The IANA controls IP address allocation, so in that way, IP is centralized. And yes, as you mentioned, DNS is also centralized, and so is SSL/TLS. Having multiple options doesn’t make something decentralized, it just means there are multiple centers.

And while I don’t like how much control centralized organizations and corporations have over the supposedly decentralized Internet, we certainly shouldn’t throw it out until we have something ready to replace it, and even then, it would have to be a gradual shift.

TCP/IP is dead. Good riddance honestly. We need a decentralized protocol to take its place.

FreeCAD has become quite usable over the past couple of years, and it keeps getting better with every update. I know you maybe don’t get to choose which CAD program you use since you’re a student, but thought I’d put it out there. I’ve been really enjoying it so far.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix-like

Get a resin printer and you can print infinite minis.

https://crimethinc.com/2019/04/08/against-the-logic-of-the-guillotine-why-the-paris-commune-burned-the-guillotine-and-we-should-too

So long as reliable secondary sources exist, Wikipedia will exist.

This is not a MitM attack.

Microsoft clearly doesn’t care about ethics if they’re putting backdoors in their product…

If your don’t mind assembling the printer yourself, get a Voron 2.4 kit. It’s an open-source 3d printer, perfect for getting your hands dirty. Much easier to upgrade and repair than a Bambu.

Edit: I believe Voron printers are typically used over a network, but you should be able to just plug a monitor into it and do the slicing and printing on it directly. They typically have a Raspberry Pi or a Pi clone built into them for running Klipper.

I’m personally quite partial to Fennec.

He also makes some pretty cool music under the name The Flashbulb.

You should definitely start with small projects to build experience. Modern passenger vehicles are extremely complex. To get a feel for this complexity, it would be a good idea for you to start doing basic maintainence on your own vehicle if you have one (oil changes, tire rotations, etc). Invest in some good quality tools if you can afford it.

I knew very little about cars until a little over a year ago when I started watching Garbage Time. This YouTube channel is a very entertaining way to inadvertently learn every aspect of how cars work. Because of this channel, my partner and I have started doing all of our own car maintainence and we fixed a very poorly maintained Toyota Celica that had a spun bearing.

If your goal is to actually design and build a fully open-source passenger vehicle, you may want to collaborate with Open Source Ecology. I believe they already have an open-source truck in the works as part of their Global Village Construction Set.

Their goal is to create an open-source version of civilization’s 50 most important tools. This is an extremely ambitious goal, but it’s technically possible given enough time and effort.

You are right that this sort of project should not be attempted by a beginner. It would have to be a collaboration between several experienced engineers. OP should not attempt this alone.

My hope is that by the time these surveillance systems become mainstream, OP has enough experience to collaborate with others on such a project.

And since you mentioned throwing Arduinos at cars, I thought I’d mention that there’s apparently over a thousand cars that have had their ECU replaced by a specially-designed Arduino. I guess there’s several open-source ECU projects out there. Might not be street legal in all jurisdictions though 😅

If you want to get involved in open hardware, a good first step would be to learn KiCad. It’s is used to create electronic circuit schematics and turn them into printed circuit board (PCB) designs. Here’s a pretty good tutorial to get started with it. Please ignore the instructor’s obnoxious Ronald Reagan quote in the second episode.

A PCB is usually not enough, of course. You should also learn FreeCAD so you can design the mechanical aspects of the hardware, whether that be a simple enclosure, or a more complex system with multiple moving parts. Here’s a good FreeCAD tutorial.

I mention KiCad and FreeCAD specifically because they’re both free and open source. You can check out this awesome list for a list of cool open hardware projects and learning resources. Two projects that really stand out to me are the LumenPNP pick and place machine and the Voron 2.4 3D printer.

For in-person groups, see if there are any makerspaces/hackerspaces in your city. That’s where you’ll most likely find like-minded people.

Here’s two examples of evil things that China is doing:
Persecution of Uyghurs in China
Internet censorship in China

Been using Linux for about 8 years now. My DE of choice has pretty much always been XFCE. Here’s an overview of the distros I’ve daily driven.

Linux Mint -> Debian -> Arch -> NixOS -> Arch

I tried NixOS for about a year before switching back to Arch recently. There were just too many problems I couldn’t find a solution to, and I realized that the advantages of an immutable OS just aren’t that important to me.

Arch really is a dream to use, and the setup is pretty easy if you use the archinstall script. And most importantly, their wiki is amazing.

sudo rm /bin/evil-age-verification-binary

Or if it’s done through systemd: git clone, remove the offending code, and compile.

Do you say that you’re “boring as a person” because you don’t have any interests or hobbies, or because your interests and hobbies are so niche that you doubt anyone else would find them interesting, so you never end up talking about them?

I pretty much just use 1337x.