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What I Self Host

fredrikmeyer.net

121–130 of 149 posts

Re: What I Self Host

#121
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do have backup storage, of course. It's hard for me to imagine wanting to use a phone for anything other than making calls or sending SMS; that's what I've been doing for many years now and I see no reason to change. But if I did have a tablet or laptop, I could just sync the program to it and run it locally. Maybe using, for example, good old rsync. And I can't imagine being away from "home base" on a laptop for l…

> It's hard for me to imagine wanting to use a phone for anything other than making calls or sending SMS Not even listening to music in the car? That is probably my #1 phone use case by far outside of the communications functions you mentioned. I run a Navidrome server at home, and while on the go my phone can stream any music I like from the home server (so I don't need to load it in advance). In theory one might st…

How come the connection is stable enough to be streaming on the go from the car? Or is there some serious caching happening?

Re: What I Self Host

#122
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Others already answered with information that you usually have more devices then just 1. So you can have access to your data from PC, laptop and your phone. I for once also like to have my own data my own. I.e. I have: - my own email server - my own files sharing service - service for cardDav, CalDav etc. - service for editing my own office files on mobile - notes that are synchronized - streaming of movies and music…

I tried various Things to be able to access my own DNA while not at home and ended up using wire guard for my subnet so that I always have access to my DNA server. Right now I am solving it with mikrotiks "back to home" app., but the regular wire guard app does it as well. It uses very little battery.

Reads like a cool sci-fi story premise. Remote access to base DNA for the robotic body for person verification, or for a self-mutating or rapidly evolving organism.

Re: What I Self Host

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this Roon selfhosting when its 14,99€/m? Isnt this just another Streaming Service?

You can self host a server on your machine, and buy a license for it. Not all software you run on your own machine has to be open source. See: Plex for example.

> Not all software you run on your own machine has to be open source.

You can take that risk if you want to. I prefer to not make myself dependent on a single vendor whenever possible.

Re: What I Self Host

#124

> I pay for a cheap droplet at DigitalOcean, about $5 per month, and an additional dollar for backup. Wait, I thought self hosting meant having your own hardware at like home running all your services. Not DigitalOcean.

You can always "do more" yourself. I think we all can agree that it would not be reasonable to build your own server (including) from first principles so it's always a question of where you want to draw the line. IMO what matters is how much you influence the end result and how well you are equipped to deal with bs from those your solution depends on. A VPS just means you let someone else deal with hardware issues but are still fully controlling the software - and the interface between the two is a relatively standard virtual machine which makes it easy to migrate elsewhere when the provider decides to sequeeze you.

Re: What I Self Host

#125
post #4

I deplore this weakening and dilution of the term “self-hosting”. In my opinion, if your services had downtime today, you are not “self-hosting”. If you depend on anything which has “cloud” in its name, you are not “self-hosting”. If you cannot reasonably quickly access your hardware physically, like inserting or replacing an add-on card, you are not “self-hosting”. EDIT: It’s like saying “I don’t take the bus! I ‘se…

But are you really self hosting if you don't build your server silicon from first principles :)

I think in your analogy a VPS is more like renting a (normal) car rather than buying one - you're still in control over where it goes and its up to you to obey the traffic laws but if there are any major issues that are not your fault it's up to the rental company to make sure you get a replacement.

I'm curious what your goal is with your language crusade? Being precise with your language can be important when the distinction matters, but does it really matter here?

> If you depend on anything which has “cloud” in its name, you are not “self-hosting”.

What if it didn't have cloud in its name when I signed up but some marketing bozo adjusted the description since then? Did it stop being self hosting even though nothing technical about the setup changed.

Re: What I Self Host

#126
post #32
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems ripe for an alternative version of the popular “loops to goat farming” quote: > I thought using loops was cheating, so I programmed my own using samples. I then thought using samples was cheating, so I recorded real drums. I then thought that programming it was cheating, so I learned to play drums for real. I then thought using bought drums was cheating, so I learned to make my own. I then thought using pr…

Meanwhile, that person learned the valuable skills of programming loops, recording, playing, and making drums, and goat farming; I suspect they may be happier doing some of those things than making music from other people's loops, which is where they started. I bet they met a bunch of interesting people along the way.

Very possible but if they go an tell someone using loops that they aren't really making music they'd still be an asshole.

Managing your own hardware can be fun and rewarding but it isn't actually required for the original goal of regaining control over your digital life. And it's not like if you start with a VPS you can never move to your own hardware in case you find building on someone else's service too limiting.

Re: What I Self Host

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's hard for me to imagine wanting to use a phone for anything other than making calls or sending SMS Not even listening to music in the car? That is probably my #1 phone use case by far outside of the communications functions you mentioned. I run a Navidrome server at home, and while on the go my phone can stream any music I like from the home server (so I don't need to load it in advance). In theory one might st…

How come the connection is stable enough to be streaming on the go from the car? Or is there some serious caching happening?

MP3s are tiny. Just download + cache the n and n+1 song. On a modern 4g or 5g connection downloading an entire song takes seconds. Anytime a new song starts up, grab the n+1 song as soon as possible.

But aside from that, inside any metro area even a 200ms or so buffer would likely suffice for streaming music.

Re: What I Self Host

#128
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you define it? If your ISP has a problem, you can't access that hardware physically, so it would seem this definition rules out anyone that doesn't control an ISP.

This is a common, but disingenuous, objection. People also don’t make their own electricity. Is therefore “self-host” an unreachable goal, which nobody can fulfill in practice? No, this would be a useless definition.

It's not disingenuous. Being autistic about language use is honorable when the distinction you are trying to preserve is actually valuable. It's less so when the differences aren't that big in practice because in both cases you have a lot control over the services you run but in the end are still somewhat dependent on third parties.

Re: What I Self Host

#129
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to colocate some hardware but all the options near me (Sydney, Australia) are insanely expensive for no reason, how do you go about finding affordable rackspace?

Ship it to the next best DC in a foreign country. Iceland, Sweden, Austria all have great DCs and connectivity and are the best prices outside of my city. Your latency will suffer but for personal, semi-professional you end up with a fun hobby. Buy something second hand off eBay and have it shipped directly to the DC. Most are kitted with a KVM, so you can then configure all the settings when racked. When it's time t…

I don't think your options are going to have great latency to Australia - unless gp is mostly hosting things for other (worldwide) users they should keep the servers closer than that for the best experience.

Re: What I Self Host

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How come the connection is stable enough to be streaming on the go from the car? Or is there some serious caching happening?

MP3s are tiny. Just download + cache the n and n+1 song. On a modern 4g or 5g connection downloading an entire song takes seconds. Anytime a new song starts up, grab the n+1 song as soon as possible. But aside from that, inside any metro area even a 200ms or so buffer would likely suffice for streaming music.

Yep, and OPUS files are even lighter. That's why I just sync a "currently listening" music folder with Syncthing and do not think about connection, caching and all that. (I have the rest reachable when I need it, of course.)

200ms and even n+1 won't cut it for a subway, a semi-basement pub, a tunnel, a train or an airplane trip, a hike, a countryside visit, etc.

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