PKM Weekly Oct 29 2023 – Issue 094

If you get value out of this newsletter consider supporting it by becoming a member. You can either get my weekly thoughts or all my courses and my weekly thoughts. You could also purchase a course if that fits your needs better. You can get this in your inbox by signing up. More … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Are People More Racist or More Afraid?

Are people really more racist now, or are they so afraid that the scraps capitalism has left for them are going to be shared to widely? Do they target those they consider defenseless because they know the rich operate under a different set of rules? Today we dig into some thought … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

If Apple is So Awesome – Why Make it So Hard for Competitors

In How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism, Cory Doctorow asks the question, if Apple is so gosh darn awesome with keeping their software safe, and keeping your hardware safe with their repair facilities…why do they make it so hard for competitors? Apple doesn’t do this to “keep y … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

UI vs Development vs Business Priorities

Probably the most frustrating thing about being a developer is when business owners prioritise stuff they can see over anything that needs updating/maintenance but is not visible. Take today. I’ve been asked to work on a bunch of Gravity Forms stuff that bugs users, which is fine … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Replacing Downie on Linux

One of the tools I need to replace as I live on Fedora instead of macOS is Downie, which is used to download videos from YouTube, or other sources. My biggest use of Downie is to download videos of my kids figure skating. My wife is a coach and I often spend competitions at home … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Cory Doctorow on Halting the Internet’s Enshitification

This is an excellent video about what we can do to help stop the enshitification of the internet. It’s going to take time, but it is within reach. | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Street Safety is Why My Kids Don’t Walk to School Alone

Jumping on this article about childhood freedom, my wife and I discussed why my 9 and 7 year old don’t walk the 800m to school alone as we walked back home this morning. The only reason is the 4 lane road the have to cross. Sure the city put in lights and a button now, […] | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Want a Small Phone – Maybe the Jelly Star is for You

I’m currently happily using an iPhone 13 Mini and have no desire to upgrade to any of the massive phones Apple currently has on offer. That means i’m on the look out for a small phone that runs Android. Today I heard about the Jelly Star which is a seriously tiny phone running An … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

PKM Weekly Oct 22 2023 – Issue 093

If you get value out of this newsletter consider supporting it by becoming a member. You can either get my weekly thoughts or all my courses and my weekly thoughts. You could also purchase a course if that fits your needs better. You can get this in your inbox by signing up. On R … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Memeber Reads Oct 21 2023

Neil Gaiman writes the introduction to my 60th Anniversary copy of Fahrenheit 451, and proposes that there are three phrases that make it possible to write about the world of the future. What if… If only… If this goes on… Today we investigate the last question, what will our worl … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Saskatchewan had to override the Charter of Rights and Freedoms?

I think that when you need to override the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to pass legislation history is going to find that you’re on the wrong side of the issue. One of the things I do to support the LGBTQ+ community is to make sure I email the schools my children atten … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Agreed – Your Talk Should Also be a Blog Post

Jamie has a great short article to support the idea that your talk should also be a blog post. I also think that Twitter/X Thread should be blog posts because threads produce little value. Even on Mastodon, threads should be blog posts. Think of all the content you put on Twitter … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

I Hate Client Side JS Crap

This article cites React and how bad it is, but really I dislike all client side JS stuff that renders the DOM with JavaScript. Angular…ugh digging out of an old app that no longer builds and was always slow. As I’ve replaced it with PHP and standard HTML we’ve seen reliability g … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Fix Obsidian Book Search Error

I love the Obsidian Book Search plugin, but it has an issue…everyone using it shares the same key. That means you can exceed the API connection limit for the day based on the interactions of other users. Luckily vityav has a fix in a GitHub comment which I applied and works. Toda … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Framework Cyberdeck

Stuff like this is why the Framework is so cool. I’m just using a normal laptop, but I could turn it into a cyberdeck if I was interested. | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

PKM Weekly Oct 15 2023 – Issue 092

If you get value out of this newsletter consider supporting it by becoming a member. You can either get my weekly thoughts or all my courses and my weekly thoughts. You could also purchase a course if that fits your needs better. You can get this in your inbox by signing up. Gett … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Software Defined Radio for Your Framework Laptop

I love my Framework laptop and how inventive the community can be. Today I saw that there is a software defined radio module people are working on. I have no use for this, but I think it’s very cool. | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Member Reads Oct 14 2023

Today we talk about the impact of Google Book Search on reading. Was it good, was it bad? Should we have let Google get a monopoly on out of print books? To read this post become a member. Without members, this site doesn’t function. Members get my courses included.. | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

CAPTCHA Sucks and it’s Not Accessible

Over 13 years ago I first addressed my dislike of the CAPTCHA. Back then I said that I disliked CAPTCHA to combat spam because spam isn’t the users problem. They’re not getting a bunch of your form submissions sent to them. They don’t care about your problem. The bad part of CAPT … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Twitter Wasn’t Worth the Effort for Traffic

I saw no measurable difference when I left Twitter in the traffic to my site and neither has NPR. I think that Twitter, and possibly all social media, has got an unearned inflated importance in how much benefit it actually brings in terms of traffic to a site. My top referrers ov … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Was America’s Iraq War Justified?

According to this video the answer is no. America wanted to invade Iraq to help secure oil assets and to prove that they were “big and strong” after 9/11. This supports my reading from The Shock Doctrine where America weaponizes natural disasters to push capitalist ideas on the p … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

What to run on your Synology NAS

Nick at The Linux Experiment shares some of what he runs on his Synology. I also want to start running my own NextCloud instance on mine. | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Kensington SD5700 Ethernet Issues

Back in April 2021 I purchase a Kensington SD5700 Thunderbolt 4 dock and until today had been fairly happy with it’s function. Today the ethernet died on the SD5700T in the most annoying way. It didn’t just stop working for the computer that the dock is plugged into, it puts out … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Framework 13 AMD Review from The Verge

Here’s the review from The Verge which sings the praises of the 13″ Framework with an AMD mainboard. I’m typing this on a 13″ Framework with 12th Gen Intel hardware and I’m entirely happy with the machine. The biggest drawback I see to the AMD Framework is the port situation. My … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Add Synology Share to NixOS

While it’s not all that hard to do, it did take me a bit of digging to figure out how to add my Synology to nixOS. The first thing that tripped me up was a simply mind trick where I didn’t really clue into the fact that I was looking to add a Samba share […] | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

PKM Weekly Oct 8 2023 – Issue 091

If you get value out of this newsletter consider supporting it by becoming a member. You can either get my weekly thoughts or all my courses and my weekly thoughts. You could also purchase a course if that fits your needs better. You can get this in your inbox by signing up. It T … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

What Companies Value Shows in What They Do

There are many things to like about Github’s published document on how they should communicate. I like the idea of asynchronous communication as priority. I love that they want to write things down, and in an ideal world they want to maintain documentation as a first priority in … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Automation and the Future of Work

One benefit members get is access to my rawish book notes. If you want to get an idea of what’s talked about in a book with some thoughts from me become a member. If you want to read this whole post become a member. Members get all my courses included.. | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Standby Mode – Apple Wants You To Pay Even More Attention to Their Phone

So with iOS 17 Apple has introduced Standby mode which turns your device into a clock, or lets you place some widgets on it of your choice. At first this seemed like a good feature but after a few days I feel like it’s just another bid by Apple to make their phone steal even […] | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Is Apple Really Committed to the Environment?

At the recent Apple event there was a segment featuring Octavia Spencer as Mother Nature where Apple touted it’s efforts to make it’s products better for the environment. While Apple may be ahead of some companies in their efforts to reduce the impact of their products on the env … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Radicalized by Cory Doctorow

Radicalized by Cory Doctorow is a set of 4 short stories that examine where our world is, and where it could be going if we don’t take steps to intervene in the path we are currently walking. We start with a look at immigration in the US and watch Salima finally get a real apartm … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Matt Has Music Suggestions

Matt has been sharing an album a day for a while now as part of a 365 project. I give pretty much everyone at least one listen and have found some great music from the project. | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Greg’s Right Social Media is not Docs

Again Greg is right social media is not documentation. It may be an easy way to pat yourself on the back to say you’ve got documentation, but it’s not documentation. Just like Discord is not documentation and it’s not a very effective customer communication channel. In the case G … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Cory Doctorow is Funding his Audiobook on the Climate Emergency

Cory Doctrow is funding the audiobook for his upcoming release the lost cause. I just got a signed hardcover to go with the last one I funded, The Internet Con, which came in the mail last week. | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Greg on Manual Practices for Digital Tasks

Today’s post revisits Greg’s thoughts from a few days back about Bullet Journals. I have come to terms with the fact that, despite my love of physical things, digital tools suit me better. I started a new Bullet Journal this year and I’m sure at some point I’ll neglect it. I don’ … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

EVs Don’t Solve Many Problems

While many look to electric cars to solve the current problems of our current dead dinosaur cars, there are a number of problems they don’t solve. They won’t solve the tire dust/plastic problem. In fact, they’re heavier so they’re going to wear out tires and roads faster. Every t … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

BIG – a newsletter about Monopolies

I recently found out about BIG and subscribed. The latest issue was all about what the FTC has done in September to combat monopolies. I recommend the newsletter. | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

PKM Weekly Oct 1 2023 – Issue 090

If you get value out of this newsletter consider supporting it by becoming a member. You can either get my weekly thoughts or all my courses and my weekly thoughts. You could also purchase a course if that fits your needs better. You can get this in your inbox by signing up. Book … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Four Onewheel Deaths = recall

So it took four deaths on a Onewheel to get a recall of all of the products. Sure there are some software fixes to resolve these issues, but remind me again how many deaths happen due to cars and bad road design? Why aren’t we recalling all cars and redesigning the roads? Somehow … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Member Reads Sept 30 2023

When you’re trying to gain knowledge, you’re going to hit the edges of what you currently know and you’re going to need to ask questions. Many people jump directly to asking a question when they hit any barrier though, which shows that you’re looking for the path of least resista … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Discord Outage Doesn’t Mean Discord Is Bad

I’ve seen a number of people jumping on the outage for Discord to say that “see you shouldn’t put important information behind Discord it could go down”. While I agree that you shouldn’t put user communication and documentation in Discord this outage in no way means Discord is ba … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

PKM Weekly Sept 24 2023 – Issue 089

If you get value out of this newsletter consider supporting it by becoming a member. You can either get my weekly thoughts or all my courses and my weekly thoughts. You could also purchase a course if that fits your needs better. You can get this in your inbox by signing up. We’r … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Member Reads Sept 23 2023

So what’s up with white supremacy anyway? Today is a short one mainly recommending other things to read to understand both white supremacy and misogyny. If you want to read this whole post become a member. Members get all my courses included.. | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Add Icons to Obsidian Content

While I’m not a huge icon/emoji person, I know a number of people really love them and want to be able to use icons directly in their content easily in Obsidian. For those people we have Obsidian Icon Shortcodes, which is a plugin that lets you add icons, even custom ones easily. … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

PKM Weekly Sept 17 2023 – Issue 088

If you get value out of this newsletter consider supporting it by becoming a member. You can either get my weekly thoughts or all my courses and my weekly thoughts. You could also purchase a course if that fits your needs better. You can get this in your inbox by signing up. Be S … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Member Reads Sept 16 2023

Should you read The PARA Method by Tiago Forte? Is it really a book about knowledge management or another fairly forgettable book about productivity? If you want to read this whole post become a member. Members get all my courses included.. | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Obsidian 1.4.13 PSA

It’s out and it brings a security update in the installer. That means you need to go to the site and download a new copy of it to get the security fix. Get the latest version of Obsidian now. | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago

Apple will save your life…unless you’re building it’s products

As usual Paris Marx has a great look at Apple, specifically some of the claims in their latest ad to get people to purchase their products. The claim that products are “net zero” is questionable: As Lloyd Alter outlines, Apple’s claims of carbon neutrality rely on emissions offse … | Continue reading


@curtismchale.ca | 1 year ago