Deliverer of ideas for a living. Believer in internet autonomy, dignity. I upkeep instances of FOSS platforms like this for the masses. Previously on Twitter under the same handle. I do software things, but also I don’t.

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 5th, 2023

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  • Thinkpads – a laptop with a rich history of Linux use – can be bought with an integrated 4090. The ThinkPad P1 Gen 6 can be configured with an i9, plenty of flexibility for drive space and RAM, and an RTX 4090. It’ll run you, even used, around $3k to $4k, which is the equivalent of a desktop replacement. But it’ll be pretty doggone compatible with any Linux distro you’d like.










  • Recommendations to purchase a smart TV but never connect it to a network are futile, as well. Just like Amazon devices, smart TVs will find an open SSID and then phone home for updates without your knowledge.

    My recommendation, when these kind of topics come up, is: either exchange your smart TV for a dumb one, or go to an electronics repair shop to have a board or two exchanged (depending on the make and model, older dumb components may be direct-ish replacements for smart ones).

    EDIT: Another option? Try a projector! I was looking for dumb TV options online after writing up this comment, and someone on an old Reddit post recommended it. Great idea.

    2nd EDIT: Someone else also recommended buying digital signage, another solid dumb display option.



  • Even though there’s a small monthly cost, the results have been consistent for Kagi. But consistency meets only half of my needs for search: I also want to make decisions quickly from what I find within the contents. If I were to to go to a link, wait for it to load, scroll the content, etc. – does that listed forum post have the answer I am looking for? Does this news article cover the nuances I have been tracking and would like to read more of? Kagi offers an AI-based summarize feature that helps. And that’s been meeting the other half of my needs, as well.

    EDIT, an opinion: Search services may well be eventually replaced by small, niche LLMs trained to perform summerization tasks, such as Consensus, which I have used for work research, and Perplexity.ai. The AI summarize feature of Kagi is why I see the service as more useful than straight indexes, even when self-hosted. Kagi is a stepping stone toward this for me, and why I recommend it.




  • This is what’s up. Buy a small Intel NUC, a USB-C combo Blueray & DVD player, and watch any service / play any content without the ridiculousness.

    Spectres are reasonable TVs. Screen tech hasn’t improved drastically for the last few years, and streaming quality hasn’t had any major facelifts outside the frameworks we know and love – don’t let anyone fool you otherwise. Netflix, Hulu, Prime, etc., all stream comparably to one another.


  • I have owned the Light Phone 1 and the Light Phone 2 – both were built with the intent to stay connected in a handful of ways without needing to have a full-spec’d, app-heavy, typically-sized smart phone.

    If the intent and the vibe make sense to you, then it is a wonderful approach for a more ‘minimalist’ device: you can go outdoors, travel, hike, camp, etc., without having a smart phone to pick up and play with. I dig it.

    If the intent and vibe don’t make sense to you, the Light Phone may not be a good fit.

    I really like the device, and use it often enough as a daily driver on weekends. Always glad to see some public attention on it.




  • I suspect it may be a bit more along how you’re describing here – we expect some user experience patterns to already be in place, if not considered, like not being able to select inappropriate handles. Former Twitter folks should know ‘better.’ From the outside looking in, it tracks.

    I wonder if the Bluesky team, right now at least, is more engineer / dev heavy, and they have not brought on UX folks to help drive a product design that considers patterns we’d be used to experiencing. They may be operating pretty lean.

    An idea, at least.