much procesing could it handle though? If it is only a handful of friends then what makes it better than Signal?
I don’t actually know the project but I think your mindset here is (and correct me if I’m wrong) “Does it scale?” whereas the mindset of this project, based on the name itself and the “small scale” in the description, is “no, it does not scale and that’s A-OK”.
Well you already have a desktop so the added value is that once you get the content out of the disk you don’t need them anymore. You can just store them if you want but not need to play with the physical thing, neither DVD nor player.
I mean if you particularly enjoy very specific things, e.g. bonus, or the physical feeling of the media (why not, harder to justify than with e.g. vinyl but still fine) you can still do that but otherwise the physical media isn’t actually needed anymore.
FWIW I had similar concerns and here is my suggestion :
- no physical player or even DVDs… just get DRM-free files
- if you still do want to do the whole thing offline I bought a brand new 20€ DVD player with USB input to plug on my Linux computer
- I then installed
dvdbackup - use it to get VOD files
- read directly with e.g
vlc - compress with
ffmpeg
- I then installed
Might sound complicated and first time maybe it took me 1h to setup, now I put a DVD in, start my script and 15min later I have a video.mp4 with everything I need. I can play it locally, share on LAN with miniDLNA and let any other device (phones, video projector with VLC, etc) play the content.
I then frequently go to my public local media library, get the content I need legally and the right holders get their cut, no data going to BigTech platforms.
I actually asked this morning at the post office specifically thinking about your remarks.
They do sell non denominative credit cards here. So your card is KYC (I imagine, I don’t think it’s possible to go around that) and they know who you are, ID and all, but stores, online or not, have no name associated to it.
Regarding online stores I do again advise to be cautious and not assume that because a contact field is there, it is mandatory. Yes it might be important for deliveries of parcels but that’s a moot point if delivery happens to a 24/7 box.
IRL : I’d argue most security cameras are, AFAIK, on closed circuits. I don’t think they can upload the data somewhere nor keep it for a long time. Also it takes quite a bit of power to process so unless there is a good reason for it, I doubt anybody nor even a computer vision algorithm, will process it to the point of face recognition.
Online : virtual credit card (not sure if they need your name) + PO box, post office or next door store compatible with the online shop. Most online shop I know do NOT require a mobile phone number. They might have a field for it but they are not using it for e.g. 2FA so if you were, by mistake or not, to put a random number I don’t think it would matter.
So at least some of the constraints can be changed.
You don’t have to trust F-Droid, you can verify that it’s the same build as the one from the original developer assuming they have done things right. I believe a good entry point is https://f-droid.org/en/2025/05/21/making-reproducible-builds-visible.html
I personally trust F-Droid and I believe their verification process with steps like https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Anti-Features/ is matching my needs. It’s not for everyone but I like it.
Ah, worry not only PeerTube takes bandwidth basically and that’s hopefully mostly distributed back per people watching!
PS: making this list (via docker ps) made me think I should generate the visuals of https://fabien.benetou.fr/Content/MyCloudTransition programmatically. Right now it’s done manually via https://fabien.benetou.fr/Infrastructure/GraphReverseProxyNewShell as GraphViz as you can see https://fabien.benetou.fr/Infrastructure/GraphReverseProxyNewShell?action=source but it could be generated on every update instead.
Thanks for forcing me to stop back. I’ll consider it.
services
- gitea (forge)
- pmwikis (PIM) e.g. fabien.benetou.fr including… notes on self-hosting
- affine
- wg-easy (WireGuard, VPN)
- copyparty (prototype collaborative filesharing)
- ntfy (notifications)
- peertube (videos) e.g. video.benetou.fr
- Jitsi Meet (video meetings)
- immers (federated Metaverse, really)
- WebDAV (files)
- networked-aframe (live collaboration in XR)
- open-easyrtc
- telegram-pim-bot
- transmission (seeding linux ISOs)
- fireflyiii
meta
- nginx (reverse proxy)
- grafana
- cadvisor
- pushgateway
- prometheus
- caddy
- nodeexporter
- alertmanager
also locally (and beyond thanks to WireGuard)
- HomeAssistant
- Immich
- miniDLNA
Right… and to be clear every single Microsoft product can do so too. In fact every single proprietary software can do that. If you value your privacy and nobody can audit the code, you should assume it’s being used to report your behavior. It might be aggregated, it might be anonymized, but it might not be and it might be to your boss.
That’s the “beauty” of closed source : you do not know, so you should assume the worst.
Edit : “Oh but what about GDPR?” true, well check the ToS and probably find that data is being collected for “quality service and potentially other uses (including but not limited to AI)” in the fine prints.
My recommendation is to keep both separate. Your work phone should NEVER be your personal phone.
Use you work phone at work or on a mission. Not outside, not at home, it does not matter what your contract says, what the law says is what’s important (so check locally, depends on jurisdictions).
Now IMHO both options such. Apple is closed source and Android provided by work is not customizable so you have no control over. If you want a more radically approach and are serious about privacy, reconsider both.
Right, I still don’t understand how it relates to privacy though unless either it makes either fingerprinting easier (which I imagine could be limited if the UserAgent can be changed) or that the OS itself leaks information back, but at this point it wouldn’t matter anyway if you don’t trust the OS, so can you please explain specifically what information would be leaked and how, again as opposed to an independent engine being used?
Here is how I did it https://git.benetou.fr/utopiah/online-hygiene/src/branch/master/index.js namely a local NodeJS Web server tracking my habits.
You can see the default configuration at https://git.benetou.fr/utopiah/online-hygiene/src/branch/master/index.js#L52-L65
{id:"twitter",pattern:/.*twitter\.com.*/,perHour:1,perDay:12},
{id:"proton",pattern:/.*proton\.me.*/,perHour:6,perDay:6*12},
{id:"yt",pattern:/https:\/\/www\.youtube\.com.*/,perHour:2,perDay:12}, // allow for redirection
{id:"yts",pattern:/https:\/\/youtube\.com.*/,perHour:2,perDay:12}, // allow for redirection, consider merged IDs
{id:"linkedin",pattern:/.*linkedin\.com.*/,perHour:1,perDay:12},
{id:"reddit",pattern:/.*reddit\.com.*/,perHour:3,perDay:12,redirect:'https://lemmy.world/'}, // redirection then enough to read private messages
// reconsider the tridactyl check for permanently open pages, e.g TabEnter rather than DocStart
{id:"element",pattern:/.*element\.io.*/,perHour:1,perDay:12},
{id:"discord",pattern:/.*discord\.com.*/,perHour:1,perDay:12},
In retrospect I should make available outside thus work on my mobile too when I’m not on my LAN, created https://git.benetou.fr/utopiah/online-hygiene/issues/3 accordingly.
Anyway what is fascinating IMHO in term of minimalism is that… I’m NOT actually using it anymore. Why? Well because the habits is now, roughly, ingrained. I don’t use it because it became mostly pointless.
That’s I’d argue what one should think of in terms of minimalism. Namely one provides a scaffolding that, yes, as others pointed out, might initially look like MORE work or tools than the typical situation. Yet, this only showcases how terrible the “normal” situation is. Once new habits are formed then remove the scaffolding and enjoy minimalism in a way most people expect, namely visibly less.
The problem though is that until that final step, it looks like more, BUT during that final step, it looks obvious to others, whereas they entirely miss the process that lead to it.
I haven’t watch the video (because YouTube) but knowing how easy it is to unlock modern cars with the right tools, namely https://www.404media.co/inside-the-underground-trade-of-flipper-zero-tech-to-break-into-cars/ and knowing ICE does both have a budget and a “license” not to care for the lawful process I can definitely imagine them doing it.
TL;DR: definitely feasible, no idea if actually done.
If there was no user interaction needed I’d agree but here, AFAICT, the user still needs to ask. If it’s truly entirely pointless then once the novelty fades away it won’t be used which deprived of precious data points, namely user feedback. For non interactive use I imagine streaming provides already a lot.
I use
- ProtonVPN mostly to bypass geoblocking or when specific Torrent trackers demand VPNs
- WireGuard self-hosted mostly to reach own devices outside my LAN
- TailScale also for self-hosting access but I pretty much migrated everything to WG
- ssh tunneling (arguably not VPN but still convenient)
I also use split tunneling, inclusive (e.g. everything but Firefox) or exclusive (e.g. only qbittorrent) whenever I don’t want to tunnel all my traffic.
Reposting from my comment https://lemmy.world/post/37758804/20109240 which I recommend to check, as someone did a test with Dark Souls 1 and IMHO was unsurprisingly disappointing, namely it does recognize the game (honestly, not bad) and get the right boss (which name is literally on screen) and make kind of sometimes useful suggestions. But like… what’s the point? Who would play a game and… NOT know its name? Or not be able to search based on a boss name or a weapon name with existing dedicated good online guides?
Anyway… if you still want to try yourself WITHOUT relying on Microsoft consider :
"If someone somehow wants to test this locally I suggest
- install locally a vision model, e.g. Moondream (which Ollama supports but alternatives too), then
- take a screenshot of your game,
- write a prompt like “How can I play this game better”
- query the vision model with the image and your prompt
marvel at how pointless and costly the whole setup is and how a basic query on e.g. DuckDuckGo with “game name” + prompt would yield way WAY better results from actual human, uninstall the whole, keep on playing with your actual brain.
At least now you can say you tried before you complain, rightfully, that it sucks.
For more check https://fabien.benetou.fr/Content/SelfHostingArtificialIntelligence
PS: I didn’t actually try this, I’m too lazy for that right how but feel free to report back if you do!
Edit : 2 potential optimization (despite not being sure it ever makes sense in the first place!)
- do so automatically, e.g. ~/gaming_screenshots directory (via e.g.
Spectacleshortcut) monitored viainotifythennotify-sendthe suggestion, thus stay in game during the whole process - fine tune on specific visual datasets, e.g. rely on fextra as mentioned in https://lemmy.world/post/37758804/20113877
" and again feel free to share back results.
Thanks for highlighting that.
The same way IMDB has https://imdbapi.dev/ or https://www.omdbapi.com/ (which I did use for a bit) is there an equivalent, namely MyAnimeList DB or API?
Secure against whom?
If it’s from a random thief, both are about equality secure, they rely on proven cryptographic methods.
If it’s from somebody powerful enough to make an ISP bend the knee, then they are equally insecure because those cryptographic methods assume you trust the underlying infrastructure. If you do not though, then yes using a VPN will help as you are adding your own level of encryption on top.
CopyParty https://github.com/9001/copyparty + PartyUp https://f-droid.org/packages/me.ocv.partyup/ (upload only, not sync)
Could try https://f-droid.org/packages/com.phpbg.easysync/ for sync proper.
More WebDAV Android client options https://github.com/fstanis/awesome-webdav#android but anyway my suggestion is to rely on a protocol, not an app.
You did. Well my point is that nobody needs this kind of equipment in the first place anyway because 99% of “useful” stuff done by an average officeworker isn’t actually LLM it’s usually STT. The rest, e.g. GenAI with videos is for shit&giggles, vibe coding doesn’t work except few super tiny narrow cases (e.g. transforming a file quickly without caring for 100% accuracy and when converters don’t already exist) and last but not least genAI on text itself is mostly used for spam, scan and cheating at school.
So… please don’t felt “left behind” if you can’t self host this kind of tools, it seems to me it’s nearly never justifiable!
Very interesting, thanks for sharing https://github.com/theaiautomators/insights-lm-local-package
Honestly though it might take 15min to configure, 1hr to let it run so that it get all images, dependencies, etc, 30min to debug GPU passthrough with the right driver version, 10min to try by getting the right endpoint… then 1min to realize that sure you can get give a PDF and “chat” with it but nothing particularly interesting or actually insightful will come out of this, especially if the paper itself if well written, namely has a proper introduction, structure, etc.
So… I’m leaving this comment here to maybe try one day, updated my list of local AI services but most likely I won’t bother anymore.
cultural and political will to prevent it
Well the EU and California are. Just yesterday I was reading https://www.lesnumeriques.com/informatique/une-premiere-victoire-polytechnique-claque-la-porte-a-microsoft-365-et-choisit-le-logiciel-libre-la-revolte-gagne-les-universites-n243905.html which is one example among many, here one of the most famous French engineering school switches away from Microsoft due to lack of GDPR clarity. Numerous administrations in the EU do the same. Yes it slow, yes it’s not enough BUT it’s something. I can’t say if the momentum will grow and transform to a mass exodus, or if it’s not a real trend and my bias highlights what I hope to see. Still it is happening.
Nobody gives a shit about NIST if they lose the 1 thing that make them useful : their credibility.
If some credible doubt is shed on them … then NIST is just an acronym with no power.
That being said IMHO a pragmatic heuristic is spotting “Do what I say, not what I do” and thus if NSA relies on PQ, or hybrid, or something well you can deduce from that they assume whatever solution they do NOT use if then not safe in a useful lifespan (which might be totally different from your threat model).
Edit : did tinker with https://openquantumsafe.org/about/ in particular https://github.com/open-quantum-safe so if you have an opinion on that I’d be curious.
Since you do not seem to list self-hosting options, e.g. WireGuard or OpenVPN, then IMHO it’d be good to at least have a line on each about what’s the actual backend, e.g. does service X runs on WireGuard, OpenVPN, something else, something proprietary that has been audited by 3rd party if so whom and when.
Edit: suggested self-hosting (but not at home) WireGuard in the previous thread https://lemmy.ml/post/37270537/21536054
Panicking and paranoia is counter productive.
If you do “lot of risky and dangerous shit” then it’s even more important that you do so mindfully. If you get careless because you are tired you increase the risk.
Personally my “trick” is to learn from others, e.g. in few weeks in Paris there will be https://splintercon.net/paris/ where tools and processes will be explained. I can learn from them.
Also my way to stay calm isn’t just to be mindful or learn… but do stuff, no matter how small. If you learn about a new thread, address it today. It doesn’t mean fix the problem entirely (it’d nice if you could) but rather do something, ANYTHING, about it. If it’s not solved, write notes about it and resume tomorrow or whenever you can. Every small effort does add up over time.
Finally I find that sport helps a lot to “evacuate” stress. If I feel some pressure from work or the overall situation, I go outside and sweat it out. It doesn’t magically make the World better but it insures I’m a bit more in shape to try to tackle whatever is thrown at me.
As they say in Italian “If my Grandmother had wheels she would have been a bike”
Sure… that’s an “interesting” premise but we live in our World, where a lot of American companies are structured the way they are by design. US companies get money from venture capital. That capital is solely designed to dominate. VC money is NOT a loan you get from a bank where you provide a collateral. No VC money is targeting 1 thing : market dominance and 10x returns. Your mom&pop shop will never get VC money because they never say they’ll corner the croissant market, rather they say might sell some baked goods to some people in your limited neighborhood. VC money will NEVER accept such a deal because it might eventually get 2x, at best, and the tiny shop does not even need a lot of capital, just enough for the oven, few people, etc. Peanuts in terms of investment money.
So… American companies are not “evil” because they want to or because a lack of luck. No, rather they become so because of the very structure money is made in the US. The Silicon Valley isn’t special because of Stanford or Berkeley and so many smart grad students. No it’s special because it pulls people from the entire World who dream of dominating markets. It then either select them or transform then select… and in the end you get the same kind of companies with the same kind of strategy with the same kind of money doing the same thing : domination by lowering price, cornering a marketing, raising price, enshittifying. Why? Because it works. It’s a proven business model. Right now it works on ads, and thus privacy… but if another model comes, it’ll use that.
TL;DR: it’s not perfect but it sure beats most if not all of BigTech depending of course on your needs.
Started to write a long paragraph to explain the difference between privacy and anonymity but I now believe this new user is (no idea why) collecting engagement via rage bait. I won’t participate in their posts anymore.
It might even come from a good place, namely trying to always do “better” and be “more private” but in practice it’s just lead to confusion.
Thanks for sharing and the clarifications. I do think both the philosophy behind this and the technological choices are right but it’s also true that “How many people?” can it handle is important for people who want to actually try and onboard others. It’s one thing to try alone but as long as we ask others to join, knowing what the limits are makes everybody more understanding.