Notices by kepano (kepano@mastodon.social)

if I spent less time using Obsidian I might have more time to improve it, but then I wouldn't know what to improve

computers started local-first and will go back to local-first

think of local-first as a hardening function

local systems should remain operational even when the infrastructure isn't... when the infrastructure comes back online, changes are synced

it's the same reason you might want a battery or generator if the electrical grid goes down

The darker values in Flexoki 2.0 also follow this exponential colorfulness to maintain a highly pigmented, natural feeling.

Flexoki 1.0 only provided the a range of values for the grayscale colors. What I have been working to solve since then is how to expand the palette to a full range of values for every color, without desaturating the pigment effect. I'm very happy with how this turned out.

Flexoki emulates the feeling of pigment on paper by exponentially increasing intensity as colors get lighter or darker. This makes the colors feel vibrant and warm, rather than washed out.

Flexoki 2.0 introduces 88 new colors that feel like watercolor pigments on paper. This is a continuation of my attempt to bring the feeling of analog color to digital emissive screens.

Flexoki is open source under the MIT license, and already available for most text editors, terminals, and many other apps. Flexoki 2.0 makes it into a more capable color system for UIs and more complex projects.

https://stephango.com/flexoki

You built a house on someone else's land, and then they tore it down.

Build a house on your own land. From there you can create roads, bridges, tunnels to other people's land.

On the web land is infinite. You can make your own land.

The accounting tool Bench shut down with no warning 3 days before the end of the year. They had raised $110m in venture capital.

The app is no longer accessible. There will be a way to export your data, but it's not available yet.

File over app is not just for individuals.

my partner took me to a ceramics class for my birthday and now I'm thinking we should make all our own plates and bowls and mugs

my 2024 side quest was making all the furniture for our house, maybe 2025 will be ceramics?

context: Bending Spoons is the rollup company that bought Evernote and is squeezing everything they can out of the remaining user base

I always feel like "hate" is a strong term, but in this case it might be understating it

Microsoft just released a tool that lets you convert Office files to Markdown. Never thought I'd see the day.

Google also added Markdown export to Google Docs a few months ago.

https://github.com/microsoft/markitdown

here's an example of using Obsidian Web Clipper to extract the transcript from a YouTube video then run it through Interpreter to summarize the key points

you can do the same with your highlights, or any page content you want — and run templates based on URL patterns

@sinbad saving images locally is on the roadmap — do keep in mind that this is solo project for me so far... be patient!

@sinbad that just means this feature will require changes to the Obsidian URI protocol, similar to the other new parameters we added recently to support Web Clipper
https://help.obsidian.md/Extending+Obsidian/Obsidian+URI

#Obsidian Web Clipper 0.9.8 is out.

You can now choose to save highlights inline, using the ==highlight== syntax. You can also extract the highlights separately.

Here's what I'm working on next for #Obsidian Web Clipper.

Shameless ask — if you've been enjoying the extension, give it a review wherever you downloaded it. It really keeps me going 💜

laziness is the father of invention

Thoughts on Omnivore shutting down (1/3)

Many people enjoyed Omnivore because it was free, but being free was part of its demise.

As an independent app maker, you must have a way to generate revenue or your product will die. As a user you must demand a way to pay makers for the products you love. See my essay: "Quality software deserves your hard‑earned cash"
https://stephango.com/quality-software

I didn't personally use Omnivore, but it seems like many Obsidian users loved it. Now the app is being shut down with only a couple of weeks to export your data.

While this is abrupt, it isn't surprising. When a startup runs out of resources, the end is always more sudden than you expect. The dream of making it work persists until the very last moment. (2/3)