Another year has passed, and it’s time to update my app defaults. A lot has happened in the world since Andrew, Martin, and Jason of Hemispheric Views listed their defaults for the first time. I’ve tried to ditch big‑tech companies and move my data and services to more open platforms, some of them self‑hosted. Indicated are unchanged entries (🔒) and updated entries (✨). I still use the various categories as written by Andrew:
PSA: Right now is a good time to buy Indie Software for macOS and iOS. There are lists online with hundreds of discounted apps, e.g. indieappsales.com or github and Lou has a Roundup of his AppAddict Reviews on Sale. But it’s even easier than this. Just buy all the apps you don’t own yet from the Editor’s Choice bundle. You’re welcome ;-)
For a couple of years, I’ve had two Raspberry Pis running on my home network. One was for a Magic Mirror 2 server instance with a few self-written Python scripts. A very cheaply acquired Fire Tablet hangs on the fridge and displays its website in Full Kiosk Mode. The other Raspberry run Pi-Hole and filters ads for the entire home network. To become a little more independent from the big tech bros, in the middle of the year, a VPS from Hetzner joined the setup, running NextCloud.
Watched: Rushmore 🍿 - enjoyed it
Babo: The Haftbefehl Story (2025)
Run local LLMs like gpt-oss, Qwen3, Gemma3, DeepSeek and many more on your computer, privately and for free. LM Studio is the app I now use for running local LLMs.1 In LM Studio I mainly use gemma‑3‑12b, mostly for alt‑text generation, and the gpt‑oss‑20b model. Both run fine on my Mac equipped with 32 GB of RAM. Screenshot Homepage LM Studio (2025-11-09) lmstudio.ai/ I switched from Ollama because LM Studio is much more versatile, and I don’t get their “sign‑up, log‑in, and run remote LLMs” options for a software that was designed for offline usage.
In the latest Hiro report, I read about an app called Roll N' Write for iPadOS. I had never heard about these print and play games and was wondering what they were about. I found the idea compelling, although I’m not a big RPG guy. I’ve downloaded the app, which looks decent, but as I am not a heavy iPad and Apple Pencil user anymore, I was more interested in the paper version.
TIL that you can’t connect to your Fujifilm camera with your iPhone via its local wifi if you have a VPN service running in the background 🤦♂️. So, don’t blame the camera, blame yourself.
Today was a good day to shoot the moon.
Yesterday, we had a pretty impressive sunrise.
Here We Go!
Finished reading: Männer, die die Welt verbrennen by Christian Stöcker 📚
Berlin
I am extremely impressed with the LEGO Game Boy set. The build technique is outstanding. There are only two stickers and it looks absolutely brilliant. I am glad I made an exception to my “no new LEGO sets” rule.
Migration is not a Crime
Finished reading: Auf See by Theresia Enzensberger 📚
Skyscraper (Frankfurt am Main, Germany)
