march 24th

• i ended up getting pretty sick : ( it was frustrating to be out of commission right before final demo!

march 21st

• i am lowkey sick and quarantining. i set up a digitalocean droplet and started yunohost! it lacks the charm of selfhosting since i am relying on a semi-big corp to help me host, but it felt accessible for me rn!

last minute game plan (let my hyperfocus take over)

• start yunohost
• notes on podmap/madmapping/care webs, make the text into a website
• try to add interactive elements where you can eventually export as pdf
• editing
• add in cute graphics
• draft up how i am gonna demo

march 19th (migrating off google maps and rethinking my project)

• https://exportgooglemaps.com

  • i tried exporting my saved lists from csv to gpx, but the coordinates were all messed up and it was terrible. then i tried to manually enter addresses into osmand and THAT TOO was a terrible process, where they kept getting the addresses wrong. what the hell

• more google maps privacy

  • delete location history https://myactivity.google.com/activitycontrols?settings=location&pli=1
  • delete web/app activity https://myactivity.google.com/activitycontrols
  • https://myactivity.google.com/activitycontrols

• turns out map alternatives have been kinda terrible so far

• i think what's sprung out of this map exploration is thinking more about my every-day life in this city. how to live in a way connected with community, with people i care about, and as a human (less as a consumerist!). part of that is having a healthier interaction w/ technologies i use (less reliant on location-based services to dictate what i do) and part of it is strengthening my relationships w/ people in the seattle area

• last minute, but i want to try setting up the server + website again & sharing notes on podmaps/care webs! over the course of this class, i've been revisiting ideas of creating a stronger support network and i think it could be nice to reflect and share w/ the class. alice's quote on infra: to depend on each other is to become infrastructure

march 18th

• met my downstair's neighbor sarita yesterday!

• on how to learn your city: https://controlaltbackspace.org/place/

• on greyrocking meta: https://buttondown.com/practicaltips/archive/how-to-grey-rock-meta/

• what do i use google maps for:

  • discovering new coffee shops
  • figuring out public transit
  • turn-by-turn navigation to get to places via walking
  • saving places, sharing collections

• what is google maps business model:

  • https://fourweekmba.com/how-does-google-maps-make-money/
  • ads
  • google maps api
  • user data

• https://www.wired.com/story/the-best-privacy-friendly-alternatives-to-google-maps/

• https://www.realchangenews.org/

de-big-techifying how i interact w/ my city

march 11th (project thoughts)

• thinking how tech changes a city. how we interact with a city as tech workers and through different tech apps. thinking about how tech apps are designed to isolate us, so that we are reliant on their services instead of our community
• [While many tech workers might choose areas like the Mission for their walkable streets and trendy restaurants, this extractive notion of cities as a collection of products and services, as opposed to spaces cultivated and maintained by their communities, is one that drives gentrification.]()
• https://logicmag.io/scale/crawling-the-city/ location based services driving gentrification
  • Brokers often enlist LBS directly to sell particular neighborhoods. Online real estate listings include "Walk Score" ratings calculating nearby amenities using LBS data. Real estate platforms like Trulia directly incorporate Yelp data into their listings pages. These digital urban information systems, then, don't just gentrify neighborhoods by funneling customers to upscale establishments. They also provide a valuable source of data to the brokers who hope to convert those customers into residents.
• https://joinreboot.org/p/searching-for-my-city While it's often frustrating to see how today's platforms subsume or commodify the notion of place by default, I've been thankful to find inspiration through DIY internet radio stations in the Bay Area, such as HydeFM, BFF, and Lower Grand Radio.

march 11th (hardware update (╥ _╥))

so i got scammed.

i bought a lenovo thinkcentre m710q off of facebook marketplace from some tech bro. (it was unopened. my guess is he got it for very cheap as a impulse purchase and wanted to get rid of it)

i was excited to use this baby pc to self-host my website, and finally worked up the courage to start… to find out that the pc runs on amazon chromium. i started recognizing internal amazon signals everywhere… the mascot peccy… "password.amazon.com"… the same damn vpn that i used when i worked there (i know… it was the worst). i was in denial for a while, "maybe the thinkcentre was ordered off amazon, so surely that's why theres amazon all over this?"

the further i investigated, the realization set in w/ how f*cked i was :')… there was no clear or easy way to reboot/reset the device. and thats when i found this reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/chromeos/comments/k6vwqn/comment/genfhwj/

Amazon gives all their customer support agents computers to use. For security concerns, infosec locks these computers down. It is a modified Chrome OS but with amazon's touch. The only way to fix these computers is to manually flash the bios. The hardest part is finding a proper bios file. If the size of the file does not match the Winbond chip, flashrom will not write to it. I am currently on the search for this file =). Ive found a couple sites but they have the "File" behind a paywall. Wish you the best of luck.

anyways, it sucks to be scammed (i ended up getting a 60% refund), and maybe theres an elaborate way to actually reset this pc, but i've decided to let this go. not worth the mental damage (and triggering that corporate trauma turns out to be a lot of mental damage). the happy ending is that: my partner's dad is obsessed w/ computers and willing to take it off of me and work on it as a side project. yay.

what i learned from my brief stint of trying to self-host, is how physical the internet is. buying the right cables, usb, pc, and setting it all up was a real physical task. i'm thinking a lot about the invisible labor of people working at data centers, maintaining the internet… also thinking about my time at amazon, which feels like a lot to unpack haha. maybe that will be it's own blog post \ \ # march 10th (class links) * * * * * * # feb 26th (project ideas) project ideas: * alternatives to google maps ️✅ * i say it as a joke, but google maps may be my most used phone app as someone that is directionally challenged and has moved pretty frequently the past several years * after seeing how they changed gulf of mexico to gulf of america [????](https://emojiterra.com/clown-face/), i am rethinking my relationship to google maps * there are a lot of other critiques on google. most notably to me is their relationship to the IOF and making genocidal ai cloud services * i've been going on neighborhood walks with a friend lately. * i was reminded of some design podcast i listened to several years ago, about our relationship/reliance on apps. apps are designed to keep us as customers. is there an app/technology that can empower us and eventually use it less often? how can i learn my neighborhood and not need to constantly use google maps to figure out where to go? * reading: how do we interact with our cities? * ~~an ai to tell me what to do~~ * as a burnt-out, neurodivergent person, i get a lot of decision paralysis. i was thinking how nice it could be to have more habits/systems to know what to do with my time. to take this to the extreme, it'd be funny to have an ai generate a daily agenda for me * i've been playing [cult of the lamb](https://www.cultofthelamb.com/) and reading [bury your gays](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/195790870-bury-your-gays) lately, so i've been inspired by lots of horror-like imagery. * thinking a little bit about generative ai, and how much of a cult it sounds like. somehow, if we invest [$500 billion dollars towards ai infrastructure](https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/21/tech/openai-oracle-softbank-trump-ai-investment/index.html), it will solve all of our problems or something. * making a cult-like ai is a fun parody, but feels disingenuous. i'd rather do something i directly am interested/believe in but unfortunately, i've had a hard time getting started on the server project for a few non-technical reasons: * finding a usb drive * i have some hesitance buying a secondhand usb drive, in case malware is installed in it? that's probably a pretty low chance, yet still makes me want to just buy a usb drive for myself. they're like less than ten bucks anyways * where to buy a usb drive? * some local store * not in any of the stores i frequent * online * amazon… * many mixed feelings on amazon, yet it does provide convenience. i ended up giving amazon my 7 bucks. though, it has me thinking what further steps i can take to stop relying on amazon for small, strange purchases like this. a devon price post for more thought: * asking to go into my roommates room to access the router * i feel bad burdening others and intruding into other people's space. maybe to an unhealthy extent… * my own adhd inertia * it is so hard to start things lmao