Tag: Android

The e foundation privacy phone & mobile OS

On By Chris SalmonIn Android, Chris Salmon, Computing, Internet, Linux, Privacy, Security, Social MediaLeave a comment

Recently I wrote that I was going to work on developing my own privacy-oriented, silicon-valley-free version of the Android mobile OS. Well, it turns out that a better guy than me is already way ahead of me on the same project, and he has a team. In fact the beta version of his phone is already out:

/e/ First Beta is Here

“At the end of 2017 Mandrake Linux creator Gael Duval announced an ambition to create a smartphone OS, one that didn’t rely on Apple or Google, with ‘my data is my data’ as his mantra. He saw the loss of respect for user data privacy, and the concentration of data power in the hands of a few giant corporations with its surveillance risks, and could see that something new was needed.

Today the e foundation, created to support the mission, announces the first beta of the /e/ mobile OS, for early testers to trial on a range of mobile phone models. They plan to have a stable version for general release by early 2019.”

Go to the /e/ foundation to read more.

So this obviates the need for me to develop my own Android version all by myself. I still will probably do it, just for fun, to learn, and to keep my computer skills sharp. In fact, I may just do some volunteer work for the e foundation.

New CompSci Projects

On By Chris SalmonIn Android, Chris Salmon, Computing, CST.NET, LinuxLeave a comment

My computer skills have been going to waste for a long time. But I have discovered some new projects that excite me:

  • Anti-Silly-Valley technology
  • My own custom android OS
  • Personal privacy and security

The number one thing I’m after right now is developing my own, pure and silly-valley free operating system for my handheld computers, AKA mobile phones.

I’m excited and motivated by the thought of bringing my own computers entirely under my personal control, as I feel they should have always been.

Consider: You pay for your computers, they are your personal property.  Yet they are, in 2018, actually surveillance and sales devices purposely programmed to act against your interests.  Another way to see it is that you have paid for devices that are programmed to extract money from you and give it to strangers, whom you don’t know or owe!!

Think on that for a while!!  I welcome debate with anyone who wishes to deny this statement!! Contact me here and I’ll publish the whole debate on this site.  Only for the foolish!!

Speaking as a long time computer scientist, network engineer, and internet entrepreneur, I’m sick of what others in these professions have done to users.   In fact sick is a perfect word, for what has been done, and for my revulsion at it.

I would truly enjoy bringing a better computing and internet world to myself and some few people who might care about such things. 

And – here’s the key – I don’t need money.  I’m not after money on this project.  I can fund it all and do it all myself, 100% independent and free to do as I wish.

I’m not totally sure just yet, what I can talk about and what I can publish of these projects.  But here’s a little tease for readers.  I’m currently sitting just off of Lake Tahoe’s south shore, and I just took this screen shot from my new Note 9:

Note 9 thinks it's in Canada, IP Address in Singapore, actual location Lake Tahoe
Note 9 thinks it’s in Canada, IP Address in Singapore, actual location Soth Lake Tahoe, California

To explain, my phone is reporting that it’s currently in British Columbia, north of Vancouver.  My ip address has me located in Singapore.  This is a taste of what I’m after, and what I want to bring everyday users with no special knowledge or skills.

I have some other ideas for handheld computers that have been cooking a while, too.  I don’t want to disclose them yet.