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    <title>a return to the wild west - Archive - MayVaneDay Studios</title>
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<b>MayVaneDay Studios (Gopher Edition)</b>
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  <p><b>a return to the wild west</b></p>
  <p><b>published: 6-23-2018</b></p>
  <p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>I hate my phone. I hate that it's the first thing I grab when I wake up in the morning, day after day after day. I hate that everyone I know expects me to keep it turned on and charged and ready for their inane messages 24/7 and treats me like a second-class citizen whenever I turn it off for whatever reason. If I'm not available to spam shit-tier minion memes poorly screenshotted from facebook at, I might as well not even exist.</p>

<p>Having a phone is seen as a rite of passage for independence as a teenager, even though it's the exact opposite, really- but which shackles are better? Your parents' wrists because they're too paranoid to let you out of their sights for even a split-second, or a phone with perpetual tracking capabilities baked into the baseband and obeying every beck and call of your ISP at the behest of the two people who donated DNA to your existence?</p>

<p>You already know how I feel about proprietary software. I abhor it, and I despise devices which require it in order to function. I hate not being able to trust that it'll obey my commands and *my commands alone*, only beholden to me and me alone.</p>

<p>My phone is not supported by <a href="https://www.replicant.us/">Replicant</a>, a completely FOSS version of Android. It requires proprietary drivers to boot, let alone operate the Bluetooth and WiFi and mobile data modules, let alone every other piece of my phone still shackled to stock Android by Samsung. It requires flashing a <a href="https://androidforums.com/threads/root-sm-n900v-verizon-note-3-lollipop-success.1016822/">slightly shady firmware</a> in order to root it, and even then, it's a soft root- any "removed" apps show back up on a factory reset, which is irrelevant as it then soft-bricks itself until I reflash the original firmware. At any time and for any reason, my parents could call up Verizon, and the shady people there could remotely locate my phone.</p>

<p>And thus me, unless I don't have my phone on me, in which case they'd freak out even harder and consider getting the police involved.</p>

<p>Don't get me wrong- phones can be an absolute godsend. A music player, a flashlight, a drawing pad, a notebook for writing in, a camera, a portable distraction device to silently signal to others that you're a misanthrope and don't want to talk to normies. Except for when they run out of data, and you're forced to use public wifi with all its glories of public sniffers and captive portals and draconian firewalls.</p>

<p>So what happens when you run out of data, and your paranoia won't let you use that crippled public connection? Well, you're stuck with whatever you have offline.</p>

<p>My brothers are stuck with Chromebooks, because my school doesn't give a rat's damn about anything other than costs, leading it to <a href="https://mayvaneday.keybase.pub/archive/blog/2017/november/infierno.html">trade its students' souls</a> for a chance to <a href="https://mayvaneday.keybase.pub/archive/blog/2017/november/wanderlust.html">suck Google's primary-colored cock.</a><!-- there are more posts I need to link here --> They require a constant internet connection for 99% of their functions, unless you're lucky enough to get one that can install Android apps, in which case it's down to 98%. They're basically botbet browsers with keyboards.</p>

<p>They don't hold a flame to my laptop, which can be a:</p>

<ul>
<li>music player</li>
<li>game console</li>
<li>word processor</li>
<li>photo editor</li>
<li>TV</li>
<li>chat machine</li>
<li>programming workstation</li>
</ul>

<p>All without internet.</p>

<p>Recently, I bought a Raspberry Pi. I set it up as a headless Syncthing server. Syncthing is a program for decentralized file synchronization: unlike a traditional FTP or Nextcloud server, every device is its own node, so if one node goes down, the remaining nodes can continue to sync with each other. Syncthing also supports dynamic IP addresses, so no matter what network I'm set up on, I can sync my files.</p>

<p>And unlike the other two options, Syncthing can work on a LAN without outside network access.</p>

<p>Which leads me to meshnets. A network of devices all linked together to form their own mini-internet, still functional regardless of whether or not the outside internet is working or accessible. It's not as apocalyptic as one might think- local multiplayer in games, sharing files between two friends.</p>

<p>Hosting mirrors of websites cached offline and updated in the few fleeting moments of access to the outside world.</p>

<p>My books are licensed under Creative Commons. <!-- insert specific license --> This website is as well. I don't care if you wget the whole thing and host a mirror for yourself, just as long as you make it clear that I made all the content and not you. Hell, I even *encourage* it! The biggest threat to me isn't losing profits, because I don't make any profits off this in the first place, but obscurity. I'd rather not make a penny off my work and be well-known and well-respected than never get the chance at all.</p>

<p>So mirror away. Run a copy of MayVaneDay for your friends, for your family, for your weird little computer club. Just be sure to check back here every once in a while for any updates. :)</p>

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