Ask SN: What interesting, non-Bitcoin technology have you been using lately? \ stacker news ~bitcoin

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Ask SN: What interesting, non-Bitcoin technology have you been using lately?

1055 sats \ 33 comments \ @mikhael 19 Jul 2022 bitcoin

I will start!

As a part of running the Lightning node, I have been learning about SSH (being able to remotely login to manage system processes) and come across a few key quality of life tech for managing remote connections. The first, is to not actually use SSH - but to use MOSH (https://mosh.org/) which allows low-latency, somewhat inconsistent SSH connections to survive. Great for when on an iPad or something like that on the go, and you switch to a different app, temporarily go offline, etc.
TMUX (https://www.baeldung.com/linux/tmux), which is a linux tool for managing multiple windows/processes in your linux instance. When you ssh back in, you will magically find your pre-existing workspace/workflow available to hop back in and pick up where you left off.
I'm currently learning Chinese, and enjoying a very excellent tool called HackChinese (https://www.hackchinese.com/) which has drastically increased the speed of my character acquisition and retention.

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302 sats \ 6 replies \ @nout 19 Jul 2022

Duolingo. Getting me some Spanish.
simplelogin.io, used multiple times this week
Obsidian. I enjoy dropping off my notes and thoughts there. I got all shortcuts under my fingertips, so it's great experience.
Syncthing. Goes well with obsidian ;)
Health. I approached it as an engineer - I searched for the top 10 causes of death. For each I search "prevention" and that got me a list of things to do. For each thing I created a plan that I'm executing on :)
Calibre. I get books, drop them in whatever format into a designated folder and Calibre automatically converts those into the right format for my Kindle.
Push To Kinde. Great way to just send any article to my Kindle for later & comfier reading. Works both as Chrome extension and as an mobile app (via Share dialog).

102 sats \ 0 replies \ @rijndael 19 Jul 2022 freebie

Obsidian is dope. If you haven't read the book "How to take Smart Notes", it provides a LOT of context for the features in obsidian

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @CheezeGrater 19 Jul 2022

Let us know if you find anything cool on the Health topic, that is a good way of approaching it, but be careful of the "Top 10 Foods To Avoid", etc. blogs, I have found the long-form discussion and explanation stuff pretty useful.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @softglitter2d 19 Jul 2022

I upvote this because Obsidian, can't tell you how much I was looking for something likie this.

PD: Calibre is truly a beast

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nout 19 Jul 2022

On the Calibre front - I'm sort of impressed how powerful the tool is and yet how bad the UX is :)

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @lrz 19 Jul 2022

Have you tried Logseq? It is similar to Obsidian but open source

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nout 19 Jul 2022

I have, it wasn't that great for me. Note that there are other at least 20 tools that are similar - all can edit markdown, all display fancy graph visualization, etc, but to me it comes down to small details, like good keyboard shortcuts, side by side view support.

158 sats \ 3 replies \ @EnormousPony 19 Jul 2022

Rust for programming

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @mikhael OP 19 Jul 2022

I've heard good things, but I have never really worked with low-level languages. It will be a bit of a learning curve, I need a good reason to dive into it.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @EnormousPony 19 Jul 2022

I'm using it to program a simple software for a POC bitcoin signing device (so called wallet) Nothing fancy just a side project

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @CheezeGrater 19 Jul 2022

Same

359 sats \ 6 replies \ @ibz 19 Jul 2022

OpenBSD. I feel like I have wasted 10+ years of my life using Mac OS and Linux. Moving to OpenBSD is so refreshing! I still have one laptop running Ubuntu, but slowly moving my main workflow to OpenBSD. It's all so clean and beautiful!
Sonic Pi. Since I am playing various flutes, I needed somebody to play along with. Sonic Pi is much more than that though, and I am slowly discovering it. The nice part is you can do "live coding" - basically edit the code while the music is playing during a live performance. Trying to see how better I can integrate this into my workflow. Especially with the OpenBSD thing (I am still working on porting Sonic Pi to OpenBSD).
... like I mentioned above - flutes. I particularly like the Romanian "kaval" but also the Romanian "telenka" which is an "overtone flute", like the Slovakian fujara (but much smaller) - it doesn't have finger holes, and is very easy to play by beginners, but also very versatile.
Moved my phone to Graphene OS (first step was to move from iPhone to Android, and get used to it, then I took the big step to move to Graphene, which was not such a complicated move actually).
Raspberry Pi Zero is very cool for having various sensors around the house. Played with it for a while, made my Umbrel collect data from the various Pi Zeros and generate some graphs. Like a poor man's "home automation" - I don't want a "smart home" at all actually, but I love the temperature sensors with graphs over time.
Battery power tools are very cool, I now have angle grinder, boring machines, reciprocating saw, ... all sharing the same batteries, which is cool, and I end up using them more often because of the lack of cables. Not sure whether I should go with battery powered for the chainsaw, I'll probably give it a try, but I feel like my main chainsaw will always be gasoline powered.
Looking to buy a power generator, I think the best is the one that can do gasoline + GPL, what do you guys thing? I have some bigger GPL tanks that I can use to stock gas, so I can keep my freezer alive during the great reset, I feel like gasoline is harder to store. The best way to store diesel is having my van's tank always full, but still not as convenient as GPL tanks, which you easily move around.
Want to start raising sheep. Didn't happen this year, as life got busy with other things, but looking forward to buy some lambs next spring.

330 sats \ 2 replies \ @irusensei 19 Jul 2022

OpenBSD. I feel like I have wasted 10+ years of my life using Mac OS and Linux. Moving to OpenBSD is so refreshing! I still have one laptop running Ubuntu, but slowly moving my main workflow to OpenBSD. It's all so clean and beautiful!

I use it for public facing services. For everything else I tend to favor FreeBSD. For desktops I literally have to use everything because work.

50 sats \ 1 reply \ @ibz 19 Jul 2022

Once upon a time, I was probably in high school, I had time to try out everything. I was a happy Slackware user at the time, but tried all the BSDs as well (been running FreeBSD as well for a while). For some reason I always remembered OpenBSD as the most pleasant of all OSes I tried, I don't know why.

But yes, then work happened... Windows, then OSX and Linux... Years passed by. I was buying MBP after MBP every couple of years, as they would break down for various reasons, becoming obsolete, impossible to fix... but hey - the employer always paid for the last MBP, and ... isn't MBP the default tool for a programmer?

But now, no more. I am slowly transitioning to OpenBSD and I am not getting any job that provides free MBPs. Those things are simply disgusting.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @based 20 Jul 2022

On the topic of alternative operating systems, for Linux, NixOS is where it's at. It's not "simple" though, like OpenBSD, but it has other great properties.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @CheezeGrater 19 Jul 2022

Have you had any major hiccups with Graphene OS? Did you de-Google it as well?

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @ibz 19 Jul 2022

It was incredibly smooth. I think it is de-Googled by default (that was my main rationale for moving to it) but I did install the Play Store on it post-factum. Some apps exist only in the Play Store unfortunately. At least this allows for a smooth transition - you can keep using some apps from the Play Store, while you slowly find alternatives.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @CheezeGrater 19 Jul 2022

That's good to hear, I suppose removing Google from the OS is already a big improvement.

250 sats \ 0 replies \ @gbks 19 Jul 2022

Old-school tech, but I got a lock-picking set from Amazon that comes with practice locks. My son and I are now discussing lock mechanisms and puzzling our way through picking the locks in different ways.

+1 for language learning. Doing Japanese via Duolingo. Incredibly difficult.

250 sats \ 1 reply \ @jerry 19 Jul 2022

Learning Chinese! Have a great journey to you. In case you want to listen to some chinese bitcoin podcast, here is the link: https://fountain.fm/show/pQqWFNgsiqRJct1o9cYL

11 sats \ 0 replies \ @mikhael OP 19 Jul 2022

Great suggestion, thank you! It will probably be above my skill level, but I will give it a listen.

128 sats \ 1 reply \ @Majjin 19 Jul 2022

Docker - Its basically a way to spin up little isolated environments on one machine (similar to a VM). The difference is that the OS of each environment uses the same hardware and kernel as the host machine, so there's no need to simulate either one. Its super fast and makes running a bunch of different services on my home server much easier. Here's a great introductory video and tutorial.
WireGuard - Its an open source VPN that I can self host. The main reason is so that I can access my home server and Umbrel node without having to use Tor.
Jellyfin - An open source media server with a companion app. I have it hosted on a Raspberry Pi 4 sitting near my router.
Before Launcher - Not very as geeky as the other things on my list, but its a minimalistic launcher for Android. Changes the way my phone looks so that its less distracting. It also filters notifications.
NewPipe - An open source YouTube alternative. It still uses YouTube in the backend, but you don't have an account. Its better for privacy in that regard. You still have the capability to do subscriptions and create playlists. You just have to backup everything yourself. It also lets you do background play and downloads.
KeePass - KeyPass is an open source password manager that is locally hosted on your machine. It saves all your logins in an encrypted database file that you can share to other devices if you want. There are a bunch of implementations for IOS, Android, Mac, Linux, and Windows. I prefer KeePassDX as my implementation of choice.
Obsidian - Obsidian is a note taking app like Notion. All your notes are stored as Markdown text files. It lets you link together different notes into a web of knowledge. I use it for personal journaling and my Zettelkasten.
NextCloud - A free and open source alternative to Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc. I self host this on the same home server that I use Docker on. It comes with companion apps for almost all platforms.
SyncThing - Another free and open source way to sync files across devices. I use this for Obsidian and to quickly share files between my PC and phone.
F-Droid - An alternative app store for Android devices. It a great way to get applications that are free, open source, and not usually allowed on the Google Play Store. You can get many of the apps I've listed here on this app store and add repositories to expand the selection.

5 sats \ 0 replies \ @bitcoinbassist 20 Jul 2022

Thanks for mentioning Zettelkasten. I take notes compulsively whenever I'm reading or learning something, but I never tried making explicit connections between individual ideas. Definitely seems easier with software than note cards.

69 sats \ 0 replies \ @beb0 19 Jul 2022

Nostr

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @lrz 19 Jul 2022

NixOS, paradigm shift

100 sats \ 4 replies \ @pillar 19 Jul 2022

Gnucash! It's a great way to run your personal accounting. You need some knowledge since it follows strict double-entry accounting, but it pays off. Specially if you are starting to have finances where you have fiat accounts, BTC wallets, other investments, some debts, etc. and answering a simple question such as "What is my networth?" has become a nightmare.

55 sats \ 2 replies \ @rijndael 19 Jul 2022 freebie

depending on your level of nerdery, check out https://github.com/beancount/beancount . It's double entry accounting in plain text files. The thing. I like about it is it makes asset conversions really easy, which means you can easily make queries like "how much did I spend on coffee last month in Bitcoin terms"?

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @pillar 19 Jul 2022

Yep thanks for suggesting. I did look on to it and also saw how it was clearly superior to gnucash in terms of handling btc as just another day to day currency. But accounting through CLI is just a bit too much for me.

106 sats \ 0 replies \ @rijndael 19 Jul 2022

yeah, it's a bit much...

Might be worth a look through their docs. You may find a bit of workflow that you can lift to GnuCash. GnuCash is awesome, I used it for a while a few years ago but it really is a power tool. I found that you need to really know what you want out of it to maximize its utility

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @mikhael OP 19 Jul 2022

Thanks for the recommendation! I've been using YNAB as my budget tool lately, though I rarely log onto it.

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @rijndael 19 Jul 2022 freebie

This is kinda mundane, but there's a service called Clockwise that plugs into Google Calendar and automatically reschedules meetings to maximize uninterrupted stretches of time to do work. My whole team uses it and it has noticeably improved my quality of life.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @faithandcredit 19 Jul 2022

when im cooking with electromagnetic radiation it makes me feel like im living in the future

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @bitcoinbassist 20 Jul 2022 freebie

Ableton for creating little musical experiments - I've been playing with this software synth lately:

https://www.discodsp.com/obxd/