neat post

posts/_metadata.json

@@ -8,6 +8,15 @@
     "tags": ["meta", "code", "project", "web", "markdown", "typescript_javascript", "css"],
     "archived": false
   },
+  "neet-admiration": {
+    "title": "NEETs are good, actually",
+    "slug": "neet-admiration",
+    "filename": "neet_admiration",
+    "date": "13/12/2025",
+    "author": "jet/Prussia",
+    "tags": ["neet", "lifestyle"],
+    "archived": false
+  },
   "haguro-book-review": {
     "title": "Book Review: A Religious Study of the Mount Haguro Sect of Shugendo",
     "slug": "haguro-book-review",
@@ -32,7 +41,7 @@
     "filename": "dns_server_misadventures",
     "date": "05/04/2025",
     "author": "jet/Prussia",
-    "tags": ["dns", "web", "intranet"],
+    "tags": ["dns", "web", "intranet", "complaint"],
     "archived": false
   },
   "the-ming-wm-philosophy": {

posts/dns_server_misadventures.md

@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ Great! Except... no. There is a huge IPv4 address shortage (only 4 billion of th
 
 The usual solution to this is to have Cloudflare manage the DNS and proxy requests to you. They will do this for free. It's quite nice, but ultimately this is something that depends on the generosity of Cloudflare, and cannot be counted on forever. Plus, it is quite unhealthy for large swaths of the internet to depend on just Cloudflare, and letting Cloudflare snoop on all the traffic isn't great. Even encrypted traffic has valuable metadata. Cloudflare also provides a service for those who can't (or don't want to) open ports, called Cloudflare Tunnel (thank you, Cloudflare). But again, this depends on the generosity of Cloudflare, allows them to snoop, and understandably has limitations if doing anything out of the ordinary. For example, if I wanted to host a web server at the domain prussia.ban (`.ban` not being a "real" [ICANN] TLD), publically accessible to anyone who uses my DoH server, I'd need a IPv4/IPv6 address, there is just no way around it. Cloudflare won't work for these non-existent domains, understandably. So, to self-host (or host on a VPS without paying for a IPv4 address), the only free choice is basically to use Cloudflare.
 
-For an intranet, where everyone is on the same network, this isn't too bad of an issue, since people who are in control of the router can just use the internal 192.168.* IPs. No need to worry about security/privacy, or pay for a IPv4/IPv6 address. Oh, except Firefox refuses to accept 192.168.* A records, probably for security reasons? 127.0.0.1 does seem to work, though... So it would have to be painfully proxied through 127.0.0.1. Argh!
+For an intranet, where everyone is on the same network, this isn't too bad of an issue, since people who are in control of the router can just use the internal 192.168.\* IPs. No need to worry about security/privacy, or pay for a IPv4/IPv6 address. Oh, except Firefox refuses to accept 192.168.\* A records, probably for security reasons? 127.0.0.1 does seem to work, though... So it would have to be painfully proxied through 127.0.0.1. Argh!
 
 This is terrible! Terrible! Webhosting should be accessible to anyone with an internet connection and some sort of computing device, without being forced to rely on the generosity of some mega-corp.
 

posts/neet_admiration.md

@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+I think NEETs get a bad rap. Really, I'll go even further and say NEETs deserve some admiration, in the same way that monks do.
+
+Not being in education, employment or training isn't inherently bad, we know that. Most of us aspire to be NEETs in a sense, when we hopefully one day retire (please, please, let us retire).
+
+What pisses people off is the age when NEETs become NEETs, which is several decades before the common retirement age. The sentiment is then that they are lazy parasites on society, while the elderly have earned their NEET-hood.
+
+But is this not a double standard?
+
+The trust fund millionaire, who hasn't worked a day in their life, while not exactly respected, is not viewed as negatively as a NEET.
+
+A better example may be a 20-something year old entrepreneur, who exits after their startup is sold, with a bajillion dollars, and retires. These people are lauded in the newspapers, and there are many people aspiring to be like them. Sure, they have worked, but was their work truly that many times more valuable than someone who can only retire in their 60s?
+
+So it is clear now that standard for whether NEET-hood is acceptable or not is based on money.
+
+But if the NEET has the financial or practical means (eg, a vegetable garden) to maintain their NEET-hood, how is it any different?
+
+Well, obviously, the argument goes, many NEETs live off of welfare, or family handouts, giving nothing back, and are therefore parasites. But the NEET is not extorting any money, or stealing. The government, or family, are willingly lending support, in the same way a community gives alms to a monk.
+
+Though, many monks provide spiritual services to alms-givers, or at least giving alms spiritually benefits the alms-giver in some way. This is not a very convincing argument to someone not sharing the same religion as the monk, of course.
+
+Some monks create works of art, such as sculpture or literature. They also do work, just not as part of employment. They probably have religious duties, like rituals or prayers, and physical chores like cleaning or taking care of a small garden.
+
+So if a NEET does the same, either creating works of art or doing chores, are they not similar? Can we not justify them too?
+
+I think we can, anyways. While being a NEET is not quite the same as a bum, [Utah Phillips](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Phillips) was a vagrant trainhopping bum for several years, and I would say he ended up providing great value to a lot of people, including me. Just as one example. It wasn't like he "recovered" from or disavowed being a bum, it was a key component of his successes.
+
+NEETs, again similar to monks, typically live a simple and poor lifestyle. To be satisfied with what you have is quite admirable in my eyes. Being poor is not easy.
+
+A common framing of the media and others is that NEETs are an economic problem, because they are not creating value for society in the typical way. Sure, this is true. If the whole nation became monks many problems would arise too. But this is not the fault of the NEETs. NEETs are a symptom of a sick society. Just as monks increase when there is war, famine, or general instability, NEETs are increasing because the world kinda sucks, y'all.
+
+Given my admiration for NEETs, why not become one?
+
+I've thought about it.
+
+I somewhat believe people have an obligation to society, that we should pay through work, so that is part of it. But there is no doubt that people can be of service to society while still being a NEET. Further, it is arguable whether most jobs are indeed really making value for society. So that is pure cope on my part.
+
+The truth is I do not have the balls or bravery to do it. I do somewhat care about how people I know perceive me. This is unsarcastically unfortunate. I would characterise myself as much less materialistic than typical, and I don't wish I was uber wealthy, but I am scared of being in poverty, still. These are the same exact reasons why I wouldn't become a monk, or a drifter or some sort.
+
+To have the courage and lack of greed to be a NEET, or, if it was not by choice, the courage to accept the situation and still be happy, is something that we can strive for, at least to some extent.
+
+===
+
+Some addendums:
+
+- This should almost go without saying, but not all NEETs are noble, there are surely some who do nothing, hate their situation, and abuse others. But that's pretty much true for any group of people, I guess
+- My main criticism of NEETs, is the tendency to be hikikomoris. I mean that in the strictest definition; that is, not going outside. I'm pretty sure this is not healthy over a long period of time. It is not that I am against refusing social interactions, or generally isolating oneself. I simply believe that mentally it is better to go outside, go on a walk, and see nature, like how traditional ascetics
+- Being a monk is also not always a life-long vow, again like NEET-hood, depending on the religion and tradition

posts/operation_media_freedom.md

@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ Back to what pla-den-tor actually is, it started out as a simple media server wi
 
 Essentially, you create a directory for, say, an artist, in the music directory. Drop whatever song files you want in there, and repeat. Then, you run the build script, and it'll generate a bunch of html files linking to them. Every song gets it's own page (and the actual song file is embedded on that page), and each artist gets a page that links to all the song pages. The main page links to all the artists/manga/anime. For manga specifically there is a special viewer that just shows all the pages in the chapter. Oh, and all the song/chapter/episode pages have links back to their artist/manga/anime, as well as links to the next or previous song/chapter/episode. Nothing too fancy at this stage.
 
-This format works well for manga and anime, but not so much for music. I don't want to click a bunch of links to get to the next song when the current song ends. Naturally, a music player was added soon after. After some work, the player got to a point where I'm very satisfied with it. It has a queue (you can only remove or move up items in the queue, no moving down because I was lazy), filters (lots and lots of checkboxes for songs and artists), playlists, history (which I don't really use but might one day in order to make a "spotify wrapped" knockoff), and obviously shuffling.
+This format works well for manga and anime, but not so much for music. I don't want to click a bunch of links to get to the next song when the current song ends. Naturally, a music player was added soon after. After some work, the player got to a point where I'm very satisfied with it. It has a queue, filters (lots and lots of checkboxes for songs and artists), playlists, history (which I don't really use but might one day in order to make a "spotify wrapped" knockoff), and obviously shuffling.
 
 ## Oh yeah, it shows time-synced lyrics too
 

posts/recommended_blogs.md

@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
-A very short (so far) list of blogs I read when HN's been reloaded for the tenth time and the front page hasn't changed:
+A very short (so far) list of blogs/sites I read when HN's been reloaded for the tenth time and the front page hasn't changed:
 
-- [A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry](https://acoup.blog): classical and medieval history
+- [A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry](https://acoup.blog): classical and medieval history (mostly rome and greece)
-- [Vitalik Buterin's website ](https://vitalik.eth.limo): ethereum
+- [Vitalik Buterin's website ](https://vitalik.eth.limo): ethereum and decentralisation
-- [BIG by Matt Stoller](https://www.thebignewsletter.com): monopolies
+- [BIG by Matt Stoller](https://www.thebignewsletter.com): monopolies (with american focus)
-- [Matt Lakeman](https://mattlakeman.org): mostly travel
+- [Matt Lakeman](https://mattlakeman.org): travel and pop history
-- [Computers Are Bad](https://computer.rip/archive.html): tech
+- [Richard Stallman](https://stallman.org/articles): digital and human rights
+- [Lwn.net](https://lwn.net/Archives): linux and open source