Friday Thoughts 04

28 Mar, 2025

Time for some more thoughts!

¶

You are not defined by the tools you use

I linked to Jason Kratz' great post about the tools we use and how they do or don't define us as people in my Weeknotes last week; I was sure that I wrote something about this either here, or in my weeknotes, but I couldn't find anything. Suffice it to say - I agree with Jason. Use whatever tools work best for you, and don't feel pressured to switch to something else because the "hive mind" on the Internet decides that such and such tool is bad.

There an ongoing discussion about tech alternatives on The RSS Haven, and right now we're talking a bit about different browsers, privacy nuts, and so forth. There's a small subset of Internet users for whom certain browsers and companies are not private enough, or are too evil, or there's something else wrong with them - they evangelize about how they don't use this or that platform, and tell you why you shouldn't either.

Well, great for them. If I want to try out a new service, I will, but I don't feel as though I need to shake up my entire routine because somebody else thinks I should. In the last few days I started trying out Brave search; it's alright, but I've found that it gives you the same general results as Google - complete with AI responses. But it also doesn't give me accurate results when I ask about local store hours¹. So I'm going to go back to Google. If what I'm getting from Google is good enough for me, and I'm comfortable with it, why switch? I elected to try a different service, but it didn't fit my needs.

¶

This is a related thought to the above - but I kept seeing people talk about trying out Brave browser, etc. For a brief time I installed it on my phone, and started using it...and then I realized that I did not need to do this. What I have done instead is give Samsung's browser another try. It gets rave reviews from Android users, but I always avoided it because it won't sync bookmarks etc. with my other browsers, whether Chrome or Firefox.

But now that I've started using Raindrop, the bookmarks angle doesn't matter so much. Because Samsung's Internet browser is tightly integrated with OneUI, I'm able to install some PWAs as full applications (in the app tray and everything). I just did this with Miniflux. I don't know if it's much different than doing it via Chrome or Firefox, but it feels "better" somehow. So I'm going to try it out for a while.

¶

I would finally like to congratulate the designers of my work office chairs, assuming their intention was to cause back pain. Context: one spot in my left lower back has been slightly achy for the last few weeks, but consistently the only time that it truly hurts has been when sitting in my work chairs. Every other seat or position - no pain. What the hell.

Reply by email   Share this post

Or if you prefer, find me on Mastodon. And there's also Bluesky!

#thoughts