How to Make an Animated Cursor Using Only CSS (works 2024)

How to Make an Animated Desktop Widget for Linux

Click here to go to the Ashley Tracker.
I made a page that snap shots my webcam and uploads it to my Ashley Tracker page every 5-10 seconds, making a cool and basic live broadcast from my room
Similar to the oldest internet broadcasts on the internet such as the Coffee pot or fish tank broadcasts. This was done using NO GAY JAVASCRIPT (I hate Javascript with a passion). Uses only HTML, CSS, and a bash script to capture and upload the picture every 5 seconds via ffmpeg then rsyncs it to my web server. The Ashley Tracker page has an iframe with another html page, which is an image being refreshed every few seconds with the new image. Written tutorial coming soon.

How to Make a GTK3 theme for Linux

Click here to read about why I highly dislike when people try to convince me to get on social media or to "monetize" my videos. I dislike when people pressure me to make money off of my videos. I write about the monetized vs the personal internet.

My opinions on technology

Technology: The problem that is everywhere, yet nobody knows exists.

Did you ever stop to think why popular services such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Youtube, Google, Snapchat, etc. are all free? Surely with the huge user base they have, it would cost millions, if not, billions of dollars to operate these sites. Why are they free? It's because they actually make their money from gathering and selling user data. The data you give these companies is unfortunately being sold to third party companies. The data selling business is HUGE and it why these companies make their services free. They get a huge pool of data and sell it. What do these third party companies do with this data? Who knows – it's up to them to decide what they want to do. Most users of these services are unaware of this practice and wonder how it is even legal for these companies to do such a thing. They are essentially spying on you and selling your sensitive private data to companies. Well, when you sign up to these services, you are actually agreeing for this to be done to you. Do you remember that long "Terms of Service" or even "Privacy Policy" box you saw pop up when singing up for an account? I would guess that you looked at that box of text, thought it was too long to read, and just signed up for an account anyways. Well, the Terms of Service dictates that by agreeing to their terms, you are allowing them to do as they wish so long as it is written in the Terms of Service. This is why when I sign up for an account anywhere, I always make sure to read the TOS and Privacy Policy. Luckily, I do not use many services these days or if I do, they are privacy respecting.

I have heard many people say that they don't care their data is being collected and sold. I have one request then: Please take all of your photos, videos, text messages, contact list, emails, usernames and passwords, internet history, and send it to me. If you don't care that some third party company can see your sensitive data, why would you care if I saw your data? It's all going to some stranger who can look at your entire life, regardless of if it's me or some government agent or advertiser. When I lay it out like this, I hope you would feel hesitant to take such a drastic action – as you should. Your private data should be yours and yours only. It should not be anybody's business as to what brand of chips you like to buy, and it shouldn't be anybody's business as to what porn videos you like to watch. It is important to recognize that even the most mundane and boring data, such as what chips you like to buy, is important to keep to yourself. Maybe you can talk to a friend about this, but wouldn't it be creepy to know that there is a secret profile with your name, pictures of you, a list of your likes, even down to what chips you like to buy? It is nobody's business. The only time you should release this information is with your direct consent, such as talking to a friend about what chips you enjoy. I understand this may sound absurd to some of you, but it is more absurd to be okay with the fact that Facebook has trackers on millions of websites which can correlate back to you, meaning that Facebook can successfully track which websites you're on. Even if you don't have a Facebook account.

We also have to question that even if you're somehow content with the fact that these companies collect and sell your data, are you content with the fact that there can be data breeches at any moment? Sensitive information you input into these websites/apps can be breeched at any moment, meaning that if the right (or wrong) hands get to this data, it can be out there for literally anyone to see. Facebook is definitely what comes to mind when I think of a data breech, as they have had this happen many times. Depending on what information was collected and what information was breeched, the consequences could be life damaging. You could have secrets revealed that you thought were private, you could have your identity stolen, your banking information could be released, etc.

Remember this: If the service is free, YOU are the product.

This is not to say that anything free is automatically bad. However, it is important to train yourself to be vigilant and cautious about what services you use. Read the TOS and Privacy Policy, they will often times tell you how they handle your data. Always be suspicious of larger companies, as their main interest is always money. Data sells.

The solution to the problem:

What's a good solution to the data selling problem? Luckily, there is a vast amount of people dedicated to creating "open source" software. "Open source" means that you can look at the source code that makes a program or app function. You can tell by looking at the code, what exactly is going on to make the program run, and what it communicates to the internet. This is fantastic, because it helps us see if a program or app is doing something it shouldn't be doing, such as scanning files you don't want it to, sending information you don't want it to over the internet, etc. However, MOST services the average person uses is NOT open source. It is closed source, or "proprietary". This means that the company will not release the code for people to look at, essentially meaning that they are operating behind closed doors, and you cannot tell what they are doing when you run their program/app. You cannot look at the code in which makes the program/app function. Is this app listening to me through my microphone? I don't know. Is it tracking what I'm doing even though the app is running in the background? I don't know. Is it tracking what I'm trying on my keyboard even though the app is running in the background? I don't know. Is it logging my GPS location when I don't want it to? I don't know.

These questions which have no answers are exactly why open source software is vital to use. Anyone can look at the code and determine what it is doing. The more eyes that are on code, the better, as it's much more likely bugs or vulnerabilities will be caught and fixed.

You may sometimes hear open source software be referred to as "free". In terms of open source software, "free" does not necessarily mean monetarily free. It actually means "free" as in freedom. Free software is typically on the side of the users, not on the side of a huge faceless corporation looking to make money. However, the great thing about free software is that it is often times, monetarily free as well. There is a huge and ever-growing list of monetarily free and open source software in which you can start using RIGHT NOW.

Are you afraid to let go of programs you've been attached to for years? Things like Discord, Spotify, or cloud hosting? There are open source and monetarily free services that are very similar to the ones you're used to using. In fact, I function with using open source software for just about everything I need. You can look online for great privacy respecting and open source services similar to the ones you're using here:

I want to mention that if you're afraid of switching over to privacy respecting open source software over the fear that your friends or family don't use it, please consider this. If someone is unwilling to install another app to continue communicating to you, are they really your friend? I often hear people say, "But everyone I talk to is on (Facebook, Instagram, Etc.). That's the only reason I use these services!" Please be the change. If everyone is saying that the only reason they continue to use these services because everyone else does it, it's counter productive. Your friend or family member should be understanding enough to install an open source privacy respecting app/program to continue communicating to you. They should understand that you have privacy concerns over the current app/program you're using and that you wish to change. You don't need to try and convince them that they need to completely change their habits, simply briefly inform them as to why you're changing your line of communication, and ask that if they'd like to continue communicating to you, that they install the open source program/app that you're moving to. If most people are okay with using a few different apps for texting currently (phone texting, Facebook messaging, Instagram messaging, etc)., then it shouldn't be a huge inconvenience for them to install another app/program in which respects privacy for communication.

In terms of other services, such as cloud storage (Google Drive), online document sharing, video playing programs, there is a vast amount of open source and monetarily free programs to choose from. I recommend looking through some of them and giving them a try. First and foremost, I recommend trying to stop using your phone (I don't even use a smart phone anymore), as you can make many privacy changes, but at the end of the day your device has a camera, microphone, and GPS, which is not good for your privacy. I also recommend switching to a good Linux distro. Linux may seem intimidating to install, and to be honest, if you are not a tech savvy computer person, it may be a little confusing. However, it is completely possible to install thanks to the help of installation guides. These guides help you step by step to install Linux, making it much easier for your average person to install. The reason why I recommend Linux is because it's an open source operating system, but it is important to choose a reputable distro, such as Arch or Debian. By using Linux, it gives you access to a huge array of open source software. Many developers prioritize making software for Linux, as it is the most free (as in freedom, and it is monetarily free) operating system.

I really recommend that you try to slowly phase yourself out of using your phone, as they are horrible in terms of respecting your privacy and the apps on them are data collection hogs in which they view YOU as a product. Many apps you have on your phone have a web interface (such as a website) or they have a program you can install on your computer. Challenge yourself to stop using your phone for these apps and instead, start using the websites and programs for these services on just your computer. Once you're used to this, try distancing yourself away from the apps/programs you use least. Maybe you even have a few programs which are counter productive. By this I mean that maybe you have 2 apps which are dedicated to texting other people. On the app you use least out of these 2, ask your friends (if they don't already) to switch over to the app you use more. Then, uninstall the app you used to use. I also recommend that during this time, you try to find an open source, privacy respecting alternative to these services you commonly use. A good example is Discord. Almost everybody is on Discord. However, there is an open source program/app called Element. This functions very similarly, and even looks very similar to Discord. The only thing is, it's much better than Discord. Why? Because it essentially is Discord, minus any data collection or potential spying that may happen since it's closed source. Try installing Element and get your closest friends to use it to communicate with you. As I said earlier, if someone refuses to simply install or use another privacy respecting service to continue talking with you, are they REALLY your friend?

Once you've switched to an open source program that replaces your main line of communication, you will realize how fantastic it is. You'll think, "why doesn't everyone do this?". Once you've installed one open source program/app, it will make it much easier to replace all your other old methods with open source programs.

I understand that some of you may think there is no replacement for certain services, such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. It depends on how you use these services. Are you simply looking to:

2. Are you using these services (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) to share your opinions or thoughts to the world? Once again, there are privacy respecting alternatives to each one of these. I understand that not everybody you know will be on these better services, but it is important that YOU make the change and start using a privacy respecting alternative. If someone has 2 friends on the open source platform, it makes it much easier for the 3rd friend to join, then another friend, then another. You get the idea.

Alternatives services for:

3. Are you using these services (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) to view other people's content? Maybe you don't really engage with people on these services, you simply want to look at their posts? Luckily, you don't even need an account to view these things. For Instagram and Twitter, there are web instances in which you can search someone's username and view their posts. You aren't even touching Instagram.com or Twitter.com, you are viewing content through an alternative website, which serves this content to you. This adds another layer of protection against privacy, IF you do other things correctly (such as using a VPN or using tor). It's very rare, but if I ever want to look at something happening on Twitter, I will use Nitter.com. It shows everything happening on Twitter.com, except you are not going through Twitter. If a post is age restricted, Nitter will be able to show you the post even without you having to sign in.

Web alternatives to view content:

The above section also applies to Youtube. I do not want Alphabet (the company that owns Google, who owns Youtube) to track me. They do not need to know what music I decided to listen to, at what time, there my cursor was on the web page, what time I decided to pause, if I looked at the comments, if I decided to start typing a comment then decided not to, the amount they're able to track is unreal and uncanny. Even though it is mundane data in my eyes, I am not comfortable with everything being logged and saved. This is why I use a privacy respecting instance that serves Youtube's content to me, without me actually visiting Youtube's website. Invidious is a solution to this problem. Note that by using Invidious, it's only a way to view Youtube and Youtube comments, but of course, you won't be able to log into your actual Youtube account or leave comments while using Invidious, because you're not actually on Youtube. Just thought I should mention that in case some of you are retarded. :3

Web alternatives to view content:

It's important to note that Google is still being loaded, as you are viewing content from their servers, even on a privacy respecting instance, so it's best to take other privacy actions to eliminate tracking (such as using a VPN and clean browser, no plug ins to lessen digital fingerprinting).

Search Engines

It's almost a guarentee that most people use Google for their default search engine. People get in the habit of using Google for everything, even if they know that there are better alternatives. For many years, Google has been known to cherry pick and censor search results, which is the exact opposite of what a search engine should be doing. A search engine should give you all results, it should not exclude content. The job of a search engine should not hold an opinion, it should do one job, which is present information. It should be up to the individual to decide if the websites linked are relevant or not.

Unfortuantely, Google does censor search results. They often times largely favor corporate websites and top load them in the search results, and censor any websites that may hit certain keywords, or are possibly flagged if the website is disliked by the people behind Google. Try searching for a news story on Google and you will be presented with mostly websites from CNN, MSNBC, ABC, FOX, etc. These are "approved" news websites, but who approved them? Not me or you, it's Google. You are relying on a company to choose which information is relevant to you. It may be just me, but I would like to determine what is relevant for me and what isn't. Present me with all the information and I will decide for myself.

Along with heavily favoring "approved" corporate websites, they also censor or redirect search terms to specific pages. Often times, if you try searching a taboo topic on Google, such as, "Project Blue Beam", you will instantly get targeted results in which favor "fact checking" websites, whose entire job is to shut down any speculation over taboo topics. A large amount of these fact checking websites are heavily funded by people in power (such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), which is a huge conflict of interest. What I mean by this is, say you search for "Did Bill Gates paralyze 496,000 children in India with his Polio vaccine", you will instantly get top loaded with Google approved "fact checking" website, whose goal is to instantly shut down further research by you. As I said, these fact checking websites are always funded by the the people behind the taboo topic, Bill Gates being one of them. It's a complete conflict of interest. It's essentially like me writing an article "Is Ashley Jones underage anymore?" and my entire article is dodging the question, essentially saying that I am still underage because I was once underage. It's a total manipulation of the data, while rejecting the main question.

Along with redirecting taboo topics to approved, conflict of interest, fact checking websites, Google also makes sure to bring down the "little man". You will NOT be able to easily find, if at all, any personal websites regarding taboo topics. People like you and me who create websites to discuss their ideas, opinions, or research on taboo topics are shut down. Just look at Youtube, who is owned by Google. Channels are shut down left and right if they do not present the approved Google opinion. So why do you think they're not doing the same with their search results? Even Youtube's search results are god awful. You can search for "9/11 truth" and get loaded with only CNN, MSNBC, ABC, FOX, etc. videos, but none actually talking about the taboo side of the topic, which is "was 9/11 an inside job?" That question is instantly shut down and redirected to the approved opinions, all through search results.

Google also impliment something called "SEO". SEO stands for "Search Engine Optomization", which essentially means that a website must cater to certain requirements of Google in order to rank well on Google's search result pages. If a website does not meet certain requirements, they are either very far back on search result pages, or they are completely excluded from Google's search results. I understand that it is probably a good idea to have SOME SEO in order to present the best search results for the user. For example, if you search for "Walmart", you would probably want Walmart.com to be among the first few items listed in the search results. However, Google does not stop here. Their search results are so finely tuned that it has become increasingly hard to find non-corporate websites. Similarly to as I stated previously, it is hard to find the everyday person's website. Personal websites are becoming a thing of the past, and most people's personal websites are not tuned for Google's SEO. SEO highly prioritizes a monitization of the internet; meaning that you are much more likely to abide by SEO if you are looking to make money with your website. An everyday person, such as you, may never have even heard of SEO. This means that you have 0 luck on ranking with Google.

SEO has ruined the internet, and since SEO is heavily pushed by Google, I would go as far to say that in my opinion, Google has ruined the internet. The things required to get a good SEO score is bizarre and prioritizes MACHINE reading over HUMAN reading. Do you ever wonder why when you search for something, an article will mention completely arbituarty information, such as "What is a TV show?" when the article is supposed to be about Game of Thrones. It's because they're doing SEO to rank higher on Google. You might also see keyword stuffing, which used to be outdated, but somehow is back to being relevant with SEO again. For a good SEO score, you must write a certain amount of words, which often means that these articles are poorer quality, writing totally unrelated content, just to meet a word count. In the end, the article is completely written for robot reading, NOT human reading. Us humans see the artcile as very poor quality, almost meeting the criteria of spam. It is very difficult to find a high quality artcile, or a person's opinion online. It has many roadblocks when using Google, as corporate approved websites take cetner stage, personal websites are pushed away due to the lack of SEO, and SEO websites are basically spam websites. Thank you, Google.

With all this knowledge, why woud you still prefer to use Google? Along with the endless search manipulation, they also track and log everything you do. Did you know that even if you begin to type something in the search bar, backspace what you've typed, it has still all been logged. You don't even have to enter in your search for it to be logged. Personally, I think that's creepy. With very poor search results which often times do not give you ALL the data as a search engine should, and the data harvesting, I hope you are open to trying out a new, better alternative search engine.

The answer for a better search engine: Searx instances, Presearch, Qwant, Yandex images.

When it comes to finding better solutions to services and technology, get used to "no one size fits all". These companies have conditoned you into a one size fits all mentality. They get you hooked on using 1 service for 1 thing, such as Google for search. I think it is well established that Google is not optimal for good search results. There are a number of better alternatives, but it depends what you're looking to do.

Searx is a fantastic search engine. Searx is open source, meaning that anyone can use the Searx code and run their own "instance". This is really simplifying things, but imagine if Google gave you the code which makes Google run. You could take that code, put it on your own server, and now you have your own Google instance. Now, of course Google's search engine is not open source, but Searx is. Anyone can run their own Searx instance, and you can even use other people's Searx instances. Take a look and pick an instance.

Searx Instances List:
https://searx.space/

If you think, "I don't want some person to see what I'm searching", you are already doing that with Google, and they save what you're doing. Simply clearing your search results does not clear the data they save from you when you use Google. If you want to be less identifiable when using Searx, pick an instance that uses the vanilla HTML (you'll see a "v" under the HTML section) and does not use analytics. Also, I highly recommend using different Searx instances. I always pick from a random pool of ones I trust as to not have too much resources or data going to 1 instance. This is a great thing to practice when you're using anybody's instance that isn't your own. Keep in mind that Searx pulls search engine resources from everywhere, so you will get some Google search results, among other search results. In each instancr you CAN dsiable getting results from certain engines, such as Google. Pick an instance, go to preferences>engines> and you will see this setting. Using a search engine aggregator isn't a perfect science, but since it makes the effort to scrape websites from different search engines, you are getting much better results than using Google.com.

Read these articles to see what Searx is doing for privacy:
https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/185614/how-searx-private-instances-protects-users-privacy
https://searx.github.io/searx/user/own-instance.html

If you use a public searx instance, someone else takes on the responsibility of forwarding queries to google and other search engines, plus your searches are mixed in with many other searches from others, further muddying the waters. Even better if you've accessed that instance via its onion address over Tor.

If you don't want to use a public searx instance because you're worried that the operator of that instance may be up to no good, you can set up your own instance where you have complete control over the searx code, settings, etc. If running a searx instance locally, i.e., on your home network, you are still sending data (search queries) to the search engines you're aggregating results from (such as google). So you would want to set it up on a VPS (a virtual private server) somewhere remotely -- but of course, the VPS operators could still be logging your activity. So you would have to pay for the VPS untraceably, such as with Monero. You would also have to access the VPS securely via VPN or Tor, both during the phase of configuration AND every single time you used it afterward to do web searches.

Ultimately, just use Tor and connect to a public instance. Way less room to fuck up. Plus, having other people using the same search instance as you muddies the waters to anything being identifiable to you. As I said, there is no one size fits all. You have to find what works best for your personal threat model. In the end, using a public Searx instance is FAR better than using Google's aweful search results and giving them all your data.

Searx Instances List:
https://searx.space/

Presearch.com
https://presearch.com

Presearch has some of the better results, if you're not using Searx then I recommend using Presearch next.

QWant.com
https://qwant.com

Decent search results. I find it's not as good as Presearch, but the image results are easier to navigate with Qwant. I tend to use Presearch for search and Qwant for images.

I used to recommend using Brave's search, but I've noticed it become worse and worse, to the point where I won't use it anymore. The image search results are especially awful now. They actually got rid of image results and redirected to Google or Bing, which was strange for a project claiming to have an "open" internet. Why not redirect image search to the Searx instance list? You could use Brave, but there are better search engines out there.

In the past many people have recommended using DuckDuckGo.com for search, but I do not recommend them. It has been speculated that they altered search results, but now it is confirmed. The CEO of DuckDuckGo tweeted in early 2022 that he was censoring search results due to the Russia and Ukraine "conflict" (wars are just reptilian produced drama to foster negative energy and pain among the human population). Since he's even publically announced censoring search results, I do not wish to continue using such a service, and I hope you'd consider the same. I have no dog in the Russia Ukraine war, but I do not want search engines to have an opinion. It is a search engine.

Brave Search Engine (not really recommended but it's not Google)
https://search.brave.com

Best Search Engine Image Results

I haven't used Google in years, but from what I remember, the image search results were awful. Yandex, who is essentially the Russian Google, has very good image search results. Since this is a big company, I recommend taking privacy measures so your searches are not identifiable to you. Use tor when searching for images on Yandex, you should be all set.

B-BUT THATS A LOT OF WORK!!! I DONT WANNA DO ALL THIS STUFF!!! I'LL JUST KEEP USING GOOGLE FOR EVERYTHING!

People may be very opposed to doing what I've suggested because these things take a few extra clicks, or suggest that you visit a different URL instead of Google for everything. Is the extra 1-7 seconds of convenice is really worth the data collection to you? The majority of silicon valley technology is built upon the convenice. "Just use our app, it's convenice!" Convenience comes at the huge cost of privacy violation. I want control over my data, no matter how mundane my data is. I do not want Google to know that I have a wart on my ass and I was searching at 3am for answers. Google does not need to know that I was looking up pictures of teenage mutant ninja turtles toys from 1998. The additional few seconds it takes me to make sure my search is private is worth it to me.

Google's destruction of a fun internet

I want to also mention that Google's browser, Chrome, is the leader in terms of browser usage. I have played around with making HTML websites for fun on my local network for the past decade. It wasn't until recent years that certain classic very basic features in HTML stopped working. Google has decided they no longer like autoplaying music, so the Chrome browser no longer respected the autplaying music tag in HTML. Fine, but the problem is that all other browsers follow suit as to what Google does. So if Chrome changes one thing, all the other browsers will do the same. Here's a list of very basic features I've encountered no longer function because Google says so:

1. No more autoplaying music
Look, I understand that is annoying and not "good" web design to have autoplaying music. However, this is a personal website and you're on the interet. Annoying things ae possible on the internet. On some pages, I want autplaying music. This is how the internet used to function. If you don't like the risk of autoplaying music, maybe don't browse the internet in a spot like work with your volume up, playing out loud. That's on you. But in true Google nature, they want to decide for you what you can and cannot do.

2. No more .gif favicons
Once again, I understand that .gif favicons are not professional. But, not every single page on the internet is trying to look professional. It's frustrating that all personalized things are being stripped away at the hand of Google. If a website has annoying features you dislike, don't visit that website. A favicon is like 10 pixels, are we really that concered over a .gif favicon? It's overreach.

3. No more animated cursors (I have an overcomplicated workaround. Tutorial here.)
It's extremely rare that you visit a page that has an animated cursor within the past decade, so it seems totally superfluous that they'd even get rid of this. I think there is some janky way to get around this if you use javascript, but I do not want bloat on my website, along with the vulnerabilities that come with using JS. It's stupid to disable the simple easy way to have an end result, meanwhile, you can still do the same thing with JS which is known for vulnerabilities and bloat.

4. Blinking text (and possibly soon marquee) is deprecated
I truly don't understand why people are being paid at Google and have nothing better to do, so to justfiy their job, they think of the most basic HTML tags to deprecate. IT MAKES NO SENSE. Sure, they depricate the blink tag. Meanwhile, you can still make text blink with overcompicated CSS or gay AIDs known as Javascript. So why depricate it? Becuase it's annoying? NOBODY USES IT ANYWAYS. AND WE CAN STILL RECREATE IT. SO JUST KEEP THE FRICKEN TAG. (Also I don't care if the blink tag was originally a joke and never official, it still has plenty of usecases.)

It's just one step closer to having total control over the internet. It shouldn't be normal that a company can completely kill a classic feature from HTML. They have to right to kill classic HTML features from internet browsers when they shit up the ENTIRE internet with their SEO that ruins websites. I wish that other browsers would not follow Google's every move and keep features in that make the internet the internet. The internet isn't supposed to be a TV show. It's a place for people like you and me. It isn't supposed to be perfectly polished.