Alternative futurism, for free or cheap

All software is precarious

While I'm working to replace a lot of my mainstream tech, I thought this one was safe.

 A Radioshack ad showing a President's Day sale with a Tandy computer, mobile cellular phone, Deluxe Portable CD player, and other electronics.

A new minimalism

I was excited by smartphones as one device to rule them all. In a few short years, I was miserable.

 A photo of a large retail store called 'Future Store' with a landfill-like heap of garbage that is piled up to the doors of the store.

Future garbage

It's time to get serious about planned obsolescence.

 A photo of the HP EliteBook mentioned in this blog post. It's sitting on a desk. The screen is open and it's showing a text editor with an earlier draft of this blog post.

My new seven year old laptop

I took the rite of passage of installing Linux on an older laptop.

 A photo of a red bicycle leaning against a bench at a park while the sun peaks out behind the fall-colored trees.

Giving up the dream

I've made peace with my lack of success.

 A photo of the Light Phone 2 home screen shows a list of tools, including Phone, Notes, Directory, Alarm, and Settings.

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.

 A sticker with a U.S. flag that says 'I Posted' instead of saying 'I Voted'.

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.

 A black and white photo of a grid of stacked CRT television sets.

Make it yourself book from NODE

 An old oil painting of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The heads of the horseman are covered up by the YouTube logo, U.S. coins, tampons, and a hammer and sickle symbol.

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.

 A photo of a Lenovo ThinkCentre PC tower sitting on a desk with an LCD monitor on top of it with a Super Nintendo controller.

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.