Replacing Big Tech

We need to Replace Big Tech. We need to stop using Big Tech. If suitable replacements do not exit, we need to build them. We know we are being exploited yet our devil’s compact is that we are okay because we are connected or because we have free email or because we have free tools But, it is not free and we are paying the cost for our privacy and our information being used. We are paying the price for our information being sold and harvested. We are paying the price even for the information we see when algorithms determine the ‘best results’.

Just random thoughts, ideas, alternatives

The thinking is that we can refine our charter. What we need to do, how we can do it, what needs to be replaced

Let us break down the technology stack into what we know, what we use and what we have so far:

• Cell Phones

• Computers, Notebooks, and other Connected devices

• Network Providers including Internet

• Applications

• Shopping

• Email

• Social Media

  • disinformation and misinformation
  • algorithms that control and determine what we see
  • censorship
  • unbalanced policing of policies
  • collection of personal and private information for sale to data brokers
  • Cory Doctorow: “enshittification”

• Calendars

Only a few companies control our data and most of what we do

• Monopolies and Anti-Trust

Most of the Alternatives are European - Why?

Alternatives

A (hopefully) growing list of alternatives to the US Based, Billionaire controled entities

Web Browsers

- Google Chrome
- Apple Safari
- Microsoft Edge
- Mozilla Firefox
- Firefox LibreWolf
- Opera
- DuckDuckGo
- Vivaldi
- Brave
- Tor
- Mullvad
- Waterfox
- Epic

Search Engines

- Google
- Bing
- Yahoo
- DuckDuckGo
- Ecosia
- Mojeek
- Qwant

Email

Office and Productivity Tools

Social Media

It is not good enough to have alternatives but rather to insure that everyone knows that they exist and are willing to use them. If all of my friends are on Facebook, what is the good of an alternative if my friends are not active on it. Perhaps a cool feature for someone to implement might be social media gateways where you can post to one and they can be seen by all. Yes, right now that is an issue because controlling content and access to data means you are tied to my platform and I make lots of money off of you being here all the time.

• Twitter / X

  • Bluesky
  • Mastodon

• Facebook

Smartphones

Servers, Computers, and Connected Devices

Online Shopping

- Amazon
- Walmart
- Alibaba

Artificial Intelligence / AI

“The Highest Good”… in latin it is Summum Bonum. According to Cicero and the Stoics (yes, it does sound like a 60’s or 70’s rock-and-roll band), the answer is virtue. Everything we face in life, they said, was an opportunity to respond with virtue. Even bad situations. If we act virtuously, everything else important would follow: Happiness, success, meaning, reputation, honor, love. “The man who has virtue,” Cicero said, “is in need of nothing whatever for the purpose of living well.”

According to the stoics, there were four virtues:

1. Wisdom

   “The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own”
   — Epictetus

2. Courage

   “Don’t you know life is like a military campaign? One must serve on watch, another in reconnaissance, another on the front line… So it is for us—each person’s life is a kind of battle, and a long and varied one too. You must keep watch like a soldier and do everything commanded… You have been stationed in a key post, not some lowly place, and not for a short time but for life.”
   — Epictetus

3. Temperance

   “Do what is essential — what the logos of a social being requires, and in the requisite way. Which brings a double satisfaction: to do less, better. Because most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you will have more time, and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment, Is this necessary?”
   — Marcus Aurelius

4. Justice

   “And a commitment to justice in your own acts. Which means: thought and action resulting in the common good. What you were born to do.”
   — Marcus Aurelius

Getting to VFS NYC

Resources & References

NSM Lawyers

Contact Information:
Phone: +351 215 847 264
Email: geral@nsmadvogados.pt
Visit: www.nsmadvogados.pt
Address: Av. Fontes Pereira de Melo, 21, 2º 1050 116 Lisboa

Outbound Migration Consultancy

Contact Information:
click here to request free 30 minute consult
Email: planb@outboundmigration.com
Visit: outboundmigration.com

USA
Phone: +1 424 404 9399
Address: 8383 Wilshire Blvd. Ste 800 Beverly Hills, CA 90211

Canada
Phone: +1 604 200 3560
Address: 230-1290 Howe St Vancouver, BC V6Z0C2

VFS.Global

Contact Information:
Visit: VFS.Global

VFS Global application centers
Houston: 1001 Texas Avenue, Suite 1020, Houston, TX 77002.
Miami: 2655 S. Le Jeune Rd, Penthouse 1A, Coral Gables, FL 33134.
New York: 128 E. 32nd Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10016.
San Francisco: 642 Harrison Street, Suite 200, San Francisco, CA 94107.
Washington D.C.: 1025 Vermont Ave NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20005.

Have questions or want to share your own sysadmin story? Leave a comment below!

(I will set up comments eventually ;)