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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   2363 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 17, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Okay the world is getting crazy.

About 10 years ago I made the decision to not fully allow any one algorithm to curate what content I consume. I also made the decision to not like videos, tweets, posts and other content as I was worried that when you like something the algorithm decides you want to see more of something which inherently means you want to see less of something else. I had fomo for new novel information I guess.

However there is just too much information. And every field is advancing at a rate never seen before. I need to keep up. I need to keep digesting this wonderful juicy magnificent information that my ancestors could only dream of. I NEEED IT ALL. I need to know everything. Just the fact I've avoided algorithms (not completely) for 10 years means that I have a wide range of interests and it's allowed to make novel discoveries about our world just from the comfort of my bedroom. We live in quite unbelievable times really.

Please guys how do I curate information from all over the internet ?

How do I watch the internet from above?

How do I collate information from 4chan, crypto, Data secrets lox, Productivity, history, biohacking, Lesswrong, AI , UFO, Singularity, Robotics, Ray Peat, Paranormal, Biophysics, Genetics, Epigentics, Quantum Computing, Looksmaxxing, Slatestarcodex, YouTube, Apricity, scientific studies, Substack, Astrology, Neurofeedback Autism, etc, without losing my mind?

(Partial answers and Speculative answers welcome.)

(Also if you think there is a better place to ask this question please let me know. If you think there is a better way to ask this question please let me know.)

I also refuse to give the algorithm anything. I'm not even logged in almost anywhere, and I certainly won't use an app.

The best way for me to keep tabs on content I regularly follow is - still, after decades - RSS feeds. You can even "subscribe" to a youtube channel and/or twitter account by just adding it to your RSS reader. And of course it works naturally for blog-style content.

Also, skimming hackernews and curating a list of decent subreddits still works OK for content discovery.

Which RSS reader do you recommend?

Complicated question. Quick answer for normies: Feedly.

Complicated answer: Are you OK with making an account and maybe even paying for it? Do you need cross-platform support (sync between your phone and a tablet/PC)? If no, your options are endless. I like miniflux.

If you want cross-platform without a third party, you need to self-host your feeds. I really like the RSS features Nextcloud brings. Use and app on your phone, the web interface anywhere else. Miniflux can also selfhost.

Thanks!

I suppose the downside to self-hosting is that the computer would need to be on 24/7, or?

Yeah, but almost nobody self-hosts on their PC. You either rent a server/virtual machine somewhere for cheap, or you put something like a RaspberryPi on your network. That uses less electricity, and you can mess with your PC without taking your private cloud offline.

If don't have a server somewhere already anyway, or if you're not extremely privacy conscious, or if you're not actively looking for a beginner's hacking project, don't bother with self-hosting.

OK. I don't think I'll be following anything very sensitive on my feeds.

I don't get how miniflux works. I downloaded https://github.com/miniflux/v2/releases/download/2.2.3/miniflux-windows-amd64.exe

but it doesn't do anything. Flashes a dos window.

Maybe I'm too normie for this shit.

Honestly, then just use feedly.com or feeder.co

Both have decent Android/iOS apps. If you want to mess around with it only for a few minutes to begin with, Outlook also still has a built-in RSS reader. It's really easy to use. Rightclick the "RSS-Feeds" folder, select "Add Feed" and paste something like "https://www.astralcodexten.com/feed/". Done. (All Substack blogs provide their RSS feed just by adding /feed/ to the end of the address.)

RSS doesn't need to be this open source nerd fest, that just happens to be the guys who still use it most consistently. The reason for that is a bit historic. RSS used to be hugely popular 15 years ago. Everybody in tech was using it, every day. But it's by definition a decentralized technology - and Google, Meta and Amazon really have no use for something like that. So they worked hard at replacing it.

The installation instructions:

Installing Miniflux is straightforward if you have some basic system administration knowledge.

There actually aren't any instructions for installing on Windows.

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