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Ash McAllan shared 2 days ago
Spicy take:
Normal people shouldn't self host.
From an energy use perspective, the users per watt are WAY higher in a data center.
People are already awful at running patches and doing security updates.
OMG are people awful at doing backups.
From an ewaste POV, consumer electronics just don't have a very long lifespan, fail more frequently, are rarely upgradable, and easily broken. Enterprise grade servers in a data center are better.
Hosted services actually have a SOC to monitor what the fuck is going on and investigate unusual things. An individual normal user would never notice their self hosted server being popped for forever, and we already have far too many zombies.
Sure, megacorps aren't trustworthy stewards of key internet services like email either. But telling everyone they need yet another home appliance, but one you're going to have to fuck with several hours per month to keep running.
Dynamic DNS suck balls, IPv4 is running out, hosting shit being a NAT and reverse proxies and shch is its own thing, and lots and lots of people don't have very good home internet links.
Up front cost - yes, I know people "pay" for their social media and email with their privacy and advertising. But that means that saying they need to spend several hundred on a whole new computer and find a place to put it or rent a VPS or ...
Fact of the matter is, some sort of SaaS setup for web services IS the right solution for 97% of users. Scolding people for being abused by unregulated tech companies isn't solving anything. The right solution is to make people become more aware of the intentional and malicious enshittified bullshit techbros are cramming down their throat, and lobby the government to strengthen regulations.
Finally got around to painting Ursula today. Having female models and an older woman as a hero model of the Imperial Guard was honestly the thing that made me feel actually keen to restart my Guard army after immigrating and leaving all my old models back in Australia. #wh40k
Since finding out I'm being laid off last week, so many wonderful people have reached out to me with offers of support. Often people ask "Let me know if there's anything I can do to help." Because I know there are other folks in similar situations getting similar offers for support but feeling too overwhelmed to actually take anyone up on those offers, I made a #zine . It's called:
**Things You Can Do To Help Your Depressed ADHD / Autistic Friend While She Looks For Work **
It's 8 a5 pages of detailed practical suggestions on ways you can support someone going through a rough time, especially if they struggle with neurodivergence or depression. I've written it for my friends as a guide for helping me specifically but I think most of the advice is broad enough that it can help a lot of folks in a lot of situations.
You can grab the pdf here: https://acegiak.net/etc/Things%20You%20Can%20Do%20For%20Your%20Depressed%20ADHD%20-%20Autistic%20Friend%20While%20She%20Looks%20For%20Work.pdf or I've put it up for $0 on itch.io so that you can find it more easily later if you misplace it and want to find it again: https://acegiak.itch.io/things-you-can-do-for-your-depressed-adhd-autistic-friend-while-she-looks-for-wo
So I'm one of the casualties of last week's Stockholm Gamedev Bloodbath, losing my position at Avalanche. I've had an amazing time there but it's time to work out what happens next.
If your team or a team you know needs "an unstoppable force of creation", "the best team leader I've had", or someone who is "inventive, patient, expressed herself with clarity, & is deft at design"* then I'm available for creative leadership, game design, narrative, and good-trouble-making roles. Reach out here, on linkedin, @acegiak.bsky.social on bluesky, or email at acegiak@gmail.com.
*quotes from, in order, a friend, a member of my team, and a colleague
New personal best: 100kg deadlift x 2 