"The future is dangerous. Don't go any further. Please."

Lost in Translation: A fascinating example of how language nuances can change the tone of a message.
The Japanese sign at Hotel Balmoral Karuizawa politely warns of danger ahead, while the English translation takes on a more ominous tone.

#TravelSafety #HotelBalmoral #future #JapanTravel #BilingualSign #LostInTranslation #CautionAhead #TravelWarning #CulturalNuances #LanguageBarrier #ExploreJapan #HotelLife #TravelTips #SafetyFirst #JapaneseCulture #旅行安全 #ホテルバーモラル #軽井沢 #日本旅行 #二カ国語標識 #翻訳の難しさ #注意前方 #旅行警告 #文化の違い #言語の壁 #日本を探検 #ホテルライフ #旅行のヒント #安全第一 #日本文化

KDE is finally getting a native virtual machine manager called “Karton”

Link: neowin.net/news/kde-is-finally…
Discussion: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4…

libertytree.ca/quotes/Bill.Cli…

“We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans...”

~ Bill Clinton
[William Jefferson Blythe III] (1946- ), 42nd US President
March 1, 1993, during a press conference in Piscataway , NJ.
USA Today, March 11, 1993, "NRA change: `Omnipotent to powerful'"

UKRAINE : « CE QUE J'AI VU, ILS NE VOUS LE DISENT PAS » [vidéo]


Benoît Paré, ancien observateur de l’OSCE (2015–2022), livre un témoignage rare sur la guerre en Ukraine.
Il démonte les récits officiels et expose ce qu’il a vu sur le terrain. Un éclairage percutant tiré de son livre incontournable.

youtu.be/dCUegNnxYRg

communcommune.com/2025/05/ukra…

Emmanuel Florac reshared this.

Ok Disney, here's the deal.
There has never been a better time to use Starkiller then now.
Why? Because as of now, the single most pupular character on screen is by coincidence a padawan of Anakin Skywalker, and that would make the secret apprentice of Darth Vader the perfect foil. Not to mention, that the little girl had such a power creap, that he would actually be a worthy opponent at this point.

Kwame Ture: The death of Che Guevara places a responsibility on all revolutionaries of the World to redouble their decision to fight on to the final defeat of Imperialism. That is why in essence Che Guevara is not dead, his ideas are with us. wordsmith.social/protestation/…


Quotes

  • Otto Kuusinen: As long as the working class wages only an economic struggle, the bourgeoisie does not see in that any great danger for itself; but when the working class organises politically, i.e., creates a political party which expresses its will as a class, the bourgeoisie begins seriously to fear for its rule. That is why reaction deals its main blows against the political party of the working class. At the same time, trying to undermine the party from within, capitalist propaganda endeavours to persuade the workers that they can do without their own party. One of the manifestations of bourgeois influence on the working class is the anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist denial of the leading role of a political party.
  • Democritus: Not from fear but from a sense of duty refrain from your sins.
  • Democritus: Many who have not learned wisdom live wisely, and many who do the basest deeds can make most learned speeches.
  • Democritus: Fools learn wisdom through misfortune.
  • Democritus: Strength of body is nobility in beasts of burden, strength of character is nobility in men.
  • Democritus: Neither art nor wisdom may be attained without learning.
  • Democritus: It is better to correct your own faults than those of another.
  • Democritus: Good means not (merely) not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.
  • Democritus: Fame and wealth without wisdom are unsafe possessions.
  • Muammar Gaddafi: We will not surrender. We will defeat them by any means. We are ready for the fight, whether it will be a short or a long one. We will be victorious in the end. This assault is by a bunch of fascists who will end up in the dustbin of history.
  • Democritus: By convention sweet is sweet, bitter is bitter, hot is hot, cold is cold, color is color; but in truth there are only atoms and the void.
  • Democritus: We know nothing accurately in reality, but (only) as it changes according to the bodily condition, and the constitution of those things that flow upon (the body) and impinge upon it.
  • Democritus: Medicine heals diseases of the body, wisdom frees the soul from passions.
  • Democritus: Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man.
  • Democritus: Men have fashioned an image of Chance as an excuse for their own stupidity.
  • Democritus: In a shared fish, there are no bones.
  • Democritus: Education is an ornament for the prosperous, a refuge for the unfortunate.
  • Democritus: The animal needing something knows how much it needs, the man does not.
  • Democritus: Moderation multiplies pleasures, and increases pleasure.
  • Democritus: If your desires are not great, a little will seem much to you; for small appetite makes poverty equivalent to wealth.
  • Democritus: No power and no treasure can outweigh the extension of our knowledge.
  • Democritus: In fact we do not know anything infallibly, but only that which changes according to the condition of our body and of the (influences) that reach and impinge upon it.
  • Democritus: Of practical wisdom these are the three fruits: to deliberate well, to speak to the point, to do what is right.
  • Democritus: 'Tis not in strength of body nor in gold that men find happiness, but in uprightness and in fulness of understanding.
  • Democritus: He who does wrong is more unhappy than he who suffers wrong.
  • Samuel P. Huntington: The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.
  • Marjori Palmer: One of the most morale-damaging aspects of the inflation was the "sack of Germany" that occurred at the height of the (1923) inflation. Anyone who possessed dollars or sterling was king in Germany. A few American dollars would allow a man to live like a millionaire. Foreigners swarmed into the country, buying up family treasures, estates, jewelry and art works at unbelievable low prices.
  • Lionel Robbins: It was the most colossal thing of its kind in history: and next probably to the Great War itself, it must bear responsibility for many of the political and economic difficulties of our generation. It destroyed the wealth of the more solid elements of German society: and left behind a moral and economic disequilibrium, a breeding ground for the disasters which have followed. Hitler is the foster child of the inflation.
  • Lenin: There is no trace of utopianism in Marx, in the sense that he made up or invented a 'new' society. No, he studied the birth of the new society out of the old, and the forms of transition from the latter to the former, as a natural-historical process. He examined the actual experience of a proletarian mass movement and tried to draw practical lessons from it.
  • Che Guevara: Many will call me an adventurer - and that I am, only one of a different sort: one of those who risks his skin to prove his platitudes.
  • Democritus: The first principles of the universe are atoms and empty space; everything else is merely thought to exist.
  • Bertolt Brecht: Lenin is enshrined In the large heart of the working class.


in reply to Reverend Elvis

Ja natürlich. Ich übettrage historische Texte aber gerne in die Gegenwart

Derjenige, dem das Volk das Königreich anvertraut hat, sollte, dünkt mich, erträglicher sein; und er wäre es auch, glaube ich, wenn nicht von dem Augenblick an, wo er sich über die andern so hoch erhoben weiß, die Eitelkeit über ihn käme, daß er so groß dasteht; und nun beschließt er von dem Orte nicht mehr zu wanken; die Macht, die das Volk ihm geliehen hat, will er nun seinen Kindern vererben


Natürlich ist hier der Absolutismus und das Erbrecht gemeint, aber wie ist das denn heute? Auch bei den so Woken?

Mensch schaue sich doch nur die ganze Vetternwirtschaft aller europäischer Politiker an. Es begann in Frankreich, dann der große Skandal der britischen Torries, jetzt bei den Grünen. Überall findes dies.
Weiter, heute gibt es immer mehr Wohlstand durch Erbe. Viele der pseudoLinken steht schon das Erbhaus, die Erbeigentumswohnung.
Ehe werden heute immer mehr in der gleichen Klasse geschlossen.
Es ist also nicht mehr die eine Position, sondern deren viele, aber dennoch gibt es klare Parallelen.

Rep. James Comer Says STAFFERS Behind Biden’s Autopen Scandal When He was “Clearly in Mental Decline” Have Been IDENTIFIED — Warns Subpoenas Are Coming (VIDEO)

thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/r…

Procolored printer drivers contained malware

Link: neowin.net/news/this-printer-c…
Discussion: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4…

Wall Street Apes

EXPOSED 🚨 Gavin Newsom is NOT ending health care for illegal migrants, he’s EXPANDING IT
California State Rep Carl DeMaio “My office just released actual budget data proving Gavin Newsom is LYING when he says he is CUTTING free health care to illegal immigrants”

Reporter “Republican Assemblyman Carl DeMaio says the headlines you're reading are not telling the full story. He claims Newsom is acting like he's freezing or capping the free health care in an effort to save money. But DeMaio says that's not actually what's happening.

California State Rep Carl DeMaio “Gavin Newsom this year spent $9.5 billion on free health care for illegal immigrants. Now he says he's going to cut that back, but guess what?

His budget INCREASES the cost of free health care for illegal immigrants to $12.1 billion.

The liberal media in California is gaslighting the voters along with Gavin Newsom by not telling them the truth.

So I reached out to Governor Gavin Newsom's office to ask specifically about those numbers. They then pushed me off to the finance office”

“As I'm giving this live report, I just got an email from the finance office essentially confirming those numbers that you just heard now from Carl DeMaio. They said in this Fiscal More than $10 billion was spent on health care for medical they expect next year to be $12.1 billion.” minds.com/newsfeed/17708423714…

The Israeli occupation intensifies its targeting and siege of the Indonesian hospital dailyyemen.net/2025/05/18/the-…

Fixed that for you, Handelsblatt.

Die Aussage der Bundesministerin für Wirtschaft und Energie ist so schlicht unwahr.
Schlimm genug, dass die Union sich den gesamten Wahlkampf lang mit verdrehter Desinfo über Schulden, Migration, Bürgergeldbeziehende uvm. an die Spitze der Regierung gelogen hat. Untragbar, wenn amtierende Mitglieder der Bundesregierung nun genau so weitermachen.

This entry was edited (2 months ago)

New Bi-Monthly Q&A series related to my works and current events drjacobnordangard.substack.com…

David Graeber: The ruling class has figured out that a happy and productive population with free time on their hands is a mortal danger. wordsmith.social/protestation/…


Quotes

  • Otto Kuusinen: As long as the working class wages only an economic struggle, the bourgeoisie does not see in that any great danger for itself; but when the working class organises politically, i.e., creates a political party which expresses its will as a class, the bourgeoisie begins seriously to fear for its rule. That is why reaction deals its main blows against the political party of the working class. At the same time, trying to undermine the party from within, capitalist propaganda endeavours to persuade the workers that they can do without their own party. One of the manifestations of bourgeois influence on the working class is the anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist denial of the leading role of a political party.
  • Democritus: Not from fear but from a sense of duty refrain from your sins.
  • Democritus: Many who have not learned wisdom live wisely, and many who do the basest deeds can make most learned speeches.
  • Democritus: Fools learn wisdom through misfortune.
  • Democritus: Strength of body is nobility in beasts of burden, strength of character is nobility in men.
  • Democritus: Neither art nor wisdom may be attained without learning.
  • Democritus: It is better to correct your own faults than those of another.
  • Democritus: Good means not (merely) not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.
  • Democritus: Fame and wealth without wisdom are unsafe possessions.
  • Muammar Gaddafi: We will not surrender. We will defeat them by any means. We are ready for the fight, whether it will be a short or a long one. We will be victorious in the end. This assault is by a bunch of fascists who will end up in the dustbin of history.
  • Democritus: By convention sweet is sweet, bitter is bitter, hot is hot, cold is cold, color is color; but in truth there are only atoms and the void.
  • Democritus: We know nothing accurately in reality, but (only) as it changes according to the bodily condition, and the constitution of those things that flow upon (the body) and impinge upon it.
  • Democritus: Medicine heals diseases of the body, wisdom frees the soul from passions.
  • Democritus: Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man.
  • Democritus: Men have fashioned an image of Chance as an excuse for their own stupidity.
  • Democritus: In a shared fish, there are no bones.
  • Democritus: Education is an ornament for the prosperous, a refuge for the unfortunate.
  • Democritus: The animal needing something knows how much it needs, the man does not.
  • Democritus: Moderation multiplies pleasures, and increases pleasure.
  • Democritus: If your desires are not great, a little will seem much to you; for small appetite makes poverty equivalent to wealth.
  • Democritus: No power and no treasure can outweigh the extension of our knowledge.
  • Democritus: In fact we do not know anything infallibly, but only that which changes according to the condition of our body and of the (influences) that reach and impinge upon it.
  • Democritus: Of practical wisdom these are the three fruits: to deliberate well, to speak to the point, to do what is right.
  • Democritus: 'Tis not in strength of body nor in gold that men find happiness, but in uprightness and in fulness of understanding.
  • Democritus: He who does wrong is more unhappy than he who suffers wrong.
  • Samuel P. Huntington: The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.
  • Marjori Palmer: One of the most morale-damaging aspects of the inflation was the "sack of Germany" that occurred at the height of the (1923) inflation. Anyone who possessed dollars or sterling was king in Germany. A few American dollars would allow a man to live like a millionaire. Foreigners swarmed into the country, buying up family treasures, estates, jewelry and art works at unbelievable low prices.
  • Lionel Robbins: It was the most colossal thing of its kind in history: and next probably to the Great War itself, it must bear responsibility for many of the political and economic difficulties of our generation. It destroyed the wealth of the more solid elements of German society: and left behind a moral and economic disequilibrium, a breeding ground for the disasters which have followed. Hitler is the foster child of the inflation.
  • Lenin: There is no trace of utopianism in Marx, in the sense that he made up or invented a 'new' society. No, he studied the birth of the new society out of the old, and the forms of transition from the latter to the former, as a natural-historical process. He examined the actual experience of a proletarian mass movement and tried to draw practical lessons from it.
  • Che Guevara: Many will call me an adventurer - and that I am, only one of a different sort: one of those who risks his skin to prove his platitudes.
  • Democritus: The first principles of the universe are atoms and empty space; everything else is merely thought to exist.
  • Bertolt Brecht: Lenin is enshrined In the large heart of the working class.


Urgent Response to Sudden Hearing Loss: A Medical Emergency


Experiencing an abrupt decline in hearing ability represents a medical emergency that requires immediate specialist intervention. This condition, known as sudden sensorineural hearing loss, occurs when hearing deteriorates rapidly within 72 hours, typically affecting one ear more than the other. Individuals experiencing hearing loss Singapore specialists treat should seek immediate medical attention, as delays in treatment can result in permanent auditory damage.

I. Identifying Critical Warning Symptoms

1. Early Detection Saves Hearing Function


The onset of sudden hearing loss often occurs without any preceding symptoms. Many patients discover their hearing impairment upon awakening, while others notice a progressive decline over several days. Common manifestations include diminished sound perception, persistent ear ringing or buzzing sounds, feelings of ear congestion, and balance disturbances that an ENT doctor Singapore identifies as giddiness.

2. When Professional Consultation Becomes Essential


When these symptoms manifest, consulting with qualified otorhinolaryngology specialists becomes crucial. If treatment is delayed, the inner ear's delicate structures can suffer irreversible damage, making prompt medical evaluation essential for preserving auditory function. Early intervention significantly improves the chances of hearing recovery and prevents long-term complications.

II. Understanding Underlying Causes and Risk Factors


Urgent Response to Sudden Hearing Loss: A Medical Emergency

1. Viral Infections and Inner Ear Inflammation


Various factors can trigger sudden hearing loss, though many cases remain idiopathic despite thorough investigation. Viral infections may infiltrate the inner ear, causing inflammation that disrupts normal hearing processes. Cochlear implant Singapore Singapore clinics encounter these presentations regularly, requiring comprehensive diagnostic approaches to identify treatable conditions.

2. Physical Trauma and Medication Effects


Head trauma or direct ear injuries can damage auditory pathways, while certain medications possess ototoxic properties that harm hearing mechanisms. Inner ear disorders characterized by fluid accumulation can create fluctuating hearing abilities accompanied by vertigo. Circulatory problems, including hypertension, may compromise blood flow to sensitive auditory structures.

3. Diagnostic Assessment Protocols


When patients present with sudden hearing loss, medical professionals employ systematic diagnostic protocols to identify potential causes and assess the severity of auditory impairment. Initial evaluations typically include detailed medical histories focusing on recent illnesses, medication use, and trauma exposure. Physical examinations concentrate on otolaryngological structures, looking for signs of infection, inflammation, or structural abnormalities.

III. Treatment Strategies and Medical Interventions

1. The Critical 48-Hour Window


When sudden hearing decline occurs, immediate medical assessment becomes paramount. Many individuals mistakenly believe their hearing will return naturally, leading to treatment delays that can result in permanent auditory loss. Research demonstrates significantly better recovery rates when therapeutic intervention begins within 48 hours of symptom onset.

2. Corticosteroid Therapy as Primary Treatment


ENT services available in Singapore employ advanced diagnostic techniques to evaluate sudden hearing loss. Treatment strategies typically include corticosteroid medications administered either systemically or through direct ear injection to reduce cochlear inflammation and promote hearing recovery. These medications form the cornerstone of sudden hearing loss management.

3. Alternative and Complementary Approaches


When viral causes appear likely, appropriate antiviral medications may supplement primary treatment protocols. Medications designed to enhance microcirculation may improve inner ear blood supply in cases where restricted flow contributes to hearing loss. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy shows promise in select cases, particularly when initiated during the acute phase.

4. Monitoring Recovery and Follow-up Care


Following initial treatment, patients require ongoing monitoring to assess recovery progress and determine the need for additional interventions. Regular audiometric testing helps track improvements in hearing thresholds, while patient-reported outcomes provide insight into functional hearing abilities. For cases showing incomplete recovery, the hearing aids Singapore audiologists provide may help restore functional communication ability.

IV. Advanced Rehabilitation and Long-term Management

1. Cochlear Implantation for Severe Cases


For patients with profound hearing loss unresponsive to conventional treatments, cochlear implant Singapore surgical specialists offer represents an effective rehabilitation option. This electronic device, surgically positioned within the inner ear, bypasses damaged sensory cells, providing direct electrical stimulation to surviving auditory nerve fibers.

2. Post-Surgical Adaptation and Training


This technology, available through an ear specialist clinic Singapore medical facilities provide can substantially restore auditory perception and communication capabilities for appropriate candidates. Successful outcomes depend on careful patient selection, comprehensive pre-operative evaluation, and realistic expectations regarding post-implantation performance.

3. Accessing Comprehensive Care Services


Singapore hosts numerous qualified specialists with expertise in managing sudden hearing loss. Medical facilities throughout the region provide advanced diagnostic technologies and comprehensive ENT services designed to maximize hearing recovery potential through timely and appropriate intervention strategies tailored to individual patient needs.

Remember that sudden hearing loss constitutes a medical emergency requiring immediate specialist evaluation. Whether resulting from infectious processes, traumatic incidents, or undetermined mechanisms, early diagnosis coupled with appropriate therapeutic intervention significantly enhances recovery prospects and helps prevent permanent disability.

Tens of thousands march in the Netherlands to protest against Gaza genocide
https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/5/19/tens-of-thousands-march-in-the-netherlands-to-protest-against-gaza-genocide?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Europe News @europe-news-AlJazeera

in reply to woodland creature

i did end up spending a few hundred $ on assorted bearing pullers and bushings for the wheel bearing. the new shop press proved it can handle pressing out wheel bearings which is one of the reasons i built it

my philosophy for cars is to spend money on tools instead of paying a mechanic to fix stuff. been doing this since my early 20s and it seems to work out

“Catastrophic Situation”: North Gaza’s Public Hospitals Out of Service Due to Israeli Attacks #Palestine qudsnen.co/catastrophic-situat…

They are #AméricaYamiletSánchez and #AdalJairMarcos.

“América wasn’t just a cadet. She was also an outstanding swimmer, a young woman full of light, commitment and dreams,” Mexican outlet La Jornada wrote in an editorial about the victim.

“Hours before the accident, she shared with emotion an image of the ship that would take her to her final voyage, not knowing that this postcard would be her farewell.”


---

“We are originally from Oaxaca, and from the same community. Oaxaca is saddened by this news circulating on social media, but even more so in the Isthmus region where we are originally from,” a childhood friend of Marcos said when reached via Facebook.

“The community’s relationship with this tragic news is very strong, because there are many of us who had the good fortune to live with Adal,” said the friend, who did not want to be named publicly.

“He was a human being who spread his joy with his smiles. A sincere and loyal friend, who always supports others in difficult times.”


#RIP #Mexico #Navy #cadets #MexicanNavy #NewYork #allision #Cuauhtémoc

nydailynews.com/2025/05/18/cad…

If you’re having trouble visualising the power differentials designed into federated systems, think of this scenario:

You have an instance of 1 person. An instance of 1 million people decides to block your instance.

What have they done?

They’ve blocked 1 million people from interacting with you.

Now let’s reverse the scenario: You, with your instance of 1, decide to block an instance of 1 million.

What have you done?

You’ve blocked 1 million people from interacting with you.

#federation #power #decentralisation #peerToPeer

This is the elephant in the room with federation that supports instances of 1 or 1 million. The ones with 1 million become the mini Facebooks with mini Mark Zuckerbergs; infinitely more powerful than the instances of 1 or 100 and unaccountable to anyone but themselves. Decentralisation is about devolution of power. There’s a reason I’m designing the Small Web as a peer-to-peer web with only instances of one.

#SmallWeb #federation #decentralisation #power #equality mastodon.social/@rzeta0/114530…

Polish presidential election’s turnout stands at over 20% by Sunday noon tass.com/world/1959707

Roque Dalton: Laws are created to be followed by the poor. Laws are made by the rich to bring some order to exploitation. The poor are the only law abiders in history. When the poor make laws the rich will be no more. wordsmith.social/protestation/…


Quotes

  • Otto Kuusinen: As long as the working class wages only an economic struggle, the bourgeoisie does not see in that any great danger for itself; but when the working class organises politically, i.e., creates a political party which expresses its will as a class, the bourgeoisie begins seriously to fear for its rule. That is why reaction deals its main blows against the political party of the working class. At the same time, trying to undermine the party from within, capitalist propaganda endeavours to persuade the workers that they can do without their own party. One of the manifestations of bourgeois influence on the working class is the anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist denial of the leading role of a political party.
  • Democritus: Not from fear but from a sense of duty refrain from your sins.
  • Democritus: Many who have not learned wisdom live wisely, and many who do the basest deeds can make most learned speeches.
  • Democritus: Fools learn wisdom through misfortune.
  • Democritus: Strength of body is nobility in beasts of burden, strength of character is nobility in men.
  • Democritus: Neither art nor wisdom may be attained without learning.
  • Democritus: It is better to correct your own faults than those of another.
  • Democritus: Good means not (merely) not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.
  • Democritus: Fame and wealth without wisdom are unsafe possessions.
  • Muammar Gaddafi: We will not surrender. We will defeat them by any means. We are ready for the fight, whether it will be a short or a long one. We will be victorious in the end. This assault is by a bunch of fascists who will end up in the dustbin of history.
  • Democritus: By convention sweet is sweet, bitter is bitter, hot is hot, cold is cold, color is color; but in truth there are only atoms and the void.
  • Democritus: We know nothing accurately in reality, but (only) as it changes according to the bodily condition, and the constitution of those things that flow upon (the body) and impinge upon it.
  • Democritus: Medicine heals diseases of the body, wisdom frees the soul from passions.
  • Democritus: Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man.
  • Democritus: Men have fashioned an image of Chance as an excuse for their own stupidity.
  • Democritus: In a shared fish, there are no bones.
  • Democritus: Education is an ornament for the prosperous, a refuge for the unfortunate.
  • Democritus: The animal needing something knows how much it needs, the man does not.
  • Democritus: Moderation multiplies pleasures, and increases pleasure.
  • Democritus: If your desires are not great, a little will seem much to you; for small appetite makes poverty equivalent to wealth.
  • Democritus: No power and no treasure can outweigh the extension of our knowledge.
  • Democritus: In fact we do not know anything infallibly, but only that which changes according to the condition of our body and of the (influences) that reach and impinge upon it.
  • Democritus: Of practical wisdom these are the three fruits: to deliberate well, to speak to the point, to do what is right.
  • Democritus: 'Tis not in strength of body nor in gold that men find happiness, but in uprightness and in fulness of understanding.
  • Democritus: He who does wrong is more unhappy than he who suffers wrong.
  • Samuel P. Huntington: The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.
  • Marjori Palmer: One of the most morale-damaging aspects of the inflation was the "sack of Germany" that occurred at the height of the (1923) inflation. Anyone who possessed dollars or sterling was king in Germany. A few American dollars would allow a man to live like a millionaire. Foreigners swarmed into the country, buying up family treasures, estates, jewelry and art works at unbelievable low prices.
  • Lionel Robbins: It was the most colossal thing of its kind in history: and next probably to the Great War itself, it must bear responsibility for many of the political and economic difficulties of our generation. It destroyed the wealth of the more solid elements of German society: and left behind a moral and economic disequilibrium, a breeding ground for the disasters which have followed. Hitler is the foster child of the inflation.
  • Lenin: There is no trace of utopianism in Marx, in the sense that he made up or invented a 'new' society. No, he studied the birth of the new society out of the old, and the forms of transition from the latter to the former, as a natural-historical process. He examined the actual experience of a proletarian mass movement and tried to draw practical lessons from it.
  • Che Guevara: Many will call me an adventurer - and that I am, only one of a different sort: one of those who risks his skin to prove his platitudes.
  • Democritus: The first principles of the universe are atoms and empty space; everything else is merely thought to exist.
  • Bertolt Brecht: Lenin is enshrined In the large heart of the working class.


Self hosting (Akkoma) from home


I've been self hosting from home for over 5 years now. I wanted to write an article explaining steps to get you started and pitfalls you can encounter. I kinda aimed it at hosting Akkoma, but it should be usable more broadly as well.

Why


Self hosting from home may be cheaper than getting a VPS, but it's also more work and more time consuming. Home connections are typically quite slow compared to the speed you can get on VPS'es, so your instance may be considerably slower than using even a cheap VPS. Uploading and posting big files can also saturate the network while others are all fetching your media at the same time. And your ISP may make it hard on you if they aren't a big fan of people self-hosting from home.

Still, even with all these downsides, if you like tinkering with servers a bit, then self-hosting from home can be a fun experience and a great way to learn about system administration and hosting in general. Besides, it's fun to brag to your friends about how you have your own social network platform hosted on an old laptop from your living room ^^'

Hardware


Akkoma is not the heaviest micro-blogging server software out there, but it's not super-lightweight either and needs more than a proverbial toaster to run. An old laptop or PC can do just fine, or maybe you still have an SBC lying around, ready to be used in a fun project like this. From my personal experience, I would advise the following:

  • Make sure you have 2G RAM minimum and enable swap. Preferably more, but this should be enough to start.
  • For storage size, it depends. The database can quickly grow, but there's ways to minimise this. You can prune old remote objects and activities, you can expire your own posts, you can automatically remove old media when posts are deleted... Assuming it's a single user instance and you don't pull in too many posts, 20G should be enough to start. But if you're using an old laptop, you probably have closer to 100G, so this shouldn't be an issue regardless.
  • It's important to understand that many writes happen to the database, so using a HD is better than a cheap SD card for example, because SD cards are notorious for breaking down after too many writes.
  • For CPU, I run on an Intel i5, which is good enough. Lower will possibly also work.
  • You can expect a home network to be slower than a VPS, so the faster, the better. I have 20Mbs down and 2Mbs up, which is quite slow. My instance is not very snappy, but it's generally fast enough for my needs.


Connecting to your server from the local network


First you need to set up your server with an OS. Use any of the OS'es that are supported by Akkoma. For specific steps on how to install the OS, check the website of the OS or hardware.

Next we need to know the IP address we have on the local network. If you can get inside your router, then maybe you can see the server there and what IP address it got. This is specific to the router and ISP, so you'll need to figure that part out yourself. Another option is to check it from the server itself using one of these commands.

hostname -I
ip address

When you type the IP address in the address bar of a browser on a different machine on the local network (maybe your phone or laptop if it's connected over wifi), it will probably give an error that it can't connect. This is normal, because you probably don't have anything running yet.

First we'll make sure we have a simple webpage on the server so we can easily connect to that. The easiest way is to install an http server and check it's default landing page. Examples are Caddy, Nginx, or Apache. You need this when installing Akkoma, so you may as well install it now. Once the http server is up, you should see the HTML of the http server's default page when doing curl localhost on the server.

Now check if you can indeed access that page from the web browser on the other machine on the local network. You should see the default page.

If this works, awesome 👍 You now have a server running with a website, and can connect to it! You are now officially a sysadmin ❤

Connecting to the server from the internet


Now comes the big step, making it available from the internet! Just like how your server is connected to the local network over a local IP, so is your home connection connected to the internet over a public IP. If you're lucky, you have an IP dedicated for your home connection and you can forward traffic to your server. This needs to be done from your router. Each ISP and router is different and not all of them allow you to do this, or don't allow it for all ports. You'll need to find some documentation and try things out yourself. See if you have a booklet that came with the router, or look for information online. The Yunohost project has a list of ISP's per country. You can check if they have something about your ISP on this. If not, you can always try yourself, and add your findings to the Yunohost documentation so it can help others as well.

We need to set up port forwarding for at least port 80 and port 443. If you want to connect to the server over other ports, e.g. port 22 as the default port for ssh connections, then you need to set up port forwarding for that too. Again, how to do this exactly, depends on your ISP and router box, so this is a part that you'll need to figure out yourself and may not even be possible.

Once the port forwarding is set up, you can try connecting to the server by using the external, internet facing, IP address. To find this IP address, you can use a service who responds with the IP address they see from you. Here are two examples who should answer with your internet-facing IP address.

curl "https://ip.yunohost.org"
curl "http://t.karchnu.fr/ip.php"

Then you can type this IP in the address bar of a browser on any machine connected to the internet, and it should show the landing site you saw earlier. If it doesn't work from a machine inside your local network, try from a machine outside the local network (see the Hairpinning section below).

Point your domain to the correct IP


Now that we can connect to the server from the internet, we need to point our domain to it. Generally speaking, you will buy a domain at a registrar, and then set up DNS records there.

In this example, the public IP address is 192.0.2.0, change this to your own public IP. The first example is directly on the domain, the second example is on a subdomain like social.example.org.

@ 3600 IN A 192.0.2.0
social 3600 IN A 192.0.2.0

Another option is to have a DDNS domain (see below), in which case you have to set that up. How to do it, depends on where you got it and should be explained there.

Once it's set up, you can test if the domain points to the IP address properly with any of these commands. We use example.org as an example, change this to your own domain. Note that the DNS system uses caching, so if you see a different IP address, it's possible you will need to wait until the cache expires. The dig command will show how long it still takes for the cache to expire.

ping example.org
dig example.org

Once this works, you should be able to browse to the page using your own domain. Hooray 👍

Some potential problems with home IP's


Allowing people to self host from home is generally not a concern most ISP's have. In some cases they even actively make it difficult for you to self host. If you live in France, then maybe you can join one of the FFDN members. They are, among other things, ISP's who promote self hosting. (If you ever wondered why the French can have nice things, it's because they are not afraid to protest, you should protest more -_^ )

If you do not live in France, you may still be able to get a fixed IP with open ports through a VPN from one of the FFDN members. IMO it's by far the easiest solution because then you don't even need port forwarding, you get a VPN connection from them, activate it on your server, and done.

While these ISP's are friendly to self hosting, others may cause issues. The following are typical problems you may face when self hosting from home. If the above isn't an option, there are still some possible work-around you can consider.

Hairpinning


It's possible that a connection to your server using the public IP is possible from outside the local network, but not from inside the local network. The problem is that your router forwards a request to itself upstream, which causes an error. The solution to this is hairpinning. The router will detect the request is meant for itself, and will then handle that properly. This is something that needs to be set up on the router, and may or may not not be possible on yours.

If you have this problem, and you can't configure hairpinning on the router, you'll need to see in how far you want/need to work around this problem. The server is accessible from outside the local network, so for the rest of the world, nothing is wrong. Maybe that's enough for you, maybe not.

If you want to access the server from the local network as well, another option is to add your domain and the local IP to the hosts file of the machine you want to access it from. One problem with this is that it's per machine, and if you leave the local network with that machine, the machine will still point to the local IP you set up, so accessing your server won't be possible unless you change the hosts file again.

On Unix and Unix-like OS'es, the hosts file is /etc/hosts.

Dynamic IP address


Even if you can forward the needed ports, it's possible that the IP address changes over time. If you can't get a fixed IP address, one solution is to use Dynamic DNS (aka DDNS). The way this typically works is that you have a script running somewhere who, at certain intervals, updates the DNS records when your IP address changes. Some registrars provide this option, and there are also services who provide a subdomain with DDNS capabilities.

One such service is netlib.re. You can create an account, and get a subdomain under the netlib.re domain. With a script you can automatically check and update the IP address when it changes. If you install Yunohost, you can set up a DDNS domain provided by the Yunohost project.

You can either use this domain directly, or, if you want your own domain, you can set a CNAME or ALIAS DNS record.

Let's say you have a DDNS domain my_account.netlib.re pointing to your server, and you want to point your own domain to the same IP address.

When you want to use a subdomain, e.g. social.example.org, you use a CNAME record. In this example social is the subdomain and my_account.netlib.re is the DDNS domain. Replace both with what you want to use.

social 900 IN CNAME my_account.netlib.re.

When you want to use your domain directly, an ALIAS record is needed. Again, my_account.netlib.re is the DDNS domain. Replace with what you have.
@ 900 IN ALIAS my_account.netlib.re.

Once set up, and the cache expires, your domain should point to whatever the DDNS domain is pointing to.

No forwarding for certain ports


Maybe it's possible to forward certain ports, but not 80 and/or 443. There's not much you can do in this case.

You can listen to a different port, but this will cause issues. You may need to do extra work to get Lets Encrypt to work to set up https, and others need to connect to you over a different than default port. This isn't generally done on fedi, so I don't know how software will react to this. Honestly, I'm not even sure if Akkoma can properly handle this.

Another option is if maybe you can set up a proxy somewhere. Then your domain needs to point to the proxy, and the proxy forwards the request to you on the open port. The problem is that now you need such a proxy server, and you probably want traffic to be encrypted between the proxy and your server. Handling certificates in this way, may get messy.

No forwarding at all


Sometimes port forwarding isn't possible at all. A typical example is when your ISP uses Carrier-grade_NAT. In that case, the IP address the internet sees, will be shared with other people as well.

Even a proxy wont work in this example, so a VPN or switching ISP's is really about all you can do.

Geolocation


Different ISP's have different ranges of IP's. Since they operate in specific areas, it's possible to guess where someone is connected from based on their IP. In most cases this isn't very specific, but maybe it's still too precise for your comfort. In that case you may not want your home IP to be publicly visible.

Note that your IP is also visible to those to whom you do requests. Using a proxy may allow you to set a different IP address for your domain, but when your instance does requests to another instance, they will see the IP the request came from. For this reason a proxy is not enough, unless you set it up for both incoming and outgoing requests.

IPv4 vs IPv6


Generally, traffic on the internet is routed using IPv4. But there are limitations to the amount of existing addresses, and we have basically reached these limits. When this whole IP thing was first thought about, computer resources were still very limited. Each extra bit you had to send over the network was significant and the idea of more than a couple of thousand computers being connected this way was not obvious to everyone.

In 2017 IPv6 became an official internet standard. It solves some problems that IPv4 has. The addresses are longer, and, as such, there's a much larger amount of possible addresses.

In this article we used IPv4 because afaik this is still the most used, and most probably the type of address you have on your home router. It's possible however that you have an IPv6, or that your ISP allows you to get one when asked. If you have both, it is generally considered good practice to use both IPv4 and IPv6.

To check the public IPv6 address, you can try

curl "http://ip6.yunohost.org"

If you can't connect, then you probably don't have an IPv6 address to begin with.

To set the DNS records, you need an AAAA record instead of A. When you have DDNS, it's possibly already set up correctly. If not, you can maybe check with the DDNS provider if they allow IPv6.

Here's an example to set an AAAA record, change the IP address to your own.

@ 3600 IN AAAA 2001:db8::8a2e:370:acab

To check if a domain points to an IPv6 correctly, you can use dig.
dig -t AAAA example.org

Installing Akkoma


Once you can properly access the server from the internet, all that's left to do is install Akkoma, or whatever other service you want to run, and enjoy the misery you brought upon yourself by choosing to self host 🤗

Have fun!

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