Big tech is dominating my digital life — here’s how I fixed it - Related to big, it, fixed, a, my

Big tech is dominating my digital life — here’s how I fixed it

Table of Contents Table of Contents What’s so bad about big tech? What’s the alternative?

Big tech companies are so dominant and so far-reaching right now that people could probably live their entire digital lives interacting only with Google, Apple, Meta. Microsoft, and Amazon products. Things never got quite that bad for me but I did realize in the recent past that I’ve been relying far too much on Google, plus I’ve been using Safari for years even though I don’t actually like it that much.

So I decided to find some new apps to try out and came across a nice resource full of European. Open-source, or non-profit alternatives for a range of different services. It introduced me to quite a few apps that are more than good enough to replace what I was using, and although I’m not hardcore enough to completely kick Google out of my life, I’m pretty happy with the results.

The deal we make with businesses like Google, Apple. Meta, Amazon, and the rest of that crowd is pretty straightforward. They give us access to some of the best products and services out there for no upfront cost, and we allow them to collect every kind of data they can get their hands on and sell it to whoever they want.

Some of us are very aware of this and. Others don’t really think about it that much. If you’re aware and consenting, that’s totally fine. The problem is when people feel coerced into accepting this deal.

Because — think about it — if you need to find a new restaurant, hotel. Or store, does any other map software empower you to the extent Google Maps does? Not really. Google doesn’t just offer these products for “free,” it has also used its long-standing influence, resources, and user base to make them almost unbeatable. Everyone you know uses them, competitors get bought out or struggle to gain traction, and Google’s products just keep growing and growing all the while.

In relation to this, this makes people feel like they have no choice but. To use them, even if they would ideally prefer to keep their data private. This problem is nothing new but as figures like Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sundar Pichai weasel their way into President Trump’s inner circle in the pursuit of relaxing regulations, things could definitely get worse.

Across the world. Different problems are dealt with in different ways. Big tech likes to stick with the United States because it gives them the most freedom and benefits. Over in the European Union, which is where I am, there’s more of a push to force companies to comply with a strict set of international standards.

Companies must have a reason for processing your data that the EU considers legal.

They have to tell you exactly what data they are processing and why.

Processing must be safe and secure. And breaches must be reported within 72 hours.

It’s not just European companies, though. There are non-profit organizations and open-source projects all over the world, and many of these are committed to data privacy and protection, too. Now, let’s look at some examples.

Browsers are one of the easiest switches you can make because there are a lot of good options out there if you want to shop around, and if not, you can just switch to Firefox in about ten seconds flat and. Never look back.

Firefox is free, open-source, and developed by the American non-profit Mozilla Foundation. Unlike most of the recommendations in this article, you will definitely have heard of Firefox — it’s the fourth most popular web browser in the world.

It only takes a few seconds to download and you can even import your browser history and. Your bookmarks from whatever you used before. Not every switch I’ll suggest is easy, but this one truly is.

Other browser options include the Vivaldi Browser (Norway), Mullvad Browser (Sweden), Brave (United States). And DuckDuckGo (United States).

If you’re going to switch browsers, you might as well switch search engines as well. At the moment, most independent search engines are actually built on top of existing infrastructure — in other words, they still use Google’s search index, Bing’s search index, or both to get their results.

This isn’t the end of the world — it’s still possible to build a privacy-focused search engine while using these search indexes, it’s just unfortunate that they have to rely on Google and Microsoft to function.

My search engine of choice. Qwant (France) has not long ago teamed up with German search engine Ecosia to start developing a European search index so they and other independent search engines can finally stop relying on outside tech. We should hopefully start to see some of the results of this project this year.

Furthermore, there’s no need to wait, however. You can download the Qwant extension for Safari, Chrome, Edge, or Firefox to make it your default search engine today and. Start benefiting from a little extra privacy. Independent search engines also use their own search algorithms, which means you can get a break from the same old “top-ranking SEO posts” that plague Google right now.

Plus, since Qwant isn’t tracking your searches. The results page you get isn’t tailored to you. Everyone gets the same results — the ones that are most relevant to your keywords. Qwant does still use advertising, but the ads are untailored and there’s a lot less of them.

Qwant isn’t as loaded with functions as Google Search is but. It is always expanding. It has even jumped on the AI bandwagon and started adding AI-generated summaries to certain types of queries. Other search engine options include Startpage (Netherlands), Good (Germany), metaGer (Germany), swisscows (Switzerland), and DuckDuckGo (United States).

It’s free and easy to change your browser or your search engine. But email providers are a little different. While limited free plans are available with some services, if you want both privacy and functionality from your email provider, you will most likely have to pay with money (not data).

One of the great things about Proton is that if you’re willing to pay a monthly fee, it also has a few other services you can take advantage of — a calendar, a VPN. A file drive, and a password manager. With one subscription, you can kick Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Calendar to the curb.

If you throw things into Google Translate a lot. Why not try DeepL instead? It doesn’t work with quite as many languages as Google but the accuracy and readability of its translations are superior. Plus it’s a German product, so no need to worry if someone is watching what you paste into it.

It has both free and paid tiers and it also offers a text editor with basic formatting and. The ability to hide all of the suggestions and such until you’re ready to go through them. You can also create temporary or permanent texts — the temporary ones will disappear after seven days. If you prefer to have suggestions pop up wherever you’re writing, there are add-ons for various word processors, browsers, and. Email providers.

There are a few alternative navigation apps you can try out but I won’t lie, this switch is a hard sell. The combo of Google Maps and Google Business profiles is extremely powerful, and it’s not an easy thing for competitors to replicate.

When I plan trips to my favorite holiday destination, Japan, I spend hours on Google Maps zooming in on interesting-looking locations and finding new hotels. Attractions, and eateries to bookmark. A couple of years ago, I zoomed in on a little cape of Japan’s smallest main island and. Found a tiny glamping site on top of a mountain. I booked it and it turned out to be the best part of that trip. So, Google Maps is definitely one of the products I find hardest to let go of.

I’m currently trying out a Czech alternative called — the map and route calculation elements are good and. It does have some limited business information, too. This kind of stuff is mainly user-generated content so we can only get a true competitor to Google Maps if we help build it ourselves. It’s a lot of work, though.

Changing the app you use to chat with all of your friends, family. And colleagues is another one that can be a little difficult. If everyone is already using WhatsApp or Messenger or social media apps like Instagram to send messages, it’s a lot easier to just follow the crowd.

As I revealed before. Though — every little helps. If you can just convince your closest family members and friends to download an encrypted messaging app like Signal or one of the European alternatives, that’s a lot of data you can keep safe and. Private.

Signal is run by an American non-profit and everything about its customers is encrypted. This means the organization doesn’t ever have access to any of your messages, contacts, or even your name. All they have is the phone number you signed up with — so even if the United States government comes knocking at Signal’s door demanding to see your chat history. Signal wouldn’t have anything to show them. I suppose that sounds like I’m encouraging you to do crime, but I’m just trying to convey how untouchable your data is!

I’ve used this app for years, and. It has never failed me. It also has an unofficial directory of stickers that are super fun and easy to download. You can get the app on Mac, Windows, and Linux — and it has mobile apps too, of course.

The European Alternatives website includes many more categories than I’ve covered here, including cloud computing platforms, file hosting services. Managed DNS providers, video conferencing software, and more. It’s a great resource, so go ahead and use it!

You might not be able to protect every drop of your data but if you don’t like the idea of Google scanning every email you get or Meta peeking at all of your private conversations. Remember that you can do something about it.

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Building the ultimate AI and machine learning PC

Table of Contents Table of Contents What does an AI PC need? CPU Motherboard Graphics card Memory Storage Power Put it all together.

One of the best ways to reduce your vulnerability to data theft or privacy invasions when using large language model artificial intelligence or machine learning. Is to run the model locally. Depending on the model you choose to run, you don’t even need the most powerful system in the world — although it does help.

Here’s how to build a PC for AI and machine learning workloads, so you can keep your data secure and private, and ensure the AI is always ready and waiting for you.

AI PCs aren’t drastically different to high-powered PCs for different tasks. Although they do have some slightly quirky requirements that mean building a system with in mind is slightly different to building a powerful gaming PC.

Although many of the major CPU manufacturers have talked a lot in the past year about neural processors and how efficient that can be, they only tend to offer a few 10s of TOPS (trillions of operations per second). That might seem like a lot, until you find out that an Nvidia RTX 4090 can deliver over 1,300 TOPS.

In short. For AI workloads that CPU is far less key. While a fast processor is always helpful and having lots of cores will absolutely speed up your machine learning workloads and ensure the system remains functional even when working hard, the real horsepower comes from the graphics card.

So we’re looking for a powerful GPU, preferably with lots of video memory, lots of system memory when that’s not enough. And some expansive and fast local storage. That also means we need a high-end motherboard. While that won’t give us any additional AI performance in its own right, a top-tier motherboard ensures smooth power to the CPU and GPU, as well as adding support for multiple graphics cards if you really want to accelerate your machine learning tasks, or run more than one in parallel.

Outside of that you can put it in whatever case you like, with a big power supply and. Some good cooling to keep the system running without overheating and throttling. Some nice-to-haves might include high efficiency through lower power draw to keep running costs down — but. That moves counter intuitive to our high-end GPU choices. We’ll also consider upgradeability in the future.

Usually the CPU is the heart of a PC, whether it’s used for gaming, office-work. Streaming, or video editing. But while it still plays a part in our machine learning, AI PC, it’s not the lynchpin.

Still, you want a modern one with lots of cores and. Preferably a strong upgrade path for the future, too. To that end, we’d recommend the AMD Ryzen 9950X. It’s one of AMD’s latest CPUs with 16 cores and support for 32 threads. It’s relatively low-power for such a high-end CPU, too, and will give you plenty of scope for running its own large language models, or just supporting the system that’s training them on a monstrous GPU.

If you want a more affordable alternative, the last-generation 7950X is still plenty capable and. Around $100 cheaper and still offers excellent performance. If you’re more of an Intel fan, consider the Core Ultra 9 285K or Core Ultra 7 265K they have boat loads of cores and impressive efficiency, as well as their own onboard neural processor.

The motherboard is rarely the most exciting component in any custom build PC. But with an AI and machine learning computer it plays a bigger role than you’d think. You want something with strong, stable VRMs for handling all the power this system will be dealing with. Ideally, you want PCIExpress 5 support for the fastest storage, and supporting multiple graphics cards doesn’t hurt if you want to double up your training GPUs.

Or you can just get any old motherboard because it’ll probably do. I’m being facetious, because who wants to spend close to $1,000 on a motherboard? But ultimately anything outside of the bargain basement models will probably suffice, just make sure it’s got the aspects you want for your kind of budget.

Also make sure to get one that matches your CPU. If in doubt, double check before buying.

If you’re going to sink your budget into any component in your AI and machine learning PC. Make it the graphics card. When you’re training large language models, or even just running big and complicated ones, you need a powerful graphics card. They have the VRAM to store the model on the card itself, and the thousands of parallel processing cores to actually run it.

If you don’t have much budget to spare. Look to a card like the Nvidia RTX 3060 12GB — you can grab that for around $300 at the time of writing. However, if you really want to push your AI training or run some of the most advanced, demanding models. Then the higher-end you can go, the more effective. The RTX 5090 is the best graphics card in the world right now, but it’s very hard to get hold of.

Last-generation alternatives aren’t that easy to find either. So you may need to wait a little. The best we could find at the time of writing was a renewed RTX 3090 for $1500. Or a 4070 Ti Super with 16GB of VRAM.

What about AMD? Unfortunately while AMD’s AI accelerators are great for gaming, they just don’t compete with CUDA and Tensor cores for AI tasks yet. Maybe that will change, but for now if you want to create an AI PC, Nvidia GPUs are the best option.

You can min-max performance with memory. But it’s not going to make a massive difference in an AI PC. The best thing you can do is make sure you have lots of fast memory and don’t overthink it — unless you’re into overclocking.

Grab yourself a 64GB kit of 6400 MHz memory from a major manufacturer like Corsair, Kingston. G-Skill, Patriot, or TeamGroup. Anything faster and you have to start dabbling in settings tweaks to make the most of it. superior to just make sure you have enough.

Lots of fast storage is useful for AI and. Machine learning PCs so that they can handle all the training data you’re going to be throwing their way. Fortunately, modern storage is faster and cheaper than ever, so you can grab yourself several terabytes of PCIe 5 SSD storage for a few hundred dollars.

Any of the major brand name SSDs will do here, but like with memory. Just make sure you have lots of it.

Power supplies are one area you don’t want to try to skrimp and save on. A good power supply makes sure that your whole, expensive AI PC stays healthy for the longterm. Get a 1,200W + Titanium or Platinum PSU from one of the major PSU brands and you’ll have a solid choice. EVGA, Corsair, Seasonic, FSP, Thermaltake, Enermax, SuperFlower, or beQuiet! are great options.

If you grabbed all the above hardware but want some tips on how to actually build the thing, we’ve got you covered. Once it’s done (or you’ve had someone else build it for you) you’ll be off and running with a super powerful. Super capable AI and machine learning PC.

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Liquid cool your PC with a home air conditioner

While most PC builders are content to rely on an AIO liquid cooling loop or good old-fashioned air. There are always those who will go the extra mile to keep their components frosty. If you’re willing to invest a lot of money and even more electricity. You could just hook a liquid cooling setup into a residential air conditioner. You absolutely shouldn’t, but you could!

One video producer in China did just that, hooting up a 12,000 BTU unit into a custom cooling loop for a system with a Core i9-13900K and. RTX 4090. On Bilibili, the creator exhibits off the massive system running at 20 degrees Celsius at rest (that’s 68 degrees. If you live in some kind of backward wasteland that uses Fahrenheit). ’s Hardware, running the system under load increases the temperature by only a few degrees.

It’s an impressive bit of engineering to be sure, but. I wouldn’t recommend it even for the most extreme overclocking setup. The Xiaomi 12K BTU air conditioner might cost about the same as a nice custom loop setup, but it’s the size of a gaming desktop all on its own, it’s incredibly loud, and it needs to be installed outside if you want to avoid turning the room into a sauna.

And finally. The thing eats up more than a kilowatt of energy when it’s active — you’ll spend more money powering this just for cooling than you would a typical gaming desktop and all the fixins’. And that’s assuming you can handle the complicated initial setup or know someone who can. I think I’ll stick to a Cooler Master for the time being.

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