surfhosting

surfhosting is selfhosting while couchsurfing.

an info resource for nomadic selfhosters, whether by choice or rough circumstance. website coming soon.

peertube channel: @[email protected]

Public Key

npub12fhvtfdw2uekzmyql8j6xjmduej8jp7kkplsuc4k22yhlztfkvls87tc0n

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs9ymk95kh9wvmpdjq0nedrfdk7vereqlttqlcwv2m99ztl395mx0cpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds78glzg

Publishing to

nostr.mom

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub12fhvtfdw2uekzmyql8j6xjmduej8jp7kkplsuc4k22yhlztfkvls87tc0n

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Last Notes

2026-02-25 02:46:50 GMT

at some point I gotta figure out another #Lightning wallet so I can do zaps again...

2025-11-30 22:32:59 GMT

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as somebody exploring here who started on ActivityPub, I agree. a lot of people over there were salty that BlueSky "won" by getting 20 million toxic Twitter jerks in a mass migration. all those people went to BlueSky because that's what they want. if they'd showed up on ActivityPub fedi, they would have ruined it, and they'd have spent the entire time upset about how the platform works. not good for either party.

2025-11-27 03:24:14 GMT

I need a new #Lightning wallet compatible with Amethyst, highly preferable that it supports distinct wallets/lightning addresses for distinct Amethyst accounts with minimal fiddling... my existing wallet required a complete logout/login which is way too painful
something I can selfhost would be nice but as far as the Lightning component of it, I'm broke af and "opening channels" or whatever sounds both expensive and like god-awful UX so I guess I'm okay with a custodial solution? meh
I'd appreciate recommendations, the last time I sunk too many hours into researching this shit I didn't come up with any clear winners

2025-11-26 20:53:30 GMT

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I suppose I should add...
must have: it needs to work seamlessly with #Amethyst
very very nice to have: I can switch wallets seamlessly or at least very easily when switch Amethyst accounts (yes I have sock puppets, duh)

2025-11-26 20:51:34 GMT

looks like #BitcoLi is shutting down... what's the lowest-bandwidth way I can selfhost a reverse-proxied non-custodial BTC wallet with both on-chain and Lightning support?

2025-11-26 20:38:57 GMT

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https://cdn.nostrcheck.me/d6519731d19468916bd6fa5c155c71bcc2891e60415a6b67f5cd8ff004e69334.webp

2025-11-26 03:28:40 GMT

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update: this is only true for images I attempt to upload in a DM conversation

2025-11-26 03:28:06 GMT

https://cdn.nostrcheck.me/66a9ec1bf233fec2c804dc3034b0ca5f26feb4ea1278e729f39beada6693b893.webp

2025-11-26 03:27:33 GMT

every image I try to upload to any #blossom server from latest #amethyst gets rejected for being application/octet-stream

2025-11-26 02:26:37 GMT

testing something
https://files.sovbit.host/media/526ec5a5ae5733616c80f9e5a34b6de6647907d6b07f0e62b652897f8969b33f/749b96ef2727e7fb11da986ac07ee17553993179437944de02efe04468ecba57.webp

2025-02-10 18:54:16 GMT

to sum up what I figured out last night:
Wireguard point-to-point links are as easy to set up as the reverse-proxy apps ('frp' and 'rathole') I've used in the past, and likely more reliable, performant, and secure.
I used this guide to set up such a link: https://docs.vultr.com/how-to-install-wireguard-vpn-on-debian-12
I replaced my existing tunnels with this, and I'm pleased that upon finally taking the time to look into it, #Wireguard proved very simple to use.
as for my claims of its likely superiority:
* more reliable due to more highly proficient eyes on the codebase and a bigger userbase smoking out bugs
* more performant due to less copying bytes to/from userspace
* more secure because one point of Wireguard is to have as small a codebase as possible, and again (being in the kernel in part) it has more smart sets of eyes on it; further, it makes use of existing IP networking security practices.
this is a major step forward for Surfhosting. I had a big mental block on deploying Wireguard for quite a while, and now I'm past it. 🧑‍💻
#ReverseProxy #Homelab

2025-02-10 18:43:58 GMT

I got most of my reverse proxied services switched to Wireguard yesterday

2025-02-10 18:42:18 GMT

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I hadn't heard of Bookstack, cool tip, thank you!
my reasoning for using Wordpress (MkDocs came later, originally I was gonna use a Wordpress plugin for the wiki, blech) is simply that I'm familiar with it, and my mental bandwidth for learning new frameworks is very limited and will stay that way until I have my own space.
when I left off building the website in July 2024, I had just started styling MkDocs-Material to match the style of the Wordpress portion of the site. I'm not sure exactly how the integration will go yet, I found with such limited availability of mental coherence, sometimes I have to just start building and see what happens 😆
oh, one reason for using MkDocs - all my existing personal documentation is in Markdown format.
anyway, not much progress on the site for a few days, but I solved a longstanding problem with my reverse proxy setup by switching to Wireguard!

2025-02-03 23:16:20 GMT

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😊
I lost my productive streak after a while, so no website launch yet (working on integrating MkDocs-Material and Wordpress into something that looks coherent), but it feels really good to be working on it again.
there was a lot of activity where I'm staying, so after I could no longer focus, I took a couple days to do errands, bake bread, and make food for the freezer. I learned a while back that I can do such things when my mind is full of static, so I don't completely lose the time I'd have spent on development. and anyway I love to cook, so frequently it keeps me in a good mood.
I've had some optimistic moments lately, and the cool people I'm meeting here and in the ActivityPub world are a big part of that! ❤️

2025-01-31 05:15:30 GMT

just logged into the Flatcar VM that's hosting MkDocs for me.
Last login: Sun Jul 14 01:30:26 UTC 2024 from 192.168.8.248 on pts/0
yup. 3 days before my ass was out in the woods.

2025-01-31 04:11:17 GMT

been grinding on the website a bit more. hoping to launch soon.
so far the past few days I've only worked on the Wordpress portion... it's getting to be time to pick back up with MkDocs though...

2025-01-31 04:00:23 GMT

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it is wild! I was a bit envious

2025-01-30 21:15:56 GMT

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thanks for the info!

2025-01-30 21:09:44 GMT

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voip dot ms maybe?

2025-01-30 21:07:34 GMT

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thank you for taking the time, and the vulnerability, to share all this. I'm glad I followed you on my first day on Nostr.
my pet project - basically a documentation resource on how to self-host while lowkey homeless or nomadic - comes from a similar origin.
due to various factors I burned out of mainstream 9-5 software engineering about a decade ago, and eventually lost my home. it was only then I began to realize that I have sensory issues which prevent me from being able to work when I don't live alone or only with "compatible" people.
sharing a house with many sorts of normal people just living their lives, absolutely decimates my ability to concentrate, because I absolutely cannot stop processing the noise of them moving around, unless they have an activity pattern similar to what my parents had when I was growing up. there is no "tune it out" for me. I hear everything, all the time, in exquisite detail. once I was living in a basement for a while and I could tell you who did what in which bathroom of the house by the sound of the water in the pipes.
if I go too long without sensory downtime, I begin to develop temporary dementia-like symptoms. I lose the ability to think properly, to contain the necessary complexity in my head which is required to be a developer. if it continues, I start losing my ability to speak & write properly. and if the sensory overload still continues, eventually I will begin to hallucinate and I will shut down entirely.
as you relate with your condition, most people cannot understand and don't care to. I've lost good friends over this and I can't say I'll forgive them for it. I even spent a short time living outdoors this past summer because of it.
the part you mention about never being able to plan anything is so, so, so relatable. "why don't you just ____ and get paid," the "helpful" types ask. because I can never count on my brain functioning properly at any given point in the future, until I live someplace where I have control over my sensory input. even explaining that is useless, because people are unable to understand that when I'm in sensory burnout, my brain doesn't do the tasks but slower, it does the tasks *wrong*. I make mistakes. I fail to see obvious information. I read text off a page and what my brain interprets is not what the text says. no one can do "knowledge work" like this.
and so for about the past 5 years I've been on a mission to put in place the foundation of some kind of web development & hosting business, while spending as little money as possible to run it, and while not having a home to run it from, only a series of temporary places to stay. I'm building it in the hope I will eventually have space of my own (and thus control my sensory input) and can actually then make money off it, and also because I know even when I am healthy and living within my sensory means, 9-5 corporate work is a quick path to deep depression for me, and depression (for me) is an existential threat.
and so, Surfhosting was born.
just in the past 3 days I've finally got back to grinding on the website to get it launched, after 6 months disruption due to finding myself living outdoors and then moving across the country to my last-chance friend's couch.
anyway, like I said, thanks for sharing. being open like this is the only way such issues will ever be better understood by the ignorant masses who view us as "lesser than" because we don't fit the standard mold.

2025-01-30 20:47:39 GMT

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I had a friend with lexical-gustatory synesthesia - she could taste words

2025-01-27 22:32:24 GMT

what does "proof" mean in this context? #Amethyst
https://nostr.download/818a5d3a7b5acfcd33ccfe9be3b93c1b3d29314c161fd14f3019498b8dac5328.webp

2025-01-27 20:24:47 GMT

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roger that. I was hoping for a way to hide them from search only, but I understand that would be kind of a weird feature.
thank you for your work on Amethyst!

2025-01-27 20:11:59 GMT

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thanks for responding! I'm still learning how this network works, I only have a vague high-level idea right now.
is it technically difficult to filter on the field visible in this randomly-selected bridged profile, that ends in "mostr.pub"?
https://nostr.download/76bea2ced059a82da8544bc89f976271bd8ed63927ca21bce765be35f65d2ee0.webp

2025-01-27 19:16:39 GMT

I'd really love a way to filter mostr dot pub bridged accounts out of search results when I'm specifically looking for Nostr-native accounts on #Amethyst (which is not always, but often)

2025-01-27 18:10:40 GMT

finally, finally, finally back to grinding on the website. closer & closer to launch.
the last time I was able to work on it was last July.

2025-01-15 00:43:19 GMT

#FriendlyElec NanoPi R5S first boot with #OpenWRT 24.10rc5
https://nostr.download/71744345725fa25dd7e26fb9eba98f729bc82cc357736ada935a20fc2fb155b5.webp

2025-01-14 23:37:40 GMT

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another potential configuration:
a "blank" Tails boot stick with no persistent volume
a separate USB stick with a whole-device Veracrypt partition, which once created resembles a device that's been securely overwritten with random data (provided you actually do so before creating the Veracrypt partition, or have Veracrypt do it for you)
then, mount the Veracrypt stick from within Tails, and have scripts to install/set up stuff as needed after boot

2025-01-12 12:47:24 GMT

hello world!