If any of those CDs require internet to install, they must have been later releases during the dying era of CD game installs. I have original CD copies of all AOE games and they dont need any internet at all.

I’ll have to get back to you on exactly which one I have and how it reacted offline. I just discovered that AoE is still making new releases every year. You must be spending a fortune if you have every single AoE game ever released. Or if you have dodgy versions, then those could be internet-independent due to crackers.

Using dd is important as you can flat dump every single bit out of the CD, including the hidden license information.

The fact that dd has no smarts about the media is exactly why it’s a problem. The copy protections are designed to ensure that bit-by-bit copies fail to work. They insert some kind of optical ”defects” which force drives to do some kind of error correction. A copy (image or physical CD-R) has a copy of the bits but not the defects, so there is no error dection/correction activity, and that’s how the game knows it’s not a factory disc.

Going by mentions of Windows Live in the list of DRM-free games from Steam over at Fandom/Wikia (link), you should be able to do a partial installation of the dependencies.

That link is a shit show… tor hostility, then if I visit the archive.org version the page is too fancy for my browser… all the useful info hidden. Thanks for the idea though. Perhaps I will do the dancing to get the info later.

(update) after going back to the archive.org tab, the lists are loaded… it was just very slow to load b/c the list is LOOONNG. I would like to get that dataset in JSON.

And regarding using the disc drive, you can dump the discs as ISOs or BIN/CUE files, and mount them with WinCDEmu.

That only works on unprotected discs. Warcraft 3, for example, uses SecuROM or something to deliberately put defects on the disc that do not get copied with normal tools like dd or whatever. Then the game specifically looks for the defects to verify authenticity. Hence why I mentioned Alcohol 120, which understands securom but strangely did not work in my recent attempt.

“Load” is vague. To be clear, the CD player is artificially needed to execute games that are already installed. Of course a CD player is needed for the initial installation step but that’s not what I was removed about.

Notable as well: there is sometimes a space saving argument to be made here (from the era of these games creations), and sometimes not. Often all the contents of the CD are copied to the hard drive anyway, for performance. The forced presence of a CD in those cases is just an anti-piracy tactic. In cases where the CD spins during game play, it could be either way… a redundant check to bake-in the anti-piracy throughout the code, or to genuinely load more game content.

The only Google anything I use is my email for ‘official’

Why is that? Most public services use Microsoft for email, I find.

FWIW, I boycott both; which means I am mostly using postal mail.

Indeed. And as well, even if growth were needed, Google is advocating for US growth at Europe’s expense.

Did you try eating the peppers after the tincture is made? I wonder how effective the alcohol-based extraction is… if there is any residual capsaicin left in the peppers.

Walker argues that the market moves faster than legislation and warns that regulatory friction will only leave European consumers and businesses behind in what he calls “the most competitive technological transition we have ever seen.” … Kent Walker suggested that this initiative would stifle innovation and deny people access to the “best digital tools.”

The irony. Is the EU going to fall for this? Or does the EU realise that copyright is in fact the “regulatory friction” that “stifles innovation”?

According to Google, the idea of replacing current tools with open-source programs would not contribute to economic growth.

Does Europe need growth?

And either way, how does making public service more costly by way of licensing fees increase growth in Europe? The license costs could instead be spent funding more European public workers. That’s growth, no?

Google is advocating for US growth at Europe’s expense.

Walker suggested that American companies could collaborate with European firms to implement measures ensuring data protection.

Closed-source software processes data non-transparently, thus compromising GDPR art.5. It’s also a shitty loophole around the GDPR, because when you run a closed-source app, you are technically the one processing the data.

It’s a hole in the GDPR that FOSS fixes.

Graphic of some of JP Morgan’s wrongdoing:

I bought some cola flavored candy and cola popsicles recently. Both had a hint of mint or eucaliptus or something fresh and penetrating like that… I wondered if that was part of the cola ingredient or if it was added.

Green chili beer is a thing in New Mexico. I tried some a long time ago, back in the days when decent beer was still non-existent in the states. And it was quite nice. So if you ever pass through NM then it’d be worthwhile to see if any breweries would share their knowledge.

(edit) I also tried red chili beer from the same brewery. The green chili was much better, which is also what I find with chili in food.

Looks like a couple good finds there. The 2nd one put me off at 1st w/an apparent dependency on Google drive, but after clicking forward it’s clear that we can skip Google and do a direct upload.

Thanks for the links!

It last worked in 2024. Throughout 2025 it presents the forms, accepts the document, then gives an instant permission denied when sending. Tried creating a new acct and same problem.

It’s something boycotters of Microsoft use to communicate to MS-hosted agencies to avoid supplying recipients with an email address. It gives us control over what MS is allowed to see.

It also channels money better. The recipient who needs to respond is forced to support the postal service instead of Microsoft.

How will they know the difference between an HTTPS connection to a website and a corkscrew (VPN nested inside of HTTPS)?

There is also a human rights issue here. Some servers discriminate depending on where vistors come from, which is determined by IP address. Getting equal treatment sometimes requires us to appear as the unmarginalised group by using a VPN.

FWIW, I’ll just add that Hexbear’s user count is more than 2 standard deviations above the mean. So some would also regard them as somewhat centralised, which goes against fedi principles. OTOH, at least they are not Cloudflared.

IMO being centralised is sufficient for defederating.

Facebook also likely has active communities. I personally would not promote Facebook or Cloudflare or similar technofeudal fiefdoms for any reason. But neglecting that, it might be worded in a way that’s fully informative to let people choose for themselves. E.g. something like this:

For novices who prioritise visibility and engagement above digital sovereignty and decentralisation, you can maximise engagement in Facebook or at !python@programming.dev.

For free world, we have:

• (english) !python@lemmy.sdf.org
• (spanish) !python_es@mander.xyz

I have a script which searches an aggregation of 3 different datasets, and tags them based on freedom and digital sovereignty factors. So instances with “🗽☯” symbolise freedom and balance (thus not so big as to effectively be centralised). Those tagged with a warning (“⚠”) are not in Cloudflare’s walled garden, but they have allowed themselves to grow more than 2 standard deviations above the average node size and thus approach centralised places. Those with a castle 🏰 are in Cloudflare and should simply be avoided by anyone who opposes tech giant tyranny.

Other symbols are either non-lemmy or nodes not known to the dataset that tracks cloudflare. lemm.ee is Cloudflare, btw.

programming.dev is not a good choice because it sends people to Cloudflare. It’s like sending people to Facebook.

When I search for “privacy“, I get:

🗽☯europe.pub/c/privacy (239/463) “Privacy”
🗽☯sopuli.xyz/c/FightForPrivacy (64/455) “Fight For Privacy”
🗽☯diggita.com/c/sicurezza (789/66) “Sicurezza Informatica, Privacy e lotta al capitalismo della sorveglianza”
🗽☯sopuli.xyz/c/privacy (897/53) “Privacy”
🗽☯europe.pub/c/PrivacyGuides (119/28) “Privacy Guides”
🗽☯feddit.it/c/privacypride (391/27) “Privacy Pride”
🗽☯lemmygrad.ml/c/privacy (240/12) “Privacy”
🗽☯sopuli.xyz/c/privacysecurityosint (412/1) “Privacy, Security, and OSINT Show”
🗽☯rqd2.net/c/websafety (1/1) “online safety and privacy, for paras”
🗽☯lemmygrad.ml/c/digitalprivacy (118/1) “Digital Privacy”
🗽☯lemmy.libertarianfellowship.org/c/sap (5/1) “Security Anonymity Privacy”
🗽☯l.posterdati.it/c/privacy (2/1) “Privacy 🕵”
🗽☯feddit.uk/c/privacysecuk (264/1) “Privacy & Security UK”
🗽☯krabb.org/c/privacy (5/0) “Privacy”
🧺fedia.io/emailprivacy “Email Privacy”
🧺fedia.io/privacy “Privacy”
📰!privacy@lemm.ee
⚠feddit.org/c/datenschutz “Datenschutz - Privacy - Digitale Selbstverteidigung”
⚠lemmy.blahaj.zone/c/thenexusofprivacy “The Nexus of Privacy”
⚠lemmy.dbzer0.com/c/privacy “Privacy”
⚠lemmy.ml/c/vpn “Privacy is a right. Learn about how you can best protect your privacy in this channel”
⚠lemmy.ml/c/privatelife “privatelife - privacy, security, freedom advocacy”
⚠lemmy.ml/c/privacypride “Privacy Pride Europe”
⚠lemmy.ml/c/privacyonandroid “Privacy on Android”
⚠lemmy.ml/c/privacyinternational “Privacy International”
⚠lemmy.ml/c/privacyguides “Privacy Guides”
⚠lemmy.ml/c/privacydo “Do Privacy”
⚠lemmy.ml/c/privacy “Privacy”
⚠lemmy.ml/c/extremeprivacy “Extreme Privacy”
⚠lemmy.ml/c/exodus “Exodus privacy”
⚠lemmy.ml/c/europrivacy “Europe Privacy”
⚠lemmy.ml/c/dataprivacy “GDPR (RGPD) / Apply LegalTech to Defend European Dataprivacy Rights”

↓ Kingdoms under the imperial Cloudflare empire ↓
🏰lemmy.ca🌩|privacycanada “Privacy Canada Edition”
🏰lemmy.ca🌩|privacy “privacy”
🏰lemmy.one🌩|theprivacypodcast “The Privacy, Security, and OSINT Show”
🏰lemmy.one🌩|privacyguides “Privacy Guides”
🏰lemmy.world🌩|thenexusofprivacy “The Nexus of Privacy”
🏰lemmy.world🌩|protonprivacy “Proton ”
🏰lemmy.world🌩|privacypride “Privacy Pride International”
🏰lemmy.world🌩|privacyhub “Privacy Hub”
🏰lemmy.world🌩|privacycoins “Privacy Coins”
🏰lemmy.world🌩|privacy “Privacy”
🏰monero.town🌩|privacy “privacy”
🏰programming.dev🌩|privacy “Privacy”
🏰sh.itjust.works🌩|digitalescapetools “Digital Escape Tools — Privacy & FOSS”
🏰zerobytes.monster🌩|privacy “Privacy in the digital age”

On the good nodes, (x/y) means (subscribers/active recent posts).

It’s also worth noting that there are some communities for specific privacy topics, such as:

🗽☯lemmy.sdf.org/c/digi_fiefdom_required (121/1) “Digital Fiefdom (aka walled-garden) Required 🏰” 🗽☯lemmy.sdf.org/c/email_required (126/1) “Email Required (digital exclusion of people without email) 📧” 🗽☯sopuli.xyz/c/right_to_unplug (125/32) “Right to be Offline / Analog / Unplugged 🔌📪📖📟📝” 🗽☯lemmy.sdf.org/c/smartphone_required (277/65) “Smartphone Required 📱(digital exclusion of people without smartphones)”

privacytools.io always was shit show even before the infighting. They put their own endorsement site on Cloudflare. Despite a collossal pile of dirt emerging on #Signal:

https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io/issues/779

PTIO continued endorsing Signal non-stop, refusing to disclose the issues. That was also before the breakup. Dirt was routinely exposed on PTIO endorsements and it never changed their endorsement nor did they reveal the findings on their website.

Now both factions are hypocrits just as they were when they were united. The original PTIO site is back to being Cloudflared (nothing like tossing people coming to you for privacy advice into the walled garden of one of the most harmful privacy offenders), and Privacy Guides has setup on a CF’d Lemmy node. The hypocrisy has no end with these people.

StreetComplete shows me no map, just quests on a blank canvas. OSMand shows my offline maps just fine, but apparently StreetComplete has no way to reach the offline maps. I suppose that’s down to Android security – each app has it’s own storage space secure from other apps.

In principle, we should be able to put the maps on shared SD card space and both apps should access it. But StreetComplete gives no way in the settings of specifying the map location. And apparently it fails to fetch an extra copy of the maps as well in my case.