So, usually I try to stay away from such controversial topics, but I have to address and elephant in the room. You all know, that originally I am from Russia and I have quite liberal world views.

Seeing that many people start to ride the hype and advertising some expensive "solutions", this is why today I decided to do a post about creating your own SOCK5 proxy server via a droplet on Digital Ocean:
- Post - https://spark-in.me/post/vds-socks5-proxy-server - note that unlike my other posts - this one is a step-by-step explanation;
- It explains how to create your own SOCK5 proxy-server using Ubuntu and Digital Ocean with dante;
- The cheapest digital ocean droplet is US$5 per month (you can find such droplets for as low as US$2-3 with inferior service);
- If you use my referral link - you will get US$10 for free - https://m.do.co/c/6f8e77dddc23
- Also you can create credentials for your friends and family;

Also note, that foreseeing this s**t - I created aliases for our telegram channel
- In twitter https://twitter.com/AlexanderVeysov
- In the web http://snakers41.spark-in.me
- RSS http://snakers41.spark-in.me/rss/

UX is not so great, but it works more or less. Please tell me what you think. I know that the majority of readers are Russians and we have quite a negative mentality, but this is one of the cases when you have to share this message and my post as much as possible. We will be doing an adapted post on habrhabr.ru as well.

And I know that there are free proxy lists. But if you create a simple service today - tomorrow you can add layers to it (see some hints in the article) and not rely on other people.

If you like what I shared - please support our channel (see a pinned message)
- https://buymeacoff.ee/8oneCIN

#internet
#digital_freedom

So, I just found out that Firefox rendering engine was rewritten, now it boasts the fastest speeds and support for ... socks5 proxies, both on mobile and desktop.
- https://github.com/FelisCatus/SwitchyOmega/
- https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/08/inside-a-super-fast-css-engine-quantum-css-aka-stylo/

Also projects like orbot+orfox help in more extreme cases.

#internet

Out post is live on Russian reddit - geektimes
- https://geektimes.ru/post/299971/

Please support if you have a valid account!

#internet

A note on CDNs and protecting your website against censorship

TLDR
- https://goo.gl/47UqyZ
- Using a free / cheap CDN service can enable you to protect your domain hosted resource from censorship
- Unless CDN servers will be blocked (but I guess the CDN has more servers, than you, right?)

So, I host spark-in.me on Digital Ocean. And I do not want to move or start a CDN by myself. I read news, that Google abandoned some of its proxying tools because of such censorship events...interesting.

I knew that services like Cloudflare (**CDN**) forward your traffic somehow, but I was not sure what IP is actually seen by the user and whether all of the traffic is forwarded. Then I read their FAQ
- https://goo.gl/uHPLjW

It says

After a visitor's browser has done the initial DNS lookup, it begins making requests to retrieve the actual content of a website. These requests are directed to the IP address that was returned from the DNS lookup. Before Cloudflare, that address would have been 198.51.100.1. With Cloudflare as the authoritative nameserver, the new address is 203.0.113.1. Cloudflare’s data center at 203.0.113.1 will serve as much of your website as it can from its local storage, and ask your web server at 198.51.100.1 for any part of your website it doesn’t already have stored locally. The Cloudflare data center at 203.0.113.1 will then provide your complete website to the visitor, so the visitor never talks directly to your web server at 198.51.100.1.

So I tried their free-tier service (paid service starts from US$20-200, which is too steep) and it just works, though SSL certificates were issued ~90 mins after I changed my nameservers. It is as easy as:
- Backup your DNS settings somewhere
- Import to CloudFlare
- Change name servers in your domain registrar cabinet
- 90 mins and ... profit

Now I cannot see my direct DO server IP when I resolve my DNS:

$ dig +short spark-in.me
104.27.142.65
104.27.143.65

#internet
#security

Internet digest

(0) Ben Evans - https://goo.gl/72b4pm

ML / industry
(1) FB to design its own FPGAs / ML chips - https://goo.gl/nh2Wph ?
(2) Google willing to replicate iMessage, again https://goo.gl/MtwCet
-- No mention of Telegram - but all Google's attempts are aeons behind Telegram
-- Google willing to go the hardest route - a standard enforced on the carrier + replace the messenging app
-- All of the previous attempts kind of did not work
(3) Facebook media backlash - https://goo.gl/rKd9E5
(4) Who makes LIDARs - https://goo.gl/uD5qc5
(5) Tesla over automation - https://goo.gl/1WBMj3

Telecom
(1) British Telecom to switch to VOIP - https://goo.gl/MCbZgq
(2) Flickr purchased - https://goo.gl/AMcE6f

#internet

Internet

Interesting links about Internet
(0) Ben Evans https://goo.gl/gvNBhS

Russia / CIS
(0) Telegram has a new proxy setting in alpha, though no proper stand-alone solutions are published
https://t.me/dvachannel/21784
(1) Western media now cover Telegram
https://goo.gl/nPJ4Sm

Global / tech
(0) Xiaomi to file for an IPO - US$10 - US$100bn
(1) Yet another drag and drop ML that will (m?) fail - https://lobe.ai/ - this is so American
(2) Now all "major" apps heavily feature "stories" as main mobile format - https://goo.gl/wbnHYD
Yet another reason to quit all social media and just use professional apps / messaging
Add up all this bs => this is the reason normal people do not use social media for real now
(3) Tesla most shorted tech company now - https://goo.gl/11yndY xD

Figures
(0) YouTube - 1.8bn users with 1+ login https://goo.gl/kyXFDH
(1) WhatsApp m70bn messages per day (vs. 20bn max with SMS) https://goo.gl/67DdVn


#internet
#digest

Internet / tech

- Google I/O news https://goo.gl/1FszFA
- MS to give custom voice option to its apps - https://goo.gl/5e2oMw
- Katzenberg (former Disney executive) raises US$800m to make YouTube like short series - https://goo.gl/wLpTGi => Internet + Video is a commodity now?
- _Reportedly_ Lyft has 35% market share in the USA https://goo.gl/tvzDTu
- Google becoming evil and doing military contracts - https://goo.gl/3HjYDg - wtf?
- Apple autonomous drive fleet is _repotedly_ now at 55 https://goo.gl/94tfkk

#internet

Digest about Internet

(0) Ben Evans Internet digest - https://goo.gl/uoQCBb

(1) GitHub purchased by Microsoft - https://goo.gl/49X74r
-- If you want to migrate - there are guides already - https://about.gitlab.com/2018/06/03/movingtogitlab/

(2) And a post on how Microsoft kind of ruined Skype - https://goo.gl/Y7MJJL
-- focus on b2b
--lack of focus, constant redesigns, faltering service

(3) No drop in FB usage after its controversies - https://goo.gl/V93j2v

(4) Facebook allegedly employes 1200 moderators for Germany - https://goo.gl/VBcYQQ

(5) Looks like many Linux networking tools have been outdated for years
https://dougvitale.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/deprecated-linux-networking-commands-and-their-replacements/

#internet
#digest

Interesting links about Internet

- Ben Evans' digest - https://goo.gl/t9zG4y
- China plans to track cars - https://goo.gl/jeroFW
- Ben Evans - content is not king anymore - distribution / eco-system are https://goo.gl/ms2tQd
- Google opens AI center in Ghana - https://goo.gl/PRHBjq

- (RU) A funny case on censorship in Russia - funny article deleted from habr - https://sohabr.net/habr/post/414595/
-- It kind of clearly shows that you cannot safely post anything to habr

- India + WhatsApp + lynch mobs - https://goo.gl/tSBUCp
- Tor foundation about web-tracking and Facebook - https://goo.gl/H9DSuL
- Docker image jacking for crypto-mining - https://goo.gl/KrLLuQ
- Ethereum - 75% transactions automated bots - https://goo.gl/Q9BSNL
- (RU) - analyzing fake elections in Russia - 3-10M votes are fake - https://habr.com/post/358790/

#internet

Yet another proxy - shadowsocks

If someone needs another proxy guide, someone with an Arabic username shared some alternative advice for proxy configuration
- http://disq.us/p/1tsy4nk (wait a bit till link resolves)

#internet
#linux