perlgod (u/perlgod) - Readit News

perlgod commented on Ask HN: Do You Host Your Own Email? · Posted by u/CM30

perlgod · 3 years ago

I host email from my basement. Rackmount server down there runs all my VMs, including ones for Postfix, Dovecot, and Rspamd. Apache Solr/Tika are connected to dovecot for full-text IMAP search. Never had any issues, but I have postfix on a static IP from a business-class cable internet connection, so I'm sure that helps.

Dovecot and the postfix submission port (587) are only accessible internally, or through my home wireguard VPN.

Rspamd catches just about all junk mail. I might have one or two messages a week slip through. Moving messages to/from the Junk folder trains Rspamd to recognize spam/ham.

Make sure the IP of your mail server has reverse DNS in place, and set up SPF/DMARC records and DKIM signing, and you should be fine. I've been doing this for a decade and never had any problems.

I do maintain a separate, paid email account at a commercial provider for things like banking. In case I die, I don't want my poor wife to deal with my crazy email setup.

This topic always brings up so many hysterical naysayers, I almost wonder if some are paid Gmail shills!

perlgod commented on LibRedirect: Redirect YouTube, Twitter, Instagram to privacy friendly services github.com/libredirect/li... · Posted by u/kls0e

geoffeg · 3 years ago

I've considered hosting my own Nitter and Bibliogram instances but I have to wonder if that reduces their privacy veil a bit. Wouldn't the requests from those instances be coming from a single IP, thereby potentially allowing their respective services to still track you? (Sure, you're avoiding the analytics from those service's web front-ends or apps but that can probably mostly be achieved by disabling JS.) I've considered adding a VPN or TOR gateway between the nitter and bibliogram instances I host to make them harder to track.

perlgod · 3 years ago

I agree. If you're the only user of your instance, they can easily track you server-side by your IP address. You could mitigate this by routing your egress traffic (either from the individual device or network-wide, from your router) through a VPN.

perlgod commented on LibRedirect: Redirect YouTube, Twitter, Instagram to privacy friendly services github.com/libredirect/li... · Posted by u/kls0e

triyambakam · 3 years ago

How do you host them?

perlgod · 3 years ago

I host everything from a server in my basement. Each local application gets a dedicated Rocky Linux VM on a proxmox hypervisor, with the VM/DNS/app configuration managed though a custom ansible framework that I've developed for my "homelab" over the years. Don't currently mess with containers.

My mobile devices have an always-on wireguard VPN back to my house so I can access everything while out and about.

perlgod commented on LibRedirect: Redirect YouTube, Twitter, Instagram to privacy friendly services github.com/libredirect/li... · Posted by u/kls0e

perlgod · 3 years ago

Fantastic extension. I self-host Invidious, Teddit, Nitter, and Bibliogram and configured LibRedirect to use only my private instances. Unfortunately, the community instances are often either overloaded or down entirely. It's hard to imagine going back to the "real" sites...they are all so user-hostile.

Since Android doesn't support browser extensions, I accomplish the same thing using the Bromite browser along with a handful of UserScripts to redirect youtube/twitter/etc to my private instances.

Edit: Yes, I know Firefox for Android supports extensions, but the work required [0] to actually install any extension other than the handful "blessed" by Mozilla borders on hilarity. Firefox for Android seemed pretty good a few years ago, but at some point since then Mozilla has done a full redesign of the GUI and the whole thing now feels janky to me. I tried using it for a couple days and just couldn't bear it. My impression is that Mozilla is letting it languish.

For simplicity, I use the exact same setup for all my family's Android phones (GrapheneOS with a persistent wireguard connection back to the house) and Firefox was just too strange for the non-technical people to use.

In addition, GrapheneOS makes some pretty compelling arguments [1] against FF-based browsers.

Lest anyone accuse me of being a Firefox hater, I do use it on the desktop.

[0] https://www.ghacks.net/2020/10/01/you-can-now-install-any-ad...

[1] https://grapheneos.org/usage#web-browsing

perlgod commented on The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity (2017) journals.uchicago.edu/doi... · Posted by u/wtracy

blackearl · 5 years ago

I would think it's better to develop the will power to not hop on your phone whenever available, take a breath, smell the flowers, but also still have the option of something as amazing as GPS. Not really interested in going back to pulling over and looking at a map these days.

perlgod · 5 years ago

"muh GPS" is definitely the most common argument people give me. Garmin still makes car GPS units. I have one and it works well.

To be fair, I was able to refrain from mindless scrolling all the time. But with the phone nearby, I always wanted to mindlessly scroll during every random quiet moment.

I liken it to an alcoholic keeping an ice cold beer on his desk all day, but doing his best not to take a sip. Why subject yourself?

I experimented without a smartphone and I am happier as a result. This will probably not be the case for everyone. But, if you ever feel like a slave to your own technology, I highly recommend trying it out.

perlgod commented on The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity (2017) journals.uchicago.edu/doi... · Posted by u/wtracy

stevensawtelle · 5 years ago

Can you talk more to the practicalities of getting rid of a smartphone? Have you seriously found that the loss of the conveniences they bring haven't been that burdensome? I am really intrigued by the idea but find it almost inconceivable to work for me (which might speak to an addiction, so I feel compelled to understand this further)

perlgod · 5 years ago

I have not found it to be overly burdensome. I have an indestructible kyocera flip phone, so I'm able to call people (and SMS in a pinch).

I have an LTE-enabled tablet, so if I'm going somewhere totally unfamiliar, I'll throw it in my bag just in case I need to look up some information. Otherwise you just have to plan your outings in advance - like we always did prior to 2008 or so.

I have a Garmin GPS mounted in car for road trips, which I honestly prefer since it doesn't tempt me to fiddle with it while driving like a smartphone does. I also carry a semi-nice digital camera sometimes. It's obviously not as convenient as a smartphone camera, but I find I am more thoughtful and appreciative of the photos I take as a result.

I use more paper items (small paper notebook for grocery lists, transit tickets instead of using the app, etc). This can be somewhat freeing, as I've missed my ferry a handful of times because their app glitched out.

My personality tends towards obsession and analysis paralysis, which can be good for programming but sometimes bad for real life. I no longer obsess over which restaurant has the best looking pictures or online reviews, I just walk inside and try it out. Sometimes this is for the better, sometimes for the worse, but it's definitely a more human experience.

Without the smartphone, I also find I am much more inclined to talk to random strangers, since I can't just whip out the phone during awkward silent moments.

With lack of FOMO, I am also much more present with family and friends, which is probably the biggest benefit.

perlgod commented on The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity (2017) journals.uchicago.edu/doi... · Posted by u/wtracy

perlgod · 5 years ago

Getting rid of my smartphone was without a doubt the most positive thing I ever did for myself.

I'm sure some people have the self-control to use it sparingly. But for me, not having to constantly fight the urge to check my always-connected magic pocket internet portal has freed up a huge amount of my mental willpower, which I can now redirect to other more important things.

Now that everything is closed, I don't even miss having the convenience of Uber/Google Maps. Additionally, without social media, I remain blissfully unaware of whatever corona hysteria or political drama is consuming the minds of my peers.

These devices have a veritable legion of engineers working to make the smartphone experience as addictive as possible. For some people, the only winning move it not to play.

perlgod commented on How to run your own mail server (2017) c0ffee.net/blog/mail-serv... · Posted by u/starbugs

dpcan · 6 years ago

Then you realize the true pain of having a near-zero reputation when trying to email anything to people on Gmail, Yahoo, Live, etc, etc. Expect to go to spam even if you have DKIM, SPF, and no relaying. If anyone actually knows the secret to not having your own mail-server's mail go to spam on these bigger systems, please tell, I've Googled it for years with no success.

perlgod · 6 years ago

(I'm the author of TFA.)

I have never had this issue. Generally the issue is either IP reputation of your server (common with VPS providers if you get a recycled IP of a previous spammer) or your domain name.

Otherwise you are probably just unlucky enough to tickle the spam-prevention mechanisms in the almighty "algorithm" run by $BIGMAILER.

I keep one "normie" email address at a $BIGMAILER for situations like this, but at this point in my life I mostly just shrug if some big advertising/surveillance company's email system won't deliver my mail, I just won't email that person.

Be the change you want to see and all that.

perlgod commented on How to run your own mail server (2017) c0ffee.net/blog/mail-serv... · Posted by u/starbugs

systemfreund · 6 years ago

I'd like to point to another smtp server, which I am using and is much easier to set up than postfix in my opinion, especially for small servers like mine: https://www.opensmtpd.org/

I'm running a personal mailserver (opensmptd, dovecot, dkim, spf, dmarc, spamassassin) for some years now and although I initially had problems with deliverability to google there aren't any (apparent) issues so far.

Also I don't understand why people keep emphasizing google's spam filter being so much better than anything else. For my personal server SpamAssassin has proved itself to be more than sufficient, its spam filtering performance is on par with Gmail's (I have a Gmail account aswell), at least for me.

Of course, Gmails spam filter works better for the billions of accounts they manage, but in order to handle the spam of a tiny mail server I'm probably not the only person who is satisfied with SpamAssassin.

perlgod · 6 years ago

Author here. I actually use OpenSMTPD currently, but I haven't bothered to write a full article about it.

Details of my current setup are here:

https://github.com/cullum/dank-selfhosted

Though this will be out of date soon since I'm moving everything over to Illumos...I have a fondness for dying operating systems I guess!

perlgod commented on Men Are Waiting to Share Some Feelings (2018) nytimes.com/2018/12/08/st... · Posted by u/ignored

perlgod · 6 years ago

I wouldn’t take this as a representative sample of all men.

In my experience, sharing feelings makes me feel worse and substantially reduces my appeal to others. I prefer to just deal with my problems logically and avoid such navel gazing.