Those are very good questions! Your interest is admirable and can pay off in a lot of cool ways if you keep working at it.

Keep in mind that self-hosting (Systems Administration, among other kinds of specialties) is quite a bit different than programming but there will be some overlap.

Self hosting:

I think the youtube channel, NetworkChuck, is a great place to start. His videos are structured well and provide practical explanation to the tasks being taught

Take some time to learn networking - You may not want to get a technical certification but searching for CompTIA Network+ training can teach you what you need to understand how you can build out more complicated infrastructure

Docker is great, at the very least study containerization and virtual machines

Invest in hardware - consider a low end PC or raspberry pi (or other single board computer) that you can practice installing software or otherwise make mistakes without taking down your main machine

Think about what sorts of software you’d want to host yourself - there’s loads of “Awesome-Style” lists to get some ideas of what you can run

It’s a journey - You can learn a lot in a week, but don’t expect to have everything flawless immediately. It takes time and regular practice.

Programming:

This is much more difficult to answer because you’ll probably learn lots of languages. It’s maybe more about what you want to program, as in “what kinds of things do i want to make”.

YouTube, or if you have access, LinkedIn Learning, have loads of learning material. Search for terms like “android application hello world” or “first android app”. Tutorials are plenty.

Invest in a book or review things like MIT’s open courseware for computer science information. It will help with programming even if you’re not learning a programming language specifically.

I use python a lot because it looks pretty and works - i can use CircuitPython to program microcontrollers (Adafruit products, for example) pretty easily.

Shell/Powerscript - these languages are about automating computer tasks. It can be very helpful in the realm of self hosting and worth exploring.

I haven’t tried to do anything with android since java was the sort of default, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start learning with android development - learning new programming languages can be easier when you already know how to program. Install Android Studio, go through some app development tutorials, and then experiment.

It’s hard work to learn, but you’ll be amazed with what you can do after regular practice!

That could be a fun kind of ddos attack for a botnet - compromise your competitors’ machines and download collective TBs of infringing material, then report it as an anonymous whistleblower!

Tbh it’s just hard to see the value proposition in the age of cloud computing. I think aspects of the underlying technology are cool but basically every crypto project that comes to mind has been an actual scam. Sure there’s eth and RDNR that was built on top of it but why should i spend what will ultimately be more money in periods of high demand (gas goes up when more people use the network) when i can just plug my credit card into amazon or microsoft AND get the benefit of infosec regulation like PCI-DSS. Crypto just doesn’t ever inspire confidence because bad actors consistently shit in the punch bowl while providing no extra utility over existing cloud providers.

When distilled down crypto-compute just seems like cloud compute with extra steps, which is already just using a computer with extra steps.

We already can rent GPUs to run AIs with tokens - those tokens are just managed by govt instead of some random.

I’m still in that “just build almost everything in grassy fields” phase but i chose train anarchy instead.

Terminal escape

Privilege escalation

Command injection

I was just gonna say. So many good memories with my dad going to Fry’s. The sole reason i went HARD into techie stuff

Oh hey, it’s that one dude who was paid by Russian state owned media :D

It’s doubly messed up when considering the dealership [Rohrman] paid a bunch of money to the recent stadium renovation so they could have their name on the field [Rohrman]

I have 3 siblings, for a grand total of 6 in my family. Only my mom and I have passports. At present, despite all of us being born in the states and naturalized, only two of us have passports. So only two of us have standardized federal IDs that prove our citizenship. RealIDs are becoming more common, but nowhere near as common as a standard state driving license which does not prove citizenship.

So the requirement is going to require people to grab their birth certificates and social security cards which are not always available to every family member.

For example, my parents live out of state and have all the important family documents so 2 of siblings are screwed unless they make sure to grab those relatively sensitive documents and be prepared to carry them out and about then hang on to them for several hours.

It’s impractical, and it wasn’t a problem for the years leading up to my birth (96), wasn’t a problem in '00 for bush, or '04 for bush, or '08 and '12 for Obama. It’s suddenly become a problem because the GOP is getting called out for election shenanigans and they generally know unless they can make voting more difficult or less representative (through gerrymandering and goofy election maps) they will lose.

It does sound reasonable, but the existing mechanisms of enforcement and fraud detection have been, and continue to be, robust enough to keep voter fraud from having any meaningful statistically significant impact.

It only stands to make voting more difficult for most people.

Thank you! I think I got quite lucky with a near overhead pass in a more rural area.

I didn’t know what WEFAX was, but I learned something so thanks!

It looks amazing! Way to go with the dipole. I’ve been trying to get a meteor pass with my dipole set up but it’s tricky!

You probably wouldn’t make a great candidate in a security focused knowledge domain. It’s pretty evident you don’t understand risk.

That’s just…that’s just not how this stuff works m8. By and large no, “video game workers” are not gig/contract most of the time. It does happen, especially at lower levels; but it’s foolish to believe anywhere close to the majority of layoffs come from contracts. Those often have built in buy-outs anyways - this is talking about the full time artists/staff/programers who are always working on something

You don’t honestly think Infinity Ward laid people off after not getting the contract for Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010) following Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) do you? Or consider the time between Naughty Dog’s Crash Team Racing (1999) and Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (2001) - That’s two years. Two years without releasing a game, yet they didn’t lay anyone off?

Buddy, there is always a next project. Project Managers will fill every single artist’s calendar of deliverables for supporting the current game (someone has to make DLC, though it is sometimes outsourced) and any future projects. They also do buy assets and employ contract work in these domains, but again, it’s small in the grand scheme of things.

Programmers will always be optimizing the engine, working on patches for an updated build, or again working on the next game because every business worth it’s salt isn’t going to fire experienced staff in preparation for the next project as demanded by the need for more returns

Unless other economic factors change - a company may choose to engage short term solutions to keep profits looking healthy. If it’s cheaper to lay people off then it is to compete on merit (make a new game) why would you from a business perspective?

These companies are run by bean counters; not artists and devs anymore. Almost every game company was started by people who wanted to make good games, and now these same companies are laying people off regardless of their position in the market.

Idk. Games come out way too frequently to support the idea that these people are getting laid off in between projects. It doesn’t add up. These layoffs are very recent in the grand scheme of the game industry.

Thanks for the link!

Thank you for the kind words :)

I think that it can be a bit tricky because there is a decent bit to know so you can debug your setup. If you’re interested in giving it another shot I’ll include resources i found invaluable:

The satellite GOAT (imo)

A solid guide with helpful detail

Great write up on antenna height

The extra filter and amplifier i bought do make a difference with noise but aren’t strictly necessary for decent captures.

That’s what I’m hearing as well! I’ve been trying to pull an LRPT pass from meteor 2-3 but I’ve yet to capture anything usable. I personally like SDR++ for capture since my bookmarks are there; but that’s just me being lazy

Oh yeah. It’s an RTL-SDR dongle, FM filter, low-noise amplifier, and rabbit ears on a tripod.

I should also add, the pass was really optimal tonight. Almost completely overhead!

I honestly thought the “M” meant months. Lol

Wow that’s nuts. Not but 3 hours ago I captured a pass on 15 that didn’t seem to be showing it (nevermind the poor quality)

I’m not so convinced human history, especially with regard to collective societies, supports that idea as general statement - animal farm isn’t a bible of truth that says “wealth redistribution always works this way” it’s more a warning of authoritarian governments don’t implement checks/balances and try to divide the population and garner support among the elite fee

This way our economy is organized is NOT how it has always been through history. It’s foolish to believe it has to be this way and every single person would absolutely just keep charging more for everything given the chance. Too many orgs are out there protecting community (see nonprofits in Canada buying up city land for the express purpose stewardship and preventing price gouging or food banks with negotiating power to bulk buy groceries cheaper) to support that idea. What do i know tho right?