#2024-goal — Public Fediverse posts

Do you know that the largest empire in the world, the Achaemenid Empire, owes part of its architecture to the civilization of Elam, which once had a powerful government in the west of Iran?

https://www.pirsik.com/tours/t-10446

#Iran #Travel #2024 #2024goal #destination #history #culture

Travel to Iran without visa!
Embark on a long-winding journey across Iran and explore various landmarks from Tabriz to Shiraz in Iran in 4 seasons tour.
https://www.pirsik.com/tours/t-67937
#Iran #Travel #destination #2024 #2024goal #2024destination #history #culture #explore

Do you know that the largest empire in the world, the Achaemenid Empire, owes part of its architecture to the civilization of Elam, which once had a powerful government in the west and southwest of Iran? In this tour, we travel to the third millennium BC

https://buff.ly/49wOljn

#Iran #Travel #2024 #2024goal #destination #2024destination #history #culture

There is an oft-used phrase when it comes to the “free” services companies like Google and Facebook provide: If you are not paying for the product, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT. While this may come across as more tech paranoia, the behavior of these companies throughout the years proves this maxim again and again. Google’s Gmail product, for example, gives users a free email account with essentially unlimited storage. Both the cost and the storage help to lock the user into using Gmail for the long term. Google, however, is able to scan the contents of your Gmail account, purportedly to give you targeted ads in your Gmail interface, but the only way you can say no to this is to say no to Gmail as a whole.

I have started to say no by starting to move my email services away from Gmail.

I wanted to find an email service I could use which fit my criteria for mimizing my Big Tech reliance. Fortunately, email services are already platform agnostic, but I wanted to support a service which was open source and privacy focused. The solution I chose is ProtonMail.

ProtonMail’s security and privacy focus is their top priority. The service is encrypted end-to-end where possible, is hosted in Switzerland, which is much more privacy friendly than countries like the US. While the company does offer a free service tier, I opted to pay for ProtonMail so I could use my own medi-nerd.com domain and get more storage on my account, currently 18 GB. I also have access to other services Proton offers, such as their own calendar, file storage, and VPN services, though I have not put those to use just yet. I also use ProtonMail in my role as Drum Corps Planet Managing News Editor for receiving press releases and communicating with drum corps journalists and communications teams.

Since migrating to ProtonMail in May of 2020, I have slowly cut my reliance on my Gmail account, either moving things over to my ProtonMail address as needed or simply unsubscribing or deleting services and accounts which connected to Gmail but I no longer needed. I find that my email usage is much more focused on what I need it for, while I also enjoy the piece of mind which a secure and private email service gives me. Top that with having email for my domain, and ProtonMail gives me everything I want and need at a price that matches the value I receive.

If you’re interested in checking out ProtonMail, they offer a referral program. Just click the link below to try Proton’s Mail Plus service free for a month. If you like it and subscribe to a plan, I will get credit towards my subscription. Even if you just switch to the free tier once your month is up, I think you’ll find that you’ll enjoy using ProtonMail and appreciate what they offer.

ProtonMail Refer A Friend Link – https://pr.tn/ref/8H9W5ADH1WPG

https://medi-nerd.com/2024/02/18/minimize-big-tech-reliance-email/

#2024Goal #BigTech #Email #Facebook #Gmail #Google #MinimizeBigTechReliance #ProtonMail

It turns out today is the anniversary of the release of the first web browser, Mosaic, in 1993. Since I posted my web browser recommendation yesterday, today I’ll focus on something we all use in our browsers: search engines.

When we think of web search, we almost always think of Google, who revolutionized search engines in the late 90s with their algorithms and automated curation. Companies like Yahoo and Microsoft have tried to compete throughout the years, but few now remember that Yahoo started out as a search engine before Google, while the best which Microsoft can do is…Bing?

Now, however, Google and Microsoft are working to implement AI into their search results. The results aren’t looking good, at least according to SEO experts such as Lily Ray:

“It’s the worst quality results on Google I’ve seen in my 14-year career,” eminent SEO expert Lily Ray told Fortune.

Instead of filtering out scams, Google is seemingly bowing to the pressure and is instead promoting them.

Tangermann, V. (2024, January 20). AI Garbage Is Destroying Google Results. Yahoo. Retrieved January 23, 2024, from https://news.yahoo.com/ai-garbage-destroying-google-results-120005350.html

Between that and my desire to move away from Big Tech, I’ve recently switched to the DuckDuckGo search engine. Unfortunately, DuckDuckGo is another proprietary search engine like Google and Bing. When I did a check for open source search engines, there were few options I could find. Two of the search engines which came up on alternativeto.net, Searx and Gigablast were recently discontinued, while the rest were pretty obscure. In fact, outside of DuckDuckGo, most of the non Big Tech search engine options were completely unknown to me. DuckDuckGo it is, then.

So far, my search experience with DuckDuckGo has been good. I’ve found whatever I’ve looked for without issue, and I don’t use it for anything else. DuckDuckGo does one thing and it does it well. Throw in the focus on user privacy and this, in my opinion, is the best current search engine option. You, however, may have a different opinion. If you do, let me know in the comments.

https://medi-nerd.com/2024/01/23/minimize-big-tech-reliance-search-engine/

#2024Goal #alternativetoNet #Bing #DuckDuckGoTechnology #Gigablast #Google #Microsoft #MinimizeBigTechReliance #Mosaic #Search #SearchEngine #Searx #Yahoo

I currently use almost all Apple devices for my personal tech, so Apple’s Safari web browser is pretty much front and center on all my devices. I have no problem with Safari. It’s free, easy to use, and has enough extensions for what I need while surfing the net. It’s provided by Apple, however, so, in keeping with my goal to minimize my reliance on Big Tech, I’m looking for an alternative browser which fits the bill.

Before I look at my options, let’s eliminate a few other choices, also from our Big Tech friends. Google’s Chrome browser, while popular, is most definitely not an option. Neither is Microsoft’s Edge browser, which is now based off the same open source Chromium browser which Chrome comes from, so it gets a double nope from me. Meta and Amazon don’t have browsers, though I wouldn’t use them if they did.

So, what are my options?

• The website Open Source Alternative To recommends the Brave browser. Like Chrome and Edge, Brave is based off the open source Chromium browser. Brave also touts its focus on privacy, which would normally appeal to me. Brave’s founder, however, is Brandon Eich, a former Firefox executive who donated money to California Proposition 8, which attempted to make same sex marriage illegal in the state. The controversy when this was discovered led to Eich’s resignation from Firefox. I won’t support Eich or Brave as a result.
• The TOR browser is an option I almost considered due to their heavy privacy focus, but it is not available on iOS, so I’m not able to use it on phone or tablet.
• The same is true for Chromium, the open source browser upon which Chrome is based, but, again, no iOS option.
• This leads me to my actual choice: Firefox. The browser is open source, and I love the ability to customize the browser via add ons and settings, especially from a privacy standpoint. I’ve used this list of privacy focused extensions to improve browsing experience.

What browsers would you recommend? Put them in the comments.

https://medi-nerd.com/2024/01/22/minimize-big-tech-reliance-web-browsers/

#2024Goal #Apple #Brave #Chrome #Chromium #Edge #Firefox #Google #Microsoft #MinimizeBigTechReliance #Mozilla #Safari #TOR #WebBrowsers

Microsoft. Apple. Amazon. Meta (Facebook). Alphabet (Google). Together, these companies comprise what is known as Big Tech. The services offered by the companies throughout the years are utilize by many businesses and consumers all over the world, including myself.

The business practices of Big Tech, however, are questionable, at best.

Microsoft’s Bill Gates era was marred by predatory and monopolistic business practices, while their current focus on subscription services started a dubious trend across technology. Apple champions themselves as protecting user privacy, but their hardware is designed with no user upgradability and few, it any, user repair options. Amazon has all but declared war on small businesses and their own employees. Meta created a toxic social media environment that fosters disinformation and extreme right wing beliefs, not to mention major privacy concerns. Speaking of privacy, Alphabet wrote the book on accessing user data as the trade off for their “free” services.

In order to move away from these companies as much as possible, I am looking at software and service alternatives that fit some of all of the following criteria:

• Comes from the FLOSS (Free, Libre and Open Source Software) community
• Is platform/hardware agnostic
• Is user/consumer focused
• Is privacy focused

In some cases, I’ve already made the move to providers which fit these criteria. I’ll be discussing their pros and cons, as well as other options you can choose from. In other cases, I’ll be checking out my options as I prepare to make my move away from Big Tech and will bring you along on the journey. There may even be some services which I self host, now that I have a fiber connection for my home and some spare equipment I can put to use. I actually like that idea the most since I would have full control of the software and hardware.

If you’re already using non Big Tech software and services or know of some you think I might be interested in, let me know in the comments.

https://medi-nerd.com/2024/01/20/2024-goal-minimize-big-tech-reliance/

#2024Goal #Alphabet #Amazon #AppleMeta #BigTech #FacebookTechnology #Google #Microsoft #MinimizeBigTechReliance

The citrus is strong in this squash, especially the grapefruit flavor. A robust brew that took me a little by surprise as a result.

https://medi-nerd.com/2024/01/18/2024-winking-lizard-world-tour-of-beers-2-dogfish-head-citrus-squall-golden-ale-pint-glass-625/

#2024 #2024Goal #CitrusSquall #DogfishHead #GoldenAle #WinkingLizard #WorldTourOfBeers

The good news is that this post gives me a week of daily posting to start the year!

Many of us post to Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites on a daily basis, usually multiple times throughout our day. They’re usually free and easy to access, plus it’s a way for us to stay in touch our friends and family. Social media sites have a number of issues, however:

• If you’re not paying for it, you become the product – An issue with any free service on the Internet for years, their terms of service (TOS) usually give them the right to use anything you enter, from your contact information to your photos to anything you post in your social media feeds, however they wish, including selling that information to people and companies you may not want association with.
• The “enshittification” of social media sites – Author Cory Doctrow coined today term in 2022. It was named the word of the year in 2023. In short, enshittification is what happens when sites like Twitter and Facebook lock their users in with high switching costs (“all my family is on Facebook!”) and then keep making changes that makes the site/service worse and worse until the site loses advertisers and, finally, users. Elon Musk bought Twitter, for example, and made sure to accelerate the enshittification of the site to the point that it’s a ghost of its former self.
• Social media is limiting – Twitter has a character count limit of 280 characters. Mastodon’s limit is usually 500 characters. Other social media sites have similar character limits, while services like Facebook are limited more by their interface, which isn’t designed for long form writing and publishing. Posting on my site gives me the ability to combine my writing along with photos, music, videos, and other media, as well as the ability to format it the way I want.
• Censorship (or lack thereof) – Many times, I’ve seen friends post screen shots of posts they’ve made which were blocked by Facebook or Twitter because they “violate community standards”, though what standards are violated are never made clear. Twitter even suspended my account twice for similar reasons. Meanwhile, fascists and bigots post with near impunity, even after reports from multiple users. I don’t have to deal with any of that on my own website.

I will continue to post on my social media accounts, but you may have already noticed that most of my posts link to my website. My main writing will take place on my site, while I’ll use my social media accounts to amplify my posts. I may drop a comment or reply here or there, but I hope to keep my “doomscrolling” on social media to a minimum.

https://medi-nerd.com/2024/01/07/2024-goal-write-a-daily-post-on-my-site/

#2024Goal #CoryDoctrow #Enshittification #Facebook #Mastodon #SocialMedia #Twitter #WordPress #WriteADailyPostOnMySite

Over the past few years, I’ve tried to set myself a goal of reading a certain number of books in a calendar year. Usually, that goal is 52 books so I average a book a week. Life hasn’t always let me do so, however. Last year, for example, I was only able to read 19 books. This is by no means a failure on my part, but I do think I need to change my goal focus. Instead of a set number of books in the year, I’d like to build the habit of reading every day, even if it’s just a few pages.

The books I plan to read will come from the following:

• Books from my local library
• E-books, audiobooks, and graphic novels from the Libby and Hoopla apps
• Books I purchase locally, from either Black Cat Books & Oddities (new books) or The Bookshelf (used books)
• Books, e-books, audiobooks, graphic novels, and manga I’ve purchased from various Humble Bundle events

To track my reading progress, I have an account on Bookwyrm, a federated social media service for reading. I’ll also try to write reviews of the books I read, both here and on Bookwyrm. If you’re also tracking your reading, let me know where I can follow you so I can see what you’re reading.

https://medi-nerd.com/2024/01/01/2024-goal-read-every-day/

#2024Goal #BlackCatBooksOddities #BookWyrm #Hoopla #Libby #MedinaCountyDistrictLibrary #ReadEveryDay #TheBookshelf