?..It’s a great tool that provides all the security of VPN access without having to struggle with the more technical aspects of spinning up your own VPN, and it’s zero cost for personal use.

You could also use Netbird if you wanted, but I have been using Tailscale extensively and it’s awesome.

IP white lists and firewall exceptions will help, but exposing ports on your home router is almost always a bad idea, especially for something as trivial as a game server.

I would highly recommend Tailscale. It’s free for up to 3 users, and if you have more friends than that, I would have them all sign up with free accounts and then share your laptop device with their tailnets.

It’s very easy to setup and use, costs nothing, and will be far more secure than opening ports and trying to set up IP white lists, protocol limitations, etc.

Tailscale creates something called an “overlay network” it’s basically a virtual LAN that exists on top of your real network and can be extended to other people and devices over the internet. It’s fully encrypted, fast, and like I said, very easy to set up.

The process of enshitification is what I was referring to. Discord got super popular by providing users with lots of value for zero cost.

Now, in order to increase profits, they are reducing the scope of features they offer, and increasing the cost of the features that remain.

This will continue to slowly get worse, as users are more locked into Discord’s ecosystem and userbase, they will be further pressured to upgrade and pay more money for less stuff.

Discord’s enshitification continues.

I’ve been thinking of using Linkwarden for a while now. As my computer usage spreads across more and more devices, having a single place to go for all my bookmarks would be fantastic.

Tubular and NewPipe both barely working all day for me. Maybe 1 out of 10 vids loads. Downloading fails too.

Performance and how configurable things are, plus ease of use.

For instance, my default router/modem device from my ISP was super clunky and confusing. I needed to set up some custom port forwarding and firewall rules. The aftermarket router I bought was faster, had way better wireless coverage, and the UI was so much easier to set up the configs I needed.

So it’s up to you, from what you said, seems like you probably would be good with the default from your ISP.

Sure thing…now GPL/Creative Commons all your code involved in any way for your models, documentation, parameters, data sets, and allow full unlimited integration and modification by any parties to any portion of it.

I have a monthly budget that I pay recurring charges out of, a couple hundred USD a year give or take.

I also do a lot of one-off donations to various projects and creators.

I also have some FOSS software/services that I pay monthly for premium features on, like Bitwarden, Proton, and Podverse.

True, sadly. Honestly it’s already there in certain specific respects.

This is kind of like asking, “what is water worth?”

To an upper middle class person in the developed world, a dollar or two. To a person stranded in a desert, they might literally kill for it.

If you are just a Joe shmoe out in the world living a basic life, privacy might not be worth hardly anything. But if you’re a whistle blower or a political dissident in an authoritarian country, your privacy is worth everything.

That would be really cool.

Eh, now days unless you’re really beating them up, most HDDs will last at least 5-7 years.

You are right that people need to have multiple backups on different media, especially really important stuff.

You’re right though, actually even cheaper than I thought.

5TB portable HDDs new on Newegg for $100 - $150

All the more reason to start hoarding data!

Go to your favorite YT creator’s channels and download important content! Educational content, lectures, nostalgic content. Anything and everything you have the storage for.

One day, it will be locked away behind paywalls, poisoned with ads, or just deleted entirely.

Part of preparing for war is stockpiling supplies. Buy bulk storage. An extra 2-4 TB hard drive can be bought for 100-200 dollars. It doesn’t have to be fancy, get a friend or two to go in with you on it.

Download and save everything you value. Rip your physical media and save it, pirate the shows and movies you love. One day it will be locked away or stolen from you because the terms of service changed.

Please don’t delay, I wish I had started years ago myself.

God bless iFixit, and God damn Samsung.

This would be an even funnier comment if the subject wasn’t so horrifying.

Welcome to our cyberpunk dystopian future. It’s not the sexy, aesthetic, neon hacker-world version. It’s a dull, dreary, hyper-capitalist, hyper-consumerist, post truth, AI sludge hellscape.

I’ll throw my hat in. I’ve moderated multiple Discord communities before and currently. I’ve also moderated forums back in the day.

I am passionate about FOSS and the community around it. I’ve been a Linux user for 4+ years now and work in IT, so I have a good handle on the current trends in tech.

Thanks for your consideration!

I’ve been on 1080p since highschool, over 15 years, works perfectly for me. I value high frame rate over resolution/fidelity. Luckily for me, even mid-tier hardware is so powerful now, AAA games on ultra at 1080p can easily hit 160+

I have an AMD 6700XT and a 5800X3D with a 240Hz 1080p monitor, it’s wonderful for me.

Obligatory reminder:

Email is not a secure medium! If you need truly secure and/or anonymous communications, DON’T USE EMAIL!

Use a platform/protocol designed from the ground up for those things!