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Logging life in Tinderbox - Baty.net

2026-05-13T15:37:20.000Z

Dave wrote about his Captain's Log, into which he logs information "too trivial to remember, but too important to forget." It's a Tinderbox document.

A later post from Jacob Evans described his own "LifeBox" kept in Tinderbox.

These two posts resonated with me, as I've used Tinderbox for the same thing since 2008. See my post, Tinderbox as a Daybook, from that year.

Last year I revamped the Daybook and went all in.

I now call it my "LifeBook" and it's awesome.

My Tinderbox "LifeBook"

Unfortunately, I have been inconsistent in its use. I blame Emacs, and more recently, Linux. Tinderbox is macOS only, so my foray into using Linux has made me second guess using any tools that are Mac only. Even great ones like Tinderbox. Maybe it's time for a third guess.

Last week I started logging there again because I missed it. The posts from Dave and Jacob have inspired me to continue.

One thing that has always held me back is difficulty with managing files (images and PDFs) related to my notes. Tinderbox doesn't excel at file management, so I took what I learned from using org mode and tried Forging org-attach features into Tinderbox. It's a messy work in process, but it works. I'm only using it for PDFs, now, because Tinderbox's performance has improved and WebP images are quite small. It should be fine embedding those. If only tinderbox better handled paths relative to the current document, I wouldn't need all this. Oooh, or even if .tbx files could become bundles that automatically managed attachments. Maybe one day.

If I were to decide to stop using Tinderbox and use, say Org Mode instead, it's not a problem because Tinderbox's export features can get me anything I want out of it.

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Growing with my website - James' Coffee Blog

2026-05-13T00:00:00.000Z

At this evening’s Homebrew Website Club, I asked: What was the biggest change in our websites since we started them? This question was inspired in part by Paul saying something to the effect of how we build our websites and, in the process, figure out what we want our websites to be.

There are many lenses through which to think about the question – the technology behind a website, the design of a website ¹, the philosophies and goals behind our website, and more. My answer was that a few years ago I started worrying less about posting on lots of different topics, and accepted the joy of putting all my writing in one place.

The back story is that when I started blogging more about coffee a few years ago, I worried that posts about technology would detract from the coffee posts, and vice versa. I knew people who liked specialty coffee looked at my website and I didn’t want the site to look confusing for someone not interested in technology. I started wondering if I should have a home page that was split with two lists: one for technology posts and another for coffee posts. ² Should I have two different websites?

I can’t remember the exact moment when things changed, but at some point I realised it was okay to put my writing on many subjects in one place ³. I also started to feel more confident in writing about more topics, too. This was a process that unraveled with time and experimentation and play. Part of the fun of having a website is in the growing – of trying new things and realising that there’s even more you can do and continuing to play and experiment. And a lot of that was possible because I saw many other lovely websites and spoke with people who had websites – every website expands my understanding of what a website can be.

I want my blog to be a slice of my life, and my life is multi-faceted. I love writing and playing guitar and Nature and poetry and listening to Taylor Swift music and writing about technology and thinking about the future of the web and writing down ideas I have and so much more. That is me. And so, a mix of things is what I want my website to be.

At the time of writing this post, my home page lists posts on walking, museums, Nature, writing a blog post without a screen, ideas for web readers, how I use my phone, and more – many of my interests and thoughts and observations and dreams, sitting side by side.

I do wish I could remember when I realised it was okay to put everything together, but all I can say is that I’m glad I arrived at where I am. I don’t want my blog to be any other way.

I am curious: What has been the biggest change to your website since you started it? Or, alternatively: how have you changed since you started your website?

This encouraged me to look up when I last redesigned my website. The current design is based on the theme I made in my 2024 redesign. It seems like just yesterday that I redesigned my website. Maybe we need a concept of “website time” to refer to how time feels in relation to our websites.

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Back then my blog was mostly about technology and the web and coffee.

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My blog is called James’ Coffee Blog because I loved coffee when I gave it that name (and still do, but I drink a lot more tea at the present moment; my website and I both change) and wrote a lot about coffee, but the site grew into so much more. I still like the name because I have been using it for so long, and it represents a slight separation between me and my blog: my blog is part of me, but not all of me.

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Homebrew Website Club museums how I use my phone ideas for web readers writing a blog post without a screen Nature walking 1 2 3 [↩] [↩] [↩] Paul

Philosophy: reading my ‘The mask of Phantes’ story - Protesilaos Stavrou: Master feed with all updates

2026-05-13T00:00:00.000Z

I read a story I wrote and published last evening: https://protesilaos.com/books/2026-05-12-mask-of-phantes/. It is about a magic mask. Whoever wears the mask gets all the attention. The themes I explore in that publication are about desire, personhood, and learning.

The mask of Phantes - Protesilaos Stavrou: Master feed with all updates

2026-05-12T00:00:00.000Z

In a distant land lives a peaceful man called Phantes. His house is nice and cosy. It was built by a gifted fellow before Phantes was around. Nobody knows for sure who that person is. Whispers echo in the night. Birds sing of a peerless hunter. Mist permanently covers a part of the forest. Not even the wind blows in that direction, as if it is trying to avoid someone. Traces still exist. A lingering presence is always felt. Wolves act strangely whenever they get close to it. The land never forgets. Ask the oak trees: they are aware of everything, though they only speak to those who are prepared to listen.

Phantes did not meet this mysterious figure. All the information he has comes from a letter he found once he woke up from his slumber. He keeps the letter in his pocket at all times. He still reads it from time to time, hoping to discover some hidden meaning.

I found you unconscious in the woods and brought you here. You have been sleeping this whole time. Three months have passed already. Somehow you are still breathing.

Where did you come from, lad? I cannot tell.

I named you Phantes: he who reveals. I hope you like it.

I am writing this message because I must serve a higher cause. The hour of my summoning draws near.

My house is yours. The garden outside will supply you with all the vegetables you need. There is more food in the forest. Use my tools to survive. I shall be watching from afar.

Whatever you do, remember that sometimes your only option is to destroy who you are.

Phantes does not remember anything about his past. He has been a gardener since his awakening. Every day he follows the same routine: tend to the plants in the morning, walk around the woods in the afternoon, and sleep early at night. Phantes has not seen another part of the world. He has not met anybody else either.

Walks are his only form of adventure. In a nearby cave, Phantes discovers intricate drawings of human figures. He compares his looks to them. His self-image comes from the mirror he has back home. The figures are forming a circle around a person whose face emits light. Phantes does not know what it feels like to be with others nor can he comprehend the event on display.

There are many such paintings. Each depicts a social activity of some kind. Among them are a few that trigger in him a sense of dread. Others bring inner peace. “IN MUTUAL RECOGNITION”, reads an inscription, “SHALL YOU SHARE SOMETHING IN EARNEST”. Below those words are six people and four dogs having a meal together. Phantes does not understand the full extent of those words. His has been a solitary existence.

“Where can I find others?” he asks in desperation. The entire forest stops moving all of a sudden. All eyes are set on Phantes. “Why can I not be seen by some other person?” he wonders as he bursts into tears.

The night is upon him. Phantes is still crying. “Please, help me!” he begs on his knees while facing down. A voice from the sky breaks the silence.

Easy now, young one. Everybody wants to be seen. You are no different. Even when others are not around, I am still there for you. I see your every move and feel your every emotion.

Phantes hears speech for the first time. He is confused. No-one is there. “Show yourself!” he demands.

You have no power to issue orders, boy. Now listen carefully to what I will tell you. Appreciate all you have. It is not yours to keep. What you wish for may not be the blessing you imagine. Go now. Get some rest. Continue what you have been doing. Everything is going to be alright.

Phantes is not satisfied. “Wait, I have so many questions!”… The voice is not responding. Phantes is left to his usual solitude. Though something has changed inside of him. He no longer desires to go home and relive the same moments. A newly felt sense of indignation is moving him now.

He remembers an underground passage behind the waterfall. It leads to an ancient tomb. At the entrance are three phrases, engraved in red, forming an arc from left to right. “ALL NOTICE THE MASK”, informs the one, “IT IS WHAT THEY LOVE” states the other, “NONE ESCAPES” writes the third.

Phantes is hopeful that this mask can help him find the others. Whatever ominous warnings must be exaggerations. His thinking is that he can use the mask to lure people into noticing him. Then he can take it off and seek to become friends with them.

As he walks into the tomb, he sees the mask hovering over a skeleton. It glows in a bright green light. Phantes cannot contain his excitement. He cannot get his eyes off the mask. “It is so beautiful!” he exclaims. He knows this is his chance to change his life forever.

The mask laughs for a few seconds. It then starts moving erratically around the room, only to stop in front of his nose. It then quickly attaches to his face. Phantes shouts at the top of his lungs. He experiences an overwhelming force coursing through his body that knocks him off balance. He gets up and ventures back to the surface.

Upon exiting he runs into people for the first time. A jubilant crowd cheers at him from a few steps away. He cannot discern any faces just yet. This is too much for Phantes. Amid the noise he catches phrases of admiration. All are about his radiant beauty.

“I will have so many friends now”, he thinks to himself, “they love me already”. Something is amiss. He notices that no-one is getting close to him. The crowd keeps a safe distance. “Hey, why do you not come here?” he asks as he waves his hands at them. A voice is heard from the back “oh, no, your looks are so captivating that I will lose my control”.

Phantes makes a step in their direction. Panic grips them. They scatter as fast as they can. He does not give chase. They will probably keep fleeing, after all. He wonders whether people are always acting strange like this.

A few minutes later, another large group shows up. They too are elated to encounter Phantes. “What a heavenly face!” says someone as others celebrate what they are witnessing. “Blessed are we, to meet such a beauty!” remarks another person, with others making affirmative sounds. Phantes tries to establish contact with those people. They also run away in fear as soon as he approaches them.

Everywhere he now goes, there are folks waiting for him, eager to comment on his appearance. He finds it strange how he had not met a single person before and suddenly there are hundreds of them at every turn. Phantes is concerned that he is doing something wrong. He does not understand why would such enthusiastic admirers not try to befriend him.

He reaches his house. Another gathering of fans is already there. They have been tearing the building apart. “Hey, what is wrong with you?” he asks in shock. “We want a piece of your belongings, beautiful, to bring us good fortune” says one of the pillagers. Phantes is too late to prevent the damage. The house has been reduced to an outline on the ground. The walls are gone, as is all of the furniture. Each individual took something and fled to safety.

Phantes needs a place to rest, but everywhere he goes there are exuberant people observing his every motion, while constantly making disturbing noises. He tries to remove the mask, in the hope of not attracting any more attention. The mask will not move, however. It is firmly planted on his face. It has a will of its own and he has no power over it. After struggling for a while, he surrenders to his new fate.

“They do not care about me”, he realises, “all they want is to be close to what I project through this mask”. Phantes understands how he is not treated as a person anymore. “I have been reduced to a singular dimension, to looks alone, as if I have no interests or wants, no sensitivities or passions”.

The mask is an ancient artefact. It picks those who desire more attention than necessary. Some of them are innocent and naive. Others have nefarious goals. It does not matter though. Whoever wears the mask becomes the centre of all social activity at the expense of their original individuality.

The mask needs time to take over completely. In the meantime, Phantes can still make decisions. He understands that he got more than what he needed. The burden is too heavy and will only get heavier. He thinks back to all the warnings and peculiar hints he had discerned.

He then remembers the final words of the letter he found when he woke up for the first time in this distant land. There may still be something for him, after all. The curse can be lifted. Such is his renewed faith. It is all he has left. Without fear in his heart, he runs to the closest clearing and jumps off a cliff, never to be seen again.

The crowds disperse. The natural rhythms are restored. Phantes wanted to be seen. What he did not anticipate is that very few souls only ever take their attention off the mask that once captured their imagination.

I helped him learn. For certain topics, there is no other way to teach people. They have to live in the world they wish for. Only then may they realise that they are not in control.

Announcing Wonders of Web Weaving - James' Coffee Blog

2026-05-12T00:00:00.000Z

If you have ever spoken to me, you may have heard me express a meandering interest in doing something with audio. I think the heart of this interest is that I love conversations and storytelling. I love hearing people talk about the things that make them light up. I love asking questions. I enjoy the feeling where you feel like you see the world in a new light after having spoken with someone.

With all that in mind, a few weeks ago I had an idea: I could interview people who love the web and chat about all things indie web. This coalesced into an outline for a podcast, which then became Wonders of Web Weaving.

Every Tuesday for the next fifteen or so weeks, I am going to be releasing an episode of the show. The first episode is with Adam, the creator of omg.lol and maintainer of many wonderful web projects.

I named the podcast the way I did because web weaving – making websites and the community around doing making websites – really is wonderful. After the first interview, I felt I had made the right choice in the name – the magic of the web permeates through so much of the indie web.

The show has its own website, which has an RSS feed you can use to follow along with episodes. Each episode will be accompanied by a hand-written transcription, available on the web page for each episode.

I am thinking of the next fifteen weeks as either season one, or the entirety of the show. Whether there will be another season, I’m not sure. For now, I’m challenging myself to commit to fifteen conversations. Having a clear goal towards which I can strive makes the project more sustainable than committing to a recurring show.

I hope that you all enjoy the show as much as I enjoy recording it. The first episode is ready for you.

Wonders of Web Weaving The first episode is ready for you. The first episode is with Adam, the creator of omg.lol and maintainer of many wonderful web projects RSS feed you can use to follow along with episodes

Western strategic constraints in the war on Iran - Protesilaos Stavrou: Master feed with all updates

2026-05-11T00:00:00.000Z

Writing for UnHerd, in an article titled Boots-on-the-ground is Trump’s best option, Wolfgang Munchau elaborates on a logical argument in favour of committing to the war in Iran:

[…] Unlike Russia, Iran is not a nuclear power, and on conventional forces alone the US surely has the military capability to theoretically defeat the regime. Whatever we might think about what is good or bad, right or wrong, it would therefore make sense for Trump to resume the war, and even to put boots on the ground if that is what’s required. It is what the logic of war dictates.

Wolfgang’s position is coherent yet lacks lateral thinking of the sort necessary in matters of strategy. In absolute terms the USA has more resources than Iran and will thus prevail in an all-out war. Though this is a simplistic representation of the case. What is pertinent is the spacetime of war, the trade-offs inherent to each decision, and the status quo ex post for the winning side.

Even a superpower has to think in terms of the economy of choices within fixed time frames and even a superpower can be a loser long-term after winning a war in the short run. Every war is costly in tangible and intangible ways. It is not enough to calculate how one can win on a single front. They must rather consider whether they can retain their position in international affairs altogether. 20th century history is enough to teach us that mighty empires, like the British and the French, can still be swept into the dustbin of history shortly after prevailing in a major war.

For America to muster the forces necessary for a ground invasion in Iran, it not only needs months of preparation, but also to shift its attention away from other parts of the planet. For example, military assets in East Asia will have to be moved to the Middle East. A power vacuum is created in the process. Other actors, such as China, may then find an opening to create a fait accompli that strengthens their position thenceforth.

US forces moving away from places like South Korea then raises questions about the credibility of American security guarantees as well as the political commitment behind them. Given the isolationist mood in the States and the fact that President Trump was elected on an unequivocal anti-war platform (well, at least rhetorically), affected countries will conclude that Americans are jaded and unwilling to fight on all fronts.

It does not stop there. A full-scale war in Iran creates new realities on the demand for military hardware. The war effort will absorb as much as necessary, while there will still be a need to maintain inventories at satisfactory levels for the ongoing promotion of American/Western interests. One immediate knock-on effect is that it will no longer be viable to send arms to Ukraine, Israel, or elsewhere, with whatever implications that has for those countries.

Governments that are supportive of Iran will be prudent to maximise the costs for the Americans. Russia and China can provide arms and intelligence, much in the same way that the entirety of NATO is involved in the Ukraine war.

The Europeans lack the capacity to bolster arms production over the short-term. Plus, they are focused on their proxy war with Russia. Public opinion in Europe would not support sending troops to the Middle East and would likely not even have the appetite to continue the war effort vis-à-vis the Russians in the face of mounting economic pressures.

As the debacle of the UK’s Labour party in the recent local elections has demonstrated, Western governing parties can quickly lose their grip on power if they do not perform well on domestic affairs. Political elites think they can play chess on the world stage, when in reality they have to pay attention to what is happening at home.

Economic hardship has been the reality for a long time and will only worsen over the medium-term. There is little chance that people will support open-ended military campaigns under the vague promise of better things to come in some indeterminate future. That can, in principle, lead to radical changes domestically (e.g. a far-right president in France) which would be the death knell of the liberal world order.

And I have not even considered the practicalities of a ground war in Iran. What kind of forces does that unleash? The Iranians will be fighting for the honour of their homeland, while the invaders will be operating under the eternal shame of imperialistic arrogance. With Iran cornered, who is to say that they will not retaliate by destroying desalination plants in their neighbouring countries? An ill-considered war will then quickly turn into a humanitarian catastrophe for the wider region.

Are Europeans prepared to deal with the indubitably massive refugee crisis that will be hitting them? If the waves of refugees from Syria provided the impetus for the recrudescence of the far-right across the continent, I prefer not to think what an even bigger influx of refugees would bring about. It will not be pretty. Rising xenophobia, which would be indistinguishable from Islamophobia, could then trigger fanaticism on the side of radical Islamist groups across Europe. An all-out war in Iran then entails the non-trivial risk of asymmetric threats throughout the Western world.

In short, it is easy to argue which contestant wins in a hypothetical cage fight. However, politics are not reducible to a melee encounter. The world is a complex place. It is incredibly hard to be a responsible statesman. President Trump continues with his questionable antics on social media, though one can only hope that he understands the disastrous consequences of recklessness.

The multipolar international order is the new normal. What remains to be determined is whether the Westerners have gotten the memo or continue to throw good money after bad.

Sunday, May 10, 2026 - Baty.net

2026-05-10T10:21:18.000Z

Workin'?

This morning started off as another "Emacs tripped me up again so I should use something else." mood. It passed, because everything else is worse in more ways.

I don't mind tinkering with Emacs, but I can't stand fixing Emacs when something goes pear-shaped. It seems like something is always going pear-shaped.

My corner of the internet this morning is nothing but navel gazing and hand wringing. I may need to go do something else for a while.

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Philosophy: Hades, introspection, wealth, misery, and resurrection - Protesilaos Stavrou: Master feed with all updates

2026-05-10T00:00:00.000Z

In this 30-minute video I expound on the close connection between deep thought and misery. I do so by explaining the symbolism of Hades, the Greek god of the underworld, the world of disembodied souls. Hades is also known as “Plouton”, from the Greek word for “wealth”, which points to a connection between the soul/spirit and wealth. Knowing oneself through introspection is, in a sense, a way to have a more rich experience. Though I caution how when deep thought goes too far it creates a tunnelling effect that makes us feel disconnected from our immediate surroundings and thus overwhelmed by a sense of uneasiness. I discuss how we can become back, as it were, into this world through a process of becoming a somewhat new person. This is our metaphorical resurrection or, better, transanimation that is again symbolised in the myth of Zagreus who dies as Zagreus and resurrects as Dionysus. In this context I even bring up a popular video game, titled “Hades”, whose protagonist is called “Zagreus”, while I also share my personal experience with depressive thinking and my effective reconstitution as a largely different person.

How Chris Aldrich uses his typewriters - Baty.net

2026-05-09T11:16:00.000Z

FAQ: How do you use your typewriters? | Chris Aldrich

Below are some various recent uses I’ve made of my typewriter collection

I have a handful of nice typewriters that sit unused. I would really like to change that. Chris' list gives me a few ideas.

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Taken - Baty.net

2026-05-09T10:39:24.000Z

taken. — Since You Arrived Vol. IV

You opened this page. It already knows the following.

I already knew most of this, but it's still alarming to see it all at once.

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Serendipity - James' Coffee Blog

2026-05-09T00:00:00.000Z

The steam of the espresso machine — of focusing in the milk to make sure it is just right, of tapping to remove the bubbles, of preparing. Soft instrumental music plays in the background, more upbeat than the music to which I was listening earlier — easing me more into the day. How the smile of a barista lights up my day. Of noticing the care and attention put into the latte art.

I have not been to a coffee shop in days, and so this morning – a morning where a drizzle of rain hung over the air, a refreshing air – I felt like I was seeing all of the rituals associated with making a cup of coffee from a new perspective. The care the barista puts into preparing a drink, the sound of the steam wand as it froths milk, the rapport between the staff members.

A hand-crafted (decaf) flat white was the best possible start to the morning on a day where the only thing I had planned was to have a coffee, read a bit of a book, and wonder “should I go see that movie I want to see?” The movie was The Devil Wears Prada 2. I had not seen the first one, but lots of actors I like appeared in the second one so I thought I would go see it.

Less than an hour before the morning screening, I booked a ticket. I usually like to prepare more, but perhaps my mind was already made up that I wanted to see the film and I was yet to realise it. It has been a year since I was last at the cinema, so I revelled in the chance to go again to see a movie that looked good. In summary, after watching the movie, I was impressed, and left excited to watch the first one too.

As I left the movie theatre, on the fourth floor of a shopping centre in the heart of the city, I heard the sound of bagpipes. The fourth floor has an open roof and so the bagpipes could have been coming from anywhere. I felt so much at home in hearing them. Where else in the world could I leave a movie screening and hear bagpipes? That sound was a portend for what was to come.

While I didn’t necessarily have a plan for the day, the more hours that passed the more I started to piece together things I was thinking about this week. I have started to get back into Magic: the Gathering, watching a few videos online of people playing games. I decided I wanted to go to a trading card shop to at least inquire about what has changed in the format since I last played seriously, nine years ago. It turns out, a lot has changed, but the worlds I could learn about are exciting.

On my way to the trading card shop, I noticed a crowd of people lining the streets on Waverley Bridge, the scene of a painting I really love. I stopped for a moment and overheard people talking about the event of the day – the tartan parade, dedicated to celebrating all things tartan. Last year, I had encountered the parade under similar circumstances: I was walking around and happened to be in the place where the parade was about to start, not knowing the event was scheduled. A lot has changed since last year, too.

Having fifteen minutes or so before the parade was scheduled to begin, I got some lunch and waited. Then, with great excitement, I watched the event from beginning to end – an hour of pipe bands, dancers, people from clans across Scotland, people who work for charities in Scotland, and people who have come from all over the world to celebrate tartan. There was a pipe band from Switzerland and contingent of people from Peru, Italy, and more. I love seeing so many people coming together — in so many outfits and from so many places., I wrote as I was surrounded by music and colour and stories and life.

Early on in the parade, a larger-than-life (paper?) unicorn was carried by several people. “A unicorn!” remarked a child nearby with great excitement. I was surprised for a split second until I remembered the unicorn is our national animal, my favourite fact to share with people I meet from other places in the world. I can think of no better animal to represent the Scottish attitude than the unicorn – welcoming, playful, and always able to bring colour to a room.

There were also people dressed as dinosaurs at the parade for a reason I can’t remember. Nonetheless the dinosaurs made me laugh the kind of laugh where you feel nothing but pure joy. The emcee for the parade had some playful banter with the dinosaurs who roared, saying something to the effect of “I’m glad I’m up here” (on the double-decker, open-top bus with tartan livery from where the emcee announced all the groups in the parade) to the dinosaurs below. I’m having a good time, I thought.

I walked for miles today, from the coffee shop to the theatre, stopping for an hour afterwords to watch the tartan parade, to the card game store and back. Serendipity was my best friend. Then, just as I was getting ready to go home, I saw someone I haven’t seen in months. Seeing them smile and wave as I did the same, my world was brightened, to an extent where despite my best efforts to describe what I was feeling it was impossible to do so. I felt so much less alone than I had the moment before.

The small things – the warm morning coffee, the smile and wave from a friend, the unicorns; the serendipity of walking without a plan and being open to what you see – really do make life special.

Nicola Losito - Manuel Moreale RSS Feed

2026-05-08T11:00:00.000Z

This week on the People and Blogs series we have an interview with Nicola Losito, whose blog can be found at nicolalosito.it.

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If you enjoy P&B, consider becoming one for as little as 1 dollar a month.

Let's start from the basics: can you introduce yourself?

Hi, my name is Nicola Losito. Born in the mid-70s in Bari, I lived through the first wave (in Italy) of the television invasion of Japanese cartoons—which I would later discover are called anime—and US TV series like the A-Team, Knight Rider, CHiPs, Dukes of Hazard, MacGyver, and many others. Other playmates were American comics and the first consoles (Atari, Intellivision, Commodore). Finally, I remember with immense love the long afternoons riding around on a Vespa, or in the garage with friends taking apart and putting back together our Vespas, fixing the small hiccups that cropped up or trying to make them go faster. All this led me to university studies in Mechanical Engineering until a break to give 10 months of my life to Military Service, which was mandatory in my day. Upon my return, I had missed the boat with my studies and, by then twenty-five, I finally convinced my parents that the computer was not just a toy but a multipurpose tool. I also discovered I had a bit of a knack for it, so I changed my field of study and city, graduating in Computer Science.

Two years ago I received a great gift, a new heart from a 27-year-old guy that today allows me to continue living with my wife and see our son grow up. Comics, science fiction novels, motorcycles, and padel (instead of the tennis I played so much as a kid) are still part of my life.

I continue to read superhero comics, along with more mature European and Japanese productions, with the recent addition of a couple of Korean authors. I ride a Ducati Monster 1200S, and my son and I are venturing into the world of minicross with an unfortunate LEM 50 DX3.

Perhaps you have noticed that I have not told you about my job yet, because especially after the long period of illness and having re-evaluated the priorities of things, now for me it is just a task I have to face, something I no longer believe in and for which I can no longer get excited.
Anyway, I have an anecdote to share: I found a job opportunity thanks to participating in a motorcycle mailing list for two or three years. The interactions on the list made me "interesting" or "reliable" enough that another member of the list eventually called me and invited me to participate in a selection process at the company where he had already been working for a dozen years. I started for fun, and it’s been twenty years now that I’ve been at the CNR. The lesson is: never rule out participating in something that interests you; you never know where life, passions, and the people you meet will take you.

What's the story behind your blog?

As far as I can remember, I started coming across "blogs" towards the end of 2001, and certainly by 2002 several college friends had one. Thanks to the advent of an Italian blogging platform very similar to the current Blogger (it was called Splinder), on February 28, 2003, I took the plunge and opened my first blog on that platform, starting to interact with all the other bloggers (essentially Italians) who had an account there, or on other then-nascent platforms. In September 2004, I registered my first and current domain, installed WordPress release 1.2, and imported the old content. Since then, I haven't left the platform, and I believe the current incarnation of https://koolinus.net/blog has only been re-installed once during these twenty-two years, performing updates release after release.
Over time, I participated more actively in the international blogosphere, spanning various platforms: Live Journal, Jaiku, and WordPress.com practically since it was born in 2006 when I joined it to publish in English…

Today my online activities are concentrated on the "historic" blog in Italian; I’ve made nicolalosito.it my personal space for English language content and I use Scribble for micro-blogging. I’ve always used Tumblr as a pinboard for images and quotes that strike me, and another instance of WordPress on a hidden subdomain to occasionally publish something more intimate that I felt like writing anyway.

What does your creative process look like when it comes to blogging?

I essentially publish in three distinct ways:

I curate a regular and periodic column called linklog on both the Italian and English blogs, where since May 2015 I have been publishing interesting URLs that I collect (currently on Bear) during my daily browsing;
I publish how-tos on how I solve specific IT problems (which happens VERY rarely today, unlike in the past);
I publish on the emotional wave that a song, a quote, a photo, or a dialog triggers in me. These days I mull things over a lot in my head, and I very rarely expose my thoughts publicly in writing.

A recent and controversial post you wrote, Manuel, is exemplary of why I have this attitude. This then resulted in me sharing the following quote which somewhat summarizes the current mood:

The fact is that certain things you can only say to those you know can understand them. Which is also the reason we talk so little about what really matters to us.
by Enrico Galiano, Eppure Cadiamo Felici

Anyway, in all these modes, I write directly in the WordPress editor (Gutenberg), publish, and then make grammatical and typographical corrections. As someone once said, the publish button is the best editor. WordPress database maintenance plugins are my great friends.

Do you have an ideal creative environment? Also do you believe the physical space influences your creativity?

Over the course of these twenty-two years, I’ve written just about everywhere: airports, hospital beds, car seats, cafe tables, desks at home or in the office. Very often with a soundtrack in the background, though in recent weeks often without music to accompany me. I’m working from home a lot—I’m "full remote"—and my neighbors are renovating. So the construction noises are more than enough as ‘white noise’.

As I mentioned, I write directly on the computer, so I do not use notebooks or anything else.

In my personal case, it is the inspiration of the moment that drives my writing, so the fact that I can immediately put my thoughts into bytes depends only on having a keyboard and an active internet connection available. In short, physical space in the strict sense has never compromised the desire or the possibility to knock out a post.

A question for the techie readers: can you run us through your tech stack?

My domains are all currently registered with the European provider OVH. For a few years now, I’ve been using SupportHost for hosting, after having tried almost all the big names in the industry: BlueHost, SiteGround, GreenGeeks along with a couple of national ISPs… problems arose with all of them sooner or later. Since my friend Lino Sabato told me about this company and I migrated all my content, I’ve become a happy and (above all) listened-to customer, and every time I’ve recommended this provider, those who migrated in turn have only thanked me.

So to recap, I’m on a cPanel-based hosting, and I use WordPress as a CMS. I’m tempted to switch to something static, but so far I haven't found the courage or the time to approach it. Who knows if 2026 will see me make progress on this front.

Given your experience, if you were to start a blog today, would you do anything differently?

One thing I question a lot is the fact that I somehow gave in to splitting my nickname and my name; at many times, keeping a nickname associated with certain concepts would have allowed me to talk about them freely, without potential repercussions in real life. Having created a point of contact between these two parts is perhaps something I regret. Given how today's tech world has developed and is developing, guarding your anonymity with tooth and nail, or at least clearly separating public and private, is an effort that should be made at the expense of convenience.

For me and for the vast majority of early bloggers, this is no longer possible. It serves as a warning, however, to those starting today or about to start (or for my son when he enters the web).

From a practical point of view, however, I think the important thing is to choose any platform to start on and get a "feel" for your desire to tell your story, making sure you can export what you've written to another platform later on.

Financial question since the Web is obsessed with money: how much does it cost to run your blog? Is it just a cost, or does it generate some revenue? And what's your position on people monetising personal blogs?

I chose a hosting solution that allows me to have several domains (as well as sub-domains) within the same plan. I think this year we reached about €200 including taxes. I host 4 blogs for other friends, including a couple belonging to a friend who recently passed away, who contribute to the expense. Then there are the costs of the .it and .net domains, which run between €11 and €16. Could I save money? Probably yes, but currently I sleep soundly and I don't have any malfunctions (especially because for one of the domains I heavily use the email provided with the hosting plan and I have never, and I mean never, encountered a problem).

On monetization, as expressed by almost all the friends already interviewed, I am indifferent to the fact that there are people who make blogging a profession. As long as this is done while respecting the reader and not treating them like a fool or a fruit to be squeezed, I can tolerate even the most aggressive ads or pop-ups. But when everything becomes self-referential and closed in an ecosystem, then I stop following.

Personally, I try to support some authors by buying software, with a donation – either monetary or, occasionally, purchasing hardware or something else I read they are interested in. I support your work Manuel, and another couple of pals, with the 1 dollar a month initiative.

Time for some recommendations: any blog you think is worth checking out? And also, who do you think I should be interviewing next?

I would have certainly pointed you to Luca, but as I mentioned, he passed away in the first days of march 2026. I would like to give visibility to Luigi Mozzillo and Nicola D'Agostino author, among other things, of the Stories of Apple project which in my opinion hasn't received the love it deserved from the public.

Then there are people who don't have a blog but passionately curate newsletters. Is it okay to mention them too? In that case, I’d say the work of Anne-Laure Le Cunff is certainly noteworthy. I also really like the reflections of Tobias van Schneider both on his blog and in his newsletter. Among Italian newsletters, I’d highlight those by Gianvito Fanelli, the Polpette (meatballs) di Vanz, and everything Mafe De Baggis writes. I could probably write a whole post about the newsletters I follow.

Final question: is there anything you want to share with us?

I'm not the type of person to suggest things off the cuff; what I like or inspires me is regularly described in the pages of my blogs.

I would like to share these ‘life tips’ instead.

Start being honest with yourself as soon as possible.
Eliminate what you don't like from your life, or confine it to a cage, and don't let it eat up what is important to you. Remember that work is a gas that expands to occupy all the space it is given.
You must be consistent with the things you say, even if it's often inconvenient.
I believe you have to be kind regardless. A great luxury in life is being able to afford to trust others, even when they prove they don't deserve it, and thus not be too damaged by it.
Above all, don't put off until some random tomorrow the things that make you feel good or make you happy; proceed step by step but without hesitating, and allow yourself to experience every single milestone. Tomorrow morning you don't know what will become of you or the world.

Keep exploring

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Emacs coaching with Amin Bandali - Protesilaos Stavrou: Master feed with all updates

2026-05-08T00:00:00.000Z

I met with Amin Bandali to talk about Emacs, specifically Amin’s upcoming ffs package. Amin informed me about changes to ffs in light of a discussion we had during a previous session.

Amin asked me to record the meeting and then publish it, which I happily agreed to. You can watch it on Amin’s website: https://kelar.org/~bandali/gnu/emacs/ffs-code-review-prot.html.

[ NOTE: I normally do not share anything about my meetings with people. Not who they are nor what we talk about. ]

Thanks to Amin for making this happen! I am looking forward to new developments.

By the way, I learnt about the function x-export-frames from a mention in Amin’s ffs package, which led me to write buffer-to-pdf: https://github.com/protesilaos/buffer-to-pdf.

Thursday, May 7, 2026 - Baty.net

2026-05-07T16:39:49.000Z

My Dogs (2009)

I get a lot of newsletters, the traditional way, via email. Those newsletters often contain links to interesting things. Unfortunately, people love metrics, causing many of those newsletters to obfuscate the URLs with tracking links. I don't usually bother clicking those, because I can't hover over a link and see where it's really going. The ones I do click are usually blocked by my network filters. I'm not paranoid as much as just annoyed. Parannoyed?

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Writing a blog post without a screen - James' Coffee Blog

2026-05-07T00:00:00.000Z

This text below post is presented verbatim, as it was typed with only a keyboard: without a display or any assistive technology. Typos are left in. The "Notes after writing" and "My writing setup" sections were typed on my Mac as I prepared to publish the post.

This is my first ever blog post written without a display. I have wanted a tool like this for a while, but my motivation for finally building something was seeing Jo's excellent implementation of the idea. Jo used a Raspberry Pi 400 with a bash script that, on boot, opens a "nano" file into which you can write. Jo's implementation also automatically copied the text file in which you were working over to a flash drive. My script as-is only saves the file to disk, so it can be retrieved later.

I thought of this idea because I sometimes look away from my computer while I am writing. I do the same on my phone, too: if I am deep in thought, or capturing an idea, I want to focus on the world around me. What if a device could let me note down my ideas without having to worry about managing a display?

This blog post is written without a display. The experience so far has been fascinating. Since I cannot see what I have typed, I can only focus on the paragraph on which I am on. The only feedback I get from the keyboard is the indicator light that toggles on and off when I enable and disable caps lock, which I do every tmime I type a capital letter (yes, I do this :)).

One limit of the system is that I am unsure when I have made typos. As I write, I am focusing mainly on the keyboard in front of me, so as to ensure that I don't accidentally drift away in terms of the position of my hands. If my hands were improperly positioned every letter could be one letter off in terms of the spatial positioning of the letters on the keyboard.

I think this could be mitigated with a clever form of typo correction which lets you know when you have typed the last few words incorrectly. Furthermore, i could be interesting for automatic typo orrection to take place, although this would mean that I would be prone to lose track of exactly what my cursor position is. I can always edit the blog post after I have done, after all.

Another limitation with the system as it is presently is that there is no way for me to easily know if my blog post is still being captured. If I accidentally trigger a nano keyboard sequence, it would be impossible for me to know that I am in a mode that is not capturing my writing.

My writing modee rght now is much like when I am using a typewriter: I don't think about rearranging sentences (I can't), or about fixing mistakes that are several words back from my cursor position (side question: what is the typewriter equivalent of the "cursor" position"?).

I am not sure if I will write another blog post with this medium yet, primarily for the aforementioned reason that I don't haev a good visual ndicator that my typing is being captured. With that said, I am still fascinated by this idea of being able to capture notes without a display. ImagWith this system, I am able to capture notes without the distractions of the display. Although there is still the distraction of whether I made a typo; more research and development is needed to mature this idea further.

Thank you Jo for brining this idea to life and publishing the foundation of a bash script ath I could use to make my own screenless writing tool.

Notes after writing

The words below were written using my Mac after having copied the post back to my Mac for publishing.

Jo's post about using a computer without a screen to which I made reference in my writing above. I couldn't add a link while I was writing because I didn't have a display. In the future, I could type a reminder like TK (used as a placeholder in writing) so that I could come back and edit the post to add links.
I deliberately did not edit the post above so you could see the errors and get a better feel for how well this worked in terms of accuracy. When I knew I made a typo, I had to pause to figure out how many keystrokes I should remove. In one case, I wanted to start a sentence from scratch, so I just held down the backspace key for half a second or so. This wasn't the best strategy, which is why "ImagWith this system" appears in the blog post.
Adding a script to open nano to my ~/.profile had a significant limit: this method made it impossible to boot to desktop with startx. Thus, research is needed into how to make the script to open nano run only on boot, and not when startx is executed.

My writing setup

ALT

A Raspberry Pi 400 computer keyboard on a desk next to a notebook, a small Lego typewriter set, my computer keyboard, and my mouse.

I took this photo after I wrote the blog post, which is why the HDMI cable is plugged in.

Jo's post about using a computer without a screen

Affordances of a screenless writing interface - James' Coffee Blog

2026-05-07T00:00:00.000Z

This post was written first with my screenless writing interface, and then edited in Ghost, which I use to publish blog posts to this website. The extent of my edits were fixing typos and reworking the introduction and conclusion a little bit.

My original concern when brainstorming the idea of a keyboard with which you could type but had no other means of interaction was that the accuracy of writing would be hard to maintain. This concern is not as significant as I thought now I am using the device. Indeed, sometimes you need to try a technology out to really build an impression of how it feels.

And so I am also writing this post with my screenless writing setup, both to continue experimenting with the medium but also to capture an idea I had that I wanted to explore: the various affordances of different writing interfaces.

In discussion in a Matrix server I am in about this project, I realised that this device may be more appropriate for creating a first draft of a project. Even if the technology could automatically correct all typos, there are still inherent limitations: not being able to go back through your writing, for example. My first sentence in this blog post was so long that I forgot the first clause so I sort of had to guess how to finish the sentence With that in mind, I knew I could go back later.

Thus, this device could be used as a means do author notes, drafts for works, or streams of consciousness. I can always edit a post later. Indeed, I found myself more comfortable with the idea of editing a post afterwords precisely because I knew there were limitations that got in the way of making the post as good as it could be the first time around. This feels like a unique property of this particular mode of writing.

I also started to think about the affordances of typewriters. Typewriters don't allow corrections in the same way as computers; you can type over a word, but you can't completely erase it (unless you used Tippex or the like). It would be cool if this system had a button to read out your current paragraph so you remember your context; indeed, I think there is a lot of work that could be done to explore the idea of screenless writing interfaces of this form factor. (Update after publishing: I totally forgot how this paragraph started which is why the context jumped a bit. I wonder how if this writing form factor makes it harder to compose more complex grammatical structures, such as the sentence with a semi-colon and parentheses that I wrote before forgetting the start of the paragraph. Could a tool like this help improve one's memory?)

Anyway, I think I was talking about the affordances of typewriters. Typewriters give you a physical artefact. This means there is distance between what you have written on a typewriter and publishing it online whereas there is a very narrow distance between a text editing program on a computer and publishing one's work. For this reason, I rarely publish anything I have written on the typewriter: the typewriter is where I like to write personal essays away from my computer, without feeling any obligation to publish what I write.

I also love using my typewriter to type up letters to friends.

This all has me wondering: what are the opportunities of a system that lets you write a blog post without having a display set up? I do feel I type with less regard to editing myself as I go, because I can't easily go back and edit something while I am writing. I feel a similar way with typewriters too, where I know that because I can't easily discard a line, if I start a line I will try and finish it. In this way, the typewriter – and the screenless writing interface – pushes me a little bit outside my comfort zone: these mediums make think about how to end a sentence even if I wish I had started it with another word.

screenless writing interface

On Yanis Varoufakis’ appearance at ‘The Rest Is Politics’ podcast - Protesilaos Stavrou: Master feed with all updates

2026-05-07T00:00:00.000Z

Today I watched with great interest the discussion of Yanis Varoufakis with the hosts of The Rest Is Politics podcast, Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart: https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2026/05/03/on-the-rest-is-politics-with-alastair-campbell-and-rory-stewart-from-the-2008-crash-to-the-rise-of-populism/.

Yanis was at the heart of Europe’s post-2008 financial and sovereign debt crisis, first as a commentator from the sidelines of the academia and then as the Greek finance minister. Throughout the show Yanis comments on past events. I am not interested in relitigating those controversies but in drawing lessons for the present.

Yanis is a freethinker extraordinaire. This necessarily makes him a misfit in the world of politics. To me, this is honourable. Where I think Yanis failed as a policy-maker is in his ambiguity on the notorious theme of “Grexit” (the exit of Greece from the Euro Area). Back when Yanis was the Greek finance minister there was a decent chance that Greece would discontinue using the euro. He never told us what he wanted from the negotiations he was engaging in at the time: to keep the euro, to switch back to the drachma, to have some kind of dual currency arrangement, or something else entirely.

In the podcast he employs the analogy of not taking on a credit card to pay off a debt while you are bankrupt. It is common sense. Then what is the policy proposal or at least the big picture view? I never heard it.

The exact answer does not matter. What is of interest is the absence of clarity, for it is indicative of the wider political left’s problem with European Union affairs altogether: there is no clear vision, no compelling story. Yanis is intellectually honest, mind you, yet he too is beholden rhetorically to a movement that considers certain opinions unacceptable.

Leftists at-large have no persuasive plan for the European Union. Not for “Europe” in some abstract sense, as that can easily be construed along the lines of international peace. I am specifically focused on the existing legal-institutional architecture which enshrines in treaties what effectively is anathema to progressives. Austerity is not the ephemeral policy of some elected government, such that it can be discontinued at the next election. No! It is the very essence of the primary law that underpins Europe’s economic governance.

The left cannot make bold pronouncements on the EU as such. If it accepts the status quo, then it necessarily agrees to live under a system that practically no democratic process can reform. Yanis learnt this firsthand: he had to resign from his post as finance minister because a resounding “no” at the referendum meant nothing whatsoever in substantive terms.

As things have stood since the early 1990s with the Treaty of Maastricht, the EU is caught in a situation where it has no natural unit of democracy. This used to be the nation-state back when there was a direct link between the legitimation of decision-makers and their attendant accountability. Decisions were adopted domestically and were, in principle, scrutinised there. The European Economic Community of the pre-Maastricht era was a free trade area with limited authority over national affairs.

The crowning achievement of the Treaty of Maastricht is the euro. Monetary policy has since been transferred to the European Central Bank. Fiscal policy is similarly conferred to the supranational level in a process that largely unfolded at the height of the 2008+ economic crisis. Without financial autonomy, the remaining areas of policy are severally constrained in advance, notwithstanding other European regulations. Recent developments in the proxy war with Russia are showing that the EU is eager to concentrate ever more power on matters of foreign policy and defence, and even meddle in the outcome of national elections under the pretext of combating “disinformation” campaigns carried out by the usual villains.

Meanwhile, the EU as a whole is not a democracy. The Commission is a bureaucratic apparatus. The European Council is a collection of governments, each of which has partialised sovereignty, elected on a national platform to pursue national interests yet supposed to make decisions in the name of Europeanness. In other words, we experience a mismatch of sovereignty: rules for the system as a whole without the commensurate cycle of legitimation and accountability.

Against this backdrop, Europe faces the same predicament it did in the 2010s. Namely, it operates in a grey area that is neither national nor supranational democracy. One path forward is that of federalism which sees the EU turn into a fully fledged federal republic. The other is a reconstitution of national sovereignty, which effectively means the disintegration of the Union as we know it.

For leftists this is an awkward historical turn:

To side with the federalists is to accept that for the indeterminate future they will say nothing about the hardcoded neoliberal character of the EU’s economics. Or, worse, they will join the pro-EU camp anyway while rhetorically disagreeing with the most inflexible policies of the block.
Dismissing the EU has far-reaching implications which lead to the formation of a programme that is nationalistic at heart: exit the euro, leave the Union, restore national sovereignty, pursue good relations with countries beyond Europe, et cetera. Regaining sovereignty will also affect immigration policy, not least in order to impose capital controls during the potentially long period of transition back to a national currency.

Yanis has had no answer to this conundrum. My view is that one has to decide what their priorities are and proceed accordingly. I have in the past leaned on the federalist side and still think it is worth the trouble if—and only if—it establishes a republic. Though I have long lost faith in the capacity of the EU to be refashioned into something other than the bureaucratic confederation it is.

Each system comes with its own potential owning to the relative power of its constituent factors and the particularities of their interplay. How can we get a European treasury, for instance, when the moment we try to pool national debts we encounter the toxic issue of the Dutch assuming part of the national debt of the Italians, the Germans doing the same with the French, and so on.

The nations still exist as do their cultures and historical biases. This is the fact of the matter. Federalism is an intellectual project that sounds nice in theory while it downplays or completely ignores the inescapable conflicts of interest among the member states of the Union. Considered holistically, to change the EU requires concerted action of the sort that is akin to planetary alignment.

Perhaps, then, intellectual honesty leads us to a nationalist turn; nationalist in the sense of restoring sovereignty at home and then working towards its democratisation; nationalist in order to develop the capacities for an internationalist outlook. This too is difficult, for sure, though each country can do it without depending on all the rest to reach consensus in practically every area of policy.

Wednesday, May 6, 2026 - Baty.net

2026-05-06T16:11:01.000Z

I gotta start bugging Claude Code to help me make adding images here easier, before I'm sucked backed into Ghost.

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On the coming economic crisis - Protesilaos Stavrou: Master feed with all updates

2026-05-06T00:00:00.000Z

The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has created an input shock whose delayed cascading effects we shall experience in the months and years to come. Shortages in oil and its derivatives bring about challenging states of affairs that extend to every area of economic activity. If businesses start failing, we may be in for a rerun of the post-2008 financial crisis or worse. Prices were already at exorbitant rates prior to the US-Israeli war against Iran. The upward trend is further reinforced as markets are gradually yet steadily pricing in the prevailing risks.

Even if the planet is awash with natural resources that can, in principle, render Middle Eastern oil surplus to requirements, the damage has already happened (and continues to worsen). It takes time to reorganise supply chains to whatever new normal. The transition cannot be pain-free.

President Trump keeps boasting about America’s prowess on the battlefield in what starts to look like theatrics for saving face rather than responsible statesmanship. America has not only failed in toppling the Iranian regime and in acquiring the enriched uranium, it has also managed to create an intractable situation with the closing of the Strait of Hormuz: a vital artery of the global energy markets which was, by the by, open prior to this unnecessary war. In the process, Trump appears beholden to his paymaster lobbyists and thus cannot be trusted to pursue policies that are in the well-meaning interest of his own people, let alone the international community.

In my part of the world, the European Union, political elites are behaving in the same way as their predecessors circa 2010. Then too, as today, woefully unprepared policy-makers were too slow to respond to rapidly evolving phenomena. Their complacency, continuous delays, indecision, and overall lack of ambition, deepened and lengthened the economic downturn. They effectively had no better solution than to condemn the continent to an economic outlook of permanent austerity on the fiscal front combined with hyperinflationary monetary policy.

The devastating outcome of their decision-making remains with us to this day. The money printing bonanza evolved into the ever egregious concentration of property in the upper parts of the income distribution. Same principle for the bailouts that favoured big business over everybody else.

EU apparatchiks are focused on their endless proxy war with Russia, which is a boon for the military-industrial-financial complex on every side of the conflict, but of negative value to affected countries at-large. Effective leadership in such circumstances would be concerned with creating the conditions for the economic resilience of Europe through what used to work well, namely, sincere trade. Diverse alliances and strong business ties with the rest of the world, couched in terms of mutual respect, are essential. Once greed becomes doctrine and guile turns into policy, war is inevitable.

Part of such a realignment involves closer ties with China, a recognition that the Middle East belongs to all of its peoples and that cooperation with them is the sole path to sustainability, a rapprochement with the Russians, pressure on the Ukrainian government to finally accept a peace deal, and gradual reduction in the currently strong dependency on American energy imports.

What we get instead is further dependence over the short-to-medium term on the increasingly unreliable Americans, mindless Sinophobia and Russophobia, jingoism in Eastern Europe, and neocolonial smugness towards the predominantly Islamic Western Asian countries.

Advances in robotics and artificial intelligence could, in theory, mitigate the chilling effects of the looming recession and even reverse the trend altogether. Though one need only consider the ownership model of the relevant industries to understand that whatever gains will not be widely shared. Those who brought us to this situation will be laughing all the way to the bank, while we will be counting pennies to buy a loaf of bread or, worse, paying with our blood in some war we never believed in.

There is still some time to arrest the downfall and pivot away from the path to collective folly. Though it requires a sense of urgency. I am afraid that at least in the Europe Union apparatus there is no such quality of character to be found. Not in Berlin, not in Paris, and certainly not in Brussels.

How I use my phone - James' Coffee Blog

2026-05-06T00:00:00.000Z

In my last two blog posts, I discussed how I use greyscale mode on my phone and night shift on my computer. These blog posts were inspired by discussions happening in the IndieWeb community about greyscale, and now, more generally, how we use our phones.

My phone, an iPhone, is an invaluable tool to me. Last year, though, I realised that there are some things that I really prefer doing on desktop devices. I prefer watching videos on computers. I prefer creating and updating pages on my website with my computer, although I liberally take notes for blog posts on my phone. Meanwhile, I use my phone for things I need to do on the go: taking notes of observations that I may want to develop in my writing, consulting maps, messaging, among other things.

Indeed, many of my blog posts start off as notes that I have written while out and about in the world; having a tool to hand to capture notes quickly is invaluable to me. I could use a notebook, but I prefer using a phone.

Applications

Generally, my approach to using my phone is that I like to have as few applications installed as possible – only those that I actively use. For example, I have apps I need for travel like booking train tickets and maps, messaging apps, a music and podcast app, and apps for banking. I don’t have any social media on my phone. I don’t use social media any more, except for my occasional reply I write on this site and send to a Mastodon post using Bridgy Fed. ¹ ². I only download email on my phone if I am going on a trip and will likely need some emails for reference (i.e. tickets, confirmations).

If I need an application for one context, such as for a trip away somewhere, I will install the application before I go and delete it when I get back home. This active gardening reduces the number of icons on my home screen, which I like to do. Fewer icons makes the home screen calmer.

Conversations

If I am in conversation with someone in real life, I don’t use my phone unless I'm finding information to help advance our conversation. My philosophy is that if I have the pleasure of someone’s company, I shouldn’t be on my phone. I occasionally slip, but I proactively avoid my phone when I am with others.

Privacy and notifications

I have my phone configured with as many privacy-respecting settings set up as possible. Location Services is turned off for almost every application. Almost no applications can access my camera. I have Personalised Ads turned off in the Privacy & Security settings.

I have Do Not Disturb set at all times, although phone calls get through as normal. Do Not Disturb mode helpfully removes all the (1) or red dot icons from applications. Indeed, generally, I don’t like notifications; I have them turned off on my computer too, except I do allow icon colour changes in apps where notifications are essential for me to read.

The way I have Do Not Disturb set up allows notifications to appear on the home screen, but my phone doesn't buzz and the screen doesn't turn on. This means I can check my notifications when I am ready.

The only notifications I like on my phone are messages from family and friends – the kind of notification you open up that makes you smile. In the messaging apps I use, I proactively mute group chats where I am not an active participant so that I am only notified of individual people messaging me.

Browsing

I use Firefox on both desktop and mobile. I have been using Firefox for years and love the software. Of note, I prefer the interface of Firefox on iPhone to Safari on iPhone. I find managing tabs much easier on Firefox.

Layering colour customisations

Last night, I learned that I having greyscale mode and night mode enabled on my phone simultaneously has an effect. The greyscale mode is warmer with night shift mode on. I tried turning night shift mode on while keeping greyscale on too and I quickly turned night shift back on again – the combination of both modes works really well for me.

My relationship with my phone

Reducing the number of apps on my phone was difficult, but ultimately worth it. To the extent possible, I want my phone to be a creative tool for me as a writer, a reference tool for my every day world – whether that means consulting maps, Wikipedia, or searching something up – and a way to stay in touch with friends. I think my phone does all those three things right now.

My phone feels relatively calm. Do I use it too much? Probably; I still take out my phone when I am anxious while out and about and need a distraction. But I don’t really worry about my phone any more since it feels more like a tool than a destination. Will I change how I use my phone at some point? Probably; change is part of life. This post describes how things are right now.

This post has been more of a “stream of consciousness” than others. I have been writing things as they come to mind. Part of me worries whether this comes across as me having everything figured out in terms of how I use computers, or as presenting a recommended path. I don’t have everything figured out, nor is the way I use my phone how you may want to use yours. ³ ⁴ I think the point I want to make in this post is that you can make your phone yours. Indeed, your technology should be for you ⁵.

My personal website makes me feel infinitely more creative than social media ever did. I feel like I can be myself here.

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I installed Instagram temporarily earlier this year to participate in a group chat and I quickly realised just how much I didn’t like the experience, so I deleted the application. I also left the experience having great empathy for the difficulty people feel about leaving social platforms. I am perhaps lucky that I am in communities that don’t use social media as much but I still feel the void of there being people on the periphery of my life that I can’t contact because I only knew them through social media. This led me to think just how important open platforms are, where you should have easy portability of identity. Now, whenever someone wants to contact me, I recommend my website, email, Signal, or SMS.

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On a slight tangent, part of what still motivates me to think as much as I do about technology is that I think things can be better. I don’t know what our digital experiences will look like in the decades to come, but if I can have a small hand in holding the flame for technology that is really for you – even just through writing blog posts – I would be most delighted.

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⁴

Speaking of not having everything figured out, I do have one tip: don't put your laptop next to your bed at night. I have been doing this lately and so, instinctively, I keep picking up my laptop in the morning to read messages and notifications. I know I should put my laptop in another room at night. My relationship with technology is indeed ever changing.

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By which I mean really for you, unlike, ironically, a “for you page”.

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Bridgy Fed greyscale mode on my phone night shift on my computer 1 2 3 4 5 [↩] [↩] [↩] [↩] [↩]