Below you will find pages that utilize the taxonomy term “Digital-Life”
Breaking Free from Google: My Journey with Self-Hosted Alternatives
The recent buzz around self-hosted alternatives to Google services has got me thinking about my own digital autonomy journey. Don’t get me wrong - this isn’t about bashing Google. Their services are polished and convenient, but there’s something deeply satisfying about taking control of your digital life.
My home server, humming away in the study, has become quite the Swiss Army knife of services. The star of the show lately has been Immich, a remarkably capable alternative to Google Photos. What started as a curious experiment has turned into my primary photo management solution. The face recognition feature works surprisingly well, even on my modest hardware, and the ability to share libraries between family members is brilliant.
The Hunt for Budget-Friendly Mobile Plans: Keeping Numbers Alive While Abroad
Interesting discussion caught my eye today about maintaining Australian mobile numbers while overseas, particularly for those essential OTP messages we can’t seem to escape. The quest for the most economical solution definitely resonates with my bargain-hunting spirit.
Back in 2019, I faced a similar dilemma when spending three months in Japan for a work project. The whole two-factor authentication landscape has become increasingly complex since then, with everything from banking to MyGov requiring that precious mobile number. It’s fascinating how our phone numbers have evolved from simple contact points to crucial digital identity anchors.
The Self-Hosting Rabbit Hole: A Year of Digital Independence
Standing in my home office, staring at the humming server rack tucked away in the corner, I reflected on how much things have changed over the past year. The journey into self-hosting started innocently enough with a simple Raspberry Pi running Pi-hole to block ads across our home network. Now, that modest beginning has snowballed into what my wife lovingly calls “that computer thing you’re always tinkering with.”
The online self-hosting community has been buzzing lately about various setups and must-have applications. Reading through different configurations, it’s fascinating to see how people approach their digital independence differently. Some focus on media management, others on productivity tools, and quite a few on privacy-focused alternatives to popular cloud services.
The Social Media Shuffle: Why Bluesky's Rise Matters
Looking at the recent surge of users flocking to Bluesky - 700,000 new signups in just a week - brings back memories of the early Twitter days, when social media still felt genuinely social. Remember those times? When you could actually have meaningful conversations without drowning in a sea of sponsored content and bot armies?
The migration to Bluesky isn’t just another platform shuffle. It represents something deeper: our collective exhaustion with algorithmic manipulation and corporate surveillance. While brewing my morning coffee and scrolling through discussions about this exodus, what struck me most wasn’t the numbers, but the sentiment behind them.