Here's a pic of my fridge-top Smol Data Centre, which I previously blogged about on gemini at gemini://tobykurien.com/articles/2022-05-17-smol-data-centre.gmi #photo #diy

Everything you need to know about #happiness, distilled in one insightful #podcast episode

Evidence-Based Strategies for Being Happy | Laurie Santos | Knowledge Project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yWxI9clgv8

Made an extended battery pack for my aging MacBook that also acts as a comfortable base. The 55Wh battery pack consists of cheap and easily replaceable 21700 cells. Plenty of space to add more batteries, USB hub, hard drive, or other accessories. #diy

Everything that becomes popular turns to crap. So now I have to ditch DuckDuckGo and find an alternative. No, I'm not telling you what I'm moving to, lest they get enough users to dictate their terms to us. #rant

Computers were "good enough" 5 years ago, and we're still using them for the exact same purposes. So why do we have gigs of software updates every week, and why do our computers get slow and "out-of-date" every 2 years? Where's the extra value from all this added complexity, compared to 5 years ago? Is it purely aesthetic? I'd argue that we're regressing, not progressing. #computing #philosophy

Photos from a recent trip to Hartebeespoort #photo #holiday

Birds photographed on a recent trip: Half-collared Kingfisher, Black Swan (in captivity), Giant Kingfisher . #birding

After decades of Ubuntu use, I've replaced my desktop OS with antiX. It's a minimal Debian system without systemd. Boots to desktop in about 5 seconds and uses only 150Mb of RAM. It's a simple system that I can get my head around easily and administer without unlearning and relearning things all the time like I had to with Ubuntu. It feels fast and efficient, and looks good too. For similar reasons, on the server side, I'm moving from Ubuntu to OpenBSD where I can.

antiX Linux
https://antixlinux.com/

"Nearly all of modern computer engineers are working above so many layers that there’s no human way to understand what they are doing." gemini://rawtext.club/~ploum/2022-04-05-firefox-ubuntu.gmi #computing #philosophy #ubuntu #snaps

The Theological Problem Behind Firefox in Ubuntu 22.04
https://kineto.tobykurien.com/x/rawtext.club/~ploum/2022-04-05-firefox-ubuntu.gmi

Back in 2015, I predicted that once ad-blocking became common, we would be faced with server-side tracking:

You know what will happen once most of us install ad-blockers? Server-side ad SDK's, that's what. Unblockable ads, unstoppable tracking. https://twitter.com/TobyKurien/status/628227819076775936

Well, it's here in the form of Server-side tagging in Google Tag Manager, and it's easier than the SDK I predicted. #adblock #privacy

Server-side tagging
https://chromium.woolyss.com/f/HTML-Google-Tag-Manager-the-new-anti-adblock-weapon.html

Another one takes the red pill and wakes up from the Matrix - "I think the internet is broken - Chris Hawkes"

Chris Hawkes
https://youtube.com/watch?v=EB0hG32DSMc

These 3D printed computer terminals are simply gorgeous! #3dprint #retro #terminal

Modern Retro Computer Terminals
https://uri.cat/projects/modern-retro-terminal/

The #Smashwords website is nothing like a modern website, and I love it! I mean, you can download this #ebook I am currently really enjoying (Casual Computing) for free, DRM free, without creating an account, without popups in your face, right now, just by following the link. No user hostility, you can read the ebooks on any device you want, and you get to support independent authors.

Casual Computing: Light Reading for Users of Open Source, About Open Source
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/686135

Did you know you can download all of Wikipedia onto your hard drive and use it offline? It's only 87Gb and will fit on a microSD card. Useful for distraction-free productivity for home-schooling, work-from-home, etc. Also useful for those with little or no connectivity or during internet take-downs. With the Kiwix software, it's searchable and you can also host it onto a local network with one click. Other useful downloads: Gutenberg books, Khan Academy, TED videos, StackExchange, Arch Linux wiki, WikiHow, and tons more. Might as well put your uncapped (or night-time) internet to good use. #offline #kiwix

Kiwix content
https://wiki.kiwix.org/wiki/Content_in_all_languages

"Digital Vegan" is a deep dive into the problems with our current technology (Big Tech and social media). It's "a call to disengagement and more careful, slower, deliberate and thoughtful relations with technology". #book #recommendation

Andy Farnell
https://digitalvegan.net/

A free e-book on advice from a philosopher billionaire: "Almanack of Naval Ravikant". I don't agree with all of it, but there's a lot here to contemplate and dig into. #book #recommendation #philosophy #happiness #wealth

Eric Jorgenson
https://www.navalmanack.com/

Nostr is: "The simplest open protocol that is able to create a censorship-resistant global "social" network once and for all." and "a truly censorship-resistant alternative to Twitter that has a chance of working" #nostr #twitter #decentralized

Nostr
https://github.com/fiatjaf/nostr

The latest incarnation of my #raspberrypi DIY audio player. Still a bit clunky, but it's now pocketable, and can run 15+ hours on a full charge. The software is now perfect 👌 #diy

A critique of Web3. It's a long read, but gives a good explanation of what the Web3 (NFT, DAO) fuss is all about, and then promptly rips it apart with some considered arguments. #longread #web3 #nft #dao

The Third Web
https://tante.cc/2021/12/17/the-third-web/

As is the trend these days, @ForGoodZA have updated their site to be far more user-hostile: cookie popup, 7+Mb of javascript, and tons of 3rd party requests without which the site won't work. All just so I can pick a cause and donate some money. Sigh