irmadlad
@irmadlad@lemmy.world
Incessant tinkerer since the 70’s. Staunch privacy advocate. SelfHoster. Musician of mediocre talent. soundcloud.com/hood-poet-608190196
- Comment on The Age-Checked Internet Has Arrived 3 days ago:
Governments like everything and everyone in their own little stack and in the government’s self established status quo. When Paula Protester comes along with her LGBTQ++ agenda, governments don’t like that. Paula Protester represents instability to the status quo established by the ruling class. Governments don’t like instability. Governments like everyone sorted, coallated, and stapled, all in their respective stacks, so dissidents and social change advocates are viewed as adversaries and are not welcome.
If it’s genuuinely ‘for the chirren’ then it would seem to me that making parents be parents and take responsibility for their child’s actions would go a very long way. However, we make laws with the lowest common denominator in mind. I don’t want your children involved in adult activities online. However, just like any education program, the success is determined by parental involvement in their child’s daily lives, and it starts at home.
It’s a lot easier to make government responsible for the child’s developement, than actually requiring parents to be parents. I hear parents say ‘I’m not technologically inclined.’ Well, get there. The safety and well being of your child hangs in the balance. Take a class, read some of the millions of step by step tutorials that exist all over the internet. Ask some questions in forums. The possibilities are endless. Protecting your child is work, just like rasing them is work, and therein lies the issue.
- Comment on introducing copyparty, the FOSS file server 1 week ago:
I’ll have to say that this is about one of the most detailed instructions I’ve seen, replete with copious screenshots. I’m going to have to give it a go just based on that. LOL
- Comment on Healthchecks.io: Throughput Upgrade (With Train Illustrations!) 1 week ago:
The train illustrations are awesome. LOL I have never played OpenTDD before, but at one time I was heavily into Cities: Skylines. Healthchecks.io, from my reading, is pretty cool stuff. I don’t run enough crons to justify all it can do, but still…pretty cool.
- Comment on Free hosting options for Pangolin in the EU? 1 week ago:
I don’t know of any free tiers in the EU, however, very cheap options do exist. Not in the EU, but one of my VPS runs $25 USD a year. It’s a pretty capable little server, and at $25 USD, it’s about as close to free as you going to get. Take a look at
https://lowendbox.com/
. You might find something poking around there. - Comment on Noob Tailscale questions 1 week ago:
Step 1: Figure out where your tailscale.sh actually is.
find / -name “tailscale.sh” 2>/dev/null ?
Or with mlocate:
locate tailscale.sh ?
- Comment on Self-Host Weekly (18 July 2025) 2 weeks ago:
I had never heard of Neocities so I took a look. Hmmmm…I sure am glad we have advanced past that point of website creation, or at least some have. Way too much gaudy animation.
- Comment on My Ultimate Self-hosting Setup 2 weeks ago:
LOL You gave me a belly laugh. Yes. Really 70…well soon to turn 71 ifn’ the creek don’t rise. I have that same reaction sometimes too. Damn! I’m really 70!? Yes, the world has changed so much since I was born, and frankly, I am glad it has. I am thankful that technology and music have walked along side me all these many years. It’s been a good life.
- Comment on i did it!!! 2 weeks ago:
Don’t let them give you shit about your ponytail OP. Try again. It’s a learning process. Keep whacking away at it.
- Comment on Looking for guidance on safely exposing services 2 weeks ago:
Any advice would be much appreciated. This would be a huge change to the way I’m currently running this thing, but would be a worthwhile upgrade for sure.
If I was standing up a new server, that’s the route I would take. It looks like a very capable piece of open source.
- Comment on Inside China's Mini PC Production: How Tiny Computers Are Made 2 weeks ago:
It was a frustrating experience. On the one hand, I really really really wanted the tool manufactured in the US. However, if I went the US route, I would have never sold one piece because it was just too expensive. It wasn’t an easy decision to go to China. After doing a couple runs, I had recouped my investment plus a little pocket change to put some 'taters on the table. I learned a lot on the way tho. You hear people say, ‘You outta patent that’, but the process is not that easy. At any rate, at least I can say ‘Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. No better or worse for the exercise.’
- Comment on Inside China's Mini PC Production: How Tiny Computers Are Made 2 weeks ago:
The one guy hand-soldering and fumes with no PPE or vent 😱
I can’t see the video but I can just imagine. I’ve had first hand experience with Chinese manufacturing. I used to have the patent on a tool I created for small gas engines. After soliciting US manufacturers for pricing, it was quite evident, even on my small scale, why manufacturing has gone overseas. So we hit upon a guy in China to do a run, I went to observe the process. I’ll have to say, it was not what I had imagined. At one point, the ‘guide’ took us around to vats where they ‘washed’ off the product in some very caustic chemicals that would physically burn my nose when I inhaled. I’m not sure what the chemicals were, but it would eat all the grunge and any reminent slag off. We come around the corner, and there is this dude, standing in the vat of unknown chemicals, fishing around with his arm up to his shoulder in this muck, trying to unclog the drain, so they could proceed to the next step. I didn’t say anything but I remember thinking, for the sake of future generations, I hope that poor guy in the vat doesn’t replicate. That would be a genetic disaster.
- Comment on My Ultimate Self-hosting Setup 2 weeks ago:
I’m a 50+ non-geek Linux user myself, and selfhosting is the one computer ‘thing’ I would love to be able to setup one day but I’m too afraid to seriously start doing as I’m way too afraid of being that ‘low hanging fruit’ you mentioned in your post.
Dude, 70 here. Just do it. You’re going to make mistakes along the way, you’ll learn along the way. You’re already a Linux user, so you’ve got a leg up there. Even if you walk away from selfhosting thinking it’s probably better for you to use those small companies, you’ll have had an enriching experience. I find selfhosting to be rather rewarding in many aspects. For one, it’s one of my hobbies that keeps my mind busy which is a good thing. I’m always digging for something new to learn.
If you are the only user of your server, tying it down becomes a lot easier. allow.host / deny.host, tailscale, ufw, and fail2ban will get you very far and safe so you won’t be that low hanging fruit. I am quite certain there are people here would love to help you on your way. I’m one. I’m an expert at nothing, but I don’t mind sharing the knowledge (?) I’ve learned along the way.
- Comment on How to use a domain I own to self-host services? 2 weeks ago:
Consider getting a VPS to play around with to learn how this stuff works before you expose your data to the internet.
Highly recommend this, especially when exposing your local server to the internet when you may still be a bit green with the security aspects of self hosting. Small VPS for under $30 a year are dime a dozen really, and well worth the price for the education you can get from them.
Even now, I have a small VPS that I regularly test things on before I put it on the production server.
- Comment on How to use a domain I own to self-host services? 2 weeks ago:
it lacks a gui
I’ve never used this, but I wandered across it about a month ago: github.com/qdm12/caddy-ui
If you search for ‘caddy ui’ there are a number of them. I don’t really see a need for a caddy ui, but some might.
- Comment on Tape drive backups 2 weeks ago:
I am a mediocre musician on my best day who has been playing stringed instruments for about 65 years now. I also play keyboards, tho not the piano which, imho, is a different instrument entirely. The AX-Edge is not one of my favorite instruments tho. I bought it on a whim thinking I’d give it a go and see what all the buzz was about. Back in the 80s and early part of the 90s, it seemed like everybody had one. After the initial excitement of discovering a new instrument wore off, it kind of goes south from there. The angle at which you have to strike the keys is very different than the angle of my normal keyboards/controllers which doesn’t seem like much but it gives me fits. Overall, it wasn’t worth the $400 I paid for it, tho I could probably turn it on CL for closer to the original price. The equipment itself is quite capable, it’s just one of those oddities I thought would be cool to learn, but in retrospect, $400 could have been better spent elsewhere.
- Comment on What are some of your favourite lesser known awesome lists that are useful for selfhosting? 2 weeks ago:
- Comment on Tape drive backups 2 weeks ago:
Tape drives are the keytars of the tech world. They seem cool and a pro can really jam with them… but they’re not the most practical and you should really get a guitar or a keyboard until you know what you’re doing.
That made me snort. But you speak the truth. I have a Roland AX-Edge that I bought off a guy who thought it would be a good idea to play. I think he paid like $1200 for it and after the new wore off, he sold it to me for $400, basically brand new.
- Comment on Tape drive backups 2 weeks ago:
In this vein, Backblaze Personal unlimited account would be well worth it to me. $8.25 USD ($99/year contract) for unlimited backups. The downside to Backblaze is if you’re pushing large volumes of data, like above 5 TB, it is excruciatingly slow doing a restore online. Luckily, they will sell/rent you a 10 TB drive with your data, shipped to you. After you make the restore/transfer, you can decide to send the drive back for a full refund, or keep it.
- Comment on What else should I self-host? 3 weeks ago:
github.com/linuxserver/docker-obsidian
It uses the Kasm VNC. Takes a little to get used to, but it rocks.
- Comment on Which guides to trust for novice / normie getting started? 3 weeks ago:
I’m somewhat of a chemist too, tho, it was back in the 60s…and in my basement…but yeah.
- Comment on Which guides to trust for novice / normie getting started? 3 weeks ago:
without developing at least some actual understanding of the concepts underlying what you’re doing
I realize lemmy hates AI, but I use Grok a lot to explain commands, command sequences, etc. Those go in my notes as well, after I’ve refined them, and conformed them to my application. Of course, all the precautions one should take with any online tut in place, and pulling knowledge from multiple sources helps verify. Grok helps me out a ton.
- Comment on Which guides to trust for novice / normie getting started? 3 weeks ago:
I would like to reiterate the importance of taking notes. As a younger man, I never felt the need thinking, ‘I can remember all that’. Wrong! So as a elderly man, taking profuse notes is paramount. So it’s a good idea to get in the practice of taking notes while you are young.
I use NotePad++ locally, then transfer the notes to an encrypted Obsidian vault on my server. I can actually stand up a server, implement all the security necessary, install 30 or so apps, and be in production within hours just from notes. They house all my Docker compose files and everything. So it’s kind of like painting by numbers.
Get in the habit of taking notes and refine them as well, as you galong.
- Comment on What else should I self-host? 3 weeks ago:
mostly just for when I’d search for instructions on something an a YT vid was my only option.
That was basically what I wanted to use it for. There are several fairly reliable Invidious instances still left.
yewtu.be
comes to mind andinv.nadeko.net
. But it’s hit and miss, and it gets pretty janky having to refresh the instance, then pick a new instance, then Anubis weighs your soul to see if you are allowed to view content. But, like you say, if that’s the only video tut you can find… I usually just download the video and when done, delete it. Trying to jump through YouTube’s hoops is a futile endeavor. They’ve made it so painful to watch content on their platform while still trying to retain as much of your data as possible. Screw 'em. - Comment on What else should I self-host? 3 weeks ago:
Invidious
How do you keep Invidious running? I’ve tried all the alternatives like Piped, etc. I can’t keep them running for more than a week before it gets banhammered by Google.
- Comment on What else should I self-host? 3 weeks ago:
Awesome SelfHosted is a great place to start looking: github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted
- Comment on What else should I self-host? 3 weeks ago:
What else should I self-host, aside from HA (I don’t have a smart home), Calibre (physical books are my jam), and Jellyfin (I don’t watch too many movies + don’t have a significant DVD/Blu-ray collection)?
You sound kind of like me, but physical books are not my jam. I host a lot of things I use all the time. The most used app I selfhost is SearxNG. When you get it all set up, in your browser settings you can substitute DDG for your private SearxNG instance.
I host Obsidian which is a note taking app. It houses all my compose files, step by step tuts I’ve written to myself, interesting code snippets, etc. There are several encryption plugins for Obsidian that allow you to encrypt the document itself to keep it away from nosy people.
I host Readeck and Karakeep. These are bookmark type apps. I use Readeck for ‘read it later’ type articles I find are interesting. Karakeep I use for data preservation. Both can be used for both bookmarks and data preservation, I just keep 'em separated.
I host a lot more but that might get the juices flowing as it were.
- Comment on Keeping track of different targets in terminal 3 weeks ago:
If I’m on WIndows, I use MobaXterm. If I’m on Linux, I use tmux.
- Comment on WhisperX — Automated Transcripts w/ Timestamps and Speaker Tagging 3 weeks ago:
I’m always excited to try new stuff. You never know. A use case might develop that you didn’t think of.
- Comment on WhisperX — Automated Transcripts w/ Timestamps and Speaker Tagging 3 weeks ago:
I use UVR for vocal isolation. It just works, but that shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll check it out. At the worst, I’ll learn something.
- Comment on Is there a last resort, whistleblowing like app that requires a password on a timer? 3 weeks ago:
Bookmarked. Thanks