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IratePirate

@ IratePirate @feddit.org

Posts
4
Comments
704
Joined
5 mo. ago

  • Removed

    ive learned alot past year :D

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  • What if I'm a basket case?

  • If you are not in a tech field, what got you into self-hosting?

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  • I've always been quite techie (maybe not by trade, but by passion), and been decoupling from big tech solutions ever since the Snowden revelations dropped. Ditched a lot of non-free software and services first (MS Office -> LibreOffice being one of the biggest), then switched to Desktop Linux and degoogled Android. I suppose self-hosting my own services and taking control of my network was the next logical step on this journey. That, and immich. It's so ridiculously good, it single-handedly made me want to run my first real server.

  • "i am shocked at how many people don't have an actively hostile relationship with advertising"

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  • You're not wrong. But as you said yourself, this only applies to your own hardware. Some of us do engage in this weird thing called "going outside", with some taking it as far as not only going there to touch grass, but also meet other people (gross, I know).

    In these situations, even I, an individual who has

    • a private e-mail that is exactly that: private (through aliases and strict protocols as to who gets the root address)
    • a physical mailbox mostly clean of ads because advertisers either do not get my address in the first place, or they get a friendly letter telling them where to shove their catalogues
    • adblocker plugins in every browser
    • hosts-based blocking on top of that and
    • a network-wide DNS-based adblocker just for good measure,

    even I, builder, king and prisoner of this privacy fortress, am exposed to ads when I occasionally leave it.

    I see ads when my kid asks me to read out to him the contents of that colourful banner above the parking lot.

    I see ads when I watch cable TV with my parents and they just let the ad break wash over them like a jovial stream of diarrhea.

    I see ads when I go shopping and I cannot focus on my own thoughts because only a few metres away there's an ad screen loudly announcing the technological marvels of Buddy's Fully-automatic Butt Crack Scratcher to the world.

    In these situations, I really feel the contents of that OP. I feel the brazen attempt to steal my attention when all I want is to be present. I feel the insult to my intelligence because some twat in marketing decided I'm unable to or unworthy of making my own decisions. And I feel the need to quell this frivolous invasion of my time and headspace.

    And that's why, in these situations, I take the liberty to turn off the shop's TV while I'm there. I take my parent's remote, mute the ad diarrhea and strike up a conversation. And I promise the kiddo to read him something proper once we get home, but not one of those stupid ads.

    (We recently pulled up in front of another giant ad banner, and the little guy went: "Dad, that's just another one of those stupid ads, right?" Imagine how proud dad was, seeing that another system-wide adblocker had been installed...)

    Thanks for coming to my TED talk!

  • British Woman shot by dad in Texas after 'arguing about Donald Trump'

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  • Let's flip this argument on its head: family is potentially the best place for political discussions, as it's one of the few places in life where bonds should be tightest, respect should be mutual and all actors should act in good faith. It should be the safest of spaces and, if intact, should be able to easily withstand disagreements on things outside the family, such as politics. If it doesn't - like in this case, apparently-, doesn't that tell us more about the family in question, and/or the state of political debate in our country?

  • British Woman shot by dad in Texas after 'arguing about Donald Trump'

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  • A jury of many beers

  • British Woman shot by dad in Texas after 'arguing about Donald Trump'

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  • ...or be prepared to get shot...?

    You picked the worst possible place for this kind of advice, mate!

  • British Woman shot by dad in Texas after 'arguing about Donald Trump'

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  • I'm fed up with Copilot, and I'm not sure it can be fixed

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  • Took you a while, eh?

  • What am I missing with Matrix?

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  • Ghislaine Maxwell’s refusal to answer questions before Congress draws criticism: ‘Who is she protecting?’

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  • How to Cut the Cord in Canada (2026): The Ultimate Guide

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  • True that! I'm running plenty of those apps myself (though on a dumb display powered by a Linux machine), so I can appreciate the setup! Since you're running Google TV: have you tried running Newpipe? Imho, it's a no-brainer replacement for the YouTube app and blows it out of the water both with regard to the features it packs and the privacy advantages it brings.

  • How to Cut the Cord in Canada (2026): The Ultimate Guide

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  • Seeing that cable management, I know why you'd want to "cut the cord". (Scnr! 😁)

  • The Department of Homeland Security Is Demanding That Google Turn Over Information About Random Critics

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  • I will admit that YouTube is the strongest vice in my life, I just can’t get enough of it.

    Well, do it like everyone trying to shake off a vice: if you feel you can't go cold turkey, switch to a less harmful surrogate. Ditch the YouTube app and switch to something like Newpipe or FreeTube that both give you access to YouTube's content, but at the same time comes with more functionality (background playback, downloads), protects your privacy (accountless subscriptions and playlists) and also fucks with Google's bottom line by blocking ads.

    Google’s got my data by the balls. I think it’s a bit too late for me.

    I get this post-privacy fatalism a lot, but luckily for you, it's patently false.

    Big tech's business model - at least for now - is to profile you and sell this image of you off to advertisers and other businesses for personalised targeting (and possibly other shenanigans, but let's not get into that). In order to be valuable to them, this profile must be accurate and up-to-date.

    Now, luckily, people aren't static beings. We change as we grow, not just older, but as human beings. We change jobs and even careers, social circles and places of residence. We change our marital status (hopefully only once ;), the number of people in our family (hopefully only incrementally ;) and the people we want to spend most time with. We change contact details and bank accounts, brand preferences and spending habits. We change our beliefs and habits, political convictions, our outlooks on and goals in life. Just try to picture the person you were ten years ago, and, I hope for you, you'll see a Venn diagram that may have some overlap, but also some pronounced areas of difference. As time goes on, these differences will become larger and larger, until the profile of 'old you' is entirely worthless to any advertiser because it gives them little to no idea who 'present you' is and how to target them.

    You may be right that the best point in time to untether yourself was yesterday. But the next best is today.

  • DVDs and public transit: Boycott drives people to ditch Big Tech to protest ICE

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  • What's the state of BluRay ripping these days? I know it used to be tough, but then again, DVDs are also "encrypted" and that's nothing to worry about any more.

  • Chatbots Make Terrible Doctors, New Study Finds

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  • I am aware of that, hence the ""s. But you're correct, that's where the analogy breaks. Personally, I prefer to liken them to parrots, mindlessly reciting patterns they've found in somebody else's speech.

  • Chatbots Make Terrible Doctors, New Study Finds

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  • A critical, yet respectful and understanding exchange between two individuals on the interwebz? Boy, maybe not all is lost...

  • Chatbots Make Terrible Doctors, New Study Finds

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  • A talk on LLMs I was listening to recently put it this way:

    If we hear the words of a five-year-old, we assume the knowledge of a five-year-old behind those words, and treat the content with due caution.

    We're not adapted to something with the "mind" of a five-year-old speaking to us in the words of a fifty-year-old, and thus are more likely to assume competence just based on language.

  • The Department of Homeland Security Is Demanding That Google Turn Over Information About Random Critics

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  • I suppose they're still working out the details of Fascism as a Service (FaaS), i.e. the monthly subscription fees, tier names (Trump > Mussolini > Franco > Hitler > Thiel), and so on...

  • The Department of Homeland Security Is Demanding That Google Turn Over Information About Random Critics

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  • That's my next stop probably. Been on degoogled Android for many years and loved it. But vendors have started locking down their bootloaders (fuck you, Samsung!), Google has made moves to make life harder in Android for custom ROM devs and sidesloaders alike, so it's only a matter of time until they'll go full Hitler on it. So: Go, penguin, go!