I figured this may lead to an interesting discussion in the comments.
How has your use of Technology changed in the past year? I’ll start.
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Due to the rise of streaming services and Sony/discovery removing content from libraries, I downloaded all my iTunes purchases onto a 2TB SSD (which I’ll soon need to get another).
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Like many, I’ve stopped using Reddit outside of Google search.
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I’ve reduced my subscriptions to just two. (Apple One and Google One)
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I’ve purchased DVDs/Blu rays of my favorite uncensored shows (Family Guy and American Dad) and ripped them and watch them through Cloud storage (Google Drive via Infuse for Apple platforms, and Kodi for Windows)(I’ve also purchased MakeMKV just because it is so damn useful)
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I’ve used Google App Scripts to bypass some Gmail limitations to make filters that I otherwise couldn’t. For instance, in Outlook.com, you can block email addresses and domains before you have ever gotten an email from them. In Gmail, you can’t. The best you can do is create a filter that deletes them. In my case, I’ve created a Google App Script that runs every hour and looks for (@.mil) domain emails and marks them as spam. (I am in college, and I fucking hate that they give my email to recruiters.)
- Started renting a VPS and a domain. Now I have my own silly blog, a few services and a proxy to go to blocked sites (with the possibility to upgrade to censorship-resistant protocols if needed!)
- Among other things got an IRC bouncer, so started hanging out on IRC a lot more.
- Deleted my Twitter, Reddit and Insta (which were almost dead anyway but still).
- Went from hating IT and thinking it’s just not for me to studying it in uni, as well as learning some topics myself.
- Degoogled my smartphone as much as I could with ADB (although barely noticed a difference, everything was from F-Droid anyway).
• Ditched Reddit for Lemmy
• Twitter for Mastodon
• Netflix, Apple+, Prime for Plex
• Gmail for Protonmail
• Outlook for Thunderbird
• partly Degoogled my android Smartphone
• switched from Vanced to Re-vanced
• Chrome for Firefox with add-ons
• Alexa for Home Assistant
• Partly switched off telemetry on Windows 10
• Got my first all unlimited contract on my smartphone
• Upgraded my ADSL to 200 Mbps
• Used FOSS quite more frequently
• Used Calibre for the first time
• Learned a lot about emulators on PC
Tbh, didn’t realised about all these things until I wrote them down
edit: formating
Since you’re already good with these, might as well go witb Mull instead of Firefox on android. Also VPN and private DNS could be interesting next steps.
Thanks for the advice.
Already bought a VPN subscription with PIA and also setup a private DNS with cloud-flare on my android smartphone and tablet. Will look into the PC settings later.
I LL take a look into Mullvad later as well since I saw it’s a fork of Firefox which makes it a very interesting prospect.
Nice! Good luck on your journey. My next step is setting up Nextcloud…
NextCloud and BitWarden. But that’s a project for later down the road. Local and Foss all the way
Don’t forget to check your Amazon Alexa privacy settings to disable personalized ads, and for using your Alexa data for ads. Likewise, you can have it to where while Amazon keeps a log of what is said, it won’t save voice recordings.
That won’t be necessary, because I completely uninstalled it and it’s not connected to the network anymore
Looks like you’re just missing Linux to compete the list. It’s not for everyone yet, though.
Thank you for the suggestion.
I’m planning on buying an AMD GPU later this year and then, I’m planning on installing Linux on my Desktop since Windows 10 will not be supported.
- I started using Lemmy
- Got back on Mastodon when it got rolling a bit more. I follow more accounts now and it’s actually fun.
- Got back on linux after a 5 year hiatus. I should have done it a whole lot sooner, I enjoy using my computer more.
- Needed a laptop and instead of buying a new one, I got a secondhand laptop from a local system administrator who put linux on it. Debian is great and I love the old Thinkpad.
- I’ve applied to a learn/work program in web development. I haven’t started yet, but I will soon. I’m so excited for that.
Whats the learn/work program?
It’s a local program (I live in the Netherlands) for people with autism or similar issues. They teach you html and java and some other stuff I don’t remember. Eventually they help you to work on projects they do for other businesses and even find a job with a “regular” company, but only if you’re ready for that and able to do it. It’s government funded and aside from the IT professionals, they also have healthcare professionals who help you with any issues you encounter in the work environment. After having been unemployed for years due to mental health issues, it’s a very exciting opportunity for me. I’ve already visited the company and the people and work environment there seem really suitable.
Thats really awesome, wish i could find something like that in the states. Good luck!
Thanks! I heard about it from a social worker, so maybe you could try something like that.
Like others here, I dumped Reddit and moved here (and to Mastodon) full time. I also moved to Linux full time on my home laptop and haven’t missed Windows one little bit. I’m looking forward to experimenting more with a couple of other distros of interest (currently Pop_OS) and am having actual fun using my computer again. Heavy emphasis on adopting as many FOSS alternatives as possible in ‘24, and starting to separate myself from the big G.
The process of trying to separate from Google is tough for sure. I believe Louis Rossmann said “it like quitting heroin cold turkey; you can’t, it’s something you have to lean yourself off of slowly”. In my case, Google Photos, Docs and Voice are the most difficult to switch from, but in the case of Google Photos and Docs, I have multiple backups in the event something happens to my account.
To save my collections of videos on iTunes, I choose to burn M4V to DVD so that they can be played on home screen.
Rip-Software that can bypass Blu-ray protection can be really useful. Here’s a tutorial for digitalization of discs I can share: blu-ray rippen trotz kopierschutz freeware
When my phone was up for renewal last March, I specifically went looking for an iPhone 13 mini, because I’m sick of my phone being the centre of my attention all the time. And it’s worked. The smaller screen means I’m far less likely to get it out and idly scroll the socials, instead waiting until I’m at my Mac or have my iPad. But the screen is still big enough for GPS and such.
In terms of socials; I’ve been pretty much all in on Mastodon and Lemmy, having gone from posting twenty times a day on Twitter, to posting just six times in total. And that was to spam my Mastodon account.
We ditched Netflix in April, and haven’t missed it at all. I signed up for it the very first day it was available for Apple TV back in 2012, so it felt weird getting rid of it. But ultimately, Disney+ feels like better value, so we’re on that for now.
I have Apple Music, which is fine for in the car or while I’m at work, but I spent an awful lot of time listening to my library of ripped CDs on my iPod when I was out and about. I got the iPod in ‘22, but finally got it flashmodded early last year, and love it.
I’ve switched to the Arc web browser, where tabs behave more like bookmarks (and they replace bookmarks as well). It’s been a game changer for me - my favourite feature is the ability to close a window and it doesn’t remove any of your tabs. Just open a new browser window and they’re back. My tabs are also more organised than ever.
Large Language Models, specifically ChatGPT+, are now part of my daily life and I’m not just talking tech. For example I use it in the kitchen every time I cook a meal I haven’t made a thousand times before and I’ve been cooking better than ever. Unlike a recipe website, you can tell it you don’t have (or don’t like) a particular ingredient and chat about alternatives, then it will update the cooking instructions. Love it.
I’ve given up on streaming music services, and gone back to occasionally buying a new DRM free albums. This has been part of a general cost cutting theme to my year - especially monthly bills.
- Dropped Reddit and Twitter completely. Actually deleted my Reddit account and deleted most of my Twitter history.
- Stopped using Gmail as my primary email.
- Went back to DVD and Blu-Ray for shows and movies I think I might want to rewatch.
- Slowly importing stuff I’ve posted on various social media to my website.
- Slowly moving stuff off of Google Drive and Dropbox to my local PC and/or Nextcloud.
- Finally set up my Nextcloud server to use object storage so I can use it for auto-uploads without worrying about space.
- Tried out a bunch of different Fediverse platforms.
- Made more of an effort to report bugs instead of just living with them or using something else.
- Deleted Chrome as my secondary browser and installed Vivaldi. (I’ve been using Firefox as my primary for a while.)
Moving stuff is slow because I don’t want to just copy it all over, I want to decide what to keep in the process.
As you migrate files off the cloud to your local computer, what are you doing for backups? I’d love to self-host everything personally, but having my life’s data in just one physical location is not making me feel great at all.
I too want to know about good backups
There are a couple of options. What I currently do is an.encrypted borg backup of my important files which is then synced to Dropbox and Google Drive. Currently looking for an inexpensive tape drive though to back up everything locally. Those things are flipping expensive!
Dropped Reddit, Twitter, Spotify. Still have never been on Facebook, still have an Instagram account to stay in touch with old friends. Tubi and YouTube for entertainment
If you don’t mind, what are the specific complaints about Spotify? I’m aware that they’re not terribly profitable for the musicians, but are there other concerns too?
Joe Rogan
They’ve never shown me a Joe Rogan podcast.
- deleted my Reddit account. Only use it if I land there from a web search
- Started using Firefox containers - keep Amazon, Google, Microsoft etc in their own containers
- Deleted my Dropbox account when they started deploying AI tools late 23. About to delete Google Drive.
- Migrated to paid Protonmail. Intend to wipe my Gmail data in next couple of months
- Migrated to paid data backup service
- Bought a steam deck, connected it to my living room TV and now PC game in my living room (had a steam link but never got into it before, but steam deck has changed how I play)
- Cancelled most streaming services
- Started using Freetube software and Libredirect to escape YouTube
- Installed fdroid open source store on my phone and switched to many foss and non cloud apps.
Basically mostly I’ve started taking my privacy and data much more seriously. I was already privacy “aware” but the explosion of so called AI tools in my industry (healthcare) has made me realise the value and importance of my data, and how much of it is being stolen and exploited by private interests. There are also examples of how private data is being extracted from this bullshit AI tools.
I’m increasingly understanding how important it is now to actively protect my data and also fragment my internet presence as much as possible.
What backup service are you using if I might ask?
Not OP but I’ve been using duplicity for over a decade. Zero lock-in to any particular cloud storage, uses rdiff and gpg for the incremental computation and encryption… it’s awesome.
Just this month I’ve switched over from S3 to Dropbox for cloud storage due to price, and other than the large first backup, my backup script worked flawlessly.
I can’t recommend it enough.
- Left Reddit for Lemmy, only came back several times to seek for specific information in a couple of niche communities
- Started using Firefox again, both in desktop and mobile
- Opened a nextcloud account, with plans to host our own when we have a little more free time
- Autohosted FreshRSS
- Started with Sonarr, Radarr, jellyfin and so on (you can guess what for)
- Mastodon is now my main social network
- Stopped using Windows. If I have to use some applications to interact with my clients I prefer to do it via cloud.
Deleted my Twitter account and switched from Reddit (accounts are not deleted) to Lemmy.
Switched from Chrome back to Firefox after more than a decade.
Dropped Windows in favor of Linux Mint.
Unsubscribed from Netflix, Disney+, etc. Now I only torrent the films, series, etc. that I know I’ll watch more than once, for stuff that I only plan on watching once I use Stremio with the Torrentio add-on.
Started using my old Facebook account after several years just for Marketplace.
That’s all I can remember at the moment.
EDIT: Oh yeah, ditched PornHub for NoodleMagazine.
What’s NoodleMagazine and why is it better or freer?
Free porn site, full videos.
Around a month or two ago I got flashpoint and ruffle so I can play flash games on my computer. I have never really used either program before. I got ruffle because flashpoint doesn’t have Nitrome games on their platform and I wanted to play a specific game. Haven’t done much with ruffle since the games run kinda slow on my desktop.
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Stopped using reddit & facebook
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started using the fediverse
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Got my own domain and set up an email via proton
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vanced->revanced->greyjay
How’s grayjay compared to revanced?
Only real downside is the inability to comment but otherwise it’s great.
It’s pretty good actually. No ads and you can access videos from a lot of platforms in the one app (including premium ones if you have a subscription to them). It also makes it easier to follow a single creator across platforms. Also, lets you download videos for offline access, allows casting, PiP and a bunch of other stuff.
My only real complaint is that the recommendations aren’t very good yet, so I end up going back to YT/revanced to discover new stuff, and there currently isn’t any way to use sponsorblock with it.
Still, considering it’s in alpha, great stuff.
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No more Reddit
