Software

I've revamped my Smokeping infra a bit since 2020.

First off, starting to use the smokeping.eu¹ domain that Bianco got 10 or so years ago instead of using weird URLs under superuser.one domain.

It's running on four nodes as we speak:

• a virtual machine on a colocation server in Leaseweb, Amsterdam, NL -> leaseweb.nl.smokeping.eu
• a RPi3 (+SD card, slowest of all), Telenet, Belgium -> telenet.be.smokeping.eu
• a RPi4, EDPnet, Belgium -> edpnet.be.smokeping.eu
• a RPi4, Starhub, Singapore -> starhub.sg.smokeping.eu

This is achieved using Smokeping in a docker container, Cloudflare tunnel and Cloudflare CDN/DNS.

Shan uses her iPad a lot, but a lot of the more serious (interior design) work needs to happen on AutoCAD or Photoshop. That is just not going to work on an iPad.

When we're travelling (read: holiday) she's carrying an old Lenovo ThinkPad 13 (great device!) just "in case" she needs to open AutoCAD and edit something minor or read the drawings/dimensions. But honestly, most of the time that device is turned off and dead weight.

I'm pro-Becky who found out at her 20-week anatomy scan that the infant she had been so excited to bring into this world had developed without life sustaining organs.

I'm pro-Susan who was sexually assaulted on her way home from work, only to come to the horrific realization that her assailant planted his seed in her when she got a positive pregnancy test result a month later.

I'm pro-Theresa who hemorrhaged due to a placental abruption, causing her parents, spouse, and children to have to make the impossible decision on whether to save her or her unborn child.

Web 3 goes against the core promise of the internet which tries to be a great equalizer.

The Web was about making information accessible to all, Web 3 is trying to provide value to a few, where everything is done for the benefit of the few rather than benefit of all.

Web 2 gave us Wikipedia, Google search, Facebook and more. They are not perfect systems, any system which involves humans will have loopholes & problems driven by greed and a hunger for power. But, they did act as an equalizer. Where is Wikipedia of Web3? Wikipedia never started with the mission of making it's contributors rich.

This summer, the Lithuanian government went public with an astounding finding. A Xiaomi phone sold in Europe — the Mi 10T 5G — could censor approximately 450 words and phrases, it said. The blocklist wasn’t active, but could be activated remotely. It was filled with political terms, including “Democratic Movement” and “Long live Taiwan’s independence.”

[...]

The accusations, which Xiaomi disputes, clarified just how fraught the West’s relationship is with China’s growing technology power. As China-based tech companies like Xiaomi and TikTok flourish, there’s still no playbook in North America or Europe to deal with their potential to censor or steer culture via algorithms.