Category: Blog

I recently came back from Spain because I was visiting Tio and Sasha to film for the TROM 2 documentary and what can I say? Spain is really nice!

I was on the Costa Brava in a smaller town north of Barcelona that looks like this:

The trip was no problem regarding Corona. With a PCR test, I was able to fly to Barcelona and from there continue by bus.

Not only were we productive because we finished recording and I worked on some other things, but we also had a cool time because we did a lot of things outside: we went hiking, camping, swimming in the Mediterranean, kayaking, flying kites (pretty cool with a lot of wind on the beach), playing cards, making pizza and just having a good time:

I keep thinking to myself that life can be so simple and so beautiful, and I keep coming back to our trade-based society, which makes it so difficult for many people to live a good life.

Tio is the living proof. I have never met such a nice person who is so curious about the world and just does good things. He creates books, videos and podcasts on complex subjects to make them easy to understand, constantly educates himself through documentaries and news about the world and he would always help you without asking anything in return.

But since he offers everything he makes trade-free, he can hardly survive in our society. In fact, he is currently as good as broke and if that doesn't say everything about our society, then I don't know what does.

It's sad to see that such people who just do good things have to struggle to survive while at the same time being influencers on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, (e.g. Lisa and Lena or BibisBeautyPalace) get an incredible amount of attention and recognition (for mostly trivial things).

I am deeply disappointed myself in our society which aims to sell more and more and keep you enslaved in a job instead of learning about this amazing reality and just being a nice one Mensch to be.

Even if you study marine biology at a university, you have to pass exams and studying is always connected to the idea of ​​performance...

I've also heard of students who have successfully studied archeology and then had to take a job in the supermarket because they couldn't find any other way to earn money. I think there are many such examples out there.

Am I crazy or our society?!

How can it be that someone earns a lot of money by playing games on the computer and filming themselves doing it? Or buying and selling cars and making millions? (Link) Or collects data about you and then sells it to advertisers (data broker)?

And in contrast I just want to learn more about the world, help others and not sell anything, but now I have to see how I can make money to survive...

Am I crazy now or society?

If you don't have a job and earn money, then you are worthless in the eyes of society. You are told to have a career as a mechatronics engineer, bank clerk, carpenter or manager.

What would you like to become? everyone asks you when you go to school.

Maybe soccer star? Maybe manager? Or lawyer? Maybe just rich?

But what if I don't want to be one of those?

What if I just want to be a nice, chilled and helpful person trying different things with no expectations of making a big career out of it?

What if I just want to be happy?

That's exactly why I try to stay away from all the bullshit. I hardly ever buy new clothes, I don't have a Netflix or Spotify subscription, I don't have the latest cell phone or a car.

Still, I'm doing really well and I'm happy. And that's the most important thing, isn't it? 🙂

Have fun and let go

What really matters in life?

For me personally, things are important, such as going surfing or snowboarding, meeting other people and learning new things, helping other people and/or organizations, traveling, hiking, camping, swimming or watching documentaries and more about to learn the world. And just to have fun too. And to do things spontaneously. And to be open to life 🙂

If you were to ask an alien if they would want to live here on planet earth, but ONLY IF they have a job and work 40 hours a week. Do you think he would do that?????

Our society sucks and I think this video illustrates it pretty well:

Because of this:

Don't take life and especially our society too seriously, take it easy and have fun, go out into nature, look at the stars and have a good time 😉

For example, I've thought about cycling around Lake Constance this summer, or hitchhiking in Germany and at Trust Roots- or BeWelcome-stay with hosts.

I'm sure there are still some adventures waiting for me and I'm really looking forward to it 😉

My goals

Of course I also have goals and I once wrote in a blog article (which I deleted again) that my dream is to train as a carpenter and then live and travel in a van.

After my internship in a carpentry shop in Switzerland (which was very, very hard), I thought about doing something else instead...

My next thought was to do something in the IT field, because on the one hand I'm interested in technology and computers, or rather servers and Linux, and I want to learn more about it. And I could certainly use the skills that I will learn in such an apprenticeship to, for example, Friendica- Instance hosting or other services that we are currently on trom.tf host. I would also really like to translate trom.tf into German and offer trade-free services online 🙂

So I applied to various companies and in September I will do an apprenticeship as an IT specialist for system integration in Dresden.

This also means that I have a more or less regular daily routine, I will be given assignments and have to write exams. But I think that I can definitely gain valuable experience that might be of great use to me later.

After the apprenticeship, I might still live in a van or go traveling, I don't know yet and it depends a lot on how the world develops.

In any case, I will buy a wakeboard and wakeboard regularly, enjoy the offline life more and of course continue to keep the projects up to date.

Why am I doing what I'm doing?

When I think about this question like this, it reminds me of Australia or Asia, being on beautiful beaches and wondering what I want to do with my life.

I could travel my whole life or start a family and work in a job for 40 years and live a normal life or I could try to be an astronaut or study business and try to be a manager and so much more .

All possibilities are open to me and I could have a great career. But I don't want that because I've been traveling and I've seen and learned that there are so many problems in our unjust world and if we only think of ourselves we'll perish...

That's why I can't and don't want to normal life to have. I don't want to become jaded to all the unbelievable things of our world, but to face life with astonishment and curiosity.

If in the corona pandemic For profit reasons, the patents for the corona vaccine were not released become when the State more and more surveillance measures implements and if most people on the planet are enslaved in a bullshit job and we destroy the planet à la "after me the flood of meaning", then I just don't think that's cool. Ne, it's really not cool diggah!

I'm now more or less forced to play the game and do this training because unfortunately I don't get enough support, but I try as best as I can not to let it affect me negatively, but to draw positive things from it. Of course I could also work in other jobs, but I think it's hard to find something at the moment and I don't want to be a waiter anymore either! 😉

Conclusion

Letztendlich halte ich es für essentiell, Menschen auf dieses Problem “Handel” aufmerksam zu machen. Spirituelle Hippies mit viel Ying & Yang, Homöopatie und sonstigem esoterischem Scheiß und Pseudowissenschaft werden auch keine Probleme lösen. Ja, ich hab auch mal Yoga gemacht, war in einem Schweigemeditationskloster und hatte eine Hippie-Phase, und ich hab auch echt nichts dagegen, verschiedene Sachen auszuprobieren und sich auszuleben – ich selbst bin auch ein total ruhiger und entspannter Typ, der offen für vieles ist und gerne neue Sachen ausprobiert!

But I don't need to believe in a god or open my "chakras" when I know that billions of neutrinos are 'flying' through my body every second and that we and everything we see around us are made of atoms.

Of course that doesn't mean I'm not having fun, quite the opposite, I like to juggle or slackline, do some exercises and sports from time to time, listen to electronic music because I celebrate music, but what we need are more educated people who understand where the problems in our society come from and do something about it. It is precisely in this direction that we are trying to advance with the TROM project. No pseudoscience, no wishful thinking, no utopia, but facts about our world and solutions.

I think this idea is really powerful and if you really understand what it's about then you can't do nothing.

Also, I can't think of a better idea to change our society or steer it in a more sane direction than to make trade obsolete and educate people and give them free access to what they need and want.

I myself would never ask for anything in return if I were to help you.

That's why I do what I do.

If you confront people on the street with this question, you will probably get many irritated looks. Some may not have time to answer this question because they are shopping, go to work or do other things.

Many people live in a reality that revolves around Netflix series, jobs, cars, houses, Tikok, Instagram and Facebook.

But are we humans really damn to live a life that revolves around banal things (invented stories, superficialities, etc.)?

As so often, the answer is that we live in a trade -based society in which such values ​​are promoted and maintained.

But what does it really mean to be a person when we leave out all the social and cultural bullshit?

This question is probably best answered with our story. With the story of us humans.

Where do we come from?

The simplest questions are sometimes the most exciting. I mean, have you ever thought about how it could happen that you live at that moment?

Perhaps you have heard that the universe is 13.8 billion years old and that it continues to expand like a cake dough that opens. Scientists found this out by watching galaxies. These galaxies are not only moving away from us, but also from other galaxies and now the crazy thing comes: at an ever increasing speed.

This must mean that at the beginning the whole universe was concentrated in an unimaginably small 'point' and then started (13.8 billion years ago). The beginning of our universe will also Big Bang called.

With the Big Bang, everything we know was created - matter, space and time.

To think about it alone is so fascinating because it is real. This is not an invented Netflix series, like Game of Thrones, or a film by the Star Wars series or one of the Marvel films - but the reality.

I have already got to know people who do research on complex scientific topics, such as more about the moon Io To find out (one of the 4 moons of Jupiter) and physics or work in gene research, but were nevertheless bored with documentation about reality and preferred to watch cartoons or Disney comedies.

It seemed to me as if you consider the scientific work as a job and do not really understand what you work on ... but back to the history of origin from everything:

With increasing time, gravity (the force that holds us on earth) arises in which simple atoms, such as hydrogen, are merged into more complex (merged). Through huge explosions of the stars at the end of their lives, these new more complex atoms were thrown into space.

After all, fascinating things still formed and shaped through these atoms, such as solar systems and galaxies, black holes and neutron stars, moons and planets.

Planet Earth On which we live emerged 4.5 billion years ago and through a number of complex events (distance to the sun, formation of a strong magnetic field and the atmosphere that protect against dangerous cosmic radiation, Jupiter, who has a protective effect on the earth due to its enormous mass, since large mateorites are more likely to be on it, the moon, the chemical composition of the earth, etc.) are probably 4.1 The first living things were created for billions.

Be aware that all living things that exist on Earth consist of these tiny small building blocks (the atoms).

Overall, everything you see consists of these atoms - including us humans and of course you. The first people then emerged in the course of evolution 6 million years ago and the modern person “Homo sapiens Sapiens” developed about 200,000 years ago.

Here is still a very good video from Kurz that the whole thing brings into an interesting perspective:

What does that mean:

You have probably heard of such facts and you may think that is nothing new.

But if you are thinking about it again and realizing that you consist of tiny small particles - the atoms - which have arisen in dying stars.

When you become aware that you are a star dust and your life is a tiny pixel in a huge picture in this gigantic film of the universe.

If you are amazed that you are part of this amazing universe yourself and can in principle observe yourself, then it puts some things into the right light.

As Carl Sagan said, we are all just people on this pale blue point.

We are all people with strengths and weaknesses, with dreams and destinations, with wishes and needs. Our trade -based society turns us to doctors and police officers, soccer players and managers, IT specialists and carpenters, judges and politicians, teachers and clerks, students and unemployed. But what we shouldn't forget is that we are all just humans. And we are influenced by our environment - that's all.

So don't take your career as a CEO so seriously. If you are rich and have everything you want - several expensive cars, villas, luxury yachts and a lot of money. What then?

Is it really worth buying the new iPhone to be cool?

Is it worth your precious time in jobs that don't make you happy?

Is it worth devoting your time to consumption of more and more things instead of traveling the planet and learning more about the world?

To invest in bitcoins, other coins or stocks instead of helping other people/projects?

To look at football instead of playing football yourself?

Try to please others instead of doing what you really would like to do?

In my opinion, being a person means that the fascinating reality in which we live or at least be aware of it (of like gravity to Black holes, von Neutron stars to our solar system, from the problems of the earth to alternatives to solve them), to know that boundaries, religions, laws and also money are only human inventions, and to be clear about how short and valuable your own existence is really.

Sasha is, for example, a person who is very well aware of it and I can recommend a look at yours Blog to throw where you can learn more about them. Here is a cool video of her in which she explains that the earth is like a prison:

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In my life I learned that many people (locked up) are very important in things, places, people and habits with whom they are familiar.

The annual Easter and Christmas, various cultural events, such as carnival, Halloween, Oktoberfest or New Year's Eve, family celebrations, such as weddings, birthdays, etc., going away with friends to get drunk, strongly advertised events, such as the football season or World Cup, the Olympic Games or the Super Bowl. Even these are all human inventions and yes, including events that can bring people together and give joy, but often also forced events that are maintained due to our trade -based society.

Perhaps you think that there will be no culture in the future if these things fade. But on the contrary, when people are no longer forced to have a job and have free time to learn more about the world and to do what they want, then there will be an explosion of opportunities to get to know other people, travel, work together on projects, and very likely we would celebrate other events, such as if an illness was defeated when a new scientific discovery was made or others (for example cosmic) Events that are real and not invented.

I still remember 2012 when I bought my Macbook Pro 13″ with Retina display and a 128 GB SSD hard drive. Since then I have always used the Macbook. Initially with the operating system from Apple (MacOS), until I then decided Linux to use.

Our customized version of Manjaro Linux – TROMyear – runs flawlessly on the Macbook and there have never been any major problems. However, the Macbook Pro with an i5 processor and 4 GB RAM is no longer quite sufficient for me these days. Simple web surfing still works very well, but the device quickly reaches its limits for more demanding tasks such as video editing. Unfortunately, the 4 GB of RAM cannot be upgraded either. Partly because of this, but also because I want a larger display, I decided to buy a new laptop.

After hours of research, I made up my mind to buy either a Tuxedo or Dell laptop. Dell laptops are quite well known, well compatible with Linux operating systems and also of high quality depending on the price range you are looking at. In addition, you can expand the RAM memory and/or the hard disk in many devices, which is another plus point.

Tuxedo is a company that specializes in tailor-made Linux computers, which means the computers are tuned to run Linux operating systems flawlessly.

Tuxedo Pulse 15 Gen1

I decided first that Tuxedo Pulse 15 Gen1 with a Ryzen 7 4800H processor, 32 GB of RAM and a 500 GB SSD hard drive. TROMjaro runs perfectly on the device and the device is very, very good. What bothered me personally is the clattering ClickPad, which works, but I didn't like it at all. Compared to my 2012 Macbook Pro, this clickpad was cheap. The Retina display of the Macbook is simply nicer because it has a higher resolution and everything is displayed sharper.

Dell Inspion 15 7506 2-in-1-System

So next I tried the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Series - 2-in-1 System (7506) and tested TROMjaro on it. This laptop has an impressive 4K touch display, 1 TB SSD and 16 GB SSD and comes with the latest generation i7 processor. TROMjaro runs very well on the device, but some functions are limited or can still be improved, such as the pen that comes with the device, which does not have all the functions under TROMjaro as under Windows, or the touch display, which is not quite as good how it runs on Windows. However, it is remarkable that TROMjaro runs on the device at all and how well. Almost everything works out-of-the-box - without installing a driver or anything and that's really impressive!

Dell XPS 15 7590

Testing the Inspiron has made me realize what I want from a computer. It has to be fast, have a lot of memory and look good. And that's how I ended up with the Dell XPS 15. The XPS 15 comes in a variety of configurations and I chose the 7590 model. This isn't the latest model, but it does come with more ports, isn't as expensive as the newer models, and has the webcam at the top of the screen instead of the bottom like the previous ones. My XPS 15 has an i7 9750H processor, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD storage, an Nvidia GTX 1650 GPU and an amazing 4K OLED display!

I bought the device via ebay classifieds and installed TROMjaro directly on it. What can I say? In my opinion it is the perfect combination. Here is the tutorial on how I installed and set up TROMjaro:

First steps

First of all, backup all your data to an external hard drive so it's safe in case something goes wrong 😉

Follow the instructions on the TROMjaro Websiteto flash tromjaro to a USB stick.

Next, you need to do some BIOS setup to boot (boot) into tromjaro. To do this, shut down your computer and hold down the F2 or F12 key while booting up, or press one of the keys in quick succession.

Now you can choose to enter BIOS.

Im BIOS

There are 3 things to do here.

1. Go to “System Configuration” and select “AHCI” at “SATA Operation” to make the hard disk available for tromjaro.
2. Click on the “Secure Boot” item and on the “Secure Boot Enable” box to disable Secure Boot so that you can boot into TROMjaro.
3. Under the item “Fastboot” under “POST Behavior” select “Thorough” to prevent sporadic boot failures.

Next, shut down the computer, insert the USB stick and press and hold F12 again while booting to select the USB stick so that TROMjaro boots.

Now you can choose the language and the keyboard model:

Depending on the device, you can select "Boot with open source drivers" or "Boot with proprietary drivers", i.e. either boot with open-source drivers or proprietary drivers. Due to the NVIDIA graphics card, I selected “Boot with proprietary drivers”. The drivers can also be changed later and installed afterwards.

Im Live-Modus

TROMjaro is now running on your computer from the USB stick. I directly changed the screen background (right click + change background) and set the touchpad:

Now you can test everything that should be tested. The touchpad, the keyboard, WLAN, Bluetooth, webcam, speakers - everything.

If everything works and you want to install TROMjaro, then click on the “Install Manjaro Linux” button.

Die Installation

Now you'll be guided through the installation setup and it's all pretty much self-explanatory. Select the language, region, time zone, keyboard model and hard drive on which TROMjaro should be installed. I don't recommend installing tromjaro alongside another operating system as that could cause problems. I myself had both Linux and MacOS on my Macbook Pro for some time and it worked without any issues, although I wouldn't recommend it.

If you select “Erase Disk” there are still the options “No swap”, “Swap (with hibernation)”, Swap (without hibernation)” and “Use paging file”. Swap can be used as additional RAM memory - for example, on my Macbook Pro with 4 GB RAM I selected "Swap (with hibernation)" so that 4 GB of the SSD hard drive was used as additional RAM memory. Therefore, I also recommend the “Swap (with hibernation)” option so that the system runs more smoothly (a lot of RAM is always good anyway 😉 )

After entering your username and a password, you can click “Install Now” and TROMjaro will be installed on your computer.

After installation

Starte nach der Installation den Computer neu und aktualisiere das System unter “Software hinzufügen/entfernen” -> Aktualisierungen. Wahrscheinlich musst du auch nochmal deine Maus, bzw. Touchpad-Einstellungen ändern.

Note: TROMjaro makes a local backup with the "timeshift-autosnap" tool before each update. If you don't want this, enter timeshift under “Add/Remove Software” and remove the “timeshift-autosnap” package:

Next, install any language packs that are still missing. To do this, simply enter “Manjaro settings” when you press the Windows (or the cmd key on Apple computers), click on language packs and “Install packs”.

Settings and Optimizations

You just got to know the Manjaro settings. Then there's the 'normal' settings, where you'll find Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, language and region, audio, power, screens, etc.:

and optimizations:

Here you can configure TROMjaro as you want.

There you can change the system font, change the theme, use a different icon set, expand the workspaces and and and. Make TROMjaro look like you want. You can even like TROMjaro ChromeOS, MacOS or Windows make it look.

Finally, there are the Dash-to-Dock settings, which you open by right-clicking on the Dash-to-Dock, and the Gnome Extensions, where you can configure further settings:

Touchpad Gestures:

You're probably used to the fact that the touchpad allows you to control other things with various gestures, making the laptop experience intuitive. You don't have to do without that with TROMjaro either. By installing the Touché app, some gestures also become possible on TROMjaro. We will integrate this app into TROMjaro by default, so you don't have to install it separately.

In fact, to activate Touché you have to use the terminal once and type the following:

sudo systemctl enable touchegg.service

sudo systemctl start touchegg

For this I recommend the GNOME extension X11 Gestures (which you here can install) to use other useful functions in connection with Touchegg.

Now the only question left is how to install apps on tromjaro. There are 2 options for this:

1. TROMjaro Software Center

We offer over 600 trade-free apps in our own software center. You can install an app by simply clicking on the “Install” button and then “Apply”.

2. Add/Remove Software

Otherwise you can install apps via Add/Remove Programs. You can also uninstall apps here:

Dell XPS 15 settings

I think I've covered quite a bit, but if you have a Dell XPS 15 with an OLED display, there are still a few things to do. here you will find the entry in the Arch Linux Wiki, where everything is described. The most important:

Install the icc-brightness package so you can control the backlight. From Linux kernel 5.12 (currently 5.10) this will work out of the box.

Power Settings:

My Dell XPS 15 uses a lot of energy, which means the battery doesn't last very long. To change that, there are a few changes you can make. I did 2 things:

1. “apparmor=1 security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3 enable_fbc=1 enable_psr=1 disable_power_well=0 mem_sleep_default=deep” zu “GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT” hinzugefügt.
   To do this, edit the “grub” document as admin (by right-clicking on it and selecting “Edit as admin”):

Nvidia graphics card

The "Boot with proprietary drivers" automatically installed the correct drivers, with which I can use my NVIDIA GTX 1650. However, I have to open an app in the terminal with the command “prime-run” + name of the app (e.g. prime-run kdenlive). There are several ways to switch between the internal and external GPU (e.g. optimus-manager or bumblebee), but I'll read more into the subject. Anyway there is here more information about it.

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Otherwise that was all. Maybe over time I'll add things that were still missing, could be improved, but I think I've covered quite a lot.

If you have further questions, you can find more information in the Manjaro Forum, regarding TROMjaro you can also contact us in the Chat write, there is always someone available.

What is also important:

Manjaro is a rolling release, which means there are regular updates, which of course we also carry out for TROMjaro. On the "Releases' page you can find the latest updates as well as things to consider to keep your system up to date.

What's another interesting fact is that you can move from one laptop to another on Linux pretty much easily, just by copying your personal folder to a hard drive and then copying it to the new laptop.

Tip: By pressing Ctrl+H in your personal folder you can also copy individual configurations (folders) of the applications that are on your computer. These are mostly located in .config - This can be useful if you are migrating to a new system and don't want to carry old leftover files/garbage (e.g. from apps that you have installed and uninstalled again) with you.

So I copied the configurations of my most important apps from my old laptop to the new one and not everything else (apart from the normal files like pictures, documents, videos, downloads, music).

last words

Finally, I would like to emphasize that the most important aspect of TROMjaro is that the operating system is trade-free. There is no data collection as with MacOS or Windows, no advertisements on the web or other trade, because we focus on the people who use TROMjaro.

With TROMjaro, we want to give you a tool that allows you to move freely in the digital world without trading your data, attention, currency or anything else.

With TROMjaro we want to point to a future that is free - namely trade-free!

PS Thanks to the Manjaro community and all the people who code free software, which makes it possible for us to offer TROMjaro in the first place. That's the beauty of free software - anyone can build on what already exists and make something new/different out of it.

Every now and then I really like to go outside into nature by bike or hiking. It is simply nice to see different landscapes, different plants and animals and to discover something new.

Of course we live on a planet like a Jail Is, and many people are very limited to just go where they want to go because they just don't have the money, or because they may have a passport that does not allow them to enter another trunk. In this article, however, the park in your city, the public beach that could be nearby, or the forest near you. These things are usually freely accessible.

For example, I am in a small village in Upper Donau Nature Park Growing up and not too long ago I recognized how amazing this area really is. Of course I talk about the scenic aspect - not about culture!

To give you an impression, here are a few pictures that I did during a few bike tours this summer:

I am sure that it sounds boring for some people to ride or hike a bike into nature, but it can not only be relaxing and pleasant, but also amazing if you think of the complexity behind apparently simple things like a tree. Take a normal tree. It has a trunk, roots underground and a few leaves. It's not exactly impressive, isn't it?

But do you have an idea of ​​the hidden processes that pass in the leaves every day, like the photosynthesis? The chemical process of converting carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates with 'help' of sunlight? And did you know that the light from the sun, that through Kernfusion arises, 8 minutes and 20 seconds long ‘travel’ and then reach the leaf in the tree?

And then there are oxygen molecules that happen to be released as a by -product by photosynthesis, and maybe a few of these molecules are inhaled from you and taken into your lungs where they get into your blood circulation and the cells of your body can achieve - and that makes these cells work properly, because if they do not get oxygen, they ultimately die and you also ...

It is fascinating if you think about it.

Then you can think about how the water reaches the leaves at a height of 20 or 30 meters around everything in the world. All the way from the roots. And if you are looking for it online, you will find out that it is more impressive than every film with an invented story:

If you want to know it more precisely, take a look at this Video in which it is explained that a negative pressure of minus several atmospheres is created.

Amazing, right?

And then think of that Netz underground, which consists of fungi and combines entire ecosystems:

… Incredible!

So you see, the world around us is actually very complex and amazing. There are so many hidden processes and chemical reactions that develop every day, and yet we are probably not aware of some or most of these things.

And then just try to think of other planets, stars and black holes that are far away. This is a photo that I took when I was camping and looked at the stars to think about the universe and what could be out there ...

I still know when I was younger and actually didn't like to hike with my parents. At that time it was boring, and at the age of 14 I looked more TV and played Pokemon on my Nintendo Gameboy or football manager on our computer. If I had known how amazing reality is really ...

It is unfortunate that the majority of young people grow up in our crappy industrial culture, in which they are brought up to workers and consumers and their curiosity about the real world will only be awakened later or never at all.

About 2 weeks ago I visited friends in Copenhagen and we had such a cool time together. We played, swam, laughed, played, talked, read, read and enjoyed our time on this wonderful planet Earth, which ‘hovers’ somewhere in space.

Not only there I thought about all the stress, the hustle and bustle and unnecessary suffering on our planet. People have to work as slaves in shitty jobs in order to be able to live in this world, bureaucracy makes people's lives unnecessarily complicated, and rules and laws try to control human behavior, but are not actually the cause that makes people behave badly.

Humanity should not be enslaved in this way. I have the feeling that people would look back in a more sensible future (if there will ever be one) and think about the stupidity and primitivity of current society.

Sometimes I also think that it is so unfair that I have the “luck” of having everything I need, and I would be happy if everyone had to fight for survival. Sometimes it makes me angry, confused, sad, depressed and gives me a feeling of fainting because I can't save the whole world. So if you read this here and have similar feelings every now and then, you are not alone.

When I talked about it with my good friend Rafa, he sent me an interesting video. It's about when you think that what you do no difference, it does not mean that this is also the case:

It is difficult to find your way around this world, I know. People slide easily in self -centered, ignorant and profit -oriented behavior because our worldwide, trade -based environment is pushing them into these behaviors.

I personally try to keep myself away from the trade as far as possible and go through life with optimistic nihilism:

The next time you think about the ‘bad’ in this world, always remember that it is our trade -based society that wraps everything and try to judge your anger against yourself, other people or anything else. Maybe you can convert your feelings of anger, confusion, sadness, etc. into something positive/interesting. Even if you think it is insignificant.

And the next time you go into a forest, think of the complexity beyond what you can see. The eyes can perceive part of reality, but to understand this sensory stimuli, you need your brain. To it in Uncles Pressing words: "You don't see the world, you think the world". And the more we know about the world, the more our brain can be synchronized with reality so that we can better understand what it means to be human and to align our thoughts and acts.

Aaron

Based on the last article this article is supposed to be about your own environment. Have you ever dealt with this? What is your environment made of and how does it shape and influence you?

You may have little or no influence on many factors. You may need to work a job because you need the money to buy things you need and want, or you may be in some other life situation that may not be changeable right now.

But what you can influence and change at any time and relatively easily is the media you consume and that is exactly what this article is about.

People reflect on their environment, including the media they consume and from my own experience I've mostly consumed media where I've learned little or nothing, rather I've been made to consume stuff and be unhappy. That is ultimately the goal of advertising, which comes on almost all channels on TV (apart from public channels such as ARD or ZDF (there is also a lot of nonsense there, such as series or talk shows)).

Werbung bring dich auch dazu, die neuesten Klamotten und immer mehr davon zu wollen. Schau dir die Bilder von mir an, als ich etwa 16 oder 17 Jahre alt war und wie “cool” ich war und das neueste von H&M oder Zara an hatte:

I used to watch mostly entertainment shows. It all started with children's series Nickelodeon, Kika and Great RTL, then went on to football to shows and series by ProSieben and movies (action movies, horror movies, comedy movies, sci-fi movies, etc.). Galileo from ProSieben and Earth X from ZDF were probably the only programs in which I learned a bit about the world.

That has changed for some time now, as I only watch documentaries and science channels.

What? Why? Is not that boring?

That's how I would have reacted in the past if someone had said that to me, but now it's the other way around for me.

When you think about it, Hollywood movies, Netflix series, and TV shows are actually just fake. These things are not real, they are made up. The script is made up (okay, sometimes (very rarely) it's based on a true story), actors just pretend, and the scenarios are often exaggerated, misrepresented, or actually not possible at all. Even with “cool shows” such as Joko and Klaas, things are going well gefakedto draw a lot of attention.

And I watched this because... yes why actually?

To amuse me? To distract me from my boring everyday life for a short time so that I forget him and my problems? To waste 90 minutes of my life on a Disney fantasy film that makes the company even richer?

According to this statistic, people in Germany watch an average of 252 minutes of television per day:

Calculated over a year, that's 91,980 minutes and 1,533 hours or just under 64 days of uninterrupted television per year. And most of what's on TV is just crap.

Have you ever zapped through the channels and thought about what's actually on there?

Celebrity dinner, Germany's next top model, soccer, at home, storm of love, Navy CIS, Love Island, Two and a Half Men, The Simpsons, politics, you name it. Kids probably watch the same channels as I did then + maybe still Disney Channel27. January 2022

Sind das Sendungen, die Menschen über die Welt bilden, auf Probleme aufmerksam machen und Lösungen beschreiben? Sendungen, die sich kritisch mit der Welt auseinandersetzen und Dinge, wie Geld, Handel, Religion, Moral & Ethik etc. hinterfragen? Oder Sendungen, die sich mit verschiedenen Bereichen der Wissenschaft auseinandersetzen, über neue Erkenntnisse berichten oder über das, woran gerade geforscht wird?

Of course not.

Most of it is just complete shit27. January 2022

Add to that the "funny videos" from Facebook and TikTok, the silly videos from Youtube, the "beautiful" pictures from Instagram, and the snaps from your best friends on Snapchat and you're on a planet where most people are mindless consumers with distorted values, who have no idea about science and don't (can't) think critically. They reflect their environment.

What I'm trying to say is that if you spend your whole life watching Hollywood movies, Netflix series, TV shows, Youtube videos about bullshit content, or spend your time on these platforms that promote all sorts of bullshit, they deserve as much attention as possible, then it will influence you and shape your values. Your life will then revolve around the same things.

The same with your friends. Are your friends talking about stocks, football and partying? Your life will probably revolve around the same things or something similar.

alternatives

Honestly, the greatest form of "activism" is to educate yourself properly with science-backed sources.

So with so many people watching irrelevant, unscientific and often over the top news and videos, we need more sane alternatives for that and that's exactly what we offer with our curated tools.

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These 3 tools, along with the curated tools in English, are my main media sources that I read, watch and listen to.

A few bad/unscientific articles/videos may slip through so be aware, however these curated items are constantly being improved to keep them fresh and scientific. If you still know relevant sources yourself, then you can also tell me to write and i can add them.

From the book "Rethink education“:

“Movies and TV shows have so much success in the world, but most of them are based on fiction and gossip, turning their viewers into beings with little or no understanding of the amazing reality around them.

What if movies were about real scientific events? What if TV shows were factual rather than fictional?

If you want endless stories and complex ideas, just look at reality. From quarks to quasars; living cells to black holes; Galileo to Einstein, the story of the real world is far beyond any story, movie, book or idea.

Imagine that instead of watching a fictional drama, we choose a movie about the life of Nikola Tesla, or instead of watching science fiction movies, we choose movies about the discovery of quarks, atoms, and DNA (the building blocks of us and everything around and in us).

The drama Galileo endured to prove the sky wasn't perfect and the curiosity that led him to be the first to observe a "wandering star" through a telescope and realize it was a world like ours ; ancient Greeks like Aristotle trying to understand the world around them; the life and discoveries of Copernicus and Kepler; the stunning discoveries of Darwin that led to the theory of evolution; Einstein's quest to prove that space has a form; the invention of chemistry and biology; the discovery of tectonic plates and how the earth moves beneath our feet, although we don't usually feel it; Edward Hubbles' discovery that our galaxy is just one of billions of galaxies out there and that the universe is constantly expanding at an ever increasing rate; the existence of so many creatures in the world, as well as those that have died out (eg, dinosaurs); the revelation of quantum physics; the detection of neutrinos; the development of the many amazing technologies that have contributed to human discovery of the world...

I bet many people don't even have the slightest idea of ​​the fascinating complexity of our world; the drama that lies behind scientific endeavor; the incredible discoveries; or the excitement/enthusiasm of new knowledge.

I'm so curious about how humanity and our environments would evolve if we were exposed to such media as much as the misinformation we receive today."

Such questions are incredibly exciting and important for understanding the world better. And there are some cases that answer such questions.

The following documentary shows that children who grow up under extreme conditions have completely different behavior than “normal” people. Oxana MalayaFor example, the girl who grew up among dogs for 6 years behaved more like a dog than a human. She couldn't speak or walk, but ran on all fours, like a dog.

Also Genie grew up in extreme isolation for more than 10 years, could not speak and showed completely different behavior than children of the same age.

What is also interesting is that these people were able to learn “normal behaviors,” such as speaking and walking on two legs, but only to a limited extent. That's obvious, because if you haven't learned to speak properly by the age of 13 years and 7 months, it will be very difficult for you to understand something like that properly. As shown in the documentary, the brains of feral children are smaller and malformed:

Here is the whole documentary:

So people are a product of their environment (their experiences), just like you and me. This is described in more detail in the book “Behaviour: from genes to gender”:

When I think about my own childhood now, it's somehow absurd. Have you ever had conversations about human behavior? About science and how science works? Has my curiosity about the world been awakened? Honestly no…

You come out of school and you can read and write, do some complex math, maybe Latin, maybe French and economics. I had that as a core subject in my Abitur. I was well prepared to become a blue-collar worker or haphazardly study business, like thousands of others do every year, and then sit in a marketing department and sell stuff. Congratulations society!

Luckily, I went traveling and had free time to learn more about the world.

Recently I was talking with a few friends about social media and the online platforms that people use for various things (keeping in touch with friends, educating themselves, entertaining, sharing projects/posts/images, or whatever).

I brought up this topic because I have a cool one Articles about Couchsurfing translated by Sasha, which made me think. Couchsurfing was originally a non-commercial host network that turned into a for-profit one and now cares primarily about its profits rather than its users.

As I thought about Couchsurfing's 'bad' behavior, I asked myself what on earth Facebook, Instagram, Google and other such services are doing and why do I still have an account on some of them?

Of course, we should all know that the business model of these companies is to collect as much data about you as possible and then show you personalized ads (Those). This has many negative effects, as the focus of these so-called “social networks” is no longer social, but rather profit-oriented. This means that they will do everything they can to keep you on their platform, to show you as much advertising as possible, which ultimately turns people into stupid consumers.

And these companies have different methods to get and keep as much of your attention as possible so they can maximize their profits. There are so-called “attention engineers” who design/design these platforms like addictive slot machines. They have implemented various features like pull down, (to refresh the feed) which is like the arm of a slot machine that you have to pull down and then you may or may not get a reward (new posts that might be interested or not). Tristan Harris (former design ethicist at Google) explains this very well (unfortunately the video is in English):

Then there is the endless feed that you can scroll down indefinitely and there might be something interesting or funny that the Facebook or Instagram algorithm presents to you. Or the Like button, which gives you a dopamine rush when people liked your picture or post and you want to constantly check if you got a new like so that you keep coming back to the platform.

I also find the Snapchat Streaks example very interesting because I didn't know that at all (unfortunately the video is also in English):

All of these features are harmful because they absorb your attention to the maximum. And all because Facebook makes huge profits from the advertising it inserts into its platforms. Essentially, you trade your attention and data on Facebook for so-called “free” access to the network. Facebook then sells the space on their network for ads to show you. Based on the data they have received from you, they can personalize (tailor to you) the advertising to increase the likelihood that you will view and click on it. In return, Facebook receives huge amounts of money from companies that pay for this advertising.

So pretty shitty, right?

And in case you didn't know, Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp (and many other companies), so it's a huge company with around 2-3 billion users worldwide.

Have you ever looked at the stories in Instagram? There is an ad after almost every other story you watch.

When I thought about it, I felt like we are all basically being exploited (used for profit) by these platforms and we all know it (because of this Cambridge-Analytica-Skandal, this one Ted Talk or that Tedx Talk, this documentary about surveillance capitalism and many other such revelations) and all we do is look at it and accept it?

But it shouldn't be like that, right? Okay, maybe some people aren't aware that companies like this do these things (I'd suggest checking out the Criticism in Facebook or The dilemma with social networks but I'm very aware of it, so what do I do personally?

Will I still be on Facebook in 5 or 10 years? Or Instagram? Or couch surfing and paying money for my kindness in letting people sleep with me for free?

What will Facebook do in the meantime – what is their next business plan?

It turns out that Facebook has its own cryptocurrency (Libra) that will give them even more power in this world. And according to Wikipedia, users will be transparent: “Before using the wallet, you must identify yourself with an official ID. This means Libra users are transparent; every transaction can be assigned to the people involved.” (Those)

So Facebook will know when you gave how many Libra coins to whom. Not only will this be another way for them to collect even more data, but it won't solve any of the problems we have today because cryptocurrencies are just another form of trading that comes with a lot of problems like we see in the book The cause of most problems explain.

That's why I asked myself: What do I actually use these slot machines (Facebook and Instagram) for and is it really worth it?

To stay in touch with people?
To share images/videos/projects with others?
To educate myself by following some interesting sites about space and science?

There are alternatives for all of these things that are trade-free:

1. Stay in touch with people directly (messenger)

There are really great alternatives to stay in touch with people in different ways (messages, video calls, voice calls), and you can this article Read which explains in detail what types of communication there are (centralized or decentralized) and introduces some great options for staying in touch with your friends.

You can also search in the trade-free directory for “Messenger" or "Communication” and you will find many cool trading-free communication platforms.

I personally have Signal for 1 or 2 years now and even though it's not the perfect messenger (since the phone number is needed) I use Signal as my default messenger. There's an app on the phone and Signal also works on my laptop, which is pretty nice and I don't have to deal with WhatsApp anymore. Also, I'm currently testing Jami, which seems to be a very promising commerce-free messenger.

2. Share images/videos/projects/articles

You can use 2 ways to share images/videos/projects/articles etc. Either you rely on a social network or you have your own digital space in which you can express yourself. I have my own website where I post my thoughts, projects, pictures, etc. and I used Facebook and Instagram just to share these things there. I deleted Facebook and Instagram a long time ago and that's what I mainly use now Friendica as my social network.

Friendica is part of the Fediverse, which consists of many great social network alternatives and in trade-free directory These trade-free alternatives that don't abuse me behind my back are also listed:

The Fediverse includes the Instagram alternative Pixelfed, the Facebook alternatives, such as Friendica or diaspora and the Twitter alternative: Mastodon. What's special about Fediverse is that these platforms can communicate with each other because they share a common platform Protocol use. This means that if you have an account on Mastodon, you can also follow me on Friendica or a PeerTube channel or Pixelfed account. This is super super cool and makes the whole social networking thing more decentralized.

And as a side note, there are even apps for Friendica/Mastodon so you can use it on your phone, like Fedilab or Tusky27. January 2022

What about YouTube?

Ahh, this is a difficult case. I have to talk about YouTube because it is the second most popular website in the world and part of the Google family:

And what YouTube does is this:

So you might want to watch a single video, but wake up 2 hours later and realize you've watched a lot more videos because YouTube's algorithm recommends more videos to you. And these recommendations have a tendency to move from the calm, scientific videos to the crazy stuff, conspiracy theory videos and stupid content because these things keep people on the platform. In fact, 70% of videos viewed on YouTube are recommended by the algorithm. So if you watch a video of the moon landing, you might be suggested a video that claims the moon landing was fake.

And Tristan Harris also explains these methods very well:

The alternative is for example Invidious, which is a commerce-free front-end for YouTube without ads or data collection, and you can find some commerce-free Invidious instances here27. January 2022

Or a completely alternative trading-free video platform PearTube:

However, PeerTube just doesn't have as many videos as YouTube, so it's not easy.

One idea would be to link Invidious with PeerTube so that you could watch YouTube videos via PeerTube - that would be nice 😉

All in all: It's really difficult because there is some great content on YouTube, but also A LOT (an incredibly large amount) of garbage. The TROM project is trying to do something about it. And that brings us to education.

Education

The Internet is a great way to learn about new ideas and educate yourself on pretty much any topic that interests you. That's exactly what they're all about TROMNnews. These are essentially streams of digital media that are selected and collected to be made available to people. The goal is to select scientific, relevant and interesting content and remove the clickbait and bullshit content. In English there are curated news, videos, photos, illustrations and finteresting.

I created some of the tools in German and will work to keep them as scientific, relevant and interesting as possible. Then with the curated things in English and German I have 2 very good options for getting information.

So that’s basically it, but what about Couchsurfing?

BeWelcome and Trust Roots seem to be good alternatives to Couchsurfing, but the two are not that well known and therefore have fewer people using these platforms.

With all of this, I'm not changing anything

We have to be realistic and understand that these attention-seeking networks like Facebook or Instagram are a global thing. And I have to be realistic and admit that switching from Facebook to Friendica won't change the world.

However, I'm wondering if I should keep Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp just because everyone else uses these networks?

So for me personally it makes no sense to continue to stick with these platforms.

And is it really true when you say that these individual actions have no impact on the world at all?

I mean, doesn't everything we see in the world start small?

Didn't Facebook once 2004 Started small at Harvard University? In Mark Zuckerberg's room in a university and then in less than 20 years it became a worldwide thing. What about Apple? Didn't Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak start their company in a garage? (Those)

If you think about it, everything in the world starts small and then gets bigger or not (depending on many factors). That's why I think it's not only useful but also important to support alternatives.

Of course I know the situation is different now because of the mechanisms that keep people trapped on these platforms at the moment (so I don't see many people quickly switching from Facebook or Instagram to another network) but I want to ask myself again – should I continue to support these networks now and in the future?

Because it also does something to me and changes me over time. As we know, this change can be negative because of the addictive nature of these networks.

If you look into it, you'll find that the people who thought up these things (the engineers behind the like button, the pull down, the red notifications, the endless feed, etc.) are different from what they have created, distance themselves. In fact, they try to avoid spending time on these platforms as much as possible or completely because they know how they work and how addictive and harmful they are. (Those)

It's not about living completely trade-free

We live in a world based on trade and that is a fact. And we will not live in a trade-free world tomorrow either – unfortunately. But what we can do is take small steps in that direction.

Should Wikipedia start charging people money if they want to use it, just because that's how the whole world works right now? Or should Doctors Without Borders, instead of treating everyone, start discriminating against a certain group of people? Of course not.

That's why I think I prefer to use alternatives, even if everything is new and I don't know any people on Friendica or few/none of my friends have Signal. What I can do is talk to my friends and family, tell them about the questionable things Facebook and Google are doing, and show them how easy it is to use trading-free alternatives.

After all, I created a Facebook account at some point, right? And before that on ICQ? And at studentVZ before that? And I've always managed to switch from one to the other - so why shouldn't I be able to switch to Friendica?

It's almost impossible to escape

Let's be honest. This is what a typical smartphone screen probably looks like these days:

Chock-full of trading-based apps, and I can tell you a story about it:

I have a little sister and she is completely caught up in Tiktok and YouTube loops (stupid videos that the algorithm recommends to her based on what she watched). It's hard to reach such small children, especially when there are such cool videos from them Lisa and Lena There are...but maybe they'll understand these things as they get older. But maybe not. I don't know it.

But that is not the point. It's about talking about these problems and showing alternatives.

last words

For me personally: If I can't find a host in a city I want to visit with BeWelcome or Trustroots, then so be it. 50 years ago I couldn't send a message from Germany to Australia over the Internet. I also had the experience of not being able to find a host in a city through Couchsurfing, even though I contacted many.

But if I and others and more and more people use these better (trade-free) networks that don't want to make a profit from us, then it's all the better for all of us.

Finally, I would like to give you the book “The cause of most problems” that explains data and attention trading in detail, and I want to ask you:

Where do you draw the line?

What else can these trading-based platforms afford? How far can they go with their methods to make a profit from you?

I recently discovered the German YouTube channel of VPRO, a Dutch broadcaster. I've seen a couple of VPRO documentaries before that that were really good too, but they were in English. Even if vpro dock only has subtitles in German and is not completely spoken over into German, I can still recommend the channel because there are some great documentaries. For example, about surveillance capitalism with Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff.

She has written a monumental book about the new economic order that is alarming. “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism” shows how the biggest tech companies are handling our data.

How do we regain control of our data? What is surveillance capitalism anyway?

In this documentary, Zuboff takes a close look at Google and Facebook and reveals a merciless form of capitalism in which the citizen himself, rather than natural resources, serves as the raw material.

It's great how these companies present themselves as cool, privacy-safe and just want to connect people ("connect the world" - "the future is private"), but at the end of the day, they're huge profit-making corporations that collect everything about everyone and make a profit out of it.

The examples are also very interesting, such as pokemon go players being lured into stores to increase the likelihood that they will buy something, or monitoring people's buying behavior and when a woman buys a different shampoo, her father Offering baby products because she might be pregnant.

It's about building predictive models to sell you as much stuff as possible. The more data they have about you, the better the prediction models could be and the better they can sell you targeted stuff.

It's very, very terrible what's happening right now and it's not just happening recently, it's been happening for about 20 years, as Zuboff explains. And most seem to be totally unaware of it...

Of course, the video is primarily about one form of trading, namely data and attention trading. I trade my data and attention (via ads) for access to Facebook or Google services.

You could see problems that arise from this very well in the documentary, because, for example, people are made to become dull (brainless) consumers. Google will show you personalized ads and make you buy a shoe or whatever. And of course you're happy that Google knows what kind of shoes you like 😉 But of course you don't know what else Google knows about you because Google keeps that secret - Google seems to be a good friend who cares about you seems interested and caring about you, but he uses you completely for his own purposes...

If you want to learn more about this and other forms of trading, read our book, The Cause of Most Problems:

Addendum 05/23/2021:

I happened to come across a document from Apple in which the company explains very well how data trading works and that it happens on a daily basis: Link (Original)

1. Companies like Apple are now promoting themselves as "the good guys" as they pretend to protect your data. However, Apple doesn't really care about user privacy or your data, even though that's how the company sells itself. There are whistleblowers who say that Apple devices have their microphones on all the time and people are being spied on. There is more about this in the documentation “Invisibles – exploitation in the digital world of work” from DW from minute 29:29. Of course I can recommend the whole documentary.
2. The trade in data will only get worse with the Internet of Things as more devices become “smart” and can collect data and people don't seem to care too much about their privacy.
3. As long as people like Greta Thunberg or Luisa Neubauer and other "activists" don't fight against such big corporations as Google, Apple and Amazon, we won't get anywhere. “Every day, every hour, users see billions of digital ads online” (Link) These advertisements suck people's attention and shift people's focus to constant consumption.

This trade-based society is so backward...

We published the trade-free directory and you can contribute!

This directory currently provides hundreds of examples of organizations/projects that offer something trade-free, meaning they don't ask for anything in return - neither data, nor attention, money or anything else.

The Idea

Tio had the idea for a long time to make a directory in which trade-free goods and services are collected.

I texted him a few weeks ago that I would like to do the directory and we started the project. We both knew it should be simple and clear and I just started working with WordPress. Tio has years of experience with WordPress and that's why he helped with the design of the website - actually he did all of the design and structure of the website haha ​​but that's great because I couldn't have done it that cool and clever.

The Submit page, where anyone can submit more trade-free items, looks just like a finished entry.

This is awesome because we only have to “publish” the entry.

Wir haben verschiedene Kategorien gemacht: Gemeinschaft, Bildung, Unterhaltung, Humanitär, Medien, Software & Hardware und Anderes, in denen wir die handelsfreien Güter und Dienstleistungen sammeln. Kategorien bieten eine grobe Übersicht über verschiedene Bereiche.

Each entry that is added is then tagged with tags that describe what exactly is being offered, such as books, videos, search engine, food, transportation, accommodation, medical care, photo editor, whatever.

Some of these tags are collected in a cloud so you have an overview and a search bar lets you search for what you want.

This is what the keyword cloud looks like.

So if you click on an entry, you will see a screenshot, the official link, a description and the tag, i.e. what is offered.

Above the screenshot you can see 5 blocks that reflect how the entry is rated by others. If something has 5 blocks it will likely be trade free, if something has 1 block it will likely not be trade free. At the bottom you can see the rating system, where you can also give your opinion - without having to create an account. You just click on the blocks you would give the entry and write in a comment why you rate it that way. Below you will see the comments of other people who have rated before you.

What we have decided for now is that we will review the comments because we have found that if we don't, there will be spam comments.

And what happens to the listings that are submitted but are not trade-free?

We publish these entries in the category “Rejected', with a reason why we rejected the entry. Maybe there were ads or a lot of trackers on the site, or the site wanted something else from you. Whatever it was - we write below why the entry is not trade-free. So we are 100% transparent. And you can also object to this - just like with a normal entry.

join us

As you may have noticed, the directory is based on the help of volunteers. You can add entries and rate entries. You don't need an account for any of this - you can just get started with it 🙂

So start and always ask yourself:

Wait - What am I trading?

Data (tracker), attention (because of advertising), money or something else?

Find the trade 😉

https://www.verzeichnis.handelsfrei.org/

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

A VPN encrypts all your traffic so no one can spy on you. The VPN stays between your device and the internet. When you visit a site, talk to someone, no matter what you do, everything is tunneled across different servers as encrypted information. If you visit a website and watch a documentary, a VPN can only be seen like this: a computer from South Korea (or another part of the world different from yours) sends and receives encrypted information from the website. There's no way to track that it's you, no way to track what that information is about. Great!

We recommend Private Internet Access (PIA) as the best VPN – they are experienced, they are secure, have lots of servers, great speeds, a very simple app and are very cheap. Free VPNs are slow and limited, so you'll have to pay for either option, but it's a worthwhile investment to protect all your internet activity. PIA also blocks ads and trackers. One license ($40/year - around €35/year) corresponds to 5 devices - so you can use the same license on 5 devices. Don't let their cheap footage on their website put you off, they are the best in the world.

Tracker and ad blocker

Privacy Badger is a tracker protection that automatically learns to block invisible trackers. You can easily use it as Firefox Addon Add it and it will block trackers for you. There are also many many free ad blockers, but we recommend uBlock Origin, as it has all the features you need. We recommend for smartphones Blockade, which works without needing to be rooted. These 3 things are all trading free and if you install them you will rarely, if ever, see ads.

Peer to Peer (p2p)

When you watch a video from YouTube or another website, that video is streamed from a server. The server may be shut down, the owner of the video or the company hosting the server may remove the video, and so on. Very insecure. However, with p2p, a video is stored on multiple computers, so essentially no one can delete it. When you watch a video, the video is divided into many parts, and you will take some parts from one computer, some from others, and so on, which combine to form the entire video file. This is the best way to share things.

P2P clients are simple apps that put all these pieces of files together and allow you to enjoy (download/watch/read) them. Although there are many P2P clients, we recommend the free and open-source one WebTorrent (available for every desktop operating system). The way it works is that you simply download a “.torrent” file and open it with WebTorrent and the file(s) will automatically download. You can do the same with “magnet” links (just click on them – that’s all). WebTorrent also allows streaming the content before downloading it. For cell phones you can AceStream (does the same thing – downloads p2p files and enables streaming).