Ads are annoying – that is as true now as it was five years ago. According to a report by Blockthrough and Eyeo[1], usage of adblockers is on the rise, growing at a rate of approximately 30% per year. With just under a billion people estimated to be using adblockers of some kind, advertisers are beginning to take note, and browsers like Google Chrome are beginning to limit the ability of adblocking extensions to work effectively. This means that ads may begin to again have the upper hand, and that can have terrible effects on how people browse the modern web. There is a point at which ads begin to completely take over a site, and affect the safety of the user, and here I will outline a couple of sites in which this is the case.

One of the things I don’t “know” are how many ounces are in a litre. It is something that I don’t use on a regular basis, and is easily accessible via a quick web search. Perhaps a better question is “should this be something that I know off the top of my head?”. What do we mean by “knowing” in the first place? Is it enough to know where to find the knowledge? This post is about how I like to think of our human brains working in cached layers to deal with information overload.

I wrestled with this decision for a long time. Linux mint was working fine, meeting all of my needs, and I would totally recommend it for a beginner. It worked pretty much out of the box, and the installer was clear and easy to understand. However, there was something that was pulling me towards debian that I just couldn’t shake. So, when I had a free Sunday morning I thought “why not go for a learning opportunity and try it out”. I have backups of both my home directory and system backups from my linux setups, so the worst that could happen is I have to reinstall mint again and restore from backup.

About six months ago I put together nevermonetize.com, a single page jekyll application with a couple of paragraphs communicating a simple idea – not pursuing an application or website for monetary gains. At first, I truly thought I would be the only one to use it, but then I began to notice people linking to from around the web. This has created its own challenges, as that text I put together in just a few minutes one night now has to stay consistent. Perhaps there is some beauty in something so hasty becoming solidified – it prevents over-engineering the concept. Some things in life just aren’t about money.

In a world in which things are being removed from the web, it can be amazing to have your own personal collection of gems. Read-it-later apps seek to be the solution, allowing you to save webpages to a location that will be persistent even if the original webpage is removed. There are a bunch of these applications, including pocket, ArchiveBox, and omnivore (which I have written about quite a bit on this blog). This week I discovered Readdeck which may be the perfect solution for those that love the open-source nature of omnivore, but are looking for something much more lightweight.

I had always imagined that email would be hard work. Many VPS providers block outgoing email to help prevent spam, and I was never inclined to setup a gmail for smtp. Instead, I wanted a dedicated email domain that would act like a bot that links up various services and helps me stay on top of notifications. Turns out, it was pretty straightforward, and one day in, seems to be functioning as intended.

There are a ton of videos, articles, even full courses about how to configure the best note taking system. I’ve been through many of them, from Obsidian, to Logseq, to Obsidian again, and then finally resting on mdbook and vimwiki, which have now stood the test of time. If I could go back and give myself some advice, it would be to think about the note taking problem in the reverse direction. Instead of building a system and then modifying your behaviour to match it, start with how you actually use notes, and make a system that meets that need. In this post, I’ll go over some of the key considerations in building such a system, and which ones I think actually matter and which didn’t end up making an iota of a difference after having gone through so much change.

Going backpacking is a surreal experience. There are few moments in modern life where we bundle up everything we think we may need in a single pack and then wander off into the unknown. Before departure, we have plenty of time to check (and double check) our packing list in the comfort of our homes. Once we are out in the wilderness however, all bets are off, you either have a working system or you have a problem.

I have had a mixed relationship with task management software over the years. Sometimes it seems to jive and I am excited to add tasks into it, and other times I leave it to slowly decay until I notice the subscription bill and cancel. One piece of software that I keep coming back to is Vikunja, which is completely open-source and can be either self-hosted, or you can use the hosted option and have it all taken care of for you on Vikunja cloud. Here, I will go over a super easy way to setup vikunja on a debian vps, and then use the vja command line tool to manage tasks from the command line. On mobile, you can either use the Vikunja web app, or tasks.org which will sync through Caldav.

Sometimes it is the small things in life that makes the greatest difference. I’ve had the Casio AE-1500WH-1AVDF for half a year now, and it is easily one of the best purchases I made in 2023. After having a smartwatch for many years, the freedom of not having to worry about charging my watch has been fantastic, and I don’t stress about minor scruffs and bumps. The watch is lightweight and comfortable, and I can use the stopwatch feature while working out. If you are looking for an affordable and easily readable watch, this one would fit the bill. Simple as that.