Hey, deGoogle community! I wanted to share my personal experience with quitting YouTube, a journey that has been both challenging and liberating.

Initially, I started my deGoogle journey by cutting back on various Google services, but when it came to YouTube, I found it incredibly hard to let go. I tried using alternatives like NewPipe and FreeTube—both fantastic FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) options that allowed me to access YouTube content without the usual Google baggage. However, despite these alternatives, I still felt trapped in the cycle of daily YouTube usage and the addictive nature of the platform.

To tackle this, I decided to take a more drastic approach. I implemented a DNS block using AdGuard DNS and NextDNS, which helped me create a network-wide blocklist for Google services. In the first two weeks, I found myself turning the DNS off occasionally, creating two profiles in NextDNS to allow Google services when I felt the urge creeping back in. It was a struggle, but I knew I needed to break free.

Gradually, I began replacing my YouTube watch time with journaling and diving into topics that truly interested me, particularly various philosophies. After about four weeks, I was amazed to find that I no longer felt the urge to watch YouTube at all! However, I still have my doubts about returning to the platform, fearing it might reignite my addiction and lead me back into a FOMO (fear of missing out) mindset. To safeguard against this, I’ve kept my no-Google filters active in NextDNS.

I also discovered alternatives like PeerTube, thanks to creators like The Linux Experiment and TechLore, who actively post content there. Platforms like Loop, Pixelfed, Mastodon, and Lemmy have also become integral parts of my online life, providing me with a sense of community and connection without the overwhelming distractions of YouTube.

By de-Googling and stepping away from YouTube, I’ve reclaimed so much of my life. While many tout YouTube as a great social platform for mental health, I’ve found the opposite to be true for me. Without the constant distractions and the pressure to consume content that often felt useless, I’ve experienced a newfound clarity and peace of mind.

Now, I have more time to help my mom, focus on my own projects, and enjoy moments of solitude that have significantly reduced my stress levels.

YouTube can be a helpful platform for many, but for me, it was a different story. I initially thought it would lead me to greater privacy and understanding of FOSS services, but instead, I found myself entangled in a web of privacy violations and creepy policies. The community here has been instrumental in guiding me toward FOSS alternatives that respect my privacy.

I’m curious—does anyone else have experiences with quitting YouTube or trying to? I’d love to hear your stories and insights!

“I recall Midwestern summer nights, standing on my grandparents’ hushed lawn,” Ray Bradbury told me in 2010, “and looking up at the sky at the confetti field of stars. There were millions of suns out there, and millions of planets rotating around those suns. And I knew there was life out there, in the great vastness. We are just too far apart, separated by too great a distance to reach one another.”

For the young Bradbury, who would grow up to make that great vastness feel, to many, as almost as tangible as home, there was one celestial body more captivating than any other: Mars.

Mars: The fourth planet from our sun, some 140 million miles from us on average. The only planet in our solar system, other than our own, deemed by scientists and stargazers over the centuries to be—possibly, at one time—hospitable to life.

The planet has been part of our collective imagination for centuries, from the tales of ancient mythology, to H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, to David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders of Mars. Ray Bradbury may have been yet another in a long line of artists dreaming about Mars, but he was the first science fiction writer to elevate the planetary tale beyond the marginalized gutter of “genre fiction,” with his 1950 story cycle The Martian Chronicles.

While Bradbury’s 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451 is often cited as his crowning achievement, it was The Martian Chronicles—arguably a superior work—that put his name on the literary map. The Martian Chronicles was published by Doubleday 75 years ago, on May 4th, 1950. Until that point, science fiction had been mostly dismissed by the firmament as “kids’ stuff,” littered as it was with pulpy tropes such as ray guns, little green men, and scantily clad damsels in distress. But The Martian Chronicles subverted all that, addressing a range of vital, vexing, timeless societal themes in the midst of McCarthy era America: nuclear war, genocide, environmental destruction, the rise of technology, corporatization, censorship, and racism.

Lamentably, these themes still tower over us in the Trumpian zeitgeist all these years later, but their continuing relevance only underscores the point: The Martian Chronicles is a serious book about serious human themes. It is science fiction as a reflection of modernity. The writing is exquisite, showcasing Bradbury at the dizzying height of his poetic prowess, lyrical, rich in metaphor, pastoral, with stunning passages of seemingly effortless prose, eschewing the occasionally purple passages of certain other works, like Something Wicked This Way Comes, and the more dialogue driven polemics of Fahrenheit 451. It hits the sweet spot between poetic exposition and complete narrative originality. With its publication, Ray Bradbury, not quite 30 years old, had pulled off a tour de force magique—he had created literary science fiction, and the intelligentsia quickly took notice.

Pixiv source (has higher res, losslessly compressed image)

Archaeologists in Peru announced they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, in an area which for decades was used as a garbage dump. The new discovery revealed the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas, researchers said.

"What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman," archaeologist David Palomino told AFP.

The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for over 30 years until becoming an archaeological site in the 1990s.

Originally Posted By u/kenistod At 2025-04-28 08:02:17 PM | Source

1:20 AM EST

210/266 polls reporting

| Name | Party | Votes | % | |

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| | Bruce Fanjoy | Liberal | 27,220 | 50.4 | | Pierre Poilievre | Conservative | 24,927 | 46.1|

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What are your tips for faster boots? My system seems to hang a bit at POST until it boots into Mint. Right after post I'll get a blinking cursor for about a full minute until it boots in. All ssd, so I know it's something I must have done wrong. It's also a 14 year old processor (amd fx be 8 core, rx580), but win### booted faster on it.

I posted a few days ago a screenshot of the long shader ISA code produced by the RGA compiler for a single atan2() instruction. The post got quite a large engagement and it felt like a lot of peopl…

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has sold over a million copies, publisher Kepler Interactive has announced.

We already knew the debut RPG from developer Sandfall Interactive got off to a flying start given it hit a sales milestone of 500,000 copies sold within 24 hours, and now it's doubled that.

"And here we are. Three days after launch. One million copies sold. Thank you for believing in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33," the studio said on social media over the weekend.

That's not the only milestone it hit, either. According to SteamDB, over the weekend Clair Obscur hit a concurrent peak of 121,422 players on Steam. That's significantly ahead of the concurrent peak of any other game from notable RPG developer Atlus, including fellow RPG darling Metaphor: ReFantazio, which released in October 2024 and boasts a concurrent peak of 85,961 players.

Of course, concurrent records are not indicative of the entire player base — Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 also released on PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X and S, and was a day-one launch on the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription — so the actual number of players who jumped in over the weekend is likely much highly than that, suggesting Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is very popular right now.

In IGN's 9/10 review of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, we described it as a "modern RPG classic." Developed by the newly formed studio Sandfall Interactive, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a turn-based RPG that takes heavy inspiration from the genre classics, and follows a crew of Expeditioners in a post-apocalyptic world where each year, a giant being called The Paintress etches a new number and erases anyone older than it. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sees you join the crew that travels to the ends of the continent to destroy the Paintress.

If you started over the weekend, or are maybe thinking of jumping in this week, be sure to check out our tips for the important things to know before going into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

I'm usually a fan of turn based games (unless it's tactical grid based) but I've gotta say I'm having a great time with this game!

its very funny right now

The broadcaster gets the Who Do You Think You Are? treatment. Plus: Joe Lycett’s big Brummie adventure continues. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, BBC OneBroadcaster Mishal Husain has written a book about her grandparents’ experience of the end of the British empire in India and the formation of Pakistan – and now she takes an utterly absorbing journey through her family history. She starts in India, where an ancestor was personal physician to a maharaja. Hollie Richardson

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