I noticed a couple of days ago that DSLreports.com stopped working. I thought maybe they were doing some maintenance or having a problem. After a couple of days of trying and doing a little research, and admittedly finding no firm answer, the consensus is that it is offline and has shut down permanently. It shut down unceremoniously and without warning. That site was a great resource for finding savings with your ISP and checking if you were the only one experiencing service problems. It will be missed, and I’m not sure if anyone could step in, though I hope so.
This seems to be a trend happening more and more. The things I use are either dying off or being taken over by billionaires who turn megalomaniac. That is why I am turning more and more to self-hosted or managed hosting for some services that I feel are better suited for frequent upgrades and the ability to handle traffic.
I’ve been trying to become more self-sufficient with technology lately. I’ve recently started dabbling with setting up a Raspberry Pi and self-hosting different services. I began with Pi-Hole because I’m just tired of all the ads. While this hasn’t eliminated all of them, it’s removed about 80 percent, which is a big improvement.
I’m also moving away from shared hosting (once my contract ends) because of the WordPress kerfuffle, the high pricing of my shared hosting, and WordPress nickel-and-diming for every little add-on. On top of that, I’ve grown frustrated with how complicated WordPress has become. I believe I’ve found the perfect solution, but all of this comes at a cost. I’m definitely stretching my comfort zone with technology and encountering new challenges along the way.
One challenge I’ve encountered is that most of the best blogging tools are only available for macOS, iOS, or iPadOS. Since I use Windows and Android, I often feel left out in the cold. Writing once and then publishing everywhere I want to is not as simple as it should be. I often find myself either cutting and pasting or using awkward workarounds.
