Posts by Koray
i recently found a community based around file sharing called usb.club[1]. the tagline is: "A social file exchange. For designers, artists, DJs, writers, musicians, researchers, engineers." i liked the idea of exchanging art with a stranger but this project requires a purchase of a 40€ usb drive. the sharing happens digitally anyway so i came up with the idea for 8mb.referi.de[2]. the same concept…
last week i discovered thelounge [1] "The self-hosted web IRC client". which made me fall back in love with irc again. the setup on my 1€/month vps took like 5 minutes, the https certificate another 10. in the past i used znc [2], and it was such a hustle setting it up and joining new networks. but thelounge feels just like discord, just without the corporate surveillance and bloat. since irc is…
i have made a browser-based, text-only, futsal manager game. no ads, no graphics, no active internet needed. feel free to check it out at: https://fm.koray.at/
recently, i became a licensed amateur radio operator. germany's federal network agency introduced a new entry class, and passing the test was easy for me because i studied about 8 minutes of anki's [1] each day for 2 months. i was probably ready earlier, but the next exam date was a long time away. my first transceiver is a quansheng handheld radio, which helped me make my first few contacts…
your judgment is pretty good, and if you are stuck between two options, it often does not matter which one you choose - life is 50% luck anyway. the most stressful moments of my youth were when we had a big exams in school because of all of the decisions i had to make. if you imagine the decisions a major politician or a ceo of a big company has to make, it's no wonder merkel and jobs wore…
i consume my music on an ipod shuffle 4. since it has no display it reads the name of the playlists and i can navigate them using the buttons. however, i dont listen to playlists but albums. to get around this, i create a playlist in itunes for every album i have. besides being a pain to use, itunes is not available on linux. so i was forced to keep my music library on my work laptop rely on macos…
i was denied boarding for not having a passport. here is what i have learned: - uk entry needs eu citizens to hold a passport - incomplete id can clear check-in and security but not boarding - dus terminal c police can sometimes give temporary passport - registration office can issue a 1 year temporary passport immediately if flying in less than 5 days - do a quick web search before traveling -…
headwind wings flutter in vain nature's treadmill
for the last year i have been carrying my documents on a 32gb microsd but since the data is so sensitive, i am afraid of losing it. the obvious answer was to encrypt it, but how? my solution is a portable and secure operating system called tails. it uses 8gb of space and reserves the rest for "persistence"; a luks-encrypted partition to store files. i could encrypt the microsd without tails, but…
textonly.website was a "text-only list of text-only websites". according to the wayback machine it was active from 2017-2018. i personally found the archived version a few weeks ago and decided to revive it. so i bought the domain and started my own list. feel free to send me suggestions. check it out: https://textonly.website/
Max Bill Ulmer Hocker (1954) Adrian Frutiger Univers (1957) Dieter Rams Braun RT 20 (1961) Massimo Vignelli New York Subway Map (1970) Otl Aicher Organisationskomitee fuer die Spiele der XX. Olympiade Muenchen 1972: Richtlinien und Normen fuer die visuelle Gestaltung (1972) Paul Rand IBM, Rebus (1981) (in response to https://cmhb.de/my-favourite-designers)
as for many designers, dieter rams is one of my heroes, but in his famous 10 principles for good design [1], one is missing: good design is accessible. if i need a place to sit, a street curb, or even the floor, is the most accessible. if your innovative, aesthetic, durable and environmentally friendly chair is impossible to find or too expensive, all design principles are worthless. to illustrate…
in the past, i've been quite frustrated by unnecessary large-scale technologies. these are technologies that only work because they rely on the advances of modern civilizations, such as electricity or complicated manufacturing processes. the opposite is small-scale or low technology. it's the difference between a vacuum cleaner and a broom, a radiator and a jacket, or maybe even sparkling water…
i was recently in a hotel and in the room was a basket with some games like: miniature chess, a yoyo, and among other things, a rubik's cube. i have solved a rubik's cube before so of course i played around with it. one thing led to another and my youtube alogythm flooded me with videos related to rubics cubes, i joined discords and subreddits to find the best "speedcube". i bought one and now…
beating the chess world champion and my thesis MY BACHELOR THESIS after 2 years of procrastination, i finally finished my bachelor thesis. i'm happy about the result, but even more happy about the fact that it's finally over. at the moment, it's only available in german. would be nice to have an english version as well, but i don't want to deal with it anymore. maybe another time.…
some thoughts about independence, privacy and my text editor not opening. SWITCHING TO RSS when i have a choice between two options, i always try to choose the one that makes me less dependent. rss is just that. no algorithm, no censorship, no selling my data, and no unnecessary waste of resources. the lifespan of social media has proven to be quite short, and i want these words to stay online…