Adys's recent activity
-
Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
-
Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
Adys Link ParentThe biggest is Google photos as it’s about 25gb. The rest is data and a couple gb of emails.The biggest is Google photos as it’s about 25gb. The rest is data and a couple gb of emails.
-
Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
Adys Link ParentTo reshare my setup which, I strongly believe strikes a fantastic balance between convenience, cost and ownership: 1Password -- I love em and pay for them through my work, but I believe bitwarden...To reshare my setup which, I strongly believe strikes a fantastic balance between convenience, cost and ownership:
- 1Password -- I love em and pay for them through my work, but I believe bitwarden is more accessible at a lower price point. Regardless, I am not using google/apple for password management. And yeah, having this is SUCH a massive gain of time, and accessible enough -- I've set it up for my mom and my girlfriend.
- I pay 15 euros / yr for a domain name matching my last name (a .ch purchased at netim.com). I've had this domain for 15 something years now, I can safely share it at the family level, and fully feel like I own it. My email hasn't changed in those 15 years; it has migrated a few times but I've never had to update it anywhere. This is important. Only downside of a .ch domain is it cannot be prepaid for more than 1 year.
- I pay for Google Workspace to use that custom domain. This also gives me access to Google support; including billing support if I ever get locked out.
- My work also uses Google Workspace on separate domains/accounts. This kind of "over-invests" me in Google but it actually creates a layer of redundancy as I can very quickly migrate data between google accounts if I ever need to, and I can access support through more than one account.
- I use an iPhone, but all the icloud crap is turned off and I've paired it with my Google account instead. If there were a high quality open source android-based phone I'd likely be using that instead.
- My main computer runs arch linux and main laptop runs w11/wsl.
- I set up Google Takeout once a year to dump everything into dropbox.
Setup difficulty ★★☆☆
Maintenance difficulty ★☆☆☆
Reliability ★★★★
Control ★★★☆
Data sovereignty ★★☆☆
Cost / year ★★☆☆ -
Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
Adys Link ParentSure, of course. I don't want to make it sound like it's a bad idea to do any of this stuff, and there's plenty that I think people should just do. To give you an example, you can automate Google...Like... backups are a good idea. To be frank, you seem angry at the idea of setting up backups in the first place.
Sure, of course. I don't want to make it sound like it's a bad idea to do any of this stuff, and there's plenty that I think people should just do.
To give you an example, you can automate Google Takeout with just a few clicks and it's pretty accessible even to non-tech-savvy people. You choose what services you care about, you choose frequency and where it gets saved, and you choose the format. It's super super neat. I have no idea if Apple has anything remotely close to this, but it's one reason why I prefer the Google ecosystem.
What I'm fervently against is the "the guy should just have done X" mindset. Yeah, he should have... but very few "common mortals" know about the risks tied to being on a single provider. Even fewer know about the simple solutions such as Takeout. How will you react when this happens to your grandma? Because if it's any different to how the reactions now, then what's the point? Pointing to some poor sod nelson-style "HAW-HAW, you trusted Apple!"?
-
Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
Adys (edited )Link ParentWho are you writing this for? You’re not writing it for people like him - as you said, he’s clearly overinvested in the ecosystem and that’s much more of a trust problem than anything else. You’re...Who are you writing this for?
You’re not writing it for people like him - as you said, he’s clearly overinvested in the ecosystem and that’s much more of a trust problem than anything else.
You’re not writing it for me or people like me; I’m feeling reasonably safe with a good amount of balance between control over my data and convenient trust towards a couple different corporations that could still give me a severe headache were they to block my access.
You’re also not writing it for the people who self host everything already, and who are already doing things “the proper way”.
I’m trying to put a modicum of reality checks in this conversation. Like, most people are given a phone and ways to work with that phone, they use the passwords app, they use the mail app, they use the browser, all of it is somewhat seamless and next thing you know they’re over invested in an ecosystem. This is the case for MOST PEOPLE. The argument that THIS guy should have known better is out of place because it doesn’t solve the root issue, which also affects those who are not “evangelists”. He just happens to be able to make noise, whereas Tina Churchgoing Neighbour just says “my phone suddenly stopped working and I lost everything”.
So tell me again why the “right” solution is to have computer-literate people become digital preppers? Isn’t there a deeper issue to work through there?
-
Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
Adys Link ParentI don’t know what crawled up your keyboard to make you so incredibly hostile but I don’t care for it. I’m speaking as someone who did self host a lot of stuff in the past and no longer does it...I don’t know what crawled up your keyboard to make you so incredibly hostile but I don’t care for it. I’m speaking as someone who did self host a lot of stuff in the past and no longer does it because I now have a job that requires me to prioritise other things. It was fun, taught me a lot, and I can now reasonably say that I can be a systems engineer as well, since I’ve held that very job professionally.
So the arguments are not made up, they’re from experience. If you haven’t experienced them yet, good on you, but you’ll end up in five years writing an article saying something about how you lost your data or whatever, and in the HN comments people will ridicule you for doing all this without following best practices / being more knowledgeable / considering implications etc.
Be that guy, I don’t care 🙃
-
Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
Adys (edited )Link ParentYou and everyone else is responding to me like the guy actually just lost some photos. This is clearly not the case. The amount of self hosting needed to actually make up for what apple was...You and everyone else is responding to me like the guy actually just lost some photos. This is clearly not the case.
The amount of self hosting needed to actually make up for what apple was providing to this person is not at all easily matched. @akir @hungariantoast @text_garden @gary @slomomonday
Yeah it’s easy to back up photos and email once. It’s not TERRIBLY difficult to set up a cronjob to do it regularly (though you won’t know if that one stops working because some access token expired and you didn’t set up lifecycle alerts … oops my backups stopped three years ago guess I’m fucked).
But then you still don’t have access to your damn email address anymore do you? Okay, so you have to switch to an email on your own domain. Then you find out that you used “sign in with apple” at some point and you’re fucked on that front so guess you just lost those accounts forever, oh well.
We’re just at photos and emails here and there’s a dozen ways it can go wrong already. And I know you guys have enough knowledge to know we’re not going to pretend it’s a good idea to self host the actual email servers.
What about apple’s password manager? Gonna have to put this somewhere else too. I use 1Password which does local backups and is resilient to 1P being a bad actor — Apple doesn’t, to my knowledge, implement that. And 1P isn’t self hostable, so… keepass with syncing? I’ve done that before. It’s annoying as hell. But whatever, it’s just syncing to your drive…
Shit, right, the “drive”. It’s not enough to set up a NAS, you generally want something you want to share. If you used iCloud for this, congrats all your share links are gone forever and it’s not like there’s any backup of those.
So you used nextcloud for this because you know better than that. When you did all this setup three years ago you tried to install the version provided by your synology only to find it hadn’t been updated this century and you did a custom install. Of course you never updated this since then, completely missing there was a major vulnerability to update for, so now in good conscience you check and oops … people uploaded illegal porn to your drive and now the police is at your door Just Asking Questions. Not to mention that access wasn’t configured quite correctly by default so your private files were visible to everyone who knew how to access them.Doesn’t sound like you eh? You know better. You set up vulnerability alerts, auto updates and what the hell, you even know enough to set up a deadmanswitch alerting system for when these stop working.
Well congratulations then, because you’re a systems engineer. Most people can’t do this stuff. -
Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
Adys Link ParentYou're not wrong… but after 20+ years in tech, I've no idea what the serious alternative is. Put your data in a NAS? Good luck, self hosting is a full time job Do regular local backups? Okay, at...You're not wrong… but after 20+ years in tech, I've no idea what the serious alternative is.
Put your data in a NAS? Good luck, self hosting is a full time job
Do regular local backups? Okay, at best you're saving some things, but the inconvenience if something happens is still massive. Also, good luck, cause not all your data is easy to back up. Can you do it programmatically?
Deduplicate your data across Google, Apple & more? Congrats, now you're trusting even more corpos with your data and who knows what they're all doing with them. If anything, you're adding risk, not removing it.
Any & all solutions increase costs, burden, and often
I think the best solution is to pay for a Google Workspace account to use with your own domain, which is what i do. It gives a good balance between centralization and liability.
I don't think it's ever really fair to tell people "this is why you shouldn't put all your data in the trust of apple" without a reasonable alternative to the question: "I have terabytes of life data to manage. This is impossible to handle it all by myself. What service will help me with this without turning this in a whole Project?"
-
Comment on Letter to a Liberal member of Parliament in ~enviro
Adys Link ParentUpdate - I fed this advice to an AI agent and asked it to source things a bit. Here's what it wrote....Update - I fed this advice to an AI agent and asked it to source things a bit. Here's what it wrote.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ObHEdNviKnkgDaEK-Q_ezU-EuUMlz7p4bbmxK1ZAOEA/edit?usp=sharing
I didn't check said sources because I have to run, but with zero edits that already looks incredibly concrete and impactful and would not be ignored.
It also looks like, from the statements it dug up, that Sawatzky is actually decently pro-climate? This is why you need to kick off with "In response to your statement on ...".
-
Comment on Letter to a Liberal member of Parliament in ~enviro
Adys LinkI don’t know how the Canadians work, but I can give you some tips if I were to address a European MEP on the same matter. First, introduce yourself as someone that is represented by this person....I don’t know how the Canadians work, but I can give you some tips if I were to address a European MEP on the same matter.
First, introduce yourself as someone that is represented by this person. It’s very important to contextualise the letter. Follow that with why you are writing it (in response to a particular statement for example).
Then, focus on the direct economic damage. The thing with climate change is that anyone with a position such as what you seem to describe as Sawatzky’s, will not listen to “there will be damage later”: either they already know this and don’t care, or they refuse to acknowledge it and won’t listen.
However you can go into immediate impact. “ Pause a moment to consider what this will mean for all coastal cities” is not useful- instead, dive into insurance premiums climbing on housing and disaster recovery on those coastal cities. Explain that people are moving out of those cities and it’s directly impacting them. Explain that these decisions are responsible for these changes and that you and your local community are holding this MP personally responsible because of (list some examples), and that his name is getting terrible reputation because your opinion is shared by (list a big local community or something)
In other words you want to:
- Focus on damage NOW, not later - and there is plenty!
- Double down on the impact this damage has on this particular person, and make it as personal as possible.
- Be courteous and factual.
-
WiSE words by Jane Street (Puzzle video)
8 votes -
Comment on Thankful for y’all in ~talk
Adys Link ParentSeconding all this. Although I don’t write often here anymore I still read and check Tildes regularly and its one of those rare online habits that feels like I’m doing something actively positive...Seconding all this.
Although I don’t write often here anymore I still read and check Tildes regularly and its one of those rare online habits that feels like I’m doing something actively positive for my health, like the web version of exercising or eating greens.
I feel awful for the people trapped in the cycles of depression and anger that the internet drowns everyone into. Those same symptoms you yourself mention. I can genuinely count Tildes as one of the few variables that helped me escape those. If I didn’t have it as a community to check daily, life would be a little bit worse.
-
Comment on Looking for a non-smart watch recommendation in ~tech
Adys Link Parent+1 I have been using the Withings watches for the past several years and they are fantastic. Three weeks of battery, daily steps, timers and even wake up vibration alarms if I need. And they look...+1 I have been using the Withings watches for the past several years and they are fantastic. Three weeks of battery, daily steps, timers and even wake up vibration alarms if I need. And they look great.
-
Comment on How investors 10x each dollar, before they even invest in ~finance
Adys Link ParentI think it’s all context. My goal with this post was to demystify the process and explain what I think is an incredibly important lever to understand in finance. Sometimes when people see...I think it’s all context. My goal with this post was to demystify the process and explain what I think is an incredibly important lever to understand in finance.
Sometimes when people see entrepreneurs at the head of a 100M fund, they associate this with said entrepreneur having that money and putting it to work. Obviously that’s not what it is. But there’s also a LOT of middle class people who have some amount of savings and don’t see the immense leverage that these savings gives them (even as low as 10k as I said), given different risk profiles and goals.
-
Comment on How investors 10x each dollar, before they even invest in ~finance
Adys Link ParentCorrect She and two colleagues do. The fund governance structure I didn’t assist with but generally you give the primary investors in the fund (limited partners aka LPs) some good amount of...- Correct
- She and two colleagues do. The fund governance structure I didn’t assist with but generally you give the primary investors in the fund (limited partners aka LPs) some good amount of control without the burden of daily management
- It’s coming out of the management fee. The management fee is 2% of the fund size per year and covers legal and administrative fees, including operational salaries.
-
Comment on How investors 10x each dollar, before they even invest in ~finance
Adys Link ParentWell it’s simple. You have out there professional private investors. Those are people working for rich individuals or families, or sometimes working for large corporations that are...Well it’s simple.
You have out there professional private investors. Those are people working for rich individuals or families, or sometimes working for large corporations that are diversifying/scouting.
Those people have a job: manage money. They are paid with a management fee on that money (a percentage of the money managed).
But they also have a mandate as to how to manage this money. The mandate won’t just say “we will put it in stocks”, otherwise it’s easier for the owner to do this themselves without a management fee. The latter needs to be justified. You with me so far?
So in many cases the mandate is something like “we will invest in companies/funds at stage A in sectors B and C, tickets from x-y$, up to z% of the raise”
Ok- so, those same people now have quite a bit of work to do. They get bonuses if the investment is successful and so they want to scout the targets for those investments, talk to them, derisk them, understand them etc …
If you’re reaching out such people cold, then you’re just doing their job for them. Everybody wins.
The difficulty:
- Finding them (there are lists, guides)
- Differentiating them from people who “look” like they’re investing (but are in fact just roleplaying at it)
- Structuring your project in a way that is compatible with their investment mandate (this is where most people fail)
- Pitching your project to them
Pitching a fund is no different from pitching a startup; you just have a different set of investors to talk to. But you also wouldn’t pitch a startup to a pension fund just because they have money, so it’s just as restricted the other way around.
-
Comment on How investors 10x each dollar, before they even invest in ~finance
Adys (edited )Link ParentI’m definitely not failing to understand how it’s structured, since I advised on it, but no this isn’t the structure. For one, the bank invested, it wasn’t a loan. The risk is obviously higher,...I’m definitely not failing to understand how it’s structured, since I advised on it, but no this isn’t the structure. For one, the bank invested, it wasn’t a loan. The risk is obviously higher, yes; all investments come with risk profiles. I’ll say I don’t envy the current US pension funds current risk profiles either…
As for who came in: She did have a couple more people with her profile join in but any fundraising was done cold. Including the sovereign wealth fund (this one is the easiest of the lot - it sounds big but it’s actually essentially the state doubling investments in any funded projects).
I also want to stress that this lady makes half the salary most senior devs make in the US.
-
Comment on How investors 10x each dollar, before they even invest in ~finance
Adys Link ParentThe reason I didn't reply to you yet is I'm not sure what you're asking -- I gave an example elsethread below, is that what you're looking for?The reason I didn't reply to you yet is I'm not sure what you're asking -- I gave an example elsethread below, is that what you're looking for?
-
Comment on How investors 10x each dollar, before they even invest in ~finance
Adys Link Parent€40k - this was not in the US (which also answers your "tax credit" question; works differently where I live) And yes. Here's the case: She earns ~€100k EUR / yr. Average tax rate is 55% in BE, so...- Exemplary
Can you expand on this specific use case a bit? So she invests $40k over 7 years = $280k, and then you approached other other and pooled enough to end up with $10m? Am I understanding your point?
€40k - this was not in the US (which also answers your "tax credit" question; works differently where I live)
And yes. Here's the case: She earns ~€100k EUR / yr. Average tax rate is 55% in BE, so that ends up being a "usable" ~3750 eur/mo. At this range of earning for solopreneurs, a lot of expenses become professional expenses (anything work related such as travels, hardware, a portion of rent and charges dedicated to home office etc), which bypasses taxes. What's left after that is roughly €40k/yr which would normally end up in a savings account, which creates a small tax deduction. However, in Belgium, this is indexed to a maximum of 8.17% of your employee revenue from three years prior -> In her case, this meant a maximum of ~4k / yr. What to do with the remaining 90%?
So, she took the full 36k / year remaining as a commitment and proposed a 7-year fund of €9M, to which she would contribute a total of €180k EUR over the first five years. This fund actively invests in climate projects, and because it's a philanthropic fund, it doesn't operate VC style and doesn't chase massive multiples. With this, she was since able to find two other partners (each bringing similar contributions), then raise €3M from a private bank, €1M from various family offices, and that amount was all doubled by the Belgian sovereign wealth fund, bringing the total to 9M.
The difference in commitment of course is that she's actively participating in the fund and dedicating some time to it every week.
But the difference is clear: Instead of donating some amount every year and losing the rest to taxes, she gets to be very active on a topic she cares a lot about, which helps continue to build her career, she has a MUCH more significant impact, and she gets to see returns on the money as it's actively invested. (Furthermore, she takes some small salary on the active management, which she … donates to the organizations she was going to donate to in the first place).
-
Comment on How investors 10x each dollar, before they even invest in ~finance
Adys Link ParentYeah, I mean, I've seen plenty of "matching fundraisers" but I never properly considered the "why" behind them, and how it goes beyond charity itself. Having stepped back and now understanding the...Yeah, I mean, I've seen plenty of "matching fundraisers" but I never properly considered the "why" behind them, and how it goes beyond charity itself. Having stepped back and now understanding the system end-to-end, I really wish I had better understood this aspect of the game.
Oh yeah absolutely, I'm a pretty active user. Note that I don't backup my Google Drive via takeout so this & photos will be the two biggest ones, everything else will be tiny.