The things I use every day in 2020 - Apps & Services
Firefox #
In the last year, I moved my personal stuff away from Gmail and Google Calendar (see Fastmail below) so it felt fitting to try a life without Chrome as well. Firefox is not as fast as Chrome, but it more than does everything I need it to. Plus, it helps with stopping the google monopoly of the web.
Joplin #
I used to use Notion, but didn’t use the advanced features like the inbuilt database tools enough to justify the cost. Joplin is a free (open source) markdown note taking application that I am using to write this post. It can sync via a variety of backends; I use the S3 backend with backblaze but it also supports Dropbox, Onedrive, Webdav and just using a file system.
It’s great. I can’t recommend it enough, and I am really looking forward to seeing what the new plugin interface allows people to create.
Backblaze #
Complete PC backup + S3 compatible storage service for an affordable price.
I use the S3 compatible bucket storage for rclone on my servers, as well as a bucket for Joplin notes. This costs me about $0.40 a month, the PC backup is US$6/month and worth it for the peace of mind.
Rambox CE #
Container for web apps - saves having a ton of tabs open in my browser. I use it for my email, kanban boards, my gaming dashboards (grafana), whatsapp web, and my home temperature monitoring dashboard.
Exist #
‘life tracking’ / ‘qualitative self’ - This lets me collate all the data I generate: time gaming, time sleeping, productivity, tasks completed, sunrise and sunset among loads of other stuff and produces interesting and useful reports about the correlations between these.
Kanboard #
Self Hosted Trello. Nothing else to say, if you use Kanban boards and don’t want to use a service like Trello, you can’t go far wrong with Kanboard. Simple and easy to host, lightweight, and mobile friendly as well.
Pi Hole #
Block all the ads! I will be sad when DNS over HTTPS takes over, and this method of ad blocking is rendered useless. For now though, it is 100% the best way to protect your network from ads and other forms of malware.
Spotify #
Apple music still doesn’t really support Last.fm therefore I will continue to use Spotify for the foreseeable future. Maybe one day this will change.
Fastmail #
Not cheap, but reliable. If you want to move your email away from Google, save 10% and use my link. I find the web interface simpler and faster than Gmail and the app is nicer too.