I came to get away from the main stream socials.

You still can. Just block threads.net instance in things like Mastodon and Lemmy.

I came to minimise my farmed data footprint.

Your data is public in fediverse. They can scrape even right as we speak.

I would need someone to confirm this, but I have heard that if you block, then it prevents their instance from scraping your data because they shouldn't receive your content if they are blocked, but it doesn't change the public data being available by other means anyways.

I came to find other like minded people.

Follow hashtags and communities that are your interest. Block users and/or instances you would rather not see or be part of. Also, you can find an instance that fits your values that is already blocking instances you disagree with.

I am mostly indifferent of Threads joining at this time, but those that are not in favor, there are options.

Got it. I know people have used the USB SSD for rpi4 too, which is probably fine, but if you want the new quicker route. pcie might be worth getting into... https://www.tomshardware.com/news/hatdrive-m2-hat-for-raspberry-pi-5

A lot of NAS that you buy now have "containers" where you can side load apps like plex or jellyfin for your you videos vs just installing on the main rpi OS.

Do you plan on doing anything special with the NAS (like containers) or just straight up NAS storage services?

If you are doing containers, I would probably say get the 8GB and get the 5 and use for NAS.

Thanks for that feedback. I also understand and have read that you are basically taking a bunch of tech that is it’s own tech in it’s own and then openstack glued it together (like you are stating).

I also see that there are many different projects in how you can deploy this too. Some say “don’t use ____ if you want multi node” and some are like “this _____ is the easiest to run”. Did you just use whatever Openstack suggested to install or did you use one of these other wrapper projects that helped too? I understand that some of this may have changed from 6 years ago though.

Thank you for the update. Good work.

So, I did this by booting to USB. Obviously I cannot just performance really, but I did even manage to install Valheim and run it from the USB.Some things worked out of box and some did not. I have and Asus Zephyr 15” dual screen and there seems to be a set of drivers and interface for that, but I didn’t go that far. Screen seemed to work, sound wouldn’t adjust , got keyboard lights working and etc.

Overall, it is better than what I remember. I think with more effort, might be able to get it all working but I am not currently patient enough to really see it through. We will see!

Not a bad idea. I might do this on my laptop (I have a desktop too for main gaming). My laptop has a dual screen too, so if I try this, I will report back on the experience.

I use Linux all over for my server hosting, but not desktop OS. Out of curiosity, what were the things that held you back from using it full time? (Others feel free to share too please)

I will go first - gaming. I do also have a SteamDeck so I am fully aware that there has been lots of advancements there and that is great. For the most part, the games I currently play seem to play just fine on it (and I know some of that could be the Deck more than Linux itself). With all that said, I am still skittish about fully committing as my main desktop OS.

Thanks. I will give that a shot!

Great thoughts on all of it. I am definitely trying to keep and open mind, but also trying to find an experience that works. With that said, I do understand that it is growing too.

Part of my questioning is more about understanding "what is to be expected" as per design vs "what is a 'known bug'". So maybe I should have made that clearer from the start too.

Side note - I saw someone post a meme on here where they showed that Lemmy is the power of multiple instances bound together, but that felt "off" given the current experience. It feels more like they are interwoven, but the strands are a little loose still. My hope is that over time that changes and the data in each community, at the very least, is consistent.

I remain very hopeful for sure.

That is helpful and makes sense on different instances, but I do have some concerns on the "best effort". I see posts across other instances and it says a disclaimer at the top that I may not be seeing all content. This is not a great experience if I have to always go to another instance to view ALL content and then, if I want to interact with said post... It is just not a great thing for Fediverse if that is the "acceptable response" from it. And I see you are trying to work around that with some uncertainty too (url normalizing). I laughed at the auto-refresh... bit, because I didn't mention that, but I am seeing that too. :)

I appreciate the the perspective, help and pointers.

One thing I do still want is that "surprise" of finding something on a hot/active topic that I may not be already following. Even on "the other site", I would flip back and forth between my Home and the top/popular to find new things to follow or get a quick chuckle.

Hi folks, for those looking for the recipe... And I know.... I don't brown the meatballs first :). But hey, to each their own.

Meatball Appetizer

I usually make my own spaghetti sauce (for another recipe share; maybe my baked spaghetti) and simmer these.

Ingredients

• 2 pound ground beef
• 1 pound ground pork
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 eggs
• 1 ½ cup freshly grated Romano cheese (if you do buy store bought, you can blend the shreds in the blender)
• 2 tablespoons chopped Italian flat leaf parsley
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 2 ½ cups stale Italian bread, crumbled via blender ( 8 Italian white bread slices sitting out for 2 hours with crust removed)
• 1 ½ cups lukewarm water
• Existing spaghetti sauce simmering
• 3-4 oz of Mozzarella cheese, freshly shredded (for the topping)

Directions

1. Make sure your spaghetti sauce is simmering as a prep item in a large enough pan for however many 2" servings you plan to make of meatballs.
2. Combine beef, and pork in a large bowl. Add garlic, eggs, cheese, parsley, salt and pepper.
3. Hand blend bread crumbs into meat mixture. Slowly add the water 1/2 cup at a time. The mixture should be very moist but still hold its shape if rolled into meatballs. (I usually use about 1 1/4 cups of water). Shape into meatballs.
4. Drop balls into sauce and make sure the sauce is bubbling (in needed, bring to a bubble) and then turn down to simmer with cover.
5. This should cook for at least 4 hours on simmer.

Serve with spaghetti or however you would like to serve them.

Oven/Broiling

1. Preheat oven to 425.
2. Take a small/medium cast iron skillet and add sauce on the bottom. Add meatballs and pour more sauce over each ball.
3. Add Mozzarella over dish as desired
4. Bake for about 10-15 min or until cheese is to desired browning