2026-05-08 19:00:00
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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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.
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.
I essentially publish in three distinct ways:
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;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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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2026-05-02 21:25:00
It’s so funny how much a creature like this silly dog can change someone’s life. He certainly change mine, for better or for worse, and he also changed me in the process. Both physically and spiritually.
Thank you for keeping RSS alive. You're awesome.
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2026-05-01 19:00:00
This week on the People and Blogs series we have an interview with Hyde Stevenson, whose blog can be found at lazybea.rs.
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Hyde Stevenson is a nickname I've been using online for years. It's a mix from Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and its author Robert Louis Stevenson. Privacy is important to me, so I generally avoid using my real name.
My parents are from Serbia, but I was born in Paris. I lived in London, and, now, I live in southern Europe. More vitamin D was needed in my life.
I had two passions as a kid: sport, and computers.
Sport has always been a big part of my life.
When I was a kid, all my friends played football, but I was always more into basketball. I don't mind watching a good football game, but that's where it ends.
But, basketball is another thing. I'm a big Nikola Jokic fan, and I haven't missed a Denver game for the last four years.
When we were kids, we all dreamt about the NBA. There weren't many games available to watch. We had one guy who ordered games on tape direct from the US. Then, we shared, and copied them. Basketball was our life. We played at school, after the school, the weekends. We were chasing the best playgrounds to compete with other players. It was great.
It was the end of the 80s. Bird, Magic, Jordan, the Pistons Bad Boys, and also Yugoslavian players like Vlade Divac and Dražen Petrovic. The Dream Team too, the real one. I'll always wonder what might've happened if the war in the Balkans hadn't happened and the USA and Yugoslavia had played each other in the Olympics final.
That love for the game made me play at a semi-pro level. But, a bad coach put me off the courts. I was young and didn't understand why I couldn't play more when I knew I had the level. I remember one shooting training where I got 46/50 on 3pts, and the guy behind me got 36/50. Did the coach say something to me? Nope.
That was enough, and I took a break from the game for a few years to pursue another passion: boxing.
My love of boxing probably stems from those nights when my father would wake me up at 4am to watch Mike Tyson's fights.
I've always loved boxing. My father's mate's nephew was a boxer. He invited me to train at his gym. And I got hooked. Sad story about this young man. He went pro, but after a bar fight, I heard he was murdered out for revenge by someone involved in that brawl.
I also had a great group of friends, and we trained grappling, and MMA for four or five years. A good friend trained us grappling. Today, he trains fighters who fought in the UFC, and got lucky to meet many MMA fighters like Jon Jones. Another one, Guillaume Kerner trained us Thai boxing.
Guillaume was one of the first western European Thai boxer who won a World Title in Thailand. You can check some highlights of his career.
That was before I moved to London. When I got back in France, I was training exclusively in boxing until 2021, when I moved abroad. Since I relocated, I've really missed the camaraderie of the boxing club. I'm lucky enough to have a garage where I've hung a punching bag and can keep training.
For those interested, I started last year a #50kPushUps challenge. The goal is to make 50,000 push-ups in one year.
I could write many anecdotes about people I met, but I want also to share my other passion: computers.
When I meet people, the first thing they say to me is that I don't look like a computer guy. Stereotypes... 🤷
My passion probably started when one night my father brought home the VCS, the Video Computer System, later renamed the Atari 2600. It's not a computer, but that's where it all started.
Later, I asked if I could have a computer, and they offered me the Amstrad CPC464 with its 64Kb RAM, and cassette deck.
Later, my grandmother offered me the updated version the CPC6128 with the same RAM, but with a 3-inch floppy disk.
After that I had many other ones. I started to build them. I tried my first Linux distro in 1995. It was a Debian. Today, my main distribution is still Debian, even if I tried, and used many others.
I've tried probably many window managers over the years. But, for the last 15 years more or less, I've been using only awesomewm, a tiling window manager, light, and customizable if you know Lua a bit.
I could write a lot about Linux, but I don't think it'd be of much interest to our readers. What I can say is that my love for computers is what got me to where I am today in my career.
My first blog was about Debian, the GNU/Linux distribution. It was in 2001, and it was called debianworld.org. I used to write how-tos, and articles about Linux. I used the blog to post English to French translation of the Debian Weekly News, but also the Securing Debian Manual, and some part of the Advanced Bash scripting guide. Then in 2014, after a long summer, I found out I got cyber squatted. And, just like this it was gone.
Then, for five years, I didn't set up anything online until 2019. I met a colleague that asked me if I participated in any conferences, or if I had a blog. That's when I wanted to have a personal place online again.
I love bears, that's why I chose that domain name. And, lazy, because I am sometimes.
About the theme, it took me some time to create it, and be happy with the final result. But, then, it didn't really change.
It depends. First, I need a topic, or an idea.
Sometimes a blog post, a news, a new tool, or basically anything can inspire me to write directly a post.
But, often, I like to go through my Zettelkasten.
Every morning, I use this keybinding
English not being my mother tongue, I read the different parts multiple times to be sure to make sense. My goal is to make simple sentences, but that connect with everyone.
Once done, I check if some grammar hasn't been forgotten by my LSP.
Then, a script will sync the content to my blog, and post it also on Mastodon.
I don't. I just need my laptop, a terminal, and a coffee. That's all.
Maybe the physical space could help some people. Maybe if I had a seaside view, it could impact my creativity 😅.
Previously, for other projects, I used Drupal, then Wordpress. But, for this one, I wanted something easily to maintain. No database, or plugins updates. Something simple. That's why I went for a SSG, a Static Site Generator.
I chose Hugo, and I've been happy with it for years.
There is some JavaScript from Carl Schwan's post to add Mastodon's comment on the blog. So far it works well. Everything is hosted on a dedicated server.
All post have been written in Neovim, my go-to editor, on a Tuxedo laptop. My local repository has a backup on a Synology DS1812+ NAS, which also had a remote backup. That repository is pushed on a private Codeberg repository too.
Domain name was purchase at Unlimited.rs, a registar in Serbia. Originally, the name of the blog was lazybear.io, but since the announcement that it will disappear in the future, that's when I switched to a Serbian one. For other projects, I use also Porkbun that I love.
I don't think so.
A few of my friends suggested that I should specialize and monetize it, but that was never its goal.
It's my little corner on the web where I can do whatever I want. I can tweak it as I want, try new things, post photos the way I want, without having to follow a specific format.
It was always meant to be my place to experiment.
I don't track visitors, I don't care about numbers.
Now, and then, I get some emails, and I like the discussions I get there. Keep them coming 🙌
The domain name is around €24 per year. The dedicated server around €30 per month, but I use it for other things too.
It doesn't generate any money. I could add a Ko-fi account, and maybe I will... just in case. 😇
If people want to monetize it, I don't see any issue with that. Everyone is free to do whatever they want.
Ok, I have a couple of them!
And, two French photographers:
I also have a list of blogs I enjoy, and follow.
Yeah start a blog, value your privacy, and send an email to Manuel so we can find more about you.
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2026-05-01 00:50:00
We had another lovely, sunny weekend last week, and that means I walked the second of the ten segments of the 44 votive churches loop. This time around, I didn’t have to mess with the route in order to hit all the churches in one go because there were no variants. And, like last time, I was not alone. I had a friend coming with me, which is always nice. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy walking solo, but I also enjoy walking in good company.
The plan was the same: meeting at the arrive, leaving my car there, driving back to the starting point and take off from there. And that’s exactly what we did. The last time we parked some 600 meters away from the actual end—because there was no parking there—so the first chunk of today’s walk is the final part of segment number 1.
Clearly visible on the left, up on the hills, is the small village of Antro where we’re headed. One of the six churches we’ll visit on this walk is waiting for us right there, and it’s a good one.
But first, without even realising it, we’re already at the site of the church of San Luca Evangelista (7/44). I’ll be honest with you, this is quite an uninspiring one. It’s also not in a nice location, very close to the street. I’d have completely missed it if it weren’t for my watch. And this post is sponsored by Suunto… just kidding. It is quite handy to have the whole route planned on the watch though, because it vibrates when I’m near one of the churches since are stored as POIs.
No pictures of the inside since the windows were boarded and the door was locked. All of them are locked, quite annoying if you ask me. But that’s modern society for you. The church was likely first built around the year 1250, but it was for sure consecrated in 1568 by the Bishop of Cattaro, also governor of the Patriarchate of Aquileia.
We leave the first church behind us, we turn left, we cross the Natisone, and we start climbing up, heading towards Antro.
The first part of this walk is not super inspiring since it’s on paved roads, but it is what it is. One day, I might attempt to make a modified version where I only walk on asphalt when absolutely necessary. Could be fun.
We pass through Biacis and next to the Antro Bank Slab, an old artefact symbol of the self-government of the Friulian Slavia, developed around the end of the XI century.
The path takes us behind the stone and out of the village, and we’re headed in the direction of the church of San Giacomo Apostolo (8/44) next to the “castle” of Ahrensperg. I put it in quotes because it’s more like a nice cottage with a tower than an actual castle, but the whole place is lovely, I have to say.
Dual bells, like most of these churches, and I had to resist the temptation to make them ring since the ropes were dangling right there, out in the open. I can be quite the mischief, but I also don’t like to bother people, so we didn’t touch anything. Also no way to take pictures of the inside, it was way too sunny. The church dates back to the mid-12th century, and the stone we saw earlier was kept under the outside portico.
Church behind us, the trail is taking us around it and the castle and up through the woods. Two unexpected sights, one after the other, are awaiting us. The first is this concrete monstrosity, which I have absolutely no clue about what it actually is.
It’s a very odd-looking structure, quite tall, I’d say 15 or 20 meters tall, with three tunnels going through underneath. It’s clearly something industrial, but I have never seen something similar in my life. Plus, it’s now covered in vegetation, which makes it even harder to get a sense of what it actually is. Reminded me of Horizon Zero Dawn, if you played that game, you know what I’m talking about. The next unexpected sight was a shrine.
Very neglected, it’s quite literally falling apart, with a tarp on its roof put there just to prevent water from doing even more damage. As always, it’s dedicated to Mary, which is not unusual here since the iconography of Mary is way more presente than Jesus for some reason. There are Marys everywhere in the valleys if you start paying attention to them.
Up the forest we go, and we have finally reached Antro. If you suffer from OCD, don’t look at its bell tower with the off-centre clock face. It’s driving me nuts.
We have some time to wait here because we have booked a tour of the caves for 11 am, and we’re way too early. So we spend some time chilling in the shade of the trees with a nice view of the village. It’s all very relaxing, and there’s a small number of people who are also waiting to go see the church and the cave.
It’s now time to go, so off the path we go to reach the ticket stand. The ticket to visit the church is 8€, and there’s an app you can download that serves as a guide. But to visit the cave, you need to book a visit with a guide for 10€. On the app, you’re asked to use headphones, and yet some people were obviously blasting it on their speakers. Again, that’s society in 2026 and the main reason why I want to go live into the woods.
Up the 86 steps of the old stairs we go, and we have reached the very unique church of San Giovanni Battista (9/44) nested inside the cave. The current church got rebuilt in the mid 1500 after the quakes of the beginning of the century—like many of the 44 churches—and it’s quite unique. It’s also sometimes used as a venue for events.
The most fun part is that right behind the altar, you can see the cave unfolding. And it’s right behind the altar that the guided tour starts. Sadly, only the first 300 or so meters of the cave is accessible to the public, and the rest is only accessible if you’re a speleologist. The whole cave is quite big, some 4 or 5kms and there are apparently rooms that are bigger than the opening one, where the church is located. I’d love to visit it, but I think I’m too tall for this type of stuff.
One fun aspect of this cave is that apparently twenty-thousands years ago it was inhabited by the ursus spelaeus, the cave bear.
One less cool aspect was all the writings on the walls of the cave. Why are people so fucking obsessed with writing on everything? Also, why can’t we have nice things?
Anyway, the guided visit is done, it’s now time to get back on track since we have most of the walk still in front of us. So out the cave we go and down the stair, to then take a sharp right turn and walk below the entrance of the cave. There’s a nice view of the whole area from down here. Definitely worth visiting if you’re ever in this corner of the world for some random reason.
We’re almost 3 hours into this walk (even though we have spent most of the time either waiting or inside the cave), and it’s now time to gain some elevation since most of it is spread on this next chunk that will take us pretty much to the highest point of the walk and also the next church.
Unsurprisingly, after some twists and turns, what do we find? Another random Virgin Mary, this time in a shell.
After some more walking inside the forest, we are back on paved road for a little while. We are high enough to have a nice view of Mount Matajur, the peak that dominates the area. That is also gonna be the target of the next hike since the third chunk of this walk goes from down the valley up to that mountain. Not to the very top, but come on, there’s no way I get all the way up there, and I also don’t reach the summit. So you’ll get to see it up close soon enough.
We’re now almost at the site of the church of Santo Spirito (9/44), but before we walk up the final 50 or so meters, we need to cross path with guess what? You’re right, another Virgin Mary.
We’re roughly 4 hours into this walk, and the location of the church of Santo Spirito is perfect to take a break and eat something. I mean, just look how relaxing this place feels:
So far, this might be my favourite location, even though the church itself is probably the ugliest one. And also the youngest. The original one was built probably before the year 1000, but then everything got destroyed during bombardments in WW2 and the current building dates back to 1949. So it’s not even a century old, and it’s in rough shape already.
It’s nice to take a break and relax for a bit. It’s a lovely day, perfect weather, and there’s no rush. Plus, we have company!
Ok, lunch is done, shirt is dry, it’s mostly downhill from now on, so off we go through the forest again.
After a little while, we pass next to the ruins of the old Church of San Nicolò, which, if it wasn’t for my watch vibrating, I’d have completely missed because this thing is barely visible even if you are paying attention.
We also stumble across whatever—or whoever—this guy is. I had to take a picture and send it to my brother since that’s his name.
Through the forest, across the fields, back into the forest again, out of the forest yet again we’re now almost at the point where we can see the new location of the church of San Nicolò Vescovo (10/44). I have to say, it’s a lot easier to spot compared to the old one, which is completely covered by vegetation and in total ruin. But it’s also quite big, and I don’t know, I guess I’m more of a fan of the tiny ones hidden inside the forest. This one feels like a normal church to me.
Only one church is left, and then the final descent to the end of this hike. But first, I need to stop and take a picture of something, and by now you might have an idea of what it is.
And here we are, we have reached the location of the final church of today’s hike, the church of San Donato, hidden inside the forest, with its missing bell and its lovely appearance.
Now, fun fact: the door has a hole in it with a cover you can swipe aside. Is this a glory hole? We’ll never know.
What we do know is what’s inside it because I did peek inside that hole. What a fun experience this was!
The only thing left for us to do now is to walk down the forest, take a wrong turn because the GPS messed up, do some bushwhacking, find the correct trail again, walk some more, pass next to a bunch of other Marys—there are always more Marys—cross the Natisone once again and reach our final destination.
And here we are, arrived at the park where we left my car, some 7 hours and 16kms later. This was a very relaxing walk, it can easily be done in probably 3 and a half hours. But why rush when you can spend some time outside and enjoy nature? I did update the iCloud album with the new pictures, so if you want to see more from this walk, click that link.
You love the outdoors and RSS. You're one of the special ones.
2026-04-24 19:00:00
This week on the People and Blogs series we have an interview with Nicolas Solerieu, whose blog can be found at slrncl.com/blog.
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I’m dad, designer, cyclist, designer, texture guy – currently living in San Luis Obispo, CA. My oldest kid just learned to blow his nose. The other one is in his prime baby time. These days I day dream about bikepacking and permaculture.
Born and raised in France, I landed in California in 2016. An odd mix of work ethic and ego led me to define myself through the stuff I make: all sorts of combinations of rectangles and text boxes, mostly for screens, solely because I got good enough to get paid for it. While I'm filled with gratitude for my career, I spend a humorously uncomfortable amount of time torn between ascetic ideals and pragmatism.
While I’m not a technologist, I’m not a monk either. I’m way too fidgety. Time outdoors, family life, movement, and occasional meditation keep me sane.
I adopted this domain name in 2016 as I didn't like having my real name spelled out in the URL, it felt weird. I bought my initial domain back in 2012: nicolas-soleri.eu, I thought it was clever. SLRNCL is a concatenation of my last name and my first name without the vowels. It's hard to remember, which is great since I'm not trying to play the SEO game.
I truly started to put effort into writing in 2022. The birth of my first child probably had a lot to do with it – and getting off instagram. I couldn’t fathom the idea of being a dad with an instagram account. But I’d love for my kids to one days read the blog of their silly dad.
Self-awareness and allergy to grandiosity creates a tension between craft, skepticism, and my embodied experience which I love to put into words. The blog-therapy is (still) working. It’s eating up most of my creative ego and filling my feed.
Nowadays I use the default iOS notes app. I write whenever. I edit little.
I used to have a notes.txt file on my desktop where I was putting down all interesting nuggets, like a wine cellar, hoping for them to mature. Instead, they mostly degenerated and created a bunch of anxiety from doing nothing of it.
I breed an uncomfortably large amount of thoughts daily. Most of them are unexceptional. I cultivate poor writing hygiene because I do not want to truly get into writing. Yet, there seems to be something that keeps bringing me back to words. To tame my ego and avoid creating a generational supply of passable notes I use my blog as a graveyard.
Typos are my own, I’m working on it. With AI it now feels like a mark of authenticity. Sometimes I ask my wife to proof-read, but that is rare because we end up arguing, worth it.
Following the flow of life is what makes my creative juice flow. I often write on the toilet or in public parks while keeping an eye on my kids. I thrive in “white-space” time - time in between things. So I jot down notes when I’m out and about. I’m not a coffee shop person and I hate my home office.
My website is home cooked. It runs mostly on PHP. I still have Jquery installed but I’m slowly removing all Javascript dependencies. I'm not a great dev and prefer to stay 5 years behind trends. My website is constrained by my skills. This has kept me grounded and covered most of my needs and ambitions. I don't recommend inspecting my code, it's really not great but decently light. Building stuff is a great way to keep myself grounded in the process. I use Inter as the only font because it's nice, plain, and open source. It will default to system font if Inter isn't available. Because I don't want to import anything custom or use CDN. I'm not better than Inter (and few out there are IMO).
The site is hosted by OVH in France. I’m considering self-hosting since my house produces excess solar power.
I’d use bearblog if I was not a pretentious web designer and had to start over. I recommended it to my wife, she likes it. The simplicity and authenticity of the project is lovely. That said I do not regret the torturous process of having redesigned my website tirelessly over the last decade. The process taught me a lot about myself.
My domain name + hosting cost under 20 euros/year. I do not run ads or track anything - I don’t plan or change this ever.
That means my website has had an incredible ROI considering the career opportunities it gave me. The many people who hired me all visited my website (and told me about it). I had some rewarding connections with internet strangers. My gratitude is larger than an html file can hold, and definitely magnitude greater than what it cost me to run my website.
Money is important, and I’m a lucky bastard. I don’t have anything against people monetizing their thoughts - though I’m rarely compelled by a paywall. Digital patronage and crowdfunding seems highly relevant to get out of the social media hell realm of today. It has pitfalls, the main one being requiring mass adoption which seems highly delusional. But hope and compassion are contagious while big tech fights entropy. Social media always comes back in a different form, meanwhile, html is still there. It’s the cockroach business model.
There are so many goodies out there, one link away. Sharing is fun, side projects too. In my case it took me a decade to get my head out of my own butt and realize the cost of my own ventures. I believe a lot of us are similar to me, moving through life and accumulating stuff. Cleaning up, giving up, and passing along are necessary processes. So as a closing thought I’d suggest to sit, close your eyes and think of all your stuff. If you’re comfortable with it, great. Otherwise, spring is coming.
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2026-04-23 15:10:00
I was catching up with some tech news yesterday and every time I read one of these “I woke up with a USD 18k bill in my Cloud account” articles, I am reminded about how fucking stupid—and predatory—this whole industry can be.
The ability to set hard spending caps should be required by law. I think that’s another issue the EU should decide to tackle at some point. If I know I have a budget available, there should be an option for me to configure your service so that you don’t allow me to spend more than that. And if my product or site goes down as a result of that, it’s a choice I get to make.
But the reason why hard caps are usually not an option is obvious: companies get to make more money this way. Hurray for capitalism! The sad part is seeing allegedly smart people arguing that no, the actual reason is that it’s a complex problem to solve, and no-one has figured out how to do it yet. An excuse so pathetic that it’s not even worth getting mad about it.
There are people discussing plans to build moon bases, put servers in orbit, build digital gods, and yet setting a hard cap on billing is a complex problem to solve. Sure, I believe that.
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