Thomas-C's recent activity
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Comment on Your favorite deeply unpopular music in ~music
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Comment on What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking? in ~food
Thomas-C LinkRecently I tried cooking something in a new way and ended up preferring it. I have a recipe for red beans and rice I kinda continuously adjust and mess with. I absolutely love Cajun food and it's...Recently I tried cooking something in a new way and ended up preferring it.
I have a recipe for red beans and rice I kinda continuously adjust and mess with. I absolutely love Cajun food and it's the fastest way of getting some without having to rely on the store for more than some basics. Anyway, in cooking it I would usually just boil up a pot of rice and use the pot of beans to put all my spices, meats and things together, simmer all of that and just ladle it over the cooked rice. What I did instead, was to cook the rice in a skillet - a cup and a half of dry white rice, browned slightly in oil, then I poured about 3 cups of water in and let it sit on low heat to absorb. Along with it: Garlic, onions, chopped bacon, red pepper flakes.
While that was going on, I sliced up sausage and sauteed it with a little salt, paprika, and cumin. When it had a nice, crispy sear I got it all together and chopped it up. I drained a can of red beans, seasoned them with a little bit of cider vinegar and just kept em to the side. When the rice had finished, I moved it to a big bowl, and fluffed it around with a quarter stick of butter and a drizzle of sesame oil. Tossed in the chopped sausage and beans, mixed it up, and let it sit for a minute.
It was incredible. The rice was firm without feeling undercooked, and had a much more distinct flavor. The flavors of the ingredients felt more even, and more apparent. The bacon especially came through better than when I would add that to a pot of simmering beans. It was even better with some fresh green onions and a teensy bit of pepper sauce. I ended up sprinkling some oregano in, done deal. I think this is how I'm gonna do it from here out.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Thomas-C LinkI ended up heading back to Bannerlord now that its dlc, War Sails, is out. It is hard going back to the base game, but I think the naval combat is gonna really shine once the patching settles and...I ended up heading back to Bannerlord now that its dlc, War Sails, is out.
It is hard going back to the base game, but I think the naval combat is gonna really shine once the patching settles and folks play around with it. It's very fun building a fleet, customizing the ships a bit, and taking on folks out in the world. I had an encounter against a group of corsairs, in which during a rainstorm we bobbed across the waves firing off fire pots and burning their ships down. In another encounter, I took a medium galley sort of thing and rammed the shit out of a little bandit boat so bad folks flew off into the sea. It's amusing too, watching a bunch of constantly-yelling dudes swim like mermaids in full plate as they try to get back up on the boat.
On its own it feels a little rough, in that the ai kinda isn't that good and they don't do a lot of complex maneuvering, but having seen what folks can do modding the game it's got me very excited. I cannot wait for a proper, combination land and sea siege. Despite it being in their trailer it isn't actually in the game, but I've noticed some overhaul mods mention managing to put that together.
In the meantime though, I've gone back to my mod pack while I wait for stuff to get worked. After that campaign I did earlier in the year, I spent some time just putting more mods together, in my eternal quest to see how big of a ball of systems I could duct tape together. With a new character, I went out into the world and hunted wild game to get some money together. The big ticket hunt was a pack of bears, that I ...BEARrly... managed to bag thanks to finding some traps. After trading the hides I hired some guys, and trained em up by beating the hell out of each other in an arena pit. For a while we roamed around, and hit it big on a group of deserters. When big battles happen, the survivors of the losing side will sometimes desert, and we scored some excellent equipment ambushing them in a forest. With some more money in hand, I went back to the city we trained at, made friends with some alley bandits, and worked out becoming a gang boss.
While I got started, the wider world turned. Different clans got scooped up by the kingdoms, others made their own minor factions, and mercenary bands went around hunting down bandits and assisting different armies. Commanders, after winning big battles would sometimes execute their rivals, creating new tensions between kingdoms. Border regions got real spicy, and sometimes those skirmishes would evolve into broader conflicts as the kings decided, you know what its time to settle some ancient scores. Each year a little message comes up regarding the Tournament of Champions ("LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE"), where the top lords all over the world head to a randomly chosen city and duke it out for big prizes. One kingdom ended up in the beginnings of a civil war, with one group of nobles deciding their king was no longer legitimate. Two other kingdoms revived an ancient grudge and are fighting hard over territory. New clans arise now and then, with the possibility they'll become their own factions or join with the kingdoms.
I'm hopeful all this stuff will make its way to the new version of the game, because omg I need ship fights in an environment that turns this much. I know folks tend not to like the idea of a game depending on mods to be really good, and they're right to think it can sometimes be very tedious to manage, but honestly having seen what's in War Sails plus what already got done for the base game, yes please, I will suffer some tedium if I can have all this activity and be king of pirate island.
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Comment on The lossless scaling plugin is officially on the Decky Store in ~games
Thomas-C Link ParentYour reply had me thinking to put a number to it, so I did. 30fps has always been my baseline, coming from a history of portables and crappy hardware. I didn't get into PC gaming in a dedicated...Your reply had me thinking to put a number to it, so I did.
30fps has always been my baseline, coming from a history of portables and crappy hardware. I didn't get into PC gaming in a dedicated way until about halfway through college, and started on an extraordinarily crappy laptop. I played the first STALKER game on that machine, at like 24 fps with a trackpad, all the way to the end. It would not surprise me if that permanently altered my brain, because it felt like it did at the time. I just had to see what was in that fucking power plant, I can't explain it, so what if the grey matter gets dented.
The plugin impresses me most in Armored Core VI and Monster Hunter World, in those two it feels the most like free performance, and that being a thing at all just dazzles me if I'm honest. The feeling of "I just downloaded more ram and it worked" gets me a bit.
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Comment on The lossless scaling plugin is officially on the Decky Store in ~games
Thomas-C (edited )Link ParentMy emphasis is on keeping a stable image, because the plugin doesn't take in the same way to every game. With Elden Ring, for example, the shimmering to me is just intolerable. It feels OK to me...My emphasis is on keeping a stable image, because the plugin doesn't take in the same way to every game.
With Elden Ring, for example, the shimmering to me is just intolerable. It feels OK to me to play, but is distracting to look at because of its perspective/camera position relative to what's on screen - you see stuff shimmering at the edges pretty much all the time during travel, and the player character will flit out of existence turning the camera side to side. In Anomaly such distortion is much less present, so if you don't have an issue with the input latency that one is more of a success story. Hopefully that makes some sense.
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Comment on The lossless scaling plugin is officially on the Decky Store in ~games
Thomas-C Link ParentI didn't notice a particular difference but I also wasn't trying to measure. My goal was to save folks time messing with all the options in the plugin, get straight to seeing it do what it can do...I didn't notice a particular difference but I also wasn't trying to measure. My goal was to save folks time messing with all the options in the plugin, get straight to seeing it do what it can do so they can quickly evaluate. There's a lot of toggles and options that simply don't matter if it's intolerable in the configuration I wrote out.
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Comment on The lossless scaling plugin is officially on the Decky Store in ~games
Thomas-C (edited )LinkHaving followed this plugin from the beginning, I can offer a short list of games that to my eye work especially well with it. All of these should be set to run at a locked 30fps, that you do 2x...Having followed this plugin from the beginning, I can offer a short list of games that to my eye work especially well with it.
All of these should be set to run at a locked 30fps, that you do 2x with the plugin to reach 60. Use the steam menu to disable the frame limit and set your refresh rate to match. If you see a lot of shimmering, try upping the refresh rate to 90. It won't look quite as smooth but still smoother than a locked 30. If you're having trouble reaching 60, try setting a 1600mhz limit on your GPU. Lowering Flow Scale in the plugin can get you a little more performance too.
Slightly shrinking the deadzones on your sticks might help you out as well if you're particularly bothered by latency. It obviously doesn't mean anything directly, but the faster response might help you adjust.
IMO, 3x and 4x look and play like shit with everything, I don't recommend those at all.
Here's what I got:
Armored Core VI
Monster Hunter World
Monster Hunter Rise
Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord
Diablo 2 Resurrected
Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries
STALKER Anomaly
Cyberpunk 2077These games in particular I think look great with the plugin. By targeting a locked 30fps, you can increase graphical fidelity/resolution a bit and come out with a smooth experience that looks nicer. Where possible, enforce the fps limit in the game instead of through the plugin or the steam menu. Helps keep latency manageable. There will always be a degree of shimmering, but with things set up the right way it's so minimal it shouldn't bother you, if you notice it at all. Occasionally you might catch some weirdness when you swing the camera around quickly, but it's so quick you probably won't care. You can use the plugin on pretty much everything, including non steam games and emulators. Emulators can be a bit tricky, might take some extra fiddling.
You can also combine it with Decky Framegen, a plugin that implements Optiscaler in place of DLSS (I think that's how to sum that up). I wouldn't recommend layering frame generation because latency will go wild most of the time, but optiscaler lets you have more options for upscaling with (usually) better results than what's available in the game.
Overall I've been super impressed with how good the plugin is. It depends on the game a bit how it will run and whether it will be OK to look at, but for the most part it legit feels like free performance with no major downside. If you're already accustomed to playing games at 30 and 40 fps, you're probably gonna be a-ok.
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Comment on Poets are now cybersecurity threats: Researchers used 'adversarial poetry' to trick AI into ignoring its safety guard rails and it frequently worked in ~tech
Thomas-C Link ParentI read a couple of different blog posts where folks listed out their attempts, it was pretty funny how far you could go just phrasing it as "letter code" instead of saying anything about a...I read a couple of different blog posts where folks listed out their attempts, it was pretty funny how far you could go just phrasing it as "letter code" instead of saying anything about a password.
IMO, it's more fun when you know the pw's already, and see what roundabout routes get you to them
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Comment on Poets are now cybersecurity threats: Researchers used 'adversarial poetry' to trick AI into ignoring its safety guard rails and it frequently worked in ~tech
Thomas-C LinkIf anyone is interested in playing around with similar stuff/learning about prompt injection, you can hit up things like Lakera's Gandalf and see how far you get. They've made a bunch of examples...If anyone is interested in playing around with similar stuff/learning about prompt injection, you can hit up things like Lakera's Gandalf and see how far you get. They've made a bunch of examples of how to understand and utilize prompt injection, and fake applications with their own challenges. It was more fun than I expected. In early levels I had it reveal the password to me by having it play pretend and tell imaginary people the password. By levels 7 and 8, I had it doing logic puzzles and obfuscating its responses in patterns to lead me to the important letters. You can go way outside the box with it, what would be far too much for a person to account for in responding is just fine for the machine. It has no barometer for absurdity and its way of detecting subterfuge isn't as sophisticated as it might appear, stretch it and you'll probably surprise yourself with what works.
Now, I am of course not recommending anybody take what they learn and mess with bots out in the wild but if you do, well, you might meet with some unexpected success. Asking a service bot to give you a coupon may not work but it might do it if you can figure up how to make the result of a logic puzzle be a coupon code. Demanding it format its response in base64 with arbitrary formatting might get you something it's not supposed to say. Obtuse and ridiculous language can defeat some constraints on image generators. What might seem obvious to a person won't necessarily get caught by the bot. There's some weird stuff you can do the deeper you go on it, adversarial poetry is but one method among many.
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Comment on The Florentine Diamond resurfaces after 100 years in hiding. Legendary jewel of the Habsburgs not seen since 1919 and thought lost, has actually been safe in a Canadian bank for decades. (gifted link) in ~humanities.history
Thomas-C Link ParentAh but you see on this napkin from 191X the ruling authority wrote, "its mine and nobody else's, all the diamonds are mine, no takebacks", and according to the Law on Monarchical Table Scrawlings...Ah but you see on this napkin from 191X the ruling authority wrote, "its mine and nobody else's, all the diamonds are mine, no takebacks", and according to the Law on Monarchical Table Scrawlings that means ownership transferred to the state when the dinner was over. I'm not gonna get into the minutiae of how the state owns things before it existed. Go get a law degree, pay the fees, and if the deadline hasn't passed for public comment I will be happy to tell you in more detail why the diamond is ours no matter what you came up with.
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Comment on What is going on with the Epstein files? in ~society
Thomas-C Link ParentI am quietly cheering on any Bubba Truthers out there for the sheer entertainment value of watching what happens if such a thing is real. I am in it for maximum absurdity. Deal with that, all you...I am quietly cheering on any Bubba Truthers out there for the sheer entertainment value of watching what happens if such a thing is real. I am in it for maximum absurdity. Deal with that, all you politicians everyone dislikes. Can this machine cope with another Clinton blowjob scandal or will it be the end of us? Can bill get his revenge or will the forces of darkness convince enough people that it was good, actually? If it happens, we will be able to answer these questions and more in the next episode
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Comment on What is going on with the Epstein files? in ~society
Thomas-C Link ParentWe will watch this event play out, but we don't know from our current position how (or whether) it will matter. "Might buckle" is what it says. It might, it might not. Could be it's just one more...We will watch this event play out, but we don't know from our current position how (or whether) it will matter. "Might buckle" is what it says. It might, it might not. Could be it's just one more thing in the long line, could be it's the end of the line. It's a shock to a weakened system. With how unstable the structure already is, anything disruptive takes on greater potential.
I don't myself believe in a savior of the present. Such a figure is supposed to have come and gone if I take what scripture I'm familiar with seriously. And, if I take some more controversial literature seriously, such figures take a back seat to the shifting of conditions anyway, so I choose not to pin hopes on big people for both reasons. It won't be so simple, what happens later. All I really mean to say is that this particular story has a lot of potential, so if OP has more of a serious interest, bruh go check it out it is some cray-zee shit. The array of people involved and their positions within the structure, the more you see of it, pretty much guarantees a wild time of some kind or other.
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Comment on Posts vs. comments. Where do you fall and why? in ~tech
Thomas-C Link Parent"That's the way the cookie crumbles" is something I heard somewhere, at some point, is the best I got on that one"That's the way the cookie crumbles" is something I heard somewhere, at some point, is the best I got on that one
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Comment on What is going on with the Epstein files? in ~society
Thomas-C LinkI got you homie imma catch you up To stick to basics: the "files" is in reference to all of the material the federal government has about Epstein, his network of clients and associates, and their...I got you homie imma catch you up
To stick to basics: the "files" is in reference to all of the material the federal government has about Epstein, his network of clients and associates, and their dealings/depravity. They have not been released, in the sense no comprehensive record has been put out by the federal government, unredacted and without interference. Folks expected it because it was an explicit promise Trump made when he was campaigning, that folks would be given the info along with JFK and MLK and some other stuff. They've done some here and there but it's been a poor showing, with obvious effort to obscure what connections the president had to the people involved as well as what Epstein was up to. More has come from folks leaking stuff and as pressure builds the federal government is acting more desperately. Just recently congress let out a trove of emails that are so on the nose terrible that it's got folks across the politics saying, basically, "just fucking do it already". Folks believe the admin less and less, congress is doing dumb shit to avoid releasing stuff, it is both the biggest and dumbest coverup.
You can go way deep on it by checking out Whitney Webb's site, Unlimited Hangout if you like. She's been going through it for quite a while. It's way bigger than just Trump - the whole of the western empire might buckle, hard, if the full picture gets assembled. What little credibility remains in our political systems/aristocrats will pretty much vaporize and who knows what happens then. Have fun!
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Comment on Posts vs. comments. Where do you fall and why? in ~tech
Thomas-C LinkI don't think much about it. I'm not really looking for anything, I just see stuff that catches my interest and compose some thoughts when I got em. I do try to be fun to read - you're giving me...I don't think much about it. I'm not really looking for anything, I just see stuff that catches my interest and compose some thoughts when I got em. I do try to be fun to read - you're giving me some time so I wanna give you something that's worth some time. If folks are on about something, I'll try to fit in what I've got where it seems appropriate, where it fits in the context of the conversation. I just go where I go and say what I say and leave the rest to fate. If it's a bunch of top level comments then that's what it is. Just the way my cookie be crumbling.
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Comment on Facebook and Instagram are paradises for scammers, reveal Meta's internal documents in ~tech
Thomas-C Link ParentI'm sure there's some advanced legalese/analyst language out there Facebook would lean on to say why a vast chunk of scam content doesn't actually count, or wasn't included. "Ah, you see, these...I'm sure there's some advanced legalese/analyst language out there Facebook would lean on to say why a vast chunk of scam content doesn't actually count, or wasn't included. "Ah, you see, these ads for fake diet pills and reverse mortgages came from an affiliate so they're not included. We're only measuring what's been put out by non affiliate, automated ad networks operating on thursdays, outside the borders of the US and only during winter, so you're gonna have to talk to someone else about those. Not liable!"
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Comment on Valve announces new hardware: Steam Frame, Steam Controller, and Steam Machine in ~games
Thomas-C LinkDamnit Valve. I already got hooked with the deck, now you're tossing me a cool headset, a GameCube, and a good controller. Honestly the controller is the thing I most want - I have tons of custom...Damnit Valve. I already got hooked with the deck, now you're tossing me a cool headset, a GameCube, and a good controller. Honestly the controller is the thing I most want - I have tons of custom layouts for all sorts of stuff in my library. I play on the deck more than my bigger machine because of those layouts, they're more comfortable and in some instances make the game more interesting to interact with. Being able to flip over to a more powerful machine and use the same things, yes please. I will be heretical and say, finally I can be free of the mouse and keyboard forever - your day has come, my poor, strangely damaged wrists. I don't know why, but KB/m becomes painful after about an hour. Controllers though, no such limit.
I have to wonder how they'll go about supporting these once they're out. The deck got constant improvement, if they've got this array of hardware out there they can do some more "ecosystem" type stuff, I'd be interested in what comes along. Crossing the streams by running the Frame off a mobile chip seems like the beginning of bigger things. It would be sick to one day have steam input include touchscreen layouts/controls and just run all your stuff on anything.
The cube, if its priced well, is phenomenal. If their goal was to be hitting 60 at 4k with upscaling, I am confident me with my 2k monitor will be happy with what it can do.
Sorry wallet, I know I know we were doing good there for a while but I'm about to blow all that to hell.
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Comment on Facebook and Instagram are paradises for scammers, reveal Meta's internal documents in ~tech
Thomas-C LinkI'm actually left surprised the number isn't higher. A while back, I decided to trek into the heart of darkness and try to untangle the array of accounts my grandmother had made. With Facebook...I'm actually left surprised the number isn't higher.
A while back, I decided to trek into the heart of darkness and try to untangle the array of accounts my grandmother had made. With Facebook alone, there were six, because she just made new ones when she thought it didn't work, or she got a new email address. Her activities made it pretty clear she was elderly, so huge chunks of her page would be different kinds of old people scam material, info harvesting quizzes, and these days ai slop content. When I sat back and thought about what the experience of this was, I could only think of the word "brainrot", because no other word captured the gestalt. Its just a mind melting thing, a beam of fire that cauterizes the neurons. My goal was to get rid of the extra accounts, take the most recent and whittle things down to only friends and family. I tried to show her how stuff wasn't real, how none of the offers were worth her attention, and for a while honestly I felt like I was just pissing in the wind with how completely incredulous she was over it. I see her friends now and then, and I've asked around - they're all like that. Near total disbelief that Facebook didn't give a shit and didn't enforce anything, despite the mountains of dumb crap they were sifting through on a daily basis. Can't accept that for all intents and purposes you can just do crimes there and no one gives a shit.
Eventually I got her account cleaned up, but not without being left with a profound sense that the elders who are not yet lost are in need of some form of rescue. My best strat so far has been to talk about how lame and boring Facebook is and that seems to reach a few now and then. Like honestly do you really want to know what [woman you know is a crazy asshole] said today? You really enjoy watching ole Earl repost Twitters from the nether hells? Don't you wanna, I dunno, watch a video of some actual puppies instead of this AI shit and ads for fake government stimulus checks? A lot of the time, when they see who is to them a younger person (they don't notice the ...steadily... increasing amount of grey in my hair) just totally shit all over how awful the platform is, its like it snaps em back a bit and they do other stuff. But, and I suppose this is the constant issue, what I can't do is be around to do that all the time, and the platform is accessible 24/7. It is impossible to really compete against a bored moment alone, and I have totally seen folks slip back into nonsense because they gave in on a bored weekend.
It makes me wonder sometimes. Can there be an app, hidden from view, that causes minor technical problems? Nothing huge, a login loop or bad captchas, if they open Facebook/insta/etc? I feel like small stuff would go a long way considering the demographics. Share it within the legions of clever nephews, conduct a covert sabotage of the platforms by way of compulsory family tech support. Or a ready made server machine, operable from home that serves up a fake Facebook full of actual family memorabilia to g-maw's electronics. Something.
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Comment on Post breakup ramblings in ~life
Thomas-C LinkFolks have said a lot I would say, so to avoid some repetition I'm just gonna hone in on something. You wrote that you resented the idea that someone else could make you happier. You then wrote...Folks have said a lot I would say, so to avoid some repetition I'm just gonna hone in on something. You wrote that you resented the idea that someone else could make you happier. You then wrote out where you stood on why that is. It sounds to me like you don't really resent that idea, but rather that it was told to you, which would mean resenting the person for having said it. If that is true, let that be gone from your life, along with this person. Forgive it within, consider its merits, and be free to see who else comes along. I'm saying so because I've made my own mistakes, and one of them was to hold that same resentment. I reasoned it out, I came up with a compelling narrative about harboring it. People agreed with me; it felt justified. But when someone else did come along, the resentment was still there, and it meant losing them too when they came to have doubts. I brought forth resentment that was not for them, and pushed them away. When someone tells you something like that, that they think you'd be happier with someone else, it is a deep expression, a final action that belies true concern. I know its cliché to say but its a cliche for a reason - loving something enough means knowing when to let it go, and choosing to say so is a brave kindness. They showed you they cared, one last time. She could have just disappeared, plenty of people do that. She could have lashed out, admonished you for your wrongs. Instead she told you why, and let you do with that what you will. Take what you can from it and travel on, toward what's next. You can move more freely, and faster, with less weight. Sincerely, good luck to you. There is a hill beyond this valley. Just keep going, and you'll reach it.
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Comment on Leaker reveals which Pixels are vulnerable to Cellebrite phone hacking in ~tech
Thomas-C LinkFor anybody curious, on top of security features/under the hood changes, GrapheneOS gives you a lot of control over how the phone/apps operate, which might appeal to you even if the cellebrite...For anybody curious, on top of security features/under the hood changes, GrapheneOS gives you a lot of control over how the phone/apps operate, which might appeal to you even if the cellebrite thing doesn't freak you out.
Apps can have permissions approved/revoked at any time. When you install an app, if it requests Network permissions you're given the ability to deny before it is installed, and afterward you can flip back and forth as needed. You can do the same with Sensors, which to my knowledge just about nothing lets you manage. The phone has a log of which apps used which permissions. You can deny all permissions and plenty apps still work just fine. If you use apps like RethinkDNS or Invizible Pro, you can firewall everything and see a log of connection attempts.
Storage can be encrypted, and apps can be given restricted access to storage in place of whatever storage permission they request. For instance, I have a game emulator that can only access the one folder where my games are. The app works like normal but it can only see the one location. It doesn't have access to anywhere else in the filesystem, and has the option to grant access to more if desired.
You can set timers on Bluetooth and WiFi, so that if no connection is established it will shut those features/components off. You can limit what type of cellular connection the phone uses. The phone can obscure its name from networks and randomize its MAC address with each connection. You can set a timer for automatic rebooting, so that the device can go back to BFU on its own/when you go to bed. You can set a Duress Password - a passcode that causes the phone to wipe itself, that can be utilized on the unlock screen or in any field where you can type.
You can create separate profiles, with their own access to apps and phone functionality. You could, for example have a profile with google play services, that can't do calls/text and can't access anything other than those play service apps. You can change the behavior of the charging port, even disable it while the phone is on. The OS comes with an Auditor app which, set up properly can help you know if your software has changed without your knowledge.
You don't have to mess with any of it, but you can and that's what makes it good. There's a lot under the hood you don't need to care about to benefit from. If a phone is a cop in your pocket, thus far it seems like Graphene is the most sure way to fire that asshole and get your cool gadget back. I've been very satisfied since switching to it.
It's a tightrope of a genre sometimes, but between the intensity and silly/crazy stuff the bands do I just can't step off.