personal

Meet the Self-Hosters, Taking Back the Internet One Server at a Time

Meet the Self-Hosters, Taking Back the Internet One Server at a Time:

Much of this growth can be seen on Reddit, with r/selfhosted hitting over 136,000 members and continuing to rise, up from 84,000 just a year ago. The discussions involve self-hosting software that spans dozens of categories, from home automation, genealogy, and media streaming to document collaboration and e-commerce. The list maintained by nodiscc and the community has grown so long that its stewards say it needs more curation and better navigation.

The quality of free and easy-to-use self-hosting software has increased too, making the practice increasingly accessible to the less-technically savvy. Add to that the rise of cheap, credit card-sized single-board computers like the Raspberry Pi, which lower the starting costs of creating a home server to as little as $5 or $10. “Between high-available hosting environments, to one-click/one-command deploy options for hundreds of different softwares, the barrier for entry has dramatically been lowered over the years,” said KmisterK.

[I did this for a long time and then messed up a transition, lost a bunch of things, and tossed in the towel. It still makes me sad, but it remains clear that while it would have been nice to not lose all that history, it has had no overwhelmingly detrimental effect. I’m glad to be blogging again, it had been so long when I felt I had lost my voice, but it seems it was just hiding behind the couch. And I’m working on a podcast as well, (something I thought I’ve never do…) but I have some thoughts. Birth of a notion and all that.]

How we should be…

I came across this article because, in the Internet sense of knowing someone, I know the author. I can assure you that neither of us would know the other if we sat across a table from each other, but I purchase books and tools from her husband’s companies and then the Internet takes over.

So autism. It’s not easy on the parents, it’s not easy on the child, and without kindness from others it’s a total mess. There. I’ve wrapped a heart wrenching and complicated topic in a few short sentences. Time for you to read: Cutting with kindness.

That’s a beautiful story. But let’s extract the autism for a moment. When I was growing up one of the things I was taught was “patience”. Now patience, like all things, has a balance to it. There’s the “it’s not all about you” patience. And then there’s the “put up with other’s crap” patience.

I know I’m far less patient (both kinds) with my family than with not family or strangers. I expect more from the people closest to me, and so I have less patience with their needs. And, of course, I feel safer expressing myself in glorious detail, dissecting exactly how their actions affect me with possible means for rectification. Feels kinda backwards to me right now after reading that story. As I’ve said before, living an examined life is a PITA.

The lesson here however is not in being more patient, kinder, and understanding to children with autism. Although everyone should be more understanding of the families it’s not my point. Also, there will always some people whose problems are too deep—who will take whatever you offer no matter how much. Let’s avoid discussing that problem…it’s one side of the bell curve. So, the point is… it can only improve my life to continue to be ever more aware of people’s needs and respond kindly, thoughtfully, with ever greater awareness.

Morning rituals

I have long envied people who stick to their morning rituals. Or maybe they rely on them. I find the world highly ephemeral. I try not to rely on anything I don’t feel compelled to rely upon.

So I’ve watched over the years, now that people share, in the Instagram perfection of it all, their rituals, if not daily, then at least over time what appears to be a daily thing.

The first action of the day might be making coffee. They grind, froth, stir, and ease into their day. Some get kitted up and cycle to their favorite spot where they meet others of similar ilk and collectively drink and eat a bite of something before whisking off on their daily ride.

Lots of folks I know head quietly to their workshop of choice. Wood, pottery, metal–it matters not. They spend some time making things that they or others may cherish for years to come, a tribute before heading off to work. Sometimes it’s a wish, a hope, or prayer that they can spend more time doing the creative activity they love.

My mornings have been defined by external factors for a long time. Garbage and recycling 3 times a week. Getting DaKid™ on the school bus. Sometimes commuting. But not much in the way of taking a few moments to greet the day.

I have a pile of gifts that I’ve been making in my little wood shop for a while. Some of the folks have been waiting years for their gifts to be completed. Sad. So terribly sad. Last year and now this year have been banner years for completing projects. Bookcases, a dining room table, and now the gifts are all being finished. And while it’s a tiny fraction of what it used to be, I’m even working on some new music.

I find new rituals establishing themselves. After taking care of the other stuff (garbage, School bus, etc.) I make my way to the shop and spend a few minutes adding another coat of shellac to a board. Or some other not very risky task. Risk takes time. I need to be able to back away, think, come at it again. There’s little time for that in my morning.

Shellac is a beautiful finish. A bit high maintenance for some, but beautiful. I use very thin coats and many of them. Each day another thin layer is applied. It’s probably dry in ten of fifteen minutes, but work beckons, and so I don’t make it back there until the end of the day. It is ritualistic. I go down there, flick on the lights, put one glove on like a drunken surgeon, uncap the canning jars, one with shellac, one with the cloth pad. A few swipes later, and I’m done for now. The jars are lidded, and the glove, turned inside out as I remove it, goes in the trash.

More recently, as I began composing some new music, I started practicing again. I sit down, grab an instrument, turn on the metronome and lose myself in exercises for 15 or 20 minutes. Amazingly peaceful for me. A touchstone from an older aspect of my life and a meditation. And probably something I should every day for the rest of my life. It’s not “playing” or “performing”. It’s a simple discipline where I work toward increasing facility. Playing things that are hard for me now until they become smooth and easy. A new picking technique. A hard to play phrase. A difficult intervalic leap. A few concentrated minutes that stops time outside of my focus before the day is in full swing. A morning ritual.

First coat on the bottom… Just before, I knocked back the top's two coats with a #3000 grit automotive pad. I know it has its limitations...but shellac is such a beautiful finish. #whisperworkshop #handwork #handtools #woodworking #woodwork #everythingmatters

And the news became important…

Dave Winer: RSS on the desktop, 15 years later

Distilled, in a tweet, this is what it’s about to me. “One of the most patriotic things you can do is to upgrade the quality and breadth of the news you read. Invest in your personal news flow.”

Even just a few months ago, that statement would have seemed arrogant, even unhinged. But today we know that control of information flow is essential to basically everything. It will be even more so in the future.

That’s the anthem of my new product, Electric River. It’s now available for the Mac, hopefully soon on other desktop platforms. It boots up reading the feeds I set it up to read. But you can and should make it your own. I want to work on making feed discovery better next, but for right now, you can build your own news network and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to make it work.

[Dave’s vision for this has been clear for very long time, but is as fresh as ever. So, if you’re reading this, and you’ve been actively seeking and sharing stories in places like Facebook, do yourself a favor and try this out. Seek the news feeds that you find important and add them in. Most of all, continue to seek the truth that lies beneath the reporting, editing, and biases.]

What it’s about — moderation, preservation, and gradualism.

I wanted to write about what this election is about to me… and I assure you it’s not about parties, candidates, media news cycles, or predictions.

Here’s what I think this is about… it’s about getting small. It’s about realizing that growth is not the only answer to how you improve your life. It’s about doing and creating things that other need, without allowing that to become more important than family, friends, and making the most of the unknown amount of time you have.

Think about the following…in 2008 when you were spending $4 a gallon for gas. It took me back to 1973 when waiting on a gas line (and no cell phones!!) was a thing. Even the folks driving us to school waited on line with us kids in the car, because you needed every advantage. Even if we put up with things like fracking (oh heavens, no), and giant oil lines running across our wilderness (please, have a little respect) we’re running out of oil, no matter which way you want to look at it.

Global warming? It’s not a future problem, it’s a now problem. Please take a few minutes to read through this, and you’ll understand why I say that. The drawing makes it abundantly clear. I know it impinges on the way people want to live their lives, and I feel bad about that. But not so bad that I lose sight of where we are headed to the best of our knowledge. It’s not even a “we’re good, let our kids worry about it” problem—which is venal enough… it’s a now, like we really need to change our behavior problem. When you mix that with the rapidly diminishing oil reserves, and it represents a clarion call to action. Even if all the scientists are wrong (How could that be? All of them?), are you willing to the bet the only inhabitable planet we all live on that they’re all wrong, and that with no particular proof you are correct? C’mon. That’s nuts.

So one last item, the collapse of the banks. Displaying a singular lack of integrity they based their choices on a crazed belief (as is the anti-global warming crowd) that things will not change. That they way things have been recently is all there is. That at the very bottom, in the ooze and muck of “me first”, the personal interest ($$$) of the individuals in the banks is far more important than the needs of anyone or everyone else. They cannot be trusted any more because their interest is uncoupled from yours by an abyss so vast that you cannot expect them to act in even a vague notion of alignment to your interests, which they claim to represent.

We need to stop thinking that the answer to everything is growth. Bigger is not better, and we should stop painting ourselves into a corner that leaves no room for any other answer. Why don’t we ever consider shrinking? Why can’t small be not only good but great? And better or best! Why can’t less really be more? The answer, of course, is it can, because it relies on community, and alignment of values and concerns.

So the election… I’m thinking about the above. I’m thinking about folks who are remarkably not represented in any way shape or form. I’m thinking about folks who just want to live their lives with the dignity and respect accorded others. I don’t see a clear party or candidate that represents “less”, “smaller”, “more simple”. I do not hear anyone talking about moderation, preservation, and talking about a gradual approach to anything. Well, maybe they all talk about gradually increasing taxes in one form or another. But that’s it. So go vote, and do the best you can. That’s as close to a plan as I have for this election.

Planned Obsolescence

Planned Obsolescence:

I’ve long felt that everyone who eats meat should slaughter and butcher and animal in order to get in touch with where meat comes from. I now add to the list that everyone who creates trash needs to go to the dump and take a good long look at where trash goes. So many materials. So much waste. So many things that failed to be worthwhile. So much mass. There were mountains, truly mountains of trash.

[I continue to rebel against consumerism. As much as I possibly can I do without things that are not preferably, made by individual, to last, and avoid things that are “trendy” and designed to be replaced within my lifetime. I may never get all the way there, but I (and my family) are getting closer all the time. Someone mocked me using the words of another “Ingredient driven, farm to table, dishwasher safe, gluten free, kosher for Passover, craft brewed, bean to bar, hand roasted, Fiber speeds but made with dial-up sensibility living according to my opinion.” That’s a lot to ask for, but I’ll take it where I can find it.]

Image from: https://recycleraccoon.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/landfill.jpg

★ Now Batting for the Yankees, Number 2

★ Now Batting for the Yankees, Number 2:

One final time, Bob Sheppard’s voice booms through The Stadium. “Now batting for the Yankees, number 2, Derek Jeter. Number 2.”

Winning run on second base. One out. Everyone in The Stadium is standing. I’m standing watching at home. My son, 10, is standing on the couch next to me. The tension is excruciating. First pitch, Jeter jumps on it with his signature inside-out swing. Single to right! Richardson beats the throw to the plate. Yankees win. Yankees win. Pandemonium. My boy jumps off the couch into my arms and we run around the house, hugging, screaming, laughing like the maniacs that we are.

Things like this just aren’t supposed to happen. Real-life endings aren’t like scripted storybook endings. Except with Jeter they so often were. That broken-bat RBI grounder in the 7th was a realistic ending. A spectacular walk-off game-winning single in the bottom of the 9th was not. It felt like the World Series. It felt like the old days.

“This is what it used to be like,” I told my son, “every single year. Something crazy always happened. And then someone for the Yankees always stepped up. Jeter was always in the middle of it. Every year. This is what it was like.”

[I’ll miss Bob Sheppard’s voice. A remarkable institution, now truly silenced.

For me, not much of a baseball fan as team sports go, Mr. Jeter’s baseball career means something to me mostly because of timing. He, (and the other Core 4) Paul O’Neil, Bernie, Joe Girardi, the coaches… the whole “dynasty” team and all the crazy stuff that happened… means something to me because it happened when I had a chance to watch it with my Dad. When I was a kid he had no time to sit and watch baseball (I don’t mean “with me” either, I mean *at all*). He might have caught a few minutes here and there, but I never recall seeing him sit down to watch a game. If anything, I recall watching a rare basketball game with him, maybe a bit of football? Not much of any of it to be sure.

Besides… television then was not television as it is now. It was small and blurry and black and white for the most part.

Anyway, later on in both our lives there was time to sit and watch some games. The Patrick Ewing/John Starks/Pat Riley Knicks were the lead in and having enjoyed some great games, it was easy to sit and watch some baseball with him. I never developed the pastoral joy that allows baseball lovers to sit through a 4 hour game, but there were lots of exciting games to enjoy, and my father taught me a lot about the game.

Baseball has long since slipped off my “todo” list. It sits behind lots of other things on any night of the week and especially on Sunday. And of course, there’s been really no chance to watch those games with my Dad, though who knows, he could be living a lot closer to me next year… but it doesn’t matter from a sports viewing perspective.

While the time for me to watch sports with my father may have ended, and my son has only a passing interest at the moment, I expect to be one of the many who will say, to the unending chagrin of the kids around at that moment… “I may not have seen Mickey Mantle or those guys… but I saw Derek Jeter play from some great seats. I was in The Stadium at the height of Red Sox/Yankees and watched Pedro pitch… I saw the Davids throw perfect game after perfect game, and I watched all of it with my Dad.” (BTW, I saw those Knicks with him as well… could anyone light up the Garden like John Starks?) I’ll always cherish those teams, not for the great playing, the fierce rivalries and all the hype and craziness. But simply because I got to enjoy those moments with my Dad.

PS While there was a career filled with highlights, I always greatly admired the conviction in this famous play:

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That’s what I call “all in”.]

How things go… (car camping)

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As a kid my parents shared their love of the outdoors, passed on I’m told from my grand parents, and while we as family never did more than day hike together, some how that lead to my love of backwoods hiking and camping. I’ve since sectioned hiked the AT a bit, “bike” camped, and now, in my latest incarnation car camped.

I never would have thought it.

But my wife is more of a city girl, and so far my son is a city boy as well. Now he’s young, and there’s plenty of time for him to develop the put it on your back and walk aesthetic I enjoy so much, but I recognize that if I’m going to maximize my own outdoor time, it’s going to be with necessary compromises on how I go about that… so car camping it is. Recently, The Kid slept in a tent all night with me for the first time and loved it. He’s hiked up various paths in NY, ME, and NH… and loves rock climbing (like many kids). I appear to be off to a good start.

Some unexpected additions?

A solar chargeable battery arrangement that allows my son to use his devices. We also have the ability to recharge it from the car, and or run various things while in the car. There’s more LED lights than I would have expected, but they do make it easy to see. There’ll be more cooking related things than I would have thought. We have an excellent cooler that will hold ice for days (or other things frozen or cool).

In short, there’s way more gear than I ever considered in my light and ultra-light days. but it sure does make it homey regardless of where we hang out.

If anyone cares for details about what gear we’re using… feel free to get in touch.

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