Circling back around, I do feel like not all hope is currently lost.

My own contradiction: I feel pretty cynical about it, and yet I’m working on my own solutions for my family and friends. Part of me thinks it’s pointless, but I refuse to give in completely.

I already try to use better comms, minimize the data my phone shares (setting up a de-googled pixel now), and have always avoided most social media (never been on FB/Twitter, etc, as in never even gone to the websites).

I dunno, all my younger family and their friends are neck deep in the shit, and aren’t interested in hearing my “conspiracy theories”…despite them being front page news every day (all the ransomware, hacks, etc).

Be the change you want to see.

Since people won’t (for example) switch to privacy-respecting comm apps just because I ask them too, I’m building my own self-hosted box that I can duplicate for my family and friends.

My goal is to provide them with a single box solution for DNS filtering (PiHole), media server (including auto disc conversion and sharing between boxes), local backup (which will replicate encrypted backups to the other boxes similar to what Crashplan Personal did), phone backup and management (MDM and file management from PC), image and file sharing (something like Facebook for family only), instant messaging (most likely XMPP), etc, etc.

Yes, it’s a pretty bold plan, but my family and friends are tech illiterate, so if I want to see an improvement in privacy for myself and them, it’s on me to do it, and make it attractive for them.

Good point about platform agnostic remote for management stuff. VNC is ideal for this.

And systems like Proxmox use a web GUI for most stuff, it’s a touch slow but I think that’s mostly just waiting for the system to finish the actual changes I make, and not the UI.

It uses some form of VNC (forget the name). Performance is fine for the VMs for non-video stuff.

You can run whatever you want inside a VM too.

Works for me, but damn it’s dog snot slow. Like typing takes 1-2 seconds for each character to show up

Serious question, why not use current wifi for that kind of distance?

I know, it’s probably not really easy to make the comparison at this point - power usage is definitely part of that equation. Though the lower bandwidth of this doesn’t seem quite enough for video?

Edit: I misread the bandwidth as 347kbit, not Mbit. So yea, this looks very promising for video, especially given the limitations of Wifi, plus using less power.

There was a post recently about “.LAN” recently being added to the DNS spec

I mean Musk said Twitter was a Bad Thing and problematic.

Then a year or so later bought it, and immediately started doing things which reduced it’s popularity and influence.

Lol, I get it, I often start doing the math and realize “someone has already done this”.

Cool, thanks for the link. I already knew the little 12v batteries suck (though they work fine for the intended purpose, like impact driver or work light). I kill them with any other tool.

Yea, I was just thinking is the runtime reasonable enough that having spare batteries is a sufficient approach. Like you said, long runtime isn’t required, 15 minutes total runtime is probably more than enough (though that would be hell on battery life cycle).

Since I already have a slew of Milwaukee batteries, I’m trying to avoid things with 18650, except where form factor matters (like my flashlights). A Single Battery to Rule Them All (or at least most things).

Wouldn’t it require elevation?

Yet another example of why running as root/admin is a Bad Idea©

I’ve found disabling play services on Samsung causes weird errors.

You can try, it may work.

Thanks for the DNS link!

I’m pretty sure it’ll be a fresh install, even if you do it from within your existing install. It’ll do a parallel install.

LTSC images (MD5 verifiable)

Microsoft Activation Scripts

I haven’t done the math, how much runtime could you get out of a single 18650? They’re pretty stout, but it seems like they’d be a bit underpowered.

Milwaukee 12v batteries are 3 cells (I think they’re a little smaller than 18650), and you can run through a battery pretty quick (I believe they’re 1.5AH). Though I don’t know how efficient their heating design is.

Sounds like marketing foo.

I have a 10+ year old Weller station with digital temp adjustment, and I don’t recall it having a cpu and ram.

Those look pretty cool.

But I’m confused about the marketing around the cpu/ram, etc. Does that really matter for a soldering iron? (Serious question, not being snarky).

I get they’re using that tech to make it adjustible/smart, but it’s a soldering iron, not a pocket computer.

Is there some way those specs genuinely matter? Or is it just to say “we’re using the latest tech to provide controls”?

The article seems to say it can, though they’re promoting their own, of course

Why would you run local traffic over the VPN?

I decided there simply were not enough docker apps for downloading Youtube videos, and so I made the situation worse :p

You get my upvote for this alone!

You’re right. Thanks for the reminder. Memory ain’t what it used to be.