Spyke

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Just be sure that the second server in the list is also a black hole. If you don't, all black holed requests will fallback to the second DNS... which, if it doesn't also black hole them, will wind up serving you ads and defeating the point!

Personally I find a single Pi is just fine for DNS. It only takes like 10 seconds to reboot. Less, if you use M.2 storage via a HAT or boot from USB! That's pretty fine downtime. But if you're afraid you'll knock over the network and get yelled at by your family or housemates, best to use a backup :)

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New York City Council Member says she hates tall buildings because they reduce the number of parking spots.

Hmmm. I wonder how they could improve the 'character of the neighborhood' and reduce their 'traffic issues'?

Perhaps, if we just give them more lanes and parking spots in New York Fucking City they'll solve it! Looks like a super pleasant place to hang out currently.

FFS. If you want a car-dependent nightmare dystopia, move literally anywhere else in the country! Sheepshead bay is in the damn subway network. Ride a bike. Go for a walk. Ride the damn subway. If it doesn't go to enough places, we should expand it!

android

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GrapheneOS kills support when Google kills security updates, I believe. Source: my Pixel 4a came out in 2020, and Graphene already strongly recommends against using it and dropped updates entirely a few months ago.

Lineage and Pixel Experience ROMs are better at long-term support. But any custom ROM on older non-officially-supported phones is vulnerable to firmware exploits, since those fixes are typically distributed as binaries by the hardware manufacturer (Qualcomm etc). So I understand why Graphene drops support so quick, since they want all Graphene users to benefit from strong security practices.

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Apple's 2026 Foldable iPhone Has No Visible Display Crease – Report

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Longevity is worse than non-folding phones, simply because the hinge and folding screen are wear parts.

Camera is worse, because there's less z-distance for lens depth. If they push it with a bigger camera bump, you wind up with a maximum thickness of easily over 15mm very quickly, even if the rest of the phone is thin, that hurts.

Battery life is worse, because two separate batteries with puncture protection, folding screen, digitizer, etc in between are heavier and less power-dense than a single large battery.

And the price is higher because there's more screen, more batteries, more materials, and more R&D to pay back in the hinge and fold mech.

The Z flip is the most tempting to me simply because the height and width are far more attractive than current monster-sized phones. But it's disingenuous to pretend the plastic inner screen (yes, that's literally what that top layer is, not glass), the cost, the inferior battery, and the inferior camera aren't serious compromises.

And all for what? So I can have a giant inner screen? I think my (smaller than any modern phone) phone is already too large, too addicting, and too tough to use with one hand. For serious tasks and videos I use my laptop.

I believe it is awesome for you. But there are downsides.

android

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Samsung Galaxy A56 review

Just a nitpick, while 'brighter' belongs in objective Pros (as long as the minimum brightness is as dark or even darker than the last gen), 'bigger' isn't a Pro. People have different size preferences and we have spiralled so far beyond the smaller end of size preferences we're actually getting into 'too big for anyone' screens if we go much larger.

FFS, reduce the bezel and keep the screen the same damn size. I know some people love big screens but it is hardly 100% of customers.

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Make Sure to Update: iOS 18.3.2 and macOS Sequoia 15.3.2 Include Important Security Fixes (tvOS & visionOS too!)

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The real answer? Buy a phone older than the 15. You'll never get on-device intelligence. My 13 Mini takes great pictures, performs perfectly, has great battery life as a non-gamer. And it should get at least 3 more years of iOS updates (maybe more? phone specs have really leveled off).

Anything newer, Apple and Google will start pushing intelligence on you simply because your phone can do it.

You could try GrapheneOS as well on a recent Pixel.

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Here Is Everything That Has Changed Since Congestion Pricing Started in New York

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You might have to live on a busy street in NYC to understand. Ride share drivers in particular will just LAY on the horn for many tens of seconds, even minutes straight.

When you're NYC and you haven't figured out that we should get rid of a lot of public (free!) parking spots for delivery and loading zones, you wind up with a lot of double and triple parking.

Combine those two things, you'll get noise complaints about honking. Seriously, you have no idea how bad it can be!

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What do you use for notes?

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Syncthing on my home server, synced with each device I use for notetaking, has been glorious so far. I wish Obsidian would offer Sync for a cheaper rate, because I'd pay if it felt like anything near the cost of actual sync and storage. But Obsidian's cheapest tier is more expensive than my email hosting!

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Same. I should really learn to use a simpler one, but I love this model and it still seems rock-solid to me after years of use. The best part is not ending up with sharp, dangerous edges on the lid!

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What should I run on a raspberry pi 5

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Agreed. Set up tailscale (or wireguard + DDNS) and a pi.hole for ad blocking on your phone and laptop whenever you're away from home.

That'll let you shake out the issues with running a home server. Once it feels stable and you have a feel for running things reliably, you can try out a home music/media server with Jellyfin, an RSS reader like freshRSS, run your own private file server with NextCloud, sync private notes with Syncthing and Obsidian, watch TV shows and movies on Kodi, and so much more.

But don't get carried away with a million services at first. Just getting a home server up and running takes some trial and error and luck!

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My neighbors GMC Denali parked illegally in front of a stop sign and crosswalk, next to my other neighbors Mazda Miata

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In all fairness, I'd be terrified to drive that Miata with that monster sitting in front of me. It makes you realize just how crazy the size difference is between these monstrosities and everything else on the road. If this Denali hits this Miata, it'll decapitate anyone in the Miata. Full stop.

Crash testing needs to account for people outside the car, both in other size classes of vehicle (including bicycles and scooters) and pedestrians. This is policy failure. The Denali should not share road space with the other modes of transportation! Even if this person is an unrealistically perfect driver, their low beams are so high they'll blind anyone in a shorter vehicle.

I can sort of understand huge semis and delivery vans since they literally need the storage space and they're generally driven by people with CDLs. But even those should be smaller in urban environments (and suburban, and small towns).

Tragedy of the commons. How many people drive big SUVs because they're blinded at night by tall vehicles otherwise, and they're afraid of their children (or themselves) being killed in a crash in a small car? The only way to solve this is government, lawmaking, and enforcement.

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Aha, thank you. Shouldn't have riffed from memory on that one, I suppose!

But very much agreed: the Zero series has plenty of beef for a DNS server. Maybe when the 3 comes out I'll add one as a backup for my 4 server.

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NAS Hardware selection

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Of course, nothing wrong with it. In fact it makes OP's quandary a lot easier! I'm looking into something with 20TB or so of capacity myself, and that's given me an appreciation for how much simpler it is to solve this problem at 2TB.