post-1627811814

"A practical philosophy of health, wealth and happiness"

Happiness
https://nav.al/happiness

Sun 01 August 2021

post-1627455191

Surely, the mother of all unboxing videos: unboxing a quantum computer!

IBM Quantum System One assembled in Japan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPMY4oP3Qgk

Wed 28 July 2021

post-1627114689

I recently discovered the Coc plugin for vim, which brings VSCode-like smarts to vim. I can finally use #vim full-time instead of #VSCode, which has become bloated and slow over time. Coc has a marketplace with a large breadth of language support. In a like-for-like comparison, vim uses 500Mb less RAM (including language server) than VSCode for Python or Java editing (with intellisense), and is much faster. I also managed to set up vim for editing and uploading #Arduino and #esp32 code by integrating with PlatformIO.

Conqueror of Completion
https://github.com/neoclide/coc.nvim

Sat 24 July 2021

post-1626770375

A fairly compelling argument for publishing documents as PDF files rather than as HTML pages. #goodread

lab6 Issue 0 (PDF)
https://lab6.com/0

Tue 20 July 2021

post-1626169502

I blogged about how I create audiobooks from epubs and the like, using text-to-speech.

Creating audiobooks
https://tobykurien.com/creating-audiobooks/

Tue 13 July 2021

Creating audiobooks

creating-audiobooks


How to create audiobooks from epub and mobi using text-to-speech

Tue 13 July 2021

post-1625762762

Really cool online browser multi-player games to play with colleagues during lunch break: https://shellshock.io https://blocktanks.io https://smashkarts.io https://sidearms.io https://krunker.io

Thu 08 July 2021

post-1625386633

The "Physiological Sigh" provides instant reduction of anxiety and stress and is easy to do, although you shouldn't undo it by resurfacing the anxiety to test if it worked! #neuroscience

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBdhqBGqiMc

Sun 04 July 2021

post-1625207794

Sampler is an amazing text visualization tool for the terminal. I was able to make a smart-mirror type of dashboard really easily with it. #text #console #dashboard #diy

Sampler
https://github.com/sqshq/sampler

Fri 02 July 2021

post-1624693415

Some photos from a recent trip to a mountain resort. #photo #trip

Sat 26 June 2021

post-1622647512

"Over a month ago, I came to the realization that my smartphone was having several negative impacts on my mental health... In a desperate attempt to regain some control, I ditched the smartphone."

gemini://tobykurien.com/articles/2021-05-23-digital-declutter.gmi

Digital de-clutter
https://tobykurien.com/digital-declutter/

Wed 02 June 2021

post-1622645776

TIL: there's Android ransomware that works not by encrypting your files, but rather by showing a system modal window that cannot be dismissed by the user until the ransom is paid. Latest variants use machine learning: "TinyML model is useful for making sure [the ransom note] would appear less contrived and more believable" #android #malware #ransomware

Mobile randsomware
https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2020/10/08/sophisticated-new-android-malware-marks-the-latest-evolution-of-mobile-ransomware/

Wed 02 June 2021

post-1621786017

A great talk arguing that software is in fact getting worse, because of more complexity. (via alex.flounder.online)

Jonathan Blow - Preventing the Collapse of Civilization
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW-SOdj4Kkk

Sun 23 May 2021

Digital de-clutter

digital-declutter


My on-going journey to digital minimalism

Sun 23 May 2021

post-1621669924

Photos from a recent trip down to Port Edward, KZN South Coast. A really beautiful and relaxing place for a holiday. #photo #kzn

Sat 22 May 2021

post-1621362863

And here's a gorgeous screenshot of khal in action, if you're still on the fence about #cli PIM tools. #commandline #pimutils #khal

Tue 18 May 2021

post-1621358358

Instead of installing and configuring a heavy GUI app for my calendar and todos, I've discovered the command-line based pimutils. Once vdirsyncer is configured, I can use khal and todoman. Very simple, powerful, portable, and lightweight. #opensource #commandline

pimutils
https://github.com/pimutils

Tue 18 May 2021

post-1619633215

Book recommendation: Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. Talk about discovering the right book at the right time! After ditching my smartphone, I needed answers: why was it bad? what do I do with my time? This book answers that and more.

Digital Minimalism
https://www.calnewport.com/books/digital-minimalism/

Wed 28 April 2021

post-1619195244

By a truly unbelievable coincidence [...] I saw a small package fall off a truck ahead of me. 😂

Turns out the software used to extract data from your phone when seized, has security vulnerabilities 😁 #signal #cellebrite

Exploiting vulnerabilities in Cellebrite...
https://signal.org/blog/cellebrite-vulnerabilities/

Fri 23 April 2021

post-1618908395

I made a music player using the awesome Pimoroni Pirate Audio HAT for #RaspberryPi. It plays any format including OGG and even videos, remembers where it left off, buttons work exactly how I like it because I wrote the code, and it has outstanding audio quality (24-bit DAC + headphone amp). The UI needs work tho! #maker #diy #audio

Tue 20 April 2021