Carlos Lugones | Building in public

Just built something for people who enjoy flight simulation. Most of the time when I opened Microsoft Flight Simulator, the hardest part wasn't flying. It was deciding where to fly. So I started building Simmers.app: • Curated routes • Flight logging • Hangar • Pilot profiles Honestly, I built it mainly for myself at first, but now I'm curious to see if other people into flight sims would find it useful too. More details: https://blog.simmers.app/introducing-simmers-app The app: https://simmers.app My profile: https://simmers.app/pilot/lugo

April is here already, incredible. Slowly getting back to creative mode. What happened during these months: • Closed the VPN. Had no other choice. • Released another version of Private Chat. I have ideas to continue that as a decentralized communication protocol, nowadays very necessary. Even if nobody uses it, it's a great learning experience. • Streamed via Youtube and Twitch, mostly gaming with my friends, and mostly every day around 2 to 3 hours. Needed that to decompress a bit. It was not a big success, but enjoyed it a lot. • Got tired of time.is showing ads, so just released a "vibe-coded" minimal clon, here. • Working from time to time on a AI-assisted finances app. Using it myself for my expenses, budgets, savings and future projections. Will probably release it on the App Store, first. • Been reflecting a lot about life, society, and myself. Normal, after many deaths in the family, being scammed, and having to close a loved project that was running for 4 years. • Played ARC Raiders a lot, Stray for 2nd time, Death Stranding 2, and now Red Dead Redemption 2. • Learning how to fly the Cessna 172 Skyhawk in simulator, and recently the Boeing 737 Max 8. • Traveled a bit more than usual. In general, I had to take distance from many things for few months, to recover. Thanks everyone who sent their best regards, it's highly appreciated. About folks celebrating failure: I'm used to it, success is not the default outcome, failure is the statistical and most probable result. Life is short, the world is big, and the focus must be in the present and future. AI is disrupting the software industry, the politicians are crazy, and we are living in the edge of breaking changes worldwide. Sending my best wishes to you all.

A Personal Note This year has been incredibly difficult for me. I hope yours was better, and that you can enjoy a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. 🎄 I lost three important family members, was betrayed by a partner I trusted as a friend, and now my beloved VPN project is facing a serious crisis. These challenges have taken a heavy toll on my health, and I'm struggling to keep up with everything. Here is the financial report for Diamonds VPN, for this year and this month: https://blog.vpn.diamonds/financial-report-december-2025 I will make a final push to reduce expenses and try to extend the service life as much as possible. I'm exhausted and cannot manage everything alone: development, bug fixes, mobile and desktop apps, marketing, support, and more. Not right now, and probably not for a while. I've been running this VPN alone for almost two years. I can't continue like this without help. Please read the blog post for more details. Your understanding and support mean the world to me. Thank you. And Merry Christmas to you. 🎄

Be careful with scammers 👀 1. They contact you without any group in common. 2. Their profile shows they changed name and photo recently. 3. Offering unrealistic terms: $10k to fix a Python script. 4. Sending the file without even the potential victim accepting to take the job. 5. File contains a trojan to scan your computer, to steal sensitive files, passwords, credentials, wallets, etc. Now the scams are trying to appear as freelancing offers. Always doubt and check first.

Multi-Hop applied to overcome censorship. Russia blocking outgoing connections to Ukraine. Solution: adding an additional hop. I see other VPNs offering this for additional privacy. Seriously considering to add your own and customized routes for a more anonymous traffic. https://t.me/DiamondsVpnNews/461

Next logical step toward higher privacy: Let's make services that know nothing about you the new norm. https://t.me/DiamondsVpnNews/460

Here's my daily thought: How can I serve my users better? How can I make their lives easier? That's the driving force behind what I build. Perfection is impossible, but striving to get closer is always allowed.

Such a big update: https://t.me/DiamondsVpnNews/450 I'll have to play 24 hours of Elden Ring after this. 😂

Chat Control: Why We Must Stop It The European Union is trying to push a law called "Chat Control". If passed, it would force every messaging app to scan your private messages, even if they're encrypted. It also includes age verification rules that could kill online anonymity. This is mass surveillance. It breaks end-to-end encryption, it puts everyone under suspicion, and it sets a dangerous precedent. Once you normalize scanning, it won't stop at child protection, it can and will expand to other areas. https://blog.carloslugones.com/chat-control

🔴 En vivo, análisis breve de la propuesta de Chat Control de la Unión Europea https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2569737677 Resumen para Youtube pronto, por si les es mejor que ver el VOD

🔴 En vivo, análisis breve de la propuesta de Chat Control de la Unión Europea https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2569737677 Resumen para Youtube pronto, por si les es mejor que ver el VOD

🎦 Tutorial: How to connect to Diamonds VPN In this step-by-step video, I show you exactly how to set up and connect to Diamonds VPN in just a few minutes. Whether you're new or already familiar with VPNs, this guide makes it simple and clear. Watch now and get connected securely! ✅

🌍 Network Update We've made important changes to our server network: ✅ New locations available: 🇰🇷 South Korea, 🇨🇭 Switzerland, 🇯🇵 Japan and 🇳🇿 New Zealand. ♻️ Portugal reprovisioned: Due to a datacenter issue, the server in Portugal was reinstalled, and…

🌍 Network Update We've made important changes to our server network: ✅ New locations available: 🇰🇷 South Korea, 🇨🇭 Switzerland, 🇯🇵 Japan and 🇳🇿 New Zealand. ♻️ Portugal reprovisioned: Due to a datacenter issue, the server in Portugal was reinstalled, and its configurations re-created. Please, download the new configs. ⏸️ Denmark temporarily removed: Server is offline due to a datacenter problem. We're working on a replacement provider. More locations will be added soon. Upcoming Migration: In the next few days, we'll migrate all existing servers to a modernized node version that includes VLESS + Reality, bringing stronger censorship resistance. All new servers already support this protocol.

Update on this: They claim to be using a technique named "Smart Routing" which I've never heard about before: https://protonvpn.com/support/how-smart-routing-works They seem to be somehow (no idea how) renting a Cuban IP address and redirecting it to a…

🇨🇺 ProtonVPN opening servers in Cuba? What? Let me tell you something: all server infrastructure in Cuba is under the control of the Cuban government (a totalitarian dictatorship). VPSs and dedicated servers are hosted by a company called ETECSA, which is…

🇨🇺 ProtonVPN opening servers in Cuba? What? Let me tell you something: all server infrastructure in Cuba is under the control of the Cuban government (a totalitarian dictatorship). VPSs and dedicated servers are hosted by a company called ETECSA, which is run by the military branch of the state. This means all of these servers can be audited, inspected, and even seized for mass surveillance and information control. I've been asked by users to put servers in Cuba and this is the reason I would never do this, meanwhile my country is under that regime. Unless ProtonVPN is running a P2P network in Cuba (which I highly doubt, given the lack of resources and the low internet speed for the average Cuban), it's safe to assume they are renting government-controlled servers. If you're a Proton VPN user, you should know your privacy is at risk. I personally wouldn't trust a VPN provider doing this.

🟣 Nueva etapa en este canal Aunque mantengo las actualizaciones sobre temas técnicos y de emprendimiento, ahora añado mensajes en español (mi idioma nativo). Además, se suman: streams en Twitch, videos en YouTube, y posiblemente más adelante un podcast, como los que tuve antes de cerrarlo todo hace 3 años. Básicamente, estoy volviendo a lo que nunca debí dejar de hacer, pero que pausé por hacerle caso a socios que no querían que yo tuviera mi propia tribuna, sino que estuviera 100% enfocado en las startups en común. Crear un espacio donde pueda expresar ideas, reflexiones, enseñar y compartir. Esa es la idea. Los posts relacionados con Twitch y YouTube serán en español. Los updates técnicos se mantienen en inglés. Canal bilingüe por ahora. 🎮 Twitch: twitch.tv/carloslugones 📹 YouTube: youtube.com/@MrCarlosLugones