Reclaiming the Cockpit: Digital Sovereignty at Equal Mass

The modern internet is a fucking chop-shop. Every click, every thought, and every byte of your personal data is harvested, packaged, and sold before you’ve even finished scrolling. We’ve traded our digital autonomy for "free" services, and in the process, we’ve lost control of our own flight path.

I’m Nicole. I live in the Irish countryside, but my digital footprint is global. My background is a bit of a hybrid: I’m a former commercial pilot and hold an MSc (E) in Mechatronics. Today, I work as a DevOps Engineer, which means I spend my days (and far too many nights) ensuring complex systems run with the precision they require.

Equal Mass is the result of that background—a fully independent, privately maintained ecosystem designed to escape the data-harvesting machine.

The Architecture of Independence

Building a sovereign digital life isn't just about a single server; it’s about redundancy and control. As someone committed to Open Source, I believe if I can't audit it, I shouldn't run it. Here is the fleet that keeps Equal Mass airborne:

• Global Resilience: The heavy lifting is handled by three service boxes (services01, 02, and 03) strategically scattered across the globe. This ensures the system stays up even if one corner of the net goes dark.
• The Communication Hub: I run my own mail server (mail.equalmass.com) via Docker. No Google, no Outlook, no scanning my private correspondence.
• Infrastructure Backbone: I manage my own DNS servers (ns1 and ns2), including a custom-built dynamic DNS service.
• The Data Vault: My files aren't sitting in someone else's "Cloud." Data integrity is managed by two synchronized NAS units (nas01 and nas02) that mirror each other in real-time.
• The Forge: Security and development are strictly internal. I manage my credentials through a private Bitwarden instance and keep every line of my code on a self-hosted Git server.

Mechatronics in the Wild: UAVs & ArduPilot

My passion for flight and engineering has evolved into designing and maintaining Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Combining my Mechatronics degree with my pilot experience, I’ve integrated a custom ArduPilot build system into the stack, in order to make firmware modification easier when injecting patches and binary in the Flight Controller firmware.

You can find it at https://ardupilot.equalmass.com.

This system is publicly accessible for those who need a clean, reliable build environment. Naturally, the code powering it is housed within my own Git server, reflecting my commitment to the Open Source community.

The "Clean" Connection

This technical rigors mirror my physical life. I follow a clean-keto lifestyle, fueling my body with leafy greens and high-quality fats. I treat seed oils and processed garbage of today's food industry with the same suspicion I treat proprietary tracking scripts. Whether it’s the firmware on a UAV, the code in my Git repositories, or the fuel in my own engine, I demand total transparency.

Why Does This Matter?

Because privacy is agency. It’s about knowing exactly where your data lives and maintaining the freedom to think, code, and live without being "profiled" by an algorithm. From my home in Ireland, I’m proving that you don't need a Silicon Valley giant to stay connected—you just need the right tools and the will to build them yourself.

"With software, either the users control the program or the program controls the users. As long as the program controls the users and the developer controls the program, that program is an instrument of unjust power." — Richard Stallman