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Category: Life Update

Published: 23 May 2025

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• Life Update

The title is a mouthful this time, but I have a lot of stray thoughts that I want to talk about tonight. Sometimes I wonder if an audio log would be a better format for these types of posts, but I think the editing would feel like a lot of work over time. Besides, I think I prefer typing out what's on my mind. It's rewarding to see my thoughts materialized when I finish a blog post. 

I think I should get started though, let me provide some music.

Privacy & Ownership

Pewdiepie & Linux (wtf i hate windows now)

My YouTube feed at work is way more technical and lately I've been watching a lot of videos related to privacy and ownership. Aside from the latest Louis Rossmann drama with BWE, I've been watching people convert old computers into home servers and showcase the types of services and software they've installed. Also, this was unexpected, but Pewdiepie of all people has convinced me to start making plans to transition to Linux.

This might be the perfect time to do so because Windows 10 support will eventually end. Honestly, y'all ... I'm really tired of Windows. I started using Windows 11 at work and it's just not my cup of tea. I say that as an advanced user without any knowledge of how anything under the hood actually works. 

I think I'm reaching a period in my life where I want to have more control of my environment. In the video above, Pewdiepie says that Linux is great it's highly customizable and your Linux machine only installs what you want it to have. Not only is he referencing all the bloatware that comes with a newly installed copy of Windows, but all the services, data collection (telemetry), and annoying attempts to make you connect a Microsoft account to your OS as well. 

I'm only still on Windows 10 because I'd screw myself over if I were to switch without much preparation. I'd really like to find a few alternatives to software that I currently use. I'm mainly concerned with photo and video editing software. 

Pewdiepie explained that gaming on Linux is completely viable nowadays, and I completely agree. I think that the success of the Steam Deck speaks for itself. If you didn't know, the Steam Deck runs on a Linux distribution called SteamOS which is based on Arch Linux. Proton, a compatibility layer, allows SteamOS to run Windows game natively. I'm not too worried about gaming on Linux at this point, so I consider it a non-issue when it's time to switch teams. If anything, I think I'll try to back up my save data for the games I currently have installed on my PC. 

Anyway, that's probably going to be a separate project that I'll write about in the following months. Look out for that! 

Back to the privacy stuff ... the internet just isn't the same, man. 

Data Collection and Corporatization of the Internet

Many of my early internet memories are about the many flash games that I would play in computer class in the 2000s. I was also really into Neopets for a very long time, I want to say that it was the gateway that eventually lead me to gacha games. Around 2006, I was a huge fan of Calvin and Hobbes. So much that I found a fansite and made an account on there. I spent a lot of my summer vacation just reading facts about the strips and saving them to a flash drive to a 2 GB Kingston flashdrive that I bought (it cost me like $20 lmao). 

It was a very wholesome experience, you know? Google wasn't too crazy yet, so you could still find things that were relevant to your interests. Most important of all, it felt organic, like the internet was an extension of human consciousness. 

Sadly, those days are no more. Many people describe the old internet as the "wild west" and I can totally see that. And for people like me who grew up on it, it's insane to me that I had access to so much information at a young age. My parents didn't really understand it immediately, so I think a lot of content I saw went unchecked. 

Nowadays, I can say that much of what I experience online has been paved by algorithms. It ain't the same man. I've been avoiding going to Chipotle for a very long time because I read Twitter post once that described it as cattle forming up to getting their slop served in bowls. That's how the online experience feels nowadays. It's deliberately eliminating the curation process. 

What's wrong with Chipotle? As a Mexican guy, I can tell you that it's not Mexican food and I can't even bring myself to call it Tex-Mex. Chipotle is a pathetic attempt to sell all the positive aspects of Mexican cuisine without the sense of adventure. It's a safe space for you to eat your slop and feel like you're engaging in culture. 

In the same vein, that's what the centralized internet is. You are no longer engaging with niche communities that have developed their own slang. You're now on "Film Twitter" or "Book Tok". At the same time, many of our posts that may not be directed at those communities will sometimes find themselves there, which results in stupid misunderstandings when posts go viral. 

And it's by design too, which is the most frustrating part. It's all for the sake of engagement. If Twitter was intended to be used for thoughtful discussion, why did Twitlonger need to be created? Why did it take so long for the character limit to increase? 

I'm really going off on a tangent, but I just hate to see wasted potential for the sake of profit. 

On data collection ... I've been working towards minimizing the amount of data that I publicly share online. Ironically, this blog is actually a goldmine of data but that includes everything but my name but at least I can prevent search engines from indexing my site. That being said, I've been trying out new software alternatives to help me with privacy. Some of these options work well, others do not ... and unfortunately convenience will be the deciding factor of what people end up using. 

A wise man once said ... water follows the path of least resistance. And let me tell you, that path is really hard to get away from nowadays. 

Privacy-Focused Software/Stuff That I've Been Using

• Floorp: https://floorp.app/en-US
  • Up until March 2025, I had been using Firefox as my browser of choice since I was in grade school Over the years, they've mostly remained a respectable choice for privacy (after some heavy modifying), but it seems that all is starting to come to an end. Floorp, while more focused on customization than privacy, still does a decent job at it. The developer themselves recommended to use Librewolf if privacy is your main concern, but I think Floorp has what I need for now. There's also Zen Browser, which is actually privacy-focused. Actually, I think having a combination of Floorp for websites you're okay with providing a little data for as a treat, and then a separate browser like Zen or Librewolf for casual browsing would be a good idea. 
• Privacy Redirect (Browser Plugin): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5ad6y5sixU
  • Sam Bent created a browser plugin that automatically redirects social media links to alternative front-ends like Nitter (for Twitter). These are essentially websites that allow you to engage with the website without logging in. In the case of Nitter, you can read posts and the replies in their entirety. It can even make downloading videos a little easier. However, some of the front-ends are a little janky. Nitter, for example, doesn't always load posts. You might need to refresh a few times to see them. Other times, instances of these alternative front-ends can be down so you can't use them at all. While I think this plug-in is amazing, I think the individual front-ends themselves might need a bit more work. If it's not easy, consistent, and convenient to access, I fear not many people will adopt the privacy-focused alternative, which is actually a point that Sam Bent makes in his video. 
• Mailfence (Email): https://mailfence.com
  • There are many privacy-focused email services out there, but I decided to use Mailfence. It's going to take some time to transition over to the new email on all of my accounts, but I want to do it because I really don't want Google scanning my Gmail. Out of the many services, Mailfence actually has a free plan. There are also paid plans which aren't very expensive, as well. If you need other services like cloud storage, calendar, etc., you might be better off with StartMail or Proton. Proton is pretty popular, but I don't really want to spend money on email right now. 

Data Deletion Services

I hope some of these are useful to you. Many people don't care about the data that companies share. Ignorance is bliss, as they say. However, I recently watched a video by Reject Convenience that investigates data removal services like Incogni or DeleteMe. While I don't have a solid opinion of these types of services yet (you can actually do some of what they do yourself, for free), I think the video is informative because it explains the different types of data that's gathered from your browser, phone, and email. 

Even with the data that isn't Personal Identifiable Information, assumptions can be made, and all it takes is someone willing to compare data to make an accurate assumption of who you are and where you live. 

Both companies actually sent emails to the creator of this video! It can be taken a few different ways, but I think they wanted to clarify what their services are capable of and reaffirm that they are worth the investment. Maybe it was damage control? I'd like to believe not, but who knows. 

Video Game Hardware / Streaming

Recently, I got my hands on a Retrotink4K. Not going to lie, I was feeling a little bit of FOMO when I made this purchase. It was a few days before the insane 125%/145% tariffs were about to go into effect in the United States and Mike Chi, the owner of Retrotink, said that shipments to the US would cease. I've wanted to buy a Retrotink4K since last year and put it off because many reasons. This time, my hand was kinda forced ... I'm a bit of an Audiovisual nerd. I'm not as smart as the engineers who work on this stuff, but I really love diving into related topics. 

In fact, I actually spent this entire week looking into HDCP at work. I've been watching teardowns and attempts at reverse engineering cheap HDMI switchers that strip HDCP from the source device so the receiving device can play it in high quality. HDCP stands for High-bandwidth Digital Copyright Protection and it's used as a piracy countermeasure. 

How HDCP works:

There several versions of HDCP nowadays, the latest being 2.3. They're kinda compatible with each other, but I'll explain that in a bit. 

The process begins at the source device. Your HDMI cable will transmit the video signal along with additional data. This data can include information about the source video, like the size and refresh rate, etc. The display meant to receive the signal, also called the HDCP sink, will talk to the source to exchange information. The source will check the HDCP version of the device and depending on the version and type of content that is being transmitted, it will flag it as one of two types: Type 0 and Type 1. 

These types were created so they could be compatible with older versions of HDCP (HDCP V.1) that use a different algorithm to that of version 2.0+. If the display is of a lower version like 1.0, it's likely that the handshake will complete but your content will not be displayed in full resolution. An example would be if you wanted to watch Netflix on your device and instead of getting a 4K image, you'd get 1080p. 

If the receiving device is compliant, then it will allow the full resolution video to be played. 

Where's the issue with this?

There's an issue that I have with the example above. If I'm paying for Netflix, I should get that quality no matter what. I should get what I paid for and not be punished because this copyright protection bullshit wants to gut the quality of my video because my TV's HDCP version is old. This form of copyright protection is inherently anti-consumer. 

In another (and related) example, I would actually like to start streaming older video games directly from my consoles. I own an Elgato capture card that works with my PS4 and a couple of other consoles. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for my PS3. The PS3 is always HDCP-enabled which makes any kind of streaming impossible by using the capture card by itself. Or at least this used to be the case. 

People over the years have found ways around this, like the cheap Made-In-China HDMI splitters I mentioned earlier. There are some that completely strip HDCP requirement and allows the video signal to pass through at full quality. I'm not really satisfied with the current answers floating out there online. Many people will suggest certain models of HDMI splitters but the consensus is that sometimes they work sometimes they don't. 

I don't like working with "sometimes". So I started looking at people who are incredibly more intelligent than I am that are reverse engineering these inexpensive devices and trying to understand what makes them tick. There's a company out there called HD Fury that once advertised one of their devices as being able to bypass HDCP requirements. Warner Bros. sued, but didn't exactly win. Under law, third party devices are at least allowed to downgrade the version of HDCP, I think. This doesn't count as bypassing it, but it's more for compatibility with legacy displays. 

Which brings me to the reason why I'm even looking into this .. as I said, I'd really like to stream video games from my old consoles. Specifically the PS Vita, but I'd need a splitter that can strip HDCP or find an alternative solution. HD Fury is actually still in business, but their devices are crazy expensive. I'll probably have to try my luck with the $20 splitters everyone is suggestion on Amazon. 

That being said, I've been wanting to buy more games-related hardware. I'm getting an itch to jump back into fighting games as well and I'd really like a new arcade stick. For now I'm stuck with using a gamepad which isn't really my cup of tea. I've been looking into Hitbox. 8BitDo recently announced a Hitbox, but I would like to customize it down the line as well. 

As for the Retrotink4k, I think I'll do a test stream soon. I just want to see what it's capable of before I start making it a regular thing I do. 

But yeah, kinda related to the internet stuff, but I really want to own my shit. These are my games, I should be allowed to use them however I want. I'm not even pirating or doing anything like that, I just want to record video for entertainment purposes. 

Closing Thoughts

Anyway, that's all that's going on in my mind right now. It's been a weird week after my vacation. Nothing feels right and I feel completely out of place at work. I actually have another long weekend because of memorial day. Maybe I can shake away this weirdness with some fun activities.