Back to top

Good Stuff

    Why Smart Bulbs > Smart Switches

    (Click here to go to the TL;DR!) I really like my smart light setup — and later I will write a guide on how I set it up. (I promise!) But in this post, I want to explain why I think smart light sources are a better option than smart switches (with regular light sources). Some notes on costs Smart lights ain’t cheap. And while I will argue that I don’t think going for smart switches is that much cheaper than smart light sources — my main focus is on what gives the best smart light experience.

    Read More

    Some Quick Mastodon Client Reviews

    One of my favourite things about Mastodon, is that, as opposed to most other social networks, the service is completely open for other developers to make their own clients. And this has lead to a remarkable ecosystem of third-party options. Now the official ones, are pretty mediocre (especially the web app, IMO) — but I like this prioritisation. They could’ve sacrificed precious dev time to make their own clients great — but this would have to come at the expense of improving the core service.

    Read More

    Me: «Siri, define charisma.»

    Siri: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy2PCKGkKRVbpANcWiWA5X413SviHbNVi&si=b4SMATWviAtbF-dQ

    (I’m specifically pointing to the first video. Giving the playlist because they’re all great, and to show that when asked to give his favourites, he starts with himself. 😎 Love it!)

    The Prettiest Voice Since Allison Krauss

    Lenke til norsk versjon

    I’m testing Tidal these days, and wanted to test the audio quality vs. Spotify. I happened to stumble upon a new track by an artist I like during testing, so that was the first track I tested. 1 And holy føck if this isn’t one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard:

    Read More

    I Just Want a Nice Browser!

    Two sad browser stories

    I’ve followed the Spicy Takes™️ surrounding the Arc Browser recently, that started in the Ruminate podcast and went on to the MacStories Weekly Issue 408.

    And I agree with most of what John Voorhees is saying, and also Matt Birchler, who said: «The Browser Company feels gross to me right now».

    Much of it is about ethics and AI. In general I agree with them, but this subject won’t be the focus of this post. (I’ve written more about AI here and here.)

    Instead I’ll tell my browser story, and explain why both Arc and Firefox makes me sad.

    Read More

    A Couple of Chill, Mostly New, Indie Games

    I love small, chill indie games. They’re cheap, and the money goes to small developers who needs the support. Many have short gameplay loops, that make them easy to fit into my schedule. And many of the ones I like have non-realtime gameplay, and that, coupled with low hardware demands, makes them well suited for playing on my laptop. My MacBook isn’t a slouch - but it’s no gaming rig.

    Read More

    I liked this blog post, by The Jolly Teapot! 👇🏻

    On Quality Software

    «A happy snob» is very much how I’d categorise my own taste in software. 👌🏻

    Lovely package in the mail today: I brought three of their garments back to Northern Playground, as they had gotten some holes. Today I got them back, after getting a free repair - including two caramels. 👌🏻

    Green package with a note that says what I say in the caption. There’s also two caramels.

    «Thanks for rapairing. Together, let’s stop making piles of garbage. Come back when the garment is worn out, and we’ll recycle it.»

    Black wool longs with two neat repairs in the croch.

    They also repaired two T-shirts!

    I don’t really use read-it-later apps. But if you do, check out Omnivore! I agree with this review.

    Open-source, great text-to-speech, iOS, Android, Mac and Web.

    IPhone and Mac screenshots of Omnivore

    Ooh, that’s a neat little animation in an unexpected place: the Aliexpress app.

    The World’s Best Sneakers?

    Closeup of me wearing the sneakers in my garden. They’re pretty sleek black leather sneakers, and I’m wearing gray socks and a black denim jeans with white selvedge ID.

    Adidas has made their Stan Smiths since the 70s, and you can see them everywhere all summer. They are good-looking shoes, but where the earlier versions were made in France and had high quality, you can’t quite say the same about the newer ones made in India. They can’t be fixed, uses synthetic materials and someone would prefer a bit more modern design.

    One white and one black pair of Stan Smiths.

    Common Projects

    In later years, Common Projects, with their golden lettering, has taken the sneaker world by storm. With a more modern, minimalistic design, Italian leather and good Margom rubber soles, they aren’t cheap.

    One white and one black pair of Common Projects. They’re very sleek and minimalistic.

    But when you pay well over £300 for a pair of Italian designer shoes, you can expect excellent quality, right? Well, it’s superior to the Stan Smiths, but for the price you could do so much better. The YouTube channel Rose Anvil goes into detail in this video, but the short version is that, while the shoes have some premium features, both the material and construction is pretty mediocre. In this article, I’d like to point at a brand that gives you a more premium sneaker, at a (slightly) lower price.

    But in the end I will also share why I still understand why someone would opt for the Common Projects!

    Read More

    Great Baseball Cap From Poten

    Lenke til norsk versjon

    This is my favourite cap (and headgear in general) of all time. And this is also a good example of something I love in general: Simple products, made extremely well.

    These caps are made at the same factroy that does caps for the Japanese baseball league. Several brands have tried to get the factory to produce caps from them, but without success. According to Self Edge, Hiro (the man behind Poten, who also has a huge baseball card collection) had to visit the factory several times, over three years, to show them that he cares enough about baseball to have them produce caps for him. Lucky for those of us who don’t play in the NPB! But what’s so good about these caps then?

    Read More