Running freedom tech is great until something goes wrong. I've been running Start9 for 2 years without a single issue. Then the long-awaited update appeared, and of course I first read the how-to on migrating to the new version. I regularly make backups on 3 USB dongles stored in 3 different locations so I am relatively safe, so I did a cleanup of unused services, stopped the rest, and did everything right from my point of view. The update to 0.4.0 went smoothly. Bitcoin node started, Electrum started, but then LND never really finished starting... I don't know what hit me, but I hit "uninstall LND," and in a millisecond it hit me: Fuck!!! Of course the channels were gone, and all I was left with was the aezeed seed phrase and my backup dongles. I was still tried to install LND but even reinstall didn't solve the stuck in starting mode. Well, since I can presumably downgrade to 0.3.5.1 and keep the chainstate intact, it will be easy peasy to get back to my channels. Oh boy, was I wrong! There's no way you can preserve a chainstate when downgrading from 0.4.0 → 0.3.5.1 (there's nowhere in the docs I can find anything about that!). Luckily for me, I never lost the SSH connection to my Start9, and I started to copy the Bitcoin blocks and chainstate to an external drive (3 hours). Then I made a full clean installation of StartOS 0.3.5.1 just to get back to my funds. It took another 3 hours to copy back the chainstate and blocks, but then the indexing took another 8 hours. Fuck me, this is so time-intensive. But I comforted myself with the thought that my funds would be recovered soon. And yes, I finally started configuring Bitcoin node, LND, and Alby. LND took another hour or so because of graph sync, but then I was hit by another fact I didn't know about! If you do a backup, your channels are backed up, but when you restore from a backup, you signal to the peer that you fucked up and need a force closure. The happy ending is that I did get all of the funds back on-chain, but the struggle to get to that point was a weekend wasted! Once you blow it like that, you start to look at custodial wallets a bit differently and appreciate the debugging with AI. Self-sovereignty isn't for everyone and never will be. Lessons learned 📚 Now please, leave me for another day or so, because I have to update my #start9 to 0.4.0 🚀.

N̸e̴v̴e̶r̴ ̷b̸e̶ ̸t̸h̴e̸ ̴f̵i̴r̴s̵t̸e̷s̷t̷ ̵w̵h̸o̸ ̴c̴l̸i̸c̴k̵s̶ ̸t̸h̶e̸ ̷u̴p̸d̶a̷t̷e̷ ̶b̷u̸t̴t̶o̶n̵!

A day wasted because of the start9 update. I probably did something wrong because LND never started on 0.4.0. Always showed starting... indefinitely. Now I'm in the painful process of backing up the Blockchain to the external drive. To roll back to 0.3.5.1 version. Unfortunately preserving data by installing the older version alway resulted in some rpc error, so I basically need to do a clean install again 🥴 Home servers are great until something brakes!

For those of you, who will upgrade @Start9 to 0.4.0. During the installation the docs in step 9 says checking your server's address(eg. https://adjective-noun.local) every few minutes. But what they didn't mention is, that you can actually watch the installation logs live on https://start.local

It took so long for this #Start9 update to drop that my server actually started growing gray hair around the power button!

We should bring this back on the table!

What is interesting here is that most transactions are happening between places with most freedom 🤷 View quoted note →

This is a general-audience deep dive into the Large Language Model (#LLM) #AI technology that powers #ChatGPT and related products. It covers the full training stack of how the models are developed, along with mental models of how to think about their "psychology" and how to get the best use out of them (or: how to use them best) in practical applications. I already have one "Intro to LLMs" video from about a year ago, but that was just a re-recording of a random talk, so I wanted to loop back around and do a much more comprehensive version. Instructor: Andrej Karpathy was a founding member at OpenAI (2015) and then Sr. Director of AI at Tesla (2017–2022). He is now a founder at Eureka Labs, which is building an AI-native school. His goal in this video is to raise awareness (or: increase knowledge) and understanding of the state of the art in AI, empowering people to effectively use the latest and greatest in their work. ​I copy/pasta the YT description because it's 2 AM and I'm starting to get brain farts. ​Gn 😴

When you feel down and lonely, install the Temu app. They will send you hundreds of notifications a day telling you how awesome you are and that you matter more than you think.

Powerful laser pointer in your pocket is essential nowdays. It's time to blind the always-on cameras in those fucking Ray-Ban smart glasses. If you can easily invade my privacy, I can easily burn your eyes. 🔥 #RightToPrivacy

After September when Google locks the Android system, the development of Linux phones will skyrocketing. I'm currently eyeing #postmarketOS

This video features a discussion between 3 independent members of the European Parliament - Fidias, Katarina, and Ruth, covering several key political and personal topics: **Chat Control:** The members discuss the controversial system aimed at scanning private messages under the pretense to "protect minors". They argue that although the European Parliament initially voted it down, officials are finding procedural loopholes to force the legislation through, which they criticize as undemocratic, [18:38], [20:49]. **EU Parliament Logistics:** They talk about the structure of the Parliament, including the requirement to hold sessions in both Brussels and Strasbourg. They touch upon the history of these locations and debate the necessity and cost of the constant traveling between them [03:26], [04:02], [06:42]. **Ukraine and Defense Policy:** The conversation covers the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the role of NATO, and the push within the EU to increase military spending and create a European defense union. They express concerns about the lack of focus on diplomacy, the financial burden of supporting the war, and the potential for these actions to escalate conflicts [07:11], [08:44], [12:12]. **Political Suppression and Funding:** The group addresses the attempts to cut funding for political parties, specifically mentioning the far right ESN (Europe of Sovereign Nations) group. They argue that targeting political opponents' funding is a "slippery slope" that threatens freedom of speech and democratic norms [23:04], [26:02]. **Personal Reflections:** The participants briefly share their personal experiences as married individuals and discuss the refreshing nature of having a collaborative, non-adversarial discussion compared to their usual debates in the chamber [02:07], [30:39]. You can watch the full discussion here:

Currently the middle finger to the chat control 1.0 is using a VPN outside of the EU, or using apps with E2E encryption. There will always be a way to fight them back.

In my view, #Rumble isn't much better then #YouTube because their app is only available on play store and apple stool. Adding your app to f-droid or GitHub, tells a lot about the entity behind it. #NewPipe rules

The best thing about EU is that such attitude carrying gun around like that is not acceptable. This video disapprove your claim about guns in America @HODL and that's why we think you all have guns all the time 😆 #theBitcoinPodcast at 1h13m12s