This time it’s just a station to change to another train. Another hour and a half to my new/old home station. ⌘ Read more

I visited this place four years ago, but today my family and I went to the Todtnau Waterfall again. This time there’s a new suspension bridge from which you can see the waterfall from above and get an even better view of the valley in the black forest. ⌘ Read more

My March ‘25 in Review
My monthly review is a few days late, but there’s so much to do that I don’t really get around to blogging. ⌘ Read more

An even better Komoot alternative? – OsmAnd
After quickly trying out Outdooractive, I think I found an alternative that fits my needs a bit better and is also more inline with my values: OsmAnd. ⌘ Read more

Enjoying the nice weather, my monthly review will be a little late. 🌷 ⌘ Read more

An even better Komoot alternative? – OsmAnd
After quickly trying out Outdooractive, I think I found an alternative that fits my needs a bit better and is also more inline with my values: OsmAnd. ⌘ Read more

Komoot alternative: Outdooractive
I’ve found a potential alternative to Komoot: Outdooractive, another German app that offers many similar features. I’m surprised it flew under my radar for so long. ⌘ Read more

Extending my Komoot export script
I’ve taken another look at my export script for Komoot (original post), now that Bending Spoons has acquired Komoot. I’ve extended the script to also download cover images and, if available, an image of the map – I found that in the API responses. ⌘ Read more

Part 1 of the move (Kassel to Braunschweig) is complete. Today we dropped off the van, handed over the apartment, and took the opportunity to take one last walk through the nearby park and nature. Part 2 (second home to new primary residence) will follow soon. ⌘ Read more

I did not want to miss the chance to take one (maybe) last picture of this beautiful symmetrical view. ⌘ Read more

Just a few more days before I leave Kassel after two and a half years. Feeling grateful for everything this city has given me and excited for what’s ahead! ⌘ Read more

My February ‘25 in Review
Now February is also over – another eventful month. While world politics had some lows with the German federal election and events in the USA, there were at least some highs in my private life. ⌘ Read more

Ava perfectly captured how I feel about saving the planet: ⌘ Read more

Self-hosting my emails again: A few weeks in
A few weeks ago, I moved back to self-hosting my mail server after using Purelymail for three years. The decision wasn’t about cost – it’s actually more expensive to rent a VPS – but about control, security, and data locality. My mails are now hosted in Europe, giving me more confidence in their privacy, and I can configure everything exactly as I want while ensuring compliance with GDPR. ⌘ Read more

What’s minimalism?
We live in a world where buying and owning stuff is the default. New clothes? Sure. Another gadget? Why not? ⌘ Read more

It’s surprising how much I can reduce the amount of spam that Rspamd needs to filter – whether it ends up in my junk folder or even my inbox – just by blocking certain recipient addresses. Using unique email addresses for each service, like “deezer @ example.com” for Deezer, was one of the best decisions I made, especially combined with a catch-all address. ⌘ Read more

Self-hosting my emails again
After three years with Purelymail, I’m back at self-hosting my mail server. Not because it’s cheaper (it’s actually much pricier to pay for a VPS), but because my mails are now hosted in Europe (who knows what happens next in the USA), I have more control to configure things how I want, and I can comply with GDPR. ⌘ Read more

My January ‘25 in Review
January is one of those months when you either feel fresh and motivated – or like you’re stumbling into the new year. This time, I definitely fall into the second category. Not because nothing is happening, but because so much is moving at once – mostly furniture, wall paint, and my schedule. ⌘ Read more

AI-powered image descriptions on my blog
My blog still has a long way to go when it comes to accessibility, but I’m excited about two new plugins I’ve just added to make things better. ⌘ Read more

Sometimes things happen that you did not expect: You hear a song, you really like it, you research who made it, and you find out that person lives in the same town as you: AK – Discovery. ⌘ Read more

4000 km with my pedelec
Today, after a short evening shift in the old/new apartment, I reached 4000 km total distance with my Pedelec (the only legal option for an electric bicycle without insurance in Germany – up to 25 km/h is supported by a motor when pedaling). ⌘ Read more

To continue my recovery today, I didn’t do much other than lie in bed and watch Netflix (I’ve been binge-watching a lot since we subscribed to Netflix a few weeks ago): I watched the miniseries The Playlist. ⌘ Read more

I hope to ignore US politics as much as I can in the next few years – it can really bring you down. Let’s also hope Trump and his oligarch friends don’t cause too much harm until then. ⌘ Read more

To continue my recovery today, I didn’t do much other than lie in bed and watch Netflix (I’ve been binge-watching a lot since we subscribed to Netflix a few weeks ago): I watched the miniseries The Playlist. ⌘ Read more

Blocking AI bots ⛔
Every few months, I inevitably catch a cold or some other virus and end up stuck at home for a few days. Right now, I’m in one of those phases again. Thankfully, this time hasn’t been too bad, and I’m already on the mend. After a lot of Netflix marathons, I realized I couldn’t just sit around doing nothing – I’m the kind of person who needs to feel productive, even when I’m under the weather. ⌘ Read more

Blog Questions Challenge
I wasn’t explicitly asked by anyone to join the Blog Questions Challenge, but I guess I can just join and also tell a bit about my blogging process. So here are the questions and answers: ⌘ Read more

I was using my 5G router setup with Vanilla OpenWRT and QMI Cellular as a protocol for quite some time, but there were irregular disconnections etc. Updating the firmware of the modem didn’t help. Some days ago, I noticed that it’s also possible to configure with Modem Manager (which provides connection information directly in LuCI) and put the Quectel modem into MBIM mode. It’s running without hiccups now! Also updated to OpenWRT 24.10. ⌘ Read more

Social media is in a worrying state. TikTok in the hands of autocratic China, X (formerly Twitter) in the hands of Elon Musk, who gets crazier every day and hangs out too much with Donald Trump (and recommends a fascist party in Germany), and now Mark Zuckerberg with Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Threads) is also joining the group of friends around Trump and removing fact checks in the name of “free speech”. What could possibly go wrong? ⌘ Read more

It was probably my most productive first week of January so far. Big progress in the apartment: lots of furniture (and a large wall unit) dismantled, two rooms painted and much more. Tomorrow maybe a bit more relaxed program, so that I don’t need a vacation from vacation straight away. 😅 ⌘ Read more

My December ‘24 and my 2024 in Review
The month, and indeed the year, are drawing to a close – a time to pause, reflect, and revisit all the small and big moments that made up this journey. ⌘ Read more

I finally pulled the trigger and moved all my Fediverse followers from j7s@j7s.me to en@jlelse.blog, I only used the former account to share my blog links anyway. If you were following me for my German posts, please take a look at de@jlelse.blog. Have a nice day! 😊 ⌘ Read more

Today’s date, 24.12.24 (using the German date format, DD.MM.YY), is special in a quirky mathematical way! Notice how 12 (the month) is exactly half of 24 (the day and the year). This symmetry adds an extra layer of charm to an already magical time of the year. It’s a rare alignment that makes this Christmas Eve uniquely memorable. ⌘ Read more

It’s not a winter wonderland out here, but with Christmas and winter coming soon, maybe a little snow on my blog isn’t a bad idea. I’ve just programmed a snow animation for another project and thought I could reuse the code in the form of a simple GoBlog plugin. ❄❄❄ ⌘ Read more

A new addition to my domain collection
My list of domains is constantly changing. Sometimes it grows, and sometimes it shrinks as I let go of a domain I no longer need. The good thing is that letting go of a domain makes room for new ones. Just yesterday I made a spontaneous purchase of another .de domain: jan-lukas.de, to go along with janlukas.de, which I already own and sometimes use for emails. ⌘ Read more

That’s it for work in 2024. Vacation! And next year will (probably) start with an AWS training course. ⌘ Read more

You know what’s amazing about programming? The power to automate boring or repetitive tasks effortlessly. Renaming hundreds of files, downloading GPX files from Komoot, or updating the visibility of countless statuses on Traewelling – sure, you could do it manually, but why would you, when you can write a quick script to handle it for you? It’s hands down the best life hack I’ve ever discovered! Big thanks to my parents for putting me on this path! ⌘ Read more

It seems like every app is offering a “Spotify Wrapped”-style yearly review these days. One app where I genuinely find the results fascinating is Träwelldroid, which I use to log my public transport journeys on Träwelling. While the average German drives roughly 10k kilometers per year by car, I traveled approximately 9600 kilometers using public transport, spending a total of 4 days and 8 hours in transit. This is particularly noteworthy since I commuted less frequently this year and didn’t do any interrailing. Sad … ⌘ Read more

Ban the spam! 🚫
I’m tired of spam emails flooding my inbox, so I decided to take inspiration from Kev’s approach. I noticed that many of the spam messages were being sent to the email address I published on my legally required imprint. ⌘ Read more

A short winter bike tour
Yesterday, I watched some cycling videos and that somehow gave me some motivation to do at least one more short bike tour this year. Today, I did a short round around the city and saw some new places. With 5° Celsius and some sun, the temperature wasn’t the best, but at least it didn’t rain. To keep the motivation high, I listened to some music with my new headphones. ⌘ Read more

First impressions with the soundcore AeroFit 2 open-ear headphones
While I skipped the Black Friday deals, I couldn’t resist picking up the soundcore AeroFit 2 headphones a few days later. Being home alone over the weekend gave me the perfect opportunity to spend more than 24 hours testing them thoroughly. Here are my first impressions of these open-ear headphones. ⌘ Read more

Why I’d never switch to an 🍎 iPhone
Recently, Kev announced he’s switching back to Android, and judging by his first impressions, he seems to be enjoying it. Coincidentally, I came across a video from Linus Tech Tips, where Linus shared his thoughts after using an iPhone for 30 days – and let’s just say, he wasn’t impressed. ⌘ Read more

Has someone a) found a bug or security hole in GoBlog or b) actually sent well over 5 million requests to my site to like my post about how to export GPX files automatically from Komoot? 🤔 ⌘ Read more

“No NAT November: My Month Without IPv4”
In his post “No NAT November: My Month Without IPv4” security engineer Alex Haydock writes about the challenges of IPv6-only networks and explains techniques like DNS64, NAT64 and CLAT. An interesting read for someone like me, who doesn’t know much more about IPv6 than that support is still lacking in many places (like GitHub). ⌘ Read more

While I don’t have a specific favorite genre and generally don’t listen to music much, I sometimes enjoy doing it consciously. And a great way for me to discover new songs is this TikTok-like view in the YouTube Music app, where you can skip through recommendations. 🎧 ⌘ Read more

My November ‘24 in Review
Happy first Advent everyone! November is now over and the last month of 2024 has begun. So it’s time to take another brief look back at the past month. ⌘ Read more

As I want to use my blog as my central web identity, I now updated my blogroll to also show all the microblogs I follow, whether these are real blogs, Fediverse or Bluesky profiles. Aren’t starter packs also just a new form of blogrolls? To follow all the blogs in my list, all you need to do is import the OPML file into a feed reader. ⌘ Read more

I couldn’t sleep this morning, so I got up sometime, ate, exercised, showered and finished my ATProto/Bluesky integration in GoBlog. You can now follow me there too: @jlelse.blog. But I think I will only use it very passively and only post my links there automatically. ⌘ Read more

Even though it’s a bit cold and muddy outside, today, while we’re still living in Kassel, we took the opportunity to take another look at the city from above. This time from the Bismarck Tower. ⌘ Read more

Initial thoughts about Bluesky
There’s a lot of noise about Bluesky recently, it seems like they passed 20 million users, with more than 1 million new users daily recently. ⌘ Read more

My next Fediverse migration?
I currently use GoToSocial (with my numeronym domain) next to my blog, but it always confuses me where to post what. That’s why I want to move to my blog as my sole Fediverse identity. But before that, I wanted to implement another Fediverse feature in GoBlog: support for the new fediverse:creator meta tag. ⌘ Read more