NL35 - Where is home
Hello from my home in Matinkylä! This is NordLetter #35, a weekly newsletter on living and walking in Finland. Each week I share some of the interesting things I found on the web.
Previous editions can be found here. You can reach out to me by replying on this mail or adding a comment on this. I am also posting on Threads.
I am back in Finland today. It was a long nine hour flight, followed by around an hour or so waiting at immigration. I missed picking Savya's pram from the special luggage belt, and so had to go back in and get it. The cab I had booked cancelled, and so I had to book the same cab again. I am not sure if I got charged twice. I should check that out. Tomorrow, though. Today, we sleep!
I haven't had too much time to think yet. Travelling can be a fairly stressful thing, especially these long-haul flights. We worry about security checks and excess luggage, and so on and on.
A month back, when I was travelling to India, I had said I was going back home. Today, as I sit on the sofa watching United play Ipswich, I feel, I am home.
What is home?
It is a weird thing for us, who leave their families and friends to come live in different places. We live in rented places in these new towns and cities, not sure how much of this place is ours. How much of it can we make ours.
We can't let go of the home that we left behind. Nor are we completely at home in our adopted cities.
We go on holidays back home. And we return to our homes which feel more like our homes than the homes left behind.
/five things to share
1. Derek Sivers - 3 thoughts, 2 sweet pets, 1 travelog
I got an email from Derek Sivers listing out a few of their new articles. I did not even know I was subscribed to him. I appreciated that. Not being bombarded with communication.
I especially liked the ones on wealth and the pet rats.
2. How I Got My Attention Back
The internet goes off before bed. The internet doesn’t return until after lunch. That’s it. Reasonable rules. I’m too weak to handle the unreasonable.
An old Craig Mod essay that I came across this week. It was a fun read.
3. Protocols Not Platforms.
Bluesky blew up this week. Or was it last week.
Why Not Bluesky talked about a vision of a protocol based conversations. I also read Mike Masnick’s Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech. Which basically talks about the technological approach to this.
4. RSS all the way
Gruber was talking about how Apple News+ is great. A little further down, he says:
I don’t look to Apple News for anything related to tech. I definitely want to do that via RSS (which for me means NetNewsWire), the web (Safari), and social media.
I was using Omnivore for a bit. But I just wasn't reading anything I sent to it. Then, they shut down Omnivore, and I removed it. Since then, I had been thinking about what should I use for reading. After reading Gruber, I downloaded Net News Wire.
RSS is everything I ever wanted. For the sites I visit frequently, the app just checks their RSS feeds and adds it to my queue. I love two features specifically:
Bonus article: Pluralistic: You should be using an RSS reader (16 Oct 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
5. The way forward is the Mac
Apple has built two separate models for running software on our devices. In one, there’s a gradient of trustworthiness that strongly encourages users to stick to the safe, well-lit paths–but allows competitors to go their own way and users to make different decisions than Apple would prefer they make. And, yes, at the extremes, users can behave in ways that might open them up to danger, but only after many warnings. It’s a very good system. Apple built it that way because it cares about the Mac, the Mac ecosystem, and Mac users.
I mostly agree. Most people will be happy with the defaults. For those who want to do more, let them do more.
If you enjoyed reading this, and know someone else who might, please consider forwarding this to them. It would help this grow and make me happy. 😄
Until next week.