Tag: Technology

Technological Overthinking #5 | Finding a new read-it-later app

10 December 2024 / Sinead

This is a follow-up from my previous post about the read-it-later app Omnivore, and why its existence and shutdown shows off the good and bad of open-source projects. Diving into the world of self-hosting software isn’t for me yet, which means it’s time to search for a replacement hosted service. After reading a variety of lists and reviews of recommended read-it-later apps, and learning from what others in the Discord found to be useful, I decided that writing down a checklist of what I was looking for in a replacement service would probably be the best way to test the options.

What I needed a replacement read-it-later app to have/ not have.

A priority on web browser features/settings (i.e. that its not using the “app-first with a limited web version” approach)
A Firefox extension that would let me easily save links/pages.
An Android app that reliably saves links from web browsing and other apps e.g. Discord messages.
A paid hosted syncing service.
A focus on reading text, not on audio.
No sponsored content or advertising mixed in with my saved links.

What I would prefer the replacement to have/not have:

No AI features (or at least the ability to fully disable and ignore any AI features)
Preference for a yearly subscription over a monthly subscription.
Payment with money rather than data.
Preference for developers using open source software and/or a nonprofit structure.

With the checklist in place, I started trying out some of the recommended alternatives to see which might be the best fit.

Apps/services I tried:

Readwise Reader (free trial)

Reader was already in the “probably not” pile as it aims to be a much larger program than I need. It aspires to be a read-it-later app, a note-taking app, and a full productivity system that integrates with other systems. For me, that would probably lead me to turn leisure reading into work, which would not be a good idea.

While I was impressed at Reader’s polished and coherent design, I did find that its everything-app nature felt like “too much” as a replacement; for me it felt intended to be a system that needed active maintenance rather than a tool. I have nothing against systems (case in point: this blog series!), but I didn’t want to replace something that had been simple with something much more complex.

The dealbreaker for me was that Reader automatically summarised imported articles with their AI “ghostreader”. This meant that when looking at my list of articles/feed items, I wasn’t actually seeing the start of the article as written by the author, but the AI summary instead. Worse, there doesn’t seem to be a way to disable it. The fact I couldn’t turn the AI off instantly sent Reader to the “hell, no” pile. A read-it-later app that wants to “ghostread” things for me is not where I want to be!

One of my favourite apps has shut down….

3 December 2024 / Sinead

It’s probably not surprising that I’m often particular about which apps and programs I use. While most of the time apps can be relatively interchangeable, I have three favourite programs/apps. For me, that’s defined as programs/apps that a) I have chosen as the sole way for me to do a specific task after a lot of research, and b) I would be genuinely upset about not being able to use any more.

The apps/services are MusicBee (where I manage and back up my music and podcast library and sync it to my phone and mp3 players), Omnivore (where I save articles from my phone, laptop, or desktop to read later and archive), and Listenbrainz (an open-source listen tracker).

Of the three, MusicBee would be the biggest loss. It’s also the main reason I still own a Windows PC. Finding anything that could equal MusicBee would require intensive research, but its local-first nature means that I could continue to use my installed copy even if the program was no longer actively maintained, making it hard to truly lose access to.

Omnivore, on the other hand, is a service rather than a program. It is also now a dead service: on November 30th, the hosted service was shut off and all user data was deleted.

Technological Overthinking #4 | Alternatives to a typical gaming headset

20 April 2024 / Sinead

This is a companion to my more general post about alternatives to headsets, as I wanted to write about both the options available for people and about my own experience and the solution that worked for my particular preferences and caveats. Splitting the two aspects into two posts seemed like a better option than creating a giant wall of text.

Due to everything on the limitations/caveats list below, finding a comfortable communication option for gaming is quite tricky for me. Given that gaming is my main way of socialising, a faulty choice here can be very annoying. This meant that taking the time to dive into researching more options was worthwhile, especially if it resulted in a more comfortable gaming-party experience.

I’m aware that this is irrational, and that it’s very much a first world problem, but trying to find a working alternative to wearing a typical headset was annoying not only because I had to try (and return) a lot of audio products, but because I felt stupid for not being able to just do things in the “proper” way.

Limitations / Caveats

I’m very sensitive to noise; the “immersion” of hearing all of the background noise and detail inside the game that people often desire can instead feel like a sensory overload for me because there are so many sounds going on.

Filtering out chat audio from the background of game audio is also tricky for me, so I need to have the option to hear only chat audio.

Sometimes, direct audio from earbuds/ headphones can feel physically painful even at very low volumes, so I need to have the option to send all audio (game and chat) out from the TV.
I get headaches from wearing most headphones for longer than an hour. The only exception to this to this I’ve found is the Bose QC 35ii because of how light they are and how little force they apply. Wearing headphones or a headset can also put uncomfortable pressure on my ears and jaw when my TMJ is playing up.
Lots of earphones and IEMs just don’t fit my ears.
I need to wear either earplugs or my noise-cancelling headphones for a large part of the day when I’m at work, and would prefer not to have to shove more things in/on my ears when I’m at home.
I’m not very good at talking loudly, so I need an actual mic rather than an inline mic to be audible to my friends.

Anti-Caveats (aka factors I don’t need to worry about)

I live with someone who is severely hearing impaired, and my neighbours are hearing impaired too, so being overheard or disturbing others is not something I have to think about.
I have an old flatscreen TV with surprisingly high-quality speakers: both game audio and music sound good and don’t have that scratchy “laptop speaker” sound. This means a complex setup with recievers/ surround-sound speakers isn’t necessary, as hearing party and game audio through my TV is actually my preferred option.

Help! I’m a gamer who can’t* wear a headset

19 April 2024 / Sinead

Now that gaming is such a known and celebrated part of the world, and has stopped being portrayed as a negative hobby, aspects of it have become standardised and locked in as essential parts of the activity. Across media, adverts, videos, and streams, gaming now has an expected portrayal with standard steps. You boot up your console or your PC “setup”, covering your aesthetically arranged desk in an RGB glow, settle into a comfy chair, put on your outside-world-blocking headset, and get immersed in another reality.

When you have to do any of those parts differently to that stereotyped (and marketed) pattern, it does kind of feel like you’re doing it wrongly.

* By “can’t wear”, I don’t mean that wearing a headset is completely impossible. It’s more that, due to a combination of hearing/audio processing issues and sensory oddities, wearing headsets or earphones is often very uncomfortable. Listening to game audio and chat audio simultaneously through headphones – achieving the “immersed” type of experience that is portrayed as the ideal and default way to game – is not the way gaming works for me. As a result I’ve spent a lot of time looking for ways to have an audio setup that means sociable gaming can just work for me.

Now that I’ve tried a lot of different options and finally found one that works for me, it makes sense for me to write down the types of alternative options and their general pros and cons to hopefully help anyone in the same boat. (I’ve spun off my specifc limitations/caveats, and the options that did and didn’t work for me, into its own post).

Alternatives to a typical headset.

Technological Overthinking #0

4 June 2020 / Sinead

One of the ways my anxiety sinks its teeth in is by spinning simple questions up until they seem like burning matters of either unreachable perfection or moral urgency.

A question like “how can I know if a clothing company is ethical?” led to a multi-hour internet rabbit hole on how that standard is regulated and whether those regulations are regulated etc. A passing curiosity about how tree-planting programs work led to me researching not just tree-planting but the entire concept of carbon offsets and the ways in which they can be corrupted or misused.

If I’m obsessing about something in this way, putting that thought down is near-impossible. The rational realisation that time spent thinking in this way about these questions is a matter of diminishing returns – that the hours spent locked in worry-led link-following are worth less than 20 minutes of calm, engaged research – doesn’t sink in until something wrenches me away from my thoughts. Usually, the best way to stop a runaway thought-train is just to wait until another one arrives.

Insomnia 63 Gaming Festival

28 August 2018 / Sinead

This weekend I had the brand new experience of going to the Insomnia Gaming Festival. Having never been to any gaming events or tournaments, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had a full weekend ticket, so I was there from Friday morning until Sunday afternoon.

As families often attend over just Saturday and Sunday, Friday was a fairly quiet introduction to the festival environment. We were able to get our bearings and explore the arena, and we could try all but the largest activities without queuing.

Layout and Content

The front of the arena hall was dominated by upcoming AAA games such as The Division 2, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, FIFA 19, and Marvel’s Spider-Man. A large Nintendo Switch zone, with playable pre-release and already-released games plus live stage shows, was hugely popular all weekend. A major sponsor was Belong by GAME: they provided a gaming space of ~80 PCs, which were used for pre-booked team tournaments and impromptu public tournaments.

Much of the arena was reserved for people with bring-your-own-console tickets, rather than for publicly-accessible gaming. However, there was a retro gaming space with arcade and pinball machines, older consoles such as the PS1, original Xbox, Gamecube, and Dreamcast, plus Japanese music games with peripherals I’ve never seen before. Other activities included a tabletop gaming zone, a laser maze, and an emerging sport called Flightball which was essentially Rocket League with drones.

PC parts manufactures such as Corsair and Razer were also present, but one glaring exception was Microsoft. There were no Xbox One consoles and no Xbox or Microsoft stands anywhere in the festival. The most visible game was Fortnite, to a surprising degree. A dedicated Fortnite zone was always busy, as was the small Battle Royale zone, yet every other playable space also contained Fortnite setups. Also, an entire merchandise stall was dedicated to plushy llamas.

Why Ada Lovelace Day shouldn’t just be about science

13 October 2017 / Sinead

On the second Tuesday in October, we celebrate Ada Lovelace Day to commemorate the great mathematician and writer who massively influenced computing history. We often use Ada Lovelace Day to highlight the past and present achievements of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). But focusing solely on STEM means we miss the most important parts of Ada’s story.

Biography

Firstly, I’ll recap Ada’s background for context, though I’d also recommend reading either of these articles for more information.

Augusta Ada Gordon (Countess of Lovelace, after her marriage) was the daughter of Romantic poet Lord Byron and Baroness Anne Milbanke. Lord Byron was well-known for his adventures and affairs, and was famously described as “mad, bad, and dangerous to know”. (Researchers believe that Byron probably experienced bipolar disorder). He left his family when Ada was four months old, then died when she was eight years old.

Game Optimisation, Part 2: AMD vs NVIDIA

22 September 2014 / Sinead

If you missed the first post, which was an overview of the different levels of optimisation a game can have, then you can find it here:

99% of all graphics cards are made by the duopoly of AMD or NVIDIA (NV). As well as controlling graphics hardware, both companies have expanded into software, creating a middle layer that goes between the graphics card hardware and the games software. Both companies have a similar box of tricks, and I’ll explain a little of what they both offer.

While they are similar in many regards, the major difference at the moment is how much influence the company can have both after a game is released and, more importantly, on the development process of a game. Current graphics card poster child Watch_Dogs is the game in focus today.

NVIDIA’s armoury:

Game Optimisation, Part 1.

22 July 2014 / Sinead

First things first, what is “optimisation” in a gaming context? The general definition is “the process of making a strategy maximally functional; removing deficiencies in a system or process”. In gaming terms, this means a game making good use of the resources it has been given to run in.

In consoles, optimisation is often not a big deal, due to standardised parts. Because all Xbox 360s (for example) have the same resources as each other, a 360-specific game will be developed on the exact same system it will be played on, meaning the game can be set up to work well on the hardware supplied. Of course, some games still don’t run properly even then, but that’s normally a fault of design or programming at a more basic level.

Optimisation can sometimes be an issue when a game is ported from one console to another without fully taking the differences between systems into account. Games released for the 6th and 7th generation consoles concurrently often had issues on the Wii that weren’t present on other consoles, due to the Will having technical specifications lower than the other 7th generation consoles. Games released for the 7th and 8th generation concurrently have the same issue with the Wii U. (For a look at the minor flame war about the Wii U port of Mass Effect 3, look here)