Jacob has some great posts on technology, especially in the niche world of Linux. He also writes about health, the problems in the world of science, and more. This is one of my favorites.
On this page I share all kinds of resources I’ve found useful or interesting. Most of these are focused either on music, design or computing. But life is about more than that, so I’ve also included general resources about for example clothing and health.
And just to have it be said: sharing a resource doesn‘t equal me fully agreeing with it. With some I disagree more than you might think... and vice versa.
Blogs
Blogs are not dead! I’ve really enjoyed exploring the “small web” through search engines like Wiby and Marginalia, but also through webrings and the recommendations on other people’s personal websites. It has led me to very interesting avenues to say the least.
If following the news or reading about heavy subjects weighs too heavy on your soul, stop consuming it, it probably isn’t worth it. But don’t be naive to the world and be skeptical, it’s not all roses and sunshine. Most of the blogs I share are challenging in one way or another.
Detailed and interactive articles on a variety of usually physics or engineering based topics.
Writes about interface design. Has been really valuable for me in developing my design philosophy.
A blog about doing technology in a more sober and resourceful way. They take the term technology very broadly, they have also written about bicycles and cars for example. They also have one of the best website designs I’ve ever seen. And the website is powered by solar energy.
- What if We Replace Guns and Bullets with Bows and Arrows?
- Can We Make Bicycles Sustainable Again?
- How and Why I Stopped Buying New Laptops
Many ranty posts about the software industry. Can be a good resource
for programmers wanting to do things in a simpler way. Also very
much in the niche Linux world and a big proponent of doing things in
the
Great articles about both software and philosophy. His website in general is a fun visit.
Controversial posts about societal problems and slightly less controversial posts about digital privacy. This website has been one of my best finds, but be prepared for some weird things.
A blog writing about current events from an Orthodox Christian perspective. Can be a bit gloomy.
Another controversial website, mostly about technology and privacy, but also about some societal problems.
Brett has some solid posts on all kinds of topics.
Adam Thiede's Personal Website
Adam writes mostly about technology. He's a privacy and FOSS advocate. He also has some thought pieces from a Catholic perspective.
Bradley has great articles on minimal web design, which I very much agree with. He's also an OpenBSD user and ThinkPad X220 fan.
Cool web design. Good articles about life and technology.
YouTube channels
YouTube is great and terrible at the same time. Their website is bloated and filled with dark patterns to keep you hooked for as long as possible. However, there is also a plethora of exceptional content on there.
The best way to watch YouTube is either via yt-dlp and mpv. Subscribe to channels via RSS. You could also watch YouTube via an
alternative frontend like Invidious.
The easiest way to do this is via LibRedirect.
Bald man ranting in the woods. He has been very influential in my life and has changed my personal philosophy quite a bit. He also does great tutorials for Linux nerds.
Interesting guy. He mostly talks about health related topics, particularly on technology, a raw meat diet, barefoot shoes. He also has some good rants on modern society and its degeneration.
He reacts to niche yet quite relevant health and “life” related content. He gives commentary from his natural view of living. He is pretty weird though, not gonna lie.
High quality Orthodox Christian video essays. Should be interesting for the secular as well.
- DEATH TO THE WORLD: The Last True Rebellion
- The Mystery of the Eastern Orthodox Church
- What You'll See in the Orthodox Church
Deep-dives into many health related topics. It’s both practical and technical.
Radios
Has an amazing retro interface and features lots of funky feel-good music.
Features many subgenres of synthwave music.
Not exactly a radio, but it contains many episodes across different genres to help you focus on programming.
Art
Amazing logo’s, business cards, cover arts, posters and more. This man does it all.
Explore out-of-copyright works that are free to use for whatever purpose.
Same as the above, but with a different collection.
Books
Practical Typography (free)
A great book on improving your typographic skills as a designer. I’ve used many of their tips on this very website.
Standard Ebooks (free)
This project is amazing. They transform public domain books into nicely formatted, DRM-free ebooks.
Typefaces
Atkinson Hyperlegible (free)
A typeface specifically designed to help low-vision readers. It’s easy to read, but it still looks good as well. I use it on this website for everything but copy.
Inter (free)
This typeface is incredible. It will likely soon become overused though.
Departure Mono (free)
A monospaced pixel font. Looks great in the terminal, and on websites, and probably elsewhere. Their website is also incredible.
These people have made my favorite monospace coding font, for a great price even. Apart from that, I love their website design.
A solid type design studio. I use their font Artifex for the copy on this website, this includes the text you’re reading right now. I like that they offer great fonts for a fair price.
Many cool, creative fonts. They don’t offer that many “normal” fonts though.
Clothing
Good clothes are not flashy, they are well-made and timeless, made for an honest wage and from durable and sustainable materials. Unfortunately this can be hard to find, especially for decent prices. Below are some options that I’ve found good enough considering my description.
(Thrifting is great as well, but pretty hard to find good fits, at least in my experience being 6’1’ and slim.)
A pricey Swedish brand focused on quality (and classy) staples, including tailoring. You could create your full wardrobe here.
ISTO is great. They’re building a permanent collection of quality staples for solid prices. And as a big bonus, they’re very transparent. I think Berg & Berg’s pieces are a bit more stylish though.
J.Crew has solid pieces, for decent prices. They have a great collection and are less “boring” than Berg & Berg, but they’re a tad bit too fast fashion for me.
Proper barefoot shoes, most of these are pretty ugly though. I rock their boots.
Some of the best looking barefoot sneakers, made and designed in Europe. They’ve also started making grounded shoes!
Finally, I found them. Actual great looking high quality leather barefoot boots and shoes. I've not been able to get some yet, but I'm on the waiting list for my size.
Webshops & products
Most of these are only useful for Dutch or European citizens, but I think they are cool enough to share. I’m also a big proponent of localism instead of globalism.
And no, I'm not sponsored by any of these companies.
The best skincare is a good diet, the second-best skincare is tallow-based skincare.
Same as Ancestral Cosmetics, but Dutch.
High quality local meat, cultivated through regenerative farming practices. They also sell niche products like bones (for stews) and beef heart.
Same as Grutto, but pretty much from the best animals possible.
High quality and actually stylish blue light blockers. Derek from Optimize Your Biology rates these as the best European blue blockers. They offer four different lens colors. If I were to need some, I would buy them here.
Better light bulbs, nice collection of blue light blockers, quality red light lamps, and some other stuff.
The best computer monitor in the world: made from wood and backlit with incandescent light. This is a dream come true. He also has an amazingly old-school website with some great information.
This is where I buy beeswax candles, but they also sell several types of honey. Fortunately a friend of mine is beekeeper and hooks me up with great raw honey.
High quality Icelandic salt. They even have lava salt, how cool is that?
I’d like to add that I’ve become a bit torn on whether I should eat any salt at all. If you do still eat salt though, this Icelandic salt is the very best.
Linux music production
I’ve not switched yet to doing music production on Linux, but I’m starting to prepare for it again. Why? Well, I’m anticipating Apple to comply with digital age verification laws. And even if that somehow doesn’t happen, a properly set-up Linux machine is better for freedom and privacy (and many other things to be honest).
Of course there will be many things I’ll miss, but more and more plugins are being released for Linux. And limitations can be great for creativity as well.
Incredibly customizable and performant DAW. Once you configure it to your liking and get used to it, it’s great. It’s not the prettiest, but you can get a nice theme like the Reapertips Theme to make it look a lot better.
Analog inspired synths and effects. Great sounds, great UIs.
Creative and experimental plugins. Again great sounds, great UIs.
More analog emulations and inspired effects. And again: great sounds, great UIs.
Plugins that aren’t analog inspired. Looks good, but I’ve only tried treir free OTT compressor Evil Otto.
- Evil Otto (free)
New kids on the block. They provide free Lite versions of their plugins.
Another new kid on the block. They’ve got a free soft clipper.
Cool flat interfaces. These guys also provide free Lite versions of their plugins, respectable!
Creative digital tools. They’ve recently a free spectral resonance suppresor, similar to oeksound soothe2.
- ANINA (free)
More flat interfaces. Essential FX with nice subtle twists.
A few simple but incredilbe plugins. Most of them are free.
- Denoiser Classic (free)
- Air Shelf (free)
- Vocal Compressor (free)
More free plugins. One I find interesting is his Multi-Comp plugin, which features 8 different types of compressors in one.
They make an incredible multi-band transient shaper.
They make my favorite piano plugin, I’m very delighted to know it’s also available on Linux.
Good analog synth emulations. I love their Oberheim emulation in particular.
More, more, more! Probably some gems in here.
Amazing audio metering application or plugins.
It doesn’t end, does it?
It’s becoming a bit much, so I’m just gonna drop a few more in a list here:
- Kazrog
- Chowdhury DSP
- ToneBoosters
- blepfx
- White Elephant Audio
- Decent Sampler
- Calf Studio Gear
- Linux Studio Plugins
- x42-plugins
- Surge XT
- Airwindows
- ReaLinks
And I know there is still a lot more. If I’m not able to create cool music with all these tools at my disposal, I’m just bad. It is cope to think it’s not possible. I will of course have to find new tricks and sort of redefine my sound, but that’s fine, and possibly a lot of fun even.
This website is under construction. Some things don’t make perfect sense yet in every configuration, I’ll fix it someday!
You can reach me at stan@hoenson.net.
Recommended articles
- Make Usury a Sin Again — by Ted Kowal
- Minimizing Liabilities Is Making It. — by Luke Smith
- Science vs. Soyence — by Luke Smith
- Experts Aren‘t Always the Most Expert — by Jacob W. Smith
- The small web is beautiful — by Ben Hoyt
- Can We Make Bicycles Sustainable Again? — by Kris de Decker
Recommended albums
- Ascend — by Mont Duamel
- I Heard That Noise — by quickly, quickly
- Vanisher, Horizon Scraper — by Quadeca
- K1 — by kmoe
- Pink Moon — by Nick Drake
- Always in a Hurry — by Medasin
- Odyssey — by HOME
- The weight of the world — by Syzy
- Nurture — by Porter Robinson
- Two Star & The Dream Police — by Mk.gee
- The Long and Short of It — by quickly, quickly
- Sequence — by T-120
- Welcome Home — by Gareth Donkin
Latest releases
Under The Rose
