Latest Posts (20 found)
Kev Quirk 1 weeks ago

Using Fountain Pens for Note Writing

My note taking process has evolved a lot over the years. Originally I used my iPad with the Apple pencil, but having to charge it every few days was a pain. Then I switched to the Remarkable 2 , which was great and I didn't need to charge the pen. But as I produced more and more notes, it became awkward to search for them. Unfortunately, handwriting to text, and handwriting search both require a monthly subscription. Screw that. So I switched to the Supernote Nomad , which (in my opinion) has better tooling for finding notes than the Remarkable. I mentioned this in my how do you take notes post. I created a new system for taking notes, and it worked well. It still had it's frustrations, but I could generally find what I was looking for on the Nomad. Then I started writing the occasional journal entry, and for that I decided I needed a physical book and fountain pen. I don't know why, it just felt more personal and more permanent doing it that way. Being left-handed, fountain pens can be difficult, so I got myself a Lamy Safari with a left-handed nib. It writes lovely, especially for the ~£25 ($30) price. So I got myself another one and put red ink in so I can "highlight" certain notes in my journal. It is a really nice experience, and as my journal entries mount up, I can easily flip between pages. And then it dawned on me...it's not the technology that I'm using for notes that's the problem. It's the fact that I'm using technology in the first place! As a test, I dug out an old notebook that we got a freebie from work (it's a really nice one - I figured nice paper would help) and started using my Lamy for note taking in work too. Using a slightly adapted version of my note taking system, it's been glorious! Flipping back through physical pages and easily finding my notes for a particular day has been very refreshing. Everything is in my notebook now, and I rarely use OneNote as a result. I decided to go all in, I sold my Nomad back in January and haven't looked back since. The Lamy is a nice pen, but I wanted something a bit more substantial (and made of metal) as the pen gets a lot of punishment being bashed around in my bag all day. I was happy to spend more money, but didn't want to go crazy, so I ended up buying a Kaweco AL Sport in a lovely stonewashed blue colour. Unfortunately Kaweco don't offer a specific left-handed nib, but I've found it to be nicer to write with than the Lamy anyway. It doesn't scratch as much - not that the Lamy is particularly scratchy, but the Kaweco is soooo smooth. I realised that my main frustration with both the Nomad and the Remarkable is that there's a 1-2 second delay on every screen change, so if I need to flip back 10 pages, that's like half a minute of pissing about. Half a minute doesn't sound like a lot, but I can flip back 10, or even a hundred pages in my notebook in a second. It just feels smoother. My note taking system now surrounds the specific paper I have in this fancy notebook from work (wide ruled lines, and a side margin) and I can't find anything else that's the same. Everything I find is either shitty quality paper, narrower lines, or no margin. Luckily for me, I've been able to find some spares hang around the office, so I have a cache of half a dozen or so, which should last me a few years. I'm totally converted to analogue note taking at this point, and I really enjoy the process of writing with the fountain pens. I just need to force myself not succumb to my constant desire to start collecting things - as I don't need 50 fountain pens, just like I don't need 50 watches... but I have them ! This post kinda went all over the place, sorry about that. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .

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Kev Quirk 2 weeks ago

Is Bitwarden preparing for a sale?

by Jan-Lukas Else Jan-Lukas writes about the warning signs that Bitwarden might be heading for a private equity sale. The irony is that founder built Bitwarden because he didn't trust what happened when LastPass got acquired. Read post ➡ I saw this on the fedi this morning and it made me let out a big sigh. I was an early adopter of Bitwarden, having used it for nearly 10 years at this point, after LastPass were acquired by LogMeIn . If this does come to fruition (I really hope it doesn't) I'm not sure what I'd do. My wife and I have a family account and share many credentials, so whatever I potentially flip to would need to be super simple to use, like Bitwarden. The fact that Bitwarden is so simple yo use, yet so secure , is a testament to how good of a product it really is. So I'd rather not jump ship. In the Fast Company post that Jan-Lukas links to, there's a quote following an email from Bitwarden's "chief customer officer", Gary Orenstein, saying: Orenstein says via email that Bitwarden is not seeking a buyer, and that Sullivan’s [new CEO] appointment “reflects a continued focus at Bitwarden on scaling the business and serving customers globally.” That gives me some hope, but it could also be corporate bullshit - let's be honest, it wouldn't be the first time. I'm not going to make any rash decisions though. I get a tonne of use from Bitwarden, so I don't want to move unless I have to. Even if they are sold, I'd have to consider my options once I know who they've potentially been sold to. For now it's business as usual for me and my password manager. Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .

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Kev Quirk 2 weeks ago

Replacing my ISP router with a UniFi Cloud Gateway Max

So I recently upgraded my home internet to full fibre, after which I also decided to upgrade my router as there were some things I wanted to do with my network that my ISP-provided router wasn't capable of. I replaced my mesh system with a UniFi one a couple years ago, so it made sense to stick with the UniFi brand and go with one of their routers, so £250 later, I had a Cloud Gateway Max on its way to me. I figured this would be a straightforward process, but my god was I wrong! So I took a backup of my Cloud Key 1 config and figured I could unplug that, plug in the Cloud Gateway, restore the config and be done. I assumed there would be a couple things I needed to tweak, but for the most part, it would be a simple 10 minute job. You see, dear reader, in order to configure the Cloud Gateway you need an internet connection. No internet connection, no configuration. So by unplugging my ISP router -thus killing the internet to my entire house - I couldn't even get to the point where I could enter my ISP credentials, let alone configure the bloody thing. Without the internet connection all I could configure was the IP and MAC of the router. Absolutely pointless! There may be a way of doing this without an internet connection, but I couldn't find it and it certainly wasn't obvious. So I had to reconnect my old rig - the ISP router, the Cloud Key, and access points. Then I hung the Cloud Gateway off the ISP router so it could get an internet connection. Luckily this worked and I was finally able to configure the thing. After which I disconnected the Cloud Key, assuming the access points would all fail over to the Cloud Gateway when I restored the config backup from the Cloud Key. You see, the config back from the Cloud Key is a completely different file format ( ) to what the Cloud Gateway was expecting ( ). What the actual fuck! Soooooo back online went the Cloud Key, and I had to remove all 4 access points from there, just so I could "adopt" them with the Cloud Gateway. Then I had to manually setup my SSIDs and DHCP so it all matched the old rig. But finally, after 3 hours of fucking around, a job that I thought would take 10 minutes was done. UniFi is really good kit and has lots of features, but I don't understand why it has to be so difficult to set up. It feels like UniFi is the Apple of the networking world - they do everything they can to keep you in their ecosystem and up sell. Want our wifi? You're gonna need one of our routers, or this arbitrary piece of hardware for that. Oh you want to move an AP to a new management device? Yeah, you can't just move it - you need to do these 5 steps instead. Had I not already spent over a thousand pound on this UniFi kit, I would have chucked it all on eBay and gone with something else, but alas WiFi Apple has me in their walled garden! Anyway, it was a painful process, but it's working. And to be fair to UniFi, once it is all setup, it's rock solid and feature rich. I won't be upgrading again any time soon though, that's for sure! Now I just need to familiarise myself with all the nifty features the Cloud Gateway offers, so I can improve my network. Fun times! A Cloud Key is a stupid piece of hardware that is needed in lieu of a UniFi router. It controls the wireless access points.  ↩ Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment . A Cloud Key is a stupid piece of hardware that is needed in lieu of a UniFi router. It controls the wireless access points.  ↩

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Kev Quirk 2 weeks ago

Upgrading My Home Internet to Full Fibre

As many regular readers know, we live in the North Wales countryside, which means it can take time to get the latest and greatest when it comes to technology. As a result, we were previously "limited" to FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) which had a max speed of 70Mbps. As a result, we got okay internet speeds: But then I saw the ISP vans in the village, and I asked them what they were doing - "oh, we're upgrading the village to full fibre" she said. I had to have it! As soon as FTTP (fibre to the premises) was available, I placed the order with my ISP (who offered me a great deal that's only £5 per month more), and this is the result: In all honesty, I haven't noticed the difference. We didn't have any buffering issues when watching things like Netflix or Apple TV, so I'm not really sure why I upgraded in hindsight. I thought it would be this incredible difference where my internet would then be rapid, but the truth is, it's complete imperceptible. I remember when I upgraded from a 56k MODEM, to ~2Mbps broadband and it blew my mind. I was thinking this would be the same, but no. I do think the increased upload speed is going to come in handy when it comes to things like syncing my private git repos back to my Synology, but aside from that, there's not much in it. Had I paid full price (~£20 more per month) I don't think I'd have been too happy, but since I got a good deal, I'm not too bothered. Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .

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Kev Quirk 2 weeks ago

Hey you, start communicating!

by David Jamieson David talks about why it's good to reach out to authors when you read their content. Even if it's just to say hi. Read post ➡ Hard agree with David's comments here - he and I regularly exchange emails, actually. I try to reach out to authors whenever I read something that resonates with me. I'll also try to share their work via posts like this too. For me, blogging is the original social network; just because we're on our own spaces doesn't mean we can't be socially connected. That's why I offer comments, and a reply by email link on all posts, including my RSS feed. So yeah, start communicating! 🙃 Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .

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Kev Quirk 3 weeks ago

I'm off GitHub

Ok, that's it. I'm officially off GitHub. First I moved all of my private repos to my Synology, which was extremely easy to do. I did that around a week or so ago and it's be working great. Then I had to start sorting and moving all my public repos to Codeberg . Many were archived as I no longer maintained the projects, which left me with just 7 actual repos that I needed to move. Pure Blog/Comments and Simple.css were the most challenging as they all had other people who relied on them, but I managed to get them moved with a little bit of messing around. The others were super simply, I used Codeberg's migration tool to migrate the repos over, the ran a command locally to point my repos to a new target: That's it! Repo migrated. It's fine . And I don't mean that negatively - there's a lot less going on in the UI than on GitHub, but everything is still familiar and similarly laid out. There's been almost zero learning curve moving from GitHub to Codeberg, so props to the Codeberg team for that. I've applied for a Coderberg membership as I think it's important to support the open source projects we use, so hopefully that will be approved soon. Overall I'm very happy with the move. All the old GitHub repos have had their files updated to point to Codeberg, and they too have been archived. So that's one less piece of big tech I need to rely on. Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .

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Kev Quirk 3 weeks ago

My Inital Thoughts On Thunderbird Pro

Yesterday I received an email from the Thunderbird team inviting me to join a preview of their new hosted email service, Thunderbird Pro . I love email, so was very keep to sign up and test it out. Before we get into this, I want to say that Thunderbird Pro is still under active development, please bear that in mind. Also, these are just my opinions, please don't get butthurt. I hate it when people explain what things are in a blog post, but I think it's warranted here since Thunderbird Pro (TB Pro) is a new product, so people may not know what it is. With that in mind, TB Pro is a hosted email service by the Thunderbird team that includes email, contacts, calendar, secure file sending, and an appointment system that lets people book time with you. It costs $6/month (paid yearly) and for that you get: So here's my thoughts - of which I have many, so I'll just list them out, then pick a few to talk about in more detail. Otherwise this will be a very long post. I think the lack of webmail is a huge miss. Every email hosting service I can think of comes with webmail - many people access their mail on desktop via the browser, so I'd have liked to see that up front. Having said that, maybe that's not the market Thunderbird are going for with this service. If so, maybe a lack of webmail is fine. I'd prefer to have the flexibility to check my mail from anywhere though. I don't understand the 15 alias and 3 domain limitation. They cost nothing - they're just a line in a config file. Plus, adding a catch-all allows you to both send and receive email to/from , which renders the alias limit even more pointless. I'd like to see these limitations removed. The Appointment feature lets people book time with you directly. Think Calendly , baked into your email service. If you're a freelancer or consultant who lives and dies by booking links, that's probably a nice convenience. For everyone else, it's likely redundant. Those who need it probably have a solution already, and those who don't will just ignore it. I'm in the latter camp, so there's no value for me. Thundermail Appointments Unfortunately I couldn't test the Send service. On the dashboard it says: To use Send, you must enable it in Thunderbird Desktop. Download the app and sign in to Thunderbird Pro from the Thunderbird menu. For the life of me I couldn't find an option for Send within Thunderbird, so I couldn't test. Shame. I'm using the Flatpak, which is currently on v140.10.1, and I see v150 is out, so that may be why. But the Flatpak is maintained by the Thunderbird team, so I would have expected this to all be sorted before the allowed paying customers to get their hands on Pro . There is a support card on the Send dashboard, with an option to get help. Clicking that opens the Thunderbird docs in a new tab, showing nothing but a notice box containing . So something is broken. Speaking of broken things, there were a number of other ugly UI notices and warning elements that displayed while getting set up. It just lacks polish, which I would have expected to be ironed out by the time consumers are getting their hands on it. If I'm honest, my first impressions are underwhelming. I get that this is an early preview but for the price, services like Zoho and Fastmail are better services, and better value for money. I don't regret signing up though - it's important to support open source services, and as Thunderbird Pro matures, it will hopefully evolve into a service that can contend with the OG's in this space. If it does, I'll consider moving over fully. But for now, I'm considering my subscription a donation to Thunderbird, as I'm a very happy user of their email app. Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment . 30 GB of mail storage 60 GB of Send storage 15 Email aliases 3 custom domains No webmail, it's being worked on though . Was easy to setup on the Thunderbird app - just had to login (my Zoho mail account auto-detects server settings, so not much harder though). Doesn't configure aliases automatically in Thunderbird. Prompts to add calendar and contacts via a single click when setting up in Thunderbird. That was a nice touch. No way to export all DNS records as a zone file when adding a custom domain. I think the 15 alias/3 domain limit is arbitrary and pointless. If you setup a catch-all for a custom domain, you can send from which negates the 15 alias limitation. Appointments app is weird. Couldn't work out how to setup Send in Thunderbird. Admin UI is clunky and has a number of UI issues. No option to add additional mailboxes (understandable as this is a preview). 30GB is way too much storage for me. I'd like to see smaller, cheaper tiers.

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Kev Quirk 4 weeks ago

Thoughts on Leaving GitHub

I've read a few posts about people leaving GitHub recently, and following my short note to the Fediverse a number of people have piped up saying they're not fans of GitHub, either. From the reading I've done, these frustrations are usually threefold: In all honesty, none of the factors above really bother me that much. I think that's because I don't rely on GitHub for anything significant. I'm not a professional software developer, so my livelihood doesn't depend on it. As for Copilot being trained on open source software, and them repeatedly ignoring the GPL to do so, it does irk me, but I kind of expect shit like this from Microsoft at this point. I went into using GitHub assuming that any code I upload there can (and probably will) be used for shitty stuff. But even that isn't enough in isolation to put me off GitHub. The way I see it is that public code is for the public, and if Microsoft want to use my code in that way, while not ideal, doesn't piss me off that much. So why think about moving at all? Well, for me it's about reliance on big tech. I'm trying to reduce it where possible, but the social and "centre of mass" aspects of GitHub are giving me pause. For example, the Simple.css repo has a whopping 5,000 stars! Do I really want to lose that visibility? Buuuuuuuuuut, I can always redirect any popular repos to another platform, just like I did with 512KB Club when I handed that to Brad . Plus, let's be honest, it's all just popularity bullshit. It doesn't really mean anything. What's important is that the code is readily available for people to use. It's like leaving Facebook - when I was thinking about it, I was worried if I'd miss my friends or be out the loop. It's been over a decade at this point and I don't miss it one bit - no regrets whatsoever. I think moving off of GitHub would be the same. I plan to slowly start migrating public repositories over to Codeberg so that all my projects are hosted there. I'll also use it as an opportunity to archive off any old repos that I no longer need. Codeberg also supports logging in with GitHub and Gitea, so anyone who contributes to my projects on GitHub, should be able to do so easily in Codeberg too. Then, for my private repos (of which there are many that host personal projects) I've installed Synology's Git server on my Synology, and have been playing with that for a few days. It works extremely well, so all my private repos will live there, safe and sound, away from Microsoft's greasy mitts. Ultimately it's personal choice. For me it's about reducing my reliance on big tech, but also making my private repos more private. I won't be deleting my GitHub account though, as I think it will be important to use as a marker for anyone who wants to find my source code when it moves. Have you thought about leaving GitHub? Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment . Microsoft ownership Microsoft training Copilot on open source software Large amounts of downtime

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Kev Quirk 4 weeks ago

My Fear of Flying

I was recently reading The Long Ride Home by Nathan Millward and at one point in the book he talks about having to get on a plane, and his fear of flying: This was something I would have loved to have avoided [getting on a plane], my fear of flying (I think) born out of the absence of control you have up there. Everything in the hands of someone else, just sit there, hoping nothing bad happens because if it does I couldn't imagine anything worse than in that moment of free-fall thinking of all the things you should and could have done in life, as now it's too late to put things right or learn from your mistakes. Your time has come, and now it's gone. Though I suppose this is a fear of regret, as much as it is of flying. -- Nathan Millward This really resonated me, and for someone who flies semi-regularly for work, it often surprises people when I tell them I have a fear of flying. I dunno, maybe fear is too strong of a word, but it definitely makes me feel very uncomfortable. Especially if there's turbulence. Like Nathan, I think it's a loss of control. Yes yes, I know, I'm far more likely to hurt myself on my motorbikes , or in a car crash. But the difference is, if I have an accident in the car, or on a bike, I'm somewhat in control and there's a fair chance (especially in the car) that I will come out of it with only minor injuries . On the other hand, if I'm in a plane crash, I'm very likely to die in the most horrific way possible, and that absolutely terrifies me. This is often compounded by the fact that a lot of the travel I do is transatlantic, so I'm over a huge body of water. Brilliant. God knows I've tried! I've done the British Airways flying with confidence course, which gave me more knowledge, but hasn't really helped with my anxiety. I've tried sleeping pills, but all the over-the-counter ones in the UK are shite and do absolutely nothing for me. They don't even make me drowsy. A couple of people have recommended sedatives, but that gives me the ick. Not only would it be illegal, I have no idea what they would do to me. No thanks. I think I'm destined to be an uneasy flyer and just have to get on with it. I'm due to go to the States again in a few weeks, and as per usual, the anxiety is starting to bubble in my gut. If any of you have tips, I'd love to hear them! Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .

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Kev Quirk 1 months ago

Who knows that you blog?

by David Jamieson David talks about his reluctance to share details about his blog with a colleague, and asks whether other people with blogs tell their friends and family. Read post ➡ I saw this post in my RSS reader this morning, followed by a reply from Alex , so I thought I'd add my own opinion to the mix. I'm similar to David and Alex - I'm not forthcoming with the fact that I have a blog, but I don't hide it either. I think that's mainly because most of my friends and family won't really care about what I write here, so it's a pointless exercise. I know there are a couple of friends who read what I write regularly, and I'm not sure how they came across my blog - like I said, I don't advertise it. Having said that, my real name is Kev Quirk, so if anyone who knows me searches for my name, I imagine this blog would be close to, if not the , top hit. When people ask me about my hobbies, I tend to say "I enjoy writing" rather than "I have a blog." And I think that's because of the negative connotations blogging has with the general public. I think some people tend to put "bloggers" in the same bucket as influencers , or podcasters . Which isn't the case - many of us bloggers have no aspirations of influencing anything, we just like to share out thoughts on a medium we control. If it comes up in conversation though, I'll nonchalantly say that I have a blog. Anyway, that's my response. Who knows that you blog? Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .

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Kev Quirk 1 months ago

Stop Ubuntu Resetting Your Icon Theme When Toggling Dark Mode

The Papirus icon theme is my favourite - I've used it for years and it continues to work beautifully. So while I've been rebuilding my Framework 13 , it was one of the first things I installed. But there's a problem, dear reader. You see, I'm a proud light mode person, but I regularly switch to dark mode when working in the evening. However, Ubuntu has this silly bug where it switches back to the default Yaru icon theme whenever one switches between light and dark mode. On my previous machine I had a cronjob running every minute that simply checked the theme and switched it to Papirus if it was Yaru. That worked fine, but wasn't the most elegant solution. So, this time I did more research and came up with a slightly more elegant fix workaround. Ok, it's pretty simple. It consists of a small script that runs whenever Ubuntu flips between light/dark mode, then 0.2 seconds later, switches the icon theme back. Far from perfect, but it's better than a script that runs every minute the machine is running. To do this, create a new script at with the following contents: You need to make the script executable, so run this next: Next thing is create a file that tells GNOME to automatically start the script when we log in: Remember to change on the line to whatever your Ubuntu username is. That's it! Log out, and back in again, and the script should be doing it's thing in the background. So the next time you switch between light and dark mode, your fancy-pants icon theme should persist. Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .

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Kev Quirk 1 months ago

Update #2 on the Framework Saga

In case you hadn't heard (it's all I've been going on about for a couple weeks, so you probably have heard - sorry) I spilled coffee on my Framework 13 , then after lots of testing and cleaning, I confirmed that the main board was dead . The new main board was delivered this morning, so I went ahead and got it fitted to the chassis. Problem is, I'd pissed about the partitions on the 2TB NVMe so I could dump my install on the 1TB NVMe in my new ThinkPad T480 . I tried booting up and fixing the 2TB NVMe, but it was screwed, so I cut my losses and went for a re-install of Ubuntu 24.04 instead. I'm aware that Ubuntu 26.04 LTS has been released, but I prefer to wait for the first point release before upgrading. After 10 minutes or so, the plucky little Framework was alive! So I spent most of the day (on my day off) configuring the fresh Ubuntu install back to how I had it before. Luckily the ThinkPad is working great, so I could use that as a reference to get everything pretty much exactly the same. After 3 or so hours work, we're back up and running with all my apps, data, and config restored. While setting up the laptop, I noticed that there was an issue with the screen. At first I thought it was just some residue from coffee-gate, but on closer inspection it looks like the bottom corner has somehow de-laminated. I know this wasn't caused by the coffee spillage, as the stain would be brown. Plus the laptop would smell. I'm wondering if it's some isopropyl alcohol, or contact cleaner, from when I cleaned it out. The only other explanation is that it has de-laminated due to the heat in the conservatory, but I doubt it. It doesn't get that hot in there, and it's only April. This is the second problem I've had with screens on the Framework. The bottom of the screen de-laminated just a week after I got the laptop . I thought it was a fluke, and Framework support sent me a replacement immediately, but this has me thinking that the screens just aren't that good. Can anyone else who has a Framework 13 confirm if they've had issues with the 2880x1920 display? Anyway, this is the last update in the saga. For all intents and purposes the Framework is now repaired. I'm waiting to hear back from Framework support to see if they have any recommendations, but if not, I'll probably have to buy a new screen too. It's lovely to be back typing this post on the Framework. I've really missed this laptop, and the typing experience. Geez this has been one expensive mistake! Take note, people - if you drink coffee around your computers, keep a lid on the cup! Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .

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Kev Quirk 1 months ago

Why Is Everything Proprietary These Days?

After 10 years of loyal service, the motorbike jacket that I wear most often gave up the ghost recently and ripped. Being a piece of protective clothing, a rip isn't a good thing, so I've been shopping around for a replacement. But you see, motorbike jackets are complex, heavy garments that are littered with protective pads. They used to come with back protectors too, but it was later decided that these were too expensive, so you had to buy one separately. No problem, they're standardised so you buy a good one and it can last you decades. There's just a big void in the back of the jacket with a number of velcro patches that any back protector will cling to. That's what I have in my old jacket, and I assumed it was still the same now. So today I bought myself a new jacket. It cost me £380 (on sale!) but you can't put a price on safety, right? I also have protective trousers that zip to my jacket all the way around my waist. But the zip on my new jacket isn't compatible with the zip on my old trousers (how the fuck can a ZIP be incompatible??) so I bought the matching trousers for the new jacket, costing another £300. So now I'm £650 lighter in the bank, but I have good quality motorbike clothing that should last me another decade. This evening I went to swap the back protector from my old jacket to the new, only to find that many manufacturers now have brand-specific pads for their clothing that sit in perfectly sculpted pockets. The specific back protector (which is a bit of rubber with some holes in it) for my jacket is fifty fucking pounds. So now I'm at £700. Fifty quid's worth of rubber, apparently Fuck that. I've bought a generic (but good quality) one, and I'll cut it to size. Whether it's phones, social networks, communication platforms, printer ink, laptop chargers, smart home systems, games consoles, coffee machines, electric toothbrush heads, camera batteries, or fucking motorbike jacket back protectors. Nothing is interchangeable. It seems that every day another piece of standardisation is being washed away, and we as consumers need to make our choices, invest, and stick to a brand. You can switch, but it's gonna cost ya! It's fucking ridiculous. Over and over again we get shafted, and there's not a single thing we can do about it. I'm so tempted to take the jacket back for a refund, but what do I do then? I need a jacket for riding. I'd be screwed. Fuck bike jacket manufacturers that do this. Fuck vendor lock-in. Fuck. This. Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .

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Kev Quirk 1 months ago

ThinkPad T480 Initial Thoughts

Since my Framework had a coffee bath , I've been using a ThinkPad T480 that I picked up from eBay for £285 ($385). This has been my main laptop for a few days now, and I have some thoughts, so I thought I'd share them since I've read mixed reviews on these plucky little laptops - everything from: They're the best laptops in the world, EVARRRRR! They're overrated and overpriced - stop buying them! My opinion is that the T480 is somewhere in the middle of these 2 opinions. Let's just in... Like I said, I paid £285 for this laptop, which was listed as very good condition - refurbished" . And I agree - the condition of the laptop is very good, especially considering it's been a corporate laptop and is 8 years old at this point. It came with a 14" 1080p screen, 16GB RAM, a Core I5-8250U CPU (4 core, 8 thread @ 3.4GHz), a 256GB NVMe, and Windows 11 (which was promptly removed). I had a 1TB NVMe lying around, so I upgraded that first, and I've also bought a 32GB RAM upgrade costing an additional £70 ($95). The RAM upgrade hasn't been delivered yet, so these thoughts are based on 16GB RAM. My T480 (yes, those stickers needs to go) This laptop has bezels for days compared to my Framework, but that's to be expected. It's an old, utilitarian laptop - that didn't stop me getting a bit of a shock when I first cracked it open though. Now I've been using it a few days, the bezels don't bother me though. I've always liked ThinkPad keyboards, and this is no exception. It works great, and has lots of travel on the keys, which I always appreciate. It's not as nice as the keyboard on my Framework, but I think that's the best keyboard I've ever used, Macbook included. I'm not a fan of the textured finish that's all over this laptop though. It's on the case, on the keyboard, the trackpad, everywhere . It's like a slightly rubberised, gritty finish. It doesn't impact the functionality of the laptop, I'm just not a big fan of it. The keyboard is backlit too, which I appreciate. Honestly, I was expecting the battery to be crap on the T480, being second-hand. But I was so wrong! It came with an extended battery fitted, and on checking it over, it's only had 2 charge cycles, so it brand new. The battery will last all day, no problem at all. The other day I ran it for an entire working day, and at 15:00 it still had 61% charge left, with Ubuntu reporting another 6.5 hours of use remaining. That's incredible, in my opinion. Ubuntu runs perfectly on this - all drivers were discovered fine, and I managed to get the fingerprint reader working with just a little bit of DuckDuckGo-fu. Performance is good too. Everything feels snappy with no lag. Obviously it's not instant like on my Framework, but that thing is a powerhouse. Having said that, I could see myself using the T48 long-term without issue. I'm currently running Firefox, Spotify, Obsidian, VSCodium, and a few other bits. Here's how the Ubuntu System Monitor looks: So I'm using about half my RAM, and between 20-40% of the CPU. I don't need to upgrade the RAM, but it's nice to have the extra overhead in case I ever do need it. I'm not much of a gamer, but the T480 will consistently run Minecraft at 40ish FPS, which is fine, and honestly better than I expected. Overall I think the T480 was good value for money. It's in really good condition, performs well, and is almost as repairable as my Framework. I think this laptop still has years of life left in it, so will it sit in a drawer once the Framework is repaired? No, that would be a waste of both money, and a perfectly good laptop. My wife is currently using a 2014 X1 Carbon that I used for many years before switching to the Macbook M1 Air . The X1 is still going strong, but it's starting to struggle in its old age. Not to mention that my wife is still running Windows 10 on it! So once the Framework is repaired, I'll be giving this laptop to my wife where it should continue to provide solid service for years to come, all while being a nice upgrade for her. The X1 will get the latest version of Ubuntu installed on it, and will be put out to pasture as the spare laptop for the household. If you're on the fence about picking a T480 up, I'd say go for it. While they're no powerhouse, and won't win any beauty awards, they're a solid workhorse that still have many years of service left in them. I'm very happy with my purchase. Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .

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Kev Quirk 1 months ago

Update on My Coffee Ridden Framework 13

A week or so ago, I talked about how I might have killed my Framework 13 by dumping a full mug of coffee over it while it was running. In that last post I explained how I'd stripped the laptop down and was waiting for some isopropyl alcohol (IPA) to be delivered so I could more thoroughly clean it. Well dear reader, the IPA turned up, I cleaned it as best I could, and left it for 24 hours to dry off. The next day I came back to it, re-assembled it and hit the power button with a fair amount of trepidation. I think it's dead, Jim. And I can't help thinking that turning the laptop on in haste, after the first clean is what completely screwed it. Oh well, we live and learn. In my desperation, I contacted Framework support and explained the whole saga to see if there was anything I was missing. There wasn't. They told me that the LED pattern I was seeing when powered on was indicative of a communication error with the board, so it's dead and needed to be replaced. Problem is, a new board is £700 (~$950) and I didn't fancy shelling out that much money out of my own pocket, so I contacted my home insurance provider to make a claim, and to be fair they were great. A case was logged and a couple of days later I had a payout that would cover the whole amount. The payout from the insurance was more than the repair cost, so I decided to upgrade from my current Ryzen 7 7840, to an AI 300 series board instead - nice little upgrade! The Framework site said it would be shipped in 5 days, and would probably be subject to delays of a further 7 days due to global freight disruptions. So I bought myself a ThinkPad T480 to see me through (which I'm typing this post on) as I couldn't bear to be on MacOS for another second. Framework overachieved again and the board is due for delivery tomorrow (Friday 24th April 2026). Once the board is delivered and my beloved Framework is (hopefully) working again, this nice little ThinkPad will go to my wife as an upgrade from here 2014(!) Gen 2 X1 Carbon. I've had a few people reach out telling me that they'd done something similar and their device's had survived. Unfortunately I wasn't as lucky, so what happened? I think it's because I didn't spill the coffee on my laptop, but next to it. Then as the puddle of coffee made its way over my desk and inevitably under my laptop, the spinning fan must have sucked it up and perfectly spread the coffee all over the main board. Thanks for that. Stupid fan. 🤣️ Had I spilled the coffee on my laptop, it would have had to make its way through the keyboard and chassis before it got to the board, by which point I would have had the laptop switched off and draining. I can't say for sure, but that's my theory. So anyway, wish my luck with the new board, folks! Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .

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Kev Quirk 1 months ago

My Best Sub £100 Purchase

I was recently listening to an episode of The Idea Roastery about personal life gamechangers and toward the end of the episode, Herman asked Jason: What is the best purchase you've ever made for less than £100? For Jason is was an egg poacher, and for Herman it was a coffee grinder. This discussion got me thinking about what mine was, and I really wasn't sure at first. But after some thought, it hit me. It's my dog, Tia! She's getting old now, at nearly 14 years of age. But my wife and I got when she was 9 weeks old, after being taken from the litter at just 6 weeks old by some scumbag who ended up dumping her. She cost us £80, and for that £80 we've had years of love, affection, and friendship from her. She's definitely my game-changer. She's pretty cool too... I absolutely love everything about this dog. She's my best friend in the world. She's kind. She's gentle. She's the best at spooning too. Seriously, the best . As I look back at a life well lived and she heads into her twilight years, we know we don't have long left with her, but my goodness the years we have had have been incredible. So yeah, Tia is by far the best sub £100 I've ever spent, and probably will ever spend. Love you, T-bone. x Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .

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Kev Quirk 1 months ago

On AI Images and Feature Images in General

By Gordon Mclean Gordon stumbled across a post arguing that AI-generated featured images signals laziness, even if every word you write is your own, and it made him stop and think about his own blog. Read post ➡ This post piqued my interest, and surprise suprise, I have opinions. 🙃 I've spoken about my opinions on AI and image generation before and my opinion hasn't changed on that. I have, however, switched from ChatGPT to Claude, for reasons . Like I said in my previous post about AI, I don't think it creates art , but it can be useful for diagrams and some imagary. I listed some examples of my usage in that post, go take a look . For feature images, I think it's fine , I suppose. I don't think it has a bearing on the writer's ability to write good content thought. I think most people can spot AI-generated prose these days. If my spider-sense starts tingling, I'll close the tab. But if I only see an AI-generated feature image, it's fine. I think images creation and the ability to write nice words are two different skills. Using AI to create a feature image doesn't tell me that the person has a particular lack of creativity, as creativity comes in many forms. Ask Brandon Sanderson to create the cover art for one of his books, and I imagine he'd struggle. Does that make him any less creative? No. It just means he's a creative writer , not a creative artist . For the record - I have no idea if Sanderson is good at drawing. It's just an example, okay. Please don't email saying "well ackchyually..." Would I do it? Probably not. But I don't see the point in feature images anyway. I stopped using them many years ago, as generally they add nothing to the post, and are more for the writer to make the post look pretty than anything else. So when I see these kinds of feature images, my first thought tends to be meh... and my assumption is that the writer probably didn't have the time, or lacked the skills, to create an image. I'd personally prefer they didn't add one at all if that's the case, but that's just me. Maybe we should all be a little less judgmental. 🤷🏼‍♂️ Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .

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Kev Quirk 1 months ago

I May Have Killed My Framework 13

I was in the office today, working away, and I often have my personal laptop, a Framework 13 next to me so I do things like check notes and emails, listen to music, etc. I reached over to grab something on the other side of my desk and managed to knock an entire fucking cup of coffee all over my beloved laptop. It immediately died, I assume because of some kind of safety net built into the device. I cleaned my desk up, and headed straight home to strip it down, clean it up, and dry it out. My first pass at cleaning removed a load of coffee with a combination of contact cleaner (which is a solvent suitable for electronics) and my little air compressor to blow it all out. I switched the laptop back on - it made a horrible noise, the screen flickered and it shut off. Next thing was to remove the mainboard to get deeper into the guts of the laptop. Shock horror, there was more coffee behind there too! So I repeated the cleaning process again, only this time a lot more thoroughly. Here's what it looks like now: I then found a few little spots of corrosion on the board. I'm really worried it was a result of the spillage on live components, and have therefore ruined the mainboard. So I took to DuckDuckGo to see what the best remedy is, and apparently it's isopropyl alcohol (IPA for short). I've ordered some for delivery tomorrow, and will continue cleaning it up to see if I can get this thing to live again. If not, I may have to buy a new mainboard (around £600). In the meantime I'm back on my M1 MacBook Air and I'm hating it. The operating system feels almost user hostile. I know it isn't, because I used to love it , but now I'm so used to using Linux again, this feels horrible. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to my Framework in the next couple days. Wish me luck! Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .

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Kev Quirk 1 months ago

I Wish I Could Talk to My Dad

My best friend lost his Dad yesterday. Understandably he's extremely upset, and I feel awful for him. I never know what to do in these situations - "how are you doing?" just feels such a stupid thing to say. Like it's nowhere near enough. Of course he isn't doing well, you fucking idiot! His loss has brought about feelings of loss following the death of my own Dad. Who we lost back in 2008 to cancer, when he was 47. Watching him just wither away was heartbreaking. Especially at the age of 23. Now, nearly 20 years on, I rarely get upset about the loss. I still think about him all the time, but seeing what my friend has been going through has jumped it right to the front of my mind. Especially since the loss of my sister is still so raw. I had a dream about my dad last night, the first I've had in a while. The dream was nothing special, I don't even fully remember what happened in it. But what I do vividly remember was that his voice wasn't right. And then I realised, I don't remember what my Dad's voice sounded like. I have no videos of him, and no recordings on his voice. For a year or so after he died, I used to call his phone as it would go straight to voicemail and I'd get to hear his voice. Eventually the line was cut though. I wish I'd recorded it, just to have something. I don't even have many photos of him. Most of them are from when I was a baby. I only have 1 photo of him and I as adults, which was taken on the day I passed out of basic training in the Army. LTR: My dad, me, my dad's dad. Not being able to remember his voice isn't the only reason I'd love to talk to him again. He was funny, and always made me belly laugh. He loved to sing too - and was bloody good at it! I'm also a very different person now than I was in 2008. I'd like for him to meet his grandsons, and I'd like to know what he thinks of the man I've turned into. He only met my (now) wife once or twice - he'd have loved her, and she'd have loved him. All very narcissistic, I know. Be he was my dad! Conversely, I'd love to know what kind of an old man he turned into. Would he still be as funny? Or would have turned into a grumpy old curmudgeon? Would we still go for a couple beers every Friday? Would he come here for barbecues in the summer? I'd have loved that. There's no real point to this post, really. These thoughts have just been spinning around my grey matter for the last few days, and I wanted to work through them, which I think I've done a pretty poor job of. So yeah, losing a loved one is shit. It never leaves you, and I feel horrendously sorry for my mate. I'll try and make the next one more positive... Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .

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Kev Quirk 1 months ago

Adding a Book Editor to My Pure Blog Site

Regular readers will know that I've been on quite the CMS journey over the years. WordPress, Grav, Jekyll, Kirby, my own little Hyde thing, and now Pure Blog . I won't bore you with the full history again, but the short version is: I kept chasing just the right amount of power and simplicity, and I think Pure Blog might actually be it. But there was one nagging thing. I have a books page that's powered by a YAML data file, which creates a running list of everything I've read with ratings, summaries, and the occasional opinion. It worked great, but editing it meant cracking open a YAML file in my editor and being very careful not to mess up the indentation. Not ideal. So I decided to build a proper admin UI for it. And in doing so, I've confirmed that Pure Blog is exactly what I wanted it to be - flexible and hackable. I added a new Books tab to the admin content page, and a dedicated editor page. It's got all the fields I need - title, author, genre, dates, a star rating dropdown, and a Goodreads URL. I also added CodeMirror editors for the summary and opinion fields, so I have all the markdown goodness they offer in the post and page editors. The key thing is that none of this touched the Pure Blog core. Not a single line. My new book list in Pure Blog A book being edited Pure Blog has a few mechanisms that make this kind of thing surprisingly clean: is auto-loaded after core, so any custom functions I define there are available everywhere — including in admin pages. I put my function here, which takes the books data and writes it back to the data file, then clears the cache — exactly like saving a normal post does. Again, zero core changes. is the escape hatch for when I do need to override a core file. I added both (where I added the Books tab) and (the new editor) to the ignore list , so future Pure Blog updates won't mess with them. It's a simple text file, one path per line. Patch what you need, ignore it, and move on. is where it gets a bit SSG-ish. The books page is powered by — a PHP file that loads the YAML, sorts it by read date, and renders the whole page. It's essentially a template, not unlike a Liquid or Nunjucks layout in Jekyll or Eleventy. Same idea for the books RSS feed . Using a YAML data file for books made more sense to me, rather than markdown files like a post or a page, as it's all metadata really. There's no real "content" for these entries. Put those three things together and you've got something pretty nifty. A customisable admin UI, safe core patching, and template-driven data pages — all without a plugin system or any framework magic. Bloody. Brilliant. I spent years chasing the perfect CMS, and a big part of what I was looking for was this . The ability to build exactly what I need without having to fight the platform, or fork it, or bolt on a load of plugins. With Kirby, I could do this kind of thing, but the learning curve was steep and the blueprint system took me ages to get my head around. With Jekyll/Hyde, I had the SSG flexibility, but no web-based CMS I could login to and create content - I needed my laptop. Pure Blog sits in a really nice middle ground — it's got a proper admin interface out of the box, but it gets out of the way when you want to extend it. I'm chuffed with how the book editor turned out. It's a small thing, but it's exactly what I wanted, and the fact that it all lives outside of core means I can update Pure Blog without worrying about losing any of it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some books to log. 📚 Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️ You can reply to this post by email , or leave a comment .

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