Recent content on Site of Steven Irby
It’s that time of year again. Where I look back at my favorite software I used through the year and give a shoutout. 2025 has been an interesting year for software with the rise of LLMs. I notice a trend of software just being generally BAD now across the board with LLMs and vibe coding being such a thing. (I’m guilty of it too). Here’s a look at the what I think was good…
I like to look back at the previous year and give a shoutout to the amazing software I used the past year. This year was actually a bit of a letdown. There wasn’t any new software I started using and was blown away by. If anything, I felt like a lot of software I’ve used the last few years, let me down. There is one notable mention–one of my favorite tools that I continue to love.
My Favorite Software in 2020 I feel like I found a lot of amazing software in 2020, so much so I decided to write a post about it. I have a feeling I’ll discover a lot more great software this coming year. With people having so much free time at home, my theory is they will create a ton of cool stuff online. Here is a list of some of the best tools I discovered and started using a lot.
With the COVID-19 pandemic raging worldwide, many suddenly find themselves working from home. this is the first time they’ve worked from home, and it may not be by choice. I imagine many people are having a tough time transitioning to working from home. Those with children stuck at home with them are probably especially struggling. I’ve been working from home for over half a decade, so…
I consider myself a pragmatic person who generally isn’t extreme about many things. However, I am extreme about, dare I say militant about – advertising or being subjected to advertisements of any kind. I drastically go out of my way to avoid being advertised to in any possible way. For me, it is essential to not be psychologically manipulated and coerced into buying things and consuming…
Predictions for the 2020s For a long time now, I’ve considered myself somewhat of an armchair futurist. Since I was a child, I’ve had a fantastic ability to predict the future, at least when it comes to technology. The problem is, I never put any of my predictions down in “writing,” so I can point back and say, “See, I told you so!” I will put down my…
My Great de-Googleing Slowly but surely, a few massive tech companies are controlling more and more of our digital lives. Sadly, we’re at a point where the entire Internet is being run entirely by a small handful of large multinational corporations. From Amazon’s AWS practically running the entire web , to Google having a monopoly on what gets index and shown in searches, to running…
I’m going to be honest, I don’t read. I always liked the idea of being a reader; constantly learning, expanding myself, and curled up with a nice book. Excited to get started on the latest best seller, book I’ve checked out from the library, or downloaded onto my kindle. However, I don’t do it, and never really have. When I was young kid in school, I dreaded reading time. There very few books I…
Roatán Honduras After hearing many good things from a few people, I went to checkout Roatán, Honduras. I knew someone who was living there and they had great things to say about the place. Most people have never heard of this little island tucked away next to Honduras, in Central America. Roatán is a well-known location for scuba divers. There’s a massive reef around the island and scuba diving is…
I often find myself needing to tether and use my phone for an internet connection. Like most people, we have limited plans with not much data to spare. Here is how I manage to not use a TON of data or help speed things up. Mac OS I use a MacBook so I’ll start here. Sadly, MacOS _still _does not have a metered connection mode like Windows 10. TripMode – $7.99 TripMode is the go-to app for disabling…
I love todo lists. During very busy or stressful times, I’m lost without one. I would literately forget very important things that need to get done, if I didn’t have it down in a todo list. It’s supposed to be weapon to help that messy brain stay on track, and do the important things. It should not be there to stress you out and make you feel bad. I have a feeling most people put way too much down…
I use Pandora pretty much all day while I work. I’m currently traveling abroad which means, it’s blocked. Typically what I would do is, log into my VPN. Go to Pandora. Start listening. There are a few problems with this. For starters, I’ve been using a very popular VPN. This mean, some services and sites are blocked. Or I have to constantly fill out a captcha. I recently started using the amazing…
Sometimes I travel to places on my journey, where there seems to be a large concentration of what I call hippies. If you can’t imagine what I’m talking about, I’ll paint a picture. Baggy parachute pants. Walking around barefoot. Dreadlocks. You get the idea. I have no problem if someone’s fashion is different than mine, and to be honest I don’t care. However, it feels a bit awkward sometimes when…
Today I’m going to share my ultimate Gmail hack for maximum productivity. This has seriously transformed my inbox and made email a powerful tool for me again. I can’t even stress how much this has made my inbox sane again. It’s a very simple hack — Create a filter that looks for the word “Unsubscribe” in the email.
I use myfitnesspal to track everything I eat and drink. Sometimes though, with work, and a busy life, I forget to track my food. I really wanted a notification to help remind me, so I created one. Here’s how. I simply created a script to run with a cronjob. Just download an image and update accordingly.
I’m on my computer a lot. I work all day on my computer, and I often spend time after work on my computer. I love my phone, but I’m a lazy bastard and hate constantly reaching for my phone to send messages and check it all day. Plus I type a million times fast on my laptop keyboard, than I do on that damn swypy keyboard on my phone. Here’s how I avoid using my phone as much as possible. Whatsapp…
I really love stumble upon, it’s a great way to find new and interesting content that you would normally miss from the big websites: reddit, facebook, twitter, etc. One thing that bugs me though, is how you sometimes want to view the original website you’re stumbling. (I often like to pocket pages, to read later on my phone, and I want pocket to download the content.) I created this simple little…
Update: 2016 You can skip the cards and just do this online! Here Go there on your computer or phone with wifi. Add credit and pay with PayPal. Since the data plan is 400 pesos, they try to be slick and get you to pay for 500. Instead, I just pay 200 pesos twice. Then text alto30 Int500 to 5050 . Done.
Last week a very crazy thing happened to me. I was walking home from Spanish classes here in Mexico, and I looked up and saw my god damn ex girlfriend standing there. The last girl I dated, who I was with for over six years. There she was standing there with an old friend of mine. My heart literally skipped a beat when I saw her. I like to embrace confrontation, so I walked right up to speak with…
Anyone who knows me well, knows I’m a very goal oriented person. When I set my mind to something I do not give up until I’ve completed that goal. This is why I once went on a road trip across North America for a month straight. This is why I went to Hawaii for two straight weeks. This is why I’m currently living and traveling abroad. I don’t seem to ever stop or give up.
Well, I made the move and I am living in Mexico! For now, I am in Puerto Vallarta (PV), a big beach town in the state of Jalisco. It’s a very tourist heavy town, a port town, where a lot of big cruise ships stop at. Lots of gringos, mostly Canadians. Most of the locals speak English because of all the gringo visiting and living here. There is a large expat community living here with most folks…
I’m just four weeks away from leaving Portland, OR and making my way down South. By south, I mean all the way down to Antarctica. Hopefully! I’m excited, nervous, and a bit sad at times. Today I just sold that fancy new bike I bought last summer along with my lock, helmet, and pump. I cringed when I thought about how much money I just lost. Oh well, the guy seemed really excited to get the bike.
This is the view from my buildings roof! I’ll miss the bbq’s and beers with a view. I’ve lived in Portland for almost 5 years now. It’s crazy to think that it’s been that long! Damn, where did all the time go? I’m going on 30 years old this year. I’m no longer the fresh faced, mid-twenty year old, I once was when I first arrived here. The first few years here were absolutely amazing and some of…
I’ve decided I’m going to start blogging again. I made some edits here to my personal website, and looking back, it’s been 2 years to the day, that I last blogged! (minus one day) Wow! I guess, I landed a new job back then and no longer felt the need. Too bad, it would have been good for me to get my thoughts out on the screen. I’ve had a ton of ups and downs in the last two years. Changed jobs a…
I’m proud to announce, the first version of the Myfitnesspal Report Bookmarklet! It’s a bit of code that you run on Myfitnesspal , which pulls in all your data for the last year, and displays pretty interactive graphs for you. To use it just drag this to your browsers bookmark toolbar: [Myfitnesspal Report Bookmarklet][2] It turned their boring flash graphs: [ ][3]
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This is the story of how my girlfriend and I lost over 50 pounds in 6 months using myfitnesspal . I’ve always been an overweight obese “husky” guy, before I was even a teenager. Over the years this only got worse, as more and more weight would slowly be piled on. I grew up with very unhealthy habits. Fast food every single day, very little exercise except occasional walks, being a couch potato,…
When I get visitors at my apartment, they can’t get in at the front door to the building. When I first did this, I didn’t have a local Portland phone number, and for some odd reason, my Google voice number didn’t work. So I turned to twilio , to help with my laziness of not waiting to go down stairs and let people in. My goal Have the apartment call box dial a number, press 9, and automagically…
Since I’m forced against my will to use Windows at my new job, I’ve quickly started using Cygwin. I haven’t used Windows in about 6 years, and I’m very use to using the command line. The folks at work actually use the windows command line, which I of course refuse to do. I always knew about Cygwin but never actually needed to use it. It’s… well ok. It’s a good emulation of a linux terminal,…
After being offline for a while, I brought my personal website back online! As most of you who know me, know, I am very opinionated person. Therefore, I attend on blogging often. 🙂 This will be a mixture of technical and non-technical dribble from me. What do you all think of the site? Simple, missing something? Let me know.
My name is Steven Irby and I’m originally from the United States. I use to live in a place called Portland, Oregon, but I am a native Californian. I have live abroad for more than 5 years. I live to travel and explore new cities and countries. I’ve been to all 7 continents of the world and have lived on all of them except Antarctica, which I only managed to visit for a week.
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What I am doing right now I’m settling into life in London. I am trying my best to make friends but it’s tough with as much work as I have these days. I’m still trying to speed run a career pivot to become a popular online creator. Making weird, thought provoking, and experimental content that wows people. I love world building and making small worlds and experiences people can…