“Cyberleek has a project,” the message begins. “Not Rockstar related. Gaming related. It needs expensive hardware. Months to set up. Years to run. Full-time. If you cannot trust the figure, trust the skills. You do not know Cyberleek. Cyberleek could be anyone. Even a liar. That is fair. No blame for doubt. Doubt is the correct default for an unknown. What is collected goes to the project. However much arrives, Cyberleek does the possible with it. That is the only promise.”

If they fancy a new gaming PC why don’t they just say so?

Look who’s equipped with paradox-absorbing crumple zones

They’d need permission and even then most attacks would need to be impractical. It’s something to keep in mind but I wouldn’t lose sleep over it.

(app info, mobile data usage, and then set allow network access to off)

If that includes wifi then you’re probably fine. There’s a bunch of other protocols an app might leak data over, such as Bluetooth, NFC, Calls/SMS, USB, etc., but they’re all quite niche compared to a regular internet connection.

Just one user’s quirk I guess. It’s a nice example of how we focus our anger at the wrong things.

I mean the stuff is probably archived somewhere online and possibly already ready to just download or run but that’s no fun and I am also curious.

If you like a challenge you could try to write your own crack. At some point in the installer’s code there must be a condition that goes “If entered serial is correct, jump to installation, otherwise jump to error message.”. On x86 machines a “jump if” is represented by the byte 0x74, whereas “jump if not” is 0x75. In the most simple scenario all you need to do is find the exact byte representing that jump and replace it with its opposite. The installer will then let you proceed if you enter any invalid serial.

At minimum you’d need a disassembler (ideally one that lets you run the installer in some kind of debug mode), and a hex editor. Be warned that my knowledge was very limited back then and has likely deteriorated even more since. Also it can quickly get much more complicated if the installer comes with any form of tamper protection or obfuscation.

If your ISP is blocking them then my guess would be that the local VPN’s ISP has started blocking them as well.

“Would you like to wake from its slumber the ancient daemon once known by the name of DirectX 9? (recommended)”

Whoops, I thought they just meant a big plasma screen lmao

OSMC: https://osmc.tv/

“I have nothing to hide, not even the private conversation happening next to me”

As others have pointed out, Prism Launcher is the way. Keep in mind that Microsoft will still harvest all the metadata they can from your account if you’re using a genuine license.

Careful though. Google may lock you out of your account at any time, not allowing you to login until you add a phone number.

Maybe the teacher’s just using the software wrong? The “restriction” might as well be a user error. That’s worth considering before giving up and making a Google account, don’t you think?

Ask your teacher to check with the IT department why there’s such a restriction in the first place. Maybe they just falsely assume that Gmail == email? If they actually can’t use any other provider, both you and your teacher should confront the IT department or whoever made that decision.

So forcing social media companies to let their users decide which content ends up on their feeds is censorship. Got it.

There’s plenty of older models to pick from https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices and throw LineageOS at.

It sure could make a difference. Another option would be to get an app that lets you choose which apps are allowed internet access, such as NetGuard: https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard

Why do you say Tails isn’t for you? If it’s because it’s inconvenient to use, I doubt you’re going to like Qubes.

It’s a subscription model, you don’t even own them.