Tutorials

I find myself interacting online with people from a lot of different timezones. Here’s a screenshot from an actual page on my phone’s launcher. Each of these clocks has been needed at some point fairly recently, usually because I’m scheduling a call with someone in a corresponding timezone. 1 Now, timezones can be notoriously complicated and frustrating to deal with. Because of the above-average amount of interactions between timezones I’ve navigated lately, I wanted to share some of the tips, tricks, and tools I’ve come away with (besides just having a full page of your phone’s launcher dedicated to clocks 😂), in case those tips and tricks might be useful to you too!...

TL;DR: RSS is the best way to follow content online. My feed is here. Try something like Feedly if you’re new to RSS, though the options for how RSS can make your relationship with online media more healthy and meaningful are countless. It’s been over 2 years since I got rid of all my social media accounts, and with them, all the attention sucking newsfeeds and updates that came with them....

In the deep-diving of the esoteric world of technology as I do, I often come across tools which the vast majority of people will never need or make use of. I tend to note those tools and log them away for personal use, as it is not uncommon for weird situations to pop up where I need some ultra-niche tool I’ve stumbled across in the past. Other times, some of those tools I encounter could make a lot of people’s lives much easier and more convenient....

This is a pretty technical post. If most of the words in the title above are gibberish to you, this article likely isn’t for you. You’ll probably like the other things I’ve written more 😄 ) In the spirit of showing my work, here’s a quick fix to an annoying little upgrade bug I encountered when upgrading a server from version Debian 10 to Debian 11. Immediately after upgrading, the WordPress site that I was hosting (Specifically, the nginx server software WordPress was installed on) started giving a 502 Bad Gateway error:...

Click Here to jump straight to my recommendation. There’s a decent chance you’re reading this post on one of three web browsers: if you’re an Apple user, you’re probably on Safari; if you’re on your Windows PC, you might be using Edge; but, most likely, you’re on Chrome. If that’s true, I think you should switch to something else. Here’s a few reasons why: 1. Monopolistic Practices Make the World and the Internet a Worse Place You might like the game Monopoly, but it’s worth noting that monopolies in the real world aren’t great....

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Free/Libre Open Source Software. With rare exception, all the software I run on my computer is Open Source (Brave, Bitwarden, to name a couple highly valuable and accessible favorites). Similarly, when I help friends and loved ones setup a new digital device, I always try to encourage them towards the free/libre and open source version of a given product, instead of the closed source versions they are normally used to....

I’m not a big fan of WhatsApp. While it does indeed work well as a messaging app, it also feeds into Facebook/Meta’s technological hegemony, isn’t open source, tracks who you message and what you do on your phone, and does some other creepy stuff that I’m not a fan of. But, WhatsApp is also currently the most popular messaging platform in the world, 1 and a majority of people I contact regularly are only reachable through there....

Lately, every time someone shows me a YouTube video on their computer or phone, I find myself freaking out just a little. The ads, the list of recommended videos, the endless comments… there’s just so much going on on the screen, and I find myself easily distracted and maybe a bit overwhelmed. In contrast, if you watch a YouTube video on my laptop, you’ll find it to be a much different experience....

Lately I feel like I’ve come to a place with internet and tech usage that I’m really liking, where I’ve been able to derive great value from what the internet has to offer, while being better at protecting myself from some of its more poisonous elements. Here are a few tools/tips that I’ve found helpful for coming to that place, which I think anyone who uses the internet could benefit from:...

TL;DR: You need a password manager to use the internet safely and efficiently today. I use and recommend Bitwarden. In 2020 there were nearly 8 Billion online accounts compromised by hackers.1 Statistically speaking, at least one of your accounts was probably in that list. Several of mine were. When a hacker compromises an online account, many times the email addresses and passwords of those accounts are among the compromised content. Because many people re-use the same email address and password in many places, when a hacker gets a hold of a user’s username and password, it is super easy for them to take that username and password and start trying that combination on other online accounts… Like your email, your work accounts, your bank, or other valuable or sensitive accounts....