Comradeship // Freechat

I am assuming Stalin would approve of this since he literally robbed trains. Also he's so handsome. So thats why hes my thumbnail.

~~he robbed stagecoaches not trains apparently~~

Recently I have kind of realized that the way I use the internet isnt as common as I thought. I don’t watch ads ever, and I pirate a lot. I thought id share some methods and hopefully help others get a better online experience.

~~So I know theres a few piracy communities around that might work for some of this stuff, but its not all piracy and I want more people to see it so here we are~~

I wanted to make this because I think a lot of people don’t realize just how easy it is to save money, and time online. Even if you know some of these methods hopefully a few will be new to you.

Time to learn how to look like this IRL

We will go through some stages. Basic, Advanced, and Torrenting methods.

Basic

First things first is the web browser we are going to use. This guide will be based on FLOORP. A Fire Fox fork. Its what I use for general web use. For more privacy centric folks switch it out for LibreWolf and all this should still work fine with some tweaking. Or any Firefox variant.

Browser Extensions: Get these from the firefox extension store.

Ublock Origin: General adblock and doesn’t need much configuring. If it doesn’t block something you want gone you can right click it and block it manually.

Alternative Player for Twitch.tv: This will add a new web player for twitch streams which will block ads in the streams. It will drop the resolution while it blocks them to 480p and say “Hiding Ads” in the corner. I am pretty sure the streamer still gets paid since it has no way to know you arent watching them.

ClearURLs: Removes tracking elements from URLs

I still don’t care about cookies: Will get rid of annoying cookie pop ups on most sites by just accepting them automatically.

Sponsorblock for YouTube – Skip Sponsorships: Names self explanatory. Community powered so some new videos wont be flagged yet. You can configure what is skipped and isnt.

A few others I find useful, Dont Track Me Google, Twitch Channel Points Autoclicker, Unwanted Twitch, Youtube-shorts block, Pinyin Web(For learning chinese), Dark Reader.

Now at this point your browser should be basically ad free and debloated. I recommend messing with FLOORPs settings if you used that its got some nice customization options.

Now lets make use of it to get some free content.

Anime: https://kaa.mx/ or https://hianime.to/tv

TV/Movies: https://movies5.online/

Overall list of pirating sites and other useful things: https://fmhy.net/ This has all kinds of stuff. Definitely worth checking out. It even has textbooks for school.

I cannot stress enough that I would not go to piracy sites without the above adblocking setup or something similar. Theyre usually full of crazy ads some of which could have malware. With ads blocked ive never had issues though.

Advanced

Music: Many people use spotify. If you do I recommend not buying premium, and instead using SpotXBash. Or the windows alternative. This one works for Linux and Mac. You run the script, and your spotify is ad free. It does require terminal usage, and theres always the risk your spotify account gets banned if they detect it. It’ll need re running every now and then as updates can mess it up. I’ve never been banned but if your worried about it make a new account for it. https://github.com/SpotX-Official/SpotX-Bash

Now you may be thinking, like I did, “I wish I didn’t have to stream my music. Just let me download it.”

Thats where spotdl comes in. https://github.com/spotDL/spotify-downloader

Theres a tutorial on getting it setup on the github. Once its ready its pretty simple you make a playlist on your newly ad free spotify, run the command spotdl with the link to it, and itll grab all the songs off youtube if theyre available. Quick and easy music piracy. Not perfect as sometimes you get music video versions but its pretty good.

I’ve downloaded hundreds of songs this way, and its nice to have when you don’t have internet, and the powers out or something.

Also if you don’t want to use youtube at all due to privacy reasons now we have a more advanced option for you. FreeTube. Its an app that works on all OS’s as far as I have seen even mobile, and works as a youtube frontend. You can even use invidious as the way to get videos for even more privacy. https://freetubeapp.io/

Torrenting

Ok if you’ve been following along this far its time to take a breather. Depending on where you are, and who your ISP is this part can be pretty risky. You might get letters in the mail, might get fined, could even get sued in some places.

That being said I can show you how to do it safely.

First we are going to buy something. Mullvad VPN. Its the only VPN id recommend getting. It is 5.50$ or so a month, and if you cancel your streaming accounts it’ll pay for itself now that you’ll be pirating stuff with it.

Once youve bought and setup Mullvad we can continue. Go here: https://mullvad.net/en/check

Its going to check that the VPN is working correctly. You should see 3 green boxes that say Using Mullvad, No DNS leaks, No WebRTC leaks. If you have that go into Mullvads settings. Under VPN settings Kill Switch, and Lockdown Mode should be turned ON. This will prevent your computer from connecting to the internet with anything but the VPN.

Now we are gong to get qBitTorrent. This is our torrenting client. Your gonna install it, click settings, advanced, and look for “Network Interface.” There will be a drop down menu. Click it and select the mullvad option. Mine is “wg0-mullvad” then click apply. (YOU MUST DO THIS! DO NOT SKIP!)

People in the comments have suggested some other VPNs that they prefer. I can't verify any but Mullvad as thats what i use, but feel free to check out other offerings just be careful.

Your now ready to torrent and cannot be tracked by the other leechers or seeders. So you wont get those DMCA letters.

Now where do we find things to torrent? That wiki I linked earlier has some stuff. For games https://fitgirl-repacks.site/ is a great option. She recently repacked The Last of Us Part II remastered.

You’ll copy the magnet link, put that into Qbittorrent, and let it do its thing. Once its done you’ll pause the torrent. Assuming you don’t want to keep seeding it for other people downloading. Then open up the files and it’ll be an easy installer.

So to recap. You should no longer be seeing ads online, no longer be paying for stupid streaming services, and be getting lots of music, and games for free. Plus you get the added bonus of making liberals and capitalists mad by not giving them your money. If your well off take the money you saved and do mutual aid, if your poor like me and couldn’t afford this stuff anyway, enjoy!

P.S. If you are worried about not supporting certain independent creators and stuff while doing this keep in mind direct donations are still an option for pretty much everything. Most youtubers have a patreon or something for example.

Corporation simps when they find out you arent giving Disney all your money:

Resources from the comments:

Stalins_Spoon@lemmygrad.ml: Open directories with tons of movies; http://23.147.64.113/ http://144.217.70.79/VODS-M/1080P/

The reason it says insecure is bcz they don’t have an https cert

KrasnaiaZvezda@lemmygrad.ml: No nyaa.si ? It’s for torrenting instead of watching things online, but for those who prefer torrents it’s perfect as you can also find OPs and EDs, manga, LNs…

uberstar@lemmy.ml: For something multi-platform as a music downloading solution, I recommend Lucida instead:

https://lucida.to/

you just paste the link of an album/song (whether via Qobuz, Deezer, Tidal, etc…) and download away. Then all you have to do is unzip the resulting archive file.

For anyone doing research (or more generally, studying in uni), consult the literature pirate’s equivalent of the Library of Alexandria:

https://libgen.is/

And fuck copyright in academia (fuck copyright and academia in general), here’s a site that let’s you bypass research article paywalls (pick one of the instances):

https://www.sci-hub.pub/

XxFemboy_Stalin_420_69xX@hexbear.net:

great post small addition: should include anna’s archive for downloading books and journal articles, among other types of media

I mean more on the side of us. I don't really care about capitalist tears.

Yes, it's here, the sequel to my old simulation on the labor theory of value

Last time, I invited the Hexbears over to Lemmygrad to see the simulation. This time, I'm inviting the Gradfolk to Hexbear.

The link

Also, no, this won't be a weekly thing. I do plan on making a third version in this series, but it will come much latter (I got uni stuff to take care of)

Had a few days off so binged the first two seasons of the show. It is really fun. Has got me itching to play Mass Effect 2.

Hello, I'm Elara.

I'm the one who hosted the GenZedong matrix server and wrote and ran @TankieReplyBot@lemmygrad.ml. I recently ran away from my abusive parents' house (which is why all my stuff has been down) and I'm currently staying with a friend while I search for a job. I already have some things lined up, but it's going to take time to navigate all the bureaucracy to get permission to work where I am. In the meantime, I have very little money and I need funds for food, clothes, etc. If anyone can help, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

• Paypal: elara@elara.ws
• Venmo: Elara6331
• Stripe: https://donate.stripe.com/cN2aGgeOWe9D4soaEF

This person worked out today, did you?

Be kind to yourself, workout <3

Like, I wake up and see my flowers. Some bees. It's a nice sunrise. I open the news and it's just one big collapse of the west. Fascism is rapidly coming up. I'm in the middle of it but I still need to go to work to keep the make believe that is our society going. War might be imminent. Whether that's with Russia or the US.

And yet here we are, collectively pretending everything is fine.

I need some advice,

Our local punk scene is pretty small. I am part of that scene but not in the inner circle where everyone is close friends with everybody. The issue is that pretty deep in that scene is one person who was abusive in the past. That is why he is banned from some leftist spaces. I don't know any details about the abuse but he wouldn't be banned from some spaces if it wouldn't have been bad.

So he crossed a red line, and not trying to get him out of the scene would lack solidarity towards the victim as well as increase the chance of it happening again.

Does anyone have advice on how to go about it?

Inside I found this kinda odd bed exercise pamphlet for (I think) elderly people. I hadn't really thought about it but now I really wonder who I bought this from. I got it used and don't know them at all but i really wonder how long they had it and why they decided to sell it. I'm really grateful obviously since all of Han's works are out of print, but it still makes me wonder.

(P.S, is Han Suyin's work respected within china? If not what are the biographies used within China for Mao and Zhou Enlai domestically?)

(P.P.S, can't attach image since it's too large somehow:p)

Sorry to make another request for help so soon, but I don't have any choice. Last week I had an appointment and while I was out I lost my purse. So this week I've been cancelling all the cards and ordering replacements. All the replacements will be free except my two travel cards. I have a disabled person's concessionary bus pass, which is free but if you lose it they charge £10 for a replacement. Also my ferry pass which is £20 for a replacement.

The loss of the purse has been reported but it has not been found or handed in.

I need these travel passes because I can't drive due to being partially sighted and I can't get around easily without them due to having had a stroke. Without them I can't attend hospital appointments or go anywhere. One hospital is accessible by bus and another is easier to get to by ferry.

This isa book that collects different formers of art from DPRK

Hey! While we were separated, I was busy trying to find coding projects to get me more familiar with github and git. That turned into me creating Hexbear Code-Op. Feel free to comment in that thread with your own projects.

Then I got inspired and played around with A People's Calendar and eventually created A People's iCalendar. This was a fun project, and it got me looking closer at the events in aPC and thought it could benefit from some proofreading. So I created this thread to talk about it.

I even reached out via github to try and get more official collaboration with aPC. I'm still interested in that if anyone is in contact with the projects owner.

So I'm still thinking about building a cleaner, more consistent, and collaborative history data.

Let me know your thoughts!

This is admittedly not a huge thing but windows used to notify you on your desktop of upcoming DST changes. 1 week in advance they would tell you "hey fyi, DST will start on this date at this time."

They don't do that anymore. No reason given, no way to bring it back. Not even third-party software exist to do this and just this. They're deciding how you use your computer for you and you'll like it.

I had to spend 15 minutes manually inputting the dates in my phone calendar and I was like... wtf am I even doing that. This is exactly the kind of stuff technology is supposed to solve. We have AI, we have cloud technology, we have all these cool things (if you're a developer I guess), but we can't do something as simple as notifying people of actual real life impact stuff. It's so much more important that instagram let you know someone you've never heard of has posted something. What did they post? Open the app to find out! Because we won't tell you! And the fucking AI summary on iphones lmao.

Of course all electronic clocks nowadays automatically switch to DST but it's still something I want to know, and not all my clocks know to switch. It's always jarring waking up one morning and seeing my phone say one time and my oven say another time (though maybe soon ovens with built-in clocks will be a luxury lol). That's when I realize we switched to DST - if I only had connected clocks I would never even know we still do DST. And that's no way to live.

Oh and you know the worst part? My phone knows about DST in advance, because when I went to put in the dates in my agenda, it skipped over 2AM. It just doesn't think to do a fucking notification for it twice a year. It's a huawei fyi, and I have my problems with huawei. 6 years ago they were a great choice, quality of an iphone (if that means anything) at a mid-range price. Now they're expensive and aren't really adapted to local markets. Like my phone gives me birthday notifications 1 week in advance. I don't know if that's significant in Chinese culture but in the west we don't care lol, just tell me on the morning of their birthday. Can't change it anywhere either. For the price I paid this really shouldn't be happening - sometimes also the calendar completely forgets to notify me of something I had put into it.

For today, the Christian and the Socialist Union called for a nationwide general strike to protest against the plans of the newly formed neolib government.

The plans include severe budget cuts in the public sector (health education, social security), as well as retirement funds, public transport, wages and an increase in military spending.

There have been two big strikes with rallies in Brussels yet, but this is the first general strike of the year. Picket lines throughout the country in many different sectors. Almost half of schools are closed, half of public transport is not departing, troubles in the airport and the harbors.

I'm striking myself despite working at the union and will probably visit a couple of different picket lines in the city.

Seriously, what the hell happened that time?

It was just a few days ago, but it was weird.

I had 4 magnesium supplements for stress and it... apparently made me sad? To the point of crying?

Ugh.

So many great posters and comms I've missed. Checking in from my Lemmygrad account wasn't the same, Hexbears algo is more aggressive with decaying posts and I've become used to it lol.

This is just my usual monthly post asking if anyone could help me out with a sainsburys voucher so I can keep eating until I find out about my benefits. If anyone is able and willing I created a new email address so I don't have to publish my personal one again, I had a couple of trolls and security issues using my real identity. It's

DisabledAceSocialist@hotmail.com

This one takes debit card, credit card and google pay and can be purchased internationally:

https://www.sainsburysgiftcard.co.uk/

This one takes debit card, credit card and paypal and can be purchased internationally:

https://www.prezzee.uk/store/sainsburys-uk-gift-card/

This one takes crypto and can be purchased internationally:

https://www.bitrefill.com/gb/en/gift-cards/sainsburys-in-store-digital-uk/

I sometimes also need to make separate posts asking people to buy me things whenever I need something else (like sanitary pads, laundry disinfectant, dental supplies, etc). Some of the things I need aren't available from sainsburys and it would also eat into the sainsburys gift cards, which wouldn't leave me enough for food. So if anyone would be willing to send me an amazon gift card so I can just buy these things for myself in future, instead of having to keep asking for extra help, I would be really grateful.

This site takes crypto:

https://www.bitrefill.com/gb/en/gift-cards/amazon-uk/

I'm extremely grateful for any help.

Massive protests against Erdogan happening right now because of the arrest of the Istanbul mayor. Our media is pushing it relentlessly which always has me wary.

So, recently, I made a matlab simulation/visualization for prices in a 2-sector economy. I did this to see for myself whether labor theory of value prices are the prices at which an economy can reproduce itself exactly. That is, when the unit price of each sector matches the price predicted by the LTV, then the net financial position of both sectors of the economy (and the consumers) neither improves or worsen (so nobody is going into debt to another).

Of course, this was inspired by Marx's famous reproduction scheme method, where he did something similar. However, I have better tech than he did.

I basically randomly generated a 1000 different random economies, and in each economy, I generate 1000 different prices. Then, for each price and economy, I computed the balance of payments between the 2 sectors and the consumers. I also computed the predicted LTV prices for each of the 1000 economies

These 1 million data points are plotted on a density map in the linked image. The brighter the spot on the map, the more data points fell there. And it's exponential. A 7 on the color scale has almost 3 times as many points there as a 6.

The y-axis is the net income of sector 1. If that net income is anything but 0, the economy isn't reproducing itself. The x-axis is the ratio between the actual price ratio of the sectors (randomly generated for each point) and the price ratio predicted by the LTV.

If you look at this graph, you will see 2 black regions. There are sharp black regions both horizontally and vertically emanating from the center point (the situation of reproduction and LTV prices). This means that reproduction implies LTV prices, and LTV prices imply reproduction. So the only way for a perfectly stable economy to exist is for it to employ LTV prices, and vice versa, an economy is stable if it employs LTV prices.

This is pretty much what the theory expects. What might be an interest further avenue to research is that hourglass shape. From pretty much the moment I started coding the simulation (so even during my early attempts when I was doing things wrong), I kept seeing that hourglass shape. I don't know if it is an artefact of how I did my simulation, or if it is something more fundamental.

If I could create a model for the shape of that hourglass, I could use it to predict things like

"How much can the prices in this economy deviate from LTV prices given this much growth in a sector?"

Which would be very cool.

Unfortunately, the ability to code basic shit in MatLab does not give me the ability to do advanced mathematics, so I will really need to think about this.

For anyone interested in my actual simulation approach, I have it written out in a comment (and will also provide the code)