OpenStreetMap and their editors are great and I use them a lot, but if you really want to have great flexibility with your map design QGIS is Open Source

Here’s a video on how to use it

You can use CalTopo’s print pdf to print that OSM data too

People think that govt developed = bad. It’s a consideration for sure but if anything govt developed is so hopelessly and inherently compromised then many of the measures discussed here are useless for privacy already because they almost all run through internet, a govt created system. Even TOR. But yet here we are anyway because they are still useful systems.

Governments pour tons of time money and effort into secure communication, and not for profit, and we can still take advantage of that advancement with some caution.

Wait until they find out who started the internet. Or who runs GPS satellites

When it was sms compatible it was a suuuuper easy sell for my family

“It’s way more secure when you text me but you can still text everyone else you know too. And we can still use it through wifi if cell service isn’t working for me.”

It would potentially fall under “fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine” that would make it inadmissable for actual court cases but otherwise there’s nothing to stop people from gathering information that is available to the public

We can always do the “nothing beyond my immediate observation can be trusted” method like the flat earthers do

It might not be much but it’s still legal precedent that will hopefully help it reach critical mass. Like getting Al Capone on tax evasion

I forget what privacy podcast I was listening to but they said that privacy is important because you might not be under scrutiny now but could be.

After the Boston marathon bombing reddit was scouring footage and believed a particular person was responsible (“we did it reddit!”). They were wrong. People found his address, work etc and he was stalked and harrassed for days though he did nothing wrong.

You can bet he would have liked to disappear for a while, and a little extra everyday privacy in advance would have made that a lot easier.

Yeah I’m not really trying to hide from the govt, but I would vote on limiting their power if given the chance. Anyway, what I don’t want is every corporation I deal with (car, bank, phone, apps, isp, etc) to track me so excessively.

If the govt did get curious it would take zero leg work, just ask those companies that are very willing to hand over my data to damn near anyone, or hold onto it long enough to have it stolen.

So with that in mind limiting corporate surveillance and limiting ease of govt surveillance is essentially the same thing, but the govt has the ability to put in the work and get you if they really wanted to.

Idk how the new user experience is now but back when I first downloaded it I wanted a hybrid of sat imagery when cell signal allowed, with an overlay of offline OSM data. This was for two reasons, hiking and to see if the mapping in that hike area needed any major land use edits.

Anyway I had to fiddle with the menus and settings for a while to get the overlays where I wanted it to be. Don’t get me wrong I was able to figure it out but for users who want to install and go it can be understandably frustrating

Osmand is really cool and it’s really capable but I understand that it isn’t for people who don’t want to tinker a bit to make things work just right for them.

For that Organic Maps is what I recommend.

It’s like $20 for cheap devices that talk to your phone via bluetooth. They have standalone devices too to fix that potential vulnerability.

I’m messing around with a few rn. Heltec V3s and TBeam Supremes.

My grandma told me of a relative that came to visit them in the US from Eastern Europe (Slovakia I think) after the Soviet Union dissolved.

One thing they noticed is that he always wore his shoes. Even when staying at home. Even to bed. They asked why and he explained that it was to give him a chance of escape if the Secret Police came and he was surprised that our family didn’t have to do something similar.

Acoustic car

likewise

You guys better be careful. From what I’ve heard Canada and Australia aren’t exaclty shining beacons of freedom as of late. Love you both tho

Yeah we really need to step it up. Sadly we’ll never live up to the shining example of Tiananmen Square. Peak human rights!

Ah I was just kidding, you probably mean the ability for Soviets to assemble. Like that one time they all banded together to put an end to…the Soviet Union. In that case yes we have much to aspire to!

Always has been. Just yesterday I was explaining AI image generation to a coworker. I said the program looks at a ton of images and uses that info to blend them together. Like it knows what a soviet propaganda poster looks like, and it knows what artwork of Santa looks like so it can make a Santa themed propaganda poster.

Same with text I assume. It knows the Mario wiki and fanfics, and it knows a bunch of books about zombies so it blends it to make a gritty story about Mario fending off zombies. But yeah it’s all other works just melded together.

My question is would a human author be any different? We absorb ideas and stories we read and hear and blend them into new or reimagined ideas. AI just knows it’s original sources

I bet insurance companies would pay out the nose for this data. Hike up the rates for drivers with “risky” habits.