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Big Tech will not broadcast your dissent (www.motherjones.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by to c/news@lemmy.world
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[–] 1 point 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (7 children)

I prefer the term mobile-computer because it's a more accurate description of what it is. "Smartphone" is a marketing-term that immediately limits users' perception around mobile-computers. Your post is a reflection of that.

One of the qualities of libre or libre-inspired -software is that it gives users complete control. That control is usually restricted behind technical knowledge though. Thankfully the developers of the Android port of i2pd (hosted on f-droid and github) have created a GUI where users can set limits arbitrarily. The user can even disable transit for their router, but this is parasitic and I encourage all operators to contribute what they can. The notion that you shouldn't run i2p, i2pd or other such software on a mobile-computer is... nonsensical when you take it out of the consumer-smartphone context.

Mobile-computers trend on being more energy-efficient with larger battery capacities over time. If we're to take your concerns about data and energy scarcity seriously we need to address the CPU-cycles and data that are forcefully wasted against the users' wishes. We should tell Google not to transmit any data from the mobile-computer that's related to ad-networks. We don't want that and it's a complete waste of CPU-cycles and scare data that users have to pay for. Likewise we will prohibit Google from transmitting ad related data to the mobile-computer. Imagine wasting wireless networks by transmitting ads in high-resolutions and wasting CPU-cycles to decode it!

The reality is this: mobile-computers are incredibly sophisticated and capable. When corporations abuse your mobile-resources it becomes the norm and is not even questioned. What I suggest is users take control over their property and use libre or libre-adjacent -software to redploy those otherwise stolen resources towards things you actually want. You may want a lot or a little. If you dream big pack a few batteries.

Google does not honour that flag that 'grants' permission to specific processes to be long lived. It will kill it.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago (5 children)

    The notion that you shouldn't run i2p, i2pd or other such software on a mobile-computer is... nonsensical when you take it out of the consumer-smartphone context.

    it really is not. it sounds like you skippped reading my comment after 2 sentences. sure run i2p with transit on a normal, corded computer, with wired network if at all possible, that's a good thing. but not on a "mobile computer" with a very constrained battery and mostly wireless only connection. unless you repurposed it as a server, and not using it as a smartphone anymore, then at least it doesn't have to power the screen.

    Mobile-computers trend on being more energy-efficient with larger battery capacities over time.

    my phone's battery has lower mAh capacity than my former one I bought roughly 10 years ago.

    If we're to take your concerns about data and energy scarcity seriously we need to address the CPU-cycles and data that are forcefully wasted against the users' wishes

    obviously, if a user was scrolling facebook all day instead of running an i2p router in transit mode, that would drain the battery quickly too. that is a choice to make, whether to scroll that much or not. compared to that, an i2p router would not need the screen to be on, but it would have constant CPU and wireless network activity, not letting any of these go to low power mode.

    We should tell Google not to transmit any data from the mobile-computer that's related to ad-networks.

    which is not a constant activity, but a bursty one. for every x seconds of not transmitting anything, it'll only transmit that data for less than a second. it does not keep the cpu and wireless adapters awake constantly. neither does facebook in the background.

    Imagine wasting wireless networks by transmitting ads in high-resolutions and wasting CPU-cycles to decode it!

    I agree in part, but you don't have a sense of scales. how much resources consume this activity and that one.

    The reality is this: mobile-computers are incredibly sophisticated and capable.

    capable, sure. except the battery. i2p does not need much resources, but the hardware still needs a lot of power compared to what the battery can store.

    When corporations abuse your mobile-resources it becomes the norm and is not even questioned.

    but even they can only abuse it when the screen is on! when its off, their capabilities are more limited.

    What I suggest is users take control over their property and use libre or libre-adjacent

    I am running a fairphone with a custom rom. I don't play games and the only social media app I have is for lemmy. my battery lasts for a day, but if I had a transiting i2p router in it, properly set to be allowed running all the time, it would not last 4 hours.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

    You've gone from stating i2pd on Android would use 4TB of data to a mobile-computer would last only 4 hours if an i2p-router was running. Just state clearly: you're making up shit. You haven't used the software and you have no interest in it. The above is a screenshot of i2pd running on a Pixel 6 Pro under GrapheneOS. In 6 hours i2pd has used 94.31Mb. In a month with 31 days that would extrapolate to 11.69444Gb. How much data you're willing to 'donate' is entirely up to you as it's configurable. My internal-battery is full at 80% (charging optimization enabled which halts charging at 80%) whilst the external battery is at 66%. Bluetooth has been on the whole time sending audio to a headset. This mobile-computer also runs Briar non-stop.

    I stick an external-battery to the back using hook and loop tape. It will last more than 24 hours. I honestly don't know what you're trying to say. People doomscroll on Tiktok all day and I'm pretty sure that's just video content, probably hi-res too. No one's pretending data is precious or limited except for you. (Australian retailers sell unlimited mobile-data plans.) You don't want to use i2p on a mobile-computer? Ok. Other people do and I'm one of them. As I already stated in the previous post: if you actually want to do things with your mobile-computer pack batteries. Your imagination's the limit.

    I administer a cluster of irc-nodes that talk to each other over i2p. Some nodes live on mobile-computers whilst others are on laptops or desktops. Decentralised chat hosted on your own hardware using your own connections. No need to pay perpetual rents for whitelisted IP addresses or a domain. You get encrypted communications with anonymization built-in that supports both TCP and UDP. It's great.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago* (1 child)

    Australian retailers sell unlimited mobile-data plans

    in eastern Europe unlimited mobile data plans are pricy, it's not too common to have them.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 child)

    You've gone from stating i2pd on Android would use 4TB of data

    surely not in 6 hours you dummy! over a month, which network providers use as a billing cycle! my i2p router on my server is up almost a month, and in that time it has had 4 TB traffic, in both directions. so my example 4 TB was not even correct.

    I have been running this i2p router for the past 3 or 4 years, yes I do know it! it always has this much traffic. would likely have even more if I had a better upload bandwidth and a higher limit set.
    but I have to admit I forgot about the bandwidth limit setting.

    how many mAh is the capacity of the external battery?

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