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Sadly, I learned in these days that a blogger (and developer) whom I met several times in the small and big world of independent blogs passed away . Thanks to her initiative last year I had participated in WeblogPoMo 2024 , the first and (to date) only challenge for bloggers in which I have ever participated consistently. The news of her passing hit me hard, even though I never met her in person.…
Thanks to Alvaro for having manually activated a custom domain for my lmno.lol blog. A few DNS settings were needed from my side, the rest has been adjusted on the server by him. So you can now access this space from notes.prealpinux.com .
Thanks to Manuel Moreale's comprehensive list of blogging platforms I've discovered lmno.lol a brand new platform for bloggers. I couldn't resist giving it a try, and it was love at first sight! 😍 Unlike most other blogging platforms, lmno has no unnecessary extras. Your blog basically resides in one single Markdown file that you can edit offline on your PC. Once you're ready, you can upload it…
I'm the kind of blogger who likes to read other blogs, write on my own and change things all the time. I'm sure I'm not alone, I see a lot of people suffering from the same "syndrome". 😉 Luckily this blog does not allow me to change too much.
Writing is not my job and blogging is not my job. I have to keep all those things in mind, relax and posting here only if I want to. Life is good and full of interesting things to do.
There is a lot of hype around LLM (Large Language Models), the technology behind artificial intelligence, but less interest in SLM (Small Language Models). I think this is due to the fact that LLM can use cloud services to be used anywhere (you just need an internet connection). But there are scenarios where there is no connection available or you want to avoid using the cloud for privacy reasons.…
Recently, there has been a terrible trend in the tech industry: selling devices that WILL have great features. You pay them now, and they promise to bring you new functionalities in the future. Rabbit R1, Humane AI Pin, Apple AI enabled features, Copilot+ PCs are only few examples of that. It’s a shame that market is accepting this way of selling unfinished products.
One browser to rule them all. This seems to be a kind of mantra in the tech world. Companies have been fighting for browser supremacy since 1995 (eons ago, if we are talking about software). The point is that your browser is your door to the Web. Not surprisingly, browsers are now implementing Artificial Intelligence features into them so they can help you get information, article summaries, and…
I’ve made a lot of small improvements to my blog recently. I wanted to make my blog theme more personal and give people the opportunity to share my posts and leave comments. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but for now I’m quite happy with the results. I believe a blog is a public space where people can come and go freely, but I want them to feel at home anyway. A cosy place they can return…
Some weeks ago I read an interesting blog post by Manuel Moreale about " The social web ". Manuel correctly clarifies that being social on the web does not mean you are part of the social web and that there is also a lot of misconception around IndieWeb definition. How can we define a human web where there is no algorithmic filtering and where we can deliberately be part of? That is the web I’m…
A few days ago I came across an interesting post by Annie Mueller about getting older: I remember having a conversation with my Dad right after I graduated college. So I was 22 and he was 52. I don’t remember what we were talking about but I remember when he looked at me and said, “You know, I still feel just the same inside as I did when I was 22.” - anniemueller.com I was discussing the same…
I believe that blogging (writing) is a kind of good therapy. You write things down and let your thoughts flow. When you are in a flow, words can come one after the other. As I've written many times, I don't write for an audience (though I'm very happy if you find my ramblings useful), but for the need to let my ideas flow freely. Does that make sense to you?
Thanks to Robb Knight's explanation of how Author Tags work on Mastodon , I was able to activate them on my Micro.blog site. Prerequisite: I'm using the Sumo theme , which has full support for Microhooks. The process is very simple from the Micro.blog web dashboard: go to Design -> Open Theme -> New Template Give the template this location and name: layouts/partials/microhook-head.html insert this…
There are a lot of funny domain extensions you can use for your website today. Some of them are run by companies (like .blog), while others are country top level domains. Examples of country top level domains are .it for Italy, .us for the USA, .de for Germany and so on... Most of us might think that using a "national top level domain" is safer than using a domain completely run by a private…
Over the years I have noticed that many bloggers (myself included) tend to have more than one blog. For example, I prefer to have one blog for my rants in Italian, another for my rants in English, another for work-related material, etc. I like to keep the topics separate because I know that some people like to follow certain topics while others are bored by them. Other bloggers, on the other hand,…
I've been a blogger for a long time. One important thing I've learned over the years is that it's fundamental for me to have a smooth blogging workflow. I know some people like to use a note-taking app to capture their ideas and then revise the article several times. Frankly, I prefer to just write a draft in my blogging platform. If I don't have time to complete a full article (or maybe I just…
I've noticed that I tend to blog more during the autumn and winter seasons. I think it's because I enjoy going outside and taking walks during spring and summer, rather than jotting down things on my blog. I'm not sure if this is something other bloggers experience too, but I'm excited to post more regularly now that it's autumn! 🤪
In the last years I've started to listen to a lot of audiobooks. I've found this alternative kind of entertaining very suitable for my life. Thanks to audiobooks I'm able to read more books than in the past. This is a great achievement for me.
In her latest Citation Needed newsletter, Molly White clearly describes how our digital lives are fragmented across multiple platforms. In this post, Molly also explains the POSSE approach (which I will not go into today). Being online requires a strategy, and we need to spend time staying in touch with our connections spread across multiple social networks. That's counterintuitive, because…
Forcing yourself to do something you're not really ready to do is not good. The same goes for blogging. If you don't feel inspired to write, don't. I'd rather suggest doing something completely different, like going outside, watching a TV show, or even reading a book. Take your time and inspiration will return when you least expect it!
We always have screens with us. They're distracting us all the time. So I was very interested about reading JCProbably review of CampSnap camera. It's a low-end device according to its specs, there is no screen (only an LCD photo counter). Just point and click as in the old times. After ruminating for some days I decided to buy one, I will receive it in the next weeks (considering international…
Kev Quirk wrote an interesting post about deleting content from a public blog. Does that mean we should throw caution to the wind and delete anything we subsequently disagree with in the future? Probably not. But I do think it's ok to delete stuff from your site from time to time. I fully agree with him. A blog is something truly personal, so if something we posted in the past makes us feel…
One of my favorite things to do lately is to check my feed reader (I use Sublime Feed, which is super easy and has a clean interface). Independent blogs are still a great way to share and find new ideas to start projects or just post something interesting on my blog or social profile.
The title of this post sounds ironic since Fediverse was born as an alternative to centralized social networks like Facebook, Instagram and X. Today, most users of Fediverse use the same software (Mastodon) and many instances are hosted by the same few service providers. Even Meta with Threads is pushing in this direction (they use ActivityPub to federate, but there is no server choice). The…
Robb Knight has made a really nice guide to slash pages. There are a lot of ideas to explore if you have a personal blog or website. I like the fact of adding a personal touch to your digital space, but for now, I won't be adding them to this blog, as I already use some of them on my main site prealpinux.com. I really want to avoid duplication at this point.
There may be several reasons why Bluesky has gained a lot of attraction at this moment. In my opinion one of them is that the social network is able to imitate X (Twitter). Unlike the Fediverse, there is only "one instance" on Bluesky, simple features like quoting a post have been implemented for a long time, while for example Mastodon will introduce it in the next release. It is very easy for…
Artificial intelligence has improved greatly since ChatGPT was first made public. As AI models become more sophisticated, the cost per token drops significantly. we’ve witnessed remarkable advancements in AI intelligence paired with substantial reductions in cost. For example, the cost per token of GPT-4o mini has dropped by 99% since text-davinci-003, a less capable model introduced in 2022. -…
Few days ago I wrote about creativity. I think that writing is an act of creation. But what about the blog itself? You choose a domain, a name for the blog, a theme and a lot of other things. Are these part of creativity? Yes. There are lot of bloggers that really like to tweak their blog to generate something personal. So the blog itself can be considered a creation in my opinion.
We are 15 people in my office department and we work in a open space. Everybody has a different feeling about the right temperature for the office. So we are unable to get an agreement and there is always somebody that feels the ambient too hot or cool. 😅 It's complicated.
The recent ban of X in Brazil caused a huge migration of users to Bluesky. Around 2 million people joined the "blue butterfly" in a few days without any technical server problems. The same thing didn't happen with Mastodon a few months ago. In that case, migrations from X caused a lot of problems on the fediverse, with several large and small instances experiencing problems. Is this a problem with…
I've got some web domains coming up for renewal in the next few months. A lot of them are related to old projects I haven't updated in a while. My plan is to let them expire. I've got no personal interest in keeping them alive if I'm not actively working on them. Next year, I'd like to focus on projects that are getting some interest from users (including this blog).
Today an interesting question from Barry Hess appeared on my timeline. He submitted his blog to several site/blog directories, but analyzing the traffic he found only a few hits coming from these sources. My idea is that a very small amount of people are really looking for content in such directories, or at least this is not the way I find bloggers I like. Personally, I discover new blogs in a…
The closed ecosystems of Big Techs are walled gardens in which it is pleasant to stay. The ecosystem does everything for you, but it also knows everything about you. The ecosystem tells you that there are potential dangers out there, so it's better to stay inside and not ask too many questions. Instead, be curious, explore and experiment. You will learn many new things along the way!
I really don't like when air conditioning is too much. Near my home there is a supermarket that uses air conditioning a lot. Outside ~ 30°C, inside less than 20°C. It's really disturbing for me, so I tend to avoid that supermarket in summer.
Great question. Personally I believe a blogger can be defined a creator because creates something (a blog post). It's an act of creativity. In general I think all the people on the web that create something personal and original can be called creators. 😃
Blogging is kind of a nice hobby for me, but I've failed so many times I can't even remember. I think the reason is that it's like a marathon, stamina is the key. It's not easy to commit to something for months (or years). Writing takes time and mental effort. Life is challenging and giving up a blog might be the easiest option when we are overwhelmed with things to do.
On his blog Robert Birming is ruminating about the need of being reachable 24/7. There's a lot of talk about the importance of online privacy, but when it comes to wanting some privacy in the physical world, it's a different story. We're expected to be "online" by default, 24/7. If we go "offline," it's treated as a malfunction — a 404 page. I totally agree with him. If you're not available all…
I came across an interesting article by Juan Villela about analog photography. Recently I was thinking about the same topic and came to similar conclusions. I would like to start printing photos again to keep physical copies of them.
Jack Baty is embarrassed when he looks at his tools. We live in a society with a lot of alternative products and services. The more things we have to choose from, the more confused we become. Sometimes it's better to have few options, it's easier to make a decision.
I tried and failed a few times at starting a “blog” / website. Though I could probably point to a few reasons why those projects never took off, I think the root cause was ultimately me writing for someone else, rather than just for myself. - Mike Sass via shellsharks.com I totally agree with Mike Sass' thoughts on blogging. I've had several blogs in the past and always ended up abandoning them…
I've recently realised that over the past few years I've been on a JOMO (Joy Of Missing Out) journey without even being aware of it. I gave up Instagram and Facebook a few years ago, and I've been off Twitter for a while. I started being more interested in blogging and I'm enjoyng doing long walks as much as I can. I'm not off the grid because I've replaced algorithm-based social networks with…
After a month of (almost) daily posts, I realised there are still many people who enjoy writing (and reading) blogs. It's awesome! The web has become a kind of business over the last few decades and AI will be the final step in making the internet impersonal. We need more blogs and we need more people who like the personal web. 👍
Three tips for being a nice person on the web: Think before you speak; Respect other people and their ideas; Don't be an asshole.
In my humble opinion blogging is still cool. Why? It gives me time to think about things and jot down my thoughts. I have full control of my blog (I can change themes, pages, hosting and use a personal domain). When I used commercial services like Facebook I felt locked down on their condition terms and services. These are just few positive things about personal blogging. Are you planning to start…
You don’t need to labor over your posts. You don’t need to have perfect grammar or spelling. You don’t need to leave a post in draft for seven months, pouring over research. (Though you can if you want!) You don’t really need to have an idea. Just write. Then share. Blogging is a conversation. It’s a conversation with yourself and it’s a conversation with others. - Barry Hess
Having your "www.fullname.com" blog should normally be the first choice for your professional / company blog. But you can also think about opening a semi-anonimous blog where to post thoughts and ideas that you don't want to be directly related to yourself. A place where you can feel to be more free than your official blog. A place where you can post what you want when you want. A place that's…
Following social networks is not easy, sometimes there is a lot of 'background noise' in timelines that leads to distraction and that you would like to avoid. Using an RSS feed reader can be a good choice, but how do you follow a Mastodon user? It is very simple! The URL of the feed is: [instance address]/users/[username].rss or .atom So, for example, if you add the following address to your feed…
Recently I've tried to give to Gemini and Copilot some blog post prompts in order to evaluate the result. Unsurprisingly I found the resulting texts to be correct but completely lacking of human touch. A sort of copy and paste from several resources. Yes, you can ask in the prompt to be more or less polite, but the final writings seemed to me quite clumpsy. Since English is not my mother tongue…
🙈 I grew up using a 56k modem to connect to the internet and I published my first website over 20 years ago on Geocities. So I have been online for a very long time, long enough to see the web transform from a semi-anonymous place to a big online shop where the user has become the product. Oh my gosh... How was that possible? 😕
Casual blogging is a relaxed and informal approach to writing and publishing content online. Some people may think that casual blogging is less valuable than a more standard way of blogging. My personal opinion is quite different. Sharing stories about daily life, interests or experiences in a conversational tone gives a personal touch that is unique. A casual blogger writes for fun, not to reach…