Blog (in English)

Teacher Paloma Gussani’s bag

In this series, readers showcase what they carry in their backpacks on a daily basis. Check out the other backpacks that have been published and submit yours — the this series depends on you.

Black and white photo of a woman with curly hair, smiling.I finally decided to do this tag, and I swear, my teenage self is very excite right now!

I always saw this type of post on blogs and thought, “I want to do my own version too.” But at the time, my bags weren't that great. And, to be honest, I didn't want to show school supplies. (Just between us, when I decided to create the blog, I was about 19 years old and was taking prep courses.)

However, time passed, I started working in my field, and when I was able to earn relatively well, I finally invested in a bag and wallet that I had always dreamed of.

(more…)

Links of the day

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here in daily posts. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

Sony WF-1000XM6 review: Facing tougher competition (in English), Engadget. Billy Steele, from Engadget, was not impressed with the new version compared to its competitors. And it got more expensive, USD 330.

App for Google Messages. Clarissa (my business partner at Célere) created a wrapper around Google Messages that puts it on system tray to monitor unread messages and opens the service's website in a window outside the browser. Tested only on Windows 11.

Voice on duck.ai. DuckDuckGo's private AI chatbot, duck.ai, can now receive voice commands.

Roomy. An open alternative to Discord, compatible with ATproto (Bluesky) and, soon, ActivityPub. Still in alpha, though.

Mouse Finder. Set the parameters and this site will return mouse models compatible with the size of your hand. (The recommendations are for the US market, but some are available in Brazil.)

Fediverse Near Me. A filter for OpenStreetMap that displays instances of the fediverse (ActivityPub) around the world.

Links of the day

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here in daily posts. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

Apple Releases macOS Tahoe 26.3, MacRumors. I’ve heard those silly misaligned anchors to resize windows are fixed. All other Apple’s OSs were updated as well.

Information Superhighway. A super simple app that displays random Wikipedia entries for you to read. Just words, nothing else. Free for all Apple platforms.

Backgroundese. A typographic font that makes no sense, suitable for use in games. Free and with a permissive license, even for commercial use.

The Startup Graveyard. A directory of startups that would change the world, but went bankrupt before they could.

A critical flaw has been discovered in Notepad (CVE-2026-20841). That once simple Windows editor that only displayed plain text, you know? The one that Microsoft tainted with Markdown (the vector for this flaw), Copilot, and who knows what else? An attacker could place a malicious link in a Markdown file that, when clicked by the victim, would execute code remotely. A fix was made available by Microsoft in routine updates released on Tuesday (10th).

Links of the day

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here in daily posts. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

Selfie video: a new, simple, and secure way to recover your Google Account (pt_BR). Is it worth handing over your soul, I mean, your face to Google to make it easier to recover your account if something bad happens to it? Brazil is the first country to get this new feature.

Telegram: New design, gift making, and more. The “massive redesign” is for the Android app, which has been given a Liquid Glass revamp. The gifts, on the other hand, have to do with the NFT scheme — the questionable part of Telegram. If you can, avoid it.

Digital Carrot. Another app that promises to tame digital compulsions, but with a different approach: it grants access upon completion of tasks, such as walking a certain number of steps or finishing your daily to-do list. Available for various operating systems.

CSS Stats. Enter a website URL and the system returns a super detailed objective analysis of the CSS files. (My goodness, the Manual's is a mess!)

Tone3310. Web editor for composing and recalling ringtones from the old Nokia brick phones.

Links of the day

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here in daily posts. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

Busy months in KDE Linux. The KDE project is about to release the beta version of KDE Linux, their own distribution. The post reports on several developments, highlighting delta updates and the new plasma-setup and plasma-login-manager packages.

Discord launches teen-by-default settings globally. Starting in March, adults will have to confirm that they are of legal age (what age? The press release does not specify) to use Discord without the limitations intended for teens. Verification can be done through facial recognition or by sending ID documentation.

The biggest update ever for Ente Photos. The flagship feature is the ability to comment and like photos. There are several other useful new features, such as downloading albums in a compressed file and the shared album administrator function.

Jellyfin for Samsung TVs with Tizen. The official app is now available in the Samsung store.

NetNewsWire 7.0 for iOS. After the macOS version, now it's iOS (and iPadOS) turn to receive the revamped NNW with Liquid Glass. Free and FOSS.

Mecha Comet, Omg! Ubuntu. A modular, pocket-sized device that runs Linux. Available for pre-order — through crowdfunding — starting at USD 189.

Brazilian Alternatives. Directory of Brazilian technology services — LGPD compliant, customer service in Portuguese, payments in Brazilian real.

The Gemini protocol (not to be confused with Google's AI) continues to exist. On Sunday (8th), it got a significant boost on Apple devices with the launch of Lagrange, a browser for the small web that took 4.5 years to complete. In addition to Gemini, the browser also works with classic protocols such as Gopher and Finger, and other hobbyists. Free, for iOS/iPadOS.

Links of the day

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here in daily posts. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

Google confirms that AirDrop compatibility will come to more Android phones, Android Authority. So far, the feature (which I've used with a friend, it's really cool!) only works with Pixel 10 phones. Google has not provided any dates or information on which models will be eligible.

Hotspot Peek. Track the amount of data consumed in real time in the macOS menu bar when using your phone as a hotspot. One-time purchase of USD 4.99.

CreepyLink. A URL shortener that makes your links look very suspicious.

pandoc in the browser. Pandoc 3.9, released on Thursday (5th), brought support for Web Assembly, which enables its direct use in the browser.

Links of the day

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here in daily posts. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

How Rodrigo (it’s me!) brings a humanistic view to consumer technology. Buttondown, the service I use to manage Manual‘s newsletter and which sponsors Lerama, has a series of interviews with customers. They published mine.

LibreOffice 26.2. The usual package (performance improvements, compatibility, and bug fixes), plus support for importing and exporting Markdown.

Doppi 6.0. The new major update features a home screen with suggestions for most-played songs and new releases; widgets; and a new album view (Art Stream) reminiscent of Apple's late “Cover Flow.”

DASUNG Paperlike 103. An external E-Ink display with a 60Hz refresh rate sounds too good to be true. If you want to test it out for us, it costs USD 339.

PrivacyPack. Create your own package of free alternatives to big tech to share elsewhere. (Made by Ente.)

SFD Engine. “This tool generates and visualizes emergent behavior in complex adaptive systems.” The website's creator warns: there is no right way to interpret the results.

Comic strip. Character says to the computer: “Say ‘I am alive.’” Computer responds: “I AM ALIVE.” Character says: “Oh my God.”
Comic strip: @inpc@go.mxtthxw.art.

From Anthropic's “studies” claiming that Claude did this or that to Moltbook, a “social network for AIs” (which seems to be a lie), it's always the same story depicted in the comic strip above: people telling AI to behave in a certain way being shocked when AI behaves in that way.

Regarding Moltbook and its foundation, OpenClaw, I will limit myself* to giving one piece of advice: don't use it. The tool open the doors to your private digital life, with unpredictable consequences.

* I limit myself to this because, in my opinion, the press is doing a huge disservice by legitimizing this nonsense.

Links of the day

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here in daily posts. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

The TV industry finally concedes that the future may not be in 8K, Ars Technica. The realization came after LG and TCL ended production of 8K TVs. (I'm still on Full HD…)

NanoFlow i2 Air. Crowdfunding for the self-proclaimed “world’s smallest horizontal mouse.” (What would be the “world’s smallest vertical mouse”?)

Just the Browser. Configuration files to remove all the junk (AI, telemetry, advertising, integrations) from Chrome, Edge, and Firefox browsers. Requires basic command line knowledge.

Particle Flow. Using your device's camera, see a visual representation of your face and hands in the form of particles. (I only tested it on a laptop.)

The AI industry doesn’t take “no” for an answer

For days now, I've had a quote from David Bushell stuck in my head:

Has anyone else noticed that the AI industry can’t take “no” for an answer? AI is being force-fed into every corner of tech. It’s unfathomable to them that some of us aren’t interested.

David complained about receiving communications from Proton offering Lumo, its generative AI, even though he had expressly indicated that he did not want to receive such messages. The worst part is that Proton, instead of owning up to its mistake and apologizing, insisted on absurd justifications to say that there was no mistake. It only gave in when an executive got involved, and only after the post went viral.

(more…)

Links of the day

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here in daily posts. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

AI controls are coming to Firefox. Starting with Firefox 148, scheduled for February 24th, it will be possible to disable all or just some of the browser's AI features. Let's ignore Mozilla's insistence on this for a moment; at first glance, the implementation seems quite good.

Notepad++ has been compromised by state-sponsored hackers. For those in a hurry, the recommendation is to download version 8.9.1 and run the installer to update the app manually.

Calibre 9. The main new features are a new “bookshelf” view, which displays the spines of the books.

Loops is now the App Store. Loops is a FOSS alternative to TikTok, from the same creator of Pixelfed.

OpenTTD. A FOSS alternative to the old Transport Tycoon, maintained and modernized, but with the same vibe as in 1994. The new version, 15, was released last month.

AntiRender. Upload one of those renders of condos projects, city halls etc., and this site will search for an image from any Tuesday in November to contrast reality with what was promised.

delphitools. A collection of small online tools, or “simple handmade conveniences.” I love its aesthetics.

Why do RSS readers look like email clients?

“Why do RSS readers look like email clients?” The question was asked by Terry Godier, first on Mastodon, then in a more detailed post.

Godier dubbed the feeling of coming across hundreds of unread items “phantom obligation”: “The guilt you feel for something no one asked you to do.” This applies to so many things…

In the Mastodon comments, Brent Simmons, creator of NetNewsWire in 2002, explained that his inspiration was Usenet, not email. Usenet, a kind of discussion forum, has been around since 1980 and, yeah, it really resembles an email application.

In the same response, Simmons asks:

The part I don't understand and can't explain is why RSS readers are still following this user interface.

It's not that they don't exist, but they are few and niche.

I remembered feeeed, a free iOS app. It allows you to subscribe to a variety of information sources (including RSS feeds) and displays them in a kind of timeline, with different visuals for each type, no counters, no pressure.

I also came across Stream, which does away with counters and one of the three traditional panels of RSS readers (the feeds panel) to instead deliver a stream of items to read, like a “unified timeline.” Also for iOS, also free.

There are also small initiatives, usually undertaken by a single person and available on the web, that promise a calmer experience when reading RSS feeds. I am familiar with Artemis, FeedCity, and vore.

More examples?

What’s on your phone, Caiubi?

Editor's note: Every week, I publish the phone's home screen from a blog reader. Want to participate? Fill out this form. Want more? Check out the archive. All app links go to the App Store, Play Store, or F-Droid.

What is your name and what do you do?

My name is Caiubi Nogueira, and I have a bachelor's degree and teaching certificate in psychology. I am currently pursuing a master's degree in psychology at UFRN. In my (non) spare time, I work as a designer and motion designer.

(more…)