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Let's put on the fish-janitor hat:

This site is an iterative experiment so let's follow-up on the retrospective.png actions.

Switching from a linear blog to Obsidian works well. Or rather: using a non-linear publishing tool that reflects the way I think and iterate works really well. There are some parts of Obsidian I don't like, but for now it's good enough.

Mind you, these are not issues with the product itself but my use-case and personal philosophy. I want something less clever, just a hypertext editing tool with pictures and links. When I say hypertext I mean it in its strictest, pre-web sense: a bunch of linked text documents.

I also wish Obsidian Publish offered better customisation, was slightly more performant, and had better custom domain support. There will be a review of both coming soon. (Obsidian (personal review), Abusing and reviewing Obsidian Publish).

The bottomline is that I can say more, using fewer words, and it's easier for me to manage my time (juggle research, writing, Say Hi calls, looking for clients).

Also, I didn't have as much time to read as I would've liked to, but luckily I've had a tonne of Say Hi calls and the people I met gave me some really good brain-food!

Interesting stuff

Favourite article: Muddle Your Way To Success

(I bet you like it)

This is the body of a message sent by a reader of Dog mode. Yes, I did like it. I think you might as well.

Favourite project: yay.boo

Beautifully simple drag & drop website publishing tool.

A part of me wishes that's where Zeit, now know as Vercel, had stopped. Give it a go and don't forget to check their favourite sites gallery.

Favourite piece of tech: PartyKit

Learned about it from Matt Webb.
Related: Exploring AI interaction design and multiplayer with tldraw

This is very timely as I'm working on a little project which could be simplified quite a bit with PartyKit. More on that next week!

Cat printers


Cat Printers are tiny BTLE cat-shaped printers.

For a couple of years now I've been playing with the idea of using a network of tiny, Bluetooth-activated printers to send my friends short, physical, tangible messages.
Imagine a pretty wooden box sitting on your desk. Once in a while it starts buzzing and produces a quick note from a friend, or a doodle. When was the last time you received a letter that was not a bill, or an ad? Imagine how that would that make you feel.

I made some progress on the idea a couple of weeks back, inspired by the work of Good Enough and Berg. There's also an "almost-community" of people hacking with this stuff (almost, as it's not centralised, just smaller branches, groups of people).

I'd like to write about this more in detail, but in short:

Having said that, there are still issues with making it a sustainable business. I don't care about scale, but I do care about being able to pay rent. Do you think becoming a boutique handmade digital printer craftsman is a valid career path? Let me know.

Webrings and IndieWeb

I visited a site written in a voice I really enjoyed. I opened their webring section and it had only one item there - a link to sonnet.io. I melted a little bit.

Marginalia.nu and Website Explorer

Marginalia is a non-commercial search engine maintained by Victor Lofgren.

The site also contains a StumbleUpon-like random site browser.
I use it when I feel like reaching for Reddit. Do this. Immerse yourself in its beautiful weirdness, the sheer diversity of voices and styles, the angst, (and the occasional niche programming tips.)

Things I've written in the past couple of week that people liked

Thanks for reading this, here's a poem for you.

Footnotes

Nothing Twice by Wislawa Szymborska - Poems | Academy of American Poets
Dither it!: a web application for dithering images Wislawa Szymborska
What's the Current Week Number?

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a giant foot-shaped snail with a house on its back. the house is still in construction, with a big crane towering above it The image is a stylized black-and-white illustration. In the lower left corner, there is a small, cozy-looking house with smoke rising from its chimney. The smoke, however, does not dissipate into the air but instead forms a dark, looming cloud. Within the cloud, the silhouette of a large, menacing face is visible, with its eyes and nose peeking through the darkness. The creature, perhaps a cat, appears to be watching over the house ominously, creating a sense of foreboding or unease.