njordomir

Like may people, I enjoy watching other people play online and before streaming I used to do mayor's diaries (basically a city blog) with the Sim City 4 community. When I look at my cities over time a few trends emerge.

I'm curious what characterizes your cities? What are the giveaway brush-strokes showing a city was painted by you?

• Full city trail systems. It's amazing how far cims will walk.
• Colliding grids, I build urban and big, but I like to let smaller towns grow together over time. This resulting in misaligned grids and some "signature" streets with cool intersections.
• Promenades, as an Urbanist, I'm almost always playing with the goal of maximizing transit/bike/ped travel while getting rid of cars and keeping trucks out of residential areas. There's almost always some grand pedestrian oval or linear park in my cities.

I can't take credit for the scenery since I downloaded the map, but it's been quite inspirational. This spot seemed perfect for a mining area. The mining industry looks like it flattened out this portion of the hill and is continuing to cut out of the mountainside while the river creates a steep cliff giving a great view of the rocky hillside. It supports 2 bus lines from the two nearest railway stations that bring the workers up the mountainside.

I ended up with a dense mostly pedestrianized, tram-centric core which is just off to the right. It looks great on ground level, but I still have some detailing to do before I share. The low-density neighborhoods out of frame in the north are currently getting some well-deserved detailing. I'm not sure what to put to the left of the station, the area is a bit of a dead end but has an excellent train, tram, and bus connections. I imagine I could fit either a small university or a tech cluster with a park. What do you reserve your best-connected areas for?

I built this little bus stop near the entrance of a lumber co-op using whatever props, decals, plants and stuff I'm subscribed to. I just happened to catch it when both shuttles were there, people where crossing the road, and a truck was turning onto the main road. It feels like one of those moments when the simulation and your imagination are in-sync and you can imagine walking through the game.

Hello City Planner Nerds! It's a work in progress, but I wanted to share a station area I've been working on. It was haphazardly put together before and the new layout has bus stations on both sides, a better ped overpass, and a pedestrian area with a library, a food court, a playground, and some decent landscaping. This is a secondary station for my city and sits at the point where the main line diverges in multiple directions. The industrial area in the background will need to be reworked at some point as it is mostly gridded infill to get my RCI stable.

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Hello Fellow Lemmings,

I've been on a 2+ year long digital hygiene project involving moving to various self-hosted services, tidying up my backup procedures, cancelling underutilized subscriptions, streamlining my task management and calendaring, purging corporate evil from my phone, etc.

Recently, I made a big spreadsheet of my apps including their licenses, whether they're FOSS, whether they have cloud dependencies, where I'm sourcing them from, and whether I think they are sketchy. I hope to share this eventually once I have worked out what to do about a few of the remaining proprietary gremlins lurking on my silicon. I would love some input on how to deal with the apps I'd like to quit, minimize using, replace with FOSS alternatives, etc. The phone in question is an Android device running GrapheneOS.

I view my adversaries as follows:

• First and foremost, I hate advertising, personalized tracking, intrusive notifications, etc. Corporate America/ Big Tech is my arch nemesis. I also feel an ethical obligation to move away from these solutions. I would also like to have control over my own data where possible and when it's within my skill level
• I want my phone to be secure. I don't need to show up on in some scammer or spammer's list because some sketchy app stole my credit card or personal info. Same goes for physical security, I don't want anyone unlocking it unless I've given them permission to use it.
• I'm least worried about state actors. Anything they want to know about me they could buy off Google, Amazon, etc. I really doubt I'm much of a target except the way they target all of us by piggybacking on corporate tracking. I know there are people on here who don't have the privilege of ranking this so low on the list and count myself lucky that this is >>currently<< not a bigger issue.

I'm approaching this from a practical point of view, unfortunately I do have some proprietary software I haven't found a suitable alternative to. I will probably still have a few of them, even after my purge is complete. Having said that, I'm a firm believer in risk reduction. I'd appreciate your insights, I've numbered them as that may help keep the conversation from becoming too chaotic.

0. Discord Not sure what to do about this other than say "I told you so, we should have never left mumble!" I have communities on here I can't get elsewhere and always accessing via the desktop website is impractical when I'm actively involved in planning a surprise Minecraft raid.

1. eeero If they get their act together, we're due to get fiber in the next year or so. They seem to install with eeero routers, but I would prefer to get rid of amazon, I really like the gli router I have for travel. Does anyone have experience with their router offerings? I'd like to have Wireguard access back to the home and network ad-blocking on a per-device basis is desirable. I've been using a drop in gateway to provide adblocking for my phone and laptop while I'm at home.

2. Google Lens Some features can be replaced with TinEye or imgops, but the main thing I need is the augmented reality integration with google translate where you can point the camera at text to have it translated live on the screen. Do any FOSS translator apps include AR translation?

3. Google Maps I'm surprised at how reliant I've become on this for opening/closing times, browsing satellite maps for fun, browsing satellite maps to find parking garage entrances, checking busy times, viewing menus, etc. I like Organic Maps for its simplicity and impressive ease of use. OSMand has an awesomely absurd amount of detail. For some reason I keep opening google maps, and it's more than just the menus and phone numbers. What map app(s) do you use for driving, biking, exploring? Do any FOSS map apps provide phone numbers, opening hours, and menus reliably?

4. Google Translate I need the conversation translate feature where you can talk back and forth and have it live translate like an interpreter would. I can put it in its own profile to isolate it, but I'm still giving it a lot of info just by using it. What's my best FOSS or even reduced-harm alternative?

5. Lyft & Uber & Southwest I may just disable these except for the rare occasion where I need them. What's the risk of enabling, using, then immediately disabling?

6. Ring It seems like the big players are Amazon and Google. Can you recommend any privacy respecting doorbells that are relatively easy to set up? I need the ease of use because due to current life events my Home Assistant project is progressing very slowly. I failed at the VM install and don't want to screw up the system with a bare metal install as I have frequently used docker images running on it (data backed up though!). My Linux knowledge is begintermediate/intermediate with a weakness in networking.

7. Youtube I have Thorium installed to access Peertube and ween myself off YouTube. This is a long term project. Short term, I have Tubular, a newpipe fork with sponsorblock baked in whic accesses youtube okay. I do have the official youtube app because I like being able to line up videos on the TV via chromecast. Tubular doesn't seem to cast. What do you do to get video/audio to your external screens?

8. X-plore File Manager There is no alternative that I have found that does so much so well. This program is God-tier. I can do SSH, access network shares, set up sync jobs to backup folders, access nextcloud, and so much more. Possibly the most important app on my phone, but it's proprietary.

9. F-Stop Photo Gallery I haven't found a gallery that works as well as this one. I also like that it can access network shares though it doesn't seem to include them in the favorites and ratings tabs, so there must be some sort of limitation with the metadata or something. I use it for basic photo management on my phone while I use a different app to view my old vacation photos and stuff like that. But it's proprietary. :'''-(

10. Tody Keeps track of repeating chores by room and changes color from green to red based off of how long it's been since it was done. This works better for my brain than due dates because sometimes I can only keep everything in the yellow, but that looks like chaos with overdue everything when done in a traditional task management app. I know there is at least one other proprietary app that does this. Does anyone know of a FOSS app or better option?

11. Nova Launcher I have an extreme aversion to clutter, unwanted notifications, bad spacing. I'm hard to please. Nova Launcher has scratched my itch for home screen customization for years and years. I think they recently got bought out or something, but people didn't panic terribly. I'm fairly certain there is no alternative that will meet my needs, so what can I do to limit my exposure? Can I use an app like Hypatia to see what URLs it reaches out to and block any telemetry and phoning home via DNS or something like that?

12. Futo vs Transcribro The GrapheneOS default keyboard is fine but doesn't have voice input. I tried Transcribebro and recently stumbled across the source available Futo which has the source published, but is under some sort of non-commercial license. I'm not a company and I'm not so keen on the corporate grift to begin with. I care more about replacing google voice typing with something less malicious. Futo seems better integrated, but I'm torn about whether I should use/support Transcribro simply on account of it being open-source. Thoughts and experiences?

13. Whatsapp I prefer Signal, but there are places I visit where Whatsapp has a majority share of users for any communication. Can I do anything to stop all the spam and idiotic crypto group invites and junk that comes along with this app? It's totally true to what I think of when I hear the "Meta experience", clutter and bullshit.

14. Strava Is anyone hosting Wander? I've seen it posted on here and maybe on Mastodon but the installation process intimidated me a little bit. If I'm uploading my rides at all and I'm tracking on my cycle computer rather than with my phone, is there any additional privacy lost from installing the app? I use it for the heatmaps and people on here previously shared a number of useful alternative tools for making personal heatmaps overlaying map data. It's too much work without automating it somehow. I would like to reduce my exposure and understand the risks better though. Any ideas or experiences?

15. Final question, for those of you using GrapheneOS, do you isolate apps in profiles or use the private space/work profile feature? How do you split up your apps. I've been running 2 profiles with one being Financial and Medical apps and one being everything else. Is this separation even necessary with the app sandboxing? I've been reading their forums, but it's an absurd amount of information to digest.

Thank you for any insights, experiences, recommendations you may share. I'm sure I will annoy the FOSS brigade (which I would like to eventually 100% join), the power users who answer these questions a dozen times a month, and the nihilists who think privacy is already a lost cause. Having said that, I appreciate your assistance as I have come a long way to get to this point and my proprietary dependencies are lower than they've been and more contained than they've been in a very long time.

I recently found an unopened HP PhotoSmart 6520 in my mother in law's closet. She had it prepared for when her workhorse gave out. I've needed a scanner downstairs and want to figure out if I can safely connect this thing to the network without it bricking itself. You all probably already know HPs reputation and how they do sketchy things like blocking third party ink with firmware updates after the consumer has already purchased the product, or making it so you can't scan if the ink is out. Right now, all I want to do is scan some docs to linux, likely over USB, maybe over the network if I can get it to work. I don't want to rule out that my partner may want to print something.

What is the best way to go about this? Can I block the printer from accessing the internet on my router, but still have devices on the local network print to it? Should I? Can I see somewhere if updates are reported as safe and only then unblock the internet access so it can update?

Problem is, as usual, Google is less than helpful. Does anyone know where I can find a list of which printers were affected and which are still affected?

I'm down to the last few hours of discounts here. I need to get my NAS and my server onto a UPS months ago. Both are already set to come back on when power restores. We rarely have power outages and have solar panels (no house battery though), so a full outage is even rarer.

I understand that a UPS can send a shutdown signal when power is lost. Is this a universal standard or format for this? If so, what keywords should i use when searching for compatible products? My father told me to look for one with Ethernet ports. I just want to make sure everything is compatible. I go out of town occasionally and as well as preventing data loss, I also need everything to go down and come back up automatically so I don't have to call a friend, neighbor, or my spouse to go mess with stuff for me.

UPS brands considered (alternatives welcome): APC, Cyberpower

Systems protected, Synology DS 220+ & BeeLink MiniPC running Debian 12.

Also, for anyone who has helped me out previously in my self-hosted journey, thank you! Things are going great and I have a few useful docker images running various services and have set up grub btrfs snapshots to easily fix my screwups. This community has been incredibly helpful.

Hi folks, I just picked up a Pixel 8 Pro on an early black Friday deal. I've had my previous OnePlus 9 for way longer than the average timeframe and the same with my Oneplus 6 before that.

Looking at cases, I noticed I recognize very few of the manufacturers, basically just Otterbox and Spigen.

If you gravitate towards a particular case manufacturer, I would love to know:

Who makes the best phone cases in 2024?

No limits on style or form, but I don't need rhinestone bling or anything like that.

Hi folks,

You all have been instrumental to my self-hosting journey, both as inspiration and as a knowledge base when I'm stumped despite my research.

I am finding various different opinions on this and I'm curious what folks here have to say.

I'm running a Debian server accessible only within the home with a number of docker images like paperless-ngx, jellyfin, focalboard, etc. Most of the data actually resides on my NAS via NFS.

1. Is /mnt or /media the correct place to mount the directories. Is mounting it on the host and mapping the mount point to docker with a bind the best path here?

2. Additionally, where is the best place to keep my docker-compose? I understand that things will work even if I pick weird locations, but I also believe in the importance of convention. Should this be in the home directory of the server user? I've seen a number of locations mentioned in search results.

3. Do I have to change the file perms in the locations where I store the docker compose or any config files that don't sit on the other end of NFS?

Any other resources you wish to share are appreciated. I appreciate the helpfulness of this community.

Hello fellow lemmings,

I was a wiz at google in the early 2000s. I would find obscure forums for every interest and usually get some pretty good info. My research skills haven't aged well, and I'd like to get a bit more with it.

I use:

• Rtings, for TVs and monitors
• Consumer reports, for <500
• Sites like scamreport where people rant about shitty companies not living up to their promises
• glassdoor, to see what a company's employees think and how they are treated

How do you research your purchases when there is so much AI slop out there and google doesn't really work right anymore. Duck duck go and bing are marginally better. Are there trusted impartial review sites?

Hi folks, I know many of you are elite system admins running custom built NAS solutions networked together with servers tucked in every spare closet and space in your home, which is awesome. Having said that, I am still newer in my self hosted journey and my existing knowledge is more from running Linux as an daily driver OS since 2005 rather than actually hosting anything. For this reason, even though it's not ideologically pure, I opted for a SynologyNAS for simplicity of management. This was the next step for me after dipping my toes into self hosting after messing around with some VMs and an old laptop.

With the new DSM update, Synology removes several apps and codec support, most notably h.256. I experienced something similar on Linux where I cannot view videos recorded on my action cam. I don't know how many of these photos and videos I have in my file system, but my NAS is local network only and basically contains my photos, videos, ebooks, documents, etc. in separate shares containing a hierarchical folder structure.

My questions:

1. How can I most easily search my NAS for files needing the removed codecs so I can gauge how much this will actually effect me? I want to approach the problem in a simple way that I can understand.
2. With Linux and Synology DSM both dropping codecs, I am considering just taking the storage hit to convert to h.264 or another format. What would you recommend? I havent recoded video in ages so I'm learning from scratch, but I do have a desktop with dual 1080s that should be up to the task.
3. I access my shares via dolphin on KDE. When it comes to thumbnails for a remote filesystem like this are they generated and stored on my PC or will the PC save them to the folder on the NAS where other programs could use them. I just want to make sure I can visually browse the videos and photos on my NAS and have them show up appropriately.

I'm a bit frustrated and kind of favoring just moving things to a different format. I bought a Synology device for an easier experience, and having said that, even if I built a custom solution, didn't Debian remove h.265 as well? I will probably do a TrueNAS or whatever at some point, but I've had way to many family events in the last few years and have to take an easier path right now.

My Linux knowledge is intermediate and my self-hosting knowledge is still fairly basic.