A 2025 Resolution
1920x1080. That's it. Goodnight, folks!
[phonograph-needle-rip.wav]
Wait, WAIT.
My actual resolution is to use RSS feeds as my primary source of diversion on the go, vs. Pavlovically checking the Fediverse every five minutes, or even worse, getting stuck in an hours-long YT Shorts brainrot watching spree.
If you're looking …
Read More
How I Watch YouTube
I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, TuxJam the other day, and they were discussing ways to watch YouTube without the annoyances that Google has added to the experience, namely ads and the inability to download videos for later viewing (also, YouTube stopped letting you listen to videos …
Read More
Laptops: A Romance
As I wrote in yesterday's article, I have a soft spot in my heart for laptops. They exist in this incredibly sweet spot where convenience and agency/freedom converge in the very best way, possible. I bought my first laptop in 1995 with my very hard-earned money, but let's start …
Read More
What We Lost Along the Way
As I was "delightscrolling" (the opposite of doomscrolling) around on the Fediverse yesterday, I came across this toot that perfectly describes how a lot of us are feeling these days:
I loved computers.
I loved what technology promised.
This wasn't that long ago!
Now it just makes me sad and …
Read More
I Miss Palette Rotation
Background
In the halcyon days of 16-bit microcomputers, there was a computer graphics technique used by many demos and some games known as Palette Rotation, Palette Shifting, Palette Animation, or Color Cycling.
Computers weren't fast enough to change the entire contents of screen memory in graphics mode (even relatively low …
Read More
My Odd Relationship with Minecraft
Unlike most young people, and not unlike many of my GenX peers, I haven't played much Minecraft.
I got into it a little bit with my cousin's kids when they were young around 2010, and I even played it a little bit on my own at the time, but the …
Read More
My Every Day Carry, Part V: What's on My Phone?
In Part IV, I discussed wristwatches. In this article, I'm jumping back into my pocket, so to speak, with a look at what's on my phone itself.
This was a rather exhausting article to write, because I have a lot of apps on my phone. I have even been ridiculed …
Read More
What is FOSS?
Note: This article was originally written last December, and was sidelined because I didn't feel it was finished. Reading through it this morning, I realized reason that I never "finished" it is because the next step would've been to write a 1280-word chapter, which is no small feat. But honestly …
Read More
The Joy of Bespoke Hashtags
In Part II, I described the protective function of hashtags. I will now delve into a more entertaining aspect of how they can be used.
Whenever I share a blog post I've just written on the fediverse, I always use the hashtag #rlDaneWriting. It's an easy way for me to …
Read More
Hashtags, Part II: Global Search and the Right to Not Be Discovered
In Part I, I spoke humorously on the linguistic value of hashtags. I'd like to now go over why hashtags are useful for search on the Fediverse, and why global search is a bad idea.
Reply guys. That's it. End of blog p— Oh okay, okay!
I've noticed that there …
Read More