this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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Pseudo-monopolies are great at extinguishing imagination like that, and tbh Google search (as I understand its basic setup) was only as good as it was thanks to timing and few really good competitors.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I'll tack on to what the other commenter said:

  • Cost: I considered myself a heavy searcher (software engineer and gamer) and have been surprised to see I have rarely exceeded even half of my allotted searches ($5/mo, 300 searches). I'm now reprogramming my brain to stop turning to alternatives when something should be easy to find because "I might use up all my queries".
  • Better: apart from all of the cool features, and there are many, there's also that it just "feels better". I don't know how to qualify that despite being a professional in that world. It's kinda the opposite feeling that I had using Google over the last 5+ years where I wondered if I was getting dumber or if the internet (and Google) was absolutely full of garbage.

It's on the very short list of subscriptions I pay for right now despite having a very limited budget at the moment.

[–] Elliott 2 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I think based on your response I'm going to jump in. What other subscriptions you think are worth it?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Not the OP but currently have:

  • Kagi - Search...
  • Proton - Email, Calendar, VPN, Pass (I just use for aliases). Now that I've upped my privacy knowledge I need to reevaluate. I do like their products though from a useability perspective. VPN supporting port forwarding is a bonus.
  • Backblaze B2 - off site backups using rclone and Round Sync (android rclone) to sync files
  • Mullvad VPN - Just got based on the XMR payment option and RAM only servers. Still deciding where I have a VPN included with Proton. I don't like putting my eggs all in one basket though as I did with Google so its attractive to keep.
  • Bitwarden - Password manager. May switch to self hosted in the future.
  • Standard Notes - May switch to self hosted if I don't lose any features I use.
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You obviously have good taste 👌😁 (no /s)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks! Also trying out these just to evaluate this past week, lol.

  • EteSync - Contact sync since Proton won't integrate natively with android (grr). Probably self host this one when I get time to rebuild my server also.
  • Jmp.chat - More of a curiosity, but thought it was cool I could get a number with voice/text over XMPP (native dialer integration, tex t in XMPP client) plus a data eSIM all with Monero and without giving any info. Not private due to the calls/text come in the clear. Could be anonymous if you get a phone not tied to your name. Obviously you can be narrowed down to a tower you're connecting to also. Using a free xmpp server now but want to self host this one also.
  • Frugal Usenet / NZBgeek - Bought with crypto over VPN and no personal info. Working on rebuilding my mini-pc server as an *arr stack, then look into self hosting everything else.
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