Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

I talked about not blogging as much in my June 2022 review. Internal monologue around that continues and I'm constantly finding myself wondering if keeping this blog is worth it.

Maybe it's just an itch.

Some smart people on Mastodon have recommended just keeping things as they are, and posting occasionally if that's what I find myself comfortable with — even if it's just 3 posts in one whole year — and that sounds logically quite right.

Plus, keeping things as they are has the least amount of resistance. It's probably why I haven't done anything radical for a long time now. A long time at least in the blogging-setup timezone.

A part of me wants to move to a static site, "archive" this blog and perhaps move the blogging portion to some other platform where everything related to it is "managed." That would certainly be keeping in tune with what's been going on with my tech in general the last twelve-ish months.

I wouldn't be happy keeping two "sites" and maintaining visual consistency across the two (but maybe I don't have to do that?). It's a compromise.

Alternatives.

However, I enjoy absolutely nothing in the market.

Substack seems like a misfit and UX hell.

While Matt has been kind enough to offer a regional discount, I'm not sure I still see a long-term future with Write.as (something really nice about it is it's a part of the fediverse).

Ghost is incredibly expensive and for my use case, not so different from WordPress. It doesn't offer anything that makes me want to really try it given my feature requirements.

Medium.com hasn't been held in high regard for a long time now. And uncertainty around their business decisions is something I don't want to deal with.

Dev.to does not seem like a fun place to be. It's a much nicer Medium.com, but its niche is of course just developers. I don't make many of those posts anymore. Plus it's kind of like Instagram but for developer blogs. I just don't like the vibe.

Plume is not maintained. Side story: I was close to committing to a small annual monetary support but that's when I found out it's no longer actively maintained.

BearBlog won't allow scripts and therefore Plausible Analytics.

Prose.sh is way too geeky. SSH for login? Nope. Just yesterday, I opened and edited this post on my phone. A web browser was all I needed. WordPress obliged, too, of course.

Micro.blog seems interesting but I'm not sure it's one for me. Manton declined a regional price too.

Publii sounds like an excellent idea in theory but all it felt to me was clumsy and more work than a managed/hosted blog.

Self-hosting Tanzawa or GoBlog is no longer a task I want to undertake.

A static site generator is literally the last option on my list. Heck, it's not even an option at all. It's great for brochure websites, one-pagers, documentation, etc. but for blogging, it just doesn't cut it. You cannot change my mind. Don't even try.

Sigh. Perhaps paid Write.as is the only service worth considering seriously, thanks in large part to their fediverse compatibility, which is a very attractive feature.

Micro-blogging.

I also really enjoy micro-blogging or writing long walls of text but on a micro-blogging service because who sees what is very much in my control.

A public blog doesn't offer that convenience. I have considered just using a micro-blogging service and then a bunch of static pages on my domain still.

What next?

I don't know.

We'll see.

My apologies for this disappointing conclusion.

I encourage you to get in touch over email by using the following convenience link for any discussion: comment via email.

I lied — it's not been a whole month. Close enough, though. OK, anway, first, let's get some setup and numbers out of the way.

Setup.

I set up NextDNS on my laptop and my phone. I left the tablet out. No one else in my household is using this.

Configuration was relatively easy. They had me download some "profiles" that I could "install" and activate. Very old school, like with those GPRS/EDGE profiles your carrier would have you download, install, and activate.

Analytics.

Total queries made: 555,144

Blocked: 84,950

Blocked (%): 15.3%

Queries on laptop: 169,596

Queries on phone: 385,548

My laptop is typically online about 9 to 10 hours a day, whereas the phone of course is online 24 hours a day (how creepy).

I do have an ad-blocker on my primary browser on my laptop (Firefox, uBlock Origin). It helps when I use Safari or Vivaldi though since I don't have to think too much. The latter comes with its own ad-blocker too but it's good to give it a little help.

GAFAM dominance.

A little nicety offered by NextDNS is a section on their analytics called GAFAM dominance.

Their explanation: "The 'GAFAM' (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft) are the 5 dominant Internet companies that own many popular services, often operating under a different name, e.g., WhatsApp and Instagram for Facebook."

Service breakdown:

• Apple: 186,278 queries (33%)
• Google: 118,695 queries (21%)
• Facebook: 30,695 queries (5%)
• Amazon: 13,422 queries (2%)
• Microsoft: 11,091 queries (2%)

A reminder.

While yes, I am using Apple a lot more, I am surprised to see 21% of my queries being Google even after all this time and effort spent on de-googling.

They really do dominate the web.

And this is a good reminder.

Motivation.

I went with a hosted and managed DNS service because, well, they are simpler to use. The thought of getting my Raspberry Pi 4 out, ready, and then installing and configuring PiHole or AdGuard on it and then my devices… there was no way I was going through all of that.

And then take into account the fact that there's extra config if you want to use this "local" DNS outside of the local network!

NextDNS' setup took about 15-25 minutes and I didn't break a sweat at any point. Not there, and not during the roughly one month of usage.

My thoughts on this.

Effectiveness.

I tried to browse on Firefox without any ad-blocker and it was a massive fail. I added a lot more filters to try and see if it would help matter, but at that point, some legit sites stopped working. So it can be aggressive, but then that's too aggressive. And even so, keep in mind DNS based filtering only goes so far. uBlock Origin or a similar ad-blocker is absolutely an essential, despite NextDNS.

However, on my phone, where I use Safari which doesn't allow ad-blocking, it has made things… more tolerable. Not an absolute amount of tolerable, just relatively more tolerable.

Telemetry.

The nicer thing it has done is it blocks a ton of logging by Mozilla, iCloud, Firebase (Google), and WhatsApp (Facebook/Meta). I appreciate that.

I do worry that it makes debugging and opt-in tracking harder (where I want apps to improve!), but for now, I'm OK in this box.

Ease of use.

Oh this is a joy! I remember how annoying running PiHole was. I gave up within days. This has gone on for over 3 weeks in comparison.

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And that's it. With little config and no worry of managing anything, I get a little less spied on for free!

8/10, would recommend.

I encourage you to get in touch over email by using the following convenience link for any discussion: comment via email.

8 months down, 4 to go. Like any other year, 2022 is zooming past. Somehow, still, more than ever.

New workplace.

I mentioned about starting a new contract soon when I put up my July 2022 review post.

Well, it has.

While dealing with React and friends isn't always a joy, can I take a moment to acknowledge that working on user interfaces and delivering a great user experience is something I love so much?! Of course open-source libraries do maybe even like 80% of the heavy lifting, so that's there. It does allow one to focus on the details, then, which is great for the end-users!

4-day work weeks are a blast. I love that too. Never going back. Well, unless, I have to. I'm also starting (ish) my days with coffee now (unfortunately). Fosstodon rubbed off on me. 😆

Independence.

Something that struck me an awful much when talking about this new role was the fact that my (now) boss enjoyed using AWS/alternatives because it gave him freedom to do things with just one language and (mostly) just one side of the stack, and even as a one-man team!

I think that's going to be helpful to me as well in the future for my side projects. For example, I can't wait to make something decent with Supabase. I'll probably pace it though, knowing how things have been in the last few years with burnout and everything.

Big life changes.

A new workplace is a big change, sure, but I've had a couple more big events this year (you'll know if you follow me on my personal Mastodon account), and a couple more to come in the next two years.

It's a little bit turbulent period in the scheme of things, and for once, I am looking forward to things. That's actually quite remarkable!

Losing weight.

Still the biggest mental-space hoarder is my weight loss journey. Had joined the gym for a bit but couldn't make it stick. I'll try again soon.

Overall, making slow progress — I'll get there! 💪🏼

Media consumption.

I've been watching Ted Lasso, Westworld, and Chicago Med (which is long enough that despite starting it months ago I'm still aways). All of them are great!

I bought Altered Carbon (the book) but yet to start it. It takes me a bit to get things going, so no sweat. And the best part is I haven't seen the Netflix series!

Been trying to get back into music a bit, but it's hard when you don't have hours to obsess over artists and all the ins and outs of a person/group like you could during your teen years.

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See you next month!

I encourage you to get in touch over email by using the following convenience link for any discussion: comment via email.

This is not a surprise to veteran iOS users, or Signal enthusiasts. There is no way to backup your chats, not in a way that I can count as reliable and proper, and that's a hard no for me now. There are "workarounds" but they are shambolic, really.

Between hopes and dreams.

When moving to iOS, I decided to take a chance and install Signal. I was already losing all my chats from Android at the time, but I had hoped that we'd see a backup solution on iOS any month from that point on and there was an option to archive all my chats for posterity. My patience then finally ran out when I was asked to backup all my content before sending in my device for a small repair.

Icing on the cake for this situation… here's what we have from the Signal team (emphasis mine):

"It is highly unlikely we will ever build a file based backup system for iOS...The future for moving your data between devices in Signal likely looks like a choice between direct peer-to-peer transfer or restoration from some form of secure network storage."

— Nora Trapp, Signal, November 2020

Sounds like Android literally just got lucky with a backup solution. It could just have been iOS if it were more technically feasible at the time they introduced backups.

Workplace history.

I suppose MilitaryGradeUser raises a good point here:

"In 2020 and last year Michael and Matthew left the team and they were the first professional iOS developers that Signal ever had!"

— MilitaryGradeUser, Signal Community Forums, August 2022

I wish all of them luck, but it is clear that at this time, I can't keep using Signal.

Moving on.

I'm now using a mix of other proprietary instant messengers, and all my chats are self-deleting on Signal (at least the expectations are clearly set!).

Between losing years worth of messages and being able to search and look back on those same years worth of messages, I know which one is more important to me — proprietary or not.

I encourage you to get in touch over email by using the following convenience link for any discussion: comment via email.

Ok, the year is flying by — please stop?

rain.

Not very appealing, is it?

A lot of rains this month. Not enjoying them as much as an adult as I did adolescent. I guess that also has to do with the state of things in a developing/poorer country. The infrastructure almost never copes with anything more than mild showers.

energy.

At this point in time, I feel like I have no energy for anything but work and relaxing and working on my fat loss journey. That's literally it. My plate is full.

And oh, the environment? Why bother when Taylor Swift and Travis Scott and Kylie Jenner and all of them millionaires and billionaires are "flexing" and renting out and using their private jets like a car. We can't catch up. I can't catch up.

I mean, I did buy an e-bike recently for going around town, so I'm still making those choices when I can. But it feels absolutely futile. The green factor is an added bonus point, but not the reason for it.

social media.

A special shout-out to Cheri Baker's "Where Does Blogging Fit In?" section on her No Social Media Club post. Hard relate.

In other news, I've taken one step back from my personal fedi account in a bid to work on and improve my mental health. It wasn't helping to dump negativity all the time. And the change is definitely helping, among other measures.

career.

I'm going to start a new contract very soon, and although not a fan of the tech stack, I just can't be bothered anymore. Feels similar to what I feel for the environment.

It should be interesting though. It's a 4-day work week with an option to work the 5th if I feel like it.

Photo by Sonika Agarwal on Unsplash.

I encourage you to get in touch over email by using the following convenience link for any discussion: comment via email.