Tech, life and everything else
Annoying Technology is a site by Manuel Grabowski and Philipp Defner, where they share typical annoyances with technology. Situations that probably everyone knows: annoying software download pages, dark UI patterns while shopping at Amazon or design flaws.
Reply to: A question by Henrique Dias
Since I use many different devices and want to access the same files from all of them, I run my “own cloud” at home with an Odroid-HC2 (a Raspberry 4 or similar device should work just as well). A 2 TB NAS hard disk (Seagate Ironwolf) is connected to the HC2, where all files are stored. Using Docker I have installed Nextcloud for files (documents, photos, etc.) as well as Gitea (code repositories). Encrypted incremental backups are done daily at night using restic and uploaded to Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage (they are quite cheap and now also have a European data center).
The last few days I use my Spotify Premium subscription much more than before (I don’t usually listen to that much music). Especially if you spend most of your time indoors and only talk in videoconferences, on the phone or with bakery staff, it’s nice to break the silence with music. Sure, it is never quiet in my apartment in an apartment building with rather thin walls. Often I hear the music that the neighbours play (it’s always the same music), I hear the neighbours talking loudly to each other and I hear them watching TV.
It’s amazing how fast time can go by when you’re in a flow state. It’s an incredible feeling. Especially at the moment, when one usually has rather too much time.
Do you remember the picture I posted today about my home office desk?
I remembered that when I bought my PC, I also ordered a VESA mount kit so that I could screw the PC to a compatible monitor and my monitor is compatible. At that time I just didn’t do that because I somehow failed with the screws.
Today I tried it again and as it turned out I was just too stupid to use the right screws. There were two sizes, which I did not notice and of course intuitively took the wrong one. But now the VESA mount is finally in use and my little PC is hidden behind the monitor.
More space and tidiness on my desk!
I just had to share a picture of my workplace in the company internal wiki. That’s why I share the same picture again on my blog, so everyone can see how my desk looks like. My dream workplace would look like the one from David Heinemeir Hansson, but unfortunately the reality only looks like this:
How does your desk look like?
🖼️ View
The New York Times published a photo story (open the link in a private tab to avoid the login-wall) with photos of public places around the world in times of COVID-19. The emptiness in these pictures is on the one hand magical, but also somehow frightening. A virus has actually managed to stop the world.
I often talk about “RSS feeds” and that it’s my favorite way to follow content sources (news, blogs, YouTube channels) on the internet. Laura Kalbag wrote about how to read RSS in 2020 in which she explains the basics and benefits about RSS.
My method to get enough exercise during #StayAlone and to have a physical balance to sitting at the desk is to go out regularly by myself, ride a bike or run a little.
Ever asked yourself what will be in 10 years? I have it myself right now, but I have absolutely no idea what it will be like?