Blasting Rod @blastingrod@fedibird.com

Having fun on Twitter unpicking a curious thing that happened to me this morning. Someone reached me on Signal thinking I was ChatGPT. Turned out it had given them my number.

OMG I LAUGHED

Perfectly describes the #Fediverse / #Mastodon 😊

https://www.wired.com/story/god-did-us-a-favor-by-destroying-twitter/

If you're reading this, you are probably already using Mastodon or another Fediverse-connected service, and you probably understand why it's problematic to put one big company in charge of everyone's data. Why not take that a step further and free yourself from other exploitative web services? Here's a list of the most useful free (libre) and open-source web services that I know of. It's definitely incomplete, but hopefully it's a start. (Boosts welcome!)

The Fediverse

• Mastodon - Needs no introduction. The federated microblogging platform positioned as a Twitter replacement. Similar services: Misskey, Akkoma
• Friendica - An advanced macroblogging platform which connects lots of different social networks - in addition to Mastodon, Friendica federates with the Diaspora network, and can be used as an RSS reader, as well as a client for e-mail and Twitter. Similar service: Hubzilla
• WriteFreely - A tool for hosting and following blogs. Similar service: Plume
• Lemmy - A link aggregation platform, similar to Reddit. Can also be used for forums. Similar service: /kbin
• PeerTube - A video sharing tool that uses BitTorrent to accelerate playback. Great YouTube alternative.
• Pixelfed - Tool for sharing photos and short videos, similar to Instagram.
• FunkWhale - Tool for sharing and listening to music and playlists, similar to SoundCloud.

Federated services

• Matrix - Decentralized, optionally encrypted instant messaging. DMs aren't at all secure here - admins and involved servers can easily leak them, even by accident - so it's worth having an account on Matrix for when that privacy is desired. Similar services: XMPP, IRC (unencrypted)
• Tutanota - One of many smaller email providers focused on security and software freedom.
• Diaspora - Another federated social network which is more mature, smaller, and more similar to Facebook.
• Libre.fm - Libre music sharing server which federates with Last.fm. The codebase is currently being completely rewritten, so you may want to wait and see how this changes.
• Mumble - Low-latency VoIP (voice chat/telephone) app

Multiple providers, but non-federated

• CryptPad - A collaborative office suite and cloud storage service, similar to Google Docs and Microsoft 365. Notable for its focus on end-to-end encryption for all files. Similar service: Nextcloud
• Gitea/Forgejo - Open-source hosting for open-source code, using Git and an easy-to-use interface. Soon to become federated! A popular general-purpose instance is Codeberg. Similar service: GitLab
• Searx/SearXNG - An ad-free and non-tracking search engine that aggregates results from all major providers. (Link goes to an instance list. About page contains links to the project page and a random instance selector.)
• Bitwarden - A cloud password manager with decent security. There is a flagship instance, but the various clients can be used with a third-party server, like vault.tchncs.de/. Also consider using KeePassXC locally.
• Jitsi - An encrypted videoconferencing platform that can be used anonymously.
• Hastebin - Free pastebin, for sharing temporary text or code snippets.
• LEAP Encryption Access Project - Several nonprofit VPN services using open-source software.

Frontends for proprietary services

• Nitter - JavaScript-free frontend for Twitter that doesn't track you.
• Invidious - YouTube frontend minus the anti-features. Several similar desktop and Android clients for YouTube exist - try out NewPipe!
• Libreddit - JavaScript-free private Reddit frontend.

Centralized, but source available

• Neocities - Personal website host, designed for uploading HTML/CSS/JavaScript files.
• Liberapay - Nonprofit-run donations platform similar to Patreon, and with no cryptocurrency. Not self-hostable for obvious reasons, but all code used is public domain.

Feel free to comment any good ones that I missed! I've explicitly excluded software designed exclusively for personal self-hosting, e.g. CMSes, from this list; this is targeted at people who are unable to self-host or code themselves. [参照]

Then suddenly he spoke to Elendil and the sons of Elendil, recalling the tale of the Trees of old, which Turgon himself wrought with elven-craft; and the Deathless Lands, and the waters flowed down into it, and the noise and smoke of the cataracts went up to heaven, and the world was shaken.

On this day in 1975, the #MilesDavis septet played a monstrous pair of sets at the Kokura Civic Center - just 2 days before the Osaka gigs that would become Pangaea and Agharta.

While much of the band’s Japan tour pushed abstraction to its limit, this Kokura audience tape is dead on heavy funk from start to finish. There’s even a 10-minute audience clap-along to close the show! Shockingly different in tone and vibe from Agharta & Pangaea.
http://theheatwarps.com/2022/04/28/1-30-1975-kokura/

Did the Beatles suck? Well, *NO*. So why did so many critics pan their albums? Fascinating perspective from #music historian Ted Gioia. https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/why-did-the-beatles-get-so-many-bad

#NowPlaying - picked a random television show from CBGB i'd never heard, 28 december 1976, early & late sets. between "marquee moon"'s recording & release. most of their covers, "adventure" tunes, plus their lost live epic "kingdom come" with anti-punk drum solo. patti smith might be sitting across table from the taper, unless there was another patti in the CBs scene who could accurately field a between-song question about the release date of the forthcoming TV album. https://dbs-repercussion.blogspot.com/2013/11/tele-vision-new-york-city-december-1977.html

Mod, Repair and Maintain Your Cassette Tapes With 3D Printed Parts - The benefit of 3D printers is that they have made it relatively easy to reproduce ... - https://hackaday.com/2023/01/19/mod-repair-and-maintain-your-cassette-tapes-with-3d-printed-parts/ #compactcassette #classichacks #cassettetape #cassette #tape