tools

There’s gotta be something better than markdown for notes, though

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We keep switching back and forth between vim + wiki.vim and Obsidian. Vim is a text editor, the bloody fastest there is at it, made better now that we’re more or less efficient with a bunch of commands and keyboard combinations. And now that we actually have a somewhat decent implementation of our dotfiles being kept in our git server (aka not github) we can keep my vimrc file the same pretty much everywhere.

But Obsidian is just so convenient… Looks and runs exactly the same on Windows, Linux, and Android! You just run the application and open the vault. Their iOS version will not open my notes vault which is kept on my Nextcloud instance.

I’m sticking to Obsidian for now mostly because it does let me see images in it’s preview mode and on that it does have vim beat. If you need to edit text table nothing beats vim-table-mode.

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Thinking Tools: July 2020

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It’s been a long while since that last post I did and my setup has changed a lot:

Web services

  • This site, which I’m trying to update more often with links and blog posts I find interesting. It’s going much better after I installed the WP Editor.md plugin to enhance the plain editor. The gutenberg editor sucks ass.
  • Nextcloud. I’m running my own instance to replace Dropbox, which I didn’t like the last time. Got the desktop client installed and it’s working quite nicely.
  • Twitter is still my social media network of choice. I’m using tweetdeck on the desktop
  • Feedly is still my RSS reader of choice but I’m looking around for a replacement that works across all my devices and it’s pretty to look at. Now that people are starting to move away from centralized social networks again there should be some movement in this space.
  • I’m running my own wiki using Wiki.js, which I’ve blogged about. This will probably merit another couple blog posts of their own specially now that I found vimwiki which could potentially run inside my Nextcloud instance.

Actual applications installed on my desktops and laptops

  • For messaging I’m now using Ferdi, a fork of Franz, to run most of my instant messaging needs. The great exceptions are Slack, Discord, and Signal; I discovered I work better when they have their own app instances running but when Signal offers a web interface I’ll probably fold it into Franz.
  • Spotify. Thinking of replacing it with a self-hosted option. I miss my graded playlists.
  • KeePass is still my password manager of choice.
  • Firefox. Mozilla keeps trying its best to kill all low-level functionality. This is easily the program I fuck around with the most, going from extensions to custom userChrome files.
  • Windows Subsystem for Linux. Much less of a pain in the ass than running a VirtualBox VM depending on what you’re doing. Using wsltty as its terminal.

There are some single-purpose utilities I’ve discovered in the interim that are extremely useful for working in Windows 10.

Mobile applications (Android)

  • The usual instant messaging slash social networking suspects minus TikTok, which is spyware.
  • Firefox mobile. Firefox needs to do better at syncing preferences into it.
  • Fenix twitter client. Twitter Co keeps fucking around with their API and preventing third party clients from achieving the excellence they used to have years ago.
  • Nextcloud mobile client for my Nextcloud instance. Needs a lot of work to compare with Dropbox, but it does its job well.
  • Moon+ Reader for ebooks. This one took me a long while to find, most ebook readers have utterly crazy skeuomorphic defaults.
  • Photoshop Express. This one was annoying but you’d be surprised how many image editors are missing features you’d consider basic (like cropping and image resizing), opting instead to overload with photo filters you’ll never use. This one has all the filters but at least lets you crop and resize. It replaced Snapseed. I’ve still to wade through open source editors but my hopes are dim on that front.

There are some things that underpin all of these applications but I think I’ll leave it as-is. It’s pretty fun to see how my workflow changes over time.

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Thinking Tools: September 2016

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Gordondoes them every now and then, so I’m going to start doing them too:

  • This site, which I am meaning to most more often to (and not just pictures like I did before). I guess proof is what looks to become a series of posts on my laptop being my router. I’ve posted about how I feel, so it’s progress.
  • Twitter, via Hotot+ on Chrome for the desktop, and Fenix on Android. The problem is that with Twitter Co. being assholes to their devs, Hotot+ has had its API key suspended a few times and Fenix is not really in active development any more after running out of app tokens. Given the current news about Twitter Co. looking to sell itself I wonder what will replace it for me. It’s basically become my social life on the internet, since I’m not really active on IRC anymore. I am on facebook mostly for family.
  • Notepad++: Jot down pretty much anything that pops into my mind. Sometimes I do use it to edit blog posts for usually the text mode WordPress editor suffices. I’ve tried to do a diary of sorts in it but it’s harder than I thought it’d be.
  • Franz I was using the Common Hangouts Chrome extension but Google went and fucked around with Hangouts again, so it stopped working. Pidgin is basically AWOL. Trillian is crap. So after much consideration I gave in and installed it. It looks like crap on my 4k display and Hangouts still has the stupid new interface, but at least it lets me have a single window for what little messaging I do these days.
  • KeePass Been using it for years now. Probably won’t stop ever. Everything wants/needs its own password now.

The most pressing need that I have for myself is a replacement for Tiddlywiki that I can run from this server; it’d probably require me to configure HTTPS but that’s another project worth learning. The main issue then becomes choosing an appropriate wiki that is about as flexible as tiddlywiki without requiring the use of any extensions on the browser. Running this from the server would also allow me to update it from any mobile devices. Tiddlywiki is decidedly desktop software; the clients available for on Android all suck. This is why it’s so pressing for me. I need something that lets me document my life so I can offload stuff from wetware onto software. I’ll keep trying using simple text for now… but I think my mind simply works better using a wiki paradigm. I really do wonder what Twitter will turn into once it doesn’t belong to itself, though.

Thinking Tools: September 2016 Read More »