My first attempt to dump many links on you with short comments about why I consider them interesting. This one is mostly about free software and independence from Big Tech.
Work
Scripts I wrote that I use all the time by Evan Hahn. At first, my reaction was “cool but I won’t use them”. And then I used one of them. You won’t adopt all the scripts but it’s a nice reminder to wrap up some common actions you do.
Mistakes I see engineers making in their code reviews by sean goedecke. The starting part “Don’t just review the diff” is great and it kinda explains why you need humans to do code reviews. Other advises are also good.
CSS text-wrap: balance is a relatively new property that makes a nice-looking wrapping of short texts.
Zola is a great static site generator that powers this blog. If you’re looking for a blog engine pick this one.
Life
RTINGS is the website that helped me pick a new monitor. They do thorugh testing of hardware and publish detailed results. They even have a search page with nice filter and comparison UI.
Obsidian vs SilverBullet are both personal knowledge base tools. Obsidian looks sleek, SilverBullet looks shaggy. Obsidian is a closed-source desktop app, SilverBullet is an open-source self-hosted one. With Obsidian you have to pay subscription to enable cross-device sync. SilverBullet is online-first with local state that requires your broswer to support PWA to work. I ended up using both: Obsidian on a work laptop for work notes and SilverBullet for personal stuff.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Sideloading by marcprux at F-Droid. Google wants to censor apps you install on your phone. Free software folks are angry about it. You should be angry about it too, especially if you’re European, because it violates the idea of The Digital Markets Act. This won’t affect me directly as a happy /e/OS user but I’m still angry.
Famous climate scientist proves me right about online publishing by M. Fioretti. Someone got censored by Facebook. Author uses the situation to remind us not to give platforms the rigright to censor us but to publish on own website and to follow the POSSE principle. I can't agree more.
There's one thing EVERY government can do to shrink Big Tech by Cory Doctorow. Author explains why not getting rid of US-pushed anticircumvention laws is a form of geopolitical suicide.
The Death of Consequences talk by Christopher Neugebauer explains how FOSS limitations are killing FOSS software. It’s not clear what to do with that, but can we at least stop hating stuff like MongoDB’s Server Side Public License?
Android apps list changes:
- I switched to FossWallet app because it can update monthly passes like Deutschlandticket.
- Added Librera and Libby for reading bought and borrowed electronic books.
Tymothy Snyder’s book On Tyranny is great and unfortunately it’s becoming more relevant over time. Check out Graphic Edition if you can, it’s beautiful.
Fun
Recall for Linux if you miss your computer spying on you. It even works!
Creatures In The Dynamic Fog is a great halloween-themed fog of war sudoku. Here’s a solution video if you want some hints.