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Joined 27 days ago
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Cake day: February 19th, 2026

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  • Can confirm what another user said, that Intel iGPU would be better in your case.

    I’ll let you know now – if it runs Windows kill it. My server was originally Windows running Docker Desktop. It hosted three services: Minecraft server which lagged like a bitch; Samba folder share; and Emby. Whenever Emby playback froze I knew Windows, whose antivirus kept running the HDD under constant load, had fucked the i6 6100 to 100%, which happened at least twice a day.

    Moving on, now I run Proxmox. I host 25 services with the CPU at ~35% idle and 24GB RAM at 75%. Nothing lags.

    Before I plugged in the GPU my server drew 25W consistently, going to 35W under load. With the GPU, an RTX 3060 11GB (used), it uses 85W idle, so make sure it’s worth it. For my case it not only transcodes for Emby and resumes streaming in a second, but also handles voice inference for Home Assistant in under a second, and mid-sized Ollama LLM responses. Would recommend a high VRAM Nvidia card (for CUDA) in that scenario, as my model Gemma3 7B uses 6GB VRAM and 2GB RAM. But a top model, say Dolphin-Mixtral 22B, needs 80GB storage, 17GB RAM and… Well I don’t have the RAM but you get it. LLMs are intensive.







  • As someone who’s tried both, it depends on what you want. Your choice of Matrix server depend on any political and ethical values – some say Synapse is too corporate, being maintained by Element who are for-profit and obtain funding from corps and governments, so some prefer others such as Conduit ( – until maintaining slowed to near abandonment and it was superseded by Conduwuit – until the owner got cyberbullied so hard she quit the project and it was superseded by Continuwuity) because it was built on Rust and much more efficient than Synapse, or Dendrite. I recommend Continuwuity.

    Then there’s clients – the only mature matrix client for mobiles is Element, and there are two apps, Classic and X, who offer different pros and cons, and imo are not good enough on their own, both are in a kind of beta stasis. But it’s the best they have. If you really don’t need calling, then Element X, FluffyChat or Schildichat is your app and Element Web for desktop access (available on Github). However, when exchanging encryption keys to trust another of your devices, or a contact’s device, only Element offers simple QR scanning.

    In short, Matrix is very good as a privacy-focused server with partially working, modern looking clients.

    Then there is XMPP. Again there are different backends to choose from and I am inclined to recommend Prosody. XMPP just works out of the box for me, calling included, and is relatively stable. However, there are large caveats – several pieces of user data are stored unencrypted on the server, which is fine for you as the owner, but it’s a lot harder for someone else using your service to trust that. And, while XMPP uses OMEMO encryption keys, handshaking with devices is far more manual than Matrix’s Olm/Megolm and involves a multi-step process, and migrating to a new device is a pain because messages are not backwards decrypted, so they must be transferred from the first device. Finally, clients are very rough. The best desktop clients such as Gajim and Pidgin still look like they were built in 2001, and while mobiles have Monocles, Cheogram and Conversations, they all look very similar, as the former are very slight modifications of Conversations.

    In short, XMPP may lack some comforts of modern messengers, but it is simpler to set up than Matrix, and offers many of the same features. However, the manual key sharing process might scare off all but the most avid privacy enthusiasts, especially that if you migrate to a new device without sharing message history from a previous verified device, messages are lost.

    Choose Matrix for polished software, inviting many contacts, and, with Element X featuring (eventually) Element Call, complete E2EE.

    Choose ol’ faithful XMPP for an easier initial setup, if video calls are important, you appreciate that historical messages cannot, by design, be hacked into, or if you don’t like Element the company.

    I too have heard good things about SimpleX and Signal, and recommend trying them if they are valid contenders for your use case. Signal really is the best (most private, least data-farming) non-selfhosted option.


  • We can’t play games unless we play exactly as the developers intended (constant bug fixes, online requirement, anticheat etc. for non competitive games), but Nvidia can ensure games are portrayed differently, entirely shoving a middle finger in artists’ faces? And you raise a valid point –

    AI is trained on what, exactly, because AI filters always enhance facial definition, add makeup like shadow, blush and lipstick, and full body upscaling adds flat stomachs with abs, perfectly symmetrical D cup breasts, in this case blonde highlights are apparently more appealing than the original… It all stinks of the generic 2010’s Western white heterosexual man’s idea of the perfect woman’s body. It’s like every beauty filter is made by Jack Black’s character from Shallow Hal.



  • Well yes, the more CSAM detection and predator hunting, the better. Task forces and, dare I say it, detection programs with algorithms that may or may not include AI learning, are invaluable to eliminating the actually terrible stuff, anything that can’t even be educational.

    I believe the Online Safety Act and Chat Control’s sections that tie every user’s real identity to their online actions is not a solution, because when that data gets leaked and/or abused many innocent lives are in danger. I trust the state very little. I trust unidentified malicious hackers even less.


  • As much as I hate Reddit this is just continuation of the UK government steamrolling and destroying the free Internet, ruining the adult experience.

    One of the wonders of the Internet was that it was wildly unregulated - if you wanted it and you could disable safesearch you could get it, with the caveat of ISP-enforced content locks on all mobile data subscriptions under the name of a legal child (under 18), workplace and school security and filters, unremovable Safesearch on most search engines etc. Broadband required an adult, who in turn could activate parental controls. I couldnt wait until I turned 18 so I could finally access many sites for porn, news, gaming, forums and anything containing keywords without being blocked. I had a list of proxies for bypassing school filters.

    In short there is significant existing protection in place and we know that this is simply more evidence of Orwellian enforcement.


  • I don’t think there’s a straightforward way like a HACS integration yet, but you can access Ollama from the web with open-webui and save the page to your homepage:

    Just be warned, you’ll need a lot of resources depending on which model you choose and its parameter count (4B, 7B etc) – Gemma3 4B uses around 3GB storage, 0.5GB RAM and 4GB of VRAM to respond. It’s a compromise as I can’t get replacement RAM, and tends to be wildly inaccurate with large responses. The one I’d rather use, Dolphin-Mixtral 22B, takes 80GB storage and 17GB min RAM, the latter of which I can’t afford to take from my other services.


  • I agree - some games are alluring for their unique style, some for recognisability and comfort. Plus, normally I don’t like too much of a departure from realistic physics in favour of fun factor, like being a damage sponge or tilting and boosting a horse in a different direction, but as a whole this definitely looks great to play. Even has breakable structures that crush enemies, it reminds me of ‘Pursuit Breakers’ in Need for Speed Most Wanted



  • Do you prefer XMPP or Matrix

    Yes* - I haven’t used Discord in a long time as its bloat simply doesn’t interest me, but for communicating with folk:

    Matrix, at least for me, is great, but the most capable mobile client Element has many broken or missing features.
    Classic, but not X, has:

    • working calls via STUN/TURN,
    • an emoji menu,
    • correctly showing chat profile images (X duplicates the most recent one for all chats),
    • and the ability to create unencrypted group chats (purely for public memes).

    X, but not Classic, has:

    • attachment captions,
    • HD images,
    • markdown support,
    • a more modern UI,
    • and (when it works) fully encrypted 1-1 and conference calls via Matrix Livekit.

    I currently dual-wield the two because neither is enough yet, and most other clients lack call functionality entirely.

    XMPP, at least for me, is nearly perfect. It just works and I find the fact that desktop clients still look like AOL Messenger quite charming. However it has:

    • very manual encryption key management, meaning even I find trusting a new device daunting let alone any adopters,
    • no backward decryption, meaning message history needs to be exported and transferred to a new device,
    • plaintext serverside storage for several pieces of data. It’s my server so ownership isn’t a worry, but it’s a massive security risk in the albeit unlikely event of a hack or hijack.

    I chose higher encryption and easier adoption between Matrix and XMPP but wish there was a more fulfilling option.