Digital

There are 92 posts filed in Digital (this is page 3 of 10).

Roborock S6 MaxV vs. Vorwerk VR200 Vacuum Robot Comparison

For years, the Vorwerk VR200 robot vacuum was in use here, but I was never really happy with it. The successor was now not going to be another Vorwerk. I simply didn’t want to spend so much money on repairs anymore. However, one must be aware that with a Vorwerk device, repairs are relatively easy to handle since Vorwerk shops are almost everywhere. It’s also better for the environment. As for the Roborock, I have no idea how it works in that regard. However, I always sell used devices to hobbyists so they can have a second life.

After weeks of research, I finally chose the Roborock S6 MaxV. I admit, I prefer to order from Amazon rather than other places, as there are usually no problems with shipping, etc. However, not this time. Amazon Logistics failed to deliver the package. So, I ended up ordering from somewhere else, and this time it was even nearly 40€ cheaper. No, there wasn’t a local store nearby that had it, otherwise, I would have tried there.

One thing that stands out right away: The Roborock has a plastic housing that feels cheaper. It doesn’t look as premium or as sturdy as the Vorwerk. I actually didn’t want a round robot again because they don’t reach corners as well as, for example, the Vorwerk does. However, since the external brush on the Vorwerk no longer works, it didn’t really matter, and the models that perform well in tests are unfortunately all round.

The Roborock also lacks the handle that the Vorwerk had. You can’t carry it as easily to another room. But that’s not really necessary, because since the Roborock remembers the map of your home, you can simply tell it which room to go to. No more carrying it around. Plus, it can clean the entire apartment in less time and on a single battery charge. The Vorwerk never managed that, not even when it had a brand-new battery. However, there is also a downside: The Vorwerk charged itself on the side by docking with long vertical contacts on the charging station. You didn’t have to be very precise when pushing it onto the station. With the Roborock, it’s different: the charging contacts are small and located underneath the device. It’s better to let it dock itself.

When the Roborock is first switched on, something else stands out: You wonder when it’s going to start vacuuming. It’s super quiet compared to the Vorwerk, despite having much stronger suction power. This means there will be fewer discussions in the future about whether the robot can run during a video conference in other rooms.

The setup via the app wasn’t entirely easy at first, because the software somehow required a code during the registration process. It wasn’t clear that you had to request it first in the registration screen and then use it right there. Otherwise, the rest of the software is several classes better than Vorwerk’s, and I’m not even referring to the new app that you were forced to switch to, which worked even worse. One big advantage of the Roborock app is that you can update the firmware through it. With Vorwerk, this was only possible with a Windows PC, which then had to be connected to the Vorwerk via a cable. I don’t even own a Windows PC, so I always had to borrow one. Though, to be honest, firmware updates were very rare with Vorwerk anyway.

The Roborock app does everything I had wished for from Vorwerk. You can track exactly how the robot moves through the space. Thanks to its two cameras, it “sees” ahead and creates a map of the apartment, even if it hasn’t been to that area yet.

The more it sucked, the more accurate the map became. Here, it also started mapping the hallway, as the door opened once in between. Still, it’s nice to see how you can essentially get a floor plan of the apartment. You can also see how methodical the Roborock is in its approach. Combined with much stronger suction power, the cleaning is much more thorough. And I haven’t even tried the mopping mode yet (which I might try in a later review).

What’s particularly interesting here is that the robot thought we had a pet that had left a mess in the living room. The icon at least looks like that. Fortunately, the robot kindly takes a picture of what it saw. Luckily, it was just the foot of the piano. It reliably identifies cable outlets and such with great accuracy.

Overall, I’m very satisfied with the device so far. It cleans the entire apartment on a single charge, has more suction power, offers better control options, and is still cheaper than the Vorwerk model.

Wi-Fi issues: Using telephone cable for Ethernet

One of my biggest mistakes during the renovation of the apartment was deciding not to install Ethernet sockets that the electrician had offered. I thought, “I have Wi-Fi.” Not to mention that back in the ’90s, I had installed 10BaseT network cables, then 100BaseT came along, and I figured if I installed 1000BaseT now, it would be outdated in a few years anyway. I had already tried many solutions—Powerline (internet over power lines), Google Wi-Fi, Orbi, and at one point even an AVM Fritz mesh network, but that was awful. AVM seems to be particularly sensitive when it comes to Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS). So-called prioritized users, like military, weather stations, and air traffic control, use radar in the same frequency ranges as parts of the 5GHz spectrum, and as soon as another user is detected, the router drops out of that range. With AVM, this seems to immediately switch to the 2.4GHz band.

With the rise of working from home, Wi-Fi issues have become much more apparent. Sometimes, nothing would work at all. My gigabit connection would only deliver 100Mbit or less to the office on the other side of the apartment, sometimes more, and sometimes nothing at all. The following speed test from Vodafone shows one of the better moments, which were only possible thanks to the new Orbi-system. Many others would probably envy this performance. But during a 90-minute video conference, this speed doesn’t hold up, and interruptions are just annoying.

Old buildings can have really thick walls, and on top of that, there’s the R.A.D.A.R and neighbors with their own Wi-Fi networks. But then I thought, why not use the telephone cables that are already in the walls? Almost every room has a telephone socket that we don’t use. First off, the cable isn’t designed for this purpose. It’s physically impossible to use telephone cables as Ethernet cables. But is there really no way around this?

Actually, there is a way. But it takes a bit of fiddling. I’ll spoil the result right from the start: these are the values I was able to achieve with this solution:

That’s more than perfect. And on top of that, it’s stable. No more outages. How does this work? Of course, I couldn’t repurpose the telephone cables as Ethernet cables. But there is a technical solution that can be implemented with a bit of extra hardware. The G.hn Wave 2 approach, which is used in devices like those from GiGa Copper, allows you to plug an Ethernet cable into a special modem and receive the internet signal again via Ethernet on the other side. The small master modem is plugged directly into my cable router.

The purchase didn’t work out for me via eBay— I don’t have PayPal, and there were constant errors with the other payment methods. Apparently, you can only pay a few times without a PayPal account. However, when I called GiGa Copper directly, I got expert advice and was able to order at a slightly better price. It wasn’t as easy as it seemed on GiGa Copper’s website, though. The devices didn’t establish a connection through the telephone cables right after being plugged in. Although the telephone sockets in my apartment were correctly wired and connected, it seems that the GiGa Copper modem expected a slightly different wiring layout. In addition to the 230€ for the modems, I had to pay someone to fix the wiring. It wasn’t exactly cheap, but the result was worth it. Especially for important presentations and lectures, it gives me “peace of mind,” knowing I don’t have to constantly worry about whether the Wi-Fi will hold up.

First experiences with the Apple Silicon Macs with the M1.

I have already experienced a processor change at Apple. My Apple career began in 1996 with a PowerBook 5300, which I absolutely loved—despite its 640×480 pixel grayscale display. On the one hand, a Mac laptop at that time was still something very special and rare (admittedly, at an exorbitant price, but it had been provided to me by my then employer), and it had a keyboard that felt incredibly good and, above all, sounded wonderfully. On the other hand, compared to the Windows PCs I had used before, it was also extremely reliable. With 8 MB of RAM and a 500 MB hard drive, it was also quite well-equipped. This PowerBook was the first to feature a Motorola PowerPC processor, so there had already been a kind of transition shortly before.

In 2006, Apple switched to Intel processors, a move that was extraordinary at the time, especially since in the 90s, Apple had aired commercials where a Motorola processor roasted an Intel processor. For the transition, Apple offered a program called Rosetta, which allowed PowerPC applications to run on Intel-based Macs. Typically, these programs ran slower. The commercial was actually referenced again when the first Intel Macs were introduced, around minute 1:05 of the presentation.

Now another transition. In 2019, I bought the 16″ MacBook Pro after many years with a MacBook Air. I hadn’t kept any other Apple computer longer than the Air, but over time, it had become too slow for what I was doing with it (R, a lot of work in the terminal with sed, awk, Lightroom, etc.). I hadn’t upgraded earlier because I absolutely didn’t want the awful butterfly keyboard. The return to scissor-switch keyboards began with the 16″ MacBook, but I still couldn’t get used to the huge device. Not to mention, it became incredibly hot and loud, and the battery life was far from Apple’s claims. For example, when I trained a machine learning model, the MacBook got so hot that I didn’t need to heat my office anymore. And during any Zoom or Webex call, the battery drained faster than an ice cube melting in the summer heat.

I spend quite a bit of time waiting for the results of a calculation, even if it’s only 20 or 30 seconds sometimes, but it adds up over the day, and sometimes it’s several minutes or even hours. I usually know in advance how long it will take, but I don’t start another task for just half a minute because it disrupts my train of thought. Data analysis is also a meditative act for me. So, the speed of a computer is extremely important. Not just for data analysis, but for all other tasks on the computer as well. It just has to feel smooth.

The speed of a calculation in R depends on many factors:

  • Memory (yes, R loads everything into memory)
  • Processor speed
  • Parallelization

For memory, the first Apple Silicon models aren’t particularly well-equipped—16 GB is the maximum. It doesn’t help that the path from the processor to memory is especially short. The operating system uses part of the memory, the running programs also use some, so there’s not much left. Especially when working with large files, as I often do, which can sometimes reach 50GB or more, swapping is almost “predetermined.” Parallelization is not possible yet, as the necessary packages are not available—Homebrew, for example, is still not available.

Additionally, R is currently not available for the new Macs. It lacks (still) a Fortran compiler, and this is not only a problem for R but also for many machine learning software extensions for Python. Who would have thought that this old programming language could still have such a big influence today? Of course, R also runs via Rosetta, but then I could have just not bought a new Mac and let myself be used as a beta tester for Apple 🙂 But, small spoiler: Even with Rosetta, the Intel version of R runs faster on the M1, and it seems that’s not just the case for me.

I initially purchased a Mac mini with 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD to test how good the performance actually is and whether I could make the transition. I was able to pick up the Mac mini the same day from the Apple Store, and from the start, I was amazed at how smooth everything felt on this computer. R worked flawlessly, though RStudio showed error messages frequently. No big deal. But it soon became clear that the memory limitation was an issue. When trying to process a 200GB file (using sort, awk, sed in the shell), at some point, the hard drive filled up with swapping, and the process failed. Okay, maybe the mini is just a bit too weak for that task. What surprised me, though, was that not once did the fan kick in—this would not have been the case with the 16″ MacBook Pro. So, all in all, everything seemed great…

…except for the Bluetooth. My Mac mini also had the well-known Bluetooth problems. Specifically, the mouse loses its connection multiple times a day, which is extremely inconvenient when you’re showing a demo during a video conference. Not good, very frustrating. I tried all sorts of tips, including using a wired connection to the network instead of Wi-Fi. No improvement. It’s unclear whether this is a hardware or software issue. A chat with Apple Support dropped multiple times, and eventually, I got tired of it because, you know, I have a job too. An update to the Big Sur beta helped a little, and as of yesterday, the computer is running on 11.1, so I’m hoping it will be better now, and that it’s not a hardware issue.

Another not-so-pleasant experience was the sound. I have never experienced an Apple computer with such poor sound quality—my old PowerBook 5300 probably sounded better. They could have definitely done much more with the sound.

Despite the Bluetooth issues, after 2 days, I decided to also buy a portable Apple Silicon Mac. In full configuration (16GB RAM, 2TB SSD), it costs about the same as I could sell my 16″ MacBook Pro for on the used market, and at the same time, I get double the storage space. There used to be a rule that you should calculate how much storage you might need and then multiply that size by 4. Unfortunately, there are no 8TB SSDs for these computers yet.

The computer arrived after almost 3 weeks, one week earlier than expected. Here, I noticed a small speed boost, likely due to the doubled RAM. The 200GB file also went through smoothly now, thanks to enough space on the SSD. And, just like with the Mac mini, the computer hardly seemed to break a sweat. Only once did the computer get a little warm, but not hot, and certainly not as hot as the 16″ MacBook Pro. This is also reflected in the battery life. I have yet to drain the battery in a single day. No kidding. I plug the computer in at night, and I usually still have a few hours of battery life left. It’s a completely new feeling.

The Bluetooth issue also exists with the MacBook Air. This is unpleasant, and I wonder how it could have gone unnoticed in the tests Apple conducts. That a transition doesn’t go completely smoothly is understandable, and you’re always somewhat of a guinea pig when buying the first model after a major shift. For me, it’s a trade-off: How much time do I gain by having a fast computer versus how much time do I lose when something occasionally doesn’t work. The mouse connection is of course a hygiene factor; it should just work. But with the MacBook Air, I’m not as reliant on it. So far, I’m happy with my decision, though I would have preferred 32GB or even 64GB of RAM. But those options aren’t available yet.

The sound of the MacBook Air is much better than my old Air’s, but it doesn’t compare to the 16″ MacBook Pro. No surprise, the speakers are much smaller. Still, it’s better than the mini’s sound.

The instant wake feature actually works, and sometimes I wonder if the computer was even “asleep.” The keyboard sounds almost as nice as that of the PowerBook 5300, and if anyone wonders why a keyboard should sound good, well, aesthetics don’t stop at just the visual 🙂

Remarkable 2: Experiences After the First 2 Weeks

I had purchased a used Remarkable tablet of the first generation back in May because I wanted to test whether the device was right for me before spending a lot of money on the second generation. I have already written enough about the pros and cons of the Remarkable approach, so here I will focus on the new device with comparisons to the first generation.

First of all, the Remarkable 2 looks incredibly sleek. This starts with the packaging that arrived. Everything was thoughtfully designed, with small and large packages that together formed a block that fit perfectly into the shipping box. Everything was carefully packed, especially with paper. The plastic wrap could have been avoided, though.

As an early adopter, I paid a lower price for the whole package, meaning I got some extras for a much smaller additional cost. I treated myself to a Book Folio and a Marker Plus. This marker has an “eraser” built in, meaning I don’t need to go into the menu to erase something. You get used to it very quickly. However, the “eraser” is so wide that it’s easy to erase too much. But I wouldn’t want to miss this feature anymore. It definitely makes the work easier.

The marker attaches to the Remarkable 2 just like the Apple Pencil 2 attaches to the iPad — magnetically. This is already a significant improvement over the previous solution. The Folio also sticks magnetically. However, what’s missing from the marker is the ability to store extra nibs inside it. That’s unfortunate because I found that feature extremely practical. A nib lasts me about a month, and in the last few days with a nib, you start to wonder if the writing is becoming messy. With or without the Folio, the Remarkable feels really good in the hand, and have I mentioned how sleek it looks? Even with the Folio? 🙂

Apparently, the new generation is also faster than the previous one, but I haven’t really noticed much of a difference so far. Overall, the Remarkable is still not the fastest software, and I hope they make some improvements in that area.

The Remarkable first generation looks almost cheap next to the second generation. The display size is the same, but the case is slightly larger. The plastic of the first generation always seemed a bit dirty. However, I do miss the buttons from the first generation; the swipe motion from top to bottom to return to the home screen is still a bit unfamiliar. Sometimes, I also find the response a bit sluggish. As mentioned earlier, it’s not super fast, neither the old nor the new model.

Despite daily use (sometimes more, sometimes less per day), the battery lasts surprisingly long for me, definitely over a week. The USB port, which is now built into the side panel, is a USB-C port, making it much easier to plug in.

I mainly use the Remarkable for:

  • Taking notes during meetings
  • Brainstorming and story writing (see below for an example of how I add a story to a PowerPoint)
  • Making annotations in PDFs, such as correcting papers or adding notes to articles I need to read
  • Reading books
  • Journaling and planning

For all these activities, the device is extremely well-suited. I use it more than my iPad, which I could now sell. However, with the iPad, I can draw on a virtual whiteboard in Zoom calls, which is a bit more complex with the Remarkable, though still possible. Overall, I am very satisfied with the purchase. It’s a lot of money for a device that does so much less compared to an iPad, but it has exactly what I need: something analog that doesn’t strain my eyes as quickly and offers a better writing feel. Is the higher price compared to the used first-generation device justified? I don’t know. For me, it’s about how practical it is, and the new generation is definitely more practical with its longer battery life and well-thought-out accessories. The rest is an extra cost for a significantly better design and aesthetics that are in a completely different league. And yes, that’s also worth something to me. After all, who doesn’t know that the writing tool also affects writing inspiration? 🙂

Update August 23, 2021: With a heavy heart, I sold my Remarkable 2. I still think it’s an excellent device, but it just didn’t fit into my workflow. And since I’m constantly trying to reduce the number of my gadgets… 🙁

Update August 2022: I have a Remarkable again. It’s simply unbeatable when it comes to taking notes, and it’s better for reflective work where you shouldn’t be distracted…

Sonos: The Great Love That Didn’t Survive Everyday Life

I was probably one of the first buyers of Sonos speakers in Hamburg. The boxes were new, expensive, but exactly what I was looking for. And I was super happy and deeply in love with Sonos. I love music. And the ability to listen to my music in any room at any time was phenomenal. The app responded instantly, there were never any issues, and soon I had 3 speakers (there was only one back then, the large one) and a bridge to which I connected my hi-fi system. The latter never really worked well, so I stuck with the pure Sonos system.

As with any love, when everyday life sets in, the picture starts to get scratches. Although my Sonos family grew larger over time, the Sub was quickly added, along with 2 ones, 3 threes, and a Symfonisk, but over time, the system became more unpredictable. Eventually, I lost interest in listening to music with Sonos. Every time I wanted to start a song, I was already afraid it wouldn’t work flawlessly. The music would cut off, and the wildest error messages appeared in my once harmonious SONOS world:

  • Connection to Sonos product not possible
  • Cannot play the selected item
  • Cannot connect to the device. Please try again later.
  • Error adding titles to the list (1002)

Or sometimes, nothing would happen at all. The spinning wheel of death would appear. Or music would play and immediately stop, or it would skip to the next track, and so on… The software, whether on mobile or desktop, no longer responded in real-time.

Of course, my home network isn’t exactly simple. I had Google Wifi for a while, then switched to Orbi, and recently an AVM Fritzbox has been doing its job. I tried using cables, creating a separate network for the Sonos boxes, removing the Gen 1 devices to switch to Gen 2, but… nothing worked. Studying the support page (accessible at http://IP-ADDRESS:1400/support/review) didn’t help at all, the quality of the connections between devices was mostly suboptimal.

A few minutes later:

A few minutes later again:

My last hope was the Sonos Boost. For nearly 100€, you get a Wi-Fi extender, but it’s more like the Boost creates its own Wi-Fi network for the Sonos devices, so they no longer cause confusion in the main Wi-Fi network. You can see the Boost in the screenshots above, and what you can also see is that it doesn’t really improve the situation. It feels like there are fewer problems with the main Wi-Fi, but Sonos is still sluggish and mostly unresponsive. It got a little better after I removed the Symfonisk from IKEA. Apparently, Sonos doesn’t like these devices very much, or maybe the antennas in the devices just aren’t that good.

When you also consider that Sonos tried to persuade owners of old Sonos devices to dispose of them and buy new ones in order to enjoy the next generation of software, unfortunately, Sonos is no longer recommended. Through my PhonieBox experiment, I’ve learned that you can build Wi-Fi boxes more cheaply on your own.

First Experiences with the Wahoo Elemnt Roam

No, it’s not a typo, the device is actually called “Elemnt.” The Wahoo Elemnt Roam is a bike computer. Why do you need something like this? First of all, I had to switch from running to cycling. Secondly, I realized on my first bike trips that an iPhone battery drains very quickly when using Komoot for navigation, not to mention that the route doesn’t automatically recalculate if you want to take a different path. And the iPhone display reflects in the sun. And yes, I enjoy riding routes I haven’t explored before.

The Wahoo Elemnt Roam comes in a very nice package. There’s very little documentation included, but the online-help and support are extensive. I didn’t read either until I encountered my first problem. With the Companion App, the Roam is set up quickly. The only thing that bothered me during the setup was that it recommended updating the maps, but there wasn’t enough storage space available for that. I had to delete a different region before an update was possible. For nearly 350 euros, I would have expected a bit more storage space. On the bright side, I liked the greeting on the app’s home screen, which refers to you as a “data junkie” 🙂

Transferring a route from Komoot to the Elemnt Roam was simple, especially since I had watched a few YouTube videos beforehand. After charging the battery and about 15 minutes of setup, I was ready to go, including installation.

The Roam beeps and flashes constantly, and some of the signals were immediately understandable even without reading the help guide. However, it quickly became apparent that the Roam doesn’t always show the upcoming route in detail. In the photo above, it wasn’t so bad, but when the last triangle ends at an intersection, well, that’s unfortunate. Most of the time, though, the navigation is extremely reliable, and it’s fun to observe the performance data on the other data fields. After 90 minutes, only 5% of the battery had been used. The evening sun also didn’t affect the display. Overall, I’m very satisfied with the Elemnt Roam. However, it was suboptimal that the route from the Roam back to Komoot didn’t work at first. I tried everything—syncing, restarting, etc.—but my first ride (by the way, a very beautiful route through Billerhuder Island) couldn’t be found anywhere. The next day, after trying it with a short route, everything was suddenly there. I hope it now syncs automatically going forward.

A nice feature is the automatic detection of when you’re stopped and when you’re riding. This makes the average speed calculation more accurate.

For those who own more than one bike: Although a fixed mount and a zip tie mount are included in the package, I still bought a fixed mount for my second bike.

OpenMediaVault or NextCloud?

In recent years, I’ve tried several NAS systems: Synology, QNAP, NextCloud, and OpenMediaVault. I can only advise against Synology and QNAP; you pay a lot of money for a more or less nice enclosure, but the underlying software is outdated, and the performance compared to open-source alternatives is subpar.

Two open-source alternatives are NextCloud and OpenMediaVault. They have a major disadvantage: you can’t buy them with hardware. The software is available for free online, but you have to source the hardware yourself. This is, of course, a hurdle. I’ve had very good experiences with NextCloudPi. It’s like a local Dropbox at home for very little money. However, strictly speaking, NextCloud is not a NAS but just cloud software. Setting up a shared folder that you can mount as a drive involves a bit more effort. But it does offer software that you can install on your phone and computer to sync part of your hard drive.

OpenMediaVault offers exactly that: a hard drive on your own network, but lacks what NextCloud offers. There’s no software for mobile or desktop, drives must be manually mounted, and nothing gets synchronized. OpenMediaVault requires Debian, whereas NextCloud is more flexible. However, OpenMediaVault isn’t particularly resource-hungry. I haven’t yet been able to stress my installation on the Raspberry Pi 4 with 2GB. Outside the network, you can only access your files via VPN, which is not included and must be installed either through the router or another system. OpenMediaVault is compatible with Apple TimeMachine!

To summarize, I would describe it like this:

  • Avoid buying systems as much as possible and save a lot of money.
  • NextCloud is great if you want an alternative to a cloud service.
  • OpenMediaVault is good if you need shared drives.

For both systems, NextCloud and OpenMediaVault, you still need some other system to back up your data. Yes, you may have your data stored locally on a second medium, but if your house burns down, you have a problem.

Digital Self-Defense

In the Digital Analytics course, one of the first tasks is to create a log file where you document who has already tracked you today, where the data is now, and how long it will be stored. While this exercise raises awareness, it doesn’t provide any guidance on how to protect yourself from any kind of tracking. This article aims to do just that.

The term “Digital Self-Defense” is not mine, but comes from digitalcourage, a nonprofit organization that primarily advocates for data protection and civil rights (disclaimer: I am a supporting member). Digitalcourage offers an entire section on their website dedicated to the topic of Digital Self-Defense, and I particularly recommend the Self-Defense for the Busy guide.

Some of the tips are challenging. Anyone who has tried MetaGer knows what I mean 🙂 It’s a balancing act between convenience and privacy because more privacy often means you can’t always use the most convenient tools. However, it is possible to use Google without giving away all your data. Here are some additional tips:

  • First, I always recommend using a VPN (Virtual Private Network). A VPN “tunnels” the communication between your computer and a point on the internet, so no one can intercept it. In a public Wi-Fi network, using a VPN is absolutely essential, as it’s very easy for someone to eavesdrop on your communication. At home, a VPN prevents your Internet Service Provider from recording your communication. However, you must be cautious when choosing a VPN provider, as they could also log your communications. Additionally, using a VPN doesn’t necessarily speed up your internet, but if it’s a fast VPN, you won’t notice the difference. For best results, install the VPN not just on your computer, but also on your phone and other devices. And don’t forget to check out DNS service recommendations.
  • Gmail is still my favorite email service, but I no longer use it. Unfortunately, the commonly recommended services like Posteo or mailbox.org are not ideal in terms of UX/UI. I think ProtonMail is good, although they’re not on the list of recommended email services from digitalcourage. Also, ProtonMail is quite expensive, but it offers encrypted mailboxes, so even ProtonMail’s operators cannot access my emails.
  • Using Firefox as your browser is always a good idea, and Brave offers some additional privacy settings.
  • It’s essential to use different passwords for every site, and a password manager is a must.
  • Try not to stay logged in everywhere. And if possible, avoid profiling like in the Google Ad Settings.
  • Incognito or private browsing modes in browsers don’t help much. Google Analytics, for example, still tracks you. And the server on the other end logs everything anyway. So, you should always use a VPN.
  • When it comes to cloud storage, I am a big fan of NextCloud. It works just as well as Dropbox and even has some additional features. The only reason I stopped using it is because it didn’t always work flawlessly, partly because I tinkered with it myself. I currently use iCloud, which is not recommended, as the data still resides on another server. However, I trust Apple’s claim that my data is only readable by me, as it’s encrypted on their server. Here, I’m trading convenience for absolute security. With Dropbox, on the other hand, data is stored unencrypted. I would still recommend NextCloud, as digitalcourage does, but I’d suggest using a provider rather than self-hosting everything.
  • For messaging apps, Signal is really the only option. Telegram is not, nor is Threema, and definitely not WhatsApp.
    For DNS, only 1.1.1.1 is an option. Every time you enter a URL in the browser, it needs to be translated into an IP address. This translation is done by DNS. Normally, your Internet Service Provider (Telekom, Vodafone, etc.) forwards this request to their own DNS service. But you can use 1.1.1.1 instead 🙂 They don’t log anything.
  • If you want to know exactly what the software on your computer is doing and whether it’s sending data home, you should only use open-source software, like Linux. This can be a big hurdle, but Ubuntu is also user-friendly and more stable than Windows, for example.
  • Discount cards like the Payback card should not be in any wallet. Most of the time, the products you can get with the points are cheaper elsewhere. This doesn’t include non-personalized punch cards (“The 10th coffee is on the house!”).

And for anyone still wondering why they should do all this, please watch the following video:

 

 

OpenMediaVault with the Raspberry Pi 4

After removing the Raspberry Pi 4 from my kids’ Phoniebox and replacing it with a less power-hungry Raspberry Pi 3, I was looking for my next project. I’ve since moved away from NextCloudPi, as managing it with the iPad/iPhone/Mac was just too cumbersome. However, I’ve been wanting to replace the QNAP for a long time, and I’ve always wanted to try OpenMediaVault as a file server, including for TimeMachine backups.

The QNAP Mispurchase

What bothers me about the QNAP? I had bought the TS-431X2 for over €500, and it has a Quad-Core AnnapurnaLabs Alpine AL-314 1.7 GHz processor. Using Docker on it is not enjoyable, which was actually one of the reasons I bought the QNAP NAS. Unfortunately, the QNAP wasn’t much faster than the Synology I had before. But the worst part was the outdated libraries, especially with regard to the web server. You can install NextCloud with a lot of workarounds, but it’s far from user-friendly, and the support was not very helpful. And then there were constant error messages or warnings popping up.

In addition, setting up shared folders and so on is also quite complicated. I just got frustrated with the thing.

Is OpenMediaVault Better?

First of all, it’s different. OpenMediaVault is NAS software, but unlike QNAP or NextCloud, it doesn’t offer desktop syncing. You can’t buy ready-made hardware, plug it in, and have it work. It’s certainly not suitable for average users, but they probably wouldn’t buy a NAS from QNAP anyway 🙂

If you know a little about Linux, the installation is relatively simple:

  • Flash Raspbian Buster Lite (or whatever comes next) onto a microSD card. Raspberry Pi provides an installer for Mac and PC. Just make sure to choose the Lite version, not the standard Raspbian.
  • Copy an empty file named ssh to the boot volume so you can log in via the terminal (assuming you have an Ethernet connection).
  • Insert the card and start the Raspberry Pi.
  • Then find the IP address of the Raspberry Pi and log in with:

ssh pi@IP-ADRESSE

  • and log in with the password raspberry,
  • then, after all necessary updates, run:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

then it’s just:

wget -O – https://github.com/OpenMediaVault-Plugin-Developers/installScript/raw/master/install | sudo bash

and then a reboot. After that,

  • enter the IP in the web browser,
  • use admin and openmediavault as the login,
  • and you’re in.

My 1TB SSD was immediately recognized, but it had to be formatted and then mounted.

First Problems

Unfortunately, that was the end of the easy steps. For example, Sonos wouldn’t connect to OpenMediaVault. The trick is that you need to change the SMB configuration. This can be done in the interface. I was also a bit shocked at first by the following error message:

It couldn’t get much more dramatic. At first, I thought I had encountered a kernel panic. However, the error message only indicated that the session had expired.

Then came network connection drops, adding to the initial problems. And these were serious. My SanDisk 1TB Ultra SSD is brand new, but apparently, the Raspberry Pi 4 doesn’t like the adapter:

UAS_EH_ABORT_HANDLER is an error message you don’t often see. A bit of research shed some light on the issue. By the way, the change in /boot/cmdline.txt should actually be at the beginning of the line and not create a new line. If you do it the wrong way, the Raspberry Pi won’t boot anymore—I’ve already tried that for you 🙂

As slow as it was expected to be, the connection is not that bad now despite the quirk:

Just under 600 Mbps is something I’ve rarely seen, of course, this was measured on the Ethernet adapter, so it might not be as fast when writing to disk. But at least I haven’t had any network dropouts so far. What stands out is that the RAM is used much less than with the QNAP. And on the Raspberry Pi, I can even run R 🙂

Conclusion

Unfortunately, there is still no suitable case for my intended project. I’d like to fit the Raspberry Pi plus 2 SSDs into a case. That would obviously be a good excuse to finally buy a 3D printer, but honestly, I don’t have time for another hobby.

Overall, this setup with the Raspberry Pi and OpenMediaVault makes a good impression. For a fraction of the cost (under €100), you get more performance than with the expensive QNAPs or Synologys of the world.

Shopping List

reMarkable Experiences: Bridge Technology for Digital Immigrants?

First of all, it doesn’t make much sense. And for many people, it really doesn’t make sense to buy a reMarkable tablet when they could just have an iPad and use its features. The reMarkable tablet is expensive—not as much as an iPad Pro, but in comparison to the features of an iPad in the same price range, the reMarkable looks extremely poor. Yet, despite all this, I’ve come to appreciate the reMarkable in the few days I’ve owned it. The version 1, which I snagged for under €300 on eBay, will likely drop in price soon since the second generation is already being advertised. But before I spend €500 on a device I’m not sure will really suit me, I’d rather use a second-hand one to test the concept. Because with the reMarkable, you can only read and annotate PDFs/eBooks and create notes and sketches. No emails, no web browsing, nothing. Black and white. E-Ink display. Writing with the pen feels almost like writing on paper. You don’t need to charge the pen, but you do need to replace the nibs occasionally. And the device costs anywhere from €450 to €600 depending on the accessories.

What’s my use case? I had bought an iPad Pro with the pencil and everything to work and read with less luggage, anywhere. Reading and writing are, alongside programming, communication, and creating PowerPoints, my main activities. I have to read a lot, especially academic papers, but also articles from journals, etc. Additionally, I write a lot. The split-screen feature on the iPad was a killer app for me: PDF on the left, my notes on the right. It often worked well. But not always. However, the Apple ecosystem with iCloud allows me to keep all my files synchronized across all my devices.

But even then, it’s not perfect. Sometimes, I find it hard to focus because, as often happens when you try to focus on something, you get distracted by reminders of things you absolutely need to do and write down. Then you see those reminders and realize you forgot something urgent, etc. The iPad enables all of this with one device. And so, you quickly get distracted, especially when trying to work on something difficult. The temptation to quickly check emails is very strong. With the reMarkable, this doesn’t happen. And that limitation is what you pay for, at a steep price. Apps that restrict you or help you focus better were something I looked into and used over 10 years ago.

Do I generally have a problem with concentration? No. But it might be the medium. I wrote my most successful book (3 editions) almost entirely on paper, as incredible as that sounds. In a notebook on a terrace in a bay in Sardinia. I had no computer with me, just my thoughts. I wrote them down, crossed them out, rephrased them, etc. Later, at home on my computer, I added screenshots and other materials. Just me and the paper. I’m not sure I could do that today with an iPad. Because even though almost all my notifications are turned off, my brain knows that something new could pop up, and our brains crave that. The Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin describes how every interruption stimulates our brain, preventing us from focusing, because thinking is exhausting. I was particularly impressed by Sting’s preference for having the same room set up wherever he is in the world, so that nothing new could distract him.

Tranquility is the new luxury of our society. (The 5 AM Club, Robin Sharma)

This quiet is undoubtedly a luxury when you pay so much for a device with fewer features, just to have peace and be able to focus. Perhaps my preference for paper comes from my socialization: I grew up with paper, wrote everything on paper—my final exams, my university exams, etc. Writing books on a computer, at least exclusively on a computer, is a torture for me. I have to have my…

But the iPad has other drawbacks. If I want to read outside with the iPad, it’s better if the sun isn’t shining. With the reMarkable, that’s not a problem. The iPad doesn’t handle that as well. Besides, the device is quite heavy (653 grams “naked” with the pencil / 1060 grams with the case including the keyboard). It’s not really suited for prolonged reading or holding in your hand. The reMarkable weighs 362 grams “naked” with the pencil / 505 grams with the case, though that’s a bit unfair since the cases are very different. For the reasons mentioned, I don’t like taking the iPad with me when I go outside for a bit. It’s not only heavy and unwieldy, but I’ve also had the experience of how quickly the glass can break (and how expensive the replacement is).

And what the iPad lacks in light during the day in the sun, it has too much of in the evening. I notice it when I’ve been staring at the screen for too long in the evening. The iPad isn’t suitable for me for extended reading and writing of academic texts, partly for ergonomic reasons, but also due to occasional lack of discipline. Following the 5 A.M. Club philosophy, electronic devices really shouldn’t be used in the evening, and the reMarkable helps with that, if you turn a blind eye.

However, the reMarkable has some shortcomings that are rather unacceptable for the price:

  • The Wi-Fi module seems quite weak; in my office, it shows only 1 out of 3 bars, while all my other devices have at least 2 out of 3.
  • The battery lasts about 2-3 days with moderate use, which isn’t much for an e-Ink display. Charging takes forever.
  • Large PDFs (such as Springer non-fiction books between 3 and 30 MB) are a real burden for the reMarkable tablet, and it can take a while to flip from one page to the next. Especially with large PDFs, the reMarkable often freezes or crashes.
  • The reMarkable can’t open password-protected PDFs at all. That’s quite suboptimal.
  • The search function is a joke. You can either search for book titles, but only within the book you’re currently viewing. You also can’t directly jump to the location from the search result—you have to remember the page number and then awkwardly navigate through multiple steps to get to the page.
  • The plastic feels cheap and sometimes a bit dirty, even when it’s clean. For the price, that’s really not acceptable.
  • The pen seems to have two different types of plastic, at least there’s a noticeable difference in the whites:

What I also don’t like is the lock-in. I’m trapped in their cloud—what if they go bankrupt? I’ve asked myself that several times with tado, but at least you can supposedly still operate the thermostats manually (though they’re still way too expensive). With the reMarkable, you’d be lost if the cloud were shut down. It’s likely that, eventually, you’ll have to pay a subscription, just like tado switched to. However, what helps a bit is that supposedly, you can also access your documents via USB. I haven’t tried this yet, but it means I could potentially build an application like my Kindle Clippings Manager, which syncs a folder on my computer with the reMarkable’s storage. That would be better than this double organization.

Overall, the device is hopelessly overpriced for its technical features, quality, and software. But still, I like it. It serves my use case better than the iPad, and unlike the Moleskine, it’s not a first-class idea graveyard. It has proven this very well in the few weeks I’ve had it so far.