Nate Bartram

https://mastodon.thenewoil.org/@nateb

🛜 Founder, editor, agent of chaos The New Oil (npub12w6…2axu).
🎥 Digital Content Producer Privacy Guides (npub1dm2…7754)
📣 Board member EFF-Austin (npub1k6c…0r72).
🎙️ Former cohost Surveillance Report (npub1mzr…e06s)

❗All opinions are my own.
❌ Boosts =/= an endorsement of the person or their other posts.

#Privacy and #MentalHealth advocate. Casual #gamer. #Scifi nerd. #TrueCrime fan. Musician. Audio engineer. Qubes user. Praise Jibbers Crabst. #nobot

When elephants wage war, it is the grass that suffers.

The New Oil: https://thenewoil.org/
Privacy Guides: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/about/
Pronouns: He/Him

Public Key

npub176ahkfvjpen2gmger7ml35zjjarnd5q9n5tm9n7dll4qcklmd0mstpv4hv

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

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Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Author Public Key

npub176ahkfvjpen2gmger7ml35zjjarnd5q9n5tm9n7dll4qcklmd0mstpv4hv

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Published at

2026-05-19T12:23:07Z

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Event JSON

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Last Notes

2026-04-21 11:53:06 GMT

A little while back I was offered the chance to speak to WIRED and declined. Having read the piece, I'm glad I did. Seems the author had a narrative and they didn't feel like exploring any competing ones except for brief hand-waving mentions.
I'll be sure to take anything that author says in the future with a pile of salt.

2026-02-17 17:50:10 GMT

"Parents should just parent" as a response to ID verification laws is the privacy version of telling people to stop using plastic straws to fix the microplastics problem. It shifts blame away from the real culprits who are doing the overwhelming majority of the damage by a wide margin and instead vilifies the individuals who - while maybe not perfect - are generally trying their best and already overwhelmed, stretched thin on resources, and out of their league.

2026-02-06 16:05:15 GMT

ICYMI, our Smartphone Privacy/Security course has started releasing to the public. Level one is about settings you can change to easily make your phone more private without needing to do anything crazy. Perfect for beginners. And it's divided by OS (Android & iOS) so you don't have to sit through advice that doesn't apply to you.
Feel free to share with friends and family.
https://youtu.be/8GBbc8b39Zk

2026-02-05 17:56:06 GMT

I've uploaded my latest video explaining the TikTok changes to TikTok 3 times and it has a collective total of 2 views across all three uploads, hours apart.
Def no censorship going on here. The algorithmic timeline is going great.

2026-01-28 23:27:45 GMT

Friendly reminder that @npub1dm2…7754 has a Shorts channel so you can share the stories we talk about on the podcast easier. Content is ramping up :)
https://www.youtube.com/@privacyguidesshorts

2026-01-27 02:35:11 GMT

I have been saying that many of the complaints with AI are "technical problems." Someday we'll create AI that uses less energy, is more accurate, etc.
The fundamental problems we need to focus on fixing - if even possible - are the non-technical problems. Consensual data training, compensating creators, etc. These are are harder issues to tackle that will outlive the "technical problems" and really put inequality into hyperspace if left unresolved.
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-01-22/la-startup-says-its-using-rocket-science-to-cool-data-centers-in-way-that-saves-power-water

2026-01-27 00:06:33 GMT

.@npub1rk6…hv4q already created this without stealing someone else's data, draining an entire lake, or hallucinating answers.
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/01/26/2230202/gemini-in-google-calendar-now-helps-you-find-the-best-meeting-time-for-all-attendees

2026-01-01 16:50:25 GMT

New year, same mission.
@npub1dm2…7754 @npub1tk7…0m5c
https://nbg1.your-objectstorage.com/tno-mastodon/media_attachments/files/115/820/866/937/231/390/original/9c8d5fd679c634d4.jpg

2025-12-20 13:09:45 GMT

Inside me are two wolves.
One is constantly satisfied with how seamlessly @npub1rk6…hv4q does everything I need and works across every OS smoothly, perfectly fitting my workflow.
The other is screaming that their end-to-end encryption plugin is still bug-riddled ass and therefore it has no real, meaningful encryption.

2025-12-03 04:14:13 GMT

My entire adult life I learned to type with em-dashes and now I just realized that everything I write looks AI as fuck because of it 😭

2025-11-29 03:27:13 GMT

ICYMI, @npub1dm2…7754 now has a merch store.
There's some dope designs.
No AI. All humans.
https://shop.privacyguides.org/collections/drinkware

2025-09-22 19:00:23 GMT

Sometimes you meet your heroes and walk away disappointed. Other times, you become a super fan.
So anyways I went to Europe for the first time for real.

2025-08-21 02:43:17 GMT

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lol to each their own. Personally I love the way songs like that breathe. I'm rarely all in on one particular feel in a song from start to finish. I find it boring. I like when songs mix it up. That's why I never got into more extreme metals like speed, death, black, etc. Some of it I can do, but not most. It needs more variation than those have to offer me. Same with other genres. I don't listen to a lot of slow songs or ballads. Mix it up a bit.

2025-08-21 02:36:12 GMT

One thing I really appreciate about rap fans is that all the ones I've met don't give the remotest hot shit about genre. If they like something, they like it, regardless if it's rap or not. "Bro, this slaps. Who is this? Cattle Decapitation? Play this shit every day from now on."
In other news, today my coworker became a fan of The Amity Affliction.

2025-08-14 01:01:25 GMT

Apparently I will be in Seattle in the next two weeks and I haven't built an itinerary. What should I do? I've been once before, and back then I saw the Space Needle, Mount Saint Helens, the MoPOP (back then it was just the rock & roll and scifi museums), the underground city, Pike's Place, and maybe something else I'm forgetting. (cont)

2025-08-13 03:40:35 GMT

After many, many years, I've added a second wish to my list of things I'd like to happen when I die.
I want my tombstone to read
"Here lies Nate.
He hated Samsung. Like, a lot."
I'm not joking.

2025-08-11 00:54:12 GMT

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But you do mean the ability to play audio in any room in your house? Presumably the same source?
I guess "$100/room" might be a tall order in an easy "homepod mini" sort of fashion.

2025-08-10 19:03:36 GMT

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...Define "multi-room audio"? This might be my specialty.

2025-08-03 19:29:46 GMT

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According to the Science Vs podcast, the answer is "nothing." The cited studies that showed that Adderall does nothing unless you have ADHD, which means "normal" people who claim they used to take it to pull all nighters in college either a) have undiagnosed ADHD or b) experienced the placebo effect.

2025-08-02 19:31:54 GMT

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I mean, I could bug you more :P
Honestly the correlation tends to rely more on the documentation and GitHub issues. The better the documentation or GitHub replies, the less I need AI. But if there's little/no documentation or the docs/issues are SUPER technical and I don't understand them, then I need AI to help me parse what's happening and what the resources are saying.
For what it's worth, I don't blindly copy & paste. I try to make sure I know what the commands are doing.

2025-08-01 00:03:45 GMT

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I know it's basically completely dropped the source material at this point, but The Mule interests me.

2025-07-20 16:12:55 GMT

is there a version of that website "let me google that for you" but it's literally any other search engine? I'd even accept DDG.

2025-07-04 01:05:23 GMT

“To use the Net, you had to understand Unix, and the current users had no interest in making it easier. In fact, there was a definite element of not wanting to make it easier, of actually wanting to keep the riffraff out.”
Imagine if the gatekeepers got their way. Now look at the current comments about how we don't want normies on Mastodon or how Windows users deserve to be hacked.
Fuck gatekeepers.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/06/a-history-of-the-internet-part-2-the-high-tech-gold-rush-begins/

2025-07-03 23:26:04 GMT

Every passing day I become increasingly baffled what value Facebook could possibly be bringing to anyone's life at this point that outweighs all the garbage that comes with it.
https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/03/meta-has-found-another-way-to-keep-you-engaged-chatbots-that-message-you-first/

2025-05-15 02:48:27 GMT

Privacy tech has really spoiled me and my expectations for an online experience.

2025-04-26 16:25:05 GMT

I keep hearing decent reviews of the last couple seasons of #BlackMirror, but are they like "emotionally scar you for a week" good, or just like "entertaining and well-made" good? Cause honestly the "I called my mom crying" early episodes of Black Mirror are what I fell in love with, and if it ain't that, I'm not interested.

2025-04-23 02:21:40 GMT

If capitalism works because "whoever makes the best product wins," why do companies repeatedly have to resort to - at best - dishonest tactics to rig the game in their favor? Shouldn't everyone be seeking out these apps on their own because they're so great? Why would Google waste the money to force them on people who just can't wait to use them?
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/04/22/0953209/google-pays-samsung-enormous-sums-for-gemini-ai-app-installs

2025-04-12 15:38:09 GMT

Can we PLEASE bully more companies into being more ashamed of their fuckery?
https://petapixel.com/2025/04/10/adobe-deletes-bluesky-posts-after-furious-backlash/

2025-04-01 18:31:59 GMT

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I choose not to believe in objective facts and reality, so I agree that E2EE must be outlawed. After all, if something is illegal, everyone stops doing it. Nothing to hide, nothing to fear.

2025-03-17 03:51:11 GMT

There appears to be some sort of issue with my PeerTube instance (apertatube.net). I strongly suspect the issue is on my hosting provider's end (1984). I've contacted them and will do my best to have the situation resolved as quickly as possible. Sorry for any inconvenience.

2025-03-06 04:38:09 GMT

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Is it over over? I've heard good things, been meaning to check it out.

2025-03-04 19:34:49 GMT

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Thanks for the reply. I'm a little unclear on your first link. So, is E2EE file something different from the server-side encryption toggle in the admin settings? I also keep seeing the words "can be." Is it not enabled by default, and if so how do I enable it?

2025-03-02 16:55:00 GMT

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Yeah, here it is: https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/admin_manual/configuration_files/encryption_configuration.html
It's not even remotely the same as E2EE. Being that I host on VPS's, I want something that protects my data from the provider where possible.

2025-03-02 16:50:07 GMT

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I'm fairly sure that checkbox was something different before. I remember what you're talking about, "server side encryption." It was essentially useless because the admin could disable it any time. It was basically only effective against malicious infrastructure, which is something but not really E2EE.

2025-03-02 16:42:19 GMT

@npub1rk6…hv4q Hey guys, quick question about your new E2EE for files. You say it's available "in the browser." Will this extend to the official apps as well?
https://nextcloud.com/blog/nextcloud-hub10/#End-to-end_encryption_in_browser

2025-02-16 01:24:28 GMT

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Hold the phone, why the fuck are you subsiding US?! We're so fucking adamant about our "independence" and shit, we refuse to hook up to a larger regional power grid, which is exactly why our grid collapsed in the first place (because we had nowhere to draw power from in the 2021 storm). What the actual hypocritical fuck?
I'm telling everyone I know about this. That's fucking bullshit. We need to reap what we sow.

2025-02-15 23:34:36 GMT

Finally had the time to sit down and tinker and can confirm that one of my studio monitors is fried. On the one hand, I'm incredibly annoyed at the shitty Texas power grid for frying it (yes, I had a surge protector in the chain). On the other hand, there are better brands, it had a good run, I got it on sale, I don't do a lot of music mixing these days, and I wouldn't mind downsizing to a physically smaller set.
RIP, good buddy.

2025-02-01 22:54:29 GMT

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I was just thinking this the other day. I still need to finish Silo (I fell off about halfway through S2) but I've had NO issues keeping up with Severance. Silo is good, but the pacing DRAGS. Meanwhile Severance has kept me in anticipation every step of the way. ❤️

2025-01-20 13:31:16 GMT

Whatever the future brings, TNO will be here and ready to fight.

2025-01-19 17:38:03 GMT

I think I've asked this before but what's the best software to rip DVDs? Preferably on Windows. Willing to pay a one-time fee if it's reasonable.

2025-01-19 04:19:01 GMT

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I'm begging people: please, PLEASE don't go to Bluesky (or worse, back to Instagram. That's just handing Zuck the victory he wants). Stop repeating the cycle. Move to the Fediverse. Pick something that CAN'T be censored.

2025-01-19 04:12:24 GMT

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Now seems like a good time to mention that TNO is on Loops and hopes to be more active. It's not TikTok, but it's better than nothing.
https://loops.video/@thenewoil

2025-01-19 04:06:39 GMT

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Un. Fucking. Real.
This is using a German server on desktop via ProtonVPN.
https://mastodon.thenewoil.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/853/042/628/990/582/original/88bb8a2913c74e22.png

2025-01-19 03:49:36 GMT

The censorship officially begins.

2025-01-07 02:28:03 GMT

Courtesy of the [@sr](https://social.lol/@sr ) patron chat.
https://mastodon.thenewoil.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/784/705/429/559/783/original/3db6d7f86e91dac8.png

2024-12-07 16:59:24 GMT

Can anyone recommend a quality but inexpensive office chair? I'm thinking the $100 off-the-shelf guy at Staples is probably not gonna cut it long-term, but I'm also not looking to drop $1000 on the top-of-the-line. Something in the $200-300 range would be ideal.

2024-10-13 15:13:42 GMT

Do I know any graphic designers who can do shirt designs at a reasonable price?

2024-09-23 03:00:06 GMT

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Okay genuine question since you're obviously a bit of an expert: why should I get a dedicated firewall such as this or pfSense rather than just trust the one on my router?

2024-09-16 23:26:26 GMT

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I've literally had friends do this to me about privacy stuff. "Hey have you heard of GrapheneOS?" "...Nope. I'm not deeply entrenched in the privacy community and been running custom operating systems on my phone for the last two years. What's that?"

2024-09-16 20:47:42 GMT

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Next he'll ask if you've read The Last Question.

2024-09-05 07:12:32 GMT

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Side note: I suddenly have to replace my phone. If anyone wouldn't mind throwing a few bucks my way, it would help a lot. I'll probably just buy another Pixel a but that's still an unexpected, multi-hundred-dollar expense.
https://thenewoil.org/en/support/

2024-09-05 07:11:36 GMT

Tonight my Pixel 6a exploded. Thankfully my wife was awake when it happened next to her in the study so there was no damage, except to the phone which is catastrophically fucked. It is now smoldering safely on the balcony.
This is your reminder to check your phone's battery for damage and replace it if so. I didn't notice anything, but maybe I just wasn't looking.

2024-08-06 01:49:30 GMT

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This idea actually makes a lot of sense to me the more I think about it. Mozilla is a shit company who's pretty much only good at burning through money. Proton has proven themselves to be sustainable, pretty serious about privacy (without being overly hardcore), and listens to user feedback. Plus, for some reason, people keep asking them to make a browser. Taking over FF seems like an all-around win for pretty much everyone. Except the purists, but they're never happy so whatever.

2024-08-06 00:28:56 GMT

Genuine question that just dawned on me: is today's anti-monopoly verdict against Google the nail in the coffin for Firefox? I mean, Mozilla makes 80% of their revenue from Google in exchange for making it the default search engine, but now that arrangement is illegal.

2024-07-21 00:39:53 GMT

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Damn, people are leaking stuff to you now? You're all legit and shit :P

2024-07-10 23:31:07 GMT

Question for the hardware experts: my wife has a mid-range gaming desktop PC ($1300ish a couple years ago). Today we discovered that when she turns it on, it NOTICEABLY heats up the whole apartment. By several degrees. We live in Texas. Short of extreme scenarios like not playing video games all summer or buying a new rig, is there ANY way to reduce or control the heat on that thing so we don't roast the entire damn home?