Android phones, apps and tablets

Google removed it.

It's replaced by dragging down the top of the screen.

If you regularly use settings not in that top drawer, then they get added automatically.

Here's what that looks like... just drag from the top of the screen: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/3klRfKp7H0ssza1OIuLPjNK8iRyTnfWEUPGny7yGmCcZ7JEt2MDD=w522-h927-no

My home screens: https://goo.gl/photos/VUFxGfSd3v9jSzws8

I basically create groups for stuff, have a calendar on the home screen, the weather for the next 48 hours in a widget on the 2nd screen (with lesser used groups). And finally a sort of systems/settings screen.

Argh! My eyes!

Google? brodoyoueven duckduckgo

I have 7 browsers installed and a VPN that blocks lots of domains (and prevents adverts from appearing inside apps).

I pick a browser and search engine according to whatever I'm searching for. Usually I'm in Firefox Beta, in private browsing mode, but I haven't rooted this phone so I can't do anything about the default Google bar at the top.

I haven't rooted as I'd rather get security updates frequently than root and have to manage that. Things like running my own VPN as an outbound firewall mean I'm OK about this.

Do you use a personal VPN now or still using iVPN?

I lost root when I upgraded to 5 and then 6 and the Google Search bar stayed removed. You sure you can't kill it without having root?

Ah, I see you answered my question about your VPN. Wanna sell it as a service? :)

Oh, and I use IFTTT to change my background daily to whatever is the Nasa photo of the day. Today's looks like Mordor, but most of the time they make great backgrounds.

Full on crazy is how I use Google Calendar nowadays.

• All calls get logged in Calendar
  
• All non-Signal SMS gets logged in Calendar
  
• All meetings and appointments
  
• All dining out, cinemas, gigs
  
• All Tweets go to a different Calendar (via IFTTT)
  
• All Instagrams go to a different Calendar (via IFTTT)
  
• All major purchases go to Calendar
  
• All PayPal expenditure goes to Calendar
  
  

I now have about 30 calendars, that nearly completely automatically record the stuff I do. It's not quite fully automated, but it's pretty close. And all of it is searchable, browsable.

Ah, I see you answered my question about your VPN. Wanna sell it as a service? :)

I had that discussion yesterday lunchtime... whether that was a business.

All I've done is used streisand to set up a box: https://github.com/jlund/streisand

Then I changed the root password, logged on and modified the hosts.

I figure that ISPs are obliged to log everything, but hosting companies are not... and this means I avoid being logged at the same time as stripping adverts, speeding things up (a single permanently open connection everything goes over), and stops tracking by apps.

Hell, it even nuked all of the ads inside the Guardian app :)

"All calls get logged in Calendar
All non-Signal SMS gets logged in Calendar"

Why? Isn't that what call/text history is for?

"All Tweets go to a different Calendar (via IFTTT)"

Yes, quite mad.

Why? I like my one calendar to contain bare minimum shit of where I need to be and when. I don't need 30 calendars and certainly don't need to log tweets to them.
Are you being audited or something? You under some kind of life governance program?

I would like to have the time and motivation (and hardware) to do this but it seems unlikely. What box are you running it on? Physical at home or virtual or in your office or what?

I wonder if I could use an AWS instance to do the same thing - I have money with them already so the cost wouldn't be an issue, nor would having a machine running day and night at home be an issue.

So, about this service you are offering...

It's basically anything that has gone on the internet and could be considered to be public, or known somehow (metadata).

I figure, why shouldn't I benefit from such data, why shouldn't it all be in one place where I can search for stuff, and keep track of stuff?

That was the motive. Hence truly private stuff is not in it (Signal, things that happen at home and in private spaces), but anything that could be externally observed I track using lots of Calendars, and actually I've found a hell of a lot of value in doing so.

Streisand will use whatever you want. You put streisand on your home machine, and then give it an API key for AWS, Linode, Digital Ocean or whatever... and it creates the machine in the cloud for you.

Then change the root password, log in and change the hosts.

I use Linode, but that's because I use Linode heavily for things already (including Microcosm).

It's cool, I can even track my bandwidth usage (33.5 GB last month on my mobile - which is Wi-Fi + 4g).

"I've found a hell of a lot of value in doing so"

Examples? Twitter search is shit so I can see being able to find stuff in Cal quicker would be nice but I'm struggling to really see how it could benefit someone. But then I am a small minded cretin..

I'm not offering it yet.

But the cheapest Linode can easily support about 20 VPN users concurrently streaming music/video and browsing the web.

I figure that sharing the costs would make it trivial, so there is the potential for a business to exist there.

Emails asking me to do something, finding the conversation from Twitter from a few months prior and correlating that to purchases I'd made, and then being able to jump directly to the purchase and being able to chase it.

It wasn't an Amazon purchase, and I'd forgotten who I'd ordered it from, but the whole breadcrumb trail across all media was there for me.

Sounds like stuff I can already do with Gmail, Tasks and one Calendar. I'll leave you to your method. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoqDYcCDOTg

I don't think Google removed it, unless you mean in the past week or two. I still have it on my Nexus running Marshmallow but it's not on my Moto running Lollipop. It's on Hippy's screengrab.

I have the pull-down menu (customised using GravityBox) but I don't find it comfortable to use. Also, that power control widget seems to be the only one to let you choose between High Accuracy and Battery Saving on location. I guess maybe I can set up some shortcuts for Wifi and Location.

My homepages are similar, but sparser, I also have the NASA picture (although done via Tasker).

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It's got code to make AWS API calls in it already? That is pretty slick.

Shit, thanks for ruining the rest of my Dec nights...

"Streisand natively supports the creation of new servers at Amazon EC2, DigitalOcean, Linode, and Rackspace—with more providers coming soon! It also runs on any Ubuntu 14.04 server regardless of provider, and hundreds of instances can be configured simultaneously using this method."

Cool

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.painless.pc&hl=en

After Motorola and Google removed it... I shifted to that. It worked great.

But now I use the tray plus some Settings widgets.

Cheers, I'll have a look at that.

"Note: Many toggle (GPRS, NFC, AirplaneMode...) are not working on Lollipop even with root. This is a known issue. I am still looking for a fix."