Tech projects
I have a lot of ideas swirling around in my head – best to get them down somewhere so that when I do have time to do something, I can try and prioritise! Having them out in the open on my blog might also help keep me honest!
Digital housekeeping
These are mainly about housekeeping and organisation. I don't know about everyone else but almost twenty-five years of using the internet has left a bit of a mess that could do with some tidying up. It rarely reaches the top of my priorities though!
- Retire my dormant Wordpress blog
- Email: Finish transferring away from Google; decide whether I want to continue paying for extra storage in my /e/ email or archive the old emails offline; find a more feature-rich privacy-respecting android client than the default /e/ one; find a desktop client I actually enjoy using (or settle for the limitations of the /e/ Nextcloud browser interface).
- Facebook: This has been deactivated for over a year but I still check into Messenger every few months. Time to move away from it or will it be too hard to move those contacts to something else? Inertia and market penetration make this a real barrier sometimes!
- Photos: How best to organise them! I'm still not sure but I should pick a system and stick with it! We use the wonderful Cluster app for private family photo sharing. Not sure how many GBs is now on that...
- Back-ups: I need to get better at this, more systematic. Related to this, do I back-up to:
- Cloud storage: I currently have a family Office 365 (should I complete the move away from ALL tech giants and would my wife be happy?!) and a personal Nextcloud associated with my /e/ account. Should I stay with a mix? What should be on the cloud and what not? There is an environmental cost to this as well!
- Note-taking: I've blogged about this before. Not a priority but maybe something to return to at some point?
Privacy
- Look into VPNs. I don't use one. Should I? Which one? I use Blokada on my phone. Last time I checked this was only compatible with its own VPN... What is the environmental footprint of using a VPN and can that be offset?
- Streaming: We currently use a Roku device – is there anything more private?
- Look into privacy respecting smart (but not too smart!) wifi/bluetooth speakers for around the house and out-and-about.
Tinkering
- Star Lite Linux laptop: I'm currently trying to resolve a battery issue. Longer term I maybe want to swap out the SSD for a larger one, get a USB-C multiport hub, add some decals to it (not something I've done before but it feels like a good idea for some reason)...
Pipe dreams/ longer-term
I may never get to these but it's good to note them down anyway ;–)
- Start a home server of some kind, whether for media or back-ups I don't know.
- Look into self-hosting things like my blog or Gemini capsule, maybe on a Raspberry Pi or some such.
Actually using the tech!
- Finish #100DaysTo Offload.
- Perhaps start a personal/private Write.as blog or two.
- Finish setting up my Gemini capsule.
- Hang out in The Midnight Pub.
- Use that camera of mine!
That'll do for now. This will be an interesting list to return to now and again and update. I may actually keep this “live” rather than a static entry – we'll see!
Entry 76 of my participation in the “100 Days to Offload” challenge – find out more and join in!
2021-04-08 #100DaysToOffload #technology
Next post | Previous post | Home | Archive | Search