And it’s been the default here in the US, historically and culturally (for puritanical reasons originally, and now because it’s “the norm”). Absolutely barbaric practice. “Yes, please mutilate my newborn baby because *checks notes* having a foreskin is unhygienic and looks weird compared to what I’m used to seeing in porn.”

Came here to say the same. It’s an empty threat. After all this is famously the company who made dual physical SIM iPhones for China and other Asian regions because eSIM isn’t/wasn’t legal.

I’ve done this. I have a Google TV Stick. If Netflix starts preventing people from opening their app when it detects a VPN (in Android), then you can do what I did and run the VPN on the routers themselves. In my case it’s ASUS routers on both ends, and they support Wireguard natively (GliNet are also really good for this as they support and run OpenWrt)

The benefit to doing it this way is that neither Netflix nor the Google TV itself are aware they’re on a VPN. The ASUS routers I use have a feature called VPN Fusion, where you can put different clients on or off of different VPN connections.

Edit: To clarify, I share with family. I’m not the account owner, but I’m one of the profiles in the account.

Yes! For Spotify I’ve been using stats.fm (app/site). Iirc it’s paid (one time in app, but cheap). And they walk you through emailing Spotify support to get ALL of your listening history from day 1 to import into the app. After that it will just continue via connection to your Spotify.

You can also go on eBay and look for older mini PCs. I got an HP Elite desk Mini G5 for like $70. Didn’t come with storage (usually the case), but an NVME/2.5 SATA drive is cheap.

It has an Intel 9500T and 16GB DDR4 RAM. The N series chips are more efficient (I have one of those N100 mini PCs, too), but the full chips offer more power (if you need it). Of course both of them will be significantly lower in power usage to an old desktop/server, by far.

Whatever you end up using, you can install Proxmox and call it a day. From there, install whatever you want, running side by side.

To be fair, unless you’re using a private, controllable DNS with a frontend interface (like NextDNS, Pihole, etc) – DNS ad blocking is “all or nothing”. Those apps let you control which apps and services and domains come through.

So is he insinuating that communities should have IT people who keep things running for everyone (like a digital librarian of sorts)?

Because that takes time, effort, and money. Like a lot more than one would spend or need for just themselves/family/maybe a couple of friends.

Also, community-run self-hosting just seems like a bad idea from a privacy and legality standpoint. One pirate getting caught isn’t usually so bad (usually a warning or small fine). But once you start distributing, then you’re going from a kiddie pool of consequences into an ocean of consequences. We’re talking massive fines and/or jail time.

Edit: I should clarify that I’m not talking about services here, but content itself.

Parents told me I’m the cause of all their problems.

Yup. Knew this would come to light one day, as soon as Trump thanked Elon for being “so good with the voting machines” and saying he couldn’t have won without him. Because he can’t help but brag, even when he thinks he’s being cryptic (he’s not).

I’m a part of Lemmy.zip for a few months now. Great server with transparent admins who post about server updates and such. It’s tech-oriented as an instance, but it’s federated, so you still have access to all other servers. I’m a computer nerd, hence why I picked it.

Thanks for the info. I’m sure it’ll also be useful to others reading the comments.

This sucks because, functionally-wise I have zero issues with Emby. But morally, this bothers me a lot. I thought it was going to just be because of the license (I think I paid $99 around Christmas a few years ago for a Lifetime license).

Guess I’ll be switching to Jellyfin then and donating to the project. If I paid for Emby, there’s no reason I can’t donate to a free, open-source project being developed and maintained by volunteers.

Do you mind elaborating on that? It sounds like I got in on Emby after the rugpull. It works fine for me and I use it without the Connect (online account) feature.

Can I ask why nobody recommends Emby? I’ve been using it for years with zero issues. The only thing I can think of is that Jellyfin exists and is free. Emby is sort of a middleground between Plex and Jellyfin; it has a paid license (lifetime option exists), but it’s closer to Jellyfin than Plex on the whole.

You’re valid. I too remember when Airpods “encouraged” (heh) other brands to go TWS. My comment is more specifically pointed at their VR/AR googles.

No shit. It was very clearly a device to test the waters (and for consumers to show off for Apple in the media). And even if you’re all-in on Apple’s ecosystem:

1. No one is going to seriously use these in public (apart from for all the social media videos; it already happened)

2. It has an external battery pack that just hangs

3. It’s $3,500, and cannot function entirely on its own (realistically, regardless of what Apple claims)

4. At least in earlier iterations, the lens glass has been prone to crack

5. It’s bulky for what it is

You can argue it’s “ahead of its time”, but we already have had VR and AR glasses that more or less accomplish the same core things. I’m not saying Apple’s isn’t better, but not for that price.

The main function is, “it’s a giant virtual screen” [“for your other devices”], right? I recognize it has its own OS and all that, but Apple always shows it acting as like a monitor for your MacBook Pro or whatever. Boom: $400, and from a known brand in the space:

For $3,500, you can buy a Mac Mini, a MacBook Air/Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro, and still have money left over.

Or remove the battery if you can, to spare it from pillowing. I know it has the benefits of being a “psuedo-UPS”, but unless you also have your modem/router on a UPS, it’s pointless (internet goes out; you can’t access the laptop anyway).

Yes and no. You need an unlocked or unlockable bootloader, which is becoming more and more difficult to find. So you’ll need speciality manufacturers, or ones with that feature. For example, in the US, Samsung has had locked bootloaders on all its phones since the Galaxy S7.

Obviously your point is correct (e.g. I have an older, but usable OnePlus 6 with an unlocked bootloader). You just need to be more deliberate when choosing a phone and keeping all of this in mind.

The feature is called DDNS (Dynamic DNS).

For reference, Brooklyn alone has over 2 million residents. NYC as a whole is 8 and change million. So yeah, we’ve got huge population density, and it shows in busy areas.

To be fair (as a Samsung Android and MacBook user), so do nearly all phones altogether. On a computer, you can just install Linux to have a Microsoft/Google/Apple-free OS. But nearly all smartphones run Android (if not iOS).

I guess then that we need more Linux phone development.