wltr
@wltr@discuss.tchncs.de
- Comment on If you have one, how much do you pay for a domain name? Any cheap registrar recommendations? 3 days ago:
Can you explain this DNS thing further, please?
I start with what I understand. DNS stands for domains name system, which means a huge database of domain names and their IP addresses. When I ask for a website, DNS tells my computer / browser which IP addresses to look for, to reach the website.
At home, I have Pi-Hole and Unbound. The first one censors DNS addresses by not including domains that serve advertisements. It can work with various DNS providers, including those from Google or Cloudflare. Unbound allows me to self-host DNS database, periodically fetching it from somewhere. That way my ISP may not see … here I’m not sure what, DNS lookups? It sees which IPs I reach, so I assume there’s no big difference, if they’d want to know which resources I reach for. Frankly, I don’t understand this solution entirely, perhaps unbound is for something different. I used Pi-Hole without it for years, only recently I added unbound, because it was quite easy to do with DietPi distro.
Cloudflare actively promotes their WARP service, for people to use their DNS servers. They have three options, four ones, three ones and two, three ones and three. My guess is they theoretically can analyse these DNS lookups for some reason. (E.g. by partnering with three letter agencies, doing some service for them.)
What is DNS in the context of my website being registered with them? When I reach to my website, it any other website registered with them, what would happen? Isn’t the record everywhere already? I cannot understand what this means in this (different, isn’t it?) context.
The rug pull scheme ‘now you pay us for DNS too!’ seems unlikely, for some reason. If it’s no different from what they provide as a free service. If it’s something else, I assume you can migrate to any other registrar, unless you’re too heavy into their ecosystem.
On a personal note, I’m not too heavy into their ecosystem, I hope. I have a couple of static websites hosted for free with Cloudflare Pages. Plus I have a bare metal file server with images which is shared to the internet with Cloudflare Tunnel. I’m nobody with a few readers, tens of posts and hundreds of images, and I chose this architecture because I don’t understand how to properly self-host my blog on a residential connection (meaning dynamic IP behind a CG-NAT or what it’s called). When I do, I may drop them in favour of a simpler architecture. But also I was curious how it works.
So, saying all this, I still don’t understand what this them being an authoritative registrar means in this context. Perhaps I lack some web dev skills to understand that properly. When I had my domain with Squarespace, they allowed more than Cloudflare, but I lack understanding to properly formulate that, to even understand what it was. I think I could host my top level domain with Cloudflare Pages only when they are my registrar, while having those Pages on a subdomain was trivial even with a different registrar. If I remember that correctly now, I might’ve been confusing some things here.
Thanks for your previous explanation, it was quite informative.
- Comment on If you have one, how much do you pay for a domain name? Any cheap registrar recommendations? 3 days ago:
Thanks! I haven’t thought of com as being the real TLD, actually!
- Comment on If you have one, how much do you pay for a domain name? Any cheap registrar recommendations? 3 days ago:
Thanks! Now it’s a bit more clear now.
To contribute to the discussion, I remembered that with Squarespace (my previous registrar), I had unlimited redirects, which I used heavily. I am not really sure about the unlimited part, perhaps that was hidden somewhere in the interface, and they have limits, and I just never saw them. But I remember Cloudflare communicated I have like 10, so I decided to not use it for nice-to-have but not really needed things. E.g. I used a subdomain for a blog, and created redirects for typical misprints in my name. Was handy, but not really needed. I should have document this, but I was too busy at the time, and now, almost a year later, I don’t really remember. There were differences with Cloudflare and Squarespace.
- Comment on If you have one, how much do you pay for a domain name? Any cheap registrar recommendations? 3 days ago:
My first registrar was Google domains. As always, they killed the business. And sold it to Squarespace. I’ve been their customer for a year or two, nothing bad I can say, except the price was about 1.5 or even 2x of that from Cloudflare for com domain, so I migrated there. I have no deep understanding of the nuances, so I cannot say whether Cloudflare is a bad actor. At least I trust them to not elevate the price, as it’s not their primary business, sell domains.
- Comment on If you have one, how much do you pay for a domain name? Any cheap registrar recommendations? 3 days ago:
I see that, but what does it mean in practice?
- Comment on If you have one, how much do you pay for a domain name? Any cheap registrar recommendations? 3 days ago:
I have my domain with Cloudflare too, and at this point, I’m not aware of these DNS servers. Can someone explain it a bit? I know what DNS is, but I don’t understand what’s the use case for having them elsewhere. I’m not to argue, just didn’t know where to register a domain, so I went with them. I’m concerned with the future of the domain either, but don’t understand the issues at this early point.
- Comment on Immich – A Self-Hosted, Open-Source Alternative to Google Photos 1 week ago:
It’s even worse than advertisement. As it’s useless.
- Comment on Hard drive prices have surged by an average of 46% since September — iconic 24TB Seagate BarraCuda now $500 as AI claims another victim 1 week ago:
Neo, wake up!
- Comment on Alternatives to syncthing for syncing files with android 1 week ago:
Oh, thanks, I missed it. It’s a very long thread. I’ve read only the first 40 messages so far, so I cannot really comment on that. But here is a nice advice from there:
FWIW It is possible to run Syncthing via Termux — it’s not as integrated but it runs fine.
- Comment on Alternatives to syncthing for syncing files with android 1 week ago:
What is wrong with the fork from F-Droid? I use it. I see no difference with the original, I’d say it’s even better. If you don’t trust them for some reason, why discard Syncthing as a project? I assume it can be built then. But I have no idea how.
By the way, I’m happy to use Sushi Train on iPhone. Works very well, and is lovingly polished. Now Syncthing is a centrepiece of my workflow to sync my files.
- Comment on Silent Storage Solutions for Homelab? 2 weeks ago:
Have you tried a non-tech solution, like putting the drives into some noise absorbing materials, or isolating the sound with the hard case, things like that? That may sound not really obvious, but my guess is that you can at least get some noise off with a solution like this.
I won’t go with SSDs for a NAS as it’s very expensive. But if money of no concern, that Beelink thing looks impressive.
- Comment on Need advice for buying first hardware 2 weeks ago:
Definitely overkill. Depends on your use case though. I have the same computer that I use for HTPC. It’s running Kodi + Transmission. The OS is Fedora, but I could get away with LibreELEC. It’s just that I had Fedora already and didn’t bother to reinstall.
What I don’t like about this computer is that it’s very power hungry if compared to a less powerful one. I have a separate Orange Pi Zero and I’m super happy about it. It serves two functions: downloads torrents and shares them via UPnP (with miniDLNA package). So it’s turned on 24/7, while this big computer is on only when I want to play something.
Immich, I don’t know. I’m yet to discover how it works. I think maybe I’d turn it on when I need it, so that may be an option. This potential computer of yours, if you could turn it on via Wake on LAN, that could help tremendously, if you care about power consumption. If you don’t, I think that’s a decent computer.
All my computers in my infra are super cheap used devices, the first one was hands me down computer some people wanted to throw away, so they asked me to utilise, if I could. I took it, and only later I realised it can be utilised this way. That computer is mostly off, as it’s even more power hungry.
To learn, you can restore literally any computer. To run something long-run, best is N100 or similar mini computers. They are cheap, run cold, some have no active coolers (so, silent), and sip power. That’s what I plan to implement to my home, once I’d settle on what I need.
- Comment on Alternative to Gmail? I currently use my own domain for email, but i miss the priority inbox 2 weeks ago:
Thanks for not much, I have never heard of it before.
- Comment on Alternative to Gmail? I currently use my own domain for email, but i miss the priority inbox 2 weeks ago:
Did anyone try CLI clients, like (neo)mutt for that? I expect it can be set up on a server (if we consider self-hosting) and do this job automatically. While all the AI thingy feels like magic, my practical experience shows that there are just some keywords or even just the sender, with which mails can be sorted.
- Comment on Creators of Tailwind laid off 75% of their engineering team 2 weeks ago:
I’d love to learn more, never really worked with them. Is Tailwind much of improvement with these frameworks?
- Comment on Musk’s Grok AI Generated Thousands of Undressed Images Per Hour on X 2 weeks ago:
I wonder, just another rename, X → XXX, would do well, wouldn’t it?
- Comment on Creators of Tailwind laid off 75% of their engineering team 2 weeks ago:
That sounds too loud, what’s the actual meaning behind what they’re saying? To me, that looks like maybe they hired too many people assuming their business would only grow. That’s the delusion some Silicon Valley folks have, with the sort of VC culture. Perhaps they shouldn’t grow in employees (why are there employees in the first place?) and try to be sustainable instead. The whole project looks so flashy, but does it even need to grow?
On a personal note, I’m not a fan. I used it in a couple of projects, and wasn’t sold on the idea of never ever learning CSS and make your classes not semantic at all. However, I think there might be cases where this approach makes sense. I just haven’t found it so far.
- Comment on Dell brings back XPS laptops — ditches the capacitive touch bar, adds 1Hz display option, and upgrades 14 and 16-inch models 2 weeks ago:
While I agree, I’d like Apple (and others) to make repairability better (or even exist), but as an owner of quite a lot of Apple tech, it’s very well made, usually. Until it breaks, obviously, but it breaks less than a random cheap brand. At least for me. Any other computer maker is rather unable to lock down the devices the same way. I bet they’d happily do so, if given the opportunity. Plenty of modern laptops with non-swappable memory and even SSDs.
- Comment on Dell brings back XPS laptops — ditches the capacitive touch bar, adds 1Hz display option, and upgrades 14 and 16-inch models 3 weeks ago:
And those are…
- Comment on Dell brings back XPS laptops — ditches the capacitive touch bar, adds 1Hz display option, and upgrades 14 and 16-inch models 3 weeks ago:
Excuse me everybody, I just wanted to intercept and say that if that was written as Bill fucking Gates, that would be so much funnier :)
- Comment on Dell brings back XPS laptops — ditches the capacitive touch bar, adds 1Hz display option, and upgrades 14 and 16-inch models 3 weeks ago:
Thank you for your position. While I appreciate the framework idea, and stated mission — in reality I don’t trust them, so I don’t mix the mission with them, the mission is valuable, them, I wouldn’t be so sure — I feel the same. I don’t want to support them now. It’s a complicated situation we’re in, regarding the state of the tech, but I don’t like this ‘we have to help them, just because we can unscrew their backpanel easily.’ The modules isn’t something I’m impressed with, I think that’s overthinking. I’d rather have a tiny laptop with nothing and a huge laptop with everything. Looks like Apple got this.
- Comment on Dell brings back XPS laptops — ditches the capacitive touch bar, adds 1Hz display option, and upgrades 14 and 16-inch models 3 weeks ago:
Yes, but jokes aside, it seems like you can find whatever you need for MacBooks from circa 2010 to 2012. At least, when I needed something, I could find it without issues.
- Comment on People with no friends needs to get the fuck up over it 3 weeks ago:
Telling us 25 and 31 are grown ups, is like … they are not, actually. It’s after the thirties when you’re a grown up.
- Comment on LG Electronics unveils 2026 Gram Laptop line with aerospace composite - up to 50% lighter than macbooks 3 weeks ago:
Unfortunately, yes. I’m looking for a compact laptop, a typing machine of a kind, I’d use for typing texts in nvim. So I don’t care how slow it is, but I’d like it to be thin and light, with USB C adapter for charger. Even the battery life is not something I need to be high, all I care for it to handle a single writing session, of an hour or two. Ideally, I’d prefer the laptop to be cheap, I don’t need a typing machine for a grand. This laptop could be perfect for the task, yet it’s a disaster. So far, one of the best laptops I could find is a used MacBook Air 11, can get one for €50 to €100 these days.
- Comment on LG Electronics unveils 2026 Gram Laptop line with aerospace composite - up to 50% lighter than macbooks 3 weeks ago:
Only the MacBook 12 was fanless from the Intel era, but I’m not too sure about that. Airs were never fanless while being Intel.
- Comment on NAS decision paralysis 3 weeks ago:
I do agree with you, entirely. My point is, it was the easiest option. I guess self-hosting Headscale should eliminate that, if there’s nothing suspicious with the clients.
Also, I tried Netbird, and it was good, but a bit more complicated. I didn’t like it UX wise, but that could be me not having enough time to explore. I have it installed with my mum’s PC at her home. My infrastructure uses Tailscale now.
Also, there are other alternatives. I haven’t tried them yet. All I wanted to say, there are compromises everywhere, and dealing with the US is the compromise for now.
I’m located in Ukraine, so personally, I wish them what they want to push on me — this administration wants me and my family to die for the orange monkey to steal some more money for himself, betraying his own country; I guess that’s obvious for all of us.
But I just think for me personally that’s rather a vector of my movement rather than changing things momentarily. So, to me, Tailscale was a god send. As I struggled to get through this. Now I understand it a bit better. I’d love to setup WireGuard myself, I just lack some knowledge, and also time plus energy. I hope I’d do that this year. We’ll see. Thanks for enhancing my point, and happy new year.
- Comment on Contract for self-hosting help 3 weeks ago:
I’d say the same. About money, I’d formulate this differently: most of the people here would be happy to help for free, I believe. And the author could just ‘thank with a coffee’ kind of thing, if they feel like it. I see that’s as a very nice option for everyone.
- Comment on Contract for self-hosting help 3 weeks ago:
With the 3rd part, I’d recommend going with Tailscale, it really helps for folks who don’t understand many things yet, and is super easy to setup. The free tier allows 3 users and 100 computers, so even if you need more, it’s easy to start with that, learn things and then change this aspect.
- Comment on Contract for self-hosting help 3 weeks ago:
Personally, I have tremendous issues with paper notebooks. I love them for random notes, but not structuring things. I started a blog a year or so ago, and it was very rewarding to document everything there. My blog is not online yet, but I plan to publish it within a month or so. If things are good, maybe the next week even.
I wanted to tell others that if you want any help setting up a simple blog for yourself, you’re welcome to ping me, I can help you with setting that up, and you may see what difference it makes! I so so so wish I had that done years ago, but at least I started already.
- Comment on Contract for self-hosting help 3 weeks ago:
Yes! I literally wrote the guy (or gal) the same thing personally, before reading any comments. Keeping a journal helps so so much! Start a blog if you can, I only started it in 2025 (having some random notes here and there before that), and it’s so so so rewarding!
Also, GPTs help a lot, especially when you’re able to verify the outputs. It’s somewhat challenging, to understand it’s lying, if you’re new to the topic, but I noticed it’s quite good at the simple questions, especially tech ones.
I’ve got an impression that rather a friend than a consultant is needed. Unfortunately, I’ve got none when I needed them so much. But I think I can be someone’s friend, so feel free to ping.