Cozytech - by Venkatesh Rao - Ribbonfarm Studio

A few months ago, I came across Tailscale, and a competitor, Zerotier. These are similar products that let you run secure, private networks that do more sophisticated things than traditional VPNs, and do so in two interesting and differently opinionated ways. Neither is a consumer-grade product. They are meant for people with some system administration skills, so you have to know something about networking tech to use either. Both also clearly have a different DNA than typical Silicon Valley products. Tailscale was co-founded by Avery Pennarun, who is a well-known tech blogger of the curmudgeonly sort, under the handle apenwarr, and under his real name he has written a manifesto for the vision driving Tailscale, The New Internet. As with anything written by curmudgeonly alt-techies, it is stimulating, insightful, and original, and you don’t have to agree with all the details or even the overall thrust of the vision to get a lot out of it. Zerotier too, has an interesting philosophical

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• Gloria Ma