I figured this may lead to an interesting discussion in the comments.
How has your use of Technology changed in the past year? I’ll start.
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Due to the rise of streaming services and Sony/discovery removing content from libraries, I downloaded all my iTunes purchases onto a 2TB SSD (which I’ll soon need to get another).
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Like many, I’ve stopped using Reddit outside of Google search.
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I’ve reduced my subscriptions to just two. (Apple One and Google One)
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I’ve purchased DVDs/Blu rays of my favorite uncensored shows (Family Guy and American Dad) and ripped them and watch them through Cloud storage (Google Drive via Infuse for Apple platforms, and Kodi for Windows)(I’ve also purchased MakeMKV just because it is so damn useful)
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I’ve used Google App Scripts to bypass some Gmail limitations to make filters that I otherwise couldn’t. For instance, in Outlook.com, you can block email addresses and domains before you have ever gotten an email from them. In Gmail, you can’t. The best you can do is create a filter that deletes them. In my case, I’ve created a Google App Script that runs every hour and looks for (@.mil) domain emails and marks them as spam. (I am in college, and I fucking hate that they give my email to recruiters.)
I’ve started archiving my media much more vigorously. Due to the corpos enshitifying so much, the amount of media I have ripped and preserved on my own NAS has exploded.
I started torrenting again for the first time since college.
I gave up reddit and use Lemmy and Fediverse exclusively, except for the occasional tech issue I have and then search old reddits for advice/solutions.
I watch YT exclusively through GrayJay, NewPipe, and FreeTube now.
I’ve become much more active converting people to Linux. So far I convinced two friends to buy Steam Decks, one friend to buy a Framework laptop and put Fedora on it, converted my parents to Linux Mint, and may have two more people switching to Linux on their main computers in the coming year.
I’ve also been pushing more FOSS software and hardware to family and friends, trying to convince them to care more about right to repair, FOSS and the like.
This year I am planning to build a new NAS that will be a self-hosted defeater for streaming and get my close friends and family onboard. Hopefully they will slowly give up their subscriptions.
We’ll see how it all goes, but I’m very optimistic about FOSS tech in the coming months and years, so much great stuff happening!
So good to hear! Well done
I definitely feel the enshittification of such platforms will/has led to some great software, updates, and alternative front ends. It sucks seeing platforms decay, however, I love seeing the fightback from users who aren’t going to tolerate bullshit from any company.
- Switched to Linux
- Switched to Firefox
- Set up email forwarding to a new account on Proton Mail
- Finally upgraded my PC
Aye, congratulations on the new/upgraded PC!
I’ve stopped trusting anything online due to AI being a cancer on the internet and it’s only going to get worse.
My trust in anything on the internet has eroded over the last ten years. Information, news, offers…it’s all pud-pulling capitalist circlejerking and the most cynical propaganda imaginable.
I don’t trust what you just said
Good! You’re learning.
Or… are we!??
I don’t know!
- deleted my Reddit account. Only use it if I land there from a web search
- Started using Firefox containers - keep Amazon, Google, Microsoft etc in their own containers
- Deleted my Dropbox account when they started deploying AI tools late 23. About to delete Google Drive.
- Migrated to paid Protonmail. Intend to wipe my Gmail data in next couple of months
- Migrated to paid data backup service
- Bought a steam deck, connected it to my living room TV and now PC game in my living room (had a steam link but never got into it before, but steam deck has changed how I play)
- Cancelled most streaming services
- Started using Freetube software and Libredirect to escape YouTube
- Installed fdroid open source store on my phone and switched to many foss and non cloud apps.
Basically mostly I’ve started taking my privacy and data much more seriously. I was already privacy “aware” but the explosion of so called AI tools in my industry (healthcare) has made me realise the value and importance of my data, and how much of it is being stolen and exploited by private interests. There are also examples of how private data is being extracted from this bullshit AI tools.
I’m increasingly understanding how important it is now to actively protect my data and also fragment my internet presence as much as possible.
What backup service are you using if I might ask
Not OP but I’ve been using duplicity for over a decade. Zero lock-in to any particular cloud storage, uses rdiff and gpg for the incremental computation and encryption… it’s awesome.
Just this month I’ve switched over from S3 to Dropbox for cloud storage due to price, and other than the large first backup, my backup script worked flawlessly.
I can’t recommend it enough.
Self hosted a lemmy server for myself
Switched to Firefox
Got a VPN
Using said vpn to share my dad’s YouTube TV(only works on my TV though, not mobile)
Started using copilot which improved my productivity at work
I got married, so now im sharing more online accounts
Kudos on getting married!
Deleted my Twitter account and switched from Reddit (accounts are not deleted) to Lemmy.
Switched from Chrome back to Firefox after more than a decade.
Dropped Windows in favor of Linux Mint.
Unsubscribed from Netflix, Disney+, etc. Now I only torrent the films, series, etc. that I know I’ll watch more than once, for stuff that I only plan on watching once I use Stremio with the Torrentio add-on.
Started using my old Facebook account after several years just for Marketplace.
That’s all I can remember at the moment.
EDIT: Oh yeah, ditched PornHub for NoodleMagazine.
- Dropped Reddit and Twitter completely. Actually deleted my Reddit account and deleted most of my Twitter history.
- Stopped using Gmail as my primary email.
- Went back to DVD and Blu-Ray for shows and movies I think I might want to rewatch.
- Slowly importing stuff I’ve posted on various social media to my website.
- Slowly moving stuff off of Google Drive and Dropbox to my local PC and/or Nextcloud.
- Finally set up my Nextcloud server to use object storage so I can use it for auto-uploads without worrying about space.
- Tried out a bunch of different Fediverse platforms.
- Made more of an effort to report bugs instead of just living with them or using something else.
- Deleted Chrome as my secondary browser and installed Vivaldi. (I’ve been using Firefox as my primary for a while.)
Moving stuff is slow because I don’t want to just copy it all over, I want to decide what to keep in the process.
As you migrate files off the cloud to your local computer, what are you doing for backups? I’d love to self-host everything personally, but having my life’s data in just one physical location is not making me feel great at all.
There are a couple of options. What I currently do is an.encrypted borg backup of my important files which is then synced to Dropbox and Google Drive. Currently looking for an inexpensive tape drive though to back up everything locally. Those things are flipping expensive!
I finally overhauled my home server. I built a 12TB storage and media server using a few parts from the old server but am running it on Linux using docker rather than my old gaming PC’s windows 7 install. Should be much better for security and easier to upgrade or move.
Paid for PlexPass finally since hardware transcoding is locked behind the paywall.
Dropped Netflix after over a decade of using it regularly because the prices went up and I had been using it less.
Have used ChatGPT for help planning trips and developing goals and plans at home. I was restricted from using it or anything like it at work so I haven’t been able to properly use it to my advantage much.
Finally upgraded my router to WiFi 6 and my Internet bandwidth to gigabit from 250 mbps. It’s refreshing! Probably the best decision I made in 2023.
Dropped reddit (to include blocking the domain on my pihole). I still waste time but less of it is on social media.
I was wondering if you ever tried jellyfin, since you mentioned paying for plex.
I haven’t tried Jellyfin yet mostly because I rely heavily on the native Plex apps for my TVs and phones. Outside network streaming without having to set up a proxy or VPN is another big reason.
I haven’t liked the direction Plex has been going for a while, but it’s hard to beat the convenience.
Similar to you I built a home server and got all the networking done in the house and started self hosting as much stuff as I can which is what got me interested in lemmy, got a ai chat docker installed but wasn’t that useful on its own
Nice setup + great Wi-Fi for steaming, downloading, etc. congrats!
- I stopped using reddit and created this lemmy account.
- SSD failed on my desktop system, so I switched my gaming 100% to steam deck and bought Raspberry pi 400 for browsing the internet, light video editing and bank stuff.
That’s about it.
switched to linux, ditched vivaldi for firefox, quit reddit, quit youtube and started using invidious. probably a lot more that i can’t think of.
I wish I could use/get used to Firefox, but Vivaldi really has spoiled me. I use Microsoft Edge for PWAs (due to sleeping tabs) and Vivaldi as my main browser, and the customizable interface, easier CSS theming (in my experience) and community around it make it such a pleasure to use. Command chains are so useful too!
i admit it has been difficult to get used to ff, especially the android version with its terrible homepage. but seeing how tracking and spying is increasing, AI getting better, and constant data thefts, i feel that i have to minimize my footprint so i can’t trust any chronium based browsers anymore…
Ditched centralized social media and started a personal diary
What exactly do you write in a diary? I’ve tried it so many times and yet can’t keep it up
Don’t try, just write in it whenever you feel like it: congratulations! You have a diary! That could be several times a day, or once a month, depending what you need and want out of your diary. But realistically if you’re just starting out it will probably be diary meta, like about the writing you’re doing in the diary lol.
For me I find it useful for
- jotting media reviews.
- nurturing my stationary fetish.
- an excuse to practice my cursive.
- relaxing at the end of the day, or week.
- reading over to gain insights into my moods (like how I was always sad after drinking)
- purging “negative” feelings (anger, insecurity, etc) - just get them out of my head and on to a page.
Anyway, here’s an example of me just talking about Quake 2 and having trouble focusing at work:
At the end of the day, I just like making marks on the page.
I tried something like that once. I was going to write about a weird nightmare I had. Ended up creating a “short” horror story that I write on days I’m feeling a little more angry — you can read that as violent if you want — and down. It isn’t done yet, that’s the reasons for the quotes, but I hope to get to the end sometime.
That’s cool. And if it continues to be useful / enjoyable to you, then you don’t necessarily need to “end” it ever, unless you really want to.
For sure! But i feel I’ll probably make many short stories instead of just stretching one out. As an aspiring author i guess I’ll use this as a kind of practice
Ah yeah that makes sense. I’m an eternal hobbyist with different creative things (art, games, stories, etc), so I get the challenge of just finishing something.
PS feel free to send me what you’ve got if you want a totally impartial “beta reader” or whatever that’s called
Really just reflect on everything that happened that day and think about how things made you feel, and just write that shit down, no filter. It might seem silly when you end up emotionally analyzing mundane situations, but over time you become so much more aware of yourself and your mind.
Excellent advice. I’ve sat down to write about a boring day, only to be shocked at the shit that was festering just below the surface. Like negative attitudes and resentment to people in my life, that would have just kind of hung around in the back of my head totally unknown and unacknowledged, but still there and unchallenged until I took a few minutes to consciously follow my own thoughts and feelings.
Anyway 10/10 would recommend the examined life.
Personally I like the 5 Minute Journal (and their app). It’s easy to keep up with and helps me focus on gratitude
One of the national mobile networks finally put up a blisteringly fast 5G mast near my house. I have finally reached the totally cable-free nirvana I dreamt of in 1997 when I held my first Motorola Startac in my hand and took an office call on a park bench.
- I turned my old desktop into a home server, which let me cancel some streaming services… and I set up an rpi4 as a kodi server.
- Signed up for Firefox Relay (had a holiday sale) to have email masks and a proxy phone number, which should help with spam & marketing crap.
- Stopped using Reddit in favor of lemmy (which I hope to contribute to this year)
- Gonna have to find a replacement for mint, since it’s dying this month
Firefox Relay and email relaying/forwarding services are so useful, not just from a privacy point of view, but also being in control of accounts simply by turning off forwarding for a specific email, or just deleting the forwarding email all together. I use iCloud’s Hide My Email.
- Switched to Lemmy
- Set up DNS blocking for tracking cookies / ADs
- Set up Proxmox
- Set up Pfsense
- Upgraded to gigabit fibre!
- Set up Invidious
- Quit using Youtube
- Quit using Twitter
- Quit using Reddit
- Upgraded Wifi to TPLink to cover whole house and to replace consumer level Mesh networking
- Setup multiple VLANs on my network
- Put IoT devices on IoT WiFi
- Put home automation and IoT crap on my Kubernetes cluster
Nice internet setup! Do you use Adguard DNS/Home, or a Pihole? The amount of telemetry that IoT devices can send is crazy! I put my families Roku on my Adguard DNS, and it, no joke, sent a request to Google and Roku every 10 seconds. Echo Dots and Fire TVs also send a lot of telemetry, even with privacy options on.
My DNS setup at the moment is lazy I am using NextDNS. It lets me individual rules for each vlan though which I like as it gives a lot of control.
Did you research OPNSense vs pfsense? I have installed OPNSense, but having bit of performance issues with it, my 1Gbps ISP connection goes down 50% if IPS is enabled. Have been thinking that should I change to pfsense.
nah, I just started setting things up and it kept working…
Ditched Reddit for Lemmy with a side of Kbin.
Switched from SCCM to InTune at work.
Switched from Sony Xperia to Google Pixel for my smartphone.
Got a smart oven as a gift, so far, I’m liking it paired with the easy prep Tovala meals, but it seems like a pretty capable toaster oven/air fryer. Apparently it can dehydrate as well, haven’t tried that yet. This is the first “smart” device I owned outside of a smartphone, and probably would have bought it for myself, but now that I’m using it, I have to admit, I like it.
I hope you enjoy your pixel! I had a Pixel 3 XL from 2019-2021, and outside of it running warm, Google’s skin of Android was a delight to use, I loved having the assistant screen calls and using the hold for me feature, it’s actually what kept me back from purchasing all in the Apple ecosystem for a while. I’d argue the most niche feature I loved is that the contact or phone app would allow you to send people directly to voicemail without showing a call screen (unlike iOS which will show you the call screen); it made college alerts, prescription alerts, etc. so much easier to handle!
Thanks, I hope I do too, but time will tell. Even if I don’t like it, I got it for half off and a year of unlimited cell service so if I end up hating it, I’ll just sell it on Swappa and keep the sim card for a phone I like better lol