Chapter 1: The Limitations of Online Music Streaming

In my previous article, I discussed my reservations about online music streaming platforms. If you missed it, here are the key points:

• Storing playlists on these platforms poses risks.
• You have limited control over your music experience.
• Transitioning to another service provider is often cumbersome.
• Features can fluctuate unpredictably.
• Enhancements to your experience are virtually non-existent.

Despite these drawbacks, I appreciate one aspect: the ability to enjoy music from virtually anywhere.

I began researching the feasibility of establishing a personal music streaming server. My initial focus was on solutions involving Raspberry Pi or Arduino. I anticipated discovering a plethora of ready-to-use options, but to my surprise, this was not the case.

While some solutions exist, many are paid, and I found a lack of truly user-friendly options. Most resources required extensive console operations, and the documentation was often inadequate, leaving little room for support or success. Even if you managed to set it up, you would still face a myriad of challenges, such as how to make your device accessible online and maintain the entire system. Thus, instead of enjoying music, you'd find yourself navigating the complexities of Linux administration—a tempting prospect, but not quite what I sought.

Fortunately, I discovered an alternative method to achieve the same goal. The crux of the solution lies in storing music files on the Internet. Nowadays, this is quite straightforward. You can purchase affordable hosting services, utilize free tiers of cloud solutions, or even explore IPFS.

Since these services provide Internet access to your files, you can easily upload your music. However, the real challenge is controlling access to these files. Sharing music files indiscriminately could infringe upon licensing agreements, so it’s essential that only you can access them.

Unfortunately, in a basic scenario, this isn't feasible. If you upload an MP3 file to shared hosting, you cannot effectively restrict access. While you may have user access, so do other Internet users who might discover the file's URL. Additionally, the storage provider itself can access your files.

To mitigate this issue, one could generate long, random file names or utilize standard access restrictions provided by servers like Apache using htpasswd files. While this could prevent unauthorized access by hackers, it doesn’t eliminate the risk posed by the storage provider, who still has access. This leads to potential vulnerabilities from misconfigurations, bugs, or leaks on the provider's end.

However, we can take it a step further to achieve a truly secure solution:

In this scenario, only you have access to your files. Neither the general public nor the storage provider can ascertain what you are storing. This concept is known as a zero-knowledge service (or no-knowledge service).

The principle involves your device managing the encryption of data. You send, receive, and store only encrypted data, with you as the sole holder of the decryption key. Thus, even if someone gained access to your files, they would be unable to discern the contents due to encryption.

It’s crucial to note that encryption and decryption must occur on the user’s device, as this enhances the system's security. When files are sent over the Internet, they are already shielded from interception.

We can envision service providers offering zero-knowledge storage that operates on their side, but this approach is inherently unsafe. Such providers can still intercept files during transfer and gain access during the process from the user's device to the service.

By ensuring encryption occurs on the user’s device, no one can intercept the data. The practical benefit of a zero-knowledge system is that you can store your files anywhere without worrying about unauthorized access to the encrypted data. You can securely store them on shared hosting, in the cloud, or even on IPFS.

While people may see the files, they will be unable to decrypt them, opening up numerous possibilities. Most importantly, it offers a viable solution to maintain music licensing integrity since the files remain inaccessible to anyone else, akin to storing them locally.

This concludes the discussion. Now you understand how to manage music storage for access from anywhere in the world without the need for Linux or specialized devices, achieving a level of security and accessibility similar to those offered by online streaming services.

Chapter 2: Creating Engaging Programming Flashcards

Beyond my writing on software engineering, I am developing a set of coding flashcards designed in a fantasy theme that also functions as a card game. Check out the Summon The JSON project for some exciting coding flashcard fun!

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