I use Apple devices for end-user activities but Linux for my routers and servers. I grew up with Windows at home and Macs at school; as a teen I used Linux full time on used PCs but always loved the “it just works” design of Apple gear.

I actually prefer FreeBSD, but Docker and containerization have brought me much closer to Linux.

Specifically, I love using Alpine Linux due to its flexibility. Its packages are very up to date and I can install an actually working Node or Ruby with a simple apk add versus installing nvm or rbenv. It’s awesome for lightweight, no nonsense stuff like Tailscale, VPNs, etc.

Yeah, that’s pretty annoying.

I use Tailscale with an exit node in my home country and another in Switzerland. Most my traffic goes to Switzerland, but some of it exits locally as websites block other countries. I’d rather it still pass through a VPN rather than my home IP address.

It’s mostly painless, the only website outright blocking VPNs is Reddit (which I don’t care about), but I block most other social media companies and Google properties so I’m not concerned about them.

I personally use a double-hop VPN to avoid this but I don’t think that’s necessarily scalable to all users or a valid suggestion for the non-technical among us.

This is what keeps me from rolling my own instance for personal use. I would need to buy a domain (linked to me) to communicate with anyone else.

It would be nice to be able to spin up an instance on i2p or Tor without still needing access to the “normal” web, but I don’t think everyone’s going to hop onto pure i2p unless it comes built in to apps.

What is the most private phone? Take a visit to a Google property and curb stomp your privacy to find out!

Feeling attacked with Leggable and Fleable. I’ve been known to write a concern or two in Ruby on Rails but what can I say? I like my code DRY.

I used to keep my voice and tone professional with the fake smiling and shit, but my facial expressions never lied.

I’ve seen this a lot in fast food. Their order (for the exact same thing) would be impossible to make that fast fresh, so they lose their shit if you use your brain and give them the existing one that was made minutes (seconds?) ago.

Such simple-minded thinking.

We had another customer come in for like three days in a row ordering fries without salt, thinking they’re soooo smart (always during rush too when fries were super fresh). I watched them add salt to them after sitting down every time. On day four I got sick of them so I made fries without salt at the very start of rush and put them aside for an hour or two just so that when they did it again they got the shittiest, oldest fries.

Definitely not a professional move but I got my revenge.

Well I MITM myself quite often to confirm it. I’m also smashing together hundreds of blocklists, and I always check the network tab of my browser’s developer tools and very rarely see anything coming from third-party domains.

Sure, sometimes assets are on the actual domain I’m visiting (or its CDN) but most of the time, even tracking scripts there are broken because they still call the blocked scripts.

By the way, it’s hilarious that everyone wants to fight so hard about this yet when someone says “use an adblocker” nobody says anything as if it’s the end-all solution.

I didn’t say “I have a bulletproof, surefire way to fix this.” I said “use network-based blocking.” However effective that is is up to the person implementing it; you have no idea how effective my setup is because you don’t have access to its configuration.

Another McDonald’s drive-thru story but probably the guy that wouldn’t pull forward for 30 fucking seconds for fresh fries.

I was a shift manager at the time and had my staff all hyped up during a busy lunch rush. We were kicking ass — no mistakes, drive-thru times were insanely low and everything was moving. I told some guy “could you please pull forward for just 30 seconds, I have the next five cars’ orders right here and we’re just waiting for fresh fries.”

The guy lost it, started screaming “I won’t fucking pull forward,” “this is bullshit,” all the typical douchebag stuff.

I closed the window and told my staff not to hand him anything. I ran outside with five bags, walked around his car and handed them all to the next cars. I told them “he didn’t want to pull forward” and made sure to point so the guy could see me ratting him out. They all took off fast and right as I walked inside the damn fries were ready so I bagged them up, opened that window and told him to have a “wonderful day.”I loved seeing his stupid face turn beet red with embarrassment.

My second worst Karen was the woman who complained that we were too fast and called corporate to complain.

They’re not hard to circumvent, sure but then why am I so effectively blocking almost everything not tied to the “real” first-party domains?

Proxy? Is it that hard to figure out how to bundle and serve assets from the same domain? 😂

I’m a broken record: block Google (or whomever) with network-based blocking (IP and/or DNS), these guys have third-party tracking in virtually every website and app.

This is the correct answer. Facebook has third-party scripts all over the internet. I wish people would understand this — just because you’re not a Facebook user doesn’t mean Facebook (or anyone else) doesn’t track you.

I’m not sure about Facebook but tons of trackers are in apps too so the typical “use an adblocker” grumble isn’t even accurate either.

they’re perennially jealous of the shit Apple can get away with.

😒

I really wanted it to work on Fly.io but I couldn’t get it to. I’d also like to get the Tailscale software Dockerized but running multiple nodes on the same host with custom DNS was a complete shitshow.

I really love Tailscale, but the daemon and CLI seem to be absolute garbage.

I mean, it’s still good to know if you’re vulnerable right (for sake of discussion)?

Pierre, South Dakota. I’m actually from Iowa (I live in Los Angeles now) and my family went on vacation to South Dakota one time. I remember driving to the capital and realizing it was smaller than my hometown in Iowa!

I get that feeling you’re talking about with Des Moines. I used to go on tons of long road trips around the Midwest around age 18, looking for something new. Coming back to visit, Des Moines always feels comically small — I find myself wondering how businesses stay in business with such few customers.

Honestly, just Unbound for DNS filtering + Tailscale + commercial VPN solves 99% of my problems with privacy online.