@stefano
Some time in the last millennium I started to install somewhere from 2-4x of RAM than was deemed sensible in my computers and that custom has served me well. I have 64GB in my desktop and 256GB in my main server and I can usually pick a convenient time to upgrade.

@stefano

So the billionaires have gobbled up all the worlds money and now they are gobbling up all the worlds computer resources. Leeches!

@stefano - the whole point behind a 'personal computer' was that the user wasn't relying on a dumb keyboard attached to some anonymous mainframe elsewhere that held the OS, software and your data. With a PC, the users was in control, on a device that was local. If not in their lap.
Now we're being told that subscription-based software, virtual software (including OS), cloud-based storage and a software application that chooses what it will offer the user is the way to go.

@stefano I wish people knew how important it is to ask "where is my data?", when they do literally anything.

Not, "do I have access to my data", but "where are the bits physically".

I'd like to think making people think about their data in its physical form makes it easier for people to realize how much control over themselves they're giving away.

I wish I was better at communicating this because it should be important to them.

Local-first software design principles should be some kinda law.

@stefano I think we'll adapt 😊 Lot of unutilized hardware out there, HDD prices might be less affected, companies selling off windows 10 PCs, etc etc.

Also yeah the market might be flooded with used datacenter parts pretty soon.

Finding RAM for a new PC will be tougher.

@stefano The local university surplus outlet always has inexpensive hardware. I picked up 20 500GB drives for $1 each, for example.

@stefano
"Because taking down one giant datacenter…"
Physical sabotage, or an genuine accident with a digger!

No Silver Lining
“If an in-house system fails, only one bank, or one retailer or one supplier is affected,” insisted Louise. “If everything is outsourced to the Cloud, even if it’s a hundred times more reliable it’s an apocalyptically bad event because you lose everything at once. There are too few cloud providers, who are too similar and too big.”
11 years ago!
https://www.corvidspress.com/fiction/otherworld-series/no-silver-lining/

@stefano Him. Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity. OTOH, you right that the best threat model for this IS malice.

@stefano I have nothing stored in the cloud apart from boring emails from google in gmail.

@stefano Take the first step: download your data from the cloud to your home. Verify that everything’s in it (could be simple like a count of your photos). E.g. Google’s Takeout is notorious for missing the occasional photo! E.g. Amazon doesn’t even offer a bulk download feature (file a support ticket!). Keep growing your list: Bank (default is to keep for 18 months? Boo!), utility company (I have usage data for >20 years), phone call history (I keep 10 yrs for business taxes), and more.

@stefano The sad thing is I feel most people don't even realize that they DON"T OWN their data if they're reliant on social media, etc.

@stefano Going back to HDDs if I have to. Time to make videogames like we have in the good old days witha memory footprint of 4MB.

@stefano Totally agree and I wanna add that often you don't even to self host to Own Your Data, you can start small with stuff such as:
- backing up your photo on your desktop/laptop using the gold old cable and an app supporting PTP protocol (Windows and Mac have at least one preinstalled while on BSD and Linux you have many options to download from package repositories), no iCloud or Google Photos needed
- choosing DRM free ebooks, music and games and keeping a backup of them
- using Syncthing to sync your data across devices

@stefano In 5 years:
Curical is reborn because AI was a big hype.