2026-06-19 08:00:00
# Well, my dalliance with Vivaldi didn't last very long; less than 24 hours, in fact.
I had issues with some sites I visit regularly and only turning off Vivaldi's ad blocking fixed it. Not good enough.
# In other news, it's now been a week since I started wearing the Sekonda hybrid watch and I still have 66% battery!
I'm going to get two weeks out of this with room to spare. Very happy.
2026-06-18 08:00:00
# Mobile Browsers
I have documented my search for the 'perfect' email client on many occasions. Spoiler alert: I've largely given up. Now, I've returned to mobile browsers.
I've tried my fair share over the years. When I used an iPhone there was no real discussion — you used Safari.1 It's a different picture on Android.
I gave up on Chrome years ago. I don't use system-wide ad blocking so Chrome is not an option seeing as it doesn't support extensions on mobile. Firefox has never really clicked with me, partly because it always seems to be a laggard when it comes to supporting web standards.
All the alternatives are either based on Chromium or Firefox so it's more a case of comparing additional features; I prioritise privacy and speed.
I used Bromite for a while until the project died. Cromite, a fork, continued the development and I switched to that, but had some issues. Like Firefox, it was also slow to support certain web standards I specifically wanted to use.
So, I landed on Brave and have been using it for quite a while, despite it becoming increasingly bloated. I was, therefore, intrigued when I saw they were offering Brave Origin, a paid version of the browser without all the extras like VPN, crypto wallet, etc. which I never use.
Yes, it's a one time purchase that you can activate across all your devices, but I balked at the price of £53.99.
Cue the search for another browser!
I've tested some and find them too stripped back (DuckDuckGo I'm looking at you) or they seem very opinionated on the default level of zoom, i.e. too much rather than respecting the system settings and viewport instruction from web pages.
I tried Vivaldi when it was first released for desktop; it felt a bit overloaded with features I wouldn't use so never gave it a second thought. A few people have mentioned it recently, and said they were enjoying it, so I thought I'd give the Android version a spin.
There are some features I won't use, but it's not as bad as the desktop version. 2
2026-06-17 08:00:00
# Today marks 23 years since I started blogging! It seems a lifetime ago, but it's less than half my lifetime.
I've been struggling to post lately, only getting going again over the past few days, but I've got some ideas about things I want to do to the site. Not necessarily in relation to what I post, more how it works.
I want to redesign things and simplify the code.
Still, that's for another day. For now, let's just celebrate the anniversary. 🥳
2026-06-16 08:00:00
# Approaching three years since getting the Amazfit GTR 2 watch, battery life has really taken a nosedive. What started out as up to 14 days (generally around 10) has dropped to barely 3.
It was time (no pun intended) to think about replacing it.
Rather than getting another fully smart watch, I decided to go for a hybrid.
If money was no object I would buy a Withings — I think they're the gold standard for hybrid watches — but as it is I opted for something far more conservative: a Sekonda Hybrid Series 56.
I reduced the use of the Amazfit's smart features considerably, simplifying things and reducing the amount of notifications passed to it, but still wanted the option to measure steps, hear sare, etc. a hybrid seemed like the obvious answer.
I have turned off the "raise wrist to wake" option so it will act mainly as a normal watch unless I explicitly press the crown to interact with the smart features.
This should give me up to 10 days battery life, but I'll be content with charging it once a week.
2026-06-15 08:00:00
# It's the third anniversary of my first Bandcamp release: the acid clan EP.
It still annoys me that the production isn't up to scratch, especially on False Pretences where there is some clipping on the claps. I recently remastered Round and Around but's there's only so much you can do when all the hardware elements were recorded onto one channel (I only had my mixer at the time and no audio interface).
It just goes to show how far I've come in three years, but also that I have been over-producing some stuff and losing some of the feel and vibe.
This is why I've been trying to step back a bit and make music that is deliberately imperfect, not worrying about filing off every rough edge.