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},
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},
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"dependencies": {
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"dependencies": {
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"@astrojs/check": "^0.9.4",
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"@astrojs/check": "^0.9.4",
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"@astrojs/tailwind": "^5.1.2",
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"@astrojs/tailwind": "^5.1.4",
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"astro": "^4.16.6",
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"astro": "^5.1.2",
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"dayjs": "^1.11.13",
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"tailwindcss": "^3.4.13",
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"tailwindcss": "^3.4.13",
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"typescript": "^5.6.2"
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"typescript": "^5.6.2"
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}
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}
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pnpm-lock.yaml
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pnpm-lock.yaml
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18
src/content.config.ts
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src/content.config.ts
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import { defineCollection, z } from "astro:content";
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import { glob } from "astro/loaders";
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const blog = defineCollection({
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loader: glob({ pattern: "**/*.md", base: "./src/data/blog" }),
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schema: z.object({
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title: z.string(),
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published: z.date(),
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url: z.string(),
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draft: z.boolean().optional(),
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description: z.string().optional(),
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tags: z.array(z.string()).optional(),
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category: z.string().optional(),
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}),
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});
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export const collections = { blog };
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21
src/data/blog/2012-08-09-battle-of-business-vs-opensource.md
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src/data/blog/2012-08-09-battle-of-business-vs-opensource.md
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---
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title: Battle of Business vs OpenSource
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description: Alright lately I have been getting overwhelmed with all the drama of the oldest argument in the world of internet technologies. So who should win? Big business or opensource projects? Well the answer is simple, THE ARE NOT AT WAR!!!!
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tags: [OpenSim, Opinion]
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published: 2012-08-09
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url: /2012/08/battle-of-business-vs-opensource/
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category: Archive
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draft: false
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---
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Alright lately I have been getting overwhelmed with all the drama of the oldest argument in the world of internet technologies. So who should win? Big business or opensource projects? Well the answer is simple, THE ARE NOT AT WAR!!!!
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So let us start off with the ATTACK against an innocent content contribute to the opensim community. Linda Kellie, is a large fan girl of opensim, and that is all she is. She is just like everyone else who uses opensim, she just so happens to release all her stuff completely free on a website. She does this because she likes to see people use her stuff. She doesn't want any sort of credit, in fact all of her stuff is completely royalty free. The only reason people are upset with her is because she has influence in the opensim community, how? Because she just gives away stuff, that doesn't mean she is a representative of the opensim community.
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Linda Kellie is no more of a representative of the opensimulator community than I am. She just wants to login, play, and share stuff she creates. Hey, I do the same thing, but I am not a great builder so I provide opensimulator hosting at affordable costs. Yes she is now on a grid that doesn't have the greatest reputation, but I am going to go into that in the next segment of this blog. She didn't do all this for PR for their grid, she just logged in and fell in love with we what they are doing. I was there in the call when she stated she wanted to go back into making things for money, no one even said anything to her about it. She just decided to do it for SpotOn3D because she really likes it there, so why should we be mad at her for doing what she wants and enjoys. If people fallow her, it is THEIR choice, that is the thing that people need to realize, humans are likes herds of sheep. They go where they see others going, but you know what, they still have free will, if you are nervous they are dragging them away from your product DO SOMETHING BETTER TO ATTRACT ATTENTION DON'T BITCH AND BLAME IT ON SOMEONE ELSE!!!!
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Next onto the SpotOn3D, I am sick and tired of people upset with this grid obtaining patents on OpenSimulator. Hell did you know that most of your human body organs is patented by medical companies, I am not lying it is!!! Now, why I am not throwing a fit about all the patents they have. Well my answer is super simple: I MUCH RATHER HAVE SPOTON3D HAVE THE PATENTS THAN A COMPANY WHO IS SUE HAPPY LIKE WORLDS INC. I know Tessa from a while back, and well I am pretty sure she is not going to use these to stop opensource development? Why because she needs it too, just like any company using opensource. She has her grid upgraded with each opensim release, so honestly, yeah I don't think she is a threat, I think of her as a protector of the development since they are not contributing back code wise, but as long as she doesn't abuse the power of these patents she is protected the sourcecode from companies like Worlds Inc.
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Now onto SecondLife with its latest changes to the viewer, now I am upset like the rest of you. But we need to realize that, OPENSIM NEEDED TO BREAK AWAY, this is good in my opinion. This opens so many new doors, let us make our own changes viewer side as well as server side, we will no longer have to rely on mimicking SecondLife's new features to make our own versions of them. Let us start going a bit more original, come up with features that will be kinda like a slap in the face and make SecondLife really upset that they dropped us, by introducing features they haven't even thought of yet. I know we can do it, we are a strong and large community, so why don't we push to make it happen.
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Side not on viewers: I read that people are upset with Firestorm Team about the whole thing with them getting Armin and that they attacked the angstrom viewer dev. I was in the Aurora-Dev channel when it all went down, they were just upset and asked why the credits of firestorm were removed? They felt really upset that all their work would go un-credited. I would be sad and upset too, but it wasn't really an attack, but while they were there, I spoke with them and was able to show them how many people use their viewer on OSgrid thanks to key's blog. So yeah, just wanted to get that out there, GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE.
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src/data/blog/2012-12-31-new-years-resolutions.md
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src/data/blog/2012-12-31-new-years-resolutions.md
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---
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title: New Years Resolutions
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description: It is that time of the year, when people start making New Year Resolutions. Well I have never really made any other than once for a class assignment. But this year I really think I need to make some real resolutions. So I thought I would post them here on my personal blog for everyone to read and be aware.
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tags: [Personal]
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published: 2012-12-31
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url: /2012/12/new-years-resolutions/
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category: Archive
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draft: false
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---
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It is that time of the year, when people start making New Year Resolutions. Well I have never really made any other than once for a class assignment. But this year I really think I need to make some real resolutions. So I thought I would post them here on my personal blog for everyone to read and be aware.
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Focus on business, and put helping others second. Why because I keep helping others and putting myself in debt. Every time I build myself up, I end up falling back down again. So I need to keep my nose to the grindstone, and quit screwing myself over. But I am still going to help out my friends, just got to make sure I can first.
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Quit with procrastination. I get off track so much, mostly due to my ADHD, but I have to tighten down and make sure I stay focused and get my work done. Time is money, and money is not everything, but it pays the bills, and helps secure my future.
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Work on my relationship. I live in a very interesting relationship, I have two partners. We all live together, and we are all happy together. I know it sounds different, but we are happy and completely settled together. Working on year 3 of being together, and I just want to work on actually being there, because too often I was all busy, no play. So I am going to work on that a bit more this year.
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On the whole thing of focusing more on work, well I have already started some major work on the stuff I do for a living. Get ready for a big surprise, because I can't believe I am going to be doing this myself.
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src/data/blog/2013-02-11-explaining-opensim-memory-usage.md
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src/data/blog/2013-02-11-explaining-opensim-memory-usage.md
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---
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title: Explaining OpenSim Memory Usage
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description: I have had a couple people ask me to show them some tips and show them how to conserve memory usage in OpenSim. So I am going to be using sim-on-a-stick for today's tips and tricks...
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tags: [Resources, OpenSim]
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published: 2013-02-11
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url: /2013/02/explaining-opensim-memory-usage/
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category: Archive
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draft: false
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---
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I have had a couple people ask me to show them some tips and show them how to conserve memory usage in OpenSim. So I am going to be using sim-on-a-stick for today's tips and tricks. Now the reason for this is because now with sim-on-a-stick, we have the database running in MySQL which saves a bit of memory, and the fact it is already setup and ready to go out of the box.</p>
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So out of the box starting everything up, I am now at 95mb of ram:
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This is an empty region with absolutely nothing on it. So lets go load an oar on it, and see what it levels out to be. I am going to be loading Linda Kellie's Tropical Oar. It has 1,445 prims on it and well, that is about the standard for one person who just plans on having a region to go and relax on. A place to call home, do small things, etc. you normally don't use more than 2-3k amount of prims.
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After loading the oar we are now at 166.2mb of ram so that is still pretty good. Now this is with no one on the region, so lets go and login to the region and walk around. See what happens simulator side. This is still the Tropical Oar.
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So I logged in and dressed up in the most prim clothing I have which is some rave gear I made a long time ago. You can see below, and I walked around a bit and open closed a few doors and stuff and we are still only topping out at about 169.0mb. So I figured that means like what 1-3mb per avatar on the region depending on scripts and prims, so not bad. But I am not done, we are going to load Linda Kellie's freebie mall #2 that has 23,620 prims which is about what I see most people top out at building wise. So let's go see what happens.
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Well after loading the oar and letting probably a thousand scripts load into the region, we are now at 798.0mb of ram usage. Then means that we are using quite a bit of ram, but most of that is scripts, and lets face it not that meany people are going to have THAT many scripts on their region, maybe 25k prims but not that many scripts. But this gives you an idea, if you are building a heavy scripted region and need that much it is best to run 1 region per simulator, and have about a gig per region. But that is just for big regions with tons and tons of scripts like Linda Kellie's freebie mall #2. Now lets see what happens when I turn off all the scripts.
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Wow same region, just with scripts turned off. Wow major difference huh, well see how much scripts impact sims, however you have to keep in mind that Freebie Mall #2 has about 6 scripts in almost all the furniture where there is tons of that, and several scripts in doors and other things. Way more than even a standard fully built up region, this is a store sim, tons of stuff. But we can see a region after all that 23,620 prims don't use much at all.
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Now I am not sure how many people know that you can hook more than one region per simulator instance, to add another region you just type create region Regions.ini and answer the questions like you did for the first region. So let's put up another region on this same instance while scripts are still disabled and load Linda Kellie's Country Cabin OAR.
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Alright so now we have 2 regions on the same instance, and we are still quite low on memory usage. Now I will say it is normally a good idea if you don't have hugely scripted regions to put more than one region on the same instance but I don't recommend more than 4 per instance, it is a good number to stop at in my opinion, unless you are doing mega regions, but that is another story for another day.
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I hope this has given you all some insight to hosting regions on your own servers, or rented servers or hosting from other companies to help you understand what is going on in the back ground.
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src/data/blog/2013-02-13-thank-you.md
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---
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title: Thank You
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description: Thank You AuroraScape Community
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tags: [AuroraSim]
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published: 2013-02-13
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url: /2013/02/thank-you/
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category: Archive
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draft: false
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---
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Thank You AuroraScape Community,
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In the short 13 days since our very rough start, we have already hit a number of 67 registered residents, 51 Regions, and an average concurrency of 5-9 people online at any time. This is something that really impresses me for us only being 13 days old. I don't think I could have been any happier with the results of the opening of AuroraScape.
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I am so excited, just logging in. I see this wonderful welcome area that has slowly been being filled with residents content. I would still love to see more resident's stuff here in world filling up these shops. But with working with everyone and seeing everything looking so clean and cut.
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All of Linda Kellie's collections of furries, zoomtada's, and human avatars available upon login so you can get rid of that ugly ruth body. I have to say I can't think of a single grid that I have seen so many furries in, I am completely being serious here, I have seen so many furries apart of this community here as well as humans.
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All our meetings currently being held around the fire in the Welcome area, it is quite cozy with all those pillows and many different custom sits and lays, put in by our very own resident Mia Destiny. Our first grid meeting we ran out of seating, this time was have added plenty more pillow for everyone!
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Lastly the part that makes me the happiest person ever, is seeing you guys calling this grid home. Putting up your house and moving in, this is what makes me the happiest person ever. I really hope to see more of you guys move in and call AuroraScape your home too.
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Thank you all so much for making AuroraScape a success, this is YOUR GRID, and I mean that. I have a Terms of Service, and require you to be 18+, but I do this because I want us to have a grid that we can make sure is going to be around for a long time to come. Remember that this grid will become what you make it. Remember that, as you all are the key components of this grid's success.
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Thank You with Love,
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Timothy Francis Rogers
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17
src/data/blog/2013-02-20-needing-rest.md
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---
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title: Needing Rest
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description: It sure has been a long first 20 days, I can't believe how far all of us have come. Yes after the upgrade happened, we lost a nice chunk of regions, but I am sure we will be getting them back soon. All I can say is I am taking a few steps back for the next few days, from grid upgrades.
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tags: [AuroraSim]
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published: 2013-02-20
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url: /2013/02/needing-rest/
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category: Archive
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draft: false
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---
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It sure has been a long first 20 days, I can't believe how far all of us have come. Yes after the upgrade happened, we lost a nice chunk of regions, but I am sure we will be getting them back soon. All I can say is I am taking a few steps back for the next few days, from grid upgrades. I will still be around, doing money cash outs, trouble shooting, and processing orders. I just need a break.
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I have been working so hard on the grid, that I got myself sick. I mean physically sick, but I am doing better now, I am just stepping back for a bit. It is really hard running this big grid's back end with just one other volunteer, I been drinking my weight in soda pop(not a coffee man). I tell you if it wasn't for Walmart brand dr. pepper, AuroraScape would suffer from it.
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Anyways, I have been working on my own regions recently on my personal account in world. Feel free to add me _Timothy Vyper_ I like having friends. I am also working on some other features for customers of my Zetamex service. Which helps me fund AuroraScape and my caffeine addiction. I am always working hard to make a better world for you, and from the recent response people be giving me, I think you all are loving it.
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I shall now retreat to my residence in AuroraScape, and continue to work on this castle for me and others to enjoy. I will see you all around, and I thank you all for your support. I will be back in full swing next week, so let us all relax and hang out together in world.
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---
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title: Top 10 Reasons Not To Give Up On Aurora-Sim
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description: I am very sad to see so many people tell me that I should give up on Aurora-Sim, and that it is a waste. I think it is mostly been placed there because people remember its biggest tank, and the failure of Nova Grid.
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tags: [AuroraSim]
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published: 2013-02-21
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url: /2013/02/top-10-reasons-not-to-give-up-on-aurora-sim/
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category: Archive
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draft: false
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---
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I am very sad to see so many people tell me that I should give up on Aurora-Sim, and that it is a waste. I think it is mostly been placed there because people remember its biggest tank, and the failure of Nova Grid. So I am going to show you the top 10 reasons why I think the metaverse should give it another shot, and get back to helping with its development.
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**Ready Out of the Box:** When you download the latest aurora-sim master code, and compile it. First time run, it has a built in fully functional WebUI, Fully Working Groups, Fully Working Profiles, Fully Working Search, and easy to use Region GUI. All of this is built into the code, all running for the core code. This all works even in standalone mode all out of the single Aurora.exe!
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**Stable Physics:** Physics in Aurora-Sim is amazing, it is the same engine that OpenSim has been using for a long time. However more hooks, and programming went into it, making it much more stable and react much more realistically.
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**No HelperURI Needed:** One of the biggest issues a lot of standalones and grids run into, is just selling land for free. This is because OpenSim requires a helperURI to process transactions. This however is no problem in Grid Mode or Standalone Mode, as the helperURI is built in.
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**Variable Regions:** You can have regions of any size, and without the parceling issues that Mega Regions suffer in OpenSim. This is because the regions are 1 solid complete full region, however you need to use a viewer which supports it.
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**Completely Free & Open:** The source code is complete free and opensource, meaning anyone can open it up, change it, improve it, and contribute it back to make it better for everyone.
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**Automated Backups:** We all know that it sucks how we get attacked, however Aurora-Sim is completely built in region backups. It can be configured to make backups and keep backups for customized to your liking. In fact, your regions are completely saved in your backups.
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**Less Resources Needed:** You can put double the prims on an Aurora-Sim region than you can on an OpenSim region using the same amount of ram. In fact the default prim count is 80,000 which is far more than anyone could ever use, or is it?.
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**Region WindLight:** With recently implemented region WindLight on SecondLife, Aurora-Sim has processed the code and has made it to where can set region WindLight from your viewer as you would in SecondLife. This avoids needing any special scripts, or modules for LightShare settings.
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**Multiple Attachments:** I know this is something that a lot of people crave, and well a lot of people sacrifice by moving to OpenSim. Being able to wear more than one attachment on the same point. You can wear more than one attachment on the same point in Aurora-Sim.
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**K.I.S.S.:** Aurora-Sim has been modified to be very simple to use, setup, and use.
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Now that I have said all that, you should definitely stop in and visit us at ~~aurorascape.com~~_(defunct)_ a completely free and open to connect grid.
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src/data/blog/2013-02-23-who-is-timothy-vyperhoxleyrogers.md
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---
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title: Who Is Timothy Vyper/Hoxley/Rogers
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description: I just keep reading all this stuff about all these other grids, and the people who have influences there. Now that I am a grid owner, been making myself know more and more over the past year with all the things I have started. Grid-Press, SoftPaw Estates, Zetamex, and my latest AuroraScape.
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tags: [Personal]
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published: 2013-02-23
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url: /2013/02/who-is-timothy-vyperhoxleyrogers/
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category: Archive
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draft: false
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---
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I just keep reading all this stuff about all these other grids, and the people who have influences there. Now that I am a grid owner, been making myself know more and more over the past year with all the things I have started. Grid-Press, SoftPaw Estates, Zetamex, and my latest AuroraScape. I will admit I am not perfect, hell I never even went to college! Also another zinger for all you people, did you all know that I am only 20 years old? This year I turn 21, on April 28th. Which surprises a lot of people when I tell them all that, but I did take some college classes in High School, because my school was merged with the local college (due to budget cuts) and got 3 certification, that don't mean crap now.
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||||||
|
That was a lot of information in one paragraph, well I am still wanting to clear up some damage I feel that has been done on the opensim/aurorasim community with BDSM people. Yes there are some people who are in BDSM that take it way to far, and that is just crazy when that happens. I know that it easy for some to be brain washed, that it is physically possible. I am not into the full BDSM but more the S&M part, and still there you have to be careful. I should know, being a sub myself. I just hate saying it, but not long after the osgrid thing started, I saw a lot of kinda like very short, and small responses like they had to post it. I mean if I like something I am going to say more than I like, thank you! at least a sentence or two. But that wasn't the only part it was also all the same with tiny changes to the text, but all the same like robots.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I am on my personal account Timothy Vyper, on AuroraScape trying to start up a furry S&M community on Furry Mansion. I can't go into to much detail here, because well this is a PG blog, and want to play it safe. I believe I am already pushing the envelope by talking about BDSM on my blog. I just don't want people to think it is all bad, it provides an out let for people like me. There are people out there who have instinctive urges to do things, and as long as everyone is responsible and plays safe it is a good outlet. But then again I am one of the most open people I know, :p have two partners in RL that I live with and all.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Anyways, that is all I had to say.
|
22
src/data/blog/2013-03-05-why-i-closed-aurorascape.md
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22
src/data/blog/2013-03-05-why-i-closed-aurorascape.md
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|
@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Why I Closed AuroraScape
|
||||||
|
description: I first want to thank everyone who was on AuroraScape, and I have to apologize to all of you. I know the life of AuroraScape was short but there are multiple reasons to this, and I mean no ill intent to the developers of Aurora by what I have to say in this blog.
|
||||||
|
tags: [AuroraSim]
|
||||||
|
published: 2013-03-05
|
||||||
|
url: /2013/03/why-i-closed-aurorascape/
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
I first want to thank everyone who was on AuroraScape, and I have to apologize to all of you. I know the life of AuroraScape was short but there are multiple reasons to this, and I mean no ill intent to the developers of Aurora by what I have to say in this blog. Firstly, AuroraScape was doing pretty good. But that was how it looked on the outside, there were a lot of problems, things I just cannot work on as I am not a programmer. The software is very stable, very easy to use, and works out of the box. That I am not trying to fight with, but there was just too many people bitching about it.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I know I shouldn't let people bitching about the software help me close the grid down, but it is not so simple. Many people were just not willing to even give AuroraScape a shot, and many people who joined began to drop out right away. The interest in Aurora-Sim was so limited, and one of the biggest reasons is because the lack of HyperGrid. There were people who literately said things like I will never support an open grid without hypergrid and that type of thing travels and makes other say it and more people see it. People were publicly bitching and complaining about the grid without even giving it a shot. We kept loosing people because of it.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I did purchase extra hardware to make the grid successful, and now I am going to be using that extra hardware to run others grids and regions as I do already as Zetamex. I was trying so hard to run this grid, but running a grid that brings in virtually no profit at all is very hard. So I am focusing on grid and simulator hosting, stuff that makes money. I have no other job, this is my job, sitting in front of my computer and help the metaverse grow. AuroraScape was just not attracting any attention, it did for a while, and then people just dropped out.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Working on AuroraScape, took a lot of focus from Zetamex, and Zetamex is filled with paying customers who are looking for top notch service. I have been running Zetamex/SoftPaw Estates for almost a year now, so I need to move my focus back to providing service.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
If people have less faith in me now because of this, I am sorry, but when you have to feed a family, pay rent, and etc. You have to make wise choices, and well the focus needed to be shifted back to Zetamex.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Thank You,
|
||||||
|
Timothy Rogers
|
32
src/data/blog/2013-03-11-closed-vs-open-really.md
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32
src/data/blog/2013-03-11-closed-vs-open-really.md
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|
@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Closed vs Open? Really?
|
||||||
|
description: I am dealing with a lot of people getting stressed over the debate of if grids should all be open or at least have hypergrid open. I am just going to put this out there, there are tons of people who want everything free in life, and never want to pay for anything.
|
||||||
|
tags: [OpenSim]
|
||||||
|
published: 2013-03-11T12:03:00+00:00
|
||||||
|
url: /2013/03/closed-vs-open-really/
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
I am dealing with a lot of people getting stressed over the debate of if grids should all be open or at least have hypergrid open. I am just going to put this out there, there are tons of people who want everything free in life, and never want to pay for anything. I am sorry but the world requires money for us to get things done.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I have been hearing and seeing people damage grids reputations for charging for regions, making you pay for services and what not. Well honestly, you are paying them so they can turn around and use that money to do the following things:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
1. Pay the server costs (FYI, servers are not cheap, nor is the bandwidth costs normally used to operate them)
|
||||||
|
2. Their time, these people are managing your entire back end FOR YOU, they deserve your money if you're using thier services.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
What you need to see, the back end of things of how open and closed grids work.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Open Grids:** These grids run on sponsors, this means, companies, colleges, universities, and people donating. Perfect example, how many people know that when OSgrid was about to take the dive it was because "THEIR MAIN SPONSOR WAS DROPPING THEIR SUPPORT! they didn't have any other sponsors, or enough donations to keep it going. So SimHost came in and decided to become the new sponsor, and well I am not going to get into that drama, I am just saying that somewhere along the line "SERVERS GOTTA GET PAID, THE AIN'T FREE!
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Closed Grids:** Why do these grids charge a bit more? Well it is actually the added security, the hands on support, you most likely have in world money investments, etc. These grids charge more because they have a bigger job to worry about. These guys are being PAID to fix your bugs, give your more direct support, manage RL money investment, people go to closed grids to make money. The backend of a grid like InWorldz, Avinations, etc have to be FAR more secure than your standard opensim grid. They gotta have firewalls, bugs fixed that allow you to steal items, etc. People have real investment in these grids.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Now onto the people getting upset with others for wanting to make money in personal grids, well dammit these people have every right to do this. The reason many people go closed is because these grid owners take care of their content, it is much easier for InWorldz to dispute and catch a content thief than it is for a grid like OSgrid or Metropolis. Because they can look and see the whole backend, and yes I know thieves are in the real world and theft is always going to happen, but does that mean we should let it go.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
EXAMPLE: If we should let someone steal a complete line of clothing someone makes in InWorldz and Avination, and start giving it way for free on other grids. What do you think this does to their profits, their ability to make ends meet? then you might say "but that is virtual! well it is no different than going and robbing a Real Life clothing store, now they just went out several thousand dollars, gotta replace the door you broke, windows, clothes, etc. IT IS NOT RIGHT NO MATTER HOW SMALL THE CRIME!!!
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So to all the people getting upset with content creators who make things for both closed and open grids, DON'T YOU DARE GET MAD AT THEM. They are honest people trying to make a living, that is what the internet is, a ecosystem like RL. I place for people to have fun, mingle and do things for free, but also a place for people to make money too. I mean if you think someone is overcharging for something, go to the competitor and buy the cheaper one, don't steal it. You do that in RL you end up in Jail, just cause it is easier to get away with it online, do you think it is right? No!
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Grow up! This is reality, shut up or go home! Cause you know what? If you live in the USA, ISPs have a new contract to catch online thieves like you, so they just made it harder for you to get away with because no matter how you look at it, it is still THEFT! Let content creators put their content where they feel it is safe, just like in real life, a designer store is not going to setup in the ghetto, because chances are higher they are going to get robbed, some still do it and that is their choice, so let the content creator choose, don't demonize them for making the choose that makes them comfortable and not you. Grow up this isn't high school anymore!
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I am not hating open or closed grids, I believe each serves it's own purpose. I live in both open and closed grids, I feel both are comfortable places to live and be in. I do love all of you, and I hope you understand why I am so harsh in this blog, it is because it needs to be said, so I said it.
|
22
src/data/blog/2013-04-08-moving-up-around.md
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22
src/data/blog/2013-04-08-moving-up-around.md
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|
@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Moving Up & Around
|
||||||
|
description: It has been one hell of a past month, I have had to deal with a lot of drama in my real personal life. Sometimes I wish we could all just live in virtual worlds, but drama would just pile up their too...
|
||||||
|
tags: [Personal]
|
||||||
|
published: 2013-04-08
|
||||||
|
url: /2013/04/moving-up-around/
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
It has been one hell of a past month, I have had to deal with a lot of drama in my real personal life. Sometimes I wish we could all just live in virtual worlds, but drama would just pile up their too... so what else is new on that. But besides that point, I have been doing some plotting and planning with Zetamex these past few days so going to be talking a bit about that in this blog. I am also going to gloat about my new boy friend, because I can tell you right now, without him this past month would have just been me crying my heart out.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Up first is Zetamex, I am been doing some extensive research and testing into finding a way to provide cloud hosting to my customers. I been seeing that people really enjoy being able to control having the ability to render worlds on demand and have almost limitless possibilities. My boyfriend even turned to me and said something I don't think anyone is ready for, but I think I might know how to do it. Virtually Unlimited Prims, that is right, I will be calling it VU Prims and well they will scale depending on weights and what not but the limitation will just not be there. You will be able to build, and build, and build till you just can't move cause your viewer gone and locked up on ya.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I am still looking into creating a way to give my customers the ability to have a control panel like other hosting companies, where you can upload OARs and IARs with just clicks on a web page. I have been getting a bit closer, but then upgraded to the latest version of opensim and well then shit broke... so starting all over again. I am thinking about going out and hiring someone to professionally build a control panel. I know that this is one of the biggest and most requested features I have been getting from people, so it is on my list.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Now about why and how I have a new boy friend. Well because my life is an open book I am just going to tell you. Me and my ex who had been together for 2 years in real life, just grew distant from each other. We both realized we have different goals and things we want to achieve in life. I then ran into some issues where I was living and had to move out, so that has been a bit rough but everything is still fine. I made sure to have everything planned out and setup, downtime is not an option with Zetamex. I am dedicated to my clients. I ran into my new sweet foxy lover while I was doing my standard gaming I like to par-take in on SecondLife, it is like the only virtual world I can go to get away from work. Just something clicked, when we bumped into each other, it was like a light bulb went off and things have just been going good ever since. I have to say that is about it, we can't explain it we just fit together like to pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Best of all he actually plans on coming with me to other virtual worlds with me! So all of you will get a chance to meet my wonderful boy friend.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
That is about it from me for this blog update, stay focused at Zetamex for some really awesome news with some brand new plans rolling out and new features. I tell you all this right now, I thank everyone in the OpenSim community for giving me this career without you guys, I don't believe I would have ever been able to do the things I do. We have virtual worlds because of you. You build everything, and make the developers want to keep going, and then make me want to keep going by providing you service at affordable pricing without fear of delayed customer support. You guys by just being in virtual worlds, have help me found my business and for that I thank you all!
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Thank You,
|
||||||
|
Timothy Francis Rogers
|
23
src/data/blog/2013-04-26-my-clocks-are-ticking.md
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23
src/data/blog/2013-04-26-my-clocks-are-ticking.md
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|
@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: My Clocks Are Ticking
|
||||||
|
description: Well it has been a while since I have written on my personal blog again. However I have been feeling a little down lately and I think I need to write to pick up my spirits a bit again.
|
||||||
|
tags: [Personal]
|
||||||
|
published: 2013-04-26
|
||||||
|
url: /2013/04/my-clocks-are-ticking/
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
Well it has been a while since I have written on my personal blog again. However I have been feeling a little down lately and I think I need to write to pick up my spirits a bit again. I just been going through a lot of feelings lately. I guess I should start from the top, which is well I am just so immersed in my work I feel I am loosing more and more touch with my real life. I mean not that is a bad thing, but I am getting to the point that I blow off my boyfriend. I already lost one boyfriend, that I had been with for 2 years, it wasn't only because I was so immersed in my work there were other reasons but this was part of it.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I don't plan on getting out of virtual worlds, it is how I make my living and what I enjoy doing. But I have gotten to the point that I can't even login to enjoy things, I am always busy working in the background not really getting the chance to enjoy myself. I work so hard and don't get to enjoy what I have made other than the money, which is in and out of my hands as quickly as it gets there. I mean I make a living, and I am not in this for the money so don't get me wrong here. I am just saying all this because I am coming up on my 21<sup>st</sup> birthday here in just a few days. I mean literately this coming Sunday is my 21<sup>st</sup> birthday.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I can't say I don't enjoy what I do for a living, in fact I bet many people would kill to have a job where they could work from home. But just a heads up, it is not as all nice and pretty as you might think! I mean it, am flooded with requests for support, service, and inquires all day long. I just recently switched to a ticket system because my email box was becoming a mess! I wasn't able to keep up with who I have and haven't spoken with. I mean it is not an easy job, and it is not a 9 to 5 job either. I am on call 24/7 because many people don't want their grid, standalone, or region to be down longer than a few minutes let alone hours. My phone is always on and loud alerting me if someone sends me a ticket so I can wake up and come fix it.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Why am I venting about all this is because I really found someone I truly care about, and I want to be with them. He is someone who doesn't get upset with me when I just randomly hang up on him or close out of a world with him to go help a client that is upset. He claims he understands and says work is first, but I feel so bad about it though. I say that because he is someone I care about, and much like a business a relationship has to be two people working together too. But a relationship we work for each others happiness and not me for just the client's happiness. Now do not worry I am not going anywhere, but I am working on finishing up some work so all my clients don't have to worry about so much stuff anymore.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Another thing that has been bothering me is that I took so many writing classes in school, even took a creative writing class. That creative writing class I wasn't supposed to get into it because I wasn't an honors English student but my creative poetry and short stories got me in. I mean it made me so happy when I made it, but then half way through I had to quit because real life got really crazy for me, and well that is another story for another day. But the fact I used to be so passionate about writing and now look at me I am stressing, working hard, and pushing my real life away because of my work. However all this may be, I am going to try and push for that balance back in my life. But still keeping my work top priority because well it is my baby, and I am not letting that tank.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I love and thank all of you who help me out each and every day, the ones who thank me for what I try and do for the community. If you knew half the shit I go through in real life to keep you guys all up and happy you guys might think I am crazy, but who knows maybe I am.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Love you all!
|
23
src/data/blog/2013-06-19-upset-with-stiffled-innovation.md
Normal file
23
src/data/blog/2013-06-19-upset-with-stiffled-innovation.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Upset With Stiffled Innovation
|
||||||
|
description: I am constantly hearing about all these people stiffing innovation, well today I had the last straw I could take. Before I begin, I want to make sure say this boldly and clearly.
|
||||||
|
tags: [OpenSim]
|
||||||
|
published: 2013-06-19
|
||||||
|
url: /2013/06/upset-with-stiffled-innovation/
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
I am constantly hearing about all these people stiffing innovation, well today I had the last straw I could take. Before I begin, I want to make sure say this boldly and clearly. **I do not directly represent Zetamex's personal interests, Zetamex represents it's own identity at http://blog.zetamex.com/ and anything said on this blog is unrelated to Zetamex's personal interests.** Now that I got that out of the way, I want to tell you how I was rudely addressed for the last time.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
As some of you may know, I have been promoting Zetamex's latest project that has been being worked on for months now. It is finally done, and released, Metajabber. This is a social network/forum hybrid. This software it runs on pulls your twitter, lets you fallow and do statuses and have your own user galleries to share photos and more with other fellow OpenSim goers. Now I know that forums for some people are a dying nature, however for others they are still a great place for support, community, and hanging out. I mean I personally prefer forums over social networks, they get confusing. Forums I can go right down to the post, but I wanted the features you get out of social networks and merge them together. That is what Metajabber is, anyways I am getting off topic here.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I was informed by an administrator of a large group on Google+ that I did not directly ask her permission to promote on her group. That being said, they deleted my post, and said though I didn't directly violate it, they regret to tell me they deleted my post because it is competition to their group. I feel like this goes back to exactly what we keep fighting all the time, and it bothers me when people stifle innovation. If something is going to tank, and it is not spamming, why not let it be.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I feel a good example here is Zetamex, which has just released an amazing product that the big companies been keeping from all of your! Heck I couldn't even get anyone to directly work with me on creating a panel unless I paid them upfront, and well lets face it, I am not rich. I run Zetamex at a profitable company, with FAIR pricing, which means I make just enough to live and buy a few tiny small things like a nice 80usd prepaid phone, because the monthly bill is cheaper pre-paid. Now, that being said where I am getting off topic again. Zetamex is NOT keeping out panel CLOSED SOURCE, not saying it is PROPRIETARY! We are releasing it 100% OPEN SOURCE 100% FREE and yes it will be on GitHub where anyone is 100% FREE to fork it and will be released as promised under PUBLIC DOMAIN, for anyone to use and play with or use to COMPETE with us. Why? WE PROMOTE COMPETITION!!
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
My father always told me growing up, there is nothing wrong with competition. That we can learn from competition, if it grows or if it fails, we learn and grow and adapt. Yes people make take and abuse what we have created to use it for their own personal uses and go close the source of their derivative and sell it for tons of money. But you know what? Karma is real, and I am not saying it is bad to go and build a business off of our free public domain stuff. I want people to grow, add, create, and make more of this. I mean look at SecondLife, a lot of people go EWW that big evil giant. Well before the new CEO, they gave us OpenSim working with IBM. Why? Because we make something, free and for the community, see tons of us like it in our community, take it back change it a bit, BOOM! Free ideas to learn and grow from, and we do the same from them too.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
LightShare is a great example of all of this, it was made by Meta7 then the phoenix team made parcel windlight with little viewer code, then SecondLife finally saw we all loved being able to set these user experiences so they made "Region Windlight Settings" which is their new default in all their viewers instead of time based worlds. I feel sharing code is what makes the world go round, makes things keep ticking, create new ideas, and innovation can only occur by people sharing.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
To conclude, yes Zetamex has our own version of our control panel. But the only differences are, that is custom wrapped for our servers, but we are still giving you the same thing we have, just completely free to do what you want with. It doesn't have a few features we have, that is only because we can't setup your server for you, so we have to make it to where you can just use it with any OS and more.
|
21
src/data/blog/2013-08-12-depression.md
Normal file
21
src/data/blog/2013-08-12-depression.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Depression
|
||||||
|
description: Well I never thought the day would come when I would say that I feel depressed with my work, well I been this way quite a bit lately. Work is getting harder and harder to keep up with lately, not due to being over extended, just that Zetamex seems to be falling behind lately.
|
||||||
|
tags: [Personal]
|
||||||
|
published: 2013-08-12
|
||||||
|
url: /2013/08/depression/
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
Well I never thought the day would come when I would say that I feel depressed with my work, well I been this way quite a bit lately. Work is getting harder and harder to keep up with lately, not due to being over extended, just that Zetamex seems to be falling behind lately.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I try my absolute hardest to provide the latest and greatest opensim features, code, and even give back as much as I can. But it just seems that I have started to hit a road block. Which has just made me keep pushing and pushing harder, but it doesn't seem to be budging at all. I mean Zetaworlds is delayed because I am just to finish the new ZetaPanel 2.0 which is very complex piece of work. I am the only developer of it, and it so hard to put together since I am not even a real programmer.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I been trying really hard lately to get Zetamex looked at as a top player, but the only thing that I know is stopping me is that I am not a real programmer. I can write some messy code, that can do things and work, but by no means am I as good as the Snoopy of DreamlandMetaverse or the team behind Kitely, or even that of open grids like Metropolis. That is why when I make code, I opensource it, allow people to take develop and make it better so Zetamex can benefit as well as the rest of the community.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I guess I am just depressed lately because I really don't know how well this is going to work. I mean Zetaworlds is a big project, and so is ZetaPanel 2.0 which is due to go public and opensource. I just know that I put 110% into everything I do and I am still hitting the peak of my knowledge and having to crack out books, online tutorials, call in favors, just to finish these projects. I just wish I knew how to program like the rest of my competition, then maybe I could offer some good services that are better than they are now.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I am just a 21 year old man, who has had a rough life. I decided after getting fired from my part time job to create a company in the opensimulator business, and now here I am. I know Zetamex has come a long way, heck it is even 3 years old. So that all being said, I know I shouldn't be depressed, but it is really hard running a business with just one person behind the scenes. I mean we have people who come in and help here and there, but it is all me who actually operates the entire operation.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Well that is all I guess, back to work on ZetaPanel 2.0 which needs to get finished. So going to go pull out my books on PHP and MySQL to finish this off, wish me luck you guys. I will be giving away its source code when I am finished, so hopefully everyone will enjoy it.
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: My Response To Kitely Marketplace
|
||||||
|
description: Alright I know right now everyone has been all over this we need to embrace the Kitely Marketplace thing for a while now. However that being said, I want to take to the side and take some notes at some...
|
||||||
|
tags: [OpenSim, Opinion]
|
||||||
|
published: 2013-09-02
|
||||||
|
url: /2013/09/my-response-to-kitely-marketplace/
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
Alright I know right now everyone has been all over this we need to embrace the Kitely Marketplace thing for a while now. However that being said, I want to take to the side and take some notes at some of the advantages and disadvantages of operating business in virtual worlds like this. The insecurities, the profitability, and the over all feeling I take from the whole ordeal.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So first off let me start off by saying, I might come off a little bias when it comes to Kitely. As I particularly don't like how they operate, but as an American citizen I have all the right in the world to hold any opinion I wish to. That being said I will do my absolute best to keep my bias out of this and focus on what people are saying, and wanting to know, compounding it with what we are getting from Kitely operators and snippets.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Why should I use the Kitely Marketplace?**
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Why you should – As a content creator seeking to make profit or just get your item sold across the massive metaverse, this is one of your big chances to do so as it has a lot of attention and has the biggest potential to provide you with the ability to sell to virtually any grid.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Why you shouldn't – If you are a merchant who cares about the security of your items then this may not be the best solution, but still a decent solution. If you allow your creations to be set as exportable, that means once you are in a new grid, or move it to any grid you or someone else you don't know has access to, that item can now be downloaded, exported again, loaded up and changed owner and permission then given back out 1,000,000 of times. Something that should be explained in BOLD detail to anyone who enables such option.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Doesn't this kill stores and malls from getting rented out in other grids?**
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
To answer that question, it does, 100% same story as everyone had when the SecondLife Marketplace came into existance so long ago. Its echo's are still there, I can't tell you have many content creators I talk to in world who tell me they don't even bother with renting shops anymore as it is just a waste of profits as they don't bring in as much as the web store does.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
When you talk to mall owners, sim rental companies, and club owners with shops in SecondLife the biggest thing you hear from them is how they now rely more on donations and residential living on their regions as no one really wants to keep in world stores anymore. Now not all inworld stores are gone, but a large majority have left little to no presence in world anymore.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
You might be asking why I brought up SecondLife, well get ready everyone because I know a lot of you are going to hate what I am about to say, but we are now hitting that point where we are becoming SecondLife like in business and life in OpenSim. More and more grids are popping up as commercial grids, only real free grid left standing that focuses on users and has a large support base is Metropolis. The reason I leave OS Grid out is due to it is a testing grid, but it is still a good grid but primarily for testing purposes.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
This issue goes deeper, I read that they are going to give grids commissions on items sold and sent to their grid, which honestly helps, but is more of a consolation prize if you ask me, as a small 5-10% of a 2 or 5 dollar sell is 0.02 or 0.05 per sell. Meaning the grids who loose the store sims will loose profit, on top of that, region owners that run malls will loose profit, and then may drop their sim and cause even more loss for grids.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**So are you saying the Kitely Marketplace is a bad thing?**
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Yes and no, I mean if you want to get technical this innovation is a step into the future and should be fallowed by others. I think this method in particular is not the right way to go about doing it as it cheats land owners, and grid owners, and only profits Kitely and the content creator. That is not all bad, it is also something that I see as creating a major fix for several educational users, and grid owners who just can't get content in their world themselves.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
When I say not the right way, I can just think of a couple ways off the top of my head to allow residents to not have to register with foreign grids, and still sell across and keep the permissions, and creator information all the same even over the hypergrid. Just would require a little bit of effort and a neutral party to host a small hypergrid port location. All I am saying for now because I will explain it further on a later date.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Overall Opinion?**
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Well you are asking me something pretty tough now, and to be honest I normally would not want to respond the way I am about too. But I think it is a great step in the right direct, me personally I stick to shopping in stores, I do the same thing in SecondLife still. I can't stand the marketplace, it is so over crowded, hard to find exactly what you want, and SecondLife the marketplace seems to crash several times a day, so much easier to go in world, look at everything, then go home.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So if you are an enterprise user, and a content creator who embraces the openness and don't care about the security of your content being exported to foreign grids, then this is great for you! Though personally I would just setup my own standalone store and sell from there and just have people come to my store pick stuff up and leave.
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: I Apologzie to Kitely & Don’t Be Fooled
|
||||||
|
description: I want to start out this by saying I am only human, hell I know I make more mistakes than most people I know. I admit this and never claim to be perfect, and I most certainly will not say I know what I am doing unless I do.
|
||||||
|
tags: [Opinion, OpenSim]
|
||||||
|
published: 2013-09-19
|
||||||
|
url: /2013/09/i-apologzie-to-kitely-dont-be-fooled/
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
I want to start out this by saying I am only human, hell I know I make more mistakes than most people I know. I admit this and never claim to be perfect, and I most certainly will not say I know what I am doing unless I do. I am human, and I do get limits pushed and get upset just like everyone else in the world. What I am referencing to is comments I have deleted on the Kitely blog.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I was being scrutinized just because I stated I never experienced an issue that others were talking about, and then TOLD to PROVE how I fixed it or at least how it was worded sounds. I fixed it completely by accident when I was playing with merging aurora-sim and opensim code. I will not share my code as it is a complete mess, and not even I think it is worth contributing back. I have stated a million times over on my blog that I AM NOT A REAL PROGRAMMER, I NEVER WENT TO COLLEGE FOR IT, I ONLY TOOK CLASSES IN BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION. What I do is very messy in C#, but I am getting better as I teach myself. The languages I know are PHP and MySQL so that is more my area of expertise, but even there I never went to college for those, I just worked for companies that managed those types of environments and picked up on it.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I honestly think grids are getting super defensive about their products, which I think is fine to an extent but honestly it is not a big deal. I don’t just see it with Kitely but other grids I am not going to name them, but if you say something about something they did they will get all snappy at you. It is ridiculous. You can ask some of my clients, before they sign up with me I explain to them what my products are, I have even turned clients away and pointed them to Dreamland Metaverse, because I know I cannot meet their needs but I know that Dreamland has a more developed system and the people behind it are actually programmers. I mean if you even look at our site, we state right on our front page since day one use the back in time machine if you don’t believe me “We never take on a client we cannot handle.” That is not to say Zetamex is a sub-par company, we have made some MAJOR improvements over the past few months alone. Something I am going to get into the next paragraph here.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
One thing that aggravates me and this is as a person not a company. But when companies tell you, “well opensim doesn’t scale well and it needs several gigs of ram, bigger pipes, etc etc etc” well I am going to tell you right now. That is 95% FALSE, well it is 5% true that it does need more than a piece of junk system to do awesome production things, but it doesn’t need no super over powered system, that doesn’t solve the problem that just ignores the problem of slimming up opensim to run more efficiently. The first thing I am going to do here is show you examples of grids not naming their names, but I will name them names that maybe some people will be able to piece them together, if not well then not. Because I speak to TONS of grid owners and I can assure you they run successful grids without any fancy hardware and networks.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Old And Still Kicking Grid – The owners of this grid have been around for what seems like forever, they even took part in helping back when Linden Labs was still working on OpenSim. They still rely on opensim’s built in MySQL assets server, yes they broke it off in its own instance (which I highly recommend for grids to do, and will show you on zadaroo later this week) and I can almost bet they have more assets in that grid than any grid, because the opensim asset server doesn’t de-duplicate and it is still ticking away and running. They just shove more hard drive space in when they need more space, which works great for them, and host all their servers in house same data center to keep the need to server assets across the web un-needed for the most part by turning on built in region asset caching to take load off the asset server.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Grid From Home – There is a very big and popular grid that has been gaining a lot of attention lately. In fact I am not positive they still run from home, but they might, and they use base opensim services with slight modifications. The owner is a programmer and has made special advancements to do assets a lot quicker and safer. But the fact is this grid for the longest time runs from home on a business grade connection, and still functions amazingly. You wouldn’t even know if they didn’t tell you.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
OSgrid (this one I can say it is publicly known) – Osgrid has been around for the longest time, and they for the longest time have ran all their services on the same server, with separate servers for regions. I am not sure if it more divided now than it used to be, but they use opensim’s base core and SRAS with a NIGNX Proxy server in front. Let me explain what that means they run multiple robust instances of different services (which it is meant and can very well do), then use NIGNX (a super light powerful webserver) to then load balance incoming requests to the different robust instances to keep things running smoothly. Honestly this is a very ingenious way to load balance, and save tons of money as NIGNX is 100% and opensource.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
As far as hosting regions go, if you read my tutorial before showing how much ram, cpu, and impact regions have on a system on both window and Linux you will see a simulator can run really well with just 1gb of ram which mean I would say, kind of pushing it but maybe 4 regions on one instance safely that has only 1gb of ram. So honestly, don’t believe when someone tells you that you need to have BEAST to run a world. You only need a BEAST system if you’re going to be putting hundreds of people on regions, and even then the software itself can’t support that yet, it needs more work but we are getting there. There are modules though that make it possible to have several people on regions, but that is a work around and not in the base code yet.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Am I trying to put down Kitely or other grids? ABSOLUTELY NOT! What I am trying to do is just express my opinion as a person who knows what I am talking about. Let me tell you right now Kitely is an amazing invention; they have created one of the best work around for getting around the issues opensim has when it has a lot of prims and people on it by using cloud to affordably provide regions temporarily run when they are needed. This really is amazing, plus automating region creation that is something I don’t see every day done successfully, and they have done it. They do contribute a lot of code back, not saying they haven’t. I just don’t like that they flash that opensim can’t scale, when it can with just the little of effort.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I do publically apologize for the comment I made about the attachment fix, I miss read the mantis. I also want to point out that it was my fault and I let my anger of Illan’s attitude towards me effect my calm. That was bad of me, and I apologize for that. That is honestly what I want to say, this is the same issue viewer developers are having right now in SecondLife. They can’t work together, because everyone keeps saying he is better or she is better, and many of the developers just want it to stop. Just like the viewer developers, grid owners are the same. We all run worlds for different reasons, for different people, for different communities. But it should not be a competition, especially with hypergrid, there is now need for it anymore. I know it is like asking for world peace here, but we should all work together where we can, and respect grids choices to keep some code to themselves and what to give back. That is their right, as it is their code, but people need to respect that right. I mean if I spent months working on something for a grid, and then asked to port it into opensim, that gives me a tactical advantage over the others, I might and I might not, it all depends. I mean we all got to eat, and many of us, like myself it is my sole job to run Zetamex, it is my sole source of income. I will do my best to submit back as much code as I can, but most of my changes are not things that would improve most users experiences, like Display Names, I been told not to even bother finishing my merge of it because no one wants it. But I did so since they don’t I might just push it out for someone else to use in its own repo. Again I am not a developer so it might not even be accepted in, in the first place.
|
51
src/data/blog/2013-11-03-why-i-dont-use-the-cloud.md
Normal file
51
src/data/blog/2013-11-03-why-i-dont-use-the-cloud.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Why I Don’t Use The Cloud
|
||||||
|
description: I have been asked a couple times why I don't want to build Zetamex off the cloud, and well the biggest answer is that the cloud is not really right for the old fashioned and classic usage of opensimulator.
|
||||||
|
tags: [OpenSim, Opinion]
|
||||||
|
published: 2013-11-03
|
||||||
|
url: /2013/11/why-i-dont-use-the-cloud/
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
I have been asked a couple times why I don't want to build Zetamex off the cloud, and well the biggest answer is that the cloud is not really right for the old fashioned and classic usage of opensimulator. The second reason is that it is much more cost efficient to avoid using the cloud, and using dedicated hardware.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So to break this down, I went in search of numbers and these numbers may differ for some people, but this is based off Zetamex's usage statistics of our clients averaged out. So this should give you an idea of the difference.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So to start out we are going to just study how much it would cost to run one instance of opensimulator with your average usage which is about 1 to 1.5 gb of ram. That with mysql, mono, and operating system we are going to say on average 15-25 gb of disk space.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
With Amazon Web Services, you have the following pricing for the small instance with is 1.5 gb of ram which is perfect for our demonstration.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Small Instance ... $0.060 which is about $43.20/month
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Then we need to calculate EBS storage cost, and disk usage costs with amazon. That is about roughly another $4 to $6/month.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Then we have to calculate the bandwidth charges, that turns into about $2 to $3/month.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So all together that is about $48.20 per instance per month, if you ran it all month long. Now if we took advantage of the market price which does change and flux every 5 minutes, but using the average market price would be about $12.20 per instance per month. But market pricing is not accurate and your instance gets lower priority, as it is service not being used at the moment so they rent it out cheaper at market based pricing.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So now let us look at a common server, and since we are only wanting to do for this sake of argument 1 instance just like the one above, since it is not common to find a server with less than 4gb of ram on the market. We are going to go with the average dedicated server price for 4gb ram and 1tb disk-space and 1tb of bandwidth. That is about 40 usd, now that is about enough to fit 3-4 instances, and plenty of space.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So now we just put the instance on there, and well... now we are done. 40 bucks... plus add 3 more... still 40 bucks.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Scaling, is the next thing people are going to bring up, and while people believe the cloud is the easiest place to scale, well I disagree. I am going to be using the technology I am been working with Postgres but this can also be done working with MySQL instead of Postgres.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
We can do what is called pooling, and load balancing, so unlike MySQL, Postgres uses less overhead even on heavy usage as it is designed for Enterprise class data. We take advantage of the earlier spoke about 1TB storage and let's add 10 bucks more for RAID storage so if one drive fails we have a secondary drive so acts like nothing ever happened. So now 50 bucks, and that can take a very big hit, but then we realize that we want assets to be more robust and faster for people across the world, in other geographical locations, we can just order another 50 buck server with the 1TB of storage and setup a pool.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
What a pool will do is clone all the data and keep it synchronized between both locations, and on top of that can both load balance and/or query together to find data quicker. Then the worry of growing storage cost is not so much of a problem as most people think, especially with NAS(Network Accessed Storage) to expand the size storage. Postgres can allow us to do this and on top of that, we can start telling Postgres to cache assets that are used more often than others because we know NAS is a bit slower than locally stored data but if it is cached and on hand it is not a problem.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So total estimated cost of up to say 2 TB of storage in 2 locations pooling, is only about 175usd/month
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Now let's look at the cloud, and say we use one small instance on EC2 to mount S3 as a drive so that we don't have to pay the higher EBS storage costs. That is 0.095/per gb per month so that is not to awful bad, seems pretty cheap. but then we got to keep in mind we need a instance that has a bit more power than the small so lets go with the medium which lets say since you know your going to use a lot of data going to go with a reserved instance for cheaper price to 227 deposit that cost would be $30.24/month still not to bad if your willing to make that deposit, if not $86.40/month for standard instance. But let's not forget you need two of those instances, so we can play fair and give the same results. But for sake of argument i will do both one or two depending on use case.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So now the cost of the storage lets go up to the 2 tb we were talking about before, now that is cheaper because more than 1 tb making it 0.080/per gb so now we are at 160usd/month just for the storage.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Now luckily there is no cost for instances to talk to each other in aws, but still got to communicate with viewers and connections, so about 10usd in bandwidth charges.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
1 instance with 2tb storage = $190.24/month with reserved | $246.40/month on demand
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
2 instance in different locations = $220.48/month with reserved | $336.80/month on demand
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The reason the price is not double, due to aws is actually shared data in a bucket as amazon calls it unlike how it is replicated completely on dedicated hardware.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I hope this explains my stance on why I choose to use dedicated services over cloud based services. I am not trying to say cloud based services are bad, just saying average use cases are not great option for them.
|
18
src/data/blog/2016-01-04-moved-to-wordpress.md
Normal file
18
src/data/blog/2016-01-04-moved-to-wordpress.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Moved To WordPress
|
||||||
|
description: I have decided to move to WordPress after a long time of inactivity on my personal blog. I just feel there is not a real nice place to get OpenSim related news on the internet anymore, other then people's personal blogs and the blogs themselves of other grids.
|
||||||
|
tags: [Personal]
|
||||||
|
published: 2016-01-04
|
||||||
|
url: /2016/01/moved-to-wordpress/
|
||||||
|
#featured_image: /wp-content/uploads/2016/01/AKAzWTD.jpg
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
I have decided to move to WordPress after a long time of inactivity on my personal blog. I just feel there is not a real nice place to get OpenSim related news on the internet anymore, other then people's personal blogs and the blogs themselves of other grids. It also still saddens me to this say, that the certain site people go to, still does not provide a good source for OpenSim content.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I don't plan on re-opening another Grid-Press, because people would believe me to be bias or whatever... I am however choosing to just go back into blogging on my personal site. Also, it is not going to be about just OpenSim... but about my feelings, views, some resources, and just my general overall view of things and kinda like a diary for people to read.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I am also doing this blog, to try and work on my writing skills... I have been approached a few times inworld being asked if English is my first language.... I sadly have to say it is. I used to be very good at it, but as time progressed, life happened, I just grew lazy and forgetful.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Anyways, I hope to see you all around on the metaverse, on my blog, and in social media.
|
15
src/data/blog/2016-01-07-modern-inworldz-website.md
Normal file
15
src/data/blog/2016-01-07-modern-inworldz-website.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Modern InWorldz Website
|
||||||
|
description: I just really want to take a step back and say I was really happy to see the new site by InWorldz. It looks very nice, however I only have one complaint... When launching a new theme, I would really like to see it implemented throughout before released to the public...
|
||||||
|
tags: [Opinion, OpenSim]
|
||||||
|
published: 2016-01-07
|
||||||
|
url: /2016/01/modern-inworldz-website/
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
I just really want to take a step back and say I was really happy to see the new site by InWorldz. It looks very nice, however I only have one complaint... When launching a new theme, I would really like to see it implemented throughout before released to the public... Because the second you login, you are redirected to a part of the site of the old design. From what I saw only the home page contains the new theme.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|

|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Anyways, other then the fact it is only on the home page... I love the new design and I hope they roll it out to the rest of the site. I want to see more grids have modern design sites. So kudos to the InWorldz team!
|
21
src/data/blog/2018-01-06-where-has-tim-been.md
Normal file
21
src/data/blog/2018-01-06-where-has-tim-been.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Where Has Tim Been?
|
||||||
|
description: Well, it has been a while since I have been around. I have deleted some of my social media presence because it is needed for how I been feeling. For those who do not know, I work as my primary job these days a UNIX/Linux System Administrator.
|
||||||
|
tags: [Personal]
|
||||||
|
published: 2018-01-06
|
||||||
|
url: /2018/01/where-has-tim-been/
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
Well, it has been a while since I have been around. I have deleted some of my social media presence because it is needed for how I been feeling. For those who do not know, I work as my primary job these days a UNIX/Linux System Administrator. Which has turned into something that has been a very demanding job that I wasn’t aware of?
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I am very much enjoying my new job as a System Administrator and it has been greatly expanding my skills and learning more about managing Linux and UNIX servers at larger scales. However, that being said I put in tons of hours now and outside of those hours I spend a bunch of time studying for required certifications to further my career. That being said, it is the reason I haven’t been around much.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
To claim that is the only reason, would be kind of a lie. My life has changed somewhat in the last few months, finally, I have got into a stable relationship with someone who actually cares about me as well. However, being in a stable relationship has led me to realize I have other issues with myself that I am now working on that are related to depression and stress in my life trying to juggle too many things. That I really need to pull back and adjust my priorities and stop committing myself to more then I can do.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
That being said, the job that pays to keep the lights on and a roof over my head takes precedence over my other projects. Because the work I do, I am required to study and pass so many certification courses a year to keep myself properly employed. I have had to turn some of my focus to working on that, which I thought I was giving enough time too, however, I recently failed my AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associates Exam scoring only a 68% overall score. Thus loosing out on a bonus my company was offering to those who passed it a nice one-time bonus for passing before the end of the year.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So what does this mean for me? Well, to be honest, I am not really sure… I am doing my best to get my certifications I need. I am currently working on the AWS SysOps for my re-take and then I am needing to get back and finish my RedHat Certified System Administrator certifications as well. So, studying for both of those exams right now is keeping me quite the busy fox. However, all of this kinda saddens me and upsets me… because I really enjoy working on other things like OpenSimulator and other small open source projects I am interested in like OpenNIC. I really don’t know what the future holds for me right now, but I am doing my best to get through what I got on my plate right now.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I hope everyone understands why I haven’t been around much, and deleting my Google Plus because it was really bothering me seeing all the stuff people are doing with the projects I like and I just not having the time or ability to get involved in them like I used to. Anyways, I will continue to push forward and try and get back into things.
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Taking Control of My Cloud Storage
|
||||||
|
description: So I have been someone who has been working with a lot of sync services over the years. Dropbox, Mega, Google Drive, and even open source solutions like Seafile, OwnCloud/NextCloud, and Sparkle Share.
|
||||||
|
tags: [Opinion, Resources]
|
||||||
|
published: 2018-01-14
|
||||||
|
url: /2018/01/taking-control-of-my-cloud-storage/
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
So I have been someone who has been working with a lot of sync services over the years. Dropbox, Mega, Google Drive, and even open source solutions like Seafile, OwnCloud/NextCloud, and Sparkle Share. But these have all been keeping me locked in with paying for more than I need and the commercial ones paying with my privacy. So I wanted to look into a way of handling my files in a cheaper and more reliable way.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So you might be saying services like Mega give you 50gb for free or Dropbox 1TB for only 9/month. I would say you are right, but unless you are really using all that space it is not a good deal price wise. That said, it is also a not a great deal if you don't trust third parties with your data. Then you might also start to point out, how paying for hosting your own solution can't cost that much more, but then again it can cost a lot for a server and the disk space. You also have to worry about its backups and the drives if you are not on a VPS. So my idea is to use Object Storage, something that I find to be really the best option for my needs.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So I want to start out by saying, Object Storage is not going to be the best solution for everyone depending on your use cases. If you are someone who is going to be using a ton of storage and want it at a cheaper cost, Dropbox's price might be a great option for what you are looking for. Also depending on the simplicity of your setup and if you are going to share files with others. So again, this is why I say my solution is not for everyone.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
To start this journey I decided to look at all the options out there. AWS S3, Digital Ocean Spaces, Google Cloud Storage(not Google Drive), BackBlaze B2, and some of the smaller companies out there. I started to see that most people's storage price for good redundant storage was around 0.023 per GB on average with the exception of BackBlaze B2 being the cheapest at 0.005 per GB and OVH being 0.0112 per GB. With this in mind, I realized I had to factor in another cost since I am going the route of object storage, which was how much my bandwidth was going to cost. Meaning while BackBlaze looked great for my storage, it was actually going to cost me more if I was going to be downloading a lot from it or using it to share files.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Diving into the costs, I found that OVH was actually the cheapest option, and the 0.01/gb bandwidth was a steal compared to the competition. I also happen know it was reliable because I have been hosting Zadaroo’s files on it for years now. The competition is just absolutely expensive averaging around 0.09/gb of outgoing bandwidth, which was just going to be too much money for me if I am also going to using it for syncing and sharing files with others. The other major bonus is that OVH doesn’t charge transactional action charges such as puts, gets, and deletes which most of the competition does. So OVH won out the on what I was looking for.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I created two buckets for security reasons, one bucket as a private bucket allowing only me access to the files stored on it. Then I created a static site option, as the public option creates an XML index that lists all your files and I didn’t want that. I wanted some control of what people can see and not just navigate to the directory and see all my files in the public bucket.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Since I run Linux everywhere now, I use RClone and created a cronjob that runs every 30 minutes on my machine to sync any changes up with the service. It does a copy to local if there is anything new, then syncs any local files up. Then for my files I want to share, I use the public bucket which also syncs via cron to the public static site bucket.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The best part of this is the customization and extra features I get doing this. I can use my own domain like files.example.com/something.txt to send it to a friend or post to link on a forum or embed a picture somewhere. I only pay for what I use, and since I am using less than a terabyte I am not going to pay but for my 0.0112 per gig of storage and 0.01 per gig of outgoing bandwidth. All my uploading to OVH is free, so that is a great perk that only outgoing traffic costs. I also love that the storage is replicated with an SLA of 99.9999% but that doesn't mean I should consider also cloning these buckets to another provider if I want that extra security.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I will release another post soon going further into the scripts I created and going into how you can do this and encrypt your data in your private bucket so even your provider you choose doesn't know what is in it. All using the tools I talked about in this post. I believe in this new cloud era of not using servers but trying to do stuff as server-less as possible (even though I don't like that terminology I am still using servers just not the classic way) because it really can be much cheaper and if it isn't the trade-off for the extra cost can be a benefit as well. I will have to pay 11.20 for 1Tb of storage instead of the 9, but I know it is replicated across the zone I picked in OVH's object storage and that the bandwidth is more premium vs throttled to me getting a VPS that would only have 100Mbps connection that is shared with other VPS's on the host, no need to worry about patching the server for vulnerabilities, all of that is handed off to OVH. Granted Dropbox is a way to go if you want that route, but if you like to go the route you can tinker and use your own domain and such, object storage is great.
|
19
src/data/blog/2018-02-13-whats-next-for-tim.md
Normal file
19
src/data/blog/2018-02-13-whats-next-for-tim.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Whats Next For Tim?
|
||||||
|
description: I had a lot of fun working with OpenSimulator over the past few years, it was fun but I have got a more demanding job and new skills to acquire for that job that now just take up far more time than I have to work on anything OpenSimulator.
|
||||||
|
tags: [Personal]
|
||||||
|
published: 2018-02-13
|
||||||
|
url: /2018/02/whats-next-for-tim/
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
I had a lot of fun working with OpenSimulator over the past few years, it was fun but I have got a more demanding job and new skills to acquire for that job that now just take up far more time than I have to work on anything OpenSimulator. I am at this time no longer involved with OpenSimulator in any way other than running my own little standalone that I rarely will go on due to my lack of time but just so I can keep and enjoy my content I own and can have on my own machine something that I have always loved about OpenSimulator the ability to truly own your content if you host it yourself(or a provider like Zetamex Network, Dreamland Metaverse, etc). It is sad to part ways from the community just I feel like it is kinda my time to move on.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I know I have been in the community a long time and it might not come as a surprise but over the years I have had people enjoy my contributions over the years and just as well made some enemies over the years. I feel the OpenSimulator community has begun to evolve to a point that I am not really sure where it is going, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. I think it has reached a point of stability. I feel it has got to the point where to be successful grids would have to open up to the HyperGrid and with the new security in OpenSimulator for HG content now. However, I am not really sure that this is the peek for the project but I think this is where I get off... I am moving on to new projects that have captured my attention with my job.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So some of you might be curious where I am moving onto? Well, that is my company has become involved with container technology and I have been selected to study and assist with setting up and managing OpenShift since I have my experience with Docker and Linux under my belt. The company I work for felt it good to pick me to be one of the System Admins to work on this project which has resulted in me having to study and take several certifications and going to several training events. I am super happy to be moving into this space and working with containers, I grew to love them working on OpenSimulator with putting several services into the containers to make it easier to version control key components without fear of breaking things.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I do still plan to write some free code and contribute to open source projects from time to time if I get the time, to try and help grow and keep my programming skills. I know that being a System Administrator can make you a bit lazy on the coding side of things because you're always deep on the systems fixing issues and just messing with scripts and such; or, at least that is how it works where I am now. But I also plan to keep this blog up to date with various ramblings of things I have been up to in my time between work.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Anyways, I love you OpenSimulator Community! I just think it is time for me to move onto my next big thing, also something that I can grow into making me a real strong living.
|
55
src/data/blog/2018-04-26-finding-my-linux-distro.md
Normal file
55
src/data/blog/2018-04-26-finding-my-linux-distro.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Finding My Linux Distro
|
||||||
|
description: I have been on a bit of a journey looking for the right Linux distribution for myself. It has been a bit of a challenge, because I have been bouncing around a lot over the past couple months trying to find the one that fits me best.
|
||||||
|
tags: [Personal, Opinion]
|
||||||
|
published: 2018-04-26
|
||||||
|
draft: true
|
||||||
|
url: /2018/04/finding-my-linux-distro
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
I have been on a bit of a journey looking for the right Linux distribution for myself. It has been a bit of a challenge, because I have been bouncing around a lot over the past couple months trying to find the one that fits me best. There are the LTS(Long Term Support), standard release cycles, and of course the rolling release ones out there.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
While using the various ones out there, I have come to realize I do prefer the rolling release model more than the others. Mainly because I enjoy being able to use the latest and greatest that is currently available to be used rather than waiting for a distro to deem that it is stable for me to use. However, I have learned that it does come at the price of the occasional breakage. Being a Linux System Administrator for my day job does help with the occasional breakage not being too difficult to deal with.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So I wanted to go over the distro's that I tried and my opinions on them. Note these are my personal opinions and shouldn't be used to sway your opinions of them, I encourage you to go out and test them all for yourself as well.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Arch**
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
This is where this whole thing began at. I have been an Arch user a long time ago and left because graphics drivers were a horrible headache to keep updated with the system. I switched back a few months ago because they made it easier to manage nvidia drivers, as they are are now maintaining the drivers in the main repositories which is nice. However, I was getting annoyed with the constant kernel updates, meaning updates to drivers, and vitalization tools constantly. However, I learned recently you can install the LTS kernel that makes those updates come way less often and I get to also keep the latest and greatest software as well.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The ability to configure myself to have only what I want from the point of install is very nice, being able to choose what goes in and what doesn't get installed. I also loving having access to the AUR to install large variety of software where it is easier to get the third party applications in a central place.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
My last bit on loving Arch is the wiki. I honestly just love reading the wiki, it doesn't just tell you how to fix something or install something. The wiki is a trove of knowledge teaching you what everything you do on your system does, and honestly as a SysAdmin who didn't go to college it where I am always learning more about my system. Just as a bonus, lots of the articles can translate to other distributions as the articles cover in detail how things work not just how they work Arch but Linux in general.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Fedora**
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I really wanted to fall in love with Fedora because I manage Red Hat at work and started using CentOS on my personal servers because it is so nice and stable in my opinion more secure out of the box than Ubuntu boxes I have setup. However, there was just too many small things that I found kinda annoying or just that I couldn't figure out what was wrong.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Firstly I would install programs, but they would not run when I launched them from the menu.. but they would if I executed them from the command line. I verified I was executing them exactly the same way the menu was programmed to launch them. I checked every log I could, but I still couldn't figure this one out.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I was getting some odd graphical glitches with apps with both my laptop which uses the intel free drivers and my desktop using the nvidia drivers... I asked in the IRC and all I got was that I shouldn't have used the minimal install media... But I don't see how or why that would be the issue for my graphical glitches. So it was just all these small things that just caused me to just move away from considering Fedora.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**openSUSE**
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
This one was a really awesome one, I used the net installer just like I have for all the distributions in this list. I just for some reason enjoy the level customization their installer gives you and at the end editing the software configuration. The only complaint is I am not a fan of the default choice to use btrfs as I just have had so many friends who have ran into issues on btrfs. So I just switched it to ext4 which was a very easy change.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I will say as from a newbie perspective, I think openSUSE might seem a bit intimidating but it really just an intimidation. The system is very easy to manage with zypper and their 1-click installer scripts all over their website and software search system. It is also very easy to add repositories to the system and it usually fetches the GPG Key for you, all you have to do is accept it.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Overall, as a System Administrator I find it to be kinda a SysOps delight to manage with YaST which just makes everything very simple to manage. It makes me sad to see it is not offered by many providers like Digital Ocean and such because it would be my default option in a heartbeat. It really has all the tools you need to manage your system in one place that is not too confusing for someone who has used Linux for a while.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
There are some small things on this system I am not completely happy with, is that some of the desktop applications I like to use are not available as openSUSE is not normally considered on places like RHEL and Debian based distros are so missing dependencies are quite common.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Solus**
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
This is a pretty awesome distro, and I think it has a lot of potential. My biggest issue with it right now is that its still so new that there is just a lack of documentation on things when I want to install certain programs without going into the forums and asking for help. Also the fact that its young, I am not saying it is going away... but I do want to revisit it in a maybe another year.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Ubuntu**
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So I was on Ubuntu for quite a long time, and I don't have anything particularly bad to say about it. I really enjoy using Ubuntu, however after going back to rolling releases it just started to feel a bit to stale for my personal taste. I also was starting to suffer a few programs I compile requiring a bit more effort under Ubuntu vs other platforms like Arch.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Manjaro**
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Lastly, I have tried Manjaro and I found it was a great way to dip your foot into the Arch scene with easier management. The few things I didn't like was I couldn't use the tools that were native to the desktop without issues, I was stuck using octipi software manager instead of using Discover software center. The good thing was it did include native snap support I didn't have to install it from the AUR.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Again, these are my personal opinions and experiences. I am sure others have their own feelings and I am a strong believer that people should find what works for them. I don't believe there is ever one solution that works for everyone, why I encourage people to use whatever works best for them. But I also believe it is important for people to share their opinions to help people consider what else is out there that might work best for them.
|
18
src/data/blog/2019-01-26-2019-goals.md
Normal file
18
src/data/blog/2019-01-26-2019-goals.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: 2019 Goals
|
||||||
|
description: So it has been a while since I have written anything on this site, or let alone touched it. So I have decided to give it a bit of a refresh and set some new goals for 2019 to try and meet. With that said, I want to thank you for taking a peek back at my site after a year of nothing new.
|
||||||
|
tags: [Personal]
|
||||||
|
published: 2019-01-26
|
||||||
|
url: /2019/01/2019-goals/
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
So it has been a while since I have written anything on this site, or let alone touched it. So I have decided to give it a bit of a refresh and set some new goals for 2019 to try and meet. With that said, I want to thank you for taking a peek back at my site after a year of nothing new. I have been working really hard at my day job that keeps me very busy managing lots of servers. However, I plan to take back my personal life somewhat this year as my biggest goal and start getting back into working on hobby projects in my spare time. With that said, I plan on talking about some of my projects that I have worked on here and there and some of the stuff I have done to keep doing through the year.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Decentralized Services**
|
||||||
|
Well, the biggest thing I want to try and move into this year is going into decentralized services. For those who don't know what that is, it is a service that doesn't depend on one person/organization to keep it running. One of the biggest examples of one I am using is Mastodon, which is an alternative to Twitter. Basically Twitter, but small communities and individuals can host their own instance and link them together. This allows my personal instance to follow and communicate with people in other instances, without them needing to sign up on my server or on mine.
|
||||||
|
The best part of these decentralized services is, they give me more control over my data and allow me to make better choices of who I want to have my data and who I share it with. There are a few other services that are working their way to decentralization options, such as IPFS(a decentralized file system) which even CloudFlare picked up on and is hosting their own gateway.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Sharing Tips**
|
||||||
|
There are a lot of little cost savings tips and workarounds that I have been building for myself because I want to try and do things as affordable as I can, but also there are times I want to make something work the way I want it too. So I will be posting some short guides on things I have done to just share my knowledge.
|
||||||
|
Anyways, hope to see you guys around!
|
30
src/data/blog/2019-01-28-speeding-up-zadaroo-files.md
Normal file
30
src/data/blog/2019-01-28-speeding-up-zadaroo-files.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Speeding Up Zadaroo Files
|
||||||
|
description: As some people may know, I host Zadaroo from an agreement with the original owner that I would continue to host it for as long as I can. Which I believe will be a long time, as it isn't that expensive to host.
|
||||||
|
tags: [CDN, Cloudflare, Wasabi]
|
||||||
|
published: 2019-01-28
|
||||||
|
url: /2019/01/speeding-up-zadaroo-files/
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
As some people may know, I host Zadaroo from an agreement with the original owner that I would continue to host it for as long as I can. Which I believe will be a long time, as it isn't that expensive to host. I have up till a few months ago hosted all the files on OVH Object Storage in their Canadian datacenters. Doing that costed me around 5-6/month just in bandwidth fees, as believe it or not Zadaroo continues to this day consuming around 500-600gb of bandwidth a month, which would be too expensive to host on a provider like AWS. Also, keep in mind this is only for all the files behind Zadaroo, not the site itself as the files are hosted separately because I wanted to ensure the best downloads I could.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Recently I wanted to try and move away from OVH, not because it is really bad or anything... just they tend to have some network abuse from people using their datacenters for things like seed boxes and such. That said, I moved everything from OVH already but files.zadaroo.com files back-end. The site had been moved to where it is now, on a Linode instance in Newark, NJ behind Cloudflare for caching, as it always had so the move was seamless. Next was to find a place to move the files too. Which I was already using Backblaze B2 as a backup location for everything, but at the time I started using them their costs were a bit higher than they are now. But during the last month I heard about Wasabi from a few furry friends on Mastodon, their pricing and speed seemed like a great fit.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So I moved everything to Wasabi, but then realized that we were going to lose the ability to let people keep using the original files.zadaroo.com domain that I know many people still rely on for loading OARs and such from the site. So I came up with using the Linode box as a proxy server to pass the requests back to Wasabi using the old domain to mask the Wasabi address and it worked! However, this meant I was using my Linode bandwidth to reserve the files, but that was fine for now. Below is configuration I used to mask the Wasabi address.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<script src="https://gitlab.com/snippets/1802178.js"></script>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So I was forced to stop using Wasabi due to 2 outages, and this latest one from them lasting over 48 hours... I found this to be unacceptable. I quickly in the first 12 hours switched Zadaroo Files over to Backblaze B2 because I didn't want to stop people from being able to download all the files from Zadaroo.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Due to the Wasabi outage, Zadaroo Files back-end has been seamlessly failed over to <a href="https://twitter.com/backblaze?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@backblaze</a> B2 to ensure you can keep downloading those OAR files :)</p>— kite552🦊 (@kite552) <a href="https://twitter.com/kite552/status/1088987607604826112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 26, 2019</a></blockquote>
|
||||||
|
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
In my haste switching over to Backblaze's B2 Zadaroo Files backup, I didn't realize that even though I had set it up exactly the same way as Wasabi reverse proxy... it was redirecting instead to the B2 address. I tried editing it to force files.zadaroo.com to stay but it was triggering Cloudflare's security back-end and preventing the site from loading. So I decided to use my last page rule, because I was already taking advantage of Backblaze and Cloudflare's partnership for free unlimited bandwidth. So with switched to a page rule from Cloudflare's settings, I tested and confirmed it was working at rewriting files.zadaroo.com to the correct path for b2.zadaroo.com/file/zadaroo-backup/ and as an added benefit no more going through Linode and I noticed that downloads were even faster now.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|

|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So Zadaroo Files are now hosted by Backblaze B2, using Cloudflare to take advantage of the free unlimited traffic to the files, while now making the downloads even faster by using Cloudflare's edge caching and Page Rules to transfer you to the correct link at the edge layer making the download happen directly through Cloudflare.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I hope this article was helpful for those wanting/needing to do the same.
|
41
src/data/blog/2021-10-29-cloudflare-workers-and-pages.md
Normal file
41
src/data/blog/2021-10-29-cloudflare-workers-and-pages.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Cloudflare Workers and Pages
|
||||||
|
description: It sure has been a while since I have posted anything here on my blog... that said you might have realized that the site has changed and maybe even noticed it might be a tad bit faster for you.
|
||||||
|
tags: [Resources, Personal, Cloudflare]
|
||||||
|
published: 2021-10-29
|
||||||
|
url: /2021/10/cloudflare-workers-and-pages/
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
It sure has been a while since I have posted anything here on my blog... that said you might have realized that the site has changed and maybe even noticed it might be a tad bit faster for you. Well that is because I have started to pick back up coding, because I really do wanna get back into DevOps. That said, I am back to my old shinigans of trying to build things and host them as cheap as possible while not compromising on performance.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Back to Cloudflare
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Some of you may know I have been a long time fan of Cloudflare and its amazing feature set of giving so much value for free to users. I know there is a tabu of using it, but I have always felt based off what I have seen and personally follow (I am also a stock holder now as well)... that they offer too many amazing services for developers and small companies that are just too cost prohibitive to do with anyone else.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
That said, their latest service they have released public called [Pages](https://pages.cloudlfare.com/) is what I am using now for this site and will be migrating Zadaroo over to it as soon as I finish up the new version of the site. I have also been using their [Workers](https://workers.cloudflare.com/) service as well for my personal API that does some small cool things for myself and others in [NeosVR](https://neos.com/) to see what we are playing live for others to see.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Pages A Free CI/CD Dream
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So the big reason why I have migrated to Cloudflare Pages for my site, is because it is so much easier to work on my site, test changes before they go public. I am able to push my changes to my GitHub repo for my site, and it kicks off a job immediately to update the site. It also builds the other branches on the fly as well, but gives them a unique link that isn't mapped to the regular live link so you can see the development builds of your site beside your live site.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|

|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
As you can see from the image above you can see how it pulls, builds, and generates a unique site link for each commit. So as you can see, it on the back-end remaps your domain to the deployment link of the latest build. All the previous build hang around as well, so if I mess up on a build I can click the dots next to the build I need to go back to and the site will immediately roll back to that version of the site.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So I know you might be asking why I don't just use GitHub's built in Pages service. Well there are a couple reasons, and there are two big ones. The first one is that Cloudflare Pages push your site to all their edge nodes, so no matter where in the world someone visits the site, it will be loaded from the closest Cloudflare edge node. The second big feature is the extra features of ability to have custom error pages, routes, and more to your site.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Workers Saving Me Money
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So as I stated earlier, I also have been hosting an API server for people to use that uses my key to check against the [LastFM API](https://last.fm/) to get their Now Playing data and able to use it inside of NeosVR. I have to parse it into something not JSON or XML so that it is more easy to parse the data in game. So I was using a PHP script, but looking at the Cloudflare Workers... I am able to allow 100,000 requests every 24 hours. I haven't gotten over 45% usage yet. But even when I do the pricing is very affordable and there is no cold starts. All I had to do was teach myself JavaScript... which only took a day.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<center>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|

|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</center>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The image above shows the weekly report of my workers usage data. You also see, I have setup a lastfm-legacy that maps overtop of the old link for the lastfm system some people are still pointing at but has been re-written on the back-end to JavaScript on a Worker so that it gives them time to update to the new one.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So long story short, I am very happy to be back and learning JavaScript and doing new things. I am working on a Discord Bot right now for CyberFurz a small project I operate. I will be writing up on that soon once I finish everything on that front. Anyways, thank you for reading!
|
42
src/data/blog/2022-02-02-struggling-with-anxiety.md
Normal file
42
src/data/blog/2022-02-02-struggling-with-anxiety.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Struggling With Anxiety
|
||||||
|
description: So I am sorry I haven’t been good lately, I am not ok and I know a lot of people are not ok lately. I know that a lot of people in my personal and professional life look up to me.
|
||||||
|
tags: [Personal, Mental Health]
|
||||||
|
published: 2022-02-02
|
||||||
|
url: /2022/02/struggling-with-anxiety/
|
||||||
|
category: Life
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So I am sorry I haven’t been good lately, I am not ok and I know a lot of people are not ok lately. I know that a lot of people in my personal and professional life look up to me. This just adds stress to me that I am just hitting life as a whole burn out. This is just me opening up, and expressing how I have been spiraling out of control…
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Professional Life
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
In my professional life, I enjoy my job and I know I am good at my job. I am not saying I am irreplaceable, no one is… We can all be replaced by someone better skilled or even lesser skilled just things may take longer. I am doing my best to keep up with the demands of my job over the past few months, but with several things going live on systems that only I am the main person who knows the platform it all runs on… makes me very stressed being called, questioned, pulled in, and tons of late nights…
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So with all of that said, you might think I am going way over hours… and well sometimes I am going over a bit, but it isn’t by much. It is just work breaking up my days a lot, making it where I work early then come back in later, or just get called in randomly but told to “flex” the time back… so yes, long days with very little time between shifts to just relax. This has culminated in me just feeling overwhelmed, and this is just the professional side of my life as of late.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Personal Life
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Moving onto my personal life, it has been just as stressful… I have a lot of relationships… I struggle to keep up with them all, as the little free time I get makes me feel like I have to give what little time I do have to myself to each person, and that is rough because I need time for myself to unwind… and I am not doing that, I am putting others first and it making me go mad… I want to make sure my relationships are known that I care about them and that I am trying… But I struggle, because some like my boyfriends tell me “when you going to spend time with me, I never see you anymore” it is rough…
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I try to prioritize my partners and [boy/girl/enby]friends first, but I also have so many other close friends that want to do stuff with me. I recently setup a server with all these close people in my life on Discord just so I could let them all know I am trying… and hopefully they will be able to make conversation between each other (which some have, and it is nice to see everyone getting along and building new connections). However, I am still prioritizing everyone over my own mental state, and forcing myself to give time and attention to others. I get it, many even the introverts in my life need attention from time to time… I just can’t disconnect for myself… someone always wants to say something to me, or expects a reply from me.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I want and try to just say “I need some time” and my partners and [boy/girl/enby]friends seem to be the most respectful of this… just some of my close friends still reach out, and maybe it is just me not knowing how to just block them out and ignore them… but I fear if I do that, they will be upset with me… But I really just so badly wanna curl up, be away from human contact for like at least a whole day… I don’t have any me time…
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I am stressing, I am over worked, I am worried about everyone I care about partners, [boy/girl/enby]friends, and my close friends… I don’t know how to stop feeling like I need to be there for all of them. This is all just driving me to a point of extreme exhaustion… and I am scared, that I cannot keep going like this… because, well there is one more chapter to all this pressure.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Identify Crisis
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Finally, I made a video not to long ago expressing that I now identify as Non-Binary. I am happy and gave tons of thought and consideration into that decision. However, I am still scared at times… because seeing how the internet tends to persecute people for identifying as things… and I used to not be scare of things like this. I stood up and started the GSA(Gay Straight Alliance) at my school when I was younger and identified as a cis-gay male back then. But, the world seems so much scarier now… I don’t I just worry that someone is going to try and hurt me or my career over being Non-Binary, as I don’t have preferred pronouns, don’t take meds to adjust my appearance, or that the reason I identify this way is because I don’t feel like I am male or female, that I am somewhere in the middle… and it just worries me.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I am also struggling with figuring out what I want to be… I love getting back into coding but I haven’t really had a chance because I am too busy with trying to balance work and my relationships, and it is making it to where… I don’t even know who I am anymore, other than a freaking work horse, who just works a fuck ton, is there to help my friends through their struggles, and just burning myself out on all ends…
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### In Closing
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I don’t know what to do… I am in counseling, but I know I am not opening up about everything like I am here… because I am scared about things like my identity… and just fear of judgement or being dismissed… I am afraid to just log off and not respond to people, because I know often those reaching out to me rely on my replies to not spiral out on their own… but it is hard being everyone’s rock… it is hard existing right now, I don’t have the energy to keep up with me… I feel like I am living for everyone but myself… and it has gotten so bad lately, that in the past week I have had two full on anxiety/panic attacks where I just was immobilized and unable to do anything.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I still feel like at the end of all of this I need to apologize… and say that I am sorry that I feel this way, as I don’t want to make people in my life to be upset at themselves or anything, for how they come to me… So… I am sorry if I have made anyone feel that way, but I felt like I really needed to write this and get it off my chest.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Please know I still love all of you, and care about you, I am just trying to move forward… and maybe writing this, to express how I am feeling will help…
|
56
src/data/blog/2022-02-17-ntf-polorization.md
Normal file
56
src/data/blog/2022-02-17-ntf-polorization.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: NFT Polarization
|
||||||
|
description: So it is crazy to me how polarized people seem to be over NFT’s these days, and crypto in general...
|
||||||
|
tags: [Crypto]
|
||||||
|
published: 2022-02-17
|
||||||
|
url: /2022/02/nft-polarization/
|
||||||
|
category: Crypto
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So it is crazy to me how polarized people seem to be over NFT’s these days, and crypto in general... As someone who has been dabbling and following crypto stuff since the early days, it has been sad seeing how it has been loaded up with tons of scams, and how so many people are opting in to it for the fad. So I just wanted to write up a little thing about my thoughts on all this mess...
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Utility NFT’s
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So... first and foremost... there are tons of NTF’s out there that are just used for “art” which could be argued that there could be some benefit for, but that isn’t a use case I see viable when most the time the “art” isn’t even hosted on the blockchain... I instead focus on the utility based NFT’s and my first two NFT’s were DNS NFT’s.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I bought my first NFT from [Unstoppable Domains](https://unstoppabledomains.com), which I think is a unique concept with some flaws but a good attempt. Which allows me to mint a DNS entry to ETH or Polygon chain, but isn’t fully recognized like the [ENS](https://ens.domains) service(which I will get into shortly). But lets you link to a page with all your wallet addresses, create or link to a site hosted on IPFS, all of which are pretty nice additions, and you pay for it just once and it never expires and all this data is saved to your NFT and updated on your NFT when you make changes to it, keeping it all on the chain ledger.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I however... wanted to get the fancy ETH domain... which is specific to the Ethereum block chain and it is treated a bit more like your typical DNS where you have a yearly fee. However, the network seems to treat this one as a true CNAME like record for your ETH Wallet Address. So you can find my wallet is [hack13.eth](https://etherscan.io/enslookup-search?search=hack13.eth) and you can see my current holdings. Similar to Unstoppable Domains it stores all updates and record changes to the ledger but specifically just the Ethereum block chain. When I sign into many exchanges and such with my wallet instead of my long string address I see my ENS entry [hack13.eth](https://etherscan.io/enslookup-search?search=hack13.eth) and just yeah a nice little thing I enjoy, and many wallets support just giving them my address to send ETH and Tokens to my wallet.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### NFT & Tokens For Funding
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
This one is a bit controversial lately with the US Government start to look at the Tokens as “securities” and to be fair I don’t totally disagree with that viewpoint... even if it is a bit of a hot take. However, I feel that it is a good way for small projects to give a way to “Fund” or “Sponsor” a project.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I know not everyone likes the concept or ideal of doing it this way when we have other options like Patreon or other donation services. However, I get why some people want to move to something like this as it is a bit “safer” for NSFW or controversial content creators. As platforms like Patreon have been known to kick off some people who make content that doesn’t fit with the mainstream and same with the scare OnlyFans which people thought was safe as well... So I get using this as a way of collecting in a sense “cash” like transactions.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I recently purchased 2 NFT’s to help fund a content creator I follow on YouTube and they have been very transparent throughout the whole process. I got two Vaxxed Doggos, and they have been putting out spreadsheet and updating with with how they been using their funds they have received on their content.
|
||||||
|
{{< rawhtml >}}<center>
|
||||||
|
<img src="/post-pics/2022/136.webp" width="350" height="350"/>
|
||||||
|
<img src="/post-pics/2022/470.webp" width="350" height="350"/>
|
||||||
|
<br />
|
||||||
|
<i>Vaxxed Doggo 136 & Vaxxed Doggo 470, currently owned by me</i>
|
||||||
|
<br /> <br />
|
||||||
|
</center>{{< /rawhtml >}}
|
||||||
|
With my purchase of these two [Vaxxed Doggos](https://vaxxeddoggos.com) they allow me into their private Discord server channels where I get to see behind the scenes content, how they are spending the funds, get the chance to appear in videos, and more. They get continued funding from them by collecting a small percentage of each sell people do when they trade [Vaxxed Doggos](https://vaxxeddoggos.com) as well. I see it as a cool way to show I am a part of their community.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### The Environmental Impact
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
There is a lot of research here that is inconclusive and many projects are working hard to migrate to Proof of Stake models. However, even then many of the operations that are using mining outside of places like China are either using excess power that goes to waste otherwise to mine to at least recoup some costs of operations, which you can [read about here](https://www.engadget.com/2020-03-08-new-york-power-plant-mines-bitcoin.html). Then many other operations here in the west are using solar or other renewable forms of power, as to make profit vs needing to pay a larger power bill.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
That said, I know there is a lot more than just the costs of power and how the power is generated there is the heat and other parts... and I don’t claim to be an expert or anything on this... but I am pretty sure in comparison to many other things causing environmental impact there is so much more that is mountains worse than crypto...
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### What About The Scams?
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Yeah... what about them... Sadly people fall and trust things too easily and I for one think that while yes people should do more of their own research and not jump into “I am going to get rich” click bait crap that people keep proposing with all these NFTs and Tokens... I for one agree we need regulation around some of this stuff, as too many people right now are getting to get away with scamming people...
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Also I fully believe, you should NEVER EVER put more money into any sort of investment than you are willing to loose. That goes for NFTs, Stocks, Physical Assets, etc... Buy only what you are willing, and be careful with how you manage it...
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Closing Thoughts
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I know I am a small voice, and I know I am going to get some grief for my views and opinions... but I feel like why can’t people enjoy crypto... I pay my taxes on it, I report my earnings and transactions to the IRS and my local state governments. I do my research before investing... and yeah, I don’t agree with gaming companies and such just jumping into “we’re adding NFT’s” just to be trendy... just keep your stuff in your private markets with your silly fake currencies, no need to add our silly crypto fake currencies to the process... Not like we will ever be able to take our fancy skins from a game made by one major company to another major company competitor...
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I just feel like, instead of being so immediate like “crypto bad” at least consider there are some real use cases... and yeah... just like with real fiat currency... people will scam... just do your due diligence and don’t ever invest more than you are willing to loose. But this is just my two cents on this topic and well if you don’t wanna participate... then don’t... I am not tweeting or screaming “buy this new coin” I am just here saying some of us... just enjoy putting some money in of this and making a bit of money, supporting creators who cannot or choose not to use mainstream platforms for funding for concern, etc..
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Thank you for at least listening to my two cents if you made it this far...
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: The Tech Side of Hosting a NeosVR Event
|
||||||
|
description: So in case you had no idea, I assisted with hosting the back-end of a NeosVR event this past weekend. It was great, but it was a very short notice event, I jumped in and volunteered as I saw the event organizer starting to get overwhelmed with just how big their event got.
|
||||||
|
tags: [Personal, NeosVR, Resonite]
|
||||||
|
published: 2022-04-17
|
||||||
|
url: /2022/04/neosvr-event-hosting/
|
||||||
|
category: VR
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So in case you had no idea, I assisted with hosting the back-end of a NeosVR event this past weekend. It was great, but it was a very short notice event, I jumped in and volunteered as I saw the event organizer starting to get overwhelmed with just how big their event got. So I came in and offered to host the back-end. Plus it is alway a great experience for me to put my Linux System Administration and Engineering skills to the test. In fact, I did over engineer the back-end of the event... So here is me talking about how we pulled it off for just €2.43 in total cost, for an event that had servers running for 12 hours.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### The Hardware Breakdown
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So if you have ever followed me or looked at my work, I am all about bang for the buck. I decided to use the [Hetzner Cloud](https://www.hetzner.com/cloud) for this event with their new Data Center location based in the USA. This is because most of the attendees were based in North America. Also we were able to take advantage of their instance pricing.
|
||||||
|
<center>
|
||||||
|
<img src="/post-pics/2022/LGQ2GFbz7D6rntVRTYVqwhwX.webp" alt="pricing screenshot" /> <img src="/post-pics/2022/1MhfuY5BLaDOVHuso0Pw17kZ.webp" alt="pricing screenshot" />
|
||||||
|
</center>
|
||||||
|
We used the CPX41 and CPX51 instances for the event. I used the CPX41 instance for the Main Stage of the event which also doubled as the Parent session for the other sessions. The actual break out sessions where we wanted to make sure that people who were building and working on avatars and logix were on the CPX51’s which was probably overkill...
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### NeosVR Headless Configurations
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So the documentation for headless client configurations sadly is not quite there, especially when it comes to running events with nested sessions. In fact at the time of writing this, the wiki page for nested sessions doesn’t exist and is a dead link... However, that aside by searching through the NeosVR Discord server and various bug report filings on the GitHub I was able to put together how to configure the nested sessions configuration. Which is basically parentSessionId is a JSON array...
|
||||||
|
<center>
|
||||||
|
<img src="/post-pics/2022/event-layout.webp" alt="event layout" />
|
||||||
|
</center>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So as you can see from the above diagram, we used a total of 3 cloud instances. I figured since the Main Stage was simply to be a filter point and simple gathering zone, it could be on a slightly less powerful instance. Then the people with Unity and NeosVR knowledge most likely would be doing some crazy Logix or other funny things, we thought it would be best to have them isolated out on their own system. We then put the Intermediate and New Users onto the same back-end system just because we felt those two worlds shouldn’t be too heavy, as they were going to mainly be doing basic setting up your avatar and showing off the basics of NeosVR.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### OS and Software Stack
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
For those who know me, I work as my day job managing RHEL(Red Hat Enterprise Linux) systems. In my personal labs and projects I run [AlmaLinux](https://almalinux.org) as my personal choice since the CentOS Stream change over. So we ran the whole event on AlmaLinux 8, that was a custom image that I had built out and configured with [Ansible Playbooks](https://github.com/ansible/ansible) to run [Docker](https://docker.com/).
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The Ansible Playbook I wrote logged into the server, setup some basic security benchmarks, added my personal account to login and manage the system, and an unprivileged user named “neosvr” for the containers to be started and managed under.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I utilized the pre-made docker container made by the Neos Community’s own [Shadow Panther](https://github.com/shadowpanther) which you can find [here](https://github.com/shadowpanther/neosvr-headless). It allowed me to focus on having only Docker installed on all the servers, exposing only ports for the containers we used.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### The Event Itself
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So in closing the event itself was a bit of a rocky event, it was slapped together in less than a week... However, with [Scars Vorrix](https://www.tiktok.com/@scarvorrix), [Jackie Alexender](https://linktr.ee/CabbitKingJack), nearbyfaraway, myself, and the Mentor’s of NeosVR itself it was a great event for something on such short notice. We worked right up to the event getting things prepared and such.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The biggest take away we learned is to start filtering users into smaller breakout sessions right away as the main session started getting full way to quick and caused multiple people to start lagging as people just piled in. This was something we started doing shortly into the beginning of the event.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
As this was an event to get new users into NeosVR, it was amazing to see the system work at getting Mentors who volunteer their time to staff each of the three sessions we had setup and just take off helping new users. I spent a lot of time stopping by the New User session and have to say the Mentors are what really made the event a huge success so if you are a NeosVR Mentor who attended and assisted I thank you all so much, it wouldn’t have been such a success without you all.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Also we cannot forget our wonderful organizer Jackie Alexender who put together the whole event, and be sure to go [check out their Discord](https://discord.gg/x9FKhVrndD) as they do plan to host more events in the future. With everyone coming together in less than a week, it was great to see such a community effort come together and have a great time.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
In closing remarks... Jackie... Give more lead time to get stuff planned and built out in the future! (This is a bit of an inside joke as they also agree, they had no idea it would have ballooned into what it did)
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Hope to see you all in the [NeosVR Metaverse](https://neos.com/)!
|
46
src/data/blog/2022-05-08-continuing-to-find-myself.md
Normal file
46
src/data/blog/2022-05-08-continuing-to-find-myself.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Continuing To Find Myself
|
||||||
|
description: Hi there... I have been struggling with my identity lately... and I been scared about it. The reason I am scared? To put it bluntly, cancel culture and the people who are very harsh gate keeping...
|
||||||
|
tags: [Enby, Trans]
|
||||||
|
published: 2022-05-08
|
||||||
|
url: /2022/05/continuing-to-find-myself/
|
||||||
|
category: Life
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Hi there... I have been struggling with my identity lately... and I been scared about it. The reason I am scared? To put it bluntly, cancel culture and the people who are very harsh gate keeping I see in what **should** be a safe and open community. So I want to write down my thoughts, and get them down for a bit. I know not many people may read this, because it is a long post... so I will do a quick one line TL;DR under this intro.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**TL;DR:** I think I might be trans, I feel scared about it because I feel like I waited to long, I feel scared of being gate kept out for not looking feminine enough physically, and lastly tons of childhood trauma around why it’s taken so long
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Self Actualization...
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So for those who don’t know about my rough life, and want the story of that... I suggest checking out my [video here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMr7rG293WM). I go over where I had quite the insane childhood, teen hood, and even just now I have been able to start focusing on myself and getting out of the survival mindset. I know that might sound crazy, because it has been about 5 years now of working through a lot of survival to self actualization... but it is a hard journey, going from runaway, to literal street living, to then being someone who has good job and living situation. It is a shock to the system.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
That said, I have started being able to be in counseling for the past 4 years and it has helped me start working through a lot of things. I then also found VR which during the pandemic was a bit life saver, giving me a way to be out there and find people to chat and hang out with. It is also where, I was able to start being myself more without fear of real life repercussions of all the fear from being homeless again and whatnot.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I started out by realizing I missed letting myself be feminine, enjoying the stuff I at first didn’t even realize I repressed. I started to behave more like how I did when I was younger, but still use masculine body appearance... however started doing the stuff I did when I was younger and on SecondLife and had some cross-dressing like stuff, I have always enjoyed feminine clothes, and felt like they made me feel pretty. So that was the start of me getting comfortable, and my old body language as I got full body to be more immersed in VR and started to stand, sway, and other mannerisms I hid. Which brings me to our next section...
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Repressed Memories and Feelings
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So... I started to remember when I younger how I behaved very effeminate... So much so my family was very disgusted with it and would come after me about it. How so you might ask? An example was just the way I walked, I enjoyed and was so jealous of women and their heels (yeah I know they suck to wear too...) but loved how toe to heel walking felt... but my parents were not having it, and anytime they caught me doing it... I was told to walk like a man... Then I was also forced to do other things like I enjoyed and wanted the more feminine clothing, and that was not allowed either, was forced into the button down and polo shirts and slacks. I for years didn’t have a single t-shirt... because even that felt too lax for my family for some reason.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Sadly it doesn’t stop there, after remembering those painful memories... I started remembering and having them shared in family get togethers... about how I was when I was even younger, parts of my childhood I don’t remember... I was told things like “God... you hated playing in the grass, and you were always so afraid of getting dirt under your fingers... you just were so prissy” and just... it hurts to know that they really pushed me hard since really early childhood to a very masculine life.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Meeting Trans and Non-Binary Individuals
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Thanks to VR, I was finally able to start meeting several people... I have started to meet so many more individuals who are Trans and Non-Binary, and even call a few of them very close friends now. It was nice to sit down and chat with them, and still feel like I need to do it a bit more because I mainly spent a lot of time with my Non-Binary friends talking about this stuff than my Trans friends. I just get a bit nervous, and not saying they shouldn’t be this way... because trust me I get it... being someone who fought for LGBTQ+ rights back in high school, it is something to be proud about. I just feel nervous sometimes about talking to some of them about it, because I just want to be “me” and yeah I support and care and wouldn’t hide it... just the very loud and proud days of my life just feel a bit behind me... I been fighting a long time and just want to be happy with myself and those I am close too.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Side Note:** I also want to give a small shout out, because I have gotten this a few times and I think it needs to be said... While I personally feel like the Non-Binary marker might not be correct for me going forward(still working that out)... I been slightly jilted by some saying “it is just a phase point for those who don’t know they are trans yet”... and I hate that line of thinking... it feels like the whole Bisexual argument all over again, “they just don’t know what they are yet” which is just invalid and wrong... To my Non-Binary friends, I get it and find you 100% valid! Not everyone falls into the binary, both sexual identity and gender identity is a spectrum.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Working Through Feelings
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So... I am still working through my feelings on all this... I am scared still about being gate kept out... I am scared of doing it this late in my life... I am scared about how it will effect my personal and professional life... It adds a completely new set of feelings and concerns... I don’t want to make others around me uncomfortable, I want to still be the person they know is friendly, a nerd, and enjoys being that caring and protective person as much as I can be these days with my own stuff going on.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
What can I say... other than I am so thankful for all my friends at this point I have spoken too and I most likely will keep talking too to work through this and find out this is the correct way I wanna go... I have already told my counselor, I have already stated to several close friends *She/Her* has become a preference... but there still that fear that I am not welcome or allowed to feel this way.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The professional life side of things, I know if I start working on these changes, start working towards taking steps to change my physical appearance it will take time... and it may cause me some hate from co-workers or other things. But I am ok with that, because it isn’t for them it is for me... I am slowly coming to terms with that feeling...
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
At the end of the day... I want to do this for me, I want to just be happy being me. I feel like I have lived my life for so many others since getting myself back on track... I given so much of my time, money, and emotional bandwidth to others in my life... Often times not getting anything back, but those who do have become very close to me and happy to call my friends. I have started to be more careful about who I bring into my life... They all accept me, and they are great people... and I am just happy to call them friends...
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I just want to keep removing the masks I have put on from just surviving to now becoming who I feel is the real me... Stop hiding, to stop pretending to be the things that my family and being homeless taught me try and be to survive and just become the me who I was all along...
|
23
src/data/blog/2023-01-22-ownership-of-data.md
Normal file
23
src/data/blog/2023-01-22-ownership-of-data.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Ownsership of Data
|
||||||
|
description: It's been a bit since I have written anything. This is an excellent opportunity to talk about the stuff I have been doing lately. That being switching away from using things like pCloud, Microsoft365/OneDrive, and iCloud.
|
||||||
|
tags: [Cloud, Storage]
|
||||||
|
published: 2023-01-22
|
||||||
|
url: /2023/01/ownership-of-data/
|
||||||
|
category: Thoughts
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
It's been a bit since I have written anything. This is an excellent opportunity to talk about the stuff I have been doing lately. That being switching away from using things like pCloud, Microsoft365/OneDrive, and iCloud. That isn't all; I have also started Cyberfurz service for Mastodon and Matrix.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Files and Photos
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So what caused me to go on this journey is the fact of hearing and seeing companies starting to introduce scanning of my data… and it scares me. I have nothing to hide, but because I don't fully trust even AI making the decisions as if something I took a picture of is something that should be flagged. So during the last Prime Day sale, I picked up a Synology 4 Disk bay NAS. I filled it with 4x 18 TB drives in RAID to protect my data. This way, I could immediately replace all my cloud storage, and yeah… NextCloud, yes, I have used it… but patching and updates are not always smooth and simple. This is why I decided to go with something I don't have to be as concerned with me managing and low energy costs to run.
|
||||||
|
So with my new Synology, I rolled out a few of their apps for managing my files. Their Drive, Photos, and Documents apps. This allowed me to easily install them on my mobile devices. Now they offer an excellent easy NAT service that proxies to your NAS through their servers… However, I didn't want that! I like having my data go through the path I set up. That said, I used my opnsense firewall to set up WireGuard server on my home network. I provisioned an affordable VPS to connect to it. I then rolled a Caddy proxy in front so I could have SSL certs auto-generated for my back-end. So Internet → VPS → WireGuard Router → Firewall → Server DMZ Network → Synology NAS. This allows me to safely expose and monitor my traffic flow and own my network traffic.
|
||||||
|
That said, I practice good backup hygiene, set up local encryption, and then upload to both Backblaze B2 and iDrive nightly. So, if something happens to my NAS, I can still recover my data.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Social Media
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I also want to take back my social media; I was on Mastodon in 2018, but I took a break from it. I have never really been active on Twitter or others… I deleted my Facebook way back in 2010… So I went back to the Fediverse, setting up my instance because I enjoy having something outside work to keep me on my toes.
|
||||||
|
So why the Fediverse? Well, it lets me own my data, even if I was on someone else's server… I can back up my posts, migrate my account, and if I ever wanted to… I can even go back to hosting my Single User instance… I will probably write another post on my thoughts on the Fediverse.
|
25
src/data/blog/2023-05-03-decentralized-protocols.md
Normal file
25
src/data/blog/2023-05-03-decentralized-protocols.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Decentralized Protocols
|
||||||
|
description: There is a lot of stuff going on in the decentralized space lately, and I am excited about it. However, with tons of these protocols coming up, it is getting plagued by so many people suffering from the same old issue...
|
||||||
|
tags: [ActivityPub, Fediverse, Social Media]
|
||||||
|
published: 2023-05-03
|
||||||
|
url: /2023/05/decentralized-protocols/
|
||||||
|
category: Thoughts
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
There is a lot of stuff going on in the decentralized space lately, and I am excited about it. However, with tons of these protocols coming up, it is getting plagued by so many people suffering from the same old issue of "not invented here" or "but what's wrong with this old tested protocol," and I will admit that I am biased. I love ActivityPub as it is a long-lasting protocol that tons of software has been built on top of and has stood a good test of time. Yes, it doesn't support "encryption," but it is a SOCIAL MEDIA protocol and not one for secure communication; it is designed for us to do what social media was invented for, with us all shouting into the void with people noticing us.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Decentralization Confusion
|
||||||
|
So we have been seeing a large influx of users from sites like Twitter, but it hasn't been without issues. The major one is that there have been a lot of concerns from non-tech users not understanding the nature of decentralization and hesitancy to join a server and have it be gone the next day. With all that said, Mastodon is considering setting up a way to try and simplify sign-ups. Yet, older users are concerned about pushing their instance by default and rumoring about pushing out a few other changes.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The push for people to sign up on the mastodon.social site itself would create a slight concern to me if it weren't because it is somewhat easy for users to change and migrate their followers to other instances. I also see the push to recommend their instance for brand new users, as there have been a lot of instances becoming flakey and shutting down or becoming overwhelmed with moderation issues. So having seen many users join a server that gets shut down within a short time after signing up and having no time to move to a new instance because the old one is already gone is an issue. That said, I understand some of their reasoning, even if I disagree with parts of it. We should also allow them to show us what new features they plan on helping with understanding.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Alternative Protocol Drama
|
||||||
|
I also don't fully get the hate on bashing all the newer protocols people are bringing up. I am skeptical of protocols that don't start open or have a system that allows them to mark an instance as "official" or not. However, it is essential to at least look at and explore these other protocols being developed and see what features we can take to improve the ones we like or help build bridges like Matrix, with tons of bridges to other chat platforms.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I have been enjoying testing out and exploring other protocols like nostr, which is open works based on relays where you own your identity, but your posts are delivered through relays, but your account is uniquely yours. I see some similarities to the at protocol that Bluesky is developing, but they keep a sense of control over the system and have some very vague terms and ideals that I am not entirely behind. So it is essential to look at these other protocols and see what we can learn from them and be willing to keep an open mind and open to allowing bridging between them for those who prefer one over the other.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Why It Matters
|
||||||
|
This is a great opportunity right now, where people are finally telling corporations we want to be in control of our data and use open standards. We are still the minority, but we have the spotlight right now, and we can keep screaming and cement our place as a real contender for privacy and data ownership. Right now is a big time for us because ActivityPub has been around for years, and we are finally getting noticed, and we should do our best to make it the place for people to want to use. Remember, we are stronger together, but decentralized and community-driven, not money driven.
|
33
src/data/blog/2023-05-26-perspectives.md
Normal file
33
src/data/blog/2023-05-26-perspectives.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Perspectives
|
||||||
|
description: First, after reading a post from CyberKitsune on the Fediverse about the controversial take of not hating hard on all corporations, I feel compelled. With that, I also agree with that thought process.
|
||||||
|
tags: [Personal]
|
||||||
|
published: 2023-05-26
|
||||||
|
url: /2023/05/perspectives/
|
||||||
|
category: Thoughts
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
First, after reading a post from CyberKitsune on the Fediverse about the controversial take of not hating hard on all corporations, I feel compelled. With that, I also agree with that thought process. I feel like there is a lot of mob mentality, and it hurts more than it helps, in my opinion, sometimes, and I feel like people don't equally enforce their beliefs evenly across things.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Issues With Mob Mentality
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I don't feel like I have to say too much here; at least, I think most people get that mob mentality is terrible. However, I still feel compelled to point out how bad it is and how much I see the furry community often get wrapped up in it without taking the time to vet what they are throwing their weight behind.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I have seen multiple examples, repeatedly, where companies get canceled and individuals for accusations that don't even pertain to them. It bothers me seeing how many people get hurt by those leading mobs; only for weeks or months later, the internet forgets, and no one bothers to go back and see that what was said about them was utterly inaccurate or just plain smear campaign.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
It bothers me because I used to run a small business before the one I operate now. I got lots of hate directed at me and even death threats, and I did nothing wrong. The person who leveraged death threats against me was a former customer upset that they were not the first to have their data restored when our servers got compromised; I was restoring data in the order it was coming down from our backups. Others just targeted me for calling out shady practices in funding that an open-source organization was claiming were their costs. Because, again, I like to look into things myself. I looked at their legally required 501 3(c) released documents and found them funneling costs into private companies they all held that gave nothing back to the broader community. It bothered me greatly... It is one of the reasons I left that community ages ago because it was toxic, and I didn't want to deal with the drama anymore.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Corporations and My Values
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
While I can typically agree with the meme "Silence Corporation," I am less likely to do that entirely. I don't think ALL companies are out for us, but I agree the vast majority only care about the money in your wallet. It is about finding that balance, researching, and listening to others when they give you feedback on the companies you use. Be willing to look into the companies you use and seek to use, but sometimes I will admit I only occasionally do a good enough job. This is why it is essential to be open to learning when someone brings it to your attention.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Recently it was brought to my attention about the company Brave. I knew little about the CEO actively avoiding apologizing for their views and opinions towards the LGBTQIA+ community. However, doing my research again... I realized that, yeah... I know they are just the CEO, but realizing switching to their Search Engine means that the money it generates through my usage of it would end up in their hands, which they would most likely use to funnel back into anti-LGBTQIA+ organizations as they have been known to do. This is why I was paying for Neeva, but seeing how they shut down, I have my own issues with DuckDuckGo's search results, their CEO's stance on censorship, and their ongoing dealings with Microsoft.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Finally, my feelings as a stockholder of Cloudflare on some of their business practices. I bought some stock in them upon their IPO because I had been using them since they started in the early days when they were a nobody. Following their journey, they have done so much for developers and small businesses, and individuals offering so much for free. I was worried about those practices changing upon going public. However, they have just grown their free and low-cost options. Yes, I did worry and moved some of my stuff away from them because they are so big now they can cause the downfall of a chunk of the internet when they have a disruption. Then when they host questionably legal things... they have come out and stated they try to operate as a utility because of the scale of what they are.
|
||||||
|
Similarly, we ask our ISP to behave; we want them to act as dumb pipes and let us use them to get where we are going. Yes, this can lead to morally questionable situations... and in the case of hate groups using them, they used 100% of the profits of that hate group's bill to fund the charities that the hate group is targetting. I felt that is a good fuck you to that customer... like thank you for helping fund the groups you hate! A way of either nudging them off rather than kicking them off, as they are technically not doing anything illegal and acting like a dumb pipe.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## In Closing
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I am trying to say that I have made mistakes and feel that viewpoints don't always align with the broader community. I have my own opinions and look at the world from a realistic point of view. I hope that others will do the same and try to have an outwardly looking opinion back at the situations and do a bit of research before jumping on the bandwagon... and like me, when you make a choice, you are open to realizing you were wrong.
|
32
src/data/blog/2023-09-16-upset-over-crypto.md
Normal file
32
src/data/blog/2023-09-16-upset-over-crypto.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Upset Over Crypto
|
||||||
|
description: So I am so upset lately that people are considering things that have connections to crypto as immediately bad or a scam. However, I don’t want to say I don’t completely understand why everyone and their...
|
||||||
|
tags: [Crypto]
|
||||||
|
published: 2023-09-16
|
||||||
|
url: /2023/09/perspectives/
|
||||||
|
category: Crypto
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So I am so upset lately that people are considering things that have connections to crypto as immediately bad or a scam. However, I don’t want to say I don’t completely understand why everyone and their brother has been taking advantage of the lack of regulation around it, thus allowing so many scams to exist. That said, it just upsets me that I have just seen this mindset of putting everything inside the “it must be a scam,” which bothers me.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
It bothers me so much because seeing this just “Crypto Bad” means it has been killing and hurting a lot of really cool projects that I have been following that don’t fall under the “scam” section. It is hard to say this because I understand it is hard for your average consumer to tell the difference between scams and legitimate businesses. I have been trying to give some of these companies another real shot at giving them my business. That said, I do my research and dig into the stuff first.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Crypto Tech I Am Using
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Storj
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So, the first company that I started out researching for a while and then started using on my own because I wanted to give it a real shot first. This company is Storj, and it has been a great experience so far as an S3-compatible storage provider with some fantastic tech behind how it handles the data. It reminds me similarly of older projects I know from, like LaCie years ago with their Wuala service, where they gave people storage for donating storage; however, that didn't work out, and I am pretty sure it was mainly because they allowed ANYONE without much understanding into the network, your client would turn into a server if you enabled it. Storj has several extra precautions in place, and they have lock-ups for earnings and require graceful exits (giving other nodes time to sync up the data you are dropping), giving extra attention.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The other big thing I have enjoyed with Storj is the static site hosting and built-in CDN ability since your data is copied to several nodes globally. This allows me to host things like this site on Storj rather than Cloudflare Pages. I have also switched my personal file dumping ground for quick shares from Backblaze B2 -> Bunny CDN to serve assets to this workflow. This has been great for me thus far. I understand data resiliency, meaning I do daily bucket syncs to Backblaze B2 and my on-site NAS. Not that I don't trust Storj; it is I don't trust any one storage location with any of my data. Remember the 3-2-1 backup strategy that everyone should follow.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Bitcoin Lighting (Stats)
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I have been playing with the Bitcoin Lighting network, and it has been really fast, and many small content creators who don't trust all the many alt-coins(for many good reasons) have started using BTC to earn money during this latest advertising drought. This has become such a big thing for independent content creators it has made it into several specs like the Nostr NIPs and Podcast 2.0 Standard. Both allow me to contribute money to my favorite content creators without a middleman taking a cut like Patreon or Payment Processors, who will often cut off some of the more adult content creators.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I am not saying this is for everyone. However, it does allow people to have another way to use a long-standing operating token BTC, where people can send small amounts to their content creators they enjoy based on their listening using modern Podcast Apps that, if the podcast has configured to accept stats it will send so many based on your settings to the podcasts you listen to.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Conclusion
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I just wanted to vent a little that I hate how I get jumped on for someone who doesn't just hate all crypto. I wouldn't say I like a lot of it; I am not saying I don't... and I get it. There have been tons of scams. I just felt like sharing a couple of projects I leverage and enjoy using that are Crypto based and that there are some fantastic projects out there, that are not just out to scam you.
|
28
src/data/blog/2023-12-06-mff-2023-panel.md
Normal file
28
src/data/blog/2023-12-06-mff-2023-panel.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: 2023 MFF Fediverse Panel
|
||||||
|
description: It was a major blast being able to run a panel at MFF, it allowed me to meet up with several others and spread the word about how wonderful the Fediverse actually is.
|
||||||
|
tags: [ActivityPub, MFF, Panel, Video]
|
||||||
|
published: 2023-12-06
|
||||||
|
url: /2023/12/mff-2023-fedi-panel/
|
||||||
|
category: Panel
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
It was a major blast being able to run a panel at MFF, it allowed me to meet up with several others and spread the word about how wonderful the Fediverse actually is. Thanks to [Sky from yiff.life](https://yiff.life/@sky) for recording it for me allowing me to put it up on my site here for people to watch, and the power point presentation as well is posted below. I have hosted it on my CDN so it should be a quick load for everyone, which is Bunny by the way.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<div style="position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe src="https://iframe.mediadelivery.net/embed/135965/3e18f227-bab1-4751-b6d4-1248e6225757?autoplay=false&loop=false&muted=false&preload=true" loading="lazy" style="border:0;position:absolute;top:0;height:100%;width:100%;" allow="accelerometer;gyroscope;autoplay;encrypted-media;picture-in-picture;" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></div>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Here is the powerpoint slides as well for those who want to see them.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<center><iframe src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vSH6JB1hZ0LagT64EtY1WLc50UA9k-ajhpmYvCQM0tJOrno171uYZRTri77gTbfCglTt2SwRSoD4uxZ/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=60000" frameborder="0" width="960" height="569" allowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" webkitallowfullscreen="true"></iframe></center>
|
||||||
|
<br />
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Credits
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Special thanks to the following people for helping me with this panel:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
- [Sky from yiff.life](https://yiff.life/@sky) for recording the panel for me.
|
||||||
|
- [Kianga from meow.social](https://meow.social/@kianga) for allowing me to use parts of the Eurofurence 27 Panel.
|
||||||
|
- [Khosumi from cyberfurz.social](https://cyberfurz.social/@khosumi) for helping me with the slides and the panel.
|
||||||
|
- [Cale Buns from cyberfurz.social](https://cyberfurz.social/@cale_buns) for helping me run the panel at MFF.
|
39
src/data/blog/2024-02-15-leaving-apples-ecosystem.md
Normal file
39
src/data/blog/2024-02-15-leaving-apples-ecosystem.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Leaving Apple’s Ecosystem (Mobile)
|
||||||
|
description: So, I have been a Linux user for years before moving to Apple’s Ecosystem slowly. I started with the iPhone but used to bounce back and forth with no absolute loyalty between Android and iPhone.
|
||||||
|
tags: [Opinion, Mobile, iOS, Android]
|
||||||
|
published: 2024-02-15
|
||||||
|
url: /2024/02/leaving-apples-ecosystem
|
||||||
|
category: Thoughts
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So, I have been a Linux user for years before moving to Apple’s Ecosystem slowly. I started with the iPhone but used to bounce back and forth with no absolute loyalty between Android and iPhone. However, once Apple launched the first M1 Processor, I got a little bit of the taste of wanting to jump into the world of ARM more as I loved playing with it on Linux, and Apple really made it a lot easier to use ARM on an everyday computer without having to worry about certain apps not working.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I started with the M1 Mac Mini with 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage. I was so impressed, and it began to pull me into the ecosystem much further than ever before because it was much more Linux-like than the Windows stuff I am really just not a fan of other than when I wanna jump into VR for certain other gaming. I just use my gaming rig from my Linux machine over Parsec, which I have recently switched to Moonlight, which is much faster and more reliable over my home network to play games.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Week 1
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So, the first week, I tried picking up the Samsung Galaxy Tab 9 Ultra with the official keyboard case, but I returned it after a couple days as it felt way too big and wasn’t something I wanted to spend that much money on. I was trying to replace my iPad Pro, which I used kinda like a laptop and multi-media device, and just realized my new Samsung Galaxy S24 that I was getting in a couple days would be able to run DeX, which would help me replace the need for a tablet. So I ordered the nexdock, which should arrive in a week shipped from California.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Moving my apps over, I am not locked in any ecosystem for my music or pictures as I have always ensured that stuff stays local on my device and personal NAS. I do use Synology but backup to multiple other locations from my NAS. I did need to replace my Podcast app, which was OverCast on my iPhone, and looking into the different options, it seemed like I wanted to try one of those apps that allows you to do the new Podcasting 2.0 things, so I tried Fountain. Still, it keeps giving me trouble importing my podcasts, so I have ended up on Podverse for now, but I do not like it all that much.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Since all my messaging happens mostly on Discord and Telegram, I don’t really care about the loss of iMessage at all.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Week 2
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Trying to sort out my Podcasting as I am still not enjoying the experience with Podverse, I finally decided to download and install the open-source app AntennaPod. So far, it is the best experience for free apps by far. That said, I dislike it doesn’t support the boosting and such, but hopefully, Fountain will get back to me at some point so I can import my podcasts to it and give it a fair shot.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The route I am down now has been finding the right Mastodon app to leverage for my daily scrolling, and I will not say that I don’t miss having that lovely feeling app Ivory from Tapbots, as I love how it syncs my desktop and mobile location. I really want and NEED to have an app that holds my place in the scrolling, and on mobile, the one I have found that looks and feels the best so far has been Moshidon. It really has been something that I cannot say enough good about, just sucks that there is no desktop app, and I don’t even know if they did have a web or desktop version that would be in sync with the mobile location. The diversity, not being algorithm-driven, makes me want to consume it in the fashion I do for my home timeline.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Week 3
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So I can finally start living with a tablet and laptop-style experience with my phone as my nexdock has finally come in; that is what I am using to write this article. Over the past couple of days, I have been pleased with it, and the device feels really solid and works very well, but my biggest complaint is the trackpad. It missclicks and has no palm rejections, which is a significant oversight. Thankfully, there is a shortcut to toggle the trackpad off when typing things like this blog post where I don’t want the mouse getting moved around and miss-clicking as I type (which does happen when doing a lot of intense typing if you don’t toggle it off). However, overall I have been pleased with the nexdock experience with my Samsung S24 + being wired in. I don’t want the latency, and I like that it keeps my battery charged when I plug it into my phone, and I still get decent battery life out of the new dock.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I have started settling into more applications and am using Edison Mail. Still, I am trying to find another mail app that feels modern but lets me use my IMAP mail from FastMail with alias support… which just doesn’t seem like a lot of them exist on Android. I tried K9Mail, but it just felt way too essential for me, and I really wanted something that felt more modern. I have also been playing around with different browsers, and I think at the moment I am pretty happy with Vivaldi as it keeps things in sync across my devices and my search engine of choice, which sadly is just hard to set custom engines on many of the browsers on Android. I have also moved back to Todoist, and I have to say I am delighted to be back and even signed up for a year of service at the 48 bucks, which is a steal, in my opinion… for the way they handle cross-platform. They handle typing in when you want something due, etc., and automatically configure it into your schedule.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Biggest Drawbacks
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The biggest drawback for me so far has been the quality of the applications, not in that they are wrong but in the design language. This really is sad, considering we have things like Flutter and React Native, making building something that looks modern and sleek. In my opinion, it is not that bad, but most of the apps I gravitate towards feel very like early Android days or Linux apps that just feel out of place. Don’t get me wrong, function over form every day… but sometimes you want something that works excellent and looks nice. I guess the reason is the fact maybe I see most stuff is either free or people don’t charge because perhaps they are fearful of people others just ripping their APK to be downloaded from other places online… that said, I don’t mind paying for an app… and I feel like others wouldn’t as well… but just feels like I don’t see that much in terms of paid small apps like I do on iOS ecosystem.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Other than the look of the apps, I cannot say I have been disappointed. I have had no issues with speed or performance with this phone. I consistently have a swift and easygoing experience; the few games I like to play run smoothly, and I can multi-task without issue. Granted, I got a flagship phone, but overall, I think it has been a great experience.
|
29
src/data/blog/2024-05-07-positivity-content.md
Normal file
29
src/data/blog/2024-05-07-positivity-content.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Positivity Content
|
||||||
|
description: So I will admit I am a bit of a person who enjoys shorts on all the major platforms, sites like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and of course the shorts people post to the Fediverse. That said, there is one type of content that I have been happy to see and felt...
|
||||||
|
tags: [Opinion, Shorts, YouTube, TikTok]
|
||||||
|
published: 2024-05-07
|
||||||
|
url: /2024/05/positivity-content
|
||||||
|
category: Thoughts
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So I will admit I am a bit of a person who enjoys shorts on all the major platforms, sites like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and of course the shorts people post to the Fediverse. That said, there is one type of content that I have been happy to see and felt like I should make a small post about it, and that content if you couldn't tell is what I call Positivity Content.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Social Media has always felt like a gateway for people to seek popularity, and while I might think that can lead to toxicity(one of the main reasons I prefer to live on the Fediverse than X). This has lead to people showing off, doing thirst content, or even jumping on the trends. I will admit, I do enjoy a good thirst trap, but a particular type of content I have been enjoying a lot has been people who take a moment to pass on the positivity.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
One of these creators I have been enjoying doing this is [Hurry](https://linktr.ee/hurryxslowly) as they have been posting content that I enjoy that calls out stuff I know a lot of people suffer with, including myself. Where we don't give ourselves the self-compassion we deserve. I know for a fact, my counselor I have been going to for the past several years has told me that I suffer from self-compassion, I spend too much time doing everything for others to make myself feel better than working on my own issues.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@hurryxslowly/video/7374447385109417259" data-video-id="7374447385109417259" style="max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;" > <section> <a target="_blank" title="@hurryxslowly" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@hurryxslowly?refer=embed">@hurryxslowly</a> stop lying to yourself 😡😡😡 you deserve love <a title="furrytiktok" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/furrytiktok?refer=embed">#furrytiktok</a> <a title="furryfandom" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/furryfandom?refer=embed">#furryfandom</a> <a title="vtuber" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/vtuber?refer=embed">#vtuber</a> <a title="vrchat" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/vrchat?refer=embed">#vrchat</a> <a target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - hurryslowly" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-hurryslowly-7374448822610676523?refer=embed">♬ original sound - hurryslowly</a> </section> </blockquote> <script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Another one of these creators I miss seeing is [XylonGrimmwulf](https://linktr.ee/xylongrimm), but they haven't really been posting in a while, but based on their last few posts sadly they had hit a rough spot in their life. But I felt the need to call them out as well as someone who created shorts that were something to spike a nice good and warm feeling of being called nice pet names along with reminding you to keep going and focusing on yourself.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@xylongrimmwulf/video/7304559351900015918" data-video-id="7304559351900015918" style="max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;" > <section> <a target="_blank" title="@xylongrimmwulf" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@xylongrimmwulf?refer=embed">@xylongrimmwulf</a> Happiness is worth its weight in gold 💚💚💚 <a title="contentcreator" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/contentcreator?refer=embed">#contentcreator</a> <a title="streamer" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/streamer?refer=embed">#streamer</a> <a title="vtuber" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/vtuber?refer=embed">#vtuber</a> <a title="viralvideo" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/viralvideo?refer=embed">#viralvideo</a> <a title="furry" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/furry?refer=embed">#furry</a> <a title="relateable" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/relateable?refer=embed">#relateable</a> <a title="wolf" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/wolf?refer=embed">#wolf</a> <a title="furryfandom" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/furryfandom?refer=embed">#furryfandom</a> <a title="furrytiktok" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/furrytiktok?refer=embed">#furrytiktok</a> <a title="vtuberclips" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/vtuberclips?refer=embed">#vtuberclips</a> <a title="praise" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/praise?refer=embed">#praise</a> <a title="goodboy" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/goodboy?refer=embed">#goodboy</a> <a title="pawsitivity🐾🐾" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/pawsitivity%F0%9F%90%BE%F0%9F%90%BE?refer=embed">#pawsitivity🐾🐾</a> <a target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - Xylon" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7304559483097729835?refer=embed">♬ original sound - Xylon</a> </section> </blockquote> <script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Now shifting gears a little bit, there is another creator named [maybes0ul](https://linktr.ee/maybes0ul) who makes a lot of content where they sorta speak their mind about things and reminding you about how sometimes things in life change and that is ok. Below is a short by them I think is really worth a watch, speaking about how friends in our lives truthfully can come and go... and that it is ok.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@maybes0ul/video/7375250031160479009" data-video-id="7375250031160479009" style="max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;" > <section> <a target="_blank" title="@maybes0ul" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@maybes0ul?refer=embed">@maybes0ul</a> You cant keep someone around for forever, you gotta see them later, and continue walking forward <a title="vrchat" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/vrchat?refer=embed">#vrchat</a> <a title="vr" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/vr?refer=embed">#vr</a> <a title="furryfandom" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/furryfandom?refer=embed">#furryfandom</a> <a title="vrc" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/vrc?refer=embed">#vrc</a> <a title="furry" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/furry?refer=embed">#furry</a> <a title="rexouium" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/rexouium?refer=embed">#rexouium</a> <a target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - Søul" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7375250106130172705?refer=embed">♬ original sound - Søul</a> </section> </blockquote> <script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I all I wanted to say here was I enjoy this content, and I hope to see more of it. I think it is good to have content out there that can help people with mental health being such a huge thing these days, and I get this is not a substitute for actual mental health counseling. That said, I don't think people realize how much simple words shorts like this can really impact others... and while parasocial relationships can be unhealthy, I think in the era we live in it isn't a super bad thing to look up to content creators and find comfort in their content... just important to understand that you don't actually fully know the person, just the persona/fursona. With that said, I leave you with one more short by another creator I enjoy [rishouren](https://linktr.ee/RishouH) about mental health.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@rishouren/video/7388635906116160798" data-video-id="7388635906116160798" style="max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;" > <section> <a target="_blank" title="@rishouren" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@rishouren?refer=embed">@rishouren</a> <a title="capcut" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/capcut?refer=embed">#CapCut</a> <a title="mentalhealth" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/mentalhealth?refer=embed">#mentalhealth</a> <a title="mentalhealthmatters" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/mentalhealthmatters?refer=embed">#mentalhealthmatters</a> <a title="youcandoit" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/youcandoit?refer=embed">#youcandoit</a> <a title="xyzabc" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/xyzabc?refer=embed">#xyzabc</a> <a target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - Rishou" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7388635976270088991?refer=embed">♬ original sound - Rishou</a> </section> </blockquote> <script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script>
|
15
src/data/blog/2024-05-onto-astro.md
Normal file
15
src/data/blog/2024-05-onto-astro.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: HUGO to WordPress to Astro
|
||||||
|
description: So I moved from HUGO to WordPress so I could handle just writing posts again, and have an easier way to handling it. That said, WordPress is great, but with the new stuff Automattic is doing kinda starting to rub me the wrong way and...
|
||||||
|
tags: [Opinion, SSG, Astro, WordPress, HUGO]
|
||||||
|
published: 2024-05-07
|
||||||
|
url: /2024/05/onto-astro
|
||||||
|
category: Thoughts
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So I moved from HUGO to WordPress so I could handle just writing posts again, and have an easier way to handling it. That said, WordPress is great, but with the new stuff Automattic is doing kinda starting to rub me the wrong way and I lost the ability to make the site look and behave the way I want so here we are moving back to static site generation and this time we are moving to Astro.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I am super excited to be leveraging Astro, because I think it is a great learning experience to be able to write JavaScript/TypeScript and work on those skills. I still think HUGO is a great option for those wanting a simple static or even really fancy static site just wanted to move to something that was around a JS/TS stuff I am working on outside of my own site to just keep my knowledge going strong.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Where I want to go now is just pushing myself to putting out some content, because I just feel like I want to put my thoughts and opinions out there. That said I don't know if that is a great way to handle this going forward, I am just going to focus on writing and putting out my opinions a bit more. Mainly because I have a lot on my mind, and a lot of things I want to do... so I just gotta put my mind too it and do.
|
33
src/data/blog/2024-08-ai-changing-the-internet.md
Normal file
33
src/data/blog/2024-08-ai-changing-the-internet.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: AI Changing The Internet
|
||||||
|
description: So I moved from HUGO to WordPress so I could handle just writing posts again, and have an easier way to handling it. That said, WordPress is great, but with the new stuff Automattic is doing kinda starting to rub me the wrong way and...
|
||||||
|
tags: [Opinion, SSG, Astro, WordPress, HUGO]
|
||||||
|
published: 2024-08-23
|
||||||
|
url: /2024/08/ai-changing-the-internet
|
||||||
|
category: Thoughts
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I am not sure who else has noticed this, but it has continued to be a thing I have seen repeatedly. The real solution here is that “regular” people will increasingly use AI to do their searches. This didn’t set in for me until it came up in the podcast I listen to called “The Vergecast” which covered the new Search GPT stuff from Open AI. They were talking about how their partners were no longer using Google or other search engines like they still do to get their answers to questions, but instead, they were using Bing’s AI, Google’s Gemini, or even ChatGPT itself.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
What stuck out to me was that the ones hosting the podcast… mentioned how they were still enjoying using the search engines as they were… which I feel most people reading this blog are also the same way…. As I am sure, it is primarily nerdy fuzz butts like myself. That said, while I haven’t been a fan of Google or Bing’s idea of giving me a quick answer... I miss what Neeva (now defunct paid search engine I used) would take the top 5 search results, summarize them, and provide clickable context to take you to the page from which each sentence was most derived. All these other engines don’t seem to be doing that, which bugs me…
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
:::important[Side Thought]
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<div class="flex">
|
||||||
|
<div><img src="/stickers/happy-typing.webp" /></div>
|
||||||
|
<div class="grow p-4">I am someone who really doesn't mind paying for search, but all the paid search engines have some odd thigns around them and with the way the web is going it just makes more since to move to hosting your own search... for me I leverage Aara Search now for my own searches now. I suggest giving it a look and setting up your own instance if you are someone who wants more classic google results.</div>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
:::
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So, why do the quick answers bother me? Well, they are often being sourced by specific random sites that the AI has chosen and not by natural organic results, and then the top few are summarized. I must remember that my generation and type of internet user knows how to context search… not everyone; most people ask generic questions and hope for the best answer. In contrast, I know how to say, “Kubernetes k3s install AlmaLinux SELinux enabled,” which, yes, seems like a word jumble. Still, it will get me what I am looking for better… where if I were talking to an AI Search, it would be more like I am asking a fellow human, “How do I install Kubernetes k3s on AlmaLinux with SELinux enabled?” and hopefully get an accurate answer that isn’t giving me confidently incorrect information.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I am just starting to wonder as this mix of AI hype is dying off, and specific use cases are becoming normalized. I am seeing people slowly beginning to pull off the whole hype of AI all the things, as they are seeing it, for what it is… a word mathematics juggler, which is why it comes off as competent when it often isn’t as bright as we give it credit for… it is just really good at making us feel good about it seeming that it is bright. Yet, in the other corner, I am seeing the use case of it becoming a search engine or research engine more normalized… heck this is how I use it. While I might not be using it to do my web searches, I do use it to help me understand code I am writing or working on; rather than having it write the code for me, I have it help me breakdown ways of doing something in the languages I am using to help me understand what I am programming. Examples of this are moving from the React Framework to the Svelte Framework, helping me learn and understand the differences between the two.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Bringing it back to The Vergecast episode spawned me wanting to write this little blog post. That is, “Like it or not, the way people search the internet is changing.” The worst part of it is not just the AI parts, but now we are also dealing with the fact sites and social media platforms are locking out public scraping of data, and so far as to even be like Reddit forcing search engines to PAY to index their content… I am unsure if I like the future, where search engines are all paywalled off from the big content sites.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The real problem is that we have all given up hosting or using our sites and started centralized internet usage. People have gone to “Just use Twitter” or “Just look it up on Reddit.” Because of that, we are all locked into all these different platforms that now, because it is a big, centralized pie, need money to operate… but because they are so large, offering the services for free isn't affordable. Still, people will not stick around if it isn’t free… thus they have to lock it down and sell your data to search engines and AI model builders.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
With all of that said, I am not going to sit here and say that the solution is for everyone with their own websites again… because we all know that just isn’t going to go over well… because indexing and discovery sucks… But we should lean more into the open protocols like Indie Social, ActivityPub, and AT Protocol… because they will allow us to do the same things that people have been doing (aka social media and centralized sites) systems like Twitter/X and Instagram, etc. however not owned by big corporations but instances forced to play and talk on the same field. Smaller communities can cover the costs of AD-free socials and not have to bug users for thousands of dollars a month to keep the lights on… but much less and cover those who cannot pay.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
As I said, I continue to be a shill for moving to the decentralized protocols. I prefer people to Adopt ActivityPub… because I feel it is the most open and independent protocol and accessible to build off. However, I respect that others might like the features of the other ones, like AT Protocol and Indie Social. It is just that we need to look at moving to something, as I do not like how the future of the internet is looking right now.
|
122
src/data/blog/2024-08-own-your-content.md
Normal file
122
src/data/blog/2024-08-own-your-content.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,122 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Own Your Content
|
||||||
|
description: So I have been wanting to write up and talk about this for a while, I feel the need to talk about this because too much content is getting removed or kicked off of other platforms due to provider policy changes. By this I mean creators I...
|
||||||
|
tags: [Opinion, Resources]
|
||||||
|
published: 2024-08-07
|
||||||
|
url: /2024/08/own-your-content
|
||||||
|
category: Thoughts
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Own Your Content
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So, I have been wanting to write about this for a while now. I feel compelled to talk about it because too much content is getting removed or kicked off platforms due to provider policy changes. This means that creators I have enjoyed are getting pushed off platforms like YouTube or having their content deleted due to age restrictions or the rising costs associated with providing content for free. I hope to cover some reasons and options for taking more control of your content.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## What do you mean by "own your content"?
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
First, I feel the need to define what I mean by "own your content." By that, I refer to where you post what you create—whether it’s art, videos, or even text. You should be posting it somewhere you have ownership over the content. This doesn't mean you must host it on a server you pay for or keep it in your basement. However, it should be on a platform where you can easily export and move your following.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Some well-known options:**
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
- Blog (WordPress, Blogger)
|
||||||
|
- Personal Site (Weebly, GitHub Pages, etc.)
|
||||||
|
- AT Protocol (Bluesky)
|
||||||
|
- ActivityPub (Mastodon, IceShrimp, FireFish, GtS, etc.)
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Why should I put in the effort?!
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
If you haven't noticed, many of these platforms are getting worse—banning users for little to no reason. If that happens to you, not only do you lose your following, but you also lose all the content you had. Running your own site or blog, or embracing AT Protocol or ActivityPub, puts you in a better position where you have more control over your profile and identity.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
:::note
|
||||||
|
While writing this, the news came out about the owner of FurAffinity passing away, and there’s been some concern about the future of that site. While we don't fully know its future, it highlights the importance of being on a platform you can have more control over.
|
||||||
|
:::
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
It is very important to back up your own data. There are plenty of great options if you’re a bit nerdy like me! I typically suggest using an Object Storage service like S3 or B2. However, I understand that not everyone who reads this is as tech-savvy, so I’m going to list some good options here: [Storage Options](/storage-options/).
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Ok fine, but I just want to post!
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I completely understand! Ever since people forked off and left Twitter/X, we are all over the internet now. Personally, it forced me to re-embrace the Fediverse, and I’ve found the connections and the furries there to be like-minded and more enjoyable to hang out with than on other platforms. Also, it seems to be getting more support from the wider internet, with Threads integrating with ActivityPub and many other services already flipping on support. But that isn't what this section is about; let me get back on track with spreading your content.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The key for you is to make sure you are posting everywhere you can, but this part depends on the type of content creator you are. Depending on whether you create artwork, videos, shorts, music, stories, etc., there are different platforms to share each type of content. Right now, there’s a fantastic tool for those focused on artwork and stories that I suggest using—[PostyBirb](https://www.postybirb.com/). It allows you to upload your content to FA, DA, Bluesky, Mastodon, Furry Network, e621, Misskey, SoFurry, Patreon, SubscribeStar, and so much more from a single app, and it’s FREE!!! But you should definitely toss the developer a dollar or two for this amazing app. There’s also [Fedica](https://fedica.com), which lets you post to multiple platforms at once with scheduling for free, up to 9 different socials.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
:::note[Example Cross-Posted Art]
|
||||||
|
Example of a post that was posted by PostyBirb.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<iframe src="https://mastodon.art/@hr_bananabird/112920457930988817/embed" class="mastodon-embed" style="max-width: 100%; border: 0" width="400" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><script src="https://mastodon.art/embed.js" async="async"></script>
|
||||||
|
:::
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Now, to address video and shorts-style content: if you want to crosspost and upload to multiple platforms, I suggest checking out [Buffer](https://buffer.com). This tool allows you to crosspost your shorts to TikTok, YouTube, and Mastodon/Fediverse (yes, we support video on the Fediverse) at the same time. This will help you spread your content much wider, and since platforms like Bluesky still don't fully support video, you can link to your YouTube/TikTok videos.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
:::note[Example Video/Short Post]
|
||||||
|
An amazing short by the wonderful Hurry.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<iframe src="https://tech.lgbt/@hurryslowly/112869704287457378/embed" width="400" height="425" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-forms"></iframe>
|
||||||
|
:::
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Finally, for my music content creators, the Fediverse has excellent support for your music posts. If you want to post them to sites like Twitter/X, I suggest creating shorts that link back to a site with your music embedded, or using a site like Bandcamp or SoundCloud. There’s an app called Funkwhale that supports the Fediverse, but it’s not specifically geared for this type of media.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
:::note[Example Music Post]
|
||||||
|
Here’s an example of a music post by my boyfriend on the Fediverse.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<iframe src="https://cyberfurz.social/@Khosumi/112038356587821152/embed" class="mastodon-embed" style="max-width: 100%; border: 0" width="400" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><script src="https://cyberfurz.social/embed.js" async="async"></script>
|
||||||
|
:::
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The reason I’m showcasing posting to ActivityPub rather than traditional platforms like Twitter/X is that you can export your social graph (i.e., your following) and take them with you to another ActivityPub instance. You could also opt for the AT Protocol (Bluesky), which does support moving your identity between instances—something they still don’t fully allow yet, except for small groups or personal instances. These platforms are designed around the concept that you own your content rather than the platform owning it. Especially considering Twitter/X has recently "opted in by default" for letting Grok (Twitter/X's AI) train off your data you post.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## You Own Page/Site
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The biggest aspect of true ownership is building your own site. It doesn't have to be hard, and you don’t need to be a programmer. Setting up a site/page on the internet grants you full control and allows people to follow your content without needing to jump through different platforms—they can access it directly from your site.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
When you’re going to set up your own site as a content creator, consider a few things. If you create content regularly, ensure you have RSS (Really Simple Syndication). Much of the internet operates on this under the hood, as it allows people to pull in and follow your content from anywhere. Also, think about putting a donate button or a link to your Patreon/Ko-Fi so that people can contribute to you as well. You might be surprised by how many people are willing to donate when you don’t shove ads in their faces and provide easier access to your content.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Simple Free Options
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Let me share some simple free ways to get started without worrying about costs:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Blogger & WordPress.com**
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
- Built-in RSS by default
|
||||||
|
- Tons of themes available
|
||||||
|
- WordPress has many plugins to add features
|
||||||
|
- No ads on your blogs
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Weebly**
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
- Only ads for Weebly/Square
|
||||||
|
- Easy site builder and blog
|
||||||
|
- Upgraded plans are reasonably priced
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Canva**
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
- Easy website builder
|
||||||
|
- Paid plan includes the full Canva suite
|
||||||
|
- Easy drag-and-drop builder
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Free, More Advanced Options
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Here are some options for those with some tech skills who can build their own sites—and if you’re willing to learn just a bit, you can get some amazing free options:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Cloudflare Pages**
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
- 100% free
|
||||||
|
- No ads
|
||||||
|
- Static site hosting (with some support for dynamic features)
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**GitHub Pages**
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
- 100% free
|
||||||
|
- No ads
|
||||||
|
- Static site hosting
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**InfinityFree**
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
- Classic web hosting with databases
|
||||||
|
- No ads (ads only in the control panel)
|
||||||
|
- 5 GB disk space
|
||||||
|
- PHP 8 + MySQL/MariaDB
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Closing Thoughts
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I hope this has sparked some interest in setting up and backing up your own content at the very least, as we never know what will happen to the sites we rely on. However, I also hope it motivates others to consider creating their own site or even giving the [Furry Fediverse](https://furryfediverse.org) another shot.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
At the end of the day, I want you to seriously consider that the internet has always been evolving. Now, more than ever, sites and companies are starting to scale back their free services and lock you into their systems. Please consider taking the small steps to set up your own site or join a platform built not around marketing to you, but around letting you market yourself to the content you wish to consume.
|
30
src/data/blog/2025-01-05-low-buy-year.md
Normal file
30
src/data/blog/2025-01-05-low-buy-year.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: A No/Low Buy Year & Some Other Resolutions
|
||||||
|
description: So I am dealing with a with the issue of a form of "Retail Therapy" that I been doing over the past year. This has pushed me into debt, nothing I cannot get myself out of but... I shouldn't have gotten myself into in the first place...
|
||||||
|
tags: [Personal, Mental Health, Fediverse, Social Media]
|
||||||
|
published: 2025-01-15
|
||||||
|
url: /2025/01/a-no-buy-year
|
||||||
|
category: Thoughts
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So I am dealing with a with the issue of a form of "Retail Therapy" that I been doing over the past year. This has pushed me into debt, nothing I cannot get myself out of but... I shouldn't have gotten myself into in the first place. So this year I wanna focus on trying not to buy anything, and actually start budgeting. I know it is a silly thing to do every year, to do some sorta resolution, but then fail partly through the year and not keeping yourself accountable... but I am hoping to keep myself accountable this year.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
With that said, my biggest goal for this year is to claw myself out of most of my debt. I know I will not get out of all of it... but I want to at least stop purchasing things on Credit Cards (that I don't pay off monthly), and also focus on getting some sort of decent emergency fund so I don't need to worry about getting back in debt if I screw up too badly.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Now, I do wanna go into a few other resolutions I want to try and accomplish for this year. These things are stuff I don't know if I can accomplish, but they are mainly for setting goal posts for myself, and I hope to use this blog as a way of keeping myself accountable.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
My Main Goals
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
- Focus on getting out of debt
|
||||||
|
- Write at least two blog posts a month on this blog
|
||||||
|
- Go to the gym at least 3 times a week
|
||||||
|
- Work on coding projects
|
||||||
|
- FurryFediverse
|
||||||
|
- D.A.M. (Digital Asset Manager)
|
||||||
|
- Personal Site
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Stretch Goals
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
- Create videos to upload at least once a month
|
||||||
|
- Launch some paid services from CyberFurz to hopefully make self-sustainment
|
37
src/data/blog/2025-01-16-getting-lost-in-once-human.md
Normal file
37
src/data/blog/2025-01-16-getting-lost-in-once-human.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Getting Lost in Once Human
|
||||||
|
description: So I am someone who doesnt really get into games that much, but I recently got invited to an early access game that has gotten mixed reactions from the public. I will admit, I did in the beginning agree that wow, this game just seems...
|
||||||
|
tags: [Personal, Mental Health, Gaming]
|
||||||
|
published: 2025-01-16
|
||||||
|
url: /2025/01/getting-lost-in-once-human
|
||||||
|
category: Thoughts
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So I am someone who doesn't really get into games that much, but I recently got invited to an "early access" game that has gotten mixed reactions from the public. I will admit, I did in the beginning agree that "wow, this game just seems like it has a lot of asset flipping and lots of re-used assets... but eh the stuff seems alright so far..." but after a bit of playing I found myself glued to collection of resources and building out my base, and even interacting with others.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Now, before I dig in too much deeper... I think it is important to point out that I am not someone who is a big gamer... and don't play that many games, so when I talk about some of these features it might be something you see in many other games now... and I am just oblivious because I don't play games that much.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Wishes/User Messages
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<div><img src="/post-pics/2025/01/whishes.webp" alt="Wishes in Once Human sprouting out of the ground" /></div>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So one thing that is very new to me is seeing messages that other players in the open world are able to just drop all over the world in things called "wishes" which seem really cool to me. Lots of users tend to write messages that are just comments of how nice the scenery is or tips on where stuff is hidden on the map when at a mission location. However, my favorite is there is just lots of messages of just raw encouragement of like "You got this, you are important and keep pushing forward every day." Stuff like that, isn't something I would think to see of people in video games, especially from other players.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Base Building
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<div><img src="/post-pics/2025/01/base-building.webp" alt="Base building in Once Human" /></div>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
One of the other big things I have been enjoying about this game is the ability to build your own base. It is really cool in the since that your base exists in the open world along side other players, and you use them to craft and store resources. However, you also use them to stand up vending machines to sell stuff you have crafted or gathered to other players. It is also one of the cool ways to use the real world money if you choose to buy into the game, to get special cosmetics items for your home. Even if you don't invest real money, you can pick up tons of customization items by exploring the world and looting... typically looting in the optional areas of the map tend to show up more of the stuff for your base.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Deviations
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<div><img src="/post-pics/2025/01/deviations.webp" alt="Base showing off deviations" /></div>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Inside your base you also collect and use these creatures called "Deviations" which can be use for crafting, resource gathering, combat, and other bonus effects. They end up helping you keep your base functioning while you are away and/or offline... but they are also can just be really cute running around your home. I love the living dragon fursuit like creature who helps you cook your food, and gives their buffs an increased percentage.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Amazing World
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<div><img src="/post-pics/2025/01/flooded-town.webp" alt="Base showing off deviations" /></div>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Lastly I just have to say, the world is so pretty... it is somewhat horror themed as it is post-disaster... but as you see that is one of the cities you end up going to that just has such a good photogenic look. I will say that sometimes the buildings can seem a bit repetitive, but they do try to mix it up a bit... but it is still something I enjoy just going around and enjoying all the scenic views in the game.
|
14
src/data/blog/been-a-while.md
Normal file
14
src/data/blog/been-a-while.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Been A While
|
||||||
|
description: It has been quite a while since I have posted some updates to this old blog of mine...
|
||||||
|
type: post
|
||||||
|
published: 2012-04-04
|
||||||
|
tags: [Personal]
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
url: /2012/04/been-a-while
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
It has been quite a while since I have posted some updates to this old blog of mine. I will be more active on this personal blog, because well I think I need to have a personal blog. I know it seems kinda bad as running an opensim grid, and having my own personal thoughts xD but you know what, I don't care. I support the freedom of speech and free flow of thought. So I will be posting my little rants here, my thoughts, and ideas for opensim. Now they will not always directly reflect my views on Cyber Wrld, I will say this I do plan on keeping Cyber Wrld a free and Open Source grid. We just run stable releases of OpenSim instead of bleeding edge, and we have support for currency and voice grid wide. We are still supporting those who want to try hosting their own regions with us.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I will be writing a bit more here and there about virtual worlds in general, rather opensim ones really.
|
23
src/data/blog/coming-changes.md
Normal file
23
src/data/blog/coming-changes.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Coming Changes
|
||||||
|
description: Old post about spending time in OSGrid
|
||||||
|
tags: [OpenSim]
|
||||||
|
published: 2012-05-05
|
||||||
|
url: /2012/05/coming-changes
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|

|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
> Me reading in our new office location in OSgrid
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
As you might have heard, I have recently moved my entire grid to OSgrid. This was a decision made my grid residents, and I was inclined to agree as I want to go back to focusing on community related efforts for the HyperGrid. So moving everything to OSgrid, allows me to not worry about any of the issues, just worry about all the work I need to get done for the community.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I am not just working on the furry community for the hypergrid, but I want to bring together everyone, all walks of life. I am still working on creating a site, that will help residents of all hypergrid enabled grids come together and interact on a social network level. I feel the reason we are all having troubles of the hypergrid, is we are all spread to thin. We need to increase ourselves in community, to do this we just need to pull all our numbers together.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I know that I cannot please everyone all the time, so I am still going to be offering some really nice deals on OSgrid region hosting. I will be introducing a few new features and places to the sites I have been wanting to work on for bringing the hypergrid community all together.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|

|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
> Enjoying the view of the new regions from up above
|
19
src/data/blog/finding-my-place.md
Normal file
19
src/data/blog/finding-my-place.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Finding My Place
|
||||||
|
description: SoftPaw Estates is starting to really kick off and do quite well for itself. Clients are already telling me that they love the service...
|
||||||
|
tags: [OpenSim]
|
||||||
|
published: 2012-07-02
|
||||||
|
url: /2012/07/finding-my-place
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
SoftPaw Estates is starting to really kick off and do quite well for itself. Clients are already telling me that they love the service. I have been cranking out updates to the webui, that should be launching soon, something that I think is long deserved and greatly needed. The ability to control your region from a web page. I haven't determined how much I will be charging, but I am looking for current clients will be getting it at no additional cost, however if clients in the future wish to have the web panel, I will charge 5-10usd extra for it.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I am trying to find the grid that is right for me to move in and live in for myself to setup shop and do my own thing. I have been doing a lot of thinking about it, and well InWorldz is quite big lately and it is still growing. With the advancement of their new physics engine, and their growing economy maybe it will be a place for my personal web life.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
On the subject of a grid for me to spend my personal time, I am also considering a place like Speculoos, it is hypergrid enabled, super awesome operators of the grid, and they have a working economy. I would love to see this grid grow and become a major hot spot, also if I join this grid, and they keep it decentralized, I might start offering region hosting on it as well as osgrid. But that is if they allow and keep it open.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
In terms of OpenSimulator, I am really enjoying working with the platform in the terms of helping others with their standalone, regions, and simulators. I find it quite enjoyable, when I am not having to manage an entire close to empty grid by myself for practically myself, helping others have amazing grids to run and do what they want on it, is quite fun for me. Running an opensimulator hosting company allows me the freedom to test and constantly find ways to improve things and make things more affordable for the masses.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I am starting to look back into cloud hosting, now that Amazon is starting to lower their prices again. I am finding it might be affordable for me to offer event hosting on Amazon, or those looking for high end regions with tons of scripts and visitors all at once. I think cloud hosting will be great for offering on demand instances for meetings, parties, as well as large events, such as OSG5B as we know that is starting to approach. To help, I might look in to donating some regions to those looking to celebrate OSG5B.
|
15
src/data/blog/lil-about-me-some-rage.md
Normal file
15
src/data/blog/lil-about-me-some-rage.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Lil About Me & Some Rage
|
||||||
|
author: First off you might be asking why the hell am I putting a Nicki Minaj music video on my blog? Well although I am hypocritical...
|
||||||
|
tags: [Vent, Opinion]
|
||||||
|
url: /2012/07/lil-about-me
|
||||||
|
published: 2012-07-14
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
First off you might be asking why the hell am I putting a Nicki Minaj music video on my blog? Well although I am hypocritical, I have accepted the fact that the lyrics of this song is what I have done to move forward with my life. My good friend Linda Kellie, I have come to view her as life hero, someone who knows what it is to live with the same things I deal with. I have ADHD, and I am sick and tired of people saying it is not a real disorder, because you try being me. It is really like the joke people make, ADH-oooo look shiny thing! I get off track so much I have to use my computer to keep my mind focused, it is called Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Because of this disorder, I am unable to complete many tasks that are set before me in timely fashions reasons I have a smart phone and computer with timers and locks to remind me what I am doing. It is much worse than people make it out to be, and because of this, I had developed depression, why because when I am not working on things, I am working my mind and it tends to wonder to extremes with questions that cannot be answered and that drives me crazy and gets me depressed.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Below is a video that pissed me off today, I have had it with people saying it is not read and it is all a lie. Yes, I think sometimes it is miss labed on children a lot, but there are people like me who DO HAVE IT, IT IS NOT MADE UP!!! Please watch to see what these people say, it is something that can be treated with medication(which I can't afford because I don't have insurance), and can be kept in check. So honestly, I feel for some of these children, I really honestly do!
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Now that you have watched this video, they are partly right, as I said before it is over done sometimes, but honestly there are people out there like me, and it doesn't completely hinder me, it actually make me a better more powerful individual, I can get things done faster, process things faster in my head, work on multiple things at once and complete on time, if I have it under control. So please let these people know, I am real, we are real!
|
17
src/data/blog/my-take-on-opensim-grids.md
Normal file
17
src/data/blog/my-take-on-opensim-grids.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: My Take on OpenSim Grids
|
||||||
|
description: I am tired of all the fighting over virtual worlds, I mean mainly the OpenSim grids...
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
published: 2012-04-05
|
||||||
|
url: /2012/04/my-take-on-opensim-grids
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
tags: [OpenSim, Opinion]
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I am tired of all the fighting over virtual worlds, I mean mainly the OpenSim grids. I hear people arguing over having the hypergrid turned off or that they allow anyone to make oar and iar backups of their creations. I do not mind this, I actually think this is a good thing. Variety helps economy, we shouldn't be a at throat competition with other grids, but rather friendly competition. I understand how some grids cannot be public, because they want the ultimate security. Yes this can be argued, but the best systems are systems with access restricted to public. Now in the since of contributing back, we do need to consider that some of these grids also have to stay closed source if they put in stuff that makes it work better, but the parts of code belong to another company and they are being leased for use only with a said grid. So I see it understandable, and I think it is good to see grids branch off and do their own thing, that's for them, and what their user base wants.</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Now in the since of open community, we have to keep in mind that closed grids can still partake. They can contribute content in many ways. Either documentation, code, tips, and ticks. Now we also have grids that are open grids, but do not allow hypergrid access. I can understand how these grids work, they have a primary focus, and they are concerned with guests popping in, for example certain RP grids. Now for the others like mine, I understand full access via hypergrid is an amazing thing to have enabled!
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So what about these fully open hypergrid enabled grids? Well I feel this one is more my choice, for example we see that's what I am running Cyber Wrld as. Now granted I like this for many reasons, but I will not go into all of them because that will be for another day. See I feel the hypergrid is more for those who enjoy the free exchange of going everywhere, letting people buy, sell, and share creations with people amongst all the grids out there. I just feel hypergrid is something that makes all our lives for people who are more in the mood to share with not just one community but everyone in all the grids who are also hypergrid enabled.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
So all in all, I just want to let everyone know that the different types of grids are for different communities. Different people think different ones are more for them, but it is honestly all about what type of grid you are interested in. That is what is nice about opensim, if you can't find a grid that does what you want it to do, just make your own!
|
14
src/data/blog/my-vision-of-the-hypergrid.md
Normal file
14
src/data/blog/my-vision-of-the-hypergrid.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: My Vision of the HyperGrid
|
||||||
|
description: I have been thinking for a long time, and you know I think I have my idea of how I really want Cyber Wrld...
|
||||||
|
author: Timothy Rogers
|
||||||
|
tags: [Personal, OpenSim]
|
||||||
|
url: /2012/04/my-vision-of-the-hypergrid
|
||||||
|
published: 2012-04-05
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I have been thinking for a long time, and you know I think I have my idea of how I really want Cyber Wrld to use the HyperGrid, and well I have been doing it already in a sense. But here it is, a way for people to come hang out on our grid. Not only that, have our grid as a shopping destination. We use OMC, letting people come to our grid and purchase items in world, even without an OMC account and pay through paypal. Take the stuff back home, or just come to our grid directly and sell stuff here and go out and explore. I mean I sound like I am plugging my grid here, but that is what I envision for Cyber Wrld. Being a hub for shopping, visitors, parties and more. I mean we are fully open for leaving our grid and coming back home, nothing too dangerous there.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I like Hyperica, it is an amazing place to go and find new jumps to go visit. We want to be a grid that is open for everyone to go and have fun and enjoy every point. We are working on our own directory of locations, we will be sorting them in several categories. Because of this, we cannot use the standard search engine for our viewers. We are working on a HUD that will let you search for content, so no matter where you are you can get your information. Being a part of the hyper grid makes us like just one big grid, all our stuff shared together. We should come together as one big old community, while still being free to go and explore other fun and exciting things.
|
14
src/data/blog/new-blog.md
Normal file
14
src/data/blog/new-blog.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: New Blog
|
||||||
|
description: This is the very first post ever on this blog
|
||||||
|
type: post
|
||||||
|
published: 2010-06-01
|
||||||
|
url: /2010/06/new-blog
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
tags: [OpenSim]
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Hello this is your friendly OSgrid Folf (fox/wolf) who loves to explore the grid and help out those who I can. I want to start off by saying this blog has no official connection to OSgrid nor its operations. I am just here righting about my experiences in OSgrid and how much I enjoy it and helping people out in it.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I would first off like to think two special people off the back Lila and Vincient for all the hospitality they have shown me on OSgrid. Lila has provided me with land and Vincient has built the Gay Furries an amazing club (and I mean amazing). I have been getting to know them more and more, and recently I have been promoted to help Lila give out land, so if you're looking for land and Lila is not online or your just looking for a plot of free land for a home ect. Just hit me up in OSgrid, I would love to help you guys out. Thank you and have a great amazingly awesome day!
|
45
src/data/blog/timothys-thoughts.md
Normal file
45
src/data/blog/timothys-thoughts.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: Timothy’s Thoughts
|
||||||
|
description: I have to admit lately, I have been quite depressed about a lot of things in RL. I have not let effect my work...
|
||||||
|
tags: [OpenSim, AuroraSim]
|
||||||
|
published: 2012-06-11
|
||||||
|
url: /2012/06/timothys-thoughts
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I have to admit lately, I have been quite depressed about a lot of things in RL. I have not let effect my work, but it has made it harder to stay focused on work. I am kinda glad Cyber Wrld has not yet worked its way back into any grid list anywhere, as well it hasn't been doing too well at all. Well hasn't been doing anything at all, I have added several features and got a ton of work done to it, and it is ready for production use, minus currency and a few other small things.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I am just unsure if I can run Cyber Wrld, it is has been creating a lot of stress for me managing everything. So instead I am most likely looking to merge, break away from opensim all together, or join the team of another grid that has the same vision in mind. So with my mind not made up, I am going to voice all my views, ideals, and what I have planned for Cyber Wrld.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Currency**
|
||||||
|
I have been thinking really hard about currency, researching the use of currency in other grids, and on applications on facebook and IMVU. I found that most people who purchase virtual currency are not interested in actually withdrawing it back out to their own real currency, they just want to purchase what they want, just like on facebook apps, and IMVU. Now the ones who do wish to cash out, are the BIG merchants, the ones who do this for a living.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Once I had figured this out, I had decided to create it to where people could purchase currency. Now if you wanted the ability to cash out, you could file to have a merchant account, which would have the ability to cash out. Now, this works out well, because the grid will be able to earn more money, and only have to pay out to anyone who becomes a merchant resident of their grid.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Now also learning about all these other places, including IMVU, a large virtual world program, they are using the same thing that other facebook applications are using. I did some investigating and well, there are plenty of those Payment Wall companies, looking to partner up with more games/virtual worlds, where people can earn in game currency by doing surveys, downloading toolbars, etc. This creates more ways to make profit for your grid, and attracts more residents, because they can earn free in game currency!
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**HyperGrid**
|
||||||
|
Well I know Hyper Grid is the future, but I have learned to accept the fact that it is going to take a little bit of time before it becomes acceptable for everyone to use. I know it is just as insecure as closed grids, however, it has too many bugs still. I still loose my attachments hypergridding to NewWorldGrid and a few others.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I am not saying not to use it, I am just saying for grids with merchants, might be best to at least limit assets from traveling with them. I know it is painful to say this, but with the chance of loosing things you have purchased, could cause some major issues with grid owners and their residents.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Free Land**
|
||||||
|
Giving away free land is a great way of attracting new residents, however I have seen the ability to connect your own sims, or giving away whole simulators is much more attractive to residents. I think people have just seen how easy it is to make and host regions, why not give away free regions?
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I found an easy way to do this, without costing too much. Offering a shared simulator limiting prims to say 3000 or 5000prims you should be able to offer up to 4 regions per simulator without any issues and not using more than 512mb of ram and 0.3%CPU however, I still see like 1/3rd sims and 1/4th sims are still in the market of high demand, but small parcels, are just soo outdated with today's technology.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Cloud Hosting**
|
||||||
|
From my testing with Amazon's EC2 cloud system, it is very possible to run serveral cloud instances, however, it is most defiantly NOT cost efficient if you are looking to have a 24/7 instance. You can get the same power, if not more out of a dedicated server at half the cost.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Also on this note, no offence to Kitely, but I really don't think when they go hypergrid, they will be putting other hosting companies out of business. It will still be way cheaper for high traffic regions to be hosted on professionally hosted regions on dedicated servers. Now I see Kitely as the best for meetings, events, and maybe the entry level opensim users. They do make it much easier for many residents, I thank them much for all the stuff they have contributed back, and I wish them the best of luck with their model.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**Aurora-Sim vs. OpenSim**
|
||||||
|
This is all personal preference, but I love them both very much. But I will be perfectly honest, the only real reason I do not recommend Aurora-Sim full time/production, is the scripting engine needs a little work. The features of aurora far outweigh most the bugs they have. However, it is true it is under heavy development where things break now and again, but do not take your eyes off it!
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Now on the OpenSim side of things, it is quite stable and is under heavy development. It is also developed to be molded into anything, not just what most of us have been using it for(our own form of SecondLife) it can be used for hundreds of other things. I love it, because it has much more support and testers behind it, with a lot of professionally paid core developers.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
**What the hell with happen to SoftPaw Estates?**
|
||||||
|
Well if join another grid's team, leave opensim, etc. I will be faithful to my clients, and newer clients, as with Cyber Wrld's partner, we are not going anywhere in the since of hosting. Our partnership has defiantly been holding us together with a very strong bond server side. The only thing you would be able to expect, is more focus on improving and making SoftPaw Estates to become easier for the end user.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
In Closing, Feel free to let me know what you think, I leave comments open for a reason!
|
20
src/data/blog/we-have-hypergrid-use-it.md
Normal file
20
src/data/blog/we-have-hypergrid-use-it.md
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
title: We Have HyperGrid USE IT!!!!
|
||||||
|
description: It is starting to sadden me, I have slowly become aware of things, that I rather not have come into knowing...
|
||||||
|
author: Timothy Rogers
|
||||||
|
tags: [OpenSim, Opinion]
|
||||||
|
published: 2012-04-11
|
||||||
|
url: /2012/04/we-have-hypergrid-use-it
|
||||||
|
category: Archive
|
||||||
|
draft: false
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
It is starting to sadden me, I have slowly become aware of things, that I rather not have come into knowing. Now I have learned that one of the most famous content creators of virtual worlds named Linda Kellie might be pulling out of virtual worlds all together. I am sorry to hear that, but I do respect and understand her reasoning. It is very difficult for grid owners such as myself to regulate the flow of content over the metaverse, reason why my grid doesn’t just allow anyone to connect their regions. I urge her to keep creating and just go standalone. Saying that makes me want to go into a conversation I had with my developer not to long ago.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Me and my developer on Cyber Wrld we're discussing the future of the metaverse. We think that in the future, grids that offer the ability to HyperGrid will eventually just all become HUBs. I kinda like her idea, even though yes it changes what grids will be. She wants to see everyone as in logging in via their own system, everyone on their own standalone, grids mainly for just community projects. I mean when you think about it, it seems like a very nice and interesting future. Now after saying that, I how I see the metaverse idea is a little different.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The metaverse is this large collection of all these virtual worlds, I see more and more content creators day after day pop up places, I have even had a few feel out a survey for me and tell me they don’t wana connect to a grid. A lot of them want to work from a standalone, that said what can we do to start pushing this into a new direction of creativity and really push the Hyper Grid to its full length of operations. So let’s consider this for now, say you are a content creator, you make a lot of stuff, but you are worried about losing content or you are on disappearing, or you just don’t feel like picking a grid, but you want to share your content with all the other grids out there. You could start a standalone grid, this would allow you to have full control over you content, you can connect up to the hypergrid and regulate your traffic and content in and out of your grid. This makes the store owners have a front on not just one grid, but several grids. Now how about for those that sale stuff? Just plug their regions into the VirWox OMC system module, it allows visitors to purchase things in your grid with paypal, credit card, paysafe, etc. if they don’t already have an OMC account from the grid they are coming from. This helps make it easier for people to go shopping over the metaverse.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I can see it now, pulling up a hypergrid directory and treating it as the local classifieds as to where I can go to shop today. We should consider this, many shops do want to increase sales, or just have more people access their stuff to buy it. If the owners want the ultimate in security, let them start up their own standalone and connect it to the HyperGrid Network. This allows them to increase sales and make a bigger name and presence for themselves without the cost and trouble of uploading their content to several grids, or having to pick which grid is best for them. Let us all consider this.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Thank you for listening to yet another long rant of mine, which when I write these I worry I make no sense at all. xD Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think of these two ideologies.
|
|
@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ const { title } = Astro.props;
|
||||||
</head>
|
</head>
|
||||||
<body>
|
<body>
|
||||||
<div
|
<div
|
||||||
class="w-full h-screen bg-repeatbg-repeat bg-pink-300"
|
class="w-full min-h-screen bg-repeat bg-pink-300"
|
||||||
style="background-image: url('/images/bg-img.webp');"
|
style="background-image: url('/images/bg-img.webp');"
|
||||||
>
|
>
|
||||||
<div class="container mx-auto p-4">
|
<div class="container mx-auto p-4">
|
||||||
|
@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ const { title } = Astro.props;
|
||||||
</div>
|
</div>
|
||||||
<div class="bg-pink-200 border-purple-400 border-4 rounded-md p-4">
|
<div class="bg-pink-200 border-purple-400 border-4 rounded-md p-4">
|
||||||
<div
|
<div
|
||||||
class="bg-[url('/images/stars-bg.gif')] p-4 rounded border-2 border-dashed border-purple-400"
|
class="p-4 rounded border-2 border-dashed border-purple-400"
|
||||||
>
|
>
|
||||||
<slot />
|
<slot />
|
||||||
</div>
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ const { title } = Astro.props;
|
||||||
>
|
>
|
||||||
<tt>Friends Sites</tt>
|
<tt>Friends Sites</tt>
|
||||||
<div
|
<div
|
||||||
class="grid grid-flow-col auto-cols-max gap-2 p-2 justify-center"
|
class="grid grid-cols-2 sm:flex sm:flex-wrap gap-2 p-2 justify-center items-center"
|
||||||
>
|
>
|
||||||
<div>
|
<div>
|
||||||
<a href="https://arch.dog/" target="_blank"
|
<a href="https://arch.dog/" target="_blank"
|
||||||
|
@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ const { title } = Astro.props;
|
||||||
</div>
|
</div>
|
||||||
<tt>Some Buttons I Like</tt>
|
<tt>Some Buttons I Like</tt>
|
||||||
<div
|
<div
|
||||||
class="grid grid-flow-col auto-cols-max gap-2 p-2 justify-center"
|
class="grid grid-cols-3 sm:flex sm:flex-wrap gap-2 p-2 justify-center items-center"
|
||||||
>
|
>
|
||||||
<div><img src="/images/buttons/anybrowser.webp" /></div>
|
<div><img src="/images/buttons/anybrowser.webp" /></div>
|
||||||
<div>
|
<div>
|
||||||
|
|
17
src/pages/blog/[...slug].astro
Normal file
17
src/pages/blog/[...slug].astro
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
import { getCollection, render } from "astro:content";
|
||||||
|
// 1. Generate a new path for every collection entry
|
||||||
|
export async function getStaticPaths() {
|
||||||
|
const posts = await getCollection("blog");
|
||||||
|
return posts.map((post) => ({
|
||||||
|
params: { id: post.id, slug: post.data.url },
|
||||||
|
props: { post },
|
||||||
|
}));
|
||||||
|
}
|
||||||
|
// 2. For your template, you can get the entry directly from the prop
|
||||||
|
const { post } = Astro.props;
|
||||||
|
const { Content } = await render(post);
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<h1>{post.data.title}</h1>
|
||||||
|
<Content />
|
30
src/pages/blog/index.astro
Normal file
30
src/pages/blog/index.astro
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
import { getCollection } from "astro:content";
|
||||||
|
import Layout from "../../layouts/Layout.astro";
|
||||||
|
const posts = await getCollection("blog");
|
||||||
|
posts.sort((a, b) => dayjs(b.data.published).diff(dayjs(a.data.published)));
|
||||||
|
import dayjs from "dayjs";
|
||||||
|
---
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<Layout title="Blog">
|
||||||
|
<div>
|
||||||
|
{
|
||||||
|
posts.map((post) => (
|
||||||
|
<div>
|
||||||
|
<p class="text-2xl font-bold font-comic">
|
||||||
|
<a href={`/blog${post.data.url}`}>{post.data.title}</a>
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
<p class="text-xs italic font-light">
|
||||||
|
{dayjs(post.data.published).format("MMMM DD, YYYY")}
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
<p class="mb-2 font-comic">
|
||||||
|
{post.data.description}{" "}
|
||||||
|
<a class="underline" href={`/blog${post.data.url}`}>
|
||||||
|
📖 Continue Reading 📖
|
||||||
|
</a>
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
))
|
||||||
|
}
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
</Layout>
|
Loading…
Add table
Add a link
Reference in a new issue