Glances vs Dozzle vs Beszel for Docker Container Monitoring This video explores some practical pros and cons between open source self-hosted Glances, Dozzle and Beszel for the monitoring of running Docker containers in terms of their performance stats, error logs, automated alerting, and troubleshooting of issues. It concludes with an overview of the Docker compose configuration files to run Beszel. I did not unpack the Hub vs Agent relationship for Beszel in the video (as I delved into that only the following day), but note that an agent is required for monitoring of services, but an agent will only connect to one Beszel Hub using a unique token and key combination (created in the Hub when adding a System, and then transferred into the Agent's config file). So if an Agent is running on a remote VPS you can link it to a local Beszel Hub, but if you also want to link it to a Beszel Hub running on that remote VPS, then you must create a second Agent container and link that to the VPS's Beszel Hub. Watch #technology #selfhosting #docker #opensource

ClipCascade is a self-hosted clipboard manager that syncs across devices without the cloud There are a couple of apps that do P2P sync of clipboard data or files between devices, but most, like LocalSend, require you to open the app on each device. Others alternatively require dropping the text or file onto a browser page. ClipCascade will work seamless with your device's clipboard, so this make sit fictionless to use. Only downside for some is that an iOS app is still in the woks (and I imagine that thee will be challenges with iOS). The service employs end-to-end-encryption so should be secure, even when using their free cloud service if you want to test it out. See

XDA

This self-hosted clipboard manager syncs across devices without the cloud

Say goodbye to cloud dependency and hello to seamless clipboard syncing across all your devices.

#technology #selfhosting #opensource #clipboard

Henson Razors are engineered to give a spectacular shave with dirt-cheap generic blades, and it's on sale “Razors are one of the most heavily and competitively marketed products in American capitalism. Made with steel and plastic that costs a few pennies but sold for a thousand-percent profit, the razor market is the subject of vigorous academic study and debate. The founder of Gillette famously came up with a model of basically giving away the razor handle so he could sell the blades. Canadian startup Henson has the opposite model, charging $79 for a razor that can give you an excellent shave with dirt-cheap disposable blades that cost about 15 cents each.” I've not used one of these Henson razors yet, but seeing I have been using safety razors and DE blades for the last 15 years or so, I can attest to it costing a lot less than cartridge razors, the shave is pretty good, and it takes about the same time. It should be a no-brainer, but the Gillette PR machine has so many people convinced that they need the latest vibrating 8-blade razor. Two tips I can give with wet shaving with double-edged blades, is not to skimp on the quality of the razor as you're going to use it for decades, and the other is to buy a blade sample pack. The reason for the sample pack is, everyone's skin is different, and razors have differing aggressiveness angles, as do the blades. With those three factors, you want to find the sweet spot. A sample pack helps you test a few popular blades out with your razor. Of course, this type of shaving opens up all sorts of opportunities for gifts from razor stands, to custom handles, to shaving soaps (yes you don't want to use aerosol shaving cream anymore), to shaving scuttles, and so on. It becomes a whole hobby in itself. I was also pleasantly surprised to see in the last month, quite a few youngsters asking on Reddit about how they could get started with traditional wet shaving, as well as one lady who wanted to convert her spouse to it as well. So it is ever-growing, as can be seen from the number of artisans making shaving soaps, handles, razors, etc. I can safely say (that's a pun, by the way) that I will never ever go back to multi-blade cartridge razor shaving. Sorry Gillette. See

WIRED

Get (or Gift) 2 Years of Spectacular Shaves for $80 Right Now

Henson Razors are engineered to give a spectacular shave with dirt-cheap generic blades.

#technology #retro #traditionalwetshaving

Pikimov is a free video editor that runs entirely in your browser “Pikimov is a free, browser-based motion design and video editing tool developed by Clément Cordier as an alternative to Adobe After Effects. You don’t have to download anything, and you don’t even have to create an account to use the entire app. However, you are encouraged to support the project via Patreon. Just like After Effects, Pikimov uses layer-based editing, a composition system, and a familiar panel layout. So anyone coming from AE should feel right at home, and its simplicity will feel like a breath of fresh air compared to Resolve. Pikimov is the perfect tool for anyone who wants to create animations or edit videos but doesn’t have the hardware, doesn’t want to pay a subscription, or doesn’t have the patience for learning heavyweight tools.” I was actually a bit lost trying to use it, but I'm more used to DaVInci Resolve and Kdenlive video editors, and have never used Adobe After Effects. But seeing it all runs locally in my browser (versus uploading to the cloud) it actually loaded my test video very quickly and scrubbing through it was very quick as well. It says it runs in Chrome and Edge browsers, but it did not load in my Brave browser. It did however load fine in my Vivaldi browser. But it does show again how incredibly powerful browsers can be, and I do like the local first, no account registration needed. See

XDA

Pikimov is a free video editor that runs entirely in your browser

A free editor with premium energy

#technology #videoediting

This new Steam game lets you dissect and repair an Atari 2600 “If you're someone who likes dissecting every piece of technology that you come across, especially older retro tech, then keep an eye on this newly revealed Steam game. At the Wholesome Snack: The Game Awards 2025 Edition indie game showcase, I Am Future developer Mandragora and Hello Neighbor publisher tinyBuild revealed ReStory, which is set to launch on Steam in 2026.” I needed this game back in the early 1980s, as I remember taking our family TV apart to build an oscilloscope. The oscilloscope worked, but the TV did not, and my dad had to get a TV technician to repair the TV. Back then, we also did not have smartphones to take photos of things as you were removing their insides. See

XDA

This new Steam game lets you dissect and repair an Atari 2600

ReStory is a cozy new indie game where players can take apart and repair retro tech like an Atari 2600

#technology #gaming #retro

4 productivity Docker containers that don't require 24/7 runtime Yes, these services need not be run 24/7, just when you actually want to use them. It's true, too, that BentoPDF is way lighter on resources than SterlingPDF, but with it's zero-knowledge and ultra-light footprint it also remembers nothing. So, if moving between PDF tools, you will need to save the PDF and re-open it in the next tool to work further. If they could introduce some local persistence, it could be a great tool. The services covered are: * Excalidraw * BentoPDF * Budget Board * BookLore See

XDA

4 productivity Docker containers that don't require 24/7 runtime

Productivity on your command

#technology #selhosting #opensource

The Intel N100 killed the Raspberry Pi for home servers Yes, Pi prices have gone up, as have requirements for hosting a few services. I already found myself migrating off my original Pi, and even my Intel NUC device as a home server. It is worth keeping in mind what your requirements are vs the total cost of ownership. See

XDA

The Intel N100 killed the Raspberry Pi for home servers

It redefines what budget home server hardware can deliver, pushing performance- and value-focused Raspberry Pi boards out of the spotlight.

#technology #raspberrypi #selfhosting

8 tiny open source utilities that can instantly make your Linux desktop feel faster I'd not heard of these apps before, so would be interested to hear if anyone has had good experiences with them? * Zram-generator * Preload * Profile-sync-daemon * Ananicy-cpp * Nohang * Wl-clipboard * FSearch (had heard of this one) * Vicinae See

XDA

8 tiny utilities that instantly make my Linux desktop feel faster

You can boost your productivity easily

#technology #Linux #opensource

I tried this text adventure game from 1977, and it was better than I expected Back in the early days, before graphics and even block graphics, we had text adventure games. This sort of goes back to the dial-up bulletin board days. They were actually a lot of fun, and one of the reasons why was, because we used our imagination instead of 4K graphics on a plate. Even my Hewlett-Packard HP-41CV programmable calculator had a great text adventure game called Hunt the Wumpus, where you had to navigate 20 interconnected caves with pits, bats, and try to find and shoot the Wumpus. See

XDA

I tried this text adventure game from 1977, and it was better than I expected

It's open source, too.

#technology #gaming #retro

Big Microsoft 365 price increases coming next year This should also be a call to those of us (personal or organisations) who have been using free and open source alternatives such as LibreOffice, FreeOffice, ONLYOFFICE, and many others for the last decade or two, to make a small donation to those projects for keeping their office suites free and open source, as well as free of vendor lock-in. See

TechCentral

Big Microsoft price increases coming next year

Microsoft will increase prices for its Microsoft 365 productivity suites globally starting in July 2026 by as much as 33%.

#technology #opensource

The Rest Is History has received the 2025 Apple Podcasts Award for Show of the Year “The Rest Is History does a phenomenal job in taking a subject as vast as human history and captivating a global audience,” said Oliver Schusser, vice president of Apple Podcasts, Apple Music, Apple Sports, and Beats. “Tom and Dominic have created something special that represents the very best of what's possible with podcasting — it's educational, it's hilarious, and it has fostered a true sense of community.” It is worth noting though if you are not using Apple Podcasts, it is available for free elsewhere too. I did a search in my AntennaPod podcast player and found it. Just look for The Rest is History by Goalhanger. See

MacRumors

Apple Announces 2025 Podcast of the Year

Apple today announced that The Rest Is History has received the 2025 Apple Podcasts Award for Show of the Year for its high quality and cultural im...

#technology #podcasts #history

Been waiting for this! Proton now has a Google Sheets clone with end-to-end encryption Spreadsheets are finally rolling out over the next few days for Proton users. I actually use spreadsheets more often than documents, for product comparisons or purchase decisions. So this is something that has been holding me back a bit from using Proton Drive more fully. Yes, the feature set is going to be rather minimal right now compared to more mature products, and it also is not (yet) exporting to ODF format. "Proton Sheets is protected by end-to-end encryption, ensuring that no one else, not even Proton, can access your spreadsheet and the information it contains. Whether you’re tracking your home budget or managing a multi-team project, Sheets can help you get the job done. Use built-in formulas to perform analysis, turn raw data into easily understood charts, and collaborate with remote teams knowing your information is safe." See

How-To Geek

Proton now has a Google Sheets clone with end-to-end encryption

End-to-end encryption with your collaborative spreadsheets.

#technology #privacy #spreadsheets

[RAMBLE] offers privacy-respecting user forums similar to Reddit You may have seen many Reddit alternatives popping up on the Fediverse over the last few years, and some of them are pretty busy. I've done posts over the years on BeeHaw and similar sites there. And although they are decentralised servers, they are still IPv4 (clearnet) servers that can be blocked. [RAMBLE] is a similar type of social site that is accessible on clearnet, I2P, Tor and Yggdrasil. Interestingly though, you can ONLY log in on I2P though if you want to post, comment, or vote. Why the I2P network? The I2P (Invisible Internet Project) network excels in providing strong anonymity and privacy through its decentralised, encrypted overlay on the regular internet, ideal for peer-to-peer communication without revealing user identities or locations. By users being forced to use the I2P network to actually log in, their privacy and anonymity is better protected by default, and of course, it is also not easy to actually locate and block the [RAMBLE] site itself. So is [RAMBLE] then all criminal and dark web? Actually, no, it is not. It is about protecting privacy and preventing freedoms of speech censorship. It's rules actually prohibit buying or selling anything illegal, prohibit explicit sexual images including those of minors, no calls for violence, no hate speech (e.g. racism, bigotry, discrimination against other groups, etc), no trolling or harassment of other users. It has no age verification requirement. You can access it at: * Clearnet (read only): https://ramble.pw * Yggdrasil (read only): [200:b846:2eaa:4ed5:260c:a883:4df4:f79f] * Tor (read only): http://rambleeeqrhty6s5jgefdfdtc6tfgg4jj6svr4jpgk4wjtg3qshwbaad.onion * I2P (log in): http://ramble.i2p #technology #socialnetworks #alternativesto #privacy

How Tor Can Help You Be More Anonymous on the Internet Whilst a Tor browser can access normal HTTPS websites, it can also access onion websites and the dark web (where there is no age verification required). The linked article is quite comprehensive in that it also mentions some downsides like slower speed, and some exposure on both sides of the link (entering and exiting the Tor network) namely your ISP seeing the Tor protocol being used, and the Tor exit node. But importantly the article gives some suggestions on improving privacy, and also highlighting that the Tor network can be used for perfectly legitimate sites on the dark web — many being news sites, e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, etc. In some countries, VPNs and Tor are used to gain access to news and e-mail that may otherwise be blocked. So Tor also bypasses censorship attempts by governments. Some browsers like Brave browser will actually fire up their own private window with Tor, so no need to install the Tor browser itself. See

Lifehacker

How Tor Can Help You Be More Anonymous on the Internet

Tor can help keep your internet traffic anonymous—with some caveats.

#technology #Tor #privacy #darkweb

5 Docker Compose tricks that made my home server more reliable This was an interesting article. I did not know about the limiting of restarts up to a defined number of failures. That is pretty useful to prevent a container continuously restating, and then sometimes showing as green for running. The other intriguing one was using curl for health checks. Just note you must use the internal container port as it is running inside the container. If curl is not present in your container, the wget command can be used instead. The syntax for both, that I found worked, were: `test: ["CMD-SHELL", "curl -f http://localhost:8080 || exit 1"] ` and `test: ["CMD-SHELL", "wget -q --spider http://localhost:8080 || exit 1"] ` so I hope that helps others. Another trick, where some containers only respond when using the container IP address (which changes) is to use something like this for the IP and port: `http://$(hostname -i):8080`. I had one stubborn container, a MQTT one, that refused to respond to any querying, so I used this instead `test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pgrep mosquitto || exit 1"] ` which checks if the process is running inside the container. See

XDA

5 Docker Compose tricks that made my home server more reliable

A collection of tips and tricks that leveled up my Docker Compose game

#technology #docker #containers #selfhosting

5 open-source projects that secretly power your favourite apps "You've heard that the world's infrastructure runs on Linux, and how important Free and Open Source (FOSS) software is to just about all the technology we enjoy every day, but there are some (to bring out the old cliché) unsung heroes of FOSS without which your stuff just wouldn't work—and you should at least know their names." It is true, too, that most open source projects are built using other open source projects, but these are a few of those that sit in the background powering many popular projects. I love the article's comment about Electron. I suppose it is the same as for Flatpaks, AppImages and Snaps. They make things possible across distros. See

How-To Geek

5 open-source projects that secretly power your favorite apps

The taste of freedom you didn't even know you had.

#technology #opensource

Filedropshare uses WebRTC for local peer-to-peer (P2P) file transfers without the cloud This is not the first service to do this, as Pairdrop does something similar. It should not be confused though with Localsend, as Localsend requires the apps to be installed on each device it works with. Syncthing too is something different, and apart from apps being installed, Synthing also requires configuration for the ongoing syncing of files. All Filedropshare requires is a browser. The central site does the WebRTC signalling to establish contact, but the filers are not actually uploaded to that site. If Fieldropshare makes you a bit nervous (not having any published open source software) then Pairdrop may be a better option as it is open source at

GitHub

GitHub - schlagmichdoch/PairDrop: PairDrop: Transfer Files Cross-Platform. No Setup, No Signup.

PairDrop: Transfer Files Cross-Platform. No Setup, No Signup. - schlagmichdoch/PairDrop

and

PairDrop

Instantly share images, videos, PDFs, and links with people nearby. Peer2Peer and Open Source. No Setup, No Signup.

You can also self-host and instance of Pairdrop if you wish to. See

XDA

I wish I knew about this local file transfer tool before I trusted the cloud

The local file transfer tool that’s faster than your cloud sync

#technology #filetransfer #privacy

Progressive Web Apps (PWA) are better to use for major social network services than their mobile apps Yes, you do lose a few things like instant notifications and some performance, but the benefits are no app in the background that tracks your location the whole time, sometimes storing masses of data on your phone, and also sometimes chewing data in the background too. But if you are trying to break free from doomscrolling, then using a PWA instead may be just what you needed. PWA uses your browser but saves the icon on the homescreen, so it starts up pretty well much like a mobile app, and all the usual browser buttons and other menus are hidden, so it is quite a clean experience. Importantly, a PWA is sandboxed by your browser, so now that social network service can't see your photos, texts, or other apps unless you give it explicit permission. See

Android Police

Why I deleted every social app — and what I replaced them with

I deleted every social app and my phone finally feels alive again

#technology #privacy #socialnetworks

The Astrion smart remote is a game-changer for Home Assistant users "Every once in a while, some piece of smart home tech launches that's genuinely different to those that came before it, and one that I came across at this year's Maker Faire in Shenzhen is the Astrion remote by Sanytron. Astrion is a dedicated universal remote built specifically with Home Assistant users in mind. Sanytron is a Chinese company that specialises in human–machine interaction hardware for smart homes and custom install systems, and the Astrion is a remote designed to look like a regular TV remote." Yep it's not that cheap at $145 but for those that make use of the functions it supports, it could be pretty useful. See

XDA

The Astrion smart remote is a game-changer for Home Assistant users

If you want a smart remote for your home, this is one of the best and cheapest options out there.

#technology #homeassistant #selfhosting

Why I Ditched My Smartwatch for a Retro-Styled Casio Watch This video takes you through my decision-making process and reasons for ditching my Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 (and other smartwatches) for a modern, retro-styled Casio ABL-100WE watch. The video starts with the straw that broke the camel's back, and concludes with two other possibilities I'll weigh up early in 2026. Watch #technology #smartwatches #retro #Casio #gadget