One day we might look back at this post and laugh. “Remember when we thought laptops were doomed?” But here in 2025, it’s a fair question:

How long before mobile and desktop operating systems slam into each other like two black holes that have been circling for years? Yes, that’s a bit dramatic. But it’s already happening , and just like in space, when the collision comes, you’re going to feel the shockwaves.

Pocket rockets in tiny cages

Today’s smartphones and tablets are absurdly overpowered. More storage. More CPU pohwaaah. More Ram … More everything… all squeezed into little glass sandwiches that shatter at gravity’s lightest kiss.

But that raw power? It’s trapped. Touch screens and small form factors keep it locked up, unable to stretch its legs. Your phone could run Autocad and let you design the next spaceshuttle while pooping on the toilet. But what would you get ? (hint: hemorrhoids )

Apple’s iPads now run the same chips as their MacBooks , the hardware is ready, the form factor (and the interface) is the bottleneck.

Laptops stealing mobile tricks

On the flip side, laptops are going mobile. ARM processors sip power instead of chugging it, run cool instead of cooking your thighs, and are light enough to fit into those ultra-thin, “look-at-me-I’m-a-sheet-of-paper” designs. The old-school power-hungry CPU? About as welcome in these designs as a campfire in a phone booth.

However: Touchscreen laptops? Tried it. Nope.

I’ve owned a lot of them. Surfaces, Windows laptops, even Linux boxes with touchscreens. The verdict? Unless you have talons sharp enough to tap a 3-pixel-wide button, it’s just not fun. Desktop interfaces were never meant for fingers.

The great tech buffet is open: Mobile eats desktop

The more likely future? Mobile gobbles desktop. (Ohmnomnom) Android runs full Linux apps now. Chromebooks too. Google’s lining up to ditch ChromeOS for Android. And iOS , yes, AAY OOHWW ESSS, has decided mice and keyboards aren’t the devil after all.

Like my desk, right now. Because this post? Being typed on an M4 iPad, hooked up to an external monitor, mouse, and keyboard. It’s still clunky, but surprisingly usable. When I’m done working, I tap the screen and , boom, back in touch mode.

This is Apple’s beta run at merging their worlds. Will a proper desktop OS on the iPad Pro kill MacBook sales? Possibly. But with the iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard costing more than a base MacBook Pro… let’s just say Apple’s not panicking.

We’ve been here before ….

Browsers already made “what OS are you on?” a lot less relevant. This mobile–desktop blend is just the next chapter. And after that? Maybe we stop talking about “computers” altogether , because in the age of AI, the device in front of you is just… the window.

The challenge ahead

It’s going to be exciting, chaotic, and full of “remember when” moments. The trick, as always, is making this evolving tech work for us… not the other way around.

It’s a way of interacting with the online world where the information you consume isn’t dictated by an algorithm designed to keep you scrolling and clicking, but by choice. By consciously selecting what you want to consume and when you want to consume it.

In the same episode, Newport referenced an article by another psychologist who is actively seeking more and more meaningful connections online by using the internet the way we used to in the early days.

That same week, friend of the show Dan Turner shared an interesting link on Discord: an X thread about “the old days on IRC”, and how small, anonymous chat rooms allowed people to truly connect with each other and form relationships that could last for years. (Having met Dan online 20 years ago and still staying in touch from time to time is living proof.)

What really stuck with me this week was this thought:

There’s the algorithm-driven net, where big tech tells you what to watch, read, and click.

And then there’s the non-algo net, where you decide who and what you engage with.

That changes the conversation. It’s no longer just about taming technology or limiting screen time. It’s about making an intentional choice: what kind of internet do you want to experience?

And maybe this wave of digital nostalgia — playing old games, using retro tech, tinkering with ancient interfaces — isn’t about chasing the past or rejecting big tech.

It’s a quest for real connection, with people, through technology.

Because where the “old net” was built to bring us together, today’s “algo-net” is built to pull us apart. It traps us in content bubbles, shields us from new ideas, and keeps us chasing that next dopamine hit.

So ask yourself:

What net are you using — the algo-net or the non-algo one?

Links.

The Deep Questions podcast episode “Making the internet great again”: https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/deep-questions-with-cal-newport/id1515786216?i=1000706347196

Dan’s X-thread on “IRC” and the old days: https://ohai.social/@jascha/114456719610997573

That, in essence, is what I was aiming for when I scored a second-hand Boox Palma on Vinted. This little device is nothing more than a compact Android smartphone with an e-paper display and no SIM card. It sounds simple — and that’s exactly what I needed.

Having owned an Onyx Boox tablet before (which I eventually replaced with a Kindle Scribe), you might wonder: Why go back? If I needed a smartphone-sized device for reading, I could just use… my actual smartphone. Or the iPad Mini we have lying around the house.

But the answer is simple: both are connected. And even if they’re not prone to distraction (like the iPad Mini), they are definitely prone to interruption (like my phone).

Yet Another Device?

Yes! I’ll admit it goes against my own directive to use as few devices as possible. More devices mean more hassle, more charging, more complexity. It adds static to the world of digital intentionalism.

But hear me out. The way I want to use this device is very intentional. Here’s how:

1. Reality Escape Pod

I’ve configured the Palma to help me “get away” from everything connected. It lets me focus on what I want to read, and pay attention to what I want to listen to entirely offline. I don’t need to be connected to do anything. In fact, I only activate the Wi-Fi when I want to “load up” on fresh content. (And if I can, I’ll just use a USB cable to drag files from my tablet.)

In that way, the Palma becomes a kind of digital library: quiet, distraction-free, and deliberate. It lets me “escape connection” for a while.

2. Ebook Reader

The Palma (like all Onyx devices) is an Android device that runs most apps from the Play Store. The e-paper display is crisp, and the refresh rate is decent — but I don’t use it for watching videos. It’s mostly for reading.

Since I use my Kindle Scribe as my primary e-reader and notebook, I installed the Kindle app on the Palma to sync books across devices. I do need to go online at the beginning and end of each reading session to sync my progress.

I also installed Instapaper, since Pocket no longer supports non-Firefox browsers. Instapaper works fine, and the text-to-speech function is handy when I don’t have the time or energy to read.

3. Audiobooks & Podcasts

Pocket Casts is my podcast app of choice. I’ve trimmed my subscriptions down to just the shows that bring real value, and I’m committed to listening to every episode. A couple of upbeat music podcasts are in there too, for when I need fresh tunes.

For audiobooks, I use Voice Audiobook Player — a simple, clean player that reads audio files from a folder. Nothing fancy, but it works perfectly.

4. Music

The beauty of the iPod era? You chose your music before you listened. No algorithm telling you what to like. You picked your tracks and lived with them. That’s what I do with the Palma.

I have a few “mood mixes” stored on it — long instrumental tracks, 2–3 hours each — that provide a general ambiance depending on the vibe I want. Blade Runner in the rain? Got it. Upbeat retro synth? That too. I keep about five mixes per mood, and when I’m bored with them, I swap them out manually.

I use the built-in Palma music player to keep things simple. I did consider streaming via an app like Musi (on iOS), but that would defeat the purpose. iPods and Walkmans had one rule: choose your tunes and live with it.

5. Accessories

Accessories? Just two.

Apple Earbuds — Terrible with my iOS devices (the most unreliable earbuds ever), but perfect as a single-use set for the Palma. Decent noise cancellation, compact, and they live in my bag. Moodbird — This little device looks like a sex toy, but it’s actually for guided breathing exercises. You hold it in your hand as it expands and contracts in a calming rhythm. Helps with meditation, anxiety, or sleep. It works on its own, but I use the Palma with the Moodbird app to customize specific programs.

Moderation

Not much on there, right? That’s the whole point: moderation.

Fewer apps mean fewer choices. One of the main pitfalls of modern devices is that they offer too much. We hop from one thing to the next, rarely finishing anything. Never pushing through the “boring” parts. Never staying with one experience.

So I’ve set clear limits on my digital carry-ons for the Palma:

5 podcasts 2 books 2 audiobooks 5 music mixes per genre

Usage

I use the Palma a lot. Reading on the couch. Listening to audiobooks while doing chores. Skimming articles in waiting rooms. My favorite use? Ambient soundscapes + reading. It’s heaven.

Best of all: I can leave my phone behind. I don’t need it to be “entertained.” No social scrolling. No WhatsApp interruptions. The Palma is my world. My rules. My escape.

Conclusion

Abundance is unmanageable.

To focus, we need to choose. What are we going to read or listen to now? What will we do next?

By keeping a small, deliberate selection of content, I get to finish what I start.

To focus. To take back control.

Links

Kindle App: Google Play Store

Pocketcasts: Google Play Store

Voice Audio book player: Google Play Store

Instapaper: Google Play store

Moodbird: https://www.moonbird.life/

I had an iPod once.

I was the proud owner of one of the first models of the “Ipod”. That magical device that could store your entire music collection AND play hours and hours of your favourite podcasts. Back then I used to load up my trusty iPod overnight with the latest shows I wanted to listen to and hit the road, taking the time to listen to each and every one of them because … there was nothing else.

In the streaming age of today that might sound quant. A limited set of content “locked” in an offline bubble. But there was something special about it.

YOU picked the content: Opposed to todays algorithmic-driven platforms, you where the “curator” of whatever music or content you wanted to listen to. Often carefully picking your content to fit as much as you could into the limited storage capacity you had.

That was that: Once that carefully curated content was there, well that was it. A final and limited selection of content. So even if it was a boring show or a lame song: You stuck with it. This made you pay more attention to the selection criteria (WHAT am I gonna put on my iPod) and the content itself.

The relevance of a “limited selection”.

When you take a look at todays hyperconnected algorithm-driven word this seems primitive, but that doesn’t make it less efficient.

Think about it. How many times have you “skipped” a song after 20 seconds (or the slightest irritation with lyrics or music). How many podcasts are you actually subscribed to and how many do you really listen to. When was the last time you felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of content that you could consume and at the same bored out of your skull because “there’s no good stuff out there”. ‘The analogy 500 channels and nothing on’ still holds true. The more choices you have, the harder it becomes to find true satisfaction.

Now there is something to be said about algorithms. (Both good and bad). Most of them are geared at endlessly sucking your attention into the platform you are using. The “Scroll of infinity” that keeps you yanking the dopamine jackpot but never finding true satisfaction. On the other hand algorithms have introduced me to new artists and podcast… But those things were also possible before this shiny addictive interfaces. People would just “tell” you about it.

So WHY ?

So let’s cut to the chase: Why the whole iPod idea? As many of you i’m overwhelmed by today’s technology. The abundance of information to process leaves me worn our at the end of the day. At the same time i’m restless: There is so much more to watch, so many more podcasts to listen to, so much to read etc etc … Aside from being unsatisfied, it’s affecting how I enjoy content. I speedread, skip parts of songs, listen to a part of a podcast and “move on” because “there is so much more out there”. I end up not having the satisfaction that I “finished” something and thanks to the infinite scrolling jackpot of endless content … this will only get worse.

Here’s the plan

So how do I see all this? Well, we start off with the careful process of “selection”. The only algorithm you get to choose is what YOU find valuable. In this idea of a “multimedia iPod” you get to select what you want to read (books, articles, documents), what you want to listen to (podcasts, audio, audiobooks, transcripts from documents or video’s) and what you want to watch (video’s). This content is then captured, converted into a native format (you don’t need an specific app or platform to consume it) and “synced” to your device for offline use.

It sounds simple but in todays “streaming age” you would be surprised just how much stuff is “only” available with a permanent internet connection, on a specific platform, using a dedicated application. (that forms the gateway to the land of infinite scrolling).

I’m still working on the idea just how to get this all going but it will involve (at least for me) some IOS Shortcuts, Linux scripts and a helping hand from ChatGTP, but I think I’ve got the framework in my head.

So what do YOU think.

In the next couple of weeks I’ll tell you guys about my endeavours and just what technical hacks i’ll be using to get things done. Meanwhile I would like to hear from YOU what YOUR take is on constructing a modern-day iPod in a streaming world.
Let me know !

LINKS

• Inbox Zero – Merlin Mann
• Linking Gmail to 3rd Party Accounts

DISCORD

The action is happening over at our Discord server: Join by clicking this link

CREDITS

Mix & Production: Keith Murray

LINKS

• WordPress is 43% of the Internet – https://www.wpzoom.com/blog/wordpress-statistics/
• Digital Minimalism – https://calnewport.com/on-digital-minimalism/
• NoSurf – https://nosurf.net/
• KW505 – https://knightwise.com/kw505-curating-the-library-of-your-mind/
• Security Now Tyranny of the Default – https://www.grc.com/sn/sn-393.htm
• Intentionality – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentionality

DISCORD

The action is happening over at our Discord server: Join by clicking this link

CREDITS

Mix & Production: Keith Murray

Yes, more then a 1,5 year after I stuffed my un-used (slightly cracked) Kindle Oasis into a drawer, saying sayonara to Amazon’s walled of bookstore ecosystem, a new Kindle has arrived on my doorstep. The Kindle Scribe ( the XL-Oasis as my wife calls it) is a work of art.

Hardware: The metal casing makes the Kindle feel cool in your hands and comfortable to hold. The larger bezel on one side (on the right) gives the device a ‘primary’ orientation (that you can also refer to as the “down” side if reading in portrait mode). The display has a premium quality and writing on it with the stylus gives you very nice experience. I personally opted for the premium pen (with the eraser on the back) and switching the note taking setting to ‘fountain pen’ has resulted in my scribbles being not only readable but also aesthetically pleasing to look at. After decades of writing on a screen this is the very first device that has allowed me to do that.

Software; The Scribe has come a long way. Annotating Ebooks is not an option like it was with the Kobo Elipsa. You can add a tiny post-it note to your sentence and scribble something, after which the Scribe leaves a tiny post-it note for you to go back to. But, when annotating PDF’s doodling on pages IS an option and it is FAST.

Your own written notes can be exported via PDF without a lot of hassle.

Sideloading epubs to the Kindle is a breeze with the Kindle app, allowing me to quickly pull a pdf, epub or mobi from my Calibre library and shove it to my Kindle document.

Compared to the Elipsa 2, the Kobo feels like the first generation prototype of a promising but premature kickstarter. It”s incredible how “different” both devices feel both in use and in consistency and stability of software. Maybe the feature-set of the Kindle Scribe lacks the “annotating epub” option that the Elipsa has, but this is something I would gladly trade in when I remember how unstable and unreliable the Kobo was.

When push comes to shove, the Kindle is a great device that is not pretentious when it comes to what it wants to be. A damn good ebook reader that lets you take notes. It’s not an iPad, It’s not a Remarkable. It stays true to what Kindle’s where set out to do. Offering you a premium experience in handling digital paper.

So now what ?

Having spent too many hours on Youtube researching this little project I knew I still had 3 options left. An Onyx Book Tab (expensive and with a sub-par epaper display), A Remarkable (That comes without a backlight and has a frigging subscription model to be able to read your own damn notes) OR a Kindle Scribe.

Uncle Jef’s bookstore.

Over the years I have owned several Amazon E-readers. From a regular Kindle, to a Kindle Voyage and a Kindle Oasis. The build quality and the quality of the display is top notch, but when it came to sideloading books it was always a little bit of a hassle. You could “mail books” to your device but those needed to be in PDF or .mobi format. Calibre took care of that but setting it up was a little cumbersome.

On that part I preferred the way of working of the Kobo (Picks files straight from Google Drive or Dropbox) or the Onyx Boox which sucks up to any Android cloud sync app you want. And the actual management of your sideloaded books in your Amazon library becomes problematic if you have a larger collection. But I get it : The whole point of buying a Kindle is to buy books in the Amazon bookstore.

Amazon has come quite a way.

BUT, Amazon has come a long way. I can use the “Send to Kindle” webpage to upload any epub, pdf or what have you to my Kindle Library and boom .. its there. I can download an epub file on my phone, share it to my Amazon Kindle app on my phone and boom… it’s in my library.

The upside of using THIS system is that I am restoring “continuity” across my devices. I can read my sideloaded books on my iPad, Phone, Android device (Onyx Boox reader) and pretty soon on soon to arrive Kindle Scribe. If the image quality of the Oasis and Voyage have been anything to go by, I may be looking forward to a well built device with a crisp screen and simple but solid software.

And with my lovely wife finally making the switch to digital reading, being able to manage our E-book collection and keep tracks of what we are reading (across different devices) is becoming more and more important. So I’m looking forward to a simple but effective digital reading solution that just works so I can stop fretting with ‘stuff’ and get back to my book.

The reason? Well if I am honest, maybe just the quest for novelty. Because quite frankly I HAVE a perfectly functioning E-ink device. My Onyx Boox is an 8 inch E-reader that runs android and is pretty much one of the most advanced E-reader platforms out there. It shirks at any form of proprietary bookstores and happily runs any e-reader app you throw at it , as long as it is available on the Play store.

I had been playing around with it for a while now and had setup the perfect reading system where I would load up my books into Google play Books (silly name) which would then get magically synced over to both my Onyx and my iPad. Whatever “slate” I picked up, i could just “pick up where i left off” and continue to read.

So I don’t really know what came over me when I went for the Kobo Elipsa 2e. Me and Kobo do not have a good track record. After one flaked on me on my holiday, demanding a (then elusive) internet connection to even start up again, i said: No more! I hate their clunky software, proprietary lock in store AND the fact they only offer me books in French. But the Elipsa was enticing. A big 10 inch screen, VERY good screen quality (Kobo is exceptional at this) and the ability to take notes on pdf’s, epubs and their notetaking app. I would “break” book continuity and no longer be able to “pick up” the book on my iPad but … erm .. yeah. But why. ?

Novelty me won out and I”ve been using the Elipsa2e for a couple of days. Loaded up some books and started testing. Immediately I was confronted with the one thing Kobo is known for. Buggy software. The pen would have ghost touches while writing in the notes app. The performance of the ePubs would be unreliable. When taking notes in PDFs it feels like the kobo is having a seizure and text locks up. All fixed with a “open and close the app again” but not a seamless experience.

And its a petty. Because having this big 10 inch “disconnected” device in front of me that lacked all the interoperable stuff the Onyx Boox / iPad combo had was refreshing. The device was dumb. It only did what paper did. It was simple and nice to read on … it was like a book really. A real dumb one but … hey.

So I’m at the crossroads: Do I send the device back and rack it up to a failed experiment and get my money back. Do I ask for a replacement and once again go through the entire “testing cycle” or … do I just go back to what I had before. The point is that once again the quest for simple technology has taken me down the path of hours of research, testing and figuring things out while I actually just wanted to READ. Meanwhile my wife (after 2 decades) picked up my old Kindle Oasis and is ravaging through her books. She reads and doesn’t have a care in the world.

I’ve been looking at alternatives: The Kindle scribe (bad at notetaking, basically just a big ereader) and the Onyx tab (expensive) and come to see that there is not a lot in the market that really fits my need. In the end I just want to read and be “left alone” by distractions (and the urge to do something else instead of turning the page”. We will see where this goes. I’ll spend another evening on Hard resetting the Elipsa, changing out pen tips and swinging the rubber chicken.. Meanwhile the book is want to read is still lying there.. Untouched

When switching to E-paper and tablets, I always looked for reading apps that supported that function. Be it on my iPad or eReader, I went looking for digital highlighters that would mark out the important bits. Using a variety of styluses I would try to scribble down the summary in some kind of study notes.

Now i’ve watched hundreds of Youtube video’s on “Notetaking” on digital devices from people who have brilliant handwriting and make it all look so easy. There notes are structured and comprehensive if you try to read them. With me, that is not the case. When I start scribbling stuff I wonder why I even bother to get a Stylus at all. Whenever I try to scribble something down it’s just that : scribble. The doodling’s of a seven year old who desperately tries to write his own name.

But to add insult to injury I also have a different way of structuring that information. Linear paper doesn’t work for me very well. I end up selecting, moving and shifting whatever I write from place to place. For this exact reason i’ve stayed away from “nice paper notebooks” that I tend to mess up because of my messy and ‘fluent’ structuring of information. “linear” paper gives me the heebeejeebee’s.

That’s why I fell in love with Mindmaps. They allow me to type out the info I need, restructure it, rearrange it etc. For the longest time I have used IthoughtsHD for this but now the developer is calling it quits I had to go for something else. After some meandering I stuck with SimpleMind, an easy to use mindmap application that does what it needs to do on both my ipad and my mac and is surprisingly compatible when ti comes to exporting the mindmaps.

The downside is having to work with both an ePub file and a mind-map is you constantly need to highlight/copy and paste into the mind-map app. There is now way to add short scribbles and in essence you are working with 2 applications.

Enter Marginote. An app that seems to be tailored to my needs as if I was written for me. Margitone lets you markup and annotate pdfs to your harts delight. You can scribble, highlight and doodle Eric Cartman in the margins. But the magic happens when you select text. That gets copied over (automatically) to a mind-map that you can start structuring right away. You can even add quotes, pictures and take annotations on the mind-map. When you are done you can export the mind-map as a pdf OR an OPML file. (Which is great if you want to feed it to ChatGPT to make a structures summary).

The app is 15 bucks for the pro version and I havent even scratched the surface of the possibilities they offer, but it an app that is damn handy. Your entire project gets stored and synced in iCloud and there also is a desktop version available. I will be playing around with it some more of the next weeks and might even do an entire show on it.

So there is this planet with itsy bitsy spiders who have giant human problems.

Me .. explaining it to a stranger.

Children of Time – Adrian TchaiKovsky

“Children of Time is a 2015 science fiction novel by author Adrian Tchaikovsky. The novel follows the evolution of a civilization of genetically modified Portia labiata on a terraformed exoplanet, guided by an artificial intelligence based on the personality of one of the human terraformers of the planet.”

Yup, sounds delightfully weird and … it is. Our author isn’t just some flimsy fantasy writer but a deep deep nerd who dives deep into the subject he writes about. The result is a biologically accurate approach of the Portia Labiata spider and how it accidentally gets infected by a genetic virus to “evolve”. Said virus came from a colonisation ship (filled with monkeys) sent out by terraforming humans who thought: No need to go ourselves, we will just send some apes, make a virus that lets them evolve and have an IA guide them towards making high tea and crumpets in a few million years. Well, thats not the way it turns out. Ship crashes, monkeys die and itsybitsy spider get’s reversed-spidermanned into having powers the human mind.

The result? A fantastic “world building” book that is not just pulled straight out of the writers imagination (LOTR, Dune .. ) but based on actual bio-science and a fantastic amount of ‘what if” extrapolation. A great read, well written and respectful to the readers intelligence by valiantly plodding ahead (on all 8 legs) into more and more complex civilisation problems and asking you to “keep up, will you ?”

I love Scifi, and with age has come the preference to indulge in more and more complex works that find the middle ground between being challenging and insightful to read (Books like this) and plain arrogant intellectual grandstanding of writers who create a book that reads like an overloaded halter in a sweaty gym.

Children of Time – Adrian Tchaikovsky is available on Amazon , but order it at your local bookstore, wait a couple of days in anticipation and dive right in.

So when I found this wonderful cover, performed by Jeff Pearce of the iconic “Alpha”, I knew I had to share it.

Only when I started using Ubuntu, things changed. Suddenly I was introduced to an operating system that not only seemed to work “out of the box” it also came with some third party scripts that would auto install some of the crucial components that would turn this “quirky” operating system into something that I could viably use….

Fast forward 20 years and a lot has happened. I started using Linux in earnest. From running it on my own machines (as a secondary machine), playing with it as a server, using it to resurrect old pc’s, getting it to play nice with old macs AND converting my wife’s then 70 year old grandmother onto linux (and becoming an overnight sensation on the DIGG and having the serverfarm of my webhost go into a chernobyl like meltdown).

Today my infatuation with all things new-and-Linux has mellowed. I don’t try out every new distro and have a hard time grasping why the Linux community, who, back in the days of newsgroups, flamed everyone who asked a “non-commandline question” has become infatuated  with producing hundreds of different distro’s who only differ in the configuration of their graphical user interface. The only comparison is can make is that some group of stuffy librarians turned into overcrazed car-tuning gearheads overnight. Suddenly its all chrome, rap music and showing of their “pimped out rides”. This distro craze has taken valuable attention and resources away from developing what Linux really needs: Good applications.

On many occasions I’ve been confronted by another group in the Linux community: The “Freedom” guys who insist that no piece of code should be closed source. From their laptop hardware to the bios, to the operating system and all the applications: It should all be “libre”. Although they make a good point, these “Stallmanites” ( see: Richard Stallman ) put an extra hurdle in front of the further development of Linux. To grow it needs to incentivise cooperations like Nvidia, Canonical, Valve to invest time and resources in the development of software that runs on Linux so people will actually use it.

Today Linux is still interesting to me. Maybe not so much as a desktop, or as a “geeky alternative” to the mainstream, but as an interesting tool to increase the efficiency of my work. Using scripts and interesting applications (either in a command line or graphical user interface) to get my work done faster still gives Linux its allure.

In light of that I have switched over one of my laptops to Linux to rediscover the “state of Linux” not by trying out some exotic distribution, but relying on a rock solid codebase and using a graphical interface that doesn’t get in the way. With plenty of things working in a browser and just a few applications that are not directly available on Linux, the question of “could Linux be my daily driver” is once again preying on the little free time I have.

We shall see how we fare in the next couple of days with my experimental little machine and try to deduce the power and added value of linux in my daily workflow.

Who knows … The penguin might return for real..

Blogging! Never before was it so easy to gather your thoughts and slam them down on a webpage, the modern day equivalent of doodling your hopes and dreams onto yellowed diary paper. A time when most of us were still hiding behind the anonymity of an ICQ account number (well, maybe not) or an original internet-handle on MSN messenger like CompuGot69 or god forbid, Knightwise.

Give a man a mask and he will show you his true nature. Whoever came up with this quote was (Machiavelli ?) was a very astute connoisseur of human nature. If i browse back to some of the blogs I read back then (and read back what I posted myself) I sometimes wonder if it was wise to put all that out on the internet. But blogging was cathartic, just like journaling. Writing down your hopes, thoughts and dreams and putting them out there (anonymously in front of strangers) was liberating. I was going through a difficult time in those days. My dad had passed away and my family was in turmoil. Babylon was burning and every day during my lunchbreak I would log into this little bubble on the internet and write up what was going through my mind.

Gradually this daily diary evolved into a more technology oriented website where I chose to share my fledgling encounters in using technology to “work for me”. Only after a few years did Knightwise.com really become a “brand” with a clear mission and a growing audience. The little online diary had become a .. product.

And I have had many a good time thanx to this little website. Opportunities have opened up for me, I’ve met interesting people and made friends for life. But the last couple of years, mainly because of my dayjob (that involves online marketing and branding) Knightwise.com has felt more like a “product” i needed to produce for an “audience” and has strayed far away from what it originally was: A diary about how I live with technology.

I wonder if I would ever be able to go back. If I would ever choose to disclose those inner most thoughts and feelings to the world. The changing nature of the internet, the loss of anonymity and the size of my digital footprint would most certainly lead to the words of “Knightwise” coming back to haunt me in my real life.

But what I do know is that “livejournal” told me a valuable lesson: How to express myself in a way that people would find interesting. I learned how to reflect on and organise my thoughts and feelings into blocks of text people wanted to read. But the most important thing was : I didn’t care if anybody did. I wasn’t hunting for likes, looking for comments or waiting for feedback. I just did it for me.

So maybe there is an “inbetween”. Where I talk about tech and how it influences my life. On what projects I dabble in and what new insights I’ve gained. To come back from a “brand” that needs to follow a “format” and bring back some of the “personal” into the digital.

So as I ponder the new Knightwise.com mission, this too becomes another factor of the new way I want Knightwise.com to feel: More like a “blog” with a “theme“ and less like a brand. I make brands for a living and Knightwise.com is my little getaway where I can leave work behind and go do something else. So it might be chaotic, inconsistent and everything that I would frown upon between 9 to 5. But .. That .. is life on the edge of real and cyberspace.

Funny thing, writing about technology. In those two decades (that count as millennia in tech-time) a lot has changed. Technology has gotten faster, more ubiquitous more available and easier to use. Yet the things I create with technology have slowly declined. My creative exploits that used to dot the internet like bright colored splashes of paint have become rarities for when I find the time, the urge or the inspiration. I wonder what is causing this.

One of the reasons is that the original “Knightwise.com” mission needs to be redefined. Somehow finding ways to tie multiple platforms together, trying to span the digital ecosphere as a “cross platform geek” is slowly becoming irrelevant. Yes, open standards are still important and we should be aware of being “locked in”. But get a webbrowser and a cloud service and you can pretty much do anything on anything these days, like running Doom in a bacteria.

So I have been ruminating about my new mission, about the new direction Knightwise.com should take and have found the answer in the very thing holding me back from creating stuff in the first place: Technology. Over the last two decades, the abundance, ubiquity, complexity and connectivity of technology has created a source of static hiss in my head, dissolving ideas before they can become reality by pounding them to grit with notifications, distractions and never ending scrolling screens filled with muck and doom.

It might sound gloomy, but this digital mulch that has become my daily reality is starting to foster the seeds of a new beginning. Of a new idea where I stay true to the original mantra ‘let technology work for you’ but slowly decompose the “cross platform geek” to make room for something new.

I’ll keep you posted….

One of the reasons the Unihertz Titan jumped out at me was because of its rugged interface and the fact that it would be pretty awesome to use as a « terminal » instead of a phone, allowing me to interact with the various command line applications I have. I thought it would be cool to use it to SSH into my home server and use all my « low distraction » apps.

I decided to « try before I buy » and not start throwing out cash and getting yet « another » device, but instead see if I could pull it off with the gear that I have.

I went for a « copy paste » of the way I SSH into my Linux machine at home on my iPad. Using the SSHelfish app you can predefine connections, execute commands upon connections etc. Basically it slides you into your terminal session with one tap on the screen. I installed it on my iPhone (the payed version of the app is worth it » and took it out for a spin.

Hacking at the hairdressers

Waiting at the hairdressers was the perfect opportunity. Instead of scrolling through the « apps » on my phone, I « logged in » to my home server and picked up the Terminal session I had open. Using Tmux I flipped between the different apps I have open (Toot for Mastodon, Tuir for Reddit, Discordo for Discord and Newsboat for RSS) and puttered along. My hairdresser was getting a little worried since the stuff he saw on my screen reminded him more of a hacker doing his thing, than an average joe scrolling Insta.

It’s harder to use, so its easier to focus

My first impressions on this way of working were mixed. The fact you have to « connect » makes it more « intentional » to « check your socials » than by just using the apps on your phone. You are less prone to getting sucked it because it takes more focus to navigate. There are no pretty pictures to « entertain » you and keep you scrolling from one dopamine hit to the other and, because of the small screen, you only have one app open at a time.

This has an upside. Because its a more focused interface, you don’t tend to scroll aimlessly. The downside is that there is no way to (easily) watch or upload media, like pictures in your Toots or posts, for that you still need the apps. As a workaround I still keep the Discord and Mastodon apps on my phone, but just not on my homescreen.

This is of course all just an experiment but my first impressions are pretty interesting. It’s a different way to interact with my « social feeds » that makes them a little less « distracting » and make me feel more « in the moment » when i’m using them. Another small step towards intentional computing I guess.

Links

The app : Shellfish (ios)

NoSurf!

Those Smartphones are highly addictive. We spend hours scrolling the net and social media sites, and this has led many to re-think the way we interact with these devices. We do not control them, it is like they control US. Rows of « phone zombies » on the train or waiting in line can attest to it. That is why the #nosurf movement (who wants to re-capture the moment by stepping away from your phone) goes towards a dumbphone. A silly flip-phone in your pocket that is so boring, you only use it to call 911 when you are on the brink of bleeding out.

Lightphone

But what if you realise that having a « dumb-phone » just does not fit your connected lifestyle anymore. A lot of the services we use today require an internet connection (Music, Gps etc), the same internet connection that pumps social media sludge into our brain like its Soylent green. So isn’t there an in-between? A device that allows us to « connect » without becoming an attention-sinkhole? I went on a quest to find out.

Multiple candidates

Immediately I was drawn towards the Unihertz Titan and Titan Pocket. These devices remind me strongly of my Blackberry. A small, rugged and portable device that was ideal for communicating but sucked at webbrowsing or doing any of the internet stuff with a high-visual-octane. The smaller screen and the handy keyboard is very alluring. But the size of the Titan (the pocket is smaller but also has a smaller keyboard) and the poor android support (Android 11 on the Pocket, 10 on the Titan) might speak against them on the long run.

Jelly

Another weird little device on the Unihertz website is the Jelly. A 3 inch android smartphone that is so tiny, you wouldn’t even WANT to surf on it for hours on end. One way to still be connected without suffering from a screen addiction is to downsize the screen? The downside is that using this device for any kind of GPS would require reading glasses with a high perscription

Neuter your Smartphone

The last alternative of course is to « dumb down » your existing phone. By restricting apps and access it is perfectly possible to « scale down » the digital possibilities of your phone to give you JUST the the things you need. This does require a fair share of self discipline because you can easily « switch your phone back to full addictive mode » at the press of a button.

Not quite there yet.

Looking to make your Phone less addictive and more ‘productive’ is more of a thought exercise. I’ve started to figure out it is less about the hardware and more about the things we want to DO with it. Having addictive apps on your phone is a matter of what apps you allow, not what your phone can (or cannot do). I’ve recently moved things like Vinted (I can search for Retro Transformers for hours on end) to my iPad and haven’t used it since. So maybe the same can go for other apps. I need to re-baseline the smartphone I have and determine what I want it to do for me. And if that answer differs in different situations, then maybe I need to start using different profiles and settings to « transform » that black slab into something that does what I need it to do at that moment.

It all comes down to you

In the end? It all comes down to us, the user. We decide how we spend the « attention calories » of our day. Scrolling aimlessly on 9gag or writing up a blogpost that goes around the world in 50 minutes. That is up to us. Our devices enable us to do a great many things, but the way to fight the attention economy might not be with MORE hardware, but with a re-thought approach on how we want to use the technology we already have. So let’s veer away from the umph-teenth Youtube video on some new gadget, keep the money in our pocket and start thinking like like « smart » geeks.

Having ridden the crest of the WEB 2.0 and Social Media revolution, witnessed the rise of the cloud and the dawn of big tech, I sometimes find myself in a world where everything feels « mainstream », where everybody is using the same tech, has the same phone and does the same things on the same platforms. Where the excitement has petered off and the internet has become « boring ».

Looking for an edge

So I look for new « edges » to discover. Fringe technologies and platforms that hardly anybody knows. Places that are of the beaten path about to break new ground or fizzle into nothingness.

And opposed to the hords of streamers and podcasters that want to « make it big » and pull in huge numbers and make the big bucks, I’m loving the small engaged community of readers, listeners and contributeurs I have today. I’m not looking for a stage, I’m looking for a campfire.

Misplaced Nostaligia

Maybe it’s misplaced nostalgia, looking for a tech-scene that wasn’t so mainstream. Where you don’t hear about everybody and their dog spouting an opinion over AI … Where you mention some term of tech and people say « What the hell is that ».

So let’s discover that edge together: Throw up your suggestions for some app, tech or platform that nobody knows about and hardly anyone follows. Something new, nerdy and plain weird, because .. we like that kind of stuff. Because there is nothing more exiting then … Living on the edge.

The Dodleston Messages (also referred to as The Dodleston Files) is a bizarre series of paranormal events that involve an economics teacher and his girlfriend, a small cottage in the English countryside and a BBC Micro computer that is operated by him, somebody from the past AND somebody from the future.

It sounds bizarre but it makes for a fascinating story where « emails » (or text files) appear out of nowhere on an (unattended) BBC Micro computer, accessible (throughout time) to all three parties. What follows is a strange but interesting back-and-forth between all three « timezones » with some interesting twists.

Spam from the past man!

This day and age you would think « worm » or « mallware » when stuff starts to appear on your computer without you doing anything about it. But this is the 80’s and the BBC Micro is in no way connected to the internet because it doesn’t exist yet. The messages just « show up ».

Moving chairs and stacking cans

Along with the digital correspondance there is also some good old « analogue » paranormal activity with furniture being rearranged, things written on the wall and cans being stacked. But the paranormal entity is far from an evil poltergeist. He is a well mannered softspoken gentlemen called Thomas Harden who compliments Ken on his nice girlfriend ( What a fine woman thou hast) and his house full of cool gadgets (one of them being the ‘looms of light’, his wording for the BBC Micro computer as it manifests itself in his time).

Read it straight from the horse’s mouth

The ‘Dodleston Messages’ have been covered on many blog, website, Youtube video and even on a BBC documentary, but the best source is possibly Kens own book ‘The Vertical Plane’ where he describes the whole story in detail, including the transcripts from every message sent by ‘Thomas’ and the mysterious entities in 2109 . The book is hardly obtainable anymore in print form Here is the Amazon Link but you can also have a look over at (cough) Anna’s Archive but just don’t tell anyone.

These days most people use a VPN to tunnel « out » of somewhere. Vpn’s have become commercialised services with beacons somewhere in the cloud where we all connect to. Promising us privacy and anonymity from whatever snoops might prowl the network we connected to. But what do we have to hide, who do we hide it from and who do we share it with?

So where do I use a VPN

Well, that all depends. Whenever I need to connect to a « foreign network » I consider using a vpn tunnel. And with « a foreign network » I mean one where I don’t have the admin password of the wifi router.

Public Wifi’s are like public urinals

A shared wifi hotspot in a coffee shop (which I seldom use anymore) is a place where I definitely try to use a VPN to obscure my traffic. Although I have to say that I’m more worried about some hipsters malware infested Windows 7 machine giving my machine computer-gonorrhea across the local wifi network. I feel like i’m putting my donut on a urinal so… Shields up.

Corporate IT networks with Nosy neighbours

Ah, those sweet networks managed by overzealous IT staff at corporate offices. I DON’T TRUST THEM. If I have to hop « on their network » to do my thing, I am always careful to make sure my outgoing traffic is obscured. All of it. I don’t feel making my network traffic the passe-de-temps of some 20 something junior IT sysadmin who loves nothing more than snooping logs (or get those logs thrown in my face as part of a shitstorm during a payment issue with a client). No way.

So who do we trust ?

Well, that is a hard one isn’t it. I’ll never go for one of those commercial-but-free services that they offer. The business model here is that they sell off your traffic to advertising agencies. (When you don’t pay you aren’t the client, you are the product). But the « payed » services are kinda the same. Sure NordVpn has quite a good reputation but … in the end i’ll trust my own home network and tunnel out from there via my ISP .. just like with all my other traffic.

So I take the Space SSHuttle

There are a couple of VPN services you can self host. They give you the added joy of connecting to your home network. I’m an avid user of Tailscale to interconnect my devices over the internet (Check out the podcast episode I did on that), but when I want to tunnel ALL my traffic including my DNS queries I resort to using SSHuttle and use a machine running Tailscale at home as an endpoint. Yeah I know, that’s double encapsulation and that might give me some slower speeds, but what do I care .. the guest networks i’m on have money to burn.

T.N.O. ?

Trust no-one. Very true. But its not practical to set yourself up like Edward Snowden and only use your computer with Tails and Tor and hiding under a blanket (tried it, it gets very hot). At some point you have to trust somebody. In my case I draw the line at my ISP because thats where for me security and practicality balance out. At least I don’t have Hipsters licking my firewall or IT-Wanna-Be-Snoops snickering at my URL traffic.

Links

Podcast: Tunneling with Tailscale

SSHuttle (Available on Windows, Mac, Linux and in WSL)

So time to slap another app to the collection of command line apps I have running: Time for ‘TooT’: A TUI (Text User Interface) based client for Mastodon. It’s slick, simple and fast and I can access it from anywhere. All I need is a terminal connection to my home server and I’m good to go.

So why the crap do I go for TUI apps in the modern day? Easy: They are distraction free. You don’t end up scrolling for hours watching silly cat pictures or selfies of wannabe Instagram Models. Its a bit more basic. I do the same with Reddit (using TUIR), RSS (Newsbeuter), Discord (Discordo) and Irc (Irssi). It’s faster to work with (mostly), less addictive (slightly) and most importantly: you look like a Hacker

Check out the Github page here.

Find the super easy keyboard shortcuts here.

Standing on our own two feet.

Why is that so important? That has become more and more obvious the last couple of years. We have seen the rise of many trends and platforms over the years. The dawn of podcasting, the coming (and going) of web 2.0 sites like Digg, The first wobbly steps of Facebook, Youtube, Google+ and so on. And we have followed many of those trends (perhaps giving some a little too much energy in comparison). But at the end of the day, the « core » of the Knightwise.com content could always be found HERE, independent and unmanaged by any « big platform ».

Just look around Twitter is fighting to keep it’s users interested in the toddler-ruled add-riddled hate-fountain it has become while Reddit heads to the battlefield against some of it’s most loyal moderators over costs for external API’s. The writing is on the wall : Those « big » and « free » platforms we have all been using carelessly are under increased pressure to push adds and make money. And today that means not only letting their users frolic around while gathering their data, it also means making hard and unpopular choices because those « free » platforms are not free at all. The price we pay is not only the attention and the data we give them, but also a slice of our freedom.`

So maybe it’s time to look back

So how was it again BEFORE those big platforms came along? How did we EVER manage to survive. Well in essence .. everything was doing their own thing. Hosting their own website, running their own forum, doing their own thing. I’m too young to remember BBS’s but DO remember having to « choose » between different IRC Services to find my posse (and my channels) .. to browse « different » forums to get an answer .. It wasn’t easy, but we weren’t completely dependant on just one major corporation.

Let’s blow up the internet!

Because if we want to keep using the internet like it is supposed to, as a network where information can flow regardless of the fall of one of it’s many networking nodes, then we also should be able to steer clear of becoming too dependant on these massive platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, TikTok and the like to spread our message and communicate. Sure the are THE place to go when you want to get noticed but as a content creator you are completely dependant of their policy. In order to rescue our ability to create, communicate, share and interact our ideas and thoughts .. We need to re-fragment our content. In short: Blow up the net.

Don’t mind the hippie in the corner.

Am I starting to sound stark-raving mad? Do you smell weed and picture dancing lava lamps as you think of me? It might all sound a little shangry-la but, I have always ventured to keep you independent of brands, vendors and eco-systems. So here is the next level of being a cross-platform geek.

Becoming a cross-platform geek.

So what if « the platforms » we have talked about on this website go beyond the « hardware » and the « software » ones. What if they start to point towards the big information platforms where we store and share information. How about becoming « cross platform » there? For me, the recent rumbles on the different Social Media platforms have given me a bunch of inspiration on becoming a new kind of « cross platform geek ».

Experiment with me and dip your toes into the Fediverse

So I have started my little quest with a wade into the primal soup called the Fediverse from which (one day) might rise a new and resilient way to tweet. So far I don’t have many friends or followers, but that is not the point. The point is to discover the pro’s and cons of a service that is NOT tied to somebodies big add budget. It’s all built on dreams, hopes and rubber bands, but so was the Internet back in the 80’s. Come find me, talk to me and discover what’s next .. For cross platform geeks.

Find me on Mastodon

LINKS

Minimal Bag – Everyday

• iPhone 13 Pro Max
• Onyx Boox – Nova Air
• Bose QC45
• Samsung Galaxy Buds

Work Bag – Work days

• M1 Macbook (not exact model match)
• Surface Pro X (ARM)
• iPad Mini (6 gen / 64GB + 4G)

Miscellaneous bits and bobs

• Logitech MX Master
• Logitech MX Keys Mini
• Cable holder card
• USB C Everywhere (almost, thanks Apple)
• USB Stick
• SSD 1TB

DISCORD

The action is happening over at our Discord server: Join by clicking this link

CREDITS

• Mix & Production: Keith Murray

LINKS

• The Chronicles of Curious Characters Podcast
• Chocolatey
• OneDrive
• Cryptomator

DISCORD

The action is happening over at our Discord server: Join by clicking this link

CREDITS

• Mix & Production: Keith Murray

I remember when I had my very first PDA….

I remember when I had my very first PDA (You kids: That is short for “Personal Digital Assistant”. Those digital filo-fax like devices that would house your contacts (whome you could call on a separate phone), your calendar and a bunch of other handy applications like mail(and games) that would get you through the day. Via the magic of a serial cable, this thing would sync with your computer and dump swap out all of the updated info you crammed into it, with applications like Outlook Express or god forbid, Netscape Mail.

Incredible as it may seem, these things were quite productive. You would leave with a “fresh” set of data for the day, and dump out all of the updated emails, contacts, calendar requests etc … in the evening. Meanwhile you could ruin your eyes by trying to read a Ebook on them (I read a small library on them and now wear glasses), jot down notes with a tiny pen (and bastardise your handwriting) or just look cool by flipping the thing open like James T Kirk waiting for a beamout.

The time you spend on that device was your own.

The upside of it was: The time you spent on this device was your own. The You got to choose what you did next, not some pesky marketeer-psychologist-algorithm-entity that is shoving the next TikTok vid down your throat. But sync-cradles no longer exist and “being offline” is no longer an option these days. But there is a solution. How about some “middleware”, applications that allow you to enjoy the functionality of the internet without its distractions ?

Let’s try to start with Social Media. Under immense peer pressure I have found that occasionally I need to post some things on Instagram, to prevent friends sending out search parties to find my withered corpse. I hate Instagram and am especially vulnerable to Reels Video’s. I spend precious time scrolling down to the next video and wrack a huge “scroll-guilt” when I see how time slips through my fingers. I like to poke my head out on Twitter but could not care less about political retweets or watching Elon-the-idiot hogging trending topics. So I want to use social media without HAVING Social media. Can I? Answer? Yes! The answer is simple: Buffer. Its a Social Marketing scheduler for businesses but it works great for the average Joe. You can post to your personal Twitter and Linkedin profile just fine. Instagram takes a bit of fiddling, you’ll need to convert your account into a (public) creator or business account. But after that it works like a charm.

One-way Socials

So during the day I snap up some fancy pictures, snarky comments or insightful business blabla and ram the posts into Buffr. I can either post them to one (or multiple) channels, or hold the world in suspense and schedule everything for later. All of that without having any of the spammy apps installed on my phone.

One-way Socials. Yeah I know: I’m screaming into the void and not actually listening for a response, am I? That’s not completely true. I selectively pick and choose my moments where I access the Socials via the web. “Checking in” I call it. I glee over likes, read the snarky comments and snap a quippy response in a DM. That way I do Socials when I want to (and not the other way around). I filter out the crap that is force fed by ‘the algo’ and take back control of my phone (and life).

It’s a small step, but an important one if we want to take back control of our digital life and start watching the screen when WE want to, instead of the other way around.

LINKS

• TailScale
• DietPi
• DietPi on KW 1403
• xRDP
• Keyboard Layouts
• PuTTY
• TOR

DISCORD

The action is happening over at our Discord server: Join by clicking this link

CREDITS

• Music: Good Day to Die by Möbius
• Mix & Production: Keith Murray

… this is mostly geared towards single-celled-hard-hearing 3 year olds.

The sounds of a busy city. I scuttle inside the coffee-shop for relief and am confronted by the most terrible torture modern man can inflict upon himself in the morning hours : The RADIO.  Blasting from strategically dispersed overhead speakers there is no escape to the blaring sounds of what needs to pass for “morning entertainment” these days. A quick analysis of both the volume, the content and the delivery of ‘Mainstream radio’ teaches me that this is mostly geared towards single-celled-hard-hearing 3 year olds. Its lack of quality and content highly compensated by the overzealous delivery in volume.

Its like people vomiting into my ears .. My hands instinctively reach up to my neck and, like some kind of life jacket grab onto my noise cancelling headphones. I slide them over my ears and … relief. The auditory maelstrom is dimmed and replaced with the a soothing mumbling nothing. All I need to do is tap my smartphone and music surrounds me. In a flash I’m taken back to an old 80’s teen flick. The retro-wave beats streaming from the interwebs into my eardrums form an instant soundtrack for the  situation i’m in.  The experience is complete. Just like in the movies you ONLY hear the music and see the main character go through the motions. No pesky ambient noise, no people chattering.. Just music and motion. 

… In many ways putting on noise cancelling headphones is like putting on your  the earphones of your Walkman back in the 80’s

In many ways putting on noise cancelling headphones is like putting on your  the earphones of your Walkman back in the 80’s. A defiant and deeply personal gesture to grab those little speakers covered by their orange foam and place them firmly over your ears .Telling to world to be quiet, erecting an auditory wall around you. These days they are wireless and their noise cancelling abilities range much further then their prehistoric ancestors. But the gesture is the same.

Even their roll has changed. In the perfect storm of the pre-covid area where landscape offices, noisy colleagues and constant one-on-one Skype meetings resulted in a never ending landslide of noise and distraction … The noise cancelling headset became an essential component of the office worker. The only way to focus (and in many ways stay sane) was to pop on your headphones and cancel out whatever mayhem was going on around you. The joke of the entire philosophy behind a landscape office: Physically putting everyone in one room, only to end up with a collection of individuals fighting for selective isolation of the people around them. Paradox anyone ?

If you don’t hear me .. are you still willing to listen?

The conclusion is that we all need and enjoy our little personal audio stream that shies away from the mainstream noise around us. Just like we all have our own Twitter feed, watch our own selection of Netflix shows and are addicted to our very personal mix of insanity on Reddit, Youtube our TikTok.  My only hope is that (just like with the other social media bubbles) even though we don’t hear each other.. we are still willing to just .. listen.

LINKS

• Wijngaardbos Henis
• Midnight Commander
• NC Spot
• Castero
• NewsBoat
• RainbowStream
• IRSSI
• Libera.Chat
• Joplin CLI

DISCORD

The action is happening over at our Discord server: Join by clicking this link

CREDITS

• Music: Drop it Like It’s Spock by KFaceTV on Youtube
• Mix & Production: Keith Murray

Well, not entirely: Simple tasks like signing and annotating PDFs has become a lot easier these days. Most browsers (like for example Edge on the desktop and safari on mobile) let you squiggle away with your pen or your mouse and sign your autograph (or an offensive stick figure) under any document.

But whenever you want to go one step beyond its a world of hurt. Before you know it, a simple query on Google to “ split pdf” takes you down a wormhole of costly apps, Adobe subscriptions and if you click deep enough: services that require a human sacrifice to merge 2 documents together.

A good thing I found ilovepfd.com. A free, online browser based service that lets you do just about anything to a pdf aside from the horizontal chacha. Great cross platform stuff. Love it.