Every city in the western world already has at least one rack of servers running 24/7. The have their own domain names, they have a web presence, etc – running a mastodon instance on existing infrastructure hardly qualifies as wasteful.

Normally when you’re on a VPN all the network traffic to and from your device is going through the connection to the VPN server, e.g. browsing the internet, online games, etc. It can cause issues with other online services and uses bandwidth (cheap as it is) many VPS provider charges for.

A split tunnel tells the VPN client to only send certain traffic through the tunnel. My wireguard setup assigns IP addresses for the VPN interfaces in the subnet 192.168.2.x, so only traffic addressed to IPs on that subnet get sent through the tunnel. In wireguard it’s a single line in the config file:

AllowedIPs = 192.168.2.0/24

I’m in the same situation.

Fortunately there’s a million companies that offer VPS with a static IP address for only few bucks a month. I set one up to run a wireguard VPN server which all my devices and home servers connect to as clients. I also configured everything to use a split tunnel to save bandwidth.

It’s an added layer of security too.

You mean like the “multi-million units sold” Linux based Steam Deck?

Hands you a random laptop.

“The thing doesn’t work.”

Refuses to elaborate and leaves.

I bought an LG microwave a few months ago to replace a dead 10 year old Sharp. My favorite “features”:

• The sticker on the door stating that by using the microwave I agree to LG’s TOS, including binding arbitration.
• The single 4 minutes and 30 seconds of use I got out of it before the magnetron broke.

When I returned it they customer service person asked if I wanted it serviced under warranty – hilarious. Bought a Panasonic instead.

You’re not wrong, but the idea that “plant based” is “safe” isn’t right either. Plants can create all kinds of horribly toxic, carcinogenic compounds – especially when burned or heated.

Wood smoke of all things is mildly carcinogenic and we cook our food with it.

There are jobs where it’s not feasible or practical to pay an actual human to do.

Human translators exist and are far superior to machine translators. Do you hire one every time you need something translated in a casual setting, or do you use something Google translate? LLMs are the reason modern machine translation is is infinitely better than it was a few years ago.

One of the major problems with LLMs is it’s a “boom”. People are rightfully soured on them as a concept because jackasses trying to make money lie about their capabilities and utility – never mind the ethics of obtaining the datasets used to train them.

They’re absolutely limited, flawed, and there are better solutions for most problems … but beyond the bullshit LLMs are a useful tool for some problems and they’re not going away.

How dare people cope with something horrible by making jokes. Everyone knows it’s impossible to make those jokes while simultaneously being horrified by and pushing back against the thing they’re joking about.

I tried searching for “BSD memes” but all the results are for some cartoon by the same name.

I’m a 7 minute drive from downtown and my options are satellite, cellular, or fixed wireless. Everyone around me has gigabit ethernet, but due to costs involved in running fiber and the fact my little community is mostly old folks (and thus likely not going to buy in) ISPs don’t want to “invest” in us.

Before any tankies claim the word is a blanket slur against communists: “tankie” was coined by British communists that were disgusted by the attitudes of some of their so-called “fellows”.

Huh, they actually do:

And Matt Monson — who moved from the Dragon project to SpaceX’s satellite internet service Starlink — posted that Starlink uses a lot of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), and that they too have a lot of experience with Linux. “For some level of scope on Starlink, each launch of 60 satellites contains more than 4,000 Linux computers. The constellation has more than 30,000 Linux nodes (and more than 6,000 microcontrollers) in space right now.

https://thenewstack.io/the-hardware-and-software-used-in-space/

Oh, they’re talking about bear bears – the animal.

… I feel like the original scenario didn’t make that clear.

I don’t get it: a bear just makes more sense. Despite their intimidating appearance most are gentle creatures. Their fur and mass can provide warmth, and if you’re injured they can easily carry you out of the woods.

If you pick “random man” you might get a twink and I feel like they’re more of a liability in a survival situation.

As someone 10 minutes outside of a major city, my (slow, unreliable, expensive) options are:

• Cellular
• Satellite
• Fixed wireless

Americans are entirely at the whim of ISPs and what areas they determine are worth investing infrastructure in.

I’d suggest a cheap used or spare laptop/desktop with a beginner friendly distro like Linux Mint Cinnamon to learn on. Just use it for casual stuff – you’ll pick up what you need to learn as you go.

That way if something breaks or you don’t know how to do something while you’re learning you’re not “stuck”.

You made me realize I haven’t fired up my Windows 11 machine in a while, so I went to check it – even re-enabling the copilot toggle … which weirdly did nothing. Then I remembered I had lobotomized all the AI and assistant “features” a while ago.

I’m a little disappointed: I wanted to ask Copilot “How do I purge you from my machine?”

Blocking it would require a screwdriver, and a razor blade to cut some traces on the cellular modem.