I figured this may lead to an interesting discussion in the comments.

How has your use of Technology changed in the past year? I’ll start.

  • Due to the rise of streaming services and Sony/discovery removing content from libraries, I downloaded all my iTunes purchases onto a 2TB SSD (which I’ll soon need to get another).

  • Like many, I’ve stopped using Reddit outside of Google search.

  • I’ve reduced my subscriptions to just two. (Apple One and Google One)

  • I’ve purchased DVDs/Blu rays of my favorite uncensored shows (Family Guy and American Dad) and ripped them and watch them through Cloud storage (Google Drive via Infuse for Apple platforms, and Kodi for Windows)(I’ve also purchased MakeMKV just because it is so damn useful)

  • I’ve used Google App Scripts to bypass some Gmail limitations to make filters that I otherwise couldn’t. For instance, in Outlook.com, you can block email addresses and domains before you have ever gotten an email from them. In Gmail, you can’t. The best you can do is create a filter that deletes them. In my case, I’ve created a Google App Script that runs every hour and looks for (@.mil) domain emails and marks them as spam. (I am in college, and I fucking hate that they give my email to recruiters.)

  • QuikEnglish
    5·
    6 months ago
    • I’ve did some distrohopping and in effect switched from Fedora to Fedora Silverblue (very enjoyable)
    • I’ve completely removed all centralized social media apart from YouTube (I’ll have to invest some more time in PeerTube before I can make the switch) from my life
    • In general I spend less time doom-scrolling and way more time actually reading interesting stuff (I’ve found LessWrong, a forum about the art of rationality/more rational thinking)
    • I have replaced all remaining proprietary software components on my desktop with open source ones (e.g. I now use FOSS frontends for Discord and Spotify, namely gtkcord4 and Spot), the only exceptions being the Nvidia driver (I hope that will change in 2024 with NVK) and some games (although 80% of my very limited gaming time is now spent in open source games like Beyond All Reason)
    • I got a tablet/ChromeBook convertible (Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 8GB) which I installed PostmarketOS on and am now daily driving Linux in school where everybody else is using iPads
    • I am in the process of finally building my own NAS/homeserver
    • On the negative side I spent way less of my free time programming than I would have liked to

    I do also have some goals and ambitions for this year:

    • Host all my stuff on my own server, this includes files (documents, photos, backups, media) as well as services like my website and automations
    • Write audio and camera drivers for my tablet
    • Learn some more Nim
    • Write more code than last year
    • Finally make the switch to Vim/NeoVim
    • Become independent from YouTube
    • If my iPhone happens to break, get a Linux phone as a daily driver
    • Gradually unsubscribe from (streaming) services like Spotify
    • BoisZoi@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      2·
      6 months ago

      In the event that you cancel music steaming services and instead opt for purchased/local music, I’ve read that Plex Amp is a great app that feels similar to steaming in terms of recommendations and randomization of songs. 😁

      • QuikEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        Thank you, I’ll eventually look into that