Jan-Lukas Else

Tech, life and everything else

💭 Thoughts: 2020

Welcome to the Thoughts section of my blog. Thoughts are better kept on my blog than on Twitter or other online platforms.


Why I use a paid CDN

Published on in 💭 Thoughts

To answer the question from an anonymous reader:

View

Git is great

Published on in 💭 Thoughts

After Kev Quirk was initially skeptical about Git and was desperate about using it, he finally made it thanks to community help and realized that Git is better than he thought:

View

Microsoft Surface Go 2 and why I will NOT upgrade

Published on in 💭 Thoughts

Microsoft today released Surface Go 2, the successor to the Microsoft Surface Go from 2018. All in all with few innovations, rather small improvements. The display edges have shrunk a bit, there is a model with a faster processor and the battery is a bit bigger. The Verge has published a video where they describe their first impressions of the new generation.

View

Nothing to hide

Published on in 💭 Thoughts

Tonight I spoke with my girlfriend on the phone and we talked for two hours about all kinds of topics. One topic was that I don’t think corona tracking apps, where the data is stored centrally, are a good idea because of privacy and stuff. My girlfriend, on the other hand, said why is privacy important at all? The argument that nobody needs to know what I do with whom, when, where and for how long was not convincing to her. She said that I track my runs via GPS anyway. And she asked who would be interested in your data if you are not famous or something?

View

Back to Ubuntu (again)

Published on in 💭 Thoughts
Updated on

Today I finally got a Bluetooth keyboard (Microsoft Bluetooth Keyboard) delivered, after I had also got a Bluetooth mouse (Microsoft Modern Mouse in black) a few days ago. Originally I ordered a different set from another shop, but the package still seems not to have been sent.

View

Owning my podcast

Published on in 💭 Thoughts

Two years ago, I was in a stage where podcasts really excited me. I have heard many podcasts myself and some of my online acquaintances have also started to start their own podcasts. So I decided to do that as well and gain some experience.

View

Watching movies

Published on in 💭 Thoughts

Today I watched a movie. Not a very good one, but one that entertained me. It was funny and I didn’t feel bored, as I do with some other films. And although the niveau of the film was not very high - my mother probably wouldn’t like it - I still don’t see it as a waste of time. There are good boring movies, just as there are also not so good, but entertaining movies (which kind of makes them good, doesn’t it?). What counts is not so much the niveau of the movie (or how low the jokes are), but more whether it was worth the time to watch the movie. Only when I think that I wasted my time with a bad, boring movie, then it was the wrong decision to watch it.

View

My storage setup

Published on in 💭 Thoughts

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).

View

How music helps me during Corona

Published on in 💭 Thoughts

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.

View

Is this my chance to become a runner again?

Published on in 💭 Thoughts

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.

View

Jan-Lukas Else