Update for the week ending on Friday, Jan 17, 2025

mtlynch.io

• Published “Increase Your Reply Rate on Cold Emails to Me”
• Published my notes about gotchas for Samsung Secure Erase
  • Their software is so flaky, and I get stuck every time I try to use it
• Continued working on my 2024 review post
  • Spec’ed out my cover image illustration
• Updated my old post about Nix dev environments

Refactoring English

• Continued working on passive voice chapter
• Made some tweaks to tutorials chapter
• Added random notes for future chapters

PicoShare

PicoShare is a minimalist web-based file sharing tool I’m working on. I’m often frustrated that I can’t just send someone a link directly to a file because every file-sharing service tries to re-encode images/video or wrap their own viewer around other files, so I’m making a simple self-hostable tool that lets you upload files and share them with other people.

• Reviewed third-party contribution to disable guest links and added a few small tweaks
• Added a docker pulls count badge to README
  • Currently at 642k pulls!
• Use consistent naming for dataStore in tests
• Apply the if got, want pattern to more tests

fusion

fusion is an open-source RSS reader I found when looking for an RSS aggregator to host on my NixOS system. I like that it’s written in Go and uses SQLite as a backend, so it’s pretty easy to self-host. The maintainer is very responsive to PRs as well.

• Updated API to tell browser to delete invalid session token cookies
• Switched to password hashes to prevent timing attacks

NixOS config

• Added a daily service to back up my Github repos
• Switched to bleeding edge fusion RSS reader
• Added reasonable Nix settings
  • The most beneficial was disabling the warning about my git repo being dirty

beancount-chase-bank

• Added support for debit card transactions
• Switched to more portable bash shebang
• Added support for ACH payment fees

Misc

• Reviewed a bunch of my family’s medical bills
  • I learned that you’re supposed to cross-check medical bills against your insurer’s EOB
  • It’s really surprising how providers can just send you massively incorrect bills. Within the first five bills I checked, I found a $1k discrepancy
• Rebalanced my investments
• Canceled Spectrum
  • Finally got fiber!
• Prepped my old desktop for sale/giveaway
  • Cleaned out a bunch of dust
  • Installed a new SSD
  • Installed a clean Ubuntu desktop OS
• Prepped my old VM server for sale/giveaway
  • Migrated my old data to my NAS
  • Secure erased the SSD
• Did monthly bookkeeping
• Repaired the screen on my Framework 13 laptop
  • It would sometimes flicker right after I turned it on. I’m hoping it was just a loose wire.
• Applied reasonable defaults to my NixOS system
  • The really annoying one was the warning about my git repo being dirty, but the others seemed useful, too
  • Installed a clean Ubuntu desktop OS
• Ordered a 10 GB firewall
  • I wish I could find a 1U firewall that supported opnsense from a trusted vendor, but they’re all $1k+
• Tried to fix my radiator
  • Apparently you can bleed trapped air with a flathead screwdriver, but that didn’t seem to be the issue for ours
• Worked with my wife on our wills
• Shopped for a new SSD
  • I want the Crucial T705 but nobody has it in stock
  • I re-shopped to see if there was a good substitute, but it feels like it’s so much better than everything else