rubenerd's comments

That made my morning, thanks :)

Hi, author here. Yes this was just a bit of silly/pointless fun, though people overanalysing it here is just as delightful.

That's unfortunately true. Remember when Twitter et.al. used to support RSS? Social networks had a vested interest in removing it, because it means you don't need to go to their pages. It's up to all of us to bring it back.

It's a reasonable question. I'm not against advertising per se, but thesedays it comes with a lot of tracking and JavaScript baggage that I don't want. My blog also isn't there to make money, it pays for itself by being something relaxing and useful (for me) to write.

Definitely! My old posts are cringe to an extreme.

I think turning 30 helped with some perspective; I don't care [as much] anymore. "Yeah my partner is a manga artist and drew me a mascot, so what?" In my early 20s that wouldn't have even computed.

But I think the best thing I've found is to own it. Quote your past self, make lighthearted fun of it, and show how you've grown and what you've learned. Between that and not taking things too seriously, it also disarms a lot of trolls.

It's also helped in unexpected ways. People at AsiaBSDCon remembered me as the guy who blogs about BSD. I got Allan and Benedict laughing on a BSD Now podcast at a bad joke I wrote in an otherwise-technical post. That felt really good!

I empathise that it's trivial to discuss, but hard to internalise. CBT would say if you do it enough times, you feel better about it. That's probably the real answer.

I struggled with this too. I used to have separate blogs for different interests (especially anime, for fear of judgement, some of which has since come true in some of the comments below!) Eventually I merged them back to save on maintenance, and I'm glad I did.

People should expect that a personal site necessarily has your interests. I don't think it'd be weird at all for you to post tech-related content. And you never know, there might be an intersection with your exiting readers you didn't know about.

Thanks, that really means a lot :). I agree, we definitely lost something special after the early 2000s. We got standards compliance and rid ourselves of IE which is awesome, but I think we lost a part of the web's soul in the process.

I've been preoccupied lately with how we can encourage more people to blog again. I think everyone has something interesting to say, and shouldn't be constrained by what a specific social network permits (technically, or with content).

That struggle is real, especially when grappling with imposter syndrome or a shy personality too. Half the reason I love reading personal blogs is seeing the author's personality.

An old boss of mine said you can't truly fake enthusiasm. That's stuck with me since.

I was thinking more in terms of the UI/decorations, but this is a fair point. It's curious people don't complain that I talk about trains/coffee/anime among my FreeBSD and OpenZFS tweets. Maybe it is about expectations.

Aw thanks, I'll let my partner know :).

I'm the author of the post. Sincerely appreciate all the words here, this legit made my morning.

I wonder if part of this has to do with fewer people writing in their own space anymore. Most people post in sanitised UIs of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. So seeing a personal page is confronting, unless it's a vanilla theme. Not sure. Either way, I'd love to see more people maintain personal blogs again. And with RSS! Maybe we need to resurrect something like Technorati.

Cheers :)

Looks amazing, I also miss my massive MacBook Pro's size. But the 17-inch screen only has the same resolution as my 13-inch MacBook Pro, like so many PC laptops. If it had an equivalent DPI, it'd be very compelling.

I was still living in Singapore at the time the preverbal matter hit the rotating device. Whether or not you think Arrington or Fusion Garage were at fault for their falling out, I reckon their squabble did more to set back Singapore's IT industry reputation than anything else in recent memory.

In the papers and discussing it with IT professionals working there, there were sour grapes on both sides of the debate, ranging from people claiming Fusion Garage was being unfairly beaten up by an arrogant overseas blogger, to those who expressed resentment and even anger at a local company they claimed reflected poorly on their entire IT industry.

Needless to say, the iPad's introduction and everyone forgetting about the JooJoo helped a lot, but the damage has been done. I grew up there and wouldn't hesitate working with Singaporean companies, but I would understand if other foreigners (aka "angmos") would have reservations. Which is a shame, because there is some extrodinary talent over there.