Hey there,
After publishing a post on Hulry about why I cancelled my ExpressVPN subscription, I started
looking into setting up a personal VPN server.
I narrowed down my search to two options I found suitable for my use case:
- Outline. Easiest to set up and get running.
- OpenVPN. Best security and anonymity.
I'm trying both of these self-hosted services on DigitalOcean this week, and so far, both of them has been far better than a commercial VPN service.
A DigitalOcean server costs about $5/month, so that'll be the total cost of running my VPN server.
Although it's more expensive than paying for a 2-year plan of a commercial VPN service like NordVPN or Surfshark, the experience is significantly better.
No disconnects in the last 23 hours with OpenVPN:
Also:
Unlike the overcrowded commercial VPN servers, my personal server offers a great connection speed consistently:
After a few more days of testing, I'll write up a blog post on my experience with both software and illustrate steps to set up your VPN server.
Watch out for the article in the coming weeks.
Now, grab a coffee, sit tight, and enjoy this week's issue:
Book to Read
Lost and Founder
This book follows Rand Fishkin's story, the founder of Moz, as he navigates through obstacles to build one of the most popular SEO companies in the world. It's an engaging read.
Get it from Amazon
•••
Apps & Services
Big Mail is bringing all HEY features to your favourite email services — Gmail, Fastmail, iCloud, Outlook and more. The app is launching this June 10th for macOS and iOS, but you can preorder the app on App Store right
away. From the product page, the apps on both platforms look amazing. I'm excited to give this one a try. It was about time someone picked up the good parts of HEY email and brought it to other email services. Big Mail will be available
for ~78/year or $9.99/month.
PopClip ➔
Do more with your text selection on macOS
PopClip is a utility app for macOS that lets you perform various actions on your selected text. You can use this tool to quickly search the selected text, translate it, URL encode it, convert a URL to a short link via is.gd and more. Works on any app
on macOS. The massive number of
available extensions make this tool even more helpful. Available for a one-time payment of
$12.99.
Refind ➔
Find articles based on your interests
Refind lets you discover articles based on your areas of interests. The algorithm is quite solid, and I've found to like the articles suggested by Refind every day. You can choose the number of articles you would like to receive every day, and Refind
will send an email with content worth your time. Cut through the BS and get excellent articles you'd want to read.
Take a Ride With Me lets you have a virtual bike tour right from your desk. The website features some breathtakingly fantastic bike rides in the first-person view to give you a feel of adventure right from your home. I like to watch some of these videos
during my break time and relax. You'll understand what I'm talking about once you give it a try.
Taking the Shortcut
Quickly open the Threads view in Slack for macOS.
•••
Interesting Reads
Life-hacks are good when the conditions are optimal, and they work as advertised. However, when you face uncertainty, it's your ability to think on your feet that gets you out of a jam. Your years of experience kicks in, and your brain figures out a way.
In this post, Ozan talks about how astronauts are trained to handle any unfortunate situation Space throws their way. A good read.
An
O.MG cable might seem like a regular iPhone cable, but it has some built-in
powerful hacking capabilities. The cable is a Wi-Fi access point and has keylogging capabilities, making it a perfect device to silently transfer data out of your iPhone to a hacker's computer. Only use cables from people you trust, not
some random charging points.
The Six Spokes Theory talks about looking at your life as a wheel with six spokes, or six areas of interest. If one of the spokes in a wheel is broken, it offers a bumpy ride. Similarly, neglecting even one area of your life will cause you to lose the
overall balance in your life. Make sure all spokes are tight.
Morgan talks about three big takeaways that we all should learn from the last year's and still prevailing pandemic. I love his analogy that big problems occur because we often overlook the chain of minor problems that can connect and lead to a devastating
situation.
Budgets are great, but how about turning your unproductive time into money-making opportunities? Nat talks about automating our recurring expenses to get budgeting out of the way and focus on increasing our income. Now, this doesn't mean you have to squeeze
every minute out of your day and convert that into money. Find a sensible way to earn more money without breaking yourself. Look for the gaps.
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