||      Phlog 36 - 2026 Link Clearing House     ||
||          Weird Predictions & Links           ||
||		  Coffee Table			||
||               OpenBSD Laptop                 ||      


Predictions, thoughts and links in no particular order:

 _
|_| For the love of all things science & holy, stop building HyperScale data centers without a plan, customers or any thought to environmental concerns

 _
|_| Building on the previous point, we can just stop building HyperScale DCs altogether.  The AI "correction" is coming.

 _
|_| It will continue to become increasingly difficult to sign up for services or buy hardware without AI being wedged into it.

 
	Options do exist for laptops, tablets and phones: 
	- https://system76.com/
	- https://pine64.com/
	- https://puri.sm/products/
	- https://www.wiphone.io/ (Wi-Fi based phone)

 _
|_| Streaming services will get even bolder screwing over artists; physical media will continue to make its [mainstream] comeback


 	Ripping CDs or buying lossless music?
	- https://cooltech.zone/tangara/
	- https://www.runeaudio.com/ (BYOD)
	- https://github.com/amachronic/echoplayer (Some assembly required -e.g. 3-D print case, assemble hardware, etc.)
	- https://www.rockbox.org/ (Got and older iPod, FiiO or xDuoo player on hand?  Breathe some new life into it via Rockbox)

 
 	Building up a movie library from DVD/Bluray?
	- https://handbrake.fr/
	- https://dvdbackup.sourceforge.net/
	- http://videolan.org/
	- http://www.ffmpeg.org/

 _
|_| Security & Privacy will start to become more important to non-technical people
	- https://grapheneos.org/ (Replace iOS/Android)
	- https://signal.org (Get rid of WhatsApp)
	- https://mastodon.social (Ditch X/Twitter)
	- https://tailscale.com/ (This post is *Not* sponsored by NordVPN)
	- https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/03/meet-rayhunter-new-open-source-tool-eff-detect-cellular-spying (We'll continued to be spied on; might as well know about it)

 _
|_| "Agentic" AI will wreck all the things
	- https://blogs.cisco.com/ai/personal-ai-agents-like-openclaw-are-a-security-nightmare
	- https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/07/signal-president-meredith-whittaker-calls-out-agentic-ai-as-having-profound-security-and-privacy-issues/