Privacy

This post is originally composed on 2024-11-28. I’m updating it for combining NextDNS, since I have started using a new freemium app with nasty ADs in it. ProtonVPN’s free plan doesn’t allow me to configure AD blocking DNS, especially with their official app. But with WireGuard app, this can be trivial. Thank to the original guide on reddit, the newly added part is in the end of this article. As a early adopter of Protonmail, I use their later coming VPN product as well, regularly yet lightly. Although I’m a potential customer but still not paying for any of their plan, for many reasons. ...

Lately, there is a need of private chatbot service as a complete alternative to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. So, I decide to implement one at home and make it accessible to everyone in my household alongside with my network printer and NAS (OpenMediaVault). In the past, I used to recommend people using Llama series for English tasks and Qwen series for Chinese tasks. There was no open-source model that’s strong enough in multilingual tasks comparing to proprietary ones (GPT/Claude). ...

Recently I came down to want a mobile hotspot when going out of home, something like Netgear Nighthawk M series, but able to flash custom firmware (OpenWrt/pfSense equivalents) and cheap. However, there is no such thing on the market even without budget consideration. So it has to be done with DIY, like USB tethering with a router. In the case of tethering or so called Ethernet over USB, we are using a phone as a cellular modem for our router. ...

Kali Linux & FreshTomato Parrot OS was on my old ThinkPad for many years. I recently upgraded it and had some issue with my multi-bootloader. Although it’s not Parrot OS’s fault, I switched to Kali Linux as a workaround. I’ve been using this pentesting system since early BackTrack era but never felt it ought to be installed on a hard drive. The graphic installer is much simpler than Parrot OS that may not be an issue for most people. My complain is just because my multi-boot hard drive has a very complex partition structure where an advanced installer is needed. ...

#aliases: [“standby”] This is my 2nd time using HUGO and hosting a site on Github Pages. It’s so convenient compare to self hosting. I don’t have to set up DDNS or CDN, also not have to patch up or update everything periodically to keep it secure. All the steps I have done are very similar to this article, except making the Personal Access Token and Custom Domain (these are easy to find separately). ...