HSL

Luna's Fishing Garden: simple, sweet, satisfying way to spend an evening. Feels a bit like #spiritfarer and #stardewvalley but with about 3 hour play time. It had been in my #steam library for ages.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1477790/Lunas_Fishing_Garden/

THE INCREDIBLE REASON HOUSE STATION LIVE CHANGED SERVERS
Or a survival guide for e-businesses facing bans or legal disputes with a platform

When justice can’t be reached, relocation becomes resistance. Hosting your services on U.S. soil means giving up your legal rights. We rebuilt everything... servers, software, platforms... using European tools that respect our laws. From o2switch and Hetzner to Nobara and Tutanota, we chose freedom over convenience. Self-hosting isn't just about privacy or control anymore... it's about survival, sovereignty, and standing your ground against a system that was never designed to protect us.
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PART TWO – DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY STARTS WITH HOSTING
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In such a context, the very idea of a sustainable business model for a structure like ours becomes laughable. One single ban, and it all collapses. No access. No visibility. No way to defend your rights. No representative. No lawyer. No legal process. The one exception? Uber. Because French courts ruled that the roads used by drivers are physically located in France, and therefore subject to French law. So what about YouTube? Isn’t it made of “tubes” too... literal, physical tubes... like undersea cables and fiber optics stretching across the Atlantic? I don’t want to sound cynical, but at some point, those tubes pass through France too. And still, that’s not enough. Our content, disputes, and takedowns are judged under laws written an ocean away.

And this is where the trap closes. Whether or not the platforms promote freedom and open source (Mastodon, Odysee, BitChute, Ghost.io, Vimeo, Twitch, YouTube), all of them without exception state in their terms of service that disputes must be resolved in foreign jurisdictions. It doesn’t matter that they advocate for user privacy or net neutrality. Their U.S. legal base is enough to activate the DMCA... a law that assumes you’re guilty before you’ve even had the chance to defend yourself. The result is inevitable: there is only one viable solution for those who wish to preserve their rights and survive this digital chaos... Work exclusively with providers based in France or Europe. That’s the only way to remain under a legal framework we understand, recognize, and can actually enforce.

What might seem like a paranoid fantasy is now our operational doctrine. We spent weeks looking for a sustainable solution. GoDaddy has now been replaced by a two-part setup: OVH for domain names, and o2switch for hosting. Why? Because despite OVH’s weak customer service, their DNS is reliable. And o2switch is a rare gem... a French company, bound by French law, with real human support, and no interest in exploiting your data. Their model is simple, fair, and unlimited. While competitors charge for every byte as if it were gold, o2switch provides powerful tools, solid infrastructure, and a win-win philosophy. Even better: their WordPress support is widely praised by the community. Thanks to this change, we can now host our own videos previously uploaded to YouTube, using WordPress plugins with secure players. The so-called alternatives to YouTube, even those advocating for openness, are all U.S.-based. o2switch is a rare find... a real asset for digital sovereignty, allowing us to continue existing without sacrificing our values or sinking deeper into debt.

Twitch has been replaced by Owncast, hosted on Hetzner Cloud (Germany) for just €3.79/month, with simple installation. Private streaming isn’t supported, but public indexing through their directory could even boost our reach. Captivate is replaced by Podlove, a WordPress plugin, which lets us centralize content and simplify navigation. ChatGPT is replaced by Le Chat Mistral, the only AI neither American nor Asian. Windows is phased out in favor of Nobara Linux, backed by a strong open-source community and compatible with nearly all modern games. Kdenlive replaces paid video editing software. Logitech peripherals are supported. Elgato is out... replaced by Loupedeck, a better fit for Linux with hardware-level controls. Emails remain with Tutanota, an EU-based provider committed to privacy. A few exceptions remain... Hear-me.social (a Mastodon instance) and RadioBoss Cloud... based in Eastern Europe. Social media now plays only a teaser role. The real content, the heart of the experience, lives with us... on our own infrastructure, in our own digital home.

Why does this all matter? Because if your website is hosted on servers physically located in France, your opponents must use French law to come after you. No more DMCA. No more California courtrooms. If a U.S. company wants to take down your content or claim ownership, they’ll have to go through French courts, under French law, with all the procedural safeguards that entails. In short, this technical migration is a legal survival strategy. A way to reclaim our infrastructure, our freedom of speech, and our digital future. As long as your platform is hosted in the U.S., you are at their mercy. But by bringing our data home to France, we regain our sovereignty.
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||#HSLdiary #HSLpartners

#SelfHosting #DigitalSovereignty #FreeSoftware #FediTech #France #EUtech #o2switch #Hetzner #Nobara #Tutanota

€50,000 FOR AN INVISIBLE SET

In the Friday Formula 01x02 episode, you can finally glimpse what I’ve been building for years. That set is my greatest pride. A meticulous, ambitious production, designed down to the last detail. A childhood dream made real. Works of art. A central screen where the host uses visuals to support their points. An aquarium. Porcelain dogs. Mugs. A Michael Jackson clock carved from a vinyl record. Friday Formula 01x02 was supposed to be a hundred times better—with a finished set, more competent and motivated hosts, and better production. With more resources. But to pull that off, under the conditions I faced, is already a victory. A testament to determination. To willpower. With no money. No funding. No audience.
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THE SET IS TANGIBLE

What few people realize is that building a TV set isn’t like decorating a bedroom. It’s about:

- Ordering hand-engraved vinyls from Ukraine

- Importing Bazalto chairs from Poland

- A 3D Ayrton Senna frame signed by Retro Game Craft

- A custom neon light made in Singapore

Every item costs:

- In product price

- In shipping

- In taxes

- In customs

- In stress (lost parcels, defective goods)

And there were mishaps: furniture delivered broken, a brand-new fridge that didn’t work (last one in stock), having to call in a repairman. Thankfully, the store refunded me with the invoice. But the mental toll is real. The logistics are crushing.
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A HALF-COMPLETED INVESTMENT

Over three years, I spent €50,000. For a project that’s only 50% finished. Progressing slowly. Through patience, effort, rational micro-decisions, and a few gambles. And yet, that set has never been seen. Or almost never. Because YouTube buried my videos—like it buries thousands of others.
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THE DREAM OF AN AUTONOMOUS WEBTV

This project goes beyond YouTube. It always aimed at an independent website, a self-hosted media hub, a 24/7 WebTV. But to make that viable, we needed an audience. The idea was simple: finish the set, then start broadcasting publicly. In the meantime, YouTube would be our window. Our springboard. But YouTube said no. Not with an official rejection—but through systematic invisibility. Like a Tinder match that gets swiped left into oblivion.
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TOTAL DETACHMENT

YouTube’s detachment is both structural and emotional. If the platform had even the slightest symbolic involvement in video production, it would have a reason to showcase them. But YouTube contributes nothing. It respects nothing. And it can destroy an entire project—effortlessly. Without remorse. Without loss.
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THE CINEMA PARABLE

Imagine walking into a movie theater, seeing the producer’s logo… and walking out. Then posting a review about the logo. And having that review promoted.

That’s YouTube.

People click the three dots—“Not interested in this video”—after only seeing the thumbnail. Not the video. Not even a single second of it. And YouTube pulls your work off the shelves. And it’s not just what you see: this type of negative feedback has a massive impact on the entire channel, cutting its visibility across the platform.
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A COLLECTIVE INJUSTICE

This article is long. Maybe too long. But I need to go into detail so that people understand the real value of our work. This isn’t about asking for €0.03 per view. This is about repairing a sabotage. For Kévin, Dinoh, José. For the €50,000 spent on an unfinished set. For the €10,000 in TV gear hijacked for YouTube’s benefit. For the ads played on our videos, from which YouTube earns a profit, without retributing the producer — despite the legal obligation tied to authorship.
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THE TRUE COST OF AN INDEPENDENT MEDIA PROJECT

Let’s assume a minimum wage in France of €1,250/month for 18 months:
1,250 × 18 = €22,500. And even that doesn’t cover:

- The other collaborators

- Operating costs

- Business expenses

- The value of my skills

I’m the producer, director, host, author, network tech—and more. And I get paid zero.
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THE FINAL HUMILIATION

One day, I fixed a woman’s computer.
– The hard drive cost me €75
– My labor was worth €75
– A data recovery lab would’ve charged €3,000 to retrieve the files.

She handed me a €20 bill. Not even enough to cover costs. YouTube is that woman. It decides what your work is worth: a few coins, a handful of cents.
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||#HSLdiary #HSLmichael

#CreatorEconomy #InvisibleLabor #YouTubeExploitation #IndieVideo #PlatformJustice #WebTV #DIYStudio #DigitalSabotage

CREATING ON YOUTUBE MEANS PAYING TO WORK

YouTube is like Uber. Uber asks you to own, in your garage, a black sedan with less than 100,000 km on it—one you’re not using—and claims you can start making money from it. “It doesn’t cost you anything,” Uber says, since the car is just sitting there anyway. But in reality, it’s the most financially vulnerable people who see it as an opportunity. They take out a loan to buy a car. And when that car hits 100,000 km and the loan isn’t paid off, they get a second one—and now they’re stuck with two loans. Uber “earns” you €5/hour, but the cost of maintaining your setup is €7.50/hour. The more you work, the more your tool degrades. You earn 25% more, but spend 25% more. The vehicle is repurposed for an economic model that only benefits Uber.
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YOUTUBE IS NO DIFFERENT

When you become a YouTuber, they make you believe that “anyone can stream with a smartphone.” That all you need is an idea, a bit of courage, and some basic gear. That you can compete with MrBeast—who spends a million per video—on a shoestring budget. That’s a lie.
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THE REAL COST OF A SETUP

I spent five years, from 2018 to 2023, saving up to buy a €5,000 PC solely for production. Because streaming isn’t just “playing a game.” Your PC becomes a 4K broadcasting server. You need two graphics cards—or even two separate machines:

- One to run the software or the game

- The other to encode, stream, and record

You also need:

- A second monitor (for video return and replay)

- A replay buffer (to capture instant replays)

- A Stream Deck for seamless transitions

- A Wave XLR for professional audio quality

- Audio interfaces, mixers, USB cameras, XLR microphones

All these high-end peripherals constantly tax your system. You need two USB hubs capable of handling 15 devices at once with no signal loss. A single weak link can ruin everything. And that’s not all. To stream a Nintendo Switch, you need a capture card—and you can’t rely on your streaming software’s preview because of input lag. You have to play directly on the other screen already in place.
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ONGOING TECHNICAL LEARNING

Streaming requires broad technical expertise:

- Lighting, audio, capture devices, networking

- Compression, codecs, editing, formatting

- Live direction, visual/audio transitions, real-time coordination

And you’re doing all this with zero support from YouTube.
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STORAGE AND ENERGY COSTS

Your PC isn’t enough anymore. You’ll need a NAS—a network-attached storage system—cheaper than the cloud in the long run, but which demands:

- Two 20 TB drives (mirrored) → 40 TB

- A dedicated server, which adds another €1,000

It’s become a mini television studio. Which brings with it:

- Planned obsolescence

- Frequent breakdowns

- Hardware wear and tear

- Electricity costs of a 1,000-watt PC plus a 24/7 server

Altogether, the setup costs more than a car.
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AND YOUTUBE PAYS NOTHING

And yet, it’s YouTube that cashes in. It runs ads on your videos—even if you’re not monetized. It hijacks your gear, your energy, your skills. And if your content doesn’t “perform,” it simply ignores you. A PC, cameras, capture cards, hubs, microphones, lights—tens of thousands of euros invested just to exist. And the platform invests nothing in return. No visibility. No value sharing. Not even a word of encouragement.
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||#HSLdiary #HSLmichael

#InvisibleLabor #PlatformCapitalism #CreatorEconomy #DigitalPrecarity #FreeLabor #YouTubeProblems #Shadowban

Somebody asked me today how I got the hang of the #zsamoonlander. To be fair, the Moonlander is relatively tame compared to some of my other keyboards. :)

I'm rather proud of this part of my answer:

> I guess the short version: embrace the DIY/hacker mentality: if it doesn’t work for you, change it. Question defaults: are they really still valid? Do they work for you?

Updating my #EndeavourOSLinux installation and I noticed an interesting culture difference around risk. On Endeavour, the default option is yes, while on #fedora , the default is much more likely to be no.

Updating Python still scares me.