FreshRSS, honorable mention favorite tech thing of 2025
An honorable mention goes out this year to the application FreshRSS, which I’ve been hosting on my Raspberry Pi computer for the last three years. What’s different this year is that I’m using the FreshRSS web interface. Previously I used FreshRSS as nothing more than a back-end for other applications, namely NetNewsWire on Mac and iOS. And as I look to disentangle myself from Apple’s platforms, I switched to using FreshRSS in the browser. Part of it is that I never found a good RSS application for Linux. There are a few, and I thought they were awful in one way or another, either looking like they were fresh out of 1999 or not working in a way that I liked.
Nintendo 3DS, my favorite tech thing of 2025
The Nintendo Game Boy set my expectations of what a portable gaming is and should be. The Nintendo Switch effectively ended that.
Confabulator 2025
I took all of last week off from work to clean my apartment and prepare food for a Thanksgiving feast of about 20 people. All this in spite of both my spouse and I having parents with extra medical needs these last few weeks.
The best alternative to iOS and Android is... Android
We need alternative software for mobile phones and we need it yesterday.
It's not sideloading and it never was
The way we frame our relationship to technology affects our expectations and how much we hold corporations responsible for their creations.
All software is precarious
While I'm working to replace a lot of my mainstream tech, I thought this one was safe.
A new minimalism
As a minimalist, I was excited by the versatility of smartphones, but it didn't take long to make me miserable.
Future garbage
It's time to get serious about planned obsolescence.
My new seven year old laptop
I took the rite of passage of installing Linux on an older laptop.
Giving up the dream
I've made peace with my lack of success.
Light Phone 2, my favorite tech thing of 2024
One device had the biggest impact on me this year, and mostly for what it doesn't do.
It's not my civic duty to be famous
A thread that emerged from the post-election analysis is about how much the election was influenced by, well, influencers.
Make it yourself book from NODE
Internet brain
I followed a series of YouTube recommendations that lead me into literal hell. Unfortunately, I don't have the option to click away when these rabbit-holes seep into the real world.
My GameCentre
I made the perfect retro video game system. It plays all the games I want, even as recent as Gamecube and Wii games. What I love most about it is that I completed anything at all.