Oh great, another personal update

July 8, 2024
by Riccardo Mori
Tech Life

Ever since I started writing online, one kind of post I always tried to avoid publishing on my site is the Sorry for the lack of updates post. As the excellent CM Harrington reminded me a few months back on Mastodon, Remember you don’t owe anyone anything. I think in this era of social media, there’s a pressure to ‘engage’ — but that’s a false pressure. We’re human beings, being social. We’re not entertainment to be consumed and monetised, so don’t ever feel like you’re not keeping up, or not holding up your end. It’s not a job, it’s a conversation.

This is very true, and in fact one of the core principles behind my online writing — as I’ve often said — is that I publish something when I have something to say. That’s why I never liked those Sorry for the lack of updates posts.

But hiatuses happen. Often they’re ‘time-outs’ a writer or creator decides to take. Sometimes they’re caused by stuff behind the scenes that’s a bit out of our control. What happened here is the latter. And I feel that certain hiatuses warrant an explanation. Especially if you’re a new reader here and have decided to add my blog to your feeds after discovering me through the interview for Manuel Moreale’s People & Blogs series. As this was almost two months ago, you might have been wondering why I haven’t posted anything since.

In a previous personal update back in February I mentioned that my wife and I were apartment hunting because our landlord and her brothers weren’t interested in renewing the renting contract, wanting to sell the apartment instead. After a couple of stressful months we finally found and purchased a new apartment at the end of April. At that point we entered the subsequent stage: moving our personal stuff to the new place. Given our poor experiences with removal firms we contacted in the past, we decided to move 95% of what we own ourselves, then leave only the most cumbersome furniture to a removal firm. If this method guarantees nobody breaks any of our items, on the other hand it makes the whole process longer and more fatiguing. In fact, it took us two months, May and June, to bring our many belongings to the new apartment, making daily car trips.

Having to go through everything we have, putting it in boxes, bags, backpacks and suitcases, loading the car, making the trip, unloading the car, rinse and repeat, was of course exhausting and time-consuming. And since I also had to keep working during all this, I really had no time left to follow tech topics (or any topic, for that matter) and therefore no time left to write anything here.

And to be perfectly honest with you, what little I was able to follow about the tech world did not particularly excite me. Here are a few quick notes I shared on social media about Apple’s recent stuff, for instance:

About the M4 iPad Pros — So, new iPad Pros. Better than the old iPad Pros. It’s the same song since 2012. Better specs hardly solve the conceptual and identity problems of this device, which remain unchanged iteration after iteration. I’m sure there are people ‘delighted’ with an M4 iPad Pro. I’m sure there are people who see it as a ‘worthwhile update’ if they’re coming from an M1 iPad Pro. I’m just tired of this carousel.

About the ‘AI’ stuff Apple introduced at WWDC24 — I haven’t seen the WWDC24 keynote yet. The only two things I’ve learnt for now by skimming my timeline are Apple embracing AI in some form, and the name Mac OS Sequoia. I used to proudly display my loyalty and support of Apple, but this company is losing me, event after event. Apple went from Think Different to being just another big tech company. I used to recognise myself in that “intersection between technology and the liberal arts”. Apple’s intersection, today, is between tech and profit. No thanks.

I only had time to watch one video recapping “Apple Intelligence” (LOL), and it was by the always excellent Dave 2D. Now that I know a bit better about it, my reaction is even more visceral. I don’t need and I don’t want that crap on my devices. But also: what a colossal waste of resources just to stay in the game (and we’ll see how long this game will actually last…). But also: all this ‘AI assistance’ regarding text is a depressing and all-too-modern way of treating the written word as throwaway shit we shouldn’t bother wasting brain cells on. By relying on AI tools to change, summarise, manipulate the written word, we end up being even more inept at creative thinking/ideation and communicating. “Siri, just send Frank an auto-generated birthday message with an AI-generated image, because I can’t be arsed to do that / I’m too busy.” It’s maybe a silly example, but that’s bleak all the same. That’s not the help I need or want from technology. Technology is supposed to help with soul-crushing, repetitive tasks, so that we humans can — among other things — do better what makes us human: being creative and contemplative. ‘AI’ today is treating creativity, reflection, contemplation as the ‘boring stuff’ that should be automated, so that… what? So that we can be better at being idiots with one another?

That Apple is willing to jump on the AI bandwagon is as disappointing as it was predictable. I’m fed up with this “Us too!” attitude. Apple is too big to fail, and yet suffers from Fear Of Missing Out like a startup. Apple should use its success and resources to continue being a trailblazer, not the company that gives you an AI chatbot and more emoji. And don’t even reply to me with “But Vision Pro…”.
 

 
Now the move is over, and the next and final stage has begun: settling in the new place, unboxing everything, reconfiguring spaces and so on. I should have more time to update this blog, but first I’ll need to catch up with roughly six months’ worth of tech news and unread feeds. I hope to be able to write more (and more thoroughly) about what Apple has introduced so far this year, what the company is doing, and ultimately why I feel increasingly let down by them. Now I need to get back to work. Thank you for your patience and understanding. And if you’ve been showing me support on social media and on private channels through this stressful period of time, know that it is very appreciated.

People & Blogs: Interview with yours truly

May 13, 2024
by Riccardo Mori
Handpicked

Back in March, talking about the People and resources added to my reading list in 2023, in the ‘Tech blogs’ section I wrote:

This category was this close to remaining empty. However in November 2023 I discovered Manuel Moreale — or rather, he discovered me through another person, and got in touch. And I, in turn, was made aware of his very good blog. I really like his down-to-earth, no-nonsense approach, and I’ve been enjoying one of the main features of his website — the weekly interviews for the People and Blogs newsletter. 

Full disclosure: Manuel interviewed me as well, and at the time of writing this my interview hasn’t been published yet. I’m not highlighting Manuel’s blog as a favour to him, or for self-serving purposes. I genuinely like his blog, and I think it’s a worthy addition to your RSS feeds. Simple as that. 

That interview was eventually published a couple of days ago: People & Blogs: Riccardo Mori. Check it out if you want to know more about me, my interests, my history when it comes to online writing, and have some recommendations for further reading, both online and offline. And make sure you start following Manuel’s blog which, I’ll reiterate, is worth adding to your feeds.

You’re also welcome to get in touch if, after reading the interview, something piqued your interest and you want to ask further questions.

Brief review of the Fossil Gen 6 Wellness Edition Hybrid Smartwatch

April 30, 2024
by Riccardo Mori
Tech Life

Fossil Gen 6 Wellness Edition Hybrid Smartwatch

On a whim, on April 3 I bought this smartwatch. As you can see in the title of this article, its name is a bit of a mouthful: Fossil Gen 6 Wellness Edition Hybrid Smartwatch. You can look at an overview of the entire line-up and their main features on this page at Fossil’s website. The model I chose is called Machine, in all black colourway.

My wife and I had already noticed these Fossil smartwatches some time ago, but were put off by their price, which at the time was €259. I’m still rocking a Pebble as my main smartwatch, and use a Fitbit Versa 2 to track additional things such as heart rate and sleep (the Fitbit seems to do a better job than the Pebble at this). Spending that kind of money for yet another smartwatch made little sense to me, though I did find the all-black ‘stealth’ look very attractive. My wife had her eye on another model (all digital, not hybrid) and was tempted, but when she asked the store clerk for a demo of the watch’s features, the clerk told her she couldn’t show her much because all the watches were turned off and not charged. We thought it was a bit lame, and left.

Then, about a month ago, I was browsing watches in the same store and noticed the huge discounts for the whole Fossil smartwatch line-up. I told my wife, Weren’t you interested in one of these? Look, they’re only €99 now. She jumped at the opportunity and purchased for herself the model she had previously been after. And I looked at this hybrid variant and said Why not?

I don’t usually make impulse purchases, but this — spoiler alert — turned out to be a good one.

This page on TechRadar explains clearly and concisely what a hybrid smartwatch is:

Put simply, a hybrid smartwatch blends a traditional, mechanical watch design with modern smartwatch technology that can track fitness, send notifications, monitor your heart rate and much more.

That’s why it’s called a hybrid, because it sits somewhere between a regular watch and a smartwatch. Although, some are more smart than others.

[…] One of the biggest differences between a hybrid smartwatch and a regular smartwatch is in the design. Generally, a hybrid smartwatch doesn’t have a bright touchscreen and looks much more like a regular watch than all-out smartwatches like the Apple Watch or the Fitbit.

In the case of this smartwatch, it definitely looks like a rugged field watch, with a chunky appearance that almost gives Casio G‑Shock vibes from a distance. But the Fossil’s case is all stainless steel and feels hefty and solid in the hand (it weighs approximately 150 grams). Amazingly, once you put in on your wrist, it feels somewhat lighter and you don’t really notice its presence (it’s still a big, manly watch with a case diameter of 45mm).

The ‘hybridity’ of this smartwatch is very well executed from a visual design standpoint. While the bezel, the hour markers, the outer ring of the dial, and the watch hands are physical and don’t change, the rest of the dial is an e‑ink screen. There are a few watchfaces you can choose from, and also compose your own, like I did here.

The beauty of the e‑ink screen is twofold. On the one hand, it blends very well with the physical elements of the watch, especially when you choose a dark watchface, to the point that the smartwatch just appears like a regular mechanical watch at first glance. On the other hand, from a functional standpoint, the e‑ink screen gives the watch the advantage you’re probably thinking of: long battery life. With thoughtful notifications management, the watch can last up to 2 weeks on a single charge, according to the manufacturer. But I’ve found out that this estimate is very conservative. More on this later.

Feature-wise, while hybrid in design, this Fossil smartwatch has pretty much all you need. Again, you can see an overview of the features here, but in short they include step tracking, automatic workout detection, sleep tracking, calorie tracking, heart rate, and estimated blood oxygen measurements.

The companion app is really well made, well designed, and easy to use. The pairing process was fast and flawless, as is syncing. Through the app you can have an overview of your health and fitness stats, and customise both the watchface and the two pushers located at two o’clock and four o’clock. The main button, located on the crown at three o’clock, is always used to access the main menu. When you enter the main menu or any submenu, the watch hands align and become a sort of analogue indicator you use to point to the desired menu item. You use the other two pushers to navigate ‘up’ and ‘down’ (or rather, clockwise and anticlockwise) through the entries. It’s a very tactile and organic experience overall. The three pushers are well built and have a positive feel and feedback. The only (minor) disappointment is that the crown doesn’t move and isn’t used to scroll through options (it does on the other, regular smartwatch models by Fossil).

Fossil Gen 6 Wellness Edition Hybrid Smartwatch - Main menu

Here’s how the main menu looks when you push the button on the watch’s crown. You navigate the options with the other two pushers and use the crown button to enter your selection. The watch hands join together in this view, and act like a single pointing hand as you select the various options.

Due to its hybrid design, and the fact that the e‑ink screen is only black & white, there aren’t many custom watchfaces to choose from. The app offers 19 unique faces, but — and I like this a lot — it also lets you design your watchface by assembling the base elements the way you want. If, for example, you like one particular face among those provided by Fossil, but you want fewer complications, or none at all, you can create a more stripped-down version of that watchface. The process can be a bit fiddly in places, but it’s generally easy and intuitive.

When I posted a couple of photos of this smartwatch on social media, someone asked me if it was solar-powered. That would be really cool, but no, you charge it just like any other smartwatch. It has a round, magnetic attachment on the back, a bit smaller than the one for the Apple Watch. It doesn’t charge very fast, but at least you don’t have to charge it every day or every 2 days. In fact, let’s talk about the most astonishing feature of this smartwatch — battery life.

As I said, I purchased it on April 3. The battery was completely drained. I charged it fully that same evening. At the time of writing — April 30 in the afternoon — the battery is at 18%. I haven’t charged the watch in 27 days, not even for a brief top-up. In normal use, it essentially loses about 3% charge per day. Which means that if it’s now at 18%, it can keep going for approximately another 5–6 days before the battery is completely discharged. An entire month on a single charge is rather exceptional for a modern smartwatch. And note that I haven’t enabled any kind of power-saving measure, and that this watch also tracks heart rate and blood oxygen. It’s not like, say, a Pebble that only tracks your steps. There are more sensors to power here.

There are actually two aspects, intrinsic to the e‑ink screen, that become sort of built-in power-saving measures anyway. The first is that the data displayed on the screen, such as heart rate, steps, distance, calories, isn’t constantly refreshed in real time, but updates with a flick of the wrist. Here the watch acknowledges your gesture by having the watch hands make a complete rotation to then return to the current time. The second aspect is that the screen isn’t backlit. It’s front-lit by four LEDs you turn on by double-tapping on the watch’s crystal.

Overall, I’m very pleased with this purchase. After almost a month of use, I haven’t really found anything bad about this Fossil hybrid smartwatch. It’s well built, and looks and feels premium. Its metal strap, with a tight mesh similar to certain Milanese loops I’ve seen in other watches, is the most pleasant to wear I’ve tried in a long time; I’ve worn the watch non-stop for days, and didn’t experience any kind of skin irritation or wrist hair pulling. Its step tracking and heart rate measurements appear fairly accurate or at least consistent (I simply performed an informal test by wearing both the Fossil and the Fitbit Versa 2, and both gave similar readings). Its interface, while bare-bones, is clear, intuitive, and out of the way. Its companion app is well thought-out, elegant, and again, easy to use. And its battery life just blew me away. At the discounted price of €99, this has truly been a bargain, and a great bang for my buck.

I’ve been told that the reason for all these discounts is that it’s likely Fossil is leaving the smartwatch market. If true, that’s a real pity. Sometimes the best ideas come from companies that are not Apple, Google, Samsung or any other major player in the smartwatch sector.

Brief review of the Logitech G413 TKL SE mechanical keyboard

March 24, 2024
by Riccardo Mori
Tech Life

When I purchased my M2 Pro Mac mini, I didn’t want to reuse peripherals I had lying around for my new setup. I bought a new display, new keyboard, and a new mouse not because I was feeling wasteful, but because I wanted to create a specific setup that could prove useful for my type of work, and which could have a minimal footprint because space is always at a premium on my main desk.

I talked more at length about this setup back in June 2023; what I can say after 9 months is that, overall, I’m quite satisfied with it. The portrait LG display has been a particularly good choice, and it’s great to work with a lot of text documents with such a display.

The Razer Basilisk V3 X Hyperspeed mouse has served me well, too. I knew it would because I had already purchased one for my Legion 7i gaming laptop. However I must add that it’s not the sturdiest I’ve owned. One day it accidentally fell from my desk. It was just a 72cm drop, yet the impact caused an internal component (the metallic part that comes in contact with the negative pole of the AA battery) to become loose. The mouse is still functional, I just need to be more careful when replacing the battery and ensure that a proper contact is established.

The major letdown has been the keyboard. The Razer Blackwidow V3 Mini Hyperspeed (which I’ll refer to as “Razer B‑V3-MH” for brevity from now on) is an attractive 65% keyboard with nice-feeling linear and silent switches. Created as a gaming keyboard, it is supposed to be sturdy and have several gaming-friendly features, such as anti-ghosting, ultra-responsive input, durable keys and switches, and so forth.

Unfortunately, after three months or so, this keyboard developed an annoying issue that only got more and more annoying over time, to the point that I couldn’t work with it or around it anymore: keys began to repeat randomly, leading to dual typing or triple typing even. I had to slow down my typing speed to avoid hhavving seentenncess lloook likee thiis. I need precision for my work. It’s also a nightmare with passwords, as you can imagine.

This issue is not isolated. Some using the Razer B‑V3-MH on PC claim that a firmware update greatly mitigated the problem, others say it didn’t. Someone else in that afore-linked forum thread said:

I finally found a solution for that. This is not a software issue but a mechanical one. Just remove the keycaps (keyboard off), and put few drops of isopropylic alcohol on the switch and spam it so that the liquid penetrates well. Let it dry 30/40 min. The operation work fine for me (double E typing every time). If this could help some and prevent them from throwing away their keyboard or worse buying a new one from razer.

If razer reads this: beautiful keyboards shouldn’t hide a shitty conception, no need to guarantee 50M hits when they barely do 10%.

Exactly. We’re talking about a €180 keyboard. Not ultra-deluxe or artisanal mechanical keyboard pricing, but not cheap either. A keyboard like this shouldn’t present these issues so early.

And don’t get me started on the fact that Razer refuses to provide their software applications for the Mac platform. Good thing I also have Windows PCs, otherwise updating this keyboard’s firmware would be a problem.

Anyway, last month I decommissioned the Razer B‑V3-MH for good. Maybe I’ll try the trick quoted above, when I have time. With the Razer keyboard gone, I had to find a replacement, and quickly.

I love mechanical keyboards, and I know there are a lot of well-made models out there that are superior to Razer’s products. I constantly keep an eye on Drop’s mechanical keyboards section and I receive the latest updates via email. I could lose hours or even days patiently sifting through custom mechanical keyboards, but the cold truth is that I hate group purchases and I hate to basically pre-order something that I can’t personally try and have to wait 4 months before it gets to my doorstep.

On the other hand, finding suitable keyboards in local brick & mortar shops hasn’t been easy either. Typically you find a lot of inexpensive ‘office PC’ membrane keyboards, some flat, Apple-looking offerings, and gaming keyboards from Razer, Corsair, Steelseries, and similar brands.

I was looking for a small-footprint mechanical keyboard, possibly with wired and wireless connections, to avoid cables and having a USB port on my Mac mini permanently taken. The hunt was proving fruitless. Then I found a good-enough candidate, the Logitech G413 TKL SE. I was able to try one at a local department store and — while I still think the keys of the Razer Blackwidow keyboards feel better — I found the G413’s keys to have a surprisingly good feel and feedback; and I found the G413’s build to be surprisingly good for a keyboard that costs €68. It’s about 1/3 of the price of the Razer B‑V3-MH, but honestly the latter doesn’t feel like a three-times superior product.

Logitech G413 TKL SE mechanical keyboard

The store was out of stock for the G413, so I turned to Amazon, and I was lucky enough to find it for a slightly discounted price. I paid €59 and got it the next day.

This is a tenkeyless keyboard, meaning it’s like a standard extended keyboard except it doesn’t have the numeric keypad. This makes it slightly bigger than the Razer B‑V3-MH, though its general footprint doesn’t make it that much bigger. The G413 is slightly lighter, too, at 650 grams against the 725 grams of the Razer B‑V3-MH. It’s nonetheless heavy enough that it doesn’t move around as you type.

It only comes with a wired, USB 2.0 connection, and while I would have really preferred a wireless option, at the end of the day this wasn’t a huge deal-breaker.

As per the manufacturer’s specs sheet, the Logitech G413 TKL SE features tactile mechanical switches, 6‑key rollover anti-ghosting, PBT keycaps and durable aluminium alloy build. It also has only white backlighting. Compared to the Razer B‑V3-MH, it’s a less sophisticated product if you will, and has a more spartan feel, but I actually don’t mind it. Having only white backlighting is okay for me, I’m not really a fan of and I don’t quite understand the RGB backlighting obsession in gaming products.

About the switches, I’ll steal this quote from The Verge’s review of the keyboard:

The Logitech G413 TKL SE might use Cherry MX-style switches, but they’re not original Cherry models. Instead, they’re Longhua switches made by Kaihua. There’s also only one choice of switch, “Tactile,” which is roughly equivalent to Cherry’s MX Brown switches. There are no linear or clicky options here, and nor is the G413 TKL SE hot-swappable, meaning you’ll have to use a soldering iron if you want to change its switches.

The part of that review I most disagree with, however, is about the typing feel:

Unfortunately, these switches simply don’t feel as nice to type on as more premium keyboards and are the main place you feel the Logitech G413 TKL SE’s affordable price tag. As a whole, it can feel a little rattly. Keypresses generate hollow thuds rather than crisp taps, and the switches just feel off in a way I struggle to put my metaphorical, if not physical, finger on.

Sure, there are a lot of better mechanical keyboards out there, with better switches and better typing feel, but after a month of use, I can’t say this feels like a cheap keyboard. I don’t find it ‘rattly’, and while it’s true that keypresses can sound a bit hollow, the switches don’t feel particularly ‘off’ to me. And more premium keyboards can be hit-and-miss too. Perhaps most mechanical keyboard nerds won’t consider Razer keyboards premium products, but they certainly don’t have consumer prices. And they have their share of issues.

What’s important is that I’m finally back to typing quickly and accurately, and I haven’t encountered any issues with the G413 TKL SE. The keys feel homogeneous, both when pressed and in the acoustic feedback they produce. The font used for the keys is nice and legible (no sci-fi themed gaming crap). And overall I’m liking the tenkeyless layout more than Razer B‑V3-MH’s 65% layout. I like having separate Function keys on the upper row, and the little island on the right with the arrow keys and the Insert/Delete, Home/End, Page Up/Page Down pairs.

€59 is the least I have paid for a mechanical keyboard, but even at €68 or $70, I think it’s still good value for the money. It may make a mechanical keyboard connoisseur raise their brow, but from a pragmatic standpoint, I find the G413 TKL SE to be an honest, dependable, functional option.

People and resources added to my reading list in 2023

March 22, 2024
by Riccardo Mori
Tech Life

This is the eleventh edition of my annual overview of the most interesting discoveries made during the previous year, whether it’s been a blog worth reading, a creator on YouTube worth following, or a cool website/resource. As a tradition, this overview used to be published every January, mostly as a sort of last look in the rearview mirror at the closing year before moving on to the new one.

This time I’m breaking the pattern, and publishing this towards the end of March, instead. My schedule is a bit off due to reasons I explained in my previous update, but at the same time I have to say that 2023 was a strange year overall. I’ve often mentioned this low tide brought up by a general feeling of ‘tech fatigue’; as a consequence, last year my interest in adding technology-related sources to my reads was rather low. I even neglected to stay up-to-date with the people and blogs I was already following.

2023: breaking patterns, tech exhaustion, and where to go from there

During 2023, my whole routine of staying informed with everything happening in tech ended up pretty much shattered. Before, I used to try my best to reach the equivalent of ‘inbox zero’ in my RSS feeds, but last year’s exhaustion made me really wonder whether all this information absorption was actually worthwhile. I started noticing the same effects of overexposure to news and newscasts. When I was living with my parents, morning and evening newscasts were the unavoidable daily ritual, and in the household there was this idea that basically you’re not living your life properly if you don’t stay up-to-date with what’s happening around you. That not following the news isn’t smart, and so forth. 

The problem of course is that what you see through a newscast isn’t a balanced snapshot of the world around you. You’re mostly fed pieces of news about what’s exceptional, and for the most part this focuses on what’s exceptionally negative. What makes the news is 50 people dead in a building’s fire, not the 5,000 people of that neighbourhood whose life goes on as usual. In the end, overexposure to news and newscasts just overwhelms your worldview with depressing negativity. This, in turn, fills you with a constant sense of dread, alternated with bouts of anxiety. The first thing I did when I started living on my own was to get rid of the TV. At the time, Internet was still innocent enough that I could use it to retrieve the information I needed to catch up with what was happening around me, without the daily shower of negative news thrown in my face. This was obviously before social networks effectively turned into newscasts.

While overexposure to tech, tech news, and tech debates hasn’t exactly brought the same sense of dread and the same kind of anxiety as the overexposure to newscasts, it certainly created a feeling of exhaustion and also a renewed criticism towards how we talk about technology today. Just as what you see through a newscast isn’t a balanced snapshot of the world around you, what you get from following the news and debates in technology isn’t a balanced snapshot of the actual situation. Apart from ‘objective’ bits of news, like product announcements, new technological breakthroughs, and the like, everything else in the tech discourse is pretty much biased and unbalanced. It’s the us-versus-them mentality wherever you look. When you realise this, when it finally hits you that — except for a few sources who steadfastly maintain their integrity — the tech discourse keeps going through its motions all the time, your enthusiasm really goes out the window. You start noticing how the same pundits keep reacting the same way; you start recognising their bias; you re-evaluate their assessments. Cynicism and scepticism are necessary evils in tech if you want to keep thinking critically, but your daily tech soup will definitely taste more sour.

This exhaustion stage, this tech burnout, is necessary as well. I’m more and more convinced that more people ought to reach this stage, to then try to approach tech in a different — hopefully healthier — way. Because the next stage is to focus on whatever good remains out there after the squeeze. That’s why I’m trying to approach 2024 with the goal of finding out who and what’s really worth following, who and what is truly distinctive, who and what is ultimately worth my (and your) time. Mind you, it’s what I’ve always been trying to do when compiling these yearly overviews; the only little thing that has changed is that from now on I’ll try to be even more selective. 

Blogs

I know, that was a bit of a long introduction, but it was necessary to explain why, this time, the list of sources added to my feeds is going to be quite short overall — maybe shorter than it’s ever been.

Tech

This category was this close to remaining empty. However in November 2023 I discovered Manuel Moreale — or rather, he discovered me through another person, and got in touch. And I, in turn, was made aware of his very good blog. I really like his down-to-earth, no-nonsense approach, and I’ve been enjoying one of the main features of his website — the weekly interviews for the People and Blogs newsletter. 

Full disclosure: Manuel interviewed me as well, and at the time of writing this my interview hasn’t been published yet. I’m not highlighting Manuel’s blog as a favour to him, or for self-serving purposes. I genuinely like his blog, and I think it’s a worthy addition to your RSS feeds. Simple as that.

Addendum, just before hitting the Publish button

Two honourable mentions I haven’t actually added to my RSS feeds, but kept in my browsers’ bookmarks. The reason is that these two blogs are a bit on the technical side, but occasionally talk about things I’m interested in.

  • Niki’s blog tonsky.me — I discovered this when I was looking for more information about Syncthing, and encountered Niki’s article about it, Computers as I used to love them.
  • Julio Merino’s blog — Time ago on Twitter/X someone I follow retweeted a few tweets by Julio that piqued my interest; after an exchange with Julio, I ended up reading his article discussing in more depth what he was talking about in that Twitter thread: Fast machines, slow machines. I found both the article and the blog quite interesting, therefore worth bookmarking.

Photography

Casual Photophile — This isn’t exactly a resource I discovered in 2023; I think I stumbled on it a couple of years before, and I could have sworn I already mentioned it in these annual overviews, but checking the previous editions nothing came up. I probably just forgot to add it. Anyway, this is a really, really good photography-oriented website/blog. The focus is mainly on film photography, but digital is discussed as well. News, and mostly reviews of cameras and lenses, written with the necessary depth that comes from passionate people. Definitely recommended.

The Machine Planet — About 10–12 years ago, when I was deep, deep into my path of rediscovery of film photography, someone somewhere mentioned an article by Dante Stella I should check. I wish I remembered who suggested what and where. I don’t even remember the specific article. What I remember is entering the (now old and discontinued) website of Dante Stella, reading that article, then being so captivated by his writing style and his way of presenting and discussing photography that I bookmarked the site right away. He never updated the site with much frequency, but that didn’t matter, as I would return to just re-read some of his articles and refresh my memory about his opinion on a certain piece of camera equipment, etc. I was glad to see he persisted with his writing by opening a new blog, The Machine Planet. Stella is an excellent photographer, and an excellent photography writer, to the point that, more than once, I’ve been inspired both by his photography and his writing. 

YouTube channels

There has been a lot of subscribing and unsubscribing in 2023, as some channels I discovered gave me a good initial impression but then I lost interest. 

Watches & horology

You may not know this, but clocks and watches are probably my oldest interest, as I was utterly fascinated with them since I was a little boy. For an all too brief period of my life I was even apprentice to a watchmaker. Then, as time passed, this interest never really turned into a passion, and sort of remained in the periphery, as writing and photography stayed front and centre. I got into watches again after my mother’s passing, as I inherited a couple of interesting items that sent me through a rabbit hole of horologic research. And so my dormant interest was rekindled. 

When you start looking for YouTube material on the subject, you definitely end up in another rabbit hole. There’s a lot of stuff, a lot of channels, a lot of different personalities and, yes, even influencers. (Ten years ago, the motto was, There’s an app for that; today I think we can all agree that There’s an influencer for that). Over the course of late 2022 up to now, I’ve checked out, subscribed, and unsubscribed to many watch-related channels. I’ll just list the ones I seem to return to more often, in no particular order of preference.

Teddy Baldassarre — Probably the channel with the widest scope, with videos about watches for all kinds of budgets. Teddy is a passionate host, and a rare combination of quantity + quality. You can find single watch reviews, comparisons, watch suggestions according to different budgets, opinion videos about the watch world, mini-documentaries about specific brands, and so forth. A really diverse selection of content, all quite enjoyable.

The Urban Gentry — Watch reviews, critique, talks. ‘TGV’, the host, is charismatic and entertaining. My favourite videos are his chats with frequent guest engineer-turned-watch entrepreneur Marc Frankel of Long Island Watch, quite fun and informative.

Just the Watch — This channel is more focused on affordable watches and digital watches, since Dave the host is a Casio aficionado (like yours truly). I really enjoy Dave’s reviews: honest, balanced, concise but never superficial. He’s a nice, down-to-earth fellow; a pleasure to listen to.

Jenni Elle — Jenni’s channel is more about luxury brands and watch micro-brands I’ll never be able to afford. But she’s a joy to watch nonetheless (pardon the pun). Smart, fun, competent. I especially enjoy her chats with her husband (another watch nerd) about the watch world and market.

Britt Pearce — Britney’s strength, in my opinion, is that she created a watch channel that’s not snobbish or intimidating. She’s perhaps the most eclectic of this group. She produces fun, lighthearted videos that are just the right length when you want to watch something entertaining that doesn’t commandeer too much of your time. Essentially her message is that we can all enjoy watches without taking ourselves too seriously, and I strongly agree with the sentiment.

Music

Only one recommendation, but it’s a really good one:

Digging the Greats by Brandon Shaw. As the title suggests, here you’ll find a great mix of (modern) music history, breakdowns of entire albums, artists’ profiles, and so forth. Brandon is a remarkable host: passionate and knowledgeable, smart and entertaining. You can see by the way he produces and edits his videos that he’s pouring his soul into the work. If you like what he does, I suggest you support him on Patreon. In return you’ll get even better and extended versions of his videos, which he has to carefully edit to avoid all the related restrictions and copyright headaches faced by everyone trying to do music education on YouTube.

Podcasts

Another year, another round of copying-and-pasting the same quote from a couple of years ago:

In 2019 I unsubscribed from all the podcasts I was following, and I haven’t looked back. I know and respect many people who use podcasts as their main medium for expression. My moving away from podcasts is simply a pragmatic decision — I just don’t have the time for everything. I still listen to the odd episode, especially if it comes recommended by people I trust. You can find a more articulate observation on podcasts in my People and resources added to my reading list in 2019.

If you’re wondering why I keep the Podcast section in these overviews when I clearly have nothing to talk about, it’s because to this day I receive emails from people un-ironically asking me for podcast recommendations.

My RSS management

Again, nothing new to report on this front. The apps I’ve been using (and loving) on my several different devices are still the same, and I haven’t found better RSS management tools worth switching to. In my previous overviews, I used to list here all the apps I typically use to read feeds on my numerous devices, but ever since I broke my habit of obsessively reading feeds everywhere on whatever device, I’ll only list the apps on the devices I’ve used over the past year or so. If you’re curious to read the complete rundown, check past entries (see links at the bottom of this article):

  • On my M2 Pro Mac mini running Mac OS 13 Ventura, and on my 13-inch retina MacBook Pro running Mac OS 11 Big Sur: NetNewsWire.
  • On my Intel Macs running Mac OS 10.13 High Sierra: Reeder and ReadKit.
  • On my PowerPC Macs: older versions of NetNewsWire.
  • On my iPad 8: Unread, Reeder, NetNewsWire for iOS, and ReadKit.
  • On my iPhone SE 3, iPhone 8, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5, iPad 3: Unread. (Though on the iPad 3 Reeder seems to be more stable and less resource-hungry).
  • On older iOS devices: Older versions of Reeder, and an older version of Byline.
  • On my first-generation iPad: an older version of Newsify, which appears to be the only decent app still working on this device, as Slow Feeds (which is now called Web Subscriber), and the Feedly app itself have stopped working. Essentially, you can no longer properly authenticate and log into your Feedly account. It’s the same old problem — security certificates and vintage hardware don’t seem to like each other very much. I was able to make Newsify work by creating a ‘My Newsify’ account and importing all the feeds from Feedly.
  • On all my Windows machines I use FeedLab. It’s not a bad app at all, but I’m still looking for something more elegant visually. Nextgen reader used to be a great client, but development appears long discontinued.

Past articles

In reverse chronological order:

I hope this series and my observations can be useful to you. Also, keep in mind that some links in these past articles may now be broken. And as always, if you think I’m missing out on some good tech writing or other kind of resource you believe might be of interest to me, let me know via email, Twitter/X, or Mastodon. Thanks for reading!