✍️ ThirdDegreeMedia Blog

I don't even know where to start, I'm just going to start with whatever comes to mind.

Here's a random thought: what if we treated our digital lives with the same care as our physical spaces? Just as we wouldn't leave our front doors wide open, why do we allow our data to be so freely accessible?

It's something to think about as we navigate this increasingly complex digital landscape.

Anyway, I'm not sure where I want to take this site, but if anyone has suggestions, email me at orrin@thirddegreemedia.com. Also, if you want to contribute anonymously, there's an anonymous submission form here.

Also, what does everyone use to edit their html? Right now I use Visual Studio Code. Save locally, then push to my VPS via rsync I think? I have to use WSL to push since my server is running Linux, and i think it uses either rsync or scp to push. Also, i have a one word deploy pipeline, I just type "deploy". Pretty cool, don't ask me how I set this up, but it works.

Tried to write a normal blog post today, but honestly? It's been a long one.

I just spent three hours watching rsync crawl across the screen like it was being powered by a hamster on a broken wheel. All that just to finally get my Monero node deployed to my VPS. Combine that with DXP weekend on RuneScape — meaning my brain has been doing nothing but XP-per-hour calculus — and yeah, I'm fried.

And yes, I had a couple of drinks. Because every proper sysadmin deserves cocktails after hand-wrangling monerod into existence.

The node is technically online. I think. Maybe. If it explodes, I'll act surprised.

But that's the fun part of this whole thing: I'm not perfect, not polished, not some corporate whitepaper machine. I'm just a guy trying to build privacy tools, run Monero, and write about it in a way that feels honest — even if that means being a little quirky, a little chaotic, and a lot exhausted.

So here's what I learned today:

• Rsync is slow enough to induce philosophical thoughts
• Monero nodes look easy until you're actually doing it
• VPS deployments + cocktails = the real devops pipeline
• DXP melts your brain faster than alcohol
• Writing while tired is still writing

Anyway. That's all I've got in me tonight. More experiments soon.

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Alrighty, new entry. VSCode is great, but sometimes I miss the simplicity of a good old-fashioned text editor. Maybe I'll try Vim next time, just for the nostalgia.

Anyways, if anyone needs online privacy tools, hit me up. I've got a few tricks up my sleeve from setting up this sovereign node in the woods. It's funny cause i know nobody's reading this, but hey, it's my blog, so why not ramble a bit?

But yeah, about the privacy tools... A good place to start is using a hardened browser like brave or firefox with some solid privacy extensions, but not too many extensions! Too many conflicting privacy extensions can actually make you stick out more, it almost becomes counterproductive.

For example, websites will learn your unique fingerprint based on the combination of extensions you use. Like say if you use Tampermonkey to block scripts, uBlock Origin to block ads, Privacy Badger to block trackers, and HTTPS Everywhere to force secure connections, that specific combination can create a unique fingerprint that websites can use to identify you.

So it's better to pick a few essential extensions that work well together rather than piling on every privacy tool you can find. I learned that the hard way when I first started tinkering with privacy setups.

So, funnily enough, sometimes being the average user is actually better for privacy than trying to be super hardcore with every tool out there because you blend into the crowd better, which is ironically more private. But I'd say somewhere in the middle is best - use some good privacy tools, but don't go overboard.

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