wtf?
A software developer and Linux nerd, living in Germany. I’m usually a chill dude but my online persona doesn’t always reflect my true personality. Take what I say with a grain of salt, I usually try to be nice and give good advice, though.
I’m into Free Software, selfhosting, microcontrollers and electronics, freedom, privacy and the usual stuff. And a few select other random things, too.
wtf?
Sure. Oftentimes it’s the not so popular places that have their own charm. And I mean the USA is kind of a big place 😆 There are lots of very different experiences to choose from.
You could use some containerized mail server like Mailcow. They’re pretty alright to set up and should work fine for low volume. At least in my experience. Unless you don’t want to deal with mail yourself, then you should maybe consider a paid service. But I don’t have any experience with those.
The national parks? I’d like to visit one.
I don’t get that from the article. And I mean it’s not a “web” if it’s not interconnected, is it?
Things have shifted a bit in the last many years. Now almost no one reads blogs anymore. They want doom-scrolling and interaction. And even the old school nerds moved away from RSS, Mail and IRC. I also liked some Linux forums, but I feel it got more quiet there during the last years. Mostly to the benefit of proprietary platforms like Discord and such. But I don’t thing they’re very social, as in open and giving freedom to the people…
What’s a better protocol for a social web?
The processors and peripherals aren’t as uniform as they are on computers. Each SoC has a different set of components, which need drivers and custom set-up mechanics and they’re often only shared between the chip designer and phone manufacturers. A lot of complicated reverse engineering is needed. And that’s often not worth it as there are many different phones on the market and they’re short-lived devices. So we end up in the current situation where we don’t have the operating system foundation / drivers available to the community to build upon.
There is Linux on phones. A modified Linux kernel runs on every Android device. Just the userland is an entirely different one. And Linux isn’t there yet with the desktop and apps. A lot of features are missing, power saving, delivering messages while sleeping and doing background tasks while saving power in the pocket… It’s kind of a chicken and egg dilemma. We’d need some popular Linux phone so people are motivated to tackle the remaining software issues for a mobile ecosystem. And we won’t get one unless there is some good software so it can be marketed.
I’ve been keeping track of free and open source software and federated social media. Discovered Lemmy quite a while before the Spez/Reddit thing happened. But I only really started using it then, as it exploded practically over night and became usable to talk to more than just a dozen people or so.
Use a password manager, a spam email address, uBlock, pay attention to app permissions… Don’t rely on algorithms shaping what you see from the world and confining you in a filter bubble. Have some secrets you don’t share with everyone. Be aware of things and learn about the platforms and software you use often, and what they do behind the scenes. Also be aware of alternatives and free and open-source software. Don’t give away your identifiers to everyone (phone number for sign-up, credit card number, real name and address, …)
Wasn’t MediaTek abusing the GPL and bad for custom roms, meaning no aftermarket support possible for those devices?
Most people use either Matrix or XMPP. Both work.
There is a nice overview of chat protocols here: https://www.messenger-matrix.de/
I mostly use matrix as of today. I think it’s alright. It’s a bit difficult to explain encryption and device verification to other people… I think that could be designed better. But apart from that it works very well. So does XMPP which I’ve used before that. Have a look at the messenger matrix and all the options before deciding on an ecosystem. I’d take one of the friends and do some evaluation before dragging the whole group in. You can do that with some pre-existing servers before learning how to host the server part.
And btw: With most of them you can just use some public servers. You should do that unless you’re willing to put in the effort to maintain an own server. That’d give you complete control over the infrastructure… But it’s also a liability to maintain a server, do the updates etc for a group of friends and maybe years to come… End to end encryption will keep the content of your messages private, anyways. (If you use it.)
Good point. I think it’s super important to make this decision early on. Whether you want to invest time and do self hosting, or not and you’ll want to use managed services or regular non-free platforms. Doing things by yourself certainly teaches a lot. I do it. And I gain knowledge, independence and I think it’s important to understand the tools I use on a regular basis and not let Apple/Google take care of my life. And since I do a lot of things with computers, I can make good use of the gained knowledge. However I can also feel how someone wouldn’t want to do that. They might have other hobbies, a stressful job or a family and it’s quite some time that I spend digging through configuration files, reading documentation and maintaining stuff. It has to be worth it in some way, or it becomes a liability. And I think that’s not super obvious when starting the journey. I’m glad we have managed services which give independence without spending too much time. But I also prefer going all the way and learning lots of stuff.
Sure. I usually do the same thing. The laptop on which I’m typing right now is a refurbished Dell one and I really prefer a bit older enterprise hardware to new consumer hardware. Nice build quality, no nonsense and Linux runs great on that device. And it cost me a fraction of a new machine. However… with the intended use-case of a media center I’m not sure. Intel always adds hardware acceleration in their iGPUs and the modern codecs are quite demanding. I wouldn’t buy an older generation that doesn’t really support AV1. I’m not sure if hardware from 2 years ago can do that. And if someone buys a new TV set which supports HDR or something and then the recently bought, refurbished media center is out of date again… that also doesn’t help. Maybe I’d buy a new one in this case and just use it for the next 10 years. That’s also sustainable. But yeah, you have to pay attention to the details if you’re buying off-brand. But that also applies to most computer hardware, regardless. It’s a bit more of a lottery with cheap and off-brand devices.
Add some googly eyes if it “lives” in the living room. They fit right above the switch which would then become the nose.
Yeah back when I needed storage (quite some years ago) the mini pcs were less capable and more pricey, so I ended up building a NAS myself. It’s a regular, yet very power efficient PC. But due to size, it doesn’t fit next to the TV. If I’d do the same thing today, I’d certainly consider a machine like this. And $200 doesn’t sound much for a 2-bay NAS.
Uuhh, that’s a cute little trash can. Now fit that with the maximum of RAM it supports and two 12TB harddrives… And it’ll do more media center and NAS than the average person needs.
Someone linked a list of Mini-PCs here: https://lemmy.world/post/19837516
I think the N100 sounds good. But I can’t comment on buying a cheap chinesium one versus a refurbished Fujitsu/Lenovo or an Intel NUC.
Aside from Lemmy and getting random news via social media… I have a set of news sites and computer magazines I like. I think we have several good ones. I visit them manually when I’m in the mood.
It comes with a load of different perspectives and emotions. I agree with the person pointing out it has a lot to do with victimhood and blaming other people, if used as a self-description. I wouldn’t use it that way. And using it on another person I think it’s derogatory. So I also wouldn’t use it unless I wanted to hurt someone.
yeah, you don’t listen. i’d say complaining is fine, generally in most circumstances. but it won’t get you anywhere in this case.
Sure, the universe is big. If you travel far enough, there is bound to be a planet with water and maybe breathable air. You might have to travel a few million years, though. And keep in mind that plants produced the oxygen here on earth by photosynthesis. So I’m not sure about how that’d happen on other planets. Maybe they can have oxygen for other physics reasons. Maybe they already have life on them. It’s difficult to quantify the statistical chance for that. But the universe is a big place.
If you question is if we can go there, the anwer is most certainly: No.