https://jevans.bio where I write stuff Zola en Sat, 22 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Sat, 22 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Unknown https://jevans.bio/blog/20250222-phones-suck/ https://jevans.bio/blog/20250222-phones-suck/ <p>I've thought about this a lot since listening to investigative journalist <a href="https://infosec.exchange/@josephcox">Joseph Cox</a> <a href="https://www.404media.co/podcast-pokemon-go-to-the-military-industrial-complex/">talk about that he doesn't have a phone and why</a>. At that point, I already had a Google Pixel phone that I loaded <a href="https://grapheneos.org/">GrapheneOS</a> onto, which is the absolute best you can do in terms of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeGoogle">DeGoogle</a>-ing and security if you want to use Android. Since then I've been trying to see what it takes to really break away for someone who uses their phone A LOT, simply as an exercise and to learn more.</p> <h2 id="how-you-are-being-tracked">How You are Being Tracked</h2> <p>First, there are multiple levels of tracking to be aware of:</p> Fri, 14 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Unknown https://jevans.bio/now/ https://jevans.bio/now/ <ul> <li>designing a home theater cabinet</li> <li>upgrading my Voron</li> <li>designing a portable monitor using Framework laptop components</li> <li>building a Monolith</li> <li>reading: <ul> <li>Blood in the Machine by Brian Merchant</li> <li>American Trade Unionism by William Z. Foster</li> <li>The Mechanic and the Luddite by Jathan Sadowski</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p>2025-02-14</p> <p>Why a now page? <a href="https://nownownow.com/about">https://nownownow.com/about</a></p> Sat, 23 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Unknown https://jevans.bio/blog/20241123-trials-and-tribulations-of-setting-up-a-home-theater/ https://jevans.bio/blog/20241123-trials-and-tribulations-of-setting-up-a-home-theater/ <p><img src="https://i.snap.as/hL7khtR5.png" alt="" /></p> <h2 id="the-problem">The Problem</h2> <p>I share a small apartment with my partner and I have a love for locally-controlled smart-home stuff. One of the biggest hurdles when trying to make our apartment "smart", is that I want to make sure that my partner, and anyone who visits can interact with everything intuitively. This means that light switches have to work like normal switches, that a remote control does what you think it does, and, above all, that you never <em>need</em> to open an app to do anything you would do in any other home.</p> <p>At the same, I try to avoid all-in-one devices as much as possible because they afford far less customization and control, and because they become a single point of failure that can end up being expensive and create a lot of e-waste. The biggest downside to this approach is that I often take a big hit in the “convenience” department.</p> <p>It’s undeniable that integrating many parts of a system makes the user experience a lot easier. This is part of why internet service providers give customers an all-in-one modem, firewall, router, switch, and wireless access point. Managing individual devices for all of those functions for an normal user would be overkill and a nightmare to maintain.</p> <p>At the same time, modem interfaces, CPU power, Ethernet controllers, and WiFi versions all evolve at different rates, and with an all-in-one device, you have to replace the whole thing any time you want a new feature in any one of those parts, or risk having to dive into the software/firmware of your device to make it work nicely with other parts and/or having the old device reduce the functionality of your new part.</p>