Ciao and welcome back to Tiny Sparks!
You might have already recognized that something looks different this time. Tiny Sparks doesn’t run on Substack anymore and is now self-hosted on WordPress!
There are a couple of reasons for this switch, but in short: Substack has a Nazi problem and I want to own my content.
This means that I now have full control over this newsletter and its content. It runs on my own domain and is even federated to platforms like Mastodon1
I know that this doesn’t really affect you as a reader, but it was quite a lot of work, and I’m proud of how it turned out. So please excuse my excited ramblings about it ;)
With that said, let’s dive into this week’s issue:
🗓️ Personal Updates
Here’s a quick rundown of the things that happened in the past two weeks:
Apart from my newsletter, my personal website got a few nice updates as well:
- It now features a /blogroll page, where you can discover the blogs I regularly read. Maybe, you’ll find something interesting on there as well (There are tons of personal blogs like mine).
- I also made my website more compatible with the IndieWeb. For example, you can now react to posts on Mastodon and these webmentions will show up under the original post after some time. I also added webfinger support, so when you, for example, search for [email protected] on your Mastodon instance, you should find my account.
- The RSS feed also got an overhaul. Mostly under the hood stuff that improves the experience of reading my posts in an RSS reader. But I also added a small stylesheet, so the feed is human-readable in the browser: dominikhofer.me/rss
Because my newsletter is self-hosted (aka it runs on my own server), I also got to play around with Coolify once again. My personal analytics have been hosted with it for quite some time now. But I feel like with the process of setting up the newsletter, I only now begin to understand, how all of this really works. My current conclusion: Self-hosting is hard af, but at least equally cool.
Another minor change: I migrated my personal email addresses (those with @dominikhofer.me and @linea.studio) from Apple to Infomaniak, a Swiss-based cloud company. It’s a bit pricier, but now, I have way more control over them (at least it feels like it).
As for Zeitlos, the Forever Diary I am building, there haven’t been many updates in the meantime. I hope to work more on it again next week, now that all this personal site stuff is out the way.
Last but not least, here are the blog posts I’ve published since the last newsletter – in case you missed any:
- Diving into the Fediverse (once again…): Some resources I found while trying to understand the Fediverse better.
- How I write every day: A simple principle that allows me to write more regularly. This post resonated with quite many people, so you might find it particularly interesting as well.
- On: Civil War: My thoughts on the movie from A24.
- A song memory: A note about rediscovering a song I haven’t heard in a long time and feeling nostalgic about the memories.
🔮 Tool Recommendation
A couple of weeks ago, I migrated all my Podcast subs off Spotify and now use Pocket Casts as my podcast player. It feels nice having the music and the podcasts I listened to separated again. And Pocket Casts is also a really nicely designed app that is a joy to use.
What Pocket Casts does way better than Spotify when it comes to podcasts in my opinion is queue management, general organization of your subscriptions and automatic playlist.
Many dedicated podcast players have these features, Pocket Casts just happened to be my choice because I once used it in the past. Other options for you might be Apple Podcasts (who recently launched its web version) or the beautiful Neuecast.
📚 Content Piece
Speaking of podcasts, one episode I listened to and thoroughly enjoyed this week was “What’s the best phone to do crimes on” by Search Engine. It starts out like an episode that could get you on the FBI watchlist but turns into a thrilling true crime like story. PJ Vogt and Joseph Cox talk about the secure phone company Anom, how it was operated and the surprising true story behind it.
You might enjoy this one, even if you’re not a really technical person, so definitely give it a listen!
Additionally, I want to also recommend an older blog post I read this week called “The Part Time Creator Manifesto” by Swyx. He talks about why it’s actually a great idea to be a creator in addition to your day job, and why you should not go full time with it.
Two great quotes from the piece:
It’s about having a job while not being your job.
We are all fed up with over-SEO-ed content and generic lowest-common-denominator products. Part Time Creators can offer far more diversity, creativity, and unique expertise to fulfill every niche need of humanity. And they can make money, share valuable knowledge, and have more dignity doing so.
Well, that’s it already, thanks for sticking around. If you have some feedback, a recommendation of your own or just want to say hi, don’t hesitate to reach out! All the contact options are listed over on my /hello page.
And if you enjoyed this particular issue, consider forwarding it to your friends. That would mean a lot.
See you in two weeks!
Cheers ✌️
Dominik
Footnotes
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Just search for [email protected] on your instance and it should show up. ↩
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