Totally agree. I think you’ve picked up on an attitude problem I need to fix, as that is keeping me from embracing a really useful technology. You caught me admitting to a bias that I know isn’t always true.

I’m a bad one to get how-to advice from if you’re starting out. Not a fan of docker and I don’t know what watchtower is. I’m one of those electricity-wasting home labbers who loves ESXi, vlans, and /30 nets for each individual VM.

I’m also one of those who takes months to accomplish what someone competent can do in days. It’s taking me forever to get openldap, postfix, dovecot, and roundcube to all play nice. (Because I’m trying to “be like daddy” and mimic the security I see at work, I can’t follow normal walkthroughs, or just install an off the shelf container and make it someone else’s problem. But this way makes me read manuals and gain a deep, durable understanding of the technology. And it takes forever.)

Some browsers have an option for DNS over https, and might be skipping your system DNS settings. Other advice is right too: run this locally and don’t expose it to public internet queries.

Security is a tough thing to give advice about. Different people have different levels of risk tolerance. It’s embarrassing to give advice about one’s personal views - tedious to write - and then get replies about how that’s too much security, too little security, etc.

Attackers can use tricks to enumerate dns subdomains. They can compromise one container and pivot to the container host.

You can frustrate automated compromises by putting up roadblocks or speed bumps they have to get through before seeing the stock landing or login pages for well known apps. That can buy you a little time if a serious exploit is discovered and you know you won’t be on top of container updates. But stay on your container updates.

Agreed, CRT and real hardware (FPGA counts) just feels right. I always rolled my eyes when people talked about frames of lag, but when I went from HDMI to CRT/component, it was noticeable. Like my childhood muscle memory suddenly works again. Not “oh I must be getting old, I have to relearn how to play because my fingers forgot.”

Like, getting all the coins from a ? block in NES Mario. Emulation, I always flub the first couple bounces because the timing is different. Via CRT I could have not touched the game in months, but I nail it because muscle memory still works.

The Chatting Zone (TCZ) is also still around. Originally a British talker, the current server is hosted close to me, out of Omaha Nebraska in the USA. Nowhere near as popular now as back then.