Adys's recent activity
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Comment on What are your predictions for 2026? in ~talk
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Comment on What are your predictions for 2026? in ~talk
Adys Link ParentTrump fuckin' speedrunning my 2026 predictions ehTrump fuckin' speedrunning my 2026 predictions eh
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Comment on US strikes Venezuela and says its leader, Nicolas Maduro, has been captured and flown out of the country in ~society
Adys Link ParentMoving up in the world eh?I have updated Associated Press' headline.
Moving up in the world eh?
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Comment on US strikes Venezuela and says its leader, Nicolas Maduro, has been captured and flown out of the country in ~society
Adys Link ParentIt’s both “can’t get worse” and “the interests of the enemy of my enemy are sometimes aligned with mine”. Of all the things trump has done this is probably the only one that has a net positive...It’s both “can’t get worse” and “the interests of the enemy of my enemy are sometimes aligned with mine”.
Of all the things trump has done this is probably the only one that has a net positive outcome. International law is fucked anyway as long as he’s in charge.
I’m just gonna be happy putin lost an ally today.
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Comment on US Federal Communications Commission bans new DJI Chinese drones, citing national security in ~society
Adys Link ParentLonger R&D is also more risky … less time of iteration means less time to know if your idea will work with consumers or not. If for example Apple had 5 year cycles R&D on the iPhone, one flop...Longer R&D is also more risky … less time of iteration means less time to know if your idea will work with consumers or not.
If for example Apple had 5 year cycles R&D on the iPhone, one flop could seriously damage the company. Whereas on the current cycle, a flop is quickly recovered from (eg the latest iPhone thin has been binned and likely we will not see it again). This makes R&D worthwhile rather than dangerous.
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Comment on YouTube is awful. Please use YouTube, though. in ~tech
Adys Link ParentThere is a massive amount of content that is well worth the watch on youtube. It's by far one of the biggest and most amazing resources we have. https://tildes.net/?tag=long_watch - most of these...There is a massive amount of content that is well worth the watch on youtube. It's by far one of the biggest and most amazing resources we have.
https://tildes.net/?tag=long_watch - most of these are likely worth a watch if they ended up on tildes.
Once you have a good quality feed going, basically everything that shows on your homepage is worth watching. I know that my career would be entirely different if I didn't have access to the plethora of content youtube gives me.
This idea that we should get rid of youtube because you see a lot of trash content is like saying we should get rid of wikipedia because there's plenty of trash articles on it. Pure madness..
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Comment on Jon Stewart is our only hope in ~society
Adys LinkI love Jon Stewart but I also love Jerry Seinfeld and neither of them have any interest in not qualifications to run… I really think the US is fucked regardless for the time being. You’re talking...I love Jon Stewart but I also love Jerry Seinfeld and neither of them have any interest in not qualifications to run…
I really think the US is fucked regardless for the time being. You’re talking about 2028 elections like it’s obvious they will even happen. As a country it has crossed the line into authoritarianism long ago, and there is little coming back from it unless a significant revolution happens.
Every day that passes, Trump solidifies his stay in office in ways that would make any other dictatorship jealous.
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Comment on What are your predictions for 2026? in ~talk
Adys Link ParentOpenly hostile towards, actively interfering with, and has sent troops to. But without declaring war.Openly hostile towards, actively interfering with, and has sent troops to. But without declaring war.
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Comment on What are your predictions for 2026? in ~talk
Adys Link ParentAnyway I’m about to make the saddest prediction, but I feel like 2026 is a strong contender for this one. By end of year, I’m thinking: the USA will be unofficially at war with at least one...Anyway I’m about to make the saddest prediction, but I feel like 2026 is a strong contender for this one.
By end of year, I’m thinking: the USA will be unofficially at war with at least one country in the EU.
Obviously there’s the stuff going on with Greenland but this may not even be the main trigger. I suspect some bullshit distraction resulting out of anti maga political tensions. If I were to guess, somewhere in the baltics, citing corruption.
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Comment on What are your predictions for 2026? in ~talk
Adys (edited )LinkOT - oh man I checked out for the past three years… last one I did was 2022. I’d love to see someone do a recap of all the threads and how well people did....OT - oh man I checked out for the past three years… last one I did was 2022. I’d love to see someone do a recap of all the threads and how well people did.
Guess I didn’t do so bad all in all, mastodon is the main one that didn’t come true but I guess the pickup in bluesky and Threads satisfies the second part.
And the unfortunate thing about Putin is the persistent link between those pesky bodyparts.
Sent from my iPhone 15 with USB-C
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Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
Adys Link ParentOh 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.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.
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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.
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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!"?
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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?
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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 🙃
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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?"
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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 ...".
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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.
I think it's crazy at this point to still say "He wouldn't". What kind of signal do you have to back up the idea that trump /wouldn't/ send boots, when all the signals are there to say he would?
I think you might be in for a serious pikachu-face moment a few months from now...