RSS Parrot

5 years running a Tor guard relay: the cost of relaying 1 PB

https://metalhearf.fr/posts/tor-guard-relay-5-years-cost/

Published: August 29, 2026 22:00

Five years ago to the day I started a Tor guard relay on a cheap VPS. It has been forwarding traffic almost continuously ever since. Here is what the real numbers look like, pulled straight from Tor’s own metrics, and what the whole thing actually cost me.…

ChatControl wants to scan all your private messages

https://metalhearf.fr/posts/chatcontrol-wants-your-private-messages/

Published: September 24, 2025 22:00

Hacker News This article was shared on Hacker News. It gained significant traction with over 1100 upvotes, 630 comments and 120 000 unique page views. The European Union wants to force tech companies to scan your private messages & images, even in…

Massgrave: Windows and Office Activation Made Simple

https://metalhearf.fr/posts/massgrave-windows-office-activation/

Published: August 4, 2025 22:00

Introduction # Let’s address the elephant in the room: you’re probably here because you want to activate Windows or Microsoft Office without paying Microsoft. That’s bad, but who am I to cast the first stone. Maybe you’re a student on a tight budget,…

Why people hate voice messages so much

https://metalhearf.fr/posts/why-people-hate-voice-messages/

Published: July 28, 2025 22:00

Introduction # You know that feeling when you see a 47 second voice message in your group chat? That little sigh of resignation before you reluctantly tap play, knowing you’re about to invest nearly a minute of your life listening to something that…

How Faillock silently locks you out of sudo

https://metalhearf.fr/posts/faillock-lockouts/

Published: April 15, 2025 22:00

In this guide, we will explain how faillock works and how you can configure it to avoid account lockouts, or reset your account if it’s locked due to too many failed login attempts. Whether you’re troubleshooting or improving the security of your system,…

Remove your X/Twitter Interests and Limit Ad Tracking

https://metalhearf.fr/posts/privacy-remove-twitter-interests/

Published: April 21, 2022 22:00

Introduction # If you are on X, formerly known as Twitter (or any social media to be honest), there is a lot of personal usage data that could be very interesting that you generate by just using their service. This data is generated based on the…

Set up your own Tor Middle Relay and become a Guard

https://metalhearf.fr/posts/tor-set-up-your-own-middle-relay/

Published: September 27, 2021 22:00

Introduction # In this article, we will set up a Middle Relay, that will hopefully quickly be promoted to a Guard on the Tor network. Before going any further, be sure to understand the implications of this type of relay by reading my dedicated…

Tor Relay Types Explained

https://metalhearf.fr/posts/tor-relay-types/

Published: September 20, 2021 22:00

Introduction # During one of my long scrolls through Reddit, I once discovered a post proposing different ways to participate in the open source world. Among the obvious solutions were: participating in the development of open source projects, using…

Why Game Boy saves don't last forever

https://metalhearf.fr/posts/gameboy-your-saves-are-in-danger/

Published: November 27, 2019 23:00

If you are a still a lucky owner of a Nintendo Game Boy (the original, Color or Advance version), you should give a quick check to your games and saves to ensure they are not vanishing into oblivion. Technical limitations & conception # Today’s save…

Hello World

https://metalhearf.fr/posts/hello-world/

Published: October 29, 2019 23:00

Since everything has to start and you have to mark the little things in life with importance… well, let me write this first article for you. It’s short, meaningless, but the important thing is that it will be indexed and kept forever on the Internet as the…