theTangent.Space

Weekly digest 60: https://thetangent.space/2026/digest60/

Easter break ends today. What a bummer!

Happenings

Went out to a country park with my family, my parents, and my sister’s family on Easter monday.
I got a Miyoo Flip! This cute little GameBoy Advance SP-inspired console will play any game up to the PS1 era from an SD card. It also can play some more modern games via PortMaster. The first thing I did was install SpruceOS, then remove the thousands of games it comes preloaded with fro...

Note-taking with Neovim's obsidian plugin: https://thetangent.space/2026/obsidian/

This post is for Hyde’s April vim carnival.

Note-taking apps were all the rage until AI took the tech-influencer-industrial complex by storm with a new vision of computer-assisted cognition. These days the hype around “personal knowledge management” (PKM) — smart notes, second brains, and slip boxes — seems to have died down somewhat. But of course, these apps and methodologies still have their place, and man...

Cal Newport's anti-brain rot rules: https://thetangent.space/2026/brain-rot/

YouTube recommended me a segment from Cal Newport’s podcast lately with five rules for combating brain rot.[1] Here’s a quick summary with some comments, minus Newport’s overly nerdy procedures for doing these things.

Read long-form writing every day. Not on a screen (except e-readers). Fiction or non-fiction. Ideally a mix. Start small if necessary, but aim for integrating “hard” books into your rotation at least ...

Weekly digest 62: https://thetangent.space/2026/digest62/

Happenings
Doesn’t feel like much has happened this week. Took the kids for a walk in the woods yesterday, a bit of cooking today. A new pizza place opened in my small town doing proper neapolitan-style pizza, and they do have some vegan offerings (a minor miracle). We tried it on Friday, it was excellent.
Links
A small crop today.

On parenting and age verification. S’good.
NHS Goes To War Against Open Source. S’bad. Love that his si...

[book] What is privacy and why is it good?: https://thetangent.space/2026/oblivion/

The modern world is awash with privacy discourse. We’re constantly informed that “We (and the 967 partners we intend to share your activities with) respect your privacy”. Bringing new gadgets into the home often raises concerns concerns about data collection. And we have periodic debates about corporate surveillance and government policies that are supposed to protect chidren. However, rarely do we discuss wh...

Weekly digest 61: https://thetangent.space/2026/digest61/

Didn’t have the metaphorical bandwidth to post last week, but here we are again.

Happenings

Met up with an old friend from Liverpool and his new (to me) partner. It was a lovely day; despite having barely spoken a word for years we got on very well and had plenty to chat about still.
Bit of gardening in the sun.
Mr One still not giving us the best sleep.
Finally got the last parents’ evening of the year out of the way. It was the ni...

Does anybody know of a mail client that supports multiple accounts but will EXPLICITLY make me select (or at least confirm) which account/alias I would like to send each mail from? I swear, I am constantly sending mail from the wrong account.

Weekly digest 59: https://thetangent.space/2026/digest59/

I am enjoying my Easter break from teaching very much.

Happenings

Today is Easter Sunday. I spent the day with my family, my parents, and my sister’s family. Super lovely day; our three little ones get a little better at playing with each other every time. I helped my wife design a treasure hunt for the kids to play.
Caught up with a friend on Thursday. I played the board game Clank! for the first time. Cool game! You build a deck t...