It’s Sunday, and tomorrow I don’t have to work, as I have two weeks of vacation. The first time since May. My only breaks from work were when I hurt my hand and wasn’t able to type for a week, and two free days last week, but those also weren’t really relaxing for me. So I am very much looking forward to the next two weeks! I really feel the exhaustion from the last few months with work sometimes being stressful, the start of my fiancée’s teacher training, and some other topics. But this year again showed me that bi … ⌘ Read more

The good thing about having a tablet now and spending time with it instead of my laptop the last few days is that I finally brought down my reading list in Miniflux a lot. I also answered emails and checked a few other tasks off my (mental) to-do list. ⌘ Read more

Many new purchases
I received so many packages yesterday! ⌘ Read more

There are a couple of add-ons to block YouTube Shorts in the browser, but if you are using Firefox with uBlock Origin, you do not need to install anything extra. Just add this filter list to the uBO settings, and you are free from those annoying short videos! At least on the PC… Sadly, even with YouTube Premium, there is no option to just ban Shorts from the mobile app. ⌘ Read more

Bunny.net (previously BunnyCDN) keeps doing great things (like this free European non-logging JS CDN), but it would be even better if they also replaced the Disqus comments in their blog with a more privacy-friendly alternative. ⌘ Read more

My September ‘25 in Review
The month of September is now over, too. Only 86 days left until Christmas and 92 days until the New Year. So, it’s time to take a (this time, really) quick look back at the past weeks. ⌘ Read more

Earlier this year, I used Purelymail until I switched back to a self-hosted email server. Today, I found out that Purelymail was sold shortly after I closed my account due to health reasons. The new owner has pledged to continue the service in the same spirit as its founder, who always provided excellent support when I needed it. My reason for switching wasn’t due to any dissatisfaction with Purelymail; I simply wanted more control and to host my data in Europe again. I wish Purelymail all the best and hope it conti … ⌘ Read more

Does anyone know of an OsmAnd rendering style that resembles OpenCycleMap? It should highlight cycle networks with vibrant colors and fade everything else. Currently, I plan bike tours by first opening OpenCycleMap on my PC to get an idea and then using OsmAnd on my phone to actually plan the tour. Ideally, I would just use OsmAnd. ⌘ Read more

I stopped especially for this photo during a relaxed after-work tour today. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but the nature here with the park, forest, and lakes is really beautiful and always lifts my mood! ⌘ Read more

My current multi-phone strategy
In response to a question a commenter named Jerry asked, I want to briefly explain my multi-phone strategy. ⌘ Read more

I bought an iPhone (as my third smartphone)
I never thought I would do this, but I bought an iPhone. It’s a pretty cheap iPhone SE 2. Gen (2020) used from eBay, like the device I got issued from my work. It’s so tiny and it’s really difficult to type even a short text like this. ⌘ Read more

A bike ride to reset
After a tough last weekend, a little cold, and bad weather, I was really exhausted and not in the best mood this week. But I knew the weather would be great on Friday, so I planned a bike tour. A 47-kilometer round trip north where there aren’t many hills. ⌘ Read more

It’s autumn. Cloudy, windy, and occasionally rainy. But it’s supposed to warm up again this weekend, so will I go for a bike ride then? ⌘ Read more

Enjoying nature and walking through this green and calm scenery. 🌳🚶‍♂️🌳 ⌘ Read more

Enjoying nature and walking through this green and calm scenery. 🌳🚶‍♂️🌳 ⌘ Read more

Live tracking solution for OsmAnd
I previously shared my transition from Komoot to OsmAnd, and after some time, I’ve grown accustomed to its comprehensive capabilities. Whether for cycling, hiking, or general navigation, OsmAnd truly functions as a versatile “Swiss Army knife” for offline mobile navigation and tracking. ⌘ Read more

My May ‘25 in Review
May is already over. This time, it was quite an eventful month. ⌘ Read more

New watch. My old one was still fine and will probably be on sale soon, but this refurbished Galaxy Watch 7 has LTE. I can set up fall detection and use the emergency SOS feature in case of an emergency when my phone is out of reach or broken. Safety first. I can also leave my phone at home and still receive or make calls. ⌘ Read more

Dmytro Prudnikov, former product designer at Komoot, who was still featured last December in a post on LinkedIn, but got, as many others, fired, posted an emotional video on YouTube. Together, he and a lot of other former colleagues, they spent some time together for a last gathering. ⌘ Read more

My music listening is inconsistent. I don’t listen to much music, sometimes weeks without any music streaming at all. And when I do, I often listen to some automatic playlists with recommendations from YouTube. I don’t have any specific artists I always listen too. Furthermore, I don’t even have a specific genre I like the most, often it’s something electronic. ⌘ Read more

Two fantastic weeks in Scotland
I am back from Scotland, and my first days back at work are behind me. Let me tell you about my awesome vacation! ⌘ Read more

Two fantastic weeks in Scotland
I am back from Scotland, and my first days back at work are behind me. Let me tell you about my awesome vacation! ⌘ Read more

Two fantastic weeks in Scotland
I am back from Scotland, and my first days back at work are behind me. Let me tell you about my awesome vacation! ⌘ Read more

As everyone recommends Signal as a Telegram alternative, I actually gave it a try again. Turns out it still does not support multiple devices, even unlike WhatsApp. ⌘ Read more

I need to migrate away from Telegram
I will migrate away from Telegram. Enough is enough. After more and more features are behind the Telegram Premium paywall (which I understand to a degree) and the increasing integration of stars (a crypto scheme? — I have less understanding for that), now also Grok from xAI by right-wing extremist Elon Musk will be integrated. ⌘ Read more

Remove Android bloatware with Shizuku and Canta
Today, I have new app recommendation. Almost two years ago, I wrote about bloatware removal on Android without using a PC. I recommended Hail as an app to finally uninstall the bloatware apps after gaining elevated privileges with Shizuku. ⌘ Read more

Investing in comfort
Getting ready for Scotland involved buying some gear – next to the required things also a headlamp, a powerbank and Merino clothes. On the surface, maybe a bit much. Did I need a new powerbank? Technically no, but the right size makes a difference for tracking, navigating, and tent-charging on a trip like this. Merino? It means less sweat, less odor, more comfort over days of exploring. ⌘ Read more

Today, I did my longest bike tour this year so far. I went north to a lake in a neighboring district, mostly following the Weser-Harz-Heide route, which I already partly followed on my journey from Kassel to Braunschweig last year. There I sat down on a bench for half an hour and then returned. I had plenty of headwinds on the way there and a bit of tailwind on the way back, although the wind was mostly from the side. This time, I luckily did not mess up the OsmAnd tracking. Despite the wind, it was a lot of fun! ⌘ Read more

My April ‘25 in Review
April has also been over for two days now. So it’s time to take a look back. What was going on (for me)? ⌘ Read more

From two and a half homes to one
Today, after three years and one month, I handed over the keys to my first apartment away from my childhood home. It marks the end of an era worth reflecting on. ⌘ Read more

GoBlog Telegram Bot plugin
If you’re reading this, it seems that my GoBlog Telegram Bot (just another embedded plugin) is working! ⌘ Read more

Yesterday, before our second (and last) move today, I took the opportunity to take a relaxing ride on my bike along my running route from some years ago and enjoy the nature. ⌘ Read more

KitchenOwl
Until recently, my fiancée and I used Bring! to manage a list of groceries, we need to buy. Recipes we saved in a Telegram channel, pinning those we want to do in the following days. ⌘ Read more

Copilot taking over?
I tried GitHub Copilot (Free) in Visual Studio Code again for some small GoBlog changes. Copilot can now generate tests (although it doesn’t feel intelligent, as you need to correct quite a few things), it can do code reviews before committing and it can generate commit messages. Of course, it can also do code completions and write complete code, if you want it to do so. ⌘ Read more

Planning for Scotland, second try
My fiancée and I were in Scotland in 2023 on an Interrail trip. But with some bad luck, we got COVID-19 after half of the trip and had to go home and recover. We always said we wanted to finish our trip in one of the next years. ⌘ Read more

European AI
To reduce my dependence on USA-based products, I switched from using the OpenAI API to Scaleway’s Generative API for my blog. Not only is it cheaper, but it’s based on open-source models, hosted in Europe. 🇪🇺 ⌘ Read more

New bike season
Yesterday, I started my new bike season and took my bike for a fun ride of about 25 km. I rode the first part of the “Städtepartnerschaftsradweg Braunschweig - Magdeburg” (City partnership cycle path Braunschweig - Magdeburg) between my hometown and a village called Königslutter. The weather was perfect and I truly enjoyed it. For the way back, I took the train that I reached just in time. ⌘ Read more

Mandated use of AI at work
Although I also use AI for some features on this blog and sometimes chat with some AI agent (whether it’s ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot or GitHub Copilot), I have mixed feelings about its mandated use at work (Shopify is just one company doing it). ⌘ Read more

This time it’s just a station to change to another train. Another hour and a half to my new/old home station. ⌘ Read more

I visited this place four years ago, but today my family and I went to the Todtnau Waterfall again. This time there’s a new suspension bridge from which you can see the waterfall from above and get an even better view of the valley in the black forest. ⌘ Read more

My March ‘25 in Review
My monthly review is a few days late, but there’s so much to do that I don’t really get around to blogging. ⌘ Read more

An even better Komoot alternative? – OsmAnd
After quickly trying out Outdooractive, I think I found an alternative that fits my needs a bit better and is also more inline with my values: OsmAnd. ⌘ Read more

Enjoying the nice weather, my monthly review will be a little late. 🌷 ⌘ Read more

An even better Komoot alternative? – OsmAnd
After quickly trying out Outdooractive, I think I found an alternative that fits my needs a bit better and is also more inline with my values: OsmAnd. ⌘ Read more

Komoot alternative: Outdooractive
I’ve found a potential alternative to Komoot: Outdooractive, another German app that offers many similar features. I’m surprised it flew under my radar for so long. ⌘ Read more

Extending my Komoot export script
I’ve taken another look at my export script for Komoot (original post), now that Bending Spoons has acquired Komoot. I’ve extended the script to also download cover images and, if available, an image of the map – I found that in the API responses. ⌘ Read more

Part 1 of the move (Kassel to Braunschweig) is complete. Today we dropped off the van, handed over the apartment, and took the opportunity to take one last walk through the nearby park and nature. Part 2 (second home to new primary residence) will follow soon. ⌘ Read more

I did not want to miss the chance to take one (maybe) last picture of this beautiful symmetrical view. ⌘ Read more

Just a few more days before I leave Kassel after two and a half years. Feeling grateful for everything this city has given me and excited for what’s ahead! ⌘ Read more

My February ‘25 in Review
Now February is also over – another eventful month. While world politics had some lows with the German federal election and events in the USA, there were at least some highs in my private life. ⌘ Read more

Ava perfectly captured how I feel about saving the planet: ⌘ Read more

Self-hosting my emails again: A few weeks in
A few weeks ago, I moved back to self-hosting my mail server after using Purelymail for three years. The decision wasn’t about cost – it’s actually more expensive to rent a VPS – but about control, security, and data locality. My mails are now hosted in Europe, giving me more confidence in their privacy, and I can configure everything exactly as I want while ensuring compliance with GDPR. ⌘ Read more

What’s minimalism?
We live in a world where buying and owning stuff is the default. New clothes? Sure. Another gadget? Why not? ⌘ Read more

It’s surprising how much I can reduce the amount of spam that Rspamd needs to filter – whether it ends up in my junk folder or even my inbox – just by blocking certain recipient addresses. Using unique email addresses for each service, like “deezer @ example.com” for Deezer, was one of the best decisions I made, especially combined with a catch-all address. ⌘ Read more

Self-hosting my emails again
After three years with Purelymail, I’m back at self-hosting my mail server. Not because it’s cheaper (it’s actually much pricier to pay for a VPS), but because my mails are now hosted in Europe (who knows what happens next in the USA), I have more control to configure things how I want, and I can comply with GDPR. ⌘ Read more

My January ‘25 in Review
January is one of those months when you either feel fresh and motivated – or like you’re stumbling into the new year. This time, I definitely fall into the second category. Not because nothing is happening, but because so much is moving at once – mostly furniture, wall paint, and my schedule. ⌘ Read more

AI-powered image descriptions on my blog
My blog still has a long way to go when it comes to accessibility, but I’m excited about two new plugins I’ve just added to make things better. ⌘ Read more

Sometimes things happen that you did not expect: You hear a song, you really like it, you research who made it, and you find out that person lives in the same town as you: AK – Discovery. ⌘ Read more

4000 km with my pedelec
Today, after a short evening shift in the old/new apartment, I reached 4000 km total distance with my Pedelec (the only legal option for an electric bicycle without insurance in Germany – up to 25 km/h is supported by a motor when pedaling). ⌘ Read more

To continue my recovery today, I didn’t do much other than lie in bed and watch Netflix (I’ve been binge-watching a lot since we subscribed to Netflix a few weeks ago): I watched the miniseries The Playlist. ⌘ Read more

I hope to ignore US politics as much as I can in the next few years – it can really bring you down. Let’s also hope Trump and his oligarch friends don’t cause too much harm until then. ⌘ Read more

To continue my recovery today, I didn’t do much other than lie in bed and watch Netflix (I’ve been binge-watching a lot since we subscribed to Netflix a few weeks ago): I watched the miniseries The Playlist. ⌘ Read more

Blocking AI bots ⛔
Every few months, I inevitably catch a cold or some other virus and end up stuck at home for a few days. Right now, I’m in one of those phases again. Thankfully, this time hasn’t been too bad, and I’m already on the mend. After a lot of Netflix marathons, I realized I couldn’t just sit around doing nothing – I’m the kind of person who needs to feel productive, even when I’m under the weather. ⌘ Read more

Blog Questions Challenge
I wasn’t explicitly asked by anyone to join the Blog Questions Challenge, but I guess I can just join and also tell a bit about my blogging process. So here are the questions and answers: ⌘ Read more

I was using my 5G router setup with Vanilla OpenWRT and QMI Cellular as a protocol for quite some time, but there were irregular disconnections etc. Updating the firmware of the modem didn’t help. Some days ago, I noticed that it’s also possible to configure with Modem Manager (which provides connection information directly in LuCI) and put the Quectel modem into MBIM mode. It’s running without hiccups now! Also updated to OpenWRT 24.10. ⌘ Read more

Social media is in a worrying state. TikTok in the hands of autocratic China, X (formerly Twitter) in the hands of Elon Musk, who gets crazier every day and hangs out too much with Donald Trump (and recommends a fascist party in Germany), and now Mark Zuckerberg with Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Threads) is also joining the group of friends around Trump and removing fact checks in the name of “free speech”. What could possibly go wrong? ⌘ Read more

It was probably my most productive first week of January so far. Big progress in the apartment: lots of furniture (and a large wall unit) dismantled, two rooms painted and much more. Tomorrow maybe a bit more relaxed program, so that I don’t need a vacation from vacation straight away. 😅 ⌘ Read more

My December ‘24 and my 2024 in Review
The month, and indeed the year, are drawing to a close – a time to pause, reflect, and revisit all the small and big moments that made up this journey. ⌘ Read more

I finally pulled the trigger and moved all my Fediverse followers from j7s@j7s.me to en@jlelse.blog, I only used the former account to share my blog links anyway. If you were following me for my German posts, please take a look at de@jlelse.blog. Have a nice day! 😊 ⌘ Read more

Today’s date, 24.12.24 (using the German date format, DD.MM.YY), is special in a quirky mathematical way! Notice how 12 (the month) is exactly half of 24 (the day and the year). This symmetry adds an extra layer of charm to an already magical time of the year. It’s a rare alignment that makes this Christmas Eve uniquely memorable. ⌘ Read more

It’s not a winter wonderland out here, but with Christmas and winter coming soon, maybe a little snow on my blog isn’t a bad idea. I’ve just programmed a snow animation for another project and thought I could reuse the code in the form of a simple GoBlog plugin. ❄❄❄ ⌘ Read more

A new addition to my domain collection
My list of domains is constantly changing. Sometimes it grows, and sometimes it shrinks as I let go of a domain I no longer need. The good thing is that letting go of a domain makes room for new ones. Just yesterday I made a spontaneous purchase of another .de domain: jan-lukas.de, to go along with janlukas.de, which I already own and sometimes use for emails. ⌘ Read more

That’s it for work in 2024. Vacation! And next year will (probably) start with an AWS training course. ⌘ Read more

You know what’s amazing about programming? The power to automate boring or repetitive tasks effortlessly. Renaming hundreds of files, downloading GPX files from Komoot, or updating the visibility of countless statuses on Traewelling – sure, you could do it manually, but why would you, when you can write a quick script to handle it for you? It’s hands down the best life hack I’ve ever discovered! Big thanks to my parents for putting me on this path! ⌘ Read more

It seems like every app is offering a “Spotify Wrapped”-style yearly review these days. One app where I genuinely find the results fascinating is Träwelldroid, which I use to log my public transport journeys on Träwelling. While the average German drives roughly 10k kilometers per year by car, I traveled approximately 9600 kilometers using public transport, spending a total of 4 days and 8 hours in transit. This is particularly noteworthy since I commuted less frequently this year and didn’t do any interrailing. Sad … ⌘ Read more

Ban the spam! 🚫
I’m tired of spam emails flooding my inbox, so I decided to take inspiration from Kev’s approach. I noticed that many of the spam messages were being sent to the email address I published on my legally required imprint. ⌘ Read more

A short winter bike tour
Yesterday, I watched some cycling videos and that somehow gave me some motivation to do at least one more short bike tour this year. Today, I did a short round around the city and saw some new places. With 5° Celsius and some sun, the temperature wasn’t the best, but at least it didn’t rain. To keep the motivation high, I listened to some music with my new headphones. ⌘ Read more

First impressions with the soundcore AeroFit 2 open-ear headphones
While I skipped the Black Friday deals, I couldn’t resist picking up the soundcore AeroFit 2 headphones a few days later. Being home alone over the weekend gave me the perfect opportunity to spend more than 24 hours testing them thoroughly. Here are my first impressions of these open-ear headphones. ⌘ Read more

Why I’d never switch to an 🍎 iPhone
Recently, Kev announced he’s switching back to Android, and judging by his first impressions, he seems to be enjoying it. Coincidentally, I came across a video from Linus Tech Tips, where Linus shared his thoughts after using an iPhone for 30 days – and let’s just say, he wasn’t impressed. ⌘ Read more

Has someone a) found a bug or security hole in GoBlog or b) actually sent well over 5 million requests to my site to like my post about how to export GPX files automatically from Komoot? 🤔 ⌘ Read more

“No NAT November: My Month Without IPv4”
In his post “No NAT November: My Month Without IPv4” security engineer Alex Haydock writes about the challenges of IPv6-only networks and explains techniques like DNS64, NAT64 and CLAT. An interesting read for someone like me, who doesn’t know much more about IPv6 than that support is still lacking in many places (like GitHub). ⌘ Read more

While I don’t have a specific favorite genre and generally don’t listen to music much, I sometimes enjoy doing it consciously. And a great way for me to discover new songs is this TikTok-like view in the YouTube Music app, where you can skip through recommendations. 🎧 ⌘ Read more

My November ‘24 in Review
Happy first Advent everyone! November is now over and the last month of 2024 has begun. So it’s time to take another brief look back at the past month. ⌘ Read more

As I want to use my blog as my central web identity, I now updated my blogroll to also show all the microblogs I follow, whether these are real blogs, Fediverse or Bluesky profiles. Aren’t starter packs also just a new form of blogrolls? To follow all the blogs in my list, all you need to do is import the OPML file into a feed reader. ⌘ Read more

I couldn’t sleep this morning, so I got up sometime, ate, exercised, showered and finished my ATProto/Bluesky integration in GoBlog. You can now follow me there too: @jlelse.blog. But I think I will only use it very passively and only post my links there automatically. ⌘ Read more

Even though it’s a bit cold and muddy outside, today, while we’re still living in Kassel, we took the opportunity to take another look at the city from above. This time from the Bismarck Tower. ⌘ Read more

Initial thoughts about Bluesky
There’s a lot of noise about Bluesky recently, it seems like they passed 20 million users, with more than 1 million new users daily recently. ⌘ Read more

My next Fediverse migration?
I currently use GoToSocial (with my numeronym domain) next to my blog, but it always confuses me where to post what. That’s why I want to move to my blog as my sole Fediverse identity. But before that, I wanted to implement another Fediverse feature in GoBlog: support for the new fediverse:creator meta tag. ⌘ Read more

It still works!
Two years ago, when my girlfriend and I moved together, I rented a VDSL router, a FRITZ!Box 7590 AX. In my second flat, I still had a FRITZ!Box 7490. But one and a half years later, I replaced the wired Internet connection in the second flat with a cellular based one, and the 7490 had no use anymore. ⌘ Read more

Two years with my new laptop 💻
It’s now about two years since I got my new laptop and replaced my Surface Go and my desktop computer with it to be more flexible when commuting. Here’s a small recap on why I’m so happy about my companion. ⌘ Read more

My October ‘24 in Review
October has also been over for three days now, so it’s high time to take a (very) brief look back. ⌘ Read more

It’s been seven years since my father passed, taken from us far too soon at the age of 51. I was only 18 then, and while time has softened some of the pain, his influence remains a constant part of me. He was a person full of curiosity and passion, qualities I feel he passed down to me in his own way. ⌘ Read more

Hiking in the Alps!
Yesterday, we returned from a 5-day vacation in the Bavarian Alps, and it was absolutely wonderful! ⌘ Read more

Bitwarden finally released the native Android app (written in Kotlin) with version 2024.10.1. I used the beta since it was released and Vaultwarden updated to support it, and I can definitely say it’s a huge improvement to the previous Xamarin version. 👍 ⌘ Read more

Hiking in the Alps?
As my girlfriend finally finished her last exams last week, and now we have time for enjoyable activities again, we used yesterday to do another hike in the surrounding area. ⌘ Read more

Memos
With the current drama around WordPress and Automattic, I was searching for alternatives to Simplenote, the app I am currently using to save my notes and keep them synced. ⌘ Read more

Walking through the park. 🚶‍♂️ I’ll definitely miss this nice area once we move away from Kassel! 🌇 ⌘ Read more

Hetzner has Object Storage in beta now. I got access to it, but one thing is holding me back from using it: A fixed price (5,95 € per month per bucket), even if there is nothing stored in there or way less than the included 1 TB. Why not bill based on actual usage, like most other services are doing it nowadays? I guess I will keep using Scaleway Object Storage and Cloudflare R2. ⌘ Read more

IndieWeb Carnival: multilingualism in a global Web
This is my first entry to an IndieWeb Carnival, and the topic this time is especially interesting: multilingualism in a global Web. ⌘ Read more

My September ‘24 in Review
And another month has passed. With September, 75% of the year is already over. Christmas is coming soon! 🎄 ⌘ Read more