Web & Tech

Essays & Musings

Gaining context on China and its rise (Good reads)

Between China’s rise in lunar exploration and my visit to the country last year, I’ve grown more curious about how the Chinese collectively think and work. So I set out to gain some high-level context of Chinese policies and history, which have now helped me identify specific areas

Essays & Musings

For the love of RSS feeds, simplify your blog’s subscribe page

I love reading blogs, newsletters, and virtually anything else on the Web through RSS feeds. As a space writer, it’s the best way for me to keep track of, read, and search what hundreds of sources publish every week. And, I proactively offer my own readers an option to

Web & Tech

In which AI kills the human Web, or at least its spirit

* Here’s a depressing roundup of how the bottomless greed of AI companies is utterly destroying the Web all of us grew up with. I’m furious. * There’s also irony in the fact that open access publishing is under threat from people responding to AI by closing the very

Essays & Musings

A list of good enough blogging platforms by price if you just want to write

Plus some blog recommendations as a nice side effect.

Web & Tech

App subscriptions and Yoghurt

I recently researched and replaced many paid web app subscriptions I had with free alternatives that either perform the same function or come close enough. Here’s the list of which service I replaced with what. 1. Micro.one → flipboard.social (for the Fediverse) 2. Inoreader Pro → Inoreader Free (second

Web & Tech

Realizations about actually avoiding social media

I’ve had or re-had a few realizations lately that have helped me greatly: 1. Crossposting to or across social media is counterproductive if doing so to avoid social media. Applies to POSSE too. 2. Having a domain for micro thoughts, day-to-day photos, comments, and random musings is a waste

Web & Tech

Responding is better than replying

The other day I posed a question on the Web that has (gladly) initiated a string of responses from people. And by that I do not mean comments on social media but entire blog posts. Before sharing a few thoughts on that and making it all meta (the good kind)

Web & Tech

If I was born and brought up in the time of modern social media, would I even blog?

This was the question I asked on the Web yesterday, and people had interesting responses. Imagine you were born and brought up in a time where Twitter and Instagram always existed. Would you still blog? Many said no, which I find to be an interesting conclusion especially for people who

Essays & Musings

The story of my blogs

I’m the latest guest on the “People and Blogs” series by Manu. Hearing from people in this series has been a great way for me to meet some of their blogs over coffee. And now some of you web humans reading this might like the story of my blogs

Web & Tech

Reinventing the wheel

Instagram (I): Stories are not posts. They disappear after 24 hours. People (P): What if I want to retain them? I: Now you can archive stories P: I don’t like some people I: Okay, you can mute their stories too P: I want to organize stories I: Now you

Web & Tech

Social media, where a teaser post about your article gets a better response than your actual article

I’ve seen this recurring theme on Twitter, LinkedIn, and virtually every microblogging social platform I’ve used. Teasing something exciting you’re working on gets better visibility than when you share that work itself. Here’s an example from the Twitter of yore—which people forget wasn’t all

Web & Tech

Rules to effectively use social media

* Be outraged about everything * Be woke across all of time * Never bring nuance * Signal disapproval, or you might just cause an existential crisis for many * Get called out for not flicking your fingers in ways prescribed by stranger collectives * Torch your long-built reputation in no time * Assume others aren’t