Ep8 Commit2Quit

Ep8 Commit2Quit

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Housekeeping

It seems that this podcasts goal has already been achieved. It has inspired 2 people to start self hosting. I got a couple of notifications on Mastodon that one is researching on how to self host on bsd and the other actually installed Yunohost! Thats frickin AWESOME!

CONGRATS TO BOTH OF YOU! And I sincerely hope it works out for each your situations. Especially the one doing it on bsd. I want to know how you end up doing it!

Keep in mind If you aint root, you dont own it.

Own your shit!

Additional Security points from a Yunohost Dev

Alek, one of the main dev/contributor on Yunohost's core and project managment team sent me some additional points to remember about security. The emphasis is mine.

• One of the key point of security is to limit the attack surface. Don't install apps just for fun or give access to the user "because it's convenient and might be useful later"

• Don't get too crazy about using the top-notch security ciphers with 4096bit keys or whatever. It doesn't matter. Usually the weak link of the security is elsewhere - either human or technical.

• Last but not least, there is no such thing as "being secure".** Security is a process, and is always a tradeoff with usability**.

For ex, in the context of Yunohost, we have fail2ban configured to ban after 5 failed auth attempt. We see that it triggers a lot of false positive (legitimate users trying to login and getting banned for misc reasons).

But point is, even if you get to some perfect "technical" security, the human part of security is not to be neglected ***

Stupidity - Now I'm not talking being ignorant here. I know that some people dont "get things" as fast or fully. Hell I'm one of them. Rather I am talking about the basic common sense things that all humans understand. For example, somebody creates a Gab instance and tries to connect it to the rest of the Fediverse, it gets blocked, then they do it again with a different name, it gets blocked, etc, etc. You would think they would eventually stop. Thats another thing, Gab. Nuff said.

Another example, you touch something hot, get burned. Then touch it again. Isn't that stupid?

Lying - This one I really shouldnt have to go over but lets just say that it is what everone does at one point or another. Mostly by politicians and large tech companies.

But eventually we will all reach a mass critical point where we will have to make the switch fully and completely move our stuff. People in general, incuding your friends and family will either follow you or they wont. If they want to make contact with you they will. If they dont then you will have to make the decision for yourself. Are you going to stay and remain being a product with no privacy or are you going to commit to being who you are and be in control of who you are. Which brings me to (a brilliant segway?)

The Problem

These companies are much like an addiction. They've been successful at creating social media and free productivity/communicataion apps that appeal to human emotion. Whether it triggers a response in your brain to release dopamine, that hormone that gets released when you smoke a cigerette or take a drug. I dont know I'm not a doctor or a scientist. But either way people are obviously addicted to these comapanies and products.

Everybody flips out over the newest iphone, or the first thing they check in the morning is Facebook and Twitter and the last thing they do before they go to bed is check Facebook or Twitter. It's obviously an addiction. And it needs to stop. You need to stop using these companies and their products. Because they have made you the product.

Now I do understand that I will never ever be 100% free from these companies nor will you. They control and own entirely too much of the internet to actually do it all. But we can certainly minimize them in our lives. You may also have to deal with these companies in your job. But that is diffent than what I am talking about. I'm a talking about doing this for your personal life. Just because you have to deal with them in your work life doesnt mean you have to deal with them in your personal life. Dont give up your personal freedom and privacy. Your job is not your life, it's what pays the bills. Hopefully it's something you enjoy doing but keep in mind, unless you are your own boss the boss doesnt control you 24 hrs a day. ie I'm a truck driver and I love it. But my employer isn't what pays the bills. My Commercial Drivers Liscense is what pays the bills and it doesnt matter who signs the paycheck or where it came from. As long as I protect that CDL my income is golden.

I am asking you to do it, Commit 2 quit. Now I'm not asking you to do it forever. But just give it a try. Do it with baby steps. First 30 days then 60 then 90. If you can make it through 90 days can you try it for a year? Treat it lika an addiction.

Here is my personal progress so far.

Twitter - 5 of 6 accounts are gone. Last one I cant get rid of because I dont remember the log in and cant find it.

Instagram - Both accounts are gone

Apple - I dont use their products so I'm good there.

Microsoft  - I think I have an account but I dont remember if I did anything with it. I used to have a couple of Skype accounts but havent used them in so long I dont remember what they were, lol.

Amazon - I did have an affiliate account with them at one time but havent used it so I dont even know if its active. My wife has a Prime account so I can just hers, lol.

Google - I have 1 personal account left to get rid of. The only thing holding me back on this is that I have a couple of medical accounts and Netflix connected to gmail that I need to switch over before I can delete it. I'm guessing that the Youtube will go with it.

I also have a work account that I have to keep. The only way I can get rid of it is to quit my company. But this company treats me very good and pays me too much for me to go somewhere else so I think Im just gonna stay here until I retire, lol.

Facebook - As soon as I break it to the boys in the band that I'm not getting back into the band. I just dont have time to be on the road 6 days a week, then be home for 34 hrs to play family time and squeeze in being a rock star. Then its bye bye Facebook!

I've always hated Facebook from the day I started the accounts. I quit once then went back for the band. Almost deleted it but I'm still there because of it. Havent posted to Facebook proper since before last Christmas but I do use Messenger daily to talk with friends.