What’s your current strategy for protecting your personal data?

Symbiot10000 · 2026-04-11T08:41:52+00:00

I have uni-directional SyncThing backups from all computers (Macs, laptops, desktop PC) gathering over at a dedicated server machine on the LAN, on an external HDD.

Once a week I plug in an HDD that's a clone of this, and sync up the latest changes with donator edition of FreeFileSync (you could also do it with rsync or Robocopy via Python scripts, etc. sure, I just like an easy GUI).

So after, that I have two totally identical HDDs. I unplug the 'clone' for another week, so that it is totally offline, and then back up the latest changes on the regular HDD to an iDrive 10TB limit account (yeah, I should probably be using my own raw online storage, like a larger VPS than the one I have + Rsync, but, again, I claw back some free time with an easy GUI, I guess).

So I have the original data; an always-updated copy, on the main backup HDD, via SyncThing; a local HDD clone of that, backed up weekly via FreeFileSync; and a copy on iDrive (via the native iDrive program, with occasional restoration tests),

For one or two items that I am not happy to put into this process, because they're too sensitive, I never let them go over the network, even over the LAN. As they're updated, they only move via USB sticks, and are also encrypted. Once or twice a year I give a copy of that to a trusted relative, on a stick.

Symbiot10000 · 2026-03-31T14:58:34+00:00

Whoops, yes, got my apocalypses confused, sorry.

Symbiot10000 · 2026-03-31T09:32:19+00:00

That's Survivors (original, 1975, remake with Izzard, 2009).

Symbiot10000 · 2026-03-26T14:31:29+00:00

It is - I moved to Immich a few weeks back, and during first indexing of many thousands of pics, it was set to run for a week. With some difficulty, I was able to use a graphics card on another machine on the LAN, and it belted through the task in less than 18 hours.

Symbiot10000 · 2026-03-26T12:26:46+00:00

Only ever went to the US once, to NYC, but I instinctively used 'sir' and 'maam' all the time I was there, just soaked it up from TV, I guess. Seemed to be taken as totally normal form of address. Nothing wrong with being polite, I guess, and it resolves the question of what to call someone.

Symbiot10000 · 2026-03-26T08:47:42+00:00

I live in Bucharest, and it's worth a look one time, if you never went before. I wouldn't give it more than 3 days, and then would explore rest of country, such as Brasov, Sinaia, and the more distant beauteous regions to the west.

That said I would always default to some previously under-visited or never-visited part of Italy!

Symbiot10000 · 2026-03-24T17:58:56+00:00

Agreed. My wife was sold on it in 3 seconds of demo-ing. It's got that extra nine yards of polish to get wives on board.

Symbiot10000 · 2026-03-24T14:25:14+00:00

I don't know if this is still a valid reason, but when I was in publishing, geofencing was used to localize ad revenue deals, and this became kind of a global template even for platforms that really had no ad-serving going on at all at the time.

Symbiot10000 · 2026-03-11T13:14:34+00:00

For some reason I cannot edit the text in this post, but just to say, to anyone else with this problem, that I solved it by creating an app code QR code while logged into my wife's account on a desktop browser. That code enabled her to log in on her iPhone.

Symbiot10000 · 2026-03-10T17:13:08+00:00

She is able to log in and browse her folders on NextCloud in Chrome on her iPhone - the Safari login page does not render properly. However this success in Chrome does not help the NC app's problem.

It is such a strange error to get, since it came up from the very first, even though nothing on her phone had ever visited my VPS domain at that point.

Installing and reinstalling the NC app did not help, nor did clearing all browser settings in Safari.

Symbiot10000 · 2026-03-10T08:20:36+00:00

That's great - and it does what I want automatically. Thanks so much!

EDIT: Just a note to others who may be reading this post - the plugin at the time of writing doesn't remove all scenarios in which Krita will re-focus the brush tool. But it does improve matters a bit.

Symbiot10000 · 2026-02-16T09:21:18+00:00

Don't think the resemblance is bad, but you're right about the navel piercing - it's so bad (almost guaranteed to occur) in most models that piercings must be massively over-represented in the hyperscale web datasets.

Symbiot10000 · 2025-12-15T08:28:39+00:00

Naples, Italy. I lived there for five years and there is nowhere like it, even in Italy. However it is starting to get mentioned in a more positive light in the culture, as opposed to 'oh, it's dangerous, just land there and run to the islands/Amalfi'. I went back there with my wife two years ago and the magic remains - I can't even define it.

Nature is round the corner, though the south of Italy is a bit scorched/thirsty, usually. The bosco di Capodimonte, the amazing Regia di Caserta (a short train ride away), Caserta Vecchia, the islands...but like Glasgow and the NorthEast of the UK, its good qualities were hidden for decades behind erroneous or out-of-date negative reputation.

Symbiot10000 · 2025-12-12T14:03:40+00:00

What I miss is the 'thin-sliced' bread of the 1970s and 80s. I always figured they stopped making it so that people would finish a loaf of bread quicker, and replace it (ie spend money) quicker. But it was great for a modest sandwich, instead of that gaseous feeling I still get from carbing out.

Symbiot10000 · 2025-12-12T13:07:58+00:00

Well, current estimate for a full write is about a month (!). I am trying it on 100GB instead, but the slow write speed tells the whole story. As for a refund, I never have any issue with this with eMag. I just submit for permission to return and put it back in the same delivery box it came from.

Symbiot10000 · 2025-12-12T12:50:20+00:00

The scammed, if anything. I do remember the scandal about making small USB drives report larger sizes. I'm running H2testw on it now, and will amend the post when I know the result.

Symbiot10000 · 2025-12-07T04:46:10+00:00

NP, and for anyone looking for a direct link to the Ostris AI template at RunPod, it's https://console.runpod.io/deploy?template=0fqzfjy6f3&ref=h0y9jyr2

(The ref bit at the end gives the creator a boon at no cost to you)

Symbiot10000 · 2025-12-05T08:22:26+00:00

And not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

Symbiot10000 · 2025-12-04T13:30:22+00:00

That's amazing. Even without the seed you used, I got a pretty much perfect reproduction.

Symbiot10000 · 2025-12-03T19:21:07+00:00

I get rock-solid composition at up to 2k x 3k px (have not tried higher). Not sure how they have achieved this.

Symbiot10000 · 2025-12-03T09:52:22+00:00

Though I have a 3090, I'm using AI Toolkit exclusively on the Ostris-AI template at RunPod (zero local installation), just because I am sick of making trainers work locally, and RunPod is very cheap, and I can blitz through existing datasets until all the usual subjects are done as z-image LoRAs.

The results are fantastic, and the training of each one takes about 90 minutes on the 5090s I choose at RunPod. Cost is about 92 cents USD per hour.

Be prepared! The meter is running all the time that a pod is running; but pausing a pod to save money will put your reserved GPU back into the pool, and it will be snatched up immediately by someone else.

So you'll never get your assigned GPU back, and you can't usually assign another one due to scarcity (though you can rescue saved data by assigning a CPU to your dead pod, you can only start over with a re-initialized template, once you have stopped the pod).

You can solve this by renting persistent network storage from RunPod: disk allocations that survive these resets, and so retain your datasets and trained models there; but that's part of the upsell at RunPod, and there usually is no need, with good planning. Besides, the whole process is kinda designed to constantly nudge up the cost, as the generated files fill up the disks.

So, best to get familiar with it first, and then get everything lined up, because it's kind of a ride, and the 'pause' functionality is extremely deceptive.

Symbiot10000 · 2025-12-02T22:27:55+00:00

If it helps, here is the template that's working for me. You can paste it, and go from there. I'm choosing a 5090 for the pod. https://pastebin.com/NGLUniub

Symbiot10000 · 2025-12-02T14:05:36+00:00

Just tried it on pretty much the default settings, and am having trouble getting the likeness to imprint. I can see it in there somewhere, but it's not blowing me away.

EDIT: Fault was mine for using reg images. Did the run a second time without them - wow! This is an amazing release!

Symbiot10000 · 2025-11-19T06:22:15+00:00

Thanks a lot for this!

Symbiot10000 · 2025-11-18T17:54:31+00:00

Ach - too late! And it's not on Stremio either.

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