tech on Lucas Freeman

It's here!

Fri, 08 May 2026 16:16:55 -0500

So excited to have the #Lightphone3

On that note, "unplugging" for the weekend 👋

My handy guide to a healthy relationship with the internet

Mon, 04 May 2026 18:16:32 -0500

If the site or service's business model relies almost solely on any of the following tactics, instead of delivering an advertised service, don't use it:

Algorithmic manipulation
Attention hacking
Financial irresponsibly or urgency
Data harvesting and selling

New stickers from @robb@social.lol go hard on the truck

Sat, 02 May 2026 08:23:35 -0500

Beefed up the Mastodon embed card on my ghost blog posts pages

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 09:20:52 -0500

All links and data are updated.

Shows threads if there.

The "Reply via Mastodon" also checks the users server to make it much cleaner to interact.

Think I'm finally done with my post cards on my #ghostblog

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 14:54:39 -0500

Mastodon logo shows if post was xposted and hyperlinks (also shows an embed on the post page of the mastodon post with stats)
Likes work and are counted
Comment links to the comments section powered by a self hosted isso instance. Counts also work
Photo is the total photo count on the post
View Post is always there, but changed to Read more if truncated by total photos being more than 3
Share provides a copy link or email

Stoked about how my self hosted ghost blog is turning out

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 18:12:46 -0500

A few of my favorite things:

Posts are truncated by character limit and photo count, 3. Also shows a number of photos on the post
Has a like button via https://github.com/ColinEberhardt/applause-button that shows on the home page and direct posts
A very slick /tags page
All colors are in line with https://catppuccin.com/palette/

Looking to add web mentions support and better integration with my mastodon

Base theme is here: https://www.priority.vision/themes/feed/

mood

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 20:01:00 -0500

My Fairphone 6 experience was short lived

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 22:29:52 -0500

GrapheneOS, I just can't quit you 🫶

It all comes down to software. I think the hardware on the Fairphone 6 is pretty great. However I just couldn't find the right rom and software balance for my needs.

Here's a quick rundown on why I'm back.

The ability to run completely without google services
Intense attention to privacy
Easy app to app network blocking. This is a must for apps like google photos, which I only use for the pixel camera. Neither get network access
The recent confirmed partnership with Motorola: https://motorolanews.com/motorola-three-new-b2b-solutions-at-mwc-2026/
The impressive amount of features they continue to add

I'm back to google hardware, which I'm less than thrilled about, but the GrapheneOS X Motorola partnership might finally be my exit from Pixel devices! Can't wait to see what they do with this.

After the latest 3.5 update for /e/OS, Ive been giving it another go on my Fairphone 6

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 19:34:45 -0500

https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/os/releases/-/releases/v3.5-s & https://e.foundation/e-os/ for more info

Getting used to the default bliss launcher is honestly the biggest hurtle for me. Of course I could change it, but like to get the default experience. I’m going to be honest, its growing on me.

The 3.5 update brought a lot of stability to the Fairphone 6, and it really shows. The Fairphone camera app being default is great. Full support for Fairphone Moments via the hardware switch is also a game changer.

Pros:

Lots of stability improvements lately
The Fairphone moments switch fully functions now, and can be changed to do different things
I’m really enjoying the default apps, which are a mix of e/os/ apps and LineageOS default apps
Battery life has been great
Their App Lounge store is really solid
Uses MicroG and works flawlessly out of the box. I’m tinker friendly, but its really so simple, you don’t have to at all.

Cons:

Uses Magic Earth as the default app. Not e /os/ fault, but the latest Magic Earth is a big step back. I dont mind the subscription model, but the entire app is so much slower than it used to be. The good news, is there looks to be a new maps app on the way! https://murena.com/meet-murena-maps/
Lack of RCS. This is a combo issue due to how Google does RCS and limitations of MicroG. This is a nut that GrapheneOS has recently cracked with their sandboxed Google Play Services
Lack of tap to pay - This doesnt bug me much since I use my Gramin watch for tap to pay and it works independently form the phone.
While Bliss Launcher is growing on me, I’d love to see more customizing options.
e /OS/ really needs an on boarding process or explainer of all the features it has and all it can do.

I’ll be sticking with /e/OS for the foreseeable future and I’m excited to see how it continues to improve!

“Switch to fair”

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 16:58:36 -0500

I’ve been on a journey to completely decouple from big tech for a while now.

It’s been fairly successful from a combo of self hosting via unraid, exploring alternatives like Proton, and running my blog via Pika.

One thing that bugged me was continuing to use Google’s hardware via a Pixel phone. While I’ve been running GrapheneOS for well over a year now, it still felt icky.

After a lot of studying, I’ve jumped head first into a Fairphone 6. The problem though is they don’t directly support the US market. However, you can buy the same device for a premium with e /os/ installed here.

I bit the bullet, and snagged the phone and several accessories.

I gave e /os/ a try, but it’s just not for me. I ended up putting iodeOS on it. No google logins needed. The only google owned product I still use is Waze. I’ve tried so many of the alternative options, but keep getting pulled back. I did really like Magic Earth, but they have taken a piss as of late.

Over all very happy with the phone. While its no hot rod, I’m enamored by Fairphone’s core beliefs and goals, and love to be part of the journey. I did have to slap on a mag safe ring on the back. Way to many accessories and mounts all over my house and cars to live without.

Dumbing down the smarts in my modern Toyota Tundra

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 16:00:31 -0500

I'm not a big fan of data collection and connection just for the sake of it.

When I learned that remote start was paywall’d behind a subscription, both with the fob and the mobile app, it pushed me over the edge to find out how to dumb my 2021 Toyota Tundra.

This led me to the DCM module. You can learn more about this here. The long and short of it is constant data collection with data brokering to insurance companies on the side. No thank you. Toyota will tell you that you can completely opt out and disable all this via a software toggle on their end. Since these claims consistently are debunked, I wanted to go the for sure route. For sure after seeing this little nugget:

Unhooking the fuse to the DCM will throw errors, unplugging it will do the same while also disabling the trucks built in mic. I'm sure this was just a oversight, not just a way to demotivate folks from unplugging them. 😉

A bit more digging led me to other privacy minded folks. One person also made block off harnesses to disable the DCM while not losing unexpected functionality. Big shout out to this thread here.

Taking the dash and glove box apart wasn't too bad, for sure easier with my assistant.

Here's the little booger, slammed way back up and behind everything. I'm sure for no reason at all 😗

Installing the little wiring harness was a breeze

all back together and good as new. It's winter so the truck is dirtier than usual.

Success, I can now be certain the tundra can't phone home.

Had to get out of the house today Working remote + ice storm had me a bit stir crazy

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 11:52:00 -0500

Balancing a work-life balance

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 11:45:00 -0500

How I keep my weekends family focused with an "unplugged" phone

I've tried or owned just about every minimal unplugged phone out there, from Punkt to lightphone and everything between.

And even though many have helped me get away and focus on whats important when traveling or on the weekends, it's almost always felt like i was a bit crippled.

Lately I've settled on my unplugged phone being a Pixel 9a running GrapheneOS with a disabled browser and it seems like the winning combo.

This keeps the internet from being a big detraction, but still allows me to have a few important things:

* A solid camera
* Directions via Waze
* Android Auto
* Home assistant controls
* Music / Podcast apps

This is for sure one of my best quality of life changes I do.

On that note, I'm going to switch over to the unplugged phone now. See you Monday internet!

Really enjoying Umami

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 11:42:00 -0500

Why I use this opensource tool for my analytics

I've dabbled in self hosting my blog on and off for years.

Something that i never really felt was where I wanted it was light site stats. I had no interest in paying for this functionality, or giving big brother Google any of my data.

When I landed on Ghost, they did not have the partnership with Tinybird yet, so I started to dig.

I finally found Umami

Out the gate i was really impressed on how easy it is to get going.

Once I set up my site, it gave me a simple script to add to the site. Once done, I could see all the goodies I was after.

Today I've dug into UTMs and campaigns to get some more insights on linking.

I'm just a stats nerd and don't really have any reason to do this other than that, but it sure is fun to watch the funnels and journeys people take.

Having this data self hosted and the data housed on my own homelab feels so much more satisfying. We already give so much information to big tech, anything i can pull in house feels like a tiny victory.

We have LLMs at home

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 11:41:00 -0500

A quick post on how and why i use self hosted LLMs

While I have strong feelings about the overarching "AI" umbrella, open-source models and tools are neat.

Powered my home lab, with unraid, the ollama docker, and the open-webui docker.

Right now, these are my favorite opensource models:

Llama 3.1 - Fast, solid all-rounder; tool-calling support
Qwen 2.5 - Stronger multilingual, math, code
OLMo 2 7 B - 100 % open training pipeline
Mistral 7 B Instruct v0.3 - Fast, creative writing
StarCoder2 7 B - Code-generation specialist, 600+ langs.

I have a few more at the ready when needed

What about internet access and search?

When needed, I can easily feed this to the net via my cloudflared container and custom domain.
I much prefer keeping it offline and use the strength of the model vs just having it be an internet gopher. However, i have searx self hosted and can easily tap the API when needed

Finally settling in on my perfect balance for my photos backups

Fri, 26 Dec 2025 17:54:11 -0500

Immich for local backups via my Unraid server.

Then surprisingly, proton drive for my cloud backups. While not feature rich, and reminds me of old school dropbox, its been pretty great.

I love Ente and look forward to them growing, but its for sure on the slow side and can be frustrating.

Me bullying my family and friends to join signal.

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 08:13:29 -0500

Really excited for Orion to enter public beta.

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:31 -0500

Jealous of all the fun fruit folks are having: https://blog.kagi.com/orion

Between the incoming price hikes, the degrading and bloated app, and running ads for the modern day brown shirts, this is long overdue.

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 20:50:00 -0500

Love this hisense canvas tv during the holidays 🖼️🎅

Sun, 14 Dec 2025 15:08:00 -0500

.

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 12:15:00 -0500

.

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 13:50:00 -0500

🔗 AI is like Temu for thinking

Absolutely amazing

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 18:58:00 -0500

Running GoToSocial on an old wifi router

This has been such a fun device. OnePlus 13 running lineage OS

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 15:48:00 -0500

Unfortunately I’ve become a Graphene OS stan so this one’s going back and I’ll go back to my Pixel 10 pro xl once it has full support.

womp womp

Sun, 09 Nov 2025 17:09:00 -0500

AI isn’t replacing jobs. AI spending is. Big spending on artificial intelligence puts pressure on jobs, as gloomy narratives about the future of work are ironically making new graduates less employable"

www.fastcompany.com/91435192/…

h/t - infosec.exchange/@briankre…

A neat resource for self hosted alternatives to popular software

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 09:55:00 -0500

https://openalternative.co/self-hosted

That’ll do

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 21:55:00 -0500

🧑‍💻 Ive been using the KDE Linux distro, and gotta admit, I’m impressed

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 16:22:24 -0500

https://kde.org/linux/

Really enjoyed Jony Ive’s chat

Wed, 07 May 2025 09:54:00 -0500

📘

Tue, 06 May 2025 15:39:00 -0500

👨‍💻💳

Tue, 06 May 2025 08:38:00 -0500

https://stripesessions.com/

Coffee shop cruising today

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 09:57:00 -0500

Linkstack is such a nice service

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 10:30:00 -0500

https://linkstack.org/

The bonus is it self hosts so easily

The kids and wife are down for the night 😴

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 22:03:00 -0500

I should do the same, but…

While I’m at it, lets get Proton out too

Fri, 07 Feb 2025 20:43:00 -0500

Good bye and good riddance

Fri, 07 Feb 2025 17:44:00 -0500

This was a huge pain in the ass, but happy to be free from them.

Finally tweaked this older supernote into a monster of a ereader

Sun, 02 Feb 2025 14:58:00 -0500

I’ve been working to use more of my down time head down in books.

Currently reading, Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear us Apart

Plexamp does not get enough love for how cool it is. Remembered guest DJ was a thing today

Sat, 01 Feb 2025 16:15:00 -0500

https://www.plex.tv/plexamp/

Hands down my favorite backpack I’ve ever owned

Sat, 28 Dec 2024 16:36:00 -0500

Not only is it awesome for tech and cameras, makes an amazing dad bag!

Finally got around to sticker bombing my latest linux laptop

Tue, 19 Nov 2024 16:27:00 -0500

This thing is such a great linux kit: HP Omen 14

The Nintendo Music app is amazing

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 15:54:00 -0500

Requires a Nintendo online account.

Ran up on this throwback from the iPod jailbreak days

Tue, 23 Jul 2024 08:29:00 -0500

The custom icons were 😍

I’ve mainly been on iOS for over a year. Back on android and @GrapheneOS

Tue, 23 Jul 2024 08:28:00 -0500

Boy I’ve missed custom icons 💅

Don’t Talk To Me Or My Son Ever Again

Tue, 18 Jun 2024 16:33:00 -0500

Transforming an iPhone into a “dumb phone” or going off grid

Sun, 19 May 2024 09:06:00 -0500

Something I like to do is unplug sometimes on the weekends or on vacation. Thought I'd share some things I do to get away.

To cull the iphone I setup a focus mode called "unplugged" and also enable downtime. Super restricted and only absolutely essential apps enabled.

With the focus mode comes custom wallpapers and picking a custom home screen. Really like this setting.

When I want to go off grid I leave the iPhone, grab my point and shoot camera or the nice fuji camera and only bring my Apple watch Ultra with a cellular plan. After using every possible alternative device like the ‘lite phone’, just using the apple watch is so much better.

Not a bad way to end a Thursday

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 19:04:00 -0500

Well that’s not good

Sat, 06 Jan 2024 10:39:00 -0500

My unraid server just might have a run away docker image 🏚️🔥

Be right back, going to the 90s

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 22:58:00 -0500