I’ve updated my Uses page with a new RSS reader and Office Suite, Unread and Libre Office respectively.
I’m a firm believer in RSS as a way to discover new and interesting, tailored content, and in the constant firehose of information coming at us daily, especially try to keep up with world events, RSS is a calm and curated way to consume that (for more info on the many benefits of RSS, check out Molly White’s “Curate your own newspaper with RSS” post.
For years I’ve been bouncing between RSS readers but none have ever really stuck. I loved NetNewsWire for a long time but the syncing between devices never really worked right for me. Before that, I had used Reeder 4 (now “Reeder Classic") but the UI always felt too unintuitive and off to me (and while I never mind paying for good software, having to buy a license for Mac and iOS separately always stung a bit). And until a few months ago, I was using Lire, a pretty solid and dependable and enjoyable app that I was happy to pay for. Then I came across long time RSS app Unread and my world was changed.
It’s interface for mobile is all about swiping, but I found it to be very intuitive and almost instinctual to use. Swipe left to go back, swipe right for other actions. Simple as that. On Mac, it’s a more traditional setup of columns but can be tweaked to the way you want it to be and works just as well. It syncs with it’s own syncing service but can use all of the other services out there like Feedbin and iCloud and Feedburner, etc as well as offers all of the usual sharing and bookmarking options. Best of all, none of it’s killer features are locked behind a paywall - you can pay to get some other niceties like different app icons, more article actions for sharing and setting up shortcuts - but otherwise it’s a fully featured and well thought out RSS app. After using it for a few months, I was happy to kick over the $30 a year subscription to keep development going and think that I’ll be using Unread for a long time.
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As far as LibreOffice goes, I’ve been off of the Microsoft/Google cloud office suite for a few years now for personal use (sadly still have to use both for work). There are many many reasons not to trust either of these two with your important docs, but for me it really just boiled down to convenience. I don’t want to pay for a cloud subscription and I want an app on my computer that I can use offline and open without fear of it sending back a bunch of data to god knows where. And my office suite needs are pretty basic - occasionally writing out a doc to print out on my ancient printer, opening a spreadsheet or CSV file here or there, or just making a PDF from a doc file to send along. That’s basically it.
And for years I was happy with ONLYOFFICE and the tools that it provided, however basic they might be. But after an update a few months ago, the inevitable integration of AI bullshit into it was present (who wants to plug an AI into their word processor? Some people apparently) and that for me is a no go. I will go out of my way, and pay if needed, to avoid AI and general enshittification of any software, which of course MS and Google are cramming full of AI at every step. Libre Office was always one tool I considered but it’s clunky interface was confusing and a mess. Thankfully, after evaluating other options after the ONLYOFFICE AI betrayal, I found this post on how to customize LibreOffice to give it that MS Office look, without the MS bullshit and that sealed the deal for me. Best of all, it offers some pretty great options for making a PDF, compared to ONLYOFFICE just having “Save as PDF”. (The back story here is that my printer won’t network anymore so I have to load stuff onto a USB stick to print and it will really only print PDFs and is picky about those. I know, I need a new printer, but I don’t want to get into the mess of buying new ink because the printer decides I need to).
So far, I’ve been happy with LibreOffice and just hope that it avoids AI integration as well, though I feel like that is sadly inevitable in all software these days.
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Check out my Uses page for other stuff that I use on the regular!
I spend more time in the browser than anywhere else, building and styling sites. So I just want a browser that will help me, will be a usable tool that does what I ask of it (what we should ask of any tool really) and nothing more. I don’t think that’s unreasonable, so I made of list of common things I want in a browser.
I just want a browser that…
…is actively developed. (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, Brave, Vivaldi, Floorp, Zen, Orion, Dia, Atlas)
…with a mobile version. (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, Brave, Vivaldi, Floorp, Zen, Orion, Dia, Atlas)
…that doesn’t spy on me. (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, Brave, Vivaldi, Floorp, Zen, Orion, Dia, Atlas)
…that doesn’t have AI. (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, Brave, Vivaldi, Floorp, Zen, Orion, Dia, Atlas)
…that isn’t based on Chromium so the web continues to innovate. (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, Brave, Vivaldi, Floorp, Zen, Orion, Dia, Atlas)
…with a robust community of extensions. (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, Brave, Vivaldi, Floorp, Zen, Orion, Dia, Atlas)
…with usable dev tools. (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, Brave, Vivaldi, Floorp, Zen, Orion, Dia, Atlas)
The search for the right browser continues…
I’ve never seen such a obsequious embrace of technology by “geeks” as I have with AI. It feels like the entire tech world suddenly woke up one day and decided that not only should AI be the answer to everything, but that we all just have to be excited about it. That’s bullshit and reeks of insecurity to me.
It’s not that tech folks don’t go hard into the things they are into; we do. But typically, everyone stays into their own little niche, finds their community and is happy there. But with AI, it feels to me that nearly every person, from every corner of tech, just decided to jump into being unabashed AI cheerleaders, for no apparent reason other than “everyone else is into it”.
And the AI cheer squad seem to be genuinely stumped when you DON’T share their level of enthusiasm. As if not being into AI somehow hurts their ability to use it and enjoy it, like it makes it less than and that without unconditional support, it’s going to just disappear. It reminds me of street preachers, talking about the end of the world but that it can be stopped if only you will come to their church, believe what they believe.
I just don’t get it. There’s been Windows vs. Mac, Firefox vs. Chrome, React vs. Web Components, etc arguments forever and while everyone is passionate about their side, there’s always a grudging acceptance of the opposite view point (or at least a 🤷🏻♂️ and letting them do their own thing). And in tech, there is always that guy to turn around and say “Well actually…” about something, anything, that others are into. That’s how things get better, how software and hardware and design and UX and accessibility and art and music and general human experience gets better - by working together to find the problems and solving them.
But when you refuse to accept the problems, and just put on a big smile and pretend like nothing is wrong, nothing gets done and it makes things worse. But with AI, that discourse seems to be drowned out not by folks who have been proven right, but just by the folks who are the loudest and they want you to join the cacophony of their noise.
People who are insecure about their beliefs, and know deep down that they may be wrong, act like this. That if you try to poke holes in their beliefs, it’s all going to come crashing down so we just have to hurry up and get everyone on board, and finally then, when there is no one left to convert, will they be proven right. (I’ll let you draw your own comparisons between AI and religion).
I don’t want AI. I don’t want it in my tools, in my browser, in my day to day life. I’m happy for you that you like it, great, go ahead and enjoy. But leave me the fuck alone and stop trying to convert me and we’ll see who is proven right in the long run.
(And if you aren’t one of those AI cheerleaders, then welcome to the resistance. We have cookies and punch on the back table.)
This week, while on a lull between starting projects at work, I decided to check back in on the latest Bluesky drama (because there is always Bluesky drama). I setup an account a while ago and set all my previous follows from Twitter but due to just running out of free time, neglected reading it in favor of Mastodon and my RSS feed.
The official Bluesky app was a no go for me because of its data tracking, and most of the other 3rd party apps that I had tried like Gray Sky, seemed wonky so I instead repurposed the amazing Tapestry app from Icon Factory to just be a Bluesky reader since I prefer Lire for RSS, though Tapestry can do RSS too.
Once it had re-synced up to the latest timeline, I left it open for a bit, did some stuff and then clicked back into it. Holy shit, 200+ posts in under an hour. I follow 111 accounts on Bluesky and probably half are news orgs and sports writers but that seemed ridiculous.
On Mastodon, I follow 218 accounts but on a day where I don’t check it at all, I MIGHT pass 250 posts. There is some overlap in accounts/posts between the two services but besides the sheer number, the actual constant flow from Bluesky made me anxious.
It felt like I can’t keep up with it, that when I got to the top I could pull to refresh and another 40 would be waiting on me. When reading Mastodon, I never feel this. I think this is because while Mastodon is about 1/8 the size of Bluesky, it isn’t a breaking news platform really, nor one where you get a ton of shit posts. That’s by design and one of the things I really enjoy, the (mostly) thoughtfulness of it.
Mastodon is like walking into a large dinner party with a few different conversations happening you can walk up to. Bluesky is like being in a stadium full of yelling, screaming people generally talking about the same thing but from 6 different angles. It makes your head spin.
I loved the original Twitter before it became a Nazi bar and never minded the fire hose effect then. Bluesky seems to have a Twitter circa 2013 vibe to it now, with a lot of conversations and a lot of voices and more posts than you can keep up with and for a lot of folks, that’s the draw (especially if you’re liberal).
But maybe because I stepped away and got comfy with Mastodon, coming back to Bluesky just seems like too much. I can feel my anxiousness rise and those (totally unhealthy) dopamine hits of being “caught up” trickling back.
I don’t think I can go back to Bluesky long term now. My brain just can’t handle it. I’ll still check it every now and then, scroll to see what’s going on when bored or something, but making it part of my online diet? Those days have passed for me.
Inspired by my former coworker and great friend Aubrey over on her blog (who was also inspired by her friend B), I’m finally willing to acknowledge that this blog needs more posts and I should blog more.
Every blog post doesn’t have to be a big Think Piece (which is what I tried for in the past), blogging is sometimes best when it’s just random missives here and there about whatever is going on in your life at the moment. I use Micro.blog for blogging and their vision for blogs is right there in the name - micro. Hell, you have to get to over 300 characters on it before you can even add a title to your post!
So I’m going to try (every blogger’s famous last words, hah) to be more casual about posts here, and post more often. Not for clicks, not for attention but to do my part to contribute back to the old internet I miss. The days of LiveJournal and GeoCities and indy blogs.
And in honor of that, here’s a cute picture of my cat Tina. Because all good blogs should have a cat picture.
