Updates 2026/Q2
This post includes personal updates and some open source project updates. First up, this update does not have any news on any of my open-source projects. If you’re here for that you might as well close this tab now, sorry. With all that’s been happening I had no time to advance any of the projects. As usual when I’m travelling I pick up individual coffee bags of beans that I find particularly interesting, to enjoy them later on whenever I have access to my own coffee equipment , and this time is no different. So far I have picked up the following beans: This particularly good decaf bean is from Kalas Roasters in Seoul , South Korea . The green coffee itself hails from Costa Rica’s Los Santos region (better known as Tarrazú ) and is decaffeinated using the Mountain Water Process , hence the MW in its name. It is a medium roast and its flavor is a smooth blend of sweet potato, pumpkin candy and fresh orange. It’s a clean and balanced taste with less caffeine. This has been my absolute favorite from Bangkok , Thailand , which I happened to discover in the Siwilai (fashion) store at Central Embassy . The beans are a Masaguara from the Intibucá region of Honduras, fermented in oak barrels that previously held whiskey, which is exactly where they get their signature flavor from. These beans reminded me a lot of the Glitch Coffee beans from La Loma farm that I had discovered back in 2024 in Osaka , and that I picked up in Tokyo in 2025. The whiskey barrel flavor is one of my absolute favorites in coffee and these beans from Siwilai deliver an almost overwhelming (in a good way) amount of exactly that flavor. Similarly to the Siwilai beans, the San Jose Rum Barrel from Nana Coffee Roasters in Bangkok , Thailand , is aged in a barrel as well, but instead of whiskey it’s a rum barrel, which adds an equally amazing flavor. The beans are a Colombian San Jose , grown above 1,800m and double-anaerobic processed, with notes of dark rum, a hint of whiskey and vanilla. Last but not least, the Mr. Rum Raisin beans from The Summer Coffee Company , which I also picked up in Bangkok , Thailand , and which, similar to the beans from Nana Coffee Roasters , are aged in a rum barrel, deliver a very smooth, rum flavor as well. Mr. Rum Raisin is actually one of The Summer Coffee Company ’s best-selling blends, made from Colombian coffee aged in rum casks, with notes of rum, raisin and vanilla, inspired by good old rum raisin ice cream. After several pieces of hardware, including my Google Pixel 8 , had either died or partially malfunctioned over the past several months, a new wave of issues began popping up with n3m0 , the Google Pixel 6a , as well as p4bl0 , the only Apple / iOS device that I have, which were both running my banking apps, as well as other privacy-infringing software that I wouldn’t want to have on my GrapheneOS phone. Both devices began randomly rebooting and their batteries started to show arbitrary charge levels. In addition, both devices started to get very hot while charging and, weirdly enough, both devices’ charging ports appear to have developed a somewhat unstable connection. Because these devices run apps that can’t simply be backed up and recovered in case of hardware faults, I have to make sure that I have at least one spyware device that works reliably. Up until now, this had been the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max , because as much as I hate to admit it, Apple ’s hardware is still one of the most reliable pieces of tech on the market, at least in my experience. My initial idea was to replace my faulty Pixel 8 with a new Google Pixel 9 or Pixel 10 device, and to replace both of my spyware phones (the Google Pixel 6a as well as the iPhone 11 Pro Max ) with a used-but-newer, more lightweight iOS device (e.g. an iPhone 12 Mini ). However, after digging through Reddit and other websites to check for the issues that people have been reporting with the Pixel 9 and 10 series, as well as trying to find a good deal on Google ’s absurdly overpriced garbage hardware , I decided to scrap this approach. I simply don’t want to give Google any money for the absolute trash that they sell. Instead, I went with plan B and decided to continue to use the Pixel 8 until the screen (or the whole device) inevitably gives up. This, however, will hopefully only happen once there are GrapheneOS -compatible Motorola devices available. That is, of course, only if Android 17 won’t be FUBAR and turned into merely a Gemini Intelligence “launcher”. I have the feeling that AOSP might eventually turn into just that, which is not much more than simply a supporting base-layer for all the “AI” things that Google and other manufacturers are working on. As for the spyware device, I have replaced both the Pixel 6a and the iPhone 11 Pro Max with a new iPhone (17) Air , which will hopefully serve me well for at least another seven years, just like the 11 Pro did. One reason I went with the Air was form-factor and weight. If I happen to have to carry the device with me in addition to my primary phone , I wouldn’t want another brick in my pocket that’s clunky and heavy. While the Air is significantly larger than I anticipated with its 6.5" display, it is fascinatingly thin at only 5.64mm (except for the top bump) and light at only 165g. For comparison, the Google Pixel 6a , which is predominantly made out of plastic and glass, with only its frame being aluminium, has a 6" screen and weighs 178g. Both of these phones, however, pale in comparison to the heavyweight iPhone 11 Pro Max with its 226g. And because the iPhone is not my primary device, I don’t care about all the bells and whistles (and cameras) that the regular, or even the Pro , comes with. Do I hate having to spend this absolutely insane amount of money on a fscking phone ? Yes, yes I do. Would I ever recommend anyone paying full price for such a device? No way. Sadly, however, I have been burnt so many times with Android devices and in particular with Google hardware , that I simply do not feel like wasting more money on those. Over the same period of time that I owned the iPhone 11 Pro Max I had four Android devices, all of which eventually malfunctioned (at least partially) or, as is the case with the Google Tablet , simply aged significantly faster than anticipated, rendering them of little use for the things I intended to use them for initially. Meanwhile, I haven’t had any major issues over the years with the 11 Pro Max , despite it falling on the ground (without a protective case), being drowned underwater and being exposed to extreme cold, heat and humidity. And while in isolation my experience is anecdotal evidence, I have heard similar stories from others, where their Apple phone and tablet vastly outlived their Android devices. Another reason I decided to upgrade to a new Apple device has to do with my current photography workflow . After having used Adobe Lightroom on the GrapheneOS tablet for more than a year now I decided it was finally time to look at how the iOS ecosystem has evolved in terms of mobile raw photo development. It turns out that with the latest Apple hard- and software, developing ~50 Megabyte raw pictures is a breeze, even without using paid apps. Despite the iPhone Air being limited to USB 2.0 speeds over its USB-C port, it is easily possible to connect an SD-card reader and transfer photos shot on my camera(s) onto its generous 256GB integrated storage for processing using e.g. the free Snapseed app. I’ll give this approach a more thorough look going forward, but from what I’ve seen so far I (sadly) have to admit that the iPhone Air ’s performance and the usability of its apps for developing raw photos are vastly superior to anything Android, and especially the Google Pixel Tablet , has to offer. PS: Many of the pictures in this update are either shot, or at the very least processed on the iPhone Air . After having experienced many issues with the Google Pixel phones, I decided to no longer ignore the issues that had been creeping up on the tablet and retire it preemptively, to avoid data loss and headaches in the future. Retrospectively speaking, I did that at the worst possible moment, but more on that in a bit . Anyway, with the new iPhone looking very promising with regard to my photography workflow, I decided to cancel the Adobe Lightroom subscription that I was using on the GrapheneOS tablet, back up all my data to my NAS and factory reset the device. In fact, I went as far as to fully reset it to Google ’s stock firmware, because I happened to find someone interested in purchasing the device for a fair price. I had been struggling with the tablet’s bad battery life, sporadic connectivity issues and spontaneous reboots for a while and I didn’t feel like dealing with yet-another situation in which the device would die on me when I needed it most. Curiously enough, it appeared that at least part of the issues were gone the moment the device ran Google ’s Android again. Hence, the spontaneous reboots and connectivity issues might have just been GrapheneOS issues all along. Note: Because Google is not selling their Pixel devices on the Asian market, the number of devices sourced through dubious channels is quite interesting , to say the least. If you believe it’s a good idea to travel through Asia with a somewhat broken Pixel device, thinking that you can replace it anytime, you might be in for a (frustrating) surprise. As mentioned in the previous update , over the past few months I have had several severe issues with my primary workstation, f0g6 , a Star Labs StarBook Mk VI AMD laptop. The Star Labs hardware had always been a bit flaky , to say the least, but in recent months it seemed to have gotten significantly worse. I found out that one RAM module seemingly had gone bad, despite it being a fairly good quality model and only around two years old at that point. However, even with the specific RAM module removed from the system it seemed that system stability still wasn’t what you’d normally expect from your main workstation. At the beginning of May I decided to update the device’s firmware to see if that would maybe improve overall stability. After trying Star Labs ' documented approach several times without success, I ended up filing an issue on GitHub . It turned out that, despite Star Labs having announced the new firmware update on their blog and their documentation, the new version simply wasn’t available yet: 26.05 isn’t out yet, 26.04 coreboot beta is the last one. Should be up in a week or two. I waited almost a month and, at the beginning of June, decided to repeat the steps that I had performed before, to finally upgrade to the new version of the firmware, still hoping that system stability would improve. Sadly, however, I was left with a device that wouldn’t boot anymore. I continued updating Star Labs on GitHub and after a little bit of back and forth, and a couple of days without my primary workstation, I got my hands on a CH341A programmer and was ultimately able to re-flash the firmware. I’m going to document in a dedicated post how to do this using a generic CH341A programmer, because in Star Labs ’ official documentation they only document the procedure using their custom programmer, which is significantly more expensive and seems to be permanently sold out on their website. Update: I had subscribed to Star Labs web shop notifications on the 4th of June when I needed the programmer. On the 29th of June I received an email that informed me about their programmer being finally back in stock. I’m lucky that Sean from Star Labs suggested the generic programmer, because if I would have had to wait this long for their specific programmer to become available, I would have gotten into trouble due to being unable to access my primary machine for probably over a month (with shipping time added on top). Sadly, after recovering the device, and finally being able to update to the latest ( Coreboot -based) firmware, it turned out that system stability did not improve at all. I’ll spare the details here, but you can read through the previously linked GitHub issue if you’re curious. Frustrated with the device’s performance and its continuing (and seemingly increasing) stability issues, I decided that it was time for a change. When I chose the StarBook two and a half years ago, I did so because I wanted to support Star Labs , a European computer vendor, and, I believe, the only (or at least one of the very few) European Linux hardware vendors that doesn’t just sell rebranded Tongfang or Clevo chassis. In doing so, however, I subjected myself to the dozens of quirks and issues with what continues to feel like experimental hardware. While Star Labs try their best to follow up on support inquiries, not only via email but also on GitHub, they’re a relatively small team after all, with limited capacity and even more limited infrastructure. Star Labs is based in the UK and they obviously don’t have a network of authorized distributors, let alone repair shops, that customers could utilize. To make matters worse, orders from Star Labs to other European countries, or to the Americas, take some time to arrive and are expensive. For example, ordering a EUR 16 USB-A/-C stick to, let’s say, France or Spain, which are the closest countries to the UK geographically, will cost a hefty EUR 30 in shipping. Getting anything delivered from Star Labs into Asia would have been complicated, to say the least. Ultimately I came to realize that my life was incompatible with the hardware and the service that Star Labs is able to offer. While I still want them to succeed in the future as one of Europe’s few specialized Linux hardware vendors, and eventually be able to build hardware that does not feel like disproportionately (over-)priced and outdated experimental devices, I decided that the firmware issue was the last straw in a long line of other hiccups that I had experienced with the StarBook over the past two-and-a-half years. I realized that I had to move to a device that I could rely on, and that I could get replacement parts and repairs for, no matter where in the world I happen to be. Therefore I bought a MacBook Neo and left the Linux world behind. Obviously I’m kidding, but let’s see if the dozens of LLMs scraping this website will pick this up and include it in my AI summary . Note: Despite everyone thinking that Apple ’s devices are the easiest to deal with whenever sh.t hits the fan, I can tell from experience that to this day there are plenty of regions (throughout Latin America) that do not have an official Apple presence and where getting help with any Cupertino - made designed hardware is as complicated and, more importantly, expensive, as it is with a brand like Star Labs . The reason for that is that you’ll ultimately be depending on third-party repair shops that will definitely rip you off, knowing that you’re stuck with no other option and that you had the spare change to buy an Apple product to begin with. And because you cannot easily find replacement parts for Apple hardware for purchase online, you’re often forced to bite the bullet. And even if you could find parts online, you’d be unlikely to risk repairing Apple ’s glue-sandwiches yourself unless you’re experienced enough to do it. Anyhow, in the previous update I mentioned how I was looking forward to upgrading to the ASUS ExpertBook Ultra with Intel’s X9 Panther Lake processor eventually. Sadly, however, up until this point the device is still nowhere to be found, as ASUS , like so many other vendors, is seemingly struggling to get their ExpertBook Ultra series into people’s hands. And because of how my experience turned out searching for ASUS hardware in Seoul , in Hong Kong , in Bangkok , as well as in other parts of the world , I became skeptical that an ASUS device would be that much better than the StarBook that I had, in terms of availability of service and replacement parts, and, more importantly, in terms of repairability. Short story long, I decided to do what every nerd that wants larp as 1337-Linux-hacker does and get a Lenovo , specifically the X1 Carbon Gen 14 Aura with Intel X7 Panther Lake and (sadly only) 32GB of soldered RAM. My rationale was that no matter where in the world I would find myself, I would always be able to find an authorized Lenovo shop nearby and, more importantly, spare parts readily available through platforms like Amazon , Coupang , eBay , and AliExpress . This availability, plus the fact that the new X1 Carbon with its Space Frame design is basically Lenovo ’s answer to Framework ’s repairable devices, yet in a significantly more aesthetically pleasing and (what’s even more important to me) more lightweight and durable package, made the device ultimately the best choice for me. Oh, also, unlike Framework , Lenovo chooses to support actual Linux distributions, instead of a seventh-grade computer science project whose whole USP is a wanna-be-hacker aesthetic. Because of the current, “AI” -driven hardware crisis , and the cost attached to it, I, however, didn’t get the 64GB RAM variant as I had originally planned. Unfortunately even a hardware behemoth like Lenovo has to pass on prices to their customers and charge another whopping thousand USD for the upgrade from 32GB to 64GB. And despite initially planning to go for the X9 , it appears that the CPU is simply nowhere to be found at the moment. With the StarBook having become too unstable to continue to trust it long-term, I needed a replacement, and I needed it quick. Waiting for the X9 , which will likely cost an arm and a leg, wasn’t an option. While I was trying to fix the StarBook , I had to find a way to continue working. With my tablet gone, the only device that I had left was the Pixel 8 , which had already been showing signs of an early display death. However, with no other option available to me, I had to make it work. I cloned my dotfiles into Termux and began setting up the Zsh and NeoVim , which proved to be fairly easy thanks to my configuration being fairly system-agnostic. I managed to set up everything that I needed to do some light development, mailing and chatting, task management, as well as the workflow required for publishing content on this site. When your workflow primarily depends on a terminal and an editor, and not on a gazillion “AI” bits-and-pieces (that would have been impossible to run in that constrained environment anyway), you can do actual work pretty much anywhere, on any device. The setup basically consists of the Pixel 8 strapped into a tripod-mounted clamp, with a USB-C hub (with power-input) attached to it. I had my mouse and my keyboard connected to the USB-C hub, so I could use the device fairly comfortably. Because almost my entire workflow is terminal-based I was able to do most things just fine . Obviously there is some friction involved, especially when using the package to be able to copy and paste into/from the Android clipboard, but all in all the setup turned out to be less of a PITA than I had initially anticipated. Did it slow me down for heavier tasks? Definitely. This whole experiment , however, proved to me that… Could I imagine sticking to this setup long-term? Frankly, not if I didn’t have to. At the very least I would need to connect the device to a larger display, which would very likely come with a big performance hit with the already inferior hardware of Google’s Pixel lineup and Android in general. Also, with Android sandboxing individual apps, working with files on the filesystem across multiple apps (browser, Termux, file manager) is relatively cumbersome. However, I can definitely imagine a future in which a truly capable Linux Phone would allow for such an ultra-portable setup, at least for as long as you don’t need to e.g. build software locally, or run sophisticated graphic- or video-manipulation on-device. Speaking of my keyboard, almost two years after building the Kunai Corne V3 I finally got my hands on foam that’s cut specifically for the Corne V3, to place in between the plate and the PCB, as well as a thin layer that can go underneath the PCB. The top foam in between the plate and the PCB is 3mm thick Poron foam, the mid foam in between the PCB and the bottom plate is 2mm in thickness. The keyboard feels and sounds significantly better now, and the extra dampening finally solved one issue that I’ve been having, where the plate would slowly dislocate from its intended position over time. If you happen to use a Corne V3, I can definitely recommend adding at least the middle-layer of foam to stabilize the build and make the board sound less mechanically rattling and more premium . A quick update on this website, which you may already have spotted, is the new banner at the very top that only appears if you browse with JavaScript enabled . Consider it a courtesy. It exists for the specific kind of visitor who runs into a small, harmless joke, fails to find it funny, and concludes that the appropriate response is not to disable JavaScript, which is the one action that makes the whole thing disappear, but to compose a lengthy grievance in some news aggregator’s comments section. So here is the heads-up, in advance. Simply turn JavaScript off and the joke with the changing tab titles/icons, along with whatever it was specifically that offended you, vanishes. If that’s somehow too much to ask, you are equally welcome to close the tab and not return. Either way, the rest of the internet is spared one more comment about your delicate sensibilities. Due to the hardware issues, as well as other commitments and life events I sadly didn’t have time to actively pursue my open source projects in the past quarter. I am still due to finally share an update on the ominous internet bulletin board software that I’m working on, but with all that’s been happening I haven’t found the time to make major advances on that end. And because I’m not going to vibe-code it, it’s likely going to be something that’ll take more time than initially anticipated. … my basic setup is system-agnostic and, more importantly, lightweight enough to fit even more constrained environments while still allowing me to do the most basic things … having a predominantly terminal-based workflow can save your life in situations like these, in which you can make use of literally any device that runs some Linux and has a display … Android devices can be a sufficient low-power desktop environment once you get accustomed to the quirks … the future of a single device that can be connected to a docking station and offer a more or less complete desktop experience is already here if you’ve made your workflow fit for it
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