Azzy.

New Link Page and Some Stuff

23/03/2026

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Hi everyone, first of all, I am really sorry for not posting that much, I am usually very busy and only have a bit of time to do something.

On January of this year, I decided to transfer my main domain (azzyaz.net) to Hostinger, leaving the subdomain (blog) here on wordpress, I ran into issues trying to seperate the main domain from the subdomain, it was really painful having to troubleshoot, but now its fixed (yay).

I don’t know if some of you noticed, but if you went to azzyaz.net late January – Mid March. you might have noticed a links page, that’s right, I am replacing gravatar, but I had never had issues with gravatar really. So why the switch?, to be honest, I don’t know, but who knows.

My first links page was on hostinger as part of a free trial, but I found out it was really limiting, so on Friday (20/03/26), I went to Astro, you might have seen posts of it on my mastodon. I first wanted to move this blog to Astro, but I found it extremely difficult based on my coding skills. So I decided to stick with Basic HTML and CSS, and even though it took me days to troubleshoot deployment and why Astro wasn’t starting the dev host, I had finally fixed both of these, and now you can visit the new link page here too, but if you want to host your own version of my link page, the code is on here on GitHub.

You might notice that the About page on here is the same as on the other site, that’s because I am moving pages to the link page, but I think I need to learn more markdown possibly.

Anyways, again, I am really sorry for not posting much as I am tight on some stuff happening right now, but I will write as much as I can (and probably update the repo sometimes too), but now, see you in my next post (if there is).

Update (28/03/26): Added the SimpleLinks Repo on there

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Why I Personally think the Retro Tech Community is Falling Apart (and not)

12/02/2026

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Hello Everyone, Today we will be talking about why i think the retro tech community is falling apart.

First of all, my main reason for the community being unstable is because of less and less revival projects that are still working to this day, which really affects the persons choices, however, i understand if devs of these projects need a break, i am not saying project devs should spend all their time delivering the persons needs.

There are many projects that don’t work anymore (Owler), that got corrupted (Flirb) and some that are really greedy (Escargot), it is indeed losing projects.

My other reasons is that:
- No enough passionate people (however, if you are more experienced, self-host it)
- Too much drama (MessengerGeek 2020, even though its over thankfully)
However, even though it is losing well-known projects, there are 2-3 projects popping up (most coming soon) and its a little great progress, so this might be irrelevant, some i have on my revival lists, but soon i might add some more to it.

Anyway, this was just a little rant on why I think the retro community is dying, i will see you in my next post.
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+ Retro Tech, Technology

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Flirb.net: The Unfortunate News

31/01/2026

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Hello Everyone, So as i am writing at 22:08 GMT (31 January 2026), something really bad happened to flirb.net.

As the Founder (fru) explained, during an update, the database got corrupted and there wasn’t an single backup to restore to, meaning that the whole project was lost, and probably not returning soon.

Discord Announcement

You can now find me at hjonk and other socials on my gravatar.

This was a quick (and sad) update to flirb, anyways, good night and i will see you in my next post.

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The Fediverse: What It Is

16/01/2026

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Hello Everyone, and happy new year!

Sorry for not posting for a long time (since my last), I am recovering so I felt like doing a post today.

I have been exploring some stuff over the holidays and I looked at the fediverse, now tell me, what is the fediverse?, well like I always do, I will explain.

The easiest way to explain it a bit is thinking about it as email, yes, email, because it doesn’t matter if you use Outlook or Gmail, you can still send and receive email from each other, no matter what (well, the reason for that is email is an open-standard, but it’s not what we are talking about today).

However, this is not the same with social media (Instagram, X/Twitter etc…), for example, if you really wanted to follow a person on X, but you only use facebook, you will be forced to sign up for that platform and then following that person, which leads to juggling multiple identities on each platform, remembering many logins and more.

The problem was solved thanks to ActivityPub, a W3C-standardized protocol, that allowed interoperability between platforms that supported it (Mastodon, diaspora, Frendica), it also allowed you to keep one identity across the ActivityPub platforms, no more remembering many logins now.

But due to the problems of Account Porting, Bluesky PBC (which used to be an internal research group at Twitter Inc) formed a new protocol called ATProto, which if implemented, gives an Immutable DID and a linked domain (this also allows for verifying people, by supplying a DNS Query of a resource record, or requesting a text file from the web service), It works the same as ActivityPub but one difference is that you can use one identity (one login) for many ATProto services, this also contributes to “Not having too much logins”.

I am already using fedi socials like Mastodon and Bluesky but i have been trying some other ones like frendica, diaspora and lemmy, and so far, it’s good, i can follow myself on different ActivityPub Platform (eg, i can follow myself from Mastodon, on frendica).

Me viewing my Mastodon Profile on Friendica

Now, if you decided that you would like to try, you would notice that you would need to pick a server. Servers are like councils (or states) that you host your account on (either public ones, or you can self-host your own!), just pick the server, create an account there and done!, of course, they are fediverse, which means that people can see your posts and you can see posts from other servers, and if you don’t like the way your server works, just switch!

It wasn’t much to explain about the fediverse, i am only making a comeback after such long, but if you are interested in the fediverse, you can visit this site to check out the alternatives they have on there, you can use both non-fedi and fedi, or you can choose to switch to the fediverse altogether, you can also check out this site to look for servers for fediverse services like Mastodon or Misskey.

Anyways, I will see you in the next post!

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Sorry for the delay/Update

25/12/2025

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Hello Everyone,

First of all, I would like to say sorry for not posting that much, i have been quite busy over the days since my last post, 3 Days ago, I had go surgery due to religion, I am in my bed at the time of writing this on my tablet, after recovery, i might be able to post normal stuff again.

This was a short update on my health, like i said, i might be able to post normal content after i recover fully.

Thanks for your understanding

Ahyan Z/Kazuno

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Virtual Machines

11/12/2025

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Hello Everyone, in this post, we will be talking about “Virtual Machines”, which is basically a computer inside a computer.

But firstly, if you hadn’t noticed, the theme on the website is a different because i wanted to make changes to it, this is, personally, retro/coding styled, which i like, so i chose this one. But back to the main topic here.

As i was saying, Virtual Machines are emulations (you could say) of a OS like Windows or Ubuntu, they depend on the host (the computer that’s running the computer/emulator) specifications.

In my case, I have 2 VMs set up on Virtualbox, but i try not to add too much because i have 128GB of Storage, which it is not practical with the ISOs (explain that later) and the VHDs (also explaining that later).

One is a Windows XP VM, which i use for Escargot (formerly Nina and Escargot), but i barely use it. Another is a Windows 7 VM, which i am now locked out of it, i use it for CrossTalk (yeah).

Windows XP Booting Up in a VM

Windows 7 Booting Up in a VM

To be able to get a VM, some mobile emulators (QEMU for Jailbroken Apple Devices with AltStore) need you to download an “VHD” to the device so the app can process and hopefully, boot, but desktop VM Managers (Oracle VirtualBox, Hyper-V..) need you to insert an “ISO”, the VHD, you can create and adjust its size (like GB), then you install it onto the VHD.

Now, what’s all this “ISO” and “VHD” talk, well, ISOs are large files (up to GB) that have inside, more files, the computer then recognises it as a USB Device (maybe, but it stand outs as “it isn’t”), the files inside the ISO are files that the OS setup uses when installing that desired OS (eg language packs or basic features, but they can download off the network if connected, but language packs are still needed in the ISO, otherwise things are broken), it also has the Boot files, necessary to even boot the usb device you flash that on (you can “flash” the ISO onto a USB flash drive to then install it on another computer, VMs follow the same process but it uses the ISO directly).

VHDs are Virtual Hard disks (which you can create via Disk manager on windows, but that’s not the way VMs do it), VHDs are even bigger files (depending on what size you choose) that you install the ISO on, and that what makes an OS, but the VM depends on the Hard disk too, like emulators on mobile devices, otherwise, where will it boot from?, that’s like taking off the hard drive of a laptop and then booting it.

You can manage the VMs and everything by “VM Managers”, they are programs that give you a GUI interface to boot, shut down, delete hard disks, delete VMs and files and more, the one i can recommend for personal use is Oracle VirtualBox, which is free forever, but for business use, VMware is recommended (but you can use VMware as a personal user with a license key, which you have to buy)

Oracle VirtualBox Manager on Windows

That hopefully sums up about Virtual Machines, but i will see you in the next post!

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Big Tech and Privacy Alternatives

07/12/2025

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Hello Everyone, In this blog post, we are going to talk about the problems with big tech companies like Google, Facebook (Meta) and more, and as well talk about privacy alternatives like Tuta.

I have also changed my domain (again) to a subdomain (blog.azzyaz.net), like before, you can access the blog via either domain.

Moving On, Google, Meta and more, have been tracking you, maybe stealing your data, selling them too.

This wake up call began in June 2013, when whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed extensive surveillance programs in the US operated by intelligence agencies like NSA and the FBI (without judicial authorization).

This had inspired many privacy focused alternatives like Tutanota (now Tuta) and Threema, and i am almost completing my privacy switchover from Google Apps to alternatives like Tuta. I have also created a privacy pack (below)

There have been cases with Google scanning and going through your emails, like in 2022, a Father got his Gmail account blocked by Google for sending naked pictures of his child to a doctor, but even though investigations were closed, Google was still not letting the father get back access to the account, this is a example that Google scans through messages for “safety”

Google can also influence you by ad-based systems (eg, Recommendations on Youtube and what-not). And something else i had discovered today, in Copilot, there is a Lab feature called Copilot Vision, which allows you to share your screen with Copilot if you need help with your screen, to me, this is very privacy invasive since it has access to your screen, and can see private documents too, when i tried it, it already described the wallpaper i had on my desktop.

But Fortunately, there is a way to escape Big Techs constant tracking and stealing data from you to data brokers, you could either:
- Self-Host – If you know what you are doing , you can self-host popular software like Immich (self-hosted Google Photos alternative) or Nextcloud (self-hosted Google Drive alternative), downside is, its unreliable, so it’s recommended you use the 3-2-1 backup method for any important data.
- Cloud Hosting – This is like self-hosting at home, but you do it at a cloud hosting service, which they manage the server for you, there are popular options like DigitalOcean or Hostinger, but again, its not reliable, and you don’t have physical access to the machine, which makes it harder to troubleshoot, again, use the 3-2-1 backup method i have mentioned earlier.
- Existing Alternatives – FOSS Projects like Tuta or Ente you can use if you don’t wanna go through the pain of self-hosting, the ones i have used are reliable and trustworthy, so great option, but use the 3-2-1 backup method if you don’t wanna lose access to your precious memories.
So there are options for getting away from Big Tech, but the important thing is, take your time, you can explore privacy options, but you cant do it in a poof, for me, i took months and breaks from getting over to the other side because there was a obstacle between from Google Photos to Ente, i used Googles Takeout, which separated the EXIF metadata from the photo, it was frustrating, but now, i am half done with the switchover thanks to this life saving tool you can find here (which sorts your photos in years and unifies the EXIF files with the correct photo.

In the End, you can escape Big Tech by either the 3 options i have mentioned earlier, it takes time, but soon, i will conduct a list of more privacy-focused alternatives to Google Products, but it isn’t just Google to be pinned, its also Microsoft and Meta, their actions combined are disgusting too, it will be available on the site soon.

Anyways, i will see you in the next post!
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Opinion On The Vivaldi browser

04/12/2025

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Hello Everyone! Today i am expressing my opinions about the Vivaldi Browser, (which, also, i am not sponsored by Vivaldi, i am a Vivaldi Browser/Vivaldi.net user for half a year, these are my own opinions)

Before i get on, some of you may notice that the azzyaz.wordpress.com domain stopped working/forwards to azzzyaz.net, well that is because, I have bought the Personal Plan for a month, I also have more features now, i might go up to the Premium plan for the Ads (but it won’t be intrusive i promise, i might be able to put it on the very bottom only)

Anyway, Moving on, i have been using the Vivaldi Browser in April 2025, so today, i am going to conclude my experience.

When you install the browser, it gives you a welcome message, which from there, you can set it to dark mode, change the theme etc, after you do your setting up, you can get new themes, they are free too, and by the community.

themes.vivaldi.net homepage

They have a lot of themes to choose from, for me, my theme is “Gruvbox Space”

My Homepage with the Gruvbox Space theme

It is also very customizable, you can move the icons, add widgets and even move the address bar down, you can suit it to your liking and needs.

Toolbar Editor

On the technical side, the browser is based on Chromium, which is also the same thing Google Chrome uses, which yes, you can install Extensions from the Chrome Webstore, so it is easy to move your extensions as well.

Aswell, they have a community at vivaldi.net, which offers a Webmail, blog, forums and Vivaldi Social (which is based on Mastodon), vivaldi.net is also older than the browser, since it was quickly put up in order to fill in the void left by the MyOpera shutdown.

Vivaldi.net Homepage

The community and the browser is also focused on anti-Big Tech, by not tieing the Vivaldi Mail client to the Webmail Services and etc, what i like about Vivaldi too.

They have also a Mail, Calendar and RSS Feed baked into the client, which is handy if you dont wanna install another mail client or use Outlook as your client.

So overall, the features of Vivaldi as we have talked about are:
- Anti-Big Tech Mission
- Vivaldi.net – Community
- Mail, Calendar and RSS clients – Baked into the client
- Themes
- Movable Icons
I would say about Vivaldi in general, it is a very customizable, productive and Privacy Based browser (though of course, it is based on Chromium)

That is all for this post, i will see you soon in my next post.
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IRC: My thoughts/findings

30/11/2025

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Hello Everyone, In my last post, i talked about flirb, well today, we are heading at IRC, which yes, is still alive even to this day, I have been experimenting with it over the last weeks, and i have to say, it’s a great discord alternative from 1988 (since there’s a lot of crap inside discord).

Basically, to be able to use IRC, you of course need a IRC client, I used Halloy for desktop, and Revolution IRC on my 2 phones:

You also need a “nickname” to be able to chat on IRC, for example, my nicknames are stellarcapricorn on freenode and libera (i will explain IRC Servers later)

There is also channels, which are basically public group chats you can discuss stuff in, for example, #linux on freenode and #debian on libera.

IRC Servers are basically where anybody can (if on that server) can talk to you by your nickname, its your channels, nicknames, SASL Auth (more on that) that are stored, and you can connect there to chat, it’s in short, a community.

On the Technical side, SASL is an Authentication Mechanism that is used in most servers, that allow you to login in one server you registered your nick again, this is useful since if you already registered a nick with that server, and then login with that nick on the same server, but a different device/client, it will either ask you to change your nickname, or it changes it for you after 1 minute or less, SASL allows you to authenticate yourself with the same nick on the same server, without it changing it after 1 minute or so. Its making sure that you are “that” person trying to use that nick in short.

SASL is sometimes confused with IRC Bouncers, basically, bouncers help you to stay signed in on your client so you can still receive messages even if the app is closed (stays in background), this is because, even if you are registered with “NickServ” (the nickname service that manages the registration of nicknames on a server,this is also SASL), the client will log you out after inactivity, but with bouncers, they stay logged in, there are IRC Mobile clients (Goguma and IRCloud) that have bouncers like IRC Today or IRCCloud baked in the client, all they have to do is sign up for the bouncer service and connect their nick to it, and voila, but with other clients (like Halloy), they don’t have bouncers directly baked in.

Halloy actually depends on a config.toml file that fetches nicks, preconfigured channels, SASL info and the IRC Server/s, they have bouncer support, but you need to host one yourself (Soju), you cannot just use something like IRC Today as your bouncer in Halloy, it wont work.

From my own findings, you cannot connect two different devices, with a different client, with the same server and nicks on each device (even with SASL), at the same time, I personally find it annoying that to be able to connect to IRC on my Desktop, I have to go and disconnect from my other device that’s connected to the server.

Another thing i found, IRC Servers are not federated, they use the same protocol of course, but it’s not like i can join a channel from freenode on libera unlike ActivityPub where its federated and I can like/comment on a Mastodon post from Bluesky (its weird, but i am not sure that’s happening right now).

In the End, IRC is a great alternative to Discord, but it has its downsides, like unreliable servers or DDos attacks, but remember, you can host your own, it’s just hard work to do it. But i will see you in my next post!

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Thank you!

29/11/2025

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Hello Everyone! I would like to say thank you for the 25 views and the 22 visitors, it means much to me!, i would also say thank you for the visitors of UK, US, Ireland and France!

I am sorry that i have not been posting retro tech/general tech related stuff here, i have been busy, but i will try my best to write here.

See you in my next blog post!

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