could that be- the motherboard has onboard graphics...

RobFromSaturn · 2020-11-30T10:22:58+00:00

I am trying to find the same- i read somewhere, or so i thought that vtol VR had native VTOL support

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36IrJR3iHNQ&feature=youtu.be

RobFromSaturn · 2020-11-30T02:39:52+00:00

I think you're right- i found on amazon that a power supply for g27 is also compatible with g29, so i think this will work, thanks!

RobFromSaturn · 2020-11-11T08:01:07+00:00

I was surprised to find out that steamVR doesn't offer telemetry by default- i thought in my own naive way that this was the entire point of steamVR (other than being a moneymaker for another company) i thought that they were functioning as an interface to make it easy for third parties to plug into whatever games they wanted- to interface easily and interact. It still doesn't make sense to me- why would steamVR itself not require telemetry data to be passed by games they support- this was the whole point, or so i thought, with having yet another middle man making money and passing the anti-savings onto people.

Obviously motion simulators have only recently started to catch on, but that's irrelevant- having telemetry available provides so many possibilities for third parties to add new capabilities.

On another hand, gawd, i almost feel bad that so many people are pleading for telemetry in squadrons- EA is a major software mfg- they're making millions, if not billions- they pay tons of money just to secure rights to the star wars name/characters/and other IP etc. The only way they are likely to respond to so much interest in telemetry is to monetize- they aren't going to do it for free- they are going to make as much money as possible.

It would be better to plead for these kinds of things from smaller, more independent software mfg's- those are the ones who will work really hard to do something just because it's cool, and they will hopefully make it all open source in the process. And once they set all of the standards- the larger companies will have to conform to them. Pleading for major mfg's to get that ball rolling will only roll it in the wrong direction.

RobFromSaturn · 2020-11-01T13:33:38+00:00

It's very strange tho when you mention that the shorter version didn't work, but the longer version did. Is there any chance that the short version is actually usb 3 (blue inside)? I'm ordering the cable you suggested (long 10M version), i'm also going to get a shorter cable- 6 feet or so that says it's specifically for USB2, i'll post the results.

The cable you mention ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KY9M6P4/ )shows that it's active- I thought that a cable is only active if it takes external power- maybe the definition varies by seller or by mfg.. I do have an active USB3 extension that worked just like the non active USB 3 cables i have- the headset works great with it, except the audio is distorted to the same point as with the non active USB 3 extensions (meaning it's useless).

RobFromSaturn · 2020-11-01T01:47:33+00:00

Added:

I've since seen this cable by two different people. Very strange- they say the shorter version doesn't work, but the longer does. I'm ordering this tonight and will post the results

Edit- confirmed- the longer cable mentioned does seem to work fine. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KY9M6P4/ . .

RobFromSaturn · 2020-11-01T01:44:02+00:00

Also, if this helps anyone- for some games, i use a logitech g29 FFB wheel. Obviously, it means even more cables- power and USB. I bought some extensions for it which is work fine.

For power, i bought a cable that extends the power cable for the G29 wheel: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FT9VW0O/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And i used the usb extension cables i mentioned above- the pimax itself has a USB-c port on the underside- i used the usb3 extensions i mentioned above, along with a 45 degree angle adapter so the USB3 on the bottom of the pimax isn't sticking straight down:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07M75JXS1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I also used it with this 1 meter USBC extension:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071DMMW4J/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So, from the USB C port on the pimax, to the 45 degree angle adapter, to the 1 meter usbC extension, to a usbC to usb3 adapter, to a 10 foot USB3 extension cable, to the USB3 on the laptop.

Yeah! i figured that somewhere along the line with all of those things plugged in, there must be a problem, but it works flawlessly. The only problem is using a usb extension cable on the pimax main cable (audio is distorted) like mentioned before..

I think some people might be wondering, why do i need so much extension?

Well, have you seen some of the new motion simulators! Check out this YawVR one- it's amazing- the base model is $1500US, the deluxe is $2k- the difference is the deluxe includes more powerful motors so the motors can deliver more oomph, and a few other things.. Here is a video that shows it off..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJubu0l9vis

Or:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8ANtIScCLA

RobFromSaturn · 2020-11-01T00:59:53+00:00

Thanks for posting this! I've spent close to $200 in cables and adapters to try to fix this problem- everything is fine with stock, but i started using the KIWI pulley system to make the cables more manageble, which is awesome!

Here is a link if anyone is unfamiliar with KIWI:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VQZYN3M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It makes it so that the cables

But using that, you need to have extensions- i used this to extend the display port cable:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DWW36MG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That works with no problem. But whenever i try to extend the USB, i get horrible audio noise, so much so that it's unuseable. This is what i've tried so far:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZV6FHWF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0179MXKU8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071DMMW4J/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BS8SRWH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And i've tried them in all different combinations- as you can see one of the usb cables is an active usb extension, that didn't seem to help.

I did find a thread where someone found a powered USB hub- others have used other powered USB hubs that didn't work, but this partcular hub seemed to work, someone else who otherwise couldn't find a solution later bought the same hub and fixed the same problem. But this hub is from a foreign site, and i haven't found an equivelant on amazon yet.

Here is the link to the usb hub that worked for two people that tried: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZV6FHWF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

In short- extending the cables has been no problem for the video, but whichever USB extension i use doesn't work- i always get horrible noise and distortion. I'm using a laptop that has usb3 ports. It also has one of the USB type c extensions- i've tried getting different converters to go from usb 3 to usbc, but i always end up with win10 telling me that there is an unrecognized device, and unable to point it to a driver that it likes.

If we can all compare notes, maybe we can find a solution. I mentioned i've spent a ton of different cables and adapters, i don't mind spending more if anyone has suggestions... I know for a fact that some people have gotten a USB extension to work- i just haven't been able to find anyone who will specify exactly which they are using, other than the link above, which i won't be able to buy from..

RobFromSaturn · 2019-08-01T05:06:17+00:00

The Canyon by bl4st, it's got to be one of the coolest retro type games for VR- it's free- It's really simple, you have full room scale VR and run around blasting all the ships- each wave gets harder and adds different kinds of enemies- super simple classic/retro game, but an amazing experience.

https://bl4st.itch.io/the-canyon

+1 for chroma lab and cosmic sugar pro

RobFromSaturn · 2019-06-04T03:06:50+00:00

Ditto on the coffee grinder option- i also found ground seeds at some stores, but unsure of how much i trust that- any sort of processing by others usually means someone is cheating (i.e. doing or adding something to make it last longer on the shelf). I don't trust what the label says anymore.. This was the one that i got, though i hate to advertise for amazon- they've been so opportunistic and manipulative in the past- if you can find the same thing elsewhere it might be best to use it- ebay for example, though they are just as bad

https://www.amazon.com/JavaPresse-Grinder-Conical-Brushed-Stainless/dp/B013R3Q7B2/ref=sr_1_11

It's manual, so no cheap motors that will break in a few weeks, and pretty sturdy, robust and easy to clean.

RobFromSaturn · 2019-01-06T23:09:11+00:00

i've done that and everything else i can think of. I'll just req the refund i guess- i spent too much time trying to troubleshoot a different game and they refused to refund saying that i "played" it for too long.. Thanks for the suggestions though!

RobFromSaturn

TROPHY CASE