Inspired on:
https://gabz.blog/2023/11/03/my-defaults.html
gemini://jorgesanz.net/posts/2023-11-16-defaults/
The original idea was to share services we use by default.
Here I share an opinionated list of what I liked to use this year, what I must use at work, and what I'm thinking of changing soon.
Huawei Y9 2019 - Android 9 - Inexpensive phone to switch from an iPhone 6. Works decently. Awful camera!
Pixel 5a - GrapheneOS 14 - A pretty decent phone! The camera is good enough, and it's fast...
HP Spectre x360 - Windows 10, I work quite happily there, although now the the fan is always on =/ Oddly enough, I think it's because the room it's too cold, but it's also overheating a bit
Dell Latitude (2014) - Xubuntu, has a better keyboard than the HP, I like to use it to write blog entries or books
Usually I update everything as soon as it's publicly available. I don't use beta versions anymore.
Except Windows 11, that thing is awful. I hope to never use it again.
Android Launcher - Niagara - I think it's much better that the system iOS or Android uses natively. Your apps are sorted first by frequancy (or favorites) and then alphabetically, you can search by name and hide those not used frequently.
Python -> For Scripting, I've used it for Multiplayer Backend.
C# -> For Work, Windows stuff or when the only available SDK is in .NET
PHP -> For hobby web projects, or something that needs to be public quickly
Go -> I never had to use it at work, but I think it's a good mix between Python and C#. I've made a few hobby projects with it.
๐ฎ Mail Server
Personal: Gmail (since 2006), ProtonMail (using it less, since doesn't sync with desktop clients, and the free tier is limited)
And I'm using Ionos for my domain email. I'm trying to use it more and replace free mailing services.
Work: Everything there uses Microsoft infra.
๐จ Mail Client
Personal: Thunderbird, Ionos Web, Gmail Web, Gmail Android, Outlook Win, Outlook Android
Work: Outlook Win -> I don't like it... Search doesn't work as expected
๐ Notes
Personal: Telegram (it's really quick to start typing there, syncing on all my devices and Web), notes.txt on my desktop
Work: A personal chat on Teams, or a bunch of .txt files, if possible inside of a Git repo.
๐ Blogging
ฬPersonal: smol.pub - I'd like to have a self-hosted instance, although the public one just works. Love it!
Work: Substack - Works well, has been introducing more paid features, and I think it'll convert into the next Medium, but we'll see
๐ฆ Microblogging
https://text.eapl.mx/microblogging
โ To-Do
Personal:
I try not having an extensive todo list, but a list of 3-5 things to focus on today, and a few things I can't forget to finish this month.
I used to have lot of physical notebooks, but this year I'm not using them that much.
I switched to a few .txt files With a syntax based on
TODO file for personal projects
Work: A bunch of Excel spreadsheets and Azure DevOps.
We do something similar to daily standup meetings (written and by call). The usual: What should we finish this week, what we did yesterday...
๐ท Photo Shooting
I don't take a lot of pictures, and I don't share them publicly,
I use my Pixel 5a to take a few, with the default camera app of GrapheneOS.
๐ธ Photo Editing
I only use the embedded edit features from Android or Telegram
๐ Calendar App and Calendar Backend
Personal: Google Calendar - Has worked amazing through all these years, I'm so used to its interface. I'm thinking of using something else, but haven't found a nicer alternative
Work: Teams -> Works well enough, although the mobile app is limited. I have to change appointments in the PC.
๐ Cloud File Storage
Personal: Google Drive, I have used it since always, but nowadays I don't need to sync files, everything is created on the Web editors.
Work: OneDrive, I didn't like it b/c it's too common to have conflicts and lose changes, but found a workaround and now works... well enough
๐ฆ Pictures Management
I used Google Photos, since it's native on Android, and available by default.
I'm trying to switch to another service. For now I have a lot of pics in my phones.
Usually I have disposable pictures (memes, screenshots, something shortlived) and personal pictures (perhaps storing them forever)
๐ Contacts Management
Contacts app synced with Google
LinkedIn, TwiXter, Facebook for some social acquaintances
I try to clean up my list every year, so if I have not talked to you in a year, it's probable you are not in my lists anymore
๐ฌ Chat
I prefer Telegram, although everyone here uses Whatsapp and Discord. I tried Session and Signal, but same problem, nobody uses it.
Tried to use IRC, bu
๐ RSS
I try not to read mainstream news anymore, so I don't use RSS as when I was in college. (I even made a tool to print latest news, and had a news ticker in my PC)
For a few years I used FB and Twitter to know of new content
Now I manually refresh pages like Lobste.rs, HckrNews.com and Antenna, to see if there is new content.
Podcasts use RSS/Atom, though...
๐ Reading
Kindle Paperwhite 3, and trying to get more physical books
Calibre (latest version) to manage e-books and to sync those with my Kindle
Also I saved dozens of books, so now I'm trying to only have up to 10.
๐ Browser
Personal: Firefox, Edge (With chrome://flags/#enable-force-dark and Vertical tabs)
Work: Edge
Previously I used Opera and Brave, and some Chromium-based browser. Although for some reason the Dark mode stopped working, so I switched back to Edge.
On Firefox I'm trying out a tab-less experience, with Sideberry, and has been cool to think of browsing differently.
Also on Edge I have a limit of up to 10 open tabs.
๐ Search engine
Personal: Priv.au and searx.space
Work: Google and ChatGPT 3.5
I tried Kagi for a month (5 USD), and was kind of puzzled of being limited to 300 searches, and didn't want to pay 10 USD for the ilimited version. When I reached to that point, I discarded it and switched to SearXNG
Long discusison here, but perhaps I'll switch back to Kagi soon, it's worth it.
๐ Internet Bookmarks and Read-it-Later
A links.txt file, and my browser to sort them by domain, or picking randomly a few
https://eapl.me/links/all_links.php
I throw links or PDFs to my Telegram chat and later I save it to the links.txt file
I need some way to mark something as readed, or perhaps auto-deleting it after a few months
๐ Password Management
Personal: Vaultwarden on Hostux.net
Work: Keepass
๐ Writing
Ensล - Write now, edit later.
The Most Dangerous Writing App
๐ Word Processing
Personal: Notepads (Win), Google Docs
Work: MS Word 365
๐ Shopping List
Telegram and a physical notebook
๐ด Meal Planning
My wife does that on a notebook, she's good at it :)
๐ฐ Budgeting and finance
Apps from my banks and Excel
I made a few tools to parse the statements and generate a few statistics
๐บ Video
YouTube, Revanced (Android)
Fox Sports Premium (For F1 and Champions Leage), Netflix, Disney+
I'm thinking of paying for YouTube Premium, since it's my main source of videos, and I create free content in it. But being 'free' to use, I have not being forced to pay for it as with other services. It's weird.
๐ต Music
Simple Music Player (Android), Minimalist Music Player (Android), YouTube
My wife uses Spotify and an Alexa, so we listen music from there.
I don't like to listen to public radio (because of ads, increasingly political here due to ellections next year), but wife does, so... I listen to the music stations there as well.
๐ค Podcast
AntennaPod
EOT
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