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articsputnik

1,003 karma · joined January 13, 2023

dad. technical author. data engineer.

interests mostly: data engineering, open source, writing, obsidian, and neovim.

personal blog: ssp.sh second brain: brain.ssp.sh de vault: vault.ssp.sh book: dedp.online newsletter: subscribe.ssp.sh

socials: bsky.app/profile/ssp.sh, twitter.com/sspaeti, linkedin.com/in/sspaeti, https://github.com/sspaeti/

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articsputnik··on Gmail thinks I'm stupid, so I left
If you want a Superhuman-like interface, that is running in TUI with neovim as a composer and a modern neomutt as a reader, check out neomd [1]. I'm the creator, so I'm biased, but I replaced my previously used HEY email with it. It has a screener and a GTD workflow built in.

Just in case, it works with any SMTP/IMAP setup like Fastmail, or any other. Proton mail works as well but need a little more to setup initially, even gmail (but much slower as the article explains, I noticed that too)

[1] https://neomd.ssp.sh

articsputnik··on I made my phone slow on purpose
I also tried to convert my "smart" phone to a "dumb" phone with ScreenZen and Minimal apps that show no icons. And it works a little, but it will not fully prevent you from using any social media, still. As the article says, it's hard to overcome. Great to read another way. I am also thinking about GrapheneOS to control more of the apps, to make social media, which are most addictive, less collect data, and maybe turn off after a while. Not sure yet. I wrote about it at https://www.ssp.sh/brain/dumb-phone with the links to apps I mentioned.
articsputnik··on macOS needs its grid back
True, I started with Omarchy, but then changed everything to my liking. It's so much nicer if you can change your OS by changing some dotfiles, and don't get distracted by all the nonsense of new features that macOS and Windows are adding. I wrote about my journey https://www.ssp.sh/blog/macbook-to-arch-linux-omarchy/ and what I learned after 8 months: https://www.ssp.sh/blog/linux-omarchy-the-good-bad-and-fixab...
articsputnik··on Slowing Down
Thanks for sharing my notes. Just as information, I just added a new interactive graph linking not only to internal notes, but also to blog posts and book chapters on patterns of data engineering. So the backlinks and interactive graph, after a decade of writing on it, got a new powerful update. Check it out at the end of the note, make sure you use full screen.
articsputnik··on HeidiSQL – Lightweight MariaDB, MySQL, SQL Server, PostgreSQL and SQLite Manager
I use neovim for querying my databases with DBUI and tpope dadbod :) https://www.ssp.sh/brain/query-databases-in-vim-vim-dadbod/

But HeidiSQL and DBeaver are great, and open source (DBeaver even has a vim integration too;)

articsputnik··on I hated writing until I learned there’s a science to it (2024)
For me, it was like this until I discovered the language English. I hated writing when I had to do it in school, "high German", I’m a Swiss. We talk Swiss German, and this is not a written language. So I had to kind of write in a foreign language. But later in life, when I did a mini-retirement in Denmark to learn proper English, all of a sudden I loved reading more, started listening to podcasts, and started writing.

It was through the language of English that I got to love writing and reading (mostly Audible). It was Writing in a Foreign Language again, but this time, it fitted more to my style, also because it’s straight to the point and you have so many of the same words to explain a specific sentence so well. I wrote more at https://www.ssp.sh/brain/writing-in-a-foreign-language just in case of interest.

articsputnik··on I moved my digital stack to Europe
> This website has been temporarily rate limited

Did he move also the CDN stack? :)

articsputnik··on I hate soldering
Nice poem.
articsputnik··on Writers are fleeing the Substack Tax
This is what they want you to believe, sure, it will help in the short-term. But when switching, losing most of them, and losing your content (if not moved with you), but all the domain ranking, is much bigger. And the real discovery happens on social media or through writing high-quality content that will always be shared or discovered. But all of this applies to blogging, newsletters only, like sending your thoughts via email, is OK, but a real blog, I'd want on my own domain/website.
articsputnik··on Writers are fleeing the Substack Tax
None paywal link: https://archive.ph/bmX1d

I loved the open web quote: "The more important thing is that we have a home on the open web that we control, and whatever anti-creator changes Substack is forced to make in the future to live up to its valuation we won't be affected by."

To me, I always said to have your own website and domain. Because platforms come and go. I have experienced it myself with Medium, WordPress, etc. I wrote a little more about "Why I think to Have Your Website" at https://www.ssp.sh/brain/why-have-your-website/ (in case of interest)

articsputnik··on CodingFont: A game to help you pick a coding font
ohh thanks for sharing, I'll check that out.
articsputnik··on CodingFont: A game to help you pick a coding font
the winner of mine was Inconsolata, tough my favorite font, Iosevka, was not even part of the sample :)
articsputnik··on Show HN: Email.md – Markdown to responsive, email-safe HTML
I gave Claude a spin, given all my likings ;) https://github.com/ssp-data/neomd
articsputnik··on Show HN: Email.md – Markdown to responsive, email-safe HTML
Love everything to Markdownify :) I was just wondering, is there a Neovim/Markdown email client? Potentially using something like this? I love Neomutt, or Newsboat, and other TUIs. It would be great to have something totally on Markdown. Update: I gave it a spin [1] with Go and some of my favorite CLI's.

[1] https://x.com/sspaeti/status/2036539855182627169

articsputnik··on OpenAI to Acquire Astral
Duplicate: there's already a thread about this on HN, currently sitting at #1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47438723
articsputnik··on Astral to Join OpenAI
to be expected at some point, but for the independence and best interest of the Python ecosystem, I don't think it's a plus.
articsputnik··on Show HN: DenchClaw – Local CRM on Top of OpenClaw
I just use plain-text files for my CRM in Obsidian [1]. Works great if you are a solo founder only.

[1] https://www.ssp.sh/brain/managing-my-business-with-obsidian/

articsputnik··on Obsidian Sync now has a headless client
Quoting[1] kepano (CEO of Obsidian) - Why you might use Obsidian Sync headless:

- Automate remote backups

- Automate publishing a website

- Give agentic tools access to a vault without access to your full computer

- Sync a shared team vault to a server that feeds other tools

- Run scheduled automations e.g. aggregate daily notes into weekly summaries, auto-tag, etc

...all while having the speed, privacy, customizability, end-to-end encryption of Obsidian Sync.

[1]: https://x.com/kepano/status/2027485552451432936

articsputnik··on Google Street View in 2026
Switzerland seems very up to date. Maybe because it's small, or because Google Zurich is developing some of the Google maps features (?)
articsputnik··on My Desk Setup: From Multi-Monitor to Single Screen with Virtual Desktops
maybe, but then I don't see my keys or stuff on the table. It dims automatically and has different color temperatures. It's practical, I don't have space behind my desk, and it's not that expensive. I didn't thought too much about it actually, when I bought it :)
articsputnik··on My Desk Setup: From Multi-Monitor to Single Screen with Virtual Desktops
to me, it was helpful for night sessions, as I didn't have good light that would be too strong. This one does not shine into screen, so it's good for the eyes. But certainly not a must or anything you need.
articsputnik··on At protocol has a new website
More details on the new blog too: https://atproto.com/blog/new-site-2026
articsputnik··on Omarchy First Impressions
Love it too. He said he misses Raycast. For anyone curious, it's built in with Walker. More info at https://www.ssp.sh/blog/linux-omarchy-the-good-bad-and-fixab...
articsputnik··on A Social Filesystem
Amazing write-up. Owing to your data, a standardized protocol (such as the AT Protocol) is so great! It's like markdown, everything is basically built on files (but cleverly architected so that it works decentralized across the web too!).

I wrote a little along the same lines on «Well Being in Times of Algorithms» at https://www.ssp.sh/blog/well-being-algorithms/ (or HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46352747).

articsputnik··on A Social Filesystem
not sure if you understood the article, isn't the whole point to own your data as "it's just a filesystem". Reddit, Instagram, etc. are the total opposite.
articsputnik··on File over App: 20 Years of Knowledge Management (Swiss Digital Days 2025) [video]
Slides: https://www.ssp.sh/slides/25-11-25-knowledge-management-zett... (HTML) | https://www.ssp.sh/slides/25-11-25-knowledge-management-zett... (PDF)
articsputnik··on I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great
I moved from 15 years of macOS to Linux (Omarchy in my case). I was mostly using the terminal and am therefore super happy with my choice now. I wrote more at https://www.ssp.sh/blog/macbook-to-arch-linux-omarchy/, in case of interest.
articsputnik··on The plain text workflow: How Vim and Markdown became my backbone (2023)
This is the story of how (Neo)Vim and Markdown unified my data engineering and writing workflow.

As CEO of Obsidian says: > Obsidian will not exist forever, no app will. However, the files you create in Obsidian are yours, and can hopefully last for generations.

Plaintext files as the foundation, Markdown as the format, and Neovim as the editor. Combined, they will last until the end of days of computers.

articsputnik··on Curated list of data engineering whitepapers
Is there a data engineering paper that actually changed how you work?
articsputnik··on I automate my Substack newsletter with content from my blog [video]
There's also an accompanied blog post: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Nov/19/how-i-automate-my-subs...

I really like how he automates his newsletter off of his blog, notes, TIL, etc., but it's also amazing how complicated it is. Imagine the blog would be on Markdown, nothing of this is needed as the "content" would just be locally for a Claude to read, it could do the SQL-query with a cmd-line instead, or you could build a small wrapper around if you want. Plus if the Newsletter supports Markdown, too (I use Listmonk), then the conversion would be straight forward too, also with no bugs.

This inspires me to automate one day more of my newsletter too, maybe as I have everything in place for it. And I automate blog post to send out automatically, but not a collection of notes and blogs.

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