The "small web" is bigger than you might think
The small web is growing, and getting more active. Good news.
Kevin Boone's website
Computing, math, science
Latest posts
A plug for the Spartan protocol
Spartan is a simple document retrieval protocol for small web/net applications, that deserves to be better known.
Hosting a Gemini capsule on a virtual private server
How to get a Gemini capsule with its own domain name.
Small web, IndieWeb, Gemini... A guide to the retro-web
An outline of some grass-roots reform movements that are trying to humanize the Internet
Can Project Gemini rewind the Web thirty years?
The modern World-Wide Web is broken. Is Gemini the repair?
The Gemini Protocol in 2026: growing, but still not setting the Internet aflame
The Gemini protocol has been around for over five years, but the world-wide web remains broken. This articles reviews what's changed for the better over the last five years -- and what hasn't.
This site is now webmention-aware
This site now supports webmention, so you can notify me easily if you respond to one of my posts on your own site or blog.
They don't make them like that any more: the Cyclemaster
A mostly-forgetten icon of the motor industry.
Command-line hacking: a really simple console music player
Select a directory from a list, and play all the music files in that directory. How difficult can that be?
Rant: 2026 will not be the 'Year of Linux on the Desktop' -- and I'm glad
Why are we complaining about the smallness of the proportion of desktop computers that run Linux -- perhaps we should be celebrating instead?
Battle of the privacy-focused search engines: Kagi vs. DuckDuckGo
Kagi and DuckDuckGo both provide reasonable alternatives to Google's and Microsoft's search services, without compromising your privacy. How different are they?
Digital voice assistants vs. privacy in 2026
What's going on with digital voice assistants? Are they really snooping on us all the time?
Command-line hacking: Downloading a podcast to create an audiobook
If a podcast has an RSS feed, we can download it, parse it, and then download all the content into a single folder, which can then be played by any audio player.
Using a Garmin fitness watch completely offline -- no accounts, no app
Using a Garmin fitness watch without a smartphone or Garmin's services: how practical is it, and would you want to?
They don't make 'em like that any more: filament fairy lights
Decorative Christmas lights were better in the past. No, really, they were.
They don't make 'em like that any more: the Casio VL-1 pocket synthesizer
This mostly-forgotten device was the very first commercially-available all-digital music synthesizer. It was also a lot of fun.
Predicting eclipses with clockwork
We're used to computing devices being electronic. But what can we do with a purely mechanical approach? This article looks at how eclipse prediction might have worked in the Antikythera Mechanism, c.2300 years ago.
They don't make them like that any more: the Yamaha DX7 keyboard
Nothing says '80s pop' like a DX7.
They don't make them like that any more: Denshi block electronics kits
Denshi block kits were a unique way to learn about electronics back in the 70s.
Google Pixel and Sony Xperia handsets for budget de-Googling
These days, there are comparatively few up-to-date smartphones that can run a well-supported, non-vendor firmware. Sony's Xperia range and Google's Pixels are among the better choices.
Some thoughts on de-Googling Google Pixel phones
There are good reasons why these handsets are so popular with de-Googlers, even if we have to grit our teeth and try to ignore the vendor.
'Sideloading' restrictions on Android: how big a deal will they be?
Is this a minor irritation, or the end of Android as we know it?
How to write a technical or scientific report
Some guidance, mostly for science and engineering students, on how to write a scientific paper or technical report. I've updated this article slightly since I wrote it thirty years ago, to deal with the rise in web-based publication. But, frankly, I think that similar standards should apply to electronic and print reporting.
De-bloating and de-Googling an Android device using Canta
If you can't run an alternative, privacy-sparing firmware on your Android device, you can still assert a measure of control by disabling certain packages. You don't need to root the device to do this, and Canta is an app that sets out to make it easier.
The privacy nightmare of browser fingerprinting
If you were worried about tracking cookies, you really don't want to know about browser fingerprinting.
Comparing Android alternatives: Lineage OS, ∕e∕OS, and Graphene OS
How are these alternative smartphone firmwares similar and different?
Custom ROM versus extensive package removal, for de-Googling a Samsung cellphone
Which is the easier way to get to a phone you can feel safe using, without your personal data being sent to goodness-knows-where?
Is it worth rooting an Android phone in 2025?
The costs and benefits of this somewhat controversial procedure.
Running the Google Pixel Camera app on a robustly de-Googled cellphone
Is it possible? Would you want to do it?
Two years without Google, et al. -- has it been worth it?
What's changed in the last two years? Would I do it again, knowing what I know now? TL;DR - yes.
How to get a dark background on the K-9/Thunderbird e-mail widget for Android
Getting a proper dark theme for the e-mail home screen widget is worth spending hours building the app from source. No, really it is.
The 2nd-generation Nokia 105: a smarter dumb phone
The terminal stage of de-Googling is to go back to using a 90s-style dumb phone. Devices like the Nokia 105 aren't as old-fashioned as you might think, but can they substitute for a smartphone in day-to-day use?
Gâteaux differentials and Euler-Lagrange equations using Maple
My article on calculus of variations assumed without explanation the basic form of the Euler-Lagrange equation. This article attempts to demonstrate how an Euler-Lagrange equation arises, by solving a variational problem algebraically using Maple.
AppImage from scratch
This article describes how AppImage packaging works on Linux. It's based on a simple demonstration that uses nothing but commonplace command-line tools, to create a self-contained, distributable application (albeit a trivial one).
Some thoughts on Pimoroni's "Pico GFX Pack" LCD module
Pimoroni's 'GFX Pack' is an inexpensive, low-power LCD display, with modest resolution. This article describes my experience using and programming it.
Fun with capital letters
I frequently have to read documents that look as if the writer was given a bag of capital letters, and told to use them all up. Like many aspects of English, capitalization has few rules that are set in stone; but there are some conventions that serious writers ought to keep in mind.
Social media: it's not me, it's you
It's not my fault that my avoidance of social media makes me hard to contact. It's your fault for letting yourself become hooked on it.
No good deed goes unpunished: can we now be sued over software we give away?
For too long, mega-corporations have been able to avoid liability for defective software. But will upcoming changes to the law adversely affect those who distribute open-source software free-of-charge?
ARM assembly-language programming for the Raspberry Pi
A series of simple, progressive examples that demonstrate the essential features of programming in ARM assembly language.
Watch out: the Chinese domain registration scam is getting slicker
It's an old scam, but it's recently resurfaced in a slicker, more convincing form
Technical writing: what do we lose, when we write more readably?
There's no shortage of guidance on writing English that people will want to read. In science and technology, however, can we apply the same guidelines without losing information?
A USB power supply with a real on-off switch
As part of my campaign to eliminate wall-warts and external power supplies that don't have on/off switches, I've built a USB charger that has a mains switch. Why? Because nobody seems to sell one.
They don't make them like that any more: Sony PRS-500 e-reader
In a market dominated by the Amazon Kindle, it's easy to forget that Sony, not Amazon, made the first commercially-successful e-book reader.
They don't make 'em like that any more: things you can switch off
How worried should we be, that we're wasting electrical energy for no benefit?
They don't make them like that any more: Epson MX-80 dot matrix printer
There was a time when we didn't hate printers. Unfortunately, it was forty years ago.
Using Windows is like smoking (?)
As the Microsoft Windows user experience continues to worsen, what should Linux advocates do?
Ten steps to becoming a Linux snob
There was a time when merely being a Linux user set you apart from the common herd. These days, with Linux so ubiquitous, you'll need to take additional steps to make yourself out as one of the elite.
Wayland from the ground up
Wayland isn't new, but many of us have been able to avoid it until recently. With many Linux distributions now pushing Wayland hard -- even for the Raspberry Pi -- it's getting harder to justify ignoring it. This article is for people who have been hoping until now that Wayland will go away, particularly X developers, and don't know much about how it works
Why systemd is a problem for embedded Linux
I don't want to post yet another anti-systemd rant, but I think the ubiquity of systemd could eventually create real problems for embedded Linux. I just wish I knew what to do about it.
Using Apache Camel to implement an IRC bot
Camel's IRC support makes it relatively easy to implement an IRC conversation agent, that can process IRC messages and produce responses.