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gramie , in Any good FOSS alternatives to DuoLingo?

Language Transfer is much, much better than Duolingo for learning a language.

I am learning Spanish using language transfer after having learned four other languages in more traditional ways. Obviously, immersion is the best way to learn. But if you have to learn any other way, this is the one. Far, far better than Duolingo.

It's made up of MP3s, usually about 10 minutes each. You just listen to them and respond to the instructor.

You can use SoundCloud, or YouTube, or the simple but practical smartphone app. The whole thing is run by one guy, and there is no charge but he asks for donations. I have been paying $10 per month on Patreon for several years now, and consider it well worth it.

You can learn French, Spanish, Italian, German, Greek, Turkish, and Swahili.

madis ,

The problem with Language Transfer is its very limited language selection and its format.

Duolingo allows reading, writing, listening and speech (last two can be disabled if unsuitable in your context), and it does not impose daily limits. I've yet to find an alternative app that does all 5 of those things.

gramie ,

Yes, Language Transfer doesn't have as many languages as Duolingo. Hardly surprising, since the entire system and all the language lessons were created by one man!

For me, the most important thing is to learn to think in the other language. Everything else follows from that.

Language Transfer makes a conscious effort not to get you to memorize things, but to internalize them and understand the system. That works perfectly with my own way of learning.

delirious_owl ,
@delirious_owl@discuss.online avatar

Is it on f-droid?

gramie ,

It doesn't look like it. It might be worth suggesting it to the man behind Language Transfer, he probably just doesn't know about f-droid.

Legend ,

Can someone do that who isn't me ?

Deckweiss , (edited ) in Does self-hosted VPN make sense?

To make it absolutely clear:

Your VPS has an ip. All your traffil will go through it if you set it up as a VPN. So your behaviour patterns will be tied to that one IP. You will be the only one on that VPN.

A commercial VPN has many users at the same time on a given Server. So the traffic and behaviour that comes from that servers IP will produce garbage data for analysis.

You could selfhost a VPN on your VPS and let others use it for free somehow to obfuscate your behaviour and patterns, but you as the VPS owner will have to deal with legal stuff then.

Max_P , in Does self-hosted VPN make sense?
@Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me avatar

I route through my server or my home router when using public WiFi and stuff. I don't care too much about the privacy aspect, my real identity is attached to my server and domain anyway. I even have rDNS configured, there's no hiding who the IP belongs to.

That said, server providers are much less likely to analyze your traffic because that'd be a big no-no for a lot of companies using those servers. And of course any given request may actually be from any of Lemmy, Mastodon, IRC bots or Matrix, so pings to weird sites can result entirely from someone posting that link somewhere.

And it does have the advantage that if you try to DDoS that IP you'll be very unsuccessful.

helenslunch , in Does self-hosted VPN make sense?
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

Self-hosted VPNs are not used the same way as commercials ones.

They're intended to access your server from outside the house without exposing it to the internet.

Commercial VPNs are intended to hide your identity across the web and to hide your non-HTTPS web traffic from your ISP.

SzethFriendOfNimi ,

Exactly. Even for mobile use besides accessing your home resources you can avoid your cellular provider monitoring/hijacking your traffic.

Of course self hosting means you’re still sending that info from your home network over your ISP.

So it’s a trade off there but depending on your ISP vs your cellular network makes sense.

helenslunch ,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

I mean you could use both in combination. Start9 will even tunnel all your traffic through TOR.

pound_heap OP ,

This is a good point. Maybe setting up a VPN at home would the good option for when I'm on the go

EngineerGaming ,
@EngineerGaming@feddit.nl avatar

Commercial VPNs are intended to hide your identity across the web and to hide your non-HTTPS web traffic from your ISP.

You're forgetting a demographic that is probably bigger than this - people who don't care and just want to go to blocked sites.

otter , in Any good FOSS alternatives to DuoLingo?
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

I'd recommend starting with ANKI and looking up guides for that language. You might find add-ons that make it easier to use. While making your own deck is better, you can also download recommended decks to learn vocab. Otherwise there are open access textbooks and courses if you want more structured learning.

As for apps, I saw this one recently: https://simjanos-dev.github.io/LinguaCafeHome/

Other discussions right from the Duolingo community:

Coasting0942 , in Does self-hosted VPN make sense?

Tor network could always use more obfuscation.

sun_is_ra , in Does self-hosted VPN make sense?

I use self hosted VPN for many years now.

You worry that facebook would associate that static ip with you but the problem is quiet the opposite.

most website will recognize that your IP belong to a hosting company so they often suspect that you are a bot. Wikipedia wont let u edit articls, youtube wont let u comment on videos. Other than that its fine, just expect to pass more captcha.

you could pay little extra and get dynamic IP from your provider. That effectivwly changes your IP. Deleting dynamic IP and recreating it gives u a new one. But I dont do that.

I just hide in the crowed by letting others uss my VPN and rely on service providers often dismissing my IP as bot

Bookmeat , in Does self-hosted VPN make sense?

Your traffic will be analyzed even when encrypted because information leaks in your traffic patterns and ML can suss out what you're browsing or talking to. If you want to avoid this you need to pad your packets and stuff random data into your packet stream to throw off the analysis.

pound_heap OP ,

Mullvad has a feature to add random noise into traffic patterns, actually

SolarPunker , in Encrypted services Apple, Proton and Wire helped Spanish police identify activist | TechCrunch

Do not trust companies.

Lettuceeatlettuce , in Encrypted services Apple, Proton and Wire helped Spanish police identify activist | TechCrunch
@Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml avatar

Obligatory reminder:

Email is not a secure medium! If you need truly secure and/or anonymous communications, DON'T USE EMAIL!

Use a platform/protocol designed from the ground up for those things!

lnxtx , in Telegram apparently censor queer groups
@lnxtx@feddit.nl avatar

Same with groups related to the Gaza genocide.

This channel can't be displayed because it violated local laws.

dmnknf ,

Ror this one I think they advertised somewhere that the groups would still be available if you download the apk from their website, I did this and I can still see the hamas group

Vendetta9076 ,
@Vendetta9076@sh.itjust.works avatar

Hama's has a public telegram channel? That seems like a legal liability

ErwinLottemann ,

iirc they need to comply with google store policies, but when downloading the apk directly that is not relevant.

Kimusan , in Thoughts on Google turning every device into a scanner for Find My Device?

This is what apple has done for years but nobody complainted

ForgotAboutDre ,

You at least know your paying for it with apple. Googles customers won't be the ones using this service.

Kimusan ,

What do you mean? This service from google is for android devices and hence google devices.

ForgotAboutDre ,

Google's customers are advertiser's not android users.

CodingCarpenter ,

As a Google customer. I'm actually ecstatic about this. If it's anywhere near as good as Apples then that's a huge boon for us

KillingTimeItself , in Proton Mail Discloses User Data Leading to Arrest in Spain

i fucking knew it.

TCB13 , (edited ) in Proton Mail Discloses User Data Leading to Arrest in Spain
@TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

And then I am the one exaggerating... I'll say it again, Proton is just another company that managed to find clever ways to profit from a group of people who value things such as "privacy".

They're just a very large marketing effort with little to nothing to show but everyone is convinced they're actually protecting users while they keep pushing proprietary / half open and non standard stuff as solutions for problems already solved with truly open tools, standards and protocols.

tranxuanthang ,

Proton did nothing wrong here; in fact, it is working as intended.

No email content or attachment was provided in this case because they (Proton) have nothing to give. Now, imagine if this user were using Gmail instead of Proton.

The article title is clickbait and is trying to incite outrage from the crowd. Don't fall for it.

TCB13 ,
@TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

now, imagine if this user were using Gmail instead of Proton.

Now imagine if the user was using Gmail + PGP... same end result. Proton delivered no extra value whatsoever.

schwim , in Encrypted services Apple, Proton and Wire helped Spanish police identify activist | TechCrunch
@schwim@lemm.ee avatar

“Proton does not require a recovery address, but in this case the terror suspect added one on their own. We cannot encrypt this data as we need to be able to send an email to that address if the terror suspect wishes to initiate the recovery process,..."

I love that proton kept referring to the user as the "terror suspect" repeatedly so we would know they're really the good guy here.

ryannathans ,

Well it was anti terror laws that were invoked..

lemmyreader OP ,

Exactly. What makes this a bit complicated and maybe interesting from a historical point of view is that this is about Spain. A country which has been very slow with removing some of the "relics" from the fascist Franco era (Franco died in 1975) and at the same time having regions that long for independence like Basque country and Catalunya (and the post topic is related to that, Catalunya aiming for independence). Since the Twin Towers attacks in 2001 the words "terror suspect" and "terrorists" have been used much more often (also by ordinary "normies" people that I knew) and maybe not always rightly so.

schwim ,
@schwim@lemm.ee avatar

Thanks very much for the clarification to the context, I really appreciate it as someone who had no idea.

lemmyreader OP ,

You're welcome.

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