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I never use my phone for Internet access. In fact, I disable most apps that can access Wifi, and I have the data disabled as well. Still make phone calls, texts, etc., but why leave yourself open to tracking? By the way, depending on my mood, I have my desktop computer set to reflect my IP address as “the Philippines”. Sometimes “Iceland” and for awhile, I used “Florida”. I don’t change it often, but I like being anonymous.

OK, I’m a hacker. It’s what I do, and I’ve been at this stuff a long time. Probably not much longer, as I am getting too old to move around much anymore.

I’ve been dealing with personal computers since 1980, when I started programming my own Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1. Started with 4 kilobytes of memory and moved up to 32K. Now my computer is Linux Mint Mate and I have a grand total of 12 Terabytes available through swappable drives.

I use two sources; one my own (remember, I do program) and a VPN.
Setting up a VPN is not hard. Directions can be found on no less than YouTube!

Search for two words: “free” and “VPN”. Here is one site that has some of the programs.

https://www.top10bestvpn.com/?kw=free%20vpn&c=265502486870&t=search&p=&m=e&adpos=1t2&dev=c&devmod=&mobval=0&network=s&campaignid=196833371&adgroupid=15498866411&targetid=kwd-129317699&interest=&physical=1010331&feedid=&ts=free&utm_source=google&a=1031&topic=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8uDq1fzn2wIVCoGyCh1vwQOpEAAYAiAAEgKc4_D_BwE

Be careful: If they say “free trial” that includes only a limited time. You never click on “trial” unless you just want to try before you buy.

Most are not based in any country that is heavily into monitoring. I use one based in Iceland (which is why I use that country on occasion to hide my ISP – right now, though, I have the ISP set to reflect the Philippines). Some others use home bases in places like Panama or other countries not under the cover of places like China, Korea, Russia, Europe or USA. Do a little research and find a good provider.

Good luck.

I built an IMSI, it had 256 BYTES of memory and you used paddles on the front panel to program! Such fun!

Before a series of strokes wiped my ability to program effectively, I (mostly) worked in assembler. Anything C can do, assembler can do… tighter and faster.

Boy, I miss it. Like most of us oldies, programming wasn’t only a job— it was how I would unwind and often did simply for recreation.

My best to you & yours,
BmG

:uD

IzlamDownpressesHumanity,
Sorry I’m so tardy w|this, was going through missed Disqus notifications and I just noticed your response today.

Well, while I think I detect your comment here is tongue-in-cheek, I did do web development in assembler; but please, understand that I am no longer able to do much of anything in the way of software development (neither design nor coding)— and haven’t for almost a decade— since a series of severe strokes robbed me of much functionality.

*aside*:
Which, btw, is why the punctuation and emphasizing (italicizing, bolding, underlining) are so peculiar. I’ve had to teach myself and relearn my native language almost from scratch. from controlling the muscles involved in forming the sounds up to sentences (…spoken and though still working hard at it, written…), grammar and vocabulary.
AND, I’ve been hampered by the modern destruction of the rules of English… the relativistic approach now taught. I don’t know which texts to trust.
End *aside*

BUT: getting back to about the actual programming in assembler:—

I can say the following about the whole experience.
initially, yes it does take awhile.

Two factors mitigated the drudgery:
⒜ I designed and wrote code as not just a vocation, but as also an avocation, stress relief, way of relaxing, mental “thumb-twiddling”, what-have-you.
⒝ every person programming at that language level develops their own libraries that function, effectively, as higher level code. I wouldn’t write a routine to do output formating from scratch. I’d link in a previously debugged one I’d already written.

If I modified that aforementioned output routine, after debugging it solid I’d put it into a library and next time something similar was needed I’d have already done the grunt work.

As you can see, that system “snowballs” a programmer’s efforts. It acts like a force multiplier, meaning that at a certain point I’m just writing linking code and “massaging” things to operate together. At that point it really take only a few dozen lines to accomplish a goal.
(a few hundred, perhaps? It’s all depending on the needed result.)

Sorry this is so long! I guess the (perhaps over–)detailed explanation stems from guilt in missing your response.
;u)

My best to you & yours,
–BmG