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I've changed my primary email address, my synced online calendar and task list, my preferred search engines, and the OS on my computers. Not because the U/NSA and their pet-Brits along with New Zealand, Australia, and Canada(?) -- I've lost track who all's interested in my on- and offline life besides my own government -- but because through this ongoing scandal, I learned about a lot of alternative services and I'm a curious person.
Until now, I used Google Search, Google Now, Google Calendar and Gmail as well as an email account from my provider (T-Online.de). It worked. Kind of. With annoyances.
Google Calendar doesn't sync tasks. There's a work-around with apps on Android, but getting tasks from the web interface into Thunderbird never worked. It also doesn't sync colors and tags. So to organize my appointments, I had to maintain several calendars.
Recently, GMail started displaying ads, not only on the web interface but among the promotional emails in my inbox. Sorry, but that pissed me off. For me, it's one thing to scan non-encrypted email for tag words, it's something else trying to trick me into reading ads by camouflaging them as email sent to me.
Thanks to the IT scene covering of the scandal, I learned about Posteo.de, an email & calendar service that not only provides properly encrypted storage and a minimalistic ad-free interface, but also a calendar syncing tags, tasks, and contacts flawlessly to Thunderbird and Android, plus, they power their servers with green energy! That's worth 1 € per month in my books.
Google Search is another issue. I played with Google Now for a while (and Google Pedestrian Navigation is one of the most useful function I have on my phone!), but Google Now and Google Search have become increasingly interconnected (G+ is also in that mix, afaik) to create a truly holistic user-experience. Problem is: neither I nor my life are "holistic":
I'm a physicist. I search for scientific papers and equipment at work, I post about current science hypes on G+. I'm also a fanfic writer with a large Tokyo Babylon/X-1999 epic under my belt, requiring a lot of research about carnivorous trees and Japanese crime(fighters).
I am not interested to learn about cherry tree fertilizer and new gardening equipment when I power up my search to look up a new set of UV-compatible lenses, I do not need the specs for the new Spectra Physics pulsed laser system when I fire up a search at home, and I don't give a shit about restaurant and sports recommendations in either case. Google Search is increasingly littered with the local, the mundane, and the advertised, and with Now it became worse. I believe that Now is a nice idea and it might be tremendously useful for the average mainstream person with only one life. Apparently, that's not me.
Thanks to the scandal I learned of a few search services that don't try to integrate my multi-layer life into one layer. DuckDuckGo actually returns faster and more meaningful results to my Google-Fu than Google Search these days. If "they" want to know what I'm looking for, I'm sure "they" can do so there, too, but at least I find what I'm looking for a lot easier and faster now that I search outside the "integration bubble".
The new OS (Linux Mint) on my computers has nothing to do with the spies, that's actually because I loathe the interface of Windows 8 and that it requires new hardware and worse, mostly new versions of my must-have-programs that would make it the most expensive Windows ever even if I get the OS license for free from the University. Expensive and ugly is a no go (yes, I am that shallow). Sorry, but that's a straight-up middle finger for Morcistof on my end.
Until now, I used Google Search, Google Now, Google Calendar and Gmail as well as an email account from my provider (T-Online.de). It worked. Kind of. With annoyances.
Google Calendar doesn't sync tasks. There's a work-around with apps on Android, but getting tasks from the web interface into Thunderbird never worked. It also doesn't sync colors and tags. So to organize my appointments, I had to maintain several calendars.
Recently, GMail started displaying ads, not only on the web interface but among the promotional emails in my inbox. Sorry, but that pissed me off. For me, it's one thing to scan non-encrypted email for tag words, it's something else trying to trick me into reading ads by camouflaging them as email sent to me.
Thanks to the IT scene covering of the scandal, I learned about Posteo.de, an email & calendar service that not only provides properly encrypted storage and a minimalistic ad-free interface, but also a calendar syncing tags, tasks, and contacts flawlessly to Thunderbird and Android, plus, they power their servers with green energy! That's worth 1 € per month in my books.
Google Search is another issue. I played with Google Now for a while (and Google Pedestrian Navigation is one of the most useful function I have on my phone!), but Google Now and Google Search have become increasingly interconnected (G+ is also in that mix, afaik) to create a truly holistic user-experience. Problem is: neither I nor my life are "holistic":
I'm a physicist. I search for scientific papers and equipment at work, I post about current science hypes on G+. I'm also a fanfic writer with a large Tokyo Babylon/X-1999 epic under my belt, requiring a lot of research about carnivorous trees and Japanese crime(fighters).
I am not interested to learn about cherry tree fertilizer and new gardening equipment when I power up my search to look up a new set of UV-compatible lenses, I do not need the specs for the new Spectra Physics pulsed laser system when I fire up a search at home, and I don't give a shit about restaurant and sports recommendations in either case. Google Search is increasingly littered with the local, the mundane, and the advertised, and with Now it became worse. I believe that Now is a nice idea and it might be tremendously useful for the average mainstream person with only one life. Apparently, that's not me.
Thanks to the scandal I learned of a few search services that don't try to integrate my multi-layer life into one layer. DuckDuckGo actually returns faster and more meaningful results to my Google-Fu than Google Search these days. If "they" want to know what I'm looking for, I'm sure "they" can do so there, too, but at least I find what I'm looking for a lot easier and faster now that I search outside the "integration bubble".
The new OS (Linux Mint) on my computers has nothing to do with the spies, that's actually because I loathe the interface of Windows 8 and that it requires new hardware and worse, mostly new versions of my must-have-programs that would make it the most expensive Windows ever even if I get the OS license for free from the University. Expensive and ugly is a no go (yes, I am that shallow). Sorry, but that's a straight-up middle finger for Morcistof on my end.
no subject
Date: 2013-08-27 09:16 (UTC)From:Ich benutze zur Zeit ebenfalls LinuxMint, da bin ich durch dich draufgekommen und die hat mir am besten gefallen.... Und ich werde um Wine wohl vorerst nicht drumherumkommen: an der Uni wird halt immer noch stark auf MS Office gesetzt, und da zerschießen mir LibreOffice und OpenOffice halt immer noch zuviel von der Formatierung.... außerdem habe ich noch keinen brauchbaren Ersatz für PhotoFiltre (Gimp ist mir zu unübersichtlich) und epubee gefunden. Der Rest läuft dann nativ.
no subject
Date: 2013-08-27 09:40 (UTC)From:Es gibt von Wine eine kommerzielle Version mit Support, die die Installation von großen Standardsoftwares with Office wesentlich vereinfacht. Ich habe es nicht in Erwägung gezogen, aber wenn Du eine zeitnahe Lösung brauchst, ist es vielleicht eine Option: CrossOver von Codeweavers (14 Testversion frei).
Das Problem zwischen Libre und MSOffice sind die abweichenden Standardfilter/einstellungen. Man kann Libres Defaults auf MSOffice ändern und festsetzen, aber das ist Arbeit. Ich hab das vor Jahren noch unter Windows gemacht, weil mir MSO für zuhause zu teuer war. Danach hat man die Probleme nicht mehr.
Ich persönlich mag GIMP, aber mein Background in der Richtung ist Corel Draw und Photopaint, daher... :) Es gibt einige deutlich leichtgewichtigere Grafikoptionen für Linux, kommt auf deine Must-Have-Funktionen an. Ich denke, da wird sich Suchen lohnen. Und wenn dein Schwerpunkt eher Fotos sind, solltest Du dir mal DarkTable anschauen. :)
Der Trouble with epubee dürfte weniger das Programm selbst sein, als vielmehr die DRM Anwendungen, die parallel installiert müssen. SWIW bieten weder Adobe noch Amazon hier funktionsfähige Linuxversionen an (siehe Grund für Vortragsläppi mit Win (abseits der Beamer-Kompatibilitätsgarantie. Wenn man mit Standard-Software auf dem Kongress aufläuft, kann man den Veranstalter anknurren, wenn's nicht läuft), daher ist die Verwaltung meiner DRM-verseuchten Literatur(gerätschaften) dort angesiedelt.
Edit: es gibt derzeit noch ein c't Sonderheft: "Linux Troubleshooting" mit einer ganzen Reihe nützlicher Ideen & Anregungen. Und wenn Du mehr über "unter der Haube" wissen willst: http://tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/intro-linux.pdf Machtelt Garrel's guide ist wirklich toll zum Lernen. :)
no subject
Date: 2013-08-27 13:31 (UTC)From:Und so dringend ist das mit MSO nicht (ich konnte mich jahrelang erfolgreich dagegen wehren, aber vor ca. zwei Jahren blieb mir da keine andere Wahl - das Office University-Paket ging aber gerade noch so preislich, zumindest für MS Produkte).
Allerdings scheint Softmaker Office (FreeOffice.com) dem Internet nach eine gelungene und sehr kompatible Alternative zu sein.
Was Photofiltre angeht, vielleicht muss ich mich einfach nur ein bisschen intensiver mit GIMP beschäftigen, aber es wirkt auf den ersten Blick doch sehr abschreckend ;). Und den vollen Funktionsumfang werde ich wohl nie nutzen. Ich benötige zwar keine Profi-Software, daber doch ein bisschen mehr als dir rudimentärsten Funktionen darf es dann doch sein, daher war PhotoFiltre echt perfekt. -_-;
Und um epubee und Konsorten komm ich nicht drumherum, ich tausche meine Bücher mit meiner Mam aus, kaufe hauptsächlich bei A.... und benutze keinen K... ;)
no subject
Date: 2013-08-27 13:40 (UTC)From:GIMP ist ein Profiwerkzeug, das mit Corel Photopaint und Photoshop (auf schneller Hardware) durchaus mithalten kann. Es gibt sogar Einführungskurse und Bücher dazu. Da es ein Projekt ist, auf das die OpenSource Gemeinde zurecht richtig stolz ist, ist es natürlich in (fast) jeder Distribution prominent dabei.
Wenn dir das Teil zu heftig ist, gibt es sicherlich einfachere Lösungen. Schließlich ist nicht jeder Linux-Programmierer Grafik-Enthusiast. :)
AoK ist auch meine Devise. A-App on Phone + K-App on Win. Schließlich habe ich das Fon immer dabei, warum dann zusätzlich Hardware schleppen?